INTERVIEW and EXCERPT
Short Bus Hero
by Shannon
Giglio
Short Bus Hero is currently on tour with Reading Addiction Book Tours. The tour stops here
today for my interview with the author and an excerpt. Please be sure to visit
the other tour stops as well.
Description
Twenty-three year-old Ally Forman, a $350 million dollar lottery winner
with Down syndrome, is either cursed or blessed, depending on how you look at
things. When professional wrestler Stryker Nash loses his job, Ally, his
biggest fan, wants nothing more than to put him back in the ring. And she will
spare no expense. Her mother, however, has other plans for Ally’s winnings and
her life. Short Bus Hero is a darkly humorous look at life with Down syndrome, the rise of a
wrestling empire ... and angels. Yes, angels.
Excerpt
“I know, she could have gone to Carnegie Mellon or something,
you know?” Mrs. Farley is a regular customer. Her daughter had recently
finished her first semester at Skidmore and Mrs. Farley is still half-heartedly
complaining about her choice of schools. “Well, it’s nice to have her home for
the holidays, except, look at all this stuff - what’s this gonna cost me?” She
makes a funny face. Ally laughs as she loads Kashi cereal bars and soy milk
into a bag and piles it on top of the overflowing cart.
“Maybe you’ll win the lottery,” Julie says to her, scanning a
box of brown rice. “Nobody’s claimed that three hundred and fourteen million
yet.”
“God, I know. Too bad I never buy tickets.” Mrs. Farley pays her
astronomical bill and rolls away, declining Ally’s offer of help out to her
car. God forbid she catches something from Ally, as if Down syndrome was communicable.
Wouldn’t that just destroy her perfect daughter’s perfect visit?
There are too many undereducated people in the world. It’s sad.
The evening drags on, different customers file by, all having
the same conversation as they pay for their provisions. Julie pages Doug about
seven times to check prices for her, letting Ally in on the joke. Then,
mercifully, break time arrives.
Ally climbs the perforated metal stairs to the break room and
finds her time card. She punches out and gets her dinner from the fridge. She
sits down at the round table and pushes a newspaper aside to clear an eating
space. She hates clutter. Her Jonas Brothers lunchbox contains a zip-lock
baggie full of chicken nuggets, which she likes cold, a small bag of pretzels,
and a banana. She opens the pretzels and begins munching. Her eyes glide over
the OSHA posters that line the walls, the snack machine, the soda machine, and
the refrigerator before coming to rest on the crumpled newspaper next to her.
Crunching another pretzel, she pulls the paper over in front of her and flips
over the front page. A smaller headline shouts: “$314 MIL - IS IT YOURS?” The
story says the winning Megalo lottery ticket was purchased in Maryland just
before Christmas, but no one has yet claimed the prize.
Ally thinks of the envelope that fell out of her purse earlier.
She walks to the coat rack to get it. Once she has the card in her hand, she
sits back down at the table and flips the newspaper to the winning numbers. She
opens her envelope, skims the Christmas card, takes a second to think aw,
how nice, and then looks at the lottery ticket. She sets it down on top of
the paper, right next to the winning numbers and begins comparing the digits.
First number: 8.
Ally’s first number: 8.
Second number: 13.
Ally’s second number: 13.
Third number: 19.
Ally’s third number: 19.
The dry salty pretzels throw her into a coughing fit. She gets
up to buy a cola from the soda machine, a bit giddy from reading the numbers,
but trying not to get her hopes up. She pops the can, tips it to her lips, lets
out a belch, and sits back down.
Fourth number: 32.
Ally’s fourth number: 32.
Fifth number: 2.
Ally’s fifth number: 2.
Ally giggles, positive that she is reading the numbers wrong.
One more to go.
Sixth number: 38.
Ally’s sixth number: 38.
She doesn’t believe it.
One more - the super duper awesomely lucky mega power number:
23.
Of course she read it all wrong - come on, she is retarded, for
Christ’s sake.
Only, she’s not wrong.
She slumps over the table, working the pretzel sludge off the
roof of her mouth with her thick tongue. Her head seems completely empty of
thought. Did she really read those numbers? She looks again. No, she never wins
anything. Impossible.
I whisper to her to believe.
And it hits her.
Her scream echoes off the shining linoleum floor. She clutches
her ticket and the crumpled page of the newspaper and jumps up and down. Spit
and pretzel crumbs fly from her mouth as she stammers and grunts and hops.
Julie arrives just in time to see Ally go down in a heap. She thinks Ally is
having a seizure.
“Oh, my God, Fred!” Fred is the manager, and Julie screams for
him, alarming the other cashiers and customers within earshot. “Fred! Somebody
quick, get Fred!” Julie rushes into the break room and turns Ally over. She
isn’t unconscious.
She’s laughing. And crying. Call it hysterical.
“What, baby? What is it? Are you all right?” Julie cradles
Ally’s head. Fred wheels into the room, pale and sweaty, eyes wide.
“What? What is it? Oh, Ally.” Fred pokes his head out the door
and shouts, “Someone please call 9-1-1.”
All Ally can do is laugh and cry and stutter. “Look!” She says
it over and over until Fred finally understands what she is saying. He takes
the newspaper and the lottery ticket from Ally’s sweaty hands. He squints at
the numbers and his face falls in complete disbelief. He shakes his head and
reads them again. And again. And then he whoops and laughs. He gets down on the
floor and hugs Ally and Julie. “She won! She won! Hot damn, she did it!”
Doug and a couple of other cashiers filter into the room.
Someone tells them what’s happening.
Though no one can see, I’m jumping up and down. High fives all
around!
“That retard won the lottery?” Doug asks, looking like he just
swallowed something particularly nasty.
I resist the urge to smack that little douche bag. (Excuse my
language; I’m excited!)
Fred struggles to his feet and pulls out his cell phone. He
dials Lois’s number and tells her to get to the store right away. After he
hangs up, he realizes that Lois probably thinks something is wrong with Ally,
there’s been some emergency. Ooops. He doesn’t call her back, though—he’s too
excited. She’ll be there in a minute, anyway.
The paramedics beat Lois by seven minutes. When they show up,
Fred launches into hysterics. “I’m sorry, I called you guys before I realized
why my employee was freaking out. She just won the lottery! I’m sorry, guys.”
They are good-natured enough and take off without charging anyone a dime. They
were just down the block getting a coffee from Starbucks, anyway.
Lois is a complete wreck when she arrives. She looks quite green
when she appears in the break room doorway. But, once she sees Ally sitting at
the table with a broad smile on her face, she is visibly relieved. She walks
over toward Ally. Fred throws his arm around her shoulders and tells her to
have a seat, because she’ll need one.
Lois sits next to Ally and Fred gives her the ticket and the
paper.
The paramedics should not have left.
Lois faints and falls on the floor.
Ally won three hundred and fourteen million dollars.
Woo-hoo! Let’s get this party started!
Praise for the Book
"Short Bus Hero has it
all: Down syndrome, hoarding, suicide attempts, heart attacks, betrayal,
redemption, angels, winning lottery numbers, and big time professional
wrestling. A dark, sweet, and poignant tale about what happens when you follow
your dreams." ~ S. G. Browne, author
of Breathers, Big Egos, and Fated
"If you were the big Lottery winner, what would you do first? Why,
resurrect the career of your favorite professional wrestler, of course.
Touching, violent, hilarious, tragic and surreal - Short Bus Hero is an inspiring and emotional story." ~ Richard Thomas, author of Staring into the
Abyss, co-editor of Burnt Tongues
"From a mind-bending cornucopia of eclectic ingredients-troubled
lottery winners, pro wrestlers on the skids, and restless angels are just the tip
of the iceberg - Shannon Giglio has expertly crafted one of the strangest,
cleverest, and, yes, sweetest, tales I have ever read. This wonderful novel has
it all: ingeniously imagined characters, rousing and poignant adventures, and,
perhaps most importantly, the true heart of a champion. Anyone who enjoys great
storytelling will love this book." ~ Bill
Breedlove, author of How to Die Well
Interview With the
Author
For
what age group do you recommend your book?
It’s
really for adults, but the YA crowd may also be interested.
What
sparked the idea for this book?
For
several years, throughout a former marriage, I had a sister-in-law with Down
syndrome. I must admit, I was a little nervous about meeting her that first
time. I had no idea what to expect - I had only seen those Special Ed kids at
school from a distance. Would I understand her when she spoke? Would she wear a
helmet? Could she do things like tie her shoes and dress herself? Well, I was
in for one hell of a surprise. I was so impressed with her - of course I
could understand her when she spoke ad nauseum about Twilight; no, of
course, she did not wear a helmet, stupid; and, not only could she tie her damn
shoes and dress herself, she had a job at a supermarket! Duh! I’m so
embarrassed by the misconceptions I had about those with Down syndrome. I knew
nothing. This young woman so impressed me with her outlook on life, her cheeky
attitude, and her love of sports, particularly wrestling, that I had to
write her into a book. Her siblings picked on her ruthlessly, but - POW!
- she gave it right back, in spades. She is a firecracker of a person
who taught me so much about life - she really is a kind of hero, someone
I am blessed to have known in my lifetime. Short Bus Hero spun out of her own story. Embellished, of course, but there’s a lot of
her in it. The good stuff. Yeah, it’s kind of a sappy, feel-good book, but, you
know what? I have no problem with that. It needed to be that kind of story - hers
is not a horror story (I typically write horror). But, it is a damned fine and
compelling story, and people, so far, are loving it.
What
was the hardest part to write in this book?
The
hardest part to write was Ally’s suicide attempt.
How do
you hope this book affects its readers?
I hope
people are entertained, of course, but I also hope people look at life a little
bit differently after reading.
How
long did it take you to write this book?
About
three weeks - a record for me. I usually take about six months to a year or
more.
What is
your writing routine?
Since I work full-time now and have a family and
pets, writing gets squeezed in wherever possible - evenings, weekends, lunch
breaks.
How did
you get your book published?
At the
time I wrote this book, I had an agent who put in some time editing it, but we
parted ways and the manuscript sat on my computer for ages. It was an odd story
that didn’t really fit any genre, and everyone I knew was in horror (I had two
books published before, so I wasn’t exactly unknown in writing circles), so I
had no idea where to go with it. Then, I had a false start with a brand new
very small bizarro press (which actually never came to be) before my now
husband said something like: "Hey, that’s a terrific story, you should
really shop that around again." I was tired of dealing with it by that
point, thinking that finding a new agent would take forever and that whole
process isn’t much fun. Just for another opinion on what I might do with the story,
I sent it to my friend Robert Shane Wilson. He read it in one night. He agreed
to publish it, and he and his wife, Jen, at Nightscape Press, did a fantastic job with it.
What
advice do you have for someone who would like to become a published writer?
Write a
hell of a story, write it from the heart, and network like crazy.
What do
you like to do when you're not writing?
Work.
What
does your family think of your writing?
My
husband, Peter Giglio, is a writer, too. He’s had nine books
published, with the tenth, Shadowshift,
on the way in June, from the good folks at DarkFuse. He and my
two daughters are my biggest supporters.
Did you
like reading when you were a child?
Yes, I
read a lot - mostly horror.
When
did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I don’t
know exactly, but I recently came across a paper that I had written in 5th
grade, saying that I wanted to be a vet and a writer.
Did
your childhood experiences influence your writing?
My
entire lifetime of experiences has influenced my writing. I don’t understand
everyone’s fascination with childhood. Doesn’t anyone’s adulthood ever
influence them? I had a miserable childhood, and, sure, that influenced me.
But, I think even more influential was the time I spent in college, living
abroad, working in Hollywood, falling in love, having children, and learning
about life.
Which
writers have influenced you the most?
I
studied film in graduate school, and I picture scenes cinematically as I write,
and I often use the Hero’s Journey model, so many of my influences are from the
world of cinema: Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, George Lucas, Steven
Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, many others. Literary influences would include Chuck Palahniuk, Bret Easton Ellis, Nick Hornby, Irvine Welsh, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman.
Do you
hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
Occasionally. They’re mostly other writers so they
ask about nuts and bolts type stuff (i.e., "How did you show redacted text
in your book?"), marketing strategy, or if I know who’s open to subs.
What
can we look forward to from you in the future?
I
currently have a two-book deal with Eldritch Press. They will be re-releasing
my debut novel and then its sequel late this year (thrillers). I’m also working
on a dark fantasy/horror novel called Strange
as Angels, and I am collaborating with my brilliant husband on the third
book in his Sunfall trilogy, Sunfall Secrets.
Thank
you for taking the time to stop by today, Shannon. Best of luck with your
future projects.
About the Author
Shannon Giglio, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, graduated from
Drexel University and Emerson College before going to work for Dick Clark, CBS,
and Ridley Scott. She lives in Savannah, Georgia, with her husband, author
Peter Giglio, and her two daughters. She is currently finishing her fourth and
fifth novels.
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