date: 2007-09-17 07:39 subject: HEIDI'S PICK SIX - BRIAN BUTKO security: Public tags: brian butko, heidi ruby miller, heidi's pick six, non-fiction

Sarah and Brian Butko

HEIDI'S PICK SIX

1. Which of your characters is your favorite?

2. Tell me about your travels.
We only took short trips when I was young, but for some reason, I thought that when I grew up, that’s what I’d get to do all the time. When I did grow up (well, got older), I was disillusioned, so I think writing about travel is my way of attaining that lost dream.

3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Coffee with cream.

4. What else can you do besides write?
5. Who are you reading right now?

6. Pop culture or academia?
That’s a tough one – I edit an academic mag but try to give it broad appeal through good storytelling. Same with my writing, I want it to be a good resource but also want it to be enjoyable. Not an easy mix, and one that I learn more about every day.

7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?

9. Food you could eat everyday.
Macaroni & cheese. Friends laugh that no matter what I have, it’s some form of that.

10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?

11. What kind of music speaks to you?
All kinds, though I probably know more about popular music from the 1960s-80s. I especially love how music quickly changed in the late 60s, much like car styles did in the late 50s.

12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
13. Celebrity crush.

14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
The three biggest influences are pretty common books: The Killer Angels for making the reader feel they are there; Centennial for characters being more than caricatures; and The Great Gatsby for its beautiful language. In non-fiction, I love artist John Baeder’s Gas, Food, and Lodging. And I like time travel stories!

15. Do you still watch cartoons?


Brian Butko is editor of Western Pennsylvania History, the quarterly journal of the Senator John Heinz History Center, and author of numerous books, including Greetings from the Lincoln Highway: America’s First Coast-to-Coast Road, Klondikes, Chipped Ham, and Skyscraper Cones: The Story of Isaly’s, The Lincoln Highway: Pennsylvania Traveler’s Guide in two editions.

Brian is co-author of Diners of Pennsylvania with geography professor Kevin Patrick, plus Roadside Attractions and Roadside Giants, written with his wife Sarah about offbeat places along America’s two-lane highways. Brian is also co-editor of Industry and Infantry: The Civil War in Western Pennsylvania and project director of Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era.

Brian served as an associate producer of two WQED-TV productions, Pennsylvania Diners and Stuff That’s Gone. He appeared in that diner video and 11 other productions, including features on The History Channel, PBS, and PCN.


HEIDI'S PICK SIX, Heidi Ruby Miller, Brian Butko, Pennsylvania Diners, Stuff That's Gone, Western Pennsylvania History, Senator John Heinz History Center, writing, author interviews