richardmurray

 

0:02

so our next guest is Rosie Lee and

0:08

um oh someone asked how did they get

0:11

Priscilla's book and Priscilla I'm gonna

0:14

say this Priscilla's website is isoi

0:18

am.com so we go to is sayi am.com and

0:23

you'll be able to get the books or I'm

0:25

sure they're probably also on am*zon so

0:28

normally Rhonda handles that back in

0:31

stuff for me she's not here right now so

0:33

we're I'm having to do double duty but I

0:36

want to welcome Rosie Lee to Black

0:39

authors matter TV and she has a brand

0:41

new book that just came out last Tuesday

0:44

called The Gardens of Eden and it's a

0:48

play on words so to speak because the

0:51

word garden and Eden are spelled

0:55

differently so Rosie welcome to Black

0:58

authors matter TV thank you so much I'm

1:01

excited to be here okay and do you have

1:04

a copy of your book I

1:08

do okay The Gardens of Eden that's what

1:10

I was telling Gardens has an eye and

1:13

Eden has an eye so I'm going to assume

1:17

and I'm gonna see if I'm correct that

1:20

Gardens is a family name that's right

1:23

it's about the garden family that lives

1:25

in the fictional town of Eaton Georgia

1:27

okay so it's a it's a um t

1:31

Eden

1:32

so there was a um there is an

1:37

Eden North Carolina oh really and is it

1:40

spelled the usual way e d n

1:45

no it might be spelled e d n it's a

1:49

small town with like it's a like you

1:52

know how some small towns is one family

1:54

an extended family and that's basically

1:57

everybody's cousins it's it's kind of

1:59

like that

2:01

my

2:02

brother is from there okay and and he a

2:08

lot of his formative years were there

2:10

but I've been seeing your book all over

2:13

social media that makes me happy to hear

2:16

thank you and somebody had one of your

2:20

your box your like your your book box

2:22

that promo boxes yes the promo box so so

2:26

I've been seeing it everywhere so your

2:28

the word is getting out and it's it's a

2:30

brand new book so how is it doing so far

2:35

well you know today just makes one week

2:38

so I don't have any any real numbers yet

2:41

um but for me the fact that you're

2:43

telling me that you've been seeing it a

2:45

lot is that's that's very reassuring so

2:48

I am just hoping and praying for the

2:50

best and we'll we'll wait and see but

2:52

you know it's all about finding the

2:54

readers who need this story um it's a a

2:57

heartwarming story I think it's perfect

2:59

for this time of year it follows the

3:01

garden family from Christmas to Easter

3:04

so um it

3:06

really transition uh there's an

3:08

important scene even around MLK day so

3:11

again per just perfect for this time of

3:12

years perfect to warm your heart on

3:14

these cold

3:15

days okay now is it a hard cover or a

3:18

paperback paperback but it's also

3:20

available as an ebook and audiobook okay

3:24

and it's available everywhere books are

3:26

sold okay now what made

3:31

you decide that you wanted your

3:34

storyline to start at Christmas and end

3:39

at Easter you know Christmas is my

3:41

favorite time of year and um is it yeah

3:47

and so I just imagine this family this

3:50

so the the garden family owns a

3:51

multi-million dollar peanut company and

3:55

so they have a fabulous party every year

3:58

at Christmas um so eeden is a fictional

4:01

town it's about 30 miles I'm sorry 30

4:04

minutes or so from um from mon Georgia

4:06

so it's a rural area but the the family

4:10

and their party everybody knows about it

4:12

so people come from far and wide um even

4:15

from Atlanta to come to this fantastic

4:17

party and so as I was thinking about the

4:20

book and thinking about the setting I

4:21

actually happened to go to a Christmas

4:23

party um and when I walked up I said

4:27

this is exactly what it looks like and

4:28

so that just told me that I was on to

4:31

something and I I just took it and and

4:33

ran with

4:34

it okay cuz I don't know if I've ever R

4:37

I'm an aid reader but I don't know if I

4:39

read a book where that went from

4:42

Christmas to Easter oh really I don't

4:44

recall reading another story like that

4:47

so that you know it differentiates your

4:50

storyline from

4:52

others now is this your is this your

4:55

first novel this is my debut that's

4:57

right okay okay that's what I thought

4:59

and who's your publisher um waterbrook

5:01

which is an imprint of penguin Random

5:03

House P Random House okay all right well

5:07

um

5:08

how difficult was it for you as a debut

5:12

author

5:14

to get the attention of the right person

5:18

at penguin random house or your imprint

5:22

sure so you know it it it took some time

5:24

um so my book is a a family story it's a

5:27

multi-generational story about the Four

5:30

Women um but their names are Ruth Naomi

5:33

Mary and Martha so if that sounds

5:36

familiar it's yes they're biblical names

5:39

and my characters and now the story is

5:41

set in present day but my characters are

5:43

Loosely inspired by women of the Bible

5:45

and so just growing up I just all

5:47

growing up but also now in present day

5:49

listening to sermons and doing you know

5:52

Bible study and things I just always

5:53

every time I read stories in the Bible I

5:55

wonder well what happened afterwards um

5:58

you know I love stories particularly

6:00

stories about people and conflict and

6:02

just wondering how things work out and

6:03

so every time I read these stories I

6:05

wonder what happened and so I made it up

6:08

but I put it in the setting of a

6:10

contemporary black southern family um

6:13

and so you know it was written in a with

6:16

the intention that people who are uh

6:20

Christians who know the story as well as

6:23

people who may not be Christian but who

6:24

enjoy stories about family particularly

6:27

family dramas or heartwarming stories uh

6:30

or stories that have a happy ending that

6:31

they would all like it and so that's

6:34

important because um I you know there

6:38

there's kind of a movement with within

6:41

um some Christian fiction houses to do

6:44

more crossover work but a lot of people

6:47

just I think were a little bit nervous

6:49

because it really is a story that can be

6:51

embraced by the mainstream um as well as

6:54

Christians and I think some agents and

6:56

editors just didn't know how to handle

6:58

that okay so is your

7:02

book which is your book Christian

7:05

fiction women's fiction how are you how

7:08

is

7:09

it when they're promoting it they

7:12

they're using those those they're

7:13

actually using both and so the the first

7:16

category is women's fiction the second

7:18

one is Christian fiction and that was an

7:20

intentional decision I believe um by the

7:23

publishing house um because of course it

7:26

has Christian themes my certainly the

7:28

the car are um again Loosely inspired by

7:31

women of the Bible my characters pray

7:34

they go to church um but otherwise it's

7:36

really just a family story and so my

7:39

book really takes cues from other

7:42

popular books and TV shows that have a

7:45

faith-based foundation but that have

7:47

been embraced by General market readers

7:49

and people who watch

7:51

TV okay all right right so um your town

7:56

of Eden how did you what what made you

7:59

you decide to do a fictional town as

8:01

opposed to an actual sure so there is

8:05

actually a town in Georgia called Eden

8:08

Georgia and so it's um uh a little ways

8:12

from Savannah and so because I made up

8:16

the history of this town I didn't want

8:19

to upset anybody in the actual town so

8:22

in thinking about the inspiration for

8:24

this town for me it came from wondering

8:27

what would happen if um actual towns um

8:31

in our country that were founded by

8:32

previously enslaved people were allowed

8:35

to thrive so I think about places like

8:37

Robert settlement in Indiana um in

8:40

Eatonville Eatonville in Florida you

8:44

know if they were allowed to thrive and

8:46

if the people who founded them um were

8:49

allowed to just live their best lives

8:51

instead of dealing with some of the um

8:54

barriers and challenges that were put in

8:56

place because they were founded by

8:58

people of color I wondered what would

9:00

those talents be like what would their

9:02

descendants be doing how successful

9:04

would they be and so um again I my my

9:07

book is an exploration of of that

9:10

question okay so what's what's your

9:13

background and what led you to write

9:16

this book sure so my Alter Ego is a

9:18

physician uh and that's important well I

9:21

I say that because uh Rosie Lee is is a

9:23

pin name um and so I love stories um but

9:28

also because of what I do uh what or

9:31

should I say what my Alter Ego does um

9:33

in her everyday life um there's a lot of

9:36

work around health education and really

9:39

helping uh people to understand what

9:41

types of decisions that they should make

9:43

to live healthier lives you know I I

9:46

thought

9:47

well maybe we should be a bit more

9:49

creative about how we package these

9:50

stories and certainly my book isn't the

9:52

first one to have themes around Health

9:56

um you know that's not something new but

9:58

it's my spin on it okay now we have one

10:02

of our readers say she's reading the

10:04

book now oh great Janelle lman and she

10:08

says she loves getting lost in the story

10:11

oh I love that well done so it's good to

10:13

get some feedback from people who are

10:15

reading the book and uh someone else

10:19

said a beautiful

10:20

cover great than oh Eden North Carolina

10:23

I knew that Berita Francine I knew there

10:26

was an Eden North Carolina so because my

10:30

my brother-in-law's family is from there

10:33

so um but you do it with an eye so that

10:36

makes it different I did it with an eye

10:38

again just to set it apart from eaten

10:40

Georgia now what it what kind of

10:43

medicine or what's your area of

10:46

specialty as a alter my Alter Ego is an

10:49

internal medicine and a preventive

10:51

medicine

10:52

physician okay so so internal medicine

10:55

is seeing patients oneon-one but the

10:57

preventive medicine in public health p

10:59

um the way um the way my ultra ego does

11:03

it is around Community Health Consulting

11:06

so really helping uh nonprofit

11:08

organizations government entities um

11:11

philanthropic organizations with health

11:14

programs um around planning those

11:16

programs implementing them and

11:17

evaluating them and so again a lot of

11:19

the work is around health education and

11:22

trying to figure out just how to reach

11:23

people to meet them where they are and

11:25

so for me um it's bigger than just

11:29

something to write about or something to

11:31

do for a living for me this is just a

11:34

part of I I call it really more of a of

11:36

a calling or a vocation and so for me

11:39

that's why it was hey let's think about

11:41

again different ways that we can reach

11:43

people people don't want to be preached

11:44

to um people don't want to be preached

11:46

to about health um people don't want to

11:48

be preached to about Bible characters

11:50

either but um you know I feel like

11:53

really with both ways if you can tell a

11:55

good story maybe people can learn

11:57

something that they can use in their

11:58

everyday lives and so that's what I'm

12:00

trying to do through this

12:02

book okay so that's that's a a departure

12:06

from your nineo five so to speak um we

12:10

get a lot of people who are in all kinds

12:12

of professions uh

12:15

engineering a lot of lawyers are writing

12:18

books um some are historians who want to

12:23

take a crack at

12:26

fiction so do you did you find the

12:29

writing of the

12:30

book allow you

12:32

to

12:34

relax in terms of taking a step away

12:38

from your profession to think about some

12:43

something different as a story certainly

12:46

but in in a way so I can tell you that

12:49

my Alter Ego has been told that she

12:51

writes really good notes about patients

12:56

because there's you know when you walk

12:57

in to see a doctor doctor and a doctor

12:59

asks you what brings you in today how

13:02

long has that gone they're building a

13:05

story that they write down in the chart

13:07

for themselves but also for the next

13:09

physician who may see you whether it's

13:11

one of their Partners who may be

13:12

covering for them um or if you happen to

13:15

go to the emergency department you know

13:17

um that doctor who may see their notes

13:19

so that that is called that is called

13:21

the history of present illness and so

13:24

I've always been told you know you write

13:26

a really nice one but also usually

13:29

really long um but that's because I'm

13:32

telling a story I want people to

13:33

understand what it is that's happening

13:35

and so what I can say is through writing

13:37

this book I felt kind of similar you're

13:39

building up you are explaining what the

13:42

problem is you're telling the details

13:45

that support it um and by the time the

13:47

person finishes reading it they should

13:49

have some idea of what may be going on

13:52

um so that they have some clues

13:55

about um in your physical exam and

13:58

that's not

13:59

same that readers experience but I think

14:04

at up a story there readers mind start

14:07

to wonder and they're thinking um I bet

14:09

I know what's going to happen next

14:11

either this or this and so for me it's

14:14

it's not the same thing but it's it's

14:16

kind of borrowing from that that that

14:18

same skill

14:19

set okay so you already kind of sort of

14:23

telling stories but they're actual

14:27

factual stories

14:30

exactly exactly and um you know when and

14:33

when people are in the hospital and they

14:34

see doctors on rounds the doctors are

14:37

telling a story it's about putting that

14:39

story together in a way that's suct so

14:41

that people understand it so again it's

14:44

not the same thing but I can tell you

14:47

that um during my alter Eagle medical

14:51

training and and her time

14:53

teaching she really worked on that

14:56

storytelling and I think um um again

14:59

it's it's kind of um been been helpful

15:03

with this novel now is are any of your

15:05

characters the four main characters are

15:08

any of them

15:10

Physicians one of them is her name is

15:12

Martha okay so they're four characters

15:15

so oh wa I mentioned that already so

15:17

you've got Ruth Ruth runs the family's

15:20

multi-million dollar peanut business so

15:22

her husband Bo I couldn't call him Boaz

15:24

because you know present day that would

15:26

be a rather unusual name but her husband

15:28

Bo

15:30

B yes okay all right yes so her has

15:36

passed um so um with his passing Ruth

15:41

has taken over his position as CEO of

15:43

the family's multi-million dollar peanut

15:45

business then her younger cousin by

15:48

marriage is who's the physician Martha

15:51

is not happy at all that Ruth is running

15:55

the business and she's also not happy

15:56

about Ruth status and the family or in

15:59

the community um at large so Martha has

16:02

a sister named Mary Mary really just

16:04

wants to run her new restaurant which

16:06

focuses on um healthy um comfort food

16:10

healthy and delicious comfort food um uh

16:13

so she really specializes in plant-based

16:15

foods but that really tastes tasty but

16:18

Martha keeps pulling her into the family

16:19

drama so Mary's not happy about that and

16:22

then Naomi who is um their aunt who

16:26

raised them after their parents died she

16:29

is The Peacemaker in the family and

16:30

she's really just tired of holding the

16:32

family together and so she tells them

16:34

you've got to just figure out how to how

16:36

to do this so all the women have secrets

16:38

that they're dealing with and they're

16:40

also having to struggle with truths that

16:42

they haven't been admitting to

16:44

themselves okay now did you develop your

16:48

title or I did okay so you you presented

16:53

your book with the title that you have I

16:55

did yes and it's a play on word so that

16:57

really is is

16:59

uh is memorable because a lot of times

17:03

with book titles you want a title that

17:05

people will remember because that's when

17:07

you get the word of mouth but that's

17:10

right yeah and I wondered if the

17:12

publishing company or really my editor

17:14

at the company would um ask that I spell

17:18

Garden um in Eden in the traditional way

17:21

but she really liked the spelling and

17:23

the play on words so she she let me keep

17:25

it so I was really thrilled about that

17:27

yeah because from a marketing

17:28

standpoint you have kind of have the

17:30

best of both worlds because you are uh

17:33

you have the play on words but you also

17:37

sort of have a Biblical tie in or tie

17:40

Christian fiction without saying it's

17:42

Christian fiction exactly and that's you

17:45

know that's always um better from a a

17:50

promo branding

17:51

standpoint um and people will remember

17:54

because who who can forget the Garden of

17:55

Eden right thank you I love when people

17:58

people get it so thank you for getting

18:00

it so

18:03

um it was something you had in your bio

18:06

that I wanted to ask you

18:09

about oh oh the second book so this is

18:12

part of a series yes yes yes so uh I'm

18:16

excited to share so really just with the

18:18

release of um this first book that came

18:21

out last week I'm allowed to say now

18:23

that um the series will be called The

18:25

Gardens of Eden and book two um we

18:29

haven't shared that title yet um but

18:31

book two will come out in Spring

18:33

2025 okay oh that's great now you're G

18:35

to have uh more than two books or is

18:38

that's we'll see we're we're working

18:41

through that yeah we'll we'll see i'

18:43

I've got ideas but we'll we'll see okay

18:47

and and and to to be transparent when I

18:49

wrote The Gardens of Eden you know the

18:51

first book I didn't have any plans for

18:53

it to be a series um I thought you know

18:56

I think it's really great that there's

18:57

some authors who write series that's not

18:59

really my thing I don't have those types

19:01

of ideas this is going to be a

19:03

standalone um but as I work through the

19:06

story and saw where it was going I said

19:08

oh my gosh yeah we're going to have to

19:10

do another one because I think you know

19:12

there's going to be some growth but

19:14

there's going to be some more things

19:15

that happen that I think will be really

19:17

interesting and um I think you know

19:19

people will really love this family and

19:21

want to know what happens next with them

19:24

yeah that's the thing about um when you

19:26

when you write fiction I'm a I'm an

19:28

author too and I have a variety of books

19:32

U but I have one I have a series that's

19:35

a novel I have children's books I have I

19:38

have a variety of books but but I I do

19:41

have a two book series second of which

19:45

just came out and what happened when I

19:47

wrote the first book I had no I didn't

19:51

have any plans to really yeah but what

19:55

happens is when people read the book and

19:57

they get into the

19:58

characters like they will with your book

20:02

they want to know what happens to them

20:05

what happens next yeah and they identify

20:08

with them as real

20:10

people and I that's one of my favorite

20:12

parts and so congratulations to you on

20:14

your your second book in that series

20:16

coming out but yeah they start to feel

20:19

real yeah they start to feel real and so

20:21

I I think that is one of the best

20:23

compliments that an author can ever get

20:26

um because you want your characters to

20:27

be relatable you want people to see

20:30

themselves in them or you know people

20:33

that that that they know so I think

20:35

that's just a fantastic compliment

20:36

whenever that happens yeah I agree so

20:39

now when you as part of your public

20:42

health

20:43

work as a uh your Alter Ego as a physici

20:46

my Alter Ego

20:48

yeah um it sounds like you're doing most

20:52

of the work you do is at the Grassroots

20:54

yes absolutely so um and it's it's

20:57

really really rewarding in that way for

21:00

me everything is about people

21:01

everything's about people everything's

21:03

about Community um and so that's

21:06

something that I think also comes across

21:08

in the in The Gardens of Eden too okay

21:12

now one of the readers said how long did

21:15

it take you to write the book that's a

21:17

great question so I started thinking

21:20

about it um in about

21:25

2008 um but didn't but really just you

21:29

know so in 2008 I I I it just kind of

21:32

popped in my head that I wanted to write

21:33

a book that answers the question of what

21:35

happened after the stories told in the

21:36

Bible but it really just took me some

21:38

years to kind of think about it and

21:41

figure out kind of what the story would

21:42

be about and which characters it would

21:45

focus on and so in December of 2019 is

21:49

when I started um planning the book so

21:52

um we call that plotting um so I did

21:55

that

21:56

for a few weeks in in December that

21:58

spilled over a little bit into January

22:00

2020 um but I wrote most of the book

22:03

between uh January 2020 and the first

22:06

half of February 2020 um one of the

22:09

great things about working for myself is

22:11

that I control my own schedule so I was

22:14

able to kind of plan my work so that I

22:17

took advantage of the fact that

22:19

frequently in January um it can be a

22:22

little bit slow depending on how I

22:24

schedule things so I kind of worked

22:26

ahead in December cleared some time for

22:29

myself in January to try to write as

22:31

much of the that first draft as I could

22:33

in January but it spilled over into

22:36

February which is still a big

22:39

undertaking for a debut author but yeah

22:41

yeah so basically the 60 days you wrote

22:45

it um about I mean we'll we'll say 60

22:49

but it was about a month and a half oh

22:51

now that first draft was it was rough it

22:54

was a a very rough first draft it had

22:56

lots of holes in it um some small holes

22:59

but probably one or two really big holes

23:01

and when I say holes I mean like there's

23:04

a a whole scene where I knew this is

23:06

what I was thinking would happen but I

23:08

wasn't sure if it would work if it would

23:10

fit so I just wrote like two lines in

23:13

that space and just kept writing the

23:14

rest of it um and I think that's okay

23:17

you know people sometimes refer to the

23:18

first draft as that messy first draft

23:21

right um and I think especially first of

23:23

all I don't think anyone should put any

23:26

um hard boundaries are on are are

23:29

schedule on themselves you know I did

23:31

that because that was what my work

23:33

schedule allowed and I said hey let me

23:35

see what I can do in this month that

23:37

I've carved out um but of course I had

23:40

to still make some allowances and be

23:42

flexible and spend um a a a bit more

23:46

time and so I think you know we

23:48

shouldn't put too much pressure on

23:49

ourselves we can set a goal but also you

23:52

know engage in some self-care and be

23:54

flexible and

23:55

reasonable that's true because

23:59

because if you write all the time which

24:02

we have a lot of people on the show that

24:03

are you know doing two books or three

24:05

books a

24:07

year then you have more of a routine

24:11

right of writing and so you kind of I I

24:15

think if you do that kind of writing you

24:18

really have it figured out in terms of

24:22

the process but if you don't then you

24:27

know you have do what works for you do

24:29

what works for you yeah and I'm a debut

24:31

author so I'm not here to say that I

24:33

have it all figured out I can tell you

24:35

what I did I'm very thankful there was a

24:36

lot of prayer um that went into my being

24:39

able to do that um but also a lot of

24:42

time at the at at a computer um and

24:45

really just kind of I I call it being in

24:48

my my writing cave i i watch some

24:51

television in the beginning um of that

24:54

um and read some books and things but

24:56

largely uh I was really just kind of

24:59

hunkered down as as they say just

25:02

writing writing writing so before we go

25:04

I'm trying to see someone said they're

25:06

gonna get the book and and this show

25:09

will circulate uh it it circulates very

25:13

well

25:14

for a good 10 days and so um a lot of

25:19

people will see it we have people who

25:21

watch it live and then we have a whole

25:24

another huge audience of people who

25:26

watch it at the leisure or parts of it

25:29

whatever I love that yeah well I thank

25:32

you so much for having me on I really

25:34

enjoy talking with you and you are fun

25:37

to to talk with and I I love talking to

25:39

people who who get it well I think when

25:42

I saw the book and the book cover I said

25:46

that my first response in my head was

25:50

that is really

25:53

clever I I congratulate you on you doing

25:58

that that's really I haven't seen

26:00

anybody do it exactly like that well I

26:02

appreciate that so much and good you

26:06

know good luck with everything that

26:08

you're doing with this book getting it

26:10

out there it is getting out there it is

26:13

I saw a lot of it um from when it was

26:17

coming out on the debut day to now so

26:22

I'm sure you're going to be seeing even

26:24

more and the people that I well lot of

26:27

my people on my Facebook Facebook is

26:31

where I am mostly they are Avid readers

26:34

or they're writer they're authors

26:36

they're Publishers they're people in in

26:37

the literary field so the word of mouth

26:40

that gets

26:42

around you it it gets around to the

26:45

right people did did didn't you have

26:47

like a an endorsement statement from

26:49

somebody a high-profile author did you

26:53

have that I did um are you talking about

26:55

from KJ Del anonia who wrote wrote the

26:57

chicken sisters I had one from her I

27:00

have I have one from Melissa sches young

27:04

Robin Robin W Pearson Patricia rayan

27:09

okay Robin yes Robin has been very very

27:11

good to me um we are um always

27:15

supporting each other on social media

27:18

but it's it's you know

27:20

she three books in now her third book

27:23

comes out um next month so um you know

27:27

she's like a author big sister to me so

27:31

if you're watching thank you

27:33

rob well congratulations Rosie and thank

27:37

you for being a guest on the show thank

27:39

you so much thank you for having me and

27:41

I hope everyone stays warm and stays

27:43

safe same here because it's cold in

27:47

Houston and if it's cold in Houston that

27:49

means it's cold everywhere yes yes yes

27:53

take care okay same to you have a good

27:56

night thank you

28:00

by

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