Do you write any other genre?

Daniel Hayes: I write what I want to and don’t worry too much about genre. Sometimes I’m not sure if I’ve written mystery or humor, and I guess it doesn’t matter. When The Trouble with Lemons was coming out, a reviewer for the New York Times who was doing an article on YA mysteries wanted us to send her a copy of it, and we never did. I was afraid that since it hadn’t been written as a mystery, she might slam it. Afterwards, we learned that most reviewers seemed to think it functioned fine as a mystery.

Tell us a little about your book the Eye of the Beholder?

Eye of the Beholder was based on a true story. When I finished The Trouble with Lemons, I was looking for an idea for a second book. One Sunday I was reading the magazine section of the newspaper and saw a story about these Italian college students who made a few phony Modigliani sculptures as a joke during a Modigliani centennial celebration, and these sculptures were pronounced by Modigilani scholars to be authentic beyond any shadow of a doubt. And they did this with such pomposity, saying things like, “Only an artist on the level of Modigliani could breathe a soul into a stone.” 

The funny thing was, these students weren’t even trying to make anything good. They were just being goofy. It was a great story, so I did what any writer would do; I stole it. I think more and more we’re becoming a society that relies on experts to tell us what to think and even how to act. Can we really be sure that Dr. Phil knows more than those unfortunate Modigliani experts?

Do you do a lot of readings at schools?

I used to hate public speaking and swore I’d never do it. Now I love visiting schools and libraries and conventions and do so as much as I can.

Do you have other books (coming soon or in the works)?

I’m working on a couple right now. The one that seems most ready to come together is a mystery/adventure/humor story called My Kind of Crazy, which takes place in Lake Placid, New York. I’m having a great time with it.

How has the Internet helped you? What do you think of writing communities such as Todays-Woman.net?

I think websites like Today's Woman Writing Community are great. As huge corporations continue to gain an ever more insidious stranglehold on news and public discussion, I think the Internet may be what saves us. It also makes it so easy to look things up and find other people who share your interests. Keep up the good work.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

I love to travel, which is good since writing has given me many opportunities to do so. I like reading, I like movies, I like walking around looking at things. I find that as I get older and less stressed out, life just keeps getting more interesting. I even like it when I have a two hour layover at an airport and I can just hang out and read and write and just kind of watch lives as they flow past me.