0:00:00.000,0:00:02.147
(Suzanne Stecker)

0:00:02.147,0:00:05.620
Our next presenter is Emily McCully

0:00:05.620,0:00:08.596
and she's actually going to

0:00:08.596,0:00:10.836
tell us her experience

0:00:10.836,0:00:17.194
of going through the process

0:00:17.194,0:00:20.637
of writing her book, "My Heart Glow."

0:00:20.637,0:00:26.514
She received the F. Scott Medal.

0:00:26.968,0:00:33.496
Emily?

0:00:33.496,0:00:34.901
(Male Interpreter)

0:00:34.932,0:00:41.026
Correction of the interpretation: She was awarded the Caldecott Award for her work.

0:00:41.026,0:00:42.681
(Emily McCully, voice raspy)

0:00:42.681,0:00:44.336
Thank you so much.

0:00:44.336,0:00:47.286
I'm going to try to be heard

0:00:47.286,0:00:49.921
so that I can be interpreted.

0:00:49.921,0:00:52.253
I obviously need to be interpreted today.

0:00:52.253,0:00:54.469
I'm very, very happy to be here

0:00:54.469,0:00:56.720
and I've learned an enormous amount

0:00:56.720,0:00:59.656
in the first half of the program.

0:00:59.656,0:01:03.656
I wish I had known all of the things that I heard this afternoon

0:01:03.656,0:01:06.140
when I wrote this book.

0:01:06.140,0:01:11.074
I am a representative of the hearing community.

0:01:11.074,0:01:13.889
I tried to be a bridge

0:01:13.889,0:01:16.590
between the deaf community and the hearing community

0:01:16.590,0:01:19.222
in creating this story.

0:01:19.222,0:01:23.106
I was just telling that unfortunately

0:01:23.106,0:01:27.705
some of the reviewers of the book in the hearing community

0:01:27.705,0:01:30.475
were a little confused by it.

0:01:30.475,0:01:34.756
And so, I think a lot more work has to be done

0:01:34.756,0:01:38.789
to make ASL and Deaf Culture

0:01:38.789,0:01:42.140
understood in the hearing community.

0:01:42.140,0:01:44.574
Now, the reason that I told the story

0:01:44.574,0:01:46.907
of Alice Cogswell and Thomas Gallaudet

0:01:46.907,0:01:50.289
is that my son told me I should do it,

0:01:50.289,0:01:52.906
and I listened to him.

0:01:52.906,0:01:58.105
He is a linguist. He is fluent in Japanese--works in Japanese.

0:01:58.105,0:02:04.105
He speaks Russian, French, a little bit of other languages, a little Chinese.

0:02:04.105,0:02:07.425
And he got interested in American Sign Language

0:02:07.425,0:02:09.657
and took a course.

0:02:09.657,0:02:11.838
He practices it a lot.

0:02:11.838,0:02:15.191
I have to say, he goes to bars to practice it

0:02:15.191,0:02:19.492
with fluent ASL people

0:02:19.492,0:02:23.656
and has met very, very wonderful people that way.

0:02:23.656,0:02:27.240
He's been fascinated by Deaf History,

0:02:27.240,0:02:30.657
and he knew that in making children's books,

0:02:30.657,0:02:35.806
I always try to find a gripping story out of history

0:02:35.806,0:02:38.423
and they often have involved girls and women

0:02:38.423,0:02:43.356
whose stories are little known or else I invent them sometimes.

0:02:43.356,0:02:49.256
But I want to tell the stories of underdogs, basically,

0:02:49.256,0:02:52.889
because I think they have the most drama.

0:02:52.889,0:02:56.324
And when he told me that American Sign Language

0:02:56.324,0:02:59.706
and the very first school for the deaf in this country

0:02:59.706,0:03:04.721
were created because a young man met a young deaf girl,

0:03:04.721,0:03:07.773
I thought well, this is it, there's got to be a great story here.

0:03:07.773,0:03:10.273
And I think it is a great story.

0:03:10.273,0:03:13.673
Alice Cogswell was about two--

0:03:13.673,0:03:15.857
she lived in Connecticut,

0:03:15.857,0:03:20.106
she was the youngest child of a wealthy family.

0:03:20.106,0:03:23.522
Her father was a doctor

0:03:23.522,0:03:26.689
and quite a famous man in Connecticut.

0:03:26.689,0:03:30.689
When she was two, which would have been, lets see,

0:03:30.689,0:03:33.439
about 1805 I think--

0:03:33.439,0:03:35.606
or no, she was born in 1805--

0:03:35.606,0:03:40.241
1807, she came down with probably scarlet fever, but we're not sure,

0:03:40.241,0:03:43.407
and became profoundly deaf.

0:03:43.407,0:03:46.873
She recalled that when she woke up one morning,

0:03:46.873,0:03:49.624
she could no longer hear the church bells.

0:03:49.624,0:03:52.338
She couldn't hear the sound of--

0:03:52.338,0:03:55.474
she could see a carriage draw up to the door

0:03:55.474,0:03:57.341
outside her family's house

0:03:57.341,0:03:59.622
and couldn't hear any of the sounds that it was making.

0:03:59.622,0:04:01.691
They subjected her to radical treatment.

0:04:01.691,0:04:05.706
They poured horrible substances into her ears

0:04:05.706,0:04:08.773
through ear trumpets.

0:04:08.773,0:04:11.906
It was very painful. Nothing could be done.

0:04:11.906,0:04:16.589
Her family feared that she was doomed,

0:04:16.589,0:04:19.306
that she wouldn't go to heaven when she died

0:04:19.306,0:04:23.723
because they couldn't teach her about the Bible.

0:04:23.723,0:04:26.555
And in those days, that's what they thought--

0:04:26.555,0:04:29.123
that her soul was lost.

0:04:29.123,0:04:33.356
So, they loved her and they cherished her,

0:04:33.356,0:04:36.472
but they didn't know what to do.

0:04:36.472,0:04:38.940
And there were no schools for the deaf.

0:04:38.940,0:04:42.055
Deaf people had absolutely no way to communicate

0:04:42.055,0:04:44.456
with the rest of the world.

0:04:44.456,0:04:49.306
I am sure that they spoke with what was called "home sign" then.

0:04:49.306,0:04:51.471
And we heard this morning about the people

0:04:51.471,0:04:56.017
of Martha's Vineyard, most of whom came

0:04:56.017,0:05:00.273
in the 17th Century from one part of England,

0:05:00.273,0:05:03.441
where almost everybody was deaf.

0:05:03.441,0:05:05.790
So this was a case of genetic deafness.

0:05:05.790,0:05:08.656
And those people settled in Martha's Vineyard.

0:05:08.656,0:05:11.273
They had their own sign language,

0:05:11.273,0:05:14.522
and the rest of Martha's Vineyard learned it.

0:05:14.522,0:05:18.523
Everybody on the island, from the late 17th Century

0:05:18.523,0:05:22.064
through the early 20th Century,

0:05:22.064,0:05:26.756
spoke a sign language that was developed there.

0:05:26.756,0:05:30.283
And of course deaf people were considered perfectly normal

0:05:30.283,0:05:33.006
unlike what was the case

0:05:33.006,0:05:35.190
in the rest of the country.

0:05:35.190,0:05:40.923
Alice Cogswell and her sisters and brothers

0:05:40.923,0:05:44.623
used a kind of home sign, but she wasn't taught to read

0:05:44.623,0:05:47.423
she wasn't taught anything else.

0:05:47.423,0:05:51.043
And when Thomas Gallaudet,

0:05:51.043,0:05:54.689
who was in his early 20's when he met Alice--

0:05:54.689,0:05:57.356
he had cast about for what to do with his life

0:05:57.356,0:06:00.906
and finally he decided to go to theological seminary.

0:06:00.906,0:06:04.189
And he wanted to minister to Indian tribes,

0:06:04.189,0:06:06.606
which meant that he would learn

0:06:06.606,0:06:09.623
a kind of sign language because Indians did.

0:06:09.623,0:06:13.189
He graduated and came home to visit his parents in Hartford.

0:06:13.189,0:06:16.673
They lived next door to the Cogswells

0:06:16.673,0:06:21.140
and he saw Alice one day. And he felt terribly sorry for her

0:06:21.140,0:06:23.941
because she was sitting by herself

0:06:23.941,0:06:27.273
while her brothers and sisters played,

0:06:27.273,0:06:30.272
and she couldn't join in the games.

0:06:30.272,0:06:32.124
And he thought he would see,

0:06:32.124,0:06:35.074
since she looked so intelligent and appealing

0:06:35.074,0:06:36.824
and of course she was aware of him

0:06:36.824,0:06:40.774
because her other senses were very highly developed.

0:06:40.774,0:06:46.790
And he came over to her, and the story is

0:06:46.790,0:06:51.073
that he scratched the letters H-A-T on the dirt

0:06:51.073,0:06:54.390
and then put his hat on top of them and her face lit up.

0:06:54.390,0:06:56.806
She was already understanding

0:06:56.806,0:06:59.505
what reading would lead her to.

0:06:59.505,0:07:01.824
And he began working with her

0:07:01.824,0:07:03.826
trying to teach her to read.

0:07:03.826,0:07:07.390
And she was very, very receptive

0:07:07.390,0:07:09.090
and delighted.

0:07:09.090,0:07:13.706
And at this point, Dr. Cogswell thought that

0:07:13.706,0:07:17.307
he must reach not only Alice, but other deaf children

0:07:17.307,0:07:20.956
and found a school for them.

0:07:20.956,0:07:24.357
So he asked Thomas if he would go to Europe

0:07:24.357,0:07:27.307
and learn how to teach the deaf.

0:07:27.307,0:07:29.241
And Thomas agreed to do this.

0:07:29.241,0:07:33.173
The Cogswells raised enough money to send him

0:07:33.173,0:07:35.472
to England, where he knew that there was a school

0:07:35.472,0:07:37.956
in London and another one in Scotland,

0:07:37.956,0:07:41.473
operated by a family called Braidwood.

0:07:41.473,0:07:45.590
Gallaudet left Alice behind

0:07:45.590,0:07:48.723
but first he said Alice really should go to school

0:07:48.723,0:07:51.022
with her siblings.

0:07:51.022,0:07:52.973
So this was arranged.

0:07:52.973,0:07:55.074
The teacher at this school

0:07:55.074,0:07:57.291
was named Lydia Huntley.

0:07:57.291,0:08:00.522
She was later married to Mr. Sigourney.

0:08:00.522,0:08:03.457
So she became Lydia Huntley Sigourney,

0:08:03.457,0:08:07.339
a rather famous poetess of the day,

0:08:07.339,0:08:10.023
but at this time she was a young teacher.

0:08:10.023,0:08:12.927
Alice joined this little school

0:08:12.927,0:08:15.340
and everybody in the school learned to fingerspell --

0:08:15.340,0:08:20.321
that is, they had signs for each of the letters of the alphabet

0:08:20.321,0:08:23.673
and they would painstakingly spell out words.

0:08:23.673,0:08:26.856
So Alice learned a little bit more.

0:08:26.856,0:08:28.540
She learned to read

0:08:28.540,0:08:30.540
and she learned a little bit of history

0:08:30.540,0:08:32.873
and a little bit of geography and so on,

0:08:32.873,0:08:36.406
but she was not learning a language.

0:08:36.406,0:08:39.491
Meanwhile in London, Thomas was having a hard time.

0:08:39.491,0:08:43.156
The Braidwood family insisted on

0:08:43.156,0:08:47.722
teaching deaf people to talk.

0:08:47.722,0:08:49.790
There was no sign language used -- in fact, it was forbidden.

0:08:49.790,0:08:56.471
The Braidwoods told Thomas that they would teach him

0:08:56.471,0:08:59.023
their method, but he would have to stay in England

0:08:59.023,0:09:01.540
for two years and it would cost a lot more money

0:09:01.540,0:09:04.756
than they had raised for Thomas's trip.

0:09:04.756,0:09:07.423
So, something wonderful happened --

0:09:07.423,0:09:09.824
completely unexpected:

0:09:09.824,0:09:12.839
Thomas met an Abbot from Paris

0:09:12.839,0:09:16.157
and his young assistant who was deaf.

0:09:16.157,0:09:19.856
And the Abbot's name was Abbé Sicard

0:09:19.856,0:09:23.256
and his assistant was Laurent Clerc.

0:09:23.256,0:09:27.456
And Laurent Clerc, of couse, was deaf

0:09:27.456,0:09:31.123
and a fine teacher at a school in Paris

0:09:31.123,0:09:35.105
where they used sign language to teach the deaf children.

0:09:35.105,0:09:38.557
And Gallaudet went to Paris

0:09:38.557,0:09:43.207
and was taught how to use this method,

0:09:43.207,0:09:46.023
but he was getting terribly homesick

0:09:46.023,0:09:48.140
and he was running out of money.

0:09:48.140,0:09:50.190
So, he knew he had to go back to Hartford,

0:09:50.190,0:09:52.456
but in order to teach and to start a school

0:09:52.456,0:09:54.542
and teach deaf children in America,

0:09:54.542,0:09:56.742
he was going to need help.

0:09:56.742,0:09:58.574
So he persuaded Laurent Clerc

0:09:58.574,0:10:00.056
to come with him,

0:10:00.056,0:10:02.606
and this was extrordinary.

0:10:02.606,0:10:05.540
Clerc had to leave his parents behind.

0:10:05.540,0:10:07.606
He had to get permission to go.

0:10:07.606,0:10:11.506
Fortunately, he was a very adventurous young man

0:10:11.506,0:10:15.977
and had always wanted to see more of the world.

0:10:15.977,0:10:18.589
So they sailed to America.

0:10:18.589,0:10:19.824
It took almost two months

0:10:19.824,0:10:23.106
and during that time,

0:10:23.106,0:10:25.992
Gallaudet taught Clerc English

0:10:25.992,0:10:28.990
and Clerc taught Gallaudet

0:10:28.990,0:10:32.373
more of the signs that they were using in the school.

0:10:32.373,0:10:36.022
Now, that school in Paris

0:10:36.022,0:10:40.973
had adapted a kind of home sign

0:10:40.973,0:10:44.106
that French children naturally--

0:10:44.106,0:10:46.524
French deaf children--used with each other.

0:10:46.524,0:10:52.023
The teachers at the school saw that sign language

0:10:52.023,0:10:54.241
was being used by these children

0:10:54.241,0:10:56.706
and they knew that it was a good method,

0:10:56.706,0:10:59.056
but they thought that it needed help.

0:10:59.056,0:11:01.439
They thought they needed to make it grammatical.

0:11:01.439,0:11:04.941
They didn't realize that this natural sign language

0:11:04.941,0:11:07.456
already had a grammar.

0:11:07.456,0:11:10.022
So the kinds of misunderstandings

0:11:10.022,0:11:11.722
that people have always had about ASL

0:11:11.722,0:11:14.006
were there with its very founders.

0:11:14.006,0:11:18.348
Thomas Gallaudet also didn't realize that

0:11:18.348,0:11:25.005
home sign or methodical sign, it was called,

0:11:25.005,0:11:27.505
already had a grammar.

0:11:27.505,0:11:29.922
And as we heard earlier today,

0:11:29.922,0:11:31.954
people didn't realize that

0:11:31.954,0:11:34.554
until the 1960's, when American Sign Language

0:11:34.554,0:11:37.155
was finally analyzed by linguists.

0:11:37.155,0:11:41.654
It's this grammatical complexity--

0:11:41.654,0:11:45.506
this whole language aspect of ASL--

0:11:45.506,0:11:50.871
that is so important for hearing people to understand,

0:11:50.871,0:11:54.305
and, of course, for deaf children to learn

0:11:54.305,0:11:59.590
because it stimulates the language capacities

0:11:59.590,0:12:01.304
of the brain.

0:12:01.304,0:12:05.237
And if they learn ASL, they learn English much more easily.

0:12:05.237,0:12:11.470
And, as we all know, ASL was suppressed

0:12:11.470,0:12:13.772
for a long time all over the world.

0:12:13.772,0:12:17.604
I believe the Milan Conference was mentioned

0:12:17.604,0:12:21.422
this morning. I think that's where it happened.

0:12:21.422,0:12:24.423
And so, for a long time, deaf children

0:12:24.423,0:12:26.472
in their schools would sign to each other

0:12:26.472,0:12:28.455
but it had to be secret.

0:12:28.455,0:12:31.807
They weren't allowed to use ASL.

0:12:31.823,0:12:34.687
I didn't put that in my book,

0:12:34.687,0:12:36.972
but I think it's important that I knew it

0:12:36.972,0:12:39.672
because it was part of the story.

0:12:39.672,0:12:43.521
When you tell a story in any kind of book,

0:12:43.521,0:12:46.422
you may not put everything about the story

0:12:46.422,0:12:50.196
into the book, but you have to know it.

0:12:50.196,0:12:55.017
And this bridge to the hearing community--

0:12:55.017,0:12:57.505
that's so important;

0:12:57.505,0:13:00.438
and having enough materials in libraries

0:13:00.438,0:13:04.496
for deaf children is terribly important.

0:13:04.496,0:13:07.205
This book, "My Heart Glow,"

0:13:07.205,0:13:10.388
whose title was suggested by Harlan Lane,

0:13:10.388,0:13:15.104
whose book I used in much of my research.

0:13:15.104,0:13:18.489
And I contacted Harlan Lane

0:13:18.489,0:13:21.239
at the suggestion of Gary Wait,

0:13:21.239,0:13:23.321
who is the archivist

0:13:23.321,0:13:25.755
at the School for the Deaf in Hartford--

0:13:25.755,0:13:29.121
a very wonderful man who was a tremendous help to me.

0:13:29.121,0:13:33.304
And he also sent word about the book

0:13:33.304,0:13:35.304
out through the community--

0:13:35.304,0:13:37.422
to Alice in particular,

0:13:37.422,0:13:40.039
who was so good in making it known to people.

0:13:40.039,0:13:46.188
Gary Wait's resources at the School for the Deaf--

0:13:46.188,0:13:48.471
he has the library there,

0:13:48.471,0:13:51.738
which is almost like a little museum of deaf history.

0:13:51.738,0:13:54.654
It was so important to be there

0:13:54.654,0:13:57.323
and see all that material.

0:13:57.492,0:14:00.713
He told me that I should not include anything

0:14:00.713,0:14:02.529
about the suppression of ASL--

0:14:02.529,0:14:06.079
that this story, "My Heart Glow,"

0:14:06.079,0:14:11.029
should be a story of triumph over nothing --

0:14:11.029,0:14:13.328
of the creation of something

0:14:13.328,0:14:17.112
when there had been nothing.

0:14:17.112,0:14:20.279
So, armed with the materials I learned from him,

0:14:20.279,0:14:23.796
with a lot of reading of what books there are

0:14:23.796,0:14:25.696
about deaf history,

0:14:25.696,0:14:27.879
with Harlan Lane's book in particular,

0:14:27.879,0:14:30.413
I wrote this story.

0:14:30.413,0:14:32.296
It was published.

0:14:32.296,0:14:35.179
It was acquired by an editor, who was fired

0:14:35.179,0:14:37.545
about a few weeks later.

0:14:37.545,0:14:40.779
So it was shepherded through the publishing process

0:14:40.779,0:14:43.029
without an advocate.

0:14:43.029,0:14:46.729
It was published without any help at all

0:14:46.729,0:14:49.414
by this company, that more or less ignored it.

0:14:49.414,0:14:51.713
And then it was reviewed by hearing reviewers,

0:14:51.713,0:14:54.480
many of whom were confused

0:14:54.480,0:14:57.596
by the syntax in Alice's letters,

0:14:57.596,0:15:01.873
and I had read Alice's letters at Hartford,

0:15:01.873,0:15:07.236
so I knew that the syntax was the product of her mind--

0:15:07.282,0:15:10.051
of the way she was thinking.

0:15:10.051,0:15:12.596
They didn't understand that,

0:15:12.596,0:15:14.347
even though I said so in the author's note.

0:15:14.347,0:15:17.363
So there was some confusion, which was unfortunate.

0:15:17.363,0:15:21.771
And I was so, so gratified--so happy--when I learned

0:15:21.771,0:15:25.407
that the deaf community embraced the book.

0:15:25.453,0:15:29.754
And not only that--after it had gone out of print,

0:15:29.754,0:15:37.945
I heard from ASL Tales that they wanted to do a DVD of it

0:15:37.945,0:15:43.343
and try to get it back into the world with signing.

0:15:43.343,0:15:46.293
And I thought it was a fabulous idea

0:15:46.293,0:15:51.877
and Janice's work on this DVD is so brilliant,

0:15:51.877,0:15:55.710
and of course, the quality of storytelling

0:15:55.710,0:15:59.045
that is possible with ASL

0:15:59.122,0:16:04.010
is just beyond anything else that's available to anyone.

0:16:04.010,0:16:05.045
So, I think

0:16:05.045,0:16:08.279
deaf children and hearing children will both

0:16:08.279,0:16:12.602
benefit enormously from this kind of product

0:16:12.602,0:16:15.877
and from all of the others that I hope

0:16:15.877,0:16:20.783
are going to be available in libraries everywhere.

0:16:20.783,0:16:24.206
Maybe there will be questions for me?

0:16:24.206,0:16:26.484
I don't know. I think that's about all

0:16:26.484,0:16:29.183
I can pump out of my throat today.

0:16:29.183,0:16:32.100
I thank you so much for having me here

0:16:32.100,0:16:36.883
and as I say, it's been extraondinarily illuminating for me,

0:16:36.883,0:16:41.350
and I love being with you all today.

0:16:41.350,0:16:44.116
Are there any questions?

0:16:44.116,0:16:49.116
[applause] Thank you.

0:16:49.116,0:16:50.915
No? Okay.

0:16:50.961,0:17:00.988
Thank you again.

0:17:00.988,0:17:02.455
(Female Audience Member)

0:17:02.455,0:17:04.887
Hello there. I just wanted to tell you how delighted

0:17:04.887,0:17:06.270
I am that you've made this book possible

0:17:08.393,0:17:13.366
and many more works such as these.

0:17:13.366,0:17:17.148
I'm inspired by the fact that this book is there.

0:17:19.210,0:17:24.565
(Emily McCully)

0:17:24.565,0:17:26.935
Thank you so much.

0:17:27.182,0:17:28.539
(Female Audience Member)

0:17:28.539,0:17:34.022
My question is how long did it take you to complete that book?

0:17:34.022,0:17:35.467
(Emily McCully)

0:17:35.467,0:17:39.819
Well, this one... of course there's the research

0:17:39.819,0:17:43.487
and the reading process was several weeks,

0:17:43.487,0:17:45.552
and I don't usually have an advisor.

0:17:45.552,0:17:49.535
Gary Wait was my advisor on this one,

0:17:49.535,0:17:52.652
so we communicated back and forth.

0:17:52.652,0:17:55.019
And the trip to Hartford--that had to be scheduled,

0:17:55.019,0:17:56.354
and so on.

0:17:56.354,0:18:00.769
So, I would say two or three months for that.

0:18:00.769,0:18:05.352
And then, sitting down and doing a picture book

0:18:05.352,0:18:07.170
requires doing a "dummy,"

0:18:07.170,0:18:10.820
which means that I write the text

0:18:10.820,0:18:13.719
at the same time that I'm creating a little pretend book.

0:18:13.719,0:18:17.119
And the little pretend book is absolutely necessary

0:18:17.119,0:18:20.553
because a picture book is unlike most other books

0:18:20.553,0:18:23.235
in that it's like a little movie that's in my head,

0:18:23.235,0:18:25.920
and I have to get the movie down on paper

0:18:25.920,0:18:30.219
The movie is not projected. It involves the reader.

0:18:30.219,0:18:33.520
The book cannot be read

0:18:33.520,0:18:35.802
unless the reader wants to turn the page,

0:18:35.802,0:18:40.403
so I had to figure out how much material to put on a page.

0:18:40.403,0:18:45.202
I put so much on...well, I'll do it with this.

0:18:45.202,0:18:47.687
I make a dummy that looks sort of like this,

0:18:47.687,0:18:49.770
but it's just black and white sketches.

0:18:49.770,0:18:52.404
I put so much material on this page

0:18:52.404,0:18:54.653
so that the reader will want to know what happens.

0:18:54.653,0:18:57.403
The reader lifts the page, and for a few seconds

0:18:57.403,0:18:59.836
anything can happen!

0:18:59.836,0:19:03.884
Turns the page, more information--not too much,

0:19:03.884,0:19:06.921
just enough to create enough tension

0:19:06.921,0:19:09.452
so the reader wants to turn the page

0:19:09.452,0:19:11.599
and advance the story.

0:19:11.599,0:19:15.233
So, it's a complete collaboration with the reader.

0:19:15.233,0:19:17.315
And I have to figure out with the dummy--

0:19:17.315,0:19:20.283
I play with how much I put on this page and that page

0:19:20.283,0:19:22.252
and I go back and forth.

0:19:22.252,0:19:24.532
I tend to make little rough sketches

0:19:24.532,0:19:27.733
and tape them down, or tape down the words

0:19:27.733,0:19:29.415
with scotch tape

0:19:29.415,0:19:31.501
and then lift them up and move them around

0:19:31.501,0:19:33.550
if I have to.

0:19:33.550,0:19:37.100
And that process takes, oh maybe two or three weeks.

0:19:37.100,0:19:39.381
And then I send it to the publisher,

0:19:39.381,0:19:43.815
and the editor figures out what else I have to do

0:19:43.815,0:19:46.683
and what isn't working and what is working

0:19:46.683,0:19:48.600
and tells me and sends it back.

0:19:48.600,0:19:50.365
I make revisions--

0:19:50.365,0:19:54.700
that can take two or three more weeks--

0:19:54.700,0:19:56.834
when I finally get to the point

0:19:56.834,0:19:58.417
where I do the finished work.

0:19:58.417,0:20:01.800
And my emphasis in my books is

0:20:01.800,0:20:06.033
I want everything to look as if something is happening--

0:20:06.033,0:20:09.482
I want it to have a sense of action--

0:20:09.482,0:20:13.183
so I, to try to make things look spontaneous,

0:20:13.183,0:20:17.433
I make, for example, color choices as I'm painting.

0:20:17.433,0:20:19.282
I don't do color sketches,

0:20:19.282,0:20:21.366
I wait until I'm doing the finished paintings

0:20:21.366,0:20:24.616
and they take another six weeks.

0:20:24.616,0:20:29.615
Then I send that off. My work is done.

0:20:29.615,0:20:35.266
The book is separated. The colors are all separated

0:20:35.266,0:20:38.933
and printed - each color separately.

0:20:38.933,0:20:42.432
Probably these days in Asia.

0:20:42.432,0:20:45.965
The book doesn't come out for a full year

0:20:45.965,0:20:50.099
after I have finished my work.

0:20:50.099,0:20:51.667
And by that time, in this case,

0:20:51.667,0:20:53.882
the publisher had forgotten about it.

0:20:53.882,0:20:57.515
So, that can happen--

0:20:57.515,0:21:00.682
that's not such a good story.

0:21:00.682,0:21:08.016
So, I hope that this ASL Tales version has...

0:21:08.016,0:21:11.100
I hope it's going to have a lot of momentum

0:21:11.100,0:21:14.033
and will really reach as many people as it can.

0:21:14.033,0:21:18.950
Once again, thank you so much, Deaf Community,

0:21:18.950,0:21:24.334
for embracing it.

0:21:24.334,0:21:46.974
More questions?

0:21:48.343,0:21:50.477
(Male Audience Member)

0:21:50.477,0:21:53.594
I'm curious if you've had the experience...

0:21:53.671,0:21:55.833
oh sorry, one moment...

0:21:55.833,0:21:59.327
I'm curious if your work on this book

0:21:59.465,0:22:02.881
has made you inspired to learn more

0:22:02.881,0:22:06.968
about the deaf community and deaf culture?

0:22:07.168,0:22:13.119
(Emily McCully) Yes it has. Very much.

0:22:18.627,0:22:21.375
(Female voice, offscreen)

0:22:21.375,0:22:28.877
I believe we have two questions off to the side.

0:22:28.877,0:22:31.406
(Alice Hagemeyer)

0:22:33.711,0:22:34.917
Hello there.

0:22:34.917,0:22:38.189
For some of you who may not know,

0:22:38.189,0:22:40.993
her book is the very first book

0:22:40.993,0:22:45.308
written for children that is talking about deaf history,

0:22:45.308,0:22:47.425
and I applaud you for that.

0:22:47.425,0:22:49.425
I'm not sure if even you knew that.

0:22:49.425,0:22:50.843
Did you know that?

0:22:50.843,0:22:52.444
(Emily McCully)

0:22:52.444,0:22:54.692
No, I knew it was the first one about Alice and Thomas.

0:22:54.692,0:22:56.925
I didn't know it was the first, period.

0:22:56.925,0:22:59.058
That's amazing. That's terrible.

0:22:59.058,0:23:00.292
(Alice Hagemeyer)

0:23:00.292,0:23:02.525
Right, it's the first historical work for children--

0:23:02.525,0:23:04.909
first historical fiction book for children.

0:23:04.909,0:23:09.996
And also, it's very fortunate, and I'd like everyone to know

0:23:10.010,0:23:12.408
that the School for the Deaf has a museum,

0:23:12.408,0:23:17.789
which in the past, people weren't really cherishing

0:23:17.789,0:23:20.784
their heritage and the artifacts

0:23:20.784,0:23:24.644
and so oftentimes, things weren't preserved well

0:23:24.644,0:23:27.976
until Gary Wait, also a good friend of mine

0:23:27.976,0:23:30.758
got involved with their museum program

0:23:30.758,0:23:33.342
and made some drastic changes.

0:23:33.342,0:23:35.509
And having that material preserved,

0:23:35.509,0:23:37.626
made your research, I'm sure, much better,

0:23:37.626,0:23:40.342
so our thanks also have to go out to Gary.

0:23:40.342,0:23:42.909
Now, any of you who want to write

0:23:42.909,0:23:44.793
something like this,

0:23:44.793,0:23:46.976
I have to let you know about what wonderful resources

0:23:46.976,0:23:49.027
these deaf archives are.

0:23:49.027,0:23:51.026
Many places around the country don't have these

0:23:51.026,0:23:53.826
kinds of resources available as well.

0:23:53.826,0:23:56.292
And also I know deaf people are quite surprised

0:23:56.292,0:23:58.560
that a hearing author has written this,

0:23:58.560,0:24:00.691
rather than a deaf author.

0:24:00.691,0:24:04.291
But, it brings to bear the point that we must all work together--

0:24:04.291,0:24:06.324
that our communities have to work together.

0:24:06.324,0:24:09.442
I thank you so much for getting this story out there

0:24:09.442,0:24:12.441
and accessible to our deaf children.

0:24:12.441,0:24:16.458
And also, I have to applaud Janice Cole and

0:24:16.458,0:24:20.508
her company's work to put these in ASL versions.

0:24:20.508,0:24:25.374
This is a story that will never be outdated. Never.

0:24:25.374,0:24:28.008
(Emily McCully)

0:24:28.008,0:24:30.092
Thank you very, very much.

0:24:30.092,0:24:32.176
Yes, I meant to say earlier

0:24:32.176,0:24:35.108
that history is absolutely vital for everyone.

0:24:35.108,0:24:38.398
If you don't have a context for your life in the present,

0:24:38.398,0:24:41.717
you really don't have anything to stand on.

0:24:41.717,0:24:45.041
Often, when I'm talking to school kids,

0:24:45.041,0:24:47.476
I quote Cicero, who said,

0:24:47.476,0:24:52.259
"To not know what happened before one was born

0:24:52.259,0:24:54.953
is to always be a child."

0:24:55.123,0:24:58.125
So you know, in order to grow up,

0:24:58.125,0:24:59.959
children have to know history.

0:24:59.959,0:25:02.144
Especially their own history.

0:25:02.144,0:25:05.617
So, yeah, there has to be more of it.

0:25:05.617,0:25:07.292
Thank you.

0:25:07.323,0:25:08.704
(Margie English)

0:25:08.781,0:25:11.951
I have one small question if I may?

0:25:11.954,0:25:13.438
(Emily McCully)

0:25:13.438,0:25:15.433
You're entitled.

0:25:15.433,0:25:17.152
(Margie English)

0:25:17.152,0:25:20.983
As a person who has published a number of works

0:25:20.983,0:25:25.633
and illustrations. With this text, "My Heart Glow,"

0:25:25.633,0:25:29.918
and that one has not been widely marketed

0:25:29.918,0:25:32.916
and you said the reviewers weren't sure

0:25:32.916,0:25:36.650
quite how to take the book and the use of syntax by a deaf person

0:25:36.650,0:25:39.800
in the expression of the deaf person's thinking process.

0:25:39.800,0:25:42.733
Now in terms of future publishers of deaf works

0:25:42.733,0:25:45.183
by deaf authors, what would you say

0:25:45.183,0:25:47.680
to those future publishers

0:25:47.680,0:25:50.118
and these future authors,

0:25:50.118,0:25:52.633
that they could do to improve this process

0:25:52.633,0:25:55.402
so that it's more readily accepted?

0:25:55.402,0:25:57.483
And educate those reviewers as well,

0:25:57.483,0:26:00.299
so that it would be more appropriately received?

0:26:00.299,0:26:02.050
(Emily McCully)

0:26:02.050,0:26:05.500
Well, I think my publisher should have

0:26:05.500,0:26:08.683
provided something, I think, for reviewers

0:26:08.683,0:26:10.933
but they did not.

0:26:10.933,0:26:13.916
I thought and I hoped that the author's note

0:26:13.916,0:26:17.279
would suffice, but apparently it didn't.

0:26:17.325,0:26:20.983
Now, I'm saying only one or two people did this,

0:26:20.983,0:26:25.385
but it was significant that they didn't understand.

0:26:25.385,0:26:29.251
So, yeah, there has to be support of the book.

0:26:29.309,0:26:34.650
In the storytelling process, I didn't want to interrupt the story

0:26:34.650,0:26:39.267
with editorial comments or, you know, references to facts

0:26:39.267,0:26:42.169
or anything like that.

0:26:42.169,0:26:45.968
I wanted the story to flow, as a story must.

0:26:45.968,0:26:48.933
So it was up to the publisher, I think,

0:26:48.933,0:26:51.300
to provide the support material

0:26:51.300,0:26:53.733
that reviewers needed.

0:26:53.733,0:26:55.733
You know, adult books are often published

0:26:55.733,0:27:02.234
with reader's guides, guides for book clubs and so on.

0:27:02.234,0:27:05.200
So that kind of thing

0:27:05.200,0:27:07.500
that goes along with the book

0:27:07.500,0:27:09.333
but doesn't have to be part of the story

0:27:09.333,0:27:12.518
would be very helpful.

0:27:12.518,9:59:59.000
Thank you Janice.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[end of segment 4. go to segment 5]