Interview with Bobbie Pyron

Bobbie Pyron is the author of LUCKY STRIKE, which was released last month.  She currently lives in Park City with her husband and her animals (two dogs and two cats).  Fun Fact: she's the great-great-great niece of author Harriet Beecher Stowe.  I asked her five questions about LUCKY STRIKE and her life; her answers are below.

For more, visit other stops on her blog tour.

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1. Have you ever been particularly lucky?

Not to sound predictable, but I DO feel I was so very lucky when I met my husband, Todd. I’d been divorced for ten years and had some rather “interesting” relationships during that time. I’d gotten to the point where I’d decided I’d never meet a man that I could enjoy living with as much as I loved living with my dog—and then I did! He’s incredibly funny and supportive; he’s handsome AND handy!

2. You grew up in Florida. Did you use anything from your own childhood to develop the setting?

Oh yes, that was part of the fun in writing this book. Although the town of Paradise Beach is fictional, it’s a mash-up of several different town in the Florida Panhandle I lived in as a child: Okaloosa Island, Ft. Walton Beach, Destin. In Ft. Walton there is, in fact, a miniature golf place called Goofy Golf. We went there to play often when I was a kid. It’s still there, T-Rex and all! In Destin, which used to be a little fishing village, we had the Blessing of The Fleet every year, and in Ft. Walton, we had the annual Billy Bowlegs Festival.

3. Dogs are one of your passions in life and at the center of your last two books. Did it feel strange to move away from dog stories with LUCKY STRIKE?

That’s a great question. In some ways, it did feel strange, but I have a horror of getting pigeon-holed as a particular type of writer, even if that’s being boxed in as a “dog writer.” I want to surprise myself and my readers, and stretch myself as a writer. However, I’ll always have a dog in my books.

4. Which of the characters is least like yourself?

Oh wow, that’s a hard question! There’s a lot of Nate and Gen in me, and even Chum Bailey. Perhaps the Reverend Beam is least like me. He is so very sure of everything and is a commanding presence. I’m neither of those things. I’m always seeing the gray area, always the observer.

5. Can you share a favorite sentence from LUCKY STRIKE?

Gen looked up from her book on theoretical physics and sighed. “Nathaniel, a toaster cannot have a ‘plan’ because a toaster does not have a brain.” 

Review and Excerpt: Lucky Strike

By Bobbie Pyron
Available now from Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic)
Review copy

Nate Harlow is the unluckiest boy in town.  His toast is always burnt, and he can never call a coin correctly.  He takes pictures of lost shoes, hoping that one day he can reunite a pair, that maybe that will be good luck.  Then he's struck by lightning on his birthday and everything turns around.

I liked that LUCKY STRIKE was ambiguous about whether there was anything magical happening.  Nate's luck (good and bad) strains credulity, as do other events in the novel, but there is no concrete statement that it is all real or all imaginary.  After all, as Gen's mother points out, much of the changes in Nate's life could come from his increased self-confidence.  There's a nice balance of possibility.

Pre-strike, Nate is best friends with Genesis "Gen" Beam and firm in his solidarity with her as the two biggest losers around.  Post-strike, he is excited by his new opportunities to make friends and lashes out when Gen's lack of social skill makes it harder for him to fit it.  It's hard to see a nice kid succumb to popularity like that, but it is believable that Nate wouldn't know how to handle all of the changes in his life gracefully.  I did find it slightly awkward that LUCKY STRIKE starts switching to Gen's point of view at this point when the beginning is firmly in Nate's point of view.  However, I did like that both friends get their say.

The messages of LUCKY STRIKE are pretty simple: good friends stick with you through thick and thin, and fancy new things aren't always better than what you had.  There's also a good exploration of the kind of jealousy that unwarranted good fortune can engender.  It's not groundbreaking stuff, but it is presented charmingly.  I particularly liked the environmental element of LUCKY STRIKE.  Gen is passionate about protecting the loggerhead turtles that nest on the beach.

Young readers will enjoy Nate's reversal of fortune and discovery that some things are more important than luck.  LUCKY STRIKE is a cute, almost magical realist, read that does hit some deep notes.

Read on for an excerpt from LUCKY STRIKE, and visit later today for an interview with Bobbie.  For more, visit other stops on her blog tour.

Excerpt:

When Nate opened his eyes, he saw two things: his grandpa’s worried, sea-weathered face hovering above his, and a complicated-looking machine beside him with flashing lights and zig-zaggity lines.

Grandpa clutched his grandson’s hand and said something Nate couldn’t quite make out: his voice sounded like it was two miles away in the bottom of a wishing well.

“What, Grandpa? I can’t hear you.” He licked his lips and tasted blood.