I Was a Teenage Know Nothing (Author Interview)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W3MTJJJ/  

I Was a Teenage Know Nothing looks like an exciting story.  Can you tell us a little about it?

It's packed with a lot of crazy things for sure.  Everything about it is true.  Me and the M.T.C. or Movie Theater Club were hitting our lest few teenage years together back in the mid-1990's.  Most everything made its way into the book.  Struggles like being brave enough to date the beautiful young ladies of the time.  One of us came to the realization that he was homosexual.   I had a girlfriend who had been sexually abused by her stepfather.  Beer, cigarettes, drugs, partying, car races, reckless motorcycle riding, and a gnarly motorcycle crash.  You name it, its in there.  Conflicts?  Yup.  Resolutions?  Most of the time.

 

Any plans to turn it into a series?

It was originally going to be one big book but I decided to turn it into two.  The second book will be out in 2022.  A sequel called "I Was A Teenage Know Something."     

 

How were the illustrations done in I Was a Teenage Know Nothing?

They're great, right?  Well, I knew the story was good.  I also knew illustrations could only make it better.   So I searched high and low on the internet and found several artists to help out.  They will have some of their works in the sequel book as well.   I would give them an idea and they would run with it.  For example I had one image I wanted captured where I wanted to see my old motorcycle, a Yamaha Midnight Virago, turned into a character.  A physical representation.  Yamaha is a Japanese company so she needed to be Japanese.  She turned out to be something of a witch because the word Virago, back in the day, meant Banshee or evil lady of the night.  That I had a special "Midnight" version of the bike solidified the idea even more.   She's in the book wearing a black dress with gold jewelry.  A gorgeous and extremely imaginative piece.  There are over 30 well crafter images in the book.  Even some comic book style pages with panels.  Not a graphic novel.  There are so many illustrations in children's books.  Why not have some in my teenager book?

 

That’s an amazing cover.  Can you tell us a little about it?

Thank You!  A lot of effort was put into it.  The cover character represents me as a teenager.  The motorcycle behind me is my Virago that I have already mentioned.    The green jacket is a U.S. Army Field Trench Coat I received from a friend, a member of the M.T.C., named Andy.  Actually from his dad Hugh, who was giving away some of his old stuff.  He wanted to make sure I had some protection while riding.  The overflowing popcorn tub over one shoulder is from the movie theater I worked at then.  Lots of radical things happened at that theater and I wrote about those things for the book.  The broken heart over my other shoulder represents the pain of love won and love lost.  It took two artist to render the image.  One created the character, the bike, and the objects.  The other artist rendered the titles and  background.  It took some tinkering between the three of us but they did a fantastic job.

 

What inspired you when writing I Was a Teenage Know Nothing?   

My friends from my teenage years.  We all used to live in the same small town that is portrayed in the book.  Now we live far apart.  I wanted to find a way to bring us together again.   The book is nothing if not a way to celebrate friendship.  Also, there were many dramatic moments we experienced back then.  Many more to come in the sequel book.  I needed a way to celebrate our triumphs.  I also needed a cathartic outlet and writing the book provided that opportunity for me.

 

Did anything stick out as particularly challenging when writing I Was a Teenage Know Nothing?

Yes!  Remembering everything that was relevant and trying to forget about the things that weren't.  There's a nice balance in there.  Some things are needed in order to tell a cohesive and compelling story.  Other things are obviously random, however, they have been shared purely for entertainment purposes.  Don't forget about "that time when", you know?

 

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I'm a fairly balanced person.  Equal parts lover and fighter.  Above all I believe in peace. I know a lot about filmmaking because I have attended film school and written several screenplays.  I'm in the process of turning some of those scripts into books now.   I've made an independent three part documentary film about single life in Seattle called "Single In Seattle".    I also have some short films I've made.   I'm all about "what's the next project?"  It used to be about watching and creating movies.  Now it's about reading and writing books.  Funny because that's how I started out as a kid.  I was a writer long before I picked up my first camera.

 

Where can readers find out more about your work?

I've got this cool website where I post a podcast.  I read some of my writing and talk about other things book related.  I even have some interviews with some of the my friends who appear in "I Was A Teenage Know Nothing".   What's most fun about it is I get a chance to interview other authors as well.   I get to find out about their own experiences.  That's fun. 

www.ryonownbey.com

Make sure you spell my first name with an "o".  I blame/thank my mom for that. 

My latest work is a fiction series trilogy called "The Pine Hill Paranormal Series".  The first book is called "The Ghost Cave".  I'm about half way through writing the first draft on that one.  The other two books will cover other types of paranormal subjects.  All three will take place in and around a fictional town called "Pine Hill" located in the Pacific Northwest U.S.A.