Latest / Book Flood Podcast / Joan Schoettler on "A Doctor At Heart" (E63)
Transcript
- Tom Nixon: Welcome to the Book Flood podcast. I am your host, Tom Nixon. My guest this week is Joan Schoettler author of the upcoming A Doctor at Heart and Other Children's Books. ⁓ In addition to being a children's author, she is an instructor in children's literature at California State University, Fresno. Welcome, Joan. Joan Schoettler: Thank you, Tom, for the opportunity to be here today and share information about my writing and my latest upcoming book, A Doctor at Heart, the story of groundbreaking scientist and educator, Vivian Thomas. Tom Nixon: it. So let's talk a little bit about ⁓ your previous books just a little bit before we get into the new one. Joan Schoettler: Okay, the first book that I published is called Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth, set in Korea in the 1700s. And it's a story about a young girl who needed to learn to sew bojagi as well as her mother so she could be reunited with her mother in the palace. And the second book that I wrote was Ruth Asawa's Sculpting Life, a story about an amazing Asian American artist who created wire sculptures. started art schools for elementary schools as well as amazing wire sculptures and fountains in San Francisco. And I wrote a home for George which was commissioned by the Valley Children's Hospital and I wrote how George the giraffe mascot first arrived at the hospital. And then my more recent book, it was a middle grade novel called The Honey Jar. And it was the first middle grade novel I've written. And I received the California Book Award for that, which I was very pleased about. And then I also, my last picture book has been ⁓ Books Travel the World. And it was, ⁓ it's a story about how librarians use unusual ways of getting books into the hands of children who live in remote places and they do it by donkey and camel and boat and bicycle, whatever creative ways they can to get books into the hands of children. So those are my books. Tom Nixon: I love that book. I like all your books, ⁓ Books Travel the World is speaks to my heart for sure. So let's talk a little bit about A Doctor at Heart. This is the new one. I believe it comes out next week. Joan Schoettler: Thank you. It does, ⁓ a week from tomorrow on May 12th. I'm very excited. So this. Tom Nixon: So go ahead and tell us ⁓ a little bit about, ⁓ I love that cover too. Joan Schoettler: Thank you. So ⁓ this book was ⁓ inspired when a friend told me about a PBS special called Partners of the Heart. And when I started watching the program... Probably 10 minutes into it. I knew that I needed to grab a pen and paper and take some notes so this is a story about Vivian Thomas and he was a black man who had a call a high school education had a dream of going to college and That didn't materialize because money he had saved was lost during the fall of the banks 1930 but he went on to work with dr. Blaylock a top ⁓ cardiac surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital and together they worked on creating the ⁓ blue baby syndrome, excuse me, corrected the blue baby syndrome by rerouting the ⁓ vessels between the heart and the lung for those children. And then he went on to become a teacher of top cardiac surgeons in the United States. So that's the story and I love the story. Tom Nixon: But he never actually became a medical doctor, right? Joan Schoettler: Right, right. His dream was to ⁓ go to medical school. He went and then he lost his money for that, worked with Dr. Blalock. And another time, maybe 10 years after working with Dr. Blalock, he had applied to college because he knew he had to do some college pieces before. the college would not accept. And at this point, he had already created the Blue Baby Syndrome. piece and the college would not accept anything for his work with Dr. Blalock in terms of credits. So he realized he'd be 50 years old before he became a doctor and he continued in this working with Dr. Blalock. He was so, in fact, I have a quote here and I really love this quote because it is one by, ⁓ one of his students and it says ⁓ to Blaylock's boys, so Blaylock's boys would have been the surgeons who were working, the future surgeons working under him. Thomas became the model surgeon. Dr. Blaylock was a great scientist, a great thinker and leader, explains Denton Cooley. But by any stretch of our imagination, he would be considered a great cutting surgeon. He would not be considered a great cutting surgeon, Vivian was. So Vivian Devere had a doctorate degree, but he went on to train all of these surgeons who later became, many of them became chiefs of cardiac units in hospitals throughout the nation. Tom Nixon: Such an interesting story. What dragged you into it? What motivated you to decide this is the next book? Joan Schoettler: When I started watching that video, the next day I watched it again and just took copious notes on it and then began doing research and I thought children need to know this story. They need to know a story about a man who had many setbacks in his life and in his career, faced a lot of racism and discrimination and dealt with it, put it behind him and always had his his eye on his goal of making the world a better place. Yeah. Tom Nixon: What was your experience in writing this book? Very different from your other books. Joan Schoettler: It is, and it allowed me to really step into a world that I wasn't familiar with. I when we looked at the world of medicine and when I first started ⁓ reading about him and I learned about him, even his childhood, when I thought I was going to write a children's book for him, I knew that I needed to have a way of drawing the children in. I couldn't just write about this doctor starting his life. 20 or 25 or 30. So I went back and he grew up in a family where his mother was a seamstress so there were always patterns and she was always creating and retrofitting things to fit people. And his father was a carpenter and he built homes and he was very, very accomplished and well sought after carpentering. And so Vivian again had things at home as a young child where they were fitting things together. He saw them working with their hands. And when he was 13, his father hired him to begin working as a carpenter for him. And Vivian was inspired by his family doctor. to become a doctor and he set his goal to begin saving money all the way through high school until he had money to begin college and then lost it. So I just, thought it's an inspiration for children. It's an inspiration for me. I learned so much about him and I just thought it's time to tell his story. Tom Nixon: So let's move into marketing books a little bit. I see you all over the place working to sell your books, which is truly, truly what you have to do to get books sold. It's a thing. When you're out there ⁓ publicizing your books, what works and what doesn't? Joan Schoettler: That's a good question. there, you know, I have worked very hard. Thank you for recognizing that. ⁓ For me, I think it's a lot of it is the personal interaction with people. was ⁓ when I'm at a bookstore and selling nuts. It's sort of talk engaging the person, putting the book in their hand and really explaining to them what the story is about. And it takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of salesmanship to do that. But it's important. You know, also the social media piece is also something I haven't totally conquered, but I'm out there trying and I believe that's a piece. I also think you need to know where where contests are or places where you could submit your story for review. I think that's all very important. And it's all a growing process. My goodness, if I would have known all of this with my first book, which is still in print, it's done quite well, but it's just a constant process of learning with the marketing piece. And I have a great team with Beach Lane too. Tom Nixon: What have you put time into but really hasn't worked? Joan Schoettler: ⁓ I probably thinking just outreaching to places where I can get the book ⁓ reviewed more. I I've had a number of conversations with podcasters and I have some more of those coming up. think just getting the book in the hands of children, maybe the... ⁓ I think if I had my wish, I would send it out to all libraries or a flyer, you know, something to all librarians so that they would see it. I think that's very important. I believe this book is very school-oriented and library-oriented as well as something to get into the hands of young readers everywhere. But I think that it's, you know, picture book biography, getting it into the hands of teachers and librarians is very important. Tom Nixon: Mm-hmm. Oh, and this is a book that, certainly all of your books were meant for libraries, but this is certainly a book that a library should have because it... crosses over into a bunch of different topics. Joan Schoettler: I think that, ⁓ you know, being able to look at a black man in the 30s and who was born in 1910, but, know, as a young person in the 20s and 30s and 40s, I just the work that he did, the determination and the setbacks. ⁓ Everybody has setbacks in their life and how they, how you work through them and move forward. He came from a family that ⁓ was very supportive and they always knew that they should do their best and try their hardest. But he also knew was a time when Vivian made a mistake, the lab, kind of early on and Dr. Blalock called him on it, but he also called him on it in an unkind way. And Vivian said, I quit him, I'm leaving. And Dr. Blalock said, well, why? said, I was taught never to allow someone to talk to me like that, in that tone of voice, and I'm not going to stand for it. Dr. Blalock convinced him to stay, and never again in the time they worked together did Dr. Blalock talk to him in that manner. So, you know, I think standing up and for children to know it's important to stand up for what you believe in and to move forward and... sometimes life is hard. And it also, this book also demonstrates the ⁓ segregation. It's not at the emphasis by any means, but it's woven in there in terms of different situations that Dr. Vivian experienced, such as ⁓ having to use the back doors and side doors of the hospital to go into the hospital. There were segregated restrooms, he had to eat with was not able to eat with his white colleagues. ⁓ When he wore his white lab coat, people made comments or just the way they glanced at him like, you know, it's a black man and Johns Hopkins at that time were doing wearing a white coat. So there were those pieces. And I think what probably was one of the most shocking pieces is when ⁓ he was, his wage was never quite enough to. Tom Nixon: Hmm. Joan Schoettler: satisfy the living expenses. And so he took second jobs and one of them he worked at parties for Dr. Blalock, working as serving drinks and he was serving drinks to people that he was working with in the lab, know, the other doctors. So all of those were, I think those are hard things to have to deal with. I did, those are mentioned in the book. The story is really about the wonderful scientist he was and the wonderful ⁓ surgeon, the way he taught surgeons. He was ⁓ not recognized for a lot of that work until many, many years after he had worked there when he was given an honorary doctorate degree. So I think all of those pieces are important for young people to know. And I think teachers, librarians, parents are all wonderful ways to get that knowledge out and share it with young people. Tom Nixon: What are you working on now? Joan Schoettler: Well, I'm working on a book that is ⁓ set in another country and it's a picture book. I can't say a lot about it right now, but it's interesting because a number of years ago... An agent hits a Joan, your stories traverse the world. And they really do. I mean, you see the stories that are published. You don't see the stories, the manuscripts that I've written that are ready to go out. I do my writing group just to show you live all over the world because I write stories. The Honey Jars in Armenia, the Korean story of Ruth Asawa, Asian American. I have a couple of other artists who are. from cultures other than my own. And so this story, all of the next, what I'm working on is, and I'm working with someone in this country and I can say that it's in another country, it ties in with art and because I love art and the art is in many of my stories. And so that's about all I could say. don't have one in the hands of publisher. Well, I shouldn't say that my agent's interested in this one. So we'll see where that goes. Tom Nixon: Mm. Joan Schoettler: But I do have three or four others that are out there in the big world of waiting. So, we'll see. Tom Nixon: Do you find you need to be careful about book ideas, making sure that not too much gets out there before someone's actually bought the book? Joan Schoettler: I do. I do. think ⁓ many, ⁓ I've talked to enough different authors who have had situations where something very similar rises. So I'm just careful. I keep them close. And I think most authors do. We keep the stories close until they're, but six months from now, or maybe three months from now, I could be back and telling you what I'm doing. But ⁓ yeah, we'll see. Tom Nixon: Thanks. Do you have any presentations or conferences coming up that you can share with us? Joan Schoettler: Let me think. have, ⁓ I'm going to have, excuse me, I'll be at Petunia's Place in Fresno on Saturday, May 16th. I'm having a story time at 11 o'clock, so that's gonna be for young children. And then at one o'clock, I'll do a presentation there for, I'll still be reading the book, but talking more to adults, librarians, teachers about the book. So I have that. I have a couple of other book signings in the works for ⁓ stores here in Fresno as well as beyond. I was just approached about doing another ⁓ presentation at a college. I hope to be going to ALA and American Library Association. And that's probably it at this point. So. Yes, yes, yeah. So I'm looking forward to that. Tom Nixon: ALA is in Chicago this year? it is. If you have to go work with your book, Chicago is a great city to do it in. Joan Schoettler: I know I'm lucky I have a son who lives there so I get to go back there periodically. Tom Nixon: Do you really? My oldest daughter lives there. That's where my grandchildren are. Joan Schoettler: Mine, well two of mine are too. So do you get back, well get back periodically. It's a great city. Tom Nixon: ⁓ funny. It is. Is there a book or a series of books from your childhood that still resonates with you? Joan Schoettler: Hmm. It's interesting when I was just sharing ⁓ books travel the world the other day with some young children and they're in the book, ⁓ book, the ⁓ librarians are traveling to different places and every place they go at the bottom of the last line is always one more story please. And when I was a child there was a book called Read Me Another Story and it had very few, had maybe one picture for each. story that was maybe three to five pages long. And I remember my mom reading it to me and I always said, read me another story because it was short enough, we had enough time. And when I was writing the books travel the world, I thought, I want to put a piece, I have to put that piece of my mom and I in the story, something that I asked of her and something that she did. And I'm sure that sort of fed into where I am today. I think that was really important. Of course, I left Mad Lions, a lot of the classics of that time period, Little House on Prairie, different setting now, and we know a lot more now, but those engaged me. As I got older, a book that really ⁓ moved me was All But My Life. That was when I was in junior high, and it was my first introduction to the Holocaust. And so that's something I've always been interested in. Tom Nixon: Mm. Mm. Joan Schoettler: In I received the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award for that book 10, 12 years ago, and it still has remained a book. I mean, a manuscript, it hasn't moved forward, but you tend to have a lot of those kinds of books behind us waiting to move forward. Tom Nixon: How many books have you had published? Joan Schoettler: I believe seven. Yeah. So. Tom Nixon: What are you reading now? Joan Schoettler: Oh, right now I'm reading a lot of, I'll come home, first of all, just with in terms of children's books, I'll get a stack of 15 or 20 picture books that I'll bring home periodically. I have to tell you a really quick story. At the library, there's a small library nearby. the third week, there was a new librarian there. And I was going out with my stack of books and the librarian came up to me and he said, do you mind if I ask you a question? And I said, no. He said, are you just learning to read? And I said, well, no, but why do you ask? And he said, because you always have all these children's books with you. And I said, that speaks volumes of what you know about children learning to read. they have to be read to a lot. And so I thought that was interesting that he thought I was just stepping into the course of reading from that. But ⁓ what have I read recently as adult books? Theo and Golden, I've done that. I just read, we had Amy Tan at Town Hall recently and I'm reading her recent bird book. ⁓ What else? I'm thinking, The Correspondent. The Correspondent was fabulous. That was really a great book. So, wait. Tom Nixon: thank you so much for being on the podcast today to our ⁓ audience. Please remember to like, subscribe and share wherever you find us. Come and visit us at bookfloodpodcast.com. And again, thank you, Joan. Greatly appreciate you being here today. Joan Schoettler: Thank you, Tom, I really appreciate it. And thanks for all you do to support children's literature and literature everywhere. So thanks so much. Have a good day. Tom Nixon: Thank you.