'And Just Imagine If I'd Never Thought To Ask' 

- Podcast Interviews by Jamie Mason.

Some of the neatest things in life come to you by a winding route. For me, the most recent of these happy accidents was an invitation to co-host The NorthStar Guardians Podcast Series. 

If I hadn’t been a writer with a slightly vigilante bent, I’d never have made the editorial comments that caught the attention of a fellow writer and former cop.  If he hadn’t known that I was a lifelong Southerner, he’d probably not have asked me to join his writing group, ‘The Southern Syndicate’.  If he hadn’t started the Syndicate, we’d never have had reason to speak on the telephone.  And if we’d not chewed the fat, he’d never have thought of me when a recruiter asked for referrals for people who had reasonable voices and liked books enough to do audio interviews with authors.

For want of a horseshoe nail… but with a happy ending.

At any rate, I get books written by experts of all stripes and then I get to pick their brains.  It’s a great gig and I’m meeting absolutely fascinating and mega-talented people.  The parent project of this endeavor is PsychJourney, a repository of over five hundred podcasts on a vast array of topics.

Jason F. Wright on 'Recovering Charles'

Novelists are usually other things as well. I mean, I know we’re all sons and daughters, observants and atheists, mild-mannered accountants and moody monkeys. That’s not what I’m talking about. There are just very few people who pay the bills with fiction. But today is the first time I’ve met a man who is as known for his political consulting and commentary as he is for his inspirational, deeply emotional novels. Jason F. Wright is a mental octopus and he spoke with me about that and how it all fits in with the launch of his most recent novel, Recovering Charles.  

The book walks a successful man through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in search of his estranged father. Luke Millward comes home with maybe more baggage, but arguably, less burdens than he took with him into The Big Easy.

Jason Wright's projects, blog, and commentary can be explored at www.jasonfwright.com and Recovering Charles has its very own site, www.recoveringcharles.com, where you can hear (and download) 'Love Me If You Can', the theme and keepsake from the book.

Alex Kava on 'Exposed'

Bestselling author, Alex Kava, spent some time with me for PsychJourney, previewing her upcoming psychological/medical thriller, Exposed, and dissecting why she does what she does.

In my quest for finding truth in fiction, Ms. Kava and I mined her eight-novel experience for insight into the research process and why you have to tell the truth, even if you’re only making stuff up. She also lent her views as to why readers (and writers) are magnetized to the very worst things we can dream up.

Alex Kava was truly delightful to speak with and her reputation for meticulous research throughout the Special Agent Maggie O’Dell books is well-showcased in Exposed, the fifth in the series. Look for it in bookstores October 1^st or pre-order your copy today on Amazon.com.

To get more info on Ms. Kava's work and what she'll be up to shortly, check out her website at www.alexkava.com.

Dr. Christopher Johnson on 'How To Talk To Your Child's Doctor'

Dr. Christopher Johnson is back with a new book, How To Talk To Your Child’s Doctor, and was kind enough to speak with me again about how it came to be.

Dr. Johnson inaugurated this podcast series with, Your Critically Ill Child – Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face, a Library Journal pick for their list of Best Consumer Health Books of 2007, and I was very impressed, imagining how helpful it would be for parents in devastating crisis.

But How To Talk To Your Child’s Doctor is for everyone. I’ll have to concede that it’s geared towards parents, but anyone looking to know how doctors think will be able to use this vastly helpful book in advocating for the patient – whether that be their child or themselves. It’s fascinating, well organized, and should be handed out with that little freebie diaper bag they give you at the hospital with your new baby.

I really do consider this a must-read for parents of children of all ages and for anyone else who’d like to feel less of an outsider while sitting in that lovely paper gown.

Dr. Johnson is the former director of the Mayo Clinic’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and he currently attends patients and establishes protocol in several Pediatric Intensive Care Units around the United States. His books and projects can be found on his website, along with a terrific set of resources for pediatric issues.

http://www.chrisjohnsonmd.com/

Dr. Johnson has also been snared to write a children’s health column for the national PTA website. You can find the first installment here.

Christina Meldrum on 'Maddaple'

Book clubs can be wonderful. Wine in hand, you’ll get to say “I quite liked that” or “couldn’t get through it”. Sometimes, and sadly, that’s all you’ll have to say about the club’s latest selection. If we submit this as true, and as a shame, then may I suggest, Madapple, by Christina Meldrum. It is, very simply, a fantastic book.  

So far, in exploring truth in fiction for PsychJourney, I’ve had an in-your-face contemporary piece exploring how we deal with infidelity in the here and now. And there was much truth to be found in it.

This time, although also set in present day, we get to look at something more fundamental. It’s less about how we react to certain stimuli and more about how we come to believe – in anything at all. Madapple is from the inside out. It explores identity, heritage, religion, isolation, herbology, mythology, justice, and miracles. If that sounds like a tall order, it won’t feel like it.

Christina Meldrum draws you through your paces and you’ll never resent the lessons examined, or the introspection it demands. The narrative makes it all go down smoothly, but I won’t call it a spoonful of sugar. It’s too complex for that. It’s the twining story of a girl on trial for multiple murder and her reminiscences of her cloistered upbringing.

I had the very distinct pleasure of speaking with Christina Meldrum about Madapple, her fantastic array of credentials, and how things are not always what they seem.

Being me and loving novels the way I do, I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to explore truth in fiction for PsychJourney and The Northstar Guardians. I even wrote a piece on it for AuthorScoop.com while I was preparing my latest interview. Fiction can be an emotional and psychological workout and fiction writers, our very own personal trainers.

Last week I talked to Jessica Brody about her new novel, The Fidelity Files, which explores the all too real minefield of marital infidelity. Ms. Brody’s done her homework and exorcised her conscience while we exercise our reactions to, “what if it were me?”

Her protagonist, Jennifer Hunter is a ‘fidelity inspector’, a woman who goes undercover to the very brink of under-the-covers, to see if the man she’s been hired to evaluate will cheat.

Check out our interview below and Jessica Brody's website at www.thefidelityfiles.com for a video preview of The Fidelity Files and lots of nifty extras.

Kate McLaughlin on 'Mommy I'm Still In Here'

I had the pleasure of discovering Kate McLaughlin’s, Mommy I’m Still In Here, a memoir of a mother’s efforts to hold her family together during the crisis of having two of her three children diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

The book was moving and frightening, but ultimately hopeful and eminently practical. There is no adult demographic that I can think of that wouldn’t benefit from this easy and fascinating read. If you never need the information on bipolar disorder for the management of your own circumstances, you can only come away enlightened, more compassionate, weighed with important questions and, most importantly, buoyed with hope.  

Ms. McLaughlin’s eldest daughter, Chloe, suffers from the most difficult to treat cascade of symptoms, and her brother, Michael, wrestles with substance abuse issues in his low times, and yet, with their strength of family and perseverance, they’ve achieved satisfaction and competence in their lives. Ms. McLaughlin is a shining example of someone able to map the big picture and offers a way to develop perspective. She soars high.  

All I can do is recommend Mommy I’m Still In Here.  

For more information and guidance to resources about bipolar disorder and other mental health issues, please visit her website at www.katemclaughlin.net.

Darcey Steinke on 'Easter Everywhere'

Rare is the person who gets through life without a theological hurdle. Whether you clear it or crawl under it or smash into it while knocking it over and landing on your face, most all of us take the finish tape with at least a little sweat on the brow. We all struggle at some point.

It can be kind of lucky for the rest of us when writers do it.

Easter Everywhere is bestselling author, Darcey Steinke’s, memoir on how the story of her life (so far) has played out, often spindled on her quest for connection with the Divine. Ms. Steinke’s observations and honesty could certainly make many a pilgrim feel less alone.

As a Lutheran minister’s daughter, her grounding in Christian tenets contrasted against a home life of privation and some discord. Rebellion and self-discovery drew her out into the world, but Easter Everywhere keeps the spotlight on the tether that reeled her back, sometimes gently, sometimes with a yank, to her certainty of a Higher Power.

Ms. Steinke’s lyricism has me looking forward to her novels.  Lucky for me, there’s a bookstore down the street and amazon.com if I can’t be bothered to comb my hair and put on some shoes.

I had a chance to speak with Darcey Steinke about Easter Everywhere and her thoughts on writing. Click below to hear the audio, and visit www.darceysteinke.org for more information on her books and upcoming projects.

Dr. John Izzo on 'The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die'

Heavy title. Buoying book. Go figure.

When Dr. John Izzo’s book, The Five Things You Must Discover Before You Die, came up as a suggestion for me to review and interview, it came with the phrase, “sounds like something you’d like, Jamie.”

Oh, really?

I don’t read those kinds of books. And I’m terrified of dying. Somebody’s messing with me. But I like a challenge. Heh. That which doesn’t kill me and all…

I didn’t expect to like it and I certainly didn’t expect to need it, but it came at a good time. I get the feeling nearly any time would be a good time for this book. It’s really very wonderful in concept and execution.  Did I just say 'execution' in a review of a book about death?  Oh dear.  I get a pass, because it's really about life.  It’s a comfortable, easy read that takes the cliché out of cliché by showing us five invaluable bits of wisdom as applied in the lives of over two hundred impressive and venerable men and women.

Dr. Izzo asked for nominations, from those on his international mailing list, for the one person who had influenced them as wise, as happy, as having found the secret to a sense of fulfillment in their life. Through questionnaire, this list was distilled down to the group that Dr. Izzo and his team interviewed in depth over the course of a year and a half.

What results is an amazingly useful look at what we’ll wish we’d known when – let’s not beat around the bush; Dr. Izzo doesn’t – when we die.

I got to speak to Dr. Izzo about the process of compiling this book, why the secrets aren’t secret, and why I’m now walking around with a few words on an index card in my pocket at all times.

In my introduction of Dr. Yvonne Thornton, for our interview about her memoir, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, I gave this synopsis of the book:

It’s the story of five girls born into a black family as World War II came to a close and America looked to its next challenge: the Civil Rights movement. Donald and Tass Thornton loved each other and they loved their children. That’s it. He was a laborer and she was a housekeeper. But, as often is the case, what we do isn’t always the true measure of what we are. They saw a country on the verge of change. Through astounding dedication and love, they wrung more hours than there are to be had out of a mere mortal’s day and boosted their daughters to regional musical fame and to accomplishment and security via the highest achievements in education. They ended up with two doctors, a dentist, a court stenographer, a teacher, and a nurse. Yeah, I know that’s six, but the plan only got bigger as this family pulled together and sent strong, successful woman out into the world, one-by-one, until the nest emptied.

And, indeed, that is what happens in The Ditchdigger’s Daughters. But as we talked, I was no longer sure that was what the book is about.

This week in my own little corner of the world, I titled my work-in-progress, a novel that I hope to present to an agent soon. To do so without a title feels like the hallmark of a rank amateur, so I’ve been tearing my hair out in avoidance of such a fate. I kept milling over what happened in my story, but I realized that the ‘what’ may not be as important as the ‘why’. This is how I came to my title and also how I came to the conclusion, by something she said during the interview, that Dr. Thorton’s memoir is a parenting book. And it’s about parenting with a goal in mind, about parenting in hard times, and about parenting with the conviction that education trumps all. The book’s not been out of print in thirteen years and it’s never been more relevant.

They had a hard time, and a long road to run, in getting this book published. It was said that it didn’t have enough conflict. Rubbish. It’s fascinating and enthralling and inspirational. And the Pulitzer Board thought so too, enough to consider it for the top prize in literary achievement in 1995.

It’s a great book.  Click below to hear us talk about it. And to learn more about Dr. Thorton, visit her website at www.doctorthornton.com.

Terri Cheney on 'Manic: A Memoir'

Manic: A Memoir is Terri Cheney’s eloquent purge of her struggle with bi-polar disorder. While hospitalized for severe depression, Terri stewed in frustration, watching all of the patients around her Mrs. Ternot getting better, not getting help, because they couldn’t say what was straining at their temples and battering at their skulls from the inside. They couldn’t communicate what it feels like. The pressure of self-imprisonment welled in her, too. Then she remembered that being a lawyer was her occupation, but there was a writer, by vocation, in her soul.

The book’s chapters have a randomness in their order and a richness to their description that not only gives voice to those so afflicted, but draws every reader in. You get the information that will demystify manic-depression, but even more importantly, you gain understanding, through the experience of the right words. It’s the next best (worse) thing to being there. And through information wed to experience,we get wisdom.

That’s the power of Terri Cheney’s book, Manic: A Memoir.

It’s one of the best pieces of autobiographical work I’ve ever read and it’s not just me. Manic: A Memoir has vaulted into The New York Times Bestseller list this very week. Terri graciously spoke with me for half an hour about the book, the bi-polar effect at work in the Entertainment Industry, and her upcoming projects.

For more information, visit www.terricheney.com.

I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Christopher Johnson on his book, Your Critically Ill Child: Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face. Dr. Johnson is the former director of the Mayo Clinic’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and is currently based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As a driving force behind the development of Pediatric Intensive Medicine as its own medical discipline, he currently attends patients and establishes protocol in PICUs around the United States.

Dr. Johnson’s book is a concise and compassionate primer on the processes and hurdles parents of drastically ill children will face once in the hospital. I selected the book for its information. I know there are parents out there, right now, scouring the Web for hope, for knowledge, and for a map to navigate a terrifying maze of lingo, red-tape, cost and anguish. This is such a book.

But it turns out, it’s also a book that anyone can absorb, and be glad of the experience. He reveals the workings of the PICU system within parables of real patients and real parents. And, just like in his daily experiences, there is fear, fascination, tragedy, hope and miracles between its covers.

For more information on Dr. Johnson’s books, upcoming projects, and his excellent ongoing blog discussions of pediatrics and the state of medicine in America, visit www.chrisjohnsonmd.com.