Living The Next Chapter: Candid Conversations with Authors and Writers for Readers Searching for a New Read

EPISODE 497 - Jacob Lawson - Make It Extraordinary - 27 Life-Changing Lessons That Will Elevate You Beyond the Ordinary

Jacob Lawson is an author, speaker, personal development mentor, and serial entrepreneur who has started multiple businesses over the years, including his flooring solutions company, Extraordinary Flooring, Inc. As a graduate of “the school of hard knocks,” Jacob knows firsthand how important life experiences are, and how early mentors can continue to impact us throughout our lives. By sharing his personal stories, and the powerful lessons he learned from the mentors who taught him so much from an early age, Jacob hopes to inspire others to live Extraordinary lives. After all, why settle for ordinary when you can have so much more?

In his business, Jacob is devoted to mentoring his employees to discover their highest selves and learn to be extraordinary in all parts of their lives. Make It Extraordinary is Jacob’s answer to the call to spread that impact to a wider audience.

In addition to running his Extraordinary flooring company, Jacob enjoys spending time with his three Extraordinary daughters, Breah, Stella and Penelope. He is a devoted Extraordinary husband to his wife Maria.

Book: Make It Extraordinary!: 27 Life-Changing Lessons That Will Elevate You Beyond the Ordinary!

WHY SETTLE FOR AN ORDINARY LIFE?

Are you tired of feeling like your life is passing you by in an endless stream of mundane experiences and predictable daily routines?

Have you ever felt like there was something more waiting for you in this life if only you could find the courage to follow your dreams?

Want to learn how to push past limiting beliefs and tap into your natural talents so you can reach your full potential?

In this collection of stories about his past and the mentors who inspired him from an early age, Jacob Lawson (a.k.a. Mr. Extraordinary) shares inspiring lessons that will help you push beyond the ordinary life you’ve settled for into a new world full of possibilities.

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IN MAKE IT EXTRAORDINARY!, YOU WILL DISCOVER:

How to manage daily stress and see each day as a blessing.
Why you don’t have to settle for feeling “okay.”
How to tap into your natural talents and go above and beyond what’s expected of you to reach your highest potential.
How your passions and hobbies can turn into Extraordinary opportunities.
Why the simple question, “What can I do for you?” can help you get the things you want in life.
Stories that prove that even the biggest dreams do come true—you just have to work for them!
How to take on challenges, take your failures in stride, and get back up again so you can become the master in your chosen profession.
Make It Extraordinary! is a collection of stories that will not just entertain you, but open your eyes to the possibilities waiting for you—all you need is a sense of adventure and a willingness to seize opportunities that just might change your life!

https://www.instagram.com/make_itextraordinary/
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EPISODE 496 - Sean Hagerty - Retired Special Operations Soldier and Author of JONES POINT

About the author
Sean Hagerty is a retired Special Operations Soldier with over 25 years of experience. He spent his younger years training and conducting combat operations with the 1st of the 75th Ranger Regiment. After nine years, in 2005 he was selected for and assigned to a Special Operations unit at Fort Belvoir Virginia. There he spent sixteen years and finished his military career, retiring as a Sergeant Major. He received several awards and decorations throughout his career to include three Bronze Stars.

His love for writing began in the cold mountains of Afghanistan, the dusty deserts of Iraq, and the plains of Africa. He would write short stories for his daughters, so they knew he was thinking of them while he was far away from home. Over the years, those playful fairy tales were complete, and it was time for him to tell a more grown-up story for a wider audience. Sean Hagerty has combined over 25+ years of service in the Special Operations community and deep-rooted research instincts from years of academic pursuits in history to tell this story. A story that was written on the back of a daily Washington D.C. commuter bus heading to the Pentagon, during plane flights, car rides, and even on his pontoon boat drifting along the Potomac River. It all came together during evening edits in the small river town of Occoquan Virginia.

Book - Jones Point: Written by a Special Operations Soldier

THIRD PLACE winner of The BookFest Awards - Thriller - Pyschological Division

Sean Hagerty is a retired Special Operations Soldier with over 25 years of experience. This gave him a unique perspective for a fiction series about saving missing children. While this story is fiction...the knowledge behind the missions is based on real experience and teachings.

By day, we're your neighbors. Your boss. Your teacher. By night, we hunt the monsters who hunt our children.

As a Special Operations soldier, Dane Cooper was trained and tested to handle the toughest, most dangerous situations around the world. He was not, however, prepared for the abduction of his daughter.

That kidnapping sends him into a downward spiral, the depths of which are unknown even to Dane. But a lifeline is thrown to him by a mysterious cabal, which sees his skills as paramount to helping others.

Now investigating other grieving parents' cases, Dane must conceal his efforts from the zeal of an FBI agent hot on the trail of the vigilante cabal, a dedicated Virginia Bureau of Investigation team, and an elusive network of monsters at the center of it all. Punishing the wicked while searching for his little angel, Dane must also overcome the struggle with his own demons.

https://authorseanhagerty.com/
https://www.instagram.com/sean.hagerty.73/
https://a.co/d/5u37JEh
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Episode 495 - Jodie Kennedy - Clumsy Beauty - Hear I love you in every little moment

J. K. Kennedy has been serving up bite-size poetry to a rapidly growing audience since October, 2022. An accidental creative writer and incessant (over)thinker, she enjoys her quiet life in the country with her husband and two dogs. Her love of words comes from her beloved grandmother, who introduced her to the interdimensional art of storytelling. She also makes hearty greeting cards to help people express their love and gratitude for each other. This is her first book.

Filled with warmth, wit, and a dash of irreverence, Clumsy Beauty is a celebration of life in all its messiness. This exquisitely illustrated collection of bite-size poems from J. K. Kennedy invites you to hear the "I love you" in every little moment.

An enchantingly illustrated collection of poems designed to inspire and empower, Clumsy Beauty invites you to hear the "I love you" in every little moment.

In an age of constant pressure to meet unattainable standards of beauty and perfection, Clumsy Beauty proclaims the joy of imperfection. Embrace your quirks, your stumbles, and your unique path.

J. K. Kennedy’s poetry reveals vulnerability and showcases her personal voice, yet remains refreshingly resonant. With each turn of the page, you'll find inspiration, solace, and a renewed sense of self-acceptance. Whether you're seeking motivation during challenging times or simply looking for a reminder that you are enough just as you are, Clumsy Beauty is here to lift you up.

BITE-SIZED: Each of J. K.’s poems is thought-provoking, yet brief enough to quickly read before bed, during breakfast, or on the train. Every delectable morsel will leave you hankering for the next. Savor each bite or devour them all at once.

EMPOWERING: Clumsy Beauty is a celebration of life in all its messiness. J. K. Kennedy illuminates the beauty in mistakes, imperfections, and unfiltered reality.

RESONANT: Themes include navigating uncertainty, embracing your unique self, and living life on your own terms.
 
 THOUGHTFUL: Beautifully designed and with illustrations throughout, Clumsy Beauty is an inspirational gift for anyone looking for a poetic dose of hope and encouragement.

https://www.jkkennedywrites.com/

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Episode 493 - Phyllis Gobbell - PRODIGAL, a Southern novel that echoes an ancient Biblical story

Phyllis Gobbell’s writing career spans four decades. Her history of publication includes both fiction and nonfiction, with a total of five novels and over thirty stories and articles in literary journals, anthologies, and magazines. One of her first stories appeared in the anthology, HomeWorks, in 1996, a collection of writings by Tennessee authors living at that time, including Alex Haley, Robert Penn Warren, and Peter Taylor.

Gobbell, a Nashville author, writes a little bit of everything. Two true-crime books, An Unfinished Canvas (Berkley, 2007; Diversion 2020) and A Season of Darkness (Berkley, 2010), are accounts of high-profile, cold-case murders in Nashville. Now Gobbell authors the Jordan Mayfair Mystery Series: Pursuit in Provence (Five Star, 2015), Secrets and Shamrocks (Five Star, 2016), and Treachery in Tuscany (Encircle, 2018), winner of Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award for Best Cozy Mystery.

Gobbell received the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Award in Fiction. Other writing achievements include the Leslie Garrett Fiction Prize awarded by the Knoxville Writers Guild, Tennessee Writers Alliance Short Story First Place Award, and the North Carolina Writers’ Workshop First Place Award in Creative Nonfiction. She received a Pushcart nomination for her story, “Primates,” which was published in Bellevue Literary Review. She won the Creative Nonfiction First Place Award from the Knoxville Writers’ Guild for her essay, “In the Car with Mother on Christmas Eve.” Twice she has received the Leslie Garrett Award for Fiction.

An active participant in the writing community, Gobbell helped organize the Tennessee Writers Alliance in 1990 and served on its Board of Directors for ten years, including two terms as president and one as chair of the Board. She was also a founding member of a writers group that still meets every Tuesday night, the Nashville Writers Alliance.

For twenty years, Phyllis Gobbell served on the English faculty at Nashville State Community College as Associate Professor. She taught courses in composition, creative writing, and literature. She served as editor of the literary magazine, Tetrahedra, for eight years.

Gobbell earned her B.S. in Education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and received her M.A. in English from Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee, where the graduate program offered a creative thesis option. Her thesis was a collection of stories entitled Listen to Me. Most of the stories have been published in literary journals and have received awards.

https://phyllisgobbell.com/

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Episode 492 - AJ Whitney - Sovereign, When Your Number is Up - Orphans Face A Dire Fate

AJ Whitney is a young adult author living in the Kansas City metro with her husband of nearly 20 years and two teenagers. She is also a high school counselor, dubbed as “the punk rock school counselor.” Apart from books, which are her oldest love, she also enjoys making and listening to music, befriending every animal imaginable, playing board games, and getting sucked into D&D campaigns against her will.

Book One of AJ’s speculative / dystopian series Sovereign is expected in 2025. She also writes horror, thrillers, fantasy, and dark contemporary fiction. When reading an AJ Whitney book, expect a page-turner with twists, cliffhangers, and dark surprises.

Book - Soverign - Number 332 is living to be sacrificed.

A teen with no name, she'll take part in the Sending alongside nine other orphans after the Festival.

They will be left in the Fields and taken by the Sovereign as gifts, and the town will be blessed with a decade of bountiful harvests - same as the past three centuries.

But after so long, even the town elders begin questioning the decennial Sending and the very existence of the Sovereign.

They've all forgotten about the gray-haired woman who saw everything. The rotten crops. The starvation. The message scrawled in the barren Fields.

Every 10 years.

https://a.co/d/7yPiuGN

https://ajwhitneybooks.com/

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Episode 491 - Steven Joseph - Fiction, Nonfiction Author, Possibly Cranky, Lawyer and Run-On Sentences

Embracing the Culture, Celebrating Milestones, and Achieving Zen

Steven Joseph is a first-generation American, veteran attorney, negotiator, prolific speaker, and a modern humorist. He’s a real New Yorker. A fully cured overweight person, Steven is a five times Boston Marathon runner and 16 times NYC Marathon runner – balancing it all perfectly through the art of Zen.

Yet Steven believes he is smart enough to know that he hasn’t figured everything out, except for crankiness

Embracing Crankiness One Book at a Time

Steven Joseph is an excellent attorney and a remarkable writer. He’s gone from writing comprehensive legal briefs to penning award-winning fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults.

Being a son of a Holocaust Survivor, Steven recognizes and celebrates his Jewish heritage. Most of his writing is based on the concept of survival, which was ubiquitous in the household he grew up in, and acknowledgment which, he learned through his zen practice. As a crankiness expert, Steven can help you manage your emotions, embrace your crankiness, and improve communication with friends and family.

Steven is the author of the Mom’s Choice Award-winning The Last Surviving Dinosaur: The TyrantoCrankaTsuris and The Crankatsuris Method: A Grownup Guide to Effective Crankinessthat , and the forthcoming Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles, and Lots and Lots of Noodles. Sign up to stay informed.

https://www.stevenjosephauthor.com/

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EPISODE 490 - Stacia Moffett - Lost and Found in Tennessee, set in rural Radford, Tennessee in the 1950s, Jim Crow

“The Missing Girl” and “Jessa Is Back” explore the South’s cultural and racial legacies through compelling stories of friendship, resilience, and identity.

Lost and Found in Tennessee, set in rural Radford, Tennessee in the 1950s, follows Jessa, whose days as an orphaned runaway undermine the carefully cultivated truce between the town’s Black and white communities.  Jessa’s experiences in Oregon bring the Jim Crow practices in her hometown into sharp focus, and she finds her voice to speak the truth to her hometown and the people she loves.

https://www.lostandfoundintennessee.com/
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EPISODE 488 - Mick Heyman - Reduce Your Anxiety, Mellow Your Money, and the Rule of 72

Mick Heyman, CFA and Founder of Heyman Investment Counseling, has a 40-year career in wealth management, helping individuals and institutions of all sizes to build and preserve wealth with his stress-free method for mellowing your money.

Mick started his career at a small firm in Cincinnati before moving to Louisville to focus on equities with a team of top equity managers, managing billions in assets for clients. His career came full circle when he moved to San Diego to work with individual investors, some of whom have remained loyal to him for more than 30 years.

Mick received a Bachelor of Economics from Northwestern and is a designated CFA. Despite a formal education in economics, it was really his interest in philosophy and psychology which showed him that human emotion is ultimately what drives the market. This realization has helped him make better money decisions for himself and his clients, using an understanding of human nature and an appreciation for long-term trends.

Book: Mellow Your Money: How to Surf the Market and Build Wealth Without Stressing Yourself Out

Surf the Market & Build Wealth Without Stressing Yourself Out

Do your palms start to sweat watching the markets bounce?

Have the headlines got you in a constant state of panic and paralysis?

Contrary to what you see on the news and in social media, money management can be a form of meditation that, when practiced correctly, blazes a path to peace rather than a road to emotional ruin.

https://mellowyourmoney.com/
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EPISODE 487 - Kate Kennedy Author of Once Upon a School, building a school to serve children without housing

I am a mom, a wife, a sister, and a daughter. I am a visionary and a dreamer of big dreams. I am a writer and a theology nerd. I am passionate about empowering others to share their stories through the sharing of my own. My study and research interests include identifying the places where the church meets the world and gathering the beautiful tapestry of stories that live quietly in our community.

I began my professional career as a Writer/Producer for Turner Network Television before transitioning into a career in service and ministry. I earned my Bachelor of Arts Degree from Wake Forest University and a Master of Religion and Public Life degree from Emory University. I am currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminar with a particular focus in Creative Writing and Public Theology.

In 2018, I founded and led a tuition-free private school for children experiencing homelessness in Atlanta. We began with 9 young scholars and now serve over 60 scholars. The journey to begin this change-making organization is a pivotal part of my story.

About the Book       

What do you do when you see something you can’t ignore? That’s what happened to Kate Kennedy one day as she drove down the Courtland Street corridor in Atlanta, Georgia. After that day, she could not look away. Once Upon a School shares the story of a stay-at-home mom of four who ignited a wave of community change by building a school to serve children without housing. One dollar and one day at a time, Kate pushed against all odds to build a program that cares for the most vulnerable children. In the process, she learned more about herself than she ever imagined . . . even when it all began to fall apart.

With humor and vulnerability, Kate shares the story of challenging the status quo and digging deep into her own story to find connection, hope, and new answers to old problems.

Once Upon a School is a story of racial inequity, generational poverty, and finding community in the most unlikely places. It’s about building a school, standing up for children, and finding your place in the world. As the story unfolds, Kate invites readers to challenge themselves and their own communities through the lenses of social impact, personal growth, and theology.

Once Upon a School is about daring to dream big and learning to bounce back. This journey reminds us, writes Kate, that “we all have the capacity to make lasting community change in our own unique ways if we can find the strength and courage to take the first step and keep on walking.”

https://www.katekennedywrites.com/
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https://livingthenextchapter.com/
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EPISODE 486 - Steve MacBeth - No Names No Pack Drill - An Oral History of Canadians at War in Afghanistan

Steve MacBeth, a three-tour Afghan war veteran, offers a compelling, first-hand account of Canada’s involvement in one of the most protracted and most complex conflicts of the 21st century. Through vivid and unfiltered interviews with 150 frontline soldiers, this collection captures the diverse experiences of those who served. 

These soldiers share their stories from the front lines of Afghanistan, detailing the challenges, sacrifices, and moments of camaraderie they encountered. The title, inspired by the military expression "no names, no pack drill"—intended to ensure lessons are learned from soldiers' experiences without identifying those involved—reflects the humility and quiet professionalism of the Canadian soldiers, who are culturally uncomfortable with recognition for their service.

From harrowing combat operations to the calmer, often overlooked aspects of deployment, these personal stories provide a raw and intimate portrait of the war. Shared from one veteran to another, these stories are told using the soldier’s vernacular, ensuring that the voices were genuine.

This book is not about building discourse on Canada’s strategy in Afghanistan. It leaves complex political discussions behind. It does not try to put the experiences into context or explain who was right or wrong or whether the tactical decisions made were good or bad. It strips the events down to their rawest form and shares them in the words of those who lived in Canada’s experience in Afghanistan.

The work bears witness to the experiences of the average soldier and provides a historical first-person record for future generations. This gripping collection reveals the untold human side of modern warfare, shedding light on its profound impact on those who served.

https://a.co/d/0bNyKLB
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-macbeth-364aa7156/
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podcast produced by: https://truemediasolutions.ca/

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https://livingthenextchapter.com/
podcast produced by: https://truemediasolutions.ca/

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