Dan Elish is the author of the new young adult novel One Last Ride. His other books include the novel King of Broadway. He also writes musicals, and he lives in New York.
Q: What inspired you to write One Last Ride, and how did you create your character Jackson?
A: I went to a throwback very laid-back camp called Sangamon in Vermont for nine summers and loved it. Between ages 11 and 13, three distinct events happened to me.
Number one was my first major crush and (after some effort) my first kiss. Second, was my parents’ divorce. Third was a discovered love of horseback riding - sadly when I was 11, I was on a trail ride where a horse broke his leg and had to be put down.
I wanted to combine those three events into one story about a boy’s growth. To ramp up the drama, I placed those three events in one final week of the summer. There are many fictional elements to the story – too many to count – but the background of the book is autobiographical.
With Jackson, I tried to create a “normal” boy who is nice, sensitive and basically friendly, but also a little bit humorously angst-ridden – in other words, a boy like a lot of kids. And like me. Not a traditional hero, but heroic in his struggles to overcome the fears and the obstacles life has placed in front of him.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I really wasn’t sure how the book would end when I started writing. Honestly, this book was the hardest of all my novels to get right.
My first drafts were oriented toward younger kids as opposed to teens and had the horses in the story talking as in a book like Charlotte’s Web. Then I tried a version that was for adults, narrated by a 60-year-old looking back at his youth. That was closer but also didn’t quite land. Finally, I realized the best way forward was to narrate the book from the boy’s point of view.
All of this rewriting took time and many years to process. So yes, changes were made! I’m actually quite proud of the ending as it stands now – but it took a lot of thought.
Q: The Kirkus Review of the book called it a “sensitively written, bittersweet homage to that moment in childhood when it becomes time to grow up.” What do you think of that description?
A: Well, I was thrilled by that review. I do think the book tries to dramatize that moment at the end of childhood on the cusp of young adulthood. In the story, Jackson has to deal with love, divorce and death – quite a load.
The only thing I wish the review had mentioned is that the book is also quite funny in parts. It’s not all angst all the time by any means.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: Though One Last Ride is geared toward a young adult audience, I think adults will like it just as much – especially adults who went to camp or like coming-of-age stories.
Like any story, I want a reader to be entertained and fully engaged throughout – to have a good read – but also to feel some of the wistfulness of growing up. If a reader tears up a couple of times toward the end that would be okay, too!
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Though most of my work has been for kids and teens, I also write for adults. I recently published a novel called King of Broadway, which tells the tale of an aged curmudgeonly composer coming out of retirement to write a Broadway musical with a young upstart.
It’s wackier than One Last Ride but people – especially theater people – are loving it. So that’s something to possibly check out.
Aside from that, I’m working on a couple of theater projects and another young adult novel that has to do with a kid’s love of the Beatles.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I live in New York with my wife, Andrea, and am the proud dad of two now-grown kids – one of whom is going into publishing! (The other is still in college).
Aside from books, I also write musicals, the most well-known being 13, which was on Broadway with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and famously starred Ariana Grande. I also play piano.
But back to One Last Ride – I hope people love it as much as I enjoyed bringing it to life. Please feel free to write me through my website (www.danelish.com) – I’d love to hear from you.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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