Today I have a very special guest… the ever amazing A.S. King. I am such a fangirl so of course I jumped at the chance to interview her (even though I’m the world’s worst interview question writer!) First, a bit about the book:
Gerald Faust knows exactly when he started feeling angry: the day his mother invited a reality television crew into his five-year-old life. Twelve years later, he’s still haunted by his rage-filled youth—which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle—and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts, zero friends, and clueless adults dumping him in the special education room at school.
Nothing is ever going to change. No one cares that he’s tried to learn to control himself, and the girl he likes has no idea who he really is. Everyone’s just waiting for him to snap…and he’s starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that.
In this fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge, highly acclaimed Printz Honor author A.S. King explores the desperate reality of a former child “star” who finally breaks free of his anger by creating possibilities he never knew he deserved.
Author Interview:
1. I love the magical realism aspects of your stories. Whether it’s dancing ants or Disney characters or dead best friends riding shotgun. Why do you include elements like these rather than writing just “realistic fiction?”
My favorite writers use elements of magic realism, so I guess it rubbed off on me. I think for me, it’s a way to express my characters’ thoughts in a more realistic way. For example, last night I dreamed I was magnetic. I have no idea what this means, you know? I just know that in the dream, metal stuff stuck to me and I stuck to metal stuff. Isn’t that magical realism right there? Inside my head? In real life?
I think it is. I think we all have it and it’s in all of us. Dreams. Daydreams. Funny thoughts we have that have no basis in reality but help us escape reality at the same time. So, to me, magical realism is realistic fiction. Or at least my books are.
2. When reviewing Reality Boy, School Library Journal remarked, “King’s trademarks: attuned first-person narrative, convincing dialogue, realistic language, and fitting quirkiness connect effectively in this disturbing, yet hopeful novel.” I agree 100%. What I love about that quotation is the end. “Disturbing, yet hopeful” is exactly how I would describe this novel. How do you manage to balance those two?
I didn’t set out to disturb anyone. I never do. But the truth is usually disturbing. For example: I’ve been listening to two guys talk behind me on an airplane as I write this. They are talking about football. I just wondered what would happen if I turned around and asked them what they thought we could do, as a culture, about rape and sexual abuse.
I would call that disturbing, yet hopeful.
Maybe this is just how I think.
I think that’s the only way I can explain managing the two. It just happens that way. It’s how my brain works. I think I am trying to ease people, who are generally avoiding talking about the heavy or truthful things, into talking about them and still feeling okay about it. Or something.
3. Reality Boy is your fifth published novel. Has the process of writing and publishing a book changed for you at all? Does it get easier?
Sadly, it does not get easier.
I think the process has only changed because my life has become so busy. I used to be able to write a book—you know, take time out and sit down and write. I don’t have that time anymore. So publishing has given me less time to write, so it’s all changed. Weird, but true.
4. Any recommendations for YA readers? What books do you love?
Well, if you haven’t read the following five classics, then you must:
Fahrenheit 451
Animal Farm
Slaughterhouse Five
To Kill a Mockingbird
Catch-22
A.S. King is best known for her award-winning young adult novels, though she writes novel-length and short fiction for adults as well. After more than a decade in Ireland dividing herself between self-sufficiency, restoring her farm, teaching adult literacy, and writing novels, she returned to the US in 2004.
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