Speaker 1: Hello, Good morning Christy. How are you?
Speaker 2: Good morning air?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm very excited because you're the one that invented Yeah,
I would say you invented the way of writing that
takes me deeper into the storyline to see how you
use authentic plants to help share a story while educating
those that are reading that. And I'm always going to
credit you for this because I love me some Millie.
And the very second that a milliflower saves the night
came to my house, what did I do? I went
in there looking for the plants.
Speaker 2: That's great. I'm a love to hear.
Speaker 1: That you've got me so trained in the way that
it's going to be more than just an adventure. It's
going to be more than just, you know, just a book.
That there's something in here that I can now become
more aware of what's going on in my own forest.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, it puts you on a mission to
pay attention to the world around you.
Speaker 1: That Millie is really becoming that character in my life.
And my wife is a school teacher and she feels
the same way that this is going to be one
of those characters that's going to become a very popular,
ongoing character. I'd like to start seeing how many people
are going to dress up like Milly in school. And
there's gonna be movies, there's gonna be TV shows. Because
Millie seems to be in touch with who we are
as real people.
Speaker 2: That makes me so happy to hear. And I won't
argue with you if that's what you want to happen.
I am totally on board with this.
Speaker 1: Well, you're creating a sense of wonder here, and isn't
that a human need wonder?
Speaker 2: Yes? Being curious about our world, yeah, I think is
the first step in developing empathy for our world.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a big word because a lot of people
go empathy. What are you talking about? Well, you know what.
You need to talk to my friend Christy, she'll let
you in on that subject.
Speaker 2: He would say, be curious, not judgmental. That's what they
say on ted Lasso.
Speaker 1: So was it odd to be able to put a
book together that features so much night? And I bring
that up because I'm somebody who's got to be in
a room that has too much light, and so to
get onto these pages, I'm going, oh, we're going into
a dark place here.
Speaker 2: So you like the big light arrow, do you turn
the big light on. Oh no, I am anti big
light all day long. Yeah. So this book, yes, every
bit of it, from start to finish. It starts with
the sun setting and it is you are put squarely
in the night time, so you have to get comfortable
real quick. And this book was being in the dark.
Speaker 1: I'm relying on this book to teach me how to
walk in my own force that I've been a part
of for thirty three years. And I won't go out
there at night because it scares me, and you know,
and so and so I'm going to I'm not gonna
lie to you. When I was going through milli Flower
Saves the Night, I was thinking of my own force,
thinking what is out there that Millie would go out
there and she would just find it so entertaining and
she would giggle at me.
Speaker 2: That's right, because you know, this book was actually inspired
by a book of a bug that I stumbled upon
him the daytime, and he was just kind of a
boring looking bug. But because I'm insufferably curious, I did
some research on him because she was a new to
me book, and I found out that at night he
creates his own bioluminescent headlights, but I would have never
known that if I just saw him in the daytime.
He was actually kind of boring looking. So there's stuff
out there that the night can offer you that's really cool.
But just to be brave enough to venture out into it, now,
there's ways to be safe doing that. You know, we
don't drive with our headlights off. There's sometimes we need
the light, but also there's sometimes we need to turn
the light off because we're missing out on a whole
other world.
Speaker 1: Well, Milly does exactly that, and I would love to
see the research or go for a nice long walk
with some of the young people here in the neighborhood here.
And when you see a dark house while we're taking
that late night walk, don't be thinking that there's ghosts
and goblins in there or think evil of them they're
sleeping or something. They're in there like Milly, because Milly
respects darkness.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah. And also the thing that you're afraid
of might actually be afraid of you, ah, And so
you have to consider that you may be the threatening
thing in the environment. So it all comes down to
being curious enough to get to know each other.
Speaker 1: Don't you think that Millie's connection to a lot of
readers is because we accept weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. She has kind of turned that
word on its head. It's wonderfully weird. It's wonderful to
be weird, because, like we discussed last time with Poison Garden,
the people that are weird move us forward. Astronauts, inventors, scientists, musicians.
All new ideas are weird at first until they're repeated
and then they become normal. But everything is weird when
it's new. So and we need that because it would
just be so dull if we were all the same.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Christy Manden coming
up next. The name of the book Millie Flowers Saves
the Night. We are back with Christy Manden. Now there's
gonna be some people that are going to look at
look at the book and go moon pies. Moon pies
are kind of weird. But I don't know if you
know this or not, but moon pies are huge here
in the South because back in the forties and fifties,
I mean, it was moon pies and Doctor Pepper that
was a lot about dinners and lunches. I mean, so
when you brought it up I laughed out loud. Christie
well Er, you.
Speaker 2: Know I live in rural Georgia. Oh no, moonpie, Yep,
that's right.
Speaker 1: Wow. And then and then to plant a moon garden.
I thought you gave me memories of my grandmother. I mean, see,
you see how you're affecting the different generations. This isn't
just a kid's book. We're all gonna be sitting there
thinking about my grandmother's moon garden because she had moonflowers
that only opened up at night.
Speaker 2: That's right, because we because your grandmother probably had a
garden and she understood the importance of the beneficial pollinators,
and we often forget about the ones at night. Moms
and things like that. Are bats are extremely important. So yeah,
and also a moonnguarden just smells so nice.
Speaker 1: They do they? Yeah, it's so funny you say that,
because I mean here in Carolina, we actually had somebody
try to plant some of those. They didn't do too
well because of the heat, and I think it just
kind of dried up the buds and it didn't allow
them to spread open at night. But my god, when
you would walk by there when they were spread open
at night with that full moon. Oh, it's so sea,
you know. I just I'm so jealous of MILLI I.
Speaker 2: Know me too, I know her stuff grows so well
with magic.
Speaker 1: So now, how did you get Millie to fall in
love with the odd? Did it start with you?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: You? Are you the muse in all this?
Speaker 2: You know what I am because when I was a kid,
I didn't fit squarely into any one thought. Yep. I
don't know that my peers would have called me weird,
but I felt weird on the inside because everybody was
picking a thing and sticking with it. You know. You
had your horse girls, and you had your you know,
softball players, or your you know, nerds, jocks, goths, all
these labels, and I was interested in all of them.
And I didn't fit squarely in one Marx and so
I felt a little weird. I felt like I needed
to pick a thing and stick with it. And I
got to the end of Poison Garden and realized that
I had written the book that I needed as a kid,
that says, whatever thing that you're feeling that makes you
feel weird is probably that thing that the world needs,
you know, So for me, it would being interested in
too many things was what made me feel weird, but
that ended up giving me such a rich life, Like
I love to love things. So yeah, really just kind
of gives people permission to be weird.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I really want teachers to do,
and because I don't know what it was called when
I was a kid in school, but it would be
like a black sheet of paper and if you scratched
it off, there would be colors underneath it. That's what
I challenge teachers to do with this book is to
find your favorite part of the story and recreate what
you did as an illustrator, just by scratching off the
black stuff, so they could they could discover they could
sit there.
Speaker 2: It's a great idea because.
Speaker 1: I mean, you set me totally up for this there, Christy.
Speaker 2: Well that's a great idea, ar Yeah. Where you draw
a picture and then you color over it with black crayon, yes,
and you put it in the night and then you
that's a great idea. Then you scratch it off and
reveal I love it. That's perfect.
Speaker 1: Wow. So now what did you get out of writing
this story? Because you're somebody you go into it as
a student. I know you do because I can tell
by the research.
Speaker 2: So I found out that they're not everybody has fireflies,
So I do I get I know? Now, fireflies do
exist all over the world, but not every region has
been so our West Coast friends they have them, but
they don't so they don't get the same experience that
we get here on the East Coast. But there are
glowing mushrooms. And so I learned that no matter what
in your area, there's something cool to be discovered in
the night time, you know, so you may not have
fireflies the way we have fireflies. Also learned arrow that
in Jamaica they're called peeni wallies. They're called something different
all over the world. Lightning bugs, fireflies, peeni wallies. Really cool.
Speaker 1: Wow, I would love Millie to do an investigation. You
brought up mushrooms, and I have learned over the past
few years how important mushrooms are because people like to
chop them up and get rid of them, when in fact,
you are creating a major communicator between all plants that
are connected to that soil.
Speaker 2: That's right. Oh, don't get me started on the then
my dalium network. E. We don't have time. That's an
ahole other segment. But yes, it's fascinating. We grow mushrooms, actually,
my husband grows them in buckets in our woods.
Speaker 1: You've got to come back to this show anytime in
the future. You know, the door is always going to
be open for you. Christy.
Speaker 2: Thank you Erro. It's so fun here.
Speaker 1: Will you'd be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, you too, Thank you.