{"id":3888,"date":"2016-05-31T22:12:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T02:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/?p=3888"},"modified":"2016-06-01T08:15:32","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T12:15:32","slug":"genre-jumpers-deborah-kalb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/?p=3888","title":{"rendered":"Genre Jumpers: Deborah Kalb"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"prez4\"<\/a>It’s been awhile since I’ve featured a genre jumper on my blog so today I’m introducing you to Deborah Kalb<\/a>, who jumped genres to write a middle-grade novel called The President and Me: George Washington and the Magic Hat<\/a>, released this spring from Schiffer Publishing. Stay tuned for a follow-up with illustrator Rob Lunsford<\/a>, one of my coworkers from\u00a0 The Roanoke Times<\/a> (where, come to think of it, he illustrated some of my stories too.) But first: Deborah!<\/p>\n

Me: Which came first: fiction or nonfiction, picture book or novel?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"prez2\"<\/a>D: I worked on nonfiction books for adults first, starting with reference books about politics and government for Congressional Quarterly and then writing a book with my father, Marvin Kalb, about the legacy of the Vietnam War, called Haunting Legacy. But, like many journalists and former journalists, I have several unpublished novels\u2014mystery novels, in my case\u2014stuffed away in a drawer!<\/p>\n

Me: What was the first thing you ever published. (And yes, grade-school newspapers count.)<\/em><\/p>\n

D: I think it was probably a short story I wrote for my high school literary magazine.<\/p>\n

Me: How is your current project different from other books you’ve written?
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

D: My current book is very different from the serious books for adults that I wrote before\u2014although it does include a lot of history! George Washington and the Magic Hat is a middle-grade novel that is the first in a series called The President and Me. It focuses on a group of fifth graders in Bethesda, Maryland, who end up going on some amazing time-travel adventures and meeting the presidents, while also dealing with the trials and tribulations of their present-day lives. It was great to be able to include some humor in my writing! Now I\u2019m working on the sequel, which involves John and Abigail Adams.<\/p>\n

One of the best things about this project was collaborating with Rob Lunsford, who did the wonderful illustrations. Rob is a long-time family friend\u2014I first met him when I was in fifth grade.<\/p>\n

\"Deborah<\/a>

Deborah & Rob — post fifth grade!<\/p><\/div>\n

Me: Are you a one-project-at-a-time writer or do you mix it up? How easy is it for you to go back and forth between forms?<\/em><\/p>\n

D: It\u2019s challenging to go back and forth, but I tend to do that\u2014I often have a reference book I\u2019m working on, and need to shift gears to get back to fiction. I also have a blog where I interview authors (including you) about their books, and that tends to be so fascinating that I forget to write anything myself!<\/p>\n

Me: Are there places or themes you tend to explore, both in your writing for younger readers and writing for older ones?<\/em><\/p>\n

D: Yes, I\u2019d say the common theme involves presidents, in one form or another.<\/p>\n

Me: What age group do you prefer? <\/em><\/p>\n

D: At this point, middle-grade, approximately age 8-12\u2014but that\u2019s all I\u2019ve done so far in terms of kids\u2019 books, so we shall see\u2026 But most of the books I remember best from my own childhood are from that age group.<\/p>\n

Me: What made you make the jump from writing for adults to writing for kids?<\/em><\/p>\n

D: I thought it would be a fun thing to try. Plus, I have a son who\u2019s currently in fifth grade, so that was an inspiration as well.<\/p>\n

Me: What has writing in one form taught you about writing in another?<\/em><\/p>\n

D: That\u2019s a great question. I think it\u2019s always important to write clearly and understandably, whatever form you\u2019re writing in. And all the researching skills I learned from being a journalist and writing nonfiction for adults definitely were helpful with the historical aspects of George Washington and the Magic Hat.<\/p>\n

Me: Is there a genre you\u2019d like to tackle that you haven\u2019t tackled yet?<\/em><\/p>\n

D: Not that I haven\u2019t tackled yet, but I would love to go back to one of my mystery novel manuscripts and revise and update it\u2014I just need to find the time!<\/p>\n

Thanks, Deborah! You can find out more about Deborah (and lots of other authors, too) by visiting her website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been awhile since I’ve featured a genre jumper on my blog so today I’m introducing you to Deborah Kalb, who jumped genres to write a middle-grade novel called The President and Me: George Washington and the Magic Hat, released … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-interview","category-genre-jumpers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3888"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3916,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions\/3916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}