Before the interview, let's learn a bit about first two books in the series (cover and synopsis below):
BOOK 1: DEADWEATHER AND SUNRISE |
Not that Egg's life was ever easy, growing up on sweaty, pirate-infested Deadweather Island with no company except an incompetent tutor and a pair of unusually violent siblings who hate his guts.
But when Egg's father hustles their family off on a mysterious errand to fabulously wealthy Sunrise Island, then disappears with the siblings in a freak accident, Egg finds himself a long-term guest at the mansion of the glamorous Pembroke family and their beautiful, sharp-tongued daughter Millicent. Finally, life seems perfect. Until someone tries to throw him off a cliff.
Suddenly, Egg's running for his life in a bewildering world of cutthroat pirates, villainous businessmen, and strange Native legends. The only people who can help him sort out the mystery of why he's been marked for death are Millicent and a one-handed, possibly deranged cabin boy.
Come along for the ride. You'll be glad you did.
BOOK 2: NEW LANDS (releases tomorrow, 5/2!) |
After
a narrow escape from Deadweather Island, Egg and his slightly deranged
partner Guts head for the remote New Lands. They’re in search of the
lost Okalu tribe, who hold the key to the mysterious treasure map that
Egg can't decipher. But the ruthless Roger Pembroke is hard on Egg's
trail, and the New Lands are full of new enemies—against which our
heroes' only weapons are their brains, their courage...and the two dozen
swear words Guts just memorized in the local tongue.
They're
going to need help. But who can they trust? Is Kira, the beautiful and
heavily armed Okalu refugee, their ally…or their enemy? Is Pembroke's
daughter Millicent on Egg's side…or her father's? Why on earth is the
notorious pirate Burn Healy being so nice to them? And the
biggest question of all: what shocking secret is Egg about to discover
in the shadow of an ancient Okalu temple?
Make sure to tune in Friday for my review of DEADWEATHER AND SUNRISE.
Okay, here's the interview with the author, Geoff Rodkey:
Mike: First, tell us
who Geoff Rodkey is? Don’t go all Navin Johnson on us and 3rd-person
your response (obscure reference to Steve Martin in The Jerk—not
that I’m calling you a jerk). But please do tell us a bit
about who you are as a person, and as a writer.
Geoff: For most of my
career, I’ve been a comedy writer: my first paying job was a Beavis and
Butt-head episode in 1994; I spent a few years after that writing
jokes for a comedian, then drifted into writing movies like Daddy Day
Care and RV. The Chronicles of Egg books
are the first projects I’ve worked on that aren’t primarily comedies—they’re
more adventure-comedy-mystery-coming-of-age stories. If that makes any sense.
As
a person, I’m a Midwesterner transplanted to New York City who’s trying (along
with my wife) to raise three sons in a four-room Manhattan apartment without
any of us either losing our minds or committing homicide. The jury’s still out
on whether we’ll pull it off.
Mike: So what
inspired you to write DEADWEATHER AND SUNRISE, and the second
book NEW LANDS?
Geoff: I wanted to
write the kind of story I would have loved to read as a kid (or, for that
mater, an adult)—a big, fun, sprawling story like The Princess Bride,
set in an invented but still realistic world, with equal parts adventure,
comedy, mystery, and heart.
Mike: Is there a
third book in Egg’s future? If so, title and release date, please?
Geoff: Yes. Blue Sea
Burning, which wraps up all the loose ends in the trilogy, will be out by
May 2014. (Hopefully sooner, if I can convince the publisher to move up the
release date.)
Mike: DEADWEATHER
AND SUNRISE is a pirate book through and through. I personally love
the way you manipulate the dialect and utilize classic pirate vocabulary to
phonetically write dialogue. Tell us how you went about maintaining this
consistently throughout the book. * Did you go all “method actor”
(or writer) on us and only speak and write like a pirate while writing the
books?
Geoff: I have no idea.
I’m not trying to be flippant: I honestly don’t know. I just wrote the
characters the way they sounded in my head. But I’m thrilled that you liked it!
Mike: What were your
favorite books as a wee lad (when you were Egbert’s age), and why?
Geoff: As a younger
kid, I loved The Pushcart War, The Westing Game, the McGurk
mysteries, and just about anything by Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, T. Ernesto Betancourt,
Lloyd Alexander, or S.E. Hinton… By the time I was Egg’s age, I was going
through a comic strip anthology phase—Bloom County,The Far Side,
and especially Doonesbury. I learned an enormous amount about
the political and cultural history of the 1970s from reading old Doonesbury collections.
Mike: Every writer
has a different part of the storytelling process that’s his or her bugaboo.
That part that’s the toughest to get through. Could be the opening pages, or
nailing the end, or perhaps the initial conception of the idea, or the pacing,
or maybe characterization is a weakness, or…I think you get my point. So fess
up. What’s your weakest link in the storytelling process?
Geoff: Plot. Coming up
with a compelling story that keeps a reader turning the pages and wondering
what happens next is far and away the toughest part of the process for me. I’ve
had to throw out a lot of promising beginnings to stories because I couldn’t
figure out how to make equally good middles and endings out of them.
Mike: Last question.
Most kids have an unrealistic dream of what they want to be when they get
older. For example, I wanted to be a fire truck when I grew up (hey, it seemed
possible at the time). What unrealistic notion did you hold as a wee lad that
might seem silly now, but was an honest-to-goodness dream you held as a kid?
Geoff: I wanted to
play guitar in Ozzy Osbourne’s band. This might have been less unrealistic if
I’d ever owned a guitar. I had a tennis racket I could pretend was a Gibson SG,
but that was as far as it got.
Oh man, these look so good!
ReplyDeleteMy unrealistic dream: I literally wanted to be a wizard...mainly so I didn't have to actually clean my room! :) Awesome interview! Congrats, Geoff and good luck!
ReplyDelete