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Finding Inspiration with Micah Leydorf · WriterCon

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This week on the writer Con podcast, Find a Tribe Like. There's an
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African proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone.
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If you want to go far, go with others. And I think that
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involving other people in your journey is a really good piece of advice. Welcome
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to writer Con, a gathering place for writers to share their knowledge about writing
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and the writing world. Your hosts are William Bernhardt, best selling novelist and
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author of the Red Sneaker books on writing, and Laura Bernhardt, Award winning
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author of the want Land Files book series. Hey writers, thanks for joining
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me and Laura for the new year. It was a quiet Christmas in the
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book industry, but it usually is. You know, people aren't going into
0:53
their offices and not much is going on. But there's one story that broke
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big and how can I say it. I'm just going to be honest with
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you. I had doubts about my talent and status as a writer, but
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now I feel like I've made the big time because, wait for it,
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I've been banned in Florida. Yes, it's true. A list has been
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published. You can google this. There are six hundred and seventy or so
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books that have been banned in the state of Florida, and one of them
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is Dark Eye, a book I wrote that was published in two thousand and
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five, and actually I think it's one of my best books, but it
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got me on the A list. What can I say, Laura, were
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you concerned this was going to be a crushing blow for me and my career
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and paying the mortgage and stuff? And you know what they say, no
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publicity is bad publicity, right, I think if anything might actually drive some
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people to want to see what the big deal is about, that's just me.
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It's it's so not a big deal. Jesse, how did you react
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to this exciting news? I mean, I feel like you kind of want
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your book to be banned by them, right, because they've been real I
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mean the one they're banning books that aren't necessarily even in schools. There's like
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three people who like nominate all these books to be banned. It's just it's
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silly and it should get you should use it to give more pr for this
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book and sell some more copies of it. Well that's the I mean,
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this book is a thriller. I don't know really why it would be in
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a school in the first place, so I'm assuming it was in a public
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library, which makes me wonder. But sadly they did not call me up
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to explain why it was being banned. It just was all right. Our
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interview today is with Micah Liedorf, who just published her first book, The
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Unseen Battle. She's also a longtime friend of writer con and mini writers in
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the inspirational community can't wait to talk to her. But first the news.
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Our first news story relates to the Tolkien Estate and the Lord of the Rings,
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and then the author of an unauthorized sequel who managed to lose in court
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not once, but twice. We're talking now about a book written by I'm
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assuming this is a pseudonym, Demetrius Polychron of Santa Monica, California, who
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wrote and uploaded for sale an unauthorized sequel to The Lord of the You can
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see the problems already, and here's what you may not be seeing. The
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first lawsuit was brought not by the Tolkien estate but by the author of this
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essentially fan fiction, suing Amazon because Amazon also has a Lord of the Ring
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series now, the only difference being that Amazon actually paid for the rights to
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it. So inexplicably this guy sues Amazon and loses, of course, but
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that lawsuit brings the whole mess to the attention of the Tolkien estate, who
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had no idea before then that this guy was selling an unauthorized sequel to their
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mainstream trilogy. And then they sued, and of course he lost again.
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Judge Wilson found direct evidence of copying as well as obvious appropriation of the IP
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and ruled against him. And I don't know what the judgment is going to
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be, but he has definitely been found with infringing on the Tolkien estate,
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which is a crime that I would assume outrage is you, Jesse Listen,
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No one knows more about Tolkien than you do. What do you think about
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this? I am this podcast Tolkien expert. I wouldn't say i'm and I
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know as much as other people, but yeah, this, I mean,
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this was just this was I don't understand that this person's strategy because there was
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no way like, you're using someone else's IP and then you're suing the people
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who paid money to use that IP to make a very expensive TV show and
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you think you're going to win that lawsuit. And by the way, I
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was doing a little research while you were talking. He did actually sue both
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Amazon and the Tolkien Estate first, and so they were in the first lawsuits.
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So that's how they found out about it. Yeah, so thank you.
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I've got to say, dumbest lawsuit ever, dumbest and against such a
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well known you know what this guy was represented by counsel, because that's what
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I would want to know. Well, yeah, what was taking that on?
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Well, it's such a well known and beloved ip too, of all
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the things to try to sue over. I just, I just I'm with
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Jesse. How did he think this was going to go? And he had
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sent this to the Tolkien Estate previously, hadn't he? And I read somewhere
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that they had been trying to tell him to cease and desist and he just
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wasn't responding a mess although I think it was after the first lawsuit, but
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they definitely sent him a cease and desist letter which he ignored. Again wondering
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about general Yeah, I mean his so his argument was that this book was
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very close to what Amazon ended up doing with the first season of the War
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of the Rings TV show, and so that that was the basis of the
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lawsuit. But again, am I about the rights to use the Tolkien estate,
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you know, the appendices of the Lord of the Rings to make this
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show. And so I still don't think he realized, like you're the one
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infringing, like Amma's Like, even if Amazon stole your idea, your fan
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fiction idea, I don't think you legally get to say you own that.
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It wasn't your IP to begin with the part of this that I focused on,
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which is different of course because it's me. But you know, the
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Tolkien escate estate, which is headed by his descendants zoomed in and I love
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that kind of family. This is our IP. We're going to protect it.
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The same thing is going on right now with the Edgrice Burroughs library and
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the family. I think it's now grandchildren and great grandchildren, and Tarzan sadly
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is at least partly in public domain, but there's still you know, holding
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onto the family IP and Solar. Basically, what I'm saying is, I'm
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expecting you to manage all of my estate and you know, make billions for
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the kids after I'm gone. Okay, oh oh yes, yes, oh
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heck yes, you know owl, I will fight for what's ours. You
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know it, babe, all Right? News story number two, which is
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related because I just of course mentioned public domain. We do this every year
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early in the year, but of course, as of January first of this
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year, a news set of works went into public domain. You may have
8:30
already heard that Mickey Mouse the original Steamboat Willie version, and somebody's already making
8:37
a horror film, right Mickey's Mousetrap. But we've also seen literary works from
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Virginia Wolf and D. H. Lawrence go into the public domain, and
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popular things like The House, Pooh Corner and Peter Pan Songs and so much
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more. Laura, I assume you're going to be the first in line for
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Mickey's mouse Trap? Am I? Right about that? After we sat through
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the beginning of I was about to say the first Yeah, Blood and Honey,
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the wreck that was trying to pass as a movie. I'm not as
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excited to try Mickey's mouse Trap. I will say. I took a look
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at it and it looked like it was going for more of a like a
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Five Nights that Freddy's feel more of an animatronics going wild. But well,
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they had the backstory right. It was like Christopher Robin abandoned them all and
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they became like furl wild creatures. Yeah, attacked the next people to show
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you. The very first few minutes, I was like, okay, okay,
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I'm here for this, and then I was out fast. Somebody else
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is going to have to see Mickey's mouse Mickey's mouse trap first and then convince
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me that it's worth seeing. I'm not going to line up for that one.
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You know, everybody's taking the position that, Okay, Mickey's in the
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main, but it's only the original steamboat Willie Mickey. The Sherlock Holmes estate,
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that's another family estate, by the way, The Doyle estate is still
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trying to cling to Sherlock Holmes, long after he went into the public domain.
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But they're saying the early stories are in public domain, but not the
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later when when Sherlock Holmes cell phones up and becomes a nicer person, which
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my point is that's not really been legally established. That's what people are arguing.
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But we'll wait and see. But Jesse, given all of the IP
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that's now entering the public domain, are you contemplating any projects or mashups?
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Not now, not now, one hundred years from now, someone else can
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make money off it now, be sure and notify the estate. First.
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What cracks me up about this is like, okay, so first of all,
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listeners, if someone can explain to me if steamboat Willy, Steamboat Willie
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Mickey Mouse in that first cartoon, is that his name or is that the
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boat he's on? Anyway, side note the character he plays, the character
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he plays, and I'm like how much? I mean, like, yes,
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between then and now, the animated version of Mickey Mouse has changed a
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lot, but he's pretty much like basic Mickey at this point. So like
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Mickey Mouse is just out there now and now we're gonna get horrible horror films
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and probably a weird video game, and you know, even Walt Disney said
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in interviews that in his mind, Mickey and Minnie were actors who played different
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parts. When people would ask why aren't Mickey and Minnie married they've been dating
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for like eighty years, his answer was, well, they are actually at
11:46
home, but then they go to work and play boyfriend girl frick. And
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if that's true, then you know, Mickey Mouse, no matter what costumer
11:56
role he plays, is Mickey Mouse. Yeah. So there is a metaphysical
12:03
question here about like who is Mickey and who has the rights to Mickey.
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Our listeners had no idea how deep because like if early Mickey is now public
12:15
domain, but later Mickey is not, Like how is Mickey Mickey? Right?
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Like you know if Mickey is one person, one character? Yeah,
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Like, is the essence of Mickey now public domain? I don't know.
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It's It's very This is the kind of things I think about. So that's
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a good question though, because I I went and looked up like the images
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that are already starting to be released for that Mickey's mouse Trap film, and
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it's like a scream mask or something. I don't look at that and think,
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oh, yep, that's that's steamboat Mickey. Yeah, it doesn't really
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look like any version of Mickey mouse then. Yeah, yeah, Like,
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how do you declare which Mickey you're using? This is? I mean,
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this is this is exactly interest this. I can tie this back to Star
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Trek because I can with you about the Star Trek, both the enterprise,
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the shape, the look of the Enterprise in the jj Abrams films and in
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Strange New Worlds had to be tweaked slightly to not infringe on a copyright that
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one of the designers on the original TV show made for what future versions of
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the Enterprise were supposed to look like, and so they had to tweak different
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parts of it because there is a model for how the Enterprise is supposed to
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look and the newer shows and movies can infringe on it. But then again,
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it still looks like the Enterprise. So what is the point of that
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original copyright in the first place. So, I don't know. Fascinating and
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we will follow these stories as they develop, but for now, Jesse,
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cue up the music. Let's talk to Micah Liedorf. Welcome to the podcast.
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Oh, thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here.
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I'm glad you're here too. Okay, we have a traditional first question on
14:05
this podcast, and here it is. If you could offer writers one piece
14:11
of advice, if you had to narrow it down to just one, what
14:15
would it be, find a tribe like There's an African proverb that says,
14:22
if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go
14:24
far, go with others. And I think that involving other people in your
14:30
journey is a really good piece of advice. Yeah, I love that.
14:33
But of course, as you may know, because I know you've been to
14:37
writer, come, that's what I tell people every year at the opening ceremony,
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you know, look around you. You found your tribe. Yes,
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And I think that the Writer Conference is such a wonderful resource for people,
14:50
you know, especially here in Oklahoma. But it's amazing to me how far
14:54
people come around from around the country or even when the COVID year, there
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was guy from New Zealand. I was like, really, you came from
15:01
New Zealand. I think he came to get out of New Zealand exactly right.
15:07
But the cool thing was that he had been listening to the Writer podcast,
15:13
which we were on right now, and that's how he knew about the
15:16
conference, and so he could only get out of the country if he had
15:22
a work related reason. So being a writer, he explained that he had
15:26
to go to this conference in Oklahoma City. I know that was crazy,
15:31
crazy, Yeah, But back to you, Micah. You've got a book
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out, the Battle. Tell us about that. Yeah, I got it
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a copyright here. You can see anybody who's seen it can see the beautiful
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cover. It's basically a story about well, if you're familiar with C.
15:48
S. Lewis's screw tape letters and kind of the same idea of their's demon
15:54
letters and angel letters, but mine is different because instead of being written by
16:00
a British man seventy years ago, it's about an American woman in the twenty
16:06
first century, and the demons are seeking to destroy her marriage and the angels
16:10
are seeking to save save it. And there's a lot more going on,
16:14
of course, so you know, well, I want to I want to
16:18
talk some more about that because I think that it's fascinating. So your main
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character is Abby, right, right, right, yeah, an American,
16:26
like an ordinary American woman. Is her marriage already crumbling or are they are
16:33
already have some cracks in it? Or so? Of course, like I've
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been taught at Wryte or con, you want to start off with, you
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know, something that jumps right into the story, So I think it's it's
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already had some problems. But of course there's an inciting incident at the beginning
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of the story of a party that she throws a surprise birthday party for her
16:53
husband, and she does all these things and goes to all this effort,
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and it's so excited to hear what he thinks, and at the end he
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doesn't say anything, and then she finally asked him about it, and he
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says, you know, you almost ruined my birthday because was any of that
17:08
really for me? Wasn't that really all for you? And it just you
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know, devastates her, and so of course the demons used that to you
17:15
know, drive a wedge between her and her husband. But like you say,
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it was kind of already starting before. But that's that's a little bit
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how it starts. Very cool, and you kind of mentioned this already that
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you chose to tell this through the letters, yes, at these journals,
17:33
the letters from the date Angels. So why why did you choose that approach?
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What? So it's really kind of funny, like I have been working
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on this book for quite a few years, for about seven years actually,
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and one of the reasons why is because I've been rewriting it for a long
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time. And I actually came to you know, the writer Conference, and
17:52
I actually spoke with in Agypt the first time I pitched it to anybody.
17:56
And at the time, it was kind of more just like s Lewis's screw
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Tape. It was just demon letters, of course, with a woman protagonist,
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and in America rather than Britain. But it was just straight demon letters
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and He's like, oh, there's a lot of demon, you know,
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could you do it from the angel perspective? And I'm like, well,
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how do you mean the demon? He's like, what could you do both?
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And I was like, well, you know, yeah, I can
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maybe do both. So I thought that was a new idea. So I
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went back, you know, try to do that. And then I came
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to the Writer conference next year. I had a session, a little one
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on one session with Renee Guttridge, who used to be a co host I
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guess on this oh she still is. Okay, yeah, and you know
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she's so great at fiction. And she said, oh, you know,
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it doesn't have a lot of you know, plot, And I said,
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oh, well, I don't really consider it fiction. I consider it kind
18:48
of like a clever right way to write an essay, because of course that's
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what the screwtape letters were. They were actually serialized originally, and there's not
18:55
much of a plot at all. Well, unless you believe that demons write
18:59
letters writing fiction, it's not. But you know that that little bit was,
19:06
you know, just like, oh, okay, I need to learn
19:08
character and plot development. And we learned that. So actually I joined a
19:15
a writer fiction writer critique group actually with other writers again talking about finding your
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tribe that I met there at the conference, and it was through them,
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I you know, then I came up eventually with the idea a tried narration
19:30
and some various ways to get action through the story. That was like,
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oh, I I did a journal, so they have three voices, So
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I have the women's journal that kind of drives the action of the story,
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and then of course the angel and the demon letters first in there, and
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then to begin to explain the long, lengthy time to writing. I love
19:48
stories that have a twist at the end that we look at the whole thing
19:52
differently allah you know, the sixth sense or something. And so that idea
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kind of came apart one of those critique groups and I was like, woh,
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would be really cool if I could do that. So then I had
20:03
to rewrite the whole thing to weave that through. But all there, now
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it's all just right. That's awesome, Like the conference is really an excellent
20:15
resource for you. You've got a lot of yeah, a lot of assistance
20:19
from that. I love it. Yeah. And actually so my little writer
20:22
critique group, which again we've been meeting for years but we decided this past
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year to go on the rubber Con Cruise last year, not last year,
20:32
Well guess it is last year now. I was twenty twenty three at April
20:34
and I went, you know, for the you know, great teaching,
20:38
but then also just again, do you have time with those those those friends
20:42
and those collaborators. And we came up with a really great idea of doing
20:48
a little podcasts together, stories that change us. And so now we've been
20:52
doing that and that that kind of came from that time together. So yeah,
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you know, who knows what ideas you come with when you get together
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with others. And yeah, it's really great. Love that. I love
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true. I think dollar for dollar, it's the best deal around. Go
21:08
ahead, Laura, I just said I love that. I didn't realize that
21:14
was yet another benefit that came from the cruise. That's terrific. Oh,
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that's so funny that you didn't realize that since you know, you were in
21:22
our little group, they are with us, helping us, we're plotting to
21:26
start that's great. Yeah, you know, Okay, now I'm going to
21:33
get all serious, okay journalist on you and ask you the tough, hard
21:40
biting, hard bitten questions because I found an interview and you said, I'm
21:47
quoting you. Now some ways, this book is both a love letter and
21:52
a critique of the modern American Church. Okay, what does that mean?
21:57
And who are we critiquing? Sure? Well, so again, what you
22:03
have is you have demons or what specific demon twist tail who is advising.
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He's a demon who's in charge of all of the corruption in the American West,
22:15
you know, in the West America, and he's advising a recent transfer
22:19
from the East. So it's basically like, oh, you know, you
22:22
have your jihads and genocides over there, and you know you're so out in
22:25
the open, but over here, this is how we do corruption in the
22:27
West. So of course he's going to be talking about he's talking about the
22:33
American Church. He's he's critiquing the American Church. He's saying, this is
22:37
what's been successful for us, These are the lies that we have so successfully
22:41
woven into the fabric of American culture and American church that you know, and
22:48
so so so yeah, so again, but it's done. But what I
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love about the the concept and the tool of using story is that you can
23:00
explore some of these things without people becoming defensive. So in one of the
23:04
things I love is in the back of the book, I have study questions
23:07
and actually also have almost a dozen now discussion groups which are going to be
23:12
starting up soon. We've already done I've already done a lot of beta groups
23:15
this past year, and they've been written on really well, all from you
23:19
know, small as just a few women, you know, gathering a private
23:22
home to a church wide in between the masses every week from February through Easter
23:30
and kind of all in between. But there's study questions in the back of
23:33
the book to help people to explore these issues. But I think it makes
23:37
it easier if you're talking about Abby. If you're not talking about you,
23:41
right, so it's a character, you're not as defensive. So it's like,
23:45
okay, so kind of just a little bit of softening some of these
23:51
maybe a little bit harder because it things hit a little close to home.
23:52
It might you might again be a little defensive about it, but hopefully it's
23:56
kind of like a velvet hammer, right, my little softer Okay, here's
24:02
something else I learned about you today when I was stalking you on the internet
24:07
to prepare for the interview. I mean, you spent some time in the
24:12
political world, I did. Did you like that kind of I'm well,
24:18
of course you're not doing it anymore, but did you like that kind doesn't
24:22
work? I did. I loved it when I was there, I was
24:26
on Capitol Hill. I worked for a Republican congressman from here in Oklahoma for
24:32
about ten years. I started at the bottom and basically held like every I
24:37
started as an intern as an undergrad, and when I finished, I was
24:41
deputy chief of staff. The most of that time was spent as his press
24:45
secretary. So my background is journalism. I have a master's in journalism from
24:51
ou and that's where you know, a lot of the writing I guess before
24:57
before I decided to try my hand at writing books, that's where That's where
25:03
that avenue took me. But I loved it. You know, living there
25:07
on Capitol Hill as a single as a young single person, is super exciting,
25:11
is fulfilling. It's but there's negatives. I mean a little bit of
25:18
this comes from that, right, and of course it's it's changed we all
25:22
know, or you know, evolved. But at the time, I I
25:30
loved my job and I really enjoyed that time. One of the fabulous things
25:36
about Capitol Hill and Washington, d C. Is there's so many amazing people
25:41
there, people who come from all over and they're all talented and exciting and
25:45
interesting, and so I enjoyed that. But but you get what they call
25:51
Potomac fever, you know, where you think that that Washington is the center
25:56
of the universe. You think that everything is important happens there, which which
26:00
we all know is actually not true. And the most important thing is happen
26:04
here, right, happen in our hearts. And that's what this book is
26:08
about. Yeah, lovely, Well, we have a lot of aspiring writers
26:15
in our audience, which I suspect, you know, And you've talked some
26:18
about how the book was written. You've talked about your past through writing it.
26:25
What happened when you decided you were ready to publish? So you you
26:27
came several times, you got lots of good advice, you wrote, you
26:32
rewrote seven years. I think we've sen and yeah, then you decided it's
26:37
done, I'm ready to publish. How did you get started? What was
26:41
that like for you? Oh? Well, my, I mean, everybody's
26:45
everybody's avenue is going to be a little bit different. And I love how
26:48
at the conference, you know, you lay out all the options. So
26:52
that's what's most important so you can feel confident in your decision is you're informed
26:56
about all the different avenues in which you know the pros and cons of each.
27:02
So for me, my first book that I published, I actually was
27:06
commissioned to write it YA a nonprofit, a single parent support network, So
27:11
it was completely different than this novel. This is my debut novel. It
27:14
was interviews with forty different single parents and a compilation of all those. But
27:19
I had a nonprofit behind me, you know, so I had that kind
27:22
of platform in order to get it into the world. And so they had
27:26
said, oh, you know, you write it, will publish, distribute
27:32
and market it. And so you know how nonprofits are, they're kind of
27:37
over ambitious sometimes, and I thought, I don't know if you know how
27:40
to do that. So if I'm going to do this, I want it
27:41
done well. So I'm going to investigate. And that's how I actually ended
27:44
up at a writer han in exploring that. So I'd already written my first
27:49
book before I ever came to the conference. But anyway, so I had
27:57
done that, I thought, oh, Okay, I know what that's like.
28:00
And then of course going to the conference, that's I lerned. You
28:02
know how the pratraditional publishing avenue goes and the pros and cons of that.
28:07
So for me personally, and actually here's another another speaker from the conference and
28:11
used to be our critique group leader, Robert Robin Patchen. She's a USA
28:15
Today best selling author. I think I don't even know how many books she's
28:18
written, like thirty something. And we had a really great heart to heart.
28:25
She gave me some really good advice and she said, you know my
28:26
books, she said, you know, the majority of her books, you
28:30
know, she writes Christian thriller, like romance. Christian thriller are ebooks,
28:36
so people just read them and go to the next and like, my book
28:38
is different, you know my book. She's like, your book is a
28:41
book people are going to want to hold in their hands, They're wanting going
28:44
to have a physical copy, They're wanting to be able to get it at
28:47
a bookstore. So all those things just drove you know, a different path
28:52
that I feel like the most important thing is just knowing the pros and cons
28:55
of each one. So for me particularly, I ended up going the Independent.
28:59
And also here's another big one on that is she said, your first
29:00
book. And maybe I don't know if you agree with this, maybe you
29:03
can speak to this bill, but she felt like your first book is like
29:06
a lost leader, that you're probably not going to make a lot of money
29:07
on your first book, but then you know, hopefully you'll see realize or
29:11
you'll get your name out there. You'll be building a platform. And I'm
29:15
fundamentally different from a lot of the authors at writer Con or maybe a lot
29:18
of authors in general, and that I feel a real call to this book.
29:23
I feel God gave me this story, it gave me a call to
29:27
get it out into the world. I'm going to use all my resources to
29:33
do that. And so I don't really feel like, oh, I'm so
29:34
eager to just get the next one out there whatever. I'm like, no,
29:38
I have one book. I might have to. I actually even have
29:41
a little you know, SQL in my head maybe, but I don't plan
29:44
on just doing a ton when there the next one starts percolating. I know.
29:52
Yeah. So so Robin actually was really great and she said, if
29:55
you really just want this one book out there, and you're going to do
29:57
all this work to do it. It's like maybe you just go ahead and
30:00
independently published and you just do all that work, you know. So that's
30:04
what I'm doing. So that's what happened. Nice, Okay, nobody believes
30:10
in your book like you do. I mean that's for every author. I
30:12
feel like we are our biggest advocates. So I applaud that not always our
30:19
most effective advocates, but surely the person who likes the work best. Okay,
30:26
Micah, the tough journalist question I tried before you totally sailed through.
30:33
So I'm going to try again. Okay, Okay, And I don't remember
30:38
as the same interview, but some interview you called yourself and I quote the
30:42
wife, mother and serial entrepreneur who writes out of obedience. Of course,
30:51
you know, you can talk about all of that if you want, but
30:53
I put particularly am curious about rights out of obedience. Okay, Well,
31:02
it's basically a little bit of what I was just alluding to. There is
31:06
I I before, as of last year, I had like six jobs.
31:11
I'm like say, I'm kind of a serious. You know, I've got
31:12
like houses that rent, houses that we manage. I'm a cabby fashion stylist.
31:18
I was on staff at my church as the parish programs coordinator. I
31:22
you know, I'm a board member at our school. I'm a board member
31:26
in our historic neighborhood. Like, I have a bunch of jobs, and
31:29
I'm a wife and a mother, and I also I edit for other authors,
31:33
and I have a small publishing house that I've done vanity project for other
31:37
people. So yeah, I have a lot of different hats. But I
31:42
was in a Bible study again way back before Wingspan, so that was so
31:48
ten years ago, and they were talking about your passions and how your passions
31:53
don't change. They're not a hobby. It's something that you know God gives
31:57
you and it's in your heart. And I was like, as soon as
32:00
I heard that, I was like, I know what that is is to
32:02
write a book. And at the time, like I say, I had
32:05
a PR degree, I had a journalism degree. I'd been a press secretary,
32:09
I'd written articles and speeches and all the things I've written my whole life,
32:14
but I never wrote creatively except for when I was, you know,
32:17
young, and I said, I've always wanted to write a book, but
32:21
I felt like that wasn't like the responsible thing to do. Nobody will hire
32:24
you usually to do that, although I've learned differently a writer upon you could
32:29
maybe get hired to do those things. And also I just thought that it
32:35
was a parable of the steward who's I don't know if everybody knows that that
32:38
it's where the master goes off, leaves three servants with a different amount of
32:43
money, and you know, one ten and one, one hundred and one,
32:46
just one and he the one goes and buries it in the ground.
32:51
And I thought, that's me. I take this thing he've given me,
32:53
and I've just buried it in the ground. And so that I don't know,
32:58
it's just like a light bulb on. It gave me not only like
33:00
the permission to pursue that dream, but the responsibility to pursue that dream.
33:05
So as you know, as author, like you said, you're your nobody's
33:08
standing there telling you you have to write every day, right, you don't
33:13
have a boss, which is great, right, it's also nobody's there's a
33:16
tyranny of the urgent, Like there's all these other people telling me I need
33:20
to do all these other things. And so it's like, but no,
33:22
I know that I need to be obedient to this call. And so that's
33:28
the thing that's gotten me this far, because you guys know it's hard and
33:31
you need something that's that's pushing you. And so for me, it was
33:35
like, no, God told me to do this, so I need to
33:37
do it. Well. I can't think of a better note to go out
33:40
on than that one. So Micah, thank you so much for being on
33:44
the podcast. Thank you so much for inviting me. Bill Bye bye bye.
34:02
Just a few parting words before we go. It's four degrees today.
34:07
I think we're maybe going to get up into the twenties. But all I
34:12
can think about as I'm having my hot soup and my hot tea is sun
34:16
and beaches and the cruise ship that we're going to be on in April for
34:22
the Ryder Con Cruise twenty twenty four. While relaxing and taking it easy is
34:30
absolutely one of my favorite parts of this. The friendships that develop on the
34:35
cruise stick with me year after year after year. Got connections that I made
34:40
from our very first cruise back in twenty twenty. Those people stick with me.
34:47
They've become some of my closest writer friends. They better read for me.
34:54
It's something that I it's it's a resource that I just don't think you
34:59
can pick up anywhe or else. And we spend so much time together that
35:01
we really get to know each other and get to know each other's writing.
35:06
That sounds like something that could help you. I hope you'll check us out
35:09
writercon dot com and think about joining us in April, well said, I
35:16
mean, there's educational stuff too, but be there, get it to meet
35:32
us in person. Priceless. Jesse will be in the hot tub with his
35:37
iPad watching Star Trek whatever. All right, everybody, until next time,
35:45
keep writing and remember you cannot fail if you refuse to see you next time. Bast