Some of you might remember my interview that came out early this year with Barbara Hinske because of The Christmas Club. Well, I happened to chat with Barbara a few months back during the height of the pandemic, and I have only recently been able to post about it due to my new job!
So please sit back and listen to/watch/read the transcript of my interview with Barbara regarding her new book Guiding Emily.
YouTube Transcript:
00:06
well i am
00:07
so happy today uh to have with me
00:11
a wonderful author um
00:14
i’m going to let her introduce herself
00:17
um
00:17
barbara go ahead okay hey everybody
00:21
i’m barbara hinsky i’m a novelist
00:24
um you may know me from my rosemont
00:26
series of women’s fiction novels coming
00:28
to rosemont is the first
00:30
in the series i’ve also written the
00:32
christmas club
00:33
um a novello that was made into a
00:35
homework channel
00:36
uh christmas movie for 2019 with cameron
00:39
madison and
00:40
elizabeth mitchell so maybe you saw that
00:42
if you’re a hallmarking
00:44
and i’ve recently published my first
00:47
murder mystery deadly parcel i’ve got
00:50
another one coming out
00:52
final circuit in august but
00:55
the big news or maybe september um
00:58
[Music]
00:59
i’m here today to talk about my most
01:01
recent book guiding emily which is the
01:03
first in the series
01:05
all right well barbara it’s great i know
01:07
that we’ve talked to the phone before
01:09
because i love the christmas club i
01:12
absolutely love the christmas club and i
01:14
and with christmas in july i know it’s
01:17
i i know it’s i believe it’s replayed
01:20
already
01:21
uh i think or it will be okay okay
01:24
it was on sunday and it’s got two more
01:26
earrings yeah okay okay
01:28
i mean that was already i was already so
01:31
excited for that movie because i
01:32
i i love karen matheson and then i
01:34
remember that we got connected because
01:36
of that because of that movie
01:38
and you actually got to go visit visit
01:40
the set i remember that
01:42
yeah we talked about we talked about
01:43
that in our last interview
01:45
um so just briefly with the christmas
01:49
club now since that’s been rearing have
01:52
have you have people been like talking
01:55
like like discovering you maybe for the
01:57
first time or rediscovering you
01:59
yeah it’s it’s been interesting i mean
02:01
thank goodness for the hallmark
02:03
um stuff we were on location
02:06
a year ago this week in winnipeg during
02:09
a heat wave in winnipeg i’ve been
02:11
looking at the temperatures
02:13
up there now and it would have been
02:14
lovely if it was
02:16
the way it is now but they started
02:19
filming again
02:20
um hallmark movies christmas movies in
02:22
winnipeg this week and so my director is
02:25
filming a new movie and i was
02:27
facebooking back and forth with him and
02:29
he was on a facebook live that i did on
02:31
sunday with
02:32
with the christmas club our movie in the
02:34
background and so we chatted and then i
02:37
that some of the extras were on that and
02:40
so
02:40
there’s just been it’s been just a
02:42
wonderful little
02:44
you know facebook reunion on all of that
02:47
and so
02:47
the sales of the christmas club are up a
02:50
little bit and
02:51
i’m hoping people are discovering it in
02:53
the movie and
02:54
frankly don’t we all need as much happy
02:57
positive
02:58
as we can get our hands on
03:01
absolutely and i can’t i can’t think of
03:03
a better movie i mean that was truly
03:06
a favorite of mine i mean i have i have
03:08
lots of favorites from last year but
03:09
that was a favorite of mine and
03:12
and i couldn’t think of a better movie
03:15
to really promote positivity and
03:18
doing things for others and and the
03:21
whole idea
03:22
of you doing this random act of kindness
03:26
and it coming back to you i mean you
03:27
don’t do it because
03:29
you want that to happen but you do it
03:31
with the right motivation and then it
03:32
just comes back to you in
03:34
ways that you never expected and so i
03:37
love that
03:38
well and i think you’re living i want to
03:40
give a shout out to you because you’ve
03:41
been
03:42
you have who knew i mean you knew but i
03:44
didn’t know until recently that you have
03:46
this
03:47
phenomenal trained voice and you’ve been
03:51
using it with these beautiful posts
03:54
with you singing these lovely
03:57
faith-filled inspirational songs and
04:00
it’s just been such a gift to everybody
04:02
and it may look effortless and maybe it
04:04
is but i don’t i don’t think it is i
04:06
think it takes
04:07
uh time and effort and planning
04:10
to make it look so seamless so kudos and
04:13
thank you well i i appreciate you saying
04:17
that that’s
04:17
that’s been that’s been something that
04:20
i’ve been able to reconnect with
04:22
during this time and and back to taking
04:25
voice lessons and
04:27
and it’s been it’s been really exciting
04:29
and then i’ve had
04:30
i’ve had a friend an actor friend who’s
04:34
been
04:35
very very supportive and has helped me
04:38
you know
04:38
the videos continue to get better
04:40
because he’s giving me all these
04:41
pointers
04:42
on how and i’m on how to shoot them
04:45
better how to deal how to do this
04:47
and so it’s so it’s yeah it’s been it’s
04:49
been great yeah
04:50
so so i’m glad that you’ve enjoyed that
04:52
i know i’ve heard that
04:54
for many people so that’s that’s
04:55
exciting to hear um
04:57
yeah so i am really excited i actually
04:59
the next book i will be reading
05:01
is guiding emily i’ve gotten way
05:04
behind yeah just with everything that’s
05:07
happened
05:08
uh you’d think that you have all this
05:10
time you know you think oh i’m gonna be
05:11
at home and lock down and i’m gonna do
05:13
all this and
05:14
then for some reason it just it just
05:17
doesn’t happen
05:19
you just you you sometimes you get to
05:21
watching the news which is always a bad
05:23
but
05:23
always a always a bad idea yeah
05:26
from the news sometimes and you get into
05:29
that or and then you just
05:30
i i went through some times where i was
05:32
really unmotivated and so i got behind
05:34
but
05:35
your book guided emily i remember you
05:37
told me about that
05:38
when we had our last interview and i’m
05:39
so excited so so why don’t you tell us
05:42
about you know emily a little bit okay
05:44
thank you for that and i agree
05:46
this is a time when we all feel
05:48
untethered for sure
05:50
um and day-to-day tasks do take longer
05:54
at any rate so guiding emily is a novel
05:57
it’s a love story between garth the
05:59
guide dog and
06:00
he’s on the cover based upon a real-life
06:03
guide dog
06:03
whose name is gnocchi but anyway garth
06:06
the guide dog and emily maine his
06:08
handler
06:09
who loses her eyesight on her honeymoon
06:11
and it’s the
06:12
tale of their journey to find each other
06:16
okay and i seem to remember that you did
06:20
you did some pretty great research for
06:22
this particular book
06:24
i was so fortunate to have so many
06:27
avenues open to me
06:29
the idea for the book came to me when i
06:31
was touring the foundation for blind
06:33
children in phoenix arizona
06:35
and i’m donating half of my proceeds to
06:37
the foundation for blind children
06:39
so i was i was i’ve lived down the
06:41
street from them for literally 30 years
06:43
and never been in their facility
06:45
and i happened to meet the development
06:47
director and he said you know
06:49
you and your husband come take a tour
06:50
you’ve got to see this place so we did
06:53
oh and i was so moved as i was
06:56
observing what was going on in those
06:58
classrooms this is a
07:00
facility a school for the blind that
07:02
takes children with
07:04
multiple disabilities and many children
07:06
who are blind are also
07:08
born with other disabilities and so the
07:11
foundation is one of the
07:13
few schools that will treat everyone no
07:16
one gets turned away
07:17
and they have children up to age 105 so
07:20
they
07:21
serve as a large adult population i was
07:23
in tears by the
07:24
time we were done and i turned to
07:26
stephen said what do you need what can i
07:28
do to help and he said well
07:29
we need to raise awareness within the
07:32
sighted community
07:33
of the isolation that the blind feel
07:37
and we’re a non-profit we need money so
07:40
i said okay
07:41
this is great i’m a novelist and a
07:43
novelist can do both of those things
07:45
a novel can do both of those things
07:47
raise awareness and raise money
07:51
so i got started and because
07:55
so i told him i’m gonna donate have my
07:57
proceeds to you
07:59
they were unfailingly kind and opening
08:02
their doors to me
08:03
that’s how i met gnocchi because one of
08:05
the staff members there
08:07
um works she’s a senior counselor and
08:10
she
08:11
her guide dog is gnocchi by the way
08:14
interesting aside this woman is also my
08:17
personal dog trainer now
08:20
um and she’s she shows dogs
08:23
she shows dogs like at westminster and
08:25
she’s blind
08:27
and she’s the best dog trainer i have
08:28
ever had
08:30
so it goes to show so i did
08:35
she let she got a group of her newly
08:39
blind
08:40
adults in her group therapy session
08:44
signed waivers and let me come in and
08:46
attend their therapy
08:48
and it was so eye-opening to hear about
08:50
the panic attacks
08:52
and the anxiety and
08:55
what you go through as an adult who
08:58
loses their sight one woman
09:01
had gone in for an emergency c-section
09:04
her baby did not make it and she lost
09:08
her eyesight she woke up blind
09:11
i mean try and put your mind around that
09:14
um the foundation
09:18
gave me white cane training which was
09:21
you know they put
09:22
goggles on you that replicate a certain
09:25
kind of blindness i had a little
09:27
pinprick of vision left
09:30
and you know there i am taking the
09:31
training or outside with the cane
09:33
so i know a i am sighted b i can take
09:36
those goggles off
09:38
i’ve got a guy you know an instructor
09:40
with me nothing’s going to happen to me
09:43
and i can tell you when we stepped
09:45
outside and i’m along a street i had a
09:47
full-blown panic attack
09:50
um it was so interesting so that’s the
09:53
blind
09:54
side of research and i met with the
09:56
doctors and talked to the doctors about
09:58
all of this
10:00
and then i wanted to get better
10:03
acquainted with the dog site
10:05
of my book because half of the or not
10:07
half but
10:08
there are a number of um chapters
10:11
written from garth’s point of view to
10:13
because
10:13
obviously there’s a lot of heavy stuff
10:15
going on in this book it would be a
10:17
really draggy down kind of read and i
10:20
don’t i write everything uplifting and
10:22
encouraging so
10:23
garth is provides some lightness
10:26
so i was lucky enough to get introduced
10:29
to guide dogs for the blind in
10:31
california went over and spent three
10:33
days
10:34
behind the scenes there learning about
10:37
their processes
10:38
which was so helpful and all along the
10:41
way
10:42
the guide dog community and
10:45
the visually and who’s your daughter in
10:47
your visually impaired community have
10:50
been
10:51
overwhelmingly supportive so that’s i’m
10:54
sorry a long-winded answer but that’s
10:56
what i got to do
10:57
no that’s that’s that’s fine yes yes
10:59
yeah yeah for those of you who
11:01
who probably noticed yeah my daughter
11:03
stuck her head out she’s kind of like
11:04
what’s going on
11:06
my daughter is 17. she’s fine she just
11:08
she didn’t she’s probably just got up so
11:10
that’s
11:11
that’s that’s the joys of this time
11:13
period too
11:14
right you get you can have some
11:15
interruptions at home but yeah no that’s
11:17
great no i’m glad you gave that whole
11:19
story that was
11:20
that’s fantastic because i
11:24
think that a lot of us a lot of us
11:28
who don’t have these disabilities forget
11:31
i will be honest i forget about the
11:34
people who have these disabilities as
11:36
far as
11:37
you know they’re blind and i i mean i’m
11:39
i’m having interactions now i’ve got
11:41
somebody in a course with me
11:43
who is who is deaf and
11:47
and she reads lips it’s unbelievable she
11:49
she
11:50
she is this unbelievable lip reader so
11:52
like she never has to have it
11:53
interpreted
11:54
and it’s just it’s like why and but you
11:57
just
11:58
you take those things for granted but
12:01
when you don’t have them and and so i’m
12:04
i’m really grateful that
12:06
you had all you know you were able to be
12:07
exposed to all that and now you’ve got a
12:09
book
12:09
that’s that’s really shining the light
12:11
on on
12:13
on this part of our community that we
12:14
sometimes forget about
12:16
so thank you for doing that thank you
12:20
you know this i felt like i was given
12:23
the idea for the book
12:25
when i was i feel divinely i know
12:27
everybody
12:28
doesn’t believe in this but i do i feel
12:30
divinely guided
12:31
the the idea for the book dropped into
12:33
my lap during that tour
12:35
i wrote it i mean there was significant
12:39
research for this book and i
12:40
between conception and finishing the
12:43
book was
12:44
six months that’s incredibly fast
12:47
everything fell into place i did all the
12:49
research
12:50
doors were open the cover took half an
12:52
hour to design
12:54
um it’s been
12:57
astounding um one thing i if i can
13:00
mention one thing
13:01
when i was at guide dogs for the blind i
13:03
attended a puppy graduation ceremony
13:05
where
13:06
everybody should go but pack every piece
13:09
of kleenex you can get your hands on
13:10
because you will be sobbing
13:12
it’s where the puppy raisers come
13:15
and the handlers who are getting the
13:17
guide dogs and have been working with
13:19
their dog for two weeks
13:20
it’s kind of a a ceremony where they get
13:22
all them together
13:24
and transfer that dog i was
13:28
well the one i attended um there was a
13:31
family of ten who drove
13:33
from texas to california
13:36
okay that’s huge to attend this ceremony
13:40
where their the dog that they had raised
13:42
for 15 months
13:44
was officially becoming the dog of this
13:47
man who
13:49
was probably in his mid-50s i think he
13:53
worked for
13:53
apple at any rate he had a high job
13:57
in a tech giant in san francisco
14:00
and was very polished when it was his
14:03
turn to speak
14:04
and he said this broke my heart he said
14:07
well
14:08
when he got he was looking forward to
14:09
going to the office because
14:11
now maybe peop maybe he would have more
14:14
friends
14:15
because people would come to talk to him
14:16
to see his dog
14:18
i thought oh that speaks to this
14:21
isolation piece
14:24
i worked in a law firm where there was a
14:28
man a law department of corporation
14:31
there was a blind man in another
14:32
department he and i didn’t
14:34
interface but we were on the same floor
14:37
and if i saw him in the hallway i would
14:39
just kind of get out of his way
14:42
thinking i just don’t want to disturb
14:43
him well that’s the wrong thing to do
14:46
that made him feel isolated of course he
14:49
could hear me there
14:50
um i should have said hey john
14:54
good morning barb from it’s bar from the
14:55
legal department
14:58
um i didn’t know now i know and i want
15:01
people
15:03
to be aware of that also guide dogs from
15:05
the blind i said what do you need
15:07
since they were being so helpful they
15:08
said we need
15:10
people to raise awareness which i do in
15:12
my book of the
15:14
serious threats posed to legitimate
15:16
service dogs
15:18
by phony service dogs where people
15:21
have take out these untrained dogs with
15:24
you know these internet purchase
15:25
vests um and then
15:29
the poorly trained dog will get in a
15:31
fight with a service dog
15:32
which basically puts this service dog
15:36
out of commission generally that sort of
15:39
uh interaction ruins the service service
15:42
dog
15:43
it costs 50 grand to hire to train
15:46
a service dog plus can you imagine
15:49
you’re
15:50
you’re blind you’re out there relying on
15:53
your dog
15:54
and all of a sudden they’re out of
15:55
commission that’s
15:57
hideous hideous so
16:01
wow that that is
16:05
well i that’s that really is amazing i i
16:08
i didn’t again i didn’t know that was
16:10
going on either there’s all these things
16:11
i love getting to learn all these new
16:13
things that’s
16:14
always what i enjoy and um so now you
16:17
mentioned that this is the first book in
16:19
a series is that what you said
16:21
yes yes i wrote it so because i love
16:24
reading and writing series and i wrote
16:26
it so that if
16:27
the reactions if people wanted more i
16:30
could give them more
16:31
i’ve already got some really great ideas
16:34
for what’ll happen um
16:36
going forward and the reviews have been
16:38
stunning so i will write
16:40
that’s good i will write a second book
16:43
one of the nice things about the review
16:45
too is that this book has been
16:48
so warmly welcomed by the visually
16:51
impaired
16:53
um community and i was i didn’t want
16:56
them to be
16:56
victimized patronized um
17:00
any of that i wanted this to be honoring
17:02
even though
17:03
it’s it’s her journey you know you go
17:05
into
17:06
despair denial depression and then back
17:10
up one of the
17:13
ophthalmologists i know who helped me
17:16
with this book
17:17
whose practice is solely the visually
17:20
impaired
17:21
and was pretty lukewarm about the idea
17:24
of the book to be honest with you
17:26
um has read it and is crazy about
17:30
it i’m so proud of that and is now
17:32
recommending it as a required reading
17:35
for all of her patients because it
17:36
accurately portrays
17:38
so i’m proud of that because the last
17:40
thing i wanted to do was
17:43
upset them right exactly yeah um
17:46
so do you think the possibility would
17:49
exist
17:51
for this book to be made into a movie at
17:53
some point
17:54
do you think that’s a i sure do
17:57
i think it’s a and i wrote it now that i
18:00
know a little more about the process
18:02
to be a cinematic kind of book
18:05
i’m um you know who knows
18:09
it it is being looked at of course
18:12
now it’s a little tough time but i’m not
18:14
going to worry about that
18:16
i think the the character of emily
18:20
is deep enough and broad enough that
18:22
there are a lot of actresses that could
18:25
play that part emma stone
18:28
is a local gal to me and i would love
18:31
for
18:32
it to get into her hands for her to read
18:34
it but there’s a whole
18:35
long list of people who could play these
18:38
different
18:38
characters and i do think it’s going to
18:42
be
18:43
adapted for the screen and i don’t think
18:44
it’s going to be a long
18:47
time coming i also wonder if we couldn’t
18:50
just
18:51
cast a blind woman that’s oh
18:55
protagonist and i know that there are
19:00
associations of blind actors and now
19:03
that i’ve
19:04
been around so many blind people that
19:06
you would never
19:07
in a million years know that they’re
19:09
blind um
19:11
i’m thinking why not yeah so i don’t but
19:15
i do think this is in god’s hands so
19:16
it’s gonna be
19:19
you know what better hands could it be
19:20
in exactly yeah no i
19:22
i’m right with you i love it when they
19:25
hit when they
19:27
when when studios are able to cast
19:29
people
19:30
who have that particular disability
19:32
whatever it may be i think that
19:34
is i because there’s not enough of that
19:37
i get really really excited when
19:40
when i see someone who’s been cast had a
19:43
disability and then they’re actually
19:44
playing somebody who has that disability
19:46
i mean how
19:46
how awesome is that i i i would you know
19:49
i mean in this time period when they’re
19:52
wanting so much diversity
19:54
you know there’s a real push for that
19:56
well let’s not forget
19:57
yes i am all for diversity i love
20:00
diversity
20:00
but let’s not forget those who are
20:03
disabled who have
20:04
whether whatever the disability might be
20:07
because sometimes
20:09
sometimes you don’t mean to but
20:12
sometimes they just
20:13
they you don’t think about them
20:15
sometimes i mean
20:16
i mean and i just so i’m right with you
20:19
well we will
20:20
well you know i we’re well i’m gonna
20:22
definitely get the word out
20:23
and hopefully people will we’ll
20:27
we’ll catch we’ll catch that vision
20:29
because that would be great i like that
20:30
we’ll hold that
20:31
thought in prayer and that’s right
20:33
that’s i thank you for that
20:35
that’s really good definitely definitely
20:38
um
20:38
now you did mention while i have you
20:40
here you mentioned uh that you’ve
20:42
recently published your first murder
20:44
mystery as well
20:45
yes ah now i’m a huge mystery fan
20:50
like really i i love the mysteries and
20:53
so
20:54
um and that’s good that’s also a series
20:56
too is that what you
20:57
that’s what you’re saying no well i
20:59
decided
21:00
it’s deadly parcel is a standalone but i
21:04
decided i needed to tell my readers that
21:06
it isn’t you’re not in rosemont anymore
21:08
um so i’m calling it book one in my
21:12
who’s their
21:13
collection oh okay okay now i understand
21:16
all right thanks for clarifying that
21:18
the similarities are i mean you know
21:20
it’s it’s a murder mystery so that’s
21:22
different
21:24
but one of the reviewers said it’s um
21:29
there’s no blood and guts which there
21:31
aren’t i hate that
21:32
and he said there’s pervasive niceness
21:35
other than there is
21:36
a very bad guy so i think it’s still
21:40
an affirming read but i do think
21:43
i have the main characters taking the
21:46
lord’s name in vain as a couple of
21:48
once and i’ve gotten taken to task on
21:51
reviews on that so
21:52
if that is going to be a non-starter for
21:55
someone then
21:56
then they shouldn’t pick it up because i
21:58
don’t want anybody to be upset
21:59
right exactly yeah well and
22:02
and i and i understand that actually i
22:04
appreciate that you said that because
22:06
i’m always one of those reviewers
22:08
that i will go through i i will try to
22:10
think of
22:11
anything that might hit might be a
22:14
problem
22:14
for my readers and so
22:18
yeah so i appreciate it you said that
22:19
it’s not it’s not really something that
22:21
keeps me away from reading books but i
22:23
know it can be
22:24
something yeah so that’s that’s yeah
22:26
absolutely yeah
22:27
but but it does sound like i mean so
22:30
now what what inspired you to write a
22:34
murder mystery was this something you
22:36
always wanted to do
22:37
you know i always wanted to do it and at
22:39
the time i wrote it i thought i had
22:41
concluded the rosemont series i’d always
22:44
thought that would be a five book series
22:46
and i would move on and i did
22:48
and then i had so many requests for more
22:51
books in the rosemont series and i
22:52
started working on it because i didn’t
22:54
want it to be a lame extension
22:56
whereas so she keeps writing these books
22:59
it had to have some vibrancy to it
23:02
and some motion you can’t just have the
23:04
same
23:05
characters treading the same thing all
23:07
the time
23:08
and so i work with my writing coach and
23:10
i think we came up with some new avenues
23:13
and some new things that are interesting
23:15
to me and evidently have been
23:16
interesting to the readers because the
23:18
sixth book and now i’m working on the
23:20
seventh book have done well so
23:23
it was a little hiatus i’ll tell you
23:25
it’s harder to write a murder mystery
23:28
just because you have to be as you will
23:30
know
23:31
you have to know where you’re going with
23:33
all of it it’s easy to paint yourself
23:36
in a corner and people who read
23:38
mysteries are the crossword
23:40
puzzle doers and they’ll catch you out
23:43
on any little
23:44
thing so you got to be on your game
23:47
they’re a lot of work
23:48
oh yeah yeah i’ve i have
23:52
i have ideas for mysteries
23:55
i’ve not actually put i’ve not actually
23:58
tried to write them but i realized as i
24:00
began thinking through the plot it’s
24:01
like
24:02
wow you know you’ve really you’ve really
24:05
got to be smart
24:06
[Music]
24:08
yes yes no that’s okay um
24:11
and so you’re going to be coming out
24:13
with another mystery is that what you
24:14
said you have another mystery yeah i had
24:16
written two
24:17
so the second one final circuit i think
24:19
is
24:20
either august or beginning of september
24:24
um and i like the protagonist in this
24:28
one
24:28
very very much the main character is
24:30
really interesting to me
24:32
she’s smart she um
24:36
has a cleft palate another person that
24:38
wasn’t repaired accurately
24:40
and people discount her because of the
24:42
way she speaks
24:44
but she’s smart um her hobby i always
24:47
like
24:48
quirky things like this so i like to
24:50
research them so her hobby is restoring
24:53
vintage toasters and her knowledge helps
24:57
her at the end of the book but
24:58
anyway um so i don’t know there’s
25:01
there’s some fun stuff in that book and
25:04
there’s of course a little bit of
25:05
romance in both of them
25:07
right exactly oh that’s great that’s
25:10
well that’s you certainly right you know
25:14
in a good variety of genres now you’ve
25:17
really branched out here that’s that’s
25:19
exciting
25:20
to see that yeah so um
25:23
it’s kind of something something for
25:25
everyone is almost
25:27
as is you know are you planning to write
25:30
in other genres
25:31
um still
25:34
no i think between murder mystery and
25:38
you know the solid general fiction
25:40
women’s fiction
25:42
my brand i if i have a brand is
25:45
encouraging
25:46
inspiring uplifting comforting right
25:50
um nothing too dark i don’t see i don’t
25:53
see the world through a dark lens
25:56
um and i don’t want to put it out there
25:59
i’ve got
26:00
plenty to keep me busy just right there
26:04
in that wheelhouse
26:05
oh yeah i can imagine um
26:08
so during during this
26:11
lockdown um this we’ve been
26:15
we’ve been experiencing um yeah
26:18
what so how what what have you been
26:22
doing
26:22
i’m sure you’ve been writing i mean i
26:24
have i have no doubt but what have you
26:26
been doing
26:27
to keep yourself sane during this time
26:31
you know and you’re absolutely right i
26:33
mean one has to decide
26:36
to make that choice i’m going to do
26:38
something to keep myself sane because in
26:40
the beginning
26:42
um i was watching way too much news and
26:45
was feeling very untethered
26:47
and frankly i found just
26:50
just procuring things ordering
26:54
stuff online and groceries that took an
26:56
enormous amount of time and follow-up
26:59
so i do limit the amount of time i
27:03
spend looking at the news i do it every
27:05
day i keep myself informed in my writing
27:07
my social media
27:09
but i’m involving my hobbies more
27:13
i’m walking my dogs more which is good
27:15
for me
27:16
i always said when i retired a year ago
27:18
to write full time that i would be
27:20
cooking more
27:21
that didn’t happen until coveted i had
27:23
to and now i’m
27:25
cooking more i was baking more
27:28
putting on some weight the baking is on
27:30
lock down now
27:32
until i lose the weight um playing my
27:34
piano doing puzzles
27:36
and i’m trying to learn calligraphy i
27:38
always wanted to
27:40
i branched out i think brush lettering
27:43
is going to be easier
27:45
so i’ve got all the supplies and set up
27:48
where i can leave them set up and it’s
27:50
not in anybody’s way
27:51
so um i’m doing those things and being
27:55
happy doing them and you know but even
27:59
though
27:59
there’s really nowhere i want or need to
28:02
go
28:04
i just find it a little truthfully a
28:06
little unsettling
28:08
to realize you know i really just
28:10
shouldn’t be i can’t
28:11
really jump in the car and go someplace
28:13
i shouldn’t for my good and for everyone
28:15
else’s
28:16
so i’m not yeah oh yeah i
28:19
i i totally hear you i mean it was the
28:21
same way
28:22
with us um i’ve got i’ve got my daughter
28:26
who of course that affected her school
28:28
and then uh then my parents and
28:31
i was the one who was telling my parents
28:34
like
28:35
you you’re you’re not going out like i
28:37
had to keep telling my mom you’re
28:39
you’re not going out i will do this you
28:42
you know you’re
28:43
yeah you don’t need to go out i mean
28:44
thankfully our
28:46
area was not real has not really
28:50
been affected hardly at all which has
28:52
been
28:53
a good thing i mean our state has been
28:55
affected washington state yeah
28:57
of course of course washington state is
28:59
famous speaker
29:01
openness because that’s where the first
29:03
official case i know but that was
29:05
a little ways from us so it wasn’t and
29:08
it hasn’t really
29:09
affected our area per se but but there
29:13
is something
29:14
i totally get what you’re saying there’s
29:16
something about
29:18
being told you have to stay home it’s
29:21
like you have to it’s like
29:23
we were already staying home a lot it
29:25
wasn’t like we go out a lot we live in
29:26
the country
29:27
but yeah it was that idea of you
29:31
actually are not supposed to go out you
29:34
need to stay home you’re supposed to
29:36
stay home it’s like
29:37
okay there’s there is a there’s
29:40
it’s a it is unsettling i agree with you
29:44
very much well and you know i live in an
29:47
urban area and crazy
29:50
the gps as gps is often wrong put
29:55
my address as the location of a free
29:58
coveted testing site
29:59
and if you’ve seen on the news arizona
30:01
has 10 and 12 hour waits
30:03
so got up one morning and the cars were
30:06
backed i mean we couldn’t even get out
30:08
of our driveway so finally put out a
30:10
sign saying in in english and spanish no
30:13
cova testing
30:15
and it kind of cleared up but every once
30:17
in a while
30:18
they haven’t updated the gps and i don’t
30:20
know how to get that to
30:22
happen every once in a while people are
30:24
driving around i feel sorry for them
30:25
there’s
30:26
they’re trying to line up they’re ill
30:29
um so it’s
30:32
it’s just a little bit of craziness
30:36
goodness well bad
30:39
i cannot even imagine oh my well
30:42
yeah shocking yeah
30:45
um all right um so is there
30:48
so we’ve got guiding emily is out uh
30:51
yeah of course they can look up your
30:53
rosemont series they can look up
30:55
uh the christmas club and and and
30:58
what was the name of your murder mystery
30:59
this out and i forgot um
31:02
deadly parcel okay and if i can just
31:04
mention on
31:05
guiding emily it’s available from a
31:08
website called
31:09
bookshare for the visually impaired they
31:11
have
31:12
memberships but it is available and it
31:14
can be
31:15
checked out of the foundation for blind
31:18
children in braille
31:19
and it will be coming out in audible as
31:22
well but
31:23
so that’s something people should know
31:27
that’s great and then you have another
31:29
murder mystery coming out
31:31
and you’re currently working on on your
31:34
next book in the restaurant series isn’t
31:35
that right
31:36
yeah okay yeah all right editing yeah
31:39
yeah
31:39
okay all right and
31:41
[Music]
31:43
well wow that is there did we miss
31:45
anything was there anything that i
31:47
missed
31:48
no you’re so thorough
31:51
this has been lovely to catch up with
31:53
you oh
31:54
you’re all over instagram and social
31:56
media so i i know what you’re up to but
31:58
this has been
32:00
the highlight of my my week this is nice
32:03
i’m glad to hear that well i’m i think
32:05
it’ll be great the reader
32:07
my my readers will enjoy
32:10
getting to actually see you and they i’m
32:13
i’m hearing more and more they like they
32:16
like seeing me on video and so it’s like
32:18
okay
32:18
so we’re going to do some more of that
32:20
and and
32:21
so um you know i appreciate that you
32:24
wanted to do this i appreciate that
32:25
because sometimes
32:26
sometimes writers don’t want to be on
32:28
video um
32:31
well you do have to do your hair and
32:33
makeup such as it is
32:34
so yeah it’s it’s it’s oh you look great
32:37
i mean you’re all set up yeah
32:39
you look great so all right well i will
32:41
be sure to put
32:42
all of your links and everything in the
32:45
description
32:46
and so people people will be able to
32:48
follow you um
32:50
because you’re you’re on instagram and
32:52
twitter and facebook i know i see
32:54
and and you post very regularly you are
32:56
one of the writers
32:58
not every writer does but i notice you
33:01
post very regularly so and
33:02
and you post a lot of fun training yeah
33:05
and you post a lot of fun things you
33:06
don’t just post
33:08
business but you know you post your own
33:10
things you’ll be like oh
33:11
i like that you know i like i like this
33:13
i’ll be i’ll steal that and share that
33:15
elsewhere because it’s it’s please
33:17
yeah it’s all about positivity that’s
33:19
right that’s right
33:20
all right well thank you barbara so much
33:23
and
33:24
i will look forward to sharing this soon
33:27
and
33:27
um so i think
33:31
have a great have a great rest of your
33:34
week
33:34
and um
33:39
okay thank you so much keep these guns
33:41
keep the music coming it’s a blessing
33:43
people thank you
33:44
okay so much okay
33:55
[Music]
33:57
[Applause]
33:58
you
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