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<\/a><\/p>\nBefore he became a novelist, Billy Coffey <\/a>was a blogger. Before that he was a ballplayer. There are glimpses of Billy in Peter Boyd,\u00a0the main character in\u00a0Coffey\u2019s debut novel \u2014 Snow Day<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em>Peter Boyd has a wife, two kids, a mortgage, and a car payment. Fortunately for him he also has a job. But word around the factory is that Peter\u2019s about to lose his job. That has Peter worried sick, which is why he decides to take his own snow day off work. When his wife sends him\u00a0to the market, Peter comes back with more than a loaf of bread and milk. \u00a0 Join author Karen Spears Zacharias as she talks with Billy Coffey about his debut book. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong> \u00a0Tell readers about yourself. When did you decide to ditch your career as a Yankee to become a writer?\u00a0<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong> \u00a0It was the spring of 1990, and it wasn\u2019t by choice. I was a baseball player in high school. To me and most everyone else, that was what I would be doing for the next twenty years, which made school pretty irrelevant. I had seven classes my senior year, and four of them were study halls. My English teacher pulled me aside one day and said she wasn\u2019t going to let me coast through the year, so she made me write a weekly column for the local newspaper.<\/p>\n I blew out my shoulder a few months later, and all of the scouts and letters stopped coming. It was one of the worst times I\u2019ve ever experienced. I was seventeen, and I felt like my life was over.<\/p>\n So I wrote a column about it, about the fear and the depression and the need to pick myself up and move on. A week later I received an anonymous letter at school from a girl who said she\u2019d been considering suicide. Reading my column had convinced her to try and turn her life around. That\u2019s when I decided I had a better chance of making a difference in the world by holding a pen instead of a bat.<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong>\u00a0Your debut novel Snow Day<\/em> has garnered quite a bit of attention and a\u00a0huge ad in Book Page. Wow! Where did the idea for this book come from?<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong>\u00a0I took a job at a local factory in August 2000. It was without a doubt the last thing in the world I wanted to do, but it was the right thing for my family. The factory offered good pay, great benefits, and stable work. Then in December 2005, I was told I would likely be laid off. If hurting my shoulder was bad, this was much worse. By then my wife and I had two children, a mortgage, two car payments, and student loans. My wife\u2019s job as a teacher\u2019s aid was barely minimum wage, it was Christmastime, and our savings wouldn\u2019t see us past two months. So I started writing down everything I was feeling and experiencing as a sort of free therapy. That\u2019s how Snow Day was born.\u00a0<\/p>\n Karen<\/strong>:<\/em>\u00a0I think a lot of readers will relate to Peter Boyd\u2019s fears about his employment status. What is the message you want to give those readers in particular?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong>\u00a0 That losing your job because of the recession isn\u2019t your fault, and it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ve failed. See it as a chance to return to the basics\u2014the bread and milk\u2014of your life. Lean on the things that make your life meaningful, things like faith and family and community. They won\u2019t just get you through, they\u2019ll give you a joy your job couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Karen<\/strong>:\u00a0In Snow Day <\/em>the local Super Mart (recognizable to anyone who has spent time at the Wal-Mart Super Store) serves as the community gathering place. The major interaction of the day takes place at the Super Mart. Why did you make the Mart the community\u2019s center? Is there commentary in that choice?<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong>\u00a0I love Wal-Mart, I truly do. I don\u2019t go there to shop much, but just to watch people. These days everyone is trying to save as much as they can, and so you have people of all walks of life mingling there. Just the other day I watched a grandmother in overalls showing a man in a suit and tie how to find the best deal on canned green beans. It was wonderful. There are so many invisible lines drawn between people based on their status or their financial worth, but all of those lines disappear at the local Wal-Mart. I think it\u2019s one of the most amazing places in the world.<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong>\u00a0You introduce readers to a cast of characters, all of whom teach Peter Boyd something about himself.\u00a0 Which of these characters were your favorites?<\/p>\n Billy<\/strong>:\u00a0 I was about to say Spooky Gray Man and his act of hidden charity, because that seems to be among everyone\u2019s favorite. But honestly I think it\u2019s Bobby Barnes, the man who lost his faith during a mission trip to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. There\u2019s a lot of tragedy in him and a great sense of loss, but there\u2019s also a lingering hope that his story isn\u2019t over yet.<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong>\u00a0Are any of these characters modeled on real people from your own life?\u00a0 Or did you really stalk people at the local Mart searching for material?<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong>\u00a0Many of the characters are modeled on real people. I know a Bobby Barnes. I know a Kenny McCallom. A lot of the ideas that were turned into characters really did come from field trips to the Wal-Mart down the road. And there\u2019s also a whole lot of me in there, too.<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong>\u00a0When you pick up a book to read, whose byline is on it?\u00a0<\/p>\n Billy: <\/strong>I\u2019ll read almost anything from Seneca to Calvin & Hobbes. I love Stephen King and Robert Fulghum, and lately I\u2019ve been reading a lot of Flannery O\u2019Connor. And, of course, Karen Spears Zacharias. Because she\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n Karen<\/strong>:\u00a0HA! Good answer. What do you look for in a book as a reader?<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong> \u00a0Someone with heavy questions and a heavy heart, which I think means most of us. I might not be able to give you all the answers, but I\u2019ll be glad to sit and wonder with you for a while.<\/p>\n Karen<\/strong>: \u00a0I once heard a novelist say it\u2019s harder to write about good marriages than bad ones. Do you think it\u2019s more difficult to write about people who are happy with their lives than say malcontents or troublemakers?<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong> \u00a0I think good writing tends to revolve around some sort of conflict, so it can be harder to write about people who seem to have no conflicts at all. But I think there\u2019s always some tension, even in happy lives. The world\u2019s a rocky place. I don\u2019t think happiness is found in trying to make your walk easier by grinding all those rocks into soft sand, I think it\u2019s found by just putting on a pair of boots.<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong>\u00a0Faith is at the core of Snow Day,<\/em> and all of your writing, really. Do you consider yourself a Christian writer? Or does that label limit you as an artist?<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong> \u00a0I think I see myself as more a writer who\u2019s a Christian. Faith will always play a major role in anything I write. That\u2019s just who I am. But it\u2019s often a soft undercurrent rather than a riptide. There are a lot of people who read what I write and don\u2019t believe in God at all, but they still get something out of it. I like that.<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong>\u00a0There are Believers who consider Santa to be a red-suited anti-Christ, yet, you claim Santa is God 101 for a child. Care to explain this heresy?\u00a0<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong> \u00a0Here is someone who sees everything. He sees you when you\u2019re sleeping and knows when you\u2019re awake. He knows if you\u2019ve been bad or good. You know you should be good for goodness sake, but you just can\u2019t do that all the time. But you know what? Chances are you\u2019ll get presents anyway, things you know deep down you don\u2019t deserve. Because no matter how many times you screw up, you know he still loves you.<\/p>\n Now, am I talking about Santa Claus or God?\u00a0<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong>\u00a0One of your characters navigates life with a list of Reasonable Directions. Do you have such a list? One that you are teaching your children?<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong> I keep a list. Like the Ten Commandments, it\u2019s short, straightforward, and commonsensical. I\u2019ll go back every January 1 and see if anything has happened over the past year that would warrant an edit. There have been amendments, but I\u2019ve never repealed anything. And I do use it as a sort of guide for my children, but I\u2019d rather they start working on their own.<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong> There is a lot of negative news coming out of the publishing business. How was it you managed to get a contract during the midst of one of the publishing businesses most dour economic seasons?<\/p>\n Billy: <\/strong>Aside from the grace of God, I have no idea. My agent worked very hard to get the book to publishers, and FaithWords took a leap of faith. I think the fact that the subject matter was very applicable to the times helped a lot. It\u2019s proof that if someone like me can get a publishing contract, anyone can.<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong> What is it about writing that you love? And hate?<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong> I love the simple act of sitting down to write, of just letting your hand fly across the page. There aren\u2019t a lot of times in my life when I feel truly at peace, but I feel that when I write.<\/p>\n The worst part has to be the waiting. You\u2019re waiting for revision notes, you\u2019re waiting for the book cover, you\u2019re waiting for promos and reviews and publication dates. You\u2019ll drive yourself crazy if you don\u2019t find something constructive to do.<\/p>\n Karen:<\/strong> Tell us about your writing process. What does a typical day for Billy Coffey look like?<\/p>\n Billy<\/strong>: I keep a daily quota of 1,000 words when I\u2019m working on a book, and fitting that into a job and a family can be tough. I usually get up about 5:30 AM and get in a workout, then it\u2019s to work. I can usually edit what I\u2019ve written the day before during my break and then get in about 500 words during lunch, if things aren\u2019t busy. I leave work at 4:00 PM, then it\u2019s helping with dinner and doing homework with the kids and whatever needs to be done outside. My wife is a teacher, so those two hours or so after the kids get to bed that she uses to grade papers are when I read. Half of writing is reading; you can\u2019t do one without the other. I\u2019ll finish off my 1,000 words after everyone\u2019s in bed, then repeat the process the next day. On a good day, I\u2019m tired. On a bad one, I\u2019m slumped in the corner sucking my thumb.<\/p>\n Karen<\/strong>:\u00a0What are you working on next?<\/p>\n Billy:<\/strong> \u00a0My next novel is called Paper Angels<\/em> and will be out next November. I\u2019ll spend all that waiting time writing book three, tentatively titled No Home for the Weary<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Before he became a novelist, Billy Coffey was a blogger. Before that he was a ballplayer. There are glimpses of Billy in Peter Boyd,\u00a0the main character in\u00a0Coffey\u2019s debut novel \u2014 Snow Day.\u00a0 Peter Boyd has a wife, two kids, a mortgage, and a car payment. Fortunately for him he also has a job. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[175,307,1218,1793,1839,1908],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-billy-coffey","tag-christian","tag-novelist","tag-unemployed","tag-wal-mart","tag-yankees"],"yoast_head":"\n