
I love a good whydunnit!







Greg Hickey's novel, Parabellum, is structured differently from the average mystery novel. This book starts with a horrific, terrifying event and then jumps back in time by a year. It follows four individuals, the ex-athlete, the programmer, the veteran, and the student, and examines their lives and what may have cause any one of them to take their pain out on the group of innocent people from the event at the start of the book.



After Greg reads Chapter 1 of the book to us, I ask him about this structure and what inspired him to write the book this way. We also talk about the themes in the book, including the responsibility of society to take care of its members. 



Also in our interview, Greg mentions the free novella available at his website  called The Theory of Anything. You can learn more about the book and get your free copy here.



Today's show is supported by my patrons at Patreon. Thank you! When you become a patron for as little as $1 a month you receive a short mystery story each and every month. And the rewards for those who love mystery stories go up from there! Learn more and become a part of my community of readers at www.Patreon.com/alexandraamor







This week's mystery author




Greg Hickey is a former international professional baseball player and current forensic scientist, endurance athlete and author. He is the author of three novels, including the recently published crime novel Parabellum. 



His debut novel, Our Dried Voices, was a finalist for Foreword Reviews' INDIES Science Fiction Book of the Year Award. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Lindsay.




Learn more about Greg and all his books at GregHickeyWrites.com







Press play (above) to listen to the show, or read the transcript below. Remember you can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. And listen on Stitcher, Android, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and Spotify.







Excerpt from Parabellum




The ex-college athlete remembered her first concussion the way she remembered her first so-called memory of getting stuck in the unsodded mud patch between her family’s new home and the neighbor’s when she was one and a half. It was not a truly a memory, she knew, so much as an amalgamation of other memory fragments and the accounts of others and conjured imaginings all wrappe...

One Big Mystery, Four Possible Suspects with Greg Hickey

Unbroken explores the Inside-Out nature of life and how this understanding can lead to letting go of unwanted habits, including overeating.

Social Sciences

Science & Medicine

Science

Health & Fitness

Mental Health

Life Sciences


So often we demonize our bad habits. But what if those habits are working to bring us messages about our perfect human design?



You can listen above, on your favorite podcast app, or watch on YouTube. Notes, links, resources and a full transcript are below.



Click the image below to learn about the Unbroken Community and join the waitlist.






Show Notes




* Your unwanted habit is not a problem



* The good feeling our habits point us toward



* How we are designed to return to a state of calm and quiet



* How understanding the nature of thought resolves habits



* The gift of knowing where our experience is coming from




Transcript of Episode



When we have an unwanted habit like overeating it can feel like there’s something broken about us. Our culture tends to shame those with unwanted habits and it is widely assumed that there is something wrong with anyone who struggles with them. Judgments, including self-judgments, are made about a perceived lack of discipline or lack of self-care. 



But what if an unwanted habit like overeating was a sign of all that’s right with you, not with something that’s wrong?



What if your unwanted habit is a solution, not a problem?



For decades, we’ve been approaching unwanted habits as though they are the enemy. How’s that working for us? Not well, I’d say. We only have to look at the rising statistics about obesity or drug and alcohol addiction to see that this seems to be a battle we’re losing. Badly.



In this course, I’d like to explore turning our attitude toward unwanted habits on its head. It’s so easy to misunderstand what an unwanted habit is trying to tell us, so we’ll explore the messages habits are trying to send us and how our unwanted habits are actually a perfect part of our innate design.



If that sounds absurd or ridiculous, consider that until very recently we thought we had only five senses. Scientists now identify more than 20. Things look true until we are presented with an alternative.



I’m Alexandra Amor and I’m an author, a podcaster, and someone who’s searched for answers about my own unwanted overeating habit for the past three decades. Name a strategy for resolving a habit and I’ve tried it. Nothing worked.



Then in 2017 I discovered a field of spiritual psychology that had me doubting my perceived brokenness and instead awakening to the innate well-being that is within all of us. This change in understanding has me looking toward my wholeness, rather than perceived brokenness, and has helped me to resolve so much of what I had been suffering with for years. It has led me back to my natural state of calm resilience. No will power required.



If you are someone who has an unresolved and unwanted habit that’s what I want to share with you in this course.



Lesson 1: Your habit is not a problem



Hello and welcome,



Have you ever found yourself engaged in a behaviour while simultaneously berating yourself for that behaviour? I’m guessing you answered yes to that question because the truth is almost all humans have this experience at one time or another. This is an unwanted habit.




* Smoking



* Drinking too much


Why Your Habit Proves You’re In Perfect Working Order


One Sunday afternoon in April a traveller and a podcaster meet and share a drive through the mountains of Vancouver Island. As a result, the podcaster is deeply moved by the message the traveller, and the universe, had for her.



You can listen above, on your favorite podcast app, or watch on YouTube. Notes, links, resources and a full transcript are below.



Show Notes




* Clarification about the traffic light metaphor



* Trusting a good feeling that comes with an unusual experience



* Following that good feeling



* Listening to nudges from the universe



* Listening to the feeling behind the words someone is sharing



* Learning to relax as a spiritual practice



* Noting the miracles and synchronicities that happen to us




Resources Mentioned in this Episode




* Michael Singer’s books are The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment



* Dominic Scafidi and Grace Kelly’s Living Miraculously course




Transcript of Episode



Hello explorers and welcome to Unbroken. I’m Alexandra Amor. This is episode 59. Thank you for being here with me today.



I want to remind you that if you’re interested in joining the Unbroken Community, or at least getting on the waitlist there, you can do that at AlexandraAmor.com/community. That’s going to be an interactive twice monthly group call, lots of interaction with me, lots of support, lots of community, as the name implies, and connection with your fellow explorers. And all the details are on that webpage. As I said, AlexandraAmor.com/community. 



Second thing. Last week in Episode 58, partway through, I talked about the red, yellow, green light of truth of tuning into or leaning into connecting with our intuition about moving forward, which is going to connect to today’s show, actually. My friend who listens to this episode pointed out to me, she said, “When you’re talking about the red, green, yellow light, are you seeing that visually?” which made me realize, Oh, I didn’t really explain that properly, then.



The light metaphor that I used, really just explains a feeling. 



So when I say I would get a green light in my body, what I mean is, I feel it somewhere inside me. Now I specifically feel that feeling in my solar plexus, that’s the place where I always feel everything. You know how we talk about it, we have a gut feeling, I think that’s where that expression must come from. Because I always feel those things in the area of my solar plexus. Sort of behind my belly button. That part of my body.



When I feel green light feeling it’s there. I don’t see a green light or anything. Same with red, and then yellow. The yellow light’s kind of interesting, because it’s either it’s a little bit binary, you know, it’s a yes or no, very often. And I guess sometimes it feels like a well, you know, maybe maybe not, there’s a bit of hesitation there, it’s less, perhaps less dramatic than a full a no, full stop. So that maybe we could classify that as yellow light.



In your own experience, you might, if you give the traffic light metaphor a try,

The Hitchhiker and the Podcaster


Our bodies are the vehicles in which we move through life. Our thinking can be the fog that sometimes fills up the windshield we are looking through. Thankfully, we all have factory installed GPS to help guide our way.



You can listen above, on your favorite podcast app, or watch on YouTube. Notes, links, resources and a full transcript are below.



Click the image below to learn about the Unbroken Community and join the waitlist.






Transcript of Episode



Hello, explorers, and welcome to episode 58 of Unbroken. I’m Alexandra Amor. I’m here today to talk about the windshield of life. I’ll get into that in just a moment. And it is really the one thing I think that when we see it about life, when we understand this idea, this metaphor, it really does change everything, including our ability to deal with things like anxiety, or depression, or unwanted habits like overeating. So we’ll get into that in just a second. 



I do want to mention again about the Unbroken Community that I’m starting up. So if you’re interested in joining a group of like minded people, having some one-on-one coaching from me, meeting regularly, twice a month to do that, and learning from the coaching that other people receive as well, go to alexandraamorcom/community. You can learn all about what I’m thinking of for this community. And learn more about the details, including the 10% off that you’ll receive for all my books and courses, and a library of videos that will be available, all that kind of stuff, Alexandraamor.com/community. And there, you can sign up to join the waiting list. 



The community hasn’t started yet, if you’re listening to this, as I’m recording in early April 2024. But I want to gauge the level of interest and just see if there’s enough interest in having a group like that. So that’s where you can go to learn more about that and sign up if you would like further information when the group comes together, and when it will be meeting and all that kind of stuff.



All right, let’s get on to this metaphor that I’ve got for you today about the windscreen of life.



This came to me the other day, and I jotted it down, probably more than a week ago. And I’ve been sort of contemplating it ever since. I really like it, I think it really explains a lot about what we’re trying to get our heads around when we’re exploring this inside out understanding. So it looks like this. 



Picture a car, for me, any kind of car doesn’t matter what kind of car it is, could be your car could be your fantasy car, whatever it is. And that car is going to be a metaphor for us for the way that we move through life. And in every car nowadays, anyway, there’s always a windscreen protecting the driver and the passengers, the interior of the car from what’s on the outside. And so like I said, yeah, the car is a metaphor for you for your body. It’s the vehicle that you are using to move through life. 



The windscreen is our ability to see. 



It’s as clear as possible. We want it to be clean and clear so that we can see what’s happening outside of the vehicle, outside of the car. And then what happens?

The Windshield of Life


Life has an unerring knack for presenting us with challenges and opportunities for change. Dr. Linda Pettit explores our innate intuitive nature and how we can use that to help us navigate the curves that life brings to us.






Dr. Linda Sandel Pettit is a distinguished author known for her insightful work, including her acclaimed memoir, Leaning into Cuves: Trusting the Wild, Intuitive Way of Love.



With over five decades dedicated to writing, four decades immersed in counseling psychology, and two decades serving as a spiritual mentor, Dr. Linda brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her practice as a speaker, writer and mentor.



Unafraid to delve into divine wisdom, deep feminine knowing, and intuition, Dr. Linda empowers her clients to tap into their innermost truths. Through her guidance, she inspires and facilitates the release of pure love, allowing individuals to express their authentic selves fully.



You can find Linda Pettit at LindaSandelPettit.com and on Instagram at lindasandelpettit.



Click the image below to learn about the Unbroken Community and join the waitlist.






You can listen above, on your favorite podcast app, or watch on YouTube. Notes, links, resources and a full transcript are below.



Show Notes




* Discovering that anxiety is thought created 



* What if being calm and in a good feeling is how we’re meant to exist?



* The only thing that ever gets in the way of love is our thinking



* Using self-reporting instruments to gauge how clients were being helped by the Three Principles understanding



* How our intuitive knowing is a life raft for us



* How mystical experiences are the norm or all of us



* Examples of listening to intuitive knowing and letting it guide us



* Why waiting for the moving parts of life to align is important




Resources Mentioned in this Episode




* Linda’s book Leaning Into Curves



* Book: The Butterfly Effect by Andy Andrews




Transcript of Interview with Dr. Linda Pettit



Alexandra: Dr. Linda Sandel Pettit, welcome to Unbroken.



Linda: Thank you. Good to be here.



Alexandra: It’s lovely to have you here. So why don’t we begin with a bit of your background? 



Why don’t you tell us who you are and when you came across the Three Principles?



Linda: I have kind of an interesting background. I started out in journalism and public relations. And then I found my way into the helping professions. I was a counseling psychologist for 30 some, 35 years. And now I do speaking, and writing and mentoring. 



I came across the Three Principles about what was exactly 21 years ago. So when I met my husband, who many know in the Three Principles world, Dr. Bill Pettit, he’s a psychiatrist. And he had been mentored by Sydney Banks, the man who shared the principles originally. Or boy, even at that point, I think it had been close to 20 years. And so I got introduced through Bill. 




Leaning Into Curves with Dr. Linda Pettit


When we strive for perfection are we doing ourselves a favour or adding unwanted stress into our lives? When it comes to eating well and resolving an overeating habit, I think embracing the beautiful messiness of life is much more helpful.



Click the image below to learn more about the Unbroken Community.






You can listen above, on your favorite podcast app, or watch on YouTube. Notes, links, resources and a full transcript are below.



Show Notes:




* The top 3 ways perfection is a mistake



* How needing to be perfect increases the amount of thinking we’re dealing with



* Why perfection is boring



* How important the messiness of life is



* On the unkindness of perfection




Transcript of Episode



Hello explorers and welcome to episode 56 of Unbroken. I’m Alexandra Amor. I’m here today to talk about perfection, and how it’s a mistake. 



Before I jump into that I wanted to mention, in case you didn’t hear me last week, that I’ve put together a page of information about a community I’m starting, called the Unbroken Community. 



You can join a join up for the waitlist for that community at: 



AlexandraAmor.com/community



I want to find out if there’s interest in this sort of thing. So there’s a whole bunch of information on that page that I just mentioned, about what the community will look like, when the group coaching calls that we’ll have, the pricing and all the other details about what’s involved, whether it’s a good fit for you, there’s information there about that, and whether it isn’t. 



I think it’s always really important in these situations to make it clear what the offering is, and one of the ways to do that is to make it clear that this might not be a good fit for you. If so, you’ll see a little list of bullet points about that as well. So lots of information there.



Check it out: AlexandraAmor.com/community if you’re interested in connecting with me, connecting with others who are wanting to resolve unwanted habits, like overeating, but it could be any kind of unwanted habit as well. Because as I said last week, they all have the same root cause. So yeah, check that out.



All right, so now let’s talk about perfection. In the last few weeks, since I had my coaching call with Tanya Elfersy \that you can listen to on episode 53.



As I said, a couple of weeks ago, my eating habits have been way better. 



I’m so grateful for that. And I’m really happy because it feels like I turned a corner. I had had more insights, learned some more stuff as we do. It’s an ongoing journey. It’s never over is it really? I think as long as we’re alive, we’re going to be continuing to learn. 



Since then, since that corner that I turned, I’ve noticed some more some thinking and more thinking that I’m comfortable with about perfection about holding myself to a standard when it comes to eating that feels a l...

One Big Mystery, Four Possible Suspects with Greg Hickey

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