Interview With Children’s Short-Story Author Etienne Labuschagne

                                

         

 

1.      What is your new book, Bedtime Stories For Clever Kids, about? It’s is a collection of stories that are meant to entertain kids and parents at bedtime while introducing high level topics for discussion. Stories are a wonderful gateway into the imagination and the mind of a child. These stories take children to places they would never think to go, like a monastery in the Middle Ages, seen through the eyes of a dog. They are taken to tall ships at anchor in Table Bay in the 1800s, to listen to a conversation between figureheads on the prow about the most difficult job on earth. Or to cleaning stained glass windows high up in a cathedral, only to learn that we are windows to the world too.

 

2.      What inspired its creation? I have been writing stories for my grandchildren since 2017. But during Covid I realized that parents in lockdown with small kids deserve a break at bedtime. So, I started sending stories to everyone I knew that were in lockdown with young kids. And they loved the stories. They aren’t typical. Some are quirky. Some are whimsical. And some are exciting and full of adventure. But in between are hidden deep issues of tolerance, family, validation and kindness. I thought the stories can do much more with a wider audience.

 

3.      You enjoyed painting since childhood and your book is filled with numerous paintings. However, by trade, you have practiced law for 36 years and were just appointed a judge of the High Court in South Africa. What do you enjoy most when you are painting? Whether I paint, address a court, write a judgment or write a children’s story I am creating images. The difference is the instrument being used. Whether it is my voice, my pen, or my paintbrush I create pictures in the minds of others. So, the same creative process finds expression in different forms. But, painting is therapy, and is, not unlike the practice of law, an exercise in the art of reduction. You start with broad brush strokes and end with detail. The greatest difference is the joy of line, light and color.

 

4.      The stories in this book were initially written in anticipation of having grandchildren, of which you now have six. What were you thinking when you started to craft them? While some stories were written before the grandchildren arrived, some of them have become the main characters in their own stories My stories are sometimes written with a specific child in mind. Bear in mind that this book only has eleven stories, while there are many more already written and illustrated. When I wrote the first stories, I was hoping to be a voice in the mind of my grandchildren in the form of a story, in case I never met them. It was a conversation I wished to have with my grandchildren.

 

5.      During the pandemic, you wrote and disseminated stories for free to parents with small children. What was their reaction, both to the content and your kind gesture? I had a general outpouring of appreciation and thanks. And a request for more. Some parents commented that they had never seen stories like these and they and their kids loved the quirkiness. And the parents said some stories often had to be reread.

 

6.      You believe that children can handle serious and difficult topics. What types of topics do you tackle in your book? Giving a list of themes can sound a bit heavy, but the topics are introduced with a light hand and in a fun manner. The themes, other than those I have mentioned, include the different forms of freedom, discovering dimensions, breaking new boundaries, jealousy, adoption, motherhood, love, validation and self-acceptance

 

7.      But, when parents read your stories aloud to their small children, they experience them on a different level. Through your sense of humor, does the adult get a different message or point of understanding? The humor is there because I want to entertain the parents and the kids- and myself. Word play is a rich source of fun. For a child a gosling is a small goose. For the mother it might be Ryan Gosling. I keep both kids and parents in the loop. Inside jokes aren’t just entertainment. It is to remind parents that heavy topics don’t need to be heavy. Keeping it light promotes receptiveness on the part of the children and helps the medicine go down. 

 

8.      You grew up in a South Africa under apartheid. What was it like for you? As a child on a sugar estate, I was clueless. My brother and sister played with Zulu kids on the farm where we lived before I was born. They both speak the language. But I grew up in a segregated area unaware of what I was missing out on. Only in high school in Durban did I get exposure to black kids due to a leadership program of the Rotary Club. It was a revelation that I grew up in a different world to them, just a few kilometers apart. It was so unnatural- and so unfair. But it was impossible to get a proper perspective if everything you hear is filtered information. It was only at university that I could make up my own mind. 

 

9.      Where do things stand, now, some 30 years since that form of destructive rule ended? I see city schools as the melting pot for the new South Africa. I think that kids can now form friendships at school without noticing race. Initially there was a language barrier, but English has become the lingua franca in most of South Africa, and even in the courts. There is a great improvement in race relations. There are setbacks, but there is a cohesion in the nation. South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010- it was a wonderful time when divisive politics went quiet and we discovered as a nation that we actually like one another. It is a great country in so many respects. When we won the Rugby World Cup for the fourth time in 2023, there was an outpouring of national pride that is wonderful to see. Rugby in particular, has been a healing balm to South Africa. And it started in 1995 when Nelson Mandela wore the Springbok jersey when handing over the cup to the victorious South African captain in their first World Cup win. 

 

10.  You write of freedom, the environment, tolerance, and self-worth. How can a child process these things at a young age? Stories can prepare kids for when life happens. Picture this-A child is on a beach that is littered with garbage. Or sees a river with scum on the water. The child sees these things. So, talk about the environment. Or a boy returns from kindergarten upset by being bullied-by a girl. These life events are gateways to topics being introduced like respect, boundaries, standing up for yourself, and self-worth. A story about it can prepare the child without the trauma. 

 

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About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” 

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris,