Myrria had a visit from Scott Pixello to talk about writing and his books.
Say Hello to Scott Pixello
“I write because I cannot NOT write.” (Charlotte Bronte) 
“I write because I cannot sleep.” (Scott Pixello)
I am a Brit living in Germany who loves to read and write. Under a different name, I’ve had seven books of film criticism published through three different publishers (one of which is soon to be translated into Chinese- the books not the publishers, that is).
For me, writing is therapy. I have mountains of nonsense floating about my head and it helps to write it down. Sometimes, this is like nailing jelly to a wall but at other times, it works.
Most of my main characters are young people in their teens, probably because I think it’s one of the most exciting and scary periods in your life when everyone around you seems to have an opinion about what you should be thinking, doing, wearing, even eating and it can be a struggle to work out where you fit in all of this. Indeed, who the ‘you’ is at all. Like shopping, people try out different things for size (attitudes, language, even friends) and see if they ‘fit’.
I tend to write about young people who feel they are outsiders in some way and who struggle to fit in with those around them. In Luke, I am Your Father, the main character, Dan, is drifting through school, not sure of what he should do with his future, when something happens to make him take charge of his own life. This something, an unplanned pregnancy, seems too huge to comprehend, so his friends helpfully devise a series of cunning tests to see if he’s ready for fatherhood. Usually, issues of pregnancy are approached through a female point of view but I wanted to try and see how an ordinary 16-year-old boy might react.
In Memoirs of a Gothic Girl, I was interested in how a female central character might play with ideas of her own image. 13-year-old Celine is always getting told off at school and at home whenever she speaks her mind so, partly as a New Year’s resolution, she starts a diary and tries out a new way of acting, dressing and thinking: as a Goth. Here too, there is something less light-hearted going on in the background, which she only gradually realizes.
The subject matter of these books sounds quite dark but most of the feedback I’ve had so far is that the books are funny and thought-provoking. I have a lot of faith in the ability of readers, especially younger ones, to cope with a greater range of tones and styles than publishers tend to accept. I strongly believe that most people are/can be interested in several (often quite different) things at the same time and also that they might quite happily read stories that don’t fit into easy categories.
For the Keith Ramsbottom stories, basically I was thinking about war. I’ve never had to fight and hope my children never will but my father’s and grandfather’s generation did have to think about that. In the Second World War, Britain was very nearly occupied. If I had been growing up in a country occupied by a foreign power, would I have been brave enough to resist? Britain was occupied before- hundreds of years ago by the Romans. Where I grew up in the south, long before London was the huge city it is now, someone like me would have had to decide whether they did what they were told or tried to fight back. Like me, they’d probably not be great warrior material. Probably like me, they’d be the most hopeless rebel you could imagine. And so Keith Ramsbottom was born. There’s also something strange about the British character too, which I’m sure stretches back to those times and beyond. The more someone tells us what to do, the more resistant we are to doing it. It might seem like craziness, eccentricity or sheer bloody-mindedness to others but it’s definitely there. And it’s funny.
I am painfully shy and I do not Tweet or have a website. I do not even have a mobile phone (gasp). However, I have been persuaded to show my virtual face on Facebook. You can see more essential details at www.facebook.com/scott.pixello and http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7114466.Scott_Pixello
Come on. Everyone needs a little nonsense in their life. Join the Pixelloverse.
Pixello Links (Calling all Pixellites…)
General: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=scott+pixello
Target ages
All of the following can be read by adult readers. What I write is a deliberate mix of ‘funny’ and ‘thoughtful’.
Rainbow is probably open to youngest readers. At the moment, it’s my only ‘serious’ book but there’s plenty to think about here. From 10+.
Luke, I am Your Father, Memoir of a Gothic Girl and the Keith Ramsbottom series (three episodes so far; more to come) are YA.
Live Long & Prospero is shorter but slightly more YA/adult crossover.
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Scott Pixello- The First Box-Set collects my first four books (Luke, Gothic Girl, Rainbow & Prospero).
*Available now on Kindle, Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko &Adobe Digital Editions.
Luke, I am Your Father
Memoir of a Gothic Girl
*Live Long & Prospero
Rainbow
Pixello- The First Box Set 
*Gagfest UK
http://www.amazon.com/Gagfest-UK-ebook/dp/B00F0N5MGY/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_imgnr_1
Also available as a Createspace paperback here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1493772031/ref=sr_1_5_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1401000106&sr=8-5&keywords=scott+pixello&condition=new
*Keith Ramsbottom (Episode I): Rebel Leader
Keith Ramsbottom (Episode II): The Emperor Strikes Back
Keith Ramsbottom (Episode III): The Return of the Pork Pie
http://www.amazon.com/Keith-Ramsbottom-Episode-III-Return-ebook/dp/B00JYWQPW2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398606494&sr=8-2&keywords=scott+pixello