Latest / The Elsa Kurt Show / A Novelist’s Leap From The White House To Small-Town Suspense with Michelle Morris

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A Novelist’s Leap From The White House To Small-Town Suspense with Michelle Morris · The Elsa Kurt Show

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Every conversation tells a story, and the best ones begin with honesty, courage, and a little curiosity.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's where Elsa Kurt comes in.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: She's an author, podcaster, and independent media personality, and this is where she brings real life to the table.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Authors, thinkers, creators, leaders, everyday folks with extraordinary journeys.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: We sit down, we dig in, and we talk about what matters, what's messy, what's beautiful, and what just might inspire you to look at the world a little differently.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So pour a cup of something good.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Settle back enjoyable.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is Elsa Kurt Interviews, where truth has a seat, and everyone's welcome.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_04: Well, hey there, my friends.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome back for another interview.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_04: I am so excited to bring on my guest for this week.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_04: Her name is Michelle Morris, and she has a new novel out.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_04: It is called Comes Around.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_04: It is a gripping story of family secrets, second chances, and the complicated pull of home.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_04: Michelle has had, and this is just wild to me, she has had a remarkable journey from a first job at the White House to journalism and global corporate communications before ultimately stepping into fiction full time.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_04: Her work blends strong women, layered family dynamic suspense, and the kind of emotional truth that stays with you.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_04: Michelle, welcome to the show.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_04: How are you?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Great, Elsa.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad to be here.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_04: I am so glad to have you here.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_04: So there's so much about you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I said this before we came on the air, and I'll tell you guys what I said.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_04: You know, as I was reading um Michelle's bio, it it it reads like um like a memoir.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's like something I want to read.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_04: So I already asked her to please write her memoir.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_04: Like just put it on your list of things to do.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_04: I hope you didn't mind my giving you another task.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so you write my favorite kind of fiction work, strong women, um, just uh layered dynamics.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: I love, love all of that.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: But before we even get into that, I have to ask you about your own, your own path.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you've worked in politics, journalism, corporate communications, like the whole works.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um, was there like a specific moment where you just kind of had this light bulb go off and say, and it's time to pivot?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna be a full-time fiction writer.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like, how did this happen?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it there was a time.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, basically it came as a deathbed promise.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my husband uh had a brain tumor.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: He was an Irish music musician from Dublin, Ireland.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: And we were married, had this very idyllic kind of, you know, it's something you would write about a book about, where if I wrote romance, it would be a good one for the first several years.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um stating transatlantic for a year uh before he came to the States and back to the States, I should say.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it was, you know, it was terrific.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: And he fell in love with the creative side of me, the writer.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: So if you think about when I wanted to write books, he knew that I wanted to write books.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: My my first one I wrote when I was seven years old.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: I wrote, you know, I wrote a children's book, then several more.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: My first novel I wrote at 11.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: And wrote several during, you know, and just like a lot of other teenagers who write, I wrote poetry.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: I wrote short stories.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, then it's how do you make a living as a writer?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I also wanted to be in politics.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I just kind of fell into everything.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have the connections.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't, you know, I went to school, I took the opportunities that I had.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: I I spent a junior year abroad in England at the University of Sussex, Albion College, where I went, um, afforded me that opportunity.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I also was part of the Gerald Ford Institute for Public Service at Albion.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that fed the need for how do I make a difference?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought at the time it would be through politics.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I ended up going into the the political realm.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, after working at the White House, being a candidate myself, and then um working on presidential campaign, I was a little tired after over 120,000 miles on my car that last year on the campaign and sleeping on strangers' couches.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, organizing congressional districts.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it was just really it was a great experience, but I needed a little bit of a break.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how I ended up in corporate.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought that I would go right back to politics after a couple of years.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, then when George Bush Sr.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: didn't win his second term, I wasn't going back to the White House, which was what was originally planned.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so I ended up staying in corporate.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: And luckily, that first CEO that I worked for, he also believed in making a difference.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: And he convinced me that I would be able to do that through the corporate work and the words that I wrote for him and that you know I wrote for other executives because I did things very different than a lot of the other people who had just gone straight into the corporate world.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: I believed in telling a story.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: I believed that speeches, I don't care if you're a chemical industry executive or financial services, it needs to be interesting.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: If you're gonna get up and speak in front of someone, it really you need to tell a story.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Why should people believe in you?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: What is it you're trying to influence?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's kind of what I did with my corporate life is I just took my political background and my writing background and melded it together and had this great journey where I ended up traveling with executives all over the world, became an executive as well, and was, you know, helping develop strategy and working on everything, not just from, you know, how do we do the marketing and more and make more money and open more markets, but how do we maybe make the world a better place while we're there?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: How do we help the communities that we're moving into?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, talking to the senior executives about well, what do you want your legacy to be?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I would get the deer in the headlights look almost every time I'd asked that when I'd start working with with a new executive.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd say, no, you need to know what your you want your legacy.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: When people are looking back, what do you want them to remember about you?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: What do you want your kids to know about you?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then let's formulate what your messages are because so goes the leader, so goes your organization.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care if it's the White House or if it's a corporation.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: So very much um working on that aspect of it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: So it was writing, but it was better than that, and it was defining the story.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then my husband just really he didn't like the corporate side.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Very much, you just need to write your books.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: Why aren't you writing your books anymore?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: Please write your books.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then when he that last week before he died with the brain tumor, he made me promise on his deathbed that he's like, listen, you don't need the the soon, you won't need the corporate insurance because of me anymore.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: You won't need um, you know, yes, there's the kids, but show them the real you.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, wow.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: He promised.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: And he actually said, start with our story.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's a good one to begin with, but uh, you know, it got worse as it went on because you descended, basically descended into hell with his brain humor, and you know, and personality changes daily.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I had that gift at the end where the man I married came back to me.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, and he still at that point supported my dream and encouraged me to go forward.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it took me a while, but you know, I got my kids through high school, and then it's like okay, it's time for me to start doing this again.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then in 2020, I had my last corporate position.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: I had moved back across the country again, and uh it's like I I don't want to do this anymore.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: I really want to do what makes me feel alive and good and bring something to the world because books helped me in my darkest days, you know, whether it was escaping from the world and seeing something else, or if it was um, you know, if it was really getting into an idea.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I can't tell you how many ideas, even in my corporate work, came out of what I read in fiction.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so it was just it was inspiring to me, and I wanted to bring that to other people.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess they're still a part of me.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's very much about making a difference.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's why what I write, the stories I want to be very accessible.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: I don't try to write, I sure people say, tone down the vocabulary a little bit, Michelle, or you know, things like that.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you don't need the, you know, as one CEO said, you don't need the three-dollar word when the 10 cent one will do.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it's like really, I kind of like the three-dollar words once in a while.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, but the books are very accessible.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so for people who are just looking for a story, it's there.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it's but there are also deeper messages there that I'm hoping that people who need them get and they can see themselves in some of these characters that I create.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: So what I did was I took the time, I just cold turkey, quit corporate communications, moved back to my hometown in Michigan, where I, you know, left basically at 18.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: And it was, you know, it's like it that was a culture shock.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I started writing books and I wanted to have I wanted to prove to myself I could write more than one.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: So yes, I wrote the book, Narrative Nonfiction about my husband and me.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's at the side.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: Someday that will come out, but not yet.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because what I want to write is fiction.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so then um, I've written eight books now, and one's published, another one's coming out in a couple weeks, and um it's I and now I'm working on my ninth book.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_04: That's incredible.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_04: That and what an absolute gift and treasure, isn't it, to be able to do that, to be able to explore these these opportunities and this life that you get to live now.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um my goodness, I I'm just I'm enthralled by your story.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_04: I truly am.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_04: And there's so much to unpack in in everything that you said.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I want to go right back to the beginning because I need to make a correction.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_04: It's not that you pivoted to writing, because that clearly was such a huge part of it in everything that you've done.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: And, you know, and I love your point about it's it's basically it reminds me of a uh the saying, and I'm probably gonna get it wrong, but it's something to the effect of that people don't buy what you're selling, they buy your why and you incorporate it.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_04: And it's it's the why because people don't buy, you know, uh for lack of a better term, I'm I'll use the term product, um, but they're not buying the product, they're buying like how it made them feel and how and you were so right when you said that, you know, if you think back on any speaker or politician or anyone that you've ever listened to and felt that they resonated with you, it wasn't because they were talking about, you know, what necessarily what they were going to do, but they were talking about what they believe and where their heart was and and you know what what mattered to them.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_04: So when you get to know somebody and and I feel that way about about books, in in even in fiction, you know, you're still you're getting to know, well, you're getting to know the characters, of course.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_04: You're you're getting engrossed in their lives.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I love that as well about um storytelling, about fiction writing, that you know, you just get to create these entire worlds of people that and and this is what I want to ask you about that.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: Did you find in your fiction writing with this book in particular, um, that you got so invested in your characters that they were like real, like they're real to you.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_04: Isn't it wild?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's very strange.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, no, I get it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_04: Anyone, any, any other writers and any other writers in the room, guys, uh, understand that completely.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_04: And and you'll be thinking, and tell me if this has happened to you, you'll be thinking about something or remembering something that happened, and you're like, I don't understand this memory.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_04: I that didn't happen to me.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_04: When did this even happen?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_04: You're like, oh, it's in my book.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's my book.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's a story today.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: It was very strange.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_04: It's so surreal, isn't it?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_04: But also just absolutely wonderful.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_04: I love when it happens.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um, speaking of your your book and your characters, um, tell me a little bit about them.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_04: Your your main character, correct me if I'm wrong, please.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_04: Hallie, is that right?
• 11:41
  unknown: Hallie.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, Hallie's your main character.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me a little bit about her and your connection to that character.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: If well, of course there is one, but what is it?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_04: What does she mean to you?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: So Hallie McCarthy is she's in her early 30s.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: She left her small town Michigan home at 16 and went to college and never really returned.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: She fled.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: She was gonna have this big life, she was gonna prove to everybody, because she has a larger-than-life family in the small town where they live, and she was gonna prove to herself that she could make it on her own.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: She was independent, she was gonna create this life.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: And she went to New York, then she ended up in San Francisco.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Where she comes into the story, though, or where we as readers come into the story, is she's back in her hometown and nobody knows she's there yet.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: She's just driven in, she's gone directly to the cemetery, and she is basically laying, looking up the sky, laying on her grandmother's grave and with other, you know, family members around.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: And it's and she's talking to her grandmother, and she's thinking about leaving without telling anybody she's there.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Her whole world is imploded.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: She's, you know, her she left New York to go to a startup in San Francisco, and it had been going great.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: She was on the executive team, she was young, she was just living her best life.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: She got engaged while she was there, though her family didn't know about it.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: She checked him to the side and he was the CFO.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like, okay, you are not for me.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: She realized that okay, I'm changing because of you.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, she her life imploded.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: The suddenly money was disappearing.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: The feds were investigating, two of the three founders disappeared.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: And one of them being her fiance, her ex-fiance.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so she doesn't know what to do.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: She basically gets in her car and it drives her back to Michigan to where it all started.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: And one of her half-brothers sees her driving down the road and kind of corrals her to go into one of the family businesses and calls their dad.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it kind of starts from there.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so, really, it's about coming home.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: Her feeling like, you know, she left, have this big life, and she came home, this just horrible in her mind, failure.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, everything that was successful about her wasn't anymore, is how she felt about it.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I when I looked at that, when I this wasn't the first book that I wrote, it was down the line a ways.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it felt like the first one that should come out because in some ways, I mean, though Hallie and my situation were very different, I I left the small town.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: I I there's a Kenny Chesney song that says, um, let's see, I am a small town, but it's either it holds your heart or it holds you down.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so some people stay and they, you know, they're the foundation of their town, they build it up, and it's just what they need.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: Other people need to leave to find themselves to have a different life, and they may or may not return.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: But as my high school guidance counselor told me once, who was also my mother's English teacher back in the day, anyway.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Mrs.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Turner told me, you have to leave.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Don't even think about the day.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: This is you're meant to do other things.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: This valley, it's gonna be here.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want to come home sometime, you know, we'll welcome you with open arms, but don't come home until you've done what you need to do.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I that sort of played in the back of my mind a lot.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so Hallie's coming home before she thinks she wants to.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's but what we find out is something has followed her across the country or someone, and we don't know who it is that's stalking her.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know what's going on, but there's some danger there.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: So there's some suspense.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: So all the while Hallie's trying to figure out who she is now in this new world.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Is anybody ever gonna hire her again?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: If the whole executive team is under investigation, fiance is taken, you know, her bank account.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's what's gonna happen?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: How does she rise again?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: She she fell down, but this is a woman just like me who can't comes from a family, multi-generations of strong women.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: And they aren't gonna let her, they aren't gonna let her fail.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: She's remembering things that her dead grandmother told her, her live grandmother is right there, going, No, you have this.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: You are my granddaughter, and you will get up and you're gonna straighten your crown.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_04: And we all need her in our lives, don't we?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_04: We all need that lady in our lives.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_04: My goodness.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny because some of the characters that I wrote just kind of came in.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't plan for them.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: And a couple of the secondary characters are the ones that I like the best in the whole story, and I'm finding that I like writing these older, wiser women a lot.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of fun because they're kind of sassy.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: They're they say what they want, but they are the most supportive of anybody that that you could ever find, which was true in my own life.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: My mother, my grandmothers, my great-grandmothers, I knew them all.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: And my mother's still here, and she's my biggest fan.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, she she's there every step of the way.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, when my husband was sick, we had young triplets.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: She or she and her husband would come and help and stay.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I've had that.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: I've had that family.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Family believes in my family, family helps family.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: You, it doesn't matter.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter if you're on the oats with one another.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: You still help one another and you're still there and you're supportive.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: And you may be one another's biggest critics, but you're also going to be one another's biggest supporters.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that comes through in my writing, I think.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_04: And yes, we all heard that correctly.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_04: Triplets.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_04: She said triplets, guys.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, we could we could do a whole episode just talking about that, but my goodness, God bless you.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_04: Because that that's an adventure all in and of itself.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_04: I can I can barely, I can scarcely imagine.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um I love all of the elements that you bring into this story.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_04: And of, you know, first and foremost, of course, these strong women, female characters who are so influential and just the right kind.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_04: Like I, and I meant that.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's like it's the kind of um maternal female figures that we all as women need in our lives.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_04: Because I think if you don't have those, you're just, you're just missing such a huge piece of the puzzle of fulfillment, of, of, you know, uh confidence, you know, just that backbone that you need to do exactly what we're talking about, pursue the things that scare us.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, it just what a what a profound thing.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_04: And then you add in the suspense and all that.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like as you're talking about the story, and and I tend to do this whenever I can, uh, whenever you know something grips me that way.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_04: I'm as you're talking about the story, I'm watching it in my head like a movie.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like I'm seeing the whole thing in my head.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_04: So I do have follow-up questions about that aspect of it.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_04: And and we'll we'll we'll definitely get to those.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I'm curious though, like was so I I know what's kind of spurned the the writing bug to kick in full force.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_04: Was there something specific that that sparked this story?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_04: Because I I know in my own writing, it's always like the smallest little thing, and all of a sudden, now it's a book.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_04: Now it's a story all this sudden.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: Was there a certain thing that happened?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, actually.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was um my kids were here with me, and they wanted to, they actually wanted to go to the cemetery.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: They they're all photography bugs, too, and um, some of the cemeteries here are beautiful.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: We have lots of hills and trees and water, and um anyway, I said, well, there's a place that I used to go when I was a teenager where it was quiet, nobody else would be there, and sometimes I would sit there and write the cemetery, and I would go sit at my great-grandparents or my maternal grandmother's grave.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: And some people might think that's a little macabre, but it wasn't.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: It was very peaceful.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: It was a very peaceful place with these towering giant pine trees that were just above it, and the brook running at the you know, the bottom of the hill near it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so I took my kids there, and as I'm walking in, I see a raven sitting on a tree branch, and it's like, okay, that bird's watching us as we're driving by.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we stop and we get out, and I show them where their ancestors are buried, and I could picture myself in my younger years laying there looking at the sky, and I thought, this is the opening of a book.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: I love that about coming home.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: And this is about do I belong?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is about okay, I've fallen.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: How do I get back up and not end up in the cemetery?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it was, you know, all of these things that are how do you keep on living?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: How do you keep on going?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've certainly been hit with a lot of things in my life, professionally and personally.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the maybe the biggest of which was my husband and eight years of him living with a brain tumor and the two years before that he was diagnosed where we knew something was wrong.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: But of course, I left a man home with uh triplets with babies, three babies.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember the doctors telling both him and me, well, really, it's because your wife isn't there, it's because she's working, and you've chosen, and and I remember my husband saying, I I chose to stay home.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: He's she likes what she does, she's really good.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a musician, and she this is fine.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, No, you're probably going through male menopause.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's a midlife crisis.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, two years, and um, until he started having just spacing out um, you know, mini seizures, but also then his leg just popped up one day and he went flying down the stairs.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, tearing up laundry, yeah.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was, you know, all these mini movements on one side of his body, and it's like, okay, is he gonna have a stroke?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: Is he what's going on?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, luckily, our new doctor in our new state with my new job took him seriously, and then he had the EEG, and then they're like, Okay, yeah, there's some strange brain activity.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then he had a month later, he had the MRI, and that's when we found out.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so, but at the time it was automatically, oh, well, the mother should be staying home with the kids.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And but anyway, so there I mean there were lots of things that went with that.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then after he got to a certain point realizing he really shouldn't be alone with the kids anymore.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: When he they were three when he was diagnosed.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, okay.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: Basically what they remember is their dad being sick.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: But we tried to make it as normal and upbringing as possible.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't want to be those one of those homes where you know it's the black over the windows and the pictures, and you're it's like, okay, he's dying, and everything was around him.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: I told him, I said, no, everything's gonna be around our kids.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, you're gonna get the best medical care possible.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: And my job afforded you to be able to do that because I was working at a large corporation that had connections with some of the best hospitals in the world.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we also knew that there wasn't a whole lot at that point that they could do other than the surgery, and then it would start growing again at some point.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: We knew that.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um, but because of the type of tumor it was, and it was right frontal lobe.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: So we're talking no impulse control after a while.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um control over emotions, uh short-term memory gone.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, how I felt like it was Groundhog's Day, except not in a funny way, when all of a sudden he keeps telling my kids who are young, right?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Telling, Daddy's cured.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: I, you know, I'm Captain Dada, I'm you know, this is I'm like, chair, stop, you know.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Yes, I am.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's gone.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, no, you just are covering what they said.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then every day, I still remember every day for like two months it was like that, and until it stopped.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: But and then he was like, Okay, I need different medication.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, but it was you know, so lots of things happened.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: But I really I believe what my grandmother said, you know, it isn't how many times you fall down, it isn't staying down, it's how you get back up, and not just getting back up, but how you get back up because that determines your character.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: And you need to be better and you need to provide a great example, whether it's for your kids or other people around you.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: You need to live that life and also live your life to the fullest.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I mean, people in my family didn't probably still don't understand me.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't have the you know all-consuming passion to do something creative and write books.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh, in the Midwest.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: My daughters are from Ireland, Scotland, England, and France.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, oh, and the Netherlands.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's um, you know, very stoic.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Stoic people.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: My grandfather went through more horrible tragedy in his life than you know, most people I've ever met.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: And he was still standing and still taking care of the whole family the day he died.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, in his 90s.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's just you just get on with it.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: I asked him once, how would you keep going?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, What do you mean?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: There's no there's no alternative.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: You put one foot in front of the other and you keep going because your family deserves it.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: And this is the example you set, but it's also how you take care of people you love.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I love that.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, I I it resonates so much too.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I it's not so different from the the German, I'm half German, half Cuban, and it's not so different from that that German hard upbringing of that, like you said, that stoicism that you just do, like it's not can or should or will, it's do.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_04: You just do.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_04: And and I I think, you know, that that mentality got knocked by a whole generation of, you know, let's let's explore our feelings and how we feel about everything.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: And, you know, and I still, I still in my own life looking around at the world, I still say, no, you know, there's a there's a place, obviously, of course, there's a place for for feelings and in all of those things and an expression of those, of course.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but that stoicism, that determinedness and and putting others, your loved ones, before yourself, I think, um, I think it has served many generations much better than the current mentality um being, you know, encouraged, I'll guess I'll say.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: But um uh everything about this just is so wonderful and so compelling.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I love the way that you have infused all of this into this book.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_04: And and I have to ask, is this going to be a series or is this a standalone book?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I started it as a standalone.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: And the response that I've gotten to it is, I mean, everybody, even my good friends have said, okay, when's the next one?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I noticed, and I noticed in the reviews on Amazon where, and it's funny because I thought, oh, I'll just I'll know everybody.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm looking, going, I don't know some of these people, I don't know a lot of these people.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: And what they're writing is they're all saying, want to know what happens next with these characters.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, when's the when's the next book coming out?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so yeah, now I'm writing a series.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um awesome.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: The series I'm writing is very, I could have gone a couple different directions with it, but it's in fact the next book that comes out in, I don't know, a week and a half week is um is the next book.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's how exciting.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I I wrote it specifically as a as a suspense book, as a thriller.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I introduced new characters.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Halley's still in it.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: Maverick, one of the well, we haven't talked about this, but there's a motorcycle club in this.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: And Maverick's still in it, and and some of the other characters in the motorcycle club.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um they but Hallie's more of a minor character in this one, and a couple of her friends step up and are more of the major characters.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: And it's and right now I have six books that are planned for it.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: And uh yeah, and so it's kind of fun.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I love doing my standalone books because sure I I wrote eight of them.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_04: So yes, yes.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: They're I'm still those are still gonna come out.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I'm going to try to get the series out in fairly quick order over the next several months.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_04: And yes, your fans will appreciate that very much.
• 28:01
  unknown: You know what?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: I learned I even though I know writing, I know business, I didn't know industry.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that is completely that was foreign to me.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm finding a lot of authors still say it is.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: People have been doing it for years, and uh, and some guesswork.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: And but there's also method to some of the madness that I'm putting out there.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so right now I'm really focusing on getting the rest of the series out.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then I have another book that's gonna come out as a summer read, which I think you would love.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's oh I bet generation, three generations come together on a small inland island.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, that's right up my alley.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and the matriarch's there, her it's her daughter's daughter-in-law and niece, and then their kids, and they all have something going on.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: There's you know, the matriarch had just lost her second husband um unexpectedly, so they all think she needs to be taken care of.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: And she's like, Oh my gosh, I do not need that, I don't need an intervention.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: But we learn about all these people along the way.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: But what I'm finding with this book, the I guess you call them beta readers, my beta readers have said this should be a series.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: Each of these characters deserves their own book.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, huh, maybe I deserve it.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_04: And then it's like, okay, add it to the list.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_04: Why not?
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_04: And and I know there's gonna be, so I understand this this phenomenon, we'll call it.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I know there's gonna be watchers that are or listeners listening to this and going, how has she written so many books in you know, relatively short period of time?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_04: It's because when you get the opportunity to treat your writing as your job, you truly treat it as a job, right?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_04: And and that was how I did.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_04: I was able to similarly, I was able to write a a pretty relatively quick succession of books in considerably short order.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_04: And it was because I treated it like it was my nine to five job.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_04: It was like literally clock in at you know, eight o'clock, nine o'clock, clock out at, you know, five, six o'clock in the evening, obviously with some breaks and your normal breaks and everything.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but right, when you when you are when you get to be so fully committed to it, it's not that hard.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_04: Like when you think about word counts, I won't get into all that for all for our casual listeners, but the the writers in the group understand like your word count and all of those things.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's and that's right.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then what people need to understand, well, they don't need to understand it, but if they want to understand how I do it or why I do it, remember, I've wanted to do this since I was a child, and I knew this is where I was gonna ultimately end up.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that was the ultimate goal all along, and it just took a lot longer than I expected to get me there.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I've accumulated all of these ideas and stories and characters in my head for so many years and played them out in different scenarios with them that basically it just bleeds onto the page.
• 30:52
  unknown: Yeah.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I get that totally.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, and I want to thank you because you're inspiring me.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I get so distracted by all the other endeavors and tasks, the podcast, the content creating, the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_04: And I've set aside the writing for a little while and I've been feeling it calling me.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_04: I've been feeling that pull to it again.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_04: And just sitting and chatting with you, it's like now, like my fingertips are tingling because I just want to get behind the keyword.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_04: So I personally thank you so much.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_04: And I suspect anybody else who may be in some realm of similar um mindset, maybe wanting to write their first book, um, like, you know, this is your first published book.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, how inspiring is that for anybody listening?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm so excited for um our viewers and listeners to to hear your story, to hear about your book, your story, that story, and to be inspired by um what you're doing and what you've done.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: And to um, oh, I don't know, read the book.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: Is that the book?
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_04: Read the book.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_04: And by the way, I did take a, you know, because I'm nosy like that, I did take a peek at the reviews.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, phenomenal reviews.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_04: You've got, you know, reviews are very hard to come by.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like people are not generous with reviews typically.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: And you have all, um, I think, I think I saw all five star reviews, which is pretty exceptional.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_04: That's pretty yeah, so that's pretty gosh darn good.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_04: Although we as as authors, we try to avoid looking at the at the reviews as much as possible.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but you can't help.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we're only human, you do take a peek.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_04: You're like, okay, okay, good.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, exactly.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I could ask you about a million and one more questions.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_04: I could keep you on here all darn day to just pick your brain and talk to you.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: But I will not do that to you.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I will have you tell everyone where they can find your books.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_04: Where if you're doing, I don't know if you're doing any um appearances anywhere, any book signings, but if you are, feel free to share that info.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_04: But website, uh, where the books, all the good stuff, work they can find everything.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the best place to go is on Amazon and go to Michelle S.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Morris and search for comes around the book.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can also get it at most online um bookstores, and it comes in ebook or paperback or hardback.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there will be an audio book coming out soon with it.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um that that took a little more than I expected when I started this.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: So uh that's actually being recorded right now.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_04: Very exciting.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_04: It was so wonderful to meet you and talk with you and uh just learn all about this.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_04: The book sounds fantastic.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: And um, one thing that avid readers or another thing that avid readers absolutely love is that there are going to be so many more books from you because I know when I fall in love with a book, I fall in love with the author and I have to have everything that they ever write.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_04: Like I just as soon as it becomes available, like it's yeah, so I'm excited for that.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_04: So now I'm gonna uh you can, I don't know if you guys know this, but you can follow um authors on on Amazon.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_04: You can follow their account.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_04: So anytime that they do release something, you're gonna get notified.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_04: So make sure that you guys do that.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_04: You follow her uh on Amazon besides social media.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_04: Do you have social media links?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, are you on Facebook and all those?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: I have an author account.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: So it's um Michelle S.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: Morris author on Facebook and Michelle.s.morris on Instagram.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_04: Perfect, perfect.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_04: So make sure you do all the follows and then you will be uh first to be notified of all the next things coming.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: Again, Michelle, thank you so much for joining me today.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_04: I appreciate it.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Elsa.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: I've enjoyed it.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_04: Wonderful.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_04: All right, my friends.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_04: I am so glad that you guys all joined us today.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I look forward to you uh downloading these books or buying the paperback versions or the audio book, whatever the case is, and and um not only tell me how you enjoyed it, but more importantly, tell Michelle in the way of a review.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_04: How about that, guys?
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_04: We love that.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for joining us, and we will see you in the next episode.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_04: Take care.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: You've got a story worth sharing.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's time to tell it well.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you're an author, entrepreneur, influencer, or podcast guest, stepping in front of the camera or microphone can feel overwhelming.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: On the other side of the mic is your practical, encouraging guide to becoming a confident, authentic, and engaging interviewee.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: Written by media personality and best selling author Elsa Kurt, this book blends real world wisdom from hundreds of interviews with a touch of humor, grace, and heart.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's more than a how to, it's a roadmap to presence, professionalism, and peace in every conversation.