Rachel Reads & Reviews

Paul is a prolific writer of media tie-ins, and original novels such as the Drama! series. Currently acting as Editorial Director at Insight Editions, he graciously took the time to answer my questions about his years in the industry, and what’s coming next from Insight Editions. Enjoy!

1. When did you begin writing?

I feel like I’ve always been writing. When I was a kid, reading and writing were my main hobbies. I took creative writing courses throughout college and studied screenwriting at UCLA’s professional screenwriting program after undergrad. My professional writing career formally began with a Buffy the Vampire Slayer short story that was published around twenty-five years ago. 

2. What is a media tie-in writer? Is the process different from freelance fiction writing?

It’s just like a regular writing job, except that you’re writing in someone else’s world. For novels, it’s kind of like writing fan fiction, but you have more rules to follow. Those rules come from someone connected with the show/movie in some way. 

Every world that I have written in has different rules and different levels of involvement from the studio. Sometimes, there are many levels of review with multiple people chiming in on top of my actual editor for the book. But I’m a guest in this world. I didn’t invest in the difficult work of creating it or coming up with the characters and building the audience. I do that when I’m writing my own original fiction, and that’s a lot of work so I appreciate how I’m part of a much larger universe when I’m writing a media tie-in. Of course, all this is true for the non-fiction tie-in work I do as well, although there are fewer gray areas about what you can do than there are in fiction.    

3. You’ve written for many popular franchise-Buffy, Charmed, Alias, Star Trek – do you have a particular favorite?

Really, my favorite has always been the one that I’m working on in that moment. I’ve always loved television, even more so than film. And I’ve been lucky to work on some of my favorite shows ever. You really have to be a fan of these shows and know everything about them because you’re never ever going to know more than the hardcore fans. Even if you’re a hardcore fan yourself. You just can’t compete with the collected knowledge of a fandom, especially in the age of social media where fans examine the meaning of every line and share theories and build up that show’s universe even more. 

You have to love a show and know a show intimately to write in their world. I can’t think of a show that I’ve written for that I haven’t absolutely loved and seen every single episode of, especially in my fiction. From my first Buffy short story to all the work I’ve done in the Charmed universe to my upcoming Gilmore Girls picture book, these were already my favorites shows before I started working on them. I’m very, extremely, unbelievably lucky to have been able to play in these worlds. 

5. You also wrote some original series, Rainbow Party, and Drama! Where did the inspiration come from, and was the work different from media tie-ins? 

Obviously, writing fiction is similar no matter the experience, but those two books couldn’t have been more different from one another and, yes, they were different from media tie-ins, but in different ways. Rainbow Party was almost like a commissioned project. I was asked to write that book because it was a hot topic at the time thanks to an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. I’ve taken on numerous projects like this in my media tie-in career where a publisher approached me with a subject. In retrospect, I’m not sure I ever connected with the topic or the characters for this book. 

Now, the Drama! series was a completely different experience. That was so much closer to my heart and, without a doubt, my most favorite project ever. A lot of writers say choosing their favorite book is like choosing their favorite child. Well, those four books are my favorite children and I don’t mind that the other kids know it. Drama! was something I conceived of after seeing a middle school production of a show that had to multi-cast because every child in the grade needed to have a part. This led to a show with multiple kids playing the same role and just switching out over the course of the show with no explanation, kind of like they did in soap operas. That core idea was just rife with comedy and potential mystery, but it also let me tell a story about a group of characters like the friends I had when I was a teen. But I got to put them in a very different world than the one I lived in, growing up. My childhood was nowhere near the affluent neighborhoods of Malibu. And I don’t just mean because of the location. But this was around the time of The OC and The Hills so putting theater kids in that environment was just so obvious to me at the time that it had to be done. 

6. Your books were one of the few to feature gay protagonists in the early 2000s, without centering solely on the angst of coming out. Were you trying to push the boundaries of what a gay protagonist could be or was it simply a matter of characterization? 

A little yes and a little no. I’ve never actively sought to push boundaries. I just wanted to write stories that I wanted to read myself. With Drama!  the idea did come to me around the time that gay characters were having a bit of breakout moment in entertainment and in YA fiction. In a lot of those stories, the fact that the teen—most often a boy from a specific socio-economic background—was gay was central to the plot. That was significant and it was needed at the time. But I also wanted to read stories where it was just a facet of his character. Where the story was a mystery in which the protagonist didn’t even consider himself as one of the main characters in his own story. Where the fact that he wasn’t out yet wasn’t because he was in a community that wouldn’t accept him, far from it. He just didn’t want to be “the gay kid” even though everyone knew him as “the gay kid,” but they just didn’t talk about it. And importantly, he wasn’t the only gay kid. 

Every coming out journey is unique. And even though the books were never about coming out, we certainly couldn’t ignore that moment in his life. But that’s also why he didn’t come out until book three and the coming out was really just “okay, we’re going to acknowledge this thing we’ve all known all along and just move on because it’s not a big deal.” Because it wasn’t, and it isn’t. 

The lgbtqia+ YA published today has a wonderful mix of characters and stories where a character’s sexuality is just one facet of the story rather than the focus. So many of those stories with teen protagonists have the coming out moment happen long before the book even starts because the world continues to evolve and so do our stories. I can’t wait to see what’s next. Hopefully, good things. 

7. Personally, I really enjoyed Drama! and felt you made a fitting conclusion to the series. After almost two decades, where do you think the characters would be today? 

Thank you! I definitely have my ideas of what happened after the story. But the thing I love most about books is that they have a life of their own in the imaginations of the readers after they finish the last page. For me, the question I prefer to ask is what do YOU think they would be doing today? Because it’s really your story now. I just provided the spark of this world that I’m so thrilled to hear you enjoyed. Especially after so much time has passed. It means so much to hear. The one thing I will say is that there’s no doubt in my mind that Bryan and Sam are still the best of friends. So many childhood friendships drift apart after graduation, but those two are lifers. 

8. What is Insight Editions, and your role in the company?

Insight Editions is many things, but at its core, I consider it to be a pop culture publisher making high quality media tie-in publishing and products. We craft first-in-class books based on and in fictional worlds from movies, TV, and video games. I’m editorial director of Insight Kids and Reinhart Pop-Up Studio, which means I get to play all day making books for children (and adults who remain childlike). In one day, I can go from overseeing the development of a novelty children’s book based on a preschool show like Spidey and His Amazing Friends to an upper middle grade illustrated novelization of the classic film Labyrinth to a highly-intricate collectible pop-up books for adults that explore the world of James Cameron’s Avatar or the hit musical Wicked. It’s hard work, but at its core, it’s also a tremendous amount of fun and the kind creative challenge you don’t find in a lot of jobs. 

9. How does Insight Editions differ from other publishing/collectible collectives? 

The company is more than just a publisher. We have divisions that make pop culture product beyond even stationery as a lot of publishers do. We also make advent calendars, candles, pins, chocolate molds, and so much more. As for the division I work in, Insight Kids, the main difference between us and other children’s publishers is that most of the books we make aren’t entirely intended for children. A lot of our books are intended for the adult who wants to share their fandom with their children in an age-appropriate way. We spend as much time working with characters from the 1980s as we do with characters from TV shows and movies currently airing today. It’s a bit of a niche audience, but a voracious one.  

10. What books are currently in the pipeline?

So many books. But one of the ones that Insight Kids is publishing that I’m most excited for is Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Goodnight, Sunnydale. It’s a fun bedtime storybook for fans of the show that gave me the chance to work with Micol Ostow again. Micol used to be one of my editors when I was writing for the Buffy books Simon & Schuster published years ago. She’s gone on to be a full-time writer since we worked together in that capacity and she has written a bunch of popular pop culture picture books, including a few of ours. Getting to work with her again on a series we both love has been a joy. The illustrator, Agnieszka Potocka, did such a great job capturing the spirit of the characters and all the monsters in a great, child-friendly way. Also, the book cover glows in the dark. And that’s just fun. 

 Another one that comes out this fall that I’m looking forward to is Gilmore Girls: The Night Before Christmas in Stars Hollow. I wrote that one. It was such a fun project to work on and the art by Lorena Cerqueira is just stunning. Stars Hollow is one of my favorite fictional towns and I love that I get to visit it in my imagination when I work on these books. This is one of those kinds of titles I was talking about where we’re making kids books for adults. We have several picture books and board books for Gilmore Girls because the fandom really connects with the family aspects of this series. This is just one way we can expand on that.  

11. Any other news you’d like to share? 

Just to say that I’ve been very busy at my day job at Insight and my night job as a writer. I should have fun news in the future to look out for, but nothing I can talk about right now, sadly. But hopefully soon!