Robert and Barbara Tinker, along with Pendred "Penny" Noyce, are the authors of "The Cryptic Case of the Coded Fair."

 

SIX MINUTES WITH BARBARA AND ROBERT TINKER AND PENDRED (PENNY) NOYCE:

For the first time, LitPick is interviewing THREE authors for a Six Minutes with an Author interview! Barbara and Robert Tinker and Pendred (Penny) Noyce are the co-authors of The Cryptic Case of the Coded Fair! The book was definitely a team effort with Barbara writing the historical sections, Robert writing the harder codes, and Penny writing the sci-fi overstory and editing the book. Penny knew Bob and Barbara through serving on the board of the Concord Consortium, and had talked to Bob about the Galactic Academy of Science (G.A.S.) series.

Educated at Swarthmore College, Barbara Tinker received a Masters in History of Religions from Columbia and taught at Stillman College in Alabama during the "Selma" days.  She then obtained a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in Clinical Psychology and worked at Harvard and Wellesley.  Later she entered environmental work at TERC in Cambridge where she contributed to the long-lived Global Laboratory Project, in which schools around the world shared their environmental findings with each other. As a science educator, Barbara managed a number of National Science Projects at the Concord Consortium. She has also enjoyed being a photographer, gardener, and musician and, most of all, a wife, mother and grandmother.  

Robert Tinker is president emeritus and founder of The Concord Consortium. He has, for 50 years, pioneered research on innovative approaches to education that exploit technology. His group created and studied the first applications of “probeware”— sensors connected to computers to give students powerful, flexible instruments. He also pioneered online courses and collaborations for students and teachers. Seventeen years ago he started the nonprofit Concord Consortium to concentrate on innovative educational applications of technology. The Consortium specializes in research on online learning, the use of sophisticated computational models, probeware, and portable computers, and applications of these technologies to pressing educational issues. The Consortium created one of the first virtual high schools and spun it off as a separate nonprofit. His current research involves providing support for student science investigations and applying pattern-recognition software to teaching graph interpretation. Bob earned his PhD in physics from MIT and has taught college physics for ten years.

Robert and Barbara have been married for fifty years. They are currently writing a set of stories with activities on the subject of light, its history, and the need for innovations for developing countries.

Pendred (Penny) Noyce has been a doctor, writer, publisher, and education advocate. She studied internal medicine at Stanford University and practiced in Minnesota and Massachusetts. After the birth of her fifth child, she left medicine to concentrate on working with a family foundation to support mathematics and science education. She has helped lead National Science Foundation projects and has served on the boards of numerous educational non-profits. Over the past ten years, she has returned to an early love, writing fiction, and has written or co-written eight books for young readers.  She lives in Boston with her husband and youngest son.

How did you get started writing?

Barbara: I have written poems and plays since I was young, but only for family. I don’t think of myself as a writer, but as a contributor.

Robert: I was inspired to contribute to this book by Penny Noyce’s talk at WGBH. Since I was a child I have always been interested in codes and how they can be decoded.

Penny: When I was six years old, I wanted to be three things: a mommy, a candy store owner, and an author. I've achieved two of the three, so that's not bad! I wrote stories and plays for the family as a child, and just kept plugging away through medical school and beyond.

Who influenced you?

Barbara: One grandmother both wrote poetry and provided us with books with moral stories. She was dear to us, the kind of person chosen by grandchildren to sit beside in a meal, and who took the time to show us how other people lived and struggled.

Robert: The first time I thought about the skill of writing was while reading Stephen Jay Gould. He combined a good story with good science.

Penny: I will always remember my tenth grade English teacher, Warren Wilde, who got so excited about literature he jumped off his stool and strode about the room.

Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?

Barbara: Well, books in series such as Donna Leon, Alexander McCall Smith and Louise Penny tell moral stories placed in intriguing settings.  I find reading them can be as luxurious as dessert.  Masterpieces like those by Vikram Seth and Irene Nemirofsky are the main course…of course.

Robert: I enjoy histories and some historical novels such as the Master and Commander series.

Penny: My favorite book is usually one of the last few I've read. Recently I loved The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson and A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. My favorite books as a child were the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

Barbara: Choose your best time of day and year, and work like blazes to stick to it!  Then ask for advice about publishing in this new world.

Robert: Carefully analyze good writing.

Penny: Read a lot, and read like a writer, asking, "How did the author do this?" Then write a lot, and learn to take criticism well.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Barbara: I have written best looking out over a landscape, in a place that is quiet and, best of all, in sight of water. One play was written looking over a tidal marsh, with its own daily rhythm.  I can still feel the table under my fingers, and the pages mounting up, with fresh moist air coming in through the window.

Robert: On my computer, wherever it is.

Penny: I've started writing at a standing desk, like Hemingway. It keeps me more alert and literally on my toes.

What else would you like to tell us?

Barbara: I suspect writing is a kind of overflow, when one is feeling especially deeply or we have pursued a rich line of inquiry to the point where it can be played with, fashioned, and revised without pain.

Robert: When I was young, I was poor at reading and writing, and developed slowly, so have hope!

Penny: Writing helps me know what I think about a specific topic or the world. When writing, have the courage to get something down on paper. Honest revision is what will make it beautiful and true.

Penny, Robert, and Barbara, thank you all for spending six minutes with LitPick! It has been a pleasure getting to know the three of you. You are all very impressive individuals!