PowellsBooks.Blog

[Editor's Note: Mike Dooley reads at the Bagdad Theater on Thursday, November 5th, 2009, at 7 p.m. Click here for details.]

Describe your latest book/project/work.
Infinite Possibilities is a treatise on the nature of reality revealing our divine, supernatural heritage and what it takes to find happiness and fulfillment in the jungles of time and space. We're alive during exciting times. There's a metamorphosis of consciousness taking place on our planet; the old is giving way to the new, naivety is giving way to truth, and spirituality is about to take on an entirely new meaning. Those who embrace the truth about our powers and responsibilities will usher in a golden age unlike anything ever experienced in recorded history.

If someone were to write your biography, what would be the title and subtitle?
Scared to Death, But What the Heck.

Introduce one other author you think people should read, and suggest a good book with which to start.
Ayn Rand, We the Living. Her last three books were works of profound art: philosophical, romantic, ...

[My new book] starts in 1960 with a woman named Lois Rabinowitz, who was evicted from Manhattan traffic court for attempting to pay a parking ticket while wearing slacks. This was...

Describe your new book.
My latest project is the recently released book Skelly and Femur, a follow-up to Skelly the Skeleton Girl, released in 2007. In the book Skelly the Skeleton Girl, Skelly found a bone and tried to solve the mystery of where it came from. In Skelly and Femur, things have gone missing in Skelly Manor. Skelly's missing the buttons off her dress, her dog Femur is missing his bone, and it seems most of her friends are missing something, too. Why have so many things gone missing? That's the mystery waiting to be solved within the pages of Skelly and Femur.

What movie character is most like you?
I would choose Mikey from The Goonies: a total misfit who gave himself the title of a Goonie because of his misfit status, but who has a small cluster of close-knit friends whom he cares deeply about. Or maybe E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, a ...

Describe your new book.
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma is the third adventure featuring four diversely talented children brought together by an eccentric genius named Mr. Benedict. The children's original mission (in the first book) was to uncover a secret, society-threatening menace, a complex and dangerous task that compelled them to work together to solve riddles, puzzles, and other clues, accomplishing as a team — and eventually as close friends — what most adults could not. Their subsequent adventures, last recorded in The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and now in this new book, likewise call for the solving of riddles and clues, as well as abundant resourcefulness and no shortage of quick wits and bravery.

To be more specific about Prisoner's Dilemma, there is a secret agent, a falcon, a circus strong man, a mind-control device, a blackout, a trap, a hidden door, an amphibious vehicle, several tense moments, and a potted ficus. But now I've ...

Describe your new book.
The Maze Runner is a dystopian story about a group of boys called the Gladers, forced to live in a community surrounded by a gigantic stone maze full of horrible biotech creatures. Their memories have been wiped, and they spend each and every day trying to escape. One day a girl is sent to the Glade, something that has never happened before. With her arrival, everything changes.

If you could choose any story to live in, which story would it be? Why?
Definitely The Lord of the Rings. I mean, that would just be so cool to live in Middle Earth. As long as I didn't get eaten by orcs.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be an author deep down, but it seemed like a pipe dream. I can't believe it actually happened! I'm a lucky guy.

Why do you write books for kids? ...

Describe your new book.
At the moment, I am out promoting Homecoming, the second novel in the ghostgirl series, which has just been released, and finishing up Lovesick, which will be out next year. Aside from that, I'm putting the finishing touches on the Homecoming audiobook which, like the first ghostgirl audio, is also narrated by Parker Posey with music by Vince Clarke.

Homecoming is about love and the sacrifices we sometimes have to make to get it, or to keep it. The story picks up shortly after the "ghostgirl" character, Charlotte Usher, and her Dead Ed classmates 'crossover' from Hawthorne High to The Other Side only to find that the afterlife is not at all what they expected. I won't give away any more than that!

Describe your most memorable teacher.
Ms. Miden. She was my librarian in kindergarten. We didn't have much money when I was growing up and I would check out Where the Wild Things Are almost ...

Tell us a little about yourself.
I live in two towns in Italy: Verona (with my two wild small dogs, named "Watson" and "Muttley") and in the wonderful small town of Acqui Terme, where I was born. I love to visit my parents to help with their vineyard and wine production. I enjoy writing almost anywhere; however, my absolute favorite place to write is in the garden near my childhood home on the hills. In that house, we've managed to collect, thus far, over 10,000 volumes of some of the greatest books ever written. My parents have converted our home into a bed and breakfast, and these days I often visit, joining the guests to share insight and thoughts about writing.

What jobs have you held? Do you presently do work other than writing and illustrating?
It's funny. I have a degree in law, so I am supposed to be a lawyer, but I don't really like legal work, or courts for that matter. However I have been working for a while as legal adviser for royalties and museums, specifically with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (Advanced Normal School of Pisa) ...

Describe your new book.
School of Fear is a middle-grade book following four very different kids (three 12 and one 13 in age), who each battle a crippling phobia. Madeleine Masterson is deathly afraid of spiders and bugs, and wears a netted veil to protect herself, along with a belt of repellents. Garrison Feldman is a local superstar, known for his forays on the soccer field, but he also holds a deep dark secret — he's petrified of large bodies of water like the ocean, which, by the way, is only blocks from his house. While friends talk of boogie boarding, Garrison breaks out into cold sweats. Theodore Bartholomew is afraid of almost everything! He worries of dangers in everyday life and how they could injure him or his family members. Theo even makes his siblings and parents text him every hour to confirm they are still alive. And then there's Lulu Punchalower, a seriously snarky young lady who will do just about anything to avoid getting into an elevator or other confined space. She once even handcuffed herself to ...

My latest book is Nothing Was the Same, a continuation of my earlier memoir, An Unquiet Mind, which described my experiences with manic-depressive (bipolar) illness and my work as a professor of psychiatry who suffers from the same illness that I study and treat....

What fictional character would you like to date, and why?
I wouldn't date any fictional character, as I've done that before and it's really not what you might think. But I would like to pal around with the witty and lyrical Mercutio and try to keep him from getting killed....