It Happened in Chicago & Chicago Curiosities

"A place with such a name could not be poor or mean."

2011-04-03T09:29:00.000-05:00

Just taking a moment to share a wonderful quote about Chicago that appears in The Chicago History Journal today!

Not in the Book -- but Still a Chicago Curiosity!

2011-03-14T10:20:00.000-05:00

I think this is the only entry that I included in my Chicago Curiosities manuscript, that was not included in the finished book. I don't know why, except that it was probably just a case of too many words/pages so something had to be cut.

Back when I was asking around for ideas of curiosities to include in the book, my cousin Phil suggested Lar Daly. Here's what I found out about Mr. Daly:

Lar Joseph Sarsfield Daly sought office for forty years but never won a race. He started by seeking the Democratic nomination to run for School Superintendent of Cook County in 1938.

Daly was a Republican primary candidate for Governor of Illinois in 1956 and 1964. An equal opportunity politician, he was a primary candidate for both the Democratic and Republican parties for Mayor of Chicago in 1959. He ran in the Republican primary in the 1963 and 1967 mayoral elections. His final campaign was against Senator Charles H. Percy in the 1978 Republican Senate primary.

For many of his campaigns, Daly -- a tall, white-haired man -- donned a red, white, and blue sash and an Uncle Sam hat. His platform stressed religion and morality, along with Chicago’s political and social problems.

Daly is best known today for using the Federal Communications Commission's "Equal Time Rule" to force radio and television news broadcasts to give him equal coverage with Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. He passed away in 1978 at the age of sixty-six.

The surname Daley (with an "e") is synonymous with Chicago politics. The name Daly, not so much. But I thought Lar Daly deserved at least a mention in connection with Chicago Curiosities!

Chicago Curiosities - More Pictures You Won't See in the Book!

2011-02-13T14:12:00.004-06:00

Sheffield's - exterior

I don't remember where or how I first heard of Reading Under the Influence (RUI), but I immediately knew I wanted to include it in Chicago Curiosities.

RUI was developed by a group of Chicago writers in 2005. It meets weekly at Sheffield's Beer Garden and Backroom Barbecue Restaurant on North Sheffield Avenue. I was sorry that I wasn't able to time my visits to Chicago so that I could attend one of the meetings, but I did go to Sheffield's to get a feel for what it might be like.

The group meets in the back room, surrounded by exposed brick and ductwork, next to a glowing fireplace. Each meeting has a theme (for example, Fighting Words, Dog Days, Cubbie Blues).

As usual, I drew a HUGE crowd...

If you're scheduled to read your work, you order a shot, toast the audience, down the shot, read a short piece, then down another shot. (The shot doesn't have to be alcohol.) Readings are followed by trivia contests and drawings.

When I visited (during the day), the place was empty, so I took a few pictures and had my husband take a couple photos of me at the "lectern."

The best part is that you won't get a ticket or fine for "RUI" like you will for "DUI." Assuming, of course, that you don't DUI on the way home from RUI.

And here I am, without a "shot"... at becoming famous...

You can read more about Reading Under the Influence on pages 91-92 of Chicago Curiosities.

Chicago Curiosities Book Trailer!

2011-01-21T23:35:00.001-06:00

I wanted to create a video trailer for Chicago Curiosities that would give people
a sense of what it's about and why they might (or might not) want to read it.

I hope I succeeded!

(And I hope it makes everybody want to read it!)

Chicago Curiosities - More Pictures You Won't See in the Book!

2011-01-13T16:34:00.002-06:00

Remember when you had to be good at math...

The minute I walked into Lincoln Square Bowling Alley I was catapulted back into the late 1960s. I was in high school. My two best friends and I wanted to study Russian, and the only way to do that was to have a special class with the teacher during his free period.

Unfortunately, we were scheduled to have P.E. -- which happened to be bowling -- during that period. The school graciously allowed us to attend the boys' bowling class. We formed one team to compete against the 2-person male teams. I think we were allowed to use our two highest scores or something like that.

The first game, I bowled a three. Yes. I knocked down three pins the entire game. My friend Nancy was using such a light-weight ball and throwing so daintily, she constantly needed to walk down the middle of the ball-return alley to retrieve her ball. We were amazing.

Honest Abe keeps watch over bowlers from on high.

Lincoln Square Bowling Alley reminded me of this because it still uses those old-time score sheets where you tally up everyone's score manually. Remember those? The place also has a decidedly retro look, thanks to the decor and lighting. And above the bank of neatly arranged pins there's a huge mural featuring Abraham Lincoln, gazing sternly upon the alleys as if warning bowlers not to try anything funny.

My entry about Lincoln Square Bowling Alley -- titled "A Trip Down Memory Lane(s) -- is on page 78-79 of Chicago Curiosities.

---------------------------------

Chicago Curiosities is now LIVE and available through the usual book-buying channels. The book is intended to be a fun read and also to act as a somewhat quirky guidebook to the wide range of peculiarities one can find in Chicago. In order to write the book and provide photos for it, I traveled all around Chicago on several different occasions (with my husband as driver and navigator). I took many, many pictures for each subject. I'm sharing a few of those in this blog.

Publisher: Globe Pequot; First edition (January 11, 2011). ISBN-10: 0762759844. ISBN-13: 978-0762759842

Chicago Curiosities - Pictures You Won't See in the Book!

2011-01-08T12:06:00.001-06:00

Chicago Curiosities is now LIVE and available through the usual book-buying channels. The book is intended to be a fun read and also to act as a somewhat quirky guidebook to the wide range of peculiarities one can find in Chicago.

Vicki Matranga, curator of the Culinary Curiosity exhibit,
shows me how to boil water.

In order to write the book and provide photos for it, I traveled all around Chicago on several different occasions (with my husband as driver and navigator). I took many, many pictures for each subject.

On page 49 there's an entry titled "Now We're Cookin'." It's about the Culinary Curiosity Exhibition at Kendall College. This exhibit features food-related tools from 19th and early 20th century America, 18th century Europe, and a few other cultures. You can read more about the exhibit at the link above.

In the book, the entry is accompanied by my photo of a stove from the 1800s. Here on the blog, I'm sharing a few "out-takes" (photos that were not used). If you get a chance to visit this exhibit, I highly recommend that you do so. It's fascinating!

Tea for Two. . . or 12. . . or 20!

Before crock pots there were "fireless cookers"
that resembledwooden blanket chests.

Who Dat? Where Dat?

2010-10-31T11:15:00.000-05:00

It's Halloween!

Here's an appropriate photo from my book Chicago Curiosities (Globe Pequot Press / January 2011). The first person to correctly identify what this is and exactly where it is will go on my list for a free copy of the book.

Babe Ruth Calls His Shot

2010-10-02T09:36:00.000-05:00

One of the first tasks I had to accomplish before receiving the contract to write It Happened in Chicago was to compile a list of events that I would include in the book, with a line or two about each explaining the importance or relevance.

My initial list had 100 events on it. The publisher wanted around 30 for the book. Among the many events I was not able to include was one that occurred on October 1, 1932. Here's a link to an excellent write-up on it from Chicagonow.com: Babe Ruth Calls His Shot.

Chicago Curiosities -- Page Proofs in Hand!

2010-09-24T12:13:00.000-05:00

I am just now going through the page proofs for Chicago Curiosities (Globe Pequot Press / 2011). This is when a book starts to feel REAL. I'm seeing the pictures with the entries, and the page layouts just as they will appear in the final product.

It's "speak now or forever hold your peace" time for me, as the author. My last chance to catch errors or fix things that absolutely MUST be fixed. I have to refrain from recasting sentences and editing the manuscript unless it is absolutely necessary for some reason.

With this book, I'm feeling good about the writing for the most part, so that's a plus. I did come across two instances where the photo caption did not match the photo. The photo matched the entry topic, but I had given 2-3 options for pictures to the editor, and somewhere along the way, we crossed wires so that I sent the wrong pictures for the captions I provided in these two cases. (I suppose it's good that it's only two cases!)

Anyway, I do love this book and I hope other people will pick it up and enjoy it. It's sort of a guide book -- but not a typical guide book. Even the obvious, standard tourist sites are given a bit of a twist due to "curious" circumstances or conditions that surround them.

Skating on the Edge... of the 94th floor!

2010-09-09T10:01:00.000-05:00

Too bad my Chicago Curiosities book is already in its final stages before publication!

Ice rink planned on 94th floor of Hancock building

Name Your Pet after a Chicago City Street!

2010-09-01T16:41:00.000-05:00

This is just for fun:

Name Your Pet after a Chicago City Street!

I love the list they came up with. I think Cermak the cat is my favorite. How about you?

Monadnock Building

2010-07-07T10:24:00.000-05:00

I just came across an excellent article about The Monadnock Building, a Chicago landmark that earned an entry in my book Chicago Curiosities (Globe Pequot Press, 2011).

Meet Author Peter J. Spalding!

2010-06-15T10:48:00.001-05:00

My guest today is Peter J. Spalding, author of the eBook 1871: A Novel of the Great Chicago Fire. Peter has done about every form of writing, including journalism, poetry, and commentary, for which his work was picked up by The New York Times. He has also worked in various capacities on both stage and film, including two stage plays and six screenplays. 1871 is his first novel.

For more information about Peter J. Spalding and his book, visit http://peterjspalding.blogspot.com and http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/peterjspalding.

Welcome to "It Happened in Chicago", Peter!

Q: In addition to writing books about Chicago, do you have any other ties to the city?

I live in California now, but I grew up in Illinois-- I was born in Park Ridge, actually. The one time we moved away was when my dad got a job in upstate New York. It was my first real move, and I guess my mom was trying to make things easier on me, so she got me a picture book called "There'll Be A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" by Robert Quackenbush. It was basically a kiddie version of the Chicago Fire-- it was completely inaccurate of course, but who cares.

I think she ended up ruing that day! I was one of those kids who always wanted the same bedtime story every night, so I probably drove her crazy reading it over and over. By the time we moved back to Illinois, I was hooked, and I've been obsessed with the fire ever since.

Q: When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer?

That's like asking me when I realized I had brown hair-- I've known it as long as I can remember! I actually started writing before I could read, because I used to tell stories to my mom, and she'd transcribe them. As soon as I was old enough to read and write, I started doing it myself. I wrote all kinds of short stories as a kid, and I wrote my first full-length play at the ripe old age of ten. By the time I got to high school I was running the gamut, writing prose, poetry, drama-- you name it.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works (go back as far as you can remember). Who or what inspired you to create it?

The earliest thing I know of was a thing my mom put in a scrapbook. It was a retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood." I must've been about two. The way I told the story, she went through the forest and had all kinds of crazy adventures. It was a little like "Alice in Wonderland." The Big Bad Wolf was hardly in it; I guess I didn't think he was important. So that was my two-year-old mind at work!

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Well, I come from a long line of writers, because every generation of my family has had at least a few. My great-grandmother was a wonderful poet and a great storyteller, and I think she gave my grandmother a lot of her genes. Both of my parents have written nonfiction-- in fact, my dad has a book coming out this summer about Lafayette. So this stuff kind of runs in our veins, and needless to say, my folks have been great.

In school, I had three great teachers who stick out in my mind: Mrs. Ash in sixth grade, and Mrs. Rush and Mr. McCoy in high school. But they're just the tip of the iceberg. I've had so many great friends and mentors over the years, I can't possibly name them all. I've learned something new every day, and I still do.

Q: What type of books do you read for pleasure?

I read anything that's smart and exciting. My all-time favorite writer is Mark Twain, although Steinbeck and Fitzgerald are up there too. But sometimes I shy away from so-called literary fiction, because it can get dull and pretentious.

My favorite books of the last few years have been "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold and "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger-- say what you want about their movie versions, but the books are great. I also read a lot of nonfiction, especially history, which probably won't come as a surprise.

I love sci-fi and fantasy too. I have a weakness for Marvel Comics, especially Spider-Man. And I think J.K. Rowling is brilliant, but not just because she wrote a fun series and sold a lot of books. She got a whole generation of kids to love reading, all over the world, even though conventional wisdom said young people don't read books anymore. I defy anybody to name another writer in the last hundred years, who has inspired so many millions upon millions of people.

Q: What was one of the easiest things about writing 1871: A Novel of the Great Chicago Fire? What was one of the most difficult?

The easy part was telling a story that I cared so much about, and that was really personal to me. I hope that doesn't sound like a BS answer, because I really do mean it. Very often, it's hard to pinpoint what your story is really about; and if you're not careful, if you're not personally invested in it, then it can come across as dull or cliched. That's one of the biggest pitfalls for any writer, myself included, but on this book it was never a problem.

I felt like I'd had this story in my head for years, and I just needed enough writing skill and experience to be able to do it justice. I drew from my own life too-- I've never lived through a huge disaster, thank God, but a lot of the characters' conflicts and feelings were based on things I'd gone through myself. So, for better or worse, this is a story that comes straight from my heart.

The hard part was working out all the technical stuff. Some of it was pretty routine, like setting up the story and making sure all the details are consistent, because the book does have a lot of subplots. But to be honest, I made it harder for myself than it needed to be.

I swore I'd make the story 100% historically accurate. Even though it's fiction, I wanted to make sure the story could've happened in real life. That's a lot easier said than done. It forces you to do a huge amount of research, so I can't tell you how many months I spent in libraries and archives, just digging through microfilms and yellowed books and whatnot. And a lot of the time, eyewitnesses gave different stories, or one piece of evidence contradicted another, so I couldn't say for sure what had happened-- I had to make my own judgment calls about what I thought was most likely.

Then came the hardest part of all: I had to to tell a compelling story, and get readers to really care about the characters, while staying within those limitations. Sane writers don't do that. The real world doesn't follow nice conventions like three-act structures, so most writers will use artistic license to change whatever they want. I'm all for that, because it obviously worked for Dickens and Tolstoy and who-knows-who-else. But on this book, I was bound and determined to do it my way.

I think it worked out in the end, because I do think historical accuracy helped the story, but it still gave me a lot of gray hair. Oh well-- such is life.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in 1871: A Novel of the Great Chicago Fire, please tell us about one you would like to meet and why.

Does Abraham Lincoln count? He's only in a couple of flashbacks, but I'd love to meet him! I'm only half kidding, actually. That's why I wrote about the Lincolns: they're just fascinating people, and I wanted to get to know them better.

The more I found out about them, especially at that stage in their lives, the more they seemed downright Shakespearean. Robert was so much like Hamlet: he was grappling with the legacy of a dead heroic father, and he was struggling to find his own place in the world. And Mary was kind of like Lady Macbeth, with her ambition and whatnot, although she obviously never plotted a murder. Their stories were so packed with drama that as a writer, I couldn't resist.

Q: Can you share with us anything about the fire that you feel most people don't know?

Well, that ties right into the last question, because most people don't know that the Lincoln family lived through this. Most books don't even mention it, and if they do, it's just in passing. I was floored when I found out about their story-- I couldn't believe that nobody had written about it before. So I was pretty excited to be the first (as far as I know). Obviously, since I was doing fiction, I did have to invent some details when the historical facts were unclear. But the Lincolns' basic storyline is real.

In a broader sense, though, I don't think people realize how heartbreaking the fire was. The city's boosters tried to gloss over that stuff because they didn't want to scare off investors. But the truth is, it really was hard on people who lived through it. For example, the whole North Side was wiped out-- it was like the Lower Ninth Ward during Katrina-- so if you lived in that part of town, you would've almost certainly lost your home. You have to think of that in human terms, because statistics don't do it justice. That's why eyewitness accounts are so important: they make you realize how crushed the survivors really were, and how profoundly their lives were changed. And not everybody made it. For example, Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard was one of Chicago's founding fathers, but he lost practically everything and never recovered. So it really did take a lot of heroism and fortitude; and when I wrote the book, I wanted to honor that spirit.

Q: What led you to decide that the novel should be published as an eBook?

It was a combination of things, but the short answer is, I think eBooks are the way of the future. They're still kind of a niche market, but they won't stay that way for long, considering that iPads and Kindles are selling like hotcakes.

I do have to say, I think paper books are great, and they're never going away. I love curling up on the couch or sitting on a park bench or what have you. But you do have to stay up to speed with the times, and frankly I think the publishing industry is still stuck in the twentieth century. Most books don't sell enough copies to cover the author's advance, but publishers pay those advances anyway. And if retailers can't sell enough copies, the publishers buy them back. That makes it almost impossible for them to make money. They have a really hard time adjusting to change, which in this day and age is a serious problem.

I'm not a doomsayer, by any means, but I do think publishers need to adapt, and the quicker the better. It's kind of like what happened in the fifties, when movie studios had to deal with the advent of television. It was painful in a lot of ways; they had to completely rethink the way they did business, and some companies got through it better than others. But movies eventually found their place alongside TV, and nowadays they coexist pretty well. I think the same thing will happen in the publishing world, where paper books will find their place among eBooks and other new media. But it may take a while, and the old rules of the game won't necessarily apply.

Anyway, I knew eBooks were a growing market, and I wanted to get in on the ground floor. A lot of other writers have done the same thing; Stephen King published "Riding the Bullet" as an eBook years ago. I think it's going to become more and more mainstream as time goes on.

After all, we've all gotten used to downloading music and reading newspapers online. So why not download a book?

Q: What would you like us to know about your current work/s in progress?

I'm working on a book about an old movie theater, which by the way is another passion of mine. And I'd love to write more about the westward movement, especially the California Gold Rush, and about the space program. I have a couple of ideas for those, but I'm still in the early stages of writing.

I'm also working on a few stage plays and screenplays. Some of them grew directly out of "1871," because I learned so much about Chicago history that I found more stories that I wanted to tell! I want to do a movie about the Leopold and Loeb murder, among other things, but that's a tough sell in Hollywood. So you'll have to wish me luck.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

People always ask me how much of the book is fictional, and how much of it is real. I usually dodge that question, because I want people to enjoy the novel as is, without worrying about the behind-the-scenes stuff. And if I've done my job, they won't be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction.

Even so, if you want to learn more, I do encourage people to read up on the fire. I think it's an amazing piece of history, and there was only so much that could fit into the book. There are a lot of great resources out there. I posted some links and recommendations on my blog, and there's more where they came from. So by all means, check it out!

Vivian Harsh (1890–1960)

2010-06-06T15:41:00.001-05:00

Described as “the historian who never wrote,” Vivian Gordon Harsh devoted her life to building one of the most important research collections on African-American history and literature in the country.

Read an article about this fascinating, talented woman at http://chicagotribute.org/Markers/Harsh.htm.

She was the first black librarian in the Chicago Public Library system.

Further updates on Chicago Curiosities

2010-05-29T13:45:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Curiosities manuscript is now with an editor who specializes in putting together books in the Globe Pequot Press "Curiosities" series. I should be seeing copyedits before too long, along with any questions or concerns about my photos.

To date, I have not experienced any particular traumas related to a copyeditor's notes or queries. With my nonfiction books, I am typically asked to clarify things, confirm information that is questioned by the copyeditor, or explain/correct apparent inconsistencies.

Having worked as a copyeditor myself, I almost always understand where the copyeditor is coming from and have no problem going along with changes.

Cubs Heaven?

2010-05-19T10:12:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Curiosities manuscript is with my editor, who is making some decisions about Sidebars and Trivia items (as in, do I need more of either?)

She asked if I could write a Sidebar for the chapter on the Northwest section, so I went looking for something and found a really good one (so good, I wish I had known about it earlier, so I could take a picture and write a full entry).

Check it out at Beyond the Vines and Your Funeral Guy.

I understand that the Chicago location is the first of what will be many very special "skyboxes" for sports fans. Amazing.

Update on Chicago Curiosities

2010-04-19T14:49:00.000-05:00

Ah... the plot thickens! Or, rather, the manuscript thickens. I'm talking about Chicago Curiosities, scheduled for publication by The Globe Pequot Press in December.

I am headed down the home stretch -- a darn good thing considering that the FINAL deadline for the manuscript and photos is June 1! Here's what I still need to do:

Write and select photos for 7-8 more entries ranging in length from 100 to 400 words.
Write an introduction, acknowledgments, and author bio.
Write 5-6 regional section "openers" at 250-300 words each.
Find an "overview" map of Chicago.
Pinpoint the locations of about 100 "curiosities" on regional maps.
Develop the final photo list with ID numbers, captions, etc.
Do a final word count on the entire manuscript to make sure I'm at 30,000-35,000 words.

I've been working on this project since August, 2009. I've made four trips to Chicago to take pictures.

And now, as I said, I'm headed down the home stretch. Onward and upward!

Sign of the times?

2010-04-09T17:35:00.000-05:00

(seen in Chicago near Dearborn Street Station)

It's good to know Michelle and Barack have a back-up plan in case this Presidency thing doesn't work out...

Chicago Curiosities Continues!

2010-04-05T19:13:00.000-05:00

I'm still in the midst of taking photographs and writing entries for my book Chicago Curiosities (Globe Pequot Press / December 2010). Took a quick trip up to the Windy City yesterday and came across this unusual sculpture.

It did not seem to have a sign or plaque explaining what it is or who created it. I am embarrassed to say I don't know the exact location, except that I came across it not far from Union Station.

If you can tell me and I can verify what you say, I will send you a copy of my book It Happened in Chicago!

Meet Author Nnedi Okorafor!

2010-03-17T20:31:00.000-05:00

My guest today is Nnedi Okorafor, award-winning novelist and author of numerous award-winning short stories, plays, magazine articles, and essays. Her first novel, Zahrah the Windseeker, was published in 2005 by Houghton Mifflin. An illustrated version was published in Nigeria in 2008 by Kachifo Ltd. The novel takes place in a highly technological world based on Nigerian myths and culture. Nnedi’s other novels include The Shadow Speaker (Hyperion Books, 2007), Long Juju Man (Macmillan UK, 2008), Who Fears Death (DAW Books, June 2010), and Akata Witch (Penguin, 2011).

To learn more about Nnedi and her work, visit her web site at http://nnedi.com.

Welcome to It Happened in Chicago, Nnedi!

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

NNEDI: Well, I’ve lived in the area since I was about seven. First, my family and I lived in the south suburb of South Holland. In the 80s, this area had a serious racial problem. My family was one of the first black families to move into this neighborhood. The white residents didn’t take well to this. Let’s just say my siblings and I were lucky to be born fast runners…I’ll leave it at that. When I was about twelve, we moved to the south suburb of Olympia Fields. I currently still live there.

Q: When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer?

NNEDI: I didn’t write a story until I was a sophomore in college at the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana. Before that I always thought I’d be a veterinarian or an entomologist. I loved the sciences and excelled in math; I never showed any great propensity for English or literature. The only hint was that from the moment I could read, I LOVED doing it. I spent a lot of time in the library and I consumed books like candy; science books or fiction, it was all delicious. I also had a very very big imagination. As a kid, I had my entire first grade class believing they were shape shifters. I believed that just beyond the playground was another world full of dragons, horses and sentient rabbits. I remember during art class in 2nd grade creating a giant butterfly out of construction paper and then being terribly upset when it did not fly. Stuff like that.

When I was twelve, I started reading Stephen King. The first novel I read was It. That opened the world of storytelling to me, though I didn’t realize it at the time. I came from very scientific medical immigrant parents. My father was a cardiovascular surgeon, my mother a registered nurse and midwife with a PhD in health administration. They weren’t wired to push an imaginative daughter toward the arts. So, only after taking a creative writing course in my sophomore year in college (which my boyfriend at the time had encouraged me to take) did I realize that I had a knack for and an interest in telling stories. From that point on, I never stopped writing.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works (go back as far as you can remember). Who or what inspired you to create it?

NNEDI: I vaguely remember trying to write a story when I was about six. It was called Donald Duck and the Sand |Witch. It was about Donald Duck making friends with a witch on an island that looked like a…sandwich. OMG, I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this. LOL!! I have no idea why I wrote it and I never wrote another story until I was 20 years old.

The first story I wrote in that creative writing class was called The House of Deformities. It was a story set in Nigeria and involved pink ducklings, bull dog puppies, an ancient old woman with a cleaver, looming vultures, fly-riddled raw meat, and a very ominous outhouse -- yes, it was a true story (I was about 8 when we stopped at this mysterious roadside restaurant in Nigeria)….except for the black hole to hell in the outhouse floor. It really was a pretty good story. :-)

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

NNEDI: My professor at U of I, Professor Jean Thompson (also a great author) was pivotal in my early days as a writer. She was the first person to pull me aside and say that I was good and should keep going.

Q: I understand that many of your stories take place, either literally or figuratively, in Nigeria. Can you tell us a little about your “Nigerian connection”?

NNEDI: Both my parents were born and raised in Nigeria and from a young age they have been taking my siblings and me back to Nigeria to get to know family. So along with my American experience, I had a sort of parallel Nigerian experience. My parents were the type of immigrants who wanted to become American AND remain Nigerian, and they passed that on to my siblings and me. Thus we are both American and Nigerian citizens, make sure we visit often and have ingested both cultures in our own unique ways.

Q: What was one of the easiest things about writing Zahrah the Windseeker? What was one of the most difficult?

NNEDI: Of all the books I’ve written, Zahrah the Windseeker was the easiest. It came to me whole, from beginning to end. I knew the story immediately. The most difficult part was paring it down. There were so many tangents that I wanted to go on. I loved the world of the story and I loved the field guide. I actually had to take out several scenes for this reason. Like the Bush Cow Party Zahrah witnesses one night while in the jungle -- did you know those thieving little bush cows can play drums? :-). I’ve since returned to Zahrah’s world. I wrote a short story called From The Lost Diary of Treefrog7 that is about two of the explorers who contribute to the book that Zahrah uses to navigate the Greeny Forest. I’m also working on a Zahrah the Windseeker graphic novel with illustrator John Jennings.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in your novels, please tell us about one you would like to meet and why.

NNEDI: Papa Grip/The Desert Magician/Long Juju Man/Aro…each of these characters is actually the same guy…or creature…or deity, whoever he is, they are all him. In Zahrah the Windseeker, he is Papa Grip the quirky town chief who wears hot pink caftans, loves to dance and gives Zahrah poignant words of wisdom. In Long Juju Man, he is a tricky annoying trickster ghost who eats rotten mangoes, smells like pepper, is fond of butterflies and teaches Ngoli bits of wisdom. In The Shadow Speaker, he is a deity of the crossroads who proclaims himself “Jesus’ General!” and shoves Ejii toward her destiny. In my forthcoming adult novel, he’s a very traditional rigid-minded but very powerful sorcerer who can change into a vulture.

I know this character, in all his forms. He insists on appearing in all my stories; it doesn’t matter if it’s a central role or a cameo appearance. He must be present. I’d love to sit down to dinner with him (I imagine he’d want to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant…somewhere where he could eat with his hands. He’d order something spicy with beef or goat meat) so I could ask him who he is, what he wants with me, how to make Nigeria’s roads safer and what the question to Life the Universe and Everything is, since the answer is apparently 42. ;-).

Q. What would you like us to know about your current work/s in progress?

NNEDI: I have an adult novel coming out in June titled Who Fears Death (DAW Books). It’s, I guess, what you’d call African magical realism or as my editor likes to call it, African magical futurism. It is linked to my previous novels but in a way you won’t expect. I’m very very proud of this one.

Then I have a YA novel from Penguin Books coming out sometime in 2011 titled Akata Witch. This is a fantasy novel set in present-day Nigeria and involves some utterly insane Nigerian juju and mystical creatures. Sunny, the main character, was born in the United States to two Nigerian parents. When she is nine, she moves back with her family to Nigeria. Oh, and to add to the cultural complexity, Sunny is albino. “Akata” is a derogatory term for African Americans or foreign born-Nigerians, it means “bush animal”. It’s a name Sunny is called quite a lot by her classmates. In other words, the book is also about culture conflict and otherness. But it’s also about a girl who becomes a witch.

I’ve also got a YA short story coming out in an anthology called Life on Mars (Penguin Books). It’s my first alien story. It’s set in the desert of Niger and my alien has a special relationship with Nigerians. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on a graphic novel version of Zahrah the Windseeker which will be different from the novel. It’ll show more angles to the story and we’re going to have some fun with the visual aspects of it. Lastly, I’m working on a Disney Fairies chapter book. The character mine will focus on is Iridessa, the light-talent fairy. The tentative title is Iridessa and the Fire-Bellied Dragon Frog. That’s supposed to come out later this year or in 2011.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

NNEDI: That’s about it. Thanks for interviewing me. :-)

Meet Author Terry Spencer Hesser!

2010-03-10T09:47:00.000-06:00

My guest today, Terry Spencer Hesser, is a writer and documentary filmmaker who has received several Emmy nominations and awards for her work, including an Emmy award for Treasures of the Art Institute (2001) and A War on All Fronts: The Life and Times of Robert Rutherford McCormick (2005). She has worked with Audrey Hepburn, Oprah Winfrey, and R. Kelly. Her play, Christmas with Elvis, was described by FOX-TV as "the funniest show in town."

A lifelong resident of Chicago, Terry has written two books. Her debut novel, Kissing Doorknobs (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1998) won an American Library Association award and has been translated into five languages. Her latest book, I Am a Teamster (Lake Claremont Press, 2008), is a biography of Teamster Union Organizer Regina V. Polk.

For more information about Terry Spencer Hesser and her work, visit http://terryspencerhesser.org/.

Welcome to It Happened in Chicago, Terry!

Q: Please tell us a little about your personal ties to Chicago.

TERRY: I grew up in the lawless area just west of Chicago known as Cicero. As an adolescent one of my favorite activities was taking the el downtown and walking to Old Town to buy love beads and patchouli oil but mostly to visit the Wax Museum and examine the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. I think it was the beginning of my interest in Chicago’s roaring reputation and history.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

TERRY: I never took my writing seriously until college when I saw the power of a uniquely told scenario, scene, and finally story.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works (go back as far as you can remember). Who or what inspired you to create it?

TERRY: I made villages out of buttons at my grandmother’s house…its what you play with when there were no toys to play with.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer and documentary maker?

TERRY: My ex-husband Dennis Hesser was extraordinarily significant in my personal growth and for that I will always be grateful.

Q: What was one of the easiest things about writing I Am a Teamster? What was one of the most difficult?

TERRY: The easiest was finding Regina’s point of view – she was very straightforward. The hardest was making her come alive with only interviews and research – without the opportunity to hear her talk about herself.

Q: What is one of the things you admire most about Regina Polk, the heroine of I Am a Teamster? Are there any similarities between the two of you?

TERRY: I admire her ability to act on instinct…and if not instinct then flawless execution of a plan. I share her concerns for humanity, for women, for personal freedom and maybe even her warrior spirit.

Q: Would you tell us a little about the "road to publication" of I Am a Teamster?

TERRY: It is a short story. We took it to Sharon at Lake Claremont Press and worked out the details. Our mistake was rushing it into print for a conference of teamsters and bypassing some publicity as a result.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Kissing Doorknobs -- a novel about an 11-year-old girl with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) -- please name one character you would like to meet and tell us why.

TERRY: I would like to meet the main character Tara because she is a fictionalized version of myself as a child and give her a hug.

Q: Your have written about and filmed many Chicago people and places. Can you tell us briefly about some of these?

TERRY: I did a profile about Chicago Tribune publisher Robert McCormick for WTTW and told the history of Chicago from the standpoint of the Auditorium Theater Building. I’ve done publicity for R. Kelly and worked with Oprah on a documentary about Paul Adams and Providence St. Mel.

Q: A brief bio I read about you says that you "searched for vampires in Transylvania." What was that all about?

TERRY: For an A&E series called “The Unexplained” we investigated the vampire myth from Bram Stoker’s book to the Transylvanian mountains and goth bars in Beverly Hills. It was such bloody fun!

Q: What are you working on right now? What has been the biggest challenge of this project so far?

TERRY: I am working on a book about the town of Cicero and my family – the biggest challenge is integrating my family into essentially a history book – and sometimes sacrificing unverifiable stories.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

TERRY: I am just very lucky to be able to interpret this continually surprising world.

Meet Author Stephanie Kuehnert!

2010-03-03T11:50:00.000-06:00

My guest today is Stephanie Kuehnert, author of the YA (Young Adult) novels I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone (MTV Books, 2008) and Ballads of Suburbia (MTV Books, 2009). The Chicago Sun-Times notes: "With her first two novels, Kuehnert has created vivid pictures of teenage lives that lie in that borderland that abuts adulthood. It is a fertile, confusing and intense place, and Kuehnert never holds back. But like a good ballad, she keeps the stories taut and precise, with a touch of heart thrown in for good measure."

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone was picked as one of eight “Young adult books that rock” by the L.A. Times. Ballads of Suburbia is set in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago. Stephanie says that she decided to set the novel in Oak Park: “Because I love reading about the Chicago area during different eras and wanted to capture my corner of Chicagoland in the era I came of age in, the early nineties.”

For more information about Stephanie and her books, visit her web site at http://www.stephaniekuehnert.com/.

Welcome to It Happened in Chicago, Stephanie!

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

STEPHANIE: I moved to Oak Park, IL, a suburb right on the Western border of Chicago when I was eight years old from St Louis, IL. Since I was born and raised a city girl, I wasn't all that happy being in the suburbs, but I always loved venturing into the city of Chicago and definitely consider myself a Chicagoan. My mother's family has been here since they immigrated from Poland and she is the one who taught me to love the city of Chicago. I left the area right after high school because I was unhappy in the burbs, but I found my way back, ultimately attending Columbia College Chicago for both my BA and MFA in creative writing. Going downtown for my classes are what truly made me fall in love with this city. Though I've always loved it for its culture, especially the musical culture. I spent my teenage years basically living at the Metro, Fireside Bowl, Aragon, etc seeing punk shows and I still love seeing live bands and supporting local bands in particular. Currently I live in Forest Park, which is another western suburb right on the end of the green line. It's a working class town and I relate to the culture here much more than I did Oak Park; I love living in Forest Park.

Q: When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer?

STEPHANIE: As soon as I learned to read. My mother's favorite story to tell about me is how I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder so much when I was five, I insisted on being called Laura and I always had to dress in my "frontier dress" and moon boots because it was as close as I could get to how Laura would dress . I kept a journal from a very early age because I planned to document my life like Laura did.... but my life wasn't very interesting so I quickly turned to making up stories.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works (go back as far as you can remember). Who or what inspired you to create it?

STEPHANIE: I remember two short stories I wrote circa third grade. One was about a colony of space cows. I'm not sure where that come from... I've always loved a wide variety of stories, sci-fi included, and I've always been an animal lover. The other was a sad tale of a baby who was so sick because her mother drank while she was pregnant (see, third grade and already writing about the heavy issues). That one was inspired by my mom--- not because she was a drunk, far from it! She was a neonatal nurse and would tell me be about her "sick babies" and nursing them back to help. And she has always been my biggest inspiration and cheerleader.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

STEPHANIE: My mother, who always encouraged me to purse my dream. I tried to go to college for sociology and dropped out because it wasn't my true passion and she was the one who said I should go to school for writing because I've always loved it and I should pursue my passion and we'd figure out how I'd pay my bills, lol!

But also several of the teachers I had at Columbia College Chicago, especially the chair Randy Albers. He really nurtured my talent and pushed me to do my best. Professor and acclaimed Chicago author Joe Meno also had a huge influence on me. I saw what he'd done at such a young age and coming from punk sensibilities like me and I thought, there is a place for my voice out there and if I work even half as hard as Joe (because that man is one of the hardest working writers I know), I might have a shot.

Q: What was one of the easiest things about writing Ballads of Suburbia? What was one of the most difficult?

STEPHANIE: The easiest thing was setting up the place. I set the novel in Oak Park during the time I grew up because I knew it so well and, selfishly, I wanted to remember it exactly as it was to me, so why not set a book there. I love books like Crossing California by Adam Langer, The Book of Ralph by John McNally, and Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno that capture a certain part of Chicago during a certain time and I knew it would be so so so much fun to do that for my own neighborhood. I had a blast doing that. Umm but the subject matter was rough. It deals with drug addiction, depression, and self injury. I had to revisit dark places from my own past. I used to self-injure, I struggled with depression, I dabbled with drugs and I lost friends to full blown serious addiction. I had to tap those old dark emotions in creating my characters and bringing emotional truth to the story and it was honestly the hardest thing I've ever done as a writer, but I'm glad I did it. I've never been more proud of anything I've done than Ballads of Suburbia. And I hope it reaches a lot of teens who need it.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in either of your novels, please tell us about one you would like to meet and why.

STEPHANIE: Man, I feel like I know them all too well and all of their struggles come from either a part of me or my past. I'd probably have to say Emily, the main character of my first novel, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, though. She's a total rock star and just the girl I've always wanted to be.

Q. What type of books do you read for pleasure?

STEPHANIE: Mostly YA. It really is my favorite genre of fiction. I love a good coming of age story. I love stories that are honest and real in regards to the human condition and the human spirit and I think currently the YA authors of the world are handling that best!

Q. What would you like us to know about your current work/s in progress?

STEPHANIE: They are pretty top secret. One, another YA novel, is based in Greek Mythology. It's kind of a revenge novel, but more so a learning to deal with grief novel. The other will probably be an adult/upper YA novel. It's my bartender novel since tending bar is my day job and has been since grad school and I have lots of stories. It's about a mom who has to learn to finally grow up with her teenage daughter.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

STEPHANIE: Nope, would just like to say thank you for having me!

Meet Author Kimberly Pauley!

2010-02-24T10:52:00.000-06:00

My guest today is Kimberly Pauley, a writer living in the Chicago suburb of Grayslake. Kimberly is the author of Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (maybe) (Mirrorstone / 2008), which was included in 2009 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers and ranked #5 on the Fall 2008 Kid’s Indie Next List – “Inspired Recommendations for Kids from Indie Booksellers.”

NPR correspondent Margot Adler recently praised Sucks to be Me in an article titled “For Love Of Do-Good Vampires: A Bloody Book List”.

The sequel – Still Sucks to Be Me – is scheduled for publication in May 2010. Kimberly has also written for a number of online and print publications, and is the founder and owner of Young Adult Books Central, one of the leading YA (& Kids!) literature sites on the Internet.

To read more about Kimberly and her books, visit her web site at http://kimberlypauley.com/ .

Welcome to It Happened in Chicago, Kimberly!
Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

KIMBERLY: Well, we moved to the area just three years ago, but my husband had been working in the area for at least the last 10 years. He traveled here all the time and when it got to the point he was traveling every week...well, we decided it was time to move!

We now live in Prairie Crossing, a conservation community filled with amazing, wonderfully friendly people.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

KIMBERLY: Oh, geez. I don’t know if I ever had the Eureka! moment, but really, as far back as I can remember. I always loved books.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works (go back as far as you can remember). Who or what inspired you to create it?

KIMBERLY: My older sister actually sent me my first “book” last year. I’d sent it to her when she was in college. I would have been 6 or 7. It’s cute...but I can’t say that I had much to say! Of course, I did my own illustrating... It was, apparently, about a dog. I’m not sure why, since we didn’t own one at the time!

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

KIMBERLY: Jim Warford. He was my Television Production and Drama teacher when I was in 9th and 10th grade. He read some of my (rather odd) writing and really encouraged me. And trust me when I say it was really odd stuff, so I’m happy he did even with that going against it!

Q: I understand that you quit a corporate job to become a full-time writer. What was that like? Do you have any advice for people who think they might want to do that?

KIMBERLY: Quitting my corporate job was the best thing I ever did. We were also moving, so it was kind of extra incentive as I wouldn’t have wanted to transfer anyway. I was a manager and it was very stressful, especially with all of the constant layoffs we had going on (I worked for a really large telecomm company). However, I was really only able to do this because my husband’s job paid enough for us to live on. It wouldn’t have worked out otherwise. It was tough to cut our income so drastically, but doable. Ha, though I guess it would follow then that my advice would be to marry well...

Seriously, if you want to do something like that, just be realistic. At this point, I’ve got one book out and one book about to be released and my income is still far less than I made as a development manager. Income, of course, isn’t the most important thing for me (and we’ve also got a son now), but you obviously have to consider it. Even if you get a book published, it isn’t instant riches. It wasn’t instant for most of the writers we hear about every day.

Q: For you personally, what is one of the easiest things about writing YA fiction? What is one of the most difficult things?

KIMBERLY: I love writing for teens. I think they are, in general, more open about their emotions and also more accepting of fantasy. That said, you have to be authentic -- they can sense if you are condescending. But, as long as you stay genuine and have respect for them, it’s wonderful.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Sucks to Be Me, please tell us about one you would like to meet and why.

KIMBERLY: Probably Uncle Mortie, because I envision him in my head a bit like Grandpa from The Munsters...and who wouldn’t want to meet Grandpa?

Q: Can you tell us a little about Young Adult Books Central – how and why did you start it? What have been some of the most difficult challenges? What do you enjoy most about it?

KIMBERLY: I started up Young Adult Books Central (YABC) back in 1998. It was kind of a side project, really, while I was working. I’d studied adolescent lit in college and really missed that type of thing while working in the corporate world. It was a way for me to stay connected. Well, it grew from there and is one of the leading teen lit sites on the Internet today. I’ve got a wonderful staff of reviewers that include librarians, former teachers, and published authors. There have been kids that have literally grown up with the site.

However, it’s been more a labor of love than anything else. Even though we’ve had the traffic, I never really tried to capitalize on it -- so over the years I’ve spent a lot of my own money on it. Recently, after talking it over with my husband and balancing it against my own writing career, we figured out that we either need to make it sustainable/profitable...or else. So I’m working on that now. That’s really been the most difficult of the challenges -- and is still underway. We’ve connected so many readers and authors over the years (and I’ve made some great friends), so I really don’t want to give it up.

I really enjoy all of the authors and publishers I’ve met through it. I’m sure it helped me to get published myself, both from a “who you know” standpoint to just having taught me so much about the industry. It’s been a huge learning experience. And, I got to interview Clive Barker on the phone once!

Q: What would you like us to know about your current work/s in progress?
KIMBERLY: I’m working on a non-vampire related novel right now about a teenage girl who has a “superpower” (that she calls a “stupidpower” since it’s kind of useless) and stumbles into a celebrity kidnapping plot that only she can solve. It’s kind of an urban fantasy, but also really funny.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

KIMBERLY: I’ve really loved living here far more than I thought I would! Of course, I do miss Florida when Winter sets in, but the people up here are wonderful. There’s a lot to be said for the Midwest!

Meet Author Lori Degman!

2010-02-17T18:05:00.000-06:00

My guest today is Lori Degman, author of the picture book 1 Zany Zoo (Simon & Schuster / 2010). The book is illustrated by Colin Jack. If you want to learn more about Lori and her books, visit her web site at http://www.loridegman.com/ .

Welcome to It Happened in Chicago, Lori!

LORI: Thanks so much, Scotti, for having me as your guest author!

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

LORI: I've lived in the Chicago area all my life. I grew up in Wilmette, about 15 miles north of Chicago and currently live in Vernon Hills, which is about 30 miles north of Chicago. I enjoy taking the train down to the city, though I don't get there as often as I'd like.

Q: When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer?

LORI: I've always enjoyed writing in rhyme and often wrote poems and song parodies. I also enjoyed telling stories to my younger cousins and other children I'd babysit, but I never thought of writing them down. Years later, when I began reading picture books to my sons and I saw how much they enjoyed them, I decided to try writing rhyming stories.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works (go back as far as you can remember). Who or what inspired you to create it?

LORI: The first story I remember writing was a chapter book called Susie Goes to the Moon when I was in third grade. I had three chapters written and my friend's baby brother got his hands on it and ripped it to shreds. I was too upset to start it again. I'm not sure what inspired it - it might have been all the space talk in the 60's.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

LORI: My twin sister, Julie, has been my biggest supporter - and critic! She has spent countless hours listening to and reading my stories and helping me with the plots, characters and rhyme. My other family members and critique group buddies have also been a great help!

Q: Please tell us how 1 Zany Zoo came to be published by Simon & Schuster.

LORI: My story (which was called 1 Wacky Zoo, at the time) won the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories contest in 2008. As part of the prize, they offered the book to Simon & Schuster and they offered to publish it! A mini version of the book, written in English and Spanish, will be inside boxes of Cheerios this March/April and the hardcover will be in stores July 20th.

Q: What was one of the easiest things about writing 1 Zany Zoo? What was one of the most difficult?

LORI: The easiest, and most fun thing about writing 1 Zany Zoo was coming up with zany situations for the animals and writing the rhymes. The most difficult thing was rewriting it to make it a counting book - a suggestion I received from an editor that I am very glad I took!

Q: I understand that you work as an “Itinerant Hearing Teacher.” Can you tell us a little about that? How does this job influence your writing?

LORI: An itinerant teacher goes from school to school working individually with students. My students are hard of hearing and need extra support in areas such as listening skills, reading, and self-advocacy. I think time spent with children keeps me in touch with my inner child.

Q: What would you like us to know about your current work/s in progress?

LORI: I have two stories that my agent is submitting to a variety of publishers - There's a Cow in the Kitchen and Company's Coming and Rooster Flew the Coop. I have several other stories started but none are ready to submit yet.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

LORI: I just want to say to aspiring writers - keep writing and don't give up! To non-Chicagoans, I want to say - come visit - it's a GREAT city!!

Meet Author Suzanne Slade!

2010-02-10T17:33:00.000-06:00

Today’s guest is Suzanne Buckingham Slade, author of over 70 books for children. Her works include picture books, biographies, and titles about animals, sports, and nature. Upcoming titles include What's the Difference? (Sylvan Dell Publishing, Spring 2010), Climbing Lincoln's Steps (Albert Whitman, Fall 2010), The House That George Built (Charlesbridge, 2011), and Multiply on the Fly (Sylvan Dell, 2011).

To learn more about Suzanne and her books, visit her web site at http://www.suzanneslade.com/ .

Welcome to It Happened in Chicago, Suzanne!

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

SUZANNE: I was born in Park Forest and moved around quite a bit in the years that followed, but have been living in a northern suburb, Libertyville, for 14 years now.

Q: When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer?

SUZANNE: As is the case with many children's writers, I decided I wanted to write children's books while reading stacks of picture books to my children when they were young.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

SUZANNE: I've received encouragement (and lots of help) from many writing friends--Jeff, Tina, Kellie, Barb, Lorijo, Lori, Hal, Laura, Shawn, and lots more, but the one name that stands out for me, especially in the early years, is Mary Dunn. She was the instructor of my first writing class and then welcomed me into her critique group. She patiently helped me improve my writing year after year after year. Mary is a good friend who always has a kind word of encouragement for every writer she meets.

Q: I understand that you worked in the engineering field several years before starting your writing career. What caused you to change professions?

SUZANNE: Basically, I had my midlife crisis a bit early when I turned 30. I enjoyed engineering, but I really wanted to do something more creative. Shortly after my children were born in 1993 and 1994 I decided writing was for me and never looked back (even after eight solid years of rejection letters!)

Q: You have a series of “Chain Reaction” books coming out in 2011. Can you tell us a little about those?

SUZANNE: It's funny you ask about those books because of all the non-fiction titles I've written, they were the most challenging. But they challenged me in a good way, causing me to really dig into my research and contact many experts to make sure my information

was correct. These four books take a look at four different ecosystems and how the loss of one animal might affect the other living things around them. What's exciting about these titles is that they were written in "storybook" form, rather than traditional non-fiction text, and have wonderful illustrations. I especially enjoy writing projects which give me the opportunity to share a story which can change the way children think about, and take care of, our world. This seems to be a recurrent theme in many of my book titles lately, as my latest picture book, What's the Difference? releases from Sylvan Dell next month. It's an encouraging story about how people can make a huge difference in helping endangered animals.

Q. What type of books do you read for pleasure?

SUZANNE: You'll find me either reading picture books, or poring through big non-fiction titles as I do research for my latest picture book idea.

Q. What would you like us to know about your current work/s in progress?

SUZANNE: I have a picture book coming out this fall with Albert Whitman, Climbing Lincoln's Steps, which I'm very enthused about. This title shares how the actions of several brave individuals led to significant changes in the past, and it also encourages children to take their own steps of change to help improve our future. I was especially pleased when Albert Whitman selected the perfect illustrator, Colin Bootman, for this title. He's won more illustration awards than I can remember, and his sketches for this title are outstanding!

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

SUZANNE: I've been doing something new with school visits--virtual author visits. I'm not very tech-savvy but these visits have been very easy to set up. As a result, I've really enjoyed meeting students around the country and answering their questions--all from the comfort of my office. My dog, Corduroy, has been a big hit with kids too!

Meet Author and Artist Sallie Wolf!

2010-01-17T13:53:00.000-06:00

Today's guest is Sallie Wolf, author of Peter's Trucks, illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith (Albert Whitman, 1992) and Truck Stuck, illustrated by Andy Robert Davies (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2008). A resident of Oak Park, Illinois, Sallie is also an award-winning artist whose work has been displayed at dozens of art shows and exhibitions. Her newest book, The Robin Makes a Laughing Sound: A Bird's Journal (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2010) is a book of bird poetry illustrated by images from her sketchbooks, with pages designed by Micah Bornstein.

To find out more about Sallie, visit her website at http://www.salliewolf.com/index.html.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

SALLIE: Well, Scotti, I came to Chicago in 1973, when I married my husband, Chuck, then a second year law student at the University of Chicago. I thought I would be going back East—I grew up in Virginia, and Chuck’s family lived in New Jersey at the time. And here it is, 36+ years later, and we’ve never left the greater Chicago area. Oak Park is where we have lived the past 31 years. It’s been a great place to raise our family, 2 boys, and it’s easy to get into the city.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

SALLIE: In 8th grade I had a friend who wanted to be a journalist and she got me interested in writing fiction. I also became intrigued with the books being read to my younger sister, who is almost 10 years younger than me, and that is one reason I began to think about writing for children.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

SALLIE: In high school I started an “escapism” journal, inspired by the book Don’t Knock the Corners Off, by Caroline Glynne. She was 15 or 16 at the time her book was published. I was intensely jealous of her success and began writing my own story about a girl and a house with many mysterious rooms. I worked on it all through high school, and I don’t think I ever finished it.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

SALLIE: When I was 17 I took a creative writing course at Phillips Exeter Academy Summer School, in Exeter, NH. I had to keep a writer’s notebook, jotting down anything that came to mind or any observations about what was going on around me. The notebook was turned in for regular individual critiques. My teacher, Mr. Marriott, at my first critique, put his hands behind his head, his feet up on the table, and pronounced, “Well, you’re a writer.” It was the high point of my summer, and I’ve thought of myself as a writer ever since.

Q: For you personally, what is one of the easiest things about writing picture books? What is one of the most difficult things?

SALLIE: There is almost nothing easy for me about writing picture books. At least I can see the end in sight—only 32 pages. And yet it is a struggle to get from the beginning to the end. The hardest part is finding the right structure or shape to the story. The language itself is perhaps the easiest, since I love words, the way they taste in my mouth, the rhythm of them. It would help if I could spell better.

Q: Would you tell us a little about the "road to publication" of your first book, Peter's Trucks?

SALLIE: Looking back, Peter’s Trucks led an almost charmed life. I met an editor at a conference who said she was looking for a truck book. I already had an idea in mind, and I started writing on the train ride home. I submitted a story, in prose, about 6 weeks later. After months of waiting for a reply, I got a letter suggesting I aim at a younger audience and focus on rhythm, rhyme, and repetition, the three “R’s” of childrens’ books. I rewrote and resubmitted the manuscript. Again a long wait. When I heard back, the editor suggested I write the book in a rhyming pattern and she showed me how the first stanza might look. The book was already very close to rhyming so it was easy to rewrite. This is the version that was accepted. The whole process of writing and revising to acceptance took about 2 years, and it took 2 more years for the production of the book. At the time it was agonizingly slow, but in retrospect it seems very fast and straight forward. It took over twelve years to write and publish Truck Stuck, and I had to submit it many times. Robin Makes A Laughing Sound found a home right away, but the production has been slow, partially because of the difficult economic times.

Q: You have been an artist since childhood. Do you have a favorite medium?

SALLIE: I work primarily in watercolor, often with pen and ink drawing. My father gave me watercolors when I was very young and I’ve always liked watercolor best, and anything on paper. I do a lot of mixed media as well, but always add water—to charcoal, pastel, fountain pen inks. Water, paper, and ink are the common elements in almost all my art.

Q: Your newest book -- The Robin Makes a Laughing Sound: A Bird's Journal -- will be published February 1, 2010. It's the first book you both wrote and illustrated. Can you describe one of the biggest challenges in putting this book together and tell us how you met that challenge?

SALLIE: The biggest challenge was finding a way to create the page layouts. I had the poetry and I had bird imagery—sketches of birds, mostly scattered all through years of my journals. I wanted to collage my images together with the poetry and journal-like observations, but I did not want to cut up my journals to do it. I was at my local Starbucks, asking a question about Xeroxing on clear Mylar. The new barista, who was on his break, asked me why I needed to do that. I described my intention of combining images with words and said, “I know this can be done in Photoshop, but I don’t know Photoshop.” He said, “I know Photoshop. I can help you,” and out of that 10 minute conversation a collaboration was born. Micah Bornstein took scans of my sketches and composed the pages in Photoshop. We worked together on the actual makeup of each page, and he created the digital files that were used to produce the artwork. I was amazed and very pleased that Charlesbridge was willing to take a chance on the two of us with this project.

Q: You offer workshops for children. What do these usually encompass?

SALLIE: I love to share my working process with people of all ages. With young children I teach art workshops—how to paint in watercolor, draw with charcoal and pastel, combine watercolor and drawing media, and do collage. With older students and with adults I like to talk about the process of keeping a journal. I can teach several simple ways to bind a journal sketchbook, and then we explore ways of working in them. And I like to combine writing with art, with students creating a collage, and then writing based on that collage.

Q: Please tell us a little about The Moon Project.

SALLIE: The Moon Project is an on-going art project that I have been working on since 1994. I watch for the moon on a daily basis, and when I see it, I chart it’s position and phase in my journals. I use my arms and a compass as measurement and I draw a “moon portrait”. Eventually I compile my observations into calendar-like charts and other kinds of drawings and graphs, even sheet music, based on the moon’s physical position in the sky. I’m trying to teach myself strictly through personal observation about the patterns and movements of the moon. The Moon Project has been exhibited at the Adler Planetarium, in Chicago; the Art Gallery of the Fermilab Research Facility in Batavia, IL; the Louisiana Art and Science Museum in Baton Rouge, LA; and several other venues. Currently the Moon Project is on display at the Art Gallery of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

SALLIE: My next project is a book based on my Moon Project. I’m very excited to see my art, which I develop for an adult audience, become the inspiration for my writing for children. That is how the Robin book evolved, and the art I am working on continues to lead me to new story ideas.

One of the things I like most about being involved in Children’s Literature is the generosity of the community of writers and illustrators who make up SCBWI and especially our Illinois region. Thank you so much, Scotti, for letting me share my art and writing with your readers.

Meet Author Lisa Mallen!

2010-01-10T10:08:00.000-06:00

My guest today is Chicago resident Lisa Mallen, author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles. Her children's picture book Elton the Elf (Lobster Press, 2000) was described by Publishers Weekly as being "decked out in whimsical, bright-as-a-button acrylics" with "a jolly premise just right for preschoolers to learn about the holidays."

For more information about Lisa Mallen, visit her website: http://lisamallenauthor.com/.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

LISA: I was in my early 30's, when my kids were in elementary school, although I think I had a seed planted in my head from a college course at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I started out in nursing, loved all the science, microbiology, genetics courses -- hated chemistry and working in the hospital. My hats are off to all who do work in nursing and the medical field. It takes a special person, and I was not one of those special people, so I changed my major. I absolutely loved my children's literature course in the program I followed, so when my kids were very young, I came to their school any time an author or illustrator visited. I was always so intrigued. When the author/illustrator Megan Lloyd came to visit my second grade son's class to talk about her book Farmer Mack Measures His Pig, I was so intrigued. A light bulb went off in my head, and I thought, that's it, that's what I want to do! Write Children's Books! So I vowed and made a promise to myself that I would do everything I could to learn about writing my stories down, learn about the publishing industry, and how to submit my stories, and submit them, etc., etc.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

LISA: My earliest story was about a girl who didn't like her freckles and what she did to try to get rid of them, and then realizing in the end, because of her grandfather, that her freckles were ok. It was actually about me, and when I lived in Italy. My dad was in the army and we lived near a farm where the ladies had lots of advice for my mom and also me. They knew I didn't like my freckles, and had a remedy they totally believed in and I tried. So I guess you could say that my dad and my kids inspired me to write it.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed as a writer.

LISA: Yes, I will name two, and they were equally significant: Megan Lloyd (author/illustrator) and R.L. Stine (author of Goosebumps and many young adult books). Both Megan and Bob gave me so much encouragement and advice, and still do.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

LISA: My family and I lived in Naperville for 9 years, after moving here from the east coast. We knew nothing about the Midwest, although my husband grew up in Wisconsin. I was an army brat, and lived everywhere but the Midwest. I moved into Chicago from Naperville in 2007. I absolutely love Chicago and the Midwest. You couldn't ask for a more friendly and welcoming environment. I've lived all over the world and U.S., and I have to say that Chicago is my favorite place to live. It's number one in my book!

Q: What was relatively easy about writing Elton the Elf? What was difficult?

LISA: The story and my vision of the story were easy. The editorial process with my editor and publisher was difficult, but with our collaboration together, it made it the great book it is today.

Q: What type of books do you read for pleasure?

LISA: I love non-fiction. I love biographies, and I'm reading the Andrew Jackson book American Lion. It is special to me because my aunt and cousins are direct descendants of Andrew Jackson and Rachel Jackson. In fact they have inherited and live on the farms that Andrew owned and lived on in Tennessee, that have been passed down through the generations. I also love mysteries. Mary Higgins Clark is one of my favorite authors. And then I belong to a book club in my building. They choose books I would not normally select, but I really, really enjoy reading selections out of my comfort zone and stepping into something totally different.

Q: You have a formula or a "course of action" that you like to share with children and other writers. Can you tell us little about that?

LISA: I think besides what everyone else says -- "You need to read. You need to write." -- I think you need to dream and put your dreams into action. I'm still trying to do it: having a vision, setting goals, making a plan, and proceeding with the plan.

Q: What would you like us to know about your current work/s in progress?

LISA: I have a variety of works in progress, a few finished and a few I'm still revising and tweaking. They include fiction and non-fiction, picture books, chapter books, and adult books.

Each of my manuscripts has relevance to my life and my experiences from childhood to present. For instance, Paige's Purr-fect Pet, a picture book about a preschooler and how the desire for a pet affected her and her family. This fictional story has so many true happenings about our cat, Pillow, and our neighbor's child, Paige.

My fictional chapter book Glory Halle Lujah is about an army brat -- something I wish I could have read as a kid and an army brat.

My passion now has been and is the Blues music genre and I've researched and written oodles about Buddy Guy and Phil Guy, "America's Real Blues Brothers." In the process I became Phil's manager for 3-1/2 years and learned so much more. Unfortunately, he passed away from prostate cancer August 20, 2008. I've been trying to get back into continuing this non-fiction biography about the legendary brothers, and think that after the roadblocks of grieving, I'm going to finish it this year. There are several other stories and manuscripts that are complete and I'm excited about, so I hope to keep submitting and have something happen with one or all of them!

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

LISA: I guess it's a question or a thought to ponder: If you know you have good stories, and have been critiqued and told you have good stories, and it's been nearly 10 years since your first and last published book, and with the current recession, and the woes of publishers these days downsizing and not accepting as much as they did to publish, not that they did before, what would be the advice and suggestions of your readers?

Radio Interviews

2009-12-30T19:39:00.000-06:00

I was interviewed by the inimitable Laura Kennedy on WGLT Radio (our local NPR station) concerning It Happened in Chicago. Click the link below to listen to the interview!

http://www.wglt.org/programs/datebook/audio/091218%20scotti-chicago.mp3

I was also interviewed by the incomparable Ron Ross at WJBC radio (link below):

http://dnn.wjbc.com/Tabid/7997/default.aspx?AID=8574

Meet Author Donna Latham!

2009-12-23T13:56:00.000-06:00

My guest today is Donna Latham, author of numerous books for children, including Fire Dogs (Bearport Publishing, 2005), which received the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children's Book Award. Donna currently splits her time between St. Charles, Illinois, and Danville, California. Her book Amazing Biome Projects You Can Build Yourself (Nomad Press, 2009) includes profiles of several Chicago-area scientists. Her book Ghosts of the Fox River Valley (Quixote Press, 2007) is set throughout Illinois.

Donna is also an accomplished playwright whose work has been performed from coast to coast. The Train Track Ghosts, a spooky tale set in Wayne, Illinois, was performed in October at Naperville’s Riverwalk Grand Pavillion. For more information about Donna Latham, visit her web site: http://www.donnalatham.com/.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Donna: Honestly, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t dream of being a writer.

Q: Describe your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write them?

Donna: My first writing love was playwrighting. My childhood best friend Herbert and I wrote goofy little comedy sketches featuring madcap antics and wacky characters. (Hey, I’m still working with the same schtick!) Then, in full-on ham mode, we performed and taped them, complete with sound effects and original music. Later, we played the tapes for our friends in the neighborhood. The sheer joy of making audiences laugh was all the inspiration I needed.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Donna: Writing is a solitary endeavor, but I’m blessed with an amazing network to share the journey. My husband and brother are my go-to guys when I tinker with works-in-progress. They participate with verve in early play readings. My family and friends are incredible cheerleaders—especially my friend Judy, who’s been my editor many times. Judy’s a writer, too, so she gets it. She not only provides emotional support and encouragement but also helps me wrangle with those oh-so-pesky revisions.

Q: When did you become involved in theater and playwriting?

Donna: I’ve been involved with theatre for most of my life. There’s nothing like its intimacy, its immediacy, and its collaborative nature. I’d dabbled in playwrighting for years but really dove into it about six years ago. Now, I alternate between writing plays for kids and plays for adults. Having an actor’s perspective reminds me to create roles performers can sink their choppers into. In October, I traveled to New York to see my adult play MyFace at the Manhattan Theatre Source. The phenomenal actors owned that play beyond my dreams.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Donna: I love Chicago--what a gorgeous, vibrant city! I was born there and lived in the city until my family moved to Mt. Prospect. I attended dearly departed Forest View High School in Arlington Hts. and Dominican University in River Forest. I lived in the Chicago area my entire life, until the last six months.

Q: What did you enjoy most about writing Amazing Biome Projects You Can Build Yourself?

Donna: I loved learning about Earth’s communities, and I’ve gained a fresh appreciation for the natural world. I unearthed so much fascinating information that I had a difficult time finalizing my manuscript. There was always one last tidbit to squeeze into the book. After writing about Earth’s ecosystems, I’m thrilled at spending extended time in the San Francisco Bay Area, an environment radically different from the Fox River Valley. I’m loving the opportunity to explore a strange and wondrous place where people plant poinsettias in “winter gardens.” In the ground. Outside. Who knew?

Q: What is one of your favorite stories from Ghosts of the Fox River Valley? Why?

Donna: Hands down, it’s “Augusta’s Diamond Ring.” It’s my favorite story to perform, my signature piece. In fact, I’ll be performing it at the Geneva Underground Playhouse on New Year’s Eve.

“Augusta’s Diamond Ring” is ghostlore, a spooky story with origins in folklore. The tale features an outraged spirit who returns from the grave to retrieve a—well, let’s just call it a “stolen item.” The story begins with a snippet of local history, the real-life account of the notorious Richards’ Riot of 1849. The riot occurred in St. Charles after John Rood, a medical student at Franklin Medical College, snatched young Marilla Kenyon’s body from her grave and stashed it in Dr. George W. Richards’ barn. An enraged, gun-wielding posse, led by Marilla’s husband, stormed Dr. Richards’ home and fatally shot John Rood. (Every time I peek at the former Franklin Medical College on Main Street in St. Charles, I think of the ghastly incident.)

Q: What type(s) of books do you read for pleasure?

Donna: I’m a reading omnivore. I gobble up everything. My pile of books to read is taller than I am. Right now, I’m lost in Stones From the River, which is brilliant.

Q: What can you tell us about your current Work in Progress?

Donna: I’m knee-deep in the research stages of a piece set during World War II. As part of my research, I recently visited the traveling Schindler exhibit at the Petaluma Historical Museum and heard Holocaust survivor Lillian Judd speak. The exhibit was moving and inspirational, and I’ve thought about Ms. Judd’s experiences repeatedly since my visit.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Donna: Thanks so much for the opportunity to be part of your fabulous blog. I especially like to pop in on it when I’m homesick for Chicago

Chicago Curiosities

2009-12-12T19:48:00.000-06:00

Even as I continue to promote and offer presentations about It Happened in Chicago (Globe Pequot Press / 2009), I am hard at work on another book for Globe called Chicago Curiosities. Like many of my other Globe projects, this one is part of a series that includes "Curiosities" from all over the U.S.

The tone of this book is quite different from the others I wrote for Globe in that humor is encouraged (dare I say, required?). The blurb on the cover of all the books in this series claims that readers will be laughing out loud as they are introduced to the neighbors they never knew they had and discover places they never knew existed -- right in their own backyard. I don't know about laughing out loud. My sense of humor is typically not the sort that people "guffaw" at -- but I hope there will be a moment or two of amusement for those who are kind enough to read it.

I had no trouble finding "curiosities" in Chicago. I'm required to include 75 to 100 of them in the book, and that will be no problem at all. My other task is to take photographs of most if not all of them.

On a recent 5-day visit to Chicago I took about 150 photos a day! I would never have tried to do this with an old-fashioned film camera. I really have to be able to see what the picture looks like right after I take it, so I can re-do it if necessary -- and a digital camera permits that.

It's turning out to be a fun project for me and I think the finished book will be entertaining.

I expect to take one more trip to Chicago (probably in the spring) during which I will focus on curiosities in the Loop area.

Meet Author Kate Gingold!

2009-12-02T10:15:00.000-06:00

Today's guest is Naperville resident and local historian Kate Gingold, author of three books published by Gnu Ventures Company: Ruth by Lake and Prairie (2006), Haunted by History: Spectres in a Small Town (2008), and Six Degrees of Abraham Lincoln (2009). Ruth by Lake and Prairie was awarded a Certificate of Excellence by the Illinois State Historical Society as a "wonderful way to present history to young people."

For more information about Kate Gingold, visit her web site: http://www.kategingold.com/.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Kate: Whenever the teacher gave a choice for a final project, I always chose the creative writing option. When I speak to students about writing, I bring in a copy of a story I wrote in second grade on one of those pieces of paper where there's a blank space at the top to draw a picture and lines below to write your story. I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a writer.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Kate: Like any writer, I have piles of unpublished manuscripts, but my first published book, Ruth by Lake and Prairie, was written for the 175th anniversary of Naperville a few years ago. I am not a Naperville native, so during the planning stages of the anniversary celebrations, I went to the library to bone up on the history. I was hoping to get all the facts in a few pithy pages and figured a children's book would be perfect. But there wasn't one and I thought that with all the new families moving in there ought to be a fun-to-read story about how the town began. The people and the facts are as a accurate as possible, but told as an historic narrative. Like "Little House on the Prairie," but forty years earlier.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Kate: I had wonderfully supportive teachers in high school and my first college years, and then a couple of devastatingly discouraging experiences so that I stopped thinking of myself as a writer for a long time. A close friend, SCBWI member Kim Winters, went back to school to get her master's degree and she was so excited by her writing studies that I got excited again.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Kate: I was born in Chicago and grew up in a suburb just outside of the city boundaries. I attended North Park University on Foster and Kedzie and married a Chicago boy. My son currently lives along the blue line while he's going to school. I live in Naperville now, not too far away, which has ties of its own to Chicago. Joseph Naper was a business partner of PFW Peck. They operated two trading posts, one at Naper's Settlement and one in Chicago. Peck became the wealthiest of the two, but Naper had a town named after him!

Q: What did you enjoy most about writing Haunted by History?

Kate: I adore history research, but children often assume history is going to be boring. Haunted by History takes real people and places from the past and weaves a ghost story around them to slip the facts in with the story. That gave me the opportunity to be more creative with the plot than narrative history allows me to be.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Ruth by Lake and Prairie, please tell us about one you would like to meet and why.

Kate: Few records exist for the historical people who appear as characters in the book, so their personalities developed from analyzing what little we do know. Ruth's best friend on Uncle Joe's schooner is Anna Mariah Sisson. Her family didn't settle near the Napers, but moved on to the Plainfield/Lockport area. I talked with one of Mariah's descendents and he gave me a copy of a photograph of her as a very stylish adult. Little Mariah from the rough homestead in Will County wound up married to a Canadian politician. It's easy to picture Mariah as a charismatic girl with expansive dreams and plenty of gumption. She would have made a fascinating friend!

Q: In Ruth by Lake and Prairie, the characters spend a chapter or so in what would soon be Chicago. Can you describe an interesting "tidbit" you discovered about early Chicago in your research?

Kate: Many Chicagoans are familiar with the Beaubien family, especially Mark Beaubien and his fiddle, which is in the Chicago History Museum. Mark is also credited with building the first frame building, his Sauganash Hotel. At the time of this story, 1831, Chicago is only an abandoned fort, a few cabins and some wigwams, although Mark has started construction on the Sauganash. As crude as the settlement is, the Beaubien brothers sent their daughters to Detroit, a much older city, for finishing school. If you think about it, Jane Austen's Mr. and Mrs. Darcy would have school-aged children at this time as well. Just because the Beaubiens lived in primitive America didn't mean they weren't aware of society's finer things.

Q: What was relatively easy about writing Six Degrees of Abraham Lincoln? What was relatively difficult?

Kate: Nearly every town in Illinois has a Lincoln story. Trying to figure out if the story is true can be tricky. Many local historical societies have already done the research and will usually tell you what they've found out. But who wants to be the bad guy who disproves a favorite local legend?

Q: What can you tell us about your current Work in Progress?

Kate: I've started researching a follow-up to Ruth by Lake and Prairie that deals with the Black Hawk War which occurred the summer after they arrived, and I'm playing with lots of ideas for other local landmarks that can be "Haunted by History", but the most important project on my plate right now is a biography.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Kate: While from an early age I always intended to write and illustrate children's books, I never would have suspected that my niche would be midwest America in the early 1800's. The research is such a hoot and sharing the fun stuff I find with kids is a blast. Who could have known?

Meet Author Marlene Targ Brill!

2009-11-24T15:04:00.000-06:00

My guest today is Marlene Targ Brill, an award-winning, Chicago-born-and-raised author of 67 books for all age readers. Marlene's latest releases include Michelle Obama: From Chicago's South Side to the White House (Lerner Publications, 2009) and five titles in the Decades of the Twentieth Century in America series (Lerner Publications, 2010).

I met Marlene in the spring of 2007 at the Young Authors Conference at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. For more information about Marlene and her many wonderful books, visit her web site at: http://www.marlenetargbrill.com/index.html.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Marlene: I always liked writing and fared pretty well with writing assignments in school. But I never took the idea of writing for a living seriously until I was creating materials for my students in special education classes. I began teaching during the dark ages of special education, so teachers like me made most of the classroom materials. I found I liked the creative process, and I kept coming up with ideas for books I thought I'd like to write for my students and other readers.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Marlene: A long-time friend, who was a psychologist, actually inspired me to write. We both loved writing and drawing, so each week we met one evening a week to do just that--draw and write. After a few weeks of getting together ,we decided to produce a children's story that would empower children with disabilities and educate readers who were able-bodied. Just as our project, More Alike Than Different, was ready to send to publishers, however, my friend died. Her death made me more determined than ever to get our story published. I was able to find a publisher that offered to produce our story on audiotape, if I would write three more stories to complete a kit. I was hooked on writing after that.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Marlene: Encouragement is a double-edged sword. My path to publishing is filled with many wonderful people who inspired and aided me, like my psychologist friend. I learned the business of writing and how to edit, index, and write for all types of freelance projects from professionals in Chicago Women in Publishing. I gained invaluable writing skills and perspective from the couple critique groups I joined over the last umpteen years, where I met talented colleagues who have become friends and coworkers. I had some insightful editors who guided my writing and gave me tips to improve my craft. And now, groups like Off-Campus Writers Workshop and Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators offer continuing support to me and their other members.

Reverse experiences motivated me, too. When I began writing, too many people told me how hard it was to get published. Some said that I wasn't a trained writer (true), and I'd be competing against others who were (also true). The more negatives I heard, however, the more stubborn I became. I read tons of children's books to dissect what I liked about the writing. I read all the Newbery winners to see what books others valued. I wrote and rewrote. And I remembered the children's book I read as a child called The Carrot Seed, where a boy finds a carrot seed and everyone tells him a carrot will never grow from that seed. After much patience and tending persistence, the boy grows a large carrot that requires a wheelbarrow to transport it. And I have published 67 books.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Marlene: Even though I live in Wilmette now, I always think of myself as a Chicagoan first. I am Chicago-born and raised. I was born in the same building where Daniel Pinkwater lived. Interestingly, three of the five kids who lived there then have become published authors. So I tell people who want to write books to knock on the door at 551 Roscoe and ask to drink the water.

Because of the strong connection to Chicago, my writing interests have turned more local the longer I write. I find it fun to be able to walk the streets my characters/subjects have walked and research Chicago stories where they happened. I first experienced the joys of researching locally with Diary of a Drummer Boy, the story of a Waukegan, Illinois, Civil War hero. More recently, I found it easier to make contacts and interview people for my two Obama biographies (Barack Obama: President for a New Era; Michelle Obama: From Chicago's South Side to the White House).

Q: You wrote the first edition of your Barack Obama biography before he became a huge star on the national stage. Can you tell us a little about when and why you wrote the biography, and what the initial response was from publishers?

Marlene: I had been hearing about Obama from local political folks I respected, but I had little knowledge of him personally until I read his autobiography. I found his story growing up in two cultures and striving to succeed despite family/economic roadblocks compelling. I thought he and his multicultural upbringing would provide a good role model for young readers--and that was before he was elected to Congress.

After I saw the national response to his speech at the Democratic National Convention, I knew he was somehow special. I proposed a children's bio about him to my publisher, but they declined at first, saying it was too early. Then, a couple months later I got a call saying a contract for an Obama bio was in the mail, and they wanted the manuscript ASAP. I proposed a biography about Michelle Obama early in the presidential election process. That, too, was tabled until after the election. Once Barack Obama won, the contract for Michelle arrived in the mail.

Q: What was one of the easiest things about writing your biography of Michelle Obama? What was difficult?

Marlene: The easiest thing about writing the Michelle Obama biography was the fact that her upbringing was local for me. I knew about devotion to Chicago neighborhoods and the jostling between northsiders and southsiders. I had similar experiences in Chicago schools to those classes Michelle took. I felt totally at home walking the streets where she lived and the halls of schools were she learned.

The most difficult part of writing about Michelle was the fact that the Obama inner circle refused to cooperate with any biographies about her or Barack, even though Barack thanked me for my first effort about him. But being a Chicagoan helped here, too. I discovered organizations that helped me locate former teachers and classmates to interview, and I tracked down other helpful sources of information. I could use my years as a Chicago Board of Education teacher as entry to the schools and my local status to connect with interviewees.

Q: Of the people or characters mentioned in your books, choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

Marlene: Whoa! That's like asking someone to choose among their children. I guess one person I'd like to have met is Marshall 'Major" Taylor, the Lance Armstrong of 1900. Taylor won races as a preteen against grown men, and he attained world bicycle racing status during a time when bicycles were the prized mode of transportation and bicycle racing a world-class event. But Taylor, who was black, tried to advance when Jim Crow laws reigned, especially in the South. Yet, he faced the putdowns and unfair laws with grace and honor. He is my idea of what an athlete should be, someone with impecible character and love for his sport.

Q: What are you working on right now? Where are you in the process?

Marlene: I'm in the research stage for two stories. Both involve happenings in the 1910s. Guess I'm stuck in the 1910s for now, especially after writing America in the 1910s, a Lerner decade series. My historical fiction always involves a real child and a real happening in their life. I'm selecting my main character now.

Q: You have a historical fiction title coming out next summer about the Hart, Schaffner & Marx strike in 1910 that led to 40,000 workers closing down the men's textile industry in Chicago and Milwaukee. Can you tell us a little about that?

Marlene: Annie Walks Out is about the girl who started the strike: my sister-in-law's aunt, Hannah (Annie) Shapiro. I learned about her a few years ago but didn't think I had enough story to tell. Then I started researching the strike and confirmed Annie's key role in it. I couldn't believe my good fortune to be able to write about a sort-of relative who led a major event.

Annie's descendants helped me with family details and settings I never could have discovered without their help. For example, although Annie's family lived with other Russian immigrant families on Chicago's poorer West Side, I learned the Shapiros had a bathroom in their apartment, while most families on a floor or in a building shared bathrooms. This small detail told me that the family had enough money to live comfortably. Annie Walks Out is a primary-grade historical fiction story that is currently in the illustration phase. I can't wait to see the pictures.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Marlene: Thank you for this opportunity to share some thoughts. I would just add that writing books has given me experiences unlike any other profession. The people I've met while researching have broadened my prospectives on life and what really is important. And speaking at schools and libraries and to professional groups keeps me connected with readers and the joys of reading and writing. What a great profession we have!

Meet Author Margaret McMullan!

2009-11-18T11:15:00.000-06:00

My guest today is Margaret McMullan, award-winning author of the novels When Warhol Was Still Alive (1994), In My Mother's House (St. Martin's Press, November 2003), How I Found the Strong (Houghton Mifflin, April 2004), When I Crossed No-Bob (Houghton Mifflin, November 2007), and Cashay (Houghton Mifflin, April 2009).

The main character in Cashay lives in what's left of Chicago's Cabrini Green projects. Reviewers describe Cashay as a "beautifully written, touching and powerful story you won't be able to put down" ... "both gritty, and inspirational" ... a "poignant coming of age story."

Margaret's essays and short stories have appeared in numerous magazines, including Glamour, the Chicago Tribune, and Michigan Quarterly Review. She is currently a board member of the New Harmony Project and a professor of English at the University of Evansville, in Evansville, Indiana, where she's working on a collection of stories and a new young adult novel for Houghton Mifflin due out in 2010.

For more information about Margaret McMullan, visit her web site: http://www.margaretmcmullan.com/index.php .

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Margaret: I had a wonderful high school teacher named Alva Lowey. She was from Alabama and I was from Mississippi, and we connected there in Lake Forest, a northern suburb of Chicago. She gave these great assignments and she typed out all of her responses and comments. She was an older lady and she was very professional. She submitted my short story “Bees” to a contest sponsored by Scholastic Magazine. It won. I got a gold pen and Mrs. Lowey’s approval. I was hooked.

Q: Please describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Margaret: When I was about 16 years old, my great grandmother asked my mother to come to Washington, D.C. because she knew she was dying. She was 105 years old and she lived in a lovely home for older women. My mother asked me to come with her – to help. We spent a week at my great grandmother’s bedside. It made a huge impression, and later I wrote a short story called “Duet” based on that experience. Then I wrote the novel based on that story – the novel is called In My Mother’s House.

So many people inspire me. Each project has a person behind it. My friend dying of AIDS inspired me to write When Warhol Was Still Alive. My grandmother’s stories inspired me to write How I Found the Strong. A 15 year old girl who asked me to write about her, inspired me to write Cashay. I could go on and on.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Margaret: Jim Whitehead and Bill Harrison were my mentors, teachers, guides, and friends in graduate school at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Now my husband, Pat O’Connor, plays the biggest role in my life!

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Margaret: I went to high school at Lake Forest High School and my mother, sister, and I did volunteer work at Holy Family Church in Chicago all during the 1970’s. My parents still live in Lake Forest and my sister and her family live in Chicago. We visit about once a month.

Q: What was easy about writing Cashay? What was difficult?

Margaret: Researching Cabrini Green and the stock market and Chicago was fascinating work and that helped get me into Cashay’s voice. The hard part was putting her through such difficulties.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Cashay, please choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

Margaret: I feel I’ve met all of them because I’ve spent so much time with them. There is a lot of me in Cashay. There is a lot of my sister in Allison. I suppose I would want to be with Cashay and stay with her for a long time.

Q: People assume that research is required to write nonfiction, but many don't think about how important research can be when writing fiction. What sort of research did you do when you were writing Cashay?

Margaret: I hung around urban high schools (with permission, of course) and listened listened listened. I bought rap music, ate twizzlers and pink snow balls, read 5th grade math books, and bundled up against the cold and walked around Cabrini Green. I visited the Chicago museums and took notes at the Museum of Science and Industry. For three days I went into work and shadowed my sister who is a stockbroker. I interviewed my African American students about their hair habits and more. They asked me about mine too. I LOVE the research that goes into writing a novel. I learn so much.

Q: Your latest novel, Sources of Light, will be published in April 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. What would you like us to know about that book?

Margaret: Here’s the way the jacket flap reads: "It's 1962, a year after the death of Sam's father--he was a war hero--and Sam and her mother must move, along with their very liberal views, to Jackson, Mississippi, her father's conservative hometown. Needless to say, they don't quite fit in.

People like the McLemores fear that Sam, her mother, and her mother's artist friend, Perry, are in the South to "agitate" and to shake up the dividing lines between black and white and blur it all to grey. As racial injustices ensue--sit-ins and run-ins with secret white supremacists--Sam learns to focus with her camera lens to bring forth the social injustice out of the darkness and into the light."

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Margaret: I think you and other authors know the key to keeping on: Read read and read some more and then ask yourself if you have your own story or stories to add. Be curious about EVERYTHING. You never know where your next big idea will come from.

Meet Sheila Glazov!

2009-11-11T22:09:00.000-06:00

Today's guest is Sheila Glazov, award-winning author and internationally known personality type expert, professional speaker and educator. She is the author of What Color Is Your Brain? A Fun and Fascinating Approach to Understanding Yourself and Others; Princess Shayna's Invisible Visible Gift (a version of What Color Is Your Brain? written for children ages 4-12); and Purr fect Pals: A Kid, A Cat and Diabetes© (a picture book written for children ages 2-12 and their families who live with diabetes).

Reviewers describe What Color Is Your Brain? as: "a fast reading, easy to follow and fascinating examination of human personality". . . "accessible to a wide audience." Princess Shayna's Invisible Visible Gift has been praised for its ability to help children "gain insight into creative writing ideas, personality types, and self-esteem."

For more information about Sheila, her books, and her presentations, visit her web site at: http://www.sheilaglazov.com and her blog at: http://understandingpersonalitytypes.com/.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Sheila: I was raised in River Forest, which is a suburb of Chicago. My husband and I have lived and raised our family in the Chicagoland area, except for a few years in New Jersey and California.

Q: You once taught elementary school, high school, and college. What motivated you to transition from teacher to professional speaker, author, and creativity coach?

Sheila: My “Orange Brain” enjoys variety and change. Teaching children and adults of all ages and presenting a patchwork of classes energizes me and expands my opportunities for learning and sharing a stimulating assortment of curricula.

Q: What inspired you to develop the color code you use in What Color is Your Brain?

Sheila: I developed WCIYB as an introduction for my strategic planning and creative problem solving workshops. I wanted to create a non-judgmental environment that eliminated criticism. A tone of intolerance often veiled the room. Co-workers and managers only seemed to endure or put up with one another. Because of my teaching background and understanding of learning styles and personality types, I knew I could develop a practical and easy method to create a more harmonious and productive environment; one that would enhance workshop attendees' appreciation and approval for each other’s ideas, attributes and abilities.

Q: Can you share a brief explanation of what the four colors mean?

Sheila: The “Brain Color concept” is an explanation of an individual’s behavior and feelings; however, it is not an excuse for an individual’s inappropriate behavior.

Everyone is a “Brainbow” blending of their “Brain Colors.” “Yellow Brain” decision makers are responsible, disciplined and like to give orders. In the workplace, they are prepared, committed and accurate. They are esteemed when working in an organized environment where they know what is expected of them and can complete tasks on time. When misunderstood, they can become opinionated worriers. Dealing with disorganization frustrates them, making them judgmental and obstinate; and they are often viewed by others as controlling and bureaucratic. They are productive in the workplace if their loyalty, dependability and strong sense of right and wrong is acknowledged.

“Blue Brain” communicators value creativity and make decisions intuitively. In the workplace, these nurturers are inspirational and friendly. They are esteemed when their environment promotes trust, harmony and flexibility. When misunderstood, they can easily become discouraged and emotional. Dealing with a lack of cooperation frustrates them and causes others to regard them as overly idealistic, sensitive and touchy-feely. They are creative in the workplace if their enthusiasm, thoughtfulness and integrity is acknowledged.

“Green Brain” problem solvers value knowledge and research. They make decisions only when they have gathered and analyzed all pertinent data. In the workplace, they consider work as their play and are mentally focused nonconformists. They are esteemed when their environment promotes fairness and provides technology. When misunderstood, they can become withdrawn and indecisive. They are frustrated by incompetency, making them intolerant and non-communicative and they are perceived by others as intimidating and lacking in people skills. They are efficient in the workplace if their intellect, competency and curiosity is acknowledged.

“Orange Brain” change agents value results. These resourceful trouble shooters make decisions spontaneously. They are esteemed when they can enjoy freedom and competition, but don’t have to follow someone else’s rules. They are intolerant of boredom and repetition. When misunderstood, they can become rude and will physically leave the premises. Too much structure frustrates them, which can trigger their disobedience and emotional explosions. Often they are considered impulsive and too fun-loving. They thrive in the workplace if their generosity, idea generation and multi- tasking is acknowledged.

Q: What was relatively easy about writing What Color Is Your Brain?

Sheila: Working with my clients, publisher, editor and the marketing director was easy and encouraging.

Q: What was difficult?

Sheila: Using my “Yellow Brain” to gather and organize all the “Brain Color” data, stories and research for more than 15 years was the most challenging part of writing the book. However, utilizing my strategic planning workshop storyboards made organizing the copious amount of material and keeping deadlines manageable.

Q: Your book, Princess Shayna's Invisible Visible Gift, is the “fairy-tale” version of What Color Is Your Brain? written for children ages 4-12. Can you share some of the challenges of presenting this material for children?

Sheila: The only challenge was using my “Green Brain” to revise my ideas into a sequential storyline. Writing Princess Shayna was similar to writing a love letter. The book has been described as “a rainbow of love for differences.” It was a “love gift” I was privileged to write and share with a multitude of children, families and teachers. I’m looking forward to completing the sequel.

Q: What are some of the creative writing ideas children can find in Princess Shayna's Invisible Visible Gift? Could this approach be used by adult writers?

Sheila: Both children and adults have used the creative writing idea of “Brain Color” character and setting development. Creating multifaceted characters and settings adds dimension, texture, substance, conflict and harmony to their work. Utilizing storyboards to write, organize, revise and formulate a story also is visually dynamic, efficient and effective.

Q: I have to ask: What color is Chicago's brain?

Sheila: Chicago is a “Brainbow,” a blending, similar to a rainbow, where each color is significant, not completely definitive, but unified. Chicago’s “Yellow Brain” is the unquestionable pride individuals feel for the city. The “Blue Brain” is the friendly and helpful attitude of the city’s residents. The “Green Brain” is represented by the abundance of knowledge seekers and providers in the schools, universities, colleges and libraries within the city. Last, but not least, is the “Orange Brain” entrepreneurial spirit of the Chicagoland business community.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Sheila: Yes, thank you for asking. I am committed to offering comfort, encouragement and education to the children and adults who deal with the never-ending challenges of diabetes. I am also dedicated to raising funds for and creating a greater awareness about diabetes. I have first-hand knowledge and experience with the serious challenges diabetes creates. Our eldest son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 24 years ago, when he was 15 years old. My father, had Type 2 diabetes for several years before he passed away from heart disease, which was complicated by his diabetes. Even our family cat developed Type 1 diabetes when he was 13 years old and lived to be 18 years old. Purr-fect Pals: A Kid, A Cat and Diabetes and Princess Shayna’s Invisible Visible Gift include characters who must deal with the “highs” and “lows” of diabetes. What Color Is Your Brain? includes practical information to help individuals improve their understanding about themselves and others, which leads to a healthier lifestyle. I allocate 10% of the royalties from the sale of all my books to JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).

Meet Author Juliet Bond!

2009-10-28T16:58:00.000-05:00

Today's guest is Juliet Bond -- author of the children's book Sam's Sister (Perspectives Press, 2004), described in reviews as "a supportive insight on open adoption" . . . "a moving tale about coping with separation and adjusting to sometimes difficult realities" . . . "a poignant and thoughtful story ... an important contribution to the adoption literature."

A Chicago native, Juliet is a professor at Columbia College. She has taught Chicago History courses and is currently writing a YA novel (historical fiction) about a girl growing up during the turn of the century in the Hull House neighborhood.

For more information about Juliet Bond, visit her web site: http://julietbond.tripod.com/.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Juliet: Honestly? I always thought I'd be a singer. But halfway through college, I took a women's studies course, which got me all fired up about inequality and issues of justice. I’d caught the "I have to save the world" bug. This lead me into social work and then, finally writing. Though I always kept a journal and loved reading as a kid, I never thought I was smart enough to write. My friends who flew off to Barnard or Stanford for college were the writers. I was the one with the pretty voice and the big heart.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Juliet: It wasn't until my friend Jeanne fell into a coma and left behind three kids that I first sat down to write a children's book. I’d gone to bookstores and searched for something online that might bring her young children some comfort but couldn’t find anything applicable so I wrote my own, and a good friend then illustrated it. We took it to Kinkos, had it bound and gave copies to the family. I've since found out that practically every writer's first children's book is about dealing with the loss of a loved one! By now, I’ve heard countless editors warn writers NOT to send them their manuscript about grandma dying…they get so many.

My second book was written for the women and children I worked with while at The Cradle, a private adoption agency in Evanston, IL. We'd gotten some disturbing statistics back about women who wanted to make adoption plans but were stymied by the terror of having to tell their children about what they intended. They felt their children couldn’t possibly understand, they felt ashamed and they were turning away from the possibility of keeping in touch with the adopted family (which is called “Open Adoption”) in order to keep the adoption a secret. This felt like a loss to everyone involved, the adoptive family, the adopted child, the birth parents and the birth siblings. I ended up writing a coloring book we used with our clients. The book was a narrative but it included all of the therapeutic techniques we recommended to birth mothers who were considering an open adoption and who were also parenting other kids. (Over 60% of women who make adoption plans are already parenting other children.)

My book was written from the perspective of a five-year-old birth sibling. My boss suggested I send it to an adoption publisher. I did. She happened to be looking for a book on just this topic. The stars aligned and I became a published writer! Since then, I've taken classes, workshops, joined SCBWI, written like a fiend, revised, revised, revised and acquired an agent.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Juliet: Oh, without a doubt it is Jane Yolen! I spent a weekend with her (and six other writers) at a Highlights Founders Workshop. Her generosity, guidance and warmth made me feel like I could tackle writing with grace and without losing my unique voice and point of view. I’m also honored to have become friends with Kelly Milner Halls who is a fantastic cheerleader and has been generous enough to critique my non-fiction work. I also made some great connections at other conferences and have since joined two critique groups and had the privilege of building some wonderful friendships with writers I admire.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Juliet: I grew up in the Chicago area and have always loved the city but I truly became obsessed when I taught a course on Chicago History and Culture. It forced me to read and learn all I could about my town. I scheduled bike tours, took the river architecture run, rode the Weird Chicago* bus, scheduled a guided tour of Old Town through Second City Theater and dragged my students to various ethnic enclaves to taste, smell and sample the offerings. It was the field trips that really got me. Connecting the past with the present is so powerful! Since then, I always incorporate field trips into my courses. One of my favorites is when we visit Hull House Museum where many of Chicago's greatest reformers generated their ideas and shared their talents. Their efforts contributed to the formation of the juvenile court system, fair labor practices, the ACLU, NAACP and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. They did all of this while maintaining a cultural refuge for 25 different immigrant groups in their community – no easy feat!

Q: What was easy about writing Sam's Sister? What was difficult?

Juliet: Sam’s Sister came very easily actually. It was firmly based on practices and principles of social work I was using every day.

It was everything that followed that was hard. I had decided to write but then I had to really learn the craft! I know it sounds backwards but it was after the publication of Sam’s Sister that I became a writer.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Sam's Sister, choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

Juliet: I’d like to meet Rosa, the five-year-old birth sibling who is losing her brother to adoption. Though, I relate to the mothers in the story, I know their feelings, their grief, and the depth of their decisions, Rosa is the hero. She’s the one I want to spend my time with. As a child, she has the strength to find joy in the midst of a very painful situation. Adults have often been convinced, through years of disappointment, that optimism is foolish or that it leads to deeper regrets in the long run.

Writing for children is like this gift – a moment where I can shrug off my adult self and fully embrace the hopeful, joyful girl in me who still believes she’ll get the happy ending.

Q: You have children and a demanding career. What tips would you like to share with other writers on finding time to write?

Juliet: Oh find that Rosa-like girl, I guess. Her optimism, when you write her, could keep you going. The fact is, without a love for the actual story and the characters you’re writing - you won’t bother to find the time to write them.

Right now I manage a children’s theater, participate in the PTA and teach eleven courses. I don’t have the time to write but I eke it out by getting up early or putting off grading (or never, ever exercising) because it brings me pleasure and allows me the opportunity to be creative and quiet.

Q: You are currently working on a historical fiction novel for young adults. For the other writers out there, what "stage" are you at with this new novel? What has been the biggest challenge so far?

Juliet: Well I am still at a basic research stage with this one. I am reading all of the children’s and adult books written about Jane Addams and some of the other wonderful young reformers, activists and writers who lived in Chicago at the turn of the century. (I just finished The Jungle by Upton Sinclair who was a regular at Hull House - so amazing!) I know I want to write from the immigrant girl’s perspective and have finished the outline and the first chapter. I want to convey how it felt to emigrate from a lush, riverside village in Europe and end up confined to a few grey city blocks in a neighborhood where the rotting garbage was a foot deep, her emotions, relationships, challenges and growth.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Juliet: Only thank you for the pleasure of participating in your blog.

* Read an interview with author and Weird Chicago tour guide Adam Selzer.

Meet Author Sara Shacter!

2009-10-21T12:37:00.000-05:00

My guest today is Sara Shacter -- a children's writer who grew up in the Chicago area and currently lives in the city itself. Sara's picture book Heading to the Wedding (Red Rock Press, 2006) was described by Contemporary Bride magazine as "not only charming, but also delightful in the delivery of teaching accepted behavior for kids attending a wedding." Sara has also written and edited nonfiction for magazines and educational publishers. Currently she is working on a YA novel and several picture book manuscripts.

For more information about Sara Shacter, visit her website: http://www.sarafshacter.com/.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Sara: I remember writing stories about Inspector Toenail when I was in elementary school. But when did I realize I wanted to be a professional writer? Not until I graduated from college.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Sara: Well, Heading to the Wedding was inspired by a business cocktail party. I was mingling with some folks and mentioned that I wrote for children. A woman listening said, "Do you know of a book that teaches kids about wedding guest etiquette?" I didn't, so I decided to write one. It was a fun challenge: the story needed to instruct, but not be didactic. I think I hit the mark: the book always makes kids laugh.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Sara: My husband, hands down. He's my cheerleader. He gets so irritated whenever a rejection letter arrives in the mailbox that I end up comforting HIM! When I say, "It's okay. It just wasn't the right house. I'll find a better fit," I come to believe what I'm saying.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Sara: I grew up in Highland Park, a northern suburb. Though I went east for college, I returned upon graduation. It's just a fabulous city: big, but not too big. Gorgeous. Full of opportunities and inspiration.

Q: What was easy about writing Heading to the Wedding? What was difficult?

Sara: The basic plot was easy: it's the story of a family that decides to have a practice wedding at home, before going to the real thing. Patrick and his sister Evie learn all about what happens at a wedding, how to make a toast, the importance of taking the closest hors d'oeuvre on the plate, etc. I pretty much just ran through the course of a wedding. However, making it funny and compelling, and rounding out the characters in 800 words or less, took much more work! I lost track of how many drafts I completed.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Heading to the Wedding, choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

Sara: I love Evie, who actually wasn't even in the book when I sent the manuscript to Red Rock Press! The editor wanted both a boy and a girl for marketing reasons -- a smart suggestion. I think Evie's hilarious and irreverent. I'm more straight-laced, so I enjoy her joie de vivre.

Q: You have written quite a lot of nonfiction for magazines such as Highlights for Children and Chicago Parent Magazine. Can you share some differences between writing a picture book and writing for magazines?

Sara: In a picture book, there must be an opportunity for a compelling illustration on each spread. Though magazine articles include photos or illustrations, there isn't the pressure to include a new visual every few sentences. However, magazine nonfiction has its own set of requirements. Trying to explain, in very little space and in kid-friendly terms, a scientific principal, or what made a historical figure who s/he was, is a challenge! A wonderful challenge, but a challenge nonetheless.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Sara: I feel lucky to be working in this field. There is nothing more exhilarating than seeing a child's face light up when s/he reads something you've written. And there is no nicer group of colleagues in the world than fellow children's writers and illustrators.

An interview with me

2009-10-15T16:52:00.000-05:00

Kathleen L. Maher interviewed me about It Happened in Chicago for her blog. Check it out at this link: http://kathleenlmaher.blogspot.com/

Meet Author Ophelia Julien!

2009-10-14T12:42:00.000-05:00

Today's guest is Ophelia Julien -- author of several young adult novels, including Saving Jake (New Leaf Books, 2002), about a boy who can "track" lost objects, people, and even past lives with his mind.

Unlike most of us, Ophelia grew up in a haunted house on the north side of Chicago. She reads, writes, and collects ghost stories. Her more mundane activities include baking, knitting, crocheting, and sleeping whenever she can.

For more information about Ophelia Julien, visit her web site at www.opheliajulien.com and her blog at http://opheliajulien.blogspot.com/.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Ophelia: When the Beatles' song "Paperback Writer" hit the charts and summed it up for me in actual words. I was in grade school at the time and already writing stories.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Ophelia: When I was in eighth grade, I wrote what I thought was a novel (40 type-written pages with no margins and no double spacing) set in a boarding school. The influence was Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co, still one of my all-time favorite books.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Ophelia: I'm an inveterate letter writer (as in fan-girl) and have been since I was a kid. My first response came from Madeleine L'Engle and I still have that letter. I also have a note from Stephen King that encouraged me to write what I wanted to write, which was young adult fiction, and a letter from another of my heroes, Richard Peck, who gave me encouragement in an entirely different way. I was lucky enough to meet Mr Peck. He's a lovely man.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Ophelia: I grew up in Chicago and didn't move away to the suburbs until I was married and a parent. Chicago is probably one of my all-time favorite cities. Its history is hidden because so much burned down in the Great Fire, but it has history, all right. And lots of haunted places. Like my childhood home, for instance.

Q: What was easy about writing Saving Jake? What was difficult?

Ophelia: I don't think anything about writing Saving Jake was easy. For one thing, it's the most autobiographical book I've ever written and I was terrified when it got published and my family was going to be able to read it. Parts of it were truly painful to put down on paper, but I'm glad I did it. Maybe the only easy thing was getting the character of Jake Holdridge. He pretty much rang my doorbell and introduced himself, unlike Philip Corts who ran away from me for almost two years.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Saving Jake, choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

Ophelia: I'd love to meet Jake face to face. We understand each other completely and he'd be fun just to hang around with for a day.

Q: In your blog, you talk about the Chicago Swordplay Guild. Do any of your books draw on that particular interest of yours? If not, do you think you might write a book that features swordplay someday?

Ophelia: I'm currently working on a book now that will include swordplay and if I don't get it right, I sure will hear about it! Actually, I'll need to run those scenes past my colleagues just to make sure I don't mess up. I'm very interested in swords and sword fighting but interest does not a skilled practitioner make! One of these years, I also hope to include Tae Kwon Do in a book, since that was my first exposure to martial arts, back when I was in high school and college.

Q: You obviously have a special sensitivity to otherwordly phenomena. Is that a help or a hindrance to you as a writer? Can you give an example of how it helped or hindered you on a specific project?

Ophelia: At one time I might have said my "sensitivity," as you very kindly put it, was a hindrance. I've tried writing other kinds of stories and no matter what I'm doing, even my adult short stories, I end up putting a paranormal twist into it. I can't seem to keep that out of my creative endeavors and have decided it's best not to try. And despite my background, I do manage to frighten myself from time to time. Back when I did newspaper writing, I wrote an annual Halloween feature where people would tell me their true ghost stories and I would write them up. One year I was home alone typing up my copy and there was a God-almighty crash from the direction of my basement. It sounded like someone dumped a cabinet full of dishes on the floor. I got up to investigate and nothing was out of place. And of course, no one was there. There's a reason I write during the day!

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Ophelia: Sure. Right now I'm working through the inevitable frustration of trying to get my next manuscript published. I'm currently searching for an agent who handles YA fiction, as well. Someone recently asked me about my dream of being a famous author, but you know what? That's not exactly it. In the end, I don't care if people can't remember my name. But I'd sure love it if they remembered my characters. Thanks for asking!

Meet Author Pamela Todd!

2009-10-07T21:06:00.000-05:00

Today's guest is Pamela Todd -- author of the award-winning novel The Blind Faith Hotel (Simon and Schuster, 2008), described by reviewers as "a deeply felt novel about coming to understand what home really means" . . . "a wrenching, funny, heartwarming story" . . . "a careful exploration of relationships and the emotional dynamics of a family in transition." Pam also wrote Pig and the Shrink (Delacorte, 1999), a "funny middle-grade novel about a boy who tries to turn his overweight friend into a science fair project, only to find that his friend has his own ideas about how to live his life."

For more information about Pamela Todd, visit her web site: http://www.pamelatodd.com/.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Pam: I can’t remember not wanting to be a writer. It’s the only thing I know how to do.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Pam: When I was in third grade, I wrote a poem about commercials and how they made you want to read a book instead of watch TV. Apparently the Chicago Public Schools liked the topic because they published it in a district-wide collection of kids’ poetry.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Pam: My family is my cheering section. I have a great husband who loves books, loves authors, and loves to read. My children – some of whom are writers themselves – are also delightfully encouraging. My Mom is an artist who is in her eighties and still painting – very inspiring. And my sister gives me all my good ideas.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Pam: I was born on the streets of Chicago – literally. I made my entrance a little prematurely – in the car on the way to the hospital. I grew up on the west side in a neighborhood of two-flats, with an unending supply of interesting characters. And I’ve lived the rest of my life about two miles away from where I started out. Chicago is the best city in the world, for my money. We have a beautiful lake and natural areas, a vibrant arts community, an unending supply of free summer entertainment…we’re green, we’re friendly, we’re real…we gave the U.S. a great president…and we totally should have gotten the Olympics.

Q: What was easy about writing The Blind Faith Hotel? What was difficult?

Pam: Writing about nature comes easily. And characters grow in my head like weeds. But plotting is more work.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in The Blind Faith Hotel, choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

Pam: Ivy. I want to know what happened to him after the book ended.

Q: You mention on your web site that The Blind Faith Hotel was inspired in many ways by your own life. What about your novel Pig and the Shrink? Did that arise out of personal experience as well?

Pam: Weirdly, yes, although I had forgotten the incident entirely until long after the book was published. Pig and the Shrink is about a boy who turns his friend into a science fair project. I was a psychology major in college, and one of my experiments was trying to get my roommates to quit smoking using the power of suggestion. It worked about as well as Tucker Harrison’s project did.

Q: You are currently working on a novel called Escaping Gravity. For the other writers out there, what "stage" are you at with this new novel? What has been the biggest challenge so far?

Pam: My biggest challenge is staying focused. I’ve written two essays and two picture books recently, and now I’m off on another adventure – starting an interactive wildlife corridor project. Fortunately, Escaping Gravity has continued to write itself. I am keeping notes and it seems to be developing with or without me.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Pam: If not now…when? Just thought I’d throw that in.

Myers Briggs for Your Blog!

2009-10-07T12:59:00.000-05:00

You know about the Myers Briggs Personality Test? Well, now there’s a version of that for blogs. Visit Typealyzer, enter the URL of your blog, and see what you get. It Happened in Chicago (the blog) is:

ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment and are highly skilled at seeing and fixing what needs to be fixed. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

We have a winner!

2009-09-14T15:26:00.000-05:00

We have a winner for Quiz #2! Congratulations to Janet G. Messenger, the only person who answered all five questions correctly. She wins an autographed copy of It Happened in Chicago!

The answers I desired (and which Janet provided) are as follows:

1. City of the Big ____________
Answer: (b) Shoulders
Comment: Most people got this one right. The nickname "City of the Big Shoulders" originally comes from the poem "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg: http://www.bartleby.com/165/1.html

2. The ___________ City
Answer: (d) All of the above (Prairie, Windy, Second)
Comment: Six people got this right.

3. ______ of the Prairie
Answer: (c) Gem
Comment: Only one person got this right. Although "Pride of the Prairie" is a lovely nickname, to the best of my knowledge, it is not used for Chicago. I took a chance on this one because somebody, somewhere may use it -- but I'm sure it's not a commonly accepted nickname.

4. Hog Butcher to the ________
Answer: (a) World
Comment: The actual quote from Sandburg's poem "Chicago" is "Hog Butcher for -- not to -- the World." I fell prey to a common error that people make when quoting this line.

5. __________town
Answer: (d) All of the above (Chi- , Packing, My kind of...)
Comment: Yep, they're all good. Most people chose (a) Chi-, which is a correct answer but not the only correct answer. "Packingtown" historically referred to a particular Chicago neighborhood but has also been used for the city as a whole (due, of course, to the huge significance of Union Stockyards in Chicago history). For example, a literary journal of the arts out of the University of Illinois at Chicago is called Packingtown Review. "My Kind of Town" is the title of a song about Chicago composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Sammy Cahn, made famous by Frank Sinatra.

Thanks to everybody who participated! There will be another quiz next month.

Meet Jen Cullerton Johnson!

2009-09-11T14:00:00.001-05:00

In addition to interviews with authors who have written about Chicago (or used Chicago as a setting for their books), I'm starting a new series which will highlight authors who call Chicago home. (Let's call the new series: "It's Happening In Chicago RIGHT NOW!")

My guest today is Jen Cullerton Johnson -- a writer, educator, and urban environmentalist who lives and works in Chicago. Cullerton's published works include Seeds of Change: The Wangari Maathai Story (Summer, Lee & Low / 2010).

On October 10, Cullerton and fellow Chicago authors Michelle Duster, Cynthea Liu, and Trina Sotira will present a writing seminar titled "Collect, Recollect, Connect!" For more information about the seminar, go to MuseWrite.

For more information about Jen Cullerton Johnson, visit her web site: http://www.jencullertonjohnson.com

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Jen: My mother died when I was 9 years old and in many ways ended my childhood. Since then I have always been trying to bring back those memories of her and reconstruct her on the page. After I graduated college and moved to Buenos Aires, I was teaching but while I taught I wrote. Education and writing seemed to intertwine. It was then when I decided I would write to become a better teacher and by being a better teacher, I wrote seriously.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Jen: I published many short stories for literary journals. Most of the stories centered on a character that suffered a loss of some kind—be it physical or emotional. One story called "Set the Spine Straight", published by the Coe Review is about a boy who was born with a birth defect, and after years of being neglected in a State facility, his mother comes to bring him home. Writing that story, I felt like I was working out issues of acceptance and direction.

Currently, I am working on a full-length memoir called Yoshimura’s Ghost: Two Years in Rural Japan. The book is about living and working in Japan as the mother of a young child. It weaves in different threads of culture, education, and personal experiences. I have great hopes for this book, especially since I feel it is useful for a cross-country exchange for teachers, mothers, and writers. You can read a sample chapter published on line called, Name Brand Beauties on Sale: Teenage Compensated Dating in Rural Japan.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Jen: I have many friends who are established writers. Their successes inspired me to continue. Yet, my biggest inspiration is my grandmother. She is my best reader. At 73 she became an actress and went on stage. She also has a very critical eye. I can’t pass any B.S. through her, so she keeps it real.

Of course there are writers I admire like the late Lynda Hull, Paul Celan, Toni Morrison, and political people, like Wangari Maathai, who won the Nobel Prize for her work with the environment. But mostly it is my grandmother and a few close friends who keep me motivated.

Q: Please tell us a little about your ties to Chicago.

Jen: It is family lore that my mother’s family, the Cullertons, has been in Chicago politics for over 150 years. True or not, I grew up knowing that civil service was an important and worthy career.

I have worked for Chicago Public Schools and other educational organizations as an educator, grant writer, and curriculum developer. Currently I am a teacher at a network of charter schools in the inner city.

Q: What was easy about writing Seeds of Change? What was difficult?

Jen: Seeds of Change was not difficult to write. I knew I wanted to write a book for children where they could see a real-life person doing good for the environment. I was very lucky that the life of Wangari Maathai was so inspiring. She is an amazing woman, not only for her work with the environment and the Greenbelt Movement, but for her outstanding dedication to women and children.

Also, my editor, Jennifer Fox at Lee & Low, is exceptional, always pushing for the best in text and in the writer. I am grateful that she allowed me to tell Wangari’s story in an honest and engaging way.

Q: How did you come to be a member of the group of Chicago writers at MuseWrite.com?

Jen: Last April, I posted an Off Topic Reading Opportunity. I invited SCBWI members to donate their time and read their books or talk about writing with LEARN Charter School Network, Romano-Butler Campus.

Five wonderful writers agreed to come and share their work with our students. We had a large turn out of 300 students and their families. Most of the children had never met a writer and had no idea how to connect the person to the page. It was incredible the outpourings of connections and dreams made that evening. I am and always will be grateful to Michelle Duster, Mary Jo Reinhart, Cheryl Burton, Cynthea Liu, and Trina Sotira for their generosity.

From that one evening, many good things have happened. Careers have been bolstered. Students have begun to have more interaction with the literary arts. As an educator and a writer, I could not have imagined the impact.

Three of the writers, Michelle, Trina, and Cynthea decided to work together and bring this writing experience to others. We have been very blessed to see such an awesome response. You would not believe how many people want to tell their stories but need a little help getting down a game plan. I think it is all about connection.

Q: The Muse.Write.com group will conduct a seminar in Chicago on October 10, 2009. Is there anything you’d like to say to the people who are thinking about attending?

Jen: I would suggest watching the Channel 7 television show, Chicagoing. We talked about the seminars and bringing writing back into our lives and our communities. I think anyone who is interested in developing their story be it fiction or nonfiction will find a place at our seminar. Cliché as it sounds, writing is a journey and those we meet along the way help us.

Valya Dudycz Lupescu

2009-09-07T10:20:00.001-05:00

Be sure to read this interview with Chicagoan Valya Dudycz Lupescu at Kevin Neilson's blog, Between the Lines! Check out the rest of the blog while you're at it. Kevin Neilson rocks!

Chicago Nicknames Quiz!

2009-09-06T10:37:00.000-05:00

This is the second in a series of quizzes about Chicago that I will post from time to time. Everyone who answers all five questions correctly will be entered in a drawing to win a free, autographed copy of It Happened in Chicago!

The deadline for entering this contest is Sunday, September 13. Just post your answers to the Quiz in a Comment and make sure you provide a way for me to contact you. If you prefer not to post contact info publicly, you'll have to check back here next week to find out if you won. If you win, you can email me privately with your snail mail address.

A couple of these might be considered "trick questions." That's just to make it more fun! Don't worry. I'm a lenient grader.

There is no penalty for guessing! So go on and give it a whirl. You know you want to. Good luck to all! Ready? Set? GO!

Chicago Nicknames Quiz

1. City of the Big ____________
(a) Crooks
(b) Shoulders
(c) Restaurants
(d) All of the above

2. The ___________ City
(a) Prairie
(b) Windy
(c) Second
(d) All of the above

3. ______ of the Prairie
(a) Pride
(b) Cesspool
(c) Gem
(d) All of the above

4. Hog Butcher to the ________
(a) World
(b) President
(c) Illinois Pork Festival
(d) All of the above

5. __________town
(a) Chi- (pronounced chai or shai)
(b) Packing
(c) My kind of
(d) All of the above

Meet Carmela Martino!

2009-09-01T15:06:00.000-05:00

Today's guest is Carmela Martino, author of the middle-grade novel Rosa Sola (Candlewick Press, 2005), which is set in Chicago. The Chicago Tribune described Rosa Sola as "a lucid and quiet telling that respects its characters’ historical perspectives."

Carmela is one of six children's authors who offer great ideas and insights in the blog Teaching Authors. To learn more about Carmela and to read an excerpt from Rosa Sola, visit Carmela's web site.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Carmela: As best I can recall, I was in sixth or seventh grade. That’s when I started keeping a journal and writing poetry. I still have a few journal pages and poems from back then. I wish I’d saved them all, though.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Carmela: My first poems were pretty angst-filled, struggling with deep issues ranging from “What is the meaning of life?” to “Will I get asked to prom?” Several were published in my high school yearbook, and one called “My Sanctuary” was published in an anthology of writings by Chicago public school students.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Carmela: Interestingly, the person who gave me the most encouragement was a history teacher. While I always did well in English, I don’t recall my English teachers as being particularly encouraging. On the other hand, my Advanced Placement U.S. history teacher gave me wonderful feedback about how clear and insightful my essays were. His positive comments meant so much to me that I saved those papers and still have them.

Q: The setting always plays an important role in a book. Can you tell us one thing about Rosa Sola that really says "Chicago"?

Carmela: The most obvious Chicago feature is Wrigley Field. Rosa and her family are all Cubs fans—the story mentions that Rosa’s godfather takes her to a game at Wrigley Field every June to celebrate the end of the school year. There’s also a scene early in the novel set at Fullerton Avenue Beach.

Q: Your book is set in Chicago. What other ties do you have to the city?

Carmela: Like my main character, I was born and raised in Chicago. The first home I remember was in the Austin area. I attended Our Lady Help of Christians elementary school, which used to be on Leamington Ave. Later, we moved farther north and west, near the intersection of Grand and Austin, and I attended Steinmetz High School. I also graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Although I live in the suburbs now, I still enjoy coming into the city periodically (as long as I don’t have to drive in the terrible traffic!).

Q: What was easy about writing Rosa Sola? What was difficult?

Carmela: I don’t recall any of it as being particularly “easy.” The novel began as a short story called “Rosa’s Prayer,” which I wrote while working on my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College. The story was in response to an assignment to write about an event from my childhood that still aroused emotion in me. I chose to write about the fear I’d felt at age ten, after my mother nearly died in childbirth. Basing the story on real events helped make it more authentic, but it forced me to relive a painful time in life. In the end, though, the process was very cathartic, and the book turned out to be about finding hope and healing after living through a tragedy.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Rosa Sola, choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

Carmela: I think I’d most like to meet Uncle Sal. Both my grandfathers died long before I was born. When I wrote Rosa, Sola, Uncle Sal became the epitome of the grandfather I never had.

Q: Of the real-life places mentioned in Rosa Sola, what is one of your favorites?

Carmela: I’d have to say, Wrigley Field. It has so much history and exudes a special atmosphere. While there’s no actual scene in the novel set there, Rosa loves the tradition of going there every summer. I certainly enjoyed all the times I’ve attended games there.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Carmela: I have a short story about another Cubs fan (this time a boy) that will be published next spring in an anthology called I Fooled You: Ten Stories of Tricks, Jokes and Switcheroos, edited by Johanna Hurwitz. The story is called “Big Z, Cammi, and Me.”

Also, I’d like to say that my other passion, besides writing, is teaching writing. I teach workshops for children and adults at several locations in the Chicago area. For details, see the “Programs and Classes” page of my website, www.carmelamartino.com.

And thank you, Scotti, for spotlighting books about (or set in) Chicago.

Meet Sean Chercover

2009-08-25T16:37:00.000-05:00

Today's guest is Sean Chercover. Chercover, a former real-life Private Eye, chose Chicago as the setting for his first novel, Big City Bad Blood (HarperCollins, 2007). The Chicago Sun Times described the book as "Sean Chercover's love letter to Chicago. . .a multilayered tapestry," and noted: "Chicago comes alive in this book." I have this one in my "to read" stack. I'm looking forward to it!

Chercover's second book, Trigger City (HarperCollins, 2008) also takes place in the Windy City. Both books star a Chicago detective named Ray Dudgeon.

Trigger City comes out in paperback TODAY!

Read more about Sean and his books at his website.

*********
Q: When did you first realize that you wanted to write for publication?

Sean: I was in the 5th grade when I first had the idea that I might grow up to write fiction. But it took me a long time to get up the gumption to try it seriously, and I was 40 when my first novel hit the stores.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Sean: The first work of fiction that I showed to anyone was a short story I wrote in the 5th grade. The assignment was to write "What I Did On Summer Vacation" but I took it as an opportunity to write fiction. So I wrote a story of two inmates at a summer camp that was run like a prison. The inmates were my best friend Greg, and me. We staged a daring escape, and at the end I was shot in the back by one of the guards. The last line was "And then, I died." The teacher told me that you can't write a story narrated by a dead person. She was wrong. You can.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Sean: Three college professors were very encouraging: Franklin Ashley at the University of South Carolina, and both Fred Guardaphe and Paul Carter Harrison at Columbia College Chicago.

Q: In addition to writing books about Chicago, what other ties do you have to the city?

Sean: I first moved to Chicago in 1987, to attend Columbia College. Later, I worked in Chicago as a private detective. I absolutely love Chicago. It's a great city to live in, and a great city to write about.

Q: How does your previous occupation as a private investigator help or hinder you in your writing?

Sean: It helped enormously to have the experience first hand. I learned a hell of a lot, and it provided me with the knowledge to get all sorts of authentic details into my work that most PI fiction gets wrong. The downside is, I often have the urge to strive too hard for realism. Ultimately, the needs of the narrative come first, and you shouldn't let the desire for authenticity to get in the way of that. So that's something I keep an eye out for. But the experience helps more than it hinders. Way more.

Q: What was easy about writing Big City Bad Blood? What was difficult?

Sean: The section of the book that takes place in Hollywood wrote very easily and quickly, and action sequences are always fun to write. The most difficult thing was just getting the critical voices inside my head to shut the hell up.

Q: Of the scenes you wrote for Big City Bad Blood, what is one of your favorites?

Sean: The "swimming pool" scene is the one that readers most often mention, and it was a blast to write. One of my other favorites is the "underground garage" scene, and the police interrogation that follows.

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Big City Bad Blood, choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

Sean: Of course I hope you'll meet my protagonist, Ray Dudgeon, but that's too easy an answer. I'll go with Gravedigger Peace. Gravedigger is a former mercenary who now works as head groundskeeper in a Chicago cemetery. He's a violent man with a violent past, who now strives for peace. After Big City Bad Blood, I wrote a short story about Gravedigger, which was nominated for an Edgar Award. And he returns in Trigger City.

Q: What would you like us to know right now about your second book, Trigger City?

Sean: Right now, I'd like you to know that Trigger City comes out in paperback on August 25th. I'm happy to report that it won the Dilys and Crimespree awards, and it is nominated for the Anthony, Barry, and Macavity awards.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Sean: Just my thanks to everyone who has read my books and helped to spread the word to others. Word-of-mouth has brought me many new readers, and I appreciate it more than I can say.
________________

Radio Interview

2009-08-24T12:50:00.000-05:00

Be sure to check out my interview on WJBC Radio!

3-foot alligator captured in Chicago River - Chicago Breaking News

2009-08-22T16:47:00.001-05:00

3-foot alligator captured in Chicago River - Chicago Breaking News

Posted using ShareThis

We have a winner!

2009-08-18T22:19:00.000-05:00

For answering all five questions correctly, the winner of a free, autographed copy of It Happened in Chicago is B. Hoffmeister! Congratulations!

* * * * * *

The correct answers for

Quizzical Quotes about Chicago

are:

1. "My son was not a gangster. He was always a good boy, until he got to going around with that North Side gang."
(b) Josephine Schwimmer in 1929

2. "In this as in many of its public endeavors, the methods of Chicago are noisy and more or less offensive to dignity and good taste."
(a) The New York Times in 1889

3. "Chicago was attractive in its ugliness, grim and begrimed, a city that still had the spirit of frontier days."
(c) Charlie Chaplin in 1915

4. "I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago. . . . I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages."
(c) Rudyard Kipling in 1891

5. "Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt."
(d) Studs Terkel in 1978

Meet Karen Abbott!

2009-08-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

Today's guest is Karen Abbott, author of the New York Times bestseller, Sin in the Second City, described by the Chicago Tribune as "the most engaging, thoroughly researched work to be published on its subject… a rousingly racy yarn.”

Sin in the Second City provides a meticulously researched yet highly entertaining portrait of the most famous brothel in American history: the Everleigh (pronounced ever-lay) Club. The book takes us back to early 20th century Chicago, where we meet the famous and the infamous, the prosperous and the poor, the scandalous and the straight-laced. It's a trip well worth taking, and Abbott is a phenomenal tour guide.

I read Sin in the Second City as part of my research for It Happened in Chicago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am delighted and honored that Karen Abbott accepted my request for an interview.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

I began writing as soon as I learned to read, at age four, but I never wanted to “be a writer.” Simply put, I didn’t think that was a job someone could grow up to do. It seemed unfathomable to me. I majored in English in college with the intention of going to law school. Around junior year, I realized that a) I was sick of school, and b) I couldn’t afford to add law school debt to my already daunting student loans. On a whim, I applied for a summer internship at Philadelphia magazine, and got it. Within a week, I knew I wanted to be a journalist. I was 21 years old and I found that atmosphere incredibly intoxicating, even though I spent a good bit of my time running errands and fact-checking rather mundane bits of information. I was lucky enough to work as a journalist in Philly for six years before trying my hand at book-length narrative nonfiction. I feel badly for current college students who are interested in newspaper and magazine jobs; they’re just not there anymore.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

I started with fairy tales—witches that melted and shape-shifting creatures, that sort of thing. Then I became obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe and tried to write poems that “answered” his. (I’m still a rabid fan; one of my African Grey parrots is named “Poe,” and the other is “Dexter,” after the novelist Pete Dexter). When I was thirteen I took a mystery writing class, and afterward I began sending awful short stories to Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock featuring murderous matrons and cross-dressing grandmothers and all sorts of sordid, sick cameo characters. I’m surprised my mother didn’t put me into therapy. Then again, I spent my entire life in Catholic school, and I guess she thought the nuns would straighten me out.

Q: Whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Two of my favorite writers also happen to be two of my best friends: the novelists Sara Gruen and Joshilyn Jackson. I honestly couldn’t write books without them. Not only are they invaluable readers and critique partners, they also sustain me on a daily basis. Writing is an incredibly solitary and lonely job, and if you don’t have people to yank you out of your own head and force you to engage with the rest of the world, you’ll go insane. I can literally go eight hours without saying one word out loud, to anyone, and most of the people I do “talk to” have been dead for a very long time. So we check in with each other during the day, help each other set goals, let each other rant. A few times a year, we have a writers’ retreat at Sara’s house. We each hole up in a different room, and only after we achieve our predetermined goals are we allowed to “play.” And by “play,” I mean drink enormous filthy martinis and eat yummy bad things. It’s great fun, and I’m so lucky to have them both.

Q: Obviously you have written a book about Chicago. What other ties to Chicago do you have?
I had never been to Chicago before I began researching SIN, but do have an oddly personal connection to the city. In 1905, my great-grandmother and her sister immigrated to the United States from Slovenia. They settled in Pittsburgh, but one weekend the sister took a trip to Chicago and was never heard from again. I was always intrigued and haunted by this bit of family lore, and as I began looking into stories of “disappearing girls” at the turn of the 20th century, these tales really captured my imagination. Chicago was a thrilling but dangerous place to be during that time; there were even guidebooks that warned people about which streets to avoid and which establishments to be wary of, and many young women did, for whatever reason, end up working in houses of prostitution. I never did find out what happened to my missing relative, but I do hope she would’ve been Everleigh Club material…

Q: What was easy about writing Sin in the Second City? What was difficult?

I was so intrigued by the characters and the setting and the story that I could’ve happily researched that book for the rest of my life. So the research was easy. I’d say the hard part was assembling all of my endnotes. I’d never had to compile endnotes before, and I stupidly failed to keep track of many facts during the writing process; I was too interested in telling the story to be bothered noting where various pieces of it came from. I paid for that, dearly, when I stayed up nearly a week straight in a coffee-fueled panic to hand them in by deadline. I learned my lesson for the second book.

Q: Of the places mentioned in Sin in the Second City, what is one of your favorites?

The Everleigh Club, absolutely! I spent a thrilling day at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s special collections room, where they have one of the original advertising brochures that Minna Everleigh mailed out across the country. It was amazing just to hold a piece of history like that in my hands. The Everleigh Club looked so fantastic to me, so magical and gaudy and over-the-top, that at times I could scarcely believe it existed. It’s why I included so many photographs in the book; words couldn’t do the place justice. Although I think the Chicago Tribune put it well when they called the Japanese Throne Room “a whore’s idea of what a Japanese parlor might look like.” I would give anything to jump into a time machine and spend a week at that brothel. Hell, even an hour.

Q: Of the people mentioned in Sin in the Second City, choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

I’d have to say Minna Everleigh, of course—she was the heart and soul of the whole operation (sister Ada, I think, was the brains). And I’d love to get to the bottom of the sisters’ numerous secrets and hear more about the wild things that went on behind the Club’s doors. But the sisters’ main nemesis, Madam Vic Shaw, would be a close second. I’m really interested in women who make their own lives, who aren’t fortunate enough to have lives handed to them, and I understand exactly where Vic Shaw was coming from, and why she hated the sisters. She scrimped and clawed and scraped to became Queen of the Levee (dubious though that title may be) and she was not about to let a pair of haughty, aristocratic sisters saunter in and steal it without a fight. Her schemes to dethrone the sisters were both ridiculous and hilarious, and I'd love to chat about them with her.

Q: What is one of the most surprising pieces of information you uncovered in your research for Sin in the Second City?

I was really shocked by the findings of the Chicago Vice Commission. This was a detailed, graphic compilation of exactly what a street-level prostitute in Gilded Age America had to endure just to survive. One girl charged five cents for intercourse, and had nearly $5,000 saved up in the bank. You do the math. It was horrifying, and it really made me appreciate the reformers’ point of view.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

I just turned in the manuscript for my second book, American Rose, a portrait of the legendary Gypsy Rose Lee and Depression-era America. Gypsy was a fascinating, immensely complex woman, by turns tragic and triumphant, and her life story really is a microcosm of America through the 20th century. Gypsy was brilliant at adapting to changing times and reinventing herself, and managed to remain relevant long after she stopped stripping off her clothes. She’s a true American icon, and the famous movie and Broadway play are fairy tales that have little to do with who she really was and how she became that person. I’m having great fun with her, and I look forward to spilling all of her secrets. You can get a sneak preview of some of them on twitter: twitter.com/GypsyRoseLee.

The "battle" of Fort Dearborn

2009-08-14T15:32:00.001-05:00

Having written about the 1812 "incident" at Fort Dearborn in my book, I was surprised by the decision to rename the event a "battle" after it had been called a "massacre" all these years. I'm surprised because to me (as Dennis Byrne says in his article, link below), a "battle" involves two sides of combatants pitted against each other.

What happened just outside Fort Dearborn in 1812 involved the slaughter of innocent, unarmed women and children, along with armed Native American warriors and soldiers. The whites were leaving the fort because they could no longer be certain of receiving provisions. They were on their way to another fort, escorted by the Native Americans who then attacked them.

It seems that the word "battle" is used in history books to describe incidents where Native American women and children were slaughtered by whites. So perhaps renaming the Fort Dearborn Massacre is justified. Or perhaps we need to revise the history books. The truth is, both whites and Native Americans did slaughter the innocent. What are we really trying to accomplish with this name change?

I encourage you to read the articles and commentary in the Chicago Tribune before commenting.

Massacre? What Massacre?

The outrageous PC whitewashing of the Fort Dearborn Massacre - Dennis Byrne's Barbershop

Win a free copy of IHIC - Quiz #1

2009-08-14T14:53:00.000-05:00

This is the first in a series of quizzes about Chicago that I will post from time to time. Everyone who answers all five questions correctly will be entered in a drawing to win a free, autographed copy of It Happened in Chicago.

The deadline for entering this first contest is Tuesday, August 18. Just post your answers to the Quiz in a Comment and make sure you provide a way for me to contact you. If you prefer not to post contact info publicly, you'll have to check back here next week to find out if you won. If you win, you can email me privately with your snail mail address.

There is no penalty for guessing! So go on and give it a whirl. You know you want to. Good luck to all! Ready? Set? GO!

Quizzical Quotes about Chicago

Who said:

1. "My son was not a gangster. He was always a good boy, until he got to going around with that North Side gang."
(a) Al Capone in 1927
(b) Josephine Schwimmer in 1929
(c) Oprah Winfrey in 1984
(d) Mike Ditka in 1985

2. "In this as in many of its public endeavors, the methods of Chicago are noisy and more or less offensive to dignity and good taste."
(a) The New York Times in 1889
(b) Charlie Comiskey in 1901
(c) Richard J. Daley in 1966
(d) Hugh Hefner in 1971

3. "Chicago was attractive in its ugliness, grim and begrimed, a city that still had the spirit of frontier days."
(a) Jane Addams in 1890
(b) Herman H. Kohlsaat in 1895
(c) Charlie Chaplin in 1915
(d) Abbie Hoffman in 1968

4. "I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago. . . . I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages."
(a) René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1683
(b) Mary Todd Lincoln in 1875
(c) Rudyard Kipling in 1891
(d) Billy Sianis in 1945

5. "Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt."
(a) "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in 1919
(b) Nathan Leopold in 1924
(c) Judge Julius Hoffman in 1968
(d) Studs Terkel in 1978

Meet Laura Crawford!

2009-08-11T22:27:00.000-05:00

Today's guest is Laura Crawford, author of several children's books. Her picture book In Arctic Waters (2007) was published by Sylvan Dell Publishing, which also published my recently released picture book One Wolf Howls.

I am interviewing Laura because of her book Postcards from Chicago (Raven Tree Press / 2008). Written for ages 6-12, Postcards from Chicago takes us on a tour of Chicago with a girl named Anna, who shares her travels through a series of postcards. Each page includes additional facts about the places Anna visits in the Windy City.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Laura: I was about 30 years old when I decided to become a writer!! That surprises some people. As a child, I liked math and science. As an adult, I like to write about social studies. I’ve changed direction over the years! I was inspired to write children’s books when I was getting my Master’s Degree in Reading at NIU.

Q: Whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Laura: Three Illinois authors have made a significant difference in my career as an author. The first is Steve Layne, a professor I had when I attended NIU. He was so excited about the book he had written and recently had published. Something in my head said ‘If he can do it, so can I’. It took a few years, but I enrolled in writing classes with Carmela Martino and Heidi Roemer. Both are very talented and patient teachers. Their guidance and support have made my books possible.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Laura: The first book I wrote was Postcards From Washington, DC. I wrote it when I was taking a class at a local community college. At that time, I was a second grade teacher. I had been looking for a book to use in my classroom to teach young students about the interesting places in our capital. I could not find one, so I wrote one. After a long time of submitting, I finally got a call from Raven Tree Press saying they would like to publish my book….and would I like to do two more? Of course I would! I was ecstatic.

Another one of my early works turned into In Arctic Waters from Sylvan Dell. This book was inspired by a trip to the Shedd Aquarium with my Dad. The beluga whales were hilarious- they swam up, squeaked and splashed us. At that time I was teaching a unit on the Arctic animals, so I came home and wrote a book starring a beluga whale. That book went through many, many revisions and rejections before being picked up by Sylvan Dell.

Q: Obviously you have written a book about Chicago. What other ties to Chicago do you have?

Laura: Not too many! I live in the suburbs of Chicago and don’t go downtown very often. As I started researching, I learned so much—there are so many fun and historical things to do. I realized that I should be taking advantage of all of the fascinating sights since I am only an hour away!

Q: What was easy about writing Postcards from Chicago? What was difficult?

Laura: One of the hardest parts of doing the Postcard series is coming up with 14 places for the main character to visit. For Chicago, it was not as hard since I had been to so many of these places. The list for New York, on the other hand, was quite difficult!

Q: Of the places mentioned in Postcards from Chicago, what is one of your favorites?

Laura: Well that is a funny story. In the original version of Postcards From Chicago, I had included a page about Wrigley Field and the ‘curse of the goat’. I am a huge Cubs fan, so that was the first page I wrote. As the book progressed, the editor said they could not find pictures of Wrigley Field that they could use, so I had to take it out. I offered to take the pictures myself or have my photographer friend take them, but they said no. Unfortunately, they wanted a postcard about Soldier Field instead. I hate football!! So….to answer the question of what is my favorite (instead of what would have been my favorite) I will say the Shedd Aquarium. I love those belugas!

Q: Did you take the photographs used in Postcards from Chicago or are they actual postcards or photos taken by someone else for the book?

Laura: Everyone asks me that, and the answer is no. I always say that it took 4 people to make this book. I wrote it, Bonnie Adamson illustrated it, someone took the pictures, and someone translated the sidebars into Spanish. One of the unique things about Raven Tree Press is that they always incorporate Spanish into their books. It was a group effort. And if I had been in charge of the pictures, page one would have been Wrigley Field!

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Laura: Yes, this book holds a special place in my heart because I dedicated it to a coworker, Kim Corcoran. We taught third grade together in Sleepy Hollow, Illinois. She died unexpectedly and never got to see this book. We were planning on going down town to do research at the time of her death. Also, her favorite animal was the polar bear, which is pictured on the page for the Lincoln Park Zoo. Since that was unplanned, it is kind of a cool little tribute to her!

An Interview with Adam Selzer

2009-08-04T13:28:00.000-05:00

This is the first in a series of interviews I hope to do with authors who write about Chicago.

Today's guest is Adam Selzer. I met Adam at the 2009 Young Authors Conference at Illinois State University this past spring. Adam is the author of many books, including a number of books for young people. Check out his web site for a complete list.

My purpose in interviewing Adam here is because of the book Weird Chicago: Forgotten History, Strange Legends & Mysterious Hauntings of the Windy City. Described on the cover as "The Ultimate Book of Chicago Ghosts & Mysteries," the book was written by Adam Selzer, Troy Taylor, Ken Melvoin-Berg, and Willie Williams.

Okay! Here we go, following a traditional Q&A interview format.

Q: How old were you when you first realized that you wanted to be a writer?

Adam: 7 or 8, I think. I still wanted to be a baseball player at the time, too, but I found that I was pretty good at writing.

Q: Describe one of your earliest works. Who or what inspired you to write it?

Adam: "The Great Monkey Hunt" was a picture book about lions looking for monkeys to keep as pets. I was in second grade, I think. I had this idea that I could write a book and get it published, and figured it ought to be about monkeys.

Q: Can you name someone whose encouragement made a significant difference as you developed into a writer?

Adam: I can name any number of teachers who really encouraged me - especially in grade school. After that, there wasn't a lot of creative writing in class. I hardly ever got to write a story after about seventh grade.

Q: Obviously you have written a book about Chicago. What other ties to Chicago do you have?

Adam: Well, I live here! No deep-rooted ties or anything, though. I get a lot of crap from people on the tours for being born in Iowa, for some reason. I guess one of the other tours in town is making a big deal about being "native born Chicagoans," which is just ridiculous. These are the same people who criticize me for writing a children's book based on Watergate because I wasn't born when Nixon was president. Do these people bug Shakespeareans for not being old enough to have known Shakespeare? Or not being from Stratford-on-Avon?

Q: When writing Weird Chicago, did you and your co-authors each "sign up" for certain topics, or did you collaborate on topics?

Adam: That's pretty much how it worked, yeah. We made a list of topics. I'm especially proud of the "adam says..." and "Ken says..." sidebars - there are a lot of famous chicago ghost stories we sort of HAD to include, but the sidebars allowed us to mention it when we thought the story was nonsense.

Q: What was easy about writing Weird Chicago? What was difficult?

Adam: The easy part was finding the stories, and the hard part was editing it down to fit in one book! It's about the size of a phone book as it is, but I think the first draft was about twice as long.

Q: Of the stories included in Weird Chicago, what is one of your favorites?

Adam: I really like the story of Lillian Collier, the teenage flapper who ran a tea room called "The Wind Blew Inn," and was arrested for holding "petting parties" there. She and her friend insisted that "there is no snugglepupping at the Wind Blew Inn," and the judge sentenced her to read a book of fairy tales. I've been trying to find out whatever happened to her for years now!

Q: Of the characters mentioned in Weird Chicago, choose one you would like to meet and tell us why.

Adam: Jane Addams. I think spending an hour with Jane Addams would probably make me a better person. I get the impression that an hour with Jane Addams would make ANYONE a better person.

Q: You have a new book coming out in December: The Smart Aleck's Guide to American History. What would you like us to know about it right this minute?

Adam: It's uncharted territory - a young adult nonfiction book that isn't about "your changing body!" A lot of people are thinking it's going to be one of those awful books that tries to make Abe Lincoln look like a racist by taking quotes out of context, but it's not. It's not an idol-smashing book, it's just a hilarious textbook. It had to be funny, obviously, but I also wanted it to be ridiculously informative.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Adam: I have another book coming out about life as a ghost buster in Chicago: Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps. It sort of goes behind-the-scenes of the Chicago ghost tour industry -- which is one wild industry, let me tell you!

Bloomington-Normal Dillinger Connection

2009-07-24T10:22:00.001-05:00

An interesting bit in my local paper about a St. Valentine's Day Massacre connection!

Bloomington-Normal Dillinger Connection

Why I Wrote It Happened in Chicago

2009-07-15T17:28:00.000-05:00

As a child growing up in Springfield, Illinois in the 1950s, I have fond memories of visits to Chicago. I vividly recall my first ride on the "L," Brookfield Zoo, the amazing Christmas decorations in the downtown store windows, and the house on South Ada Street where my aunt, uncle, and three cousins lived.

When I told friends and family I was writing a book called It Happened in Chicago, their responses included: "Is there anything that didn't happen in Chicago?" "What happens in Chicago, stays in Chicago." "Chicago! Chicago! That toddlin' town!" (usually sung loudly and off-key) Like those responses, the events covered in this book range from the sad to the strange to the sublime, with brief stops at silly, sobering, and spectacular.

The book is dedicated to the memory of Willis J. Potts, MD, who (for all practical purposes) saved my life. Certainly he helped secure the quality of life that I enjoy to this day. I am thrilled to be able to honor his memory in a small way with It Happened in Chicago.