Q & A with author Sally Pla and San Diego Writers Festival

SDWF: What inspired you to write Benji, the Bad Day, and Me? 

SP: Benji, the Bad Day, and Me is a little picture book about sibling rivalry, a fuzzy blanket, neurodiversity, and a plain old rotten day. It was inspired by how my own three boys would squabble and hug and bug and console each other. Also, I wanted to write an homage of sorts to that classic, “Alexander and the No Good, Very Bad Day” — with a bit of neurodiversity thrown into the mix! To show that autistic kids DO have empathy and caring — even if sometimes they may show it in unexpected ways.  

SDWF: What books are on your nightstand or stacked next to your bed? 

SP: I’m an omnivorous sort of reader, so my bedside TBR book tower right now includes: Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde (YA romance set in San Diego, with an autistic main character! I love it!),  Werner Herzog’s Guide for the Perplexed,  Coders by Clive Thompson, and Ship of Theseus by J.J. Abrams. 

 SDWF: What’s the last great book/play/poem you read? 

SP: Stoner by John Williams. A quiet, careful portrait of the life of an English professor… It is hard to say why it is so brilliant. But it is. so. brilliant. 

SDWF: What do you wish you’d known before you started out as a writer? 

SP: When I started, I’d stare at the screen and feel as if I were standing at the edge of a cliff, about to dive into a scary new element. I was intimidated and would let that intimidation turn into procrastination. I wish I’d known that it didn’t have to be that big a deal. That I could make a mess and it would be okay. I could expect less of myself!  Just string one word after another. Just a few words, at first. No big deal. Keep at it — keep stringing them and crossing them out, over and over, until they finally say something that comes from that good, right, true place in your heart. That’s the joy and the best reward.  

SDWF: What writing resources have been most helpful to you? 

SP: This is the question where so many people answer Save The Cat! And yes, it’s pretty good!  So is The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson, The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler,  and Take Off Your Pants! (yes, actually a writing book) by Libbie Hawker…  James Scott Bell’s writing series is great too.  

Beyond books, a big shout-out to the Hedgebrook Foundation (Hedgebrook.org), because my writer’s residency there was the only reason I finished my first novel (The Someday Birds). 

SDWF: How has storytelling changed your life? 

SP: My mom and grandmother would sit in rocking chairs in our kitchen telling all kinds of wild stories from the past, all the time. They’d laugh and wipe their eyes and laugh some more. Their storytelling voices were the soundtrack to my childhood. The world was revealed to me, through them, through their stories. For better or worse! 

SDWF: What was the first piece of writing you shared with someone else? 

SP: A ‘novel’ about a rat who escaped from the dump to go live in a fancy mansion. 42 handwritten pages, booyah! 

SDWF: Is there a line from your piece you’d be willing to share? 

SP: Do you mean from the rat-leaves-the-dump novel? I remember I’d named the rat-hating villain “Evil Dr. Stuyvesant.” Not sure where I came up with that name.  I was nine…  I still like to put lots of thought into choosing my character names. My newest is a girl named Eugenia who lives 100 years in the future… in a time where human gene-editing is common. 

 SDWF: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us? 

SP: Just that I look forward to chatting at the Festival! Happy writing, everyone. 

SDWF: Thank you, Sally!