Couric interviews Peter Magee

Hi peeps! We're back today with my amazing and inspirational high school teacher, Peter Magee. Interviewing him will be the slightly chubby, very white trashy and brash, Kelly Couric.

Yes, it is a little odd. I'm quite capable of conducting MY own interviews on My own blog with MY own high school teacher. But, whatever, Kelly got the gig, and I think we should all just be professional about this. So, I'm kicking back with a cup of hot Red Rose tea and a plate of Peek Freen biscuits, waiting to see how this pans out. Kelly's your basic reality-TV, screw-top-wine kind of gal. And she's interviewing my well-read, cultured English teacher. Should be interesting...




Thank you for that intro. Not. Anyway, Little Ms. Organized, what took you so long to get this post rolling today?




I was at a school assembly. Child #4 got an award for Student of the Month.





Aw, congrats to Child #4. You should buy her a pony or something. Okay. (claps) Let's get this show on the road. I have other things to do today, places to go, yada, yada, yada. I'm a busy Hollywood wannabe. Besides, people are at work and only have so much time to surf the blogosphere. So, Hi Peter Magee!




Hi Kelly. Thanks for interviewing me. Although from our phone conversation, I actually thought the interview was with Katie Couric.




Katie. Kelly. They sound pretty alike. Your bad. Although I totally understand how you'd get them mixed up.



(opens and closes mouth in surprise) Here. I brought you some flowers.



Flowers? Oh, how sweet. Let's give them to Barrie. FYI for the next time, I'm partial to those little bottles of alcohol you get on airplanes. Gin, vodka, rum ... I'm not picky. So, Peter, where'd you grow up?



London, Ontario. I went to the University of Western Ontario there too.




Is that near Buckingham Palace?




Uh, no. London, Ontario, Canada. It's about 120 miles southwest of Toronto. Halfway between Toronto and Detroit, if you will.




Toronto? Detroit? North America, right? Moving along. How many years were you a teacher?



Thirty-two!




Whoa, duuude! I haven't done anything consistently for 32 years. Well, except breathe. Ever teach anyone famous?



I attempted to teach public speaking to Alan Thicke.




(squeals) Alan Thicke? The hot dad from Growing Pains? Can you hook us up? He could really jump-start my career.




I'd like to answer a few questions from the list Barrie sent me. (rattles paper in the air) How about this one? Yes, I had a couple of favourite teachers. The late Miss Louise Wyatt was my grade 13 English teacher. She was David Suzuki's favourite teacher too. In case you don't know, David Suzuki is a well-known Canadian science broadcaster and environmentalist. My other favourite teacher was James Reaney, a famous Canadian poet and playwright who has won the prestigious literary Governor General's Award. I'm still in touch with James. I visit him in palliative care.




That's sad, but neat.





(looking at printed sheet of questions) The books I most enjoyed teaching were: Hamlet, A Streetcar Named Desire and Endgame.



You read entire books? I'm more of a magazine skimmer. Cosmo's pretty good. You ever teach from that?




(shakes head and continues with list of questions) I'll read any Canadian novel, and I also like autobiographies. I'd like to do a blog on Ostomies and their trials and tribulations.




Hey, I could do your blog interviews!




Oh, uh, maybe.




So, who would you rather have in your English class? Me or Barrie?




Kelly! I'm right here! And I have the power of the delete key. Peter, one last question: What's your favourite cookie?





Cookies made by David with Duncan Heinz cake mixes. Recipes available on request.



Thank you, thank you, Peter Magee. Great job with the interview. Against all odds, I might add. And especially thank you for all that you did for me in high school English. We're looking forward to the book review you wrote for this blog. :)

Until next time, Katie Couric...

JK Rowling had the sorting hat. We have the choosing shoes. (Please admire these beautiful new shoes Child #4 got for the Father-Daughter Dance.)

I really enjoyed playing Katie Couric. Perhaps a little much! I may dress up as Katie Couric for Halloween. I've been a pirate for the last three years, and it's time for a change anyway. Maybe I could talk hubby into going as Matt Lauer.

When it came right down to it, Child #4, not Eileen Cook, chose the winning commenter for a copy of the very well written, very funny, very why-isn't-it-longer UNPREDICTABLE.

I could've predicted (ha, ha!) that Eileen would cave on the who-gets-to-choose thing.

Why?

First off, Child #4 can tap dance, and Eileen, um, really can't. Sorry, Eileen, but it was bound to come out at some point.

Second, it's pretty tough to say no to child #4. Ask anyone in my family, including Child #1, #2 and #3, Dorothy the Dog, the two veiled chameleons and our newest addition, the rat. You might be wondering (or not) what happened to Squirtle, our mean, red-eyed dwarf hamster. Without going into all sorts of sordid details, Dorothy's a dog, and the hamster escaped from her cage and was wandering recklessly around our house...

Ahem. Back to Eileen Cook, Debut Author Extraordinaire.

The winner of Eileen's very very marvelous, very very funny debut novel is: Bill Clark of Greenwich Gossip

So, email me your snail mail addy at: barrieDOTsummyATgmailDOTcom

For those of you who didn't win, thank you for participating. Now, just go buy the book. You'll feel better; Eileen'll feel better; I feel better. It's a win-win-win situation.

I promise I will get all the books I owe into the mail this week. Thus fulfilling New Year's Resolution #5.

Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting to do this. Here's the link to the first chapter of Eileen Cook's UNPREDICTABLE.

Author Eileen Cook, Katie Couric, and Win a Free Book

I'm a Katie Couric wannabe. She has great hair. She's smart. She's famous. And everybody loves her. Thanks to Eileen Cook, author of UNPREDICTABLE, who has good-naturedly agreed to answer a bunch of inane questions, today is my Couric day.


Oh wait, a short commercial before we start. If you want the chance to win a copy of Eileen's brand new ultra hilarious romantic comedy, UNPREDICTABLE, (and who wouldn't?), comment on today's or yesterday's post on this blog or on today's or yesterday's post on Eileen's blog or, for double the chance to win, on BOTH blogs. Alright then, freebie book business out of the way, let's go straight to the interview extraordinaire.


Do you outline before starting a book?







I'm a fly by the seat of my pants writer who secretly wishes she was a plotter. I have plotter envy- it goes well with my office supply fetish. I love the idea of binders with color-coded tabs and Post it Note flags. Instead I practice the time-honored tradition on beating my head on the desk until the story falls out. I am attempting to do more outlining, but it remains to be seen if these outlines provide me with a map or just a nice reminder of where I thought the book would go back before the head beating began.

I’ve met writers that do detailed 100 pages plus outlines with binders for all the main characters and writers who start with Chapter One and see where the story goes from there. I saw John Irving (author of A Prayer for Owen Meany) speak and he likes to write by starting with the end and working backwards. Sometimes new writers want to know “what works” and it is a tricky answer as what works for one person will completely block another. You have to find your own way into your story.

Are you part of a critique group?






I used to belong to a writer’s group that met on a monthly. Eventually due to people’s schedule the group disbanded. I now belong to an online writer’s critique group where we post scenes. I also use a group of early readers made up of both writers and readers to critique my draft. When I have a manuscript ready to go I pass it out to all of them and collect their comments before heading into the final revision stage.

In addition to getting feedback, I think it is important for writers to give feedback. It can sometimes be easier to pick apart someone else’s writing, looking at what works and what doesn’t work because you aren’t involved in the story. Once you can see it in someone else’s writing it is easier to look at your own and see if you are guilty of the same mistakes. If you don’t have a regular group of writers that you meet with I often suggest people pick a favorite book and a book they disliked and go chapter by chapter looking at what happens in each scene, what’s the conflict, if they liked it why, if they didn’t why? I have them highlight lines that they liked or places where they felt the story was dragging. One thing that excites me about writing is how much there is to learn. No matter how long you’ve been writing there is always a way to improve. I’m a bit geeky this way.

You are absolutely hilarious. Were you the class clown?






My parents are both funny so it may be genetic. Growing up I was mortified at my parent’s jokes and I’m pretty sure during my teen years I tried to ban them from talking at all when my friends were around.

I was a bit too shy to be the class clown, but I’m pretty sure my close friends saw me as the clown type. I’ve always tended to see things from a different angle that tends towards the humorous.

So, how'd you land Rachel Vater as your agent?






While writing Unpredictable I picked up a copy of Writer’s Digest that happened to have an interview with Rachel. I don’t recall what she said, but I remember thinking “she’s perfect for me!” I stuck the article on my bulletin board (complete with her picture) and whenever I found myself blocked I would remind myself that this fabulous agent was waiting for my masterpiece even though we had never communicated. Inside my head we were already a mean, lean writing team. I knew I wanted an agent I could connect with and who would take a career building approach to my writing.

When I finished the book I sent off a query to Rachel. I was prepared to send it out to a long list of agents if needed, but she was my top choice. People are sometimes surprised when I tell them that I didn’t have any connections or family in the business. I was a slush pile find. I can’t imagine going through the publishing process without a strong agent in your corner and Rachel has been the perfect business partner for me.

What are you working on now?






I recently signed a contract with Simon Pulse (Simon and Schuster) and am really excited to be working on some young adult novels. I always loved reading and in the past couple years have started to read all the great stuff coming out these days in the young adult and middle grade market. I love Meg Cabot and would run away in a heartbeat to be her personal assistant if she would have me.

The other area that I’ve tried out recently is writing screenplays. I’ve always been a huge movie buff and when Unpredictable was optioned by New Line I wanted a chance to write the script. For some reason the studio didn’t want someone who had never written a script before to do the job- go figure. I took some classes and am really interested in how the format is so different than novels. Scripts have to be much tighter as you typically only have 90-120 pages and the story has to be told in all action and dialog.

What is your favorite cookie?







I can pick just one favorite? Of course I am coming off the post Christmas cookie butter and sugar hangover where I made all the cookies that you never make any other time of the year.

If had to pick one favorite I would go with the traditional standby of chocolate chip. I add a touch a cinnamon in mine as the secret ingredient. Shhh don’t tell anyone.

Happy Valentine's Day, Eileen! We wish you loads of Belgium chocolate (yes, we know you love it), wheelbarrows full of chocolate chip cookies and, most of all, great big humungous book sales!