The Writing Process and Life After Books

Hello. I am Mlyissa Ad Warny And this is NPR's Book of the dayay So One day, as I was meandering through the streets of Keywest Florida I came upon one of my favorite places to waste away in. Sorry, Jimmy Buffett, I am actually talking about a bookstore In this case, it was famed author Judy Blomspot. s and books Bloom has written so many classic books. Many of hers in the store were signed She's lived an incredible life She reflected on her writing in a talk with NPR Scott Simon at the Santa Fe Literary Festival in May Judy Bloom, the incomparable writer of books for young adults, including, Are you there God? It's me, Margaret. Deinie Tiger eyes Tales of a fourth grade nothing and blubber doesnn't write books anymore The last one came out more than a decade ago twenty fifteen's in the Unlikely event was a book for adults. Th plane crashes within the span of two months in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where Judy was a teenager at the time It was a crazy time And how about being a writer for forty years Before you tell this story I mean, my daughter became a commercial airline pilot and she said, Mother, How could you never have told me this story? that grew up You never told her. No, but it lived inside me, you know, it was there And finally, I got to tell it Suty Bloom is done writing stories But she's not retired. She owns and runs a bookstore in Keywest, Florida And her books remain beloved, her readers numerous and devoted. I had the immense pleasure of sitting down with Judy Bloom last month at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival to talk And hereere's an excerpt from our conversation This is almost coming home for you. Tell us about your feeling for N. It is coming home for me. I don't know if the audience knows, but in nineteen seventy six in the summer I moved to New Mexico with two teenagers and a bad husband U we took care of that So yeah, I lived here. My kids went off through high school, junior high And what's really important to me is that I never could have written some of the books that I wrote without having lived here, having really known New Mexico the way that I did Well, I'm thinking of Tiger eyes, for example. That was whichich has one of the most extraordinary beginnings. This is Davey is a teenage girl. And as the book opens, she's getting dressed for her father's funeral and doesn't know what pair of shoes. She can't find her shoes And so finally Her mother says, I think, take a pair of mine. and she takes heels like that and she can't really walk in them Yeah, it's very tender and sad. It's very tender and sad and it reminded me The real gift for putting in the details that strike into our hearts details In fiction are everything Even kids write and say, I like your books because people brush their teeth. I mean, it's that kind of, you know, everyday stuff Yeah. And that It gives us a bond with the characters. That's what it is. We have to feel for them How did you begin to write? What do you think made you a writer? I was a reader And you know, I meet so many kids and they say, I want to be a writer when I grow up, but I don't like to read And I said, you know what? Forget being a writer, something else. because I think every writer that I know anyway grew up a reader. And certainly that was true for me. How do you learn to write to me, you learn to write by reading books, and then you try it out yourself and you figure out how to do it. Well what was the spark that set it in motion from reading to writing, do you think? Oh, I was married young. I had two kids young And I was desperate for creative for creative outlet. I hadd been a creative kid in school, you know, doing all kinds of things. And I loveved taking care of babies, but I needed something else and it could have been anything I have read that at one point in your life you made felt art pieces. God, my first career You know, I stopped because the Elmer's Glue started to I'm an allergic person, started to give me funny things on the tips of my fingers. And I thought, I got to find something else. and I make three hundred bucks selling those and I bought myself a small electric typewrit And the rest is history But I always had stories inside my head when I was nine years old. You, everybody knows this story. I bounced a rubber ball against the side of my house for hours. I don't know what my mother thought I was doing, but I was just bouncing catch and bouning. But really what was going on stories fabulous stories, very melodramatic stories I never told. you know, I was nine. I never told anybody. I never asked a friend hate do have stories inside your head all the time because I thought they'd think I was weird Which I might have been, but So the stories were always there. I never wrote them down Yeah. And I wrote a lot of stories that were never published. Could we hear about one? The first one was you, Mom, you And I illustrated it and believe me I am not an illustrator. A what point in your life did you do this? When I started to write children's book. Really? Oh Yes This was you mom, you you were a kid. Tell us tell us what you did. Okay, okay, I'll tell you all the things I did when I was small I suuck my thumb and love to bear one time I cut off all my hair Nough said I I think then at the end they say, so M, why do you ever fuss? You were really just like us Um You're writing for young readers. What were you trying to capture? What do you capture in that age group Oh, I don't know what I wasn't trying to do anything. I didn't I was telling a story the best that I could do. I didn't know anybody who wrote or anybody who had ever written And I was naive. in that way, I just wrote what I knew to be true. And maybe because of that, that's why I reached an audience. I found myself thinking from the moment I read, Are you there, God? it's me, Margaret. I just told my mother, I want a bra Please help me grow, God. nowhere. I love the irreverent that you honor in young people. I think that's great. And'm you know I'm not sure how many lik. It was like I had this special relationship with God. It really started with because I was trying to protect my father. And so I made bargains. If you protect daddy and keep him safe while we were separated from one another I will get one hundred on my spelling test And then it went into getting a little bit older. and having my God as my confidant. I mean it was my friend. You know, it wasn't there in synagogue when I went I don't know where he was, but he was there for me O she? in those days it was he Let me try and draw you out on talking about children and parents because many of your young characters seem For reasons I understand to speak more naturally to their friends than to their parents whichich makes for great dialogue, by the way. But I think it depends on your age. know I mean the reason that they came to me when kids still sat down and wrote letters, you know, is I was a stranger And they wouldn't have to face me at the breakfast table and they could pour out their feelings You could ask my son who is here. Don't, Don't ask him. Don't All these kids would say, Oh, I wish you were my mother, I wish you were my mother and I was thinking You know, that's fantasy because I wasn't that great as a mother. I look back and I think, oh my God, I made so many mistakes And all you can do is say, I'm sorry. you know I love you, and I hope we can move on What we have, right, Larry When you were writing, Yes, for all those fifty something years. What was the process like for you? Well, I kept a notebook for each book and I scribbled everything in it, everything, everything, everything for a long time, for months, just snips And also when I was getting ready to write, can I try to describe this to kids, like I'm a regular person, but then I'm getting ready to write and I get antenna, they come out and they see and hear everything It's a heightened awareness. Yeah, and that's where all these wonderful little things come. and I just write them down. And then on the day that I feel ready to start Well That's either the scariest part of writing or the best because You know, when you have a good day, I mean, I had kids and I would sit down at the dinner table and I would say like, you will never believe what Tony did today because they're real, they're real to you. and you're living with them for months, sometimes years with these characters. And you're locked up in a little room all day with them. that's why fifty years is enough I was ready to come out into the world. but I have found another career that I love dearly, which is I have a bookstore, and I love that. So no chance you're going to go back to felt art No I get the idea that you at least for the moment, don't miss writing right now. I don't miss writing, but I'm very glad that I wrote. I mean, writing changed my life. But it was time to let it go. Could I have come up with more ideas and written more books? Yes But I'm really happy that I found something else that I love to do. I love to be with all of your books. you know, I love that. I love the hands on. I love making displays in the bookstore. I love touching them and smelling them and you know putting them in the hands of readers It's just Very satisfying characters ever come calling on you My characters? Yeah. Well, yeah, your characters or people who want to be your characters. No, no, they know better. They're quiet. You know how many letters I get? Do you know, it's all over the internet now. We need Judy to write a book, Margaret in Menopause Thousands and thousands and thousands. Do you know what? I love that idea. Margaret is always going to be twelve. She's not knocking saying, let me out, I'm in menopause. Oh my They are what they are. They stay in the book, they stay in the book. They live for me in the book, and then I have to let them go. Yeah This has been a wonderful night. Oh And thank you, Scott. I wantanna thank Judy Bloom for not only being with us tonight, but for being with us for so many years And in so many ways uch an important part of so many lives. You have enriched all of us. Thank you very much. Thank you so much