Today I interview the young writer of the new book The Sixth Form, a coming-of-age novel set in a prestigious East coast prep school. He's also the author of the bestselling The Trouble Boy, as well as the co-editor of the fabulous anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: True Tales of Love, Lust, and Friendship Between Straight Women and Gay Men (several of the contributors have been interviewed on this very site!)
How did you come up with the idea for soundtracks for your books?
I did a Virtual Book Tour in 2005 for the paperback release of my novel, The Trouble Boy, in which I "visited" a number of blogs (including this one), and I created a soundtrack for the book for the music blog Largehearted Boy. The Trouble Boy already had lyrics to two songs in it, and people would often ask me during Q&A sessions after readings what kind of music "went" with the book. So it seemed a natural fit. Now everyone's doing it: Largehearted Boy started a regular feature called Book Notes soon after, and then the New York Times books blog followed suit with author soundtracks as well. It's a natural fit; music, both the kind that goes with the story and the music that I listen to while writing a book, is an integral part of the writing process for me.
What will definitely be on the Sixth Form soundtrack?
The Rolling Stones, some classic rock -- all the prep school stuff that doesn't change. I'm also partial to Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle," that wonderful (albeit a bit corny) song about fathers and sons. Some Edith Piaf, too -- "Non, je ne regrette rien," for Hannah's character, who's obsessed with Paris.
What's your writing schedule like?
I try to write every day, for at least three hours, usually in the mid-mornings. I tend to be at my best then. After three or four hours of writing, I'm always a bit fried. When I'm on tour and doing press, of course, that totally changes, and I barely have a chance to breathe.
About how many times a week do people mention the other Thomas Dolby to you? Are you sick of it?
Maybe once a month. It's sort of a joke because it's not even his real name; he took it on as a stage name in the '70s because he loved my dad's sound system so much. But as long as people recognize me as Tom Dolby the author, that's all I really care about.
What is your next book about?
My next novel is a black comedy set in California, focusing on a wealthy family there. I've found there is a lot of humor to be mined in writing about people with money. I've been taking notes.
Did you consider making "The Sixth Form" a Young Adult book? How would it be different if it was?
I never considered it, though the question was raised to me, which I think can happen if you're writing about teenagers. I'm not sure it would be as layered a book; while I'm thrilled that people have found the portrayals of the two boys--one straight, one gay--realistic and, as a YA writer friend of mine said, "not awash in nostalgia," I don't know if I would have been able to explore themes that are as complex or sophisticated in the YA context. It's really an adult view of high school told through the teenage perspective. In an adult book, with a little bit of writing magic, you can make your teens more perceptive than actual teens might be.
A lot of the press I read about you uses other cultural touchstones to describe your writing: "Will and Grace," "Sex and the City," "The Secret History," Bret Easton Ellis, etc. Do you find that these similes are useful when describing/marketing your writing or are you hoping to escape them?
I think a lot of writers experience this. It's just publishing jargon, so it doesn't really bother me. If they haven't read something yet, people need an easy touchstone.
I read that "The Sixth Form" took you almost five years to write--when Prep came out, were you like "Oh great!"?
I was already about fifteen drafts into The Sixth Form when Prep came out. Though I didn't read it until much later, I was actually pleased to see that there was so much interest in that particular milieu. While my book is a very different type of book, I think it explores similar coming of age issues, except that they're on the male side instead of the female one. With Prep, I found that she was using some of the same source material, which is similar in many prep schools, but that we had radically different ways of viewing it.
What are some of your favorite books or movies that chronicle life in boarding school?
I've seen all the films (Dead Poets Society, School Ties, etc.) but I can't say that any of those are my favorites. In terms of fiction, the classics, of course: A Separate Peace, Catcher in the Rye, some of Fitzgerald's short stories. Paul Russell's The Coming Storm is a wonderful book that really explores, full-on, the issue of a student being gay at a prep school. My book was much more elliptical about that -- I always saw the main relationship in the book as between Ethan and Hannah, the English teacher. They seduce each other in a Lolita sort of way, and naturally, disaster results.
Why do you think there's such an obsession with what goes on at private schools?
I think people have a lot of misconceptions about it, and then books and shows like Gossip Girl fuel those ideas. So when a book like The Sixth Form or like Prep comes out, people can see a little bit of that world in a more realistic light. In terms of demographics, I would venture that less than 1% of the teens in the country go to boarding schools, so there's an incredible curiosity about what that type of education is like. It's a relatively closed world.
Once you'd moved on to college, did you ever feel an "us vs. them" mentality between public and private high school kids? I know I never gave private high schools a second thought until I went to college, when I realized it was supposed to mean something to me when people told me they went to Choate or St. Michael's or what have you.
I never felt that -- in college, the playing field seemed to even out. I never really cared very much about where people had gone to high school.
You've edited two anthologies: what's the process for putting one together?
Actually, I've only edited one, Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys. Someone once told me that editing an anthology is like herding cats. It's a lot of organization, a lot of convincing your writer friends and acquaintances to participate (and an equal number who are begging you to be part of it), and then you hope that it all turns out to be a well-balanced and representative mix. Luckily, I think we got that
What's your secret to taking a cute author photo?
Great retouching! No, seriously, I think you need a good photographer whom you feel comfortable with, and you have to know your best angles. I know that I always look best outdoors, and that I have about ten good angles, and 350 crappy ones. If the photographer hits the right ones, it's all good -- and sometimes you have to shoot dozens just to get one good shot. And of course, a little retouching never hurts, either.
What do you think you'd be doing if you weren't a writer?
I don't really know; I think I'd always be writing in some form or another. I've always had a fantasy about being a detective. Probably too many reruns of Law & Order and old detective movies. I guess maybe writing is the same way -- we're always trying to track down people's motivations.
With "The Trouble Boy" and with the virtual book tour and perhaps your agent Kate Lee, at least the beginning of your career is linked to the blogosphere. Do you still have time to keep up with many? Which do you read?
I love reading the blogs, though they're so prolific these days, it's hard to keep up. I go through my phases -- it will be all the lit blogs one month, then it will be the gossip blogs, then I'll start devouring all the design blogs. I wish I could write in that format, but I don't think I'm suited to it -- I try to write a little bit on my own site in terms of keeping readers abreast of what's going on in my professional (and occasionally personal) life, but for the most part, I like to save the good stuff for my fiction. And I'm totally aware that it's terribly self-aggrandizing to be posting constant tidbits about one's career, but the Dolblog is a record for myself as well. It was helpful this time around to be able to go back, and say, "Yeah, I remember that reading, and that was how it went."
OK, so you're handsome, well-educated, have a great place in the city that's been covered by the Times, a successful writer, come from a good family...tell us something base or disgusting about yourself so we can all feel better about our pitiful lives.
Honestly, most of the things that are base or disgusting about me are really too base or disgusting for print. Call me.
How does it feel to be the 200th person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
Woo hoo! My mother will be very proud.