Today we are very excited to share an interview with author Chris Lynch!
Read on to learn more about the author, the book, and a giveaway!
Meet the Author: Chris Lynch
Chris Lynch is the award–winning author of several highly acclaimed young adult novels, including Printz Honor Book Freewill, Iceman, Gypsy Davy, and Shadow Boxer—all ALA Best Books for Young Adults—as well as Killing Time in Crystal City, Little Blue Lies, Pieces, Kill Switch, Angry Young Man, and Inexcusable, which was a National Book Award finalist and the recipient of six starred reviews. Chris is the author of middle grade novel Walkin’ the Dog. He holds an MA from the writing program at Emerson College. He teaches in the creative writing MFA program at Lesley University. He lives in Boston and in Scotland.
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About the Book: Walkin’ The Dog
“Lynch is back and better, smarter, and funnier than ever.” —Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award Winner
A boy learns how to be a friend from man’s best friend in this funny and moving middle grade novel about humans being able to change and dogs changing us from acclaimed author Chris Lynch.
In a family of strong personalities with very strong points of view, Louis is what his mother lovingly calls “the inactivist,” someone who’d rather kick back than stand out. He only hopes he can stay under the radar when he starts high school in the fall, his first experience with public school after years of homeschooling.
But when a favor for a neighbor and his stinky canine companion unexpectedly turns into a bustling dog-walking business, Louis finds himself meeting an unprecedented number of new friends—both human and canine. Agatha, a quippy and cagey girl his age always seems to be telling two truths and a lie. Cyrus, a few years his senior, promises he’s going to show Louis how to be a better person, whether Louis wants him to or not. And then there are the dogs: misbehaving border terriers, the four (possible stolen) sausage dogs, the rest of Louis’s charges, and a mysterious white beast who appears at a certain spot at the edge of the woods.
Dogs and human alike all seem to have something they want to teach Louis, including his menacing older brother who keeps turning up everywhere. But is Louis ready to learn the lesson he needs most: how to stop being a lone wolf and be part of a pack?
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write Walkin’ The Dog?
Well, after kicking around in this business for a long time, I had to start asking myself, what does the world want from me at this stage. It has been gently suggested to me that writing about whatever caught my fancy was probably not going to be good enough. Then, I started to think about all the big-ticket social issues of our times. I’ve never tended to go in for that top-shelf category of topics that will be crowded with authors vying for position. Second-tier usually appeals to me as a place where a writer can do good work and have it be about something. So, I did a sort of mental keyword search and realized that so many hot-button stories come with an undertow of The Bystander being a not insignificant problem all its own. I thought, y’know, I think that’s something I might have a thing or two about which to say. Never having been much of an activist in my own life (one early title of the book was THE INACTIVIST), I believed this was something I might well delve into.
Then my editor, Kendra Levin started asking about what the vehicle was going to be for carrying these ideas. Obviously, a kid staying in the house and saying, “Nah, thanks anyway, I’ll just sit this one out,” was going to make for some static storytelling. For years I had pondered doing a book with one or more dogwalkers at the center, due to my theory that dogwalkers make the world go round. How many news stories feature the element of dogwalkers stumbling across the dead body/crime scene/oddity of nature? And when I mashed these two notions together I thought, hello? Boy meets world, and off we go.
YABC: Who is your favorite character in Walkin’ The Dog?
This feels wrong, the same way you’re not supposed to have a favorite among your children. But here goes. I think my favorite character is Agatha. Because she has a hinterland, lots of stuff–much of it gnarly–underpinning her character. She has an idiosyncratic and humor-based response to life which I share. And an indomitability I could only dream of.
YABC: Which came first, the title or the novel?
A bunch of titles came before this one. But, only in the process of refining this iteration of the book with Kendra did WALKIN’ THE DOG spring forth. Author’s note: This is the only book I ever wrote where the title itself morphed/evolved through the process. Early on, it’s a euphemism for not getting involved (I was just walkin’ the dog, mister, I didn’t see nothin’); by the end, it represents the protagonist’s pilgrim’s progress from bystander to citizen of his world, with the dogs as his guides through it all.
YABC: Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a writer from then to now?
I like this one, because it’s something I address with my writing students all the time. I learned to become a less neurotic writer about 1/3 of the way through my career, when I suddenly realized that all of my books were essentially one large work.That allowed me to calm down, stop forcing things, let each work be what it needed to be and nothing more. Getting past the feeling that you need to say everything, right now, results in far fewer darlings needing to be killed. Good writing is not good writing if it’s in the wrong place. That great notion or sentence or phrase will come back to you, when it’s needed. Trust that.
YABC: What’s a book you’ve recently read and loved?
IT’S OK TO BE ANGRY ABOUT CAPITALISM by Bernie Sanders. Politics aside (as much as politics is ever aside), as a serious craftsperson and teacher of writing, I am always hammering the point that you lay down your markers at the beginning, your statement of purpose, and then you spend the rest of the book delivering on that promise. On that score, Bernie delivered. He said he was going to make me angry, and he bloody well did.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
I’ve been floating a number of ideas I’d like to pursue, but so far nobody is committed to pursuing any of them with me. So, maybe I’ll just crawl back under my rock. It’s a pretty cozy rock, though.
YABC: Which was the most difficult or emotional scene to write?
There are two separate incidents of dogs dying in the book. So, yeah, there you go. But, I constantly go on to my students (them, again) that you have to upset yourself if you are going to reach your best work
YABC: What is the main message or lesson you would like your reader to remember from Walkin’ The Dog?
I rather squirm with the notion of messages and lessons in my books. But I’m comfortable with restating a line I borrowed/paraphrased from a real life source for the book: “The journey (to justice) can only be made in the company of others.”
YABC: What would you say is your superpower?
I’m a pretty good listener.
YABC: Is there an organization or cause that is close to your heart?
Yeah. For the mother in this book I borrowed a lot of background–her job, sensibility, sensitivity, commitment to on-the-ground social justice–from an old and dear family friend, Eleanor Batuyios. She worked for years at Rosie’s Place in Boston which is a lot of things, among them the first women’s-only shelter in the United States. If I can do anything to throw a little more light on Rosie’s, then I’m thrilled to be able to do so.
YABC: What advice do you have for new writers?
Don’t be shy, don’t be careful. We can neaten you up later, but in the early going hit it hard. Get the funniest, scariest, saddest, shockingest stuff out of yourself right now, because that’s what is going to separate you from everyone who is not you. Like I said, we can fix it up later. First, go wild and give us something worth fixing.
Title: Walkin’ The Dog
Author: Chris Lynch
ISBN-13: 9781481459204
ISBN-10: 1481459201
On-sale date: March 12, 2024
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Ages: 8-12; Grades 3-7
*Giveaway Details*
Three (3) winners will receive a copy of Walkin’ The Dog (Chris Lynch) ~ US Only (No P.O. Boxes)!
*Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter the giveaway!*
Looks like a wonderful giveaway!
I love the fun cover and can’t wait to read this one as a dog lover.