SCRIBES

Question: With the publication of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, you’ve become a 70-year-old-first time novelist. Have you always had a passion for writing, or is it more of a recent development?

Alan Bradley: Well, the Roman author Seneca once said something like this: “Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms–you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.” So to put it briefly, I’m taking his advice.

I actually spent most of my life working on the technical side of television production, but would like to think that I’ve always been a writer. I started writing a novel at age five, and have written articles for various publications all my life. It wasn’t until my early retirement, though, that I started writing books. I published my memoir, The Shoebox Bible, in 2004, and then started working on a mystery about a reporter in England. It was during the writing of this story that I stumbled across Flavia de Luce, the main character in Sweetness.

Q: Flavia certainly is an interesting character. How did you come up with such a forceful, precocious and entertaining personality?

AB: Flavia walked onto the page of another book I was writing, and simply hijacked the story. I was actually well into this other book–about three or four chapters–and as I introduced a main character, a detective, there was a point where he was required to go to a country house and interview this colonel.

I got him up to the driveway and there was this girl sitting on a camp stool doing something with a notebook and a pencil and he stopped and asked her what she was doing and she said “writing down license number plates“ and he said “well there can’t be many in such a place“ and she said, “well I have yours, don’t I? “ I came to a stop. I had no idea who this girl was and where she came from.

She just materialized. I can’t take any credit for Flavia at all. I’ve never had a character who came that much to life. I’ve had characters that tend to tell you what to do, but Flavia grabbed the controls on page one. She sprung full-blown with all of her attributes–her passion for poison, her father and his history–all in one package. It surprised me.

Q: There aren’t many adult books that feature child narrators. Why did you want Flavia to be the voice of this novel?

AB: People probably wonder, “What’s a 70-year-old-man doing writing about an 11-year-old-girl in 1950s England? “ And it’s a fair question. To me, Flavia embodies that kind of hotly burning flame of our young years: that time of our lives when we’re just starting out, when anything–absolutely anything!–is within our capabilities.

I think the reason that she manifested herself as a young girl is that I realized that it would really be a lot of fun to have somebody who was virtually invisible in a village. And of course, we don’t listen to what children say–they’re always asking questions, and nobody pays the slightest attention or thinks for a minute that they’re going to do anything with the information that they let slip. I wanted Flavia to take great advantage of that. I was also intrigued by the possibilities of dealing with an unreliable narrator; one whose motives were not always on the up-and-up.

She is an amalgam of burning enthusiasm, curiosity, energy, youthful idealism, and frightening fearlessness. She’s also a very real menace to anyone who thwarts her, but fortunately, they don’t generally realize it.

Q: Like Flavia, you were also 11 years old in 1950. Is there anything autobiographical about her character?

AB: Somebody pointed out the fact that both Flavia and I lacked a parent. But I wasn’t aware of this connection during the writing of the book. It simply didn’t cross my mind. It is true that I grew up in a home with only one parent, and I was allowed to run pretty well free, to do the kinds of things I wanted. And I did have extremely intense interests then–things that you get focused on. When you’re that age, you sometimes have a great enthusiasm that is very deep and very narrow, and that is something that has always intrigued me–that world of the 11-year-old that is so quickly lost.

Q: Your story evokes such a vivid setting. Had you spent much time in the British countryside before writing this book?

AB: My first trip to England didn’t come until I went to London to receive the 2007 Debut Dagger Award, so I had never even stepped foot in the country at the time of writing Sweetness. But I have always loved England. My mother was born there. And I‘ve always felt I grew up in a very English household. I had always wanted to go and had dreamed for many years of doing so.

When I finally made it there, the England that I was seeing with my eyes was quite unlike the England I had imagined, and yet it was the same. I realized that the differences were precisely those differences between real life, and the simulation of real life, that we create in our detective novels. So this was an opportunity to create on the page this England that had been in my head my whole life.

Q: You have five more books lined up in this series, all coming from Delacorte Press. Will Flavia age as the series goes on?

AB: A bit, not very much. I think she’s going to remain in the same age bracket. I don’t really like the idea of Flavia as an older teenager. At her current age, she is such a concoction of contradictions. It’s one of the things that I very much love about her. She’s eleven but she has the wisdom of an adult. She knows everything about chemistry but nothing about family relationships. I don’t think she’d be the same person if she were a few years older. She certainly wouldn’t have access to the drawing rooms of the village.

Q: Do you have a sense of what the next books in the series will be about?

AB: The second book, The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, is finished, and I’m working on the third book. I have a general idea of what’s happening in each one of the books, because I wanted to focus on some bygone aspect of British life that was still there in the ’50s but has now vanished. So we have postage stamps in the first one… The second book is about the travelling puppet shows on the village green. And one of them is about filmmaking–it sort of harks back to the days of the classic Ealing comedies with Alec Guinness and so forth.

Q: Not every author garners such immediate success with a first novel. After only completing 15 pages of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, you won the Dagger award and within 8 days had secured book deals in 3 countries. You’ve since secured 19 countries. Enthusiasm continues to grow from every angle. How does it feel?

AB: It’s like being in the glow of a fire. You hope you won’t get burned. I’m not sure how much I’ve realized it yet. I guess I can say I‘m “almost overwhelmed”–I’m not quite overwhelmed, but I’m getting there. Every day has something new happening, and communications pouring in from people all over. The book has been receiving wonderful reviews and touching people. But Flavia has been touching something in people that generates a response from the heart, and the most often mentioned word in the reviews is love–how much people love Flavia and have taken her in as if she’s a long-lost member of their family, which is certainly very, very gratifying.

(Photo © Jeff Bassett)

20 Questions With Barack Obama (from an Interview with Amazon.com)

Q: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by so many compare to writing your first book, when few people knew who you were?
A: In many ways, Dreams from My Father was harder to write. At that point, I wasn’t even sure that I could write a book. And writing the first book really was a process of self-discovery, since it touched on my family and my childhood in a much more intimate way. On the other hand, writing The Audacity of Hope paralleled the work that I do every day–trying to give shape to all the issues that we face as a country, and providing my own personal stamp on them.

Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule, how did you find time to write?
A: I’m a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day was over, and after my family was asleep–from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1 a.m. I would work off an outline–certain themes or stories that I wanted to tell–and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then I’d edit while typing in what I’d written.

Q: If readers are to come away from The Audacity of Hope with one action item (a New Year’s Resolution for 2007, perhaps?), what should it be?
A: Get involved in an issue that you’re passionate about. It almost doesn’t matter what it is–improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.

Q: You’re known for being able to work with people across ideological lines. Is that possible in today’s polarized Washington?
A: It is possible. There are a lot of well-meaning people in both political parties. Unfortunately, the political culture tends to emphasize conflict, the media emphasizes conflict, and the structure of our campaigns rewards the negative. I write about these obstacles in chapter 4 of my book, “Politics.” When you focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points, and emphasize common sense over ideology, you’d be surprised what can be accomplished. It also helps if you’re willing to give other people credit–something politicians have a hard time doing sometimes.

Q: How do you make people passionate about moderate and complex ideas?
A: I think the country recognizes that the challenges we face aren’t amenable to sound-bite solutions. People are looking for serious solutions to complex problems. I don’t think we need more moderation per se–I think we should be bolder in promoting universal health care, or dealing with global warming. We just need to understand that actually solving these problems won’t be easy, and that whatever solutions we come up with will require consensus among groups with divergent interests. That means everybody has to listen, and everybody has to give a little. That’s not easy to do.

Q: What has surprised you most about the way Washington works?
A: How little serious debate and deliberation takes place on the floor of the House or the Senate.

Q: You talk about how we have a personal responsibility to educate our children. What small thing can the average parent (or person) do to help improve the educational system in America? What small thing can make a big impact?
A: Nothing has a bigger impact than reading to children early in life. Obviously we all have a personal obligation to turn off the TV and read to our own children; but beyond that, participating in a literacy program, working with parents who themselves may have difficulty reading, helping their children with their literacy skills, can make a huge difference in a child’s life.

Q: Do you ever find time to read? What kinds of books do you try to make time for? What is on your nightstand now?
A: Unfortunately, I had very little time to read while I was writing. I’m trying to make up for lost time now. My tastes are pretty eclectic. I just finished Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, a wonderful book. The language just shimmers. I’ve started Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which is a great study of Lincoln as a political strategist. I read just about anything by Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, or Philip Roth. And I’ve got a soft spot for John le Carre.

Q: What inspires you? How do you stay motivated?
A: I’m inspired by the people I meet in my travels–hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I’m inspired by the love people have for their children. And I’m inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.

Going through a divorce is usually a long, stressful ordeal. There are piles of divorce forms to fill out, court dates and appointments with lawyers, and bitter fights that aggravate and drain each spouse.

If you’re hoping to find a simpler, less stressful way to end your marriage, you need Quickie Divorce, the guide that walks you through the divorce process step-by-step, showing you everything you can do to get an easy and cheap divorce.

Quickie Divorce is the resource you need to get a quick and easy divorce. This book, which is written by an experienced attorney, explains in clear, easy-to-understand language how to get a fast divorce. It reveals how to save valuable time and money so you can finally put an end to your relationship and move on with your life.

How to Get a Quick Divorce

Quickie Divorce, by attorney Linda H. Connell, explains all the steps involved in the entire divorce process so you can be prepared and feel confident about what to expect. This book covers:

• Hiring a quick divorce lawyer and working with your attorney
• Divorce without a lawyer and how to get a self-help divorce
• Legal research
• Grounds for divorce
• Divorce from another state or foreign country
• Dividing property and assets
• Spousal support
• Child custody, visitation, and support
• Domestic abuse, harassment, and kidnapping
• Enforcing child support and spousal support orders

This book also contains appendixes with helpful information and resources. It includes an extensive glossary, so you’ll never feel confused or intimidated by legalese again. Quickie Divorce contains a list of lawyer referral services organized by state to help you find a quick divorce lawyer, and it also explains each state’s divorce laws for those working on a do it yourself divorce. This book reveals the secrets to getting an easy and cheap divorce, such as how to:

• Be prepared for trial
• Work together and cooperate with your spouse
• Use mediation to save money and time
• Prevent pointless fights and long courtroom battles
• Enforce or change court orders

Quickie Divorce reveals an expert’s tips for how to get a quick divorce. All of the book’s quick and easy divorce strategies save you money and time so you can move on to bigger and better things.

How to Buy Your First Home, 2nd Edition,

by Attorney Diana Brodman Summers

With record-low home prices and hot properties for sale in every neighborhood across the country, there has never been a better time to buy your first home. Becoming a first-time home buyer can seem overwhelming, but How to Buy Your First Home, 2nd Edition explains the process step-by-step, giving an insider’s tips to help simplify the process and ease your stress.

How to Buy Your First Home gives you important tips in buying a house and answers all your most pressing questions, including:

” How much can I afford to spend on a house?
” How much can I afford to borrow for a mortgage?
” How do I find a mortgage company?
” Can I buy a house with bad credit?
” Where can I view property values for free?
” Where can I see a free listing of homes for sale?
” What are good questions to ask when buying a house?

You will also learn the advantages of buying your first home, like special tax breaks you may qualify for, as well as everything you need to know for your home search, from finding a mortgage loan that is right for you and how to hire a real estate agent, to handling appraisals and inspections, making an offer, and getting through closing.

Written by an experienced attorney, How to Buy Your First Home also contains the essenital tools and resources you need to be an organized, prepared home buyer. This book contains lists of useful websites that deal with every aspect of the home-buying process, and it also contains worksheets and home-buying checklists. To help you find your dream house and ensure you get a good deal, How to Buy Your First Home is the book you need.

“If you are ready to buy your first home or condo, reading How to Buy Your First Home, Second Edition, by attorney Diana Brodman Summers is a good place to start. … On my scale of 1 to 10, this very practical home-buying book rates a 10.”

-Bob Bruss, syndicated real estate columnist

Yes, it’s true — anyone can become a millionaire. How to Be a Frugal Millionaire will teach you how with eight simple steps taught by Brenda Hendrickson, an accountant and tax specialist.  For years, Brenda studied how her clients handled their money.   She often wondered why one was a millionaire and the other was looking at financial ruin. What Brenda discovered was that most of her millionaire clients didn’t possess some magical secret.  It was simple.  They accumulated money by living a frugal lifestyle.

You will soon learn How to Be a Frugal Millionaire through the essential steps of:

• Turning a negative money attitude into a positive, money-making attitude
• Making the highly effective habits of a frugal millionaire your own
• Accumulating wealth in 23 simple ways
• Using the frugal millionaire tips to finding your dream house
• Implementing simple, yet powerful, retirement strategies anyone can practice
• Conserving wealth and growing rich in 101 easy ways
• Following the principles of wealth
• Creating the next generation of frugal millionaires

With checklists and assessments, you will create your very own frugal millionaire action plan that will put you on the road to financial freedom today.

You can also sign-up for her FREE 8-Part series, “How To Be A Frugal Millionaire” by clicking HERE.

Compiled by Charles Grodin, the talented actor, author, political commentator and activist, IF I ONLY KNEW THEN… LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES is a touching, funny and insightful collection of intimate and revealing stories from Grodin and over 80 of his friends - and friends of friends.

Everyone makes mistakes… even the famous and successful. IF I ONLY KNEW THEN is brimming with jewels of wisdom from Charles Grodin’s friends and colleagues in the worlds of entertainment, sports, journalism, politics, and business. Alan Alda over-prepares for a much-anticipated interview with astronomer Carl Sagan, outshines his subject, and is ultimately embarrassed. Rosie O’Donnell considers her first love, and the importance of expressing deep emotions. Shirley MacLaine regrets none of her mistakes. Carol Burnett recounts hilariously her encounter with Cary Grant - and how it turned out to be her biggest mistake. Leonard Nimoy considers the consequences of not listening to the experts. Mario Cuomo offers advice on taking the moral high road in politics. Nicolas Perricone recounts the courage and wisdom he received from an 8 year old patient, dying of a heart condition. Carl Reiner writes of his first acting gig - and the positive side of ignorance.

Charles Grodin is the recent recipient of the William Kunstler Award for racial justice and of the Help Hero Award for his humanitarian efforts on behalf of the homeless. He is perhaps best known as a movie actor in films such as The HeartBreak Kid, Midnight Run, and the Beethoven films. He has written five books, including the bestseller It Would Be So Nice If You Weren’t Here.

All of the author’s proceeds from the book will be donated to Help USA, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to empower the homeless and others in need to become and remain self-reliant.

Every teen wonders what their parents were like before they were parents—when they first met and fell in love. To a child of divorced parents like Frannie, this question has particular poignancy, especially after her father dies too suddenly to say goodbye. As she attempts to supervise her young charges at a summer camp, Frannie struggles to make sense of a world that no longer seems safe, a world in which one moment can turn things so thoroughly for the worse.

In her father’s studio, Frannie discovers a beautiful hand-carved box with her name inscribed on it that contains a thousand wooden puzzle pieces her father cut and painted by hand. Feeling broken into pieces herself, she starts putting the puzzle together, saving the blues of water and sky for last because they, like the blues in her life, are the hardest to confront. As the puzzle slowly comes together, Frannie is catapulted into an ancient Italian village, a place suspended in time where she discovers her father as he was B.F.—before Frannie.

With a solid dose of mystery, a bit of magical realism, plenty of humor, and a character so real I feel I’ve always known her, Frannie in Pieces is a stellar debut from a celebrated screenwriter who wrote Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and You’ve Got Mail. Although this is her first YA novel, Delia’s trademark is the same—she makes you laugh as much as she makes you cry—often at the same time!

Supermodel and TV personality, Emme is best known to millions as the first full-figured model and the host of E! Entertainment/Style Network television show “Fashion Emergency.” She is now adding children’s book author to her list of accomplishments with the release of her first picture book, What Are You Hungry for?. (HarperCollins Children’s Books; ages 4-8; July 2007)

What Are You Hungry For? invites kids and parents to explore what children need to satisfy them both emotionally and nutritionally – from favorite foods to time with family and friends. The book follows a one-of-a-kind narrator as she hungers for different kinds of treats throughout the day–from a crisp red apple to a cozy cuddle with her dog; from a cheesy slice of pizza to a big bear hug from her brother–until she finds the special thing that ALWAYS makes her feel just right: being tucked in bed by her parents every night.

With bold and playful illustrations, What Are You Hungry For? is not about weight. It’s about being nurtured and finding the things that make us feel warm, safe, happy and satisfied.

“I was so thrilled to write What Are You Hungry For? because it is in direct relation to my life’s work,” says Emme. “As the mother of five year old daughter, I want to do my best to give her the tools that will help her to be the best that she can be, not a fabrication of what others want her to be. I want her to grow up feeling confident in her own body, and not wish it were someone else’s. I want her to eat when she is hungry, and speak about her emotions when she feels the need to.”

Emme Aronson lives in New Jersey with her husband Phil and their daughter, Toby Cole. As a multi-faceted supermodel, television host, best-selling author, creative director of her own full-figured clothing line, and the inspiration for her realistically proportioned Emme® doll, Emme has proven that you can be successful at any size. She has been selected by People magazine twice as one of the “50 Most Beautiful People” and has been honored by Ladies Home Journal as one of the “Most Important Women in America” and one of the “Most Fascinating Women of the Year” and as Glamour magazine’s “Woman of the Year.” She was the first full-figured model ever awarded a cosmetics contract and the first to grace a billboard in Times Square. For four seasons she hosted the E! Entertainment/Style Network television show “Fashion Emergency.” She is a published author, most recently co-writing Morning Has Broken with her husband. In 2004 she penned Life’s Little Emergencies: Everyday Rescue for Beauty, Fashion, Relationships, and Life. Emme is the Chair Ambassador of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). She is a vocal advocate for women of all ages to be fit and healthy and to increase awareness and raise funds to help treat eating and body image disorders. For more information on Emme visit www.emmestyle.com

Erik Brooks is the author and illustrator of The Practically Perfect Pajamas and Octavius Bloom and the House of Doom. Erik visits schools and coaches cross-country running and skiing when he is not working on books. He lives in Winthrop, WA with his wife and daughter. You can visit him online at www.erikbrooks.com

“You can make the case that the greatest success of the Republican senator from Arizona has not been as a politician but as a creator of his own public personality – as an existential hero and the author of inspirational books…Those who have listened to and read McCain over the years eventually catch on to his moral style. It begins with self-deprecation. It then moves to a realistic and not particularly optimistic view of human nature. But it finally arrives at a heroic sense of human possibility.”- E.J. Dionne, The Washington Post

Well before John McCain began his quest for the 2008 Republican nomination for president, he and his long-time collaborator, Mark Salter, began to write their most ambitious work to date: an examination of the art, process, and character involved in important historic decisions. The result is HARD CALL: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them (Twelve Books; Aug. 14, 2007).

[Read more →]

Every dog has his day, and in this no-holds-barred memoir, Dog the Bounty Hunter finally has his. YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE is the remarkable memoir by Duane “Dog” Chapman, the hugely popular star of the top-rated A&E hit show, Dog the Bounty Hunter. Dog entertains and inspires millions on his show-but there’s much more to his story. For the first time ever, Dog reveals the secrets of how he made the decision to turn his life around and become the greatest bounty hunter to ever live. From troubled beginnings and tragedy to triumph and transformation, Dog reveals all in his inspiring and moving memoir. [Read more →]