| Interview with Ed Decter |
First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My
name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out of
your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted
to be a writer?
I never wanted to do anything else but be in the movie and television business. When I was in high school I
was pretty good at biology and my dad had some hope I would become a doctor – but it didn’t happen. I
started writing seriously in junior high for the newspaper and literary magazine. I never thought I could
actually make a living doing it; I just wrote because I loved to tell stories.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I live in the middle of Los Angeles so my ten year-old daughter can’t just hop on her bike and go wherever
she wants. In fact, she can’t even go around the block by herself! She once asked me if my parents had
been just as strict and I laughed and told her stories about my adventures growing up. My parents had no
idea where I was or what I was doing. My daughter suggested I write some stories based on my
“adventures.” Then my imagination took over and I created “The Outriders.” Since I had written a bunch of
movies and TV shows, a publisher (Simon and Schuster) decided to take a chance on my book series.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing
about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
In August, the third book of the Outrider series will be in stores. It is called Expedition to Pine Hollow. Cam
Walker and his Outrider friends discover a lost American Indian city, get chased by angry bauxite miners and
fly in an ultra-light airplane. But I don’t want to give too much of the story away!
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Growing up I used to read the short stories of Jean Shepherd. Jean Shepherd was a radio personality who
was popular in the fifties and sixties. Not many people have read his brilliant short stories. They were used
as the basis for the holiday movie classic “A Christmas Story.” Jean Shepherd was the narrator of that
movie. If I were teaching a short story class I would start with his collection of stories, “Wanda Hickey’s Night
of Golden Memories.” The stories are funny, touching and the emotions are real even though the details are
hilariously exaggerated. My dream is that Oprah will “rediscover” Mr. Shepherd”s books for her book club.
Everyone should read them.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
I have a wonderful wife Cheryl Doherty who is also a brilliant writer and a fantastic daughter Abigail who
amazes us every single day (but she still can’t ride her bike without supervision!)
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
This is the easiest question in the world. Pizza. I am from New Jersey where pizza is not a food but a religion.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Say hello to my daughter because she is the one waking me up.
Take my 110 pound German shepherd out for a walk.
Read every section of the newspaper.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
You would wonder why someone with so many extra golf clubs is not very good at the sport.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
I would be purple because that is the color the sky turns just as the sun is setting over the ocean. That few
moments is my favorite time of day.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
My wife says that I drive like Mr. Magoo, so he’s my favorite.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
I’m a huge baseball fan so I would have liked to beam myself back to the Polo Grounds in Brooklyn to see
my favorite baseball player, Willie Mays in his prime.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I love music (my iPod is always with me) but I can’t listen to it while I write! I listen to a whole variety of music. I’
m from New Jersey so I’m partial to the New Jersey song catalogue: Whitney Huston, Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon
Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Dionne Warwick (just to name a few). All of those artists grew up a few minutes
from where I grew up!
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you
saw at the theater?
Movies and T.V. are my business, so I have the excuse to watch a lot of both. My current favorite T.V. show
is The Wire, which is a really dark show about the streets of Baltimore. I also love Entourage on HBO. There
are two movies I watch over and over again. One is the Frank Capra classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and the
other is a very silly Chevy Chase movie called “Christmas Vacation.” I guess I like Christmas. The last movie
I saw in the theaters was Shrek the Third. It was hilarious.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Find authors you love and keep reading. Don’t let anyone make it a chore. It should be a joy.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I’m writing a new series of books for Simon and Schuster. These will be YOUNG ADULT novels. The series is
called GREENLIGHT GIRL. It is about a young woman coming to Hollywood who becomes such a big star
that a movie can be “greenlit” if she decides to be in it.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out of
your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted
to be a writer?
I never wanted to do anything else but be in the movie and television business. When I was in high school I
was pretty good at biology and my dad had some hope I would become a doctor – but it didn’t happen. I
started writing seriously in junior high for the newspaper and literary magazine. I never thought I could
actually make a living doing it; I just wrote because I loved to tell stories.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I live in the middle of Los Angeles so my ten year-old daughter can’t just hop on her bike and go wherever
she wants. In fact, she can’t even go around the block by herself! She once asked me if my parents had
been just as strict and I laughed and told her stories about my adventures growing up. My parents had no
idea where I was or what I was doing. My daughter suggested I write some stories based on my
“adventures.” Then my imagination took over and I created “The Outriders.” Since I had written a bunch of
movies and TV shows, a publisher (Simon and Schuster) decided to take a chance on my book series.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing
about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
In August, the third book of the Outrider series will be in stores. It is called Expedition to Pine Hollow. Cam
Walker and his Outrider friends discover a lost American Indian city, get chased by angry bauxite miners and
fly in an ultra-light airplane. But I don’t want to give too much of the story away!
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Growing up I used to read the short stories of Jean Shepherd. Jean Shepherd was a radio personality who
was popular in the fifties and sixties. Not many people have read his brilliant short stories. They were used
as the basis for the holiday movie classic “A Christmas Story.” Jean Shepherd was the narrator of that
movie. If I were teaching a short story class I would start with his collection of stories, “Wanda Hickey’s Night
of Golden Memories.” The stories are funny, touching and the emotions are real even though the details are
hilariously exaggerated. My dream is that Oprah will “rediscover” Mr. Shepherd”s books for her book club.
Everyone should read them.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
I have a wonderful wife Cheryl Doherty who is also a brilliant writer and a fantastic daughter Abigail who
amazes us every single day (but she still can’t ride her bike without supervision!)
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
This is the easiest question in the world. Pizza. I am from New Jersey where pizza is not a food but a religion.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Say hello to my daughter because she is the one waking me up.
Take my 110 pound German shepherd out for a walk.
Read every section of the newspaper.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
You would wonder why someone with so many extra golf clubs is not very good at the sport.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
I would be purple because that is the color the sky turns just as the sun is setting over the ocean. That few
moments is my favorite time of day.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
My wife says that I drive like Mr. Magoo, so he’s my favorite.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
I’m a huge baseball fan so I would have liked to beam myself back to the Polo Grounds in Brooklyn to see
my favorite baseball player, Willie Mays in his prime.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I love music (my iPod is always with me) but I can’t listen to it while I write! I listen to a whole variety of music. I’
m from New Jersey so I’m partial to the New Jersey song catalogue: Whitney Huston, Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon
Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Dionne Warwick (just to name a few). All of those artists grew up a few minutes
from where I grew up!
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you
saw at the theater?
Movies and T.V. are my business, so I have the excuse to watch a lot of both. My current favorite T.V. show
is The Wire, which is a really dark show about the streets of Baltimore. I also love Entourage on HBO. There
are two movies I watch over and over again. One is the Frank Capra classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and the
other is a very silly Chevy Chase movie called “Christmas Vacation.” I guess I like Christmas. The last movie
I saw in the theaters was Shrek the Third. It was hilarious.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Find authors you love and keep reading. Don’t let anyone make it a chore. It should be a joy.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I’m writing a new series of books for Simon and Schuster. These will be YOUNG ADULT novels. The series is
called GREENLIGHT GIRL. It is about a young woman coming to Hollywood who becomes such a big star
that a movie can be “greenlit” if she decides to be in it.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!