037 Author & Book Trivia

Bob Smith 0:00
If you find yourself hunkered down during this Coronavirus storm, you might be reading some books you hadn’t touched in some time. That’s why my partner Marcia Smith, and I decided we would hunker down today with a fun topic trivia on authors and books today on the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith.

Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steered clear of crazy take a side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Perspective is what a lot of us need right now. Because there’s an awful lot going on with regard to the Coronavirus that is unsettling many people. Sometimes it’s best to self isolate, sit down, maybe just crack open a book. A few days ago, Marcia went to the Cedarburg library, our very own library for which we do this podcast and found a big

Marcia Smith 1:07
run on the release of new books. They were almost all checked out. It’s like toilet paper and paper towels. People, people want to get the latest books and bring them on home. I think actually, that’s that’s a good outcome

Bob Smith 1:20
because people are hunkering down and deciding to read. So today, our topic is trivia on authors and books. And my partner Marcia Smith is here and we’re going to entertain some fun questions in the next half hour.

Marcia Smith 1:34
Okay, you start Bob,

Bob Smith 1:36
what book does this first line come from? Okay, okay. first lines of books are very important to get the reader strike.

Marcia Smith 1:43
It was the best of times it was the worst of times. Oh,

Bob Smith 1:46
this was it was a bright cold day in April. And the clocks were striking. 13

Marcia Smith 1:55
Good lord. I don’t know if I ever read that.

Bob Smith 1:58
It was a bright cold day in April and Spike Alice Wonderland. 13. No, but it is a fantasy. Bet fantasy den fantasy. did read it.

Marcia Smith 2:07
I did. Yeah. It wasn’t Clockwork Orange. Like that. It’s like that. Well, I don’t know. 1984.

Bob Smith 2:13
Oh, what’s

Marcia Smith 2:15
it really

Bob Smith 2:16
George Orwell? The first line is it was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking. 13 Geez,

Marcia Smith 2:22
I didn’t remember that line. Okay, here’s a great book. What

Bob Smith 2:26
book does this first line come from? This will be easier. Call me Ishmael. Ah,

Marcia Smith 2:30
the old man in the sea. Well, sort of. Oh, wait a second.

Bob Smith 2:38
It’s an older book than that. But it’s about the sea. Call me Ishmael.

Marcia Smith 2:43
Oh, of course. It’s Moby Dick.

Bob Smith 2:47
That’s right. All righty. Herman Melville. Okay. Here’s one last one. Okay, sure. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Marcia Smith 2:59
Where the heck you getting these Bob?

Bob Smith 3:03
It sounds like it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. No clue. Jane.

Marcia Smith 3:15
Fonda.

Bob Smith 3:20
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Marcia Smith 3:22
Oh, that’s so funny. I was only kidding, by the way about funding authors

Bob Smith 3:26
and books and you got a question there.

Marcia Smith 3:29
Let’s start out with a fun one. I’m gonna give you four clues to name this book and author. Okay, okay, ready? All right. Okay. Number one. This book has frequently been banned, and has been made into four different movies. Okay, that’s

Bob Smith 3:48
part of me thinks maybe I think of some of Mark Twain’s books have been banned like Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer. And that’s been a couple films. Nah, that’s

Marcia Smith 3:56
true. But no. Okay. Okay. Number two, it was this author’s first novel, released in 1974. Really? It’s been banned. It’s been banned in different times. Yes. I find that hard to believe. But it has been Yeah.

Bob Smith 4:14
1974. I’m thinking of something like Thomas. Tom wrote the right stuff.

Marcia Smith 4:20
Yeah. Tom Wolfe. Tom Wolfe. Yeah, but no. Okay. All right. Clue number three. Clue number three. special powers. Take this story up a notch.

Bob Smith 4:32
This is not Harry Potter. Now. All right,

Marcia Smith 4:35
I’ll give you four and you’ll get both of them I’m sure. Now regarded as one of the masters of the horror genre.

Bob Smith 4:42
Stephen King.

Marcia Smith 4:45
His book takes high school revenge to a new level.

Bob Smith 4:48
Carrie. That’s it. That’s it. Carrie. Isn’t

Marcia Smith 4:51
that good? Oh, what did she have? Remember her powers?

Bob Smith 4:53
Oh God. She could call me CSIS. And what was that? Well, she

Marcia Smith 4:58
could move things around. She could Just look at somebody and I think she started on fire she had to

Bob Smith 5:04
fire starter was another one of his books. So oh yeah,

Marcia Smith 5:07
but anyway, that was his first book. Did you know that 1974 and carry? Not bad for first one out of the chute?

Bob Smith 5:14
No, not at all amazing. I’ve got a question similar to that. Okay. This famous author worked in a laundry and was a high school teacher and the leader job gave him fodder for one of his most famous books. Who was he?

Marcia Smith 5:29
He was a high school teacher and The Breakfast Club. No, it’s

Bob Smith 5:33
the same guy is Stephen King. Oh, really? That’s where he got some of his ideas for carry. No kidding.

Marcia Smith 5:41
Yeah, our same

Bob Smith 5:42
author, he, he graduated with a degree in English and a teaching certificate at the University of Maine in 19/71. He couldn’t find a job. So he he worked for a time in a commercial laundry, where he wrote then in 1971, he was hired as a high school English teacher, and they’re observing all the terrible things teenagers do to each other. Yes. Oh, my gosh, he got much of the material that he incorporated into carry and that was published three years later, but but his laundry experience must have inspired him to because for years before he became highly successful as an author, he did a lot of his writing in the family laundry room right next to the washer and dryer. This was his first published Yeah, but Carrie was the first. So that’s one of

Marcia Smith 6:22
the chances you and I’d come up with the same author and book and neither one of us got the answer. It’s funny, actually very funny. All right, I’ve got another three questions for you to name the author and the book. Okay. Sure. Number one, this was considered a social commentary on the division between the rich and the poor. That’s number one. Any guests? I’m

Bob Smith 6:44
thinking of Charles Dickens. Okay. One of his books could be great expectations, but could be the tale of two cities.

Marcia Smith 6:53
Now. Number two, you’ve already answered this. But author was a journalist his whole life despite his literary success. Did you know that? Well, I

Bob Smith 7:01
knew it was a journalist. Yeah. But he never gave it up. Was Was he? Which book? Was it? What we’re trying to identify number three, we’ll give it was it Oliver Twist. Now?

Marcia Smith 7:09
They’re all about class. Yes. Yes. Now that you say those three, this is the third clue. And you should have remembered one of my all time favorite books. It’s all about Christmas and redemption. A

Bob Smith 7:23
Christmas Carol. That’s

Marcia Smith 7:24
it. That’s it? Well, it’s

Bob Smith 7:25
interesting because I had a question, Marsha. Similar to the last one. He was a factory worker, a freelance journalist and an editor. And one of the greatest writers of English literature. Who was he? Charles Dickens? For God’s sake, didn’t know Did you know that? He started working in a factory at the age of 12 when his father was put into this

Marcia Smith 7:46
prison. Yes, I did. That’s what I was gonna I was gonna if I wanted another clue, I was gonna say his whole family when he was 12. He his family was in debtors prison,

Bob Smith 7:55
that real life experience about a child being forced to grow up and work and formed many of his most famous novels like Oliver Twist and great expectations. And it

Marcia Smith 8:04
all helped to lead to some of the changes in the social structure in England Absolutely. allowed all this to happen.

Bob Smith 8:12
But you’re right. He was a court reporter as to Nagar for and a freelance journalist. And one of the keys to his success was the fact that he founded and edited literary magazines which serialized many of his own novels, so it’s a little nepotism I

Marcia Smith 8:26
think, so I think there’s names for that today. Yes. Well, that’s very interesting. Okay. I

Bob Smith 8:30
have a question for you. Yes, Bob. Okay, this science fiction author, was a bonafide science professor. In fact, she has a PhD in quantitative Behavioral Ecology. You might not know her name, but you know, this series is Diana Gabby Holden, who is the author of the Outlander, time travels,

Marcia Smith 8:49
oh, which we like, well, we’ve

Bob Smith 8:51
been watching one of the adaptations of it for television. Quite a renaissance woman. She was professor at Arizona State University. And there she founded the journal Science software quarterly, she contributed to the Encyclopedia of computers, and she wrote scientific articles and textbooks. And in addition to her time travel novels for the Outlander series, which started in 1988. She’s written comic book scripts for the Walt Disney Company, so she’s

Marcia Smith 9:17
Wow, man. That’s interesting. Okay, Bob, what best selling novel laid the groundwork for the civil war?

Bob Smith 9:27
That was the Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

Marcia Smith 9:30
Harriet Beecher Stowe. That’s right. Ding, ding ding.

Bob Smith 9:33
And that’s what we’re Lincoln said. So this is the little woman that started this whole thing. Is that

Marcia Smith 9:38
what he said he couldn’t say that today. Good enough. It worked back then. And that was 1852. It was a best seller and was the most popular novel of the time and it depicts the realities of slavery. And it sold millions and millions of copies. It just enlightened a whole world of people in

Bob Smith 9:57
a time when there was no television, radio or maybe As media

Marcia Smith 10:00
they even referred to it in the King and I you know, the the Oh, that’s right in the movie and in the play and it’s yeah, it was that iconic at the time. I’ve

Bob Smith 10:08
got another question for you. What famous author was once an airline ticket agent? This is like Don’t quit your day job. That’s what this is all these different Okay, what did this person do? All right, this author once was an airline ticket agent on

Marcia Smith 10:25
me. Harper Lee. Oh, Harper, Lee, and she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, right? Okay. She was.

Bob Smith 10:30
She was the daughter of a lawyer and she even entered law school at the University of Alabama, but she dropped out in 1949 and moved to New York to become a writer and to pay bills. She became a ticket agent for airlines. No kidding. Now, do you know how she got her big break? A bunch of her friends did something very generous for her? Do you know what it was? No, one Christmas. A bunch of her friends got together. They put their money together to give her a year’s salary so she could quit her job and write and write and

Marcia Smith 10:58
we should all have friends like no kids, including our son. He needs these pals. And

Bob Smith 11:03
the manuscript she was working on became To Kill a Mockingbird, which was amazing. 1962 film of course, this is interesting. She loved that movie. And, you know, unlike many authors, Stephen King apparently has never been happy with any of the films done Oh really? His his books, but she praised the screenwriter at the time saying if the integrity of a film adaptation is measured by the degree to which the novelists intent is presented, Horton Foote’s screenplays should be studied as a classic. She thought he did a great job of adapting Wow, her novel for the screen now

Marcia Smith 11:40
that is rare praise for adaptations. All right. A century and a half hasn’t diminished this fascination with these four people. Meg, Amy, Beth, and Joe. Who are they bob?

Bob Smith 11:57
Are they the children and Peter Pan?

Marcia Smith 12:00
Good guests, but not even close. Oh,

Bob Smith 12:03
okay. The names again, Meg,

Marcia Smith 12:05
Amy, Jo, and Beth. For children. And it’s this is an adaptation is I think even running right now on television again. Really? Yep. What is it? These four girls are the march sisters. Oh,

Bob Smith 12:21
Little Women. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Louisa May

Marcia Smith 12:24
Alcott. And she published these stories in two volumes in 1868. And 1869. Think of that. It’s running now. But is that a movie or is it on TV? It’s a yes. Series. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it just never stops. Yeah. And it became one of the most timeless stories in American literature. 150 years and has been made into several Oscar nominated films. It just keeps coming back. So that was quite a quite an accomplishment for Louise. Absolutely.

Bob Smith 12:53
Absolutely. I’m gonna ask you a question about an author that you like, I know this author’s father conducting elaborate treasure hunts for the family that may have inspired him to kind of be the kind of author he is. Who is this author is father conducted elaborate treasure?

Marcia Smith 13:12
Give me another clue. Think about it. Give me another clue.

Bob Smith 13:15
He’s written several books that have been religiously controversial. And they deal with famous artist.

Marcia Smith 13:26
And artists like, like DaVinci. Like DaVinci. Oh, I couldn’t possibly be Dan Brown.

Bob Smith 13:35
gave you that one. Finally. Yeah, the author of The Vinci code. Yeah, that’s a book full of secrets.

Marcia Smith 13:42
And I love code breaking. And yes,

Bob Smith 13:44
so apparently his dad who was a teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy and planned elaborate treasure hunts for his children and his family. So he grew up with that kind of a background. But he wanted to be a singer songwriter. And that’s what he tried to become. I’ll be darned. And he didn’t start writing until he was 32. Oh,

Marcia Smith 13:59
well, there you go. Isn’t that fascinating? See, and you don’t know what sticks in your head as you get? No, I love it. I love

Bob Smith 14:06
it. And his his wife Blythe is his research partner with all the research his novels require,

Marcia Smith 14:12
oh, it’s just full of research and what I love about those novels. In the beginning, it says this is a novel that is fiction, except here are the facts. Because it weaves the novel around the facts, and then it’s a whole list of things that actually are true and that makes it even more fascinating. Okay,

Bob Smith 14:29
let’s take a break. Now. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith. We’ll be back in just a moment. We returned out to the off ramp, and today we decided with the Coronavirus and people deciding to self isolate and spend more time at home. We will go along with that trend. We know that a lot of people are reading more right now and they’re not necessarily reading about the news. They’re trying to escape things we just mentioned earlier that our local librarian told us that most of the new books had been taken out. So people are looking for a bit of a distraction, maybe a vacation from what’s going on outside their homes. So that’s why my partner, Marcia Smith, and I decided we would hunker down today with a fun topic trivia on authors and books. Okay, what famous author was a customs inspector? Oh,

Marcia Smith 15:21
I know that. Well, no, that was we actually mentioned

Bob Smith 15:24
his book a little while ago. This author was a customs inspector. That was his day job.

Marcia Smith 15:32
I thought Einstein was he was a patent inspector. Oh, yeah.

Bob Smith 15:35
I knew he was not an author. He was a scientist. Yes. This is an author. Trying to keep us focused here. Mark, Mark Twain. No. Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick. Oh, good. Moby. Yeah. That book, by the way, was not a big success with me either in 1851. Not

Marcia Smith 15:53
a fan. Nor were

Bob Smith 15:54
his subsequent novels. They were only like,

Marcia Smith 15:56
why is he is such a big deal today.

Bob Smith 15:59
I don’t know. He

Marcia Smith 16:00
was sick teachers

Bob Smith 16:02
literally was not a success at those. He was not a success at a lecture series. He tried. So in 1866, his wife and his family work together, and they got him a job as a New York City customs. Oh my gosh, isn’t that interesting? And he held that job for the next two decades. Even then, he apparently wasn’t remarkable at that, because in 20 years, he never received a raise. So why do people like Moby Dick?

Marcia Smith 16:27
I don’t know what we have to ask an English teacher. It’s on every reading list. He

Bob Smith 16:32
wrote Moby Dick in 1851. And for the next 1415 years, he was trying to be a full time writer and was not succeeding. So they got him the customer. Well, that God and from that point on, he was a customs inspector that paid for his writing.

Marcia Smith 16:45
Wow. Give me another

Bob Smith 16:48
what famous author once endorsed a computer, even appearing in a magazine ad for a computer company.

Marcia Smith 16:57
Got another? Another hint, Bob? He

Bob Smith 17:00
was a science fiction writer. Oh.

Marcia Smith 17:05
Was it? novels or screenplays

Bob Smith 17:07
novels? most known for a science fiction though. Oh, was

Marcia Smith 17:11
it? What’s his name that are sunlights? What’s his name? No, no.

Bob Smith 17:15
You have to come up with the name.

Marcia Smith 17:17
I know here. I’m thinking

Bob Smith 17:18
Isaac Asimov. Really? Yeah, I’ve

Marcia Smith 17:21
read a lot of his book. He became

Bob Smith 17:22
a spokesman for a technology retailer. RadioShack No, yeah, this is 1980. The early days of the personal computers, Radio Shack, trs. 80 was one of the very first personal computers and it was a bonafide computer that they modeled and they market it. So he was, of course a professor of biochemistry a best selling science fiction writer. He was an international vice president of Mensa, so he was very leery about endorsing any product. But he did a one on one tutorial of this computer’s pioneering word processing software, and he could see the benefits as a writer.

Marcia Smith 18:00
No, of course you can. Wow, that’s awesome. So in 1980,

Bob Smith 18:03
he took the plunge saying that the TRS 80 Echo technology he dreamed up as part of his foundation series. And actually, he also predicted microwaves automated coffee machines and self driving cars in his book, so

Marcia Smith 18:18
yeah, he was something very farsightedness,

Bob Smith 18:20
very farsighted.

Marcia Smith 18:21
Okay, here’s one. I bet you don’t get. Okay. What is considered the first American novel? The first

Bob Smith 18:29
American novel? Yep. This is is this a title? I would even know.

Marcia Smith 18:34
I don’t think so.

Bob Smith 18:37
Okay, what? What was it? When was it? Here’s a clue.

Marcia Smith 18:39
It was written in 1789 in Boston, okay, I was alive. All right. It’s called The Power of sympathy.

Bob Smith 18:49
And who wrote that dude called William Hill

Marcia Smith 18:53
Brown, and is considered the first American novel. It’s a morality tale about the danger of seduction. So

Bob Smith 19:03
it’s something that’s been pretty popular right today. Good. popular literature for centuries

Marcia Smith 19:07
isn’t lost its appeal.

Bob Smith 19:09
Okay, here’s, here’s a question for you. Name this author. He had terrible troubles with money. Even though he earned great sums. He made risky investments in new technologies and startups and was bankrupt by the age of 59. Was the Norman Mailer was it No. Again, he was, oh, he earns great sums. He made risky investments in new technologies and startups was bankrupt by the age of 59.

Marcia Smith 19:38
Another clue he got another clue give me one of his works are hers wrote

Bob Smith 19:42
a lot of books that centered around childhood, but they weren’t child books. And some of them were banned. How’s that?

Marcia Smith 19:52
How’s that? Ah, Lord of the Flies stuff like that. No, no, no. 19th century

Bob Smith 19:58
stuff. Oh, I don’t got Bob. And he wrote the first book written on a typewriter. He

Marcia Smith 20:04
would know that once you had it So Bob, I don’t know, Chuck gave you all. You know, I knew it this morning who wrote the first book, and

Bob Smith 20:13
he really, he really was ahead of his time and trying to do all these things. Mark Twain, Samuel, how can

Marcia Smith 20:18
I not get that he did that he was, you know, he was so terribly fail,

Bob Smith 20:24
lived his life, till the age of 59. He’s bankrupt

Marcia Smith 20:27
to tear he was so amazing. But he invested in all kinds

Bob Smith 20:31
of typesetting things. And the typewriter was one thing and you know, he did all kinds of cities die in? No, he didn’t. Because to pay back his creditors, he launched in around the World Lecture Tour, which was highly successful. He performed a one man show in more than 120 cities around the globe,

Marcia Smith 20:48
you know, why I wouldn’t have thought of him is because because we both recently listened to the book on President Grant. We know that it was Mark Twain that helped him out of a financial hole by getting his book published.

Bob Smith 21:03
Yes, that would have been a clue for you, you’d know who it was right away. And that’s why I didn’t tell you. Now listen to this. So Mark Twain did this one man lecture tour and more than 120 cities around the globe over a period of a couple of years and became fabulously wealthy from that. Now, who’s the person who replicated this years later? Who did a one man show on Mark Twain? No. That ran for 2000 performances? For 63 years? It’s not the guy was thinking No, it is who you’re thinking of how Holbrook

Marcia Smith 21:35
Hal Holbrook? He did it for 63 years. 33 years?

Bob Smith 21:40
Yeah. Now he started doing Mark Twain before he became a big star before he became a big real movie star and TV. Live. I saw games ago right here in our hometown. We saw him do Wow, Mark Twain tonight. And it was outstanding. It was but he had did that show for 63 years before retiring.

Marcia Smith 21:58
And he was

Bob Smith 21:59
he’s quite a guy. More than 2000 performances. He’s

Marcia Smith 22:02
that’s amazing. And he was excellent. Okay, now,

Bob Smith 22:05
here’s one last question. And it’s about somebody you did like and you used to read and he has passed on if that helps. Everything helps. For a time this author worked in the public relations department at General Electric. That’s Clue Number One.

Marcia Smith 22:21
Was it Wolf? No.

Bob Smith 22:24
He later managed a car dealership in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Who was the author?

Marcia Smith 22:29
Was it and so it goes Yes. Fine. Again, yes. Kurt Vonnegut.

Bob Smith 22:33
Yeah, and in his 1973 book, breakfast of champions, he drew on his days selling cars in painting his protagonist, who was a Pontiac dealer. Okay, but he was a sob dealer. Oh, really? Apparently, he used to doodle on the little sub stationery when he was born, doodled

Marcia Smith 22:51
himself into literary history. I guess that’s

Bob Smith 22:54
okay. One more. All right. This author began her career as a text book editor for Random House, and was also a professor of creative writing and literature at Princeton. Who was this author? It was?

Marcia Smith 23:08
Now when you’ve been Nora Ephron? It was I have no idea.

Bob Smith 23:14
Toni Morrison. Oh, she wrote The Color Purple. Yeah, she was a textbook editor, and then later became a professor of creative writing and literature at Princeton. And in between those two jobs textbook editor and Professor she transferred to random houses literary office, and there she edited titles by Mohamed Ali Huey Newton, Angela Davis and James Baldwin before anybody knew she was no kidding. 19 years she did that before becoming a professor and a published author. But she was writing all the time apparently even as a textbook editor. She woke up at 4am to write for herself

Marcia Smith 23:49
well that’s a hit parade of authors see how that’s amazing. Okay, our

Bob Smith 23:53
topic, authors and books and one last question. Oh, really? Okay. What book series has won 17 Academy Awards?

Marcia Smith 24:03
What books series? Oh, that was that Harry Potter.

Bob Smith 24:06
You know, that’s what I would have thought but no, it’s not.

Marcia Smith 24:10
Is it’s not 50 shades of gray white and purple. Is

Bob Smith 24:13
it No.

Marcia Smith 24:14
It Oh, is it is this up Academy Awards? So it’s a movies? Yes. Not

Bob Smith 24:20
17 Academy Awards so far, I might add. Alright, so

Marcia Smith 24:24
then it’s not that old and the series is still alive.

Bob Smith 24:27
What book series has won 17 Academy Awards.

Marcia Smith 24:33
Tell me, Lord of

Bob Smith 24:34
the Rings. Cheese. Yeah. And that began with the hobbit which was published in 1937. And it spawned more than seven movies. The first six they went 17 Academy Awards, really and earned more than $6 billion.

Marcia Smith 24:51
Okay, Bob, who wrote the famous words I think, therefore I am.

Bob Smith 24:57
Let’s get philosophical. I don’t know is

Marcia Smith 25:00
the father of modern philosophy, modern philosophy?

Bob Smith 25:03
Yes. That would that be somebody from the 19th century? No.

Marcia Smith 25:08
Yeah. We’re talking original philosophies Socrates and Plato. That’s what? Modern

Bob Smith 25:16
compared to that correct. So this is one of the Renaissance people perhaps.

Marcia Smith 25:20
Yeah. So just throw me a name. He was French. What’s the answer? Rene Descartes, the Frenchman who lived 1596 to 1650.

Bob Smith 25:31
And that’s modern philosophy. Yeah. Everything has a different perspective.

Marcia Smith 25:37
Right? Well, it’s modern compared to you know, Plato. So I suppose. What do you want? Everything is based on the foundations, a lot of those Greek philosophers laid down. This guy was French, so he took it up to a different notch. Okay,

Bob Smith 25:51
I have one more question. Am I not surprised? This is about a current author. And she is alive. She was a key punch operator, a circuit board designer and a technical writer. Yet her books are about prehistoric people. So this is a person versed in technology. Who is she? No clue. She was a key punch operator, a circuit board designer and a technical writer.

Marcia Smith 26:22
I have no clue. She’s alive. Jean L.

Bob Smith 26:25
She’s the author of Clan of the Cave bear. It’s a series it’s a kids book. Oh, really. And it’s about a group of paleolithic cave people. And she did not have a privileged upbringing. She married her high school sweetheart at the age of 18. And then she took night school classes in physics and math, to earn a master’s in business administration bless her heart. And then she climbed the ladder at a Portland Oregon electronics company until she hit a glass ceiling and who knows she may have gotten her inspiration for the cave people book from her work at the electronics factory because the clan of the Clan of the Cave bear was about a prehistoric woman living amongst strangers. She may have felt like a stranger when she discovered after years of working for the electronics factory that it absolutely refused to make any females managers. Oh wow. So she quit her job. No wonder her heroine is a feisty female.

Marcia Smith 27:16
I would think so. Well, you go she was a 40

Bob Smith 27:19
year old mother of five at the time. And her book series is lasted more than 30 years. Wow.

Marcia Smith 27:25
Yeah, that sounds fascinating. The cave bear yet. That’s excellent. That’s

Bob Smith 27:30
it for today on the off ramp. Marcia, thanks for joining us.

Marcia Smith 27:33
Thank you, Bob. Always nice to be with you.

Bob Smith 27:37
I hope so. And we hope you’ll join us again next time on the off ramp.

Marcia Smith 27:43
Bye bye.

Bob Smith 27:44
Okay, wasn’t too often. The off ramp with Bob Smith is produced in association with CPL radio and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai