Let’s start with Playing With Matches which was published in 2008. You’ve written a number of young adult books. It’s kind of fun being an outlier, but what I wouldn’t give to live in some charming New England state like Vermont or New Hampshire, or… It’s a highly conservative state with large liberal enclaves. Missouri combines northern hospitality with southern efficiency. I think that comes through in almost all my books. I was a nerdy, funny kid who was afraid of girls. Where did you grow up and what memories stayed with you?

As a writer and I librarian I refuse to knuckle under to politicians who are willing to throw marginalized children under the bus in order to advance their own political agenda. This is a thinly veiled attempt to remove LGBTQ materials from public and school libraries.

In other words, a librarian who stocks a book that the government deems ‘pornographic’ could be arrested as a sex criminal. Here in Missouri, the attorney general is trying to make it a crime to allow kids to read certain graphic novels. How has your work influenced your writing?Īs a librarian, I’ve seen what happens when politicians decide they need to get involved in what your children are permitted to read. Mexico City is my favorite city in the world. I learned Spanish, I traveled to Central America, and got to have some of the best food I’ve eaten in my life. That was a lot longer than I had originally planned to stay, and I realized if I didn’t leave when I did, I never would. I spent three years living in Mexico, teaching English. You’re a school library media specialist in Missouri, but you’ve had some interesting travels if I remember correctly. John Clark interviewing friend and fellow librarian Brian Katcher whose newest book is set in Maine.

Brian katcher books