And now for Part 2 of the Sy Montgomery interview. (See Part 1 yesterday.) But first I have to relate one of the more surprising things that came up when I set out to do this interview. I looked up Sy's web site to get a bit more background info. She shares the site with her husband, author Howard Mansfield and when I saw his name and then his book The Bones of the Earth I couldn't believe it. As it turns out, I have been a fan of Howard and Sy's for years and both of their books are in my library (albeit on opposite sides). Bones is an essay collection about cultural memory - buildings and towns and cemeteries and what we prize and what we leave behind. Most importantly he considers the value of place, of physically having a place, in our memory. I can't even remember when I first heard about his book but I have read it several times and value it quite highly (and really need to get copies of his other titles), so to already be connected not just with Sy but Howard before I even dialed the number was very cool indeed.

In this round of the interview we talk about Sy's phenomenal bestseller and moving memoir, The Good Good Pig. For folks who might now know however, I wanted to point out that Howard wrote a children's book about Christopher Hogwood which was illustrated by none other than the amazing Barry Moser. If you've got a young animal lover at home then be sure to seek out Hogwood Steps Out.

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CM: The Good Good Pig was quite a departure from your earlier work - it was very personal, and on a topic so local it was in your backyard. Why do you think it has resonated so much with so many (especially book clubs)?

SM: It was pig magic, plain and simple. Christopher brought me incredible blessings - things I didn't even know know to ask for. I do have hopes that he continues to look after me, even now. One of the best things about the book has been the number of people who tell me 'there will be no pork on my fork'. People didn't realize how intelligent and emotional animals are until reading this book and I think that is part of why it has done so well - they love him.

CM: After so many years of writing books where you are barely part of narrative, how hard was it to get this personal?

SM: The last thing I wanted to do was write this book. After Christopher's death I suffered from situational depression. I knew it but I didn't want to wallow in that misery. I felt I owed it to him to tell his story but it wasn't therapeutic. Grief sucked and writing while grieving was very very hard. But this book kept getting more personal as I wrote and became a book about family. Family isn't about blood or genetics; it's about love and that is what the book is about and now Christopher is visiting the world.

And it wasn't all sad - eating was his performance art and sharing how much people enjoyed feeding him and seeing him and loving him was wonderful.

CM: Are you working on another personal title or returning to the "the wild"?

SM: I have another book in the Scientist in the Field series coming out next year on the Kakpo Parrot. It has literally been years in the making. (Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot due in April 2010.) The only breeding pair moved to the southernmost of the New Zealand islands (Southern Island) and we then waited five years for them to nest. Nic and I had two weeks notice when they did so we could get out there and cover the story. It's a return to my traditional way of writing about scientists and conservation but a very dramatic and emotional story. The Kakapo are so rare and so precious. The group of scientists camping nearby care very much for them - they are so close to extinction. This story showed me again how fascinating science can be, and how emotional.

CM: What did you learn down there?

SM: New Zealand's wildlife history is so interesting. It used to be 'ruled by birds' but then the Maori brought rats and the Europeans brought a Noah's Ark of animals. It became an endangered bird's worst nightmare and it's a miracle that the Kakapo have survived this long. They are very long-lived creatures though - up to a 100 years old - and this story gave us all hope.

CM: This is your first real bird story though, isn't it?

SM: The timing is interesting because the other book I have coming out next year, for adults, is also about birds. (CM: Birdology: Lessons Learned from a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds and One Murderously Big Cassowary in May 2010 from Free Press. I have to share my favorite early blurb for it: ""This is my favorite kind of book: charming, witty, and wise, idiosyncratic and inspiring. And Birdology is Sy Montgomery at her very best. Not a catalog, list, or inventory, Birdology is more like a novel, a confession, or an engaging memoir of life lived with soul and wings. I love this book." -- Dale Peterson, author of Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man and Elephant Reflections".)

With that book I searched for the essence of birds. I looked at seven species and investigated one different aspect of "birdiness". I looked at how they are similar to dinosaurs, their fragility, their individuality, etc. I asked myself the question, "What do we need to know about birds to understand their strangeness?" Here's something closer to dinosaurs than us, but it speaks to us. Once I had that essential question, that curiosity, then it was just a matter of choosing the birds. My hope with this book is that it will restore our feelings of awe and kinship with this extraordinary animal.

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And that was the end of my interview....except in a lot of ways it wasn't. I really like Sy, I mean I really really like her. It's interesting how you can click with someone so quickly through a phone call and yet that is exactly how I felt while speaking with her. It was interesting enough that I was a fan of both her writing and her husband's long before I picked up the phone or that they both happen to be interested in subjects that have long fascinated me. (Odd coincidence number #100 - I just finished reading a rash of bird books and wrote a feature on several of them for Bookslut this summer.) It is similar I suppose to interactions I have had with Zetta Elliott, or Beth Kephart, or Jenny Davidson or Laurel Snyder or Sara Ryan (who I have met!) and several other outstanding authors. I don't know any of them really, and yet, I know them well. And that means a whole lot more than it sounds.

By the time I hung up the phone with Sy we had discussed houses and pets and my son's rabid nonfiction attraction and Irish myths and mourning and magic. And it was lovely, in all the right ways. This conversation reminded me of why I like being in the literary world so much, and how many awesome people are truly out here with me.

Rock on, Sy Montgomery - rock on.

[Post pic of Christopher Hogwood, subject of "The Good Good Pig".]