An Interview with Author Chris Everheart

The League of Delphi

Ten years after his father’s mysterious death, 17-year-old Zach secretly returns to his wealthy hometown in search of answers. Why did his mother—who recently died—move him away and change his name, forbidding him to ever reveal his true identity or return home? Desperate to reconnect with this seemingly ideal place, Zach is troubled when a grade school friend commits suicide and no one seems to care. Ashley, a local teenager on the fringe, piques his interest with whispers of a secret committee that runs the town and pressures kids into dangerous overachievement. Finding a hidden passage into the committee’s impenetrable headquarters Zach and Ashley discover a dark connection to Ancient Greece and the Oracle at Delphi. Their suspicions are confirmed, but the conspiracy is more terrifying and dangerous than they imagined, sending them running for their lives and praying to get out alive.

Cheryl: Thank you Chris for agreeing to this interview for our Blog here at PaperBackSwap, we are very excited to have you!

Chris: It’s a pleasure. Thanks for welcoming me to the PaperBackSwap family. I know how active and dedicated your community is and I’m really happy to be included.

 
Cheryl: You have led what seems to me, a very interesting life so far. Working as an archaeological illustrator, managing an art gallery, acting, film-making and now writing. Tell us a bit about your career journey and why you choose to become an author.

Chris: Well, first, thanks for saying “so far.” I’m getting a few gray hairs at my temples lately but I feel like I’m nowhere near finished with this journey. There are still so many things I intend to do.

Career-wise, it might be a feature of my artist’s temperament, but I’ve gone from one industry to another, working, watching, and learning. I’m just fascinated with the way the world works and how people behave – and why. I’ve followed my interests and have been exposed to a lot of different fields, which is cool. The mistake I made was believing that I was supposed to completely fit in at one of those places and stay in that company/job/career for the rest of my life. But I just have never been able to do that. 

I studied art for ten years from high school through college and I managed an art gallery right after I got my degree. Long before then, when I was in my first year of college at the University of New Mexico, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and the US Forest Service hired me to illustrate an exhibit of an a Pueblo Indian archaeological site in the mountains. I got to spend a lot of time talking to archaeologists and researchers, digging around in their massive collections room, imagining and recreating what life was like so many centuries ago – that was a great experience! Later, when attending the University of Minnesota, I worked in the labs, doing illustrations of artifacts excavated from Mayan ruins in Central America.

I also studied anthropology/archaeology and have a lifelong fascination with old things and ancient times, which shows up in my books. Soon we’ll be releasing the first book in an action/adventure series about a 14-year-old archaeologist – basically who I wish I had been when I was a teenager.

Filmmaking is a field I have really loved because I enjoy movies and TV so much. I love writing scripts, working with actors, and helping other people make movies. I’m a fish in water on a film set. Acting is a part of that. You know the saying, “If you keep going into a barber shop, eventually you’ll get a haircut?” Well, if you keep hanging around independent film sets, eventually someone will say, “Hey, we need more bodies in this shot. Change your shirt and get in there.” But the schedules for movie production are brutal and I found that I couldn’t do it as a job long-term. So, instead, I make a short film now and again for fun. I’ve gotten a couple of awards for filmmaking, which is nice. 

 I decided to write books because I was working in an ad agency and not getting creative satisfaction, but didn’t have the money or time for film school. I found that I really enjoyed writing fiction. And my wife (who was terrified about reading my first manuscript) said it was pretty good, which was huge encouragement.

Once I started writing, I began to understand that my short attention span makes long-term career building impossible, but qualifies me perfectly as an author. I can jump into a subject, learn all about it for a short time, write about it, and move on to another subject and story.

God bless my darling wife, Patsy. She’s been so generous and patient with me over the years. And now that writing is really starting to pay off, she gets to see a return on her “investment” in me.

Cheryl: You have written a series, The Recon Academy. Can you tell us a bit about them?

Chris: I developed the Recon Academy graphic novel series for Stone Arch Books, an imprint of Capstone Publishing. I really believe in Stone Arch’s mission to publish books for young, struggling and reluctant readers – because I was one of those (and although I’m no longer very young, I still struggle a bit with reading).

They asked me to create a series that a middle-grade boy could relate to that has a high-concept theme with a lower reading level. I pitched them several ideas and we Frankensteined a couple together to make Recon Academy. One of them won a Moonbeam Award, which I am proud of. A cool thing is that I wrote those books when I lived in Minneapolis and when I moved to East Tennessee I went to library and found them on the middle-graders’ shelf here.

Cheryl: And about Superman Toys of Terror?

Chris: Stone Arch Books partnered with DC Comics to create a series of partially illustrated chapter books for young readers. While I’ve never been a huge comic book reader, I have deep admiration for the genre. I’m very aware that not many people can say they’ve officially written Superman so it was quite an experience getting that call.

Cheryl: Your newest book, The League of Delphi, is a Young Adult Thriller that left me shouting for more!

Chris: Yes, I loved your mildly profane message to me when you finished The League of Delphi! It put a smile on my face.

I get bored easily so if I start reading a book, watching a movie or TV show but the concept, plot, or characters are weakly developed or poorly expressed, I’ll abandon the book, turn of/walk out of a movie, or quit a TV series. When I’m writing, I have an internal drive to make the plot interesting, the situations exciting, and keep the story moving or it won’t be worth reading and I simply won’t want to write it.

With The League of Delphi, the main character, Zach, is 17 years old, alone, confused, and uncovering a deep, dark mystery in his own hometown – where he thought he would be safe and welcomed back! Instead what he finds are secrets, deaths, deception, and mortal danger to himself and the other kids in the town. It’s out of his control and the writing and plot have to take advantage of that mood.

There will be at least three books in the Delphi series because Zach’s story can’t be told in one volume. He’ll encounter more danger and secrets on his journey to what he thought was home. So, you asked for more and you will definitely get more!

Cheryl: My favorite sentence from the book: Wrinkled and grooved buildings stand rooted low to the ground as if someone planted a single brick on each plot three hundred years ago and they’ve been growing slowly ever since, twisting upward each night toward the light of the moon.

Chris: That was a real Ray Bradbury moment. The 300-year-old college campus in The League of Delphi is a character unto itself – especially the library that no one is allowed to use. It’s the headquarters of evil and the only place Zach will find answers.

One thing I love about libraries and college campuses is how open they are. Everyone is there to learn and grow, to meet and talk and share an experience. I thought it would be interesting to flip that and make this town’s college foreboding and unfriendly. So, every moment Zach is on this campus, instead of feeling inspired he feels scrutinized and suffocated. The look and description of the campus reflects what’s going on inside him.

The description in that passage is based on a couple of very old buildings on the University of Minnesota campus, where I finished college. These ancient brick buildings stand on narrow, winding streets and their windows are big and vacant and stare down at you as you walk past. They seem alive, like huge old trees that were on that spot long before you came along and will be there long after you’re gone.

Cheryl: Is young Zach, the protagonist in your book based on someone you know?

Chris: Zach is not based on a specific person I know. Like most of my characters, he emerges from the circumstances in the story. My stories are very plot-driven and I usually don’t get to know the characters until I put them in these dreadful circumstances and they start to act and react.

In that sense, it’s very much like meeting someone for the first time. You have impressions of who they are based on how they look and talk. But as you live in the same world together and things happen, you see aspects of them emerge – sometimes admirable, sometimes repugnant – and they become more and different than you imagined them to be. If you stick around long enough or if the things that happen are strenuous enough, you’ll get to see a broader spectrum of their character and see major changes.

This is what writing a book is like. I don’t entirely know who the characters are, but as the story develops the readers and I get to know them. This is one reason big concept thrillers are so gripping and exciting – the compacted circumstances force the characters to do something and you get to know them and identify with them quickly.

Cheryl: In his adventures in this book, Zach is searching for his truth, his background and for answers about his life that he could never get from his family. This search surely will resonate with your readers, young and adult. Is there a similar search you have been on?

Chris: Zach is a teenager fighting the forces and circumstances around him that are blocking him from finding his true identity. So, in that sense, he is inspired by practically every teenager (and many adults) I’ve known – and also by myself. For me, the pain of growing up is still very fresh. I did not have an especially happy childhood and being a teenager was … well, let’s just say that, if you invented a time machine that could transport people back to 1983, I wouldn’t get in that damned thing!

Story is universally important to us because it can express what we don’t fully acknowledge and understand. Telling Zach’s story – as he discovers what the League of Delphi is doing to his town and is compelled to do something about it – is a way of dealing with vital teen issues like identity, rebellion, isolation, abandonment, pressure, romance, and risk.

Having helped raise a child, I can see these stages and themes more clearly, but I wasn’t aware or the least bit analytical of them when I was going through them myself. I also didn’t sense at that time that teenagers have likely gone through these phases and changes since the dawn of time. The plot, stakes, and circumstances in The League of Delphi are all amplified into a thriller story, but the themes are timeless and universal.

Zach’s not entirely sure why he’s doing what he’s doing. He’s afraid that he might be clinically insane. His mother stole him away from everything familiar when he was seven years old. He has returned to his hometown under a false name. Emerging from hiding, he is becoming a different version of himself. His parents are gone and he never really knew them. He wants his home to be ideal, but it’s deeply dysfunctional – even dangerous. He feels unable to love but connects with this damaged girl who reflects his suspicions about life and this place.

So inspiration for the character of Zach is in each of us and I hope readers will identify with him and connect with the subtle themes he’s encountering in addition to his terrifying and exciting story.

Cheryl: Tell us a bit about the Oracle at Delphi, and why you chose this theme for your book.

Chris: Ah, Delphi is such a fascinating place! For more than a thousand years, this mountainside site in Greece was the most important religious and cultural spot in the Western World. Starting in 1400BCE, royalty, aristocrats, politicians, military leaders, and commoners from all over went there to consult the Pythia – a woman who sat deep in a temple, breathing noxious fumes from a crack in the earth, babbling answers to questions. Decisions about romance, finance, and empire were made based on her famously – sometimes cruelly – cryptic prophecies. One emperor, for example, asked the oracle if he should invade a neighboring country. The oracle’s response was, “If you go to war, a great empire will be destroyed.” So he went to war and was unpleasantly surprised when he lost and it was his empire that was destroyed! (See more on Delphi at my Brain Burgers Blog at ChrisEverheart.com)

I had a story concept about a town where everyone somehow knew what was going to happen ahead of time. The conflict was they weren’t like other people because of their special knowledge and they fought amongst themselves about how to handle it. Because I love old-time radio, I was contemplating producing it as a web radio show – a sort of drama/soap opera.

That project never came to be, but I read about Delphi somewhere and realized that the mysterious knowledge could be coming from this mystical place – and the magic “What if …” questions emerged. “What if the Oracle at Delphi was the source of secret knowledge? And what if one of their own had a reason to tear the lid off it all?” By this time, I had started writing for young readers and asked the final important question: “What if that insider with something to prove was a teenager?” And Zach was suddenly thrust into this dark mystery – the poor kid never saw it coming.

Cheryl: Zach and his new friend Ashley discover some frightening secrets and encounter a dangerous truth in your book. Both cope with these truths very differently, yet compliment each other very well. Will there be another book with Zach and Ashley?  Will this story continue?

Chris: Zach and Ashley are at the center of The League of Delphi. It was originally only Zach’s story, but I was surprised by how important Ashley became while I was writing it. She is on the inside of this cloistered town culture, but she’s also on the fringe. Ashley is Zach’s bridge into the mystery. She’s broken – in and out of the psych ward her whole life – but she’s the only person courageous enough to acknowledge the truth of what’s going on in this town. Zach can’t help but notice this because he’s looking for the ideal place that his mother stole him away from and instead finds a bunch of mind-numbed robots who can’t even acknowledge the suicide of a local high school kid.

They complement each other in several ways: Zach believes he is inwardly insane; Ashley is known to be outwardly insane. Zach is on his own and lonely; Ashley is surrounded by people but totally unable to connect with any of them. Zach is living under a false identity; everyone knows exactly who Ashley is. Zach is secretly trying to figure out the weirdness going on in this town; Ashley has gotten locked in the psych ward for talking about it. Zach doesn’t know who he is and feels he needs to get inside the mystery of the League of Delphi to figure it out; Ashley knows who she is and wants out so she can be herself.

They are soul mates on this journey to break the grip of Delphi and express who they really are. Of course, Delphi is not onboard with that and the battle that ensues tears them apart – inside and out. It’s pretty grim for these two teenagers.

And yes, this is only the first of at least three books in this series. I originally conceived it as a trilogy and I can see opportunities for more sequels as well as any number of prequels and historical fiction series based on the theme. The history of Delphi goes back over THREE THOUSAND YEARS – that’s a lot of stories to tell!

Cheryl: What books and authors do you read for fun?

Chris: I read a wide variety of subjects and authors – nonfiction, history, archaeology, true-life adventures, self-development, philosophy, scripture of many traditions, thrillers, some mysteries, and YA. I know a lot of writers, so I read their books.

I love to read Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books and Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series. When I really just want some brain candy, I read Clive Cussler. His books have a good blend of action, thrills, history, and archaeology – they’re pure entertainment. Lately I’ve been reading zombie books – by Jonathan Maberry and Max Brooks. I’ll start the Hunger Games series soon because I love what Suzanne Collins has done with teen stories – can the concept get any sharper than “Kill them before they kill you!”?

One frustration for me is that I still read very slowly so I know I will never get to everything that I would like to read.

Cheryl: Is there a book or books that influenced you as a young person?

Chris: A Louis L’Amour dime-store Western from my dad’s shelf stands out in my mind. I can’t remember the title now, but it was about a teenager who started out on a cattle drive with his father. Dad broke his leg and died from gangrene – gruesome! – and the kid had to fight some rustlers and finish the adventure by himself. It was a stock story, but it left an impression on me that this young man could rely on himself when he most needed to.

I also had an excellent Humanities teacher in high school who showed me Shakespeare, Dante, Plato, and Homer and got me out into a big, fascinating world beyond network television. I’m very grateful for that education.

Cheryl: What is next for you?

Chris: I have a number of books coming out in e-book and paperback in the next few months: ZomProm: a high school zombie romance (yes, it’s what it sounds like); Seti’s Charm: A Max Carter Adventure (the first in my action/adventure series about a 14-year-old archaeologist); Hub’s Adventures (a series of futuristic techno-mysteries about sixth-grader Hub and his robot best friend, Crank); a possible short film project; and writing the next book in The League of Delphi series. Is that enough? Because sometimes I feel lazy.

Cheryl: And now for some fun questions:

Coke or Pepsi?

Chris: I failed the Pepsi Challenge – COKE!

Cheryl: Mountains or beach?

Chris: Mountains. It took me 15 years to get to East Tennessee and I’m not leaving!

Cheryl: Cake or pie?

Chris: Cake – because I’m pretty sure brownies are in that category.

Cheryl: Television or movies?

Chris: Ugh! I seriously can’t choose – I’m one of the rare people who openly admits to loving television. I wouldn’t want to live in a world where I had to choose between Smoky and the Bandit and Dukes of Hazard.

Cheryl: Cats or Dogs?

Chris: Used to be exclusively a cat person until Molly came along. Now I’m a dog person – but it’s gotta be the right dog!

Chris Everheart is an award-winning author of books and short stories for middle-graders, young adults, and adults and an occasional filmmaker. A lifelong reluctant reader, TV junkie, and movie lover, Chris infuses the pacing and thrills of visual storytelling into all his stories. When not writing he can be found hiking in the mountains near home, watching television, or learning about history, science, and archaeology. He’s a Minnesota native living in East Tennessee with his family.

Connect with Chris at:

Facebook: facebook.com/chriseverheart.writes

Twitter: @ChrisEverheart

ChrisEverheart.com

Chris Everheart has generously offered an autographed numbered paperback copy of his new book, The League of Delphi to a member who comments here on the Blog. A winner will be chosen at random. Good Luck!

Tags: Authors, Book Recommendations, Book Suggestions

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2012 at 10:46 am and is filed under Author Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.