Interview with Kristin O'Donnell Tubb!

YABC recently got the chance to interview the fabulous Kristin O'Donnell Tubb, author of SELLING HOPE and AUTUMN WINIFRED OLIVER DOES THINGS DIFFERENT. Check out her answers to our questions below!

What sparked your inspiration to write a novel about Halley's Comet?

I like to think of Hope as a Happy Accident. Dalmatian Press had contracted me to write a workbook about space, “the universe in 64 pages,” as my editor said. I decided to include a section on comets. In researching Halley’s Comet, I discovered that in May of 1910, Earth had actually passed through the tail of the comet. Scientists realized months before that this phenomenon would occur, and newspapers worldwide printed the story. Fear of the unknown gripped the planet – will poisonous gasses fill the heavens and kill us all? People began prophesying the end of days. And where there is fear, there are people willing to cash in on it. Con artists sold everything from gas masks to lead umbrellas to trips to the moon! One particularly enterprising young man made and sold “comet pills.” I knew once I read those words – comet pills?! – it was a story I wanted to tell.   


The 1910 setting you portray is so true to life and rich. I felt like I was actually there, experiencing Vaudeville and the fearful unknown of Halley's Comet. What kind of research did you do for SELLING HOPE?

Research is one of my favorite parts of the writing process. So many bizarre and breathtaking things happen every day, and the purpose of research is to uncover those gems and interpret them through the eyes of your main character. For SELLING HOPE I spent over a year researching Halley’s Comet, 1910 Chicago, and vaudeville. I love studying ads to see what things cost, what hairstyles and clothes were popular, what cars and kitchens looked like. And because I was researching vaudeville, I spent quite a chunk of time on YouTube looking at herky-jerky footage of ancient vaudeville skits – heaven! 


Tell us about Buster Keaton. I must admit, I didn't know much about him until I read SELLING HOPE. I went online and watched a few of his comedy sketches, just so I could get to know this friend of Hope's. What made you want to include him in your novel?

The novel is set in 1910, and I wanted a male lead who was a popular vaudevillian at that time. Buster Keaton’s name popped up over and over again in my initial research, and because his legacy stretched into film, I was familiar with his work (I spent many a small-town Saturday night watching Buster Keaton movies in a church basement on a reel-to-reel projector. Man, that makes me sound ancient.) 

Because I’d grown up being exposed to his work, I was comfortable trying to portray him in fiction. The more I researched him, I knew he was the perfect choice. He was an amazing talent, and his performance background was unbelievable – he started performing at age 3! He was handsome, too – check out his Wikipedia page here.  I *then* found out that Buster’s fans – even today – are deeply devoted. There is an International Buster Keaton Society that holds annual conventions to study his performances. My hope is that I’ve portrayed him accurately enough to satisfy even his most devoted fans.  


Throughout SELLING HOPE, Hope makes all kinds of zany one-liner jokes in her head. I found myself snorting out loud several times during each chapter. How did you come up with them?

Vaudeville was known for many things, but perhaps more than anything, for comedians and their one-liner jokes. These jokes were “swapped” (read: “stolen”) between performers on the circuits, so it was often hard to know who told the jokes originally. And the goal was to one-up the last comedian, so if a joke “killed” in Des Moines, it would often be stolen by another comedian by Chicago. I read several joke books while researching SELLING HOPE, including jokes that were attributed to legends Milton Berle and Ed Lowry. I flagged jokes that I thought might apply to Hope and her troupe, so many of the zingers that wound up in HOPE have been told for almost 100 years! Sometimes, though, the pacing of the story required a joke, but I couldn’t find one that would work. So, I wrote one. It’d be interesting to see if readers could see which jokes are mine and which ones originated many decades ago!


I loved that most of the book was set in Chicago. I lived there for several years and loved being able to picture the area as I read. Was there a particular reason you chose Chicago?

I love Chicago! My parents are from there, and I have gobs of family still in the area, so I visited there often growing up. I even lived in Chicago for two summers  - never having to suffer a Chicago winter makes loving the city even easier! Because I was familiar with present-day Chicago, I was comfortable with being able to find the research to portray the city in 1910. Plus, it was a huge vaudeville hub. So it came together organically and through research. The Chicago History Museum has one of the best online research outlets I’ve ever found, and they were so helpful in finding those tidbits of information that make all the difference in plotting. (Like: what did it cost to rent a 2-bedroom apartment in 1910 Chicago? You’ll have to read the book to find out.)  


I loved each and every character in SELLING HOPE: Hope's quirky father, Cross-Eyed Jane, Buster (of course!), and even Mr. Whitting. Which character was your favorite to create and why?

Cross-Eyed Jane was and still is my favorite character in the book. She was the only character who popped into my head fully realized. The others (Hope, Nick, Whitting) all had secrets, things to hide. While that of course makes the writing fun and interesting and PURPOSEFUL, it also makes it challenging. Jane is supporting cast, through and through. I love her for it. 


Can you tell us a bit about your next novel, The 13th Sign? The premise sounds so exciting -- I can't wait to read it!

Thank you! I’m very excited about it. In The 13th Sign, birthday girl Jalen Jones (who has never felt like a true Sagittarian) accidentally unlocks a long-forgotten (and historically accurate!) 13th zodiac sign, Ophiuchus. Because of this, everyone on Earth shifts into a new sign of the zodiac and undergoes a massive personality shift.

A few weeks ago, an astronomer in Minnesota caused an uproar when he announced that he felt Ophiuchus should be included in the zodiac, because of the gradual tilting of our planet. You can read more about Ophiuchus and the “new” zodiac here.  One thing that struck me, seeing how adamantly people on Twitter and Facebook rejected this theory: it’s amazing how connected we feel to our individual signs. I hope to capture that connectedness in The 13th Sign. 

The 13th Sign will be available from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan in Fall 2012. But you can take a sneak peek of it on my blog!


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Thanks so much, Kristin, for such a great interview!

In honor of SELLING HOPE, Kristin is giving away a signed copy of her book, as well as some of Hope's Anti-Comet Pills. Simply fill out the form below to enter!