Q&A with Nicole S. Kluemper

  

 

 

Nicole S. Kluemper is the author of the new children's picture book Simon the Scared Rottweiler. She is a child psychologist.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Simon the Scared Rottweiler?

 

A: I saw a need within my own practice for a tool to help therapists (myself included) working with young children dealing with anxiety. I couldn’t find what I needed, so I created it. Sometimes I read books like this out loud during a session. It can be a place to start in terms of conversation and a common language.

 

I also knew that such a book could help young kids dealing with anxiety just in general. Sometimes barriers get in the way of families getting their kids to the therapy setting. Whatever that reason is, I wanted to bring a little piece (and peace) to them.

 

I think parents struggle with how to help their kids aside from bringing them to therapy, sitting in the waiting area for 45 minutes, then driving them home again. In this book, I give the parents of young kids something they can do to help their kids at home.

 

My Rottweiler, Simon, has dealt with a lot of behavioral issues that stemmed from his underlying anxiety. I thought it would be a cool twist if this stereotyped “tough guy” dog was the one dealing with the worry.

 

Q: How does your work as a child psychologist intersect with your writing for kids?

 

A: Both come from the same place in my heart in which I want to help children, and especially those dealing with emotional concerns.

 

To use an analogy – adjusting a ship’s heading very early in the journey will result in a very big change in terms of its destination. In other words, helping someone during childhood has the potential to create change in a way not seen at any other period across the lifespan.

 

This desire stems from my own childhood experiences. During a very difficult time in my life, a mental health professional listened and cared what I had to say without his own agenda.

 

This impacted me deeply. So much so that from the age of 5 years old I knew I wanted to be a child psychologist and help other kids who had been through hard things. I believe my calling in life is to help, with a primary focus on kids.

 

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

 

A: Rottweilers have this reputation for being vicious or mean, and it just isn’t true. Most of them aren’t even really all that tough! Simon is my fourth Rottie, and I can say with certainty that most of these gentle giants are as loyal and loving as they are goofy. I wish people could see that.

 

Simon is such a little cuddle bug. He’s quick to roll over and ask for tummy rubs or lick our faces when he gets excited. He’s a very good boy.

 

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

 

A: I hope kids learn the coping skills, of course, but I also hope that they see that they are not alone. Anxiety can feel so isolating, and I want every child to feel seen and understood. They don’t have to “be strong” or “tough it out.” It’s okay to feel all the feels.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: In terms of writing, I’m waiting for inspiration to strike again! I certainly hope my creativity hasn’t run out!

 

I work full time at a community clinic seeing patients and supervising graduate students.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Our veterinarian says we have a gift for caring for tough cases when it comes to dogs. Honestly, Simon has been our biggest challenge yet. The trainer we hired (to train us more than him) believes Simon may be neurodivergent. She loves him as much as we do. (He may love her more than us!) She still comes over to have dinner and sit with Simon, even though she no longer trains with him.

 

While the real Simon still has his moments, he is doing pretty well these days. We support him through them and love him just the way he is!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. This Q&A was conducted in partnership with Nicole S. Kluemper. Five lucky readers who follow along on this virtual book tour will have a chance to win a paperback copy of Simon the Scared Rottweiler. 

Q&A with Patricia Newman and Margaret Quinlin

  

Patricia Newman

 

 

Patricia Newman is the author of the new children's picture book Beatrice and the Nightingale. Margaret Quinlin is the publisher of the book, which focuses on a duet between a cellist and a nightingale that was broadcast on the BBC in 1924. Newman's many other books include Sharks Unhooked.

 

Q: What inspired you to create Beatrice and the Nightingale?

 

PN: Like many book ideas, Beatrice and the Nightingale is rooted in the mundane activities of everyday life. The pandemic had shut down our world. My husband and I were isolating at home, and like many of you, cleaning closets, taking walks, and baking bread.

 

One evening we watched a Netflix movie called The Dig with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan about the excavation of Sutton Hoo, an Anglo-Saxon burial mound. Lily James plays the part of a young archaeologist, Peggy Piggott.

 

In one scene, Peggy speaks to an RAF pilot about nightingales. She says she’d “never heard a nightingale at all. Only over the wireless.” She goes on to tell him about Beatrice Harrison, a famous cellist who convinced the BBC in 1924 to broadcast a nightingale singing as she practiced cello in her garden.

 

I had never heard about Beatrice or her nightingale duets, and the combination of music, nature, and technology captured my attention.

 

MQ: This combination captivated me as well and I knew I wanted to publish the book upon meeting Patti and reading her proposal. I work closely with my colleague Vicky Holifield, and she too was especially drawn to the music and the birds. But we were also intrigued by the role that technology played in the outcome.

 

Q: What do you think Beatrice’s performances with the nightingale meant to people at the time?

 

PN: When I share Beatrice and the Nightingale at school visits, I ask the children to imagine a time when streaming services like Spotify and YouTube music didn’t exist and cell phones and televisions hadn’t been invented yet.

 

To enjoy music, people either played instruments, sang, or attended concerts in large halls to watch others perform. Even radio, which is an afterthought in today’s world, was brand-spanking new then. Additionally, apps like Merlin or iNaturalist are part of a future no one had yet conceived.

 

By 1924, Beatrice had already performed several concerts aired by the BBC, so like any of today’s performers who see a marketing opportunity on social media, she capitalized on her contacts to deliver something new to the BBC’s audience. At the same time, the BBC pulled off a historic feat – broadcasting birdsong live for the first time over the airwaves.

 

I hope Beatrice and the Nightingale helps readers understand the overwhelming sense of wonder and awe the millions of listeners must have felt on that spring night in 1924. I often wonder if any of the listeners considered that such a feat might be possible.

 

To bring that idea to the present day, what will we see/hear in the near future that we didn’t think was possible?  

 

MQ: This is one of the fascinating aspects of this story for me. How people in the late 1800s listened to music. Music seems to be always available to us now, but not so then. As Patti describes above, you either played an instrument and sang, or you attended a concert—sometimes in a small gathering in homes, or at a concert hall.

 

Beatrice was heralded for her performances at concert halls throughout Europe. There is a wonderful scene in the book when she is carried out of the concert hall in Moscow by the adoring crowd. So moved were they by her music on the cello that they removed the horses from her carriage and pulled it themselves to her hotel. Beatrice and her three sisters played music as a quartet giving performances for guests in their family home and elsewhere.

 

Listeners throughout the British empire were stunned to hear sound that was so real to them and some reportedly became emotional. Beatrice received over 50,000 letters as a result of the broadcast. Letters were addressed to “Lady of the Nightingales.”

 

PN: And the duets were broadcast for years after that!

 

MQ: Twelve years, I believe. They stopped because of WWII.

 

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

 

PN: Most of the nonfiction books I’ve written feature contemporary young scientists tackling some of the many environmental challenges our world faces. I always speak to the scientists and often visit them in the field to see their work.

 

But Beatrice Harrison passed away in 1965, so I was forced to search for other primary sources. Patricia Cleveland-Peck’s annotated edition of Beatrice’s diary, The Cello and the Nightingale, is a gold mine of dates, details, and family stories. I had such fun reading about Beatrice’s eccentric musical family with (literally) hundreds of pets. Between Isabelle’s illustrations and my text, we tried to include as many of these sparkling nuggets as possible.

 

Beatrice’s life as a cellist, her rise to fame, and the subsequent cello-nightingale duets were all surprising to me. But perhaps the most shocking bit of news was the fact some people thought Beatrice’s first duet with the nightingale in 1924 was faked.

 

Just before I signed the contract with Margaret’s imprint, she emailed me with this headline, “BBC reveals that famous nightingale and cello duet was faked” (Discover Wildlife, 12 April 2022). I’m not new to the world of research, so I couldn’t wrap my head around how the duet could have been faked.

 

Luckily, Margaret is an amazing editor! She wrote, “I would like to get to the bottom of what we know. I don’t think it kills the book. In fact, it makes it more interesting” (July 2022 email).

 

I agree! Check out the back matter in Beatrice and the Nightingale for how I researched this possible fake, and what conclusions we drew.

 

Q: What do you think Isabelle Follath’s illustrations add to the book?

 

PN: Isabelle’s art sets Beatrice in motion. She transforms Beatrice from a black-and-white photograph to a living soul. I shared my research with her about Beatrice’s house, the family’s pets, and her gowns for concerts.

 

For instance, we know from Beatrice’s diary that she wore a sun bonnet, white kid shoes, and a blue sash, which Isabelle faithfully included on the page that begins, “At father’s regimental band concert…”

 

Isabelle recreated the late 19th-early 20th century world Beatrice inhabited with wallpaper patterns, furniture, and flooring. When Beatrice purchases her cello Pietro from a dealer, we tracked down photographic evidence of the instrument dealer’s name and Isabelle added it to the window of his shop (see the page that begins, “Back in England, Beatrice acquired a special cello…”)

 

In addition to all this attention to detail, Isabelle’s illustrations glow with possibility and passion, the same qualities I imagine emanated from Beatrice herself.

MQ: I adore Isabelle’s work, and Patti’s description of her! She was so very dedicated to the project and to getting it right. She did quite a lot of research on her own in addition to what Patti shared.

 

We had some wonderful Zoom sessions discussing the emerging book in which we each shared our enthusiasm for Patti’s manuscript and Beatrice’s story. We were all charmed by the number of birds that the family had and discussed whether to show them flying free or in cages. We decided to show both!

 

The evening scenes when Beatrice was playing the cello and waiting for the bird to respond were a high point in the story. Patti worked and reworked the text to get the right balance of technical and atmospheric information without an overwhelming amount of detail. Isabelle’s interpretation of these scenes bordered on magical.

 

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

 

PN: Beatrice gives readers so many gifts. Her love of music and the power to uplift those who listen. A gratitude for nature and the importance of birds to the biodiversity of our world. An appreciation for the technological discoveries that made Beatrice’s duet with the nightingale possible. And how one woman’s passion made all of it possible.

 

I call Beatrice and the Nightingale a Teach the Hope book, because it is a model of how one person can make a difference.

 

MQ: This is a beautiful description from Patti and I agree. I also hoped that readers would be moved by Beatrice’s commitment to excellence and her persistence in pursuit of it.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

PN: I have several new ideas for books about environmental heroes that offer hope for our world. I’m juggling several books at once. Fingers crossed for some good news soon.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

MQ: Patti mentioned technology. I am astonished by the significance of a powerful new microphone that the BBC had acquired months before the garden broadcast, which had such sensitivity that it strikingly improved sound quality to the point of approximating natural sound. This was what so moved the listeners, and many became emotional upon hearing the broadcast.

 

The microphone was called the Marconi-Sykes magnetophone and it reportedly marked a new era in radio broadcasting in Britain.

 

PN: Margaret brings up a good point. Science crisscrosses our lives in so many ways. I love to explore the ways science connects us to our world.

 

Beatrice’s story is one example of a connection between music, nature and technology. Contemporary cellist Yo-Yo Ma imitates Beatrice with his Our Common Nature series that helps us find our way back to nature through music.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Valerie Sherrard

  

 

Valerie Sherrard is the author of the new middle grade novel Absolutely No Body Parts. Her many other books include Birdspell. She lives in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Absolutely No Body Parts?

 

A: This middle grade novel was the result of an idea that started out as a potential thriller, but morphed over time into a story with greater depth. The intrigue remains and there's some creepy stuff, but also plenty of humor, and our young people have some unexpected challenges to deal with.

    

Q: How did you create your characters Nick, Khenan, and Florrie, and how would you describe the dynamic among them?

 

A: The narrator (Nick) and his best friend (Khenan) were developed pretty much together. I wanted a pair of friends, young teen males, with a relatively typical relationship, but distinctive voices and traits. A shared experience (they each lost a parent) strengthened their bond but there was a divide in how they handled this. They complement each other in some ways, but are at odds in others. 

 

My original intent with Florrie's character was to add someone quirky, giving me an opportunity to add humour. However, she had her own ideas, as characters often do, and quickly grew into a far more rounded, sympathetic and significant part of the story.

 

The three clash at times but as they learn more about each other, genuine friendships develop. Of the three characters, I anticipate that Florrie will be a favorite for many readers. 

 

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

 

A: Like the plot, the title went through a number of changes. It's not always easy to find something that represents the story, the tone, and will make readers curious to know more. As I recall, there were two earlier "working titles" -- each discarded as not quite right.

 

I eventually put together a list of possible choices and we went with the one that was most preferred by the staff at Cormorant/DCB Young Readers. It happened to be my top choice too, so I was pleased with the outcome.

 

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

 

A: I hope readers will relate to the young people in the story in whatever ways serve them best. There's a lot in there. Besides the unexpected situation central to the plot, there are issues of loss, addiction and abuse.

 

I think the strongest message, and one most readers will recognize, is the importance of caring about and supporting each other. Small gestures can have surprisingly big results. As Nick, Khenan, and Florrie navigate their individual situations, their understanding of each other begins to impact their own lives as well.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have three projects on the go. One is a middle grade nonfiction, the second is a chapter book for ages 9-12, and the third is a middle grade novel about a girl in the 1970s, who discovers her small town is hiding a surprising number of secrets, including what's behind her own mother's disappearance.

 

The (probable) title for that story is The Secrets of Turnaround Bay. I anticipate that it will be published in the fall of 2027 with DCB Young Readers, who also published Absolutely No Body Parts and six other of my 35 titles. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: My stories frequently begin with a character. It's unusual for me to write from a story idea - and even when I do, the main character has to come to life for me before I can do much of anything with it. 

 

Something that's changed for me over time is my feeling toward outlines. While I never chart a story from start to finish, I've begun keeping a summary of what's happening as I write, and I find that's resulted in more detailed planning ahead. It helps to prevent dropped threads and supports the proper development of subplots. 

 

Thanks so much for inviting me to be a guest on your blog. It was a pleasure! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Martin Hausvater

  

 

 

Martin Hausvater is the author of the family memoir Hausvater: From the Jewish Underground to NYC's Underworld. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write this family memoir?

 

A: In 2021, I suffered a stroke that left me largely confined to my home for several months. During that time, my business was struggling, my future was uncertain, and I had a lot of time to reflect on my life and family history.

 

As I slowly recovered, a friend took me out to lunch and asked about my family. After hearing the story, he suggested I write a book. I thought he was crazy. A few days later, his son called me and encouraged me to do the same. Their persistence gave me the push I needed to finally put generations of family stories into writing.

 

Q: How much did you know about your grandfather’s story as you were growing up?

 

A: Most of the stories that appear in the book were passed down to me over many years by my grandmother, aunt, father, and, to some extent, my mother. As the third generation, I often felt a responsibility to preserve stories that might otherwise have been lost. Family stories were a regular part of life growing up. Some were told so often that they became permanently embedded in my memory.

 

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

 

A: The book is based primarily on family history that was preserved through storytelling rather than traditional research. I relied heavily on notes, memories, and conversations with family members, including checking details with my siblings to ensure I remembered events correctly.

 

What surprised me most came after the book was written. One reader described both my grandfather and father as chameleons, people who continually adapted to changing circumstances in order to survive and succeed. I had never thought of them that way before, but the observation struck me as completely accurate.

 

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

 

A: Writing the book also helped me better understand my place in a three-generation story. I came to appreciate not only the sacrifices my grandfather made and the lessons my father taught me, but also the responsibility of preserving those experiences for future generations.

 

I hope readers come away with a deeper appreciation for family history and the importance of preserving stories before they are lost. I also hope they see how resilience, courage, and determination can carry people through extraordinary challenges. Many of the individuals in this story faced difficult circumstances and refused to be defined by them.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: At the moment, I am focused on introducing readers to Hausvater and completing the audiobook edition. At the same time, I have begun organizing material for a sequel. There are many family stories that did not make it into the first book, and I believe there is still much more to tell.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: One of the lessons I learned while writing Hausvater is that every family has stories worth preserving. People often assume their history is ordinary because they grew up with it, but when those stories are shared, they can reveal remarkable journeys, sacrifices, and surprises. I encourage everyone to learn as much as they can about where they came from before those memories disappear.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

June 18

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
June 18, 1942: Paul McCartney born.

Q&A with Kate Christensen

  

Photo by Cheryl Nichols

 

 

Kate Christensen is the author of the new novel Good Company. Her other books include the memoir Blue Plate Special. She lives in New Mexico. 

 

Q: You’ve said of Good Company that it “isn’t a screed or manifesto, it’s a fictional expression of my own recent deep dive into the sources of my own internalized misogyny and my complicity in the way certain men have treated me all my life.” Can you say more about that, and about how you created your character Julia?

 

A: Looking back at my 2013 memoir, Blue Plate Special, a decade after its publication, I found myself regretting all the things I couldn’t say due to the constraints of memoir, while enduring the repercussions of all the things I did due to the risks of memoir. I felt an unresolved itch to delve into it all again, this time without holding anything back.

 

One of the things I wanted to get at was the anger I was finally letting myself feel at all the ways in which I’d been treated by men I’d been entangled with, not only romantically but also professionally. I wanted to get into it all: their behavior, and my own complicity in it. But I had no interest in exposing myself or anyone else in memoir ever again; that felt too raw, too potentially fraught. It had to be fiction.

 

In Good Company, I merged the “I” of a memoir with the “I” of a novel. But I also let my imagination transform this “I” into a purely fictional one.

 

Q: The writer Jessica Anthony said of the book, “This is a memoir disguised as a novel, starring a protagonist who has written a memoir—a super-sharp postmodern experiment in memory and narrative subjectivity.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: To write Good Company the way it demanded to be written, I had to invent a new form. In order to show Julia’s memoir informing the present-day action of the novel, I embedded excerpts within the present-day action.

 

Crucially, all of the events and characters in the novel had to be fictional and fictionalized, no matter how closely they hewed to the particulars of my own life. This book was the sturdy container for the hardest and truest things I needed to explore.

 

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

 

A: In my mid-40s, after a lifetime of trying to be “good company” for men, a compliment I took as a badge of honor, everything started to change.

 

I finally left my first marriage. I fell in love with a man 20 years younger than I was, and our surprisingly equal footing allowed me to move beyond the old male-female dynamic. I went through menopause and got sober after 25 years of hard drinking.

 

During these years, I went through a long reckoning, a full accounting of all the ways in which I’d failed myself, failed other women, by dedicating myself to the impossible and unfulfilling quest for male approval.

 

I realized that being called “good company” by men was not a compliment, but a means of control. The title came from this shifting perception as I woke up to the truth.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book, especially given current news headlines?

 

A: I hope anyone else who’s ever enabled destructive male behavior out of fear or insecurity will take heart from Julia’s experiences and maybe even feel compelled to take action.

 

As women’s hard-won rights are steadily eroded in this country, as oppression and abuse of women becomes a global epidemic, I hope we come together to fight for ourselves and one another regardless of race, politics, nationality, or religion.  We’re all in this together along with all the planet’s living things.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m about to start a new novel set in Berkeley, California, in 1968. It’s about female friendship, the connection between art and activism, domestic and political violence, and romantic love.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I think I’ve said it all! Thank you so much for your thoughtful questions.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Kate Christensen. 

Q&A with Liz Lazarus

  

 

Liz Lazarus is the author of the new novel Dawn Before Darkness. Her other novels include Shades of Silence. She is also a consultant and a business owner, and she's based in Atlanta and in Bozeman, Montana. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Dawn Before Darkness, and how did you create your character Dawn?

A: Two things inspired this novel.

 

First, I had a friend who had a terrible experience with a stalker, so I wanted to fictionalize part of her story. In addition to hearing her ordeal, I posted on social media asking for anyone who was willing to share her experience with a stalker. I ended up talking to 10 women and a compilation of their stories created my supervillain.

 

Also, as I was writing the novel, I was undergoing a lengthy and costly battle for guardianship of my mom, first against a family member and then a total stranger. I wanted to expose how broken the probate court system is regarding guardianships and conservatorships of the elderly.

Q: Can you say more about how you researched the novel?

 

A: I researched the novel by interviewing people—women who had stalkers, my friend who was a vet tech for those stories, another friend who is a police detective. And, as noted above, I was living through a lengthy court battle for guardianship of my mom. The legal part of the book is maddening and almost unbelievable—except that I lived it.

Q: How would you describe the relationship between Dawn and her mother, Marie?

A: Dawn is very protective of her mom, Marie, partially because Marie’s health is failing, especially her eyesight, but also because she was widowed in the last year. I wanted to portray what happens to many children. Over time, we go from being the cared for to the caretaker of our parents.

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

A: Before I begin writing, I have to know the beginning that draws the reader in, the main characters and the twist ending, so yes, I knew how the story would end. I keep a massive spreadsheet to plot my chapters, events, any loose ends I need to resolve and how I want the reader to feel at the end of the chapter.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I have an idea for a fifth book and a vague outline. That’s how these things get started. Each book has a color theme, and this next one will be green—for money and greed. I’m already thinking about titles that fall in line with the alliteration I’ve used for my previous novels and am very open to your ideas!

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Information about my books can be found on www.lizlazarus.com. There, you can download free sample chapters and listen to the first few minutes of the audiobook. And, if you like the book, please do post a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. My novels are known to entertain while they educate, and this one is a real cautionary tale. Thanks!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb