Grandpa Mike Transcript

January 26, 2008

Announcer: Welcome and thanks for tuning in to “Sound Off Authors” with Dr. Kent. Get set for candid conversations about everything from cuisine to culture and from nature to nurture. Now here’s your host, Dr. Kent.Kent Gustavson, PhD: Welcome to Sound Authors Radio. Today is January 25th and winter is starting to fly by. It’s another beautiful day here in New York. I’ve been living out of boxes because this week, we just moved homes and I had a nasty little flu this week so it’s nice to be better again.This week because of the flu and lying on my back, I thought back on my childhood of putting on a record when I was sick, home from school and listening to the BBC versions of the Hobbit and whatever else and so today it’s my pleasure to have three children’s authors on the show. The first three guests are John Michael Finkner, Jarret J. Kroshoshka and Dr. Paul Moen.My first guest is John Michael Finkner, author of Letters From Grandpa Mike, Who Loves Yeah Baby Haley. Welcome to the show Mike.

John Michael Finkner: Thank you Kent. Thanks for having me on.

Kent: Absolutely. Tell me a little bit about your book first.

John: Well, this is kind of an accident actually. I always wanted to write and I didn’t find the time and I wound up in medical school instead and once I got all my kids raised and gone, why I thought, well I’ll find something to write about, so when my oldest daughter surprised me with the news that I was about to be a grandfather, well, I don’t think I was emotionally prepared for that to say the least.I still run about 50 miles a week and I run a lot of road races and I drive a vet when I can and I guess I always perceived grandparents or at least grandfathers as little old guys with canes that kind of toddled about and I didn’t perceive myself as that, so in order to work through those feelings, I sat down during a lull on one of my shifts in the emergency department in the middle of the morning and sent a letter by email to the unborn fetus that my daughter was carrying and she wrote back to me and said, oh dad, you’ve got to keep this up and in the end I wrote 33 letters during that pregnancy and eventually we just put into a book, so that’s how this whole thing got started.

Kent: So, it’s a little bit about you and a little bit about the baby.

John: I’m 58 years old. I live in central Nebraska. I’m an emergency physician, had four children; a son and three daughters. My son is an engineer, daughter is a physician, another daughter is a business analyst and another daughter took to the field in streams and she’s a fisheries and wildlife major. All of them are married now, I have two grandchildren, one by my oldest daughter and one by my son.

Kent: And so this book itself it was written for your family but at the same time it was for you to process; OK, now I’ve got to become grandpa Mike here.

John: Exactly and it really did help me. I did a lot of thinking about what changes were going to be taking place and that then sort of morphed into, you know, I’m not the first fellow that’s felt this way. I think what I’m going to do is start maybe even writing stories that would interest other people, other grandfathers, other grandmothers who are kind of going through the same thing that I am and not only that but put my thoughts and ideas out there for the public to look at.

Kent: So, is this a book for grandparents and kids to share? Who is your audience here?

John: Well, my audience really is, I think, parents and grandparents. It’s not really a children’s book in that you would sit down and read Dick and Jane. It has a lot of information that this child is going to use when he or she gets older and can open up the book when they’re 17 and say, oh yes, my grandfather felt the same way about his girlfriend then or he felt the same way about religion then, so it’s something that I’m hoping my grandkids use when they’re older not so much when they’re younger.

Kent: Do you encourage all grandparents to do this with their families?

John: Oh, I think it’s an excellent way to work through all the things you think about as you get older. The fact that you’re not immortal, things are going to change. As a physician I can tell you you’re not going to spend your last years as comfortable as you did in your first years and if you write about something like that you have to think about it and I think that’s what really has made the difference for me.

Kent: I’d like to talk a little bit about the running. I have a personal connection. My father was an amazing runner until we had a car accident but for 50 some years he lived and breathed running, that was his entire existence and I know you are also a physician, my father’s a physician but what is the connection for you between…now you’re an author as well as a physician and a runner. Where do those come into p lay in your life in order or how ever you like to categorize them?

John: Well, as a physician, I’m trying to wind that down a little bit. I think if you look at statistics, a lot of people change jobs quite frequently throughout there lifetimes and I don’t think physicians do that much but I have other interests, so I’m trying to wind the physician aspect down and move more into the author, you know, portion of my life, if you will.The running has always been…I always tell my wife and she tells me the same thing, it’s my medicine. She asks me if I’ve taken my medicine today and the reason is when I go out for an eight or a 10 mile run I always come back a little more relaxed, a little more, ready to go for the day, filed off all the rough edges, you don’t get quite as anxious or notice when your in the emergency department. The running has been going on for so many years that I don’t think I could stop.

Dr. Kent: When you deal your entire life with sick people and then you think about your own grandchild on the way, does it put you in a position of weakness?

Grandpa Mike: I don’t think so, I’m optimistic. Modern medicine is improving all the time. I’m not so much worried about the illness portion of the world that they’re coming in to but more along the lines of the people. How are we going to behave? How other countries are going to behave? What’s going to be like for the little ones that’s developing right now in another 80 years?

Dr. Kent: Absolutely. Do you have the book in front of you?

Grandpa Mike: I do.

Dr. Kent: Can you give us a letter? I’d love to hear one.

Grandpa Mike: Well, unfortunately, the letters are stories that are fairly long and I hadn’t actually picked out a phrase or an excerpt. I can tell you that the subject matter is very significantly; probably 75% of the book are humorous stories about me and my childhood or grandma, and stories about sporting events.

Dr. Kent: Why don’t you tell us one of those stories?

Grandpa Mike: Well, I have one story that deals with my adventures on the farm as a child when I used to visit my grandparents and basically the story revolves around a chicken that unfortunately got its leg caught in about one-foot piece of bailing twine. I’m always the instigator of something really bad happening, and the long and the short of it is the chicken walks to a little fire that I started when I wasn’t supposed to and subsequently walks through a weed patch that burns up to the fuel tank then explodes.That’s the long and the short of the story but the story goes for about seven or eight pages. At least my friends tell me they’re quite amused. I’ve had quite a lot of local success and I’m just trying now to get other people to read it because there’s not only humor in it but there are a lot of messages that I have that I’d like to get out there about life and living life and death and a few other things that I deal with on a regular basis in the emergency department.

Dr. Kent: So this is sort of almost a guide book for parents and grandparents.

Grandpa Mike: Exactly. Not only that, it’s going to leave a roadmap for where Grandpa has been for all my grandkids. I think that when they read their own book, and the other books to the other children as they come along, they’re going to see that what they’re experience in their life especially they trouble some things, they’re not experiencing by themselves. “Grandpa already went through this; I know this because I read his book.”

Dr. Kent: Right, and that’s a very important thing since I remember hearing a whole lot of stories of how–my folks had it a little bit harder than I did.

Grandpa Mike: Yes, yes, walking both ways to school uphill in the snow.

Dr. Kent: And I believe them but at the same time, sometimes you want to hear those stories of how they suffered just like you did, their whatever.

Grandpa Mike: That’s right.

Dr. Kent: Well, this has been fascinating. Just because of the climate we’re in right now, when we talk about family and we got into the way the world is going to be and all of that and in this unrest politically right now–we’re deciding a new candidate and all of that–how do you weigh in in all of that? What do you think is going to happen here?

Grandpa Mike: You know, I’ve been both sides. Being in the middle of Nebraska and my Dad was a physician, he was a Republican. We kind of grew up Republicans but I’ve gotten to a point where I have to hear both sides of the story and quite frankly, I’m not sure I’ve heard both sides of the story from anybody at this point in time. It is confusing for me and I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person.So I’m just hoping that whoever makes it into the White House can rally the truth, get this country back in a position where we are looking at things as a country as opposed to a left-winger or a right-winger and get something solved for a change.

Dr. Kent: Do you have some hopes for our grandkids then?

Grandpa Mike: I do. I’m kind of a religious sort of fellow so I think in the end it’s all going to work out.

Dr. Kent: Good, yes, I thought more was coming at the end of that but I don’t think [indecipherable].

Grandpa Mike: I don’t know what else to say, it’s just got to.

Dr. Kent: Exactly. Well, it’s a wonderful book, and again, I think it’s got a wonderful theme. There are grandparents everywhere and parents, it’d be a great guide book as thinking about how to speak to their own kids, that are having kids, and once the little babies are born, have a chat with them about where Grandpa or Grandma has been.Give me a little sound clip again about your book, where to go on the Web and all of that.

Grandpa Mike: A couple of places, if you to Amazon.com, both of my books are available there. There’ll be a third book coming up in about a year, it sounds like. You can also go to my website, it’sLettersFromGrandpaMike.com and you can order through there as well.

Dr. Kent: It sure has been a pleasure speaking to you, Mike. He’s book is called “Letters from

Grandpa Mike: Who Loves Yeah, Baby Hailley?” or visit www.LettersFromGrandpaMike.com. Hopefully, you are very correct that our grandchildren will have a happy future, I believe they will also.

Grandpa Mike: Good, I’m optimistic. Thanks for having me on.

Dr. Kent: Yes, optimists are always great. It’s a beautiful day today. So thank you so much.

Grandpa Mike: Goodbye.

Dr. Kent: My next guest on the show is spectacular children’s author and illustrator, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, and I am slaughtering his name. You don’t want to miss it, come on back.

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