Michael Northrop will be at the library on Thursday, June 20 at
7 pm to discuss his book and the library’s One Book, One Kirkwood selection for
kids Plunked. We are having a book discussion on
Monday, June 10 at 7 pm, for all readers who would like to discuss the
book. Mr. Northrop is from a tiny town
in New England, where he “grew up playing sports, falling out of trees, and
going to some really excellent public schools.” Northrop went to college at New York
University. After graduation, he stayed in New York and worked
at Sports Illustrated Kids for 12 years, the last five as baseball editor. He now writes full-time
and took the time to answer a few of our questions:
•
What's your
favorite fairy tale?
This may be the most uncool thing I’ve ever typed—and I’ve typed
a lot of uncool things—but my favorite fairy tale is The Three Bears. First of
all, I watch a lot of Animal Planet and Discovery Channel and things like that,
and I am a big fan of actual bears. Instead of picturing the Three Bears as
charming cartoons in little outfits, I like to picture them as actual grizzly
bears, with their fur maybe a little slick from something they just hunted
down. It really improves the story.
Secondly, I use that metaphor all the time. For example, this is
the Mama Bear answer to your question. I could’ve been much more graphic about
what the bears hunted down, and how. That would’ve been the Papa Bear answer.
Or I could’ve gone all Baby Bear and not mentioned it at all. It’s amazing how
much of life breaks down into three choices like that, from the most extreme to
the least.
•
Which books
have had the most impact on you as a writer?
I’m dyslexic and started reading for myself fairly late. The
first books that come to mind are the main rulebooks for Dungeons &
Dragons, the Dungeon Masters Guide and Players Handbook especially. My brother
and I loved that game, and those were really the first books I read (and
reread) voluntarily. Not only did they help to turn me into a reader, but they
also taught me a lot about fictional worlds and trusting my imagination.
The next one isn’t a book, exactly; it’s the poem “Hawk
Roosting” by Ted Hughes. Our English teacher read it to us during my sophomore
year of high school. I still remember the class. It was electrifying. The poem
is written from the point of view of a hawk, looking down on the world from a
tree branch, and the hawk is basically a big jerk. It thinks the world revolves
around it—and why wouldn’t it? It has no predators, and everything in the sky fears
it.
It was a huge revelation to me. It was the moment I realized
that everything—in the world, but also in writing—could have a distinct point
of view. Not just the heroes and villains, not just the main characters, and
not even just the people. Come to think of it, that’s probably why I think of
the Three Bears as actual bears. The most realistic perspective is always the
most interesting to me.
•
What might we be
surprised to find on your bookshelf?
You might be surprised to find so much nonfiction. I prefer not
to read fiction while I’m writing it—I’d rather have just one story in my head
at a time and be able to really focus on it. But I like to read, so nonfiction
is a good solution. I enjoy good nonfiction and learn a lot from it, but I don’t
think it crowds out the story or characters I’m trying to create to the same
extent that a really thrilling novel might. I think my brain just processes it
differently, as fact rather than fiction. In any case, many of the best books
I’ve read in the last few years have been nonfiction: A Dawn Like Thunder,
Hemingway’s Boat, and Spillover, to name a few.
•
Did you grow
up with lots of books? What are your memories of being read to as a
child?
I sort of touched on this before, but I had a somewhat
antagonistic view of reading early on. I repeated a grade and spent a year in
special ed. But I do remember my mom reading to me, before I was diagnosed or
anything like that. My favorite Little Golden Book was called The Happy Little
Whale. It began “Everyone loved the Happy Little Whale/Nine feet long from his
nose to his tale,” or something like that. I loved that book. My brother’s
favorite was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel—so he got a classic and mine’s
out of print. I just couldn’t catch a break when it came to reading back then.
•
What's the best
thing about writing a book?
Writing a book is a huge luxury in a lot of ways. I get to spend
months at a time daydreaming and immersed in an imaginary world I’m creating. I
enjoy the whole process. I try to write a thousand words a day. I get up early
and get a coffee. I walk to the nearest place or to a place a little farther
away, if the weather’s nice. The whole time, I’m thinking about where I am in
the story: where I left off yesterday and where I should start today. I often
have the first few sentences already written by the time I sit down at my desk.
On a good day, it takes only a few hours to get to a thousand
words, but I don’t try to push past that. I knock off early and give myself the
rest of the day to think about the story. I come up with a lot of my best ideas
after I’m done writing for the day. A new option—or a better one—will just pop
into my head. When I’m working on a novel, there’s a part of me that never
stops thinking about it. Sometimes it’s nearly all of me, and I’m basically out
there walking into signposts.
