Thank you Cliff for the interview. Cliff is a teacher as well as an author and has been writing in China, Hong Kong and the United States.

Interview

What was your inspiration for My Not-So-Great French Escape?

The general arc of the story is inspired by a trip I took to work on a French farm with the company WWOOF, Willing Workers on Organic Farms. The setting, daily farm tasks, some aspects of the characters are all taken fairly directly from that experience. The arc of the main character likewise follows difficulties I have felt and seen with friends growing apart during the long middle school years.

How did you choose which character to focus the story?

As mentioned above, the main character, Rylan, has experiences similar to my own and his personality/actions reflect different parts of me or how I would act in a similar scenario at age 12. I added in several details that are entirely true, and others intended to round out their character.

What was your process for writing My Not-So-Great French Escape? Did it change from An Occasionally Happy Family?

I am a full-time English teacher, so the process for both books was fairly similar. I brainstormed a general idea for the story during the end of the school year, sat down to write during the summer, and then, once school started, tried to write a little bit each weekend. The difference, however, was that I had a deadline for this book and had to, in the final three weeks before the book was due, write nearly every day, getting home from work around 4pm, buying a coffee and writing as much as I could before I was completely exhausted. This was more stressful than writing a debut book, where there are few expectations (or deadlines) until the very end of the process.

What drew you into writing children’s fiction?

It was when I started teaching writing to 6th and 7th graders in Texas that I thought I might have the ability to write a book for a children’s/middle grade audience. I was inspired by my students’ creative energy and their deep engagement during our creative writing units. They brought back my own enthusiasm for writing, and I started drafting short sketches and stories to use a model in the classroom. What started as short, mostly amusing little sketches eventually evolved into drafting full-length books.

What is your approach to world and character building?

I always start with characters. Many are based on aspects of real people; some are just riffs that eventually coalesce into a believable person. Once I have the basics, I do character-specific drafts of the book focusing specifically on dialogue – trying to differentiate each character and tighten their voice so everyone does not speak the same. As for world-building, I tend to throw in some silly/absurd details into the first drafts and they have mostly been worked out to hew closer to reality. But I am currently working on a lite sci-fi book which is filled with little details which hopefully add up to a coherent fictional world.

How would you describe My Not-So-Great French Escape in five words?

Finding new, kinder friends abroad.

Did you have a favourite moment to write?

There are a few, but the scene in the middle of the book where the main character, Rylan, has a heartfelt conversation with new friend, Martin, was my favorite to write. I like scenes that balance humor with emotion and tinkering with dialogue until it has a nice back-and-forth flow between two characters. I would often come back to this scene while drafting to see if there was anything I could add or cut to make it sharper.

What was your favourite book growing up?

Growing up, I read a lot of sports biographies, books about baseball statistics and stadiums, and many magazines. I was a loyal reader of Entertainment Weekly, excitedly pulling it out of the mailbox and reading it cover-to-cover Friday afternoon. But the first book I really remember loving as The Giver by Lois Lowry, a book I still teach and that continues to remain relevant for young readers.

Did you have a favourite genre to read?

I truly read everything and try to spread across genres as much as possible. The last few books I’ve read included a collection of poetry, a contemporary play script, realistic fiction from the 1960s, science fiction from the 1930s, and a biography about Charles Dickens’ children. I tend to jump from one thing to another following loose associational chains that only make sense to me. That said, I mostly regularly return to realistic fiction, mid-20th-century science fiction, and biographies of musicians/artists.