WBEZ's Book Critic Donna Seaman

Donna Seaman interviews Fern Schumer Chapman on WBEZ’s 848 on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. at 91.5 FM.

Here is the link to the interview:

McCormick Place: my rabbit hole

When a book is released, a writer goes from a quiet, almost monastic existence to a minor celebrity’s frenetic pace…overnight. Speeches, dinners, signings dramatically change the tenor of life. I often think of Dorothy’s words in The Wizard of Oz, “I’m not in Kansas anymore.”

Yesterday, I signed books at the International Reading Association’s conference at McCormick Place in Chicago, where I felt like another literary character — Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. First, negotiating McCormick Place is a little like falling down a rabbit hole. It is an enormous cavern where one needs a GPS, just to find the exhibit hall. There, thousands of people wander aimlessly through miles of aisles lined with book booths. Large computer screens flash, colorful book titles blur, sales people hawk their wares, all assaulting the senses and giving the place the feel of a carnival on steroids.

It took me an hour just to find my booth. The problem wasn’t just that I have a poor sense of direction. What complicated matters was that my publisher recently merged and no longer goes by the name of the company that signed my book contract. In addition, there’s another publisher with the same new name.

"a carnival on steroids"

After walking aisle after aisle, desperately searching for the publisher or for my book (a real needle in a haystack), I finally found my location. Or I should say…my location found me since one of my publisher’s marketing people recognized me, despite my confused countenance. Though I had never laid eyes on her before, I could have kissed her.

I started to feel at home when I took a seat behind a stack of my books on the signing table. One of my first customers was a woman who said she was from the Guam Council International Reading Association.

“Hello, Fern,” she said, handing me an invitation in a sealed envelope. “I would like to invite you to Guam for a book tour.”

As Alice said, “curiouser and curiouser”… and definitely not in Kansas anymore.

But maybe one day in Guam.

The Sick Child by Edvard Munch

Excerpted and paraphrased from an article in the New York Times by Susan Gilbert

Adolescent and pre-adolescent girls who were overly anxious grew up to be roughly one to two inches shorter, on average, than other girls, according to a study published in Pediatrics.

The reason: children and adults of both sexes with anxiety or depression have lower-than-normal amounts of growth hormone which stimulates the growth of muscle and bone in children and teenagers.

The study followed 716 boys and girls from adolescence or pre-adolescence until adulthood, assessing their symptoms of depression, separation anxiety, characterized by excessive uneasiness about leaving home, and overanxious disorder, characterized by worrying about appearance or academic performance, among other things.

The researchers found that 226 of the girls and 149 of the boys initially showing some symptoms of overanxious disorder, and 168 of the girls and 124 of the boys initially having signs of separation anxiety.

But nine years later, anxiety was associated with shorter adult stature only for the girls. The researchers explained that depression and anxiety disorders are relatively rare in boys after puberty, the period when the connection with height appears to be most significant.

The older the children were when a diagnosis was made, the stronger its influence was on stature, the researchers found. The strongest association was seen in girls who were 11 to 20 when separation anxiety was diagnosed; they were 1.7 inches shorter than the girls in whom no emotional problems had been found.

From Dr. Judith Lewis Herman’s Trauma and Recovery, a definitive work on this subject:

Dr. Judith Herman, author of "Trauma and Recovery"

“The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.

“Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work…Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and the healing of individual victims.

“The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma…When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom.”

"They may try to avoid people and places that remind them of the trauma..."

A library patron who attended one of my speeches sent me this comment:

“I enjoyed your appearance at the Warren Newport Library yesterday… I have been married for 41 years and, as a result of your speech, I learned more about my wife.

“Her mother died when she was 8. She was then passed from relative to relative. When she was 12 her father married the evil stepmother and my wife was treated like dirt until I finally moved her out when she was 18 and we were married shortly afterwards.

“After we were married she never wanted contact with any of her relatives, even those that seemed to care for her. I could not understand why. Now I understand. The memories were just too painful.”

What resonated with this patron was my explanation of why my mother didn’t cultivate a stronger relationship with her sister once they were both living in America. Readers often ask me, why didn’t your mother lean on her sister since she was the sole surviving member of her immediate family?

People who have suffered through a trauma, according to the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder website, “may try to avoid people and places that remind them of the trauma and may work hard to push thoughts of the event out of their head.”

My mother always kept up with her sister, but they had a somewhat uneasy relationship. “Each reminded the other of all that was lost — their homes, their parents, their childhoods. It was awkward and painful to be in each other’s company. The two didn’t even know which language to use when speaking to each other — English or German.”

This week, I met with my “Young Writers-in-Progress” class, a group of talented teenagers who hope to become writers. I wrote on the board this counter-intuitive statement:

Motivation Productivity

Productivity Motivation

Exactly what does this mean?

Motivation does not result in productivity. Productivity results in motivation. Once you start writing, you will keep writing.

Do not wait for inspiration!

Hardcover Fiction

1. The Last time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg
2. Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott
3. Solar by Ian McEwan
4. The Three Weissmans of Westport by Cathleen Schine
5. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. The Big Short by Michael Lewis
2. The Bridge by David Remnick
3. This Is Not the Story You Think It Is by Laura Munson
4. Women Food and God by Geneen Roth
5. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler

Paperback Fiction

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
2. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
3. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
4. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
5. The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran

Paperback Nonfiction

1. The Girls from Ames by Jeff Zaslow
2. The Lost City of Z by David Grann
3. Food Rules by Michael Pollan
4. You’re a Horrible Person, but I Like You: The Believer Book of Advice by the Believer
5. The Value of Nothing by Rajeev Patel

Children’s

1. Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
2. Wimpy Kid Movie by Jeff Kinney
3. Wimpy Kid Diary by Jeff Kinney
4. Is It Night or Day by Fern Schumer Chapman
5. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Reporting bookstores: Anderson’s, Naperville and Downers Grove; Read Between the Lynes, Woodstock; the Book Table, Oak Park; the Book Cellar, Lincoln Square; Lake Forest Books, Lake Forest; the Bookstall at Chestnut Court, Winnetka; and 57th St. Books; Seminary Co-op; Women and Children First, Chicago.

Edith Westerfeld Schumer

My mother, Edith, who is now 84 years old, still types with two fingers and thinks that only birds “tweet,” posted her first Facebook message on my wall yesterday:

“Dear Fern, Congratulations–Thank You for bringing my story to the world.
Love Mom”

Note: She still capitalizes the pronoun “you,” which is correct German grammar.

My barren trellis

Three years ago, I spent way too much money on a large climbing rosebush which I hoped would weave an ornate blanket of apricot flowers through the trellis on the front of my house. The first year, the bush did not disappoint. In fact, it produced 47 roses. Believe me, I counted…every day.

I patted myself on the back; my money was well spent. I looked forward to counting more and more blooms each year as the rosebush established itself. I had this fantasy that I would count well over 100 Royal Sunset roses with my grandchildren-to-be.

But the next year, the bush suffered a terrible fate. Maybe aphids attacked it. Maybe it simply froze to death over the Chicago winter. No matter, the bush looked deader than a doornail.

Demoralized, I yanked the brown skeletal, thorny stalks and roots out of the ground and brought the remains back to the garden center with the hope that I would get some of my money back. Standing by its product, the garden center gave me a complete refund. Then, I bought and planted a few hardy “Sweet Autumn” climbers — not nearly as impressive, but more reliable than roses.

The sprig of my Royal Sunset rosebush

To my great surprise, this spring, a small red shoot popped out of the ground where my lush Royal Sunset rosebush once grew.

When I made the discovery, I thought, how instructive for immigrants — for that matter, for all of us.

As the saying goes, “Bloom where you are planted.”