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Novelist David Hagberg Keeps Teens on Their Toes

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Contributed by: Pam Proctor on 7/25/2008

by Schuyler Roseland

There was never a dull moment at the first 2008 Teen Writers Workshop at the Vero Beach Environmental Learning Center, which featured novelist David Hagberg as the guest speaker. Hagberg's lively presentation set the stage for the second workshop led by rancher-poet Sean Sexton, who presented on June 21. The third and final workshop will be held on September 6.

For the first portion of David Hagberg's three-hour session, he showed the more than 40 participants how to use his story plotter - a three-part formula involving character, setting, and conflict - to help them if they ever get stuck while writing.

After a quick break, Hagberg sent the students off for an hour to come up with a story that he planned to take home, read, and edit. At the end of the writing session, as the students were turning in their stories, he autographed copies of his book, "Joshua's Hammer," which had been provided as a gift to each student by his publisher, Forge Books.

Later, Hagberg and Suzanne Bertman, a representative of Quail Valley Charities, presented the Teen Writers Workshop's Writing Fellow award to aspiring novelist Rainey Mills, a student at Sebastian River High School in Sebastian, Florida. Students earn this award after attending three workshops and submitting a piece of writing.

After the session, I sat down with David Hagberg to ask him a few questions:

Q: When did you first start writing books?

A: "I started in the seventh and eighth grade by writing really bad science fiction." Then he quickly corrected himself and said, "I really started in the sixth grade when my class was writing detective stories in a spiral notebook."

Q: Where do you get your inspiration/ideas for all of your books?

A: "I get my inspiration from my heart. I love all the things that I write about. I get the stories from the news papers and from all the reading that I do."

Q: Were your parents supportive of your decision to be an author?

A: "No. I came from a very poor family with an alcoholic step-father who broke my nose and my arm. They said that I would never get anywhere and that I would always be poor. I ran away from home when I was 15."

Q: Do you ever base a character on yourself, friends or family?

A: "Yes. One of my main characters in my books name is Kirk. I based him on my brother-in-law, but he does not even know it because he does not read.

Q: What did you do before you became an author?

A: "I was in the Air Force for seven and a half years."

Q: What advice would you give to a young person who would like to become and author?

A: "Just keep writing and reading."

David Hagberg's workshop is one of a series of free half-day seminars conducted by the Teen Writers Workshop, a nationally recognized program that is sponsored by the Laura Riding Jackson Foundation, College Application Consultants, and Charlotte Terry Real Estate, through a grant from Quail Valley Charities, Inc.

The next workshop will be held from 1 to 4 P.M., Saturday, September 6, at the Richardson Center of Indian River State College's Mueller Campus in Vero Beach. The program will feature Lisa Zahner, Executive Director of Dollars for Scholars of Indian River County. Her topic: "How to Write Winning Essays for College and Scholarships." For more information, please call Pam Proctor: 772-231-2221. (www.teenwritersworkshop.com)

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