Q&A with Robin Rosenbluth

  

Photo by Rudy Riesgo

 

Robin Rosenbluth is the author of the new memoir Living with Strangers: Healing a Wounded Heart in a Distant Land. She has worked in the nonprofit sector in New York, and she teaches fundraising at New York University. She lives in Brooklyn.

 

Q: Why did you decide to write this memoir?

 

A: For readers, I wanted to inspire older foster youth to believe that a better future lies ahead and that one person (for me, a guidance counselor) can help us get on that path.

 

In addition, I wanted to show foster parents the importance of caring for foster children, even when they don’t seem to want it. I want to see improvement in the foster care system.

 

I also wanted to highlight the common humanity we share with the Rendille and Samburu people: our care for our children, the ways we help neighbors, and our ability to befriend outsiders and people from other cultures. This is especially important to me in a US culture that breeds racism and xenophobia.

 

On a personal level, the year I spent in Kenya, living with the semi-nomadic Rendille and Samburu tribes, was life-changing. There, I found more acceptance (as the only white person/foreigner in the village) than I had received from my father, stepmother, and foster parents.

 

I came to understand that I could be vulnerable and honest without losing the people I wanted to care about me. It helped me believe I could have and maintain healthy relationships, something I had been unsure of before my time there.

 

Q: In the book’s acknowledgments, you credit your publisher with the idea for the book’s “braided” structure--can you say more about that?

 

A: I started writing by transcribing my journal from the year I spent in Kenya, maybe 10 years ago. Then I worked to create scenes about living there; writing creatively is nothing like journal writing: the former is for readers, and the latter is for me alone.

 

To understand why and how I spent a year in Kenya as a 19-year-old student, I used flashbacks to my mother’s early death, my brief time with a stepmother, and my teen years when I was sent to foster care.

 

When I completed what I learned is called my “vomit draft,” though I had edited it quite a bit, I wanted external feedback from an editor. I had taken memoir classes with Brooke Warner, who founded She Writes Press (my publisher), and paid her to review it.

 

She gave me good feedback, though the biggest suggestion, which would take much time, was to write full chapters about my childhood through my teen years and then braid them -- or go back and forth -- with chapters about my Kenyan life.

 

Q: The author Angela Quijada-Banks called the book “a beautifully written exploration of connection and belonging.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Angela is someone I met when she presented at a You Gotta Believe event (where I sit on the board of this foster care agency dedicated to finding permanent homes for older foster youth). I was taken by her commitment to the nearly 95 percent of foster youth who are African American.

 

I was deeply moved that she connected with both my foster care experience and my sensitivity to how I navigated cultural differences while seeking acceptance. As a former foster child herself, she could see the ups and downs of my journey and resonate with it. I only hope that others can also take a similar ride through my experience.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: In many ways, it was a full acceptance of who I’ve become, in spite of, or perhaps because of, my difficult childhood.

 

My ability to write about loss and abandonment, especially as a foster child, and to publish this story for people who had no idea about my past was, in a way, saying this is who I am, where I came from, and that I am now the happy person you know. For those who do not know me, I feel like I am giving back to the foster care community.

 

I also feel good writing about my deep connection to people from such a different culture. I hope that older foster youth will be inspired and that people reading about Kenya will see the common humanity and depth of emotion all humans feel.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am writing essays (two of which will be published in October: Certain Age and Women Writers, Women's Books), and others are pending. I will have an essay in Foster Families about teens in foster care. I am also writing micro-memoirs.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I serve on the board of You Gotta Believe, a New York nonprofit that helps older foster youth find permanent families. I am a member of Impact 100 NYC, a women’s funding circle that reviews proposals from New York City-based organizations making an impact; we award $100,000 grants.

 

I volunteer with Heartbeat Music Project, a small nonprofit that provides music lessons to Navajo children on the reservation in New Mexico.

 

I have made a living as a fundraiser for 40 years, helping organizations whose missions resonate with me. I have taught fundraising at Columbia University and still teach at NYU. I also provide fundraising consulting for nonprofits.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Scott Howard-Cooper

  

 

 

Scott Howard-Cooper is the author of the new book BAM!: John Madden, the NFL Explosion, and the Video Game That Changed Sports. His other books include Kingdom on Fire. Also a journalist, he lives in Northern California. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write this book about football coach and broadcaster John Madden (1936-2021)?

 

A: I turned on the TV on Thanksgiving a few years ago. The NFL Network, the first on the air to celebrate the football holiday, had a segment on John Madden on its morning show.

 

The game that followed included a logo of Madden painted on a sideline or behind the end zone. (I can’t remember which.) Same thing with the pre-game show on whatever network broadcast the next game, and then with the field tribute in the game itself. And then the two other networks and the two other games followed.

 

This was obviously a coordinated effort from the highest levels of the league office. I thought that was the ultimate perspective, that the NFL still wanted to attach itself to the Madden mystique even years after his passing. Now that’s popularity.

 

Intrigued by the statement on his legacy and his value to the No. 1 sport in America, I began calling people who knew Madden or could speak to his impact and found that few people knew the real John Madden, that no one had put his true impact in perspective in book form, and, most of all, that there was a new story to tell. Now I was inspired.

 

Q: The author Jack McCallum said of the book, “Scott Howard-Cooper picks the perfect subject to examine the evolution of pro football and sports media--a seemingly traditional coach-turned-announcer who, along his eventful journey, became a revolutionary.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love it because that’s what we were going for. My original pitch to Diversion Books was a traditional Madden biography, but the bosses there, Scott Waxman and Keith Wallman, saw BAM! as the chance to do exactly what Jack McCallum said, to put a microscope on Madden after he retired from coaching to examine the big picture.

 

Readers can take it a step further and say, yes, we see the evolution of the NFL and sports broadcasting through Madden in stunning ways, but keep going and they see a similar impact in sports computer gaming and maybe even in train and bus travel for a few years.

 

This is a guy who reached the greatest heights of his dream job as a football coach, winning a Super Bowl as the ultimate team achievement and making the Hall of Fame as the highest individual tribute, and yet his real legacy is what came next. What a fascinating journey.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: The research process was pretty typical — a lot of conversations, a lot of reading documents from the time, a lot of watching old football broadcasts.

 

(I suppose that last layer is atypical based on the topic, but biographers will always search out videos, if available. And if some of those documents from the time happen to be portions of John Madden’s Raiders playbook, it’s not traditional digging either.)

 

It all introduced me to a different Madden than most people knew existed, obviously a positive for a book on someone who spent decades in the public eye. There is a lot of new and surprising in BAM! and I know this became I am among the surprised.

 

I was shocked to learn John’s impact on building the Fox entertainment empire. It is amazing to say, but also accurate, that the Fox we know today may not exist if not for him. And I don’t just mean Fox in sports broadcasting. Connected to that, the story of how Fox landed the NFL rights in the first place is fascinating.

 

I was also surprised to learn about the business side of Madden. He was very demanding behind the scenes on broadcasts, to the point that a lot of people feared his wrath.

 

Not because he would raise his voice, not because he was 6 foot 4 and often around 300 pounds, and not because he had the star power to get people fired. It was because he set very high standards for himself and expected the same of others. No one wanted to disappoint him.

 

Similarly, there is a scene detailed in the book of Madden meeting three members of the Electronic Arts team during a train ride to discuss what would become the amazingly successful home-computer football game.

 

The three guys were shocked at how Madden controlled the conversations in the dining car as the antithesis to the fun goofball they had only known from watching him on the air. In short, to use delicate language, Madden could be a real son of a gun, but in a good way.

 

I was also surprised at the people who are part of the story. I didn’t have to stretch to get Bruce Springsteen, Richard Nixon, Don Rickles, Yoko Ono, and others on the pages. Not just football people. John Madden was a series of surprises.

 

Q: What would you say are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about John Madden?

 

A: Madden promoted the image of himself as a bumbling loudmouth broadcaster — Homer Simpson with a headset — because it was good for business. It led to millions in commercial endorsements, and to hosting Saturday Night Live and appearing in music videos for U2 and Paul Simon.

 

It was not inaccurate in that he was an unpolished network analyst with a wonderful sense of humor. But it was a caricature because Madden was actually the farthest thing from a comically brutish knucklehead who crashed through fake walls to sell beer and diagrammed on the screen how steam rose off the head of a Dallas Cowboys player on the sideline.

 

The story about how he first joined forces with Electronic Arts on the train ride fits as well. Big misconception. Madden was not there to play their fool, no matter what his image said. He was about preparation. He was a great success because he had a big brain, and that point is often overlooked. Hopefully BAM! shows the truth.

 

His struggles with air travel is one of the biggest misconceptions. Madden did not have a fear of flying. He had anxiety, and at times severe anxiety as the book details in showing his case was more severe than most knew. It was the claustrophobia of not being able to get on and off whenever he needed, one of the primary selling points that led him to permanent bus travel.

 

He hated being on elevators when necessary to get to the press box at a stadium or his room at a hotel. ("Big bed, low floor,” the assistant booking the room was told repeatedly as Madden priorities.) It was about being confined. His friend and broadcast partner Pat Summerall even suggested it was the reason Madden often left his shoelaces untied, to feel less confined.

 

The common perception that he was approachable and fun-loving was, thankfully, accurate. (John Madden didn’t do phony.)

 

He loved people and his interactions with people he met in roadside dive joints for meals and the dining car on long Amtrak rides, to the point that Madden would often initiate conversations or make sure they continued if the other person left him alone to give the famous traveler his privacy. Where do you live? What do people there do for fun on weekends? Tell me about life as a farmer, as a salesman, as a cop, or whatever.

 

That the sincerity came through on NFL broadcasts is one of the main reasons he became a network and commercial superstar.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am all BAM! all the time now. I am excited about the potential of a few ideas for a next project, but have not developed any of them very far. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I loved doing BAM! and hope that energy comes through on the pages. It sounds strange, but having John Madden in my head every day for a couple years was fun. His family, friends, and colleagues were generous in sharing their memories because it was a chance for them to spend time around him again. I get it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Justine Payton and Caroline Beuley

  

Justine Payton, photo by Gabriela Cudicio

 

 

Justine Payton and Caroline Beuley are the editors of the new book Between Our Legs: Silence-Breaking Personal Narratives on Gynecological Health. Payton lives in Michigan, and Beuley lives in Washington, D.C.

 

Q: What inspired you to create this anthology? 

 

A: The idea for our book, Between Our Legs, was conceived over a sushi dinner during a girls’ night out as we shared stories about various gynecological issues we had struggled with over the course of our lives. We realized every woman had a story, but as a society we weren’t having those conversations, at least not publicly, not loudly.

 

We wanted to confront that silence, because women’s health is more than just having babies and shouldn’t be shrouded in stigma and taboo. This silence can be detrimental to our health. It can even cost us our lives.

 

Our hope is that Between Our Legs will become part of the canon of books that spark those necessary conversations around women’s health.

Caroline Beuley, photo by Gabriela Cudicio

 

Q: How did you choose the essays to include in the book? Were they written specifically for this project?

 

A: Most of these essays were written specifically for this anthology, and you will only find them Between Our Legs!

 

Finding the authors was a lengthy process, as we wanted this collection to represent not just a diversity of gynecological health experiences but also of identity, sexuality, and age. This required a pretty delicate balancing act to make sure the final book was as comprehensive and representative as we could make it.

 

We solicited some authors who we knew were writing about these topics, and for other authors, we knew we loved their work and asked if they had a story to share, and then we worked with them to finalize their ideas. 

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: Finding a title that was representative and provocative without being inappropriate or vulgar was definitely a challenge! We came up with so many title options.

 

At one point, we thought of “Between the Stirrups,” referencing those lovely, cold stirrups your feet go into at a gynecology appointment, but we worried people might think it was a book about riding horses.

 

So when we thought of “Between Our Legs,” changing just one word, we knew it was the one. This title not only captured the gynecological focus of the book, but the words “between our” communicated the idea that we wanted this book to spark conversations between people and be an exchange of stories and experiences. Plus, we thought it was a title that would make people stop and pick up the book in stores! 

 

Q: The author Rachel Kauder Nalebuff said of the book, “The stories in this collection...are educational, yes, but also a powerful embodied window into understanding the violence and beauty of our time.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: We are living in really challenging, volatile times that are often polarizing between one “side” and the “other.” But gynecological health shouldn’t be a polarizing issue. Everyone loves someone with a uterus, regardless of what they may otherwise believe. And we all came from a uterus (and with Justine just recently having a baby, we can assure you this is no small feat!).

 

The essays in Between Our Legs therefore speak simultaneously to contemporary struggles while also serving as a testament to the strength, bravery, and beauty that women inherently possess.

 

Rachel Kauder Nalebuff’s description is true to our intention, because even amidst the challenges of our times, our hope is that this collection will speak to a way forward, one that is rooted in compassion, understanding, acceptance, and strength.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: If Between Our Legs resonates with readers, we have often discussed the idea of writing a follow-up anthology. There are so many more stories and experiences out there about gynecological health that we would love to spotlight.

 

We are both fiction writers as well, currently working on novels. We share an agent and he gets to see the full spectrum of work from both of us! 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: If this collection achieves its goals, Between Our Legs will only be the beginning! Our hope is that the essays included in this anthology will spark further conversation that extends far beyond the pages of this book. These essays break the silence around gynecological health, and our hope is that our readers will keep talking.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Oct. 27

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Oct. 27, 1936: Neil Sheehan born.

Q&A with Kaz Windness

  

 

 

Kaz Windness is the author and illustrator of two new children's books--Bitsy Bat, Snow Star (the third in her Bitsy Bat series) and Time-Traveling Chickens: Bawk to the Future (the first in a new series). She lives in Denver, Colorado. 

 

Q: What inspired this new Bitsy Bat book, and why did you decide to focus on snow?

 

A: Years ago, I painted a little watercolor picture of Bitsy hanging from a snowy branch wearing a scarf and mittens on her feet. I gave the painting to my editor, Catherine Laudone. When Bitsy Bat, School Star and Bitsy Bat, Team Star were so warmly received, Catherine reached out to me and asked if I could come up with a winter story for Bitsy.

 

“But I don’t like winter,” I said.

 

“Great!” she said. “Write about that.”

 

And so I did.

 

Because bats aren’t cold-weather animals, it was the perfect opportunity to explore the sensory issues many autistics, myself included, experience. It was also fun to paint cozy outfits and shimmery, magical environments.

 

Each Bitsy Bat book explores a different aspect of autism. Besides the sensory aspects, Bitsy Bat, Snow Star shows Bitsy masking her true feelings as a way of trying to be liked. It also shows her experiencing selective mutism, where she can’t express her feelings or needs.

 

With some support from Mr. Nibbles and her classmates, eventually Bitsy can communicate her needs and tell her friends what brings her joy. There are lots of ways to experience the magic of winter.  

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Bitsy and her classmates?

 

A: Benjamin Berry is a sweet mouse who loves making snow angels in the soft snowbank.

 

Winnie Whiskers is a strong-willed bunny and thinks winter is all about wearing the cutest outfits and building the best snowman.

 

Gilbert Mole loves fast sleds and steep hills and catching some air on an icy jump.

 

Enzo Owl and Mo Porcupine like reading books in a cozy nook and sipping hot chocolate. Enjoying the pretty snow from inside is what they love best.

 

While Bitsy admires all her friends and they do their best to include Bitsy in their activities, it’s Enzo and Mo’s example that helps Bitsy realize she can love the snow without being out in the snow. I am with her on this.

 

Q: You also have another new book out...Time-Traveling Chickens: Bawk to the Future. How did you come up with the idea for this new series, and how did you create your characters Nugget and Tenders?

 

A: My kids and I would often come up with funny characters and zany ideas during lunchtime. One day they were eating chicken nuggets, and we came up with Nugget and Tenders and decided the wildest, weirdest thing they could do would be to time travel in a fried chicken bucket.

 

From there, we would imagine where the chickens would go. To dinosaur times? To Washington crossing the Delaware? To the moon landing?

 

When my Worm and Caterpillar are Friends publisher, Siobhan Ciminera, asked me if I had any ideas for a fun and fast-paced graphic novel with a lot of humor and compelling characters, I immediately thought of Nugget and Tenders.

 

The Star Chapter Book series are designed to capture the interest of older elementary readers who have been left behind in the literacy crisis. The books have short chapters and lots of exciting art to support the text, plus topics that this age group will enjoy.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently working on a new five-book series for Tux Guy, Cat Spy. These will be both picture books and early readers and follow a young tuxedo cat as he trains to be a spy and goes on his first missions to capture bad guys with the help of his gadget bowtie and the underground cat spy network.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Yes! I have lots of activities and educator lesson plans for the Bitsy Bat series at BitsyBat.com. Also, feel free to follow me on all your favorite social media using the handle @kazwindness or visit me on my website, WindnessBooks.com. Happy reading, everyone!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Kaz Windness. 

Q&A with Molly Harris

  

Photo by Saol Nua Photography

 

 

Molly Harris is the author of the new children's picture book I Need Space. Her other books include The Big Squeeze. She lives in Ireland. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write I Need Space, and how did you create your character Rocco?

 

A: This story popped into my head one night when I was talking to my preschooler just before bed. He was having anxiety over a friend of his, who played a lot more in-your-face than my son was used to. He was getting overwhelmed and uncomfortable and starting to dread school.

 

My advice that night was to just tell the friend, “Hey, I like playing together, but right now I need space.” As I said it, I realized we were looking up at his star projector, laying on his rocket-shaped pillow… his whole bedroom was space themed! How had someone not written a book about personal space set in space?

 

For the story, a rocket ship seemed a perfect character to display a huge range of emotions: from thrusters blazing with frustration to jets cooling with calm. Thus Rocco was born!

 

Q: What do you think Jon Corby’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Not only do Jon’s illustrations bring life and luster to the deep, dark corners of space, but they also aid in the telling of the story, which is what every author hopes for. You really want the text and the illustrations to play well together.

 

So I don’t have to say, “Rocco experienced a range of emotions on the playground.” A child can tell just from the colors alone: dark green shadows of the formidable meteors, bright red frustration bursting out of the rocket, calming dark purple for the outer edges of space.

 

Not to mention, he’s captured the excitement and mysteries of the universe in such a child-friendly way!

 

Q: Did you need to do any research to write the book, and if so, did you learn anything especially surprising?

 

A: Some parts of this story I knew instantly. I knew I wanted the story to be about a rocket ship playing in space, and I had a few ideas for some good playground parallels: Mars dust as a sandbox, Saturn’s rings as a slide, gravity assist as a merry-go-round. I knew that a meteor shower would be our rocket’s foil.

 

I knew that I wanted the “dazzling” side of space to resemble the stunning photos that had just been released by the James Webb Space Telescope.

 

But I needed more! So as all professional writers do, I Googled “stuff in space” (embarrassing, but true) and went down many a Wikipedia rabbit hole, gathering ideas for other ways Rocco could play with the environment.

 

A couple things I learned in the process: “Spaghettification” is a real word describing how you’d get stretched into a black hole. My nightmare. I knew Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was a big storm, but I had no idea it had been raging for almost 200 years! Staring at the James Webb photos for too long will result in an existential crisis.

 

Q: The Booklist review of the book says, “The story offers a gentle, relatable introduction to managing big emotions and recognizing when it is time to step away and re-center.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: That lovely review sums it up very nicely. The universe (like life on earth) is vast and chaotic and scary at times. I wanted to create a book that acknowledges all of that, and acknowledges that with all that tumult comes big feelings too.

 

And while no one can control the universe (nor can you control anyone else’s behavior), you can control some things. You can take space. You can take deep breaths. You can shift your mindset.

 

These are really heady concepts, but kids do grapple with them, and my hope is that a book like this helps with conversations about getting through tough moments. When life gets crazy, when the playground gets hectic, when things seem unfair, these are some of the things you can control.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have so many picture books I’d love to get into the hands of young readers! I can’t talk about anything specific yet, but I will say that while I’m known for my inanimate object characters with big feelings, I’m veering into the lands of monsters and beasts a lot more!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Oct. 26

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Oct. 26, 1880: Andrei Bely born.