Butch & Louie

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your hobbies and interests.

Societally unacceptable—with no plans to change! After all, we're Butch & Louie. We guarantee it!

When and why did you start writing books?

We were looking for something to do that wouldn't make any money, subject us to criticism, and likely heap scorn and ridicule on us, so we decided to write books. We’ve published three books in the last year: Butch & Louie’s Book of Stress-Relieving Humor, Butch & Louie’s Book of Poetry, and Butch & Louie’s Book of Odd Short Stories--and they're really odd! All of our books are free on Amazon, B&N, Apple, and Smashwords. All of them are, or have been, number 1 in multiple categories on Amazon, and we expect to end the year as category leaders.

What made you decide to tackle writing as a career?

Mrs. Blanchard, our tenth grade English teacher, encouraged our study of etymology, which looks at the origin of words and how they’ve changed over time. One day, she asked us to stay after class to discuss some specific things she thought we could do to improve ourselves. As we were taking notes on everything she said, she used the word incorrigible in a reference to us. We raised our hands and asked her if she could spell that, and maybe use it in sentence to put it into context for us. She said, “Of course. You two are incorrigible idiots who can’t spell shit!” She suggested we hang around for the summer and take a remedial class in etymology which might help us learn to string two words together that make some kind of sense. At first, we thought etymology might be a cooking class, but thanks to Mrs. Blanchard, we got our first real lessons in understanding and using words. However, she was wrong about us not being able to spell the word “shit.” If she had looked around the school, she would have credited us with using it in several places, both in context and out of context. Mrs. Blanchard would be surprised to know we overcame being idiots and so far, we've written three books, over a hundred magazine articles, twenty eight scientific papers, nine Christmas letters to family and friends, and six crossword puzzles, and we've done all of that using only words we can spell. Unfortunately, Mrs. Blanchard has dementia now and lives in a home with other people who can’t remember who lives next door. However, we’ve been told that every time our names are mentioned, she gets very animated and needs a few tranquilizers to calm down, so we know she still remembers us. Why wouldn’t she? We’re Butch & Louie.

Which one of your books or characters is your favourite?

Books are like children. We love them all just as much. We've decided to let them live in the basement until they can afford a damp, dark, musty smelling place of their own.

Which one of your books was the hardest to write and stretched you the most as a writer?

Butch & Louie's Book of Stress Relieving Humor was the hardest to write because we keep laughing while we were writing, and that caused a lot of pauses and some typo's.

Who is your favourite author and book?

Well, to be completely upfront, it's Butch & Louie. We've liked ourselves since we were kids, and when we started writing, we decided not to write anything we didn't really, really like.

What book are you reading right now?

We’re reading the instruction manual for adjusting our cam chain tensioners. Friday is date night! We’ve got to get it done.

Where do you get your inspiration for your books?

We do a lot of marketing research to identify which genres have the absolute lowest annual book sales, and then we write a book targeting that specific audience. In our latest marketing survey of 5000 people who showed signs of being able to read, they said their favorite genre was "FREE." That's where we got our Amazon pricing strategy.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

We look for used motorcycle parts. We've been very successful at finding them. They're everywhere.

Do you have any new books in the works?

Lately, we’ve been thinking about a plan to spring Mrs. Blanchard from the home and take her for ride on our Harleys, but first we’ve got to adjust our cam chain tensioners. If the cam chain tensioners are too tight, we’ll have inner bearing problems. Then we’ll have to buy hydraulic tension cam plates and won’t be able to take anyone for a ride for awhile.. In our spare time, we're working on a children's book. Specifically, it's advice on repairing Harleys and learning to grow up without becoming creepy. We thought about putting in a section on how to survive detention and come out alive, but we decided against that since kids in detention, generally, can't read anyway.