An Interview with Peter Felton

Peter Felton was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. A proud native of the City By The Bay, Felton’s lifelong interest in San Francisco Bay Area public transportation was documented in his five-star first book, Daily Public Transit Ridership: The Inside Scoop (2012), outlining contemporary (1970s–early 2010s) upgrades, milestones, routes, and the overall aura of the San Francisco Muni public transit system.

Felton’s five-star second book, Tommy Wrought: A Musical Reflection of Children with Special Needs (2015), provides readers of all descriptions with extensive comparative analyses between the outlooks of special-case children of today and yesterday—signified by the in-depth music of The Who’s rock opera Tommy and its combination human-life constituents.

Bearing a deep interest in music of all genres, Felton’s musicological explorations began at age ten upon discovering the glory, wonder, and depth of the music of the 1960s thanks to public television, the radio, local record stores, and, most of all, his upbringing. Eternally furthering Felton’s creative horizons as an adolescent, young adult, and working professional, music continually provides Felton with increased inspiration for using the resource as a regular teaching tool in his academic career working with a wide variety of students and disciplines.

Upon earning his BA in Liberal Studies–Teacher Education in 2008, Felton put the pedal to the metal in his teaching career immediately the following fall. Since then, Felton’s professional claims to fame as a determined, enlightened educator have included accomplished instruction in the following fields: United States and world history and geography (Grades K–10), physical education (Grades K–8), American government, civics and economics (Grade 12), music and movement (Grades K–8), choreography and interpretive dance (experimentally pioneered in college, routinely integrated into different subjects in Grade K–8 general education since), and tutoring (Grades K–12, general ed subjects; college essay writing and research). His third and most recent five-star book, Schools of Thought: Well-Rounded Education in the Lands of Opportunities, was published on September 10, 2018, and chronicles Felton’s social, academic, and professional experiences and outcomes attending and working in different types of schools all across the board over a thirty-one-year period.

When not teaching or writing books, Felton enjoys photography, taking walks, going to his local public library and exploring its wondrous, growing catalog, riding public transportation, surfing the web, and spending quality time with his girlfriend and energetic orange tabby cat, Desmond.

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Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

My father was an author of more than one dozen published nonfiction books, so he definitely influenced me when it came to becoming an author myself—especially when it came to him walking me through the step-by-step process of writing, editing, and ultimately publishing my first book back in 2012.

But music is really the art form that has inspired me the most throughout my life when it comes to writing and creativity. The people/writers whom I look up to deeply are singer/songwriters. They and their music are why my writing style is very rhythmic, alliterative, metaphorical, and honest. These composers include: the late Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary; Pete Townshend of The Who; Roger McGuinn of The Byrds; the late Pete Seeger; Smokey Robinson; Paul Simon; and Yanni, to name but a few.

Song lyrics and their hidden, noteworthy messages are what have always inspired me to be creative both in my writing and in my professional work as an educator.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

Along with having worked three years of retail, I have worked largely in the field of education for more than two decades—as a classroom teacher of students in all grade levels, kindergarten to twelfth, as well as a tutor of students all the way from kindergarten up through college, specializing primarily in writing, along with the other three academic core subjects of history, math, and science in all different scholastic grade levels and genres.

Something about me that my readers would not necessarily know up front is that I love to dance and I have choreographed and performed mini-theatrical productions with my peers and pupils. I also love being interviewed about any given topic, as I enjoy sharing my insights about a wide variety of topics pertaining to different life and cultural endeavors. And to top it all off: I have my very own YouTube channel that revolves mostly around symbolic connections between math and public transportation (another lifelong interest of mine), along with other academically-oriented topical-musical videos.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The title of my (third) book, Schools of Thought: Well-rounded Education In The Lands of Opportunities was pretty easy to conjure up. I always want the titles of my written works (I am the author of three published nonfiction books thus far) to sound catchy, symbolic, contextually correlative, memorable, and thought-provoking in their wording. My third book above reflects upon my experiences attending and working in schools of different scholastic categories, while performing a variety of professional roles therein to boot throughout my lifetime to date. Since I want my readers to think about their own academic-social upbringings and corresponding experiences in their own schools growing up, and in the present if they themselves are students, parents, administrators, politicians, and/or teachers, I knew that there had to be a “thoughtful” titular literary element. Also, the different types of schools that I attended growing up and have worked in professionally as an adult cover great ground categorically in terms of their academic, social, and professional foundations. Hence the “well-rounded, education[al]” nature of my book’s title. Plus, since schools, the students, and teachers in them are serving the United States of America long-term (with the USA being considered by many to be the “land of opportunity”), I therefore added that contextual component to my book’s title and pluralized it so that my readers would know that there would be a multidimensional offering of written content ahead as soon as they opened the front cover!

What part of publishing your book made it feel real for the first time?

The moment my book went live online for the first time—complete with the front and back cover images, book summary, and digital preview for the public, was when it all felt real to me! All of that hard work put into thinking of ideas; writing them down thoroughly, contextually, electronically; editing them to perfection; and finalizing the given literary product had paid off in full and put a gigantic smile on my face! When you become an author (much like becoming a parent) for the first time, a whole new chapter in your life begins, and it will stay with you happily forever from that point forward! It always gives me tremendous pride to enthusiastically unveil each and every one of my newly-published books to the interested reading public online and in person, sharing with them a new source of contextual awe and wonder, in hopes that they ultimately share my sentiments upon turning the pages!

To be able to call yourself an author and present your published work to the world at large like a championship trophy that you worked hard for years and years to achieve, all the while creating a new name for yourself, brings an unprecedented sense of pride and accomplishment that will stay with you permanently and in turn inspire further literary innovations and aspiring success to follow!

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

As a matter of fact, my book does have a soundtrack! At the beginning of each chapter, I quoted excerpted lyrics to different favorite songs of mine written and performed by a variety of artists and musical genres across the spectrum, which I felt were contextually parallel to the ensuing literary content. Music will forever be a part of my overall being, and I always include it in my creative endeavors of all styles. The songs that appear in the soundtrack to my (third) book, along with their performers, include:

God Only Knows (The Beach Boys)

If I Had a Hammer (Peter, Paul and Mary)

Don’t Let The Joneses Get You Down (The Temptations)

Meet Me in the Middle (Gladys Knight)

Lazy Waters (The Byrds)

Do Right Woman, Do Right Man (Aretha Franklin)

This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie)

All Mixed Up (Pete Seeger)

Substitute (The Who)

I’m In A Different World (Four Tops)

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (Rockapella)

Jacqueline (David Benoit)

Autumn to May (Peter, Paul and Mary)

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

After readers finish reading my book, I hope that they gain a newfound appreciation for American education and teachers on the whole—namely when it comes to comprehending all that it takes to create a solid, healthy, inspirational learning environment for students and their parents. I also hope that readers who are parents and students will get good ideas in terms of determining which type of schools and education are the best fits for them and their children. And above all else, may each of my readers also gain a newfound, long-term appreciation for reading and writing on the whole!

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

Writing in general is very meaningful for me because I can express my thoughts, feelings, opinions, sense of humor, and articulate my intended messages for the public at large on paper in eloquent, creative ways—displaying my personality on the page and showing sides of my character that people may not see when they meet me firsthand. Being an introvert is difficult when living and working in a society that eternally promotes extroversion over all other personas! Therefore, writing helps me share my voice effectively and effervescently!

When it came time for my book to be published, the most rewarding part of the process was seeing it all come to fruition from cover to cover, knowing full well that the world was about to witness the latest (and hopefully greatest) literary work that had ever entered the scene! There is no greater feeling than presenting something to your surroundings with tremendous pride and confidence, with all positive emotions overlapping with one another beautifully every step of the way! And publishing a book can help that come about magnificently!

What creative projects are you currently working on?

In addition to routinely updating my YouTube channel, I am working on writing my fourth nonfiction book which I aim to get published in late 2026–early 2027. Each of my published nonfiction books reflects significant interests of mine, with correlations drawn between their own offerings and those belonging to the world at large—to both show my own knowledge and insights on the given subject matter, as well as draw connections to the everyday lives, experiences, and feelings of my readers! This fourth book of mine is extremely timely in its context—containing a message with helpful historical information that I hope will resonate with what I intend to be my largest reader audience/following to date thanks to continuous contextual correlations conceived from cover to cover! I look forward to presenting this published project to the entire universe when it is one hundred percent ready to be born! Thank you in advance for your interest!

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