Welcome to Between the Covers summer series where# we put the spotlight on our South Florida authors.

Hi, I'm Anne Bok and joining me is performance# storyteller and author Karen Schneer Neil.

Her new book is featuring Florida, the sunshine state# in fiction, film, and TV.

Karen, this is such a fun read.

I had a blast reading.

It's a It's# a celebration of our state of Florida through books, through TV shows, through film.

Such an# interesting mix.

So, I expected the classics like Marjorie Kennan's Rawling.

What I really I guess I# didn't expect was some of the contemporary things like Magic Mike.

So, how did you choose what went# into the book and when did you know how to stop?

It was a nightmare.

Ann, I've got to tell you, I# thought this was going to be very easy.

I thought I would get the classics.

I thought I would get,# you know, do some research.

And I expected in my proposal, I said about 50.

And what I found# was an avalanche of material.

Material back into the 19th century a little bit, but material# that is being written as we speak.

And in fact, I missed a few.

I have to say I got in a lot of my# favorites and some that that were unexpected, but I definitely missed a few.

Anything in particular# you missed that that you wish you had put in?

Oh, thank you.

I missed the most wonderful book, The# Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks.

He just died a couple of years ago.

Wonderful novelist.

He wrote# several books about South Florida.

I don't know what happened to me, but that one is really a# classic and it was his last novel and I wanted to do a shout out to it that we will all look for# that.

I think so.

I'd love a bird's eye view of the book.

Like, how much research did you do?

How# long did it take you to put it together?

It took about a year.

I'm surprised that it only took a# year.

Well, I got to the point where I was reading a book every two days.

I'm embarrassed to say.

I# am also very glad to admit I did not watch every episode of Miami Vice, every episode of CSI Miami.# I didn't watch every movie from start to finish, but I read many, many books.

Do you want to name# drop a couple of things in the book that maybe we would be surprised that made the cut?

I could not# get over how much I enjoyed Where the Boys Are.

I thought it would be something I would look at# for two minutes and yeah, take a couple of notes and do a little research on.

It's a rather serious# movie.

It's a serious examination of spring break.

And why I wrote this book was not only because I# thought there were so many things about Florida out there that people needed to know, but also# because each story in some way illuminated an aspect of Florida.

And I learned a lot about# spring break from researching it for Where the Boys Are.

What I learned were the fun facts that# you have at the end of every single entry.

Now I'm this wealth of Florida information.

Was there# any hidden gem or surprise that you found when you were doing your research?

The I dream of dream# genie c the I dream of genie cast spent maybe two days in Florida.

That was the big one.

E, even# though it's the astronauts and Okay, the other one shouldn't have surprised me that Ray-B bands,# the sale of Ray-B bands skyrocketed after Miami Vice became a hit.

I didn't think the sale of# Tessterosas would necessarily skyrocket, but Ray-B bands, that was pretty interesting.

There are the# adorable TV shows that that we remember.

flipper, Golden Girls.

But then there are the deeper, more,# I guess I'm going to say painful side of things like the 2017 film The Florida Project, which# in my opinion is a very it's an excellent film, but it's sometimes hard to watch.

G give me a# comment about that in relation to this book.

I loved that movie and I agree with you.

It# was very difficult to watch and even though William Defoe I believe he won an Oscar, he was# certainly nominated for an Oscar for that.

He he alone was not sufficient to sell the movie to# a lot of the public.

So part of why I wanted to include that movie in the book was I wanted# people to watch it.

Luckily today we can go back and watch things very easily from a few years# ago.

It was important to know that right in the shadow of Disney World are people living in these# welfare hotels or people living these sketchy marginal lives.

And I thought as difficult# as it was to watch, it was a masterpiece.

As a storyteller and as an author, how do you see# Florida portrayed in fiction?

And do you think it's fair?

How much time do we have?

The real# Florida just like the real United States is many many things of course and it differs depending on# our point of view on our perspective.

So I think it would be impossible to get a handle on the real# Florida other than to say like many other places there is a huge diversity as I found in this# book.

One of the underlying themes, whether we're talking about nature, whether we're talking about# politics, whether we're talking about families, an underlying theme, I found, is a sense of# danger.

There is some underlying sense.

Now, we like danger.

We seek it out, right?

As long as# we're safe.

So, that's not a reason to be afraid of these stories.

It's not a reason to be afraid# of Florida certainly as long as we take care.

But there is this element of anything can happen.# There is this element of whether it is the weather or whether it is human nature.

We never quite know# that we're on firm footing.

That said, what makes a Florida story a Florida story?

It cannot simply# be geography.

That's a really good point.

It can it's geography is certainly part of it.

It's also# Florida people the certain kinds of whether it is uh the diversity of ethnicities we have here# and backgrounds whether it is water sports whether or whether it is flora and fauna.

We've# got characters, whether they're people or not, we've got characters that are endemic to# Florida, right?

My last book, Only in Florida, I was supposed to only write true stories,# but only write things that could happen only in Florida.

So, there was a lot of golfing.

Of# course, golfing takes place otherw other places.

But we're the golfing capital, right?

There# were weather stories.

Yeah, there's weather other places, but we're the lightning capital,# etc., etc.

So, there is this sense of extremity.

There is this sense of a frontier.

Maybe we're# still in some way America's last frontier.

There is this sense of people, you know, I write# about how with Kelargo at the time that the movie with Bogar was being filmed, that was considered# the end of the earth, right?

The criminals went there cuz nobody could find you in Keargo.

Well,# today that's not quite the case.

We can be found if we go to Florida, but nevertheless, there's# still a sense that we're out there in some way.

Karen, you write in the introduction that there# were times you didn't think you'd ever finish writing this book.

So, for one, I am very# glad you did.

It's thoroughly entertaining and I I'm so enjoyed it.

The title is featuring# Florida, the sunshine state in fiction, film, and TV.

Karen Schneer Neil, I want to thank you# so much for sharing your time here today.

It was a pleasure and thank you.

I'm Anne Bocock.# Please join me on the next Between the Covers.