Kate Gibson (1:55)

Well, except for we love Kate DiCamillo so much and we're excited about anybody who wants to join the arena, who's interested in connecting kids with books. That's really, really important. And so the more voices, the merrier as far as we're concerned. And we love both Kelly and Kate,

Charlie (2:10)

so we will talk to them later in the podcast. They've started a podcast called Storykind. And as I say, both very successful young adult authors, so we will get to them. But Elizabeth Berg's novel, Life Colon, A Love Story.

Kate Gibson (2:24)

And before we go Any further. I just want to let you guys know that when he says colon, he means the, the, the. The punctuation. He does not mean that this book is about the life of the colon, which, if you want to, if you want to seek that out, that's a different podcast. This is life. Colon, the Punctuation, A Love Story.

Charlie (2:45)

I hadn't, I hadn't thought of that. You talk about a clunky title. If it were love, actually the word colon, A love story, I don't think many people would buy it.

Kate Gibson (2:55)

You kind of want to pat the doctor on the back who wrote it, though.

Charlie (2:58)

Good job, right? Yeah. Anyway, she is, and I say this lovingly, she is a wonderful, sentimental human being. And this is a novel. And when you describe it, you might think this is going to be depressing. It's a 92 year old woman who knows that her days are not infinite. And so she decides to give her home and all her belongings. She has no children and no issue, and so she decides to give it to somebody who was important to her many years ago. And she's writing a letter about the things in her house that she wants the recipient to notice and to know the story behind. And it's very sweet. It's just lovely, I think. I love the book. And the letter is sort of interspersed with the story behind the things that she wants this young woman to notice. And she calls it an autobiography of things which got us talking.

Kate Gibson (3:58)

Yeah, it got me looking around the room, you know, while you're reading, you're looking around the room thinking, what do things mean to me? You know, over my shoulder is a tiny little stuffed. A replica of Dr. Band and the teeth that my sister gave me for Christmas from the Muppets. You know, even the things that fall into your lap where you're not quite sure how you got them, you still have kind of a story behind. Oh, I kind of remember when that came into my life and I noticed it. And I think things have sentimental value.

Charlie (4:27)

Now.

Kate Gibson (4:27)

There's a fine line between, you know, keeping all the things that mean things to you and hoarding. We don't want to endorse hoarding, but, you know, there's the corsage, maybe from your first prom or the first love letter you ever got, or, or again, or the mug somebody won you at the county fair. There's so many different things in your life that won't mean anything to anybody else. It's a terrific construct for a novel, and it really did get us talking about things that mean something. To us.

Charlie (4:55)

Did you ever get a love letter? No, I don't have a love letter either.

Kate DiCamillo (5:00)

Damn it.

Kate Gibson (5:01)

You don't. You don't have a love letter? I have. I do. I'm being facetious. I have a bunch of.

Charlie (5:05)

Do you really?

Kate Gibson (5:06)

Yes, I do. My first boyfriend, Joey Rizzola, was a hell of a writer. And I keep them because I didn't want to throw them away, because at that moment, they just. They. I cherish them, and I don't want to stop cherishing them. But I also have all the stupid things that my best friend Tiffany handed me. Like, she would rip posters off the wall, or we would go to a dinner and have a nice dinner and save the menu. They're just. They're like, I have boxes of these things. Not again. I'm not hoarding. I can make it to the bathroom. I haven't carved aisles out into my house. But I have things, and they mean things to me.

Charlie (5:39)

And it was a natural question to ask Elizabeth Berg what item in her house she would want somebody to notice and to. And maybe to save. And the story is really lovely, as you'll hear in just a moment. The book is Life. Colon, a love story. Colon, dot, dot, dot, dot. Colon, a love story. Elizabeth Berg, the author, she has written many books. 33, actually, it says in the front of the book. But this one, I think, very special. Here's Elizabeth Berg.

Kate Gibson (6:14)

Elizabeth Berg, it is such a pleasure to have you in the book Kaius, your new book, Life A Love Story. We both loved it. I wanted to start with, I guess, sort of a cliche question, which is, what came first for you? Was it an object in your life where you were like, I could write a whole book about objects. Was it. Was it Florence Green that tapped you on the shoulder and said, you need to write a book about me? Was it a letter? Like, what. What was the initial hook that caught you like a fish?

Elizabeth Berg (6:40)

When I thought about writing this book, which was kind of inspired by my going to an estate sale, well, the woman who lived there was a hoarder, so. So it was. Above all, it was poignant to see all those things, all those things, all those plates that you can get at the back of a Parade magazine, you know, James Beaton, Alan Monroe, et cetera, et cetera. Tons of them. Tons. Tons of everything. But there were also. I just drank coffee this morning out of a cup that she had that had little flowers on it. And it made me wonder, what did these things mean to her and what happened in her life that she suddenly became consumed with all this collecting. And I started thinking about how objects tell stories of lives. If you listen to the stories, and certainly in my own house, I was very surprised when I did a chat with my publisher and my publishing team about how even younger people feel that way. I thought that old fogies like myself might feel that way, but young people, too, the odd little things that really meant something to them. Once they told the story we mentioned

Charlie (8:02)

leading into this, you interspersed the letter to Ruthie and the story of each object. I'm wondering if you wrote the letter in its entirety first and then went back and created stories behind each object, or did you go back and forth as to what you were wr Originally,

Elizabeth Berg (8:20)

I wrote this as just a letter. And so with my editor Kate Medina's help, she suggested breaking it up with scenes. And I liked that idea. But the scenes that you see in the book were included in the letter. It's just that I took them out and made them active scenes rather than referring to them in a letter. Kate knew me very well, and she said, I know you like to go your own way. And, you know. And there was. There was some resistance against publishing this in the beginning because it was all one letter. So she was absolutely right.

Kate Gibson (9:01)

I was going to ask you about this later in the interview, but since you dropped her name, Kate Medina, I wonder if you wouldn't mind talking about Kate and her discovery of you and how your relationship has built all the way up until this book and her influence on your work.

Elizabeth Berg (9:16)

She's about the most elegant woman I've ever met and emblematic her kids. She makes you feel like you're her only author. She trusts you, she listens to you, she praises you, she tells you when she thinks something's not working. She was a wonderful editor, and I worked with her many, many years. Over 30 years. And she half retired now. I was very lucky.

Charlie (9:44)

So I want to talk about the title. When I saw this. With this title, I thought, that's kind of clunky. A title with a colon in it. Academic papers so often have colons in it. And I kid my academic friends about always using a colon. Because you're. You get one title, you don't get two. And they always get a second title in it. I tell them they should have a colonoscopy. But anyway, this title of Life A Love Story, I actually read it because it's an Elizabeth Berg novel. But then I thought, the title is perfect. It is a love story to life. Flo is in love with life. So I'm curious as to how you decided on that title.

Elizabeth Berg (10:25)

So it was called Sacraments for the Living. I wasn't quite sure. I didn't think it was a great title, but I thought that Sacraments for the Living was a little obscure. So I landed that's Kate. And she just loved it. And so I thought, okay, well, let's, let's go with that. And I kind of love Colon, so, you know, let's not misinterpret that. But yeah, I put that in there and that is what it is. I think that of all the titles I've had for my books, this one most succinctly says, that's what you're in for. That's what this is.

Kate Gibson (11:08)

As you've done this book, who would you address your letter for your autobiography of your things? And is that why this book is dedicated to your grandkids?

Elizabeth Berg (11:20)

What a great question. You know, when you started asking it, I thought, well, my daughters, but I think it's better to skip a generation. I think they what a good idea. I better start writing it.

Charlie (11:39)

What it occasioned in conversations between Kate and me, needless to say, was, what are those objects in our lives that might be overlooked by the kids as they have to go through your objects after you, as my wife and I say, after you've exercised your will.

Kate Gibson (12:01)

I mean, if you just want to talk about stupid OJ dart, I have the bouncing head turtle. When I celebrated my 15 years of sobriety, my sponsee took me to lunch. And as an impulse buy at the register, they had jars of these things. And she's like, I bought you your 15 year turtle. Now this is totally useless. It's not even that amusing. And it's incredibly stupid looking. And I have it on my desk and it won't mean anything to anybody but me.

Elizabeth Berg (12:27)

Every time you see it, you have the richness of that memory. And, you know, if this book provokes conversation among, you know, parents and children, boy, would I be happy about that, because I think that those objects tell something about a person that they might never express otherwise.

Charlie (12:53)

You dedicated the book to your grandchildren. What would you call their attention to of your objects and possessions?

Elizabeth Berg (13:00)

Well, the most precious object for me in my house is a baby book. And I had a sister who died before I was born. She died at 8 months old. And I have thought about that baby, I can't tell you how many times. And it took a long time for me to ask my mother about it. When I was a little kid, I asked my dad about. Her name was Julie. I asked my dad about Julie. I think I was 4 or 5. And he was driving the car and he was staring straight ahead, and he said, I'm not going to talk about that. And I can't imagine how painful that must have been for them and what they must have gone through to stay together. And in that baby book, you know how in baby books they go first, too first, you know, so some of the things were filled out and then the rest were achingly blank. And then there are two notes, one from my mother and one from my father. My father's just. Was my. My dad was a lifer in the army, as I told you, he was a tough guy. He didn't share much, but, boy, did he share stuff in that brief note. So in that book is everything about her that. That was in that very brief time?

Charlie (14:26)

First of all, it's a beautiful story. Secondly, I hope that there is a grandchild who can take possession of that baby book, because that's. That. That's that person, and her memory should be preserved. Yeah. I mean, I. I believe that you live on in the hearts of your afterlife. You can argue about it, but I believe you live on in the hearts of the people who follow you. And she shouldn't disappear. Julie was her name.

Kelly Yang (14:54)

Yes.

Elizabeth Berg (14:55)

And I named my daughter Julie.

Charlie (14:57)

Oh, did you? Oh, that's nice. Which leads me to. I saw in reading about you that a number of people have described you as a sentimentalist, which I think of as high praise. Do you plead guilty to that, or do you take it as a badge of honor? Or do you take it as a criticism? How do you respond to that?

Elizabeth Berg (15:16)

It's often pejorative, but I don't care. I did, as I said, work as a nurse for 10 years. I know that a lot of people are deeply sentimental who don't admit to it when you're in a serious situation. Yeah, the sentimentality comes out, and I hope it's not tacky. I hope it's not cheap or manipulative, any. Any of that that I display. But I'm certainly not going to hide it. Especially as I get older. I'm gonna put right out there the things that matter most to me.

Charlie (15:52)

Well, as. As Flo Greene, who is the person, your protagonist in Life A love story. She's 92 years old. She knows she's dying, and yet she really is expressing a love story with life. And. And that's sentimental. That's really. It's very sweet. There's no question in that it's a. A statement of admiration. You've been writing now for more than 30 years. And I count also by Elizabeth Erg. At the beginning, I. I counted, I think, over 30 novels, so that's about one a year. How does the 2026 Elizabeth Berg differ from the one in 1993 when you just started out?

Elizabeth Berg (16:39)

Well, oh, boy, you know, we all need to go out to dinner because. Excuse me. The answer to this question has to do with a relationship that started in my 70s. When I was 17. I lived in St. Louis for two years. Three days before I was moving to Minnesota to start college, I met a guy with whom I fell in love. Deeply, deeply in love. And I knew he was the one. I knew it. And we only had three days. And he. He felt the same, but he was pretty cute, you know, And I was pretty far away. And things fell apart. And after 67 years, we got back together and that relationship and he take a lot of time. And I've had to ask myself, all right, what do you want to do? Do you want to. I love writing. I love it. It's my medicine, it's my joy. It's how I figure things out. Do you want to keep writing? You want. Because I was at my desk practically every day, or do you want to finally be with this person and I'm sort of in between? I've got an idea, and I still feel best when I'm writing. So I think I'll lean more toward just appreciating what's left to me in my life and less toward writing. I never intended to write as much as I did. I never set a goal of writing a book a year. It just happened. But usually when I have a new book out, I have the next one all done. I don't have the next one all done.

Charlie (18:32)

When you were nursing, did you aspire to write? Was it in your back of your mind that that's what I wanted to do? And did you get rejections when you first started, or were you an overnight success?

Elizabeth Berg (18:49)

I always wrote from the time I was a little kid. I submitted my first poem when I was nine, which was immediately rejected by American Girl magazine. That I wept and wept and wept, and I never submitted another poem. I never wrote anything for publication for 25 years. So. But I was working in the cardiac care unit one night, and it was a very slow night. There were two of us nurses, and I think there was only one patient. So I started writing a story and I shared it with my co worker and she really liked it. So I thought, well, maybe. And then there was a contest in Parents magazine when I was 35 and I entered that and won and began writing for it as well as every magazine on the market practically. I had to decide between nursing and writing and I really loved being a nurse, but I couldn't do both, so I chose writing. I did get some rejections early on. I used to hold, you know, you mail in rather than emailing good mail in and I would hold it against my heart. Want to talk about sentimental before, but I, I wasn't rejected very much. I have to say I had quite a bit of success early on and it was really fun, you know. He said, get the phone call. We want to buy your essay. Yay,

Charlie (20:22)

Elizabeth Berg. It's a pleasure to talk to you. It's really good fun. And it got Kate and I thinking about what we want to do with things.

Kate Gibson (20:30)

Yeah, A life, a love story will make you re examine the OJ darts in your life.

Charlie (20:39)

I love the fact that she has named her daughter Julie, remembering the young sister that she had. Anyway, that was nice to talk to Elizabeth Berg. We'll take a break and come back and we'll be talking to Kate DiCamillo and Kelly Yang. Their podcast Storykind.

Elizabeth Berg (21:02)

911.

Charlie (21:03)

Where's the emergency?

Kate Gibson (21:04)

It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey shore. Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge. A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19 year old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows. Old friendships, buried cash and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm juju Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies. Wherever you get your podcasts from.

Charlie (21:42)

30 for 30 podcasts.

Kate DiCamillo (21:49)

Did you say someone got shot?

Charlie (21:51)

Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth, they just want a conviction. Being placed under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. From unsolved mysteries to unexplained phenomena. From comedy gold to relationship fails.

Kate DiCamillo (22:17)

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Charlie (22:19)

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Kate Gibson (22:42)

So every once in a while we see or notice a new podcast on the market and, and normally we ignore them because they're our Competition, and they can just go to heck. But. But when I saw Katie Camillo and Kelly Yang pop up on my podcast, feed for Books, I was really excited. So these two women are getting together, and they're talking about what they do as writers, and they're specifically targeting kids because they want kids to know that with practice, writing can be a beautiful way to express yourself, but also that reading is really, really, really important. They keep the podcast short, Parents. It's called Story Kind, and I would highly recommend you check it out for your kids here. Here they are. Kate dicamillo and Kelly Yang. Kate DiCamillo and Kelly Yang. It is such a pleasure to have you in the bookcase. I've been a fan of both of your books for such a long time. I think the Tale of Despereau is my favorite. Kate and Front Desk is definitely my favorite. Kelly Yang. If you guys at home are listening to this and you haven't read either one of these authors, run, don't walk to your independent bookstore and get them. So I saw at the beginning of the year that you guys are like, hey, we have, like, a ton of free time and we're bored. And you know what we're going to do? We're going to do a podcast.

Kelly Yang (23:56)

No.

Kate Gibson (23:57)

I saw that you guys were releasing a podcast, and we had to talk to you about it. So let me start with Kelly. Where did this come from? And why are you guys crazy enough to do it?

Kelly Yang (24:05)

It's totally Kelly's idea. She and I did an event at the Texas Library association, and we were both. We both spoke, and then we were on a panel together. And how Kelly talks to a room full of people, how she connects with them, and it was just deeply moving to me to see. And we've kept in touch. We were in touch before that, but we've kept in touch ever since then. And Kelly always says how I'm so present. She's present. And the other thing that is really interesting to me, Kelly, as we've done this, is that both of us have a very clear channel to the kids that we were. And that is part of why it is so profound to talk with her, because not everybody remembers the kid that they were. And for both of us, it is just kind of like front and center.

Kate DiCamillo (25:08)

I think about the things that we talk about every day, you know, because it's hard to be a writer. It's hard to have to sit down in front of your computer and find the courage to keep going, especially in hard times. But I think about the Little kernels of wisdom that we're dishing out through this podcast. And it has made a difference in my life.

Kelly Yang (25:30)

One of the things, and this is totally, again, Kelly's idea is, you know, it's short. We only. We only talk for 15 minutes. And the other thing is, we started out by talking about teachers and librarians that impacted us as children, and now we're casting the net wider and open it up to the listeners, and we get to do that. Shout out for teachers and librarians. And the stories, Kelly, who's again doing all the work, are just kind of rolling in.

Charlie (26:02)

We talked to two librarians, one in Louisiana and one in a rural area in Texas, and they talked about the fact that when they went into this business, they never expected to be on the front lines of the culture wars, and now they're fighting to maintain books

Kate Gibson (26:19)

in their libraries, especially considering how much librarians were considered heroes during the pandemic. These were the people that we were lauding that were walking, you know, that were setting up WI fi for their students and handing out electronics and getting books to the kids who needed them so their studies weren't too badly interrupted. And both of them talked about sort of the whiplash from. From Hero to Zero in two years.

Kate DiCamillo (26:42)

They just want to make kids feel seen.

Kelly Yang (26:44)

They want to. They want to make kids feel seen. They want to make them feel safe. They want them to know that they're not alone and that there's a way forward. And books. You know, Kelly, you've. Hasn't Front Desk been. Yeah. Do you want to talk about that?

Kate Gibson (27:00)

I would imagine.

Elizabeth Berg (27:01)

Challenge.

Kate DiCamillo (27:02)

Yeah. I mean, Front Desk has been challenged before. I was at a school recently in Florida where I. Where I got there, and I was like, okay, how many of your kids

Elizabeth Berg (27:13)

have read Front Desk?

Kate DiCamillo (27:14)

And they said, oh, well, they.

Elizabeth Berg (27:15)

We.

Kate DiCamillo (27:16)

They did read it three years ago, but then one person launched a complaint, so they had to, you know, not read it out loud anymore, which was just heartbreaking for me to hear, especially once I got there. But for me, it is about erasure.

Elizabeth Berg (27:34)

Right.

Kate DiCamillo (27:34)

Because so many of these books that are being challenged are about kids of color.

Kate Gibson (27:40)

Right.

Kate DiCamillo (27:40)

They're lgbt. And that is sort of saying your experience doesn't matter is not valid. It's not deserving of being heard.

Kate Gibson (27:51)

So, Kelly, you said something, I think that's important. You said you wanted to have conversations about writing and inspiration and what have you, but that you wanted to talk to kids, and you can, and you wanted to keep it short. Why do you think it's Important to talk to kids about the process of writing.

Kate DiCamillo (28:07)

I had a teacher email me the other day saying we're moving away from full length books because the attention span's not there. So we're just going to go with some books, quick excerpts, which it's like you can't combat this attention span problem if you remove the thing that's worth paying attention to. So we wanted to talk about our love, like gush about reading and writing and stories.

Kate Gibson (28:33)

Right?

Kate DiCamillo (28:33)

Stories are life changing. Stories are how I'm here, right? How I got to where I am. Stories can infuse your life with so much joy and hope and give you that power to keep going through hard times.

Kelly Yang (28:48)

It's like you might not become a writer and you might not be somebody like me who, when I asked who I am in the world, my answer is with the knee jerk responses. I'm a reader. That's who I am. But you can still these things, reading and writing are an anchor in a turbulent world and, and you have access to them and we want to remind you of that. And you know, in the process of, of Kelly and I talking, it's just like by this point in the day, my, we're talking at a little bit after three. My time is when I let myself turn off all of the technology. I walk away from everything and I pick up a book and I pick up a notebook and I can feel myself enter my body. And I want kids to know that that is an option for them too.

Kate Gibson (29:45)

I think what you're trying to say to kids is that that's not what writing is. That it's not. It's there or it's not. It's that you can tease it out and you can persevere and you can conquer it and you can tell your own story in a. In an articulate way if you keep at it. Am I hearing you correctly?

Kate DiCamillo (30:03)

Yeah. And I think that the more you do it, that here's the thing, the more you do any activity, you're going to get better at it. Right? And what Kade and I have been talking a lot about on the show is you. We can feel, we can recognize when a story is good. And that's just like muscle memory. That's just like being able to know the feeling you have because you've done it so many times.

Elizabeth Berg (30:27)

Right?

Kate DiCamillo (30:27)

So the reason why I'm a, a good writer is because I didn't quit. I just kept going and going and

Elizabeth Berg (30:34)

going and going and going.

Kelly Yang (30:35)

What I'm always after. You know, this has taken me a long time to, to, to figure out about what I'm doing when I tell a story is to bring. To connect and to bring everybody together. And, you know, that is. And, and so if kids and teachers and librarians listen to this podcast and maybe they are more inclined to pick up a book, that's great. Maybe they think, I'm going to get a notebook and start writing things down about how I feel, or I've got an idea for a novel, I'm going to do that. That's great. But more than anything else, if we can make them feel that they're a part of a community of people who believe in compassion, empathy, work, connection, then I feel like, wow, we would knocked it out of the park if we could do that in a year. It's just like, I'm not alone. And there are other people who are with me on this journey of finding meaning from telling stories and reading stories.

Kate Gibson (31:50)

I'm really excited about this new venture for you guys. I mean, you are experts in your craft, but it's awesome to also add your voices to the arena. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today.

Kelly Yang (32:01)

Oh, we're grateful for y'.

Elizabeth Berg (32:02)

All.

Kelly Yang (32:02)

Yeah. Thank you so much for talking with us.

Charlie (32:10)

Kelly yang and Kate DiCamillo. A good podcast. We recommend that you listen to it. After you've listened to the Bookcase with Kate and Charlie, I'll bring you up to date on on who keeps this podcast going. And then a final thought from Elizabeth Berg. The Bookcase with Kate and Charlie is a joint production of Good Morning America and ABC Audio. It is edited by Tom Butler of TKO Productions, and our executive producer is Simone Swink. We want to make special mention of Amanda McMaster, Sabrina Kohlberg, and Ariel Chester of ABC Good Morning America and Josh Cohan of ABC Audio. You can follow us and rate and review this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like to find any of the books mentioned on this podcast, you can find them listed in the episode description.

Elizabeth Berg (32:59)

Okay, here's a final thought, and this is a little sentimental. What a surprise. In the times that we're living in, and these are really, really tough times, times where people are losing sleep, where I look into faces and see bags under eyes. Myself included. I do this little thing, you know the song when you walk through a storm? So I play to myself like a mantra sometimes. When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high and don't be afraid of the dark at the end of the storm there's a golden sky and the sweet, gorgeous song of a rock.