Just out, The Valedictorians chronicles the emotional turbulance of the college-to-post-college years. And there could be no better, more apt topic for rising author Mitch Cote-Crosskill, 25, to tackle in his debut novel as he weaves bits of his own life in real time onto the page. We sat down with the talented storyteller to discuss his first effort and what he hopes readers take away.

GHOST: How long did you think about writing a novel before pen touched paper (or fingers touched keyboard)?

Mitch: I began to consider creative writing my first winter out of college.  It was a direct response to the life I was living at that time, which wasn’t a happy one.  I began to see writing as a necessary catharsis, and by the spring of ‘07, had left my job and broken up with my girlfriend, so I had the free time and even more inspiration to write. I began the first pages in May ‘07.

GHOST: What were some of the bigger struggles you encountered during the writing process?

Mitch: Finding the time was the biggest issue. Also for a guy who was already writing because he was pretty depressed, staying in on the weekends to write wasn’t the best antidote.

GHOST: For those who haven’t read the book, explain the premise.

Mitch: It’s a coming of age novel that focuses on two best friends, Sam and Pete, and the paths that they take during their first tumultous years out of college.  Within the microcosm of their lives we begin to see the same uncertainty and self-doubt, tinged with nostalgia for their collegiate past, that I believe is endemic to so many in this generation in particular. People born from 1975-1990.  For grads like Sam and Pete, kids who graduated elite liberal arts colleges armed with a sense of their own destiny but not much else, the initial adjustment to the “real world” is overwhelming. It ends up crippling Pete and it’s clear that Sam is at risk to suffer a similar fate. Whether or not Sam will succeed in conquering his demons is the question hanging over the novel. This book delves into the dangers inherent in being unable to uncover a path for yourself. 

GHOST: How much of this is autobiographical? How much did you pull in from friends or yourself to create Sam and Pete?

Mitch: It’s inspired by the life I was leading in those first couple of years after college, and I used many events that occurred in the lives of my friends and myself. Of course, the great thing about fiction writing is you can take an interesting moment in your life and let your imagination run wild, speculating on what could have happened. What you read in all likelihood did not go down exactly that way. For example, the “Dreamscape” chapter was inspired by a dream Ghost contributor Jake Grindal had the first winter out of school. I wrote it down, and ended up using it, but as he will confess, I took some liberties. I didn’t feel it necessary to include the bits of his dream (there was a unicorn montage) relating to his abandonment issues. As readers could guess, there is a lot of Sam in myself. The idea of Pete was based off a real Pete, a friend of mine from college, but in a lot of ways, Pete represents a collegiate Mitch that didn’t survive the transition out of school, a self-destructive side which (thankfully) eventually went into remission.

GHOST: In what ways were your own college and post-college experiences different from what’s in the book?

Mitch: Well, no suicides, thank God. I mentioned how the events’ authenticity was inexact, but it’s a little eerie how the arc of the the characters’ lives so closely followed my own at the time. In a couple of cases what I wrote would occur in my life some months later. And when you get to the deepest and darkest parts of the novel, you can assume that, as I wrote it, I was currently enduring the same issues described on the pages. This also applies to the high points.

GHOST: What message or idea do you hope your reader takes away?

Mitch:  That, for all the shit life throws your way, it’s how you interpret that shit that will predict how well you will persevere in life. Never get tunnel-vision and never pity yourself for very long. Always allow yourself to step back and try to grasp the bigger picture. Easier than it sounds, but perspective will save you from self-destruction. Also, that your personal relationships with friends, family and lovers are critical to your survival. Without a solid network to rely on, alienation sets in and despair soon follows. You can’t toil in a vacuum with only your own thoughts as companions. It doesn’t matter how intuitive and self-aware you think you are, you need to bounce your hopes and fears off of others to keep your mind from drifting to extremes.

GHOST: What other coming of age novels do you like?

Mitch: Revolutionary Road isn’t exactly a coming of age novel, but it does deal with lost innocence and adjusting to adulthood and responsibility.  A Separate Peace has always been a favorite of mine. And, although it’s not a novel, David Foster Wallace’s graduation speech at Kenyon College is easily the best thing I have ever read regarding the transition from college to the real world. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the movie (not the book) The Graduate. I finally watched it for the first time a few months before I began writing, and, like Revolutionary Road, it’s aged perfectly. Tonally, it completely captures the mood of the recent graduate in a way I aspired to duplicate when I wrote.

GHOST: Any advice for aspiring novelists?

Mitch: Be prepared to sacrifice your free time for a project with minimal prospect of success. I didn’t just write to write, I wrote because I had a story, and that power of that story and its relation to my own life helped pull me through the tough spots. It’s a draining process so if you’re looking to complete a novel, make sure you have faith in the power of your narrative. This way, whether or not you receive any material reward for your efforts, you can rest easy knowing you told a tale that deserved to be told. But that’s just me. I’m a storyteller more than a writer, and if you’re one of those with the gift to make the words dance across the page then you might not need am enduring story, just a beautiful way of describing icicles shimmering in the moonlight.