Interview with Linda Thieman, author of Katie and Kimble: A Ghost Story

About the book:

Nine-year-old Katie Russell and her family LOOK like a normal family. But the Russells don't know they are living with Kimble, the ghost of a ten-year-old girl. That is, until Katie discovers Kimble and the two of them set off on a quest to find out what happened to Kimble's mother. -- Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story is a chapter book at RL3 (reading level 3), and is the first in a series. The Katie & Kimble books are funny, engaging and exciting, but are not fear-based.

I was fortunate enough to be able to ask this author some questions. Here's what she had to say:

Where are you from?

By way of introducing myself, let me say that I consider myself an Iowan—I was born here, went to high school, college and grad school here—although I never actually claim a hometown. We moved so much when I was a kid that I never lived in one place long enough for a hometown to stick. Right now, I live in Sioux City, Iowa, although I could live any place in Iowa and it would feel like home to me.

How much of your book Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story is realistic?

This is an excellent question, particularly since one of the main characters, Kimble, is the ghost of a 10-year-old girl. When Katie, who is almost nine, moves into an old house out in the country, she begins to suspect that there is also a friendly ghost living there. And she´s right.

But these are not scary stories and are not too intense, although they do pack a real emotional wallop. Kimble was, at one point, a human child, and her death and the death of her mother are dealt with rather than ignored. For the most part, the books are very grounded in family reality. One 4th grade girl made the comment that, "The books seem so real. It´s almost like they are real." So that really got me thinking.

Basically, kids have two main worlds that they relate to: home and school. So the Katie & Kimble stories are full of normal little family things, i.e., like Katie´s dog leaving tongue prints on the kitchen floor when he chases food, or Katie´s two-year-old brother not quite being able to talk yet and so the family can´t figure out what he is saying, or Katie´s mom asking Katie to wash her hands after she plays with the dog and before she eats. So all the ghostly things that happen sort of grow out of that family stability.

Are any of the experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

Oh, a lot of little things are based on my own life. As I said, we moved three times when I was a kid, so I can relate to how disruptive that is to Katie´s world and why it leaves her so open to forming a friendship with a ghost. We had several dogs, and naming the dog was always an important part of the process, so that was important to Katie, too. Katie´s mom is quite affectionate and she´ll walk by and give Katie and/or Kimble a hug and a kiss. My mom does that kind of thing. And then there was that time that my sister and I saw a ghost when I was 8. I adapted and revised that incident for the second book, Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish, and assigned that particular childhood memory to Katie´s dad, which pretty much surprises the heck out of the family when he relates the story.

Name one person who you feel has supported you (excluding family members).

Through the years, there has been one very actively-supportive woman in the Katie & Kimble world. Her name is Mrs. Juli Dodd and she is an elementary school teacher and a mom. Originally, when I had first written Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story and then Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish, Mrs. Dodd was teaching third grade, which is (more or less) my target audience. So Mrs. Dodd volunteered to read the books aloud to her class and provide me with feedback. In that way, I was able to know that I was actually reaching my target audience rather than just writing into the ethers, so to speak.

Later, after Mrs. Dodd had completed her masters with a specialty in reading, I sought her advice when I was writing an enormous set of teaching / homeschooling materials to offer parents and teachers free of charge on the Katie & Kimble blog. (http://www.katieandkimbleblog.com) I´d been an English language teacher for years and had developed a lot of low-level materials for adult learners. But that, I found out, is very different from writing materials for children. So I did research into what makes a third grader tick—you know, learning styles, cognitive development, and how to approach these issues based on the national standards for reading and language skills for third grade. At that point, I was still feeling rather overwhelmed and I had a school district waiting for the materials, so I contacted Mrs. Dodd again, and she was so practical. "This is what teachers want. This is what they look for. This is what they need. You could do something like this or this." She was quite specific, she explained the reasoning behind each suggestion, and she basically taught me how a third grade reading class is run. You simply cannot beat that kind of support.

Why do you say that third grade is "more or less" your target audience?

Well, it´s because if you take any third grade classroom in the U.S., you are going to get a wide range of reading abilities. So the classroom materials I developed meet the national standards for third grade, but in fact, the Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story series is aimed at children from ages 7 to 10. So, in effect, we´ve had some six year olds who´ve read the books with their parents and that worked well because the books are not too scary or intense. On the other hand, we´ve had some success holding the attention of older kids, who are 11 or 12, who are perhaps reluctant readers. The Katie & Kimble stories work with the older crowd, too, because they are sort of like hi-lo books—you know, a sophisticated story at a low level that holds the interest of kids who struggle with reading.

One young reader posted a comment on the Katie & Kimble blog. She said she was reading Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish and that she just could not put it down. I replied, "Oh, you must be quite a reader!" and she was a bit taken aback because I didn´t understand what she was saying. She then added something to the effect that, "No, that is what I´m trying to tell you. I am not a good reader. Usually I can´t read a book at all or I just quit. But this book, I can´t put down."

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Yes, I´m really trying to convey a sense of hope and optimism. I think real life is enough of a drag that fiction sometimes needs to be a safe haven. And the Katie & Kimble stories do that, as they are built on love and friendship, and yet, I think, they do illustrate some realistic bumps in the road. But never does it enter Katie´s mind that her parents might at some point withdraw their love and support. It´s there, it´s solid, and it underpins the entire series of stories.

What are your current projects?

Right now, I´m working on Katie & Kimble: The Golden Door, which is book three in the series. I´m introducing a new continuing character who I just love. His name is Danny Garcia, he´s ten, and he´s a real people person. And the story is about how he enters the lives of Katie and Kimble and sort of upsets the apple cart a bit since Kimble has become so newly integrated into Katie´s family and boundaries are still being established. It´s going to be essential for Katie´s family to set boundaries for Kimble because you can´t just have a ghost running the household as if she were a two year old!

What do you think makes a good story?

Oh, I´ve become convinced that the key is to create well-developed characters that your readers can relate to. And it helps to have situations that readers can relate to. Then once you´ve got them comfortable and all tucked in for the night, you can move outside of that realm of relatability in a more sure-footed way.

Did you learn anything from writing your books and, if so, what was it?

I learned to be more flexible and to take my time. If I take my time, new ideas and story threads will pop through once I think the book is finished, so I can add them later. Or in the case of working with an illustrator, one time I requested a picture for a transition near the end of Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish—I needed a big oak tree with the sun coming up in the morning. My illustrator, Mrs. Kim Tharp, added a swing to the picture and I was so captivated by the illustration that I went back and added the swing to the story line. That swing could not have been more perfect in representing the emotions I was trying to convey at that particular juncture.

What book are you reading now?

I always have to be reading some kind of a novel. It´s what I like to call my main coping skill. It´s how I ground my energy. Right now, I´m reading Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott. I´ve never read it before. But I´m a big fan of English author Georgette Heyer´s (1902-1974) detailed historical Regency novels, and Rose in Bloom takes place a good 40 years after the Regency Period ended in England, and of course, the setting is New England. So, it is fascinating to see what holdovers there are in terms of language and culture and mores by the time Alcott is writing Rose in Bloom.

Actually, I just finished reading a biography of Louisa May Alcott. One of the more striking things I´ve read about Alcott´s writing process is that she said she never revised! She would get into some kind of frenzied writing zone, which she called "the vortex," and she´d write as quickly as she could, sometimes for 14 hours a day. And when she was done, that was it. She was done. Fascinating, but I can´t work that way. I revise almost ad infinitum, it sometimes seems.

Children´s book author Linda Thieman writes the Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story chapter book series for ages 7 to 10, and runs the Katie & Kimble blog. http://www.katieandkimbleblog.com

She is a former English language teacher who has a master´s degree in applied linguistics from the University of Northern Iowa. Linda hopes to publish book three in the series, Katie & Kimble: The Golden Door, in 2009.