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Move Over Nancy Drew . . . Meet The Badass Widows/Valerie Saul · Inside The Moms Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There's a rather broad portrayal of younger women in books now,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: but the portrayal of older women is still really narrow.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And I was reading everything I was reading, you know,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: booker prizes and bodice rippers and everything in between, and thinking,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you know, they all show us the same way, where
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: either we're not a main character. Generally we are the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: grandmother or the nosy neighbor, or the malicious mother in
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: law or some you know, something like that. And I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: just thought, those aren't the people I know over sixty.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Welcome, Mom's Welcome inside the Mom's Club. I'm your host,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Monica Samuels, and I'm here with my very good friend
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: and lovely co host.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Ah, good gosh, i've missed you.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: I missed you too. You ran off to find find yourself.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, something like that.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Born. So we're here in La actually, as many of
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: you know, we've been recording in Austin, in our hometown
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: a little bit the last few months. But then Julie
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: ran off to the beach to discover, you know, what
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: she's going to do with the second the next chapter
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: of her life as her daughter is off to college.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I have an older daughter that lives here.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: So it's very it's been great, but today's guest hits home,
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: and so, you know what I mean, I'm excited to
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: hear what she has to say.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I know I am too. And I never didn't know
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: that you were an FBI agent at one time? Did
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: you hit that?
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: That's right, that's referring to the book.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, no, so you were a nurse in a
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: prior life. I went in a current life.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: And at my current life, it's not my license. Yes, yes,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: so did you did you figure it out?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Like what you now? You're doing this and of course
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: this is going to be like so big, right, You're
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: not gonna have time to do anything.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Oh okay, so that's that's true.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: That's true. Chance that this doesn't, you know, go that direction,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: or we decide we need to go another direction with
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the co host, Oh would you know?
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: It's nice, that's a joke.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: What do you plan on doing? Do you have any ideas?
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: What are your thoughts?
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: I have so many thoughts. I have so many thoughts
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: that it's hard to reel into one. But I think
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: it's a really important topic that a lot of people
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: aren't even discussing. And I think a lot of people's
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: in your fifties or your sixties. You can be a
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: little bit off track, a little lost whatever. But the
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: good thing is that we have life experience and we
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: can reel it in and we can do whatever we want.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: That's the thing, Like you're you know, so long story
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: but short. I've even thought about writing a book. So,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's why I was so excited to have
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: our guests on today. So, I mean, there's been many
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: thoughts and even going back to nursing, which is a great.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Well when I wrote so when when I wrote Comeback Moms,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: one of the things we always told everybody is at
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: some point in your life, you're going to be a
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: comeback mom because unless your children live with you the
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: rest of your life, yeah, that's not going to have
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: to your parenting skills. That's what happens. They have to
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: have your next you know, you're gonna have to come
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: up with your next act too. But women, this is
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: the time. I really believe that because we know, as moms,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: we multitask all of these things, and we you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: some of us.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Have we have dreams and we want to yes, so
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: that's cool.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: We're the most qualified to do amazing things, or as
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: we say here in the mom's come that amazing thing
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: when you are, yeah, in your fifties sixties.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: So I haven't said I'm chasing you because you have
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: actually put things into action.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: So well, I do keep busy.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I love it. My favorite thing to do is shop,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: but I find at some point you can't do that
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: all the time, so I have now decided to do
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: other things. So here I am.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: You have been many more talents than just shopping. Is
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: all I'm going to say, yes, thank you, so anyway,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: but it's been a journey for sure. I can't say enough.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I thought it was, you know something late I was lonely,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: but what I was really doing is figuring out what
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: is gonna make me tick and do and the beauty
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: of being able to do what you want.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Now, now, do you feel like society still expects for
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: women to quietly fade into the background at a certain
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: age or have we gotten?
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Can I say one hundred percent? Like I still feel
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: like that's still a thing. I absolutely is a thing,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: but I think that people are standing up and bucking
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: the system.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I love it. Well, we're going to meet one today.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: As she has written, a book about why that's not
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: going to happen. She's going to change that.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Valerie Saul is here and she's written her debut novel,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: The Badass Widows. Yes, this a story about grief, reinvention
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: and women who are no longer asking for permission. Please
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: welcome Valerie Saul. Welcome, Valerie, Welcome to the Mom's Club.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: This is your first book.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Wow, What did you do in your life prior to
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: writing this book?
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: As an audiologist? I did lots and lots of diagnostics
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: and hearing aid fittings, a little bit of cochlear implant work.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: I taught at universities to people who were training to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: become audiologists, and I did it in four different countries.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: So I had a long career in hearing healthcare. And
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: part of what set me up for this book is
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: that I mostly worked with older adults, and many of
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: them were women of a certain age, and so those
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: people that demographic long before I was in that demographic.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: That demographic was what I cared about, and.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: You found inspiration for this book. Now, what else did you?
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Were you a voracious reader? Did you join were you
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: part of a writer's club? And now They're like, there's
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: writing groups. Because I've written a book and so I
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: fancy myself a little bit of a writer. But I
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: know there's that, and there's a lot of people who
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: all their life they read a lot and they try
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: to write and they share it, but they never get
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: to the point where it's a published book. I know,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: when I was writing my book, they said eighty five
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: percent of the people that are saying they're writing a
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: book will never finish the book. So I'm very familiar
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: with that. But what was the transition to actually writing
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: the book.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I think it was partly COVID, partly retirement. I felt
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I felt like I wanted to do something different, but
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: also something that drew on my experience. Part of it
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: because I've read a lot, and there's there's this there's
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: a rather broad portrayal of younger women in books now,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: but the portrayal of older women is still really narrow.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: And I was reading everything I was reading, you know,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: booker prizes and bodice rippers and everything in between, and thinking,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: you know, they all show us the same way, where
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: either we're not a main character. Generally we are the
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: grandmother or the nosy neighbor or the malicious mother in
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: law or some you know, something like that. And I
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: just thought, those aren't the people I know over sixty.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: You know that some of them were like that, sure,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: but we're not all like that. And so I just thought,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I want to write. I want to write about older
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: women who are the way I see them, you know,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: all different older women, that's all. And then COVID, COVID
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: turned them into widows.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: I was going to ask that, that was my next question.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you made sure that they were all bad ass too,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: so you can just pick your average older woman.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: It's the opposite of the stereotype, right, you don't think
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: old women would be badass?
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I get stuck on titles with books, Valerie,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: how did we come up with the badass widows? I'm
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: dying to know?
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Well, it started out just badass something because and I
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: didn't it was a working title. I thought they probably
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: wouldn't publish it with an word like that in the title,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: But it was my way of conceiving of it, and
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: it was my working title. And then as COVID happened,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: and I actually lost a few family members and we
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: were all dealing with dealing with grief and loss and
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: starting over and what is this? How do we deal
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: with this? Then my characters just kind of obviously became
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: widows because I was dealing with that. I'm not a widow,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: but I was dealing I have widows in my family,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and it sort of became about badass widows. And then
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: when I was using it as a working title, people said, oh,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: sure you can use that, so it stuck.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: They I love to say when you're writing, if you're
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: writing fiction, especially, write what you know is the best
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: thing to do. So when I was reading your book,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: I thought, oh, was she an FBI agent? So how
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: did you come about where the main character, Beth is
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: an former FBI ogent? Like, where did that come from?
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Just my imagination. I have no experience in that area,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: not that I would probably tell you. If I did,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: that would be I probably would. I did one of
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: in one of my audiology related lives, I did public
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: health research, and so research is very comfortable for me.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And I just researched FBI Life and Agents, and there's
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: a lot on their website and you can find out
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: a lot. Scary. It's scary how much you can find
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: out doing research online. So it was just my imagination.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Well, that is interesting that you can find out a
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: lot online about FBI, and they shouldn't they be more
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: a little bit more covert than that.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: That was right, That's like one of the job I
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: always wanted that I never did.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: So.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I once worked when I was based to practice
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: law and one of the attorneys in my office she
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: had worked for the CIA at one point, and so
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: to brag about it, kind of every day at our
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: team meeting, she would bring in her CIA mug.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: I don't think you're supposed to do that if your
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: CIA have.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: A CIA mug, that seems like cold counter intuitive. So
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: the fact that the FBI has a lot of stuff
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: online that you can read about is just intriguing to
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: me because it sounds so your Your story sounds so like, oh,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: this is a real deal. I mean, obviously this is
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: how it works. And this is because it's very official
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: sounding what you'd put in here. It sounds very real,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: very good.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know if every if FBI agent has a
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: safe room in their own house, but h something knows,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: who knows. I don't want to give away too much
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: because I want the I want our audience to read
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: this book.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: But yeah, so I'm wanting to know you are on
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: this like kind of whirlwind tour and I want to
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: know what's the most interesting question that somebody asked you
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: about your book coming out? Or you know what I mean,
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: like as far as you know, like you said, I'm
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: new to this and I wrote this book and it's been,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: like you know, the attention has been more than probably
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: what you're used to. So A, what does someone asked you?
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: And B have have you handled it?
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I haven't had any jerk questions, you know, I haven't.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I haven't had any like all those kind of questions.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I haven't had anything like that. My son was at
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: one of the events. My grown son was at one
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: of the events, and he asked the hardest question, which
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I've mercifully forgotten. It was something. It was something very cerebral,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and I I said, could you repeat the questions?
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Did you side?
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: I am like, yeah, you're not the one that's supposed
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: to be asking.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: You should have you should have Yeah, you should have
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: been easier exactly.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: No, I haven't had I haven't had any particularly weird
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: questions or questions that I wasn't prepared for. I had
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: a number of people give me more credit than I deserved.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: He said, they liked they liked the way I was
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: cleaning up the house, you know, when one of the
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: threads is Elena and Beth are are kind of working
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: through the house and getting it cleaned up and reorganize,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and they said, oh, what a great writing device. And
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I thought, I just thought it was an idea, you know,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: like a mental health thing when when you're feeling helpless
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: or stressed you go organize a closet. Doesn't everybody do that?
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean definitely, definitely.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, that's you look at the closet and you say, okay,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I have impact. I'm not help completely. I don't know,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: there's some weird concrete satisfaction to that. And most of
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the time, when you're feeling stressed or helpless, it's very
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: abstract and so I don't know, having them fix up
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the house just seemed like a good mental health strategy.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking about writing devices and things like that.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Did you were you part of a writer writer's group
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: and did you work with other writers to like, how
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: did you formulate the book?
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Well? I did. I did a number of ways. I
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: went I took a whole bunch of online writing classes
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: through the Stanford Continuing Program. It's a fabulous program, and
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: they have discounts for people over sixty.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: That's right. That's one thing I've been looking at at
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: ut So.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: If you're going to be writing a book, you better yeah,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: go ahead.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: And I you know, before COVID, Before COVID, they had
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: a few classes online. But because of COVID, now UC Berkeley, Stanford,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of universities have online could create a
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: writing classes and they're great teachers and you know, it's awesome.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: So I took lots and lots of classes, and I
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: had two or three different critique groups at different times
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: that we would share stuff either in those classes or
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: outside of classes. I have several I went to some
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: retreats and then those the people at those retreats sort
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: of became part of a community. So it kind of
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: has become my community or you know, my tribe.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you really prepare well, and you really prepared yourself.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: It's not like you sat down one day and thought.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: I'm going to write a book, because it's a lot.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Harder than that. You know, you want your audience to
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: be I think.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: That's what stops people most. I mean, you've written a book,
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: so you have a lot of advice, and I know
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: it's really good advice, but I mean, how does one
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: get I mean I can ask both of you, how
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: does one get started? In like, if someone like myself
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: wanted to write a book, how do you just sit
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: down and do it?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Well? I think she told you the first part, which
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: is they take a class. I think taking the classes
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: and all that. And would your advice be to moms
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: out there who have a dream of doing something said
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: they want to be an electrician. I don't know what
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: their dream is, but what you're saying, I think is,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: you know, prepare yourself. Like the first thing, there's plenty
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: of good resources out there. You took all these online
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: classes and things like that, And you do make an
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: interesting point. A lot of these universities, the University of
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Texas I think it's sixty five years old, yeah, but
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: a lot of them after sixty you can go for
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: free almost almost We have the same opportunities to do that.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: But as far as this sitting down and motivating yourself
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: to actually do.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: That, I think something you something you guys both touched
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: on earlier in the introduction, when I was fifty three.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: That was the age my kids were out of the
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: house and my parents were still able bodied. There's like
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: this little window where you can kind of be like
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: you're twenty again and you can say, what what do
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I want to do? I want to do?
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know I've been doing a little bit of that.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, don't miss the opportunity. And I think a lot
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: of people, a lot of women do. They sort of
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: wait at home in case their kid needs them when
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: they're at college or something. We got on a sailboat
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and sail out under the Golden Gate Bridge and we
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: spent a year in our fifties sailing from San Francisco
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: to New Zealand. And then we spent two years in
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: New Zealand. That was awesome. I may go back, depending
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: on how things go. Fabulous country, funny people. I loved it.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Two years in South Korea, also working and living there.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: We came back for a little while and we went
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: to Singapore for a couple of years. And that adventurousness,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: that willingness to do something kind of scary and uncomfortable,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I think is a big part of having a rich,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: laid I don't know do we call this at two
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: or at three? Whatever?
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: This is.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: This face is to be daring, is to say, Okay,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not comfortable, but I'm going to do it anyway.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's really good advice. Make yourself a
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: little bit uncomfortable, and I've done that in the past month.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: But you've set the bar really high. Sailing to New Zealand.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say so. Yeah, No, I know, well,
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Julie just hiked the Grand Canyon.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: And that was uncomfortable.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: We thought that was a lot, but you really kind
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: of beat her there. Yeah, totally. I think you need
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: to start sailing there, Julie. Maybe that's the next thing.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: I want to go to New Zealand. Actually, maybe we can.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, I just we could take a break and
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: go do I just did a house sitting job for
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: a friend who flew home from New Zealand and they
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: said exactly what you said.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: So you've done a lot of you before you did
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: all this, You've done a lot of really cool, interesting
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: things in your life that have led to the experiences
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: that you're now able to write about in a book
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: like this. Are there any characters in your book drawn
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: from people that you've known or experiences that you've had,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: or can you point to well, you know, really.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Can you remember Charlie. Charlie is loosely based on an
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: aunt that I have and aunt she was Aunt Charlie,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and she was very unconventional and kind of prickly, and
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: I've idealized her in the book. She has passed away.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: So I but I told my cousins that that character
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: was based on her because I loved her. She was
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: My parents were fairly conventional, and she was the counterbalance
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that said, Okay, you don't have to conform all the time,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and and so she was the perfect ann. And so
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: she's in my book. I sort of idealized her.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: I yeah, because a lot of times that is it's
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: hard as an attorney, I have to say, you always
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: must say that these are a legend, these are Any
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: relationship between truth and fiction is purely coincidental in case
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is how I saw the story or this
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: is how Yeah.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: But I think almost all authors draw I mean, you
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: have to draw from real experiences and real people and
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: things like that. So yeah, so that that totally makes sense. Well,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: so now you're now you're a published author, what's your
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: next book? I assume you're off New Zealand. Are the
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Badass Widows? I mean they got to keep going well
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: And before I ask you, before I ask you that question,
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: keep that in Yes, the idea of women of a
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: certain whatever sleuths. We we looked at interviewing and I
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: think we should still look at doing this. There's a
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: group of moms who decided to start solving cold cases
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: and now they're on the internet or there are people
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: actually doing this. And I know with the situation with
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Nancy Guthrie unfortunately a lot of you good on TikTok
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: and there are groups that are actually trying to solve
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: the case. So this is something of great interest to
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: a lot of people.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: And there's and there are a lot of books and
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: TV shows on sort of the Silver Sleuth.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, only murders in the building and things like that. Yeah,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: So is that what the do you see yourself with
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: the Badass Widows? Are going to keep doing this and
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: subsequent books? Or do you have you know your next
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: or you have war in peace? You still want to write?
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: And that's another thing.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: I have one book in mind. I have imagined and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: I have like an inciting incident, which is kind of
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: what I say start with, and it involves there's going
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: to be a romantic subplot, and it involves marine mammals, seals,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and sea lions. So I think I volunteer at the
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Marine Mammals Center in Sasolito, and so I think it's
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: going to have something to do with that. But that's
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: as far as I've gotten. It's just kind of a smooshy,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: smoohy idea.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: What has volunteer volunteering brought you? Like, obviously it's brought
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: you an idea for a book, but what has it
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: done for your soul?
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: I like, I like teaching, so it's a little like
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: when I was an adjunct professor. I like teaching. And
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I also like because I've always dealt with adults. By
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: being at the Marine Mammal Center, I deal with lots
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: of little kids and class classes that come in and
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I'm one of the docents in the exhibit hall that
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: and it's so much fun to have little kids are
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: like so different, you know.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: They're just honest and raw, and they're.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Cheerious, enthusiastic, yeah, curious, and I come away I just
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: come away after the day exhausted, but like kind of
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: lifted up, Like I don't know, I wanted to.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: Be a kindergarten teacher, but I had a lot of
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: exactly yeah, exactly a.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Kindergarten teacher for a day. I could maybe handle one day.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Oh lord.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So getting back to my earlier question, do you
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: see this as a besides writing subsequent a series of
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: this Badass Widows? Do you see it as a TV series?
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm always like to think anything like movie
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: film TV. Yeah, have you talked to anybody about doing
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: anything like that? They approached you about anything like that?
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Oh no, yeah, we'll try to hook you up. Well,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: we'll see what we can figure out. Yeah, no, that
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: would be that would be great. Well, so if ten
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: years ago, if someone had told you going to write
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: a book called Badass Widows and you're gonna be on
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: podcasts and going all around the country talking, what would
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: you have said?
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: What's a podcast?
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: That's a good Really, that's totally totally.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: But besides that, would you have ever envisioned yourself? I mean,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: is this surprised to you or is this like I'm
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: just you know, I'm not surprised at all. This is
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: exactly where I wanted to be, or knew I could be, or.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I I kind of had blinders on, like I enjoyed
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the process of writing so much, and that I thought
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: to myself, if if I write this and it doesn't
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: go anywhere, that would be okay. I And every time
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: some I would read some awful statistic about the chances
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: of being publishing of being published, I would say, la, la, yeah,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: like you didn't think about that, And then I thought,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: you know, And as I got closer, I would listen
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to some of what they said and I'd say, well,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: if all else fails, like I'm always just saw published,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and then you know what I mean. As time went on,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I just I just kept my planning horizon only a
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: a few steps ahead because I didn't want to get discouraged.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: So I didn't have a dream to be There was
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: no dream to be crushed and no dream to be
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: lived up to if that makes sense.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: And speaking a publisher, did you pick a specific publisher
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: for this book?
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I applied to four independent publishers who don't require agents,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: and Sibiline is the publisher that offered to publish my book.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: They specialize in there are women owned business and they
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: specialize in women over fifty authors, authors over fifty. So
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: it was like, it's a perfect mat it's a perfect match.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: The other thing I like is the pipeline is pretty
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: fast traditional publishing. Excuse me, traditional publishing. The pipeline is
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: two to three years from when you sign a contract.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I signed my contract with Sibyline in August and my
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: book came out March sixth, and to me, you know,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I'm seventy two, so I don't want to mess around
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: with yeah anything, Yeah, I want what you know. I
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: want to know. Yeah, I'm not a patients now.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Well, and it is great how publishing it has changed,
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: which is awesome. So it's opened to so much Yeah,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: so many more people. Because back when I wrote Come
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Back Moms, the rule was to get published you had
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: to have an agent, and to get an agent you
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: had to have been published. So there was like that
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: was this going to happen? So you know what it
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: turned out to be? It was who you knew.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: Actually, I like the research that Valerie did. You Valerie,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: you researched everything on how this was going to be,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: and you let go of the expectation of what could
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: come of the book? And you know, so you just
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: enjoyed the process, and I think that is what is
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: so cool.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the beginning of this too publication? How long in
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: total from your right.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Five years? I queried the agents. I queried the agents
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: for a year. So if you take away you know,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: if I hadn't tried to go traditional, it would have
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: been four years. But it was five years with the
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: querying process until five and a half to the book
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: coming out. It was five years until I had a contract.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: So so and the.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Best women who were wanting to think you will love
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: to write a book, like Julie.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Over here, I'm feeling I'm in the.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: What what you guys be about? No, you're going to
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: get there. I'm going to prad you along. So people
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: shouldn't get discouraged like I've been doing this. Trust me.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: I've got a couple of projects I've been working on
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: for ten years. And my mother in law if only
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: asked me, what did you book that you were working like, well, no,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: it's still but it's halfway written. It's on the computer
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: and maybe someday it will be written. But yeah, it
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: can take it while, So don't be discouraged by that.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and it can evolve. You know, you thought
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: it was going to be an apple, it's an orange.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: Ya.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: That's part of the process too.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: I think that's the beauty of getting some doing something
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: over fifty, is that you have life experience and you
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: know that it's not always going to go the way
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: that you envision it because.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Exact lord, yes, yeah, when you were when you were
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: writing this in the middle of it, so I know,
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: like I have outlined a children's book I've been working on.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: I kind of I know how it's going to end.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: I think, is it the one we're doing together?
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Which one is that I have many pressures? Stop kitty, oh,
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: rest stop kitties. It'd be easy to write, Justine, especially
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: the way rest stop now I don't want.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, Yeah, she wanted to write.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: About her cat that she founded a rest stop, which
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: I'd be very happy to do. Is a children as
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: a children, I think it's very inspiring and wonderful, except
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: the part where at the end where he did die
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: and got running. Change ending, yeah, yeah, and we got
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: to change that ending. But but for you, did you
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: change anything in the middle, Like did you say you
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: know what I think instead of this happened because it
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: didn't totally surprise me, and I'm not going to give
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: away your books that would be really wrong on a podcast.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: So this is what happened. Yeah, it didn't totally surprise
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: me at the end who they were actually looking for,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: who the bad guy was. But then it still kind
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: of did. It's like that could have gone in so
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: many different directions because you kind of just left it
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: where at the end you figure it all out. But
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: did you in the middle, did you just change your
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: course and say, you know, I think I'm gonna this
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: is someone's going to be someone else? Or were you
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: even not sure? Like you know, they rewrote the ending
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Nacasa blanca ding.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: You have to go back, you when you when I
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: finally decided, I had to go back and leave some
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: bread crumbs, you know, because things had to be rewritten
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: because oh, if this is the bad guy, then you know,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: that's the nature of writing.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and the other thing I'm sure you found
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: out besides your son, you asked you an obnoxious question.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Some of these some of these people that will come
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: to your book signings and things, they will look for
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: every little last thing when you're writing a book. I've
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: discovered they're like, you know, on page twenty page you
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: said this, but if I read back to page one fifty,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: it's inconsistent.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: It's like, okay, well, so yeah, I'm expecting that.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah that had I think if I wrote a book,
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: I'd be like, I said that on what page?
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, show me that.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: Show me that.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I didn't have a professional copy editor, and she found
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of things like that where I said the
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: exact same thing, or where I changed the spelling of
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: a character's name halfway through the book, or you know, inconsistencies.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: So I think I've gotten it down pretty yeah, pretty
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: close to but I'm sure there'll be something.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Well, we wrote our book for Random House, and so
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: we had some great editors working on it, and after
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: it was over and was published and we're out there
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: doing our tour and everything, they explained to me there
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: is always an every single book, every body one mistake
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: at least that doesn't at least or more so so
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: that will happen to Well, some questions we have now
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: from some other some ladies, I'd like to ask you questions,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: hopefully nothing obnoxious. Our zoomer Bobs. Welcome Zoomer Moms. Welcome
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: to the Mom's Club.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Yay.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: We are so happy to have you ladies today and
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: I am going to introduce each one of you. Tell
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: us your name, where you're from, and do you have
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: a question for Valerie. First person up is Melinda. Welcome
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: to the Mom's Club.
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: So thanks for having me today, Valerie, you're doing awesome
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: on your first one.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah.
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: My name's Melinda and I survend the city council in
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: my little community in Minnesota.
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: And I'm six three, so I'm.
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: Usually the biggest mom that walks into the room. And
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: so my question today is am I the biggest mom on.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: Zoom I am not six three? So yeah, it's been great.
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: I have I have three boys.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: My oldest is fifteen, and he has been diagnosed with
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: leukemia the past year. And I've just found such strength
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: in moms that rally with faith with other moms, and
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: so that kind of led me to my question for you.
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: This is a journey that I'm sure was up and
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: down for you. How did faith help you through through that?
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: Through those times?
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Good question? You mean, how did faith help me help
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: me write the book or get through COVID and loss.
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: Or think all of it. How does faith play a
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: piece in like doing hard things?
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: You did a hard thing to write a book. But
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: then you're talking about you're writing.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: To this group of women, basically the women of our world,
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: that say you can do hard things, you can be uncomfortable. Right.
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: My son has this great quote that he says, is
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: the comfort zone's a magical place.
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: Nothing grows and nothing progresses.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Right, And so I like that.
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: But that's what you're talking about, right, How does faith
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: help you? Are women through that?
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: I think I have faith in.
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: I try.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I don't always, but I try to have faith in
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the in the resilience. And how do I put this?
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Because I lived in Asia, I was exposed to a
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: more Buddhist Confucian perspective, and there's there's a I don't
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: have to put this. People in the West we can
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: be kind of arrogant about what we know and what
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: is knowable. And my impression of the East, which is
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: very superficial, but my impression is they acknowledge that some
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: things are not knowable. And I really like the idea
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: that I can have faith. But I'm not exclusive. I'm
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: not exclusive. I have my faith, but you have a
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: right to your faith. And and I don't feel superior
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: to somebody else because they are not my faith. And
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I know that that may not be popular in some dogmas,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: but that's my particular way of And that was a
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: thread in the book where you had a Rabbi and
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: you have a Quaker, and I feel that's important. That's
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: that's part of the way I see faith. Does that
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: make sense, Clee.
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: I love that I lived in Hong Kong for two years,
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: so I love these too. I feel like that's really
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: what we have to do, is meet each other where
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: we're at right and love each other for what we are.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: And I just love that about I can see that
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: in you right, and I think, yeah, I think that's
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: a great a great answer. Thank you, Valerie.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Connie, welcome to the Mom's Club. Do you have a
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: question for Valerie? Tell us a little bit about yourself.
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: My name is Connie Sanchez. I live in Lebranda, Oregon,
• 33:11
  Speaker 6: and I guess a couple of things is maybe I'm
• 33:13
  Speaker 6: the oldest one on this podcast today of seventy four,
• 33:17
  Speaker 6: and yesterday my husband and I celebrated our fifty fourth
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: anniversar Wow.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: I think that congraduations.
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: Quite an accomplishment at this point. You know, it takes
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: a lot of patience sometimes to make it through to
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: that many years. One of the questions I have, and
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: this is concerning the book. I think at one point.
• 33:42
  Speaker 7: I thought that I truly wanted to write a book,
• 33:45
  Speaker 7: and just I don't know.
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: It was a passions, you know, one of those bucket list.
• 33:52
  Speaker 7: Things that you did. And I did write a book,
• 33:56
  Speaker 7: and you know, it wasn't.
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: Anything at You're special, but to me, it worked and
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: I felt like I accomplished to go. But there are
• 34:06
  Speaker 6: times when you get to points in a book.
• 34:09
  Speaker 7: That you don't know where to go.
• 34:12
  Speaker 6: You've got you're stuck.
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: And.
• 34:16
  Speaker 7: You know you have that writer's block. And I was
• 34:19
  Speaker 7: just wondering how you were able to overcome those writing blocks,
• 34:25
  Speaker 7: just in case I decided to write another book.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: That's a great question, because that's a.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Thing I didn't. I didn't have that problem very much.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: One of my teachers told told us a kind of
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: a secret, isn't the right word? Like a system for
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: when you're if you're talking about plot and you're saying,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: all right, what what what should happen next? How am
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: I you know, going to move this plot along.
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: And she said.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: To do kind of a brainstorming and come up with
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: just a whole bunch of ideas, crappy ideas. You know
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: what if you know a Martian lands in your backyard
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: and you know, really wacky ideas, and that if you
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: do that and you let yourself put down the crazy stuff,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: there will be something on the list that will spark
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: an idea and get you over the hump. And I
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: did that a number of times where I just thought, okay,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: let's just throw some spaghetti at the wall and and
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: that helped me. Part of it is taking the judge,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: taking away the judge voice in your head that that's
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: caught in my case, is always there saying well that
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: that's us dopid idea. You have to shut that woman
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: up and.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: Go that's a that's a great idea, that's perfect. Well,
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: thank you. Zoomer Moms has always great questions and it's
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: always great to see a group of I think friends
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: and sisters and everybody here. This is this is a
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: great like community.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: But I think listening to people that are wiser than you,
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: who have more life experience, that we all need to
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: listen up a little bit, and so that's I learned
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: so much today, you know, So.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Look forward to Julie's book in five and a half,
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: five and a half years, no pressure, no pressure. Yeah,
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: well this is great. So this is what Mom's Club
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: is all about. I think we've solved a lot of
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: things here today and we do look forward to Julie's
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: book and Valerie's TV series and who knows what else
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: we go along.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: It's very Eleen miarn Helen, Okay, we got we love her.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: That'd be awesome, that would be amazing.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Well, Valerie, where can we find your book? Where can
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: where can our audience find it? I have a copy,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: but where can they find it?
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: They can online find it Barnes and Noble, any Barnes
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and Noble bookstore, at bookshop dot Org, at Amazon, you
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: can ask for it at any library. They can order
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: it if they don't have it. And I'd love it
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: if you went to your public library and say I
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: want you to have great.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that'll be terrific. Wells, definitely, everybody go out and
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: get a copy and you will not be sorry. So
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: definitely take a look at it.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Good. Thank you so much.
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: Mallerin. Thank you all the Zoomer moms and check us out,
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: ladies on uh, We're on sore, everywhere, We're everywhere. We're
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, we are rocking it on YouTube.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: We are now over four hundred thousand subscribers and growing,
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: so you definitely want to check out our YouTube channel.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: You also want to check us out. We have pop
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: up events that we have around the country. We have
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: moms meeting other moms.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: And great speakers each.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Other with great speakers. Oh and you know what if
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: you want to be a zoomer mom like these moms
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: that we just had on the show, because we have
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: moms all over the country, you know.
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: Not everybody is. You got to sign up, Yeah, you.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: Got to sign up. You go to inside the Mom's
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Club dot com. There's a button there that you submit.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, very important, very important. Hit the submit button.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: We've had a few people who have put it on,
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: you know, said they they've died. It's And when our
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: people checked, they said, I don't think they hit the
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: submit button, which I just said, why didn''t you just
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: have this flashing huge thing that says submit.
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: But it's like they need one more thing, but yeah,
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: I won't do that, so.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: You're gonna have to do it on your own. So
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: definitely sign up to be a Zoomer mom. And yeah,
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: everything is so great now with the Mom's Club and
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: we're global. We are now everywhere, like our followers on YouTube.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: Are all over the world. Yeah, it's fun to look
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: at the other country.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Super super exciting. Yeah, well we are other thing today, Julie.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: It suppose we close. We have some other exciting news.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: Our tagline, our motto on this show is if you
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: don't laugh, sometimes.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: You are going to cry.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: To cry, and that we strong believe in that. But
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: we want to make it simple enough for you to
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: just remember when you're walking down the street, you know,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: just yeah, So I want to go with chuckle or buckle.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: I think that you can't remember the long one and
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: just say to yourself chuckle or buckle. That's what I'm
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: gonna do. Well, ladies, hope you chuckle and buckle and
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: we'll see you next time inside the Mom's Glove