Hi, and welcome KCAW listeners at one hundred
point seven FM or online at kciw.oregon,
Brookings, Oregon.
Hi. To our syndicated listeners as well at
KZZH
ninety six point seven FM, Access Humboldt, Eureka,
California.
And a special welcome again to our new
listeners
of KSKQ
eighty nine point five FM, Ashland and ninety
four point one FM, Medford, Oregon.
This is joyously free radio with me, Joni
Lindenmaier,
the best selling author of none better, an
amazing love story and co author of Joyously
Free and Healing Religious Hurts. I'm so glad
that you are tuning in today.
I'm a resident of Harbor, Oregon, a retired
high school teacher, a recent author who has
published three books in two years, created an
audiobook, and with friend and film producer Michael
Gorse, created a short film called Wowzer.
Mike and I are so excited that it
has been selected
and already shown at the LA Indie Short
Films Festival.
Wow. Truly a wowser. But most of all,
I love being with all of you right
now. I love life and love being the
producer and host of this high energy, joyously
free
radio gaydio show so named by Will and
Viv. So let's talk about what the show
is all about. It's LGBTQ
stories and tips along with religion,
church, faith, spirituality,
and most importantly,
joy, being joyously free.
That's the whole idea, to be joy and
full of freedom, hence that title. That is
also the title of my second book that
I coauthored with Elizabeth Ann Atkins of 2sisterswriting.com.
And guess what? She's gonna be our guest
today. So in this radio show, we have
three things that we pay attention to. No
hate speech,
no hate behaviors, and no bullying.
It will be blasted with three c's,
courage, confidence, and collaboration.
Let's sparkle today.
Yahoo.
So let's begin with our daily salutation.
I say it's a brand new day, and
your response is it's never been lived before.
Here we go.
It's a brand new day. It's never been
lived before. Woo hoo. I love it. Thank
you. Thank you, Elizabeth. So the I've already
told you who our guest is today. But,
you know, besides our salutation,
let's do our morning not morning, but anytime
day prayer. Let's open our hearts as we
ask the divine to shine light on our
community
and our world.
I excitedly believe in hope, in the power
of the spiritual,
and that Jesus God's spirit, whatever name you
put on a higher being, is always with
me and always with you.
So be not afraid or troubled,
saddened or depressed.
Joy and peace are an internal expression of
love and harmony
that is already within us. And, yes, we
just celebrated
Valentine's Day. Of course, that love and harmony
is already within us. So let it out.
So let's center ourselves.
Take a deep breath in with the good
and out with doubt.
Again,
breathe in through your nose
with hope
and out from your mouth with fears.
Last one.
Take a big, big deep breath in with
joy and out with any worry or despair.
Let it out.
In the name of mother Earth, creator God,
Jesus redeemer, and the blowing winds of the
Holy Spirit, we say, hi, love and light.
Hi, Jesus. Hi, God. Hi, spirit. Thank you
for being with us on this beautiful day.
The reading today, I chose from Saint Francis
de Sales.
It's just one simple sentence, but it hit
me very, very much in my heart today.
It says,
follow the ways of your heart
and the vision of your eyes.
When I read that in prayer today,
all I could think about was a world
of big hearts,
everybody's hearts
pumping out of their chest,
accepting
and celebrating
the goodness of everybody
and everything.
I thought about the vision of your eyes.
Saint Francis de Sales talks about that. The
vision of your eyes. It's not just the
vision
that you see
visibly,
but when you close your eyes
and you pray or you meditate
and you have a vision of sparkles or
light or something divine
that hits you, that vision of your eyes
connects to that big heart in your chest
and radiates.
So those are my quick little reflections today.
I hope they helped you. And so I
just wanna say, dear lord, thank you for
being with us. Please lift up our friends
and our family.
May you find divine guidance and healing
today.
Thank you, holy one, for hearing,
being with us, giving us a heart and
eyes to see deeply and compassionately.
Let's have a happy day together, everybody. K
c I w, k z z h, and
k s k q listeners.
Well, I am sitting, like, two and a
half feet away from our guest today. We
are at SWOC,
Southwestern Oregon Community College in Room 231
at the South Coast Writers
Conference in Brookings, Oregon, and I am here
with Elizabeth Ann Atkins,
publisher,
author,
editor,
business owner.
Just she is a
superstar
woman.
Our topic today is a writer's conference recap
and
her with her sister, Katherine Greenspan,
their brand new book called Write Your Book
in a Day.
Welcome, Elizabeth.
Oh my gosh, Joni. Joni, this is amazing
to be here in person, and thank you,
Michael Gorse, for all that you do. Yeah.
Absolutely. This is absolutely I'm so happy to
be here with you, Joni.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome.
So how are you doing today? You've already
done one workshop. Yeah. And the big workshop,
six hour yesterday. How are you doing today?
I'm elated. It is such a beautiful honor
to be here to teach all the things
to the aspiring authors.
And yesterday's workshop, we had 15 people. It
was called write your book in a day.
And we spent six hours together, and it
was really seven when you had a lunch
break. And the synergy of the group was
just
magical.
Everybody was eager, excited, enthusiastic,
lots of questions, lots of interaction. It was
just spectacular.
So it's such an honor to share my
expertise.
Oh, fantastic.
Fantastic. And at that group yesterday,
the people in attendance, age range
talk a little bit about some of the
people without naming names, but could you please
talk about some of the people present? It
blew my mind. We had high school students,
and we had people in their eighties.
So what a broad range of life experience
that they're bringing to the idea of writing
a book.
And it's always an honor for me to
share all that I know of ten years
in business as two sisters writing and publishing
as well as,
writing and publishing more than 70 books. Wow.
Mhmm. And that's your professional career. Oh, my
golly. You mentioned the word lived experience, living
experience between the the high school student and
80 years old. Mhmm. Can you give the
listeners a recap of your lived experiences,
where you're from, how you grew up, just
a little background of your lived experiences? Uh-huh.
Okay. Sure. So I'm from Michigan,
and I grew up there. And my sister
and I I've always loved writing and reading.
And so when we got to University of
Michigan, we were English majors. I went on
to get a master's in journalism from Columbia
University in New York City. Catherine got a
master's in writing from University of San Francisco,
then she pursued a career in finance,
and I started writing books
as first, I was a big city newspaper
reporter. I've been published in the New York
Times and the Detroit News, San Diego Tribune,
lots of magazines.
And so I started writing books, and I
got published by Saint Martin's Press, three best
selling romantic thrillers,
including one that I wrote with Billy Dee
Williams, the actor.
And Yeah. Yeah. That's cute. Thanks.
And then,
I just kept writing books, and Catherine was
like, I've got the financial background. Elizabeth, you
have the ghost writing and publishing
background.
Why don't we start a company? So we
started two sisters writing and publishing in 2016,
and now we just celebrated ten years. And
to celebrate that, Joni, we published a book
called Write Your Book in a Day, the
blueprint for turning your book dreams into published
reality.
Wow. And it's available on Amazon, Barnes and
Noble, anywhere you buy books online, including Two
Sisters Writing and Publishing, two sisters writing dot
com.
And it's our gift to all the aspiring
authors out there who need guidance and expertise
on how to write, publish, and promote a
great book. Yes. And not just guidance and
expertise, but the the encouragement,
the empowerment
that you and Catherine both provide. Mhmm. Because
it's not an easy thing to do to
to write a book. It's Oh. It's challenging.
It's difficult. Mhmm. And I wanna go back
to your your childhood. Did your mother and
father were they writers?
So Katherine and I grew up watching our
father journal every night at the dining room
table in steno
notebooks with a spiral at the top, and
they were, like, pale green, and he had
a pen, and he had a distinct handwriting.
So we would be here doing our homework,
and he would be writing. And our mother
would in the evening, she was in law
school, so she wasn't there.
So we saw him as our model of
writing chronicling the day.
And so I later read his journals, which
he kept from
1965
until 1990, and I read about my birthday
and how he baptized me, like, in real
time. Oh my gosh. And how that was
beautiful. And then,
I got to know my father through writing
reading his journals.
So that was beautiful. And then he also
insisted that Katherine and I speak the Queen's
English. And what does that mean?
That means if we ever said wrong verbs,
we would be
corrected immediately
and told that it's unacceptable
to use wrong verbs.
Oh my golly. Oh my golly. Yeah. So
we were both straight a students, especially in
English. We were the spelling bee champions. We
know how to dissect sentences, which they don't
do anymore, I guess, but we just mastered
grammar, punctuation,
English, and we love to read. Oh my
gosh. Oh my god. Now you put a
little fear in me. So now every time
I text or email you, I'm gonna go,
oh my gosh. This is definitely not Queen's
English. I think one is called Joanie's English.
Oh, it's all good. But so that formed
a foundation for us to understand excellent writing
and speech. However, I think colloquial
colloquialisms
and
slang are great. They just have their place.
Mhmm. So I can use wrong verbs sometimes.
Like, I'll say ain't if I need to.
Mhmm. Mhmm. How does it feel when you
say that? It's liberating. But
I love it. I love it. Yeah. Okay.
What's another example of a verb that might
be liberating for you?
It starts with an f, and I don't
know that it's appropriate for breakout. Okay. Fruit.
Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got
it. Got it. Got it. Okay. Fantastic.
Yes. And and we don't use that kind
of language here too. Exactly. Exactly. It's but,
you know, I as a high school teacher,
I heard that word quite a bit. You
know? And in fact, one of the other
words I heard throughout my life is, oh,
and and everybody, I think you know by
now that I am a lesbian, but I
would hear very often, you're gay. You're gay.
You're queer. And those were derogatory
words back then. Mhmm. I don't think they
quite fit in the queen's English.
Oh, no. You know what? For us,
being polite and kind was,
you know, no matter what you're saying, being
polite and kind is more important.
Period. So we were taught that too. It's
really important. And I think, Joni, that's a
gift that we were taught how to act
and be nice people, be kind people, loving
people. Therefore, when I have a roomful of
15 people who all wanna write a book,
there's an we're exuding, just like you, joy,
love, acceptance,
peace,
celebration of everyone, embracing everyone, no matter who
you are, where you're from, what you're doing.
Mhmm.
So, yeah, it's really it's all rooted in
childhood, and
Mhmm. Mhmm. And and you think of the
families that are really good at doing that,
just like your father sat at the table
while you did homework, and he's journaling. Mhmm.
So you're seeing him do his writing. Right.
You're doing your writing. What a role model
example. Yeah. All your families out there right
now, think about that. You could be journaling
for just two or three minutes at the
table with your children or grandchildren,
and what an impact that could make. Yes.
And concurrent with that, Joni, our mother was
at law school working full time all day,
law school at night for three years, studying
on the weekends,
and she was demonstrating
that hard work and sacrifice pay off. Yes.
Because she passed the bar exam on her
first try,
and she didn't become a lawyer to save
the world. She became a lawyer to send
her two daughters to college
because our father would be retiring right when
we hit 18 because he was older. Okay.
So she literally sent me and my sister
to the University of Michigan,
no scholarships, no financial aid. She paid for
it herself because she became a lawyer. Oh
my gosh. That is amazing. Yeah. Amazing.
Oh, I know. There's an emotional attachment there.
It's not just not the money that gets
you to college, but it was like she
did that for you and for Catherine. Right.
And so with that demonstrating the hard work
Yes. That taught us to be very industrious
and have a strong work ethic with our
company. Right on. Right on. You know? And
the title of this show is joyously free,
Elizabeth. Mhmm. To me, that is like a
joyously free moment. And I could see it
in your eyes when you had a little
bit of tears, a little bit of well
laid of of water in there. Mhmm. When
you talked about that, about your mom. And
and I have not met your mother. I
look forward to the day that I get
to. And I will see your dad when
I get to heaven. And I know my
my Carol and your dad are probably conversing
and talking right now Yeah. As our two
angels up there. Mhmm. But I I guess
my point is joyously free.
I had a blast
writing
with you Uh-huh. Coauthoring
the book joyously free. Mhmm. Will you talk
about your experience
working
with me
and contributing writers Mhmm. About joyously free? Well,
first of all, I absolutely love the title.
I love the cover of the exploding rainbow
colors that we selected that you now have
tattooed on your arm.
So I just glanced at that book cover,
and I'm so happy. Mhmm. And not only
do you and I get to share our
stories, but having 32 contributors,
most of whom had never been published before,
was huge. That is an act of being
joyously free to share your story.
Some of whom had, you know, never done
that
about being gay or LGBTQ plus
because that's huge.
Scary, you don't know how people will react,
and
that's a bold act, and that's our mission,
is to help people be bold, free,
and proud and proud, and sparkle, of course.
Yes, Yes. Oh, good. So I loved that
book. I still love that book. It makes
me happy just to look at it. Mhmm.
And it's filled with such guidance Mhmm. And
literally literal information that can help people. Mhmm.
And it has saved lives. It has helped
other people come out. Mhmm. It has helped
families,
especially grandparents and parents that are questioning,
how how do I how do I deal
with how do I accept, celebrate, even use
pronouns
for my daughter that has just transitioned to
a man? And how about my grandson that
has come out as bisexual?
So many issues that book has helped with.
Yeah. I I'm so happy about that. Mhmm.
You know? Well, that, Joni, like, we talk
about on our podcast on YouTube every Friday,
how
it's not just a book, it's a mission.
Mhmm. And it really,
is part of the mission of two sisters
writing and publishing
to
promote people
and inclusion, diversity,
love,
joy, and the book Joyously Free is so
a part of that.
Because everyone should be embraced and celebrated
for love.
We don't understand
how love can inspire hate in some. Mhmm.
When
people are in love with doesn't matter what
other gender. Mhmm. Some people cannot accept that.
We are just boggled. We don't get it.
So, when we publish a book promoting
Love is Love,
it is just a beautiful contribution
to the world. It just gives me chills
when you say that.
It's true. It's true. That's our mission, because
our parents' interracial marriage,
back in the sixties,
it was still illegal in 16 states for
people to have an interracial marriage when they
married,
which is dumb. We just cannot
comprehend
that. Mhmm.
Segregation,
discrimination.
All of it. Yes. Yeah. It's love,
period. Wins.
Period.
Yep. Love wins. Right?
Always. Yeah. Always and always.
I love it. Mhmm. So anything we can
do to contribute to that
message,
we do, and being a publisher
with that mission is very powerful. Awesome. Awesome.
Awesome. Awesome. Just a few nights ago,
you had the privilege, and contributing writers had
the privilege to meet you face to face,
eyeball to eyeball for the first time. What
was that like?
Oh my gosh. Oh, at the beautiful reception
that you hosted in an oceanfront home. Thank
you, John and Ron. That was beautiful.
Joni, that was beautiful,
especially,
Doris,
both Dorises, but Doris and, Kathy? Yes. Oh
my gosh. This lady, is she 93?
I 93? I wanna say 90 something. Yeah.
Oh my god. Here's this lady, so powerful,
so strong, and been at it for decades,
way before all the freedoms of today.
I admire her so much.
Blows my mind. I just hugged her and
hugged her and hugged her.
Oh, my gosh. Like, she's a trailblazer just
like you.
Doesn't care what the world thinks. She did
her thing. She lived her,
loved her partner
how she wanted to way
before. Right. It was open and out as
the world is today. Right. And her story
is so cool. She wrote it in joyously
free. And her story is she was married
to a man, has children, has grandchildren,
and then left that relationship when she realized
this is really not my true self. It
was I'm not being authentic. And she fell
in love with Kathy. And the way she
wrote it in the book, joyously free, just
touches your heart. It's just incredible. And then
meeting Sally.
Sally and Todd. Yes. And and,
Bob and Diane. Correct. Mhmm. Correct. That was
amazing to meet them,
and
just
face to face, because we all corresponded over
Zoom and email for the book, but to
meet them face to face and to thank
them for contributing to our book was amazing.
Right. And you're so full of gratitude and
thank you. I I think you must say
that a zillion times a day, but it's
all so beautifully, expressed when you say that.
It means something. Some people can say things,
like, all the time, and it doesn't mean
anything. But when you say thank you, I
know you mean it, and same with Catherine.
Oh, thanks, Joni. And that's a good point
for all the listeners. You know? So right
now, I wanna thank the listeners for being
with us. You know? You could be doing
anything else right now than but I'm I'm
so glad you're with us. I'm so glad
you're with us. Speaking of gratitude, Joni, Catherine
and I dedicated our new book to our
parents for the very reasons that I stated.
Oh, wow. Thomas Lee Atkins and Marilyn e
Atkins, judge Marilyn e Atkins. We dedicated it
to them, and we had a book sent
to my mother. She said, thanks for the
book. And we're like, did you read the
dedication? Oh, no. I'll read it in the
morning. I'm like, okay.
She just
she wrote her book, the triumph of rosemary,
and she's like, I don't need your tips.
But, anyway, she read the dedication. She was
That's a mom for you. Totally, totally, and
a judge.
She's like, I can do this myself. Uh-huh.
And she rocked it. Everybody loves her book
because she wrote it in a conversational way,
and it's hopefully gonna be a movie soon,
so. That's so cool. That's so cool. You
know, and speaking of your mother, I think
of my good friend, Dan, Daniel. Yes. And
so Dan and I, just recently had a
trip down to Loreto, Mexico. Mhmm. And he
shared with me that he has read your
mom's book
three times. Mhmm. And from front from the
beginning to the end, nonstop,
five, six, seven, eight, nine hours later. Amazing.
Can you talk about that? That blew my
mind when we well, we did our podcast.
Joni and Daniel were on the beach in
Mexico snowbound
Michigan,
but
that was fun.
But Daniel revealed that he's read this book
multiple times, and his statement is that if
she can do this, I can do anything.
Mhmm. And that's really the point of a
book. Mhmm. Mhmm. Is to is to fill
people with that kind of inspiration. Right. Mhmm.
It's so true. It's so true. Well, I
know we're gonna be winding down in a
few minutes, but I wanna ask, are there
any tips
that you would like to share that maybe
you've already shared at this beautiful South Coast
Writers Conference as a recap or a summary
Uh-huh. Or anything else on your heart? Any
tips? Any tips? Yes. Everybody should write their
life story whether you publish it or not.
The act of writing your life story reflecting
on what you've done throughout the decades of
your life
is an act of self love,
affirmation,
empowerment.
You are going to be filled with awe
that you survived certain things and you're still
standing,
that you learned from all the things you
never gave up because you're still here,
and that you have lessons to share. Mhmm.
And so, please write your story. Just start
today.
Start with making a list of all the
stories you always tell. Mhmm. At dinner parties
or with people you just met,
write those down and start writing them out.
And if you don't wanna write physically, you
can do it into your phone app, the,
audio app, and just start writing.
I mean, talking the stories out and then
do voice to text and you don't have
to do any writing yourself. Mhmm. But just
write it down. Your family
will love it. Mhmm. It's your legacy. Mhmm.
And it should be preserved. Absolutely. Mhmm. You
know? And related to that, I think back
when you were my coach, and you said,
Joni, what are the the stories you always
tell people? And they're funny ones. It was
the javelinas, these wild boar Right. That came
into our condo, and they're running all around.
And and you have to read about it
and none better. But the bottom line was
these five humongous boars, you know, 100 pounds
with coarse hair and big tusks Oh my
god. Into the sliding glass door. And and
then and then the scene of of Carol
and I at the Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and
the holy water spilled all over, and I
have a wet T shirt act. And so
but, you know, so when when you're writing
down these things, you're gonna have hilarious ones,
and you're gonna have really, really deep,
saddening,
hard, depressed kind of things that come out.
And so what I loved about your coaching
and your experience, and you've shared that here
at the seminar,
is to be authentic Mhmm. And let that
writing heal you. Yes. Absolutely. Would you comment
just a little bit on that? Yes. So
when you write about it, you're purging. There's
all this pent up energy around the trauma,
the pain, the hurt. And when you write
about it, you purged out of your body
just like if you have an upset stomach
and you throw up. Your body got rid
of that offending substance, so you feel better.
And that's what happens when you write. It's
very healing. It allows you to reflect and
release it literally.
Mhmm. Perfect. Okay. Twenty seconds. Give us a
quick little final comments.
Oh, okay. Everybody, please write your book. I'm
very grateful that I'm here with you, Joni.
And everybody, please get our book, Write Your
Book in a Day, The Blueprint for Turning
Your Book Dreams into Published Reality. And where
do they get it? Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
2sisterswriting.com,
anywhere you buy books online.
It's a brand new book, and it will
change your life. Absolutely. And if you're in
Brookings, Oregon, it has been donated and at
the library. Yes. Check check the library. And
it will be in the Crescent City library
soon. Right on. Mhmm. Right on. Thank you,
Tony. Oh my gosh, Elizabeth. This is so
cool. It's, like, high fives, hugs, and everything.
So I wanna thank you, the beautiful listeners,
on the gorgeous Southern Oregon area, the middle
of the Rogue Valley, and, of course, Northern
California,
the majestic Rogue Valley, the the coastal area
right here. We have enjoyed you being joyously
free with us today. We hope you've been
inspired, challenged, and have had
great stories and tips to give you the
guts to go do and what what recommended
by Elizabeth. Write your book. Wowser Wowser. What
a phenomenal day with you. High tens, hugs,
lots of clapping. If we could have a
clapping app, that would be great. We wanna
thank Tom,
Mike, and especially Mike for setting this up
here at SWOC, the Outwest Oregon Community College
right in this room here. It's fantastic.
We wanna thank KCIW,
KZZH,
KSKQ.
Please share this. Relisten to it. Let's give
a couple shout outs to the people that
sponsor JoyCie free radio. Steve Van Cleave up
in Alaska,
Sally and Todd Roy. Thank you so much
for making this dream a reality.
Remember, you can find my books or you
can find more of these podcasts
right here locally and or around in all
any of those areas. So with that, on
behalf of KCIW, KZZH,
KSKQ,
Nate Dawg, Jeff, Mike, Tom, Candice, Rose, we
say thanks for tuning in. See you around
town.
Smile big and
wear bright colors. Woo hoo.
Thank you. Thank you. Love day, everybody.
Thanks, Joni.