Author Q&A

Q&A with Adam Meyer

By Jeesoo Park, WIW Intern

Young Adult fiction novelist Adam Meyer recently published his first book, The Last Domino (Putnam Juvenile; May 2005). Modeled on the Columbine High School shootings, The Last Domino tells the story of two teenage boys who bring a gun to school.

Fascinated by the news stories he read about Columbine, Meyer noted that most of the articles lacked psychological insight—a reason why the teenage shooters acted as they did. Meyer wanted to know what would drive someone to such extremes. What would make teenagers turn against their classmates, their teachers and, sometimes, their families with a gun? The answer he wanted would come through his own research.

“I was intrigued by the articles and stories about the real-life school shootings, and I had in mind the idea to do a fictional version of such a story for a long time, said Meyer. “But the story never quite came together. Then one morning I woke up with a very vivid image in my mind: a teenage boy, in a jumpsuit too big for him, sitting in a prison interrogation room, being interviewed by a reporter. The image was so strong that I just started writing, and, in a way, all I did was write what the boy told me. That was actually a one-act play, which I finished quickly, but I knew inside of the first week that what I really had was the outline for a novel.” The result was The Last Domino, a novel that took three weeks to write and three years to rewrite.

J.P.: How did you come up with the title The Last Domino?

A.M.: The novel was originally called The Shooter, but friends who read the book felt it deserved a more interesting title. The title The Last Domino goes back to my own days in high school. A couple of bands were really huge in pop music at that time—one was U2 and the other was Genesis. The Genesis album of that era was Invisible Touch, and there was a song on it called The Last Domino. My novel has no relation to the song whatsoever, but the title stuck in my head. Years later, I found a story to fit it.

J.P.: Did you have a certain goal in mind with this novel? Were you reaching out to readers that related to the protagonist?

A.M.: My main goal with The Last Domino was very simple: I wanted people to be entertained and transported into the world of the novel. I did have a secondary goal, which was to make people think a little bit about these high school shooting cases. Often we look at the perpetrators of these crimes and think, “Well, they’re deranged,” or “They’re different from us.” I wanted people to realize that maybe they’re just troubled teenagers. How many teens aren’t troubled in some way, have faced terrible circumstances or made a series of bad choices? I do hope that people relate to Travis, because he’s basically a good kid who faces a lot of obstacles and does the wrong thing to try to solve his problems. Again, I wanted to tell a good fast-paced story. If people think the book has a deeper meaning, that’s a bonus.

J.P.: How did those with which you discussed Columbine react?

A.M.: I haven’t discussed Columbine with a lot of people. When I tell people it revolves around a school shooting, they’re often shocked by the subject matter, because Columbine is a sensitive issue. People probably wonder why I wanted to write about a school shooting, and they may wonder why anyone would want to read about it. To me, The Last Domino is really a kind of coming of age story gone awry, and—because everyone can relate to the awkwardness of being a teenager— people would be surprised at how much they could relate to The Last Domino.

J.P.: When researching and writing this novel, did you ever find yourself wishing that you were a teenager again?

A.M.: When I was writing this novel, I started with a bit of nostalgia for my teenage years. But the more I got into it, the more I remembered all the tough parts of being a teenager—having to take classes that I didn’t like, struggling to fit in at school and fighting with my parents for my independence. It’s many of the same things that Travis goes through in the novel, only on a much less dramatic scale. When I finished the novel, I actually felt very glad to be a grownup—glad that I’d survived my own high school years relatively unscathed.

J.P.: What is your favorite part of The Last Domino?

A.M.: Probably my favorite part of the novel is when Travis and his friend Daniel finally go into the bedroom of Travis’ dead older brother, Richie. It’s a place that Travis has been forbidden to go by his parents. and, so of course, he’s eager to get in there. I like the scene because it’s one that I wrote and rewrote many times, but I always felt like it belonged in the novel somehow and I’m glad that I made it work. It’s also a scene that comes somewhat indirectly from my own past. When I was a little kid, about five or six, I'd play with a girl down the street whose brother had died. There was a closet full of his toys, and we were told that we could never play with them. That memory stuck with me, obviously, because I called on that experience many years later for the novel.

J.P.: How did you choose character names?

A.M.: Coming up with character names is one of my favorite parts of writing, and one of the most challenging for me. I sometimes find that a character may not have exactly the right name when I start, and I’ll change it two or three times along the way until I find the name that fits perfectly. I use a lot of different sources to find names, and, often, I forget where they came from by the time I’m done writing. There’s such an organic link between characters and their names. I sometimes pick character names from actors I like, athletes or other people in the news. I also look to some of my favorite novels for names that I can borrow. Occasionally, I look to friends that I know won’t be offended by my borrowing their names.

In the case of The Last Domino, I picked the name of the main character, Travis Ellroy, from two sources: “Travis” was homage to the film Taxi Driver and “Ellroy” was a tribute to crime writer James Ellroy. I discovered Ellroy's unrelentingly dark novels during the time I was writing Domino, books like The Black Dahlia and Clandestine, and I learned a lot from his writing about characters that were not clear-cut good guys.

J.P.: After their shooting rampage, the two shooters at Columbine High School committed suicide. What made you choose to have the main character survive?

A.M.: It’s very common for people who commit mass murders to end up committing suicide. The Columbine case is one example of that. I felt like I had no choice but to allow Travis to survive for one simple reason—I wanted him to be able to tell his own story, in his own words. The idea of writing in the third person, which would’ve allowed me to let Travis live or die, was never an option. From the first page of the first draft, this was always a story that only Travis could tell. 

J.P.: Language and scenes in the novel are intense. Did you ever have difficulty expressing such graphic details?

A.M.: I’ve always been drawn to dark stories, so I jumped into the violence and graphic details with relish. I do have to admit that there was a certain draft, maybe the third or fourth, where I felt a little like a method actor—I had gotten so deep into the character of Travis that I could tell you what he would eat for breakfast on any given day. When I was in his head and writing some of those scenes, they were so vivid that it was scary. It was a pleasure to finish that draft of the book and detach myself from his world a bit. Through all the rewrites, I took out anything that felt gratuitous. High school can be a crude place, and, for this story to be honest it had to be violent, so I feel comfortable with what’s in there.

J.P.: What obstacles did you face while writing The Last Domino? How did you overcome these obstacles?

A.M.: The biggest obstacle I faced while writing Domino was getting someone in the publishing business to pay attention to it! I gave pages to my writer’s group as I was working on it, and they were hugely supportive—early on, they believed even more firmly than I did that this was a publishable novel. Later, after I’d gotten the novel into shape, I submitted it to agent after agent, trying to convince them that this was a book editors and readers would be interested in. I spent at least a couple of years looking for an agent, and I used that time to constantly hone the manuscript, rewrite scenes and just make it better and better. Patience and perseverance paid off when I finally found an agent who loved the book and sent it off to editors with only a minor touchup—and then, when the deal was in place, Domino went off to press with only a small round of further changes. 

J.P.: Do you regret not adding or editing out anything in The Last Domino?

A.M.: I don’t regret anything that did or didn’t make it into The Last Domino. I feel like every scene serves the greater story, and within each scene there’s everything that I wanted to get in there. I will say that there are a couple of scenes that never made it into the novel that I was sorry to see go, but they simply didn’t fit. One was a scene where Travis and Daniel find some old toy guns that used to belong to Travis’ older brother and they go out and play with them. I cut that scene because my early readers said that Travis and Daniel were much too old to go out and play with toy guns. I also felt that once Travis got his hands on a real gun, there was no way he’d be satisfied with a toy. My brother and I and our friends used to play a lot with toy guns when we were growing up, not fully understanding how dangerous guns are, and, for me, that scene represented the final moment of Travis’ childhood, a moment where he could still engage in make-believe.

J.P.: What do you believe makes a captivating young adult novel?

A.M.: The qualities of a captivating YA novel are really the same as any other novel—a good story, interesting characters and solid writing. But in the YA novels I’ve read, there’s less room for self-indulgence or meandering storylines. The good ones fly right along. 

J.P.: Do you model yourself after any other author?

A.M.: I don’t model myself after any particular author, but I’ve taken a lot of cues from the different authors that I love. Stephen King is one example of a writer who has had an outsized impact on me. A lot of people just look at the huge success he’s had, but what I look at it is how good a storyteller he is, and how important it is to him that a novel delivers fright and suspense and humor and entertainment. When I was in high school, I picked up a used copy of The Dead Zone for a quarter. By the time I was done with it, I was so enthralled that I decided to become a writer myself. The other writer who had great impact on me was John Steinbeck. I discovered The Grapes of Wrath in my late 20’s, about when I started Domino, and it just floored me. I loved the writing, I loved the characters and I loved the way Steinbeck melded great storytelling with a powerful social message. Another writer who I really admire is Lawrence Block—not only for his writing, which is superb, but also for the way he has built his career from a writer of paperback originals to a writer capable of hitting the New York Times bestseller list through sheer persistence and steady output of work. In a different vein, I’m a big admirer of Clive Barker. I admire him not only for his willingness to take chances as a writer, but also for the way he’s worn so many hats as a novelist, a playwright and a film director, which is something I’ve begun to do myself.

J.P.: What are your other hobbies and interests?

A.M.: My main hobbies are reading books and watching movies, which ultimately ties into my work. I should probably develop a few new hobbies, like golf or something! Actually, my one non-writing related hobby is traveling—I love to travel, even if it’s just locally. In fact, a day spent wandering around a part of Washington, D.C., that I’ve never seen before, is a great day for me.  I’ve had the chance to drive cross-country several times, and I love seeing new places. 

J.P.: If you weren’t writing, what would you be doing?

A.M.: If I wasn’t writing, it’s hard to know what I would be doing. A lot of writers have a long list of odd jobs they’ve held, but frankly I don’t. I got my first paid writing job when I was 23 and have made a living as a writer ever since—sometimes a good living and sometimes a not-so-good one, but I’m a writer for better or worse. If I could pursue another career, I would probably work in professional baseball. I can’t hit the fastball—or the curveball, or the sinker or any other pitch for that matter—but I love the game and love being around it. I’ve always thought it would be fun to do something behind the scenes for a team.

J.P.: What do you think is the most common misperception young writers have about being a writer? What was it to you when you started?

A.M.: The biggest misperception I had as a young writer was that for writers with a certain level of experience writing is easy; that their books just pour out of them. I really felt it was a kind of magic these writers were performing. As I got to know some professional writers, I slowly realized this wasn’t so. One particularly powerful moment for me was meeting Peter Straub, who is one of my favorite novelists. He showed me the office where he writes and one of the huge ledgers where he’d written his novel Koko. After meeting him, I realized what he did every day was no different than what I did—getting up, sitting down, putting words on the page. Obviously, you get better with more experience and you get more confident as well, but I don’t know if it’s ever easy—and it’s certainly not any kind of magic, except for the particular magic that comes through hard work and attention to detail.

J.P.: What are you working on now?

A.M.: Right now I’m working on a novel called When She’s Gone, which will be my second book from Putnam. It’s also a dark young adult novel, though in a much different vein. It’s the story of a girl named Molly Singleton from Manhattan who spends every summer in upstate New York at a small lakeside community. One summer, her best friend there is murdered; Molly takes it on herself to solve the crime. I’m a huge fan of mystery novels, and, so, this is my attempt to do a coming-of-age novel crossed with a whodunit. I also have several other projects in the works—a couple of low budget films that I wrote and directed, which should be out later this year, and a possible nonfiction book. I like to stay busy.

J.P.: Do you have any last minute important advice you’d like to contribute to aspiring YA fiction writers?

A.M.: I believe there are three things that any kind of aspiring writer, in any field, should stick with: Write, read and don’t give up. You can only learn how to write by doing it, again and again, even when you think you’re doing awful work. I guarantee that if you write enough bad stories and novels and articles, you’ll get better. And reading is just as important—read everything from newspapers to magazines to novels to history books. Other people’s writing will help you to get a feel for what works on the page and what doesn’t. And finally, if you want to be a writer, don’t let anyone deter you from that course—no matter how hard it is to keep going. If I had stopped writing the first hundred times someone told me how hard it was to be a writer, or had given up after just a few hundred rejection letters, I would never have sold a book.