The Story Behind the Story: Bobbie Calhoun on 'Folio'

Deep Dive into Historical Fiction with Bobbie Calhoun

In this episode of 'Open Forum in The Villages, Florida,' host Mike Roth explores the vibrant lives of Villages residents, with a spotlight on guest Bobbie Calhoun. Bobbie, a passionate playwright and debut novelist, shares her journey into writing her historical fiction novel, 'Folio.' The discussion delves into the spark behind her novel, her detailed research process, including interviews with veterans and photographers, and the challenges of writing dual narrators. The episode also features expert insights on Alzheimer's diagnosis from Dr. Craig Curtis. Tune in to uncover the rich tapestry of stories and knowledge from The Villages community.

00:00 Introduction to the Open Forum Podcast
01:42 Meet Bobbie Calhoun: Playwright, Essayist, and Novelist
03:19 The Inspiration Behind 'Folio'
04:31 Research and Realism in Historical Fiction
10:54 Exploring Themes and Narration in 'Folio'
15:29 The Role of Photography in 'Folio'
21:47 Self-Publishing Journey and Future Plans
24:00 Conclusion and Listener Engagement 

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Transcript

The Story Behind the Story: Bobbie Calhoun on 'Folio' 

[00:00:00] Nancy: Welcome to the Open Forum in The Villages, Florida. In this show, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in The Villages to get perspectives of what is happening here in The Villages, Florida. We are a listener supported podcast. There will be shout outs for supporters in episodes.
[00:00:25] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth. I'm thrilled to share with you this podcast, which is my passion project for you. This podcast brings you knowledge, inspiration, and a lot of things that people need to know About the villages and the people living here. Be sure to hit the follow button to get the newest episode each week.
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I hope everyone enjoys today's show.
This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in the Villages, Florida. I'm here today with Bobbie Calhoun. Bobbie, thanks for joining us.
[00:01:46] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Thanks, Mike. Happy to be here.
[00:01:47] Mike Roth: Good. Bobbie is a produced playwright, a published essayist, a poet, and a debut novelist. Her essays appear in Storied Stuff and Medium, and her COVID inspired essay, Rewiring the Wormhole, was voted Top 20 Most Read Essays by Talking Writing Literary Magazine.
How many years have you actually been writing, Bobbi?
[00:02:14] Bobbie Calhoun A1: I've really only been writing about ten years.
I know was something I've wanted to do for a very long time. I studied Math in college.
I think that poetry is pretty mathematical. But I just started to understand that math is a language. Another language to learn. And I was, I did feel inspired by it in the beginning before I started trying my hand at writing a novel. A bit of a foolhardy exercise, but the debut will come out and we'll see how it goes.
[00:02:41] Mike Roth: So this is your first novel?
[00:02:43] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Yes, and I chose the historical fiction genre to work in.
[00:02:47] Mike Roth: How many books a year did you read before you decided to write your novel?
[00:02:51] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Probably read between five and ten books a year.
Not a lot, but I would curate what I wanted to read very carefully. I was trying to, especially as I started the novel, I was trying to read a lot of historical fiction, but then I found myself branching out into biographies of some of the real people that my characters were inspired by. I, I've, I think I've read a fair amount of the bestsellers, that are in my genre and surrounding biographies and factual histories.
[00:03:21] Mike Roth: Was there a creative spark that led you to crafting the fiction that eventually became Folio, the novel?
[00:03:29] Bobbie Calhoun A1: That's a funny story. There was a friendly argument going on between my husband and son at the kitchen table pretty much every night. My son was in arts high school and my husband is an artist, a BFA degreed sculptor who then went into photography.
And they would argue all the time about who took the better picture that day. So they would go out and both take photos of Mount Hood because we were out in Oregon. And Or any kind of photos and they would have a friendly but bit of a rivalry around who took the better photo of that sunset or that scene, who had the better angle, who utilized the light better, who had the better equipment, and it was really interesting and one day it, the idea popped into my head.
[00:04:10] Mike Roth: I wondered if war photographers had that same debate sitting in some mess hall somewhere. If they were talking about Things they were photographing in a military setting if someone had a better photo and that was the impetus for the book.   
Your novel folio is set among a number of real events and historical figures. What was the process that you used?
[00:04:35] Bobbie Calhoun A1: When you're writing fiction, you do get a bit of license to re imagine things and maybe put things in that don't happen, but I felt very tied to real events, especially since I, in this novel where I was depicting three different theaters of war, because the novel covers quite quite a few decades.
So my characters meet each other in occupied France, 1943. So I had to do a lot of research on World War II, particularly that year and in that place, in that specific theater. And then they then traveled to Korea for the Korean conflict in the 50s and then the beginning of the Vietnam war so a lot of research reading a lot of books but also talking to people especially for it was not hard to find war photographers who had traveled in exhibits in portland or other places And you could speak to the photographer I also talked to a lot of veterans There are actually a lot of veterans here as we know in the villages who were willing to talk to me about vietnam some of the folks I talked to had I had actually had a war photographer, a photojournalist , embedded with them, traveling around, and they had an opinion about that.
What they were doing, and whether they were helpful, and whether they were telling the real story. I really did I talked to people, and I did my own research, and I learned a lot of things. There were a lot of things that came out that were unexpectedly interesting, which was the role of Kodak in our military surveillance from the very, very early years of Kodak, when George Eastman was at the helm.
Right from the beginning Kodak was interested in helping with aerial reconnaissance photography developing the large format film, developing some of the cameras, and then right on through, as we know, they were very instrumental in the NASA's. program the Apollo program and other space programs.
And so that ended up becoming a pretty thick thread through the book is it's a little bit of a love story for Kodak and my character works at Hawkeye works, which was a blackout windowed lab up in Rochester, New York, and I made a trip to Rochester. And I got a tour and of as much of the facilities as we could and talked to people who had worked at Kodak in the 80s.
That was another big, part of the book that started to emerge.
[00:06:49] Mike Roth: So as you were doing this, did you unearth any stories or factual incidents that you incorporated into the book?
[00:06:57] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Definitely the the aerial reconnaissance I did incorporate into the book. I have a character who works for Lockheed but is also close to Kodak so you know that there's this relationship.
There
[00:07:08] Mike Roth: A skunk, squirk, lockbead guy. Yeah,
[00:07:11] Bobbie Calhoun A1: absolutely. And I learned a lot about cameras and having the right camera in the right place in the right time setting. I learned about, Nikon F being the camera in Vietnam. So I made sure my character is carrying that, but there was a lot of, really interesting information out there about the very early cameras that were used in the 40s.
And, you have the speed graphics and some of these cameras were so iconic. I went to a lot of different camera shops. There's one in Portland called Blue Moon that These guys know everything. And, you would go in and talk about something and be like, Oh no, it's not that camera.
It's this camera. And then they would take it out from the case and show me how they used it. And there was one gentleman I talked to several times whose uncle was a war photographer in Korea. So he could tell me and his uncle had told them all these stories. So I think just getting close to the human stories of what it's like when folks put themselves, are put in or put themselves in harm's way in a military environment and the respect you have to show for not just the person but also what they carried.
And so I, all of those incidents in, made their way into the book in large or small ways.
[00:08:22] Mike Roth: When you classify this as a spy type of a novel?
[00:08:26] Bobbie Calhoun A1: saw it, this is a spy type of a novel. to travel around Europe, as I do have my character do. In talking to military professors and veterans, there was a way if someone was affiliated to intelligence they could get to be in a certain place at a certain time and take a certain photo.
[00:08:57] Mike Roth: Robert Capa utilized that the clearances that he had and yes I think that just all of that. type of learning came through in the research that I did, and I feel that I was able to sprinkle a lot of this right through the novel and make it feel more realistic.
Okay, we're going to take a short break here and listen to Dr. Craig Curtis talk about Alzheimer's disease for a moment. 
[00:09:28] Mike Roth: Dr. Curtis What is the diagnostic process to split the difference between someone who has Alzheimer's and someone who has a different form of dementia?
[00:09:40] Dr. Craig Curtis: That's a great question, Mike. ALzheimer's disease in the past was a clinical diagnosis.
And we would talk to the patient and the family and they would tell us about this progressive memory loss and maybe other symptoms that have been occurring over the past three to five years. And we would simply test their memory and maybe wait another year or two and retest their memory to look for decline.
Nowadays, it's completely different. As a matter of fact, now our diagnostic process involves actually looking for amyloid in the brain, which we now know causes Alzheimer's disease. How do you see amyloid in the brain? We can see amyloid in the brain using PET scans, which is the most common way. And now we're working on using blood tests, which are going to be coming out in the next few years.
In fact, there's already one blood test that is FDA cleared to detect amyloid in the blood, which is reflecting. Amyloid in the brain,
[00:10:40] Mike Roth: And that would be the differential between another type of dementia and Alzheimer's. Yes, sir.
[00:10:46] Warren: With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life.
To learn more, visit his website, craigcurtismd.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar. 
[00:11:11] Mike Roth: Welcome back. Bobby Folio, which is the name of your book, is a little unusual in that it has two narrators from different generations and different genders. Why did you choose to have two narrators?
[00:11:27] Bobbie Calhoun A1: That was an interesting evolution as well. I mentioned that the impetus for the story was this Mini rivalry going on between my husband and my son and that translated into the two main characters Tussley and Plum who are rivals, but not long into the story as I started writing it another voice started to appear out of my imagination and it was this third voice and It turned into the daughter the grown Daughter of one of the photographers, Tussley's daughter, Katie.
And she just kept wanting to talk. About every two or three chapters, she had something to say. And she was talking from her today, which was November 1983. And about the impact of her father not being around. And the impact of the photographs themselves. They had a huge impact on one of her younger brothers.
Who went off to war, volunteered at a very young age. His decision based in large part on the heroic images he saw in his father's and other war photographers work. She really represents us, and in doing that it actually, it added a lot more complexity to the book, because being a first time novelist, even though essayist, it was like, oh no, I have two voices, they're talking in two different time zones, and so I had to do a lot of research, so even though I've lived in 1983, I graduated college in 84 you don't realize how much you forgot about what it was like, and how different it is from modern today, right?
[00:12:56] Mike Roth: Huh
[00:12:57] Bobbie Calhoun A1: she was very interesting to include and have her tell us her side of the story, if you will.
[00:13:01] Mike Roth: was the biggest challenge in writing the narration in two voices?
[00:13:06] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Making sure that they didn't sound alike, is always, now they had two different genders, it was a father and a daughter, so that wasn't as hard, maybe in other, as it would be in another type of story. But, It was making sure that only one of them knew what one of them knew, and the other one knows what the other one knows, and you have to make sure that she doesn't suddenly know something that only her father knows.
She wasn't there. She only knows about his stories from what he's told her, or what she's seen in the photographs. So I'd say that was the biggest challenge, was just making sure the characters stayed distinct and true to the time zone they were in.
[00:13:41] Mike Roth: The recurring concept in your novel seems to be the idea that what you're looking at may not be real.
Such as a staged wartime photographs.
While folio takes place in the 20th century, did our current events influence that narrative in your decision making and writing?
[00:14:02] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Yes, and that's the challenge with writing historical fiction. Things can happen. You think if you have it all nice and pat, I'm going to set this in 1943. I'm going to set this in 1953 and then all these things happen. In the news that you can't ignore and in my case. I was well into the novel as I started it around 2015 2016 when fake news the whole idea of fake news slowly started to emanate and It made the idea behind my novel of whether what we're seeing is truth or fiction much more Come to the forefront then even maybe the rivalry and that's why I think Katie's voice started to get louder and louder because she had a sibling who was very who was making decisions Based on what he was seeing and hearing so absolutely The events related to fake news things that were happening with journalists in the news there, things that were happening with censorship in the news, all of that definitely informed the book as I continue to write it.
[00:15:07] Mike Roth: The whole idea of fake news goes back a long time.
It does.
[00:15:10] Bobbie Calhoun A1: And it wasn't really in the public consciousness until, really, I would say, at that time it was starting to become its own topic.
[00:15:18] Mike Roth: If you go backwards, Orwell's 1984, wasn't it about rewriting history? Yes. And didn't the Soviets do that in 1918?
[00:15:28] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Yes. And so that's what, that's why writing historical fiction is such a challenge, because what do your characters know? So if you're staying within the boundaries of it is this year, not today, but you still want the novel to be relevant to your modern reader, you have to figure out how to dance around that.
[00:15:46] Mike Roth: Your novel seems to cover, or spend a lot of time looking through the years, through the eyes of professionals in the field of photography.
What is your motive going to the camera analogy in the book?
[00:16:00] Bobbie Calhoun A1: I would say the motive was to explore. As a person who now holds a camera in my hands almost 24 hours a day, right?
It's on the bed stand next to you, right?
[00:16:13] Mike Roth: It's in your phone.
[00:16:14] Bobbie Calhoun A1: And I really wanted folks to, I wanted to think about what that meant. The ability to capture an image, and The idea that they're made what you're looking at may not be what you think it is And then the photo itself, of course could be doctored, right?
Today, it's pretty easy. Yeah, so I think that was really The goal was to say hey This is an object that at one time was one thing and now it's evolved to this other thing. And what does that mean for us? And what does it mean for the decisions that we make based on especially war photography? And photography itself is visceral.
You have a visceral reaction to it. You could read a story, it takes you a while to absorb it, an article, a story, an essay.
But when you look at a photograph, you will have an instant reaction to it. And what is it? And how much can you rely on that?
[00:17:06] Mike Roth: Yeah, we've taken a lot of information through our eyes.
[00:17:09] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Absolutely.
[00:17:10] Mike Roth: Now you mentioned that you have your camera on the bed stand. In your, in the form of your phone, do you own a real camera?
[00:17:18] Bobbie Calhoun A1: I do not. I am surrounded by cameras in my house. You can just imagine between my husband and my son. And then besides the, their digital cameras and my son is interested in film as well.
So there's all kinds of camera equipment all around us. I, myself, just to keep it simple, and I keep it to the iPhone. That's my favorite camera.
[00:17:38] Mike Roth: Okay, digital camera.
[00:17:39] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Yeah. The most simple one they make.
[00:17:41] Mike Roth: Yeah.
I can't think of the year between 92 and 2017 when I left Cincinnati, but I remember going into a camera shop to buy a new digital camera and the gentleman in the store said, no, Mike, you don't want to buy a digital camera that's not taking with enough pixels.
[00:18:01] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:18:03] Mike Roth: A few years later that went away. The digital cameras
did have enough pixels to get a really good shot.
[00:18:09] Bobbie Calhoun A1: There was a lot of people calling the shots from a business perspective around digital photography, digital cameras, and as we know, Kodak,
[00:18:15] Mike Roth: Dropped the ball
[00:18:16] Bobbie Calhoun A1: They dropped the ball.
And that's why I think it was important to resurrect that image of Kodak that we have in the back of our minds of being first, being amazing, being everything. ubiquitous, right? That yellow and black, logo the people who work there, the how much Kodak was involved with a lot of the early days of not just cameras and photography, but the very idea that everyone should have, be able to take a picture.
It's just as easy as take the photo and we'll development And give it back to you, and you'll have it right away. And I think that, that's really interesting. That there was a time when it wasn't like the way it is now. And recalling that was really fun.
[00:18:56] Mike Roth: You said film cameras around your house. Do your son or your husband actually develop their own film.
[00:19:03] Bobbie Calhoun A1: No, they, so they, my husband and son have in the past, but today they do not.
And I wouldn't say there's any They're not trying to express any opinion with that. I think it's just that they find that the digital cameras work just really well for them. I think they didn't, after a while, they didn't like the chemicals. I know my husband was like, the chemicals, they're dangerous, they're, toxic. I have a lot of scenes in the book where my character is developing film in I have him developing film in In Korea, I have I've been developing film in a shed at home.
[00:19:32] Mike Roth AI 9-11-24: The daughter remembers that, the acrid smell of the chemicals, the whole ritual of it, right? And the steps, and I interviewed folks closely on what you do, and, the red light in the, in all of that. And I loved portraying that. It really was fun to visit that.
I had a very close friend that developed his own film and even had an enlarger.
[00:19:58] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Yeah, it was really fun to go to these camera stores I was telling you about, like Blue Moon in Portland. They had all that stuff, right? Because there were all these hobbyists that came and were buying these cameras. They were completely, they were pristine, they had been refurbished. And then of course, they're buying all the accoutrements that you're talking about and when you're walking around the store you forget that's what people used to need to do, right?
So it is really interesting and that's why writing historical fiction is fun. You get to step into a different world. I think it's fun to write. period, because I have a lot of friends that write sci fi, fantasy you name it, spy novels, thrillers. I'm in a Florida Writers Association. We have a critique group that everyone's writing something different.
I'm in the Writers League of the Villages. Everyone's writing something different and it is so fun. And so I, I'm really honored to be part of that community.
[00:20:47] Mike Roth: Why did you write this particular novel?
[00:20:49] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Think it just wanted to be written. I myself have been a professional corporate person, and had some ambition, which I was able to fulfill.
So I, once I married up the idea of a photographer who I could base on people I knew, and that ambition and the rivalry that I've always thought was fun, a fun part of work, as long as it doesn't get evil it's pretty fun I felt the need to just express that. So that was from the personal side.
When the character, the daughter, Katie, started to emerge, I realized there was a father daughter story to tell there. My father was around all the time, so I didn't have an absent father, but it was interesting to explore a family dynamic that maybe I didn't personally experience, but I'd certainly had friends and relatives who had.
And I don't know, it wasn't, it's not, I think when you write a novel, it's not a choice. It's something that inspires your imagination and if you give yourself the time and put pen to paper as all my colleagues do in my writing groups you never know where it'll take you and
My husband laughs at me that he's like you just like to make up people make them say what you want him to say And I'm like, yeah, I guess I do It's the only place you can completely control.
[00:21:58] Mike Roth: Okay, so let's talk about how people can get a hold of a copy of your novel, Folio.
[00:22:05] Bobbie Calhoun A1: FOLIO is available everywhere books are sold, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble dot com, and your local independent bookseller.
[00:22:13] Mike Roth: Now, your novel is self published.
Okay. Why did you have a publishing company?
[00:22:20] Bobbie Calhoun A1: I I made the decision that I wanted to control how it looked, how it was laid out. I hired a fantastic editor in New York, Judy Gittenstein, who has, I think, over 50 years experience with all the major publishing houses. So I hired her and she became an incredible partner. And it was through that experience that I made the decision that I wanted to hire anyone I that I would.
Control the whole thing
[00:22:45] Mike Roth: and
[00:22:46] Bobbie Calhoun A1: it's been really fun and a learning experience and once you self publish a novel and I created a publishing company to do that. It's called Nouveau Literary. I, it could get picked up by someone else. There's a distinct possibility. It happens all the time. But whether or not that happens, I think I would have a better chance of getting the book into people's hands because it wouldn't be such an elongated process, which is very true of traditional publishing right now.
Um, Yeah.
[00:23:11] Mike Roth: Are you thinking of turning your book into an audio book?
[00:23:14] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Absolutely, I would love to do that. Now there is a fair amount of French Canadian French, Parisian French, some German circa 1943, and there's a little Korean in the book. So I, when I get to a audio book, I will have to do some pretty heavy interviewing.
And the book is told from two perspectives, as I said, a father and a daughter, so I'll have to decide on how to handle that. As I said, I might have bitten off more than I can chew for a first book, but I would love to do an audiobook, and I think it would lend itself really well to an Audio.
[00:23:47] Mike Roth: Audio gets more complicated the more voices you put into it.
[00:23:53] Bobbie Calhoun A1: did So if we did a simple voice, but had someone who could articulate the language easily, I think it would be really fun to do.
[00:24:01] Mike Roth: . Okay, is there anything else you want to add, Bobby, that we haven't covered today?
[00:24:05] Bobbie Calhoun A1: No I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you, Mike, and hopefully folks will buy the book.
[00:24:10] Mike Roth: Good. Thanks very much, Bobbi.
[00:24:12] Bobbie Calhoun A1: Thank you, Mike.
[00:24:13] Paula: Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9 a. m. Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. This is a shout out for supporters:
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