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SID FLEISCHMAN

by Bonnie O'Brian

Keynote Speaker, 2004 Luncheon

We really enjoyed your talk and magic tricks at our luncheon. When did you become enthralled with magic ?

My father had a tailor shop on Fifth Avenue in San Diego. One day when I was in fifth grade, a ten-in-one sideshow moved into the vacant store next door and you could witness everything for a nickel. When I entered and saw a magician perform, my life changed forever and I became obsessed with magic, in particular sleight-of-hand.

Although I was born in 1920 in Brooklyn, New York, my family relocated to San Diego, California in 1922. My father, who was a tailor, first went to San Diego by himself. He discovered the Navy and became a Naval tailor. He then
sent for the rest of the family.

I wrote my first book at seventeen years of age when I was a senior in high school. It was a book about magic called Between Cocktails. Overtime, I wrote five books on magic. Besides my autobiography, The Abracadabra Kid, it was the only nonfiction I have ever written.

I attended San Diego State University where I majored in English. This year they honored me by presenting me with the Distinguished Alumni Award 2004.

No, I find that impossible. Sometimes when I'm working on a book, I get an offer to write a screenplay that I can't resist. Then I stop working on the book and work on the screenplay. I only go back to the book when the screenplay is finished.

I have written 25 screenplays and have had nine produced. The most famous was Blood Alley staring John Wayne.

There are two important reasons I enjoy writing for children. The first is that when I get a "good line" on paper, I am so pleased and proud of myself. Second, I enjoy doing something positive for kids. I want them to read and so I want to write books that they can't put down

In what ways have your experiences in the world of magic enhanced your writing ?

Magic has permeated all aspects of my writing from the plot, to my characters, especially my villains, to the humor, and to the ways my character solve their problems. Consider the plot of The Whipping Boy, which reflects the same concept of sleight-of-hand as what you see is not necessarily what is true or real. My villians are always comic characters that are bad but have comic characteristics. My humor is never slapstick but obtained through comic imagination. Comic imagination also helps my characters get themselves out of jams. They don't use magic, or prowess, but they get our of jams through their mental cleverness.

When I begin work on a new historical fiction, I set up a blank research book to keep my notes. It has sections in it such as Names, Words, Costumes, Characters, etc. Then I go to the library and start hunting for books about that period. For my new book, I found a treasure in a book called, Cattle on a Thousand Hills by Cleland. After taking all my notes, I refer back to my research book when creating my story.

Right now, I'm involved with three projects. I have the galley proofs on my new book, The Giant Rat of Sumatra, which is my third book about the Rancho Days of California. It takes place in the early days of ranch life. It will be out next year. I am just finishing up the lyrics for a musical version of By The Great Horn Spoon which will be performed by the Seattle Children's Theater, and I'm preparing for several speaking engagements in Sacramento.

Your son Paul is also a Newbery Award winner. Are your children producing any more writers in the family ?

My daughter, Ann Miller, has a son, Zackary Miller, who is a senior in high school and shows great promise as a writer. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to attend the ceremony in which he wins a Newbery Award.My daughter, Ann Miller, has a son, Zackary Miller, who is a senior in high school and shows great promise as a writer. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to attend the ceremony in which he wins a Newbery Award.