The other day
I was casting around for suggestions about who we should have to visit on the
YA Crime Report, and while a couple of people sprang to mind, I secretly knew who I really wanted to interview. This is someone whose work I’ve read and
admired, and who I think is genuinely pushing the envelope in writing for
YA. Someone whose books gave me serious
chills and thrills – think Silence of the
Lambs kind – and whose new releases I always keep an eye out for.
I didn’t
think I could actually just cold-call this author and ask them for an
interview. But, as Barry Lyga kindly
pointed out, I totally could. This kind
of generosity completely blows me away, I have to say, because y’know, authors
are busy people.
So I’m rapt
to be introducing this week’s blog visitor.
Barry Lyga has a pretty incredible resume of achievements – he graduated
from Yale with a degree in English, then worked in the comic book industry for
a good long while before throwing it in to write his first YA book The Amazing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth
Girl. Since then he’s published Boy Toy, Hero Type, and the keenly-awaited sequel to Fanboy, Goth Girl Rising, as
well as a middle grade series called Arch-Villain. He’s even ventured back into comic book
territory with Wolverine: Worst Day
Ever and Manga Man, and released an adult novel, Unsoul’d, as an e-book, and somehow
managed to keep putting up heaps of cool stuff on his blog.
So clearly,
he’s already the mash-up-genre-and-audience master. But it’s his books in the Jasper Dent series
that have me really excited. I read I Hunt Killers earlier this year, after
hanging out for it for a while (you know how long it takes us to get some books
here in the Antipodes…well, grr is all I can say to that). I Hunt
Killers is the first episode in the story of Jasper ‘Jazz’ Dent, who
suffers from a serious case of Daddy Issues.
With his haemophiliac best friend, Howie, and kick-arse girlfriend,
Connie, in tow, Jazz embarks on a desperate search for a murderer haunting the
streets of his hometown, Lobo’s Nod.
But in Jazz’s
case, nothing is at it seems. Because how
do you deal with murder if you’re the son of Billy Dent, one of the world’s
worst serial killers?
The whole
thing is an amazing ride, and an extraordinary hook for a story. Jazz seems to be always walking a very fine
line between determined investigation and creepy obsession, and he spends a lot
of time worrying about whether he’s turning into a monster – another version of
his old man. At its most fundamental,
Jazz’s story seems to be about what it means to be human, to try to be a good
person, against pretty staggering odds. The next part of Jazz’s story has just
been revealed, with the recent release of Game,
set in New York.
So I won’t
give any more clues away, just ask you to please put your hands together and
excuse my fan-girlish squee. He’s been
called a ‘YA rebel author’ by Kirkus Review, but I am just going to call him a
cool guy for agreeing to this interview by some random person from a country
far away… I’m stoked to welcome Barry
Lyga to the YA Crime Report!!
(I always
think of Kermit doing these introductions, with the wide open mouth and the
waving green hands…)
Hi Barry, how’s things going over your
neck of the woods?
Busy, busy, and busy! I have a slew of things in the hopper right now,
including — of course — the final book in the I HUNT KILLERS trilogy, and my
collaboration with Peter Facinelli and Rob DeFranco. And my e-published
adults-only novel, UNSOUL’D. And other things that haven’t been announced yet.
Now last time I saw you, you were
being interviewed by a toucan plushie, which has to count as a unique
experience. Could you tell us something
that nobody knows about Barry Lyga thus far?
Yeah, that interview was…different. I’m not sure what there is about me
that people don’t know at this point. I’m pretty boring, really, so there
aren’t any amazing hidden stories about me. I mean, my wife recently wrote
about our wedding on Huffington Post’s Weddings blog — short of being chased by
paparazzi, I feel like I live a fairly public life, certainly more public than
I’d like.
Congrats on your wedding! So do teenagers make good detectives? And how do you give them agency, and make
their involvement believable, in a situation where adults seem to have all the
authority?
99.9999% of teenagers probably make shitty detectives. And Jazz isn’t
really a detective, per se. He’s more a scattershot profiler and budding crime
scene guy. And as the books prove, he’s fairly good at it, but he has a lot to
learn.
As to providing agency and making it believable… Sometimes you have to
take a leap of faith, the way Kafka says, “Oh, by the way, Gregor Samsa is a
cockroach now — just trust me.” But also… Look, if you really read the books,
you’ll see that I actually go to great pains to explain how all of this can be
happening. I mean, in the first book alone, the cops specifically forbid Jazz
from getting involved until the third act, when they’re so desperate that they
— shock! horror! — let him look at some files and visit a crime scene. It’s
hardly on the level of them deputizing him and giving him a sidearm, right?
It’s a move made out of fear and despair, and I think a lot of things are
credible in that context.
Can you tell us a little bit about Game, without giving too much away or
freaking us the heck out? And is it a
complex thing, creating a criminal investigation from scratch and putting the
clues and red herrings and psychology of it all together?
GAME is sort of my way of saying, “Remember how scary and bloody the
first book was? Yeah, that was me playing nice.” You have to ramp things up in
the second book, otherwise people think you’re going soft on them. :) I wanted
to take the characters out of their comfort zones and put them into
ever-worsening situations. GAME forces Jazz into a new position, a new city,
and in new straits. Connie and Howie get more face-time, but they also learn
that just because you caught one serial killer doesn’t make it any easier the
second time…
And as to creating the investigation — God, yes, it’s tough! Deciding
what order to reveal what facts, figuring out how to pace the revelations… It’s
difficult because ideally you don’t want the reader to know anything for sure
until the moment he or she reads it. It’s OK if people suspect something, but
even then… My preference is for the reader to be completely shocked and caught off-guard
at every turn. But that’s a nearly impossible goal, so at the very least you
want them uncertain.
Excuse me for getting deep here, but another
author – I think it might have been Ian McEwan – once said that ‘Sadism, and
the inability to empathize with others, is a failure of the imagination’. Do you think that’s accurate, in relation to
a character like Billy Dent?
You know, I’m not entirely sure. It SOUNDS good, right? If you can’t
imagine what it’s like to be someone else, you won’t have much empathy for them
and that can easily lead to doing horrible things to them. But it seems — to an
armchair philosopher like yours truly — just as reasonable to assume the
opposite, that an inability to empathize kills the imaginative process that
would allow you to at least PRETEND to care.
Some of the info you use in the
series, about mass murderers and their methods, is way creepy – I was both pleased
that you didn’t make Jazz’s story ‘serial killer lite’ and amazed you got it
past your editor! Clearly, gore and
horror are not as shocking to teenagers as some people might think, but was
some of that stuff a hard sell?
Not really. I toned down a couple of things, but honestly, that’s like
saying I mopped up a few drops out of a gallon. It’s a bloody, dark, intense,
disturbing series and the publisher is behind it all the way.
Do you have a favourite crime author?
There are many I admire, but one of my favorites for so long is the
inimitable, late, lamented Ed McBain. Such an amazing writer.
What about when you get brain-strain –
how do you recharge your batteries?
When I figure that out, I’ll you know!
Barry, you’ve been an incredibly
gracious guest! Thanks for coming on the
YA Crime Report, and all the best for your writing!
If you’d like
to catch up with Barry Lyga, which I recommend you do, the best place is at his
website here http://barrylyga.com/ , and I
urge you to check out both Game and I Hunt Killers – info about both books is
available here http://barrylyga.com/novels/
and specifically for Game, here http://barrylyga.com/novels/game/
You can buy
the books where all good books are sold, or hit the links for online sales at
the bottom of the page here http://barrylyga.com/novels/
Okay, I’m
gonna stop squeeing...phew J Now the next thing I promised was the draw for
the giveaway…
So…the Every
Breath giveaway prize pack has been won by…………Catherine W from Goodreads!! Yay – good on you, Catherine! Please get in touch with me
(elliemarney[at]gmail[dot]com) to forward your details so I can send on your
book+poster+t-shirt.
I’m also
really chuffed to mention that Every Breath won the 2013 People’s
Choice award for children’s and YA over at Allen & Unwin – which is a
lovely way of saying that my publisher is excited about the book, and that
makes me pretty happy.
The copyedits
for Every Word, the second book, are
happening over the next few months, so that’s really thrilling, to see the book
finally start to take shape. I’m a big
fan of editing, and I know this book
is going to be gorgeous by the time me and Sophie are finished with it. Wow, the publication is coming up fast… I’m doing the Kermit thing again, at the idea
of showing it to you J
And the first
draft of Every Move is nearly
complete! First draft stage is always
kind of amazing and excruciating, but now I’m on the home strait, and I can see
what the book is going to be like at the end.
That always spurs you on, that feeling of being so close, and getting a
clearer picture of where you’re going to take it all. Just like everybody else, I often have no idea of where the characters are
headed when I first start writing – what, you thought I had a master plan? Heh heh…well actually, um, no – but now
Rachel and Mycroft are really directed.
It always makes the writing easier, when your characters give you some
clues about what they’re up to…
Finally, I’d
like to say thanks to everybody who sent good wishes for my health after the
last post. The sinusitis is long gone
now, thank god, and I’m a whole lot better, but reading peoples’ messages helped
lift me out of the gloom. I sincerely
hope you’re all healthy, and not going too crazy with seasonal madness – it’s a
busy time, so stay sane! – and good luck with all your holiday plans and
Christmas shopping. I recommend books as
presents – books are extremely easy to wrap J
That’s
it. I’ll try to put up one last post
before Christmas, with the traditional list of recs, and then I’m going to sign
off for a couple of weeks while I go camping with my family – ‘the family that
camps together…’ yeah, etcetera!
Take care, all
the best for the season, and see you soon.
Xx Ellie
No comments:
Post a Comment