Hello and good morning. How are you doing today, Michael hi Erro.
I am doing well, sir. Thank you. What an amazing book.
And I mean that in so many different ways, because there are many grown
men and women that need to read this book so they can go back and
learn more about their own teen years, those growing years, those years of
question, and maybe put some things back together that they've just kind of written
off. I mean, this book is for so many different people. I
tried to make it that way because you're exactly right. You know, you
forget things as you grow older, and you sometimes forget what it was like
to be that age, and I think we need to be reminded occasionally.
Now, the cover itself, and you're not supposed to juge a book by
its cover, but it does get your attention right away. Every Star that
Falls sequel to the acclaimed novel Suicide Notes, Now you know what people are
going to see first, and they're gonna go, oh, I've been there,
or they're gonna say I would never touch that, but then they will
because it serves as a brilliant invitation. Thank you. I mean that is
the struggle or challenge with Suicide Notes when it came out fifteen years ago.
People either loved the title or hated the title. There was no in between
on that one. So now when you say fifteen years, I'm a daily
writer. I can't go one single day without putting pen to paper. And
I mean, but it's taken you fifteen years to do this sequel. What
was it doing? Was it growing? Was it maturing? What was it
doing that storyline? Inside your heart? It was waiting. I don't normally
do sequels because no matter what you do, people are disappointed by what happens
to the characters if they had a different idea. So I always said I
wouldn't do one, but it was always there in the back. And of
course I got letter after letter after letters saying, well, what happens when
death the main character gets out of the psychiatric hospital? And so I you
know, I was doing lots of other books in between, but I was
also thinking about what did happen to him? So now did it ever leave
your conscious mind in the way of saying, hey, look, I'm gonna
walk away for a little bit, go go write your other books, but
I'm going to be tapping on your shoulder every now and then. Were you
taking notes at all over the past fifteen years. No, I did absolutely
no planning on a sequel. I really never ever planned on doing one.
And then social media happened, and they strange thing for a book to live
this long for fifteen years. Normally books come and they go, but this
book it just old, very very steadily over fifteen years. And then when
social media happened, it took off as if it was a new book.
It was a really wonderful thing to watch because book talk and Instagram and Twitter,
in all of those social media places, people were talking about it and
it got a whole new life out of that. But see, you know,
Michael, this is what I love about about your writing and you doing
this because I've always believed in the theory that if you have not read it,
there's no such thing as old. These these old programs like Jack Binney
and and and and all these other shows that are on we TV, if
I've never seen them, it's brand new. And that's what's great about You're
writing. It's timeless. It can fit into anybody's life at any time.
Well, You're absolutely right about about things being new, and I think we
forget that, Like you know, when sometimes when new music comes out.
For example, older people will say, well, well, that just sounds
like so and so from when I was younger. Well, of course it
does, because it's new to this generation. They they're experience in it for
the first time. They don't have all of this past memories that older people
have, and so people will discover Suicide Notes and to them it's absolutely brand
new. And I was thinking about this yesterday. I was like, Wow,
now people can actually go and buy both books, where people who read
Suicide Notes fifteen years ago have had to wait all this time to find out
what happens in that. So I would love to hear from your readers in
the way, who's going to read this book first Every Star That Falls and
then they're going to go back to the first book. I mean, that
would be an interesting read as well. That's like a prequel. It would
be interesting because the first the first book is so much I don't want to
say darker, it's not, but it's so different, you know, just
experience in that book is vastly different from what happens in Every Star That Falls.
So yeah, I will be interested too to hear from people who read
them both for the first time. Books like this do amazing things. It
creates conversations, and it's also one of those books that can easily become a
secret read. We don't need it to be a secret read because we need
people to have conversation and to be open and not in small circles exactly.
And it's funny when Suicide Notes came out fifteen years ago, I would get
responses from people saying, I don't understand why anyone would be this upset about
being gay. Being gay is not a big deal, And I said,
well, it is to a lot of people. And I said, to
them, as long as you know LGBTQ young people are attempting suicide, it's
a problem. And as we know they are still, well, yeah,
attempting suicide. Oh my god, yeah, I was just gonna say attempting.
No, they are, I mean, and the numbers are through the
roof right now. They are. And I got a lot of negative comments
about the title of Suicide Notes when it came out, like, how dare
you do this? How dare you write a book about a gay kid who
attempts suicide? And again I said, well, they are, they are
doing this, So I hope there's a day when we don't ever need a
book like this, but right now we do, and here we are fifteen
years later, and as you said, I think we need it more than
ever. How much research goes into everything that you're writing or is this something
that is moving through you by way of the universe? A lot of both.
For the first book, I did a lot of research into the physical,
you know, it is what a psychiatric ward is, like, what
would happen to somebody there? And then for the sequel it wasn't so much
research because this book is more about you know, feelings and things that general
things that people go through. But the world has changed a lot in fifteen
years. So, for example, in the first book, there's no such
thing as social media, there's no such thing as cell phones. And I
was fortunate in that Jeff's been in a psychiatric hospital for the entire book,
so he wouldn't have those things anyway, but now he does. Can you
imagine writing the first book knowing what you know today? That would be almost
impossible, would it not? It would be almost impossible. And I also
don't think I would write it today, because I think it's tricky. People
need different books at different time and I think a book like Suicide Notes if
it came out now would not be understood in the same way. You hit
a hardcore subject here, Michael, and that is deciding not to be with
other people want you to be. I have done so much on iHeartRadio about
that very subject. It's like, the only thing that you are is what
everybody else wanted you to be. But you're saying deciding not to be what
other people want you to be? Yes, yeah, I mean I'm fifty
five years old and I still struggle with that. Yes, yes, I
think what is expected of me? You know, even with doing these interviews
and when you know, protamoting yourself as an author, what do people expect
of you? Who do they think you are? And everybody feels that way,
and young people have even more pressure because you know, they're trying to
fit in. They want to be like, they want to be loved,
and they want to be seen and walking around is who you really are can
be absolutely terrifying, especially if you're in any way different from the people around
you, and particularly if you're different from the people in your family. Yeah,
yeah is the hardest yea, not even the well yeah, the black
Sheep but just I mean, imagine growing up a super liberal kid in a
very conservative family, or a conservative kid in a super liberal family. You're
just everything that's around you is telling you that you're different from the people you
come from, and that is scary. Wow, well it's beyond scary.
Sometimes you just think, while I have to hide it who I am.
That's that's usually when I turn around and I go, Okay, I'm the
greatest actor you will ever meet. What role do you want me to play
today so that we can find peace? Yeah? Exactly. And you know,
we sometimes tell we were young people you may have to wait soil you're
out of the house, and that is I hate saying that to them,
but you know, you have to. You have to consider your safety first.
And when considering your safety involved hiding who you are, that is not
fun. I mean, I grew up in a conservative Christian family all the
way through college, and that was hard for me, and it wasn't nearly
as hard as it is for a lot of these young people. Yeah.
Yeah, oh my god, you are every bit the reason why I've created
View from the Writing Instrument on iHeartRadio, because people will read your words,
but they don't get to hear your voice or your story. And you have
been so open with me this morning. I think you're to be, especially
if you're writing for young people. I'm always amazed when I meet people who
create art and they're so closed off, because that is the absolute opposite of
what art is supposed to do. You cannot become who you are, and
you cannot have the life that you're meant to have if you're not open.
Yep, yep, yep, You're not gonna believe what I did yesterday,
For the first time in my life, at sixty one, I watched Hair
and Jesus Christ Superstar. That's what I want these young adults to do.
Go back and watch these classics and have your own experience. Yes, and
lucky you experience in them for the first time. Yes, Yeah, Hair
is. My cousin Chris, had the soundtrack to Hair when I was probably
I don't know how old I would have been, what thirteen or so,
and it was a revelation and my mother would not let me listen to that
kind of music, and so I had to listen to other people's houses and
the other person she had And this is so random, but Nina Hagen I
don't know if you know who she is. She she was an East German
punk rock musician who was actually thrown out of East Germany for being a punk
rock music Oh God, and Chris had her album and I had never heard
anything like this. I grew up in a very small rural town where the
radio station only played top forty rock and roll, and I had never heard
something like this. And she played me this cassette and it's like my head
exploded. See that's that's what's fun about talking with another creative mind, is
the fact that the little things that you know feed into who you're about to
become, as as as another artist. Yes, it's absolutely those little things.
And it's so random. It's who you encounter, particularly when you're about
twelve thirteen. Who do you encounter? And I tell the story and this
is a this is a sounds like an aside, but it's not. But
my best friend from when I was five and we were both obsessed with kids.
Yes, and when I was ten years old, my family moved and
so Stephanie and I grew up, you know, in different places. And
it's so interesting to me now to see where she ended up and where I
ended up, and I often wonder if we had stayed in that town and
she started sneaking off to the punk club in Washington, DC and being exposed
to that where I moved to the middle of nowhere, how would my life
be different? Now, that's your next book. That's your next book right
there, Michael. You got to come back to this show anytime in the
future. The door is always going to be open for you. Sir.
Oh, thanks, I would love that. Excellent. Well, you be
brilliant today and keep pushing those words out there for young adults. Thank you,
sir. I appreciate that in you too,