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Ask the Author: Kim van Alkemade

“ I'm happy to answer your questions about researching and writing historical fiction!” Kim van Alkemade

Answered Questions (17)

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Hi! I just read your book Orphan #8 (finished it about an hour ago actually). I feel the impact of your novel has greatly changed the way I look at people of the LGBTQ+ community who are Jewish. I'm a leader of my school's Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA). I was wondering if you'd be comfortable sharing your experience as a Jewish LGBTQ+ woman and as an author and how that has impacted you? Thank you so much!
Kim van Alkemade Hi Celeste, thanks so much for reading my novel! I'm not sure my personal experience is all that interesting or useful, but there are so many great resources through the American Library Associations LGBT Roundtable I'm sure you can find some great reading for your students. http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt
It is really important for me, though, to have LGBT characters in my historical fiction as I think it reclaims a historical space for us that is often invisible since so much was hushed up in the past. I'd also recommend that you check out the book Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, it's a fantastic resource.
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My dad Martin Weiss left the orphanage in Tuckahoe on his bar mitzvah. His father had died when he was 6 and his older siblings refused to go with my grandmother, a zionist to Palestine, but in fact she traveled the south a religious zealot until committed and died in 1941 with the kids thinking she had gone to Palestine. I have a picture of my dad's basketball team. Where can I find old pictures? thank you.
Kim van Alkemade Hi Ronald, Wow, what an amazing family story you have. I found pictures in the archives at the Center for Jewish History in New York because they had the materials from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. Your first step is to find out what archive has materials from the orphanage where your dad grew up, then to get in touch with the archivists there. Good luck on your search!
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Kim, I just learned about your book, Orphan Number 8. Do you have any further interest in learning more about the Hebrew Orphan Assylum? My father, Harry and his brother Seymour both grew up there, and are still living. Harry is 91 and living in Minnesota; Seymour is 96 (still playing racquetball once a week) and living in Marlton, NJ. My father, Harry, just signed up to get his copy of your book.
Kim van Alkemade I am so glad your father will be reading Orphan #8, thank you very much. My uncle Seymour also grew up in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum! Have you read The Luckiest Orphans by Hyman Bogan? It's a fabulous history of the orphanage. It's fabulous to still have your father and uncle, I miss my grandpa so much but my grandma is still going strong at 98! I'd love to hear from your dad and/or uncle, especially their thoughts on the novel. Please do stay in touch!
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I really enjoyed reading Orphan #8. What is the subject of your new book? Marilyn
Kim van Alkemade Hi Marilyn, Well, I can tell you it's historical fiction, set in Prohibition New York, but I don't want to say any more until I've actually completed a full draft! I'm superstitious that way...thanks for your question! Kim
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I really look forward to reading more of your books. This book touched my soul. I was disturbed and saddened then full of happiness for Rachel as well. Thank you!! Do you have others?
Kim van Alkemade Hi Ellyn, thank you so much for reaching out to me, and thank you for reading Orphan # 8, it means so much to me that it touched you. I am working on a second book but best case scenario is 2017. Kim
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My reading group has spent time discussing the covers of books. There was significant importance placed on the cover design, there were many different opinions of the cover and meanings, including insights that hadn't occurred to me.I've become curious about your great book and it's covers.How many different covers are there for Orphan #8? What do you consider when you choose of or approve a cover?
Kim van Alkemade Hi Susan, I know, isn't it amazing the variations on the covers for the different editions? The original cover was the only one my editor presented to me and I loved it immediately. I do get a quick approval over each cover but so far I've only made one suggestion about making sure the girl on the cover had dark hair instead of blonde hair. They each seem to reflect the cultural aesthetics of the different countries. Check out my Facebook page and you'll see the Japanese cover, it is amazing!
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Why did you construct Rachel as a gay woman? Some people in my book club were curious as to why you constructed Rachel as a gay women. Some thought it was because it was just another way to make her different and isolated, others thought it was a historical comment on gay rights.
Kim van Alkemade Hi Susan, it did turn out that Rachel being a lesbian isolated her and intensified the plot by forcing her to confront Dr Solomon on her own, but that was a surprise to me as I was writing! My project with historical fiction is to place gay and lesbian characters in a historical context as characters in a story that goes beyond their sexuality. Plus, with over a thousand kids in the orphanage, some of them were bound to be gay or lesbian, so I just imagined Rachel was one of them!
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I am so glad that I was able to read Orphan #8. I put my name on a list at our local library. As soon as I started reading it I couldn't wait to read more. It was so informative. I learned so much about the Jewish Orphanages and the experiments that were performed on the orphans from your book. I can't wait to see what you write next. What subject matter are you exploring? Thanks, Marilyn
Kim van Alkemade Hi Marilyn, Thanks so much for checking my novel out of the library, my very first job in the world was working at a local branch of the public library system in Racine, Wisconsin. I'm working on another novel also set in New York City during the Prohibition years but I'm too early in the project to tell you more about it, stay tuned! Kim
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Hi, Someone just suggested your book to me for our bookclub. Just wondering if possible you could tell me how much is fact and fiction ? A reader in Wisconsin ! Go Badgers, Thank you Carla
Kim van Alkemade Hi Carla, The novel really is a work of fiction, but so many details throughout are inspired by or based on facts. This essay I wrote about the True Stories that Inspired Orphan #8 will answer all of your questions. http://kimvanalkemade.com/truestories...
Thank you so much for choosing my novel for your book club, I really appreciate it! On Wisconsin.
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This was just an amazing book to read. Thank you for your research into this party of history. The book was so incredibly well written, one of the few books I can say I could not put down. Thank you for your insight and I look forward to any more books you may write. Ha, see I have to end this with a question? Any more books planned on historical fiction?
Kim van Alkemade Hello Margot, I am so glad you enjoyed reading my novel, I really appreciate you letting me know. I am working on another novel of historical fiction also set in New York in the 1920s and 1930s, but it's too soon in the writing process to tell you what it's about!
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Orphan #8 is a truly outstanding book, brilliantly researched and written. You have a wonderful career ahead of you; I will be watching for your next book. Just one little suggestion: don't have any characters tuck a strand of hair behind someone's ear. I've collected 37 examples of hair tucking in novels in just the last year! It's become such a cliche. Are you aware of that?
Kim van Alkemade Hi Kathleen, thank you so much I am really glad you enjoyed my novel! I wasn't aware of the hair tucking, what an attentive reader you are!
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Hi Kim. I met you at the NY Pitch Conference last December, and have looked forward to reading Orphan # 8 since then. What a beautifully written novel. Thank you for transporting me and for enlightening me. I was particularly moved by the relationship between Rachel and Sam. My question is: When is your next novel coming out, and what will it be about?
Kim van Alkemade Hi Bari, Sorry I didn't answer sooner, thank you so much for your kind words about my novel! I am working on another one but it's too soon for me to talk about what it's about.
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Hi Kim, are was there currently research that caused you make this a into a novel- is it a personal experience for you?
Kim van Alkemade Hi Velvet, I wrote an essay for the back of the novel, the PS section, called "True Stories" that really goes in depth in answer to your question. After you read it let me know if you have any other questions!
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Kim, I am librarian in Big Rapids, MI and just happen to be cataloging your book. It seems that there is a bit of a discrepancy when it comes to spelling your last name. Some catalogers have it as Van Alkemade while other have it as Alkemade. Could you please let me know what it is? We have several excited patrons waiting to read your books. We want to get it out to our shelves. ;)
Kim van Alkemade Hi Miriam! Thank you so much for asking. My last name begins with the "v" in "van Alkemade" I typically use a small letter "v" in the Dutch tradition, but that adds to the confusion, I 'm sorry!
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I could not put this book down. The book opened my curiosity to search other institutions at that time that experimented on children. I was shocked to see how common it was. Your book is very informative in a very good story kind of way. Just wanted to say thank you for the book. I was wondering if you were aware of Willowbrook in Staten Island?
Kim van Alkemade I'm so glad you enjoyed the book, Angela! I do know a bit about Willowbrook, though I[m sure there's lots I don't know. That's the challenge with historical fiction: at some point, the research has to end so the writing can begin!
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Why is the architecture of orphanages in the past resemble medieval castles? They're so grandiose.
Kim van Alkemade Hi Nina! I think they were following the style of the time. In the late 1880s, public buildings often had a similar architecture. When the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was commissioned, it may have looked like a castle but it was designed to function as an efficient and healthy home for a thousand children. It eventually filtered its own water, had its own generator, and was completely self sufficient--even when the blizzard of 1888 shut down the city for over a week!
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Hi. I saw your book advertised on facebook- JCCA/ HOA. I don't know if I want to make my correspondence public. I knew some cousins who may have lived there in the 20's?
Kim van Alkemade HI Sally, I can understand you wanting to keep the specifics of your question private. All the records of admissions to the HOA are housed with the American Jewish Historical Society archives at the Center for Jewish History. Up to 1,300 children lived there at a time and the HOW was open in its Amsterdam Avenue location from 1885 to 1941, so many, many children passed through, some for their entire childhoods, others just until a parent remarried or otherwise became able to reclaim them. The archivists are really helpful! You can begin your search here: http://www.cjh.org
Thanks for asking your question!
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