Podcasts about Rex Stout

I have never had the pleasure of having a guest quite like Michele Blood. While still living in Australia Michele was an extremely successful rock singer. One day she was involved in a serious accident while being driven to a gig. Her body was, as she says, quite battered and damaged. What is fascinating about Michele's story is how she discovered the value of positive affirmations that she used to heal everything. As she will tell us, it is not just saying affirmations, but rather it is truly believing what you affirm. Her music became an integral of what healed her.   Since her recovery Michele has traveled the world singing and speaking on stage with many well-known motivational and thought leaders. I leave it to her to tell the story.   During our episode Michele will sing one of her affirmation songs. I hope you are as moved by the song in specific and by Michele's attitude and mindset in general. She teaches us a lot that can have nothing but positives effects on your life.   I look forward to hearing what you have to say about my time with Michele. Don't forget to get her free gifts available only to listeners of the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Is that cool or what?       About the Guest:   Michele Blood is a successful, multi-talented lady. Michele was a successful songwriter and rock singer in Australia and after a near-fatal car accident, while in the hospital with many serious injuries, she created positive Affirmation Songs which not only healed her body but also took her to worldwide success. These Affirmation songs affect the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Lyrics, the left hemisphere, and melody and music, the right hemisphere so the new, positive messages go straight to the subconscious mind. This is why millions of people worldwide have downloaded her Affirmation Power songs. These songs cover healing, success, money, joy, confidence and they uplift the person immediately.   In addition to creating Magnet To Success™ products and seminars worldwide, her public Mystical Success Events have been held in over 26 countries. Michele has co-written and created over 80 books, music CDs, audio programs, TV shows, and videos on positive thought, mind transformation, and meditation.   Michele has appeared in many hundreds of podcasts, radio/tv shows, and magazines globally. After many years of meditation, Michele's Kundalini awakened and transformed her consciousness. Michele now teaches others how to live a Successful Life and experience Divine Oneness. Her Mystical Experience webinars and live streams have assisted people globally to transform their lives to the positive. Through her Teachings and Light Transmissions, people awaken and experience what they say is the impossible. They awaken to their true purpose and begin their path to Enlightenment. She has shared the stage and worked with Bob Proctor, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Jack Canfield, and many other transformational Authors and Teachers. Her latest book is The Magic Of Affirmation Power and her latest album is Create Miracles: Positive Affirmation Songs To Harmonize your Mind and Life. And her new Magnet To Money App will uplift millions worldwide.   Ways to connect with Michele:   https://www.MicheleBlood.com and https://www.YouTube.com/MicheleBlood   Michele would also love to gift your viewers and listeners her audiobook, "The Magic Of Affirmation Power" Your audience can download this free gift by going to: https://www.MicheleBlood.com/UnstoppableMindset   About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected, which is really the most fun part, meet today. We are getting close to winter, and I was just telling our guest Michele Blood that here in Victorville, we had a temperature this morning of 28 degrees. Ah, lovely weather, and all the weather people complain about now it's getting cold in the summer, they complained it was getting hot. You know, you can't please them. I don't know what to say. But anyway, one of these days they'll, they'll decide that whatever happens is is not a bad thing, and they'll stop complaining, I guess. But any Yeah. But anyway, Michele, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. Thank you.   Michele Blood ** 02:06 Michael, I've been so looking forward to this. After reading thunder dog, I'm going to be reading the second book, which is live like a guide dog. I'm going to be reading that after that, I absolutely adore this book, which I'm showing right now, Thunder dog. It's the most inspirational you can't put down. I mean, the lot not just getting down 78 floors of the Twin Towers, 78 stairs. I mean, oh my gosh. But then everything that you've done in between working with you know Ray Kurzweil, who's done a lot of things in the music industry as well. I mean, I mean, I recognized his name straight away. I'm like, all the all the things you've done. I'm just so impressed by and by your life and how inspiring you are. And I just wanted to say that to everybody, he's just, you gotta get his thunder dog book if you haven't yet, and his new book, live like a guide dog, for sure.   Michael Hingson ** 03:02 I I don't know. I haven't totally kept up, but I haven't heard that anybody has yet come out with a music synthesizer that is better than the Kurzweil synthesizer. Now, a lot has happened, and maybe technology has advanced, but I hadn't heard about anything that still beats it.   Michele Blood ** 03:20 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the fair light was pretty amazing when that first came out, but the Kurzweil, I mean, all any rock musician knows about, yeah, when, when that was first put out, we were just like, oh my gosh, that's amazing, you know, because you could sample sounds and, you know, it was just   Michael Hingson ** 03:39 incredible, and it had a choir built into it. Yeah? Daylight though   Michele Blood ** 03:43 that was, I don't know, think back back in the day, it was like 100 grand, so that's probably why it wasn't as popular. Yeah,   03:51 a little more   Michael Hingson ** 03:52 expensive than the Kurzweil one. Yeah, yeah, our organist at our church where my wife and I went in Irvine and where we got married, our organist had a Kurzweil synthesizer and used it a lot, which was, which was kind of fun, and it was, it was very and it is very impressive all the way around, yeah, but   Michele Blood ** 04:13 just the innovative things that have been done, and you're helping ray with all of the things for the blind as well. Working with Stevie Wonder. I mean, it's just, you're very impressive. You're an inspiration. You are, you are absolutely amazing.   Michael Hingson ** 04:28 Well, thank you. But now let's talk about you a little bit. And you know, you can, you can.   04:35 I didn't show them the cover yet. You can   Michael Hingson ** 04:38 spread any rusty live like a guide dog. Live   04:42 like a guide dog. Needs to cover everybody   Michael Hingson ** 04:45 well, I hope people will get it. I'm we're excited about it. It's been out now a few months. It seems to be selling. We're excited. So hopefully people will read it, and it inspires people a little bit, because it's all about. Are trying to get people to learn to control fear and not let it overwhelm or, as I put it, blind you. But anyway, tell us a little bit about you. Why don't you start with the the early Michele, growing up, and some of those kinds of things, just kind of introduce us to you a little bit.   Michele Blood ** 05:16 Well, I'm an Aussie G'day, everyone. G'day, and, in Australia, I started in the entertainment industry at the age of five, on TV. What   Michael Hingson ** 05:27 did you do? Singing? Oh, okay,   Michele Blood ** 05:31 you know. And then eventually got my, you know, had lots and lots of rock bands I sang in, until eventually I got my own rock band that became very successful. I was the lead singer, one of the main songwriters and the manager of the band. We got a great record label. We had 1000s of people coming to our gigs, and it took years to get there, but I loved it so much, even though it's very, very tough at one stage, we toured for seven years, non stop. I mean, no Christmases, no New Year's eves, because when you're in a rock band, you get paid triple on New Year's Eves and Christmases and stuff like that. Yeah, and you can't really say no until you're really huge. You can't really say no to any gig, because you need the money road crew and sound equipment trucks and all the rest of it so but I feel that my life went on a whole new trajectory after a near fatal truck accident, actually, where I was a passenger with the truck, with all the equipment, and my body was so badly broken, I was In the hospital for months and months and months and and that was the best thing that ever happened to me. I know that sounds crazy everybody, but truly, when you have something so terrible happen to you, and it gets turned around by the Divine, whatever you choose to call God, it gets your life gets turned around and it makes all the difference in the world. So that's the first quarter.   Michael Hingson ** 07:08 Well, you know, I'm really curious. You said something that just strikes a question. I know that a lot of people try to go into entertainment, and most probably aren't overly successful. But why do you think that you were so successful? What what made the rock group and and what you did so successful? Do you have a notion? Well,   Michele Blood ** 07:30 I loved what I did. I was very, very good at it. And not everyone that's good at it's probably other singers in the world that are better than me. But the reason, I think because, I mean, I had some backing vocals on some records, and these female singers were incredible. And one of them said, I know you've got a good voice, Michelle, but I don't know why it's you and not me. And I said, I think it's just that I never gave up, and I was really disciplined. And I, you know, I wasn't on the road of sex, drugs and rock and roll. I was on the road of discipline, making sure that all my band members were disciplined. We worked really, really hard. We rehearsed a lot. We never blew out a gig, not once. So you get a good reputation. And so I started as a cover band, and we would sound just like the records at the time of the 80s. You know, people said that was a band. It sounded like a record. And so then we, we eventually started putting all our originals in and, I mean, I did crazy things, Michael, I went into Time Warner to the A and R people, because I wasn't getting any feedback. It's really hard. You can't just send them a tape to get you know for them to listen to your demos. So I went in as a tap dancing singing telegram. And so the secretary let me go straight into the office, and it was a board meeting, and because she thought, you know, their family had so I was there with flowers and a cake and my ghetto blaster, and I said, Then I did a tap dance, and I made up this song about, you know, this is, this is the band called clapping hands. You're going to sign them, you're going to want them. And this is a singing telegram saying, Listen to this. And that's how I got my first record deal.   Michael Hingson ** 09:24 Creativity counts for something. It   Michele Blood ** 09:25 sure does. You've gotta have guts. And I mean, I by the time I walked out of that office, though I was sweating, I was shaking, but you have to do something to be noticed. And and I think because I love people so much, and because I'd been singing professionally since I was five, which means I was singing for family members and everyone since I was two, apparently getting being put on the kitchen table. And I loved people being happy, and I love loved entertaining. I just loved it. So I think, you know, it's in the stars as. Well, I know that, but I think discipline, hard work eventually never giving up. Yeah, what can I say? Never giving up.   Michael Hingson ** 10:08 Did you so you were a cover band for for a while, which meant you were the the opening band for other groups,   Michele Blood ** 10:17 not as a cover band, well, with the opening act for the pretenders and in excess and a few other bands, when we were an original band and when we had a record label, right, when we had videos on TV, but before that, now we do five to 645, minute sets a night, and we would stay at one big venue, because in back in the day in Australia, the venues were huge for cover bands. You know, four to 6000 people could come in, and we got, we got very, very popular as a cover band, and then we went original. But it took a few years to do that, for sure, but   Michael Hingson ** 10:55 I remember, I remember bands back in the 50s and 60s, like the platters, who actually were the opening band, or they were the band that were the background for other singers. And then somebody discovered these guys really are better than that, and then they became their own group, right?   Michele Blood ** 11:14 Yeah, yeah. It's interesting how, how it all works out. But in Australia, it's, it's a tough way to tour when you're a female singer, because the Aussies are pretty tough. If they don't like you, you can get B canes thrown at you.   Michael Hingson ** 11:32 Yeah, well, those kinds of things do happen. Yes, they did in Boston for for sports teams. I've heard of fans really being very brutal to like the the Patriots. I think when Steve Grogan was the quarterback, they actually booed him off the field once. It was pretty amazing. I don't know. You know that's people take some of these things way too seriously. They   Michele Blood ** 12:00 certainly do. I like what Oscar Wilde said, Life is too serious to be taken seriously. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 12:09 yeah, absolutely, and, but people still do it way too much. Which is, which is, which is a problem. Yes, you know, we need people to take life more like Mark Twain and Will Rogers, by all means, but I can co so you, you had a serious car accident, and as you said, It really broke your body. Tell us what you'd like to about that and and then how you dealt with it, because that, that was quite a, I won't say miraculous. That was quite a marvel. You. You certainly took a leap along the way with that.   Michele Blood ** 12:50 Yeah, it's such a unique story. Um, after you know the truck driver we've been driving for 12 hours from Brisbane to Sydney, from gig to keep and he fell asleep at the wheel just as we reached Sydney, which happened to be right across the road from the best orthopedic specialist hospital in Sydney. So thank you, God, you know. Yeah, there's no coincidences. There's no accidents. So they got me over there really fast, and they had me straight into the operating theater straight away. So, I mean, I had tons of different operations, but what happened was, when you're in physics, that much physical agony, you pass out every few minutes. Mm, hmm, and, but I had people and fans and family putting on audio programs of things I'd never heard of before, Affirmations, Visualization, positive stuff, audio books by motivational speakers, inspirational speakers who I'd never heard of, but one of them got to me, and that was a book by a man called Napoleon Hill who wrote a book called Think and Grow Rich. Grow Rich, right? And I didn't care about hearing about all the millionaires in the 1920s in America, male men. Why would a female, young Australian rock singer care about that? But one chapter in there, he talks about how his infant son was born deaf, and he would go into his infant son's room every single night and do affirmations, auto suggestion, you hear perfectly. You are so loved, and you are so loving, etc, etc. And by the time a little boy was nearly four, he had 30% of his hearing. And you know when you hear something, I've never heard of this before, Michael, but you know when you hear something for the first time and you can feel it that it's true. You've just heard something that you know in the marrow of your bones that that what you've just heard is true. So I said, Okay, I can, I can run. Relate to that, because I know that I've used my willpower and my positive thinking, My I've never said I can't do something, I can't have that drama that I want. I've never said that. I've always said it's all possible. Everything is possible. You just go for it. Michelle, and I'd always just go for it. And I was brought up a Catholic, and I wasn't brought up. I wasn't one of those people that hated the church. I loved it. So I always had a belief in God, because I used to go to mass as a little girl every morning with the nuns, because I was in love with Jesus, and I just felt so I had that spirituality in me, and I think that is what is the backbone. You know, in the Bible, it says you do not need to be strong, because Christ is my strength. Christ is your strength. And so now I know that there is so much more to spirituality than just Jesus, but it was a great start for my faith in my life, and it gave me happiness. And so I just had faith that this would work, so I started doing affirmations, but they didn't work. Michael, do you want to know why? Sure, yeah, we've got nothing else to do today, right? May as well. Hear about it well, because neuroscience has proven now that affirmations do work and they do positive thinking actually does make a difference in the brain, in the neural pathways. It does make a difference. It ignites something in different parts of the brain. But back then, in the 80s, there was no way to prove that, you know, let alone Napoleon Hill in the 1920s but the thing that he said was most important is, you have to believe it. You have to emotionalize it. But I couldn't, Michael, I couldn't emotionalize it because I would. I started an affirmation, I am healed. I know I am. I love myself. I am my friend. Now, none of those things were true, so I thought, but I did want them to be true, so I thought, great, I've got the perfect affirmation. But when you are feeling like you're feeling and the world around you is presenting the opposite of what you're saying. Your doubting mind spits it out and does not believe it. So about two, three weeks after stopping the affirmations, because I realized that didn't work, I literally had a spiritual epiphany, and it was, you know, as a songwriter, Michelle, you can't get a song out of your head, even if it's songs you don't like or jingles from advertising agencies. So sing your affirmations. Because I got my brother to look around for affirmation songs, and he said, there isn't any such thing. And so I started singing,   Speaker 1 ** 17:58 I am healed. I know I am I love myself. I am my friend. And   Michele Blood ** 18:05 I recorded it onto a cassette player, just a cappella over and over again. And that was the beginning. As I listened to that all day, every day I would I started feeling better. I started getting back to my attitude, that I can, I can heal it just I realized. And when I was working with Bob Proctor, he said, you know why that works so well? He said, It's because the left side of the brain is where the lyrics are, the affirmation, the right side the melody. And this is even before I started recording it with music, and so you have a whole brain experience. And the song, the doubting mind doesn't have a chance to reject it. It goes straight into your subconscious mind. So that's how my positive affirmation pop music began. I didn't stop doing my other music, but I did have what they said, even the doctors, even though they're not supposed to say it, they said my healing was miraculous, and I ended up on TV shows and in the press and everything about what I'd been through for inspiration. And that's how it all began.   Michael Hingson ** 19:16 It. It really is all about believing it. It's it is so easy just to say something, but without truly accepting it, without truly making it a part of your psyche. However you do that it, it doesn't mean a thing. Don't   Michele Blood ** 19:32 mean a thing if it ain't something. Yeah, you do have to laugh. Do up, do up, do   Michele Blood ** 19:43 Yeah, music makes the world go around. It does,   Michael Hingson ** 19:48 and it's so important to take it seriously enough that you truly do believe it, and that's what's so important. And clearly. What you did? So what happened you you got healed completely, I would assume from all that had happened,   Michele Blood ** 20:10 yeah, I mean, it's still it still took quite a while, but I was determined. I put my high shoes back on, even though they said, don't wear high shoes. And I never intended for the affirmation music to go out to the public. My one of the band members that I work with and wrote songs with John Beatty, Hi John. He he's in person now in Australia with millions of kids, but anyway, we won't help me. Listens, yeah, we went into the recording studio and we, we just started recording. I was writing a lot of songs, and we started recording tons of different affirmation songs in all different styles of you know, from R and B to just rock to ballads to depending on what the song was about, whether it was about, you know, divine love, more of a ballad, more of a some of them just more rock and roll about being successful. And when the press found out that I was actually doing that, then promoters that were bringing out American very, very big, best selling authors asked me to come and do my singing affirmations in between these people. And I said, No, I don't want to do that. I'm not doing it for the public. Was just for me, my band, to have these positive thoughts. And they said, No, we love it. We love it. We want you to do it. And so my very first gig, I'm in Adelaide, Australia, and there's three and a half 1000 people on a Wednesday that came to this gig that paid over $300 each for a ticket, which I thought was absolutely insane. I didn't know what was going on. And I sang, and got all the people up on stage singing the affirmation songs with me made it into like a mini rock concert. And then Deepak Chopra, this, who I'd never heard of, never met before. Wayne Dyer, who I'd never heard of, never met before. Tony Alessandra, Stuart, wild, they were the speakers, and they couldn't believe it when we went out to dinner that night that I've never heard of any of them. And I said, I'm in rock and roll. I'm not in the motivational world. You know, I've, I've never heard of you, because I've not in that world. And so they were interested in how it all began, and they all said, You've got to tour this around the world. You've got to you've got to release these that we love. What you're doing. The audience is so different. Bob Proctor, though he was the one, when I ended up working with him, the promoters said, you know, we've got this female Australian singer, and you're going to be touring with her? And he said, No, I don't want a female singer. I'm Bob Proctor. I don't need that anyway. The first gig I did with him in Sydney, he came out after, and he said, I didn't want to work with a singer. And I said, good to meet you too, mate. I Yes, how are you? And he said, but no, all kidding aside. He said, My wife and I, Linda, we loved it so much, and I want you to work with me all over the world, doing events. So eventually I end up working with Bob for seven years straight. We wrote books together. We wrote music together. We put on huge events. I took over his business, looked after it, and from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I lived, and then, and it was just very, very interesting. I've worked in over 26 countries, huge, huge audiences. The biggest one I had was 50,000 people. So to say it was successful is an understatement, but I didn't plan it. I didn't visualize it, but I had always planned on being very well known singer, but it but not to be a positive affirmation or singer. I'd never thought of that, but eventually I went off the grid and started really getting into deep meditation practice and getting off the that whole circuit, because I wanted to find God within me. So that was what happened. And it was fascinating, because it's like working with all these, you know, rock musicians, male rock musicians, and then working with all these male best selling authors. I'm like, I'm always surrounded by the boys.   Michael Hingson ** 24:46 Hey, whatever works, it's, it's interesting though, that that you, you did so much of this, I gather that the audience is reacted very positively, though. Um. Have you heard from anyone that it really changed their life to have encountered you and heard you when you performed? Oh,   Michele Blood ** 25:10 yeah, we've had millions. I mean, we've got a lot of our video video testimonials and testimonials from not just best selling authors that I've worked with, but also from people from all over the world. I work with people in over 32 countries now, and some of them don't even speak English, but they still feel the vibration. And a lot of different people have started singing my songs in different languages, which I allow anyone to do. They don't have to pay me a royalty. They can just do it whatever brings positivity to the world and change within someone, so that they can get out of that rabbit hole. Because you're, you know, your whole podcast about unstoppable mindset. Well, this is such a a great new beginning is to just have to listen to a song. Yeah? And, you know, there's so I've got hundreds of songs to choose from, so it's a good it's a good way to start, because music, you know, like I always say to people, if you have the blues, even though I like blues and I think it's brilliant, but if you have the blues, probably best not to listen to the blues. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 26:21 definitely, definitely true. Well, of course, one has to ask if, if you have one, not necessarily long, but that you want to sing for us all.   Michele Blood ** 26:38 Yeah, I can. I didn't have anything set up. But if you'd like to chat for a minute, I'll just get something set up for you. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 26:45 okay, we can, we can do that. I do. I do agree with you that if you've got the blues, you don't want to listen to the blues. I I personally like happy stuff. I like musicals, especially when they're they're happy musicals. I've always enjoyed that. I do listen and read science fiction and sometimes read some some pretty horrific things. But I've noticed later in my life I'm doing less of that because I, although I like mysteries, I don't like nowadays really graphical or very graphic murder mysteries and things like that, and so people call the kinds of things that I probably typically like cozy mysteries. I wouldn't say that Rex Stout books about neural wolf the private detective are necessarily cozy, but by the same token, they're not the most graphic things, and I've always enjoyed them because they're puzzles. And I love mysteries that are really puzzles that I can become engaged in and try to solve, and musicals I like just because they're fun and and they're they're very happy for the most part. And so again, they're, they're very relevant to to want to listen to. So I, I tend to do that. So it's a lot of fun to keep in the the spirit of reasonably happy and stay away from the blues. Okay,   Michele Blood ** 28:17 I've got something set up now, alright, saying low battery, but oh, sorry. What happened there? There it is. There it is. This song is called synergy. I wrote it with Bob Proctor. Can you hear the music?   Michael Hingson ** 28:35 It's a little low, but yes, go ahead. Better. Yep,   Speaker 1 ** 28:40 there's a way to get it moving, to make it happen, to get high. Can barely flooded in the clouds, join thoughts and let them fly. When your mind joins in with others and all your thoughts to one a US. Energy begins to sizzle and it's energy positive energy synergy. It's energy, hot energy, positive energy turn into synergy. Together, creative power will start to flow. Things begin to happen. You're a church with Synergy. Red Hot energy, positive energy grows into synergy. It's energy, hot energy, positive energy grows into synergy.   Michele Blood ** 29:55 You shine and become magnetic, you'll draw the good. People out the world will be a better place, and everyone will start to shout, face to face, building   Speaker 2 ** 30:12 energy. Taste. The taste is this energy, thoughts, launching into one, a new boss have become this is synergy.   Speaker 1 ** 30:23 It's synergy, red hot energy, positive energy, delta, synergy, it's synergy.   Michael Hingson ** 30:34 There you go. Now   30:36 that's Bob Proctor. Wrote the lyrics for that.   Michael Hingson ** 30:41 But, um, who was the male voice near the end? Oh, the   Michele Blood ** 30:44 male voice was a American guy in who was singing covers in Kuala Lumpur when I lived there, Ah, okay, and I just hired him to come and and do that in the studio in Kuala Lumpur, yeah. But the other affirmation songs are more simple, but they're still got, you know, like a good dance beat, some of them are ballads greeting the day with love in your heart. It just depends on where you want to take your mind that day. Do you want to open your heart? Do you want to be like listen to the persistent song. Do you want to feel more successful? You listen to the success song, which is like 50s, rock and roll. So they're all different. They're all different product, production. So it was a lot of fun changing the different styles for each song depending on the lyrics.   Michael Hingson ** 31:34 Well, if people want to get those affirmation songs and so on, are they available for people to get? Yeah,   Michele Blood ** 31:41 all my albums are sold all over the world, and iTunes, of course, Amazon. My own website is magnet to success. Com. My YouTube channel is Michelle blood.com forward slash YouTube. But I've got lovely giveaways for your for your audience, if you'd like me to share that. Well, we will   Michael Hingson ** 32:03 do that a little bit, okay, but I really appreciate you seeing synergy. I will be, I will be saying that to myself the rest of the day, which is fine, but you know, you mentioned the blues and so on. So here's a question, if somebody is really down and really frustrated, how can they change their life to the positive?   Michele Blood ** 32:31 Well, first of all, even if they are really down, you've got to know, no matter what is going on in your life, that everything is possible for you, and that you can get out of that rabbit hole, and that you are you might feel alone, but you're never alone. Whether you believe in God or you don't believe in God, there is a God and you are looked after. You can pray without begging just giving. One of the most wonderful things you can do is just to start to write down what you're thankful for immediately. If you can say thank you divine, or just thank you for my beautiful life, and if then you can begin to write down what a beautiful life would look like for you, just start writing it down, even though it's not true yet. Like, let's start thinking about what can be done. What do you what sort of friends do you want? What sort of lifestyle do you want? You know, start thinking of others as well. Whenever we can do something, if we can do something every single day that makes somebody else happy, whether it's feeding the homeless or sending funny kitten videos to your friends. You if you can do something every day that brings happiness to somebody else or takes them out of suffering, well, then it'll take you out of yourself. Because if, if it's something emotional that you're going through, that means that you're going to sometimes we do need to go through the emotion, particularly if we're mourning the loss of something or someone that's important and healthy. But it is also important to stop thinking about ourselves so much and look at what can be done for the world. I love I love Saint Vincent de Paul. I love the Salvation Army so much, so you can tithe to them anonymously. If you want to do something you don't know what to do, even if it's just a buck, five bucks, it's really good to tithe to charities that are doing good in the world. And I'm sure there's a charity that you could recommend to us, Michael, that will help with the blind. If you got one, you can recommend?   Michael Hingson ** 34:43 Well, I think there, there really are a number of of places to donate. One of my favorites is the National Federation of the Blind, nfb.org, because it's, it's a consumer organization that fights for the rights of. Of blind people around the United States and actually around the world. And it's the NFB is the largest consumer organization of blind people in this country and, in fact, in the world. But it has made such a difference in the lives of blind people. For example, through the National Federation of blind we completely changed the life insurance industry that refused to provide life insurance for any blind person up until the mid 1980s and when it was finally discovered that they were denying us, not because they had any evidence and actual mathematical models that proved that we were a risk, which is what they're supposed to do. They were doing it strictly out of prejudice. And so now every state in the union, because of the Federation, has actually passed legislation that says you can't discriminate unless you've got real evidence. Well, it's been 40 years, and nobody's come up with evidence that we're a higher risk simply because we're blind or other persons with disabilities, their disabilities directly make them a higher risk. So, you know, that's that's definitely one of my favorite organizations to support. And   Michele Blood ** 36:13 nfb.org everybody. Nfb.org I've written it down for me to start tithing there as well. And,   Michael Hingson ** 36:20 you know, and there, there are so many others. Another organization that I tend to like, it's a very small organization, is advocates for service animal partners asap.org, and and it fights for the rights of people with a variety of disabilities who use service animals, service dogs, to be able to take their dogs with them, where wherever they go, because we're denied. So awesome. So I like asap.org as well.   Michele Blood ** 36:51 I love what you did. I think it was you and Ray and his wife. You were going to a particular restaurant and a a suity maitre d snotty, snooty, wouldn't let you in with your blind dog, with your with your guide dog, right? And and she was really upset the wife. And so you end up gathering quite a few of your friends that are blind, that have guide dogs, and you went in, and he had to oblige and let you all in. And everyone was very nice to you. So that was really good, because that it, it's, it's illegal for them to say you can't come in with your guide dog. It is   Michael Hingson ** 37:28 illegal, and it has been illegal for a long time. One of my favorite stories, which really wasn't a bad story at all, there used to be a restaurant in Boston in Quincy Market called Durgan Park. And Durgan Park was was basically family style, although around the outside of the room they had tables for four but you couldn't sit at one of those tables unless you had four people. Well, we came in one night and there were only three of us and my dog, Holland, and the the host has said, You know what, I'm going to make an exception and let you sit at this table for four so Holland was under the table, and there were three of us, and the waitress came up, and the waitresses at Durgan Park are known as snots. I mean, they're, they're, they're, they're supposed to be really rough and all that. It's just part of the schtick. But she came up and she said, What are you people doing sitting here? And he said, well, the host has put us here. No, she didn't. You're just sitting here. No, she did. It's because of the dog under the table. No, there's no dog under the table. You're not going to make me fall for that. And she walks away, and then she comes back and she said, you're not supposed to be sitting here and all that. I said, Look, there's a dog under the table. Take a look. And it took a while, but I finally got her to look, and there's Holland staring at her with these big brown eyes when she lifts up the the tablecloth, and the next thing I know, she comes back with a big plate. Jurgen Park has very good sized portions of frying rib and says, Can I give this to the dog, oh, and, and normally, I would never do that, but in the for to promote goodwill, I said, Okay, which Hall of love? And, you know, I knew the food there was good, but, you know, it was, it was just one of those great stories. But, yeah, all too often that isn't the way it goes. We see so many challenges with Uber, for example, so many drivers refuse to take blind people or other people with disabilities who have service dogs. It's against the rules, and they say, but it's our car. No, you signed a contract that said that you are going to transport the public, so it is illegal for you to deny us. But they do, and that's one of the things that ASAP, for example, is really working on to address, to get Uber, to recognize that it has to enforce the law like everyone else. But it's a challenge. People come from all sorts of different points of view. You know, with   Michele Blood ** 39:59 the name like. Uber. How could they do that? They're not being very Uber.   40:04 Well, there you go.   Michele Blood ** 40:07 Wow. That's interesting in this day and age. Absolutely, it continues all too often. So many people have slipped into something more comfortable, like a coma. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 40:18 Now you and your team have created an app. I think it's called what magnet to money. Tell us about that. Yeah,   Michele Blood ** 40:24 it was interesting. Thanks, Michael. I wanted to do because sometimes people like you were talking earlier, how do they get out of their you know, their depression, or whatever they're going through that they're feeling, how do they get out of that rabbit hole? So if you're feeling that way, and your mindset is in a negative state of mind, and you're emotionally not feeling well, well, then it's very, very challenging for you to want to put on some positive, you know, affirmation music. Because I know when I was in the hospital, if people came in and they were too chirpy. I would couldn't wait for them to go because I wasn't oscillating at that frequency. Yeah, you know. So they're all Oh, hi. And so I thought, wouldn't it be great if we had an app and it would just play? As you know, they can choose the notifications how often it will play. And so Polly fella, Trevor Rogers and Johnny and Dara and myself, we worked really hard, especially Holly fella, to develop this app. And it took about two and a half years to develop it. And it's got morning meditations. It's got tons of affirmations with music underneath. It's got a sleep program to help. As they're sleeping, people are sleeping, I'm very softly saying affirmations and positive you know, feed, feed to their minds. And it's also got notifications, so the magnet to money song will play whatever they want to, so they don't have to even remember to and eventually, like someone the other day, said she was in a bank and she had the magnet to Money App, and she had it as her ringtone as well. And she's in this big bank that was hardly anybody in there, but it was quite chamber ish, Echo ish, and she said, and her phone was on pretty loud. It started, I'm a magnet to money came on really loud, and everyone started laughing. They're like, well, that's sort of, I guess, you know, a good thing to play in a bank. Yeah, works. So, yeah, the magnet to Money App is fantastic. App. It's got so much on it, and it's got an audio book you get for free from myself and Bob Proctor called magnet to money through the sea of unlimited consciousness, one one of our books that we did as an audio book, and we thought we've also got a free app, because that magnet to Money App is only about, I think it's $4 or something A month, but the affirmation power app is free, and on that tons of affirmations, plus my affirmation music videos is on there as well. So that's free, if anybody wants that.   Michael Hingson ** 43:13 So yeah, so is that available with Android and Apple and iPhone? No,   Michele Blood ** 43:17 just, just apple at the moment, because to develop for an Android is much more complicated because there are so many different companies, yeah, yes, whereas Apple, it's just the iPhone, but we do intend to, but it's, you know, we've got the manifestation video app as well, and we've got a New App coming out, which is all my audio books. And I'm doing a new audio book every month, not just my books on audio, but other people's books on audio as well. And then the next step after that, is a prayer app, talking about prayer, how to pray, and for me, teaching people the power of prayer. So it's really lovely to be able to do apps that have got positive, you know, the very, very, you know, if they were to buy all those individual products from me to cost hundreds dollars, and this way it's just a few dollars a month all free for them to get all my positive songs and books and all that sort of thing.   Michael Hingson ** 44:17 How do people search for these apps that in the in the app store. I think   Michele Blood ** 44:22 that if they just go under, look under Michelle blood, okay, under my name, yeah, okay, they'll just come up. I   Michael Hingson ** 44:29 will, I will be doing that this afternoon. I think that's that's pretty cool. You know, in in our world today, we become so materialistic in so many ways, but at the same time, a lot of people have really become students of your affirmations and so on. How did they really become students? And I think even more important, one of the questions that I would ask is. How does it really transform, or did it really transform people's consciousness and set them on a road toward a more spiritual path? Because I think in so many ways, we don't see people doing that, and at the same time, I know there are a lot of people who do, but by the same token, there's so many people who go, oh, this is just all pokem. It doesn't really mean anything, but that's just not true.   Michele Blood ** 45:24 Well, I think it's, it's an interesting question to answer, because there are so many different types of people in the world, and we can't expect to change people. They have to, you know, I don't want anyone to suffer. Michael, first of all, so I think having positive thoughts in their head is going to actually make them think less of themselves, believe it or not, these the way the lyrics are done, and more of joy and sharing and caring about other people, because it is so important to to do that, because people, if they get too much into themselves, Like I say to people, don't buy anything if you're buying it. For someone else to be to compliment you, that's a really good way of deciding what you're going to purchase in your life. If you're doing it to you know, to say, Oh, I've got this really nice car. Look how great I am. But get it if you want a good car. Get it because you want a nice, safe car that's good for the environment, but don't get it so that you will impress other people. Unless you're a real estate agent, they do need good cars, apparently, to drive people around, yeah, I guess so. Drive people around,   Michael Hingson ** 46:35 but, or drive people crazy, yeah,   Michele Blood ** 46:37 but. But I also think it's important that that if you want to, you can't tell someone to be more spiritual. They have to get into a positive frame of mindset first. Because when you're in a positive frame of mindset, you start feeling more of a heart blow, more love. And even if you don't believe in God, you believe in love everybody, I know you do, so whether it's your animal that you love, because every animal is an angel, whether it's nature, smelling the remembering to stop and smell the flowers, remembering to not let yourself complain. Complaining will take you down a rabbit hole of absolute negativity and please. People remember, the only reason you're complaining is because you're feeling fear about losing something or not getting something that you want. And so if you can stop complaining for 28 days straight, you will change your life. And I know that sounds impossible, but many people can do it, because I've seen my students do it. So if you can stop complaining and stop half if you're halfway through a complaint about something or someone or politics or Trump or whatever in the hell it is, stop yourself halfway through and just say, Why am I complaining? And people are complaining because they're in fear. If you can stop and be mindful enough to say, I'm complaining because I'm afraid of something, and I don't want to face it and find out what you're afraid of, the thing that you're afraid of will dissipate. Yeah, it really will. So I think that's a really good place to start listening to the positive songs, for sure, going to every single unstoppable mindset podcast you possibly can go to reading Michael's books, and also, just knowing that you can get out of that rabbit hole, it is totally possible, and I've seen it in people from all different cultures and religious backgrounds all over the world. I've traveled to so many different countries, and have so many different audiences, and everybody wants to be loved and be loved in return. And everybody wants to see other people happy at their core. They really do. We don't want to make people unhappy, do you? So stop complaining.   Michael Hingson ** 49:07 You know, it's, it's interesting that you, you talk about all this, one of the things that we talk a lot about, and you'll see it and live like the guide dog, is that we need to become more introspective. Because if we do and we really look at ourselves daily, and, for example, look at what worked today, what didn't work. Why didn't it work? You eventually get to what was I really afraid of? And if you really stop to think about that and go, I didn't need to be afraid of that, your life will change, which is really, as you're pointing out, what it's all about.   Michele Blood ** 49:44 Excellent, excellent. I'm looking forward to reading that as well, and then I've already told everyone to get thunder dog on all my lists. But now I'll be, after I read the next one, I'll be telling them to read that as well, because we're on the same page. Michael.   Michael Hingson ** 49:59 Tell me a little bit about something I've read in your bio, how you went from affirmations to a full kundalini awakening.   Michele Blood ** 50:09 Well, when I was working with Bob Proctor in Asia, I was saying to him one day, I feel this heart blow like I feel like my heart is out of my chest, and I feel such deep love. And it's not for any person, place or thing. It's for everything, actually, but it's beyond that. It's divine. And he said, you're looking for an enlightened teacher. That's what you need. And I said, Well, where do you find an enlightened teacher, and what exactly is that? And he got me to read Autobiography of a Yogi by Hara mahansa Yogananda. And I'd read it before, but I didn't really get it like I did this time when I read it, and I realized that enlightenment wasn't just one person. People can actually meditate and go into higher states of consciousness, but I wasn't thinking of how is an enlightened being around in this modern world? That can't be right? Because I it must be like unless it's Asia maybe. He said, I don't know. He said, I did have a Canadian man who was enlightened, who taught me for three years before he died, left the body. And he said, you just have to pray for it and know that the teacher and the student will find each other. It took me 14 years of searching all over the world, and eventually I found an enlightened teacher in all places America, and I decided to go off the grid, and I really had to to study with her as a student, because she didn't like us to be on Facebook or social media. She said, you don't want attention on yourself when you're studying with me, because you want to be able to go in deeply. Yeah. So I went off. I studied with her for 12 years, but after the first few years, I went into a full awakening myself, never expecting that. Didn't expect it to happen to me. I thought, how could a rock singer in Australia, have a kundalini awakening, but I did, and now I love to teach mysticism and spirituality and meditation practice to students from all over the world. And I love to do it. I think there's so many tools in the toolbox of life, whatever sort of personality you have, whether you're extremely religious or you just want to have more positive outcome. You want to become healthier. I think meditation practice is good for everybody. You do not have to be religious or think of spirituality to enjoy a quiet mind. It'll slow down your blood pressure. It will give you pump your blood, it'll stop your mind from going down a million rabbit holes where your senses take you. I just think meditation practice is a miraculous, privileged thing to do.   Michael Hingson ** 52:53 I agree. And you know, one of the things that it's a little bit off topic for what you just said, but we were talking earlier about people praying and looking for so many things. I'm amazed at how many people pray to God, telling God what they want and what they think they need. And I'm sitting there whenever I hear about that today, especially, I think, Wait a minute, God already knows that what you need to do is to listen to get the response, and thank God for the response, but people just don't do that. I'm just so amazed at at that. But it's it is so true that we spend too much time not doing the thing that we really need to do, which is listening and talking with God, not talking to God.   Michele Blood ** 53:46 Yeah, that's why I I'm loving recording the new prayer app, because I explain to people what prayer actually is. It's not If you do this for me, God, I'll start, stop eating pizza, yeah? Or maybe trade off. So I teach people what prayer actually is, and it's, it's really the most sacred thing and beautiful thing, and it will uplift you, even if you just, I've got a section where they I'm praying for others, so they can just listen to any different topic of what type of prayer, but the main thing for me was explaining, doing the introduction of what prayer is and how to pray, because so many people have no idea what prayer really is, that communion with your higher self, and once you get to understand what that is, then you can hear that still, small voice you can literally hear through. Ah, your intuition becomes stronger you can and intuition is you being in tune with your higher self. And your higher self is omniscient wisdom. It created everything so it knows what. To tell you to do, and it will bring into your experience everything when you accept, when you can be open and receptive to receive and to give, just sort of let yourself go, just surrender to that divine Higher Self, when you can learn how to do that. That's another thing that I do on this prayer app is teach you what surrender really means and how you can do it. It's not taking your willpower away from you, because everyone that's a gift that we've been given. So we can make good choices in life, sometimes bad choices, but we can use our willpower to get ourselves out of that rabbit hole. So thank you for asking that. Michael, it's   Michael Hingson ** 55:41 extremely important to be able to do that. Well, you mentioned earlier that you had gifts for people listening to this podcast. Love it if you tell us about that,   Michele Blood ** 55:52 yes, yummy gifts. If you go to Michelle. Blood com, it's spelled M, I, C, H, E, L, E, B, L, O, O, O, d.com, forward slash unstoppable mindset. We've called that. We've made that link especially for Michael's podcast. Just for your people, they will get the audio version of one of my favorite books I've written called the magic of affirmation power audio book. They will get that for free, but in that audio book has tons of affirmations you can repeat after me, links to some of my music for free. You'll also get a six week mysticism course, and there are other things as well. I can't remember what they are right now, but they're all on that link.   Michael Hingson ** 56:37 But Michelle blood com slash unstoppable mindset. I thank you for the otter. Appreciate that. Well now if people want to come hear you, I know you do live events and you do zoom events and so on. How can we learn about that? How can people do that?   Michele Blood ** 56:57 Well, they can go to request Divine light.com to find out what is my next event, because I have free events, a lot a lot of free zoom events people can come to, and you'll just get to meet so many happy, lovely people from so many different countries. And we just have a blast together. And you'll be very, very uplifted after everyone, because everyone that comes on are just, we seem to be attracting, over the years, just people that are really, sincerely wanting a better life and to do it, to do good in the world. And I just love them all so much. So if they go to request Divine Light com, they can see where my next free event will be. I mean, it's on Zoom, but I mean when it will be   Michael Hingson ** 57:46 right? Request, divine light. Com, cool. Well, I really appreciate you coming on. And obviously people can go to Michelle blood, com, and there's a lot there, I would assume as well. So hopefully people will go, go check out everything that's there, and we'll take this seriously, because I think there is so much that you have offered. We've had a number of people on unstoppable mindset who talk about everything from reg a to Eastern medicine, meditation and and so many things. They all can't be totally wrong. So from my perspective, they are not wrong. But by the same token, it's fun to be able to get a chance to to have you on. We'll have to do this again, and I'm going to certainly go download the apps and put them on my nice little iPhone and start taking advantage of them. But I really appreciate you coming on and and being with us for an hour today. Well,   Michele Blood ** 58:51 Michael, thank you for the books that you've written and everything that you've done in the world. I just think you're just an inspiration and just a lovely, lovely man. So thank you. It's, it's lovely getting to know you. And I'm just going to tell everyone about these books, because they're amazing, well written as well. Just really, really good.   Michael Hingson ** 59:13 Well, thank you. So, when are you going to do a podcast? I'm going   Michele Blood ** 59:17 to do a podcast with a man called just I just had a brain fart. Thomas Miller, uh, at the moment, his podcast is called subconscious mind mastery, and he's interviewed me quite a few times. We met in person, and I love his outlook on life, about really not saying no to anything that's mystical. And so we're going to start one next year together. He's already got his own, but this will be a different one where we'll go a little deeper, a deeper dive into mysticism. I think we're going to call it well,   Michael Hingson ** 59:55 if he needs a guess for his existing podcast, if he has guests or. You guys have your podcast together. If you ever want a guest, I volunteer. So I'll just, Oh,   Michele Blood ** 1:00:05 I'll tell him today. Goodness, yes,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:10 I'm, I'm always, I'm always open for that. Oh,   Michele Blood ** 1:00:13 I'll tell him today. Yeah, because you, I love you.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:18 Well, I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank all of you for listening. I hope you enjoyed this at least half as much as I did, hopefully as much as I did. This has been a lot of fun and educational, I think, in so many ways, to help us deal with our outlooks on life. I'd love to hear your thoughts about it. Please feel free to email me. Michael h i at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I b, e.com, or go to our podcast website, w, w, w, dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, and that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, o, n. So Michael hingson.com/podcast, and wherever you're listening, please give us a five star review. We really value your reviews. But of course, love the five star ones, so if we can, we would really appreciate it if you give us a five star review and and say, say good things about us and and go off and definitely visit Michelle's pages. And, of course, being very prejudiced, go to Michelle blood com slash unstoppable mindset and get some free gifts from her. And if you know of anyone who you think would be a good guest, and Michelle you as well. I'm always looking for podcast guests, so okay, don't hesitate to to refer people to us. We appreciate that a whole lot. So once again, I want to thank you for being here. Michelle, this has been a lot of fun. Thank   Michele Blood ** 1:01:45 you. Michael, God bless you. More love everyone. More Love   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:54   You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

This week, we have Disguise for Murder, an episode of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, which first aired January 16, 1982. Find our store at AThrillingPublication.com or visit BrickPickleMedia.com/podcasts for more information.

“Nero Wolfe & The Case of Room 304” was written by Virgil Reimer based on characters created by Rex Stout. The Icebox Radio Theater's production was directed by Jeffrey Adams. The cast included James Yount as Archie, Aela Mackintosh as Helen Rene, Jeffrey Adams was Inspector Kramer, Grace Flesland was Miss Bennet, Caleb Silvers was Renfrow and Justin Kapla starred as Nero Wolfe. Other voices provided by the talented cast. Foley sound effects by Diane Adams and Jeffrey Adams. Sound effects engineering by Senara Erwin. This program was recorded before a live audience at the John Faith Little Theater at Backus Community Center, Int'l Falls, Minnesota, on February 15th, 2025. This program copyright 2025 by the Icebox Radio Theater, all rights reserved. For more information, visit iceboxradio.org.

Grande cerimonia con la partecipazione di cinquanta capi di Stato per la riapertura della cattedrale di Notre-Dame a cinque anni dall'incendio che la distrusse. Di questo e del ruolo svolto dalle basiliche nell'edificare la cultura europea, ne parliamo con Marco Meschini, storico medievista ed autore del libro Le pietre e la luce. La cattedrale del Medioevo, Sellerio. Inoltre sempre in tema di Notre-Dame due libri su e di Victor Hugo: il primo, Victor Hugo, Benjamin Lacombe, Notre-Dame de Paris, L’ippocampo ed il secondo, Olivier Rolin, All’ultimo sangue, edizioni Settecolori dedicato ad una pagina de I miserabili sull’insurrezione parigina del giugno 1848. Dello stesso periodo è il libro di Henri Barbusse, Il coltello fra i denti, Le Erbacce. Suggerimenti per i regali di Natale: Agatha Christie, Fiabe gialle, Mondadori; Arthur Conan Doyle, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout, Tre gialli di Natale, Interlinea; Andrea Pennacchi, Se la rosa non avesse il suo nome, Marsilio; Lucy Worsley, La vita segreta di Agatha Christie, Salani.

The OTRNow Radio Program_2024-012The Shadow Of Fu Manchu. June 14, 1939. Program #17. Radio Attractions syndication. Sponsored by: Music fill for local commercial insert. Fu Manchu makes the dead to live. Hanley Stafford, Gale Gordon. The Shadow Of Fu Manchu. June 16, 1939. Program #18. Radio Attractions syndication. Sponsored by: Music fill for local commercial insert. In the house of Fu Manchu. Hanley Stafford, Gale GordonThe Marriage. October 04, 1953. NBC net. Sustaining. The married couple are now named Liz and Ben Marriott and have a family. Ben tries to ask questions of Pete's fifth-grade teacher. This is not as easy as it sounds. The system cue has been deleted. Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Ernest Kinoy (writer), Juano Hernandez, Edward King (director), Irene Hubbard, Wendell Holmes, David Pfeffer, Bob Dettin (? announcer).  Blair Of The Mounties. February 28, 1938. Program #5. Walter Biddick syndication. "The Phantom Sniper". The program is announced as a serial, but each episode is complete in itself or in two parts. Stories of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. "The Phantom Sniper" has struck...it could be the "Boy-Foot Bear" (with cheeks of tan)?. Blair Of The Mounties. March 07, 1938. Program #6. Walter Biddick syndication. "The Murder At Packett's Landing". A pair of fur thieves are captured when one of them spares a woman and child from freezing to death.   Academy Award Theatre. June 22, 1946. CBS net. "The Front Page". Sponsored by: Squibb. Comedy about the newspaper business and one reporter's efforts to get married and free himself from his editor's clutches. Pat O'Brien, Adolphe Menjou. 1/2 hour, Audio Condition: very good to excellent audio, complete.THE NEW ADVENTURES OF NERO WOLFE January 19, 1951 "Calculated Risk" With Sydney Greenstreet Sustaining. Rex Stout (creator), Sydney Greenstreet, Don Stanley (announcer), Gerald Mohr,Edwin Fadiman (producer), J. Donald Wilson (producer, director), GeGe Pearson. CREEPS BY NIGHT March 7, 1944, "The Strange Burial Of Alexander Jordan"

Romance of the Ranchos "Rancho San Jose" 9/21/1941 Jack Benny "Jack is Upset" 9/29/1946 Information Please "Carl Van Doren, Rex Stout" 9/26/1939 Sherlock Holmes "The Eyes of Mr. Leyton" 9/24/1945 Sam Spade "The Dick Foley Caper" 9/26/1948 Weird Circle "Declared Insane" 9/23/1946 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/norman-gilliland/support

Nero Wolfe returns to Sounds Like Radio's Vast Library of Sound Volume 37!  Listen as Nero Wolfe is Cordially Invited To Meet Death" (Yipe!) originally broadcast February 20, 1982.  From the Rex Stout book “Black Orchids” an exciting story with lots of surprises.  Another goodie as only Your Humble Host can present. Listen now and get set for mystery at it's best.

In celebration of National Crime Fiction Month, John and Ben discuss one of the greatest fat guys in the history of literature: Nero Wolfe. As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation.

Ally and Nic dig on on Kung Fu Panda, Dune, Rex Stout, the Smiley series and more! It's the But Have You Tried Bookshelf!

In this episode Reyna and Jeff discuss the novella – The Squirt and the Monkey by Rex Stout, a story in the Nero Wolfe mystery series. Mo Monkeys Mo Problems?! Archie plays musical revolvers! Wolfe takes on comic strips! When Nero Wolfe is on the case, make sure you don’t get in between …. The Squirt […]

It's a birthday month tribute to Oscar-nominated actor Sydney Greenstreet. He made his film debut as the heavy in The Maltese Falcon, and he'd go on to appear in Casablanca, Christmas in Connecticut, and many more. He also spent a year starring on radio as Rex Stout's "gargantuan gourmet," Nero Wolfe. We'll hear him as Wolfe in "The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds" (originally aired on NBC on March 9, 1951) and "A Slight Case of Perjury" (originally aired on NBC on April 6, 1951). Plus, Greenstreet reunites with Peter Lorre as they recreate their roles from The Mask of Dimitrios on The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on April 16, 1945).

Nero Wolfe Returns just in time to go to a Christmas Party. It's our Nero Wolfe Christmas story here on the Library of Sound (LOS) Volume 60 originally broadcast on February 13, 1982.   Based on the Rex Stout original story from 1958's "Four To Go" novel. Santa Claus & mystery have always gone together and so they do on a Christmas Edition of Sounds Like Radio's Nero Wolfe from our Vast Library of Sound!

In this episode Reyna and Jeff discuss the novel – Murder by the Book by Rex Stout, a story in the Nero Wolfe mystery series. Archie has a dinner date with 8 women?! Archie just misses the defenestration of a typist! Lawyers, lawyers and more lawyers! When you kill and have Wolfe on your trail, make […]

In this episode I continue my conversation with Mac King. We start out talking about Shows and performing but end up talking about books. SO, the last part of this episode is possibly the first episode of a spin off book club, where Mac and Frodo talks about books NOT relating to performing.Topics we touch on:-On performing almost exlusively in one venue-Frodo doing more long form Shows-Does Mac ever want to make a new Show?-Working on ALL the details.-Mastering all the details.-What did Mac do creatively during the pandemic?-Digital Shows-(Im (one of) Mac's Wife's favorite acts. :-)-Pandemic talkshow online-Connecting and Playing with friends-Funny Family-On Mac moving from Harries Casino to Excalibur-Shows not made for kids but that still good for kids-On being offensive.-People understand your intent as a person, if you are playful and authenticallly don't mean offence you can go far. Sometimes. -About getting better through  comments from smart friends. -Book club:Mac: Nero Wolf detective series by Rex Stout-on male friendsFrodo: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen KingHumankind: a hopeful history Rutger BregmanFall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal StephensonSupport the show...Now you can get t-shirts and hoodies with our wonderful logo. This is the best new way to suport the podcast project. Become a proud parader of your passion for Showmanship and our glorious Craft whilst simultanously helping to gather more followers for the Way.You'll find the store here: https://thewayoftheshowman.printdrop.com.auIf you want to help support this podcast it would be tremendous if you wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify.If you want to contact me about anything, including wanting me to collaborate on one of your projects you can reach me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.comor find out more on the Way of the Showman website.you can follow the Way of Instagram where it is, not surprisingly thewayoftheshowman.If you find it in you and you have the means to do so, you can suport the podcast financially at:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.Stamped for Murder: A woman seeks help from Nero Wolfe to recover a $10,000 treasure map from two swindlers. Wolfe becomes suspicious when the con-men return the money to eagerly. Originally aired October 20th,1950.Support the show

“Nero Wolfe: The case of the Dear, Dead Lady” was written by Peter Barry based on Characters created by Rex Stout. The cast included Justin Kapla as Wolfe, Dalton Johnson as Archie, Caleb Silvers was Oliphant, Mitchell Erickson as Barstow, Jeffrey Adams played Hunter and Karen Shickell played Ilsa Dana. Other voices provided by the talented cast. Directed by Diane Adams. Foley sound effects created by Evie Conat. Live sound engineered by Ian Hall. This program copyright 2023 by the Icebox Radio Theater which is solely responsible for its content. Recorded before a live audience at the Salty Jester, Int'l Falls, Minnesota. Partial funding made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

The Adventures of Nero Wolfe is based upon the famous detective created by Rex Stout and stars Sydney Greenstreet (remember him from Casablanca?) as the bulky but very bright armchair detective who enjoys taking on the tough mysteries. New Twitter address- @1001podcast Follow Us! ANDROID USERS- 1001 Stories From The Old West- https://toppodcast.com/podcast_feeds/1001-stories-from-the-old-west/ 1001 Radio Crime Solvers- https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a60ec356-c7d0-4535-b276-1282990e46ba/1001-radio-crime-solvers 1001's Best of Jack London- https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vQURMMzA0OTMyMjE1Mg/episode/ZGZjY2U4ZmUtNzMzYi0xMWVkLWE3NzUtMmY1MGNmNGFiNDVh?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwifjrqi8-L7AhViM1kFHQ1nA_EQjrkEegQICRAI&ep=6 1001 Radio Days right here at Google Podcasts FREE: https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20radio%20days 1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales at Google Podcasts https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vQURMNzU3MzM0Mjg0NQ== 1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries at Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20heroes 1001 Sherlock Holmes Stories (& Tales from Arthur Conan Doyle) https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20sherlock%20holmes 1001 Ghost Stories & Tales of the Macabre on Spotify: https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20ghost%20stories 1001 Stories for the Road on Google Podcasts https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20stories%20for%20the%20road Enjoy 1001 Greatest Love Stories on Google Podcasts https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20greatest%20love%20stories 1001 History's Best Storytellers: (author interviews) on Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/show/1001-historys-best-storytellers APPLE USERS Catch 1001 Stories From The Old West- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-stories-from-the-old-west/id1613213865 Catch 1001's Best of Jack London- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-best-of-jack-london/id1656939169 Catch 1001 Radio Crime Solvers- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-radio-crime-solvers/id1657397371 Catch 1001 Heroes on any Apple Device here (Free): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-heroes-legends-histories-mysteries-podcast/id956154836?mt=2  Catch 1001 CLASSIC SHORT STORIES at Apple Podcast App Now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-classic-short-stories-tales/id1078098622 Catch 1001 Stories for the Road at Apple Podcast now:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-stories-for-the-road/id1227478901 NEW Enjoy 1001 Greatest Love Stories on Apple Devices here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-greatest-love-stories/id1485751552 Catch 1001 RADIO DAYS now at Apple iTunes!  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-radio-days/id1405045413?mt=2 NEW 1001 Ghost Stories & Tales of the Macabre is now playing at Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-ghost-stories-tales-of-the-macabre/id1516332327 NEW Enjoy 1001 History's Best Storytellers (Interviews) on Apple Devices here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-historys-best-storytellers/id1483649026 NEW Enjoy 1001 Sherlock Holmes Stories and The Best of Arthur Conan Doyle https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-sherlock-ho Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sydney Greenstreet stars as Rex Stout's famous corpulent detective. Gerals Mohr as Archie Goodwin. This particular mystery features four criminals who decide to play one winner-take-all game of poker for ownership of their shared illegal enterprises. But there's murder in the cards and only Nero Wolfe can solve the case! Will Archie Goodwin be given the night off to go on a date? Does the detective really have a meticulous plan to find the solution? Aired January 12, 1951 on NBC Radio.

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.A Slight Case Of Perjury: An attempt is made on the life of Tom Wilcox, just after Wilcox is acquitted of the murder of Keith Hanson. Originally aired October 25th,1950.Support the show

In this month's bonus episode, I'm serving up my five favorite episodes of The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe - the single season series starring Oscar-nominee Sydney Greenstreet as Rex Stout's gargantuan gourmet, orchid fancier, and brilliant private detective. First, Wolfe is hired to drop a mystery woman as a client by a man who's soon found murdered in "The Case of the Careworn Cuff" (originally aired on NBC on October 20, 1950). Then, a woman is killed in one of New York's fanciest men's clubs in "The Case of the Careless Cleaner" (originally aired on NBC on November 17, 1950). A prizefighter has gone missing in "The Case of the Deadly Sellout" (originally aired on NBC on January 5, 1951) and Wolfe is hired by a man who announces his intentions to commit murder in "The Case of the Calculated Risk" (originally aired on NBC on January 19, 1951). Finally, a woman's plea for help leads Wolfe to a house full of suspects with motives to kill her in "The Case of the Telltale Ribbon" (originally aired on NBC on March 30, 1951).

“Old woman be damned!” [STUD]    One of the wonderful things about examining and reexamining the Sherlock Holmes canon is that we can find things that take on special meanings to us. And two different people can interpret the same thing in vastly different ways.    Listener Erik Deckers suggested that we find a topic that was interpreted wildly differently by two Sherlockians. So we started out with this doozy of a duel between Rex Stout and Julian Wolff. It's just a Trifle.   If you have a suggestion for a Trifles episode, let us know at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your idea on the air, we'll send you some Sherlockian goodies.   Our Patreon supporters can listen to our shows ad-free and every one of them is eligible for our monthly and quarterly drawings for Baker Street Journals. Join our community of patrons today.   Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles326 Watson Was a Woman That Was No Lady Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com Listen to us ad-free on Patreon and become eligible for our regular giveaways.   Sponsor The Baker Street Journal   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0        

Nero Wolfe, the brilliant, but lazy, detective created by Rex Stout, famously almost never left his house.  One of the few things that could stir him was his love of orchids.  In tonight's episode of “The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe,” starring Sydney Greenstreet, it is indeed some of those lovely plants that draw him into a murder at a flower shop.  Then on “The Jack Benny Program,” Jack and the gang are planning to take the train to New York … if their adventures at the station don't derail them first. Episodes The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe December 29, 1950 “The Case of The Bashful Body” 1:42 The Jack Benny Program February 21, 1954  “Jack At the Train Station” aka “Train Trip to New York” 31:58

Under the Andes by Rex Stout audiobook. Under the Andes was written by Rex Stout years before his creation of the immensely popular Nero Wolfe series of novels, and while perhaps his future writing style is still blossoming, certainly his knack for weaving a fantastic tale of mystery and adventure will have most readers anxious for the next phase of adventure at every turn. The story finds two brothers and a pretty female companion on a journey which eventually takes them to a series of underground caves under the Andes of South America, where they encounter a lost tribe of Incas who have apparently survived hundreds of years oblivious of the outside world. The apparent 'king' of the tribe has become infatuated with the fair-skinned female intruder of the group and, well, suffice it to say there's a lot of action, attempted escapes, heroism, and peculiar interactions between all, reminiscent of H. Rider Haggard with a touch of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Case Of The Tell-Tale Ribbon:  A strange note with five hundred dollars leads to a case of poisoning in a very strange household.  Originally aired March 30th, 1951.Support the show

Perry and David discuss their recent reading of crime novels, or were they merely crime-adjacent novels? You can choose! Introduction (02:09) Loss of three good friends (01:49) Charles Taylor Valma Brown Eve Harvey ChatGPT - new developments (07:10) General News (08:37) Nebula Awards (02:18) Hugo Awards (01:00) BSFA Awards (01:06) Aurealis Awards (01:56) Nominating for the Hugo Awards (01:44) Crime Fiction (53:49) Unforgiven by Sarah Barrie (04:22) Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas (09:10) In Her Blood by Nicky Crutchley (04:20) The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout (07:21) Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson (04:43) In the Woods by Tana French (08:26) Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down (08:09) Exiles by Jane Harper (06:42) Windup and Next Episode (01:45) Illustration by Wombo.art Dropping our Twitter account. You can now find us here on Mastodon.

Perry and David discuss their recent reading of crime novels, or were they merely crime-adjacent novels? You can choose! Introduction (02:09) Loss of three good friends (01:49) Charles Taylor Valma Brown Eve Harvey ChatGPT - new developments (07:10) General News (08:37) Nebula Awards (02:18) Hugo Awards (01:00) BSFA Awards (01:06) Aurealis Awards (01:56) Nominating for the Hugo Awards (01:44) Crime Fiction (53:49) Unforgiven by Sarah Barrie (04:22) Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas (09:10) In Her Blood by Nicky Crutchley (04:20) The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout (07:21) Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson (04:43) In the Woods by Tana French (08:26) Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down (08:09) Exiles by Jane Harper (06:42) Windup & Next Episode (01:45) Click here for more info and indexes Illustration by Wombo.art Dropping our Twitter account. You can now find us here on Mastodon.

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Case Of The Midnight Ride: Nero Wolfe's dentist and Archie both receive a mysterious call from a woman leading to a ride in the country to do away with them.Originally aired March 16th,1951.Support the show

The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe is a 1950-1951 radio drama series starring Sydney Greenstreet as Rex Stout's fictional armchair detective Nero Wolfe. The series was unique in that it stressed characterization over plot. It was well written and well-produced. New Twitter address- @1001podcast Follow Us! ANDROID USERS- 1001 Stories From The Old West- https://toppodcast.com/podcast_feeds/1001-stories-from-the-old-west/ 1001 Radio Crime Solvers- https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a60ec356-c7d0-4535-b276-1282990e46ba/1001-radio-crime-solvers 1001's Best of Jack London- https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vQURMMzA0OTMyMjE1Mg/episode/ZGZjY2U4ZmUtNzMzYi0xMWVkLWE3NzUtMmY1MGNmNGFiNDVh?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwifjrqi8-L7AhViM1kFHQ1nA_EQjrkEegQICRAI&ep=6 1001 Radio Days right here at Google Podcasts FREE: https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20radio%20days 1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales at Google Podcasts https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vQURMNzU3MzM0Mjg0NQ== 1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries at Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20heroes 1001 Sherlock Holmes Stories (& Tales from Arthur Conan Doyle) https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20sherlock%20holmes 1001 Ghost Stories & Tales of the Macabre on Spotify: https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20ghost%20stories 1001 Stories for the Road on Google Podcasts https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20stories%20for%20the%20road Enjoy 1001 Greatest Love Stories on Google Podcasts https://podcasts.google.com/search/1001%20greatest%20love%20stories 1001 History's Best Storytellers: (author interviews) on Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/show/1001-historys-best-storytellers APPLE USERS Catch 1001 Stories From The Old West- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-stories-from-the-old-west/id1613213865 Catch 1001's Best of Jack London- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-best-of-jack-london/id1656939169 Catch 1001 Radio Crime Solvers- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-radio-crime-solvers/id1657397371 Catch 1001 Heroes on any Apple Device here (Free): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-heroes-legends-histories-mysteries-podcast/id956154836?mt=2  Catch 1001 CLASSIC SHORT STORIES at Apple Podcast App Now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-classic-short-stories-tales/id1078098622 Catch 1001 Stories for the Road at Apple Podcast now:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-stories-for-the-road/id1227478901 NEW Enjoy 1001 Greatest Love Stories on Apple Devices here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-greatest-love-stories/id1485751552 Catch 1001 RADIO DAYS now at Apple iTunes!  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-radio-days/id1405045413?mt=2 NEW 1001 Ghost Stories & Tales of the Macabre is now playing at Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-ghost-stories-tales-of-the-macabre/id1516332327 NEW Enjoy 1001 History's Best Storytellers (Interviews) on Apple Devices here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-historys-best-storytellers/id1483649026 NEW Enjoy 1001 Sherlock Holmes Stories and The Best of Arthur Conan Doyle https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-sherlock-holmes-stories-best-sir-arthur-conan/id1534427618 Get all of our shows at one website: https://.1001storiespodcast.com REVIEWS NEEDED . My email works as well for comments: 1001storiespodcast@gmail.com SUPPORT OUR SHOW BY BECOMING A PATRON! https://.patreon.com/1001storiesnetwork. Its time I started asking for support! Thank you. Its a few dollars a month OR a one time. (Any amount is appreciated). YOUR REVIEWS ARE NEEDED AND APPRECIATED! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At the height of his career, Francis X. Bushman received over one thousand fan letters a week and was hailed as the "king of the movies." Bushman was a screen idol of the silent film era and he starred in hundreds of films in the earliest years of Hollywood. We'll hear him narrate a tale of romance and murder from classic Tinseltown in "The City That Was" (an AFRS rebroadcast from November 17, 1957). Plus, we'll hear him as Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe in the radio mystery "The Shakespeare Folio" (originally aired on Mutual on November 30, 1945).

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius. The Case Of The Disappearing Diamonds: Willie Inch needs Wolfe's help, He's a professional sneak thief accused of the murder of wealthy Mrs. Florence Avery Marsh. Originally aired March 9th,1951.Support the show

The long-awaited second part of the two-part series about Rex Stout's magnificent detective duo. All about the illustrious, witty, hardboiled assistant detective of Nero Wolfe: Mr. Archie Goodwin. Tune in and find out!

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Slaughtered Santas: It is 48 hours before Christmas. Archie Goodwin receives a telephone call from Santa Claus! He is coming around to Nero's office at 8pm. Two Santa's have been murdered and this Santa is very worried. It seems that someone is trying to murder all the Santa Claus's of Carlisle Avenue and they seem to be succeeding! Originally aired December 22nd,1950.Support the show

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Case Of The Malevolent Medic: The wife of a millionaire dies. The doctor says its a heart attack, but the husband suspects murder and hires Wolfe.Originally aired February 23rd,1951.Support the show

“The Case of the Slaughtered Santas”, was from The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, originally broadcast December 22nd, 1950, produced by J. Donald Wilson based on characters created by Rex Stout. The Icebox Radio Theater production was directed by Jeffrey Adams with Foley sound effects created by Evie Conat. Our cast included Caleb Silvers as Unlucky Santas Turner and Mike, as well as Wayne Stephens, Ian Hall played the cop, Reporter one and Barton, Charis Boyer was Peg and Reporter Two, Jeffrey Adams played Cramer and the real Mr Barton, Aela Mackintosh was Laura, Diane Adams was Reporter 3 and our stars this evening, Jim Yount as Archie - and Mr Justin Kapla as Nero Wolfe. Nero Wolfe and the New Adventures of Nero Wolfe are the property of their copyright holders. This broadcast was tribute to them, and the Icebox Radio Theater makes no claim of ownership. Funded in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. For more information, visit Icebox Radio dot O R G.

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Party For Death: Archie attends a cocktail party at which Nero Wolfe expects the guest of honor to be murder! Originally aired February 16th,1951.Support the show

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Case Of The Vanishing Shells: Archie gets Nero Wolfe hired by an actress who is afraid of being cut out of a lead role in a play.Originally aired February 2nd,1951.Spread Love FMSpread Love FM great conversations with an eclectic mix of artists and neighbors alike!Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

Eric and Eliot discuss Ukraine's birthday gift to Vladimir Putin, likely Russian responses, and Eliot's Atlantic article on Putin's nuclear threats. Eric eats his words about Liz Truss, and they discuss the relative merits of Nero Wolfe and Daniel Silva for escapist reading. Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Email us with your feedback at shieldoftherepublic@gmail.com. Eliot's Essay (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/putin-nuclear-weapons-threat-us-sanctions-military/671642/) Orlando Figes's The Story of Russia (https://www.amazon.com/Story-Russia-Orlando-Figes/dp/125079689X) Yulia Latynina's The Hill Article, “Will Putin use tactical nukes?" (https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3673163-will-putin-use-tactical-nukes/) NUKEMAP (https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/) Stephen Kotkin's Stalin Biography, Volume 1 (https://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Paradoxes-1878-1928-Stephen-Kotkin/dp/0143127861) Stephen Kotkin's Stalin Biography, Volume 2 (https://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Waiting-1929-1941-Stephen-Kotkin/dp/1594203806) Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Wolfe) Daniel Silva's Portrait of an Unknown Woman (https://danielsilvabooks.com/books/portrait-of-an-unknown-woman/) Daniel Silva's The Cellist (https://danielsilvabooks.com/books/the-cellist/) Daniel Silva's English Spy (https://danielsilvabooks.com/books/the-english-spy/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eric and Eliot discuss Ukraine's birthday gift to Vladimir Putin, likely Russian responses, and Eliot's Atlantic article on Putin's nuclear threats. Eric eats his words about Liz Truss, and they discuss the relative merits of Nero Wolfe and Daniel Silva for escapist reading. Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Email us with your feedback at shieldoftherepublic@gmail.com. Eliot's Essay (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/putin-nuclear-weapons-threat-us-sanctions-military/671642/) Orlando Figes's The Story of Russia (https://www.amazon.com/Story-Russia-Orlando-Figes/dp/125079689X) Yulia Latynina's The Hill Article, “Will Putin use tactical nukes?" (https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3673163-will-putin-use-tactical-nukes/) NUKEMAP (https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/) Stephen Kotkin's Stalin Biography, Volume 1 (https://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Paradoxes-1878-1928-Stephen-Kotkin/dp/0143127861) Stephen Kotkin's Stalin Biography, Volume 2 (https://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Waiting-1929-1941-Stephen-Kotkin/dp/1594203806) Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Wolfe) Daniel Silva's Portrait of an Unknown Woman (https://danielsilvabooks.com/books/portrait-of-an-unknown-woman/) Daniel Silva's The Cellist (https://danielsilvabooks.com/books/the-cellist/) Daniel Silva's English Spy (https://danielsilvabooks.com/books/the-english-spy/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kelly Brakenhoff is an author of six books and an ASL interpreter from Nebraska. She has served as an interpreter for deaf and hard of hearing persons now for over 30 years. You can tell how much she likes her chosen professions by listening to her as you get to do in this episode.   Kelly is especially excited by a series of books she has started involving Duke the Deaf Dog where she introduces readers to ASL, American Sign Language. She is working to help readers, especially children, better understand the deaf and hard of hearing community. On top of everything Kelly has done, she has used the crowdfunding program, Kickstarter, to help fund her newest book. It turns out that another famous author also used this program to fund their efforts. You get to hear all about it.   I very much hope you enjoy our episode this time and that you will give us a 5 rating. Thanks for listening.   About the Guest:   Kelly Brakenhoff is an author of six books and an ASL interpreter from Nebraska, US. She divides her writing energy between two series: cozy mysteries set on a college campus, and picture books featuring Duke the Deaf Dog.  Parents, kids, and teachers love the children's books because they teach American Sign Language using fun stories. And if you like a smart female sleuth, want to learn more about Deaf culture, or have ever lived in a place where livestock outnumber people, you'll enjoy the Cassandra Sato Mystery series.   Social media links:   kellybrakenhoff.com and follow her social media or blog by using this link: https://kellybrakenhoff.com/quicklinks/   About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is an Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes* Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:21 Hi, and here we are once again with unstoppable mindset, the podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected me. And the unexpected, as always, is the fun part of the podcast. We love to carry on different kinds of conversations with people learn about them. And you know what I'm going to say once again, for any of you listening out there, I'd love to have conversations with you. I'll bet you have stories that we should talk about. So definitely reach out. Michael hingson.com/podcast or Michaelhi@accessibie.com. And I'd love to chat with you. But for now, we have Kelly Brakenhoff, who is here with us. She is an author, and ASL interpreter, and a Kickstarter campaign runner par excellence. But does that elevate you are what Kelly Welcome to unstoppable mindset. How are you?   Kelly Brakenhoff  02:18 Hi, I'm great. Thank you for having me. today. I'm really excited to be talking to you.   Michael Hingson  02:24 Well, I'm really excited to have a chance to chat with you and learn all about you and and learn why you're unstoppable. When I started this podcast, because we think that everyone has a story to tell, we all have had challenges in our lives and, and we've overcome them. And it doesn't need to be a huge challenge. But still a challenge is a challenge. And when we overcome it, that's great. And when we recognize that we did something that we didn't think we can do, then I think we fall into this concept of being able to move toward a mindset of unstop ability. And so we started unstoppable mindset, and we have a lot of fun with it. Well, why don't we start with your story a little bit? Why don't you tell us about you kind of growing up or anything about that that you think we ought to know?   Kelly Brakenhoff  03:12 Well, sure. Um, yeah, I'm a fan of your, your mindset, your your podcast, I think this is just the coolest thing. So like I said, just super excited to be here today. Um, I've been an ASL interpreter for more than 30 years, and an author for just over three years. So although I'm a veteran interpreter, I'm still a baby author and publisher. I learned new things every day. So I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. I guess. I've moved around. One thing that's interesting about me as I've moved around quite a bit. I grew up in Connecticut. I've lived in Nebraska, Boston, Hawaii, Seattle. And then now we've been in Nebraska for quite a while since Austin. Last Boston, Boston. Yes.   Michael Hingson  04:01 So can you say it pack your car and have a yard? Of course.   Kelly Brakenhoff  04:07 My uncle is from South Boston and so he married my aunt who's from upstate New York and listening to the to talk was so fun. I lived with them for a summer in college. And and I just had such is such a fun time, especially if they like had a little discussion or something you know, and they they get the voices raised and they'd start going in their accent they revert.   Michael Hingson  04:35 I lived in Winthrop, Massachusetts for three years and spent some time in the in the Boston area before then and back a little bit but I love the accent but I love Massachusetts. I love New England in general. And my wife and I have a story about Mr. Connecticut. We were going there for something and And I don't even remember what it was. And we were we were traveling the right way but we were traveling a lot further than we thought we needed to to get to Mystic So ever since I've been saying that one of the things about mystic is it moves around and doesn't stay in one place. So I'm sticking   Kelly Brakenhoff  05:17 to memory of mystic is going there on probably a sixth grade field trip. And you know afterwards, the field trip they take you through the gift shop and I bought a little pewter whale. Yeah, sure. I still have it somewhere in the bookcase somewhere in my house.   Michael Hingson  05:39 We stopped at a restaurant there. The second time we went to mystic and I'm still convinced it wasn't in the same place. It was the first time we went to a restaurant and sat right along the river and watch the drawbridge coming up, which was   Kelly Brakenhoff  05:55 that is really fun. Yeah,   Michael Hingson  05:57 definitely. Yeah. We love New England. And I hope that we get a chance to go back there. I have all sorts of stories about Boston. We went I went a lot over to Daniel hall into Quincy Market and ADA Durgan. Park. Have you ever eaten there?   Kelly Brakenhoff  06:13 I have it in there. Yes, I love Faneuil Hall.   Michael Hingson  06:16 I don't know whether Durgin Park is still open. I've heard it. I've heard that it is. But I'll have to tell you. Well, I'll tell you the story about Durgan Park. It's a Durgin Park, for those who don't know, is a restaurant that if it's still there, serves food family style, and they have tables along the side. That will seat for people. But you have to have four people, if you want to sit at one of those tables. If you have three, you sit at the long tables in the middle. If you have too long tables in the middle. They're very snotty about it. In fact, waitresses and waiters are hired to be snots. It's all an act, but they're supposed to be absolutely obnoxious. They're just what some people would say the typical clothes New England style of of being, if you will, but anyway, we go into the restaurant one night, and it was me and two other people and my guide dog Holland, who is a golden retriever with the most luscious eyes in the world. And the hostess said, you know, I'm just going to let you guys sit at one of the tables for four. So she seats us and the waitress comes over. And she says what are you people doing here? You can't sit at this table. And I said, well, the host has put it put us here. No, she didn't you just snuck in here. You can't sit at this table. And she yelled at us. And we said no. We got to sit be seated here because we have a guide dog under the table. No, you don't I don't believe that. You're not going to fool me with that. You can't sit here and she just went on. Then she goes away. And she comes back and she said you can't sit here I said, look under the table. Finally she looks. There's these eyes just staring back at her. And she just melts. And the next thing we know she goes away. One of the things about Durgin Park is that they serve a when they serve prime rib. It's a huge piece of prime rib that takes the whole plate. She comes back with this plate. She said somebody didn't eat much of their prime rib. Can I give it to the dog? And oh, it was great. But it's just fun memories of all over Boston. So I'm glad you had a chance to be there. Well, enough about me in that. So you've lived all over?   Kelly Brakenhoff  08:29 We have we've moved a lot and you haven't moved a lot recently. But when when I was younger, I moved quite a bit.   Michael Hingson  08:35 Yes. What caused you to be moving around. Um, we   Kelly Brakenhoff  08:39 grew up in Connecticut. And then in high school, my parents decided my mom's from Nebraska so and my dad's from upstate New York. So when I was in high school, we moved our family moved to Nebraska. And then when my husband and I first got married, he worked for a construction company who moved us to Hawaii for five years that works. That worked. That was a great honeymoon, We'd only been married six weeks. And so that was that was a five year honeymoon. That was awesome. Our first couple of kids were born there. And we decided that we after a year or so they really didn't get to see their grandparents very often. So he decided to move back to the mainland and we made a stop first in Seattle and then we came back to Nebraska. So we've been in here for quite a while but I really enjoyed getting to experience all the different cultures and all the different places and I also have a very soft spot in my heart for New England to   Michael Hingson  09:35 Well, it's great to live in various parts of the US shows what a wonderful and just incredible country we are with all sorts of different cultures that can really blend and meld together to form what we get to experience if we only keep the culture going as as really we are the melting pot and that just makes it so Great when we get to see that,   Kelly Brakenhoff  10:01 I totally agree i Yeah.   Michael Hingson  10:04 So how old are your kids now?   Kelly Brakenhoff  10:07 They are grown up. We have four kids, three boys and one girl. And so the oldest is 21 going to be 29. And our youngest just graduated from college last year. So he's 22 in Nebraska, and Nebraska. Huskers everybody's a Husker.   Michael Hingson  10:28 Go Huskers Go Big Red. Yep.   Kelly Brakenhoff  10:31 So um, but we have four grandkids too. So that's a lot of fun. And we're really lucky. They all live in town, so I get to see them quite a bit.   Michael Hingson  10:38 That works. So you see you fix it up. So you now have this this Braden half ghetto, if you will,   Kelly Brakenhoff  10:45 yes, my Twitter handle is actually in Brockville. Because one of my friends quite a while ago used to tease me that I was trying to create my own village. So we call it in Brock anvil.   Michael Hingson  10:59 There you go, that works. Nothing wrong with that. Well, so I know you're an author. And I know that you are an ASL interpreter, and so on, tell me how you got into being involved with ASL. And a little bit more about all that.   Kelly Brakenhoff  11:16 Sure. Um, I in high school, I volunteered at a camp for deaf kids. My parents wanted me to do something in the summer and stay out of trouble. So they kind of sent me to go volunteer. And at this camp. In the end, I didn't know any sign language. So I got a book. And I started trying to figure out a few signs before I first went to this camp. Of course, the first few weeks I was there, I had no idea what anyone was saying, because they were all using sign language. And I didn't know it. But by the end of the summer, I had learned quite a bit and I had made some really good friends. And I just kept learning during the school year, when they went when they were all gone. I kept taking classes and reading more books. And it actually turned out to be my, the language that I took when I was in college, it counted as my foreign language. And I just kept learning and hanging around with Deaf people. And eventually, my mentors in ASL, the deaf people that I was friends with, invited me to try interpreting for them. And I didn't, if I had known, I wasn't very good, but they were very kind. And they they asked me to interpret so I did and it just ended up kind of something I fell into. It wasn't something I intended to do. But it's become my whole life's work, and I really like it.   Michael Hingson  12:40 So is that kind of a full time job? Or are your vocation then?   Kelly Brakenhoff  12:43 Yeah, I would say it, it's my Well, it's hard to say what's my vocation because I also really love being an author, even though I haven't been published until recently. But I've been a writer my whole life in college, I actually majored in English. And I always wanted to be a writer, it just, I guess the interpreting thing just kind of was a very long detour. But I always wrote even when I was interpreting and so in raising my family and stuff, so once my kids started getting into high school and college, and I started looking around for something to fill some of my empty hours. That was when I really got serious about finishing my first book.   Michael Hingson  13:27 Well, from from an ASL standpoint, and interpreting it certainly is something that's, that's a little bit different. What have you learned about deafness and disabilities and so on from being involved in all of that,   Kelly Brakenhoff  13:41 oh, my goodness, we don't have enough there's not enough time in the day to talk about it's just changed my whole mindset, like, like, you've talked about that. I think it's just a way of looking at the world. Like a lot of people think that people who are deaf and hard of hearing, it's about your ears being broken, but it's really just a different way to move through life. So instead of a hearing world do like they have a visual world, so everything is visual. So it's like the opposite of what you experience now. So it's, it's just a way of moving through the world, you know that. And so instead of being like broken and something that needs to be fixed, it's just kind of a way of life. I guess. I just have a lot of respect. I've worked a lot in at the University of Nebraska. So I work with a lot of college students. And I've over the years done just Gosh, 20 Something different majors. I sit in on all the classes. I interpret what the teachers seen at the front of the class, and the discussions that the students do. And so I've gotten to learn a lot of things just by osmosis over the years and I have a really deep respect for the students because you know, their classmates sitting in the same room with them, they can listen to the lecture, write notes, you know, go online and do stuff all while this is all going on, whereas the deaf student has to sit there and watch me. If they want to take their own notes, they kind of have to look down and take their own notes, but then still keep an eye on me. And then if there's a PowerPoint, they're trying to watch that. And if there's a video, they're hoping that it has good captions, and so like, there's so many things going on, that it's amazing that they can get as much as they do out of the classes. And then of course, they have to study so much more afterwards, because a lot of times, they have to go back over the notes or back over the reading to see what they missed, because they were just, you know, a lot of their attention during the class is on me. So it's just given me a really healthy respect for how intelligent and how hard workers the students are. And I've just kind of seen that in all walks of life. I've interpreted for a lot of different situations, and different businesses and all kinds of things. And I just, I'm always in awe of how, how hard workers, the deaf students and just deaf adults in their job, or   Michael Hingson  16:13 how did the students then really get the job of notetaking done? Do they oftentimes have people who take notes for them? Or are they successful enough at taking notes themselves,   Kelly Brakenhoff  16:26 it really depends on the student and their preference. You know how some people don't mind having someone else take the notes, because then they can pay more attention to the interpreter and the PowerPoint and the teacher. But then other people maybe don't, you know, when you take notes, we could listen to the same speaker and your notes would be different than mine. And so some students don't really trust that another student is going to write down the same things that they would have written down if they were taking their own notes. So it really is a personal preference. But luckily, now, with the technology, I have a couple of students who, so they're deaf, and they use ASL and they use interpreters, but they also use cart, which is the captioning service. And so they'll have a laptop, or they also use like an otter, which is an app that the teacher wears a microphone and then it, it makes a transcript of everything that the teacher has said, and then they can save it. So I have a few students who even though they're, you know, pretty much dependent on the sign language for comprehension, they still use the transcript, because then they can go back later and like highlight the parts that they thought were important. And then it's kind of I think more in their control. Or if sometimes, like an English word has, you know, five different signs for it. And so if I do a sign, and they want to know what the exact English word was, they can look at the transcript and see oh, okay, that's the word that, you know, I need to remember or that's the word that I want to know. So I think it's great that they have all these tools. Because, gosh, back in the day, when I first started, none of that existed. And a lot of times, they would just have someone else take notes for them. And if that person wasn't a good note taker, they were kind of out of luck.   Michael Hingson  18:25 We use otter actually to do the transcribing of all of these podcasts. So that one unstoppable mindset is published. There's a written transcription as well. So we use otter to do that. And oftentimes, I will use otter to transcribe a meeting, or make it possible, make it possible for for people to come into the podcast, and listen and watch if you will in real time, which makes a lot of sense. So I found that otter works really well.   Kelly Brakenhoff  19:00 Yeah, I've tried several different apps and different services, because I have a thing to like you, I really want to make my website as accessible as possible, and my appearances as accessible as possible. So I get transcripts made of all the podcasts that I do whether the provider does or not. And so I've tried several different services, and I do agree that I think otter is a it produces a good product, and the price is good, too. So   Michael Hingson  19:33 I certainly right, you're right, the price is certainly right. But also, it does a good job and it's improving over time. Some people have said they're better systems than otter and I haven't really tried other services. And the people who help with the podcasts have looked at various things and we all end up settling on otter it really works well.   Kelly Brakenhoff  19:54 That's good to know. That's good to know, because a couple of years ago I tested several and I haven't read rechecked back into it. And the last six months, it's great. I think the one of the good benefits of the pandemic has been, how everyday people have realized that speech to text. And other, just things that we used to think of as being accessible for people with disabilities are now helpful for like everyone. And people have just come to realize that with all the Zoom meetings, and all of the the work from home solutions, so things that used to be just in the realm of special are now every day and they're all getting better, because we all demand that they get better. So the AI captions and everything are so much better than they were even just a few years ago.   Michael Hingson  20:47 Well, and then look at that you bring a very good point to light, which is that oftentimes, there are things that we use, that when other people start to use them first of all makes them much, much more affordable. But also, that will cause them to improve a lot more than otherwise they would have look at Dragon Naturally Speaking that started out as Dragon Dictate and did okay. And now Dragon is a lot better. I don't think that it transcribes as well as otter does in terms of plugging in punctuations, and so on. But I'm not surprised or wouldn't be surprised if that improves over time. But when you look at what otter does, it's pretty incredible.   Kelly Brakenhoff  21:31 It is it really is. And the What's incredible to me is the the short amount of time that it's gotten better. So I think that's great. But like you said, I think I guess it's sad to me that it takes it took a pandemic for enough people to use the tools that we've all been using for years to you know, demand a higher quality and a lower price. But I guess you know, if that's one good thing that comes out of all this, and that's great.   Michael Hingson  22:02 I think we tend to just get locked in to doing things one way and we, for whatever reason tend to be very slow at looking at other options. And you're right, the pandemic has made a significant difference and look at how many people are using zoom as opposed to pre pandemic, yet, Zoom has been there. The other thing that we've noticed along the way with Zoom is that they have deliberately and absolutely focused on accessibility and inclusion. So when a person who is blind encounters a problem with zoom in something is working right. There is a process to report that and we find that very quickly, it gets resolved, because they have a whole team working on issues to make sure that Zoom continues to be very inclusive.   Kelly Brakenhoff  22:55 Yes, I agree. Because I think when we first started with Zoom, the there was no, the only way you could have captions was hiring a person to do the captions. And then once they started making them automatic and everything that that was huge. That was that was huge. That's I'm glad to hear that they have a team doing it. And I agree, their improvements have have been amazing.   Michael Hingson  23:23 I don't want to put zoom on the spot, but have you compared otter with, if you compare it to otter with the zoom, automatic closed captioning,   Kelly Brakenhoff  23:31 um, I have, I guess if I just stop and think about it, I think they're pretty similar. What's actually kind of funny is when I will do a large meeting on Zoom, where I'm one of the interpreters. So I'm one of the little heads in the Brady Bunch group of people on Zoom. So I'll interpret for some of the deaf people in the meeting. And what I'll do sometimes is I'll turn on the captions because, you know, occasionally I might have a hard time hearing someone talking, or I might miss something or whatever. And so I can look at the captions and see if you know try to correct myself or, you know, check my accuracy. And yeah, so I have seen some pretty bad interpretations on our transcript on on Zoom and on otter, where things just don't come out. Right. It's, it's definitely for people who speak like standard slow American English once you have any kind of an accent or any kind of, if you speak too quickly, then the captions pretty much everywhere are a lot harder to understand. But they like I said, I still think they've gotten a lot better, which   Michael Hingson  24:48 I only asked that just out of curiosity because I know that the service is there to do automatic transcription or captioning. And I've never, never asked anyone exactly how well it does, except I've heard that it does a good job, but I've never compared it to like otter or something. And I bought otter for teens. And the reason I did that is so that it is now set up and integrated with Zoom. So it automatically starts when I opened a Zoom meeting. And what I do usually is unless there's a need to I will stop it. But it automatically starts when I come into a meeting that I that I initiate, and that's great, because then I don't even have to think about it. And it's a an effort of volition if I want to stop it.   Kelly Brakenhoff  25:42 Oh, yeah, that's great. I didn't realize you can set it up that way. That's awesome.   Michael Hingson  25:45 Yeah, the otter for teams. Home, I think, unless the price has changed, it was like $240 a year. And if you're a nonprofit, or whatever, it's half that. So it's not even a lot of money to do it, which is what's great.   Kelly Brakenhoff  26:00 That is That's awesome. Well, thank you. So the more users that use things, then the cheaper the price for everyone. And I think that's what we're seeing now with a lot of these tools.   Michael Hingson  26:12 It is ironic that we have to go through something like a pandemic to see things become more available, and for people to start to see that maybe some of the tools that say a person who is blind or low vision, or a person who is deaf or hard of hearing uses might very well be relevant for the rest of us. I'm still amazed that in driving with people using cell phones, we don't find more automatic use of the verbal technology voiceover for Apple and talkback on an Android, I'm surprised that we don't see more use of those verbal systems. In the driving experience, there's no reason not to do that, and do more to keep people's eyes on the road. Unfortunately, we're going the other way, we're getting more driving experiences with touchscreens, which means somebody's got to watch the screen, or look down and then quickly look back at the road. Why should that even have to happen today? Because we have such good voice technology. And we can also have good voice input technology to go along with it.   Kelly Brakenhoff  27:21 That's an excellent point. That's, that's so true. Yes, there's definitely you know, all the fancy touchscreens. But when I got my latest car, I had to sit in the driveway with the owner's manual for an hour just to figure out how to reprogram the clock. So you definitely don't want to be doing any of that while you're on the road. Well,   Michael Hingson  27:42 if you and I, I love Tesla's and I think that the technology is great, it is demonstrating the state of the art technology that's out there. But it's all controlled by a touchscreen, which means a blind passenger, I can't even do what a passenger would do to tune the radio or turn on a podcast or turn on whatever the services are available, much less anything else, because it's all touchscreen. And there's no reason for that today, we should be able to keep people's eyes more on the road. Even if you have the Tesla copilot function, which can take over a good part of the driving experience. It's not an autonomous vehicle software, but it can help with the driving experience. People should be keeping their eyes on the road not watching a touchscreen. And I'm still amazed that we're not seeing more people recognize the value of audio input and output.   Kelly Brakenhoff  28:36 I did not realize that I wrote in my first Tesla just a few months ago, and it was really neat, but I didn't I guess I just assumed that they had voice input things. I mean, wow, that's that's really shocking. as fancy as that whole system is that is very surprising. Well, let me let me rephrase that Ilan and say, hey,   Michael Hingson  28:59 well, let me rephrase it a little bit. There is availability of voice input for some things, but it's not an automatic process. So you have to invoke it, then you have to do something, I think to make it work every time you want to use it. What I'm saying is, it should be as much a part of the driving experience as anything else. And I'm saying it should be more part of the driving experience than using a touchscreen, it should be automatic. And we don't do that. We're too young to eyesight and we think that eyesight is the only game in town. Just like I'm sure that people who are deaf and hard of hearing would say that most people think that hearing is the only game in town. And in the in reality is neither is true. Exactly. I've said for years that I've said for years that people with disability, well, people who have eyesight, have their own disability and that is their light dependent. They can't do things without light Thomas Edison as the Americans with Disabilities Back would define it developed a reasonable accommodation for light dependent people when he created the light bulb. Let's get real, and I and I don't have the stitches. Lee it's true. You know, it's it's unfortunate that people are so locked into doing things one way that they're missing opportunities to make driving safer. But there you go.   Kelly Brakenhoff  30:22 I love that. I love that idea. I love that idea. I think that should be used to make that a thing as a political movement. I love that.   Michael Hingson  30:31 Yeah, well, we got to get Elon to go along with it.   Kelly Brakenhoff  30:34 Well, you know, he's kind of busy with Twitter right now. So maybe that all wrapped up, then he can he can focus his brain power on this?   Michael Hingson  30:43 Well, once he gets it set up, and if he's gonna do Twitter, then we'll start doing tweets. Oh, there you go. There you go. What a world we live in right now. So you said that you've done a lot of writing, you've been very much involved in writing, since college and so on. Why do you like writing so much?   Kelly Brakenhoff  31:07 Honestly, I don't know. I think it's just how I think how I process things. It's communication, talking to people talking to people like you. That's just kind of how I think it's just, just what I do is is who I am. That's a pretty simple answer.   Michael Hingson  31:26 We'll put Hey, it works. It works. So you said you just pretty recently got involved in starting to actually write books?   Kelly Brakenhoff  31:36 Yeah, I think it was 2014. I joined NaNoWriMo for the first time, which for people who haven't heard of that, it stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it's in November, where, gosh, by this day, by last year, I think it was around 750,000 people around the world, try to write 16 167 words a day for 30 days, and you come up with a 50,000 word manuscript by the end of the month. And that was signing up for that challenge was because I'm kind of competitive. So if I sign up for a challenge like that, I'm gonna do it. So that was like the thing that broke the barrier for me of just having ideas and just wanting to write and whatever and actually finishing a manuscript for the first time. That's what kind of gave me that push to actually do it.   Michael Hingson  32:33 So what did you publish your own books? Are they published through a publisher or what?   Kelly Brakenhoff  32:38 Yes, they are. They're self published, I tried for about a year to publish my firt, or to find an agent and all of that for my first one. And then at the same time, I was also checking into self publishing. And I don't know I think just a lot of factors kind of all converged. And I just decided at the end that self publishing was was the way to go. I'm kind of a control freak. And I like to, I like to have the my input into how to make you know, I hire my whole team. So I have an editor and a cover designer and and proofreaders and all of that stuff. And I get to decide what the finished product ends up to be. And it turns out that, yeah, I'm kind of bossy I guess.   Michael Hingson  33:23 You have a publicist who helps with the PR, and all that. I do.   Kelly Brakenhoff  33:27 I do. It's a it's called creative edge is the one that I use. And, and they've really, I've really enjoyed being part of that group.   Michael Hingson  33:37 I met Mickey a couple of months ago, actually, for the first time, he was introduced to me by someone else that we interviewed on the unstoppable mindset podcast. And she said, you know, he works with a lot of authors who might very well have interesting stories for you. And so that's how we met him. And we've actually started working with him as well. We're just getting started. But having written thunder dog, which was, and we're blessed by the fact that it was a number one New York Times bestseller, and then was published by Thomas Nelson part of HarperCollins. Now, but then we self published our second book, which was called running with Roselle, which was kind of more for youth, but more adults by it than then kids do. And it's the story of me growing up and Rozelle growing up. And then how we met after she became a guide dog in training, and she became my guide dog, and you know, kind of went from there, but I love writing, but I haven't done that much of it. We are starting to work on a third book, and that'll be a lot of fun. And we just got a book contract for that as well. So that's pretty exciting.   Kelly Brakenhoff  34:46 That's great. Congratulations. I didn't know that. That's awesome.   Michael Hingson  34:51 But But I'm curious. You've written I guess basically what two different kinds of books children's books and mysteries. How do you do mystery How do you come up with a plot? And how do you? Do you make it all come together? Because I think mystery writing has to be if you do it well, it has to be a real challenge to come up with a not only a plot, but create all of the scenes, do all the things that you need to do. And essentially, keep the solution hidden until the end of the book unless there's some value in presenting that earlier. And it's really how you get there.   Kelly Brakenhoff  35:30 Yeah, that's a funny question. Because I definitely write in extremes. I mean, I write 70,000, word mysteries, and then I write 500, word picture books for the children's books. So very different, very different approaches. But yeah, the mysteries and thrillers are kind of the things that I have always read my whole life. So I thought when I wanted to do that first NaNoWriMo challenge, I decided to kind of mash up all of my experiences. Like I said, I've lived in Hawaii and Nebraska, the East Coast, Seattle. So I kind of took all of those different elements working at a college and I put them all together into this murder mystery. And I got about two thirds of the way through and realized exactly what you said that writing a mystery is hard. It's actually one of I think, the most difficult genres to do because exactly for the reason you said, you want to make that mystery puzzle complicated enough that it can't be solved too early. Mystery readers are very smart people. And so it's very challenging coming up with enough suspects and clues to keep people guessing until the end. I guess I just love a challenge. I think it's it's fun, but it's also just what I love to read and write. So a read so it was kind of the most natural thing to write.   Michael Hingson  36:59 I think you just hit on it. Essentially. mysteries are puzzles and puzzles are as good as it gets. Who are your favorite mystery writers?   Kelly Brakenhoff  37:10 Oh, I have so many.   Michael Hingson  37:12 Yeah, me too. Yeah.   Kelly Brakenhoff  37:15 I think like my, you know, the ones I kind of grew up with was like Sue Grafton. So that letter A is for those Jana Ivanovic. There's Stephanie Plum Siri   Michael Hingson  37:27 plum. Hey, come on. We all love diesel, but that's another story.   Kelly Brakenhoff  37:30 Oh, yeah, diesel's awesome, too. Well, I'm sure being you live. You said you live in New Jersey, right? Oh, yes. Yeah. So you're very familiar with tenants. Definitely. Trenton definitely fun. And then I also just love like John Grisham and James Patterson and Michael Connelly. I mean, gosh, I just, that's all. I haven't really met very many mysteries that I didn't like.   Michael Hingson  37:54 Yeah. My my favorite still is Rex Stout with the neuro wolf series. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they I've never solved any of his books before the end. And I worked at it. I love Mary Higgins Clark. But I was able to basically figure out all of the, the mean people in that before the end of the book, still, they were fun to read   Kelly Brakenhoff  38:20 is fun, right? I mean, as long as it's a good story, even if guests are having an idea of did it by the end, as long as the character still keep you in it. And a lot of times this setting is kind of a character to then I don't mind, you know, reading to the end to confirm that I was right. I think what's funny since I became a writer, and I don't know, you can tell me if this is true for yourself. But since I became a writer, an author, I kind of ruined for reading, like I read a lot. But I read now to learn and to see what when I read a really good book, I love to pick it apart and and see why it's good. And not just the structure of it. But like if I if that paragraph was beautiful, I'll go back and read that paragraph several times and try to figure out what is so great about that paragraph, or when someone throws a twist or a turn in or I thought I knew who it was. And then at the end, I find out it was someone else. I just love that. That thrill of like, oh, you fooled me, you know, and I really like to think about all of that. But that means that a lot of times I'm not really enjoying the book. I'm like studying the book. And so I have found that if if I really get so sucked into a book that I am not doing that, that means that it's a really, really good book because if it took me out of my analysis into just enjoying it, then that's a me that's the mark of a very good book.   Michael Hingson  39:53 Sue Graf passed away from cancer did her last book ever get published? Because I don't think she finished it, did she?   Kelly Brakenhoff  39:59 It did not odds are one of those.   Michael Hingson  40:01 Zero Yeah,   Kelly Brakenhoff  40:03 yeah. The sad things. Is it never it's, it's not finished. I don't even know how far she got in it. But it wasn't finished enough to be published. Yeah,   Michael Hingson  40:12 yeah, I guess that's kind of what happened. But her mysteries were definitely some of the best. And we read them all. And some twice, which is always fun if I if I want to read a book a second time. And I don't have that many hours in the day that that's easy to do. But if I want to read a book a second time, then I know that there is something about it that I must have enjoyed. And we read here, a lot of books on audio, audible and other sources. The reason we do is that instead of watching TV, we pipe books through the house, my wife has learned to listen to audio. So we listen to books together. What I've been occasionally finding are editor mistakes where they said something and then later on referring back something, they say something different. Somebody messed up in editing it, and I don't see it often. But I do occasionally see it and I always find them. Which is a fun.   Kelly Brakenhoff  41:15 It is it's i It's funny, because, you know, even though my books are self published, I work really hard not to have those kinds of errors. Yeah, they go through an editor, at least one editor, numerous BETA readers, numerous proofreaders. And then, you know, six months after I published it all open it up, and I see a typo. And it's like, at first I used to get so frustrated at that. And then now I saw something one time on Facebook, it was like, cheers to you, you typo you made it through three rounds of editing, 10 proofreaders and you still made it you you go, you know,   Michael Hingson  41:58 I when I was in college, we used in freshman and sophomore physics, a series of books called the Berkeley physics series, because it came out of there. And I had a dorm mate, who looked in detail at every single book, looking for a mistake, because he said a lot of books, there are editing mistakes. And he said he finally found one in one of the Berkeley physics books, but he said it was so fun looking just to see any error. And he couldn't find them in the Berkeley physics series. It was just incredible that he spent that time. On the other hand, he was an excellent student. So I guess he learned from it as he was reading.   Kelly Brakenhoff  42:43 Have a niece who's a doctor and they actually some textbook company paid her. I don't know if she just got free books. Or if she actually got paid her last year of med school, they they paid her to go through the as she was going through the textbook to note down any errors that she found.   Michael Hingson  43:03 See, it's always good to to read as much as possible and proofread as much as possible. And you're right. There's nothing like a good editor to help.   Kelly Brakenhoff  43:12 Right, exactly, exactly.   Michael Hingson  43:14 So how hard was it to write your first mystery? Oh, must have a lot   Kelly Brakenhoff  43:22 of courage. And it was a lot of it was a lot of I think I must have gone through 10 or 15 jobs. It took me five years to finish it, it was ugly, there was a lot of tears. But you know, you just learned so much I kind of consider it like getting a master's degree. I just did it at home with my, my own process. But you know, I just had to learn a lot. You have to be humble, you have to be willing to accept criticism and advice from other people. But I feel like it taught me a lot. And of course, then the second book teaches you even more and the third and you know, each one you do, I think you just learn more, either about yourself or about writing. I'd love to read books about writing craft and how to do better. You know, I want every single book that I write to be better than the last. I think most authors are that way.   Michael Hingson  44:15 They get easier the more you write. That's a   Kelly Brakenhoff  44:18 funny question, because I'm right in the middle of writing my fourth mystery right now. And I've been stalled for quite a while. And what it's taught me is just about myself and my process and what I thought my process was versus what I'm finding. I thought I could speed it up, but it's actually making me slow down. So that means that I was not speeding it up correctly. If that makes sense.   Michael Hingson  44:46 Yeah. Well, and I don't know whether it becomes easier or not. I have been very blessed when we did thunder dog. I had someone to collaborate and help with it Susie Florrie And that happened because she actually found Me, because she was writing a book called Dawn tales, which was 17 stories about dogs who had stories. And she wanted to include Roselle in that. And she did. But as we discussed my story, she said, You should really write a book. And so we got started down that road. And I met her agent who became my agent, Chip McGregor on thunder dog. And we, we had a good time and collaborated well. And I think that there was a lot of value in that for me, because I know that I don't have the writing experience as such. But I know what's good when I read it. And I also know that I can add value. So we really had a very collaborative process of writing thunder dog, a lot of it is hers, and a lot of it is mine directly. And we blended the two which was great. Now with the third book that we're getting, which is getting ready to do, which is going to talk about fear and controlling fear and people learning that they can overcome fear and not let it blind them, if you will, to being able to make decisions. The working title is a guide dogs Guide to Being brave, and I'm doing that with a friend of Susie's Carrie, Carrie Wyatt can't. Because Suzy is in a Ph. D. program. Yeah, we love the title. We'll see what the publisher does. We've got a contract for it. We'll see what the publisher does with it over time. But so far everybody likes it. That was a carry creation, because I was going to call it blinded by fear, which was more accurate in some senses. But I think a guide dogs Guide to Being brave is a lot better title.   Kelly Brakenhoff  46:35 Yeah, it reminds me of that one. Is it the Art of Racing in the Rain? Yeah, yeah, it kind of reminds me of something like that, where it's it's a little off of what the theme of the book is, but it's still engaging, and it makes you want to know more about it.   Michael Hingson  46:54 It was a good book. And so   Kelly Brakenhoff  46:57 you said something that really resonated with me, you said, I know, it's good when I read it. And I think that's a big obstacle for beginning writers. And is that usually, if you're a writer, you're a reader first. And so I've read tons and tons of great books, and I know what great literature is, and I know what a great story is. And then when I write my first one, it's not very good. So you kind of have that, that huge gap between what you know is good and what you've produced. And so it's, it's, it's hard, you have to overcome that, that feeling of, of my stuff is really bad, you know, and then you have to work really hard to make it as good as, as you want it to be, you know, as good as it is to be able to actually share with the world, you know, to get up to that level of what your your bar is the bar that you've set. And so I think that's something that stands it's a barrier to a lot of people. And that's where I think a good editor comes. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  48:05 Yeah. Well look at John Grisham. You mentioned earlier the first book he wrote If I recall was a time to kill but it was the third one published the first one that he wrote, and it was published was the firm and then I'm trying to remember what the second one was. Was it the Pelican Brief the Pelican Brief right? And then A Time to Kill, which was the Jake Brigantes initiator, if you will. But if you look at all of them, you can see how the the books evolved over time in his writing style. So it's it is a natural progression. And I mentioned Rex Stout, a Nero Wolf, if you go back and read fair to Lance, which was his first book, and you compare it with especially much later writings, you can see changes, but you can see where everything is starting from and you get engaged in in fact, fair Lance was not the first mirror wolf book I read. by a longshot. It wasn't the first, but having gone back and read it. Even though everyone in the book all the characters developed a fair amount and since then, and his writing style improved. It was engaging. Mm hmm. Well, tell me about your mystery series,   Kelly Brakenhoff  49:26 sir. Um, it's about a college administrator named Cassandra Sato and she lives in Hawaii. She gives up her her life in Hawaii to move to Nebraska because she wants to accept her dream job at a tiny college called Morton college in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska. And she and her eventual goal is to become a college administrators or college president. So she thinks this is you know, the Path is gonna get her there. But of course, moving from Hawaii to Nebraska is a very, very large cultural, cultural shift. And so she encounters all kinds of problems, discrimination, barriers, everything. And a few months into her job, a student turns up dead on campus and see has to be part of the group of people who figures out what happened to the student and then find justice.   Michael Hingson  50:28 Yeah, come on. Cassandra really did. And she's been hiding a whole series. Yeah, that's   Kelly Brakenhoff  50:33 the end of the series. It was Cassandra.   Michael Hingson  50:35 That will come later on about the hundreds book, right. That's awesome. When Karen and my wife and I are talking about who did it in various books, we, we usually do things like that. We've been reading a lot of the JE NACHA as well, we read a chance to but the JD Robb books, the in depth series, have you read those. And so I read very many of those now, we we oftentimes will spin a story how Eve Dallas really did it. Or Roark did it and had just a lot of fun with it. But again, a great series of books is there's a lot of sex in those books, but they're still taking Ross. Yeah, they're great mysteries.   Kelly Brakenhoff  51:20 Yeah, a lot of times people like the ones that I write well, obviously, I have four kids and grandkids. And my kids would cringe if I if they had to read a sex scene that I wrote. So, you know, my kids were like, high school and college age when I started writing. So I decided all the sex in my books, there's gonna be behind closed doors, and yeah, nobody, nobody wants to have their mom. Yeah, no.   Michael Hingson  51:46 I've, I've talked to several authors who say that who, one who said I would never any more, I would never let my daughter or my wife, wife read the books, or I changed the sex so that they could read them. But the value of having them read them as they're great critics, and so it's worthwhile. But yeah, it is fun to to see how people react. But, you know, a mystery. Doesn't need to have all the violence thrown at you right out in the open, which is why puzzles are so great. At James Patterson tends to be a little bit more violent, but not nearly as violent as he could be. So we we've always enjoyed Of course, the Alex Cross series.   Kelly Brakenhoff  52:33 Yeah, it's there's such a huge variety in Yeah, the violence level and all that stuff. I myself, I have a pretty vivid imagination. I don't really need people to spell some of that stuff out for me. My mysteries are technically like cozy mysteries, which kind of means that there's no like blood on the page. There's no swearing, there's no sex. So like, even you know, high school kids can read them and, and that kind of thing. So I guess that's just, I just write what I like. So that's only because I like to read. So that's what I like to write.   Michael Hingson  53:12 Come on. That's only because Cassandra is trying to hide everything, but we know the truth.   Kelly Brakenhoff  53:18 That's right. She's really Voldemort.   Michael Hingson  53:21 Yeah, she's really Voldemort. Speaking of another good series of books   Kelly Brakenhoff  53:28 that's that's a whole different ballgame.   Michael Hingson  53:30 But but you know, looking at the Harry Potter books, again is another one where going from Book One through Book Seven, just how it evolved. And they're so fun.   Kelly Brakenhoff  53:42 They are they're definitely one of my I, I like all genres. So yeah, I loved Harry Potter Lord of the Rings, Narnia. I mean, you name it, it's I thought during the pandemic that I would just read all day every day but it turns out I actually have to do other stuff too.   Michael Hingson  53:59 So I hate it when that happens.   Kelly Brakenhoff  54:02 There is no laundry fairy I hate to be the person to tell you this but there is no laundry fairy,   Michael Hingson  54:07 I haven't found one either. And I get to do the clothes washing at our house which is fine. So for me, I love the brainless activities on Sunday. So there are three tasks that well for that I do on Sundays. It starts with doing the laundry or starting the laundry. Another is we I take the cat box out we use a litter called litter one it's not sand, it's all pine kernels. And you buy them and they come in a disposable box. So we just use in different new box every week. And it's about the same as using regular sand that you buy in the in the store. But at the end of the week, you just throw the whole box out and put a new one up and the cat is very demanding when it comes time to change the box. So that happens on Sunday. I take the trash out on Sunday. And then we have a little If we do get housecleaning help during the week, Karen's in wheelchairs, he has been in a chair her whole life. So it's kind of hard for us to do some of those things. So we do have a housekeeper that comes on Thursdays, in fact, and today's Thursday. So Jeanette is here, but we have a robot vacuum and I do the vacuuming again on Sunday with the robot in our bedroom, because that's also where Alamo my guide dog sleeps. So we get all those. So those are my four tasks on Sunday. And they're they're all pretty brainless in a sense. So I can read while they're going on, which is fun. And Karen is a quilter. So she's usually in sewing. And and she's reading the same thing I read. So it's a question right now, who finishes which JD Robb book first?   Kelly Brakenhoff  55:44 Yeah, that is definitely the the good thing about audiobooks is being able to multitask on some of those things that you don't have to pay so much attention to.   Michael Hingson  55:54 Tell me about your dupe the deaf dog ASL series.   Kelly Brakenhoff  55:58 Well, that is the second series that I started after I finished the mystery novels, I kind of had a moment where I realized that I, you know, I started my own publishing company. And I just had a thought, I mean, it's kind of cliche, it was actually a dream that just came to me of like, what I could do with this publishing company, if I just kind of unleashed it. And so I came up with the idea of, of this orange, English spaniel dog who is deaf and all of the people in his or all of his family can hear. And so it's just about different experiences that he has as the only person in a family of hearing people, and trying to get deaf and hard of hearing children to see themselves and their everyday life experiences on our pages of our books. But I also want kids who can hear to understand what it's like to hear differently. We just finished the third book, and I'm actually actually we just finished the fourth book, the third book just came out. But the fourth book is in production right now. And I had no idea when it started, what it was going to end up being but it's actually turned out to be more successful. And I would say even more fun than my mysteries, the mysteries are kind of like my thing that I enjoy. As far as, like you said, creating the puzzle and, and the challenge of it, but the Duke, the deaf dog ASL series, is kind of what I feel like I'm taking my 30 Whatever years of interpreting and hanging around with really cool Deaf people, and then like sharing that with the world.   Michael Hingson  57:49 So it's not a mystery series.   Kelly Brakenhoff  57:53 No, it is not. They are picture books. So they're only like less than 500 words. And each one is a different situation that do gets into so there's like a different message. And each one more than 90% of children who are born deaf or hard of hearing have parents that can hear I did a lot of research to before I started the books, and there's very few books for young children that have deaf and hard of hearing characters. Once you get into like high school age, or even beyond, there's more books that have deaf and hard of hearing characters. But at the kindergarten, first grade age, there's very few books. And you know, my kids had lots and lots of choices of books to read. So I feel like deaf kids did have lots and lots of choices, books that have characters like them in there. So each book has a different message like the first one was called nevermind. And the message is that everyone deserves to be included in conversations. I mean, how many times do we tell people nevermind when they ask us to repeat ourselves? Or maybe we have, like a older parent or spouse who doesn't hear well, or even like someone who's just a little bit slower to act, or to understand a lot of times we just get impatient and say forget it. I'll explain later. And this book like after I published that first book, I've had so many deaf people come up to me and tell me stories of times when they've been told nevermind. And they thanked me for sharing their stories because they want hearing people to understand how hurtful those words are and what it feels to be left out. So I have a pretty long list of situations I've seen throughout the years that I plan to incorporate into the books and I I'm only stopped by my amount of time and and money to hire illustrators at this point.   Michael Hingson  59:55 Back to mysteries. Of course there's the cat who series Lily and Jackson Brown and also Rita Mae Brown and sneaky pie Brown. But in thinking of the cat who books, why not have a Duke, the Duke, the deaf dog series, solving mysteries, and also deal with all the frustrations that Duke has of trying to get his humans to listen? And how he has to figure things out, not being in a hearing world himself.   Kelly Brakenhoff  1:00:27 Yeah, that's a good thought. I'm actually like I said, I have so many ideas that it's really limited by my time and money, but um, the picture books are more like so Duke's a dog. Right? It's more like he's like a pitbull, like, they stand on their hind legs. And they kind of like even his dad wears like a tie. So they kind of are like human, but they're dogs. But it's a nice way to be able to show diversity and like breeds of dogs and colors of dogs and abilities and body types and stuff without actually having like different children in there. So it's kind of like, like, I don't know, if you remember the Mercer Mayer series, little critter. That's kind of what I thought of, as I   Michael Hingson  1:01:13 was able to read them. Yeah,   Kelly Brakenhoff  1:01:15 that was like my, my model, I guess of who I thought of it's like, so Duke is more just like a character, a fictional character. But I do have a couple of other ideas for series for like middle grade age kids. And those would be mysteries, and those would use some characters. I have a couple of young characters in the Cassandra Sacco series. I did a Halloween short story last year called scavenger hunt. And that two of the main characters in there were 10 year old kids. And so I think I want to do a separate series with them and have those be mysteries because I agree, I think I can incorporate a lot of the things that I know about the Deaf community and Deaf culture and ASL into a mystery, and they get kind of fun that way. And   Michael Hingson  1:02:05 it's great that you're using this opportunity to teach people more about deaf and hard of hearing. And not only as a culture, but as just as much an included an inclusive part of society as everyone else. I am concerned when you're talking about do looking like a character and looking a little bit like people. I just don't want to see a new book coming out about do the deaf dog ASL series goes to Animal Farm just saying. But Duly noted. So So you you did one of your books. As a Kickstarter campaign?   Kelly Brakenhoff  1:02:43 We did. Um, the the most recent one that just published in January, I did my first Kickstarter campaign.   Michael Hingson  1:02:51 Now why did you do that? What brought Kickstarter into it.   Kelly Brakenhoff  1:02:54 I went to this conference last fall in Las Vegas, and I met some authors who publish their books first on Kickstarter, before they release them more widely and other stores. And listening to them made me realize that Kickstarter might be a good way for me to reach new readers. The nice thing about Kickstarter, which I think you said that you've supported a couple of campaigns, honestly, before I had gone to this conference, I did not think starter was something I needed to do, I hadn't really gone on there, I hadn't pledged sponsored anybody else's project. So I just kind of went into it blindly. But I realized that the cool thing about Kickstarter is you get to develop a direct relationship with people who want to buy your product. So in my case, it's a book, but I've gone on there. And since then, I've supported all kinds of different projects. I've done a board game, and a coloring book and a purse. And I mean, there's so many neat, creative ideas that people come up with and put them on Kickstarter, just to see. So then the the customers can come on and pledge money towards that product and say, Yes, I think that's a great idea. The world needs that. And I'm willing to plunk down my money to pre order that thing that you want to make. And so if enough of those people say that they'll pre order the product, then the project is successful, and it funds and then the person who listed the project goes ahead and makes it. So that's been really exciting. But you have this direct relationship where the creator is sending you messages and keeping you updated on the progress like, okay, you know, we're finished in publishing, you know, in the case of publishing, you say, Okay, we finished the illustration and we're waiting for them to be printed and then I actually personally boxed everything up and mailed them to the people with personal note and some extra stickers and everything. So I think I'd really enjoy that contact with people and that communication because it goes both ways, then people can actually respond to me. If I just sell stuff on Amazon or in the local bookstore, I don't really know who buys my, my books. And so the Kickstarter has been a really cool way to just kind of, I guess, learn more about what people want and what people like about them. And it's kind of a neat way to have this direct relationship. It made me I funded my first project successfully, we raised $2,500, which was enough money to buy some hardcover books. In the past, I haven't been able to afford doing those books, as a small publishers. So it's great to be able to order those books and get those into people's hands they came with, they're very well done on nice thick paper with really vivid color illustrations. And then there's photos on each page of different ASL signs. And the photos are really clear. So it was definitely worth I guess, the experience. So I'm actually going to be doing another one in July for the, for the next Duke book. But as a person, like you said, you you have a contract to do your next book. And so you get a lot of times authors will get paid in advance, this is kind of almost the same thing where I'm making this idea. And then I'm, like pre paying some of the costs that it cost to produce the book, like, you know, the illustrating, or the printing, or all the different things that are associated with making the book, it's like a way for me to almost get like an advance except this directly coming from the customers instead of from the publishing company.   Michael Hingso

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Case Of The Hasty Will: A man hires Archie to witness a new will and then disappears.Originally aired March 2nd,1951.The Man Who Wanted EternityA new, homemade, comedy fiction podcast about a man trying to get an exemption from deathListen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

Prolific author among other things. Diane Bator has written 13 mysteries and has five more in process. In addition, she works for a theater where she lives which has given her the opportunity to begin work on her first play.   Diane is a mother of three adult children. She is extremely active in the writer's community in Canada.   If you were to ask her about writing your own book Diane would encourage you to do it. Personally, I agree. Everyone has stories they can and possibly should tell. As an author coach, Diane puts her money where her pen is. That is, she actively encourages aspiring authors. After listening to our episode here, reach out to Diane and see where her coaching may take you as a writer.   About the Guest:   Diane Bator is a mom of three, a book coach, and the author of over a dozen mystery novels and many works-in-progress. She has also hosted the Escape With a Writer blog to promote fellow authors and is a member of Sisters in Crime Toronto, the Writers Union of Canada, and a board member of Crime Writers of Canada. When she's not writing and coaching authors, she works for a professional theatre. No surprise she's written her first play, which may lead to more.     About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.     Michael Hingson  01:20  Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today we get to interview Diane Bator, and gee, what can I say she's a mom. She's a coach. She's written a bunch of books, 12 mysteries specifically. And she also says she has many works in progress. That sounds scary, maybe she'll give us some clues. She also has been writing and been involved in the escape with a writer blog escape, we'll have to explore that. But she's been very involved in writing in a lot of different ways. And that's really kind of exciting, and really looking forward to learning more about all of that. So Diane, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Diane Bator  02:05 Oh, thank you, Michael. It's so great to be here.   Michael Hingson  02:08 And before we started, we've been been talking about all sorts of things like one of my files disappeared. And so the aliens came and took it, obviously, and maybe Diane can write a mystery about that and solve it. But you know, we'll go on. Well, tell me a little bit about you growing up or anything that you want people to know. Oh,   Diane Bator  02:27 my goodness.   Michael Hingson  02:29 How's that for an open ended question? Huh? Right.   Diane Bator  02:31 Oh, my goodness. No, I'm, I'm, I live in Canada. So I grew up in Alberta, in the prairies. And I currently live in Southern Ontario in a small town, which actually was the inspiration for my very first book that I got published. The bookstore lady, I set in two places in town, a local coffee shop, as well as a local bookstore, which is kind of fun to go to both of them and say, Hey, your story is in here. So that was that was very cool. I have three boys who are all young men now off doing their own thing. And they've all been very encouraging of my writing. And when I told my one son who was doing podcast, he was so excited for me. So it's a lot of fun.   Michael Hingson  03:21 Well, that's pretty cool. And so you, you obviously went to school, did you go to college,   Diane Bator  03:28 I went to college, I actually took Business Business Business Administration, and I did a couple of years of university, but I just couldn't get into what I wanted to get into. I guess I just wasn't enjoying it as much as I hope to so I just went off and did business school and got into life and had got married had kids, that sort of thing. So   Michael Hingson  03:50 So college and university, it just wasn't you.   Diane Bator  03:53 Well, I like I said, I got my diploma in business, but the university stuff was Yeah, I had a bit of a struggle. So   Michael Hingson  04:02 happens. Yeah. So you got your business degree as it were. And then what did you do?   Diane Bator  04:08 Um, basically, I got married, had kids. And then I started to working once we moved across the country. Basically, I started working in just was trying to find a job I really liked. And I ended up working at a karate school. So I was a receptionist at a karate school, which inspired a whole other series of books on my Gilda write mysteries. And currently I work for a live stage theater. So I run the box office at a theater and I've written my very first play. So we're, I'm waiting on that we're supposed to be workshopping it, so we'll see what the future   Michael Hingson  04:52 brings. When you say workshopping and what does that mean.   Diane Bator  04:55 That just means they bring in some actors and they just sit around a table and read the script. At or do it virtually whatever works the best.   Michael Hingson  05:02 Right? So when you do that, and you get to hear other people reading what you wrote, does it also cause you to maybe think about, oh, I need to change this? Or does it cause you to reflect? Are you pretty satisfied by the time that happens?   Diane Bator  05:18 Usually, that's why you workshop, the play before it ever goes to stage is that you can listen to it. I've been fortunate I actually did a writing conference last fall, and a couple of members of the group said, Hey, can we read a little bit of your play during the open mics section? So I got to hear a little bit of it. Actually workshopped then and went, Oh, okay, well, there's a couple little tweaks I have to make here. So it works. So that's I mean, that's what workshopping is for is to actually listen to it, make sure everything works. I mean, you can read something 100 times, but until you hear it out loud, in your, your, your words coming from someone else. It's like, oh, okay, I get that this works. This doesn't work, that sort of thing. Yeah, I   Michael Hingson  06:05 know, as a speaker, I always enjoy input from people. But also, how do I say this, I enjoy hearing myself speak because I think that I tend to analyze probably more critically than anyone else, because I'm close to the subject. So hearing myself, and when I do these podcasts, I go back and edit them, and listen to them. I listen to every one. So I also get a chance to listen to how I deal with questions and, and deal with everyone. But I also get to hear the other people again. And it's one of the ways that I learn a lot, not only about subjects, but I do get to learn a lot about how I'm doing and hopefully improve over time. Right. And that's, that's an important thing to do. I I'm a firm believer and people who have listened to this podcast before have heard me say I'm a firm believer in self appraisal and sales analytics, analytical behavior and introspection. And I think that we should all do a lot more of that than we do. So I'm glad you're doing the the workshop that'll that'll be pretty interesting.   Diane Bator  07:12 Oh, absolutely. I'm looking forward to it.   Michael Hingson  07:15 Well, I want to be in the audience when you win a Tony.   Diane Bator  07:18 Yeah. Me too.   Michael Hingson  07:21 I think it would be I think it would be kind of fun. We watch the Tonys every year. I guess. Angela Lansbury is getting a lifetime award this year. And that'll be fun. As always, like Angel and spear. Yeah. We've seen her and, you know, not just Murder She Wrote, but we actually saw a few plays with her on television. never got to see her live, but I bet it would be a lot of fun.   Diane Bator  07:43 Oh, a bat. She's just so in such an interesting person, for sure.   Michael Hingson  07:48 Well, what I learned this morning is she started performing at 17. And she is 96. So go Angela.   Diane Bator  07:55 right within inspiration.   Michael Hingson  07:59 So you were in a karate school now. Where was that?   Diane Bator  08:03 Um, that was here in orange Ville where I live. Okay, it's a goes your roof. So it's hard, soft, you know. And they trained for a few years along with working there. Which kind of gave me the inspiration for the series and everything.   Michael Hingson  08:19 You said you moved across country. So where did you come from? Um, we   Diane Bator  08:23 lived in Edmonton, Alberta. Ah, okay. So it is kind of a cross country. It's kind of a cross country. Yeah. It's about 2000 miles.   Michael Hingson  08:32 So cold is cold in the winter. So you know,   Diane Bator  08:35 yeah, yeah. I'd mentioned cold is a whole lot different than, than Southern Ontario cold.   Michael Hingson  08:42 But it's still cold. It's still cold. It's   Diane Bator  08:45 dry cold when your nostrils freeze shut that sort of   Michael Hingson  08:48 Yeah. Yeah. More humidity and in Ontario?   Diane Bator  08:53 Absolutely.   Michael Hingson  08:55 We're live on the high desert in California in Southern California. So we're very used to the dry heat. And here, we did live in New Jersey for six years. And before that I lived in Boston several years before that. So had my own exposure to the humidity. And I was born in Chicago, but don't remember much about the weather for the first five years when I was going to Well, growing up to be five and going to kindergarten and all that. I don't remember the weather much. But Chicago also has its level of humidity in the summer and of course cold weather in the winter. Oh, yeah. So how did you get into writing?   Diane Bator  09:33 You know, it's one of those things I've always kind of done. I've always written stories and that sort of thing since I was in school. And actually, I still have copies of things I wrote when I was in junior high. So though in when I was actually in the ninth grade, I wrote a poem and my teacher physically grabbed me by the arm and took me down to the school newspaper and said, Okay, you need to publish this. So that'd be became my first published piece. So it was a really good that particular teacher, Mr. Coleman was fantastic and very encouraging and, and really opened my eyes to different genres as well as whatever, you know, silly things I was doing on my own thought, ah,   Michael Hingson  10:19 is the newspaper try to grab you to be a writer for them?   Diane Bator  10:23 I ended up being a writer for the newspaper. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  10:26 There you go horoscopes? Did you? How did you do that? How did that work?   Diane Bator  10:33 Wing in a prayer. Sometimes, you know, people going through things and kind of make a little thing directed at them, but not really. So yeah. And it was funny how many people would come over and go, Oh, my gosh, that was so true. I don't know how you knew that. Like?   Michael Hingson  10:53 Did you do? Or do you do any kind of research to look at whatever's going on with the stars and so on on a particular day to help with the process? Or do you just make it up as you went along? Oh,   Diane Bator  11:04 not back then I was only, like, 1415. So yeah, it was just make it up as you go.   Michael Hingson  11:11 Hey, whatever works. That's it. But it it made it into the newspaper and help with copies. And so the editor must have been a little bit happy.   Diane Bator  11:20 Oh, yeah. And she had fun doing it.   Michael Hingson  11:23 Did you do any other writing for the paper? Besides the horse cup? Did you write any other poems or articles or anything?   Diane Bator  11:30 Oh, my gosh, that's such a long time ago. Um, yeah, I know, I wrote little bits here and there, just depending on what we needed to, if we needed space fillers, or whatever the case, so   Michael Hingson  11:40 I didn't write much. I did a little bit of writing in a couple of English courses. But I went into radio as opposed to the newspaper, the new university, the new you at UC Irvine. We had a couple of radio people who were pretty talented. And one was especially a writer, he actually went to work at some point for the Philadelphia Inquirer and just retired not too long ago from doing that. But I remember some of the articles that that he wrote, and he had a lot of fun doing. And he also had a lot of fun doing radio, so we got to to work together. I was the Program Director of the station at the time. And John and a friend of his Matt had a show on Sunday night right after my show. So there's a lot of fun, they did a lot of creative things. And yeah, like writing, radio, and writing are creative. And you can do some some things. The only thing I kind of miss from radio that I never did was really created something from the beginning, there are some science fiction things I would have loved to have seen, actually turned into radio broadcasts or radio series and still have not done anything with that. But it'd be kind of fun, because I can see some of the some of the things would be great. Well, so you got into writing, which was great. How did you get from writing of one sort or another into the whole idea of fiction? And mystery specifically?   Diane Bator  13:10 You know, I always kind of wrote fiction stuff. I've never really been big on the nonfiction, I'll read it, but I don't really write it. It was my gosh, but 2010 and I stumbled across. It was a contest, it was called murdering, Inc. and it was put on by a small publisher here in Ontario. And the premise was you take one of those old murder mystery party games. And they would give you all the characters, all the clues, everything, you had to work it into a story, you had to write it into 10 chapters, and each chapter was in the point of view of a different character, and kind of going, Okay, well, if I can do this, I can do anything because this is crazy. But I did it. And I also won the contest, which was my very first novella that was published. And it was just really a great lesson in making your characters voices and everything. It was a lot of fun. And it was, what was really cool is the very first copy that came off the press, the publisher, put it in an envelope, which it's still in the envelope to this day, it says on their first book, and it's still on my shelf as my first book in the envelope on touch. So that was very cool. But doing that I kind of sat there and let you know, I kind of like writing this mystery stuff. And that's how I started on the path down the mystery genre.   Michael Hingson  14:39 So if all of your books been separate books, or do you have a series   Diane Bator  14:44 actually have four series. One of them the Khan lady, which has just come out in March is the final book in my wildblue mystery series. And that's the one I started to write when I moved to Ontario and kind of That loosely on the small town where I live now,   Michael Hingson  15:03 can you have three other series?   Diane Bator  15:04 I do. Sorry, I have a dry spot. dry throat. Yeah, I have my karate series. So Gilda right mysteries is based on a karate school. Glitter Bay mysteries is in a small town in Oregon with two young ladies who run a small vintage boutique. And my fourth series is sugar with mysteries which is set in a small Ontario town. And Audra and her friend merrily run a craft store, and it's cozy mystery. They get into all kinds of trouble.   Michael Hingson  15:39 I've heard the term cozy mystery referred, while referring to a lot of different kinds of mystery books. What are cozy mysteries,   Diane Bator  15:47 cozy mysteries are set and smells when we were talking about Angela Lansbury. Right. Murder She Wrote, she wrote a sick, classic, cozy mystery sweat in this small town normally, or a small town character who has a reason to solve these mysteries. There's usually not a lot of swearing, blood, guts, Gore, that sort of thing. It's just quaint, small town. You know, just a nice, light friendly read.   Michael Hingson  16:16 For me, I like those kinds of mysteries more than most anything else I really although we we read some James Patterson and stuff like that. I like puzzles. And I like mysteries that really present puzzles. That's one of the reasons I think I've always been a fan of the Rex Stout, and now Robert Goldsboro follow on Nero Wolfe, because Rex Stout always wrote puzzles. And if you really read them, you you may not be able to figure them out. And usually, I had a pretty hard time I worked hard at figuring them out. I was more successful figuring out Mary Higgins Clark, but Rex Stout I had significant problems with but by the time we'll solve the cases, yeah, that was pretty obvious. Why didn't I pick up on that? Which was of course, the whole point.   Diane Bator  17:07 Yeah, I know. That's for me. That's always been a big thing. I love puzzles. I love just the mystery of it all. And just trying to put things together. And, you know, I love throwing up the red herrings because I don't like it when somebody beta reads a book and goes, Oh, I knew that from page three. Yeah, like, well, that's not fun.   Michael Hingson  17:28 Yeah, that doesn't help the mystery. The mystery process at all? No, no, my favorite one of my favorite television shows it was only on for three years. Start Georgia part. It was called Banacek Banacek. Assurance investigation. I love Banacek I've got to go find them somewhere because I'd like to watch those shows again, but he always was involved with puzzles. Yeah,   Diane Bator  17:51 yeah. We got a channel called cozy TV and I found Banacek on there a couple of times and Murder She Wrote all those great   Michael Hingson  18:00 ones. Well, yeah, a Hallmark Channel down here. He has Murder She Wrote most every night. And of course, obviously that's worth watching and, and a number of murder. She wrote stories have been in books on Donald Bane and others have written murder. She wrote books. So they are fun, man. Again, it is puzzles, which is great. Until you see Angela Lansbury. And something like Sweeney Todd. But that's another story.   Diane Bator  18:25 Actually, one of one of my Facebook friends just started writing the murder. She wrote series, Terry Morin. She's just taken over for the last two, I think she's done to one or two now. Just trying to remember but   Michael Hingson  18:40 look her up and see if we can find any of any of hers because that would that would be fun to be able to to get them and have access to them. But Murder She Wrote is is a fun series by any standard. So they're, they're fun to have.   Diane Bator  19:00 I was enjoyed, like one of my first real cozies I started reading was the Kathy series.   Michael Hingson  19:07 Yes, yeah. Lily in Jackson Browne. Um, we have read all of those. I've taught my wife along the way to listen to books, she, she also has a disability. She's in a wheelchair, but she sees and likes to read. But since we don't find a lot on television, usually worth watching. And obviously, if you're watching television, it's kind of hard to do a lot of stuff if you're really focusing on the screen. So I read audio books anyway. But I've taught her to be able to listen to an audio book as well. So we pipe audio books around the house. And so we've done a whole bunch of the cat who books that way. And the ones that she didn't read that way she has read in paper form, but also we've we've put them out there so she gets access to them anyway. Now she's really into what we bought With our JD Robb Oh, yeah. Which is a little bit more in the violence side, but still always a great puzzle. So, Karen, well, we're both on number 22 in the series. And so we've got a ways to go, Well, how do you come up with the plots? How do you create a plot and create an idea for a mystery?   Diane Bator  20:23 You know, it sounds silly. So well, sometimes, they just kind of come, you just kind of get an idea out of the blue. And sometimes it's things you see in the newspaper or on television, even something else spark of thought that goes a completely different direction. Just things you see things you hear, like just about anywhere,   Michael Hingson  20:45 so something, something piques your interest, and then your brain just starts to work and you create a story around it.   Diane Bator  20:54 Yeah, pretty much.   Michael Hingson  20:56 It's, it's fun to be creative, isn't it?   Diane Bator  20:59 It really is. And you can take things, you know, like you said, even if you see something on television, and it's just like a little blip of a thing that you just go, that's pretty neat. I could make this different and do a different spin on it. And that's, that's the part that I love doing.   Michael Hingson  21:18 Have you ever looked at real life events of one sort or another and turn them into some sort of a mystery and use that as the springboard for it, or even just taking something that happened in life, that was a mystery that maybe got solved and thought about writing a book about it? It's kind   Diane Bator  21:35 of funny, my publisher, they've decided to do a Canadian historical mystery series. So they have one writer from each province, and you have to come up with kind of a local mystery that you write about, and it has to be historical. And as soon as she mentioned that, to me, I started kind of Googling and going local mysteries, I don't really know too much. The story that came up out of all the weirdest things in the world. There's a local rumor, and it's only a rumor. Nobody's ever substantiated it, that Jesse James buried gold, about 20 miles from here. So I'm like, oh, you know what I can take that. It's sort of has a weird basis in truth, but not really. And I can just take it and run and make it a totally fun, historical mystery.   Michael Hingson  22:30 Well, do we know that Jesse James was ever up in Canada,   Diane Bator  22:34 there is rumors, and that's pretty much all it is, is a rumor, because the story goes that somebody from his gang was related to somebody that lives in a town nearby. So they had reason to come up and hide out in the area. And they, you know, the guest is, oh, he buried all this money from this last for one of these heists. Right. And, and it's like, it's not completely true, but it's not completely false either. So there's just no proof. Yeah. So when possible, but yeah, yeah. That's what makes it fun, though. That's it. That's what I figured.   Michael Hingson  23:13 So your books have been published more traditionally, as opposed to doing self publishing? Yeah, I   Diane Bator  23:19 actually, big long story. But I ended up with this wonderful little together a little bit. They're not exactly a small publisher. They're a little bit bigger than that. But they're out of Alberta. And they've been fantastic. I've been with them for my gosh, but 10 years now 11 years, and 13 books in and we're still going and they still ask me to write stuff. And they pick dates and say, Okay, can I send you this one for this time? And they're like, Sure. So it's, it's been really good, a great learning experience for sure.   Michael Hingson  23:57 If any of the books made it to audio, or they just all been print,   Diane Bator  24:02 right now, they're all just in print. Audio, they don't do audio there. Because it's just too much for them right now. But I've been looking into it. I just have to know sometimes money can be kind of a little bit of an issue, but   Michael Hingson  24:20 I don't know how it works. But what about something like Audible? They have audible originals. So they take they've taken books from other people or had work specifically created for them and they've converted into audio. Have you explored that?   Diane Bator  24:32 I have not? No, I definitely will though.   Michael Hingson  24:36 It seems like that might be an interesting way. If you've had success as a writer and you obviously have and you've had success with publishing books, then maybe it would be something that audible would be interested in doing. It'd be a little bit of a different process for you, but it would probably be kind of fun and they think their own people to do it.   Diane Bator  24:57 Now that sounds like a great plan to check I do when   Michael Hingson  25:01 we did thunder dog, and it was published in 2011, Thomas Nelson Publishers had arranged for Oasis audio to record the book. So I don't know how any of that happened and what the arrangements were. But the book did get recorded, and then was also sent to Audible. And so it was done. So I don't know all the ins and outs of it. Some people have also explored just using computer generated voices to, to if you will play or read out loud a book and the problem was computer generated voices are still not totally human sounding. So it isn't as natural.   Diane Bator  25:41 Yeah, I have a couple of friends that they listen to their books with the computer generated, and   Michael Hingson  25:47 oh, I can do it. But it isn't the same. And it's not something you have to concentrate more on. So it is still where an issue where human reading is better. Maybe someday it will get to be better than it is to be able to have a computer generated system, but not yet. Yeah. So it's a process. Well, so you've done 13 books today. They've all been mysteries. Yeah. So with that in mind, how many books do you have coming up? Or projects do you have going on right now?   Diane Bator  26:24 Right now? I'm probably oh my gosh, I've got one book for this year, for sure. Two more for next year. And then probably two more for the year after that. So probably about five than that. That's the only things from my publisher that doesn't include any little side projects or anything like that.   Michael Hingson  26:46 Have you started on all five to one degree or another? If they're   Diane Bator  26:51 not, I don't really plot them out. But I do have like little blurbs about what I'm going to write about. So everything is kind of got blurbs, at least the one for this fall, I'm just finishing the rough draft to get into editing. So a new series or? No, it's actually Book Two of my sugar wood series.   Michael Hingson  27:16 Yeah, so all of your series are like three or four books long, and then you end the series.   Diane Bator  27:23 Um, it depends my first series, The Wild Blue mysteries, the con ladies book five. And that was, that was the final book in this series. But it still kind of leaves me a loophole to come back later if I want. And continue on. But for the most part, I aiming for about three, but we'll see how the series goes.   Michael Hingson  27:48 I interviewed someone a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about writing series, he's not a great fan of series, because he says he likes to see things in and wants to stay alive long enough to see the end of a series. And I can appreciate that. But we mentioned JD Robb A while ago, the the other side of the fact that she's written now what 353 or 54, in the in depth series. They're still all standalone. That is you can read any of them without reading the ones before or after. Although if you start from the beginning, the beginning you can see an evolution in the process. And so, you know, I went when you write a series, is it really probably best and most important to start at the beginning and go through the series? Or can each of the books be read by themselves without too much of a problem?   Diane Bator  28:43 I think in particular for wildblue mysteries, I think they can all be read as a standalone until the end. And I know somebody said well, the last one's great, but now I want to go back and read the rest. So I don't know if that meant that they didn't quite get something or they just wanted to go read the rest of the books. But for the most part there, you can read them as a standalone.   Michael Hingson  29:08 We started reading the Joe Pickett CJ box series. Have you ever read those? I have not. CJ box is the author. The protagonist is a game warden in Wyoming. And when we discovered it, we we started reading book 18 and fairly close to the beginning. We got very intrigued but they made a reference to something that happened in the previous book. We could have gone on and read it but we just decided to stop and because we were intrigued and we really liked the portrayal of the character is weeping. My wife and I. We went back and started at the beginning. So it was like over a year before we got back up to book 18 And what happened in the previous book was relevant and interesting. It wasn't necessary for the reading of book 18. But it sure made it a lot more fun to go back to the beginning. And so we we did and, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, I'm anxious to to have the opportunity to read some of yours, maybe I'll have to figure out a way to download them. Or maybe they'll get converted to audio at some point. But if we, we get a chance, I'll have to go hunt them down some way and be able to read them. Are they available? Are they available as ebooks anywhere?   Diane Bator  30:32 They are? Yeah, they're all over anywhere. You can buy ebooks, so   Michael Hingson  30:36 Okay, so we can, can go find them. And that's pretty important. How sales been obviously enough to please your publisher, but if you had any that people classified as bestsellers,   Diane Bator  30:48 I wish not really at this point. I mean, it's a lot of it is the marketing as well. And it's hard to juggle, raising kids working full time doing the marketing, doing the writing, and it's. So I've hired a PR guy lately, just to see if that will kind of help give a boost. And Mickey's been really great. So we'll just see how that goes. Has he?   Michael Hingson  31:15 has he gotten you some good PR?   Diane Bator  31:17 Oh, excellent stuff. It's been a very busy couple of months, that's for sure.   Michael Hingson  31:22 Yeah, I've met Mickey. And we actually started working with him. I think we talked about that, and so anxious to see how that how all that goes because we did thunder dog, but that was published through Thomas Nelson. And we couldn't get running with Roselle to be picked up by a publisher. It was written more for youth, although more adults by then than youth. But in the time that we had when it was written, no one seemed to want to pick it up. So we self published it. And so we're looking forward to Mickey helping to make that one more visible. We just started writing our third book, which is going to be talking about controlling fear and continuing not the story, but to teach lessons of things I learned that helped me survive on September 11. But doing it from the standpoint of the fact that I've used a guide dogs, and so we're going to have a very strong animal involvement in terms of how animals help enhance what we do, and a faith involvement as well. So that one, however, has been picked up. And we've signed the contract and we're riding away on it.   Diane Bator  32:34 Oh, congratulations. That's exciting. So that   Michael Hingson  32:37 will be a lot of fun. And I hope it will help people learn that they don't need to let fear overwhelm them. And by not doing something that just allows you to be completely as I would call it blinded by fear. You can make more intelligent and substantial relat well reasonable decisions in your life, rather than just doing it out of fear. Yeah. So we're hoping that that goes, well. Well, what do you think the best thing is about being a writer,   Diane Bator  33:06 I get to make up all kinds of stuff and do all kinds of stuff in my head. I think it's really awesome to be able to sit down and make up like whole worlds whole towns, whole, all kinds of people and to be inspired by people and things around.   Michael Hingson  33:23 So as you're making things up here, you're obviously using your own experiences to create the towns and the scenes and so on. Oh, absolutely. Do other people give you ideas for scenes Do you? Do you let anybody look at your writing and they come along and they say things like, you might want to consider adding this in or adding this scene in or making it appear differently than maybe you originally started? Not normally.   Diane Bator  33:48 Usually nobody sees it until at least the rough draft is written. I get lots of people going, I have an idea for a book you should write. So I have a few of those kicking around. And I actually have a friend of mine. He's been wanting to write a book his whole life. And he's 65 now. And he doesn't he doesn't consider himself a writer. But he makes the line and gives it to me for every chapter so that I can do the writing part of it. So one day, we'll get it done.   Michael Hingson  34:25 Collaboration. Yep. There's nothing wrong with with doing that. So what does your family think of you being a writer and having all these things that you create and so on?   Diane Bator  34:37 My kids love it. They think it's very cool. My youngest when he was I think I can't remember if it was kindergarten at grade one. He needed to pack a shoe box for school. And he's got this shoe box and he's got all these things in it. So I'm like, Well, what did you bring in your shoe box? I'm curious and one of the Things was my very first book my novella. And so why do you have my book in there? And he says, Well, I know from this that if you can write a book, I can do anything. So I just say it was always like, Oh, he got me right in the heart. So, so that just was always cool. And one of his brothers, my middle son always tells me well, when your books are made into a movie, we're going to take the limousine down to the premiere, like, okay, fine, there you go. Right. So they're very encouraging. Well, we're   Michael Hingson  35:33 looking toward the day, the thunder dog will be a movie, we've got some people who are working on it. And we're making progress, nothing that we can talk about yet. But it should be a movie, in my opinion, and a lot of other people have said the same thing. And if it if it is, hopefully, it will be able to keep the same kind of motif and theme of the book, and that it will help teach people about blindness, and it will help people maybe learn some lessons about September 11. But also, it's important that it be entertaining. So it'll be kind of fun. No, that's so cool. My, my agent for writing thunder dog is still advocating to this day that he wants Brad Pitt to play him not that he had a big part in any of it. I said, Well, that seems fair to me, you know. But, but we'll see. Yes, any   Diane Bator  36:25 input on the script, he'll have a bigger role.   Michael Hingson  36:30 We haven't given him that. But it will be kind of fun to just see how it goes. How old are your kids?   Diane Bator  36:38 Oh my gosh, my youngest just turned 21. It makes me feel really old. 2123 and 25.   Michael Hingson  36:49 Yeah. Well, so now what is your husband think of all of this?   Diane Bator  36:54 I'm actually divorced. So divorce, so he doesn't think about it. He didn't think a whole lot of it. So it kind of contributed No   Michael Hingson  37:03 fun.   Diane Bator  37:04 No, no,   Michael Hingson  37:05 but you got? Yeah, go ahead.   Diane Bator  37:07 No, I was gonna say when somebody tells you writing is not a career, then that's yeah, it doesn't work out. So well.   Michael Hingson  37:15 Gee, what did he do for a living?   Diane Bator  37:18 Um, I'm not sure what he's doing. Now. He was not a plant manager. But he works for big plant. Well, operations and stuff. Very logical thinker.   Michael Hingson  37:31 Well, that's fine. But even managers have to write budgets and other things. So what a thing to say to you. Yeah. Ready comes in all forms. And people, and people have made writing a great success. I know Suzy Florrie who I worked with on thunder dog does a lot of writing. And then the book we're writing now Carrie Wyatt, Kent and I are working on the carries a friend of Susie, Susie is in a Ph. D. program. So didn't have time. But Carrie and I are working on this. And we're we're very excited about the directions that this book is going to go. But clearly, she also has made a career out of it. And needless to say, there have been a number of people who make careers out of writing. Of course, it's a career of course, it's a worthwhile endeavor. Yeah, I just told them never say that to Stephen King. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Partly because you never know where you might end up in a book, or, or in real life. You know, you could be the next person in pet cemetery, but you know, right. And he continues to be sick and look at his kids.   Diane Bator  38:40 Go, yeah, yeah, it's amazing.   Michael Hingson  38:44 And going back to mysteries, not with too much more graphics, but Clive Cussler, and the directed series and so on. Yeah, he's had a little success at making making books a good career. And he did. And, of course, he's passed away, but the family is continuing it.   Diane Bator  39:00 Yeah, I was fortunate to get to have a video chat with Robin Purcell, who was riding with him as well. So ah, yeah, that was very interesting.   Michael Hingson  39:10 Then there's always the Louis L'Amour family. And of course, talk about, you know, everybody can scoff about westerns and so on. But he made a an incredible career out of it. And they're continuing that process. And I've never got to meet any of those people. But I think it'd be a lot of fun.   Diane Bator  39:29 Very neat. It would be really great discussion, that's for sure.   Michael Hingson  39:33 I think it would well, if you ever get a chance to to know any of them and, and get a chance to refer them to us to talk on the podcast. We'd love to do it. I think it would be a lot of fun. Well, so if you had something that you wanted to advise people who are interested in writing to do or, or thoughts that you would have for people about being a writer, what would you say to   Diane Bator  40:00 do it anyways, you know, just write what you love to write, find an editor, somebody who actually knows how to edit a book, not just, you know, the guy next door who likes to read, and just do it, give it your best shot, you got nothing to lose.   Michael Hingson  40:20 Good editors are hard to find. But also good editors really understand what it means to help you shape the book, rather than trying to write it the way they want it written. Yeah,   Diane Bator  40:33 there's nothing worse than having somebody edit your book and take your voice out of it. And it's just, it's very frustrating. And I know I've worked with a few different writers as well. And in a very intentional to leave in things that are them. Things that are obviously very wrong, we can we can have to tweak that, because that doesn't work. But things that are very much them and how they're, how they would speak and how they would write, those things have to stay.   Michael Hingson  41:06 So when you're, when you're working with people, you've you've, you've done some things you we talked about your blog, writing the blog piece, and so on. And you've been a writing coach, tell me more about that, if you would,   Diane Bator  41:18 I that was something I started through COVID. So I've only worked with a handful of people. But I was working with people before then. And doing the same thing, just doing the edits and helping to make sure that book flowed and worked. And the story made sense. I was just doing one for somebody not too long ago, he's actually doing rewrites right now. And the very first read of his very first chapter, I sent it back to him. And he said, This reads like a textbook, or a movies scripts, like it's a very point for more than an actual story flow. So he's reworking right now. But we'll see what ends up happening.   Michael Hingson  42:00 I wish we could get textbook writers to make their books less boring. I think even even the most calm, well convoluted or incredible textbook could have stories in it. You know, a lot of people when I was getting my master's degree in physics, a lot of people talked all about the math and physics. And they talked about the philosophy. But the books, did all the math and never really discussed in in a more engaging way the philosophies of physics or these authors who were very famous physicists didn't tell stories in them. And I submit that they would get a lot more engagement from people, if they really talk not just about the math part of it, not just about the physics itself, but the philosophy and tell stories of how they got where they did and engage people to be more interested, especially at the undergraduate level, I would think,   Diane Bator  43:03 Oh, yeah, I agree with that. Just make it more relatable and more. Yeah, I think that's great.   Michael Hingson  43:10 How do you get how do you get people to do that? It's a challenge. So tell me about the blog, what kind of things have happened with your blog, and what that's doing for folks.   Diane Bator  43:22 I started escape with the writer in September 2018. Because I'd had a blog forever, and I was awful at keeping it up and writing stuff on it. So I thought, You know what I'm gonna share. And I started sharing other people's works on my blog. I still, you know, once every so often I take a day, and this is my stuff. But I work with Mickey, I've got a bunch of his writers who I post their stuff on it, and the people that I find that I post personally, I always send them questions to answer and we make it really personable and fun. And you get to know more about the person, the writer, as a person, as opposed to just here's my book. Yeah. So I think that's, that's the part I have a lot of fun with.   Michael Hingson  44:15 Well, it makes it more engaging and more relevant all the way around, because it's, it's great to read books and so on, but it is nice to know more about the writer, the people who are writing the books and getting more engaged with them, and then makes you more interested and fascinated in what they write. No, absolutely. So you've had some success with the with the blog.   Diane Bator  44:39 It's still going. I started with two days a week and now I'm at three days a week and I could probably do four if I want to. But it's takes up a lot of time. So three is just right for now. Yeah, I   Michael Hingson  44:54 haven't had the discipline to keep my blog up like I need to and that's one of the things that I have to Want to work toward Chris being involved with accessibe and helping to make internet websites more accessible? Takes a lot of time. And the podcast is probably the things that keeps me the most busy right now. But even that engagement, we need to be out there doing more writing stuff. So it's one of the efforts that's gotta happen over time. Yep, exactly. But it is all fun to do when it is fun to interact with people. What do you think that social media has done in terms of affecting the writing industry affecting what you do and so on, not just your blog. But in general,   Diane Bator  45:40 there's lots of good and bad for sure. I mean, in the good side, you can get connected with writers all over the world. So I've been fortunate because of that, that I've had writers literally from just about every country can think of that had been on my blog that I've gotten to know in a different way than just, you know, liking their posts. And then other ways, you get people that are just downright nasty, and they know everything and tell other writers, you know, give up what you just posted as awful. Or there's a typo in the meme, you shared that somebody, you know, 80 people removed for you and had posted, right? So it's just you have to, there's lots of good, but sometimes you just have to take the bad with it.   Michael Hingson  46:26 Yeah. And you kind of wonder about some of the people who just do that sort of stuff. I wonder if they would do it face to face, you know, and that's the problem with social media is that you're not really making the same level of connections. Yeah, that's very true. And we lose and have lost so much of the art of conversation, because that happens. And it's so unfortunate that we don't connect like we used to. And I realized that the other side of that is that we live in a world where there is so much technology that gives us the opportunity to connect and so on. But we don't really connect if we don't take full advantage of that. And when we just get in social media, and we don't have conversations and other things like that, then we're really missing a lot of what's available to us.   Diane Bator  47:18 Oh, absolutely. That was one thing that I know. Canada In particular, we had a lot of lockdowns, especially in Ontario. So there was a lot of things we could not get to do. But joining some of these groups, like I part of Sisters in Crime and crime writers of Canada and that sort of thing, and being able to sit in on some of these really great webinars, and even just a meeting where people are chit chatting back and forth, which was really great, because you get to meet different people and learn different things. And, you know, people, we have a writing group that literally has writers from Vancouver, all the way over to Halifax, so from west to east, and everybody in between, which is really neat, because we never would have met otherwise. And you can have those kinds of conversations,   Michael Hingson  48:11 all sorts of different writing styles. So not just mystery, and not just fiction.   Diane Bator  48:16 No, it's the one particular group was with the writers union of Canada, and everybody's very mixed genres. You know, we help each other out, we give each other support and it's just just a really nice group to hang out with.   Michael Hingson  48:31 Do you ever associate with any of the writers groups or whatever? Through writers in Canada? Do you associate with any of the groups in the US?   Diane Bator  48:40 Absolutely. Sisters in Crime has been really great because they have groups all over the place and I've been able to sit in on different webinars and different meetings. Oh my gosh, Grand Canyon has a great group Arizona together group I was with I can't even remember where they were New Jersey, I want to say something like that.   Michael Hingson  49:04 There's a lot of crime to talk about back there. But there's a lot of   Diane Bator  49:07 crime everywhere. It's been really great to get all these other perspectives and and just some great ideas. Well, that   Michael Hingson  49:18 is, you know, really cool. And that's of course, the whole point by connecting with other people. You do get other ideas, don't you? So now you have to create a a book or a series involving all the Sisters in Crime and but you can have a lot of fun or that   Diane Bator  49:35 actually, I've had some kind of a similar idea to that. But yeah,   Michael Hingson  49:40 how about brothers in crime?   Diane Bator  49:43 Maybe you know,   Michael Hingson  49:44 equality after after   Diane Bator  49:46 course. Well, Sisters in Crime also has brothers in there. So it's not just sisters out there.   Michael Hingson  49:54 There you go. Have you thought of writing any other genres like you know, science fiction or, or, or other kinds of fiction types of things.   Diane Bator  50:04 Actually, this, the book that I'm collaborating on with my friend is fantasy. So he's a huge fantasy buff. And he's, like I said, he's making all the notes and making all the little fine tune details. And I just have to sit down and write the story. I also have a YA fantasy that I've been working on, when I have nothing else to do. And that will come out one day as well. And I also wrote my first stage place. So that's when they, you know, we'll end up doing the workshop with and then we'll see what happens. So like, what can you tell us   Michael Hingson  50:39 about the play?   Diane Bator  50:40 It is a ghost story.   Michael Hingson  50:43 Now we're getting there, right?   Diane Bator  50:45 Because I work in the theater. It's a very old book. The building was built in 1875. And, yes, we have our ghosts. I haven't seen any of them. But every now and then you something will happen. They get let go. Okay.   Michael Hingson  51:01 Of course, down here in California, in San Diego, there's the Del Coronado hotel. I don't know if you're familiar with the del, but they have ghosts, there is a one room where a woman has died. And she she haunts that room. And a number of people have said that they have seen her. She's not a mean ghost. Now they've stayed in the room. And they've seen her in the halls. But people have said they've seen her in the room. So everybody wants to stay in that room, of course. But the Dell apparently has several ghosts, and nobody is near as I read. Recall, her understand, seems to be a bad ghost, which is good. Yeah. And it's, it's a lot more fun. But well, I'm looking forward to hearing more about the ghost story when it's done. So you don't have to come up and do a book with a blind character. And I'll be glad to help you with that. But we haven't seen that many that are that are really portraying blind people very well, in in a lot of things with disabilities in general. There have been various books of one sort or another. And of course, there have been plays in movies and television shows. But a lot of the time the actors aren't people with disabilities, which really leaves out dimensions that we would add to it. Dakota, of course, won the Oscar this year for Best Picture. And I think part of what made it successful was that they were really dealing with people who were deaf, which is important.   Diane Bator  52:24 Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, we should   Michael Hingson  52:27 should talk about doing a book with blank character   Diane Bator  52:30 works for me characters.   Michael Hingson  52:31 There you go. Well,   Diane Bator  52:33 we can do that's great. For sure.   Michael Hingson  52:34 Well, any last thoughts that you have? We've been doing this for a while, are there any last thoughts that you'd like to bring up about anything we discussed or advice you want to give to people?   Diane Bator  52:45 Just as I say, you know, if you if anybody out there you're looking to write a book, do a little research, find out anything you need to know any questions you have. Find people who have written books, ask questions, contrary to what you may hear on social media. And my favorite saying is there are no stupid questions I've already asked them. So ask the questions, look for people to help support you and write the book.   Michael Hingson  53:15 I am a firm believer, and there is no such thing as a stupid question. Or I think that when people ask what you regard as stupid questions, sometimes you do wonder how much they observed. For example, I once spoke to a book club, they said, we read your book, we read Thunderdome, we'd really like you to come in and talk with us. And we happen to actually be in Novato, California, where I was living at the time. And all these people said, we read it, we really want to talk with you about the book. I go and we start talking and I open the floor to questions. And the first question that someone asked is, why were you in the World Trade Center? Now, we spent a lot of time talking about that in the book, which makes you really wonder what they were thinking and maybe they were just trying to be engaging. But to ask that question. Is is still what have you been observing? And how much did you absorb of what you read? There are so many other ways to have asked that and gotten more content into it. But then I took the question and said, well, the vision issue isn't what I was doing in the World Trade Center on that day, but how I got there, so I you know, you can you can deal with that. But still, I'm amazed sometimes at what people observe and don't observe. Yeah. Which goes back to your comment about negativity on social media a lot of the time, but we we we cope. Oh, absolutely. Well, if people want to learn more about what you're doing, if they want to learn about the blog and possibly start reading it, if they want to find your books and so on. Can you tell us all about that? How do they do that?   54:58 easiest place to find it Everything is my website. And it's Diane Bater.ca. Links. Yeah, D I A N E B A T O R are all one word, dot a, you're saying you have links. I have links to all kinds of fun things that needs a little bit of updating the blog, the escape with the writer blog, I've got some fun little videos that I do up, we go up on to Lake Huron, and I take a bunch of little 22nd videos, which just kind of peace and quiet and calm. All of my books, there's links to buy sites for all of my books. I've got, oh, my goodness, books that I'm helping other people with, or have helped other people with. You name it stuff about book coaching.   55:52 Well, great. Well, I hope people will go to Dianebetor.ca. And check it all out. And we'll engage with you, I assume that there's a way to contact you on the website. Yeah, definitely. Cool. So I hope people will do that. This has definitely been fun and informative. And I think that it's always exciting to to meet people who are creative and write and are able to express themselves and engage other people. So I really appreciate you taking the time to be with us today. And giving us a lot of your time and information.   Diane Bator  56:31 Oh, thank you. I appreciate being on cares. I loved reading about your story and finding out what you do. So this has really been fascinating for me as well.   56:41 Well, it's definitely figuring out ways to work together, I'd love to explore that. That sounds terrific. And for all of you listening, reach out to Diane and Dianebator.ca and engage her. And also we'd like you to engage us so please feel free to email me if you've got thoughts or comments about this or any of our episodes. You can reach us at Michaelhi, M I C H A E L H I  accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. So MichaelhI at accessibe.com. Or you can go to our podcast page, which is www dot Michael hingson.com M I C H A E L H I N G S O N.com/podcast. And we'd love to hear your thoughts. I hope that you will give us a five star rating after listening to this episode. And when this goes up, Diane, we will definitely make sure that you know about it and you can share it everywhere you'd like to share it as well.   Diane Bator  57:45 Absolutely. I'll put the link on my website as well. So well thank you   Michael Hingson  57:49 all for listening. And we hope that you enjoyed this and that she'll be back next time and Diane once more. Thanks very much for being with us.   Diane Bator  57:56 Thank you as well Michael, really appreciate it.   Michael Hingson  58:02 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Case Of The Phantom Fingers: While driving to buy some black orchids, Wolfe and Archie find themselves stranded with three complete strangers, one of whom is a murderer.Originally aired January 26th,1951.The Book PileWant to sound smart? Two comics discuss a book every Monday so you can pretend you read.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

Today we have Our Secret Weapon – The Truth, as it was broadcast over CBS this week in 1942. The program focuses on the propaganda efforts of the Axis countries. The show is hosted by author Rex Stout, best known for his Nero Wolfe stories, but also the head of the Writers' War Board during World War II. Be sure to visit our website at BrickPickleMedia.com/podcasts, where you can find links to past episodes, as well as the books featured in our podcasts. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/worldwar2radio/support

Join host, Carl Amari, for a radio re-broadcast of The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe. Featuring vocal talent by Sydney Greenstreet.Starring Sydney Greenstreet as Rex Stout's fictional armchair detective, Nero Wolfe. The series was based on Stout's principal characters but not his stories, airing from October 20, 1950 to April 27, 1951, on NBC, it is regarded as the series that is most responsible for popularizing Nero Wolfe on radio. The series had gained recognition through associating each episode with a notable fictional mystery author. However, these authors typically had little say in the series scripts that were associated with their name. Regardless, The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe rose to prominence through the guided efforts of famed author and series host, John Dickson Carr.Originally airing 2/2/1951, get ready for this week's new adventure in "The Case of the Vanishing Shells," with Nero Wolfe!Enjoying The Film Detective?You can watch this episode here.Or connect with us here:FacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeWant even more? Subscribe to our Newsletter here. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Published in 1953, this noir mystery novel took us back in time with a Dick Tracy feel. This was a quick and fun read and our first of Rex Stout's, a well know mystery writer of his day. Do not fret, we did not give any spoilers or disclose who the killer is. If you want to know that, you will have to read the book! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/recapbookchat/message

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Case Of The Calculated Risk: A man plans to carry out a revenge on a man who framed him for Murder, and wants Wolfe to clear his name if he fails. Wolfe refuses, but ends up drawn into the case when the potential client is murdered.Originally aired: January 19th,1951.Smart Passive Income PodcastWeekly interviews, strategy, and advice for building your online business the smart way.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

It's bullets on Broadway as Wolfe and Archie are called in to shine a spotlight on the murder of a prominant director. Recorded live and outdoors at the Pete Peterson Band Shell in Smokey Bear Park, Int'l Falls, Minnesota on August 3, 2022 Starring Charis Boyer as Doris Moray, Jeffrey Adams as Emile Stoner and Inspector Cramer, Aela Mackintosh was Paula Kenyon, Caleb Silvers played David Banning, Ian Hall was Rick Hunter and starring Jim Yount as Archie and Justin Kapla as the one, the only Nero Wolfe. Our Sound Effects artist was Evie Conat. “The Case of the Vanishing Shells” was originally part of the NBC program, ‘The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe' produced by J. Donald Wilson based on characters created by Rex Stout. This episode originally aired on February 2nd, 1951. Tonight's production was produced and directed by Jeffrey Adams for the Icebox Radio Theater which is solely responsible for its content. Icebox Radio makes no claim of ownership for this play. This program is copyright 2022 by the Icebox Radio Theater which is solely responsible for its content. Partial funding made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. For more information, visit Icebox Radio dot O R G.

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.Killer Cards: The joint owners of "The Candy Club" sit down to a game of cards. Murder deals a hand, with Archie Goodwin kidnapped as the ante. Originally aired January 12th, 1951.Starfleet Leadership Academy - Leadership Through Star TrekLeadership; the Final Frontier. It's Star Trek told through the lens of leadership.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.The Case Of The Deadly Sell Out: Nero Wolfe is hired to find a missing boxer, but when the boxer turns up dead, Wolfe must now find the murderer.Originally aired January 5, 1951The Rice TableThe Rice Table is a celebration of food and culture from The Netherlands and Indonesia. Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

This series ran from 1950-51 as a Detective Mystery Drama on NBC. Sydney Greenstreet played Rex Stout's fictional armchair detective Nero Wolfe. Stout wrote several books based on the character beginning in 1934. "The Adventures of Nero Wolfe" ran in 1943 and 1944 and "The Amazing Nero Wolfe" ran in 1945 and 46. Very few recordings of the original programs exist today. Sydney Greenstreet's physique fit that of Stout's character. Nero Wolfe was also known as the galloping gourmet and an armchair detective. He rarely left the house; instead his assistant, Archie Goodwin, would collect the facts and report back to him. Gerald Mohr plays the role of Archie. Wolfe would probably have not taken on any cases, except he needed the money to for his two passions: fine food and the collecting of orchids. The episode on this track is "Killer Cards" and Nero is very reluctant to take on the case. This track will live in the "Detective/Mystery" Playlist. Thanks for listening.