#1 New York Times bestseller! Katherine Applegate, THE ONE AND ONLY FAMILY
[0:02]Hi, I'm Sivi Owens, and I am the host of this podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[0:08]I am also a newly minted USA Today best-selling author of the novel, Blake.
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[0:31]Catherine Applegate is the author of the one and only family.
[0:35]Catherine is the new very metal winning, and a number one,
[0:38]New York Times' best-selling author of numerous books for young readers, including the one and only series,
[0:44]the ending series, Crenshaw, Wishtree, the Roscoe Riley Rules chapter book series,
[0:49]and the Anamar series. She lives with her family in Nevada.
[0:53]Welcome, Catherine. Thank you so much for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books
[0:57]to discuss the one and only family. Congratulations.
[1:01]Oh, thank you. I am so delighted to be here.
[1:05]Okay, so tell everybody what is this fine?
[1:09]This is the final installment, right? Do you're not going past here or should I not say that?
[1:13]This is it. This is it. Okay, okay.
[1:15]Tell everybody what the book is about. Please.
[1:18]Well, you know, this is a continuation of a,
[1:23]what it's now become a four-book quartet, I guess you'd call it,
[1:28]that started with the one and only Ivan, which many people have,
[1:32]have realized at this point was based on a true story.
[1:35]There really was an Ivan Gorilla, who ended up of all things in Tacoma, Washington,
[1:41]in the middle of a mall, and spent 27 awful years there.
[1:46]So I fictionalized that story and eventually expanded upon it.
[1:51]We had the one-only Bob, Bob is a very sarcastic, charming dog who is voiced by Danny DeVito in the movie.
[1:59]And the one and only Ruby, a baby elephant.
[2:03]And I really thought I was done.
[2:05]But then I was thinking about the fact that the real Ivan may well have been a twin.
[2:12]We don't know for sure.
[2:14]He was found with another baby Gorilla who appeared to be the same size and age, a female.
[2:20]And unfortunately, she died almost as soon as she got to Tacoma.
[2:24]And Western London Gorillas, you know, do have twins occasionally.
[2:27]It can be a familial thing, as it is with humans.
[2:31]So I thought, well, it did be fascinating to see our dear friend Ivan actually be a dad,
[2:38]even though in real life, as far as we know, he never was.
[2:41]Wow.
[2:42]And I know, I totally asked if it was a spoiler to reveal that Ivan has twins
[2:47]because it comes as such a surprise during the reading of it.
[2:50]Even though you can see it in the cover and you know what's going to happen.
[2:53]Because the surprise for many people when they have twins is just that, like, here is the baby.
[2:58]And then here is another baby.
[3:00]Oh my gosh, what do we do now?
[3:02]And the terror that Ivan feels that I'm sure so many parents have felt at the same time.
[3:07]Feels just so, so real.
[3:09]So tell me a little bit more about that.
[3:10]And as I mentioned to you, I have four girl twins of my own who are now 17,
[3:15]that to be 17, but yeah, at that moment when you're like,
[3:18]how am I going to deal with two sets of temper tantrums of two worlds?
[3:23]Yeah, that that isn't a epiphany for him for sure.
[3:27]And in fact, and I try always when I'm writing these to stay as close as I can to animal behavior.
[3:34]And you know, it's always on a spectrum because of course you're going to be anthropomorphic
[3:38]when you're when you're talking about animals.
[3:40]But in fact, sometimes gorillas.
[3:43]And in this case, Ivan is quite isolated for various reasons.
[3:48]There isn't a troop around to help his, I guess we say wife,
[3:52]Kimyani, as she anticipates becoming a mom.
[3:56]And one of the things the keepers do is present them with a stuffed toy gorillas.
[4:03]So they can start, you know, holding them and experiencing what it is in the most simplistic fashion,
[4:11]what it's like to be a parent.
[4:13]And so I try as much as I could to kind of follow through that timeline.
[4:17]And Ivan is of course bewildered, even though all the keepers know that he is about to be the dad of twins when he actually ends up with two.
[4:28]And it is, you're right, absolutely the most glorious moment of his life and the most terrifying.
[4:35]Because he's thinking, oh, imagine what will be like to be a dad and share my life and my wisdom.
[4:41]And then he suddenly remembers what it's like when you see a toddler tantrum.
[4:45]Multiple like that by two is I'm sure you can recall.
[4:49]Yes, unfortunately.
[4:52]Actually, we did the same thing. We had a dog when the twins were born and we gave the dog like a doll, you know, doll baby.
[4:59]And like tried to pretend like it was a baby to like get the dog used to the bag that there would be babies around.
[5:05]And anyway, then we even had the doll cry.
[5:08]I feel like a dog trainer told me to do this. We had a dog that you like pushed the stomach and it would like mimic the real sounds of crying.
[5:14]Oh, I love it.
[5:15]Yeah. I mean, the things you do are pregnant.
[5:18]No, I couldn't work.
[5:19]Of course it didn't work. Yeah.
[5:22]The thing that I've infused right away when seeing the kids, which again, so many parents relate to is this feeling protect, protect, protect and that feeling like doesn't go away.
[5:32]Does it in and it's pervasive across species and everything and it is just so evolutionary. You know why it's there.
[5:40]But to see it written on the page like this and to know as a parent that feeling and instincts.
[5:46]The protection just doesn't end right. When does it ever let up never boy.
[5:52]You tell me.
[5:54]Two daughters in their twenties and it's not that it doesn't get easier. Of course, it in many ways it does. You're not, you know, a twin on call 24 hours a day, but the worry doesn't go away.
[6:08]It, I guess it never does. And you want them to take risks and you know they're going to and you, the other thing is you remember when you were young and how fearless you were and you want, you know, you want that to happen for them.
[6:22]But boy, it's hard.
[6:24]Yeah.
[6:25]You had all these little gems sort of sprinkled throughout. Can I just read a couple lines. Do you mind.
[6:30]Oh, that no course.
[6:32]Well, this was funny. I was perhaps a bit too optimistic earlier. I can now report with some authority that parenting is definitely not as easy as it looks. That was great.
[6:41]Totally agreed. But you said in this part, I laugh. This is page one and three. I laugh until my eyes well with tears.
[6:49]Once again, I'm reminded that it's possible to be happy and said worried and hopeful, confused and certain all at the same time, especially when you love someone dearly.
[7:00]Oh, I feel that's so deeply.
[7:03]I know. And it's I guess it's the human condition. You're right. It's or the primary condition. It's I'm sure.
[7:09]Cross is all species that endless anxiety. But it's, it's, you know, I guess it works because here we are.
[7:18]Yeah. So there's good reason for that. I guess.
[7:22]Are you sad to have sort of put these characters to bed, like, and not write about them anymore? Oh, yeah. You know, it's so funny with series, especially.
[7:31]But certainly even with a single title, these these characters become part of you and their family. And this has been a good, you know, 10 years or so.
[7:41]You know, they're part of my life. And it does feel sad to let them go. I just did a book tour and a lot of kids were asking, well, what about the twins?
[7:49]Do you do a book about the twins or what about Stella? And you just know it's time. I came full circle. I felt like the narrative are ended where it needed to.
[7:59]And hopefully on a very hopeful now because I think that's so important for kids. When you started when you wrote the one and only Ivan, did you know it would be a quartet?
[8:09]No, I didn't think it'd be a book. I make a point to tell both struggling writers and and kids that I got about halfway through the original manuscript and literally tossed it in the trash.
[8:24]I could not believe that anybody would read first person gorilla. I just thought I was I'd gone way out on this crazy tangent and you're a writer. You know that feeling.
[8:34]What have I done.
[8:36]And so I eventually pulled it back out and thought, you know, I want to know what happens and I rewrote it about a million times.
[8:44]But that, of course, is what writing is all about. It's re writing and re writing and re writing. Oh my gosh.
[8:50]Remember, I talked to Garth Stein a while back about the art of racing in the rain from the point of getting the dog.
[8:56]So good. But he said people like laughed him out of the room. Like his agent was like, you have lost your mind, your book from the point of view of a dog. Like no one will do this.
[9:05]No one will ever publish this and it took him forever to get it published and then it sold a million copies.
[9:10]And it was absolutely lovely. Oh, that's so fascinating. Isn't it? Because you just never know. Yeah.
[9:17]Yeah.
[9:18]On the page, exactly.
[9:20]So tell me about your whole writing career and how you got started. Like when did, when did you know this is what you wanted to do?
[9:28]Did you know not to give up? How did you just get the wisdom to pull things out of the trash? Would they add something to them?
[9:36]But you noticed I laughed right away because, you know, like sausage and legislation, it was, it was very messy.
[9:44]I started at, well, I got a liberal arts degree and then became the world's worst waitress because that's when you have a liberal arts degree.
[9:52]And then that was terrified to write. It seemed like the most humiliating way to fail because it was so public.
[9:59]So.
[10:00]Actually, I became a ghostwriter and I was the consummate hack and I mean that in the best possible way
[10:06]It's a good way to learn your craft and I wrote oh like 17 sweet valley twins women of a certain age will remember sweet valley
[10:15]I am of that age and that is amazing and
[10:20]I gave Jessica her first period. Oh my gosh. Yes, yes, I'm really proud God
[10:25]And I did I did tons of work for Disney, you know a Latin little mermaid that kind of thing and lots of series with
[10:36]Packagers where my name wouldn't be on the book and
[10:39]Eventually got up the nerve to try something and it took me a long long time
[10:45]Wow, I go through the book actually after my first giant failure when I couldn't sell my first novel after an agent took it out and blah blah
[10:53]And the consolation prize I guess is she's like, well, you could go straight this book and I was like, okay
[10:58]Which was fun, you know, I mean, I'm like, oh, this is great
[11:01]You know you talk I at the time there was no zoom like this was in 2005 or something
[11:06]I would just like be on the phone with the authors and then transcribe and then they were kind enough to give me a with
[11:12]The attribution on the cover. That's sweet. I know it's like I got it with like with zimmy. Oh my gosh
[11:18]Well, you did all my heavy lifting. No, so but still most of the time you know
[11:23]I knew that I could have been the case
[11:25]But I think ghostwriting is is really interesting and it is a great way to sort of hone any
[11:30]A voice by putting yourself literally in someone else's mind. So yeah, it's good starting it is
[11:36]It's really good practice because you are adopting somebody else's voice and you better you better get it right
[11:41]Especially if you're writing as it turns out say Donald's up for Disney because
[11:47]Better get right trust me. Yeah. That's it. That's a tall order
[11:51]I mean the sweet that we've been to Donald Disney characters. I mean come on
[11:54]I mean those are beloved by everyone
[11:58]Maybe different groups, but perhaps not so then tell me about like the first project because you've done so many different types of books and all that
[12:06]What was the progression like and how did you like do a grant?
[12:10]You know just all the different things children's books and
[12:14]Middle grades. I actually and I used to not admit this
[12:17]But I thought it would be very easy to write a Harlequin romance
[12:20]I was not a reader and I hastened to add that there are fantastic romance writers out there
[12:26]I just wasn't one of them
[12:28]So with my husband I tend to write to Harlequin and to the stay
[12:33]I won't tell anybody what my pen name was
[12:36]and
[12:36]eventually my husband and I did a series together called
[12:40]Animorphs and we wrote it with scholastic. There were
[12:44]63 maybe books in the series and we wrote probably 40 or 50 of them
[12:49]And that was back in the day when books came out every month
[12:52]There was a babysitter's club and goosebumps kids love that because you know it's it's
[12:58]You rush back to the bookstore to the scholastic book club and you grab the next book
[13:03]So that was exhausting because we had a new baby and we were you know pass it around the baby and the coffee and the book non-stop
[13:11]But it was a steep learning curve
[13:15]But now I will go to book events
[13:17]And this is such a reminder that I've aged and these eight-year-olds who are Animorphs fans will show up
[13:23]And they have Animorphs tattoos and they've named their babies after current. Oh my gosh
[13:29]So it's so cool. They're just the best. They're the most wonderful fans on earth
[13:34]They're just they all grow up to be delightful human beings and I take full credit
[13:39]You should as you should
[13:42]So and once we've done that I you know I we were both so tired of writing the series
[13:48]And my husband started writing YA and I I drifted more toward middle grade
[13:52]And that's when I started my first real book
[13:55]I call it was called Home of the Brave and it was in free verse about Sudanese refugee
[14:00]So it was a huge departure
[14:02]Well, and then Crenshaw by the way was required reading for all my kids. So
[14:07]Yeah, I know I can't believe that we have so many copies because like as one kid and then the next kid at the same school
[14:13]Yeah
[14:15]Congratulations on that. So how do you feel like you're able to
[14:20]Right, I mean it's one thing for us to go straight
[14:22]But to write from the point of view of another species all together and put yourself
[14:27]I mean, I guess I could kind of imagine what it's like to be my dog
[14:30]But aside from that like I think it would be harder for me
[14:32]How do you do it and not that there's ever a way but I don't know how do you get into character so to speak?
[14:39]I love that you say not that there's ever a way because spoken like a writer
[14:45]It's so messy, but I will research is a huge part of it
[14:49]And I love doing that because I am the consummate procrastinator
[14:53]And it's such a great way to not write
[14:56]For example, I did a book called otter recently written from the point of view of a southern sea otter in Monterey Bay
[15:03]And tried to stay as close as I could to the actual experience
[15:07]While of course pretending to be an otter
[15:09]And I had it vetted by marine biologists and I tried to really
[15:14]Hue as close as I could but at the end of the day, you know, you're taking this big leap
[15:18]But it was a chance to go hang out with otters and to fascinating research so
[15:24]And I think that's a lot of it
[15:26]You know, you do the best you can to understand what their perceptions of the world are
[15:31]But you know, there's like Jack London at one end and then there's you know
[15:35]Frog and Toad at the other and there's a spectrum of
[15:38]Approaches and it kind of depends on the book
[15:41]Did you know that frog and Toad is now a TV show? I just saw that yesterday. Yeah
[15:47]No, I was trying to watch something else and of course like there it was on I don't know one of the streaming channels
[15:51]Oh, I got to check that out. I don't know. It's you know, I'm kind of a purist. It's it's so perfect the way it is
[15:58]But okay, here movie was so good
[16:02]That was so fun. I got to get it landed and watch it being filmed
[16:05]Really? Oh my gosh. It was so cool. And Angelina Jolie who was a producer was on the next set over
[16:13]Doing
[16:13]Maleficent so we got to go chat with her with her golden contacts in and
[16:19]It was just fascinating
[16:21]Wow, that was our Thanksgiving. Uh, Thanksgiving family movie cousins and everything so
[16:29]So what projects are you working on next? What are you working on now and what's coming out next? Those are probably different things, but
[16:35]Well, I have a picture book version of Otter coming out with McMillan with this
[16:41]The illustrators done many of my covers with them Charleston, Tosa who's just amazing and it's nothing but adorable baby
[16:48]Otters I didn't really need to write anything because Charles is so magnificent
[16:53]I also have a picture book coming out with the amazing lead of judge that is based on
[16:58]Ruby for Harper Collins and she too is amazing
[17:02]So that's going to be really charming and I have a second book in a series called Dogtown that I work with a
[17:10]A fellow writer who's amazing
[17:12]Jennifer children go who won a new berry honor for the alcophone series the alcotra series
[17:18]That was really fun because we're both dog lovers. So it's about
[17:22]Dogs and robot dogs and you know, how can you go wrong and actually my my current
[17:29]Working progress is involve stuffed animals, which I have never done and it's
[17:35]Whole different leap into you know the unknown. So we'll see. Oh, that's so fun. All right. Do you have a lot of fun with what you're doing?
[17:42]It seems like it, but is it? Oh
[17:45]No, it's really hard
[17:47]Boring and frustrating. No, I was still kids. It's just it's a job like any job and you know
[17:54]You have good days and bad days
[17:56]Only when I step away from it. Do I realize how much I love it?
[18:00]You know, I sometimes tell writers if you want to know if you're going to be a writer
[18:04]Tell yourself you can't write for a month
[18:07]And if you can't stand it then, you know, you're meant to be doing it because
[18:12]It's it takes a certain resilience
[18:15]Interesting
[18:17]I feel like anytime I have a deadline or something. I'm like I like run the other way. I don't know
[18:23]I'm not alone trust
[18:27]I'm not records
[18:30]What other advice do you have for aspiring authors? You know, I've been telling kids it's not chromatically correct
[18:35]But I embraced your weird
[18:38]By that I mean and you know because you look at all the writers and creatives, you know
[18:43]We're a weird bunch. We didn't look at the world differently
[18:47]And I mean that
[18:48]absolutely the total affection because I think it's a real gift and
[18:53]When kids are starting to write and an adult for that matter
[18:57]You're there's so much pressure to conform to be like everybody else
[19:01]Especially, you know as you had into middle school and high school
[19:04]And remembering that little weird part of you is magical because that's why creatives can look at the world differently
[19:11]So I think it's really important to remember that. I love it
[19:15]Well, congratulations. This book was so sweet and special and took me back to my
[19:22]The early days of twin parenting
[19:24]I'm so celebrating not be good on that. Oh good and bad
[19:27]It good and bad
[19:28]But you know the notion of making a family and making your nest in whatever shape and how much we should respect
[19:36]All the other species and not take ourselves too seriously sharing the world all that good stuff so important
[19:42]So anyway true delight
[19:44]I've you've delighted my whole family for hours on end and various mediums
[19:48]So thank you so much. Oh, thank you. It's been a joy. Okay. Thank you
[19:56]Thanks for listening to momstone have time to read books. If you love it, please
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