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A: Mr. David Hill
Q: Ms. Akiko Tanaka
Q: I am very happy to be able to meet you at last!
What did you think when you first heard that SEE YA, SIMON was going to be translated and published in Japan?
A: I actually did not know if some of the things in the book would work in Japan. I wondered whether the readers would understand the jokes -- Akiko must have made a very good job in translating the jokes. You kept emailing me to ask me to explain. I was so interested that some things needed explaining. It showed some of the differences between Japanese culture and NZ's. And I wondered if they would understand some of the expressions in the book and if the lives of children in NZ would seem very different. But I believed that it is their ideal friendship that children everywhere could understand.
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Q: What do the readers in NZ say about SEE YA, SIMON?
A: I got a lot of letters and had a lot of comments about SEE YA, SIMON and many people said it made them cry and that they liked the jokes and laughed. I heard Japanese readers did exactly the same thing, laughing and crying. Some children said they wished they were friends with Simon. And a few boys in NZ said to me they wished to know a girl like Brady... I had a letter from a girl in America who said that after she'd finished reading the book, she felt all kind and good, which is a wonderful reaction.
Q: Where did the idea of SEE YA, SIMON come from?
A: In the beginning of the book, it says "In Memory of N.J.B.", these are the initials of my daughter Helen's friend. He was a boy whose name was Nicholas. People called him Nick. He died from muscular dystrophy. At that time, Helen went to Nick's home to say good-bye to Nick and she was so frightened, but she came back and was so proud to do so. Then I thought Helen was a brave brave girl and I decided to start to write the book about all of it. In the book there is the little girl called Nelita who makes terrible jokes, that's my Helen.
At first it was not meant to be a book. It was meant to be a short story, but once I had begun, I realized I wanted to say so much and it just grew and grew and then became one whole book.
By the way, when I wrote SEE YA, SIMON, we were adding an extension to our house, so I wrote the book in my friend's house. Whenever I write my first manuscript, I use a pen instead of a PC. When I got to the last chapter where Simon died, I was crying. Then the old dog that my friend had was worried about me because I was crying and he came over and laid his head on my knee while I was writing. I was patting the dog and writing the story with a pen and blowing my nose. That was a very funny situation.
Q: Did you contact Simon's model's family after writing?
A: When I finished the book, I rang his family and said "it is based
on your Nick although the details are changed and I would love you to read
it and just tell me what you feel". I was very nervous because if
they were upset by it I felt I shouldn't publish it. And after reading
it, they rang me and said that they would love to have it published and
felt it was their Nick's story. They were very happy to have Nick's initials,
rather than his full name, in the book, so that is what I put in the dedication.
In this book, there are some facts that are based on real life. Simon has an older sister and Nick had a twin sister. Simon's parents in the book are very much like Nick's parents, they were very supportive, very loving, and responding, too. Ms. Kidman's name is from a NZ writer and a good friend of mine, Fiona Kidman. And a lot of things Ms. Kidman does in class are what I used to do when I was a teacher.
Q: Is there a message you would like to convey to the readers, especially young
readers, of this book?
A: I don't really write books to have a message. I try to write books mainly
just to tell a story, then I want it to have interesting characters. But
I guess in SEE YA, SIMON I was trying to say something about how important
friends were because it was Simon's friends that helped him to keep on
going until the last very very vividly and at the same time it was Simon
that helped his friends to live their lives very very vividly, and I think
they all felt better because they knew Simon. And what Nathan says in the
book "He was bad-tempered and funny. --- ", it isn't exactly
a message but I do believe friendship means so much to young kids. That
is one feature of this book.
Akiko, was it difficult to translate the word "bad-tempered"?
Q: Well, I felt I had to translate that part carefully because the words
which are ordinary, simple, but opposite-meaning, are placed rhythmically.
But by the time I was translating that part, I felt I understood Simon
and Nathan's characters, so it wasn't so difficult to find the Japanese
word for "bad-tempered".
By the way, you have written all kinds of books; books for younger children, novels, plays, and so on. What do you think is your best or favorite type of writing?
A: Novels for teenagers are what I really enjoy to write. I also enjoy
writing little funny articles for adults for magazines in NZ.
I think novels for young adults are hard to write. That's one of the reasons
why I like it. And I believe that when adults read a book, if there are
boring parts, adult readers jump over them and read on, but I believe teenage
readers stop reading if there are some boring parts. So in a way, it is
a challenge to make every sentence really interesting. And I like that
challenge.
Q: Do you sometimes feel a generation gap between you and young people?
For example, do you sometimes feel that you can't understand them?
A: Yes. Everyday (laugh). I would like to make my books sound like young people today as much as I can, so I listen to and watch them on the street. And when I have written my books, I pay money to ask teenage neighbors to read them through and point out what they liked or didn't like and what they didn't understand. It is so useful to my writing.
Q: Why did you become a writer?
A: When I was a teenager, a pretty girl transfered to my school. Then I tried writing essays very hard which I was good at, because if the essays were good, the teacher read it out loud in the class, and the girl might be impressed. But after all that, the girl didn't take any notice of me, but that was a kind of trigger for me to start writing.
Some time later, when my son was going to be born, there was possibility of stillbirth, so I went to see my wife in the hospital every day. At that time, I just managed to keep myself going by writing. That experience led eventually to my writing job. What I wrote then was used for my work later and my son was born and grew up healthy.
Q: Would you tell me about your works which you are writing now or going
to write?
A: A book called "Duet", which features music and the relationship
of a teenage boy and girl, will be published in August. And next, I want
to write one which is sort of an adventure story, and that's going to be
about the things in NZ 20 or 30 years ago and about my childhood -- like
my autobiography.
Q: What do you hope for in Japanese translators?
A: Somebody who would make me a lot of money (laugh) -- That was a joke.
I don't know if I have a right to say anything about it, but I suppose
I hope someone who would get the teenage language right. I try hard to
make my characters sound like real teenagers, so I hope the translated
books would sound like real teenagers in that language.
【The writer Mr. David Hill's notes】
Q:Where do you get your ideas to write?
A:I write books inspired by real-life stories.
Q:When do you feel that it's hard to be a writer?
A1:When I'm worried that I can't find a theme to write about.
A2:When I write a third of any book, it always starts to become boring. (But I force myself to write one chapter every day. After a while, it sort of lifts off and I can zoom through to the end. Later, I go back to the boring parts and rewrite them.)
A3:When my manuscript is rejected by the publishers.
Q:What is your advice for young people who want to become a writer?
A1:Read many books. Read your favorite books many times, and then you can find out what techniques the writer is using.
A2:Don't throw away anything you have written, even if it's only the first five lines. You might be able to use them later.
A3:Start sending your work to publishers. And enter yourself for contests for literary works.
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Mr. David Hill