Today’s Tenner Tuesday segment is with my good friend Shaun Hutchinson, author of THE DEATHDAY LETTER (Simon Pulse). THE DEATHDAY LETTER is out TODAY! That’s right. As soon as you’re done reading this, you’ll be able to go out and buy a copy! Actually, stop reading, go buy your copy, and then come back and finish reading Shaun’s awesome answers. To find out more about Shaun, visit his website www.shaundavidhutchinson.com. To learn even more about THE DEATHDAY LETTER, visit www.deathdayletter.com.
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1. THE DEATHDAY LETTER is out today, which is very exciting! What are you thinking?
Right now I’m pretty much hoping my head doesn’t explode. It’s all out of my hands at this point. The Deathday Letter was a pretty personal book for me. I love Ollie and Shane and Veronica, and I hope that everyone else loves them too.
2. What is your writing process? Did you always write this way or was it a trial and error thing?
Mostly I’m a pantser. I get bored with ideas really quickly, so once I get that initial idea, I need to get a first draft out as quickly as I can. I usually go from idea to finished first draft in about 4-8 weeks. After that, it’s all about the revisions.
3. Who is your favorite DDL character and why?
You know, Ollie’s my hero for so many reasons, but I just love Shane Grimsley to pieces. There’s never a dull moment around him. He’s totally brainy and he never backs down from a challenge. Plus, he’s pretty hilarious.
4. If you could host any game show, which would it be?
I’d want to host one of those crazy Japanese game shows where they make the contestants do all kinds of whacko stuff.
5. Have you thought about casting for DDL? Or even if it was a book on CD, who would you love to read the parts? Dream casting?
Okay. That’s pretty easy. I’d go with Aaron Johnson for Ollie (but he has to have the same hair he had in the movie Kick-Ass). I’d go with Malcolm David Kelley for Shane (Walt from Lost…so long as he tells us where the Polar bears came from). And I’d go with Ellen Paige for Ronnie. She’s got just the right mix of sexy and goofy.
6. What has been the most difficult and the most rewarding aspect of the publication process?
The most difficult part has been losing all my stress weight! Seriously, I think it’s the waiting. Publishing is slow, so sometimes it can seem like nothing is happening. That’s hard to cope with. The most rewarding has definitely been all the friends I’ve made. Meeting amazing people like you has made this whole thing that much more incredible.
7. Has finishing and revising DDL changed the way you approach your current WIPs?
I tried to change my approach. I tried to become someone who outlined and did synopses, but it didn’t work out for me. I’m a dive in kind of guy. I have a tendency to over-think things, which can be a total momentum killer for me.
8. How did you overcome the second book blues/anxiety?
With a baseball bat. That’s a tough question. I mean, I wrote a second book before Deathday even sold, but it wasn’t right for YA. I struggled for a long time after that. I’d say that NaNoWriMo was a big turning point for me. I wrote a middle grade book in 18 days. The book is still a wreck but it helped show me that if I just kept my head down and worked, that I could do it.
9. What would you do on your Death Day?
I would eat. I would eat until I puked, then I’d eat some more. Then I’d gather up all my friends and go party in New York. I’d get up on a stage and sing badly, I’d kiss as many people as I could, I’d make sure to give everything I owned to people in need, and I’d drive a race car really fast. There aren’t too many things in my life that I haven’t done that I regretted. The things is that we’re all dying. Maybe we’ve got more time than Ollie did, but every second spent watching TV or sitting in traffic or slaving away at jobs we hate is one second we’ve wasted. Carpe Mortediem! Seize the Deathday!
10. What’s next for you?
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to say, but the project I’m most excited about right now is kind of a romance. Except, you know, bloodier and with a really cool mystery at the center.