Cruise Control (12 page)

It takes me longer than any of the other guys to finally make it into the locker room. Recruiters from Gonzaga
and
Georgetown are waiting for me in the hallway outside right now. I shook their hands and they both said they'd wait until after I showered. We couldn't talk out there anyway, in all that postgame chaos: cheerleaders, the band, my mom and sister, and about a thousand kids I don't even know slapping my back and looking crazed. I finally made it in here, where the guys and I celebrated.

Now everyone's gone except for me. I'm taking my time. I suppose I should feel a little guilty about making people wait for me, but I can't let go of this moment. All my life I've been in sports to escape something. Without even knowing it, I was always looking over my shoulder. Tonight, for the first time ever, I played for the excitement and rush of just playing. I guess it's like Coach said: This night is a miracle.

I remember that day at shoot-around when I felt like I could fly—and now I know I can!

In fact, right now, I'm already soaring—I feel so good.

Once I step out of this locker room, the rest of my life will begin—college, new friends, big decisions, everything will be different. Almost everything; there's one thing I can always count on that never changes. I think back to talking with Shawn the other day, telling him how I really felt about him.

I love my brother—finally I can say that and truly mean it; I really do love him.

Before anything else tonight, I'm going to phone our house back in Seattle and have Vonda wake Shawn up. I'm going to tell her to hold the phone next to his ear and I'm going tell my brother about everything that's happened. But most of all, I'll tell him how much I love him, whether he understands what I'm saying or not.

I'll tell him what it feels like to soar!

This is a tough book for which to offer acknowledgments in that it came so quickly. I wanted to write a sequel to
Stuck in Neutral
, but a sequel would have “ruined the ending,” as my editor Toni Markiet pointed out; we were walking back from lunch in New York City when Toni suggested, “Why not write a companion novel to
Stuck in Neutral
, something from some other character's point of view?” I liked the idea immediately, and thus
Cruise Control
started to become a reality.

I have already dedicated this book to Toni, so now I have to thank all the usual suspects: My family: wife, Patti; sons, Jesse and Sheehan; all the Eggers; my dad and his wife; and sister Cindy and Garren. At HarperCollins, Meghan Dietsche, Phoebe Yeh, Colleen Schwartz, cover design artist Cliff Nielsen, and everyone else involved in making this book. At Sterling Lord Literistic Inc., the “great man”: George Nicholson, my agent, and his intrepid partner in crime, Paul “it's-okay-to-call-me-Pauly” Rodeen, and my movie guy Jody Hotchkiss (formerly with SLL, Inc.). Colleagues who have helped are led by Kelly Milner-Halls, Chris Crutcher, Terry Davis, Michael Gurian, Eddie-Jim Averett, and Mary.

Thanks to everyone who has been involved in the creation of
Cruise Control
. Thanks to the many critics whose appreciation and thoughtful consideration of my earlier books make this book possible. All the librarians and English teachers who have sponsored/suffered my visits and presentations and kept me from almost certain jail terms by their friendships and protectiveness. All of ALA, most especially YALSA. Most importantly, of course, thank you to all my readers, so many of whom have taken the time to tell me how excited they are to see this book and without whose encouragement and support, again, there would probably be no book. To any of you who have written me and not received a response, please forgive me. Who else? Sorry, I'm drawing a blank—but you know who you are and you know how bad I'll feel that I've left you off this list.

Terry Trueman
grew up in the northern suburbs of Seattle, Washington. He attended the University of Washington, where he received his BA in creative writing. He also has an MS in applied psychology and an MFA in creative writing, both from Eastern Washington University.

Terry is also the author of
CRUISE CONTROL
, a companion novel to
STUCK IN NEUTRAL
and the sequel
LIFE HAPPENS NEXT
;
HURRICANE
;
7 DAYS AT THE HOT CORNER
;
NO RIGHT TURN
; and
INSIDE OUT
. You can visit Terry online at www.terrytrueman.com, on Twitter, and on the Terry Trueman Fan Page on Facebook.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Cruise Control
is a companion to
Stuck in Neutral
, telling Paul's story. Why did you feel it was important to give readers more insight into Paul's perspective?

Well truthfully, I always wanted to write more about Shawn but, for a while, I worried about ruining that annoying ending of
Stuck in Neutral
, where the reader doesn't know what happens to Shawn next. Antonia Markiet, my editor for
Stuck in Neutral
, suggested I write a companion novel, one told in the same time frame but from a different character's point of view; I knew instantly I wanted to tell Paul's story. When my son Sheehan was born I felt a lot of emotions and a major one was anger. Paul's character is based on that anger, and I kind of needed to get it out, so I wrote
Cruise Control
. All my life I've had a terrible temper that's only gotten a little better with age.

Inside Out
brings us inside the head of a boy with schizophrenia. Why did you write a novel about a character with this mental illness?

Both
Inside Out
and
No Right Turn
are about devastating illnesses. I have a Master's Degree in Applied Psychology and had worked in mental health and counseling facilities for a number of years. Then I lost a much-beloved stepson to schizophrenia: he killed himself at our home in October 1997. So both professionally and personally I have a big interest in stories about mental illness. Anybody can wake up one day and realize that they are not normal anymore—anyone! So I wrote these books to help readers understand how mental illness is a tragedy and a challenge, not a curse or some kind of punishment for anything.

No Right Turn
is about a boy who is struggling in the wake of his father's suicide. Is it hard for you to write about such heavy subjects? Oftentimes you hear that actors really take on the weight of their characters. Do you feel this way when you write yours?

My stories are based on things that have happened to me in real life. Living through the losses and heartbreak associated with difficult and challenging moments is way harder than later using the material of those experiences to try and create understanding and compassion in readers. Usually by the time I'm writing a novel about something painful and hard, I've gained enough distance and perspective to approach the material with honesty and, hopefully, a certain level of fearlessness. You can't write realistic fiction if you're a chicken-butt. You have to take risks.

7 Days at the Hot Corner
is a book about baseball and friendship, as well as the discovery of homosexuality and all of the emotions that come with being different as a teen. Why did you put these themes together in the same novel?

The truth is that when I saw how much crap gay teens were taking from their peers and classmates back at the time I wrote the book, it bugged me. I'm not gay myself but I know a lot of gay people, so I wrote this book to try and increase tolerance and understanding of homosexuality. Also, I'm a wannabe jock and if I could be great at any sport, I'd want it to be baseball! Why did I blend the two thoughts together? I have no idea. Even though
7 Days at the Hot Corner
is my fifth novel, I actually started writing it the very same day I started writing
Stuck in Neutral
. But
Stuck in Neutral
bumped
7 Days
out of the way on the second day of writing, and it took me all those years to get back to telling that story.

Tell us about your inspiration for
Hurricane
, which is set in Honduras. Is it true that you once lived there?

Yes, I lived in Honduras in the city of San Pedro Sula during the early 80s and loved the people and the lifestyle there. My Spanish is rough at best so the language barrier always got in my way. After returning to the United States, I lost contact with most of my Honduran friends so when Hurricane Mitch struck Honduras and Central America in October 1998, I decided to write a story that would show American teen readers how much more similar Honduran kids of the same age are to them, than they are different from them. It's kind of an odd twist of fate or something like it that Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. gulf coast about the same year that this novel first came out, and the plight of people in New Orleans was very similar to that of the Honduran people during Hurricane Mitch.

Shawn McDaniel's body may not work the way most people's do—he can't walk, talk, or even wave hello. But his brain works perfectly, even though his family and friends don't know it. Check out how he copes with his cerebral palsy in this excerpt from the sequel to
Stuck in Neutral
.

H
ere's how I spin things in my head—some cool
things about being me:

1. I get a hot bath every day of my life and never have to lift a finger. The warm water gets squeezed over my body from the big sponge in my mom's gentle, loving hands. And this bath is by far the most enjoyable physical sensation I ever feel.

2. I have a perfect auditory memory, remembering
everything
I
ever
hear, which is
totally
cool. This ability has turned our TVs (and we have four of them!) into the greatest learning devices in the universe. I mean, who needs real life when you've got 110 cable stations? And I remember
every
show, from Cesar Millan's
The Dog Whisperer
to Little League baseball to the love life of squids to “The bark beetle lays its eggs” to everything in between. In other words, I'm damned smart!

3. Although I can't tell anybody what kind of music I'd like to listen to, I love almost all the music that's played around here (rap/hip-hop, R&B, Bach and Mozart, geezer R&R) so whatever's on pretty much always makes me happy.

4. My brother, Paul, King Jock, Straight-A Student, Tough Guy Supreme, slips me bites of his deluxe bacon double cheeseburgers every chance he gets. Somehow Paul knows that I, too, think God invented this food to make up for the fact that all of us have to die someday.

5. My sister, Cindy, is a saint. She taught me to read by playing school with me when I was little, and to this day she never treats me bad—plus she has
great
taste in best friends,
wink-wink-hubba-hubba!

6. Although Mom has a master's degree in English and could be a college teacher or have some other higher-paying job, she works from home so she can take care of me. If Cindy is a saint, think about what that makes my mom.

7. I'll never have to get a lousy part-time job like carrying people's groceries to their cars in a supermarket parking lot or cleaning out toilets and mopping floors in some crummy restaurant.

8. In fact, I'll never have to get
any
job, which I figure is a good thing since
work
is a four-letter word …

9.... so I'll never have anybody bossing me around—I know this is partly a bad thing as I'll never get to boss anybody else either, but I don't think I'd like doing that anyway.

10. I have a kickass name. Shawn McDaniel is really cool sounding when compared to a name like Elmer Ulysses Fudpucker or Isaac P. Freeley.

11. I'm living in the most interesting time in all of history: medical science–wise, it is a miracle that a guy like me, with my so-called handicaps, could still even be alive.

Okay, let's make this 12 items:

12. I am in love with Ally Williamson, the girl of my dreams, and while I'd love to find some way to make her fall in love with me too, at least I get to imagine that she's mine all mine.

Ah, what the heck, just for good luck let's make it 13. I didn't even mention my dream life yet. Did I say dream life? Hey, Ally, here I come!

ALSO BY
TERRY TRUEMAN

Inside Out

Stuck in Neutral

A Michael L. Printz Honor Book

Cover art © 2004 by Cliff Nielsen

Cover design by Christopher Stengel

Cruise Control
Copyright © 2004 by Terry Trueman

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