An Interview with Brian Meehl: Author of Blowback ’94

Brian Meehl is the award-winning author of seven novels, including the vampire comedies, Suck It Up and Suck It Up and Die. Blowback ’07 and Blowback ’63 are his first two books in the Blowback Trilogy. Prior to penning novels, Brian enjoyed a successful career writing for television, winning three Emmys, and performing Muppets on Sesame Street and in Jim Henson films, including “The Dark Crystal.”

Tell us about your book.

“So the last shall be first…” Although this book, Blowback ’94, is the last in the Blowback trilogy, it was the initial story that inspired the trilogy, particularly one character I wanted to write about who performed at the Moulin Rouge in the early 1890s: the scandalous Le Pétomane. The trilogy grew backwards from 1890s Paris to include, via “time voyages,” to other stops at pivotal moments in history for my main characters, the twins Arky and Iris, to experience little-known but pivotal moments in history. It’s with a bit of irony that the Blowback trilogy is not only about voyaging back in time, but was conceived by the writer from finish (this book) to the start of the series: Blowback ’07.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

While I published my first four books with a traditional publisher, Random House, I choose to go the self-publishing route because my agent spent a year trying to get big house editors to read my first Blowback book and could not get a read, much less a rejection or acceptance. Knowing that these stories would appeal to young and even older readers, I pressed ahead and self-published the the Blowback trilogy from 2016-20.

As a writer, what is your schedule? How do you get the job done?

I wrote PBS-style children’s television for a decade (“The Magic School Bus,” “Between the Lions,” etc.) and won three Emmys along the way. Writing for TV on deadline created very disciplined writing habits. I have no problem writing eight to nine hours a day.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I don’t believe in it, especially if you write on a computer. It’s no longer like the daunting task of writing on a typewriter or by hand, in which scrapping what you’ve written is labor intensive. (Now we just hit delete.) More importantly, if there are pictures – still or moving – in your imagination, you have something to write about. Writing is reporting what appears in your imagination, pure and simple. It’s that, or I’m just not “literary” enough, or serious enough, to suffer from writer’s block.

Tell us about the genre you wrote in, and why you chose to write this sort of book.

The Blowback trilogy is my first time-travel series. I’ve always loved history and included it in all of my other books. In reading history, I’ve come across events that have been forgotten and, I think, should be part of our knowledge. For instance, how the Carlisle Indian School football team of 1907 (coached by Pop Warner, with a scrub halfback named Jim Thorpe) invented the passing game, revolutionized the game of football, and beat all the Ivy League teams is a little-know story. It became the setting for my first Blowback book, Blowback ’07.

Who are your biggest writing inspirations and why?

Moby Dick and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Okay, that’s not a who, it’s two rich worlds filled with whos, whats, when, wheres, and whys. Melville’s Moby Dick particularly blew me away in high school by how it was structured: a dovetailing of narrative and detailed descriptions of whaling in the 1800s. I’ve always loved a good story that teaches me something about history, or whatever. I believe storytelling should move and inform.

What are your plans now your book is published?

Do what every self-published author MUST do in a day and age where a million books a year are published in the United States alone. Beat the the social-media bushes.