Select a link below to jump to an interview:

• Suite101 interview by Mechele Dillard, January 2007
• Spokesman-Review newspaper interview by Kelly Milner
• Indigo Bookstores JAB Team (Junior Advisory Board) interview by Simon Parlow

January, 2007

Mechele Dillard, Editor/writer for Suite101, asked Michael these questions for an online interview:

Q: Many writers are inspired by their own lives when writing fiction, especially at the beginning of a career.  Skate is your first novel; do you see yourself in these characters and/or situations?

A: One of the reasons I write Young Adult novels is that my teen years were a struggle, and with struggle comes emotional extremes. I often tap into those feelings, many of which are still raw in my memory. I slice and dice them to fit my characters and the situations they find themselves in, of course, but the emotion is there when I write. So, yes, I do inject parts of myself in my characters, but most times they capture only fragments of me.

Q: Skate depicts the grittier aspects of life.  Do you feel it is appropriate for a young adult author to bring such realistic “reality” to readers?  Is it not the duty of the parents to teach their children about abandonment, alcoholism, drug addiction, etc.?

A: My writing, particularly SKATE, fills part of a niche in the YA category of literature, especially for teen boys, who are fast becoming left behind in the world of literature. That, to me is appropriate. And if what I write can be used as a tool for parents, I’m all for it, but to be blunt, I don’t consider anything I write as a replacement of parental duty. I simply want teenagers to read.

Q: You write novels for adults as well as teens.  Do you find it difficult to switch gears between these literary genres?  What differences do you perceive between the two?  Likenesses? 

A: This is a great question, and relates directly to the previous question. As a teen, I read adult novels because there were so few YA titles geared towards my interests and thoughts. Most older teens live in an adult world; working, driving, watching adult oriented media, taking care of younger siblings, being exposed to the vice of our society, etc…YA literature, which is bound by some pretty tight parameters of acceptability when compared to other media formats such as television, movies and video games, is making some big gains in capturing the interests of teens. My publisher, Knopf, has really come through in a fantastic way by offering contemporary, competitive material that challenges other media. Basically, I’m hoping to get the game controller out of a teenager’s hand and put a book in it. The subject matter, emotions and issues in SKATE teeter on the line of adult material, just like most teens do. That being said, the gears I have to switch are directed more at language than actual story, but it’s a blurry line. In a nutshell, a story is a story, and I see SKATE as universal to life, not just teens.

Q: As writers, we all must “pay our dues.”  Were you writing full-time before the publication of Skate?  Did you freelance?  What type of writing led to the writing, completion, and publication of Skate?

A: Between writing thirty or so hours a week and working over forty hours a week, I spent the first four years of this journey, before publication, living on coffee and the stories whirling around in my head. They kept me going. I never did freelance write, because every moment I could find to write, I devoted to my stories. The inclusion of YA writing into my life came from the realization that my teen years were full of stories. Skate is actually the third of seven or so YA novels I’ve written, three of which I’ve sold and the rest which my agent is selling now.

Q: Getting the attention of a publishing house can be difficult without an agent.  In fact, many publishers will not even accept submissions directly from an author, making the acquisition of an agent absolutely necessary.  What suggestions would you give to a new novelist searching for her first agent?

A: Get your name out there. Meet people. Correspond. Research agents. Don’t be afraid to put yourself on the line, and don’t take rejection too hard. I know it’s difficult to do, but you’re talking to a guy who dropped out of high school. If there’s anybody who shouldn’t have made it, it’s me, so grit your teeth, put your armor on, and do it. And as you query agents about your work, polish your queries incessantly and learn from your rejections, because you have about fifteen seconds to catch the attention of somebody who may be able to change your life forever.

Q: You recently started promoting Skate.  Do you enjoy this part of the publishing process?  When you began writing, did you anticipate the work involved after your book was accepted for publication?

A: I do enjoy it. Speaking events, signing books, readings, interviews, it’s all new and different for me, but I’m getting the hang of it quickly. I didn’t, however, realize just how much time would be consumed with it, but I’m happy, because simply put, it means people are reading the book.

Q: Would you like to give our readers a glance into the future, Mr. Harmon?  What upcoming projects should we be expecting from author Michael Harmon?

A: I’d like to see my future as living in a hut on a tropical beach with two plug-ins. One for my laptop and the other for a lamp. Add a cot, a pair of shorts, some flip-flops, a fishing pole, and I’m all good. My wife enjoys the amenities of civilization, though, so I doubt that’s in the cards for me.

I’ve sold two more YA novels to Knopf, and they’ll be out consecutively over the next couple of years. I’m stoked about both. The next, which is in the editing process, features Bennie, from SKATE, as the main character. Ripe stuff. The third is aptly titled BRUTAL, and this is the first book I’ve written first person from the perspective of a teen girl. She takes on institutional cliques. Poe is her name, and you’d better watch out, because she’s one tough punker girl transplanted from the heart of Los Angeles to a small and rich northern California wine country town. You can check out excerpts and a synopsis of each on my website: www.booksbyharmon.com. It’s still in the building process, but up and running, so come visit!

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Interview by Kelly Milner, freelance writer, author and correspondent. (This interview precluded an article by Kelly in the Spokesman-Review newspaper)

1. When did you first have a sense that you might like to write fiction?

I began writing my first book, ironically, when I was failing high school, before I dropped out. Then I married, had children, and began seriously writing fiction years later, when I turned thirty.

2. What roadblocks did you discover as you considered that possibility?

Not really any. I simply wrote because I loved it. Still do. I’ve written entire novels that I know will never be published, and I don’t really care. I just love telling stories.

3. Were you a reader growing up?  If so, who did you like to read?

Curious George rocks. I read The Hobbit when I was ten years old, and that really cinched the reading knot. In high school, I read over four hundred novels. I’d skip class to finish a good book.

4. If not, why not?  What was it about literature that left you uninspired?  

The only thing about literature that left me uninspired was English class. For some reason, the countless hours I spent writing and reading as a teen never connected to any teacher I had. Teachers, justifiably, need control parameters for reading and writing subject matter, and I’ve never been very good at parameters. I remember so often staying up until three or four in the morning devouring the latest Dragonlance novel while Romeo And Juliet played out a lonely existence in the bottom of my locker, and also remember writing reams of poetry and short stories in my math notebook. I still think it an odd paradox, and one for English teachers to perhaps think about, that my absolute love of reading and writing, as a teen, was in no way relatable to the one class in school that could have saved me years.

5.  How long did you wait, between that first inkling and your first serious attempt at writing a complete manuscript?

Contemplation isn’t a strong point with me. As a thirty year old, I wrote a short story that turned into a long short story, and almost five hundred pages later, THE END appeared on the page. Unpublished, never will be, but one of my favorites. That’s the cool thing about fiction. When the story starts telling itself, you don’t contemplate much. You just try and get it out as fast as it comes.

6.  Why did you wait, if you waited?

7.  What was the catalyst that finally moved your writing into focus?

I’d have to give credit to Chris Crutcher. I loved writing, but I didn’t know if I was good at it from the standpoint of the craft. He was the first person who actually said I was, and as I put in the acknowledgments of SKATE, he really believed it. He’s not the kind of guy that shines you on.

8.  How did you meet Crutcher and what part did he play in your transition?

Sometimes the universe conspires to randomly throw people together. That’s happened twice in my life, my wife being the first, Chris being the second. The first certainly the more shapely of the two.

9.  Was SKATE the book you wrote with CC's feedback?

I’ve written thirteen books in the last five or so years, and he’s sporadically given feedback on most of them.

10.  What was most helpful about having such a well established mentor?

Chris once told me that he wasn’t teaching me anything I didn’t already have in me. He was simply showing me how to understand it. His belief in my craft was by far the most inspiring aspect of our relationship, and one that I can only hope to pass to other writers. Now, we’re friends, but he’ll still set me straight when I need it.

11. As you wrote, were you conscious of your reading perspective as a teen? In other words, on some level, were you writing for the kid you once were?

For better or worse, pain or joy, my writing bleeds from my heart. And part of my heart still has that teen rage and fear and rebellion in it. I cut that vein open when I need it, feed on it, and it comes out pretty raw. It’s who I am, it’s not unjustified, and every kid sitting in the back row being ignored as a human being with potential has felt it. So yes, I’m very aware of the perspective, because a part of me is still that teenager that didn’t know how to cope with it in a positive way.

12. Who is your editor at Knopf?

Joan Slattery. Great lady. She fed me in New York. Italian.

13.  What was her reaction to your first submission? 

She bought it. I’d like to think she did a few somersaults in her office, but I sort of doubt it.

14.  How long was the revision process, once the manuscript was accepted?

The revision process took seven or eight months, but the actual work hours put into it, for me, was around sixty. Not much, really.

15.  What did you find most challenging about that process?

Joan is a fantastic editor, and she respects my ideas as much as I respect hers. We’ve had an occasional debate over content, but she makes the process enjoyable. I would have to say the biggest challenge for me is patience. The publishing industry is a slow one, and I’m not a slow writer. It’s like an ant riding a snail, smacking the reins and kicking the shell. The snail knows the way, but the ant just wants to get there. 

16.  Now that the book is out -- just barely -- what do you hope readers take away from the story? 

Wow. Huge question. For the teens who read it, I would hope it conveys a message that, no bones about it, we are each responsible for, and in control of, our actions, and that we all screw up sometimes. I did. I sacrificed my high school years for the sake of spiting an institution that offered little respect or tolerance for me. Likewise, I offered my disdain right back. Justifiable emotions? Sure. Rebellion and the questioning of authority is a beautiful thing. It only becomes ugly when respect and integrity are absent, and most teens don’t have the life experience to convey their feelings in a positive manner. I’ve spent twenty years thinking about it, and it’s an overriding factor in my writing. In the end, though, I screwed myself over in high school for many reasons, but excuses don’t even make good toilet paper.

For adults, librarians and teachers, my biggest wish is that they understand what tremendous power they have to shape a teen’s life, and that for some of those teens, simply helping them find a passion for something can mean the difference in a life. Teens, especially troubled ones, are incredibly adept at hiding potential when faced with what they consider adversaries, so I suppose the trick is to take that equation out of the picture in order to find where that potential is.

17.  I understand you have a three book deal.  What's next? 

Juicy stuff. The next book out features Ben, from SKATE. I loved the kid, so I wrote a book about him. Actually, I wrote two, but they picked this one up first. Ben, now seventeen, screws up again, and his father and boyfriend, Edward, move the family to a podunk town in Eastern Montana, where Edward grew up. They move in to Edward’s childhood house, with his mother still living there, and the sparks fly. The dynamics between a skater punk, his gay dad, a wooden spoon wielding, cigarette stealing old lady, and a town steeped in traditional values makes for interesting things. It was a blast to write.

The third book is called BRUTAL, and it is.  It’s the first book out that I’ve written first person from a girl’s eyes. Poe Holly is her name, and she’s not a person to mess with. She’s street smart LA, punk all the way, and has a rebellious chip on her shoulder a mile wide. But she’s an extraordinary singer, and smart. She moves in with her gone-since-birth father, who lives in a northern California tourist town, and the fun begins. The story is raw, and it hits institutionally condoned student-on-student harassment, bullying, and the effects of it squarely on the jaw. Some good twists, too. I was addicted to writing it.

18.  Chris says you are very prolific.  How do you find the time to write and work?  Are you somewhat driven to tell stories?

I write around three books a year, and to say I’m driven to tell stories is a bit of a joke around my house. I’m obsessive when a story comes to me, which equals my wife having to live with a guy habitating two worlds; the one I’m writing in and the one I’m living in.
Writing and working at the same time is good for me because if I didn’t take my laptop out the front door, I’d end up wearing a bathrobe all day and drinking bourbon for breakfast. I’d go insane. I wrote my first nine books working full time while squeezing in thirty or so hours a week writing, but things have loosened up with my work schedule since the contracts for the three books were signed. I try to get in forty or so hours of writing in a week, but having two teens and tons of stuff going on with SKATE coming out, I’m pinched for time once again. No complaints, though. I do what I love.

19 Do you plan to speak to students and educators about your work the way Crutcher does? 

I’d like to. The future holds that key, though.

20.  What will the heart of your message be, if you do decide to do school visits and conferences?

Aside from talking about writing, it would be subject matter. I was that kid teachers either dismissed without a thought or cringed while thinking about. The kid nobody has an idea of what to do with, and the subject of a current national crises. And with that in mind, I would beg any teacher or administrator out there to do one thing: Take that kid in the back row aside, look him in the eyes, and tell him you believe in him. Then prove it. Help them find their passion and stoke that fire of belief, because for a lot of teens, finding the dream is the first, and hardest, part of attaining it.

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Simon Parlow, member of the Indigo Bookstores JAB Team (Junior Advisory Board) chose SKATE as a favorite pick to be highlighted on the Indigo website.

Q: Given that you are a successful author, how do you feel you can relate to Ian or Sammy?

A: I like this question, because I don’t really fit into the traditional successful writer wearing the turtleneck under the tweed coat with patches on the elbows image. I’m more Converse All-Stars, Levi’s and a baseball hat kind of guy, and most people don’t figure I’m a writer when they meet me.

How do I relate to Ian or Sammy? The personal feelings I have towards SKATE shoot straight through Ian. The anger, rebellion, hopelessness and alienation he feels towards his school come directly from the feelings I had in high school. I eventually dropped out.

My high school principal actually did sit me down in his office and tell me that I was not suited for his school. My reaction wasn’t necessarily institutionally correct. Let’s just say I wasn’t his favorite student after that episode.  In addition, most athletes at my school were seen as ‘more than’ the rest of the students. They were treated differently than others, and it created a divisiveness in the school that turned ugly sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, though. I don’t really blame the athletes. Rejecting god-like status isn’t natural, and I can’t say I would have turned my nose up at preferred membership. It’s simply a big part of many high schools, and a priority those schools prefer to concentrate on. In fact, a large part of Ian’s anger comes from staring it in the face while at the same time being told it doesn’t exist. Pretty typical stuff, and stuff that I experienced in school.  So yes, I can relate to Ian in a very personal way, though the struggles in his life are much more serious than mine were.

Sammy, on the other hand, is the creation of my own feelings towards my brothers, Robert and Jason. My father pounded into us that duty, love and compassion for family is most important. Certainly messy at times, but always a priority and never to be taken for granted. When Sammy came into my head, he melted me.

Q: What author or piece of writing gave you the inspiration to write such a provocative novel?

A: For better or worse, Simon, I do not take inspiration for anything I write from other authors or outside sources. I write straight from my bones, and what comes out, for me, is the truth. And in real life, the truth can be as wonderful as it can suck. Ian is a part of me, just as any character I create, whether they be rebellious, submissive, confused or humorous. When I write, I write from the standpoint of the character, and once solid in my mind, that character begins to tell me his story. In a nutshell, my characters create the inspiration needed to knock out a good story, and once they’ve done that, I’m at their mercy, not the other way around.

Q: It is a tragedy that so many kids are without responsible parents or a good home in this world. It is also a tragedy that many of these kids are stereotyped as “irresponsible punks”, or “low-life dropouts”, especially in North America. Did you write this novel from the point of view of these kids to give them a voice of their own?

A: Wow. This is a loaded question, and I like loaded questions. Honestly, I try not to assume I speak for anybody besides my characters, but my goal is to make their voices relatable to the reader. If readers feel represented by Ian in any way, big or small, I’m smiling.

You’ve also brought up two important issues that Ian deals with in the book. I’ll tackle the stereotype issue first, because I don’t hold much with stereotypes and the additional power we choose to give them. I was one of those ‘irresponsible punks’, certainly a teen dropout, and to my detriment, I did carry around the negative baggage of those stereotypes. In SKATE, Ian came from me in that respect, and he struggles with it. Stereotypes may be inaccurate, exaggerated or hurtful, but the truth of the matter is that they are there, and most of us are not willing, or able, as in Ian’s case, to devote our lives to nailing them to the wall and changing them.

The tragedy, for me, is not when I’m confronted with stereotypes. The true tragedy is when I see a teenager give in to them. Ian is not tragic, nor does he lead a tragic life or see himself as a victim. He’s strong, proud, responsible, compassionate, determined, fearful, justifiably angry, and confused. He gets the metaphorical crap kicked out of him, but he keeps going, but you know what? A lot of people do. And a whole lot of people come through their challenges stronger for it.

Parental neglect. It’s out there, and comes in a zillion different forms. I’ll keep it to Ian. He speaks for himself, but his voice echoes through most cultural niches. In my opinion, parental neglect combined with an educational system that is steeped in elitism, both through budgeting and unspoken policy, is what leaves teenagers feeling alone, neglected, targeted, and then rebellious. And the numbers are growing. The number of students falling into this category is a wake-up call to both schools and parents, and simply throwing more rules at teens or pretending there is no reason for these feelings only widens the gap, because for the most part, it’s not the kids. Parents and schools have created the living conditions teens are thrown into, and simply telling kids to conform to systems that don’t support them doesn’t cut the mustard.

Ian feels the affects of this, and he screams at both. His mother does not supply him with the support needed to achieve, and his high school is indifferent and intolerant of a smart young man who walks the halls with his eyes wide open, seeing and living with the elitism infecting the school.

Q: What is your all-time favorite novel, and why?

A: The first novel I read was The Hobbit. I was ten. As I systematically failed high school, I read around four hundred novels, many while I was skipping class and not turning in book reports on novels I had no interest in. I read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five as an adult and fell in love with his voice. Incredible. He is truly an individual, and the craft of his writing, regardless of content, is masterful.

Q: A novel of this genre needs to be written with honesty, and realism. Like you did phenomenally in Skate. Do you feel you are going to stick with this real-life type genre for future novels?

A: Absolutely. I have two more YA novels coming out, and I’ve written five more. I’ve also written several adult contemporary novels that I’m just beginning to pursue. Alas, the grind of publication is, well, grinding. The next YA title will be out in the fall of 2007. As of now, I write more quickly than can be published, and it’s a bummer. I’m having a website made soon, and I’ll be putting a ton of stuff on it. For now, my daughter and nephew are maintaining a MySpace site about my writing, and also what’s coming up next on the menu. It’s geared towards teens, too, so it’s not boring and stupid. I’d love comments about SKATE, so shoot them my way.

As far as realism and honesty goes, I’ll be knocking on that door for a long time, because I dig it. When it bites deep, I know I’m being honest with myself. Another reason I plan on writing realistic novels is this: Sometimes the only break you can catch is the one you make for yourself. When I dropped out of high school, I didn’t have the benefit of a teacher or administrator believing in me. I left to the relief of those charged with my education, and my middle finger was raised in a salute to them as I did so. Our dysfunctional love affair was a mutual break up, but it took me years to believe in what they didn’t. Sounds cheesy, I know, but it’s real. Based on the idiotic stereotype of my life, I’m not supposed to be a writer, but I am, and not a teacher in the joint recognized it. Basically, my writing is a product of a dysfunctional education and an example of how to make it positive, because if there’s a kid or two out there that can avoid a costly mistake or two by reading what I write, I’m cool with it.

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