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MEET ANDREW SMITH
by Bonnie O'Brian

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Andrew Smith

I remember telling my parents that I wanted to be a writer. I also remember them asking, in reply, “But what do you really want to do?”

When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

I always wrote stories and “books” when I was growing up. I guess I never actually imagined not doing it.

What’s your first childhood memory?

When I was in middle school, I told my mother about a memory I’d had, that I was jumping out a window with my brothers at my grandmother’s house. She told me that I wasn’t yet two years old at the time, but I still remember doing that.

What’s your favorite childhood memory?

Probably my favorite childhood memory is of the camping trip I took with my father in Northwestern Washington state. I was probably six or seven at the time, and I can still remember how beautiful it was.

As a young person, who did you look up to most?

The principal of my elementary school was missing an arm and had a prosthetic hook. Those were the days when kids (meaning boys) could be spanked at school, and whenever anyone (a boy) misbehaved, they would make all classes go into the hallway to watch the principal administer corporal punishment with a paddle, which he held in that gleaming hook of his. I was smart. His daughter was my girlfriend in first grade. One of these days I’m going to look up some of my old classmates, though, to see just how many of us (boys) grew up to become sociopaths.

What was your best subject in school?

I always did well in math, even though I didn’t care for the subject. My favorite subjects were always English or Literature, primarily American Literature.

What was your first job?

Actually, my first job was working as a stringer for a local newspaper in California. A stringer is the lowest level of reporter, and I got paid per inch of copy I produced – 25 cents per inch, which seemed like a lot of money to me at the time (I was still in high school). That may likely explain why some of my sentences run a bit long, too.

Where is your hometown?

Growing up, I lived all over the world… and never anywhere for very long. My childhood hometown was Kingston, Washington. I’d have to say my adult hometown is Santa Clarita, California.

How did you celebrate publishing your first book?

Getting my publishing contract seemed so unbelievable to me that, at times, I began wondering if I wasn’t experiencing some weird kind of hallucinations. So, one time, when my agent called to discuss the deal, I put my phone on speaker and had my son listen in just so he could verify that I wasn’t losing my mind. Afterwards, I took my entire family (and mother-in-law, too) out to dinner and, when I ordered bottles of champagne, my wife’s mom thought I was about to tell her that we were expecting another baby.

Where do you write your books?

I do most of my writing in my messy office at home. And since I use multiple computers, I will generally write one thing entirely using only one computer. I am very paranoid about losing my work, so I burn CDs regularly and hide them everywhere – in my car, taped under desk drawers, etc.

Where do you find inspiration for your writing?

Most of the events and people I write about are actually taken from my own experiences. I find the greatest moments of inspiration come to me when I’m outdoors, in nature, often when I’m running out on the trails in the hills around my home.

Which of your characters is most like you?

I think I’m most like Troy Stotts, with more than a little bit of the self-doubting Gabe Benavidez mixed in.

When you finish a book, who reads it first?

When I finish a book, I put it away for a week or more and then I try to read it as though I were just a “reader,” not someone attached in any way to the work. Now, as soon as I finish anything, I give it directly to Liz Szabla, my editor. She is incredible, and definitely made me so much better as a writer.

Are you a morning person or a night owl?

(I am answering this question at 4:00 a.m.) Um… morning. I usually do most of my writing before 6 in the morning.

Who is your favorite fictional character?

I have two all-time favorite fictional characters: Arkady Renko… he is such a great character, and Martin Cruz Smith is one of my favorite authors; and Huckleberry Finn… he has such a clear voice and is so deep a character in the simple ways he looks at things.

What’s the best advice you have ever received about writing?

My dear friend and fellow author Kelly Milner Halls finally convinced me to seek out a literary agent and try to get the stuff I’d been writing published. And she kept encouraging me through my inevitable episodes of self-doubt.

What was the process involved in writing GHOST MEDICINE?

Whenever I begin writing, I just write without stopping. I don’t set any target for daily output, but I do write something every day. I forced myself to take a couple of days off during the writing process. It was difficult to get away from, so I went on a vacation out of state with my family and left my laptop at home. And when I came back, I had a renewed energy. I had a lot of fun writing GHOST MEDICINE, too. Sometimes, I’d talk to myself out loud and discuss the choices the characters had, and what would happen in the plot if one of them chose to do something differently. Start to finish took me about four months, and, originally, the manuscript came out to be over 500 pages. I am currently working on my fourth novel, at a much faster pace, too. I started it in mid-June and plan to be finished by August at about 85,000 words. My second novel, IN THE PATH OF FALLING OBJECTS took about 4 months, also, but I am told there will be less editing involved. It will be out in September of 2009.

If you could be any character in GHOST MEDICINE, who would you be?

Who wouldn’t want to be Tom Buller? He’s a great character, modeled after a friend of mine from my own childhood. Many of the things Troy and Tom do together really happened to me, too.

Did you plan out the plot, or did you write and just let it happen?

Both. Since parts of GHOST MEDICINE already existed as unpublished stories I’d written, I planned to weave them in. But once I started setting things in motion, I really had no idea how the book would end up… and I changed the ending (and I mean drastically) at least three times.

How did you decide on the initial conflict you chose in GHOST MEDICINE?

At first, I just wanted to write a story about the unintended consequences of a mean-spirited prank, which explains what Chase does to the boys. Then, as the characters developed their own “personalities,” it naturally allowed me to work in certain undercurrents of innocence, revenge, and cruelty.

Where, exactly, is GHOST MEDICINE set?

A lot of people ask me that question, and I purposely left out any specifics of time and place in GHOST MEDICINE because I wanted it to seem like the kind of story that could happen almost anywhere and at any time. Readers know certain things, though: that there are references to places in the Southwest, and that there are things like cars and helicopters in the story… but (thankfully!) there are no cell phones or text messages in the novel.

What do you want readers to remember about your books?

The things I want readers to experience most from my books are a connection with the characters, and a feeling that the story really engages them and tells them something of value.

What is your best habit?

My best habit has to be running. I’m a streak runner, which means I have put in miles running every day, without fail, for more than eight years now. I’ve run in every imaginable condition from snow to blazing heat, sometimes having to wake up at 2 a.m. to make sure I keep the streak going and still catch a plane.

What do you wish you could do better?

I wish I could speak Italian better. When I was a child, my mother could not speak English, and I spent many years in Italy, so I naturally picked up the language when I was young. Now, it’s difficult for me to form the words although I still can understand it very well. Oh… and I wish I could type better, too. When I started writing back in my newspaper and radio days, it was before the computer revolution, and most writers used manual typewriters. I rarely met a writer or even an editor who didn’t type with two fingers in those days. I still two-finger type, and I’m pretty fast, but I’m self-conscious about it because even my kids laugh when they see me doing it.

What would your readers be most surprised to learn about you?

When I was a little kid, my family lived in a very old house that was actually haunted. I saw ghosts in it, but never told anyone until after we moved away, and then my mother told me that she’d seen ghosts in it all the time, too.