Podcasts about House Hunting

How do you capture something as enormous and personal as the feeling of “home” in a book? How can you navigate the chaotic discovery period in writing something new? With Roz Morris. In the intro, KU vs Wide [Written Word Media]; Podcasts Overtake Radio, book marketing implications [The New Publishing Standard]; Tips for podcast guests; The Vatican embraces AI for translation, but not for sermons [National Catholic Reporter]; NotebookLM; Self-Publishing in German; Bones of the Deep. This episode is sponsored by Publisher Rocket, which will help you get your book in front of more Amazon readers so you can spend less time marketing and more time writing. I use Publisher Rocket for researching book titles, categories, and keywords — for new books and for updating my backlist. Check it out at www.PublisherRocket.com This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Roz Morris is an award-nominated literary fiction author, memoirist, and previously a bestselling ghostwriter. She writes writing craft books for authors under the Nail Your Novel brand, and is also an editor, speaker, and writing coach. Her latest travel memoir is Turn Right at the Rainbow: A Diary of House-Hunting, Happenstance & Home. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How being an indie author has evolved over 15 years, from ebooks-only to special editions, multi-voice audiobooks and tools to help with everything Why “home” is such a powerful emotional theme and how to turn personal experiences into universal memoir Practical craft tips on show-don't-tell, writing about real people, and finding the right book title The chaotic discovery writing phase — why some books take seven years and why that's okay Building a newsletter sustainably by finding your authentic voice (and the power of a good pet story) Low-key book marketing strategies for memoir, including Roz's community-driven “home” collage campaign You can find Roz at RozMorris.org. Transcript of the interview with Roz Morris JOANNA: Roz Morris is an award-nominated literary fiction author, memoirist, and previously a bestselling ghostwriter. She writes writing craft books for authors under the Nail Your Novel brand, and is also an editor, speaker, and writing coach. Her latest travel memoir is Turn Right at the Rainbow: A Diary of House-Hunting, Happenstance & Home. Welcome back to the show, Roz. ROZ: Hi, Jo. It's so lovely to be back. I love that we managed to catch up every now and again on what we're doing. We've been doing this for so long. JOANNA: In fact, if people don't know, the first time you came on this show was 2011, which is 15 years. ROZ: I know! JOANNA: It is so crazy. I guess we should say, we do know each other in person, in real life, but realistically we mainly catch up when you come on the podcast. ROZ: Yes, we do, and by following what we're doing around the web. So I read your newsletters, you read mine. JOANNA: Exactly. So good to return. You write all kinds of different things, but let's first take a look back. The first time you were on was 2011, 15 years ago. You've spanned traditional and indie, you've seen a lot. You know a lot of people in publishing as well. What are the key things you think have shifted over the years, and why do you still choose indie for your work? ROZ: Well, lots of things have shifted. Some things are more difficult now, some things are a lot easier. We were lucky to be in right at the start and we learned the ropes and managed to make a lot of contacts with people. Now it's much more difficult to get your work out there and noticed by readers. You have to be more knowledgeable about things like marketing and promotions. But that said, there are now much better tools for doing all this. Some really smart people have put their brains to work about how authors can get their work to the right readers, and there's also a lot more understanding of how that can be done in the modern world. Everything is now much more niche-driven, isn't it? People know exactly what kind of thriller they like or what kind of memoir they like. In the old days it was probably just, “Well, you like thrillers,” and that could be absolutely loads of things. Now we can find far better who might like our work. The tools we have are astonishing. To start with, in about 2011, we could only really produce ebooks and paperbacks. That was it. Anything else, you'd have to get a print run that would be quite expensive. Now we can get amazing, beautiful special editions made. We can do audiobooks, multi-voice audiobooks. We can do ebooks with all sorts of enhancements. We can even make apps if we want to. There's absolutely loads that creators can do now that they couldn't before, so it's still a very exciting world. JOANNA: When we first met, there was still a lot of negativity here in the UK around indie authors or self-publishing. That does feel like it's shifted. Do you think that stigma around self-publishing has changed? ROZ: I think it has really changed, yes. To start with, we were regarded as a bit of the Wild West. We were just tramping in and making our mark in places that we hadn't been invited into. Now it's changed entirely. I think we've managed to convince people that we have the same quality standards. Readers don't mind—I don't think the readers ever minded, actually, so long as the book looked right, felt right, read right. It's much easier now. It's much more of a level playing field. We can prove ourselves. In fact, we don't necessarily have to prove ourselves anymore. We just go and find readers. JOANNA: Yes, I feel like that. I have nothing to prove. I just get on with my work and writing our books and putting them out there. We've got our own audiences now. I guess I always think of it as perhaps not a shadow industry, but almost a parallel industry. You have spanned a lot of traditional publishing and you still do editing work. You know a lot of trad pub authors too. Do you still actively choose indie for a particular reason? ROZ: I do. I really like building my own body of work, and I'm now experienced enough to know what I do well, what I need advice with, and help with. I mean, we don't do all this completely by ourselves, do we? We bring in experts who will give us the right feedback if we're doing a new genre or a genre that's new to us. I choose indie because I like the control. Because I began in traditional publishing—I was making books for other people—I just learned all the trades and how to do everything to a professional standard. I love being able to apply that to my own work. I also love the way I can decide what I'm going to write next. If I was traditionally published, I would have to do something that fitted with whatever the publisher would want of me, and that isn't necessarily where my muse is taking me or what I've become interested in. I think creative humans evolve throughout their lives. They become interested in different things, different themes, different ways of expressing themselves. I began by thinking I would just write novels, and now I've found myself writing memoirs as well. That shift would have been difficult if someone else was having to make me fit into their marketing plans or what their imprint was known for. But because I've built my own audience, I can just bring them with me and say, “You might like this. It's still me. I'm just doing something different.” JOANNA: I like that phrase: “creative humans.” That's what we are. As you say, I never thought I would write a memoir, and then I wrote Pilgrimage, and I think there's probably another one on its way. We do these different things over time. Let's get into this new book, Turn Right at the Rainbow. It's about the idea of home. I've talked a lot about home on my Books And Travel Podcast, but not so much here. Why is home such an emotional topic, for both positive and negative reasons? Why did you want to explore it? ROZ: I think home is so emotional because it grows around you and it grows on you very slowly without you really realising it. As you are not looking, you suddenly realise, “Oh, it means such a lot.” I love to play this mind game with myself—if you compare what your street looks like to you now and how it looked the first time you set eyes on it, it's a world of difference. There are so many emotional layers that build up just because of the amount of time we spend in a place. It's like a relationship, a very slow-growing friendship. And as you say, sometimes it can be negative as well. I became really fascinated with this because we decided to move house and we'd lived in the same house for about 30 years, which is a lot of time. It had seen a lot of us—a lot of our lives, a lot of big decisions, a lot of good times, a lot of difficult times. I felt that was all somehow encapsulated in the place. I know that readers of certain horror or even spiritual fiction will have this feeling that a place contains emotions and pasts and all sorts of vibes that just stay in there. When we were going around looking at a house to buy, I was thinking, “How do we even know how we will feel about it?” We're moving out of somewhere that has immense amounts of feelings and associations, and we're trying to judge whether somewhere else will feel right. It just seemed like we were making a decision of cosmic proportions. It comes down so much to chance as well. You're not only just deciding, “Okay, I'd like to buy that one,” and pressing a button like on eBay and you've won it. It doesn't happen like that. There are lots of middle steps. The other person's got to agree to sell to you, not do the dirty on you and sell to someone else. You've got all sorts of machinations going on that you have no idea about. And you only have what's on offer—you only get an opportunity to buy a place because someone else has decided to let it go. All this seemed like immense amounts of chance, of dice rolling. I thought, yet we end up in these places and they mean so much to us. It just blew my mind. I thought, “I've got to write about this.” JOANNA: It's really interesting, isn't it? I really only started using the word “home” after the pandemic and living here in Bath. We had luckily just bought a house before then, and I'd never really considered anywhere to be a home. I've talked about this idea of third culture kids—people who grow up between cultures and don't feel like there's a home anywhere. I was really interested in your book because there's so much about the functional things that have to happen when you move house or look for a house, and often people aren't thinking about it as deeply as you are. So did you start working on the memoir as you went to see places, or was it something you thought about when you were leaving? Was it a “moving towards” kind of memoir or a “sad nostalgia” memoir? ROZ: Well, it could have been very sad and nostalgic because I do like to write really emotional things, and they're not necessarily for sharing with everybody, but I was very interested in the emotions of it. I started keeping diaries. Some of them were just diaries I'd write down, some of them were emails I'd send to friends who were saying, “How's it going?” And then I'd find I was just writing pieces rather than emails, and it built up really. JOANNA: It's interesting, you said you write emotional things. We mentioned nostalgia, and obviously there are memories in the home, but it's very easy to say a word like “nostalgia” and everyone thinks that means different things. One of the important things about writing is to be very specific rather than general. Can you give us some tips about how we can turn big emotions into specific written things that bring it alive for our readers? ROZ: It's really interesting that you mention nostalgia, because what we have to be careful of is not writing just for ourselves. It starts with us—our feelings about something, our responses, our curiosities—but we then have to let other people in. There's nothing more boring than reading something that's just a memoir manuscript that doesn't reach out to anyone in any way. It's like looking through their holiday snaps. What you have to do is somehow find something bigger in there that will allow everyone to connect and think, “Oh, this is about me too,” or “I've thought this too.” As I said, we start with things that feel powerful and important for us, and I think we don't necessarily need to go looking for them. They emerge the more deeply we think about what we're writing. We find they're building. Certainly for me, it's what pulls me back to an idea, thinking, “There's something in this idea that's really talking to me now. What is it?” Often I'll need to go for walks and things to let the logical mind turn off and ideas start coming in. But I'll find that something is building and it seems to become more and more something that will speak to others rather than just to me. That's one way of doing it—by listening to your intuition and delving more and more until you find something that seems worth saying to other people. But you could do it another way. If you decided you wanted to write a book about home, and you'd already got your big theme, you could then think, “Well, how will I make this into something manageable?” So you start with something big and build it into smaller-scale things that can be related to. You might look at ideas of homes—situations of people who have lost their home, like the kind of displacement we see at the moment. Or we might look at another aspect, such as people who sell homes and what they must feel like being these go-betweens between worlds, between people who are doing these immense changes in their lives. Or we might think of an ecological angle—the planet Earth and what we're doing to it, or our place in the cosmos. We might start with a thing we want to write about and then find, “How are we going to treat it?” That usually comes down to what appeals to us. It might be the ecological side. It might be the story of a few estate agents who are trying to sell homes for people. Or it might be like mine—just a personal story of trying to move house. From that, we can create something that will have a wider resonance as well as starting with something that's personally interesting to you. The big emotions will come out of that wider resonance. JOANNA: Trying to go deeper on that— It's the “show, don't tell” idea, isn't it? If you'd said, “I felt very sad about leaving my house” or “I felt very sad about the prospect of leaving my house,” that is not a whole book. ROZ: Yes. It's why you felt sad, how you felt sad, what it made you think of. That's a very good point about “show, don't tell,” which is a fundamental writing technique. It basically tells people exactly how you feel about a particular thing, which is not the same as the way anyone else would feel about it—but still, curiously, it can be universal and something that we can all tap into. Funnily enough, by being very specific, by saying, “I realised when we'd signed the contract to sell the house that it wasn't ours anymore, and it had been, and I felt like I was betraying it,” that starts to get really personal. People might think, “Yes, I felt like that too,” or “I hadn't thought you'd feel like that, but I can understand it.” Those specifics are what really let people into the journey that you're taking them on. JOANNA: And isn't this one of the challenges, that we're not even going to use a word like “sad,” basically. ROZ: Yes. It's like, who was it who said, “Don't tell me if they got wet—tell me how it felt to get wet in that particular situation.” Then the reader will think, “Oh yes, they got wet,” but they'll also have had an experience that took them somewhere interesting. JOANNA: Yes. Show me the raindrops on the umbrella and the splashing through the puddles. I think this is so important with big emotions. Also, when we say nostalgia—we've talked before about Stranger Things and Kate Bush and the way Stranger Things used songs and nostalgia. Oh, I was watching Derry Girls—have you seen Derry Girls? ROZ: No, I haven't yet. JOANNA: Oh, it's brilliant. It's so good. It's pretty old now, but it's a nineties soundtrack and I'm watching going, “Oh, they got this so right.” They just got it right with the songs. You feel nostalgic because you feel an emotion that is linked to that music. It makes you feel a certain way, but everyone feels these things in different ways. I think that is a challenge of fiction, and also memoir. Certainly with memoir and fiction, this is so important. ROZ: Yes, and I was just thinking with self-help books, it's even important there because self-help books have to show they understand how the reader is feeling. JOANNA: Yes, and sometimes you use anecdotes to do that. Another challenge with memoir—in this book, you're going round having a look at places, and they're real places and there are real people. This can be difficult. What are things that people need to be wary of if using real people in real places? Do you need permissions for things? ROZ: That book was particularly tricky because, as you said, I was going around real places and talking about real people. With most of them, they're not identifiable. Even though I was specific about particular aspects of particular houses, it would be very hard for anyone to know where those houses were. I think possibly the only way you would recognise it is if that happened to be your own house. The people, similarly—there's a lot about estate agents and other professionals. They were all real incidents and real things that happened, but no one is identifiable. A very important thing about writing a book like this is you're always going to have antagonists, because you have to have people who you're finding difficult, people who are making life a bit difficult for you. You have to present them in a way that understands what it's like to be them as well. If you're writing a book where your purpose is to expose wrongdoing or injustices, then you might be more forthright about just saying, “This is wrong, the way this person behaved was wrong.” You might identify villains if that's appropriate, although you'd have to be very careful legally. This kind of book is more nuanced. The antagonists were simply people who were trying to do the right thing for them. You have to understand what it's like to be them. Quite a lot of the time, I found that the real story was how ill-equipped I sometimes felt to deal with people who were maybe covering something up, or maybe not, but just not expressing themselves very clearly. Estate agents who had an agenda, and I was thinking, “Who are they acting for? Are they acting for me, or are they acting for someone else that we don't even know about?” There's a fair bit of conflict in the book, but it comes from people being people and doing what they have to do. I just wanted to find a good house in an area that was nice, a house I could trust and rely on, for a price that was right. The people who were selling to me just wanted to sell the house no matter what because that was what they needed to do. You always have to understand what the other person's point of view is. Often in this kind of memoir, even though you might be getting very frustrated, it's best to also see a bit of a ridiculous side to yourself—when you're getting grumpy, for instance. It's all just humans being humans in a situation where ultimately you're going to end up doing a life-changing and important thing. I found there's quite a lot of humour in that. We were shuffling things around and, as I said, we were eventually going to be making a cosmic change that would affect the place we called home. I found that quite amusing in a lot of ways. I think you've got to be very levelheaded about this, particularly about writing about other people. Sometimes you do have to ask for permission. I didn't have to do that very much in this book. There were people I wrote about who are actually friends, who would recognise themselves and their stories. I checked that they didn't mind me quoting particular things, and they were all fine with that. In my previous memoir, Not Quite Lost, I actually wrote about a group of people who were completely identifiable. They would definitely have known who they were, and other people would have known who they were. There was no hiding them. They were the people near Brighton who were cryonicists—preserving dead bodies, freezing them, in the hope that they could be revived at a much later date when science had solved the problem that killed them. I went to visit this group of cryonicists, and I'd written a diary about it at the time. Then I followed up when I was writing the book to find out what happened to them. I thought, I've simply got to contact them and tell them I'm going to write this. “I'll send it to you, you give me your comments,” and I did. They gave me some good comments and said, “Oh, please don't put that,” or “Let me clarify this.” Everything was fine. So there I did actually seek them out and check that what I was going to write was okay. JOANNA: Yes, in that situation, there can't be many cryonicists in that area. ROZ: They really were identifiable. JOANNA: There's probably only one group! But this is really interesting, because obviously memoir is a personal thing. You're curating who you are as well in the book, and your husband. I think it's interesting, because I had the problem of “Am I giving away too much about myself?” Do you feel like with everything you've written, you've already given away everything about yourself by now? Are you just completely relaxed about being personal, for yourself and for your husband? ROZ: I think I have become more relaxed about it. My first memoir wasn't nearly as personal as yours was. You were going to some quite difficult places. With Turn Right at the Rainbow, I was approaching some darker places, actually, and I had to consider how much to reveal and how much not to. But I found once I started writing, the honesty just took over. I thought, “This is fine. I have read plenty of books that have done this, and I've loved them. I've loved getting to know someone on that deeper level.” It was just something I took my example from—other writers I'd enjoyed. JOANNA: Yes. I think that's definitely the way memoir has to happen, because it can be very hard to know how to structure it. Let's come to the title. Turn Right at the Rainbow. Really great title, and obviously a subtitle which is important as well for theme. Talk about where the title came from and also the challenges of titling books of any genre. You've had some other great titles for your novels—at least titles I've thought, “Oh yes, that's perfect.” Titling can be really hard. ROZ: Oh, thank you for that. Yes, it is hard. Ever Rest, which was the title of my last novel, just came to me early on. I was very lucky with that. It fitted the themes and it fitted what was going on, but it was just a bolt from the blue. I found that also with Turn Right at the Rainbow, it was an accident. It slipped out. I was going to call it something else, and then this incident happened. “Turn Right at the Rainbow” is actually one of the stories in the book. I call it the title track, as if it's an album. We were going somewhere in the car and the sat nav said, “Turn right at the rainbow.” And Dave and I just fell about, “What did it just say?!” It also seemed to really sum up the journey we were on. We were looking for rainbows and pots of gold and completely at the mercy of chance. It just stayed with me. It seemed the right thing. I wrote the piece first and then I kept thinking, “Well, this sounds like a good title.” Dave said it sounded like a good title. And then a friend of mine who does a lot of beta reading for me said, “Oh, that is the title, isn't it?” When several people tell you that's the title, you've got to take notice. But how we find these things is more difficult, as you said. You just work and work at it, beating your head against the wall. I find they always come to me when I'm not looking. It really helps to do something like exercise, which will put you in a bit of a different mind state. Do you find this as well? JOANNA: Yes, I often like a title earlier on that then changes as the book goes. I mean, we're both discovery writers really, although you do reverse outlines and other things. You have a chaotic discovery phase. I feel like when I'm in that phase, it might be called something, and then I often find that's not what it ends up being, because the book has actually changed in the process. ROZ: Yes, very much. That's part of how we realise what we should be writing. I do have working titles and then something might come along and say, “This seems actually like what you should call it and what you've been working towards, what you've been discovering about it.” I think a good title has a real sense of emotional frisson as well. With memoir, it's easier because we can add a subtitle to explain what we mean. With fiction, it's more difficult. We've got to really hope that it all comes through those few words, and that's a bit harder. JOANNA: Let's talk about your next book. On your website it says it might be a novel, it might be narrative nonfiction, and you have a working title of Four. I wondered if you'd talk a bit more about this chaotic discovery writing phase when we just don't know what's coming. I feel like you and I have been doing this long enough—you longer than me—so maybe we're okay with it. But newer writers might find this stage really difficult. Where's the fun in it? Why is it so difficult? And how can people deal with it? ROZ: You've summed that up really well. It's fun and it's difficult, and I still find it difficult even after all these years. I have to remind myself, looking back at where Ever Rest started, because that was a particularly difficult one. It took me seven years to work out what to do with it, and I wrote three other books in the meantime. It just comes together in the end. What I find is that something takes root in my mind and it collects things. The title you just picked out there—the book with working title of Four—it's now two books. One possibly another memoir and one possibly fiction. It's evolving all the time. I'm just collecting what seems to go with it for now and thinking, “That belongs with it somehow. I don't yet know how, but my intuition is that the two work well together.” There's a harmony there that I see. In the very early stages, that's what I find something is. Then I might get a more concrete idea, say a piece of story or a character, and I'll have the feeling that they really fit together. Once I've got something concrete like that, I can start doing more active research to pursue the idea. But in the beginning, they're all just little twinkles in the eye and you just have to let them develop. If you want to get started on something because you feel you want to get started and you don't feel happy if you're not working on something, you could do a far more active kind of discovery. Writing lists. Lists are great for this. I find lists of what you don't want it to be are just as helpful as what you do want it to be because that certainly narrows down a lot and helps you make good choices. You've got a lot of choices to make at the beginning of a book. You've got to decide: What's it going to be about? What isn't it going to be about? What kind of characters am I interested in? What kind of situations am I interested in? What doesn't interest me about this situation? Very important—saves you a lot of time. What does interest me? If you can start by doing that kind of thing, you will find that you start gathering stuff that gets attracted to it. It's almost like the world starts giving it to you. This is discovery writing, but it's also chivvying it along a bit and getting going. It does work. Joanna: I like the idea of listing what you don't want it to be. I think that's very useful because often writers, especially in the early stages—or even not, I still struggle with this—it's knowing what genre it might actually be. With Bones of the Deep, which is my next thriller, it was originally going to be horror and I was writing it, and then I realised one of the big differences between horror and thriller is the ending and how character arcs are resolved and the way things are written. I was just like, “Do you know what? I actually feel like this is more thriller than horror,” and that really shaped the direction. Even though so much of it was the same, it shaped a lot about the book. It's always hard talking about this stuff without giving spoilers, but I think deciding, “Okay, this is not a horror,” actually helped me find my way back to thriller. ROZ: Yes, I do know what you mean. That makes perfect sense to me, with no spoilers either. It's so interesting how a very broad-strokes picture like that can still be very helpful. Just trying to make something a bit different from the way you've been envisaging it can lead to massive breakthroughs. “Oh no, it's not a thriller—I don't have to be aiming for that kind of effect.” Or try changing the tone a little bit and see if that just makes you happier with what you're making, more comfortable with it. JOANNA: You mentioned the seven years that Ever Rest took. We should say the title is in two words—”Ever” and “Rest”—but it is also about Everest the mountain in many ways. That's why it's such a perfect title. If that took seven years and you were doing all this other stuff and writing other books along the way, how do you keep your research under control? How do you do that? I still use Scrivener projects as my main research place. How do you do your research and organisation? ROZ: A lot of scraps of paper. My desk is massive. It used to be a dining table with leaves in it. It's spread out to its fullest length, and it's got heaps of little pieces of paper. I know what's on them all, and there are different areas, different zones. I'm very much a paper writer because I like the tangibility of it. I also like the creativity of taking a piece of paper and tearing it into an odd shape and writing a note on that. It seems as sort of profound and lucky as the idea. I really like that. I do make text files and keep notes that way. Once something is starting to get to a phase where it's becoming serious, it will then be a folder with various files that discuss different aspects of it. I do a lot of discussing with myself while writing, and I don't necessarily look at it all again. The writing of it clarifies something or allows me to put something aside and say, “No, that doesn't quite belong.” Gradually I start to look at things, look at what I've gathered, and think, “How does this fit with this?” And it helps to look away as well. As I said with finding titles, sometimes the right thing is in your subconscious and it's waiting to just sail in if you look at it in a different way. There's a lot to be said for working on several ideas, not looking at some of them for a while, then going back and thinking, “Oh, I know what to do with this now.” JOANNA: Yes. My Writing the Shadow, I was talking about that when we met, and that definitely took about a decade. ROZ: Yes. JOANNA: I kept having to come back to that, and sometimes we're just not ready. Even as experienced writers, we're not ready for a particular book. With Bones of the Deep, I did the trip that it's based on in 1999. Since I became a writer, I've thought I have to use that trip in some way, and I never found the right way to use it. I came at it a couple of times and it just never sat right with me. Then something on this master's course I'm doing around human remains and indigenous cultures just suddenly all clicked. You can't really rush that, can you? ROZ: You absolutely can't. It's something you develop a sense for, the more you do—whether something's ready or whether you should just let it think about itself for a while whilst you work on something else. It really helps to have something else to work on because I panic a bit if I don't have something creative to do. I just have to create, I have to make things, particularly in writing. But I also like doing various little arty things as well. I need to always have something to be writing about or exploring in words. Sometimes a book isn't ready for that intense pressure of being properly written. So it helps to have several things that I can play with and then pick one and go, “Okay, now I'm going to really perform this on the page.” JOANNA: Do you find that nonfiction—because you have some craft books as well—do you find the nonfiction side is quite different? Can you almost just go and write a nonfiction book or work on someone else's project? Does that use a different kind of creativity? ROZ: Yes, it does. Creativity where you're trying to explain something to creative people is totally different from creativity where you're trying to involve them in emotions and a journey and nuances of meaning. They're very different, but they're still fun. So, yes, I am an editor as well, and that feeds my creativity in various unexpected ways. I'll see what someone has done and think, “Oh, that's very interesting that they did that.” It can make me think in different ways—different shapes for stories, different kinds of characters to have. It really opens your eyes, working with other creative people. JOANNA: I wanted to return to what you said at the beginning, that it is more difficult these days to get our work noticed. There's certainly a challenge in writing a travel memoir about home. What are you doing to market this book? What have you learned about book marketing for memoir in particular that might help other people? ROZ: Partly I realised it was quite a natural progression for me because in my newsletter I always write a couple of little pieces. I think they're called “life writing.” Just little things that have happened to me. That's sort of like memoir, creative nonfiction, personal essays. I was quite naturally writing that sort of thing to my newsletter readers, and I realised that was already good preparation for the kind of way that I would write in a memoir. As for the actual campaign, I actually came up with an idea which quite surprised me because I didn't think I was good at that. I'm making a collage of the word “home” written in lots of different handwriting, on lots of different things, in lots of different languages. I'm getting people to contribute these and send them to me, and I'm building them into a series of collages that's just got the word “home” everywhere. People have been contributing them by sending them by email or on Facebook Messenger, and I've been putting them up on my social platforms. They look stunning. It's amazing. People are writing the word “home” on a post-it or sticking it to a picture of their radiator. Someone wrote it in snow on her car when we had snow. Someone wrote it on a pottery shard she found in her drive when she bought the house. She thought it was mysterious. There are all these lovely stories that people are telling me as well. I'm making them into little artworks and putting them up every day as the book comes to launch. It's so much fun, and it also has a deeper purpose because it shows how home is different for all of us and how it builds as uniquely as our handwriting. Our handwriting has a story. I should do a book about that! JOANNA: That's a weird one. Handwriting always gets me, although it'd be interesting these days because so many people don't handwrite things anymore. You can probably tell the age of someone by how well-developed their handwriting is. ROZ: Except mine has just withered. I can barely write for more than a few minutes. JOANNA: Oh, I know what you mean. Your hand gets really tired. ROZ: We used to write three-hour exams. How did we do that? JOANNA: I really don't know. JOANNA: Just coming back on that. You mentioned mainly you're doing your newsletter and connecting with your own community. You've done podcasts with me and with other people. But I feel like in the indie community, the whole “you must build your newsletter” thing is described as something quite frantic. How have you built a newsletter in a sustainable manner? ROZ: I've built it by finding what suited me. To start with I thought, “What will I put in it? News, obviously.” But I wasn't doing that much that was newsworthy. Then I began to examine what news could actually be. The turning point really happened when I wrote the first memoir, Not Quite Lost: Travels Without a Sense of Direction. I thought, “I have to explain to people why I'm writing a memoir,” because it seemed like a very audacious thing to do—”Read about me!” I thought I had to explain myself. So I told the story of how I came to think about writing such an audacious book. I just found a natural way to tell stories about what I was doing creatively. I thought, “I like this. I like writing a newsletter like this.” And it's not all me, me, me. It's “I'm discovering this and it makes me think this,” and it just seems to be generally about life, about little questions that we might all face. From then, I found I really enjoyed writing a newsletter because I felt I had something to say. I couldn't put lists of where I was speaking, what I was teaching, what special offers I had, because that wasn't really how my creative life worked. Once I found something I could sustainably write about every month, it really helped. Oh, it also helps to have a pet, by the way. JOANNA: Yes, you have a horse! ROZ: I've got a horse. People absolutely love hearing the stories about my ongoing relationship with this horse. Even if they're not horsey, they write to me and say, “We just love your horse.” It helps to have a human interest thing going on like that. So that works for me. Everyone's got different things that will work for them. But for me, it builds just a sense of connection, human connection. I'm human, making things. JOANNA: In terms of actually getting people signed up—has it literally just been over time? People have read your book, signed up from the link at the back? Have you ever done any specific growth marketing around your newsletter? ROZ: I tried a little bit of growth marketing. I have a freebie version of one of my Nail Your Novel books and I put that on a promotion site. I got lots of newsletter signups, but they sort of dwindled away. When I get unsubscribes, it's usually from that list, because it wasn't really what they came for. They just came for a free book of writing tips. While I do writing tips on my blog—I'm still doing those—it wasn't really what my newsletter was about. What I found was that that wasn't going to get people who were going to be interested long-term in what I was writing about in my newsletter. Whatever you do, I found, has got to be true to what you are actually giving them. JOANNA: Yes, I think that's really key. I make sure I email once every couple of weeks. And you welcome the unsubscribes. You have to welcome them because those people are not right for you and they're not interested in what you're doing. At the end of the day, we're still trying to sell books. As much as you're enjoying the connection with your audience, you are still trying to sell Turn Right at the Rainbow and your other books, right? ROZ: Absolutely, yes. And as you say, someone who decides, “No, not for me anymore,” and that's good. There are still people who you are right for. JOANNA: Mm-hmm. ROZ: I do market my newsletter in a very low-key way. I make a graphic every month for the newsletter, it's like a magazine cover. “What's in it?” And I put that around all my social media. I change my Facebook page header so it's got that on it, my Bluesky header. People can see what it's like, what the vibe is, and they know where to find it if they're interested. I find that kind of low-key approach works quite well for what I'm offering. It's got to be true to what you offer. JOANNA: Yes, and true for a long-term career, I think. When I first met you and your husband Dave, it was like, “Oh, here are some people who are in this writing business, have already been in it for a while.” And both of you are still here. I just feel like— You have to do it in a sustainable way, whether it's writing or marketing or any of this. The only way to do it is to, as you said, live as a creative human and not make it all frantic and “must be now.” ROZ: Yes. I mean, I do have to-do lists that are quite long for every week, but I've learned to pace myself. I've learned how often I can write a good blog post. I could churn out blog posts that were far more frequent, but they wouldn't be as good. They wouldn't be as properly thought through. In the old days with blogs, you had an advantage if you were blogging very frequently, I think you got more noticed by Google because you were constantly putting up fresh content. But if that's not sustainable for you, it's not going to do you any good. Now there's so much content around that it's probably fine to post once a month if that is what you're going to do and how you're going to present the best of yourself. I see a lot on Substack—I've recently started Substack as well—I see people writing every other day. I think they're good, that's interesting, but I don't have time to read it. I would love to have the time, but I don't. So there's actually no sin in only posting once a month—one newsletter a month, one blog post a month, one Substack a month. That's plenty. People will still find that enough if they get you. JOANNA: Fantastic. So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? ROZ: My website is probably the easiest place, RozMorris.org. JOANNA: Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for your time, Roz. As ever, that was great. ROZ: Thank you, Jo.The post Writing Emotion, Discovery Writing, And Slow Sustainable Book Marketing With Roz Morris first appeared on The Creative Penn.

  *Podcast error "Executive" not Executor

Mark interviews novelist, memoirist, and professional story whisperer Roz Morris about her writing life and her pivot into writing memoirs alongside her fiction. Prior to the interview Mark shares a brief personal update a word from this episode's sponsor. This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK10 at checkout and save 10% off your own personalized report. In the interview Mark and Roz talk about: How Roz and Mark first met at the London Book Fair in 2012 What Roz writes and the types of stories that she loves and is fascinated with Roz's journey which includes experience working in a publishing company and meeting and marrying another writer The red leather-bound VISITORS book that Roz was given and she used for notes when she went on holiday, and how her husband convinced her to put those into a book Roz's new book TURN RIGHT AT THE RAINBOW: A Diary of Househunting, Happenstance, Home The concept of a house that holds within its structure and walls all the people and stories that took place within it and how that ties in to the story of Roz and her husband's search for a new home How it's very hard to remember how you saw something for the first time The way Roz decides what stories are going to make it into a particular memoir How museums out of season can be great because of the passion that you can witness in the employees The next memoir that Roz is currently "collecting" in the background How in a novel Roz can inhabit a lot of people in different ways Advice Roz would have moving from memoir to fiction and vice versa After the interview Mark reflects on a few things Roz mentioned as well as something her advice reminded him of. He also rambles a bit longer than normal.     Links of Interest: Roz Morris Website Roz's latest book: TURN RIGHT AT THE RAINBOW Mark's Books in the Smashwords READ AN EBOOK WEEK sale Article: Publishing Wide But Shallow Article: Stretching Before The Writing Run Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%) Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Mark's YouTube channel ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link) Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup) An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City Only Monsters in the Building Once Bitten (Novella) The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises   Roz Morris is a novelist, memoirist, and professional story whisperer. She's the author of acclaimed literary novels with BIG emotional canvases, and memoirs that find meaning in unadventures. She's also a developmental editor and writing coach and has helped shape books that have sold more than four million copies—some of those from behind the scenes as a ghostwriter. She's also the creator of the Nail Your Novel series for writers and the blog of the same name. She's judged literary prizes including the Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award and Vine Leaves Press New Voices competition, and has taught masterclasses for The Guardian in London and Jane Friedman's online academy.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Dave Schlueter of the Law Offices of David R. Schlueter joins Jon Hansen to discuss what to do financially before house hunting. To learn more about what Dave Schlueter can help you with, go to schlueterlawoffice.com or call 1-630-285-5300.

It has been reported that a former New Zealand political figure is looking to relocate to Australia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

12/26/25: Shannon and Iris watch and react to House Hunters International. It's a love hate relationship as American couples try to house shop in two major cities in the Netherlands.  Original music composed by The Jessi Brown Experience. Find Jessi at TheJessiBrownExperience.Bandcamp.com, and us @ShannonsParty, @ActualMaggieMay, @ThatMoreThing , and @ShannonsPartyReads on Instagram. Now streaming on Podbean, Pocket Cast, Spotify, and Apple Podcast

Sometimes when you're looking for something - you find out a LOT more about yourself in the process. That's definitely what the Muinas discovered.  In this episode, Stephanie and Christopher Muiña take you behind the scenes of their house hunt, revealing the real struggles, doubts, and faith lessons that come with navigating big life transitions as a family. Through honest stories of dead ends, closed doors, and a nail-biting home purchase, they share how trusting God, making wise plans, and pushing past fear can open the next chapter of your life.You'll pick up practical encouragement on balancing hard work with faith, finding clarity in decision-making, and building a vision-driven family life—even when things don't go as planned. With relatable stories about perseverance, finances, and the power of staying aligned to your values, you'll feel both inspired and equipped to keep going—in your own search for growth and purpose.Support the showJoin our Podience Textline! You can connect with us via text to ask questions and get updates! Text FAMILY to 302-524-0800 Get our TFB Newsletter Join our TFB Newsletter and get more inside news from the Alessis + tips and strategies for a happier family! Get free access to the newsletter Support the Family Business Follow Us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe on YouTube Leave a review Listen to the Alessi sisters' daily devotional podcast My Morning Devotional

Send us a textWelcome to the Surviving Ish Podcast! In this incredible episode, host David sits down with Charles, a new friend and inspiring guest, to discuss life, struggles, and the art of surviving. Together, they dive into Charles' past experiences with homelessness during his junior year of high school, overcoming adversity, and his journey to success in real estate. Listen as they share personal stories about road rage, the importance of loyalty in customer service, and tackling hardships like homelessness. Join this heartfelt conversation that's equal parts deep and motivating, garnished with a dash of humor and real-life storytelling. #SurvivingIshPodcast #RoadToSuccess #HomelessToHomeowner #InspiringStories #RealTalkSupport the show

Send us a textRHOP-When Cookie Crumbles, Drama SpillsRHOP S10 E8 – Pride and Pettiness | Podcast SummaryThe episode picks up right in the chaos: Kiarna tells Monique that Stacey has been dating Chris Samuels. Monique brushes it off—two years divorced, no hard feelings—as long as the co-parenting stays solid.Then Ashley questions Stacey's cannabis line having a Nigerian name, and when Stacy mispronounces it, Wendy and Tia call her out. Giselle, of course, finds this hilarious.The group heads to the GNA Pride float, where Wendy shades the branding and Giselle pretends she knew what GNA even was.After the parade, Giselle is surprisingly warm to Monique, saying she liked her energy. Monique opens up about why her marriage ended: feeling unloved, overshadowed, and ultimately having a breaking-point moment that made her walk away for good.Meanwhile, Angel and Bobby go house-hunting, but the bright green kitchen cabinets are a no. Angel vents that she didn't appreciate being called “catfish,” and thinks Wendy piled on Giselle's shade.At lunch, Giselle celebrates 10 million downloads for Reasonably Shady and an NAACP nomination. Kiana drops a bomb that Cookie called her—because Chris Samuels was upset over rumors that Monique trashed him, and apparently Stacy is the one who told him that. Cookie cannot stand Stacy and will also be at the upcoming party. Perfect.Wendy meets with Monique, and they surprisingly reconnect. They talk Candace drama, old tension, and even Giselle—who Monique still has beef with. Wendy also mentions drama with Karen and wonders if Cookie is trustworthy. Monique says Cookie once lied about being Chuck Brown's daughter, so… maybe not.Stacy is still doing “Evite dates” with her ex Thiemo, and when Tia arrives to meet him, Stacy makes it clear: she is friendly, not stupid. And she's not introducing Timo to the whole group until they meet Giselle's man first.Giselle gets help from her daughter Grace planning the Reasonably Shady event, noting that Robyn won't attend because of how she exited the show.Wendy and Eddie go to dinner with Tia and her husband Rob, and Stacey becomes a point of contention. When Wendy calls Stacey, Stacey apologizes for introducing Tia to Thiemo first, but Wendy is heated.Finally, it's the Reasonably Shady 100 Million Download Party (without Robyn). Even Wale shows up—with flowers for Robyn.The party turns into a showdown: Stacey vs Tia, Kiarna vs Stacey, Cookie vs Stacey, Wendy playing referee, and Monique being dragged into drama even though she isn't even there.Accusations fly about who told Chris Samuels what, who's lying, who's shady, who shouldn't be trusted, and who doesn't even have a husband. It's peak Potomac pandemonium.Support the showhttps://www.wewinewhenever.com/

Morgan and Mike D answer listener questions. Shout outs to start, then we get into how Mike D’s been feeling with his braces off, money he’s spent going to the movies, and his review of Tron: Ares. Plus, a life update from Mike on house hunting and getting a dog or cat, thanksgiving side dishes and a behind-the-scenes perspective.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a textKris Baker and The Athletic's Matthew Fairburn discuss everything Buffalo Sabres. Read Matthew's latest at The Athletic: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6816166/2025/11/18/sabres-noah-ostlund-rosen-ellis-oilers/

It's been three months since we packed up our life, moved to Spain, and officially became Málaga residents. So… did we make the right decision?In today's episode, Chris is back with me for a raw, honest check-in on what life has actually been like these past three months — beyond the honeymoon phase and beyond the Instagram highlights.We're breaking down: ✨ Whether Málaga still feels like the right choice ✨ What's surprised us most about day-to-day life here ✨ The visa process (and the paperwork Spain always asks for) ✨ Whether we've made friends yet ✨ The culture quirks we didn't expect ✨ How it feels to finally have our stuff… right before leaving again ✨ What's been unexpectedly hard — and unexpectedly wonderfulIf you're curious what life abroad really looks like after the initial excitement wears off, you'll love this one.Subscribe and ReviewIf you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your support helps us reach more visionaries who need these insights.

Embarking on a whirlwind journey through stock trading successes, unexpected sports betting outcomes, and jaw-dropping scandals, we share tales that are sure to captivate. Imagine the thrill of seeing a portfolio skyrocket by 48% in just one week, only to be met with the unpredictable drama of sports gambling losses. We navigate the intricate web of financial markets, uncovering the audacious scams that leave even seasoned traders astounded, and shine a light on the murky waters where technology and ethics collide. As the conversation steers toward personal realms, we explore the adventure of house hunting in Texas, with dreams of escaping the hustle and bustle of urban life. Whether it's deciding between a cozy temporary abode or planning a grand 15-acre construction project, the challenges and hilarities of real estate decisions abound. Amidst this, we dive into personal passions, from Disney park escapades and video game nostalgia to the nuances of influencer drama and fitness regimes, bringing a delightful mix of humor, insight, and candid reflections. Join us as we tackle the chaotic yet exhilarating world of AI in music, dissect the evolution of gaming consoles, and even ponder the absurdity of escape strategies. From fitness influencer controversies to brainstorming business ideas, this episode offers a rollercoaster of insights that promise to entertain and enlighten. Whether you're in it for the laughs, the scandals, or the thoughtful musings, you're in for a memorable ride through a myriad of fascinating topics. Follow Maxx on IG https://www.instagram.com/maxxchewning Maxx on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/maxxchewning Joe on IG https://www.instagram.com/joeknows.best Christian on IG https://www.instagram.com/christianguzmnanfitness Shawley on IG https://www.instagram.com/shawleycoker

ETP 201 is a catch-up episode after our three-week hiatus, discussing personal life updates, including a wedding and house hunting in Utah. We dive into Aaron's emotional experiences of the wedding day, and reflections on health and fitness post-wedding. We also touch on new training methods, goals, and future plans for the evolution of Bryan's fitness programs, emphasizing the importance of enjoyment and movement quality.Timestamps:00:00 Welcome Back02:43 Travel Adventures and Wedding Preparations05:44 The Wedding Experience08:26 Post-Wedding Reflections and Moving to Utah11:15 House Hunting in Utah13:40 Training and Gym Experiences16:42 Health Updates and Future Plans32:08 Optimizing Health and Longevity in Limited Time36:10 The Five Buckets of Fitness41:14 Creating a Balanced Training Program46:38 The Importance of Enjoyment in Training51:48 Personal Training Insights and Adjustments Work 1:1 with Aaron ⬇️https://strakernutritionco.com/nutrition-coaching-apply-now/Done For You Client Check-In System for Coaches ⬇️https://strakernutritionco.com/macronutrient-reporting-check-in-template/Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️https://paragontrainingmethods.comFollow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️https://evolvedtrainingsystems.comFind Us on Social Media ⬇️IG | @Eat.Train.ProsperIG | @bryanboorsteinIG | @aaron_strakerYT | EAT TRAIN PROSPER PODCAST

Home Loans Radio 10.11.25 With That Mortgage Guy Don. Rates are getting down to the lowest in 3 years 

Can you be addicted to house hunting? Murphy and Jodi think they were, but are "in recovery" now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Open houses can still be effective as they provide opportunities for prospective buyers to view a property in person, ask questions, and envision themselves living there. They can generate local interest, create a sense of urgency, and sometimes lead to quick offers. However, their effectiveness depends on market conditions, location, and how well they are marketed.

We've officially survived our first month in Spain — and it's been a ride. From arriving in the middle of August (rookie mistake!) to diving straight into Feria festivities, navigating house hunting, and dealing with Spanish red tape, it feels like we've lived a year in just a few weeks.In this episode, Chris and I share our first impressions of life in Spain: what we love, what's been hard, and whether we think we made the right move. Spoiler: it's complicated.We cover:Landing during festival season and what that was likeThe chaos of house hunting in August (and what it takes to actually sign a lease here)Settling into a new home with a few… surprises left behindNavigating childcare, babysitters, and daycare in SpainInternet, phones, and banking struggles (hello, NIE paperwork)Grocery shopping, clothing sizes, and the quirks of Spanish shopping habitsHealthcare wins, from pediatricians to vaccinesMaking friends, going to meetups, and getting invited to birthday partiesWe wrap up with some fun rapid-fire takes: our favorite moment so far, the lowest low, and our biggest “WTF?!” moment since moving.It's been messy, exciting, and sometimes overwhelming — but we're starting to feel like this is home.Want to explore our Freedom Life Programs?Hop on a call with Katti. No matter when you're ready to start, we'll help you find the right fit. Links & Resources:→ Follow my Spain life on Instagram→ Follow Move Abroad Coach on FacebookLove this Episode? What to Listen to Next:#128 We Moved To Spain: The Journey From Georgia To Malaga#132 Moving Abroad Alone, With a Partner, or With Kids: Which Is Actually Harder?#119 Valencia, Málaga, or Chania? We Made Our Choice (and We're Spilling Everything)#104 My Biggest Move Abroad Disaster: I Moved to Tanzania… and Hated It

This episode we welcome actress and producer Rebekah Kennedy to talk Traumatika Rebekah Kennedy began acting on the stage. Rebekah spent all of her time doing theatre and it wasn't until later that she truly discovered the screen. Soon came an amazing opportunity when Rebekah booked the lead role Hanna in the feature, "House Hunting" with Marc Singer and Art LaFleur and then went on to play Caroline Boutine in the feature, "Creature," starring Mehcad Brooks and Serinda Swan. Then came another wonderful opportunity when she booked a supporting role in the feature, "Season of the Witch" with Nicolas Cage. Rebekah made her television debut on the TNT show, "Memphis Beat." She also had a guest star role in the long running TV show "Criminal Minds" on CBS, the lead guest star Esther Labott in The Book of Esther on "Law & Order SVU" on NBC, and most recently as the crazy drug addict Melly Wyatt in "Station 19" on ABC. Rebekah first hit the big screen when she played the young Peasant Turk Girl in "Season of the Witch" with Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman, which landed in theaters January 2011, "Creature" which opened in September 2011, and then as one of the leads in the horror film "Bastard" with After Dark Films and Fox Home Entertainment which opened in October 2015. "A Dark Foe" with Graham Greene and Selma Blair opened in select theaters July 2021 and most recently "The Unseen" which played in select theaters June 30th 2023 with RJ Mitte. Rebekah can also be seen in Netflix's "To The Bone" starring Lily Collins and Keanu Reeves. "Let Me Make You A Martyr" with Mark Boone Junior, "Street Level" with Sons of Anarchy's David Labrava and Mark Boone Junior, and "Limbo" with James Purefoy. She most recently can be seen starring as the mute girl Jojo in the Amazon prime movie "Los Angeles" and as the starring witch Masha in "Two Witches" that is taking the horror world by storm. She also most recently wrapped "The Veil" with Sean O'Bryan that premiered at the Austin Film Festival and "Crust" with Sean Whalen, Daniel Roebuck, and Alan Ruck that will be releasing this Fall. Rebekah is also heavily involved with reaching out to the homeless and has done work with the Covenant House in Los Angeles. If you want to support the show, head over to http://tee.pub/lic/HIbVFqhaUyA and grab a shirt! We are proud to be part of The Dorkening Podcast Network https://www.thedorkeningpodcastnetwork.com/ and now DEAD OF WINTER ENTERTAINMENT https://www.deadofwinterentertainment.com Find out more at https://wicked-horror-show.pinecast.co Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/wicked-horror-show/5454b5db-5e85-4e9c-9c5d-9709a75afb2f This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Tip Tuesday, 4-7 Min Real Estate TipsHouse hunting in Arizona's summer heat isn't for the faint of heart, but there are ways to make it easier and way more successful. We'll cover what you need to know before you start your search, how to stay cool (literally and figuratively), and the steps that set you up for success in this hot market. ​​If you want to find your next home without breaking a sweat, this episode is for you.

Home Loans Radio 09.06.2025 with That Mortgage Guy Don Home Town Heroes is back and rates are getting lower!

Jessica Nabongo on Her Global Cookbook and House Hunting in Senegal Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Home Loans Radio 08.23.2025 with That Mortgage Guy Don- Hometown Heroes down payment grant now available.

Family Reactions: Heartbreak and rejection draws Tim & Beth closer to each other.By neruval442. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. We drove the few minutes to Beth's house, and Beth used her key in the door. "Hi, Mom, we're back."Her mother appeared from the kitchen. "Oh, hi, Tim."Beth glanced at me, then held out her hand to her mother. "Look, Mom, Tim and I got engaged."I watched, my anticipation suddenly turning sour in my stomach as her mother's face changed, her expression twisting. "Really? At your age?"She turned to me. "Don't think I don't know what you two have been doing up there, and I'm sure on this holiday of yours. I can tell when you wash the sheets, you know."Beth flinched as her mother continued. "Engaged, I don't think so. You've got her pregnant, haven't you, don't even know enough to be careful, and you think bringing her back here with some cheap trinket on her finger will make it right. Well, you can forget it."She turned back to Beth. "You can do what you like when you're out of this house, how are you going to get on at university with a brat, but while you're still here I don't want to see him."Beth's face was as white as it had been in the car, but she took a deep breath. "No. Nothing is like you've said. Tim's not like that, and, “ her face screwed up, tears forcing past her eyelids, "it hurts so much that that's what you think of me."She looked her mother straight in the eyes. "Either Tim's welcome here, or I'm not."Her mother's tone was uncompromising. "Go with him, then, I don't care."Beth was shaking as she turned to me. "Tim?""I'll work something out," I promised. "Do you need to fetch anything?"She shook her head. "I already have everything important."Beth turned back to her mother. "Call me if you change your mind. But you won't, will you, I know that from Grandad."Her mother's face showed unmasked rage. "You, he, “I took Beth's arm, and she turned her back on her mother, walking out of the front door. I pulled it closed, careful not to slam it, and guided Beth to the car, helping her with her seatbelt. I started the engine, driving just far enough to be out of sight of the house, and stopped the car.Beth came into my outstretched arms, sobbing uncontrollably, her tears soaking through my shirt. "I, oh god, Tim,”She broke down again, and I stroked her hair. Finally she looked up, face tear-streaked, eyes red. "Thanks for looking after me.""Let's get going," I encouraged her. A few minutes later I pulled up outside my parents' house, and Beth held my hand tightly as we walked up the path. Mom opened the door, looking at Beth with a concerned expression. "Are you two Okay?""I'll explain later, Mom," I offered. "But would you mind making up the spare room for Beth?""That's no problem."We went through to the kitchen, and Mom busied herself finding a pan, milk. "Whenever Tim had something bothering him, hot chocolate would always cheer him up a bit."She set steaming mugs in front of us and Beth sipped gratefully. "Where's Dad?" I queried."In the garden as usual, I'll get him."She returned with my father, and he sat down at the table without comment. Beth gave me an anxious look, then forced a smile. "Look, Tim and I got engaged while we were away.""Oh, that's wonderful," Mom exclaimed. "Let me look."She enthused over the ring, "I love the style, such a classic, “ while my father gave me an uncharacteristically warm hug. "Well done, no point in hanging about when you're sure."Beth seemed to relax. "I'm sorry to impose on you, it'll only be for a little while before Tim and I go away."My mother shook her head. "Whatever's happened, it'll be lovely to have you both until then."She turned to my father. "I'll make the bed up, can you make a start on dinner? I think these two would enjoy sausage toad, plenty of gravy.""I'll get our stuff from the car," I offered. "Then I can do the washing."The rest of the day was filled with mundane tasks like laundry and cooking, "Come and tell me what you think of the roses, Beth," Mom invited, and finally Beth suppressed a yawn. "Sorry,”"It's fine," Mom reassured. "Why don't you two go up? You don't have to get up for anything in the morning, do you, I'll make breakfast for you whenever you're ready."She glanced at me, and again at Beth's ring. "And if we happen to hear footsteps crossing the landing to the spare room, well, that's not really any of our business, is it," she smiled.House HuntingBeth was more herself the next morning, and I grinned at her as she pulled on her bunny rabbit flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt to go down for breakfast. "I think I smell bacon."Mom smiled as we sat down at the kitchen table, sliding heaped plates in front of us. "What do you think you might do today?"I glanced at Beth. "I think we have some things to talk about, don't we, love. Maybe we could sit in the summer house, on the back slope?""Of course," nodded Mom. "We'll leave you to it, you can come back across when you need anything."We made short work of our breakfast & went through the garden path, then over the slope, to the summer house.I pushed open the door, the sun spilling inside onto the old swing seat Dad had put there. "Oh, I love these," Beth enthused, sitting down and swinging her legs.I sat beside her, looking across at the tall hedge, mingled with climbing flowers, that hid this house from view. "So, where shall we start?"Beth took a deep breath. "Well, maybe we should think about what to do with Grandad's money. I know the wedding will cost a bit, but we should probably think of something more permanent first?"I silently blessed my sensible fiancée. "Exactly."I looked across at the house again. "There's one thing I thought of straight away. Instead of spending money on hall fees or rent that we'll never see again, why don't we just buy somewhere to live?"Beth's eyes widened. "You mean, “She leaned closer to me, pillowing her head on my shoulder. "That would be beyond amazing."She grinned. "Maybe we could even stretch to that hot tub."I picked up her iPad. "Why don't we take a look what sort of thing is available down there?"Beth chuckled. "Slow down a bit. What kind of place would you like? We might find we have quite different ideas."I mused. "If I could have anything at all, I've always imagined somewhere big, old but really well looked after, lots of rooms, high ceilings. Definitely an attic, I've always wanted a room with one of those windows that looks out over the roof."Beth blinked in surprise. "That's so weird. That's exactly the sort of house I always wished I lived in."She chuckled again. "Probably comes from reading so much Enid Blyton."I let her take the tablet from my fingers. "Right – real estate agents."She tapped in a search, scrolling down the list. "This one sounds posh, probably they have bigger houses, maybe out of town a little."She clicked on a link, and I leaned closer to look. "Hmm. That one's too modern. And this one with the stables, we weren't thinking of horses, were we."Suddenly Beth pointed at the next image, with a 'Just listed' logo. "Tim?"I read the description. "Large period house, own grounds. Recently refurbished in keeping with the original character." It's just a few minutes from town.Beth clicked through the photographs. "Look, there's the attic, and it has real chimneys, I love open fires."She scribbled in her notebook, and passed it over. "Tim, do you want to give them a call? I'd rather you did it."I pulled out my phone, taking a deep breath and tapping at the screen, dialing. The number rang twice, then I heard a pleasant female voice. "Farquarson's, how can I help?""Ah, my name's Tim Oakes," I did my best to keep my voice steady. "My fiancée and I have seen a property on your web site, “ I gave the reference number, "and we're very interested."I heard her riffle through papers. "Ah, yes. It's literally gone on the market this morning, we've not arranged any viewings yet."I flashed my eyebrows at Beth. "Could we see it?""Of course," I heard at the other end of the line. "It's vacant, sadly the previous owner passed away, so I could arrange to meet you today, perhaps five?""That would be wonderful.""Done, then." I heard a brief hesitation at the other end. "Have you already made your financial arrangements, may I ask?"I squeezed Beth's hand as I replied. "Actually this would be a cash purchase."A pause, then, "Of course, sir. That makes things much more straightforward if you decide to proceed. Til this afternoon, then."I ended the call, and I couldn't help my broad grin, which Beth echoed. "It might be the only time in our lives we ever get to say that," I chuckled, "but damn, that felt good."She nodded. "How long will it take us to get there, do you think?""Only a couple of hours on the new toll road," I reassured her."Lunch on the way? There's a really good truck stop on the toll road."An hour or so later we were in the car, Beth looking at the map. "It looks like the house has woods behind it," she said.We passed the toll plaza on the other side of the motorway, and I glanced at Beth. "The truck stop will be soon.""Goody, I'm definitely starting to feel like something to eat."I pulled off the motorway, and we walked hand in hand through the food court. "I fancy fried chicken for a change," Beth pointed.I ordered for us, then carried the tray over to a table. "Um," said Beth, picking up a chicken wing and nibbling. "I love this coating."She finished her piece and licked her fingers. "Put the straw in my milkshake for me?"I put the tall cup in front of her and she sipped, signaling her thanks with her eyebrows. "Mind you don't suck too quickly and get brain freeze," I teased her.We finished our lunch, and I waited while Beth went to the loo. "Okay?""Um Hmm."We set off again, picking our way through the motorway interchanges and onto the new road which struck out cross-country in an easterly direction. Beth looked up into the sky, shielding her eyes against the sun. "I think there are supposed to be kites on this bit."The road seemed to go on and on, but finally we started to see signs for the university town where we'd be spending at least the next three years. "It's the next exit," Beth indicated, and I slowed, pulling off onto the B-road. The countryside was much flatter here, and Beth pointed ahead. "That must be it, I can see the woods."A graveled drive left the road, leading to the front of the house. A shiny Mini was already parked, and a young woman got out as we drew up.She walked over to us, smiling. "Hi, I'm Sarah." She was not much older than either of us, with a beautiful face and long brunette hair past her shoulders."I'm Beth, and this is Tim," Beth introduced us."Shall we?" Sarah offered, taking out a set of keys and opening the front door. She let us go ahead of her into the wide tiled hallway, then stepped inside, closing the door behind us. "It's a late Georgian property originally," she began her obviously-prepared presentation, "but the last owner restored and refurbished it extensively, so there's nothing significant that needs doing in regard to the fabric or fittings."

Home Loans Radio 08.16.2025 with That Mortgage Guy Don- Home Town Heroes Program is BACK!

In this episode of The Rachel Hollis Podcast, Rach shares an in-depth update on her current life events, including the challenges of remodeling a nearly 100-year-old home in LA. Rach also highlights the logistics of managing a home remodel while balancing family life and work commitments. Despite the setbacks, she emphasizes the importance of prioritizing family and maintaining an optimistic outlook. Shot and recorded in the back of her car! Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!01:03 Podcasting from the Car01:53 The Fixer Upper Adventure Begins03:31 House Hunting and Zillow Dreams07:26 The Offer and Renovation Plans10:27 Contractor Woes and Delays18:08 Dealing with Unreliable Contractors18:45 Ke's Strongly Worded Email19:57 Discovering the Project Manager20:57 Becoming Our Own Contractors22:00 Jackson Steps Up23:12 Navigating Construction Chaos23:47 Thumbtack to the Rescue24:51 Painting and Priming Challenges25:57 New Office and Future Plans30:05 Balancing Family and Business36:37 Looking Ahead to New Podcast FormatSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RachelHollisMotivation/videosFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices.

Home Loans Radio 08.09.2025 With That Mortgage Guy Don! Home Town Heroes comes Back August 18th 2025!

The home Loans Radio Show 08.02.2025 with That Mortgage Guy Don- Thank you for voting us BEST Local Mortgage Company in the Orlando Sentinel

Topics discussed on today's show: Sports News, Laundromats, Infected Trees, House Hunting in Cleveland, Hamilton, Lithium Medication, Ancient Stone Tools, Birthdays, History Quiz, Political News, Trillion Dollar Businesses, Businesses Struggling, Raising Money Traveling, Stuck Bear, Good News, Bringing The Romance, Movie Password, Never Wanna Hear at a Funeral, Condoms and Threesomes, and Apologies.

Nick and Jonathan break news on celebrities house hunting in Cleveland.

Nick and Jonathan question if Tigers fans should be panicking about the AL Central standings, and they break down the recent numbers that suggest the Guardians are on to something. Then, they break news on celebrities house hunting in Cleveland.

Good soup there!

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Brooke Hogan finds her father Hulk Hogan's death suspicious after he was cremated quickly after his death and no one performed an autopsy. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were spotted house hunting in the Cleveland area!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MGK is all over the place ahead of his upcoming album, Taylor and Travis looking at houses near his hometown and what's up with this Drake and Gracie Abrams story. Plus Heidi Klum and her man are doing something called a worm cleanse.We are joined by members of the Beauty and the Beast cast at the Orpheum Theatre, now to August 17th. Ticket DetailsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Home Loans Radio 07.26.2025 With That Mortgage Guy Don- Home Town Heroes Down Payment Program is not back yet but will be soon!

The Home Loans Radio Show 07.19.2025 with That Mortgage Guy Don- ITS a Buyers Market!!!!

Home Loans Radio Show 07.12.2025 With That Mortgage Guy don- Whats the craziest thing you have snuck into a Movie theater?#happyhomemortgage#mortgage #realestate #realtor #home #newhome #property #investment #realestateagent #househunting #realty #broker #forsale #listing #properties #homesforsale #dreamhome #justlisted #housing#thatmortgageguyDon  #realestatelife #milliondollarlisting #luxury #firsttimehomebuyer #realtors #mortgagebroker #refinance  #cashout #realtor 

Home Loans Radio 07.05.25 With That Mortgage guy Don- Happy 4th of July- Dont blow your fingers off!www.homeloansradio.com #mortgage #realestate #realtor #home #newhome #investment #realestateagent #househunting #thatmortgageguydon #listing #homesforsale #housing #florida #house #milliondollarlisting #firsttimehomebuyer #mortgagebroker #refinance #cashout #www.homeloansradio.com  

Home Loans Radio 06.28.2025 With That Mortgage Guy Don- Is hometown heroes back? Not quite, check out the pinned memo on Instagram.

This time in Strangerville, Meg and Eli are AWARD WINNING journalists. Also, we discuss half-assed home remodels. And The Suzzzzzzzzzzzz is back with a new story.StoryHouse Hunting, by The Suzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (Link to her dating episode)Production by Eli McCann & Meg WalterJoin our Patreon!If you'd like to sponsor an episode of Strangerville, please reach out to us at itjustgetsstranger@gmail.com.

Enjoyed this vid? Then please like, share and all that stuff. It helps!If you want to read the original article on which this video is based, hee it is.Subscribe to this amazing publication, why don't you?.If you are thinking of buying silver or gold bullion to protect yourself in these ‘interesting' times - and I recommend you do - the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here.Join my new WhatsApp channel This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

We WILL be Rick-Rolling you at some point during the show today, so stay strapped for that. Also Today, PAYTON IS GOIN' HOUSE HUNTING but FIRST let's talk languages, perhaps Japanese? Then, Johnjay's health, is he stable? You'd think so... but... AND THEN It's Friday so ofc Johnjay's got a game for youuuuuu and NEW MUSIC, Diddy getting scolded in court, and much much more on this beautiful Friday.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I've been viewing houses this past fortnight, so I thought I'd share my anecdotal 2p on the state of the London property market.I'm looking in Brockley, SE4, which, if you don't know it, used to be rough AF, but is now where all the cool kids are. The area has benefited from the various London rail line extensions – you can be in Shoreditch or Canary Wharf in 15 minutes; the Jubilee and Elizabeth lines are a similarly short step away – and that has attracted the slay crew to the area. The road links though are still horrendous though, made worse by 20mph speed limits and bus lane misallocation of essential road space. The drive to west London is interminable.Brockley has a good stock of beautiful detached, semi-detached and terraced Victorian houses. For example: With its proximity to Greenwich and the river docks, it was once a wealthy area, though, like most of south-east London, it got bombed to heck in the war.There are plenty of nice parks too. One of them, Hilly Fields, was modelled on Hampstead Heath, and there are many gorgeous houses in the roads running off it. Not quite Hampstead gorgeous, but getting there.Brockley also has the highest density of cemeteries in London, if you fancy dying any time soon, it's highly convenient. It is, I gather, London's most haunted area.It is only a bit stabby. Nothing like as bad as neighbouring Lewisham. (Maybe “only a bit stabby” will one day become part of estate agents' jargon, perhaps to replace “vibrant”. I can't believe how normalised stabbing now is that I'm talking like that.)The stabbiness is offset, however, by the plethora of nice restaurants, cafés, bars, craft ale breweries, the farmers' market, mini-festivals, pilates studios et al. I understand, in Browns, the area boasts London's best coffee and, in Babur, its best Indian restaurant. (Technically Babur is in Honor Oak, but, like England and many of its foreign sporting greats, we'll claim it as our own.)I shot this vid from the steps up to the station.Brockley feels younger and more up-and-coming than the once-cool areas to the west like Queen's Park, Kensal Rise, Clapham and so on, probably because of its easy access to east London. (A lot of people from Hackney move down here.)I moved here begrudgingly and skint in 2015 and have grown to really like it.But what about the housing market?I've known markets in which estate agents don't give you the time of day, there are so many prospective buyers, but – perhaps because they know I am an unencumbered buyer – the agents are maybe not quite all over me, but certainly on my case: lots of emails, phone calls and the rest of it. That indicates it's more of a buyers' market.But, while I would describe the housing market here as slow, it is not dead. Stuff has been going under offer in the two weeks I've been looking, though rarely at asking.With the costs of moving – Stamp Duty is 10% above £925k, and 12% above £1.5m, plus an extra 5% if you own another property – buyers have got to really want to buy.Sellers, meanwhile, have to really want to sell, which often entails reducing their asking prices. Stuff which is unrealistically priced is staying on the market a long time. Look at this one (actually up the road in Honor Oak):This is a 5,000-square-foot property, not so nice inside, but with access to a 2-acre private garden behind with its own tennis court – quite something in London. From £2.5 million to £1.75 million and they still can't shift it. (It needs a lot of money spending on it.)On the other hand, there don't seem to be many forced sellers – people who can't make their payments – and we won't get any house price crash, long-awaited or not, until that is a reality.I imagine Brockley, as a young, trendy area, is busier than other parts of town, but that is my overall feel: slow, but not dead.I've looked at a few family houses. I can't really comment on flats, but I gather there is an oversupply of 2-bed flats across London, and it is really hard to shift them. I'm not sure if this applies to Brockley or not.It doesn't feel as expensive as it did around 2019–2022 (realised sales prices are a fraction lower, but there is obviously currency debasement to consider too), but nor does it feel super cheap. We're a long way off where we were in, say, 2013, even though grander parts of London – Kensington and Chelsea, for example – are back at those 2013 levels.Where does the housing market go from here? It all depends on two things: interest rates and Stamp Duty.Britain's zombie housing market, brought to you by Stamp Duty.If rates go lower, the market will not collapse. There won't be the forced sellers. We'll continue as we are: stagnant. If rates go higher, the market is in trouble.But get rid of Stamp Duty, and you'd have a flurry of activity across the country tomorrow. People aren't moving because of the amount of dead money involved. Stamp Duty has immobilised the country.If you're buying a two-million-pound house, you will pay £153,750 in stamp duty. Cash. Money you've already paid tax on once. You can't borrow the money. You have to be extremely rich, or extremely desperate for a home, to be willing to pay a £150k one-off tax of this kind. Most would rather avoid paying it, so they don't move.You will pay more if you are not a UK resident.If you happen to own another property – which most people in that wealth bracket will, either their first flat they never sold, a property they inherited, or a home in the country – and the house you are buying is not your main residence, the tax rises to £253,750. A quarter of a million quid.That's why houses in Kensington and Chelsea no longer sell. EDIT: My mate, whose kids have now flown the nest, sent me this: "We live in a 4 floor house, 2 floors we don't use, I haven't been to the top floor for about 5 years (seriously). We would love to move and downsize but makes no sense as the costs of buying a new house would use up all the gain on downsizing . IE We just end up with a smaller house."This happens all the way down the scale. Kirstie Whatsit off the telly was tweeting about it the other day.My mother's friend, who is in her 70s, lives in a 2-bed flat two floors up in Wandsworth worth maybe £700,000. She is worried about climbing the stairs at her age, and wants to move to another 2-bed flat. She will pay £25,000 in Stamp Duty on top of all her other moving costs. She doesn't have 25 grand to throw away.The result is this nearly dead market. Britain's zombie housing market.Stamp Duties were one of the taxes the ignited the American Revolution. If only we had muskets today …The biggest villains in all this are former Chancellor Gordon Brown for first raising Stamp Duty on property transactions (before him it just one per cent on all properties over £60,000), and, worst of all, George Osborne for raising the rates to today's ludicrous levels. Rather than address the root causes of unaffordable housing – fiat money, artificially low interest rates, improper measures of inflation and dumb planning laws – he blamed the market, and attacked it with Stamp Duty. But all of Jeremy Hunt, Rishi Sunak, Sajid Javid, Philip Hammond and Alistair Darling must take their share of the blame for failing to do anything about it, when they had the chance. (We'll give Kwasi Kwarteng and Nadhim Zahawi a pass on the grounds they didn't have the gig for long enough).Osborne, Brown et al have given birth to the zombie situation we have now. They have immobilised the country in the process. Government. Yet again. 0 stars. Would not use again.It's enough to make you a libertarian. Until next time,DominicPS If you enjoyed today's article, please like, share and all that stuff. It really helps.PPS If you missed this week's market commentary, here it is:As always If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these times or relentless currency debasement, the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

In this episode of BellaTalks TV, Amanda Bella shares her unexpected weekend plans after her husband fractured his foot, leading to a change in her travel itinerary. She recounts her Bravo inspired adventures in Manhattan, attending trivia and watch parties, and her encounters with various reality TV stars including Tom Schwartz of Vanderpump Rules fame. Amanda reflects on her health challenges and the impact of reality TV on her life, while also discussing her aspirations for homeownership. The episode wraps up with insights into the latest Bravo gossip and Amanda's plans for future episodes.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates03:17 Eventful Night in Manhattan at The Valley Watch Party06:08 Interactions with Reality TV Stars09:19 Excitement for Upcoming Bravo Events12:22 Reflections on Bravo and Reality TV Dynamics15:30 Health Challenges and Rewatching Housewives21:06 House Hunting and Future Plans27:17 Closing Thoughts and Upcoming Content33:10 bella outro video.mp4Support the showFollow me @BellaTalksTV

Brian and Kenzie talk about house hunting and whether or not the Blue Origin space mission was faked. Chicago’s best morning radio show now has a podcast! Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and remember that the conversation always lives on the Q101 Facebook page. Brian & Kenzie are live every morning from 6a-10a on Q101. Subscribe to our channel HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@Q101 Like Q101 on Facebook HERE: https://www.facebook.com/q101chicago Follow Q101 on Twitter HERE: https://twitter.com/Q101Chicago Follow Q101 on Instagram HERE: https://www.instagram.com/q101chicago/?hl=en Follow Q101 on TikTok HERE: https://www.tiktok.com/@q101chicago?lang=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

House Hunting, Self Help Over Fantasy F*ck Books & A Meaty Beige What?The Round UpFantasy F*ck Books & Self HelpHistory Or Her StoryRed Light Green LightHotlines Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Bella Talks TV, Amanda Bella returns after a brief hiatus to discuss current events, personal reflections on the pandemic and how she wishes she started her podcast sooner, and the evolving landscape of reality TV. She shares her thoughts on various shows, including Bravo's offerings, and dives into specific headlines and character dynamics. The conversation also touches on personal experiences and the impact of reality TV on relationships, culminating in a discussion about the future of her podcast and content creation.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Exciting Updates02:40 Reflections on the Pandemic and Content Creation05:12 Reality TV Landscape and Personal Insights06:48 House Hunting and Economic Context08:13 Reality TV Headlines and Celebrity Gossip13:13 Diving into 'Welcome to Plathville' and Family Dynamics18:01 Exploring 'Real Housewives' and Character Dynamics20:56 Gypsy Rose and Her Journey26:00 Conclusion and Final Thoughts26:50 Gypsy's Sexual Awakening and Relationships30:41 Reality TV Dynamics: Married to Medicine and Beyond33:39 Love is Blind: Celebrating New Beginnings36:54 Navigating Parenthood: Erin's Controversial TikTok48:33 Love on the Spectrum: A Heartwarming Review55:04 bella outro video.mp4Takeaways:Amanda reflects on her time away and the importance of content creation.She expresses regret for not starting her podcast during the pandemic.The current state of Bravo and reality TV is discussed, highlighting its ups and downs.Amanda shares her experiences from a recent cruise and the challenges of travel.She critiques the drama surrounding Paige and Craig from Summer House.Sami Sheen's success on OnlyFans is mentioned as a notable headline.Denise Richards' portrayal on reality TV is analyzed.The importance of accountability for mothers in reality TV is emphasized.Kelli from Real Housewives of Atlanta is introduced as a new favorite.Amanda shares her love for the show Love on the Spectrum and its impact. PLEASE LEAVE ME A POSITIVE REVIEW

This week we're sharing an update on our “just for fun” house hunting, weighing the pros and cons of some houses we've seen, and also recapping our ski trip to Steamboat, Colorado! Tune in to Ketchup With The Freys!

Happy Thursday! We're back with another episode, and this one's fun. First up—Apple just dropped a kid-friendly watch?! (Have they been listening to the pod??? LOL) Then, we get into date night swaps with the neighbors (GENIUS), house hunting stress (shoutout Zillow addiction), and a shocking revelation… Harrison just found out babies under six months can't wear sunscreen (ps. Tate has NEVER worn sunscreen - apparently he just didn't know why lmao). Introducing our new segment (OK we're just testing it but…): Table Topics! It's all about the convos you'd have at dinner with your “parent friends” - relationships, pop culture, personal finances, parenting—and we want to hear from you! This week: Is “no kids ever” a relationship deal breaker? Plus, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Let us know in the comments if you like the new segment, and drop a voice memo with your question/comment/take for next week - https://memo.fm/twoparentsandapod/ And, of course, we're ending with the usual chaos—plane crashes, Katy Perry in space, and people (read: Harrison) screaming at Waymo cars. We LOVE YOU GUYS!! Timestamps: 00:00:00 Welcome back to Two Parents & A Podcast! 00:01:10 Apple came out with a kid-friendly watch?! 00:04:25 Date night swaps with the neighbors 00:07:40 Do you have a “side of the bed”?! 00:09:45 The house hunting continues… (s/o Zillow) 00:18:48 Harrison learns babies under 6 months can't wear sunscreen 00:22:53 Table Topic: Is “no kids ever" a relationship deal breaker? 00:36:55 Table Topic: Getting out of your comfort zone 00:42:57 Things We DMed Eachother: Plane crashes & Katy Perry going to space 00:49:20 Brain Break: Yelling at Waymo's 00:54:05 LOVE YOU GUYS! #twoparentsandapod ---------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you to our sponsors this week: Hers – Start your initial free online visit today at https://forhers.com/ALEX for personalized weight loss treatment options. Restrictions apply. Prescription required. Wegovy® and Ozempic® are not compounded. See site for details. Hungryroot – You're going to love Hungryroot as much as I do! Take advantage of this exclusive offer: 40% off your first box PLUS a free item in every box for life. Go to https://Hungryroot.com/justalex and use code JUSTALEX. MeUndies – Get 20% off your first order, plus free shipping on orders of $75 or more at https://MeUndies.com/alex with promo code ALEX. Magnetic Me – Order Magnetic Me today! For yourself… or as a great gift for any parent! New customers get 15% off their first order at https://MagneticMe.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to the pod on Spotify/Apple Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/show/7BxuZnHmNzOX9MdnzyU4bD?si=5e715ebaf9014fac https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/two-parents-a-podcast/id1737442386 Follow Two Parents & A Podcast: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/twoparentsandapod TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@twoparentsandapod Follow Alex: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/justalexbennett TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@justalexbennett Follow Harrison: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/harrisonfugman TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@harrisonfugman ---------------------------------------------------------------- Powered by: Just Media House -- https://www.justmediahouse.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices