Bayport Gazette's Interview with Dan Gutman!

. Dan Gutman was born in New York City on October 19, 1955. He attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, graduating in 1977 with a degree in psychology. After spending a few unhappy years in graduate school, he decided that psychology was not for him. What he really wanted to do, Dan decided, was to be a writer. . After venturing into various genres of writing, from founding a gaming mag called Video Games Player (later Computer Games) to writing for Newsweek, Science Digest, Writer's Digest, and Today, Dan finally realized his true writing passion: kids' fiction. Dan has written over 35 books for kids, many of them with a sports theme. . Dan is a member of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), NWU (National Writers Union), and SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). He now lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey with his wife Nina and his two children. ..

. BG: When did you begin working on the new Hardy Boys series?
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DG: It was around May that I got a call from Jen Weiss, an editor I have worked with at Simon & Schuster. She told me they were "relaunching" The Hardy Boys, and she thought I might be a good person to work on the series because I write a lot of fiction for boys. I spent most of the summer on it. I wrote a "bible" for the writers to use as a guide, plus six outlines for Hardy Boys stories.

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BG: Were you familiar with the Boys before now?
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DG: I read a few of the books when I was a kid. But to be honest, I was not a big reader. I was a reluctant reader. And I write for reluctant readers today.
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BG: Have you enjoyed working on remodeling the series?
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DG: It was a lot of fun. I have never done this before--writing something for another writer to write. It was a challenge. I got a little carried away. Simon & Schuster just asked me to write short, four page outlines. But all the outlines turned out to be more than ten pages.

BG: Will we see any drastic changes in the new series? Did Laura run away and join the circus? :-)

DG: The most dramatic changes are that the stories are going to be written in the first person, and that Frank and Joe now work for a semi-secret organization that recruits bright young people like them to fight crime. It always bothered me that the Hardys coincidently stumbled into life threatening situations wherever they went, and I felt they needed a REASON to find trouble.

BG: Your big focus in your own career is writing for the reluctant reader. In helping with the remodeling, did you include anything that would be aimed at a reluctant reader?

DG: In the "bible" that I wrote for the writers, I sort of gave them my feelings about how to write for kids who don't like to read. An excerpt: "The Hardy Boys books have been filled with words the readers don’t understand. Just to give one example, in “The Secret of the Soldier’s Gold,” published in 2003, I found the following: unobtrusively, magnitude, ostensibly, neutrality, armoires, concierge, and coerce. And one incredible sentence included the words deduced, deference, and matriarchs. How many boys know what an armoire is? I didn’t even know what an armoire was until I bought a house and my wife said we needed to get one."

BG: Will we see any new characters introduced that will be showing up often? Supporting characters?

DG: No major characters. There will be a few minor characters, and I have suggested to the writers to feel free to invent or add characters if they would help the story.

BG: What will be in this new series different enough, or exciting enough, to catch the interest of kids that have passed them by in the past?

DG: Hard to say. It depends on how well the writers write the books and how well the publisher gets the word out. Some kids will always think the Hardy Boys are from a different generation, and not worthy of checking out.

BG: Although the target audience for this series is the 11-13 year old, many fans are somewhat older (or, in some cases, much older). In addition, many young readers have recently shown their maturity by supporting volumes like Harry Potter and Eragon. Will there be material in the new Hardys to satisfy the more intelligent reader's tastes?

DG: Well, older people are not NECESSARILY more intelligent than 11-13 year olds! But no, I have not asked the writers to try to compete with books like the ones you mention. There will be no 800 page Hardy Boys books. No mystical fantasy worlds with weird creatures. The idea, as always, is to create fast-paced, exciting and action-packed stories for kids of all ages and maturity levels. Somebody who loves Harry Potter may want to take a break from that and grab a Hardy Boys book that he can finish in a night or two.

BG: Any plans to ghostwrite books in the series?

DG: I thought about it. A few of the stories I outlined sounded so good to me that I was tempted to write them myself. But I have a whole bunch of my own projects that I need to work on, so I couldn't do it. Also, I'm an egomaniac, and can't bear the thought of writing something only to see "Franklin Dixon" on the cover!

BG: Thanks, Dan, for a great interview and all the insights into the new Hardy Boys series!
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Dan Gutman is the author of... .

--The Get Rich Quick Club (HarperCollins, August)
--Miss Daisy is Crazy! (HarperCollins, June. For grades 1-3)
--Mr. Klutz is Nuts! (HarperCollins, July. For grades 1-3)
--Babe Ruth and the Ice Cream Mess (Aladdin, 2004. For grades K-1)
--Race for the Sky (Simon & Schuster, 2003)
--The Million Dollar Goal (Hyperion, 2003)
--Mickey & Me (HarperCollins, 2003)
--Shoeless Joe & Me (HarperCollins, 2002)
--Qwerty Stevens Stuck in Time With Benjamin Franklin (Simon & Schuster, 2002)
--Qwerty Stevens Back in Time: The Edison Mystery (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
--The Million Dollar Kick (Hyperion, 2001)
--The Secret Life of Dr. Demented (Pocket Books, 2001)
--Johnny Hangtime (HarperCollins, 2000)
--Babe & Me (HarperCollins, 2000)
--Landslide (Simon & Schuster, 2000)
--Funny Boy Meets The Bubble-Brained Barbers (Hyperion, 2000)
--Funny Boy Meets The Chit-Chatting Cheeses (Hyperion, 2000)

--Funny Boy Meets The Airsick Alien (Hyperion, 1999)
--The Kid Who Became President (Scholastic, 1999)
--Jackie & Me (HarperCollins, 1999)
--Virtually Perfect (Hyperion, 1998)
--The Million Dollar Shot (Hyperion, 1997)
--Honus & Me (HarperCollins, 1997)
--The Shortstop Who Knew Too Much (Scholastic, 1997)
--The Green Monster in Left Field (Scholastic, 1997)
--The Catcher Who Shocked The World (Scholastic, 1997)
--The Pitcher Who Went Out of His Mind (Scholastic, 1997)
--The Kid Who Ran For President (Scholastic, 1996)
--Gymnastics (Viking, 1996)
--Ice Skating (Viking, 1995)
--Taking Flight (Viking, 1995)
--They Came From Centerfield (Scholastic, 1995)
--World Series Classics (Viking, 1994)
--Baseball’s Greatest Games (Viking, 1994)
--Baseball's Biggest Bloopers (Viking, 1993)
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Coming soon from Dan Gutman: --Mrs. Roopy is Loopy! (HarperCollins, Sept. For grades 1-3) --Ms. Hannah is Bananas! (HarperCollins, Nov. For grades 1-3) --The Million Dollar Strike (Hyperion, Fall) --Abner & Me (HarperCollins, March, 2005) .