Laura Duksta | I Love You More
August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Laura enjoys nothing more than sharing her story with others, inspiring them to know that if she can do it so can they. Laura has presented her program, “Self-Esteem through Love: Empowering our Children to Shine” to 1000’s of students, educators and administrators across the country. She is able to sprinkle her story of becoming an author with bits of wisdom that people of any age can use to achieve any dream. She speaks to all types of women’s auxiliary groups, charitable foundations, support groups, etc., at which she shares how her biggest challenge, losing her hair, eventually became her biggest blessing. This helps people see what might be possible when they bring love to what’s being experienced as a challenge or a negative situation. She inspires marketing and sales teams to know that there’s nothing that can’t be accomplished with a plan, a few prayers and a lot of love. And, she of course speaks to aspiring authors and publishers sharing her story of how she went from bartender to best-selling author. She prepares her audience for what might be at times a roller coaster of ride, but certainly one that’s worth it. Laura has spoken for The Learning Annex, The National Alopecia Areata Foundation, The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, The National Association of Women’s Writers (Florida chapter), Gilda’s Club, Xango New School (network marketing event where she shared the stage with Keynote T. Harv Eker), emceed the South Beach Wine and Food Festival Kidz Kitchen (with Rachel Ray, Alton Brown, Emril and Giatta), as well as having had presented dozens of school visits and author workshops across the country. Laura believes that love is the answer. She sees the world as a classroom where we have chosen to come and grow ourselves to the next level of awareness.. This world is one of duality and when we learn to embrace both the happiness and sadness, the good and bad, the war and peace, the challenge and opportunity, we will no longer be stopped by our circumstances but will be inspired to co-create with our Higher Selves. It is in this state that we are grateful for the events and experiences in our lives because we are able to see how they all serve our own personal growth and add to global evolution. What would happen if we understood that life is happening exactly as it was meant to, so that we may learn lessons of compassion, understanding, wisdom and contribution. If everything “worked” the way that we might envision that it “should” there would be no room for growth. We would no longer have to be here-you might say we would become “enlightened,” when that happens we will have transformed into The Light. This is not to say that we are not working towards transforming and healing our planet, but when we do this from the space that there is something wrong we come from fear and force and things aren’t necessarily transformed they are changed or fixed. Yet, when we can create and come from a place of love we will cause quantum leaps in consciousness. Love has the ability to heal the planet, though it will take a group of committed individuals to create a vision and take action. We are the ones and now is the time!
Jeanie Ransom | When Parents Aren’t Home
June 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Jeanie Ransom is a children’s author and licenced professional counselor who writes funny books or self-help books for kids. She started writing at age 17 and since then she has continued to write for magazines and newspapers, worked as a radio station copywriter, a public relations writer, an editor and writer at a bed-and-breakfa
R.T. Jordan | Disney & Polly
May 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Raised in Peabody, Massachusetts, R.T. Jordan moved to Los Angeles when he was nineteen and is only now beginning to look back. Although he believes that he has always been a writer, he first began to earn a living in this manner as the staff writer in the feature film marketing department of The Walt Disney Studios. “It was the best of times. It was he worst of times,” Jordan says of his nearly two decades in that position. “Although the deadlines were a horror, the writing and rewriting gave me discipline, and the understanding that there are many ways to spin a story,” Jordan says. “In retrospect, I see that those years were better than a Master’s program in creative writing because - by pumping out prose twelve hours a day and on nearly 400 films - I honed what little skill I had and developed what I hope is a breezy style of writing.” During those years, while still writing for Disney, Jordan found time to complete his first book, BUT DARLING, I’M YOUR AUNTIE MAME!, a nonfiction history of the famous character created by author Patrick Dennis. He went on to write four novels and three novellas (summer beach reading books written under a pen name he says he’d rather not acknowledge) for Kensington Publishing Corp. He then switched to the cozy mystery genre. http://www.poll
Jen Singer | Super & Slacker Mom
May 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
For 21st century mothers, there seem to be just two choices: live up to the Super Mom or give up to be the Slacker Mom. One’s bad for you; one’s bad for your kids. So what’s a momma to do? In You’re a Good Mom (and Your Kids Aren’t So Bad Either), the Internet’s favorite momma, Jen Singer, tells all. Turns out you can raise perfectly good kids in that sweet spot between flash cards at breakfast and “donuts for dinner, kids!” You’ll find great tips like these: • Don’t answer the phone when the class mom calls. • Your kid’s birthday party isn’t your coming-out celebration. • Don’t treat fine restaurants like a McDonald’s PlayPlace. • You think you’re a “cool mom,” but they think you’re a pushover. YOU’RE A GOOD MOM is for every mom who’s pressured to be perfect yet lost under the laundry, wondering if she’s a bad mom. It’s for every mom to wants to enjoy—not endure—motherho
Beth Feldman | Mommy Books
May 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Yvette Manessis Corporon and Beth Feldman are the creators of Role Mommy, www.rolemommy.c
Tanya Lee Stone | Important Children’s Books
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Tanya Lee Stone was our guest on the show today. She is a well-known author, and writes books for children that all have great importance in theme… Her newest book is a biography of Ella Fitzgerald (commemorating Ella Fitzgerald’s birthday on this date), and she has two new books coming out in the next year.More information from Tanya Lee Stone’s money:
Like many writers, Tanya Lee Stone has been making up stories since she was a kid. But her first series, Henry the Happy House, was never sold. She even drew the pictures. It’s a mystery why nobody wanted to publish it! As a high schooler, Tanya went to performing arts high school as a music major. Her writing improved when she studied English at Oberlin College (and Music at Oberlin Conservatory. She might even sing if you offer her chocolate.). After graduation she moved to New York to be an editor.Stone was an editor for 13 years. During some of those years, she also earned a Masters Degree in Education and learned all about seals and sea lions! (If you ask, she might tell you about the time she had to climb into a harbor seal tank with high rubber boots to give the seals their shots). She also traveled all over the world, hopping with kangaroos in Australia, eating the best caviar ever in Russia, and even living in England for awhile where she studied British literature. When Stone moved to Vermont and got her chance to write her first book, she got hooked on stories all over again. This award-winning author has written nearly 90 books for young readers. She has written books about animals, nature, science, history, and biography. She also writes poetry and fiction. Best-selling titles include Abraham Lincoln (more than 100,000 copies sold) and P is for Passover (more than 75,000 sold). Stone’s most recent titles are a young adult novel, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl (Wendy Lamb/Random House), Amelia Earhart (DK), and Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald (Viking). Bad Boy was her first novel for teens and received starred reviews, as well as honors from the New York Public Library, Texas Tayshas State Reading List, School Library Journal, the ALA, Maryland Best Books, and the Kentucky Bluegrass Master Award List. Stone also writes articles and reviews and has been published in VOYA, School Library Journal, and the New York Times.Forthcoming titles include picture books Elizabeth Leads the Way (Holt) and Sandy’s Circus (Viking), as well as Almost Astronauts: The True Story of the Mercury 13. Many of the stories she now finds herself drawn to deal with themes of strong women and empowering girls. Stone is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Authors Guild, PEN American Center, ALAN (The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents), and the National Council Against Censorship. She has been a featured speaker at the Texas Book Festival, the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Rochester Book Festival, the Connecticut Reading Association, the Vermont League of Writers, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the International Reading Association (IRA), the American Library Association (ALA), as well as multiple schools and libraries. She is the Co-director of Kindling Words, an annual retreat for published children’s book authors and illustrators.
Suzanne Lieurance |
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Often-published children’s author Suzanne Lieurance was a guest on our show today, speaking to us about the process of writing a children’s book, and about her latest book The Locket. She had some interesting insights about how to write difficult non-fiction for children.
Suzanne Lieurance is a former classroom teacher, now a freelance writer, children’s author, speaker, and The Working Writer’s Coach. She is the author of over 20 published books for children. Lieurance is also the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center and the Children’s Writers Coaching Club.
Jewel Sample | Children & Death
April 11, 2008 | 1 Comment
Today we spoke to Jewel Sample, and she told us about her children’s book Flying Hugs and Kisses, and about how to write about death for children.Here’s more from her website:
About The BookFlying Hugs and Kisses is about five children who creatively take on roles of support toward each other while showing their individual feelings about the death of their baby brother. This sensitive story of grief recovery is a great resource for parents to use to help their children understand and affirm their experience of the loss of a brother or sister.
About The Author
Jewel Sample has a Master of Science degree in Family Relations and Child Development from Oklahoma State University. She and her husband, Chuck are the parents of three sons and grandparents of thirteen children. One grandchild died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It is her hope this story gives insight into a family’s creative support and courage to move forward in the midst of their grief.
Diane Dike | Healing & Dogs
April 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We spoke with Diane Dike PhD today, about her lush children’s book, and her special relationship with her dog.More information from her website www.dianedike.org:
She came to the Vail Valley, 10 years ago because she “always wanted to see the beauty of the West.” She came here from Winter Haven, Florida where she was “Angel Belle”, star of the laser show at Cypress Gardens, a professor at Polk Community College, Founder of Dr. D. Ministries-visiting hospitals, nursing homes, prisons in an effort to reach people with the love of Jesus- a school teacher for special education students, and massage therapist. Diane has a doctorate degree in Human Services. She was forced to stop all her activities because of the constant flare-ups from a rare blood disease and other complicating health problems. Her body could no longer handle daily activities which most of us take for granted, let alone a busy schedule that would tire even the healthiest of people. However, Diane found a unique way to fight back and she is ready to try and hit the road again with a wheel chair, a service dog and a smile to last many miles. Her husband is a huge help, “I couldn’t do it with out his support.”
Kris Manley | Little Resumes
March 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We had the pleasure of speaking with Kris Manley on the show today about her interesting new concept. Resumes for children? We spoke about overworked kids, and about the value of showing kids their wonderful achievements in a written form! Very interesting concept.Find out more about Kris Manley and her resumes for children concept at www.resumesforchildren.com:
Donna Kristine Manley “Kris” is a native New Yorker, and a product of the New York City School
system, but completed her college years in Georgia by earning her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering Technology from Southern Polytechnic State University and her associate’s degree in Communications Electronics from Georgia Military College. Her experience includes stints as an Associate Regulatory Scientist with The Coca-Cola Company (corporate offices), Quality Assurance Engineer with SunTrust Bank, and Quality Assurance Manager with the Earthgrains Company. She is currently a Quality Assurance Manager for a large U.S. Baking Company in Atlanta, GA; other “hats” she wears within the company are Food Safety Officer and Trainer.
Leigh Le Creux Transcript
March 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. We’re talking about something entirely new now. It’s a book for children; it connects Astronauts and socks. It’s called Astro Socks. It’s written by Leigh Le Creux. Am I pronouncing that correctly?
Leigh Le Creux: Yes, you are. It’s Leigh, actually, but that’s close enough. [laughs]
Kent: It’s a pleasure to have you on the show.
Leigh: It’s a pleasure to be here, Dr. Kent. Thanks for having me.
Kent: Tell me a little bit about this concept. What have you got going?
Leigh: Well, actually, Astro Socks is, as you said, a fictional adventure story for children. It’s more of an inspirational story, basically to get them to think about their imagination, to develop their own creativity. It’s a short story about a little boy who basically sees a problem: his sister continuously loses one sock. It sparks an idea in his head and basically he runs with it and he becomes an inventor virtually overnight.The story itself, of course, is very quick. It’s very short because it’s meant for children, of course. But it covers a number of strategies that we as adults use every day to be successful ourselves. They’re not pointed out as in bullet form or that type of thing, but they’re hidden throughout the story.
Kent: And where are you speaking to us from?
Leigh: I’m calling you from Avedo, Florida today.
Kent: You say “aboot”. Are you from the north?
Leigh: Avedo. Oh, I’m sorry. Actually, yes I am. I’m from Nova Scotia originally.
Kent: Wonderful. I was thinking you’re Canadian from that “about”.
Leigh: I’ve been getting that a lot today. [laughs]
Kent: Your idea is to have a different style of children’s book. Have you succeeded in that?
Leigh: Well, again, this is my first book; so far so good. It was launched as soon as the first week of February. I’m getting a lot of great reviews, a lot of great publicity from the book. The idea behind the book, it’s actually more as a tool. It is a story that I had originally written for my son but, as I wrote it, or I should say, when I completed writing it and I went back and started editing and rewriting and that type of thing, I started to notice that all of the principles and concepts that I was learning myself through my own self-awareness and spiritual development were actually coming through the story.That’s when I had my little “A-ha!” moment and I realized that I really had to go ahead and get this published because the business of self-help, spiritual awareness, that type of thing, is a multi, multi billion dollar business. We all know that. But the majority of information that’s available out there to teach creativity, develop your imagination, all those types of things, are directed more, I find, for adults.There are some things available for children, but not a whole lot. That’s when I decided that “OK, this is what I was supposed to be doing and this is where I’m going to go with it.” The Astro Socks book itself is actually just one of a few that are coming up. The whole concept behind it is to teach children to learn how to use their imagination. I’m going to get into that, and the spiritual part of it, a little more in depth as I go along.
Kent: It’s about imagination. I also know that for you, part of the books and the projects that you’re working on, is the discussion about whether to teach evolution/creationism in schools in Florida. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Leigh: I sure can. One of the things that I’ve noticed; right now, anyone, it doesn’t matter what age you are; if you watch primetime, if you pay attention to the news, if you go into a bookstore locally or whatever, literally, if you look around, you’re going to be inundated with books and information about awakening your inner purpose and finding out what you’re supposed to be doing. All of these wonderful things. This is all well and good, but like I said, I noticed there wasn’t as much there for children.The time for that is now, and I know that. One of the reasons that I know that is because of things like that that are happening right now here in Florida. Over the last month, for example, there’s been a huge debate in the board of education here about whether or not to include the study of creationism and evolution in the regular curriculum. The basis of the argument wasn’t even whether it should be included, but to what extent. Although it was just recently passed mainly to include just evolution, there were so many different arguments and very valid theories that were argued by some incredibly educated people in our area, regarding theories of a divine power.Basically, one of the things that came out of that, as I’m watching these things all take place in the news around me and my own local area, is that what happens is that a lot of people say - I shouldn’t say a lot of people - a few comments, for example, regarding one of the articles that just came out about this evolution inclusion issue was that they didn’t want to “confuse” our children by giving them different thought processes. They should stay with the science because it’s fact, not look at the other theories because it’s spiritual and that’s religion and it doesn’t necessarily have a place in our schools.That’s twofold. But first of all, that’s an innocent mistake. I don’t like to use the word mistake, but it is an innocent thought. We need to remember our children have the ability to develop the use of logic. They know how to reason, and they begin to understand abstract thoughts, as we do, as adults, but they start that at age seven. In my humble opinion the purpose of us having any education system to begin with is to foster a desire for learning or to make our kids ask questions. That’s how we learn. We ask more questions.So, my point about all of this coming out in the local area was that the curriculum doesn’t necessarily have to, here in Florida, address every single religion that’s out there. It doesn’t have to discuss all of the different cultural differences and religions that we all have, but they do have to acknowledge that they’re there. What happens when they acknowledge them, the students will automatically ask the questions. Children need to know more. We need to remember that they’re little people, they’re no different than us. They still have the innocence to ask the questions, so they need to have the answers.
Kent: You have a larger plan, and I completely agree with you. I teach at the university level and it’s the same thing. There’s teachers that say, “Ah, they won’t get this, they won’t get that”, but if you challenge them to do it, there’s rarely students that don’t get that from age three to 30 or 90.
Leigh: That’s right.
Kent: But your greater arc of what you plan to do with this is, do you plan to go into schools locally, nationally? You’re about stimulating creativity, imagination, talking about all these religions. What is the master plan here?
Leigh: The master plan for me; I actually have a couple of other books in the works right now on my desk. And what I would love to see happen is, like I said, the inclusion of - the recognition, I shouldn’t say necessarily the inclusion - the recognition that we, whether we’re children, adults, like you said aged three to 90, it doesn’t matter, the simple recognition that we are spiritual beings. That’s very important. In order to develop our creativity and our imagination we have to realize where it comes from. You said you teach university. I took psychology in university, and I didn’t even learn about the faculties of the mind. You touched on them a little bit; you touched on a little bit about intuition, but not a whole lot.There’s more and more information out there now to explain those things, no matter what age you are. My goal is to be able to go into, like you say, schools, or come up with a manual — is actually what I’m doing right now — to combine all of the science together with all of the spiritual so that you can look at it and, it doesn’t matter if you’re a parent, a teacher, a child, a student, whatever, and understand that you cannot take science and you cannot take spirituality and put them in two separate realms. They are one and the same; they have to operate together. That’s my ultimate goal; it’s to get that information and that message out there.
Kent: I find it very fascinating, personally, because I haven’t heard about many folks thinking about this that are in the children’s genre. I think it’s a great concept you have. Let’s talk about the Big Bang for a second. My own understanding of the Big Bang is that there’s this very tiny speck, and now there’s research going into the quarks, and then smaller than the quarks. This incredible stuff that I don’t understand at all. We all have the questions “What became before that? What was outside of that?” We all have these mysteries. In what sense does the science connect to the spirituality for you?
Leigh: If you’re going to speak to it in a scientific way, the easiest way to understand it; as you say, you can go back further and further and even if you get down to the smallest “particle”, when you look at it, it will change. That’s scientifically proven. That’s why they can’t go any further back and they can’t explain it. But ultimately, if you look, every single thing in our entire universe, no matter whether we consider it animate or inanimate, is made of energy.The only difference is that some things, which we consider or call “inanimate”, aren’t moving quickly, at the same vibration of atoms that we are as human beings. Ultimately, that energy is also the same thing that created the planets, that created the universe, that created everything. So if we’re energy, and all of the things that are constantly moving our planets and our solar systems and all those wonderful things every single day is energy as well, aren’t we part of that?To me the easiest way to understand it is that we’re made up of the same thing. So obviously, if you want to turn the science part around, “OK, we’re atoms, we’re science.” But if you look at it from a religious point of view and you say that God created everything, then that means that parts of us have to be made from God and are of God. And that’s where the combination’s going to come through. Does that make sense for you?
Kent: As much as it makes sense to anyone, I think. I think you have some great concepts. Your website isintendedcreations.com?
Leigh: That’s correct.
Kent: Your book is called Astro Socks.
Leigh: The first book is called Astro Socks.
Kent: Give me one more sound clip about Astro Socks here. It’s for children; it’s for older children though, right? It’s 90 pages?
Leigh: It’s more the ages between six and 12, is where it’s generally around. It’s actually, like I said, written for my son and he’s age 11 now. So I wrote it a year ago. It’s more directed at that age, that age group. I know that there’s 14 and 15 year olds; I have 20 year olds who are telling me they read it and loved it. I have people telling me they read it to their five-year-old children and they loved it. So it’s a very broad story. It can go anywhere. You can read it to any level.
Kent: And that’s kind of what your main character is. Whatever he does, he has more possibilities ahead.
Leigh: That’s exactly it. He shows a couple of different strategies throughout the book. If you do follow the science part again, such as what visualizing can do for you. How to turn your attitudes from negative to positive ones. Making sure that you’re saying “Thank You” for everything in your life. Basically knowing that your family and God love you, and keeping your faith in those things.
Kent: It’s been a real pleasure to have Leigh Le Creux. Sorry, how do you pronounce your first name?
Leigh: It’s Leigh, that’s right.
Kent: Leigh Le Creux. And you can find her book, Astro Socks, on the web at Amazon.com and you can find it at bookstores around the country or at iuniverse.com?
Leigh: That’s correct.
Kent: It’s been a real pleasure speaking to you.
Leigh: Thanks so much for having me this afternoon, Dr. Kent. Have a wonderful afternoon.
Kent: My next guest is Lisa Genova. We’ve had her on before for a couple minutes, but this time we’re going to do it correctly. Her book is called “Still Hours”, and it’s about Alzheimer’s. Come on back.
Leigh Le Creux | Astro Socks
March 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Leigh Le Creux spoke to us about science in schools, and about Creationism as well… Her new book Astro Socks is not just a great book for children and young teens, it is the first book in her series of books that stimulate the creative imaginations of children. More about Leigh Le Creux from her book’s press release:
Astro Socks by Leigh Le Creux is the inspirational book of the year for kids.
If J.K. Rowling and Dave Pilkey combined their efforts, they may have come close to creating a book similar to Astro Socks. It is the educational tool of the year for parents and teachers, and kids love it.“From the beginning of Astro Socks, my students and I were pulling for the main character, Chris. The author has an exceptional ability for using description to help the reader connect on an emotional level with her characters. My students were inspired by this child inventor, and were excited to create imaginative illustrations based on visualizations they had while reading the story. The number of classroom activities that could spiral from this book with my students are endless, thanks to the incredible creativity with which the story was written,”: Trisha Munroe, BEd, MEdThis short fiction novel concentrates on a young boy who turns his dreams of becoming an inventor into a reality. Like all children, he has a vivid imagination. As he uses his imagination and visualizes, his ideas begin to take shape. The more excited he becomes, the faster his ideas begin to take shape. The main character encounters various hurdles along his adventure, but he discovers that anything is possible when you have faith, determination, and the love of your family.The illustrations throughout Astro Socks are an amazing testimonial to the book as they are a result of in-classroom projects. Students also reviewed the fiction.“What I think is great is that a ten year old, a normal ten year old, all of a sudden turns into an inventor…NuPont doesn’t care if he is ten or not! They accept him right away!” “Amanda”, Grade Five StudentEducators must have this book on their reading lists, and in their classrooms. Parents and all book lovers enjoy reading it and learning at the same time.Connecting creativity and the imagination are in every line of this work. “Astro Socks inspires and connects the dots for successful kids, like the movie, The Secret, is known to do for adults”, says Le Creux. “Faith, determination, and imagination are qualities all of us need to cultivate - especially in our children.”Astro Socks (ISBN 0-595-46375-4) retails at $9.95 and is available from Ingram Book Group, Baker and Taylor, and from iUniverse. To order, call 1-800-AUTHORS.
Deborah Johnson Transcript
February 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. It’s a beautiful snowy day here in New York.My next guest is Deborah Johnson. And she is speaking to me from down south about her new novel “The Air Between Us”. Welcome to the show.
Deborah Johnson: Thank you for having me.
Kent: And are you down in Mississippi right now?
Deborah: Yes, I am with much better weather than you all are having in New York, I think.
Kent: I think so. I have to say though my dog loves playing in the snow and eating it and all that. We come in all wet but she’s a happy dog.
Deborah: [laughs] Yes.
Kent: So tell me a little bit about your background. Your new novel “The Air Between Us”, tell me how you came to write this.
Deborah: It was given - the idea, I got the idea many years - a few years ago from my brother, who is a surgeon. And he talked to me just about things that had happened in my father’s life. My father was also a surgeon in the 1950s and the 1960s. So the idea of different things that had happened to him percolated in my thinking for a while. And that became the basis for this book.
Kent: Do you by chance have a section that you could read from it for us?
Deborah: Oh, my goodness. I didn’t have - I’ve got it right here so I guess I’ll just read the very beginning. About how long do you want me to read?
Kent: A few minutes.
Deborah: OK. I’ll read how the book starts.
Kent: Wonderful.
Deborah: OK? “The battered 1952 Ford pickup jolted across - against the curb, bouncing the driver just high enough so you could see the tip of his head, making him look for all the world like a teeny ghost, a low riding specter.”The sight froze the two men, Charlie Simons and Butter Bob Lathan, standing at the ‘coloreds only’ Emergency Room entrance to Doctor’s Hospital, stock still. They watched a cloud of dust cover the truck as it started bumping its way onto the gravel rock parking lot. Amazed, the men continued to stare as the pickup emerged from the gritty fog and honed in on the door right behind them.”The head did not bob into view again and for an instant each man thought he had imagined it. This false comfort did not last long. The truck was there and it was coming straight for them. Their minds and told them to dive for cover, and quickly, but their bodies were locked in place like the gears of a car. Both men thought they were dead for sure.”The truck jerked to a halt “three feet from my kneecap” as Charlie would spend his winter day in Nick Carter’s One-stop Barbershop telling anybody who cared to listen”. “And that truck must have been coming 50 miles an hour if it was coming at all. You can bet I saw them pearly gates.”"Thus this first of many strange events that were to occur that autumn in the town of Revere Mississippi, population 20, 000 and diminishing rapidly, naturally became famous. With each telling, the truck’s speed increased and the distance to Charlie’s kneecap decreased until one was up to 60 and the other down to no more than two inches, one inch if Charlie had spent time in some juke joint the night before.”Within a matter of days most everybody in Revere had heard the tale at least once. No one questioned if that old rattletrap truck could even have reached 60 miles an hour, which it could not have.”Instead, the Reveries all nodded, impressed and sobered by Charlie’s choice of biblical allusion. This was later, after all. And right then he wasn’t thinking about any implications whatsoever rather then those that had to do with protecting his life from destruction.”The truck stopped so close, so thoroughly that a puff of dust following billowed around it, ghostlike. It was seriously dawning on Charlie’s mind that he should be high-tailing it on out of there, and right now. The man remembered that quick glance of bobbing head and he remembered how thoroughly it had disappeared again.”Beside him, Butter Bob had already started a slow turn toward the driveway. Then through the haze, both men heard the driver’s door crank open, heard a thud and the paddle of small, bare feet running toward them along the path dirt stirring up the dust.”The owner of the feet pulled up short, coughed, tried to speak, coughed again. The men couldn’t tell if it was the excitement or the dust. Both black men, strikingly dark in their white emergency-room uniforms rushed forward, one to the truck, the other to the child.”Charlie Simons, the older of the two, bent down eye to eye with the youngster. The child looked to him to be about 10. No wonder they hadn’t seen him over the wheel.”Charlie shook his head”. “Boy, what you doing driving that?” Before he could finish he heard Butter Bob’s whistle and then his carefully articulated, “Shit”.”Charlie Simons was an elder deacon at the Mount Union Missionary Baptist Church and did not normally feel at liberty to use such language. But in the context of telling a real story, like being in court, you felt called upon to present only the unvarnished truth. And the unvarnished truth was that he took a certain naughty pleasure in shocking an eliciting gasp from whatever womenfolk happened to be hearing him.”"Pardon me, ladies”, he would say as an aside, when he retold his tale again and again, “But you all know what kind of man Butter Bob Lathan is as well as I do. One of those Lathan men from over in Brooksville and you know he really is capable of using such language.”"Everybody could agree with him on that. Now however, in this rundown driveway, Charlie stared at the boy jiggling around in front of him then glanced over at Butter sidling away from the truck.”Charlie got up very, very slowly. He sure did not like the sound of that one word, “Shit.” This part of course would be left out at the eventual tale telling at Carter’s. But this was 1966. And this was Mississippi. And no god fearing, right-thinking, Tomlinson’s having black man wanted to be dealing with any kind of shit after sundown.”Do you want me to go on or should I stop?
Kent: That’s wonderful.
Deborah: Thank you.
Kent: Your storytelling is so vivid and I can see, you know the patter of bare feet on the dirt and the voices. Do you see these scenes in your head? Do you hear these voices?
Deborah: I don’t really see - did I see this scene in my head? Yes, I do because when you - I like figure out the scene. Sort of, this is how I want this to work. And then, by working it so much, it becomes its own character. So yes, you do. I do see the child running and I see the people and I see the lights and I still see it.
Kent: Huh, wonderful.
Deborah: Every time I read it.
Kent: And this is your first novel. Have you written a novel before? Have you done other short stories?
Deborah: I’ve written historical romances about Italy in the time of the Hundred Years War. I lived there for quite awhile. And I’ve written those. This is my first book in Mississippi, my first book for HarperCollins.
Kent: And how does it feel to write about where you are from?
Deborah: This felt really good to write about this. I had the idea for the book before I moved here. But when I moved here it placed the book and it gave it power that it didn’t have before when I was thinking about it. It was an entirely different book. The anecdotes were the same. The basis and the core, but when I brought it here, it like took on this place sort of.
Kent: Now, did I mistakenly say you are from there? Where are you from?
Deborah: I’m actually - I grew up in Nebraska and Missouri.
Kent: Oh, wow.
Deborah: So I know snow too. [laughs]
Kent: So in moving to Mississippi, you really experienced the smells and the feel and the sounds?
Deborah: Hmm. It’s very easy to do that down here because they are so characteristic.
Kent: And so, let’s talk about race a little bit. It’s so fascinating right now. We were just talking about politics with my former, my first guest. And you know I probably shouldn’t say whom I support, but I support a very young African-American candidate. It’s fascinating to me to see that a black man and a white woman can be so popular. It gives me hope for our political system. It gives a lot of us hope for where the country’s going. Talk a little bit about politics, if you would.
Deborah: Well, I think I support the same candidate you do and for the same reasons. I think that for me, I grew up in the Civil Rights era. We always…Growing up back then was a very hopeful time too. No matter the difficulties we were facing it was still a hopeful time that change could be made. But no matter then even though we could talk about the fact, “well you know one day we’ll have a black president”! That that was a possibility, still seeing the wish it’s just marvelous. It’s just marvelous to be here.I lived in Italy for 18 years and it was really marvelous to see that democrats abroad have given him a primary too. So it’s just a message for the whole world that we as a country have come a long way that we could even be considering a black or a woman for president.
Kent: Now, I was a bit of an ex-patriot myself for a little while. I lived in Europe and the Middle East. Why did you end up in Italy?
Deborah: I went there actually to study Latin. I was brought up as a good Catholic girl and I ended up staying.
Kent: Wonderful. And did you start writing there? Is that…?
Deborah: Yes, I did, actually yes.
Kent: And how did you make these connections to…? Now you’re with HarperCollins writing a novel. Is this where you thought you’d be?
Deborah: You know, I always wanted to be a writer and to write for Amstead, which is my imprint at HarperCollins, which is like a dream come true.One of my own favorite books is “To Kill a Mockingbird”. When we went in to discuss changes on the book when I was in New York and it had just been sold, I was under a- what is it?- a poster of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in the conference room that we were in. It was just “Wow! This is it!”[laughter]