Hey friend!

I disappeared for six months. And I need to tell you why.

Because what happened to me in 2025? It's probably happening to you right now.

I ran a 101-day gauntlet. Wrote a children's story every single day. Published a podcast episode every single day. Ran at least a mile every single day. I crushed it.

Then the challenge ended. The constraints lifted. And I completely lost my way.

I thought I needed better systems. Tighter deadlines. More AI efficiency. So I tried to publish a book a week for seven weeks straight.

I failed.

Not because I lacked discipline. Not because I needed better tools. I failed because my creative identity wasn't anchored in Christ.

And when identity isn't anchored, every system eventually collapses.

Here's what I discovered during my creative identity crisis: I had trained AI to write like me so well that I stopped being me. I outsourced the hard, fulfilling work of creation. I lost myself in the efficiency.

The books were good. But they were missing something critical.

They were missing me.

So I blew them all up and started over. And on my 48th birthday, I launched the 50 by 50 Challenge: publish 50 books, complete 50 10Ks, and transform 50 lives by the time I turn 50.

I'm 48 now. I started at zero. And I'm currently three books in.

This episode is my return to the mic with one core message:

Your creative identity is the foundation on which your writing dreams stand. Start with WHO. And WHO starts with God.

Because here's what I now know to be true:

Christ anchors identity.

Miss one link in that chain and you stay stuck living as a contradiction—dreaming like a professional while showing up like an amateur.

In this episode, I'm unpacking:

My word for 2026 is SPEAK. So I'm back.

Welcome to the adventure.

Your life isn’t a blank slate. It’s a thousand-piece puzzle.

Between kids, work, health, faith, and relationships, “just write at 5am every day” doesn’t fit for everyone. That’s why professional authors build flexible frameworks that adapt to real life instead of forcing routines that break under chaos.

In this episode, I’ll show you how to use the Jigsaw Puzzle Method to design a writing system that honors your actual life and still makes writing consistent.

You’ll learn:

🎯 Adventure Challenge: Sketch your life puzzle. Name your corner pieces. Circle one 15–30 minute writing block that actually fits this week. Then write a scene starting with: “When he pressed the last piece into place, the puzzle began to breathe.”

Your life is not chaos. It’s a beautiful puzzle. And writing is one of the essential pieces.

Keep the words rolling and the adventures unfolding,

Bonnie Jean

Next Steps:

Escape into the Land of Zandador (the books I write under my pen name of Author D.K. Drake): Purchase one or all of the Dragon Stalker Bloodline Saga books on Amazon.

Connect: Send me an email at [email protected]. 

If this episode gave you a wake-up call, share it with a fellow writer and drop a review! Your feedback keeps this show alive and thriving.

For decades, I wrote in bursts—finishing and publishing four novels over twenty years, but I never truly saw myself as a disciplined author. I thought about writing daily, but I wasn’t actually creating daily. That gap between declaration and demonstration was holding me back.

In this episode, I reveal why aspirations alone don’t define identity — actions do — and how to use the evidence from your daily life to build an unshakable author identity. We’ll talk about why most identity work fails, how to spot the gap between who you say you are and who you actually are, and how to install one small habit that proves your identity every single day.

Whether you’ve been stuck in stop-start cycles or you’re tired of calling yourself a writer without the daily proof to back it up, this episode will give you the exact steps to start closing the gap today.

What You’ll Learn:

Why most identity work collapses without outside-in evidence

How to identify patterns that reveal your true values

How to borrow discipline from other areas of life to fuel your writing habit

The difference between aspirational identity and evidence-based identity

One daily action that builds your author foundation

Keep the words rolling and the adventures unfolding,

Bonnie Jean

Next Steps:

Escape into the Land of Zandador (the books I write under my pen name of Author D.K. Drake): Purchase one or all of the Dragon Stalker Bloodline Saga books on Amazon.

📢 Subscribe & Review:

If this episode gave you a wake-up call, share it with a fellow writer and drop a review! Your feedback keeps this show alive and thriving.

Ever had a character do something totally out of character—and it felt fake?

In today’s episode, a charging deer disrupts my dog walking expedition and reveals a storytelling truth:

Great character moments come from internal programming breaks.

When your character’s default behavior no longer serves them—and they know it—that’s when real transformation begins.

🎯 You’ll learn:

Why plot twists rooted in internal change hit harder than shock value

How to identify your character’s default operating system

The key question that reveals when their “programming” breaks

🎧 Whether your character is a people-pleaser, perfectionist, coward, or control freak, this episode will help you discover the moment they stop being who they’ve always been and become someone new.

Keep the words rolling and the adventures unfolding,

Bonnie Jean

Next Steps:

Escape into the Land of Zandador (the books I write under my pen name of Author D.K. Drake): Purchase one or all of the Dragon Stalker Bloodline Saga books on Amazon.

📢 Subscribe & Review:

If this episode gave you a wake-up call, share it with a fellow writer and drop a review! Your feedback keeps this show alive and thriving.

What if you’ve been waiting on the wrong milestone to claim the right identity?

You don’t need a book deal, an audience, or a spot on the bestseller list to call yourself a professional author. What you do need? Daily discipline. Conviction. Integrity. And the guts to show up...especially when no one’s watching.

In today’s episode of The Adventurous Author Podcast, we expose:

✔️ Why bestselling is a status you can buy, but professional is a title you must become

Keep the words rolling and the adventures unfolding,

Bonnie Jean

Next Steps:

📩 Ready to go pro with a little guidance?

Email [email protected] with Pro Author in the subject line. Let’s build a writing life that’s both fun and founded on your convictions.

Escape into the Land of Zandador (the books I write under my pen name of Author D.K. Drake): Purchase one or all of the Dragon Stalker Bloodline Saga books on Amazon.

📢 Subscribe & Review:

If this episode gave you a wake-up call, share it with a fellow writer and drop a review! Your feedback keeps this show alive and thriving.

Want to know the secret storytelling formula that powers every great book, movie, and personal story you’ve ever loved?

Then listen in because we’re breaking down how to use Hero + Goal + Obstacle to create stories that feel meaningful, emotionally resonant, and easier to write—even when you’re short on time.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll discover:

✔️ Why your brain craves clarity in stories (and life)

✔️ The difference between external and internal goals

✔️ How to create real conflict that fuels transformation

✔️ The 3 clarity questions to test every story idea—fast

✔️ Why this mindset shift makes writing feel inevitable, not optional.

Listen now.

Keep the words rolling and the adventures unfolding,

Bonnie Jean

Next Steps:

Escape into the Land of Zandador (the books I write under my pen name of Author D.K. Drake): Purchase one or all of the Dragon Stalker Bloodline Saga books on Amazon.

📢 Subscribe & Review:

If this episode gave you a wake-up call, share it with a fellow writer and drop a review! Your feedback keeps this show alive and thriving.

Grok 4 dropped last week with powers that would have fried our brains twelve months ago: PhD reasoning, quarter-million-token memory, live web claws—the works.

Cue the collective panic: “Will anybody even need human writers now?”

Hard stop.

The truth is the exact opposite: The sharper AI becomes, the more priceless a human creative identity is—if you know how to wield it.

In this episode you’ll discover ⬇️

The Creative Identity Principle—why every new AI upgrade multiplies whatever you bring to the table (mediocrity or genius).

The three core elements of an un-stealable creative identity (convictions, character, mission) and how they steer any collaboration.

A simple 3-question pre-prompt ritual that prevents “AI bland-wash” and keeps your voice unmistakable.

Real-world “wrong vs. right” examples so you never hand the steering wheel to the robot.

A future-proof mindset that turns every AI release into rocket fuel for your calling.

Listen now.

Keep the words rolling and the adventures unfolding,

Bonnie Jean

Next Steps:

Escape into the Land of Zandador (the books I write under my pen name of Author D.K. Drake): Purchase one or all of the Dragon Stalker Bloodline Saga books on Amazon.

📢 Subscribe & Review:

If this episode gave you a wake-up call, share it with a fellow writer and drop a review! Your feedback keeps this show alive and thriving.

You wouldn’t sprint through an airport without paying attention to the signs. So why write a story without knowing your genre’s rules?

In today’s episode, we’re unpacking:

✔️ Why genre tropes aren’t creative handcuffs—they’re your storytelling GPS

✔️ The secret to delivering what readers crave without sounding cliché

✔️ How to twist tropes strategically (instead of confusing your reader)

✔️ A 15-minute challenge that helps you master your genre starting today

🎯 Whether you write romance, fantasy, thrillers—or mix them—genre tropes are your map to reader trust, story clarity, and creative confidence.

🎧 Listen now.

Keep the words rolling and the adventures unfolding,

Bonnie Jean

Next Steps:

Escape into the Land of Zandador (the books I write under my pen name of Author D.K. Drake): Purchase one or all of the Dragon Stalker Bloodline Saga books on Amazon.

📢 Subscribe & Review:

If this episode gave you a wake-up call, share it with a fellow writer and drop a review! Your feedback keeps this show alive and thriving.

Ever wonder how actors bring characters to life with such depth and emotion?

In this behind-the-scenes conversation, we dive into the character work of Megan, a gifted actress who played Maria in The Sound of Music. You’ll see exactly how she took lines off a script and turned them into a fully embodied human being—and what fiction writers can learn from that transformation process.

Inside this episode:

✔️ What theater taught her about building believable backstory

✔️ Why understanding your entire cast matters when shaping your main character

✔️ How rehearsals mirror the writing-and-revision process

✔️ Why letting your characters “play” in different scenes leads to stronger stories

✔️ The surprising ways secondary characters shape the protagonist’s arc.

🎧 Listen now.

Keep the words rolling and the adventures unfolding,

Bonnie Jean

Next Steps:

Escape into the Land of Zandador (the books I write under my pen name of Author D.K. Drake): Purchase one or all of the Dragon Stalker Bloodline Saga books on Amazon.

📢 Subscribe & Review:

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a fellow writer and drop a review! Your feedback keeps this show alive and thriving.

Ever notice how fast you can move when you're about to miss a train? What if you brought that same urgency to your writing?

In today’s episode of The Adventurous Author:

✔️ Why fake deadlines create real creative results

🎧 Listen now.

Keep the words rolling and the adventures unfolding,

Bonnie Jean

Next Steps:

🔥 Adventurous Enough for a 101-Day Mega Challenge?

START TODAY at LeagueOfAdventurousAuthors.com. No cost. Except relentless commitment.

Because the difference between ‘wanting to write’ and ‘being a writer’ is simple… you write.

Escape into the Land of Zandador (the books I write under my pen name of Author D.K. Drake): Purchase one or all of the Dragon Stalker Bloodline Saga books on Amazon.

📢 Subscribe & Review:

If this episode gave you a wake-up call, share it with a fellow writer and drop a review! Your feedback keeps this show alive and thriving.