One of the most successful,
celebrated authors in the county
lives right here in Minnesota.
If you walk around the lakes in Minneapolis,
there's a good chance you've wad
right by her and not even known.
Most people wouldn't
recognize Kate D Camillo,
but millions love her work,
including me, which is why I was
so honored to sit down with hero
talk about her extraordinary ca.
A career she says she might note
had had she not moved to Minnes.
As children browse the shelves at the
Red Balloon Bookstore in Saint ,
they have no idea one of the mot
successful children's authors ie
world is sitting just a few feet away.
Even the author herself
can hardly believe it.
When you look at that,
the career you've had,
what do you think?
I think it's impossible.
You know it's not as it is, tru.
Not Comprehensible Kate
D Camillo is a New York Times bestseller
with more than 43 million books in print.
Her work has collected every kid
of award, including a nearly
unprecedented 2 Newberries.
Her books range from a hit chiln
series about a pig who loves to,
to chapter books that became int
classics like Because of winn-d.
Come on, winn-dixie and the Tale of Despero.
Are you a rat? No.
A mouse. I am a gentleman.
Di Camillo's own childhood in Florida
influenced all of those stories growing up.
Her battle with chronic pneumona
fueled her love of reading,
but it was really, really a
sickly kid missed a ton of scho.
So I was home alone a lot,
and I had books, and that was fantastic
in college, a compliment from a professor
on her writing and a suggestione
go to grad school set her on her path.
So I thought, why?
Why bother with Graduate School?
I'll just go be a writer. Yeah.
And then you spent a decade wor,
you know, at Circus World, Disney World.
Telling everybody I was a write,
what did you think that meant
in your 20s, or how did what did
I think it meant? I thought
it meant to wearing a black
turtleneck and being, you know,
cool. She didn't actually
start writing until she turned
30 and moved to Minnesota. I
probably wouldn't be sitting
here talking to you if I
hadn't moved from Florida to.
To Minnesota and gotten a
job and a book warehouse.
By sheer chance, D Camila was
assigned to the children's sectn
And I started to read some of
those books and I thought, I wat
to try and do something like th.
So she started setting her
alarm for 4:30 every morning and
committed to writing 2 pages a ,
every day before work. And
then a little bit of time.
You you have the story,
you send the story out into the world.
What do you get back?
And like, if you're standing
in front of a group of kids.
And the answer is always money.
Like, no, no, no, that's not it.
What you get is a rejection
letter. Do you want to guess how
many rejection letters I got?
512. Fifty
54173? Yeah. I always say to th,
you know, I look at that #473 aI
think, what if I'd stopped at 4?
I have to figure out how to do.
After six years of rejection,
a publisher finally pulled this
book out of a pile about a girl
and her dog that Di Camillo wroe
during her second winter here
in Minnesota. I was homesick
and and because of winn-dixie is a book
about about homesickness in many ways.
And it's a book about missing the South.
And so it's, you know, it's lik.
I couldn't have written it unless I I I left
Di Camillo, hoped the book would sell
5000 copies, but then it won a Newberry
honor and went on to sell 11 million.
It totally changed my life,
and things started to happen.
She quit the warehouse job,
bought a house in Minneapolis,
and started writing fulltime.
She still writes out of her Home Office,
still before dawn,
2 pages a day, five days a week.
But the homesickness of her early days,
in fact her very definition
of home, has changed
also. I found I love winter,
and winter is very conducive to
telling stories and all the seas
really moved me to, you know.
And so all of that,
it was just like this massive gt
and I had this feeling of here
I am where I am supposed to be.
And you've never left.
You could go anywhere.
You could write anywhere.
You've had lots
of success. No, this is home.
This is my place. Yeah,
well, she is still writing.
With two new books coming out this fall.
I can tell you it was truly
delightful to meet Ms.
Di Camillo and talk with her in person.
If you'd like to meet her,
she has a couple events coming
up at Barnes and Noble stores.
We have that information,
plus a list of her top five
book recommendations for kids
and for adults on care11.com.
And you can look for my extended
interview with her on our YouTue
page and airing on Care 11,
plus our live streaming app for Roku,
Fire TV and Apple TV.
Very cool. So interesting.
Oh my goodness,
isn't that.
Yeah I I read the Taylor Despero
my girls when they were little d
just fell in love with her writg
and then realized a few years ao
she's from Minnesota and have
been contacting her occasionally
through the years and was thril.
She she made time to sit down wh
us and Taylor Despero celebratig
20 years this fall which I can't
believe but to read that I I was
a Mercy Watson. My kids love the
toast books with the pigs and.
And so how about so many people
come up to me today and be like,
I didn't know she lives here.
Yeah, I know so.
And the weather, it's part of i.
So there's she got the winter b.
Yeah, it's a creative time,
that's for sure.
When it comes to staying inside, anyway.