In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are talking with author, blogger, and former ad-man Chris Thelen.

We talk about publishing his fun thriller, Islands of Deception. He highlights how important it is to have a great team when publishing a book. The goodness that comes from being surrounded by smart and supportive people.

We talk about how he incorporates key locations from his home state of Michigan in the book and the lifetime of experiences that made it fun and personal to write about.

Chris tells us how he landed on classifying it as a “beach read” and how that affected his marketing strategies.

And we talk about all the reasons not to publish – and the big ones that compel us to do it anyway. This is a great episode about the journey to becoming an author.

We know you’ll love it!

Episode 57 show notes

Chris' blog: Chris G. Thelen, Author

Book website: Islands of Deception

Islands of Deception on Amazon

From the hosts:

Vicki’s personal blog: Victoria Ponders

Wynne’s personal blog: Surprised by Joy

Vicki’s recently released book: Surviving Sue

Wynne’s book about her beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are talking with Edgerton award winning playwright, musician, and writer Jack Canfora.  

Talking with Jack is like attending a master class on creativity. In fact, our conversation with Jack is so rich with both writing practices and nuggets about authors and artists that we split it into two episodes.

In the first episode of this series that aired last week, we talked about writing practices Jack uses when in a lull and about creative attention.

In this second episode, we delve into the balance of sentences. Jack, trained as a Shakespearean actor, even recites a few lines of Hamlet for us (see this video snippet).

We talk about the responsibility of writers to their audience, whomever that may be, when they hit the publish button. And the confidence required to keep doing our best and putting things out there.

Jack holds that there are no writing rules – but there are some guidelines. He shares some of his, along with ideas for training as a writer.

Episode 56 show notes

Jack's website: Jack Canfora | Playwright | Podcaster | Writing Coach

Jack's Online Theater Company: New Normal Rep

Jericho by Jack Canfora on Amazon

Jack Canfora on Instagram and Twitter: @jackcanfora

Other podcast episodes featuring Jack:

Episode 4: Why Theater Matters

Episode 55: Master Class in Creativity with Jack Canfora - Part I

From the hosts:

Vicki’s personal blog: Victoria Ponders

In this episode, Wynne Leon and Vicki Atkinson are talking with Edgerton award winning playwright, musician, and writer Jack Canfora.  

Talking with Jack is like attending a master class on creativity. In fact, our conversation with Jack is so rich with both writing practices and nuggets about authors and artists that we’ve split it into two episodes.

In this first episode, we talk with Jack about depression and creative expression. He adds some fantastic and funny insight from comedian, Gary Gulman (HBO special: The Great Depresh).

Jack also reveals a couple of his brilliant ways to experiment when he’s hit a creative lull. His answer about whether he writes long-hand will have you giggling right along with Vicki and me.

He tells us what is hard to teach and important to learn about creative attention. And he shares with us a delightful story about the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby that exposes an intimate insight into the creative process. (Here's a video clip of Jack telling this story)

With all the food for thought and inspiration, we know you will have plenty of chew on until the conclusion of our incredible conversation airs next week.

We love talking with the brilliant and funny Jack Canfora and leave each conversation a little bit smarter, much more inspired to hone the craft of writing, and in awe of a master creator. We know you’ll love this episode!

Links for this Episode:

Episode 55 show notes

Jack's website: Jack Canfora | Playwright | Podcaster | Writing Coach

Jack's Online Theater Company: New Normal Rep

Jericho by Jack Canfora on Amazon

Jack Canfora on Instagram and Twitter: @jackcanfora

From the hosts:

Vicki’s personal blog: Victoria Ponders

Wynne’s personal blog: Surprised by Joy

Vicki’s recently released book: Surviving Sue

Wynne’s book about her beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and I are with stylist, and my sister-in-law, Lindsey Bauer.

We are so delighted to air this conversation with Lindsey as she shares nuggets from her long career in the fashion industry involving design, manufacturing, and retail.

She tells us about the geometry of looking long and lean instead of fruit shaped.

Lindsey tells us why we shouldn’t buy clothes at Costco.

We talk through Lindsey's top three priorities when buying new clothes.

Vicki and I ask her about her process of styling a client and why she starts at the closet, not at the store.

Lindsey shares what she has learned along the way about color and enhancing that sense.

And we bring this episode full circle to creativity when we talk about my brother, Jay, who is also incredibly creative. She tells us about how living on a boat with no square corners constantly challenges their ingenuity. Lindsey tells us how they tackle it together.

This is a great episode about another facet of creativity – style. Lindsey gives us some great encouragement about how to be comfortable in our own skin.

We know you’ll love it!

Episode 54 show notes

Lindsey's website: Style Lindsey

Lindsey Bauer on LinkedIn

Lindsey Bauer on Instagram: StyleLindsey1

From the hosts:

Vicki’s personal blog: Victoria Ponders

Wynne’s personal blog: Surprised by Joy

Vicki’s recently released book: Surviving Sue

Wynne’s book about her beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

In this episode, Vicki and Wynne talk with David from the Pinwheel in a Hurricane and Unwanted blogs.

David has so much to offer when it comes to the goodness of the creative process – for solidifying clarity, integration, and healing.

The tagline for David’s Pinwheel in a Hurricane blog is “an attempt at adding to the fray without just making noise.”

David tells us about his experience blogging for 10 years and how the first hurdle was just to believe that he had a voice.

We talk about sharing and telling stories – and how that allows all of our internal perspectives to come forward with their viewpoints.

And that “writing helps the swirly stuff in my brain have a soft place to land” to borrow a great phrase from David. A way to integrate ourselves and connect the dots.

David’s current focus is on practice and we love hearing how he’s reclaimed that word. Instead of the rigor and disciplinarian focus on practice as something that must be done to master anything, like a musical instrument, David is reimagining it as a word that holds space for kindness. As a gentle word that allows repetition to learn things he’s messed up before and to do it with self-compassion.

This is a great episode about the incredibly healing nature of what happens when we sit down to write. We love David’s viewpoint and experience as he brings forward all the goodness. We know you’ll love it!

Links for this episode:

Episode 53 show notes

Transcript for Episode 53 of the podcast

David's Pinwheel in a Hurricane blog

David's Unwanted Blog

David's recent post soft place that explains how writing helps the swirly stuff in the brain have a soft place to land

From the hosts:

Vicki’s personal blog: Victoria Ponders

Wynne’s personal blog: Surprised by Joy

Vicki’s recently released book: Surviving Sue

Wynne’s book about her beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

In this episode, Wynne Leon is with co-host Dr. Vicki Atkinson and they’re talking about unlocking secrets. Both Vicki and I have published books about family. Vicki about her mom, Sue, and me about my dad, Dick. As we’ve discussed in other podcasts, writing about family is hard.

But it’s also instructive - we learn so much about ourselves and where we come from. It’s a path that we’ve found to be so illuminating because we get to build on the secrets from those who went before.

Vicki talks about one of the secrets she learned which was not to keep secrets. Is it possible that underlying all or most of Sue’s issues was the toxicity of keeping secrets?

And what secrets did I learn from my dad? My dad had a formula for doing the next right thing, staying focused on what he was called to do, and then turning over the results to a Higher Power. The luxury I got was being able to talk to him about that as well as see him live it day in and day out.

Like Vicki was able to do with her dad, Sonny. Sonny had the 10-5 rule. Acknowledge people within 10 feet and greet them within 5 feet. It’s the kind of secret that carries itself forward in generational goodness.

Vicki and I have a great conversation about these secrets and more. We talk about all the benefits that come from writing about life. The secrets that we are able to pick up by diving down deep to find pearls of wisdom. It’s hard work – but the payoff is huge! Please join us in this episode as we share what we learned. We know you’ll love it!

Links for this Episode:

Wynne's post about her dad's formula for success: Fatherly Wisdom

Vicki's post about the 10-5 rule: Sunny Sonny

Vicki’s personal blog: Victoria Ponders

Wynne’s personal blog: Surprised by Joy

Vicki’s recently released book: Surviving Sue

Wynne’s book about her beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

In this episode, Wynne Leon is with my co-host Dr. Vicki Atkinson and we’re talking with author and illustrator, Dave Williams.

I love bookstores and have a soft spot for any book written in them. Novels like The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin are two of my favorites.

But I’ve never met anyone that was raised in a bookstore – until now. Dave Williams grew up working in his grandparents bookstore – a converted Victorian house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Dave shares about that experience and how it instilled the magic of stories. And then how it carried forward to passing on that magic to his twin daughters.

Vicki and I ask him how he developed his talent. He tells us how he set his writing and creativity aside for a time. That is, until he saw what fun his daughters were having at craft time when they were young girls.

We talk about working our way from writing what we think we should write to writing what lights our own creative fire. And how being curious and interested in lots of things helps spark ideas.

Dave shares his tips and tricks like asking “what if” questions and being inspired by the playfulness of kids. This is such a fun episode with the incredibly delightful and prolific, Dave Williams. We know you’ll love it!

Links for this episode:

Episode 51 show notes

Transcript for Episode 51 of the podcast

Dave's blog: Dave Williams

Dave's author page on Amazon: Dave Williams

We are celebrating our 50th podcast in this episode. We talk about my favorite quote as it relates to pulling ourselves together to start something – and then sticking with it.

Your first podcast will be awful.
Your first video will be awful.
Your first article will be awful.
Your first art will be awful.
Your first photo will be awful.
But you can't make your 50th without making your first.
So get it over with, and make it.

Vicki calls it the pancake quote - the first one out of the pan is never the best. For me, it is all about celebrating the art of practice. An ode to the process of becoming.

I wouldn’t say that every part has been awful. But there have been many things that have felt awkward. Working up the courage to ask strangers to be guests. Listening to our own voices. Finding our way to the heart of the matter.

So Vicki and I talk about the discoveries. Like the realization that at this age we aren’t coming at this from nothing – we get a boost by bringing our professional and personal knowledge to a new practice.

And the three things we learned:

One of the most wonderful parts of this journey has been our generous listeners. Thank you so much for coming along with us on this exploration. We are so grateful for your time and comments.

This is a great episode for anyone who is surfing the waves of learning something new. Come along with us and celebrate that practice might not make perfect (speaking for ourselves), but it can be so rewarding as we keep growing. I know you’ll love it.

Episode 50 show notes

Vicki’s personal blog: Victoria Ponders

Wynne’s personal blog: Surprised by Joy

Vicki’s recently released book: Surviving Sue

Wynne’s book about her beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

The Sharing the Heart of the Matter podcast is back with its first episode of 2024! This year we are putting special emphasis on the why and how of creativity. We start the season with a special episode with Dr. Vicki Atkinson. We know and love our writing, blogging friend, and podcasting friend Vicki. But of course, dear Vicki has worn a lot of other hats – therapist, professor, college dean, and author.

And one of the places where her incredible experience wearing all these hats comes together? Six-word stories. On this podcast we get to learn about the history, benefits and examples of six-word stories from Dr. Victoria Atkinson.

We start with Vicki reading a post she wrote about six-word stories as it related to finding forgiveness process for her mom. She gives us the history of these powerful short stories as made popular by writer and publisher, Larry Smith.

Vicki tells us about the therapeutic value of forcing this brevity to check in and crystallize thoughts. She gives us a powerful reminder of how we can often feel more in control and on top of things when we package things in ways that feel like we can hold them in our hands.

Vicki gives us some wonderful examples of these potent and portable missives from her own life, and those shared by clients and students. She even circles back to one from our recent conversation with Dr. Gerald Stein: “I like to make new mistakes.”

Another one of my favorites comes from Vicki’s book, Surviving Sue and is about her mom, “She wore her regret like armor.” That carries the power of Vicki’s example of how crystallizing her thoughts helped her to build empathy and to find her way to forgiveness.

This is a great episode that celebrates the clarity that comes when we get quiet, the power that is unlocked when we write it out, and the gateway to growth that is opened when we use tools like six-word stories. We know you’ll love it.

Episode 49 show notes

Vicki's post: Peek Inside: “Surviving Sue” – Six-Word Style – Victoria Ponders

Larry Smith's site: Six-Word Memoirs – One Life, Six Words. What's Yours? (sixwordmemoirs.com)

Writing Our Lives in 6 Words | Psychology Today

How to Use 6-Word Memoirs in the Classroom | Edutopia

Vicki’s personal blog: Victoria Ponders

Wynne’s personal blog: Surprised by Joy

Vicki’s recently released book: Surviving Sue

Wynne’s book about her beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

In this episode, Wynne Leon and Dr. Vicki Atkinson are back with the amazing blogger and author, Stuart Perkins.

We revisit a couple of Stuart’s recent pieces that highlight the kind of people who help us and inspire us to stay steady. Stuart writes so beautifully. Period. He hooks us and we get to come along for the ride. In this case, about the moments of doubt, and characters that help us to hold on. The people that make us want to be there for others when life feels unsteady.

In his essay, Hand on the Plow, his co-worker, Ms Wade was that influence. The grounded older woman who counseled Stuart as a new employee to exhibit determination in the wake of a mistake. Stuart tells us why she was so credible, and stuck with him for decades after they worked together.

We also chat about Stuart’s recent piece that was published in The Local Scoop magazine – Because Granddaddy Liked to Fish. His family roots are so strong, whether with Nanny on the farm or with Granddaddy on Chesapeake Bay. No wonder that Stuart can capture the feeling of family so well in his writing.

Because Stuart knows how to capture the hilarity of family and being together so well. He tells us the secret of family traditions and togetherness are how they are borne of balance, the long view, and a lot of laughter.

Please join us for this great episode of staying steady – in moments of doubt and also in the long view of family and tradition. We know you’ll love it!

On a programming note, we last episode in 2023. We’ll see you in 2024. Happy holidays.

Episode 48 show notes

Stuart's blog: Storyshucker

Hand on the Plow by Stuart Perkins

Because Granddaddy Liked To Fish in The Local Scoop magazine