Tommy Hays is the author of the 2006 novel The Pleasure Was Mine which was selected for several community-wide reading programs in various cities and counties, including Greenville, SC and Greensboro, NC. His other adult novels are Sam’s Crossing, which has been recently re-released, and In the Family Way, winner of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. He is Executive Director of the Great Smokies Writing Program and Lecturer in the Master of Liberal Arts program at UNC Asheville. He teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Murray State University. What I Came to Tell You is his first middle grade novel.
Jo: The Thomas Wolfe House in Asheville, NC, plays an important role in the story. Wolfe was known for drawing on his own life for material. What in this book was from your life?
Tommy: The book was inspired by my son spending hours in the bamboo in our neighbor’s backyard.
The school in the book is really the same school that my children attended. A very old elementary school that was recently renovated. I loved the building because it reminded me of the kind of elementary school I attended. In fact Asheville City Schools was going to tear down my children’s school and build a new one. But several of us parents got together and pushed for renovation. So the school building has always been important to me.
My mother’s mother died in childbirth when my mother was six. I can’t help but think that somehow that played a role in my writing about a mother’s death. In my novel before this, The Pleasure Was Mine, I found myself exploring how the men would cope when the women were no longer around. And I did that to some extent here. Don’t ask me why.
My wife is a therapist and works in schools, so I think the character of the mother is a lot like my wife. In fact, some people say “You killed off your wife in this book!” Which I had no idea I was doing. And she doesn’t think that’s the case either.
My son was always throwing himself into projects when he was little and I think that’s where Grover’s impulse to do these weavings comes from in part. Also I come from a family of visual artists. My brother is an architect. So the weavings come out of my reverence for art and for how it can sustain a person through all sorts of things. Incidentally my son is still throwing himself into projects. This time as a college senior pursuing physics.
Jo: Why did you chose to make Grover and Sudie’s mother a Buddhist?
Tommy: My wife is a Buddhist. In fact she’s away on a four day Buddhist retreat as I write this. And I wanted the mother to be an Asheville mother, an Asheville woman with all the complexities. Also I think there’s something about Grover and his way of moving into his art that has a spiritual core.
Jo: The bamboo grove sounded like the kind of secret place I would have gravitated to as a child. Was there one in your childhood?
Tommy: I had a some woods that I could retreat to and I used to spend a lot of time at my aunt and uncle’s house and they lived across the street from an abandoned college campus that had all sorts of places to hide in. But the bamboo in the book comes from the bamboo in our neighbor’s backyard which I can see anytime I look out my office window. My children spent much of their childhoods out there as did many neighborhood kids.
Jo: When you first described Grover’s weavings, I thought of the North Carolina artist Patrick Dougherty’s outdoor constructions made of sticks, though I may be way off the mark from what you had in your head. Was there someone who moved you to choose this form of expression? Do you have any artistic or craft abilities beyond writing?
Tommy: I don’t know about Patrick Dougherty but when I was describing the book to my brother (the architect mentioned above) he mentioned an artist named Andrew Goldsworthy and told me to look him up which I did. I’ve written a paragraph about this connection that’s on my home page. Anyway, that sort of undergirded what I was already doing. I have no real craft abilities. But I have a real affinity for it. The actual idea of the weavings just sort of came to me as I thought about Grover out there in his bamboo.
Jo: I’ve never written a YA novel so I don’t know the general “rules.” Did you break any of them?
Tommy: I did set out to write a novel that my children would relate to, but I didn’t think to myself this is going to be a YA novel or a middle grade novel, which is actually how it’s technically classified. I set out to write the best novel I could for whoever would like to read it. I consider it a novel as much for adults as children. I just met a wonderful author named Holly Sloan who has a wonderful middle grade novel out called Counting by 7s. We presented together at the Southern Festival of the Book. And she said she wrote her book the same way and we were both relieved to find like-minded writers.
Jo: Why do you think the YA (Young Adult) market has taken off in the last few years? Do you see kids reading more digital books or “real” ones? Are they reading more in general?
Tommy: People tell me it has taken off and I believe them but I really don’t know why. It is great that younger readers are reading, because it’s such a great thing to do with one’s time. Also it means that they are likely to be readers all their lives. I do know I like spending time with children characters. I like seeing the world from their point of view. And I like reading books for children because even if they’re about very dark things, they often have an aura of innocence or an undercurrent of warmth and hope that I find sustaining.
Jo: What are you working on now?
Tommy: I’ve written a rough draft of an adult novel set in Asheville. When I get another draft done I want to go back to writing another book for children.
Jo: Thanks, Tommy. Always great to talk to you.