May 7, 2024 • 26 mins
My friend Tyler Whitesides stopped by the Book Drop Mic to discuss his return to the wonderful world of Janitors. Listen and learn why he felt inspired to revisit his beloved universe of garbage.
Buy Tyler's book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1639931686
Learn more about Tyler:
http://www.tylerwhitesides.com
Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com
About the book:
Ordinary trash becomes extraordinary at the magical school of garbage―a summer school for young garbologists.
Garbage has come to life as animated creatures called junklets and are wreaking havoc in elementary schools. Only the specially trained kids from the magical School of Garbage can stop the rise of the trash monsters. With the school’s magical janitorial supplies―brooms that can fly, toilet plungers that can reverse gravity, and mops that can capture anything in their strings―the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Landon Murphy discovers the undercover janitorial world when his soon-to-be-stepsister, Jade Shu, guides him through a magical portal at the bottom of a dumpster that leads to a fantastical landfill and the home of the School of Garbage, where she has secretly been a student for the last few years.
Problems at home with his family make it hard for Landon to feel like he belongs anywhere, but he is quickly welcomed as a student at the intriguing school for wizard-like janitors. His class on the science of garbology is like being a crime-scene investigator, and every student gets to bond with one of three Servites―small, magical animals who exhale enchanted dust to help kids focus or be creative or have energy.
Landon and Jade―along with allies from the original series―are tasked to take out the trash and figure out who―or what―is behind the mysterious garbage attacks and stop them before the entire world is literally trashed.
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, my friends, welcome back to the Book Drop
Mike brought to you by Inkvames,your source for book publicity,
promo and press releases.
A reminder, folks, that ScarDakota is now available on
e-book and audio, and ahardcover is coming in May.
I cannot wait.
I finally got my hands on ahardcover.
(00:22):
I had some advanced copiesshipped to me by air and they
are gorgeous.
It looks so good.
Big shout out to my friendBrandon Dorman, the illustrator.
The cover is just, it'sstunning into the printer, it's
just.
You're going to love it.
And, as I said, if you don'twant to wait, you can pick up
the ebook and the audio Audio,by the way, by Kirby, our good
friend Kirby Hayborn, availablenow Every place.
(00:45):
You get your audiobooks Allright.
I have known today's guest boyfor probably a decade or so, but
I'm not sure we have been inthe same room since then.
His name is Tyler Whitesides.
His latest of many books iscalled Janitor's School of
Garbage.
Tyler, what's up?
Hey, how you doing, I am amdoing.
(01:07):
When is the last time we werein the same room?
Do you have any idea?
I mean I think maybe 2016 yeah,somewhere some eight years ago,
eight, ten years ago.
It's been a minute, it's been aminute, it's been a minute and
uh, janitor's, the originalJanitor series was blowing up
(01:28):
then that was the five bookoriginal series.
Is that right, five in thatseries?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, the first one of that came out Janitor's
volume one released in 2011, andthen we did one a year, so
2015,.
That series concluded.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Awesome.
Okay, all right, and I'm surewe have people listening that
are familiar with that.
So before we talk about what'snew, let me just say anyone that
looks up in the show notesyou'll see links to all the good
stuff Tyler's doing, includingto this series, to this new
series.
You may notice this book hasbeen out for a little while and,
tyler, you don't need to giveus your full health history per
(02:06):
HIPAA guidelines, right?
But I know you had a little bitof an interesting kind of a
trial and a season of your lifelast fall when this book hit
that sort of prevented you frommaybe doing quite as much press
and promotion as you might have.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, it kind of took everything I had leading up to
just the pub date doing a littlebit of publicity and stuff, and
(02:42):
then I was down for the countwith some health problems which
out on when that originalrelease happened just because of
some health problems.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Yeah, no, I get that, and I actually had an awful
case of the summer flu when oneof my novels came out back more
than a decade ago and I had tocancel some dates the week that
the book came out, some onebecause I was I was flying cross
country and my wife was likeyou will not survive that flight
(03:12):
if you get on with a fever andpeople will hate you.
You're going to, you're goingto have to cancel that one.
So I know what that's like.
You have this, you have thisbaby, you've worked so hard on
this book coming out and thenyou feel like you're not able to
kind of give it everything, topromote it and to talk about it,
and so I'm glad that we havethis opportunity now to to do
this, and, of course, this willtie into book two, which we'll
get to in a minute.
First, tell us a little bitabout, about tyler whiteside.
(03:36):
Who, who are you?
Where are you?
What do we need to know aboutyou before we talk about your
work?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
well, a funny buried memory came to my mind when you
were talking about having tocancel because of the flu.
I was remembering one time Iwas during the original
janitor's years.
I was doing a school visitpresentation, hundreds of kids
in this auditorium and I gotsick.
(04:01):
And I got sick and I realized Iwas very sick and I was like,
can we get it?
Can we get like, maybe agarbage can up here just in case
I throw up while I'm presenting?
And I muscled through, I pushedthrough it, finished and got
out of there.
I did have to cancel the nextschool, have to cancel the next
(04:29):
school.
So anyway, that's yeah, thoseare uh, unpredictable when you
think you're you're presentingand then your body has other
plans.
Yeah, yeah, I have been writingfor full-time now for it's like
13 years, I think.
So before that, people alwayssay you know, don't quit your
day job if you're a writer, andI fall into a very lucky
(04:49):
category that I guess it's luckythat never really had a day job
.
The closest thing I had wasjust a part time.
I was working as a custodian ata middle school when I was in
college, at a middle school whenI was in college, and it was
actually there, at that job thatI kind of had the idea for the
(05:10):
janitor's series and what led meto that which I think has kind
of set the precedent for mywhole career and my life that
ordinary things that arehappening to you in your life, a
job as a custodian, taking outthe trash, may lead to other
(05:30):
opportunities and may lead tosomething great if you keep
yourself open to it.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Amen to that.
I read a piece in the WallStreet Journal this week about a
Walmart general manager whomakes a quarter of a million
dollars a year managing aWalmart, a large store in Texas,
and who started as a part-timecashier in high school years ago
in that same store and hasworked her way up to now
(05:58):
managing a team of 300 plus andmaking a quarter of a million
dollars a year, and I thoughtthat that's what it's all about,
right there.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, I love it.
Yeah, I think that's, that'sthe dedication and the sort of
almost even like the rags toriches type approach.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, stick with it.
And for sure, you never knowthat experience you're having
today, particularly if you're acreative person.
You and I have been talking foralmost an hour before we hit
the record button.
But if you're a creative person, you just never know what
experience the person that youmeet, that interaction on the
sidewalk or in line in the storeor whatever that might turn
into that next great thing, thatnext great story, that next
(06:39):
great novel.
So, speaking of great novels,you've written a bunch of them.
Tell us what's new.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Tell us about Janitors and why we're back in
this universe of characters.
Yeah, so I have dipped back tothe Janitors series with a
spinoff trilogy.
The first book is JanitorsSchool of Gar of garbage.
It takes place 12 years afterthe original series and the
reason I picked 12 years was wasstrategic, because it was it
(07:11):
was very intentional 12 yearsfrom the release of the first
book of the janitor's series tothe second book well, to the
second, uh, spinoff trilogy,sorry.
And so what we see is that themain characters from the first
series are now 12 years older.
They were 12 in the originaland now they're in their 20s.
(07:35):
And this kind of came to mebecause I remember one time I
was at Wendy's.
I was driving through Wendy's,probably getting a Baconator or
something, and I handed the girlworking there.
I handed her my credit card andshe saw my name on the card and
she said, oh, are you TylerWhitesides, the author?
(07:58):
And I said, yeah, I am.
And she said I loved your bookswhen I was a kid, growing up,
and I was like, wait a minute,it's been that long.
I thought my readers wouldforever stay 12.
But alas, they grow and theychange and they enter the adult
(08:21):
world and the workforce and itstarted making me think about
that.
I've had a lot of experiencessince then.
So many people in their 20s nowcoming up to me saying I loved
your books when I was a kid.
Your books meant a lot to me.
I read them when I was a kid.
Your books meant a lot to me.
I read them when I was growingup and as I thought about that,
(08:44):
I started thinking about themain characters in the original
Janitor series, who were 12.
And I thought, like my readers,surely they would grow up and
what are they doing as theyenter the workforce?
And how has life turned out forthose characters that I loved,
those characters that got mestarted on my career?
Is life going?
(09:05):
well for them or is life notgoing well?
And what challenges have theyfaced and what unexpected things
have they gone through thatthey didn't think they'd have to
go through?
But, seeing as how I'm a middlegrade writer, they'd have to go
through.
But, seeing as how I'm a middlegrade writer, I wanted still
the focus to be on a readershipof young, you know, 12 year old
(09:27):
kids, and so I decided tointroduce a new cast of young
characters.
They're my main characters inthis series.
You find out that the originalseries members have grown up and
they have started a school ofgarbage where they study
garbology, which is touched uponin the original series.
(09:47):
It's kind of a Sherlock Holmesof the trash.
You can look at the garbage,you can study, you can read the
trash and the clues to find out,you know who's been in the room
before you, why they've thrownthings away.
You can piece togethermysteries by looking in the room
before you why they've thrownthings away.
You can piece togethermysteries by looking in the
trash.
And so two of my favoritecharacters from the original
series, now grown up, havestarted a school of garbage and
(10:12):
my main characters are two kidswho attend this summer school
type camp where they go to thislandfill where the school is
located and they study the cluesand they study the garbage.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That's fantastic.
I love the idea that you saidI'm going to pick this thing
back up and go back to the worldas if time has passed like in
real time.
Right, I love that.
Why not?
Why not do that?
Why not give that little treatto those original readers that
the young lady at Wendy's?
I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, and I just signed a book to a reader in his
twenties who was very excitedhad seen that School of Garbage
had released and and was veryexcited to pick up those
characters again.
School of Garbage had releasedand was very excited to pick up
those characters again and Ihope that as he reads them he
(11:09):
has a good time realizing thatthose characters have grown up
with him.
And yeah, it's been really.
Another reason I did it thatway was I wanted this trilogy to
be able to be readindependently of the first five
books, the people listeningright now.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
they don't need to go back and read the original
series.
I mean they did right, I meanwhy not?
But they don't have to.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
But it feels like as a kid, it feels like a big
commitment to think oh, I'mreally excited.
I like the cover of this newSchool of Garbage book and I
like the author came to myschool and talked about his new
book, but I've got to slogthrough five other books before
I can read this new one that hewrote.
I didn't want to do that to mylittle young readers and so I
(11:54):
decided I would write School ofGarbage independently, so it'll
be a trilogy and you can.
Readers.
I've talked to many readers.
In fact.
Interestingly enough, my editorfor the School of Garbage
series, the wonderful LisaMangum, had not read the
original janitors, the originalfive janitors books, because she
(12:17):
was not my editor on those.
emily watts had been my editoron on the original five and
she'd done a great job.
And what's been fun is to seelisa coming in and uh, she's,
she's reading with a fresh eye,she's reading like with the eye
of all those readers who haven'tread the original series and
(12:40):
she's done a good job, raisingsome flags to me saying, okay,
you're, you know, I don'tunderstand this without context
from the original or how do wedo this?
And so I've had that.
I've had her kind ofchampioning those new readers
that are just coming into theSchool of Garbage and skipping
the first Janitor series.
But interestingly enough, we'vealso brought Emily Watson on
(13:01):
the project with School ofGarbage and skipping the first
Janitor series.
But interestingly enough, we'vealso brought Emily Watson on
the project with School ofGarbage and it's been fun to
hear her feedback because sheremembers the original series as
well and those kind of bigmoments like oh, fun to see that
character come back.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
That's awesome.
Well, a shout out to LisaMangum, who has her own book on
writing a nonfiction projectcoming out, I believe, this fall
.
Is it this fall or next spring?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I'm not sure on the release date of it.
I did feel very honored becauseshe has a little story about
pitching and when I got my startit was a pitch to Lisa Mangum
that got janitors published andshe shares that in her book.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I love that.
That's awesome.
Yeah, she's been great.
I've worked with her on acouple of projects and she's not
just a great editor but a greatwriter in her own right.
So we'll put a link to that.
I assume it's out there forpre-order on Amazon.
But if you want to read a bookon writing, it's a pretty good
idea to pick up a book onwriting by someone who has
(14:08):
acquired manuscripts and who hasedited manuscripts the way Lisa
has for so many years.
That's awesome.
Okay, tyler, tell me.
I don't know if you've been in aBarnes Noble lately or any
bookstore, but you walk in andthe children's sections, I think
, are larger than ever.
My favorite Barnes Noble thatI'm in pretty frequently down in
(14:29):
Harrisonburg, virginia Shoutout to my good friend Chris in
Harrisonburg, the children'ssection, I think it feels twice
the size as it used to be.
There are so many books.
I mean it's heaven.
If you like children's books,if you're a kid, if you're a kid
going in to pick up a middlegrade novel, the choices are
(14:50):
endless.
So tell me, tyler Whitesides,why janitors walk into a
bookstore with my kid and I'mlooking at at a hundred feet of
books in this space middle gradefantasy with a kind of a
contemporary feel.
Why janitors?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
It's a great question and I agree with you.
I think that we are at thisgolden age of middle grade
fantasy.
I think that we've been in thegolden age for 10 years or so, I
think.
Probably Harry Potter, uh,issued that in because I
remember when I was a kid therethere wasn't as much, and now
(15:31):
there is almost an overwhelmingnumber of books.
Um, for for any reader to walkinto the store and feel
overwhelmed.
And why?
Why janitors?
Well, one of the fun thingsthat I've seen with readers over
the years who've enjoyed thejanitor series, and I think
(15:53):
you'll find the same thing withthis new janitors trilogy.
I get emails from parentssometimes and they'll include a
picture they've taken of theirkid sweeping the floor and they
say I don't know what's going onhere, but my kid has started
(16:16):
asking me where the cleaningsupplies are in the house and
and they want to play with thebrooms and the spray bottle.
And I said honey, some of thoseare chemicals.
You can't play with spray.
You can't shoot your siblingwith a spray bottle.
And and anyway they say theysay, um, that there's like you
(16:39):
know some.
So sometimes I come acrossthese kids that are playing
janitors, and I have two kids ofmy own.
I have an eight-year-old and afive-year-old, and we've read
School of Garbage and we justfinished reading the second one
as well.
My eight-year-old was so jazzedabout it he went back and he
picked up the original book andhe's been reading Janitor's Book
(16:59):
One and I see that kind of same.
He's always wanting to talkabout what magical effect a
cleaning supply would have, andI think that's one of the cool
things about this series is allof the magical.
All of the cleaning supplies inthe book have magical powers.
(17:21):
But only things that could bejustifiably used in cleaning or
maintenance can be made magical.
So something really awesome,like I don't know, like a car,
can't really be made magical.
Well, I guess I mean debatably,but a garbage truck can see, a
garbage truck can and is.
(17:43):
There are many of these magicgarbage trucks that they use
throughout the old series andthe new series as well, and so
what it does is it kind ofnarrows down.
It gives the imagination someparameters.
The parameters are cleaningsupplies, and those are things
that kids are, at least inpassing, familiar with.
(18:03):
Now my kids don't pick them upand use them as much as I would
like to actually clean.
But they're at least familiarbecause they've seen me mopping,
they've seen me sweeping, mevacuuming, and so it's fun
because all of a sudden we'll bedriving and they'll be thinking
about it, and then one of themwill say what would a magic
(18:24):
dustpan do?
What would a magic mop do?
Plunger, toilet plunger.
All all these different things.
And most of them I have ananswer for, because throughout
the original janitor series I, Imade magical about 50 different
cleaning supplies, um, and andso I think I think that's one
(18:47):
thing that helps the janitorseries stand out.
If you went into a store andyou looked at the shelves, you
would see the cover is ordinaryitems like garbage and cleaning
supplies.
But they are.
They become wondrous andmagical in the imagination as
(19:09):
kids read them.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
And in a world dominated, even among young
people, by these things, devicesand endless screen time, my
goodness, if you're listening tothis or you're watching this on
social media and you want yourkids to ignite something in
their, in their imagination,deep in there, that has nothing
(19:31):
to do with their physical eyesand their device or their game
or whatever, but that sameimagination that you relied on
when you were young to read andcreate and imagine a better
world, then yeah, it's janitorsand maybe they'll pick up a
month.
That's even better.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Maybe, maybe they'll pick up a month, that's even
better.
I recently spoke to a prettylarge group of teen writers and
artists and the topic that I wasdoing bored, embrace the
(20:17):
boredom and allow themselves tosink deep into the pit of
boredom.
Because often the inspirationis not found until you hit the
bottom of that boredom pit.
And we are so worried aboutfalling into boredom that we
claw onto the sides and wescramble up and we do anything
we can.
We pull out our devices, ourscreens, we do anything we can
to prevent ourselves fromgetting bored and in turn we rob
(20:40):
ourselves of the creativitythat's waiting for us at the
bottom of that pit.
But it's uncomfortable to fall.
It's uncomfortable to letyourself dive and just free fall
into that pit of despair andboredom.
It feels like the worst thingimaginable, especially to a kid.
But as you lay there at thebottom and you're crashed down
(21:02):
in the bottom of that boredompit, your brain starts to just
tingle with ideas Because yourbrain is trying to rescue you
from being bored and it'sstarting to give you ideas and
it's and it and it pulls you outand before you know it you've
done something creative or atthe very least had a creative
thought yeah, and it may be.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
You know, if you're, if you're a kiddo is at the
bottom of that pit and theyhappen to have a flashlight and
a copy of a Tyler Whitesidesbook.
That's okay too, right.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, that's good too.
Well, sometimes the solution tothat boredom is pick up a book.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah, pick up a book, something that does not.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, exactly that doesn't have a house dragging
your feet and saying I'm sobored and me responding it's
nice to meet you.
Bored, I'm dead.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You just want to whack that kid in the back of
the head with a book.
So tell us about, then thedrive now toward book two.
We saw it's up for pre-ordernow on Amazon, so people can see
the cover now and read thesynopsis now.
When does book two come out andwhat do we need to know about
(22:14):
it?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, so it'll be coming out this September.
It is called Trials of theTrash Janitor's School of
Garbage.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Love that ARC there.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Brandon Dorman did the cover art on the original
Janitor's series as well as thenew trilogy, the cover art on
the original janitor series aswell as the new trilogy.
So it will release in septemberand it picks up shortly after
the first book ends.
And after reading them recentlysomewhat back to back to out
loud to my kids I was talking tomy eight-year-old, he described
(22:48):
them this way and I thought itwas really good.
He said school, school ofgarbage.
The first one is almost adetective story.
As they study the trash they'relooking for clues.
Something has gone wrong withthe garbage and the garbage is
trashing neighborhoods and theydon't know why and they're
trying to figure out why.
And so these young garbologistsare on the trail studying the
(23:12):
trash, trying to figure out why.
And so these young garbologistsare on the trail studying the
trash, trying to figure out theclues and determine what has
caused this awakening of thetrash.
And so while the first onereads like a mystery, the second
one reads like an actionadventure.
They hit the ground runningwith book two immediately.
(23:32):
A lot of the questions thatthey were searching for answers.
They find the answers in theend of book one, but it leads to
some really big consequences inbook two and and that's, I
think, what makes the secondbook there is no time to breathe
.
These characters are just.
(23:53):
They're just moving as fast asthey can from one adventure to
the next.
Training time at the school ofgarbage study time.
Class time is over and we arenow in crisis mode with Trials
of the Trash.
The third book will actually I'mwriting the third right now.
I'm actually on the downhill.
I'm coming up to the climax ofthe story and the third one so
(24:18):
far.
Our title for it is War of theWasteland, and that will
conclude the School of Garbagetrilogy.
And I was talking aboutconsequences.
Those just continue to build.
There are some really bigthings at stake in the third
book.
I would say that the War of theWasteland will have the biggest
(24:40):
stakes of any janitor's bookthat I've written, including the
original series series.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I bet that makes your editors and marketing folks
very, very happy.
We love high stakes, don't we?
We love high stakes, we lovehigh stakes.
Well, this has been so much fun,so good catching up with you,
and there's a part of me thatwishes we had recorded the first
hour of us catching up aboutlife, and part of me, no, maybe
not such a good idea it was goodto chat with you, though, and
(25:15):
catch up on everythingabsolutely well and and um, it's
fun to see you coming back to aworld that is beloved by so
many people, and you know, Iknow that brandon mull went
through this a little bit whenhe kind of returned to the world
of fable haven, and so it's funjust doing that with these
characters that I know from myown experience.
They become real to you.
(25:37):
You know, we know it's fiction,we get it, but there's
something I don't know, kind ofa connection to these characters
that you have created and livedwith for so many years.
So to go back there and to givethem a few more acts in their
story is, I think, it's prettyspecial.
I think readers are going tolove it.
All right, folks, thanks forlistening.
Check the show notes.
Links to the website, how youcan get in touch with Tyler, of
(26:01):
course, links to other episodesand to all his good things on
Amazon.
Anything else I need to knowabout Tyler Whitesides.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I just want to say thank you so much for having me.
It's been long overdue.
I'm grateful for the chance tobe on your podcast and catch up
with you.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, we'll do it again soon.
Thanks, man, Great thanks.
Hello, my friends, welcome back to the Book Drop
Mike brought to you by Inkvames,your source for book publicity,
promo and press releases.
A reminder, folks, that ScarDakota is now available on
e-book and audio, and ahardcover is coming in May.
I cannot wait.
I finally got my hands on ahardcover.
(00:22):
I had some advanced copiesshipped to me by air and they
are gorgeous.
It looks so good.
Big shout out to my friendBrandon Dorman, the illustrator.
The cover is just, it'sstunning into the printer, it's
just.
You're going to love it.
And, as I said, if you don'twant to wait, you can pick up
the ebook and the audio Audio,by the way, by Kirby, our good
friend Kirby Hayborn, availablenow Every place.
(00:45):
You get your audiobooks Allright.
I have known today's guest boyfor probably a decade or so, but
I'm not sure we have been inthe same room since then.
His name is Tyler Whitesides.
His latest of many books iscalled Janitor's School of
Garbage.
Tyler, what's up?
Hey, how you doing, I am amdoing.
(01:07):
When is the last time we werein the same room?
Do you have any idea?
I mean I think maybe 2016 yeah,somewhere some eight years ago,
eight, ten years ago.
It's been a minute, it's been aminute, it's been a minute and
uh, janitor's, the originalJanitor series was blowing up
(01:28):
then that was the five bookoriginal series.
Is that right, five in thatseries?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, the first one of that came out Janitor's
volume one released in 2011, andthen we did one a year, so
2015,.
That series concluded.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Awesome.
Okay, all right, and I'm surewe have people listening that
are familiar with that.
So before we talk about what'snew, let me just say anyone that
looks up in the show notesyou'll see links to all the good
stuff Tyler's doing, includingto this series, to this new
series.
You may notice this book hasbeen out for a little while and,
tyler, you don't need to giveus your full health history per
(02:06):
HIPAA guidelines, right?
But I know you had a little bitof an interesting kind of a
trial and a season of your lifelast fall when this book hit
that sort of prevented you frommaybe doing quite as much press
and promotion as you might have.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, it kind of took everything I had leading up to
just the pub date doing a littlebit of publicity and stuff, and
(02:42):
then I was down for the countwith some health problems which
out on when that originalrelease happened just because of
some health problems.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Yeah, no, I get that, and I actually had an awful
case of the summer flu when oneof my novels came out back more
than a decade ago and I had tocancel some dates the week that
the book came out, some onebecause I was I was flying cross
country and my wife was likeyou will not survive that flight
(03:12):
if you get on with a fever andpeople will hate you.
You're going to, you're goingto have to cancel that one.
So I know what that's like.
You have this, you have thisbaby, you've worked so hard on
this book coming out and thenyou feel like you're not able to
kind of give it everything, topromote it and to talk about it,
and so I'm glad that we havethis opportunity now to to do
this, and, of course, this willtie into book two, which we'll
get to in a minute.
First, tell us a little bitabout, about tyler whiteside.
(03:36):
Who, who are you?
Where are you?
What do we need to know aboutyou before we talk about your
work?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
well, a funny buried memory came to my mind when you
were talking about having tocancel because of the flu.
I was remembering one time Iwas during the original
janitor's years.
I was doing a school visitpresentation, hundreds of kids
in this auditorium and I gotsick.
(04:01):
And I got sick and I realized Iwas very sick and I was like,
can we get it?
Can we get like, maybe agarbage can up here just in case
I throw up while I'm presenting?
And I muscled through, I pushedthrough it, finished and got
out of there.
I did have to cancel the nextschool, have to cancel the next
(04:29):
school.
So anyway, that's yeah, thoseare uh, unpredictable when you
think you're you're presentingand then your body has other
plans.
Yeah, yeah, I have been writingfor full-time now for it's like
13 years, I think.
So before that, people alwayssay you know, don't quit your
day job if you're a writer, andI fall into a very lucky
(04:49):
category that I guess it's luckythat never really had a day job
.
The closest thing I had wasjust a part time.
I was working as a custodian ata middle school when I was in
college, at a middle school whenI was in college, and it was
actually there, at that job thatI kind of had the idea for the
(05:10):
janitor's series and what led meto that which I think has kind
of set the precedent for mywhole career and my life that
ordinary things that arehappening to you in your life, a
job as a custodian, taking outthe trash, may lead to other
(05:30):
opportunities and may lead tosomething great if you keep
yourself open to it.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Amen to that.
I read a piece in the WallStreet Journal this week about a
Walmart general manager whomakes a quarter of a million
dollars a year managing aWalmart, a large store in Texas,
and who started as a part-timecashier in high school years ago
in that same store and hasworked her way up to now
(05:58):
managing a team of 300 plus andmaking a quarter of a million
dollars a year, and I thoughtthat that's what it's all about,
right there.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, I love it.
Yeah, I think that's, that'sthe dedication and the sort of
almost even like the rags toriches type approach.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, stick with it.
And for sure, you never knowthat experience you're having
today, particularly if you're acreative person.
You and I have been talking foralmost an hour before we hit
the record button.
But if you're a creative person, you just never know what
experience the person that youmeet, that interaction on the
sidewalk or in line in the storeor whatever that might turn
into that next great thing, thatnext great story, that next
(06:39):
great novel.
So, speaking of great novels,you've written a bunch of them.
Tell us what's new.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Tell us about Janitors and why we're back in
this universe of characters.
Yeah, so I have dipped back tothe Janitors series with a
spinoff trilogy.
The first book is JanitorsSchool of Gar of garbage.
It takes place 12 years afterthe original series and the
reason I picked 12 years was wasstrategic, because it was it
(07:11):
was very intentional 12 yearsfrom the release of the first
book of the janitor's series tothe second book well, to the
second, uh, spinoff trilogy,sorry.
And so what we see is that themain characters from the first
series are now 12 years older.
They were 12 in the originaland now they're in their 20s.
(07:35):
And this kind of came to mebecause I remember one time I
was at Wendy's.
I was driving through Wendy's,probably getting a Baconator or
something, and I handed the girlworking there.
I handed her my credit card andshe saw my name on the card and
she said, oh, are you TylerWhitesides, the author?
(07:58):
And I said, yeah, I am.
And she said I loved your bookswhen I was a kid, growing up,
and I was like, wait a minute,it's been that long.
I thought my readers wouldforever stay 12.
But alas, they grow and theychange and they enter the adult
(08:21):
world and the workforce and itstarted making me think about
that.
I've had a lot of experiencessince then.
So many people in their 20s nowcoming up to me saying I loved
your books when I was a kid.
Your books meant a lot to me.
I read them when I was a kid.
Your books meant a lot to me.
I read them when I was growingup and as I thought about that,
(08:44):
I started thinking about themain characters in the original
Janitor series, who were 12.
And I thought, like my readers,surely they would grow up and
what are they doing as theyenter the workforce?
And how has life turned out forthose characters that I loved,
those characters that got mestarted on my career?
Is life going?
(09:05):
well for them or is life notgoing well?
And what challenges have theyfaced and what unexpected things
have they gone through thatthey didn't think they'd have to
go through?
But, seeing as how I'm a middlegrade writer, they'd have to go
through.
But, seeing as how I'm a middlegrade writer, I wanted still
the focus to be on a readershipof young, you know, 12 year old
(09:27):
kids, and so I decided tointroduce a new cast of young
characters.
They're my main characters inthis series.
You find out that the originalseries members have grown up and
they have started a school ofgarbage where they study
garbology, which is touched uponin the original series.
(09:47):
It's kind of a Sherlock Holmesof the trash.
You can look at the garbage,you can study, you can read the
trash and the clues to find out,you know who's been in the room
before you, why they've thrownthings away.
You can piece togethermysteries by looking in the room
before you why they've thrownthings away.
You can piece togethermysteries by looking in the
trash.
And so two of my favoritecharacters from the original
series, now grown up, havestarted a school of garbage and
(10:12):
my main characters are two kidswho attend this summer school
type camp where they go to thislandfill where the school is
located and they study the cluesand they study the garbage.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That's fantastic.
I love the idea that you saidI'm going to pick this thing
back up and go back to the worldas if time has passed like in
real time.
Right, I love that.
Why not?
Why not do that?
Why not give that little treatto those original readers that
the young lady at Wendy's?
I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, and I just signed a book to a reader in his
twenties who was very excitedhad seen that School of Garbage
had released and and was veryexcited to pick up those
characters again.
School of Garbage had releasedand was very excited to pick up
those characters again and Ihope that as he reads them he
(11:09):
has a good time realizing thatthose characters have grown up
with him.
And yeah, it's been really.
Another reason I did it thatway was I wanted this trilogy to
be able to be readindependently of the first five
books, the people listeningright now.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
they don't need to go back and read the original
series.
I mean they did right, I meanwhy not?
But they don't have to.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
But it feels like as a kid, it feels like a big
commitment to think oh, I'mreally excited.
I like the cover of this newSchool of Garbage book and I
like the author came to myschool and talked about his new
book, but I've got to slogthrough five other books before
I can read this new one that hewrote.
I didn't want to do that to mylittle young readers and so I
(11:54):
decided I would write School ofGarbage independently, so it'll
be a trilogy and you can.
Readers.
I've talked to many readers.
In fact.
Interestingly enough, my editorfor the School of Garbage
series, the wonderful LisaMangum, had not read the
original janitors, the originalfive janitors books, because she
(12:17):
was not my editor on those.
emily watts had been my editoron on the original five and
she'd done a great job.
And what's been fun is to seelisa coming in and uh, she's,
she's reading with a fresh eye,she's reading like with the eye
of all those readers who haven'tread the original series and
(12:40):
she's done a good job, raisingsome flags to me saying, okay,
you're, you know, I don'tunderstand this without context
from the original or how do wedo this?
And so I've had that.
I've had her kind ofchampioning those new readers
that are just coming into theSchool of Garbage and skipping
the first Janitor series.
But interestingly enough, we'vealso brought Emily Watson on
(13:01):
the project with School ofGarbage and skipping the first
Janitor series.
But interestingly enough, we'vealso brought Emily Watson on
the project with School ofGarbage and it's been fun to
hear her feedback because sheremembers the original series as
well and those kind of bigmoments like oh, fun to see that
character come back.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
That's awesome.
Well, a shout out to LisaMangum, who has her own book on
writing a nonfiction projectcoming out, I believe, this fall
.
Is it this fall or next spring?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I'm not sure on the release date of it.
I did feel very honored becauseshe has a little story about
pitching and when I got my startit was a pitch to Lisa Mangum
that got janitors published andshe shares that in her book.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I love that.
That's awesome.
Yeah, she's been great.
I've worked with her on acouple of projects and she's not
just a great editor but a greatwriter in her own right.
So we'll put a link to that.
I assume it's out there forpre-order on Amazon.
But if you want to read a bookon writing, it's a pretty good
idea to pick up a book onwriting by someone who has
(14:08):
acquired manuscripts and who hasedited manuscripts the way Lisa
has for so many years.
That's awesome.
Okay, tyler, tell me.
I don't know if you've been in aBarnes Noble lately or any
bookstore, but you walk in andthe children's sections, I think
, are larger than ever.
My favorite Barnes Noble thatI'm in pretty frequently down in
(14:29):
Harrisonburg, virginia Shoutout to my good friend Chris in
Harrisonburg, the children'ssection, I think it feels twice
the size as it used to be.
There are so many books.
I mean it's heaven.
If you like children's books,if you're a kid, if you're a kid
going in to pick up a middlegrade novel, the choices are
(14:50):
endless.
So tell me, tyler Whitesides,why janitors walk into a
bookstore with my kid and I'mlooking at at a hundred feet of
books in this space middle gradefantasy with a kind of a
contemporary feel.
Why janitors?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
It's a great question and I agree with you.
I think that we are at thisgolden age of middle grade
fantasy.
I think that we've been in thegolden age for 10 years or so, I
think.
Probably Harry Potter, uh,issued that in because I
remember when I was a kid therethere wasn't as much, and now
(15:31):
there is almost an overwhelmingnumber of books.
Um, for for any reader to walkinto the store and feel
overwhelmed.
And why?
Why janitors?
Well, one of the fun thingsthat I've seen with readers over
the years who've enjoyed thejanitor series, and I think
(15:53):
you'll find the same thing withthis new janitors trilogy.
I get emails from parentssometimes and they'll include a
picture they've taken of theirkid sweeping the floor and they
say I don't know what's going onhere, but my kid has started
(16:16):
asking me where the cleaningsupplies are in the house and
and they want to play with thebrooms and the spray bottle.
And I said honey, some of thoseare chemicals.
You can't play with spray.
You can't shoot your siblingwith a spray bottle.
And and anyway they say theysay, um, that there's like you
(16:39):
know some.
So sometimes I come acrossthese kids that are playing
janitors, and I have two kids ofmy own.
I have an eight-year-old and afive-year-old, and we've read
School of Garbage and we justfinished reading the second one
as well.
My eight-year-old was so jazzedabout it he went back and he
picked up the original book andhe's been reading Janitor's Book
(16:59):
One and I see that kind of same.
He's always wanting to talkabout what magical effect a
cleaning supply would have, andI think that's one of the cool
things about this series is allof the magical.
All of the cleaning supplies inthe book have magical powers.
(17:21):
But only things that could bejustifiably used in cleaning or
maintenance can be made magical.
So something really awesome,like I don't know, like a car,
can't really be made magical.
Well, I guess I mean debatably,but a garbage truck can see, a
garbage truck can and is.
(17:43):
There are many of these magicgarbage trucks that they use
throughout the old series andthe new series as well, and so
what it does is it kind ofnarrows down.
It gives the imagination someparameters.
The parameters are cleaningsupplies, and those are things
that kids are, at least inpassing, familiar with.
(18:03):
Now my kids don't pick them upand use them as much as I would
like to actually clean.
But they're at least familiarbecause they've seen me mopping,
they've seen me sweeping, mevacuuming, and so it's fun
because all of a sudden we'll bedriving and they'll be thinking
about it, and then one of themwill say what would a magic
(18:24):
dustpan do?
What would a magic mop do?
Plunger, toilet plunger.
All all these different things.
And most of them I have ananswer for, because throughout
the original janitor series I, Imade magical about 50 different
cleaning supplies, um, and andso I think I think that's one
(18:47):
thing that helps the janitorseries stand out.
If you went into a store andyou looked at the shelves, you
would see the cover is ordinaryitems like garbage and cleaning
supplies.
But they are.
They become wondrous andmagical in the imagination as
(19:09):
kids read them.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
And in a world dominated, even among young
people, by these things, devicesand endless screen time, my
goodness, if you're listening tothis or you're watching this on
social media and you want yourkids to ignite something in
their, in their imagination,deep in there, that has nothing
(19:31):
to do with their physical eyesand their device or their game
or whatever, but that sameimagination that you relied on
when you were young to read andcreate and imagine a better
world, then yeah, it's janitorsand maybe they'll pick up a
month.
That's even better.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Maybe, maybe they'll pick up a month, that's even
better.
I recently spoke to a prettylarge group of teen writers and
artists and the topic that I wasdoing bored, embrace the
(20:17):
boredom and allow themselves tosink deep into the pit of
boredom.
Because often the inspirationis not found until you hit the
bottom of that boredom pit.
And we are so worried aboutfalling into boredom that we
claw onto the sides and wescramble up and we do anything
we can.
We pull out our devices, ourscreens, we do anything we can
to prevent ourselves fromgetting bored and in turn we rob
(20:40):
ourselves of the creativitythat's waiting for us at the
bottom of that pit.
But it's uncomfortable to fall.
It's uncomfortable to letyourself dive and just free fall
into that pit of despair andboredom.
It feels like the worst thingimaginable, especially to a kid.
But as you lay there at thebottom and you're crashed down
(21:02):
in the bottom of that boredompit, your brain starts to just
tingle with ideas Because yourbrain is trying to rescue you
from being bored and it'sstarting to give you ideas and
it's and it and it pulls you outand before you know it you've
done something creative or atthe very least had a creative
thought yeah, and it may be.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
You know, if you're, if you're a kiddo is at the
bottom of that pit and theyhappen to have a flashlight and
a copy of a Tyler Whitesidesbook.
That's okay too, right.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, that's good too.
Well, sometimes the solution tothat boredom is pick up a book.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah, pick up a book, something that does not.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, exactly that doesn't have a house dragging
your feet and saying I'm sobored and me responding it's
nice to meet you.
Bored, I'm dead.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You just want to whack that kid in the back of
the head with a book.
So tell us about, then thedrive now toward book two.
We saw it's up for pre-ordernow on Amazon, so people can see
the cover now and read thesynopsis now.
When does book two come out andwhat do we need to know about
(22:14):
it?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, so it'll be coming out this September.
It is called Trials of theTrash Janitor's School of
Garbage.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Love that ARC there.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Brandon Dorman did the cover art on the original
Janitor's series as well as thenew trilogy, the cover art on
the original janitor series aswell as the new trilogy.
So it will release in septemberand it picks up shortly after
the first book ends.
And after reading them recentlysomewhat back to back to out
loud to my kids I was talking tomy eight-year-old, he described
(22:48):
them this way and I thought itwas really good.
He said school, school ofgarbage.
The first one is almost adetective story.
As they study the trash they'relooking for clues.
Something has gone wrong withthe garbage and the garbage is
trashing neighborhoods and theydon't know why and they're
trying to figure out why.
And so these young garbologistsare on the trail studying the
(23:12):
trash, trying to figure out why.
And so these young garbologistsare on the trail studying the
trash, trying to figure out theclues and determine what has
caused this awakening of thetrash.
And so while the first onereads like a mystery, the second
one reads like an actionadventure.
They hit the ground runningwith book two immediately.
(23:32):
A lot of the questions thatthey were searching for answers.
They find the answers in theend of book one, but it leads to
some really big consequences inbook two and and that's, I
think, what makes the secondbook there is no time to breathe
.
These characters are just.
(23:53):
They're just moving as fast asthey can from one adventure to
the next.
Training time at the school ofgarbage study time.
Class time is over and we arenow in crisis mode with Trials
of the Trash.
The third book will actually I'mwriting the third right now.
I'm actually on the downhill.
I'm coming up to the climax ofthe story and the third one so
(24:18):
far.
Our title for it is War of theWasteland, and that will
conclude the School of Garbagetrilogy.
And I was talking aboutconsequences.
Those just continue to build.
There are some really bigthings at stake in the third
book.
I would say that the War of theWasteland will have the biggest
(24:40):
stakes of any janitor's bookthat I've written, including the
original series series.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I bet that makes your editors and marketing folks
very, very happy.
We love high stakes, don't we?
We love high stakes, we lovehigh stakes.
Well, this has been so much fun,so good catching up with you,
and there's a part of me thatwishes we had recorded the first
hour of us catching up aboutlife, and part of me, no, maybe
not such a good idea it was goodto chat with you, though, and
(25:15):
catch up on everythingabsolutely well and and um, it's
fun to see you coming back to aworld that is beloved by so
many people, and you know, Iknow that brandon mull went
through this a little bit whenhe kind of returned to the world
of fable haven, and so it's funjust doing that with these
characters that I know from myown experience.
They become real to you.
(25:37):
You know, we know it's fiction,we get it, but there's
something I don't know, kind ofa connection to these characters
that you have created and livedwith for so many years.
So to go back there and to givethem a few more acts in their
story is, I think, it's prettyspecial.
I think readers are going tolove it.
All right, folks, thanks forlistening.
Check the show notes.
Links to the website, how youcan get in touch with Tyler, of
(26:01):
course, links to other episodesand to all his good things on
Amazon.
Anything else I need to knowabout Tyler Whitesides.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I just want to say thank you so much for having me.
It's been long overdue.
I'm grateful for the chance tobe on your podcast and catch up
with you.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, we'll do it again soon.
Thanks, man, Great thanks.
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