Kathryn Leigh Kirt Transcript
April 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to “Sound Authors”. On the fourth part of each show we feature authors of sound. My guest is Kathryn Kirt from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She’s done a CD for children and a CD for adults with her group, “The Good Intentions.”Welcome to the show.
Kathryn Kirt: Thank you so much.
Dr. Kent: How’s the weather down there in Tulsa today?
Kathryn: Well, I’m looking out the window right now and it’s pretty windy, but it’s very pretty. All the flowers are in bloom.
Dr. Kent: Your two CD’s are based on life experiences. You have a baby yourself. I guess that’s the inspiration for “Itty Bitty Ditties For The New Baby?”
Kathryn: That’s right, I wrote all of the songs in her first year of life.
Dr. Kent: And all of these songs are very short so people can learn them and sing them themselves, is that right?
Kathryn: Right, that’s exactly right. I was hoping that parents, grandparents and children would sing those songs to their own babies and I thought that short would help people learn them, no matter what their age.
Dr. Kent: Let’s listen to a little bit of “I Love Milk, Yes I Do.”
Song: I love milk, yes I do, I love milk, yes I do.It’s so sweet and good, and good for you!I love milk, yes I do, I love milk, yes I do.I’d have it all day if I could, and I do!It’s got vitamins and antibodies, its got everything I need.It’s a perfect five star feast for babies.I love milk, yes I do, I love milk, yes I do,It’s so sweet and good, and good for you!I love milk, yes I do, I love milk, yes I do.I’d have it all day if I could, and I do!
Dr. Kent: [laughs] That’s an awesome song. Who’s the little fellow, or lady, doing the interludes?
Kathryn: That is Faith Hart and she, at the time of the recording was six years old, and she is the daughter of my singing partner, Elizabeth Thompson.
Dr. Kent: What a beautiful voice in there. I love the little ditty aspect of this. I don’t think there are many albums out there. There’re all looking at the pop music link of two to three minutes. I love this, its something that…these little tidbits.Tell me a little bit about why you put this into a CD.
Kathryn: Well, my daughter was breast fed, of course, for the first eight months of her life. Most babies only have milk for the first six months and it was such a part of our bonding experience together, as mother and child. Also, I was just amazed; I could both nurture her emotionally and physically by doing this. And that’s all she needed for the first six months. We’re so used to eating all types of food as adults, but I just thought it was amazing that she literally got everything she needed from just milk.
Dr. Kent: And the songs are called things like, “Wake Up, Shake It Up”, “No Cry, No Cry”, “The Rubber Duckie”, “Please, Please, Pretty Please”. Did you find yourself, in this period, walking around and thinking like a little kid?
Kathryn: Well, I did actually, and at the time… let’s see, most of the songs were actually written when I went back to school. I’m a teacher, and though I’m taking a break right now, I was, at the time, teaching English at a high school about 20 minutes away.So that was a perfect length of time after I dropped off my daughter, to work on both the melodies and the lyrics, on the way to work and the way back from work, knowing that I’d see her right away again. So I’d get a little bit in my mind and just keep working on it. I’d also work on them as I walked the dog and my daughter around the neighborhood.
Dr. Kent: What did the neighbors think?
Kathryn: Oh they probably think I’m the crazy lady. [laughter] I’m working on songs all the time.
Dr. Kent: I know you call your group, “The Good Intentions”. Talk about your singing partner.
Kathryn: Well, Elizabeth and I have been singing together now for four years and just this summer we added two new members to our band, Jim Tilley plays mostly the mandolin and Jayula Kirt [sp] plays the keyboard.
Dr. Kent: And you play around Tulsa and the area?
Kathryn: We do! We play as often as we can, we’re all busy professionals in one way or another, or I should say, the three of them are. I’m now a stay at home mom and I have a part time job as the music director at a church. But we try to work around our schedules and play as much as we can. We’ve done the Farmers Market and Cinder One Market more recently and played at The River’s Edge and several other venues in town.
Dr. Kent: Let’s play a song from your album, “Join Hands”, by “The Good Intentions.” This is called “Pools of Sky”Pools of sky line my brick road,And gold leaved trees hang all above me.Faraway moon shines icy cold.I think its time to run away to the sea, to the sea.To a place where light shines unearthly.To a place were sea sand can…
Dr. Kent: Well, it’s been a real pleasure speaking with Kathryn Kirt. You can find her music on cdbaby.com. Look for “The Good Intentions”, her group, and “Itty Bitty Ditties for the New Baby”, by Kathryn Leigh Kurt.Thanks so much for being on the show.
Kathryn: Thank you very much; it was great to be here.
Dr. Kent: And we’ll listen to a little bit more from “The Good Intentions” on the way out here. Thank you so much to my guests, Suzanne Lieurance, Daniel Lee Stone and Tim Keller.We’ll see you next week, but think about Ella Fitzgerald today, that smooth silky voice, and we’ll listen to Kathryn Kirt on the way out.Pools of sky line my brick road, and gold leaved trees hang above me.Faraway moon shines icy cold.
Kathryn Leigh Kirt | Ditties & Tunes
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today on the show, we spoke with musician and mother Kathryn Leigh Kirt, telling us about her CD filled with “ditties,” short enough for any parent to learn to sing, and for any child to learn! She also shared her “adult” music with us… More information about Kathryn Leigh Kirt and her music from her CDBaby site:
Itty Bitty Ditties for the New Baby includes 13 original songs written by Kathryn Leigh Kirt, a singer/songwriter who lives and sings in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The songs are performed by Kathryn with a lot of help from friends and family members. The guitar player is her brother-in-law Nathan Guilford from Oklahoma City. The singers include Kathryn’s father-in-law Bill Morris of Houston, Texas, her neice Siri Peterson from St. Paul, Minnesota, and her singing partner Elizabeth Thompson from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Last but definitely not least is Faith Hart, Elizabeth’s daughter who was six years old at the time of the recording. She masterfully handles all of the speaking parts. The songs were inspired by the experience of being a new mom, and they focus on things that a baby does everyday. New parents will have no problem relating to songs such as “I Love Milk, Yes I Do!” and “Three Wet Wipe Mess.” Some of these songs are easy enough for a toddler to sing, and Kathryn hopes that the whole family will join in and sing to the new baby! Singing can help parents, siblings, and babies feel calm and happy. Now that is a dream come true.
Tanya Lee Stone | Important Children’s Books
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Tanya Lee Stone was our guest on the show today. She is a well-known author, and writes books for children that all have great importance in theme… Her newest book is a biography of Ella Fitzgerald (commemorating Ella Fitzgerald’s birthday on this date), and she has two new books coming out in the next year.More information from Tanya Lee Stone’s money:
Like many writers, Tanya Lee Stone has been making up stories since she was a kid. But her first series, Henry the Happy House, was never sold. She even drew the pictures. It’s a mystery why nobody wanted to publish it! As a high schooler, Tanya went to performing arts high school as a music major. Her writing improved when she studied English at Oberlin College (and Music at Oberlin Conservatory. She might even sing if you offer her chocolate.). After graduation she moved to New York to be an editor.Stone was an editor for 13 years. During some of those years, she also earned a Masters Degree in Education and learned all about seals and sea lions! (If you ask, she might tell you about the time she had to climb into a harbor seal tank with high rubber boots to give the seals their shots). She also traveled all over the world, hopping with kangaroos in Australia, eating the best caviar ever in Russia, and even living in England for awhile where she studied British literature. When Stone moved to Vermont and got her chance to write her first book, she got hooked on stories all over again. This award-winning author has written nearly 90 books for young readers. She has written books about animals, nature, science, history, and biography. She also writes poetry and fiction. Best-selling titles include Abraham Lincoln (more than 100,000 copies sold) and P is for Passover (more than 75,000 sold). Stone’s most recent titles are a young adult novel, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl (Wendy Lamb/Random House), Amelia Earhart (DK), and Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald (Viking). Bad Boy was her first novel for teens and received starred reviews, as well as honors from the New York Public Library, Texas Tayshas State Reading List, School Library Journal, the ALA, Maryland Best Books, and the Kentucky Bluegrass Master Award List. Stone also writes articles and reviews and has been published in VOYA, School Library Journal, and the New York Times.Forthcoming titles include picture books Elizabeth Leads the Way (Holt) and Sandy’s Circus (Viking), as well as Almost Astronauts: The True Story of the Mercury 13. Many of the stories she now finds herself drawn to deal with themes of strong women and empowering girls. Stone is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Authors Guild, PEN American Center, ALAN (The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents), and the National Council Against Censorship. She has been a featured speaker at the Texas Book Festival, the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Rochester Book Festival, the Connecticut Reading Association, the Vermont League of Writers, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the International Reading Association (IRA), the American Library Association (ALA), as well as multiple schools and libraries. She is the Co-director of Kindling Words, an annual retreat for published children’s book authors and illustrators.
Suzanne Lieurance |
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Often-published children’s author Suzanne Lieurance was a guest on our show today, speaking to us about the process of writing a children’s book, and about her latest book The Locket. She had some interesting insights about how to write difficult non-fiction for children.
Suzanne Lieurance is a former classroom teacher, now a freelance writer, children’s author, speaker, and The Working Writer’s Coach. She is the author of over 20 published books for children. Lieurance is also the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center and the Children’s Writers Coaching Club.
Tim Kellis | Relationships & Wall Street
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We spoke with Tim Kellis today about marriages and why they break up so often in this country. Kellis analyzes the break ups from a Wall Street perspective.More information from Tim Kellis’ website:
Why is knowledge of mathematics important to understanding relationships?
Almost without exception, observed the great 20th Century philosopher Bertrand Russell in his exhaustive study of the history of Western philosophy, modern Platonists “are ignorant of mathematics, in spite of the immense importance Plato attached to arithmetic and geometry, and the immense influence that they had on his philosophy.
Russell aptly sums up why modern psychology has been remarkably unable to grapple with the very human struggle of modern relationships. Tim Kellis calls today’s relationship gurus Freudian failures as one out of every two marriages are dissolving in divorce. The approach by Dr. Phil and others is merely psychological and intuitive, when what’s required is a more analytical and scientific evaluation of the philosophy in human relationships we call happiness.
According to Kellis, mathematics is the very basis for science as well as a prerequisite for understanding logic and philosophy. A student of mathematics and engineering, as well as a brilliant Wall Street analyst, he tells his clients: “Happiness is a philosophy not a psychology.” The ability to comprehend the causes of relationship struggles requires the skill to analyze, comprehend and then write, he says. His mathematically derived analytical skills provide the foundation for his ability to find the relationship solution that can save marriages.
For Kellis, writing this book has been a life experience involving his professional and personal life, as well as his imposing intellectual and emotional development, that has led him to understand how to make a relationship work.
“Too often I’ve heard ‘I’d rather be happy and single, than unhappy and married.’ Yet my parents taught me that divorce was not an option in life, something they taught me not by what they said, but by how they lived. They had a very unhappy relationship for a very long time, but they stayed married. The only reason I was able to come to understand how to make a relationship successful is because I was able to overcome my own childhood shortcomings, forgive my parents and see them for who they really were–my parents.
Ambition and a strong aptitude for math helped lead Kellis to discover how to make relationships work. His math skills led directly to an engineering degree, nine years in the telecommunications industry, an MBA in finance, and finally on to Wall Street, where he became the very first semiconductor analyst to focus on the communications market.As an analyst you are required to be an expert in your field. The research completed before writing Equality: The Quest for the Happy Marriage was pursued in the same fashion as that required before becoming an analyst. The search for the truth requires a critical mind.
After publishing a 300-page initiation piece entitled Initiating Coverage of the Semiconductor Industry: Riding the Bandwidth Wave, Kellis became a leading semiconductor analyst at one of the biggest firms on Wall Street. As an analyst, he was in constant contact with investors, honing his presentation skills to the point that he became an expert presenter, a skill he believes is essential in his new role as relationship advisor. The experience he gained as a Wall Street analyst provided an excellent backdrop for researching and writing a book on relationships. As an analyst he had to deal with many egos, some healthy, some not. During this time, he learned why corporations and systems functioned at their best or worst and today applies much of what he learned to smaller, more intimate systems embodied in relationships.
What is the thread common to all corporations? Regardless of industry, almost every company starts out initially with the sole purpose of providing a product or service that makes its customers happy. The exception here is relationship therapists who have simply rationalized unhappiness. Competition exists to keep every corporation on its toes. Try to think of a product that makes customers unhappy or a television commercial where the actors are portrayed being unhappy using a specific company’s product or service. There aren’t any.
According to Kellis, “working with so many people who loved their jobs on Wall Street exposed me to many happy relationships. Their happiness was not simply a result of how much money they made, many of the happy relationships were with people who were not making a lot of money, but because they found working on Street incredibly intense and exciting. The common notion within mainstream psychology that relationships without arguments are impossible is simply a fallacy.
Ken Bruen | Thriller Author
April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today we spoke with Thriller Novelist Ken Bruen from Ireland. The dialogue was fascinating… Tune in to hear the story about the fan with the baseball bat! More about Ken Bruen’s new novel Cross from his website:
Cross (kros/ noun, verb, & adjective) means an ancient instrument of torture, or, in a very bad humour, or, a punch thrown across an opponent’s punch. Jack Taylor brings death and pain to everyone he loves. His only hope of redemption - his surrogate son, Cody - is lying in hospital in a coma. At least he still has Ridge, his old friend from the Guards, though theirs is an unorthodox relationship. When she tells him that a boy has been crucified in Galway city, he agrees to help her search for the killer. Jack’s investigations take him to many of his old haunts where he encounters ghosts, dead and living. Everyone wants something from him, but Jack is not sure he has anything left to give. Maybe he should sell up, pocket his Euros and get the hell out of Galway like everyone else seems to be doing. Then the sister of the murdered boy is burned to death, and Jack decides he must hunt down the killer, if only to administer his own brand of rough justice.
Don Saliers | Music & the Church
April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Don Saliers, father of Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, spoke with us today about his book with his daughter, and about his long career in music and the church. Listen in to hear about a father and daughter’s relationship through music, politics and all the rest.More about Don from the Indigo Girls website:
“I found warmth, wisdom, and love to be present on every page of this book. Emily and her father, Don, have found a way to have a deeply meaningful conversation about their life experiences and share it with the reader. The result is this beautiful expression of music as many things–healer, gift, symbol of freedom and community, and agent of change.”—Mary Chapin Carpenter
“Don and Emily Saliers trace the songlines of two very different lives through this thought-provoking book. It is full of stories, quotations from songs old and new, and even their personal discussions as they explore the boundaries between their worlds. Their words plumb the depths of human and musical differences: the way song can divide as well, bring us together and its power to bring us ‘back to life’ from grief or pain or spiritual anguish. May we all be able to find songlines as rich as those uniting this intelligent, affectionate, and musical father and daughter.”—Alice Parker, author, Yes, We’ll Gather!, Creative Hymn Singing, and Melodious Accord
“In this sweetheart of a book, Don and Emily Saliers do far more than write convincingly about the healing power of music. They show us how it works by letting their own love of ‘deep song’ lead them across generational, aesthetic, and religious differences into a place of such holy listening to one another that even the angels lay down their tambourines.”—Barbara Brown Taylor, author, Bread of Angels, Home by Another Way, Gospel Medicine, The Preaching Life, God in Pain, and Speaking of Sin
“Emily and her dad have created a beautiful celebration of how music and spirit connect us all.”—Bonnie Raitt
Emily McCay | Romance & Writing
April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today we spoke with Harlequin romance novelist Emily McCay. This is a great revealing look into the world of romance novels, and about McCay’s first experiences with the genre.More about Emily McCay from her website:
Emily McKaskle, who writes as Emily McKay, has been reading romance novels since she was eleven years old. Her first Harlequin Romance came free in a box of Hefty garbage bags. She’s been reading — and loving! — romance novels ever since.In her spare time, she loves to garden and cook … well, bake. Mostly cookies. Naturally, she still loves to read a good romance. She’s been blissfully married for eleven years. When they can ditch their five pets for a couple of weeks, she and her husband like to travel to exotic and exciting locations like Greece, Costa Rica, and Ignorant Flats, Texas.She has a degree in English from Texas A&M University. After college, she taught middle school for four years. While teaching America’s disenfranchised youth to appreciate fine literature, she learned very little about writing romance but a lot about finding humor in any situation. Eager for a job where she wouldn’t have to dodge spitwads, she fled the teaching profession to write full-time. Though her characters sometimes misbehave, they almost never throw things at her.Emily has been writing seriously for ten years. In 2001, one of her dreams came true when her manuscript, Love Letters to Tabitha, was a finalist in the Golden Heart. Just over a year later, she got ‘THE CALL.’ In January of 2003, Love Letters to Tabitha was published as Baby, Be Mine by Harlequin Temptation. Baby, Be Mine is also a finalist for the 2004 RITA Award in Best First Book and Best Short Contemporary Romance categories. Emily has gone on to sell seven more books to Harlequin Silhouette. Her next book, Baby on the Billionaire’s Doorstep, will be released in April of 2008.
Butch Thompson | After the Monologue
April 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was my pleasure to speak with Butch Thompson on the show today — about playing after Garrison Keillor’s monologue in the early days of Prairie Home Companion, and about his long career in the music industry!More about Butch Thompson from his website:
In a career spanning 40 years, pianist Butch Th ompson has earned a world-wide reputation as a master of ragtime, stride, and classic jazz piano. He spends much of his time on tour in the U.S. and internationally. Although he often travels as a soloist, he also appears with his well-known trio or his eight-piece New Orleans Jazz Originals band. He performs with symphony orchestras, among them recently the Hartford Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Cairo (Egypt) Symphony. Widely known for his 12-year stint (1974-1986) as house pianist and bandleader on public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, he continues as a frequent guest on that show. Th ompson was born and raised in Marine on St. Croix, a small river town in Minnesota, where he was playing Christmas carols on his mother’s upright piano by age three, and began formal lessons at six. He studied clarinet in high school, and led his fi rst professional jazz group as a senior. At 18, he made his pilgrimage to New Orleans, where he befriended and studied with the late clarinetist George Lewis, and was one of the few non-New Orleanians to appear at Preservation Hall during the 1960s and ‘70s. After two years in an Army band during the ‘60s, Th ompson returned to Minnesota. While studying Latin American music at the University of Minnesota, he spent some time in Ecuador, and wrote music based on that country’s folk tunes. Th e Minnesota Orchestra with Th ompson at the piano, premiered his Ecuadorean Suite, based on those early pieces in June 1998. In 1974, Th ompson began his well-remembered 12-year run as the house pianist on A Prairie Home Companion, beginning with the show’s fi rst broadcasts in July of that year. Th e Butch Th ompson Trio, formed as the show went into national distribution in 1978, remained the offi cial house band until 1986. During the 70s and 80s, he toured widely in Europe. In 1985, to commemorate the 100th birthday of jazz cornetist Joe “King” Oliver, he formed his eight-piece King Oliver Centennial Band for tours in Switzerland, Germany, and England. In 1987, Th ompson commissioned composer Gordon Wright to orchestrate the fi ve-part Gordon Wright to orchestrate the fi ve-part Gordon Wright Scott Joplin Suite for Piano and Orchestra. Since then, he has toured widely as a pops concert soloist, specializing in such American composers as Joplin, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake and James P. Johnson. During the early 90s, Thompson began an association with the off -Broadway show Jelly Roll! Th e Music and the Man, Th e Music and the Man, Th e Music and the Man which won Obie, Lucille Lortell and Outer Critics Circle awards as best off -Broadway musical of 1995. Th ompson worked onstage with the show in New York and on several national tours through 1997. In addition to his career as a performer, Th ompson writes articles and reviews on jazz and produces his own weekly radio show, Jazz Originals, on KBEM radio in Minneapolis. His writing has appeared in Th e Mississippi Rag, Keyboard Classics, New Orleans Music and other Th e Mississippi Rag, Keyboard Classics, New Orleans Music and other Th e Mississippi Rag, Keyboard Classics, New Orleans Music magazines, as well as in various CD booklets. One of Th ompson’s latest CDs, an album of holiday duets with cellist Laura Sewell, is titled Bethlehem After Dark. Th is release is the 10th in Th ompson’s acclaimed series for the Daring/ Rounder label of Boston. He also played on the Grammy-winning 1997 Verve release Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton. His 1968 solo recording debut, Butch Th ompson Plays Jelly Roll Morton, is currently available as a Biograph CD.
Haider Ala Hamoudi | Iraq & Politics
April 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today we spoke with Haider Ala Hamoudi about Iraq and the political situation there and here. Listen in for some interesting insights from an Iraqi-American law professor.More about Haider Ala Hamoudi from his website:
Professor Hamoudi received his B.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993, with a double major in Physics and Humanities with a Near Eastern Studies Concentration. He was both a member of the Physics Honor Society, Sigma Pi Sigma, and a Burchard Scholar for Excellence in the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 1996, Professor Hamoudi received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Constance Baker Motley in the Southern District of New York and then worked as an Associate at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton until 2003.Thereafter, Professor Hamoudi went to Iraq and acted as both a legal advisor to the Finance Committee of the Iraq Governing Council, as well as a Program Manager for a project managed by the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University School of Law to improve legal education in Iraq. Professor Hamoudi continues to advise the Iraqi Government, primarily through the Iraq Mission at the United Nations. Professor Hamoudi’s scholarship focuses on commercial law, Islamic law, and the intersection of the two in the contemporary era. He has written for numerous law reviews, spoken at conferences sponsored by the MacMillan Center at Yale University, the American Association of Law Schools and the New York City Bar Association, and given interviews to various news organizations including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour Online and the New York Law Journal.Professor Hamoudi is also the author of a blog on Islamic Law entitled Islamic Law in Our Times.
Jewel Sample | Children & Death
April 11, 2008 | 1 Comment
Today we spoke to Jewel Sample, and she told us about her children’s book Flying Hugs and Kisses, and about how to write about death for children.Here’s more from her website:
About The BookFlying Hugs and Kisses is about five children who creatively take on roles of support toward each other while showing their individual feelings about the death of their baby brother. This sensitive story of grief recovery is a great resource for parents to use to help their children understand and affirm their experience of the loss of a brother or sister.
About The Author
Jewel Sample has a Master of Science degree in Family Relations and Child Development from Oklahoma State University. She and her husband, Chuck are the parents of three sons and grandparents of thirteen children. One grandchild died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It is her hope this story gives insight into a family’s creative support and courage to move forward in the midst of their grief.
Diane Dike | Healing & Dogs
April 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We spoke with Diane Dike PhD today, about her lush children’s book, and her special relationship with her dog.More information from her website www.dianedike.org:
She came to the Vail Valley, 10 years ago because she “always wanted to see the beauty of the West.” She came here from Winter Haven, Florida where she was “Angel Belle”, star of the laser show at Cypress Gardens, a professor at Polk Community College, Founder of Dr. D. Ministries-visiting hospitals, nursing homes, prisons in an effort to reach people with the love of Jesus- a school teacher for special education students, and massage therapist. Diane has a doctorate degree in Human Services. She was forced to stop all her activities because of the constant flare-ups from a rare blood disease and other complicating health problems. Her body could no longer handle daily activities which most of us take for granted, let alone a busy schedule that would tire even the healthiest of people. However, Diane found a unique way to fight back and she is ready to try and hit the road again with a wheel chair, a service dog and a smile to last many miles. Her husband is a huge help, “I couldn’t do it with out his support.”
Susan Hetrick Transcript
April 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to “Sound Authors”. Today is the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination. Something that was very important to him was his family. Of course, they’ve carried his legacy down through the years.My next guest is Susan Hetrick. She has a book called “Advice from the Blender: What to Know Before You Blend So Nobody Gets Creamed”. It’s an amusing title, it’s been successful for her, clearly, and it’s a book about how to live with families, how to live with step-families, something that we’re seeing in the world all the time now.Welcome to the show, Susan Hetrick!
Susan Hetrick: All right! Kent, how are you?
Kent: Good! Tell me a little bit about what inspired you to write this book, “Advice from the Blender”.
Susan: Oh, about four years ago, I got married for the second time and he brought two children and a cat and I brought two children and two dogs and a hamster. And we had to figure out how to live together without killing one another. And at the same time, I was in graduate school, pursuing a Master of Divinity degree and one of my classes was a marriage counseling class.We were looking through resources and I could not find very much out there about what to expect when you blend two families. The few books that were available most were over 10 years old. Some were written by people who weren’t even in stepfamilies.And so, I decided that there was a real need out there for a book that actually told it like it was and gave people a better idea, a realistic idea, of what to expect when they enter into a stepfamily situation.
Kent: And what was it like for you? You said you had a hamster?
Susan: [laughs]
Kent: Two dogs… That’s a concern to me more than the kids.
Susan: [laughs]
Kent: What happened with the cat and the hamster? Were they friends?
Susan: Actually, they ignored one another. We ended up having one of the dogs ate the hamster, so…
Kent: Oh no!
Susan: Oh, yeah. [laughs]
Kent: Well, tell us about your book. What does it help people to do, “Advice from the Blender”?
Susan: Well, it’s a short, easy to read book and it’s about eight chapters long. And what I talk about is various things like having realistic expectations. It’s not going to be like the Brady Bunch. Sad, but true.And one of the things that people need to know is they need to focus on making their marriage strong. That is the number one thing that people forget to do. They get so involved with the kids and life and things like that, that they turn around and wake up one day and go, “Oh, who are you?” So, they need to focus on their marriage.They also need to be a united parenting team. Just because someone is the stepparent doesn’t mean they’re not also raising these kids.
Kent: Give us a couple little tips. Your book is constructed of some quotes, some bullet points with tips. Even at the end, you go into some bible verses and things like that. Give us some tips.
Susan: OK. One would be, for example, with the children. You’re dealing with two sets of kids, both who’ve been through, probably, a divorce with their parents. They’re thrown into this situation of suddenly they have a new stepparent, they have new stepsiblings. And one of the keys is to be united on discipline.One of the great things you could do would be to sit down together. As the parents, sit down together, preferably, before you get married, but if you’re already married, that’s OK. Sit down together and decide what are the behavior expectations for the children in the house and what are the consequences for breaking those rules and then present those to the kids as your house rules.This is really helpful because one, your kids can’t argue with the house. But two, I also brings to mind that yeah, the rules maybe different in Dad’s house as opposed to Mom’s house, but that’s OK. Just because they are different rules doesn’t mean that you can ignore them.
Kent: So, rules setting is really important. And there’s a whole bunch of other tips, very practically, to work through this problem.You advertise the book as being Christian and again, there are Bible verses at the end. How does that play into it for you? You have a Masters of Divinity.
Susan: Right. I have a Masters of Divinity in Counseling and Family Ministry. Obviously, faith is a big, big part of my life. However, even if you’re not a Christian, there’s very practical tips in this book for how to deal with a blending family, from everything to the kids to the ex-spouse to the in-laws and the out-laws.
Kent: So, tell me what is the best thing that two people could do when they say, “OK, let’s get married” and they’re thinking about two children, say they each have two children. What’s the first step for them? Should they write down some lists? Should they talk to the children? Should they meet them slowly? How does that work?
Susan: The key, I think, is time, is give it a lot of time and be very, very patient. Kids really don’t deal with their emotions, strong emotions, all at once. So, you can tell your kids, “Hey, I’m dating this person. He’s very, very special to me and we’re thinking about getting married. I want you to meet him and meet his family and get to know one another.”But then, give it time. I mean, I heard of a family just this last year, his third marriage, her third marriage. They met each other in September and decided to get married on New Year’s Eve. This is four months. They introduced their kids the day before the wedding and said, “Hey, guess what? We’re getting married tomorrow!” My advice is don’t go that route. You’re just setting yourself up for a disaster.So, time is of the essence and so is communication. That is vital. You’ve got to talk about all kinds of things like boundaries in your family. Everything from whether or not you like to sleep with your bedroom door shut or open to who’s allowed in your bedroom at any time of the day. Everything from that to discipline to who takes out the garbage and who cleans the house. All of these things have to be renegotiated.
Kent: Well, we can go to your website at advicefromtheblender.com. You’ve got a blog, free articles and more information about the book.
Susan: Absolutely.
Kent: It’s been a real pleasure chatting with you. I can definitely say if I ever get in the unfortunate circumstance of getting divorced and then remarried, I will certainly consult your book and your website. Thank you so much for being on the show.[music]
Susan: Thanks, Kent.
Kent: ”Advice from the Blender” by Susan Hetrick. You can get it online at advicefromtheblender.com.My next guest is Emmy Award winning legendary, wonderful composer, Jeff Beal. Come on back, you can’t miss it.
Gary Freiman Transcript
April 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest on the show is Gary Freiman, and he is a successful businessman who has written a book about conservative life in the United States, about politics, terrorism and connection to God, and a whole bunch of interesting opinions. So, wonderful to greet you and say welcome to the show. Gary Freiman, how are you?
Gary Freiman: Thank you, Kent.
Kent: Tell me a little bit about your book.
Gary: The book is really a deep look into the United States and particularly all the stuff that probably our parents, as kids, told us not to talk about at the dinner table. It’s a deep look into politics and religion, and some things that political correctness probably stops us from speaking freely about.
Kent: And your book is called “Current Events, Conservative Outcomes: Predictions for America’s Future”. I understand that you’re able to predict a little bit about what’s coming up for us.
Gary: Yeah. To be honest with you, as a young man I discovered that I had a talent to actually go through and sometimes see future events. Not that I can always pick out exactly what it is that I choose to see, but over time I could pick out events that pertain to our country.