Back to Featured Interviews >>

MEET NEAL SHUSTERMAN, Keynote Speaker 2005
by Bonnie O'Brian

Where were you born? Where have you lived? How did you end up in California?

Neal Shusterman

I was born in Brooklyn, New York. When I was 16, I moved with my family to Mexico City, where I graduated High School. From there I came out to Southern California, and have been here ever since.

Who was most influential in steering you towards the writing profession?

The teachers I had when I was growing up, and all the way through college were incredibly supportive and encouraging.

You seem to be in love with words often basing an entire novel on a particular word. I'm referring to THE SCHWA WAS HERE and also DISSIDENTS. What are some of your favorite words? Have you based other novels on a single word?

Good Question... Let's see... favorite words... Newbery.... Oscar... Hmm. Haven't heard those yet, though... Seriously though, one of the words I'm playing with now is something I heard at a car lot. When the financing falls apart after the owner takes possession of the car, and the car must then be taken back by the dealer is something car dealers call an "unwind." I just contracted with Simon and Schuster for a book I'm calling "Unwind," that takes the concept beyond cars, to a human level.

Describe a typical writing day.

No such thing. I can describe five kinds of work days, though, on which there are many variations:

1)The "Where did the day go" Day:

Wake up at 5. Take my son to water polo practice at 5:30. Wake up again at 6:30. Take the rest of the kids to school at 8. Get on line at 8:30 to "check e-mail," and "take care of some business." Three hours later, I wonder how it took three hours to answer e-mail and book a few flights. By now it's noon, and I realize if I don't get out of the house, no writing will get done, so I go out, only to realize that I left my outline/power-cord/brain at home, so I must return home only to find that invariably there is a message from someone about something that MUST BE TAKEN CARE OF NOW. So I spend the next two hours taking care of what MUST BE TAKEN CARE OF NOW. By then it's time to pick up the kids at school, and that's the ball game.

2) The "You Must Take This Pointless Meeting" day:

On this day I drive from South Orange County to meet with someone who my agent assures me is "very important" in the entertainment industry who wants me to do lots and lots of writing for free, on the promise that someday soon it won't be free. The drive to Los Angeles takes about 2 hours, then an hour for the meeting, and two hours back. Then I arrive at home to find out that there's something unexpected waiting THAT MUST BE TAKEN CARE OF NOW. Sometimes I'm able to take the train, and get writing done on the train, assuming I can find a Metrolink car with outlets (Hint: The ones WITHOUT rivets on the outside have outlets).

3) The "Home Is Where The Laundry Is" day.

On this day, knowing full well that staying home will lead to the evils of dishes, laundry, filing, and, God-forbid, looking for something I misplaced in the garage, I wisely leave in the morning and don't come back until later in the day, after I've gotten substantial amounts of writing done. Usually I'll go to a Library, or Starbucks, or some other such place where they don't consider hanging around and writing a criminal offense.

4) The "Creating Competition for my Golden Years." day.

These are the days where I travel and speak at schools, getting kids excited about reading and writing. One teacher once pointed out that if I keep doing this, I'm going to inspire so many young writers, they will be putting me out of business in a few years. I told her how very insightful that was, and ordered the lobster when she took me out to dinner. Actually I feel most inspired after speaking at schools, because seeing kids connecting with literature reminds me why I write what I write. Usually I'll go back to my hotel room after a day of speaking, and write up a storm until the wee hours of the morning.

5) The "I'm Not on Vacation, I'm a Writer" day.

Lately I've begun taking four-day cruises to Mexico, during which I never leave the ship. On these days of pampering and endless buffets, I spend about 16 hours writing each day, and get such huge amounts of work done, it makes up for all the "Where did the day go," days and the "You must take this pointless meeting" days, because when you're incommunicado on a cruise the things that MUST BE TAKEN CARE OF NOW can't find you. I'm now on a first name basis with much of the crew of "The Monarch of the Seas."

Did you have any formal training in becoming a writer of novels, screenplays, and television scripts or did you just keep writing, thinking, observing, and learning from the school of hard knocks?

Mostly the latter. Throughout middle school and high school I always wrote. In college, my degrees were in psychology and theater, but I took every creative writing course UC Irvine offered. I also wrote a weekly humor column for the school paper for four years. After graduating, I hit the pavement running, writing scripts, plays, music, novels, Y-A novels, columns, articles, etc. figuring I'd go through whichever doors opened. As it turned out screenwriting, and Y-A were the two doors that opened, and pretty much simultaneously, so I've spent my career straddling both.

Which of your books has sold the most copies?

Downsiders in hardcover, and Full Tiltin paperback. (Full Tilt is at around 200,000 in paperback now.)

What really triggers your imagination?

Coming across an idea, concept or metaphor that I've never seen done before. Finding an issue worth exploring, and a way that I can do it that is unique.

What books or other writing projects are you working on now?

There's a book series I'm working on called Dark Fusion where I cross Fairytales with Myths, and come up with a strange, creepy hybrid. The first one is "Dread Locks," and it's Goldilocks crossed with Medusa. I'm also working on a fantasy called "Not Dead Yet," that deals with a world of kids caught between life and death, and deals with the courage one must find to complete their journey, whatever that journey might be. In film I'm co-writing a script for Revolution Pictures that's a true story about a school teacher who ran for congress, with her students running her campaign. Also I recently finished co-writing an adaptation of AsYou Like it.