Aloha to Alexandra Allred and DAMAGED GOODS

On this date in 1973, The Bahamas, East Germany, and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations.   Seventeen years later, also on this date in 1990, Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations.   Today's guest, Alexandra Allred, knows first hand the importance of diplomacy.  

Liechtenstein courtesy of Wikipedia

Kim:  You are the daughter of a (now retired) US Diplomat - how exciting! What was your favorite sight, smell, and sound around the world? What did you embrace when you returned to the US?

Alexandra:   What a great question. I've never been asked that before. Bread. The answer is bread. And to this day, I have a special fondness for bakeries. It seems no matter where we lived when we were overseas, bakeries/warm bread was very comforting to me. In particular, when we lived in Moscow in the 70s, life was rough. No tv, no videos, no shopping malls or movies, no teenager hangouts. Temperatures dropped to 50 degrees BELOW zero. Everyday, I would go to a local bakery and as people got to know me, this is where and how I learned to speak Russian. In the souks of Tunisia, the way shopkeepers would let patrons know the meat was fresh was to have a cow's head on a hook just outside the shop and stuff flowers up its nostrils. The droop of the cow's head and flowers let you know how fresh the meat was but to me -- a spoiled American used to modern technology - this was horrifying! Bread was comforting, safe ... home. Each time we would come home, you would think we would flock to the tv or run to a restaurant but we really embraced our land, nature, people. I think this is why it hurts me so much when I see people litter and/or pollute. Americans just don't know how great we have it and how much we should love what we have!

St. Basil's on Red Square

Kim:  You were a member of the US Bobsled team - how intriguing! What did the training (while pregnant) teach you about yourself? Did any aspect prepare you for a career in publishing?

Alexandra:  Another great question! Who are you? You should be interviewing heads of state.  When I was in the middle of training, I was just trying to get through it. When it all began, women were not allowed in bobsled as it was said the sport was too dangerous for women. I called the BS card on that one and fought to get women into the Olympics. That was my main goal. But as I trained, I got more and more into it, more determined and no one was more surprised than me when I won Nationals. That I was pregnant with Katie, my second child, was a gift. Because I was pregnant, I couldn't train with wild abandon. I had to be smart and, yes, this changed me. In fact, the woman who won silver (Liz Parr-Smestad) was also pregnant! Female hormones are an amazing thing. Sports Illustrated did a story on this and I was bombarded with letters and phone calls from female athletes from around the world wanting to know how I knew how to train, what was safe, what was not. I had trained with a researcher so I knew Katie was always safe. Later, when I wrote the book, Entering the Mother Zone, I got to interview Olympic and professional female/mother athletes. At the conclusion of each interview, I would ask, "So, are you a better athlete because you are a mother?" or "Are you a better mother because you are an athlete?" The answers were fun and, across the board, the same with elite athletes. Both. By being an athlete, you have to be disciplined, structured, determined, patient and strong. But isn't this what good moms already are? Because I already had Kerri, then a toddler, I had to be so disciplined with my time and training. I had no idea how much all of this was setting me up for a writing career.

I stayed in bobsled until it was announced in 1998 that women would be allowed in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games. I retired about a month later and people always ask me if I'm sorry I didn't go to the Salt Lake Games. Nope. I did what I set out to do and in 1999, I had my third child, my son, Tommy. Soooooo much better than winning a medal. For most people, bobsled is simply an Olympic sport but for me, bobsled represents fighting for something you know is right, fighting for something you want.

I mentioned the set up for becoming a writer because I don't think most writers or writers-to-be understand that aspect of the profession. Many dream of sitting down, writing a great story, having it published and tripping off into the sunset (toward the bank!). The very attributes that make an athlete an elite athlete are also needed to be a serious writer. Through bobsled and motherhood, I learned to set up times to work, how to promote, how to write/train, finding agents/trainers ... landing a contract with The Writers Coffee Shop IS my Olympics! 

Jamaican Bobsled Team - notable underdogs at the Olympics!

Kim:  What inspires your nonfiction - how do you select your subjects? What inspires your fiction - what influences your muse?

Alexandra:  I love that you asked this. People - amazing people - happen into my life. For my book, Swingman: What A Difference A Decade Makes, I went on a 30 mile bike ride. For reasons I can't explain, I just hopped on my bike and did not bother to hydrate or fuel up (eat). I know better than that! But this is what I did. No surprise, I tanked about 15 miles into the ride and pulled over to a Starbucks, walked in and begged for a pumpkin loaf and coffee. They knew I was good for the money. For people who know me, they always ask, "You stopped in the middle of your workout for a pumpkin loaf?!?" Yup. I did. And as I was sitting there, a man rolled up to me in his wheelchair and asked if that was my bike in his way. I was so pooped, I just plopped my bike on the sidewalk outside. Embarrassed, I lept up, moved the bike and wound up talking to him. I learned that he was a fire fighter and figured he was paralyzed on the job. But it turned out he was paralyzed, now a full quadriplegic, on a 30-mile bike ride. He had bunny hopped over a stick which stuck in the spokes of his tire, flipped him and sent him head first into a ditch. What?!? I gotta tell ya ... it was a long ride home as I looked for every stick in the road. We continued our talk over the coming weeks and I learned that he was twice given up for adoption, the first black fire fighter in Salt Lake County, Utah. I learned that just before becoming a quadriplegic, he decided to learn voice activated computer soft-ware ... on and on. He is amazing and when I meet people like Capt. Marshall Allen, I am in awe and can't wait to share their stories of determination and grit, of overcoming obstacles and succeeding. In fact, we had his story turned into a documentary, entitled, SWINGMAN by documentary filmmaker Mark Birnbaum. I also freelance for NOW Magazines, a community magazine outside Dallas, Texas because I love human interest stories. I love to meet people who fight cancer, pollution, and racism. I love to meet people who make a difference in their community, who give back, who quilt and paint and bake for loved ones. It is amazing how something so seemingly small -- like baking cookies -- can turn out to be a heartwarming story about sacrifice or showing love to a person in need.

As for fiction, those same feelings apply. Someone will tell me something and it will stop me in my tracks. I think, "Ohhhh, somewhere, somehow, this is going in a story." Example. I'm driving along with a hilarious friend of mine when she mentions that her dead grandmother was once in her glove compartment. Excuse me. What? She then proceeds to explain to me, quite seriously, how it came to be that she decided put her "Granny" in her glove compartment. I stopped the car and looked at her. "Somehow, somewhere, I'm putting that in a book!" I told her. When I finished Damaged Goods and sent the manuscript to her, she burst out laughing when she read the scene where Jeanie Archer has her dead Granny in her glove compartment. That's my tease. Just how Granny wound up in the glove compartment is revealed in the book.

In my book, White Trash, I have two female police officer friends who have shared the most outrageous, hilarious stories about their time on the force. As it happens, there were two female partners named Wolfe and Fox. COME ON!! You can't make that up! Sometimes life - real life - makes for fantastic fiction. Finally, I think growing up around the world allowed for me to people watch and appreciate different peoples/cultures/lifestyles on a whole new level. When you're a 12 year old kid being chased through the subways by a KGB agent or having to sleep on thousands of dead moths in Kenya, Africa, you become more aware of the world around you ... like sleeping on clean sheets or drinking water from the tap.

Kim:  Tell us about DAMAGED GOODS!

Alexandra:  Ahhh! I love this book. I'm sure I'm not supposed to say that but I do! I love the characters because they are based on friends. The experiences are based on true life. When I was to describe how this book is different from others, the easiest answer was: I have NEVER seen a book in which a beer-swilling emu befriends illegal/undocumented workers who help a once-abused woman restore her home while she takes on corporate greed and reveals why she put her bloody tampon in the hand of a man while others ponder if urine from the nose is okay or if they would be willing to sleep with Dick Cheney. While grown women have breath-holding contests, they also take on big-time lawyers despite fire, threats, loss of wages and friends. Heavy topics such as religion, politics and race are made funny as we also read about a dead grandmother in the glove compartment and a rumored leg-munching tiger on the loose.

These characters are so outrageous and so daring and so funny that no other book can compare. When the book came to a close, I was so sad to say ‘goodbye.’ These are women you never, never want to let go.

But the backdrop on this book is much more than that description. When my family moved to Texas, we fell in love with our house and the property. I was finally going to get the horse I always dreamed of having! We saw the cement plants and asked about it but was told the plants were "in compliance." We were in love with the house and never thought a thing about it -- stupid, I know -- until Tommy started to get sick. It took us a while to figure out that it was the air that was making our child sick and when I began talking to school nurses and neighbors, other parents and coaches, I learned the truth. Years later, USA TODAY did a special report and listed my son's elementary school as one of the most "toxic" school in the nation. Being a go-getter, the daughter of a Diplomat and firm believer that in this great nation we could bring this problem to the attention of our leaders and they would fix it (haha), I began to speak out. I reached out first to local politicians, then my state senators and was shot down. No one wanted to talk about the high number of sick people, cancers, tumors, children with disabilities. While I began to testify before the EPA and US Senators from other states willing to listen, this book began to take form in my mind. Humor is an amazing tool. With dead Granny in the glove compartment, characters came alive. Jeanie Archer, Suzette Lee, Dixie Quigley, Ruth Emory, Brianna Edwards and more are my real friends. As silly as the story gets, it is my greatest hope that people will also become aware of how important it is to take care of this world of ours!

Kim:  What's next for Alexandra Allred?

Alexandra:  The Writers Coffee Shop signed me to a four book deal so in the next year, White Trash, White Tree (the sequel) and She Cries will be coming out. I am so excited because the character, Tina Wolfe, is absolutely hilarious. You know, earlier you asked about finding non-fiction stories. The story of The Writers Coffee Shop and how it came to be is so perfect, I knew this was the publishing house for me! The women who founded this publishing house discovered the Fifty Shades author. They had tremendous foresight and determination and weren't afraid to take risks. THESE ARE MY KIND OF WOMEN! Whatever books are to be in my/our future, you can bet they will be filled with lots of girl-power hilarity. Please check out my website at www.allredbooks.com.

Mahalo, Alexandra, for joining us at SOS Aloha!   I am giving away an ecopy of DAMAGED GOODS to one randomly selected commenter.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Leave a comment about a country where you would like to serve as a diplomat - I am claiming the UK (including Scotland) so that post is no longer available!  Be creative and tell me why you picked that country!

2.  This giveaway is open to all readers.

3.  Comments are open through Friday, September 21, 10 pm in Hawaii.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, September 22.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii

Scotland here I come!