Q&A with 2012 Featured Author John “Corey” Whaley
John “Corey” Whaley is the author of “Where Things Come Back,” his highly-acclaimed debut novel for Young Adults.Whaley was named a Spring 2011 Flying Start Author by Publishers Weekly as well as a Top Ten New Voice for Teens by the ABC Children’s Group at ALA and a Summer 2011 Okra Pick from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. “Where Things Come Back” has also been nominated for the American Library Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults 2012. He was recently selected by the National Book Foundation as a Top 5 Under 35 author, making him the first YA author to be awarded the honor.
Where do you find inspiration?
I tend to find inspiration in the strangest places — like NPR or encyclopedia articles. Though I write fiction, I tend to get a lot of ideas for stories from research — both scientific and historical. I like to try and piece factual things into fictional stories and see how it affects the characters and their lives. I’m also inspired, during writing process, by particular songs or artists. For instance, I listened to a lot of Sufjan Stevens when writing “Where Things Come Back” and my second novel has an entire, chapter-by-chapter song list to help guide it along.
What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Become obsessed with the story you feel like you were meant to tell and don’t stop trying at it until you’ve told it the right way. Persistence and obsession save me every time.
What’s your favorite opening line from a book?
“All this happened, more or less.” — “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
What book has inspired or affected you in some way?
“Catcher in the Rye” was the book that solidified my preoccupation with becoming a writer. It was the first book that I remember finishing and then turning back to the first page and re-reading. There is just something about the way the story unfolds, the brutally honest and realistic characterization, that makes me want to stop everything I’m doing and try, try, try to somehow, in any small way, emulate what Salinger managed to do with this amazing, elegant story.