Aida, how are you doing today? I am so excited because the sun
has come up. Well, you're like me, because that's when I write
is when the sun is rising. I do my journal every single morning when
the sun is rising. How beautiful. Wow, that's inspiring. Well,
you know that your brain waves are at like the FATA stage, which is
like the most creative that you can be at that time when you wake up.
I'm so glad that you brought that up, because I'm blessed with the
opportunity to talk with a lot of authors who say, no, my writing
time is ten pm until two am, and I'm going, oh my god,
what is up with you? No, it's actually a magical time.
That's actually when my best ideas come. Yep, yep, absolutely yep.
Yeah, And it comes to as a single thought. And the question is
is how are you going to connect that? In fact? That takes me
to your book. The way that it is printed. You've got to explain
to me. To me, it looks like a book of poetry, is
it it is, it's a book of poems. But but it's a story.
It's it's it's it's a novel, a traditional story that in three hundred
pages, but you have to read them sequentially. The poems start from beginning
to end, and that's how you understand the story. It's not like a
typical book of poetry you can flip to end page and just read the poem
by itself. But these are all sequentials, so it's important that you read
from beginning to and and and though it's it's National Poetry Month, so we're
celebrating that, of course, and our pub date today is the first day
that Ultra Violet is available in stories, but poetry. It allows us this
really beautiful entry into the human heart. And that's what our former poet Laureate
Billy Collins says, Poetry is the history of the human heart. And the
story about a little boy who falls in love the very first time and get
heartbroken is really a story of the interior, right, It's a story of
the inside of this little voice feelings, and so it just made a natural,
a very natural way to express this story. The way that I was
able to identify with the poetry was the fact that my last book was fifty
three pieces of poetry that happened to tell a story about John Lennon. And
so that's why when I first opened this book, I went, oh my
god, wow, that sounds fascinating. I got to read that. You
know, it's going to take a poet to understand it, though, because
it's not written in what I call street speak. I mean, it's written
because the way when I had the story, and I thought John Lennon would
just sit there and write a book like this, John Lennon would do it
through his poetry, yes, yes, and songwriting. Right, there's such
a relationship between between a book, I'm sorry, a book and verse and
poetry and music. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, you know, like
the word verse, verse is you know, you hear you know, you
ask what the verse is in a song, and it's the same thing.
So true, so true. There's a very relatable scene in here and and
and I think that every young boy goes through this. It's Pops always telling
Elio to man up, man up, and I just I could so hear
my father's voice when when those things were taking place. Oh, I know,
it's it's one of them all. I mean, although it's it's a
very common thing, it's also really one of more painful things, right,
because because boys in our patriarchal system have not been given the opportunity to feel
the expansive range of feelings that we have as humans, and so they have
to suck it up. They can't cry, they can't express your emotions.
And the only expression expression of emotion that is acceptable is violence. Right,
we expect violence from boys and so, but we see it in our homes,
we see it on the streets, on the world stage, and the
wars and genocides we're seeing that's all unexpressed, unhealed wounds, playing themselves out.
And so while it's it's very typical, it's also very hard and sad
to know that that's what we keep doing to our boys. There's victims inasmuch
as girls and women are victims of patriarchy. Yeah. Another thing that you
cover here that that I didn't have growing up when I would go to the
library is that you cover puberty for a young man. And the thing is
is that we don't have books like this, and it was one of those
subjects we didn't talk about, and yet the girls had are you there,
God, it's me Margaret. It was always one of those well where's my
book where I can understand what I'm going through? And so this book,
right, here is so unbelievable. In sharing that journey, she says,
actually, you know what, Judy Bloom did write a book called Then Again,
Maybe I Won't, and it was the kind of puberty. Yeah,
and she talks about all of the taboo subjects, the you know, the
woodies, the nocturnal emissions, these things. But it didn't get as much
a claim. I would say, as as are you there guarded to me,
Margaret, But both were had were banned my books Someone Within has been
banned. You know, it's very interesting to me how speaking about puberty is
something that is shameful, right when it's the most natural thing and the thing
that all of us have to experience. And I tried to approach this with
a lot of humor because because puberty is hilarious and in fact, you know
that that question that you said, when is there going to be a book
about me? Right, That's exactly what my son asked me and his best
friend. But after I'd written The Moon Within, they said, you know,
I like this book a lot, so like, when are you going
to write the Sun Within? And I was like, oh, my goodness,
and you're right. When I did research, I went to look for
books that reflected this reality for boys, it was only are you then again
maybe I won't by Judy Bloom and maybe another. But other than that,
there were hardly meaning and that's a shame and we're just trying to read write
that we hope for Violet. Well, the book cover. I know we're
not supposed to judge a book by its book cover, but I'll tell you
what, I love this one because it looks like everybody. In other words,
anybody can look at this phot this is this front cover and go,
that's me, or that's my son, that's my grandson. I mean,
I just I just see so much innocent in this child's eyes. Oh I
know that that cover was created by Zeke Pena, and absolutely it just there's
this innocence and this like curiousness, an awkwardness. It's all mixed in that
that little boy in this curly top head like all the kids are like super
working right now, you know the girls on the head and that little dimple,
Yeah, it's great and sweet chubby cheeks right like right in that in
between space. Wow. Wow, Well, you've got to come back to
this show anytime in the future. The door is always going to be open
for you. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to be here.
You'd be brilliant today. Okay, okay, I will thank you.