Episode #73: How do you think of book ideas?- with Victoria Bond
Welcome to another episode of Kids Ask Authors! Today, Grace Lin and Victoria Bond answer this very important kid question: “How do you think of book ideas?”
TRANSCRIPTS:
Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel When the Sea Turned to Silver and the picture book A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Today I'm here with Victoria Bond, the co-author of the Zora and Me trilogy, as well as the author of Zora and Me: the Summoner. Hi Victoria.
Victoria Bond: Hey Grace, how are you?
Grace Lin: Good, thank you so much for coming on our podcast.
Victoria Bond: Oh my gosh, thank you for having me.
Grace Lin: Are you ready for today's question?
Victoria Bond: I am.
Grace Lin: All right. Today's question is from a person named Nicholas, and they asked,
Nicolas: How do you think of book ideas?
Grace Lin: How do you think of book ideas?
Victoria Bond: Wow, Nicholas, that's a really, really good question. I think of things that scare me, I think of things that make me want to tell my friends I love them, I think of things that I want to change about the world, Nicholas, I think of things that I really love about the world and about people. I think about the things I wish I would have said to people that I love that I didn't say. I think about the things that make the world an amazing place and make the world a scary place.
Grace Lin: This question is one that we get quite often. In fact, this question, I did a version of this question already with Mo Willems.
Victoria Bond: Wow.
Grace Lin: And he had said something about how he doesn't get ideas, he grows ideas, and it was very interesting how he put it. But even though we answered it with him in his episode, we still got this question over and over and over again. So I'm so happy to hear your answer to this, because I love what you're saying about the things that you feel is how you get your book ideas.
Victoria Bond: Oh yeah. That's how I feel my way through a story, just looking out at the world and thinking through my friends and my family, things that have gone a little bit haywire, things that have gone great. And I think so much of writing a story is processing those moments that are both in your life and out in the wider world.
Grace Lin: When I answered this question before I said that I get my ideas from real life, but I think hearing your question helps me even clarify even more, because I get my ideas from real life, but what happens in real life is that as I go through my life, there's certain things that make me feel something. And when that feeling is strong enough, that's where I get my ideas for a book. And it doesn't have to be something even as big as anger. I'll see a beautiful sunset and I'll see how beautiful it is and it gives me a feeling of peace, and I'll be like, "Ah, there's something in there that could be in a book." All of these little things, these feelings. So I really love the way that you put it.
Victoria Bond: Well thanks, Grace. Stories are such a mirror for all of our lives, the big things, the little things, the secrets, the things that we say out loud. So, yeah, it's a great question, I understand why your listeners keep asking it, because it's a really big one.
Grace Lin: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Do you have an example of how something you felt inspired you to write the Zora and Me Summoner book?
Victoria Bond: Oh my goodness. You know, yes, actually. The past couple of years I have been really very sickened by the episodes of racial violence that are played on a loop, because people have their phones and record these instances, ranging from someone being killed, like George Floyd, to other people just being told they're in the wrong place at the wrong time and they need to leave. And I think now that the book is done, I was processing a lot of that into the book's opening sequence where a man escapes from a chain gang and comes in to Zora Neale Hurston's hometown, Eatonville, Florida, and is kind of chased by a Lynch mob.
Grace Lin: Oh, wow. I could see how some of the tragic events that are happening in this time, just so listeners know, we're recording this in August of 2020, so I could see how there's a lot of things that are going on in the news that would make you feel like you would want to write a book with Zora Hurston.
Victoria Bond: Yeah. So, so I think, because I spent about five years on the book, so in a way it's kind of like, five years of our social political history compressed into the story. If you can believe it, there's an election plot twist in Zora and Me: the Summoner, and I started thinking through that way back in 2016.
Grace Lin: Yeah. Well, I just gave the listeners the date, saying how I could see how recent events could inspire you, or make you feel things, but this just goes to show how the things that have been happening in the news have been happening a long time and have made you feel these things for quite a long time, because this book has been in the works for a while.
Victoria Bond: Right. And unfortunately the book turns out to be timely in that regard.
Grace Lin: Yeah. Well hopefully it helps the readers and our listeners feel things too that will help change the world.
Victoria Bond: Yes, I hope so. The message really from the book is that our friends are what get us through the tough times, whether they're the tough times out in the world, on the news, or the tough times in our own homes and in our relationships, it's our close friends that can really support us and hold us up. So that's always the message that I want to give readers. Because it's been friendship that actually gave birth to the Zora and Me series. So I always tell readers when I meet them, if you have a good friend, if there's something that you want to do, maybe ask your friend if they want to join you, like write a story, make some storyboards, make a song, all that kind of stuff.
Grace Lin: Oh, that's wonderful. That's an added tip for our listeners who are always looking for great writing tips. So thank you so much, Victoria.
Victoria Bond: Thank you, Grace. This has been great.
Grace Lin: Yes, and thank you so much, Nicholas, for your great question. Bye.
Victoria Bond: Bye, thanks again.
Today’s BOOK REVIEW comes from Elaine! She’s reviewing, Stella Díaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez.
My name is Elaine and the book I want to talk about is Stella Diaz Has Something to Say, written by Angela Dominguez. This book is about a third grader named Stella. She has to do a presentation about an animal and hers is fish. Stella loves marine life, especially fish, but she doesn’t think she can speak in front of her whole class because sometimes she gets mixed up with speaking Spanish and English. Stella is also nervous about talking to a new boy in her class named Stanley. I like this book because Stella likes marine life and so do I. Stella’s presentation turns out great, and I felt proud of Stella that she worked really hard and she did a really good job speaking to the whole class. Stella and Stanley become friends and it feels awesome to them and to me!
Thank you Elaine!
More about today’s authors:
Victoria Bond is a writer and professor. Her novel, Zora and Me, co-written with T.R. Simon, won the John Steptoe/Coretta Scott King Award for New Talent and was nominated for an Edgar Award in the category of Juvenile Fiction. Zora and Me was also a Junior Library Guild Selection, ABC New Voices Selection, SIBA Okra Award Winner, Fall Indie Next Top Ten Pick, Kirkus Best of 2010 Children's Books, Booklist 2010 Editor's Choice, The New York Public Library 2010 list of 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, the Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award, and a 2014 World Book Night U.S. pick. Victoria holds a MFA in poetry. The occasional essayist on issues both personal and political, she teaches first-year writing at John Jay College, The City University of New York. Victoria lives in New Jersey a short drive from where she grew up with her husband, son and their beloved pit-bull.
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.
