Barry Lyga
Barry Lyga, the author of the I Hunt Killers trilogy, spoke at Writers Week this Tuesday. During first period, he gave an ongoing speech about the research he did to write the series. The author practically talked about how to kill someone and get away with it, something many students found hilarious and told other students about afterwards.
The last book of the I Hunt Killers trilogy, Blood of My Blood, came out September 9. Even though the series is over, Lyga wrote a novella called “Lucky Day” about how Billy, the main character’s father, was caught and arrested by G. William. The novella takes place four years before the I Hunt Killers trilogy. However, it is only accessible online.
Lyga also posts “deleted scenes” of his book on his website; he is thinking about posting a scene where Jaz’s best friend is talking to the FBI. “I had to cut it. It was long and irrelevant but I thought it was hilarious,” Lyga said.
Unlike some authors, Lyga approaches his writing with a more carefree style. He has no specific writing process, although he says that he usually writes small amounts per day in the beginning of the book and gradually builds up the workload.
“The beginning is always the hardest part for me. So I take it easy on myself, tell myself, ‘Look, you don’t have to write a lot each day. Just write a little bit each day until your juices are flowing and you’re really into it and then you’ll write more and more and more as time goes by.’ The beginning of the book for me is always a leisurely walk, and then as time goes, I start to speed up and write more and more but that’s the only thing I have that approaches a ritual,” Lyga said.
Lyga also takes a relaxed approach with his characters. “I approach my characters with no judgement. It’s the only way to write them honestly. I don’t think ‘What would Jaz do?,’ I think that I am Jaz and say ‘What would I do?’” Lyga said.
Many of Lyga’s characters have traits from real people; his entire first book was made up of characters based on people he grew up with. The characters and the people were so similar that Lyga’s friend even called him to confirm he was a certain character.
Now, however, Lyga changes the characters traits to make the characters more interesting. “Often I mix things up… I make the character a boy instead of a girl, older instead of younger, that sort of thing,” Lyga shared.
Lyga also gave advice to aspiring writers: “Keep writing… It’s okay to suck. If you want to play the saxaphone, the first time you play, you’re going to suck. It’s the same with writing.”
Tom Franklin
Tom Franklin, the author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, spoke to LHS students on Tuesday during Writers Week. In the first few minutes of his presentation, he explained the summary and plot for his novel Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is a narrative based on two childhood friends lives. Larry Ott and Silas “32” Jones had been pals since they were children. Both children had completely different lives. Larry lived with a middle-class family where as to Silas was raised by a single mother in a poor community. Eventually both boys decided to step out of the comfort of their lives and as they had gotten older, their bond grew stronger. However, the novel takes a turn when Larry took a girl to a drive-in morning and she was never seen again. With a mysterious and dramatic storyline, readers will experience both the perspectives of Larry and Silas.
He then went on to describe his past and where he was from. Jokingly he mentioned how both the men and women that attended Ole Miss, the University he is from, are the most attractive people in the south.
With a dash of humor and a few jokes, he told some stories about police officers he had met. The police officers had spoken to him about a cocaine addict named “32. ” He then when on to read a short excerpt from his novel that is a must-read for those interested in a mysterious story.
He also explained where the title of his book came from; it comes from the traditional southern way that students learn how to spell “Mississippi.” In the end, Franklin had effectively interested students into the explanation of his story.
