My friend Lou Aguilar, whom I met when we worked at the Washington Post in the 1980s, and who has been working as a scriptwriter in Los Angeles, has written a book about a dog running for mayor, Jake for Mayor. I interviewed him this weekend by email and here is the slightly edited transcript.
No spoiler alert: I don’t reveal the ending.
Q. You worked at the Washington Post, where we first met, and then moved to Los Angeles where you’ve been a scriptwriter. Which experience was more important to you in writing your first novel, Jake for Mayor?
A. I’d make them both equally important, at least for “Jake for Mayor”, since it has a political element. As a Washington, D.C., reporter, I interviewed a few politicos and their consultants. The latter group intrigued me. Some of them were idealists, steering their candidate toward a heartfelt agenda. A few were mercenary, seeking to advance themselves.
Such a man, at first, is Ken Miller, the protagonist of Jake. What changes him from heel to hero, a special dog, is the essence of the story. As a screenwriter, you learn to tell it economically and pointedly. Of course, the third requirement is a lot of good literature reading.
Q. Good literature reading? Can you give a few examples?
A. Absolutely. For Jake, a strong influence was Burroughs. Not William; Edgar Rice. Tarzan of the Apes and its 23 sequels were writing lessons in how to “humanize” animals into believable characters. I devoured those books as a kid, which led me to his influences, Kipling and Jack London. My dog character, Jake, is sort of a Chaplinesque figure. He doesn’t talk, but he does communicate.
Q. This sounds like you have gotten a long way from — or gone back to a long way before you encountered them — Washington politicians and consultants.
A. Right. I was going to write a first novel about my Washington Post days, where ideological passions ran deep, from lowly copy-aides to Ben Bradlee. At the time I was making a living on straight-to-video “B” scripts. But one day, a breathtakingly beautiful woman showed up on Venice Beach, who also wanted to be a writer.
Tammy was from Erie, Col. Her home town, she said, had just had a dog run for mayor, and did I think that was a story Hollywood would want to buy? We conceived it as a screenplay first. But when I wrote the full script, it went into the Hollywood black hole for years. Last year, I rewrote it as a novel, and it sailed through to publication.
Q. I would guess that writing a script is quite different from writing a novel. Is that right? If so, how so?
A. Unless you’re in the million-dollar screenwriter club, you have to worry about running the gauntlet of studio dragons: reader, head of development, producer, studio executive. You can’t offend any of them in their politically correct universe, which now extends to minutiae, such as your depiction of a female character. Is she too objectified, for instance, or not “tough” enough?
All those concerns are in your head while writing the thing. There’s much less of that in literature. In other words, you can make a girl character as sexy as you want, or even, gasp, a damsel in distress. The story, characters and themes are exclusively yours. On the plus side, a screenplay makes a great outline for a novel. Jake did.
Q. I’ve heard it said that when you write a book, you should have a certain sort of reader, perhaps even a specific person, in mind. Did you do that here?
A. When I decided on Jake for Mayor, I knew it would have to appeal to readers of all ages. As a boy, I read very little young adult fiction like The Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, delving straight into Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan and the Three Musketeers. This taught me that you can engross young adults without catering to them.
I applied that philosophy to Jake, and I think I succeeded. Youngsters will enjoy Jake the dog’s antics, adults the political satire and romance — and Jake’s antics.
Q. Is your candidate a Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative? Or do you leave that ambiguous?
A. Ah. I’m no fool. People of all political stripes will love the book. It’s about right and wrong, not left or right. The protagonist is a selfish political consultant in need of redemption, which Jake the dog offers him. That said, it’s a perfect tale for this election, when being a dog is no disqualifier.
I recently read a great lede on a presidential election story: “What’s the difference between your widely despised candidate and ours? About three points.” Jake might not be able to beat either Hillary or Trump in the race for the White House, but he’d crush them both on likability.
