Interview with Justin Allen

www.justin-allen.com

First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server today…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.

My pleasure.

Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

I have always loved exciting stories. As a kid I read comics, adventure stories, science-fiction and fantasy, classics and a lot of claptrap. Reading was my most constant pleasure, my most consistent entertainment. Certain characters seemed to jump off the page. They seemed more real than the people I knew, certainly more real than the people we read about in history class. I loved Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Batman and Spider-man, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Conan the Barbarian, Gandalf the Gray, and so many others. I thought about them all the time and felt like I KNEW them. I wondered if you couldn’t really go to Baker Street and see Sherlock’s rooms, if there wasn’t really a Middle Earth some-where or some-when, and if Conan might not have really prowled the grizzled lands of pre-history. These characters have all gone well beyond their creators wildest dreams. They exist in our minds and in our culture, independent of the pages that gave them birth. I still hope to one day create a character that others care so much about that they too want to write about him, think about her, to search out the places those characters inhabited. I think that is the dream of all writers, and one I probably first formulated when I was about ten years old, reading the Adventures of Tom Sawyer for the first time.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?

Getting published for the first time is pretty dang hard. I studied writing in college, and then went to writing school. I spent years working on my first novel, “Slaves of the Shinar”, finding an agent who believed in it and me, and then working with her to find a publishing house that had a similar vision for what that book could be. All told, I think I worked on that novel from 1999 to 2007. That’s a lot of work! But I had a great time, too. For my new novel, “Year of the Horse”, I was lucky to already have a publishing house that I knew shared my love for characters, stories and quirky adventure.

Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?

”Year of the Horse” tells the story of a first-generation American boy by the name of Yen Tzu-lu (his friends call him Lu). He is the child of Chinese immigrants who gets taken along on an adventure by a famous gun-fighter and mystic named Jack Straw, and Jack’s gang of outlaws. They aim to steal a gold mine, and Lu has been hired on as an explosives expert (he doesn’t know a thing about explosives, by the way). Needless to say, they have all sorts of adventures, encountering Native American Tribes, cowboys, ghosts, wild animals, legendary characters like the Headless Horseman and Coyote the Trickster, and finally what may well be the Devil himself. If they succeed they’ll be rich, and if they fail they’ll likely be dead.

But if I were to mention one single aspect of the book that I think should make you want to read “Year of the Horse,” it would be to simply reiterate the following:

They have to beat the Devil. THE DEVIL! That’s one tough challenge for any boy to face.

What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?

As I said before, I have been inspired by so many wonderful characters. But as a writer, probably my biggest inspiration has come from the works of Mark Twain. I love his sense of adventure, humor, and the way he captures a time and a place so perfectly you feel as though you are right there with the characters. What a story-teller!

Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!

I hope my family is thrilled, and that they will be equally thrilled to read “Year of the Horse”. I’ll let you in on a little secret. My family, both sides, helped to settle the American West. They sod-busted in Nebraska, were part of the Mormon migration to Utah, and crossed the country on the Oregon Trail. So, when I needed some characters and stories to include in the novel, I actually went back to some old family stories I remembered. I even put one of my great-great-grandmothers into the book, who went blind as a result of an outbreak of Spanish Flu in Eastern Idaho. I never knew her, but I remember all the things my grandmother told me about her, how she fixed her family’s windmill, helped her husband in his blacksmith shop, and even gardened and quilted, in spite of the fact that she was completely blind. I think she must have been an amazing woman, and I thought it would be neat to have a character with some of the same challenges she faced. But remember, this is a secret, just for you all, so don’t tell anyone in my family until they have a chance to read the book for themselves.

Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?

For some reason I eat a huge amount of rice. I like eggs and rice and beans, and rice with sausage, and fried rice, and rice pudding. I wouldn’t say that rice was my favorite food, but I sure do eat a lot of it.

Probably my favorite food is apple pie made by my grandmother, Jeane Hammond. I don’t know why her pies are so much better than anyone else’s, they just are.

What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?

I make coffee and breakfast for myself and my wife, Day, make Day’s lunch (I’m mighty smitten with my wife. I just think she’s the sweetest, prettiest, most wonderful woman in the whole world), and then check my email and the sports scores (college football is a fairly new passion of mine).

If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?

I don’t have a closet! My clothes are spread throughout a number of drawers, shelves, and closets. I have to go all over the house to pick out what I am going to wear that day. Isn’t that ridiculous? My suits and coats are in the hall closet, my shoes are in the bottom of my wife’s closet in our bedroom, my pants are in a drawer, and my shirts are in the closet in our library/home office. Man, I need to get more organized.

Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?

I would be green. But I would be green because trees are green, grass is green, leaves on flowers are green – so many of the wonderful, peaceful, gloriously beautiful living things on this planet are green. Plus, if I was green like them I could make my own food via chlorophyll – just think of the money you could save!

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Easy! Spider-man. No, wait, Batman. Hmmm, but what about Foghorn Leghorn? This question is deceptively puzzling. I’ll have to get back to you.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

I would like to say He-Man for looks and Goofy for Gee-whiz humor and kindness. But I am probably more like Yosemite Sam.

If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history, where and when would it be—and why?

I think I would like to be in the United States just after World War Two. The country was making some pretty righteous cars around then, and you could still ride down Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles and just sort of take it all in… Doesn’t that sound nice?

So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?

I never, ever listen to music while I am writing. Don’t know why, I just don’t. But I do listen to music a lot. I like a good beat, something you can dance to. I like big band jazz, hippie era oldies from the ‘60’s (The Doors), trashy electronic stuff from the ‘80’s. Heck, I like all sorts of stuff. You know those songs that make you feel like the artist knows you personally? Where you listen to it and it you get a lump in your throat? Those are my favorites.

Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you saw at the theater?

Lately, Day and I have been watching old Star Trek episodes on hulu. We went to see the new Star Trek movie this summer, LOVED IT, and decided to devote ourselves to a study of all things Kirk, McCoy and Spock. So many great episodes. If you get a chance, check out the episode titled “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Also “Balance of Terror”. Both have amazingly complex and interesting stories. Just try to ignore the “special” effects.

The last movie I watched in the theater was “Julie and Julia”. Generally that is the sort of movie my wife takes me to with the promise that someone will get bitten by a vampire toward the end. I am almost always disappointed. But this movie was very good, in spite of the lack of vampires. I came to really be interested in Julia Child. Quite a lady. Made me want to do some cooking.

My all-time, never miss it, favorite movie may well be Star Wars. No, I won’t call it Star Wars IV. To me it was and ever will be just Star Wars. Loved Han Solo. There is another of those characters I was talking about earlier. By the way, if you ask me, the problem with the new Star Wars movies was that they had no one like Han. Han is successful because he is brave, skillful, works hard, and is a good friend. He has no magical powers. He is just an all around cool guy.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?

I will give you two pieces of advice – one for free, the other you will just have to owe me for.

First. Whatever you dream of doing, at least give it a serious try. Want to play baseball? Be a writer? Dancer? Actor? Nuclear physicist? Astronaut? At least give your dream a serious try. It will be a struggle, but the joy of life is in the struggle.

Throughout the next few years, all sorts of adults, maybe even your parents, will urge you to do something safe. They will do this because they love you. But they are WRONG!!!!! Remember this, the only thing of real value in this life is time, so use yours wisely. Work toward what YOU want. Be brave. Have the integrity of your own convictions. Never do it for the money. And seriously, seriously try to do what you want to do. It may not work out. I offer you no promises. But even if it doesn’t, at least you can look yourself in the mirror, know you were courageous, and say “I gave it my best shot.”

My second piece of advice is: For Heaven’s Sake, DON’T SMOKE!!!! And if you already smoke, QUIT NOW!!!!

It doesn’t matter what dream you choose to pursue, smoking will be a detriment. I promise you that. People across all walks of life will judge you harshly for smoking. They will look on you with scorn, think you are stupid, question your rationality and sanity, won’t want to work with you or even be around you. They will punish you for smoking. Think you don’t care? You don’t want to be around anyone with that sort of small mind? Well, let me just pass along this fact to you – the prejudice against tobacco use is huge and growing every day. If you don’t want to be around those who would judge you for being a smoker, fine. But in no time you will be all alone. And where will your dreams be then? No one ever accomplishes anything by themselves. Think of the actors, writers and singers who you have seen getting awards. They have huge lists of people they want to thank. That is because alone you simply fail. Don’t be alone! Follow your dreams, and DON’T SMOKE.

One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?

I hope you will be able to read some science fiction stories from me. I have been working on a novel called “Tomorrowland,” about the unintended consequences of technology, science and advancement. For instance, you know how they make you take your shoes off, take the belt out of your belt loops, and take off your jewelry etc., when you go through airport security now? Well, not too long ago I saw a woman get stopped because the under-wire in her bra was setting off the alarms. Follow that thought through to the level of the ridiculous and see if it doesn’t make you blush. And what if we had to go through security to get into the post office? The bank? School? How would our world, and the people in it, have to change?

That’s the sort of unintended consequence I am talking about.

Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!

Thanks for having me.