Kelly Yang: Hi, I'm Kelly Yang. Kate: And I'm Kate DiCamillo Kelly Yang: And you're listening to Story Kind. Hey Kate! Kate: Hi, Kelly. What's up? Kelly Yang: my gosh, ⁓ so good to see you. Well, is up? Let's see. my gosh. So The Take my debut novel comes out next week. Can you believe it? Kate: I cannot believe it. Are you excited, ⁓ nervous? Kelly Yang: I know. I am really excited. I'm going to be going on tour. I'm super excited to meet everyone on tour. And I'm nervous. It's my first adult novel. It is, I think, really good. So I hope people will give me a chance and it. Yes. What about you? What are you working on? Kate: Yes. Yes. ⁓ Well, I'm done with the rewrite and, I got to Kelly, know how exciting this is? Cause we talked about it a couple weeks ago. I got to start a new notebook. But here's the old notebook, which I then like, you know, I put the dates that Kelly Yang: Ahhhh! Ye- can see. Okay. Kate: and, also this so that I can index and find everything. And then I have to keep the old notebook around for a little bit as I go into the new notebook. And then, ⁓ you know, I get to, Talk about what ⁓ ⁓ have and then dream about what I want to do and all that goes in here. So yeah, very exciting. Kelly Yang: Huh? Wow, I saw a little glimpse of your writing. It's like very, very small and neat. I was gonna say ⁓ it's small neat. It's really great. ⁓ Mine is gigantic. Look at that. ⁓ It's Kate: Yeah, it's a mess. It's a mess, but it helps me think. Yeah, no, it's totally different, it? Okay. Yeah. ⁓ Kelly Yang: Yes, I love that. Okay, our big writing question today, I was fascinated by this question is from Fai Yor And it is how do you balance sharing deeply personal, often painful childhood experiences with fictionalizing them to make them engaging for young readers? ⁓ I love that. That's such a great question. Don't you think? Kate: It is, and it's challenging, right? Do you wanna go first or? ⁓ You know, the thing is that ⁓ that's something that I consciously do. ⁓ And ⁓ I know about if this is true for you, Kelly, but I don't think, okay, I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna reveal this part of my painful. Kelly Yang: No, you go first. I want to hear your thoughts on this. Hmm. Kate: experience. It's because it's not that there, I mean, there are great books that start that way. It's just like, that's just not the way I work. And so when I'm telling the story, it's not until after the story is done that I, ⁓ I, ⁓ Kelly Yang: you Mm. ⁓ Kate: understand how much I have revealed about myself and about my childhood self. And I can see the traumas there, but they're folded into the story. ⁓ so it's not something that I sit down and think, okay, I'm gonna tell ⁓ this difficult thing that happened to me, ⁓ rather the difficult thing ⁓ ⁓ Kelly Yang: You Kate: told in the story in a way that is new to me and helps me understand and process it. So, yeah. What about you? Kelly Yang: Wow, that's great. That's so great. Yeah. So for me, I think with each book, I am trying to understand what happened better in my life. And I'm also trying to understand how to feel about it. Right. And the only way to really do that is to look at what happened, you know, and sometimes that makes it into the book. And sometimes it doesn't because I will put it in, then it really won't work. what does work is the emotions. can work the emotions of that experience in, uh, but I really can't just like take, you know, a chunk of my life and just plop it into a book. so it's more about. using what happened to me as a kid, figuring out why that still is something I think about, right? Cause there are all these things that happen where you're still like, yeah, why did, why did that person respond that way? You know, why did that, you yeah, you carry it. I know. Like I remember once I was jumping on my aunt's bed and she got really mad at me and she, she, she had me over for sleepover. Kate: Right? Yeah, no, you carry it. We always carry it with. Yeah. Kelly Yang: I don't know what I did. And I was like, I probably was just too hyper. And then she said this huge long thing to my mom about how I was like misbehaved and can't, not gonna make it in life and blah, blah, blah. Kate: ⁓ man! Kelly Yang: Yeah. And I remember just thinking like, gosh, that is a really mean thing to say about me. But also what would possess someone to do that? you know, you don't always get to ⁓ the person, you know, so sometimes I process it through a story. So I think part of that shame of, you know, having messed up at my aunt's house, I was able to put into Room To Dream Kate: Right? Yep. Kelly Yang: But you wouldn't even know it because none of that made it into the story. But the shame. Kate: Right, no, and it's taking those emotions it makes me of the Emily ⁓ Dickinson quote tell all the truth, but tell it slant. ⁓ So you're getting at the young you who felt that shame, but you're doing it in a way has nothing to do with what happened, has everything to do with what happened. Kelly Yang: Yes, yes, yes, exactly. Yeah, so that's kind of how I do it. I'm always just trying to think through things and you know, I'm not the person who responds right in the moment, right? I don't always stand up for myself. So sometimes things will happen like in the case of my aunt, I should have gone up to her and been like, why did you say that to my mom? But I was quiet and I didn't say anything. So I think it's just like the adult me carrying all of these unanswered questions. Kate: Yep. Kelly Yang: and sorting through them in my own weird way. Kate: ⁓ totally, totally, totally. And also let's just give a sidebar for your aunt and who knows what terrible thing she was carrying that made her, you know, do that. ⁓ And you that's the other thing is like when you're a kid, these things are, I remember spilling a bath bubble thing ⁓ all over Kelly Yang: Exactly. Kate: the toilet seat cover in the bathroom. And I thinking that I was gonna have to leave the country. I was like seven years old, know? And just like clutching the sheets at night, terrified for when I was gonna be out who spilled this in here. ⁓ it ⁓ nothing. It was nothing and no one said anything to me about it. But it just like the terror that I felt. Kelly Yang: Mmm. I Mm-hmm. Kate: And so it's just like, and I can still access that terror and that terror goes into stories. Yeah. Kelly Yang: Yes. Yes. So that's kind of how we do it. ⁓ Kate: Okay, okay, so wait, now let's switch to dinosaurs, right? Kelly Yang: Okay, the funny question this week is from Eli. What is the oddest dinosaur? Kate: This is a trick question because I mean, like, wouldn't that be like whatever you think is the oddest dinosaur? And I'll let you answer, but I'm going to tell you, I don't know enough about dinosaurs. And when you say dinosaur, what I always think about is Chicago O'Hare. You know, they have, ⁓ it Sioux? I think that they've, ⁓ got a replica of the dinosaur Sioux in the airport. Kelly Yang: Hahaha! No. No! Kate: And so like there have been so many times when I've had delays or ⁓ I've got a connecting flight and I'm in O'Hare and I love to run and stand underneath dinosaur and remind myself how impossibly small I am and how impossibly large the world is. ⁓ it always calms me down. Kelly Yang: you Yeah, yeah, think about dinosaurs a lot actually, not because I'm a dinosaur expert or anything, but because I think about ⁓ how sad it is that they're not anymore. And what what that means like for all these other animals. But I will say that I do think the stegosaurus ⁓ is an odd looking dinosaur. ⁓ Kate: And what, do they have spikes or? Kelly Yang: They have these plates all up along their spine and they almost look like kites or they actually look like cactus. I'm staring at a picture of one. I love the way they look, but they are very odd looking. They're very odd looking. Kate: ⁓ wow. Okay, well, you know, you, I think you win the dinosaur question. It's I'll get you a prize for that. ⁓ Okay, let's ⁓ talk and librarians. What did you want? Kelly Yang: Okay. Aww. Yes. Okay. So our shout out today is from Ella, who by the way, has read our books and is now in college. Ella would like to give a shout out. I know. Oh my God, Ella. Ella would like to give a shout out to Sarah Harris or Harris Lao Shi to the students of the Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School. Why would she like to give a shout out to Ms. Harris? It's because Sarah advocated to reopen the library after it was shut down after COVID. She took over the task of rebuilding the library. Now it's the student's favorite place to be during recess and in the mornings. And there's so much excitement and love for the library. ⁓ I love it. Kate: That's fantastic. I've got one from Maisie who wants to give a shout out to her Ms. Larson, who is just so inspiring to her. ⁓ And Maisie enjoys class because of Ms. Larson. So that's it. ⁓ And everything, you know? Kelly Yang: everything. Thank you. Kate: ⁓ Thank you, Ms. Larson. Thank you all you teachers and librarians. Thank you all you readers. Yeah. Kelly Yang: Yes. Yep. We're so excited to talk to you again next week. Thank you so much. And hope you keep these shout outs coming ⁓ and your my gosh, your questions have been amazing. So please email them to me at kellyyangauthor@gmail.com ⁓ and we will see you week. Thank you so much. Bye everyone. Bye everyone. Kate: We will. Bye. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you, everyone. Bye.