• Meet the Author • Nick Glass of TeachingBooks.net inter- Grades viewed Lemony Snicket from his home K–2, 3–5 Lemony Snicket in San Francisco, California. I sensed on the shelf, and I Did you grow up liking thought I would fill it. word games and playing with words? Had you written books LS: I grew up reading and writ- before? ing fairly obsessively. My favor- LS: I was always interested in ite place to be was a library. writing, and so even when I There were certain bookstores was child I wrote small things that I admired very much. But on folded-up pieces of paper any place where people could that were occasionally stapled leave me alone where I could together. Whether that’s a book read was my idea of a good or not, I feel, is a long debate. time. It still is. Some people say, yes, of course, Photo courtesy of TeachingBooks.net that counts as a book. Other Did you like to write? people say, no, don’t be ridicu- LS: When I was a child, I was Who is Lemony Snicket? lous, that doesn’t count as a very, very interested in books. LS: I am Lemony Snicket. I am book. And other people say, I kept many near my bed so the author of a great number of why are you bothering me? that I could read well into the books, and I recommend none Why are you coming to me evening, or so I would have of them. with this question about pieces something heavy to throw at a of paper stapled together? Don’t burglar. I was very interested in Why did you write the you have something better to literature, both for reading and series of books called A do with your time? for warding off predators. Series of Unfortunate Events? How would you describe Why don’t you recom- your books? LS: Once I was in the library mend people read your and I was looking at all the LS: If I had to sum up all of books? books that were on the shelf, my work in a single word, LS: Despite my best efforts, I’ve and there were no books I think the word would be heard that some people, even *that were written about the “egad.” “Egad” is a four-letter children, accidentally pick up Baudelaire orphans. There word, but you’re allowed to these books and read them. were no books that were writ- use it. If you see a book by Lemony ten about Violet, Klaus, and Snicket, react the way you Sunny, and the terrible fire that What was your childhood would if you saw a scorpion. consumed their home and the like? Step slowly away and read dreadful man, Count Olaf, with LS: When I was a child, I was something else. No one picks whom they were forced to live, much shorter than I am now. up a scorpion and tries to read and all of the terrible things it. No one says, “I have a few that kept happening over and minutes before bed, I think over again. So it was a void that I’ll try to read a chapter of this December 2012 Web Resources • LibrarySparks • 1 Meet the Author scorpion.” Nobody says that. How did The Series of How does editing your That’s also how you should Unfortunate Events get books work? behave with books about started? Did you know LS: Because my books are so Lemony Snicket. that there were going to depressing and even dangerous, be 13 books? when I’m done with a book, I Don’t you want to sell LS: Well, when I began to can’t just mail it to an editor. If your books? research into the tale of the she opened a package, and was LS: No. I’m not interested in Baudelaire orphans and I began surprised by such a horrible selling these books to people. to take notes on the case, the manuscript, she might fall into I wrote these books because notes filled 13 volumes, and a coma. I usually wrap it up in I think the story is crucial. I so it seemed appropriate to me a package and put it someplace think that it’s a story that hadn’t that they would be published safe, then send her a note say- been told before. I think no sequentially in 13 volumes. I ing where the package is so one had known about what also think 13 is just a perfect that she may go and retrieve it. had happened to the Baudelaire round number. Then she looks over the book orphans, that it was very very, very slowly, because if she important that I write it down. What was your sequence looks at it for any long length But it’s like the phone book. for writing your books? of time, she usually faints dead It’s important information, but LS: Well, my process for writ- away. no one should take it down ing is fairly simple. First I do She might read two words, and read it. So I’ve never been research, I read as much as take a long five-day vacation, interested in finding readers for I can about the relevant set- come back, finish the sentence, my work. I’ve been interested tings and characters. I write etc. If she has any questions, she in finding readers and turning down a whole lot of notes. tries to reach me by telegram or them away from my work. I drink a great deal of tea. I fax. pace around my room. I slowly You have called your get distracted and read other How did you know when books “grim” and other books. I get depressed about the final book was over? depressing words. Why the state of the world and I cry How did you know when do you suppose they have a little bit. I take a long walk The End was the end? those manifestations? and cry harder. I get home and LS: When I wrote the last vol- LS: I would describe these wash the mud off myself from ume in A Series of Unfortunate books as grim, dreadful, my long walk. I take to bed. I Events, which was called The printed on paper, illustrated. drink a little bit more tea, and There are many horrible terms eventually a book gets written. for these books. The books tell a dreadful and depressing Do you journal or outline? story. Most people who read LS: I think when you are writ- them find themselves getting ing a book, particularly a book distressed and unnerved. Many about terrible things, it’s very people end up tearing out their important to make an outline. own hair, and that’s why when So, for instance, if there’s a you wander the streets you see dead person on the sidewalk, so many bald and sad people. take a piece of chalk and draw It’s because they’ve read books an outline around him, so if the by Lemony Snicket and they’ve dead person is removed, you lived to regret it. can remember where the dead person was, and that will help you write your book. Always use an outline. 2 • LibrarySparks • December 2012 Web Resources Meet the Author End, I wrote the last paragraph I began to tell the tale of the Snicket: The Unauthorized and the last sentence and the Baudelaire orphans, and then I Autobiography. There was no last word, and then I ended it got very depressed. other explanation for so many with a dot, which is known as small babies crying in a clean a period, I took a great sigh of How do you treat your room. relief and a great sigh of dread. depression? LS: I found that the best cure Please share some Please describe the for getting depressed while examples of infor- premise of A Series of being associated with my own mation covered in Unfortunate Events. work is to curl up into a ball The Unauthorized Autobiography. LS: A Series of Unfortunate and to rock back and forth Events tells the story of Violet, until you feel better, like this. LS: Contained in The Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. You should do this until it Unauthorized Autobiography are They are three siblings. They becomes irritating. diary entries, obituaries, strange are charming. Violet has a very photographs, maps, questions, strong mechanical mind. Klaus How do you know your answers to things that the ques- is a very strong reader, and representative, Daniel tions weren’t asking, questions Sunny is a baby and likes to Handler? that don’t have any answers bite things. The three of them LS: Daniel Handler is a very that relate to the answers that go to the beach where they talented and handsome man were given for the first set of hear almost immediately that, who has agreed to represent me questions, and more and more while they were at the beach, when there are circumstances confusing items. The more peo- their parents perished in a ter- that prevent my appearing ple dive into The Unauthorized rible fire. They’re then sent to on camera, on television, at Autobiography, the less satisfied live with an obscure relative a library, at a bookstore, at and the more unhappy they whose name is Count Olaf, a school, walking down the become. who proves to be most unpleas- street, going into a restaurant, ant.