Roy Lantz Transcript

October 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Kent Gustavson : Hello, and welcome to sound author’s radio. I have a special guest to start off the show today. It’s a fellow named Roy Lantz. He calls himself possibilitarian. He specializes in quotavations. He is a motivational speaker, an inspiring author and a customer service and presentation skills trainer. Are you there, Roy?

Roy Lantz: Yes, Kent. Hey, I’m here!

Kent: Fantastic! And what exactly does it mean, pitching ringer after ringer in the game of life?

Roy: Well, horseshoes is such a great metaphor. The game of horseshoes, for the game of life. Because in the game of horseshoes, you’ve got to perform well when you’re in the pit. Otherwise you can’t win. You can’t hope to do well in the game. The game of life sometimes finds us in the pits, too, at one time or another.

We need to perform well at those times when we’re not feeling so well, when we’re in the pits. So, I thought, gosh, that’s a terrific metaphor for the game of life.

Kent: Are you a horseshoe player?

Roy: Yes, I am. I don’t have the greatest game, but I’ve got a pretty good game. I’ve got horseshoe pits in my backyard. I’ve been playing for about 30 years. I’ve got a pretty decent game going, yes.

Kent: What do you do on a daily basis? What is your job?

Roy: Well, I’ve got a little speaking and training business, based in Atlanta that I started in 1986. We just this summer celebrated our 21st anniversary. Many years ago, Ted, I was looking for a definition of my purpose in life and part of what I do is to teach people and help people identify what their purpose is.

I established, gosh, back in the mid ’80’s that my purpose is to use my optimism and enthusiasm to teach and inspire others so that the world of all those lives I touch, directly and indirectly, will be a better one. That’s a mouthful, but that’s 27 words that kind of describes what I try to do with my business.

Kent: We all know “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” Is this a similar book to that? Why don’t you tell me a little bit about how the book is made up, and how it might compare to other inspirational books.

Roy: OK. Kent, how about let’s start with where the title came from. As I mentioned, I started the business in 1986. That was also the year that my first book was published. It’s called “The Care and Keeping of Customers.” And it contains dozens and dozens and dozens of specific helpful things, I think that people can do to provide better customer service.

And I thought, well, why not take that to the next level. I’ve got some life experiences to share. Some very specific things that could help people. And I’ve been working on a book to do that for quite a while. I didn’t have a title for it. I didn’t know exactly. where the book was going.

Well, I was doing contract speaking for a company that had an office here in Atlanta. But, the company was based in Norway. We had a company picnic, Kent, one Saturday. Everybody was having a pretty good time. Except, I couldn’t help but notice that people that were coming away from the horseshoe pit, nobody came away smiling or laughing.

Everybody seemed depressed and disgruntled. Some of them looked angry. And I learned that the boss, who was this big, strapping stereotypical Scandinavian guy, kind of like yourself, huh? He was from Norway, and he was killing everybody. He was beating everybody in playing horseshoes.

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I’m not great, but I’ve got a pretty decent game, so I went down to challenge him. I was doing great. I kept getting ringers. I was throwing ringer after ringer and I beat him pretty handily, much to the delight of my co‑workers.

They were shouting, and cheering me on, “Go Roy! Yeah! Yeah!” That was a Saturday. The following Friday, he fired me. So, that’s where I got the title, “Never Beat the Boss at Horseshoes”, from.

Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Motivation, Inspiration, Business, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Gabe Shuford Transcript

October 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. In the fourth segment of every show, we like to showcase authors of sound, and Gabe Shuford is a special guest who is indeed that ‑ he plays the harpsichord. He won a composing competition when he was young. He won the top prize at an international harpsichord competition down in Texas recently. He’s an extraordinary baroque player, as well as, a jazz pianist and folk harpsichordist. What don’t you do, Gabe?

Gabe Shuford: Thanks that’s awfully nice. I don’t know. There are probably some things I don’t do.

Kent: Let’s chat about your upcoming project. You’ve been working with a saxophonist?

Gabe: Yeah, a friend of mine, Lars Jacobsen, who I met through another friend, Nicholas Walker, who I think you know. Lars is a great saxophonist. We started collaborating together a couple years ago, working in his studio apartment and recording some stuff with tenor sax, soprano sax, and Fender Rhodes. So, we got a great sound on the Rhodes, and it was just a blast doing that. A lot of free improvisation, it was a good time.

Kent: People can check out the music at his website.

Gabe: Yeah, you can check it out at LarsJacobsenMusic.com.

Kent: LarsJacobsenMusic.com.

Gabe: That’s right.

Kent: So, let’s listen to one of my favorite clips of you playing piano. For most of the album you play Rhodes. Now is the clip where you play piano also part of the album?

Gabe: Yeah, absolutely. And the way it happened was that we recorded some stuff with Rhodes and sax. To fill out the album, we decided to add a couple tracks that had piano in them. I like this tune a lot too.

[music]

Kent: Just a little piece of that song from Gabe Shuford and Lars Jacobsen. You can find all of the music at www.LarsJacobsenMusic.com.

Gabe: That’s right.

Kent: Now, this is jazz. It’s sort of crossover jazz and something else. But how do your worlds relate to each other? You’ve got a degree in harpsichord and you’ve won awards in early music. How does that relate to jazz? How does that relate to popular music?

Posted by admin | Filed Under Folk, TRANSCRIPTS, Classical, Jazz, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Ralph Watley Transcript

October 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. This is Dr. Kent, and my next guest is Ralph Watley. Where are you speaking to us from, Ralph?

Ralph Watley: I’m in Arkansas, close to Little Rock. It’s kind of hilly, the are mountains about 30‑40 miles west of here.

Kent: Ralph Watley has written a book called “Pop Goes the Poetry”. He is a talented poet and speaker. Tell me a little bit about yourself, Ralph.

Ralph: Well I was born in Louisiana in 1956, and I moved from Louisiana to Arkansas when I was nine years old. Then I moved to Missouri when I was ten years old, then to Tennessee, then back to Missouri when I was twelve years old, and then to Louisiana. I worked for Union Pacific Railroad from 1974‑1997. My career was cut short by the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis back in 1997. So I’m retired now.

Kent: What did you do for the railroad?

Ralph: I was a switchman/breakman. The last job I had at the railroad was working in the diesel shop working on the engines.

Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Poetry, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Cynthia Blomquist Gustavson Transcript

October 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors Radio. This is Dr. Kent, and I’ve been speaking to authors from around the country.

My next author guest is Cynthia Blomquist Gustavson, and she’s the author of the “In-versing Your Life” series that’s been out on Blooming Twig Books for almost a year now. It’s done very well across the country. She’s putting together a collection of poetry that will be out in the spring of 2008, and it’s all about “coming home” poems. Cynthia, are you there?

Cynthia Blomquist Gustavson: I am. Hello, Dr. Kent.

Dr. Kent: Can you tell me a little bit about your “In-versing Your Life” series?

Cynthia: Oh, I’d love to. I have two kind of separate lives. One life is as a poet and that’s my first life. It started when I was very, very young. My other life is as a psychotherapist. I have integrated the two of them, and I use poetry in psychotherapy.

Since I do that in my practice and I also do it for myself as a person, I decided to write some workbooks that would teach others how to do the same thing. It’s not only for therapists but for anybody who picks up the book and can do that.

My first poetry therapy workbook, called “In-versing Your Life”, came out in 1995. That was reprinted and came out again last year; five others came out at the same time.

Those other five are more specialized. One is for children. One is for teens. One is especially for eating disorders. One is for chronic pain, and then the last one is called “Con-versing With God”, which is about spiritual direction and pastoral counseling.

Dr. Kent: And all of those books are available anywhere books are sold: any local bookstore, amazon.com, or on Cynthia’s website, www.cynthiagustavson.com. Let’s chat a little bit about your upcoming work. You’re putting together a book of poetry?

Cynthia: Yes, I am. I think most authors have bursts of creativity, and then other times in their life when it quiets down a bit. I had one of those bursts of creativity this last June when I was asked to be the poet-in-residence at a wonderful arts festival in Minnesota called The White Pine Arts Festival in Stillwater, Minnesota.

The thing that was so incredible about it for me was that, that is my hometown, and I was asked to come back and be the poet-in-residence at this wonderful festival in my hometown. As I did that, my mind was open to all these memories–all the five senses: the smells, the sights, the taste, all of those things that surrounded me when I was a child. There I was, back in that setting, the beautiful, beautiful setting of the St. Croix Valley, again.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Oklahoma, TRANSCRIPTS, Poetry, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Eddie Munster | Child Star

October 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster) and Helen Darras [12:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The inaugural episode of Sound Authors kicked off live with an interview of Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster) and the author of his first ever biography, Helen Darras, of New York.

They chat about Butch Patrick’s time as Eddie Munster on The Munsters in the early 1960s, as well as his tenure on other shows, such as Mr. Ed, Bonanza, and many more!

Butch Patrick and Helen Darras are in the middle of a nationwide tour after the release of the hardcover edition of their book, published by Blooming Twig Books in New York. The audio book, read by Butch Patrick himself, will also be released very soon, and will be available on itunes late this year.

To find out more about Butch Patrick, Helen Darras, and The Munsters, please visit their website at: www.themunsters.tv

To purchase a copy of the book, please visit our store here, or go to www.bloomingtwigbooks.com/shop directly.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Entertainment, Hollywood, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

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