| Interview with Brian Mandabach |
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.
You're welcome, Jen. My wife will have a glass of the Copolla Cabernet, and I'll start with a bottle of
Peroni. I was looking at the specials board—did that really say Tilapia Waffle? Oh, that's right! You're
doing the asking today!
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?
As the youngest of six children, I've always felt that getting extra attention was my due. In grades 4-8, that
meant irritating my teachers. I once hid behind a curtain in 7th grade music class and wasn't discovered
until I began to sing along with Carmen in faux-Italian. I was shocked when the play I wrote in 8th grade
was not chosen for production by the class. I thought it was brilliant—a tale of an 1830's fur trapper—but I
later came to realize that it would have been difficult to stage all of the knife fights.
Still, I figured that writing was a good way to get attention, though not as good as pushing my teachers'
buttons or being in a band, and the more I did it, the more I amused myself. Because I've always been
more comfortable in my own imagination than I've been in the real world, I've always loved songs, poems,
and stories, and I've wanted to make them since I realized I could—right around the awakening of self
consciousness in what we now call the "tween" years.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I was just minding my own business, writing Or Not, when suddenly I was approached by five different
editors who began bidding against each for the privilege of publishing it. I just sat there until the most
powerful editor, Andrew Karre of FLUX, won the bidding war and wrote me a check. Then I gave him my
manuscript, and he made it into a book.
But seriously, my advice to everyone else is to write what you want to write as best as you can write it.
Concentrate on your art, get some help from people you trust, and then when you’ve got it as finished as
it can be, think about publication. At that point, learn as much as you can, do everything you can, and
don’t get discouraged. Start writing something else so you don’t obsess about publishing.
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?
This is a hard question. It's making me serious. Readers—of advance copies and of excerpts on my
MySpace blog—tell me that the story is real, that it truly captures their experience of life. I'm told it makes
them think in new ways, that it makes them angry and sad, and—praise ye gods—that it makes them
laugh. Wait, did you want a summary?
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
I had a student who was told by a holier-than-thou classmate that she was going to hell. How can a
person who professes to be inspired by a god of love be so mean? Not that the particulars of that incident
are important—I see so much meanness, from girls being called fat to boys being called gay. But I see a
lot of love, too. So, my students inspired me a lot in the writing of Or Not. My daughter inspired me, too,
as I envisioned Cassie's childhood. Also my own childhood.
The direct impetus for the novel was the suicide of a teenager in my town. I was already very depressed
at the time, and I spent many hours imagining what might have brought her to that moment of no return.
Cassie grew further and further away from this inspiration as I wrote her, but that's where she started.
I'm also inspired by place—by land, not just as a setting but as a presence.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My wife is a Guardian Ad Litem—a kind of child advocate attorney, a job that's tough on a sensitive soul
like hers. Not sure she’s thrilled, but she puts up with me as the writing and sundry other pursuits eat up
my time, our time. My daughter is mad because I haven't let her read the book yet. My son is little, and
he just wants to climb on my lap and say, "Daddy take a picture for me." I have over 400 pictures on my
laptop of the two of us. He is sticking out his tongue in 377 of them.
My mom is proud and a little jealous because she always wanted to be a writer. My brothers, four of them,
have always been my idols. They're excited for me, too, which makes me feel great.
My big sister was always my second mother and guardian angel in the flesh. My dad's my greatest hero.
May they both rest in peace.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Fresh fruits and vegetables. ;)
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
1. Coffee.
2. Lose track of time & space out back into dreamland.
3. Rush out the door, late.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
My old Tony Lama boots.
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?
My moods fluctuate so wildly, and I'm so random, that I can only give you one of many: your question
made me think of the pale green, almost white of the underside of a streamside willow. Not the big trees (I
know, this is color, not tree!) but the slender little bushes that grow beside so many creeks. It's a cool,
delicate color, and it breathes out freshly purified oxygen. I'd like to be that silvery kind of whiter-than-
green.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
The butterfly in "the Last Unicorn."
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'd like to be in Middle Earth, but I suspect I would be a simple, rustic hobbit or a nameless elf. I'm too
weak to be a hero. Timewise, I think a peaceful period would be best for me. Sometimes I get really sad
that Middle Earth, which is terribly real to me, is only real in Tolkien’s. (I have mixed feelings about the
movies.)
It's also a profound loss, I feel, that I'll never see a herd of bison that stretches from horizon to horizon, or
migrating birds that completely fill the sky. So I’d like to be transported back to North America before
European colonization.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I grew up on my big brothers’ and sister's Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Rolling Stones—late 60's stuff. So I
became a Deadhead. Still love the Grateful Dead and miss Jerry. I love a lot of rock, jazz, blues, some
country, a little rap, some folk, classical, and I still think a twenty-minute LP record side is the perfect
length.
I use music to get into the story, and to help me into the zone and away from distractions. But I need to
concentrate on the rhythm of the language, so sometimes music can be too distracting.
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?
My wife and I saw No Reservations last night. Typical Hollywood—fun, pretty, a trifle emotionally
manipulative--not much else. I love that Little Miss Sunshine girl (that was a movie!), and I love to look at
Catherine Zeta-Jones.
I’ve seen Repo Man and Spinal Tap over and over.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Log off and go outside. I love playing on the computer, so this is advice I need too. Can I give just one
more? Live and love deeply. Was that two? Read a lot. Especially old stuff. And new stuff--especially
that Mandabach guy! How many pieces is that? Because I have a LOT to say . . . .
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I'm about to get back into revisions on another novel, set in my hometown in the late 1970s, when I was a
teenager. It's a love-quadrangle involving four best friends, but it may end up being a triangle or a
quintangle before I'm done. Talking about it is getting me psyched because, though I have some really
tough work to do, I love diving down into the fictional world and living there with my characters.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
You're welcome. Thanks for having me!
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.
You're welcome, Jen. My wife will have a glass of the Copolla Cabernet, and I'll start with a bottle of
Peroni. I was looking at the specials board—did that really say Tilapia Waffle? Oh, that's right! You're
doing the asking today!
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?
As the youngest of six children, I've always felt that getting extra attention was my due. In grades 4-8, that
meant irritating my teachers. I once hid behind a curtain in 7th grade music class and wasn't discovered
until I began to sing along with Carmen in faux-Italian. I was shocked when the play I wrote in 8th grade
was not chosen for production by the class. I thought it was brilliant—a tale of an 1830's fur trapper—but I
later came to realize that it would have been difficult to stage all of the knife fights.
Still, I figured that writing was a good way to get attention, though not as good as pushing my teachers'
buttons or being in a band, and the more I did it, the more I amused myself. Because I've always been
more comfortable in my own imagination than I've been in the real world, I've always loved songs, poems,
and stories, and I've wanted to make them since I realized I could—right around the awakening of self
consciousness in what we now call the "tween" years.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I was just minding my own business, writing Or Not, when suddenly I was approached by five different
editors who began bidding against each for the privilege of publishing it. I just sat there until the most
powerful editor, Andrew Karre of FLUX, won the bidding war and wrote me a check. Then I gave him my
manuscript, and he made it into a book.
But seriously, my advice to everyone else is to write what you want to write as best as you can write it.
Concentrate on your art, get some help from people you trust, and then when you’ve got it as finished as
it can be, think about publication. At that point, learn as much as you can, do everything you can, and
don’t get discouraged. Start writing something else so you don’t obsess about publishing.
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?
This is a hard question. It's making me serious. Readers—of advance copies and of excerpts on my
MySpace blog—tell me that the story is real, that it truly captures their experience of life. I'm told it makes
them think in new ways, that it makes them angry and sad, and—praise ye gods—that it makes them
laugh. Wait, did you want a summary?
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
I had a student who was told by a holier-than-thou classmate that she was going to hell. How can a
person who professes to be inspired by a god of love be so mean? Not that the particulars of that incident
are important—I see so much meanness, from girls being called fat to boys being called gay. But I see a
lot of love, too. So, my students inspired me a lot in the writing of Or Not. My daughter inspired me, too,
as I envisioned Cassie's childhood. Also my own childhood.
The direct impetus for the novel was the suicide of a teenager in my town. I was already very depressed
at the time, and I spent many hours imagining what might have brought her to that moment of no return.
Cassie grew further and further away from this inspiration as I wrote her, but that's where she started.
I'm also inspired by place—by land, not just as a setting but as a presence.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My wife is a Guardian Ad Litem—a kind of child advocate attorney, a job that's tough on a sensitive soul
like hers. Not sure she’s thrilled, but she puts up with me as the writing and sundry other pursuits eat up
my time, our time. My daughter is mad because I haven't let her read the book yet. My son is little, and
he just wants to climb on my lap and say, "Daddy take a picture for me." I have over 400 pictures on my
laptop of the two of us. He is sticking out his tongue in 377 of them.
My mom is proud and a little jealous because she always wanted to be a writer. My brothers, four of them,
have always been my idols. They're excited for me, too, which makes me feel great.
My big sister was always my second mother and guardian angel in the flesh. My dad's my greatest hero.
May they both rest in peace.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Fresh fruits and vegetables. ;)
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
1. Coffee.
2. Lose track of time & space out back into dreamland.
3. Rush out the door, late.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
My old Tony Lama boots.
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?
My moods fluctuate so wildly, and I'm so random, that I can only give you one of many: your question
made me think of the pale green, almost white of the underside of a streamside willow. Not the big trees (I
know, this is color, not tree!) but the slender little bushes that grow beside so many creeks. It's a cool,
delicate color, and it breathes out freshly purified oxygen. I'd like to be that silvery kind of whiter-than-
green.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
The butterfly in "the Last Unicorn."
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'd like to be in Middle Earth, but I suspect I would be a simple, rustic hobbit or a nameless elf. I'm too
weak to be a hero. Timewise, I think a peaceful period would be best for me. Sometimes I get really sad
that Middle Earth, which is terribly real to me, is only real in Tolkien’s. (I have mixed feelings about the
movies.)
It's also a profound loss, I feel, that I'll never see a herd of bison that stretches from horizon to horizon, or
migrating birds that completely fill the sky. So I’d like to be transported back to North America before
European colonization.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I grew up on my big brothers’ and sister's Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Rolling Stones—late 60's stuff. So I
became a Deadhead. Still love the Grateful Dead and miss Jerry. I love a lot of rock, jazz, blues, some
country, a little rap, some folk, classical, and I still think a twenty-minute LP record side is the perfect
length.
I use music to get into the story, and to help me into the zone and away from distractions. But I need to
concentrate on the rhythm of the language, so sometimes music can be too distracting.
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?
My wife and I saw No Reservations last night. Typical Hollywood—fun, pretty, a trifle emotionally
manipulative--not much else. I love that Little Miss Sunshine girl (that was a movie!), and I love to look at
Catherine Zeta-Jones.
I’ve seen Repo Man and Spinal Tap over and over.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
Log off and go outside. I love playing on the computer, so this is advice I need too. Can I give just one
more? Live and love deeply. Was that two? Read a lot. Especially old stuff. And new stuff--especially
that Mandabach guy! How many pieces is that? Because I have a LOT to say . . . .
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I'm about to get back into revisions on another novel, set in my hometown in the late 1970s, when I was a
teenager. It's a love-quadrangle involving four best friends, but it may end up being a triangle or a
quintangle before I'm done. Talking about it is getting me psyched because, though I have some really
tough work to do, I love diving down into the fictional world and living there with my characters.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
You're welcome. Thanks for having me!
