Elise Hooper, FAST GIRLS
[0:08]Hi, I'm Zivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast,
[0:11]Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Thanks so much for listening to my podcast.
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[1:04]by it is a gift to housewarming if you actually go somewhere or just give it to yourself. Everybody
[1:09]needs a treat. We've had a long spring. PageOneBooks.com. Welcome to the third day of my July book
[1:16]blast. This is Be Treats Wednesday. And I'll be releasing lots of episodes this week and next to get
[1:24]all these great Be Treats out and also books that have come out during the quarantine,
[1:28]or books that I think you just need to read at this time. And I just don't want you to miss
[1:33]these authors for any longer. So anyway, here are some great Beach Reads. Each episode this week
[1:38]will have a book that I think you should curl up with and read if you ever find the time.
[1:42]Elise Hoover is the author of Fast Girls, a novel about the 1936 women's Olympic teams. She's also
[1:50]the author of the other Alcott and Learning to See. Elise is a native New Englander and spent several
[1:55]years writing for television and online news outlets before getting an MA and teaching high school
[2:00]literature and history. She currently lives in Seattle with her husband and two daughters.
[2:04]Thanks for coming on mom's turn out time to read books, Elise. I'm excited to talk to you.
[2:09]It's my pleasure. Thank you. Of course. So your latest book is about Fast Girls and the
[2:15]Olympic team and tell me all the details. The first integrated women's Olympic team in 1936. Go.
[2:21]Yeah. Yeah. Well, it actually from was 1830. No, 1932 is the year the first two African-American black
[2:31]women qualified. They didn't end up racing though. They qualified. They went to Los Angeles with
[2:37]a team and kind of one thing happened after another and they never got to race. So I went back
[2:46]and looked at I was able to find times for everyone in the time trials and everything.
[2:50]And everyone's time. I mean, these women should have raced. So, you know, through one thing
[2:56]after another, I have just deduced. It was not only racism, but it was sexism. I think their male
[3:02]coach just didn't take them very seriously. And so one thing after another. So this book has been
[3:08]about so much discovery for me. It began with my younger daughter is a swimmer. And in fourth grade,
[3:15]she had to pick a project to do a biography on an American who was no longer alive. And she
[3:21]chose Gertrude Eterly. Do you know who Eterly is? I don't need it. Okay. Good. Now I don't feel
[3:26]bad, but yes. She was the first woman to swim the English channel. She was a swimming champ from the
[3:33]1924 Olympics. And it was her second try to cross the channel. And she became a huge celebrity at the
[3:40]time in the 20s. I mean, Woodrow Wilson called her America's best girl. And she thought ticker-taped
[3:45]parades in New York for her. She wasn't really a big deal yet. I had never heard of her at all. And so
[3:52]that really prompted me to wonder about other pioneering women athletes. I think we often kind of
[3:59]associate the passage of Title IX in 1972 is the beginning and Billie Jean King and some of these
[4:05]women who are still active in increasing women's participation in sports. But it really goes back
[4:12]much earlier. And so I started digging around and I have a background in running. I ran track in high
[4:19]school. I've run a few marathons, done lots of five, 10k's, all of that over the years. And I couldn't
[4:25]believe the stories I was finding about these women. And I just couldn't believe none of us knew
[4:29]anything about them. So it was just such a fun and amazing book. I mean, this has been such a great
[4:36]adventure to research these women, their stories alone during the 1930s and the Great Depression.
[4:42]And then you pile on the intrigue of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin with Adolf Hitler wants to meet one
[4:50]of these women at one point and bites her away for a weekend. I mean, it was just sort of crazy
[4:55]upon crazy upon crazy and and yet I had never heard any of this. But this is fiction. So you went
[5:02]back and made a historical fiction based on all of the things that you discovered.
[5:07]Exactly. You know, these women's lives were not documented nearly like like Jesse Owens, for example,
[5:12]or something. There were a lot of gaps in the record, especially when it came to Louise Stokes,
[5:17]one of these black athletes who qualified in 32 again in 36. And so there was a lot of room to kind
[5:24]of do some imagining about what their lives were like, what they're especially in their interior
[5:28]journeys were like because, you know, none of these women, this was kind of a generation who didn't
[5:33]really speak about how they felt, right? The greatest generation just was living and surviving through
[5:39]hard times and that's just the way life was. So there was a lot of room to create a story
[5:46]around these women. I also, well, Helen Stevens and Betty, so my three main characters are
[5:51]Helen Stevens, Betty and Louise Stokes. They all kind of come together in 1936, but they,
[5:58]I had to sort of create some connections to between them to get them on this path. So
[6:02]so there was definitely some moving around of things and I write in my afterwards kind of the
[6:07]changes I had to make to the historical record to to make this flow more as a real story. But
[6:12]it's really hard to get three people's different parts of the country to intersect in a way
[6:17]that it has made sense. So I think we forgive you then for the liberties. It's okay.
[6:23]Thanks. Oh, no problem. How did you get all that research? Like, how did you do it? Were you in a
[6:28]library? Was this all Google? Like, how did you find everything? Well, thank God for the internet.
[6:33]So what historical fiction writers did before the internet, I was able to, I use newspaper
[6:38]dot com. I read so many articles on newspapers dot com and you can go, I mean, some papers,
[6:43]they go way back with and I was able to find a ton in the 1920s and 30s. So many in fact,
[6:49]that I really decided I needed to create some of my own newspaper stories for this book because
[6:55]I was really intrigued by how journalists were talking about these women too. I feel like in
[7:01]Rio, that was a big topic of like how journalists spoke about women athletes and there was a lot
[7:06]of kind of awakening to the double standards they were applying to men and women. And I mean,
[7:12]even around Serena Williams, you know, this sort of all the suing and all I go over her come
[7:16]back as a mom. I mean, I think she's been sort of annoyed by that, right? It takes off. And so
[7:21]we've become more aware of this, but back in the 20s and 30s, it was crazy with journalists talking
[7:26]about the bucks and gal and lane three on the track and just things that I wanted readers to
[7:31]really see and hear how these reporters were talking about them. So I ended up aggregating a lot
[7:37]of the language and tone used and kind of wrote my own articles to give readers a sense of that.
[7:44]And so newspapers were really big. I traveled to Missouri to visit the Helen Stevens collection
[7:50]at the Historical Society there, was able to like hold her track shoes and read her handwritten
[7:55]diary from Berlin. I went, I got to Chicago. I went to Maldon, Massachusetts,
[8:01]which is where Louise is from. And I was also able to connect with a few people who like this
[8:07]one sports reporter out of Boston had written on an article about Louise, which was really
[8:11]the most in depth piece I've been able to find over about her over the decades. So I contacted him
[8:17]and he, oh my gosh, he blesses heart. He has spent hours in the Maldon library going through
[8:24]microfiche and copying these articles. So I mean, I owe my eyesight to him really because I
[8:30]destroyed my eyes doing that. And he was generous enough to send me this big file. He had
[8:36]accumulated on Louise over the years and allowed me to copy it and then send it back to him
[8:40]in Vermont. So I was able to define some terrific sources. I talked to Helen Stevens biographer.
[8:46]I talked to descendants of Betty Robinson, her daughter and granddaughter to get information.
[8:52]So it really has been, I've really tapped into so many different things. The Olympics
[8:58]are always very well documented. I mean, there are actual films of these races. There are
[9:02]official reports. I mean, you know, the Nazis documented everything amazingly enough, of course.
[9:08]So I mean, I can look at schematics of all the different facilities and read all their data
[9:14]about who came to the Olympics. So if anything, there was so much information to be found. I kind
[9:20]of needed to figure out, okay, what am I using here? Because it could be pretty overwhelming at
[9:25]points. And when did you like, how did you get into writing and doing historical fiction?
[9:30]I know this is your third book already. How, like, how did that happen?
[9:34]Right. Well, I grew up right outside of Concord, Massachusetts, which is home of the Alcott.
[9:38]And my first book was about the Alcott. And I have to say that the Alcott's were a really
[9:43]formative part of my life, where I had grown up going to drama camp at Orchard House, which is
[9:48]the Alcott family home to a museum. And, you know, I had seen the tiny little desk upstairs in Orchard
[9:53]House, where Louisiana wrote little women. And this sounds so funny to us. But I-
[10:00]I mean, seeing that desk as like a nine-year-old is when I realized that people write books,
[10:04]they don't just kind of magically grow on bookshelves.
[10:08]And even just as a kid, I have been an avid reader, and that's when I knew, boy, this
[10:13]is something I would love to do someday.
[10:15]And it took me a while to get there.
[10:16]I had to almost sort of build up some courage.
[10:18]I worked in journalism for a little bit, but, you know, eventually when my youngest daughter
[10:23]was heading off to kindergarten, I said, this is the year I'm going to try writing a novel
[10:27]I've always wanted to do.
[10:28]And so it's been a whirlwind since I just writing, writing, writing, writing, right?
[10:33]Before we go on the phone, I'm working on a new book, and so I really love this.
[10:37]I mean, I have worked as a high school teacher for years, and I just love learning new
[10:43]things and finding all these new people I had never heard about.
[10:46]That to me is just so much fun.
[10:49]That's great.
[10:50]How old are all your kids now?
[10:51]I have two girls, almost 15 and almost 12.
[10:54]OK.
[10:55]It's nice to know there's more time for writing as they get older.
[10:58]Yes, yeah, there is.
[11:00]Tell me about your next book.
[11:02]What is it about when you're working on now?
[11:04]Well, it's great.
[11:05]So it's actually kind of been crazy timing.
[11:08]I managed to fit in a trip to the Philippines right before kind of the world shut down.
[11:15]Because about a year ago, I started working on this book about these so-called Angels of
[11:20]the Tan, and that was a group of nurses during World War II, American nurses, who were caught
[11:25]up in the Philippines at the outset of right after Pearl Harbor is bomb.
[11:30]And eventually, they're taken prisoner of war by the Japanese.
[11:33]And they have several extraordinary years in confinement where they continue to work the
[11:38]whole time.
[11:39]They really believed in the purpose of their job is getting them through these long hard days.
[11:44]And so it's a really amazing story about perseverance.
[11:48]And these women were really on the front line at some points, especially before they're
[11:52]obviously all captured.
[11:54]It's a really great story of resilience.
[11:56]And I've been writing like crazy ever since the pandemic and because I'm taking a lot
[12:03]of comfort in sort of returning to a time when people faced really hard challenges.
[12:09]And yet we're able to persevere, I've taken a lot of comfort in that and sort of a sense
[12:14]of perspective.
[12:15]So for me, that's kind of how I dealt with a lot of the challenges we've had in the
[12:20]last few months is we're turning it going back to the past.
[12:23]Are there any books in particular that you feel like have gotten you through this time?
[12:27]I mean, yes, definitely.
[12:29]I really read a real range.
[12:32]I know when you had talked about, and I feel like everyone's been talking about was
[12:35]B-tree.
[12:36]That was kind of a fun one.
[12:37]You know, I feel like I'm bouncing around between a lot of kind of hard books, what I would
[12:44]consider kind of sad or then fun, what I recently read, Sourdough by Robin Sloan for
[12:50]and in a local bookstores book club out here where we knit and discuss the books.
[12:56]Awesome.
[12:57]Yeah, so that's really fun.
[12:58]I just read the guest book, which is definitely more serious.
[13:01]So I love memoirs.
[13:03]So I feel like I've been kind of doing a little bit of a original Miller's memoir
[13:09]right at the beginning, which was actually possibly a really talented read right now.
[13:15]But I really have been kind of all over the map, like probably a lot of us have been
[13:20]yeah.
[13:21]I try to mix it up like if I read a memoir about like, I don't know, some personal challenge
[13:27]then the next thing is historical fiction or then I go to like, you know, maybe a self-helpy
[13:31]type book and then I go to something.
[13:33]I like to mix it up.
[13:34]I feel like I can't do back to back like of any of the same type.
[13:38]If I have the luxury right now, I'm preparing a lot of books all the time.
[13:41]So but in my, you know, if it's vacation or something, I like to know and you listen to
[13:47]books too.
[13:48]Do you do audiobook?
[13:49]No, it's too slow.
[13:50]I read really quickly and I tried listening like, you speed it up, but I can't understand
[13:55]it and process it fast enough plus I'm very like tactile.
[13:57]I don't know about you, but like I like turned down the pages and this whole pandemic.
[14:01]I've actually, I was very against electronic books.
[14:05]But now like I've had to learn how to manage them and and now they have, there are a lot
[14:09]of perks there too.
[14:10]So I've gotten, you know, the highlighting and but I need to see it for me at least.
[14:14]That's just how I learn and now I'm with you.
[14:16]I've spent so much time walking my dog and trying to get outdoors recently that I have
[14:22]been doing a lot of audiobooks and so I kind of bounced around, I usually have a few different
[14:26]books going at different times in different forms and that kind of helps me too.
[14:31]Yeah, that's true.
[14:32]No, I should say I like during summers where during periods of time where I'm driving
[14:35]a lot, I try to have a book like that I listened to in the car.
[14:39]Right.
[14:40]But if I'm at home, you know, not so, not as much I read somewhere that you,
[14:46]thought of yourself like more like you should have been born in the times of Laura
[14:49]Ingalls Wilders and I like that and I loved that because as a kid, probably like many
[14:53]of us, I was obsessed with a little house on the prairie and like had my dress that
[14:58]look like, you know, Laura and like I just, I feel like I might have watched every episode
[15:02]of that show as a child.
[15:03]I don't think I had any limits on TV because I can see, I like was the binge watching
[15:07]champion at like age.
[15:08]I don't know what six, eight.
[15:11]So I related tears saying that.
[15:12]Did you watch that show all the time or just read the books or?
[15:15]Yes.
[15:15]I once even turned down an invitation to go to Adani and Marie Austin concert because
[15:20]I did not want to miss a little house that night.
[15:22]I was a very dedicated viewer to half-point and everyone.
[15:25]Yeah.
[15:26]And I, I mean, I just, I think also maybe where I grew up with all this history around,
[15:30]I just loved.
[15:32]I really did feel like I was kind of born in the wrong time.
[15:35]Like I was always taking like dining room chairs and throwing sheets over them to make
[15:39]a covered wagon or Anne of Green Gables was a real, I mean, I really loved that
[15:44]book too and really still need to go to Prince Edward Island to channel that.
[15:49]Yes.
[15:50]I loved all those books.
[15:51]And of course, Little Women and all of Al Cots books are really important to me.
[15:54]So yes, I definitely have that in common with you.
[15:58]Do you have any advice to aspiring authors?
[16:01]I mean, I really came to writing as a reader.
[16:03]So my advice is always just to keep reading.
[16:06]I don't worry.
[16:07]So I mean, I just love to read and learn more stories and every time I pick up a book,
[16:12]I learned something no matter honestly what book it is, it could be way outside of my genre.
[16:17]I am picking up something on structure, on voice, on dialogue.
[16:20]So I would say to keep reading, I think some people say when I'm working on something
[16:25]I don't want to read and I'm like, I can't relate to that at all.
[16:28]Boy, I just, yeah, I have all these different books going.
[16:32]I am always looking to pick up new tricks.
[16:34]You should come to my virtual book club.
[16:36]I do like a book club on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. Eastern time, but it's full of book lovers,
[16:41]like us.
[16:42]Yeah.
[16:43]I just started it in the pandemic, but it turns out a lot of the authors I've interviewed
[16:47]come because we are all such big readers, so anyway, anyway, I just thought I'd throw that
[16:50]out.
[16:51]But fast girls, congratulations.
[16:52]It sounds like it should be a movie, by the way, has this been optioned yet?
[16:55]It's like...
[16:56]It hasn't been.
[16:57]I know it's been sort of pitched around and hopefully it definitely has a very cinematic
[17:02]quality to it with these women.
[17:04]And I mean, the 1936 Olympics has that in general, I would say to it for sure.
[17:08]So fingers crossed, because, I mean, I just feel like I'm on a mission to help people
[17:15]know these women more.
[17:17]I think their stories are so important and we can learn so much from them.
[17:20]Awesome.
[17:21]Well, thank you.
[17:22]Thanks for coming on Mom's Don't Time Treat books, and I'm really glad we connected
[17:25]and hopefully we'll meet in real life one day.
[17:28]Yes, I know some days.
[17:30]Okay.
[17:31]Yes, thank you so much, Zippy.
[17:32]I really appreciate all you're doing to connect to all of us who love books.
[17:36]I think that's just so important these days.
[17:38]Thank you.
[17:39]I'm trying.
[17:40]All right.
[17:41]Have a great day.
[17:42]You too.
[17:43]Take care.
[17:44]Thank you so much.
[17:45]Bye.
[17:46]Thanks for listening to a Beach Reads Wednesday episode from my big July book blast.
[17:51]I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you've enjoyed getting to know some of these amazing
[17:55]authors.
[17:56]Thanks again for listening to my podcast, Mom's Don't Have Time to Read books.
[18:00]If you liked this episode, please follow me on Instagram at zippyowans and at mom's
[18:06]don't have time to read books and sign up for my mailing list at zippyowans.com so you
[18:10]can always hear about the latest things I'm up to.
[18:13]Thanks a lot.
[18:14]Thanks so much to Page One Books for sponsoring today's episode.
[18:16]I hope you'll all check out my summer beach bundle at page one books dot com.
[18:21]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing and thank you
[18:25]to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outroom music.
[18:29]Thanks for listening.
[18:30]You can always email me at zippyowans.com.