Margaret Wappler interviews Carl Hiaasen on the occasion of the release of Hoot (film version) for the Los Angeles Times. (Thank god they spelled Hiaasen correctly. It's like Newbery, always misspelled in the press.)
Wappler asks Hiaasen about California vs. Florida, writing for children, the movie Hoot, and future work (for adults). Here's one exchange:
- MW: "Was it a stretch to write young adult fiction after years of writing adult novels filled with pungent language and gruesome deaths? "
- CH: "Don't forget acrobatic sex and random dismemberment. But no, it wasn't hard. Hoot was a much more personal book written for the kids in my family: my nieces, my nephew and my stepson. They weren't old enough to read my adult novels, and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great to write a book that I could give to them without getting them taken away to the Division of Family Services?' But I also wanted it to maintain the irreverent tone that's in the other novels. Kids dig the sarcasm and irreverence.
Isn't that the truth?
