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She is sure, she is true, she is straw is straw,
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She is true, is true, she is praise, pray, she
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is she is you.
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Hello, everyone, Welcome to today's Word of Mom Radio. Here on
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the Word of Mom Media Network. I'm your host, Dori
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Di Carlo, and you know we are here week after week,
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show after show, breaking those myths that morepreneurs and business women,
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especially those of us building our businesses from home, that
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we're just dabbling in between bake sales and getting our
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nails done. We're not. We are smart, we are savvy,
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and we are sharing the wisdom of women in business
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and in life. And I'm looking forward to bringing today's
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guest into our author's out. Ronda Taylor Parker is an
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American writer, entrepreneur, and academic researcher. Born in Noblesville, Indiana,
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she's the second youngest of five children to Anita and
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William Parker, founders of the Steel Manufacturing Company. Childhood was
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spent in the midst of cornfields and cows, attending Heritage
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Christian School in Indianapolis. After completing a fashion merchandising program
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at Bowder College in Arlington, Texas, Ronda returned to Indiana
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where she eventually found her passion for writing. Her debut novel,
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cross Roads, a suspenseful masterpiece, was released in February of
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twenty twenty three. Endorsed by best selling author JJ Hebbert
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and Golden Globe nominated actress Mary al Anyway, the novel
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has been hailed as a captivating crime thriller that keeps
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readers intrigued from start to finish. I can totally attest
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to that it is a really good book, and I
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love a good suspense novel. So with all that being said, Rhonda,
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welcome to Word of Mom Radio.
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Thank you, thank you.
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I'm so excited to talk to not only about the book,
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but some of the background to why I wrote it
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and why I enjoy writing. Because I think everybody out
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there on your show that's listening in today, we all
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have not only challenges in our lives, but we also
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have passion and we have stories that are inside of
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us that should be told. And that's kind of where
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Crossroads started. We all come to a crossroads where we
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have to decide what's important to us and what's not.
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Just like the characters and Crossroads, so.
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Many people when you hear a crossroads, people will go
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through all different things right in the way that they're thinking,
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and the resilience, self discovery, all the different things that
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happens to different characters throughout. So I would love for
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you to take us on your journey. What led you
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to writing this book?
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Well, first, I wanted to prove to myself that I
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could write a best selling novel.
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I love to read, you.
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Know, I'd read, you know, all types of genres. I'd
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read all kinds of both academic journey because I'm a
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doctorate now, but I really wanted to One.
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Of my weaknesses was writing at first.
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So my journey came from not only wanting to prove
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I could do it to myself, but it also I
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wanted to prove that I could weave that kind.
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Of story that I had written.
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But it really came all of you entrepreneurs out there
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will really enjoy this. I was working in corporate America.
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I turned into a proposal that had all the bells
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and whistles to some saved millions of dollars and did
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the presentation and it was approved. And then I came
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back and my boss said, you know, you had a
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typo in your proposal, and I was stunned, and from
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that day on, I knew I had to be the
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best version of myself and do something that I needed
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to do for me, which was proof that even in
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your weaknesses, you can have strength, and you can improve
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and you can put together a package. And so there
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were two things that really kind of brought me to
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starting to write novels versus academic and that was first
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that comment, And second, I was working in a community
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service project, oversetting a crime watch for the one of
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the six blocks of Indianapolis that were six blocks that
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were one of the worst and watching the court cases
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and talking to the neighbors and figuring out what they
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thought needed to happen in their neighborhood. And I've realized
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that sometimes our own perspectives of the legal system of
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what's fair and what's just and what people need to do,
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really isn't what is happening. Most people are just everyday
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people trying to survive, and there is no winner or
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loser in the court system. Everybody really is a loser
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when you get into that into those doors, because when
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you get into those court scenes and you start looking
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at the young people, the old people, the you know,
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the minority groups, the ones that are in poverty, the
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ones that have money, and the people that are winning.
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When you think winning, you realize for every winner, there's
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a loser, and it's an outcome that changes everybody's life.
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Wow.
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So I'm hoped in this that it's bringing conversation, not
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just about hey, this is a great thriller, you know,
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but each book I'm hoping that it starts having conversations.
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You know that could have been me, You know that,
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you know, we've all reached those points. We might have
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been the knucklehead kid like Billy Knuckles that got in
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the car and shouldn't have and maybe it turned out
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okay for us, but it doesn't turn out okay for everybody.
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It is interesting and it's so funny as you know,
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the sixties chick, I'm so thankful that social media didn't exist,
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and my kids grew up without it too, my grandchildren.
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It's here and hopefully they're young enough. Right now, they're
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young enough that it's not going to affect them at all.
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But as they get older, who knows what it'll be
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by then. But yeah, it's very you you really do
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look back. We'll go whoa the things that yeah, you
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don't realize how one misstep could have been. You know, right,
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it so for you because I mean, let's say you're
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a writer, you're an entrepreneur, you're an academic researcher. We
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talk about balance, which to me is so silly because
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they don't have equal weep, But how do you keep
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all the balls in the air rohnda.
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I try to do it with intentionality. What I do
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is every morning I spend a few minutes with myself
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my home, and then every step of the day I
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try to say, well, let's build some joy in you know,
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we need to have at least three moments of joy.
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And then I try to lengthen it. Maybe I only
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have a minute that I can spare for that joy,
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or maybe I you know, maybe I can lengthen it
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to two joy, you know, two minutes with that joy.
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But I it could be a butterfly, it could be
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the sky rise, it could be anything that just brings
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me that moment of peace on top of the rat
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race of owning your own business, driving in a car
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like right now, I'm in the middle of a book
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tour in southern Indiana through the National Grocery Store and
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an author's Program National Authors and Grocery Store Program where
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literally I'm going from site to site of the j C. S.
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Kroger stores and having books, having book signings right there
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in like.
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A town hall meeting almost.
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With with people doing you know, doing their grocery shopping.
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And so as I'm driving down to go down to
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you know, might be bed for this year this week,
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it might be Bloomington next week, or going down this
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thing with my brother and Seymour, I realize just how
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beautiful Indiana's landscape is that people don't even think about
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most of the time because you think of other places
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as being beautiful. So I've stopped at places, taken pictures,
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and then I'm going to put up what is it
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like to be a local author?
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Because when you're up on me a small fry.
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And you're trying to supersize, you're always busy trying to
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make the next best thing. But I still have to
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move with intentional moments to allow myself to be a professional,
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to allow myself to be an author, allow myself to
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be a woman, you know, stay fit, you know, so
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you life balance requires that you reflect on what you've
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missed and put it into your life. You know today
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I'm back in Indianapolis, so what if I missed.
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I need to sit down make sure all the financials.
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And all the groceries and all the home stuff they're
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in order, so that when I'm right back out there
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and heading to Cordon in Indiana for the next you know,
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book signing, everything's taken care of. So I try not
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to get overwhelmed by it.
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I just do it. You just you know. It's kind
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of like you could.
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Buy buy fruit cut up, or you could sit there
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and meditate as you're cleaning and cutting it up for
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your refrigerator and think about what nutrients are going to
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do for your body, you know, And so I try
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to try to do that daily.
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I love that. And as somebody who buys the fruit
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and cuts it up, I know what you mean. There's
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something about it. This morning, as I was making breakfast
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and I wanted hash brown, so I took a nice
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potato and I grated it and I sees themed it
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and then I made it because I find peace in that.
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So I totally reflect and relate to that. I want
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to talk a little more about the book because it
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really is just it's got so many different facets because
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you've got crime. You have the courtroom, and it's interesting courtroom,
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see scenes going on and things like that, and the
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behind the scenes and everything, a little bit of a
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love story beginning. So I love that this is you know,
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going to be you know, another novel is going to
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continue on with one of the secondary characters, but all
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these other characters are going to come back, because I
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can't wait to see how that happens. How did you
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go about weaving all these stories?
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The first thing I did is I wanted to get
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to know my characters. Like I said, I originally thought
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it was only going to be on the courtroom drama
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and that life isn't fair. But when I got to
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know my characters, I knew there was more there.
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So I used and what.
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In the in the medical community they call a soap note.
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So you sit down and you do the history of
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the family history of the you know individual. Do they
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have emphysema, do they have you know, were they a smoker?
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Where they do they have anxiety?
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You know?
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Did they break their ankle when they were in third grade?
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You know?
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And so I wrote down the whole history, just like
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if they were to come to me as a doctor.
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And tell me their life history.
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And then I did it what they call a D
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S M five analysis, which is their mental health and
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where they are in their in their mental stability.
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And that allowed me to know how they would act
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in scenes.
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You know, Paris the main character, and I you grad
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top of her field, you know, a no nonsense kind
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of person that we all think that we're supposed to
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be the type a personality. But she's a workaholic, so
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she's completely you know where she seems.
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Perfect from all categories.
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You know, she's a nice looking woman, she's you know,
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but she's a workaholic and she's not building the rest
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of her life. And then you have Dave the the prosecutor.
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Same thing.
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He's a law and order guy. Everything he thinks of
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is from this lens of you know, the constitution, law history,
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everything that you know, his family stood for, because you know,
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he comes from a long lineage of you know, lawyers,
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and you know, so he's out of balance too in
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a different way though.
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So now you know, anybody.
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That knows a law and order guy, sometimes it's very
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hard for them to build relationships because they're so set
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and right and wrong. And then there's the silly kid
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that we all look at and think, oh, my goodness,
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he's horrible, you know. But he got in the car
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with somebody that he shouldn't have, and his parents warned
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and quit hanging out with him. He's loyal to his friends,
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and now he's in trouble. So it's up to us
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as the readers, to say, wait a minute. They all
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have life balance problems, but they're also in the scenes together,
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so their thought process and their behaviors are unique to
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them because their perspective of the whole thing is different,
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you know, based on what their loyalties are.
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On that note, I'm telling you it's a really good book.
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Think about Ronda just said, and we're going to take
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a quick break, say thank you to our supporters, and
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we'll be back here in just a moment. Onward of Mom.
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Riding, She is brave, she is old, She is you,
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and we want to tell your story. Are you ready
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to share your journey with us on Word of Mom Radio.
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Go to wordomomradio dot com and register as a guest.
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We want to tell your story because when you win,
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we all win.
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In twenty seventeen, Unsilenced Voices was formed to help survivors
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of domestic abuse and gender based violence worldwide. The organization
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currently serves Siri Leone, Rwanda, Ghana, and the USA. In
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twenty twenty two, Unsilenced Voices gifted over thirty three thousand
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dollars to survivors in the USA and in Siri Leone,
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there are over twenty six young girls who have been
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rescued from sex trafficking and domestic abuse and now going
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through vocational training school in order to better their lives.
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We need your help. Donations are critical in in order
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for us to continue our work. We also need volunteers
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to help with research and development. Please visit Unsilenced Voices
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dot org for more information.
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And we're back here with Ronda Taylor Parker. We are
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talking about her book Crossroads, and it's just a really
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good suspense novel, interesting characters, lots of subplots going on.
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And I don't know about you, but I'm always my
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Alfred Hitchcock mind. I'm always trying to figure it out.
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So I love books like this, and I wanted to ask,
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in writing the main character cares, do you find those
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commonalities in how easy it is to get so wrapped
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up in your work and the circle of friends that
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you have that you don't really realize what other stuff
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is going on around you that you're missing.
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I think we all do you know, I would I
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would say I read to every single one of the characters. No,
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I've never killed anybody, but you know, we all get
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so mad.
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Sometimes where we're wandering.
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So yes, workaholism, I can say it's very, very very prevalent.
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And not only am my DNA, but my family's DNA.
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You know, Indiana is a blue collar type of a
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culture where work is your identity, so that's kind of
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where I get it from. But also I would say
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all of them have you know, have a grain of
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not only meat, but almost everybody that reads them, because
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we go through seasons, and in those seasons we react differently,
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we do things differently, and sometimes we go to extremes
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trying to overcompensate for what we've done in a different season.
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And I also.
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Wanted to explore the three emotions of anger, fury, and envy,
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which are to me. And even though the setting is
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nineteen eighty two, I think that's very relevant today because
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we're all so fascinated with everybody else's life and so
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if we really think about it. We get angry if
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things aren't going our way. You see road rage everywhere,
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you see you know, violence different places, and so all
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three of those emotions, when not kept in check, can.
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Cause a crime without a doubt. And again I do
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think that it is even more prevalent now. But again,
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is it more prevalent now because of social media?
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Do you see?
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This is insidiousness of social media. Somebody says something that's inflammatory,
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and before people could film it and put it up
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where it could go viral, it lived and died where
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once right now we are in a world where instantaneously,
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whatever your message is gets out and words.
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Matter, it really does.
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And not only words, but when you try to copy
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someone else's life because you've seen it, you're destroying yourself.
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You know.
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We opened talking about intentionality and how how do you
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keep things balanced? But when we compare, and my dad
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used to say this when we were young, stopped because
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there was five of us kids, you know, so usually
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it meant no when he said and you hated it
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when he would say it, because he'd say, stop comparing
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yourself because you say, oh, you know, I'm one of
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the youngest ones, so you know, my sister got to
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do it or my brother got to do it, and
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he would say, stop comparing yourself. You're a different person,
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and I get I get upset. But now looking back,
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how how wise is that when we compare ourselves, we're
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literally destroying who we are. It's like we're putting taking
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our nicest clothes and the nicest things we have, which
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is our self and our self worth, and putting it
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on the goodwill rack.
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Not that there's anything wrong.
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With well, we've all been there, we've all bought stuff there.
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But it's because what we're doing is we're discounting our
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value of what we think is important and what we
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can enjoy. And when we discount it, what ends up
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happening is just like almost every one of the characters,
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you've become not only a part of somebody else's life
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that wasn't intended for it to be your life. Because
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you're watching, you're wanting to know what they did next,
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but you're taking your own life and you've squashed it
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like a bug and not enjoying it. Where you could
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have been on your porch watching the chipmunk, or you
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could have been watching, you know, the cars go by
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if you live in the city and thinking of wondering,
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you know, what your next trip would be, and planning
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for yourself, you know, and then enjoying the sounds of
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the of the of the city, because there's something in
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chanting about the city, even if you know, that's different
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than living in the country.
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You know.
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So no matter where you are in your life, you
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have to decide.
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And as Merril Hemingway said in her YouTube video about Crossroads,
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even chocolate has an expiration date, So.
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You have to decide what's important to you to thrive.
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We were talking before started recording and you mentioned your
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Life Balanced Journey workbook you have coming in and I
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would love for you to share that with us.
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Oh sure, So my thoughts on how I want to
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be known as a writer. You know, everybody's like, what's
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your author journey, what's your why?
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Why fiction? Why is this? Well?
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I have workbooks that I've done with my college classes,
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and I have a life journey book workbook and a
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resilience work book. But I was like, you know, I
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really wanted to do the fiction first, and the life
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balance matches with Crossroads, which is the thirteen dimensions of
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It's like an overview. You know, typically when we get
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a self help book, it's like on your finances or
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maybe on your spirituality. It's only one, you know, one
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of the thirteen dimensions.
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I explore all thirteen and say, all right, if you
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woke up today.
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And everything was perfect exactly how you liked it, what
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would it be.
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Let's draw it. And I'm not talking about the eighteen.
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Bedroom home with know, five dining rooms, you know, the
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pie and the sky, not that you could never build
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that you could, but you know, what's the perfect life
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for you really not what everybody else says we want.
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And then when you do that, then we go through
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some exercises to to really put one year, three year,
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five year goals on on every single one of those.
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Those dreams.
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And it's not just on finance, because that's what we
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normally do, and it's different exercises for that. And then resilience,
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you know, we all go through things.
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Some people say, you know, you just.
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You know you're put together, or you know, they may
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say that, or you've never gone anything, you didn't understand
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my life. No, we all all go through you know,
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we lose our parents, we become ill, you know, in
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my case, I've lost both parents, I've lost a son,
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you know, to violence, I've you know, I've you We
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all go through things, you know, we all get sick.
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You know, we've become caregivers. We you know, our finances
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get funny, you know where it's monopoly money rather than
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real many in our head, and you know, how do
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we build and thrive? So I took a what they
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call in academia, a ten year literature review, which means
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all the studies that you that you can find anywhere
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in the.
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World on resilient What is resilience?
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And I put it into a package that's about one
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hundred pages of what does resilience do?
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What, how do you build it? How do you find it?
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You know what you know?
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What does it do for your body? What you know
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if you don't have resilience? What happens when you're stressed?
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And then I do a thirty one day challenge at
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the end, because if we're going to do crime thrillers
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and we see what all these people do and what
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they have to go through, we're going to see some
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things that we've gone through.
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Or our families have.
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Gone through a different points, even if it's just the
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stress between the characters as they're going through some stuff
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and so let's.
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Build and thrive at the same time.
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What a great way to end this conversation, Randa, as
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we are wrapping up, what do you want to share
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with our listeners? What do you want to leave them
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with and how may they reach out to me?
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Just remember, if you have a passion for something, it's
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it's meant for you to do it. You can't ask
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somebody else to do it. Every day can be great
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and with passion. And if you want to know more
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about any my writing or any of my philosophies or
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my workbooks, you can go to Ronda Perkertaylor dot com.
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Ronda's with an R. That's my website. All my social
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medias are on there. And I would love to hear
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from me. And if you pick up a copy of Crossroads,
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let me know what you think about it. I would
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love to I would love I love hearing from from
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the community out there of readers because we're better together.
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And that's why I like the meeting in the different
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groups that I've been doing in the is because it's
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literally like town hall meetings where we can talk about
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you know, that was what I went through or or
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Paris reminded me of this, you know, and then you
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can really get down to the grid, the grit of
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our own lives as we read fiction.
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All of Bronda's links are going to be live on
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Word of Mom Radio. I have to tell you, I
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love to read. I highly recommend this book. You will
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really enjoy it. It's a good story, it's a good read.
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It has really interesting characters in it. And I'm you know,
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I want to say so much more, but than it's like,
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I don't want to give anything away. Read the book,
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come back, let us know because it's a good read.
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And we'll have links to Ronda's workbook, the Life Balanced
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Journey work Book as well, because you know, it's a
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good thing and following your dreams. You know, it's funny
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you ask the question, and my perfect day is, you
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know today they go, my daughter will be back in town,
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so I'll actually have time to see all three of
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my kids because my daughter lives in Alaska, my son
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in Connecticut, so I see them every week, my grandkids
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and stuff like that. I have a weekend coming up
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with them. But those are my perfect days. I woke
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up and every day is just my favorite day because
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it's mine. Yes, and enjoy your life. Which time I
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hear somebody say, oh, you know you only live once, No,
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you die once, live every day, so every day is
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the day to be the best day. It can be exactly,
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make every day great, right right on, Ronda, Thank you.
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I'm so happy that we finally got the chance to connect,
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and I appreciate you rescheduling with me and everything through
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my accident.
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I'm so glad you're feeling better and that I get
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I'm sure that that had to have been quite the trauma.
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Oh you know for me not to be able to
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read yes.
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For a drag.
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So thank you again and for all of you tuning in,
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Thanks so much for being with us. We're going to
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close out with our fabulous theme song from Smith's Sisters
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and the Sunday Drivers. So till next time, This is
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Dory Di Carlo saying, go out and create a marvelous you.
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Bye for now.
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She is sure, she is sure, she is strong, she
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is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, brave,
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she is she is you.
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Is you, she is you.
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She is sure, she is sure, she is strong, she
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is strong, she is true, is true, She is brave,
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she is bold, she she is you, she is she
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is sure of herself. Yes, she takes care of his
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Powerful and strong. Yes, she knows who she is, has integrity, woman,
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strong and true. You know her by name.
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See this woman is you.
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She is sure, she is she is strong, he is strong,
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she is true, is true, she is brave, brave, she
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is bold, she is you, she is she is, she
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is sure, she is strong, is strong, she is true,
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is true. She is brave, she is bold, she is
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she is you. She is she is adds value and
487
00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:48.039
hope has proved to be brave. See it's never too late,
488
00:28:48.440 --> 00:28:52.480
never time to behave reaching for dreams doesn't matter. The
489
00:28:52.599 --> 00:28:56.960
age believes in herself, unleash from her cage. She is sure,
490
00:28:57.039 --> 00:29:01.000
she is she is strong, is strong, she is true, true, True,
491
00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:06.880
she is brave, bray, she is she is you, she
492
00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:11.519
is she, she is sure, she is she is strong,
493
00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:16.400
she is strong, she is true, is true. She is braid,
494
00:29:16.640 --> 00:29:19.359
is braid, she is bold, she is you.
