Interview: William Alexander on Board Games, Neoteny and Dino-Bear Princesses

Booking Biz: What does your average day look like?

William: My first task is to get the two kids to school. This takes effort. They don’t sleep so much as hibernate. Plus my youngest has extremely vivid dreams. “We are the princesses of dino-bears, and we are fierce!” she groggily announced last week.

Once both princesses of dino-bears are at school, I go searching for cafecito. Espresso-based drinks run strong in my family. My father brews himself a Cuban coffee every morning. He’s a scientist. His search for knowledge is fueled by very high levels of caffeine. I’m not a scientist. I am pretty much the opposite of a scientist, but my daily search for imaginary things is fueled by the same sort of coffee.

I’ll write for most of the morning, spend the rest of the day teaching (reading student manuscripts, answering emails, and doing administrative sorts of things), fetch the dino-bear princesses from school, and then figure out what they’d like to devour for dinner that evening.

Once the fierce majesties are hibernating again, my spouse and I will sip calming tea and stare at the wall for a bit.

Booking Biz: When you’re not writing, what do you like to do best?

William: Games! I like complicated board games that take way too long to play, come with far too many different kinds of pieces, and require lengthy video tutorials to even figure out how to set up.

I also read widely and wildly. I especially enjoy reading comics aloud with the dino-bear princesses. We pick different characters and perform them as though reading a play script. Current favorites include Zita the Spacegirl, Squirrel Girl, and Roller Girl.

Booking Biz: Where do you get the inspiration for your books?

William: All over the place. I used to be in theater and tried to squeeze every theatrical thing that I knew and loved into my first novel—GOBLIN SECRETS, which is about a troupe of goblin actors.

My science-fiction books were inspired by two delightful words: “ambassador” and “neoteny.” The first reminds me of revered and respected characters on Star Trek—people who could prevent wars and save entire planets just by knowing the right thing to say. The second word, “neoteny,” means “juvenile traits kept in adulthood.” Biologists use it to describe physical traits like the muppetish gills that axolotls keep when they refuse to grow up into salamanders, but it also refers to traits like empathy and curiosity. Most social creatures ditch those childish things by adulthood, but humans get to keep them. Sometimes. We can still learn new things and form new social bonds after we grow up.

That childish empathy and curiosity explains why most unusual animal friendships—foxes and hounds, gorillas and kittens, crocodiles and parakeets—happen when both friends are still very young. Kids haven’t fixed the boundaries of their social world yet, so galactic ambassadors between different planets should always be kids.

My two most recent novels, A PROPERLY UNHAUNTED PLACE and A FESTIVAL OF GHOSTS, are ghost stories inspired by haunted libraries—and all libraries are haunted. Obviously. A haunting is the memory of a place, because whatever happened there is still happening, and libraries have very good memories.

Those books also feature a Renaissance Faire, which are haunted by the most wonderfully ridiculous things.

Booking Biz: Did you always want to write books for children, or was there another career you wished for as a child?

William: Always, though I also planned to be an astronaut and Broadway actor. Those other two careers haven’t worked out quite yet.

Booking Biz: If you ruled the world, what would it look like?

William: Future historians would call it the Librarian Age in honor of the many thousand libraries built as mighty strongholds against boredom and forgetting.

Booking Biz: Yes! A world filled with libraries is a wonderful world indeed.

Learn more about William Alexander and his presentations on his speaker page.