409: Lisa M. Randolph - Wildlife Diva

that's beautiful yeah we love to hear because we we have talked to a few authors on um on our uh you know radio hour and you know they all have a a bit of a starting point as to why they wanted to go down this path or tell the particular story what's your reason as to why you wanted to tell the story or at least this novel

Yeah, well, it's definitely a story.

So I worked in San Francisco in one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city, and it's an after-school program with all girls.

And so the thing I began to notice is that these children were often put aside, dismissed, you know, Nobody wanted to deal with them because of their behavior issues.

And what I realized is that that wasn't really the issue.

All they needed was someone to just believe in them and talk to them and listen to them.

and encourage them.

And so for nine, almost 10 years, that's what I did.

And once the program ended, which we lost funding, so we had to close the program down.

So that was very dismaying.

But you know, that's what happened.

But from that, I started, I started writing the book.

based on the girls that I worked with.

And so I had one who was really good in math.

You know, she was like eight years old, but she could do fractions out of this world.

And then I had another who hacked her school's computer and changed her grade.

And I was like, oh, you can't do that, but that is a skill set in tech.

Another one with this, she had a very large vocabulary, very smart girl.

And so...

I thought about it and a lot of, you know, thinking and researching went into the book.

And so I said, you know, why don't I make these kids smart girls, you know, because smart girls always get targeted.

But I want to make it normal.

And so I based the book in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.

So each one of the characters is five characters, and each one has a gift of, you know, one of those themes.

And I actually based the story on an actual camping trip we went on in Half Moon Bay, California.

that's beautiful yeah we love to hear because we we have talked to a few authors on um on our uh you know radio hour and you know they all have a a bit of a starting point as to why they wanted to go down this path or tell the particular story what's your reason as to why you wanted to tell the story or at least this novel

Yeah, well, it's definitely a story.

So I worked in San Francisco in one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city, and it's an after-school program with all girls.

And so the thing I began to notice is that these children were often put aside, dismissed, you know, Nobody wanted to deal with them because of their behavior issues.

And what I realized is that that wasn't really the issue.

All they needed was someone to just believe in them and talk to them and listen to them.

and encourage them.

And so for nine, almost 10 years, that's what I did.

And once the program ended, which we lost funding, so we had to close the program down.

So that was very dismaying.

But you know, that's what happened.

But from that, I started, I started writing the book.

based on the girls that I worked with.

And so I had one who was really good in math.

You know, she was like eight years old, but she could do fractions out of this world.

And then I had another who hacked her school's computer and changed her grade.

And I was like, oh, you can't do that, but that is a skill set in tech.

Another one with this, she had a very large vocabulary, very smart girl.

And so...

I thought about it and a lot of, you know, thinking and researching went into the book.

And so I said, you know, why don't I make these kids smart girls, you know, because smart girls always get targeted.

But I want to make it normal.

And so I based the book in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.

So each one of the characters is five characters, and each one has a gift of, you know, one of those themes.

And I actually based the story on an actual camping trip we went on in Half Moon Bay, California.