Travel Time Stories with Shannon: Real Journeys, Real Stories, Real Healing

Dr. Stephen Paul Edwards returns to Travel Time Stories for a deeper, nontraditional author conversation. Building on his first episode’s challenge to how we think about love, toxic relationships, vulnerability, and emotional healing, he discusses his new novel The Venus Fly Trap 2: Enough Is Never Enough and shares perspectives to help listeners reframe love, identify toxic patterns, and support emotional healing.

If you've ever questioned a relationship, struggled with boundaries, or wondered why letting go can be so difficult, this episode will leave you with plenty to think about. 

Dr. Stephen Edwards: 

Free Consultation: https://vft23.com/coaching-and-counselling/ 

Website: https://vft23.com/ 

Venus Fly Trap Book 1(three free chapters): https://bit.ly/4n1lyvv

Venus Fly Trap Book 2(three free chapters): https://vft23.kit.com/fc06ad02d7 

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

Author Spotlight: Wendy M. Kok (A Grey Resort). 

Shannon Lamkin explores Kok’s writing journey and the real-life experiences behind the novel — intuition, spiritual encounters, and unexplained phenomena. We discuss storytelling choices, how personal history shaped the book, and craft techniques writers can use when weaving intuition into fiction. For listeners of literary fiction, spiritual memoirs, and writers seeking creative insight. Duration: 38 minutes.

Tell me in the comments:
Do you trust your intuition when something just feels right—or wrong—even when you can't explain why?

Information about Wendy and where to find A Grey Resort is below:
https://link.amazon/B0iYKbspf
https://wendymkokauthor.net/

@wendymkokauthor

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

When desire fades but the relationship remains: Shannon and Ann sit with Dr. Lori Davis, board-certified FNP and Certified Sex Counselor, to explore mismatched desire, menopause-related changes, and emotional disconnect. 

Learn what to watch for, when to consider counseling, and how couples can begin restoring intimacy. Practical insight, compassion, and professional perspective for partners navigating shifting desire.What happens when desire fades… but the relationship is still there?

If you’ve ever thought:

•  “Why don’t I feel the same anymore?” 
•  “Are we just out of sync… or is something wrong?” 
•  “Is intimacy over for me?” 

You are not alone.

 Find Dr. Lori Davis at https://dr-loridavis.com/  

🎙️ In This Episode, We Talk About:

✨ What mismatched desire really means (and why it happens)
 ✨ How emotional and physical disconnection develop over time
 ✨ The truth about menopause and its impact on intimacy
 ✨ Why shame keeps people stuck—and how to move past it
 ✨ How to rebuild connection in a way that feels authentic and safe
 ✨ Small, practical steps you can take starting today

Dr. Lori brings both medical expertise and emotional understanding—helping us move beyond labels and into a more compassionate, realistic view of intimacy.

💬 Let us know in the comments:
What’s one thing you wish people talked about more openly in relationships?

⚠️ This episode discusses topics related to intimacy, relationships, and sexual health.

🔔 Subscribe for more real conversations about life, relationships, and the journeys that shape who we are.

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

Travel Time Stories Author Spotlight: fantasy author C.A. House (Archblade: Legend of the Defiler) on making magic believable, crafting monsters, and writing morally complex villains. This character-first conversation explores world building, building magic systems, and why characters—not just genre—pull readers in. Perfect for writers seeking craft tips and readers who love immersive, character-driven fantasy.

📚 Featured Book: Archblade: Legend of the Defiler

https://link.amazon/B0hzwKSCq
 ✍️ Author: C.A. House

 https://linktr.ee/archbladecahouse
 🎙️ Series: Travel Time Stories — Author Spotlight Series

Subscribe for more conversations with authors across every genre.

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

Shannon and Ann sit down with Derrik Dyka, author of Good Grief Travel, to explore how travel can support healing after losing a partner. Hear candid stories about grief, loneliness, reinvention, and practical ways travel helped him rebuild life after 24 years of marriage. Useful for travelers, people grieving, and anyone facing major life change. 

Derrik's Info:

https://goodgrieftravel.com/

Pick up a copy of his book Good Grief Travel

#podmatch #grief #grieftravel #healingtravel #lossofspouse #cancersucks #healingljourney #goodgrieftravel #traveltimestorieswithshannon #lifeafterloss 

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

In this episode of Travel Time Stories: The Author Spotlight Series, Shannon and Ann sit down with US Navy veteran, AuDHD author, comic book nerd and unapologetically weird storyteller Geoffrey Breedwell to go behind the pages of his sci-fi novel, Just Put the VHS in the Bag, Bro. 

This episode is packed with high-school roots, dinosaur-evolved aliens, an ancient VHS tape, a Mexican cartel, One Piece references, and the caffeine-fueled storytelling that fuels his work. 

Expect a lively, chaotic conversation that reveals how bizarre ideas take shape and why readers keep returning for the unexpected. 😂 

Somehow, through all the aliens, VHS tapes, anime and laughter, we still manage to find our way back to creativity, friendship, dreams and the wonderfully strange mind behind the story.

📖 Featured Book: Just Put the VHS in the Bag, Bro
✍️ Featured Author: Geoffrey Breedwell

 Geoffreybreedwell.com  

Social Handle: @geoffreybreedwell 

If you love science fiction, absurd humor, neurodivergent creativity, One Piece—or conversations that refuse to stay on script—this Spotlight is for you.

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

Author Spotlight: Shannon interviews Sai Marie Johnson (author, screenwriter, poet) about her fantasy novel Of Masters & Slaves — a tale of ancient oaths, dormant magic, betrayal and dangerous choices. Hear how Johnson’s world building reflects inner life, the novel’s central themes, and her creative approach across poetry, screenwriting and prose. Episode for fantasy readers, writers, and anyone curious about storytelling craft and character stakes.

Then we go beyond the book.

Sai describes herself simply as:

“I'm just a woman with a dream and a pen.”

That becomes the doorway into a much more personal conversation about her journey as a writer, the relationship between creativity and healing, and how the stories we create can sometimes help us understand parts of ourselves.

📖 Featured Book: Of Masters & Slaves

https://amzn.to/4xHLmB2
 ✍️ Featured Author: Sai Marie Johnson

@saimariejohnson or @authorsaimariejohnson

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

Trauma-informed therapist and emotional regulation coach Felicia Brown joins Shannon & Ann to explain why high-achieving women move into survival-mode burnout and how to begin recovery. 

We unpack people-pleasing, nervous-system responses, emotional exhaustion, and rebuilding self-trust. Takeaways: how to spot signs of chronic burnout, practical emotional-regulation strategies to calm your nervous system, and steps to reduce people-pleasing and restore self-trust.

This conversation is for every woman who feels:
 ✨ emotionally exhausted
 ✨ stuck in overthinking and perfectionism
 ✨ disconnected from herself
 ✨ valued only for productivity
 ✨ burned out from surviving

🎙️ In This Episode:

🖤 Burnout & survival mode
 🌿 Nervous system healing
 ❤️ Parenting children with trauma
 🧠 Emotional regulation & self-trust
 ✨ Productivity-based self-worth
 🍷 Honest conversations about overachievement and healing

💬 COMMENT BELOW:
 Have you ever realized your “success” was actually survival mode?

🔔 Subscribe for more conversations about healing, identity, transformation, and the stories that shape us.

Felicia Brown: 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/felicia-brown-streator-il/1461420

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575951900215

https://www.instagram.com/feliciabrownlpc/

https://www.tiktok.com/@feliciabrownlpc

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

Shannon sits down with Spetz, author of Magnetic North: Navigating Love and Life with a Busted Binnacle. When Spetz told a dating service he wanted “surprises,” he got more than he bargained for. 

This Author Spotlight episode delivers funny, heartfelt, and unconventional stories about dating, bad decisions, and the search for connection—perfect for listeners who like candid author interviews and memoir storytelling.

We also explore the friendships that survive our worst decisions, the people we never completely forget, and the question hiding underneath Magnetic North:

Who—or what—becomes our compass when we aren't entirely sure where we're going?

And because Spetz describes himself as someone with a day job, a “repressed author,” and decidedly not a serious person, you can probably guess this isn't your typical literary interview.

📖 Featured Book: Magnetic North: Navigating Love and Life with a Busted Binnacle

https://amzn.to/45Qr9wT
 ✍️ Featured Author: Spetz

@spetzbook or @teamspetz

Come for the dating disasters.

Stay for the heart. ❤️

#bookrecommendations #authors #authorcommunity #authorssupportingauthors #authorsoffacebook #authorsofinstagram #memoirs #newepisode #tunein #authorspotlightseries #traveltimestorieswithshannon #funnydatingstories #spetzbook #magneticnorthbook #christopherhitchens 

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

Author Spotlight: poet Nicole Goodwin (GOODW.Y.N.), author of Warcrimes, on trauma, motherhood, love, and writing through war. 

Host Shannon Lamkin explores how a raw poetry collection becomes a tool for resilience and healing. Candid conversation about trauma poetry, creative process, and finding connection after conflict. Runtime 42:16. 

GOODW.Y.N.'s experiences as a soldier in Iraq didn't simply disappear when the deployment ended. In our conversation, we explore what happens when the physical war is over but another battle continues within—and how poetry became a place to confront experiences that weren't always easy to put into ordinary words.

We talk about trauma and the writing of Warcrimes, finding catharsis through poetry, and the complicated journey from war and hate toward love. GOODW.Y.N. shares how their experiences as a soldier, mother, writer, artist, and seeker have shaped both their work and their humanity.

We explore the extraordinary ability of poetry to give language to difficult emotions and create connection between people whose lives may look completely different.

GOODW.Y.N. is a 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry longlistee, a 2023 RWW Creative Nonfiction Fellow, and a 2018 Ragdale Alice Judson Hayes Fellowship recipient. Their writing has also appeared in The New York Times Motherlode.

📖 Featured Book: Warcrimes 

https://amzn.to/4xBr2Bj
✍️ Featured Author: GOODW.Y.N. (Nicole Goodwin)

@goodw.y.n9 or [email protected]

https://www.traveltimestories.com/