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The Writer's Notebook (July 2026) · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, thanks so much for joining me for this episode of the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just going to give you an upfront warning, and obviously, you've already seen, since you're playing this episode, that this episode is going to be substantially longer than the typical short episodes that you're probably used to.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, I've done hundreds of interviews over the years, and you've probably seen lots of interviews here in the archives.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: But on this new version of the podcast, which is basically I've brought back the Daily Writer Podcast, as you know.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not doing interviews typically.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I may bring those back at some point, but we'll see.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So this episode is going to be a little bit different because I'm introducing a new type of email that I'm sending to my list once a month.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is, as you already probably know, this podcast is basically an audio version of the daily emails that I send out.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'm doing is at the first of every month, I'm doing an email called The Writer's Notebook.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And here on July 1st, 2026, this is the very first edition, so to speak, of the Writers Notebook.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad to I'm glad that you're here.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Really glad that you're joining me.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Super excited that you're listening to this episode.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And as you know, this is kind of a no-frills podcast.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I leave mistakes in.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes uh if my phone rings, I just put it on silent and I go back to recording.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm just trying to be very real with you on this show.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a highly produced show.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is a very um, I was gonna say this is a lowly produced show.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's not really what I mean, but this is very much a non-slick podcast, and that's exactly the way that I like it.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, I've got my espresso here, my warm cup of espresso, got my water, and I'm ready to dive into this very first audio edition of what I'm calling the writer's notebook.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, you might be asking, what is this writer's notebook thing all about?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And why are you doing this instead of just another short daily episode?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I wanted to do is add a monthly bonus, so to speak, on the podcast as well as my email list that dives deeper into the books and conversations, questions, and the moments that have shaped my thinking and my writing in the past month.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And my goal here is really just to give you some resources and questions to help you become the author of your own life.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's really what I'm trying to do here.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is the sole purpose of what I'm trying to do with the Daily Writer and really with everything that I create, except for my client work, which obviously when I write books for clients and I do any type of client work, that is geared toward what they're trying to accomplish with their book or content or whatever I'm doing with them.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: But for my own stuff, the theme of all my work, if you if you look at it, is transformation.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I really want to help people become the author of their own life.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, what this is not, this is not just a compendium or a collection of, hey, here's all the things that I read, or here's a bunch of writing advice, or things like that.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously that's part of what I do because my main identity in life, apart from being a husband and a dad, is to be a writer.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I've always looked at myself as.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that's especially what I look at myself as these days.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: But this is not just a collection of writing tips and here's three books that I read that I think you'll like.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just that.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I really want to give you some insight into my thinking.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that I'm Mr.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful or Mr.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I know everything in the universe, but I think it is helpful if you're listening to this show to get some insight into the way that I think.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And by extension, I want to help you think differently and to think better and to expand your thinking as well.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that this is going to add value to you.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, this is uh this writer's notebook is uh it's basically a way of it's a glimpse into my brain in the past month, so to speak.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just about books, it's also about the questions I'm asking and the things that I'm learning and things that have impacted me and changed me because uh because I don't want to just talk about books and writing, I want to talk about life and I want to talk about transitions and how do we transform as people and what are the challenges to doing that?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Those are really the things that I'm interested in exploring.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And writing and books simply happen to be the vehicle for me exploring that.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's a big difference between somebody who exists just to write, but then somebody who exists just to uh let me uh a better way of saying that, I think, is there's a big difference between somebody who all they really want to talk about is books and writing versus someone who wants to talk about the bigger questions of life and the things that they're thinking and feeling and going through and their challenges and the things that have impacted them.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And writing happens to be the vehicle by which they do that.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that makes sense.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like I did a very good job explaining that.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, let's dive into this.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: There are five sections to um this episode today, and these are obviously taken from the email to my list that we'll go at later today.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: But section one here is books that stayed with me.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, I don't just want to talk about, hey, here's seven books I read this past month.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: These are a couple of books that have really stayed with me, and more importantly, why they stayed with me.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: There are a couple of things that I want to mention here.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: One of the books that I've been reading is a book called This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis and Clark by written by my friend Craig Furman.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Craig is a really, really wonderful historian.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote a book uh called Author in Chief a few years ago that was about books that presidents had written.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really, really fantastic book.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And a couple of months ago, he released this new history of Lewis and Clark.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh every night before bed, I read uh a few pages of this.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I read a lot of history books.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love history, and I would say this book ranks up there with the very best history books that I've ever read.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Craig Farman is a fantastic author.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's a wonderful storyteller, and he makes these dusty historical figures of Lewis and Clark and Thomas Jefferson and a whole cast of characters.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: He really makes them come alive, and you really feel like you get to know them.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm learning a lot.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And what I find particularly compelling about this story is because um I live in St.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Peter's, Missouri, which is in St.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Charles County, which is kind of northwest of St.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Louis County.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a big Lewis and Clark area.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, St.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Louis is where Lewis and Clark launched their famous expedition.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so people are kind of obsessed with Lewis and Clark around here.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's really interesting reading this book because I can literally, within 10 minutes, I can, you know, be where they launched their expedition.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a pretty cool thing.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I would highly encourage you to check this book out.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's really, really fantastic.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I love this because it's the story of a group of guys who were not afraid to tackle the wilderness in search of a great adventure.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's an impulse that should resonate with any author or entrepreneur who's trying to build something against all odds.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just great writing, it's also just a great story.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the impulse of Lewis and Clark and all the people who went with them, I think that's the same impulse that hopefully you and I carry with us today.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: The impulse to tackle the wilderness, do something a little dangerous, and do something at times a little bit crazy.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: I also want to share another book that I've been reading, or it's it's it's obviously a book that you've heard of, but it's maybe a version of a very, very famous book, and that, of course, is the Bible.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So over the past few weeks, I've been doing my daily Bible reading.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I read the Bible every day.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing my daily Bible reading from an edition called the ESV Readers Bible.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the ESV stands for the English Standard Version.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's a new translation.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not new anymore, but it's a translation of the Bible.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think it came out about 25 years ago or so.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I could be mistaken about that.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's been around for two or three decades.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this particular edition is a six-volume edition of the ESV Reader's Bible.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they call it a reader's Bible because they they take the text and they take away the chapter numbers and the verse numbers.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And basically, this version, this particular version of the reader's Bible, they break it up into six volumes.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the print's bigger, there's more white space on the page, and there's basically nothing except the text, except that in the books, in the actual books of the Bible, there are very occasional subheadings to break up the larger sections.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, in the book of Genesis, which I just finished a few days ago, I mean, there's probably only half a dozen subheads in the whole book of Genesis.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that kind of gives you an idea of the experience of what it's like to read this type of book.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the purpose of this type of layout of the Bible is to help the story of the Bible come alive without all the distractions of the footnotes and the commentary and the cross-references and verse numbers, chapter numbers, and all the headings that you typically find in modern Bibles.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I love reading the Bible this way because that's how it was originally created and read, is just as text.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I really like this a lot.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: What's been fascinating to me is, you know, I've been a Christian for, I've been a person of faith for almost my whole life.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I gave my life to Christ when I was 12 years old.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I've I've been a person of faith for many decades.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that for me, reading the Bible this way has been a surprisingly emotional experience.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the section in the book of Genesis when Joseph reunites with his brothers, it was so strange because I found myself almost in tears reading that section and just picturing what it must have been like for him to reunite with his brothers.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: I know that maybe sounds a little bit silly, but I've never had that kind of experience reading a modern version of the Bible with all the footnotes and all the stuff that you have on the page.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I would highly encourage you to check out some kind of reader's Bible if you're looking for a new experience, and if you're a person of faith and if you read the Bible.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the unfortunate news, however, is that this particular ESV Reader's Bible, this sixth volume edition, is not available from Crossway Publishers anymore.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm kind of baffled and really disappointed that they discontinued that edition.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I actually had to get my set off of eBay.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think I paid almost$300 for this set, which is really insane because to get it whenever they were actually publishing would have been, you know, probably a third of that cost or half of that cost or something.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: But you can get a similar edition from um, there's lots of Bibles that have this.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think the the Holman Christian Standard Bible, I think it's now called the Christian Standard Bible.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you're into Bible reading, um they make a set that's actually very similar to this.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's obviously a different translation, but it's kind of the same idea.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Bible broke it up into several volumes.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um now the good the good news though is that Crossway does have a one-volume edition of the reader of the ESV Reader's Bible, which I do have.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like it as well because the pages are really thin and it's thicker and the print is smaller and all that.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I've read out of that too.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I greatly prefer the six-volume edition.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, take that for what it's worth.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to mention particular, in particular, the story of Joseph because it's a good reminder that we all have the power to choose love and forgiveness and goodness, even when life is putting us through the ringer.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you may be going through the ringer right now in your life in some form or fashion.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is so inspiring because he went through a lot of stuff in his life, yet he still chose love and forgiveness.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the verse, they're very close to the end of the book of Genesis, and I'm paraphrasing here when he basically says, You meant these things for harm to me, but God meant them for good.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I am just so amazingly inspired by that sentiment.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, whatever you're going through right now, my friend, I know that we're here for a writing podcast, but let's I like to talk real life as often as I can.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so that is section one of this first edition of the Writer's Notebook, Books That Stayed With Me.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to section two, which is a conversation that I'm thinking about.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I really wanted to include this section in this monthly digest of sorts called the Writer's Notebook, because conversations are what shape us.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Our interactions with people shape our lives.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And my goodness, I can think back to many conversations over my life that have been a pivotal turning point.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when I was in college, one single conversation with a professor changed the whole course of my life.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's probably happened many times.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I just haven't even realized it.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: But there was one single conversation with a missions professor that we had in college.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: His name was Larry Doggan.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: He had gone to a church in northern Illinois to speak.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: He came back and told my wife and I about it.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: He said, This is a great church.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: You guys should think about applying there.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we did.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold, we ended up moving to northern Illinois and working at that church for seven years, and it was a wonderful experience.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you never know what can happen because of a single conversation.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: So each month in this writer's notebook, I want to highlight a conversation that has impacted me and that I'm still thinking about.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you quickly about a conversation.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: So a couple of weeks ago, I was at a medical appointment with a well-respected specialist.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Who the medical professional was and why I was there is irrelevant to this conversation.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I had this conversation with her and I was there for an appointment.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever I visit a doctor these days, I, if I have time during the appointment, I often ask about their personal habits for success.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, what do you do to stay joyful and energetic and healthy?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, doctors are really busy people, they have very stressful jobs, and you've got to be at the top of your game if you want to be healthy and engaged as a doctor because you're seeing patients all day.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing surgery, you're doing procedures, you're doing whatever it is that you do as a medical professional.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And this particular specialist, uh, she's female.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: She is always joyful, she's full of energy.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm always kind of amazed whenever I've met with her, because she just seems to really always be in a great mood.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so I asked what her secret was.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when I did that, she instantly rattled off three things.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: She said, number one, I always take all of my vacation time.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, she said, I don't ever work from home.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: I get all of my charts done if I got to make voice notes or do transcription stuff or answer messages or whatever I need to do at work, I always get that done and then I don't work from home.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then number three, she said, I have a really great support network of family and friends.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have a very full life with my husband and my kids and in-laws and all kinds of family and friends.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I have thought more about that conversation the last couple of weeks than probably almost anything else.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I've thought, man, I I can learn a lot from that, I really can, because I want to have increasingly abundant amounts of energy in my own work.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you run your own business, like I do, and maybe you run your own business as well, or you're certainly working on your own writing.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when you love what you do, like I do, and hopefully you do as well, it can be a real challenge to set good boundaries.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that conversation was a reminder to me that hey, we've got to take time away, we've got to take our vacation time, and we've got to take care of ourselves.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um that was a great reminder.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that challenges you as well.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Section three of the writer's notebook for this month is a question that I'm wrestling with.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I've included this because I think questions are very, very important in life.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I wish that more people asked more questions in life.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a very curious person, and to be honest with you, I kind of it's been one of the things about me that probably has annoyed people my whole life because I was that kid in school who the teacher would be ending class and she would ask, Does anybody have any questions?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And inevitably my hand would go up because I always had one or two questions.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it always really annoyed the other students because they would be wanting to get done with class and get the heck out of there.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: But then I always had a question.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I think questions are really important, and I'm a very curious person, and I'm always thinking about different questions.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: So here's something I've been thinking about lately.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this may seem totally random, but I'll explain why this question is important to me.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: On any given day, most of the people that I interact with for my work are between the ages of, I'm gonna say, 45 to 60.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I will be 52 years old in just about uh how many weeks?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: About a little less than four weeks.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm right in the middle of that age range.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And most of my friends, in other words, the people in my social circle are in that age group as well.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And what I have found fascinating is that over the last few years, I've noticed that almost everybody in that age group goes through some kind of major life transitions in midlife.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: You have people who are becoming empty nesters, they're caring for aging parents, they're going through job changes, or they're facing some kind of challenge, maybe in their marriage or their health, their finances, or some other area.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, almost everybody in midlife goes through a series of train wrecks, I will call them.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just the nature of this stage of life, I think, because a lot of transitions happen and a lot of people just have train wrecks at midlife.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a train wreck doesn't always mean it's a big dramatic crashing in of life.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think a train wreck can also be slow and it can be painful, and it can be a years-long, or you know, in some cases it can be a decades-long series of, you know, it's like a death by a thousand cuts type of situation.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And as I have thought more about this over the last six or eight months, I've started to become really obsessed with this question.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess it's actually two questions.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why do so many midlife people never seem to recover from these train wrecks?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And why do so few midlife people use these train wrecks to rebuild and transform into a much better version of themselves?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, what I'm saying here is that I've noticed that a lot of people in midlife go through these train wrecks and transitions and difficult life situations, and most people don't really seem to recover from those in a healthy and robust kind of way.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Very few people seem to use midlife train wrecks as a way to bounce forward and to improve their lives and become really healthy or to get that job they've always wanted.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, those midlife train wrecks seem to take out a lot of people, and I'm really curious why that's the case and why so few people seem to bounce back after those midlife train wrecks.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't have any answers, it's just something that I'm thinking about.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in particular, and I'm just going to be really frank with you here, I've noticed this in particular with midlife men.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I see a lot of midlife women who are reinventing themselves, they're bouncing back, they're using those midlife turning points as a way to uh basically become a new and more invigorated version of themselves.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it seems really rare that men do that.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Men, to me, when they go through these midlife train wrecks, they seem to basically stay stagnant in their personal and professional lives.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure why that's the case.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I have some suspicions, but um, you know, this particular episode is not really about this topic necessarily.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to mention it.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: But it's something that I'm really thinking about a lot and I'm still searching for answers.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any ideas about this, I would love to hear from you and maybe have a little conversation about it.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can always shoot me an email at Kent at KentSanders.net.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: I love hearing from people via email.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I'm curious if you've gone through a midlife train wreck and what you learned from it.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: So feel free to shoot me an email.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: I would actually love to hear from you.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's go to the next section.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Here in uh The Writer's No Book.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I'm gonna grab two drinks.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, a drink of espresso.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's perfect.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, I drink my espresso black.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know that is anathema to some people, but I drink a black.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Have a cup of espresso almost every morning, and then I'm gonna take a little sip of water here.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's go on to section four.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Section four is what I created in June.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, just as a little addition here, June was actually a fantastic month for me.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not something I created, or I guess maybe in a sense it is, uh, it's something I'm certainly participating in, which is my marriage.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So my wife, Melanie, and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary on June 15th.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh actually, if you if we are connected on Facebook, and you certainly can connect me on Facebook, you can connect with me there.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can just search for Kent Sanders.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very easy to find.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote a little tribute to her on Facebook for her anniversary, and that was really special to celebrate 30 years together and really, really fun.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: She has been a huge, huge part of my journey, as you can imagine.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I would not be able to have the business and the writing that I have today without her encouragement and uh support after all these years.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in terms of my actual writing in the month of June, um I worked on a few client books related to healthcare, law, and therapy.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And in addition, I have outlined and started drafting a follow-up to a book that I wrote for my son a few years ago.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that book is called 18 Words to Live By, A Father's Wisdom on What Matters Most.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I decided to make this a four-book series called the Father's Wisdom series.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the next book in this series is called 19 Reasons to Keep Going: A Father's Wisdom on Making It Through Tough Times.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm going to be frank with you here and a little bit vulnerable, if that's okay.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: This book was supposed to come out.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was supposed to come out back in 2023, three years ago.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: But in all honesty, I hit a wall with my own books about three years ago.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: I had a very successful 2022, I had a couple of uh very successful client books come out, and my name was on.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Of those client books, and so uh that was really, really fun.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I released this book for my son, this first book for my son back in 2022.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: But then once 2023 happened, I just put my own books on the back burner because I was really, really focused on client work.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I got very busy with client books and other kinds of projects.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then last year, 2025, I decided it was really time to start making my own books a priority again.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And to be totally honest with you, part of me, I think, was also avoiding this 19 Reasons book because I wondered if I truly had anything worthwhile to say about why somebody should keep going in tough times, because I clearly was not persisting in my own books.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I sort of felt like a fraud, to be honest with you.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I shouldn't say that here on a public podcast, but but that's the truth.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm a big fan of just telling the truth about things.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes it it really bugs me whenever you see you see people who, you know, they never ever talk about their failures and things that they wrestle with, and they always only present their successes.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just a big fan of just kind of being honest about things.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've ever hit a wall in your writing and you felt like years have passed since you worked on something of your own, I've been there.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: I totally get it.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't relate with people who seem to never have any struggles.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a real person behind this microphone with a lot of my own flaws.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I think there does come a time when you see that you haven't been productive for a while on something and you have to make a decision.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: You go, you know what?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I've had this problem or that problem or this struggle, or I haven't really known what to say about something, but I'm going to jump back in here and I'm going to do my best with this.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the decision that I made probably six or eight months ago, toward the end of last year.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, you know, I've got to, I've really got to jump back into this.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've been putting other people's work on the front burner for a long time.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's time to continue making my own stuff for priority again.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's kind of the story behind this book, 19 Reasons to Keep Going.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I cannot wait to share with you, hopefully later this year, this book release.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um I think that you'll enjoy it.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's certainly been impactful for me as I've gotten into it with the outlining and the drafting and so forth.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the cool thing is that that's not the only new book on the horizon.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, my very next book is going to be available here in just a few weeks.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is called The Ghost Powered Author: Save Time, Build Authority, and Amplify Your Voice with the Power of a Ghostwritten Book.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a completely different book than the one I just mentioned.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is a book for business leaders who want to harness the power of a great book, but they don't have the time or the skill to write it themselves.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I have found that as a ghostwriter, I answer a lot of questions from prospective clients and other writers about how ghostwriting actually works and also why people should use a ghostwriter.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I have wanted to do this book a long time, and I felt like it was finally time to start putting those answers into place in the form of a book that I could give out to people that would share my ghostwriting process and also obviously sell me as the ghostwriter of choice.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that's all I'm going to say about this book right now.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I will have a lot more to say about it here in the coming weeks and months, and very, very excited to share that with you.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's go to the final section of the writer's notebook.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And this section is what's ahead for the coming month.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, this uh today is July the 1st, and I'm really looking forward to celebrating July 4th with my family this coming Saturday.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm also going to be ramping up the book launch for the ghost powered author in the coming weeks.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm super excited about this book because I don't know any other book out there quite like this one that talks about ghostwriting from the point of view of why a leader should consider hiring a ghostwriter, how it works, and what the advantages are.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the month of July as well, so I've got a very busy month.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also aiming to get a draft of the 19 Reasons to keep going book, finished by the end of the month.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the middle of the month, I'm going to be doing a little bit of traveling for one of my book clients.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then in terms of just other personal things, I'm also continuing to train for the half marathon that I'm going to be running in early November.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: So as you can tell, lots and lots of stuff going on, but that's exactly the way that I like it.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want life to be boring.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: I always want to have a lot of stuff going on, and that's kind of how I roll.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my friend, uh, thanks for listening to this first audio edition of the Writer's Notebook.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is a way for me to share some insight into my world as a full-time writer.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that this has been interesting to you and I hope that it adds value to you.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: I would actually love to really hear what you thought about this episode, what you found interesting, or if you thought something wasn't interesting, feel free to let me know that as well.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always interested in improving and I love uh hearing from readers and listeners.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Above all, I encourage you to stay safe, healthy, and productive.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's ever anything that I can do for you, please let me know.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my friend, that's it for today, and I'll see you next time.