Pete Hautman is the author of many books for young adults and adults, including the National Book Award–winning Godless, the Klaatu Diskos trilogy, and Eden West. His most recent book for middle-grade readers is Slider, which Booklist lauded for its “crystalline prose, delectable detail, and rip-roaring humor.” Pete Hautman divides his time between Wisconsin and Minnesota.
About Otherwood
What happened in the woods that day? Pete Hautman’s riveting middle-grade novel touches on secrets and mysteries — and the power of connections with family and friends.
“Hatred combined with lies and secrets can break the world.” Grandpa Zach used to say that before he died, but Stuey never really knew what he meant. It was kind of like how he used to talk about quantum physics or how he used to say ghosts haunted their overgrown golf course. But then one day, after Stuey and his best friend, Elly Rose, spend countless afternoons in the deadfall in the middle of the woods, something totally unbelievable happens. As Stuey and Elly Rose struggle to come to grips with their lives after that reality-splitting moment, all the things Grandpa Zach used to say start to make a lot more sense. This is a book about memory and loss and the destructive nature of secrets, but also about the way friendship, truth, and perseverance have the ability to knit a torn-apart world back together.
An Interview with Pete Hautman
Pick 3 words to describe yourself. What impact does “who you are” have on your writing?
Lazy.
Resourceful (when it comes to finding easier ways to do things).
Procrastinating.
Who I am has everything to do with my writing, because one thing that drives me is the question, “Who am I?” I believe the answer is hinted at in John Donne’sMeditation XVII: “Each man's death diminishes me/ For I am involved in mankind./ Therefore, send not to know/ For whom the bell tolls/ It tolls for thee.” In other, less elegant words, I am a part of the world, and to change myself is to change the world, and to change the world is the change myself. I try to do both by writing.
You came from a large family. Were books a kind of escape for you?
Absolutely! There were nine of us in a three bedroom house, and books provided a doorway into an infinite maze of new spaces. Also, if I was reading, my mother was less likely to assign me some chore.
Did your father/grandfather influence your writing of this book? How?
More my father than my grandfather. He would take me for walks in the woods behind our house and name all the plants and animals. He told me stories about when the woods had been a golf course back in the 1940s. One scene where Stuey and his grandfather find the remains of an old golf green in the woods is very close to something that really happened. I remember my dad getting down on his hands and knees and running his palms across the smooth green surface, and telling me it was a type of grass called creeping bent.
Do you personally find the woods mysterious, eerie, or otherworldly? Was this the inspiration for your book?
I spend as much time as I can in the woods, and yes, all woods are magic. I love that I don’t know what lies behind the next tree, the next patch of gooseberries, or on the other side of a log. A lady’s slipper orchid? A sleeping fawn? A fox den? Mostly I find wonderful things, but last summer I stepped on a nest of yellowjackets and got stung forty-five times. The woods provide mostly beauty, but with a touch of peril to add spice to the experience.
What do you like about writing novels of magical realism or mystery? What tips can you provide young writers in creating suspense?
Part of the fun is that I often don’t know what is going to happen next. When one of my characters opens a door, chances are I have no idea what they will find on the other side. Much like walking through a forest. My best advice to younger writers is to read a lot, and to write. Let it happen. Make stuff up. You can always change it. I do that all the time. What is on the other side of the door? A linen closet? A dragon? A mouse? Another room? Another universe? All answers are acceptable. The challenge is to figure out which one works best.
What is your favorite quote?
Aside from the John Donne quote I mentioned above, I like this one from Johann W. von Goethe: “There is no crime of which one cannot imagine oneself to be the author.”
I think about that quote often, and interpret it in different ways. Today I think it means that we are all capable of imagining all things about ourselves. Who am I? In my imagination I am whoever or whatever I choose to be.
