An Interview with Michael Sirois

Michael Sirois taught English, drama, and technology to middle school students for twenty-three years before spending seven years as an educational program manager at Rice University. He retired in 2009 to write full-time. His novels include a thriller about an 8,000-year-old sociopath, a two-book saga about a monarch butterfly’s migration, and a non-fiction book about an innocent man in prison. His next major project will be a series of novels based on the Arthurian legends, but set in a post-apocalyptic American South. He has always been interested in exploring all aspects of the human condition.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

I heard an NPR story on my way to work one morning. It was about a butterfly expert who was leading a group of people up a mountain path in Mexico to see monarch butterflies roosting on the oyamel trees. The temperature was bitterly cold, and there had been a recent rain. As they walked. The expert said that they heard a loud crunching noise underfoot and discovered they had been walking on frozen, dying butterflies. I couldn’t get the image of that out of my head, so I started researching monarchs. Before long I had a thread of a story. I wondered what would happen if the butterfly’s journey from Canada to its overwintering home in Mexico was affected or altered by various people who interacted with it. What if those interactions caused changes in their lives and in the life of the butterfly? It expanded from there.

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

The title actually arrived before I had even settled on the idea for the series. The NPR story reminded me of the saying, “If a butterfly flaps its wings in South America, will there be typhoons in China?” The first three words were a perfect title, “If a Butterfly…” I picked the names of the two books in the series later, basing them on stages in a butterfly’s metamorphosis. Chrysalis for the first book because that one gives birth to everything that follows, and Emergence for the second book because that is where the story emerges into its final form.

Describe your dream book cover.

I don’t have a particular stylistic preference for covers. I have been doing my own covers and interior design from the beginning. I think the ideal cover should suit the genre and the emotional impact I hope each book will have on its reader.

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

Music has always been important to me, and my If a Butterfly series does have a soundtrack of sorts. One of the characters in the book is a rock DJ and other characters spend part of their journey (on the road and in outer space) listening to songs or talking about music. The series playlist (which includes 25 songs by a wide variety of artists; Bruce Springsteen, Harry Nilsson, Fiona Apple, Los Lobos, the Beatles, and a number of others) can be found on Spotify.

What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?

I read from a wide variety of genres. I’m finishing up a novel now that’s a prequel to my thriller Jagged Man. Part of the novella takes place during the 1666 Great Fire of London, so (for research) I’ve been reading Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn’s diaries from that period, but for pleasure I usually try to read something that is different from what I’m writing at that moment. My current pre-bedtime reading is Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley mysteries.

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

Other than the educational career I mentioned in my bio, I have been a radio DJ, worked security for Rockets and Comets games and for rock concerts, have done various jobs that involved manual labor, and have been an actor, along with a bunch of other things. Learn more on my website michaelsiroisauthor.com.

I guess most of my readers wouldn’t know that I have a Bacon Number of 2 in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. Kevin was in a movie with Karen Allen (Animal House), so her Bacon Number is 1. I was in a movie with Karen (a very small part in Challenger; I had no scenes with her), so my Bacon Number is another step away from Kevin (a 2). Incidentally, I often describe the If a Butterfly series as being something like Six Degrees of Separation From Kevin Bacon, if Kevin happened to be a butterfly.

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

I think I’ve always wanted to write. I was turning Classics Illustrated comic books into a playground activity in elementary school, and was writing short stories and poetry soon after that. I dabbled in plays and screenplays for a while as well, but my inner voices kept telling me I needed to go bigger, needed to write novels. I suppose I’ve been influenced by everything I’ve read. Science fiction and adventure when I was much younger. Horror (Stephen King in particular) in my late teens. My palette expanded as an adult to an eclectic mix of writers like Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Emily St. John Mandel, etc. I also find that I’m drawn to books that are written in series, so I frequently read and re-read authors like Diana Gabaldon, Justin Cronin, Ian Rankin, George R.R. Martin, etc.

Where is your favorite place to write?

I don’t think I have a favorite place. I have written in all sorts of places. On planes, at retreats, sitting on top of a hotel washing machine, in an entrance to an arena while I kept watch over elephants for a circus, and in coffee shops, etc. But 99% of my writing is done in my study, on my computer, facing a corner bookshelf.

Do you have any writing rituals?

I put a mug of coffee on a warmer on my desk. I put my butt in my chair. I write. I take breaks when the mug is empty. Nothing other than that, if that could be considered a ritual.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

In the If a Butterfly series, I would hope that they would finish the books with a sense that all life on this planet is connected and ultimately dependent on every other form of life, and that we should all feel a responsibility for preserving it.

I guess I would have to say that I am my own perfect reader. I try not to write for any specific reader or genre sensibility. I mostly write about subjects and ideas that excite or challenge me in the hope that those ideas will generate interest in other readers.

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