Geri Buckley Borcz

I'm pleased to showcase another debut author - noted educator Michael Garcia - with his new Young Adult fantasy Maxwell Lear's Book, and to have Michael share his thoughts on the writing process:

First, tell us about your new book, Michael

Twelve-year-old Maxwell Lear is tired of seeing doctors, taking pills, spending nights in hospitals, and undergoing humiliating procedures. But things escalate from bad to worse when a new doctor, a terrible man with a graveyard face and twisted eye, asks him, "Have you bought your coffin yet?" Maxwell, an avid reader, desperately wants to be like his friends, but at every turn he's reminded he'll never be anything but a sick child, a thing he's beginning to believe himself. He tries to find ways to cope, but when the cruel doctor begins to visit him in the middle of the night, Maxwell realizes the end is near. That is, until a mysterious stranger gives him the chance to leave it all behind - the doctors, the pills, the surgeries, the pain - and enter a world where he discovers a book bearing his name - the very book the reader is holding. In fact - it's a book where he's the main character and the middle and the ending are still to be written. But when the book is stolen, Maxwell knows he may lose more than just his life. Who will write the rest of Maxwell's book? The answer will determine his fate once and for all.

What drew you to the story and made you think 'I have to write this'?

Someone very close to me, a young boy, was diagnosed with a chronic illness not too long ago. As a result, I decided to try and write a novel that he could dip into again and again when things get tough. MAXWELL LEAR'S BOOK attempts to get its readers to think about life in deep, meaningful ways and to put things in some kind of proper perspective. The book is a statement about how important it is to "think" your life good no matter what. As Hamlet says, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." My hope is that he, and others now, can find solace from many passages and moments in the novel.

What's your writing process and where do you write?

I write in our "reading room." It's really a garage we converted into a little library. The computer is there, so when the house is nice and quiet, usually in the morning, I go in there and write. My mind needs to be completely "at peace" to write. I find that only seems to happen in the mornings. Once the bustle of the day begins, my mind isn't as sharp. By that point there are too many distractions, I think.

Any advice to aspiring writers?

Writing is so much about perseverance. Yes, talent, too, I suppose, but you can have all the talent in the world but if you don't do the "work" of writing, it won't matter. You just have to do it--I mean, actually write words on paper or on the screen and, then, be willing to revise. A serious "writer" is more of a reviser. I think revision is 90 percent of writing, and I don't know that too many people have the patience for that.

It's a cliche but true: write for yourself. Don't worry about agents or publishers or the potential commerciality of the thing you're working on or about trying to write the next big thing. Just write.

And what's next for you?

I've finished a second YA book about a young boy who has a magic finger. He has a voice that sounds like breaking glass except when he sings and then he sounds like a chorus of angels unleashed. But Little Oliver, who walks with a "clinka-wonk clinka-wonk" because of his metallic braces, is hiding a horrible secret. My third novel, also YA, is of a teenager living in our post-9/11 world, struggling to understand his father's death, who then decides, like Don Quixote, to go out and save the world from itself.

I teach literature to high school students. I read voraciously: my goal is to read everything worth reading before I die (fat chance that!). And, now, I write.


Many thanks to Michael Garcia for taking time from his busy schedule to share his thoughts on writing, and be sure to ask for Maxwell Lear's Book at your favorite book store.