Q&A with Beth Ferry

 

Beth Ferry is the author of the new middle grade novel Growing Home. Her many other books include Roar for Reading. She lives in New Jersey.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Growing Home, and how did you create your cast of characters?  

 

A: Writing a middle-grade novel had been on my to-do list for some time but it wasn’t easy leaving my comfort zone of 500-ish words to jump into the unknown zone of thousands and thousands of words. But then Covid hit, and it felt like the right time to try.

 

In 2018, my editor, Celia Lee, had given me an idea for a picture book called Best Fronds and I decided to use that idea as the starting point for Growing Home.  

 

I have a planter with the words “House Pet” on it and that sparked the idea of a competition between a real pet, a goldfish, and a favorite “pet,” a plant. Once I had these two “tiny” characters, it was easy to envision other small-ish characters like a spider, a bee, and a bird as the supporting cast.

Q: What do you think the Fan Brothers’ illustrations add to the story?

 

A: I think Terry and Eric’s illustrations firmly root the story in its “antique” setting while at the same time creating characters that readers cannot help but love. I mean, a goldfish in a bowler hat? Perfection!  

 

Q: As you mentioned, this is your first middle grade novel--how did the experience compare with writing your previous books?  

 

A: Well, it took a lot longer, for sure! But I found I enjoyed the freedom to explore the characters and setting more deeply. You don’t have room for that in picture books. And I loved the space I had for dialogue. I really enjoyed writing the dialogue.  

 

Q: The Booklist review of the book says, “The utterly charming tale is populated by memorable, messy characters, and it’s a pleasure to watch them grow from jealous roommates to dear friends as they each gain wisdom and empathy.” What do you think of that description?  

 

A: It’s hard to ask for better than that!  

 

Q: What are you working on now?  

 

A: I’m working on turning another picture book idea into a middle grade. We’ll see how it goes!  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?  

 

A: Not a single cheese puff was eaten during the writing of this novel (unfortunately)!  

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Gabe Henry

 

 

 

Gabe Henry is the author of the new book Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell. His other books include the poetry anthology Eating Salad Drunk. He lives in New York. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Enough is Enuf?

 

A: I’ve always been fascinated by language—how it works, how it doesn’t work, and how we all somehow manage to live with its many contradictions.

 

English spelling, in particular, struck me as this beautiful mess: full of history, but also full of headaches. I started digging into why it’s so inconsistent, and that rabbit hole led me to the bizarre, hilarious, and star-studded history of the simplified spelling movement.

Q: What are some of your favorite examples of the oddities of English spelling?

 

A: There are so many! "Colonel" is a particularly odd one—it’s a French word we stole and then kept pronouncing like an Italian one. And then there’s the classic O-U-G-H set: “though,” “through,” “tough,” "cough," “bough.”

 

But my favorite might be the word “ghoti,” which was a joke spelling of “fish” invented by spelling reformers. (G-H as in enough, O as in women, T-I as in nation.) Totally nonsensical, and yet… weirdly persuasive.

Q: New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake said of the book, “Gabe Henry has taken what sounds at first blush like a dry subject—English spelling—and written an incredibly fun, charming, hilarious book.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think Emily was right on the mark. Yes, the subject may sound dry at first, but the people behind it were anything but. These were obsessive, brilliant, sometimes ridiculous reformers who believed that changing the way we spell could actually make the world better. And once you start spending time with them, it becomes clear the story is about so much more than spelling.

Q: In a world of texts and emojis, what do you see looking ahead for spelling?

 

A: I think spelling is entering its next great evolution. For centuries, reformers tried to simplify English from the top down—with manifestos and proposals and presidential orders—and they mostly failed.

 

But now, thanks to texting, social media, and emojis, the change is happening organically, from the bottom up. People are already spelling words the way they sound, dropping silent letters, and using abbreviations on a daily basis.

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm in the early stages of writing a new book. Like Enough is Enuf, it’s part history, part cultural criticism, and full of forgotten weirdos with big ideas. In a way, it’s a spiritual cousin to Enuf. Hopefully I'll have more to announce soon!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Theodora Ziolkowski

 

 

 

Theodora Ziolkowski is the author of the new poetry collection Ghostlit. She also has written the novella On the Rocks. She is an assistant professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

 

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

 

A: I wrote the very first (and very different) draft of Ghostlit over the summer of 2019 and signed my contract with my press in the fall of 2023. That 2019 draft contained many poems and/or versions of poems that didn’t make it into the book you hold in your hands.

 

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

 

A: I was once talking to a family member about the poems and meant to say “gaslight,” but instead said “ghostlit,” a slip of tongue that ended up being tremendously helpful as I continued to work on the book. The idea of ghosts—as an image and also a state of being—was very generative for me.

 

Q: The poet Kevin Prufer said, “Ziolkowski is a master of tight narrative, of gothic energy, of intense psychological insight.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I am tremendously fortunate to have been given such praise by a poet I admire so deeply. Ghostlit is a narrative collection; as such, it has a kind of novelistic shape and energy (I am a fiction writer in addition to a poet). I am also a huge fan of the Gothic, which has been such an influence on my work across genres.

Q: How did you choose the order in which the poems would appear in the collection?

 

A: I do what many poets I know do, which is print out all the poems and arrange them on the floor. I shuffle their order around that way, down on the carpet with them, evaluating the poems first for their narrative (what do their reveal?) and then their tone and shape, trying to find ways to vary the latter in their pagination. I also look at the final and first lines of poems as I listen to how one poem moves to the next.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am so glad it’s summer, because that’s when I allow myself the luxury of working on multiple projects. Right now, I’m working on some essays and short stories and poems.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I love talking about writing, craft, process, etcetera. If readers have questions about Ghostlit, please don’t hesitate to reach out through my website: theodoraziolkowski.com

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

May 30

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

May 30, 1903: Countee Cullen born.

Q&A with Robert Gold

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Gold is the author of the new novel Twelve Secrets. He works in sales for a British publishing company, and he lives in the Putney neighborhood of London.

 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Twelve Secrets, and how did you create your character Ben Harper?

 

A: Twelve Secrets is my first full-length, published novel. Like so many authors, I’d always wanted to write, but alongside a full-time job and day-to-day life never quite seemed to have the time.

 

I had written an unpublished novel which remains hidden in the bottom drawer of my desk as well as a number of unperformed stage plays.

 

Prior to Twelve Secrets, I wrote three short novels, Bookshots, with the American author James Patterson. I learned so much from him and he gave me the belief I could write a full-length thriller.

 

I tasked myself to do it and sat down at the start of the year with the aim of finishing the novel by Christmas. Working every single weekend, I did, and that is how Twelve Secrets was written.

 

The first thing which came to me was the title. Playing in my mind was the idea of countdown; a novel written in 12 parts, where at the end of each section a new secret was revealed.

 

I loved the idea of a small community where on the surface everybody knows everybody, but hidden beneath all the characters held a secret. None of us know everything about our friends, neighbours, and families and that was the idea behind the story. 

 

Once I had that idea, Ben Harper was born. I didn’t want to write another police procedural novel so I needed a lead character who could realistically become involved in crime investigations.

 

Ben is an investigative journalist which give me scope to have him happily involved in lots of different crimes. Twelve Secrets tells the story of Ben investigating the horrific crimes which have impacted his own family and that felt like a great place to start the series.

 

Many years ago, I worked as an intern as CNN in their investigative stories unit and I’m sure that served as a small inspiration for Ben. All of my friends tell me Ben shares some of my own characteristics but I’m not sure!

 

Q: The novel is set in suburban London--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: As an author, but especially a debut author, you are juggling many things. Writing Twelve Secrets, I wanted to tell the best possible story with the most engaging and intriguing characters.

 

One of the things I learned from James Patterson is all authors are in the entertainment business. We are competing with the vast amount of entertainment options people have for their time, so we need to deliver an entertaining product. I needed my story and characters to deliver! 

 

Knowing that, I decided to adapt my hometown London setting of Putney to create the fictional setting of Haddley. Anyone who knows the London suburb of Putney well will easily be able to recognize all of the places we see in Haddley. I decided to fictionalize the town as I wanted to give myself the freedom of not every place being exactly where you expect it to be!

 

Basing Haddley on my own hometown made it much easier for me to visualize the settings. I would often wander outside and sit in the actual places I describe and imagine the scene taking place.

 

I love the way readers have reacted to the setting. Haddley has a small-town feel and has become incredibly important in creating the claustrophobic sense of a tight community.

 

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

 

A: When I started writing the novel I had the central plot in my head and knew exactly how I wanted it to end. What I didn’t know was how I was going to get there— or the secrets to be revealed along the way, which hopefully carry the reader forward and keep them intrigued.

 

The twists and turns within the story all developed as I wrote the novel. It was a huge amount of fun linking them all together to deliver the final surprise.

 

The great British writer Agatha Christie was probably one of the first crime writers to seed clues and information throughout her stories for readers to pick up on. I’m an enormous admirer of her stories and I similarly tried to share information with the reader.

 

I never want to write a novel where the reader gets to the end and thinks “that’s just impossible.” I always say, “The clues are there.”

 

Q: The writer Gilly Macmillan said of the book, “An unforgettable and nuanced cast of characters, a claustrophobic setting, and a suspenseful and chilling examination of the dark and destructive power of secrets.” What do you think of that description, and what do you see as the role of secrecy in the novel?

 

A: That is a wonderful and very generous quote from Gilly. When I started writing, all of the characters were only partly formed in my head. As I wrote the novel, I developed them and always had in my mind the idea that no one should be one hundred percent good or one hundred percent bad.

 

I think that really helped me. I hope even the most detestable characters in the novel have some redeeming features which give the readers a moment to pause. 

 

Secrecy drives the story throughout the novel. The worst possible secrets surround the crimes committed against Ben’s family. At the same time, some secrets are kept with good intentions, but those sometimes prove to be the most damaging. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: As an author I’m always incredibly grateful to readers who take the time to choose and read my novels.

 

For many years I’ve worked in the publishing industry and am well aware of the enormous number of books published each year. For anyone choosing to read mine, a big thank you and I hope Twelve Secrets keeps you entertained until the very last page.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Virginia DeLuca

 

 

Virginia DeLuca is the author of the new memoir If You Must Go, I Wish You Triplets. It focuses on her relationship with her former husband. She also has written the novel As If Women Mattered. She is also a psychotherapist, and she lives in Boston.

 

Q: What inspired you to write this memoir?

 

A: Heartbreak. I was heartbroken. And confused. And disbelieving. But I was also 61 years old, and I knew that even in the depths of loss and despair, with enough loving support and enough time, those feelings would shift.

 

So, I started writing and kept a journal called Perry Leaving. I wrote about how he wanted to leave and have his children over email at 61 years old. I wrote what he said and what I said and how I called all my friends and family for support. I put in the emails and the texts each day.

 

Eventually, a very close friend, a fantastic writer, said, "Maybe you should write a memoir."

 

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

 

A: After Perry left, we had been talking one afternoon about all the logistics of divorce that is required, and I expressed disbelief (again) that he wanted to have a child at 60, and he repeated it, "Yes, I want a child." Then I yelled at him, "Fine. If you are going, I wish you triplets."

 

Then, after completing many drafts of the book and starting to query, I asked a fellow writer, Kristen Paulson-Nguyen, to help me find a good title. She was beginning a business called "The Title Doctor."

 

She read through the manuscript and asked if I wanted sensitive, literary, funny, short, etc. And then, she listed a few possibilities. Boom – when I saw that quote from the book, I laughed. Perfect.

Q: The writer Randy Susan Meyers said of the book, “Her willingness to dig through ‘his and hers’ sins of omission and commission and the family history underlying actions that set the scene for disaster provides a remarkably candid read.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I loved it!

 

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

 

A: Writing this book, going from draft to draft, made me experience his leaving from many different perspectives. I could see myself as the innocent victim and him as the bad man who abandoned his wife when she got old.

 

But that was only one version. I could also see myself as a strong woman with lots of love whose husband wanted to have a child of his own before it was too late, and he didn't know how to make that happen.

 

I hope people take away the message that even when life doesn't go the way we want or expect, we can choose how we respond and that it is important to ask for help when suffering a loss.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My seven grandkids would love for me to write an adventure book with seven characters who are brave, strong, and smart. The characters get into trouble, but they stick together and help each other.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I hope everyone enjoys the book. Thank you, Deborah, for reading it and doing this with me.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Steve Behling

 

Illustration by Mike Thomas

 

Steve Behling is the author of the new middle grade novel The Monstrous Adventures of Mummy Man and Waffles. His other books include the Agent Stitch series.  

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Monstrous Adventures of Mummy Man and Waffles?

 

A: As a kid, my two big obsessions were superheroes and monsters. I was wild about Batman and Superman, and when I found out about Spider-Man and the whole bunch of Marvel super heroes? I was hooked for life. 

 

And as for monsters, it was the classic Universal Monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man, the Mummy, Creature From the Black Lagoon, etc. that fired up my imagination.

 

I was very lucky in that my parents really supported my passions, and encouraged me to read comics and books about all the behind-the-scenes of monster movies and the people who made them — actors like Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Lon Chaney (senior and junior!).

 

For the last 10 years or so, I had this idea bubbling in my brain about combining the two, and making a mummy superhero. So Mummy Man and Waffles is very much a result of my two of my main childhood interests colliding.

Q: How did you create your character Waffles, and how would you describe his relationship with his grandfather?

 

A: Waffles was based a lot on me, and how I felt as a kid. We share the same love of monster movies, and like Waffles, I kind of felt a bit alone in my interests. It was hard to find peers that were equally into and excited by the same things.

 

It got easier as time went on and I got older, but there were moments as a kid where I felt like I was the only one who knew, liked, or cared about any of the “old” monster movies.

 

So the idea of Waffles making a new friend like Tonya, who shares his interests and is equally obsessed, or having a grandfather that actually played a part in making monster movies, really resonated with me.

 

Q: What do you think Robb Mommaerts’ illustrations add to the story?

 

A: Robb did an absolutely amazing job of bringing the characters to life. His illustrations effortlessly walk the line between fun, silly, and creepy.

 

So much of the enjoyment for me as the author was seeing how Robb would interpret all the different characters. And in every instance, what he came up with was a million times better than anything I could conjure. What did his illustrations add to the story? Everything!

 

Q: The writer Kiel Phegley said of the book, “A story that creeps up on you and then wraps itself around your brain, Mummy Man & Waffles is the perfect blend of spooky and silly for young scary movie fans.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think it’s a great description, and I’m very flattered (thanks, Kiel)! With Mummy Man and Waffles, I set out to write a book that would be pure fun for kids to read. And I hope that kids really enjoy it. Someone asked me recently to describe the book, and I said, “If Mummy Man and Waffles was a meal, it would be dessert.”

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: A whole lot of things! I’ve got a bunch of projects coming out this year, including new installments in the Jurassic World: Chaos Theory junior novel series from Random House and new Spidey and His Amazing Friends books from Marvel Press.

 

And I’m very excited to be working with John Patrick Green on his InvestiGators graphic novel series — I’m collaborating with him, Chris Fenoglio, and Wes Dzioba on InvestiGators: Case Files, which comes out in September from First Second.

 

Plus, I have a top-secret project that I’m cooking up with my awesome agent, Kathy Green — there’ll be an announcement about that in the future.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Yeah! Robb and I are back with Book 2 in the Mummy Man and Waffles series! It comes out Aug. 5 of this year from HarperCollins (huge thanks to the team there, especially our excellent editor, Alexandra West Merkel)!

 

It’s called The Dire Deeds of Doctor Gargo, and introduces an important new monster hero to the Mummy Man mythos! Plus, Frank the turtle falls in love. 

 

It’s packed full of incredible illustrations by Robb, who really outdid himself. There’s action! Humor! Monsters! And a werewolf from Hoboken, New Jersey! What more could anyone want?

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

May 29

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
May 29, 1917: John F. Kennedy born.

Q&A with Marie Bostwick

 

 

 

 

Marie Bostwick is the author of the new novel The Book Club for Troublesome Women. Her other books include Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly. She lives in Washington state.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Book Club for Troublesome Women, and how did you create your cast of characters?

 

A: It all started three years ago, because of a conversation with my mom, who was 89 at the time. Mom is an avid reader. We were discussing books one day when Betty Friedan's 1963 blockbuster, The Feminine Mystique, came up. Mom said, "I don't know if I ever told you, but that book changed my life." 

 

She hadn't mentioned this before, so I asked her to elaborate. It didn't take long for me to realize that I'd stumbled upon a really terrific idea for a book, a novel centered upon four ‘60s era women who form a book club and choose Friedan's blockbuster as their first pick. Over the course of the year, the books they read and the sisterhood they develop changes everything.

Q: The writer Adriana Trigiani said of the novel, “At its heart, this is a novel about ambitious women and the mentors that inspired them to excellence. This story is a time capsule of what was, which shows us who we are today.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Adriana is a brilliant writer and an incredibly insightful reader, and I think her words highlight some of the core themes of the book. 

 

The way the women in my book challenge and champion one another transform their lives, and also influence the lives of the generations who will follow.

 

As I look at my mother and her generation, I can see how that played out in real life, and how the trail she and the other women of her era blazed have made such a difference for women today. But it's also a reminder that, as much as some things have changed, the fact that women need other women remains. Sisterhood is our strength.

Q: How would you describe the dynamic among the four women?

 

A: The words realistic and familiar come to mind. If you've been fortunate enough to have a real friend, or hopefully a few, then you know that the road of friendship isn't always smooth. There are some bumps along the way, conflicts as well as camaraderie. 

 

To me, a true friend is someone who can tell you the things you need to hear but don't always want to hear. If you can stick together through that, then you've created a bond that will last no matter what life throws your way. It's not always easy, but it's an incredible gift. As one of the characters says in the book, "True friends are rare, and worth waiting for."

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

 

A: When I begin a book, I generally have a very solid idea of how it will end and where I want to leave the characters and my readers. That was the case with this book too. The final scene was very clear in my mind, and what I imagined at that point is basically what readers will find in that final chapter. Of course, I do make changes as I write, but they tend to come more in the middle of the story than at the end.

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm still in the conceptualization stage of my process right now, when I just spend a lot of time imagining characters and auditioning different plot points, settings, and personal histories in my mind. I don't like to talk about the book at this stage because I think it tends to suck some of the juice out of the project. That being said, I am planning to return to the 1960s. It's a fascinating era.

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Book clubs are loving The Book Club for Troublesome Women - there is just so much to discuss here!

 

To make things even more fun, I've created a free Book Club Party Kit with book-themed recipes, a musical play list, discussion questions, and a list of books for further reading for those who want to dig deeper into the subject matter explored in the novel. You can download it from my website. Just click on the link, and scroll down to the Party Kit. https://mariebostwick.com/books/the-book-club-for-troublesome-women/

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Marie Bostwick.

Q&A with Jan D. Payne

 

 

 

Jan D. Payne is the author of the new novel Rabbit Moon. Also a physician, she lives in Minnesota.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Rabbit Moon, and how did you create your character Marin Sinclair?

 

A: Marin Sinclair is an amalgamation of my experiences while living in Dinetah—the country, the people, the Navajo culture—and the stories I myself love to read—mystery, adventure, suspense, fantasy, differing cultures, life’s crossroads, romance, historical…for isn’t exploring new worlds and people why we read stories?

 

I have always loved writing…short stories, poems, essays, etc., and when I began writing Rabbit Moon, our family lived on St. Paul Island, Alaska—an Aleut Native American village—where my husband was head principal and our daughter was in middle school.

 

At the time, I was not practicing medicine (no clinic on the island!) and I was taking a writing course offered by the school’s English teacher. She suggested I write a series of stories about my early life “on the rez”—stories I told my two children about growing up in the Southwest in the Four Corners Area—the Dineh (Navajo) reservation. I used those stories, with embellishments, as the basis for Rabbit Moon.

 

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

 

A: The title “Rabbit Moon” was chosen for its literal reference to the “rabbit in the (full) moon”…a cultural difference I chose to highlight because of the contrast to the “man in the moon” motif widely accepted by American/Anglo culture. It is one of the first things I remember being told by a Dineh classmate after our move to the “rez.”

 

At the time, I was very indignant—everyone “knows” it’s a “man in the moon”—and over the years that incident came to represent how I felt then, how a different way of seeing things, a different way of thinking, and especially a willingness to learn new things was necessary if I wanted to make friends and “fit in.”

 

That need and a natural curiosity opened a new world. I’ve since lived in many different places and cultures—Mexico, Alaska, Canada, Kenya—and have found each place fascinating in its diversity.

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 write as a plotter and not a pantser (writing without a definite plot; i.e., by the “seat of your pants”), so I had the ending of Rabbit Moon planned and plotted to the nth degree…but a funny thing happened along the course of writing the book; the characters took over with their own “say” in events!

 

Most writers I meet spend an inordinate amount of time dreaming up stories, imagining exactly how they progress and how they might end, but I was surprised at the way Rabbit Moon ended. (For example, Vangie’s son, Garret Washburn, and the role he played, was not planned.)

 

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

 

A: The take-away from the book that I’d like readers to have is the understanding that one’s own culture is just that—one’s own, and one of many, cultures. So much of our understanding of others depends on our exposure—to other backgrounds, religions, outlooks, customs, languages—and a willingness to explore, to interact.

 

I am not Native American (nor is Marin Sinclair), and I hopefully avoid the errors of misappropriation caused by lack of respect, stereotyping, flippancy with the sacred or the ancient, historical one-sidedness, or a treatment of the Dineh culture as Marin’s own, but that said, we each have our own, lived, story to tell. It is our perspective and experience that creates a unique story…a story which belongs to us.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Marin Sinclair, Book Two, is finished with a publication date set for August of this year. Much of the story takes place in Canyon de Chelly, and the book has the working title of “Changing Woman’s Hair”— a reference to the black streaks of rock varnish on canyon walls that the Dineh call “Changing Woman’s Hair.” (Changing Woman is one of the Holy People in Dineh belief, representing the harmony in the life-change cycles we experience as humans.)

 

Through a series of life and death encounters that take place during the annual Navajo Nation Fair in Window Rock, Arizona, we discover more of Marin’s life—will she accept the responsibility of Garret’s guardianship? How far does friendship go in honoring the last wish of a dying friend? Does Marin want to return to the reservation?

 

She has a life in Flagstaff now, a job, a home, but what about her prior history with Sgt. Justin Blue Eyes or her recent mountaintop experience with agent Cullen MacPherson?

 

We also discover more about the mysterious Lewis George…as I am weaving elements of myth and mystical experience into the new stories.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Finally, there is one thing I’d like to say about writing. The best advice I ever received (from Minnesota author Allen Eskens) was to take every writing class I could find over the course of a year and to read the best books on writing before I attempted to write a novel.

 

I thought I knew how to write—I’ve been doing it most of my life!—but as they say, you don’t know what you don’t know. I followed his advice…and I am still following his advice. There’s so much to learn, and it takes time to get it right. So, please be patient: I’m still practicing.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Alix Christie

 

 

 

 

Alix Christie is the author of the novel The Shining Mountains, which is now available in paperback. She also has written the novel Gutenberg's Apprentice. She lives in San Francisco and in Berlin.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Shining Mountains, and how much is the novel based on your family history?

 

A: The novel follows very closely my own family history and is as factually accurate as I could make it. I have known about my fur trading ancestors since my childhood shuttling back and forth between California and British Columbia.

 

Then after my first novel was published, my brother, a scholar, gave me a pile of books about the Scots-Native experience in pre-settlement North America. He’d just written a scholarly article on Duncan McDonald, our distant cousin, the son of the last Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader in the U.S., Angus McDonald, and his Nez Perce-French-Mohawk wife Catherine Baptiste.

 

At first I planned only to write a novel about Duncan, an amazing man caught between two cultures who had an outsized impact in late 19th century Montana. Then I learned more about his parents, and their incredible lifelong love story, and knew I had to write a multi-generational saga.

 

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

 

A: After some general reading I went straight to my cousins on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, all descendants of Catherine and Angus, enrolled members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, as well as other descendants enrolled in the Nez Perce tribe. Without their support I could not have researched and written the book, nor known how to ask for and receive formal approval from both tribes.

 

I learned all I could from them, then spent hours in Western archives reading Angus and Duncan’s letters and newspaper and eyewitness accounts of the trading practices and conflicts and wars between the colonizing Americans and Native peoples.

 

Luckily, both McDonald men were prominent and left writings that survive; I relied on oral stories, Native friends and cousins, and anthropological sources to depict Catherine’s peoples’ lives.

 

What surprised me most—and what few Americans realize—is how thoroughly multicultural the pre-American world of the Northwest was. It was a bubbling mix of Natives and Europeans all trading and intermarrying. The peoples of what would become the United States have always been radically diverse!

Q: The writer Susan Straight said of the book, “I especially loved the women, their bravery and clear-eyed vision of this world, from ancestral legends to the danger of the new.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I was pleased to read this, as I think most histories are terribly skewed toward the recorded exploits of men. On the pre-colonial continent, in hundreds of different Native tribes, men and women together managed their peoples’ affairs. In some cases this was through matrilineal structures, in others not.

 

Among the Nez Perce, Catherine’s people, for example, women managed all economic affairs and thus held significant power. Catherine herself was an exceptional woman who trapped beaver with her father and birthed all 12 of her children alone, as was the tradition.

 

I pictured her and her mother as powerful women who fully grasped the risks to their people of the invading settlers, and were willing to fight to preserve their homelands and families. Above all, they saw their duty as preserving the culture for future generations.

 

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

 

A: I hope readers gain some appreciation for the incredible courage and resilience of the Native inhabitants of this country. They were very nearly wiped out over decades of genocide, but as their saying goes today: “We are still here.” Very few Americans descended from immigrants were taught any of this real history in school—and it is sadly once again being contested.

 

I hope that by reading about this one specific place and people, readers will see the precise steps the U.S. government and settlers took to dispossess the tribes and force them onto reservations. We need to recognize that “history” is essentially a series of decisions made by people much like ourselves.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have just finished a new novel set in the immediate aftermath of World War II in Berlin. Called “Rubble Women,” it’s the story of a half-dozen German women thrown together in 1945, forced to clear the rubble of war to survive — and more importantly, forced to examine the choices each one of them made during 12 years of Nazi dictatorship.

 

I’m pleased that the opening chapters won a gold prize from the Historical Novel Society in the 20th century category, and hopeful it will soon find a great publishing home!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I found it so hard to separate from “my” Rubble Women that I am now working on a collection of linked short stories examining their later lives and descendants in both the United States and Germany.

 

It’s all part of my secret dream to one day be a writer who can say “she divides her time between…”—in my case San Francisco and Berlin, as is actually now printed on the paperback of The Shining Mountains!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. A previous version of this Q&A can be found here.

Q&A with Tammar Stein

 

 

 

Tammar Stein is the author of the middle grade novel The Treasure of Tel Maresha. Her other books include The Giant, the Slingshot, and the Future King. She is a former school librarian.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Treasure of Tel Maresha, and how did you create your characters Becca and Rebeka?

 

A: I went to Beit Guvrim National Park in Israel and participated in their “Dig-for-a-Day” program. It was an incredible opportunity to be part of an archeological dig and touch history. We were actually uncovering artifacts that had been buried for 2,000 years.

 

When I found part of a clay pot, I couldn’t help but wonder about the last people who used it. Who were they? Why did they leave? The story just came to me, almost completely intact.

 

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

 

A: Aside from participating in the dig twice, I interviewed several of the guides who work there, including the incredible Missy Stein-Goldman, and archeologist John Drummond.

 

I became a regular reader of Biblical Archeology Review, a scholarly publication for the findings from biblical-era digs. I also did as much research as I could about what daily life would be like in that time period and spoke with several biblical scholars.

 

The more I studied the time period, the more I realized that apart from the technology and conveniences we enjoy in our life, we as people haven’t really changed in all these years. Conflicts, emotions, and connections to our families are the same as they have always been.

Q: What do you think Barbara Bongini’s illustrations add to the story?

 

A: It’s always a thrill when the art comes in. I loved her approach to bringing Becca and Rebeka to life. The cover is so beautiful and vibrant and really captures the thrill of a dig.

 

Q: The Historical Novel Society’s review of the book says, “Stein has a light hand with history, and readers will readily absorb details about daily life, family relationships, customs, and ethnic conflict in the area 2,200 years ago.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I loved their review! It’s exactly what I was aiming for, no lectures or anything too technical, but an entertaining read that is still educational.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have two picture books coming out in 2025 and another one coming in 2026. In the meantime, I am busy working on several top secret projects. Please stay tuned!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thank you for having me on your blog!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb