Eoin Colfer with Artemis Fowl (played by Matthew Taylor) at the Vancouver downtown public library.LAURA LEYSHON/The Globe and Mail
The sales of his wildly popular Artemis Fowl series at bookstores around the world may have made Eoin Colfer a (very) rich man, but the former Irish school teacher is still very much in love with the library.
Growing up just outside the city of Wexford, young Eoin (pronounced "Owen") would visit the library two or three times a week, taking out as many books as he could, and reading whatever he could get his hands on: everything from Alexandre Dumas and Jules Verne to Robert Ludlum and Stephen King.
To this day, a library book gives him a special feeling. "People say the smell of a new book is great. But I kind of like that old musty book smell. When you look at it and someone hasn't taken it out in eight years, it's like a forgotten treasure."
And so Colfer - at 45 small and greying, quiet but very, very funny - was right at home at the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library, where he recently took his Artemis Rocks! book tour - its only Canadian date. He was particularly excited about the Vancouver stop, because he knew that in a few days the library would officially announce its choice for its One Book, One Vancouver initiative: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Colfer is a huge fan of the Douglas Adams series and last year published the sixth Hitchhiker's book, And Another Thing ... The assignment, coming after Adams's death, was a terrific honour - and one of the scariest things Colfer has done. He turned down the proposal at first, but then relented. They wanted three books. He agreed to one. He took a pay cut to do it (having to share his usual fee with Adams's estate). And he was anxious.
"I don't enjoy being put in a position where there are such expectations," he said during an interview in the VPL's boardroom. "The message I'd get [from fans]is: This better be good or we will hunt you down. That's not helpful. Also I adore the original books so much that I really didn't want to be the guy who messed up Hitchhiker's."
Colfer is a prolific writer with several series on the go, including The Supernaturalist and Eoin Colfer's Legend of ..., and he has an adult crime novel coming out in the spring. But it's the Artemis Fowl books that have won him his devoted following (so devoted that his VPL reading really did feel like a rock show complete with the threat of trampling when dozens of kids went running for the autograph table).
It's been almost a decade since he introduced Artemis: a 12-year-old Irish boy with a voracious appetite for knowledge and adventure - and far too much freedom for his own good, thanks to the disappearance of his father and the subsequent inability of his mother to leave her darkened bedroom. In an attempt to rebuild his family's fortune, Artemis, with the help of his powerful manservant Butler, kidnaps a fairy - Captain Holly Short - and the cross-species battle begins.
Artemis is a human - or one of the Mud People; Holly is a member of the elite LEPrecon police squad: yes, the root of "leprechaun," in Colfer's rich, imaginary world.
"I've always kind of lived half the time in my head. It's a way that writers are not forced to grow up in some ways," Colfer said. "Most people don't have time for imagination. You can't sit down for three hours and think about fairies. You've got to pick up the kids or you've got to do your job and when the kids go to bed, you've got to get their lunches ready."
Colfer was able to give up his teaching job a decade ago when he signed the deal for the first Artemis Fowl. "I was worried about leaving, because we were always taught: You try to get a permanent pensionable job. You never leave a job. ... [But]publishers started booking tours and I realized I was just going to have to bite the bullet and quit the job and hope that this Artemis Fowl book took off. Luckily it did, or I would have been in trouble."
One of the reasons for the series' success, Colfer believes, is his refusal to be patronizing. "I decided that I would try to write a story that was appropriate without being simplistic in any way. And I think kids appreciate that - especially boys, because boys are a bit fed up being treated like they're a bit dumb and they don't really want a clever story, they just want explosions."
Philip Wing, 12, a fan who turned out for Colfer's appearance in Vancouver, said the technical details and intelligent writing are a large part of the appeal. "I think it's one of the best books out there for kids our age. I hate to make an example of other authors, but the Twilight stuff is dumb. Artemis Fowl, however, you can read it and be able to make connections. With Twilight it's 'oh a vampire; let's fall in love with him.' "
Colfer has borrowed heavily from his family for his Artemis character. The idea to create a suit-wearing 12-year-old anti-hero (with, at times, a good heart) came to him when he was looking at a 1980 baptismal photo of his then 12-year-old brother, Donal. While the other boys in his class stood with hands clasped, Donal's arms were outstretched and he appeared to be mugging for the camera.
"I thought: Wouldn't it be fun to have a 12-year old who was the bad guy?"
(Donal Colfer, by the way, is now a successful architect in Dublin.)
Early on, the author also borrowed from his students, aged 10 to 12, and now has his sons to steal one-liners from. Finn, 13, and Sean, 7, are the direct models for Artemis's younger twin brothers, Beckett and Miles. But as they get older, they are becoming models for Artemis himself.
"Really Finn has taken over as Artemis Fowl now that he's 13. I'm modelling a lot of what Artemis does on what Finn would do."
These days Sean is really into wrestling, and there is evidence of that in Colfer's latest book, Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex, published last summer.
Sean and Finn aren't exactly devoted readers of the books, but they're getting there. For Sean, the writing is still a bit difficult. Finn, a sports enthusiast, is working his way through book three. "He has asked me: 'Dad, when are these gonna get funny?' I say 'Finn, everyone thinks they're funny.' He says: 'Well I'm funnier than your books.' And he is, too."
In The Atlantis Complex, the seventh novel in the series, Artemis is 15. Once again, there is a strong environmental theme: Things start off on a glacier in Iceland, where Artemis unveils his invention to stop global warming. And a cross-species romance just may be blossoming between Artemis and Holly.
They're going to have to hurry things up. Colfer says there will be only one more book in the series. "I want to finish it up while it's still very popular. Also I feel one more is the end of the story. I don't want to drag it out. I'm sure I could write 10 more, but really it feels to me that it's still dense with adventure and excitement. And if I keep going for too much longer, that will sort of thin out."