Fun Five: Ron Koertge

Aug 18, 2011 by shanyn

Welcome to Chick Loves Lit! To stay updated on my posts, why not subscribe to my RSS Feed?

Fun Five
Ron Koertge

Author of Stoner and Spaz

1. What is your favorite frozen food?
I don’t have any favorite frozen food and I don’t eat it if I can help it. There’s just something too weird about that stuff. I’m a big fan of monster movies and The Blob (Steve McQueen, remember?) was finally airmailed to the North Pole where it’s still there waiting for global warming to kick in probably. That’s how I think of all frozen food: waiting to reanimate and kick some butt. No thanks.

2. Describe a concert you’ve been to.
I don’t go to concerts. I don’t like crowds in general, so paying to stand next to 72 thousand sweating rockers is low on my list of things-to-do. And a concert where the food trucks peddle frozen food is my idea of Hell.

3. When you come home, where do you put your shoes?
I have fairly elaborate and fairly expensive shoe trees for my kicks. I like to see them all lined up and ready to go. A pair of $300 shoes and $22.00 Lee jeans = most of a good outfit. I just don’t understand people who buy cheap, uncomfortable shoes. Have they been eating frozen food and has the permafrost taken over their brains?

4. How many times have you been on a plane?
I’ve been on airplanes about a hundred times and it’s true about sitting in the pointy end of the plane. Much more comfortable and the drinks show up faster. But the food is still — don’t you know this is coming? — frozen. So I have to bring a sandwich. But something by Wolfgang Puck since I am, after all, in first class.

5. Tell us a weird fact about yourself.
I’d like to die at the race track. I love the races and know a lot about horses. I’ve owned horses as part of a miniature consortium, so I got to go to the backstretch. Now there’s another world. Everybody’s up before dawn for morning workouts, then once the horses are taken care of, they nap before the first post. I go to Santa Anita Race Track 3-4 times a week every week. A perfect day for me is to write something I like in the morning and go to the track in the afternoon. So if I have to die (and so far, so good), I’d like to do it at the track. My cronies would take the winning tickets out of my cold hands and divide them up.

More about Stoner and Spaz:
For sixteen-year-old Ben Bancroft — a kid with cerebral palsy, no parents, and an overprotective grandmother — the closest thing to happiness is hunkering alone in the back of the Rialto Theatre and watching Bride of Frankenstein for the umpteenth time. The last person he wants to run into is drugged-up Colleen Minou, resplendent in ripped tights, neon miniskirt, and an impressive array of tattoos. But when Colleen climbs into the seat beside him and rests a woozy head on his shoulder, Ben has that unmistakable feeling that his life is about to change. With unsparing humor and a keen flair for dialogue, Ron Koertge captures the rare repartee between two lonely teenagers on opposite sides of the social divide. His smart, self-deprecating protagonist learns that kindred spirits may be found for the looking — and that the resolve to follow your passion can be strengthened by something as simple as a human touch.

Add Stoner and Spaz to Goodreads
Order Stoner and Spaz from Amazon