Jodi Picoult on House Rules

Having read House Rules and being the mother of Naomi an adult on the autisitic spectrum I wanted to do an interview with Jodi Picoult. Time was very precious in her schedule so Kerry Hood her PR from Hodder & Stoughton kindly asked the questions for me while they travelled from one interview to another.

Thankyou Kerry.

VW: You seem to keep your writing eye fairly attuned to subjects that are difficult to talk about - what is it about any given subject that you feel would make a good story?

JP: Writing a book for me is probably like reading it, for you. I may have an opinion on an issue, but I may never have asked myself why my opinion is what it is. And even if I don't change my mind during the course of writing a book, there's a good chance that it's the first time I'm ever listening to the argument of the other side. I don't think as a writer it's my job to preach or to tell people what to think (in fact - my favorite compliment is when a reader says they don't know where I personally stand on an issue after reading a book) - but I do think my job as a writer is to get people talking about things they would rather not talk about, because those subjects are uncomfortable or touchy or frightening.

VW: In your research for your character Jacob how did you choose the appropriate AS symptoms and where to put him on the syndrome IQ wise?

JP: I made him an amalgamation of the 50+ teens who served as research experts for me. Every trait of Jacob's exists in a real child I met.

VW: Rather than disseminate AS information just through Jacob - why did you have the other characters speak about it as well?

JP: Because autism affects not just a child but the whole family.

VW: Did you write House Rules to bring to the general public more information about Asperger's Syndrome and Classic Autism?

JP: Yes, and to show ‘different from' is not ‘lesser than' - House Rules is about a teenage boy named Jacob Hunt who has Asperger's Syndrome - a form of high-functioning autism. He's watched all 248 episodes of CrimeBusters on television and is enthralled with the police scanner radio he keeps in his bedroom and is extremely proud of his passion for crime scene analysis...until one day, he finds himself accused of murder. One of the biggest problems with autism is that many of its hallmarks look - t0 someone in the law enforcement community - like guilt: averted eyes, nervous stimulatory behavior, trouble answering interrogative questions. This book is going to explore how our legal system only works for people who communicate a certain way - and how, for the others, it often fails. I had the great privilege to meet many kids with Asperger's while writing this book - and to meet their parents, too, who have struggled for years watching their children trying to fit in with their peers and failing.

VW: You show very well how people are quite ignorant about the needs of an autistic person especially in court action part of your story and Jacob's original arrest - was this also to help people understand how people like Jacob get utterly stressed out and do inappropriate actions?

JP: No, it was to illustrate how classic autistic behaviours make it hard to get a fair trial - kids with Aspergers communicate in a different way, and it's not necessarily easy to decipher this if you don't know about the condition.

VW: As a mother of an adult with autism - my 38 year old daughter - I felt that on a day to day scenario Emma - Jacob's mother - was very capable and calm - how did you find her character to write because I know the despair that mothers can feel and the isolation?

JP: I interviewed 50 plus parents of teens on the spectrum. Like many other mums, Emma has been such an advocate for Jacob she has lost herself along the way.

VW: I thought you wrote the character of Theo very realistically - certainly from my point of view with my autistic daughter's siblings reaction to her - it is difficult. How much research did you have to do to get this character spot on?

JP: This came from speaking to siblings of kids like Jacob who love their brother and sisters but still feel marginalised to some extent.

VW: Do you hope that by writing House Rules that people will become more aware of the different aspects of autism and be more compassionate to people - especially young adults who really do struggle with life and the world around them?

JP: Yes!

VW: Were the case notes between the chapters dealing with real people - they were fascinating?

JP: They are all real except the last one

VW: How do you go about choosing your subject matter for your books?

JP: Usually, a what-if question: what if a boy left standing after a botched suicide pact was accused of murder? What if a little girl developed an imaginary friend who turned out to be God? What if an attorney didn't think that the legal system was quite good enough for her own child? I start by mulling a question and before I know it, a whole drama is unfolding in my head. Often, an idea sticks before I know what I'm going to do with it. For Mercy, I researched Scottish clans without having a clue why this was going to be important to the book. It was only after I learned about them that I realized I was writing a novel about the loyalty we bear to people we love. Sometimes ideas change in the middle. The Pact was not a page-turner when I conceived it. I was going to write a character driven book about the female survivor of a suicide pact, and I went to the local police chief to do some preliminary research. "Huh," he said, "it's the girl who survives? Because if it was the boy, who was physically larger, he'd automatically be suspected of murder until cleared by the evidence." Well, I nearly fell out of my seat. "Really?" I asked, and the character of Chris began to take shape. Sometimes I write books because other people make the suggestion: Plain Truth came about when my mother said I ought to explore the reclusive Amish. "If anyone can learn about them," she said, "it's you." And sometimes, ideas grow out of the ones I'm researching. That happened with My Sister's Keeper - information I learned while researching Second Glance was so fascinating to me that I stuck it into its own file and turned it into a story all its own.

VW: Who are your favourite authors?

JP: Alice Hoffman, Jo-Ann Mapson, Alice Hoffman, Anita Shreve, Ann Hood, Amy Tan, Diana Gabaldon, Alice Hoffman, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Sara Donati, Alice Hoffman, Susan Isaacs, Elinor Lipman, Chris Bohjalian, Ann Tyler, and Jane Hamilton. Oh, and did I mention Alice Hoffman?

VW: What are your top five books of all time, in order or otherwise?

JP: In no particular order: The Great Gatsby, for its unreliable narrator; The Sun Also Rises, because unrequited love is the greatest story of all; Turtle Moon, because it was my first Alice Hoffman book; To Kill a Mockingbird, because it has the best heroine, and a healthy dose of controversy; and The Paper Bag Princess - a wonderful little picture book I used to read my daughter, about a princess whose kingdom is burned by a dragon, who also carries off her fiancé, Prince Ronald. The princess conquers the dragon while wearing a paper bag - with her wits, instead of strength -and rescues Ronald. When she finds him he says disdainfully that she doesn't look much like a princess, in her paper bag. She replies that he looks like a prince, but he's a bum - and she leaves on her own, happily ever after.

VW: What book or author inspired you the most to be a writer?

JP: Gone with the Wind. I memorized huge passages when I was twelve and pretended to be both Rhett and Scarlett (hence I had no boyfriend till I was 15...) I loved that Margaret Mitchell had created a world out of words, and I wanted to do the same thing.

VW: Who or what has most influenced you in your writing?

JP: My mom, who always said "You can," and who believed in me. And Mary Morris, who made me a better technical writer and taught me to challenge myself.

VW: What do you do to get over a writing block?

JP: I start a new book!

VW: What do you do to relax when things are getting tough with the writing?

JP: Kayak, bake and hang out with my kids

VW: Does listening to music help the writing to flow?

JP: No - it's like kryptonite ... I can't work with music on!

VW: How do you do your research?

JP: Meticulously. I hate catching authors in inaccuracies when I'm a reader, so I'm a stickler when I'm writing. At this point, I have several folks on call for me during a book - a few lawyers, a couple of psychiatrists, some doctors, a pathologist, a DNA scientist, a handful of detectives. When I start researching, I read everything I can about a topic. Then I meet with an "expert". Some things are harder to find out about than others - getting the head of launch operations at NASA to fit me into his schedule, for example; or making a series of connections that landed me in the home of an Amish farmer for a week. These are some of the things I've done in the name of research: Watched Sly Stallone on a movie set (for Picture Perfect); observed cardiac surgery (Harvesting the Heart); gone to jail for the day (The Pact); milked cows on an Amish dairy farm (Plain Truth); learned Wiccan love spells and DNA testing procedures (Salem Falls); explored bone marrow transplants (Perfect Match); gone ghost hunting (Second Glance). For Vanishing Acts, I spent time in a hardcore Arizona jail, and met with both detention officers and inmates (learning, among other things, how to make my own zip gun and the recipe for crystal meth); and went to the Hopi reservation to attend their private katsina dances. For The Tenth Circle, I trekked to the Alaskan tundra to visit a remote Eskimo village and to follow a dogsled race on a snowmobile - in January, when it was -38 degrees Fahrenheit.

VW: Have you now started on your next book and what will you tackle this time?

JP: I can't wait to start writing the 2011 book! It is going to explore embryo donation, and gay rights in America. What's particularly unique about the novel is that the main character is a musician/singer, and each chapter will be the name of one of her songs - a song that reflects what she's feeling at that point in the book. Accompanying the novel will be a CD of these original songs. A really talented friend of mine, Ellen Wilber, is writing the music for them, while I write the lyrics. We've already started to work on them, and I think you're going to be blown away! I want this character to come alive for the reader - to reinforce the fact that gay rights isn't about issues - it's about PEOPLE.