Featured Interview With Dylan Cody
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Hi! I’m the author of the novel, How to Build a Champion. Dylan Cody is a pen name. I live in Europe. How to Build a Champion is my first book.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Every other week, I visited the library with a grandparent and a sibling. My sibling and I would select our books first, and our grandparent would select theirs second – a surefire way for us to be 'entertained' with our books while they sought out theirs. Sitting there, in the adult section of our local library, watching my grandparent thumb through different books, discovering the knowledge they sought – that's where I learned books held the answers to (most of) my questions.
As to writing: I can't remember a time when I wasn't writing something, for one purpose or another.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Here's a list of (some of) my favourite authors – with a smattering of their works which I most enjoyed while researching my book, How to Build a Champion:
Colette – Break of Day; The Vagabond; The Cat.
Cookie Mueller – Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black.
Mikki Kendall – Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot.
Bertrand Russell – The Conquest of Happiness, and Authority and the Individual.
Sam Harris – Waking Up.
Noam Chomsky – How the World Works.
Christopher Hitchens – Letters to a Young Contrarian.
Virginia Satir – The New People Making.
Carl Rogers – On Becoming a Person.
Rutger Bregman – Humankind: A Hopeful History.
Herman Hesse – Siddhartha.
Eve Babitz – Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and LA: Tales. (And the 1954 book Babitz may or may not have "borrowed" the subtitle from: H. Allen Smith – The World, the Flesh and H. Allen Smith. (It's a compendium of his humorous writings; a copy may or may not have been found in Babitz's archived papers at the Huntington Library.)
(If it's not obvious by the above list: I prefer to read short stories, across genres – fiction and non-fiction.)
Tell us a little about your latest book?
How to Build a Champion is a picaresque story of courage, resilience, quick wit, and joy, which follows Cassandra, a bright, outspoken young woman, through a British summer in a multi-cultural working-class neighbourhood, peopled with personalities, where the inner-city skyline changes in ‘fits and starts’.
Living among artists, musicians, trade-unionists, bohemians, students, writers, and educators defining what it is to live ‘successfully’ in the face of ‘progress’ in their shared city, Cassandra works with her uncle, Bobby, and his partner, ‘Toria, in their community-minded osteria. All is well, until their landlord, Harry, throws their lives into a tail-spin when he considers an offer from speculators, gentrifiers, and property developers who seemingly know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Raising their voices in opposition, Cassandra and her friends, street artists Mc, Pat, and Teddy, band together in a fly-by-night adventure, making mischief in their fight for the osteria, while a cunning lifestyle journalist ‘helps’ their cause.
The novel asks its readers to question their first impressions; to look twice at what they see; to live life, fully, whatever their circumstances. So, go on: Discover How to Build a Champion!
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