Daniel Handler

While gathering research for his first book, The Basic Eight, Daniel Handler – a San Francisco native and resident, voracious reader and accordionist – wanted to learn about the dogma of a right-wing organization by signing up for their brochures. When a representative from the organization called and asked what name to send them to, Handler blurted out “Lemony Snicket!” Thus a pseudonym was born, one that Handler has written under for his most famous body of work, the 13 darkly funny books A Series of Unfortunate Events, adapted into a film, video game, board game and now a Netflix series. There have been reams more writing, in books, articles, criticism, screenplays and short stories (under his own name). Like Why We Broke Up, The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming and the latest novel, We Are Pirates. He’s the guest speaker at the Foundation for Monterey County Free Libraries’ annual Words & Wine benefit Sept. 12 (www.fmcfl.org). He emailed the Weekly in the midst of overseas travel with his family.

Weekly: What is your writing process and how did you find it?

Daniel Handler: I read many books, go for long walks and swims, write things down in a notebook, type them out, print them out, tape them to index cards, move them around, write new things down on legal pads, type them up, print them out, carry them around frowning at them, edit them, put them in a box, wait awhile, edit them again and hope a publishing house finds them suitable. I developed this method through trial and error.

How do you know when you have an idea that’s worthy of a book?

It has a certain heft when I consider it, as if the idea is clutching the hem of a garment worn by some striding personage.

What’s the literary scene like in San Francisco?

Enormous, supportive, diverse, terrific.

You edited one of Dave Eggers’ Best Non-required Reading books. Did his 826 Valencia Pirate Store, which also functions as a place to teach kids writing, lend inspiration to We Are Pirates?

826 is a noble institution, but we arrived at our pirate inspiration simultaneously, not causationally; it just took me longer to finish my pirate novel than it did for them to help countless students.

Your alter ego, Lemony Snicket, reminds me of another Bay Area luminary with an alter ego: Greg “Shock G” Jacobs/Humpty Hump of Digital Underground. Have you met “them”?

No, but “Kiss You Back” was a favorite cassingle of mine, back in the day.

Do you ever feel the urge to get away from the Lemony Snicket persona lest it overwhelm conversation?

I try not to overwhelm every conversation in any case, but I don’t always succeed. It is flattering that anyone is interested in my work and I have no interest in complaining about any aspect of this.

You are pictured often wearing respectable suits. Why is that?

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work,” says Flaubert, and I won’t contradict him. I greatly admire formality and find it to be a great catalyst to creativity. Plus, if you are wearing a suit and tie anybody will let you do anything.

The common wisdom says that people are not reading as much literature as they used to. Do you believe it?

Yes, I keep coming across this “common wisdom” too. In fact, I keep reading it. Perhaps I should read less worrying “wisdom” and more literature, as literature makes me believe and common wisdom makes me worry.

You’ve mined high school and honed in on the lives of young people in your stories. What is it about young people that makes for rich characters for you?

I think everyone is haunted by those times in our lives, and so a story with such people in it is more likely to be haunting to more people.

What does it feel like, what does it mean, to have sold 60 million books?

It feels astonishing. I don’t think it means anything.

Why do you think your children’s books, though dark in tone, are so popular with children?

I am mystified by my own particular success, but I do believe people (not just children) like stories in which things happen.

Care to speak out about anything on your mind?

For about two years I have been swimming regularly in the San Francisco Bay and it’s been an overwhelmingly powerful experience. It is difficult to describe without sounding like a New Age fool, but I thought I would mention it.