ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Sept. 29, 1810: Elizabeth Gaskell born.
Monday, September 29, 2025
Sunday, September 28, 2025
Q&A with Elizabeth Bass Parman
Elizabeth Bass Parman is the author of the new novel Bees in June. She also has written the novel The Empress of Cooke County. She lives in Nashville.
Q: In our previous Q&A, you said, “When writing The Empress of Cooke County, I included a cameo from two minor characters to use as the focus of Book 2.” What is the relationship between that novel and your new book?
A: I briefly mentioned two characters, Rennie King Hendrick and her uncle, Dixon King, in The Empress of Cooke County, which is set in 1966. I think it’s fun to recognize characters from an earlier book, so I wanted my readers to have that experience.
In The Empress of Cooke County, Rennie is falsely accused of something, which foreshadows the tough life she is going to be dealing with in Bees in June. I also mention Dixon’s deep connection to the natural world, and that bond is a cornerstone of the second novel.
I also include several secondary characters from the first book in Bees in June, including Arden, the Blue Plate Diner’s owner, and Evangeline, who works at the Curly Q beauty shop. Readers may also remember Darlene from The Empress of Cooke County, who continues to always say exactly the wrong thing.
Rennie and her uncle are the two main characters of Bees in June, which is set against the first moonwalk in the summer of 1969. Although the two books are both set in the fictional town of Spark only three years apart, they are very different novels.
The Empress of Cooke County focuses on a dysfunctional relationship between a mother and daughter, while Bees in June is a hope-filled story about a young woman, Rennie, who learns to trust the quiet magic within her as she navigates a difficult life.
The primary relationship in The Empress of Cooke County is adversarial, while the bond between the two main characters in Bees in June, Rennie and her uncle, is nurturing and uplifting.
Q: The writer Brooke Lea Foster called the novel a “tribute to the human spirit and one woman's desire to remake herself...” What do you think of that description?
A: I am very honored to have such a lovely blurb from Brooke. Her description sums up what I was trying to do in this story, which was to take a woman who is so broken and show, with belief in herself and a little help from friends–both human and not—that her most heartfelt wishes for a better life can come true.
I throw a lot of tough things at Rennie, but she navigates them all, and ends up with a life even better than the one she dared to imagine for herself. That theme is the reason I chose to set the book against the first moon landing. So many people thought it would be impossible, yet it happened.
Q: Did you need to do any research to write the book, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: The idea for the book actually originated from researching something that intrigued me while I was scrolling social media. I read an article in a newspaper about a swarm of bees that flew to their keeper’s funeral and then returned to their hives after the service. It was presented in a matter-of-fact way, only noting that the keeper “had a way” with bees.
Of course I started looking into this, and discovered the symbiotic relationship between bees and their keepers. What I found most intriguing was the custom of “telling the bees,” which involves updating your hives about important family happenings.
The tradition dates back hundreds of years, and has very precise rules, such as knocking three times on the roof of the hive before making your announcement, and draping a black mourning cloth or ribbon around the hive if a death has occurred. When I thought about talking to bees, I wondered what would happen if the bees talked back, and Bees in June was born.
I researched bees, of course, and was amazed by so many things. For example, a bee makes only 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. I included that fact in the story, but the most interesting thing I learned is about crows.
They are very smart, which I knew, but I did not know they can hold a grudge for 17 years, and can pass down their low opinion of a human to their descendants. The lesson here is not to make a crow angry!
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: I want readers to take away the feeling of optimism. I feel the world is a pretty tough place right now, with bad news of all kinds assaulting us at every turn.
Bees in June acknowledges difficult things are a part of life, but so are magical, beautiful things. I want readers to see they can and should search for the good parts of life, which are just as real as all the grim reports we’re seeing on the news every day.
Rennie has a swarm of magical bees to bring light to her life, both literally and figuratively, and I hope Bees in June makes readers want to search for what can bring light to their own lives, even in their darkest times.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I have left Spark (for now) and am writing a contemporary story about a songwriter in Nashville who finds out after the death of her husband that the life she thought she was leading is not at all what is really going on.
She slowly uncovers the truth, about her own life and must figure out how to gain back all those things she thought she already had, but for real.
I am lucky to live in Nashville, and am talking with amazing songwriters and other music professionals to make sure the details are “pitch perfect.”
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I do want to alert readers to a couple of content warnings. The book opens shortly after the death of Rennie’s premature son, and there is domestic violence on the page. Despite these grim topics, though, the book is sweet and hopeful.
I will always have a rescued dog in my books, and the one in Bees in June, named Jane Austen, has her life threatened at one point in the story. Although I give the dogs tragic back stories, no harm ever comes to them on the page, and they will always end up with their own happily ever after.
I am on a book tour for Bees in June, and would love readers to come to one of my events so I can say hello in person. My tour schedule is on my website under Events, at www.elizabethbassparman.com. They can also follow me on Instagram at @elizabethbassparman.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Elizabeth Bass Parman.
Q&A with Sophia N. Lee
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| Photo by Faith Santiago-Paz |
Sophia N. Lee is the author of the children's picture book Lolo's Sari-Sari Store. Her other books include Holding On.
Q: What inspired you to write Lolo’s Sari-Sari Store?
A: I grew up in a home with a lot of extended family – it’s very common for Filipino households to be multi-generational, and so there were always lots of cousins, aunties, and uncles around me.
We had a family sari-sari store growing up. It was a few minutes’ walk away from our house, and many of the grownups in our family took turns minding the store. Sometimes my lolo or lola (“Lolo” and “Lola” are the Filipino terms for grandfather and grandmother, respectively) would be watching the store, sometimes it would be an older cousin, or a tito or tita (Filipino terms for uncle and auntie) would be there.
In the summers and also on some days after school, my cousins and I would assist in minding the store. My eldest grandaunt Aurora also ran a sari-sari store of her own in our province, and in the summers I spent there, I helped her run the store too.
Through those stores, I got to observe how the grownups in my family built community in different ways. My titas were always very thoughtful and intentional about the items we kept in stock.
Over time we learned the very specific needs of our neighbors – from the items that were most often purchased, including to the brands they preferred. We made sure to stock things in a range of prices to ensure that essentials were always accessible for everyone in the neighborhood who needed them.
It was also through my summers in those stores that I learned why certain products were sold or packaged in a certain way.
For example, it is very common for things in sari-sari stores to be sold “tingi,” which is a Filipino term meaning by piece. Unlike what’s often sold in bigger stores and supermarkets, sari-sari store owners often buy packaged goods and sell them piecemeal, because that better accommodates our customers’ budgets.
In the Philippines, and in many other countries in Southeast Asia, for example, it’s very common for items to be sold by sachets instead of by bottle. These would be smaller packets of things from shampoo and conditioner, to lotion, to even flavoring agents that you’d often find sold in bigger bottles and jars elsewhere.
We would sell cooking essentials like oil, vinegar, and soy sauce in small plastic bags. I learned to understand that it was because folks often found those more economical and accessible, especially when one was working to stretch an already tight budget.
In my great aunt Aurora’s (whom I fondly called “Wawa,” because I couldn’t pronounce Aurora properly when I was small) store, she often sold things like butter and cheese by the “guhit” (Filipino colloquial term meaning a thin slice) in order to accommodate peoples’ need for small pleasures like that with their morning pandesal.
We tried our best to make sure peoples’ needs were met – when people couldn’t pay up front, they would say “pa-lista” – it was the Filipino version of keeping a tab open. We didn’t like seeing people go hungry. We always trusted that they would pay whenever they were able, and most of the time they did.
We served everyone in the community – people from different walks of life, from professional folks rushing to work, to the workers that built their homes, all the way to the folks who tended to their homes, and the children in their keep.
Our store was a place where people could come and hang out too – people would sit on the stoop and tell stories out front while having snacks, others would stop there on their way home from work to buy pasalubong (small gifts/treats that people gave after returning from a trip, or even after time spent away from home).
It was a fun way to grow up and to see the community growing around you. I always knew that I wanted to honor those memories, and I hope I’ve done them justice by this story.
Q: What do you think Christine Almeda’s illustrations add to the story?
A: Christine’s illustrations really brought the book to life. There’s a lovely warmth and tenderness in all of the art she creates.
I love the care she put into this story – she wanted to make sure that the characters looked distinctly Filipino, and she had gone over different iterations of faces, features, and expressions before settling on the characters you see in the book.
You see all that careful attention and sincerity in every aspect that went into her illustrations, from the colors she used, to the soft dreaminess that’s evident in the way she captured each of the scenes. I think she was able to capture that vibrant sort of hopefulness and joy that’s prevalent in Filipino culture.
I also really love the decisions that Christine made in interpreting the text – in one of the spreads where the young female protagonist makes a friend, I didn’t leave any art notes about who the friend should be, and what that friend should / could look like.
She decided to make this new friend Muslim. I loved that she was depicted as another brown-skinned girl wearing a hijab, because that added another layer of visibility and inclusion to the story.
This took on an extra layer of meaning for me personally, after reading the story to a very diverse group of second graders. As I was going from spread to spread, I noticed a young hijabi who was dressed almost exactly like the new girl in the book.
Her eyes grew wide at seeing that new character, and I realized it might be one of the first instances that she was seeing a character much like herself in a book. Her friend, who was sitting next to her said “Look, you’re the friend!” and the two of them burst into giggles.
I could hear her classmates noticing the same and cheering her on, and it was just so wonderful to see the story being a mirror for other kids who don’t often see themselves as heroes in books. I think that’s just one of the many magical things about Christine’s art in this book. I’m such a fan!
Q: The School Library Journal review of the book called it a “lovely story fusing past and present, family lost and found, in memory and sensory experiences.” What do you think of that description?
A: I’m always so grateful whenever any reader — reviewer or otherwise, is able to resonate with the story. Celebrating that idea of finding and building a family and a community regardless of where you find yourself was definitely part of my intentions when I sought to write this book. I am glad to see that this book has made readers feel that in some way.
I do hope that, seeing this, readers will be excited to find their own unique ways of building home and community. Reading the SLJ’s lovely words inspires me to write even more.
Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book?
A: I hope that anyone who reads this book can be inspired to always be kind, and to always be on the lookout for ways that they can build their own community through kindness, wherever they may be.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a young adult rom-com novel that I’ve lovingly referred to as my “Food and Feelings” book. It’s set in Pampanga, which is considered as one of the culinary capitals of the Philippines, and it features some Filipino heritage dishes that originated from Kapampangan culture.
Though I was born and raised in Manila, Philippines, both sides of my family are Kapampangan, which is a term that refers to Filipinos who speak the Kapampangan language and that live at or around the province of Pampanga, Philippines. The word “Pampanga” itself was derived from the Filipino word “pampang,” which means riverbank.
The story feels like a love letter to all the food from back home that I miss, but it’s also an exploration of what it means to be so far away from home, and to be building home away from what has been familiar.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I have a new book that’s already in the works – it hasn’t been officially announced yet, so I’m afraid I can’t let you know more at the moment, but I’m excited to let you know more when I’m able to.
A small clue for those who are curious: it features one of the most celebrated Filipino holidays, and the joy and yearning that comes with waiting for the arrival of something special.
For now, please be on the lookout for news from me! I’d love to connect with you on social media @sophianleewrites on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky, and through my website www.sophialeewrites.com.
I so appreciate this opportunity to share my work with your readers, Deborah. Thank you so much for all you do for readers and writers alike!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Q&A with Marsh Rose
Marsh Rose is the author of the new memoir A Version of the Truth. Her other books include the novel Escape Routes. Also a psychotherapist and educator, she lives in Northern California.
Q: Why did you decide to write this memoir?
A: I felt that it had a message that isn’t typically addressed in the context of a memoir or novel: In this era of believing we can have all the answers, sometimes we need to realize that we won’t always know the truth.
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between you and Jack, with whom you had a relationship for many years?
A: It was one of mutual trust and acceptance despite the differences in our lifestyle and beliefs.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: I stewed over the title, since there was a risk the book would be misperceived as a rom-com at the outset, or that readers would think it was solely about the relationship. I wanted them to know, going in, that there would be a deeper take-away for them.
The title is an oxymoron: it juxtaposes “version” with “truth,” concepts which are usually mutually exclusive, and I hoped this title would be an intriguing hook.
It actually was given to me in a moment of exasperation by a dear friend who was with me as the end of the story evolved. “You will never know the truth, so get a version you can live with….” It took me a few weeks of stewing to realize she’d given me the title.
Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: It helped keep me sane, since I was writing it as the end of the story evolved. I kept promising myself that, although the situation sucked and I was miserable, it might all be material someday so I needed to stay conscious (aside from long bouts of binge-watching Friends).
I hope readers get the underlying message: that we don’t always know the truth, and we have some choices about how to cope with the unknown.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A collection of short stories about my family.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I appreciate the invitation to include A Version Of the Truth in your blog!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Q&A with Susan Newman
Susan Newman is the author of the new book Just One: The New Science, Secrets, & Joy of Parenting an Only Child. Her other books include The Book of NO. A psychologist, she lives in the New York metropolitan area.
Q: What inspired you to write Just One?
A: The birth of my son, no question about that. After I raised my ex-husband’s four children and we divorced, I remarried and had a baby.
Not a month into being a mother, I was bombarded with comments and insinuations—in short, to have another child. I heard, “When are you having another?” “You can’t do that to your child.” “He needs a sibling.” The sheer volume of comments got me thinking: What could be so wrong with having an only child?
Thus started decades of exploring the existing research and conducting my own to answer that question. Of course, the answer is “nothing.”
Having lived in a family with four children and then another with an only child, I feel I can be objective in evaluating what I discovered.
Q: What would you say are some of the most common perceptions and
misconceptions about only children?
A: The most common perceptions and misconceptions are similar and primarily relate to the only child stereotypes that have prevailed since the late 1890s.
Fortunately, the myths that only children are spoiled, lonely, selfish, and have more imaginary friends no longer hold up. They have been disproved by the science that, in a nutshell, shows that only children are more like children with siblings than they are different—particularly around the negative labels that used to be assigned to only children.
The demise of the stereotypes, especially among those of childbearing age, is especially freeing for parents and would-be parents wanting or having babies now. They don’t enter the decision-making equation as they once did.
Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: For Just One, I conducted one-on-one interviews (on Zoom, the phone, or in person) with adult only children and parents of only children not only in the US, but in other countries from Japan to throughout Europe.
I made a number of discoveries: How worldwide in developed countries the shift from the traditional “Mom, Dad, two kids” to the one-child family is. That is due to cultural changes that largely affect mothers.
What I didn’t expect to find were clear advantages only children had by not having to share parental resources. Resources flowing to only children give them an academic edge and cultivate a close parent-child relationship that lasts long into adulthood.
Most surprising to me was the prevalence of only child dynasties—families with several generations of only children. Increasingly, only children are having only children and those children are following suit. This was a good solution a few decades ago and surely proving to be for the way we live now.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: It’s more than okay, whether by choice or circumstance, to have one child. It is, as the increasing numbers show, desirable.
The singleton-family is The New Normal as it becomes the dominant family size, despite government pressure and offers of incentives—I consider some bribes—to have more children and stem the falling birth rates.
Parents are too smart to accept short-term offers when the cost of raising children is so high and programs like childcare are in short supply if existing or affordable at all.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am focusing much of my time on getting people to realize you are a parent whether you have one child or more…and to reassure those with one child that it is more a parent’s approach and nurturing that affects how children turn out than the number of siblings they may or may not have.
In other words, siblings are not essential for healthy child development. The enormous popularity of the one-child family makes me think that it’s time for a new project.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Just One is packed with personal stories that readers will relate to, will say that’s how I feel or that’s where I’m at.
I wrote the book with two goals in mind: to help people “on the fence” or unsure about having an only child, and for those who seek guidance in raising their only child to be competent, resilient, independent—and yes, content.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Q&A with Emma Lamb
Emma Lamb is the author of the new novel The Awakening of the Light.
Q: What inspired you to write The Awakening of the Light?
A: What inspired me to write this book is my interest in anything sci-fi and fantasy, such as TV shows, films, and books.
Q: How did you create your character Victoria?
A: When I started writing this book, it was from an idea that I had written down in 2019. Victoria was instantly a name that I was going to go with for my main character.
I didn't get to write The Awakening of The Light until lockdown; that was when Victoria's character was developed. As I wrote the story, her character expanded before my eyes. And once I got onto another draft, her character developed even more!
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Nope! I didn't know how it would end before I started writing, but I knew somehow, since the four original ideas that I wrote down would have to be different books, that it would have to end on a cliffhanger.
There were, in fact, a couple of changes made along the way from the first to the last draft. Like some scenes were extended and a couple of lines tweaked.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the novel?
A: I don't want them to just think it's one novel; The Awakening of The Light is a part of my series A Tale of Two Forces. But I want readers to enjoy what they're reading as they go on Victoria's journey from self-discovery to her destiny, which is fleshed out in the book series.
I like to think A Tale of Two Forces isn't just your usual trope of a character having a destiny or not knowing who she is. I want A Tale of Two Forces to be something different from that, something that inspires readers to read my book and series! I want readers to enjoy what they are reading and get lost in the imagination of the story.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Well, I'm continuing to write A Tale of Two Forces at the moment. I have just finished the first draft of the third book and am beginning my second draft! Book 2 is in the editing stages!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: The Awakening of The Light is my debut book. I have made my own blog for A Tale of Two Forces, which can be found at https://ataleoftwoforces.wordpress.com/
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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