Interview with Sneed B. Collard III

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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?

Actually, not until I graduated from college. I studied marine biology at U.C. Berkeley and landed a job with the California Department of Fish & Game afterward. I was living in my van at the time and one evening, I was sitting there when it occurred to me: “I don’t want to be a biologist. I want to write!” I’ve never looked back on that decision.

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

I tried all kinds of writing at first: adult novels, screenplays, articles on how to catch fish, everything. I knew that I needed to make a living, however, so I went back to school to get a master’s in scientific instrumentation and got a job as a computer consultant for scientists at U.C. Santa Barbara. After working with scientists for a year or so, I decided to try writing a science article for Highlights for Children. It took me two years to sell that first article, but I learned a lot from the experience, and for the next four or five years I focused on articles and stories for children’s magazines.

By this time, I was itching to write full-time so I began sending out book proposals. Within a year, Kent Brown at Boyds Mills Press bought my first book, Sea Snakes, which was published in 1993. Since then, I’ve worked with at least a dozen publishers and have had about fifty nonfiction books published. About ten years ago, I began focusing much of my attention on young adult fiction. My first novel, Dog Sense, was published in 2005, followed a year later by Flash Point, winner of the Green Earth Book Award for Environmental Literature.

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?

One of the great mysteries of the Civil War is what happened to the millions of dollars worth of Confederate gold that went missing during and after the war. My newest novel and first thriller, Double Eagle, seizes upon this mystery.

Double Eagle was inspired by a summer I spent in Alabama, where my biologist father was teaching summer school at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. During that time, I made a good friend who taught me how to sneak into an old Civil War fort right next to the marine lab. Ever since I began writing, I’ve wanted to set a story there, but it took me 25 years to come up with a plot.

About three years ago, however, I started collecting State Quarters with my young son, and began reading up on Civil War coins. I learned that the Confederacy had plans to mint their own gold coins, but never got around to it. I also learned about the missing Confederate gold. “What if,” I thought, “two boys sneaked into this fort and one of them accidentally uncovered a twenty dollar gold piece, or double eagle, minted by the Confederacy?” If such a coin existed today it would be almost priceless and as soon as I thought of it, I realized I had the driving force for an exciting story. In Double Eagle, the boys continue to search for the rest of the Confederate gold. Meanwhile, a professional salvage hunter working on a sunken shipwreck offshore gets wind that the boys may have found exactly what he is looking for. Other disreputable parties get involved and the story becomes a race for who can find the gold first.

For an objective evaluation, check out Michael Cart’s Booklist review.

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

The natural world has without question inspired many of my stories, but so have history, travel, and books. When I became a serious reader, very few writers were writing for young adults, so my inspirations came from adult books by authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Leon Uris, Mario Puzo, and Ernest Hemmingway. Later, I grew to love Steinbeck and Mark Twain. One of my favorite book of all times is Steinbeck: A Life in Letters because it shows how this great author struggled and grew during the course of his life and career. Today, there are so many good authors for young adults that it’s hard to even begin to list them. Some of my favorite books—both fiction and nonfiction—I’ve read recently are by Larry Dane Brimner, Adrian Fogelin, Sally Walker, Roland Smith, Padma Venkatraman, Donna Jo Napoli, and Dorothy Hinshaw Patent.

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

I tell people that instead of having children, I had books for most of my adult life. That changed dramatically after I married my wonderful wife Amy eight years ago, and I am now blessed to have two dynamic, curious youngsters, ages 2 and 6, filling my life. And let’s not forget the fifth member of my family, my Border collie Mattie, who inspired my first novel, Dog Sense.

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

Cheese enchiladas with guacamole.

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

1) Stretch for exactly 53 seconds.
2) Let Mattie outside.
3) Pour myself a glass of juice.

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

Hobo spiders—an unwelcome invasive species that has colonized much of the West! Invasive species are a huge interest of mine and the subject of my most recent science book Science Warriors—The Battle Against Invasive Species.

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 for sure. Then I could just sit and photosynthesize all day and even let a grasshopper or caterpillar munch on me a bit.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Opus in Bloom County, followed closely by Cartman in South Park.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

Probably Doonesbury, but you will have to ask my wife.

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’d love to go to Africa about 1,000 years ago to see the amazing cultures and wildlife.

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

I’m a dedicated hard rock and blues man with a strong interest in R&B. Favorite groups: Neil Young & Crazy Horse; the Rolling Stones; Midnight Oil; the Allman Brothers; Led Zeppelin; The Who; Pink Floyd; Stevie Wonder; John Lee Hooker; and the man who started it all, Robert Johnson. Unfortunately, I can’t listen to music and write at the same time, but at this very moment I am listening to Beatles Radio.

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?

We only get three T.V. stations so rely on Netflix for our T.V. fixes. Our favorites: The Wire; Battlestar Gallactica (the new one!); Mad Men; Entourage; the Amazing Race; South Park; the Flight of the Conchords.

Movies I watch over and over: The Shawshank Redemption; This is Spinal Tap; The Godfather; Once Upon a Time in the West; any James Bond movie.

Last movie in a theater: the new Terminator movie (totally forgettable)

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

Take emotional risks (as opposed to stupid physical risks) and follow your own compass. The experience you collect now is the psychological gold that will help you make good decisions about the rest of your life.

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

I have two novels that are almost ready to send off to publishers. One is a fun dog story for middle-grade readers. The other is a futuristic thriller that I am not quite ready to ‘spill’ on. But if I had to guess, I will most likely divide my future writing time between realistic current stories and futuristic novels—while continuing to tackle worthy science and other nonfiction topics that crop up.

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