Peggy Sue Wells Talks about Her New Book The Patent

Transcript

foreign [Music] good morning welcome to God family politics this is Dr Hodge here I'm here today with Peggy Sue Wells author of the patent the um I think it's in the series of the secrecy order hi Peggy thank you for being on my show good morning Dr Hodge and thanks for having some time to chat this is always fun to be with you oh you know when I found out that you loved um the chosen as much as I did I was like oh we have to reconnect and I heard a rumor that you were among the feeding of the five thousand I got to go and it was so exciting there was 5 000 of us from around the world There Was You Know Paris and Alaska and New Mexico and so and it was you know a hundred and something degrees but I was one of the last people as usual to leave at the end of that 10 or 12 hour day and so as we were boarding the buses to go back to the parking lot I'm standing there looking out over this kind of Big Valley where we've spent the day all of us and we have eaten and you know just been back and forth and what have you Tyler there was not one scrap of trash left there everybody had been so responsible and taken care of after themselves and picked up and when we left it was pristine and it was ready for the next group that was going to come in the next day and I'm like I love this group of people you know they have just attracted some wonderful Souls like you who also enjoy it and your interview with some of the cast was great oh that was so much fun it was such a blessing you know God is so good he he he is so good even when we're not good you know and but he he's so good and so faithful um I want to talk about some of the things that you've been doing you have been um a leader on um putting out curriculum or I would say just information for single parents and I think the last time we interviewed we talked about some of the things that you were doing for single parents um but now but you've been you've been working on um I should tell you that uh Peggy Sue she is the best-selling author of 32 titles so she is not a novice in this this is something that she has been doing and not just that she spends time um also mentoring other authors which you know that's amazing in itself and so I want I'm I'm going to want to hear a little bit about that but right now let's talk about the patent the the secrecy order tell us a little bit about what's going on yeah the last time we talked um we talked about the 10 best decisions a single mom can make and that of course is non-fiction and based off all the things I learned that worked as the single solo mom of seven children and then I've also been writing fiction and so the patent was the first novel that came out in the Mark Wayne Adventure series and then the second book which is called secrecy order just released this is the new one and then there's two more ready to come out one in February and one in August so if you like Adventure if you like Clive Kessler type books you will like the Mark Wayne Adventure series so which so which is harder to write because you do fiction and non-fiction which was the hardest book um as far as the genres go which is the hardest to write I think writing non-fiction is easier because non-fiction is taking facts things that already exist and putting them in a way that is easily digestible for the reader I can bring new information to you or a slant on have you looked at it this way but it's non-fiction so the facts are already out there and then fiction is making up something my kids go you just make stuff up and that's kind of the truth of it but here's the funny thing if you're going to write non-fiction it has to be something that you write about that's kind of like wow mind-blowing and kind of almost unbelievable and that's when we want to pay attention you don't want the run of the mill but then when you when I write fiction fiction has to make sense it has to be believable so I have to make stuff up in a way that you as the reader will go yeah yeah I'll suspend reality I'll go with you on this ride I will stick with it because I can believe it the fun thing too about fiction is that there's a freedom in it because when I write fiction I can write about characters that have all the weaknesses and frailties and you know flaws and put them in a situation and then we watch how they go through it and so the reader is smart and I don't have to say you know it's not good to be a liar or it's not good to steal or it's not good to betray or or cheat someone because we follow this character all through what they're doing and then the reader can go gosh that wasn't a great decision or gee look what happens when you do this sort of thing it impacted somebody badly somebody that you care about I wanted to touch on that for a second um you make a point to talk about when um people do good things and it doesn't necessarily turn out great and so we see so much of that and I I just you know kind of reflect on my life with me and you really feel like you're trying to do the right thing and it it doesn't work out too well so can you speak to that a little bit that's what I really sort of explored in the patent because with this book we have a situation where all of our best intellectual property is being stolen and so the FBI is going to figure out where that leak is and stop it so the gal that's in the FBI has a brother and the brother's an inventor and he's a patent attorney and she's like hey bro why don't you you know put in some patent application and then we'll track it and that way we can catch the bad guys and he's like sure sis you know why not I can do something that'll help you out and then that good decision that decision of let me help my sister the decision of the sister of hey I know a way that we can make this track so that we can fix it it all goes sideways and very quickly the brother is gone he's been kidnapped we don't know if we're gonna find him again the enemies are you know got now this incredible patent and they've got the inventor and everything went completely sideways and that happens a lot with our decisions sometimes even making the right decision good decisions for the right reasons doesn't always guarantee a good outcome and so you have so many but you have so much content out there and the Mark or uh Wayne Avenger series could you just give us a little taste of what that might be like this is um like as far as the like what's inside of it of the of the series is going to be I'm going to take you as a writer of fiction I'm going to take my reader to places that you have never been before so like in chasing Sunrise we're gonna dive the mild deep wall that is just off the coast of the island of Saint Croix and you've probably not been there before but I'm going to take you there so that you actually get to do that I'm going to take you on a hot Halo dive out of an airplane and we're going to go through that whole sequence and you're going to be like wow I was there and then when we go into secrecy order I'm going to take you to a kibbutz which is deep in the deve desert in Israel so every book that I write I'm going to take you someplace that you've not been before I'm going to give you an adventure that you've not experienced before and I'm going to teach you something about history that was not in your textbooks so for instance when we're on this island of Saint Croix you're going to get to learn about the Manchester military the most poisonous tree on the planet like who knew but you're going to learn something about people and about places that you didn't know before and I'm going to do that in every one of my novels wow um can I can we talk a little bit about you know some of the other things I know that you live like on a Hundred Acre property and seven kids and so you bought a hundred acres so all those seven kids can go run and play WoW here's the truth here's the truth of it the truth of it is it's five acres but when you're maintaining it it feels like a hundred and so we we call it the Hundred Acre Woods in summer and we call it Narnia in winter but um yeah so that's the Hundred Acres kind of more mental and emotional than it is in reality but yeah having the the kids it was nice to have some Elbow Room and you know depending on what area of the nation you live in that's possible or not possible because we originally came from California where that's not so so possible but then when you get into other areas of the nation there's more availability where that's more of a lifestyle right right and so yeah California is like a whole other country then it is here in Texas and so on I am a lover of Texas um hey let's talk about how you help other authors and people love to do that I love to do that here's the thing everybody has a story everybody has you've experienced something like I have where you've learned what works and what doesn't work and so let's share that information with people that are coming behind you or like I love working with entrepreneurs in particular entrepreneurs are super smart and they have figured out a way to make something work a fresh way of making a process work and then that needs to be packaged and once we put it into a book then it's packaged and it can go further out than you know just their little circle and it can have a good impact on others but entrepreneurs or people with stories aren't always writers and you're not supposed to be you're really good in your wheelhouse so then when I can meet with people like that I'm like okay give me your give me your talks give me your curriculum give me you know let me hear you with what you're doing and I'll take all that and I'll compile it up for you and then I give it back and it's like here I've packaged it like like so and then you read through it and when you go yes that's what I was trying to say then we're done we have we've we've said your message in the way that you want it to be said so I will help people with their fiction books I also help them with their non-fiction and then I also like there's some people that will say here here's my stuff you write it not a problem other times I've had people say would you sit with me so once a week we do and we'll take their chapter and we go through it and we polish it and so for those Learners they'll be what they what they're working with at the first chapter by the time we get further through the book they've learned all of this now they're further along in their writing Journey but writing is like it's an art it's a craft so it's like playing music you never arrive you're always learning you're always getting better there's always something to learn I'm working I'm right now I'm trying to finish um my story which I thought was done 10 years ago but that was when I finished my bachelor's and now I have a doctorate and so I'm I'm going back and I feel um through something I had written 10 years ago and it's just not relevant anymore and I'm trying to restructure and everything and and it's just not that easy and so I I have a great love for people that are able to put their thoughts on paper and maybe one day I will take a stab at writing fiction and so we have a lot of authors that that listen and and so um tell us about some of the processes that you go through I mean especially being a bestseller so that means that you're an expert on in you know in the crab and like you said we're we are always learning so talk about some of the processes that you do you each project is different it's like raising your kids you know they're all different they all require a different approach and a different handling um but everyone each project that I work on turns out always partially how I think it will be and then partially completely different because writing is a living thing and the story grows and how it gets presented kind of like flows and it's fascinating how that works here's the thing that when I want to talk to somebody about telling their story tell an excellent riveting compelling story but don't write to a theme so a lot of times we're like well I really want to be able to say like you know don't lie or don't betray or don't cheat or whatever or you know get your education or you know knock down five times get up six you can have a theme that you have in your brain don't write to your theme tell the story because in the story people get pulled in because stories connect in a heart level pull them into the story The themes are going to come out as you write and each reader comes to your story based on their own personal experience and so they're going to pull different themes and different lessons from your story than what someone else will so Don't Preach don't write to a theme tell your story your story is all that's needed it is the gonna be the whole heartbeat of what you're doing wow okay that's that's very good advice and let's go back to when we first met when we first met um I I've done a lot of non-profit work with single parents and my non-profit is parenting connections and mothers raising children alone is still kind of in the background of all that but um you give some great advice to people that have to parent Alone um look can we go over or over some of that of what you found and what you researched yeah that was the whole uh theme behind the 10 best decisions a single mom can make was because one in four homes is single mom LED 50 of all of our children in the U.S are anticipated to live in a single parent home prior to reaching age 18. so it's very well widespread and people would say well you know have you learned a few things and I learned a whole lot of stuff that didn't work and I learned a lot of stuff that works really well so I compiled everything that works well into the 10 best decisions that a single mom can make this is all the good stuff this is all the positive this is how to move forward this is the way to have a successful family here's the map and the reason that this is so important for single moms and for their families is because when you have this really vital important relationship that blows apart so that you are a single parent a solo parent rather than doing this as dual parenting the mom goes into trauma because the studies show that women that are single moms didn't intend to do it didn't intend to parents solo they intended to do this together and so there's this shock and there's this trauma and so our brain and our children's brain go into trauma so we're in trauma brain which is where the front part of our thinking goes offline and we go back to fight flight freeze or please and so people will watch single moms or they'll look at children from a single mom and they're like what are they thinking what are they thinking well they're not it's physically impossible and so we have to get the thinking part of the brain back online so that we can then respond rather than react and so that's a lot of what the 10 best decisions is for is here let me walk you through let me help you make good decisions let me help you get the thinking part of your brain back online so that you can have the home that you want to do everybody wants to raise children that are happy and secure and know that they're are loved yes and and that's so important you know there used to be a day when um that we were always asking well where's the father or where's the father or where's the father well you know that's just not an appropriate question anymore you know it's just not it's how things are I'm not gonna say that's not God's design but because of where we're at we have to I would say man up woman up inside and do the best things we can for our children and so we in education we have a lot of students that that come in not knowing basic things that are taught into parent home and so but even in the two parent homes now a lot of times it takes two parents to to make that household work whether they're living to their means or right now inflation is a is a great I mean a Dollar General used to be one of my favorite places to go and get discounted groceries season now it's tripled on some of the prices and I'm like oh my God a dozen of eggs is 4.30 so what happened to the 99 cent eggs or at least the dollar eggs and so um for single parents whether they're female or male do you have any advice you know for the times that we're living in right now here is the most important piece of of advice and experience that I went through there was find find a mentor and I have a really great mentor that I would go to like when I'm stuck and like I don't know where to go left right I'm not sure how to how to deal or navigate a situation if I go see my mentor and there's this one time that I am sitting at her table and I'm crying and I'm snotting and I'm using up all of her Kleenex and she says what are you afraid of and I said I'm so afraid that I'm not enough I'm not enough for my children for them to know how loved and cherished and precious they are and will I equip them well enough and she said you're not and she said guess what not only are you not enough but even a two-parent family is not enough because we'll have a place in our lives and in our hearts where we need something greater and that's we need God and so the first thing that I think is the most important is to introduce our children to Jesus spend time every evening read a scripture and then pray together pray aloud start with the youngest go to the oldest but we called it Bible time but we did that every single evening because as soon as I can introduce my children to Jesus who is the source that is the source of everything that they're going to need and it's beyond anything that you know I can give because you know he he is who it is he's all about eternity and he's about now and so I would give them that ability to reach out to connect with the Lord as early as possible because then we have equipped them for today tomorrow and for all of eternity so dug in hi Duncan um think Duncan is from another country he says glory to God and then Mike Allen comes on to say um on Facebook we need to restore God back into um all things in all areas and without God and this love there's there's nothing left what would you have to say to Mike thank you Mike for your comment yeah and the nice thing is God is everywhere we actually can't push about um and so it's it's like being that awareness and and here's the thing the holy spirit is around it's that invitation Holy Spirit be here guide me you know when you your gut feels a particular way about making a decision to me that's normally the prompting of you know the Lord guiding me in a particular way but yeah it's it's being aware that he's our source he's always available he's there you know at a thought and in a moment and um it's it's a welcoming thing to know that it no matter what I do and how bad it is or the decisions that I make how sideways they go the Lord's already covered that with the work that he did on the cross and that it's not good people that go to heaven it's not good people that have a relationship with the lord it's those that understand that we need him and that he loves us yes and so so am I assuming correct that you did spend time as a single parent I was a single mom for 23 years well still am actually but when the baby was a year old that's when I started my journey as a single mom so I had my oldest was starting into college in the workforce and my youngest was a year old and so I had the seven all in in between and that's when I started the journey and so I raised her all the way the youngest as a single mom and she is now married and has graduated college and is expecting her first baby how many grandchildren do you have uh number eight is on is is on the way so yeah okay well we still have about five more minutes you know Peggy this is a free-for-all if you have questions for Peggy please drop them in the chat no matter where you're at we're streaming on Twitter Youtube a couple of Facebook channels twitch and if you have questions Now's the Time so would she has so much going on she has um the the secrecy order the the the patent um just all these all this amazing amazing content that she's written and so so all these books were these all written while you were a single parent yeah I spent my time writing because it's the one thing that I'm really good at and so once I finally figured that out there's the ability to write for other people to tell their stories there's the ability to you know write articles and content and stuff for websites and there's just a lot of things that are written the um for those that are wanting to write writing is a team sport you need somebody who's mentoring you that you're learning from and then you need some peers that work with you so that you know once a month once a week you can share your work and people can go ah you know that's really good and you know have you thought about this or why don't you add this part in or let's rephrase that sentence so it's more powerful and so find a critique group someone that you can meet with but find a critique that's on your team and that is going to help you succeed and if you walk into that group and then you leave feeling worse than when you walked in they are not the chosen ones you need to find a group of people that are like yes let's help you succeed Let's help you be the best that you can be as a writer and not tear anybody down and how would we find these groups because right now I'm about to ask you to be my mentor so we can get that what what it is is that you know I work full time so I'm a full-time mom full-time educator um you know these other things I just do all I do on the side for fun um that kind of make me happy and so but my story is very important to be told as I've been growing as an educator I do want to make note that Mike Allen on Facebook did say Yes um we need to reveal and ensure what we're teaching and bringing everyone up in the knowledge knowledge of what Peggy stated so thank you Mike for your comments I always love to get comments it lets us know you know and it helps to answer your questions um and so I have I have a couple of producers interested in my story but um that was really contingent on my story being finished and so because I work full time and um I'm a full-time mom um I just I've had a hard time trying to to get it done and so I myself may need to mentor and so somebody to help me to get it done so that way my story can maybe one day be put in film and so um I'm very excited about almost finishing um a good first draft and you might want to put yours actually in a script a screen format because if you're going to put it like as a documentary or a film version that's a whole different style of writing than writing a book and one of the things that's so important is to figure out what's the best vehicle to tell your story because is it through screen is that through document is it through a book or is it through another another means so it's like what's your story what's the best vehicle to get it to the best audience that most wants to to know your story and you have a fantastic multi-dimensional story I don't know nothing about screen rotten so that yeah so that that would be something totally you know different so you know I may be um researching that soon but yeah and I do a lot of the square this the the book done you know and get that out there and so see with and they and you're right because they they were looking the there was three people interested and they were looking for it to be um you know in script form but one person would write it in script for and if the story would have been done and so and so so that's where I am and so we get older we get better and hopefully we can get this done hopefully you know okay so number one on your list which book Peggy do we need to get first to start the series The Mark Wayne Adventure series you'd want to get the patent first so get the patent and then the second book in the series will be secrecy order and the they are Standalone but you'll get a lot of background in the patent that will make the secrecy order even richer if you do it in that in that order and then the next books that will be coming out are also going to be in standalones but it will be using the same characters and if you're looking for a Christmas novella because sometimes we always need a little bit of Christmas yeah almost for the holidays and the fun thing about this was this was a movie first and then I got the script and then got to novelize that so A Story can go either way sometimes the book becomes a movie sometimes the movie becomes a book so that's what I was saying for your story you could maybe do a script first it might be simpler for you yes because it's very hard doing a full-time job you know it is no because I do have integrity in the fact that you know when I'm at work and I'm fully and all endless a sick kid a grandbaby calls or um and so finding time at home and on the weekends you know as I'm trying to produce content has kind of been in the way um but anyway but you know as for God you know his ways are perfect and I believe that his timing will be perfect on some of these things I believe that I haven't missed anything yet and that um that he's going to work it out and lead me to the right people in the right path okay so that's all the time we have for our show today thank you everybody that contributed in the chat thank you Peggy Sue Wells from coming to spend time with us once again and please y'all I'm gonna go back and put information in the description and you will catch this on our TV channel and or not our TV channel in Houston but on the Houston accent this TV channel in a couple of weeks um and so just give us feedback and info at parentingconnections.com on shows that you want to hear about and things you want to talk about thank you so much Peggy for being on the show thank you Tara