“We just choose a club that’s so boring, nobody in their right mind would ever in a million years join it. We could call it Geography Club!”

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Young Adult: Who is Russel Middlebrook?

Brent Hartinger: Well, in addition to being the main character in the Russel Middlebrook Series, he’s also sort of my alter-ego. He’s not me exactly, but he definitely shares my sensibility: he’s funny (hopefully!), generally optimistic, often very neurotic and way too self-aware, sometimes dorky, and ultimately pretty decent.

I’m always amused when people call him an “everyboy” or a “universal” character, because like I said, he’s loosely based on me, and the last thing in the world I felt when I was a teenager was “universal.” I felt like a total freak, like there was no one else like me in the entire world!

But there’s irony the for you: now I know that we all feel like freaks from time to time, we all feel alone. It makes me laugh and ask, “If we all feel like outsiders, who are the insiders? Do they even exist?”

YA: Where did your inspiration for Geography Club come from?

BH: It’s sounds funny to say in an era of GLEE, but when I started writing Geography Club (in the 1990s), the LGBT youth movement was almost completely invisible – very, very few books, movies, or TV shows touched it. I helped found one of the world’s first LGBT teen support groups in my hometown in Washington State, and this was in 1990. When I approached the high schools in town to see if they wanted our help, they mostly said the same thing, “We don’t have any gay students at our school.” And I was thinking, “Really? Because we have 400 members in our gay support group, and they’re going to school somewhere!”

My own teen experiences, and working with gay and straight teenagers all through the 1990s: that became the inspiration for the book.

…And I also have to give credit to my own circle of geeky friends. A huge part of the series – maybe the most important part – is the central relationship between three friends: Russel (gay), Gunnar (straight), and Min (bisexual). That comes right out of my life, and my very early realization that the most important thing in life (by far!) is a circle of smart, fun, weird, faithful friends. 

YA: What was your reasoning for continuing the story, in creating a series?

BH: I think I always simply assumed it would be a series. I remember telling that to my editor, and he laughed and said, “Well, let’s wait and see, okay? Publishers usually only publish sequels to SUCCESSFUL books.”

But the first book was successful, so off we went!

I know these books aren’t Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. I love those movies, but my books are much quirkier. I wrote characters who are weird and smart and dorky and funny, oh yeah, and a couple of them are also gay and bisexual. That’s a niche audience – partly by sensibility, partly by the box that the publishing industry puts you in. And I’m okay with that. ??I have an extremely loyal readership, and it seems have slowly grown over the years. With the movie version of Geography Club coming out, maybe even more people will discover me, but if not, that’s okay too.?? Honestly, I have the best of all possible worlds: I get to do and write exactly what makes me happiest, and people pay me to do it. What’s not to love?

YA: What do you hope people take away from the series?

BH: Mostly I just want readers to be happy, to feel entertained, and maybe to have made a connection with the characters, to feel a little less alone.

If I did my job right, each book has its own story – a set-up, a story, a resolution. And then the overall series has its own story-arc too. And it’s all resolved (more or less) at the end of The Elephant of Surprise.

Obviously the books are infused with my world-view, the things that I think are important. At various points, the books touch on religion, politics, consumerism, bullying, safe sex, disabilities, coming out, parents, cliques …

And ultimately, as I said before, the series is all about friends and the importance of forgiveness.

YA: Why in the third book did you decide to show Min’s side of things?

BH: I love all three of my main characters — Russel, Gunnar, and Min. I could write about them forever. But at the time I was writing the third book (in 2005), there had been very, very few lesbian-themed YA books, and even fewer bisexual-themed ones. I wanted to be one of the first for both. Plus, I knew Min had a lot of fans among my readers.

The way I originally pitched it to my editors, I wanted it to be two completely different books, both covering the same period of time, one from Russel’s perspective (ATTACK OF THE SOUL-SUCKING BRAIN ZOMBIES) and one from Min’s (BRIDE OF THE SOUL-SUCKING BRAIN ZOMBIES). The gimmick was that you had to read BOTH books to get the whole story about what really went on.

I was pretty proud of this idea, partly because it meant I would fulfill two books in my contract, and I’d get paid twice – ha! – but also because it seemed like something that hadn’t really been done in YA. And one of my real dislikes in life is stuff that seems derivative (for example, right now I hate anything zombie, vampire, superhero, or dystopian, because it all seems so WILDLY over-done).

Anyway, my publisher didn’t think the “Min” book would sell, so they decided to publish the two books in a single volume, called Double Feature. It’s not quite the gimmick I wanted, and it wasn’t as good a financial deal for me, but it’s a better deal for the reader, so in the end it worked out well.

YA: Is Kevin based on anyone you know?

BH: I’ve known a few “Kevins” – some of the romantic things Kevin says to Russel were also said directly to me. And that makes me smile.

It’s funny. The “love interest” in a book is probably the hardest of all characters to write. We all know what witty sidekicks look and act like, because most of us have them in our lives. But the “romantic ideal” doesn’t really exist in real life. He exists only in our minds, for brief periods of time, before reality finally intrudes. Then there are all the stupid “romantic” tropes and stereotypes – writers have to really fight to not fall into that trap.

In Geography Club, Kevin is sort of a stock character — the hot closeted jock. But I really like what I was able to do with him over the course of the series. He’s still sort of a romantic ideal – we never see the world from his POV, and we probably never will. But a case could be made that he’s ultimately the hero of the story.

YA:  Where did you come up with the idea for specifically making it a geography club?

BH: I honestly don’t remember, but I suspect it’s because I wanted a gimmick, a strong central concept for the book. I like what I came up with. I think part of the reason why the book got so much attention — and definitely the reason the movie got made — was because it’s an attention-getting idea: a group of closeted gay kids start a secret gay alliance, but they don’t want anyone else to join their club, so they give it the most boring name they can think of, the Geography Club.

If I hadn’t written it, I’d read that book!

YA: In The Elephant of Surprise we meet a guy named Wade. Who is he and what can we learn from him?

BH: Wade is a freegan, which is a real-life group of people who have sort of renounced the modern, consumerist world. They’re famous for eating out of dumpsters, but they’re about much more than that. Basically, they have no possessions and essentially live day-to-day.

In The Elephant of Surprise, Russel is bored and wants more adventure in his life. So he begins a passionate romance with Wade, a mysterious guy who eats roadkill and squats in houses and explores abandoned buildings. He’s got this whole fantastic philosophy worked out.

“Romance” and “Dumpster diving” are not themes you usually see associated together, right? And that was exactly the point! I wanted to do something really unusual and attention-getting and different – unlike any other YA book, especially gay YA, out there. 

YA: What has been your favorite scene throughout the entire series?

BH: Oh man! Well, there are individual scenes in all the books I love. In The Order of the Poison Oak, I like the story Russel tells his kids about Rainbow Crow and the creation of fire, and also when he creates the Order of the Poison Oak. In Double Feature, I like when Russel is forced to visit that priest, and I had fun comparing his homophobic parents to brain-sucking zombies. And in The Elephant of Surprise, I like those scenes where Wade shows Russel what it means to be a freegan. I think that’s some of the most romantic writing I’ve ever done.

YA: Was Cameron Deane Stewart who you saw playing the role of Russel? And with that, would you have chosen any differently for the other roles?

BH: It’s an interesting question. First, I think Cameron is just flat-out fantastic. I think he’s going to be a big star very soon. He absolutely has “it.”

That said, he’s really nothing like how I imagined Russel to be. Or, rather, he’s one Russel Middlebrook (the “movie” version), and there’s another Russel (the “book” version). I love them both, and I’m thrilled and humbled and flattered to have created one and inspired the other. But they’re not really the same.

Which makes sense. I’ve lived with these characters for fifteen years, so it stands to reason I’d now have a very specific image of who they are, what they look like.

YA: Did you get to see the film in its entirety? What was your favorite scene to be put on screen?

BH: Yup, I’ve seen the film a couple of times. Mostly, I loved how cinematic it all is. The football scene (which isn’t in the book) is pretty great, and Russel and Kevin have a couple of romantic scenes I loved. The scene when Kevin picks Russel up after a disastrous night at a beach place (which is right from the book) is probably my favorite. It’s really, really sweet, and I know people are going to love it.

I also like a scene that is one of my favorite scenes in the book – when Trish puts the moves on Russel in a car. It’s a little different in the movie, but they did a great job. They absolutely kept the humor and the absurdity of the situation.

YA: Are readers going to be able to get more Russel in the future?

BH: I honestly haven’t decided. I’d love to write another one, and if I do, I’ll probably jump five years or so into the future, with Russel in college.

It partly depends on how well the latest book, The Elephant of Surprise, does (so far, so good, but I can’t retire just yet), and also how well the movie does.

When you get to the fifth book in a series, I think it’s a little harder to get attention – people feel they need to have read the others. And I don’t want to repeat myself.

Plus, I have so many other projects I’m working on right now, things I’m really excited about – two more YA books and an adult series. I also have a couple of movie projects that I’m involved with.

YA:  What can you tell others who are pursuing the same career?

BH: I so wish there was a secret to success!

Here’s the truth: it’s really, really hard. I mean, the rejection is unrelenting, and it never ends, even after you’ve had some “success.” You’re only as good as your last hit, nothing is in any way “fair,” a huge part of it is just blind luck, and no one really cares about your feelings.

Nutshell? You’re getting paid to entertain people, and no one cares how hard you try, how hard you worked, not if they don’t like the finished product. And there are ALWAYS people who won’t like it.

The good news is, it never gets old or boring. The lows are pretty low, but the highs are just as high. There’s a reason why everyone wants to be a writer — to have their books published and have their screenplays turned into movies. It’s damn fun! And when you’re on top, the pay ain’t bad either.

Honestly, touching another human being with your art is the greatest thing in the world. I’ve been making my living at this for twenty years, and I’ve been up and I’ve been down. But I’ve never once felt like I wasn’t totally alive.