Q&A with Erika Krouse

 

Photo by David Manak

 

 

Erika Krouse is the author of the new story collection Save Me, Stranger. Her other books include Tell Me Everything. She teaches at Lilghthouse Writers Workshop, and she lives in Colorado.

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the stories in Save Me, Stranger?

 

A: I began writing these stories in 2013, so it's been a while!

 

I thought Save Me, Stranger was essentially complete when I began writing my memoir, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation. But by the time I came back to the collection to publish it, the world had changed so much that I had to scrap over 1/3 of the stories and write new ones.

 

After the Trump election, the pandemic, and the Dobbs decision, many of the earlier stories no longer felt relevant or interesting. I had also improved as a writer in that time, so I knew I could do a better job now. I'm glad I had that extra time to make the book better.

 

Q: The writer Louise Erdrich said of the collection, “Save Me, Stranger is a book of parables—supernal and sinister. Disturbing but comforting. Read these stories with a buddy, because someone will have to scrape you off the floor.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I'm utterly gobsmacked that she read my book—and liked it! Louise Erdrich is one of my literary heroes. When I was beginning to try to write fiction, I read Love Medicine...and realized that I wasn't good enough, so I shuffled off to graduate school.

 

Q: How did you decide on the order in which the stories would appear?

 

A: My editor really helped me with that part. Some of the stories are lighter and easier to read, and some are more challenging in terms of subject matter. I wanted readers to gradually acclimate to the book like the proverbial boiled frog, so they wouldn't flee the tougher stories.

 

But what's funny is that readers often skip around short story collections anyway, so the order might be moot!

 

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

 

A: All of the stories revolve around some form of rescue, involving a stranger. Sometimes the protagonist is the rescuer, sometimes they need rescue, most often both. I'm interested in the question, can we save each other? And should we? What do we owe each other? How do these hinge moments connect us? 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm researching a murder mystery set in the 1920s, which is intimidating because I've never written historical fiction before, nor a traditional murder mystery. I have no idea why I have to make writing 10 times harder than it already is. I'm pretty excited about this novel, though. I will conquer it!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thank you, Deborah! Great questions!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Erika Krouse.

Q&A with Heath Hardage Lee

 

 

 

Heath Hardage Lee is the author of the new biography The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington's Most Private First Lady. Lee's other books include The League of Wives. She lives in Roanoke, Virginia.

 

Q: What inspired you to write a biography of Pat Nixon?

 

A: My previous book, The League of Wives, was about the courageous wives of Vietnam War serviceman who were POWs or MIAs. Pat Nixon was First Lady during much of the time period I wrote about in that book (late 1960s and early1970s). 

 

I kept running across photos of her with the POW MIA wives looking so engaged and dynamic. These photos were at odds with so many of the media portrayals of Mrs. Nixon as aloof and reserved.

 

I surmised the real story about her might be much more intriguing than the simplistic portrait the media painted of Mrs. Nixon during the time her husband was president.

 

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

 

A: Pat Nixon was unfairly tagged as “Plastic Pat” for being “too perfect” and for keeping her own counsel. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein accused her of being a heavy drinker and a recluse during the Watergate years. There is no evidence to support those claims. She was instead a warm person who declared “People are my project.” 

 

As both Second and First Lady, Mrs. Nixon was a highly skilled global diplomat, and a supporter of women’s rights. She was pro-ERA, pro-choice, and publicly advocated putting a woman on the Supreme Court.  She collected more high-quality art and period furniture for the White House than any other First Lady before or since her time. 

 

She also worked to open the White House to working people with evening tours and those with disabilities by making accommodations for them on special tours. She was a remarkable woman who still gets little credit for her many achievements. 

Q: The writer Debby Applegate said of the book, “The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon convinced me that the tragedy of Watergate could have been avoided entirely had Dick Nixon followed the path of his remarkable First Lady.” What do you think of that assessment, and how would you describe the dynamic between the Nixons?

 

A: I think Ms. Applegate really has a great take on Pat Nixon.  She was a role model for First Ladies past and present. Despite her controversial husband, she maintained a wide popularity among many Americans:   She was voted most admired woman in the world in 1972, and she made the Gallup Poll’s top 10 list of most admired 14 times. 

 

Like most couples, the Nixons experienced ups and downs during their marriage--mainly due to Richard Nixon’s political career and their very public life. Pat Nixon would have preferred a more private existence outside the political fishbowl. Being a “country lawyer’s wife” would have been more appealing to her. 

 

However, she and her husband maintained a deep commitment to each other and to their marriage even during the dark times of the Watergate era. I do think if Richard Nixon had listed to her counsel more often during that period as opposed to the counsel of his close aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, he might have made far different choices.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am currently working on adapting The League of Wives into a television series and looking for a new book subject! I am open to suggestions! I would love to stay in the era of the 1960s or 1970s if possible, as it was such a groundbreaking time for women.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Heath Hardage Lee.

Q&A with Barbara Southard

 

 

 

Barbara Southard is the author of the new novel Unruly Human Hearts. Her other books include the story collection The Pinch of the Crab. A historian, she has taught at the University of Puerto Rico.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Unruly Human Hearts?  

 

A: I began to explore the Beecher-Tilton scandal while teaching a graduate seminar on US history. During a classroom discussion of the 1875 trial of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher for adultery with Elizabeth Tilton, one student remarked that the reverend survived the trial and went on with his career. Yeah, said a young woman, but what happened to Elizabeth?

 

I suspected that my student’s concern that the woman involved had faced more severe consequences was well-founded. I began extensive research into history books about the scandal as well as trial records and other primary sources, analyzing how the strict Victorian code of conduct put Elizabeth in a more perilous position than her lover, but I was not entirely satisfied with the article I wrote for a history journal.

 

During my research, I came to realize that Elizabeth was involved in a love triangle that involved both emotional and ideological ties. Henry, her pastor, and Theodore, her husband, were longtime friends and collaborators in the abolitionist movement and other progressive causes.

 

Elizabeth was deeply drawn to the gospel of love preached by Henry in his challenge to Calvinist emphasis on punishment, and she supported her husband’s activism in the women’s suffrage movement.

 

Public gossip reduced the famous scandal to one more instance of a preacher taking advantage of a woman in his congregation, but the emotions and motivations involved were much more complex.

 

I then decided that the best way to view the scandal from the perspective of the woman involved would be to write a historical novel telling her story.

 

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

 

A: The research process began with secondary historical studies. Richard Wightman Fox, Trials of Intimacy: Love and Loss in the Beecher-Tilton Scandal and Altina Laura Waller, Reverend Beecher and Elizabeth Tilton: Sex and Class in Victorian America were particularly helpful.

 

When I moved to primary sources, I found the thoughts and perspectives of Beecher and Theodore easier to ascertain than the point of view of Elizabeth. Both her husband and her lover had public platforms (one was a famous preacher, and the other was a journalist) and they also testified at length at the public trial in 1875. 

 

Elizabeth’s perspective was more difficult to unearth, because she was a very private person who was not called to the stand at the trial. However, there are important primary sources that reveal her point of view,  including her personal letters, which her husband published in the press without her permission, and her testimony at the church investigation.

 

While writing an academic article I looked primarily at the social issues involving the position of women. Once I decided to write a novel, I had to immerse myself once again in primary historical sources. This second time I was not concentrating on social issues but rereading to submerge myself in the feelings and thoughts of Elizabeth and her two lovers.

 

I was surprised that my decision to write Unruly Human Hearts from Elizabeth’s perspective not only helped me understand the difficulties she faced because of the strict code for women’s conduct in the Victorian Age but also enabled me to sympathize with her husband and her lover, who both had to wrestle with the ethos of male honor.

 

Henry can be dismissed as a minister seducing a loyal parishioner. Theodore can be labeled a hypocrite who championed women’s rights and free love in public but upheld the double standard in private.

 

Elizabeth had a more nuanced view of the character of each of her two lovers and her forgiving nature perceived both noble and selfish motives. Her point of view provided the perfect building block upon which to construct the edifice of a historical novel about love and loyalty as well as betrayal.

Q: The writer Jacqueline Friedland called the book a “story that will inspire readers to think about similar challenges today...” What do you think of that assessment, and what do you hope readers take away from the novel?

 

A: I think Jacqueline Friedland’s assessment is remarkably prescient given the recent challenges to women’s rights. I was a schoolgirl when the conservative culture of the 1950s promoted the ideal of women as homebodies as did the culture of the Reconstruction era. The women’s liberation movement of the 1960s profoundly affected my journey to adulthood.

 

In the same epoch, there emerged a movement for sexual liberation, which included many positive gains for women who suffered more than men from the stigma against premarital and extramarital sex, but I also remember discussions in which my young women friends questioned whether concepts like open marriage could work in a society in which the sexist double standard still prevailed and most women were financially dependent on their male partners.

 

Beginning in the ‘60s, women have made tremendous strides in terms of career advancement and financial independence, but at the present time we are experiencing a backlash that threatens to erase some of the progress made toward more female autonomy.

 

The successful practice of open marriage or polyamory (modern variations on free love) requires that the women involved should have sufficient autonomy to make their own decisions about who to love and how to love, and to command respect for those decisions. Otherwise, these women risk undergoing the same heartbreak that Elizabeth experienced.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m writing a historical novel with the provisional title This Side of Purgatory. It examines the life of a young woman with bipolar disorder in the 1920s, an epoch in which women attained new freedoms. The protagonist, a talented poet, launches herself enthusiastically into the new lifestyle and soon finds that the limits of acceptable female behavior are much narrower than she imagined.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Molly Golden

 

 

 

Molly Golden is the author of the new children's picture book Becoming Real: The True Story of the Velveteen Rabbit. Also an educator, she lives in Oregon.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Becoming Real?

 

A: Like so many people, I have always loved the story The Velveteen Rabbit. I still have the copy my mom read to me when I was a child. I think the story touched me when I was young because I had so many toys that were “real.” (I still have my well-loved childhood stuffed animal in my bedside table.)

 

When I reread the story as an adult, it resonated with me in a different way. I connected to the importance of loving and accepting love that I hadn’t before.

 

Years ago, I was researching picture book biographies and when I searched for one about [Velveteen Rabbit author] Margery Williams Bianco, there wasn't a book about her. So I started looking into her life and I decided I would write one!

 

Q: What do you think Paola Escobar’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Oh my! Paola Escobar made this book come to life. Each page, each spread is so stunning and detailed. Every time I look at her artwork, I find something I didn’t notice before. I am still pinching myself that she wanted to tell Margery’s story with me.

 

Her illustrations tell much of the story. She captures the time period, the innocence of childhood, the importance of imagination, and the difficulties of life. She illustrates Margery’s and then Margery’s children’s imagination through the eyes of the child, which is just magical.

 

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

 

A: Surprisingly for how famous The Velveteen Rabbit is, there isn’t much out there about its author, Margery Williams Bianco. I found what little I could online, but most of my research I gathered through a collection of essays I found by and about her published by The Horn Book in 1951. I felt as though I was stitching her story together.

 

What most surprised me was just that—how little we know about this amazing woman. She was ahead of her time when it came to understanding childhood and the importance of play and imagination. I was also struck with how much she respected and honored the sadness children face as well as their joy.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book called it “Poignant and warm, just like the book that inspired it.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I was honored when I read the review. When writing about a real person in a picture book, I imagine that person reading it. Would they feel like I captured their essence accurately? I was hoping to reflect the feeling of hope and love from The Velveteen Rabbit in Becoming Real,  so I was incredibly grateful for this review.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My second picture book biography, No One Told Sandra Day O’Connor What To Do, illustrated by Julia Breckenreid and published by Sleeping Bear Press, will be out in May, so I am looking forward to sharing that story too.

 

As far as my writing, I have a few more picture books and picture book biographies looking for a home. And I am currently working on my first middle grade verse novel. It has been exciting to try a new genre.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thank you so much for interviewing me! There often is so much time between selling a picture book manuscript and its publication. I appreciate the time to reflect and the chance to share about the journey of Becoming Real.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Linda DeMeulemeester

 

 

 

Linda DeMeulemeester is the author of the new middle grade novel Ephemia Rimaldi: Circus Performer Extraordinaire. Her other books include the Grim Hill series.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Ephemia Rimaldi, and how did you create your protagonist?

 

A: When I was a girl, my grandmother used to tell me stories from a long time ago. One story she told was when she was eight years old her family moved from a small Manitoba farm to the west coast of Canada. A circus came to town. There was a parade and she saw her first elephant. She fainted from the shock. Nothing in a picture book had prepared her for that experience.

 

This story left me with a curiosity about how life would be before all of us were so connected to the world. What would it be like if you had limited access outside your small community? There would be so many things that could leave you in awe and wonder.

 

Ephemia was a character (sort of) in another story. I had written a different manuscript about time travel and a curse -- not terribly original apparently. Soon it was clear to me that this manuscript wasn’t going to work. Except…

 

I couldn’t let go of the circus scenes in that story. Everything about those scenes still resonated with me.

 

 Moreover, there was a peripheral character that never actually appeared – the ringmaster’s daughter. All the other characters would have dialogue such as, “The ringmaster’s daughter has vexed her father again.” Or “What new trouble has the ringmaster’s daughter caused?”  I ended up really liking a feisty character that wasn’t even in the story.

 

I had to deconstruct this ringmaster’s daughter to see what made her tick. What did she do that drove her father crazy?

 

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

 

A: Writing a historical novel involves falling down a lot of rabbit holes. Ephemia runs away to find her father who is the ringmaster of a circus, so I read about the history of North American circuses.

 

I was also looking for primary sources and was lucky to find several magazines that had interviews from circus performers which helped me add pinches of realism.

 

Also I read about expressions people used at the turn of the century which included refined society, which would be how Ephemia’s relatives would speak, but also the circus slang from those times. Early circus photographs and posters really helped me with my descriptions.

 

I was surprised to discover how small, early circuses were places of both cruelty (well, that wasn’t a huge surprise) but also acceptance.

The exploitation of both animals and humans was at the heart of Ephemia’s desperate rescue to save Balally the circus elephant. Her experiences in the circus enflamed her sense of injustice. 

 

Another part of Ephemia’s growth was for her to discover what I discovered. There was also acceptance in these early circuses and that to be a part of a circus was to be a part of a family. Often people who might not gain social acceptance elsewhere could find a path there.

 

Was that enough research? Not at all.

 

Ephemia’s Aunt Ada was a suffragist. My research expanded to include suffragists at the turn of the century and what they were trying to achieve.

 

I knew they were fighting for enfranchisement, and how they were also fighting to create a social safety net. I was less aware that working class women were also organizing in unions and fighting for equal pay. There was a sublime moment in my research when I discovered that one of the earliest groups of women to fight for and achieve equal pay for equal work were circus performers.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book says that Ephemia’s “antics realistically reflect the limitations placed on women and girls at the turn of the 20th century, while highlighting the fact that circuses were among the first environments where equal pay was achieved and women’s courage was embraced.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I was delighted by that description because that’s what I was aiming for. I wanted a historical story that was accurate for the times – women and girls had lots of limitations and were often left in precarious legal positions if there were no husbands, fathers, or brothers to sign bank documents or mortgages etc…

 

Ephemia’s benefactor died, and the eldest male was suddenly controlling her future. But I also wanted to show that lots of girls and women bristled against these restrictions and pushed back.

 

Ephemia decides to take her future in her own hands and runs off to find her wayward father and insist he help her secure her education funds. When she arrives at a circus she sees how the women performers are swinging from trapezes and taming tigers in a cage, feats few would attempt.

 

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

 

A: Fun – I genuinely hope that they enjoy the adventure and hold their heart in their throats when the circus elephant is in danger, and shake their heads and say, “Ephemia, I wouldn’t do that,” or applaud her perseverance and effervescence.

 

I also would love readers to scratch their heads and think, whoa, equality is precarious and not something to ever take for granted.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Something completely different – I’m finishing edits on a scary middle grade story titled The Bottle Witch of Brimley, which will be published about a year from now by Orca Publishers. Then I’ll be working on edits for a middle grade mystery/suspense coming out around Halloween of 2027.

 

Between these edits, I can’t help but think how much I’d like to find out how Ephemia and her circus friends are doing. I wouldn’t mind diving back into the deep and immersive experience of writing a historical novel.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Well, writing and reading about circuses is fascinating and addictive. I’m currently waiting for a new book I ordered – Off to Join the Circus. :)

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Alex Latimer

 

 

Alex Latimer is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book Don't Think of Tigers. His many other books include The Duck Never Blinks. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

 

Q: What inspired you to create Don’t Think of Tigers?

 

A: Don’t Think of Tigers is a book I wrote to encourage children to be creative. A lot of children think just because they don’t start out being good at something, that they should stop.

 

In my book I encourage children to practice and to make mistakes, because that’s the only way to improve a skill. It applies to all areas of life - not just to art.

 

At the end of the book I’ve written a little note about how, at school, someone’s negative opinion of a picture I painted stopped me from making art for a very long time. 

 

Q: Did you work on the text first or the illustrations first--or both simultaneously?

 

A: I worked on the text first - but to make sure that my idea for this book actually worked in practice, I needed to draw up a rough, and the text changed a lot in that process. 

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book says, “Latimer’s dynamic visuals ramp up the energy, while his humorous text encourages readers to try new things of all kinds, embrace doing them badly at first, and keep going.” What do you think of that description, and can you say more about what you hope kids take away from the story?

 

A: I love that description! I worked hard to try to find the right level of humor and “wrongness” for each page - so that the book is visually appealing while still conveying my message.

 

I hope kids who read it learn to keep going and keep practicing the things they love, and that mistakes are the best way to learn. 

Q: How did you first get interested in creating children’s picture books?

 

A: My initial plan was to write all kinds of books - and to use the process of writing children’s books to learn about the craft of storytelling. Subsequently, I have written other kinds of books - but I really love making picture books. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on a funny “first-read-on-your-own” series called Gordon the Meanest Goose on Earth. It’s about a really, really mean goose who meets a lovely piglet and is changed by his kindness.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Nancy Burke

 

 

Nancy Burke is the author of the new story collection Death Cleaning and Other Units of Measure. Her other books include the novel Only the Women Are Burning. She lives in New Jersey.

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the stories in your new collection?

 

A: I remember clearly my very first writing workshop. I was working on a children’s book, and Karen Lateiner, a neighbor, invited me to join her workshop with several other women. Jackie Parker led the workshop using the Amherst Method with prompts, meditation, and writing from our lives.  This was in 1995.

 

During meditation I could hear but couldn’t tell what the voice coming from a nearby meeting room  was saying. I wrote, “I hear muffled voices...” My story “Muffled Voices” came from that moment. The rest of the stories came to me through the next 30 years.

 

Q: Many of the stories focus on sisters named Grace and Ellen and their family--how did you create these characters?

 

A: These characters appear in my novel Only the Women are Burning (2020). I spent considerable time defining their backstory to help me to understand their behavior in the novel. Grace and Ellen and MaryLou’s stories in this collection germinated from that effort. Those studies of character ended up in my outtakes folder, but I went back to them after the novel was published.

 

These sisters are derivative from my own sisters, of which I have four, and with whom I do not have a close relationship, not from a lack of trying on my part. I could go into a long explanation perhaps, but the disconnection I hope is well illustrated in the fictional stories.

 

Recently, in a conversation with my brother, I admitted I was trying to get inside the heads of people whose behavior I was trying hard to understand. I wanted to get myself to a place of forgiveness by understanding their “units of measure” and the underlying insecurities and other emotions that they never examined in themselves. He understood and said I just might have nailed it.

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

 

A: The idea of “Units of Measure” came to me as I was revising the stories and getting ready to submit them. Consider,  a cook or baker or a carpenter, or a scientist relies on units of measure, right? External measurement systems that serve a specific purpose. 

 

We all have internal units of measure too that we develop over our lifetimes and apply to all sorts of things, tangible and intangible. We don’t study our own but we use them in everything. I couldn’t look at what I’d written without feeling these stories are all about our units of measure.

 

Also, I wasn’t sure the word “death” belonged in my title, but taking these stories out of the drawer was kind of like doing my own death cleaning--that thing we do when we are older and don’t want to leave the responsibility of clearing out our stuff to our kids.

 

The story by the name “Death Cleaning” is about a man doing a death cleaning, not of his “stuff” but of regrets and other memories.

 

Q: The writer Alice Elliott Dark said of the book, “Nancy Burke’s witty, warm stories go to the heart of relationships and family life with honesty and compassion.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Alice recognized the wit in these stories, which is great. I hope readers will laugh or smile at “Have Fun, Stay Fertile” or “He Briefly Thought of Tadpoles.” There have been readers who told me they cried after a few, such as “Charade” and “Give and Take.” There really is a mix, which actually made it hard for me to decide in what order to sequence them.

 

Alice is a wonderful writer and teacher in the Rutgers MFA Program. I am so grateful to her for so many things.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am collaborating with a composer and writing a musical play adaptation of my first book, From the Abuelas’ Window. I’m learning a lot, having never taken on this type of creative project before. It is great fun. And the story of a family under an oppressive dictatorship feels appropriate to our current time.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Hmmm, not sure. I guess I can say this…I started writing at the age of 45. When my novel came out in 2020 a high school friend reminded me that in high school I talked about writing a book someday.

 

My advice to anyone who even remotely imagined writing a book is that it is never too late to get that started. And there is plenty of help out there in teachers and workshops and among friends who might helpfully critique your work. So, go for it! I’ve got four books, a screenplay, two 10-minute plays and a musical (almost) to show for it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb