Author of the term - Louis Sachar
Your latest book Small Steps follows the life of Armpit, one of the characters from the hugely popular Holes. Why do you think Holes became such a tremendous success?
It puts an author in a funny position when asked to explain a book's success. I tried to write an entertaining, thought-provoking book, but I didn't read it. Yes, wrote and rewrote it at least six times, but I never got to read it fresh, the way a reader does. My guess is that people liked the unusual setting, the suspenseful story, and the way it all fits together.
You hadn't intended to write a sequel to Holes - what convinced you to write Small Steps ?
After finishing the novel, I spent three years working on the movie. During this time, Holes became the tremendous success you spoke of, and people wanted more. But I considered Holes complete unto itself, and thought a sequel would diminish it.
I'd left Stanley (the main character) in a good place, and wasn't all that interested in him anymore. If I'm going to spend two years on a book, the character has to interest me.
I was intrigued by Armpit. He had also suffered at Camp Green Lake but, unlike Stanley, he didn't have a kind of mystical experience where he vanquished the family curse and returned a hero. Armpit just dug his holes and served his time.
I imagined that Armpit must have had a pretty tough life before he went to Camp Green Lake, and realised it would even be harder for him now that he missed a year of school and had a criminal record.
So I was interested in what he could do turn his life around. The answer was to keep focused, and take small steps.
That, by the way, is what I do when I write a book. I write just a little bit every day, and I have to stick with it and believe that I will eventually finish it, even if it takes two years.
Armpit is having to learn to do the same thing, by going to school, working hard, and not trying to do too much at once.
After spending three years caught up in the excitement of Hollywood, working with movie stars, it was difficult for me to return to my solitary room and write. I was tempted by Hollywood in much the same way that Kaira DeLeon tempted Armpit away from what he needed to be doing.
Why do you think Holes and Small Steps appeal to boys who struggle to find books they enjoy?
I too have a lot of trouble finding books I like. I often walk out of bookstores empty-handed because I can't find anything that interests me. And if I do find a book, often I'll start it, but never finish it. But when I do find a book I like, I love it.
When I write a book, I don't try to please anyone else but me. But maybe that's why people like my books, because I'm so hard to please.
How do the children you meet influence your writing?
Not very much. Maybe a child will say something interesting, or use an interesting choice of words, and I might use it sometime, but that's about it. In order for me to base a character on someone, I'd have to get to know him or her a lot better.
In Small Steps it is the characters rather than the setting that is strong - particularly Kaira, Ginny and X-Ray as well as Armpit. How do you develop your characters? Do you have them firmly in mind before you start writing the plot?
It may sound strange, but I feel like I get to know the characters as I write about them. At first, I'm just figuring out who they are, but after writing and rewriting a book for two years, I get to know them very well. I actually feel like they're my friends. After I finally finished writing Small Steps, I wished that somehow we could all go out together, Armpit, Ginny, X-Ray and me, to celebrate.
How much time do you spend thinking and creating compared to actually writing?
I write for no more than two hours a day. Like I said, I take small steps. For the rest of the day I don't make a conscious effort to think about it, but I'm sure part of my mind is always working on the story.
One of the themes in both books is children being hard done by adults - is this something you sympathise with? Do you think children today feel 'hard done by'?
Adults have a great deal of power over children. Kids feel it all the time. In the real world, adults mostly try to do the right thing for children, and children know that, even though they sometimes feel wronged. But when I write a book I try to create tension. And one way to do that is to have an adult character who intentionally or unintentionally is unfair to a child.
What can fans look forward to next?
I'm currently working on a book, but that's all I'll tell you! I never tell anyone anything about a book, until I'm finished with it. Not my wife. Not my daughter. Not my agent. Not Bloomsbury. I hope to finish it in about a year, and then I'll show it to my family, and to my agent, who will send it to publishers. Then it will probably take another year or two after that before it's published.
No doubt, it will be worth the wait!
Small Steps story summary
Armpit did his time in Camp Green Lake: along with Stanley, X-Ray and the others he suffered the back-breaking, soul-squashing task of digging holes. Back home, he knows he's going to have a tough time getting back on track, so he sets himself just five small steps:
1. Graduate from high school.
2. Get a job.
3. Save his money.
4. Avoid situations that might turn violent. And...
5. Lose the name Armpit.
Sounds easy! But being a big black lad from the rough end of town, with smooth-talking friends like X-Ray, has some drawbacks. Not even Armpit's parents trust him. Thanks goodness for Ginny, the little white girl next-door with cerebral palsy:
'But as much as Armpit helped her, she helped him even more. She gave his life meaning. Together they were learning to take small steps.'
This unlikely partnership is the rock of the story, which finds them both in a whirlwind scenario of fame and fortune, love and deceit. It's an exciting, un-put-downable read for older juniors - whether or not they have read Holes.
For more on Small Steps and a downloadable class activity click here.