Episode 29: What was the strangest thing you had to do to write a book? -with Lilliam Rivera

Welcome to episode 29! Please join us with authors Grace Lin and Lilliam Rivera as they answer this kid question: “What was the strangest thing you had to do to write a book?”

TRANSCRIPTS:

Grace Lin: Hello. I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and the picture book A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Today I am here with Lilliam Rivera, author of Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit. Hi, Lilliam.

Lilliam Rivera: Hi, how are you?

Grace Lin: Good. I know you're in Los Angeles this morning.

Lilliam Rivera: Yes, it's 8:30, it's sunny, and I'm just starting my day, so I feel good.

Grace Lin: Great. So that must mean you are ready for today's question.

Lilliam Rivera: Yes.

Grace Lin: All right. Today's question is from a young person named Liana and she asks...

Liana: What was the strangest thing you had to do to write a book?

Grace Lin: What's the strangest thing you had to do to create a book?

Lilliam Rivera: Such a good question. I love it. Thank you, Liana. So I think for Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit, Goldie is a wannabe detective, and she lives in a resort, a hotel resort in Florida in the 1960s, and in this book, The Hotel Whodunit, she is trying to figure out who stole this precious swimming cap, this diamond encrusted swimming cap, and it belongs to a Hollywood starlet.

Lilliam Rivera: And she's famous for being kind of like a synchronized swimmer. So I don't know if you've ever seen synchronized swimmers, but they're amazing. They kind of dance in the water and I, for one, am not a swimmer at all, and I'm actually a little bit afraid. So what I did for this story, for this book, is I actually started taking swimming lessons just so that I could actually learn how to swim in deep water and hold my breath and just really kind of see what it's like to be underwater. And so it was the first time I ever did that, and I took swimming lessons just for this book so I could write about what it's like to dance under the water. I didn't dance, but I did learn how to swim.

Grace Lin: That's so cool. I did something similar, too, for my book, Mulan: Before the Sword. In my book, I have Mulan, she does this great adventure where she has to escape a sinking boat by flying on these... She rips the sail down from the boat and she has to fly on these sails. And so it's kind of like parasailing. And so I felt like, "Oh, I have to experience parasailing." Of course, I couldn't find anyplace that I could parasail around here because I live in landlocked Western Massachusetts. So I found the second best thing and that was zip lining. And I went zip lining just to feel what it would feel like to be flying in the air like that. And it was so much fun. And it was a really smart experience, too, because I was like, "Oh, you know this feeling of having the wind whip into your face and your hair and all those things." It was really great.

Lilliam Rivera: I love that.

Grace Lin: So I was really glad that I got to experience that.

Lilliam Rivera: I think that's the fun part, is that you try to do things that you wouldn't think of doing before. And so that's the best part of writing these kind of books, is that I get to do things that I'm like, "Oh, I've never done that before. I'll learn how to swim."

Grace Lin: I know. It kind of gives you the excuse to do all the things that you've meant to do, but haven't done, but you can call it research.

Lilliam Rivera: Exactly.

Grace Lin: So thank you so much, Liana. So thank you so much, Liana, for your great question, and thank you so much, Lilliam, for your answer.

Lilliam Rivera: Thank you. Thank you so much, Grace, for having me on here. And Liana, that was the best question.

Grace Lin: Bye.

Lilliam Rivera: Bye.

Today’s POEM comes from a boy named Paul. He is reading his poem called “Silence”.

Here's my poem, Silence. Silence can be deafening. Silence can be peaceful. Silence can be angry. Silence can be calm. Silence can be cold. Silence can be hot. Silence can be ugly. Silence can be beautiful. Silence can be as black as night. Silence can be as bright as day. Silence knows something this is not true. Silence knows some can be fools.

Thank you so much Paul!

More about today’s authors:

Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning writer and author of the young adult novels Dealing in Dreams (March 2019), The Education of Margot Sanchez (February 2018), and the middle grade novel Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit by Little, Brown. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Elle, to name a few. Lilliam lives in Los Angeles.

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook,  instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.

Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore, Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.