His writing style: Take "Small Steps"

Louis Sachar is tired of talking about "Holes," his acclaimed Newbery Medal-winning novel that he also adapted into a hit movie and Seattle Children's Theatre play.

So while his new book, "Small Steps," published earlier this month by Delacorte, follows two minor characters from "Holes" (Armpit and X-Ray), it's not really a sequel.

"I don't think writing more about Stanley and Zero could hold my interest," said Sachar in an interview from his Austin, Texas, home. "I was intrigued by what life would be like for someone like Armpit, who managed to get through Camp Green Lake but has to cope with real-world problems."

In "Small Steps," these issues include befriending a 10-year-old neighbor with cerebral palsy, dealing with protective parents, trying to graduate from high school, avoiding arrest for scalping concert tickets and hanging out with a teen rock star.

Even with the eight-year gap between best-seller "Holes" (published in 1998) and "Small Steps," Sachar admits it was risky revisiting that popular literary world. But any new work would end up compared to "Holes," "no matter what I did," said Sachar, whose 20-some children's books are mostly light fare such as "There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom" and the "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" series.

"Small Steps" received mixed reviews — Publisher's Weekly called it a "disappointingly flat spinoff of Sachar's resonant Newbery winner" — but Sachar insists he wasn't trying to write another version of "Holes' " complex and twisty plot.

The title relates to Armpit's new approach to life, courtesy of his counselor. Life is like walking upstream in a river: Take small steps and move forward. Try a big step and get knocked downstream.

"That's my philosophy, it's the way I write. I write about two hours a day. ... But after two years, or a year and a half, all those small steps add up to something."

He wrote six drafts, a process that lets him follow "different strands" as it progresses. "I don't make an outline. Generally, I don't know what the story will be. As I rewrite, I figure out what I like and build on that part."

Stephanie Dunnewind: sdunnewind@seattletimes.com