(upbeat music) - Coming up next on this special literary edition of "Arizona Horizon," we'll hear from author and political strategist, Luis Miranda Jr., about his new book, "Relentless."

Also tonight, local author, Peng Shepherd, discusses her new novel which is all about choices and consequences with a quantum touch.

And a new book looked at the life and legacy of Florence Nightingale.

Those stories and more next on this special edition of "Arizona Horizon."

- [Announcer 1] "Arizona Horizon" is made possible by contributions from the Friends of Arizona PBS, members of your public television station.

- Good evening and welcome to the special literary edition of "Arizona Horizon."

I'm Ted Simons.

Luis Miranda Jr. is a longtime political activist in New York.

He's also the father of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the Broadway hit, "Hamilton."

Luis Miranda Jr. has a new book out, it's titled "Relentless," and it looks at his decades of political involvement, especially when it comes to the Latino vote.

Luis, thank you for joining us on "Arizona Horizon."

It's good to have you here.

You were just in Phoenix not too long.

What'd you think of our town?

- I love your town.

Remember, I am from Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rico tends to be quite hot, so you gave me a taste of Puerto Rico in Phoenix.

- There we go, there we go.

Hey, personal and political memoir, "Relentless," let's talk about the book.

Why did you write this?

- Many people were telling me that I kept criticizing the many columns and write-ups that I read about the Latino vote, and how the Latino vote was behaving or was gonna behave, people who I had never heard of.

So people say, "Don't complain, act.

You have been in this field for 45 years.

Why don't you put down what you have seen in those 45 years of working in the Latino political space?"

And as I did that, more and more, my family historically has been part of everything that I've done, so they became a protagonist of the book.

And the book ended up being a mix of politics and biography.

- Yes, yes, and memoir.

You came to, 1974, came to the U.S. to study psychology.

But what drew you to community action?

- I always, I had always been involved in community action in Puerto Rico.

I come from a small town called Vega Alta.

My parents were very much involved in the civic fiber of our little town.

Politically, we were very active politically as a family in Puerto Rico.

So even though I wanted to study psychology and came to New York to do a PhD in Clinical Psychology, that never meant that I was not gonna be involved in activism.

But what ended up happening, it's that I realized that I was not gonna be a very good psychologist because I wanted my patients to move and resolve their issues faster than they could.

(Ted laughs) - [Ted] Yes.

- And my professors kept telling me, "You know, in the therapeutic relationship, clients go at their own pace."

- [Ted] Yes.

- "Not at your pace."

- [Ted] Yes.

- I wanted them to go at my pace, so I left the profession.

- Yeah, you wanted to get things done and you got things done.

The book's tough subtitle is "My story of a Latino spirit that's transforming America," and you referred to this earlier.

What about Latino culture and politics needs to be better understood?

- I have seen in the 50 years that I have been in the United States, and I talk about in "Relentless," how politics in our country have been defined by the African-American community and whites.

And the political paradigm, it's a Black and white political paradigm, and we don't fit in any of those.

We are now 65 million people who come from many countries.

Two-thirds of us, like my kids, have been born and raised here.

Generationally, we're different.

Our countries are politically at a different space.

The Venezuelans that are coming now versus those who came earlier are politically different.

The Puerto Ricans who came after Maria to Florida, or those who have also came to New York in the '50s, '60s are different.

So to understand those politically, which is what I talked about in "Relentless," you need to understand all of those variables that form our political reality.

Then we could add, we can convince them, we could tell them, "Vote this way or that way," but we need to understand where they're at.

- Is that what explains what we're seeing time and time again now from surveys that Latinos, especially men, Hispanic men, are moving away from Joe Biden, President Biden, and toward Donald Trump?

What do you make of this?

What's going on here?

- Because, first of all, most of the polls that are done, we are 8 or 9%, so many, which is what I read and why I wrote the book, many who are saying that that's happening are using faulty data.

In the only All-Latino poll that has been done in the country, what we see is that support for Biden has fallen from 66 to 49%, but support for Trump, it's the same.

We are becoming more persuadable.

You need to tell us why should we vote for Biden because we are not saying that we're voting for Trump.

Keep in mind, 25 to 33% of Latinos, election after election, have voted for the Republican Party.

So I want whites to vote at that percentage for the Democratic Party.

But that's our reality.

It's a different political reality that we need to understand, particularly now that we are such a large portion of the electorate.

- And certainly here in Arizona.

And Luis, I can't let you go now without talking about your kid, Lin-Manuel.

I mean, you got a rockstar there in the family.

Did you see a rockstar developing?

Did you... How surprised or are you surprised at all the success?

- We are always surprised about the success.

We're always surprised that after "In The Heights" came "Hamilton," after "Hamilton" came "Encanto," now comes "Mufasa."

There's always a new creation that this very talented kid is involved in, but we always knew that this was his path.

My wife and I tell the story all the time of watching him in one of those Christmas specials, they always bring a chorus to Rockefeller Plaza, and they brought the chorus from his school.

And we could see a kid who is not a chorus material at all.

He was flapping his, he's flapping his arms and he's singing with enthusiasm.

We knew that this was his path.

- Yes, and his path has been very successful, and you have been very successful.

You lived quite a continued success on everything that you're doing here, the book, and just raising a great philanthropic, where we never even got into that.

I know it's big for you as well.

But just thank you so much for making time for us.

We really do appreciate it.

- Thank you for having me.

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- A critically acclaimed local author recently released an inventive new novel that takes reader involvement to new levels.

The book is titled "All This and More," and it features a main character who puts her future and the plot in the hands of the reader.

We learn more from the book's author, Phoenix native, Peng Shepherd.

Good to see you again.

Congratulations.

- Hi, yeah, thank you so much for having me.

- You're quite the author here.

We have had you on more than once here.

This is, I gotta tell you, this was, this is really something here.

Explain how you're supposed to read that novel.

- Okay, well, so this is a story about, it's about happiness, regret, second chances.

It's really the perfect summer read.

And so, I wanted to really bring readers into that, you know, and not just have you reading the main character's adventure, but being able to experience what it would be like to try all of the paths not taken yourself.

And so, you can read "All This and More" straight through like a typical novel, but at certain points in the text, the book will ask you what the main character should change about her life.

And if you want, you can decide.

- And when you decide, how does it, what, what do you do?

I mean, let's say I want, I don't want to keep going through, I want to take option B.

Do I jump ahead to B?

Do I go behind it?

How does it work?

- Yes, so the book will tell you if you want, Marsh is the main character, "If you want Marsh to do this, turn to this page.

If you want Marsh to do that, keep reading."

- Yeah, and Marsh is, again, a main character.

She's looking for life.

She wants to do a do-over.

She's got some concerns and questions, some regrets, maybe this kind of thing.

And I mean, this is, you, really, as the reader, you get to figure it out for her a little bit, right?

- A little bit.

And also, I hope a little bit for yourself too, you know?

So you, as you go through and you help Marsh figure out what in her own past does she regret, what would she like to change, how does she want her future to be, hopefully you think a little bit too about the choices that you have made in the past and what you might do differently and what you would never change for the world.

- And now she gets this opportunity by way of, correct me if I'm wrong, like a TV, like a game show.

Is that what it was?

- [Peng] Yes, exactly.

- So it has a "Hunger Games" feel to it.

- A little bit.

- What's going on here?

- So it is a mysterious new game show.

It has a futuristic tech that allows...

So what happens is basically once a year, somewhere in the world, the show chooses a person, a contestant, and it can send that contestant back to very specific moments in their past where they have a regret, and then allow them to make a different decision.

And that sort of bends reality to make it real and really change their present life.

- I mean, I'm hearing quantum physics here.

I'm hearing- - A little bit.

It's not that headache.

- [Ted] Okay.

- It's a... - Schrodinger's cat is not involved in any of it.

- No, no, no, but it, you know, it does...

It's really more about asking yourself, "What would you do if you were in Marsh's shoes?

If you were given this do-over, what would you change about your life and what are the moments you'd go back to?"

- What got you, what sent you in this direction?

I mean, was it the idea of regret looking back having different options, and then how do I put it on the page?

- A little bit.

I mean, it wasn't so much regret, but I am gonna be turning 40 in a couple years, which is a big milestone birthday.

And so, I have been doing a lot of thinking about, you know, the path that my life has led so far and where it's going next.

And I think it's really natural to start reflecting on those questions.

- So how was the writing process?

I mean, it sounds like you wrote four different novels here.

- Maybe more.

It was really challenging, but it was also really, really fun because they're all versions of the same story and they're all equally true to the main character.

So they're very... You know, everything is kind of connected even if it doesn't seem like it at first.

- Right, and when you're done with the novel, you realize, "I could go back and read it again and go a different path."

Is that possible?

Can you do that?

- You can if you want, but also there could be something to be said for you finish it once, and that is your choice, you know, because that's how life is.

Sometimes you only get one way through.

- You can't get back on the game show again.

- No.

(chuckles) - You're not repeat guests or anything.

- Yeah.

- Did you find yourself working the plot to adapt to the technique?

Or was a technique kind of configured to match the... You know what I mean?

- [Peng] Yeah.

- Because it seems like the plot's a big deal in every novel.

- [Peng] It is.

- But this one's kind of teeter-tottering a little bit.

- It is, yeah, and that was a big challenge about it, but it was very important to me that the story be about the character and about her life.

And so, I had to make the structure work for that.

- So what, again, what was that process like writing?

Would you...

I mean, people, writers, you know that, you discard stuff all the time.

Can you even discard anything when it could be a possible second avenue?

- Oh, we have so many paths that we didn't end up using.

- [Ted] Really?

- Yup, yup.

- [Ted] You and Marsh, in other words?

- Me and Marsh.

- Yes, yeah.

So the initial reaction, and again, the book is released tomorrow, but those of us who got it, and I tried to go through this and I thought, "You know what, I need to settle down with this," and I don't have time 'cause you're coming in next week.

But for those who have read this, what kind of response have you had from the reader copy, early readers?

- Yeah.

People are, they're just having so much fun with it and they're saying it was such an adventure, or "It really made me think about my own life in a way that I hadn't before.

It made me really grateful for my own life," which was really nice to hear.

- And I would imagine now, I think we talked about this before the show, now you're probably in the midst of another novel, correct?

- I am, halfway through the first draft.

- When you get that far past this particular effort, do you see it differently?

Does it feel different?

- It does.

I think now that it's done, I can step back and I can see all the paths for what they are, you know?

Because before when I was down in the weeds, it was really, you know, I was in the weeds with Marsh.

- Was it difficult keeping track of all the...

I mean, it's difficult to keep track of a plot to begin with, but I mean, all these, was it difficult?

- I mean, it was, but believe it or not, I did not have an outline the whole time that I'm- - [Ted] Oh, come on.

- Because I thought if I have an outline, I'm gonna start engineering this in a way that isn't true for the character.

So if it all can live in my head, it's gotta be real to her.

- And I was gonna ask about, was there any time in the process where you thought, "Oh, the bite was a little bigger than I can chew?"

- Oh, sure.

(giggles) (Ted laughs) - [Ted] Oh, really?

- Yeah, I mean, you think that with any novel anyway though.

- [Ted] Right.

- You know?

It's a very, very long game, and you're never really sure until you actually finish it that you can pull it off.

- Well, this is... Congratulations on this.

Last question here, what do you want folks to take from such an effort?

- Oh, that's a great question.

I would love if people, if it made everyone think about their own lives in a way that made them appreciate the choices they've made, even the ones that might not be so great, because there is no way to go back through.

We all only get one play through, and that's what makes it so special.

- Yeah, well, congratulations again on your latest novel.

Thanks again for stopping by and sharing it with us.

Peng Shepherd, "All this and More."

Good luck.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

All different ways, whatever path you take, good luck.

- Thank you.

(laughs) (gentle music) - [Announcer 3] Beside Highway 191 near Clifton is a memorial to 1880's Arizona law and order.

Then, as now, the Clifton Cliff Jail is a two-room hole, blasted from solid rock and fitted with iron bars paid for by the owners of Clifton's first copper mine.

Local tradition says the jail's first unwilling guest was the local stone mason hired to build it.

When he finished the jail, the mason decided to celebrate at Clifton's Hovey Dance Hall, where he downed Snakehead whiskey and shot up the place.

(gun firing) The dance hall belonged to the deputy sheriff who rewarded his rowdy patron with a compulsory stay in his own creation.

(metal door closes) (thunder rumbling) In 1906, a flash flood filled the ground level Bastille with water and mud, forcing the rescue of the prisoners by rope and the jail's closure.

(metal door opens) Today, it's dry, and visitors are welcome to take an eerie step down and back into Arizona history.

(gentle music ends) (uplifting music) - [Announcer 4] Thinking about the future is something we all share.

By preparing an estate plan, you are safeguarding more than just matters of finances and inheritance.

You're also guiding future health decisions, providing for loved ones, and creating your legacy.

Estate plans help you protect the things that matter most.

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- Florence Nightingale is credited with creating modern nursing with her theories on hygiene and living standards.

She's also known for reducing mortality rates as she trained nurses to treat soldiers in the Crimean War.

ASU professor emeritus, Melissa Pritchard, has written a book on the life of Florence Nightingale.

The book is titled "Flight of the Wild Swan."

- Florence Nightingale was an extraordinary woman, born in 1820 at the height of the British Empire.

She was contemporary with Queen Victoria.

They were about the same age.

And she was born into an elite family and had an experience at the age of 16 where she felt a voice called to her.

She thought it was God, asking her to serve the suffering of the world, to serve the suffering people of the world.

And she, it was a mystical experience, and everybody has a different interpretation of it.

I think she probably did have something like that, but that changed her entire life.

She'd always been interested in nursing even as a child, in collections and numbers, and, you know, the embryonic Florence was there as a child.

But this voice that she heard, somewhat like Joan of Arc or something, it changed her whole life and her focus.

And so, she decided she wanted to be a nurse, which was about the most disreputable thing you could ask to be in Victorian England.

- I was gonna say explain more about that.

- Yes, well, you know, nursing, at that point in her life, mid-19th century, a nurse came from the lower classes, someone who could, a woman who could get no other occupation.

A nurse was considered slightly better than an actress, but only a half cut above being a prostitute.

I mean, it was so terrible.

Charles Dickens characterized a nurse in Sairey Gamp, as in the figure of Sairey Gamp in "Martin Chuzzlewit," the novel, as this gin-saddled woman, that muttering, and, you know, morally compromised.

And just, it was a horrible thing to say you wanted to be.

And so, Florence goes to her parents who want her to be married and have children, and particularly a son, so that everyone can keep their wealth and their land.

- [Ted] Sure.

- And she said, "I wanna be a nurse."

And there was nothing worse you could say you wanted to be.

So she had to overcome so many objections beginning with her family and moving on to the patriarchy, you know?

- Yeah, yeah, and but we don't think of nursing like that anymore.

- [Melissa] No, we don't.

- And in great deal we don't because of Florence Nightingale.

- Because of Florence Nightingale.

She is responsible for... She founded the first school of training for nurses in the world in 1860 at St. Thomas' Hospital, where it became a secularized, professionalized, respected, and paid position.

Nurses wore uniforms, nurses took classes, studied rigorous course study.

She changed the entire face of nursing.

- And she did so with a scientific mindset.

And yet as you mentioned, she was a visionary.

She was kind of a mystic.

I was gonna ask how come you wrote about Florence Nightingale, but now I'm asking, how come everyone doesn't write about Florence?

There's a lot going on there.

(Melissa laughs) - I know.

You know, I had this decision to write about her when I was at the Florence Nightingale Museum at St. Thomas' Hospital in 2013.

I was there doing something else and I went to the museum and I just was overcome by her life and everything that was there.

And I just stood there, I said I'm gonna write a novel about her.

So I bought all the books in the museum, you know, that the museum had in their gift shop.

I bought everything short of the paper dolls and the coloring books.

You know, I took them all home to Arizona where I was at the time.

And I didn't get to them for another six years.

But the more I did research on Florence, the more in awe of her I became and the more... She's a supremely inspirational figure.

- And you mentioned the word, novel.

Now, is this, is it a historical novel, is it a biography, what is it, somewhere in between, a collection of letters?

What is this?

- It's called an historical biography, they label it that, or sometimes they label it historical fiction.

And it is, I use some of her letters, you know, some of her correspondence, but also I made up a lot of my own letters.

And so, it's really a compendium, but it's mostly fiction, I would say primarily fiction, but based on fact.

I really wanted it to be based on fact.

- Did you feel her with you as you wrote?

- Sometimes, (chuckles) sometimes.

But yes, all of a sudden, I would sort of feel her guiding me towards something, "Don't miss this scene or that character."

And in this past September 2023, I actually went to Scutari, I went to Istanbul and I visited the museum where her hospital had been.

So I actually got to see the quarters where she and her 38 nurses worked and lived.

- [Ted] Yes.

- And I really did feel her presence there.

I didn't expect to.

I didn't know what I would, you know?

- [Ted] Yeah.

- I really, at one point, am standing in front of her desk and her chair.

I just, I felt a physical force almost, yeah.

- In that respect, did immersing yourself into her life, did that change your life?

- It did.

It really did.

At first I was, I went through a period of getting very excited about writing about her, then I became intimidated.

Like, "What was I thinking?

(chuckles) What in the world was I thinking?

You could spend your life studying Florence Nightingale," and people have, you know, biographers.

But then, I just kept going.

I felt compelled.

I felt called to write this book.

And I, as I made my way through it, I became more and more really impressed with her, with her courage, her fearlessness, her willing to do what's right, you know?

- And I would be remiss if we didn't mention, again, you mentioned the patriarchy I refer to in the past, but she was dealing in a very different world than we're living in right now.

- Yes, I had to keep moving into that world and, you know, away from the world we're in now and going, "Oh my god, so when she went to the Crimean War in 1854 with 38 nurses, when she got there, she was not welcomed."

Women had, British women had never served as nurses in wartime.

They were never...

The French had some women nurses, but never.

So she was up against that obstacle too.

They called her The Bird.

They didn't want her there until they met her.

She persisted.

She was incredibly persistent.

- [Ted] Yes.

- Determined, more brilliant than many of them.

And she got the whole hospital up and running.

- And thus the "Flight of the Wild Swan."

Melissa Pritchard, thank you so much.

Congratulations on the book.

- Thank you.

- And it's good to see you again.

Thanks for joining me.

- Good to see you too.

Thank you so much.

- And that is it for now.

I'm Ted Simons.

Thank you so much for joining us on this special literary edition of "Arizona Horizon."

You have a great evening.

(upbeat music)