David Lubar created a sensation with his debut novel, Hidden Talents, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Besides writing, he has also worked as a video game programmer and designer. Here he discusses his frightening new work, Extremities.
A group of high school girls takes revenge on their sadistic gym teacher in the most fitting way possible. Two stowaways find themselves on a ship for the dead. An ancient predator stalks the wrong victim. Here are thirteen tales of death, murder, and revenge from the fertile and febrile imagination of master storyteller David Lubar—his first story collection for the teen audience.
YOUNG ADULT: What is your earliest memory involving writing?
David Lubar: In elementary school, I wanted to be a comedy writer. I used to send jokes to the comedians who were on TV when I was a kid. I never heard back from them, but it got me started writing.
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What is different about Extremities: Stories of Death, Murder, and Revenge?
DL: I’ve written seven books of short stories for younger readers. Dark things happen in those stories, but the darkness is wrapped in fantasy or humor, and isn’t too disturbing. These stories go a lot darker, and a lot deeper. One of them is about a boy who plans to murder his father. Another is about a plot to get revenge against a sadistic gym teacher. Unlike many of the stories kids are fed in school, these are traditional, plotted genre stories of the sort that you could once find in the pulp magazines. Basically, things happen. Also, while I can take no credit for them, the illustrations are stunning. I couldn’t be happier with the art.
YA: This is a rare book in that it is a collection of YA short stories. Do you see YA novellas having more of a place?
DL: I think short fiction is difficult to sell, both to publishers and to readers, because it isn’t as common as it used to be. In the 1960s and 1970s, for example, many magazines of all sorts included a short story. The most common response I’ve heard, so far, to this collection is “I didn’t think I’d like it, but I did.” People assume they won’t enjoy short stories because they are force fed some indecipherable literary stories in school.
YA: How did the idea for this book arise? What were your major influences?
DL: My Weenies collections require about 35 stories, and I’m often asked to contribute to anthologies. So I am constantly writing stories. Some of them come out darker than planned. When I realized I had enough for a collection, I started to shop it around. But even people who loved my younger stories weren’t sure there was a market for this book. After several false starts, I finally convinced Tor to give it a shot. My influences are all the great story writers – Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Saki, O. Henry, Shirley Jackson, and on and on.
YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you.
DL: I get up when the cats wake me. I squander too much time online. Then, if I have a work in progress, I read over the past day’s work, and keep going. If I’m starting something new, I look over my idea files. I stay at it until 4:00 or so, then knock off and commune with my Xbox 360 and PS3.
YA: Besides the classic ‘never give up’, what advice would you give to aspiring young writers today?
DL: Read widely. Learn to love revision. Find someone you trust to give you honest feedback. Anyone who does nothing but praise your work can’t teach you anything. Anyone who does nothing but tear apart your work can’t teach you anything, either. Look in between those extremes.
YA: What’s next for you?
DL: I am working on the first draft of a YA novel with the working title “Character, Driven.” It is a real-life meta-fictional coming of age novel that is much more mature than any of my other books.
YA: What other authors, YA or otherwise, do you idolize? Or, what YA books are on a pedestal for you?
DL: My idols include Katherine Paterson, Bruce Coville, Donald Westlake, Rod Serling, John Steinbeck, and many others. My pedestal books would be Ender’s Game (controversy aside, it is a brilliant book), Cannery Row, Bridge to Terabithia, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, and many others.