Evening’s Kingdom

For paired journaling prompts for this meditation, visit EveningsKingdom.com.

Please share & enjoy!

“Working on a yacht is one of the best ways to travel the world, earn cash, and live on a floating palace on the water (for free!)” - Baker Manning

Hello travelers,

Today’s conversation is with my very dear & lovely friend, Baker Manning from Below Deck, the Bravo reality TV show. 

Baker shares how mourning her beloved father led her into a life of world travel… and thrill-seeking became soul-seeking. We discuss plant medicine, music as medicine, and how she unlocked her greatest superpower: joy.

The queen of ‘adventure -income,’ Baker teaches adult hip-hop choreography in Charleston Diva Dance parties, and is the author of the Yacht Job Handbook, your complete guide on how to break into the yachting industry.*

Her handbook is perfect for anyone in transition. Especially any hard-working thrillseekers you may know who are interested to stockpile some cash for a rainy day… maybe even pay off some debt! (As a crew-member, all your living expenses are paid.) 

I can also testify - it makes for equally great armchair travel, too :) 

Once upon a time, I daydreamed about working as a masseuse on a yacht. I love my life, but I wonder - in some other life, maybe she and I are crewmates in some sunny isle :) 

Are you there with us? Who knows? 

Take a daydream (here) & (here)  as you listen in. *Showlinks available via EveningsKingdom.com under the Interviews tab.

Thank you for listening. Please share and enjoy!

​

love & stories, 

Paula

​EveningsKingdom.com ​

Hello travelers, 

For today’s episode, I’m elated to share my conversation with the extraordinarily talented Justin Booher!

Please enjoy as Justin shares his adventures cheffing for retreats around the world. We discuss energy work, ways to clear out space to let more wonder and alignment into your life; structuring a dinner party to delight all the senses, Justin's delicious wellness remedies and more.

Justin is currently on LotusWei’s Flowerlounge tour. If you’d like to experience his art and magic firsthand, do book your ticket now, as they are bound to sell out. 

Thank you so much for listening. Please share and enjoy :)

“Home is a feeling.” - Evening’s Kingdom

Hello travelers, 

In today’s episode, we go deep into Fern’s world, as she falls head over heels for a lovely someone… 

And I have a big announcement. Evenings Kingdom, Books One and Two, are coming to Kindle this fall! 

Calling all fantasy lovers: would you like a free reviewers copy? Please visit EveningsKingdom.com and let me know. I’d love to hear from you. 

Thank you so much for listening. Please share and enjoy!

With love & stories,

Paula

Hello travelers! Today I felt like sharing something a little different :)

Firstly, I’m seeking early readers for my new, epic fantasy series for adults and will soon be sending out a call via my email list soon. So if you would like to number yourself among them, please do sign up to my email list here.

Today’s show is about a long-running love of mine: journaling. I’ve been sharing journaling prompts with my email subscribers, and the response has been so lovely that I wanted to share some of these practices here as well.

So in today's episode, we cover:

How to start a journaling practice;

a few quick journaling prompts to get you started and

3 journaling frameworks for Gratitude, Grief, Anxiety, Stress and more. 

Thank you so much for listening. Please share and enjoy! 

Evenings Kingdom: the Conversations. Wide-ranging conversations with artists and thinkers on their work, their life; their adventures, processes and routines. Kind of an ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’ meets ‘The Tim Ferriss Show,’ these Conversations will, no doubt, wend their ways into my writing. In stories from me in years to come, you may well recognize characters and ideas first discussed here. 

​Accordingly, today's episode features my dear friend Pat Gault.

He is an artist and waymaker, and a military veteran. 

In this conversation, we consider the many different kinds of possible cognizance - that of trees, rivers, mountains, even rocks - how this informs the worldviews of many traditional cultures like the Alaskan Dena’ina, who recognize these multiple dimensions of consciousness, all of which thoughts and the wind could traverse… 

Pat became a Pararescueman (a PJ) at 18. He is also a writer, exploring alternative treatment methods for PTSD and depression, such as meditation and psychedelics. But it is his growing relationship with the Alaskan backcountry which has truly transformed his life. Accordingly, he founded the Alaska Institute of Curiosity and Exploration or ALICE to help redefine our understanding of nature as the original entheogen. 

You can visit him at AliceQuest.com to learn more about the Alaskan quests he guides - and I do recommend it to your attention! :)

Recently Pat was connected with the Heroic Hearts Project, which offers veterans psychedelic treatment options to heal their PTSD. The Heroic Heart’s program guides veterans to help them get the most out of their time on retreats, while also setting them up for success when they return home. 

This is Pat’s story. Please share and please enjoy! 

​

Love,

Paula

“My lady, I am but the tongue that bridles an unruly mind, and would see it brought quiet.” Weir Rathwau, Evening’s Kingdom.

Nor loses hope: the oligarchs destroy his efforts to save Tensingland, and  the priestexxes of Oculus vanish without a trace. Ouma holds a ceremony for a dying medicine woman of an enemy tribe. 

And as the Chiriklo prepare to retake Ullalea from occupying forces, Fern meets a boy…

Written and Read by Paula Schmidt.

Thank you so much for listening. Please share and enjoy!

“In the name of Goddexx!” - King Nor Tensing, Evening’s Kingdom. 

Written and Read by Paula Schmidt.

Book Two of Evening’s Kingdom begins!

As the drought continues, Nor’s reign comes into jeopardy and Ouma performs a healing for a dying medicine woman from her enemy tribe, the Yang.  

Today’s episode also includes some very personal confessions from me. As I live and grow alongside the story, Evening’s Kingdom brings intimate challenges from my past to my surface. 

Please stay tuned after the show, as I discuss the 1 simple habit that helps me notice and address old patterns - and the tribe I’m calling in! 

These struggles may resonate with many of you, too. I’d love your advice, as well as your thoughts on this new format. Please let me know in a review. I read each one, and knowing you’re out there means the world to me :-) 

Thank you so much for listening. Please enjoy!

May you be inspired, enchanted & free. 

With love from the wind, 

Paula

My lovelies, I’m back :)  

Season Two shortly awaits - 

But first, as requested by the marvelous Baker Manning, a quick recap of Season One before we begin. The transcript is below for your referencing pleasure. If you are new to Evenings Kingdom, please turn that dial all the way back to Episode 1, because here be spoilers! 

As you may recall, Ouma, our bold, non-binary hero, is on a mission to murder the King and avenge her vanquished people, but she was on her own until a caravan of outcasts took Ouma under their wing. 

On their adventures together across the Singing Sands, through villages and ruins, Ouma became a healer - only to be tempted into the dark arts when a powerful, mysterious alien-snake god named Lacqsis appears to her in an enchanted cave. 

Lacqsis grooms Ouma towards the darkness... gifting her a magical tattoo with… a mind of its own, and Ouma apprentices herself to learn how to destroy the Yang people.

Because! Our hero is obsessed with revenge, haunted by survivor’s guilt and self-doubt, and above all things she longs to prove herself to her ancestors.

And when we last left Ouma, she was indeed singing with power, and being hailed as nigh god-like herself by the monks of Cloud Abbey. Their caravan finally reunited, the friends are about to return down on their long road to Chalice, where Ouma plans to seek her revenge.

Meanwhile! In the capital city of Chalice we also met Nor Tensing, the small but determined boy prince who must eliminate all rivals for the crown - but Nor’s beloved princess Nejmi may be his greatest threat of all.

Harem violence escalated in the palace as Nor & Nejmi fell more in love -

After a bloody incident with princess Kestrel, the victorious Nor became a royal favorite, and his father, the king, took him on a holiday into the jungle. But when a royal execution at the Well of Skulls incites riots, Nor raced back through the jungle alone to save Nejmi... but the lovers' paths divide across unbridgeable kingdoms when Nejmi takes her own life.

(With a bloody nod to my lifelong hero, Cleopatra.)

But we have not seen the last of the beautiful Nejmi... “Just as wild plants have the strongest medicine, so do the wildest gods." 

And there we are my friends… now Book Two shortly awaits - ! 

As Ouma deepens into the shamanic arts and rises in love, I hope the story inspires you to embrace the indivisible whole which is Life itself - championing equality, and ways of walking lightly together in our world. 

If you want a little something for your brains to snack on while the next episode gestates, I have new stories & delights available for free on EveningsKingdom.com.

On the Journal/Interviews page, you will now find: 

Evenings Kingdom: the Conversations. Wide-ranging conversations with artists and thinkers on their work, their life; their adventures, processes and routines. Kind of an ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’ meets ‘The Tim Ferriss Show’ - 

Here you can listen to my conversation with Pat Gault, Alaskan guide, talking about his journey with Ayahuasca. We also consider the many different kinds of possible cognizance - trees, rivers, mountains, even rocks; how this informs the worldviews of many traditional cultures like the Alaskan Dena’ina, who recognize these multiple dimensions of consciousness, all of which thoughts and the wind could traverse… 

Also coming soon, and perhaps already posted by the time you listen to this, are lots more interviews available for your enchantment, including my exclusive interview with Baker Manning, my dear friend who also happens to be: a reality TV star, the author of Yacht Jobs Handbook and a magical unicorn human who radiates joy and a singular feminine ferocity I adore.

As well as Justen Ahren - the poet laureate of Martha’s Vineyard: a gorgeous stillwater soul, an incredibly talented writer, photographer, musician and thinker. He is far-seeing, far out, and a wonderful friend.

Also coming soon - Justin Booher: Ayurvedic chef, mystic soul, green man, on learnin’ from the leaves… cooking, being, delighting in being alive. So do hop over to visit EveningsKingdom.com and have yourself a listen.