Junior Inker Sam Krol Interviews Christopher Healy

by Sam Krol

Sam fell in love with The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom.

Click on the link, please, and read the first page. You'll see why. Since his twin, Victoria got to interview Richard Peck, Sam asked if he could interview Christopher Healy.

Christopher said Yes.

Here is the Interview

Sam Krol

Did you base any of your characters on people you know?

Christopher Healy

None are completely based on people I know, but Princess Lila is based partly on my daughter, who, like Lila, considers herself a scientist, always asks a ton of questions, and often has one curl of hair falling into her eyes. And while my son is not an evil genius like Deeb Rauber, he does share a sense of humor with the Bandit King. As for the four princes… well, they all represent different parts of myself. When you put Liam, Frederic, Gustav, and Duncan together you get me: full of myself, afraid of everything, easily frustrated, and embarrassingly weird.

Sam Krol

Where did you come up with the idea for the bard?

Christopher Healy

Sadly, I didn’t come up with the idea. Back in the middle ages, bards and minstrels really existed! They would travel from town to town, singing long songs that recounted epic legends. I simply decided to see what it would be like in a world where bards and their musical fairy tales were the only source of news. And then I decided to make them really bad at getting the facts straight. And to not really care about the facts as long as their audiences were entertained. Hmm… I guess there are actually some people like that in real life, too.

Sam Kro

How many other books have you written?

Christopher Healy

After The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, there The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle and The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw, which comes out in May. I’m working on a new book now that is not part of the same series, but has just as many words in the title.

Sam Krol

How long did it take you to write this book?

Christopher Healy

It took me over a year to write the first Hero’s Guide book, but less to write the others. That’s partly because, with the first book, I had to figure out everything—who the characters were, how they would act, what their world was like, and so on. That was some of the most time-consuming work—and it was already done by the time I sat down to write Books 2 & 3.

Plus, I learned to outline—you can write a lot faster when you’ve already decided what will happen in the story.

Sam Krol

How hard was it to write this book?

Christopher Healy

Very hard. Writing is tough, tiring business. I’m getting exhausted just writing the answers to this interview. But it’s fun, too. And rewarding. And hard to avoid when you list your profession as “writer” on most questionnaires.
The hardest parts about writing are getting started (because there’s nothing scarier than a blank page) and finishing (because you can revise your work forever, so deciding when it’s good enough to stop can be an incredibly tough call to make). 

Sam Krol

When did you write this book? 

Christopher Healy

After breakfast, during lunch, and before dinner.

Sam Krol

How did you come up with the idea of Prince Charming?

Christopher Healy

Thankfully, I can say I didn’t come up with the idea of Prince Charming—because Prince Charming is boooooooring. It was some guys a few hundred years ago who said, “Hey, let’s invent a totally lame royal guy with no personality and make him the hero of all our stories!” But I’m glad they did, because if not for all those dull princes in old fairy tales, I would never have had a reason to create my own, more interesting versions.

For my character creation process, I read through a bunch of old fairy tales and thought up reasons for all the strange, unexplainable behavior in them. For instance, I asked myself why the prince in “Rapunzel” never tried to get a ladder; and that’s why Gustav is a less-than-genius guy who never thinks before he acts.

Sam Krol

Why is Frederick a scaredy cat

Christopher Healy

His father tried to feed him to a circus tiger when he was young! Wouldn’t that turn you into a scaredy cat?

 

Sam Krol

Did anybody help you write your book?

Christopher Healy

The story fairies. Most of what I type during the day is complete gibberish; then the fairies come to my computer at night and rework it into readable sentences.

But seriously, I get input from a lot of people as I write—my wife, my kids, a few close friends. I show them chapters as I go along, and ask for their opinions and suggestions. And then, of course, my editor at the publishing company reads through it all and offers his advice too.

But, mostly it’s the fairies.

Sam Krol

Who is your favorite character?

Christopher Healy

 Chewbacca. Unfortunately I can’t use him in my books due to copyright reasons.

Sam Krol

Where did you write this book?

Christopher Healy

In my Hobbit Hole. Which is what I like to call my home office. I call it that because it is a quaintly furnished underground burrow in a country hillside.

Sam Krol

Did you take breaks while you wrote your book? 

Christopher Healy

Only bathroom breaks. And snack breaks. And video game breaks. Also coffee breaks, fresh air breaks, television breaks, and dance breaks. Oh, and breaks during which I would read other people’s books. But as a writer, reading other people’s books is really an essential part of the job. So, no—no breaks.

The Management would like to thank Christopher and Sam for this interview. Currently Sam is devouring Book two, The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle. 

His sister Victoria is urging him to hurry up.

Christopher's third book, The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw comes out April 29th and we all can't wait.