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MEET STUART GIBBS (9/2011)
by Bonnie O'Brian

What did you most like to do when you were a child?

Stuart Gibbs

More than anything else, I liked going to the zoo.  So it’s probably no surprise that my first book for young adults is set at one.  I probably got to fourth or fifth grade before I realized that not everyone was as infatuated with animals as I was.

Did you write stories when you were growing up? at school? Or at home as a hobby? As a young child, or as a teenager, or both?

I wrote stories all the time when I was growing up.  I knew I wanted to write very early on in life and would spend hours at home writing and illustrating.  I never felt that I specifically had to write novels, though – for which reason I got sidetracked doing movies and TV for a while.  But when the possibility to actually write a novel presented itself – and for young adults, no less – I jumped at the chance to do it.

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

Anything by Roald Dahl, Lafcadio by Shel Silvestein, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, The Westing Game by Ellern Raskin and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, by Julie Andrews Edwards.  (As a child, I knew Julie Andrews first as a writer and was rather stunned to discover that she was also known for acting occasionally.)

What audience did you have in mind for your career as a writer - adult or children?

I had always assumed that if I wrote a novel, it would be for adults – until an agent suggested that I write for young adults instead.  I had actually conceived of Belly Up as a book for adults, with an adult protagonist, but I instantly realized it would be a great mystery for a young boy to solve.  In addition, I had a young son and my wife was pregnant with our daughter – and the idea of writing something that both of them could read on their own in just a few years was a really wonderful idea to me.  I didn’t expect my career writing for young adults to take off like it has, but I have tremendously enjoyed doing it.

What was your first job when you graduated from college?

I worked at zoo, studying capybaras (the world’s largest rodents).  I had been doing research on capybaras as part of a school project, and almost no one had researched capybaras at the time.  I was learning lots of interesting things about them, so my university paid me to continue my research.  Ultimately, the zoo wasn’t the ideal place to do this (the Amazon would have been much better) but while working there, I was exposed to the inner workings of a zoo – and heard lots of amusing stories from the keepers – which ultimately became the inspiration for Belly Up.

Do you enjoy researching or do you prefer working totally from your imagination?

I enjoy researching quite a lot – although, in a sense, I am always sort of researching.  No matter where I go, I am collecting information.  Belly Up was greatly based upon things I had gleaned from visiting various zoos over the years.  And I could not have written my upcoming novel The Last Musketeer (which tells the story of the Three Musketeers as teenagers) if I hadn’t been to Paris relatively recently.  Many of the scenes in that book are directly based upon experiences I had there.  For example, I took a tour of the bell towers of Notre Dame – which led to an action sequence inside the bell towers in the novel. 

What are you working on now?

As of right now,  I have four more books scheduled to come out over the next few years.  Three of these books are a trilogy about the Three Musketeers as teenagers, which will come out over the next three years, starting with The Last Musketeer in September 2011.  I have just finished the second book in that series and am starting to develop the third.  Also, Spy School – the comic adventure of a kid who in recruited to the CIA’s top secret Academy of Espionage – will come out in March 2012.  It is looking as though I may be asked to do a sequel to that one as well.  And after all that, I would really love to do a sequel to Belly Up.  I have developed the story, but haven’t had time to write it.