7 Questions I Always Ask +1 with Jeff Fleischer, author of ROCKIN’ THE BOAT
Today is another day on Zest Books’ Rockin’ Blog Tour. And, to answer questions about ROCKIN’ THE BOAT: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries – From Joan of Arc to Malcom X, we have author Jeff Fleischer.
E. Kristin Anderson: What was the first spark of inspiration for your latest book? [The weirder the better, we want the juicy details!]
Jeff Fleischer: I wish I had a better story here, but the publisher and I were talking about ideas for a possible history book. As soon as we mentioned doing something about revolutionaries, that jumped out at me as a good idea, because these are people I was already interested in, had studied a lot over the years, and knew I would enjoy writing about.
Zest Books, March 2015.
EKA: What kind of planning do you do before you start writing?
JF: For this book, a lot of the planning was thinking about who to include, making a really long list, and then working with the publisher on narrowing it down (even then, the list changed a few times during the writing process). Then it was figuring out an order in which to work on the fifty chapters. I had staggered deadlines to turn in batches of chapters, so I could research them in chunks.
EKA: If you could have lunch with any writer living or dead, who would it be?
JF: It’s hard to pick one, but I’ll go with Kurt Vonnegut. So it goes.
Golden Books, Reprint Edition, September 1999.
EKA: What is the first book you remember reading and enjoying as a young reader?
JF: My mother was really good about reading Little Golden Books to me when I was very young, so I’m not entirely sure about the first one I read myself. It might be THE TAWNY SCRAWNY LION, THE POKY LITTLE PUPPY or THE SAGGY BAGGY ELEPHANT
EKA: If you could go back and time and tell your teen self ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY, what would it be?
JF: The worst days of life are pretty awful, but the best ones are better than you’re currently capable of imagining.
Interior art from ROCKIN’ THE BOAT.
EKA: If you haven’t had a book challenged or banned, would you want this to happen to you? Why or why not?
JF: I’d never want a book banned, but that doesn’t just apply to my own. Those annual lists of the most-challenged books usually include some of the best literary works in history, which says more about the people trying to ban them than the books themselves.
EKA: What kind of book do you really want to try to write, but haven’t ever attempted? And what do you think is holding you back?
JF: I write a lot of short fiction, but have never really attempted a novel. I have an idea for one that I like, and I did write a first chapter that I’m happy with. But when you write for a living, it’s hard to find enough time to devote to a project that long and open-ended; there’s always work that can be (or has to be) finished first. I’ll write it at some point.
EKA: What’s the most major thing you’ve ever done to rock the boat?
JF: In my capacity as a journalist, I spent a year abroad researching climate change and interviewing many citizens of an island nation that is at risk of being destroyed if things don’t change. I wrote a series of articles to raise awareness about the situation, and have been working on a potential book about the subject.
Jeff Fleischer.
Jeff Fleischer is a non-fiction author, journalist, and short-fiction writer. Originally from Chicago, he has also worked in San Francisco, Australia and New Zealand, and his work has appeared in publications including the Sydney Morning Herald, Mother Jones, Chicago Magazine, Mental_Floss, and dozens of other print and online publications. He has a degree in journalism and history from Indiana University and a master’s in journalism from Medill at Northwestern University.
