Hi guys! Y'all know how much I enjoyed A Plague Year read my review here, so today I am super excited because I got the chance to interview the author Edward Bloor! Woohoo!
Benji: As a teen how was your life different or the same as Tom's?
Edward: Tom and I were both determined to avoid getting beaten up. We both had fathers with drinking problems. We both liked learning big words.
Benji: Describe A Plague Year in three words?
Edward: Fight for whatsyours.
Benji: How do you want A Plague Year to influence teens who are tempted to use drugs?
Edward: Jimmy Giles breaks it down for them very clearly: After a few fun times, your life devolves into a flat, joyless, pointless mess, and it never gets any better. Learn from the mistakes of others and just stay away. NEO!
Benji: In A Plague Year, the events of 9/11 play a major role, where were you and what do you remember when 9/11 struck?
Edward: I was at work in Orlando, watching it on TV. I kept thinking about the month before, when my family and I were in New York. We were actually in the World Trade Center, at the Broadway TKTS Booth.
Benji: What character in A Plague Year do you relate to the most?
Edward: Tom. I couldn’t wait to go away to college and never come back.
Benji: What should readers expect when reading A Plague Year?
Edward: I always try to create a world for readers to enter and to live in for awhile. In this case, it’s the world of small-town Pennsylvania during a time of tumultuous events. I should add here that my mother’s family came from Minersville, PA, which is the model for the fictional Blackwater.
Benji: If A Plague Year had a sequel, what would the title be?
Edward: I wouldn’t write a sequel to A Plague Year, or to any novel, unless it was part of an overall plan. For example, I am planning a prequel to the novel I am at work on now; I’m outlining them simultaneously. To answer your question, though, I guess I’d go with New Moon.
Benji: Why should we read A Plague Year?
Edward: You should read it out of an unfounded yet palpable fear that if you do not, you and everyone you know will be stricken by the horrible disease of the title. That and the fact that there are zombies in it.
Edward: Tom and I were both determined to avoid getting beaten up. We both had fathers with drinking problems. We both liked learning big words.
Benji: Describe A Plague Year in three words?
Edward: Fight for whatsyours.
Benji: How do you want A Plague Year to influence teens who are tempted to use drugs?
Edward: Jimmy Giles breaks it down for them very clearly: After a few fun times, your life devolves into a flat, joyless, pointless mess, and it never gets any better. Learn from the mistakes of others and just stay away. NEO!
Benji: In A Plague Year, the events of 9/11 play a major role, where were you and what do you remember when 9/11 struck?
Edward: I was at work in Orlando, watching it on TV. I kept thinking about the month before, when my family and I were in New York. We were actually in the World Trade Center, at the Broadway TKTS Booth.
Benji: What character in A Plague Year do you relate to the most?
Edward: Tom. I couldn’t wait to go away to college and never come back.
Benji: What should readers expect when reading A Plague Year?
Edward: I always try to create a world for readers to enter and to live in for awhile. In this case, it’s the world of small-town Pennsylvania during a time of tumultuous events. I should add here that my mother’s family came from Minersville, PA, which is the model for the fictional Blackwater.
Benji: If A Plague Year had a sequel, what would the title be?
Edward: I wouldn’t write a sequel to A Plague Year, or to any novel, unless it was part of an overall plan. For example, I am planning a prequel to the novel I am at work on now; I’m outlining them simultaneously. To answer your question, though, I guess I’d go with New Moon.
Benji: Why should we read A Plague Year?
Edward: You should read it out of an unfounded yet palpable fear that if you do not, you and everyone you know will be stricken by the horrible disease of the title. That and the fact that there are zombies in it.
Thank you Edward!
Author bio: Edward Bloor is the author of Tangerine (1997), Crusader (1999), Story Time (2004) and London Calling (2006). Tangerine was an ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, a Horn Book Fanfare Selection, and a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book. Formerly, an English teacher in Florida public high schools, he became a senior editor at Harcourt Brace School Publishers in 1986. He was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1950, educated at Fordham University and is married to Pamela Dixon, a teacher. They have a daughter and son, and live in Winter Garden, Florida.
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