What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
Blue Feet and Green Sharks came out of my 30-year med school reunion, which happened last year. I hadn’t thought about people in my class or medical school for a long time. Then I got an email from the reunion organizer, and people started sharing updates. It was surreal hearing from people who, in my mind, were all 25 years old and living in a time before cell phones and Taylor Swift, only to realize they are all in their fifties and sixties now. Many had faced some tough things in their lives. Then a physician from Anchorage contacted the subset who were from Alaska, asking us to contribute to the scholarship fund created in memory of one of the Alaska classmates who’d died. Her name was Sharon. In the first year I sat behind her. She used to draw flowers and dancers. I used to draw eyeballs that were somehow both on fire and also dripping blood. We used to exchange drawings sometimes. The whole thing got me pensive. Reflective. So, I started writing. Notes. Recollections. Stupid things I’d done and said way back then. And a voice started coming through—earnest, dedicated. A little self-absorbed. A little arrogant. Very clueless. Not me, mind you. The voice. That became the narrator’s voice. And he became a math Ph.D. who sets out on a quest. He would describe it as a quest for self-improvement, though the reader will see it’s a quest for human connection. That’s the story behind the story. I’m donating my proceeds to a scholarship in memory of my classmate—The Sharon Tobias Award at the University of Alaska Anchorage. I’m working on Jeff Bezos to donate his part. He says he’ll get back to me.
If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of your book, what would they be?
The book is set in a pre-internet era in an unnamed city that rains all the time. That would influence things.
The main character is Adam, a math Ph.D. candidate whose core problem is his inability to admit he loves Amy. She’s a cellist who’s his study partner in their Music Set Theory class. (Adam signed up because he thought it was a math class).
Adam is not shy. He’s not timid. But he’s rigid and disciplined and refuses to let himself feel.
At first, I thought Adam might like “Pictures of You” by The Cure, but “3 Strange Days” by School of Fish I think captures his mood better. Not his theme song, but a song he’d like.
Amy is strong. Capable. Down-to-earth. Grounded. To most people she shows a tough, confident front, but to Adam she shows her insecure side. Makes it all the worse when Adam can’t express himself to her. For some reason I think Amy would like “Our Lips Are Sealed,” but I don’t know why.
Later, Adam meets a woman named Sabrina who would probably like Madonna’s “Material Girl.”
What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
Humor. Satire. But it’s got to be understated. So much of what passes as humor nowadays is the same self-aware cynical internet voice. The same snappy insults. Wink at the audience. Let the laugh track play.
Part of what made me write the book was a desire to create something that sounded different.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
I am organized and efficient. I have no pile.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
At one point, Adam has made himself over—new clothes, new car. He answers a personal ad for a woman who is looking for “an apex SWM at peak level of achievement.”
Adam tells himself, “This woman gets it.”
The woman’s name is Vivian. She’s an interior decorator. She’s ditzy, brash, and loud, but she and Adam relate to each other. They meet each other where they live, so to speak. Adam talks about math. Vivian talks about color, and they both come away appreciating the world a little more. In the end, Vivian tells Adam that he has to take risks. That he needs to go tell Amy how he feels, and he does.
I really liked Vivian.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
Quirky writing habits are for the weak.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
I want readers to remember that you have to tell people that you love them while you can.
And where they left their car keys. I want them to remember that too.