By S. Mark Rhodes

Author Peter Heller is well known for his innovative and adventurous non-fiction and journalistic work including Kook: What Surfing Taught Me about Love, Life and Catching the Perfect Wave, an account of several months of the author’s life learning to surf under the guidance of surf gurus in Mexico and California. He also famously learned to fly in less than a month in a Men’s Journal piece entitled “How to Be a Bush Pilot in Less than a Month.”

Mr. Heller’s debut novel, The Dog Stars (Knopf) connects directly to his interest in aviation.  The Dog Stars tells the story of a pilot named Hig who attempts to cope in a post-apocalyptic landscape by piloting his 1956 Cessna around what used to be Colorado (with his dog as a co-pilot).

With this work, Mr. Heller has emerged as a unique voice in American letters, someone whose storytelling ability bears watching.  Mr. Heller was nice enough to speak with Mark Rhodes about The Dog Stars, aviation and other aspects of his adventurous existence.

IF USA: This is your first novel after several well-received works of non-fiction, many of these works revolved around your own personal experiences like surfing or flying.  What was it like to construct something fictional?