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From the Classroom to the Page: 40 Years in Education with Author Amy Meislin Pollack
Amy Meislin Pollack is an American children's author and retired educator best known for creating the Jelly Bean middle-grade fiction series. Her debut series, published by Austin Macauley Publishers, includes The Adventures of Jelly Bean, The Further Adventures of Jelly Bean, and The Still Further Adventures of Jelly Bean. [
Literary Career
The inspiration for Pollack’s coming-of-age series dates back to her fourth-grade classroom in the 1960s, where her teacher frequently called her to the front of the room to share impromptu stories about a character named "Jelly Bean". Though she began drafting the stories later in life, she formally completed and published the series during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Geared toward readers aged 7 to 13, her books follow the nostalgic, real-world complexities of adolescence in the 1960s. Her writing has earned critical recognition from outlets such as Kirkus Reviews and The US Review of Books for tackling sensitive, relatable youth themes, including bullying, mixed-race identity, poverty, and family dynamics. [1,
Professional Background
Before launching her publishing career, Pollack spent more than 40 years in education. She taught a diverse range of subjects and grade levels, working as a high school English teacher, reading specialist, and special education teacher. Additionally, she served for six years as a writing professor and tutor center advisor at Montclair State University. In the early 1970s, prior to entering education, she worked briefly in the New York City advertising industry
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Transcript
WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_01]: If you've ever wandered into the venture in the experience of writing, you know life experiences are no substitute for what comes and what you share with your audience.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Today I have very special guests today and we're tired to teach you who drew upon years of experience in life as a mother, grandmother, and now has transitioned to writing as well, too.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Amy Pollock, thank you very much.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, Richard.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's an honor to play.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: nice to be here.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for taking time out of your business schedule.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We talked how busy you are, you know, based on how life works.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So thank you for being on the show.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, my pleasure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's so painful.
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[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, I want to thank you for being a teacher because that really is a foundation and building block of how people grow and mature and it's a very tough profession, but it also gives you a lot of life experiences to share when it comes to your writing career.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So before we talk about, you know, your book, The Adventures of Jelly Bean, I'd love to talk about that fourth grader that was standing in front of the classroom and then transition to a teaching career.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Gosh.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'll try to encapsulate some of the major highs and lows.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So when I was in fourth grade and I was, oh, I could give you a list of things.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not particularly good at, but I am a decent storyteller and I have a vivid imagination.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and my teacher used to call me up in front of the class when she had downtime and I would tell these stories that classmates of mine still remember and this is going back I know I feel the same way I was laughing when well we actually saw a few of us were at another classmate's funeral
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[SPEAKER_00]: because this is going back 60 some odd years ago and she still had some of the papers that I had written.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's vaguely vaguely remembered doing this, making a play out of some of it, giving part out to some people in my class, and I know it is funny, and I had to choose a wonderful teacher.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This Mrs. Trent, I remember her very vividly, and I would tell these stories about which the kids all liked about this little mischievous girl named Jelly Bean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then he's thanks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then over the years, she morphed into what, um, on Kirkus and, um, U.S. review, they've called a role model, which was always like, wow, okay, I'll, I'll take it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She is a fourth-right fourth-grader and, um,
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[SPEAKER_00]: kind of tells it like it is and she doesn't always do what her parents would like her to do or what friends or other people her own age.
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[SPEAKER_00]: expect of her or would prefer her to do and like for example her little best friend because my characters kind of tell me what they need me to do with them gotcha and you know she has this best friend who the parents or her mom specifically doesn't prefer the little girl is kind of from the wrong side of the tracks let's say
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[SPEAKER_00]: the parent is there numerous instances of this where the parents don't like a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a friend or someone that child wants to be with.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so this was happening in my book among other situations and challenges that my main character confronts.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Through my stories, well, there are now the adventures of Jelly Bean, the further adventures of Jelly Bean, the still further adventures of Jelly Bean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm writing my book for, my kids are like, you know, can you think of a more creative title?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm really great with titles, but I'm, um, we're, I'm getting there, I'm working on that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And through what?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, what happens is spoiler alert, I guess.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her little friend ends up moving away with her family and her family, a little girl's family has some ups and downs.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Jelly Bean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, she becomes like a good listener, a sounding board.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And now, you know, even when you move away, the kids have, like us, at the time, so forth.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: you know, so there's that which is a good wool, but also she doesn't like her uncles.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I saw that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I saw that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they're very my situations.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're very real.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And it's relatable.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's relatable.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's what a lot of people say and true, because that's what I know how to write about.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and how she resolves various issues.
05:17.202 --> 05:21.304
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, full disclosure, you know, when you see somebody, you know, that's older, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's funny because I'm 43 now.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't just wake up 43, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't, you know, I didn't just wake up like, you know, I'll tell my kids, you know, like I have three daughters, you know, soon to be 13, 11 and 6.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like I was that age one's two, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so now, especially in fourth grade, you know, it's that period where you kind of have to let
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[SPEAKER_01]: them's experienced things that kind of have to get their feelings hurt, that kind of have to the heart broken a little bit, you know?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
05:49.476 --> 05:56.062
[SPEAKER_01]: I hate to say it like you start learning that just because you participate in a sport doesn't mean you're going to get the trophy so to speak, right?
05:56.103 --> 05:59.926
[SPEAKER_01]: So definitely differentiating between gains and losses.
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[SPEAKER_01]: and kind of having to learn to get burned and kind of at the same time as a parent or a grandparents.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You want to shield them from very negative things.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a very delicate balancing act to be able to navigate those things because dad, I know that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Mom, I know that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I already know that it's like, I know you know that, but if I don't say it, I need to acknowledge, I need to hear it from you that you know that
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and also the feeling of a fourth grader when things are just coming into focus kind of so I feel like you sort of accept things as they are until then, but you have that feeling and jelly bean does like I think most kids do you couldn't possibly understand yes you say to your parents you know and then right as you get older because my kids are in their 40s.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When you have their own children, because my book is good for each generation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I've been told.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's good for when you're reading it, sharing some topics that are kind of hard for kids to bring up and they don't really want to.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's popularity.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?
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[SPEAKER_00]: What are you going to like when I took a Shakespeare and you know that has situations that are very real and when we had this discussion on Mick Beth that's a great book that's you know
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[SPEAKER_00]: And these kids I had college bound and non college bound.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So all different levels.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But we talked about what would you do for a boyfriend or girlfriend?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Would you lie?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Would you steal?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Would you kill?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and, you know, a sort of a metaphor for how far would you go to be in a certain group?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, well, how often do you see those horrible stories where the person was on the straight narrow, and then there, next, you know, they're either on the judgestand or in the, you know, the courtroom or, you know, being interrogated and they're asking themselves, I don't even know how I even ended up.
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[SPEAKER_01]: like, it just, it's one thing after another, you know, hey, carry this for me, drive this car, you know, it can go really quickly and you can get blinded by the person that's around you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I do want to go back to McBath because this is pretty funny.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I had an AP English teacher in high school, and I was thinking of you when you said that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you don't think I'm going to coast through my senior year, and then all of a sudden she sends this, hey, you need to read McBath
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[SPEAKER_01]: you start school, you like, I read the summer, like, how dare you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I was like, I could understand like the traditional old English.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I found it English to regular English translation on the other side of the book and then I would read it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, because it's not easy if you've never read it, you know, if you've never, you know, it's really tough, you know?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But it was
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[SPEAKER_00]: It really is, and it's timeless.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It is.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Because, Yes, power, corruption.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's, it's, it's one of the greatest tragedy stories you'll ever read.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Totally absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but, and I found in, and I had easier translations because
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[SPEAKER_00]: you don't want it to be just a bunch of words that I had no I had one supervisor along the way who said oh the kids are just going to look up every word they don't know no that's it's not happening I wish that were true but not in close exactly and so that is important to kind of
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[SPEAKER_00]: He'll back to the core, which is pretty fascinating.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What's fascinating is I don't want you to dismiss that you said you weren't really like, when it comes to creating characters, people don't realize what a gift that truly is, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: To be able to actually, because absolutely, you know, to be able to draw on life experiences, not put a particular person's name out there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: and then to be able to draw the perspective because that is relatable.
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[SPEAKER_01]: There is that fourth creator and you know what's even great, great about that is every generation can relate to that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Whether it's this free internet era, whether it's the post internet, I'm a kid of the 80s and you know when you're starting to discover you know okay this kid can be my friend and then your parent is kind of saying I don't know about that kid but you're like I'm friends
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[SPEAKER_01]: of how they interact, if how they talk to their mom, it's the small little nuances you as a kid don't see.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then sometimes, your parent can be completely wrong and mispreseved that kid.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then sometimes, you can be so back and say, wow, they were totally right.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't really, you know, hindsight's 2020.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of see why they told me to stay away from that kid.
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[SPEAKER_00]: you know, it's so true.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's a little bit of both.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's a little bit of both.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it is of course, like as soon as a parent says one thing about what you're doing or who you're hanging around with.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's when they say, don't, that's exactly what you want to do.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not went through that myself.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So should I be surprised that my own kids did?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Of course not.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But like you
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's a fine line, you know, not permitting them or not wanting them to do something that could really could be a pretty bad life-changer.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my father always gave the advice and he would say, so nothing ever happens good after one o'clock in the morning.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That was his philosophy.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That was his number one philosophy.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He was like, let me tell you, he said between one and five, nothing good is ever, you're not going to run into anything good.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you're really bringing me back because one of my kids who now he's fine on the straight narrow and so forth, but for a long time, he would be out to low hours and it was a problem.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What do you do past the point?
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[SPEAKER_00]: You can't follow your child around.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Nope.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Nope.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's not going to work out, but you know, you do the best you can.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's why a lot of the generations, like my, again, spoiler alert, so when Jelly Bean, well, I did ask my daughter.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What would you do if I forbid you to go to someone's house?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Two seconds response.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're crazy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'd sneak, I'd sneak.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I heard it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No, hello, of course.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, I could guess that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But then when her mom,
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[SPEAKER_00]: This finished screaming at her because we as moms you you worry of course pretty it's only for you're the only worry for about 18 years or so you know and then it doesn't really end the other but you know so when she's so mad but then it takes sometimes the older generation I don't know if your parents are still around but my mother is yeah thank you
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, no, of course, my parents happened to die on the younger side.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I was lucky to have had them, had wonderful parents, but you know, they died, passed away on the younger side, but in any event, it takes the grandmother to say to the mom, she just wanted to see her friend.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, it takes them to come down to situations and I, they're sort of based on my,
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's funny, you know, you're around the same age as my mother and say that respectfully, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm thinking of, you know, I wouldn't come back to the book, but this is about life.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, even when I was in college, you know, even when I was at parties and there was that voice in the back of my head that was like, you can't get that phone call that's that I did some right, like you're, so even though like you can get upset, you can be like, you know, all those things that, you know, may have annoyed you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in the back of your mind, they better not get this phone call that I was, you know, you're going to make mistakes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to screw up.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You'll meet the wrong people, etc.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm like, I can't do this.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's like there's, you know how it's almost like you have like a governor, so to speak, like you're like, you know what, I can't do that, you know, that I'm walking like my level of consequence level is a lot less tolerable than yours.
14:42.281 --> 14:43.762
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's okay, but like to each of them.
14:44.988 --> 14:51.455
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's right and you're so right and at the same point as a parent you need to be
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[SPEAKER_00]: wary.
14:53.263 --> 14:56.765
[SPEAKER_00]: But no, that yes, are your kids going to make some mistakes?
14:57.125 --> 14:57.425
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And you hope they're not too costly.
14:59.927 --> 15:03.208
[SPEAKER_00]: And like you're saying about a voice in the back of your head.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I did.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We did teach a cello in some of my classes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, what a great book.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and talk about someone whispering in your ear.
15:14.994 --> 15:17.635
[SPEAKER_00]: And how often did I hear my
15:22.437 --> 15:24.199
[SPEAKER_00]: that's what's so and so says.
15:25.099 --> 15:32.065
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you have to be much more hard to teach kids this, but you know, you try as a parent and a teacher.
15:32.926 --> 15:36.709
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to be discriminating about what your
15:37.841 --> 15:40.923
[SPEAKER_00]: We're taking for real, what gets good to you.
15:41.124 --> 15:41.964
[SPEAKER_00]: What the fuck?
15:42.084 --> 15:44.666
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't just believe.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What's even more fascinating now is that I wasn't sure.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I read about the jelly bean, but I wasn't sure the era that it took place in some glad when you said, like, you know, they can do video calls and things like that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Because I was like, maybe she drew from when she was growing up and put the book in that era, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was reading Cliff Mills, but I never got an era specifically.
16:01.099 --> 16:04.962
[SPEAKER_01]: So the book, like, and the animation, you really, I was like, okay, well, anybody could
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, well, that could be any time frame, you know, respectively, and so it's like, okay, but what's interesting now is when you say, when you're writing that book, how was it when it comes to technology now versus then?
16:19.266 --> 16:22.367
[SPEAKER_01]: Because now all these kids have so much information thrown at them.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I just had, I had an encyclopedia set as a kid in my room.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's where I spurred my fascination.
16:27.768 --> 16:29.629
[SPEAKER_01]: But then I just had a laptop.
16:29.689 --> 16:32.349
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I had a desktop, but like a ACER, my dad bought it.
16:32.809 --> 16:35.090
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I was really one of the only kids that had a computer
16:35.750 --> 16:39.094
[SPEAKER_01]: That was because they were just now coming out in 1994, 95, right?
16:39.114 --> 16:42.619
[SPEAKER_01]: So, but like, I had America online and all my friends got one.
16:42.879 --> 16:47.445
[SPEAKER_01]: But that was like, oh my god, the world opened up like overnight, right?
16:48.332 --> 17:11.231
[SPEAKER_00]: For I know it is so interesting to get asked that a lot because my books when I started writing them there was not all that technology I remember going to the first computer show and computers were gigantic and I think it was 1967 but that was way way way way early on obviously no my book takes place pretty a year
17:12.452 --> 17:14.074
[SPEAKER_00]: they're about after 9-11.
17:14.134 --> 17:14.514
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
17:14.674 --> 17:15.555
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
17:15.935 --> 17:18.158
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's one of a lot of things changed.
17:18.438 --> 17:18.678
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
17:18.998 --> 17:19.239
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:19.559 --> 17:23.763
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, because I was a teacher at that time and boy, boy, we really,
17:25.726 --> 17:30.011
[SPEAKER_00]: And firstly, we were told not to discuss it too much with the students.
17:30.051 --> 17:34.836
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I was teaching 6, 7th and 8th grade when I was doing middle school at the time.
17:35.237 --> 17:36.058
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew everything.
17:36.078 --> 17:36.658
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course they did.
17:37.199 --> 17:37.840
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course they did.
17:38.020 --> 17:42.425
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there was no way you weren't talking about keeping things from them.
17:42.705 --> 17:44.027
[SPEAKER_00]: Wasn't even possible.
17:44.527 --> 17:48.872
[SPEAKER_01]: And all of that, though, you know, I mean, when you're still in Jersey at the time when that happened to?
17:48.892 --> 17:50.193
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh.
17:50.233 --> 17:50.754
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:50.774 --> 17:51.635
[SPEAKER_01]: So you, oh my gosh.
17:51.695 --> 17:55.839
[SPEAKER_01]: That's even, you know, that's on top of that, considering your proximity.
17:56.380 --> 17:58.722
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was a freshman in college at the time.
17:59.763 --> 18:12.772
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, for people who like, when that happened, it was like, you wait, no, like you wait, and then it was like, yeah, but I want to say this and I say this, I've said this to other guests, I want to say it respectively.
18:13.172 --> 18:21.738
[SPEAKER_01]: The difference between being on a college campus versus navigating that in real life was much different because two days as bad as it is, as horrible as it is,
18:22.278 --> 18:28.280
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you were kind of insulated from the rest of the world, so to speak, from when, from when things are taking place.
18:28.580 --> 18:29.800
[SPEAKER_01]: There was discussions about it.
18:30.100 --> 18:30.840
[SPEAKER_01]: It was horrible.
18:30.961 --> 18:32.241
[SPEAKER_01]: It always has been horrible.
18:32.601 --> 18:35.162
[SPEAKER_01]: But I was an airport and an airport.
18:35.322 --> 18:36.782
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't a security worker.
18:36.942 --> 18:41.324
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't, you know, all the jobs have to have new badges and new protocols in place.
18:41.964 --> 18:46.165
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a level of, I'm away from the rest of the world when you're on a college campus.
18:46.645 --> 18:47.086
[SPEAKER_01]: So to speak.
18:47.126 --> 18:47.686
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no.
18:47.946 --> 18:51.910
[SPEAKER_00]: See my one son's college campus was in downtown New York.
18:52.351 --> 18:53.252
[SPEAKER_00]: That's different.
18:53.412 --> 18:53.672
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
18:53.992 --> 18:54.232
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
18:54.313 --> 18:55.374
[SPEAKER_01]: That's much different.
18:55.854 --> 18:57.235
[SPEAKER_00]: Watched it all from their window.
18:57.275 --> 18:59.277
[SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty horrible.
18:59.317 --> 19:01.159
[SPEAKER_00]: My husband was on the way into the city.
19:01.259 --> 19:03.461
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe because he worked there for a long time.
19:04.082 --> 19:08.686
[SPEAKER_00]: And my one son was on the bus going into my older one going into the city.
19:08.967 --> 19:09.888
[SPEAKER_00]: One who's older than you.
19:10.448 --> 19:22.796
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was on the bus and you heard like a they thought someone crashed into the back of the bus and then they got there and found out all that had happened and as a mother you have absolutely got to be going out of your mind.
19:23.587 --> 19:25.848
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it definitely were.
19:25.908 --> 19:32.750
[SPEAKER_00]: My daughter said in her high school, I still at the time, the kids were just going in and out of the guidance counselor.
19:32.810 --> 19:34.851
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, what could you say?
19:34.871 --> 19:35.611
[SPEAKER_00]: What could you do?
19:36.491 --> 19:47.415
[SPEAKER_00]: One girl didn't know, one friend of hers didn't know whether her mother was, might have been on that plane and, you know, and everybody in our area knew someone who was killed or affected by it.
19:47.915 --> 19:51.757
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's something that, you know, it's not just a blurb and history.
19:51.777 --> 19:54.778
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the worst thing you could have ever actually witnessed.
19:54.898 --> 20:13.086
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, you know, and so when the sun, when jelly beans, oldest, just three older brothers, when the big one wants to join the marines and the parents are not particularly happy when spoiler alert when he wants to drop out of high school, which happens.
20:14.496 --> 20:20.599
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you don't always have your parents' same expectations of you, and this was the root he was determined on.
20:21.119 --> 20:26.142
[SPEAKER_00]: And 9-11 did affect a lot of people that way.
20:26.562 --> 20:27.383
[SPEAKER_01]: What's our question?
20:27.463 --> 20:29.564
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, and I can picture it.
20:29.924 --> 20:55.382
[SPEAKER_01]: The beauty about jelly bean is it's even if for a little boy, you know, it doesn't matter if jelly bean is a girl, you know, it's it's that it's that window of learning and discovering and to and the things that I've learned to is kids are a lot smarter than adults give them credit for right they can discern and make judgment calls and they can say that I, you know, I'm not friends with them anymore because they're me and you feel like, you know what that was a good call on your end.
20:56.455 --> 20:58.917
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, like they say, it's a famous line.
20:59.357 --> 21:00.738
[SPEAKER_00]: Child's the father of the man.
21:00.758 --> 21:02.880
[SPEAKER_00]: I always think about that.
21:03.360 --> 21:03.921
[SPEAKER_00]: You do.
21:04.301 --> 21:09.925
[SPEAKER_00]: I've learned so much from my students and from my own kids.
21:10.285 --> 21:17.210
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't say like you're saying, I can't say always agree with everything, but you do learn quite a bit.
21:19.211 --> 21:22.412
[SPEAKER_01]: Just briefly, like, what is the, I'm going to pivot just slightly.
21:23.092 --> 21:36.676
[SPEAKER_01]: When you're right now, what's your perspective on like AI writing books for people in your writing from scratch, is it a tool that's assistance for editing, but your thoughts are original so to speak, and what's, do you have a perspective on that?
21:37.737 --> 21:53.584
[SPEAKER_00]: It's that is just so fascinating, especially since my oldest son, now he's in charge of AI at his where he works, so we have these discussions all the time and to be at enough.
21:54.640 --> 21:58.322
[SPEAKER_00]: trouble with kids plagiarizing when they touch.
21:58.882 --> 21:59.282
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
21:59.682 --> 22:04.504
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, can't even imagine how would you know what's real and.
22:04.764 --> 22:05.064
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
22:05.385 --> 22:05.625
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
22:05.765 --> 22:06.005
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
22:06.265 --> 22:06.505
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
22:06.945 --> 22:07.986
[SPEAKER_01]: That makes it a challenge.
22:08.006 --> 22:10.227
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I can only imagine what an educator, right.
22:10.567 --> 22:11.827
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, here's the funny part.
22:11.847 --> 22:12.948
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not dissing educators.
22:13.188 --> 22:16.909
[SPEAKER_01]: They're probably using little AI to check to see if somebody cheated, right?
22:17.149 --> 22:17.610
[SPEAKER_01]: No doubt.
22:17.710 --> 22:22.312
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I mean, so like, yeah, you know, so it's a, that's it.
22:23.432 --> 22:27.311
[SPEAKER_01]: But and I'm sure to if the kid was also going from like
22:28.308 --> 22:38.172
[SPEAKER_01]: a certain level of this anybody skillset and then suddenly they're writing at this level overnight, you know, and you're like, you got it.
22:38.312 --> 22:38.632
[SPEAKER_00]: Please.
22:40.433 --> 22:42.834
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's why you have to have them now.
22:43.054 --> 22:46.315
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm retired from teaching happily.
22:46.575 --> 22:48.036
[SPEAKER_00]: I loved it at the time.
22:48.196 --> 22:54.939
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not correcting all the work, but I like turning up there and, you know, have helping them learn and so on.
22:56.099 --> 23:09.767
[SPEAKER_00]: And but now you'd really have to have them right a lot of the important writing right there right in front of you exactly I think that I'm going from there I don't know exactly what'll be but
23:10.580 --> 23:15.741
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't envy the people that are trying to actually attempt to catch this in real time at all.
23:15.861 --> 23:16.882
[SPEAKER_01]: I really don't.
23:17.082 --> 23:17.622
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't envy it.
23:17.642 --> 23:17.842
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
23:17.922 --> 23:18.762
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't envy it one bit.
23:19.482 --> 23:27.104
[SPEAKER_01]: So what, you know, I think that the reception of the book, I've seen some of the reviews on it.
23:27.184 --> 23:28.524
[SPEAKER_01]: I got a chance to go to your website.
23:29.304 --> 23:34.766
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in the in the Hodgepodge of all these, you know, I'm a big movie buff and a big book buff.
23:35.026 --> 23:39.207
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that that would make it really good series, right, just that basic
23:40.167 --> 23:40.788
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm learning.
23:41.069 --> 23:42.170
[SPEAKER_01]: This is my perspective.
23:42.330 --> 23:42.891
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a kid.
23:42.991 --> 23:45.074
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't talk to me like a kid and let me learn.
23:45.435 --> 23:50.282
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are the shows that I could watch with my kids, be like, you know, look over to McKinna.
23:50.462 --> 23:54.508
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I kind of see where your perspective is because I was a fourth grader once too, you know.
23:56.126 --> 23:56.727
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I do.
23:57.387 --> 23:59.710
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope it could become a movie or a series.
23:59.770 --> 24:12.003
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that would be I would love it that would be awesome and she has a lot a lot to say and a lot to oh like when her big brother is oldest brother is
24:13.664 --> 24:14.725
[SPEAKER_00]: in Iraq.
24:14.985 --> 24:16.026
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where he goes.
24:17.046 --> 24:22.790
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and of course the parents are, you know, worried to death naturally, the natural thing.
24:23.250 --> 24:33.156
[SPEAKER_00]: And this wasn't what they would chosen for him, but you know, like you say, your kids have their own feelings, their own decisions, they're affected by what goes on.
24:33.236 --> 24:33.316
[SPEAKER_00]: And
24:34.557 --> 24:45.624
[SPEAKER_00]: So when her TN, I get a lot of this as you know, from my teaching and from my own experiences and kids that I've learned a lot from and hopefully have taught a lot to but
24:57.230 --> 25:01.652
[SPEAKER_00]: and someone in the class yells out, oh, is he going to die?
25:01.672 --> 25:05.434
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is exactly what happens in a class, right?
25:06.014 --> 25:10.256
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the kids are all going, you know, oh my, how can you say that?
25:10.276 --> 25:10.856
[SPEAKER_00]: Or blah, blah, blah, blah.
25:11.216 --> 25:17.378
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jelly Bean just says to the class, she goes, he's just saying what everybody's thinking.
25:17.398 --> 25:18.199
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, they don't like it.
25:18.219 --> 25:20.400
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know what, you know what?
25:20.480 --> 25:22.320
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is actually, you know,
25:24.895 --> 25:32.180
[SPEAKER_01]: in that round about rude, you know, rude way, they, the person, folks vocalized, what was in the back of every kid's head.
25:32.501 --> 25:33.922
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's, it's, it's a hit play.
25:34.042 --> 25:44.229
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you said that, and I remember when I was in third or fourth grade in the Gulf War was taking place and we wrote letters to the, to the soldiers and the people overseas, right?
25:44.769 --> 25:51.254
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're like, I immediately thought of that while you were talking, I'm like, oh my gosh, I remember being in third or fourth grade and they're like, hey, let's write some letters.
25:51.554 --> 26:05.540
[SPEAKER_01]: to support the troops, you know, for this situation, you're watching the Gulf War, and that was really like the first like major event that I remember as a kid like, whoa, this is like the world's not such a great place in certain, certain time periods, right?
26:06.680 --> 26:09.041
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, when that becomes real T.O.
26:11.427 --> 26:29.655
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so that is a lot of what does go on and it's so interesting because way long ago for me when you know you have these experiences that shape you course and I was working in advertising for a while, which was really.
26:30.692 --> 26:31.312
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of fun.
26:31.452 --> 26:36.115
[SPEAKER_00]: I did a lot of different things in it because it was sort of a smaller outfit.
26:36.635 --> 26:41.398
[SPEAKER_00]: And my boss, you know, one of those moments when you want to say to your, oh, that's not really my job.
26:41.778 --> 26:45.920
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you're like, oh, all of the have that feeling.
26:45.940 --> 26:47.041
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm time to time.
26:47.121 --> 26:48.662
[SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty, pretty natural.
26:49.162 --> 26:54.385
[SPEAKER_00]: So, but then it was a working on a campaign for New York Magazine.
26:55.289 --> 26:59.813
[SPEAKER_00]: There they have similar kinds of things in, you know, all over the place, the place is so far.
26:59.933 --> 27:00.293
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.
27:00.454 --> 27:05.738
[SPEAKER_00]: So my boss had said to me, and it wasn't very far away.
27:05.758 --> 27:06.739
[SPEAKER_00]: It worked in New York City.
27:07.400 --> 27:10.302
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was just a couple of blocks up, but I had to carry this big sand.
27:10.342 --> 27:12.904
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess Moore is on obviously more online now.
27:12.944 --> 27:17.949
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, he said, take this up to, I need you to take this up to Neil Simon's agent.
27:18.089 --> 27:18.469
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
27:19.470 --> 27:24.615
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I know, first I was not going to do it or argue about it, which would have been stupid.
27:24.635 --> 27:33.183
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, what 25 years old, right, you know, all these moments and I took it up to him and the agent.
27:34.226 --> 27:35.027
[SPEAKER_00]: It was very nice.
27:35.067 --> 27:39.750
[SPEAKER_00]: We ended up talking for a long, long time because I said, Oh, could I speak to Neil Simon?
27:39.870 --> 27:45.653
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I was just this good and he's like, well, why didn't you ask me that?
27:45.674 --> 27:48.455
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I asked Neil Simon, could he look at someone my writing?
27:48.475 --> 27:50.357
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what I was thinking about anyway.
27:50.457 --> 27:51.737
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you went to first person.
27:51.998 --> 27:52.938
[SPEAKER_01]: You went to first person.
27:53.178 --> 27:53.439
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh boy.
27:53.599 --> 27:53.839
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
27:53.999 --> 27:55.460
[SPEAKER_00]: So I said, you're interested.
27:55.500 --> 27:56.841
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes, why didn't you ask me that?
27:57.201 --> 27:58.422
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did he look over?
27:58.442 --> 28:02.945
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, okay, fine, I'll bring you some my writing, whatever I was working on at the time.
28:03.385 --> 28:13.232
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, you're, um, because I remember this pretty bit, you know, one of those moments, you're dialogue sparkles, but in your life.
28:13.885 --> 28:19.848
[SPEAKER_00]: you to be able to write well, you need to have more experiences, which is so interesting.
28:19.868 --> 28:22.409
[SPEAKER_00]: And I always thought about that, because yeah, you do through life.
28:22.689 --> 28:22.909
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
28:23.449 --> 28:30.453
[SPEAKER_00]: You get a ton of different kinds of students and co-pollies, and you learn so much from that.
28:30.533 --> 28:40.497
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if you think about some of the greatest artists that we've had a chance to listen to, you know, they may be private people like, you know, they can be rolled away, right?
28:40.857 --> 28:41.498
[SPEAKER_01]: They can, you know,
28:42.855 --> 28:46.137
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to think of that the who wrote catcher in the ride, right?
28:46.157 --> 28:48.058
[SPEAKER_01]: Who'd like never talent yet?
28:48.218 --> 28:49.058
[SPEAKER_01]: Salute talent.
28:49.298 --> 28:53.821
[SPEAKER_01]: Rotate the greatest, one of the greatest books I've ever, and then one of nothing to do with the rest of society, right?
28:53.981 --> 28:56.082
[SPEAKER_01]: And it became a, you know, kind of a myth unto himself.
28:56.422 --> 28:58.783
[SPEAKER_00]: But some of the greatest art, it became like a hermit.
28:58.883 --> 28:59.904
[SPEAKER_01]: It completely hermit, right?
29:00.324 --> 29:08.048
[SPEAKER_01]: But some of the greatest artists that have ever been creative put their soul into the records and then quickly retreated away from public.
29:09.052 --> 29:11.775
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, so they don't have tough lives.
29:12.016 --> 29:20.565
[SPEAKER_01]: They did, but it was almost a weird way of saying, I'll be vulnerable in my art, but I'll stay away from you personally, but their life experience is bled into the pen.
29:21.925 --> 29:24.827
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's so ancient, like, look at Van Gogh.
29:26.028 --> 29:27.850
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's work was amazing.
29:27.890 --> 29:30.832
[SPEAKER_00]: But the poor guy was, you know, some mental.
29:31.232 --> 29:31.573
[SPEAKER_01]: Very.
29:31.673 --> 29:32.053
[SPEAKER_01]: Issue.
29:32.313 --> 29:33.534
[SPEAKER_01]: Very much so, you know.
29:33.774 --> 29:35.856
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have been treated differently these days.
29:36.076 --> 29:38.578
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to look at, look at Mozart.
29:38.618 --> 29:39.018
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
29:39.559 --> 29:42.181
[SPEAKER_00]: He was an amazing genius.
29:42.221 --> 29:44.923
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not even characterizing it well enough.
29:45.724 --> 29:46.824
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was,
29:47.848 --> 29:52.173
[SPEAKER_00]: was shunned by people and died really young.
29:52.253 --> 30:06.070
[SPEAKER_01]: He did, and it's, you know, but we, you know, history is littered with, you know, misunderstood people and the time frame didn't understand certain things because people were only supposed to act a certain way and they're really kind of sort of quote unquote ahead of their time so to speak.
30:07.235 --> 30:08.735
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that is the case.
30:09.216 --> 30:10.936
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just a little outside the grid.
30:11.196 --> 30:17.858
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'll question, you know, where could people find Amy Pollock the adventures of Jelly Bean in more information about you?
30:18.679 --> 30:22.300
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so you can go to my website, AmyP Pollock.com.
30:23.756 --> 30:38.045
[SPEAKER_00]: my books and I did switch publishers so now my books are being published by Pegasus and I guess you could go on there website and they are doing some illustrations from it.
30:38.105 --> 30:40.426
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I needed illustrations but I can't draw off.
30:43.248 --> 30:44.409
[SPEAKER_01]: someone else is going to do it.
30:44.709 --> 30:45.249
[SPEAKER_01]: That's okay.
30:45.570 --> 30:47.791
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the movies need special effects too.
30:47.811 --> 30:49.312
[SPEAKER_01]: The director doesn't do the special effects.
30:49.993 --> 30:51.834
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that's a good point.
30:51.914 --> 30:53.035
[SPEAKER_00]: No, they don't.
30:53.095 --> 30:57.658
[SPEAKER_01]: They direct the film and they're like, hey, there's, you know, and that's the beauty of life, right?
30:57.678 --> 30:59.139
[SPEAKER_01]: You go where your skillsets are.
30:59.239 --> 31:02.941
[SPEAKER_01]: You can assist in the process, but you're like, listen, you know, my right hand does this.
31:02.981 --> 31:04.522
[SPEAKER_01]: My left hand doesn't do that, so to speak.
31:04.582 --> 31:05.623
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a truth.
31:05.743 --> 31:06.203
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
31:06.524 --> 31:07.704
[SPEAKER_01]: I learned that a long time ago.
31:07.784 --> 31:08.325
[SPEAKER_01]: So, um,
31:09.273 --> 31:12.040
[SPEAKER_01]: I would love to have a follow up conversation with you.
31:12.120 --> 31:13.663
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm absolutely honored that you did this.
31:13.724 --> 31:16.189
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that story is relatable for multiple generations.
31:16.330 --> 31:17.853
[SPEAKER_01]: And I really appreciate you being on the show.
31:18.956 --> 31:20.138
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, thank you, Rishan.
31:20.499 --> 31:21.361
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an honor to pleasure.
31:21.502 --> 31:21.963
[SPEAKER_01]: Any pollen.
31:22.283 --> 31:23.085
[SPEAKER_01]: Appreciate it.
31:23.145 --> 31:23.667
[SPEAKER_01]: Take care.
31:23.767 --> 31:24.068
[SPEAKER_01]: You too.
31:24.990 --> 31:25.491
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
31:25.651 --> 31:25.791
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.
31:26.834 --> 31:27.295
[SPEAKER_00]: So long.
00:02.170 --> 00:11.414
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've ever wandered into the venture in the experience of writing, you know life experiences are no substitute for what comes and what you share with your audience.
00:11.714 --> 00:21.238
[SPEAKER_01]: Today I have very special guests today and we're tired to teach you who drew upon years of experience in life as a mother, grandmother, and now has transitioned to writing as well, too.
00:21.538 --> 00:22.938
[SPEAKER_01]: Amy Pollock, thank you very much.
00:24.439 --> 00:25.099
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, Richard.
00:25.639 --> 00:26.300
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an honor to play.
00:26.320 --> 00:26.700
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
00:27.482 --> 00:28.243
[SPEAKER_00]: nice to be here.
00:28.264 --> 00:29.145
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
00:29.486 --> 00:31.028
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for taking time out of your business schedule.
00:31.048 --> 00:34.975
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked how busy you are, you know, based on how life works.
00:35.036 --> 00:36.097
[SPEAKER_01]: So thank you for being on the show.
00:36.939 --> 00:37.941
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, my pleasure.
00:38.907 --> 00:40.208
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so painful.
00:40.448 --> 00:56.874
[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, I want to thank you for being a teacher because that really is a foundation and building block of how people grow and mature and it's a very tough profession, but it also gives you a lot of life experiences to share when it comes to your writing career.
00:57.154 --> 01:06.598
[SPEAKER_01]: So before we talk about, you know, your book, The Adventures of Jelly Bean, I'd love to talk about that fourth grader that was standing in front of the classroom and then transition to a teaching career.
01:08.258 --> 01:08.618
[SPEAKER_00]: Gosh.
01:08.738 --> 01:15.380
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'll try to encapsulate some of the major highs and lows.
01:16.081 --> 01:20.562
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I was in fourth grade and I was, oh, I could give you a list of things.
01:20.642 --> 01:28.665
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not particularly good at, but I am a decent storyteller and I have a vivid imagination.
01:29.305 --> 01:50.328
[SPEAKER_00]: and my teacher used to call me up in front of the class when she had downtime and I would tell these stories that classmates of mine still remember and this is going back I know I feel the same way I was laughing when well we actually saw a few of us were at another classmate's funeral
01:51.578 --> 01:58.202
[SPEAKER_00]: because this is going back 60 some odd years ago and she still had some of the papers that I had written.
01:58.222 --> 01:58.562
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
02:00.152 --> 02:14.843
[SPEAKER_00]: It's vaguely vaguely remembered doing this, making a play out of some of it, giving part out to some people in my class, and I know it is funny, and I had to choose a wonderful teacher.
02:14.903 --> 02:25.650
[SPEAKER_00]: This Mrs. Trent, I remember her very vividly, and I would tell these stories about which the kids all liked about this little mischievous girl named Jelly Bean.
02:26.551 --> 02:28.492
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he's thanks.
02:28.692 --> 02:43.201
[SPEAKER_00]: And then over the years, she morphed into what, um, on Kirkus and, um, U.S. review, they've called a role model, which was always like, wow, okay, I'll, I'll take it.
02:45.683 --> 02:49.305
[SPEAKER_00]: She is a fourth-right fourth-grader and, um,
02:50.632 --> 03:03.648
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of tells it like it is and she doesn't always do what her parents would like her to do or what friends or other people her own age.
03:04.477 --> 03:29.371
[SPEAKER_00]: expect of her or would prefer her to do and like for example her little best friend because my characters kind of tell me what they need me to do with them gotcha and you know she has this best friend who the parents or her mom specifically doesn't prefer the little girl is kind of from the wrong side of the tracks let's say
03:33.543 --> 03:45.372
[SPEAKER_00]: the parent is there numerous instances of this where the parents don't like a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a friend or someone that child wants to be with.
03:45.592 --> 03:45.872
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
03:46.213 --> 03:54.399
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so this was happening in my book among other situations and challenges that my main character confronts.
03:56.240 --> 04:04.168
[SPEAKER_00]: Through my stories, well, there are now the adventures of Jelly Bean, the further adventures of Jelly Bean, the still further adventures of Jelly Bean.
04:05.149 --> 04:11.376
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm writing my book for, my kids are like, you know, can you think of a more creative title?
04:12.137 --> 04:16.201
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm really great with titles, but I'm, um, we're, I'm getting there, I'm working on that.
04:17.242 --> 04:17.923
[SPEAKER_00]: And through what?
04:19.449 --> 04:22.450
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, what happens is spoiler alert, I guess.
04:23.010 --> 04:32.232
[SPEAKER_00]: Her little friend ends up moving away with her family and her family, a little girl's family has some ups and downs.
04:33.012 --> 04:33.652
[SPEAKER_00]: Jelly Bean.
04:34.652 --> 04:35.453
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
04:35.473 --> 04:39.373
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, she becomes like a good listener, a sounding board.
04:40.134 --> 04:45.595
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, you know, even when you move away, the kids have, like us, at the time, so forth.
04:46.095 --> 04:46.335
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
04:47.360 --> 04:54.722
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, so there's that which is a good wool, but also she doesn't like her uncles.
04:55.142 --> 04:55.962
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw that.
04:56.582 --> 04:57.143
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw that.
04:58.163 --> 05:00.704
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they're very my situations.
05:00.744 --> 05:02.104
[SPEAKER_00]: They're very real.
05:03.104 --> 05:04.285
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's relatable.
05:04.445 --> 05:05.125
[SPEAKER_00]: It's relatable.
05:05.665 --> 05:13.067
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's what a lot of people say and true, because that's what I know how to write about.
05:14.480 --> 05:17.122
[SPEAKER_00]: and how she resolves various issues.
05:17.202 --> 05:21.304
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, full disclosure, you know, when you see somebody, you know, that's older, right?
05:21.404 --> 05:23.125
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's funny because I'm 43 now.
05:23.506 --> 05:25.347
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't just wake up 43, right?
05:25.407 --> 05:32.551
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't, you know, I didn't just wake up like, you know, I'll tell my kids, you know, like I have three daughters, you know, soon to be 13, 11 and 6.
05:33.011 --> 05:35.633
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I was that age one's two, right?
05:35.773 --> 05:41.757
[SPEAKER_01]: And so now, especially in fourth grade, you know, it's that period where you kind of have to let
05:43.089 --> 05:48.495
[SPEAKER_01]: them's experienced things that kind of have to get their feelings hurt, that kind of have to the heart broken a little bit, you know?
05:48.715 --> 05:48.995
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
05:49.476 --> 05:56.062
[SPEAKER_01]: I hate to say it like you start learning that just because you participate in a sport doesn't mean you're going to get the trophy so to speak, right?
05:56.103 --> 05:59.926
[SPEAKER_01]: So definitely differentiating between gains and losses.
06:00.687 --> 06:07.291
[SPEAKER_01]: and kind of having to learn to get burned and kind of at the same time as a parent or a grandparents.
06:07.311 --> 06:09.352
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to shield them from very negative things.
06:09.392 --> 06:15.196
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a very delicate balancing act to be able to navigate those things because dad, I know that.
06:15.256 --> 06:16.016
[SPEAKER_01]: Mom, I know that.
06:16.156 --> 06:21.800
[SPEAKER_01]: I already know that it's like, I know you know that, but if I don't say it, I need to acknowledge, I need to hear it from you that you know that
06:22.796 --> 06:48.481
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and also the feeling of a fourth grader when things are just coming into focus kind of so I feel like you sort of accept things as they are until then, but you have that feeling and jelly bean does like I think most kids do you couldn't possibly understand yes you say to your parents you know and then right as you get older because my kids are in their 40s.
06:50.205 --> 06:54.770
[SPEAKER_00]: When you have their own children, because my book is good for each generation.
06:54.850 --> 06:55.330
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
06:55.370 --> 06:55.991
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been told.
06:56.831 --> 07:04.779
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good for when you're reading it, sharing some topics that are kind of hard for kids to bring up and they don't really want to.
07:05.099 --> 07:05.439
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.
07:05.820 --> 07:08.402
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's popularity.
07:08.722 --> 07:09.223
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?
07:10.823 --> 07:25.336
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you going to like when I took a Shakespeare and you know that has situations that are very real and when we had this discussion on Mick Beth that's a great book that's you know
07:26.177 --> 07:30.142
[SPEAKER_00]: And these kids I had college bound and non college bound.
07:30.222 --> 07:30.503
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
07:30.583 --> 07:31.765
[SPEAKER_00]: So all different levels.
07:32.225 --> 07:36.331
[SPEAKER_00]: But we talked about what would you do for a boyfriend or girlfriend?
07:36.671 --> 07:37.392
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you lie?
07:37.692 --> 07:37.933
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
07:37.993 --> 07:38.854
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you steal?
07:39.074 --> 07:39.314
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
07:39.375 --> 07:40.756
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you kill?
07:41.137 --> 07:41.577
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
07:42.437 --> 07:48.621
[SPEAKER_00]: and, you know, a sort of a metaphor for how far would you go to be in a certain group?
07:48.921 --> 08:02.290
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, well, how often do you see those horrible stories where the person was on the straight narrow, and then there, next, you know, they're either on the judgestand or in the, you know, the courtroom or, you know, being interrogated and they're asking themselves, I don't even know how I even ended up.
08:02.770 --> 08:14.213
[SPEAKER_01]: like, it just, it's one thing after another, you know, hey, carry this for me, drive this car, you know, it can go really quickly and you can get blinded by the person that's around you.
08:14.753 --> 08:17.153
[SPEAKER_01]: I do want to go back to McBath because this is pretty funny.
08:17.273 --> 08:22.995
[SPEAKER_01]: So I had an AP English teacher in high school, and I was thinking of you when you said that.
08:23.515 --> 08:29.476
[SPEAKER_01]: So you don't think I'm going to coast through my senior year, and then all of a sudden she sends this, hey, you need to read McBath
08:32.837 --> 08:35.879
[SPEAKER_01]: you start school, you like, I read the summer, like, how dare you.
08:37.500 --> 08:41.722
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was like, I could understand like the traditional old English.
08:42.083 --> 08:49.107
[SPEAKER_01]: So I found it English to regular English translation on the other side of the book and then I would read it.
08:49.447 --> 08:55.130
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, because it's not easy if you've never read it, you know, if you've never, you know, it's really tough, you know?
08:55.511 --> 08:55.871
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
08:56.731 --> 08:57.232
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was
09:00.654 --> 09:03.276
[SPEAKER_00]: It really is, and it's timeless.
09:03.696 --> 09:04.036
[SPEAKER_00]: It is.
09:04.456 --> 09:08.179
[SPEAKER_01]: Because, Yes, power, corruption.
09:08.859 --> 09:12.562
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's, it's, it's one of the greatest tragedy stories you'll ever read.
09:13.682 --> 09:16.564
[SPEAKER_00]: Totally absolute power corrupts absolutely.
09:16.784 --> 09:17.024
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
09:17.845 --> 09:25.230
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but, and I found in, and I had easier translations because
09:26.395 --> 09:49.274
[SPEAKER_00]: you don't want it to be just a bunch of words that I had no I had one supervisor along the way who said oh the kids are just going to look up every word they don't know no that's it's not happening I wish that were true but not in close exactly and so that is important to kind of
09:54.152 --> 09:58.796
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll back to the core, which is pretty fascinating.
09:59.237 --> 10:06.484
[SPEAKER_01]: What's fascinating is I don't want you to dismiss that you said you weren't really like, when it comes to creating characters, people don't realize what a gift that truly is, right?
10:06.784 --> 10:07.365
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
10:07.525 --> 10:15.713
[SPEAKER_01]: To be able to actually, because absolutely, you know, to be able to draw on life experiences, not put a particular person's name out there.
10:16.193 --> 10:19.374
[SPEAKER_01]: and then to be able to draw the perspective because that is relatable.
10:19.634 --> 10:25.876
[SPEAKER_01]: There is that fourth creator and you know what's even great, great about that is every generation can relate to that.
10:26.196 --> 10:41.422
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether it's this free internet era, whether it's the post internet, I'm a kid of the 80s and you know when you're starting to discover you know okay this kid can be my friend and then your parent is kind of saying I don't know about that kid but you're like I'm friends
10:45.663 --> 10:51.531
[SPEAKER_01]: of how they interact, if how they talk to their mom, it's the small little nuances you as a kid don't see.
10:51.952 --> 10:55.837
[SPEAKER_01]: And then sometimes, your parent can be completely wrong and mispreseved that kid.
10:56.097 --> 10:58.761
[SPEAKER_01]: And then sometimes, you can be so back and say, wow, they were totally right.
10:58.781 --> 11:01.124
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't really, you know, hindsight's 2020.
11:01.144 --> 11:03.087
[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of see why they told me to stay away from that kid.
11:04.176 --> 11:05.577
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, it's so true.
11:05.697 --> 11:08.619
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's a little bit of both.
11:08.699 --> 11:10.000
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a little bit of both.
11:10.500 --> 11:10.740
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
11:10.760 --> 11:18.024
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it is of course, like as soon as a parent says one thing about what you're doing or who you're hanging around with.
11:18.665 --> 11:21.907
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when they say, don't, that's exactly what you want to do.
11:21.987 --> 11:23.468
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not went through that myself.
11:24.408 --> 11:26.750
[SPEAKER_00]: So should I be surprised that my own kids did?
11:27.330 --> 11:28.030
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course not.
11:28.391 --> 11:28.851
[SPEAKER_00]: But like you
11:31.800 --> 11:44.143
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a fine line, you know, not permitting them or not wanting them to do something that could really could be a pretty bad life-changer.
11:44.484 --> 11:50.585
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my father always gave the advice and he would say, so nothing ever happens good after one o'clock in the morning.
11:50.705 --> 11:51.666
[SPEAKER_01]: That was his philosophy.
11:52.026 --> 11:53.986
[SPEAKER_01]: That was his number one philosophy.
11:54.046 --> 11:59.848
[SPEAKER_01]: He was like, let me tell you, he said between one and five, nothing good is ever, you're not going to run into anything good.
12:00.333 --> 12:00.573
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
12:00.873 --> 12:16.098
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you're really bringing me back because one of my kids who now he's fine on the straight narrow and so forth, but for a long time, he would be out to low hours and it was a problem.
12:16.339 --> 12:17.559
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you do past the point?
12:17.579 --> 12:19.720
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't follow your child around.
12:19.740 --> 12:19.940
[SPEAKER_00]: Nope.
12:20.900 --> 12:21.160
[SPEAKER_00]: Nope.
12:21.840 --> 12:25.642
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not going to work out, but you know, you do the best you can.
12:26.695 --> 12:38.358
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's why a lot of the generations, like my, again, spoiler alert, so when Jelly Bean, well, I did ask my daughter.
12:38.398 --> 12:41.379
[SPEAKER_00]: What would you do if I forbid you to go to someone's house?
12:41.679 --> 12:41.859
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
12:42.199 --> 12:43.539
[SPEAKER_00]: Two seconds response.
12:43.859 --> 12:44.439
[SPEAKER_00]: We're crazy.
12:44.479 --> 12:45.700
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd sneak, I'd sneak.
12:45.960 --> 12:46.340
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard it.
12:46.780 --> 12:48.200
[SPEAKER_00]: No, hello, of course.
12:48.960 --> 12:50.961
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, I could guess that.
12:51.461 --> 12:53.862
[SPEAKER_00]: But then when her mom,
12:55.622 --> 13:19.402
[SPEAKER_00]: This finished screaming at her because we as moms you you worry of course pretty it's only for you're the only worry for about 18 years or so you know and then it doesn't really end the other but you know so when she's so mad but then it takes sometimes the older generation I don't know if your parents are still around but my mother is yeah thank you
13:20.600 --> 13:24.862
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, no, of course, my parents happened to die on the younger side.
13:24.922 --> 13:39.689
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was lucky to have had them, had wonderful parents, but you know, they died, passed away on the younger side, but in any event, it takes the grandmother to say to the mom, she just wanted to see her friend.
13:40.049 --> 13:40.289
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
13:40.969 --> 13:47.532
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, it takes them to come down to situations and I, they're sort of based on my,
13:49.483 --> 13:53.624
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's funny, you know, you're around the same age as my mother and say that respectfully, right?
13:53.684 --> 13:57.524
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm thinking of, you know, I wouldn't come back to the book, but this is about life.
13:57.905 --> 14:16.428
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, even when I was in college, you know, even when I was at parties and there was that voice in the back of my head that was like, you can't get that phone call that's that I did some right, like you're, so even though like you can get upset, you can be like, you know, all those things that, you know, may have annoyed you.
14:17.228 --> 14:21.931
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in the back of your mind, they better not get this phone call that I was, you know, you're going to make mistakes.
14:21.951 --> 14:22.551
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to screw up.
14:22.571 --> 14:23.952
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll meet the wrong people, etc.
14:24.272 --> 14:26.113
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm like, I can't do this.
14:26.913 --> 14:27.153
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
14:27.253 --> 14:41.841
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's like there's, you know how it's almost like you have like a governor, so to speak, like you're like, you know what, I can't do that, you know, that I'm walking like my level of consequence level is a lot less tolerable than yours.
14:42.281 --> 14:43.762
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's okay, but like to each of them.
14:44.988 --> 14:51.455
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's right and you're so right and at the same point as a parent you need to be
14:52.403 --> 14:52.903
[SPEAKER_00]: wary.
14:53.263 --> 14:56.765
[SPEAKER_00]: But no, that yes, are your kids going to make some mistakes?
14:57.125 --> 14:57.425
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
14:57.606 --> 14:59.246
[SPEAKER_00]: And you hope they're not too costly.
14:59.927 --> 15:03.208
[SPEAKER_00]: And like you're saying about a voice in the back of your head.
15:03.468 --> 15:03.688
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yes.
15:03.808 --> 15:05.469
[SPEAKER_00]: So I did.
15:05.869 --> 15:09.611
[SPEAKER_00]: We did teach a cello in some of my classes.
15:09.751 --> 15:11.672
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, what a great book.
15:11.692 --> 15:14.533
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and talk about someone whispering in your ear.
15:14.994 --> 15:17.635
[SPEAKER_00]: And how often did I hear my
15:22.437 --> 15:24.199
[SPEAKER_00]: that's what's so and so says.
15:25.099 --> 15:32.065
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you have to be much more hard to teach kids this, but you know, you try as a parent and a teacher.
15:32.926 --> 15:36.709
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to be discriminating about what your
15:37.841 --> 15:40.923
[SPEAKER_00]: We're taking for real, what gets good to you.
15:41.124 --> 15:41.964
[SPEAKER_00]: What the fuck?
15:42.084 --> 15:44.666
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't just believe.
15:45.167 --> 15:47.809
[SPEAKER_01]: What's even more fascinating now is that I wasn't sure.
15:47.829 --> 15:54.033
[SPEAKER_01]: I read about the jelly bean, but I wasn't sure the era that it took place in some glad when you said, like, you know, they can do video calls and things like that.
15:54.053 --> 15:58.297
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I was like, maybe she drew from when she was growing up and put the book in that era, right?
15:58.337 --> 16:00.699
[SPEAKER_01]: I was reading Cliff Mills, but I never got an era specifically.
16:01.099 --> 16:04.962
[SPEAKER_01]: So the book, like, and the animation, you really, I was like, okay, well, anybody could
16:06.563 --> 16:19.206
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, well, that could be any time frame, you know, respectively, and so it's like, okay, but what's interesting now is when you say, when you're writing that book, how was it when it comes to technology now versus then?
16:19.266 --> 16:22.367
[SPEAKER_01]: Because now all these kids have so much information thrown at them.
16:22.387 --> 16:25.568
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I just had, I had an encyclopedia set as a kid in my room.
16:25.588 --> 16:27.428
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where I spurred my fascination.
16:27.768 --> 16:29.629
[SPEAKER_01]: But then I just had a laptop.
16:29.689 --> 16:32.349
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I had a desktop, but like a ACER, my dad bought it.
16:32.809 --> 16:35.090
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I was really one of the only kids that had a computer
16:35.750 --> 16:39.094
[SPEAKER_01]: That was because they were just now coming out in 1994, 95, right?
16:39.114 --> 16:42.619
[SPEAKER_01]: So, but like, I had America online and all my friends got one.
16:42.879 --> 16:47.445
[SPEAKER_01]: But that was like, oh my god, the world opened up like overnight, right?
16:48.332 --> 17:11.231
[SPEAKER_00]: For I know it is so interesting to get asked that a lot because my books when I started writing them there was not all that technology I remember going to the first computer show and computers were gigantic and I think it was 1967 but that was way way way way early on obviously no my book takes place pretty a year
17:12.452 --> 17:14.074
[SPEAKER_00]: they're about after 9-11.
17:14.134 --> 17:14.514
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
17:14.674 --> 17:15.555
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
17:15.935 --> 17:18.158
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's one of a lot of things changed.
17:18.438 --> 17:18.678
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
17:18.998 --> 17:19.239
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:19.559 --> 17:23.763
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, because I was a teacher at that time and boy, boy, we really,
17:25.726 --> 17:30.011
[SPEAKER_00]: And firstly, we were told not to discuss it too much with the students.
17:30.051 --> 17:34.836
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I was teaching 6, 7th and 8th grade when I was doing middle school at the time.
17:35.237 --> 17:36.058
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew everything.
17:36.078 --> 17:36.658
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course they did.
17:37.199 --> 17:37.840
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course they did.
17:38.020 --> 17:42.425
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there was no way you weren't talking about keeping things from them.
17:42.705 --> 17:44.027
[SPEAKER_00]: Wasn't even possible.
17:44.527 --> 17:48.872
[SPEAKER_01]: And all of that, though, you know, I mean, when you're still in Jersey at the time when that happened to?
17:48.892 --> 17:50.193
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh.
17:50.233 --> 17:50.754
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:50.774 --> 17:51.635
[SPEAKER_01]: So you, oh my gosh.
17:51.695 --> 17:55.839
[SPEAKER_01]: That's even, you know, that's on top of that, considering your proximity.
17:56.380 --> 17:58.722
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was a freshman in college at the time.
17:59.763 --> 18:12.772
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, for people who like, when that happened, it was like, you wait, no, like you wait, and then it was like, yeah, but I want to say this and I say this, I've said this to other guests, I want to say it respectively.
18:13.172 --> 18:21.738
[SPEAKER_01]: The difference between being on a college campus versus navigating that in real life was much different because two days as bad as it is, as horrible as it is,
18:22.278 --> 18:28.280
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you were kind of insulated from the rest of the world, so to speak, from when, from when things are taking place.
18:28.580 --> 18:29.800
[SPEAKER_01]: There was discussions about it.
18:30.100 --> 18:30.840
[SPEAKER_01]: It was horrible.
18:30.961 --> 18:32.241
[SPEAKER_01]: It always has been horrible.
18:32.601 --> 18:35.162
[SPEAKER_01]: But I was an airport and an airport.
18:35.322 --> 18:36.782
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't a security worker.
18:36.942 --> 18:41.324
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't, you know, all the jobs have to have new badges and new protocols in place.
18:41.964 --> 18:46.165
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a level of, I'm away from the rest of the world when you're on a college campus.
18:46.645 --> 18:47.086
[SPEAKER_01]: So to speak.
18:47.126 --> 18:47.686
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no.
18:47.946 --> 18:51.910
[SPEAKER_00]: See my one son's college campus was in downtown New York.
18:52.351 --> 18:53.252
[SPEAKER_00]: That's different.
18:53.412 --> 18:53.672
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
18:53.992 --> 18:54.232
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
18:54.313 --> 18:55.374
[SPEAKER_01]: That's much different.
18:55.854 --> 18:57.235
[SPEAKER_00]: Watched it all from their window.
18:57.275 --> 18:59.277
[SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty horrible.
18:59.317 --> 19:01.159
[SPEAKER_00]: My husband was on the way into the city.
19:01.259 --> 19:03.461
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe because he worked there for a long time.
19:04.082 --> 19:08.686
[SPEAKER_00]: And my one son was on the bus going into my older one going into the city.
19:08.967 --> 19:09.888
[SPEAKER_00]: One who's older than you.
19:10.448 --> 19:22.796
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was on the bus and you heard like a they thought someone crashed into the back of the bus and then they got there and found out all that had happened and as a mother you have absolutely got to be going out of your mind.
19:23.587 --> 19:25.848
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it definitely were.
19:25.908 --> 19:32.750
[SPEAKER_00]: My daughter said in her high school, I still at the time, the kids were just going in and out of the guidance counselor.
19:32.810 --> 19:34.851
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, what could you say?
19:34.871 --> 19:35.611
[SPEAKER_00]: What could you do?
19:36.491 --> 19:47.415
[SPEAKER_00]: One girl didn't know, one friend of hers didn't know whether her mother was, might have been on that plane and, you know, and everybody in our area knew someone who was killed or affected by it.
19:47.915 --> 19:51.757
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's something that, you know, it's not just a blurb and history.
19:51.777 --> 19:54.778
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the worst thing you could have ever actually witnessed.
19:54.898 --> 20:13.086
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, you know, and so when the sun, when jelly beans, oldest, just three older brothers, when the big one wants to join the marines and the parents are not particularly happy when spoiler alert when he wants to drop out of high school, which happens.
20:14.496 --> 20:20.599
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you don't always have your parents' same expectations of you, and this was the root he was determined on.
20:21.119 --> 20:26.142
[SPEAKER_00]: And 9-11 did affect a lot of people that way.
20:26.562 --> 20:27.383
[SPEAKER_01]: What's our question?
20:27.463 --> 20:29.564
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, and I can picture it.
20:29.924 --> 20:55.382
[SPEAKER_01]: The beauty about jelly bean is it's even if for a little boy, you know, it doesn't matter if jelly bean is a girl, you know, it's it's that it's that window of learning and discovering and to and the things that I've learned to is kids are a lot smarter than adults give them credit for right they can discern and make judgment calls and they can say that I, you know, I'm not friends with them anymore because they're me and you feel like, you know what that was a good call on your end.
20:56.455 --> 20:58.917
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, like they say, it's a famous line.
20:59.357 --> 21:00.738
[SPEAKER_00]: Child's the father of the man.
21:00.758 --> 21:02.880
[SPEAKER_00]: I always think about that.
21:03.360 --> 21:03.921
[SPEAKER_00]: You do.
21:04.301 --> 21:09.925
[SPEAKER_00]: I've learned so much from my students and from my own kids.
21:10.285 --> 21:17.210
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't say like you're saying, I can't say always agree with everything, but you do learn quite a bit.
21:19.211 --> 21:22.412
[SPEAKER_01]: Just briefly, like, what is the, I'm going to pivot just slightly.
21:23.092 --> 21:36.676
[SPEAKER_01]: When you're right now, what's your perspective on like AI writing books for people in your writing from scratch, is it a tool that's assistance for editing, but your thoughts are original so to speak, and what's, do you have a perspective on that?
21:37.737 --> 21:53.584
[SPEAKER_00]: It's that is just so fascinating, especially since my oldest son, now he's in charge of AI at his where he works, so we have these discussions all the time and to be at enough.
21:54.640 --> 21:58.322
[SPEAKER_00]: trouble with kids plagiarizing when they touch.
21:58.882 --> 21:59.282
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
21:59.682 --> 22:04.504
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, can't even imagine how would you know what's real and.
22:04.764 --> 22:05.064
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
22:05.385 --> 22:05.625
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
22:05.765 --> 22:06.005
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
22:06.265 --> 22:06.505
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
22:06.945 --> 22:07.986
[SPEAKER_01]: That makes it a challenge.
22:08.006 --> 22:10.227
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I can only imagine what an educator, right.
22:10.567 --> 22:11.827
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, here's the funny part.
22:11.847 --> 22:12.948
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not dissing educators.
22:13.188 --> 22:16.909
[SPEAKER_01]: They're probably using little AI to check to see if somebody cheated, right?
22:17.149 --> 22:17.610
[SPEAKER_01]: No doubt.
22:17.710 --> 22:22.312
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I mean, so like, yeah, you know, so it's a, that's it.
22:23.432 --> 22:27.311
[SPEAKER_01]: But and I'm sure to if the kid was also going from like
22:28.308 --> 22:38.172
[SPEAKER_01]: a certain level of this anybody skillset and then suddenly they're writing at this level overnight, you know, and you're like, you got it.
22:38.312 --> 22:38.632
[SPEAKER_00]: Please.
22:40.433 --> 22:42.834
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's why you have to have them now.
22:43.054 --> 22:46.315
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm retired from teaching happily.
22:46.575 --> 22:48.036
[SPEAKER_00]: I loved it at the time.
22:48.196 --> 22:54.939
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not correcting all the work, but I like turning up there and, you know, have helping them learn and so on.
22:56.099 --> 23:09.767
[SPEAKER_00]: And but now you'd really have to have them right a lot of the important writing right there right in front of you exactly I think that I'm going from there I don't know exactly what'll be but
23:10.580 --> 23:15.741
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't envy the people that are trying to actually attempt to catch this in real time at all.
23:15.861 --> 23:16.882
[SPEAKER_01]: I really don't.
23:17.082 --> 23:17.622
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't envy it.
23:17.642 --> 23:17.842
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
23:17.922 --> 23:18.762
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't envy it one bit.
23:19.482 --> 23:27.104
[SPEAKER_01]: So what, you know, I think that the reception of the book, I've seen some of the reviews on it.
23:27.184 --> 23:28.524
[SPEAKER_01]: I got a chance to go to your website.
23:29.304 --> 23:34.766
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in the in the Hodgepodge of all these, you know, I'm a big movie buff and a big book buff.
23:35.026 --> 23:39.207
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that that would make it really good series, right, just that basic
23:40.167 --> 23:40.788
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm learning.
23:41.069 --> 23:42.170
[SPEAKER_01]: This is my perspective.
23:42.330 --> 23:42.891
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a kid.
23:42.991 --> 23:45.074
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't talk to me like a kid and let me learn.
23:45.435 --> 23:50.282
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are the shows that I could watch with my kids, be like, you know, look over to McKinna.
23:50.462 --> 23:54.508
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I kind of see where your perspective is because I was a fourth grader once too, you know.
23:56.126 --> 23:56.727
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I do.
23:57.387 --> 23:59.710
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope it could become a movie or a series.
23:59.770 --> 24:12.003
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that would be I would love it that would be awesome and she has a lot a lot to say and a lot to oh like when her big brother is oldest brother is
24:13.664 --> 24:14.725
[SPEAKER_00]: in Iraq.
24:14.985 --> 24:16.026
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where he goes.
24:17.046 --> 24:22.790
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and of course the parents are, you know, worried to death naturally, the natural thing.
24:23.250 --> 24:33.156
[SPEAKER_00]: And this wasn't what they would chosen for him, but you know, like you say, your kids have their own feelings, their own decisions, they're affected by what goes on.
24:33.236 --> 24:33.316
[SPEAKER_00]: And
24:34.557 --> 24:45.624
[SPEAKER_00]: So when her TN, I get a lot of this as you know, from my teaching and from my own experiences and kids that I've learned a lot from and hopefully have taught a lot to but
24:57.230 --> 25:01.652
[SPEAKER_00]: and someone in the class yells out, oh, is he going to die?
25:01.672 --> 25:05.434
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is exactly what happens in a class, right?
25:06.014 --> 25:10.256
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the kids are all going, you know, oh my, how can you say that?
25:10.276 --> 25:10.856
[SPEAKER_00]: Or blah, blah, blah, blah.
25:11.216 --> 25:17.378
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jelly Bean just says to the class, she goes, he's just saying what everybody's thinking.
25:17.398 --> 25:18.199
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, they don't like it.
25:18.219 --> 25:20.400
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know what, you know what?
25:20.480 --> 25:22.320
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is actually, you know,
25:24.895 --> 25:32.180
[SPEAKER_01]: in that round about rude, you know, rude way, they, the person, folks vocalized, what was in the back of every kid's head.
25:32.501 --> 25:33.922
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's, it's, it's a hit play.
25:34.042 --> 25:44.229
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you said that, and I remember when I was in third or fourth grade in the Gulf War was taking place and we wrote letters to the, to the soldiers and the people overseas, right?
25:44.769 --> 25:51.254
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're like, I immediately thought of that while you were talking, I'm like, oh my gosh, I remember being in third or fourth grade and they're like, hey, let's write some letters.
25:51.554 --> 26:05.540
[SPEAKER_01]: to support the troops, you know, for this situation, you're watching the Gulf War, and that was really like the first like major event that I remember as a kid like, whoa, this is like the world's not such a great place in certain, certain time periods, right?
26:06.680 --> 26:09.041
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, when that becomes real T.O.
26:11.427 --> 26:29.655
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so that is a lot of what does go on and it's so interesting because way long ago for me when you know you have these experiences that shape you course and I was working in advertising for a while, which was really.
26:30.692 --> 26:31.312
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of fun.
26:31.452 --> 26:36.115
[SPEAKER_00]: I did a lot of different things in it because it was sort of a smaller outfit.
26:36.635 --> 26:41.398
[SPEAKER_00]: And my boss, you know, one of those moments when you want to say to your, oh, that's not really my job.
26:41.778 --> 26:45.920
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you're like, oh, all of the have that feeling.
26:45.940 --> 26:47.041
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm time to time.
26:47.121 --> 26:48.662
[SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty, pretty natural.
26:49.162 --> 26:54.385
[SPEAKER_00]: So, but then it was a working on a campaign for New York Magazine.
26:55.289 --> 26:59.813
[SPEAKER_00]: There they have similar kinds of things in, you know, all over the place, the place is so far.
26:59.933 --> 27:00.293
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.
27:00.454 --> 27:05.738
[SPEAKER_00]: So my boss had said to me, and it wasn't very far away.
27:05.758 --> 27:06.739
[SPEAKER_00]: It worked in New York City.
27:07.400 --> 27:10.302
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was just a couple of blocks up, but I had to carry this big sand.
27:10.342 --> 27:12.904
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess Moore is on obviously more online now.
27:12.944 --> 27:17.949
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, he said, take this up to, I need you to take this up to Neil Simon's agent.
27:18.089 --> 27:18.469
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
27:19.470 --> 27:24.615
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I know, first I was not going to do it or argue about it, which would have been stupid.
27:24.635 --> 27:33.183
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, what 25 years old, right, you know, all these moments and I took it up to him and the agent.
27:34.226 --> 27:35.027
[SPEAKER_00]: It was very nice.
27:35.067 --> 27:39.750
[SPEAKER_00]: We ended up talking for a long, long time because I said, Oh, could I speak to Neil Simon?
27:39.870 --> 27:45.653
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I was just this good and he's like, well, why didn't you ask me that?
27:45.674 --> 27:48.455
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I asked Neil Simon, could he look at someone my writing?
27:48.475 --> 27:50.357
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what I was thinking about anyway.
27:50.457 --> 27:51.737
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you went to first person.
27:51.998 --> 27:52.938
[SPEAKER_01]: You went to first person.
27:53.178 --> 27:53.439
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh boy.
27:53.599 --> 27:53.839
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
27:53.999 --> 27:55.460
[SPEAKER_00]: So I said, you're interested.
27:55.500 --> 27:56.841
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes, why didn't you ask me that?
27:57.201 --> 27:58.422
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did he look over?
27:58.442 --> 28:02.945
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, okay, fine, I'll bring you some my writing, whatever I was working on at the time.
28:03.385 --> 28:13.232
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, you're, um, because I remember this pretty bit, you know, one of those moments, you're dialogue sparkles, but in your life.
28:13.885 --> 28:19.848
[SPEAKER_00]: you to be able to write well, you need to have more experiences, which is so interesting.
28:19.868 --> 28:22.409
[SPEAKER_00]: And I always thought about that, because yeah, you do through life.
28:22.689 --> 28:22.909
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
28:23.449 --> 28:30.453
[SPEAKER_00]: You get a ton of different kinds of students and co-pollies, and you learn so much from that.
28:30.533 --> 28:40.497
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if you think about some of the greatest artists that we've had a chance to listen to, you know, they may be private people like, you know, they can be rolled away, right?
28:40.857 --> 28:41.498
[SPEAKER_01]: They can, you know,
28:42.855 --> 28:46.137
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to think of that the who wrote catcher in the ride, right?
28:46.157 --> 28:48.058
[SPEAKER_01]: Who'd like never talent yet?
28:48.218 --> 28:49.058
[SPEAKER_01]: Salute talent.
28:49.298 --> 28:53.821
[SPEAKER_01]: Rotate the greatest, one of the greatest books I've ever, and then one of nothing to do with the rest of society, right?
28:53.981 --> 28:56.082
[SPEAKER_01]: And it became a, you know, kind of a myth unto himself.
28:56.422 --> 28:58.783
[SPEAKER_00]: But some of the greatest art, it became like a hermit.
28:58.883 --> 28:59.904
[SPEAKER_01]: It completely hermit, right?
29:00.324 --> 29:08.048
[SPEAKER_01]: But some of the greatest artists that have ever been creative put their soul into the records and then quickly retreated away from public.
29:09.052 --> 29:11.775
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, so they don't have tough lives.
29:12.016 --> 29:20.565
[SPEAKER_01]: They did, but it was almost a weird way of saying, I'll be vulnerable in my art, but I'll stay away from you personally, but their life experience is bled into the pen.
29:21.925 --> 29:24.827
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's so ancient, like, look at Van Gogh.
29:26.028 --> 29:27.850
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's work was amazing.
29:27.890 --> 29:30.832
[SPEAKER_00]: But the poor guy was, you know, some mental.
29:31.232 --> 29:31.573
[SPEAKER_01]: Very.
29:31.673 --> 29:32.053
[SPEAKER_01]: Issue.
29:32.313 --> 29:33.534
[SPEAKER_01]: Very much so, you know.
29:33.774 --> 29:35.856
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have been treated differently these days.
29:36.076 --> 29:38.578
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to look at, look at Mozart.
29:38.618 --> 29:39.018
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
29:39.559 --> 29:42.181
[SPEAKER_00]: He was an amazing genius.
29:42.221 --> 29:44.923
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not even characterizing it well enough.
29:45.724 --> 29:46.824
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was,
29:47.848 --> 29:52.173
[SPEAKER_00]: was shunned by people and died really young.
29:52.253 --> 30:06.070
[SPEAKER_01]: He did, and it's, you know, but we, you know, history is littered with, you know, misunderstood people and the time frame didn't understand certain things because people were only supposed to act a certain way and they're really kind of sort of quote unquote ahead of their time so to speak.
30:07.235 --> 30:08.735
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that is the case.
30:09.216 --> 30:10.936
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just a little outside the grid.
30:11.196 --> 30:17.858
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'll question, you know, where could people find Amy Pollock the adventures of Jelly Bean in more information about you?
30:18.679 --> 30:22.300
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so you can go to my website, AmyP Pollock.com.
30:23.756 --> 30:38.045
[SPEAKER_00]: my books and I did switch publishers so now my books are being published by Pegasus and I guess you could go on there website and they are doing some illustrations from it.
30:38.105 --> 30:40.426
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I needed illustrations but I can't draw off.
30:43.248 --> 30:44.409
[SPEAKER_01]: someone else is going to do it.
30:44.709 --> 30:45.249
[SPEAKER_01]: That's okay.
30:45.570 --> 30:47.791
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the movies need special effects too.
30:47.811 --> 30:49.312
[SPEAKER_01]: The director doesn't do the special effects.
30:49.993 --> 30:51.834
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that's a good point.
30:51.914 --> 30:53.035
[SPEAKER_00]: No, they don't.
30:53.095 --> 30:57.658
[SPEAKER_01]: They direct the film and they're like, hey, there's, you know, and that's the beauty of life, right?
30:57.678 --> 30:59.139
[SPEAKER_01]: You go where your skillsets are.
30:59.239 --> 31:02.941
[SPEAKER_01]: You can assist in the process, but you're like, listen, you know, my right hand does this.
31:02.981 --> 31:04.522
[SPEAKER_01]: My left hand doesn't do that, so to speak.
31:04.582 --> 31:05.623
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a truth.
31:05.743 --> 31:06.203
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
31:06.524 --> 31:07.704
[SPEAKER_01]: I learned that a long time ago.
31:07.784 --> 31:08.325
[SPEAKER_01]: So, um,
31:09.273 --> 31:12.040
[SPEAKER_01]: I would love to have a follow up conversation with you.
31:12.120 --> 31:13.663
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm absolutely honored that you did this.
31:13.724 --> 31:16.189
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that story is relatable for multiple generations.
31:16.330 --> 31:17.853
[SPEAKER_01]: And I really appreciate you being on the show.
31:18.956 --> 31:20.138
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, thank you, Rishan.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's an honor to pleasure.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Any pollen.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Appreciate it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Take care.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You too.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So long.
