Speaker 1: Hello and good morning everybody.
Speaker 2: Hi, it's Amy Pollink.
Speaker 1: Hi Amy. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2: Good? How are you?
Speaker 1: Absolutely fantastic, very excited to share a conversation with you
because you love to get into people's imaginations.
Speaker 2: Yes, I do, I do.
Speaker 1: Where did you earn that gatekeeper's key to be able
to do that?
Speaker 2: Oh h that's an interesting question. So, like I tell people,
are the kids boys and girls when I'm doing my presentations.
There are a lot of things I can't do very well,
but I do. I've always had a vivid imagination, I guess,
just something I'm born with and always enjoyed telling stories
based on oh gosh, things that happened to me, things
that happen to people. I know. You just have to
look around and extrapolate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you started writing in the fourth grade, which really
shot me back to my second grade teacher, missus Keith,
who noticed that that I was writing, and she fed that.
She kept giving me things, Go write me a story,
Go write me a story. And you had a teacher
that did the same thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, And my dad always said, no matter where you are,
grade school, middle school, high school, college, if you have
a good teacher, you're so lucky because it can be
kind of random someone that cares, like you say, with
your teacher who encouraged you, and I did, missus Trenham.
I remember her very evictively.
Speaker 1: Do you think they knew that they were planting that
those positive spirits in your body for the rest of
your life.
Speaker 2: That's such a good question, I like to think. So
she always called me up in front of the class,
and people to this day who I went to school
with tell me they remember my jelly bean stories, which
I would get up in front of the class and
tell off the top of my head because it was
just like fun for me. And I always got a
good reaction, I know, And they this one well, sadly
because for me it was, you know, sixty something years ago,
because I'm seventy two now, and this one former classmate
of mine brought with her to a sadly to a
classmate's funeral. But she had she had moved several times.
She had some of my jellybean writings that she had saved.
So I was like, let's see, really, this is amazing
to me. And she had made me a copy. I know.
I couldn't believe it. So it was memorable.
Speaker 1: When you hold on to stories like this as long
as you have. One of the things I guess one
of the movements that I'm going through as a daily
writer is the fact that I want to share the
story of the atmosphere to which I write in, because
nobody's going to know what you like. For instance, I
live in a forest, so therefore I'm trying to tell
the story of this force, and I believe that it's
so important to how I write. What about you? Where
do you write? And will you ever share a story
about where you write?
Speaker 2: MM? That's interesting. So you actually lived in a sorrow
I do.
Speaker 1: I'm looking out a four at at the forest right now.
I'm twenty three feet above the ground, and I see
the deer, I see the cardinals. I see them all.
They they stop buy for a visit every day and
say hi, mister poet.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that is so cool. No, mine's a much
more boring setting. I like it. We're on a vacation
in Florida now, and I just set up my laptop
at any handy area. It's in the little kitchen area.
But at home, I write upstairs in my study generally,
or I'll write in the doctor's office, I'll write, in
an airport, I just wherever the opportunity presents itself, that's
where I go. But yeah, for sure, should make that
a factor in your stories, because yours sounds kind of
more colorful, more interesting than mine, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: When you're in the airport or at the doctor's office,
do you pull in the energy of others and make
it a part of that storyline?
Speaker 2: Yes, I actually do. Sometimes you say, that's so funny.
Some of you'll see someone go past and you're like, gosh,
they must have an interesting backstory. Or you'll hear a
snippet of conversation that'll that'll do it for me because
once I unexpect, you hear the most unexpected things. Like once,
just for one example, I'm sitting with my sister in
a restaurant and someone right near us, like at the
table next to us, said, I don't know, she was
so so so trigger happy, and I was like, whoa,
what is that? Encompass? You know, sometime it's the last
thing in the world you're expecting. Always interesting people watching
his people's favorite activity. For sure.
Speaker 1: That's exactly I am so with you on that. I
call a great people watcher. A silent wolf. You're standing
on the sidelines and you're just watching everything.
Speaker 2: It is always fascinating, always yield something good bad are indifferently.
Speaker 1: It's such a daily gift too. When you hear something,
I say, ooh that meant for me. It's going in
the book.
Speaker 2: Exactly. Yes, Yes, that's very very relatable for me for sure.
Speaker 1: How do you keep jelly Bean so authentic? Because, I mean,
this is the thing I love about the jelly Bean
series is the fact that you can be any age
reading these books.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of people do say that to me
of all generations. I guess because my stories are very real.
But I don't obviously they're meant for I have nothing
graphic or I don't put purses in there, nothing overtly
sexual anything like that, but I have. I'm just a
very real writer, Like I don't gloss over a situation.
She has a friend that her parents don't like, which
happens all the time for a variety of reasons, subject
to all different interpretations. Sometimes depending on what generation you
are in and my stories, you can well, since I'm
a grandmother now, but having been obviously a child and
then a parent of three and now a grandmother of seven.
You see things from all different points of view, and
I have it all in there.
Speaker 1: See that to me is part of the legacy of
how you bring people together. And I love that about
modern day writers right now is because they want to
be authentic. I mean the journey with a Jellybean and
her brother. I love it that they struggle because I
struggled with my brother and sister. It's the perfect kids
that drive me insane.
Speaker 2: Exactly, And come on, it's more authentic than plenty else
their relationship because I say it and how I was,
or with my own kids or with my grandchildren. No,
they're far from perfect. They come out with what they're feeling,
and they have anger and frustration, and you know, sometimes
they do happily get along and then they'll flip over
to the other side of it, where there's you know,
jealousy among kids and buying from the parents' attention and
so forth, and not feeling like they're getting enough attention.
Like that's very common.
Speaker 1: Wow, you're set up forever, teacher. Do you feel that
inside your soul?
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely. I think if you are that way, you
just are like tend to be. I don't want to
say instructive that sounds so awful, But you want to
share what you've learned, and I can't. Oh, my kids
are now in their early forties, you know, I certainly
can't tell them what to do. I can just suggest,
and I can tell them what I've been through, and
they can resist. Then I certainly did. Sometimes the only
real lessons you learn or the ones you learn the
hard way, and that's kind of just life. But you
do you want to You want to say you have
the urge to save your kids or your students from
you know, something bad that could happen. But sometimes try
as you might, you know, doesn't work out. If that's
where they're heading.
Speaker 1: I always tell my students, I need you to steal
my art. It's right here. Ask the questions and then
question the answers. Just steal my art.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a very good, very good way to put it,
because interesting and I do believe the child of the
father of the man. I've learned so much from my
students and from my kids, like ways to behave new
ways to think. I would always, like when I taught college,
would say to them, how are your parts? When they
get home from work or from a hard day, Well
they you know, crack open a beer, or they pump
down in a chair, they turn on the TV. I said,
that's why we need you guys, because you have the
energy to go out there and and do what's right
and make a change or work for a change. If
you think that's you know, not saying go out and
start taking drugs or doing something evil, but to go
out and and and you know, while you have the
energy and the ideas to go out and make a
good change in the world. Wow, God, we need to
we do.
Speaker 1: And these books are you know, give those people because
the one thing that I keep hearing from students is
the fact that they go, well, you don't know what
it's like to live in my world. We have to
we have to worry about this, and we have to
worry about that. And I keep thinking, go get a
jellybean book, because you know what, you're gonna go to
a place and you're gonna you're gonna relax a little
bit here and when you come back then you can
start asking those questions again. But right now you need
a break.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's so that's so interesting. No, I think
reading is so important, and I know a lot of
two boys and girls that do still read a lot thankfully.
Gonna it is. It's pretty tough with all the you know,
technology available and out there and oh it's so enticing.
Speaker 1: How do you think the world of writing is going
to change in the way that AI technology is taking
over and these these young adults and even smaller are
learning how to use AI technology to put their stories together.
I mean, there's there's an art to what it is
that we do. And I don't want the young ones
to to basically be injured by by computers.
Speaker 2: I know that is a really, really tough one. I
wish I had some great answers for that, but I
think just the most important thing is just to be
aware of it and try to explain to kids that
that's not it's just often not a great way to go.
It's just not It takes away from your originality and gosh,
I don't know what's going to be with that. I
hope it doesn't ruin you know, kids, creativity and learning
power really if you get so dependent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because what what What I'm not seen with a
lot of coworkers that are in between fifteen and twenty
is that they sit there and I say, I need
you to write something down. So they grab their phone
and I said, no, I need you to physically write
it on a piece of paper. And then when they win,
when they hold a pencil or a pan, oh my god,
it's like the hardest thing in the world for them
to do. And it's say, no, you should be better
than that, right now.
Speaker 2: I know, I know that is the truth, and it is.
It is frustrating because I sort of funny a lot
of times in a class where I go in to
speak and such and they'll go, oh, missus Pollock, you
still use a pencil, And I'm like, yes, I do.
Haply it is it thought. There always been changes in
the world, and like my dad always said, you do
have to keep everything in perspective. You really do, because
once upon a time, oh gosh, there were things like wow,
women voting. Yeah, you know, and you have to kind
of remember that all that. You know, life does invox
ages and we do have to and it's always scary.
Speaker 1: So how does jelly Bean grow into the future of
the modern age? As the author and as the seed planter?
How do you have jelly Bean so relatable in today's times?
Speaker 2: Oh? Wow? Well, I may see. My characters kind of
tell me what they need me to do. They kind
of dictate to me. So she is very she's very
conscious and very aware of certain causes that she latches
onto and life shell like with bullying, she just really
tunes into that and tries to help this one little
boy who gets bullied. And this is the beginning of
my book form. My book three should be coming out
very soon. It's all ready to go at the publisher.
And she is very she becomes I want to say,
she's still mischievous, you know, like any ten year old
worth their salt is like she you know, this is
all based on things my sister and I used to do. Well.
She wants to set up a restaurant on her porch
and she puts out ketchup and mustard, and her brother's like,
where are you going to be getting the food? And
she's like, I haven't figured that out yet, you know,
things like that. And at one point her brother gets
a hold of chemicals and this is based on something
that happened with my husband when he was younger, and
his friend and some teacher gave it to them, gave
these and they mixed these chemicals together. And oh that's
in there. But aside from that, in her various pranks,
she's also a do gooder in her way. And it's
so hard. I think the issue of popularity and clicks
and oh my goodness, you know she's in there trying
to figure all that out. But yet she speaks her mind,
which is kind of hard because she doesn't. She's not
the type of kid who's going to sacrifice her individuality
to be in with a certain group. But that's tough too,
so she I guess that's what keeps my book alive.
How she figures these things out to the best of
her ability. And it's not an easy world.
Speaker 1: See. I love that because, in a really creative way,
you're teaching your readers, Hey, keep a journal, write a
story about your life. Just keep a journal, just write,
just do something.
Speaker 2: Yes, you're so right. I'm always giving my grandchildren journals,
and I love reading them and seeing what they're up to.
And it's I know, it's such a good idea, and
I suggest it to a lot a lot of the
students also to And it's also therapeutic to get your
thoughts out there and helps you deal with things like
as you're writing you can kind of help yourself find
a way.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. Where can people go to find
out more about you? Because I want them to fall
so deeply in love with what you're doing.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, Errol. Okay, So my website is Amy
pollockolllowercase dot com and my an I'm on Amazon. You
can follow me on Amazon and trying to think my
book's available in a lot of bookstores, but I don't know.
I hate to be an advertisement for Amazon book boy.
If they are the quickest, it's just the easiest. You know,
a couple of clicks and you have it and can
look out for my books three, which hopefully will be
out very various.
Speaker 1: Please put me on your calendar when that book three
comes out because I want to continue this conversation.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, what town or what state city are you at?
Speaker 1: I mean Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, very nice? All right, Well for sure I
will and I do really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today? Okay?
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, thank you Aero. Take care