Q&A with Jennifer Hamady

 

 

 

Jennifer Hamady is the author of the book The Art of Singing Onstage and in the Studio: Understanding the Psychology, Relationships, and Technology in Performing and Recording. Her other books include Learning to Sing. She is also a voice coach and a therapist.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Art of Singing?

 

A: Each of my three books was written in response to questions posed by clients, whether verbally or in their wants and needs. In this book, those specific “asks” involved the technology singers interact with when performing onstage and in the studio.

 

The book is divided into three parts, addressing how to use this technology, as well as the psychological and relational challenges present in live and studio singing. 

 

Q: The producer/engineer Bill Schnee said of the book, “I’ve spent my life recording great singers and found Jennifer's book to offer a tremendous amount of valuable information every vocalist headed to the studio needs to know, in a very easy-to-read format.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Bill is a wonderful man as well as an incredible, Grammy-award-winning audio engineer, so his words are particularly heartening and complimentary. He and I worked together for years on a number of my own recording projects and I am touched that he discussed our relationship at length in his book Chairman at the Board (BackBeat, 2021). 

 

Q: As a voice coach and a therapist, how do you see the two disciplines intersecting?

 

A: Your question touches the heart of my work and is the reason I became a therapist.

 

I began my career as a professional singer and was always curious as to why so many of my colleagues struggled with technical issues and emotional challenges in their singing and performing. I received questions about both in master classes, workshops, and emails over the years, and I became determined to find and provide answers.

 

While of course every person is unique, I discovered that about 90 percent of seemingly technical issues were caused or exacerbated by emotional ones. And that by lovingly exploring and releasing the latter, the former would begin to resolve themselves.

 

Supporting clients and readers in achieving this resolution is the mission of my private practice and writing. 

 

Q: Who do you see as the readership for the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: While all three of my books speak specifically about singing, I receive countless emails from people in a wide range of professions and personal circumstances sharing how they’ve appreciated and benefited from the explorations of communication, self-expression, creativity, and anxiety mitigation.

 

That has been my intention with this book as well: while speaking directly to the heart of the psychological, relational, and technological issues in performing and recording, to also provide a window for all readers to learn about their own voices, communication, relationships, and self-expression. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am about two-thirds of the way through writing my next book, which addresses the implications of correlating our self-worth with our passion. It has been a true labor of love and, as with the other books, addresses the actual and energetic questions from my clients and culture. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I welcome the opportunity to connect further with your readers! More information about my books, articles, work, and how I may be of service is on my website: FindingYourVoice.com.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Feb. 27

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feb. 27, 1807: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born.

Q&A with Nancy Goldstone

 

 

 

Nancy Goldstone is the author of the new book The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe. Her other books include Daughters of the Winter Queen. She lives in Del Mar, California.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Rebel Empresses?

 

A: I knew that I wanted to write about Empress Elisabeth of Austria (better known as Sisi) from the first time I encountered her image. 

 

It was years ago, and I was in Prague researching Daughters of the Winter Queen, about Elizabeth Stuart, the 17th century queen of Bohemia, when I walked into a bookstore and saw a portrait of Sisi on a book jacket and literally stopped in my tracks, she was that beautiful. Who is that?? I thought. 

 

I came to Eugénie because, after writing about Marie Antoinette in my last book, In the Shadow of the Empress, I couldn’t tear myself away from France. I really wanted to find a female ruler in Paris to follow in the 19th century. 

 

I began poking around a little and Eugénie, also stunning, leapt out at me from the research. When I discovered that she and Sisi had each married and ascended their respective thrones within a year of each other, I knew there was a great book there. 

 

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

 

A: I researched the book the way I always do, through primary sources like personal letters and recollections, memoirs from other eyewitness from the period, diplomatic reports, government accounts, etc. 

 

With this book, though, I got a bonus: because the telegraph had just been invented, foreign correspondents suddenly became prevalent and news traveled quickly through telegrams, so I was able to follow events in real time in a way you couldn’t in earlier centuries. 

 

What surprised me most was that, towards the end of her life, the famously reclusive Sisi revealed to Eugénie what her son, Crown Prince Rudolf (who, together with his 17-year-old mistress, was found dead under highly suspicious circumstances in the bedroom of the imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling), had written privately to her in the hours before his death, a secret that otherwise went with her to her grave. 

 

Q: What do Elisabeth and Eugénie’s lives say about the role of women in European royal circles of the time?

 

A: Elisabeth and Eugénie lived at a time when women were just beginning to really push back against long-held assumptions that limited female rights, employment, and political participation. Both empresses, each in her own way, were at the forefront of this movement. 

 

Eugénie openly advocated for women’s equality and did everything she could think of to empower women by supporting educational and workplace initiatives. She also insisted that female writers and artists be recognized and awarded the same prizes as their male counterparts. 

 

Sisi’s contribution was on a more personal level. She chafed at the traditional duties of a wife and empress and broke away to follow her own path. In doing so, she anticipated Kate Chopin’s groundbreaking feminist novel The Awakening by a quarter century.

 

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

 

A: That’s easy. Both Sisi and Eugénie rebelled against the restrictions on women in their position. And both used the popularity and renown that came with glamour to achieve their private and political goals.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m not ready to talk about that yet. One book at a time!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Just how hugely dramatic—and entertaining!—the lives of these two courageous and spirited empresses were.

 

This was the time of beautiful courtesans and scandalous adventuresses; of cursed diamonds and gorgeous Charles Worth evening gowns; of the remaking of Paris into the romantic city we know today; of Victor Hugo, Stendhal, and the haunting poetry of the great German poet Heinrich Heine. A fabulous backdrop to a wild ride of a century! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Nicole Galland

 

Photo by Denise Barak   Nicole Galland is the author of the new novel Boy. Her other books include Master of the Revels.   Q: What inspired you to write Boy, and how did you create your characters Sander and Joan?   A: Boy was conceived during the Omicron Covid surge, when I was stuck alone at home with a wandering mind. My last novel, Master of the Revels (sequel to The Rise and Fall of DODO), had multiple settings including Shakespeare’s London.   Many stories set in that era are about young women disguising themselves as boy actors, but I’d read nothing about the actual boys they were trying to pass as. Diving into Sander’s life was a welcome interweaving of the familiar and the unknown.   Independent of that and for no particular reason, I was wondering about how old religions die – in particular, that of ancient Greece. I spent one evening Googling  things like, “Did the Greeks climb Mt. Olympus looking for Zeus?” and then wondered how I’d research such a thing if I lacked access not only to the internet but even to a library.   So I imagined myself a young woman living in Elizabethan London, trying to learn how to learn.   A fun thing to do with two characters who are the same age in the same place but otherwise very different is to throw them together. So I did.   As for their personalities: I’d spent enough years in the professional theatre world, watching the rise and fall of egos and careers, that Sander  - a beautiful young performer facing a crisis of aging - came alive pretty easily for me.   Joan was trickier. There was probably nobody like her in that era, but that freed her up to be a trailblazer. She breaks the rules that should keep her down and (sometimes with help) invents new ways of getting what she’s after.  She’s my fantasy version of what I’d be like in her place.   Q: How did you research the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?   A: Because I knew this world already, most of the surprises were small, exquisite nuggets. Many of them had to do with Francis Bacon, since he was new to me. At this point in his career, he still believed the sun revolved around the earth – and yet his thinking was sophisticated enough to contemplate measuring the speed of light! I wouldn’t have guessed either of those details.   Thanks to Deborah Harkness’s nonfiction book The Jewel House, I learned that Bacon was far from the only natural philosopher in London at that time, and that in fact most of the others worked together, shared information, and mostly learned by doing (hence to term “empirics”). Hugh Platt was chief among these. Bacon held himself aloof from all of them, even while imagining his work would be of benefit to the masses. Q: What did you see as the right balance between fiction and history as you wrote the book?   A: I decided early on that each of them had to respect the other one. As long as it all felt historically plausible, the needs of the story were more important than the historical record.   That said, I am often freakishly lucky in my historical fiction in this way: I think I’m inventing story elements that turn out to be genuine history.   In the case of Boy, I needed the Earl of Essex and Francis Bacon to have a close personal relationship and for both of them to adore the theatre. Both of which turned out to be true.   I needed London to be full of natural philosophers and empirics who could be Joan’s early mentors before she met Bacon; turns out that at this moment in history, London was abuzz with such figures, all of whom agreed that sharing knowledge freely was the right way to advance science.   Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?   A: On the one hand, it feels presumptuous to tell anyone what to get out of a work of fiction. More than once, I’ve had the surreal experience of readers excitedly telling me their favorite thing about one of my novels, and it was something I hadn’t consciously conveyed – but that doesn’t matter, because something clearly spoke to them and moved them.   One the other hand, of course I wrote this with a contemporary readership in mind. And to them I would say: Look how far we’ve come (although we’re not there yet). Boys need not grow up to be manly-men to thrive; girls are welcome in the sciences and also, generally, pants.   Today’s conversation about gender sounds very different from those of eras past, but it has really been a continuous, evolving discussion. Boy reflects the early iterations of that conversation – and remains relevant today.   Q: What are you working on now?   A: Usually as soon as I turn in one manuscript I’m right at it with the next, but this time I wanted to savor Joan and Sander a bit longer before creating new protagonists, so I’ve been dabbling in other kinds of projects.   I’m developing a one-woman show with an actress friend; I’m also working with some folks in upstate New York on a creative project about the history of the Erie Canal. And I’m finally ready to feel my way in to a new novel. I’m leaning toward 1930s New York.   Q: Anything else we should know?   A: I hope in these challenging times we can all remember to add light to each other’s lives whenever possible. What else are we here for?   --Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Nicole Galland.

Q&A with Jane Tara

 

Photo by Dominika Ferenz

 

 

Jane Tara is the author of the new novel Tilda Is Visible. Her other books include Fish Out of Water. She lives in Sydney, Australia.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Tilda Is Visible, and how did you create your character Tilda?

 

A: I wrote Tilda during a long, tough second Sydney lockdown during the pandemic. Tilda had been with me for years, when a decade earlier I’d been misdiagnosed with a degenerative eye condition and told I was going blind. It took three very long months of further tests through the University of NSW Centre for Eye Health to confirm a misdiagnosis.

 

During this time, something interesting happened to me. For the first time ever, I looked in the mirror and didn’t criticize myself. I liked what I saw.

 

The idea that I wouldn’t see myself age horrified me. And if that was so…then why would each new wrinkle be anything but a celebration. If I want to see myself age… then why erase that age? Why try to beat it, deny it or ignore it? Why not fully and utterly embrace it?

 

The character Tilda came to me during this time. I wrote a short story about her but always felt there was a novel there as well. Ten years later, when I sat down to write, I realised that somewhere along the way I’d merged with Tilda, and the only way I could do her story justice, was to be honest about my own. The process was hard but healing for me.

 

Q: The writer Eleanor Brown called the book a “warm, big-hearted story encompassing all the foolishness and wisdom, rage and humor, and most of all, the hope at the heart of midlife.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think it’s incredibly generous of an author of Eleanor Brown’s calibre to read and endorse Tilda in this way. And I love that she has identified the extremes that Tilda experiences.

 

I always say that while an extraordinary thing happens to Tilda, with her invisibility, the reason the book is resonating with women is because of how ordinary her story is. Most of us can relate to her life in one way or another.

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 always know how a novel will end by chapter two. As I start writing the beginning, the ending just “drops in” and I aim for that. I describe it like shooting an arrow at a bullseye. I don’t know how I’ll get there…I just know that’s where I need to get the characters to.

 

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

 

A: Mostly, I hope that Tilda is Visible reminds readers to be kind to themselves. Writing it reinforced my desire to inspire women to see themselves through kinder eyes as they age and show them how to remain visible.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on a family saga about the stories we tell ourselves. It’s set in LA in the late 1960s and in the current day just outside Sydney in a grand old country estate. I’m enjoying spending time with the women in this family, but they are feisty and keep taking me in unexpected directions.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Jennifer P. Goldfinger

 

 

Jennifer P. Goldfinger is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book Daisy the Daydreamer. Her other books include A Fish Named Spot. Also a fine artist, she lives in Portland, Maine. 

 

Q: You write that Daisy the Daydreamer was inspired by your own experiences with ADHD--can you say more about that?

 

A: I was diagnosed with ADHD a couple of years before I had the idea for Daisy. I was still working out in my head what it was all about.

 

The seed was planted one day during Covid when I was doing my typical deep dive into the Sunday New York Times. My head spun as I got excited about all of the books I was going to read, all of the movies I would watch, all of the recipes I would make and all of the places I would visit. I enjoyed it but I also felt overwhelmed all at the same time (because of my ADHD).

 

The one day I came up with the seed for Daisy I had looked a book up online and saw on the same page a book by Maira Kalman. I loved her illustrations and suddenly did a deep dive on her work and found she had done a TED Talk. In her TED Talk she talked about how lucky she was to be a daydreamer.

 

At the time, I was frustrated with my own daydreaming and missing subjects I was lectured to in school or reading boring articles. But that TED Talk made me realize how cool it can be to be a daydreamer and how much I do get from it. So I learned to embrace it.

 

A couple of weeks later I woke up in the middle of the night with the more detailed ideas of the book that ended up being Daisy the Daydreamer. 

 

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

 

A: I drew one picture of the cloud over Daisy’s head with it raining, then I wrote the manuscript. Periodically while writing, I would have an image in my head that I would sketch out.

 

Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book says, “Goldfinger portrays with deep compassion how being fully seen and understood can open up new possibilities.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: One of the struggles people with ADHD have is the messages they get throughout life of “why didn’t you listen,” “why do you keep losing things,” “why are you late” and on and on. We internalize all of these messages and can really be down on ourselves because of them.

 

But in the mean time, people with ADHD have superpowers but they don’t always see them themselves at first. They can be incredibly creative, have really fast brains, are very persistent until they solve a problem. They can be told they are lazy, but they are anything but that. They just get stuck sometimes with not always having a direct path.  

 

So when Daisy stood up for herself and showed the teacher that she took in the information differently than other kids and Mrs. Dill saw her and let her know what she was capable of, that was a huge gift to Daisy. 

 

Q: What do you hope kids (and adults) take away from the story?

 

A: That their ADHD is nothing to be bashful about and that they are actually able to do amazing things that neurotypical minds can’t. So many artists, inventors, and other exceptional people have ADHD. It can truly be a superpower.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: In the children’s book world, I have two different picture book dummies that I’m working on with two different editors. As well, I’m revising a graphic novel and a middle grade novel.

 

I’m a fine artist as well as a children’s book author and illustrator. I have a big art show and two smaller ones coming this year that I’m making a body of work for as well.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: One other thing I guess I’ll mention is that girls with ADHD often show up more like Daisy. They aren’t disruptive with lots of energy like boys. Girls tend to have lots going on in their heads and their energy is bouncing around in their minds.

 

This often why girls don’t get diagnosed at an early age, like boys do. It’s not always the case, but more often it is. When I meet a little girl who really relates to Daisy, I let them know I see them and can relate to them and they are going to do cool things. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Loretta Garbutt

 

 

Loretta Garbutt is the author of the new children's picture book Wake Up, Little Pin!. Her other books include Jeffrey Loves Blue. Also an animation voice performer, she lives in Toronto.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Wake Up, Little Pin!?

 

A: Little Pin was born out of many walks in a forest valley near my home. I found a lot of comfort walking along dirt pathways, noticing all the many different tree species, trunk sizes and bark feels.

 

Looking up into their canopies, I could find the larger trees that soaked in more sunshine and closer to the ground, the smaller ones, a nursery of saplings, that had to fight for it. It was a meditative experience and nature held me in its grasp.

 

At this time, I was reading lots of tree lit; adult books based in science and kid lit nature books. Need I say that I had a little tree obsession? I was fascinated by the work of fungi and how their underground networks of threads send water and sugars to neighbouring trees – how they share nutrients from mother trees to other trees.

 

On one of my walks, I wondered, what would happen if a mother tree had trouble waking her sapling after a hard winter? Sometimes these young trees just don’t survive. Would the surrounding forest step in to help?

 

The outline of the story came quickly and I chose a pin oak tree for my hero. Pin oaks are expressive, dark green in summer and brilliant red in fall. They’re more slender and graceful than other oaks.

 

Any oak would have worked for this story since they are most valuable trees, but I love the sound of its name, Pin Oak. It just worked. And Little Pin seemed suited to a picture book for kids.

 

Q: What do you think Marianne Ferrer’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Marianne’s colour pallet and gorgeous water colour art is soft and expressive, just like the coming of spring. Marianne added warmth and lushness to the story.

 

The lovely details she added to each spread, such as the underground fungi threads, the sly look of the porcupine and the peeping vole, all capture the richness and playfulness of her work. Marianne has mixed science with beauty, a lovely combination. She gave the science some weight and kept it light at the same time.

 

There’s a suggestive hint of emotion between Mother Pin and Little Pin but it’s child-like and within the natural movement of trees so they aren’t overly personified.

 

All in all, Marianne had a real feel for this story and I believe she put her heart into it.

Q: The School Library Journal review of the book says, “This essential work will inspire children to learn more and appreciate the interwoven connections of, literally, everything on Earth.” What do you think of that description, and what do you hope kids take away from the book?

 

A: The review really excited me because the reviewer got to the heart of the story. That felt great.

 

We are all connected as humans within families and communities; we’re shaped by our social environments. Our brains are wired for connection. It’s the same with trees and plants that need to connect for survival.

 

Humans and nature are both part of cycles. We use the earth’s resources to survive. Trees clean the air that we breathe and do much more. We’re part of this entire ecosystem and can’t survive without each other.

 

I think and hope that when children understand these connections and our part in the entire cycle, they’ll have more empathy for our earth and how we use its resources.

 

Q: How did you research Wake Up, Little Pin! and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: Research was like opening a door to nature. It was a rabbit hole or vole den of fascinating information.

 

I began with Peter Wohlleben’s book The Secret Life of Trees then soaked up his kids’ book, Can You Hear the Trees Talking?. I read many other nature-themed picture books to learn and corroborate the facts I wanted to share.

 

I was blown away by Dr. Diana Beresford Kroeger, scientist and author of To Speak for the Trees and her many other publications. These books fed me.

 

I emailed Diana Kroeger and she agreed to read the early manuscript! Diana made fantastic suggestions and corrected some of my facts. She has become such a mentor and supporter and I'm really grateful for that.

 

My editor at Owlkids books, Stacey Roderick, worked tirelessly to help me connect the words to the science. I would have been lost without her. No one writes a book alone.

 

Some of the fun discoveries: mushrooms are the fruit of fungal networks - one tree can absorb up to 10 lbs. of air pollution in a single year. If an oak tree can live for up to 600-800 years, that’s a lot of carbon dioxide/pollution pulled from the earth. I spent a year researching and constantly thinking, wow, that’s fascinating.

 

My favourite quote during research – “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.”

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on final edits for Baba’s Tiny Kitchen (Owlkids books/27), which is a story about the warmth of my grandmother’s Ukrainian family. Ha, I guess I like similar themes.

 

Where I Belong (Tundra/27), is another Ukrainian-themed story about “fitting in.”

 

I’m also working on a middle grade novel with a writing partner. This is fun and a real learning curve to be writing long form narrative!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m an animation voice performer. I’ve worked on exciting shows such as Sailor Moon where I played a lot of the evil daemons, so much fun! I worked on a wonderful preschool show called Max and Ruby, playing Bunny Scout Valerie.

 

I have two fantastic writing critique groups and all in all, I feel hugely grateful to be a kidlit author.

 

Thank you, Deborah, for asking these excellent questions and for your interest in Wake Up, Little Pin!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb