Explore what can happen when a typical, self-absorbed teenage boy is influenced by radical, environmentally-concerned senior citizens in her fifth novel. The possibilities for humor are endless in Gail Gauthier's
Saving the Planet & Stuff
Michael Racine is spending a miserable summer alone at home when he stumbles upon a temporary job and housing with his grandparents’ friends, Walt Marcello and Nora Blake. Walt and Nora made names for themselves in the environmental movement with their magazine, "The Earth’s Wife," and Michael believes he’s headed for an internship with them that could rival the summer activities of his far more industrious and accomplished friends. Lack of air conditioning and biking to work get old very fast for him, though, and he has trouble taking seriously Nora’s concerns about the environmental impact of golf courses and Walt’s interest in composting toilets. He gets to leave his hosts’ solar home each weekday only to be faced with turmoil and revolt among "The Earth’s Wife"’s staff. How can Michael¬-or Walt and Nora-¬decide on the right course of action?
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Gail Gauthier is the author of eight children's books, including The Hero of Ticonderoga, an ALA Notable Book, and the two volumes of the Hannah and Brandon Stories series, A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat, and A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers, which were both selected as Junior Library Guild offerings. Her books have been nominated for readers' choice awards in six states, and published in foreign editions in Italy, Germany, France, and Japan. She maintains the weblog Original Content, where she writes about children's literature, writing, self-publishing.
Welcome Gail! Can you tell us your main inspiration behind this novel?
I had a teenage son who enjoyed reading YA humor. However, he found at that time that most humorous books for teenagers involved female main characters. So I wanted to write a funny teen boy book. That son also had a part in inspiring the basic situation that Michael, Saving the Planet & Stuff’s main character, finds himself in--a young person thrown together with much older people he barely knows. Some elderly friends of my son’s grandparents suggested he come with them to their cottage in Maine to help them set up a computer. It wasn’t a serious offer, in large part because Will was only 11 or 12 at the time. But I kept thinking how awkward it would be for a young person to have to be far from home, stuck with people who he doesn’t know and who are much different from himself simply because they are two generations older.
Was self-publishing your first choice? What was the most nerve wracking part of the process?
Saving the Planet & Stuff was originally published in 2003 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. At that time, there really wasn’t a lot of talk about self-publishing. Writers didn’t think of it as an option. Now it’s not unusual for traditionally published authors to self-publish their older out-of-print books, especially digitally so we don’t have to deal with distribution to bookstores, storing copies, etc., as I did with Saving the Planet. This is an option writers didn’t have in the past.
The most nerve wracking part of self-publishing was the technical work involved with converting the text to HTML. And I had a publishing partner doing that part of the job for me. We did the conversion ourselves, in part because we didn’t realize we could hire companies to do it for us. However, Saving the Planet & Stuff was particularly difficult to convert because there are a lot of font changes. Having someone else do it for us might have been expensive. When I read about other writers’ trying to convert copy to HTML, they either say it’s easy or a mystery.
As a self-published author, did you choose to edit your novel yourself? What was the biggest change you made to the story and/or characters?
Because Saving the Planet & Stuff had originally been published by a traditional publisher, it had already been both developmentally and copy edited. With this new edition, I didn’t do any developmental (content) editing. The original edition had been reviewed in several professional journals, and I wanted to be able to use those reviews in my marketing. I was concerned that changing the content would make the book a different book, in which case it would be inaccurate to use those reviews.
I did copy edit Saving the Planet several times. We had the original copy scanned to create a digital text for formatting. The conversion process created enormous numbers of copy errors. I edited that so my technical partner would know what to fix. He would go through the book correcting and creating formatting, then I’d copy edit again. We went through that process three or four times.
Do you have any unusual writing habits that aide your process and/or character development?
I have found that any kind of research or reading on a topic related to what I’m writing about is very helpful in terms of character, setting, and even plot. With Saving the Planet & Stuff, I read a couple of books on the business side of operating a magazine because Walt and Nora, the environmentalists Michael works for, run a magazine. I also had to do research on 1970’s era solar homes, which is what Walt and Nora live in. Fortunately, at the time I was doing my research, the only books on the subject the two little local libraries I use had were from the 1970s.
Is there one passage or scene from your novel that you are most fond of?
I like the restaurant scene. Michael believes he’s caught Walt cheating on his wife, Nora, an incredibly noble, dedicated, and strong soul. Walt is a tougher personality, very combative. This scene is funny because of the misunderstanding, but it also provides Walt’s back story, showing him as a sort of environmental knight in shining armor, a romantic figure, of sorts. It also gives Michael an opportunity to stand up to him successfully. This excerpt is going to end abruptly to avoid giving away too much about the misunderstanding.
“…The tall, broad-shouldered figure that had caught his attention had his back toward the street, but there was no mistaking the gray ponytail dangling down his back. A stocky woman in tight black shorts and stockings was facing him. She laughed and gave one of his arms a playful punch. It was a familiar, chummy gesture that Michael didn’t like the looks of at all. He pulled the restaurant door open just enough so he could squeak through. He quietly walked across the thin, shabby rug toward Walt, who was slipping into a booth. Michael was standing next to the table for a few seconds before Walt realized he was there. Michael hadn’t meant to sneak up on him. He hadn’t meant to do anything. He was too dazed to mean to do anything. This can’t be happening, he told himself. I’ve never known people who cheated on their wives or husbands. Though there was a story about a woman at church…and a guy at Mom’s office whose wife caught him…and that guy at the post office…and the President of the United States…But, still, Walt? Walt, who lives a special, better life with Nora? I can’t believe this is happening, he repeated. Walt jumped when he finally saw Michael looking down at him. “Damn it! I should have seen this coming,” was all he said. Michael said nothing. “How did you find me?” Walt asked. His jaw was tight, his voice harsh. Michael couldn’t speak. “We don’t know a soul who has even stepped foot in this place. It only takes you a week to find it.: Michael silently looked to his left and then his right. Walt was probably right. It was not the grilled-unpopular-vegetables-and-polenta (whatever that was)-over-a-wood-fire-type place he would have figured them for. From the smell of things, he’d guess that most of this establishment’s offerings were deep-fried in animal fat. And there seemed to be a dress code. He and Walt were the only two men there without feed-store caps. Michael took a long, shaky breath. “Nora—“ “Would be very upset with me if she knew about this,” Walt broke in. It sounded like a warning. “‘Upset’?” Michael repeated. “‘Upset’? I think she’d be more than ‘upset.’” Walt considered. “Nah. She knows how I am.” Michael’s mouth dropped. “I’m sure she does know how you are,” he said. He was finally getting angry. “But she puts up with you anyway, even though she’s good, and good to everybody, and does…you know…good stuff. I don’t see how the fact that she knows you aren’t good will make her feel any better when she finds out about this.” “Oh, okay. I’m being a hypocrite. But it only happens every couple of months. I’m able to manage the rest of the time. And what about you? What are you doing pointing a finger at me when you eat the way you do? You don’t think you’re being a hypocrite, too?” The phrase “when you eat the way you do” was quickly processed by Michael’s mind. Now he was really shocked.”
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Very interesting comments on the conversion process from 'hard copy' book to e-book.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book, Gail! Best of luck to you.
ReplyDelete