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

EPISODE 318 - Paula Delgado-Kling - Leonor The Story of a Lost Childhood in Colombia

Our Guest: Paula Delgado-Kling holds degrees in comparative literature, French civilizations, international affairs, and creative writing from Brown, Columbia and the New School, respectively.

This is her first book. It has been excerpted in Narrative Magazine (Winter 2008 issue), The Literary Review (Winter 2009 issue and reprinted in the 60th anniversary issue, fall 2017), Pacifica Literary Review (Winter 2017 issue), The Grief Diaries (February 2017 issue), and translated into Japanese for happano.org (January 2017 issue).

For this book, she received two grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and won the OneWorld Prize in nonfiction from the Pan African Literary Forum, for which she was awarded a trip to Accra, Ghana to share her work. Paula’s website is pauladelgadokling.com. Her reportage, “El Diario de Maher Arar,” was anthologized in Las Mejores Crónicas de Gatopardo (Random House Mondadori, 2006).

Since March 2005, she has been an assistant editor at Narrative Magazine. She lives in New York.

The Book: Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood Paperback - Set in the author’s homeland, Colombia, this is the heartbreaking story of Leonor, former child soldier of the FARC, a rural guerrilla group.

Paula Delgado-Kling followed Leonor for nineteen years, from shortly after she was an active member of the FARC forced into sexual slavery by a commander thirty-four years her senior, through her rehabilitation and struggle with alcohol and drug addiction, to more recent days as the mother of two girls.

Leonor’s physical beauty, together with resourcefulness and imagination in the face of horrendous circumstances, helped her carve a space for herself in a male-dominated world. She never stopped believing that she was a woman of worth and importance. It took her many years of therapy to accept that she was also a victim.

Throughout the story of Leonor, Delgado-Kling interweaves the experiences of her own family, involved with Colombian politics since the 19th century and deeply afflicted, too, by the decades of violence there.

https://www.amazon.ca/Leonor-Story-Childhood-Paula-Delgado-Kling/dp/1682194477
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Episode 317 - Katherine Snow Smith - Watch Your Step, Life Has Many Chapters

Katherine Snow Smith has lived throughout the south as a newspaper reporter,
magazine editor, adjunct instructor, daughter, sister, mother, wife, divorcee and friend. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and started her journalism career covering three minuscule towns in South Carolina. After a stint covering business in Charlotte she got married, moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, and started a 20-year career at the Tampa Bay Times. Katherine raised three children with her husband, a fellow journalist. After their 24-year-marriage ended and last child went away to college, Katherine returned to her native North Carolina to be closer to her parents in Raleigh. Now, three kids, two careers and one divorce later, she’s back at her alma mater getting a master’s degree in Media and Communications so she can teach journalism on a college level. Most of her classmates are less than half her age. They help her with coding homework and she waxes on annoyingly about how life has many chapters they’ll never expect. Some are piercing. Some are priceless. Keep turning the page.

Book - Stepping on the Blender - Journalist Katherine Snow Smith returned to her native North Carolina after her last child left the nest and a 24-year marriage ended. With more baggage and less time on the clock, she thought of fellow Tar Heel Thomas Wolfe’s book You Can’t Go Home Again. She writes with vulnerability and humor about forging an unexpected path, parenting, dating, reporting, aging, loss and launching the next act in a full life.

Oh yeah, she stepped on a blender minutes before leaving Florida for this latest chapter. Sometimes you just have to prop your bloody foot on the dashboard and put it in drive.

Book: Rules for the Southern Rulebreaker - Southern women are inundated with rules starting early―from always wearing sensible shoes to never talking about death to the dying, and certainly not relying on song lyrics for marriage therapy.

Nevertheless, Katherine Snow Smith keeps doing things like falling off her high heels onto President Barack Obama, gaining dubious status as the middle school “lice mom,” and finding confirmation in the lyrics of Miranda Lambert after her twenty-four-year marriage ends. Somehow, despite never meaning to defy Southern expectations for parenting, marriage, work, and friendship, Smith has found herself doing just that for over four decades. 

Rules for the Southern Rule Breaker will resonate with every woman, southern or not, who has a tendency to wander down the hazy side roads and realizes the rewards that come from listening to the pull in one’s heart over the voice in one’s head.

https://katherinesnowsmith.com/
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Episode 316 - Steve O'Connell - Welcome to Earth - Your Manual On How To Break Those Chains

About the Author
Steve O’Connell, a proponent of the human race, is best known for his simple, clear, impartial observations of humanity and life’s nuances. Always seeking betterment and growth through knowledge and understanding, he loves writing with the purpose of bringing people together, encouraging his human family to embrace real freedom—the freedom they innately desire.

The book: Welcome to Earth

Welcome to Earth Description:
From the perspective of an indifferent, unbiased outsider, Welcome to Earth exposes the imbalance in today’s society and reveals the truth behind the current plight of mankind. If you’re one of the many who feel humanity is beyond hope, if you feel stuck and powerless, or if you just need reassurance that all hope is not lost, you will find comfort in the pages of this book.

Welcome to Earth raises awareness to subconscious limiting beliefs, stimulates vitality within the human spirit, and offers healing for the oppressed. This book is the key to your freedom—humanity’s freedom—real freedom.

https://breaktheelephantchain.org/
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Episode 315 - Bob Mackay - Canadian Author Shares His Historical Fiction Writings and Stories of Military History

Robert W. Mackay is an award-winning author, former naval officer, submariner, teacher, and lawyer. He writes historical fiction with the backdrop of Canada’s armed forces and a newsletter, Forces With History, which comes out every two weeks.

Robert was born in Vancouver and lives in BC. He takes great pride in contributing to Canadians’ knowledge of their military heritage, and is happy to do speaking engagements on related topics.

Book - Soldier Of The Horse
Winner of the Gold Medal for Military/Wartime Fiction at the 2012 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards.

Book - Terror On The Alert
Winner of the Silver Medal for Military/Wartime Fiction at the 2015 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards

https://www.robertwmackay.ca/
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Episode 314 - Morgan Christie - Boolean Logic - Powerful and Lyrical Essays from a New and Noteworthy Poet and Fiction Writer

Powerful and Lyrical Essays from a New and Noteworthy Poet and Fiction Writer

Morgan Christie's book is in conversation with various themes including race, gender inequity, socioeconomic disparities, and others as questions regarding how experiences define us are viewed through a BOOLEAN LOGIC lens, where sums do not always equal their parts. These essays intertwine sport, family, and community and other aspects that assist in shaping identities through lineage and the lessons we take from them.

Literary Nonfiction. Essay. Family & Relationships. African & African American Studies. Women's Studies.

About the Author

Morgan Christie's essays, stories, and poems have appeared in Room, Callaloo, The Hawai'i Review, Sport Literate, and elsewhere. Her first chapbook, Variations on a Lobster's Tale, was the winner of the 2017 Alexander Posey Chapbook Prize, and her first full-length short story manuscript, These Bodies (Tolsun Books, 2020), was nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in fiction.

Her most recent poetry chapbook, when they come (Black Sunflowers Press, 2021) is featured in the Forward Arts Foundation's National Poetry Day exhibit. She is the 2022 Arc Poetry Poem of the Year Prize recipient, and her collection People Without Wings (Black Sunflowers Press, 2021) is the winner of the 2022 Digging Chapbook Series Prize. Her new short story collection, Boolean Logic, is the winner of the 2023 Howling Bird Press Nonfiction Prize. Her novella Liddle Deaths (Stillhouse Press) is due out in 2024. Christie currently splits her time between North Carolina and Toronto.

To learn more, please visit

https://www.morganchristiewrites.com/
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Episode 313 - Rebecca Bratspies - Naming Gotham, The Villains, Rogues & Heroes Behind New York's Place Names

The Van Wyck, the Major Deegan, the Jackie Robinson, the Hutch, the Merritt, FDR Drive, or the Henry Hudson...you might drive them regularly, without really noticing that those road names are, well, names. But, who were these people? New York City's many roads, bridges, neighborhoods and institutions bear the names of a colorful assortment of people from key periods in the city's history. Learning about the people iconic Gotham landmarks are named for is a unique window into the history of the greatest city in the world. Author Rebecca Bratspies takes readers on a place-based, intimate, historical journey on a human scale.

About the author
Rebecca Bratspies lives with her cats, teenager and husband in Astoria Queens. When not geeking out about New York City history, Rebecca is a professor at CUNY School of Law. A scholar of environmental justice and human rights, Rebecca has written scores of law review articles; five books (including Naming Gotham: the Villains, Rogues, and Heroes Behind New York Place Names); and three environmental justice comic books (with Charlie LaGreca Velasco). She serves on NYC’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board and EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee and is a scholar with the Center for Progressive Reform and a member of the NYC Bar Environmental Committee. ABA-SEER honored her work with its Commitment to Diversity and Justice Award.

You can follow her on Twitter and IG at @RBratspies and Mastodon at @[email protected] 

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EPISODE 312 - Leah Brown - The Fantastical World Building of The Chronicles of the Hidden Realms

Leah Ann Brown grew up in beautiful Southern Oregon, where her love for nature and fantasy was first ignited. As a young girl she spent hours outside playing make believe. This is where she first learned to love fantasy, along with the books and stories shared by her mother and grandmother throughout her life. With such creative encouragement from family, she drew her first picture book in first grade. From there her love for imagining and storytelling only grew stronger, until one day she decided to make her dreams a reality and began her storytelling journey to be published.

One of her passions is to see the next generation walk in the fullness and greatness of who they were created to be and know that obstacles can be overcome with hard work. As a young girl she struggled with reading because of dyslexia. But she didn’t let a label and challenge hold her back. She continued to work hard through school and her learning challenges, sometimes having to work harder than others.

Throughout life she had to overcome fears of not being good enough, and not give up on her dreams. She graduated at the top of her class in high school and went on to get her Pharmacy tech. license and massage license. In college she loved creative writing but still let fear hold her back from taking the first steps in writing a book. Could someone with dyslexia write a book? The stories as a young girl showed characters overcoming obstacles, so why couldn’t she.

Chronicles of the Hidden Realms: Return of the Light

An unknown past reveals a destiny long foretold.
Peter and Isabella Toth thought they were like any ordinary fourteen or twelve-year-old living in Garavelle, until they encounter Light Snatchers in the woods, and their world is flipped upside down. Imagine their surprise learning they are from another realm, the Land of Light, and are being hunted by the Dark Lord Gog who cursed their homeland long ago.

Together, this brother and sister, along with their friend Sarah, are forced into a perilous journey where a destiny calls them to return the light back to their kingdom. They must discover courage as they venture through a magical realm to find the Light Spark and break the evil curse plaguing the Land of Light. But unforeseen obstacles arise as Lord Gog sends dragons, wolves, Nicromines, and Light Snatchers to hunt them down.

https://leahannbrown.com/
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EPISODE 311 - Boo Trundle - The Daughter Ship - A Process Novel with Deep Meaning

BOO TRUNDLE is a writer, artist, and performer whose work has appeared across various platforms and publications, including The Brooklyn Rail, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and NPR’s The Moth. She has released three albums of original music with Big Deal Records. She lives in New Jersey. The Daughter Ship is her first novel.

The Book: About The Daughter Ship

This irreverent debut delivers a headlong human comedy of trauma and triumph, narrated by the concealed inner selves of a woman on the brink: Katherine, a lost creative soul and suburban mother of two, who has struggled into her forties with the urge to self-harm.

Katherine, an attentive mother to her teenagers, comfortably married to her strapping provider of a husband, longs to overcome her dark thoughts and intermittent fears of sexual intimacy.

This brisk, mesmerizing version of her life is told in alternating short chapters by Truitt, Star, and Smooshed Bug—her inner children, each with their particular strategy for coping with Katherine’s past at the hands of a hopeless mother and a terrifying, seductive father. Several of her female ancestors, Confederate widows and their daughters, who’ve imposed a legacy of racism and damage on her bloodline, also join the telling.

The assembled ghosts and contenders for Katherine’s ear are gathered in a rusting WWII submarine off the coast of Virginia Beach where the truth of her life is, quite literally, submerged. Will they surface with it? Will they protect her from it, or deliver it to her?

This unforgettable chorus of charming selves, battling over Katherine’s wellbeing, is unified by their hope for her future, as they collaborate to shape a personal narrative like no other we’ve experienced in fiction.

“Wild as stormy water, turbulent as a human heart, The Daughter Ship is a novel like none you’ve ever read before. It tracks the scattered parts of one woman as she fractures and finds herself over her lifetime. Boo Trundle is a deep, dark, far-seeing storyteller, who has written a wholly original and unforgettable debut.” —Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth (National Book Award Finalist)

“This is a stunningly original, compulsively readable, darkly funny, and profoundly moving novel about the emotional cargo women carry in our minds and bodies, and how healing is possible—even from our deepest, darkest secrets.” —Leigh Stein, author of Self Care

https://www.bootrundle.com/
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EPISODE 310 - Sarah Polyakov - Living In Fearless Faith - Mission Hope, Inspirational Stories of Faith and Triumph

Mission Hope
Inspirational Stories of Faith and Triumph
Life’s many upheavals, sharp curves, twists and turns, the challenging circumstances coming right at you are non-stop. The inner wars within are outside your control and feel overwhelming; you feel alone, and the seemingly endless battles rage on. You feel like you have lost all hope and faith, questioning, Why me? Why now? How can I handle another blow? The answers you’re seeking are in this collection of 20 uplifting stories in this book, right here in your hands. Within its golden pages, from the deep confines of their hearts and souls, these extraordinary authors have opened up and are here to assist you in navigating the deep, daunting, dark waters you are facing.

Each story is unique in its experience but similar in the fact that through everything presented to them in life, they found the way back to success, peace, and joy through hope and faith. They turned tragedy into tranquility once again. Now, they are here to empower you to shift from what once was fear and failure into the future of your dreams. They offer as a gift to you the freedom to choose your destiny. Now, it’s time to turn the key and walk through the doors.

WE ARE PLEASED TO INTRODUCE OUR FABULOUS AUTHORS:
Ali Anani Ph.D
Blondie Rebecca Amelia
Babien Avila
Meche Barba
Jennifer Bassett
Brad Burchnell
Loree Dittrich
Kathleen Dutton
JK Ellis
Mary Ann Falletta
Deborah A. Griffiths
Maria Lehtman
Vicki J. O’Grady Longo
Karen Ortega
Sarah Polyakov
Todd George Stone
M.L. Sutton
Elizabeth R. Urabe
Dobby Webb
Dr. Jo Anne White

https://www.ourmissionhope.com/
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EPISODE 309 - Jacqueline Suskin - Poet and Educator - Poem Busking, A Year In Practice

JACQUELINE SUSKIN IS A POET AND EDUCATOR WHO HAS BEEN TEACHING WORKSHOPS, WRITING BOOKS, HOSTING RETREATS AND CREATING SPONTANEOUS POETRY AROUND THE WORLD SINCE 2009.
 
Suskin is the author of eight books: 

The Collected (Publication Studio, 2010), Go Ahead & Like It (Ten Speed Press, 2014), The Edge of The Continent Volume One (Rare Bird, 2018), The Edge of The Continent Volume Two (Rare Bird, 2019), Help in the Dark Season (Write Bloody, 2019), The Edge of The Continent Volume Three (Rare Bird, 2020), Every Day is a Poem (Sounds True, 2020), and A Year in Practice (Sounds True, December 2023).

With her project Poem Store, she has composed over forty thousand improvisational poems for patrons who chose a topic in exchange for a unique verse. Her work has been featured in New York Times, T Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and various other publications. As the Artist in Residence at Folklife Farm from 2019-2021, Suskin founded a retreat program and continues to host artists from around the world. She lives in Detroit where she works with InsideOut Literary Arts bringing nature poetry into urban classrooms with her Poem Forest curriculum.

https://www.jacquelinesuskin.com/
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