Author Interview with Brian Farrey + Giveaway
Brian Farrey is the Minnesota Author in the Spotlight here on Booksnob for the month of September. Brian has written a thought provoking book called With or Without You. Please take a minute to read this super awesome interview so you can find out the inspiration behind the book as well as other cool stuff about Brian.
Hi Brian,
- Tell
us a little bit about yourself?
I’m originally from Wisconsin,
where With or Without You is set. I
never lived in Madison but it’s a city I’ve always been fond of. During the day, I acquire young adult fiction
for Flux, an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide. In October, I’ll be celebrating
two years of marriage to the most incredible man I’ve ever known.
- What
inspired you to write With or Without You?
It was kind of a perfect storm of
inspiration, I think. I had just started in the MFA program at Hamline
University and we were all learning about our process. It’s an oddly intimate
and personal experience and you really need to approach it with your eyes and
mind open because it can teach you a lot about the things you gravitate toward
naturally and the things you shy away from. Both are worth pursuing in your
writing.
I found early on that I was
interested in writing about change and its effect on people: How it occurs, how
it affects us, when we embrace it, when we fight it, etc. And as I played
around with the idea of change, I started thinking about those forces that can
change people on a massive scale. I kept coming back to two such forces in
particular: art and AIDS. So I set out
to find a place where these elements intersected in a young man’s life, and
that’s where the book came from.
- Usually
an author puts some of his own life experiences in the book. Did you do that? Do you have anything in common with your
characters?
I didn’t really put myself in the book.
At least, not on purpose. I think Evan has his head screwed on more at eighteen
than I did. And Erik is more what I aspire to be, in terms of being someone’s
boyfriend/lover/partner (you’ll have to ask my husband if I stack up; I suspect
I don’t, but I’m no slouch either). If there’s anything of me in the book it’s
Evan’s fears. He has a lot of them. But I think he and I approach our fears
very differently.
- HIV
and AIDS was once a disease that made national headlines. Do you think that sexually active people
have forgotten the risks?
I think we, as a society, have
become very complacent about HIV and AIDS. In talking to high school students
recently, I found that none of them had learned about it in school. That really
scared me. I think that comes from the
days when AIDS was considered strictly a “gay disease.” It’s not. It never was.
But because it
appeared to be, the
more conservative elements in the country did everything in their power to
discourage research into the disease and create an infrastructure to warn
everyone about the dangers. (For anyone
looking for more information on the history of HIV and AIDS, I highly recommend
what many consider to be the definitive work on the subject,
And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts.)
- In
your book With or Without You, characters Evan and Davis join a group
called the Chasers. Is this a real
group that people can join today?
No, there is not a group called
chasers that people can join. The concept of bugchasing—people who seek to
intentionally contract HIV—is real. It’s not a big thing. In fact, most people
have never heard of it. I don’t want to create the impression that there are
thousands and thousands of people like this. But there are people who—for a
variety of reasons that I’m sure make perfect sense to them—are not afraid to
be infected. I think a lot of that goes back to the question about our society
becoming complacent about HIV and AIDS. I’m just not convinced it’s “real” to a
lot of teens today. Or maybe it’s that the promise of new treatments takes the
edge off the fear. I don’t know exactly.
But I firmly believe people aren’t as aware of the dangers as they
should be and the fact that bugchasers exist supports that.
- Do you
have any advice for GLBTQ teens reading your book?
Keep your eyes and heart open at
all times.
- Do you
like to read? What authors or books
influence you?
As an editor, a love of reading is
part of the job. In fact, if you don’t love reading, editing is not for you.
So, yes, I love to read. J I find myself most influenced by authors who
accomplish things with they’re writing that I’m not sure I can do myself (but I
hope to learn by studying what they do).
I often cite David Almond as a writer I really admire. His novels are
practically textbooks in how to achieve a lot with a little. I love Jonathan
Stroud, who is a masterful storyteller. The two writers I’m learning the most
from right now are A.S. King and Andrew Smith. They’re doing very exciting
things in young adult books and I push their stuff into as many people’s hands
as I can.
- I know
you have a new book set to release in October, can you tell us a little
bit about it?
The new book is a departure from With or Without You. It’s a middle grade
fantasy called The Vengekeep Prophecies.
It’s about a boy named Jaxter Grimjinx who comes from a family of thieves. His family commits the greatest heist of
their careers but, in doing so, accidentally trigger a series of cataclysmic
prophecies that will destroy their hometown…and they’re the only ones who can
stop that from happening.
- With
or Without You won the MN teen book award this year. What was your reaction when they called
your name?
You’d have to ask my husband
because I have very little recollection of the moment. I went to the awards to
support my fellow writers. The thought of winning never occurred to me. NEVER.
For a start, I’d read the other books nominated in my category and they were
amazing and beautiful and the kind of books you give awards to. I never saw my
book that way. Apparently, someone did because they called my name that night.
My husband had to shove me out of my seat and push me toward the stage.
- Tell
us in one sentence why we should read With or Without You?
You should read
With or Without You because I am really,
really, supremely terrible at answering questions like this and you should take
pity on me as a result.
Thanks Brian!!
If you would like to win a copy of Brian's book, With or Without You, please enter here:
Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King—Full disclosure: Amy’s first book, The Dust of 100 Dogs, was published by Flux, where I work. (But it was acquired by my predecessor.) That book, in itself, was a revelation. Since then, Amy has worked with other publishers on her Printz honor book, Please Ignore Vera Dietz and Everybody Sees the Ants. What I love about Amy is that she’s a risk taker. She’s not afraid to mess with narrative structure and push the envelope in terms of technique. For example. Vera Dietz is told from the point of view of Vera, her dead best friend, Vera’s father (who speaks primarily in flow charts), and a pagoda in Vera’s hometown. Yes. A pagoda—a building—has a point of view. And it works. Gloriously. Everybody Sees the Ants is a contemporary story that explores the ideas of bullying, parental relationships, and the Vietnam War in an imaginative and occasionally heartbreaking way. Amy pulls from so many ideas that, on the surface, don’t appear to relate. But she finds the connections. She draws from one dot to the next, showing you how a boy in 2011 who is being bullied is somehow tied to his grandfather, an MIA POW in Vietnam. And it all makes sense. And you never doubt her for a second.
The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith—I’m a sucker for dark books. If everything isn’t all neatly tied up at the end, if we’re left with a sense that all is not right with the world by book’s end, if the ending is depressing as hell, I’m there. I don’t mind happy endings. But I find books that explore the darker side of human nature in a really intelligent way to be more fulfilling for me. Dunno why. And Andrew does dark like nobody else I can think of. This book got under my skin and set up residence in my brain. I couldn’t shake it for a long time. It was one of those books where, upon finishing, I immediately went out and bought everything he’d ever written (lucky for my wallet, this was only his third book). The sequel, Passenger, is coming out in early October. I am simultaneously excited and horrified at the prospect, but I can’t wait to return to the world behind the lens again.
