How did you get the idea?

Hi Geof,

Thanks for asking. I give credit for the idea that grew into The Revealers to my son, Bradley. When Brad was in second grade, he and I were having lunch one day (it was at the Coffee Corner in Montpelier, and he had a cheeseburger, chocolate shake, and fries; I had a boring adult club sandwich) when he told me that he and two friends at his elementary school had a secret bully lab. Sensing a possible story idea, I asked, "Well, what is that, Brad?" He said, "It's a secret place in the school where we lure the bullies and dissect their brains."

Still sensing a story idea, and suspecting that there was something true and interesting within this obviously fictional claim (there were no missing brain pieces that year at Rutland Town Elementary School), I asked him more questions. I figured out that the real story was that Brad and his friends were sitting under the slide on the playground at recess, because under the slide was kind of a private place -- and they were watching the bullying that goes on, to some extent, on every grade-school playground. "You can't play with us" ... "We don't like you" -- stuff like that. They noticed that some kids never do this -- even some of the most popular, good-at-sports kids -- while some do it every day. They wondered, "What goes on inside the brains of the kids that want to be mean to other kids at recess? And how can we get them to change?" THAT's what he really meant by dissecting brains -- and that's what gave me the idea for The Revealers, which is about three middle schoolers who decide to investigate the bullying that's happening to them, like scientists -- just as scientists might dissect something, to see what's going on inside it.

That's the story of the idea. Brad remembers it, too. He said, "Oh yeah -- that's the playground that got infested with yellow jackets. They had to tear it down and build a new one." Brad is now a sophomore at Union College in Schenectady, New York, majoring in East Asian Studies and International Relations.

best,

Doug