An Inside Look - With Nora Raleigh Baskin
Author of Nine, Ten a September 11 Story
*The "Inside Look" posts have become my new favorite aspect of the blog.
*It has been such an honor to connect with authors and "chat" with them about their novel, their characters, and their thoughts about the story.
*The more I interact with authors, the more I realize how giving, generous, and kind they are. They give us, the reader, so much that adds to our lives.
*Here are the links to my first two interviews...
Interview #1 with Elly Swartz (Author of Finding Perfect)
Interview #2 with Jeff Zentner (Author of The Serpent King)
*Through some Twitter conversations with Nora Raleigh Baskin, I was fortunate to receive a copy of her upcoming novel.
*I was expecting to see an ARC in the mail, but was pleasantly surprised to find that Nora had actually sent a hard copy of the "real" book that would be in bookstores on June 28th.
*See what I mean about the generosity of authors.
*I sat down with this book and didn't get up until I was done reading. It was absolutely a beautiful and important story.
*Here are Nora's responses to my "Inside Look" questions...
Nora Raleigh Baskin's novel will be released on Tuesday, June 28th
How did you come to
“know” Sergio, Will, Naheed, and Aimee?
In any
book I write, I not only have to “know” my characters utterly and completely
(even the secondary ones,) but love them for their humanity and their
flaws. Sergio, Will, Naheed, and Aimee are all parts of me, or rather there are
parts of me in all four of them.
Sergio
has my most direct backstory, living with neither my mother or father as a kid,
(I wish I had lived with a loving
grandmother, but I didn’t) living in Brooklyn (although a different time), and
being angry at a world that seemed so totally unfair. Yup, that was me!
Will
was the hardest for me in many ways. I modeled him more on my own sons, and a
sense of how they would behave if their father had died saving someone’s life. (something my husband/their
father would certainly do, as well.) I modeled Will’s mother on my
over-protective, dotting mother-self.
Naheed,
although she is Muslim and I am Jewish, was actually the easiest character for
me to “know.” The traditions, rituals, and history of both
religions are very similar, and once I discovered this, I was able to
understand her family and their fierce connection to their heritage. Naheed,
also, has the “personality” probably closest to mine.
Aimee,
might seem on the surface, most familiar to me -white, Jewish, middle class-
but my connection to Aimee comes more from knowing what it feels like to move
to a new school (I had gone to five different schools by the time I started 6th
grade,) separate and out of place. And Aimee’s ultimate decision to distance
herself from the social scene of middle school politics, was a chose I made
early on, and have not regretted to this day.
What do you
think is each of these characters most admirable quality?
Honesty.
And
their ability to look at themselves and learn from their mistakes. What more
can you ask of any human being? I tell my own children, there is nothing wrong
with making mistakes (even huge ones) if you learn from them; if you gain
something, grow, change, and become a better person.
Is there anything you
wish any of these four young people would have changed or done differently in
their story?
Ha!
That’s a funny question, since I am the writer and I could have made them do
anything I wished. In fact, I had them
doing and making several different choices in earlier drafts of the book. I had
Naheed NOT wear her hijab because of social pressure. I had Aimee in a much
more complicated plot involving a Burn Book. Will was actually out deer hunting with this
friends. Only Sergio’s story remained
the same as I originally wrote it.
What do you think
Sergio, Will, Naheed, and Aimee can offer to other children that have
experienced similar situations as they did.
Courage
and the understanding that they are not alone. The older I get the more I realize that
everyone, EVERYONE, has some sensitive issue they are dealing with, but when
you’re a kid you think you are the only one. When you read about someone who
shares your insecurities, fears, flaws, situation, and yet, still has
resilience and acts bravely in the face of those things. . .Well, you think, I
can do that too!
How did you
“research” these four characters and the circumstances they found themselves in?
I did an enormous amount of research, as I’ve been doing recently with my
later novels (my earlier books were mostly autobiographical) such as Anything
But Typical, Summer Before Boys, Ruby on the Outside, and now Nine, Ten.
I
did personal interviews with the principal and several students who were in
Shanksville in 2001, and with a first responder at ground zero.
I
watched videos of CNN and local news footage from that day (which was
disturbing well beyond my expectations. I cried quite a bit.)
I
also had several people read my manuscript, including two Islamic friends.
I
looked at photographs, and I had to very carefully, study the 9/11
timeline. You have to realize this is an
event that has been analyzed and recorded down to the tenth of a second, and I
was writing a countdown story where the timing was very exact.
Do you and the four
children share any similarities?
They share their
humanity, and all the things that human children share in this world; hope,
innocence, and the ability to love.
What was the hardest
scene to write about in the novel?
The
ending, when all four kids find themselves at ground zero for the first
anniversary. But it was also the easiest.
I am being very truthful when I tell you I was crying as I wrote it (and
I cry every time I read it) but not because I am remembering the event, or the
trauma of it, but because I want so badly to believe in these children and what
they represent: Goodness. Courage. Empathy. Understanding. Unity.
Who do you think was
Sergio, Will, Naheed, and Aimee's biggest supporter and why?
Well, for each of them it is someone else.
(But for all of them, it is me!) Sergio has a wonderful grandmother, pretty
terrific principal, and now a kind and inspiring mentor. Will has a loving family and a supportive
small-town community. Naheed also has a loving family, and in the end of the
book we see, she lives in a country with brave and courageous strangers who do
not stand by and witness injustice. Aimee has her family, as well as a new
source of inner strength and wisdom that was derived directly from her
near-death experience.
From
tragedy can arise new strengths.
How do you think the
human population was able to get through this tragic event on 9/11?
Exactly the way these
four characters have gotten through their personal and individual experiences,
by leaning on those around them and discovering their own intelligence and resilience.
And ultimately, by coming together as one powerful and courageous “One,”
standing up to the “bad guy,” to prejudice, racism, and divisiveness.
What do you think
Sergio, Will, Naheed, and Aimee are doing as this present time?
Ha! Another funny question. I guess I don’t really think that way. If these
characters exist for me, they exist in that time, in this book,
in those moments that I wrote them alive. If they remain in the minds of
my readers, then, you can decide and imagine what they are doing today.
I
certainly hope they are doing well.
I
hope their love and empathy and intelligence plays out in the children of
today.
I
dedicated Nine,
Ten to “the
children, our future” and I did not do that lightly. The children who will be
reading my book are the future, and I pray that tomorrow brings more
peace. Less violence. More acceptance. More courage and less fear. More love
and less hate. More thoughtful discourse and less angry reactionaries.
Reading
is one of the most powerful ways to create bridges of understanding. I hope I
have added something to our world, toward making it a better place by writing
this book.
