Putting those 'voices' onto paper

“I think every fiction writer, to a certain extent, is a schizophrenic and able to have two or three or five voices in his or her body. We seek, through our profession, to get those voices onto paper.” – Ridley Pearson

Born in upstate New York on this date in 1953, Pearson is an author more than 50 novels – suspense and thriller novels for adults, and adventure books for children.  He was the first American to receive the Raymond Chandler-Fulbright Fellowship at Oxford University in 1991.

Among Pearson’s best-known works are Peter and the Starcatcher (for children), written with longtime friend Dave Barry and imagining how Peter Pan first met Captain Hook.  The book was adapted into a Tony-winning Broadway play and now has spawned 3 more books.  He also came up with the creative idea of a series of books set in the Disney Theme Parks called The Kingdom Keepers, in which five teenagers battle the Overtakers— evil Disney villains—to keep the parks safe.

Pearson advises young writers to be good readers and noted that his own favorite reading is the novel To Kill a Mockingbird “because of its broad sweep, its tackling of big issues in ways that even young minds can make sense of, and for the heart of the characters who span a wide range of ages. I re-read it every year.”                   

                                      His advice to aspiring writers:   “The way you get better is by putting words on the page and getting them behind you.”

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