Interview with Diane Keyes about her memoir To Wendy's with Love

Writer Diane Keyes wraps up this week with me. We’re chatting about her memoir, To Wendy’s With Love: The 22-Year Lunch.

Welcome, Diane. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’ve owned a staging business for more than twenty-five years—since before the name staging. I also have an eclectic background working as a book reviewer, editor, retreat director, grief group facilitator, and commercial floral designer, and I often speak at real estate functions and make appearances on local TV and radio programs.

As a child, I always told people that I wanted to be a race car driver and a writer. I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 30 years old and I didn’t start writing till I was in my 40’s so I guess I’m a late bloomer. And even then I began writing only because every word of my first book, Spirit of the Snowpeople, came to me at a stop light between the red and the green. I couldn’t have even thought every idea in the book, much less composed it, in that short space of time. I believed then, and still do, that it was sent to me and I had an obligation to get it to print. It took twelve years before it was published but it was published exactly as it was given to me. It sold out its first printing three weeks after publication and I’m thrilled to say the book had the largest presale in the 60-plus-year history of DownEast Books. My second book, This Sold House, received two Best Book Awards, in the business and how-to categories, from the Midwest Independent Publishers’ Association (a twelve state region) and is endorsed by Joan Steffens, host of HGTV’s, Decorating Cents. It will be going into its 3^rd edition later this year.

Please tell us about your current release.

To Wendy’s With Love: The 22-Year Lunch is the story of my weekly lunches with my mother, which I started in an attempt to heal my relationship with her. I needed a low energy way to spend time with Mom. I was carrying around a lot of baggage I’d had since childhood after a brain hemorrhage left me with painful memories, unanswered questions, and crippling depression. I found my healing in an unlikely place—Wendy’s fast food restaurant. Once we met in “the neutral zone,” she wasn’t doing the Mom thing and I wasn’t doing the kid thing and we were able to see each other outside of our accustomed roles. Along the way I discovered the power of gratitude, relationships, and family meals. The lessons I learned have changed my life as well as those of the family and friends who have joined mom and me each week around the Wendy’s table. Still going strong after 22 years, it now includes four generations of our family and some weeks we have as many as 15-20 people show up for lunch.

To Wendy’s With Love is just that—a love letter to Wendy’s for creating a congenial space in which to heal, along with good food and warm and welcoming staff who have become like family to us.

What inspired you to write this book?

Over the years, I’d occasionally think “I should write a book about our Wendy’s experience.” But I never felt compelled until one day when the local Wendy’s PR person came to take photos of our family. They’d finally noticed we’d been there every week for more than 15 years. (If you go to our Wendy’s in Roseville, Minnesota, you’ll find photos of us all over the walls). Anyway, my mom was bragging about me and telling the photographer that I was a writer. He asked me if I’d considered writing a book about Wendy’s and I said I had. He told me, “I think it would be a very good idea.” I started the book that week.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m working on a juvenile fiction novel tentatively called The Legend of Bella Vie, about the woman behind Santa Claus. Unfortunately I’ve been stuck for a while, so if anyone has any ideas, let me know. I also have the first draft done of Sound Bytes of Relationship Advice. I’ve been married to the same wonderful guy for decades and I’ve learned some things it would be helpful to know right out of the gate.

I’m also toying with the idea of writing the back story of getting To Wendy’s With Love published—because a lot of interesting things happened in the 7 years between writing the bones of the book and getting it in print.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I think that I probably didn’t really consider myself a writer until I wrote the Wendy’s manuscript. The children’s book was sent to me—I’m very proud that I stayed with Spirit of the Snowpeople until it was published 12 years later, but I did not write it. And the staging book, This Sold House, had more to do with my business than with my writing so I don’t really count that book either. But in the last 7-8 years, I’ve been doing a lot of editing and I’ve been told I’m a good writer; the trouble is I want to be someone grand and lyrical, not just good. Oh well, I do what I can with what I’ve got.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I do not write full time. I belong to a writers’ group for women; we started with 10 people and now have 300 members, and they often speak about their writing practices. I can’t relate to any of them. If I’m not in the middle of a book, I don’t write. When I do have something to write, I start and don’t stop, working 14-16 hours a day until I’m finished, I guess I’m a feast or famine writer. I love my writing process. It’s the same if I’m editing.

The rest of the time I’m a stager, which I also love. I love helping people get as much money for their homes as they can. It’s amazing what a little purging, painting and cleaning can do for the bottom line.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I think my interesting writing quirk is that I LOVE writing but I am not obsessed by it. From my experience, many, if not most, writers hate writing but feel compelled to do it. If I have something to write, I’m on it but the rest of the time I’m busy with other things.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

My grandpa told me I could either be a teacher, a nurse or a secretary, and I knew I was not cut out for any of those things, which is probably where I came up with the idea of being race car driver or a writer. If I was going to go off the grid, I guess I wanted to go WAY OFF.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Don’t EVER let fear stop you. Everything good that comes your way begins with saying “Yes.” Don’t let other people’s notion of what is impossible keep you from reaching for your dreams. Nike’s right when they say “just do it.” There is not a single desire in your heart that wasn’t put there by the Universe/God/Spirit. If you have the desire you also have the means, but you first must believe it.

Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Amazon

Thanks for being here today, Diane.

Interview with correspondent, host, actress, and author Melissa McCarty

Today’s guest wears multiple hats including, correspondent, host and actress. As an author, Melissa McCarty is here to talk about her book, News Girls Don’t Cry.

Bio:

Melissa McCarty is a seasoned television news reporter and anchor.  She’s been reporting the ‘late breaking stories’ for nearly fifteen years. She earned her stripes in small markets such as Grand Junction, Colorado, and Amarillo, Texas.

She made a name for herself in Las Vegas, where her investigative reports made national headlines and served as the basis for an episode of CSI.  One of her undercover investigations ended with an arrest, several felony charges, and freed three women kidnapped and forced into a life of prostitution.

After three years of reporting for ABC, Melissa was hired by CBS-2 and KCAL-9 news, the duopoly in Los Angeles, as the go-to Breaking News field reporter, where she often led multiple newscasts for more then five years. 

She has appeared as an actress in several television shows such as ABC's Revenge, BET's Real Husbands of Hollywood, NBC’s Chuck, FOX's Lie To Me, HBO's Big Love, and films such as 'In Sight' and 'Coldwater Canyon'. 

For the past year, Melissa has been the host for Newsbreaker a division of ORA TV a new cutting edge TV network online created by the legend Larry King and Carlos Slim. 

Melissa continues to lecture to journalism students at universities in the Southern California area and periodically speaks to “at risk” teens for community organizations. 

Her book News Girls Don't Cry is available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com  

Welcome, Melissa. Please tell us about your current release.

News Girls Don’t Cry is a story about family, an inspiring story of overcoming adversity, grabbing second chances and becoming happy with your voice, with your choices. The crutch of the story is about loving someone with mental illnesses and addictions. The book follows siblings growing up best friends but torn apart over the years, as one sacrifices it all to succeed and accomplish a seemingly impossible goal of becoming a Newscaster, the other falls deep into darkness a world of gangs, violence, drugs and alcohol all while trying to understand what was brewing inside; undiagnosed mental illnesses. Melissa’s brother, her hero growing up, is bi-polar with severe social phobias who spent years self medicating as no one in the family new about the signs and symptoms of mental illness. So even as she calmly reported the nightly headlines on TV, often times the topics were similar struggles unfolding in her personal life. As she reported the news her brother was making the news. In NGDC Melissa confronts the memory demons of her past, her regrets, and guilts and explores, as many career woman do, what hardened her along the way and how she turned it all around. How her brother turned his life around and chose life rather than risking death each day.

What inspired you to write this book?

The inspiration to NGDC was my brother. Seeing his courage to overcome his mental warfare each day, his addictions made me realize what I prioritized as important, my career was not, what matters is family and not turning your back regardless of how difficult they make it. His struggles are similar to millions and my raw, honest and intense account of our journey will help others. 

Excerpt: Chapter 1

My Glamorous Life and Other Fallacies

            At the age of twenty-two, only recently graduated from college, I conducted my first live news broadcast in Grand Junction, Colorado.  I stood next to a dead child whose tiny body was covered by nothing but a thin cloth. I was barely able to speak, deeply shaken by the family on bended knees wailing at the feet of their baby. The father had been pulling out of his driveway for a trip to the market, unaware that his four-year-old had snuck out the door and run behind the SUV to join him.

I became fixated on the tiny foot poking out from under the sheet. Quietly hyperventilating, I wanted to scream at someone to have the decency to cover it.

In the many years since then, I have, in my role as a newscaster, seen hundreds of lifeless or injured bodies, and witnessed up-close, distraught and hysterical parents, children, siblings, friends and bystanders. The bodies come in every manner and demeanor and disfiguration: decapitated, dismembered, bloodied, and bloated. I’ve stepped in blood, feces, brain matter and more.

It’s something I’ve never gotten used to. I did expect that my ability to stomach such scenes would grow over time; others told me it would. I expected that I’d become desensitized to it and be able to efficiently and effectively report on it and move to the next assignment. Isn’t that what police officers, firefighters and first responders learn to do? Why couldn’t I?

Long after the cameras were turned off, the images and the back-stories lingered in my mind, memories stacking up like books on library shelves. Regardless of the “I’m tough” armor I strapped on for work each day, the images lived on in me and replayed themselves over and over. Visions of death haunted me at night; the sounds of screaming, pain-filled crying and shrieking robbed my sleep. Tragic accidents, terrible crimes, devastating fires- and the faces and tears of the family and friends upon learning about the demise of their loved ones—seared my memory.

In other words, I did become desensitized—but not in the way I had been told. In response to the continuous exposure to horrific events, I distanced myself—walled myself off emotionally, even from family, friends, and boyfriends. If they didn’t understand why I had become so remote, they weren’t alone: quite frankly, I wasn’t really aware of it myself. Not at the time. I had learned to live in the real time of tragedy. The broad shoulders and brave face—smiling, practiced, emotionally-restrained—of the newscaster were a crucial part of my professional life. That persona allowed me to offer up the facts and shed light on the issues of the day. It gave me the strength to counsel others in their time of sorrow and pain.

But it was also who I became all the time, even in my private life. I couldn’t turn the channel off. I could easily tell someone else’s story: families triumphing over illness, accident, or cruel fate. But I struggled with accepting and supporting similar needs in my own family . . . and myself.

All my life I’ve had an unrelenting drive toward success, yet I worked to keep secret the upbringing that fueled that ambition. I was afraid of being judged for where I came from and who I was then. I kept my past hidden from everyone: the camera, my colleagues, the brass, even many of my friends. Almost no one knew about my stormy personal history, one that could have made me a subject for the evening news rather than the reporter. Given where I came from—the family that I both loved and endured—it’s remarkable that I didn’t end up on the other end of the microphone.

In other words, for a woman in her thirties I have a lot of baggage. I’m not going to say had a lot of baggage—because I still do. There will always be baggage. I grew up with it. But the thing about baggage is that it can’t stay in the closet for too long; it has a way of strapping itself around your ankle like a ball and chain—and insisting on going everywhere with you. It lives in your brain, governs your actions, and colors your sense of self-worth.

Ironically, it was the same career that I used to push me forward that taught me about myself and helped me turn my life around. Reporting on the difficulties of other people was what forced me, finally, to not only confront the realities of my own past, but accept and learn from them.

Which brings me to my family . . . especially Mikey.

Always Mikey.

What project are you working on next?

The next phase for me is my transition back into TV which I’m excited about. I stepped away for a year for this book and to work with a legend Larry King at his company ORA TV an online network. Now I’m ready and excited to head back to TV.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

In my heart I was a writer since high school. It’s when I’d sit for hours and days writing poetry and reading each one to my friends. I became a paid writer right after college.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

After college I became a paid writer/anchor/field reporter so I’ve been writing about ten hours a day for almost 15 years.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I love to write with intensity, I dramatize often. Some would call me and my writing dramatic but I think in color, I am drama, I am intense, and it’s just my personality. But I see how others think it’s too much! Ha. 

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a supermodel. Then I wanted to be a life coach for troubled kids. So, I combined the two and chose broadcasting for the vanity and for the community! :o) wink, wink

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I exposed my deepest thoughts for purpose. I exposed my life and my brother’s life to help others relate, learn, and realize we are stronger then we give ourselves credit for, we can endure much and love even more.

Social media:  @Melissamccarty1, www.NewsGirlsDontCry.com or www.Melissa-Mccarty.com

Thanks, Melissa!

Interview with autobiographer Robert Radcliffe

Today's guest author is Robert Radcliffe. He's here to talk about his memoir, 180 Degrees.

Bio:
Robert abandoned the deadly path that drug abuse and drug dealing was leading him down. After considerable struggles, at the age of twenty-two (March 11, 1991) Robert was able to turn his life around "180 Degrees.” Robert soon realized that sobriety and hard work provided him inner-peace and prosperity beyond his highest expectations, resulting in becoming a self-made millionaire by the age of thirty.

Eternally grateful to everyone who helped him become and remain sober, Robert felt an overwhelming duty to reach out to addicts like himself and hopes his story will inspire others battling addiction to find their own success.

Once achieving monetary abundance, Robert has been an active citizen and philanthropist. Deeply concerned for the well-being of young adults, Robert has been the speaker for drug and alcohol abuse classes at high schools, juvenile detention centers, recovery hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Also, he is a panel speaker and secretary at many twelve-step meetings.

In 1998, Robert was a Co-Founder of the Golf Tournament benefitting Habit for Humanity Charity at the Malibu Country Club. In 2000, 2001, and 2002 Robert sponsored the Charity Tennis Tournament benefitting Spinal Muscular Atrophy at the Riviera Country Club. And in 2003 and 2004 he co-sponsored the Tennis Tournament benefitting Chrysalis, which took place at The Riviera Country Club.

Some of Robert's business accomplishments include real estate office manager, agent coach, and has been the key note speaker at over fifty company office meetings, participated in agent training videos, and he has been featured in print and on television. With over twenty years experience in real estate, he is considered one of the nation's leading agents.

Now, at the age of forty, Robert is a successful business man and loving family man residing in Los Angeles, California with his wife and two sons.

Please tell us about your book.
180 Degrees is my autobiography. I turned my life around 180 degrees. I went from being a daily-using drug addict and occasional ‘big shot’ dealer to, eventually, a homeless junkie living on the streets. Today I am a completely sober, self-reliant, self-employed husband, father, and self-made millionaire.

What inspired you to write this book?
It took a few years to write 180 Degrees and it wasn’t easy. For years, I hadn’t even considered writing an autobiography and it wasn’t until an acquaintance of mine turned on the light bulb one day by reminding me that a book like this would not be for me, rather it would be to help the millions of people that are struggling with the nightmare of addiction.

Are working on another book at this time?
I am currently focusing on 180 Degrees, hoping to reach as many people as possible with my story, and have not yet begun on a new story.

How does writing fit into your life? Is it a priority?
I am a full time real estate agent. 180 Degrees is the first and only book I have written so far. With my wife, sons, and real estate career it was hard to find time to sit down and focus on writing. I got all my writing done early in the morning, sometimes even starting at 3AM. Other than writing and real estate, I like to meditate, jog, read, surf, and spend time with friends and family.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
My writing is personal. I did not hold anything back when writing 180 Degrees. I put everything out on the table.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I was too consumed with drugs and alcohol growing up to contemplate what I wanted to be.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
No matter how far down the drug or alcohol rat hole you go, there is hope, a way out, and the possibility of creating the life of your dreams: spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally and financially.

I hope you enjoy reading 180 Degrees! It is currently available on Kindle for only $3.99. Be sure to check out the 180 Degrees website (http://www.the180blog.com/), it includes behind the scenes views and helpful resources.

Robert, thank you for being here today and giving us an insight into your book. Thanks for getting it out in the world.