I don’t read a lot of children’s lit these days, but I do read some.  As an adult I have enjoyed Holes, those books starring the kid with the broomstick and the guy who hates him, and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.  Last night I had tickets to hear Daniel Handler, the author of the Snicket books, give a talk (thanks Meredith), and he was very funny and I laughed a lot.

And that’s pretty much my post except I’m going to transcribe a few of the questions and answers from the talk in case other readers enjoy the Snicket books as much as I do. The end.

How did you break in as a writer?
My first novel was rejected 37 times.  In those days, I had a deal with myself: if an editor rejected me but did so by saying even one thing complimentary, I’d phone them and ask to have lunch or dinner so we could discuss how I could improve.  I actually got a lot of free food and liquor this way.  I would have been equally satisfied if they just sent the rejection letter along with a bag of groceries.

Is your career where you expected it to be when you imagined yourself as a writer?
In high school I wanted to be Vladimir Nabokov. I haven’t gotten there yet, except for the part when I gain a lot of weight.

Does the final book of Lemony Snicket answer all the questions from the first twelve books?
It answers some questions, but asks many more.  I think it just depends what questions you’re interested in.

Do you consider yourself a San Francisco author, since many of your adult stories are set in the city?
No, but I do consider myself a San Franciscan.  For example, I can be drinking something I bought in the city and suddenly get very excited and proclaim loudly “You can’t get this anywhere else in the world!” and someone else will say “But that’s earl grey tea.”

How do you feel about some of your more obsessive fans?
It is a little strange. I do not personally become obsessive about anything particular.  I do have enthusiasms.  But I never felt the need to go through someone’s garbage.

Describe your experiences working on the movie version of the books.
I wrote nine drafts of the script and then I was fired.  The movie is...well, let’s just say that it takes no money to write a book.  Just paper.  The movie version of my books cost $200 million.  And that makes people nervous, when they have to make decisions based around that kind of money.

Once, I was sitting with the producers arguing about how the movie was being made.  One of them said to us, “Are you cold?” We said no and kept arguing.  And this woman started taking cushions off a nearby couch and putting them against herself.  I suddenly looked over and saw that you could only see her head, poking out of a wall of cushions.  And this woman said “Daniel, you just have to trust our decision making process.” This from a woman who would rather build a cushion fort than go get a sweater.

Do you ever worry about using all those big words in your books that children may not understand?
No, but I’ll tell you what I do worry about.  I was asked that question by a room full of adults a while back, right after the twelfth book of Lemony Snicket came out.  That book was called The Penultimate Peril.  It turns out that half those adults thought “penultimate” meant “last,” rather than “next-to-last.” So I told them “I don’t worry that children don’t know those words.  I worry that you don’t know those words.”