Podcast appearances and mentions of natalie cox

Originally from Los Angeles, California, Natalie Cox currently lives in Gilbert, Arizona. She is the mother of five kids ages 10, 14, 16, 18, and 19, and a new missionary mom. Her son left for the Columbus Ohio mission last month and her daughter will leave for the Scotland Ireland mission next month. She is an entrepreneur at heart and has started a few businesses over the years. In 2019 she launched Māedn Bags and running that keeps her pretty busy during the week. At church, Natalie has served in many capacities in Primary, as the first counselor in stake Primary and then as the stake Primary president. She is currently serving as ward Young Women president and considers it an honor to work with the young women. She loves the youth and spending time with them on Wednesdays and Sundays is the highlight of her week. Links There is already a discussion started about this podcast. Share your thoughts HERE. Watch on YouTube Transcript coming soon Get 14-day access to the Core Leader Library Highlights 02:15 Kurt introduces Natalie and her background. 03:40 Getting called as Young Women president in her ward. Natalie felt very strongly that she needed to serve in Young Women even though she was the stake Primary president. She discussed it with her bishop. 09:20 Natalie started her calling terrified and unsure what to even say to the girls. 12:10 Establishing a relationship with the young women. Natalie describes what it looked like for her as she tried to build these relationships with each girl. 15:50 Silent ministering. No one knows who is ministering to whom. Not everyone had a silent minister but some girls that were struggling did. None of them knew the term silent minister because then they would question if it was authentic or not. 21:45 While it's not allowed, Natalie personally believes in texting individuals. She says that there is nothing more powerful for her relationship with them. She sends encouragement, that she misses them, and asks them how school is going. 23:40 Should we always stick with the rules? What if we feel inspired to go against the rules? 26:00 Natalie takes some of the girls on one-on-ones. It started because a mother reached out to her and asked her to take her daughter on one. It's an incredible way to get to know them, tell them why they matter, tell them what you see in them. 28:20 The positive development of any young person requires three additional adult influences other than their parents. 29:10 There are rules and we want to keep everyone safe but the things Natalie is trying to do are for the benefit of the youth and are deepening the relationships there. Maybe the best way is for leaders to always ask parent permission. 32:10 Natalie's ward has a lot of girls. There have been 28 girls in just the oldest class (31 next January) and it's nearly impossible to connect with all of them without taking extra steps. 33:10 Leaders are terrified of teenage girls. Just remember that it's not about you and it's all about them. 35:40 Some youth are so hard to reach. Natalie shares an experience she had with a girl in her young women. Natalie kept reaching out to her but never got a response until six months later. The girl sent her a heartfelt message thanking her. The moral of the story is that you might not be getting a lot of feedback but what you are doing matters. 38:30 Working together as Young Women and Young Men organizations 43:00 Natalie really wanted the young women to be greeters and help them have purpose and interact with the adults. The bishop said no but the feeling kept nagging her. She gave it some time and the bishop finally agreed. Remember that impressions can be different for each leader and to give it time. 46:45 Natalie explains how they involve the young women in ministering. They call it ministering bread. 49:00 Natalie shares her final thoughts on leadership and how serving has blessed her.

Originally from Los Angeles, California, Natalie Cox currently lives in Gilbert, Arizona. She is the mother of five kids ages 10, 14, 16, 18, and 19, and a new missionary mom. Her son left for the Columbus Ohio mission last month and her daughter will leave for the Scotland Ireland mission next month. She is an entrepreneur at heart and has started a few businesses over the years. In 2019 she launched Māedn Bags and running that keeps her pretty busy during the week. At church, Natalie has served in many capacities in Primary, as the first counselor in stake Primary and then as the stake Primary president. She is currently serving as ward Young Women president and considers it an honor to work with the young women. She loves the youth and spending time with them on Wednesdays and Sundays is the highlight of her week. Highlights 02:15 Kurt introduces Natalie and her background. 03:40 Getting called as Young Women president in her ward. Natalie felt very strongly that she needed to serve in Young Women even though she was the stake Primary president. She discussed it with her bishop. 09:20 Natalie started her calling terrified and unsure what to even say to the girls. 12:10 Establishing a relationship with the young women. Natalie describes what it looked like for her as she tried to build these relationships with each girl. 15:50 Silent ministering. No one knows who is ministering to whom. Not everyone had a silent minister but some girls that were struggling did. None of them knew the term silent minister because then they would question if it was authentic or not. 21:45 While it's not allowed, Natalie personally believes in texting individuals. She says that there is nothing more powerful for her relationship with them. She sends encouragement, that she misses them, and asks them how school is going. 23:40 Should we always stick with the rules? What if we feel inspired to go against the rules? 26:00 Natalie takes some of the girls on one-on-ones. It started because a mother reached out to her and asked her to take her daughter on one. It's an incredible way to get to know them, tell them why they matter, tell them what you see in them. 28:20 The positive development of any young person requires three additional adult influences other than their parents. 29:10 There are rules and we want to keep everyone safe but the things Natalie is trying to do are for the benefit of the youth and are deepening the relationships there. Maybe the best way is for leaders to always ask parent permission. 32:10 Natalie's ward has a lot of girls. There have been 28 girls in just the oldest class (31 next January) and it's nearly impossible to connect with all of them without taking extra steps. 33:10 Leaders are terrified of teenage girls. Just remember that it's not about you and it's all about them. 35:40 Some youth are so hard to reach. Natalie shares an experience she had with a girl in her young women. Natalie kept reaching out to her but never got a response until six months later. The girl sent her a heartfelt message thanking her. The moral of the story is that you might not be getting a lot of feedback but what you are doing matters. 38:30 Working together as Young Women and Young Men organizations 43:00 Natalie really wanted the young women to be greeters and help them have purpose and interact with the adults. The bishop said no but the feeling kept nagging her. She gave it some time and the bishop finally agreed. Remember that impressions can be different for each leader and to give it time. 46:45 Natalie explains how they involve the young women in ministering. They call it ministering bread. 49:00 Natalie shares her final thoughts on leadership and how serving has blessed her. Links TRANSCRIPT coming soon Watch on YouTube Get 14-day access to the Core Leader Library The Leading Saints Podcast is one of the top independent Latter-day Saints podcasts as par...

In today's episode, Lauren is chatting with awesome Pro Dog Trainer, Natalie Cox about her journey from struggling dog owner to successful Gamechanger!Natalie began her absoluteDOGS journey with the Sexier than a Squirrel Challenge to help her own dog, Bertie, through tough COVID times where walks were a struggle. After jumping into Training Academy, Natalie's journey propelled her into the Pro Dog Trainer programme and has since followed by a gaint leap into Geek where she found a super solutions boost for her dog's training and behaviour struggles!After taking her struggles with her own dog from strength to strength, Natalie decided she wanted to share her wins and her success with other dog owners and she's now turning her Pro Dog Trainer knowledge to her own training business!For Natalie, her absoluteDOGS and Pro Dog Trainer journey has given her an abundant lifestyle, filled with dog training joy, a massive positive energy and mindset shift and she has gone from negative Natalie to positive Pro Dog Trainer and super Gamechanger Natalie! If you're wondering about becoming a Pro Dog Trainer and how it can change your life, your dog's life and those lives of those around you, tune in to this super cool episode! This is one positivity-packed podcast you won't want to miss!http://absolutedogs.me/dayone Support the show

I wanted to bring on one of my best friends so you could have a bit of a deeper look into my community and how I surround myself with supportive people to help me in my day to day life.

I wanted to bring on one of my best friends so you could have a bit of a deeper look into my community and how I surround myself with supportive people to help me in my day to day life.

We continue our Vincentian Family theme on Random Wednesday with the Ladies of Charity today. We have a guest reflector as well.

Welcome! I am delighted to have you join us today! Please allow me to introduce you to Khadisha Thornhill also known as MsWeedwiki is one-half of the dynamic duo founders of the Afro Cannada Budsistas, an online space created with Natalie Cox dedicated to the normalization of cannabis use for Black women in Canada. MsWeedwiki is a founding member & treasurer of PACC (Peoples Alliance of Cannabis in Canada) where she leads an advisory team focused on increasing BIPOC inclusion in the Canadian cannabis industry. Khadisha is also passionately committed to advocating for better medical cannabis coverage for patients across Canada by working on finding real solutions to eliminating the barrier of access to cannabis medication created by Canadian extended health benefits providers and insurance carriers. Understanding the difference between Weed, Cannabis, Pot & Marijuana. Discussing some of the possible benefits. Discussing the bias, misconceptions, and shame.   You can find Kadisha Thornhill on Instagram at the website at https://www.afrocannadabudsistas.com/   Share with someone that needs to be inspired and empowered. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. Best Health, Mo Akins    

Ms. Thornhill's and Ms.Natalie Cox's Afro Cannada Budsistas' online space has a community of more than 800 members. Ms. Thornhill is also a board member of EduCanNation-an organization dedicated to medical cannabis education and advocacy. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/heather-harris96/message

Natalie Cox another great local Ottawa designer www.nataliecoxdesign.com CPI INTERIORS discussing full service interior design, her love of colour, the process of design with her and so much more on ottawadesigners.com with your host Sandria Blench www.urbansimplicity.ca

I am very excited by this chat with Natalie Cox - The Intimacy Ignitor. Nat and I leant into her childhood experiences and Karmic relationships that showed up for her, which then led her to an amazing spiritual growth path and creating the work she does now, coaching people around intimacy, connecting deeper and assisting them on their personal health journeys. You can find her on the links below https://www.instagram.com/nataliecox___/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/IntimacyIgniter

On this Mary Brown's powered episode featuring @notmarcanthony & @angryhousewife they discuss: - People are actually trying to cancel LeBron over Courtside Karen saga?! - An 81 person orgy in France busted?! - Lil Uzi implants a diamond in his head - Have you ever stuck up for your partner when they were in the wrong?

This week's episode Bruce, Alyssa, and Hannah talk with Janessa Bailey, Leafly's Culture Editor, about the launch of Lumen -- the newest Leafly page specifically for amplifying Black Voices. Then the crew discusses growing, equity, mental health, and how much we all miss a good party with the Afro Cannada Bud Sistas, Khadisha Thornhill, and Natalie Cox. 

Tonight Natalie Cox and Khadisha Thornhill of Afro Cannada Budistas stop by for a chat about activism, peace, enviroment and social justice plus much more with Kim and Al. The PACE Radio Show airs Wednesdays on PACEradio.net

Tonight Natalie Cox and Khadisha Thornhill of Afro Cannada Budistas stop by for a chat about activism, peace, enviroment and social justice plus much more with Kim and Al. The PACE Radio Show airs Wednesdays on PACEradio.net

We wanted to talk holiday writing—as in, writing ABOUT holidays, not writing during the holidays. So we went strolling through the holly-bedecked halls of the Internet—because, #dominantculture, holiday books as they appear without a more specific web search means Christmas books and specifically, the 250 page equivalent of a bonbon of a Lifetime Christmas movie. We found Natalie Cox, author of the debut romcom Mutts and Mistletoe. And then we found that Natalie Cox is also Betsy Tobin, author of five other novels, co-owner of a bookshop in North London and just generally appearing to live an authorial dream life. So of course we invited her on to talk about not just holiday writing, but switching genres, the real meaning of “debut” and whether or not owning a bookstore in London is as much fun as it sounds like it would be. Links from the episode (which was itself as much fun as it sounds like it would be) follow.As for writing DURING the holidays, if you’re a supporter, you can check out the Top 5 Hacks for Holiday Writing—and if you’re not, why not? Give yourself a little holiday giftie and us a little holiday boost clicking the button below to support the podcast you love, get weekly #WriterTopFives with actionable advice and occasional bonus #MiniSupporter podcasts for just $7 a month. As always, this episode (and every episode) will appear for all subscribers in your usual podcast listening places, totally free as the #AmWriting Podcast has always been. This shownotes email is free, too, so please—forward it to a friend, and if you haven’t already, join our email list and be on top of it with the shownotes and a transcript every time there’s a new episode. To support the podcast and help it stay free, subscribe to our weekly #WritersTopFive email.LINKS FROM THE PODCAST#AmReading (Watching, Listening)Betsy:Three Women, Lisa Taddeo KJ: Beside Herself, Elizabeth LaBanSarina: Reindeer Falls, Book 1: The Boss Who Stole Christmas, Jana AstonReindeer Falls, Book 2: If You Give a Jerk a Gingerbread, Jana AstonReindeer Falls, Book 3: The One Night Stand Before Christmas, Jana Aston#FaveIndieBookstoreINK@84 Our guest for this episode is Betsy Tobin, aka Natalie Cox. Find more about her at BetsyTobin.co.uk.This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwritingfor details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s Inside-Outline template.Find more about Jess here, Sarina here and about KJ here.If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.Transcript (We use an AI service for transcription, and while we do clean it up a bit, some errors are the price of admission here. We hope it’s still helpful.)KJ:                                        00:02                    Hey there listeners, it's KJ. What with Jess starting in on a new project lately, we've been talking a lot about nonfiction and research. If that's your kind of work, our sponsor, Author Accelerator can help and you don't have to go all in with full on book coaching if you're not ready. Check out their new four week long nonfiction framework program that will help you nail down your structure before you start to write, or after your writing and realizing, dang, this thing needs a backbone. Authors of self-help, how-to, and academic texts will find the shape of their books, create a working one page summary that helps reveal that shape at a glance, and develop a flexible table of contents to guide you through the drafting and revision process. You can find a lot more, including previews of much of the material, by going to authoraccelerator.com/nonfictionframework. Is it recording?Jess:                                     01:00                    Now it's recording.KJ:                                        01:01                    Yay.Jess:                                     01:02                    Go ahead.KJ:                                        01:03                    This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone and try to remember what I'm supposed to be doing.Jess:                                     01:07                    Alright, let's start over.KJ:                                        01:08                    Awkward pause and I'm going to rustle some papers.Jess:                                     01:11                    Okay.KJ:                                        01:11                    Now, one, two, three. Hey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia and this is #AmWriting. #AmWriting is our weekly podcast about writing all the things - fiction, nonfiction, book proposals, essays, pitches, and as we say every week, this is the podcast about getting the work done.Sarina:                                 01:40                    And I'm Sarina Bowen, the author of 30 plus romance novels. And you can find more of me at sarinabowen.com. I am KJ Dell'Antonia, author of a novel coming out next summer. Also of How To Be a Happier Parent, former lead editor of the Motherlode blog at the New York Times and all of the other things that I say every week. And our usual cohost, Jess Lahey, is missing this week. Sarina and I are soloing, but we have a guest. In fact, you could argue that we have three guests. We are going to talk today with Betsy Tobin, who is the author of five books of literary fiction/mystery/I'm not even quite sure how to describe it. Natalie Cox, the author of a new romcom, which is called Mutts and Mistletoe, it's a holiday theme and it is incredibly fun. And the co-owner of the Ink@84 bookstore bar cafe in North London. Conveniently, however, all of these guests are wrapped up into the same person. It's just going to make it much easier to ask questions.Sarina:                                 02:52                    Of course. So welcome, Betsy.Betsy:                                  02:54                    Gosh, with an intro like that it's going to be hard not to disappoint. I'll do my best. I'll do my best to be three people in one. Thank you very much. And also 30 books, my goodness. Respect, Sarina. That's amazing, respect.KJ:                                        03:08                    So I'm going to just own it all for our listeners (as we do every week) which is that originally we thought, you know what would be really fun? It'd be fun to talk to somebody who wrote a book with a holiday theme. Because have you ever written a book with a holiday theme?Sarina:                                 03:27                    Undeveloped, but barely.KJ:                                        03:29                    Right, but barely. I've written many an essay with the holiday theme, and many a gift guide with a holiday theme, many a freelance thing, but I've not done a book. So that was our original thought. So we, we sort of went looking around to see who would be interesting and came across Natalie Cox's debut romcom author of Mutts and Mistletoe. And reached out to her only to discover that she is scarcely a debut author at all. So while I hope to get to the use of the holiday and the trope and the fun that is all involved in that, we really want to start with, Betsy, get us to this point. Walk us through if you don't mind.Betsy:                                  04:17                    How did I start writing?KJ:                                        04:19                    Yeah, how did you start writing? Let's start there.Betsy:                                  04:23                    My very first foray into writing was that I took an evening class in journalism and the teacher told me that my style was too literary. And he really sort of slightly took the wind out of my sails. I was in my mid-twenties and I thought this might be a great career. So I went and did an autobiographical essay writing course and the very first exercise that that teacher set was to write a brief story about your life that incorporated a lie and try to make the juncture between the lie and the truth totally seamless. And I thought that was a really fantastic exercise.KJ:                                        05:19                    That is an interesting exercise. And one I've never heard.Betsy:                                  05:23                    Yeah. I mean, one that it would never have occurred to me to write fiction. And I didn't really grow up in a family where there were any kind of artists or people working in creative industries. We were kind of quite rational type people. And I thought I was going to have a career in a rational kind of occupation. And I don't think I would've had the courage to write fiction until he set this exercise. And immediately I just found it incredibly liberating, because you could make it all up. And to be honest, that was it, I mean I just never looked back from there. I started writing short fiction. I went and did an MFA. I did work briefly when I first moved to London as a reporter. Eventually I was really rubbish at it. I wasn't thick-skinned enough.Betsy:                                  06:13                    And I knew it was just a matter of time before I kind of was able to get myself in a position to write fiction. So that's kind of how it happened. I thought initially I would write plays and scripts. But I struggled early on with the pacing of longer format prose fiction. I wrote a lot of short stories and it was a mystery to me how you pace a novel and then suddenly I kind of cracked it in one go where I wrote something and I looked at it and I thought, 'Oh my goodness, this is not a short story. This is a novel.' And I remember, cause I left the first, like eight or nine pages lying on my desk and my husband kind of wandered by and read it and he sort of came to me and he said, 'You know, what is this?' And I said, 'I'm not sure, but I think it's a novel.' And he said, 'I think it's a novel, too.' And that was my first book, Bone House, which did very well. It sold in the U.S., and the UK, and abroad, and was optioned for film.KJ:                                        07:13                    And that was what, about 2008?Betsy:                                  07:16                    Gosh, no, it was published in more like 2000.KJ:                                        07:23                    I was on Amazon and saw probably what is the latest edition.Betsy:                                  07:27                    That could be, yeah. And I kind of never looked back from there. It did well. I mean it wasn't a bestseller. I've never had what I would say was a huge rating success. I've had critical successes. That book was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize, unfortunately up against Zadie Smith, who has since gone on to glittering careers.Betsy:                                  07:50                    But yeah, it kind of put me on the map as a writer. It got me an agent. I wrote another historical novel after that. Then I wrote a third book was mythic/historical. I kind of turned to myth and I looked at the Norse body of literature.KJ:                                        08:11                    How much time is it taking?Betsy:                                  08:12                    So for literary fiction, I would say three years for me. That's definitely what it takes for me to write a novel. And you need about a year where the idea is bubbling along and gestating. And also those novels were very heavily researched, all of them actually. So it took quite a long time to be able to start writing. Although research is something that I use all the way through the writing process. I'm a great fan of using it as a kickstarter for creativity. Anytime somebody comes to me saying they've got writer's block that's probably my single biggest tip is just, you know, plunge yourself into some research on the background of what you're writing. And it's those tiny details that you uncover that will kickstart your creativity and get you going again. So yeah, I eventually wrote five novels.KJ:                                        09:08                    And the fifth one was a bit of a departure too...Betsy:                                  09:11                    That was a comic novel. It was the first thing I'd written based on my own kind of personal history a little bit...KJ:                                        09:22                    So that one is called Things We Couldn't Explain.Betsy:                                  09:26                    That one's called Things We Couldn't Explain. When I first started writing in the UK, I'd only lived over here for about five years and I didn't feel comfortable writing about contemporary Britain. And equally, I was starting to feel a little bit out of touch with the U.S. So I ended up setting my first novel in the distant past. And I felt like that was a middle ground where my readership and I would be on the same sort of footing. We'd all be kind of equally unfamiliar with the terrain.KJ:                                        10:00                    I had never thought of that. Although, you know, Sarina sets her books kind of around here and somewhere else that she's lived. And the novel that I've got coming out is set where I grew up and I'm just now doing one for living around here. And I've lived here for about 10 years and I had the same thought. Can I really? You know, I ended up writing about a newcomer to the area because that felt better. People don't really talk about that, how hard it is.Betsy:                                  10:27                    You have to feel comfortable in the skin of your novel. And then the setting is the skin. And if you're not comfortable sitting in the skin of it, you just won't approach it with confidence. I wrote a lot about identity and displacement in my literary fiction for years. That was kind of a theme that just cropped up over, and over, and over. My fourth novel, Crimson China, was about illegal Chinese migrants living in the UK and I think it is because I was a displaced person. And so I was struggling with that sense of identity and belonging and what happens to your sense of identity when you're taken out of the place of your birth and taken away from your family, and your friends, and the culture that you know. So that was a really big theme for me. And the novel that is set in Ohio was the only thing I'd ever written that was really tapped into my own background. So it was quite close to my heart, actually. So this segues deeply into the holiday issue, because that fifth novel came out in November. And the publisher I was with at the time was very, very big on digital publishing. It was sort of the heyday of digital and digital has come off the boil a bit since then in more recent years. But at the time, she was convinced that there was a lot of money to be made with eBooks. She did a lot of other much, much more commercial fiction and I watched her commercial fiction authors soar right past me in the digital charts that November, December, particularly with the holiday books. While my book kind of languished somewhere in the high tens of thousands in the rankings.KJ:                                        12:23                    Tell me when this was.Betsy:                                  12:25                    This would have been probably about five, six years ago.KJ:                                        12:32                    Right. I think Things We Couldn't Explain was 2014. So you already have sort of a fun commercial read, but it's just not doing what you hoped it would do.Betsy:                                  12:47                    No, and what I would say is My first impulse for writing a holiday book was envy. I absolutely, you know, had envy of watching all of these holiday books, many of which frankly, I read some, I wasn't very impressed. My daughter and I were big fans of romcom. She's in her kind of mid twenties. We looked at each other and we said, 'We could do this, we could do so much better.' And of course it's not, it's deceptively difficult to get it right. And we were far too overconfident, but that said, we did sit down and we came up with a concept which was the doggy, the canine rom-com concept. And we set out to do it and I wrote it. She helped me with some of the plotting. She's a great sort of reality check for me as a writer. She sees through the holes in everything, really - plot, character, theme. So I use her as a sounding board a lot for my writing.KJ:                                        13:52                    How old is your daughter?Betsy:                                  13:52                    She's in her mid twenties nowKJ:                                        13:57                    As is the main character in Mutts and Mistletoe.Betsy:                                  14:00                    Yes, exactly. So yeah, so we sat down to that and then I wrote about 50 pages of it. And then I got very interested in the idea of opening the bookshop and I shelved that book and really for the next three years did nothing but find and open the shop, which really sucked up kinda 200% of my energy. And when the shop was up and running for I would say two and a half years probably, I was ready to go back to writing. And I went back to this 50 pages that I had written, which really I had just done on a lark. It was nothing more than a lark. And I honestly thought I would probably self-publish it myself, digitally only. And I mentioned it to my agent. I have a wonderful UK agent who I'm very loyal to, I've been with from the beginning. And she said, 'Show it to me.' And I knew she didn't really handle that sort of material normally, but I sent it to her and the agency read it, they all loved it. They were like, 'You must write this.' So I did. I wrote that over the next say year, it probably didn't take me more than about another six to nine months to finish. And that was how Mutts was born. It's done really well, it won romantic comedy of the year here in the UK, and it's sold all over really, all over Europe, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Russia. I never dreamed that it would be as successful as it's been.Betsy:                                  15:57                    You know, literary fiction is incredibly laborious. You agonize over every word, every sentence, every phrasing. You know, Mutts and Mistletoe, you're basically trying to get all the elements that you normally tackle as a writer - story, character, setting. But you're basically also just trying to make it really funny. And so it's just such a laugh, you know, I just giggle all the way through writing this stuff. And you look at every page and you think, how can I make this more funny and what would be funnier, and that's really the challenge is kind of just keeping the jokes coming. I don't think you have a joke in every paragraph, but you just have to put your funny hat on and just wear it while you're writing. And it's a joy to be honest, compared to the other form.KJ:                                        16:56                    But you also have a really strong structure.Betsy:                                  17:02                    I think you have to absolutely. You have to adhere, with all writing. You have to play by the rules. I mean, there's meta fiction and some writers can bend the rules, but for most readers we need to have the elements. You have to have your ducks in line, you have to have a strong story, you have to have a strong starting proposition with a protagonist that has a problem or a need, and they're gonna they have to have an arc. All the rules adhere, there's no bending of the rules for any of this stuff. You can't take shortcuts. And I know this because I've tried to do things in a more freestyle manner and where it all just didn't work because you didn't follow the rules. And I think even a seasoned writer can fall at that hurdle if you don't pay attention. I think character is totally the single biggest driver of making compelling read. I think characters drive all good stories. And yeah, you have to have a kind of structure, ideally a kind of three act structure, and you have to have a character who learns or grows or changes. I'm a great believer in happy endings. You know, I think audiences want those.KJ:                                        18:43                    Well, you have those things very cleanly. Many writers have those things but have a lot of noise around them. And in your case, I think you found them very cleanly and it made me wonder if you had a structure that you sort of wrote around or if that just came naturally to you.Betsy:                                  19:05                    I'm not a great one for planning out all the story in advance, I guess the phrase a pants writer.Sarina:                                 19:17                    Oh yes, we use that phrase.Betsy:                                  19:19                    I think I probably am a pants writer. It's not necessarily something I recommend. What I would say is that as much as I'm somebody who doesn't plan everything in advance, I'm utterly meticulous about writing and rewriting. And to be honest, most of my published work, most pages have been edited a hundred times.KJ:                                        19:51                    Wow.Sarina:                                 19:51                    Wow.Betsy:                                  19:52                    Yeah. And I know that sounds obsessive, but that's the sort of writer I am.KJ:                                        19:57                    No, it sounds great. I'm a noisy writer to use the metaphor or whatever that I was just using, which is there tends to be a lot of stuff around my bones and I need to have less stuff around my bones. And it's kinda reassuring to hear that you're peeling stuff away as opposed to never putting it down, which certainly sounds like a simpler way to do it to me. But unfortunately I can't get there.Betsy:                                  20:19                    I mean, I think it means that you won't produce work as fast if you're that fastidious. And I think in commercial fiction the industry demands a certain pace of writers. And I think I'm not able to meet that pace. I'm sure my publishers would say that. But that's just me. I'm afraid I just can't not do it the way I want to do it. And I'm not prepared to put a sentence out until it's perfect.Sarina:                                 20:47                    One thing you said about characters really stuck with me. Because a few minutes ago you were saying you have to really turn on the funny and you know, be funny on every page if you're writing a comedy. But that's so much harder if you don't have a character who can give that to you through all of her flaws and misperceptions of the world, then you just have to spontaneously be funny. Whereas if you have a character who is really set in her ways, then the comedy is easier to find because it's...Betsy:                                  21:20                    Absolutely, it has to be character driven. All the comedy has to be character driven and situation driven. It's not like you're making jokes leap off the page in and of themselves. You're pulling the comic material out of your characters and what's happening to them. It's like you're birthing it.Sarina:                                 21:38                    I had a couple of questions for you about this book specifically. So one is, did you ever just get sick of Christmas, you know, when you were editing the hundredth time in August or whatever where you're just like, 'Ugh'?Betsy:                                  21:54                    I dunno, I mean, I think one of the things - my character is this kind of Scrooge-like character and part of her journey is that she has to learn to love Christmas. So I was able to kind of feed both sides of that debate. It's a book that serves both Christmas lovers and Christmas haters, I think. For that reason. So it was quite amusing to kind of look at the dark side of the holidays. It amused me anyway. To be honest, Christmas became a setting, right? So, yes, it has fantastic comic potential. It has all these iconic tropes and symbols. But really what it was, was a setting and that's how you have to approach it was that you're going to set your novel in a biscuit factory. There's going to be all kinds of comedy that flows from the shop floor. In that way, Christmas was the biscuit factory setting for this. There are writers who make their career out of holiday books. Gosh, more power to them. They're the ones that you should probably be putting that question to are the ones that are writing them year, after year, after year. I'm not writing a holiday book at the moment. I wouldn't rule one out again though, cause I didn't even plumb all the depths of the comic possibilities for Christmas with that first one. I think it's rich terrain for comedy, so I could see me going back to it.Sarina:                                 23:34                    So then my other question involves just a really practical thing about about writing a holiday book. So my first published book, practically another lifetime ago, is a winter-themed cookbook and it is very winter-themed. The sales for that book (it's 10 years old now) they look like a sign wave on the author portal. They peak right at Christmas and then they bucket in July. And I'm just curious if fiction is expected to do the same thing or not.Betsy:                                  24:12                    It absolutely does the same thing. But that's the other beauty of writing seasonal stuff is that there's a readily identifiable market for it, which is why publishers love it. And you know, your cookbook might have died a very quick death decades ago or years ago, had you not had that seasonal hook that brings it back and makes it relevant again in the marketplace each year. I'm a great believer in, you know, I don't believe the world owes us a living as writers. And I think we have to write stuff that people want to read. So I'm sort of quite business minded as a writer. And and I think you need to do the publisher's job for them a little bit when you want to sell a prospective title because you have to be able to identify what the market's going to be. So yeah, I think whereas novels, (and I know this because I'm a book seller) the shelf life of a hardback is something like six weeks to three months. And after that they get sent back. And the shelf life of a paperback is 18 months. And after that, you know, unless you're a bestseller, or a prize winner, or an evergreen your book will be gone. And you know, that's just the reality. Whereas seasonal titles, actually, I think there is an upswing year after year for the best ones.KJ:                                        25:49                    So, wait. Do you put them in a box in the shop and put them aside or do you send them back and then get some new ones?Betsy:                                  25:56                    We send them back when we get new ones. We're ruthless.KJ:                                        26:00                    Isn't that funny - you're both the author who's like, 'No, hold on to my book and the bookseller who's like, 'Nope, sorry.'Betsy:                                  26:08                    It's awful. Authors don't want to know how much gets sent back. I don't know if the retail industry works quite the same way in the U.S. but books are one of the only areas of retail that are full sale or return or at least partial sale or return. You know, that doesn't happen in the clothing industry, right? The stores don't get to send the merchandise back if it doesn't sell. And so yeah, we are ruthless about culling titles that languish on our shelves.KJ:                                        26:42                    Do you think that's part of why you're going back in for another romcom or do you think it has more to do with sort of where you are in life and what you want to write or is it some combination therein and that it would be hard to tease out?Betsy:                                  26:55                    I think it has to do with the fact that I have a two book deal with Orion in the UK and I'm contracted to produce another one. Also, I have the pressure of my agents saying to me, 'Gosh, we have these 12 foreign publishers...', So I was under pressure, both because I'm legally obliged to write one for Orion, but in fact Orion gave me the opportunity to segue into more comic literary fiction last year. And it was really my agent who said, 'Gosh, you know, we've got these 12 publishers queued up.' Mutts is only coming out for the first time in all those markets cause it took a year to translate it. So they're the ones that are going to come knocking on our door in January or February saying, 'Oh, what about the next one?'KJ:                                        27:52                    When was the decision made to write Mutts under a new name?Betsy:                                  27:56                    Do you mean Natalie?KJ:                                        28:00                    Yeah.Betsy:                                  28:01                    Right, sorry. Okay. At the point of sale for publication, the agents, I said to them, 'What about my brand?' And they said, 'We'll sell you as a debut.' And that is what goes on in the industry. I don't know that it's the best thing. I don't know necessarily that it did me any favors as an author, but publishers of course are always looking for debuts. There's an absolute mystique in the industry about making the next big discovery. So it's easier for agents to sell debuts. So I was sold as a debut romcom writer with the caveat that it was a pseudonym for someone who had written in another genre. So publishers at the point of bidding were told that I was an existing writer.Betsy:                                  29:02                    They weren't told who I was, but I was sold as a debut. Does that make sense?KJ:                                        29:10                    Yes, it does. It's a crazy system.Betsy:                                  29:12                    It is crazy indeed. So now I have fiendish social media cause I have social media under Betsy, and I have social media under Natalie, and I also do all the social media for the bookshop. So I'm constantly toggling between Facebook and Instagram and Twitter on all three accounts and kind of posting the wrong thing from the wrong account and getting into trouble. So that's what ended up with, I don't know how desirable it is for me as a writer. One thing I would say is that this has a different title in Britain than it does in the U.S. and that is something I will never repeat again because that was even more of a nightmare publishing two...KJ:                                        29:56                    What is it called in Britain?Betsy:                                  29:57                    So in Britain, we have a really famous dog charity rescue charity, a nationwide adoption center called The Dog's Trust. And their motto is 'Dogs are for life, not just for Christmas.' It's very, very famous. It's a famous enough charity that pretty much everyone knows that line dogs life. And so my editor from day one was determined to call it Not Just for Christmas. And of course it's not a title that works at all well in the U.S., it doesn't play in America. It's not a title I wanted particularly, but it certainly works very well in this territory. I I was worried about it elsewhere and I was worried about the idea of books going out with different titles. The same book going out and it was a bit of a problem, I had kind of angry readers saying...KJ:                                        30:56                    I have as a reader, bought the same book twice.Betsy:                                  30:58                    Yes, exactly.KJ:                                        31:00                    Because I liked it so much one of the times and I thought, 'Oh, it's a different one.'Betsy:                                  31:05                    Yeah. I had irate readers kind of emailing me saying 'Who would do that?' And it didn't help that Amazon in the U.S. had both editions up. Anyway, it was a nightmare. So that's how I ended up as Natalie Cox. Gosh, Natalie was the name of my old dog, so that was a nod towards her. And Natalie's three syllables and I knew I needed a really short three letter surname for the cover. So it was either Dicks or Cox. Fox was taken. I actually did try Fox. My publisher said there was some other writer publishing under that name. So yeah, that's how I ended up with Natalie Cox.KJ:                                        32:02                    And the next one will be Natalie Cox.Betsy:                                  32:03                    Yes, this is a romcom under Natalie Cox, absolutely. And it also involves a very large dog. It's a similar kind of book, similar voice, similar tone. It's about a woman who's fed up with her life, she's got a list of problems, and she just wants to run away from it all until someone steals her identity. And then she wants her life back.KJ:                                        32:28                    Oh, that's good.Betsy:                                  32:34                    So I'm busily beavering away at that at the moment. I'm hoping to deliver that in the spring. So we will see. I do like dogs, I'm a big dog fan. I definitely discovered that almost like Christmas, there's almost an identifiable readership of people who want books about dogs.KJ:                                        32:54                    There absolutely is.Sarina:                                 32:55                    Yes, that is true. In fact, in 2017, one of my publishers said, 'These are the pitches we want next from you. It has to be dogs, or Alaska, or cowboys.'Betsy:                                  33:08                    Oh my God, that is hilarious. All three of those are great!KJ:                                        33:13                    An Alaskan cowboy dog would just walk us straight.Betsy:                                  33:19                    Oh, I would love to write any of those, that sounds fantastic. So did you write that? Did you write that book back then?Sarina:                                 33:37                    No, I didn't because I just didn't want to. And it was also said to me like this, 'This is what Walmart wants.'Betsy:                                  33:47                    Oh wow. Okay.Sarina:                                 33:48                    And I thought, you know what...I didn't want to plan my life that way.Betsy:                                  33:54                    No, and I agree. While I did make that comment about not writing in a vacuum and understanding what the market is for your books, I don't think you should let the tail wag the dog.KJ:                                        34:06                    Well, there's a difference.Sarina:                                 34:07                    Yeah. There's a difference between having an eye on it and letting it run your life. Also, you mentioned digital and so that made me curious. And as a bookseller, I bet this is something you keep an eye on, but is the digital sales ratio of your romcom higher than your literary fiction?Betsy:                                  34:29                    Well, I haven't looked at the figures, but broadly I would say yes. I mean, the thing about digital is we have pretty good understanding of what digital reading habits are now. And they do tend to be in certain genres - so mystery and commercial women's fiction, particularly romance, romance and mystery I'd say are probably two of the biggest consumers of digital. And you know, these are people who are super fans, they're veracious readers, they're constantly looking for new sources of supply, they need to source their books cheaply because they're reading so much. So gosh, what was the question?Sarina:                                 35:18                    I was just curious. So I'm very familiar with this concept because I'm about 98% digital. Or actually, if I put audio in there it wouldn't be 98 it would be more like 85. But also where is the line? So I have friends who do sort of book club women's fiction who are running at about 50/50 digital. And I was just sort of thinking that your book also looks like that midpoint between something that would be strictly a romance and a commercial women's fiction.Betsy:                                  35:55                    Well, what I would say in the U.S. for the Natalie Cox book, is that they have not pushed it digitally at all and they've priced it very, very high because I think they really want to shift paper copies. And so I've looked at my digital numbers and they're incredibly low. I would say below 5%. I mean I think that this title has legs digitally and I assume that they will eventually tap into that and market it digitally and price it to sell digitally. But at the moment they're still not doing that. In fact, I can't see from here what the digital prices in the U.S. are.KJ:                                        36:38                    It's $14.99 I think. It's quite high. And I just want to say it was super fun, I had a totally fun evening read. And I honestly wouldn't have done it if I did not also want to read it.Betsy:                                  37:31                    You totally could've winged it.KJ:                                        37:44                    But I wanted to read it.Betsy:                              

Piedmont Church Chancel Choir, Stephen Main, director, Natalie Cox, Connie Hosemann and Dorothy Nemeth on harp.

Natalie Cox, Dr. Stephen Main, harps

Piedmont Church Chancel Choir,Stephen Main, director, Natalie Cox, Connie Hosemann and Dorothy Nemeth on harp.

Webinar Sign-Up: https://mailchi.mp/af6a8a39cc41/4-simple-things-webinar   A little bit about Natalie: My background is in art and design. After graduating from art school, I took my first job as an illustrator in a newsroom. I built up my full-time freelance work as an illustrator for 15 years, and eventually transitioned into graphic design, branding and photography working on projects for global brands like Time, Inc., Target, Linus Bike and Whole Foods.  In my late 20's, my childhood trauma and crumbling religion led me to a path of healing in pursuit of my scattered pieces and connection to Self. Exploring how the unconscious mind, emotions and story impact our quality of life became my passion. As a consequence of uncovering my own patterns, I feel more joyous and empowered than ever. I am a certified NLP Master Practitioner and Life Coach with additional certification in Motivational Coaching, and Social and Emotional Intelligence Coaching. I received my training through Global NLP Training based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. I have a degree in illustration from Ringling College of Art and Design, and a B.A. in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. Additionally, I am a Reiki Master.    Find her directly here: Website: https://nataliecoxlifecoaching.com/ - Hey I’m Nick Duska, host of Right After Breakfast. This is a podcast of stories, lessons, and tips to help boost your personal growth and push you towards your highest potential. Episodes give you bite sized tools that can be used immediately to assist you in daily life. Learn more at www.rightafterbreakfast.com    Do you have a personal growth question you'd like me to answer? Please email me at nickduska@rightafterbreakfast.com, I’d love to hear from you! Once you submit a question you'll have a chance to get it featured on the podcast.     Find out how I can help you with Career Development: https://www.nickduska.com/

Author Natalie Cox joins Tim for this episode. Natalie provides the background and insights for her recent novel, Mutts and Mistletoe. The novel is best described as Bridget Jones meets her true love and learns a whole lot about the meaning of life from her new doggy friends along the way. Have a listen and pick-up a copy of the feel-good holiday read, Mutts and Mistletoe. More details on this episode MP3 Podcast - Natalie Cox – Mutts and Mistletoe with Tim Link

Don't worry - we haven't abandoned you! Just a few technical delays in getting the latest episode out to you and its a good one! We welcome Matt Stevens, Director of Community and Culture for Creature Comforts Brewing, to the Pawncast. Matt talks community engagement, zombies and obscure Scandinavian cinema on this ep. We do apologize for the sound quality - Justin explains in the intro - but sometimes things just happen. We'll do our best for these things to not happen again. Find out more about Creature Comforts here: http://www.creaturecomfortsbeer.com/ Get Comfortable info: http://www.getcomfortableathens.com/ Outburst! Standings: 1) Nathan Lawrence, Mary Charles Howard (tied) 5 pts 2) Caitlin Wilson 3pts, (tied) Natalie Cox 3pts, (tied) Lemuel "Life" LaRoche 3pts, (tied) Caleb Zane Huett 3pts, (tied) Anita Aubrey 3pts, (tied) Peter Reitz 3pts, Joe Nedza 3pts (tied), Nick Mallis 3 pts (tied), Will Leitch 3 pts (tied) 3) Tommy Valentine 2 pts, (tied) Troy Aubrey 2 pts Follow The Rook & Pawn on Social Media twitter.com/rooknpawn instagram.com/rooknpawnfacebook.com/rookandpawn www.therookandpawn.com The Rook & Pawncast Theme Music by Nicholas Mallis: nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com/www.faceboo…olasmallis/ For more information about the games we played and discussed, check out them out here: Dead of Winter The Long Night: https://www.plaidhatgames.com/store/719 New Salem: http://www.overworldgames.com/Games/NewSalem/Default.cshtml Zombie Dice: http://www.sjgames.com/dice/zombiedice/

With the World Series under way it was the perfect time to bring our good friend Will Leitch to the Pawncast. Will is an accomplished author, sports writer, film critic and, unfortunately for some, noted St. Louis Cardinals fan. We get Will to play some King of Tokyo while talking jogging, Harrison Ford, Hunter S. Thompson, covering politics and the worst fandoms. Outburst! Standings: 1) Nathan Lawrence, Mary Charles Howard (tied) 5 pts 2) Caitlin Wilson 3pts, (tied) Natalie Cox 3pts, (tied) Lemuel "Life" LaRoche 3pts, (tied) Caleb Zane Huett 3pts, (tied) Anita Aubrey 3pts, (tied) Peter Reitz 3pts, Joe Nedza 3pts (tied), Nick Mallis 3 pts (tied) 3) Tommy Valentine 2 pts, (tied) Troy Aubrey 2 pts Find Will at: http://www.sportsonearth.com/writer/will_leitch http://www.sportsonearth.com/podcast/leitch_experience/252581494 http://leitch.tumblr.com/ https://tinyletter.com/williamfleitch/ Follow The Rook & Pawn on Social Media twitter.com/rooknpawn instagram.com/rooknpawnfacebook.com/rookandpawn www.therookandpawn.com The Rook & Pawncast Theme Music by Nicholas Mallis: nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com/www.faceboo…olasmallis/ For more information about the games we played and discussed, check out them out here: Betrayal at House on the Hill: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10547/betrayal-house-hill Last Night on Earth: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29368/last-night-earth-zombie-game King of Tokyo: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-tokyo

This week we sit down with Nick Mallis, longtime Athens musician and creator of The Rook & Pawncast's theme music. Nick talks the state of music, the state of board games, the state of Athens and the state of all three mashed together. We also chat about a new game sent to the cafe from a secret admirer! Outburst! Standings: 1) Nathan Lawrence, Mary Charles Howard (tied) 5 pts 2) Caitlin Wilson 3pts, (tied) Natalie Cox 3pts, (tied) Lemuel "Life" LaRoche 3pts, (tied) Caleb Zane Huett 3pts, (tied) Anita Aubrey 3pts, (tied) Peter Reitz 3pts, Joe Nedza 3pts (tied) 3) Tommy Valentine 2 pts, (tied) Troy Aubrey 2 pts Find Nick at: nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/nicholasmallis/ Follow The Rook & Pawn on Social Media twitter.com/rooknpawn instagram.com/rooknpawnfacebook.com/rookandpawn www.therookandpawn.com The Rook & Pawncast Theme Music by Nicholas Mallis: nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com/www.facebook.com/nicholasmallis/ For more information about the games we played and discussed, check out them out here: Norsaga: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/158883/norsaga Monikers: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156546/monikers Strat-O-Matic: http://www.strat-o-matic.com/

We're talking waffles and ice cream this week on the Pawncast with Joe Nedza. Joe founded, owns and operates Nedza's Waffles in Athens and we learn all the secrets that go into making the perfect bubble waffle. We also play a great new food truck themed game and recap some experiences from Dragon Con. Outburst! Standings: 1) Nathan Lawrence, Mary Charles Howard (tied) 5 pts 2) Caitlin Wilson 3pts, (tied) Natalie Cox 3pts, (tied) Lemuel "Life" LaRoche 3pts, (tied) Caleb Zane Huett 3pts, (tied) Anita Aubrey 3pts, (tied) Peter Reitz 3pts 3) Tommy Valentine 2 pts, (tied) Troy Aubrey 2 pts Find Nedza's Waffles at: http://nedzas.com/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/nedzas_waffles Twitter: @nedzaswaffles Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nedzaswaffles Follow The Rook & Pawn on Social Media http://twitter.com/rooknpawn http://instagram.com/rooknpawn http://facebook.com/rookandpawn http://www.therookandpawn.com The Rook & Pawncast Theme Music by Nicholas Mallis: https://nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/nicholasmallis/ For more information about the games we played and discussed, check out them out here: Truck Off: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/217020/truck-food-truck-frenzy Unfair: https://cmon.com/product/unfair/unfair Star Realms: https://www.starrealms.com/

We wish a fond farewell to The Rook & Pawn's heart and soul, Kyle Turner, on this VERY special episode of The Rook & Pawncast. Kyle has been with The Rook & Pawn since before the doors even opened. His creativity and inspiration can be found in every part of the cafe and he was instrumental in making us part of the downtown Athens landscape. Kyle now goes off on a new adventure, help us wish him well on this season 1 finale of The Rook & Pawncast. Outburst! Standings: 1) Nathan Lawrence 5 pts 2) Caitlin Wilson 3pts, (tied) Natalie Cox 3pts, (tied) Lemuel "Life" LaRoche 3pts, (tied) Caleb Zane Huett 3pts, (tied) Anita Aubrey 3pts, (tied) Peter Reitz 3pts 3) Tommy Valentine 2 pts, (tied) Troy Aubrey 2 pts Follow The Rook & Pawn on Social Media http://twitter.com/rooknpawn http://instagram.com/rooknpawn http://facebook.com/rookandpawn http://www.therookandpawn.com The Rook & Pawncast Theme Music by Nicholas Mallis: https://nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/nicholasmallis/ Special thanks to Scott Duall at JaWaVi Films for producing this podcast, more info here: https://www.jawavifilms.com http://instagram.com/jawavifilms For more information about the games we played and discussed, check out them out here: Lord of The Rings https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/823/lord-rings Hunt for The Ring https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/216070/hunt-ring Funemployed https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/142296/funemployed Letters From Whitechapel https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/59959/letters-whitechapel

This is the conclusion of our two part series involving Peter Reitz and Nathan Lawrence. We try something a bit different this week, leaving the safe, comfortable world of traditional table top and card games and venture into the brave new world of role playing games. Thankfully we have experienced and capable guides, our guests Peter Reitz and Nathan Lawrence. In this two-part episode Peter leads us on a fantastical, candy-filled adventure through the world of Sucrosia - its a great and hilarious introduction to the world of RPGs. We also talk with Peter and Nathan about their day jobs as high school teachers, and the importance of fandom. Outburst! Standings: 1) (tied) Caitlin Wilson 3pts (tied) Natalie Cox. 3pts (tied) Lemuel "Life" LaRoche 3pts (tied) Caleb Zane Huett 3pts (tied) Anita Aubrey 3pts 2) (tied) Tommy Valentine 2pts (tied) Troy Aubrey 2pts Find out more about Peter and Nathan's podcast “Now Kiss” check the following links: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/now-kiss/id1247686852?mt=2 https://player.fm/series/now-kiss Follow The Rook & Pawn on Social Media: http://twitter.com/rooknpawn http://instagram.com/rooknpawn http://facebook.com/rookandpawn http://www.therookandpawn.com The Rook & Pawncast Theme Music by Nicholas Mallis: http://nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com http://www.facebook.com/nicholasmallis Special thanks to Scott Duvall at Jawavi Films for producing this podcast, more info here: http://www.jawavifilms.com http://instagram.com/jawavifilms For more information about the games we played and discussed, check out them out here: Dungeon World: http://www.dungeon-world.com

As always we bring you another packed show and this episode we're chatting with guests from Rogue One, The Force Awakens and The Force Unleashed. Mark chats with Alistair Petrie at Collectormania 24, while at SWFFD we are joined by Ben Hartley, Gary Keily, Mel Pickup and Natalie Cox. JAKe answers James' question at Return of the Garrison while Mark and James discuss Han Solo, Forces of Destiny and D23. You can listen to episode 65 on iTunes and email us at podcast@jedinews.co.uk with your comments, views and opinions to be a part of the show.

AthFest is here! The best (and usually hottest) weekend of the summer and two of AthFest's longest serving volunteers, Anita and Troy Aubrey, are on hand to give you all the details about the festival. The Aubrey's provide insight into what goes on behind the scenes, this year's lineup and the amazing work AthFest does year-round in town through its charitable arm. More importantly, we got them to play Obama Llama with us! Plus Outburst!! Outburst! Standings: 1) (tied) Caitlin Wilson 3pts (tied) Natalie Cox. 3pts (tied) Lemuel "Life" LaRoche 3pts (tied) Caleb Zane Huett 3pts 2) Tommy Valentine 2 pts Find out more about AthFest, AthFest Educates, and AthFest Lineup/Schedule and more: http://athfest.com/ AthFest Educates: http://athfesteducates.org/ To volunteer at AthFest: http://athfest.com/athfest-volunteers Classic City American Music Festival: http://thefoundryathens.com/foundry-calendar/calendar- view/ Follow The Rook & Pawn on Social Media: http://twitter.com/rooknpawn http://instagram.com/rooknpawn http://facebook.com/rookandpawn http://www.therookandpawn.com The Rook & Pawncast Theme Music by Nicholas Mallis: http://nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com/ http://www.facebook.com/nicholasmallis/ Special thanks to Scott Duvall at Jawavi Films for producing this podcast, more info here: http://www.jawavifilms.com http://instagram.com/jawavifilms For more information about the games we played and discussed, check out them out here: Quadropolis: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176396/quadropolis https://www.daysofwonder.com/quadropolis/en/ Between Two Cities: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/168435/between-two-cities https://stonemaiergames.com/games/between-two-cities/ Obama Llama: http://bigpotato.com/obamallama https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/184525/obama-llama

Justin and Tim get political and welcome Tommy Valentine, candidate for Athens-Clarke County District 9 Commissioner to the podcast. We talk about Tommy's vision for Athens and his thoughts on how to tackle some of our city's most pressing issues. Its not all politics as we also chat about Wendy's serving fried chicken, battle rap, and of course games. Outburst! Standings: (tied) Caitlin Wilson 3pts (tied) Natalie Cox. 3pts (tied) Lemuel "Life" LaRoche 3pts 1) (tied) Caleb Zane Huett 3pts Find out more about Tommy's candidacy, his new book and his podcast right here: https://www.tommyforathens.com/ https://www.facebook.com/tommyforathens/ Follow The Rook & Pawn on Social Media http://twitter.com/rooknpawn http://instagram.com/rooknpawn http://facebook.com/rookandpawn http://www.therookandpawn.com The Rook & Pawncast Theme Music by Nicholas Mallis: https://nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/nicholasmallis/ Special thanks to Scott Duvall at Jawavi Films for producing this podcast, more info here: https://www.jawavifilms.com http://instagram.com/jawavifilms For more information about the games we played and discussed, check out them out here: Dreamwell: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180761/dreamwell https://www.actionphasegames.com/pages/dreamwell America: https://beziergames.com/collections/all-games/products/america/ https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192297/america

Justin and Tim welcome Natalie Cox to this week's episode of The Rook & Pawncast. Natalie is an accomplished ballroom dancer and well-known for her instruction at DanceFX and her performances in Project Safe's long running and successful Dancing with the Athens Stars fundraisers. She's also a lawyer by day and gamer at heart - so we have lots to talk about. Find out more about Natalie, DanceFX and Project Safe here: http://www.unstrictlyballroom.com/ http://www.project-safe.org/ http://dancefx.org/ Follow The Rook & Pawn on Social Media http://twitter.com/rooknpawn http://instagram.com/rooknpawn http://facebook.com/rookandpawn http://www.therookandpawn.com The Rook & Pawncast Theme Music by Nicholas Mallis: https://nicholasmallis.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/nicholasmallis/ For more information about the games we played and discussed, check out them out here: Assault of the Giants : http://wizkids.com/assault-of-the-giants-board-game/ https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/201455/assault-giants Alhambra: http://www.queen-games.com/en/2016/09/alhambra-2/ https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6249/alhambras Snake Oil: https://www.hasbro.com/en-us/product/snake-oil-game:2251EC85-5056-9047-F56E-79799B3236C3 https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/113289/snake-oil

Natalie Cox is not a person who pretends to like things she hates, whether they're relationship conventions, rich people on reality shows, or Jeremy's less interesting China News stories. In this episode, we invent an app to avoid human interaction and Natalie falls down.

The Fable of the Honey Beeby Barry J. Northern A honey bee worker emerged from her brood cell and immediately set about cleaning, for her new baby sister would need the nursery soon. The Queen Bee inspected her work. "One has not cleaned it well enough. One must try harder."Princess was mortified, for she only desired to be worthy in her mother's eyes. From then on she vowed to work harder than any other worker bee in the hive.Princess and her sisters were eager to see the outside world and smell the flowers, for the source of nectar and pollen must be wonderous indeed, but it is the way of honey bee workers to attend to many tasks before they are old enough to go out and forage.Firstly, Princess nursed her new larval sister, feeding it her own jelly. She enjoyed watching her sister grow, knowing that her elder sister had done the same for her. Before long it was time to ween the new princess onto honey and pollen, and the flow of jelly turned to one of wax.After that, Princess left the brood cell and worked hard to impress her mother. She and the others used Princess' wax to build the combs and seal new honey within its cells.Some of her sisters became attendants to the Queen. Princess was disappointed to not have been chosen, but she worked hard, and contented herself with dreams of flowers.One day, an old forager came home with a substance from the flowers that Princess had never seen before. She took it in her hands."It is sticky.""Yes," said the old worker, "we need you to spread it around the hive entrance. It helps keep the hive clean.""Right away!"Princess rushed to the entrance, eager for her first glimpse at the outside world, marvelling at what other amazing things the flowers might provide. When she got to the entrance, her sisters were busy plastering the sticky stuff around, and such was the intensity of their activity, she felt compelled to join them in earnest and did not stop to glance at the bright outside.As Princess worked she became hot, and she noticed the others around her becoming sluggish. A large entrance guard bee came up to her."The propolis is helping, but we need more water to cool the hive. Go out and fetch some from the leaves outside the entrance."Princess swallowed. "But I've never been outside before."The guard laughed. "There is nothing to it. Just remember to stay away from any stranger bees, for if you pick up their smell my brothers might not let you back in."As Princess walked towards the entrance, she became concerned about the effects of the heat. The mortuary bees could barely lift the dead away from the hive. The feeders struggled to carry honey to the drones in their crops. Worst of all, the fanning bees' wings were flapping too slowly to cool the hive.By the time Princess reached the entrance, her only thought was to collect water, and so on her first foray out into the world, she did not stop to look at the glorious sun in the blue sky, nor at the wide green leaves around the hive, nor the stretches of blue flowers carpeting the floor beneath her.Thence forth, whenever Princess left the hive, first for more water, and as she grew older and flew further, for more pollen and nectar, her thoughts were always bent on the list of tasks she had yet to do. She never once stopped to enjoy the fruit her hard work had wrought.One day, she flew further than ever before, and she began to struggle against the weight of her old body, and feel a creaking in her wings. She landed on a large rose and set about collecting nectar as she had always done. She had heard tell of the beautiful rose, but even so, as soon as her crop was full, she headed straight back.The entrance guard bees waved her through, and when she landed a young princess came and took the nectar and pollen from her. When the worker had emptied Princess' crop she felt no lighter. She tried to move, but she found she could not.A mortuary bee glanced her way a couple of times, and when Princess lay down, she came over."It is almost your time.""No.""You have served the hive well. We honour you. You will rest among the flowers.""I wish to see them."Either her voice had grown weak, or the mortuary bee ignored Princess, for she did not answer her, and walked away to find help.As Princess lay there, she spotted a young worker hurrying out towards the entrance, and remembered the days of her youth. The hive was cold today. Princess smiled when she saw the young worker pause for a moment on the lip of the hive. Even the sun was cold. The young worker was still there, looking up at the sky with wonder in her eyes. The light was fading. The young worker flew out. Princess hoped she would stop to smell the rose.The Fable of the Honey Bee by Barry J. Northern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.Hosted by The Internet Archive, download MP3here.Music by Eileen Hadidian and Natalie Cox from the album, Dolce Musica, tracks 17 (Star of County Down) and 12 (Lord Gallway's Lamentation), and provided by magnatune.com

The Fable of the Magpieby Barry J. Northern There was once a magpie who built a nest for himself and his wife. It was a good nest, and they were happy. In their first two Springs they raised healthy clutches, and were proud each time their children left the nest. Yet Husband was not content."Will each year be the same as this?" he asked his wife."Are you not happy then, Husband?"But he only said, "I am, my love," for he did not wish to upset his wife.Later that day, Husband flew abroad searching for something with which to adorn his nest, for it was dull to his eyes, and he wished to improve it. He chanced upon a shiny object, and though he knew not what it was, he admired it, and so flew down to retrieve it in his beak.Back at the nest, his wife looked up at Husband's return. "What have you there, Husband?"He saw his own love for the shiny object reflected in her eyes. "Something to adorn our nest, my love," he said, and worked the object into the walls of their nest. He stood back to admire it, and said. "Now we can truly say our lot is improved."Husband and Wife were pleased with their new decoration, but as time passed they grew accustomed to its beauty until they no longer noticed it.One day, Husband flitted to the edge of the nest, and said to Wife. "I will fly abroad once more and look for something else with which to adorn our nest."Husband soon came back with another shiny object, and for a time it made them both happy. Before long, however, they grew used to it as before, and so Husband once again flew abroad to find something else.This continued until the next Spring, when the urge to make ready their nest for the new clutch came upon Wife. She looked around the nest, and said. "My love, our nest is beautiful, but there is no room for our clutch this year.""Worry not, my wife. What we need is a bigger nest. I will build us one on the other side of the tree." And so Husband spent many days building a new nest, and both he and Wife spent many more days taking their possessions from one to the other, but eventually, after much toil and argument, the new nest was ready.Wife alighted upon the edge of their new home and smiled. "Oh, Husband, it is wonderful." And for a time they were both happy raising their new clutch.It was not long, however, before they grew used to their new home, and so Husband flew abroad again for things with which to adorn it.By the following Spring, the house seemed too small again, and as dull as their first nest had been. As the years went by, no matter how big they built their nests, nor how many shiny objects they adorned it with, the pair were not happy for more than a few days at a time, for they were never content with what they had.The Fable of the Magpie by Barry J. Northern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.Hosted by The Internet Archive, download MP3here.Music by Eileen Hadidian and Natalie Cox from the album, Dolce Musica - A Contemplative Journey, track 5 "O Pastor Animarum (Arr by Eileen Hadidian)", and provided by magnatune.comMagpies may be more like us than we once imagined: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/27/1096137168806.html

The Fable of the Blackbirdby Barry J. Northern A blackbird and his new wife flew across the fields searching for a good hedgerow in which to make their home. Long did they search for just the right spot, for it was their first year as yellow-beaks, and they had never before built a nest of their own."How about the thick ivy upon this tree my love?" said Husband."Too small," said Wife."What of this hawthorn. It looks good.""It is too tall, what if our eggs should fall?"They searched the hedgerows for two more days until they found a large, low holly bush. Husband's wings were tired, but he was glad to see his new wife so pleased, for she said it was perfect, and that it would be their home for the rest of their lives.Now it was time for them to build a proper nest for their first clutch, and so, as is the way with blackbirds, Wife set about building the nest while Husband fetched the straw."Husband, do not take the straw from this field, for it is poor. Fly away to the yellow field yonder, for the straw there will make a perfect house, strong and warm."Husband puffed his chest and warbled. "I will fetch the yellow straw, Wife, to make us a proud home."All day Husband flew to the yellow field and back to collect the best straw, and as the sun grew big and low in the reddening sky, Wife yawned and said to Husband. "Away to the yellow field but once more my love, for our perfect home is almost done."Husband flew away with a silent yawn, and aching wings. He hung his head, seeing the straw in the field beneath him, and so thought to himself. "Why must I fly yonder to the yellow field when there is straw all about?"He landed amongst the poor straw. "Wife is right," he thought. "This straw is poor, for it feels weak beneath my feet, but I am tired and it will do. After all, our nest is almost finished."He flew back to the nest, and there found his wife near sleep. "Here is some straw, my Love.""It is not the yellow straw?""No, for I am tired.""As am I, my love. This straw will do then." And so she stuffed the poor straw among the good.Before many days had passed, Wife sat proudly upon their first clutch. But soon the March Winds blew, and Wife said. "It is too cold for our clutch, my love. Can you not fly and find more yellow straw?"Now Husband was rested, and he was glad to fetch more yellow straw, but as he alighted from the edge of the nest the poor straw collapsed beneath his feet, and though they worked fast to stop it, the whole nest fell apart, scattering their first clutch within the holly bush.Now the pair had chosen the bush well, and so not a single egg was broken, and each one lay safe within the bush. But it cost the pair much effort to fetch out the yellow straw and their eggs, and yet more hard work to collect more yellow straw from the far field, and to build a second nest, before they could carry each egg safely to it.Now blackbirds venture not to the sea, and so, of course, they have never heard this old proverb."Don't spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar."The Fable of the Blackbird by Barry J. Northern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.Hosted by The Internet Archive download the MP3 hereMusic by Eileen Hadidian and Natalie Cox from the album, Dolce Musica - A Contemplative Journey, track 3 "The Blackbird (Irish Traditional)", and provided by