To Hear Grandpa's Voice with Michael Thompson

In this episode, Michael Thompson discusses his writing path which began at the age of 13. Learn how one teacher’s attempt to devalue his doodling led to his creative mentor.

I pop into my local Barnes and Noble bookstore several times a month just to feel surrounded by books. When my trip happens to be on a weekend, I often come across local authors signing their books. A few weeks ago, I met Michael Thompson who told me, “Oh, I just sold the last copy of my book.”

I congratulated him and discovered that he has quite the writing story to tell and invited him to be on my podcast. I think you’ll delight in his journey as an author!

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Transcripts available at https://tobydorr.com/podcast-schedule/

Some of our fierce topics today:

[02:07] Becoming a full-time author is kind of a scary decision. It’s not exactly a traditional job and you wear a lot of hats. 

[03:54] I was always creating from a very, very young age, and I was always drawing in class and creating all kinds of different characters. Epic battles were filling the margins of my notebooks. I couldn't help myself. And some of my teachers didn't like that.

[04:36] It was at summer school that I met the greatest teacher that I'd ever had, Mr. A. He said, “we're going to make our own comic book”. And that was the first assignment. My mom contacted the principal and had me transferred into his class for the fourth grade. And it was there that I created Chicken Boy, my first ever character.

[07:48] I loved reading my stories with my grandfather, and he had a great voice. And I always really enjoyed writing something just so I could hear him read it to me in his voice.

[08:57] My grandpa passed away when I was in the middle of college. And the book hadn't come out yet. And I had just kind of a placeholder name for the currency. It was like, you know, kind of like your classic gold doubloon type looking thing. And I just called them pieces and I didn't know what to call them yet, but I wanted something unique. When it came time to do those final polishing up edits. I still needed a name for the currency. And I found a stack of my grandfather's edits and in his handwriting, he had circled that placeholder and I think he meant to write silver or something, but he abbreviated it SIV, S I V. So I named the little treasure pieces Siv.

[33:05] I love the research process of these books. I call it the real-world tether. Each story has this root in reality or in real-world legends. So if you happen to search any of the creatures that Winslow sees on his voyages, you'll be, really excited to see it's like a whole bunch of old newspaper articles detailing other people's alleged encounters with those same myths.

About Michael Thompson:

Michael Thompson is an award-winning author and illustrator from Northern Virginia. He began his career at thirteen with the publication of his action-packed Chicken Boy series. His debut YA portal fantasy novel, World of the Orb, earned international acclaim in the Feathered Quill Book Awards alongside his sea adventure novel, Winslow Hoffner's Incredible Encounters.