“Who can turn the stove on with her smile? / Who can take a bubble bath and suddenly fill it with crocodiles?”*
If you answered: Rita Williams-Garcia then you are more than correct! The illustrious, charming, all around nice woman stopped by the Harper Collins offices to do a little talky talk with me the other day. Heck, here’s the proof of it:
Though, if I’m going to be realistic, the proof is the fact that I have today’s video at all. On the surface it may appear to simply be a talk with Ms. Rita about her latest title GONE CRAZY IN ALABAMA but it is instead so much more. We get the dirt on her recent appearance in the documentary The Black Panthers (coming soon to a theater near you), the fact that she actually makes up stuff when she writes fiction, a quick shot of what she’d look like as Wonder Woman (in a word: awesome), and information on her next book/series, which I know you’re just dying to know more about.
Mind you, to get to the interview you’ll have to sit through another episode of “Reading (Too Much Into) Picture Books”. This month I look at the “Mr. Croc” books by Jo Lodge. You could call them the poor man’s Maisy, but I think they’re improvement. As I say in the video, it’s like someone said, “I like Maisy, but can I get a version where she is a vicious meat-eater with the potential to devour her friends at any time?” Batta bing!
Some of the other Fuse #8 TV episodes are archived here.
Once more, thanks to Harper Collins for being my sponsor and helping to put this together.
*50 points to anyone who can identify the quote without Googling it.
Oh, come on now–any self-respecting Baby Boomer knows the Mary Tyler Moore theme song by heart. And probably was watching the first time it was broadcast. And has boxed DVD sets at home. We may not remember where we put the keys but we can sing TV theme songs from 40 years ago word for word!
Ahhh, but this is a parody of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song!! You do get half a cookie for the initial recognition. Much more difficult is finding the show that was parodying her show. Tricky stuff indeed.
Very tricky indeed. Actually, I thought that YOU had come up with a clever reworking of the MTM theme song. Well, Baby Boomers can sing the tunes from long ago but have no clue what goes on currently–or I should say, more accurately, THIS Boomer doesn’t know.
Love love love that Rita! She better hurry up with the new books, ’cause I’m in severe withdrawal after saying goodbye to the Gaither Girls.
Animaniacs! I have the cast album on regular rotation when my children are in the car.