The above kind thought was expressed by Louise Gillespie, just prior to hosting an interview with me on Women’s View Radio, January 10. I thought this was a particularly good interview (and not only because she had so many nice things to say about WATB). Often, hosts don’t have an opportunity to read the book in advance. Sometimes, they don’t even know much about the topic. Those were not problems this time! Also, numerous questions from listeners around the country added depth to the conversation. I’m trying something different in this post. Click the image to the left to hear the audio, or if like me you’re a visual person, click here to open a transcript of what was said.

The audio for my interview with New Orleans radio host Jeff Crouere is no longer online. However, the transcript is available in .pdf format here (excerpt below).

“It so happens that Barnes and Noble displays this book in their ‘Family and Childcare’ section. I’m not sure that’s the best category, because it’s not meant to be instructional. I call the book a memoir. Ultimately, it’s a story. It dramatizes my family’s efforts to help our child. It shows consequences of an unconstructive doctor-patient interface. And it’s about the broader experience of pursuing a goal when you don’t have reliable guideposts. Now, families who are grappling with developmental disability, or chronic health issues of any sort, can certainly draw lessons from my story. But so far, most readers that I am aware of do not even have a personal connection with disability. They’re describing this as “an emotional mystery novel,” and they say that it reminds them to go hug their kids. They see it as a—well, as a reminder to appreciate the small things in life that we sometimes take for granted.”

Click here to listen to a lively 30-minute interview with host Douglas Gibbs. (my portion begins at the 11:20 mark.)

“I appreciate the fact that you’re comparing this to a detective story, because that’s really what it felt like. You know, in classical detective stories you’ve got a private eye, and typically he’s butting heads with the law enforcement. They’re not on the same team. More often than not, the law enforcement people are just about ready to arrest the private eye, instead of going after the real bad guy. And that’s kind of how it felt. We were—and we didn’t want this! We did not want to be butting heads with the doctors. We wanted to be on the same team with them.”

Click here to listen to a 30-minute interview with host Hollis Chapman. Excerpt below:

“… Go back to the title, What About the Boy? There’s a temptation, because he’s not communicating with us very well, and we’re wrapped up in our own thinking and we’re anxious—but I think it’s safe to say that he was anxious, too. He was probably scared. He knew, in one way or another, that things weren’t right. He was in distress. And we didn’t know why. And I think the thing that motivated me to say that [I loved him] was that we had been to the osteopath and she had said that this child is probably—here he is almost two years old—he’s never been comfortable once in his life. He has never known what it’s like to be comfortable. And I felt so much compassion for the poor kid, and I think that’s what prompted me to say it. And maybe that made a connection that he was thinking, Oh, at last they understand, or at last I’ve got a lifeline here.”