In Episode 6, we interview beloved author, Daniel Handler, also known as Lemony Snicket, about his latest book, Poison for Breakfast, a new stand-alone adventure appropriate for all ages. In Lemony Snicket’s long and suspicious career, he has investigated many things, including villainy, treachery, conspiracy, boredom, and various suspicious fires. In this book, he is investigating his own death—and the concept of bewilderment. Poison for Breakfast is quite possibly different from any book you’ve ever read. And this episode is different from any Page One podcast you’ve heard as Daniel engages an unknown author, the courageous Hilary Hamilton, about the first page of her book in progress, Boobs. There is nothing quite like bewilderment—and boobs. WARNING: if you don’t like to laugh, you will not like this episode. If you don’t like books, libraries or pondering uncertainty, please do not listen to Episode 6. And if you don’t like stories about poison—and truth, as related to breast cancer, please, DO NOT listen to this episode. However, if you like an adventure of the heart, listen up. You will be pleasantly bewildered.
Page One, produced and hosted by author Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.
About the guest author:
Daniel Handler is the author of seven novels, including Why We Broke Up, We Are Pirates, All The Dirty Parts and, Bottle Grove and most recently Poison for Breakfast, his first book for readers of all ages published by Liveright/W.W. Norton.
As Lemony Snicket, he is responsible for numerous books for children, including the thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, the four-volume All the Wrong Questions, and The Dark, which won the Charlotte Zolotow Award.
Handler has received commissions from the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Reperatory Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has collaborated with artist Maira Kalman on a series of books for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and with musicians Stephin Merritt (of the Magnetic Fields), Benjamin Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie), Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) and Torquil Campbell (of Stars).
His books have sold more than 70 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages, and have been adapted for film, stage and television, including the recent adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events for which he was awarded both the Peabody and the Writers Guild of America awards. He lives in San Francisco with the illustrator Lisa Brown, to whom he is married and with whom he has collaborated on several books and one son.
You may also find him on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, IMDB, and purchase his books via Upstream(for signed copies), Indiebound, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.
About the host:
Holly Lynn Payne is the CEO and founder of Booxby , a startup helping authors succeed. Holly is also an internationally published novelist in eleven countries whose work has been translated into nine languages. Her most recent novel, Damascena:The Tale of Roses and Rumi, has been optioned for a film series. She is the founder of Skywriter Books, an award-winning small press, publishing consultancy and writing coaching service. She lives in Marin County with her daughter and enjoys mountain biking, surfing and hiking with her labrador retriever, Lady Gaia. To learn more about her writing coaching services, please visit hollylynnpayne.com.