Chris Lynch is the author of numerous acclaimed books for middle-grade and teen readers, including National Book Award finalist INEXCUSABLE. He lives in Scotland.

Teenreads.com: CYBERIA takes readers on an adventure through a futuristic digital world. What sparked the idea for this project?
 
Chris Lynch: It all started innocent and accidental. When a couple of years ago I was setting up my new broadband, an odd little thing kept happening. Every time I tried to sign on, my dog Chunk would wander in, sit next to me and stare. She doesn't normally come into my room (I'm allergic to her), but she did this with such consistency I started laughing out loud. And, as fiction writers are wont to do, I started imagining things. What I imagined was that she was actually responding to some signal coming from my new broadband. I chased the idea from there.
 
TRC: The main character is a boy named Zane, whose life is monitored by computers. He is wired with an anklet that goes into his skin to track his whole life, from his school schedule to his blood pressure and glucose levels to even when his next anticipated trip to the bathroom should be. In writing this character, were you making a commentary that we’re in danger of letting computers take over our lives as in the world presented in your book?
 
CL: I'm not sure I was flagging a danger as much as recognizing a trend. The more handy and convenient technology is making life today, the more we are also sucked into it, tracked and charted and left exposed to it. It is up to every individual to decide whether this is an overall happy development. Myself, I feel sometimes like I follow the technology blindly and lazily. The ease and comfort of communicating, researching, shopping, etc. from my bedroom lets me forget that I really don't like accumulating a "profile" in cyberspace that I don't control, and that can leave me open to abuses. We've become so tuned in to the release of the next generation of phone or operating system or whatever that we almost automatically follow it when it arrives, even if the enhanced features add nothing to the quality of real life. So it's the gadgetry setting our agenda. I wonder, when a big development comes along that actually sets quality of life back, will we be able to recognize it?
 
As a writer, one wants to be a watcher rather than watched, silent rather than chattering all day. Access to all areas of life is not helpful to me during work hours, but the notion of secluded privacy seems a more quaint idea all the time.
 
TRC: I found it especially sad that while Zane is so connected digitally, he spends so much time alone. Do you think kids today are faced with similar problems? Are we so connected digitally that we’re disconnected with face-to-face time?

CL: Zane's situation is extreme --- with his parents being professional communicators rather than personal ones --- but yes, I think it does represent a broader contemporary reality. So much interaction between people gets done remotely now, and there is much more to relationships than the words or images. As great as my broadband is --- and don't get me wrong, great it is --- it always leaves something out, compared to face-to-face. I am, myself, more remote from people than I was before I was all wired up, and I can't say that's an altogether positive development.
 
TRC: Zane’s life drastically changes when he gets a new piece of computer equipment --- “The Gizzard” --- that enables him to communicate with animals. Do you think the world would be a better place if humans and animals could communicate?

CL: It would certainly be a radically different world. I'm not sure quite how we would do things differently, but it would be a compelling scenario. We would wind up finding out all the unfair and wrongheaded things we have been doing to animals forever. But what would we do about it? The great majority of people would treat animals with more respect and sensitivity. But since human beings have such a hard time treating each other as equals, I think we would wind up with some excruciating ethical dilemmas when it turns out people don't really want to do the work to reach that higher moral plane. You couldn't possibly eat meat, could you, if farm animals could convey thoughts? Yet, how many carnivores could you see giving it up overnight? The human power for rationalizing what we want would go into hyperdrive.
 
TRC: With this gadget, Zane can finally talk to his dog, Hugo. Would you want to talk to your pets, and what do you think they would say?

CL: As I said, I have Chunk. She is a Springer Spaniel, a lovely, lovely creature, but does not rate highly on a cleverness scale. If the sound of her thoughts amounted to more than a dial tone, I'm sure every interaction would be a variation on, "Are you gonna finish that? Can I have that? Do I smell pork?" Yet despite that, she remains utterly enchanting.
 
TRC: The villain in CYBERIA is a power-hungry veterinarian named Dr. Gristle, who is putting tracking chips in animals with the hopes of one day controlling them. The animals have picked Zane to help them fight against Dr. Gristle and his evil, controlling ways. What were your influences for creating the villain of Dr. Gristle?

CL: Dr. Gristle represents for me a lot of what goes wonky in people. He's not purely wicked, in that part of him does really care for animals, and he is (or was) a gifted veterinarian. But I believe he got intoxicated with fame and power and ego, and when this became the fuel for his big thoughts and ambitions, it was a poisonous mix. I don't think people set out to be nasty and vile. I just believe their original intentions get perverted, and they then convince themselves that they are doing questionable things for very good reasons. Personal glory and egotism are, I think, the sad corruptors of the best and the brightest --- as well as a lot of dullards.
 
TRC: What is one piece of technology that you personally can’t live without?

CL: It would be almost impossible to imagine a laptop-free existence at this point. My professional life is a testament to the progress of writing equipment, from pen to typewriter to clunky desktop to this practically self-sufficient machine I'm working on now. I would be inept if I had to try and make a living in any of the old ways again. It has gotten so serious that, while I would love to do some writing in longhand again, I cannot do it. Every time I try now, it's a disaster because I have no respect for my handwriting. It's like the sound of my voice on recordings --- I find it hideous, and cannot work with it.
 
TRC: CYBERIA is the first book in a series for young readers. How many books are in the works, and can you share any details about future installments?

CL: As of now, there are plans for three books in this series. I'm on the second one now. I can share that in book two, Zane has to battle Dr. Gristle's new development of subliminal mind control through talking parrots, and an academy for developing monkey personal assistants/henchmen.
 
TRC: What does your typical writing day look like?

CL: My writing day is in a transition period. When my kids were very young, I had to catch odd bits of available free time and make the best of it. Then, when they were in school, I got into a great rhythm, working exactly the same hours they were in school. That was a very productive and sane period. Now, as they grow up (my daughter just went off to university, my son is in his last two years of secondary school), I am finding myself not as needed at home as I used to be. To be perfectly honest, this makes me a little sad. On a more practical level, while it gives me more time, that does not necessarily translate into greater productivity. Structure, I have always found, is good. Even if that structure is imposed on you. I am now sort of re-learning to impose structure on myself.
 
I leave the house often now to work, for the first time in many years. I have started writing in the library of the Scottish Agricultural College, and the change of atmosphere has helped. I've been acting more like I have a regular 9-5 (ish) job that I go to in the morning and leave in the evening, with a trip to the gym in the middle. This has become something of a structure for me, though it's still evolving.
 
TRC: What books have you read recently that you would recommend to readers?

CL: Not long ago, I read TWEAK by Nic Sheff. It's a chronicle of a teenager who runs into seriously hard times, primarily through substance abuse. It is an eye-opening account of just how grim and harrowing a young life can get. Then I read BEAUTIFUL BOY, basically the same story told from the perspective of Nic's father, David. While I have issues with each book, together they form a bracing story of how badly we can mangle each other --- parents and children --- and how insensitive we can be to each other's agony.
 
TRC: What are you working on now, and when might readers expect to see it?

CL: Right now I'm doing Book #2 of the Cyberia series, which I believe will be out next fall (2009). 

1998

TBR: Your BLUE-EYED SON series includes three novels (MICK, BLOOD RELATIONS, and DOG EAT DOG), and covers several eventful and violent months in the life of a 15-year-old Irish-American named Mick. Did you originally plan to write a trilogy, or just one book about Mick? Why did you decide to stick with the character over several books?

CL: No, BLUE-EYED SON was not planned as three books. It was planned as four. Three and four got surgically altered into DOG EAT DOG. The reason I decided to go with the same characters over several books was that I wanted to take a shot at doing series, but nothing I saw in the series world appealed to me much. I personally love the serial idea, building some tension and revisiting our players in stages over time. I just think the form provides a wonderful playground for a writer to go exploring with his people, and for a reader to get invested. I still feel strongly about the concept, and would like to do it again some time.

TBR: Your characters have difficult --- and sometimes downright terrible --- home lives. For instance, the title character of GYPSY DAVEY is cared for by his older sister, not his mother, then winds up caring for another neglected child; BLUE-EYED SON Mick is beaten by his older brother and ignored by his alcoholic parents; and even Gordie of the more light-hearted POLITICAL TIMBER is the grandson of a crooked politician who has gone to jail. Because of their troubled lives, your characters exhibit distinct violent streaks. Are these angry, often brutish heroes typical of American boys?

CL: I don't try to examine the why's too closely before I write something, because I don't want to risk setting myself an agenda. I want to tell realistic stories, which I think come with their own messages built into them without my having to preach. Specifically the issue of substance abuse --- like violence, or racism --- is a fact of our lives, and the only way I can contribute anything is merely to chronicle the facts of lives as I see them. I do believe the fallout of lives riddled with intoxication is overwhelmingly ugly and painful. So I believe if you read the story you may very well see that. If you do, great. If you see something else, I'm very interested to learn what that is, but I'm not about to tell you that you should see it otherwise. In a nutshell, I think a brutal story tells itself, and there are some brutal stories within my stories. My characters tend to do more damage to themselves than to anyone else.

TBR: In each of your novels, a young man finds the need to be physically tough against his violent peers. They often witness or commit extreme brutality against humans and animals, as when ICEMAN'S Eric kills mice or BLOOD RELATIONS most evil character sics his dog on a small goat. Do you think your characters are extremes, or are they typically confrontational? Is there any way for a boy to "avoid" fighting?

CL: I wouldn't say that angry, brutish heroes are typical of American youth. But I would say the same violent elements that visit my characters' lives are not uncommon to my readers' lives. And all the stories are different. Mick, for instance, is a product of an overtly violent upbringing, of a belief system in which fear and insularity ferment into mindless violence. The whole story grows out of the fact that Mick's capacity for growth outstrips the strength of the forces that would keep him backward and ignorant. Eric, in ICEMAN, on the other hand, is a basically reserved kid, who has these antisocial explosions out of an inability to express his emotions properly. He has not been coached in violence the way Mick has, but he has been taught how to bottle up and burn inside. And that can be equally dangerous. If there is a shared vision they both glimpse, it is the notion that "There is a better way than this, boys."

TBR: Speaking of violence, your heroes tend to release their pent-up anger by playing football, working out at a gym, or running. Do you see sports more as a way of staying in shape or as a way to "safely" express hostility?

CL: I have a very complicated relationship with sports. As Duane says in ICEMAN, "As soon as an athlete starts thinking about the meaning of sports, he becomes useless as an athlete." I think a lot of nonsense has become attached to sports in the era of the 100 million dollar contract and the concept of being a winner because of endorsements, rather than because you've won something. Having said that, though I believe participatory sports are spectacularly beneficial for young people. I think it's a healthy outlet for--- not violence --- but energy. There actually are some fairly useful life lessons to be gained from competition and teamwork, in addition to the priceless physical and psychological benefits that come from running around, jumping, falling, banging into things, getting exhausted. I wish the highest-profile athletes would spend more time talking about the joy of doing what they do, rather than the burdens of superstardom.

TBR: How do you think teens today can avoid violence?

CL: There are loads of ways to avoid violence. Unfortunately, to be an adolescent male in America in this era, it probably doesn't always look that way. I think there is a big piece of young men that wants to be bigger and stronger and harder than everybody else and that, if so, there will no longer be any problems in life. I don't think this is because all these guys want to kill each other. I think it's simply because they all want the security of knowing that nobody's going to mess with them. There's just no simple solution like that. All you have to do to know that the He-man theory of survival doesn't fly is, look at Mike Tyson. He may very well be "the baddest man on the planet." Yet there are not one, but TWO people out there in the world who knocked him out. There's always somebody. So we'd do a lot better to work out our getting-along skills. RESPECT, is a good start.

TBR: Since 1993, you've published eight books. Many of these stories are set among Irish-Americans in your home town, Boston. Are the novels semi-autobiographical? Or do you simply prefer to write about the streets and schools of the city you know best?

CL: All my books probably have some element of autobiography, even if it's nearly invisible to the naked eye. Because I believe writers do their most penetrating work when they are writing about the people they know most intimately. So my characters --- while they are all jumbles of lots of different folks --- tend to have fragments in them of myself or people I've known very well. As for the settings, I do feel confident using Boston --- or more likely a Boston-like fictional city --- as a backdrop. I feel I know my way around. As I spend more and more of my life away from Boston, my settings will likely broaden.

TBR: You always use a first-person point-of-view in your novels; GYPSY DAVEY (1994) is your only experiment in alternating between a first-and third-person point of view. Do you find that readers would rather hear a personal account from an "I" narrator than an impersonal account about" a character?

CL: I do experiment with other approaches, especially in short stories, but for the most part when I start a book I lean toward a voice that moves me, that I feel strongly about. As this happens most with a first person narrator, I am inclined to conclude that what is speaking to me powerfully will also speak to a reader that way. Intimacy, I think is the thing we get from a first person narrator, and I think, yes, intimacy is a thing I very much want to achieve. Especially if the surface action is very physical, or chaotic, I want the internal life of the character to make sense to the reader.

TBR: Girls don't play major roles in your novels, except as your heroes' mothers or girlfriends. Why do you focus on such a male-dominated high-school and adult world? Is there any chance that you would write about sports from a female point-of-view?

CL: I find myself writing more and more about the female characters in my books, to the point where it is possible a female will be the lead character eventually. However, this coincides with my writing less about sports, so while it is possible I would write a book set in the world of women's athletics, it's more likely that I'd write a female protagonist who had other primary interests.

TBR: Your characters are reminiscent of other male heroes of film and literature. As I read MICK, I thought of Holden Caulfield in A CATCHER IN THE RYE, and when ICEMAN'S Eric takes an interest in funeral directing, I thought of the movie "Harold and Maude". What authors and artists do you emulate or admire?

CL: I know almost nobody who has not been influenced by Salinger. So let's get that one out of the way. Yup. Also, F. Scott Fitzgerald is for me a haunting writer, very emotional and accessible underneath the glitz. Richard Ford is my favorite contemporary writer. He just speaks to me like nobody else. Joan Didion, Sherwood Anderson, Arthur Miller, Tennesee Williams.

TBR: What are you reading now?

CL: I was reading THE DRAGON CAN'T DANCE, by Earl Lovelace, and loving it --- until I left the book on an airplane. I am very upset about it because I was just getting into it, and I had to order the book from the States over the Internet. Now I have to do it all over again. So now I've switched to COMMON GROUND by J. Anthony Lucas. It's nonfiction, about the turmoil in Boston over school desegregation in the 70s. I find I read a great deal of nonfiction, especially biographies, as they really have all the great story elements that make reading fascinating, while they are small history lessons at the same time.

TBR: What are you working on now?

CL: I finished two books over the last several months, EXTREME ELVIN --- which is the sequel to SLOT MACHINE, and WHITECHURCH --- which is a new novel-in-stories that is written in a WINESBURG, OHIO style, but very contemporary. Starting Monday I'll be working on my new novel which I cannot quite describe at this early stage. My books don't take on recognizable shape until later on in the process.