I was interviewed on News 4 WOAI, the NBC affiliate in San Antonio, for their San Antonio Living morning show with host Shelly Miles and city of Boerne rep Chris Shadrock about the Boerne Book Festival and my new novel The Codger and the Sparrow (Paperback from TCU Press, audiobook from Vibrance Press). Watch now!

I'm pleased to announce my appearance on the Desideratum Podcast along with the narrator from my audiobook The Codger and the Sparrow, Brian P. Craig. Hosted by Emmy Award-winning narrator Theresa Bakken, Brian and I discuss with Theresa how we created the audiobook with Vibrance Press as well as my thoughts into the creation of my story. I really hope you enjoy listening to our conversation! Please support the Desideratum Podcast by purchasing my audiobook through their affiliate link to Libro.FM, the audiobook retailer that supports indie bookstores.

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Welcome to this week’s free edition of Publishing Confidential. Today’s q&a is with Scott Semegran, an award-winning writer whose book The Codger and the Sparrow was published earlier this year.

Your book, The Codger and the Sparrow, brings two people together in an improbable friendship.  Hank is 65, and Luis is 16. Their initial commonality is that they both got in trouble with the law, but their bond deepened. Tell me what inspired this story.

So, the initial nugget of the idea for this story came to me in the fall of 2020. My wife and I had fallen into the habit of waking up in the middle of the night, probably from the stress of the pandemic. I was sitting on my couch late one night petting my cat (Berri, rest in peace) when I had a vision of an old white man and a young Black guy in a classic car, driving somewhere. They looked like friends to me, not a paternal relationship or anything like that. They were just two dudes hanging out, looking easy and comfortable with each other. So, I started to ask myself, “How are these two friends?” The stark contrast of their outward appearances seemed somewhat comedic. It wasn’t until I dug deeper into their backstories that I discovered what they had in common: their grief from familial loss.

Interviewed by Dania Kreisl

What was your inspiration for the story, and what gave you the ideas for Hank and Luis?

In the fall of 2020, the pandemic was upon us and my wife and I got into this unwanted routine of randomly waking up in the middle of the night, probably from stress. I was up late one night petting my cat when I had a vision of two guys in a car driving somewhere, one an old white guy and the other a young Black guy. But in this scene, they didn’t seem like a grandfather and grandson. By the way they were sitting in the car, they just looked like two dudes, like friends. The kid had his feet out the window and the old guy had his arm casually draped over the steering wheel. I kept thinking, “How are these two friends? They seem like friends. How would an old white guy and a young Black guy be friends?” As a humor fiction writer, I liked the odd-couple dynamic right away. I knew there could be humor in the dynamic between different generations and ethnic backgrounds. But once I started to work out their backstories—who they were and what they were like and what their family lives were like, etc.—then their similarities became clear to me. They both have mixed backgrounds—Hank is Jewish and German / Irish, Luis is Puerto Rican. Their past trauma connected these two; it’s what brought them together to be friends. They understood each other on an emotional level; they had similar needs even though their background and appearance was so different, and that was interesting to me.

The car is a very important aspect to the story, what is the backstory behind the car, and why did you choose this specific vehicle?

There is not much in The Codger and the Sparrow from my life personally, but the story of how Hank got the 1970 Plymouth Barracuda painted Panther Pink was my father-in-law’s story. My late father-in-law, Ed Hoadley, had this exact car when he was a young man. He told us this story several times over the dinner table, about how when he was finishing up his tour in Vietnam, he had an opportunity to buy a Barracuda through a military benefit. He ordered one and waited for it when he got back home, but there was a storm in Amarillo that damaged his specially-ordered car, and only a pink one was available with the exact engine he wanted. His stories of having a hot sports car and zooming around in it, confusing a lot of people in his small hometown because it was pink, would get us all laughing until we had tears in our eyes. I remember telling my wife at the time it was just too good a story to not use in a novel. When I started writing The Codger and the Sparrow, it was immediately clear to me that Hank—this tough, surly loner—would own a car like this, a muscle car painted pink. It just seemed like the right fit for Hank. So now, my father-in-law’s story is Hank’s story, how he came about to own a hot pink 1970 Plymouth Barracuda.

Check out a fun Author to Author Interview featuring me and excellent fiction author Kerri Schlottman in WELL READ MAGAZINE! Kerri and I talk about all kinds of writerly things like book publicity, character development, and so much more. Plus, the latest from Mandy Haynes, Robert Gwaltney, and too many authors to count. Read it here:

https://issuu.com/wellreadmagazine/docs/february_2024_magazine_aff2/140

What’s the book’s first line?

The first time I experienced real, life-threatening danger was in the seventh grade.

What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.

The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island is about four middle school boys who get stranded on a desolate lake island in the middle of Texas during the summer of 1986. It is Lord of the Flies meets The Body by Stephen King. A gripping suspense story with adventure and danger, tinged with humorous banter between the four friends, the middle schoolers face certain death without adults to protect them from the unrelenting natural elements, as well as the wild creatures that lurk in the wilderness around the lake. With a backpack filled with money and marijuana they stole from a merciless high school gang leader, it’s only a matter of time before the high schoolers come looking for them, too.

What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?

I was inspired after listening to an audiobook of Lord of the Flies narrated by William Golding. In it, he explains that the boys in his story represent scaled-down society, and I thought that very strange because the boys in his story are all white boys from a private school in England, which is the farthest thing from real society as we know it. Where are all the different races and creeds and genders and everybody else in this scaled-down society? Also, the boys I knew when I was 12 or 13 wouldn’t have done what the boys in Lord of the Flies did to each other. The boys I knew would have helped and supported each other.

So, after ruminating about this for quite some time, I decided to write my response to Lord of the Flies, which actually was William Golding’s response to The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne, an adventure novel from 1858. I felt the boys in my story should be of different races and backgrounds, and they should care for each other just as the friends I had did when I was 12 or 13.

What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?

The main reason someone should read my novel is to be transported to a time in the 1980s when kids weren’t monitored by technology and they could have their own adventures without being under the watchful eyes of their parents. And if readers are familiar with Lord of the Flies, then they can ruminate about the fate of those boys in that story and the fate of the friends in my story and decide for themselves which story has the more honest and accurate portrayal of adolescence.

What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character?  Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?

The main character, William Flynn, is adventurous and mischievous, but also has a tender heart. He deeply cares for his friends, although he makes some impetuous decisions in the story which put his friends in a very dangerous situation. I would say William reminds me of several fictional characters, like an amalgam of Gordie from The Body, Peter Parker from The Amazing Spider-Man, and so many others. To be honest, he also has a bit of my 13-year old self, too, in his DNA.

What other books have you written?

To Squeeze a Prairie Dog: An American Novel, Sammie & Budgie, Boys: Stories about Bullies, Jobs, and Other Unpleasant Rites of Passage from Boyhood to Manhood (the IndieReader Discovery Awards winner in 2018 for Short Stories), The Spectacular Simon Burchwood, The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood, Modicum and Mr. Grieves.

Originally appeared at IndieReader.com on 3/22/2021.

Originally posted by the NFReads.com website on October 09, 2019

Please introduce yourself and your book(s)!

My name is Scott Semegran and I’m an award-winning writer of (mostly) humorous literary fiction. I am also a published cartoonist, but I prefer writing fiction these days. Here is a list of my books:

To Squeeze a Prairie Dog: An American Novel

Simon Adventures Boxed Set

Sammie & Budgie (Simon Adventures Book 3)

Boys: Stories about Bullies, Jobs, and Other Unpleasant Rites of Passage from Boyhood to Manhood

The Spectacular Simon Burchwood (Simon Adventures Book 2)

The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood (Simon Adventures Book 1)

Modicum: Stories, Musings, and Cartoons

Mr. Grieves

What is/are the real-life story(ies) behind your book(s)?

Many of my stories are set in Texas (my home state) and are inspired by true-life events, although fictionalized. I find great satisfaction in writing stories set in Texas.

What inspires/inspired your creativity?

My creativity is inspired by my consumption of other works of art i.e. music, film, literature, comics, art, etc. Also, my time with friends and family is a great form of inspiration for me.

Originally posted by the Jane Davis, Author website on May 28, 2019

I’m delighted to welcome Scott Semegran to Virtual Book Club, my author interview series which gives authors the opportunity to pitch their books to your book club, be it virtual or real.  

Scott is an award-winning writer of humorous fiction with a dose of heart. BlueInk Review described him best as “a gifted writer, with a wry sense of humour.” His latest book is a comic sendup of state government—an entertaining slice-of-life story that’s humorous yet uplifting at the same time—titled To Squeeze a Prairie Dog: An American Novel. His previous novel, Sammie & Budgie, was the first place winner for Fiction in the 2018 Texas Authors Book Awards. His book BOYS was the 2018 IndieReader Discovery Awards winner for Short Stories. His other books include The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood, The Spectacular Simon Burchwood, Modicum, and Mr. Grieves. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, four kids, two cats, and a dog. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English.

Q: Welcome Scott. Please can you start by telling us how you came to be a writer.

A: I was inspired to write after studying literature at the University of Texas in Austin. It seemed, after I graduated, to be the logical thing for me to do after spending four years dissecting and analysing great works of literature. With an English degree, my parents assumed I would teach. I didn’t want to teach; I wanted to write. So, I started writing literally the week after graduating from college. That was over twenty-five years ago. Early on, I dabbled in all kinds of writing: poetry, short stories, screenplays, novels, even comic strips, hundreds of which have been published in newspapers. But I mostly now write novels and short stories. That’s what I enjoy the most as well as what I have been recognised for. I won three book awards in 2018.

Q: Not a bad year! Raymond Carver said, “I like to give myself enough time between books to become a different kind of writer.” How much of a gap do you leave between writing projects and why? What do you do between writing projects?

A: It seems to me when looking back at my book release dates (and this isn’t a scientific observation by any means) that I wait at least a year or so between writing projects. I feel I put so much creative energy into each book that I need time to fill up that well of inspiration again. And I would change Carver’s quote from “a different kind of writer” to “a better writer.” When I’m not writing, I focus on two things: promoting my books (which uses a very different part of my brain and is not my favourite part of being a writer) and consuming as much literature and other forms of art as possible. This consuming of literature and art is where I become a better writer. Since completing To Squeeze a Prairie Dog, I have read voraciously, particularly other indie writers. Discovering other indie writers that were very talented was quite illuminating to me. I even wrote an article for Medium.com about my discovery of other self-published authors. Anyway, when I’m not writing, I read books, watch movies, listen to music, watch TV shows, go to museums, anything that inspires me. And hang out with my wife, kids, family, and friends. That’s important to me, too.

Q: Let’s talk about To Squeeze a Prairie Dog. At what point in writing the book did you come up with its title?

A: To Squeeze a Prairie Dog had a few variations of this title before I started writing the novel. I knew without a doubt that I wanted the title of the book to be an idiom. I felt it would be more memorable that way, but I wasn’t quite sure what the exact phrasing of the idiom would be. I had six or seven variations before I settled on this title about halfway through writing this book. I’m pleased with it.

Award-winning author Scott Semegran sits down for an Austin Liti Limits interview to talk about what drives his creative spirit.

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