Writer's Voices

Diana Leaf Christian is sought after internationally as an author, speaker, and consultant to eco-villages, co-housing communities, and other types of intentional communities.  Her first book was Finding Community: How to join an eco-village or intentional community. Her second is Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Eco-Villages and Intentional Communities .

Diana was editor of Communities Magazine for 14 years, and now publishes “Ecovillages” – a free online newsletter about eco-villages worldwide.

Diana’s articles have appeared in Mother Earth News, Permaculture Activist, Cohousing magazine, and the Encyclopedia of Community. She has been interviewed by the New York Times, Time Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, AARP magazine, Peak Moment TV, New Dimensions Radio, NPR, and the BBC. Diana lives in an off-grid home at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina.

Diana visited our town of Fairfield, Iowa twice this year. The first time was to give her slide show entitled Eco-Villages: Where they are, What they’re doing, and Why they’re important. Her second visit to Fairfield this year was to speak at MUM’s annual eco-fair. She gave a talk entitled “Spiritually Oriented Ecovillages: Consciousness, Ecological Sustainability, and Service to Others.”

In our second “Oz” themed show, Carol de Giere speaks with Monica Hadley and Caroline Kilbourn about the making of Wizard of Oz Prequel “Wicked” and what she learned about the show’s composer through writing her book, Defying Gravity: the Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked. From writing Godspell’s score at age 23 through the making of the megahit Wicked, Stephen Schwartz has had an amazing career. For this first authorized biography, de Giere draws from 80 hours of interviews with Schwartz and over 100 interviews with his friends, family, and colleagues. In this Writers Voice podcast, de Giere gives examples from a series of “Creativity Notes” included in her book that offer insights from Stephen Schwartz about writing and the artistic life.

“In Defying Gravity, Carol de Giere pulls back the curtain and gives us a fascinating glimpse into the creative process of one of the musical theater’s greatest wizards.” — Stephen Flaherty, Tony-Award winning composer

For more information on this book, please visit http://www.defyinggravitythebook.com

Writers Voices unveils the makings of The Wizard of Oz through biographer Evan Schwartz, author of Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story . Schwartz reveals the life experiences and spiritual teachings that inspired The Wizard of Oz. Involving a a real yellow brick road  and a Swami from the 1893 World’s Fair, this is a fascinating inside look into a familiar tale. You might even find yourself pondering, “Am I a good witch or a bad witch…or both?!”

Next week, we visit the land of Oz again with Carol de Giere , author of Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked .

Efficiency Guru Michael Linenberger is a renowned teacher, consultant, speaker and author. His “Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook”, was the #1 bestselling book on Microsoft Outlook for four years running.

His new M a ster Your Workday Now! Proven Strategies to Control Chaos, Create Outcomes & Connect Your Work to Who You Really Are will help you you maximize your productivity and find your “life’s work”.

For Chamaigne’s thoughts on this interview, see her blog .

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Christine Arylo speaks on the self-love, and the international holiday she created to celebrate it.  Her book, Choosing Me Before We , gives tips and tools for discovering your core values in partnership, and encourages you not to settle for less. You may have seen Christine featured on many national TV shows, but we were lucky to get a whole hour with her to go beyond sound-bites and really talk about relationships, good signs and bad, following your intuition, and much more.  In the second half of the interview we also discussed the writing and publishing process and how this book came to be.

Christine traded in her career helping to build brand images for companies like Gap, Visa, and Frito Lay, to help 21st Century women find the love they are looking for — within themselves, and within fulfilling relationships based on that core strength of self-knowledge and self-love.

You can read Chamaigne’s behind-the-scenes comments here .

Michael Gates-Gill is the author of “How Starbucks Saved My Life” , a riches to rags story of finding greater happiness and fulfillment in the simple life.  The response to his first book was overwhelming.  In response, Michael distilled many of the life lessons learned into this new book , “How to Save Your Own Life” .

Janice Taylor , author of “Our Lady of Weight Loss; Miraculous and Motivational Musings from the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal”, uses her comedic genius to inspire audiences that it is possible to trim down.  Need more help?  You can join her kick-in-the-tush club or try a helping of her “sage advice”.  Her own “Permanent Fat Removal” story is quite remarkable, and her sense of humor kept us in stitches.  If you want to improve your relationship with food and enjoy a good laugh, you’ll love this interview.

Dr. Daniels is a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford Medical School. He served as co-director of the First International Enneagram Conference at Stanford University in August 1994 and has taught the enneagram system internationally for 15 years.  He is also a founding director of the International Enneagram Association (IEA).

His newly re-released version of The Essential Enneagram (co-authored with Virginia Price, PhD.) is the most fundamental guide to the enneagram ever offered.  The original 2000 release sold over 100,000 copies and was translated into over 10 languages.

Monica Hadley and Chamaigne Montana talk with Dr. Steven Covey about his latest book, “Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times” . Dr. Covey’s previous book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” has been named the #1 most influential business book of the Twentieth Century.

Recognized as one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential Americans, Stephen R. Covey has dedicated his life to demonstrating how every person can truly control their destiny with profound, yet straightforward guidance. As an Internationally respected leadership authority, family expert, teacher, organizational consultant, and author, his advice has given insight to millions.

Vice Chairman and co-founder of Franklin Covey Co, Dr. Stephen Covey earned an MBA from Harvard and a doctorate from BYU, where he was a professor of organizational behavior. For more than 40 years, Stephen Covey has taught millions of people – including presidents of nations and corporations-the transforming power of the principles that govern individual and organizational effectiveness.

Dr. David Simon , neurologist and co-founder of the Chopra Center ,  has a personal mission to facilitate the integration of complementary and conventional medicine in the 21st century.  He has become one of the nation’s foremost authorities on effective and appropriate use of holistic health care practices, and he continues to research and develop clinical programs in mind-body medicine.

At the Chopra center, Dr. Simon is the driving force behind the development and implementation of the Center’s flagship programs, such as “Journey into Healing”, “Seduction of Spirit”, “Perfect Health”, “Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga”, “Primordial Sound Meditation”, and “Free to Love, Free to Heal”.  Dr. Simon directs a comprehensive curriculum with on-site and worldwide dimensions.

It was our privilege to welcome Dr. Simon to Writers’ Voices for an in-depth discussion of his work. We hope you’ll enjoy this podcast and tell us what you think!