INTERVIEW WITH OUR WRITER, RYAN QUINN

As we’re preparing to launch our brand-new custom children’s book, Max Is Home Alone, we sat down with the author, Ryan Quinn, to talk about the making of the book.

Q: Hi Ryan, how are you? Thanks for being here today. First of all, how would you introduce yourself to our readers?

Ryan: I'm Ryan Quinn, and I began with Hooray Studios as an editor and copywriter in 2017. Then I guess my editing was solid enough that I was given a chance to write some books from scratch. It worked out well, and now I've lost count of how many books I've written.

Q: Tell us about the inspiration behind the Home Alone book. Was it based on your personal childhood experiences? Where did you draw the inspiration from?

Ryan: I was mainly imagining what my kids would do if they had no supervision. And I think that every parent kind of either hopefully doesn't see too much craziness firsthand, or they just kind of imagine what would happen if their young kids were left home alone for the first time to their own devices, no supervision, what would happen? And I think everyone kind of jokes to themselves, what's the worst that could happen? What could go wrong?

And so within the bounds of nothing going majorly wrong, it was just imagine what they would do; so they wouldn't just run around the house, but they would build a ski slope out of pillows and flood the kitchen and freeze it and turn it into an ice rink and put sand in the bathroom and have the Olympics at home.

Q: Do you remember when you were a kid and home alone, did you do something like that?

Ryan: Well, I remember one time, my dad was in the other room on the phone with my aunt, and I climbed behind the couch and I found a cable sticking out of the floor. So I stuck in the electrical outlet. It zapped me and it also blew up our TV.

Q: What was your dad’s reaction?

Ryan: I don’t really remember. He was upset!

Q: And what was your reaction when you first saw the illustrations for this book?

Ryan: I loved them. It's Jeremy Polonen who's done books for Hooray Heroes before. The last kid’s books he did were Hooray! You Did It! and Baby's Guide for Mommy and Daddy. But he has a really awesome style, very early 90s video game cartoony style that I really relate to. And everything's a little bit bigger and puffier than it is in real life. And he does a good job, I think, of showing how the world probably looks through the eyes of a 5-year-old.

Q: Which was your favorite element that he drew?

Ryan: Probably the vindictive squirrel in the story where the kid digs up the backyard so the squirrel is shaking his first angrily at the kid for digging up his cache of nuts.

Q: Do you have a writing routine or any quirks that help you get into the creative zone?

Ryan: Yes, I'll usually watch a movie trailer or listen to a song that's along the lines of the vibe of the story I'm trying to tell. Then I'll isolate myself as much as possible from any distractions, usually by blasting some kind of white noise through noise cancelling headphones.

Q: Is there a particular author who influenced your writing style?

Ryan: With writing kid's books, Dr. Suess is kind of my gold standard, at least in terms of rhythm. But I try to read from as wide a spectrum as possible - from Instagram captions to album reviews to sciency non-fiction. And I'll randomly mix bits of song lyrics into what I write - as a teenager, I'd listen to albums start to finish while reading the lyrics in the album booklet. And because I don’t like giving vague answers like this, I love anything written by Tom Robbins or Kurt Vonnegut, I recently fell back into Shel Silverstein poems, Dave Eggers I think perfected modern stream of consciousness, I usually go to Bon Iver for lyrics that make you feel something even though you have no idea what he's talking about. I could ramble about this all day. Jack Kerouac really impacted me as a kid as well.

Q: What kind of books did you enjoy reading as a child?

Ryan: I don't really remember much before being a teenager. I remember reading a series called Animorphs when I was a kid. Goosebumps too. I read Harry Potter right when it came out. Then I would have authors I liked and I'd just read a bunch of their books. Like Dan Brown, Chuck Palahniuk, and I already mentioned Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut. I'm probably forgetting some.

Q: How do you handle writer’s block, if it ever strikes?

Ryan: I just keep on trying until eventually, something works. And I try to stay excited about the book in spite of it.

Q: What was your favorite story to write in this book?

Ryan: The one where the kid accidentally calls the president. That one really wrote itself in the end, and I didn't think it was going to work. It's a very goofy concept. The kid wants to call a plumber and he calls the president.

Q: Were there any scenes or ideas that didn’t make it into the final version?

Ryan: Yes, several. There was one where the kid builds a rocket not only to go to the Moon, but to see the dark side of the Moon. And it was an example of me going way too deep, because the twist was that then he harpoons the Moon and turns it around so the dark side of the Moon is now facing Earth. And as soon as it was finished, I thought, no one is going to see the difference.

And there was another one where he, or she builds, a mini, like, baking soda and vinegar volcano that causes an actual volcano to erupt in the living room and make the floor actually lava. And it came up pretty good, but it didn't fit with the more realistic concept that we went with in the end.

Q: Did you read the stories to any kids during the writing process to get their reactions?

Ryan: No, I didn’t. I didn’t want to give them any ideas!

Q: What’s next for you? Any new projects or ideas brewing?

Ryan: We're working on a new book for Valentine's Day now. It was hard for a bit, but I'm excited about it now because I finally figured it out. It'll be similar to books we've done before, but we've found a way to show something new as well, which hopefully people will be excited about.

So stay tuned and be the first to know about Hooray Heroes new books!