Today we’d like to introduce you to Kitty Felde.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was an actor for ten years after college, appearing as the rear end of a horse for Toyota, a bride for Ford, and the smoker who got caught in numerous Virginia Slims ads. I also performed improv everywhere from the Comedy Store to the Groundlings. Finally, the starving actor life was too much and , I escaped to the lucrative world of public radio.
Radio was a bit of an afterthought. KABC in those days carried the Dodger broadcasts and a Sportstalk program. They had zero female listeners and foolishly thought that if they had a female voice on the air, women would flock to the show. Two thousand people applied – more when the men complained that the contest was discriminatory – me included. I didn’t win, but I was one of the 10 finalists. I thought if I knew what I was doing, I could probably get work.
First, I tried play-by-play. I wanted to replace Vin Scully. But my lack of depth perception was an occupational hazard. Every fly ball looked like a home run to me. But I found that people told me things. I became a very good interviewer.
I started volunteering at my local public radio station KLON (on campus at Cal State Long Beach) producing sports features. A When a fire broke out in the Baldwin Hills, I was the only one in the newsroom who knew where that was, so I covered it. And discovered that unlike sports reporting, where Laker girls and beer were regular features of sports press conferences, “hard” news was different. Women before me had already broken down the doors and a female reporter was treated with respect.
I covered everything from earthquakes to immigration policy to high profile trials like O.J. Simpson, Rodney King, and international war crimes trials from the former Yugoslavia.
Larry Mantle invited me to come do an afternoon talk show on KPCC, which I happily did for a decade. We took the show to Washington, DC for two weeks and discovered lots of SoCal stories that were not being covered by the LA Times. I persuaded management to send me to Capitol Hill to open a Washington bureau. I covered Congress and California-related issues at the White House, Supreme Court, etc. for nearly a decade.
After three decades, I decided it was time to finally do some writing and started work on my Fina Mendoza Mysteries series of books and podcasts designed to introduce civics education to kids. The first two books (of a 5-part series) are out – WELCOME TO WASHINGTON FINA MENDOZA and STATE OF THE UNION. They follow the adventures of the 10-year-old daughter of a congressman from Los Angeles who solves mysteries inside the U.S. Capitol.
I also created another podcast BOOK CLUB FOR KIDS, where a trio of kids discuss a novel, interview the author, and hear a reading from the book by a celebrity. We’ve taped more than 135 episodes! Our celebrity readers include a U.S. US Senator, the Secretary of Education, actors Joshua Malina and Mimi Kennedy, a Dodger, a Laker, etc.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been a crooked road. I’ve worked for KUSC, KCRW, KPCC, and KLON – essentially, every public radio station in LA. I’ve freelanced for KCET, NPR, USA Today, the LA Times, you name it. Money was always an adventure.
Even when I was employed full time, there were challenges. My talk show was given to someone else. The station closed all its political bureaus – including my own in DC.
But when one door closes, another opens. It’s been an adventure!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I was always writing plays. In fact, an old boyfriend told me I was a much better writer than an actor and I should put my energy in that direction. He was right.
I wrote numerous plays: A PATCH OF EARTH, a Bosnian war crimes courtroom drama that’s been performed around the world, a one woman show about Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Alice, even a commission to write a White House tour about Quentin Roosevelt. I guess you could say that my journalism inspired my fiction.
In the same way, covering Capitol Hill inspired my Fina Mendoza Mysteries series. There was so much about DC that was strange to me as a Californian. It‘s a very formal place: it was Madame this and Mr. that. No sleeveless dresses allowed, even in summer. Women in Washington wore the ugliest shoes in America. Members of Congress were NOT like Californians.
And yet, the Capitol was a wonderful place to view America. I wanted to share the oddities and the important lessons with all of us who never got that 8th grade trip to DC. That led to THE FINA MENDOZA MYSTERIES series.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Risk means taking that step off the cliff, hoping you won’t land on your face. You ask yourself: what’s the worst that can happen? And if it does, what then?
I’ve been blessed with parents and a husband who gave their blessings to my many adventures. They may not have understood why, but they applauded … or picked me up off the floor.
Contact Info:
- Website: kittyfelde.com
- Instagram: kitty felde
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/finamysteries
- Twitter: kittyfelde
- Youtube: Book Club for Kids
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ooklubforids
Image Credits
Emily Davis
Mina Witteman
Frank Schaefer
