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Today I have with me Lynn McDonald , and

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Lynn is an inspirational writer

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of children's books . Lynn's website

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, the Green Light Pages , inspires everyone

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by promoting positivity , growth

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and healing . Lynn resides in Delaware

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, where she took a leap of faith to write her first

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book , the Great Tree and the Ladybug

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. Hi , lynn , thank you for joining me . How

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are you ?

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I'm doing very well , Deb . Thank you so much for

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having me . Oh , you are welcome .

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So I'd like to ask two questions to get us

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warmed up . If you could have any

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superpower , which one would you

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have ?

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I would love to fly , because

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I think just being able to see

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the world from a different perspective that

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you wouldn't normally be able to do , I

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think that would be really pretty

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amazing . And to be able to go places that

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not everybody could go , you

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know , I think it would really open you up to a whole

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other perspective and , as

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a writer , I think that would give me some really good inspiration

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, right .

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Oh , absolutely , I like that . All

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right . So what is your favorite app on your

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phone currently ?

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Well , I try not to be on my phone

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as much , but I

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would have to say Canva is probably my

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favorite , because I

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started to do a lot more with Instagram

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and my Green Light Pages , facebook

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page , and Canva has given me

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the opportunity

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to be creative that way and

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share my writing , my poetry

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, just

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even like flyers for

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my book and stuff like that . Like it's provided

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a lot of templates and things

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like that , so I probably use that one . The

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most .

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That definitely is an extensive and intensive

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app . I use that one also .

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There's a lot . I don't know for sure , I

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just scratched the surface with it . But

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that's probably been my favorite

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so far with just . At

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first I was using a lot of their photos

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and stuff and then lately I've

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been trying to use more of my own photography .

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Oh , there you go .

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So when I go out in nature and take pictures , rather

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than using a random photo

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from Canva or whatever , I'm trying

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to use my own backgrounds and things like that . So

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it's been a great tool for just

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being able to create and then

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share your creations

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. I've really enjoyed it .

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I agree with that , and you don't absolutely

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have to be a very creative person . That's

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why I like it , because I can go in and

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get ideas and then I can change

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up what they offer .

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Right . I mean there's a lot I would like to

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maybe branch out with with , like animation type stuff

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. I haven't really spent a lot of

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time with that . Same thing with Instagram

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and the Reels . I've made a few

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, but there's just so

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much out there now that you can actually do and

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people are . They're

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sharing a lot of their creativity

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in really amazing ways , and

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I'd like to continue to learn more and

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just see what I can come up with . That's

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your creative side . Well

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, it's cool to be able to foster

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it in ways that you can't do by yourself . So

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I think that's . What's been great

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is I have the creativity

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and the ideas , but being able to

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execute them . That's

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where I'm aware of my limitations

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, and so having apps like Canva and

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Instagram and other platforms

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where you can actually explore it all oh

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yeah , it's been really cool . Did

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you always love to write ? I

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would say I did from an early age . Yes , it

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definitely was something that I felt pulled to do . It

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did come naturally to me for a while . When

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I was younger , I was really fascinated

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by poetry . At that time

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it was more of like the rhyming poetry . I

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didn't start to branch out to more , just

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expressing myself , regardless of whether

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it was rhyming or not , until I got older . But

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yeah , I mean stories and it definitely there

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was something in me that I knew when

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I was younger and then I just

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sort of I kind of lost it

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a little bit along the way as I

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was growing up . But journaling was

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always something that

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really helped me on my

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healing journey and my journey back to myself

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, because I definitely I

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did what I'm sure a lot of people do , like you

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kind of lose yourself along the way and

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writing for me has been my

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way of getting back to

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who I was always meant to be .

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So was it journaling poetry that

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you were writing before you had

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the idea of to write a children's

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book or to write a book ?

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Well , I actually wrote the story

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for the children's book years and years

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ago . Short stories like it's

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, those kind of came naturally

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to me , like the inspirational

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stories , like they kind

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of came naturally to me and picture

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books just seemed to be the best way

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to actually bring them to life . So

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it wasn't a plan that I was going to be

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like a children's book author , it just

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Based on how I write . That seemed to be the best

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way to express it and

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I've come to really appreciate

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that style of writing because

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I like having illustrations to support my

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words . That's been really cool to

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kind of see how that's

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evolved .

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Did you sketch any of your illustrations

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yourself as you were going along ? I

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?

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did not At first

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. Well , because I do love to draw . I'm just

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not a natural artist that

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way I do have to look

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at stuff , and so I'm definitely

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fascinated by people that can just they

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can just pen to paper and boom

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go create an entire world just from their

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mind , like . I

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haven't had that gift , but I

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did love to draw as a kid and so I

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do have on a piece Because I've always

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been in the restaurant industry for a very long time . So

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I always had those guest check and I had

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a sketch of the

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tree with a ladybug , with

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the original title , for the book was called the Mamosa

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and the Ladybug Because it was based on a Mamosa

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tree that I planted with my dad in

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our backyard in North Carolina when I lived there , and

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so the original title was the Mamosa and

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the ladybug , which I later changed to the great

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tree and the ladybug . But I do

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have a I'm not sure where it is , but I

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do have a guest check piece of paper with

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that image on it , and I

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actually did a few years later , before I

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, or even like , I guess

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, when I was having the book illustrated

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, you know , by my illustrator I

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think I actually have I sketched

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like the tree with like colored pencils

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. Oh wow , oh , maybe , maybe

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I'll include , like some of my own artwork

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, or you know , at some point . But I ended

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up not following through with that . But you know , someday

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down the road maybe I'll I'll , I'll

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tackle it you know , you never know .

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Never say never . Yeah , I was wondering

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, was it you know ? Did it help you with the process

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of writing the story itself to have , you know

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, that illustration alongside your

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, your writing process for the for the ladybug

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?

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Well , it was kind of , because

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it really it's like the writing should

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be done before the illustration

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process even begins . So what

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was kind of cool it was , it was I

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allowed because I , my illustrator

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, it was a friend of mine . We went to

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, we practiced yoga together at a studio

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on Long Island , and so this

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was honestly her first illustration

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attempt and it was my first book creation

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attempt . So we were kind of learning together

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. But so I basically gave her creative

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control over that . I was curious to see

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how she envisioned my

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words coming to life and it

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was really cool to kind of see

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from , because you know , drawing and art and painting

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like that's a whole different medium

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, right so to see her , her

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creativity coming through , you

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know , and then my words being along

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it and stuff , we kind of . We kind of rolled

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with it together , which was

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really really cool . And then I ended up , you

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know , when I I the book was finished

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, when I decided to redesign it , and

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so at that point in time it was more

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of like I was shifting some of the words

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to go along with her illustrations .

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Okay , If that makes sense , it just makes

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sense . Yeah , absolutely .

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Now I'm kind of like , now that I've put together a

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team of people to kind

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of help me on like my next books

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and things like that , I kind of know

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what to do to kind of guide the

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illustrators and things like

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that . And so , because my next illustrator is going to be

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she's my best friend from college , that

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we're doing this together and she's an amazing artist

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, but also she's never illustrated before

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, so now I'm in a better position

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to , you know , guide her on that

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journey and stuff . But you know , I I

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look at it like , you know , I don't want someone telling me how to

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write , so I want them to have that freedom

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to like that's the talent

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and there and I know I don't have that gift

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, so it's , I don't want to put them in a creative

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bubble Now . I want them to be able to , you

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know , take , take the words and like how

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do you envision this ? And

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and you know , then can we , you know , put our talents

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together to make it even better .

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Exactly . Oh my gosh , you have . What a great process

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. So let's just back . You're in Delaware

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now , but what ? What was the journey like for

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you ? Or were you ? What did you do that led

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up to you moving to Delaware ?

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So it was , honestly , completely , completely

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random and not planned at

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all , which , you know , sometimes life

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will , will do that to you

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and it could be the best thing for you . Covid

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was the catalyst . It was 20

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, you know , beginning of 2020 . And

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my parents had , you know

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, they had been , they had made the decision I

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want to say , maybe a year or so prior to that that they

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were , you know , going to retire and move to Delaware

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. So they were having a house built and

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they were closing on their house . The first week

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of March , covid happened . I

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want to say that third week of March , and

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you know , we were told that we were , everybody's

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job was shutting down for two weeks . So

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I looked at it as a two week vacation where

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I could go and visit my parents in Delaware in their new

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house , right ? And so I packed enough

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stuff for two weeks and came

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to Delaware , and you know that two

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weeks turned into three months and

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when I ended up going back to New York , it just

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it , really I had made

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the decision , it wasn't the right place for me to be anymore

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. During the three months that I was down here

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in Delaware , you know , I really I got back

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to myself . I really the book had already

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been in the works at that point , but I had

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pushed it aside because of my fear . You

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know , those three months really gave me a

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chance to , you know , play

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with my website and get back to writing

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and really just

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sort of ask myself you know , what

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do you want ? I knew going back to New

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York was not what I wanted , but it was what

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I had , and so

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I did . But I was very unhappy

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and then I had to make the decision , like

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, this is not what I want , and so I I

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came to Delaware with , you know , with the blessing of my parents

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. They have been amazing , absolutely

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amazing . They basically got me on my feet and

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helped me to get the book in

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its final stages to where you know . I was

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able to put it out in the world and move

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forward with that . And yeah

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, here I am , three years later . I'm still in Delaware

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and it's actually

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I'm moving forward on my next

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journey . So this is , this is a transition

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place for me . This is not where I'm going to

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stay Journey continues on after

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it continues .

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Absolutely . Were you working

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on your website while the

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while you were writing on your book , or did the website

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come into play after you

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had written the book ?

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So the book was already written and

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then it was the website was kind of an avenue

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for me to share it . So you

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know , I knew that I wanted to

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have a website . But I didn't want a traditional

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author website because I want the website

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to be , I wanted it to be just more than about

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me . You know , my hope is that

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you know as things progress and you know as

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the future unfolds , is that you know it'll

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be maybe a collaborative space for you

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know , other creatives to share their inspiration

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with the world , because the whole

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premise behind the website was to share inspiration

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, positivity , growth and healing through

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creative expression . Right , and

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writing for me is my , my vehicle for that

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. But you know , the people are , there

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, are , you know , artists , musicians

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, you know , and either

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so many ways that you can do that

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and inspire others . And I wanted

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to create a website that would sort of kind

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of bring all of these things together and maybe

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inspire other people to be able to have

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that in their own life as well .

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Yeah , that's a great

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platform to have , and the green light pages

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is the name of the website . Yes and

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your , and each of the words has a meaning to

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you . It has a meaning .

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Yes , so you know , and

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that's kind of cool thing too is that you know it is

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symbolic to me , like I know

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what it means to me personally . But

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you know , I'm hoping that you know , when people come to the website

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and check it out , like maybe those words will spark you

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know meaning for them as well . But

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you know the whole thing , that kind

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of inspired it was . You know , like I

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, at the time I was really

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striving to live a green life . Nature has

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always been my connection to my writing

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. I find that I am very inspired

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when I'm , you know , among trees or

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, you know , by the beach or just going

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on a hike , so it's most of my writing

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has taken place in nature

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. To kind of include that in my

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, you know my website

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name , I think that was really important

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for me , you know , and

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green itself has so many different meanings

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, you know , and just you know just the color itself and

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you know , representative of the heart shop or representative

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of , just you know , the healing light , you know

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. And then you know something as simple

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as like going for it Right

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, move forward , green go . And

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that's kind of been what

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I needed , you know , in the later stages

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of the book creation was . You know , don't

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stop , keep going . And

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because it's very hard

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to kind of

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keep sometimes moving forward when you're self-doubt

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and you're fear , just your inner dialogue

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of criticism and you know , or the fear

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of outside criticism comes into play

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and you just sort of have to make a decision

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are you going to go or are you going to stop ? And I

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had a lot of start stops along my journey , but

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that green was like my motivator of like

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no , like you're doing something good , so

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keep doing it . You know , don't be afraid . And

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you know I think the more I do it , the

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easier it has become . But it's

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definitely been a lifelong

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battle for me . And you know

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the Great Train , the Ladybug , that book was written

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, I want to say the first version of it was back in

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2010 . So she's been around for

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a while and it's just taken me

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a while to go through my journey , to get to this

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point where I was able to share her .

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So yeah , and you are not

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the only one with those fears

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or the lack of self , or do you think

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you don't have the self confidence to do something

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? And going through your website

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and reading what you have , and

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for me , the feelings that I get from your website

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is so motivational . Inspirational

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, because we had talked prior to

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sitting down tonight with about my

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own anxiety and fear and

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working through things , and

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you know , I'm sure this happens with

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you too . People have no idea , you know , people

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have no idea that you know , sometimes it's that anxiety

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and you can talk yourself out of things

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, and so I'm so glad that you

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remember the green light and keep going

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forward .

15:25

Well , and that's where , like , the support system

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has been , you know , huge for me as well , like

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, you know , like my family and my friends

15:32

and you know people , when I finally

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had the courage to start sharing my

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writing , you know , because I kept it to myself for a very

15:38

long time , when I finally started to have the courage

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, you know , to just let other people see

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it , you know , like the validation of

15:45

it helped them or it , you

15:47

know , it sparked something in them . It

15:49

just sort of makes you want to keep doing that , you

15:51

know . And then I mean , you do have your people that may not

15:53

resonate with your words , and

15:55

I think that's been important too

15:57

, because it's helped me to get back to

15:59

you know myself and to not

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hold myself worth based

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on someone else's opinion . You know , just because

16:06

I created something , that doesn't mean

16:08

that it's gonna resonate with everybody , but it also

16:11

doesn't mean that , like , my creation is bad or

16:13

that I'm bad and so it's . I

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think that's been part of the journey . Now , at this

16:17

stage , like , the more that I share it

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, the more open you are to

16:22

, you know the positive and the negative

16:24

side of that

16:26

, and either way , it shouldn't

16:28

affect you yourself , and

16:30

so that's been , I think , part of this . This

16:33

next phase of , you

16:35

know , overcoming the fear aspect

16:38

is , you know , not to , not to take those

16:40

negative things to heart and to just sort of keep

16:42

going . You know , because , yeah

16:44

, there will be those that don't resonate but those

16:47

that do , and even one person like

16:49

that's , one more person that maybe needed

16:51

those words at that time , and you don't know what

16:53

the ripple effect will be . You know that's been , that's

16:56

kind of like where we're at now . You know , along the

16:58

way , so is the second

17:00

book , also based on

17:02

your journey , your it

17:05

is , and it's so funny because I've

17:07

had a journey with this one too and you

17:09

know , and that's why I'm definitely a big believer in

17:11

divine timing for things , sometimes we

17:13

want them to move faster than

17:15

they're meant to move . My second book , when the

17:17

Walls Came Down , is , you know

17:19

, very indicative of that . Honestly

17:22

, I that was a big , you know

17:24

, personal , you know learning experience

17:26

for me too , because I , you know

17:28

, after the you know the first book and then moving with

17:30

the second book , the second one was coming about

17:32

in 2021 . So my

17:34

best friend , she was starting

17:36

illustrations on that . I had it written

17:39

, we were going with it . I had

17:41

a book designer on board , like things were moving

17:43

forward , something with the writing , you

17:45

know it wasn't working and I had

17:47

had it edited by two different people and

17:50

taking their suggestions and

17:52

this and I'm like it , just something

17:54

wasn't working with it . I ended up making the decision

17:56

to kind of pull the project , and

17:59

it was . You know it was difficult to do

18:01

because , I mean , the story is very close

18:03

to my heart and , honestly , that story

18:06

the original version of that story , helped me to move

18:08

from North Carolina back

18:10

to New York , like it was the catalyst

18:12

for me to like pick up and go , because

18:14

I realized I wasn't happy where

18:16

I was and so I needed to change . And that

18:19

story was my motivator . You know , something wasn't

18:21

working with the writing and I'm like I can't force

18:23

this and I don't want this to become what it's not meant

18:25

to be , and so I stopped

18:28

it . And , you know , my best friend was

18:30

very gracious because she had put time in and

18:32

she's like , no , like it's okay

18:34

, like when you're ready , we'll get back . And

18:36

in the meantime , she has now

18:38

created her own platform with her art

18:40

, which is really awesome . She's deciding to move

18:43

forward as a as an artist , and

18:45

so she's . She's doing commissions

18:47

for animal portraits and all sort of

18:49

stuff like that . And then , you know , we're hoping

18:51

to get back to this new book in

18:54

the new year . Oh , wow , okay , that is our plan

18:56

. So , basically , I ended up taking time

18:59

off from it and this past summer

19:01

I rewrote it , had it edited , and

19:03

it was more in line with the original story

19:05

that I was trying to tell and it

19:07

felt right and I sent it to my

19:10

my friend again and she's like Lynn , this

19:12

is this , is it Like ? This , is this

19:14

is like you ? You , you fixed what

19:16

needed fixing and it just it's just better

19:18

. And so you know . So

19:21

that's , you know , it's , it's ready , and

19:23

she now with now we're waiting for

19:25

her to you know , which is fine

19:27

, you know , because she waited for me for two years

19:29

. So I'm like you know what you do , what you got to do when

19:31

, when it's meant to be , it's meant to be . But I'm

19:33

excited about that one , because that one is

19:35

all about following the path of your

19:37

heart , honoring your happiness

19:39

and knowing who you are and

19:42

what's right for you , even when

19:44

it looks different from everybody else . And

19:46

so I think I think this

19:48

story is going to be very powerful . It will also be

19:50

a picture book , but I think it's

19:52

going to be intended for a little bit older

19:55

audience than my first book . It's

19:57

a little more introspective , but

19:59

I think it's very much needed , because

20:01

we tend to sometimes

20:03

get so caught up in what we think we should

20:05

be doing or what everybody else is doing that

20:07

we forget . We forget who we are and we

20:10

forget what's important to us and what we're here

20:12

for . Sometimes you're lucky and you remember

20:14

, but then you have the other

20:16

. You know . The other hurdle to encounter

20:18

once you remember is do you

20:21

walk away from what you have and

20:23

start over , or do you stay

20:25

, knowing that you're not going to be happy ?

20:27

Exactly so many people struggle with that .

20:31

And that was my big decision to even come

20:33

here , you know , because it's

20:35

like I had my life in New York . You

20:38

know , I had a lot of hobbies there . I had a

20:40

job I loved , like things

20:43

were okay , but I wasn't happy . And

20:46

so you have these choices to make and I think you

20:49

know people tend to get stuck . You know , unfortunately

20:51

, our society just sort of thinks it's

20:53

okay to wait till retirement to start living , and

20:56

I personally think that's one of the worst things

20:58

you can do , because you're basically just sacrificing

21:00

your life in the hopes that you're going to make it to retirement

21:02

and you're not guaranteed that ?

21:04

No , absolutely not . And if I

21:06

had waited to do that , if I had waited

21:08

to retirement which I'm , you know , that's a

21:10

few years down the road I wouldn't have started

21:12

R2RB , I wouldn't be doing my

21:14

podcast series , I wouldn't have two radio

21:17

shows right now . So

21:19

yeah , you definitely have to , yeah

21:21

, we have to change that thought process

21:24

. You're right , and do what

21:26

you love to do when you feel like

21:28

doing it . Right , you

21:30

know . Otherwise you wouldn't have taken the path that you have

21:32

taken to where you are in Delaware , and

21:35

right , and you were .

21:37

Not even close . I would have settled , and

21:40

now I had been talking about leaving New

21:42

York back in 2019 . So it's like

21:44

I knew . I knew that it wasn't

21:46

where I wanted to be , but it was just .

21:48

You just get used to where you're at

21:50

, yeah because it's it's

21:52

a fair , it's the fair , it's the fair of the unknown

21:55

. Am I making the right decision ? And unless you take

21:57

that leap of faith , as you did , and

21:59

came to Delaware and you know

22:01

the great tree and the ladybug , and at the

22:03

time you have , you had a partnership

22:06

of sorts with the brewing

22:09

, brewing company that you own , oh , no , that actually

22:11

happened afterwards . So

22:13

that's a really cool story too .

22:17

So I had I paid for my first print

22:19

run at the end of 2020 . So

22:21

I started selling the version

22:24

one of the great tree and the ladybug back at

22:26

the end of 2020 . I started doing vendor

22:28

events in Delaware in 2021 . So

22:30

most of 2021 was spent , you know , doing

22:33

different vendor events , like locally and

22:35

you know , up and down Delaware , sometimes

22:38

Chesapeake City in Maryland , like you

22:40

know , local Right and

22:42

through that I had met someone that put

22:44

me in contact with one of the

22:46

partners at Revelation who did Thankful

22:48

Thursdays at Hudson Fields . Her

22:51

name's Kyle Schaefer . She's become a great

22:53

friend of mine , love her dearly . She's

22:55

been a huge supporter of me and I feel

22:57

truly blessed . Yeah , I was vending at

22:59

Hudson Fields for most of the summer with

23:02

Thankful Thursdays , and then she even was like if you want

23:04

to come Fridays and Saturdays , bring your book , sell

23:06

your book . Just you know , and she

23:08

was just really , really great and so I

23:11

had made an awesome connection with

23:13

her and when I was looking

23:15

for a job to supplement my income

23:18

at the time

23:20

, they thought the Georgetown brewery was

23:22

gonna be open back in 2022

23:25

, which unfortunately it was not but they

23:27

needed bartenders for Rehoboth , and

23:29

so I was like I can start tomorrow

23:31

, and

23:34

I went interviewed . They hired me that day and

23:36

then I started working in February of 2022

23:38

at Revelation and Rehoboth , and so I've

23:40

been with them almost two years now , and

23:42

back this past summer she was

23:45

like Lynn , if you wanna put your book at the bar , put

23:48

your book at the bar , sell your book . I

23:50

was not gonna turn down that offer and

23:53

because I had , I self-published

23:56

myself and I made a lot of rookie

23:58

mistakes , so my unit cost for my book was very

24:00

high , which eliminated me being able

24:02

to do any sort of consignment with anybody

24:04

. I was basically stuck with all

24:06

my copies that I had to sell myself . So , her

24:09

giving me this opportunity , it allowed

24:11

me to really unload my

24:13

inventory , which I did . I

24:15

sold , I would say , close

24:18

to a thousand books , not all of them at the brewery

24:20

, but the last , I would

24:22

say maybe four or 500 of them . There you

24:24

go 400 close to that , like at the

24:26

brewery , which was amazing . It is

24:28

amazing . It's given me the opportunity

24:31

to now be able to pay for my second print run

24:33

, which is with the redesigned version . So

24:35

I'm hoping that'll be ready in the next month or so . I

24:37

just sent the files back to my

24:40

printing company and , yeah

24:42

, hoping that'll be ready soon . But

24:44

yeah , she gave me this amazing opportunity

24:47

and I've established a following

24:49

through Revelation . There you go . I'm

24:51

very blessed about that . I have people coming

24:53

in and they ask me all the time like how are things

24:55

going with the book and when's the next book coming

24:57

? And it's just , it's been really amazing

25:00

to organically create

25:02

a readership which I would not

25:04

have had I not had this

25:06

door opening through Revelation . So I'm just

25:08

truly grateful to them .

25:10

That is fantastic and I say this often

25:12

that Delawareans are

25:15

great supporters of each other . They

25:18

are they are .

25:20

I've been truly blessed . I mean , the

25:22

biggest thing for me was that I just had to show

25:24

up Right , and that was

25:26

a big thing about overcoming . My

25:28

fear was having

25:30

those hesitations of should I go

25:33

, should I do this , should I say yes to this opportunity

25:36

? Should I say yes ? And I found

25:38

that once I put myself out there

25:40

, other avenues and other

25:42

doors started becoming available to me . And

25:45

I've been very fortunate

25:47

here in Delaware because people have been

25:49

so kind and if

25:51

they weren't able to help me , they knew somebody that could

25:53

. And I was just

25:55

very floored by

25:57

just the support , especially

26:00

from somebody who's not from here

26:02

. I didn't expect to be embraced

26:04

with open arms like I have been , and

26:08

that's one thing that I will never look

26:10

back and

26:13

I just feel truly blessed

26:15

to have these connections here , and

26:18

they gave me a family here in Delaware

26:21

.

26:21

Yeah , absolutely , my parents

26:23

have retired here too and I've been here two

26:25

years myself and with the podcasting

26:27

and then with the broadcasting . Yeah

26:30

, anytime I need to reach out to somebody , everybody

26:33

is very supportive of us and

26:35

the podcast , and I can reach

26:37

out to anybody and

26:39

, like you said , if they don't know it , they'll find somebody

26:41

for me . So , yeah , in every

26:43

little town here , everybody knows

26:46

each other . They'll support each other , especially

26:48

down in the South .

26:49

We're a really nice community and

26:53

I've come to really appreciate Rehoboth because

26:55

our first year being here , with COVID and everything

26:58

, everything was kind of shut down and we

27:00

were more secluded and coming

27:02

to a new place and not knowing it . And then

27:04

the first time you experience it , it's

27:07

through a very difficult time . It's

27:09

like we didn't really get to appreciate it . So

27:11

it's like that whole first year of being here was

27:13

just sort of a . I mean that

27:15

was more of just like I said , it was an introspective year

27:17

. It wasn't really an out there in the world

27:20

year and getting to know Rehoboth

27:22

a little bit more and kind

27:24

of seeing what it has to offer , like I get

27:26

now , why people come here . It's

27:29

a really great community and I feel fortunate

27:31

to be here right now at this point in time

27:33

.

27:34

And you know , I agree , yeah

27:36

, that whole area . So let me ask you this

27:39

Do you have a favorite part of writing

27:41

?

27:41

Ooh , favorite part of writing

27:43

, I would say when it

27:46

just hits me , that when that inspiration

27:48

comes and you just can't put

27:50

your pen down . It doesn't happen all

27:52

the time , that's how I know it's special , but

27:55

when it happens and you just get this surge

27:57

of inspiration , like you

27:59

just can't stop . You

28:01

know that I think that's my favorite writing

28:03

, because that's the real writing . That's

28:06

me not trying to manipulate it , that's the

28:08

writing coming through because it's meant to come

28:10

through and it just flows

28:12

and I don't have to fight it , I don't

28:14

have to force it , it just naturally

28:17

comes and I think , and the rush

28:19

I get from it , I mean it's just so authentic

28:21

and real , like that is . I

28:24

love those moments . Sometimes I never know

28:26

when they're gonna hit and I think that's why I'm really working

28:28

on getting more balance in my own life now

28:30

and working on my self-care

28:32

practice for myself so that I can

28:34

encourage more of those moments

28:37

to come organically , as opposed to

28:39

me creating a setting when

28:41

I think they'll happen . You know , because

28:43

if there's anything I learned about writing , it's that you

28:45

don't need to force it . Yes

28:48

, you can have a writing practice that

28:50

you know , you can build that

28:52

yourself , but when it's meant to happen

28:54

. It will happen . And it doesn't matter

28:56

if you were in your home , it doesn't

28:58

matter if you're outside , it doesn't matter what

29:01

the conditions are . You could have a million people around you

29:03

or nobody around it . It doesn't matter when the writing

29:05

is supposed to come . It will . And

29:08

I mean I've had moments for , like at night , it's

29:10

just hours . Like at night , in the middle

29:12

of the night , I'm just , I just

29:14

go and it just it's because that's when

29:16

it's supposed to happen .

29:18

So so with both books

29:20

did you write straight

29:22

through or did you ?

29:24

The great tree in the ladybug , honestly , I want to say , was

29:26

written in about five minutes . Oh wow . I

29:29

was in my backyard in North Carolina

29:31

. I had built a garden back

29:34

there . That was kind of like my safe space

29:36

, my sanctuary . I did a lot of healing there

29:38

and my favorite tree was

29:40

this mimosa tree that me and my dad planted

29:43

when we had grown it

29:45

from a seed , and I had it in my kitchen for about

29:47

a year or so and then it got to the point where it was . She

29:49

was ready to be transplanted outside . So

29:51

one summer , me and him we

29:53

did it . We did it together . It was like a father-daughter

29:55

thing . It was really great . And you know

29:57

, I got to watch that tree grow . And

30:00

there was one year I want

30:02

to say it had to have been like November timeframe

30:04

or something really late for ladybugs to

30:06

be around but there was this one ladybug

30:08

and all the leaves had fallen off this mimosa

30:11

tree and so it was just bare and there's

30:13

this single ladybug climbing up the trunk

30:15

of this tree and I

30:17

just watched this happen and I had

30:19

this moment of

30:21

like . I just had to write the

30:24

story and I literally wrote the story in

30:26

like five minutes , it's like because

30:28

it just came through . And you

30:30

know , I used that story for a really

30:32

long time for myself to kind of help me

30:34

to overcome my own fear and , to you

30:37

know , inspire me , to , you know , to

30:40

fly . That's great when

30:42

I needed to . But , yeah , it

30:44

came quick . That one came quick and

30:46

then , like I said , since then I've

30:48

edited it and things like that , but the story

30:50

itself was written very , very quickly .

30:53

Isn't it ironic , though you end up in Delaware

30:55

and the Delaware ladybug .

30:57

Well , and that's the thing , I didn't know that

30:59

. That was one of the things that I found really funny

31:01

is that it was some of the people that were like buying

31:04

the book were like did you know that the

31:06

state bug is ? And I'm like

31:08

I had no idea . It's kind

31:10

of cool . I actually put that in my redesigned version

31:12

. I have a ladybug in tree

31:14

fact fact page like

31:16

in the back , and I did include that as like

31:18

one of the facts , like because it's a state bug

31:20

of a few states , so which is kind

31:23

of ironic . Um , I think it was like Massachusetts

31:25

was one which I've lived there , right . Delaware

31:27

was one I lived there , and Tennessee is one and I'm

31:29

gonna be moving there at some point . Part of my next

31:31

journey is I Bought land in Tennessee with some of my

31:33

really good friends from New York how cool

31:35

. So we

31:37

will be making our way down there .

31:39

But and I encourage anybody

31:41

that's listening to go look up the

31:43

mimosa tree . So we had a mimosa tree

31:45

in our yard when I was growing up . It

31:48

is .

31:48

It is a so beautiful

31:51

and so it was . It's kind

31:53

of cool . Obviously , like you

31:55

know , we don't have that house anymore . You know my

31:57

we've since sold that house but by

31:59

the time I left , that tree from

32:02

a small seed was like over , like

32:04

taller than me , and it was really really

32:06

cool to watch it . You know , get its first , you know flowers

32:09

and all this stuff . But when I

32:11

moved here to Delaware as

32:13

a gift for my dad for I think it was , it

32:15

was either father's day or his birthday or something Like

32:17

that we found a mimosa tree at one of

32:19

the local , one of the local , like you know , the

32:21

nurseries . It's actually a cool mimosa because

32:23

it's like it's like a reddish one , so

32:26

it's not all green leaves , they're like reddish and

32:28

like different colors , so it kind of looks like Sunsetty and

32:30

stuff like that was really , oh my

32:32

gosh , I'll have to look for those All right .

32:34

So let me ask you this question if you could spend the day

32:36

with any author , who would you choose ?

32:38

So that one is a toss-up because

32:41

I have two authors that have

32:43

been , you know , really , really inspirational

32:46

and They've just they've

32:49

made such a difference on my journey . I would I

32:51

would have to say Paulo Coelho , and which

32:53

album . They're just two of

32:55

my favorites , and you know

32:57

, to spend the day with them and not even

33:00

ask them questions , but just to listen to

33:02

what they have to share , I , I

33:04

think it would just be amazing because

33:07

, I mean , their words were life-changing , like all

33:09

of their books . Every book that I've read by them has been

33:11

impactful in one way

33:13

or another to my life , and I , I love

33:15

the way they write , like they're just , they have this

33:17

amazing way of writing and , you

33:19

know , I , I strive to be like them either

33:22

them or both would be awesome , right ?

33:24

I would , I would definitely . I would definitely do

33:26

both . What pearls of wisdom would you

33:28

pass along to someone wanting to get started

33:30

with with their writing , with with writing

33:32

their first book ?

33:33

Just write you know , like , absolutely

33:35

like the writing part . In all honesty , that's

33:37

the easy part . The hard

33:39

part is the self-publishing part , and

33:42

so that is where I would

33:44

encourage I would encourage other you

33:46

know authors to really learn as

33:48

much as you possibly could learn about

33:50

the self-publishing process , but

33:53

to also be mindful of the

33:55

information that you're getting , because

33:57

there are a lot of people out there that will share what

33:59

they know . It doesn't mean that it's the best

34:01

advice to be taking , and so I'm

34:04

still learning a lot of this myself . Like

34:06

I said , I made a lot of rookie mistakes on my

34:08

my journey with my first book , which is why I

34:10

had to redesign it . I'd encourage other writers

34:12

, you know , do your research first , like , don't

34:14

be afraid to ask questions . I

34:17

, because of my fear , I , you

34:20

know , I felt like I had to go it alone because it was

34:22

easier than asking the wrong questions

34:24

or , you know , putting yourself out there

34:26

for criticism and all this stuff . So it's kind of like

34:28

I , I kind of did it Closeted

34:30

and in doing that I made a lot of mistakes that I could

34:32

have avoided . You know , my best advice to them is

34:35

you know , there are a lot of groups for support

34:37

for self-published writers . Now you know you can

34:39

get a world of information from

34:41

there . You know , like I said , though , just be mindful

34:44

of who you're listening to . You know , just

34:46

ask your questions and do your due diligence . There's

34:48

a lot of support and because a lot , of , a lot

34:50

more people are doing it now you know

34:52

it's an avenue , there it's , it's an

34:54

option , whereas you know back in the day , like you

34:56

had to wait to be traditionally , traditionally published

34:59

and you weren't guaranteed Traditionally

35:01

published , whereas now it's like anybody that has

35:03

a story can can make a book right . It's

35:06

a matter of how are you gonna do it and

35:08

how can you do it when you do it .

35:09

Well , just do your research on your web

35:12

website . You also have poetry

35:14

, your poetry

35:16

it is my poetry , yeah , and

35:18

a blog and your blog posts I I

35:21

do .

35:21

The blog is something I have to be honest , I have

35:23

neglected the past couple of years

35:25

. I would actually like to get back to that , you know

35:28

. That's that's definitely something why

35:30

I created the website the way I did . It was because I wanted

35:32

to include a blog where it was just an opportunity

35:34

for me to share you know , share my writing

35:37

, you know , in another form . So

35:39

I really liked that about how I could do

35:41

that and link it to my website , which was really cool

35:43

. I started , I started to share some of the poetry

35:45

because I really got into poetry again , I

35:47

want to say back in 2021 . I found

35:50

a beautiful poetry community on Instagram . On Instagram

35:52

, and it wasn't planned

35:54

at all , I just I

35:56

, I just ended up connecting with just some , some

35:59

other poets there and you know , like there's

36:01

a lot of poetry prompts on Instagram

36:03

that , like you know , different groups and stuff

36:05

will share , and then it just I

36:07

was very inspired and so I just I

36:10

kept writing and then I would share it , and then I

36:12

kept writing and then I would share it , and it's like that community

36:14

is just so supportive and so it

36:16

really got me back

36:18

in that writer's mindset and and Reignited

36:21

my love for poetry and so I

36:23

was like , oh , I should maybe share some of

36:25

this on my website . Like

36:27

I said , I'm I'm gonna be revamping things

36:29

and I want to . I want to freshen it up a bit and

36:31

maybe they add some more stuff , because there's there's

36:34

definitely a lot of a lot of things that I've written

36:36

Since then and and and

36:38

stuff . It's been really cool because poetry there's

36:40

so many types of poetry and I didn't know

36:42

that until I . You know , I met these people

36:44

on Instagram and encouraged me to

36:46

step out of my comfort zone

36:49

with that too , because some , like some

36:51

forms of poetry came easier than others

36:53

and Really got my love of poetry

36:55

to get reignited , and that was really

36:57

cool and it helped me to make some new friends

37:00

. You know that were , you know , some

37:02

of them are in different parts of the world . Isn't

37:04

that great ? He's really cool , you

37:06

know . So Instagram , you know , not

37:08

only reignited my love for poetry , we had reignited

37:10

my love for social media , because that

37:13

Facebook was becoming very toxic

37:15

to me , and Instagram , I

37:18

still like most of the people that show

37:20

up on my feed , it's other poets , and

37:22

so it's like you know , I'm constantly flooded

37:24

by other creativity and I love

37:26

that . Yeah , and you know , when it's just

37:28

it's cool to see that there are people that are sharing

37:31

, yeah , you know they're out there and they're sharing and

37:33

they're putting themselves out there and they're they're trying

37:35

to , you know , to say something and it's

37:37

it's very , it's been very inspiring to me

37:39

and that's encouraged me to want

37:41

to keep being , you know , inspirational to others

37:44

.

37:44

Well , good , because don't stop . Because I've read . I've

37:46

read the poetry , I've been reading the blogs and

37:48

I thoroughly enjoyed that . Thank

37:51

you , welcome much , absolutely

37:53

. So yes , definitely Continue . And

37:56

when you're not writing , what do you like to do ?

37:58

I am trying to figure that out

38:00

here in Delaware because you

38:02

know , I had all that in New

38:04

York . I had I was taking

38:06

kung fu classes , I had piano lessons

38:09

, I had my yoga studio and

38:11

here I you know I do have a yoga

38:14

studio here to meet your yoga love

38:16

her , love them . So

38:18

that's been really good . I kind of got back to that

38:20

. But you know , I'm trying to kind

38:22

of build my life here in Delaware and

38:24

you know I'm I'm working on that , you

38:27

know , because I do spend a lot of time , you

38:29

know , working , which you know I

38:31

love . You know I I love being at the brewery , for

38:33

sure . But you know there's , there's

38:35

things I still want to do for me . So I'm

38:38

still trying to find my places here . You

38:40

know , maybe this year will be my year that I do that that's

38:42

right and you know what .

38:43

You have plenty of time to figure that out

38:45

and just not , you know , do something because

38:47

you think you should be doing it right

38:50

.

38:50

Well , and that's back to the self-care journey .

38:52

So today I just did Things

38:55

for myself and it was fabulous

38:57

, All right those are the best , absolutely

38:59

best , and so also on your website

39:01

, you have a picture of your family .

39:04

I do and who are they ? Well

39:06

, one of them is no longer with us my

39:10

, my , my bearded dragon , diggy . She

39:12

passed back in 2021 . I

39:15

had her . She was a rescue baby , so I

39:17

have her in North Carolina . So she had made

39:19

it through two moves and two

39:21

states and multiple apartments and , yeah

39:24

, she was pretty awesome . She was about 15 when she passed

39:26

pretty old for a bearded dragon , but

39:29

yeah , she was awesome and she actually loved it here in Delaware

39:31

because my parents house , I mean

39:33

, I would just put her outside in the yard and she would just

39:35

sit in the bushes all day and

39:38

just get the sun , which was , which was really awesome

39:40

that we could do that . Yeah , she , she was . She

39:42

was pretty cool . It's definitely I miss

39:44

having her around , for sure , but

39:47

I still have my two cats . So the

39:49

black and white one is Salem and

39:51

she was also a rescue from North Carolina . She

39:53

was the stray at the restaurant I worked at

39:55

and so , yeah , so she joined my

39:57

family . I took her in in January

40:00

of 2012 and then we moved to New York in

40:02

June . Oh well , she's been with

40:04

me since 2012 and then the baby

40:06

is Tuesday and

40:08

I adopted her on Long Island . One

40:10

of my friends cat had kittens and

40:13

Her cat was a purebred Scottish

40:15

fold with the ears . Three of the cats had

40:17

ears and I made the mistake of going to see

40:19

them and Tuesday ended up coming

40:21

home with me . Yeah , that sometimes happens , so

40:23

that is my family .

40:25

So I love it . Oh my gosh , I love the picture

40:27

. And so what's next for you ? Anything

40:29

else ? I know your second book is coming

40:31

along .

40:32

So I'm really focused on the , on

40:34

the writing and building the platform and things like

40:36

that . But , um , like I mentioned , uh

40:39

, me and my two friends bought land in Tennessee

40:41

, so that is on the

40:43

horizon for me . Uh , they actually moved

40:45

last year . They left New

40:47

York and just Just packed

40:49

their car , their trailer

40:51

, whatever , and he built his

40:54

own house with his own pans and

40:56

so they just officially moved in . I want to say , a couple

40:58

of weeks ago , so a year and a half , they were living

41:01

in a shipping container , they were roughing

41:03

it . That's how much they wanted To

41:05

get started on this new life . I'm hoping to maybe

41:07

get started on my house there . So

41:09

I'm trying to figure out what I want , whether

41:11

I want to do like a barn dominium type of thing

41:14

or or stick built thing

41:16

, like I'm not sure yet , and so I need to kind of

41:18

sit and to and spend some time with

41:20

myself and actually really ask . You know , ask

41:22

myself , like you know , what kind of uh A

41:24

refuge type place Do I envision

41:27

myself being there ? But our goal is

41:29

to kind of have like a holistic wellness

41:31

center on the land , like

41:33

we'd like to have a place where people could come

41:35

and reconnect with nature and themselves

41:37

and take some time Out

41:39

of maybe society to just

41:41

sort of and we so need that .

41:43

I mean , you speak about the self-care we

41:45

, everybody needs to take a moment

41:47

for themselves for that self-care , um

41:50

, you know , especially coming out of coven where we

41:52

are , oh yeah , and

41:55

I mean .

41:55

I think I think a lot of people woke up during coven

41:57

. You know like there was a lot of bad with coven

41:59

, but I think there was also a lot of good that came out

42:01

of it , because gave people a reset

42:04

. You know , it gave people an

42:06

opportunity to sort of get back

42:08

and touch with themselves , like in the quiet

42:11

, you know , like there was chaos around

42:13

, but it's like we were removed from it

42:15

, you know , because we kind of had to be that . It was

42:17

like , yeah , unless you were actively listening to

42:19

the news every single day , you know , it's like

42:21

you kind of had an opportunity to

42:23

just sort of sit with yourself in stillness

42:25

, and I think a lot of people made some changes

42:27

during that time . It kind of opened up to

42:30

to , you know how , the truth and reality

42:32

of how , like you know , you're in a job that you don't like

42:34

and you think that job's always going

42:36

to be there , but then you wake up one day

42:38

and it's not , and so you're disposable

42:40

Whether you're doing something you love or you're doing

42:42

something you hate . Why not do something you love

42:45

Absolutely ? Yeah , we want to create

42:47

a place where people can come and just sort of

42:49

be with themselves for just a moment

42:51

, really get in touch with you , know what it is

42:53

that they want to do and what makes them

42:55

happy , because Life

42:57

is too short to be doing stuff that doesn't make you

42:59

happy . Absolutely 100%

43:02

and we all have the answers within us . You

43:04

know we , just we . We forgot how to listen

43:06

. Covid was a chance for me to get back to

43:08

listening to myself . Since then like

43:10

myself , won't , let me forget so I've

43:13

really been , you know , making it more

43:15

of a priority to take care of myself

43:18

better , pushing myself to share with

43:20

others , you know , to maybe encourage them to do the

43:22

same , because you know we can all help each other Absolutely

43:25

, and that's a great outlook .

43:26

Lynn McDonald , I appreciate you . I

43:28

appreciate you . It is the great

43:30

tree and the ladybug . It is the

43:33

green light pages . I

43:36

am looking for for your second book

43:38

to come out . Do you want to let everybody

43:40

know what the name of it is ? Yet ? Sure

43:42

, oh , it's called when the walls came down . And do

43:44

you have a date when ?

43:46

it's going . I don't have a date yet , but I will

43:48

be sharing my journey on all

43:50

my socials . So , uh , groupnightpagescom

43:52

, and then , uh , facebook at green light

43:54

pages , instagram at green light pages or

43:57

at lindspirations . So

43:59

I have I have the two tags for instagram

44:01

, hoping that the illustrations will get started

44:03

next month , after christmas

44:05

and things like that . So she seems

44:07

excited and ready to go .

44:08

So good yeah , and are those

44:10

the best places to get in contact with

44:12

you facebook , instagram , yep

44:15

.

44:15

Or website .

44:16

I have a contact on my website

44:18

as well . All right , well , lynn , thank you so much

44:20

for taking the time out . I

44:22

had a great time this evening finding

44:24

out all about you and , I hope , everybody

44:26

checks you out .

44:28

Well , thank you so much for this opportunity . This

44:30

has been absolutely wonderful . I feel

44:32

very honored . You are welcome , thank

44:34

you , thank you .