Hello. I’m Susie Finkbeiner (I’ll be SF throughout the interview). I’m the author of All Manner of Things, Stories That Bind Us, and The Nature of Small Birds. My ninth novel The All-American releases July 11. This novel is set in the early 1950s Michigan.
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Today I’m happy to interview one of the characters from that book, eleven year old Florence Mabel Harding (who will be FH throughout).
FH: Actually, you may call me Flossie.
SF: All right. And, I guess you can call me Susie.
FH: Oh, I don’t think I can. My mother would never allow me to call an adult by her first name. She’d give me a severe look and I wouldn’t want that. Would you?
SF: I would not.
FH: So I’ll just call you Mrs. Finkb…Finkbeener? Finkenbinder? What a name. Is it German or something?
SF: Yes, it is.
FH: That’s unfortunate.
SF: Well, moving on. Tell me what it’s like to be one of the main characters in a novel.
FH: It’s peachy, I guess. Of course it would be better if I didn’t have to share the spotlight with my big sister Bertha. Who cares about Bertha’s part of the story? All she does is play baseball. What’s so interesting about that?
SF: A lot, actually. It wasn’t all that common for girls to play sports, let alone professional baseball in 1952.
FH: Well then why didn’t you just write her part this way, “Bertha went off to play baseball. The end.”? Do you really think people want to hear more about it than that?
SF: Flossie.
FH: Yes?
SF: Did you even read the book?
FH: Of course I did!
SF: Did you skim over Bertha’s chapters to get to your own?
FH: I’d rather not answer that question.
SF: Why not?
FH: Because my mother told me that I should mind my manners and it wouldn’t be mannerly to tell you that those parts were boring.
SF: Okay. Moving on. You are quite the reader, aren’t you? What would you say is your favorite book?
FH: Oh, oh. This is an easy question to answer. Anne of Green Gables. No. Little Women. Oh. Maybe I should say The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Oh, I really can’t choose. This is an impossible question to answer.
SF: Would you like to know what one of my favorite books is?
FH: I suppose so.
SF: I really like The Grapes of Wrath.
FH: By Mr. Steinbeck? Oh, Mrs. Finkbender, this is disappointing.
SF: Why’s that?
FH: Because Mr. Steinbeck isn’t a very good writer. He wouldn’t know a happy ending if it came up behind him and knocked him on his keister.
SF: How did you get to be such an opinionated girl?
FH: Well, I don’t know. Weren’t you the one who wrote me?
SF: Honestly, Flo, I never had control over you. Not even once. Moving on. If there’s one thing you would like people to know about you, what is it?
FH: I would like people to know that I’m not just some ordinary little girl. Sure, I’m always the smallest in my class. But that’s not all there is to me. Once I was eavesdropping on my dad and heard him tell someone, “though she be but little, she is fierce”. That’s from a Shakespeare play. My dad was always quoting Mr. Shakespeare. When I asked my dad about it later, he told me that he suspected that Mr. Shakespeare was thinking of a girl just like me when he wrote that. I am small, but I am a force to be reckoned with.
SF: I have to agree, Flossie. You are one incredible character and I’m so glad I could write you into my book.
FH: Of course you are. I’m an absolute delight.
SF: You are, my girl. You truly are. And I hope that readers will love to read you as much as I loved to write you.
Susie Finkbeiner is the CBA bestselling author of All Manner of Things, which was selected as a 2020 Michigan Notable Book, as well as Stories That Bind Us, The Nature of Small Birds The All-American is her ninth novel. Susie and her husband have three children and live in West Michigan. Learn more at www.susiefinkbeiner.com.
Novel PASTimes 