In our house, famed children's author Gary D. Schmidt (The Wednesday Wars, and this year's shoo-in for the Newbery* Okay for Now) is known as Rebecca's dad. Rebecca, squished somewhere in the middle of all those Schmidt kids, is a good friend of our oldest daughter. She graciously agreed to be interviewed:Q: Rebecca, you grew up with both a mom* and dad writing---my sympathies.
Thanks! No---it was an incredible childhood full of C.S. Lewis, typewriters, book signings and stories. I had the best bedtime stories ever, so I wouldn't change it.
Q: So, tell me: are your parents the tweed-coat-with-leather-patches-and-a-pipe sort of writers---or more drink-with-Papa-Hemingway-and-shoot-at-the-moon-with-a-fully-loaded-semi-automatic scribblers?
My parents were more of the "You're late for school!" and "Eat your vegetables!" type of writers. They were writers, but they were parents first. (Besides, none of us are real Hemingway fans, right?**)
Our family calls you "Sarah's friend with the wacky sense of humor." Certainly, Okay for Now has some of that trademark Schmidt humor in it---are you your father's biggest influence for the comedic?
Yes, I am my father's biggest inspiration for all of his works. I'm the dog in Trouble, the teacher in The Wednesday Wars, and the First Girl who got cut out of First Boy. No, in all seriousness, my family loves to laugh together and always have. As for my dad's inspiration for his books, I can claim no ownership---although my name does show up a couple of times here and there.
Q: Rebecca, you're at the beginning of a brilliant career in the film and TV industry, with an insider's take on rising young stars. Tell, us, who do you see playing Rebecca Schmidt in the forth-coming bio-pic I just this second made up called: TULIP: The Gary D. Schmidt Family Unplugged?
My family is far too dull and normal for anyone to make a movie out of us! Although I do bear a striking resemblance to Rachel McAdams.....***
Q: One last question for our readers**** Rebecca: Harry Potter? Or Lord of the Rings?
You have to go Tolkien. There's no doubt in my mind. Sure, I love Harry. But for me, it will always be the books that this strange, very English gentleman wrote about Middle Earth. One of my most vivid memories of reading any novel is when I reached the end of The Two Towers and thought the world had ended. No--it's Tolkien.
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*The writer Anne Elizabeth Stickney
**He's gonna struggle with winning the National Book Award. Not because Okay isn't perfectly okay (har!), but that the NBA for children's usually goes for the older young-adult titles. Still, if Holes won the National Book and the Newb, what's stopping Okay for Now?
You heard it here first.
***Too right. Hemingway wrote like a over-excited third-grader: It rained. I punched my girlfriend. It rained some more. Also death. whereas Fitzgerald wrote about rain and punching (and also death) like the genius that he was.
****The funny thing is---she really does!
*****Ukrainian spammers and one guy who assures me (repeatedly) he's a genuine Russian spy.
