Q&A with Jaqueline Snowe

  

 

 

 

 

 

Jaqueline Snowe is the author of the new novel Swing and a Kiss. Her other books include Snowed in for Christmas. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Swing and a Kiss, and how did you create your characters Cassidy and Nate?

 

A: I absolutely LOVE writing sports romances because I think sports bring out both the very best and the very worst in people.

 

There's something fascinating about the pressure, competition, passion, and vulnerability that come with being an athlete. You can be on top of the world one minute and completely humbled the next. And I think that's such a fun space to explore as a writer, especially when you throw love into the mix!

 

Nate actually came to me first. I wanted to explore a character whose identity was so deeply tied to his sport and what happens when life forces him to confront who he is beyond the game. Athletes are often expected to be these larger-than-life figures, but behind the statistics and headlines, they're still human beings trying to figure things out.

 

Cassidy, on the other hand, was inspired by the rise of influencers and the way social media has completely changed how people build careers, relationships, and even their identities.

 

I loved writing her because she's young, she's messy, she's ambitious, and she doesn't always get things right. But that's what makes her feel so real to me! I didn't want her to have everything figured out. I wanted her to be someone who was still learning who she was, even while the world was watching.

 

And putting those two personalities together? SO much fun.

 

Q: In the book’s acknowledgments, you write, “This story is a love letter to the [Arizona] Diamondbacks.” Can you say more about that?

 

A: Absolutely! My husband worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks for a decade, so this organization was a huge part of our lives for a very long time. And when I say the Diamondbacks are special, I genuinely mean it.

  

What I've always admired most about the organization is the effort they make to connect with their community. It's not just about what happens on the field or how many games they win. It's about the fans, the families, the people who show up season after season, and the relationships that make a baseball team feel like something bigger than a business.

 

I've had the opportunity to see some of that firsthand, and it gave me such an appreciation for all the people and moving pieces behind a professional sports organization. There are so many stories happening beyond those nine innings.

 

So when I wrote Swing and a Kiss, I wanted to capture a little bit of that magic. The excitement of baseball, the connection to the community, and the way a team can become part of a city's identity. It's my little love letter to an organization and a sport that have meant so much to my family.

 

Q: The novel is set in Phoenix. How important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Setting is HUGE for me, especially when it's somewhere that has been such a meaningful part of my own life. Phoenix was our home for 14 years, and I think when you've lived somewhere that long, the city becomes part of who you are.

 

There's something so distinctive about Phoenix. The desert landscape, the mountains, the sunsets, the absolutely ridiculous summer heat! But there's also this incredible energy to the city, especially when it comes to sports. Phoenix has such a passionate sports community, and I wanted that to come through in the book.

 

I also think setting should do more than tell readers where a story takes place. I want them to feel like they're there. I want them to experience the atmosphere, the culture, and all those little details that make a place unique.

 

Writing Swing and a Kiss was almost like getting to visit home again. It gave me an opportunity to put a little piece of a place I love into a story that I hope readers will love, too.

 

Q: What role do you see grief playing in the novel?

 

A: I think grief is such an interesting emotion to explore because it doesn't always look the way we expect it to. It isn't necessarily this big, dramatic moment where someone breaks down. Sometimes it's quiet. Sometimes it's messy. Sometimes it shows up in the decisions we make, the people we push away, or the things we hold on to long after we should have let them go.

 

One of the things I wanted to explore in Swing and a Kiss is how grief can exist alongside love, ambition, and even happiness. Just because someone is laughing or falling in love doesn't mean they aren't also carrying something heavy.

 

I also think grief and identity are so closely connected. When we lose someone or something that has shaped our lives, we sometimes have to rediscover who we are without it. And that process isn't linear. There are setbacks, moments of growth, and moments when you feel like you're right back where you started.

 

I love writing romance because, at its heart, the genre is about hope. And I think there's something really beautiful about characters finding connection and allowing themselves to experience joy, even when life hasn't turned out the way they imagined.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm currently working on a sports romance called Fumbled Feelings, and the best way I can describe it is YEARNING. So much yearning. So much tension. All the complicated feelings!

 

Our heroine is a star soccer player who unexpectedly crosses paths with the husband of an old college friend. The two women have lost touch over the years, and her former friend has since passed away, leaving him a widower.

 

And that's where things get complicated.

 

I really wanted to explore what happens when you start developing feelings for someone you never imagined you'd fall for. Someone who, in your mind, should be completely off-limits. There's guilt, there's longing, there's the weight of the past, and there's this question of whether pursuing happiness means betraying something or someone you once cared about.

 

It's a story about love, loss, loyalty, and all those feelings we sometimes wish we could turn off but absolutely cannot.

 

I'm having a lot of fun breaking these characters' hearts. And hopefully putting them back together again!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Fair warning: Swing and a Kiss might accidentally teach you baseball statistics you NEVER needed or wanted to know. You're welcome! HA!

 

But really, I hope readers come for the baseball and the romance and stay for the characters. I love writing people who are a little messy, who make mistakes, who have big feelings, and who don't always know what they're doing. Because honestly, isn't that most of us?

 

And if you walk away from this book with a new appreciation for baseball, a little love for Phoenix, or a sudden urge to attend a Diamondbacks game, then I consider that a win!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with David Barnett

  

 

 

 

David Barnett is the author of the new memoir Foxtail. He lives in Austin, Texas. 

 

Q: Why did you decide to write this memoir?

 

A: The initial spark was generated by a raw, incandescent rage that followed a perceived betrayal by my oldest childhood friend—after which I promptly went on the bender to end all benders, which concluded with a booze-and-cocaine-fueled manic rant to another dear friend, Alonzo.

 

Zo provided a listening ear and some sage advice: the only way to process the fury and hopefully reach some sort of catharsis was to write it all down.

 

So, I did.

 

I never envisioned it becoming a published memoir. Foxtail started off as a writing exercise intended to exorcise my demons. I began that exercise with vengeance in my heart. I wanted to rip my betrayer’s heart out of his chest and devour it.

 

But that vengeance precipitated reflection, which brought about introspection, and ultimately, I stumbled ass-backwards into a place of forgiveness and acceptance—both of myself and of my oldest friend. The end product is Foxtail.

 

Writing this book also ushered in a profound subconscious awakening that ultimately concluded what had been a very dark period in my life.

 

I was still mourning the loss of my dream. I was imbued with grief after making the necessary, deliberate decision to abandon what had been a lifelong ambition: to become a real-life rockstar.

 

It was a decision I made in order to save my own life, because had I pursued that end any further, it would’ve been the end of me. I’d have surely died, and the book wouldn’t exist.

 

Looking into my own dark rooms and shining a bright, darkly comedic light on the wreckage eventually helped me process the grief, and I ultimately came to grips with my failure.

 

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

 

A: The title refers to a literal object from my youth which became a personal totem—a kid’s toy, the foxtail, which was essentially just a baseball attached to a technicolored fabric windsock.

 

In the book, it first appears during a pivotal childhood camping trip to Inks Lake in which the respective spirits of my best friend Doug and I became inextricably intertwined.

 

When one chucks the foxtail into the air, it soars gracefully, riding the airwaves and creating an invisible wake in the sky. Upon its descent, the trajectory is always incredibly difficult to judge, and even if you are able to track it, the hardest part is always the catch.

 

For me, the foxtail serves as an extended metaphor for the trajectory of my own life: spent navigating the treacherous terrain, testing social norms and boundaries, and being unapologetically outlandish in all that I do. It signifies the intoxicating literary mix of friendship, betrayal, chaotic chemical dependency, and music all twisting around one another.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write this book?

 

A: The writing process itself humbled me—and ultimately saved me. When I finished the first draft, I thought I was God’s gift to literature, but looking closer, it was absolute garbage—written from a place of immense arrogance, hubris, and hidden insecurity.

 

I shelved the project for six months, allowed my bruised ego to heal, then began the process of true self-exploration. It took quite a few sleepless nights—and quite a few Coors Lights—to undergo the ego rehabilitation necessary to learn true humility.

 

I forced myself to look deep within, explore all the nooks and crannies of my psyche—of my spirit—and I eventually came to terms with my faults, follies, failures… and my mortal sins.

 

It’s an intensely grueling process: an emotional excavation. It teaches you to stop taking yourself so seriously, which I believe is the most essential characteristic for a good writer to possess. Hell, for a human being to possess.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: I hope for readers to find both immersion and escapism. I want them to feel—deeply.

 

But I also want them to be swept up and carried away from the invasive, distorted noise that defines our modern society. I want them to find a place of solace where they can escape from the constant, collective worldwide bickering over each and every trivial bit of nonsense.

 

I provide no moralizations in this book. There is no neat and tidy, carefully manicured author persona; I just tell the story exactly as it happened—with brutal honesty—and let the reader make their own judgments.

 

Ultimately, I want them to feel a deep, visceral connection to the story. Even if they haven’t lived the same type of transgressive, chaotic, debaucherous, and outlandish life I have, the reader will relate. I believe that with all my heart, because above all, the story is about the human condition.

 

I believe Foxtail is a universally relatable chronicle. It’s about the constant state of subconscious bewilderment we all face brought about by existing as conscious entities, whilst at the same time, being trapped inside a sack of meat, collagen proteins, nucleic acids, and calcium phosphate.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I didn’t draw up a set of initial blueprints in which this had been my intent, but Foxtail will be a three- or four-part series (depending on how much more the respective sections continue to expand).

 

So, I am currently deep in the active drafting process for the subsequent installments of Foxtail, and if I do say so myself, the prose is looking exceptionally lethal. (Tentative name for the first impending sequel: Foxtail Pt. II: Grey Matter).

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The linear timeline of Foxtail leaves me at 18 years old. I am 38 now, so I hope that readers will recognize that the person on the final page was an intensely confused, profoundly fractured teenage wastoid doing anything he could to survive a psychological and emotional abyss that he, himself, had manifested over years of self-abuse.

 

Since then, I have done the heavy internal work, healed, and grown into a semi-functional, semi-contributing member of society. So fear not: I am not the boogeyman—I am not “comin’ to getcha.”

 

Also, on November 7, (two days before the official publication date), I am staging a live Heavy Metal Showcase and Spoken Word event featuring readings from Foxtail, (as well as a few other surprises). It’s taking place at The Loading Dock ATX in Austin.

 

The entry fee of $25 includes not only the privilege of witnessing the beautifully-brutal, regional metal heavyweights, Hatewaker and Nemesis, but also a copy of Foxtail. I’ll even sign it for you if you should so desire (although that will surely depreciate the market value given that I’m a total nobody).

 

Nevertheless, if anyone wants to come to the Foxtail release party, you can find all the pertinent details and snag your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/foxtail-release-party-tickets-2002562162335

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Janie Emaus

  

 

 

Janie Emaus is the author of the new children's picture book Mrs. Claus's Noodle Kugel. Her other books include Latkes for Santa Claus. She lives in Southern California.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Mrs. Claus’s Noodle Kugel?

 

A: The first book in the series, Latkes for Santa Claus, came out in 2020, followed by Easter Eggs and Matzo Balls in 2023. They were fun books to write and appealed to such a wide audience that I always knew I wanted to write another book with the same characters.

 

The Latkes story ends with Mrs. Claus loving the latkes recipe. One day while walking, I imagined Mrs. Claus making noodle kugel, with the noodles flying everywhere. The title popped into my mind. And then I needed a story!

 

Q: What do you think Bryan Langdo’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Bryan’s illustrations are fantastic. He balances the holidays on each page and makes the characters come to life. At every book signing, I get numerous compliments on his illustrations.

 

Q: The author Barbara Bietz said of the book, “Mrs. Claus’s Noodle Kugel is a fun and engaging story, perfect for blended families who celebrate holidays with joy.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love what Barbara said. That is exactly the perfect description of my story. And I love all her books, so it was an honor for her to review mine.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: First off, I want readers to see themselves in the story. When I was raising my daughter, celebrating both Hanukkah and Christmas, there were no books to represent our family. That’s why I wrote the first book, Latkes for Santa Claus. 

 

Secondly, I want readers to realize how important it is to share, whether while cooking, playing, or ducking from noodles.

 

And lastly, I hope my readers laugh and want to read my books over and over.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m always writing new stories, whether actually on paper or in my head. At this time, I hope to have a new book out in 2028.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I would love my readers to know that I love them! I love meeting readers at book signings and talking to young aspiring writers and illustrators. And I wish everyone a very happy and noodley holiday season.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Janie Emaus. 

Nov. 7

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Nov. 7, 1913: Albert Camus born. 

Q&A with Charlotte Lillie Balogh

  

Photo by Jackie Batch Photography

 

 

Charlotte Lillie Balogh is the author of the new young adult novel Capsized. She also has written the YA novel Kill the Lax Bro. She lives in Los Angeles. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Capsized, and how did you create your characters Margaret and Jo?

 

A: Capsized is a young adult book about a girls’ rowing team, and it was inspired by my experiences as a competitive rower in high school and college. However, despite always wanting to be an author, it didn’t initially occur to me to write a story set in the rowing world—I think I was just too close to the subject!

 

I later moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting, and when I began a part-time job coaching a real-life rowing team, I realized that writing a book about the sport was the perfect combination of two of my passions—rowing and writing.

 

Coaching also gave me the opportunity to see the sport from a different perspective, and watch a new generation of girls find their place on a team.

 

As for our protagonists—Margaret and Jo—I always thought of the two as foils to one another. Jo is a freshman—impatient, outspoken, and still figuring out who she is—while Margaret is a senior—polished, graceful, and someone who has sacrificed everything to get to where she thought she wanted to be.

 

Despite their differences, both girls are deeply loyal and remarkably stubborn, which unites them early on.

 

In many ways, I’d like to think that Jo is the freshman version of myself. Margaret, on the other hand, is the big sister I needed, wanted, and was lucky enough to find as a younger athlete on my team.  

 

Q: The author Alexandra Brown Chang said of the book, “Balogh effortlessly pulls the reader into the high-pressure world of elite rowing, where ambition, loyalty, and scandals collide.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think it’s a fantastic description! I love that Chang captures the energy of the book in just a few words.

 

One of the things I appreciated about my own high school team—and wrote into the world of Capsized—is that the girls at our boathouse came from completely different worlds. We all attended different schools, public and private, and had different backgrounds.

 

Rowing has a reputation for being an “elite” sport, and while there is historically a financial barrier to entry, I also wanted to challenge the idea that rowing exists only as an extracurricular for college applications.

 

Ultimately, I wanted Capsized to capture that rowing is about so much more than winning—it’s about friendship, identity, belonging, and the relationships you build with your teammates.

 

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

 

A: At first, I foolishly thought there wouldn’t be a lot of research I’d have to do, simply because I was writing about a topic so close to home. I was quickly humbled!

 

Like many sports, rowing has its own specific language, and I made sure to ask my dad, a rowing coach himself, to read various drafts of the book. He held me accountable down to the literal nuts and bolts.

 

For example: I initially wrote that the uniforms are made of “spandex,” but it’s actually “sweat wicking lycra.” I also learned that “gunnel” is spelled like “gunwale”—a word I heard every day as a rower, but never had to spell myself. Until now! 

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I did! Which is a little bizarre looking back now, seeing as I’ve been working on this project for eight years, and many other things did change along the way (mostly: character names).

 

However, I always wanted to write a book set during the fall rowing season in Boston, which meant things would naturally come to a head at the Head of the Charles Regatta (pun intended). That race has played a very important role in my life, as an athlete and spectator, and is still my favorite race every year.

 

Without giving too much away—even the way the finale of the book is written, and the POV we are in during the race itself, was something I saw from the very beginning.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Earlier this year I wrote a TV pilot called Heartbreak Hill, a half-hour rom com about a headstrong college senior who gets dumped by her high school sweetheart and decides to run the Boston Marathon. That script placed on the 2026 Love List, a collection of the best unproduced romance scripts in Hollywood, and I am now adapting the story for a New Adult novel.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m still a rowing coach today! In addition to my writing career, I work with middle and high school girls at RowLA, a nonprofit in Los Angeles dedicated to empowering young women through rowing.

 

I believe team sports are one of the most positively impactful things in a young person’s life (or any person, at any age) and that learning how to be a team player is the most important thing we can do.   

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Suzanne Poulter Harris

 

 

 

Suzanne Poulter Harris is the author of the new children's picture book The Boy Behind the Wardrobe: How C.S. Lewis Grew Up to Create Narnia. She is originally from Northern Ireland, and is now a literacy tutor at an elementary school in the Washington, D.C., area. 

 

Q: Why did you decide to write a children’s picture book biography of the writer C.S. Lewis, creator of the Narnia books (1898-1963)?

 

A: I was born and raised in County Down, Northern Ireland, and taught geography two miles from C.S. Lewis’s childhood home in Belfast. I grew up immersed in the world of Narnia.

 

In 2015, I’d moved to West Texas and was feeling very far from home. So, I decided to expand my picture book writing skills by taking a narrative nonfiction writing class.

 

At that time there were no other picture book biographies on C.S. Lewis. My original idea was to create a beautifully illustrated book highlighting the mountains, castles, and coastlines in the north of Ireland that inspired C.S. Lewis’s magical world of Narnia.

 

Q: What do you think Mira Miroslavova’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Mira’s art brought my words to life with a beautiful balance of whimsy, magic, and groundedness. Her illustrations throughout are so intricate and gorgeous that readers will want to revisit the book to study all the little details.

 

I gravitate towards writing picture books because I think visually, but I imagine more realistic scenes in my head. I’d included an art note about a telescope in the spread where C.S. Lewis and his brother spy on ships in the bustling Belfast Lough. Mira surprised me by using that little note to create a whimsical, wonderful illustration that I’d love to hang on my wall.

 

Mira’s visual storytelling in the wardrobe scene is simply spectacular. In fact, her artwork for The Boy Behind the Wardrobe has been selected for The Original Art at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. This annual exhibit showcases illustrations from the year’s best children’s books!

 

Q: How did you research Lewis’s life, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I spent the first 10 months on research. It was fun mining all the information to discover little gems that lent themselves to beautiful illustrations and to find quirky details that I thought might resonate with children.

 

I read over a dozen biographies on C.S. Lewis, but the most relevant material for the story I wanted to tell came from C.S. Lewis’ autobiography, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life and from C.S. Lewis: Letters to Children.

 

In addition to reading, I took advantage of my annual trips home to Northern Ireland. My on-the-ground research started at Belmont Tower in East Belfast, which housed a small exhibition about C.S. Lewis, including some of his letters and first editions of The Chronicles of Narnia books.

 

I perused newspaper clippings in the library archives and then retraced C.S. Lewis’s steps around Belfast … from the site where he was born to the solitary lamppost in the wooded driveway of Campbell College, where Lewis attended school for one term.

  C.S. Lewis Square, Belfast

I also took day trips to the Mourne Mountains in County Down and Dunluce Castle in County Antrim to visit the landscapes that inspired Narnia and Cair Paravel.

 

I was surprised to learn that C.S. Lewis was missing the upper joint in both his thumbs. He struggled using scissors and got frustrated trying to make cardboard models of castles and ships. In Surprised by Joy, he explains, “As a last resource, I was driven to write stories instead; little dreaming to what a world of happiness I was being admitted.”

 

His inability to do certain things was a blessing because it forced him to try something new — something he loved and later excelled at. What a great message for kids with disabilities or for those who struggle to do something that other people can easily do.

 

Q: Do you think kids would need to be familiar with the Narnia books before reading your book?

 

A: If kids are familiar with Narnia, they might enjoy making connections between C.S. Lewis’s childhood and his imaginary world, but The Boy Behind the Wardrobe can be enjoyed by readers who have never picked up a Narnia book.

 

I recently presented my book to 3rd to 6th grade students at Lynbrook Elementary, where only a few students had heard of C.S. Lewis or Narnia. Yet, they were fully engaged in the story and asked insightful questions.

 

In fact, the librarian had to order extra copies of The Chronicles of Narnia because students are now requesting those books in the school library. It makes me happy that my book is introducing a new generation of students to C.S. Lewis and Narnia.

 

At its heart, The Boy Behind the Wardrobe celebrates creativity and imagination and the joy found in drawing, reading, and writing—activities that will resonate with most young readers.

 

The book encourages children to look around where they live and to try to write their own stories. It also explores universal themes like resilience and making friends.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’ve been working on polishing a couple of quirky, humorous picture books. I also recently completed a six-week course, Panel by Panel: How to Write Comics and Graphic Novels by Marcie Colleen.

 

I’m eager to start working on an early reader graphic novel using one of my picture book characters … but that will have to wait until after the excitement of my debut book launch has settled down a bit.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: There will be renewed interest in Narnia and C.S. Lewis with Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew coming to movie theaters in February and then onto Netflix.  

 

Before seeing the movie, I would encourage people to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which was the first Narnia book that C.S. Lewis wrote, followed by The Magician’s Nephew, the story of the creation of Narnia.

 

I’d love children to know that before the best-selling books and the blockbuster movies, there was a boy with a big imagination. A kid just like them. I think C.S. Lewis’s real-life story is as inspirational as the magical books he created, and I hope parents, teachers, and librarians will introduce children to The Boy Behind the Wardrobe.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Eliana Miao

  

 

 

Eliana Miao is the author of the new children's picture book The Brave Fuzzy: A Microbiome Story. She is a high school senior and is the executive director of the nonprofit group Pen & Pipette, which was involved in the creation of the book.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Brave Fuzzy?

 

A: When I was 9, I was diagnosed with vitiligo, an autoimmune disease that attacks my melanocytes and turns spots of my skin white. I remember being overwhelmed, hearing so many different opinions from doctors on how to “fix” my spots. I tried a lot of different medicines and treatments, including drinking this disgusting probiotic drink.

 

The spots got worse, but imagining my immune cells as little creatures in my body helped give me peace. At the same time, learning more about vitiligo and my immune system made me super interested in the human body.

 

That combination of story and science gave me hope. I wanted to share that feeling with kids. So, I decided to write a picture book about science. But unlike typical science books for kids that focus just on the science, I wanted a picture book with a story that could stand on its own. As a 9th grader, I was imagining the type of book I wish I had growing up.

 

Q: What do you think Johanna Gousset’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Our team browsed art on Instagram to look for illustrators. We always wanted a whimsical, gentle watercolor style that we thought would appeal to both kids and adults. We were really excited when we found Johanna’s previous work and even more excited when she said yes to working with us.

 

Her illustrations bring the characters in our book–the fuzzies–to life. She gave them such human-like emotions which we think kids really identify with. We also love the expansive backgrounds she created. They make the world feel so alive, and there are some small hints that this world could take place inside our bodies.

 

Q: Tell us about your literary nonprofit, Pen & Pipette.

 

A: The first book I authored was an illustrated science book about electric cars that I co-wrote with my twin brother. We won a National Indie Excellence Award which brought us to the American Library Association conference in San Diego.

 

At the conference, I pitched all the children’s book publishers I could find about my idea for a picture book about science. But all I received were rejections.

 

So I decided to create my own nonprofit to publish this book. But rather than doing it alone, I talked with friends at school and we started Pen & Pipette together, eventually recruiting an initial team of 22 girls.

 

By creating the book as a team, we were able to have so many different perspectives. Each perspective made our book stronger.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: We hope young readers learn that it just takes one brave person to reach out to someone lonely to make a difference. And if they are lonely and feel different themselves to hang in there, because their difference is what makes them special.

 

We also hope that the book also sparks a passion for science in some kids and a desire to eat different foods to better feed the fuzzies in their own microbiomes.

 

It was fun to write a book with so many different takeaways!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: We’ve been spending a lot of time preparing for and giving book talks. Earlier this month, some of us returned to our old elementary school, El Carmelo, to give a whole school book talk.

 

Being teens, we were able to connect with the kids through fun, silly moments, as well as teach them about science and the writing process. Our old teachers said that kids paid attention to our book talk more than any other!

 

The leaders of Pen & Pipette are all high school seniors right now, so we’re busy working on our college applications! But we also have a lot of younger members who are excited to start a new book. I think we’ll start brainstorming a new book idea next month.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: We’ve been getting a lot of interest from schools about giving book talks. Our hope is that we can recruit more high school students from around the country who love books and science as much as we do.

 

We would teach them about how to give a book talk on The Brave Fuzzy so they can give in-person book talks at their schools and libraries, too. They can learn more at TheBraveFuzzy.com!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb