Runner Parents

My book, The Runner, was born from a couple of different ideas.

One of my first “real” jobs was working in a bank. I hated this job. Every afternoon a runner would come into the bank to pick up the morning checks for processing. I remember feeling so trapped behind the bullet resistant glass and the stupid panty hose I had to wear. When the runner would come I wanted to shout, “take me with you!” Especially on those really beautiful spring afternoons. In my story, Avi is a runner. Runners are the only people allowed to leave the confines and safety of their village. There’s a mixture of freedom, fear, and loneliness that comes from this position, but I know I’d rather risk my life than be stuck behind a wall my whole life.

The second idea came after watching Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Remember this documentary. It’s the one where Al Gore tells us all of the ways we are destroying our planet. He tells us that our modern world is killing the planet and that if we continue to live the way we’re living, we won’t be able to go on living. Then, at the end of this movie, he offers suggestions like changing our light bulbs. Really? I didn’t think that this sounded like the answer to our problems. I wanted to trade my car in for a horse and start living like my parent’s Amish neighbors. In my book, our country hits an off switch, shutting down technology. My story takes place ten years after this, after a majority of the population has died off and the remainder of the population has had to find unique ways to survive in their new world.

Anyway, this is how my book was born, the offspring of a job in banking and an Al Gore documentary. I promise my book is much more interesting than its parents.