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Hello and good morning. How are
you doing today, Michael hi Erro.

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I am doing well, sir.
Thank you. What an amazing book.

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And I mean that in so many
different ways, because there are many grown

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men and women that need to read
this book so they can go back and

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learn more about their own teen years, those growing years, those years of

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question, and maybe put some things
back together that they've just kind of written

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off. I mean, this book
is for so many different people. I

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tried to make it that way because
you're exactly right. You know, you

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forget things as you grow older,
and you sometimes forget what it was like

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to be that age, and I
think we need to be reminded occasionally.

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Now, the cover itself, and
you're not supposed to juge a book by

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its cover, but it does get
your attention right away. Every Star that

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Falls sequel to the acclaimed novel Suicide
Notes, Now you know what people are

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going to see first, and they're
gonna go, oh, I've been there,

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or they're gonna say I would never
touch that, but then they will

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because it serves as a brilliant invitation. Thank you. I mean that is

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the struggle or challenge with Suicide Notes
when it came out fifteen years ago.

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People either loved the title or hated
the title. There was no in between

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on that one. So now when
you say fifteen years, I'm a daily

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writer. I can't go one single
day without putting pen to paper. And

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I mean, but it's taken you
fifteen years to do this sequel. What

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was it doing? Was it growing? Was it maturing? What was it

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doing that storyline? Inside your heart? It was waiting. I don't normally

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do sequels because no matter what you
do, people are disappointed by what happens

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to the characters if they had a
different idea. So I always said I

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wouldn't do one, but it was
always there in the back. And of

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course I got letter after letter after
letters saying, well, what happens when

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death the main character gets out of
the psychiatric hospital? And so I you

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know, I was doing lots of
other books in between, but I was

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also thinking about what did happen to
him? So now did it ever leave

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your conscious mind in the way of
saying, hey, look, I'm gonna

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walk away for a little bit,
go go write your other books, but

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I'm going to be tapping on your
shoulder every now and then. Were you

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taking notes at all over the past
fifteen years. No, I did absolutely

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no planning on a sequel. I
really never ever planned on doing one.

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And then social media happened, and
they strange thing for a book to live

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this long for fifteen years. Normally
books come and they go, but this

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book it just old, very very
steadily over fifteen years. And then when

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social media happened, it took off
as if it was a new book.

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It was a really wonderful thing to
watch because book talk and Instagram and Twitter,

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in all of those social media places, people were talking about it and

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it got a whole new life out
of that. But see, you know,

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Michael, this is what I love
about about your writing and you doing

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this because I've always believed in the
theory that if you have not read it,

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there's no such thing as old.
These these old programs like Jack Binney

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and and and and all these other
shows that are on we TV, if

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I've never seen them, it's brand
new. And that's what's great about You're

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writing. It's timeless. It can
fit into anybody's life at any time.

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Well, You're absolutely right about about
things being new, and I think we

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forget that, Like you know,
when sometimes when new music comes out.

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For example, older people will say, well, well, that just sounds

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like so and so from when I
was younger. Well, of course it

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does, because it's new to this
generation. They they're experience in it for

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the first time. They don't have
all of this past memories that older people

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have, and so people will discover
Suicide Notes and to them it's absolutely brand

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new. And I was thinking about
this yesterday. I was like, Wow,

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now people can actually go and buy
both books, where people who read

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Suicide Notes fifteen years ago have had
to wait all this time to find out

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what happens in that. So I
would love to hear from your readers in

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the way, who's going to read
this book first Every Star That Falls and

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then they're going to go back to
the first book. I mean, that

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would be an interesting read as well. That's like a prequel. It would

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be interesting because the first the first
book is so much I don't want to

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say darker, it's not, but
it's so different, you know, just

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experience in that book is vastly different
from what happens in Every Star That Falls.

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So yeah, I will be interested
too to hear from people who read

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them both for the first time.
Books like this do amazing things. It

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creates conversations, and it's also one
of those books that can easily become a

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secret read. We don't need it
to be a secret read because we need

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people to have conversation and to be
open and not in small circles exactly.

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And it's funny when Suicide Notes came
out fifteen years ago, I would get

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responses from people saying, I don't
understand why anyone would be this upset about

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being gay. Being gay is not
a big deal, And I said,

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well, it is to a lot
of people. And I said, to

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them, as long as you know
LGBTQ young people are attempting suicide, it's

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a problem. And as we know
they are still, well, yeah,

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attempting suicide. Oh my god,
yeah, I was just gonna say attempting.

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No, they are, I mean, and the numbers are through the

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roof right now. They are.
And I got a lot of negative comments

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about the title of Suicide Notes when
it came out, like, how dare

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you do this? How dare you
write a book about a gay kid who

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attempts suicide? And again I said, well, they are, they are

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doing this, So I hope there's
a day when we don't ever need a

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book like this, but right now
we do, and here we are fifteen

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years later, and as you said, I think we need it more than

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ever. How much research goes into
everything that you're writing or is this something

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that is moving through you by way
of the universe? A lot of both.

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For the first book, I did
a lot of research into the physical,

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you know, it is what a
psychiatric ward is, like, what

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would happen to somebody there? And
then for the sequel it wasn't so much

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research because this book is more about
you know, feelings and things that general

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things that people go through. But
the world has changed a lot in fifteen

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years. So, for example,
in the first book, there's no such

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thing as social media, there's no
such thing as cell phones. And I

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was fortunate in that Jeff's been in
a psychiatric hospital for the entire book,

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so he wouldn't have those things anyway, but now he does. Can you

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imagine writing the first book knowing what
you know today? That would be almost

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impossible, would it not? It
would be almost impossible. And I also

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don't think I would write it today, because I think it's tricky. People

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need different books at different time and
I think a book like Suicide Notes if

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it came out now would not be
understood in the same way. You hit

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a hardcore subject here, Michael,
and that is deciding not to be with

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other people want you to be.
I have done so much on iHeartRadio about

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that very subject. It's like,
the only thing that you are is what

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everybody else wanted you to be.
But you're saying deciding not to be what

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other people want you to be?
Yes, yeah, I mean I'm fifty

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five years old and I still struggle
with that. Yes, yes, I

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think what is expected of me?
You know, even with doing these interviews

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and when you know, protamoting yourself
as an author, what do people expect

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of you? Who do they think
you are? And everybody feels that way,

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and young people have even more pressure
because you know, they're trying to

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fit in. They want to be
like, they want to be loved,

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and they want to be seen and
walking around is who you really are can

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be absolutely terrifying, especially if you're
in any way different from the people around

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you, and particularly if you're different
from the people in your family. Yeah,

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yeah is the hardest yea, not
even the well yeah, the black

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Sheep but just I mean, imagine
growing up a super liberal kid in a

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very conservative family, or a conservative
kid in a super liberal family. You're

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just everything that's around you is telling
you that you're different from the people you

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come from, and that is scary. Wow, well it's beyond scary.

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Sometimes you just think, while I
have to hide it who I am.

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That's that's usually when I turn around
and I go, Okay, I'm the

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greatest actor you will ever meet.
What role do you want me to play

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today so that we can find peace? Yeah? Exactly. And you know,

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we sometimes tell we were young people
you may have to wait soil you're

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out of the house, and that
is I hate saying that to them,

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but you know, you have to. You have to consider your safety first.

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And when considering your safety involved hiding
who you are, that is not

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fun. I mean, I grew
up in a conservative Christian family all the

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way through college, and that was
hard for me, and it wasn't nearly

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as hard as it is for a
lot of these young people. Yeah.

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Yeah, oh my god, you
are every bit the reason why I've created

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View from the Writing Instrument on iHeartRadio, because people will read your words,

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but they don't get to hear your
voice or your story. And you have

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been so open with me this morning. I think you're to be, especially

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if you're writing for young people.
I'm always amazed when I meet people who

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create art and they're so closed off, because that is the absolute opposite of

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what art is supposed to do.
You cannot become who you are, and

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you cannot have the life that you're
meant to have if you're not open.

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Yep, yep, yep, You're
not gonna believe what I did yesterday,

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For the first time in my life, at sixty one, I watched Hair

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and Jesus Christ Superstar. That's what
I want these young adults to do.

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Go back and watch these classics and
have your own experience. Yes, and

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lucky you experience in them for the
first time. Yes, Yeah, Hair

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is. My cousin Chris, had
the soundtrack to Hair when I was probably

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I don't know how old I would
have been, what thirteen or so,

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and it was a revelation and my
mother would not let me listen to that

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kind of music, and so I
had to listen to other people's houses and

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the other person she had And this
is so random, but Nina Hagen I

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don't know if you know who she
is. She she was an East German

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punk rock musician who was actually thrown
out of East Germany for being a punk

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rock music Oh God, and Chris
had her album and I had never heard

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anything like this. I grew up
in a very small rural town where the

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radio station only played top forty rock
and roll, and I had never heard

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something like this. And she played
me this cassette and it's like my head

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exploded. See that's that's what's fun
about talking with another creative mind, is

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the fact that the little things that
you know feed into who you're about to

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become, as as as another artist. Yes, it's absolutely those little things.

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And it's so random. It's who
you encounter, particularly when you're about

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twelve thirteen. Who do you encounter? And I tell the story and this

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is a this is a sounds like
an aside, but it's not. But

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my best friend from when I was
five and we were both obsessed with kids.

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Yes, and when I was ten
years old, my family moved and

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so Stephanie and I grew up,
you know, in different places. And

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it's so interesting to me now to
see where she ended up and where I

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ended up, and I often wonder
if we had stayed in that town and

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she started sneaking off to the punk
club in Washington, DC and being exposed

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to that where I moved to the
middle of nowhere, how would my life

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be different? Now, that's your
next book. That's your next book right

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there, Michael. You got to
come back to this show anytime in the

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future. The door is always going
to be open for you. Sir.

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Oh, thanks, I would love
that. Excellent. Well, you be

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brilliant today and keep pushing those words
out there for young adults. Thank you,

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sir. I appreciate that in you
too,