Doug Wilhelm

RevealersYWP is beginning an exciting new Author Forums series and is starting with Doug Wilhelm -- noted author of The Revealers and Falling. He will be checking into the forums from time to time for the next three weeks. Have questions or comments for Doug? Go to the forums listed below. And please participate. YWP would like to have regular Author Forums, but we can't -- and won't -- if you don't participate. This is a great opportunity to talk with professionals about how they think of ideas, how they write, what problems they face. Click "Read More" for additional info and links.
Links to Forums: The Revealers FORUM .... Falling FORUM

I was born in 1952 in Portland, Oregon, and moved to suburban New Jersey when I was in kindergarten. All through elementary school I was an avid reader. Suddenly, in middle school, I began to write. I was writing stories, poems, even a play. Until then, I hadn't been good at much of anything—I was tall, skinny, awkward, and not very popular—and it made a big difference to feel that this was something I could do.

Like the main characters in The Revealers, I was bullied a lot in middle school. The idea for the novel grew, in part, out of my own experiences. To read about that, go to The story behind The Revealers.

I studied English and played basketball at Kenyon College in Ohio, and after graduating I traveled by land from Europe to India and Nepal. It was a great adventure, and I dreamed of going back. After working as a newspaper reporter and editor back in New Jersey for several years, I did return to Asia, to spend time talking and listening with young people who were Muslim. I wrote a book about my experiences, called Street of Storytellers—but no one would publish it. It was rejected about 75 times! In those years I learned how challenging it is to be a professional writer.

I kept at it, moving up to Vermont and earning my living by writing articles, newsletters, brochures, and things like that for all kinds of organizations. My son Bradley was born in 1987. His mom and I were divorced a few years later, but we stayed good friends. I'm very proud of my son, who's now a tall, strong, kind young man.

In 1992 I was asked to write a science-fiction novel for "Choose Your Own Adventure," a popular series of interactive fiction for young readers. I went on to write eight "Choose" books, and I learned a lot about writing stories that could keep young readers turning the pages.

"How geeky is that?" - a conversation with Doug Wilhelm

This interview with author Doug Wilhelm, conducted by writer Spring Hermann, is published in the Fall 2007 issue of NERA Journal, a publication of the New England Reading Association.

SPRING: Although we've never met, I have learned about you through the www.the-revealers.com website. Tell me about your family and the kind of environment you grew up in.

DOUG: I grew up in a small house in a pleasant, suburban commuter town outside New York City. I'm the oldest of three, and we were lucky to live in a neighborhood that was full of kids. We were always outdoors playing games. Inside my house, things were more confusing. Although they're both sober now, my parents were active alcoholics all during my growing-up years.

SPRING: You say you read your way through elementary school. Do you remember any authors or books that touched you and guided you? Was the public library your refuge?

DOUG: It was! I remember once getting grounded for sneaking out of my bedroom window at night (it was on the first floor) to go to the library. How geeky is that?? In seventh grade, I became obsessed with the historical novel Johnny Tremain. Like Elliot in The Revealers, I was on the bottom of my grade's social ladder, and I didn't want to be living my life at all—so I would imagine myself as a new character in Johnny Tremain, playing minor parts in scenes in the novel.

I was so much tormented in the public junior high that my parents sent me to a private boys' day school for the next two years. Now I had hardly any contact with my neighborhood friends, and at the boys' school I was bullied horrendously—they were professionals. So books became basically my only friends. I remember getting into Twain and George Orwell, but my favorite author that I discovered then was William Saroyan.

To participate in a forum with Doug Wilhelm about his book Falling, click on the book cover on the left.

Falling, Chapter 1
Choice
By Doug Wilhelm