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Tunnel Vision:
Interview with Ben Crockett
By Carin Chea
Ben Crockett’s debut novel, Squeeze Light, is a welcomed nostalgic journey to Los Angeles in the 1990s.
An artist at his core, Crockett’s story can be described as a mix between The Lost Boys and Stand by Me, but set in Tujunga, a mountainside city nestled by the foothills of the Angeles Crest Forest.
However, unlike the above-mentioned movies, Crockett actually lived out the urban exploration that inspired the adventures in Squeeze Light.
The author creates a completely believable world where 13-year-olds explore the literal underground world during an era before cell phones and children relied purely on wits and curiosity.
This is a book that young readers will enjoy, but older audiences with find oddly comforting.
Squeeze Light is a delight, especially if you were a youth in the 90s, a time where 12 inch black and white TVs, Looney Tunes, and (of course) Cal Worthington and his car lot all existed in the same universe. If you know, you know.
You’re a really good writer. Why did you decide now was the right time to write your first book?
I’ve always loved writing, but after high school it was all about “finding your way.”
I rode BMX bikes every second I got. I worked in a bike shop, then in an ambulance. Then I started testing bikes for a BMX bike magazine and eventually wrote for them.
Over the next twelve years, I worked my way up to editor for that magazine. While I was there, I also began working for an off-roading magazine. When I was done with that, I had so many rules in my head from my time at the two magazines.
The BMX publication had a demographic of 13 and under and 30 and over. We were in every school and church library, so there were rules on language and what we weren’t allowed to say.
You had to be funny and edgy for the kids, but at the same time, keep things interesting for the adults.
I’ve always wanted to write, but taking that first step is always the hardest step. At some point, I went, “Take an hour, put some ideas on paper.” You get into that rhythm and you run with it.
I was listening to this comedian talk about comedy writing. He said, “If you have a great idea, you can’t write fast enough. If you have writer’s block, it’s probably not a good idea and you should throw the joke away.”
Every day I’d sit down for an hour. I’d have so much anxiety because I had so many ideas. I was worried about walking away because when I came back, would the tone be the same? Eventually, though, I began looking forward to that hour.
What made you decide to write Squeeze Light now?
It was many little things. You get older and look at your friends, people aging out, people dying.
I have a friend in the book, and he’s the only character who’s 100% that person. He got clean at the end of his life, but ended up dying due to his long-term drug use. He was larger than life.
I felt like if I told some of his stories, no one would believe me. But then I realized I could tell this as a story, and people don’t have to believe it. He’s the perfect character for this book.
He is the friend you have that you keep close because you want to see what he’s going to do, but you don’t want to be the butt of that joke. He’s that person you dread to have around, but love to have around at the same time.
He’s the root of your problems, but also the wild card that can also be the solution to you problems.
The book carries the dark reality of teenagers, but you don’t walk away feeling so sad. It’s not a dark book. I felt like if I didn’t tell the story, it might’ve got lost.
How much of your book is based in reality?
I would say about 80% is rooted in reality, but not necessarily the characters or situations. The main characters of kids are a mix between eight to ten people that I condensed into four characters.
A lot of the instances in the book are rooted in reality. All the stuff they were getting into at night, that was all rooted in reality. All that was tied together and turned into a story.
Where it’s really diverted is the last chapter, when they reunite as adults. That is 100% made up.
What inspired Squeeze Light? Was it your wild card friend?
My son was the true inspiration because he was so into [the movie] Stand by Me. His biggest frustration and lament right now is that all his friends never want to go outside. They just want to stay inside and play games.
I wanted to write something that he’d read and be excited about. There’s a character that uses his name. He’s a character in passing, but is relevant to the overall story.
Squeeze Light is based on your adolescent adventures bike-riding in the tunnels, right?
When people envision the washways that go under the street, they still envision them as caves, like ancient cave structures. I tell people they’re not caves; they were built by the city.
As kids, we would explore those tunnels which are like spiderwebs. In Los Angeles, there are over 2000 miles of washways in the LA Basin. It goes from Ventura all the way to San Bernardino County. It’s endless.
We knew La Crescenta, Tujunga, all the way to Glendale. That’s how we got around, and we’d been doing this since we were in the fourth grade.
Back then, Tujunga had bike gangs, so we navigated these tunnels to get around. It was creepy and the perfect setting for something strange to happen. You could go missing in one of those tunnels and no one would know.
Who would you cast as the main characters, both as children and adults?
I don’t know if I could do that because I can’t see them outside of how I envisioned them when I was writing the book.
If someone were to say to me, “We cast this person as this character” it would never be right because I envision specific faces to every character. So, it could be anybody.
Do you have any upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?
Once I finished the first book, I got into the mode of getting up and writing every day. And before I knew it, I was writing the second book. I don’t have a title, though.
I’m hoping, by next winter, to have that one come around.
Is it a sequel to Squeeze Light?
It’s its own stand alone and takes on a whole different cast of characters. I’m excited for it to happen, and I’m a little more than halfway done.
For more information, please visit:
www.ben-crockett.com
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