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Does Norbert exist?
Definitely.
What is he?
Well, that's a bit more complicated.
I'm working in 2 directions at once here. I want to keep up the idea of
Norbert as a viable alien, with a home planet and space ship, with his own
family and girlfriend and personality quirks. At the same time, I want to
maintain the idea of Norbert as a psychological extension of Alan, a cross
between an imaginary friend and Jiminy Cricket. He says the things that
Alan is afraid to say.
Is Alan at all like Richard Scrimger?
The short answer here is: Yes and No. There's a bit of me in every
character in the book, even Mary, the unredeemed bully. At 13 years of age,
I was shy with girls, especially the ones I liked, and I talked to myself,
so that people thought I was strange. To that extent I was like Alan. But
I was a chubby kid, loved at home and unbullied at school - kind of like
Alan's friend Victor. And I was often a bit of a smart-aleck - kind of
like Norbert.
What does Norbert look like?
There's no physical description of Norbert in the book. That's on
purpose. I want readers to make up their own minds about what he looks
like. And I like to think that we all have a "Norbert" character inside of
us - the small part of us who is not afraid to speak out. When I visit
schools I draw Norbert with the help of the whole class. We always come up
with different characteristics. I tell the students that the way
THEY see him is the correct way.
What's cool?
I think hot chocolate and kd lang are both incredibly cool.
For what it's worth, I don't have any of her cds, and I drink coffee.
What do you hate?
I HATE bullying - at school, at home, in international affairs,
anywhere. I think it has always been a problem. I have only been in one
fight in my life - when a bully was picking on a friend of mine. (I lost
the fight, and my friend ran away.)
What was your favorite book as a child?
Freddy the Detective, by Walter L. Brooks.
What is your favorite book now?
Whatever I'm writing now,
and any book I can read again.
Who reads your new work first?
I do. I'm writing it. Then my
wife, unless she's driving, or reading her favourite book.
Do you have a favorite place to write? Describe it.
Six and a half feet by four feet, flat and soft, either light blue
or covered in stripes, depending on when I changed it last.
Two foam pillows.
What was your first written story (that you can
remember)?
An eighth-grade poem entitled "A Pebble Grew Into a Rock" (I
never studied geology). My friend John laughed so hard I
didn't write another poem for fifteen years.
Where do you get your ideas from?
My ideas come from a
sealed tin that I open with a slotted key - only the key
keeps snapping just as I'm about to get the lid off.
What do you do when you have writer's block?
I take my
writer's blocks and stack them together to make a writer's
castle, right in the middle of the room. Someone's bound to
come along and knock it down.
What is the best thing about being an author?
The best thing
about being an author is playing God, and wearing pyjamas
all day long.
What is the worst thing about being an author?
There is no bad thing, unless you count button fronts.
How do you feel about bad reviews?
You mean there are other kinds?
If you could meet any famous person, who has ever lived,
who would it be?
I'd like to meet Sidney Smith, I suppose.
(Sidney Smith was a clergyman in nineteenth-century
Scotland. He might have been a bishop. No, wait, he wouldn't
have been a bishop. They wouldn't have made him a bishop
because he was too funny. But if I was going to have a
dinner party from history, he would be there.) The heroes of
my youth were Lord Peter Wimsey and Sergeant Ernie Bilko.
Hard to improve on them.
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Richard Scrimger
Photo by Alaro Goveia
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