Today the Storytelling Blog visits with writer Jonathan Rose, author of several books, both fiction and nonfiction. We talked via email about his books and writing process. (And Weird Al Yankovic!) Follow Jonathan on Instagram and Facebook.

Disclosure: I have a business relationship with one of Rose’s publishers, Montag Press.

Rose’s latest book, After the Flames: A Burn Victim’s Battle with Celebrity, was published earlier this year by Dundurn Press. It is also available from Bookshop.org.

KB: You write both fiction and nonfiction (do you like the term creative nonfiction?). Do you see an evolution in your inspiration from fiction to nonfiction or are these styles just different aspects of you and your interests? Does the subject of the story determine your choice, fiction versus nonfiction?

JR: Reality has always inspired the books I’ve written, whether they were fiction or nonfiction. I’ve always been fascinated by it, and the endless examples of unpredictability and nuance it contains. That’s why my first novels, despite the obvious invention and elements of fantasy they possess, were always reflections of the reality I was exposed to at the time I wrote them.

I think the evolution in my work from fiction to nonfiction was inevitable because, while I enjoyed the freedom of creating characters and stories in fiction, I find it even more exciting to show real people and real stories as faithfully as I can. With that said, I still want to write fiction when the opportunity arises, but there is something exhilarating, and challenging, with showing reality as it is and not as I want it to be.

As for the term creative nonfiction, I do enjoy writing nonfiction using the techniques I’ve learned through writing fiction, but it’s not a label I’m married to.

KB: You’ve written a novel in Spanish. Assuming you are not a native Spanish speaker, was that experience difficult? Did you go about the writing any differently than for a book in English?

JR: For the book you’re talking about, a young adult novel called Gato Y Lobo, I wrote it in English based on interviews I did in Spanish with a Mexican high school teacher, who told me the real story that the book is based on. After those interviews, she asked me if I was interested in writing the story. I told her I was and got to work.

After I was finished the first draft, I worked closely with Paulina Castro from Wampo Editorial, who helped set up that interview with the teacher and later helped get the book out. She is fluent in both Spanish and English and was instrumental in ensuring the story reflected the many Mexican idiosyncrasies and details that she knew were important to include, and I, not being Mexican, might have missed. She then did a superb job translating the draft, and I presented it to the teacher.

That’s where the difficulty came in because I was telling somebody else’s story from a cultural perspective that while I had been exposed to for several years at that point, was still not my own, and I was determined to do it right. Waiting to hear what the teacher thought of what I wrote was one of the most nervous times I can remember in my career. If she said I messed it up, I would have abandoned the project immediately, no questions asked. Fortunately, she loved it, and told me I did a great job, which meant the world to me.

Pandemic Effects

Unfortunately, by the time the book was ready for release, and I was set to do a book tour throughout Mexico, the pandemic hit, and everything changed. The book did get read in several classrooms in various parts of Mexico, however, including Puebla, San Luis Potosi, and Mexico City, and the reception from the students and teachers was incredibly positive. Some of the students connected with the characters so much they even wrote their own endings to the book since I purposefully concluded the story ambiguously, something I’m very grateful for (especially since some of those endings were better than anything I could have come up with).

I’m still trying to get the book released to both a Spanish and English audience because I believe its themes are relevant throughout the Americas, and last year I wrote a play based on the book, which I’m trying to get out there, as well.

KB: I see you’ve listed “Weird Al” Yankovic as an influence. (I shall now fangirl a bit: Weird Al is a national treasure and our greatest living satirist, right up there with Swift, IMO.) Tell us a little about the Weird Al effect in your storytelling.

JR: I couldn’t agree more with your comparison of Weird Al to Jonathan Swift! The unique lane he created for himself is unparallelled. Nobody else can do what he does, and the fact that’s he’s done it for decades makes his ability even more impressive. I’ve personally been a fan of his since I was a kid listening to cassette tapes of his albums. Some of my favorite songs are “Livin’ in the Fridge,” “Fat,” “Eat It,” “Jurassic Park,” “You Don’t Love Me Anymore,” “Smells like Nirvana,” “Trapped in the Drive Through,” “Headline News,” and “Amish Paradise.”

As for Weird Al’s effect on my storytelling, it’s difficult to pinpoint any exact moments; instead, I think his work is just another part of the vast mixture of influences I have that includes great storytellers from a wide range of genres, disciplines, generations, and cultures. But I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that whenever I’ve written something that made me giggle, those old cassettes probably played a part.

KB: Tell us about your new book, After the Flames.

JR: It’s a book that has been over thirty years in the making. It’s based on the unbelievable, yet entirely true story of my stepbrother Joey Philion, who on March 10, 1988, at the age of fourteen, was caught in a house fire that left 98% of his body burned.

He was supposed to die that day, yet against all odds he managed to miraculously survive, while defying all medical science along the way. Beyond his survival, his story is about so much more. He became a guinea pig [Ed note: A medical experimental subject], and the unfathomable suffering he endured through dozens of surgeries led to medical breakthroughs that have helped thousands of burn victims.

He also became an enormous celebrity throughout not just Canada, but the world, with countless people hailing him as a hero (without knowing that the label was based on a lie). Meanwhile, his family, including my father, Michael Hawkins, were all pulled into the bright spotlight that Joey attracted. Ultimately, that spotlight was unforgiving, and the same people who revered Joey ended up turning on him in the years following the fire when he, and his family, refused to be the perfect people the public demanded.

It was a story that even as I was writing it, despite knowing everything I was writing was true, I still found hard to believe at points. There was just so much in it that I didn’t fully recognize until I wrote the book, from unconditional love, betrayal, abandonment, and lies, to religious fanaticism, media manipulation, and heartbreaking tragedy. The sheer humanity of the story was, and remains, overwhelming to me and that’s what I strived to convey to the reader.

KB: What are you working on next?

JR: I’ve been working as a researcher with an immigration lawyer since April of 2020. My job involves preparing Humanitarian and Compassionate applications for failed refugees hoping to avoid deportation. Their stories have inspired me to write a book about the Canadian immigration system, particularly after the pandemic, that will show how the system works and how it affects those caught in its grip.

To protect the identities of the real people involved, the book will be a fictional novel, but will be almost entirely based on real people and real scenarios. I’ve only just begun writing the book, so I’m still working on getting the right tone, while making sure the characters are as authentic as possible. It will be difficult to write, considering the enormity and complexity of the subject matter, but the challenge pushes me to work harder and write better. 

KB: What does storytelling mean to you?

JR: Storytelling is how I understand the world around me. Without it I would be a mess. There have been countless times I haven’t been able to grasp the way certain people think, or behave, and when reading about it through a story, it provided the clarity I needed. A great story can do so much, from creating empathy for those you otherwise wouldn’t be able to, to establishing connections in the world you otherwise wouldn’t be able to see. From the very first stories I’ve heard, and read, and wrote, I was hooked. It was a language that I just seemed to understand and speak from the beginning, and I am a better person for it.

If you enjoyed this interview, you might like to hear some thoughts from author Christopher Clancy.

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