Q&A with Linda Rhodes

  

 

 

Linda Rhodes is the author of the new memoir Breaking the Barnyard Barrier: A Woman Veterinarian Paves the Way. She was a dairy cow veterinarian, and she also spent many years working in the pharmaceutical industry. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write this memoir?

 

A: In 1978, I was one of a very few women large animal veterinarians. I had to work hard to prove myself every day to a bunch of skeptical dairymen who had never seen a woman vet, and to my colleagues who were pretty sure a woman couldn’t do the job.

 

I thought the story of how I succeeded, including all my doubts and fears, the grit that was required, might be useful, and hopefully even inspirational, to young women in any male dominated profession.

 

Secondly, I wanted my son, who is now in his 30s, to hear the stories from my time on the dairy farms, since he only knows his mother as an entrepreneur, researcher, and developer of medicines for animals, which was my second career.

 

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

 

A: My working title was “Lady Cow Vet”, which is the nickname my dairymen gave me, but my publisher thought it might be confusing. They suggested “Breaking the Barnyard Barrier: A Woman Veterinarian Paves the Way” which gives a much clearer idea of what the book is about.

 

The barnyard barrier was the prejudice that being a large animal veterinarian is a man’s job—only men belong in the barn. The book is about how I challenged that belief by showing up and taking good care of their cows and calves.

 

They gradually came to realize that I was capable and dependable, and this in turn, paved the way for other women who wanted to practice large animal medicine. The dairymen could no longer say that a woman couldn’t do the job because they had seen me do it!

 

Q: What did you see as the right balance between your personal and professional lives in the memoir?

 

A: My readers get right inside the barn with me, and hopefully experience the smells, the sights, the drama of a middle of the night c-section, a twisted stomach surgery out in the pasture, the bleeding bull.

 

Along the way they learn about dairy cows and their various ailments. I wanted to make sure my readers felt the conflict of such hard work and long hours, with the needs of a marriage, and the anguish of dealing with serious health issues of parents.

 

I wanted to show how the personal and professional parts of my life were intertwined, rather than separate.

 

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

 

A: Writing a memoir helped me sort through so many memories—I had make multiple timelines in order to remember many of the scenes in the book. And one memory led to another that I thought had been lost, and I had some memories that when I checked with family and friends, that were mis-remembered. After all the stories were written, I had a real sense of pride in what I had accomplished.

 

I hope readers take away inspiration to follow their dreams, even when everyone is discouraging and things get tough. Particularly for women, I hope they see how it is possible to break into a challenging profession, with enough grit and determination.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am writing a follow-up memoir about the next stage in my life, when I was ready to step away from dairy practice. I went back to school, got a Ph.D., and entered the pharmaceutical industry, making new medicines for animals, remarried, and had a son.

 

The stories of that time in my life are focused more about breaking into an industry that also had its prejudices against women, and where the path to success was more nuanced and difficult.

 

My other interest is writing braided essays. I am writing a series of short essays about various scientific discoveries, and how they relate to my personal life.

 

For example, did you know that women’s tears cause a decrease in aggression in men? There was a fascinating article in a science journal about this effect, and I wrote an essay intermingling this study with my personal experience of my crying and its effect on the men in my life.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I am excited to bring this book to young veterinarians who know little or nothing about how the role of women in veterinary medicine has changed over the last 50 years.

 

Today 80-90 percent of new grads from veterinary schools are women, and women are now the majority of veterinarians in the country. This is in contrast to the early 1970s, when most schools only admitted one or two women per class. 

 

Over the next few months, I will be doing readings at a half dozen veterinary schools across the country, hoping to connect with young vets about their career aspirations, and share the story of my journey.

 

This work has sparked my interest in women who have accomplished success against the odds, and I have a substack called Gutsy Women (Rhodesl.substack.com) that will feature women who have succeeded against the odds. Stay tuned!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Paul Coccia

 

 

Paul Coccia is the author of the new children's picture book The Bear Fairy. His other books include the young adult novel Recommended Reading. He lives in Toronto. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Bear Fairy?

 

A: I drew a doodle of a fat, hairy, male fairy with the legs of a bear when texting with Heather Smith, a very accomplished and talented writer and friend. Heather told me I should write a picture book about the bear fairy I had drawn. So, I did.

 

My dad’s town in Italy was home to a yearly fairy festival with these deadly, cloven-hooved, wildly dancing fairies that lived in the caves of the mountain above the village, so the idea of an animal-legged fairy was inspired by that.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between your character Spencer and the fairy? What about between Spencer and Mariah?

 

A: I described the relationship between Spencer and the Bear Fairy as having uncle energy. I love being an uncle and older cousin because I don’t have to be the parent. There’s something nice about not having to worry about enforcing bedtimes or eating vegetables.

 

Mariah is an antagonist. She’s blunt. She can be rude. She’s also sure of herself. I can see Spencer and Mariah being called frenemies although my editor and I used a different word to describe Mariah at times.

 

Q: What do you think Fred Blunt’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: There would be no book without Fred Blunt. From conception, so much of the story was told visually. The original manuscript was only dialogue so the story was reliant on Fred’s visual storytelling as much as my text.

 

When I saw Fred had chosen full-colour, I was delighted as he added so much liveliness, energy, and sparkle and he helped move the plot and characters forward. I am still discovering and getting thrilled by the small details Fred added (like ‘80s action figures) that flesh out the world and bring it to life.

 

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

 

A: I hope kids enjoy reading it before all else, and will want to read another book as a result.

 

Beyond that, readers (children especially) are smart enough to take whatever message they need from a story at the time they read it. One kid might see something about accepting people as they are, not as you imagine them to be. Another may see body-positivity.

 

Another, and I do think this is the universal takeaway, will probably walk away thinking they too want to be left alone to eat potato chips.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’ve usually got a couple of things in various stages of writing, but nothing contracted.

 

However, I can share I am in the early development stage of an adult romance for Julie Murphy’s Bittersweet Books, the team who came up with the concept for Recommended Reading. It’s so embryonic there isn’t much to say except it’s been a lot of fun so far.

 

I love Julie and the Bittersweet team. Words really can’t express how thankful I am to work with them again and to get to delve into a new genre.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: It sounds like making the leap to writing a picture book was simple as I described it above: I was told to write a picture book. I wrote one.

 

In reality, writing a picture book is very hard. My first drafts sucked big time. They were told in a traditional narrative style. They didn’t fit the story. When I went for a less traditional dialogue-only narrative, it worked better. My editor, Margot, made suggestions that improved it immensely. Fred, of course, was an integral partner in telling the story.

 

All this is to say, it’s OK to fail and get frustrated, but not to let it paralyse you. It’s also to say how much deeper my admiration for picture book authors and illustrators is now I’ve had the privilege of experiencing the process from the inside.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Paul Coccia. 

Feb. 18

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feb. 18, 1909: Wallace Stegner born.

Q&A with Michael Kimmel

  

 

 

Michael Kimmel is the author of the new book Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America. His many other books include Guyland. He is a SUNY distinguished professor emeritus of sociology and gender studies, and he lives in Brooklyn. 

 

Q: How did your family history factor into your decision to write Playmakers?

 

A: It was decisive!! I’ve been waiting to do this book all my life. When I was a boy, there was a photograph on the piano in our living room. It was of an older man with Shirley Temple sitting on his lap. “To Barbara,” it said, “with love from Shirley Temple and Uncle Morris.” (My mother’s name was Barbara.).

 

Okay, I knew who Shirley Temple was, but who the heck was “Uncle Morris?” And what was he doing on my piano?  

 

It turned out Uncle Morris was Morris Michtom, the inventor of the Teddy Bear, the Shirley Temple doll, and countless other toys made by the Ideal Toy Company, which was, in the 1950s, the largest toy company in the world.  

 

I was always curious about this side of the family (from which we were largely estranged) and my retirement after 35 years as a professor provided the opportunity to begin to research what I thought would be a brief family history. 

 

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

 

A: The biggest surprise was that not only Ideal, but pretty much every single major American toy company in the early years of the 20th century were run by first-generation Jews, the children of impoverished Yiddish-speaking immigrants. Mattel, Hasbro, Lionel trains, Marx, Pressman – and all through the century!  

 

The toys were created by these first-gen Jews, distributed by companies run by first-gen Jews, and sold in department stores founded or run by largely German Jews of an earlier era (Gimbels, Macy’s, Abraham and Straus, Bergdorf Goodman, FAO Schwarz, Toys “R” Us).  

 

It was as if every famous toy of the century – Barbie, GI Joe, Mr. Potato Head, Rubik’s Cube, Mr. Machine, Chatty Cathy - was Jewish!

 

Once I started down that path, I was stunned – truly stunned – by how extensive was the influence of these first-gen Jews in the creation of the material culture of childhood in the 20th century.  

 

From the comic strips like Li’l Abner, Joe Palooka, Popeye, Betty Boop, to virtually every single comic book superhero, to a pantheon of authors of children’s books, and finally from the pioneers of the century’s new field of developmental psychology, the presence – no, the dominance – of first-generation Jews is incontestable.

 

Some of the most fun in the research was following leads down long trails that almost always led to descendants of the originators, and those interviews gave me more juicy stories than the mere facts of the presence and dominance of these first-gen Jews.  

 

The more I found out about their actual lives, as well as their accomplishments, I understood more about my own family as well.

 

Q: What role did these entrepreneurs’ Jewish identity play in the creation of many legendary American toys?

 

A: Hmm. Really interesting question. It's hard to say. So many of them were so busy trying to fit in, to assimilate, that they may have downplayed it. A few - toymakers, comic book artists, children's book authors - saw themselves as outsiders, wanting to fit in, afraid of "sticking out."  

 

The great comic book creator Stan Lee speculated about this when he answered an interviewer's question about that topic in the comic book world (which I also discuss in the book):

 

"Could it be that there was something in our background, in our culture, that brought us together in the comic book field? When we created stories about idealized superheroes, were we subconsciously trying to identify with characters who were the opposite of the Jewish stereotypes that the propaganda tried to instill in people’s minds?”

 

But I think it's a bit more than playing against stereotypes. It’s also that these first-gen, Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews carried with them, in their beat-up cardboard suitcases, an idea about childhood itself that was at odds with the traditional Puritanical ideas about child-rearing in the 19th century, and one that perfectly fit - and informed - the ideals of Progressivism in the first decades of the 20th century: That children were precious, curious, and creative, and the point of child-rearing was to nurture them, not break and/or mold them.   

 

Q: Of the various toys you wrote about in the book, do you have any particular favorites?  

 

A: What a fun question. Many of the toys I wrote about - Lionel trains, Revell plastic models, Mr. Potato Head, Mr. Machine, hula hoops, pogo sticks (invented by my great uncle George Hansburg), just to name a few - were the toys that animated my own childhood.

 

In the course of the research, though, I came to appreciate others for the creativity, the whimsy, the playfulness of the creators, and the dogged ambition of the companies that produced them.  

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I've just begun researching a new book, based initially on some of the research for Playmakers.  

 

At the turn of the century, every Sunday, the Jewish Daily Forward would publish five photographs of men who had "disappeared."  It was the "gallery of missing men."  

 

These men had often come to New York alone, and when their families arrived the men had moved one, found new, and more "glamorous" partners, or failed miserably and moved West, or...  well, we just don't know. It spurred me to look at men who disappear, men who live double lives, and why that seems to be so predominantly American. So I think that's the next project.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Just thinking about what I would want readers to take away from the book. Referring back to MY favorite toys, I was thinking that what I hope readers find, in the book, is the story of many of THEIR childhoods as well.  

 

The toys and games we played with, the comic books we read, the children’s books we read (and were read to us), the materials from which we constructed our fantasies – this is the story of the people who created them.  

 

It’s an inspiring history of irrepressible creativity and ambition, but also joy. Being Jewish meant more than subscribing to a “religion of doubt” but also of joy, wit and mischief! What a pleasure for readers to see their childhoods – and those of their children and grandchildren – through this lens.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Louise Fein

  

 

 

Louise Fein is the author of the new novel Book of Forbidden Words. Her other books include The London Bookshop Affair. She lives in Surrey, UK. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Book of Forbidden Words?

 

A: We are currently living through a technological revolution, the consequences of which are unknown to us all. I began with the thought that I wanted to find a time in history when a revolutionary idea had a profound effect on humankind and changed the course of history.

 

That idea, for me, was the printing press. The explosion of readily available printed materials in the years that followed, arguably, brought about the Protestant reformation, the enlightenment and all that followed, and moved society from the feudal Middle Ages into the modern era.

 

But of course, the spread of new ideas also brought fear, repression, and many years of violent religious wars. The theme of suppression of the freedoms of thought and speech runs through my novel, as well as that of the silencing of women.

 

My research uncovered some fascinating historical figures and nuggets!

 

One of the nuggets was an encrypted manuscript called the Voynich manuscript which, despite multiple attempts at decryption, remains a mystery to this day. The subject matter of the illustrations in the manuscript, however, has led to the theory that it was written by women. It inspired the fictional manuscript in my novel.

 

The novel explores the characters who contributed to this manuscript, why they were forced to hide its contents, and then 400 years later, the consequences for the woman who unlocks its secrets in the midst of the paranoia of McCarthy-era America.

 

Q: Can you say more about how you researched the novel? What did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: My novel is set in both the first half of the 1500s and the 1950s. Having the two timelines so far apart when the characters lived in very different worlds was a challenge. However, the more I delved into the subject matter, the more parallels I found between the eras, and eerily, with today’s world.

 

It took around six months of research before I really began writing. I read very widely around both eras.

 

The book features some real historical figures, including Sir Thomas More, Henry VIII, Desiderius Erasmus and Charlotte Guillard, a prominent 16th century printer in Paris. So, I read biographies, nonfiction historical accounts and research papers, and translated works written at the time. I also did a considerable amount of research into methods of encryption in early modern Europe.

 

My research into 1950s America also involved a good deal of reading, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as listening to music, watching YouTube videos, and other archival material.

 

The action is mostly set in Levittown, Long Island, and I happily made a trip there to walk the streets and get a feel of the place. Although of course it has changed since the 1950s, I still find these trips incredibly useful as everywhere you look, there are reminders of the past and I was even able to speak to people who remembered how it used to be in the 1950s and ‘60s. I also delved into local library archives of photos and memories which was extremely helpful.

 

With the book set partly in Paris, my research wouldn’t be complete without a trip there too, where fortunately there was an exhibition on the printing press, and I wandered the areas where my book is set. Of course, Paris now is very different from the city of the 1500s, but there are a few remaining buildings and sites from that era if you know where to look!

 

I was surprised to learn that some feminist writings were published as long ago as the 1500s. I was also very surprised at how possible it was for women to flourish in business in certain professions in Paris at that time, where the guilds permitted it. Charlotte Guillard, who is one of my three female protagonists, herself was extremely successful and well respected.

 

But I think the most surprising aspects I encountered were the parallels I was able to draw with today’s world, discussed further below!

 

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

 

A: The title was a joint effort by William Morrow, my publishers, and me. I had come up with “The Forbidden Word” or “Forbidden Words” and they changed it to “Book of Forbidden Words,” which I think is a perfect title! It really sums up what the book is about, which is the key to a great title.

 

Q: The author Kelly Rimmer called the novel a “gripping and compelling tale of powerful women who refuse to be silenced,” adding, “This is exactly the kind of story the world needs right now.” What do you think of that description, and how would you compare the worlds your characters inhabited with today's world?

 

A: I’m thrilled with what Kelly so kindly said about my novel! It was exactly the message I was hoping it would convey. Time and again in history, attempts are made to silence voices of dissent that threaten certain vested interests.

 

We may no longer burn people at the stake, but efforts to control the narrative persists. That’s why we see efforts to ban books, spread fear, and place the blame for complex problems on one set of people or a single cause.

 

These matters, it seems, are as relevant today as ever. The progress of women in society has been significant, but we haven’t, perhaps, come as far as we think, and women’s rights should continue to be protected and not taken for granted.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I never make my life easy by sticking to one era! But I think that is because I like to explore themes in a novel and it is a question of finding a brilliant story that allows me to explore those themes in the most gripping and powerful way.

 

So, my latest novel is set in the mid-1800s. It features a friends-to-lovers relationship, immigration, a mysterious disappearance, and chocolate. There will be a lot of chocolate, but not in the way you might imagine. It is currently entitled “The Chocolate Book,” but that, I guarantee, will change!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I adore hearing from readers! I am also happy to chat to book clubs wherever I can if they are keen on visiting authors.

 

I have a reading group guide/book club questions on my website for Book of Forbidden Words (and my other books) if people might find this helpful. It can be found here: https://www.louisefein.com/book-club-discussion-questions

 

Do get in touch either via my website https://www.louisefein.com or on social media: Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/louisefeinauthor/  and Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/louisefeinauthor.

 

I also send out a newsletter to my subscribers, no more than three or four times a year and with the occasional perk such as a giveaway or a short story. Do sign up, again, via my website!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Louise Fein. 

Q&A with Selina Alko

  

Photo by Good Job Photos

 

Selina Alko is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book Otherwise Known as Judy the Great: A Poetic Ode to Judy Blume. Her many other books include I Is for Immigrants. She lives in Brooklyn.

 

Q: What inspired you to create a picture book biography of author Judy Blume?

 

A: I love digging deep into the lives of extraordinary, creative women. In a way, working on biographies gives me clues to understanding my own creative journey– it humanizes my heroes and allows me to imagine myself (or any given child) soaring to great heights one day, too.

 

I was totally obsessed with Judy Blume books growing up. Who was this incredible woman who wrote all of my favorite childhood books? I needed to know more. 

 

Q: Of her various books, do you have a special favorite or two?

 

A: Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself is one I returned to again and again. I identified with Sally’s imagination as she dreamt of becoming a movie star post-World War II in Florida. As a Jewish child about Sally’s age, I felt what it might have been like living in America right after the war.

 

Judy Blume wrote about the Holocaust without really writing about the Holocaust––It was a brilliant way to introduce the fraught subject to North American kids (I grew up in Canada).

 

The hot Miami Beach sun and salty warm air conveyed in Blume’s pages put me right alongside Sally as she navigated making new friends, family dynamics and processed the trauma of the war.

 

It turns out this book is Judy Blume’s most autobiographical. I think there is a reason why Sally J. Freedman stuck in my mind all these years.

 

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

 

A: I began by reading everything I could find about her (biographies, think pieces, etc.), then I reread some of her books and watched the documentary Judy Blume Forever on Amazon Prime.

 

But the real research began once I started corresponding with Judy herself. Initially I sent her a dummy (black and white sketches and poems about her life in booklet form) before soliciting feedback.

 

I didn’t know if she would respond and I probably would have gone ahead with the project anyway since she is a public figure. Fortunately, she did respond and was remarkably warm and forthcoming. She shared some key details about her life that helped shift the narrative.

 

For example, I had assumed she had a very difficult relationship with her mother based on everything I had read, but when Judy saw the dummy she felt I was much too hard on her mother. She let me know some of the good things in their relationship, like the times her mother took her shopping in Manhattan and to Broadway shows.

 

Also, I assumed her grandmother was the head of her close-knit family, but she said it was most definitely her father.

 

She clued me into her parents’ nicknames (“Rudy” and “Essie” from Rudolf and Esther) and told me stories about her brother’s mischief-making antics, like when he played an April Fools’ Day prank by spilling fake-ink on their brand new wall-to-wall carpeting––making their mother cry.

 

Q: Why do you think Judy Blume’s books are banned so frequently?

 

A: Because she wrote so openly and honestly about the kinds of things that adults previously kept from kids. These “secrets” or “taboo topics” were exposed in her books– like questions about religion, puberty, periods, families not getting along, divorce, sibling rivalry, and more.

 

She was way ahead of her time in terms of giving children permission to speak about their feelings. Her books were like the internet of my day, chock full of information and answers. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I just finished the illustrations for a picture book biography called Words of Welcome: How Emma Lazarus Gave Lady Liberty a Voice by Elisa Boxer (Abrams, spring 2027).

 

Lazarus is another extraordinary, creative woman who spoke her truth by way of poetry two centuries before Blume. For those who might not know, Emma Lazarus famously wrote "The New Colossus," the welcoming poem on The Statue of Liberty.

 

Also, I just began sketches for another book written by Elisa Boxer called Saving The Star: A Kristallnacht Story (Rocky Pond, fall 2027).

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: New Yorkers: I’m having a book launch party for Otherwise Known as Judy the Great on publication day, February 17 at 7 p.m. at Lofty Pigeon Books in Brooklyn. Join me in conversation with Rachelle Bergstein (The Genius of Judy). We will talk ALL THINGS JUDY BLUME.

 

I am also looking forward to doing a book launch with Judy Blume herself at her bookstore Books & Books in Key West, Florida on March 1 at 2 p.m. There will be cake!

 

In the meantime, check out my cool new website: selinaalko.com. And you can always find me on Instagram: @selinaalko for book updates and more!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Selina Alko. 

Feb. 17

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feb. 17, 1924: Margaret Truman born.