Irene Latham is the author of LEAVING GEE’S BEND a MG historical novel to be released by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on January 7, 2010.
Ludelphia Bennett, a determined, ten-year-old African American girl in 1932 Gee’s Bend, Alabama, leaves home in an effort to find medical help for her sick mother, and she recounts her ensuing adventures in a quilt she is making. THE MAGIC 8 Where authors answer eight of life’s most important (and magical) questions. Irene Latham: 8: According to my Dr. Seuss’s MY BOOK ABOUT ME, I wanted to be a mother, veterinarian, writer and farmer. 18: a social worker specializing in foster care and adoption AND mother, writer, farmer. 28: a poet and novelist, mother (for the third time!), and I was pretty much over the farmer bit, although I still LOVE fresh vegetables… especially if someone else has done all the backbreaking work. J
Uh huh.
1. Mindi Scott: At age eight, what did you want to be when you grew up? And at age eighteen? And while you’re at it, what about at age twenty-eight?
2. MS: Which Breakfast-Club-style label would have best fit your teenage self? (Clever Examples: The Bad Ass, The Athlete, The Hottie, The Dork, The Genius, The Psycho, The Social Butterfly, The Band Geek, The Drama Queen/King, The I Wish I Were a Vampire, The Entirely Something Else.)
IL: The Sweet One
3. MS: What are some of your superstitions and/or phobias?
IL: I’m not a big fan of driving over bridges. I have this recurring nightmare of being in a car that goes off a bridge into water, and I can’t get out of the car. Worse, I can’t get my KIDS out of the car. (This doesn’t mean I don’t go over bridges, but I am certainly hyper-aware of them.)
4. MS: Without giving away too much from your book, which character or scene are you the most pleased about having created, and why?
IL: I love Ludelphia so much – I wish she existed in real life. She inspires such courage and delight… I would take her with me everywhere.
5. MS: Was there any certain music that inspired you while you were writing this book, or is there a song that could serve as your protagonist’s theme song?
IL: You know the theme song in the movie FORREST GUMP? That is so Ludelphia.
6. MS: What’s up next for you as a writer?
IL: I’m working on another historical midgrade in which two girls escape the 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelee and a contemporary midgrade about a boy who lives at a zoo and wants more than anything to escape.
7. MS: And, now, the most important question of all: Beatles or Elvis? Please support your answer. ;-)
IL: Elvis all the way. Southern boys will always have a very special place in my heart.
8. MS: Okay, your turn. Do you have a question you’d like me to ask my Magic 8-Ball on your behalf? (I’m telling you, this thing is scarily accurate! Well, except for when it’s lying.)
IL: Do humans ever invent a way to teleport? Because I really need that. Like right now.
MS: Thank you so much, Irene!
IL: Thanks, Mindi, for the Magic 8. It’s been a lot of fun!
To learn more about Irene Latham and LEAVING GEE’S BEND, check out http://www.irenelatham.com/