Twenty Random Questions with Children of the Canyon’s Author-David Kukoff

Published on by Tosha Michelle
  1. If you were Alice, would you rather stay in Wonderland on the other side of the mirror, or come back to the real world to tell your story?

NO BRAINER – COME BACK AND TELL MY STORY. UNLESS THE MAD HATTER SERVED TACOS BY LEO (MY FAVORITE LA TACO TRUCK) AS HIS DAILY TEA SNACK; THEN IT’D BE A TOSS-UP.

  1. Do you sing in the shower?

YES – AND ON KEY.

  1. What childhood fear do you still have as an adult?

HEIGHTS.

  1. An author with whom you would like to have lunch?

TIM O’BRIEN.

  1. Do you wake up at night to read or write?

ONLY WHEN MY DREAMS ARE BORING ME.

  1. Do you feel anxious or excited when you start to write?

DEPENDS ON HOW PREPARED I AM. WHEN I’VE ALREADY WORKED OUT IN MY HEAD WHAT I’M GOING TO WRITE, I’M EXCITED TO WRASSLE WITH THE MOTHER TONGUE.

  1. Does darkness soothe you or frighten you?

NEITHER – IT’S WHERE I LIVE, BABY. THINK WATER :: FISH.

  1. If you ruled your own country, who would you get to write your national anthem?

JONI MITCHELL.

  1. What makes you nostalgic?

MY KIDS.

  1. Does love dry up your creative juices or make them flow faster?

DRIES ‘EM UP. ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE ISN’T REALLY IN LOVE.

  1. Do you remember your dreams?

SOMETIMES – SEE ANSWER TO #5.

  1. What’s your favorite color?

TOO MANY ANSWERS, BUT HERE ARE A FEW SAMPLES: TO WEAR, BLACK. TO DRIVE, GREENISH KHAKI. TO DATE, THE FULL RAINBOW COALITION.

  1. What’s your favorite season?

ANYTHING THAT’S NOT WINTER.

  1. Does pressure motivate you?

IF IT COMES IN THE FORM OF A DEADLINE, YES.

  1. Would you rather live to write or write to live?

I’VE DONE THE LATTER, AND IT MAKES YOU A HELL OF A LOT MORE GRATEFUL FOR THE FORMER. CAN YOU DO BOTH? I’M ON THE VERGE OF PULLING THAT ONE OFF NOW, I THINK.

  1. What published book do you secretly wish you had written?

WHITE NOISE. AND NOT SECRETLY, EITHER.

  1. Are you the paranoid type or calm, cool and collected?

NEITHER, REALLY.

  1. What would qualify as the afternoon of your dreams?

DRIVING MY CONVERTIBLE AROUND ALL MY FAVORITE NEIGHBORHOODS IN LOS ANGELES, ENDING ON THE BEACH.

  1. Are you more like the sun or the moon?

DESPITE MY GLIB ANSWER TO #7, THE SUN. I’M ACTUALLY A PRETTY UPBEAT PERSON.

  1. Do you hear voices?

EVERY WRITER SHOULD, AT TIMES. RIGHT?

 

I’d like to thank David for taking time out of his busy life to participate in this blog post. I do have to wonder why he felt the need to yell at us. (Kidding) Here’s a little more about David and his poignant coming age novel Children of The Canyon.

 

About David:
“I put every syllable of a novel through the wringer hundreds of times to measure everything from connotation to rhythm.”

“A native Angeleno and graduate of Columbia University and UCLA Film School, David Kukoff has eleven produced film and television credits to his name (including the hit Disney movies “Model Behavior” with Justin Timberlake and Kathie Lee Gifford and “Switching Goals” with the Olsen Twins). Following a spec screenplay sale that made the front page of Variety, he went on to write for every studio and network in Hollywood, publish two books on film and television writing, and be the subject of numerous features in Variety, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, and KCET’s award-winning “Life And Times Tonight.”

Mr. Kukoff has also taught writing at Northwestern (where he was elected to the university’s Faculty Honor Roll in his first year), UCLA, and NYU, served as a guest editor for UK academic publisher Palgrave MacMillan, and been featured as a guest lecturer at UCLA’s Faculty Lecture Series at Lake Arrowhead.”

Children Of The Canyon

Children of the Canyon tells the story of David, a boy growing up in LA’s fabled Laurel Canyon neighborhood as the 1960s counterculture is coming to an end.

David’s record producer father works with the reclusive former leader of a surf music band on an album that promises to elevate the legacies of both men to immortal status. His distant, peripatetic mother rides the waves of activism and feminism in and out of David’s life. The elusive Topanga, named for the city’s last remaining Eden, whom David meets on the beach the night of his parents’ separation continues to elude his futile attempts to reconnect with her throughout the decade.

Through David’s eyes, we bear witness to the fallout from the California Dream’s malfunction: the ruined families, failed revolutionaries, curdled musical idealism, and, ultimately, the rise of the conservatism that put the country on its present path.

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