Edward T. Frye, Ph.D.

Dr. Edward T. Frye is an educational consultant/writer with 32 years of experience in school leadership. He has been a teacher, coach, and administrator, retiring from the business as the executive director of a regional service agency in Pennsylvania. He teaches educational administration courses in the graduate school of Penn State University.

Dr. Frye provides consulting and speaking services to schools, colleges, businesses, and professional organizations across the nation. In hundreds of workshops and keynote speeches he has presented to more than 70,000 program participants over the last two decades. His areas of specialization are the leadership of educational change, the creation of positive futures for schools, and the effective marketing of educational programs and services.

Dr. Frye is the president of StreetSmart, a company specializing in the development of effective sales and marketing personnel.

Fools and Children is Frye's first novel, although he has authored more than a dozen professional journal articles and two trade books. Dr. Frye also serves on the editorial board for a national, professional journal, has contributed material to several books, and has prepared marketing plans and publications for scores of clients.

Ed Frye has pursued literary endeavors from his undergraduate days at Lock Haven State College where he majored in English. He holds a Master's Degree from Temple University while his doctorate, from Penn State University in 1975, was earned in Curriculum and Instruction, with an emphasis on psycholinguistics.

Dr. Frye lives in Mechanicsburg, PA with his wife, Doris, and Chloe, an erstwhile stray beagle. The father of two grown daughters, he awaits his third grandchild. He is a avid boater, racquetball player, and golfer. Visit Dr. Frye online at http://yourpage.blazenet.net/efrye

 

Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life?
Who were your earliest influences and why?

Edward T. Frye: I grew up in Millheim, PA, the setting of Fools and Children. I moved there when I was 6 years old and graduated from the then new consolidated high school, Penns Valley Area School District. My mother read to my sister and me extensively when we were small children, so I suppose one can say that she was some influence in this area. During the years covered in the book (age 7-13), my friend Bierly and I did read most of the Hardy Boys collection, giving each other various titles for birthdays, Christmas and the like. I did very little writing until I got to college. In high school we were not asked to write much or very often.

 

Pageonelit.com: Why do you write?

Edward T. Frye: I started writing creatively in college. I was an English major and our curriculum required much writing. I had one or two ghastly pieces accepted for the college literary journal. One year I edited that same journal. When I became a school administrator, I began to speak at professional conferences. One thing led to another, and soon, I was submitting articles for professional journals -- more than a dozen by now. I then wrote a student instructional book about writing. This was actually an outgrowth of my doctoral dissertation which involved the pyscholinguistic review of how students learn to write. Then I wrote a text on the need to restructure America's school and some strategies for doing so. That sold about 1000 copies. Few people really want to change schools.

But many of my childhood experiences kept rattling about in my head, told often to new friends and colleagues. After I began to realize that many of these folks had similar, but not quite as exciting, tales to tell, I decided I ought to commit them to print. As soon as I retired from the school business, I got to work on this opus, small though it may be.

 

Pageonelit.com: Tell us about your book FOOLS AND CHILDREN -- Please explain the title as it relates to the book.

Edward T. Frye: Fools and Children is an autobiograhical novel. It recounts the exploits of my friend, Herb Bierly, and me as small children growing up in a small town in the late 1950s. The book covers only a six year time span -- the rest of my life is just not all that interesting. Anyway, in the 50s children in towns like ours, all across America, enjoyed freedoms that are now lost to most kids today. We could leave home in the morning and not return until dinner. We could roam all through the small town and the hills and valley around the burg. We could play in the streams; we could organize our own ball games; we could learn life's lessons without adults guarding our every move. We could get ourselves hopelessly enmeshed in misfortune and then find a way to extricate ourselves. I hope the book captures that.

More to the point, however, are the tales, the escapades, the situations that Bierly and I got ourselves into. Some are humorous, some are dangerous, some are poignant. Fools and Children is written with a Huckelberry Finn/Tom Sawyer attitude. In fact, our two chaps seem to be 1950 rendition of these two rogues. This is a coming of age memoir, but a realistic and unblinking one. There are no real heroes or villians. We, and all the fine folk of Millheim, are what we are.
The title comes courtesy of my mother. As described in the book, she was raised on country sayings, saws, and axioms. These were the sources of wisdom in the hills of central Pennsylvania in the early part of the century. She imparted this wisdom and these old sayings to my sister and me all the time, hoping we would recognize and live by the truths so evident in them. Well, one of her favorites was "God takes care of fools and children." I have come to believe that is true. When one looks back on our adventures, one must believe that only divine intervention allowed Bierly and me to survive.

 

Pageonelit.com: FOOLS AND CHILDREN' s setting is as you describe "The Eisenhower Years" -- What was it about this period that motivated you and this book?

Edward T. Frye: I had to use these years; they were my childhood years. This works out nicely though, given the new interest in the time period. Babyboomers (technically I am one year ahead of them, being born in 1945) are a large portion of our population today. This group is seeking nostaglic reviews of their own childhood years. We see this on television, publications, and public interest shows. We were lucky to be alive during these years -- the period became the last age of innocence. Life was simpler, children didn't require chaperones everywhere they went, people shared more of a sense of community. I believe our generation was raised during the zenith of this more laid back time. All these things were magnified in small towns such as Millheim.

 

Pageonelit.com: How much of FOOLS AND CHILDREN is fiction? How much is Nonfiction?

Edward T. Frye: If I had to put a percentage on it, I would say that 90% of the book is true. I changed a few names -- as they say, to protect the innocent. Feeling no need to identify girls who have long ago become mothers and grandmothers, I did not use actual names in a few places. There are about two composite characters, again, renamed. One or two of the tales are, perhaps, embellished, not from a "actually happened" standpoint, but from a literary storytelling view. I am guilty of some exaggeration. But, frankly, this stuff happened. The most colorful characters are real -- every one of them. I loved these folks and, for the last decade, couldn't wait to write about them.

 

Pageonelit.com:What has been your feedback from readers?

Edward T. Frye: Most readers so far have been friends and residents of Millheim, where, incidently, I have not lived since 1963. Hundreds of townfolk, both acquaintances and strangers, have read the book with glee and good humor. They love seeing their names, or someone they know, in the stories. They know the town geography as well as I do, and they enjoy following Bierly and me about town. They are playing guessing games about who the renamed people are. In a small town like this, where everyone knows everyone else, these readers know exactly who the correctly identified characters are. They recognize the strange names and ask my sister, still a resident there, just who this or that really was. One gal is peeved at me for changing her mother's name; I thought I was doing her a favor.

Friends around the country read it and comment that it captures the times very well. They like the tales, and everyone tells me that they can identify with this or that one from their own youth. So, I can say that I am getting just the reactions I wished. Now, if I could only get the size of the readership up a bit.

 

Pageonelit.com: Who are your favorite writers and why?

Edward T. Frye: Easy question. Without a doubt Mark Twain is my all-time favorite. I mentioned Huckleberry Finn earlier. To my mind, that is The Great American Novel. And I identify with that rascal. And Bierly, well, he is Tom Sawyer.

I like Herman Melville. Moby Dick ranks second only to Huckleberry Finn in American literature. I think my own writing has been influenced by these two above all else. I think one would see that in Fools and Children, by style, by sidebar ruminations, and by character. I read many contemporary authors. I have enjoyed Stephen King for years. I like Clancy, Ludlem, and Grishem. Right now I in the middle of my third or fouth Dean Koontz tale.

 

Pageonelit.com: What's next?

Edward T. Frye: No more writing for a while. I just finished what I hope will be my last professional journal article. I am busy starting a new small business with a partner. I want to enjoy a little reading time and less writing time for the next few months. Friends are already asking for the sequel -- say, the teenage years -- but I have reservations about that. What passes for cute in two small boys gets a little ugly when they are driving cars.

 

Pageonelit.com:What was the last book you read?

Edward T. Frye: Angela's Ashes. I liked it. Too long though. I got it after the halfway point.

 

Pageonelit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing?

Edward T. Frye: I am an avid racquetball player. I own a boat and a jetski. My family loves the water. I have a private pilot's license, though I sold my plane a few years ago and have not been piloting since. I am a dirt track fan and got to drive my favorite race car not too long ago. I refinish furniture and work with small wood projects.
I don't think much of this has influenced my writing. I'd like to think that each is just a part of guy who has broad and varied interests. I am seldom bored.