Bedtime Stories emcee Garth Stein discusses continued success, next novel

Garth Stein is in the hot seat this year. Instead of unveiling a new work of fiction at Bedtime Stories – as he did last year – the bestselling author of The Art of Racing of Rain is stepping into the emcee’s shoes. He says he’s taking the role seriously, too: researching literary humor and sharpening his argument about the important role the arts and humanities play in today’s world. There’s little doubt he’ll do just fine. Garth recently sat down with Humanities Washington for a lunch-hour interview near his writing studio in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood. (For more with Garth, make sure to visit GarthStein.com.)

It’s been more than three years since the release of The Art of Racing in the Rain. How has its continued success changed your life?

I’m still working on it. I’m still travelling. I’m going to Florida, and Shreveport, Lousiana, and Salt Lake City – never been – and Detroit, and I’m going Minneapolis – all this fall. So I’m still doing a lot of travel for it. Now it’s moved into a lot of community reading programs as opposed to bookstore readings. It’s a different format. Basically everybody there has read the book and is a fan, so the conversation kind of shifts. When you first start marketing a book you have to sell people on it, and now it’s more of an entertainment thing. So, I really enjoy it. It does create an issue of balance. I have a new book I have to finish, and I do feel the tension. It’s late. [nervous laughter]  A lot. But, you know, it’s coming  along. I’m making progress. I’d be really upset if I weren’t able to write the new book becuase I was too busy doing the old book, but it’s working out.

This year saw the release of Racing in the Rain: My Life as a Dog, a repurposing of The Art of Racing in the Rain for younger readers (ages 8-12). What are the main differences between the two books, and what challenges were presented in recrafting this story for a younger audience?

It was really easy. Basically, it was at a point where I was getting emails from middle school teachers saying, “We think kids would love this book but we can’t put it in the library because certain communities have certain restrictions in terms of language and suggestive adult situations.” And I thought, “That’s really too bad.” I was talking with (author and autism advocate) Temple Grandin about why youth like this book – and why teenagers like it, specifically. And, you know what it is: It’s because they identify with the dog, Enzo. Because, what is Enzo’s problem? Well, he doesn’t have a tongue, so he can’t form words, he can’t join a conversation. He doesn’t have thumbs, so he can’t open doors, right? He can’t go anyplace unless someone takes him there. He’s dependent on his master for food and water and shelter. And Enzo’s convinced he’s just as smart as anyone else.  A teenager – they’re very smart, in some cases much smarter and better educated than we are after our brain cells have all dried up. But they can’t vote, so their voice is not fully legitimized, as Enzo’s isn’t. They have to ask permission to do things. They have to be driven around. Their parents provide food, water. So, really, teenagers are like dogs, right? They have the same restrictions.

So I took this idea, and realized it was for younger kids, too. Little kids have to be driven to soccer practice and stuff, so they would really bond Enzo’s plight. But there are these restrictions to them reading the book because of bad language and because there’s an adult suggestion of sexual molestation. So I started to talking to my editor and she aksed, “Could you pull that stuff out”? I said, “It would be pretty easy, if I pull that stuff out of the book, not much else in the book needs to change.” And so we did it.

I get a lot response from young readers, now. They really like it. So that’s fun. Because I think Enzo has a lot of really good messages to give to kids about looking forward, about personal responsibility. So I think it’s good they get to read the book. And it’s been very successful.

IMDb has the movie version of The Art of Racing in the Rain – starring Patrick Dempsey – scheduled to hit theaters in 2012. What’s the latest?

There is no latest. There’s a script. Universal is happy with it. Patrick Dempsey is still waiting. We’ll see. Don’t rent your tuxedo for the opening yet.

How involved have you been with the movie?

Not at all. I read the first draft of the script and I have not yet read the second draft. But they don’t really want me involved. When it’s time, when there’s a director all set up and they’re ready to go, then we’ll have a conversation. I’ll read the script, we’ll go over it and see. I trust Patrick Dempsey to be true to the book. But I’d like to double check everything, just in terms of some of the messages that are in the book – I don’t want them to get turned into an after-school-special sort of thing.

When last we talked to you, you were deep into your next novel. How’s it coming along?

It was due last year, but I did not get it done, obviously. And it’s changed a lot. You know, it’s easy when I teach writing workshops to talk about how writing is a process of discovery. You don’t know what you’re doing until you’re taking it apart, until you’re “in the cave,” as it were. You can think you know what you’re book is about, and pretend to know what you’re book is about, but you really don’t know until you start peeling back the layers. And that’s really what’s happened with this book. I had a real strong concept. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And it surprises me that the characters change. The story’s changed considerably. The point of view has changed. The narrative voice has changed. You’ve got your choice: Either you crowbar it in and you shove it until the peg fits in the hole, or you adapt your peg. And I believe (the latter) is the proper way to do it. It takes longer, but it’s a better end result.

Does the success of your last book make it easier to take more time? Can you tell your publisher “Hey, we need a more time with this one”?

Yes and no. In a sense, I have a certain grace period that’s kind of a de facto grace period. Because the longer Enzo is out there doing well, the more patient they can be in terms of my next book. At the same time, there is an expectation that I have a next book, and they want to get it out there. And I totally understand that. We have a good communication line. I’m working with my editor. She knows. I keep her up to date. She’s read the first draft of it. It’s not an in-the-dark process for them. Jonathan Karp (of Simon & Schuster) is now my new publisher and he’s a very smart guy. He says “Look, we’re not going to put out a book that isn’t the best book you can write. We’re not just going to try to rush you out for expediency’s sake.” I feel the same way, so we’re all on the same page.

When do you expect it to be out?

I used to guess. [laughter] I’ve just given up on it. I mean, if it goes really, really well and I get it done this fall, next summer or fall it will be out. We’ll have to see. I’m making quantum leaps in it these past couple weeks, which is great. And I know that it’s going well because suddenly all these things are happening and it’s starting to make me busy doing other things. What I hate is the down periods where I don’t get anything – when I’m depressed about what I’m writing and nothing’s happening. So, as soon as I start getting really busy with things and opportunities start coming I know that it means that I’m on an upward swing. I’m not concerned.

Any details you want to share? Themes? Plot details? Title?

I had a title, and I’m not sure I’m going to stay with it, so no title yet. But it’s a Northwest story. I read a few brief passages of it last night (at a pre-Bedtime Stories event on Aug. 17). Which was very exciting for me because I’d never read any of it to anybody before. Right away a couple of people came up to me and said, “Ohhh! We grew up in that neighborhood and we know what you’re talking about, with the trains and the whole Northwest feel.” My Northwest readers are really going to vibe on that, which is what I like. I like writing about the Northwest, about Seattle, specifically, obviously.

I’ve heard the Stimson-Green Mansion – which happens to be Humanities Washington’s headquarters – makes a cameo in the new book. Any truth to that rumor?

Yes it does. It’s not directly Stimson-Green. The main patriarch of this book is a guy named Elijah Riddell. He made his fortune in lumber in the mid- to late-1800s. And he initially built a house very similar to a fictionalized version of the Stimson mansion. And then goes off to build a greater mansion in a fictionalized version of the Highlands, which I call the North Estate. Which is what Stimson did, as well. So I cribbed that. There are cameos by some of the great forefathers of Seattle, which is kind of fun. And there’s talk about the Denny Regrade, which was going on at the time, and how on Earth they were going to build a sewer system to carry waste into the Puget Sound. [laughter] It was fun to locate that kind of stuff.