You visited us last year at Mary-Gardner school in Chateauguay and I really liked Zorgamazoo!

I loved it so much that when my teacher ask me to write about an author, I chose you.

In the many questions she asked me to answer, there is two I couldn’t find the answer on the internet.

How and why do you started writing books? and
Where does you get you inspiration for stories?

If you have any extra information that I could share with the class I’m sure I’ll get extra points!

thank you in advance

Kaitlyn Kelly

p.s. I ask for Dust city as a birthday gift! I can’t wait!

Very sorry to hear you had a hard time convincing your peers about the veracity of the research. I’ve told quite a few people about your findings, and a lot of them gave me the same response: flat-out rejections, or else something along the lines of “Oh, well, that’s Europe. It’s a topsy-turvy world over there”
(“topsy-turvy” being used in a very pejorative sense). It does make me wonder about similar studies, looking into shifts in youth culture, here in Canada or in the U.S.

Anyway, a really insightful and surprising piece of work; thanks for pulling the back the curtain. And thanks for taking the time to reply! rpw

However, after the media picked up on my research, they would then say, ‘oh, I’ve heard about this.’ So, because the media took interest in my work, it made it real, in a way that when I told them directly, I was lying.

At one conference, I felt like I was talking to a wall. After, one of the post-graduates emailed me to say that after my talk, they all went for a drink, where they theorized why I was so wrong, why I would fabricate such results. They then, (surprise surprise) saw two young men kiss.

Only one emailed an apology.

So, the answer – as you suggest – is that, no, I’m not expecting adults to catch-up to what youth are doing in any institution. If those whose job it is to stay up with culture (sociologists) can’t do it……

Professor Eric Anderson

In Peggle, you shoot a ball down through a screen full of pegs. It bounces around, eliminating the pegs it hits. Your job is to hit all the red ones before you run out of balls. It’s like a cross between pool, pinball, and that Plinko game they used to play on The Price is Right. It’s satisfying to play in an almost tactile way, and each stage has a comic animal who unleashes a superpower (like extra balls, flippers, visible physics…) that’s activated on hitting a green peg. Every single time you clear a level, there are fireworks and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy plays. Every single time! Glorious. You have to keep going.

Civilization is a simulation game in which you grow a civilization from the dark ages through the 21st Century, and can win by military, scientific or cultural might. It’s turn-based, so you always feel like you’ll save your game and walk away after just one more turn.

Ah the coffee book. I’ll get there eventually. Right now I’m writing two other fictions, as well as writing video games full-time.

I was thinking a better analogy might be a puzzler or strategy game. Parents don’t complain much about Peggle or Civilization, but both of those games operate on a “I’ll just play one more turn” mentality that is as gripping as a page-turner, or perhaps crack. (disclosure: I have no idea what crack is like. )