'Hatchet' author Gary Paulsen to bring boyhood tales to Salt Lake

Read all the time.

It may seem like odd advice from someone who failed the ninth and 10th grades, but it's what three-time Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen tells young readers every time he meets them.

"I read all the time," Paulsen said in a phone interview from what he calls his "shack" in the mountains of New Mexico. "I tell young people to read like a wolf eats. Read when they tell you not to read, and read what they tell you not to read.

"Kill your TV — they're fun to shoot. However you kill it, kill it. Then where you had TV, read. Carry a book with you. Read on the bus. Read under the covers at night. Read any book with you. Just read."

School was a nightmare for Paulsen, who says his parents were the town drunks and did little to help him academically. But when a public librarian turned him on to reading at age 13, he found an escape.

"I had no home life, no school life, almost no friends," Paulsen said. "This librarian kind of intellectually took me under her wing and got me into reading. I think what happened was that kind of transposed itself into wanting to be a writer."

And after publishing more than 200 books, there is little doubt that Paulsen — who is perhaps best known for his book "Hatchet" — is a writer. It's a craft he continues to work hard at perfecting.

Becoming a writer wasn't easy, though. Paulsen served three years in the Army and worked as a satellite technician for an aerospace firm before taking a job as a magazine proofreader.

The way Paulsen learned to write was hard-core. He was able to convince three magazine co-workers and one of their wives to help him hone his skills, but that required a lot of work on his part.

During that time, Paulsen would write a chapter for a book, an article or a short story every night — none of it to be published. He would turn in his "homework" the following day for evaluation, and his teachers were merciless in their critiques.

But two things came of all that hard work, Paulsen said. "I learned how to study to be better, and I worked. I worked all the time."

That hard work has carried on for some 50 years. So much so that Paulsen even tried to write while running the Iditarod sled-dog race, which he has done twice.

He takes no time off, writing in dog camps in Alaska, while camping in the woods and while sailing boats in the South Pacific, even if that means doing the writing in longhand.

"I love writing the way you fall in love," Paulsen said. "And I've never stopped doing that."

And he loves writing for young people.

It's fruitless to write for adults, Paulsen said. Adults are locked into car payments and divorce. But children and teenagers are open to new ideas and new concepts.