Speaker 1: Hey, Bessie's Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Today on the bright Side, it's Indigenous People's Day and
Speaker 2: we've got another edition of shelf Life lined up for you.
Speaker 2: We're joined by Ka Cobell, the author of Looking for Smoke,
Speaker 2: which is the fall young adult pick for Reese's Book Club.
Speaker 2: It's Monday, October fourteenth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3: And I'm Simone Boyce, and this is the bright Side
Speaker 3: from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together
Speaker 3: to share women's stories, laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 2: On My Mind Monday is brought to you by missus
Speaker 2: Myers Clean Day, inspired by the goodness of the Garden.
Speaker 3: Happy on Monday. Danielle, you already know what time it is.
Speaker 3: This is our opportunity to share what's inspiring us. To
Speaker 3: kick off the week on the right foot.
Speaker 2: Feels like a good way to combat a case of
Speaker 2: the Mondays. So tell me what's on your mind.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm so glad you asked, because I just read
Speaker 3: this great piece in the New York Times by Chancey
Speaker 3: Dunn about how to turn around a bad day, and
Speaker 3: you might be thinking is even humanly possible? Well, it
Speaker 3: turns out it is because this writer talked to a
Speaker 3: clinical psychologist, a woman named Susan albers and she had
Speaker 3: some very practical solutions for turning around the day. I
Speaker 3: was actually pretty impressed. So one thing doctor Alberts says
Speaker 3: Danielle is to change up your day and make what
Speaker 3: she calls a sensory change. So that can be anything
Speaker 3: from a shower to changing your clothes or just working out.
Speaker 3: Have you ever tried that and has it worked for you?
Speaker 1: Hell?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you gotta like switch the energy up. I'm a
Speaker 2: big if you're sad, take a shower. If you're sad,
Speaker 2: take a walk or a run kind of girl.
Speaker 3: I feel like the power of the shower is so underestimated.
Speaker 1: The power of the shower. It runs a shower.
Speaker 3: Whenever I'm feeling some type of way, That's one of
Speaker 3: the first things I do is just take a shower,
Speaker 3: and it's like something about the water washing over me.
Speaker 1: It's like I feel rejuvenated. It's good. Simon.
Speaker 2: When I was in college, I found out that my
Speaker 2: boyfriend was cheating on me, And by found out, I
Speaker 2: mean like I hacked his email and went through everything
Speaker 2: in his apartment.
Speaker 1: It was like psycho.
Speaker 2: Style, and I was so upset, and I was driving
Speaker 2: back home and I called my dad and I was crying,
Speaker 2: and he goes, Danielle, go for a run.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, that's the advice. And in hindsight, I know
Speaker 1: what he meant. He was right, go for a run.
Speaker 3: He was echoing doctor Albert's advice to you know, pursue
Speaker 3: a sensory change. Yes, okay, This next piece of advice
Speaker 3: is one I can really get behind.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: Doctor Albert says you should give yourself little rewards. She
Speaker 3: suggests giving yourself intermittent rewards during an otherwise terrible day.
Speaker 3: And she says it's better to get a dopamine hit
Speaker 3: now than wait for a dopamine hit later after the
Speaker 3: horrible day has ended. I mean, anyone who's ever treated
Speaker 3: themselves to a bougie latte in the middle of a
Speaker 3: bad day knows exactly what she's saying.
Speaker 1: This sounds like you. You love a sweet treat, You
Speaker 1: don't like rewards. You don't like treats, Danielle.
Speaker 2: No, I'm masochistic and don't believe I deserve any treats.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I like a cappuccino in the morning.
Speaker 1: It's a lot to unpact. That's there. We're gonna need
Speaker 1: to bring doctor Albers on. I think, no, no, But
Speaker 1: you love a millennial treat. I do love a millennial treat.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, Okay. Finally, here's the last one I want
Speaker 3: to leave y'all with. Doctor Albers recommends setting up an
Speaker 3: emotional first aid kit.
Speaker 1: Oh what's that?
Speaker 3: So? That means keeping anything nearby that brings you joy, music, mementos,
Speaker 3: or even just that group chat that makes you feel
Speaker 3: less alone. This one is so huge too, Like, I
Speaker 3: find that in the same way that a shower can
Speaker 3: offer a sensory change, music does the same thing for me.
Speaker 2: I also think it works the opposite way, Like when
Speaker 2: I've been heartbroken, I make sure I don't watch sad
Speaker 2: movies or listen to sad songs because it can really
Speaker 2: affect your mood. I totally agree with this one. Okay,
Speaker 2: I have a question for you based on this on
Speaker 2: my mind Monday. I was just talking to a girlfriend
Speaker 2: about this. If you're going through a hard time, does
Speaker 2: buying things help your mood?
Speaker 3: It does, but I don't do it. Sure it does,
Speaker 3: but like I know that it's not. It's only a
Speaker 3: temporary solution. It's only a band aid, and it's also
Speaker 3: a very costly band aid, so I tend to not
Speaker 3: do it. I've actually gotten a lot better about consumerism
Speaker 3: in the past couple of years, Like I don't buy
Speaker 3: as much stuff, and I'm happier because of it.
Speaker 1: How about you. I totally agree. But sometimes.
Speaker 2: Like, Okay, I've talked about this on the podcast before,
Speaker 2: but like I went through a really brutal heartbreak like
Speaker 2: four or five years ago, and it put it like
Speaker 2: triggered childhood wounds. I was in such a bad spot,
Speaker 2: and I remember my therapist at the time being like,
Speaker 2: I think you should go buy yourself a leather jacket.
Speaker 2: And I was thinking, what a dumb piece of advice,
Speaker 2: Like aren't you supposed to like console, Like you're supposed
Speaker 2: to tell me something more meaningful.
Speaker 1: But I kind of understand what she means me now,
Speaker 1: Like I guess it's the sweet treat.
Speaker 2: It's the millennial treat that I was joking about, Like
Speaker 2: sometimes you do have to treat yourself, but there is
Speaker 2: a fine line.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: So maybe you buy it for yourself and then when
Speaker 2: you feel better, you return it.
Speaker 1: Great advice, Great advice, okay jokes aside.
Speaker 2: One of the things that really does help me switch
Speaker 2: up my mood is reading a book, because especially when
Speaker 2: I read women's stories, I feel so validated by their
Speaker 2: experiences and it kind of takes you into a different realm.
Speaker 1: Do you feel that way?
Speaker 3: One hundred percent? I find that fiction really does that
Speaker 3: for me. And I like having almost like a book
Speaker 3: ritual or reading ritual, like I love drawing a bath
Speaker 3: and setting a candle on and maybe having my face
Speaker 3: steamer on, and just like reading a book. There's something
Speaker 3: about that ritualistic element that is really comforting whenever I'm
Speaker 3: having a bad day.
Speaker 1: It's such a great way to unwind.
Speaker 2: And you know, speaking of great books, our guest today
Speaker 2: is the author of Reese's book Clubs fall Ya Pick
Speaker 2: Looking for Smoke. For her debut novel, Ka Cobell drew
Speaker 2: inspiration from her own experience within the Blackfeet Nation, which
Speaker 2: is a reservation in northwest Montana. In an interview with
Speaker 2: The Nerd Daily, Ka said she wanted to write a
Speaker 2: story featuring Blackfeet teens because it's something she never saw
Speaker 2: growing up, and as a thriller writer, she wanted to
Speaker 2: shed light on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous
Speaker 2: women and its impact on the lives of those affected
Speaker 2: by it.
Speaker 3: And that's honestly exactly what she did. In her first book,
Speaker 3: Looking for Smoke follows fourteens on the Blackfeet Reservation, Maura, Lauren, Brody,
Speaker 3: and Eli, who find themselves entangled in a murder investigation,
Speaker 3: and it's up to them to clear their own names,
Speaker 3: even though one of them may in fact be the murderer.
Speaker 3: After the break, we're diving into it all with author
Speaker 3: Ka Cobell.
Speaker 1: Stay with us.
Speaker 2: Thanks to our partners at missus Myers, you can learn
Speaker 2: a lot about a person by their dish soap. Missus
Speaker 2: Meyers's collection of household products are inspired by the guard
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Speaker 1: Welcome to the bright Side, Ka.
Speaker 4: Hello, thank you for having me. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: Oh We're so happy to have you.
Speaker 3: Congrats on being selected as Reese's Book Club's fall yapic
Speaker 3: for your book entitled Looking for Smoke. So we know
Speaker 3: that this story is deeply personal to you. It centers
Speaker 3: around this main character, Mara, who struggles with coming to
Speaker 3: terms with her mixed race identity, and this is something
Speaker 3: that you've been open about as well. Would you take
Speaker 3: us into that journey a bit.
Speaker 4: I think it all started because even before I began
Speaker 4: writing this book, I started having a lot of questions
Speaker 4: and doubts in myself, Like I knew this story needed
Speaker 4: to be told, but I started thinking, like who am
Speaker 4: I to tell this story? Like? Am I talented enough
Speaker 4: to tell the story? Am I Blackfeet enough to tell
Speaker 4: the story? And I had to kind of grapple with
Speaker 4: those questions in thinking about my identity, and I ultimately
Speaker 4: found a place within myself where I realized that I
Speaker 4: am enough and my experience as a Blackfeet author, a
Speaker 4: Blackfeet woman is valid, and that is the only place
Speaker 4: where I can tell this story from. And it's one
Speaker 4: of the biggest honors of my life to be able
Speaker 4: to open this window into the Blackfeet culture. It is
Speaker 4: kind of a unique experience to have something in your
Speaker 4: life that you have such deep pride for, such a
Speaker 4: reverence for, and other people have never even heard of it.
Speaker 4: Starting the story with that in mind and getting that
Speaker 4: confidence to do it, I think naturally came out with Mara,
Speaker 4: and she's having all these questions as well, does she
Speaker 4: fit here? Does she belong? Is she enough? And it
Speaker 4: was fun to explore that with her.
Speaker 3: I hear that your father, who is Blackfeet, has helped
Speaker 3: you navigate those feelings that you're talking about about your identity.
Speaker 3: How has he helped you connect with your cultural pride?
Speaker 4: I got all my cultural pride from him, I would say,
Speaker 4: through my whole life. He's been so good at instilling
Speaker 4: that pride in me and my siblings. He's just always
Speaker 4: willing to share his memories and the stories he grew
Speaker 4: up with. While I didn't grow up on the reservation,
Speaker 4: he did, and my older siblings were born there, but
Speaker 4: he was always sure to bring us back to the reservation,
Speaker 4: like we visit there for the tribes annual Indian Days
Speaker 4: celebrations where there's pow wows and rodeos and dan horse
Speaker 4: relay races. So what I think about most is sitting
Speaker 4: there in the stands when they start the drum music.
Speaker 4: And it's really hard to explain, but like you get
Speaker 4: this feeling in your chest. It's like it's this pull
Speaker 4: and like this reverence, like this is where I belong,
Speaker 4: Like this is my home, these are my people, and
Speaker 4: I tried really hard to put that experience into the
Speaker 4: opening of Looking for Smoke, where we have Maura and
Speaker 4: her family sitting in the stands at the powow and
Speaker 4: she feels that music like a calling. And that's the
Speaker 4: feeling I get when I think about the reservation and
Speaker 4: home and where my family is from, like we are
Speaker 4: connected to the whole place, to the land.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm obsessed with book titles and unpacking the meaning
Speaker 3: behind them and hearing how authors arrived at them, and
Speaker 3: yours is really special and has a special history behind it.
Speaker 3: So your fifth great grandfather, his Indian name, there's a
Speaker 3: connection between that name and that title Looking for Smoke.
Speaker 1: Would you elaborate on that for us?
Speaker 4: So, as I was writing this book, I really wanted
Speaker 4: it to be as authentic as possible. You know. I
Speaker 4: put a lot of myself and my family into this
Speaker 4: book with the memories and the stories. And another way
Speaker 4: I wanted to do that was by using actual family
Speaker 4: names throughout this book. And so as I was writing,
Speaker 4: I was looking in my family trees and finding different
Speaker 4: names of family members and ancestors. And one of the
Speaker 4: names I saw was my fifth great grandfather and his
Speaker 4: name was looking for smoke, and it just like matched
Speaker 4: the vibe I was going for in this book. Yeah,
Speaker 4: just you know, the elusive smoke, the feeling of like
Speaker 4: chasing something you can't quite grab, something that slipped from
Speaker 4: your fingers. And so it just made sense to use
Speaker 4: that name in the book. And then it hit me
Speaker 4: that it was also a perfect title.
Speaker 3: Well, you have your own native name as well. How
Speaker 3: did it feel when you got yours?
Speaker 4: It is a very special experience for those of you
Speaker 4: who don't know. Names are very powerful in the Black culture.
Speaker 4: Back in the day, everyone just had their one name.
Speaker 4: They had their name in black Feet, which was unique
Speaker 4: to them, and today we all have our American names
Speaker 4: first and last, but we are also given a name
Speaker 4: in black Feet, and it's given to us by an
Speaker 4: elder in the community who holds a lot of cultural
Speaker 4: knowledge and speaks the language fluently and is very respected.
Speaker 4: And they give you this name, and it's almost like
Speaker 4: a possession, like it is given to you and it
Speaker 4: belongs to you now. So receiving that name, it's like
Speaker 4: this is now a piece of the culture that I hold.
Speaker 4: Like when I got mine, which is under our woman,
Speaker 4: I felt like I truly belonged, and I felt like
Speaker 4: held by the community.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about the genre, because this
Speaker 2: book is a thriller, but you explored sci fi and
Speaker 2: some dystopian genres first. Why did you land on writing
Speaker 2: a thriller.
Speaker 4: I started with a fantasy and a little bit of dystopian,
Speaker 4: and I tried to sci fi, and it wasn't until
Speaker 4: I tried a thriller that I felt like I really
Speaker 4: took ownership of my voice. It honed my craft. And
Speaker 4: I think it's because of the stakes that are there
Speaker 4: with a thriller. It like got its claws in me
Speaker 4: and it pulled it out of me. Like people are dying,
Speaker 4: there are murders, you are in danger, and there's just
Speaker 4: this immediacy when you're writing that it keeps me focused
Speaker 4: and it keeps me wanting to find out what happened interesting.
Speaker 4: And I think if I'm not writing about life and death,
Speaker 4: then it's hard for me to like hone it in.
Speaker 4: It's like I kind of get lost in it. So
Speaker 4: that immediacy. In those steaks, they hit me hard, just
Speaker 4: like they hopefully will hit the reader hard.
Speaker 2: Do you think steaks are the secret to writing a
Speaker 2: really epic thriller.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, that is a huge part of it. Having the
Speaker 4: stakes feel so real that a reader just can't stop
Speaker 4: flipping pages because they feel like they're in that danger
Speaker 4: with the characters.
Speaker 1: How do you write that? How do you like create
Speaker 1: stakes like that?
Speaker 4: You know? I ask myself that every time I start
Speaker 4: a new thriller. But I think, oh, for me, a
Speaker 4: lot of it comes from the character. I really like
Speaker 4: to start with my character and have them be really
Speaker 4: fleshed out and have them bringing their own baggage into
Speaker 4: the story before it evens starts, so we care about
Speaker 4: them and what they're going through even before everything hits
Speaker 4: the fan, so that we're rooting for them, and when
Speaker 4: they're in danger, we feel it more. And another secret
Speaker 4: I think is secrets. You want to give all these
Speaker 4: characters these secrets that they want to hold to the death,
Speaker 4: and as an author, I need to be able to
Speaker 4: sit with them in those secrets and the lies they tell,
Speaker 4: giving them reasons to keep these things from their friends,
Speaker 4: or understanding where they're coming from.
Speaker 2: We need to take a quick break, but we'll be
Speaker 2: right back to shelf Life with author Ka Cobell.
Speaker 1: And we're back with author Ka Kobell.
Speaker 2: This thriller tells the story of two missing girls, and
Speaker 2: it highlights the missing and murdered Indigenous women epidemic.
Speaker 1: Why was this the issue that you wanted to center?
Speaker 4: I really wanted to bring in the missing and murdered
Speaker 4: Indigenous women epidemic because it's such a serious issue and
Speaker 4: not everyone knows about it. So, for those of you
Speaker 4: who don't know, Native women are the victims of violent
Speaker 4: crime far more often than any other group in our country.
Speaker 4: Eighty four percent of Native women have experienced violence, fifty
Speaker 4: six percent of them have experienced sexual violence, and Native
Speaker 4: women are three times more likely to be murdered than
Speaker 4: white women, and in some location that murder rate is
Speaker 4: ten times the national average. And so these numbers, like,
Speaker 4: when you really think about it, they're staggering. And my
Speaker 4: biggest hope for looking for Smoke is that non natives
Speaker 4: will come away with a better understanding of the issue
Speaker 4: and a desire to learn how they can help.
Speaker 3: There's a question or a theme that I've heard you
Speaker 3: speak about. It's this idea of how far would you
Speaker 3: go to seek justice? And you say that a lot
Speaker 3: of us, a lot of people don't have to actually
Speaker 3: think about what that looks like.
Speaker 1: What do you mean when you say that?
Speaker 4: Something that I really wanted to explore in Looking for
Speaker 4: Smoke where these family relationships. We have a lot of
Speaker 4: sibling relationships Lauren and her grandmother, and they are all
Speaker 4: looking out for their family members in some way, and
Speaker 4: they all feel this desperation to protect their family members
Speaker 4: because they don't feel like anyone else is. They have
Speaker 4: this distrust in the law enforcement officers. Are they really
Speaker 4: looking for my sister? Are they truly trying to find
Speaker 4: the killer of my best friend? Like? They have these
Speaker 4: questions and these doubts, and they're so worried that no
Speaker 4: one else is going to find justice if they don't
Speaker 4: do it themselves. And that's because cases are not being
Speaker 4: solved and women are not being found. And it truly
Speaker 4: brings out this desperation in these communities of what isn't
Speaker 4: being done? Why is this happening? Why are our women
Speaker 4: not being found? And I just really wanted to show
Speaker 4: that because it's something that other communities may not deal
Speaker 4: with as much, or, like I said, haven't heard of it.
Speaker 2: I think part of the unfortunate reality for people connected
Speaker 2: to this issue is that you don't always get justice.
Speaker 2: Oftentimes you don't get justice. I guess the question in
Speaker 2: that is how do you make peace with the unknown?
Speaker 4: We don't always get closure. But something else that I've
Speaker 4: tried to show and looking for smoke, is that we
Speaker 4: can get some closure in community. You know, we come together,
Speaker 4: we rally around each other, and Native communities have so
Speaker 4: much strength and they're so tight knit and supportive of
Speaker 4: each other, and that is how we can find peace.
Speaker 4: And another one of my goals for this book was
Speaker 4: that the Native readers will see themselves in this story
Speaker 4: and see their families and to feel some peace in
Speaker 4: that community, and that we're in this together and we're
Speaker 4: fighting together, and we all want to be heard and
Speaker 4: we want more people to pay attention.
Speaker 3: It's so important to discuss these aspects of the Native
Speaker 3: experience seeking justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women. But
Speaker 3: it's also really important to talk about the joyful parts
Speaker 3: of the experience too, And I love that you incorporated
Speaker 3: some of those joyful elements of what it means to
Speaker 3: be Native American in this story. What are some of
Speaker 3: those joyful experiences for you? Like, what does native joy
Speaker 3: look like to you?
Speaker 4: When I think of the Native experience. The first thing
Speaker 4: that always comes to mind is the humor, Like you
Speaker 4: get in a group of Native people. You will be
Speaker 4: laughing so much. They're so hilarious in every situation, like
Speaker 4: they will always bring in humor. And I feel like
Speaker 4: that is one of my weaknesses in writing. It's hard
Speaker 4: to write humor, but I try to show pieces of that,
Speaker 4: and I also think about just the traditions that brings
Speaker 4: a lot of joy too, So that's why I wanted
Speaker 4: to center it around a powwow where we see natives
Speaker 4: experiencing their culture in its truest form. They are doing
Speaker 4: the dancing, the traditional ceremonies, and another one of my
Speaker 4: favorite things is to watch Indian relay races where we
Speaker 4: have a bareback rider racing three horses around a track,
Speaker 4: jumping off one jumping onto the next. And I wanted
Speaker 4: to show that in the book as well, because we
Speaker 4: are still here, We're still experiencing the culture together and
Speaker 4: celebrating it.
Speaker 3: Oka we have come to the part of our show
Speaker 3: where we ask authors to read us a passage from
Speaker 3: their book. There's this one scene that we have in
Speaker 3: mind that's a reflection of a real life moment with
Speaker 3: your dad. What's going on in this scene?
Speaker 4: So this book is written from multiple povs, so it
Speaker 4: switches between four different main characters. And this scene is
Speaker 4: from eli first Kills perspective, and he's coming to apologize Tomara,
Speaker 4: who has felt like an outsider and Eli was one
Speaker 4: of the colder students. To her, I bust out my
Speaker 4: wise indigenous voice, looking into the distance. You have a
Speaker 4: head presence. I feel it. You're quiet, but you're there observing,
Speaker 4: like a hawk surveying its land. You're good medicine. She
Speaker 4: playfully bumps my knee. I'm gonna take that as a compliment.
Speaker 4: I drop the voice. It is when she smiles again,
Speaker 4: I realize our faces are only a foot apart, and
Speaker 4: I find myself noticing the curves of her lips as
Speaker 4: her smile fades. If I'm a hawk, what are you?
Speaker 4: Were already established I'm mad bear? She laughs. No, you're
Speaker 4: not a bear, You're more like a buffalo. I bite
Speaker 4: my tongue to hide my surprise. Sometimes you're quiet, too,
Speaker 4: but you have a big presence. Everyone knows if they
Speaker 4: cross you, you could end them. You seem calm, but
Speaker 4: your power is very apparent. She cocks her head and nods,
Speaker 4: just like a buffalo. You're not going to understand why.
Speaker 4: But that's the most I've felt seen in my entire life.
Speaker 4: That's all I've tried to do. Keep out of trouble
Speaker 4: and take care of Sherry. Be the buffalo, ready to
Speaker 4: defend her if anyone bothers us good. Her smile is
Speaker 4: bright in the moonlight, and I can't help but smile back.
Speaker 4: I thought you'd hate me, I would. Her gaze drifts
Speaker 4: to the cracked sidewalk. The thing is, I didn't expect
Speaker 4: to fit in with less than three months of school left.
Speaker 4: Her mouth presses into a grimace. I knew I wouldn't
Speaker 4: have any friends for a while, and I didn't try
Speaker 4: that hard to make any Everyone is so tight here.
Speaker 4: Most of you have known each other your whole lives.
Speaker 4: You've got a bunch of family everywhere. I'm the odd
Speaker 4: one who doesn't. I knew i'd be thought of as
Speaker 4: this newcomer who hasn't been a part of anything. What
Speaker 4: hurt was that I felt like my identity wasn't accepted,
Speaker 4: Like I couldn't just own it. I had to prove
Speaker 4: I deserved it or something that's not what it was,
Speaker 4: she barrels on. It was like, I'm not full, so
Speaker 4: I don't count. I didn't grow up here, and my
Speaker 4: family isn't very true, so I must not know any
Speaker 4: of the culture. I haven't been here with you, so
Speaker 4: I'm not one of you. I shake my head. I'm
Speaker 4: not full either, that's not I think everyone just thought
Speaker 4: you didn't want to be one of us. We didn't
Speaker 4: mean any of that.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 4: I already worried about where I fit in with everything,
Speaker 4: so it just got worse moving here. I know who
Speaker 4: I am, but if I have to prove it to
Speaker 4: someone else, it makes me doubt myself. I guess I
Speaker 4: don't have all the same experiences as you guys, but
Speaker 4: being black Feet is still a huge part of my identity.
Speaker 4: She raises her chin when she looks at me, still
Speaker 4: proud even when she's doubting herself. The faint light from
Speaker 4: the big sky makes her high cheekbones glow. She knows
Speaker 4: who she is. She just wanted us to know too.
Speaker 4: Your black feet, Mara Ressett. Nobody can take that from you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that.
Speaker 3: So that last line, Ka that says your black feet,
Speaker 3: Maria Risidet nobody can take that from you. I hear
Speaker 3: that there's a deeper story behind that. Where does that
Speaker 3: line come from?
Speaker 4: It goes back to what I was saying before, where
Speaker 4: I was having a lot of questions and doubts when
Speaker 4: I got the idea for this story, thinking am I
Speaker 4: black feet enough? Am I the right person to tell
Speaker 4: this story? And of course my dad came in. I
Speaker 4: laid down all my doubts for him, and he he's
Speaker 4: the one who helped me shut them down and he
Speaker 4: said to me, I will always remember he said, your
Speaker 4: black feet, my girl, Nobody can take that from you.
Speaker 4: And that was so powerful to me, and I wanted
Speaker 4: to put that into a scene because it resonated so
Speaker 4: much with me, and I just I think everyone deserves
Speaker 4: to hear that that you are enough, You belong who
Speaker 4: you are, Nobody can take that from you.
Speaker 2: Kay, I felt you get emotional when you we're reciting
Speaker 2: it to us. Where did those almost tears come from?
Speaker 4: It's just like I wish everyone could have a support
Speaker 4: like that, like my dad. I'm patting emotional. He will
Speaker 4: always affirm who I am, like it's the cultural pride
Speaker 4: comes from him, like the confidence in myself comes from
Speaker 4: him like you are who you are and I love
Speaker 4: you for it, And I just wish that everyone could
Speaker 4: hear that, no matter who they are.
Speaker 1: Well, that's the power of writing. Right now, everybody can
Speaker 1: hear it when they pick up your book. Are you
Speaker 1: up for a listener question?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Sure, Okay, fantastic. This question is from Naomi Hi.
Speaker 5: I'm Naomi, I'm Ojibwe. I live in San Francisco. I'm
Speaker 5: a book content creator. I use my platform to highlight
Speaker 5: and uplift native authors. It is so important to me
Speaker 5: that when we go into a bookstore, we have more
Speaker 5: than just a couple of options on books written by
Speaker 5: people who share our identities and lived experience. So I
Speaker 5: would love to know more about how or what you
Speaker 5: struggled with the most as you worked to explore such
Speaker 5: a serious topic as MMIW, and the steps you took
Speaker 5: to remain respectful to the very real life experiences that
Speaker 5: people have had.
Speaker 4: That is an awesome question. I truly did struggle before
Speaker 4: I started writing this book because I knew I would
Speaker 4: need to find a very fine line in crafting a
Speaker 4: propulsive thriller myth for entertainment and bringing in this very
Speaker 4: sensitive and very real issue that is affecting communities today.
Speaker 4: And I was afraid to start writing because I knew
Speaker 4: how hard it would be. But I think I found
Speaker 4: the line to walk through my characters while I was
Speaker 4: writing these fictional cases. The feelings that the characters are
Speaker 4: experiencing are real. I'm bringing in that true grief, the
Speaker 4: feelings of betrayal, this deep sadness, this angry grief. Like
Speaker 4: I'm bringing in feelings that are so real and feelings
Speaker 4: that we've all experienced in some way. And if we
Speaker 4: can sit in those feelings with the characters, I think
Speaker 4: it will help us to relate to the crisis in
Speaker 4: a more personal way if we don't already have a
Speaker 4: personal reason. And yeah, the characters just helped me to
Speaker 4: find the path to walk in being sensitive to the
Speaker 4: communities while also hopefully having a page turning story. Fantastic.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much for your time and for
Speaker 2: sharing your story with us.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Ka, of course, thank you so much. This
Speaker 4: has been awesome.
Speaker 2: Kay Hey Kobell is the author of Looking for Smoke,
Speaker 2: which is the fall young adult pick for Reese's book Club.
Speaker 1: That's it for Today's show.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow, Comedian and actor Leanne Morgan joins us to talk
Speaker 3: about our new memoir What in the World, A Southern
Speaker 3: Woman's Guide to laughing at life's unexpected curveballs and beautiful blessings.
Speaker 3: Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side and connect
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Speaker 3: feel free to tag us at simone Voice and at
Speaker 3: Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2: Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
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Speaker 3: See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.