Jeffrey Hickey | Coach’s Son

October 20, 2007 | 1 Comment

Interview with Jeffrey Hickey [12:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jeffrey Hickey talked with us today about his latest publication, The Coach’s Son, a novel about a specially gifted boy and football. Mr. Hickey is the son of an NFL coach himself, and speaks with us about the process of writing a novel, as well as about his brand new Audio Book of The Coach’s Son, being released this week by Blooming Twig Books.

Jeffrey Hickey is an author, composer, performing artist, teacher, coach, father of twins and arguably the happiest married man on the planet.

Those close to him know him as Chef-Boy-R-Jeff for his exquisite cooking. He is a relentless advocate for blood donation. He would like all live sporting events televised without commercials.

He and his family live in Inverness, California, with five ducks, two parrotlets, one cockatiel, one lop bunny, one geicho lizard, and are often visited by such a varied assortment of critters (human and animal), they call their home Der Zoo.

His previously published works include a book and audio recording, Wages Creek, and a CD of stories with music, Bats and Bones, both of which garnered great critical notice.

Visit Jeffrey Hickey’s website at: www.jeffreyhickey.com

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 Fiction, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Lars Clausen | Author Activist

October 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Lars Clausen [10:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lars Clausen is winner of a Benjamin Franklin Award, Book of the Year Award, and an IPPY Award for his breathtaking tale of unicycling from Vermont to Washington D.C., Straight into Gay America.

Lars spoke with us about his Guinness World Records, his activism, his family, and his religion, as well as his author website company AmericanAuthor.com

Lars Clausen is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and holds the Guinness World Record for the longest unicycle tour (9136 miles).
Clausen received his Master of Divinity degree from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. He holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Berkeley and from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He also studied for two years at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Along with his own writing, he currently works with American Author (www.AmericanAuthor.com) to help authors promote their work online.
Writing expresses Lars Clausen’s hope to foster community and discover a deeper personal honesty.

His first book, One Wheel – Many Spokes: USA by Unicycle is a “stepping out” story, depicting his unicycle journey through all 50 states, exploring Native lands and history.

Straight Into Gay America: My Unicycle Journey for Equal Rights, is a “coming out” story, combining personal exploration with active advocacy.

Clausen lives with his family in Chelan on the east side of Washington’s Cascade Mountains. Every morning he wakes up to the greatest gift he can imagine, life with his wife, Anne and two children, KariAnna and Kai.
Visit www.onewheel.org and www.straightintogayamerica.com for more information.
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 Religion, Politics, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Silken Rags | Folk Music

October 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Silken Rags [8:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On Sound Authors, both authors and musicians are featured… The sounds of authors, and the authors of sound. One segment per show will be reserved to spotlight an independent musician.

The music group interviewed on today’s show was Silken Rags, a duo of composer and pianist Peter Winkler, and his wife Dorothea Cook, violinist. Their music ranges widely in style, from jazz to classical to folk.

Winkler is a professor of classical composition at Stony Brook University in New York, and Dorothea Cook is a teacher and musician in New York as well.

Featured in this interview are two pieces of music written by Winkler, and performed by Silken Rags. The first is a segment of the tune Betty’s Creek, and the second is an excerpt from Partita for Baroque Ensemble.

Find out more about Peter Winkler at www.peterwinklermusic.com, and about Dorothea Cook at www.dorotheacook.com

Their album Stolen Shack is available from www.cdbaby.com, itunes, and through our store here.

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

Lars Clausen Transcript

October 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Transcript of Sound Authors Radio
Lars Clausen | Author Activist

Kent Gustavson: Hello and welcome back to Sound Authors. My next author guest is a man named Lars Clausen. Lars, you on the line?

Lars Clausen: Hello Kent.

Kent Gustavson: Hi, how are you doing?

Lars Clausen: Having a great day. Good to be with you.

Kent Gustavson: You too. Lars Clausen is a good friend of mine and he is a hero also. He has a couple of Guinness world records in unicycling, and he is a former pastor, he is a guru in the publishing industry now with his website americanauthor.com and he has written two incredible books. One of them is the award‑winning, ‘Straight into Gay America’, an incredibly enthralling look at a straight man’s journey on a unicycle from Vermont all the way down to Washington DC, and another book that’s a personal favorite of mine called, ‘One Wheel, Many Spokes’. It’s about another journey he took for human rights. Lars can you tell me a little bit first about yourself?

Lars Clausen: Sure, I have been a pastor before, and an engineer, and it seems like I’ve always kept trying different things. I was 40 years old when I set out on a unicycle to do all 50 states. It was one of the great experiences of my life. Sort of stepping out from my regular day to day work, and taking half a year to unicycle through all 50 states. I had my family along; my wife and kids followed in the motor home and it really set a stage for stepping into vulnerable places and risks since then, in the last eight years of my life.

Kent Gustavson: I think it’s one of my favorite books. I’ll always tell people, if they’ve got a list of five books to take with them to a desert island, that’ll certainly be on it. It inspired me and I think it can inspire a lot of people. Your second book is a different kind of journey. It’s still a personal journey, but it seems like you’re very, very passionate about this cause. ‘Straight into Gay America’; can you tell me about the cause and the reason for doing that journey?

Lars Clausen: Sure, and just to back up for a minute on taking that ride. What I found unicycling through all 50 states is, everybody wants to talk to someone who’s unicycling through their town on a tour, so I decided the next ride, I wanted to use what I learned and take a ride around an issue that I really care about, which is equal rights for people in our country; especially gay, lesbian bisexual and transgendered people. I became interested in that way back in seminary when I was able to become a pastor because I’m a straight man, but my gay and lesbian friends, if they wanted to have a partner, they couldn’t be a pastor. It really struck me; I’ve been involved in that issue for getting close to 20 years now and I thought, “I’m going to take this one on the road”, and that’s what I did.

Kent Gustavson: And are you still a religious man?

Lars Clausen: I am still a religious man, but I struggle with what does it mean to be part of a church where we don’t do, what seems to me, so apparent from Jesus, is to include everyone. And so for myself, only for myself, I’ve found that it’s better for me to be operating outside of the traditional institution and I think a lot of different people answer that question in a lot of different ways. This is turning out to be a good place for me to live, to work, and to speak from.

Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Religion, Politics, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Jeffrey Hickey Transcript

October 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Hello, and welcome back to “Sound Authors Radio”. Do I have Jeff on the line?

Jeffrey Hickey: You do, indeed, Kent. How are you?

Kent: I’m doing great. This is author Jeffrey Hickey. Where are you speaking to me from?

Jeffrey: Inverness, California; way out in west Marin County, close to the Point Reyes lighthouse.

Kent: How’s the weather out there today?

Jeffrey: Rainy. It’s raining, with more on the way. It’s a perfect day for writing.

Kent: Give me a little nutshell about who you are. I know you are an author ‑ and what other projects you have going. Then we’ll speak about “The Coach’s Son”.

Jeffrey: I’m an author. I’m a recording artist, a composer, a teacher. I have coached. I have given motivational speeches. I have taught people how to effectively speak in public. I’m a dad. I’m the happiest married guy in the world.

Kent: What can’t you do?

Jeffrey: What can’t I do? Anything mechanical. You put a hammer in my hand, and something is going to die.

Kent: Your father was an NFL coach, right?

Jeffrey: He was, indeed. By the unlikely name of Red Hickey.

Kent: I assume that’s part of the impetus for writing this book, “The Coach’s Son”?

Jeffrey: Well, it turned out to be part of the impetus. It wasn’t the original idea. The original idea was a little more removed. In fact, the original title for “The Coach’s Son” was “The Greatest Fan of All Time”. That had been jumping around in my head since I was about 18 years old.

After I had written the first draft, with the advice of some of the people who read it; some of my professional readers who took a look at it, it really wasn’t about the greatest fan of all time. It was about the coach’s son.

Kent: How much of the story is true? There’s got to be some truth… I know that the front cover, the fantastic picture of a boy sitting on the throne, I should say, the toilet, with a pistol at his feet, and a football field laid out underneath him, beautifully Photo‑shopped.

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

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