Speaker 1: Hello, and good morning, Neil. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2: I am doing very well, dude.
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to talk with you because I've been
Speaker 1: a daily writer for thirty years. And when you do
Speaker 1: something like this twist in your book with somebody reads
Speaker 1: her journal and then they write a note back. I
Speaker 1: am still struggling with that as because because I always
Speaker 1: wonder what would happen if somebody had written back to me.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping it's a future self writing back to me.
Speaker 1: But my god, what I mean, are you a journal
Speaker 1: writer to where you would be violated in a way
Speaker 1: or is it a violation?
Speaker 2: Well, it begins as one, I mean and break to you.
Speaker 3: The character of Adriana writes in a journal and she's incarcerated.
Speaker 3: You know, she's in a jumiile detention center, and she
Speaker 3: accidentally leaves her journal in a library and in the
Speaker 3: library and the detention center, and when she comes back
Speaker 3: to find that a boy has written in it, you know,
Speaker 3: written about all her deepest personal thoughts.
Speaker 2: So at first she feels violated.
Speaker 3: She has no way to contact him because in the
Speaker 3: detention center, boys and girls are kept completely separate, So
Speaker 3: the only way to contact him is to write back
Speaker 3: in the journal, and this ends up becoming a you know,
Speaker 3: going back and forth between the two of them, until eventually,
Speaker 3: in the course of the story, they fall in love
Speaker 3: even though they've never met each other.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is a new Age love story, dude,
Speaker 1: And in the way that I can so understand this because,
Speaker 1: like I said, I want my future reader to be
Speaker 1: somebody that will be me or will be somebody else,
Speaker 1: but I want them to be able to have a
Speaker 1: conversation back. I love how you're taking this to a
Speaker 1: different level.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we wrote this.
Speaker 3: My collaborator is Michelle Nolan and Deborah Young, and I
Speaker 3: wrote this started during the pandemic, so that whole sense
Speaker 3: of isolation and sort of being out of touch and
Speaker 3: trying to connect with people was very much on our
Speaker 3: minds when we were writing it.
Speaker 1: Isn't this the active theater of the mind, Because if
Speaker 1: they've never met each other and their words are the
Speaker 1: only thing that are presented, I mean, you've got to
Speaker 1: figure out what the pitch, volume and tone is of
Speaker 1: that expression.
Speaker 2: Exactly. And you know you have to.
Speaker 3: You get to meet somebody from the inside out instead
Speaker 3: of meeting them from the outside end, so they know
Speaker 3: each other on a very very deep level even before
Speaker 3: they actually meet or even know what they look like.
Speaker 1: All right, I got to ask you a question about
Speaker 1: journal writing because a lot of writers do this. I
Speaker 1: call it hidden speak. I don't know what they call it,
Speaker 1: but you hide behind words so that you don't express yourself.
Speaker 1: Do you play around with that at all?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: I try not to hide behind words. I try to
Speaker 3: put myself out there with words. And that's kind of
Speaker 3: what break to You is about, is you know, using
Speaker 3: your words to express who you are as a human being.
Speaker 1: See. And what's great about this is that you planting
Speaker 1: this right now, right here at the beginning of summer.
Speaker 1: This is going to start new relationships in the way
Speaker 1: that I want people that who are journaling to believe
Speaker 1: that what they're writing that could actually be somebody else's
Speaker 1: source of information as well as food for their heart.
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean there are memoirs that began as journals.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And you know, I mean when you put yourself out
Speaker 3: there in your in your writing, you know, and and
Speaker 3: and take your deepest thoughts and put them into a journal.
Speaker 3: It helps you understand yourself. Uh and uh and can
Speaker 3: help help others understand you as well. The characters and
Speaker 3: break to you are are kids who are isolated and shielded.
Speaker 3: I mean they they they are behind their own personal
Speaker 3: walls and so expressing themselves as difficult. So being able
Speaker 3: to express themselves to a journal is, uh is a
Speaker 3: powerful thing.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie to you. I want because I
Speaker 1: am a journal writer. I want to be able to
Speaker 1: take my hands and feel the depth of how much
Speaker 1: she put into that page. Because I believe that the
Speaker 1: connection between a pen or a pencil into paper is
Speaker 1: so deep. And that's why I really really got into
Speaker 1: John's character. How did you develop him and and to
Speaker 1: when you got into his imagination once he discovered this journal?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, oh thank you. John was a really
Speaker 3: interesting character to write, and my co writer Michelle started
Speaker 3: that character and then the three of us worked.
Speaker 2: On him together.
Speaker 3: But the fact is he is a kid who is
Speaker 3: who doesn't wear his hard in his sleeve. He is
Speaker 3: a kid who is incarcerated. We don't know why, but
Speaker 3: the other kids are afraid of him.
Speaker 2: So he seems like this.
Speaker 3: Hard kid, but deep down he has such an inner
Speaker 3: life and that inner life is expressed through the journal
Speaker 3: and Break to You.
Speaker 1: The juvenile detention center. I mean, we've all heard those nightmares,
Speaker 1: and we've all heard those stories because we think we
Speaker 1: know somebody who's been there. But I love the way
Speaker 1: that you bring people together during these times of darkness.
Speaker 1: That it's dark, but maybe not.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a difficult place to be and it's dark,
Speaker 3: and it's isolating and it can be dehumanizing. And we
Speaker 3: wanted to show the problems with the juvenile justice system,
Speaker 3: but we also want to show that these kids are
Speaker 3: just kids and they need to be remembered, they need
Speaker 3: to not be swept under the rug, and there is
Speaker 3: hope for these kids. I mean, just because they're in
Speaker 3: detention does not mean that their life is forfeit and
Speaker 3: we have to remember that. And part of the story
Speaker 3: and Break to You is reminding readers of the humanity
Speaker 3: of the kids who are incarcerat.
Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with keeping a journal. See I
Speaker 1: leave my journals out now. I don't care if any
Speaker 1: if anybody reads it, but it took me years to
Speaker 1: be able to get to that level. You know you're
Speaker 1: saying it anyway, just put it on a page and
Speaker 1: let somebody find it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, are our words that we leave behind
Speaker 3: are powerful things, and the thoughts that we put out
Speaker 3: there can change the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, were you thinking of a soundtrack at all when
Speaker 1: you were doing this? Because, I mean, all the way
Speaker 1: through this, I'm going this would be a good binge watch.
Speaker 1: This would be a good binge watch. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: he's got to be thinking of music to.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: I always, I always think of various different pieces of
Speaker 3: music when I'm writing. I mean, I listen to music
Speaker 3: as I'm writing, and you know, I write long hand,
Speaker 3: I write as if it's a journal, and then I
Speaker 3: type it into the computer. So the music that's playing
Speaker 3: is usually instrumental music, so it doesn't have words, so
Speaker 3: that it sort of makes it easier to fill it
Speaker 3: with my own words.
Speaker 1: All right, Neil, One writer to another writer. Every time
Speaker 1: I write a book, I buy a brand new mont Blanc.
Speaker 1: Do you do the same something like this?
Speaker 2: I get a lammy fountain pen. That's okay, that's acceptable.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, do you dip or do you fill
Speaker 1: up the bladder?
Speaker 2: No, it's it's cartridge. It's a cartridge pen.
Speaker 3: And you know, when I was writing Break to You,
Speaker 3: I would change colors depending on the character that I
Speaker 3: was working on.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. See, this is the kind of stuff
Speaker 1: that that listeners need to understand when it comes to writing.
Speaker 1: That it is a toy, it is fun to do,
Speaker 1: and it does affect a reader's emotions, but you got
Speaker 1: to understand what the writer is going through as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the writer is the intermediary between the
Speaker 3: world of the characters in the world of the reader,
Speaker 3: and so you know that the writer is always present
Speaker 3: in the in the telling of a story and in
Speaker 3: the and the writing of it.
Speaker 1: Well, you are a craftsman when it comes to sharing stories.
Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you, Neil,
Speaker 1: so they can find out everything that you've been doing
Speaker 1: and jump on your path.
Speaker 3: Oh well, I'm on all social media at Neil Schusterman
Speaker 3: on my website uman storyman dot com, So I'm all over.
Speaker 2: I'm easy to find.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for writing this story because it really
Speaker 1: does break free a lot of things about you know,
Speaker 1: the fear of writing a journal. There should be no fear.
Speaker 1: It's a conversation. Absolutely, Will you be brilliant today? Okay, Neil,
Speaker 1: I will do my best.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.