Q&A with Melanie Dale

  

 

 

Melanie Dale is the author of the new middle grade novel Girl of Lore. Her other books include Calm the H*ck Down. She lives in the Atlanta area.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Girl of Lore, and how did you create your character Mina?

 

A: I remember when my son was in middle school I gave him a boxed set of some of my favorite horror classics, books like Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Call of Cthulhu, etc., and he gamely tried to plow through Dracula but petered off when Jonathan Harker was still trapped in that castle and I thought, “What if I could make this story more accessible for him? What if these characters were teens living in Georgia?”

 

Girl of Lore is a love letter to my favorite genre and the stories that have shaped me. I love gothic literature! My favorite novel is Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mina Murray is my favorite gothic character. She’s so smart and underestimated by the men.

 

My Mina is smart like her namesake, but underestimates and doubts herself. I’m really excited about the journey she goes on in Girl of Lore, within her own brain and with her family and friends. Navigating high school is hard, even without paranormal challenges.

 

Q: How did you create the world in which the novel is set?

 

A: Give me all the haunted houses and monsters and creeping dread! When I went to create my London, I brought it home to where I live, combining elements from several small Georgia towns around me into the perfect Southern gothic setting for lore to come to life!

 

Mina spends a lot of time in the graveyard, so I visited graveyards around where I live and also toured them in fun places like New Orleans and Edinburgh.

 

One of my beta readers early on said the book felt like it could be anywhere, so I really started focusing on what makes it Georgia.

 

For starters, I looked at the critters around me. My backyard is basically a swamp. I live in a town bursting with flora and fauna, and I brought a lot of that world into the book, huge spiders, armadillos lumbering around like rubbery dinosaurs, things that go bump in the night, even an alligator.

 

I wanted to create the feeling of the kudzu vines choking everything and how the summer humidity hangs on around here well into the fall.

 

Q: Why did you decide to focus on OCD and mental health in the book?

 

A: I’ve struggled with OCD since I was a kid and am only just now as an adult starting to unpack the way my brain works and learning how to separate truth from OCD thoughts.

 

I really wanted to invite readers into Mina’s brain and let them feel what she feels, the constant doubt. It can be really scary inside an OCD brain!

 

I hope by highlighting OCD through Mina’s character and the ways she learns to deal with it will help others struggling with it, and for readers who don’t have OCD, to understand a little more of what it’s like, rather than the stereotype of people who like to clean and organize.

 

I remember talking to my agent about wanting to explore Mina’s OCD but worrying that it would be too scary. She told me to go for it, and then when Jessi Smith – my editor at Aladdin, who also has OCD – got hold of it, she helped me continue to flesh out Mina’s inner thoughts.

 

I’m really excited for readers to have a character they can root for and maybe identify with who struggles against these scary intrusive thoughts but keeps working and doesn’t give up.

 

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

 

A: Jessi Smith, my editor, gets the credit on that one! I originally called it Mina Murray’s Compendium of Monsters. We loved the word “lore” and Lore Club plays a huge part in the book, so Jessi came up with Girl of Lore. I love it so much.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m back in the world of London, Georgia, having grand adventures with Mina and Lore Club! After Girl of Lore ends, there are so many new…ummmm…developments to explore, so much lore to investigate.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Ooh, well, I don’t want to give anything away, but there are a couple relationships in the book that I’m really excited for readers to discover.

 

One is a beautiful friendship, the kind of love and loyalty you fight for, that grows with you, and one is maybe more of a romantic relationship, with all those pulse-pounding feelings of getting to know someone new. I’m grinning just thinking about these two different people in Mina’s life.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Jim O'Connell

  

 

 

Jim O'Connell is the author of the new memoir Incurable Gifts: My Weepy, Wobbly, Wonderful Life with Parkinson's. He is a longtime journalist, and he lives in Alexandria, Virginia. 

 

Q: Why did you decide to write this book?

 

A: I love to write, so before I went on disability with Parkinson's Disease I was writing about things that happened to me and I don't know why but I sent a few essays to Mark Willen.

 

I didn't know him well but we had both worked at Bloomberg and I knew he had written a book or two, but I hadn't even had a conversation with him so he was probably surprised to receive my email.

 

He responded with  a note every writer dreams of, saying it made him think about his life and his relationships with friends and family, and how these essays deserved a wide audience. I wrote a few more  essays and Mark virtually demanded I produce a book.

 

He is the reason there's a book with my name on it and he knows how grateful I am.

 

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

 

A: I think it indicates that it’s a book about finding fulfillment and even joy in tragic circumstances. My wife came up with the title. You’re probably starting to realize how little I had to do with producing this book.

 

Q: What do you think are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about Parkinson's?

 

A: Most people have no clue, not the smallest inkling of a clue, what it is to have this disease. It steals your identity and makes you hate yourself. It has about 30 symptoms ranging from the merely embarrassing to the deadly, which is why finding joy is a challenge.

 

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

 

A: I hope readers, especially caregivers, understand better how diabolical this disease is. I want patients to share this with their families so caregivers understand what the patients are going through and why it’s so difficult to help them.

 

You know when you're holding a toddler and they twist and push to make you release them even though it would cause them to fall? That's a bit like Parkinson’s, except the toddler’s a grown person.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I work every day at being more grateful for my friends and family. and to stop trying to twist away from those trying to help me.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This book is funny. I know it doesn’t sound like it here but it is. It's sweet and thoughtful and romantic and I really hope it helps someone sustain. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

April 13

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
April 13, 1891: Nella Larsen born.

Q&A with David B. Oppenheimer

  

 

 

David B. Oppenheimer is the author of the new book The Diversity Principle: The Story of a Transformative Idea. He is a clinical professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Diversity Principle?

 

A: I wrote this book because too many people were describing diversity as something new, or worse, as a political trend that could be turned on or off depending on the moment. That did not match the history I uncovered, nor what I knew from my work in constitutional law and anti-discrimination law.

 

The idea that diversity has value did not begin with modern DEI programs. It has a long intellectual and legal history. It shaped how universities were designed, how courts came to understand free speech, and how we think about liberty, democracy, and equality.

 

I wanted to show that history clearly and make the case that diversity is a principle with deep roots, not a passing policy choice.

 

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

 

A: The research grew out of years of teaching, writing, and collaborating with my remarkable UC Berkeley research assistants.

 

They helped me uncover original sources through which we traced the idea from the founding of the modern research university, the University of Berlin, in 1810, through the work of philosophers John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill, who connected diversity to liberty, and then into American law through figures such as Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Felix Frankfurter, who embraced the diversity principle as an essential part of First Amendment doctrine.

 

What surprised me was how consistent the idea was across time and place. Different thinkers came to the same conclusion from different directions. Exposure to people with a range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives improves decision making and strengthens institutions.

 

That insight appeared in academic theory, in free speech law, and in the arguments used to dismantle segregation. It was not invented in the late 20th century. It was rediscovered again and again.

 

Q: The author Richard Rothstein said of the book, “David B. Oppenheimer’s comprehensive tour of diversity’s advocates provides essential armor against those who would now dismiss its value.” What do you think of that assessment?

 

A: I take that as a very generous reading of what I hoped to do. My goal was not to offer a slogan in favor of diversity, but to show the record. When you look closely at the history, you see that diversity has been defended by some of the most careful legal and philosophical thinkers we have.

 

If the book helps people understand that dismissing diversity means turning away from a long line of reasoning about how institutions function at their best, then I think it is doing useful work.

 

Q: What do you see looking ahead for diversity initiatives?

 

A: I think we are going to see a period of confusion, especially as institutions try to interpret the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in light of the Trump administration’s anti-diversity overreach.

 

Some programs will be scaled back or ended. Some will simply be renamed. Still others will be redesigned to fit within the current legal framework. Many (perhaps most) are perfectly legal under existing law but will be subjected to intense political pressure.

 

But the underlying idea is not going away. We know empirically that diversity matters, and that it is too valuable to abandon it.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I continue to teach Civil Procedure, Evidence, and comparative equality law, and to work with students on pro bono cases. I continue to co-direct our center on comparative equality law. I have three books under contract on different elements of how different countries approach questions of equality and discrimination.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: One thing I would emphasize is that the debate over diversity often becomes abstract or polarized. The history shows something more practical. Institutions perform better when they are open to people with a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.

 

That is not a new idea, and it is not limited to any one political moment. It is a principle that has been tested over time.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Madison Salters

  

 

 

 

Madison Salters is the author of the new book Influencers Who Kill: Real Stories of Online Fame and Fatal Consequences. Her other books include Scams & Cons, and she is also a journalist, editor, and translator. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Influencers Who Kill, and how did you choose the cases to include?

 

A: I had always been interested in crime writing--it was the natural nexus of a lot of different mediums I've worked in.

 

Journalism covered the human element; seeing stories from both sides, trying to avoid bias, conducting ample research, interviewing first-hand witnesses, and tracking down leads.

 

Translation taught me a lot about reading between the lines, the way that language can be flexible, especially in the hands of master manipulators.

 

And being the daughter of a lawyer and an investigator, I learned many tricks of those trades and had a go-to network for questions on legal matters or how to track difficult-to-find information.

 

The research editor in me was always looking for contradictions, threads to pull, things that didn't quite add up between tellings of a story. I'm avid about digging and digging until the information begins to paint a clearer picture because the right questions are finally being asked.

 

I was invited to write Scams & Cons, my second book, by Ulysses Press, a few years ago. Or, not quite invited: they tried a few writers out, heard different pitches. The book was a compilation of scam artists and their ploys.

 

My pitch won the contract, and I spent the next year doing a deep dive into the psychology of tricksters and fraudsters. Almost by accident along the way, I ended up unearthing real stories of murder connected to some of the con artists. Deceit, self-interest, and narcissism often go hand-in-hand with violent crime, so maybe that was inevitable. 

 

After Scams & Cons, the publisher reached out to me to write Influencers Who Kill. Unlike with my second book, which really invited me to mix it up in terms of cases and build the book as I liked, Influencers was more of a pare-down. The publisher provided a list of about 22 cases, and I selected eight of them, after doing initial research on all 22.

 

Then, I asked if I could include a ninth case, one that I thought wove into the greater story well--that of Yuka Takaoka, the popular hostess who'd tried to kill a good-looking red light district worker. I had the translation skill to do that deep dive and, I hoped, present the story of that crime and the sub-cultures around it; host bars and the shadowy realm of Japanese foster care; to a Western audience. That case ended up being the cover for the book. 

 

I believe Ulysses Press came to me for this book because this wasn't just crime writing; it was pop culture tied with a killer bow. My day job, as Publisher at J-Novel Club (a Kadokawa group company), puts me in the crosshairs of anime, manga, cosplay, and convention culture daily. I'm a big social media user, so talking about online life is like breathing for me. It was a confluence of niche subjects I have a lot of knowledge in--with that undercurrent of, well, murder. 

 

Or, blissfully, attempted murder, in the couple of cases that were thwarted. I say "blissfully" because honestly, months of research for this book got emotionally difficult at times. You feel for all the victims who were needlessly put through so much. 

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

 

A: I research almost everything the same way. I start big. I look at every available piece of primary and secondary source material, then by hand on paper, start to build a timeline. I make note of "facts" as I go. And you'll find, when you read everything, that a ton of the "facts" contradict one another. That's really where the story is... in those murky blind spots.

 

For primary sources, I used governmental documents (such as court papers, police interrogations) and physical evidence, whereas secondary sources were a lot of the news.

 

From there, because this was about influencers, I went ahead and consumed all their social media--all of it. Then that of their friends, too. I used the WayBackMachine in a lot of instances to find posts and videos that were wiped from the internet--it's like an archival history. I watched over a thousand hours of videos. I read more posts than were countable.

 

I unearthed dead socials--Twitter, IG, OnlyFans, YouTube--some of the people in the book had multiple profiles, fake profiles, some had people pretending to be them. In some cases, profiles didn't exist anymore, so I had to get something like a photonegative of what was said via the replies that still exist.

 

TikTok briefly went down during all the research due to restrictions, and I knew that was coming, so I spent a solid week on TikTok transcribing everything.

 

From there, I noted all the contradictions. The not-quite-rightness in a lot of the stories, even from venerated sources, or from first-hand accounts. I questioned those plot holes when I spoke with lawyers, witnesses, and victims. I went as deep as it was possible to go, and followed up on every thread of inquiry, until I had a balanced view on what most likely happened, and why. 

 

I think what most surprised me was Snow's case. Mostly because it concerned a death that, within this decade, will no longer be considered a criminal affair.

 

There's the popular idea of redemption in a lot of crime writing--of being guilty, but due to good behavior and rehabilitation, being let off the hook for a mistake or a moment of passion. It's different altogether to write about a “crime” that literally won't be one anymore in a few years. That’s where the long memory of the internet might be at odds with our laws. 

 

I was surprised also by a lot of elements around the case that didn't quite make sense, and it seems maybe never will. It was the incident with the most witnesses and the fewest people willing to speak on it. It was the least clear-cut to me, so I was the most careful with it.

 

Sometimes, you get two people with very different senses of who a third person is. Snow's lawyer really felt this was a deep tragedy; so did the local judge. But someone who knew Snow characterized them as remorselessly willing to taunt people into suicide. Can both be true? Certainly. But the waters were muddiest there, and what happened left people involved too traumatized to talk about it.

 

One thing I think readers don't know but will sometimes help to remember, especially in a society saturated with crime documentaries, is that authors have to avoid sensationalism.

 

There was a lot I learned that I couldn't put in the book, across cases, due to defamation laws, which can protect perpetrators when the truth nonetheless may have a negative consequence to their reputation. Sections where the perpetrators are still to live life away from the mar of their actions had to be handled with care.

 

Some of the most shocking revelations take some detective work on the reader’s part, so I’m hoping readers will read between the lines a bit-- that's part of the fun of reading true crime, doing those mental flexes and drawing your own conclusions.

Q: What do you think the book says about the importance of influencers in today’s world?

 

A: I think there were a few key takeaways.

 

The first is that the definition of "influencer" is changing. It used to be a bit more niche--an expert in usually a specific subject, with a dedicated following they could make a noticeable and immediate impact on. Today, it's more all-inclusive, almost a "persona". It's gone from being about blogging and diary-style and low-budget “realness” to being heavily curated.

 

The impact on today's world is twofold, in the book itself: first, that there's a sense of entitlement and desperation that comes from being "internet famous"; having to play act a fake version of yourself for virality, and then having to keep up with the Joneses on content production.

 

What usually begins as a harmless sharing of someone's skill or talent tends to get funneled into a cult of personality and they have to keep juggling the plates. Viewership going down feels like personal rejection, these days.

 

The other important element is the parasocial relationships influencers create. Screen time is up, and people use screen time to connect with friends. But as social media becomes highly marketable, advertised on, and mapped out by an algorithm, people see their friend's posts less and less, and influencers more and more.

 

The influencers become like friends; they speak right to their audience, they request feedback, they say good morning and how are you and even I love you. They share intimate personal details about their lives, which makes them unlike more distant celebrities.

 

It's bite-sized reality TV, and that means that people are tuning in to consume a person as a product, and they often want that product to be their friend. So, the way a good friend might, a lot of times, fans jump to the defense of these influencers, or don't care what they've done, because they don't want their favorite show interrupted.

 

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

 

A: I hope readers will find something interesting and new for themselves, whether it's a new case they hadn't heard of before, a type of social media they hadn't explored, a time period on socials they were less aware of, or a sub-culture they didn't know about.

 

The nine stories in this book span different cultures and time periods for social media-- a relatively short timeline in human history, but technology and social media especially change at light speed-- so I hope there will be engaging and surprising narratives that suit everyone's taste.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Getting some sleep! (Ever my work in progress!) 

 

Q: Literarily, I'm working on my fourth book and my first work of fiction right now.

 

In my day job as the publisher at J-Novel Club, we bring hundreds of manga and light novels to readers worldwide. I've been the editor on a few of our Original Light Novel series, including the grand prize winner, Atlas. So, there's always something brewing!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Just thank you so much, and I hope you'll give Influencers Who Kill a read! It's out in paperback, eBook, and audio. Alexa Elmy, the audiobook narrator, does a great job.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Julie Cruse

  

 

 

Julie Cruse is the author of the new memoir The Burn List: A Memoir of Abuse from Home to Higher Education.  

 

Q: What inspired you to write this memoir?

 

A: There was never any grandiose plan for a book. One night, I dashed off about 20 pages. And the next night, I wrote 10 more. My counterpart (himself a writer) was like, “if you get to a hundred, you have a book.” Six weeks later, I had written 180,000 words.

 

That’s a big block of text to stare at. 

 

But very quickly, the chapters on abuse in higher education urged me forward as a matter of public concern.

 

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

 

A: Ah. That’s a secret. If you want to know, you’ll have to read the book! The clues are in there. And you’re going to love it.

 

Q: How long did it take to write the book?

 

A: I wrote the initial draft in a six-week fever dream. Seven months later, I had a final version and a publishing contract. I think, people tell me at least, that’s fast?

 

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

 

A: For so long, I felt like I had been put in this tiny cage, where I couldn’t move. As I wrote, the cage got a little bigger. Big enough to walk around in, and inspect the bars. Each page loosened the bolts. And eventually, I took the whole thing apart. 

 

All the people who built that cage are in it now, and I’m standing outside of it. 

 

It’s pretty cool to hear from readers. Whether it's because they loved it, or they relate to it, or (my personal favorite) they couldn’t put it down, I get a jolt of camaraderie every time. I even heard from someone in Canada a couple days after the book launch. And I’m like, wow. Here I thought I’d be lucky if an old friend from my hometown picked it up.

 

I hope The Burn List raises awareness about coercive control in higher education.

 

Right now, academia functions like a dysfunctional family. Everyone tolerates “Uncle Bob” or “Aunt Betty” at dinner, even though it’s an open secret that they abuse students and staff. But that’s because everyone knows that it’s the squeaky wheel that gets greased.

 

So it goes on, unchecked. People get hurt. Careers get derailed. Lives get ruined. And everyone shuffles back to class like it’s just another Tuesday.

 

The Burn List is a check against that. It’s like saying, “Well, if she did it, who else might leak the truth?”

 

If this book kicks the door down for other survivors to tell their stories, that’s one mission accomplished.

 

If it leads to Title IX reform, that’s an epic win.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My next book, Ivory Cuffs: Human Trafficking in Higher Education, is well underway. I'm also finishing a recovery workbook for people rebuilding their sense of self after institutional abuse.

 

At academicabuse.com, a hub of data and resources I created to help individuals identify and defend against the problem, I keep very busy. I run a data dashboard that tracks global allegations of misconduct in higher education, and I send weekly reports on it to subscribers.

 

The first annual report is also live. Which was really interesting. There were nearly 6,000 stories tracked, and most of them were on discrimination, harassment, or Title IX. Which, there can be a lot of overlap between.

 

For anyone who wants a copy of that, head over to academicabuse.com to sign up and download. You’ll get the recovery workbook there too, when it’s up.

 

I’m also building a podcast, The Academic Verdict, where survivors of misconduct in higher ed can anonymously share what happened to them and how they navigated it. The goal is to create a sort of survivor-driven blueprint for what works and what doesn’t. I’m anticipating a May launch of that.

 

Most recently, I created a petition calling for anonymous complaint pathways under Title IX. If there’s anything that readers of The Burn List now know, it’s that victims need ways to be able to safely report what happened to them. And I have a whole model in mind for that. We have the technology to do it. We just need a commitment.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: We need to start talking about what I call student trafficking, the subject of my next book and the lived account in The Burn List.

 

Labor or sex obtained through force, fraud, or coercion is, by definition, human trafficking. In higher education, force is controlling a student's housing, funding, degree progress, and professional future (simultaneously, I might add) — or threatening to retract it all. Fraud can be false promises of career opportunities or scholarships that never materialize. Coercion is often using grades or funding to obtain sex or labor. 

 

College systems are built for student trafficking. Yet no one is talking about that. Which is why it persists. Instead, these human rights violations are called "sexual misconduct," or "unpaid research.” Those terms neuter what’s actually happening. 

 

Then there's debt bondage: using debt to control a person's behavior or extract their labor. Debt bondage is a recognized form of trafficking. Students go six figures into debt to attend these institutions, and that debt becomes its own trap. You need the degree to escape it. So you tolerate whatever it takes to get there.

 

In no other industry would that be acceptable. I've worked over 60 blue-collar jobs. I always got paid to train.

 

And prestige is the con that holds it together. The brand of a university is powerful enough to make people accept conditions they'd never tolerate anywhere else. It's why survivors stay silent. It's why faculty look away. It's why parents keep writing checks. The name on the diploma launders everything that happened to get it there.

 

The Burn List puts all that on blast. But my forthcoming book, Ivory Cuffs: Human Trafficking in Higher Education, drives it home.

 

In a hundred years, I believe people will look back at this era of college like it’s the dark ages.

 

But if it takes someone ripping off the ivory muzzle to make that happen, then watch me.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

April 12

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
April 12, 1916: Beverly Cleary born.

Q&A with Abel Marosi

  

 

 

Abel Marosi is the author of the new novel Divorce Dialogues. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Divorce Dialogues?

A: A real story I learned about stayed with me. It inspired me to describe the collision of many disparate forces—personal desires and expectations, the pressure to conform to social norms, the responsibility of raising young children, and the influence of friends and family—which create a compellingly interesting situation. It felt like a story worth telling.

 

Q: How did you create your characters Radek and Anna, and how would you describe their relationship?

A: Radek is a divorced émigré returning to Poland, the country he left as a child in the 1950s. After growing up in Peru, he studied and worked in the United States, and when communism fell he decided to go back, hoping to contribute to the country’s economic transformation.

 

Once there, he met Anna—striking, much younger, and impossible for him to ignore. He sees in her not only a chance to redeem the trauma of his failed marriage but also the possibility of a new beginning.

 

Anna, in turn, views Radek as the embodiment of the glamorous West and as a potential escape from her stifling family environment.

 

They marry, but over the next four to five years their expectations slowly drift apart. The balance of power between them shifts, their desires evolve, and the relationship takes turns neither of them anticipated.

Q: Why did you decide to write the book in the form of dialogues?

A: Choosing to divorce—especially when young children are involved—is never simple. Throughout the book, the characters seek guidance from family, friends, lawyers, and psychiatrists.

Anna and Radek constantly talk through their predicament. These conversations shape their decisions and drive the story forward. In many ways, the dialogues are the raw material from which the narrative emerges, which made the title feel fitting.

I felt the story would be more authentic and immediate if the characters spoke for themselves rather than being filtered through a narrator. Dialogue allowed me to capture their hesitations, their strengths, and their vulnerabilities in a more direct and revealing way.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Divorce Dialogues spans eight years, and as the story approaches its end, the children come into focus. We see how the looming possibility of divorce casts a shadow over their lives.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m researching a more traditional novel about soldiers who find themselves on the losing side of a war. I want to explore how assumed or imposed roles shape people under extreme pressure, and how social cohesion begins to fray when circumstances become dire.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Laura Chester

  

 

 

 

Laura Chester is the author of the new book Shovels & Chandeliers: A Collage of Poetry & Prose. Her other books include Riding Barranca. She lives in Alford, Massachusetts.

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the pieces collected in Shovels & Chandeliers?

 

A: The prose and poetry in this new "Selected" book was done over the course of five decades. It is a collage of my best work taken from previously published books.

 

Q: The work is divided into four sections focused on Water, Earth, Fire, and Air--how did that come about?

 

A: I was originally going to divide the manuscript into three sections of prose-poetry, poetry, and fiction, but my editor at Combray suggested that perhaps I could collage the different forms together.

 

Once I spread everything out and tried to put them into sections, I could see that Water Ways was primarily about my early childhood and life on Oconomowoc Lake in Wisconsin. Earth Bound had to do with my mothering years in Berkeley, and Fired Up focused on a time between marriages when I had many passionate affairs.

 

Open Air was influenced by my time on the Arizona/Mexican border

-- big sky ranch land, where I often rode out alone and delved into dark humor in regards to racial prejudices.

 

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

 

A: I discovered the title Shovels & Chandeliers in a published interview with the New York artist Trevor Winkfield. Shovels relates to my work as a writer, digging down, unearthing, finding treasure, and Chandeliers relates to my past privileges, described at length in the poem "Proud & Ashamed."

 

Q: The collection includes both prose and poetry—can you say more about the order in which the pieces appeared in the book?

 

A: The chronological order of my writing pretty much fell into these four sections of my life.

 

During each phase, I always continued to write prose as well as poetry, and was lucky enough to have my work published by many fine small presses, while also editing five anthologies. Those collections also included both prose & poetry.

 

I think of the different gaits of a horse-- walk, trot, canter, and gallop. Why would I want to ride or drive, for that matter, in only one gear? Whatever I had to say at that moment in time found its right attire.

  

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Well, I have just completed a new website with the help of a wonderful designer, Kristen Weber : ilibribookdesign, and she helped space out my various works, visuals and reviews in an exceptional manner. I hope your readers will go and explore all that is offered at: www.laurachester.com

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: In the last couple of years, I have become an obsessive collage artist. I have already had five shows and I'm on an endless hunt for new odd and vintage material. A sampling of my collages is available on the "Look Book" of my website.

 

In the coming months  I will be doing numerous readings from my new book, possibly recording an audio version, and trying not to get too stuck on myself. Usually I am happiest working alone in the country with my dogs, horses, and Siberian forest cat. PR may force me to saddle up and ride a little further out into the world. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Sally Dukes

  

 

 

Sally Dukes is the author of the new memoir Drummer Girl: A Story of Life After Death. She lives on a Greek island in the Cyclades. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write this memoir?

 

A: For most of my adult life, I have been on a pilgrimage to make meaningful the near-death experience that I had as a young child. Drummer girl is a compilation of journal entries, academic papers and therapeutic notes. The central theme, the organizing principle, is the search to find my truth.

 

As in any memoir, my writing was inspired by my personal journey; however, drummer girl is not so much about me as it is about the interface between life and death.

 

Rachel Cusk describes “surface tension” as writing coming out of the tension between what’s inside and what’s outside. It is this “surface tension” that left me no choice but to write drummer girl. The words had to be spoken; they needed to be shared.

 

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

 

A: Drummer girl was my nickname as a child. In the years prior to heart surgery, my heartbeat was very loud, hence the sound of a beating drum.

 

As told in my memoir: When entering a room, the drumming was footsteps ahead of her actual presence. “Here comes drummer girl,” friends and family would whisper to one another. It is drummer girl who seeks the answers to life’s unfolding; this is her story; this is her title.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book called it a “poignant reflection on the eternal tension between life and death.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: They nailed it! As a debut author, I could not have been more thrilled than to receive the Kirkus Review of drummer girl. The review did not present as a linear synopsis of my memoir but rather was written by someone who truly understood it as a reflection on the duality of existence.

 

Although touching on many of life’s difficulties, the focus of drummer girl was never intended to draw upon on trauma or loss, but rather the placing of those obstacles in the greater context of the cycle of life and death. Simply put, drummer girl stands as a contemplation. The Kirkus description aptly fits the message.

 

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

 

A: I wrote this book for myself; it was a birthing. I had been wanting to put pen to paper for many years, and as the words flowed, I realized that so much of what I was writing had never been shared. A deep vulnerability accompanied each page.

 

The writing itself allowed me to look closely at my internal world, a world that only I had occupied. The writing also gave me strength, the strength to claim my truth, and after a lifetime, to stand firmly in the footsteps of drummer girl.

 

Although writing my memoir was never aimed at a particular audience, the underlying themes are commonplace.

 

I am hopeful that those who read drummer girl will grant themselves permission to pursue their personal path with the in-depth understanding that obstacles can present as disguised opportunities, resilience is birthed from trauma transformed, and that moment-to-moment presence grounds one in today, not tomorrow, not yesterday.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Currently I am focused on the book launch; however, I love to write and am most curious to see how my next inspiration will present.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I do not profess to be an expert or a scholar on near death. As we navigate our singular passage through this lifetime, we each have our own truths to uncover, our own paths to meander.

 

Drummer girl takes the reader on a thoughtful search to find the very thing that we universally understand as true: where there is life, there is death; where there is darkness there is light.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

April 11

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
April 11, 1908: Leo Rosten born.

Q&A with Maya Myers

  

 

 

Maya Myers is the author of the new children's picture book Good Morning, Morning!. Her other books include Not Little. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Good Morning, Morning!?

 

A: I grew up in rural Maine, playing in the woods, and I still return there every summer. I love to get up early to walk to the ocean, and there’s an island at the end of our point that you can get to only at low tide.

 

One morning, maybe 10 years ago, the fog closed in all around me on the island, and it was so hauntingly beautiful that I wrote a poem when I got home from my walk, just for me, to remember that feeling.

 

Years later, I was reading an artist’s memoir, and she talked about going to an island to paint, and how the trees would greet her when she arrived, and I remembered my poem.

 

I wondered, could I turn that into a picture book? Turns out I could. It’s different from anything I’ve written before, but it’s very much from my heart, and based on a lifetime of feeling at one with nature.

 

Q: What do you think Jennifer K. Mann’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: I feel so fortunate to once again have been paired with an illustrator who not only got what I was bringing to the story but truly added new layers of story and meaning to it.

 

And of course, the illustrations are just gorgeous. The magnified dewdrops on the tall grass, the glowing green of moss on the forest floor, the welcoming dark of the forest, all the birds and flowers, the evolving light of day—glorious.

 

And the fairies! I missed them on my very first glance through the pages; I was so eager to take it all in. And I hope that kids will find new things each time they read the book, just as they will each time they slow down to explore nature.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book says, “Myers’ pacing is superb; her use of language veers expertly from playful to meditative and back again.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I’m deeply flattered, and thrilled that my intent carried beyond my own brain (never a guarantee!). That’s exactly how I wanted the book to feel, because I think that’s just how kids are in the world when left to their own devices: sometimes drawn to what they observe, sometimes propelled by what they imagine, sometimes both at once. To feel playful and meditative at the same time is a beautiful way to be present in a moment.

 

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

 

A: I hope it inspires them to explore the world outside, to find friends and playthings in their natural surroundings. I want them to feel encouraged to appreciate quiet moments, to observe, and to feel like they are part of nature, same as the trees, the birds, the rocks, the sun.

 

And I hope it inspires parents to give young kids space and time alone outside, to guide their own explorations.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on a companion book to this one—once I saw the world Jen created, I didn’t want to leave it! It’s set as night falls (can you guess the title?) and in winter, which creates a whole new sensory palette—also inspired by my childhood in Maine.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I hope this book serves as a reminder to kids and adults that there’s a deep kind of peace to be found in the exercise of connecting with nature.

 

I live in a city now, but I still love being up as the sun is rising, when the world is quiet. I walk and listen to the birds and look up at the trees and chase the sunrise. It feels like I’m getting a VIP backstage pass to the day.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Maya Myers.