Bridgeport Unmasked
Bridgeport Public Librarian Adam Cleri hosts talks & interviews on all things about Bridgeport, CT, the Park City!
Bridgeport Unmasked
Diego, Whynd, & the Block Island Ghost
Author Cat Urbain talks about her middle grade book, Diego, Whynd, & the Block Island Ghost, the story of two pre-teens who get into hijinks (natural & supernatural) on Block Island, an island just off of Long Island. This is the first episode of New Books Network in Bridgeport, all about area authors.
Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know before we started today's episode of New Books Network in Bridgeport that we do have a trigger warning for childhood cancer and if you wish to check out another episode of ours, feel free to check out other episodes of Bridgeport Unmasked or on the newbooksnetworkcom. Otherwise, we recommend anyone who is interested in donating and volunteering to support the Serious Fun Network. Now let's get started. Hello everyone and welcome to the inaugural episode of New Books Network in Bridgeport, a podcast series where we interview area authors. Today's author is Kat Urbane, and we will talk about her contemporary middle grade novel Diego Wind and the Block Island Ghost. I'm a librarian, adam Cleary, and I invite Bridgeport Mast fans, authors out there, anyone who's enthusiastic about new and local literature and anyone looking for a new read to enjoy this episode. So, kat, thank you for coming out today. I hope you're doing okay and, yeah, no, we'll be talking about your book pretty darn soon. But you know, first of all, you know how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Great, it's a beautiful day. I'm happy to be in Bridgeport and thanks so much for having me in this great studio.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, and I appreciate the compliment you made earlier about this building. It is a beautiful building here at, you know, beardsley Branch Library, so, plus, it's really awesome that we have the two podcast studios here, so that you know Beardsley Branch Library, so, plus, it's really awesome that we have the two podcast studios here so that you know we can do things not just as a staff, but anyone with a Bridgeport Public Library card can schedule these rooms. So that's one of the many cool things we offer. But, anywho, we're using it here today to talk about our book and to put that book interview into two places. One, you can get that book interview wherever you get Bridgeport Unmasked podcast episodes and you can get them at newbooksnetworkcom. That's newbooksnetworkcom books networkcom that's new books networkcom.
Speaker 1:And we're going to start interviewing a lot of area authors about their books and putting them in both those places. Um, and by area we mean, um, you know anyone who is uh, able and willing to drive here and uh, that definitely includes milford, so, uh, glad that we were able to be that close. That being said, okay, so the title of the book is Diego Wind and the Block Island Ghost. I looked that up on a map and that seems like a trek, like you know, I didn't. Is it in Long Island Sound, or is it so far out there that it's not even the sound anymore?
Speaker 2:It actually is just beyond Long Island Sound, but it's not that difficult to get to. Oh, really I highly recommend for people in Connecticut. There's a ferry that leaves from New London a high-speed ferry, so door-to-door, you could be on Block Island pretty quick and it's also a great, even a day trip for families.
Speaker 1:It's a wonderful place to take kids, absolutely. You know you had a trip yourself recently there, so I think you put it well. You know your like coolest moment ever would be going on the ferry to Block Island and having a kid read Diego Wind and the Block Island Ghost. And speaking of that, I just want to tell everybody out there a little bit more about Kat, and pulling this straight from the author information in the back of Diego Wind and the Block Island Ghost.
Speaker 1:Kat Urbane was first inspired to write children's books while working at Westinwood Studios, where she directed and edited films and watched movies such as when the Things Are again when the Wild Things Are. I'm very ashamed. I love that book and I'm very sorry that I slipped up my tongue there. That's a great book. Kat also worked as executive director for the Connecticut Storytelling Center, a media educator for the Children's Museum of Manhattan Telling Center, a media educator for the Children's Museum of Manhattan and a great grant writer for the Association of Hole-in-the-Wall Camps Amazing organization.
Speaker 1:You never call it the hole-in-the-wall camp in your book, but I'm thinking it's pretty obvious. That is where Wend spent her last summer, if I'm not mistaken there, and we'll get through a lot. The Wind is clearly my favorite character, but saying she's been through a lot is an understatement and we'll be getting right on that. Not much for an 11-year-old, is that how to? 11-year-old girl, old girl, absolutely. Anyways, while volunteering for a family weekend, one of the campers asked Kat to write a book about a boy, a horse and a ghost, and so she did. Diego Winden, the Block Island ghost, was influenced by Kat's experiences working in haunted hotels on Block Island and living in Nicaragua. Her first novel, emmanuel and the Lobsterman, was published by Front Street Incorporated, an imprint of Boyd's Mill Press. Kat currently works as a writer for emergency medical doctors at the Yale School of Medicine. What is a writer for an emergency medical doctor? I read that line and I was like not a clue. So what's going on there?
Speaker 2:Well, I have to say I'm very lucky. It's one of the coolest fields of medicine around. Emergency medicine doctors are on the front lines 24-7. And I do whatever I can to make all their awesome achievements bring that to light around the community and around the world. So, everything from writing press releases today, working on a newsletter I'd nominate them for awards, but I had the thrill yesterday to work on a script for a cameo performance for a well-known actor that I can't divulge yet.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:But yesterday I was like I love my job.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, and you know what I mean. Like incredibly envious, I wish I was a professional writer, not that being a librarian is bad or anything, but it's good stuff. So, yeah, no, I mean that is writing done right. I mean you have your hand in a lot of pots. You know grant writings, script writing, fictional writing, and not all of these are published. I know at least two of yours are pieces of literature people might be interested in. Obviously, what we're talking about today is one and Manual and the Lobsterman. I believe that was your debut novel. If I'm not certain, would you please uh let the folks out there know how they can uh get themselves a copy of either of your books?
Speaker 2:well, both are available on amazon, barnes and noble, even on through walmart. But I think I'm also a big proponent of independent bookstores. Manuel and the Lobsterman might be difficult to find that way, but Diego, you can get. I know a funny one is where there is a great bookstore in Westport called the Westport Bookshop and it is run by people with special needs work there and it's a used bookstore but they just do amazing programs and it just. I really feel it's important to support your independent bookstores and so of course it's available on Block Island. I had a thrill last weekend to go around and if anyone goes to Block Island there's a lot of great shops the Glass Onion there's an island-bound bookstore there. I just brought it to the Maritime Center on Block Island. So what's wonderful is that there are just so many different venues there that are really open to having a story that reflects their island. So that was exciting.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. And I mean, like you actually reference one of these stores. Okay, excuse me, two of these stores in your book. One there is a ghost store on Block Island, if I'm not mistaken unless that was made up for the purposes of the book or something?
Speaker 2:No, there actually was a ghost store on Block.
Speaker 2:Island, there's an organization called Island Ghost Tours and they had an amazing store there. I was like, wow, this is great, the perfect spot to sell a book about Block Island and paranormal had an amazing store there. I was like, wow, this is great, the perfect spot to sell a book about Block Island and paranormal. And there was a fire there. It was a huge hotel burned down and, as a result, the store is no longer. But the ghost tours is still something people can do. Bring your family out and they will tell you all the incredible stories of ghosts on Block Island. Will tell you all the incredible stories of ghosts on block island.
Speaker 1:There are quite a few stories that people can tell you. Uh, no, absolutely, and um, that's also true of a number of the characters in this book. Um, and I, I think I've made like five references to the book already the first few minutes. So let's, let's not leave, uh, everybody hanging any longer and let's uh talk, talk about the book, um, so we're gonna, we're just gonna, um, we're gonna try to keep it, uh, you know, as spoiler free as possible and talk more about background stuff, just so anyone who hasn't read it yet go ahead and, um, uh, anyone who has read it can get more info about how this book works. So would you start off, please, with the bare bones, what people need to know if we're going to have a conversation about this book, so they're not lost in all that you know.
Speaker 2:Well, I think one of the first questions people ask me is wind. What does wind mean? So it's spelled W-H-Y-N-D and wind is actually based on the name of a girl. It was the daughter of one of a friend, of a son of one of my writing friends. It was his friend and I was really struck one by the unusual name. I loved it. I was also struck by their friendship. They were two middle grade kids and it was a boy and a girl who were friends and sometimes those friendships can be it's not always easy in middle school for a boy and a girl to be friends and I just loved their connection they had and the adventures they went on. And then I just also loved that wind has so many different connotations. It can also, you know, remind you of the wind and as the character. I think, as you realize, she is a force of nature and to say the least, yes.
Speaker 2:And, uh, she can come blowing into town and um. So I thought there was sort of connections on different levels.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, um, and I mean, uh, you know that that name, wind uh does does betray that we're talking about someone who is, uh, you know, you know they threw away the mold afterwards type of a person. Okay, so everything in this book is believable. I didn't, like have a moment where I was like, oh, this is not how humans work. But with Diego and Wind, it worked really hard at a friendship and no one else cared to be friends with them. So there was that going on. Uh, you know, uh, bringing them together. Yeah. So uh definitely wanted to start out with wind because, uh, she is, hands down, my favorite character in this book. Uh, she's passionate and she's uh caring and she's deep, but she's also, uh, you know, quirky, uh and and curious and bouncy and things of that nature. And I think, if this isn't like exactly the first time we meet Wind I think it's close to the first time. Basically, she tells Diego who she just met, we have to leave, or there's going to be multiple murders tonight. By the way, way, that's how you end a chapter, right there. Okay, that's, that's very, that was a very good call, and um, and yeah, no, and, and what happened there is that there's going to be a party next to an area with turtle shell eggs, so wind had to uh, uh, put up signs that needed diego's help to be like don't step on the turtles eggs. And, uh, and as one of the one of the teens who I, um, uh, who kind of goes, was at the party and kind of goes back and forth between being horrible, decent, horrible decent, um, like gave her a hard time, uh, because they were snapping turtle eggs. These aren't like an endangered species, eggs but like that in and of itself, the whole scene, um, shows everything you need to know about wind, especially when he, in a real jerk mode, uh, broke one of those eggs intentionally. So so, yeah, no, um, wind is great and you know, I I'm hoping that this podcast reaches readers, obviously, but also writers.
Speaker 1:So I think Wind very nicely falls into the category of character of the little girl who we cannot protect from the ills of the out, of uh of the world coming in on them. Um, I think of it just in literature alone. I think of, uh, you know, scout and To Kill a Mockingbird. I think of Phoebe in Catcher in the Rye, and then obviously, the extreme example of of the horrors of the world coming in on an innocent girl. Uh, and Frank is probably the, the uh, the gold standard for that. So my question to you, kat, is like uh, you know, how did you uh develop, you know, uh, a very believable but very uh you know complicated character, like like wind?
Speaker 2:So it's interesting. Last night I was in one of my writers meetings with an incredible supportive group of people I encourage all writers to join a group and I was bringing up these questions and they were about we don't realize it at the time, we don't think we're writing about ourselves at all. So in my mind she was based on a young girl I knew when I lived on Block Island, so it was partially based on her. But also it's about, I think, her love for animals. And that's also the sort of contrast with Diego that here you have a character.
Speaker 2:She just spends her life saving turtles, releasing minnows, where Diego is a fisherman. And it's how can these two very opposite people come together and you see how I don't think this is giving it away, but you know, wind, who would never go fishing, goes squidding and Diego, who is the fisherman, ends up helping her save animals. So it's interesting how someone we think we'd never be friends with, we realized that by absorbing a little bit of their characteristics it sort of helps us grow as a person. But she was also largely based on my experiences working at hole-in-the-wall camps.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely, and okay, you know what. That's fair enough. So I think, okay, you brought up hole-in-the-wall camp, let's go there right now. Right, I wanted to give so everyone out here we have a trigger warning over the next five minutes or so about childhood cancer. To start for the folks out there who may not know what is the Hole in the Wall camp.
Speaker 2:So the first Hole in the Wall camp was started by Paul Newman. It was called the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, which is still in Ashford, connecticut. It has since grown to be this incredible network of camps around the world and it's actually now called Serious Fun Network, but when I worked there it was called the Association of Hole-in-the-Wall Camps and they have, you know, several throughout the United States. But the basic premise of these camps, which is so amazing and I think volunteering at the camp in Connecticut, I also volunteered at a hospital program in Florida it's just the most incredible place and the basic. I think the reason it was founded is Paul Newman felt every chance camp is this incredible experience.
Speaker 2:Every kid should have a chance to go to camp and just be a kid. And it's about a place where it doesn't matter if you're in a wheelchair, if you need oxygen, whatever it is. They're going to get you swimming, they're going to get you up on a horse and I think at one point Diego's trying to imagine this camp. How can a kid in a wheelchair get up on a horse? But it's all about just having fun and when you volunteer there you're just laughing and dancing and singing. You're in the cafeteria doing the bushy tail dance, and I think it's a place where, instead of being the outsider, where maybe kids you're in a wheelchair, kids are kids, they're going to look at you, they're going to point, and you're spending your lot of times in hospitals not doing fun things here, everyone else, it's your place, you fit in. And I think that's also, too, a connection with Diego. He's used to being in his tribe where he feels comfortable, and suddenly now he's in a place where he's not.
Speaker 2:But so a lot of parts of wind are sort of based on kids that I met in camp. I wouldn't say it was one particular kid, but it's about their resilience and it's about the bonds that they form. About the bonds that they form. And I also think when someone is at a camp and spending a lot of time in hospitals, you spend a lot of time around adults and not around other kids. And I think at one point Diego says why are you always using these big words? Why can't you just talk like a normal kid? And she's like, because I am really not. You know, when you spend time around adults, you pick up things and you start talking like them.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And I mean, you know, wind and Diego really really have this camaraderie going on. What I mean by that is they balance each other. Neither of them would have done nearly as well in the events of the book, uh, without um the other um, okay, cool, so, uh, you know, we, we, we talked a bit about wind and I mean, you know, she, she, she, she, she dominates the story. Her personality at least a diarite, you know just blows uh the over the story.
Speaker 1:Uh, diego is quiet, but that works Okay. By quiet, I mean less, less obvious in your face than what Dwyn does and Dwyn says. So, uh, as it were, um, I, I have a feeling, and I, and I'd love to know, and, and I, I think I think we could do this without spoiling Um, I'd love to know more about diego's backstory, because he just throws like, like wind is wind, says you know, hey, I'm going to tell you everything right now, and uh, which is one literary tactic I like. And another literary tactic is diego's, where he's like I'm going to throw out something interesting and then walk away and just leave you with that um, I mean uh, so, so, uh, like, like. One of the big things that struck me is um. Is his grandfather? Uh, was um and and I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing this correctly a sandinista. Um, did, did, I, did.
Speaker 1:I butcher that too much and they and they fought against the Contras and for any of our younger folks out there, that was a war that happened in Nicaragua. Yes, in Nicaragua in the 80s, Okay. So yeah, that was a very circumlutive way to ask anything in your notes about Diego that didn't make the cut but are still part of his character.
Speaker 2:Well, I think a lot of it is based. When I lived in Nicaragua, I made a movie about the children there and it was one of the main characters. One of the actors was a boy. I was hanging out during the war and there was a big event went on and I was just struck by his character, and I've been a teacher. Kids are wonderful everywhere, but there's big event went on and I was just struck by his character, and I've been a teacher. Kids are wonderful everywhere, but there's something about children in Nicaragua that struck me. They're just gentle souls and they're very artistic and intuitive and it was just an amazing experience. So the other thing that down there is, it is the sense of family and the sense of community down there.
Speaker 2:So when the summers, diego has spent every summer his father's Nicaraguan, his mother's American but he spends every summer on his grandfather's ranch in Nicaragua with all his cousins, all different ages, and they kind of run around as a tribe. And this is his tribe and one of his cousins is saying Jeremy, he's like the leader and Diego, most of his life in that community he is more the follower and he is more, like I said, the introspective one. He is thrown to a completely different environment. He's never been to Block Island. He's also a city kid. He's from New Haven, not Bridgeport. Maybe the next novel will be Bridgeport, but he's from New—.
Speaker 1:I mean, we'll take good novels that are based anywhere. At least I will.
Speaker 2:But anyways, as you were, he's from New Haven, connecticut, and he's suddenly thrown into this completely different environment. Not only is he not in a city anymore, he's in a country situation, but he doesn't have his tribe. At the beginning he refers to it being a dolphin not with his pod, and he is just so used to having the other kids around that he's feeling what am I going to do? And he's driving by these stores with these eyes on shirts and these kids with buggy boards. It's a very alien environment for him. But he was also based on another character that connects with the hole-in-the-wall camps.
Speaker 2:When I was down doing a hospital program in Florida, the volunteers were all. We all had a child we were working with and he was in his room in the bed. He was very shy, he did not want to come out. We made a puppet together and the purpose was that we were all going to meet in this community room and put on a puppet show and he was just like no, I'm not up for it, I'm too shy. And I was like okay, if you're ready, come in. And so I'm in the room with the rest of the kids.
Speaker 2:And suddenly it was just one of those moments where he comes in the room, you know his gown, pulling his pole, the IV pole walks in and he has his puppet and he participated. And it was just like one of those amazing moments when you see a child, that transformation moment, when the child is very shy, suddenly comes out of their shell. And so I think a lot of this book is about too is that transformation that someone who was more part of the pact, who is introspective, you know, shy, suddenly becomes the one where he becomes more I wouldn't say the leader, but you know he's more the champion, and a lot of it is too is his sense of loyalty and a sense of justice, and he really wants justice for Wendt, and that's what brings out that part of him.
Speaker 1:Very clearly. So Wendt is still my favorite character, but Diego is the noblest character in this book. Uh, in my opinion, not only um, you know, uh, doing right by when this person he just met and has no particular stake in her wellbeing and uh, you know, you know, helps her out, helps her out, um, almost at the expense of causing problems for his father's job and for, you know, being able to continue to live on block Island and you know, okay. So Diego is impressive. He's a close second in mine, or maybe it's not even accurate to put like numbers. They're both good characters. Now, speaking of good characters that were in the title, we talked about Diego. We talked about when it is required that we talk about the Block Island ghost, slightly misleading still a great title, because that kind of implies there's only one ghost and no, no, no, this isn't a ghost-obsessed island. Is that true in real life?
Speaker 2:It is true in real life and actually the original title of the book was Diego Wind and the Ghost of Klossy Mott.
Speaker 2:But a lot of people tell me no, no, that's too old fashioned, you know. So we went with Black Island, which I'm now very happy about, but it was based on their true story that I heard that the Mott family runs this hotel on Black Island and there was a story that I heard in one of the hotels where I was staying there was a couple who had been. In one of the hotels where I was staying there was a couple who had been there on their anniversary years ago and they'd just gotten married. And that night, in the middle of the night, the man woke up and looked in the corner of the room and he saw this ghostly figure and he wanted to wake up his wife. But it was like we've only been married five hours. I don't want her to think I'm crazy. So he doesn't say anything In the morning she wakes up. She's like do you know what I saw in the middle of the night?
Speaker 2:So they both saw this apparition, and how I learned about it is they came back 25 years later and they wanted to stay in the same room. So I did the same thing I stayed in the same room where they saw the ghost, and I have never seen Classy yet, but there's so many stories and one thing I love to do on Block Island is to take taxis and you talk to the cab drivers and say, hey, what's your latest ghost story? And everyone will have a ghost story. So there's so many on Block Island and I once asked why are there so many ghosts? You know, I'm sure there are ghosts in, you know, bridgeport and Milford, but the island is how many islands had a ghost tour and do ghost tours? Part of it said that when there's a shipwreck and the souls have nowhere to go.
Speaker 2:they go to the island In the wintertime. There was no place to store the bodies, they couldn't bring them to the mainland, or it was too cold to bury them, so they would keep them in different rooms. So a lot of different reasons why. But no, there's also the bit about two books being written about ghosts on Block Island. That part is true. There are two ghost story books.
Speaker 1:If I may, where do you stand on the whole ghost thing, whether on Block Island or in general?
Speaker 2:island or in general. So I went to graduate school at wesleyan university and the graduate housing was right less next to a cemetery and many strange things happened in that house. So I never personally have seen a ghost. Like I said, I've stayed in that same room on block island many summers hoping I would so, even though I've never seen one. I I think what it is is is they? There's so many things that are mined in the supernatural, we just don't know. So I am, I'm wide open, I would love to see one, but but I think it's.
Speaker 2:You know also about how and there was another interesting story that happened. I was at a book fair in Stonington and I she was probably 11, 12 years old came up and the father said oh yeah, 100% they're ghosts. So when she was a baby, like four or five months old, they heard her talking, babbling. They went upstairs and she was babbling. When she got older she kept saying Isabella, isabella, that's my friend. They're like who are you talking about about? And they later found out there was a girl named Isabella who had died in the house. So when you hear these stories over and over, you know a young baby's not going to make this up. It makes you believe there is something there, but I personally have never experienced a one-on-one ghost encounter very, not very fair enough.
Speaker 1:No, any number of our listeners are very interested In that type of thing and in fact about a week from now We'll be doing a podcast With another author who wrote about Supernatural In the Waterbury Naugatuck Valley Area. So this is not planned, but I'm glad we kind of had these back to back and that they're going to go out roughly the same time. Oh, just wanted to thank you because you made this a realistic adventure. I cannot confirm or deny that there's anything that goes beyond you know the mortal realm going on here. You'll have to pick up a copy, um, at here, uh, you know, either at, uh, the bookstores you mentioned, or at Ingram, or or the library, uh, bridgeport public libraries getting a copy. Uh, so you could always go there. But, uh, but no, I appreciate, like um, I, I could see. I could see kids getting into the hijinks they do. I could see kids getting into the hijinks, they do. Thank you for not giving the world another. I'm 13 years old, I'm a super spy that's trained my whole life and now I'm going to stop the nuclear codes from being launched. No, it is. The stuff they go through is realistic enough without being boring. There's constant activity, but, you know, realistic enough without being boring. There's constant activity, but you know the mischief they get into. Completely understandable, I just want to throw that out there. So, okay, cool. So we hit the major characters.
Speaker 1:We reviewed a lot about what this book is about, but because I wanted to go out on on this one, um, in addition to uh, diego and wind, like a far third favorite character, um is janice nicholson, and uh, I will, I, I will, I will describe Janice as such. She's the manager of the hotel that Diego is living at with his father, while his father is the head chef for the folks at the hotel. And Janice is incredibly strict and organized, which in itself isn't a problem. But she also has a lot of anger, which is a problem, and by a lot of anger I mean like zero to a hundred in a second if something goes wrong. And, um, you know, I don't, I don't want to uh, uh, you know, minimize or put down people who are dealing with anger issues. I certainly am. But Janice just doesn't make an attempt to be a better human being.
Speaker 1:Possibly at the end I'm not sure if I think she actually had a redemption arc but possibly at the end, but, for like 95% of the story, just instant anger all the time, to the point where, when they come out with Inside Out 3, they have to fire the guy currently playing anger and put Janice Nicholson in his place. Okay, all that being said, how did you do this one? Or more specifically, like, if you can say, were you channeling someone? Was this cathartic for you Because I could have fun with a character like Janice Nicholson? You know what I'm saying, so your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Janice Nicholson is based on a tapestry of several people she was originally and I think it's mentioned in there. It reminds Diego of his fifth grade music teacher. I had a fifth grade music teacher who is very similar, but also when anyone who's worked a summer job and had a manager a lot of times it's not easy to manage teenagers, college students, but there is someone that's that type, a very controlling personality, and I think what I was also exploring. Yes, part of it was cathartic and part of it was, you know, you have sort of the person who's the bully and we want to have justice for that person. But I also think, if you go a level deeper and there's a little bit of the other character, tj, who also has, like you, kind of brought up.
Speaker 1:he can be a bully and he can be mean and um, but there's always tj is the one that uh smashed the turtle egg just to just to take uh wind off.
Speaker 2:But go ahead, yes right, but as, but as with him as well. Like no one, is that one dimensional. There's usually a reason why people are that way, and so I was trying to only touched on it lightly. But what is the reason why she was so angry at wind? And so you eventually find out a little bit more the story behind it and the connection and that, but that, yes, we all. She does not have a fondness for children, does not get children, but it's also she wants everything in order and, and in that way there is a little bit of the similarity with the ghost of Klossy Mott, who this was her hotel. She wanted it run a certain way, and even though she's, I don't know if we should give away a super spooky, mean ghost, but she was a tough person to work for, as well as my sense.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I see that now I wasn't picking that up myself as I was reading the pages, but I could see sure that. I'm sorry. It's Klossy, right, klossy, yeah, a person who needed everything in order and didn't get, you know, and got angry about it. Oh, maybe headcanon, headcanon. The reason Klossy remained is so that she could make sure the hotel possible headcanon is still going around there. No, absolutely so cool, kat. So I think, unless there was another part of this book that you were like I need to get out there, you know, let the folks out there know, please.
Speaker 2:Well, I think another it's got the theme in the book and it has to do with the ghosts. I think there's especially for all of us, but I think children when you've had someone you care about and love who's passed away, it's a very it's not an easy thing to deal with for anyone and I think especially for children. And and I think one of the things is too, there's a little bit about guilt in here and not being able to say you're sorry and it's sort of these are some things that end up bringing Diego and Wynne together that even though they're completely different people, they've had similar human experiences losing someone they love. And it's about that deep thing where you don't want to lose that person and so you'll do anything you can. The part of this, the motivation, is they want to find a ghost so they can find a way to reach the people that they love and be able to send a message.
Speaker 1:No, absolutely. I mean, that is the driving force. The inciting incident of the book is that exact feeling yeah, not lost on me that Diego and Wind both lost someone, and that's actually quite important to how the story goes forward. I'm not sure if, uh it, without that connection, these two people would have a, become friends and then be gone off on the very specific adventures that they did. Uh, no, awesome, cool. So, yeah, no, um, a lot to unpack in a deceptively thin novel, but you know, that's that's. You know, people who can say more or less should be authors, is what I'm saying. And so, oh, ok, so here's the deal to the folks out there who may want to contribute to the hole in the wall camp or to childhood cancer specifically, what are your personal favorites for plugging in, to plug here that people should help with or donate to, or what have you?
Speaker 2:Well, it's now called the Serious Fund Network and they can certainly contribute monetarily. As I said, they have programs all over the world. But also I highly recommend is volunteering at one of their camps. They also have hospital programs and it was that volunteer experience that was transformative. And I think part of another going back to the theme in the book is about pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone and it's about Diego is not in his comfort zone and what happens when you push yourself through and sometimes volunteering at a place where people think, oh my God, that's going to be depressing, there are all these sick kids. But when you go there it's not and you get back so much more by having this experience. So I highly highly recommend the volunteering as well. And the other pushing is the whole.
Speaker 2:Block Island is also a big main character in this book and there's a lot of organizations on Block Island. This weekend I'm going there's a fundraiser for the Southeast Light out there and the children on Block Island they're just amazing. It's a very small, they're high school, I think. Sometimes the graduating class is five kids. But I've also been trying to encourage, you know, support of art programs and different, you know projects on Block Island. It's just this incredible community. If you haven't been, I highly recommend going. It's not like any place you've ever been. It's very special and people who went there 30 years ago will still have these memories of how special it is.
Speaker 1:Most certainly that that makes its way into the book as well. People are like hey, we came back after X number of years because this is a cool place. Ok, absolutely yes. So if there's anything else you want to say or do before we head out, please feel free to. Well, I just want to say I do. Before we head out, please feel free to.
Speaker 2:Well, I just want to say I really want to thank you. I think it is very rare I've had other people look at this book, but it's interesting to see you. You found insights into this book that I hadn't seen, and so I just really appreciate that. I know your librarians are incredibly busy. You have so much to do. Appreciate that. I know your librarians are incredibly busy, you have so much to do.
Speaker 2:But taking the time to really grasp what storytelling is about and to sort of spread the word, because we need it so much in this day when you see so many kids especially on their iPhones and devices, I think to sort of spread this love for learning. You know reading and storytelling is just so important, and so you helped me see things in the book that I hadn't seen. So I I just want to thank you for really taking the time and and really delving into it it's and supporting local authors. I think in this day and age in publishing, unless you're the big JK Rowling, unless you're you know, you know Clancy, you know it's Stephen King unless you're the big JK Rowling, unless you're you know Clancy, you know it's Stephen King Unless you're the big books, it's very hard to get your book out there, and so we really appreciate the efforts you do. Podcasts like this are so incredibly important, so I just want to say thank you.
Speaker 1:Oh well, you're very welcome. Thank you, welcome. Uh, thank you. Um, it's, yes, I consider. I consider uh reading uh books, just in general, to be a version of uh touching grass, which is my favorite gen z saying of, uh, you know, putting down the remote of the game controller, and usually refers to going out and doing something. But there is something to be said about, um, you know, reading it. It just percolates my mind in a way that other things in life do not. So, yeah, no, I appreciate that very much. Oh, your website, katerbaincom. Is that accurate?
Speaker 2:Yes, katerbaincom.
Speaker 1:So that's C-A-T-U-R-B-A-I-Ncom Cool and with that, thank you so much for plugging in your earbuds and turning up the volume for our first episode of New Books Network in Bridgeport. This has been author Cater Bain spending time with librarian Adam Cleary in Beardsley Branch Library of the Bridgeport Public Library System. Be sure to catch more author interviews wherever you listen to Bridgeport Unmasked, and check out newbooksnetworkcom for lots more author interviews. You've been listening, now go get reading.