I had the good fortune to interview A.S. King, author of 90% of the books I recommend on this blog, about her latest novel: Reality Boy. When Gerald Faust was five years old his parents invited a reality TV nanny into their home and turned his life into a TV episode that portrayed him as violently out of control--a reputation that overshadows him even at seventeen. Reality Boy is the story of Gerald coping with his family, the judgement of strangers, and his anger.
HTBH: How did you prepare to write Reality Boy? A.S: I don't really prepare first. I prepare second. What happens is: the character comes to me and talks to me and I write down what he or she says. Then, I stop and read and think for a while. (Usually because they talk to me while I'm on deadline for another book, so they just have to wait in line.) You'd think I watched reality TV in preparation for this book, but I didn't. I don't watch TV and haven't for about 15 years. (Though I did watch a little when I moved back to America to re-acclimate. I didn't watch much, though.) I did read about reality TV and also, child stars. While Gerald is not a child star (he's just a regular kid who was forced as a young child into infamy by his parents' decision to have their family on a TV show) I found the perspectives of former child stars really enlightening. I also read about anger management and a lot of articles on sociopathic and psychopathic behavior in children. Then, I just wrote.
HTBH: Your novels usually contain magical realism. What role does magic play in Reality Boy? A.S: Gerald Faust disappears into a place called Gersday (rhymes with Pears-day) where his life is happy and normal. He's done this since he was about five, when the TV show came to his house, and he still does it in present day, when he is sixteen. In this magical world are: no mean older sister, random things that were confiscated from him as a child, symbols of promised things he never got (Snow White, for example, is a reneged promise of a trip to Disney World.) And yeah. Snow White might talk to him a little. She's very nice, really.
HTBH: Do you approach writing parents differently than writing teen characters? A.S: I don't really think there is a difference between parents and teen characters. Emotions and struggles are all the same for all of us. I think one of the biggest problems with the relationships between adults and teens is that adults blow off teen problems and emotions. But really, they don't change. I mean it. I'm 43 and when I'm sad, it's no different to the sadness I felt at 16. Sure, I now have a little more to worry about re: job, money, raising my kids, paying taxes, but I had plenty to worry about in high school, too. So do I write them differently? Not at all. That said, I do tend to write parents who are struggling. That's because most of the parents I know are struggling. And because I want teen readers to not only realize this (vs. the myth that adulthood = awesome life) but to let them know that I know that when their parents struggle, they do, too.
HTBH: How do you feel about reality TV? A.S: I feel I can't have a real opinion about something I don't watch. That said, as the spouse of someone who has worked on reality TV sets, I can say this: What you see isn't the truth of things. It's TV. Very little on TV is real anymore. I mean very very little.
HTBH: Most of your protagonists have after school jobs. What was your first job?
A.S: My first real job was at Iggy's Diner. I was a bus girl. I worked the Saturday afternoon/evening shift and the Sunday morning church crowd shift for minimum (under 15) wage. I was 14. I think I made 20 bucks a week or less. We had to wear these polyester wrap-around apron skirt things and even though I was a string bean, the wrap around part never wrapped around enough to bend down and pick stuff up off the floor without the skirt opening in the back. So it was...awkward.
Reality Boy debuts on October 22nd, but if you can't wait you can read the first 14 chapters right now.
A.S. King is the award-winning author of young adult books including highly acclaimed Reality Boy, the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Ask the Passengers, Everybody Sees the Ants, 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Please Ignore Vera Dietz and the upcoming Glory O'Brien's History of the Future. King’s short fiction for adults has been widely published and nominated for Best New American Voices. After fifteen years living self-sufficiently and teaching literacy to adults in Ireland, she now lives in Pennsylvania. Find more at www.as-king.com.