Creating a podcast is time consuming, so you might ask, why? Good question. Here’s my answer–I wanted to create a way to help aspiring authors get their name and product out there–and being the aspiring marketer that I am, I wanted another way to reach my own readers as well and find new ones!
Sweet Peas in a Writer Podcast is hosted by myself and my dear friend, Betsy Love. We’ve been on this writing journey for years and have shared many a writing moment, not the least of which the publication of our novels just a few weeks apart!
I hope you will enjoy this podcast–leave a comment–click a couple of the social media buttons below, and maybe think about creating your own podcast!
Listen to the podcast by clicking:
Sweetpeas Launch Episode 1 remix
or read the transcript below:
Sweet Peas in a Writer Podcast Episode 1
04/04/12, 5:00 pm
Theresa: Welcome to Sweet Peas in a Writer Podcast. I’m author Theresa Sneed.
Betsy: And I’m author Betsy Love.
Theresa: We would like to welcome you to our first ever writer podcast!
Betsy: Whether you’re a beginning writer or an old pro, we hope that you will find here a place to be inspired encouraged and informed.
Theresa: Or at the very least entertained. Betsy and I met at a mini writing conference and immediately hit it off–kind of like sisters.
Betsy: Yeah, we’ve been on this amazing journey, that was almost 20 years ago. In fact, you know what, sometimes people ask us if we’re sisters because we’re both redheads and we’re short.
Theresa: Betsy, this is the one place I can be tall. Don’t tell them that.
Betsy: Sorry. Okay so, Theresa, I have three questions for you that I just know our listeners are just dying to hear you answer. Okay, the first one, If you could talk to an angel right this minute, what would you say to him or her?
Theresa: Wow, that’s a cool question. If I could talk to an angel right now I would say, “Who’s going to win the presidential election?” Haha! No I wouldn’t do that. If I could seriously talk to an angel, well what would you do, if you could talk to an angel, you’d want to find out what heaven is really like. So I think, because I love to write about heaven and about angels, I would say, “How far off am I? I mean what am I doing that I can make better?” I want to paint the picture as perfect as I can, but you know, nobody can remember heaven, so you just wing it. So, I guess if I had an angel I could really talk to, I would say, “Tell me about heaven. Tell me what it’s like.”
Betsy: Okay, cool. Alright, my next question: What message would you want to hear from an angel?
Theresa: Oh, huh, well–I guess I’d like to hear that they’re not laughing too hard at me up there.
Betsy: Haha! Okay, they’re laughing.
Theresa: Probably.:)
Betsy: Okay, so what message would you like to hear.
Theresa: Well, you know what … my mother’s in heaven and I have a brother and a lot of loved ones up there and my mother-in-law. I think it would be wonderful if they gave me a message. On the other hand, I’m not so sure I’d want a message from a couple of them.
Betsy: Okay, alright, moving along. What was the happiest day of your life? Now that has to be aside from the time you got married and your six beautiful children. What was the happiest day of your life?
Theresa: Happiest day of my life? There truly are so many. The happiest days of my life have been spent doing really simple things. I mean, just like being outside with a nice breeze blowing, or reading a good book. But I have to say that probably the happiest day of my life was when I was able to make sense of who I was. When I finally understood after searching and searching and searching – that I came from heaven, and I’m going to go back there. That was a real important time in my life.
Betsy: That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing that with us Theresa.
Theresa: Hey, I’ve got some questions for you.
Betsy: Okay, shoot, let’s hear ’em.
Theresa: First of all, think of the things you went through as a child, do they influence your writing today?
Betsy: Oh, they definitely do. You will find scenes from my childhood in my book. No I will not tell you which ones. You’ll just have to guess. But a lot of who I am comes through especially in my young adult writing.
Theresa: Do you have a favorite author that you liked to read when you were young, or a favorite book? And how did that author or book impact your own writing?
Betsy: Well, the first book I remember reading on my own was actually called Paddington the Bear.
My mother told me to go to bed and so I did, but the light shined in the hallway, right across the floor so I hung over the bed, put the book on the floor so the light could hit the book and I read Paddington the Bear. My mother caught me. She grounded me from that book.
Theresa: She grounded you from Paddington the Bear.
Betsy: I only had pages left to read—just a few pages. That had such an impact on me that I would sneak reading whenever I could, because my mother was not going to stop me from reading.
Theresa: I’m confused—why did she not want you to read Paddington?
Betsy: It wasn’t Paddington; it wasn’t the book. It was the fact that I was disobeying my mother. I should have been going to bed—not reading by the hallway light.
Theresa: That’s a very unique perspective. The worst thing you did in your life was getting grounded for reading.
Betsy: That was torture.
Theresa: Okay and I have another question for you.
Betsy: Okay.
Theresa: You’re a successful author now. I absolutely love your book Identity and you have an exciting book coming out.
Betsy: I do.
Theresa: Where do you see yourself this time next year?
Betsy: Next year this time, we’ll probably have a whole year of podcasts under our belt. I’ll be almost empty-nesting and I will probably have at least three books out. I can only see myself going up here as far as writing goes.
Theresa: And that’s what I see to, not just for you, because I know you so well, but for myself. And our hope is that we through our podcast can inspire and encourage people within the sound of our voices to do the very same thing, because Betsy and I have been on this incredible journey, and we started with just the desire to write. We’ve been going through this for so many years, and we just now both published within a month of each other, last summer.
Betsy: And this month we’re going to be launching our next books which going to me so much fun. She’s got a sequel to No Angel—
Theresa: Actually, it’s a prequel.
Betsy: Oh, prequel—sorry, a prequel to No Angel called From Heaven to Earth and if you loved No Angel, you will absolutely love, love, love From Heaven to Earth, my husband couldn’t put it down. It was great.
Theresa: Thank you.
Betsy: So, let’s give them our writing tip for the day. I think the most important thing I could tell any writer—beginning, experienced, published, unpublished If you want to be a writer, you have to set aside time, every single day to write, because you can’t wait for writing time to happen.
Theresa: That’s absolutely true. And so many people think that they’ve got to pick up that pen, or type away at that computer that it’s got to come out absolutely brilliant—no, no, no, no. The first thing you do is called a rough draft for a purpose. Just get the story out.
Betsy: And don’t worry if it’s not brilliant. Heaven knows—my first writing, my first draft—so not brilliant.
Theresa: But that’s not so bad. It’s okay—you have to start somewhere!
Betsy: It’s brilliant now, right?
Theresa: It sure is!
Betsy: Alright, if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, or would like to suggest a topic for a future one, we would really love to hear from you.
Theresa: Yes, you can visit us at sweetpeasinawriterpodcast.blogspot.com
Betsy: I’m Betsy.
Theresa: And I’m Theresa.
Thanks for joining us!
