August 28, 2025 • 48 mins
Thanks to Author James Ponti and the team at Simon & Schuster. In this episode, we talk about the newest release The Sherlock Society series, Hurricane Heist.
Connect with James:
- Pre-order Hurricane Heist (Book Two)
- Purchase The Sherlock Society (Book One)
- Visit James's website
- James's Instagram
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above.
For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back.
I'm Kristen Balls and you'relistening to when I Left Off a
bookish podcast, and today I'mjoined by New York Times
bestselling author James Ponte,who you probably know from the
Dead City trilogy, the Frameseries, city Spy series, and
today we're talking about thesecond book in the Sherlock
Society series, spiritane Heist.
Thank you so much for joiningme today.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Thank you for having me.
It's really exciting.
You know, in the time beforethe book comes out you're always
nervous.
You're hoping that it's beingwell-received and all like that.
So it's nice to get to talkabout it and work out some of
those nerves.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm sure I can't imagine just the pressure and
all of that leading up to it.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Oh, it's not that much pressure.
You just think people might notlike it, but that's okay, you
know.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It was really good.
I liked it a lot Well.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So can you tell me what you are currently reading
right now?
Authors give the bestrecommendation.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Okay, well, I will tell you what I just read, which
is I just read Karina YoungGlazer's book, the Nine Moons of
Han Yu and Lily, and it is thebest book I've read in years.
Spoiler alert Karina is one ofmy best friends, so take that
for what it's worth, but it isabsolutely fantastic.
I expect it to win tons ofawards and recognition.
(01:26):
It comes out two weeks aftermine, so I'm glad that I kind of
got the same day.
And I am about to read a newbook by Santani Dasgupta and
actually I don't even know thetitle, because most of my
reading is people asking me towrite blurbs for their books,
and so I get manuscripts,sometimes with incomplete titles
.
You know, sometimes I'm readingon a stack of papers, sometimes
(01:47):
it's a bound galley, but sothat's what's up next.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I was just about to ask if you blurb a lot of books,
but both of those weren't outyet.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, no, I don't blurb a lot.
I think if you blurb too many,it feels like you're just doing
it, you know.
Give you a blurb too many, itfeels like you're just doing it,
you know.
And also I'm a super slowreader.
I'm still a super slow readerand I can't read that.
I have to write two books ayear.
I can't read a bunch of extrason top of it because you know I
(02:17):
get asked like every other week.
You know I can't.
I don't have that.
So I save it for books that I'mreally excited about, and
usually people who I know prettywell.
So I know I want to read itanyway.
So it gives me a head start.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
What are your favorite genres to read?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Mystery.
There's a reason I writemystery.
It's because I love to readmystery.
Like I said, I was not a goodreader growing up Because it's
always been a struggle.
My speed has always been astruggle but, like, my favorite
book as a kid was from the MixedUp Files, mrs Baisley
Frankweiler, which is a mystery,and I just voraciously read the
Encyclopedia Brown booksbecause they had short stories
(02:55):
in them so I was able to finishthem and build up my confidence.
And now all my favorite justbeen this great surge of middle
grade mystery in the last coupleof years by people like Rudis
the Pettus and Steve Schenken,jasmine Warga people who didn't
necessarily normally writemysteries, so I love reading
those and Carl Hyasson both hiskids' books and his adult books,
(03:16):
and Michael Conley Mysterymystery all the time for me.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So you just named some really really good authors
and books.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
So you just named some really really good authors
in books.
Well, they're favorites of mineand you know, the funny thing
about a mystery is it's genre.
Some people look down on genre.
I totally love genre so I haveno problem, but it is the most
interactive book there is, Ithink.
You know, most books arewritten for you to observe and,
(03:43):
you know, feel and be empatheticwith and connect with.
But in a mystery book kind ofthe idea is that, no, you're
going to be part of this, I'mgoing to give you the clues and
you're going to solve them, oryou're going to give me the
clues and I'm going to try tosolve them before the character.
And if you write fair, whichmeans if you give the clues in a
(04:07):
reasonable manner, then I'minvolved in the book in a whole
different way.
I'm not just rooting for thecharacters or feeling for the
characters, but I am solvingwith the characters and that's
so much fun to me as both areader and a writer and a viewer
.
I've watched so many Britishmysteries with my wife that I
feel like if writing dries upfor me, I could get hired at the
BBC in their casting department, cause I know he's a good, he's
(04:29):
a good potential suspect?
Oh, he, she's.
She's a great.
You know, they always havegreat medical examiners on those
shows.
So it's like um, I can't getenough mystery.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
That's true.
I never thought about it as theone of the only books that's
such an active process like thatI really feel that there's um.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So the sherlock books and also the series I wrote
called framed start in the thickof the action and then
flashback and come back.
That's, that's the structure ofthem, and the reason I do that
is partly because I want to getkids to see the young readers to
see an exciting part, but alsoI feel like I have readers who
are newish to mystery becausethey haven't.
(05:08):
They're young, you're right,and a lot of them haven't read
and I want to tell them at thebeginning.
It's like in this chapter aremany of the key clues for you to
figure out.
So I'm already telling you nowwhen the solution comes, so that
hopefully, when you see theclues along the way, you'll be
better opportunity to maybe findthem.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I think that's a good way to do it.
Can you tell me, or what canyou tell me, about your current
work in progress?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So I have two books a year.
So I'm always writing two andactually working on four at any
given moment.
So like, for instance, at themoment I'm not sure when this
will air, but at the moment Ijust last week finished a pass
on City Spies Europa, whichcomes out in February, and, like
just going over the notes, Ithink there's maybe one more.
Look at that I am also doingall the prelim stuff for the
(06:00):
release of Sherlock Society,Hurricane Heist, which comes out
in September.
So there's the after theinitial writing part of both of
those, Although now at thispoint Hurricane Heist is about
to come out.
So I'm done with that one and Iam writing Sherlock 3, which
comes out September of 26, andtrying to brainstorm City Spies
(06:21):
8, which comes out February of27.
So, but mostly right now I amworking on Sherlock Society 2, 3
, which I don't even have asubtitle for it yet.
I mean, I know the book and I'mwell into it, but I haven't
come up with a good title.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So I'm trying to say this without spoiling it, but
how you left things at the endof book two in Hurricane Heist,
is that going to kind of spurwhere book three is starting?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Okay.
So I don't mind spoiling alittle bit, so I'm going to try
to spoil around the edges.
So in the first two books, whatthese guys, what these kids and
their grandfather, are doing,it's secret to the world.
Right, they're working withstuff that no one else knows
(07:08):
they're doing, which is a reallyfun thing to make, because I
think, with kids especially,sometimes they feel like the
really special things they do inlife are unseen and it's
frustrating to them.
What happens in book two is bigenough that you can't keep it
secret anymore.
What happens in book two is bigenough that you can't keep it
secret anymore.
So when book three comes along,they are no longer on their own
(07:30):
trying to figure out what to donext.
They are trying to figure outhow to deal with people who want
them to come do things for them.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Okay, I like that.
Okay, I'm really interested tosee where that goes.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And the fun part of that is there's a website
involved in the book andactually I bought the domain
name, so I'm going to make thewebsite so that when people read
it and they want to find, I cansay this now, cause the book's
so far off, they'll forget.
It's like it'll be a real thing.
You can go check.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
That is really cool.
So the Sherlock society isn'tyour first series, of course,
and you said that you're workingon multiple series at a time.
How do you decide how longthey're going to be Like?
Do you know from the start ordoes it kind of just evolve as
you go?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So the Sherlock Society is my fourth series and
business wise with the publisher, they've all been exactly the
same.
You start with a commitment oftwo and then we see where it
goes from there and the firsttwo series went to three and
both of those felt right.
City Spies and Sherlock areboth going to go longer than
that.
I know there will be at least10 City Spies books.
There will be at least fourSherlock Society books.
That is partly on how long itkeeps feeling fresh for me,
(08:40):
because I want it to always feelfresh.
I want it to always feel new.
I don't want it to feel like,oh, that's a fun thing we've
done before, but we don't minddoing it again.
I want it to be different eachtime.
So partly it's dependent onthat and what my editor and I
have in conversations about thatat each step, because the other
thing that's important withthat is if 10's going to be the
(09:01):
last City Spies book, I need toknow that before I write 9.
Because I want to end it.
I don't want it to be just oh,the story's over.
I want to resolve things andthe other part is, quite frankly
, dependent on readership.
If people keep wanting them,certainly the publisher keeps
wanting to publish them, and soI think it's a matter of feeling
(09:27):
comfortable and fresh with thecharacters.
You know, a good friend of mineis stew gibbs and stew is on, I
think, spy school like 12 or 13and he's fun jungle, maybe 10.
So he stews.
Stew's a good lead up for me,because I I actually was
watching stew.
That made me think, oh wait,wait, I can do two series in a
year.
Now the funny thing is, Ithought, because certainly City
(09:48):
Spies will die down and thenI'll start a new one and that
way they'll overlap a little,and then City Spies has
continued to get more popularand so they're like no, we don't
want to stop that.
It's like, oh wait, now I'mdoing two books a year for a
while.
So four years of two books ayear, maybe more than that,
(10:09):
that's an intense pace.
It is, it is, but I reallyenjoy the work.
Not that it's easy.
A lot of times it's veryfrustrating, but I worked in
television, which was fun, for25 years, but that wore me out.
This doesn't wear me out, thisinvigorates me.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And speaking of television, can you talk a
little bit more about yourjourney from becoming an author
and how you transitioned fromscreenwriting to novel writing?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Sure.
So I, like I said, I struggledas a reader as a kid and it
wasn't, it was just I was slowat it and I think at early
stages I didn't put in the workto maybe build up a little
stamina.
But I loved writing and I lovedstorytelling and I gravitated
to movies, just absolutely lovedmovies because, unlike books,
(10:54):
movies were the same speed foreveryone and, unlike books,
movies were a shared experience.
You know you'd go to thetheater and where I lived you
know I joke about it, but it wasreally important we didn't.
I grew you know joke about it,but it was really important, we
didn't.
I grew up in Florida.
We didn't have air conditioninguntil I was 13 in my house and
the movie theater was cold and Iwould and it was cheap back
then and I would go to themovies and I'd watch the same
(11:15):
movie back to back just to staycold, cool, and by watching the
movie twice in a row the secondtime I already knew was going to
happen and I started seeing howit worked together.
So I loved the idea of movies.
So I went to college andmajored in screenwriting, went
to film school in California, atUSC, and I thought that was
going to be my career and Iended up starting in kids
(11:37):
television and I worked atDisney Channel, I worked at
Nickelodeon and I really enjoyedthat and script writing was and
I worked with great people.
But over time I began to be moreof a reader and I really liked
books and when I had kids and Iwould see the books they had
they'd bring home.
Like that, the books ofelementary school now are more
(11:57):
exciting than the books when Iwas growing up, yeah.
And all of a sudden I'm likewell, these are kind of fun, I
wonder if I could write one ofthese.
And all of a sudden I'm likewell, these are kind of fun, I
wonder if I could write one ofthese.
And I ended up trying.
And it turns out the whole timeI was meant to write books.
(12:19):
It fits all the things that Iwanted to be a writer but I
didn't know if I wanted to be anewspaper writer or a film
writer or a TV writer, and Iended up doing a little bit of
all of that.
And then it's like, oh wait, themost obvious choice, which is
books.
But I thought, wasn't, I didn'tfind, until I was in my 40s.
And then all of a sudden it'slike, oh wait, this is.
(12:39):
And now, to be honest, I thinkall those years of doing that
made it a better thing for me,because you know, I wrote a ton
of dialogue on television, so Ilove writing dialogue in a book.
There's a lot of structure inthe TV stuff and so my books are
structured really like a movieor a TV show in their act
(13:00):
structure point.
Where I'm just going to listsome names for you stewart gibbs
, alan gratz, gordon corman,shannon messenger, victoria
aviard, um, suzanne collins, um,these are just off the top of
my head, that's six right there.
They all started asscreenwriters, except for gordon
corman, because gordon gotpublished when he was in high
(13:20):
school, but when he went to nyuhe majored in screenwriting
originally.
So we are at a time where Ithink one of the reasons middle
grade is so dynamic right now ispeople are coming from a lot of
backgrounds and it's a pacethat moves like film.
It's cinematic in descriptionand the dialogue is hopefully
(13:41):
sharper, because that's how weall trained, that was how we
learned, and that's not everyone, but I think that influence is
just like others influence theway I write, so it was a
roundabout journey that inretrospect, feels more like a
straight line.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That makes sense.
And I feel like with all theauthors you named you can kind
of sense like a style or kind ofa snappiness to their writing.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That's a little bit different you know, I was just
talking to alan gratz the otherday.
Um, I'm doing, I'm doing alittle mini podcast nothing like
yours, l fancy.
I'm doing a little mini podcastwhere I'm just talking to five
different, six different writersabout one aspect of writing.
And I'm doing that as a lead upto the release of my book and,
and Alan and I talked about plottogether and Alan and I, and we
both have white marker boardsat our desk because that's what
(14:29):
we used in TV writing and and weand we marked the structure
that we use.
It's like, yeah, that's exactlythe structure I use.
And it's like, okay, that makessense to me, cause when you
read Alan's books, you can seethe movie in your head.
It is a totally different formand there's such great writing
and there's so many greatwriters that don't have that
background.
You know, katie Camillo doesn'thave that background.
(14:51):
Her books are magic, you know.
But it is an interestingdevelopment, I think, in our
business.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Very true, that's so interesting.
So for readers who loved thefirst book, what can they expect
from the second installment inthe Sherlock Society series?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Okay, the Sherlock Society is a series about a
brother and sister, theirgrandfather and their two best
friends solving mysteriestogether.
The grandfather's a retiredreporter from the Miami Herald
and so he has the storage areawith all these unsolved cases
from his career and they try tosolve those storage area with
all these unsolved cases fromhis career and they try to solve
(15:26):
those.
And the grandfather was a realrevelation for a lot of people
because it was different acharacter maybe you wouldn't
normally see in in a kid's book.
There's a 73 year old.
Very funny there.
Hopefully I try to write themfunny very funny, very
interesting character who is atthe heart of it and is in some
ways the most like the parentsworry more about the grandfather
(15:47):
than they worry about the kids.
So kids all year, readers allyear have come to about how much
they love grandpa and I'mthrilled to tell them that if
they love grandpa then they'rereally going to love the next
book, because it starts whengrandpa was 12.
So grandpa is the age that thecharacters are and three of the
chapters in the book are set in1964, when he was 12 years old.
And what they do is they reallyshows us the mystery that
(16:11):
happened in Miami that launchedhim into becoming an
investigative journalist.
I mean, his whole life wasaffected by this this summer and
this hurricane that hit Miamiin the summer of 64, hurricane
Cleo, and that mystery was neversolved.
Miami in the summer of 64,hurricane Cleo, and that mystery
was never solved.
And now another hurricane comes60 plus years later and
uncovers some evidence and nowthey can maybe solve it.
(16:32):
So one thing is you have thisinteresting, you have this
dynamic of these two storylines,how they come together.
We see grandpa at a young age.
We see you know hurricanes.
I grew up on the beach inFlorida and hurricanes are a
real part of our life and youknow.
So you see stuff about thehurricane and you also get to
see what it's like in that alexand his sister don't always get
(16:56):
along and he had what for himwas the greatest summer ever in
the first book and kind of thefear that, oh wait, when I go
back to school everything willbe back the way it was and that
was a fun thing to write becausethat really hit ever in the
first book and kind of the fearthat, oh wait, when I go back to
school everything will be backthe way it was.
And that was a fun thing towrite because that really hit
home how I often felt.
Whenever I had good times as akid, I was always worried like,
oh wait, is this going to stopnow, you know?
(17:19):
And so I think a lot of kidshave that and a lot of kids are
nervous going into the newschool year and so we pick up on
that and throw in a hurricaneand we throw in believe it or
not, a rhinoceros, a wildrhinoceros.
So there's a lot going on inthe book and so they'll see that
There'll be a totally newmystery, but also they'll see,
(17:40):
hopefully the things they likedabout the first book.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And I'm sure that Alex was nervous, especially
with his relationship with Zoeat that moment, and whenever she
starts hanging out with herfriends during the school year
again is everything going tochange.
They finally got into a reallygood rhythm and now you're kind
of starting over.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
You know it's a funny thing that doesn't relate, but
kind of does, to me, Because theplot lines in my books often
seem like, well, there's no12-year-olds that spy for MI6,
and no 12-year-olds solvemysteries, and you'd all concede
that.
But I want the emotions, thedynamics, the anxieties, the
interpersonal stuff to all bevery real.
I used to write a show atDisney Channel called the Mickey
(18:20):
Mouse Club, and the kids whowere on that show included
Christine Aguilera and BritneySpears and Ryan Gosling and
Justin Timberlake, and I workedwith them every day and they
were the age of these kids.
They were 12 years old, theywere 11 years old and I'll never
forget, at the end of theseries we had a big rap party
(18:40):
and Christina Aguilera, who wasgoing to go on to become one of
the most well-known singers inpop history, thought she was
just going to go back toPittsburgh and be a kid again
and she was devastated and Iremember talking to her at that
party and trying to.
You know I didn't know what thefuture held, but it's like, you
know, that always stuck with mebecause looking back now I can
(19:02):
see it's like, oh, she didn'tknow that Superstar was coming.
All she knew was that thereally good thing that she had
was ending and that made hernervous.
And that, to me, is the feelingthat Alex has at the end of the
summer he just had this summerbeyond belief that involved the
FBI and you know, agents andcase and Al Capone's money and
(19:24):
all this stuff, and now he'sjust going to be a kid again and
it's a nervous thing, and sofor me, that was the emotional
truth that I wanted to writeabout.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I like that and I'm sure at the end of every one of
your shows it probably kind offeels like the end of a school
year a little bit, becauseyou've grown close with Pat, pat
and crew.
Oh true.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Well, every season certainly did.
Yeah, no.
And then on top of that, whenthe series would come to the end
, it would be like, okay, youknow.
And then what's really hard andkind of what happened in the
first book and on something likea television production, you
are impressed and you spend 20hours a day together every day,
(20:06):
six days a week, and they becomelike a relationship, but it's
like family and then it's justover and it's just that's a hard
thing that it took time for meto get used to, because I worked
in kids' television.
I would really see it there andI would really try to talk to
the kids ahead of time and sayyou know, you're going to feel
this and it's going to be likethis and it's a difficult set of
(20:28):
emotions to deal with.
And it is like the school yearand it's a difficult set of
emotions to deal with.
And it is like the school yearand it's like there's always
anxiety going into the schoolyear.
There's always anxiety goinginto a television season or
certainly going into a new show.
Will people like it?
Will people like me Like a goodrating?
All the same things come intoplay.
So, yeah, there's a lot of thatand I like using the school
(20:52):
year.
The book comes out in September, which is just coincidental,
but I like the fact that it willbe read by people as the school
year starts up.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
So how do the group dynamics shift in Hurricane
Heist now that the team is kindof gaining some experience
working together and starting tokind of learn how to
investigate a little bit more,now that this is their second
case?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Well, there's a couple things come into play.
First of all, the interpersonaldynamics in the first book were
the sister wanted nothing to dowith it.
She was kind of forced into itthat the other two were Alex's
friends, not Zoe's, and verymuch Zoe did not want to be
friends with Lena, or at leastthat's what she said.
(21:35):
And it's kind of fun in thesecond book is, over the course
of the first book they becamefriendlier and now they really
do become friends.
And for Alex and Yanni it'skind of a mixed thing.
They really are happy aboutthat.
But also it's like well, lenawas their friend and they don't
have many friends and now isLena going to become more her
(21:59):
friend and are they back justthe two of them?
Again, it's so hard to be inmiddle school.
It's so hard, or, yeah, it's sohard with allegiances.
With allegiances and you knowthat's another thing about new
school years is oftentimes itturns out like oh, this person
and I were really friendly butwe had the same schedule and now
(22:19):
, if the schedule is different,I don't see them as much, and
will they still want to see meat lunch or after school?
And there's all thatuncertainty.
That's what I think we writeabout.
I think we write about theuncertainty so that young
readers know that.
I think we write about theuncertainty so that young
readers know that.
Oh wait, this is a universalexperience I'm feeling.
So the dynamic-wise is a littlebit that.
So they're becoming tighter andcertainly Zoe and Lena are
(22:43):
becoming more friends, but theyare more skilled at it because
they've done it once before.
But on the flip side, I thinkalex's word the others just saw
it as something fun for summerand he really wants it to carry
on.
So it would not be good if youhad the same problems every time
(23:06):
.
So so the interpersonal stuff,there is more on that.
So I think it's a little morefrom.
You know, alex is our narrator,so we hear his insecurity a
little bit more.
But yeah, they certainly arebecoming more a team and more a
force to solve things, whichonly been built more in three,
you know.
So in the in the third book.
(23:27):
They're actually really good atit at that point.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
And of course grandpa helps a lot, giving them some
really really good at it at thatpoint.
And of course grandpa helps alot, giving them some really
really good tips.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Grandpa does help a lot.
Grandpa is is is a really funcharacter to write, but and he's
a major character he's part ofthe team, but it is.
The kids are the team, you know, and and I find myself
sometimes, when I'm writing,starting to give grandpa a line
and say no, no, no, I want a kidto solve that and no, I want
(23:56):
Yachty to figure that out.
And we'll give grandpa this.
You know, we don't want to makehim useless, but I think he
sees himself as this is a chancenot to solve mysteries.
This is a chance for me to helpthese kids find their
confidence, find themselves, forme to help these kids find
(24:16):
their confidence, findthemselves, find their skills
that'll be useful throughouttheir lives.
So he's more like the coach ofthe team, even though he's also
the most immature member of theteam.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And Lena oh my gosh, she has some things that she'll
just figure out and I'm like,wow, that is really really smart
.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Lena, lena Sharp, you know, and Lena Lena is actually
inspired by.
I mentioned earlier.
A good friend of mine is KarinaGlazer, the writer, her kid
inspired by.
I try not to base people on toomuch and and their kid's really
sharp too, but no, I I like theway she figures things out.
One of the things I wanted to dowith this book that I thought
(24:50):
the first book and so itcontinues on that I thought was
a little different is so we havea brother and sister, one who's
really popular and one who'snot.
And what I wanted to makedifferent is the opposite of
what happened when I was growingup and I wouldn't care.
Counter characters like that is, the one who's not popular is
actually pretty happy with whohe is in life, and the one who
is popular is not, and kind oflike she knows that a lot of
(25:16):
this stuff isn't real, but Idon't want to give it up.
And he's like no, I'm king ofthe geeks, that's fine with me,
I'm a nerd man.
And Lena kind of becomes thisway, because Lena is very much
an outsider, she's just moved in, but also comfortable with that
.
Very much an outsider, she'sjust moved in, but also
comfortable with that that Ithink she is able to unlock in
Zoe a comfort with that that are.
(25:38):
You know, your family, yourfamily can tell you something a
thousand times and it never hits.
And someone else does like, ohokay, you know, I know, as a
parent, that baffled me.
You know, no matter what I toldmy son is deaf ears.
And then someone else had theexact same thing.
Oh, what a great idea.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So Lena gives us that and I'm sure that especially
with Zoe, just being able towitness such a strong supportive
friend group, that's probablynot like her friendship with the
popular girls, because I knowespecially she says a couple
times like I'm worried that if Idon't go to camp with them then
I'm going to be out and youknow she can clearly see that
the Sherlock Society they are init together yeah, absolutely,
(26:16):
absolutely, which is how myfriends were and are.
Yeah, you know, we were never atthe forefront, but we were
always at each other's backthat's important and I'm sure it
helps kids see that you canfind that you just might have to
do a little bit more.
And what's one skill, uh, thatyour care, that your characters
(26:38):
have, that you wish you had as akid?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
you know, I I, when I create an ensemble thing, so
like what I did with City Spies,are here.
What I try to do is I give eachof the kids like a big thing of
my life so that I'm connectedto all of them, but I make them
better than me.
I mean, I wanted to make movies, but Yachty is a better
filmmaker at a younger age thanI was as an adult, you know, and
(27:04):
Lena is sharper and but whatskill bravery.
I was always I wouldn't sayscared kid, but I was.
I was never daring kids wouldjump a bike over a ramp, even a
little ramp.
I'm like I'm not doing that andno, no matter what they did, I
was not brave and I think thereare a lot of reasons for that
(27:27):
and I'm okay with that.
But I wish I had some of theirconfidence and boldness when I
was 12.
Well, you know that that wouldhave come in handy I get that I
same definitely yeah yeah and itdoes help that they have each
other as a support system.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
That probably kind of makes them a little bit braver,
versus that they were trying tolike a balance, just trying to
go it alone you know.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
You know, the thing they had that I really wish I
had is the grandfather I I I wasraised by a single mom and my
grandparents were gone when Iwas little and and I had a great
family, but I never had anothergeneration away point of view
to, like you know, um, thegrandpa relationship with them
is based a lot on my mother withmy kids Because she, like
(28:16):
grandpa in the book, she livedwith us.
We built an apartment on ourhouse and that was her place and
she was an everyday part of thekids' lives, which was 90%
great and 10%, but was 90% great, and I wish I had that.
That's not a skill, that's anexperience.
Also, what I really wanted togive them that I did not have.
(28:41):
I had a fantastic mother, but Iwanted to give them two solid,
involved parents.
I wanted that to create in thema confidence of a safety net if
they make a mistake, and thatthat was why I was never daring.
I didn't feel like there was asafety net and yeah, so, but but
(29:02):
there, there, there are a lotof our family in that family.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
And I'm sure that kids can relate to and
appreciate the family thatyou've created in the series.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I hope so.
I think.
You know, I don't know I knowwhy, but a lot of books don't
have the full both set ofparents.
You know, the first 12 books Iwrote were about disconnected
parents because I never met myfather.
So it was like that, that wasthe void in me at this age and
that's the void that I keptwriting and and I I think it's a
(29:38):
worthy void to write and Icertainly have a lot of thoughts
and opinions on it.
And so this was the book.
The Sherlock Society was thebook I told my wife I go.
Now I'm going to write a bookseries based not on the family I
grew up in, but on the familythat we raised, that this is us
and my mom and these kids.
(29:58):
And even though it's so fromthe kid's perspective, my
perspective is a littledifferent.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
And what is one piece of advice that you would give
to any kid out there who wantsto start writing mysteries of
their own?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I'm going to give them more than one.
Yep, all right.
So if you want, if you want towrite, I think that's a
wonderful, wonderful thing, andI think, even if you don't want
to be a writer, writing helpsyou in so many ways.
There is no job on earth thatisn't enhanced by your ability
to communicate well and to writewell and tell your thoughts and
share them.
But writing is more than that.
(30:30):
Writing is about touching thestuff that really excites you,
and I think that that's what youshould write.
You should write things thatyou are really fascinated by,
that you are really interestedby.
So that's one.
I think when you write them,you should write them kind of
the way you talk.
There's, I think, a tendency forpeople that are trying to
(30:53):
they're more formal when theywrite or they try to show off
with big words, and I just don'tthink that reads right.
I think you should write well.
I think you should use goodgrammar, I think you should have
a nice dynamic vocabulary, butyou shouldn't inflate the
writing it should.
You know, the nicest complimentI hear is people who I grew up
with sometimes read the books,whether it's with their kids or
(31:15):
their grandkids or just they'reinterested Universally, like at
least or I'd say at least half,will tell me James, it sounds
like we're sitting at your houseand you're telling me the story
.
It sounds like the voice that Iremember you having when we
were growing up, and it's likethat's what we talk about a
writer's voice.
These books might not be good,but they are mine and they would
(31:38):
only exist with my voice and myideas.
That's what's great aboutwriting.
You're the only one who canmake the stories that you make.
So write in your voice.
Write about something you careabout.
If you were going to be amarathon runner, you would never
go out one day and said I'mgoing to run a marathon, so
let's run 26 miles, cause youwouldn't make it yet.
(32:00):
People often say, oh, I'm gonnabe a novelist, I'm gonna write
a novel and it's it's so hard todo without the experience of
the building blocks, so I wouldget the tip of right Shorter
things.
Write an article, write a shortstory, write a poem, write a
song.
Write things, because the keycomponent of being a writer is
(32:20):
finishing.
People will tell you oh, I haveseven different books going.
It's like then you don't,because you can only really
write.
You know one, maybe two.
I'm writing two a year, so Ican't say you can't write two.
I'm writing two a year, so Ican't say I can't write two.
So write shorter things and getused to finishing them and
paying them off.
Write jokes.
You know I used to write stupidjokes and then I had a job
where my job was to tell stupidjokes.
(32:41):
I was Davy Crockett at DisneyWorld and I'd paddle up the moon
and I would tell stupid jokes.
But I learned all about writing,doing that, and after years of
that stuff then I started towrite a book and then it was
still really hard but I knewkind of how to do it.
So that's write what you love.
Write in your voice, write agood length.
(33:01):
The last two tips readeverything out loud all the time
.
It flows so much better if yousay it, because when you say it,
if you stumble, it's like ohwait, maybe I should use a
different word there.
Oh wait, that doesn't soundlike the way people really talk
to each other.
So reading out loud isimportant.
My son would say, like you know, because because when I worked
in television I would write thebooks at night and he'd be like
(33:23):
it's three in the morning andhe'd hear me because my office
was next to his bedroom and he'dhear me acting out the book out
loud.
I was trying not to be loud,but I guess you know, every now
and then you hear me.
And then you know aboutmysteries.
If you want to write mysteries,that's great.
Do yourself a favor.
Figure out the solution firstand write backwards.
I don't mean write the plotbackwards, but figure out a
(33:44):
really good solution.
And once you have that then youknow where you're headed right.
So it's like a car trip.
If you're going on a car tripand you drive away from your
home, say you want to drive, youknow between two cities, but
you don't know where you'regoing, so you kind of meander.
And then halfway through yousay, oh, I want to go to
Philadelphia, and you drivestraight to Philadelphia.
Well, that's kind of uneven.
(34:04):
But if you know you're going toPhiladelphia from the beginning
, even if you don't know whatroads you're going to take, you
kind of stay in a good pace,know what the solution is and
then go and then you can layerin the clues.
That's a good way to think aboutit and really good advice.
So thank you.
Well, I appreciate that I had alot of writers have helped me
(34:27):
when I was a student, when I wasworking as a living, even, and
you know you'll, you'll findthat real writers like to talk
about writing and share and helpand encourage.
It's not a competitive field.
It is, uh, you know what, themore people read, the better.
So let's, let's both go at it,let's, let's be at it together.
(34:49):
And I and I love talking topeople about writing because
then they'll throw back stuff atme.
It's like, oh, you know, I justtalked to Pam Munoz writing the
other day.
Pam wrote Esperanza Rising andManana Land and all kinds of
amazing books.
And Pam said she said I'm arecursive writer and I'm like
(35:11):
what's that?
I have no idea what that is.
And she described her writingstyle And'm like wait, that's
what I do, I thought I was theonly one.
And a recursive writerconstantly starts at the
beginning, keeps it, expands,constantly goes back and
rewrites.
So like I'll write the firstchapter and then I'll rewrite
the first chapter and then I'llrewrite it.
I'll write the second chapterand I'll go back and I'll go
through the first chapter, Iwon't change much, but then I'll
rewrite the second chapter andI'll go back and I'll go through
(35:32):
the first chapter, I won'tchange much, but then I'll
rewrite the second and then,when you get further, when
you're on like chapter 12, maybeonly go back to chapter nine,
but you're constantly going backthrough.
I'm on my 14th book and Ididn't realize that.
Oh, that's a thing.
I thought it was just like theway that I did it and no one
else did it and I didn't want totell anyone because I thought
it was maybe different and it'slike no, that's how she does it.
(35:53):
She's an amazing writer.
So you're always picking upclues for other people and yeah,
so it's great to talk about itand I really want young people
to write because it's a greatway to express yourself.
But don't do it if it's likeI'm only going to write this if
it's going to get published,because that's an unfair
expectation to put on yourself.
And because that's an unfairexpectation to put on yourself.
(36:15):
And you know, write it for thejoy of it and then you'll get
better at it and then maybeit'll turn into good things do.
You talk to your writing groupum multiple times a week or a
month and chat with them a lot Ihave a writing group that we
zoom once a week and there's 10of us, 12 of us, and they are
heavy hitters.
They are like all award-winning,best-selling, great and they're
(36:37):
funny and that, and we textnon-stop all the time and we
talk about silly stuff and wetalk about business stuff and we
talk about our families and ourkids and publishing in general
and we talk about difficultieswe have with writing and, like
you know, and I'll throw aquestion out and instantly, like
four people will jump in andsay, oh, look at this.
Or oh, I read this once andthis really helped me.
Or oh, wait, I love that idea.
(36:58):
Or you know, I'll send somechapters to someone.
So we just read this, because Iknow you'll be honest with me
and I'll know you'll read itwith the critical eye of knowing
what it, what it should be ifit's going to be published.
So, yeah, that that writingsupport group really helps and
it's funny that that is really aproduct of covid well, I was
(37:20):
just about to ask how youstarted or how you met them yeah
, it was we.
We met each other and we wouldget together every now and then.
Um, there's a book festival intexas called the north texas
team book festival and a lot ofus usually end up there.
They ended up there and we kneweach other from there.
We couldn't go because of COVIDand we couldn't do things.
We didn't see anybody and itwas someone's birthday and we
(37:41):
got together.
We go who wants to get on?
And we'll just celebrate abirthday.
And the funny thing was it washer birthday and my birthday.
We both have the same birthday,both have the same birthday,
and so then I was always addedon as the oh and James, which
was, you know, is the lovingjoke of it all and we just did
that once.
And so all this kind of fun,let's do it next week, and we've
done it next week now for fiveyears so glad that you have
(38:03):
other writers that you can talkto.
Definitely helped so much itreally it's, it's really nice
and they're incrediblysupportive and you know, and and
it and they're incrediblysupportive and you know, and
it's, they're really talented.
And that's probably the youngerstage in my life.
There were professionaljealousies and envies and
television and things that youcan't help because you worry
(38:24):
there's all kinds of impostersyndrome and stuff involved in
it.
But we truly are thrilled foreach other.
A woman in that group isChristina Suntorn-Wa, and three
times she's won Newbery medals.
But we truly are thrilled foreach other.
A woman in that group isChristina Suntorn-Vaughan.
Three times she's won Newberymedals, newbery honors, and it
feels like each of us has won,because it's like we're just so
thrilled for her Because we werethere when she was writing the
(38:45):
book and we knew the struggleshe had and we knew, oh, it
didn't sell.
You know all these things.
And then she's getting thisgreat recognition and it all
didn't sell.
You know all these things andthen she's getting this great
recognition and we're allscreaming with joy.
You know, and having that inyour life people who are truly
happy for you when you're doinggreat, people who are there for
you when something goes wrongthat helps a lot.
When you're doing somethingcreative, that is mostly you
(39:08):
alone at a keyboard.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
And book people are just the best people.
They've been the nicest, mostsupportive, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
They're so nice.
So are librarians andbooksellers and writers at age.
My editor is just wonderful.
I love talking to her, jokingwith her.
It's funny.
I will email her, call her andtext her all the same day, but
it's like this feels like a textand this feels like a phone
call and this feels like anemail and it's like you know,
(39:37):
and they're just great people tobe around, as are you.
You know, the book world existsnow and podcasts and digital
stuff and all like that, andit's just so great that it
extends.
You know, one of the things thatyou hear a lot is people say I
want a reader to be able to seethemselves in a book and I think
(39:58):
that's as important as anythingthat we do.
But I also want writers to seethemselves, young people to see
themselves in the writers, and Ilike that.
We now live in a world whereit's not just a name, where they
find out bits and pieces, wheremaybe they see you be silly
with a friend.
In a world where it's not justa name, where they find out bits
and pieces, where maybe theysee you be silly with a friend
and they realize wait a minute,that's not some untouchable job,
that I don't understand those.
(40:19):
You know, stuart Gibbs andJames Ponty are as goofy with
each other as old guys as theywere.
If they grew up together andwere in middle school together.
That means they're like myfriends and me, you know.
And certainly podcasts likethis and things like this make
that more of a thing where, oh,there's more to it than just
(40:39):
name on a book.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
But it is wonderful and I got librarians and other
people who write to me and it'sjust so much fun to be able to
joke right back with them, andwhat do you hope that kids will
take away from this book beyondthe cases?
The cases don't matter to me.
So if you ask someone what abook is about, they will usually
(41:02):
tell you the plot, which iswhat the book is about and which
is what people mean when theyask me oh, tell me what that
book's about.
But if you ask a writer whatthe book is about, they usually
won't talk about the plot at all, because the plot is just the
vehicle to do the stuff thatit's really about.
So for me, the Dead City bookswere all about finding out the
(41:23):
hero inside of you, building theconfidence.
The Frame books were all abouttwo people figuring out what
it's like to be someone's bestfriend.
The City Spies books are allabout two people figuring out
what it's like to be someone'sbest friend.
The City Spice books are allabout what is a family if it's
not a traditional family, andhow is that different, and is it
less or more or what?
And the Sherlock books areabout all of those things.
(41:50):
You know it is.
There's the family part,there's the friend part, there's
the confidence part, but it youknow, I want them to see the
value of doing collaboratingwith people, to use your what
you're good at and what theythey're good at to do something,
(42:13):
maybe more than any of youcould do on your own, but also
to see that it's the people thatmatter and using your brain is
the greatest tool of all not asuperpower, not a weapon, not
even a computer, but us talkingthrough this problem is how we
(42:36):
will figure it out.
But mostly I want them to havefun reading the story, laughing
with the characters trying tosolve it along the way.
My ultimate favorite reactionis if someone gets to the end
and they think they have itsolved and they don't have it
solved, but when they hear thesolution, they go of course.
That's, how did I miss thatright?
I want it to seem like oh,that's what I should have seen,
(42:58):
that that I've done my job aswell as I can do it I thought it
was a really, really fun book,so I'm excited for everyone else
to get a chance to read I amtoo, and I appreciate you
reading it.
I appreciate you taking the timeto, to take this time to talk
to me.
I I give really long answers.
I'm sorry about that.
Um, again, I work all by myselfall day, so to talk is so, so
(43:18):
exciting well and especially totalk about your characters in
your book.
You know that well, but thatthat's a little awkward.
I actually more fun talkingabout other people's stuff, you
know, because, yeah, but youknow it's there are.
There are some.
I have these great kids wholive in my neighborhood who are
the right age and read the books, and they read the books before
they come out.
They read them while I'm stillwriting them to catch mistakes
and stuff like that, and theyknow my books so much better
(43:43):
than I know my books.
I'll call them when I go oh, Ihave this problem.
Is it this or is it that itdepends on which book and this
book and this book?
It was this and that book andthis book, it was this and that
book and that book was that.
And it's like, oh, I should beconsistent on that.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
But yeah, it is, it is fun to talk about.
Yeah, it's really funny becauseat the North Texas Teen Book
Festival there's this whole liketable.
I don't know if you really getto see this part of it, but
there's this whole like table ontables of the books and like
the signed copies.
And so you know, you get towalk in that little area and buy
the book that you didn'talready bring with you.
And so we me and my friend werewalking through and she was
(44:25):
trying to decide which book toget for her little brother, and
it was by the Alan Graff's table.
And this one boy, he just hejust started talking to us about
the books and he was like, ohmy gosh, this is my favorite
series and I absolutely lovethem.
And we were asking him like,wait, wait, which one would you
start with and would yourecommend it for someone that
likes this, this and this?
(44:45):
And so he was giving us like awhole guide through the book.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
So yeah, it was great people ask me like oh, do you
want to write books for adultstoo?
No, I think there is nothinglike young reader for the
passion they bring to readingand for what they demand.
I I see in movies and booksthings I could never get away
with, because I could not face12 year olds saying I can't
(45:10):
believe you had them just luckinto figuring this out because
they they feel it so hard and sostrong and, um, that's just the
best feeling to me.
So I love those, those youngreaders.
I love the questions they have.
That I never, never evenoccurred to me, because the way
they interpret it and it's just,it's really, it's a fun, it's a
(45:31):
fun living nice and I thinkthey will catch things.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Don't accept for sure , I used to be a teacher, I mean
, I was high school.
But still they, they will catchthings.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yes they catch everything and um, and they'll
notice connections.
I um, I had a kid call me andthey go um, because my kid's a
family friend.
I noticed in this book there'sa officer martinez.
That's right in the opening ofsherlock's study.
Officer martinez is one of theofficers from the marine patrol
(46:01):
who rescues them, who actuallyis the name after the officer
who took me out in the boat onmy research trip for the marine
between, and we raced aroundbiscayne bay together.
So I thought, oh, I made thecharacter after you.
Well, apparently there was anofficer Martinez and with the
FBI in um the third frame framebook, so like eight books ago.
(46:23):
And this kid goes is it thesame guy?
Like what, is that the sameofficer Martinez?
Is that like some?
Did you put that in?
Is that like an easter egg wehave?
Like no, it's just I named itafter the guy and I forgot I had
used that name before.
But it's like wow, I can'tbelieve you remembered that
minor character who had one lineseven books ago Wow.
(46:47):
But, there you go.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Well, yay, thank you so much for taking the time to
talk to me oh, I appreciate itso much, kristen.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
And but to everyone out there, you know, I just want
to say thank you, thank you forlistening, thank you for
reading and remember you knowyou may not like my books, which
is totally fine.
There are books out there youwill love.
Don't be like me when I was akid and just feel like I don't
think there's anything for meand just not look around.
You know, look around, find thebooks and you can't go wrong,
(47:16):
because it's so much fun to getinto these stories.
I think we live in such a goodperiod in middle grade fiction
and middle grade nonfiction,where we have just a lot of
different voices sharing a lotof experiences and there's just
places to find yourself in allof them.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
I agree.
So many more options than whenI was younger.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Yeah, I imagine, and I was younger a lot longer ago
than you were.
So yeah, for sure.
Have a great day and happyreading everyone.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Thanks for listening to when I Left Off a bookish
podcast.
You can visit James' site,follow him on social media and
purchase his novels anywhere.
Books are sold.
The Sherlock Society.
Hurricane Heist releasesSeptember 2nd 2025.
Welcome back.
I'm Kristen Balls and you'relistening to when I Left Off a
bookish podcast, and today I'mjoined by New York Times
bestselling author James Ponte,who you probably know from the
Dead City trilogy, the Frameseries, city Spy series, and
today we're talking about thesecond book in the Sherlock
Society series, spiritane Heist.
Thank you so much for joiningme today.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Thank you for having me.
It's really exciting.
You know, in the time beforethe book comes out you're always
nervous.
You're hoping that it's beingwell-received and all like that.
So it's nice to get to talkabout it and work out some of
those nerves.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm sure I can't imagine just the pressure and
all of that leading up to it.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Oh, it's not that much pressure.
You just think people might notlike it, but that's okay, you
know.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It was really good.
I liked it a lot Well.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So can you tell me what you are currently reading
right now?
Authors give the bestrecommendation.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Okay, well, I will tell you what I just read, which
is I just read Karina YoungGlazer's book, the Nine Moons of
Han Yu and Lily, and it is thebest book I've read in years.
Spoiler alert Karina is one ofmy best friends, so take that
for what it's worth, but it isabsolutely fantastic.
I expect it to win tons ofawards and recognition.
(01:26):
It comes out two weeks aftermine, so I'm glad that I kind of
got the same day.
And I am about to read a newbook by Santani Dasgupta and
actually I don't even know thetitle, because most of my
reading is people asking me towrite blurbs for their books,
and so I get manuscripts,sometimes with incomplete titles
.
You know, sometimes I'm readingon a stack of papers, sometimes
(01:47):
it's a bound galley, but sothat's what's up next.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I was just about to ask if you blurb a lot of books,
but both of those weren't outyet.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, no, I don't blurb a lot.
I think if you blurb too many,it feels like you're just doing
it, you know.
Give you a blurb too many, itfeels like you're just doing it,
you know.
And also I'm a super slowreader.
I'm still a super slow readerand I can't read that.
I have to write two books ayear.
I can't read a bunch of extrason top of it because you know I
(02:17):
get asked like every other week.
You know I can't.
I don't have that.
So I save it for books that I'mreally excited about, and
usually people who I know prettywell.
So I know I want to read itanyway.
So it gives me a head start.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
What are your favorite genres to read?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Mystery.
There's a reason I writemystery.
It's because I love to readmystery.
Like I said, I was not a goodreader growing up Because it's
always been a struggle.
My speed has always been astruggle but, like, my favorite
book as a kid was from the MixedUp Files, mrs Baisley
Frankweiler, which is a mystery,and I just voraciously read the
Encyclopedia Brown booksbecause they had short stories
(02:55):
in them so I was able to finishthem and build up my confidence.
And now all my favorite justbeen this great surge of middle
grade mystery in the last coupleof years by people like Rudis
the Pettus and Steve Schenken,jasmine Warga people who didn't
necessarily normally writemysteries, so I love reading
those and Carl Hyasson both hiskids' books and his adult books,
(03:16):
and Michael Conley Mysterymystery all the time for me.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So you just named some really really good authors
and books.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
So you just named some really really good authors
in books.
Well, they're favorites of mineand you know, the funny thing
about a mystery is it's genre.
Some people look down on genre.
I totally love genre so I haveno problem, but it is the most
interactive book there is, Ithink.
You know, most books arewritten for you to observe and,
(03:43):
you know, feel and be empatheticwith and connect with.
But in a mystery book kind ofthe idea is that, no, you're
going to be part of this, I'mgoing to give you the clues and
you're going to solve them, oryou're going to give me the
clues and I'm going to try tosolve them before the character.
And if you write fair, whichmeans if you give the clues in a
(04:07):
reasonable manner, then I'minvolved in the book in a whole
different way.
I'm not just rooting for thecharacters or feeling for the
characters, but I am solvingwith the characters and that's
so much fun to me as both areader and a writer and a viewer
.
I've watched so many Britishmysteries with my wife that I
feel like if writing dries upfor me, I could get hired at the
BBC in their casting department, cause I know he's a good, he's
(04:29):
a good potential suspect?
Oh, he, she's.
She's a great.
You know, they always havegreat medical examiners on those
shows.
So it's like um, I can't getenough mystery.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
That's true.
I never thought about it as theone of the only books that's
such an active process like thatI really feel that there's um.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So the sherlock books and also the series I wrote
called framed start in the thickof the action and then
flashback and come back.
That's, that's the structure ofthem, and the reason I do that
is partly because I want to getkids to see the young readers to
see an exciting part, but alsoI feel like I have readers who
are newish to mystery becausethey haven't.
(05:08):
They're young, you're right,and a lot of them haven't read
and I want to tell them at thebeginning.
It's like in this chapter aremany of the key clues for you to
figure out.
So I'm already telling you nowwhen the solution comes, so that
hopefully, when you see theclues along the way, you'll be
better opportunity to maybe findthem.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I think that's a good way to do it.
Can you tell me, or what canyou tell me, about your current
work in progress?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So I have two books a year.
So I'm always writing two andactually working on four at any
given moment.
So like, for instance, at themoment I'm not sure when this
will air, but at the moment Ijust last week finished a pass
on City Spies Europa, whichcomes out in February, and, like
just going over the notes, Ithink there's maybe one more.
Look at that I am also doingall the prelim stuff for the
(06:00):
release of Sherlock Society,Hurricane Heist, which comes out
in September.
So there's the after theinitial writing part of both of
those, Although now at thispoint Hurricane Heist is about
to come out.
So I'm done with that one and Iam writing Sherlock 3, which
comes out September of 26, andtrying to brainstorm City Spies
(06:21):
8, which comes out February of27.
So, but mostly right now I amworking on Sherlock Society 2, 3
, which I don't even have asubtitle for it yet.
I mean, I know the book and I'mwell into it, but I haven't
come up with a good title.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So I'm trying to say this without spoiling it, but
how you left things at the endof book two in Hurricane Heist,
is that going to kind of spurwhere book three is starting?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Okay.
So I don't mind spoiling alittle bit, so I'm going to try
to spoil around the edges.
So in the first two books, whatthese guys, what these kids and
their grandfather, are doing,it's secret to the world.
Right, they're working withstuff that no one else knows
(07:08):
they're doing, which is a reallyfun thing to make, because I
think, with kids especially,sometimes they feel like the
really special things they do inlife are unseen and it's
frustrating to them.
What happens in book two is bigenough that you can't keep it
secret anymore.
What happens in book two is bigenough that you can't keep it
secret anymore.
So when book three comes along,they are no longer on their own
(07:30):
trying to figure out what to donext.
They are trying to figure outhow to deal with people who want
them to come do things for them.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Okay, I like that.
Okay, I'm really interested tosee where that goes.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And the fun part of that is there's a website
involved in the book andactually I bought the domain
name, so I'm going to make thewebsite so that when people read
it and they want to find, I cansay this now, cause the book's
so far off, they'll forget.
It's like it'll be a real thing.
You can go check.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
That is really cool.
So the Sherlock society isn'tyour first series, of course,
and you said that you're workingon multiple series at a time.
How do you decide how longthey're going to be Like?
Do you know from the start ordoes it kind of just evolve as
you go?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So the Sherlock Society is my fourth series and
business wise with the publisher, they've all been exactly the
same.
You start with a commitment oftwo and then we see where it
goes from there and the firsttwo series went to three and
both of those felt right.
City Spies and Sherlock areboth going to go longer than
that.
I know there will be at least10 City Spies books.
There will be at least fourSherlock Society books.
That is partly on how long itkeeps feeling fresh for me,
(08:40):
because I want it to always feelfresh.
I want it to always feel new.
I don't want it to feel like,oh, that's a fun thing we've
done before, but we don't minddoing it again.
I want it to be different eachtime.
So partly it's dependent onthat and what my editor and I
have in conversations about thatat each step, because the other
thing that's important withthat is if 10's going to be the
(09:01):
last City Spies book, I need toknow that before I write 9.
Because I want to end it.
I don't want it to be just oh,the story's over.
I want to resolve things andthe other part is, quite frankly
, dependent on readership.
If people keep wanting them,certainly the publisher keeps
wanting to publish them, and soI think it's a matter of feeling
(09:27):
comfortable and fresh with thecharacters.
You know, a good friend of mineis stew gibbs and stew is on, I
think, spy school like 12 or 13and he's fun jungle, maybe 10.
So he stews.
Stew's a good lead up for me,because I I actually was
watching stew.
That made me think, oh wait,wait, I can do two series in a
year.
Now the funny thing is, Ithought, because certainly City
(09:48):
Spies will die down and thenI'll start a new one and that
way they'll overlap a little,and then City Spies has
continued to get more popularand so they're like no, we don't
want to stop that.
It's like, oh wait, now I'mdoing two books a year for a
while.
So four years of two books ayear, maybe more than that,
(10:09):
that's an intense pace.
It is, it is, but I reallyenjoy the work.
Not that it's easy.
A lot of times it's veryfrustrating, but I worked in
television, which was fun, for25 years, but that wore me out.
This doesn't wear me out, thisinvigorates me.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And speaking of television, can you talk a
little bit more about yourjourney from becoming an author
and how you transitioned fromscreenwriting to novel writing?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Sure.
So I, like I said, I struggledas a reader as a kid and it
wasn't, it was just I was slowat it and I think at early
stages I didn't put in the workto maybe build up a little
stamina.
But I loved writing and I lovedstorytelling and I gravitated
to movies, just absolutely lovedmovies because, unlike books,
(10:54):
movies were the same speed foreveryone and, unlike books,
movies were a shared experience.
You know you'd go to thetheater and where I lived you
know I joke about it, but it wasreally important we didn't.
I grew you know joke about it,but it was really important, we
didn't.
I grew up in Florida.
We didn't have air conditioninguntil I was 13 in my house and
the movie theater was cold and Iwould and it was cheap back
then and I would go to themovies and I'd watch the same
(11:15):
movie back to back just to staycold, cool, and by watching the
movie twice in a row the secondtime I already knew was going to
happen and I started seeing howit worked together.
So I loved the idea of movies.
So I went to college andmajored in screenwriting, went
to film school in California, atUSC, and I thought that was
going to be my career and Iended up starting in kids
(11:37):
television and I worked atDisney Channel, I worked at
Nickelodeon and I really enjoyedthat and script writing was and
I worked with great people.
But over time I began to be moreof a reader and I really liked
books and when I had kids and Iwould see the books they had
they'd bring home.
Like that, the books ofelementary school now are more
(11:57):
exciting than the books when Iwas growing up, yeah.
And all of a sudden I'm likewell, these are kind of fun, I
wonder if I could write one ofthese.
And all of a sudden I'm likewell, these are kind of fun, I
wonder if I could write one ofthese.
And I ended up trying.
And it turns out the whole timeI was meant to write books.
(12:19):
It fits all the things that Iwanted to be a writer but I
didn't know if I wanted to be anewspaper writer or a film
writer or a TV writer, and Iended up doing a little bit of
all of that.
And then it's like, oh wait, themost obvious choice, which is
books.
But I thought, wasn't, I didn'tfind, until I was in my 40s.
And then all of a sudden it'slike, oh wait, this is.
(12:39):
And now, to be honest, I thinkall those years of doing that
made it a better thing for me,because you know, I wrote a ton
of dialogue on television, so Ilove writing dialogue in a book.
There's a lot of structure inthe TV stuff and so my books are
structured really like a movieor a TV show in their act
(13:00):
structure point.
Where I'm just going to listsome names for you stewart gibbs
, alan gratz, gordon corman,shannon messenger, victoria
aviard, um, suzanne collins, um,these are just off the top of
my head, that's six right there.
They all started asscreenwriters, except for gordon
corman, because gordon gotpublished when he was in high
(13:20):
school, but when he went to nyuhe majored in screenwriting
originally.
So we are at a time where Ithink one of the reasons middle
grade is so dynamic right now ispeople are coming from a lot of
backgrounds and it's a pacethat moves like film.
It's cinematic in descriptionand the dialogue is hopefully
(13:41):
sharper, because that's how weall trained, that was how we
learned, and that's not everyone, but I think that influence is
just like others influence theway I write, so it was a
roundabout journey that inretrospect, feels more like a
straight line.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That makes sense.
And I feel like with all theauthors you named you can kind
of sense like a style or kind ofa snappiness to their writing.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That's a little bit different you know, I was just
talking to alan gratz the otherday.
Um, I'm doing, I'm doing alittle mini podcast nothing like
yours, l fancy.
I'm doing a little mini podcastwhere I'm just talking to five
different, six different writersabout one aspect of writing.
And I'm doing that as a lead upto the release of my book and,
and Alan and I talked about plottogether and Alan and I, and we
both have white marker boardsat our desk because that's what
(14:29):
we used in TV writing and and weand we marked the structure
that we use.
It's like, yeah, that's exactlythe structure I use.
And it's like, okay, that makessense to me, cause when you
read Alan's books, you can seethe movie in your head.
It is a totally different formand there's such great writing
and there's so many greatwriters that don't have that
background.
You know, katie Camillo doesn'thave that background.
(14:51):
Her books are magic, you know.
But it is an interestingdevelopment, I think, in our
business.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Very true, that's so interesting.
So for readers who loved thefirst book, what can they expect
from the second installment inthe Sherlock Society series?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Okay, the Sherlock Society is a series about a
brother and sister, theirgrandfather and their two best
friends solving mysteriestogether.
The grandfather's a retiredreporter from the Miami Herald
and so he has the storage areawith all these unsolved cases
from his career and they try tosolve those storage area with
all these unsolved cases fromhis career and they try to solve
(15:26):
those.
And the grandfather was a realrevelation for a lot of people
because it was different acharacter maybe you wouldn't
normally see in in a kid's book.
There's a 73 year old.
Very funny there.
Hopefully I try to write themfunny very funny, very
interesting character who is atthe heart of it and is in some
ways the most like the parentsworry more about the grandfather
(15:47):
than they worry about the kids.
So kids all year, readers allyear have come to about how much
they love grandpa and I'mthrilled to tell them that if
they love grandpa then they'rereally going to love the next
book, because it starts whengrandpa was 12.
So grandpa is the age that thecharacters are and three of the
chapters in the book are set in1964, when he was 12 years old.
And what they do is they reallyshows us the mystery that
(16:11):
happened in Miami that launchedhim into becoming an
investigative journalist.
I mean, his whole life wasaffected by this this summer and
this hurricane that hit Miamiin the summer of 64, hurricane
Cleo, and that mystery was neversolved.
Miami in the summer of 64,hurricane Cleo, and that mystery
was never solved.
And now another hurricane comes60 plus years later and
uncovers some evidence and nowthey can maybe solve it.
(16:32):
So one thing is you have thisinteresting, you have this
dynamic of these two storylines,how they come together.
We see grandpa at a young age.
We see you know hurricanes.
I grew up on the beach inFlorida and hurricanes are a
real part of our life and youknow.
So you see stuff about thehurricane and you also get to
see what it's like in that alexand his sister don't always get
(16:56):
along and he had what for himwas the greatest summer ever in
the first book and kind of thefear that, oh wait, when I go
back to school everything willbe back the way it was and that
was a fun thing to write becausethat really hit ever in the
first book and kind of the fearthat, oh wait, when I go back to
school everything will be backthe way it was.
And that was a fun thing towrite because that really hit
home how I often felt.
Whenever I had good times as akid, I was always worried like,
oh wait, is this going to stopnow, you know?
(17:19):
And so I think a lot of kidshave that and a lot of kids are
nervous going into the newschool year and so we pick up on
that and throw in a hurricaneand we throw in believe it or
not, a rhinoceros, a wildrhinoceros.
So there's a lot going on inthe book and so they'll see that
There'll be a totally newmystery, but also they'll see,
(17:40):
hopefully the things they likedabout the first book.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And I'm sure that Alex was nervous, especially
with his relationship with Zoeat that moment, and whenever she
starts hanging out with herfriends during the school year
again is everything going tochange.
They finally got into a reallygood rhythm and now you're kind
of starting over.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
You know it's a funny thing that doesn't relate, but
kind of does, to me, Because theplot lines in my books often
seem like, well, there's no12-year-olds that spy for MI6,
and no 12-year-olds solvemysteries, and you'd all concede
that.
But I want the emotions, thedynamics, the anxieties, the
interpersonal stuff to all bevery real.
I used to write a show atDisney Channel called the Mickey
(18:20):
Mouse Club, and the kids whowere on that show included
Christine Aguilera and BritneySpears and Ryan Gosling and
Justin Timberlake, and I workedwith them every day and they
were the age of these kids.
They were 12 years old, theywere 11 years old and I'll never
forget, at the end of theseries we had a big rap party
(18:40):
and Christina Aguilera, who wasgoing to go on to become one of
the most well-known singers inpop history, thought she was
just going to go back toPittsburgh and be a kid again
and she was devastated and Iremember talking to her at that
party and trying to.
You know I didn't know what thefuture held, but it's like, you
know, that always stuck with mebecause looking back now I can
(19:02):
see it's like, oh, she didn'tknow that Superstar was coming.
All she knew was that thereally good thing that she had
was ending and that made hernervous.
And that, to me, is the feelingthat Alex has at the end of the
summer he just had this summerbeyond belief that involved the
FBI and you know, agents andcase and Al Capone's money and
(19:24):
all this stuff, and now he'sjust going to be a kid again and
it's a nervous thing, and sofor me, that was the emotional
truth that I wanted to writeabout.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I like that and I'm sure at the end of every one of
your shows it probably kind offeels like the end of a school
year a little bit, becauseyou've grown close with Pat, pat
and crew.
Oh true.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Well, every season certainly did.
Yeah, no.
And then on top of that, whenthe series would come to the end
, it would be like, okay, youknow.
And then what's really hard andkind of what happened in the
first book and on something likea television production, you
are impressed and you spend 20hours a day together every day,
(20:06):
six days a week, and they becomelike a relationship, but it's
like family and then it's justover and it's just that's a hard
thing that it took time for meto get used to, because I worked
in kids' television.
I would really see it there andI would really try to talk to
the kids ahead of time and sayyou know, you're going to feel
this and it's going to be likethis and it's a difficult set of
(20:28):
emotions to deal with.
And it is like the school yearand it's a difficult set of
emotions to deal with.
And it is like the school yearand it's like there's always
anxiety going into the schoolyear.
There's always anxiety goinginto a television season or
certainly going into a new show.
Will people like it?
Will people like me Like a goodrating?
All the same things come intoplay.
So, yeah, there's a lot of thatand I like using the school
(20:52):
year.
The book comes out in September, which is just coincidental,
but I like the fact that it willbe read by people as the school
year starts up.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
So how do the group dynamics shift in Hurricane
Heist now that the team is kindof gaining some experience
working together and starting tokind of learn how to
investigate a little bit more,now that this is their second
case?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Well, there's a couple things come into play.
First of all, the interpersonaldynamics in the first book were
the sister wanted nothing to dowith it.
She was kind of forced into itthat the other two were Alex's
friends, not Zoe's, and verymuch Zoe did not want to be
friends with Lena, or at leastthat's what she said.
(21:35):
And it's kind of fun in thesecond book is, over the course
of the first book they becamefriendlier and now they really
do become friends.
And for Alex and Yanni it'skind of a mixed thing.
They really are happy aboutthat.
But also it's like well, lenawas their friend and they don't
have many friends and now isLena going to become more her
(21:59):
friend and are they back justthe two of them?
Again, it's so hard to be inmiddle school.
It's so hard, or, yeah, it's sohard with allegiances.
With allegiances and you knowthat's another thing about new
school years is oftentimes itturns out like oh, this person
and I were really friendly butwe had the same schedule and now
(22:19):
, if the schedule is different,I don't see them as much, and
will they still want to see meat lunch or after school?
And there's all thatuncertainty.
That's what I think we writeabout.
I think we write about theuncertainty so that young
readers know that.
I think we write about theuncertainty so that young
readers know that.
Oh wait, this is a universalexperience I'm feeling.
So the dynamic-wise is a littlebit that.
So they're becoming tighter andcertainly Zoe and Lena are
(22:43):
becoming more friends, but theyare more skilled at it because
they've done it once before.
But on the flip side, I thinkalex's word the others just saw
it as something fun for summerand he really wants it to carry
on.
So it would not be good if youhad the same problems every time
(23:06):
.
So so the interpersonal stuff,there is more on that.
So I think it's a little morefrom.
You know, alex is our narrator,so we hear his insecurity a
little bit more.
But yeah, they certainly arebecoming more a team and more a
force to solve things, whichonly been built more in three,
you know.
So in the in the third book.
(23:27):
They're actually really good atit at that point.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
And of course grandpa helps a lot, giving them some
really really good at it at thatpoint.
And of course grandpa helps alot, giving them some really
really good tips.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Grandpa does help a lot.
Grandpa is is is a really funcharacter to write, but and he's
a major character he's part ofthe team, but it is.
The kids are the team, you know, and and I find myself
sometimes, when I'm writing,starting to give grandpa a line
and say no, no, no, I want a kidto solve that and no, I want
(23:56):
Yachty to figure that out.
And we'll give grandpa this.
You know, we don't want to makehim useless, but I think he
sees himself as this is a chancenot to solve mysteries.
This is a chance for me to helpthese kids find their
confidence, find themselves, forme to help these kids find
(24:16):
their confidence, findthemselves, find their skills
that'll be useful throughouttheir lives.
So he's more like the coach ofthe team, even though he's also
the most immature member of theteam.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And Lena oh my gosh, she has some things that she'll
just figure out and I'm like,wow, that is really really smart
.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Lena, lena Sharp, you know, and Lena Lena is actually
inspired by.
I mentioned earlier.
A good friend of mine is KarinaGlazer, the writer, her kid
inspired by.
I try not to base people on toomuch and and their kid's really
sharp too, but no, I I like theway she figures things out.
One of the things I wanted to dowith this book that I thought
(24:50):
the first book and so itcontinues on that I thought was
a little different is so we havea brother and sister, one who's
really popular and one who'snot.
And what I wanted to makedifferent is the opposite of
what happened when I was growingup and I wouldn't care.
Counter characters like that is, the one who's not popular is
actually pretty happy with whohe is in life, and the one who
is popular is not, and kind oflike she knows that a lot of
(25:16):
this stuff isn't real, but Idon't want to give it up.
And he's like no, I'm king ofthe geeks, that's fine with me,
I'm a nerd man.
And Lena kind of becomes thisway, because Lena is very much
an outsider, she's just moved in, but also comfortable with that
.
Very much an outsider, she'sjust moved in, but also
comfortable with that that Ithink she is able to unlock in
Zoe a comfort with that that are.
(25:38):
You know, your family, yourfamily can tell you something a
thousand times and it never hits.
And someone else does like, ohokay, you know, I know, as a
parent, that baffled me.
You know, no matter what I toldmy son is deaf ears.
And then someone else had theexact same thing.
Oh, what a great idea.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So Lena gives us that and I'm sure that especially
with Zoe, just being able towitness such a strong supportive
friend group, that's probablynot like her friendship with the
popular girls, because I knowespecially she says a couple
times like I'm worried that if Idon't go to camp with them then
I'm going to be out and youknow she can clearly see that
the Sherlock Society they are init together yeah, absolutely,
(26:16):
absolutely, which is how myfriends were and are.
Yeah, you know, we were never atthe forefront, but we were
always at each other's backthat's important and I'm sure it
helps kids see that you canfind that you just might have to
do a little bit more.
And what's one skill, uh, thatyour care, that your characters
(26:38):
have, that you wish you had as akid?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
you know, I I, when I create an ensemble thing, so
like what I did with City Spies,are here.
What I try to do is I give eachof the kids like a big thing of
my life so that I'm connectedto all of them, but I make them
better than me.
I mean, I wanted to make movies, but Yachty is a better
filmmaker at a younger age thanI was as an adult, you know, and
(27:04):
Lena is sharper and but whatskill bravery.
I was always I wouldn't sayscared kid, but I was.
I was never daring kids wouldjump a bike over a ramp, even a
little ramp.
I'm like I'm not doing that andno, no matter what they did, I
was not brave and I think thereare a lot of reasons for that
(27:27):
and I'm okay with that.
But I wish I had some of theirconfidence and boldness when I
was 12.
Well, you know that that wouldhave come in handy I get that I
same definitely yeah yeah and itdoes help that they have each
other as a support system.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
That probably kind of makes them a little bit braver,
versus that they were trying tolike a balance, just trying to
go it alone you know.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
You know, the thing they had that I really wish I
had is the grandfather I I I wasraised by a single mom and my
grandparents were gone when Iwas little and and I had a great
family, but I never had anothergeneration away point of view
to, like you know, um, thegrandpa relationship with them
is based a lot on my mother withmy kids Because she, like
(28:16):
grandpa in the book, she livedwith us.
We built an apartment on ourhouse and that was her place and
she was an everyday part of thekids' lives, which was 90%
great and 10%, but was 90% great, and I wish I had that.
That's not a skill, that's anexperience.
Also, what I really wanted togive them that I did not have.
(28:41):
I had a fantastic mother, but Iwanted to give them two solid,
involved parents.
I wanted that to create in thema confidence of a safety net if
they make a mistake, and thatthat was why I was never daring.
I didn't feel like there was asafety net and yeah, so, but but
(29:02):
there, there, there are a lotof our family in that family.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
And I'm sure that kids can relate to and
appreciate the family thatyou've created in the series.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I hope so.
I think.
You know, I don't know I knowwhy, but a lot of books don't
have the full both set ofparents.
You know, the first 12 books Iwrote were about disconnected
parents because I never met myfather.
So it was like that, that wasthe void in me at this age and
that's the void that I keptwriting and and I I think it's a
(29:38):
worthy void to write and Icertainly have a lot of thoughts
and opinions on it.
And so this was the book.
The Sherlock Society was thebook I told my wife I go.
Now I'm going to write a bookseries based not on the family I
grew up in, but on the familythat we raised, that this is us
and my mom and these kids.
(29:58):
And even though it's so fromthe kid's perspective, my
perspective is a littledifferent.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
And what is one piece of advice that you would give
to any kid out there who wantsto start writing mysteries of
their own?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I'm going to give them more than one.
Yep, all right.
So if you want, if you want towrite, I think that's a
wonderful, wonderful thing, andI think, even if you don't want
to be a writer, writing helpsyou in so many ways.
There is no job on earth thatisn't enhanced by your ability
to communicate well and to writewell and tell your thoughts and
share them.
But writing is more than that.
(30:30):
Writing is about touching thestuff that really excites you,
and I think that that's what youshould write.
You should write things thatyou are really fascinated by,
that you are really interestedby.
So that's one.
I think when you write them,you should write them kind of
the way you talk.
There's, I think, a tendency forpeople that are trying to
(30:53):
they're more formal when theywrite or they try to show off
with big words, and I just don'tthink that reads right.
I think you should write well.
I think you should use goodgrammar, I think you should have
a nice dynamic vocabulary, butyou shouldn't inflate the
writing it should.
You know, the nicest complimentI hear is people who I grew up
with sometimes read the books,whether it's with their kids or
(31:15):
their grandkids or just they'reinterested Universally, like at
least or I'd say at least half,will tell me James, it sounds
like we're sitting at your houseand you're telling me the story
.
It sounds like the voice that Iremember you having when we
were growing up, and it's likethat's what we talk about a
writer's voice.
These books might not be good,but they are mine and they would
(31:38):
only exist with my voice and myideas.
That's what's great aboutwriting.
You're the only one who canmake the stories that you make.
So write in your voice.
Write about something you careabout.
If you were going to be amarathon runner, you would never
go out one day and said I'mgoing to run a marathon, so
let's run 26 miles, cause youwouldn't make it yet.
(32:00):
People often say, oh, I'm gonnabe a novelist, I'm gonna write
a novel and it's it's so hard todo without the experience of
the building blocks, so I wouldget the tip of right Shorter
things.
Write an article, write a shortstory, write a poem, write a
song.
Write things, because the keycomponent of being a writer is
(32:20):
finishing.
People will tell you oh, I haveseven different books going.
It's like then you don't,because you can only really
write.
You know one, maybe two.
I'm writing two a year, so Ican't say you can't write two.
I'm writing two a year, so Ican't say I can't write two.
So write shorter things and getused to finishing them and
paying them off.
Write jokes.
You know I used to write stupidjokes and then I had a job
where my job was to tell stupidjokes.
(32:41):
I was Davy Crockett at DisneyWorld and I'd paddle up the moon
and I would tell stupid jokes.
But I learned all about writing,doing that, and after years of
that stuff then I started towrite a book and then it was
still really hard but I knewkind of how to do it.
So that's write what you love.
Write in your voice, write agood length.
(33:01):
The last two tips readeverything out loud all the time
.
It flows so much better if yousay it, because when you say it,
if you stumble, it's like ohwait, maybe I should use a
different word there.
Oh wait, that doesn't soundlike the way people really talk
to each other.
So reading out loud isimportant.
My son would say, like you know, because because when I worked
in television I would write thebooks at night and he'd be like
(33:23):
it's three in the morning andhe'd hear me because my office
was next to his bedroom and he'dhear me acting out the book out
loud.
I was trying not to be loud,but I guess you know, every now
and then you hear me.
And then you know aboutmysteries.
If you want to write mysteries,that's great.
Do yourself a favor.
Figure out the solution firstand write backwards.
I don't mean write the plotbackwards, but figure out a
(33:44):
really good solution.
And once you have that then youknow where you're headed right.
So it's like a car trip.
If you're going on a car tripand you drive away from your
home, say you want to drive, youknow between two cities, but
you don't know where you'regoing, so you kind of meander.
And then halfway through yousay, oh, I want to go to
Philadelphia, and you drivestraight to Philadelphia.
Well, that's kind of uneven.
(34:04):
But if you know you're going toPhiladelphia from the beginning
, even if you don't know whatroads you're going to take, you
kind of stay in a good pace,know what the solution is and
then go and then you can layerin the clues.
That's a good way to think aboutit and really good advice.
So thank you.
Well, I appreciate that I had alot of writers have helped me
(34:27):
when I was a student, when I wasworking as a living, even, and
you know you'll, you'll findthat real writers like to talk
about writing and share and helpand encourage.
It's not a competitive field.
It is, uh, you know what, themore people read, the better.
So let's, let's both go at it,let's, let's be at it together.
(34:49):
And I and I love talking topeople about writing because
then they'll throw back stuff atme.
It's like, oh, you know, I justtalked to Pam Munoz writing the
other day.
Pam wrote Esperanza Rising andManana Land and all kinds of
amazing books.
And Pam said she said I'm arecursive writer and I'm like
(35:11):
what's that?
I have no idea what that is.
And she described her writingstyle And'm like wait, that's
what I do, I thought I was theonly one.
And a recursive writerconstantly starts at the
beginning, keeps it, expands,constantly goes back and
rewrites.
So like I'll write the firstchapter and then I'll rewrite
the first chapter and then I'llrewrite it.
I'll write the second chapterand I'll go back and I'll go
through the first chapter, Iwon't change much, but then I'll
rewrite the second chapter andI'll go back and I'll go through
(35:32):
the first chapter, I won'tchange much, but then I'll
rewrite the second and then,when you get further, when
you're on like chapter 12, maybeonly go back to chapter nine,
but you're constantly going backthrough.
I'm on my 14th book and Ididn't realize that.
Oh, that's a thing.
I thought it was just like theway that I did it and no one
else did it and I didn't want totell anyone because I thought
it was maybe different and it'slike no, that's how she does it.
(35:53):
She's an amazing writer.
So you're always picking upclues for other people and yeah,
so it's great to talk about itand I really want young people
to write because it's a greatway to express yourself.
But don't do it if it's likeI'm only going to write this if
it's going to get published,because that's an unfair
expectation to put on yourself.
And because that's an unfairexpectation to put on yourself.
(36:15):
And you know, write it for thejoy of it and then you'll get
better at it and then maybeit'll turn into good things do.
You talk to your writing groupum multiple times a week or a
month and chat with them a lot Ihave a writing group that we
zoom once a week and there's 10of us, 12 of us, and they are
heavy hitters.
They are like all award-winning,best-selling, great and they're
(36:37):
funny and that, and we textnon-stop all the time and we
talk about silly stuff and wetalk about business stuff and we
talk about our families and ourkids and publishing in general
and we talk about difficultieswe have with writing and, like
you know, and I'll throw aquestion out and instantly, like
four people will jump in andsay, oh, look at this.
Or oh, I read this once andthis really helped me.
Or oh, wait, I love that idea.
(36:58):
Or you know, I'll send somechapters to someone.
So we just read this, because Iknow you'll be honest with me
and I'll know you'll read itwith the critical eye of knowing
what it, what it should be ifit's going to be published.
So, yeah, that that writingsupport group really helps and
it's funny that that is really aproduct of covid well, I was
(37:20):
just about to ask how youstarted or how you met them yeah
, it was we.
We met each other and we wouldget together every now and then.
Um, there's a book festival intexas called the north texas
team book festival and a lot ofus usually end up there.
They ended up there and we kneweach other from there.
We couldn't go because of COVIDand we couldn't do things.
We didn't see anybody and itwas someone's birthday and we
(37:41):
got together.
We go who wants to get on?
And we'll just celebrate abirthday.
And the funny thing was it washer birthday and my birthday.
We both have the same birthday,both have the same birthday,
and so then I was always addedon as the oh and James, which
was, you know, is the lovingjoke of it all and we just did
that once.
And so all this kind of fun,let's do it next week, and we've
done it next week now for fiveyears so glad that you have
(38:03):
other writers that you can talkto.
Definitely helped so much itreally it's, it's really nice
and they're incrediblysupportive and you know, and and
it and they're incrediblysupportive and you know, and
it's, they're really talented.
And that's probably the youngerstage in my life.
There were professionaljealousies and envies and
television and things that youcan't help because you worry
(38:24):
there's all kinds of impostersyndrome and stuff involved in
it.
But we truly are thrilled foreach other.
A woman in that group isChristina Suntorn-Wa, and three
times she's won Newbery medals.
But we truly are thrilled foreach other.
A woman in that group isChristina Suntorn-Vaughan.
Three times she's won Newberymedals, newbery honors, and it
feels like each of us has won,because it's like we're just so
thrilled for her Because we werethere when she was writing the
(38:45):
book and we knew the struggleshe had and we knew, oh, it
didn't sell.
You know all these things.
And then she's getting thisgreat recognition and it all
didn't sell.
You know all these things andthen she's getting this great
recognition and we're allscreaming with joy.
You know, and having that inyour life people who are truly
happy for you when you're doinggreat, people who are there for
you when something goes wrongthat helps a lot.
When you're doing somethingcreative, that is mostly you
(39:08):
alone at a keyboard.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
And book people are just the best people.
They've been the nicest, mostsupportive, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
They're so nice.
So are librarians andbooksellers and writers at age.
My editor is just wonderful.
I love talking to her, jokingwith her.
It's funny.
I will email her, call her andtext her all the same day, but
it's like this feels like a textand this feels like a phone
call and this feels like anemail and it's like you know,
(39:37):
and they're just great people tobe around, as are you.
You know, the book world existsnow and podcasts and digital
stuff and all like that, andit's just so great that it
extends.
You know, one of the things thatyou hear a lot is people say I
want a reader to be able to seethemselves in a book and I think
(39:58):
that's as important as anythingthat we do.
But I also want writers to seethemselves, young people to see
themselves in the writers, and Ilike that.
We now live in a world whereit's not just a name, where they
find out bits and pieces, wheremaybe they see you be silly
with a friend.
In a world where it's not justa name, where they find out bits
and pieces, where maybe theysee you be silly with a friend
and they realize wait a minute,that's not some untouchable job,
that I don't understand those.
(40:19):
You know, stuart Gibbs andJames Ponty are as goofy with
each other as old guys as theywere.
If they grew up together andwere in middle school together.
That means they're like myfriends and me, you know.
And certainly podcasts likethis and things like this make
that more of a thing where, oh,there's more to it than just
(40:39):
name on a book.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
But it is wonderful and I got librarians and other
people who write to me and it'sjust so much fun to be able to
joke right back with them, andwhat do you hope that kids will
take away from this book beyondthe cases?
The cases don't matter to me.
So if you ask someone what abook is about, they will usually
(41:02):
tell you the plot, which iswhat the book is about and which
is what people mean when theyask me oh, tell me what that
book's about.
But if you ask a writer whatthe book is about, they usually
won't talk about the plot at all, because the plot is just the
vehicle to do the stuff thatit's really about.
So for me, the Dead City bookswere all about finding out the
(41:23):
hero inside of you, building theconfidence.
The Frame books were all abouttwo people figuring out what
it's like to be someone's bestfriend.
The City Spies books are allabout two people figuring out
what it's like to be someone'sbest friend.
The City Spice books are allabout what is a family if it's
not a traditional family, andhow is that different, and is it
less or more or what?
And the Sherlock books areabout all of those things.
(41:50):
You know it is.
There's the family part,there's the friend part, there's
the confidence part, but it youknow, I want them to see the
value of doing collaboratingwith people, to use your what
you're good at and what theythey're good at to do something,
(42:13):
maybe more than any of youcould do on your own, but also
to see that it's the people thatmatter and using your brain is
the greatest tool of all not asuperpower, not a weapon, not
even a computer, but us talkingthrough this problem is how we
(42:36):
will figure it out.
But mostly I want them to havefun reading the story, laughing
with the characters trying tosolve it along the way.
My ultimate favorite reactionis if someone gets to the end
and they think they have itsolved and they don't have it
solved, but when they hear thesolution, they go of course.
That's, how did I miss thatright?
I want it to seem like oh,that's what I should have seen,
(42:58):
that that I've done my job aswell as I can do it I thought it
was a really, really fun book,so I'm excited for everyone else
to get a chance to read I amtoo, and I appreciate you
reading it.
I appreciate you taking the timeto, to take this time to talk
to me.
I I give really long answers.
I'm sorry about that.
Um, again, I work all by myselfall day, so to talk is so, so
(43:18):
exciting well and especially totalk about your characters in
your book.
You know that well, but thatthat's a little awkward.
I actually more fun talkingabout other people's stuff, you
know, because, yeah, but youknow it's there are.
There are some.
I have these great kids wholive in my neighborhood who are
the right age and read the books, and they read the books before
they come out.
They read them while I'm stillwriting them to catch mistakes
and stuff like that, and theyknow my books so much better
(43:43):
than I know my books.
I'll call them when I go oh, Ihave this problem.
Is it this or is it that itdepends on which book and this
book and this book?
It was this and that book andthis book, it was this and that
book and that book was that.
And it's like, oh, I should beconsistent on that.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
But yeah, it is, it is fun to talk about.
Yeah, it's really funny becauseat the North Texas Teen Book
Festival there's this whole liketable.
I don't know if you really getto see this part of it, but
there's this whole like table ontables of the books and like
the signed copies.
And so you know, you get towalk in that little area and buy
the book that you didn'talready bring with you.
And so we me and my friend werewalking through and she was
(44:25):
trying to decide which book toget for her little brother, and
it was by the Alan Graff's table.
And this one boy, he just hejust started talking to us about
the books and he was like, ohmy gosh, this is my favorite
series and I absolutely lovethem.
And we were asking him like,wait, wait, which one would you
start with and would yourecommend it for someone that
likes this, this and this?
(44:45):
And so he was giving us like awhole guide through the book.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
So yeah, it was great people ask me like oh, do you
want to write books for adultstoo?
No, I think there is nothinglike young reader for the
passion they bring to readingand for what they demand.
I I see in movies and booksthings I could never get away
with, because I could not face12 year olds saying I can't
(45:10):
believe you had them just luckinto figuring this out because
they they feel it so hard and sostrong and, um, that's just the
best feeling to me.
So I love those, those youngreaders.
I love the questions they have.
That I never, never evenoccurred to me, because the way
they interpret it and it's just,it's really, it's a fun, it's a
(45:31):
fun living nice and I thinkthey will catch things.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Don't accept for sure , I used to be a teacher, I mean
, I was high school.
But still they, they will catchthings.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yes they catch everything and um, and they'll
notice connections.
I um, I had a kid call me andthey go um, because my kid's a
family friend.
I noticed in this book there'sa officer martinez.
That's right in the opening ofsherlock's study.
Officer martinez is one of theofficers from the marine patrol
(46:01):
who rescues them, who actuallyis the name after the officer
who took me out in the boat onmy research trip for the marine
between, and we raced aroundbiscayne bay together.
So I thought, oh, I made thecharacter after you.
Well, apparently there was anofficer Martinez and with the
FBI in um the third frame framebook, so like eight books ago.
(46:23):
And this kid goes is it thesame guy?
Like what, is that the sameofficer Martinez?
Is that like some?
Did you put that in?
Is that like an easter egg wehave?
Like no, it's just I named itafter the guy and I forgot I had
used that name before.
But it's like wow, I can'tbelieve you remembered that
minor character who had one lineseven books ago Wow.
(46:47):
But, there you go.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Well, yay, thank you so much for taking the time to
talk to me oh, I appreciate itso much, kristen.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
And but to everyone out there, you know, I just want
to say thank you, thank you forlistening, thank you for
reading and remember you knowyou may not like my books, which
is totally fine.
There are books out there youwill love.
Don't be like me when I was akid and just feel like I don't
think there's anything for meand just not look around.
You know, look around, find thebooks and you can't go wrong,
(47:16):
because it's so much fun to getinto these stories.
I think we live in such a goodperiod in middle grade fiction
and middle grade nonfiction,where we have just a lot of
different voices sharing a lotof experiences and there's just
places to find yourself in allof them.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
I agree.
So many more options than whenI was younger.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Yeah, I imagine, and I was younger a lot longer ago
than you were.
So yeah, for sure.
Have a great day and happyreading everyone.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Thanks for listening to when I Left Off a bookish
podcast.
You can visit James' site,follow him on social media and
purchase his novels anywhere.
Books are sold.
The Sherlock Society.
Hurricane Heist releasesSeptember 2nd 2025.
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