I was intrigued by how Robin creatively used real events and actual statements made by the historically correct characters to imagine this plausible election. Reading about primary battles and political intrigue at the same time election 2008 played out in our national headlines heightened the suspense and feeling of reality.
HILLARY CLINTON & ELEANOR ROOSEVELT CONNECTIONS . . .
With the connection between the election in her book and the one grabbing today's headlines, Robin invites you to comment on a race where the first woman President may actually be elected. How do you think Hillary is doing, and do you see a correlation between her race and Eleanor Roosevelt's fictional one?
Read more about Robin Gerber here at Gather:
Facing Our Fears
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977252322&nav=Namespace
In Eleanor's Own Words - Schools and Citizenship
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977244558&nav=Namespace
Eleanor Vs. Ike - Why I Wrote the Book
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977231633&nav=Namespace
You can read all of Richard Frisbie's articles http://rfrisbie.gather.com/
or find him with the other Food Correspondents, plus celebrity chef content and plenty of other Foodies at http://foodtalk.gather.com
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Comments: 95 ( 2 removed by Richard Frisbie )
I have a great review of your book, Robin, that I will be posting SOON~
HERE
"Eleanor Vs Ike" is your first work of fiction. How many books have you written? What are the other titles?
I'm the author of several books including Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way: Robin Gerber is the author of several books including Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way: Timeless Strategies from the First Lady of Courage (Penguin/Portfolio, 2002) and Katharine Graham: The Leadership Journey of an American Icon with a foreword by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great (Penguin/Portfolio, October, 2005). I'm also a lawyer and senior faculty for the Gallup Organization.
I do commentary on women, leadership and politics. My opinion pieces appear frequently in national newspapers and I write one of the most popular columns for Reader's Digest, "You Be the Judge."
I make most of my living as an inspirational keynote speaker on leadership development, using moving stories from the lives of Eleanor Roosevelt, Katharine Graham and other great leaders to illustrate leadership lessons.
My clients include Bank of America, IBM, Marriott, Legg Mason, JP Morgan/Chase, Freddie Mac, Aetna Information Services, the AARP, Lee Hecht Harrison, Giant Food, The Culinary Institute, West Point, the U.S. Forest Service, the Council for Excellence in Government, The 3rd Quality Conference of the European Union, and many universities, colleges, girls' schools, nonprofits and government agencies. Prior to becoming an author, I practiced law in Washington, D.C. and worked on Capitol Hill, and I've studied and written about leadership development since 1975.
Before I forget my manners -- Welcome, Robin Gerber to this live chat.
I understand you're willing to talk about the current political race as well as your fictional one. I know both were very much on my mind as I read ELEANOR VS IKE (Loved the book!) Obviously, the similarities were on yours also.
This was my way of 'fixing' what I thought was her biggest mistake.
Fiction writing was quite different. I had to learn dialog, scene-setting, 'atmosphere', characterization. I've still got a long way to go but it was great fun. My daughter who works with scripts in Hollywood was very helpful.
Why is it that we can so easily love and praise Eleanor while we demonize Hillary and other comparable women? Is it because Eleanor is safely dead?
When I was a young boy my father told me, (and told me, and told me...), that the US had missed a golden opportunity when we didn't elect Stevenson... and then he would add, "Of course, Mrs. Roosevelt would have been my first choice". What is your opinion of Adlai Stevenson?
I wanted to ask Robin a question: What made you decide on this topic for a novel? "
I know you've written terrific books on Eleanor before, what made you decide to switch to fiction?
Not sure if anyone has asked that question before.
This was my way of 'fixing' what I thought was her biggest mistake.
Have you ever studied music or do you play an instrument? I've read (and believe) that people with a good ear for dialogue are often musical.
Wasn't Barbie modeled after a German streetwalker?
There's a definite talent for fiction there Robin, so please save some time for it. That you care to preserve the history as you write it is so important.
Piano is a great instrument - that is a famous music camp. Wonderful!
I found it took quite a bit of work to get into the minds of Boothe and others, and then to tell Lincoln's story, too.
I liked your character, Ruth. Spunky - talk about empowered! I'll read more about her.
On the Chive's comment: history does sell, but we need to translate that into electing leaders who have also read the history as opposed to ones who just don't read and wear that as a badge of honor! FDR was a great student of history as were the greatest presidents. Let's not make another mistake like the one over the last 8 years...
In 4th grade, the class had a 'wax museum' where kids would dress as their favorite character from history and then pose like that all day, along with a tape they had prepared.
My daughter chose FDR - not Eleanor. So I lent her my eyeglasses and a hat, she had a wheelchair from the nurse's office, my son's suit and she sat there all day, while the tape played about her speaking about FDR.
She's read all the schoolbooks about Eleanor and FDR.
Do you think Eleanor could have been elected in her times, being what they were?
And Eleanor being the superwoman she was?
The Chive: would have been a VERY hard pitch had it not been for the 2008 election tie-in which of course was/is a major hook. my agent pitched 14 editors, only got one response, but then I didn't have a completed manuscript as you usually need for fiction, and that early draft was truly very nonfictiony, so i kind of see why it got rejected. I think i was very very lucky to get the pitiful advance i got. fiction is REALLY hard to sell in any form much less alt fiction about a woman instead of "what if hitler won the war?"
but now I do leadership/motivational talks mostly to women at companies, schools and nonprofits which is very fun and I hope empowering for them. I try to help them with what I had to deal with, but have now mostly put behind me :)
'soft' seem to not be taken seriously enough; women who are taken seriously have a fine line to walk.
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this - Thank you for kindly typing your fingers to the bone to answer all the questions.
Good luck in your future projects and continued success with Eleanor vs Ike!
I ordered a copy from my local B&N last week, but they haven't called me to pick it up yet.