Book Title: Free Pizza by G.C. McRae
Category: Middle-Grade Fiction, 360 pages
Genre: Humorous Fiction
Publisher: MacDonald Warne Media
Release date: May 1, 2019
Tour dates: May 1 to 17, 2019
Content Rating: PG (No sex or drugs, just mild expletives such as "hell" and "damn".)
Book Description:
Brian McSpadden is always hungry. Does he have a disease? Worms? Does it have something to do with his being adopted? He spends his days at his crazy friend Danny’s house, hoping for snacks, but nothing seems to fill the void.
Then Brian receives a mysterious birthday card that says, Free Pizza. He soon discovers the card has nothing to do with food and everything to do with the big questions in his life: where did I come from, why did my mother give me up and is there anyone out there who will like me the way I am?
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Meet the Author:
In his latest work, Free Pizza, McRae spins the highly emotional themes from his decidedly unfunny childhood into a brilliantly comic yarn. After being given up for adoption by his teenage mom back when single girls were forced to hide unplanned pregnancies, his adoptive parents didn’t exactly keep him under the stairs but, well, let's just say, there were spiders.
A lot has changed since then. McRae’s own children have now grown and he runs a small farm with his wife, who is herself an award-winning writer.
Connect with the Author: Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ LibraryThing
Interview with G.C. McRae
Free Pizza is very much written for young adults, about two very distinctive 12-year olds. Is that what you were like as a 12-year old?
For sure. Pretty much like my main character, Brian. As it says in the first chapter, he spends his days trying not to be boring and trying not to get beat up. My sense of humor got me out of a lot of scrapes. I went to Catholic school and it was not all sweet, nice, gentle kids. In the ‘60s, it was pretty violent by today’s standards. There were constant fights or threats of fights. The vice-principal was put in the hospital by one kid, and he had it coming. The nuns and teachers dealt with every problem with the strap, which was a real shaving razor strop, two thick layers of leather and hurt like heck. Today, they’d probably be put in jail for the things they did to us.
Wow. Did you ever get the strap?
I think everybody did at some point. And mine was a comparatively minor offence. We were running up to this stop sign and swinging around it as many times as we could before touching the ground. A pretty harmless game. But we played it enough to pull the stop sign out of the ground. We were just being kids and we would have helped put the sign back in if we were told how. Instead, we were beaten. Experiences like that probably colour the way I view authority to this day.
Did you always want to be a writer?
From when I was a teenager, yeah.
What happened then?
When I was fourteen, I thought I wanted to be an artist. I spent a huge amount of time drawing superheroes and monsters, typical teenage fantasy things. Then I started doing dialogue and captions in the margins. Somehow words felt subversive. In drawing, a line was a line. With words, you could have double and triple meaning. It became a real playground for me. Anyway, after a while I stopped drawing and threw all my creative energy into writing. But I am drawing again now, and it’s really wonderful to do.
What did you write?
Oh, god... the most bizarre poetry in prose. The closest thing to it I’ve come across is a little book by Bob Dylan called Tarantula.
So his work inspired you?
No, not at all. I didn’t come across his book till decades later.
What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?
I am a pretty ordinary person from the outside. I love gardening. I don’t know anything about shrubs and flowers. But anything you can eat? I’m right there. Oh, and mushrooms. I grow those indoors as well as outside in beds. I guess that’s not very surprising. I suppose the thing that most people comment on is my schedule. I get up around 3:30, or sometimes earlier, to write. People think that’s difficult or disciplined, but I don’t find it difficult at all. It’s fun, and my brain works best first thing in the morning.
Most writers have a dream book they’d like to write - but for whatever reason, hasn’t been written yet. What’s yours?
Wow, there’s a question. I’ve already written two of my dream books, Seven Tales and Free Pizza. The only other one that’s begging to be written is a book about my teen years. Especially the music.
Bob Dylan?
No, I was into European art rock. Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator, Aphrodite’s Child. I still don’t have a handle on how I would incorporate the music into the novel, but some day, I’ll take a shot at it, I hope. Writing about music is not easy!
Enter the Giveaway!
Ends May 25, 2019
I think that this book is a book which need to be read by every single person in the world! Thank you very much for your time and support.
ReplyDeleteIn his latest work, Free Pizza, McRae spins the highly emotional themes from his decidedly unfunny childhood into a brilliantly comic yarn. I think this will soon become his feature.
ReplyDeleteExcellent interview. Thank you!
ReplyDelete