(upbeat music) - Coming up next on this special author's edition of "Arizona Horizon," hear about the latest novel from a local flight attendant turned "New York Times" bestselling author.

Also tonight, a new book looks at the intersection of basketball and fashion.

And a new children's book offers a message of encouragement to those who are late bloomers in life.

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

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- Good evening and welcome to the special literary edition of "Arizona Horizon," I'm Ted Simons.

We begin with Phoenix-based bestselling author and former flight attendant, T.J. Newman.

Her latest thriller is titled "Drowning," and it involves the race to save passengers of a plane that's crashed into the ocean.

"Drowning" follows Newman's previous book "Falling," which was a bestseller that was optioned into a film after a bidding war in Hollywood.

T.J. Newman joined us to talk about her latest book.

Good to see, congratulations on all your success.

Holy smokes!

- Thank you, and thank you for having me on.

- Yeah, well, are you a little surprised by all the success?

I mean- - I promise you no one is more surprised about any of this than me.

- Alright, let's the second book, somewhat similar in the sense that you got planes and all these kinda stuff, but how different is it from the first book?

- It's bigger.

- Yes.

- That's the main difference between this.

I knew with the follow-up that I had to go bigger and I had to go different.

So yes, they're both aviation thrillers.

It's both the same situation of everyday people in extraordinary circumstances.

But after that, they take very different paths.

- You knew you had to go bigger, you knew you had to follow it up, a little stressful?

- Oh yeah, yeah, of course there's a lot of stress in a follow up, but I just kept thinking about anytime the fear would get to be too much- - [Ted] Yeah.

- I kept thinking of all the people who bought my first book and read my first book and enjoyed my first book and let me know that.

And I thought, I'm writing for them.

My own fear needs to get out of the way because I need to tell a good story to them.

- Well, you told a great story here.

This is an absolute, when you talk about page-turners, that's what this is.

What was the inspiration?

I know for falling, it was kind of like things that you saw when you were a flight attendant.

Same kind of thing here?

- Same kind of thing.

So I had the idea for "Falling" in the middle of a red eye and I had the idea for "Drowning" in the middle of a red eye too.

I was working a flight from Hawaii back to Los Angeles, and I was standing in the forward galley looking out the small little porthole window in the door.

And I'm looking out the window and I'm looking out at nothing.

- [Ted] Yes.

- Right, like pitch black, no city lights, no civilization.

There is nothing out there for miles and hours of water.

And so in my head, my big imagination starts going and I start thinking, well, what if something happened?

What if we went down?

Like, how, how would they find us?

Who would come get us?

How could we save ourselves?

And it just, the wheels started turning from there.

- Well, and a and a lot of wheels are turning here.

A lot of technical descriptions of not only what flight attendants do, what pilots do, but what people that work with submarines do, and what the Navy does and all this.

Was there a lot of, or there things involved here, 'cause there's, there's some pretty intricate stuff in here.

You had to do some research on this.

- I did a ton of research on this.

You know, as a flight attendant, they train you extensively on what to do in what's called a ditching.

That's the aviation term for an emergency landing on water.

So we're trained on what to do in a ditch, but they never cover what happens if there's people trapped inside the plane and the plane sinks and then the plane is teetering on the edge of an undersea cliff.

- Yes.

- So I definitely had to do a lot more research with that part.

I spoke with Navy personnel, I spoke with engineers, I spoke with a lot of pilots who helped me figure out what conditions I would need to make to make this plausible.

And I got scuba-certified.

- [Ted] Wow.

- That was kind of the coolest part of the research process, was I got scuba-certified, because I knew that there's no way I would be able to write authentically about an environment that's so foreign and so different from walking on land.

So I got scuba-certified.

- Yeah, well congratulations on that.

And the authenticity give reign, it really comes through, as do the characters.

When you have characters and there's a collection of characters here, both in the plane and unfortunately on the water, and some of them on the rescue boats, are all of them a part of you?

- I think any writer can find parts of themselves in everything that they do.

I think it was also my experience for 10 years as a flight attendant, and that I had a hundred-some people, a hundred-some strangers that I got to watch and observe and try to figure out what's that guy's story?

- Yeah.

- What's her story?

- Yeah.

- What's she doing?

What's her backstory?

And so it was easy to sort of take 10 years of observational skills like that and translate it into rich, fully fleshed-out characters.

- You've got older couples, you've got younger couples, you've got children, you've got one horse's rear end, a couple of horses' rear ends actually.

And they're all, when you're writing and you have all these characters and all this stuff is going on, and it's hard enough for me reading.

I mean, I'm like, holy smokes, this is, do you outline, do you know what's coming next?

- I do with this book I did with "Falling," I was a pantser, and in literature terms, a writer who writes by the seat of their pants, is called a pantser, and a writer who plots it all out ahead of time is called a plotter.

With "Falling," I was a pantser.

I didn't know what the story was, I just started writing, and that book took me 30-some drafts to write and years to get right.

I didn't have that same kind of luxury with this book.

So I turned into a plotter and I outlined extensively before I ever put pen to paper.

- Yeah, yeah, and in some respects, it does read a little bit like a movie script with that in mind.

Now, your previous book, big Hollywood bidding, congratulations on that.

Have you done some script writing, and what's the difference between the script writing and the novel writing?

- I am actually adapting "Falling" my first book.

- So you're the one doing it?

- I am the one doing it.

I am adapting "Falling" into a script, and it has been such an education and such a thrill to learn that skill, which is a skill of compression, right?

In a book, you have 300 pages to tell your story.

In a script, you got a hundred-some.

So how do you take a scene that is 10 pages in a book and how do you tell that same scene without losing any information in one page?

- [Ted] Right.

- It's a very difficult skill that I have just, I mean, it's a highwire act.

It really is just a highwire act.

And I've really found it's helped my novel writing as well, because you have to cultivate a laser-like focus on what is the story.

What am I trying to tell here?

Because you don't have the luxury of anything superfluous in a script.

- Yes, indeed.

Well, drowning obviously it's gonna be published here really soon.

"Falling's" already out there, big success.

The Hollywood's, so it's gonna be a film, huh?

- Both of them, Warner Brothers is putting out "Drowning" and Universal's doing "Falling," and I'm, again, surreal.

Nobody is more surprised that any of this is happening than me.

- When you're walking planes and you're up and down, can, being a flight attendant when you're selling books at Changing Hands, you ever think this was gonna happen?

- I dreamed big, I dreamed big.

I wanted this, and that's why I worked so hard to get to where I am.

So I could see it, but now that it's actually here, - Yeah.

- I mean, that's, it's something.

- You got it, and it is something.

And congratulations on all your success, continued success, and thanks so much for joining us.

- My pleasure, thank you for having me on.

- I really do enjoy volunteering.

I like to think that I have made a difference.

That's enough, I don't need to be patted on the back.

I've included my PBS station in my future plans.

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- A new book documents the intersection of basketball and fashion.

We're not talking gym shorts and jerseys here, but instead the style and self-expression of basketball players on and off the court.

The book is titled "Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion" and includes all sorts of photographs and essays.

The book's author is Pulitzer Prize-winning, ASU Professor Mitchell Jackson.

Welcome to "Arizona Horizon," and you're looking pretty good yourself there, mister.

- Thank you, I appreciate it- - Yeah.

- I appreciate it, yeah.

- What inspired you to write this book?

- I mean, I have to really take it back to my childhood and playing basketball and obviously, watching the NBA, and also loving fashion.

Getting into my uncle's closet and trying on stuff, and looking at magazines.

And then years later when I started to write, I began writing about basketball.

So it was fitting all these years later that this was a book that was in my pantheon.

- Yeah, yeah, you kind of, in your mind and your memory from growing up, 'cause for a lot of basketball, those of us that are basketball fans, these pictures are just outrageous.

They're just fantastic.

- Yeah.

- But the difference between style and fashion.

- Yes, I think fashion requires the person to have information about what the trends are, what brands are in favor and what aren't.

And I think style is the Yves Saint Laurent quote, "Fashion fades, but style is eternal."

- Yeah.

- Because style is a set of principles.

So no matter what the fashion is, a person that's stylish is going to take that and make it their own.

- And in some ways, mirrors the culture at the same time?

- Yeah, I think the fashion mirrors the culture.

- Yes.

- Because it's shaped by cultural forces, political, social, so that yes, fashion is.

But the style aside, like, that's an individual thing I think.

- Yeah, well I'm a lot older than you, but I remember when I was a kid playing basketball, I had my Chuck Taylor's, had my Chucks- - Yeah.

- Highs and low tops.

- Okay.

- And I also had Pumas and I always thought that was kind of odd.

Why did I have Puma's?

- [Mitchell] Yeah.

- I saw Pumas in your book.

- That's right, that's right, that's right, yeah.

I mean Puma's, the suede Puma, - Yes.

- Low top, yeah, that was definitely a fashion trend.

I had my own, but I was like a hip-hop guy, so- - Yeah no, yeah, I was the basketball guy, that's far as went for me.

But I noticed the book, one of the earliest pictures was of Walt Frazier, Clyde.

- [Mitchell] Yes.

- He was kind of an original, was he not?

- Yes, he was, he was.

There's an era, I call it the era of flamboyance.

And I think that he really represent that like, a new freedom that happened after the civil rights movement.

And yeah, he's really reflective of them.

Most people would say like he is the icon of NBA fashion.

- Yes, yes.

I think there's a book about him.

I remember, things- - [Mitchell] There is.

- You remember as a kid.

- [Mitchell] Yes.

- He taught, he said, "Here's how you catch a fly."

- Yeah.

- He taught, that's the stuff you remember.

- [Mitchell] Yeah.

- But the ABA.

- [Mitchell] Yes.

- How big a factor was that?

- I think a tremendous factor in the NBA because they played the game more loose, they had a lot of, they let players be more individualistic.

And if you think about it, like, those guys that came over in that draft, one of them was Dr. Dre, Dr J.

- [Ted] Yeah.

- Who I think is the most stylish person in NBA history.

- [Ted] Yeah.

- I would go for Dr. J., yeah.

- But there's guys like Artis Gilmore, these guys, they were- - Yes.

- They were like, bigger than life and they played with the basketball with the red, white, and blue.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- And again, if you're young and if you're a kid, that stuff's, it's attractive stuff.

- Right, right, they played a faster game.

- [Ted] Yes.

- They brought the three pointers to the league.

- [Ted] Yes.

- Yeah, a lot of good stuff.

- Alright, so we talk, before we get to a couple pictures here, - Where does Dennis Rodman fit into all this?

- Dennis Rodman is an icon in NBA fashion, really an icon in American culture.

But I think because he was doing the things he was doing in the 1990s, he's really before his time, right?

Like, you look at some of the players now, Jeremy Sochan dying his hair.

You look at the other guys painting their nails.

You look at Russell Westbrook wearing a skirt.

Like all that stuff that Dennis Rodman did 20, 30 years ago, but wasn't really as accepted as it is now.

I think it was more shocking.

- I was gonna say- - And now it's fashionable.

- It's almost so far out of the bounds that it was hard to kind of figure that out.

- Yes.

- Until later.

- And the, in this day and age, it's- - Yeah.

- All right, let's get to some photographs.

The first is Magic Johnson, 1988, All-Star game.

- Yes.

- Look at that fur coat.

- One of my favorite photos in this entire book, because to me it reflects Magic's awareness that he was a star.

You don't come into a game in a fur unless you're feeling yourself, and this is prime example.

Look at all those photographers- - Yes.

- Around him, yeah.

- And he, it's almost like you can see, he knows it.

- [Mitchell] Yeah, oh, for sure, yeah.

- [Ted] He knows it.

- [Mitchell] Yeah.

I'm the center of attention.

- [Ted] Yeah.

We have another picture of Amar'e Stoudemire, big around here.

- [Mitchell] Yes.

- [Ted] Amar'e, obviously big around here.

- [Mitchell] Just saw he's getting inducted into the Sun's Hall Of Fame.

- Yes, yes, and about time.

I mean, I'd never realized, and check me if I'm wrong- - Yeah.

- He wasn't that big of a fashionista here- - [Mitchell] Yeah.

- But later.

Was it the move to New York?

What happened to him?

- I think part of it was the move to New York.

Part of it was he was working with Rachel Johnson, who was like the pioneer of like, styling NBA players.

But I think he had to have that because to me, he is stylish.

- [Ted] Yes.

- Not just fashionable.

I mean, this is details, but the, the pocket, the medallions on the pocket are kind of rose gold, and if you look at the watch, which is just peeking, it's also rose gold.

The way that he's wearing his scarf, the brim, the textures on it, like, there's a lot of attention to detail in this photo.

- And we should mention, this photo was taken at Paris Fashion Week, for goodness sakes.

- Yeah, exactly.

- So he knows what he's doing there as well.

- Yes, yeah.

- A last one is, I just love this shot.

This is Kobe Bryant.

- Yes.

- And I gotta tell you, Mitchell, this is a sharp-dressed man.

- Yes, yes, this is something that everyone can understand.

- [Ted] Yes, yes.

- It's likely a Tom Ford suit, the tailoring is impeccable.

Look at his in-seam, you can see his socks.

Look at his sleeve length, you can see the peek of his white shirt.

I mean, the pocket square is folded just right.

Like this is perfection.

And actually, it reminds me of how Kobe played, right?

Like, if you know anything about how he trained, he trained for perfection, and this is a representation of that.

- Yes, there's no fooling around here.

- Right.

- This is straight ahead, let's get it done, and- - Yeah.

- He got it done.

African American culture.

- [Mitchell] Yes.

- How big a factor?

And you, you go way back, you go back to teams that are, there is no African American on the team- - Right, yeah.

- Show photos there.

- [Mitchell] Yeah.

- The impact over the years- - [Mitchell] Yeah.

- On style and culture in, especially with basketball players leading the way.

- Yeah, I mean, the league was founded in '46.

They got their first black player in '50.

So really early on in the culture of the league, they had black players and then, 1976 or so, it really turns into a black league.

And so I think there's an argument to be made that it is an just an aspect of black culture now, right?

There's an overwhelming number of black players in the league.

And luckily, the league has embraced that as well.

- [Ted] Yes.

- Yeah.

- I mean, it used to be you had to dress like, a little bit like Kobe.

- Yeah.

- Everyone had to wear shirt and tie.

- Yeah.

- Now, it's like, you're outta place if you got their shirt.

- Yeah.

- This kind of fashion, in terms of global fashion, - Yeah.

- How much of an influence?

- Huge, I mean, there's a lot of players now that are going to Paris Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, they're representing brands.

They have their own brands.

They're sitting next to Anna Wintour at the Met Gala.

Like, this is serious stuff now.

- Okay, last question before we go, - [Mitchell] Yeah.

- Got like, 15 seconds here, your favorite era?

- The era of flamboyance, yeah.

So, so the one that's set off by the Civil Rights Movement.

- Yeah, yeah, '60s, '70s.

- Yep.

- [Ted] ABA like we talked about.

- Yep.

- Yeah, that was really, Mitchell Jackson, "Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion."

That is a hoot of a book.

Congratulations on that.

- Thank you, appreciate it.

- And thanks for sharing, we appreciate it.

- Yep.

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♪ Are you ready for it - It feels more like the start of something than the end.

♪ Are you ready for it - Local children's author, Phoebe Fox, grew up in Arizona and attended ASU before going on to write a number of children's books.

Her latest effort is all about offering encouragement to those who are late bloomers in life.

The book is titled "Julian Blooms," and it's recommended for children two to eight years of age.

Phoebe Fox recently joined us to talk about her new book.

Welcome to "Arizona Horizon."

- Thank you.

- Thanks for being here.

- Thanks for having me.

- Congratulations on the book and all these books.

We got all sorts of books here that you've done.

These are picture books for the most part, correct?

- Um-hmm, definitely.

- And they offer messages of encouragement to the little people, right?

- Yes, "Julian Blooms" definitely does.

- Yeah.

- This is about a late bloomer, peachick, which is what you call a peacock when they're little.

And his brothers are quite ahead of him and he longs to catch up to them, but he's not exactly going in that direction.

And they fly off and start their own lives, and it's just Julian and his mom.

- Ah.

- And luckily he blooms just in time to save the day.

- Oh, I see, okay.

So he's the last to hatch, he's behind in flying, he's be behind in bird calls, and as we see there, he's got some big glasses he's got it tote around too, right?

- Yes, he does, he has big glasses.

That was illustrator, Melissa's Bailey idea, and I just love it.

- It's fan, talk about the importance of an illustrator.

Obviously, in a picture book, it seems like it would be very important, but the illustrator's gotta get that story down too, don't they?

- They do, and both of us had to do a lot of research about peacocks to make sure that the illustrations were accurate and that we had a good understanding of how they grow and what some of the activities might be for the little peachicks.

One thing I learned is that they love to run around chasing an adult feather.

One of 'em will grab a feather and they chase each other.

- Wow.

- They play all kinds of games together.

And they also do things like climbing trees that we might not think about.

They sleep on the ground or in trees.

- Wow.

- Learned a lot of interesting facts.

- So when you're writing a book like this and putting words to pictures and pictures to words, how do you go about it?

Because you gotta make sure that, I would imagine you have to make sure it's something that reads aloud very well, because that's how some of these little kids, they're gonna hear this more than they read it.

- Definitely, they often, the pictures are wonderful for telling the story as well, but one of the trends right now is writing a picture book under 500 words.

And that is the challenge.

- [Ted] Wow.

- So you really need to be able to tell this story in very minimal amount of words.

And then if you get the opportunity to work with the illustrator, which is rare, but I got to, with "Julian Blooms," you can modify your text, you can modify the illustrations and really come up with a project together.

- When you started writing the book, did you know it's gonna be Julian, he's gonna be a late bloomer, but he's gonna bloom, and everything's gonna work out all right in the end?

- I did know that much.

But what we changed was how he went about blooming.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

- So there, that becomes a story in and of itself.

- It does, yes.

- And the idea is, again, what?

To offer encouragement to let kids know that even, I mean, even some kids at a very young age, feel like they're not catching up with their older siblings and that sort of thing.

Everything's okay, just be patient - And enjoy the journey.

- Yes.

- Enjoy the journey of life.

And actually Julian has a very encouraging mother.

That character is important and she constantly tells him, you're wonderful.

You'll bloom when you're ready.

- Yes, and again, these are birds here, and obviously the birds are talking and the birds are doing things.

And kids love animals.

is that the best way?

I mean, if these were human beings, would it not quite resonate as much with some of the littler kids?

- It depends, I think some kids really enjoy reading stories about other children.

As an author, I always write about animals.

- Yes.

- I just love to use animals because I find that they're less likely to become dated in a story.

The look of them doesn't change as much as you would see with human children.

- I was gonna say, but I would imagine if you're telling the story to the kid, and the kid's seeing a bird or a rhinoceros or a dinosaur, or something like that, it's maybe a little more- - It's gentle, isn't it?

- Yes, and they can connect a little bit more that.

- Yes, absolutely.

And if children have a favorite animal, that's often a great way to teach them, is to find their favorite animal in storybooks.

And there might be an issue you're having with a child or something that you want them to learn through an animal character.

- How do you tell the story without teaching a lesson, without sounding like you're being- - Didactic?

- Exactly.

- I think that if you read a lot of children's books, which I have, I grew up with parents who read to us.

And I love to read children's books.

I was a librarian before I became an author.

I think if you see that in picture books, you learn what a well-written picture book sounds like, versus one that's directly telling a child- - Yeah.

- You should not worry about this.

- Are there times when you're writing, do you have to kind of pull back the reins a little bit and say, "I'm getting a little preachy here?"

- [Phoebe] Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- And having a critique group is really wonderful.

Other authors that can read your manuscript and work together with you to help you improve it, that's one of the keys, for sure.

- Yeah, and so again, for "Julian Blooms," the message is, you'll bloom when you're ready.

- [Phoebe] Yes.

- So, so- - [Phoebe] Take your time.

- Take your time.

- Yeah.

- Have you had good reaction to the book so far?

- Definitely, yes, and people love the illustrations.

- Yeah, they do, it's always, and these are all yours, huh?

- Um-hmm.

- My goodness, well, congratulations on writing- - Thank you.

- So many of these books and such success.

Congratulations on this one, "Julian Bloom's," Phoebe Fox.

Keep up the good work.

- Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.

- You bet, thank you.

And that is it for now.

I'm Ted Simons, thank you so much for joining us on this special edition, "Arizona Horizon."

You have a great evening.

(upbeat music)