Author Interview: Josh Berk

So, I promised you an interview with Josh Berk, author of The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin (referred to as DDoHH from here on out - a review will be coming soon!) for the Nerds Heart YA tournament and here it is. I really enjoyed doing this and I hope you will enjoy it as well. Now, without further ado, I will stop the babbling and let you read the interview!

Bookaholic: You seem to have always been surrounded by books in some way and enjoyed reading. If one of your kids was a reluctant reader, which book(s) would you give them to maybe change this?

Josh Berk: Indeed, I was raised by two librarians and was certainly surrounded by books my whole life! But I was in fact a reluctant reader for a period time. What brought me through my "I don't wanna read phase" was probably simply that my mom never gave up. She wasn't pushy about it, she just made sure there were always plenty of books around. "If you don't like this one, try this one. No good? Try this one. Then this one. Then this one..."

She knew that eventually something would click with me and once it did there was no turning back. So it's hard for me to say that any one book would work for my kids (or any kids) -- the key is to give them a huge variety and let them find what clicks for them.

I will say that for me it was Narnia that turned me from a reluctant reader to a ravenous one. I'm sure I missed all the points of the series, but man, I loved those books and I still think they're magical.

Bookaholic: Oh, I have to remember that piece of advice.

You never thought you would become a writer, but one night the idea for DDoHH came to you in a dream. Would you have suspected that something this unique would come from your dream?

Josh Berk: It is true that I've been quoted as saying that I never thought I'd become a writer, but that was mainly referring to when I was young. By the time I was an adult I was pretty sure that I wanted to be a writer, and I certainly tried a lot. It wasn't as though I went from being a guy who never thought about writing to a guy who had a wacky dream to an author. I was definitely trying hard to become a writer, and failing quite a bit for quite a while. I was on the look out for ideas from anywhere and had written stories based on my own life, my friends, my imagination, and all sorts of stuff. So, no, I didn't suspect my first book idea would come from a dream, but I'm always on the lookout for interesting ideas, even while sleeping!

Bookaholic: Will Halpin is not your average teen. He’s not only deaf & overweight, but he also chooses to attend a regular high school without any of the “help” he got in his previous, specialized school. How difficult was it for you to find all the information necessary for these unusual aspects?

Josh Berk: I think my most important tool going into this book was empathy. I tried very hard to put myself into Will's shoes in an emotional way, to understand his feelings. This wasn't all that hard for me because I, like many of us, knew what it was like to feel like an outcast at points during my life. I figured that if I could get the emotions right, the details would be less important.

Then I did do quite a bit of research into the Deaf experience, and also the specifics on what things a public high school would likely do with a student such as Will. I like research though! I'm a librarian so it comes naturally. And I think almost all writers like research. It gives us an chance to feel productive without actually having to do the hard work of writing. So, no, it wasn't too difficult to research the specific things I needed to learn to (hopefully) make Will's story ring true. It was a mix of book research, online research, interviews, lots of empathy, and also some lying.

Bookaholic: You created a number of quirky characters in not only Will, but also his friend Smiley & Will’s parents. Did you think about what characters you would use before you started writing or did they just turn out this quirky?

Josh Berk: I definitely have a fondness for quirky! And I probably couldn't do not-quirky if I tried. The word quirky is fun to say if you say it a lot of times. Quirky, quirky, quirky. Where were we? Oh yes: quirky.

In DDoHH some of the quirkiness came out of the plot. For example, I knew I wanted Will to have a friend at his new school who (a) could communicate with Will a bit (meaning he knew some sign language) (b) liked to IM/text a lot (again, in order to communicate with Will) but didn't only use internet/text lingo because I thought that might get tiresome to read and (c) was into mystery novels because that would be his motivation for "playing Hardy Boys" and moving the plot along.

So this picture of this kid developed, the type of nerd (I use that word fondly!) who taught himself sign language for fun, used proper grammar in text messages, and read the Hardy Boys even though he was way too old for it. What a dork! (I use that word fondly as well.) Devon immediately came to life and made me smile. His quirkiness came from plot needs and then he took on a life of his own.

Will wasn't intentionally created to be quirky necessarily, but pretty much to be the ultimate outsider. I thought that would be fun to write and an interesting way for me to say lots of things I wanted to say about high school (and life).

Are Will's parents really quirky? I tried to make them normal parents! Haha: I really can't do not quirky if I try.

Bookaholic: Oh, you've got to love nerds, dorks, and quirky people!

How did you research the coal mining in Pennsylvania? Did you actually go on tours yourself or did you learn most of it by reading about coal mining?

Josh Berk: I live in Pennsylvania and there are coal mines everywhere. You can't walk three feet in any direction without falling into a coal mine. Seriously: I'm in a coal mine right now. OK, slight exaggeration! But that setting in the book is based on my memories of a real place here in PA. It's been a while, but I did in fact go on a coal mine tour just like the one in the book when I was a kid. I've always actually been pretty interested in the history of coal mining, because I am from Pennsylvania. And a giant dork! I did do some reading, digging up old articles about mine accidents and cave-ins and stuff. Good times.

Bookaholic: In DDoHH, there were all kinds of secrets present. Small ones and big ones, silly ones and very serious ones. Did you plan on using secrets all along or did the abundance of secrets come to you as you were writing? Also, what is your favorite (revealed) secret both in the book and in real life?

Josh Berk:
Good question! I did plan on revealing secrets all along. I thought it would be fun to have Will investigate this one big secret/crime, but then to also uncover everyone else's secrets as we went along. It was a fun way to structure the story and it made it constantly interesting for me to write. Plus it rang true to my memories of being a teen. I was always wondering what teachers did when they were out of school, wondering what my parents were like before I was born, wondering if the other kids at school had embarrassing things about themselves too. I spent a lot of time thinking about those sort of things as a teen so it was natural for Will to do so too. Plus it worked well in the context of a mystery plot to have basically everyone have a secret they keep. It helped make everyone a suspect.

I can't say too much about my favorite secret in the book because maybe some of your readers haven't read it but want to! I will say that it involves the bus driver, one Jimmy Porkrinds. He cracks me up.

My favorite revealed secret in real life? Man, that's a hard one! Maybe it's that I fairly recently learned about an aunt I never knew I had who turned out to be super-cool.

Bookaholic: I think mentioning Jimmy Porkrinds is enough for those who read the book to know what you mean - and those who haven't will hopefully read it soon.

You have a second book come out in 2012. Can you tell us a bit more about it? Will it be along the lines of DDoHH?

Josh Berk: My new Young Adult novel is in the final stages of editing as we speak. Hurrah! It's taken a while, but I'm happy with it! It's about a guy (named Guy) who joins his high school forensics team, gets embroiled in a mysterious death, deals with the loss of a loved one, tries not to get murdered by a psychopath, and attempts to work his mojo with the ladies. It comes out in March 2012. It's along the lines of DDoHH in that it is also a contemporary, funny high school mystery from a guy's point of view. But it's all new characters and setting and otherwise unrelated to DDoHH.

Bookaholic: That is wonderful! I can't wait to see it on the shelves.

Are you working on some new material for upcoming books? Can we hope for more books to come?

Josh Berk: Thanks for asking! And yes! I'm currently working on a series for younger readers (ages 9-12). They're also funny mysteries but because they're for younger readers, rather than having the dudes be obsessed with girls, they're obsessed with baseball. I'm hoping sports fans enjoy them, and everyone else also. And then I'm planning on a new teen book too -- I'm just now in the early stages of scribbling down the first chapters and figuring out all the big questions about where I want the book to go. I love this stage and am having a lot of fun with it. I'm even thinking about writing part of it from a girl's point of view, which will be an interesting experience if I dare to try it!

Bookaholic: Great, I'll eventually have something to give to my cousin's kids. I'm sure they will enjoy this series.

And a last question for the librarian in you: Can you recommend two books to my readers and me that hasn’t received as much publicity as it deserves?

Josh Berk: I'm friends with a lot of writers and I love a TON of books, so this is very hard for me! But here are two books from my fellow Tenners (authors who debuted in 2010) that blew my mind: (1) 'A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend' by Emily Horner and (2) 'The Absolute Value of Negative One' by Steve Brezenoff. Unlike the fantasy-loving kid I once was, my favorite books these days are realistic & contemporary novels. Both of these books are about modern, realistic teens who will crack you up and break your heart.

Bookaholic: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions! And I will get the books you mentioned as soon as I'm off my book buying ban (3.5 more weeks to go *sigh*).

Josh Berk: Thanks!

For more info on Josh Berk, please check out his website (including a short biography with some awesome pics!).