An Accidental Novelist

In September of 2012, my first book -- SECRETS OF SHAKESPEARE'S GRAVE -- was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Children.  It is a middle-grade mystery novel -- the first in a series.  At the heart of the book is a mystery that involves William Shakespeare.

I could pretend to be sophisticated and claim that I was instantly drawn to the Bard and his works.  I could tell you that as teenager I would sit under a large oak tree for hours and read Shakespeare's sonnets.  I could explain how I begged my mother to take me to performances of Shakespeare’s works.  I could claim to have memorized some obscure monologue from TROILUS AND CRESSIDA by the time I was nine years of age.

But I would be lying.

The truth is that Shakespeare scared me.  I found his works difficult to read and downright impossible to understand.

I vividly remember my ninth grade literature class.  It was my first real exposure to William Shakespeare --  ROMEO AND JULIET, as I recall.  It was extremely painful.  Elizabethan English absolutely confounded me.  From that point forward, I avoided Shakespeare as much as possible.  As far as I was concerned, it was the poison ivy of literature -- if you don’t touch it, it can’t hurt you.

So how the heck did I end up writing a middle-grade mystery novel about Shakespeare?

I blame Bill Bryson.

Several years ago I ran across Bryson’s book SHAKESPEARE: THE WORLD AS STAGE.  I wasn’t looking to read a book about Shakespeare, but I enjoy reading works by Bill Bryson.  He has a way of making any subject interesting.  Maybe he could do the same for Shakespeare.  So I picked up the book and read it.

And that’s when it started.

I became fascinated by Shakespeare and the world in which he lived.  I was still not ready to pick up HENRY VI and read it in my spare time, but it was a start.  I followed with books by James Shapiro (CONTESTED WILL), Frank Kermode (THE AGE OF SHAKESPEARE), Eric Rasmussen (THE SHAKESPEARE THEFTS), and Stephen Greenblatt (WILL IN THE WORLD).  I then, somewhat reluctantly, moved on to actual works by Shakespeare.  Visits to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. and Stratford-upon-Avon sealed my fate.

But again, how did all of this lead to a middle-grade mystery novel about Shakespeare?  Simple. The world of Shakespeare, as I quickly learned, was full of mysteries.  One of those mysteries spoke to me in a loud and clear voice.  I could not resist it, and it became the central theme of my novel (and its sequel, TOWER OF THE FIVE ORDERS, which is set for publication in 2013).

So perhaps I am best described as an accidental mystery novelist.  I did not set out to write a book.  I simply became obsessed with a subject full of mystery, nuance and intrigue.  The book just happened.

As I said, I blame Bill Bryson.

Deron Hicks lives in Warm Springs, Georgia with his wife Angela, daughter Meg and son Parker.  His first book - SECRETS OF SHAKESPEARE'S GRAVE -- was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Children in September 2012.  The second book in the series -- TOWER OF THE FIVE ORDERS -- is scheduled for publication in October 2013.  You can find Deron at his website or you can follow him on Facebook.