In the spirit of Stranger Than Fiction, New York Times bestselling author Barry Lyga takes the reader on a wild and surreal ride through the heart of his own creation—perfect for fans of A. S. King, Andrew Smith, and Jeff Zentner.
We chat with Barry about his new duology Edited and Unedited, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Barry! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I always feel like the most interesting thing about me is my books, so I inevitably disappoint readers when I talk about myself because I’m basically just a boring suburban dad who cloisters himself in his office whenever possible to conjure weird worlds. I’ve been lucky that the stuff I dream up has captured other people’s imaginations for a decade and a half now! I started out way back in 2006 with The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl and now here we are, twenty-six books later. Yeah, I sort of can’t believe it either!
But the basics: Grew up in cow country (rural Maryland). Went to Yale. Worked in the comic book industry and was instrumental in making Free Comic Book Day happen. Now I write books and cross my fingers that someone out there will like them.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I have a very strong memory of being six or seven years old and my grandmother asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I said “A writer!” Why did I say that? What made me think that was possible or even a job you could aspire to? I HAVE NO IDEA! But somehow I stuck to that idea and made it happen. You’re welcome, 7-year-old me.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Harold and the Purple Crayon
The Girl with the Silver Eyes, probably
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Your experimental YA duology, Edited and Unedited, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
get sometimes can messy writing
What can readers expect?
Craziness! God himself dabbling in the story! A world in decline, desperate to survive! Words and punctuation and the meaning of reality! Chapter 16! What more do you want???
Where did the inspiration for the unique duology come from?
Well, the first inspiration was for UNEDITED itself, which has its origins decades past, when I was in college. I was taking a literature class that posited that the Sherlock Holmes mysteries taught readers how to read them. I liked this idea and I thought about a book that could teach you how to write it.
It took decades, but I eventually got around to writing it. My editor looked at it and said, “This book is long and crazy. Let’s make it longer and crazier.” And he suggested publishing an expurgated version — EDITED — at the same time. It was one of those moments where you find yourself convulsing in laughter at the sheer lunacy of it. Sure, the book is more than 200,000 words long and REALLY WEIRD, so let’s make it EVEN WEIRDER with a second book that tells the same story…but not really the same story.
I thought it was an absolutely insane idea, so of course I said “Yes!”
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
I know this will sound unbelievable, but when writing UNEDITED, I didn’t really face much in the way of challenges! It’s so long and weird, but somehow my brain has evolved the utterly pointless ability to hold the whole damn thing in my head. I just wrote and wrote and wrote.
With EDITED, the big challenge was “What do you cut? What do you keep? What do you change?” My editor took the first whack at it and he used a machete on it, cutting out whole swaths of the story — scenes, characters, etc. Then he went through and patched it up and handed it off to me for my thoughts. My first reaction was “I need to add everything back in!!!” But of course, that’s not the point of EDITED. So I tried to rise to the challenge of figuring out how to assemble it into a NEW story that worked on its own, while still being faithful to UNEDITED. Readers will decide if I succeeded!
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I’m going to be a bit coy to avoid spoilers, but there’s a very uncomfortable death for a character towards the end of the book that I found very satisfying. And there’s a guy called the Electrostatic Man who only appears in UNEDITED — I invented him more than thirty years ago and finally put him in a book! I had fun writing him.
What’s next for you?
I’m…not sure! I took a little time off writing to focus on my kids (see above about being a boring suburban dad!), so there will be a little caesura before the next Lyga book. Which is appropriate, really, because I just dropped two books on you and one of them is 800 pages!
I can say that I’m working on a thriller and a couple of graphic novel ideas, so we’ll see what pops.
Lastly, what have been some of your favourite 2022 reads? Any 2023 releases our readers should look out for?
I’m not sure about 2023 yet, but you gotta read THE GETAWAY by Lamar Giles. Holy BLEEPING BLEEP, what a great book!
You can find me at barrylyga.com and @barrylyga on Twitter (if Twitter still exists by the time this sees print).
