GBF Author Q&A with... Brian Meehl

Author: Brian Meehl
Book: Out of Patience, Suck It Up, and You Don't Know About Me

Brian's website.

Where do you find inspiration?
I am a news junky and avid reader of history and non-fiction. My inspiration for fiction comes from a collision between the reality of my personal experience and the reality of the world (present and pas) at large. This collision sometimes provides the spark of imagination that leads to a story I want to explore, write, and share with readers.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Read, read, read, write, write, write. Both reading and writing is a process of discovery. You can’t discover the stories you want to tell without doing a lot of both.

What's your favorite opening line from a book?
“You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter.” -- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

In fact, the first five words of that sentence are the title of my latest book: "You Don’t Know About Me."

What book has inspired or affected you in some way?
I think the book that may have influenced me the most was "Moby Dick" which I read in 11th grade English. I loved how the book jumps back and forth from the narrative of a man chasing a whale to chapters on the art and science of whaling. From my many years in children’s educational television, where a story had to be combined with curriculum, to my present weaving of history and science into my stories, I think I imprinted on that dance between fiction and non-fiction.

If you could sit down at dinner with three other authors, living or dead, which three authors would you choose and why?
Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Emile Zola.

I’d love to hear Melville expound on his writing process. With Twain, I’d want to tickle his funny bone with historical and current events since he died in 1910 and watch him hold forth. From Zola, I’d want to pick his brain all about Paris in the 1890s for research on my next book.

GBF Author Q&A with... Mary Amato

Name: Mary Amato
Books: Edgar Allen's Official Crime Investigation Notebook, Invisible Lines, Chicken of the Family, Please Write In This Book, The Naked Mole-Rat Letters, The Word Eater, and The Riot Brothers series

Mary's Website

Where do you find inspiration?
People inspire me. I believe that fiction writers are like spies... we're constantly on the lookout for interesting characters.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Many people can write a beautiful sentence, but that isn't all that writing fiction is about. Writing fiction is about getting into a character's mind and really seeing the world through those eyes. I encourage writers to spend time imagining that they are their characters and to write from that unique place.

What book has inspired or affected you in some way?
When I was about ten years old, I read "Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh and it changed my life. Harriet was this quirky kid who spied on people and wrote down truths in her notebook. I wanted to be a writer at the time, but I didn't know any writers and didn't think it was possible. That character gave me permission to write.

Passing Childrens' Books Down to the Next Generation

Parenting magazine recently polled its readers about the top books that parents pass down to their kids, and the reason why the parents love them so.

My all-time favorite - "Harold and the Purple Crayon" - is on the Parenting list. I've loved that story, and its imaginative, artistic boy, since first discovering it in the waiting room of my childhood dentist's office. My second favorite - "The Lorax" - wasn't on the list. My grandmother read me that book, and now it has become one of my son's favorites. The underlying message about the importance of protecting the environment, the consequences of greed and the overwhelming need for useless things like "thneeds" ring even more true today than when I read "The Lorax" more than three decades ago.

Are any of your favorites included? If not, tell us which ones you've shared with your kids, and why these books are so important to you.