Monday Interview Series: Tom Sawyer

It's a new year, so it's the perfect time to introduce a new series of interviews with famous characters in classic children's literature and fairy tales. The interviews with the characters from my book proved to be so popular, that I thought, hey, why not interview characters from other children's books?

Today, we're kicking the series off with one of my favorite characters, Tom Sawyer. Let me know how you like it.

Greg:  Welcome Tom, it’s great to have you here!

Tom: Thanks, Mr. Greg, sir. It were nice of ya t’ have me.

Greg:  Tell us a little bit about yourself, Tom.

Tom: Shucks, taint much t’ tell, really. I started m’ life very young, but I growed up. Now, I live free an’ easy, ‘cept when I got t’ go t’ that ol’ school. Aunt Pol’s always tryin’ t’ git me t’ go, but I outfox her more often than not. Got a nice place up in the piney woods. It’s a whole fort where I fight off injuns an’ hide treasure an’ such.

Sometimes I got t’ go t’ church, too. Go t’ Sunday school an’ larn Bible passages ‘n’ things. I won me a Bible oncet. Yep, I sure did. I got enough o’ them there tickets the Rev’rand give out for learnin’ Bible verses. I traded a whole pile of treasure with the boys in school t’ get them tickets. It was worth it, too. Preacher called me up, an’ I got me that Bible in front o’ the whole class, includin’ Becky Thatcher. I was slicker ‘n’ a greased pig, I can tell you.

I’m also good at fightin’. I just about licked every boy in school, an’ some o’ the girls, too. “Course that comes from m’ piratin’. Ya got t’ be able to lick anyone that crosses your path, iffin you’re a pirate. I recall the time me ‘n’ Joe Harper ‘n’ol’  Huck Finn run away t’ be pirates. Boy did we have a time!

Greg:  Where do you live, when you’re not terrorizing the seven seas, I mean?

Tom:  I live in the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri with m’ Aunt Polly, m' half brother Sid. I live next door t’ Becky Thatcher. We’re engaged, but don’t tell no one. It’s supposed t’ be secret. Keep it mum. Wouldn’t do no good if Becky was t’ get wind I told ya.

Greg:  In all of your adventures, what’s the worst thing you ever saw?

Tom:  I don’t rightly know. I seen a lot o’ worst things. I saw Injun Joe all laid out an’ starved t’ death after bein’ trapped in McDougal’s Cave. Me ‘n’ Becky was trapped in the cave with Injun Joe.

I s’pose the worst thing I ever saw had t’ be Doc Robi’son getting’ killed by Injun Joe. See, the way it happened was me ‘n’ Huck was in the graveyard with a dead cat tryin’ t’ catch some devils. All of a sudden,

New Year, New Format

It's funny how time goes. This blog is only two and a half months old. To me it seems I've been writing it for two and a half years. Up to now, I've written about basically whatever comes into my head, which is fine for me. But I want to make it interesting for you, too. I wanted to focus a little less on myself, and more on children's books and writing.

So, with that in mind, I'm announcing some new weekly features that I hope you'll enjoy.

Mondays--The Monday Interview Series. This was inspired by the Deliverers Character Interviews where I interviewed characters from my book. This new series will feature interviews with famous characters in classic children's literature and fairy tales. No, there won't be any interviews with Harry Potter or Percy Jackson because I can do without the copyright hassles, but they should be entertaining and--I hope--fun.

Tuesdays--Did You Know? This will feature trivia on the book or story in which the weekly interviewee appears. My wife says I'm a trivia magnet, all these useless facts stick in my head. This will give me a chance to dust some of them off and put them to good use.

Wednesdays--What's Christian Reading? My nine year old son, Christian, is a fourth grader who lives to read. He reads anything and everything, some good, and some that are just glorified comic books. He'll be here to discuss whatever he's reading in a particular week. He'll tell us a little of what it's about, and what he likes--and doesn't like--about it. He may even give us a rating. Anyway, it should give us an insight into what kinds of books a fourth grader might like.

Thursday--Random Thoughts. This could be anything. If I go on a trip or something great happens (like I land a five book contract with Scholastic), you'll hear about it here.

Friday--A Writer's Week. This will be a weekly update on what I've done on the writing front over the course of the previous week. This will give you an insight into what goes on in my (twisted) writer's brain, and will help keep me on track. You never know, I might be asking you for some help when I hit a rough patch.

Saturday and Sunday--These will be days off. This will give me a chance to spend time with the family and to write. It will also give all of you a chance to go off and have some weekend fun without fear of missing a single riveting moment!

Well, that's the plan. What do you think? They say that a blog is an evolutionary thing. You start off at one point and evolve to another. The last two and a half months have been an evolution, and I thank you for sharing that with me. This new lineup should be a lot of fun. Let me know what you think.