An Inside Look with Jeff Zentner
*Season #SIX (Summer 2019)
How did you come to know Cash?
Cash is born of the two loves that consumed me during the time I spent writing IN THE WILD LIGHT—poetry and nature. I wanted to create a character who embodied those loves.
What do you think is his most admirable quality?
His love for and loyalty to people, even people who are basically strangers to him. Also, Cash has a quiet, unshowy courage and steel that good people have.
Is there anything you wish Cash would have changed or done differently in his story?
Nope. His journey was his journey. Making mistakes and being imperfect are part of that journey. I don’t entertain regrets in my own life because I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned and the callouses I’ve developed from my own mistakes. I impart that to my characters.
What do you think he can offer to other young adults that are experiencing similar situations to what he went through?
He can offer an example of someone who finds hope and the opportunity for a drastically different life, and makes the courageous decision to take that opportunity, in spite of a lot of very valid reasons that he shouldn’t.
How did you research Cash and the circumstances he found himself in?
Cash’s late mother was an opioid addict. I’ve worked in both the criminal justice system and the substance abuse treatment field, and I’ve learned a lot about addiction and the ripples that flow outward to the lives of those who love an addict.
Do you and Cash share any similarities?
We both love poetry and our rivers. We love our families and friends. We try to do the right thing and fight for the people who need us.
What was the hardest scene to write about him?
Well, I’m not going to give any spoilers. So I’ll say that writing a scene with him; Delaney, his best friend; and his papaw in a hospital was the second hardest. There was a lot of kinetic and emotional energy in the scene that I had to try to render accurately and honestly.
Tie for first place between his grandparents, who raised him after his mother died, and Delaney, who’s been his ride-or-die best friend for years.
Because they’re able to be persuaded that they have courage left that they haven’t already spent surviving up until that point.
I think he’s in his last year of school at Middleford Academy, editing the student poetry journal.
SEASON #SIX (Summer 2019)
Interview #122 with Tamara Bundy (Author of Pixie Pushes On)
Interview #123 with Lindsay Lackey (Author of All the Impossible Things)
Interview #124 with Tae Keller (Author of When You Trap a Tiger)
Interview #125 with Jamie Sumner (Author of Roll With It)
Interview #126 with Hena Khan (Author of More to the Story)
Interview #127 with Phil Bildner (Author of A High-Five for Glenn Burke)
Interview #128 with Leslie Connor (Author of A Home for Goddesses and Dogs)
Interview#129 with Gillian McDunn (Author of Queen Bee and Me)
Interview #130 with Jody J. Little (Author of Worse Than Weird)
Interview #131 with Jenn Bishop (Author of Things You Can't Say)
Interview #132 with Kaela Noel (Author of Coo)
Interview #133 with Rebecca Stead (Author of The List of Things That Will Not Change)
Interview #134 with Gae Polisner (Author of Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me)
Interview #135 with Emily Blejwas (Author of Like Nothing Amazing Ever Happened)
Interview #136 with Joy McCullough (Author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost)
Interview #137 with Kim Baker (Author of the Water Bears)
Interview #138 with Erin Entrada Kelly (Author of We Dream of Space)
Interview #139 with Jess Redman (Author of Quintessence)
Interview #140 with Melanie Conklin (Author of Every Missing Piece)
Interview #141 with Lindsey Stoddard (Author of Brave Like That)
Interview #158 with Rebecca Ansari (Author of The In-Between)
Interview #159 with John David Anderson (Author of One Last Shot)
Interview #160 with Tracy Holczer (Author of Brave in the Woods)
Interview #161 with James Bird (Author of The Brave)
Interview #162 with Marcella Pixley (Author of Trowbridge Road)
Interview #163 with Barbara O'Connor (Author of Halfway to Harmony)
Interview #164 with Alan Gratz (Author of Ground Zero)
Interview #165 with Lisa Fipps (Author of Starfish)
Interview #166 with Ann Braden (Author of Flight of the Puffin)
Interview #167 with Kimberly Willis Holt (Author of The Ambassador of NoWhere Texas)
Interview #168 with Elana K. Arnold (Author of The House That Wasn't There)
Interview #169 with Erin Soderberg (Author of The Great Peach Experiment)
Interview #170 with Donna Gephart (Author of Abby, Tried, and True)
Interview #171 with M. Evan Wolkenstein (Author of Turtle Boy)
Interview #172 with Lindsey Stoddard (Author of Bea is for Blended)
Interview #173 with Jess Redman (Author of The Adventure is Now)
Interview #174 with David Levithan (Author of The Mysterious Disappearance of Aiden)
Interview #175 with Chris Grabenstein (Author of The Smartest Kid in the Universe)
Interview #176 with Ali Standish (Author of The Mending Summer)
Interview #177 with Holly Goldberg Sloan (Author of The Elephant in the Room)
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