Features Column

Life with Children • ‘Heck’ a vivid success

By eric bartels

The Portland Tribune, Aug 14, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Dale Basye, who has done all kinds of writing, can thank his 7-year-old son for his new career path.

In raising Oggi – short for Ogden – the adman and one-time journalist spotted an opportunity in children’s literature.

“It reacquainted me with the classics and it introduced me to some of the new stuff going on,” he says. “I was impressed with how much you could get away with.”

So Basye, 43, wrote “Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go,” a book for young readers published by Random House last month. The Wall Street Journal called it “a very funny debut novel,” part of a spate of good press that led to a rush reprint of the book.

Now Basye has completed the second book in a planned four-part series and is working on the third.

“I’m slated to have a new ‘Heck’ book every summer for the next four years,” he says.

The book details what happens when nerdy little Milton and his nihilistic 13-year-old sister, Marlo, are consumed by a flaming marshmallow bear at the mall and find themselves in the juvenile version of H-E-double hockey sticks.

It’s a spirited romp through an (under)world that Basye describes in lively, lurid detail. Heck’s headmistress is Bea “Elsa” Bubb, a vile demon whose official title is “Principal of Darkness.”

The place features a cafeteria that offers little more than overcooked Brussels sprouts served by a lunch lady that “sported a series of hairy moles and weeping boils and wore a hair net over her bald head.”

At times, the book may seem a bit high-concept for kids, with references to Greek mythology, Typhoid Mary and Richard Nixon, but the author says that was intentional, something he learned from his relationship with his son.

“I felt like knowing him made me realize ‘Oh, I can use that big word,’ ” he says. “A kid will understand that on some level.

“For the most part, I was told to play and explore. I was always kind of pushing things. I said ‘I’m gonna put some things on the other side of the line.’ ”

Basye says writing “Heck” and its sequels has presented him with two challenges. The first was creating a credible fictional world, something he felt he did effectively.

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