Nate Oxman, host of That’s a Good Pick UpThat’s a Good Pick Up, a podcast mostly about golf books. We’re here this week with Janice Nissen to talk about her book, The Little Lost Golf Ball. Janice, thanks so much for joining us.
Janice Nissen: This is my pleasure. I really appreciate the opportunity to read to some of your listeners, which I know you have a great deal of them.
Nate: Let’s start by talking about your background: Where’d you grow up? Tell me a little bit about what role Reading First played in your childhood.
Janice: I grew up in the city of Chicago. And at the time, it was a great place because there were lots of kids around and lots of opportunities to be outside and playing softball or football. Reading is always something that I thoroughly enjoyed as a child growing up, and I belong to a book club, and so [reading] continues into my life today.
Nate: Are there books or authors that stand out that grabbed you when you were a kid – whether in school or out of school?
Janice: I’m going to really date myself on this one, but what I really enjoyed reading was Nancy Drew. There was a whole series of books to tap into, which I greatly enjoyed, and so did my friends. So, we had good discussions.
Then when I had children, I really got into the Harry Potter series. Absolutely loved, loved those books. Today it’s more of New York Times bestsellers and a lot of biographies.
Nate: And how about writing? Was that something you enjoyed when you were a kid?
Janice: Well, I was the editor of our yearbook in high school, so there was a fair amount of writing that went along with it at the time, and a bit of creativity in how we were going to lay out certain pages and things like that. That was also something else that I really enjoyed.
Nate: Where did life take you after high school?
Janice: After high school, I went to college, and I have a Bachelor of Science in nursing. I worked in the pediatric medical and surgical ICU at the Children’s Hospital in Chicago for about three years. I was newly married at the time, and there was a lot of shift work, so I would have to do a month of days, a month of nights.
Then I became a nurse clinician for Abbott Laboratories. I used to go to people’s homes who were discharged from the hospital and maybe were on IV therapy or tube feedings. I would visit them and make sure that they were okay, and they knew how to operate their pump and that they were progressing well.
Abbot disbanded that group, and then I went into pharmaceutical sales and spent 12 years working at Abbott Laboratories. After that, we moved to Pennsylvania because I joined Merck, and that’s where I worked for 25 years in commercial roles, marketing, sales, operations, and corporate communications. I also was in patient engagement, trying to bring the patient perspective into how Merck made decisions about the products they would develop, how they would package them, and how they would provide resources to patients on their products.
Nate: In a variety of different roles that you played there, it seems like all of them were rewarding probably in their own right.
Janice: Yes, indeed. It was a great experience. It was a wonderful company to work for, and I really liked the idea that even though I wasn’t a nurse directly helping patients, I was still indirectly helping millions of patients with the decisions and products that Merck would bring forward.
Today I still work part-time for the National Institute of Health Foundation. It’s a group that brings together the FDA, NIH science, academic centers, and patient groups to speed up biomedical innovation, so all that being said, my career was very much technical and technical writing, if you will. It was probably becoming a grandmother, retiring, and spending more time golfing that got me interested in writing a children’s book.
Nate: Very cool. That leads us to golf. Tell me how golf came into your life.
Janice: Growing up, we would periodically play at a public golf course in Chicago. But I really didn’t start to play it routinely until I retired and I could take lessons. That’s been three years now. I would describe myself as a high-handicap golfer, but it is something I thoroughly enjoy because you’re outside, you’re exercising, you’re seeing nature, and it’s a game that’s all about the friendships and just competing with yourself. I really love that aspect of it.
Nate: When did the idea for this golf book pop into your head?
Janice: I know the exact moment. I was doing what they call an open day. The Gap Association of Philadelphia, the women’s group, can play at seven different private courses. And I was playing at Philmont with a friend. I hit a ball, and it went in a creek. I went to find it, and I didn’t. Instead, I found another ball, and I thought to myself, boy, I wonder where this ball has been and what adventures it might have had. It started there, and that was really the germ of the idea.
Nate: Where did it take you from there?
Janice: I started to kind of put together a story, and there’s a woman I met on LinkedIn who reached out to me and said, “Hey, have you ever thought about writing a book?” And at the time, I said, “No, I haven’t.” And then I went back to her, and I said, “Hey, I have thought about writing a book.”
Kathy Sparrow, The Literary Midwife, has been in publishing for over 30 years. She served as my editor and continues as my thought partner. She taught me how to develop characters and how I could make the idea of a lost golf ball something that would be fun and whimsical for children. What we came up with was actually animating the golf clubs. There’s Delilah Driver, Freddie Fairway, Putter Pete, and many others. It was something that would appeal to children. I later learned that little girls playing golf named their clubs
It was really a two-year process of continuing to iterate on developing the characters, the arc of the story, and putting in the important lessons for children as well. I also wanted to bring in curiosity, friendship, resilience, and the importance of practice and managing through adversity since Lizbeth, the little lost golf ball, does get lost in a pond
Nate: During that two-year process, were there times where you just were throwing your hands up in the air and thought to yourself, like, how can I see myself getting to the finish line, or did you enjoy the process of kind of reworking it, a few different times?
Janice: I did enjoy the process, but I will tell you that what I wasn’t familiar with was writing a book where you’re doing dialogue. And I found it to be a real learning experience, though at times I felt a little frustrated with it. That was probably the biggest, biggest challenge that I had in writing the book.
Nate: The dialogue is really, really strong, and it definitely carries the reader through the story. So, you did a great job with it. Tell me about the target audience. When you sat down to write it, did you want to focus mainly on girls? Although, obviously, it’s a story that any kid can enjoy
Janice: I’ve really been struck by the huge difference between the PGA and the LPGA in terms of the number of people involved in pro golf on each side. The number of women in the U.S. actually isn’t a big number. So, I’ve always been eager to encourage more girls to get into the game
And again, knowing that especially right now, we’re very concerned about really all kids, boys and girls, the amount of time they spend on their devices. I’d like to get people, especially children, interested in golf so they can get off their screens and onto the greens.
As I said, there are significant opportunities for a larger LPGA and a larger cadre of women golfers out there. And it starts with the girls, really. I also volunteer at First Tee, and there’s a young girl there
I think she’s like 14. She’s a very good golfer with a great swing. She told me she’s the only girl on the golf team, and she’s playing with a bunch of boys. Now, that’s fine, and she gets along great, but
Where’s the opportunity to have a little bit more comradeship among other girls? I think there’s a big opportunity.
The book does appeal to boys too, which is why I really try to include the idea of her getting lost in the pond and then meeting Teddy, a lost golf ball who loves living there. Then also Genji Gator
Because I thought those were a couple of characters that would appeal a little more to boys.
One of the things I really focused on with my book, too, was making it an easy entry point into golf for people who know nothing about it.
Nate: And I think your book does a great job of that. Can you tell me a little bit about how easy or difficult it was for you to introduce some basic golf terms without going down rabbit holes? Like, if you wanted to, talk to somebody about the rough, how did you go about doing that? Was easy to go from rough to something else, then to something else, then to something else.
Janice: I know exactly what you mean, and that’s where it was helpful to reach out to people who don’t golf. And I showed them early versions of the book to see if they would understand what I was saying.
Kathy, who I mentioned was the editor, doesn’t know anything about golf. At one point, she mentioned we should talk about handicaps. I told her it’s way too complicated for a book for children 3 to 10 years old.
Nate: Another thing that’s really, really strong is the illustrations. Can you tell me how you found an illustrator and what the process was like?
Janice: I was aware of James Koenig, who is the illustrator, because he was the illustrator for books that Kathy, our editor, had written in the Stanky and Cece Adventures series. I really liked the illustrations. I liked that his style made the characters look welcoming, with big eyes and big smiles. I wanted that sort of warm feeling of the characters. So, I didn’t shop around.
Nate: Did you have to do a little tweaking with the illustrations? Were you giving a little guidance at all?
Janice: We did a little bit of tweaking, particularly on the cover, because in the first picture of Lizbeth, she had a really frightened look on her face. I wanted a concerned look. So we had to make some adaptations there. In addition, there was one time where there was an illustration where the faces were upside down because he was trying to do the clubs the way that they would look. And I said, yeah, but we can’t look at the faces upside down. He really was quite right on with what I was looking for. I also tried to ensure we had a bit of live diversity in it, with Sonja looking a little more Hispanic. One of the golfers is African American. The other characters are white. Genji is an Asian name. So, trying to be a little more inclusive in terms of the characters
Nate: Is the illustrator a golfer? No, no. Absolutely not.
Janice: Well, he did a great job. I was very, very happy with the result. There was one time when he was showing the tee box, and it didn’t have the markers. I sent him a picture of what a tee box marker looks like, and said it’s really important that she’s lined up between the tee markers.
Nate: Here’s a little bit of feedback from my daughters. I read it to my 10-year-old and my 6-year-old, and my 10-year-old was upset when we finished the book without her. I don’t know where she was. She might have fallen asleep on the couch or something, and I read the book with my 6-year-old. There were a few nights when I would say, “Okay, we’re going to read two pages max,” and she never wanted to stop at two pages. She wanted to continue, but of course it would have been past her bedtime, so I forced us to stop after a couple of pages. I’m assuming that you got similar feedback from kids who really enjoyed the book. It’s a quick read, and it’s a light read. It’s not something the reader has to stop to explain in great detail to the child.
Janice: Thank you so much for the feedback. I loved when I got your email that they enjoyed it. So that’s been wonderful to hear that, and I’ve done some Barnes & Noble readings as well, and it’s really kind of fun when you can go through the book and even do a discussion afterward, like, which character did you like and what was your favorite part?
Nate: Do you have a plan for this golf season to get it into the hands of kids with any groups?
Janice: As I mentioned, I volunteer at First Tees as an assistant coach, and they have put it in their library, and they also have used it as prizes at different events.
I tried reaching out to PGA Junior, but I have not heard anything. I’m focusing on the fact that this can be a nice entry for kids in junior golf programs. I’ve actually thought about, like, writing almost like a user guide of how you might use some of these characters to maybe open up a lesson. Just say to keep kids interested, especially the really young ones
Nate: It’s a great idea. It’s definitely intimidating for many kids who know nothing about golf. If I’m a teacher and I hand a kid a seven iron and I say, “Hit this club at this flag,” and then I have to show you how to hold the club, and show you how to aim, and show you what to do with your feet, and your legs and your back, and your head, and all those different things. But if you can use the book to break down the barrier, make it a little less intense, less serious, less stressful, less scary, it’s a no-brainer.
Janice: I think you’re right because most of us have taken golf lessons ourselves. It can get real technical.
Nate: Are there any plans to do another book?
Janice: Well, it’s funny that you should say that, because when I started writing this book, I had a year-and-a-half-old granddaughter, and so Jojo, who’s the junior golfer in the book, is my granddaughter. Now we have a grandson, and he’s 15 months old, but he wasn’t around when I started this book. So, my son and daughter-in-law said, “Well, what about Chase?”
I’ve been thinking about that. But also want to make sure that I get Lizbeth, The Little Lost Golf Ball, off to a really, really good start, and I do have an idea for another book.
Nate: How old is Jojo, your granddaughter? What does she think of the book and that she’s featured in it?
Janice: She’s 5 now, absolutely loves that. She, of course, can’t read yet, and knows some sight words. I read it to her once last fall, and then I got a video from my son of her reading it, and there were certain sentences she was repeating. I was very, very impressed with that. But when I asked her, I said, “Well, what do you like? Who’s your favorite character?” And so instead of saying, “I like Jojo,” which was her, she says, “I want to be Lizbeth.”
Nate: Wow, interesting, which kind of tells me she wanted to be more of the center of the story. That’s a good segue. Give a quick synopsis of the story.
Janice: This is a story about Lizbeth, a brand-new golf ball purchased by a junior golfer, Jojo, who sets out to play. Along the way, they meet a number of characters: Delilah Driver, Fairway Freddy, Rachel Rake, among others, and they teach her about the game of golf. All is going well until Lizbeth accidentally is hit into a pond, and she is absolutely crushed because she’s lost contact with Jojo.
So, even though this is a turn of events, she meets new friends at the pond. Teddy is a lost golf ball, and he loves living in the pond, which is why he’s all disguised with algae and dirt. And he has a sidekick, Genji Gator, and they teach her how to hold on to hope, and with their support she does get returned back to Jojo and to her golf course friends. She comes back being a little bit wiser and certainly much happier.
Some of the key themes that I tried to put in the book for children are the power of friendship
being optimistic, having a sense of adventure and curiosity, which are really good lessons for children
Nate: Where can people find more information?
Janice: The website is a great resource. Lizbeththelittlelostgolfball.com. You can get coloring pages there. And you can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, or Bookshop.
Nate: Well, Janice, this has been great. I really appreciate the time, and I’ll do everything I can to promote the book, because as a father of 3 daughters, I think it’s important to get girls into golf, as you mentioned before, and anything we can do to do that is awesome, and this book is a great way to get golf going. And I appreciate your time, and thanks so much for writing the book and reaching out to me.
