Serving the Arcadia area since 1958          Find us on Facebook! Member Since 1959      •  •     •    •    •         www.ingleside.com • 602-840-3446 TRY OUR NEW GROOMER WITH 30+ YEARS EXPERIENCE! Call us today for an appointment. 602-952-1754 BRIAN A. SERBIN, DVM • RACHEL BART, DVM KATIE CHILES, DVM Page 50 August 2015 BOOK CLUB By Amanda Goossen There are those exceptional books. The books that grab you, pull you by the collar and keep you hooked until the very end. And even then, when you take in the last word, you flip the page and look for more, because you, the reader, aren’t done yet. You aren’t ready to say goodbye to the intricately drawn characters who remind you of people you know. You aren’t ready to say goodbye to their story. You aren’t ready to leave the path that each word and phrase has taken you on over the hours or days you turned pages, mesmerized and in love. There are just those kinds of books. The Grown Ups is one of them. The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek begins when we meet a group of teenagers during one summer when they all come down with a terrible flu. This group of children, all growing up on the same block, are a tight- knit crew of friends, siblings and first crushes who attack life together, through spin the bottle, birthday parties and video games in their East Coast suburban basements. After the case of the flu that had them each housebound for days, they wander out of their home to return to the life they know, yet things in their somewhat stable neighborhood begin to change. Neighborhood affairs amongst the grown ups, adolescent betrayal and first love attempt to rip their world apart. Their bond, however, proves too strong. The Grown Ups follows the kids from teen to adult, as they learn, grow and tackle life, together. A well-written novel of love, friendship and the ties that bind, The Grown Ups is one of those novels that creeps into your mind and never leaves. The Arcadia News Book Club will meet at 6:30 p.m. on August 27 at the Saguaro Library. To join our group, email Amanda@arcadianews.com. The author, Robin Antalek will Skype with our group and refreshments will be served. A monthly raffle and fundraiser will also take place, benefitting Wigged Out, a local charity focused on raising money for breast cancer patients. Arcadia News recently had a chance to talk with Robin Antalek about her novel, her writing process and the one author she’d feel honored to meet. Read the interview below: AN: When did you start writing? RA: I read very early, I think that had something to do with my desire to write. When I realized I could create a world like so many of my favorite authors, I was hooked. The earliest I can remember? Elementary school. When I started to take it seriously? High school. And yet I wasn’t one of those girls with marbled composition books filled with bad poetry and song lyrics. I just started telling complete stories – for better or for worse. When I lost my way, usually due to not understanding how to advance the plot, I would start another. AN: What do you think your writing says about you? RA: That I am infinitely intrigued by the pain and joy human beings inflict upon themselves and each other. I am an “of this world” kind of writer. I don’t need sci-fi or vampires. There’s enough stuff happening in the real world, don’t you think? AN: With a variety of characters moving through many areas of life, where did you begin with The Grown Ups ? With a character? With an idea? RA: The Grown Ups came out of a long period of not writing after I dumped a novel I had been working on for two years. My agent had said to me that I should just take a break and figure out what it was I wanted to write about – but nothing was coming and I was panicked. That had never happened to me before, and whether it was because I felt jinxed by not being able to make that last novel work or whether I was really drying up in the idea department, I was miserable. Truly, truly miserable. So I took myself to the Book Bag Shop – a tiny used bookstore in our local library. I was making stacks of books to buy, sitting on the floor, half listening to the volunteers chat (it’s a small space) when one of them said to the other, “It was the summer all the children in the neighborhood caught a virus.” I honestly can’t say what it was about that sentence that made me write it down and stare at this slip of paper on my desk forever. But eventually I heard Sam’s voice and I saw the neighborhood and this group of tight-knit friends and I was off. It was magic. AN: What made you want to write a book following characters over a long period of time? Was it difficult to know where to take each of them? RA: It was simple, really – I needed to know what happened to them after that pivotal summer. It felt wrong to abandon them at 15. What kind of grown ups would they become? Would they continue to matter to each other? AN: The Grown Ups paints a vivid picture of the characters and setting, so much so that I keep thinking of them as if they are real people in real parts of the world. What type of research went into the development of this novel? RA: First, thank you so much for that compliment. I heard from many readers who admitted to being nagged about these characters long after they finished reading the book as if they were friends who were going through some hard times. I cannot tell you how that thrills me as an author to know I have created believable people. But as far as research? Life. Life experiences and life experiences of others. In every character there are bits and pieces of my life experiences as well as those around me. It’s an unscientific hodge-podge. Sometimes I don’t even realize traits or experiences I’ve documented until people who know me point them out. And even then I have to say these are unconscious choices. AN: Which character are you most like and why? RA: Would you be angry with me if I said I share characteristics with all three of the main characters? I feel like I do! I have Sam’s wanderlust, Suzie’s forced independence and Bella’s dreaminess. AN: What are you working on now? RA: It’s about a young woman who causes an accident that kills her boyfriend. AN: If you could sit down and chat with one author, living or dead, who would it be and why? RA: I have long admired the writer Ellen Gilchrist. She is from Mississippi and all of her writings (short stories, novels) are about these larger-than-life Southern characters in the Deep South. The characters (and even their children or lovers) often pop up again and again in other books and other stories. It’s just wonderful how she has created a fictional cast of characters that feel like family. She is 80 now – still writing and teaching and I am in awe of her. Start with her book In The Land of Dreamy Dreams and then find Victory Over Japan . Then The Annunciation and The Anna Papers . There are so many to choose from – including the collected works. I have two bookshelves dedicated to her writings in my office and I even buy replicas when I run across them to give to friends. I don’t even know if I would get any words out if I was in the same room as Ellen Gilchrist, but I’d love to have the opportunity. Author finds inspiration from random bookstore conversation BOOK OF THE MONTH The Grown Ups BY ROBIN ANTALEK Saguaro Library August 27, 2015 6:30 p.m.

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