Hannah Schifrin and her grandfather, Woody Weingarten, joke around together. (Photo courtesy Nancy Fox)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Woody Weingarten, author and longtime journalist, is a regular contributor to forallevents.com, Local News Matters and Bay City News. To promote his children’s book written with his granddaughter/co-author and illustrated by Joe Marciniak, he decided the only reporter he could trust with the Q&A was himself. Most reviewers, even politicians who desperately clung to office by yelling “fake news,” admit his faux interrogation is spot on.
WOODY THE INTERVIEWER: Why’d you two write this whimsical book?
Hannah: I thought I could have fun working with Grandpa.
Woody: Yep, fun.
What’s your four-part story about?
Hannah: A wizard grandfather and two mischief-makers, his fairy granddaughter and her best friend, another fairy. It has spells and a magic carpet, too.
Woody: Yep, it’s magical.
Is it based on your real-life relationship?
Hannah: No, I don’t do spells.
Woody: Yep, which is good, ’cause I can’t undo spells.
What does happen in Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates?
Hannah: Oh, an 8-year-old fairy wins the unicorn racing championships. Baby chicks sing jazz instead of cheeping. The sorcerer makes robot characters less scary. And the girls stop “thunder-and-lightning storms, floods, earthquakes and tornadoes all over.”
Woody: Yep, a lot of fun stuff.
Did the fact there’s 70 years between you get in your way?
Hannah: Nope, we’ve really bonded. Besides, I have my friends, and he’s got his.
Woody: Yep.
Did you and Grampa whoop it up when you were little?
Hannah: Well, he’d make up stories when we played together on the floor with my dollhouse, tiny plastic horses and teeny people figurines.
Woody: Yep, and Hannah would always add funny action.
If your book took only several months to write when Hannah was 8, why more than five years to publish?
Hannah: I don’t know. Grandpa was dealing with the details.
Woody: Yep, well, techno glitches, human errors and 2,149 tweaks delayed things.
Who can read Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates?
Hannah: It’s aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds, but grandparents can read it to kids. So can parents. Or other relatives. Or friends. Or neighbors. Or, in fact, anybody.
Woody: Yep.
Where can I buy the book?
Hannah: Through my Grandpa’s new website woodyweingarten.com, at Amazon, at your local bookstore, at Barnes & Noble, at Apple — pretty much everywhere books are sold.
Woody: Yep, nearly everywhere.
Do you two intend to collaborate on another children’s fantasy any time soon?
Hannah: Not in the near future. Although we talk and get together a lot, I’m busy creating a series of videos for TikTok and going to school.
Woody: Nope, not now. Our bond is bonded permanently so I’m comfortable working on a new solo book aimed at adults, The Roving I, and a second edition of my first, Rollercoaster. Admittedly, I do hope to totally avoid techno glitches and human errors for both — and require no more than 1,075 tweaks.
Have you had enough of this interview?
Hannah: Yep.
Woody: Yep.
This story was first published on LocalNewsMatters.org, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News Foundation http://www.baycitynews.org/contact/.
Woody Weingarten can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.com and https://vitality press.com.
