Latest / DA CREW Podcast / SEASON 2 DA CREW PODCAST_ EPISODE _148_ HOST TRIVEDA HARRIS

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SEASON 2 DA CREW PODCAST_ EPISODE _148_ HOST TRIVEDA HARRIS · DA CREW Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Heyyyy, and welcome to another episode of the Crew podcast.
0:07
Speaker 2: I am your visionary Queen Angela.
0:10
Speaker 1: And if you are a DIVA that's looking to amplify
0:13
Speaker 1: your voice and you're looking for our.
0:15
Speaker 2: Whole, we have faith for you.
0:19
Speaker 1: Come on over and join GM Diva's Up, yeahwey and
0:23
Speaker 1: amplify your voice.
0:29
Speaker 3: At Wings of Transformation Publishing, we are committed to helping
0:33
Speaker 3: our authors reach their goals and pursue their At Wings
0:37
Speaker 3: of Transformation Publishing, we are committed to helping our authors
0:41
Speaker 3: reach their goals and At Wings of Transformation Published, we
1:00
Speaker 3: are committed to helping our authors reach their goals and
1:03
Speaker 3: pursue their dreams of becoming published authors. We work closely
1:07
Speaker 3: with each author to ensure a successful publishing experience, and
1:12
Speaker 3: we are dedicated to helping them tell their stories in
1:15
Speaker 3: the most meaningful and impactful ways. We look forward to
1:18
Speaker 3: putting you on the path to writing your book. Aspiring
1:25
Speaker 3: Author's Magazine is a founding sponsor for doc cru podcast.
1:30
Speaker 3: Get featured inside the magazine and allow your voice to
1:33
Speaker 3: be heard around the world. Aspiring Authors Magazine is an
1:37
Speaker 3: international magazine founded in May of twenty twenty by Queen
1:40
Speaker 3: Angela get featured.
1:47
Speaker 4: All Things, Where did all the blue sky?
2:00
Speaker 2: That's boys way to.
2:03
Speaker 3: Bloats from the locking something.
2:07
Speaker 2: Well person her singing.
2:13
Speaker 4: All things and what they used to know?
2:44
Speaker 5: I can't sleep see sweeze you one sweet.
3:10
Speaker 2: Sweet sweetee.
3:52
Speaker 3: Good evening and welcome to Believe in the Journey Podcast
3:55
Speaker 3: where I am your host, Trevita Harris, and tonight I
3:58
Speaker 3: will be talking to to as that are part of
4:02
Speaker 3: the Distinguished Author's Guild Awards that is coming up in November.
4:06
Speaker 3: So I have two authors tonight. The first one is
4:09
Speaker 3: going to be Miss Natalie Murphy and she is the
4:13
Speaker 3: author of Forever Yours Again and she's also a facilitator
4:17
Speaker 3: of a self published workshop from Pan to Published, So
4:22
Speaker 3: that is the first guest. The next guest will be
4:25
Speaker 3: Minister to Mika Strictling and we will talk to her
4:28
Speaker 3: about her book that is titled From Wounds to Worship.
4:34
Speaker 3: But before we do anything, we know we have to
4:36
Speaker 3: go to God in prayer first, So pray with me,
4:40
Speaker 3: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for bringing us together each
4:42
Speaker 3: and every time you do. Let the words of our
4:44
Speaker 3: mouth be comforting to the ears that are listening tonight,
4:48
Speaker 3: everything that we do is by your guidance and your circumstances.
4:52
Speaker 3: We do nothing without you, because we are nothing without you.
4:56
Speaker 3: And everything that we do is according to the will
4:59
Speaker 3: that you have us. Even though there may be obstacles
5:02
Speaker 3: in there a way, there's always a purpose that is
5:05
Speaker 3: just attached to it. So and your presure's the Holy
5:08
Speaker 3: name Jesus, we pray Amen. Let's bring up my guests
5:13
Speaker 3: and we will get this conversation started. Natowie, how are
5:20
Speaker 3: you doing this evening?
5:22
Speaker 1: I am wonderful.
5:23
Speaker 3: How are you? I am great? I am great. I'm
5:27
Speaker 3: a little tame. But you know, working at healthcare is
5:30
Speaker 3: one of those things where you never know what you're
5:33
Speaker 3: gonna see.
5:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, working in healthcare ill when I was a teenager
5:42
Speaker 1: and to my mom had surgery and I had to help.
5:44
Speaker 3: Her clean her wounds. M can you say, I'm out,
5:51
Speaker 3: That's not my call, and I don't do that. I
5:55
Speaker 3: see so much stuff. I work in an urgent care facility,
5:58
Speaker 3: so you can imagine the things that I see. I've
6:01
Speaker 3: seen a man come in with a screwdriver in his hand.
6:06
Speaker 3: I've seen people come in with gaping wounds in the head.
6:11
Speaker 2: You know, all.
6:12
Speaker 3: Kinds of crazy things. So you just never know. People
6:17
Speaker 3: pass you just don't know, so you know, you just
6:20
Speaker 3: got to be prepared. You can't panic in those definitely,
6:25
Speaker 3: That's all I got to say. The part of it
6:31
Speaker 3: is is that I'm just the front desk, so I
6:34
Speaker 3: see the stuff as it comes in and so having
6:38
Speaker 3: to and I've learned over the years also how to
6:41
Speaker 3: do the vitals and things of that nature too, So
6:44
Speaker 3: if I'm needed, I'm always available. But that part isn't
6:49
Speaker 3: my thing, but I'm capable of doing it. So Okay,
6:56
Speaker 3: we ain't gonna talk no more about me. We're gonna
6:58
Speaker 3: talk about you, so yourself a little bit more.
7:02
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, first I want to say hi to Joy. Hey, Joy,
7:04
Speaker 1: I see you. My name is Natalie R.
7:09
Speaker 3: Murphy. D R stands for romance junkie.
7:12
Speaker 2: I was.
7:13
Speaker 3: I'm sticking to it right.
7:19
Speaker 1: I am a romance writer and I am also a
7:23
Speaker 1: self publishing coach. And this whole romance writing thing, the
7:29
Speaker 1: whole writing journey, was never ever ever on my radar.
7:33
Speaker 1: I mean, I've always written in I love to write.
7:35
Speaker 1: I've got poetry from when I was a teenager and
7:38
Speaker 1: things like that. I've written some short story. Never ever
7:40
Speaker 1: ever had I ever thought I'd get to the point
7:43
Speaker 1: of being a published, an award winning published author.
7:49
Speaker 3: Okay, right, right.
7:52
Speaker 1: I was told that by Genna Gatson. Yes, ma'am, it's
7:55
Speaker 1: not bragging. You earned that.
7:58
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, So I received that now.
8:02
Speaker 1: But it started. This journey started for me during the pandemic.
8:07
Speaker 1: Like everybody had to pivot, so did I. I'm a
8:11
Speaker 1: photographer and my char Tree business I had to close
8:15
Speaker 1: it because of the pandemic. Right, So, one morning I'm
8:20
Speaker 1: an early rising one morning, I'm laying in bed and
8:23
Speaker 1: this story idea comes to me and I'm like, oh,
8:27
Speaker 1: I like that, and I'm good with letting it go
8:30
Speaker 1: at that point. And really, I promise you, I clearly
8:34
Speaker 1: heard God's voice say write the story.
8:37
Speaker 3: Oh well, no, I'm not getting ready to do that.
8:42
Speaker 3: I feel you on that man, And I gave him
8:45
Speaker 3: every excuse.
8:46
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about publishing. It's a lot of
8:49
Speaker 1: work writing a story I have here on paper, and
8:55
Speaker 1: from that paper to everybody who wants to read it.
9:00
Speaker 1: They've got to catch my vision. Yeah, I don't want
9:03
Speaker 1: to put myself out there like that. And I mean,
9:06
Speaker 1: I had so many excuses, but day after day, the
9:09
Speaker 1: story continued to develop, and I'm like, he's not getting
9:12
Speaker 1: ready to let me.
9:13
Speaker 3: Let this go.
9:15
Speaker 1: So after about three weeks of fighting, I lost the battle,
9:21
Speaker 1: and I tell everybody that was the best battle I
9:23
Speaker 1: ever lost. So I decided. I was like, okay, lord,
9:26
Speaker 1: this is you. I'm gonna need you to come sit
9:28
Speaker 1: down stairs with me on this computer because I don't
9:30
Speaker 1: type either. So so me and my little stubby fingers
9:36
Speaker 1: went and sat down in front of the computer.
9:38
Speaker 3: That's what we did, girl.
9:40
Speaker 1: That's and after about three months, I had a story
9:48
Speaker 1: and my girlfriend read it. I let my sister read it,
9:51
Speaker 1: and they were like, this is good. And my sister
9:54
Speaker 1: doesn't really get into Roman. She likes more mystery, okay,
9:58
Speaker 1: and she was like, no, no, you need to do something
10:00
Speaker 1: with this. She and my girlfriend, and I was like, okay,
10:03
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. But fortunately God gave
10:06
Speaker 1: me the gift of research. I loved doing research, so
10:09
Speaker 1: I started researching.
10:11
Speaker 3: So I get you.
10:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I started researching, and I looked up what
10:18
Speaker 1: it takes to publish a book. I looked up self
10:20
Speaker 1: publishing versus traditional publishing versus vanity publishing, and decided that
10:26
Speaker 1: self publishing was the route for me, and so that's
10:31
Speaker 1: what I did, trial and error, and in about six
10:34
Speaker 1: months I had my first romance novel. Then came you,
10:38
Speaker 1: So yeah. So you know, like I said, that was
10:42
Speaker 1: the best battle I ever.
10:43
Speaker 3: Lost that I agree with you so much on that
10:47
Speaker 3: because that's basically how I got started along with my
10:51
Speaker 3: best friend, like, oh my gosh. She had published her
10:54
Speaker 3: book and then she came to my house. She was like,
10:56
Speaker 3: if I did it, you can do it. I said, Okay,
10:59
Speaker 3: that's cold, that's fine, but I'm not doing it. She
11:02
Speaker 3: did that in April. She came to my house in April.
11:07
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, okay, whatever, I'm not doing it.
11:11
Speaker 3: So I was like she was like, you need to
11:13
Speaker 3: go ahead, Okay whatever, I'm still not doing it. So
11:16
Speaker 3: I ended up my daughter had to have her wisdom
11:19
Speaker 3: teeth pulled in January of twenty twenty, and so after
11:23
Speaker 3: getting her to the Dennist getting home, my boys was like, Okay,
11:27
Speaker 3: you've done everything that you needed to do with her,
11:29
Speaker 3: so you're going to your room where we take care
11:32
Speaker 3: of her for the rest of the day. You don't
11:33
Speaker 3: come out your own And I'm like, what am I
11:35
Speaker 3: supposed to be doing in here. I can't be in
11:39
Speaker 3: here all day. It was like, well, you're going to
11:41
Speaker 3: figure out something to do. So I was like, okay,
11:43
Speaker 3: she bothered me about this book. God bothered me about
11:45
Speaker 3: this book. And I was like, I don't know what
11:47
Speaker 3: to do. I've always posted my poetry and people were
11:50
Speaker 3: always saying, you know, just go ahead and put it
11:54
Speaker 3: in a book. Put it in a book. Hey, y'all
11:57
Speaker 3: keep talking about this book. I don't know what to
11:59
Speaker 3: do with this book. So I was like, okay, I'm
12:02
Speaker 3: gonna tell you God, I'm gonna put twenty six of
12:04
Speaker 3: my favorite poems together in this book. I have no
12:07
Speaker 3: clue what formatting is supposed to look like. I have
12:10
Speaker 3: no clue on none of this. I said, book, you
12:12
Speaker 3: know what, if it's meant to be, it shall be.
12:15
Speaker 3: It ain't gonna look perfect because I don't know what
12:17
Speaker 3: I'm doing. However, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna
12:21
Speaker 3: do it. And I put twenty six of my poems
12:23
Speaker 3: together in a book. And I was like, if Amazon
12:27
Speaker 3: accepts it, then I'm just gonna roll with it because
12:30
Speaker 3: I don't care. Like I don't care nothing about none
12:33
Speaker 3: of this. I did it. And so when I did it,
12:35
Speaker 3: and I got the the coffee because I ordered Arthur copy,
12:40
Speaker 3: you know, and so I got it and then I
12:42
Speaker 3: text my best friend and I was like, okay, I
12:44
Speaker 3: did something over the weekend and here you go. So
12:49
Speaker 3: I sent her the picture. She was like, oh my god,
12:52
Speaker 3: you really did it. Yeah, I said, between you and God,
12:55
Speaker 3: it wasn't no escaping. So I didn't, right, I said,
12:59
Speaker 3: So here we go. So I get that that battle
13:03
Speaker 3: and now argument and you're like, God, I don't know
13:05
Speaker 3: what you're trying to tell me. I think that meaning
13:07
Speaker 3: for something else, for somebody else, because you keep knocking
13:10
Speaker 3: on my door, but I think you at the wrong
13:11
Speaker 3: addresser it was not, so you know, it's like, okay,
13:19
Speaker 3: what you want to do with this? But it's a
13:22
Speaker 3: beautiful journey, it really is. You know, you accept and
13:26
Speaker 3: surrender to what God needs for you. It's so many
13:30
Speaker 3: avenues and so many doors, and so many people that
13:33
Speaker 3: you meet along the way who always have that. You know.
13:38
Speaker 3: I don't know if I could write a book, you know,
13:41
Speaker 3: they only say that, but everybody has a story and
13:45
Speaker 3: being able to share that story because sometimes we get
13:48
Speaker 3: embarrassed by things that we've gone through. But we forget
13:51
Speaker 3: to tell people how we overcame what we went through.
13:55
Speaker 3: And that's the part that people need to hear. Yeah,
13:58
Speaker 3: you got down, you got dirty, you got covered, you
14:00
Speaker 3: were filled with all kinds of ants, anxiety and all
14:05
Speaker 3: of that, and it didn't look like you were going
14:07
Speaker 3: to get out of there. But you got out of there,
14:09
Speaker 3: so you can look back, and that's what people want
14:11
Speaker 3: to hear. They don't care, you know, you being in there.
14:14
Speaker 3: They want to know how you get out. So sit down,
14:17
Speaker 3: write it outbody. You know, somebody gonna pick that up.
14:22
Speaker 3: But having that healthy fear, I feel like is one
14:26
Speaker 3: of the things that controls us in so many ways
14:30
Speaker 3: because we think, Okay, nobody's gonna read this, but all
14:33
Speaker 3: you need is one person to read it. Anyway, once
14:36
Speaker 3: that one person reads it, they're gonna give it to
14:38
Speaker 3: somebody else. Girl, let me tell you about this book
14:39
Speaker 3: I hate. You need to read it, you know, And
14:42
Speaker 3: that's what happened. Yes, yes, exactly exactly. Let me ask
14:49
Speaker 3: you this question. When you started your workshop from paying
14:54
Speaker 3: to publish, what was the hope behind that?
14:58
Speaker 1: The hole behind that was to help other people, other
15:02
Speaker 1: writers learn how to become self published authors. Because once
15:08
Speaker 1: I completed that first book, and before I was even
15:11
Speaker 1: done with that, guy had given me the second story.
15:14
Speaker 1: And so by the time I finished that second one,
15:17
Speaker 1: I was like, this is a lot of information. I
15:21
Speaker 1: don't believe God gave me all this information to keep
15:24
Speaker 1: it to myself, because, like you said, I constantly encountered
15:29
Speaker 1: people that said, how'd you do it. I've got a book,
15:32
Speaker 1: I've been writing it five years, I've been writing it
15:34
Speaker 1: ten years.
15:35
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know the.
15:36
Speaker 1: Next steps to take. And it was like, okay, so
15:40
Speaker 1: if this is in my circle, imagine what was out
15:44
Speaker 1: beyond my circle. So I said, well, I'm going to
15:46
Speaker 1: start this workshop and I'm going to see if I
15:49
Speaker 1: can get it to fly, and see if I can
15:51
Speaker 1: get you know, I want to teach people this. I'm
15:54
Speaker 1: also an educator. I taught in early childhood education for
15:58
Speaker 1: over twenty years, so it's in me to teach and
16:01
Speaker 1: sometimes this workshop. And it's been a little over a
16:06
Speaker 1: year now and today I have had four of the
16:11
Speaker 1: authors complete the process, complete the class, and complete the
16:14
Speaker 1: self publishing process, and two of the war are nominated
16:19
Speaker 1: for a Distinguished Autice Guild Awards as well.
16:22
Speaker 3: Yes yes, yes, that is awesome. Miss Angela asked a question,
16:27
Speaker 3: did your photography journey help in your writing?
16:32
Speaker 1: It did not. I would have liked for it too,
16:35
Speaker 1: because I had this grand idea that I was going
16:37
Speaker 1: to take these pictures for my book covers and i'd
16:41
Speaker 1: be able to say, yeah, photographer Natalie R. Murphy, and
16:45
Speaker 1: the two just didn't didn't come.
16:47
Speaker 3: Together that way for me.
16:49
Speaker 1: So but now the covers that I credited, like the
16:52
Speaker 1: one behind me September the summer. My daughter is a
16:56
Speaker 1: graphic artist artist. I gave her two images that I
17:00
Speaker 1: wanted and she managed she merged them together for me.
17:04
Speaker 1: Oh so that's the only way that my photography has
17:07
Speaker 1: crossed overs that I've given my daughter the pictures. But yeah,
17:11
Speaker 1: I really wanted. I wanted to get models and all
17:13
Speaker 1: of that kind of stuff, but I didn't have all
17:14
Speaker 1: of that model studio budget money. So yeah, so here
17:22
Speaker 1: I am with Canva and my daughter and we.
17:25
Speaker 3: Still create some pretty good covers, I believe. And see
17:29
Speaker 3: that's always a good thing because I've done my own
17:32
Speaker 3: covers as well, because I have no clue, like with
17:35
Speaker 3: half of the stuff that I've done. But I like
17:38
Speaker 3: the second book well, the Yeah, the second book that
17:41
Speaker 3: I did, I took a picture that I took of
17:43
Speaker 3: myself because I was sharing my journey about my brain
17:46
Speaker 3: condition that I have, and so I took the picture
17:49
Speaker 3: and I put it on the cover and I was like, huh,
17:52
Speaker 3: I don't know what we're gonna do with it, but
17:54
Speaker 3: we're gonna see how it's gonna work. And so I
17:56
Speaker 3: did that one. And then the third book that I do,
18:00
Speaker 3: I also took a picture. It was a color picture,
18:04
Speaker 3: but I made it a black and white because the
18:06
Speaker 3: third book that I wrote is called Overcoming Childhood Trauma
18:09
Speaker 3: My Journey to Healing, and I'm looking out the window
18:13
Speaker 3: and so they're like, well, where'd you get this picture from?
18:16
Speaker 3: That picture I took was now over fifteen years old.
18:21
Speaker 3: I didn't know at the time that that picture would
18:23
Speaker 3: be on the cover of a book, you know, But
18:25
Speaker 3: that's how Yeah, that's how God works. It's like, oh,
18:30
Speaker 3: this book, actually, this picture would go good for this cover.
18:34
Speaker 3: And like the one that I'm working on now is
18:38
Speaker 3: a memory for my mom, like where I was able
18:42
Speaker 3: to basically heal the relationship during my bum's final six
18:49
Speaker 3: months of being here with us in the physical sense,
18:53
Speaker 3: so it's called from Fracture to Healed, And it had
18:57
Speaker 3: a picture of my mother and I holding hands and
19:01
Speaker 3: it's a fracture glass around it, so but we're holding
19:05
Speaker 3: So that's the cover that I came up with for
19:08
Speaker 3: that one, and I think it's fits for the title.
19:12
Speaker 3: So you know, I share with you a little later.
19:16
Speaker 2: But you know what.
19:19
Speaker 3: I feel like when we take these pictures in life,
19:22
Speaker 3: they hold it significance. And especially for writers, I don't
19:26
Speaker 3: think we understand how much stuff we have at hand
19:32
Speaker 3: that we can actually use to help us to figure
19:37
Speaker 3: out what kind of cover we want, what kind of
19:39
Speaker 3: you know, if we want to put them all together
19:41
Speaker 3: and publish a journal. Our calendar are things of that.
19:45
Speaker 3: Because I'm really on taking pictures and so but you know,
19:49
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, pictures mean a whole
19:51
Speaker 3: lot more than we really think about anyway with you
19:55
Speaker 3: know that, because you take for a living, So when
19:58
Speaker 3: that's all you have left, it means a whole lot more.
20:02
Speaker 3: And you can do a whole lot with these things.
20:05
Speaker 3: And so I go through pictures of my kids and
20:09
Speaker 3: you know, people, family, whatever, uh. Nature, because I'm a
20:14
Speaker 3: big nature girl. I get lost in the clouds. You know,
20:17
Speaker 3: I have to wash myself when i'm driving, because I have,
20:22
Speaker 3: especially when I'm at peace, because looking at the sky
20:25
Speaker 3: and all of that kind of stuff, I'm like, oh
20:28
Speaker 3: my gosh, listen, God, I'm trying to get to the
20:31
Speaker 3: destination safely. You can't with all this stuff right here,
20:36
Speaker 3: you know. Let me get to a safe space and
20:38
Speaker 3: I can take a picture of admire it later. But
20:41
Speaker 3: let me get.
20:44
Speaker 1: Because an't work like his arn't work.
20:47
Speaker 3: Right, And so I get so wrapped up in the
20:50
Speaker 3: clouds and I'm like, Lord, have mercy, Jesus. Let me
20:54
Speaker 3: just get to the destination. And I can admnd this
20:56
Speaker 3: in a second. But you distracted me.
20:59
Speaker 1: Now I want to get the.
21:00
Speaker 3: At this call, you know, let me play it now.
21:07
Speaker 3: If you had an opportunity to do a one on
21:11
Speaker 3: one with somebody that's really close to you and writing
21:16
Speaker 3: and sharing their story, how would you go about doing that?
21:20
Speaker 3: Because you know, you got somebody that's close to you
21:23
Speaker 3: that really needs to share their story with someone else.
21:27
Speaker 3: What would be their approach that you would take with
21:29
Speaker 3: them to get them to share their journey? Well, if
21:33
Speaker 3: they're close to me, if it's somebody that close to me.
21:37
Speaker 3: I believe I.
21:37
Speaker 1: Could just sit down and have a conversation and say, hey,
21:40
Speaker 1: I want to write your story. And I believe because
21:44
Speaker 1: I've already I'm already published, that they would trust me
21:47
Speaker 1: and if if I already know their story, they would
21:51
Speaker 1: handle it with care.
21:53
Speaker 3: Right, Because I think that's a good thing. And I
21:57
Speaker 3: think that we all have somebody that's close to us
22:00
Speaker 3: that niece their story told. But I get that they
22:04
Speaker 3: always say, I don't know where to start.
22:06
Speaker 1: I don't know what exactly, And that was part of
22:09
Speaker 1: why I came up with the workshop because I want
22:14
Speaker 1: to I want to give people that because I did,
22:16
Speaker 1: I was there, I didn't know where to go, and
22:19
Speaker 1: so I had I did a workshop yesterday.
22:23
Speaker 3: Okay.
22:24
Speaker 1: It was It was amazing. And the thing that I
22:26
Speaker 1: like about doing it it was.
22:28
Speaker 3: A small group.
22:29
Speaker 1: It was just it was four ladies.
22:31
Speaker 3: Okay.
22:32
Speaker 1: They was so different and from different parts of my life.
22:37
Speaker 1: One lady I just recently met. She saw that I
22:40
Speaker 1: do the workshops and she reached out to me. One
22:43
Speaker 1: was a good friend of mine from high school, was
22:45
Speaker 1: a good friend of mine from the past twenty years
22:48
Speaker 1: or so. And I'm also part of the forty plus
22:51
Speaker 1: Double Dutch club. So a couple of ladies were from
22:54
Speaker 1: my double Dutch group because I can't do that, girl.
23:00
Speaker 3: I love it. Double judge.
23:05
Speaker 1: We can teach you now, if there's one in your area,
23:08
Speaker 1: we can teach you.
23:09
Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am. Okay, okay, now listen, I won't try it now,
23:14
Speaker 3: I'll try very small group.
23:18
Speaker 1: It was a very intimate group. They were very different ladies, but.
23:23
Speaker 3: They all came together.
23:24
Speaker 1: We all came together and it was it was a
23:27
Speaker 1: really good time and we were all transparent. And I'm
23:33
Speaker 1: so looking forward to them finishing their books and everybody's
23:38
Speaker 1: writing a different writing, a different story, so I'm very.
23:42
Speaker 3: Much looking forward to that.
23:43
Speaker 1: But I've had authors who've written U published poetry books,
23:49
Speaker 1: they've published children's stories, they've published memoirs. So I'm really
23:57
Speaker 1: really excited about the workshop.
24:00
Speaker 3: Okay, what has been the most rewarding for you along
24:04
Speaker 3: this journey?
24:07
Speaker 1: There are so many rewards that I have received and
24:11
Speaker 1: had no idea of that I can't even say one.
24:16
Speaker 1: So I'm just gonna I'm gonna rattle them off one, Okay.
24:19
Speaker 1: All the knowledge that I gained to be a self
24:22
Speaker 1: published author.
24:25
Speaker 3: I mean, it's.
24:27
Speaker 1: People don't understand what's entailed in writing and publishing until
24:32
Speaker 1: you get down oh ten toes deep.
24:35
Speaker 3: Into Jesus like word count.
24:40
Speaker 1: And then you get you've got new terminology that you've
24:42
Speaker 1: never heard of before. And the fact that I garnered
24:48
Speaker 1: all that knowledge that that was very rewarding for me.
24:51
Speaker 3: The fact that I.
24:52
Speaker 1: Can share it with anybody, and I'm willing to share
24:55
Speaker 1: it with anybody.
24:56
Speaker 3: It's rewarded for me.
24:58
Speaker 1: The fact that I have written eight romance novels blows
25:03
Speaker 1: my mind. Four of them have won literary awards. I'm
25:10
Speaker 1: on Redistinguished Authors Guild Awards. When I'm looking at number four,
25:16
Speaker 1: the two of that way, to be Loved by Blue,
25:21
Speaker 1: to be Loved by Blue, that's the one that's up.
25:23
Speaker 3: For an award this November. This one that will be
25:27
Speaker 3: number four. September Summer, Principal's Heart.
25:31
Speaker 1: That one has won four awards by itself, all right, now,
25:36
Speaker 1: get you so when you say what's been the mostard,
25:41
Speaker 1: all of that is so rewarding for me. And and
25:45
Speaker 1: September the summer right now, the ebook if you go
25:48
Speaker 1: on my website nextbooks dot Net is on see because
25:52
Speaker 1: it's the month of September. So I'll say the title.
25:56
Speaker 3: Ye yeah, yeah, well listen, that is a great thing
26:03
Speaker 3: for you to know and feel the rewards for what
26:06
Speaker 3: you do, and that's why you keep doing everything that
26:09
Speaker 3: you do. I feel like one of the things that
26:13
Speaker 3: when you are self taught through this journey, you want
26:16
Speaker 3: to share that with other people, you know, so that
26:18
Speaker 3: they understand. Yeah, I had absolutely no clue on what
26:22
Speaker 3: I was doing, but I'm not gonna hold it to myself.
26:26
Speaker 3: I want to share it with somebody else so that
26:28
Speaker 3: they can share it with somebody else, because I feel like,
26:32
Speaker 3: if God gave you the opportunity to learn something, share
26:36
Speaker 3: that knowledge with someone else and don't just keep it
26:39
Speaker 3: with yourself, because if it dies with you, who else benefits? Know,
26:44
Speaker 3: And that's not how God intended for that to be, right.
26:48
Speaker 3: He gives you stuff so that you can share it
26:50
Speaker 3: with other people. Give from a space that you know
26:54
Speaker 3: that it's going to keep giving because when you give,
26:57
Speaker 3: God blesses you ten times over. You know, you know.
27:01
Speaker 3: And that's that's the thing that most people don't seem
27:03
Speaker 3: to understand. What is the biggest Well, I ain't even
27:07
Speaker 3: gonna say the biggest thing, but what is the number
27:10
Speaker 3: one piece of advice you would give to a person
27:13
Speaker 3: who gives that same excuse, I don't know where to start.
27:18
Speaker 3: What is your number one thing that you tell them
27:20
Speaker 3: to do to get started? Start with me.
27:25
Speaker 1: If they come to me, I'm gonna tell them you've
27:27
Speaker 1: already started, because.
27:30
Speaker 3: I want people to succeed.
27:32
Speaker 1: So when you tell me I don't know where to start,
27:35
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's the eagle with them talents?
27:37
Speaker 3: And they cling it to you. Oh, I got you.
27:40
Speaker 1: You can really start this start okay?
27:43
Speaker 3: Don you sound like me, because I'm the same way
27:46
Speaker 3: when people tell me I don't know where to start,
27:48
Speaker 3: I said, you got thirty minutes, set a timer, get
27:51
Speaker 3: a piece of paper, and start writing. And then come
27:54
Speaker 3: back to me at the end of those thirty minutes
27:57
Speaker 3: and then tell me what you did.
27:59
Speaker 1: I don't know what to write my ideas all over
28:01
Speaker 1: the place. Then right, but it doesn't have to be perfect.
28:05
Speaker 3: Jump get a journal you gay ed a blank piece
28:09
Speaker 3: of paper.
28:10
Speaker 1: Right, And once you're done, once you've got all your
28:13
Speaker 1: thoughts down, then you can start reworking it and adding
28:17
Speaker 1: this and taking that out and restructuring. And actually that's
28:22
Speaker 1: the job of an editor. So all you need to
28:24
Speaker 1: do is write get now does have to have some similar.
28:28
Speaker 3: Orbit got to make some kind of sense, need some
28:33
Speaker 3: editing for some people. And I'll be like, hold on,
28:35
Speaker 3: wait a minute, now, editors to tell me about it,
28:40
Speaker 3: because I chat. I'll be like, what y'all trying to
28:45
Speaker 3: get me to do? And I got to read all
28:47
Speaker 3: this and you got thirty thousand words in here, and
28:50
Speaker 3: now I got to see this back. Well, okay, and
28:54
Speaker 3: let me let me just start. So that's why I
28:57
Speaker 3: tell people like, I'm not here to sensation a lives,
29:00
Speaker 3: your experience, your story or anything, but I do have
29:04
Speaker 3: to have it make some sense. Because we're talking about
29:08
Speaker 3: giraffes in one ind and on the other side were
29:10
Speaker 3: talking about walking down the jungle streets or something. It
29:15
Speaker 3: ain't making sense to me. I don't know where we're
29:18
Speaker 3: supposed to absolutely, so it's got to have some coalation
29:24
Speaker 3: to where I'm not Lord your child right here, you know,
29:30
Speaker 3: don't got me all beside myself, And I don't know
29:32
Speaker 3: which way I'm supposed to be gone. I'm trying to
29:34
Speaker 3: get on the same street down, but I don't know
29:37
Speaker 3: what street I'm lost. So what a GPS said, sir?
29:40
Speaker 3: What a GPS. I need to get there. I can't
29:45
Speaker 3: get there. I'm like, oh, okay, baby, let's let's start
29:48
Speaker 3: this over. Tell me what the purpose of story is
29:52
Speaker 3: so I know what we're going. That way, I can
29:55
Speaker 3: help you.
29:56
Speaker 1: Questions that came up yesterday and my workshop was a
30:00
Speaker 1: one of the ladies who was asking, if your editor
30:03
Speaker 1: finds something that they don't like, how do you take that?
30:06
Speaker 1: And you have to take it because that's their job.
30:10
Speaker 1: Their job is to make you look good. Because she
30:13
Speaker 1: was like, what, I don't want to look like an illiterate,
30:15
Speaker 1: And I said, I get that because I am very
30:18
Speaker 1: meticulous about my writing. So when I get it to
30:21
Speaker 1: my editor, to my editor probably doesn't have a whole
30:23
Speaker 1: lot to do.
30:24
Speaker 3: Well, yes she does.
30:27
Speaker 1: In my eyes, I've done everything that I can do
30:30
Speaker 1: to correct what I can correct, because because you don't
30:33
Speaker 1: want to feel like an illiterator, you don't want to
30:36
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, oh, that was a simple mistake.
30:38
Speaker 1: I should have caught that. But we're not going to
30:40
Speaker 1: catch those errors ourselves because when I read I went
30:44
Speaker 1: down the street to the store, and it literally actually
30:48
Speaker 1: says I went store.
30:49
Speaker 3: Down the street.
30:50
Speaker 1: My brain knows what I want to say, so that's
30:53
Speaker 1: where I see the no.
30:56
Speaker 3: No, if I have that, I'd feel like, yeah, trying
31:02
Speaker 3: to say, but that ain't gonna fix. I'm gonna get
31:06
Speaker 3: that together, right.
31:07
Speaker 1: So it's okay to What my point was to get
31:11
Speaker 1: to her was it's okay to have mistakes and not
31:15
Speaker 1: be perfect. It's not going to be perfect the first time,
31:18
Speaker 1: second or third. No, that's why you have the editor
31:21
Speaker 1: and you got to be open and willing to hear
31:24
Speaker 1: that you made a mistake.
31:26
Speaker 3: Yes. And and also with being an editor, I know
31:31
Speaker 3: that sometimes my tone. I have to work on this
31:33
Speaker 3: and I'm slowly getting there. But that's that's what people
31:37
Speaker 3: say all the time. My kids even say this, even
31:40
Speaker 3: when I'm not being mean or anything like that. They like, ma,
31:44
Speaker 3: it's the tone. Because me and my son were having
31:46
Speaker 3: a conversation one time and we were talking. He was
31:49
Speaker 3: in high school and we were having a discussion about
31:52
Speaker 3: what his plans were after he graduated. And we were
31:57
Speaker 3: in the grocery store. He said, my am I in trouble.
32:02
Speaker 3: I said, He said, oh, okay, I couldn't tell because
32:07
Speaker 3: the tone of your voice had changed. He said, you
32:12
Speaker 3: already got issues with your face, you know, you need
32:15
Speaker 3: a facial expression class, but you need a tone class.
32:23
Speaker 3: I just knew I was in trouble, but I'm not.
32:26
Speaker 3: But I couldn't tail because you were just being I said, no, son,
32:30
Speaker 3: I'm just being very direct. I don't want you to
32:33
Speaker 3: think that I'm joking in this moment, I said, because
32:36
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a goofball. As you can see, I
32:39
Speaker 3: like the joke. So he was like, we went from
32:41
Speaker 3: that to you being very direct and very tone, and
32:45
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, okay, my bad, I'm sorry. So
32:47
Speaker 3: I work. Yeah, I got to work on that, you know.
32:52
Speaker 3: And I had my third book that I wrote. I
32:56
Speaker 3: gave it to my mother in law, my ex mother
32:59
Speaker 3: in law gave it to her to read. Now, she's
33:01
Speaker 3: an English teacher, so this was very because she's very
33:08
Speaker 3: she's very opinionated, and she yeah, and she gonna tell me.
33:14
Speaker 3: So I'm like, oh lord, I had told her I
33:16
Speaker 3: had wrote a book. I wrote the other ones, I
33:19
Speaker 3: definitely did not let her see my poetry one because
33:22
Speaker 3: like I said, it didn't look like it was supposed
33:24
Speaker 3: and so I ain't want that one. I already critiqued
33:26
Speaker 3: myself on that one. So I gave her that one,
33:30
Speaker 3: and I was waiting for the feedback, and I was
33:33
Speaker 3: waiting for the feedback to be like, well, you should
33:35
Speaker 3: have put this here and that and this sentence didn't
33:38
Speaker 3: make no sense. I expected a whole bunch of red
33:41
Speaker 3: marks in my book when I got it home, but
33:44
Speaker 3: I didn't get that. What I got was you needed
33:47
Speaker 3: to tell your story about your condition. I said, well,
33:49
Speaker 3: I did that one first. This is the third one.
33:51
Speaker 3: You're kind of late. She said, oh, okay, well then
33:53
Speaker 3: I need that one too. So she was my editor
33:56
Speaker 3: without knowing she was my editor, so it was like, Okay,
34:00
Speaker 3: I did actually really good because she didn't have no
34:04
Speaker 3: red masks for me. So I was surprised at myself
34:07
Speaker 3: because I was like, oh, lord, you shouldn't have published this.
34:12
Speaker 3: You should have just let that. But she did not
34:17
Speaker 3: do that. And that was one of the biggest compliments
34:19
Speaker 3: that I got from somebody loved and trusted and admired
34:24
Speaker 3: for that reason, because it's like, she doesn't like the
34:29
Speaker 3: slang that the kids talk. She feels like they're supposed
34:31
Speaker 3: to talk proper English all the time, and I'm like,
34:35
Speaker 3: leading kids alone, let them speak to each other how
34:38
Speaker 3: they want to. When they're out of this house. They
34:41
Speaker 3: know how to conduct the conversation. But she's like, even
34:44
Speaker 3: they need to speak like this, none at all. Lead
34:47
Speaker 3: them alone, let them do what they do. So that's
34:49
Speaker 3: the kind of woman she is when it comes to
34:53
Speaker 3: proper grammar, proper everything, proper etiquette, and everything that they do.
34:58
Speaker 3: And I'm like, these kids when they come home, they
35:00
Speaker 3: want to be themselves. They don't want to like that
35:03
Speaker 3: all the time. And she's like, I don't care nothing
35:04
Speaker 3: about none of that when they in front of me.
35:06
Speaker 3: This is how they're gonna talk. Now. I find her
35:10
Speaker 3: now that she's gotten a little older, I find her
35:13
Speaker 3: trying to use the latest lingo and I'm like, now now, no, Yeah,
35:20
Speaker 3: I'm like, and I can't even do half of this
35:23
Speaker 3: slang that these kids talk about because they say I'm
35:27
Speaker 3: still too proper with it. So I'm like, well, it
35:31
Speaker 3: ain't my kids. My my youngest daughter is nineteen, about
35:36
Speaker 3: to be twenty.
35:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
35:38
Speaker 1: I usually just to mess with her because she's like, mom, no,
35:41
Speaker 1: that didn't sound right.
35:43
Speaker 3: Again, Well, my kids, this is the thing that they
35:48
Speaker 3: used to do with me. My oldest and my youngest
35:50
Speaker 3: used to have this thing with me because whenever they're
35:53
Speaker 3: listening to music. They say, I overanalyze their songs. I
35:57
Speaker 3: just need to listen. I don't need to do anything
36:00
Speaker 3: except for a listen. And I'm like, I can't do
36:02
Speaker 3: that the way my brain works. If the sentence doesn't
36:05
Speaker 3: make sense, I have to ask questions. So they would say, Okay,
36:09
Speaker 3: we're gonna do this, and so we would have trapped
36:12
Speaker 3: out Tuesdays and trapped out Saturdays where I would have
36:15
Speaker 3: to listen to their music. Whatever it was you I say, yeah,
36:24
Speaker 3: I would say a prayer at the beginning and a
36:26
Speaker 3: prayer at the end because oh Lord my ears.
36:32
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and the.
36:34
Speaker 3: Questions I had afterwards because I couldn't ask questions during
36:39
Speaker 3: because that was one of the rules. You can't say nothing.
36:42
Speaker 3: You just gotta listen because if we do the questions
36:45
Speaker 3: that you got during us and we're not gonna get
36:47
Speaker 3: through it. So that was the day that they would
36:50
Speaker 3: do with me. And so my son was telling me
36:53
Speaker 3: the other day, he was like, Mom, we haven't done
36:55
Speaker 3: that lately. I feel like you've fallen behind in the times.
36:59
Speaker 3: I said, with some I'm breakful for falling behind in
37:01
Speaker 3: the times because I don't want to know what y'all
37:03
Speaker 3: talking about. I don't even care what y'all thinking, what
37:07
Speaker 3: y'all saying. I said, because it makes my head hurts. Son,
37:10
Speaker 3: I'm old, I don't know. I don't know what y'all
37:13
Speaker 3: talking about. Speak plain English to me and I'm okay.
37:17
Speaker 3: If I want to try to get on your street,
37:20
Speaker 3: I'm gonna get lost. I don't want to go. Y'alln't
37:22
Speaker 3: know nothing about it. I hear you. What is the
37:26
Speaker 3: age of the youngest person you've helped write a book?
37:30
Speaker 3: The youngest is nine?
37:33
Speaker 1: Oh sweet, Yes, her name is Kamara, and her mom
37:38
Speaker 1: reached out to me.
37:38
Speaker 3: Now her mom is it's one of the ones who's published.
37:42
Speaker 1: Her book is nominated for a Distinguish All This Guild Award.
37:46
Speaker 1: All right now was the one who encouraged her to go.
37:50
Speaker 1: Because Kamora wanted to come and okay, Shane, and her
37:54
Speaker 1: mom reached out to me and asked me if she
37:56
Speaker 1: could come, hoping that I would say no, that.
38:00
Speaker 3: She was too young.
38:02
Speaker 1: But if you because she was nervous. If if you
38:09
Speaker 1: are at the age where you feel like you have
38:12
Speaker 1: a story.
38:12
Speaker 3: To tell mm hmm, you can tell.
38:15
Speaker 1: Welcome to come to workob because everybody has a story.
38:20
Speaker 1: And I read the first couple of pages of her
38:22
Speaker 1: story and she's she's a good writer.
38:25
Speaker 3: She's doing on there, so I can't wait to get
38:28
Speaker 3: her published. Awesome. I know that's a beautiful experience to
38:34
Speaker 3: work with somebody that's that young, and I feel like
38:37
Speaker 3: that's one of the things that we need to encourage
38:40
Speaker 3: a little bit more of children expressing themselves through writing.
38:44
Speaker 3: That was how we got started with writing, is being
38:48
Speaker 3: able to because my thing is this, as a young kid,
38:51
Speaker 3: you know, trying to tell adults when they hurt your feelings,
38:54
Speaker 3: they don't let you speak. They say you're too young
38:57
Speaker 3: to express your feelings, and so are you're being disrespectful
39:01
Speaker 3: if you say you know so? As a kid, I
39:04
Speaker 3: would be like, okay, well, since you don't want to
39:06
Speaker 3: hear me as i'm speaking to you, I'm going to
39:09
Speaker 3: write you a letter. That way I get to express
39:12
Speaker 3: what I have to say uninterrupted. And that's how I
39:16
Speaker 3: got started with writing. And so I'm just stuck with that.
39:20
Speaker 3: And I got so many journals around here, and they're
39:24
Speaker 3: great to go back and look at and also see
39:28
Speaker 3: the growth within yourself and being able to express myself
39:35
Speaker 3: through writing is one of the things that I always
39:37
Speaker 3: tell my kids. You know, when you can't get it out,
39:40
Speaker 3: when you feel like you can't say those words, sit
39:43
Speaker 3: down with your pen and paper and write it out.
39:46
Speaker 3: And then at that point, if you've been able to
39:49
Speaker 3: express it through your writing, you can express it verbally.
39:52
Speaker 3: So just take the time to write it out first
39:55
Speaker 3: and then come to the person that you need to
39:57
Speaker 3: talk to and say, listen, I was able to write
40:00
Speaker 3: everything out that I was feeling, and now I want
40:03
Speaker 3: to talk to you about it face to face, I said,
40:06
Speaker 3: because it helped you to be able to know where
40:09
Speaker 3: you want the conversation to go with the person that
40:12
Speaker 3: you're trying to communicate with. I feel like that's a
40:15
Speaker 3: big thing that we can do to help communication with
40:20
Speaker 3: one another. If you don't know how to say it verbally,
40:23
Speaker 3: you can always write it and then came too and
40:26
Speaker 3: then tell them to return it either in writing or
40:30
Speaker 3: ask if they are ready to have that verbal conversation.
40:34
Speaker 3: What advice would you give somebody who has their story
40:39
Speaker 3: written already but still say I don't know what to
40:43
Speaker 3: do next? What would you feel them again?
40:48
Speaker 1: The next step is going to be the published so
40:50
Speaker 1: and where I start my workshop is you have to
40:55
Speaker 1: decide what form of publishing is best for you. Publishing
41:00
Speaker 1: for me, but there's also traditional publishing. There's also vanity publishing.
41:05
Speaker 1: And I tell people, do your research, find out what
41:09
Speaker 1: that's you because self publishing is a lot of work.
41:12
Speaker 1: It everything falls on you. So if you're working a
41:17
Speaker 1: full time job, which most people are, you may not
41:20
Speaker 1: have time to do it. So now you have to
41:22
Speaker 1: look into traditional publishing and see if that's if that
41:26
Speaker 1: works for you.
41:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's one of the things that I think a
41:30
Speaker 3: lot of people they're like when they start doing the research,
41:33
Speaker 3: they're like, oh, I want to do that because I
41:36
Speaker 3: have a couple of people who come to me and
41:38
Speaker 3: I'm like, Okay, I can walk you through the process
41:41
Speaker 3: of how to publish, or I can do the other
41:45
Speaker 3: work for you. I said, so it's up to you
41:50
Speaker 3: if you want me to help you or you want
41:53
Speaker 3: me to do the work. You know, And then you know,
41:55
Speaker 3: you send me your manuscript and I do the editing
41:58
Speaker 3: and all of that stuff for you, and then I
42:00
Speaker 3: send it back to you for you to upload. However
42:03
Speaker 3: you choose to do this, you let me know. And
42:06
Speaker 3: when I start saying Okay, well this is what you need.
42:09
Speaker 3: They're like, you know what, I'm just gonna write and
42:12
Speaker 3: stuff to you. I'm like, I don't mind doing either way,
42:19
Speaker 3: but you know, I just want you to know that
42:21
Speaker 3: you have an option. I'm willing to help you step
42:24
Speaker 3: by step to get it done. And they're like, yeah,
42:28
Speaker 3: I'm beat on, got mad, and I don't want to
42:31
Speaker 3: do out here, So I'm just gonna write it and
42:33
Speaker 3: then I'm gonna send it to you. How about me?
42:35
Speaker 2: Right?
42:37
Speaker 3: A lot of.
42:38
Speaker 1: Work, but the reward is this, you know, And this.
42:46
Speaker 3: Is one of my bases. So this is the one
42:48
Speaker 3: to be loved by blue Okay.
42:49
Speaker 2: The.
42:51
Speaker 3: Right right down.
42:53
Speaker 1: So this is the one that's been nominated for a
42:55
Speaker 1: Distinguished Authors Guild a ward. Okay, And so I tell
42:59
Speaker 1: you a little about this one. This is about Antoinette
43:04
Speaker 1: Tony Kennedy, Okay, Antoinette. Her, the me and and her
43:09
Speaker 1: family are cops. Okay, and he dated a cop and
43:13
Speaker 1: the me and her family had disappointed her. The cop
43:15
Speaker 1: broke her heart, so she does not like cops at all.
43:20
Speaker 1: Then comes Darius, and he is everything she does not like.
43:28
Speaker 1: She likes some tall, she likes some dark, and she
43:32
Speaker 1: doesn't like cops. Tony's uh, Darius is a cop. He's
43:36
Speaker 1: an inch shorter than her.
43:38
Speaker 3: And so everything that's not on her check list he is.
43:43
Speaker 1: So Darius. Now, this is the thing about Darius. Darius
43:48
Speaker 1: has all of these little corny pickup lines that he uses, Okay,
43:53
Speaker 1: and that's what kind of intrigues her. So so when
43:57
Speaker 1: he first meets her, he was like, that's the exact
44:00
Speaker 1: same face that I see every night before I go
44:03
Speaker 1: to bed.
44:03
Speaker 3: I just need the name to go with it. She like,
44:10
Speaker 3: that's a lie, right now, that's right.
44:13
Speaker 1: So he has all these different corny lines, and she
44:18
Speaker 1: eventually starts to warm up to Darius. And she's also
44:23
Speaker 1: got family drive with her mom and her sister that
44:26
Speaker 1: comes out in the story. But Darius is on a
44:32
Speaker 1: is investigating an illegal dog fighting ring and he comes
44:37
Speaker 1: up missing. At the time he comes up missing, Tony
44:40
Speaker 1: has decided she is in love with him and wants
44:42
Speaker 1: to tell him, but she'll.
44:45
Speaker 3: Never get the opportunity. Okay, okay, yeah, I can't tell you.
44:52
Speaker 3: Yeah no, I'm gonna have to get that book because
44:55
Speaker 3: now you don't get left me with a cliffhanger, so
44:57
Speaker 3: you know, Okay, now one had a question, how does
45:01
Speaker 3: your children feel about your books? I'm like, just another book,
45:12
Speaker 3: and they're like, okay, mom.
45:14
Speaker 1: Now my youngest daughter, she likes to show a little
45:18
Speaker 1: more enthusiasm. So when I finished, now, the latest one
45:22
Speaker 1: I just finished, that was the first one you mentioned
45:24
Speaker 1: is towards Again, Yes, I said, so I finished another book.
45:29
Speaker 1: She was like, dang, mom, how many is that?
45:31
Speaker 3: And you know, so she engaged me for about thirty seconds.
45:36
Speaker 1: But other than that, it's like, yeah, I finished another book. Okay, congratulations,
45:40
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be doing a podcast today. Okay, I tried.
45:44
Speaker 1: I'm upset my arm. I try to remember, you know.
45:46
Speaker 3: So, yeah, it's no big dealing. I feel you completely
45:51
Speaker 3: on that one. Because it's like when you do the
45:53
Speaker 3: first one and the second one, they still like enthusiastic
45:57
Speaker 3: about it. You get to that third and fourth when
46:00
Speaker 3: they like, I like, what don't you want me to say?
46:05
Speaker 6: Like like here, and they're like okay, and what you
46:11
Speaker 6: want me to tell you? Like okay, I see you
46:15
Speaker 6: you doing big things.
46:16
Speaker 3: I got you. Good job, good job, you know. They
46:21
Speaker 3: like okay, right, you're cooking to night like my son tonight,
46:27
Speaker 3: I'm at work. He don't text me what we eat
46:29
Speaker 3: for dinner, Sir. I ain't cooking to night. I got
46:33
Speaker 3: stuff to do when I get home. I get off
46:35
Speaker 3: at five of that he's talking about. Yeah, I know that.
46:37
Speaker 3: That's why I asked, what you're cooking for dinner? Boy?
46:40
Speaker 3: If you get alone, I got stuff to do with.
46:44
Speaker 1: My daughter would be like, I think you you released
46:47
Speaker 1: another book. I think we should go out and celebrate.
46:49
Speaker 1: And she in your restaurant on your meal.
46:55
Speaker 3: Lord, I wish my kids be like what we're gonna
46:59
Speaker 3: go out to. These kids was raised up on home
47:01
Speaker 3: cooked meals, and they stayed the interview, you know, for
47:04
Speaker 3: me one time because I had stopped cooking because I
47:07
Speaker 3: was working so much. I came home and it was
47:10
Speaker 3: a chair in the middle of the floor. They talked
47:12
Speaker 3: about cimonia and we need to talk to you. You
47:15
Speaker 3: need to talk to so they had this chair in
47:19
Speaker 3: the middle of the flo I said, okay, yes, they said, okay,
47:23
Speaker 3: we need to talk about this. You've been going to McDonald's,
47:26
Speaker 3: burd King, KFC, you know, bo James, we like all that,
47:30
Speaker 3: but we we were like home cooked meals. We like
47:32
Speaker 3: for our chicken, Macaronal's, green beans, cabbage, collared greens, and
47:37
Speaker 3: uh said, I said, okay, that's real nice. I appreciate
47:41
Speaker 3: y'all telling me that. But in order for me to
47:44
Speaker 3: be able to supply this roof over your head, this
47:47
Speaker 3: light switch when you go to turn it on, this
47:50
Speaker 3: water when you turn that on, I got to be
47:52
Speaker 3: able to provide for all of that. So you got
47:55
Speaker 3: to make a little sacrifice here and there. You want
47:58
Speaker 3: me to sacrifice just home cook meal, all these lights
48:01
Speaker 3: of shelter and this water which one? They said, okay, well,
48:04
Speaker 3: since you put it that way, we'll take this, but
48:07
Speaker 3: can we compromise along the way. So it's usually Sunday
48:11
Speaker 3: dinner that they usually get, so I can't really be
48:15
Speaker 3: too mass, which is why I do every other Sunday
48:18
Speaker 3: when I'm doing my podcast, because they're gonna require that
48:22
Speaker 3: Sunday meal. Gotcha, gotcha?
48:24
Speaker 1: Well I'm a mister now, so I don't have to
48:28
Speaker 1: worry about it.
48:30
Speaker 3: I got one at the house. That's it. That's my baby.
48:33
Speaker 3: But he told me he wasn't leaving home till he
48:36
Speaker 3: was twenty three. He's twenty two now, I got one
48:38
Speaker 3: more year.
48:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, And.
48:43
Speaker 3: He told me, he said he got to make sure
48:45
Speaker 3: he find a woman that can cook like me, because
48:47
Speaker 3: if she can't cook like me, he don't know what
48:49
Speaker 3: he gonna do. But all three of my kids know
48:51
Speaker 3: how to cook, and that be the thing. And I'm like,
48:53
Speaker 3: but you could cook for yourself, he said, but it's
48:55
Speaker 3: different when mama cooked for you because it's a different
48:57
Speaker 3: kind of season y'all got. And I'm like, it's the
49:00
Speaker 3: same season. Is that y'all use when y'all cooking for yourself?
49:03
Speaker 3: He said, no, no, no, you got an extra ingred
49:05
Speaker 3: And I don't know what it is. It's called love
49:07
Speaker 3: or something. It's something in there. I said, Well, half
49:09
Speaker 3: the time I be mad when I be cooking talking
49:10
Speaker 3: about well, whatever it is, it tastes good, so ill
49:18
Speaker 3: is something else. And I don't know what I'm gonna
49:20
Speaker 3: do with them, but I'm grateful God bless me with them,
49:22
Speaker 3: because without this, I wouldn't know what to do. Because
49:25
Speaker 3: life without them is very boring. I would say that,
49:29
Speaker 3: And now I got two.
49:30
Speaker 1: Great mine are so entertaining. Oh my gosh.
49:35
Speaker 3: People will call and they be like, who all at
49:37
Speaker 3: your houses? Just my keys? It's just three of them? Three? Well,
49:40
Speaker 3: why it sounds like you got twenty people and because
49:42
Speaker 3: they're crazy, that's why they entertaining themselves. And that's fine
49:49
Speaker 3: with me. Of those things, have you thought about having
49:54
Speaker 3: one of your children publish a book or are they
49:57
Speaker 3: even interested? None?
50:00
Speaker 1: Some of them are interested at this moment. I have
50:02
Speaker 1: talked with my oldest daughter, Like I said, she's a
50:05
Speaker 1: graphic artist, and I that's the toy. She could do cartoons, yeah,
50:11
Speaker 1: coloring books. She's that anime and all of that. And
50:16
Speaker 1: I'm coloring books, you know, And I told her, of
50:19
Speaker 1: course I'll help her through the publishing process. But yeah,
50:22
Speaker 1: now I have to give her some rope because she
50:25
Speaker 1: just had my first grand baby in January. So yeah,
50:29
Speaker 1: I feel new mom iteists right now, so I'm giving
50:33
Speaker 1: her some room.
50:34
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, how does it feel to be your grandma?
50:39
Speaker 1: I love it. I hate we're so far away, but
50:42
Speaker 1: I love it. We do the FaceTime and everytime that
50:45
Speaker 1: little girl see me, she lights up. I love it,
50:48
Speaker 1: absolutely love it.
50:50
Speaker 3: My granddaughter just left, and if she hadn't just left,
50:53
Speaker 3: she'd have been on the podcast with me because she
50:56
Speaker 3: thinks she parted her job. And I love them for
50:59
Speaker 3: doing it. Yes, child, she eighteen months old now and
51:03
Speaker 3: I had told her four months old that she's gonna
51:06
Speaker 3: be my secretary for my business and everything, and she
51:09
Speaker 3: takes that literally. She has a video on my page
51:12
Speaker 3: of her with the keyboard, with the laptop and her
51:15
Speaker 3: notepad and her pencil. She's taking no care herself doing
51:20
Speaker 3: so child that is the grandmother is one of those
51:25
Speaker 3: things you get the miniature version of your children all
51:28
Speaker 3: over again. So it's it's such an amazing thing to
51:32
Speaker 3: watch them, and to watch my daughter and my son
51:36
Speaker 3: with their children. My son had a boy and my
51:39
Speaker 3: daughter had a little girl. So and they're literally a
51:44
Speaker 3: month and a half apart. Oh so and is crazy, yes,
51:50
Speaker 3: and so, oh my god. They their kids look so
51:54
Speaker 3: much alike. But my son, who my son's little boy
51:59
Speaker 3: is he I'm only four eight, so I will say
52:02
Speaker 3: that he's about as big as.
52:04
Speaker 2: Me right now.
52:05
Speaker 3: And I'm like, Okay, I don't know where y'all get
52:09
Speaker 3: this hype thing from, because you didn't get it from
52:11
Speaker 3: your mama. And my kids mother. He's not that tall either.
52:14
Speaker 3: He's like four, you know, he's like five seven, five
52:18
Speaker 3: nine at the most. My boys are both over six
52:23
Speaker 3: feet tall, and so yeah, and so I'm like, yeah,
52:27
Speaker 3: they look at me and when they see me and
52:29
Speaker 3: my boys together, they're like, okay, you little how you
52:34
Speaker 3: had him? And I'm like, look, I ain't got nothing
52:36
Speaker 3: to do with it because my mom had both are short,
52:40
Speaker 3: so I'm like, I don't know. They took off the
52:44
Speaker 3: other side of the family, right right, right. But it
52:48
Speaker 3: has truly been a pleasure of having you on the show.
52:52
Speaker 3: Is there anything or any advice that you want to
52:55
Speaker 3: leave them with and tell the guests how they can
52:57
Speaker 3: contact you to purchase your books and anything that you
53:00
Speaker 3: feel like is necessary for them to know about you.
53:04
Speaker 3: All right.
53:05
Speaker 1: You can purchase my books at netsbooks dot net. That's
53:08
Speaker 1: my website I have. You can get paperback or you
53:13
Speaker 1: can get e books. I also have a free download
53:17
Speaker 1: I was a Silly Moods and it's called, uh, the
53:21
Speaker 1: Diary of a Shower So this is the of a
53:24
Speaker 1: shower head, so it's the shower heads version of what
53:27
Speaker 1: he sees when we step in the shower. It's a
53:31
Speaker 1: free download. Check it out, o Lord. And you can
53:41
Speaker 1: also reach me if you're interested in the workshop on
53:45
Speaker 1: how to self publish a book, please reach me on my.
53:49
Speaker 3: Website as well. And I think that's about it.
53:52
Speaker 1: Like I said, I have a romance novels sets, a series,
53:58
Speaker 1: one standalone, but they can all be a standing at
54:02
Speaker 1: So if you like Happily ever After, Hide and Steaming Drama,
54:08
Speaker 1: all the fields, pick anyone of these.
54:13
Speaker 3: I got one more question and then we're gonna get
54:15
Speaker 3: up all out here. The next question that I got
54:18
Speaker 3: is do you do your workshops virtually? Yes?
54:22
Speaker 4: I do.
54:23
Speaker 1: I do them virtually. The one we did yesterday was virtual.
54:26
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, the last three that I have done
54:28
Speaker 1: were virtual.
54:30
Speaker 3: Okay, that's in person, but we'll see how that all
54:36
Speaker 3: works out. I understand how that goes. And especially yeah,
54:43
Speaker 3: codd Flu season is coming up and COVID has another
54:46
Speaker 3: strand out there, so you got to be mindful of
54:49
Speaker 3: that when you get ready to start doing those virtual events.
54:53
Speaker 3: But I thank you again for being here. It has
54:56
Speaker 3: wonderful conversation. And before we get out of here that
55:00
Speaker 3: the one thing that I have to say is that
55:02
Speaker 3: is to stay out of God's business. The only thing
55:05
Speaker 3: God needs you to do is be obedient to what
55:07
Speaker 3: He's caused you to do until next time. I will
55:10
Speaker 3: see you guys again on September to twenty six. So
55:14
Speaker 3: do not miss this conversation, because it's one that you
55:17
Speaker 3: don't want to miss. I got two other nominees of
55:20
Speaker 3: the Distinguished Author's Guild Awards coming up on September to
55:24
Speaker 3: twenty sixth. I love you, guys, and thanks for being here.
55:27
Speaker 3: Good night.
55:30
Speaker 2: Quickly. One the Sweet
55:41
Speaker 3: Sweet