Transcription of Kid Literature, #102
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Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast show number 102, Kid Literature airing for the first time on Sunday, August 25th 2013.
Who cares what kids are reading? We do. Great books set the stage for a lifelong love of literature. Today’s guest include Charlotte Agell, children’s author and illustrator and author of The Accidental Adventures of India McAllister, Maria Padian, author of Out of Nowhere and Kate Egan, author of Kate and Nate Are Running Late and editor of The Hunger Games Trilogy.
I’ve been an avid reader for decades. My mother, noting my love of books introduced me to the E. B. White classics, Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little and Trumpet of the Swan when I was a first grader at Lakeside Elementary School. By then, I’d been reading for a while or more accurately, I had been devouring books for a while.
By the time I entered junior high school, I have read every single book in the children and young adults sections of our local library. I read some of these books repeatedly. That’s why I have great respect for the individuals who bring books into the world especially those who bring children’s books into the world.
Books make it possible for us to explore the world without ever leaving our living room. They give us insights into other cultures. They entertain us. They inspire us to learn more, to keep growing as individuals.
In The Accidental Adventures of India McAllister, Charlotte Agell described the quirky fourth grader’s experiences in a small Maine town. Maria Padian describes the integration of Somalian immigrants into the main community through the eyes of a high school soccer player in her book, Out of Nowhere. Also, the editor of the bestselling Hunger Games Trilogy, author Kate Egan amuses us with the common motherhood experience in Kate and Nate Are Running Late.
Each of these authors bestows a gift upon the children who read their books, children who are now very likely the same way I once was, voracious consumers of the written word, children who are getting ready to take the world by storm. We hope you enjoy our interviews with Charlotte Agell, Maria Padian and Kate Egan. Thank you for joining us.
I’ve been a reader since I was, I don’t know, five or so. My parents couldn’t keep me away from books. I always thought perhaps I would become a writer and so it’s a pleasure for me to sit in the presence of people who did become writers and to know that they were writing the types of books that I was scouring the Merrill Memorial Library for as a young child. I’m so appreciative that you are bringing the words of wonder into the world and starting them with the children of Maine and across the country. Thank you for coming in.
Dr. Lisa We’re talking to Charlotte Agell, who’s an author and illustrator and teacher of my own children but most recently of the book, The Accidental Adventures of India McAllister and also author Maria Padian who has most recently written the book, Out of Nowhere. Thanks for coming in.
Maria: Thank you.
Charlotte: Yes. It’s great to be here.
Dr. Lisa: Charlotte, you are recently profiled on the back page of Maine Magazine so people who have seen that know that you are a very interesting person. You have this background that most Maine authors don’t have. Where are you from?
Charlotte: This is quite a story. I actually marveled how Sophie was able to boil it down because we chatted for quite a while but the thumbnail is that I am from Northern Sweden, quite far north. My parents immigrated when I was basically a toddler. We moved to Canada, always spoke Swedish at home but I learned most in French. We moved back to Sweden where we had actually gone in many summers when I … at the summer after fifth grade but didn’t stay there very long because my father was posted to open up the far east for Volvo so I moved to Hong Kong and came from there because why not, to Bowdoin College where I have never been before.
In fact, the sort of sum total of my US experience up at that point was three days in New York City when I was 11 and what I remember most was writing every port because I was a very serious fifth grader on what we used to call eskimo transportation, Inuit transportation and something about the Empire State building but I’ve been here really almost ever since with the exception of grad school. I feel like it’s my adopted home, Maine.
Dr. Lisa: You live still in Brunswick.
Charlotte: Well, we moved back there, my husband and I when the kids were little. We’d sort of lived, I joked, in every smaller Maine town kind of from Portland to Gardiner, maybe not every single one but yes, we’ve been there a long enough time to call it almost forever since the early 90’s. ’94, we moved back there.
Dr. Lisa: Is that how you got to know our other guest, Maria Padian?
Charlotte: Yes, I think it would be. We have a lot of friends … I think we have a lot of friends in common first.
Maria: Right.
Charlotte: Our kids are … my kids are little. My youngest is just a bit older than your oldest so our kids didn’t exactly overlapped but in Brunswick like in any town, there are a lot of sort of Venn diagrams of people you know.
Dr. Lisa: Yes. Brunswick does seem to be a hot spot of creative sorts and especially writers.
Maria: There are a lot of writers. We wonder if there’s something in the water.
Charlotte: Yes. It’s almost insanely so. I was at my school library, Harrison Middle School and I brought in a Lisa Jahn-Clough book, her new release, Nothing but Blue I think it’s called and the librarian jokingly said, “Oh, is she from Brunswick, too?” Actually, she lives upstate … does live in Portland sometimes. I thought about it and I said, “Oh, well no but she grew up in Brunswick.” I started to laugh because maybe you could say it of every Maine town because I think it’s a very creative state in general but something about writers in Brunswick and you could fill up the entire interview with listing them. That would probably get pretty silly but …
Maria: Exactly.
Charlotte: You could probably do that.
Maria: And a supportive group, too. I think that’s what’s been so amazing about Brunswick, not just the community in Brunswick but also the Kid Lit community is really supportive, helpful, kind.
Charlotte: We’re colleagues.
Maria: Yes, not competitors but colleagues and that’s really neat.
Charlotte: Colleagues, absolutely, the way it should be. Also, of course grounded by not just the college but the best … I mean there are more of these … shout outs to Longfellow Books, too … but the best independent bookstore in the world, Gulf of Maine. That’s just if you ever want any literary conversation anytime during the day, just saunter in there and you can find it.
Dr. Lisa: Good point. I mean literally, you can just walk right up to the register and start to engage with Gary Lawless, the owner and he’ll take you right on. Talk about everything.
Charlotte: You’ll never know who’s going to turn up in there, too.
Dr. Lisa: Yes. I’m interested by … your books are very different, the books that you write. Describe … and actually, even amongst your books, they’re very different. This most recent one that you’ve written, Maria is about something that’s actually happening here in Maine which is sort of the integration of people in Somalia into our towns. I’m just going to read from the book jacket.
Some guys have all the luck. At least high school senior Tom Bouchard does, top of his class, currently number three and top of his game soccer. He’s the guy with a hot girlfriend and even hotter college prospects if he ever gets his applications done but here’s the thing about luck. It changes and Tom’s idyllic life quickly gets turned upside down when he least expects it. His hometown becomes a secondary migration location for Somali refugees fleeing their war ravaged homeland, refugees Tom hasn’t thought about much until four of his new Somali classmates joined the soccer team.
I’m not … I doubt that you wrote your own book jacket. Is that true?
Maria: That’s true.
Dr. Lisa: Okay, so these are not your words but I thought it was a good summary of something that I think a lot of people … a lot of teenagers in Maine are actually dealing with. It is interesting because Maine is a fairly white state and a fairly cold state.
Charlotte: Also known as, I think the whitest state but …
Dr. Lisa: Probably whitest state, right, and you’ve chosen to write about the integration of people from somewhere very far away and warm in a very sort of hit the ground kind of way.
Maria: Well, if you go into cities like right here on Portland and certainly up in Lewiston, we have plenty of diversity. There’s also people from all over the world who have landed on our shores partly because of the refugee program and partly because this is a wonderful place to live and the word spreads which is really what has taken place in Lewiston as you know. We have sort of a housing crunch in Portland. Folks in Lewiston let everybody know, “Hey, we’ve got some available housing,” to some of the Somali refugees in particular who are spillovers from Portland, ended up in Lewiston.
What really brought in the big numbers was that the Somali community is very closely knit and word went out as far away as it landed Georgia and Southern California, “Hey, this is a wonderful place,” and they began to show up in great numbers.
The book is fiction. The characters are fictional but of course, the story arc is based on some real events which have taken place in Lewiston over the last 10 years.
Dr. Lisa: You yourself have children, I think high school, college at this point?
Maria: College age right now. I’ve got a junior and a freshman in college but my kids were really little when this whole came to a head in Lewiston so when we brought them … they had then the big support rally in the community. When we brought them to that, they were really little kids playing out on the snow bank but then as they got older and they were playing high school parts, I was privileged to attend soccer games in various cross-country meets and I would see the wonderful diversity reflected just in the students who were competing against each other.
In particular, I saw these Somali athletes who were playing soccer and changing the nature of the game particularly in a town like Lewiston. I was wondering particularly because my grandparents are all immigrants. Of course, I just thought, “Oh, you know it’s the immigrant story all over again,” but with a whole bunch of twist because not only are these … not immigrants but refugees and there’s a real difference between an immigrant and a refugee in terms of the resources you come with and the mindset you come with but also, they were black in a very white state and they are mostly in a post 9/11 world.
I really wanted to know, wow, what is their experience like? In particular, what is the experience of the children in school and that’s where the story began.
Dr. Lisa: You did a lot of research.
Maria: I did a lot of research. I did a lot of research that proved fairly fruitless. A lot of conversations particularly when I started with adults because the topic was so charged and so much had happened and a lot of times, people were not talking to me necessarily about their experience about what agenda they were bringing to it. Then I got really lucky and I stumbled on a couple of high school kids and that’s when it changed. They were so genuine and generous and open and they are grateful to somebody just wanted to hear their story.
Suddenly, what I just realized is kids just want to be kids. They just want to fit in. They want to make friends. They want to go to the prom. They want to be invited over to the party so suddenly, I have this wonderful window into what sort of relationships were really possible and what was really happening in school because the folks at the schools aren’t going to let me in. I had to meet the kids outside of school and meet them in downtown Lewiston and go out and eat their food and go to their soccer games and just spend a lot of time with them and get them to tell me to their stories.
Charlotte: Now, the schools … and I can speak from experience being a public school teacher here in Maine … are inviting the book gang and I think it’s going to provoke some excellent conversations.
Maria: I hope so. I hope so they’ll come. I would love to hear those conversations because what’s been so interesting for me now that the book is out, I was in Lewiston last week and read portions of the book to a largely Somali audience and when I was done and I said to them, “You do understand that you’ve been my scariest audience.” They looked at me and said why and I said, “Because I’ve … this is you. This is your story. Did I get it right?” That moment I’ve had in a long time was all their like started nodding. What a relief. What a relief.
Charlotte: This inhabiting of other people’s stories can be scary. It’s a privilege and reflection and a dream come true.
Dr. Lisa: The reason I came to know about this most recent book, Maria, was because my daughter Sophie, we were at the local bookstore and we have our own local bookstore in Yarmouth on Main Street.
Charlotte: Royal River Books is it right?
Dr. Lisa: Yes. She came out to me and she said, “I really think that we should get this book.” I looked down. I said, “I know that author.” It was this interesting roundabout way of being introduced to something really important because of course, as soon she was finished reading the book, I started reading the book as myself. It is exactly what happened with your book, Charlotte.
Charlotte: Great.
Dr. Lisa: Sophie was reading it. I went back and read your book and there is a funny thing that happens when you read about the way that adults come across to kids in books that are for kids because you realize that that’s absolutely true and yet we’ve kind of forgotten as we’ve aged. I think the uncle in this book comes across as really having some very strong opinions about the Somalis and about immigration and it was really kind of like stopped me for a minute to think that this is how kids might actually perceive adults kids might actually perceive adults.
Maria: It’s interesting you bring up the uncle. I was at one of my tennis matches which was being played in Lewiston and I was heading out toward the tennis courts and all the buses were parked outside and in the distance, there were group of Somali girls who were going into a building. The bus driver caught sight of them and I heard him very angrily speak to another bus driver and he was expressing just his dismay with these folks in the community and saying things like, “I’ve got a daughter who’s been on a waiting list for housing and she can’t get in and these folks would show up and they get in.”
There was this pent-up anger and frustration that he felt and I thought this is all part of the mix here and that doesn’t necessarily make people good or bad or right or wrong. It’s what’s part of the mix and what I hope to do in the story was to bring in a variety of characters who were expressing that point of view and demonize anybody or take anyone else and elevate them. I wanted to just throw them out there in as realistic way as possible to spur conversation particular among particularly among young people because that’s what the book is for.
Charlotte: It feels so authentic to me. I think probably … I recommend a lot of books being a teacher and a crazed reader and I think seriously, Out of Nowhere, since it has come out has been the one I really have been recommending most not just because you’re a friend of mine but because it is that I think everyone in Maine should read it.
Dr. Lisa: We’ll return to our program in a moment. On the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast we’ve long understood the important link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the subject is Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial.
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As the week moves on, my dream becomes, first, pleasant and then tragically chaotic like the dream of trying to punch someone or run away. I find it difficult to do what I want or even to choose. By day, I live out the end of this dream this and I hope that at least one person at a time were able to help dreamers punch hard and run fast. Money, in all its forms, is supposed to be the leverage we need to make life easier. If it doesn’t feel that way, please send us an e-mail at [email protected].
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Dr. Lisa: We have an author on the show who has said it’s hard to have an author in the family. It’s hard to have a writer in the family.
Charlotte: Because they’re always slipping up from the dinner table saying, “Wait. I’ll be right back. I’ll just have to right this down.”
Dr. Lisa: Well, that or they’re always observing things.
Charlotte: True.
Maria: I was going to say it’s difficult because they’re really moody on the days when the writing goes bad. My daughter would say or she’ll come home and they’ll know that the writing went well because it looks like someone came in and ransacked the house or dishes are done …
Charlotte: Right.
Maria: The dog isn’t fed. I become obsessed by it sometimes.
Charlotte: It is a funny occupation because it is one of those ones where if it is going well, you can sit down and then look up and it’s hours later. It sort of grabbed you and then of course, they can go just fast … there can be days and I do. Even though I have this wonderful middle school teaching job which I just do, I want to point out, as a three-day-a-week gig. I think if I were back to teaching full time, I would have a harder time being also a writer because teaching is an amazing profession. It takes so much energy and this is not the time and place for it but I’m so saddened by all the vilification of teachers. Most of them are incredibly hardworking people.
Anyway, I feel like … my policy is I write every day. I think the book dictates that even if it’s just two minutes. Sometime, it goes well but sometimes, it goes disastrously awry and you just have to be appeased with … I just spent three and a half hours straight writing … I call it compose. It’s a more dignified way to say it because also, something might come out of it, a little sentence or an idea but it is a profession where you could feel sort of work, work, work and then just have an utterly unproductive day.
Maria: I think also too, that comes with time and you’ve been doing this for a long time so you also understand that there’s plenty of stuff you’re going to write and it’s going to end up on the editing room floor.
Charlotte: For sure.
Maria: Charlotte and I, we’ve just went to a critique group and we met … it was just last week and it was really amazing of how much of what I showed Charlotte last week is going to never show up anywhere else again but having this … this one is processed many times … asked me when I was writing my first book if I was going to be able to do that and it would have been way harder. Now, I understand why. I’m going to lose a lot of stuff but there’s more that’s going to come. It will be okay and I think that’s part of the process, too, is understanding there’s a lot you need to write that no one else needs to … or should ever read.
Charlotte: Right, it’s part of the process. I try to impart that to kids because there are so much good writing workshop stuff going on in schools and that writing essentially is rewriting, not very often will you sit down and suddenly have an opus appear before you.
Dr. Lisa: For parents who worry that maybe their kids don’t read enough or that want to know what types of books their kids should be reading or just want some tips from a teacher and from two writers, what would you say to them?
Maria: I guess it depends on how old the kids are and where they are in their leading lives. Read out loud to them and get them books on tape.
Charlotte: Yes.
Maria: If you’re outside and they’re picking up books on their own, all that time you’re spending in a car taking them to whatever sports activity or going to a long vacation. Books-on-tape is a great way. Hook them on a good story. Help them to learn to love a good story because I think that’s just part of human nature, is to want to hear a good story.
Charlotte: Hang out in libraries as much as possible when your kids are little. You could make them know that that’s just a place that we go to. Remarkable when we go to the public library.
Dr. Lisa: Your children are older now.
Charlotte: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: Both of your sets of children are older now.
Charlotte: My youngest is graduating in college in two days and he’s a writer.
Dr. Lisa: Very nice. I can see. How did that work out? This advice that you’re giving on reading to a parent-story listening, how did that work out for your own children?
Charlotte: Well, it’s funny because both my kids are very artistic, are into reading and writing but John actually wasn’t a very big reader, the one who’s graduating with a writing degree and all sorts of writing awards and beginnings of publications, really one of the best writers I know I have to say but his main use for book when he was about four or five was to see how far across the room he could throw it but we did read a lot. I just remember reading a lot and kids come to reading, I think, in their own way.
My daughter just came downstairs one day. She wasn’t even four. She was reading and she’d somehow decoded it but John, the younger had a harder time and kind of needed … for him, he seem to be seven but like what Maria said, we were always reading stories and telling stories in whatever context. I hope that still continues. I think car rides are perfect for that and I worry sometimes that we disappear so individually into our electronic devices that they’re … certainly, they can deliver a story too but I like the idea of communal story even telling stories in around in the car.
Maria: I would say that before my son’s eyes had even begun to properly focus, I think I was holding Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in front of him so that’s what we have done as a family. It’s just been a huge part of the bedtime routine and then we all read and so then we all spend a lot of time talking about what we’re reading.
I have a son who is probably not much of a writer but he’s an avid, avid reader and he’s … at this point, he’s veering into theater and acting so that’s where he’s found his stories and how he’s going to express his creativity.
My daughter is sort of a science person but she is the one of the best editors I’ve ever come across and we talk about books all the time so it was just, I think, part of the pattern. There’s always books, stories, storytelling even if it’s just around the table, what did you do and you tell it as a story. It was interesting. I was talking …
Charlotte: Having dinner together, that’s a good to place to start.
Maria: Dinner together and telling stories, not necessarily reporting but just being there in your own way. I was chatting with the girl who teaches in Cape Elizabeth where the schools have got plenty of resources, plenty of books and she was citing electronic distractions as a big problem particularly for her boys that she’s teaching. I don’t know. I think trying to limit electronic distractions and going back to the … around the fire of telling the story might be a good way to do it.
Dr. Lisa: Maria, how can people find out about your book, your latest book, Out of Nowhere, and also the other books that you’ve written?
Maria: They’re in the libraries. They’re on Amazon. They’re in local independent bricks and mortar bookstores and Out of Nowhere in particular is going to be part of the Portland Community Read. That’s going to be beginning this month, the whole I am your neighbor read which is a celebration of just diversity and immigrant culture and new commerce to Maine so that’s one way that they can find that book.
The other two, I know scholastic book fairs has been carrying Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress so the kids could get it that way and Jersey Tomatoes are the Best which is partially set in Jersey. It’s not a Maine book. That book again just … bookstores and Amazon. It’s in the schools.
Dr. Lisa: You have a website.
Maria: I have a website and I have a Facebook page, Maria Padian on Facebook and I have a Twitter account, all the social media things.
Dr. Lisa: You’re everywhere. That’s good. Charlotte, how about you? How will we …
Charlotte: Well, I’d say a good central clearing house would just be to go to my website which you will find if you just type in Charlotte Agell. It will bring you there and it’s a conduit, I guess a portal. I don’t have a Twitter account or too many fancy bells and whistles but you’ll find everything you need to know, I hope, there.
Dr. Lisa: Well, I am privileged that you took the time out of your busy schedules and out of your writing lives because I know that’s very important that you’re going to write … to keep writing.
Charlotte: You know what? It’s amazing that you said that because I think some people may think that writing just happens, that it doesn’t take time. I know, I think I suspect … well, I teach three days a week but I suspect that my elderly neighbor thinks I can always drop everything and have tea and sometimes, I can’t. He sees me there so he assumes I’m not doing anything.
Dr. Lisa: Well, I know that both of you are taking time out of your writing lives and it’s very impressive to me that you did this, that you came to talk to me and that you take the time to write for people like my daughter Sophie and my other children. Also, thank you for teaching, Charlotte.
Charlotte: My pleasure. I feel like I have the best gig in the world. It’s a great combo and the kids are wonderful and great.
Dr. Lisa: All of my children have enjoyed their interactions with you.
Charlotte: Hi, shout out.
Dr. Lisa: I’m … as I said, I’ve been speaking with Charlotte Agell, author and illustrator and Maria Padian, also an author and I’m sure we’ll have you back again sometime to talk more about your future works.
Charlotte: Thanks, Lisa.
Dr. Lisa: Thank you very much.
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Dr. Lisa: Kate Egan is a transplant to our great state of Maine and I believe a grateful transplant. She spent many years working in New York and has been in Brunswick for … how long now, Kate?
Kate: It will be 10 years in May.
Dr. Lisa: Ten years in May. Kate has been in children’s publishing for almost 20 years both as an editor and an author. She’s edited fiction and non-fiction paperback and hardcover for kids from pre-school through high school. Some of the authors she has worked for include Tamora Pierce, Suzanne Collins and Maine’s own Cynthia Lord. Kate’s first original picture book, Kate and Nate Are Running Late was published by Macmillan last fall. Thanks for coming in and being with us today, Kate.
Kate: Thank for having me, Lisa.
Dr. Lisa: I’m really interested in the Kate and Nate Are Running Late book because I understand it’s a book about your own personal experience.
Kate: It’s a book about every parent’s personal experience. It’s a book about the difficulty of getting a family out the door for school in the morning and it begins with Nate, the five year old son going into his mother’s room and just taking her away and saying, “You got to get up. We’re running late.” From there, the story just tumbles forward. It includes everything that I think every family understands. “Get your breakfast. Get dressed. Brush your teeth. Find your backpack. Find your homework.”
Of course, things take a turn for the worse when things get us behind and there’s one point where Kate, the mother, says, “There’s been a change in plans. We need to drive instead of walk.” They get into the car and they squealed on the streets. They barely make it to school and when they get there, a surprise awaits them.
Dr. Lisa: Well, we’ll let people pick up your book at a local bookstore and find out what that surprise is.
Kate: I’ll just leave it a mystery.
Dr. Lisa: Good. Kate, you came to Maine for family reasons. Your husband now works in Augusta but there must have been something about Maine that brought you here that sort of drew you to the state as an author and an editor. You’re somebody who pays attention to things. What was it about Maine?
Kate: Well, when my husband graduated from law school, we made a quick weekend trip to Maine. We were only here … I wanted to stay for three nights. We were supposed to stay longer. He had some schoolwork he had to finish and I crashed a rental car so we were not able to stay in Maine as long as we liked.
When we went back to New York, I found myself thinking about Maine a lot. I’m thinking, “We can’t forget. We need to go back there. That was a really special place.” We never quite managed it. We stayed in New York. We took other vacations. We never went back to Maine but I know it was always in the back of my mind. When my husband kind of randomly interviewed for a job up here, I know that we were both hoping that it would be of interest to him and a possibility for us. We were just extremely fortunate that it worked out.
I’m not sure what truly makes Maine then on that first visit. Was it just being so peaceful compared to our frantic life in New York? Of course when we moved here, we had a normal life. We were frantic about getting kids to school and that kind of thing but I do think that we’ve been able to slow down here and find focus in a way that we couldn’t in New York.
I know myself. I’m easily distracted. I found it hard in New York to really focus in on things that I really wanted to do, that were important to me and in Maine, somehow, I’ve been able to do that with fewer distractions around.
Dr. Lisa: How old are your children now, Kate?
Kate: I have … my daughter is 10, almost 11 and my son is six, almost seven. They’re both about to have their birthday.
Dr. Lisa: Neither one of them have ever lived anywhere but Maine?
Kate: No. They love to travel and we have no family connection in Maine. We have no relatives here so we actually travel all the time visiting our families elsewhere and they really are eager to see the world and they love to go to other places. I think that what they don’t realize that they have that’s special is a really firm connection to a place that’s home. I feel we’ve been able to give them that in Maine. I don’t think they will appreciate that till later but I think that part of what makes travelling so appealing to them is that they know they have a solid place to come back to.
Dr. Lisa: Not only do you live in Maine but you lived in Brunswick which seems to be quite a hot spot for people who love to write and love to read. There are many authors including Jaed Coffin who we’ve interviewed on the show here before and Charlotte Agell who has been profiled in Maine Magazine, Elizabeth Strout. There’s so many authors that have a Brunswick connection. Why do you think that is?
Kate: I’m not 100% sure. I will say that I feel Brunswick has everything a creative person needs. It has beautiful natural surroundings as well as its driving center. It’s the kind of place where you can walk to where you want to go. I feel that that kind of community is conducive to thinking and letting your imagination roam. It also … we have a wonderful bookstore and we have a wonderful coffee shop. Just to me, as a writer, everything I could possibly want is in Brunswick. We have a college so there are ways to feed yourself intellectually.
There’s just a great mix of people in Brunswick, too. I really … we stumbled into Brunswick. We have never been to Brunswick before we moved there and it’s just everything that we could dream of. We love it there.
Dr. Lisa: It is interesting because one of the first times that I heard your name was through Susan Grisanti who is the editor here at Maine Magazine, Maine Home and Design and she had found you on a 48 hours in Brunswick trip at a coffee shop and she said, “You won’t believe this. Here is this rock star, Kate Egan who is the editor of The Hunger Games sitting in a coffee shop in Brunswick, Maine and she is so personable and she is so charming and so low-key. You wouldn’t even believe it.” It’s the kind of thing I think that we in Maine don’t even realize how fortunate we are to have because we’ve never had it any other way.
Kate: I think that’s true and when … of course, I’m constantly meeting amazing people in Maine and I feel that very accomplished people I meet here, and there are so many of them, are not necessarily trying to impress you with their accomplishments. They’re just quietly accomplishing great things and I don’t know really why that is. I’m not sure if it’s a New England culture or Maine itself. I’m not a native New Englander so I don’t know entirely but what I do know is I like living among people who are not trying to impress others. I just like that people are able to do what they do and do it well and we don’t have a … I don’t think we have a culture here of bragging and so I like that about Maine.
Dr. Lisa: You have been an editor for many very well-known children’s authors and you’ve edited The Hunger Games which of course became very popular. This is something that not every person who loves reading and loves writing thinks about as a job. Was there something about your childhood or your formative years that caused you to go in this direction? Because you’re still writing but you’re writing with another person, you’re helping their voice kind of shine through.
Kate: Well, I didn’t know it was a job either when I was growing up but I do come from a family of huge readers and I would say, probably in my family, I read the least. My father in particular, when we were kids and we would go on vacation, will go to the … I grew up in New Jersey. We would go to the Jersey shore for a couple of weeks in the summer and my father hated the beach. He never even went to the ocean. He would go on his so-called vacation with a stack of books that’s two feet tall. I’m not exaggerating. That’s what he would do for the entire two weeks, is he would just read his books.
My sister also works in publishing. She also loves to read and our grandmother … I remember when I was very young, I would go over to my grandmother and she would say, “What were you reading?” Sometimes I would say things that she did not approve of but she would always say to me … she was also very curious about my friends and she would say, “It’s important when you grow up to have friends who like to read. It’s important to be able to talk about books with your friends.”
Those sweetest messages I filed away and it took me a while to find my way into publishing. I went to graduate school and then I taught English at a high school for a couple of years but I knew that publishing was out there eventually. I had a friend who did an internship at a publishing company one summer. She didn’t stick with it but I thought, “Oh, that’s something I could do.”
Anyway, it was a series of adventures. I made my way into publishing. As soon as I discovered it, I knew that it was sort of the perfect match for me. I love … I write my own books now but at the time, I … when I started working in publishing, I did not write. I really liked the kind of behind-the-scenes nature of publishing. I wasn’t really seeking the spotlight and I like helping somebody else find their way narratively and then sometimes, those authors would find their way into the spotlight. I like watching from the wings.
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Dr. Lisa: The idea of writing and writing a book always seems like a very solitary pursuit but what you’re describing is very much collaborative.
Kate: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: Especially when you’re talking about the traditional publishing industry. Does that ever create challenges for people who think of themselves as, “I am the author of this book. This is my baby,” almost.
Kate: I have to tell you I’ve never had a bad experience. I definitely have had authors saying, “I don’t see it that way. I don’t want to answer your question. Thank you. I like your suggestions for my book but I don’t want to go there.”
Ultimately, it is the author’s book. I work for a publisher or I work for many publishers because I’m freelance and so it’s within their right to say, “Well, we don’t … we don’t want to publish this book if you can’t make it satisfactory to us,” but that has never happened in my experience.
I mean publishers … if an author has come to the point where his or her book is signed up by the publisher, that means the publisher already has great respect and interest in the book and obviously, they want the book to meet their needs but authors have a fair amount of freedom to do what they like. They do not have to do every single thing that an editor suggests.
I think that part of being an editor is being diplomatic and helping … know when to push and know when to hold back. It’s definitely something I’ve learned very early in my career. I worked with an author I had loved as a child. Her name was Paula Danziger. She sadly died young about 10 years ago but I worked on a book with her and I agonized over notes for her and she got them and she didn’t do anything. It was humbling for me but ultimately, I think I really learned from her. She knew what she wanted to do in the book and it was not what I had imagined. Her book had integrity of its own and she published it as it was.
Dr. Lisa: What about the notion of self-publishing and the quality of the book that can emerge from that? I’ve read some books that I really wanted to like and I know they were self-published and it wasn’t because they were self-published. Often, I would read the book and then afterwards would notice it was self-published. Do you think that’s something, sometimes, as lost when there isn’t this collaborative process when you’re creating a book?
Kate: I think that every writer can benefit from an editor and I think that … I mean I’ve worked with people who are first time authors and I’ve worked with people who are very well-known and I’ve worked with my own kids on their writing. I feel everybody can benefit from another reader. I feel that a professional editor, as a more experienced, will give … I don’t want to say more experienced reader but certainly will give a certain kind of feedback that I think can be helpful to any writer but not everybody can be … not every aspiring writer is able to be connected with a publisher or a professional editor and so if those writers are exploring self-publishing as an option and can find someone else to read their work, I think that accomplishes many of the same goals.
I’ve read self-published books that are really great and I thought, I don’t understand why this book isn’t published by a capital P publisher and then I’ve read other self-published books that just feel like they’re very meaningful to the author but don’t always bridge the gap to a reader.
The truth is I don’t know a whole lot about self-publishing because I work for publishers but I do know that publishers are very interested in what’s happening in the world of publishing just because that world has exploded and there are so many options out there for writers than just publishing through a traditional channel.
Dr. Lisa: You’ve been describing this need to not only read an author’s words but also read the author, him or herself and know how to respond in a way that you can really achieve the outcome of a whole book that someone will someday want to read. Do you think that this attitude and this sort of compassionate embracing of somebody who’s trying to do something very personal, this creation of a book, do you think this is something that your children are seeing from you, you’re passing down to your own kids?
Kate: I hope so. I’m not sure. What I do know I can pass on to my kids … my son is too young for this yet but I have a daughter who is in fifth grade and you probably know what it’s like to walk a fifth grader through an assignment. They do it one time and then they think they’re done and I do think that I can model uniquely a real understanding of how a piece of writing is not done the first time that you write it. My daughter might not want to make edit and then I mentioned lots of famous authors and I say, “Well, those people had to edit their book. It’s so strange that you would not want to go back and look at this again.”
I do think I know that when I was a kid and I thought about people who were writers, I thought of it as a very mysterious, almost magical thing that … and I truly imagined that a writer would just sit down and sort of … at a rickety old typewriter and produce this novel and be done. I see the messy side of writing now and I mean that’s just a myth. No writer writes like that.
I think it’s instructive for me as a writer and also as a mother to … just to show what a complicated process writing can be and there’s no shame in going back and going back and revising and changing and that’s what the best writers do. I do try to … taught my own kids about that.
I think that probably they have a different understanding of the writing process than other kids have and they certainly have an idea … I’ll get manuscripts to … my house is just … everywhere they go, every flat surface, they’ll see someone’s book sitting there and some stage for the process and for them, writing is not mysterious at all. It’s a very tangible thing. Our cats walk all over the manuscripts. They just have a different understanding.
Dr. Lisa: I think that people who write often as being highly intelligent and … not always but often highly intelligent people think a lot about things and have a very specific idea about how they want things to sound or look, in fact oftentimes, can be somewhat perfectionistic in their approaches. What you’re describing is kind of the opposite of that, is this willingness to be imperfect, this willingness to embrace the messiness and just sort of work through it.
Kate: I think that writing is a really brave act. When I sit down to write something, I’ve written a lot but every time I sit down to write something, I think, “Well, all those other things that … I was able to do it then but I will definitely not be able to do it this time.” There’s that. There’s getting past the blank screen and then there’s also the fear once we have written something of sharing it with somebody else. Everything I’ve written is pretty short. Every time I get a four or 500 page manuscript from an author, I think how incredibly brave to do that.
I don’t really know about writers, who are perfectionistic, I have to say. I think that you have to … it’s a leap of faith to start writing words on paper. After you get past the first sentence, you realize, “Well, I should have to put it out there and then I’ll go back and fix it.” In the end, or course, everyone wants their writing to be perfect but I think that any writer knows that if you’re perfectionistic from the beginning, you will never get past that first sentence. I think that perfect is the enemy of the good when it comes to writing.
Dr. Lisa: Kate, how can people find out about your first book?
Kate: Well, that’s a good question. I am working on developing a website but I don’t have one now. I know that it’s in a lot of libraries. It’s in local bookstores here in Maine and elsewhere. It can be ordered online through Amazon of course but also independent booksellers that sell online. This is where making the transition from editor to writer is a little bit strange because when you’re an editor, you’re very behind-the-scenes so I’m still working on creating more public presence but I have other books coming out so I know that I will be forced to develop that public presence in a better way.
Dr. Lisa: Well, I think you’re doing a great job.
Kate: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: You’re very authentic and I know that people will rush out to the local bookstore and buy Kate and Nate Are Running Late will enjoy that and I know that many, many people have already enjoyed the work you’ve done editing The Hunger Games so I’m appreciative of the fact that you’d spent time here talking with me today about the writing and editing process and living here in Maine.
Kate: Thanks for having me, Lisa.
Dr. Lisa: You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast show number 102, Kid Literature. Our guests have included Charlotte Agell, Maria Padian and Kate Egan. For more information on our guests and extended versions of our interviews, visit doctorlisa.org.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s show, sign up for our e-newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest and read my take on health and well-being on the Bountiful Blog, bountiful-blog.com. We’d love to hear from you so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also, let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle hoping that you have enjoyed our Kid Literature show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
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The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast is recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street in Portland, Maine. Our executive producers are Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Audio production and original music by John C. McCain. Our assistant producer is Leanne Ouimet. Become a subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details. Summaries of all our past shows can be found at doctorlisa.org.