Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / A Writing Marriage From Lori Carlson Hijuelos Exploration And Better Understanding
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Ero dot net A r r oe dot net. It's
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- 0:29Speaker 1: your exploration. Hello, and good morning, Happy Friday everybody.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Mister Collins, you have one of the most energetic, forceful,
- 0:39Speaker 2: happy voices I've heard in a long time.
- 0:42Speaker 1: Oh man, thank you so much. It's because I'm passion
- 0:45Speaker 1: for this opportunity to share conversations.
- 0:48Speaker 2: I hear that in your voice. It's unusual and uplifting
- 0:53Speaker 2: and frankly hopeful.
- 0:55Speaker 1: Well, the thing is is that you're holding on to something.
- 0:58Speaker 1: There are many times, Lorie that I really do feel
- 1:00Speaker 1: like that you have the needle in the haystack, and
- 1:03Speaker 1: you're saying this isn't just for me, I want to
- 1:05Speaker 1: share this with people, and so now we've got to
- 1:08Speaker 1: find those people. So all of a sudden, you know,
- 1:10Speaker 1: the universe puts us together because the universe was having
- 1:13Speaker 1: tea when they day, and they said, we got to
- 1:15Speaker 1: get Lori and Arrow together so we can get a
- 1:16Speaker 1: conversation started. And then it's gonna become a tea party
- 1:19Speaker 1: and we're all gonna sit around talking about writing a marriage.
- 1:22Speaker 1: And I mean, you see how it works.
- 1:26Speaker 2: Well you are infectious, for sure, in the most wonderful way.
- 1:31Speaker 2: Well you really are. You quite something.
- 1:33Speaker 1: Do you see yourself as being an explorer when it
- 1:36Speaker 1: comes to words, because it seems like the word exploration
- 1:39Speaker 1: is taken on a brand new image.
- 1:42Speaker 2: Hmm. Could be. I'm actually for this book, I was
- 1:48Speaker 2: more of an archaeologist than an explorer, but I suppose
- 1:51Speaker 2: I was both. I don't think I thought of that
- 1:54Speaker 2: concept when I was writing, though.
- 1:56Speaker 1: But you're giving us an opportunity to have a better
- 1:59Speaker 1: under standing, and that, to me, that's a chance. That's courage,
- 2:03Speaker 1: that's confidence. That means that you turned around and faced
- 2:07Speaker 1: the fire and said I'm going in I'll let you
- 2:09Speaker 1: know what I see when I get in there.
- 2:11Speaker 2: Well, I've always done that. You see, I've had a
- 2:14Speaker 2: rather challenging career. Even though it's been very successful, it's
- 2:19Speaker 2: been very tough because most of my books are unique.
- 2:25Speaker 2: There are unusual books, and when my agent would approach
- 2:29Speaker 2: an editor and the editor would ask what is it
- 2:32Speaker 2: comparable to, she couldn't give an example because my work
- 2:36Speaker 2: has been so different. And I suppose I believe in
- 2:41Speaker 2: my mission. I think that's what it is. I never
- 2:45Speaker 2: have given up. I never thought of it as courage.
- 2:49Speaker 2: I just believe in being steadfast. I'm basically a communicator.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Yes, oh, now you're speaking my language, Lorii. Oh my god. Yeah.
- 2:59Speaker 1: And you can't turn it off, can you. I mean,
- 3:01Speaker 1: it's like, oh, I gotta I'll be right back. I
- 3:03Speaker 1: gotta go do something.
- 3:06Speaker 2: You are funny, You have so much energy. You're making
- 3:10Speaker 2: me feel a little better. I've been having a hard
- 3:15Speaker 2: time getting myself off the ground this morning, but you're
- 3:18Speaker 2: doing a very good job of it. Now.
- 3:21Speaker 1: Now, who is your mentor teacher in the way that
- 3:24Speaker 1: you know? Because I I Since nineteen ninety four July
- 3:27Speaker 1: I was in Carmel, California, and that's how I hooked
- 3:30Speaker 1: up with Julia Cameron with the artist way, and it's
- 3:33Speaker 1: just one of those things where it's like when you
- 3:34Speaker 1: get up, you do your daily writing, then you go
- 3:37Speaker 1: talk with people who understand what daily writing is, and
- 3:40Speaker 1: then you make your way to trying to find who's
- 3:42Speaker 1: going to read the daily writing. And how can you
- 3:45Speaker 1: not be inspired by a journey like that.
- 3:49Speaker 2: Well, for the last few years, I've been living in
- 3:52Speaker 2: a small town where there is a very very tiny
- 3:56Speaker 2: group of people who are interested in reading. So's I
- 4:01Speaker 2: haven't found this community of individuals who think like me there,
- 4:06Speaker 2: But of course here you're surrounded by writers and people
- 4:10Speaker 2: who love to read. New York City is such a
- 4:14Speaker 2: wonderful place.
- 4:15Speaker 1: I love just walking in New York City. People always
- 4:18Speaker 1: ask me, you're gonna take an uber, You're gonna take
- 4:20Speaker 1: a cab, I'm gonna I'm gonna walk. I just want to.
- 4:25Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I think the finest walking city other than Rome.
- 4:30Speaker 2: I love to walk in Rome too.
- 4:32Speaker 1: So when you're walking around New York City, I mean,
- 4:35Speaker 1: my last book was really based on I walked into
- 4:38Speaker 1: a comic store, which I didn't know was on this road,
- 4:40Speaker 1: and I saw a girl in there with orange hair
- 4:43Speaker 1: that became the subject of my next book. I knew
- 4:45Speaker 1: right then on the spot I was going to write
- 4:47Speaker 1: a book. I didn't know what it was going to
- 4:48Speaker 1: be about, but it had to include the girl with
- 4:51Speaker 1: orange hair. You have to be the same way. I mean,
- 4:54Speaker 1: your eyes do the speaking. The rest of you just
- 4:56Speaker 1: tries to catch up.
- 5:00Speaker 2: Uh. Something similar happened to me with my last novel.
- 5:04Speaker 2: I was in Brussels, Belgium, in a lace museum and
- 5:09Speaker 2: I love lace, ancient lace, and I saw this piece
- 5:13Speaker 2: and it was identified as a circumcision cloth from the
- 5:19Speaker 2: sixteenth century. Yeah, I didn't know that there was such
- 5:23Speaker 2: a thing, and it was this intricate, magnificent piece of workmanship.
- 5:29Speaker 2: And in that very moment, I knew I was going
- 5:32Speaker 2: to write a novel about a group of Spanish nuns
- 5:35Speaker 2: who were lace makers. So, yes, it's happened to me. See,
- 5:40Speaker 2: but you just described.
- 5:41Speaker 1: That's the connection I'm talking about that you unveil, You
- 5:45Speaker 1: speak of things that we see on a daily basis,
- 5:47Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, we're walking through a Barnes
- 5:49Speaker 1: and Noble, we're on Amazon, we see a book like this.
- 5:52Speaker 1: We're going, oh my god. I was just thinking about this.
- 5:59Speaker 2: How often do you come to New York City.
- 6:02Speaker 1: I wish it was more times. I mean, it's one
- 6:04Speaker 1: of those things where they try to keep coaxing me
- 6:06Speaker 1: up there. But I have this beautiful forest in Carolina,
- 6:08Speaker 1: and this thing has me by the neck. It says,
- 6:10Speaker 1: you ain't going anywhere, buddy, You're gonna sit here and
- 6:13Speaker 1: you're gonna write all day. See, my writing doesn't come
- 6:16Speaker 1: from me. It comes from the soil of this of
- 6:18Speaker 1: this forest, and that I owe everything to these trees
- 6:21Speaker 1: and rocks.
- 6:22Speaker 2: WHOA what a beautiful thought. I love that.
- 6:27Speaker 1: Where do you get yours? Who is your muse? What
- 6:29Speaker 1: is your muse? Where is your inspiration hailing from?
- 6:35Speaker 2: I would say the Holy Spirit?
- 6:37Speaker 1: Oh love you, love you, love you, love you. Amen. Yeah, yep,
- 6:42Speaker 1: I get it.
- 6:42Speaker 2: That's that's how it works for me.
- 6:44Speaker 1: Yep, I get it. I get it.
- 6:47Speaker 2: I think, I think. I think it's the intention to
- 6:50Speaker 2: be a steward. When I was growing up, that was
- 6:53Speaker 2: a message that I heard on a weekly basis, to
- 6:57Speaker 2: be a steward, and I I knew from a very
- 7:02Speaker 2: young age that I was meant to be a writer,
- 7:05Speaker 2: to be working with people globally, that I was going
- 7:10Speaker 2: to have a very unique life. I knew this, and
- 7:13Speaker 2: I knew that Spanish was going to be a part
- 7:15Speaker 2: of my life and that I was going to be
- 7:19Speaker 2: in unusual circles and being in a small town and
- 7:23Speaker 2: having my friends listen to me say these things. They
- 7:26Speaker 2: were amused, they would laugh, but I knew it. Yeah.
- 7:34Speaker 2: I've never been to Charlotte, but you know I taught
- 7:37Speaker 2: at Duke even years.
- 7:40Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, I were that close.
- 7:44Speaker 2: Yeah, beautiful state.
- 7:47Speaker 1: It has. And I've always said there's either something in
- 7:50Speaker 1: the soil or it's the curve of those back road highways,
- 7:54Speaker 1: because I mean, you get on those back roads and
- 7:56Speaker 1: it's like you you are flowing with jazz and it's
- 7:59Speaker 1: just there's it's just something about and you can't help
- 8:02Speaker 1: but want to be creative.
- 8:06Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean it's a magnificent lend.
- 8:10Speaker 1: So now when you have a book that's called a
- 8:13Speaker 1: writing marriage, there's gonna be people that are going to
- 8:16Speaker 1: walk into a bookstore. And the only reason I'm bringing
- 8:18Speaker 1: this up like this is because there's a movie out
- 8:20Speaker 1: right now called Is God Is And they all think
- 8:22Speaker 1: it's a religious movie. No, it's the furthest thing from that.
- 8:25Speaker 1: But yet they're judging it because of that word God
- 8:27Speaker 1: in the middle of it. When you're looking at a
- 8:29Speaker 1: book called a Writing Marriage, you know people are gonna
- 8:31Speaker 1: come out and going, oh, really, what is LORII up
- 8:34Speaker 1: to this time? And so so, how can we get
- 8:36Speaker 1: listeners to understand you are reaching further, I swear to God,
- 8:41Speaker 1: further than what you ever have.
- 8:44Speaker 2: How do you know that? And what makes you think that?
- 8:46Speaker 1: Because I feel it and because man, when I do
- 8:49Speaker 1: some research, I go digging, and because it's not that
- 8:52Speaker 1: I'm looking for dirt, I'm looking because I know and
- 8:55Speaker 1: you know there is somebody sitting in a bedroom right
- 8:57Speaker 1: now with about six tablets undern they're better in the attic,
- 9:01Speaker 1: and they're not going to release it. Why because they're afraid.
- 9:04Speaker 1: And it's going to take someone like you, Laurie, to say,
- 9:07Speaker 1: don't be afraid, let it go. It doesn't belong to you.
- 9:11Speaker 2: M that's for sure. That's right. What the message that
- 9:15Speaker 2: I conveyed really did not belong to me. It came
- 9:20Speaker 2: from me for others. That was precisely what I was
- 9:24Speaker 2: thinking when I was writing. And I wrote A Writing
- 9:27Speaker 2: Marriage in a church, so I was thinking about the
- 9:30Speaker 2: spiritual side of marriage as well as the regular parts
- 9:35Speaker 2: of marriage, the sort of business side of marriage, the
- 9:38Speaker 2: daily part of marriage. I think for me, the overriding
- 9:43Speaker 2: need was to make certain that Oscar Ibuelos, my extraordinary,
- 9:50Speaker 2: brilliant novelist husband, would be understood for future generations as
- 9:57Speaker 2: well as his readership. Now people would understand what his
- 10:02Speaker 2: soul was, who he was as a human being. Because
- 10:06Speaker 2: novels can give you the wrong impression of a person,
- 10:11Speaker 2: and much of the same way that an actor can
- 10:13Speaker 2: give you the wrong impression of himself or herself. Writers
- 10:18Speaker 2: and artists are expressing all sorts of emotions and thinking,
- 10:23Speaker 2: but the real person is usually not understood or or
- 10:29Speaker 2: ever never known. Very few people get a chance to
- 10:32Speaker 2: meet the author's work through the author, and I wanted
- 10:37Speaker 2: people to see that he was such a sweet, beautiful,
- 10:41Speaker 2: generous kind soul. Yeah, and that marriage, our marriage was
- 10:50Speaker 2: so beautiful.
- 10:52Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Lori Carlson Juelos
- 10:55Speaker 1: coming up next. You're gonna love this book. A Right
- 11:00Speaker 1: Marriage from Lori Carlson Juelos. Is my interpretation of Oscar wrong,
- 11:05Speaker 1: and please correct me instantly. I felt that he knew
- 11:10Speaker 1: and understood his readers and followers but when it came
- 11:13Speaker 1: to real life, his heart was still back in the writing.
- 11:17Speaker 1: And because you know how we are as authors, do
- 11:19Speaker 1: we ever really leave the story? Because I mean, it's
- 11:22Speaker 1: it's almost like when when we put the book down
- 11:24Speaker 1: for the day, the writing discipline is over and we
- 11:27Speaker 1: go about the world we're studying, we're looking for things
- 11:30Speaker 1: that we can add to a paragraph. And am I
- 11:33Speaker 1: wrong about Oscar? Because I really feel like in reading
- 11:35Speaker 1: it that he understood who he was reaching. But in
- 11:39Speaker 1: that moment where he wasn't writing, he sought the people
- 11:43Speaker 1: that he knew were reading. If you know what I mean,
- 11:45Speaker 1: I mean because I mean I'm talking like a writer
- 11:47Speaker 1: now because people go, why do you do what you do?
- 11:49Speaker 1: Because there's somebody out there that I know needs this.
- 11:53Speaker 2: Hmm, well, let me think about this. Os was highly intellectual,
- 12:04Speaker 2: and that he was a person who read voraciously on
- 12:10Speaker 2: all sorts of topics. He loved ancient history, and he
- 12:16Speaker 2: loved science, he loved math, He loved poetry and art
- 12:21Speaker 2: and comic books was one of his passions. He was
- 12:25Speaker 2: interested in so many subjects, so he was truly an
- 12:29Speaker 2: intellectual and talking to him was a thrilling experience. But
- 12:34Speaker 2: He didn't intellectualize the process of writing. Oscar was very much,
- 12:40Speaker 2: if I may say so, a laborer. He was a
- 12:46Speaker 2: a work a worker. He just got down to business.
- 12:50Speaker 2: And I don't really think that he thought about who
- 12:56Speaker 2: he wanted to reach Errow. I think what he was
- 13:00Speaker 2: thinking about is how he could make people think better,
- 13:08Speaker 2: act better in the world, be better, strive for higher ideals.
- 13:15Speaker 2: These were the things that were on his mind. The
- 13:19Speaker 2: big issues love, faith, eternity, what this means to be
- 13:25Speaker 2: on this earth and for Oscar, and people really didn't
- 13:30Speaker 2: know this side of him. He was very much a
- 13:32Speaker 2: person who believed in God's goodness and strove. I think
- 13:38Speaker 2: really to convey that in his writing. He was a
- 13:43Speaker 2: compassionate writer, his care If you read all of his works,
- 13:48Speaker 2: you'll know that even though his characters had major flaws,
- 13:52Speaker 2: Oscar felt kindly toward them. He had mercy for his characters.
- 13:57Speaker 2: He was a very loving creator.
- 14:03Speaker 1: And you got to spend time with his unpublished work.
- 14:06Speaker 1: That would be like my wife coming inside this studio.
- 14:08Speaker 1: I've got thirty two years of daily writing. I always
- 14:10Speaker 1: tell her, just go through the book. What was I thinking?
- 14:13Speaker 1: Go to the books. It's all written in the books
- 14:15Speaker 1: go to the raw writing. What did you feel when
- 14:18Speaker 1: you went to the unpublished works. I mean we're talking
- 14:21Speaker 1: about this stuff where the perfectionists had to wait on
- 14:23Speaker 1: the sidelines.
- 14:26Speaker 2: Well, it was it was heavy, yeah, and it was emotional,
- 14:39Speaker 2: very emotional. Going through his his archival matter, there were
- 14:45Speaker 2: hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of boxes. To answer this
- 14:51Speaker 2: more specifically, regarding Blue Antiquity, I was stunned by the
- 14:59Speaker 2: similarity between his major character's protagonists, Victor Metcalo and himself,
- 15:05Speaker 2: because Victor was Oscar in a different profession, in a
- 15:10Speaker 2: different guise. But Victor's thinking was very much Oscar's thinking.
- 15:18Speaker 2: And this individual is a scholar whose passion is archaeology.
- 15:24Speaker 2: Oscar was not a scholar, although in the formal sense
- 15:30Speaker 2: of the word, I would say he was first and
- 15:32Speaker 2: foremost an artist who had scholarly leanings. But Victor is
- 15:40Speaker 2: this son of Cuban immigrants, and he makes it in
- 15:44Speaker 2: a certain way. He becomes well known in his field
- 15:47Speaker 2: and in his area of interest is the life of Christ.
- 15:52Speaker 2: Now that was kind of a surprise to me, because
- 15:55Speaker 2: even though Oscar was Catholic and believed in the Trinity
- 16:02Speaker 2: and was very much interested in the saints and the
- 16:06Speaker 2: life of Christ. I had no idea that the center
- 16:10Speaker 2: of this master work was truly about that and faith.
- 16:16Speaker 2: And then coming upon all of the ancillary materials that
- 16:20Speaker 2: he was reading and researching for this novel, that also
- 16:25Speaker 2: surprised me. Because Oscar was collecting pictures of saints and
- 16:30Speaker 2: many books about Jesus. I wondered, was Oscar thinking about mortality?
- 16:40Speaker 2: Because Victor knows that he's going to die and keeps
- 16:44Speaker 2: this knowledge to himself, and Oscar, from the time he
- 16:49Speaker 2: was young, had been told by physicians that he would
- 16:52Speaker 2: not have a normal life expectancy because he had diphrightis
- 16:56Speaker 2: as a child and his system had been compromised. Oscar
- 17:00Speaker 2: ended up dying not of any kidney issue or renal issue,
- 17:04Speaker 2: was a mess of heart attack.
- 17:07Speaker 1: Oh boy.
- 17:10Speaker 2: But I wondered if Oscar might have been in the know,
- 17:14Speaker 2: so to speak, if he had an understanding of when
- 17:19Speaker 2: he was going to die, because it was so prescient
- 17:24Speaker 2: and so eerie as I was reading about this character.
- 17:31Speaker 2: Does that answer your question?
- 17:33Speaker 1: It does, and it takes me so deep into so
- 17:36Speaker 1: many questions, and probably the biggest one that is just
- 17:39Speaker 1: screaming to be asked, is that as that author Oscar
- 17:44Speaker 1: as well as yourself, because everything that I do is
- 17:47Speaker 1: in the name of Christ, everything that I do, and
- 17:50Speaker 1: I felt like that that I was structured in the way. Okay, dude,
- 17:53Speaker 1: you can write about me all you want. You can
- 17:56Speaker 1: talk about how your love for me is the greatest
- 17:57Speaker 1: thing you can save people's lives, but you and I
- 18:00Speaker 1: have to put it in the language of somebody who
- 18:02Speaker 1: was walking the street that is a non believer. And
- 18:05Speaker 1: did you guys do that with your writing as well?
- 18:07Speaker 1: Where it's like you you got the original idea, you
- 18:10Speaker 1: got that message, but then you had to do what
- 18:12Speaker 1: I call hidden speak, and you twist it a little
- 18:15Speaker 1: bit and all of a sudden it becomes a novel.
- 18:17Speaker 1: And it's not so you know, glory based or anything
- 18:20Speaker 1: like that, but you still kind of push it forward
- 18:22Speaker 1: in a way of saying I did my job. Lord,
- 18:24Speaker 1: thank you so much for showing up for the other
- 18:26Speaker 1: creative side of it.
- 18:27Speaker 2: M Well, what the writing or the art that comes
- 18:32Speaker 2: from one, whether it's music or painting or writing, has
- 18:35Speaker 2: to come from a healthy soul. So rather than think
- 18:39Speaker 2: about how to, let's say, compose or manipulate raw material
- 18:45Speaker 2: into saying what you are. I think you have to
- 18:51Speaker 2: act out your faith. You have to be that example.
- 18:56Speaker 2: And I came upon this book published in nineteen five
- 19:00Speaker 2: fifty seven by chance in my mother's church in Jamestown,
- 19:04Speaker 2: New York, where I wrote the bookcas. I wrote the
- 19:06Speaker 2: book in a church library. It's actually a cathedral, and
- 19:12Speaker 2: it's the title is The Radiant Life. And I devoured
- 19:16Speaker 2: that book in one sitting. It was written by a
- 19:19Speaker 2: British minister, a Methodist, who said, why is it that
- 19:23Speaker 2: people of faith go around moping and look so miserable?
- 19:29Speaker 2: Right that anybody who meets you should see radiance in
- 19:33Speaker 2: your being. That is the message that you are walking
- 19:38Speaker 2: around showing others that God is love and light. And
- 19:43Speaker 2: if it's not being shown on your face and in
- 19:46Speaker 2: your actions, something is truly wrong with your alignment. Yes,
- 19:52Speaker 2: so that's how I would respond to that. I don't
- 19:56Speaker 2: think it was, let's say, a conscientious decision to show
- 20:00Speaker 2: faith in the writing, but to be the person you
- 20:05Speaker 2: could be essentially proud of, and hopefully that person is
- 20:12Speaker 2: creating something reflecting the light.
- 20:15Speaker 1: That reminds me of Stephen Ferdick, who is my pastor
- 20:18Speaker 1: at Elevation Church here in Charlotte, and he always gets
- 20:21Speaker 1: up there and he says, you know how you elevators are.
- 20:24Speaker 1: It's the energy that you bring into it. You gotta bring.
- 20:27Speaker 1: They know that you're from elevation because they see it.
- 20:30Speaker 1: And it's just it's because they can they can see it,
- 20:34Speaker 1: but they don't know how to identify it. But man,
- 20:37Speaker 1: they can tap into it.
- 20:43Speaker 2: You're you're a preacher yourself, my goodness, and you have
- 20:46Speaker 2: such a talent for speaking.
- 20:49Speaker 1: That it's forty six years of radio. I mean, you know,
- 20:52Speaker 1: it's because I'm so so much in love with authors
- 20:57Speaker 1: and with writing and the ability to write. And I
- 21:00Speaker 1: can't figure out why people say I can't write, I've
- 21:02Speaker 1: got block, I've got this, and I go that, why
- 21:04Speaker 1: are you using these excuses. If that's your excuse, put
- 21:07Speaker 1: it in a book, do something. Put it in a
- 21:09Speaker 1: paragraph and just see what it looks like and smell it.
- 21:15Speaker 2: My question for you is how do you reach people
- 21:18Speaker 2: where they are to make them curious enough about reading again,
- 21:24Speaker 2: Because my experience, and let's say Jamestown, New York, where
- 21:29Speaker 2: I was born, is that people don't read right.
- 21:33Speaker 1: Oh, they read headlines, they read the first paragraph of
- 21:35Speaker 1: the headlines and make up a decision. That's their reading nowadays.
- 21:39Speaker 2: Yeah, but they're not reading literature at all. Right, How
- 21:42Speaker 2: does one encourage the average American to find time to
- 21:48Speaker 2: be quiet, to sit down and edify his brain and
- 21:57Speaker 2: elevate his soul. How do you do that?
- 22:00Speaker 1: I think one of the steps that I was guided toward.
- 22:02Speaker 1: And I really did feel this because because I've been
- 22:05Speaker 1: in radio for forty six years, I didn't know what
- 22:07Speaker 1: it was like to be with people, because in radio
- 22:09Speaker 1: you envision people. And so therefore I took a job
- 22:13Speaker 1: at a grocery store because I just wanted to be
- 22:16Speaker 1: with real people. And the one thing that I learned,
- 22:19Speaker 1: they were never happy to see me, but by God,
- 22:21Speaker 1: they loved it when I saw them. You know what
- 22:24Speaker 1: I mean by that? And I swear to God that's
- 22:26Speaker 1: how you get to people. And when you've got them,
- 22:29Speaker 1: you say. By the way, there's a new book out
- 22:31Speaker 1: called The Writing Marriage. I'm thinking you need to pick
- 22:33Speaker 1: it up.
- 22:35Speaker 2: Oh, you are one of a kind, my friend. Okay,
- 22:41Speaker 2: but you know what I mean.
- 22:43Speaker 1: No, it starts in the conversation, and so we've got
- 22:45Speaker 1: to get the conversation started. Prime it up, get that
- 22:48Speaker 1: motor running, and get that monkey on that track.
- 22:55Speaker 2: All right, So you're saying to be very proactive. Yep, uh,
- 23:01Speaker 2: all right, I've got.
- 23:02Speaker 1: People want to be led. You know that people want
- 23:05Speaker 1: to be led. I mean, that's like when Jesus sat
- 23:06Speaker 1: down at the well with the woman. That woman wanted
- 23:09Speaker 1: to be led. She wanted to be shown a different way.
- 23:11Speaker 1: She wanted to go back to the people so that
- 23:13Speaker 1: she could have a message for the people. And she
- 23:15Speaker 1: did and it changed everybody. And it was all because
- 23:18Speaker 1: of a conversation at the well that everybody else would
- 23:22Speaker 1: have just shunned away from.
- 23:24Speaker 2: Well. Now, see, that's an interesting way of thinking about
- 23:26Speaker 2: that encounter because I would have thought that she wanted
- 23:30Speaker 2: to be seen.
- 23:31Speaker 1: I'll give you that.
- 23:33Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that's Christ was able to see who
- 23:36Speaker 2: she was and she was shocked, right yeah, and then
- 23:40Speaker 2: go and then go beyond what he saw to tell
- 23:43Speaker 2: her what she could be.
- 23:46Speaker 1: Right.
- 23:47Speaker 2: But that, of course, then of course did take her places.
- 23:51Speaker 2: That's why she went back and told everyone. So you're right,
- 23:54Speaker 2: she was also being led.
- 23:56Speaker 1: See, And that's just like when Jesus sat down on
- 23:59Speaker 1: his knees and he wrote in the sand in my
- 24:01Speaker 1: heart as an author. I said that was the very
- 24:04Speaker 1: first writing instrument he wrote in the sand. Why aren't
- 24:08Speaker 1: we all writing? Because he did it in the sand
- 24:12Speaker 1: and everybody read it.
- 24:15Speaker 2: That's right.
- 24:17Speaker 1: You see how weird we are. We are weird being
- 24:20Speaker 1: writers because we understand the calling and we acted upon it.
- 24:24Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, the writing life is not so simple as
- 24:30Speaker 2: it's complicated. It's complicated. You spend so much time alone
- 24:38Speaker 2: with your thinking.
- 24:40Speaker 1: That can be good, that can be bad. How did
- 24:43Speaker 1: Oscar handle a situation like that when it came time
- 24:45Speaker 1: for I don't want to say alone time, because when
- 24:47Speaker 1: you're going in there with those characters, those characters are
- 24:50Speaker 1: very much in your ears.
- 24:54Speaker 2: Well, Oscar had two sides to him. He was perfectly
- 24:57Speaker 2: comfortable and happy being in his office writing eight hours
- 25:02Speaker 2: a day, if not ten, and being in another world
- 25:06Speaker 2: with his characters. And he had also a very social
- 25:10Speaker 2: side to him. It was on stage he was very
- 25:14Speaker 2: much the showman. And I think if you saw him,
- 25:17Speaker 2: let's say, reading at the ninety second Street Why or
- 25:20Speaker 2: any venue around the country, you would probably have the
- 25:23Speaker 2: impression that he was comfortable communicating, being affable, upbeat, and
- 25:31Speaker 2: sharing with his readers. But I would say more than that.
- 25:35Speaker 2: He was a solitary sort. He very much lived in
- 25:40Speaker 2: his head and loved being in his head, thinking about
- 25:45Speaker 2: his collections, history, memories, what life could have been like
- 25:52Speaker 2: if he had been born in Cuba. He often talked
- 25:55Speaker 2: about that. But yeah, I mean he was he both
- 26:00Speaker 2: sides to him.
- 26:02Speaker 1: And the fact that you understood that, because I often wonder.
- 26:05Speaker 1: People always go, man, you're lucky to have my wife
- 26:08Speaker 1: Lee in your life, and I'm going, you have no
- 26:10Speaker 1: idea how lucky I am, because I don't know how
- 26:12Speaker 1: she puts up with me as a writer. I do not, because,
- 26:15Speaker 1: because you're right, we live in so many different worlds
- 26:18Speaker 1: mentally and physically that when we come popping out, it's like,
- 26:20Speaker 1: oh my god, you're still here. How about that? I
- 26:22Speaker 1: love you, thank you for being here all these years.
- 26:26Speaker 2: Well, I being a writer myself, I understood the pressures
- 26:32Speaker 2: that he was facing only ten times more than me,
- 26:36Speaker 2: and I accommodated his needs because I understood them. And
- 26:41Speaker 2: of course I was so in love with Oscar. He
- 26:45Speaker 2: was my soulmate. I explained that in the memoir that
- 26:50Speaker 2: it was just in my mind a privilege to be
- 26:53Speaker 2: his wife. I loved every day we had together. Yeah,
- 26:59Speaker 2: every day was a gift to be with my husband.
- 27:04Speaker 2: He was just a very very special, unique individual with
- 27:10Speaker 2: multi talents, who had a grasp of reality that most
- 27:15Speaker 2: people don't and then a language to convey that, which
- 27:19Speaker 2: was thrilling to be able to communicate on such a
- 27:23Speaker 2: beautiful level, on such a creative level, yep. And I
- 27:28Speaker 2: was the recipient of that. So I never thought of
- 27:33Speaker 2: it as being a burden to be married to my
- 27:37Speaker 2: brilliant husband. I really thought I was one of the
- 27:41Speaker 2: blessed ones.
- 27:42Speaker 1: Wow, where can people go to find out more about you?
- 27:46Speaker 1: Because twenty five minutes with you is never going to
- 27:48Speaker 1: be enough. And I'm going to ask you that we
- 27:50Speaker 1: get back together again very soon because I love where
- 27:53Speaker 1: you are. I love that you're open to talk about
- 27:55Speaker 1: it because so many people go, oh, yeah, i'm a writer,
- 27:58Speaker 1: Well talk about it. No, no, no. I love about you,
- 28:00Speaker 1: Laurie is that you're willing to share the experience.
- 28:04Speaker 2: That's why we're on this earth to share.
- 28:07Speaker 1: Oh God, I love your heart. Oh my God, just
- 28:09Speaker 1: say the right things.
- 28:11Speaker 2: Holy God, Thanks Aero. I'm really enjoying talking to you.
- 28:16Speaker 2: I have a new friend now. Wow, Wow, thank you.
- 28:21Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today? Okay? And thank you for
- 28:24Speaker 1: blessing my life today. And I know that it's going
- 28:27Speaker 1: to reach out there. This is outreach in full forward motion.
- 28:31Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, Aero. I just appreciate you and your
- 28:36Speaker 2: message and what you've done for my book and for
- 28:39Speaker 2: me today. And I would love to come back to
- 28:43Speaker 2: talk to you.
- 28:44Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today? Okay?
- 28:47Speaker 2: Thank you you too. Arrow