Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / CREATE! | a conversation with Ashley Mays

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CREATE! | a conversation with Ashley Mays · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

0:13
SPEAKER_02: Hi friends, welcome to the Simply Wholehearted Podcast.
0:17
SPEAKER_02: I'm Amy Wicks, your host, as well as our good friend Ashley Pittman.
0:21
SPEAKER_02: Here at Simply Wholehearted, we are sharing our journey as we discover how to better love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: And even though you might be surrounded by a world of half-heartedness, we hope that we can inspire you to live wholeheartedly.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: By inviting our different friends to share their simple ideas of how they live, purposeful, and intentional in their everyday.
0:45
SPEAKER_02: Today we have a more casual and sweet conversation between my oldest daughter, Paige and her and Ashley.
0:52
SPEAKER_02: Ashley Mays has been a writer for years.
0:55
SPEAKER_02: And years ago for the well-known real magazine that I focused on Facebook.
1:00
SPEAKER_02: Recently, she's launched her writing career in the published world of her first application.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: I shared about it on Instagram a couple weeks ago.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: It was the one with Paige wearing her favorite t-shirt on both pages of that book.
1:13
SPEAKER_02: We also have several crafts on the book that we picked out and are trying for themselves.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: Now, Paige was really nervous about getting to be the host for this episode, but it's something she's been excited to do since she got her first podcast experience last summer.
1:29
SPEAKER_02: So, I know that if you enjoy the style of this conversation, you'll also like episode 11.
1:36
SPEAKER_02: And that one is with all my kids and their cousins as they share about their experience with the Super Summer Challenge.
1:43
SPEAKER_02: That was just about a year ago.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: So now here's our conversation with Ashley Mace and Paige Wix.
1:53
SPEAKER_02: So tell us a little bit about your job outside of your nine to five.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:59
SPEAKER_03: Um, well, I try.
2:01
SPEAKER_03: I don't always get to do it anymore, but I I try to write fiction and a little bit of nonfiction after I'm working.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: Do you like um what's your favorite thing about fiction and nonfiction?
2:14
SPEAKER_03: My favorite thing about fiction is that I can make up anything that I want.
2:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
2:18
SPEAKER_03: I can make up the characters, I can make up the city they live in, I can make up their whole story.
2:25
SPEAKER_03: And I don't plot out what I write when I write fiction, so I just kind of follow the adventure, and it's a surprise for me, and it's a surprise for my readers, hopefully.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: Have you gotten anything published?
2:37
SPEAKER_03: Not my fiction yet, just the just nonfiction.
2:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
2:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm still waiting on the fiction.
2:42
SPEAKER_03: We'll see.
2:42
SPEAKER_03: I keep praying about it, but nothing's happened so far.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: One thing I know you've done it was a craft book, uh girls' craft book.
2:52
unknown: Uh-huh.
2:53
SPEAKER_01: I did.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: I looked through that.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: That was so cool.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, man, I w I need to do everything in this book.
2:59
SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, which one's your favorite one in there?
3:02
SPEAKER_01: I like the um it was like it was a you got a book, then you put a fabric on the chocolate top or something, and then you cut um cut a little box in it, and it was like it was like a little secret book treasure thing.
3:19
SPEAKER_01: It was really cool.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: And I liked the Altoid um uh emergency.
3:26
SPEAKER_01: The Altoid Tin, yeah.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: That's a cool idea.
3:29
SPEAKER_02: They've all been collecting Altoid tins and I stole one from my mom to do that craft.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: How did you do all of those?
3:38
SPEAKER_03: How did I do all of them?
3:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:41
SPEAKER_03: Um it took about two months, and I just got to go to the craft store.
3:46
SPEAKER_03: They knew me really well by the end of it, and I got to buy all sorts of craft supplies.
3:51
SPEAKER_03: And I got to sit down, and pretty much every day because I was working at a different job, then I every day after work I would come home and I would do uh usually two or three crafts, and then I would spend all the weekends crafting too.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what um what was the insp inspiration for um the choice of crafts and why you wrote the book?
4:15
SPEAKER_03: You know, I like to um do a lot of crafts, and so I kind of have a file on my computer that I just keep up, and anytime I see anything that I like, uh even on Pinterest or um if I see it in a magazine or anything like that, I just take it and I save it and I put it on my computer, and then I when I actually have time to do another craft, I pull them out and I look through them and I decide which one I want to do.
4:42
SPEAKER_03: So when I got all the crafts for this book, yeah, I went through my whole list and I picked out ones that I thought would be a good fit for this book.
4:50
SPEAKER_03: But they gave me a list of um, I don't know, five or ten different different crafts and some ideas to start with, and then let me choose the rest of them.
4:59
SPEAKER_02: Um you're wearing one of them.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I am actually.
5:02
SPEAKER_02: I saw that, I love it so much.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: Oh yay! Yeah.
5:09
SPEAKER_02: She wears it all the time.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: Uh-oh, so I have to I have to um put it to the bottom of the you know, wash basket.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: I hope it stands up long term.
5:21
SPEAKER_02: I think it will, and I think it's lasting her, and I'm sure it'll last until you know little sister can wear it too.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's gonna be like, oh man, final I can get that thing.
5:35
unknown: That's great.
5:36
SPEAKER_01: How long did uh who took the did you take the um photos?
5:40
SPEAKER_03: I did not.
5:41
SPEAKER_03: I had to put all the stuff in an enormous box and take it down to the UPS store, and I had to ship everything to the publishing house, and I laid hands on it and prayed over it and said, please Jesus, don't let the this get lost, because it was a lot of time and a lot of money that that went into making all those crafts.
6:01
SPEAKER_03: And so I was a little bit nervous, but it all got there.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: We have reason to be nervous because really, okay, your birthday card and your birthday, which is December 24th, I sent a week before, and you just got it.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: It's the most two or three days ago.
6:21
SPEAKER_02: I am my like I am still blown away.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: Like, how does this happen?
6:26
SPEAKER_03: I and it only seems to happen with stuff from you too.
6:29
SPEAKER_03: I don't know what it is.
6:30
SPEAKER_03: It must be our our postal services don't like each other or something.
6:34
SPEAKER_03: I guess like what a big deal.
6:36
SPEAKER_03: It's okay.
6:37
SPEAKER_03: It was a really fun surprise to get a birthday card in in April.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: I guess, like, but come on.
6:45
SPEAKER_02: Like almost six months too late.
6:48
SPEAKER_02: I know, I know.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: Oh dear.
6:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
6:52
SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh look, that's something fun, and then I noticed it had the holiday postmark stamp on it.
6:57
SPEAKER_03: I was like, wait a second.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: It's not my husband's birthday or my birthday.
7:02
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
7:03
SPEAKER_03: It is not Christmas time anymore.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: That's hilarious.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Who's your uh what was your most favorite craft and what was the hardest craft?
7:14
SPEAKER_03: Oh, good questions.
7:16
SPEAKER_03: My most favorite craft um is there's one called Book Page Embroidery.
7:22
SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, yeah.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: So that's so cute.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: How do you think that's a good one?
7:26
SPEAKER_03: Oh, thanks.
7:27
SPEAKER_03: That one was my favorite one because I kind of love gumball machines.
7:33
SPEAKER_03: And so I I decided to make that one.
7:36
SPEAKER_03: It's one of the last ones I made.
7:38
SPEAKER_03: Um I got to use a picture or I got to use a page from one of my friends' books.
7:44
SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, she was really excited about it.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: I I had to ask the publisher.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's the one?
7:51
SPEAKER_03: Um her name is Stephanie Morrill.
7:53
SPEAKER_03: She wrote a book called The Lost Girl of Astor Street.
7:56
SPEAKER_03: Oh.
7:57
SPEAKER_03: Um, and it's a really good, it's a good mystery.
7:59
SPEAKER_03: It's a good young adult fiction mystery set in the 20s.
8:03
SPEAKER_03: Um so I got to read that and is that something Paige would enjoy, you think?
8:08
SPEAKER_03: I think so, because you like you like Nancy Drew a lot, don't you?
8:12
SPEAKER_01: And I'm also in the series The Adventures of the Northwoods.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: It's a Christian um book and it's set in Minnesota, I think.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: But it's I haven't heard of that.
8:23
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna have to check that out.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: It's like maybe the 1800s or something.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: I think the author of the Mandy series.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is.
8:32
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love the Mandy books.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: I like I like books that keep me uh uh all night in series.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: Me too, yes.
8:42
SPEAKER_03: Those are the best kind.
8:44
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I agree.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: Worth reading.
8:46
SPEAKER_03: Right?
8:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I agree.
8:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm the same way.
8:50
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, that was my favorite one to make, and then the hardest craft to make was um the tie-dye t-shirt.
8:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh really?
8:58
SPEAKER_02: The one that Haiti has.
9:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that one.
9:01
SPEAKER_03: It was it took me probably four or five tries to get that one right.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: We did it with my Grammy.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: It did not turn out very well, but it was an experience.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it was an experience.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: It was an experience.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: I just decided to do like half and half of different colors.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: And that turned out fine, but Hades was just is still just like almost blank.
9:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it took me a couple at more than a couple of tries to get it right because it just kind of turned into a big splotch, and and so I had to do trial and error to figure out okay, what's the best way to make this work?
9:43
SPEAKER_03: And I finally got it, but um, it took the most tries out of everything in the whole book.
9:49
SPEAKER_02: What are some of your tips that you would give for that one?
9:52
SPEAKER_03: Um, you have to make the dip, the V at the top of the heart, you have to go really low with the V in the heart.
10:00
SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, it just turns into a big circle.
10:03
SPEAKER_02: So you have to go more extreme than you think you would.
10:06
SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
10:06
SPEAKER_03: It almost doesn't look like a heart anymore.
10:09
SPEAKER_03: Um, but people that's the way it has to do it for the tie-dye to work.
10:14
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
10:14
SPEAKER_02: Well, it turned out really cute on the shirt that Haiti loves.
10:17
SPEAKER_03: I you know, it's not bad in either way, because you end up with a tie-dye t-shirt.
10:21
SPEAKER_03: It just might not look like a heart.
10:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: People would say, oh, that looks so easy, and it's index not being like Yeah, just the easiest the most easiest looking thing is usually the hardest thing.
10:36
SPEAKER_03: That is true.
10:38
SPEAKER_03: Simple things are sometimes pretty difficult.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:45
SPEAKER_01: Um which one of the favorite uh the t-shirts that you um made?
10:51
SPEAKER_01: Which one is your favorite?
10:53
SPEAKER_03: Out of the two in the book, or um Oh goodness.
10:57
SPEAKER_03: I think probably the one you're wearing because I really love stars.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and there's birds flying in the body.
11:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, mm-hmm.
11:05
SPEAKER_03: The the rainbow birds and yeah, that one was a pretty fun one.
11:09
SPEAKER_03: I really enjoyed making that one.
11:10
SPEAKER_02: It's almost like a stained glass element because you have a regular t-shirt and you cut in a shape and then you layer a piece of fabric behind it, and then you do some cool stitching.
11:23
SPEAKER_02: So that's pretty fun.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: Why did you uh choose for it to be a a basically a Christian-based book?
11:32
SPEAKER_03: Uh I didn't choose it that way.
11:33
SPEAKER_03: The publisher uh asked for it to be that way because they publish Christian books.
11:39
SPEAKER_03: So if it was a publisher that wasn't a Christian publishing house, they maybe wouldn't have asked for that.
11:46
SPEAKER_03: Actually, they probably would not have asked for that.
11:48
SPEAKER_03: But because this is a Christian publisher, they wanted some faith elements to tie into it.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:54
SPEAKER_03: So they asked me if I could have um some crafts that had some Bible verses or like the soapbox prayer kit, um, that sort of thing.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I liked the um it was a piece of paper and you did a cool Bible verse on there.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: That was so that was really cool.
12:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
12:14
SPEAKER_03: The the the posters, the Bible verse posters in there.
12:18
SPEAKER_03: I used to make those with my college roommate, um, and I would make them for my cabins when I was a camp counselor, so I would put those up all over my cabin during the summer and then give them away to my campers at the end of the summer.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you like cute.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: That's fun.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
12:33
SPEAKER_01: Where do you get the title from?
12:35
SPEAKER_03: Uh, the publisher gave it to me.
12:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they just wanted it to be called create.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's fun.
12:42
SPEAKER_02: Simple and cute, it's very colorful, and it is a ton of fun.
12:47
SPEAKER_02: And really, the girls have poured over it and been like, oh, we want to do this.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: And Miles too.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: I mean no, it's designed for girls, but Miles.
12:54
SPEAKER_02: Right.
12:55
SPEAKER_02: But boys can make cool crafts too.
12:57
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
12:58
SPEAKER_02: You can do whatever you want.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure, I'm sure Aaron helped you with a ton of stuff, right?
13:02
SPEAKER_02: Oh, oh, yeah.
13:03
SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, he's so super artistic.
13:06
SPEAKER_03: Yes, totally crafty.
13:09
SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
13:10
unknown: That's my brother.
13:11
SPEAKER_03: Analytical and crafty.
13:13
SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: They go hand in hand.
13:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's great.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: What do you like?
13:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh what do you like making crafts like?
13:22
SPEAKER_01: Did you like grow up making crafts?
13:26
SPEAKER_01: I did.
13:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
13:28
SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
13:29
SPEAKER_03: I did.
13:29
SPEAKER_03: Um, when I was really, really little, I liked coloring a lot.
13:34
SPEAKER_03: I liked making all sorts of stuff.
13:36
SPEAKER_03: Um, but then when I was about, I don't know, probably six or seven, I started using all my birthday money to get craft supplies and that sort of thing.
13:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then during the summers, when my mom was still asleep in the morning, I would get up early and go downstairs and watch this drawing show that would teach kids how to draw stuff.
13:56
SPEAKER_03: And so my brother and I would watch this show and I would draw stuff, and then I would get really inspired.
14:02
SPEAKER_03: And so I would go and make other stuff.
14:05
SPEAKER_03: And one time I went and I decided to make a costume.
14:08
SPEAKER_03: So I made a costume of a bag of groceries using everything out of the recycle bin in the garage.
14:14
SPEAKER_03: So that was a lot of fun.
14:16
SPEAKER_03: But I've always been kind of a crafty person, and I if I see something and I like it, I don't usually buy it.
14:23
SPEAKER_03: I want to make it first just because I think that's fun.
14:26
SPEAKER_03: I think um because God is a creator, I think he made me sort of that way.
14:33
SPEAKER_03: I think he one of the ways that he made me in his image is to make me creative too.
14:37
SPEAKER_03: So I get to make stuff and take it, take uh nothing and turn it into something.
14:42
SPEAKER_03: And I think that's just really fun.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: That's really cool.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: That is fun, and I think it makes total sense that you get to participate in a project like this.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
14:51
SPEAKER_02: Because for Christmas and birthdays, you love to make us things.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: I do.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: Including one of my favorite winter scarves is the D scarf.
15:00
SPEAKER_02: I still have it.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: I I get compliments, uh, compliments on it every time I wear it.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: They're like, oh my goodness, where that is so beautiful.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: Where'd you get that?
15:09
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
15:10
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love making things like that.
15:12
SPEAKER_03: And I think it's just so fun to me.
15:14
SPEAKER_03: I feel like I put a lot of time and and it makes me happy to show everybody how much I love them just by doing something I also love.
15:23
unknown: Yeah, that's cool.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: Alright, I'm popping in here for a quick minute to interrupt the sweet conversation to share a little again about our two mini series that we have available.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: They are both designed to give you practical and inspiring ideas which you can put into practice immediately.
15:40
SPEAKER_02: So, the first one is Soul Time mini-series.
15:44
SPEAKER_02: And it's for anyone, anyone who wants to learn and practice about taking the time to overwhelm yourself with what builds your picture.
15:53
SPEAKER_02: You feel loved, evaluated, and well taken care of in your spirit identified.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: And I promise that none of our ideas require the time or finances needed for a topic break.
16:05
SPEAKER_02: Our second three-minute series is about meaningful minutes and how to find an overall rhythm and intentionality to the days we have with our kids.
16:15
SPEAKER_02: So, if you're a mama looking for the ideas to keep them busy this summer without electronics, you may want to join us.
16:23
SPEAKER_02: Okay, now back to our conversation with Ashley and Paige.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: When was the first book you wrote?
16:32
SPEAKER_01: Not not published, but just wrote, yeah.
16:36
SPEAKER_03: The first book that I ever wrote.
16:38
SPEAKER_03: Um I was 13 years old, and um I was in my eighth grade English class, I think, and she had given us um journaling every morning at the beginning of class.
16:57
SPEAKER_03: And um she sometimes she gave us a lot of journaling topics, but she also told us if you don't want to do the journaling topics, you don't have to.
17:06
SPEAKER_03: So I most of the time didn't, and I just started writing a book instead.
17:11
SPEAKER_03: And so I wrote every morning at school, and I couldn't stop writing even when she started teaching other things and moved on to the lesson.
17:20
SPEAKER_03: But this is better.
17:22
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
17:23
SPEAKER_03: And so I kind of fell in love with it, and I started writing all my stories in my little spiral book notebooks, and I have a whole bunch of those from when I was about 13 all the way up until I started writing on the computer when I was in high school.
17:39
SPEAKER_03: So I have a bunch of them.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: I love ri I love writing, it's my favorite thing too.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: I also love reading.
17:45
SPEAKER_01: I do too.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: Just like I every time I read I feel like I'm not in the normal world in my my own role, like imagining everything that's in the book.
17:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
17:57
SPEAKER_03: That's every author's dream come true.
17:59
SPEAKER_03: That's exactly what we want for you.
18:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, get lost in the story.
18:03
SPEAKER_02: So, what are some of your other passions to write?
18:06
SPEAKER_02: Like your uh genres, and um you know, obviously that's probably changed since when you were younger, but what does that look like for you?
18:14
SPEAKER_03: It actually hasn't changed.
18:16
SPEAKER_03: My favorite genre to write is young adult contemporary fiction.
18:19
SPEAKER_03: And I I don't know why.
18:21
SPEAKER_03: Um, I think it's it's just the passion that God gave me.
18:25
SPEAKER_03: I have worked with teens for a really long time.
18:29
SPEAKER_03: When I was a camp counselor, I kind of fell in love with working with high school kids and college kids and that sort of thing.
18:36
SPEAKER_03: So I um it's just kind of natural for me to write young adult fiction.
18:41
SPEAKER_03: I don't write middle grade fiction, so that's um usually 10 to 13 years old, but I enjoy reading it, but I don't write it.
18:53
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then yeah, I mostly just I stick with the contemporary young adult fiction.
18:58
SPEAKER_03: It's just always been my favorite, and that's usually what I like to read too.
19:02
unknown: Yeah, that's cool.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: Do you always use the same characters as you've built through the years or has have those kind of evolved and changed?
19:10
SPEAKER_03: They're all different characters.
19:11
SPEAKER_03: Each book is a different character, but they kind of all live in the same place, so they have passing roles in the other in other books.
19:20
SPEAKER_03: So if my characters go to a coffee shop, one of the characters from a previous book will be in the coffee shop serving coffee or something like that.
19:28
SPEAKER_03: But they don't usually show up in the same books in the different books all the time.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: I like that though, because you want to sometimes feel like you haven't completely lost touch with the character.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: When you go on to the next book.
19:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's a little bit of continuity there, and it kind of helps you learn to love the community and the books and that sort of thing.
19:48
SPEAKER_03: And yeah, so sometimes I have a f quite a few that are that way, and then some of the older ones don't do that, but I could write them that way if I wanted to.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: Well, that's gonna be awesome when a publisher decides to pick those up because you are ready to go.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: I am ready to go.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: It's been a long time.
20:07
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you have been working at this for a long time.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: You work uh working on a new uh new story yet?
20:13
SPEAKER_03: I am, I have a new one going on right now, and um, like I said earlier, I don't really plot my stuff, so I don't really know what it's about yet because it's brand brand new.
20:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
20:23
SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, I just started out with an idea and we'll see where it goes.
20:30
SPEAKER_02: See where the story takes you, huh?
20:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
20:33
SPEAKER_01: I was um writing a story from a script my cousin wrote.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm actually writing a book that I uh understand what I'm doing.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: Because usually I don't have like this main storyline where I'm like, okay, I this is what they're going to say, and this is what is going to happen.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: But I usually have I usually know when it's going to happen, but the wording is just kind of like uh oh, okay, the reaction Yeah, yeah, you have to make that part up as you go.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're like, um, okay, okay, okay, got that.
21:06
SPEAKER_03: That's really cool.
21:06
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna have to write a book together one of these days.
21:08
SPEAKER_03: That'd be a lot of fun.
21:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that'd be a lot of fun.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: Well, what are some of the crafts that you're enjoying doing now that you don't have to do any for a butt?
21:19
SPEAKER_03: I haven't made anything in a long time.
21:22
SPEAKER_03: My favorite thing to do is to paint with acrylics on canvas.
21:28
SPEAKER_03: So I do a lot of that and I do a lot of hand lettering.
21:31
SPEAKER_03: Hand lettering is one of my favorites.
21:33
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I like to hand letter a lot of Bible verses or just fun quotes or that sort of thing.
21:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then a couple of my friends had some books recently come out, and so I got to design stickers for her and bookmarks and little art prints and that sort of thing.
21:50
SPEAKER_03: So that was a lot of fun too.
21:52
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, because you have your design business as well.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:55
SPEAKER_03: I did.
21:56
SPEAKER_03: I can't do it anymore, sadly.
21:58
SPEAKER_02: Gotcha, just kind of
22:00
SPEAKER_03: For those friends who Yeah, yeah, I do it um just for for this one friend because I had already started working on her stuff when I had the design business.
22:09
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
22:11
SPEAKER_02: That's really awesome.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: Is that something you would love to do full time more than what you're doing full-time now, or would you just like to trade it all for writing full time?
22:20
SPEAKER_03: I would love to trade it all for writing full-time.
22:24
SPEAKER_03: Writing is the is the ultimate dream job.
22:27
SPEAKER_03: It's it's what I wanted to do since I was 13.
22:29
SPEAKER_03: And um it doesn't pay a whole lot, so it's really difficult for a lot of authors to to make a living off of it.
22:38
SPEAKER_03: But um, yeah, that's always the hope and the dream, and who knows, maybe it'll happen one day, but right now I'm okay doing what I do and and and writing when I can.
22:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and you can officially say you have your first book out, and it's just the first of a lot more to come, I'm sure.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: I hope so.
22:57
SPEAKER_02: I sure hope so.
22:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:59
SPEAKER_02: So have you gone through the years, have you gone like if you're you know encouraging someone, whether they're young or 60, who would love to get some books published, what's some advice that you'd give to them, including Paige, as she, you know, loves to do it as much as you do?
23:17
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
23:17
SPEAKER_03: I think probably one of the most important things you can do is get into a habit of writing.
23:23
SPEAKER_03: Um, the more you write, the easier it is to keep writing.
23:27
SPEAKER_03: It's kind of like if you stop doing it, you lose your momentum and it feels so hard and so difficult to jump back into it.
23:33
unknown: Yeah.
23:34
SPEAKER_03: But if you keep that habit and you have a good habit going, um, it's just what you do.
23:39
SPEAKER_03: And if you do it enough days in a row, you have a whole book.
23:43
SPEAKER_03: Like my novels are about 80,000 words.
23:45
SPEAKER_03: And if I do that every day, it usually takes me about two to three months to finish a whole novel.
23:51
SPEAKER_03: But if I kind of set it aside and say, Oh, I don't really need to, I don't feel like doing it today, um, then it takes a lot longer, and that's kind of where I am right now.
24:00
SPEAKER_03: But sometimes if I can if I can get back into that schedule, and I think if new writers can find a good schedule that works at the beginning, then you can really get a whole bunch of really good stuff done pretty quickly.
24:12
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
24:13
SPEAKER_02: How how many words and when do you write?
24:16
SPEAKER_03: Um, I write 1200 words a day, and I used to write right after I got off work um when I had flex hours.
24:24
SPEAKER_03: Now I don't get off work until after 5 30, so I have to make dinner instead.
24:30
SPEAKER_03: But I usually try to try to get some words in um at night.
24:34
SPEAKER_03: I'm not a morning person, so I have to do it at night.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: If you only didn't have to make dinner, I mean you have to eat.
24:41
SPEAKER_03: Why do people have to eat so much every day too?
24:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: Glad we actually I know.
24:49
SPEAKER_03: I love food, but it's the I if I could have a personal chef, I would love one.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you mean oh yeah.
24:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: It looked like you were gonna ask something about the book writing process or practicing writing.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: How do you think you're good in your wording and like how do you get um know what you're gonna say and just how do you get all the inspiration and stuff?
25:12
SPEAKER_02: Um That's a really good question.
25:17
SPEAKER_02: So where do you get your inspiration from for your stories?
25:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:20
SPEAKER_02: For you know, does she?
25:21
SPEAKER_03: Is that each of those stories kind of has a different um a different inspiration.
25:30
SPEAKER_03: And they it just kind of depends on um what I'm paying attention to.
25:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah so sometimes if I'm reading the newspaper or watching a good TV show or um something like that, sometimes I can get inspiration through that, or most of the time what happens is my brain is just really good at asking what if, or you know, what if this happened when I was at the car wash, you know, like what if the windshield broke in my car?
26:02
SPEAKER_03: And then so my brain just works that way.
26:06
SPEAKER_03: I just I'm always imagination.
26:09
SPEAKER_03: It is a very good imagination.
26:11
SPEAKER_03: It's not great when I'm trying not to be anxious and not afraid, but um, it does really good things when I'm trying to come up with new storylines.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I feel like that is totally what happens to me.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: Like, what if what if I uh what if I didn't go to this person's house in this uh situation didn't happen and I'm like, oh what if like I just asked that a lot too.
26:36
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
26:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah which is part of it.
26:39
SPEAKER_03: You'll come up with some good story ideas that way.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm like um the superhero ran across the field.
26:48
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
26:50
SPEAKER_02: Now for you, um what else some like some of the journey that you've had in your writing?
26:57
SPEAKER_02: What are some of the things that you're really glad that you did and other things that you'd be like, eh, you don't need to worry about that.
27:05
SPEAKER_03: Um oh goodness.
27:07
SPEAKER_03: Don't tell my parents, but I'm not sure I needed to go to college to get a degree in creative writing.
27:15
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
27:17
SPEAKER_02: All right, we don't share this podcast with them, or we'll edit that way.
27:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, don't we don't need to they don't need to know that.
27:23
SPEAKER_03: Um I had a great time at college.
27:26
SPEAKER_03: I met some really wonderful friends, and I don't regret any of it, but um I've I've learned a lot about writing just by being a part of the industry and and actually doing things.
27:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, because you know there are there are great writing books out there.
27:43
SPEAKER_03: You can learn that stuff, and um most authors are really, really nice, and if you reach out to them, they can they can answer a couple of questions.
27:51
SPEAKER_03: Um I mean it so going to school was great, but I'm not sure I needed to have a creative writing degree to be able to write books.
28:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:02
SPEAKER_03: I probably could have done something else, gotten a degree in something else that I also enjoyed and would have been just fine.
28:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
28:09
SPEAKER_01: At least you got a little uh professional peep into the writing world.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: Like so I got this and I probably wouldn't have known that if I didn't do that.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate the way you're looking at that page.
28:23
SPEAKER_02: That's very positive of you.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: As I want a brainwasher into going into college.
28:31
SPEAKER_03: Oh yes, you should definitely go to college.
28:33
SPEAKER_03: I think it was so much fun to be there and uh to study all the different things that I did because I went to a liberal arts college, so it wasn't like it was just writing related.
28:44
SPEAKER_03: Right.
28:44
SPEAKER_03: I I studied a little bit of everything basically, but yeah.
28:48
SPEAKER_03: Good experience.
28:50
SPEAKER_02: How about some of the the positive either jobs or conferences?
28:55
SPEAKER_02: And you mentioned that you reached out to other authors, which takes courage to do.
29:01
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, because you could get turned down, right?
29:04
SPEAKER_03: But those are some good ideas to you yeah, you could, but usually it's not because authors don't want to talk, it's because they're on a deadline or something like that, or you know, the email inboxes backed up or stuff like that.
29:18
SPEAKER_03: So if anybody ever does reach out to an author and they don't respond, don't take it personally.
29:24
SPEAKER_03: They're just busy people.
29:25
SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, I like yes, like everybody else, exactly.
29:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, we just all do different stuff.
29:35
SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, so I I just kind of start when I would read books that I enjoyed when I was in high school, um, I kept note of the different authors, and now everybody has a web page or everybody has Instagram or Facebook or anything like that.
29:52
SPEAKER_03: So it's really easy to connect with most of the authors that I really enjoyed.
29:58
SPEAKER_03: And now it's really cool because a lot of the authors that I enjoyed when I was in high school, middle school, even college, they are all online now.
30:08
SPEAKER_03: And so I've built up a relationship with them just by um writing my own stuff and hanging out with them and and going different classes and um just getting to know them.
30:21
SPEAKER_03: Cool.
30:21
SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd really like to meet a famous author one day.
30:29
SPEAKER_03: Who's your favorite?
30:30
SPEAKER_03: Who do you think you would want to meet the most?
30:33
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: She might not be alive when I'm able to see her, but the uh lady who wrote um Caroline King.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: Caroline No, not Caroline King.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh Lois.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: Lois Gladys.
30:47
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh Caroline.
30:51
SPEAKER_02: Who's the author of the Mandy series?
30:53
SPEAKER_02: Lois Gladys Walker.
30:56
SPEAKER_03: I know exactly who you're talking about, but I cannot remember her name.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and also Caroline King.
31:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: I haven't really but I'd like to meet those and like the the storyline and um adventures are unbelievable.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: Like I can even do that.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: But some people they're like, oh that's easy, like I can do that.
31:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: Like I need their help.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mostly need God's help, but I need their information and how they do all that because sometimes my imagination doesn't go that far right now.
31:34
SPEAKER_03: Because I Yeah, but you know, they probably put a lot of time and practice it and they didn't start off where you are either.
31:40
unknown: Yeah.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: I hope to do it for a living or just or just do it after work or yeah.
31:53
SPEAKER_01: Just when I can't do it.
31:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, just for fun.
31:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh okay, uh bye kids, I'm gonna go.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: Right stories.
32:02
unknown: Yeah.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: So the question is after this experience with the craft book, would you do another one?
32:08
SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
32:09
SPEAKER_03: I loved making this craft book.
32:11
SPEAKER_03: It was so much fun.
32:12
SPEAKER_03: It was it was such a perfect blend of writing and making stuff, and I'm not sure anybody could have orchestrated that any better than God did for me.
32:22
SPEAKER_03: It just felt like a really big present for him to to let me get to be a part of that project.
32:28
SPEAKER_03: So it was really cool.
32:29
SPEAKER_03: I would definitely do another one.
32:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: Just that was it was a fun, it was a fun book to look at.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: I looked at it like three times.
32:36
SPEAKER_01: It was like I'm so glad you like it.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: It's really cool.
32:39
SPEAKER_02: Well, what's great is we're gonna make sure we get some supplies for the crafts this summer, and they are gonna be in our super summer challenge.
32:47
SPEAKER_02: So when they want to earn some points for doing something, that's fun.
32:51
SPEAKER_02: They'll have it ready to go, and yeah, it's a great resource for sure.
32:55
SPEAKER_02: So cool.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: I really want to do the secret book compartment thing.
32:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was so cute.
33:01
SPEAKER_01: I like books and like hiding things and keeping things in a special spot.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: So I'm like this is just me.
33:17
SPEAKER_02: But especially for our kids, I don't want my kids on the computer at all.
33:21
SPEAKER_02: So the more I can just get a book and put it in their hands and get that to spark creativity.
33:27
SPEAKER_02: Um the better, the better for everybody, I think.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: So for sure.
33:34
SPEAKER_03: And there's over 60 activities in this book, so yeah, they're gonna be very busy.
33:39
SPEAKER_03: There's plenty of stuff to do over the summer.
33:42
SPEAKER_02: But I'll at least try to do most of them.
33:44
SPEAKER_02: We'll pick we'll pick our top ten, I think.
33:46
SPEAKER_03: There you go.
33:48
SPEAKER_03: Will you take some pictures for me and and send those to me so I can see them when you're done?
33:51
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, absolutely.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, in fact, I would love it if we if I ever got to like have create like each season have a you know, like a meaningful summer box, a meaningful spring.
34:03
SPEAKER_02: I think your book should definitely go in it.
34:05
SPEAKER_02: And oh, that would be so fun.
34:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, especially for just, you know, again, it's like that, you know, you you just put in their hands and even if they can't do that exact project, it can get their mind going, you know, in like that creative direction of like, oh you know, I can't do this, but I could do something like this, and yeah, like that's exactly how most things work for me.
34:27
SPEAKER_03: I can't do this this way, but maybe I can make it work for me.
34:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
34:31
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, have you your thing that's just like you because yeah, just part of you.
34:40
SPEAKER_02: Yep, exactly.
34:41
SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you, Ashley, for letting us um hear the behind the scenes to our new favorite book.
34:48
SPEAKER_02: Yes, thank you for letting me be on your podcast.
34:52
SPEAKER_02: This is so fun.
34:53
SPEAKER_02: My first podcast ever.
34:55
SPEAKER_01: Yay! Yay!
34:56
SPEAKER_02: We get to be the first podcast.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: And then hopefully you'll be on others, but that's right.
35:01
SPEAKER_02: I see many more to come.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
35:05
SPEAKER_02: Didn't Paige do such a great job?
35:07
SPEAKER_02: I'm really proud of her.
35:09
SPEAKER_02: And I think she liked it even though she was nervous.
35:12
SPEAKER_02: I hope you enjoyed a little different conversation for our summer series.
35:16
SPEAKER_02: And if you know a young girl or two, you might want to pick up a few of these books, which are perfect for summer boredom busters or their next birthday or holiday gift.
35:26
SPEAKER_02: You can order it on Amazon and find out more about Ashley Mays on all the socials, which we'll link to in our show notes.
35:34
SPEAKER_02: Remember, we'd love to have you join us for one or both of our minute series.
35:38
SPEAKER_02: And thanks again for not keeping this podcast all to yourself.
35:41
SPEAKER_02: Each of your ratings, reviews, and shares are truly important and valuable to us.
35:46
SPEAKER_02: It's super easy and helpful to be on any app you listen to for the podcast and on our Facebook page as well.
35:54
SPEAKER_02: So until next week, we hope you'll be joining us as we discover more ways to live face a briefful heart of life, a plus purposeful, and intentional.