An Inside Look with Greg Howard
*Season #SIX (Summer 2019)
How did you come to know the ghost/narrator?
The reader doesn’t know the identity of the narrator through much of the book, other than the fact that he is the ghost of a twelve-year-old boy. This left me a lot of room to formulate the character, discovering who he was as I went. In a way, the narrator is a bit of me, or a version of my twelve-year-old self. But because he is unnamed and a ghost, he felt almost like a physical manifestation of my childhood imagination.
What do you think is his most admirable quality?
He has a deep-seated (and admirable) need to keep everyone safe—from his fellow “lost souls” on the plantation to all the “visitors from the living world” who have come and gone over the decades. I think perhaps this comes from the fact that he didn’t always feel safe when he was part of the living world. And since no one in his life knew all the things he was going through, there wasn’t anyone he could count on to protect him all the time.
Is there anything you wish he would have changed or done differently in his story?
I wish he had reached out to someone and shared what he was going through in his life, to ask for help. But he was too afraid, and he didn’t feel safe enough to do that, which is incredibly sad. If he’d been able to find an ally, his life would likely have turned out very differently.
What do you think the ghost/narrator can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what he went through?
I think young readers can learn an important lesson from the ghost/narrator. When you feel hopeless, talk to someone you can trust. Ask for help. Reach out. You don’t have to go through it alone. There is always hope.
How did you research the ghost/narrator and the circumstances he found himself in?
For the ghost/narrator, I pulled from my memories of my own childhood as I often do when creating a main character. And since he is a ghost, that opened up a lot of possibilities. I could create his world and the “rules” of his world and his existence solely with my imagination.
The setting of the book was a different thing all together. The story takes place on a deserted rice plantation in the low country of South Carolina called Hollow Pines. This is the area where I grew up and Hollow Pines was inspired by an actual deserted plantation that was just a short bike ride from our house. It was supposedly haunted and there were a lot of stories about the place that we’d heard all our lives. As kids we would ride our bikes down there looking for an adventure, and maybe even for some ghosts. But there’s a lot of troubled history in a setting like that and I had to educate myself to the real horrors of that place. What were the lives of the people who lived and worked their 150-200 years ago like, both the family who owned the plantation and the enslaved people? There was a lot to learn to create those characters tied to the plantation authentically, and in the case of the characters of the ghosts of the enslaved people, to honor their stories with honesty and respect.
Do you and the ghost/narrator share any similarities?
Oh sure. Like the ghost/narrator I was a lonely kid hiding secrets and my true self from the world and everyone around me. Like him I was also betrayed by someone close to me which led me to dwell in some dark places in my mind. And like him, I finally found a chosen family that loves and accepts me for who I am.
What was the hardest scene to write about him?
Well, I don’t want to give anything away, but there is a moment of reckoning that the ghost/narrator has with himself leading him to make a terrible choice that he feels will solve everything, when it doesn’t solve anything. The guilt and regret of that decision haunt him. I could relate to him so well in that moment. I felt his hopeless because I recognized it in my twelve-year-old self.
Who do you think was his biggest supporter and why?
His sister played a huge role in his life when he was part of the living world. She had his back as much as she could. She was his safe place. Then when he finds himself “stuck” on the planation in his afterlife, the other lost souls there become his safe place. They all look out for each other as chosen families do so well.
Why do you think some young people refuse to let others be who they are and actually go out of their way to make life miserable for others who may be different from themselves?
Unfortunately, a lot of times that type of behavior is taught through the example of the adults in their lives. There is no rationale for being hateful to someone. And no one is “born bad.” It’s learned behavior. Also, some people have an irrational fear of what they don’t understand. And sometimes when we fear something, we attack it first before it can hurt us. I also think there are some people who are miserable themselves, so they want everyone around them to be miserable as well.
What do you think ghost/narrator is doing at the present time?
Living his best afterlife.
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)
Interview #178 with Jeff Zentner (Author of In the Wild Light)
SEASON #ELEVEN (Fall/Winter 2021)
Interview #179 with Katherine Applegate (Author of Willow)
Interview #180 with Padma Venkatraman (Author of Born Behind Bars)
Interview #181 with R.J. Palacio (Author of Pony)
Interview #182 with Kyle Lukoff (Author of Too Bright to See)
Interview #183 with Barbara Dee (Author of Violets are Blue)
Interview #184 with Anne Ursu (Author of The Troubled Girls of Dragonmir Academy)
Interview #185 with Margaret Finnegan (Author of We Could Be Heroes)
Interview #186 with Jasmine Warga (Author of Shape of Thunder)
Interview #187 with Joseph Bruchac (Author of Rez Dogs)
Interview #188 with Kathryn Erskine (Author of Lily's Promise)
Interview #189 with Elly Swartz (Author of Dear Student)
Interview #190 with Heather Clark (Author of Lemon Drop Falls)
Interview #191 with Veera Hiranandani (Author of How to Find What You're Not Looking For)
Interview #192 with Elizabeth Eulberg (Author of The Best Worst Summer)
Interview #193 with Cathy Carr (Author of 365 Days to Alaska)
Interview #194 with Carol Cujec and Peyton Goddard (Authors of REAL)
Interview #195 with Gillian McDunn (Author of These Lucky Stars)
Interview #196 with Alyssa Colman (Author of The Gilded Girl)
Interview #197 with E.L. Chen (Author of The Comeback)
Interview #198 with J.M.M. Nuanez (Author of Birdie and Me)
SEASON #TWELVE (Winter/Spring 2022)
Interview #199 with Jamie Sumner (Author of One Kid's Trash)
Interview #200 with Chad Lucas (Author of Thanks a Lot, Universe)
Interview #201 with Jenn Bishop (Author of Where We Used to Roam)
Interview #202 with Rebecca Caprara (Author of Worst-Case Collin)
Interview #203 with Leslie Connor (Author of Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?)
Interview #204 with Caroline Gertler (Author of Many Points of Me)
Interview #205 with Margaret Finnegan (Author of Susie B. Won't Back Down)
Interview #206 with Shawn Peters (Author of The Unforgettable Logan Foster)
Interview #207 with Aisha Saeed (Author of Omar Rising)
Interview #208 with Adrianna Cuevas (Author of Cuba in my Pocket)
Interview #209 with Jennifer Swender (Author of Stuck)
Interview #210 with Brenda Woods (Author of When Winter Robeson Came)
Interview #211 with Danya Lorentz (Author of the Book Of a Feather)
Interview #212 with Saadia Faruqi (Author of Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero)
Interview #213 with Ellen Hopkins (Author of What About Will)
SEASON #THIRTEEN (Summer 2022)
Interview #214 with Nora Raleigh Baskin and Gae Polisner (Authors of What About the Octopus)
Interview #215 with Lauren Wolk (Author of My Own Lightning)
Interview #216 with Rebekah Lowell (Author of the Road to After)
Interview #217 with Gillian McDunn (Author of Honestly Elliott)
Interview #218 with Dan Gemeinhart (Author of The Midnight Children)
Interview #219 with Melanie Conklin (Author of A Perfect Mistake)
Interview #220 with Kyle Lukoff (Author of Different Kinds of Fruit)
Interview #221 with Tracy Edward Wymer (Author of The Great and Mighty Benjamin Teller)
Interview #222 with Louise Hawes (Author of Big Rig)
Interview #223 with Paul Acampora (Author of In Honor of Broken Things)
Interview #224 with Shannon Doleski (Author of Gabe in the After)
Interview #225 with Jennifer Ziegler (Author of Worser)
Interview #226 with Natalie Lloyd (Author of Hummingbird)
SEASON #FOURTEEN (Fall 2022)
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