The Voice of An Author: An Interview with David O’Leary Wielgosz
November 24, 2009 at 11:26 pm mbutler22 Leave a comment
“Something about being a teenager just tears the whole world away from you, and I guess the outcome of that is what makes you the man you are going to be. So, what will I be…?” — Gardener Fox, main character in author David O’Leary Wielgosz’s first novel, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired.
A writer well beyond his years, Wielgosz debuts his novel with an honest insight and real-life approach to the intricacies of a teenage world. Through a story of struggle and a message of self-acceptance, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired touches on the relevance and intensity of such a defining age. We are able to look behind the scenes, into the heart of the story — the heart of this 17-year-old author hoping to open up alternatives to a generation — to an age of constant uncertainty with life-changing consequences.
Wielgosz, a “kid” from Holyoke, Massachusetts, dreams of stories — “of creating new worlds for people to escape to.” In his first work of fiction, Wielgosz describes Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired as “honest with a lot of heart.” The story of Gardner Fox, a 16-year-old boy dealing with the hand life provided. A hand that leads him to question who it is he should be and the struggles of change within his surroundings — or perhaps the struggle to remain who he is…who we all are.
“I started off as a fat, love-sick fanboy with delusions of grandeur, but at the end, after God, Buddha, or Vishnu, or Odin, or Superman, or whoever the hell up there got through throwing rocks at me and brought me back down from that miserable tree I was in, I ended up being something I was even less proud of.” — Gardener Fox
According to Wielgosz, this is “a story about growing up and how on any given day you can feel like the king of the world or just another chump.” A story of significance that transcends from generation to generation as we all search for our place, our meaning, and our relevance.
Inspired by life right now and by friends, peers, acquaintances, and those simply observed, Wielgosz took the actions and emotions to their “logical extremes.” He hopes “to show that we are all better than this.” That the beautiful and ugly chaos is simply being a teenager, but that your choices will change you.
“Everything about this book is a product of me, and nothing in the world could ever make me more proud. It is not a work without flaws, but what is?” says Wielgosz, a quote almost symbolizing the story itself. “I don’t pull my punches and each character is a real teenager, [struggling through] morality, sexuality, friendship, life and death.” Through his book, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired, Wielgosz proposes a challenge. A challenge to better yourself, to believe in who you are, and to realize that these years are critical in the shaping of who you will become.
- Melissa
Entry filed under: Behind the Scenes. Tags: David O'Leary Wielgosz, Featured Author, Self-Publishing, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired, writer, Writing.
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