About David

David Michael Slater is an acclaimed author of more than forty books of fiction and nonfiction for children, teens, and adults. He is also a retired public school teacher with 30 years of experience. He lives in Lake Oswego, OR, with his wife, Heidi.

A few questions for David

Did you always want to be a writer?

No. The idea never occurred to me growing up. Reading Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead got me writing a play in college. Then, in graduate school, Jorge Luis Borges’s stories sent me off writing stories of my own. I kept trying things, and here we are.

How does someone go from Borges to a piece of talking cheese?

Wordplay has a lot to answer for. The phrase “everyone has holes,” meaning nobody’s perfect, got me wondering whether Swiss cheese might feel insecure about its holes. That became Cheese Louise!, my first published book. A surprising number of my picture books begin with words being misunderstood or taken too literally.

Do you know where a story is going when you start?

Usually not. I write until I hit a wall, then go back to the beginning and revise my way forward. That generally gets me a little farther before I hit the next wall. Eventually I reach an ending, which is almost always a delightful surprise.

Revision is where the magic happens.

Any elaborate writing rituals?

Turn on computer. Start tapping keys.

I don’t write to music because I can’t help listening to every lyric. A blank page is easier early in the day; revision can happen pretty much anytime.

Your books can be funny and heartbreaking. Is that how you see life?

Pretty much. We all know people who are both heartbreaking and funny. John Irving has been a huge influence on me, particularly his ability to move between those things. I don’t have a formula for the balance. The comedy and the heartbreak both have to feel believable for the people involved.

How much of your fiction is autobiographical?

Fun & Games is geographically autobiographical: Jonathan grows up in my house in Pittsburgh and attends my high school and college. The family and what happens to them are invented. I sometimes disappoint people—other than my brother and sister—when I explain that.

Actual experiences creep into my fiction, but they tend to become considerably more interesting along the way.

What was your first bookstore reading like?

My first audience for Cheese Louise! was one little girl recruited by a sympathetic bookstore employee. She spent the reading picking her nose.

It was beautiful.

What occupies you away from the keyboard?

Floorball (modern non-contact floor hockey) and my at-home version of Bikram yoga (meaning one set, minus a couple of annoying poses, in a warm room).

What small things make you happy?

Chocolate. Although tiny chocolate is also a tiny disappointment.

The scent of orange peels and daphne. My wife or son laughing at one of my dad jokes. Those saves on the floorball court.

If you could live in a fictional world, which would you choose?

The Shire. Minus monsters. With internet.