Hey everyone, let’s welcome Gail Sobat, author of Chance to Dance for You, here to Ece Red as part of the Chance to Dance for You blog tour!

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your books? What influenced you to become a writer?

I have eight books with a ninth forthcoming in Fall 2012. I write for many audiences and in many genres, but I’m best known as a young adult author. My narratives are often controversial and delve into the forbidden: i.e. a fictional narrative about Mary (mother of Jesus) who is less than virginal; a witch who eats her mother; a boy who finds a gun in a dumpster and takes it to school. I tend to write about the outsider, the misfit – characters who are powerless or disenfranchised. I’m also very interested in the power of the arts—writing, visual art, music, dance, drama—to heal, to help build agency and identity.

Because I was a reader, I became a writer. We were encouraged to write stories in school, and my teachers told me I had talent. That goes a long way to encourage a geeky misfit child. Such support sustained me through my tortured adolescence, and I think it is the reason why I, too, dedicate my life to mentoring young writers.

2. Is there anything or anyone in particular that influenced your book, Chance to Dance for You?

Chance to Dance for You is based on real-life events from my time as a high school English and drama teacher. A gay student came out to me and confessed that he and a very popular school athlete were having a clandestine affair. Tragically, another student, several years later, committed suicide because he could not reveal his orientation to his peers or family as his father was a fundamentalist Christian and a member of the Armed Forces who simply forbade his son to be homosexual. My novel grew out of a confluence of those events. Many of the details about suburbs, schools, teachers, the racism and intolerance (particularly Tilly’s story) are also based on true events.

3. What was your favorite part of writing Chance to Dance for You?

In many ways, exposing the hypocrisy of suburban life and schools gave me a great deal of pleasure. Unfortunately, in my career I’ve met some truly horrible administrators and colleagues who should not be in positions of power or in classrooms. I felt it important to uncover their warts and the ugly underbelly of seemingly pristine and architecturally controlled (affluent) communities, an endless sea of bland and beige so like those depicted in the American folk song “Little Houses” by Melvina Reynolds.

And of course, I enjoyed writing about Ian’s trials, his personal struggles, his love of dance, and ultimately his triumph. I like to believe that lost and lonely, sensitive kids can grow into amazing adults.

4. What do you do when you’re not writing? Are there any hobbies or activities in particular that you enjoy?

When I am not writing I run YouthWrite, a camp for kids who love to write…just about anything!© www.youthwrite.com I created the residential camp in 1996 and have been coordinating it ever since. We offer a multi-disciplinary approach to creative writing, using many art disciplines as spring-boards into the creative process. So at YouthWrite young people between the ages of 12-20 can take courses in poetry, fiction, hip hop/rap, drumming and words, improvisation and TheatreSports, songwriting, screenwriting, playwriting, gaming and writing, spoken word poetry, journalism, body percussion and poetry, just to mention a few options. YouthWrite is a passion of mine because I feel it is important to mentor youth with the write stuff, just as I was mentored.

When I am not working on YouthWrite, I am a part-time teacher-librarian at an elementary school. I am also a professor at Grant MacEwan University where I teach in the Professional Writing and Business Communications programs.

As well, I am a singer and have studied voice all of my life. So I also sing and perform professionally in classical, jazz, pop and folk genres.

5. Do you have any new books in works? If so, can you share a little bit about them?

I have just published a graphic story, In the Graveyard, a creepilicious narrative that contains a number of original stanzas from a poem I wrote as a ten-year-old. The book is illustrated by Spyder Yardley-Jones, who also illustrated my graphic novel, Jamie’s Got a Gun, which is based on the true story of a boy who found a semi-automatic handgun in a dumpster and the Littleton shootings (and similar tragic incidents). My next publication will be Not With a Bang, a book about a boy who is charged with marijuana possession and who must serve community time with Al, an irascible and terminally ill senior citizen. The story revolves around the boy’s decision whether or not to help Al out through assisted suicide.

Thanks for stopping by! For more about Chance to Dance for You, be sure to check out the blog tour!