Good day, Mr. Stork. Iwas really happy when you agreed with this interview. Can you please introduce yourself? 

Hi! I’m Francisco X. Stork. I’m an uthor of five novels (with one coming up in 2015). Most of my novels are what people call realistic and  the main characters are young people. I was born in Mexico (a long time ago) but have lived in the United States since I was nine. I’m married, have two grown children, Nicholas and Anna and one beautiful granddaughter named Charlotte.

What brought you to writing? 

The idea that I wanted to be a writer came to me when I was very little. Then when I was in high school I started keeping a journal and pretty soon writing became a habit that I did every day. But it wassn’t until I was forty-five that I wrote and published my first novel. I couldn’t do writing before then because I had work at jobs to support my family. It is very difficult to make a living as a writer, unless you’re J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer!

Some of us know you write many books. In Czech we have the translation of one book, but what about others? Can you introduce us to some of your others books? 

 I’ve written two other books after Marcelo but unfortunately they have not been translated into Czech. The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, the book that followed Marcelo, is about the friendship of two very different boys. Pancho is a fighter obsessed with finding the person who he thinks killed his sister and D.Q. is a very intelligent boy who only has a terminal illness and who is writing a manifesto about how to live life fully.  Irises, my last book, is about two sisters who find themselves losing everything they have and find new dreams or new ways of achieving their dreams. Irise sis the first book that I’ve written where the main characters are girls. It was very challenging but I liked it.

Do you feel like you helped people with writing Marcelo in the Real World or some of your other books? 

I got some very beautiful letters from young people who had Aspergers Syndrome (the condition that Marcelo had, telling me that reading Marcelo helped them feel better about their condition. I like writing books that are not only fun to read but that also make us think and understand and live in our world and our lives better.

Do you have a favorite character from all the books you read? 

I like Harry Potter and also Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings. I like Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye. But Don Quixote is probably my all time favorite character. He’s as real to me as a real person

Are you writing another new book? 

For the past three years I’ve been working on a book about a young girl’s recovery from depression and a failed suicide attempt. I think I’ve written three different drafts trying to get it right. But I think I’m almost done and hopefully it will come out in 2015.

Do you want come here, to Czech republic and present your books? ;) 

Of course! The nicest letters and e-mails I’ve ever received have been from Czech young people. And the Czech Republic has so many beautiful cities and places.

What book genres you prefer? 

I like realistic fiction. I know lots of young people like fantasy and science-fiction and dystopian and romance and I wish I liked these genres too because I’m sure there’s lots of good books there too, but I have to work as a lawyer and also write so the little time I have to read I need to read what I love the most. And for me stories about real life events are the most meaningful to me.

What you do in your free time? Write, or doing sport, etc.…? 

 I like to play tennis and I also watch TV and movies. I love books and movies about the American West – you know, cowboys and  tough guys and gunfights.

Do you have favorite author?

I like Dostoievski and Kafka (of course!) and Cervantes. So many.

Do you have some advice to starting writers? 

Try to write every day even if it’s only for ten or fifteen minutes. Write about anything and don’t worry about how you are writing. Writing every day is the equivalent of practicing the scales on a piano. In piano, after a while the movement of your fingers becomes instinctive and in writing after a while you will be able to write without too much thought.

And last question: Do you want to say something to the readers of this blog? 

I’m so grateful to you for being interested in my writing and to Filip Faja and other young persons who read my book and aske me questions about it. There are so many books out there to read so I am very honored that you care. I am incredibly impressed by the high quality blogging about books and the wide type of reading that takes place in the Czech Republic.  Keep up the goo work.