Kwame Mbalia, TRISTAN STRONG DESTROYS THE WORLD
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[1:34]The first episode on day four of my children's book blast is with Kwame Magalia.
[1:40]He is the author of Tristan Strong Destroids the World,
[1:43]and also Tristan Strong punches a hole in the sky.
[1:45]He even has another book coming out in 2021 called The Last Gate of the Emperor.
[1:51]But anyway, we're going to talk about Tristan Strong today.
[1:54]Kwame is a New York Times bestseller, by the way, for Tristan Strong punches a hole in the sky,
[1:58]for which he received the Coretta Scott King author honor award.
[2:01]The book was also named to Best of the Earless, compiled by Publishers Weekly,
[2:05]the Chicago Public Library, and the New York Times.
[2:07]The second book in the trilogy, which we'll discuss now, is Tristan Strong Destroids the World.
[2:12]Kwame lives with his wife and children in Raleigh, North Carolina,
[2:15]where he's currently working on a third book about Tristan.
[2:19]Welcome, Kwame.
[2:19]Thank you so much for coming on momstone.
[2:21]I have time to read books.
[2:22]Thank you so much for having me.
[2:24]I really appreciate it.
[2:25]So your latest book, Tristan Strong Part 2, essentially,
[2:30]Tristan Strong Destroids the Universe follows the award-winning first book.
[2:34]Tell me about the series.
[2:35]Tell me how you started it.
[2:37]Tell me about why this happens in the second book.
[2:40]Just give me the whole backstory of this phenomenal series.
[2:44]So the Tristan Strong series, wow.
[2:46]It's something that I've always wanted to create and be a part of,
[2:50]is this idea of bringing forward these characters and stories
[2:55]that I listened to and that I read growing up as a child.
[2:58]I'm bringing them forward for a new generation of young readers,
[3:02]but also for readers who, older readers,
[3:05]who might not have had a chance to be exposed to the same material that I did.
[3:08]And so I love this idea of contemporary fantasy,
[3:12]this idea of magic existing in this right now,
[3:15]the time right now, because it's almost like an escape, right?
[3:18]It's almost, you know, we get to imagine,
[3:20]we get to enter this different world, this different realm,
[3:23]through the eyes of a middle school student.
[3:26]And we all know that the world expands for us when we're in middle school.
[3:30]So what perfect, you know, what more perfect hero could we have than a middle school student
[3:35]who travels through this fantastic realm and learns of his own magical powers?
[3:39]Totally. I have two middle schoolers,
[3:41]and this is my son in particular.
[3:43]This is like right up his alley.
[3:45]So he will be happy when I give him these, this whole series.
[3:48]Awesome.
[3:50]Yeah, I actually loved.
[3:51]I read also your last gate of the emperor,
[3:54]which is coming out, I guess in May of 2021,
[3:56]but I guess it's easy.
[3:58]And I loved how it was described as an Afro-futurist journey
[4:01]to a galaxy far away.
[4:03]I mean, this whole theme running through all your books is sort of taking,
[4:07]well, let me maybe I should ask you,
[4:08]what do you think the theme is,
[4:10]coursing through all your books before I opine on it myself?
[4:13]I am fascinated and enthralled with this idea of exploring non-Western fantasy and science fiction,
[4:23]building magic system and imagining scientific innovations for future worlds
[4:30]through the eyes of African and African Americans.
[4:33]It's a way for me to explore and learn more about my own culture
[4:37]while also sharing it with the greater world,
[4:39]while also just having fun and telling jokes and letting my immature sense of humor
[4:44]shines throughout the tales.
[4:46]And I saw in an interview you did with Rick Reardon presents
[4:49]who's your publisher that your parents used to tell you these types of stories all the time,
[4:54]which is so nice.
[4:55]Tell me about more of the African folklore that you grew up with.
[4:58]Well, they did a fantastic job in scouring, you know, this country
[5:04]and when they traveled to Africa, scouring bookstores over there,
[5:08]looking for books that centered the African and the African-American character.
[5:14]And I always tell this story, you know, one of the reasons why I wanted to include and talk about
[5:19]a Nazi, the spider, the trickster god, is that when we were going up, me and my siblings,
[5:26]there were four of us, we were sharing a bedroom.
[5:28]And if you've ever had to put multiple children to bed at the same time, it can be chaos.
[5:34]And so one of the ways they got us to calm down is they would play cassettes of the a Nazi
[5:40]tales. And so we would fall asleep, listening to the, you know, a Nazi trick or be tricked
[5:45]and all of his different stories. And it holds a special place in my heart and one reason why I
[5:50]wanted to make a Nazi be such a central figure in the Tristan tales.
[5:56]Wow. So tell me about growing up more. That sounds interesting for kids in one room.
[6:00]I have four kids in my house and I can barely do it.
[6:03]What was it like being so close with your siblings like that, not having like any personal space?
[6:07]Like did that make you want to turn to books for an outlet that you could have yourself?
[6:10]Or what was it like?
[6:12]I mean, I don't think you really think too much about it when you're younger, right?
[6:16]When you're younger, it's just like, hey, I have playmates, you know, they hear all the time.
[6:20]As you grow up, as you enter middle school and high school, yes, you definitely want your space.
[6:24]But for me, one thing special that I can remember is, you know, I'm the second oldest
[6:29]of the four that we shared the room. And so the younger two, they would fall asleep.
[6:33]And they would be me and my older brother and we're a little older and we're not ready for
[6:36]bed yet. And so we would play this game called Brothers, right? And basically it is, it's a storytelling
[6:42]game. We would tell the story. But at the beginning of the story, you have to choose like,
[6:47]you know, what animal friends do you have? What kind of cars you have? You're basically
[6:51]you're setting up the setting in the world building for this story. And it got to the point was
[6:55]that's how we counted sheep. We never actually got to the point of telling a story. We were just
[7:01]talk to each other about, you know, what is the story about? Who's in the story? What type of cool
[7:06]moves and stuff will we do? And I mean, that I think is one of the most special memories that I had
[7:12]is falling asleep to this idea of telling the story. Wow. And then were you a big reader growing up?
[7:20]Oh my goodness. I was a voracious reader growing up. My mother, heavily, you know, my parents
[7:25]heavily encouraged it. But my mother, what she would do is every Friday she would take us to the
[7:29]library. And she said, you could check out as many books as you want to read. You just have to carry
[7:34]them and be responsible for them. And so of course, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm walking out,
[7:40]carrying bundles of books. And no matter what Sunday or Monday, all of the books would be read.
[7:45]And I would be anxiously waiting for the next Friday to come around. And what's hilarious is that
[7:51]my parents, they had this little thing that they would do for me and my older brother to,
[7:56]I don't want to call the tricking this, but to encourage us, right? They would say, all right,
[8:02]it's quiet time. It's not time. You can either take a nap or read a book. One of the two things.
[8:08]And so, you know, I'm, you know, seven, eight years old. I'm going to read a book. I'm not going to
[8:13]take no nap and little. And now it's like, oh, that's all I can do is I just want to read. I
[8:17]want to read. I want to read. Oh, I thought you were going to say all you want to do is take a nap.
[8:21]Well, that too. Now, now I missed those nap times. I really regret not taking advantage of them.
[8:27]Me too. Oh, my gosh. How old are your kids? They are 12, 9, 5, and a four month old.
[8:34]Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's now really regretting not taking advantage of that nap when I had the chance.
[8:42]So are you already reading to them all the time and trying to encourage this and them?
[8:45]Or how is that going? Oh, absolutely. I think for us, books have been the one thing where it's like,
[8:52]you know, we, not that we don't say no, but it's like, all right, you know, you want to book.
[8:56]Let's get you a book. Books are, are, you know, we encourage reading and literacy from a young age,
[9:02]you know, even if, you know, my five year old who's learning to read, but, but going through the
[9:07]motions in the act of opening a picture book and telling her own stories as she, you know,
[9:12]interprets the pictures. That's an act of learning to read. That's an act of reading. And so
[9:17]it's something that we've always encouraged. My nine year old is reading my book to right now
[9:23]and tell me, you know, whatever favorite parts are, which is cool. It's fun. You know, seeing her
[9:27]laugh at some of the things that I laughed at while I wrote the book. Yeah, it's fun is rewarding
[9:31]it away. So tell me about how you got into writing books to begin with. You love to read as a kid,
[9:38]realized you found your place in the world in middle school realizing what was going on around you
[9:43]and what happened. I've always also been a writer. Now, the difference is, I didn't write
[9:48]for others. I wrote for myself. Writing was for me an act of sharing and expressing my emotions
[9:56]that I may have not felt comfortable talking about. Like I was just put them in a little
[10:00]or he was a little character who was definitely not me.
[10:03]And so I've always been a writer,
[10:05]but it's only, I would say within the past five,
[10:08]six to seven years that I thought
[10:10]or dreamed about becoming an author.
[10:12]And that's because I received encouragement.
[10:14]I received feedback from people who said,
[10:17]you know, hey, some of this stuff that you write
[10:20]is really good.
[10:21]Have you ever thought about becoming an author
[10:24]or publishing it and sending it out?
[10:26]And I hadn't until that point.
[10:27]And that's when I really became to think that,
[10:31]you know, hey, maybe this could be a career for me.
[10:34]I never dreamed it would be my only career
[10:37]because I'm a scientist.
[10:38]You know, I went to school for biology, chemistry.
[10:41]And I worked in the sciences after I graduated.
[10:44]And so it was always like, hey, you know,
[10:46]this is a hobby that's, you know,
[10:47]a little bit, you know, I can make a little money from it.
[10:49]And now it's a career which just goes to show you
[10:52]that you never know where you're gonna end up in life
[10:54]and to never, never self reject,
[10:57]never gate keep yourself out of trying and doing something.
[11:00]Yeah.
[11:01]I read you were a pharmaceutical metrologist, right?
[11:04]What does that even mean?
[11:06]So, you know, metrology is just the, you know,
[11:08]the calibration of instruments.
[11:10]Basically I would travel around to different people
[11:13]who manufacture drugs,
[11:15]Tylenol, Advil, you know, inhalers and stuff like that
[11:19]for, you know, one of my kids is asthma.
[11:21]And so I would travel around
[11:22]and I would make sure that the instruments
[11:25]that they use to manufacture the medicine worked right
[11:29]because you don't wanna, you know,
[11:31]say you're taking, the box says you're taking 500 milligrams
[11:35]of ibuprofen and then you're only taking 400
[11:37]and you're wondering why the pain isn't going away.
[11:39]It's because, you know, maybe the instruments weren't working right.
[11:42]And so that's what I did.
[11:43]I traveled around and it was, I loved it.
[11:46]It was a great job and I was sad to leave it.
[11:48]But I'm happy to say that I've been able to incorporate
[11:51]a lot of the characters that I met along the way,
[11:54]a lot of the dialogue that I had, the conversation,
[11:56]and a lot of the settings in two my own books and stories.
[12:00]So then how did you end up writing the first best
[12:03]selling Tristan strong?
[12:04]Like how did that happen?
[12:05]And then what was it like when you found out
[12:07]that it was such a success?
[12:09]Well, you know, we learned that Rick Roy
[12:11]or didn't have Rick Roy or didn't present
[12:12]the imprint we're looking for African-American stories,
[12:16]African-American storytellers.
[12:18]And so I, you know, I think it was over the winter break
[12:23]for five days, five to seven days.
[12:26]I sat down and I wrote the opening three chapters
[12:30]and then a synopsis of what would become Tristan strong
[12:33]and punches a hole in the sky.
[12:34]And they came back immediately and they said they loved it.
[12:37]Now, I had written the now infamous gum baby scene
[12:42]where gum baby breaks in and tries to steal Tristan's journal.
[12:46]And gum baby was a fan favorite
[12:48]and from the very one set from the very beginning,
[12:51]there was truly something special about these two characters
[12:53]and the way they interacted throughout the story.
[12:56]And so, you know, Disney and Rick Roy
[12:58]would have presented, they loved it.
[12:59]And they said, we wanted you to be a part of the imprint.
[13:01]And I said,
[13:04]that's amazing.
[13:05]Oh my gosh.
[13:06]So what's your process like when you're working?
[13:08]Do you work like right there where I'm seeing you
[13:10]or where do you like to work
[13:12]and how long does each book take and all that good stuff?
[13:15]And now I just, I just let you know
[13:17]that I have a four-month vote.
[13:18]Yes, I do.
[13:19]So I write in fits and spurts and when, you know,
[13:24]my wife, you know, she's gone back to work.
[13:27]And so a lot of the times we'll pass the baby back
[13:29]and forth, we'll take care of them.
[13:31]She's watching them right now.
[13:32]I'll watch it when she gets on her meetings.
[13:34]And so it's really about, you know,
[13:35]right now taking advantage of time when it becomes available.
[13:40]Sometimes that might mean writing, you know,
[13:42]100 to 200 words.
[13:43]Sometimes, you know, it's 1 a.m. the morning.
[13:45]And I'm, you know, writing to the three chapters.
[13:48]You never know.
[13:49]And there is no schedule right now.
[13:52]It's take advantage of what you have
[13:54]and try to create, you know, the final installment
[13:58]in this story and do the best job that I can with it.
[14:01]I feel like the combination of pandemic plus infant
[14:04]must just be, I mean, that's how you get anything done.
[14:08]That's fine.
[14:09]I love it.
[14:10]It's dream.
[14:11]It's that sarcasm.
[14:13]Oh, okay.
[14:14]I'm like, okay, we're no longer friends here.
[14:17]This is, no, no, no, no, no, it is.
[14:19]I mean, it's difficult.
[14:20]There's definitely a period of time there
[14:21]a month or so where I absolutely struggled.
[14:24]I think I maybe have got, I wrote all of, you know,
[14:28]a chapter throughout that whole month
[14:30]because it was so difficult.
[14:32]But a lot of creative people, you know,
[14:34]we're dealing with that at the time, quarantine,
[14:37]being restricted, you know, having to adapt to new ways
[14:40]of handling life professionally and personally.
[14:43]But thankfully, we're out of, you know,
[14:45]I shouldn't say we're out of it,
[14:46]but I've become accustomed to it, working around it.
[14:49]And we're gonna get this story done.
[14:51]We're gonna get it finished one way or another.
[14:53]Wow.
[14:54]And I heard that you are hard at work
[14:56]on the next book in the series.
[14:58]True, finished.
[14:59]Book book, no, not finished.
[15:00]I'm so close.
[15:02]I'm so close.
[15:03]And you know that last five percent
[15:05]is gonna take the most time because you're wrapping up a series,
[15:09]right?
[15:10]You're putting a stamp and concluding a character's journey
[15:13]and their growth and you want to do it in a way
[15:16]that closes the door on this story arc,
[15:20]but it doesn't close the door on the world.
[15:22]You can still imagine them having adventures and going off.
[15:25]There's no, you know, finality.
[15:27]It's the end for now, that, that, that.
[15:30]So is this going to be a movie you mentioned
[15:32]Disney earlier?
[15:34]So Disney, you know, Rick Ryan presents
[15:35]as an imprint of the Disney books collection.
[15:38]I, you know, I don't think there's any author out there
[15:41]who doesn't want their story to become a movie.
[15:43]And I'm really, really, really hopeful that it will be.
[15:46]It's just, you know, hey, we need more readers.
[15:48]We need more fans to shout about it and to draw attention
[15:52]to it.
[15:53]The more you read and share and the more people like you
[15:56]have me want to talk about it.
[15:58]You know, the more the chancellor will be that it'll be a movie.
[16:01]Oh, good.
[16:02]Well, I'm glad I could play a tiny, tiny piece of that.
[16:04]In the head, when it comes out, I will be like,
[16:07]that's all me.
[16:08]That was because of my interview right there.
[16:11]What advice do you have to aspiring authors?
[16:14]I mentioned it a little bit in the beginning.
[16:16]But what I would say is that as writers,
[16:19]you will meet so many different what we call gatekeepers,
[16:23]the people who will either allow your work
[16:25]through to the next level to the next rung and publishing
[16:29]or will will reject it and send it back.
[16:31]You will meet so many of those gatekeepers who control access.
[16:35]But the very first gatekeeper you will meet will be yourself, right?
[16:39]You cannot self-reject.
[16:41]You cannot a gatekeep yourself.
[16:44]You cannot say, oh, my story isn't good enough to go here.
[16:48]Or my writing isn't great enough to do this.
[16:51]You have to be your own biggest fan, promoter, publicist,
[16:55]and really energize yourself.
[16:58]So don't self-reject submit your work, submit, submit, submit.
[17:03]You say yes, even if you think everyone else will say no,
[17:07]you say yes.
[17:08]OK, I'm saying yes.
[17:10]Just that is curiosity.
[17:12]So what ended up happening to your other three siblings?
[17:14]Are they any of them authors or what did they end up doing?
[17:17]And are you guys still close?
[17:18]Oh, we're still close.
[17:20]They are.
[17:21]We have, oh, my sister, you know, just recently got her doctorate.
[17:26]So she's, you know, she's doctor in Baliya.
[17:28]She's the third doctor in Baliya, the family after my parents.
[17:31]And so it's really, really cool.
[17:33]She's definitely an inspiration.
[17:35]My brother is off doing amazing things.
[17:38]I don't even know what he does, because he's like, you know,
[17:41]I say, you know, we look at pharmaceutical metrologist.
[17:44]He's doing something.
[17:46]He worked with the NOAA, the National Austrian Association
[17:50]of America.
[17:51]He's just off doing, you know, wonderful things.
[17:53]And then my other brother is a teacher.
[17:55]And like, coming from a family of educators, both my parents were
[17:59]professors, my wife started off as a kindergarten teacher.
[18:03]I think, and as someone who interacts with teachers
[18:05]on a daily basis, you know, as an author, like there is,
[18:10]teachers get so little credit for what they're doing,
[18:12]both especially right now during this pandemic
[18:16]and just in general.
[18:17]And so, you know, my siblings are off being awesome.
[18:20]And I'm out here just writing them into books
[18:23]and making fun of them.
[18:24]That's amazing.
[18:25]Well, you can write my son's teacher
[18:27]and my five-year-old son.
[18:29]We had curriculum night last night.
[18:30]And his teacher said that she has now gotten certified
[18:34]in both skydiving and scuba diving.
[18:37]He would never know from looking at her.
[18:38]I mean, you just, I would, anyway, so I felt like that was
[18:41]like a team fun story in the making, you know?
[18:44]So she just, she just, the goal from a time.
[18:47]I think it's the same day, but she does them both now regularly.
[18:52]Just, that's, you know, what, you know, good,
[18:55]that's fantastic.
[18:56]You know, I will live vicariously through your teacher.
[19:01]Yes.
[19:02]Yeah, well, thank goodness, I guess,
[19:04]for summer break for the teachers.
[19:05]But yeah, although not these days.
[19:07]Anyway, thank you so much for coming on my own time
[19:10]to read books.
[19:11]I'm so glad I could help this become a movie.
[19:13]And we'll be entertaining my son at boarding school
[19:16]very shortly when I send him all this
[19:18]and have a great day.
[19:19]Thanks so much for coming on.
[19:21]Thank you so much for having me, Zibi.
[19:22]I really appreciate it.
[19:23]This has been a blast.
[19:24]Oh, good, okay.
[19:25]Have a great day.
[19:26]Bye-bye.
[19:27]Thanks so much for tuning in to day four
[19:29]of The Children's Book Last.
[19:31]I hope you'll come back tomorrow for our final day.
[19:34]I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
[19:36]I know I enjoyed recording it.
[19:38]Don't forget to check out my new podcast.
[19:41]Moms don't have time to lose weight.
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[20:02]Moms don't have time to lose weight.
[20:04]Thanks for listening to this episode
[20:06]of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
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[20:10]at Zibioans and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
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[20:19]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound
[20:22]for the Sound Editing.
[20:23]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[20:25]for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.