Straight Chatting with the Library: Mark Schreiber

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READ THE INTERVIEW

What is the sweetest thing someone has done for you?

I was taken to the hospital once from the Detroit airport. Customs didn’t let me take my carry-on, containing my laptop, and refused to deliver it. I had to stay five days. One of the nurses went to the airport and picked it up that first night!

How would you spend ten thousand bucks?

I would give it to my uncle, who has helped support me through the pandemic. Amanda911 is dedicated to him, along with my niece Amanda.

Where do you get your best ideas?

From observation. Because I don’t write genre or series, I am always on the lookout for inspiration.

What comes first, the plot or characters?

Usually the theme comes first. Then the plot and characters develop together.

What does your main character do that makes him/her special.

Her ordinariness is her specialness. In the world of influencers, where everyone is supposedly special, being ordinary is a point of differentiation.

READ THE BLURB

“Sixteen-year-old Iowa schoolgirl Amanda Dizon may be the nation’s most unremarkable teenager, until she falls down a well and finds herself instantaneously transformed from irrelevant to influencer. Mark Schreiber’s sly, rollicking masterpiece, Amanda911, follows Amanda’s escapades and sends up the craven, fame-obsessed virtual culture of today’s adolescents. As insightful as Dickens and as innovative as Heller, Schreiber is the definitive satirist of the social media generation.”—Jacob M. Appel, author of Einstein’s Beach House

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READ AN EXCERPT

I can’t believe you guys! exclaimed Nicole. You never heard of MakeItRain? It’s crowdfunding for personal tragedy.

But I only fractured one ankle, said Amanda. The doctor said I can probably go home tomorrow.

But nobody knew that when the story broke, did they?

What is this figure? asked Amanda’s mom. $305,050? Is that the goal?

The goal is ten thousand dollars! Nicole shouted above the music.

$305,050 is the amount pledged. So you can easily afford to buy me a Jaguar. I just want a basic one. And you’ll have money left over to buy a car painted rainbow colors for yourself, and probably a house with a life-size stuffed unicorn.

A life-size stuffed unicorn?

This can’t be legitimate, whispered Amanda’s mother.

Amanda’s mom grabbed her daughter’s arm. Can you please give us a minute, Nicole?

She helped her daughter into a wheelchair and wheeled her into the corridor, where it was quiet enough to talk in normal voices, and bright enough to see each other clearly.

She knelt down so that their gaze was level. Are you OK, darling?

Are you kidding? This is the best day of my life!

You suffered a traumatic experience.

The well? I should have fallen down that thing a long time ago!

Listen, this is all nice and fun, and I’m glad all your classmates have finally taken an interest in you, even if they have ulterior motives...

Mom, cut to the chase.

But none of this is real. It’s just entertainment. The RainMan account, the six million friends...

It’s seven million now!

MEET THE AUTHOR

Mark Schreiber was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1960, graduated high school at age fifteen and began writing novels full-time. Princes in Exile, which explores a prodigy’s struggle to accept his own mortality at a summer camp for kids with cancer, was published in 1984 and made into a feature film in 1991. It has been published in ten countries, received two awards in Europe and was shortlisted for the Austria Prize. Carnelian, a fantasy, was published by Facet in Belgium. Starcrossed, a rebuttal to Romeo and Juliet, was published by Flux and translated into French and Turkish. His illustrated science book, How to Build an Elephant, was published as an Apple app by Swag Soft. He has written over forty books and received two State of Ohio Individual Writer Fellowships. For the last seven years he has been a digital nomad, living on four continents. He currently resides in Costa Rica.

Website: http://wwww.Amanda911.com
TikTok: http:///www.tiktok.com/Amanda911
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/Amanda911
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Markschreiber07
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Schreiber

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Amanda911-Mark-Schreiber/dp/1737052016
Pleasure Boat Studio: https://pleasureboatstudio.com/product/amanda911/
Google: https://books.google.com/books/about/Amanda911.html?id=Lzx3zgEACAAJ

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