Interview with Ed Decter

www.eddecter.com

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 never wanted to do anything else but be in the movie and television business. When I was in high school I was pretty good at biology and my dad had some hope I would become a doctor – but it didn’t happen. I started writing seriously in junior high for the newspaper and literary magazine. I never thought I could actually make a living doing it; I just wrote because I loved to tell stories.

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

I live in the middle of Los Angeles so my daughter can’t just hop on her bike and go wherever she wants. In fact, she can’t even go around the block by herself! She once asked me if my parents had been just as strict and I laughed and told her stories about my adventures growing up. My parents had no idea where I was or what I was doing. My daughter suggested I write some stories based on my “adventures.” Then my imagination took over and I created “The Outriders.” Since I had written a bunch of movies and TV shows, a publisher (Simon and Schuster) decided to take a chance on my book series.

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?

The latest book in the young adult Chloe Gamble series just came out this August and it is titled Hot Mess. I wrote it with my good friend Laura Burns, who is a fantastic author on her own and you should read her books. If you are the type of person who checks out the tabloids or MTV about the latest fall from grace of the newest teen superstars, then you’ll love this series.

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

Growing up I used to read the short stories of Jean Shepherd. Jean Shepherd was a radio personality who was popular in the fifties and sixties. Not many people have read his brilliant short stories. They were used as the basis for the holiday movie classic “A Christmas Story.” Jean Shepherd was the narrator of that movie. If I were teaching a short story class I would start with his collection of stories, “Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories.” The stories are funny, touching and the emotions are real even though the details are hilariously exaggerated. My dream is that Oprah will “rediscover” Mr. Shepherd”s books for her book club. Everyone should read them.

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

My daughter is now thirteen and she’s an awesome writer, ballet dancer and violinist. Recently she joined the volleyball team at her school. My wife is a fantastic writer who has gone back to graduate school to get her MFA in writing. Somehow, I became the third best writer in my family of three! We now have two dogs, a giant Leonberger which is a German dog that looks like a St. Bernard and a not-giant mutt that looks like a beagle crossed with a Jack Russell Terrier smashed together.

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

This is the easiest question in the world. Pizza. I am from New Jersey where pizza is not a food but a religion.

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

Say hello to my daughter because she is the one waking me up.

Take my dogs out for a walk.

Read every section of the newspaper.

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

You would wonder why someone with so many extra golf clubs is not very good at the sport.

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 purple because that is the color the sky turns just as the sun is setting over the ocean. That few moments is my favorite time of day.

Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?

My wife says that I drive like Mr. Magoo, so he’s my favorite.

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’m a huge baseball fan so I would have liked to beam myself back to the Polo Grounds in Brooklyn to see my favorite baseball player, Willie Mays, in his prime.

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

I love music (my iPod is always with me) but I can’t listen to it while I write! I listen to a whole variety of music. I’m from New Jersey so I’m partial to the New Jersey song catalogue: Whitney Huston, Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Dionne Warwick (just to name a few). All of those artists grew up a few minutes from where I grew up!

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?

Movies and T.V. are my business, so I have the excuse to watch a lot of both. My current favorite T.V. show is The Wire, which is a really dark show about the streets of Baltimore. I also love Entourage on HBO. There are two movies I watch over and over again. One is the Frank Capra classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and the other is a very silly Chevy Chase movie called “Christmas Vacation.” I guess I like Christmas. The last movie I saw in the theaters was Shrek the Third. It was hilarious.

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

Find authors you love and keep reading. Don’t let anyone make it a chore. It should be a joy.

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

Since I wrote the Outriders book series, I have a new Simon and Schuster book series in the stores – the Chloe Gamble novels (The One, V.I.P. Lounge and Hot Mess). I wrote these books with my good friend Laura Burns. They tell the story of a young beauty pageant winner from Spurlock, Texas who drags her twin brother and boozing mother to Los Angeles. She eventually becomes a star – but at great personal cost. It is about the rise and fall of someone with great talent who was not blessed with the best foundation in terms of family. These are young adult novels, so I would say you’d have to be thirteen or older to read them.

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