Sydney Taylor Book Blog Tour: Interview with Honor Winner Deke Moulton

One does not normally associate vampires with the Sydney Taylor Award, but then one does not usually have the magnificent Deke Moulton on hand. When contacted by the Sydney Taylor Award Book Blog Tour organizers about hosting someone on my site, I had only one request: I want Deke Moulton. Don’t Want to Be Your Monster was

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Betsy Bird: Deke! Congrats on your fantastic (and much deserved) Honor! So to start us right off, I was a gigantic fan of DON’T WANT TO BE YOUR MONSTER. Can you tell us a little bit about where the book came from?

Deke Moulton: I feel a tad bit cliched to say that I got the idea from a dream, but I had a dream that I was a middle-grade aged vampire who was accused of eating someone, and in the dream I was like “that wasn’t me, that was my brother.” I woke up and just grasped onto this idea of vampire brothers — one who was a bit reckless and wild, and the other one who wanted to be a mensch. I was in the midst of a cross country move at the time (driving from South Carolina to Washington State), so I had a lot of time to sit and think about the idea. By the time my household goods got delivered, I started writing.

BB: I credit your book with creating (and there really isn’t any competition here) the scariest villain in a 2023 children’s book. That man is going to haunt my nightmares. What advice would you offer to other authors about creating a compelling villain?

DM: I have a kind of love/hate relationship with a lot of villains. Often, it’s way too easy to see the villain’s side– often the heroes are trying to uphold the status quo and villains have some legitimate complaints, which doesn’t quite make them terrifying. I went into this not wanting anyone to like this villain, but I also know the best villains don’t think they’re the ‘bad’ ones in the situation. So, my recipe for creating a compelling villain is make sure you truly understand their side. Make it so important to them that ‘the ends justify the means’ –meaning that they think they are so right that anything is allowed to get to that goal. And making them always a few steps ahead of the heroes’ efforts to stop them is just icing on the cake!

BB: In the book Adam is Jewish and wrestles, to a certain extent, about what it means to be both Jewish and a vampire. Finding that balance between the reality of religious complexity and the fantasy element of vampires jumping from tree to tree indicates to me that there must have been a lot of editing and revision done on the book to get it just right. What did you and your editor do to make these elements blend together successfully in the book?

DM: My editor was the absolute best! I remember on our initial zoom call, he asked if I would be interested in making the book more Jewish, and I honestly started to tear up because it was just not at all what I expected. I think with any adventurous book, you need to balance fast-paced action with quality character moments. My editor actually suggested a few scenes that weren’t in the first version – the scene where the family is working on the puzzle was his suggestion (which completely extended the ending!) and the moment where the kids are painting rocks on the bus. Both some of my favorite scenes now!

BB: On a related note, how much did your first draft resemble your final book?

DM: It’s a completely other book!! The first book was actually written in third person, but my agent at the time suggested I move it to first person. But also, the entire plot was really, really fast-paced. We had Glasses Man show up like halfway through. Another suggestion I adored from my agent was to focus this book more on the characters. Honestly, what we have now is probably what was only the first 1/3 of the first draft!

BB: I’m a particular fan of backmatter and your book contains an Author’s Note that makes for fascinating reading. You do a deep dive there into the connection between Bram Stoker’s Dracula and anti-semitic perceptions of Jewish people. Could you give us a summary here of that connection?

DM: Bram Stoker introduced many antisemitic elements into vampire mythology which didn’t exist before. Vampires being foreigners is one. Coming from Eastern Europe was new — original vampire mythology in Europe believed vampires to be more like zombies, rising up from the dead, and thus were located in the towns that they died in. Stoker’s vampires hoarded wealth like many antisemitic tropes claim that Jews do. Vampires are parasitical in Stoker’s Dracula, as is commonly found in antisemitic tropes, but also Stoker’s vampires can change people into vampires, which was new. In the actual book, Stoker’s description of Dracula more closely resembles an antisemitic caricature (complete with a hook nose and bushy, curly hair!) than our current cultural visual of being suave and classy. And even Dracula is described as smelling of ‘ol’ Jerusalem’ which seems to be a random way to describe someone smelling but invokes a connection to the Jewish holy city.

BB: Is there anything you wanted to include in the book that had to be cut for any reason?

DM: Oh my goodness, yes, so many things! Thankfully I have a cut file for all my darlings. I had scenes with Adam getting into undisclosed trouble and needed rescuing. There’s a scene I wrote that was one of my favorites, where the boys accidentally stay outside after sunrise. It ended up leading the book off on a random tangent (though getting rescued by the moms was a joy) but I’d love to use it again.

BB: I’m a mom, so I think I probably identified best with Adam and Victor’s moms in this story. I cannot even begin to imagine the difficulties of raising teenage vampire boys. For your part, who do you identify the most with in the book?

DM: Ha!! I would probably say that for a lot of reasons, Beatrice is most likely me in the book. I definitely heard myself a lot when she was reprimanding Victor. But also, Adam in a way, too. As a kid, I always wanted to do something, so his frustrations at not being able to help more were pulled directly from memory.

BB: The book ends perfectly but you do leave a little wiggle room open for a sequel or even a series (after all, who precisely IS the big bad villain that we never get to see?). Are we going to get to see more of Adam and Victor in the future?

DM: I really hope so! I have more adventures with them planned!

BB: Finally, what else are you working on these days?

DM: This summer my second middle grade novel, Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf, is coming out. (because after writing vampires, you certainly have to write about werewolves). I was surprised to find out that there’s a uniquely Jewish werewolf mythology, so it’s an exploration of those myths coupled with the complications of living in an increasingly more antisemitic society.

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Be sure to check out the other members of the Sydney Taylor Award blog tour this month. They include the following:

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2024

Richard Ho and Lynn Scurfield, author and illustrator of Two New Years
Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Picture Book Category
at 100 Scope Notes at School Library Journal

Elissa Brent Weissman and Omer Hoffmann, author and illustrator of Hanukkah Upside Down
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Picture Book Category
at The Pragmatic Mom

Tziporah Cohen and Yaara Eshet, author and illustrator of Afikomen

Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Picture Book Category
at Out of the Box at The Horn Book

Elisa Boxer and Amy June Bates, author and illustrator of Hidden Hope
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Picture Book Category
at Picture Books Help Kids Soar

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Susan Lynn Meyer, author of A Sky Full of Song

Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Middle Grade Category 
at Jewish Books for Kids…And More!

Noa Nimrodi, author of Not So Shy
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Middle Grade Category at The Book of Life

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2024

Mari Lowe, author of The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman
Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Middle Grade Category
at Good Reads with Ronna

Elana K. Arnold, author of The Blood Years
Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Young Adult Category
at Watch.Connect.Read

Josh Levy, auhor of The Jake Show
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Middle Grade Category
at E Train Talks

Deke Moulton, author of Don’t Want to Be Your Monster
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Middle Grade Category
at A Fuse #8 Production at School Library Journal

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2024

Dahlia Adler, author of Going Bicoastal
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Young Adult Category
at The Whole Megillah

Steve Sheinkin, author of Impossible Escape
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Young Adult Category
at Paper Brigade Daily at The Jewish Book Council

Neal Shusterman and Andrés Vera Martínez, author and illustrator of Courage to Dream
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Young Adult Category
at Bookishly Jewish

Aden Polydoros, author of Wrath Becomes Her
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Young Adult Category
at Kayla Reads and Reviews

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Blog Tour Wrap-Up at The Children’s Book Podcast

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Thanks to Deke for answering all my questions, and thanks too to the fantastic team behind this blog tour.

Filed under: Best Books of 2023, Interviews