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Suffering Through The Pains Of Our Parents Precious Ugly From Author Rae Cline · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: It's really all about making a connection. Ero dot net
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  Speaker 1: a r r oe dot net. You've got to enjoy
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  Speaker 1: this exploration in the way of going to one place
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  Speaker 1: to find so many things to sink your imagination into.
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  Speaker 1: That's the whole purpose. It's a network of thoughts, content, expressions,
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  Speaker 1: and experiences. That's what ero dot net is. A r
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  Speaker 1: r oe dot net. Enjoy the exploration. Hello, Erow, how
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  Speaker 1: are you Absolutely fantastic? How are you doing today?
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  Speaker 2: Very well? Thanks so much for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my god. Of course, you have so many things
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  Speaker 1: inside this book that are so very much up to
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  Speaker 1: date with where we presently are. And I've always believed,
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  Speaker 1: and I've said it so much on iHeartRadio that the
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  Speaker 1: authors are the activators and it's through their words that
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  Speaker 1: things begin to happen. And it starts with just being aware.
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  Speaker 1: And you have such an amazing place here for people
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  Speaker 1: to learn how to become even stronger with their awareness.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much, Erro. I do I agree
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  Speaker 3: with you so much. And you know you're a writer.
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  Speaker 3: It's about witnessing, seeing what's around us, observing the world.
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  Speaker 3: And I think as writers often we don't really know
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  Speaker 3: what we think of the world until we process it
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  Speaker 3: through our words on paper. Right.
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  Speaker 1: That is so true, because I mean, I'm a daily writer,
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  Speaker 1: so there, and I've been doing it since July of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four. And I sit there and I go, well,
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  Speaker 1: I don't even know who I'm writing this for. And
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  Speaker 1: there was a gentleman that said, it's not even for
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  Speaker 1: this generation. It's for somebody that could be here fifty
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  Speaker 1: or one hundred years from now because you took the time.
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  Speaker 1: I feel the same exact way about Prescia. Ugly, this
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  Speaker 1: is one of those things that fifty to one hundred
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  Speaker 1: years from now, people are going to say, oh my god,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't know.
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  Speaker 2: Oh wow, thank you so much for that.
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  Speaker 3: I you know, I think Clementine her voice is so
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  Speaker 3: reflective of so many girls and women surviving children, and
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  Speaker 3: men and boys surviving circumcis answers that are so incredibly difficult,
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  Speaker 3: and Clementine, for me, gives some form and space to that.
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  Speaker 3: And so for me, certainly, she's going to live with
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  Speaker 3: me for a very long time obviously. But you know
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  Speaker 3: the funny thing is that it took me fourteen years
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  Speaker 3: to write her.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, Okay, So now I've got to ask you
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  Speaker 1: from one writer to another. What was the roadblock? What
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  Speaker 1: kept you there?
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  Speaker 3: You know, honestly, I think I came to writing primarily
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  Speaker 3: in my craft through short stories, which I love because
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  Speaker 3: I think short stories really teach you a lot about
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  Speaker 3: the scene. It's a faster sort of turnaround on the
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  Speaker 3: cycles of editing. There's a lot you can do with
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  Speaker 3: short stories and flash fiction. And when I decided that
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  Speaker 3: Clementine had a story that really needed to be told
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  Speaker 3: and I really rank and InCred into her, I felt
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  Speaker 3: like I needed to really study my craft at a
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  Speaker 3: long form in order to do her justice because I
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  Speaker 3: felt that her story was so incredibly important and I
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  Speaker 3: wanted to make sure that the craft that was telling
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  Speaker 3: it was going to tell it the way she needed it.
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  Speaker 2: To be told.
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  Speaker 3: So it took me fourteen years to really not only
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  Speaker 3: discover her and explore her in the world in which
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  Speaker 3: she lived, which obviously, you know, writers, there's always a
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  Speaker 3: lot of us in the work, but it's not about
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  Speaker 3: us at the same time, So you know, you're pulling
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  Speaker 3: from your own background and everything you've witnessed an experience,
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  Speaker 3: but still, you know how it is you go in
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  Speaker 3: and you're really discovering this almost magical world, and in fact,
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  Speaker 3: in Precious Ugly's case, there is an element of magic
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  Speaker 3: realism that plays, and it is sort of depends on
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  Speaker 3: how the reader approaches the story personally that that sort
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  Speaker 3: of magical element comes out.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things that you talked about that is
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  Speaker 1: so much into my present day path and I have
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  Speaker 1: to give Stephen Ferdie credit for this from Elevation Church,
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  Speaker 1: and that is breaking the chain. You have no problem
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  Speaker 1: bringing this up in this learning how to break that cycle,
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  Speaker 1: and we're taught that it's breaking the chain. This is
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  Speaker 1: so important in this day because a lot of the
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  Speaker 1: younger generation is trying to do that. They just don't
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  Speaker 1: have the love and support from people like yourself as
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  Speaker 1: an author to say break it, break the chain.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, you know. And it's about finding your your voice, right.
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  Speaker 3: It's it's not only on the page, but but you know,
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  Speaker 3: speaking as well. And that's something I hope that Clementine
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  Speaker 3: does for for all ages is sort of provide this
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  Speaker 3: space where readers can be with her and sit with
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  Speaker 3: her and say, you know, if she can find.
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  Speaker 2: Her voice in all of this, then.
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  Speaker 3: I can too. And that I think is one of
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  Speaker 3: the magics of books that you know, we feel less
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  Speaker 3: alone in our own experiences, you know, as in the
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  Speaker 3: joys in the horrors of life. We all go through
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  Speaker 3: many ups and downs, but we just feel less alone.
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  Speaker 2: And it's wonderful. And don't be right.
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  Speaker 3: I love film so very much as a form, but
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  Speaker 3: I think the thing that books do for me is
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  Speaker 3: when I read a story like Belove It by Tony Morrison,
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  Speaker 3: I am experiencing the world in a way that is
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  Speaker 3: so very specific to Morrison's voice and Seth's voice. But
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  Speaker 3: at the same time I can see so shared spaces.
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  Speaker 3: I experienced shared spaces with Satha in the story in
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  Speaker 3: the Land, and also being a woman, you know, surviving
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  Speaker 3: extreme circumstances, not as extreme.
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  Speaker 2: As Satha, of course, but that ability to do that
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  Speaker 2: in your mind and in your.
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  Speaker 3: Own personal individual space is truly something I think.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you bring up a very interesting point there about
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  Speaker 1: a book being a book versus this world of movies
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  Speaker 1: and different videos on TikTok and Instagram and things. And
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  Speaker 1: people get upset with me because I will not do
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  Speaker 1: a zoom video and they go, well why, And I said,
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  Speaker 1: because I want people to listen to the conversation, not
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  Speaker 1: watch me make different moves and you judge me on that,
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  Speaker 1: and you totally miss the dang point. And I love that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, because I always envisioned someone with a book.
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  Speaker 1: It is so personal. How many times did they finish,
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  Speaker 1: let's say a chapter, They kind of close it a bit,
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  Speaker 1: and they hold it next to their heart. That's reading
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  Speaker 1: a book. You can't do that if you're watching you a.
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  Speaker 2: Movie exactly exactly.
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  Speaker 3: You can process the book in whatever way is most
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  Speaker 3: important to you. I go back to the Friends episode
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  Speaker 3: where Joey is reading it by Stephen King.
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  Speaker 2: And at one point he needs to put the book in.
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  Speaker 3: The freezer because he's so scared of the clown. You know, however,
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  Speaker 3: we process books and Pressure slugily has a challenging content.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's not shy, it's looking at issues that
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  Speaker 3: are really difficult, and I think it is important that
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  Speaker 3: that holds space on the page for the reader.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Pressure sugly or you know, or Clementine thirteen years
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  Speaker 1: old facing a big wall. And then here's the thing
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  Speaker 1: that really captured my attention because nobody's talking about this,
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  Speaker 1: and that is you're talking about the Ronald Reagan years
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  Speaker 1: aide Cindy Lauper, you know, the Tina Turner, the Walkman.
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  Speaker 1: I live there. I was in radio while this was
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  Speaker 1: going on, you know. I mean she's thirteen at that
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  Speaker 1: I was eighteen my first year of marriage. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: maybe that's my connection to this book because I'm going,
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  Speaker 1: oh my god, she's really bringing things up here that
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  Speaker 1: was way back there. But she's made a present.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, she is very much a child of her time.
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  Speaker 3: It was very important to me to place her in
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  Speaker 3: that because that's how old I was.
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  Speaker 2: At that time growing up.
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  Speaker 3: And I wanted it to be very authentic to the
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  Speaker 3: Reagan era because it was so specific. And do you
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  Speaker 3: remember going back to that time when nuclear war was
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  Speaker 3: very helpable and real we were afraid of a nuclear war.
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  Speaker 3: And it's interesting how this all comes back around, right,
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  Speaker 3: and it's in so many different ways. I'm feeling artifacts
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  Speaker 3: of the eighties now today, sosiopolitically, socioeconomically, it's all there
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  Speaker 3: for me. So I did find that it was sort
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  Speaker 3: of serendipitous. Prescious Ugly found its way into the world
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  Speaker 3: now in this moment.
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  Speaker 2: Because I.
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  Speaker 3: Just thought it was the right time Prescious Sugwy to speak.
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  Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Raykline coming up next,
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  Speaker 1: the name of her book, Precious Ugly. We are back
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  Speaker 1: with author Rayline. Your book is coming out at the
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  Speaker 1: right time. And here's the reason why, and this is
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: kind of a personal reason, is that I work with
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people that are in the tenth to
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  Speaker 1: the twelfth grade into college years, and I do ask them,
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  Speaker 1: I go, what are you thinking about this present day?
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  Speaker 1: Because I know what I was thinking forty seven years
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  Speaker 1: ago when things were falling apart with those fifty two hostages.
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  Speaker 1: And I did ask them very politely, I say, tell
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  Speaker 1: me what you're thinking about this present day? What is
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  Speaker 1: there something going on? And you sit there and you go,
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  Speaker 1: what are you talking about? Have you not read the
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  Speaker 1: What are you telling me? What is it that I
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  Speaker 1: should be watching out for? They're not digesting it the
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  Speaker 1: way we did during those Ronald Reagan years. And you're
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  Speaker 1: right about that about the nuclear war, because I was
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  Speaker 1: okay because I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and that
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  Speaker 1: movie What was It Day One or the Day After?
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  Speaker 1: Came out and the fourth city hit by a bomb, Charlotte,
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  Speaker 1: North Carolina. That freaked me out. And I'm still freaked
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  Speaker 1: out because of that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I do so. One of the houses
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  Speaker 3: I lived in growing up had a bomb shelter in
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  Speaker 3: the basement, you know, and it is it's a reminder of.
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  Speaker 2: What could be.
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  Speaker 3: And of course, when when the wall came down, you
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  Speaker 3: know Reagan's famous words, take this wall down, there was
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  Speaker 3: a sense of relief, right, There was a feeling of well,
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  Speaker 3: maybe we're moving into a new space here. But then,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we also had this just extraordinary silence around
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  Speaker 3: the AIDS epidemic.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, you know, we had so.
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  Speaker 3: Many people, friends, family who were dying silently, quietly. And
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  Speaker 3: I just felt that the theater, the character Beater in
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  Speaker 3: the book, I just really wanted him to have real
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  Speaker 3: space in that setting because it again was such a
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  Speaker 3: palpable fear and tragedy and trauma for so many in
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  Speaker 3: the eighties. And you know, we kind of relate that now,
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  Speaker 3: or at least I do. To COVID this sort of
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  Speaker 3: resurgence of epidemic that you know, at the start was
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  Speaker 3: not discussed, and then it was discussed, you know, in
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  Speaker 3: a way that I found ridiculous in injecting ourselves with bleach.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, you find great Palmedy sort of a
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  Speaker 3: high irony. I think in these sociopolitical moments in our history,
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  Speaker 3: and there's so much connectivity between the eighties and right now,
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  Speaker 3: and like you, I find it interesting that there are
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  Speaker 3: so many not only youth but also all ages who
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  Speaker 3: really don't want to tap into it. Who you know,
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  Speaker 3: and I can get it on a certain level. There's
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  Speaker 3: things that are so scary right now.
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  Speaker 2: It's hard.
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  Speaker 3: It's hard to look you know, it's easier to look
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  Speaker 3: away and function in the silence. But Lementine sort of
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  Speaker 3: she challenges us not to look away. She challenges us
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  Speaker 3: to look straight into that out of this that is
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  Speaker 3: right there.
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  Speaker 2: In front of us.
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  Speaker 3: Apstein, I'm you know, you're on uh, the economy, I'm
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  Speaker 3: you know, all all of these things that we're dealing
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  Speaker 3: with right now. And I think she's incredibly courageous to
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  Speaker 3: do that and to share that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to. I want to use it as
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  Speaker 1: an example to the young adults as they head back
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  Speaker 1: into class in the way of I and instead of
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  Speaker 1: putting a dictionary in front of them saying I need
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  Speaker 1: you to look up the word resilience, I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to do that. What I want to do is. I
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  Speaker 1: want to put this book in front of them and say,
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  Speaker 1: see if you feel what I feel. Tell me if
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  Speaker 1: you don't see resilience in full motion here and the
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  Speaker 1: birth of it and how to handle it. That it's
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  Speaker 1: not an ego trip. It's not something that you're going
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  Speaker 1: to be bragging about for the rest of your life.
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  Speaker 1: But resilience is a form of being present with yourself,
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  Speaker 1: and I think that you cover that so well in
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  Speaker 1: this book to where parents and teachers can say, why
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  Speaker 1: don't you go read this book and then let's have
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  Speaker 1: a conversation afterwards.
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  Speaker 3: Oh er, that's incredibly nine of you. Thank you so
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  Speaker 3: much for that. If there's anything that someone walks away
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  Speaker 3: from this book with or sits with after reading it
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  Speaker 3: is that aspect of resilience, because I do see Clementine
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  Speaker 3: in that light.
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  Speaker 1: So now let me Because you talked about it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be hard to shake Clementine, I know that to
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  Speaker 1: become Aerocollins was one of those things in the nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eighties that I had to become. It was a character.
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  Speaker 1: That character is somebody I had to keep in alive
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  Speaker 1: in my radio career. Is Clementine, that inner voice inside
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  Speaker 1: you just as much as for Russell Crowe in Beautiful Mind,
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  Speaker 1: he walked with seven or eight people all the time
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  Speaker 1: and it was their voices that he put into his writing.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, I don't share all spaces with Clementine. She
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  Speaker 3: goes through more than what I had been through in
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  Speaker 3: the book, but we do definitely share spaces. I've I've
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  Speaker 3: survived my own pieces and and so she is. She's
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  Speaker 3: very close to my heart and is very much part
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  Speaker 3: of me, which doesn't you know, whenever we're writing characters again,
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  Speaker 3: you know, there's so much of us in the character,
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  Speaker 3: but they're not us at the same time.
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  Speaker 2: But I think it's the characters.
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  Speaker 3: That really I take a big part of us are
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  Speaker 3: the ones that really stay with us the longest. And
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  Speaker 3: I think that readers can since that when they're reading,
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  Speaker 3: whether whether the writer is really putting themselves into the
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  Speaker 3: work and their characters, and they think readers can sense
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  Speaker 3: when they're not. And you know, I've I've been really
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  Speaker 3: just honored to to I to hear that I'm I'm
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  Speaker 3: there are readers who are experiencing Clementine having so much
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  Speaker 3: inside her, and that means.
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  Speaker 1: A lot because I'm such a people watcher. I have
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  Speaker 1: taken note of the number of people that are really
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: starting to go back into the Barnes and Nobles of
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the world, so that I have to go to that
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: question in the way of wondering, where is Barnes and
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Noble putting your book? Because it can go in any section?
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  Speaker 1: And are they going to give you enough space where
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  Speaker 1: you can be in two or three different genres?
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  Speaker 3: I so precious likely I is general fiction. I wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: call it a young adult novel. It does have a
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  Speaker 3: young adult protagonist. Clementine is thirteen, as we spoke of,
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  Speaker 3: but it's the story of Clementine is very much one
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  Speaker 3: for an adult reader because again, there's no flinching in Clementine.
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  Speaker 3: She goes through extraordinary traumas and again with resiliency and
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's it's quite a journey she has. But yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I would definitely say general fiction would be where she
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  Speaker 3: belongs in a bookstore?
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  Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you? Ray,
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  Speaker 1: because I really want them to tap into your style
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  Speaker 1: of writing, because I always call it it's it's a
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: form of hidden speak, is what I call it as
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a writer. But you're doing it in a way that
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  Speaker 1: it's like saying, Okay, all of this stuff has happened,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: but we're going to do it in a way that's
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  Speaker 1: going to give you that book to read, to call
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  Speaker 1: your own, to build with, to play with, because if
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: you were so blunt and honest, then it would be
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: like reading a book from ABC News or NBC from
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that generation and oh my god, that news department was
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  Speaker 1: going crazy during those Ronald Reagan years.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I love that hidden speak. I think that's fantastic.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So to answer your first question, you can go to
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  Speaker 3: Raycline dot com where you can find out more information
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  Speaker 3: about Precious Ugly and about me as a writer. And
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  Speaker 3: I also have an Instagram at Redcline author a TikTok
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  Speaker 3: at Precious Ugly, and I also do a substack called
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  Speaker 3: Openings where I look at fantastic works of literature and
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: do some craft studies, most recently on Belpid and the
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: idea of where moral authority begins in story. And it's
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  Speaker 3: interesting because I find the master works, you know, by
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: the amazing authors, oftentimes the ones I am so drawn to,
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: or where they establish that platform of moral authority in
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: the very opening lines. And of course this is so
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: complex because it can be this sort of ambiguity around
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  Speaker 3: the morality, so that your reader can come to the
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: story with their own Linds exactly, with their own exploration,
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  Speaker 3: rather than their hand being held through it, you know,
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  Speaker 3: trusting the reader to really do the work and invest
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  Speaker 3: in what's going on. And I think that's another magical
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  Speaker 3: part of the book is that we get to do
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  Speaker 3: that in real time with the characters.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, you have got to come back to this show
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  Speaker 1: anytime in the future. I love how honest you are
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  Speaker 1: as an author because I always envision people and readers
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  Speaker 1: at home. You know, they've been They've they've made the
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: attempt to sit there and try to write something. Oh
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: quickly hide it, put it underneath the bed, put it
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: up in an area where nobody's going to see it.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Nobody needs to read my writing, but a book like
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: this will inspire them to put the pin to paper.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: You don't have to do it on your smartphone.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Just write, write, yes, just write just a couple lines
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: a day.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: That's all you have to do. Yes, I would love
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: to come back.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Arrow.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, you too.