Playing in Dirt: A writer's memoir for healing

This is a video about Playing in Dirt: A writer's memoir for healing

https://www.authorkimberleythorn.com/
Barnes and Noble in Reno, NV- August 22nd,11am-2pm 
Barnes and Noble in South Jordan, UT- September 5th,12pm-4pm

Host Tanya Roundy interviews author and teacher Kimberley Thorne about her debut memoir, Playing in Dirt, inspired by her Central Valley, California ranch upbringing and written from her five-year-old perspective during the years her brother battled leukemia. Kimberley shares how writing and journaling have been therapeutic through junior high and infertility, and how she now teaches young children (and older kids) to rediscover the joy of writing without over-focusing on grammar. She explains that the book began as a Christmas gift for her mother, led to publishing with support from the Author Ready group and editor Debbie, and centers on family values, community support, and finding small things to be grateful for during hardship. Kimberley discusses upcoming book signings (Reno Aug 20; South Jordan, Utah Sept 5), where to buy signed copies, and plans for an audiobook and future memoirs.

00:00 Welcome and Introductions
00:27 Kimberley Writing Journey
01:03 Teaching Kids to Write
02:39 Writing as Therapy
03:33 Origin of Playing in Dirt
06:56 Childhood Cancer Perspective
10:30 Ranch Family Upbringing
12:14 Travel and Outdoor Life
15:10 Favorite Authors and Reads
18:22 Themes and Takeaways
21:15 Lunch Card Lady Story
25:07 Whats Next and Signings
26:36 Where to Buy and Follow
29:02 Emotions of Publishing
32:20 Final Message and Farewell

In a world full of uncertainty, how does one cope with unbearable loss and pain? A Christmas tragedy finds Steve and Maria struggling to find hope. With the love and support of family and friends, will they find peace as they walk through the fire of Uncertainty?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome everyone to Roundy's Rants, Raves, and Reviews. I'm Tanya Randy, your host. I am joined today by the most amazing Kimberly Thorne, who is an author, and I'm so excited to hear about her new book, you guys, and her message for us all. So, Kimberly, will you tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey into writing?

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Yes. So I'm a teacher who loves to write. I've been writing stories and poems, I think, my entire life, but as far back as I can remember, and I started with poetry and then just, you know, journaling and all of that. And I recently just wrote a book called Playing in Dirt. That name, Playing in Dirt, comes from my brothers and I always playing in the dirt. We were born and raised in the Central Valley of California on a ranch. And now I live with my husband on the state of Nevada, also on a little farm with more dirt. Dirt kind of stays with me. I currently teach children all over the world via Zoom. And I'm an independently contracted teacher. I teach mostly science and history. And most of my day actually is not spent on science and history. It's mostly on writing. I teach a lot of writers' workshop classes to little ones, like ages five to seven, is mostly what I teach. So helping them just to get started with the joy of writing at an early age. And before teaching online, I taught grades kindergarten through a second grade in the public school classroom, which is why I tend to still teach the younger ages. And then the longer I've been teaching online, I've been teaching online for about six years now. And I have found that older kids also struggle with writing. And so I have been helping some age groups between 10 and 12 just finding the joy in writing and not focusing so much on the spelling and the grammar and all of that, just getting their thoughts on paper and then helping them to refine their writing.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

And that is so important. I'm an English teacher, so I get it's like they come and there's something that happens between elementary school and I'm at a junior high right now. And it's like somewhere along there, they lose their love of reading, their love of writing, their love of imagination. And it's like trying to get them to do and explore that side of them is sometimes so hard. And man, to work on that is I think a great and noble calling to get them to do all of that. But then there. So I too started with poetry and journaling when I was back in high school and stuff. And it's such a great therapeutic release. Did you find that when you were that age? That was kind of a way to get through all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Junior high, you know, when life is really hard. Yeah. Yeah, that's when I did a lot of poetry and journaling. And then when my husband and I struggled with infertility for a lot of years, and so I found journaling and just writing down all that was going on during that time that really helped me as was an outlet. Writing, writing has always just been an outlet for me. I agree, very therapeutic, like you said. Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

And I and I think that if kids realized how much that could be, they wouldn't, it would help them too. Those throwaway journals could be so good. Yeah. Just just right. Just try. Yeah, just right. Throw it away later. No one's gonna see it. It's fine. Right. Well, I love the title of your book. So tell me, are there authors and things like this that you've been inspired by that kind of led you into this? Or it or how did you come up with writing this book and this title here?

SPEAKER_02 3:50

So I wrote this book primarily for my mom for Christmas. I have all I have a really good memory, and I have all these memories of my childhood, and I just really wanted to get them down on paper. I kind of think of Laura Ingalls Wilder with Little House on the Prairie and how you know all these life events happened to her. And I don't really have anybody to pass those stories on to because we don't have children of our own. I have nieces and nephews that I try to pass on to here and there, but I just really wanted to write all these memories down before I forget them one day. So I had originally wrote this book for my mom for Christmas and just wanted to see what she thought about all my memories.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

It happened that way, honey.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

And she was really, she was really happy to read it. And she thought it was really powerful to share with everybody. She wanted me to share with everybody in the whole world. And so we had a discussion about that, and it led me then to publishing, which I really was not considering doing. It was just a way for me to write down my memories, my thoughts. And then I had become part of Richard Paul Evans, you know, author ready group. And I've been wanting to write a book for a lot of years, but really wasn't thinking this would be the one. Yeah. So I just I thought, okay, well, I'll reach out to somebody in that group and see if it if this is something that maybe other people would want to read besides just our family. So I reached out to Debbie, who became my editor in the Authority group. And she has been amazing, wonderful. And I when I sent her the manuscript, I was so nervous. And I just said, please share, please hold this close to you because this really is my heart in this story. And so I was super nervous to share that with somebody outside of our family group. And she's been such a blessing. And so she read it and she said, No, I agree with your mom. I think other people might really enjoy this book. And it was, it's a it's kind of different because it's from my five-year-old perspective. So this was a really impactful time in my life when my brother was dying of cancer, and a lot of things happened, seemed to happen when I was five and six. And so that's the focus of my story. And I tell that story from a five-year-old perspective. And so it's kind of funny in some spots because the way kids think about things is different than adults.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

So I think that's so important. And I love Debbie too. She was my editor, and she is so incredible to help you bring your story to life. And she's so respectful of your stories and stuff. And the author ready so supportive and too. But I find it interesting because we do we often get things right. They're always from other points of view or multiple points of view or an alt adult point of view and stuff like this. But we don't ever really get a kid's point of view, especially going through some of those really formative years. Like you're saying and your brother was dying of cancer and stuff like this. Tell me a little bit about how that is influenced or coming through in the book on how your younger self did that.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Yeah. So it's even a, I would say, more different perspective because I don't know life without cancer because my brother was diagnosed before I was born, about six months before I was born. And so my mom actually almost lost me because of his diagnosis. And so she had to be bedridden, also dealing with, you know, her son who was going through treatments and things. And so for me, it the perspective is a little different because here everybody around me was very sad and of course, you know, very focused on my brother for the first four or five, probably like first seven years of my life, actually. And for me, it just didn't know any different. I just thought that everybody's brother was dying of cancer.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

This is just what life is.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

We're done with life. Yeah. Yeah. It was just life. That's just what it was. And so it really wasn't until, my goodness, until I was like in my 20s, probably, when I looked back and realized, oh, not everybody had that same life that I did. You know, not everybody spent three days a week at the hospital. And, you know, I just didn't know any different. And so it it is, it was really interesting writing this book too, because then in writing it, I was able to see how each of us family members cope differently with all that was going on, with my brother being so sick. You know, my dad handled this stress differently than my mom did. And then I, of course, handled it differently than both of them did. And I really didn't realize that until I wrote this book and looked back and saw how, you know, everybody copes differently with things that are tragic going on in their lives. So it was eye-opening.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

To be reflective like that, I think is so important. One of the first assignments I always start with is a memoir because thinking back at what makes us who we are now and what has formed us can be like you said, eye-opening to look back and go, what was I going through? What is going on now? And and also to realize that other people aren't doing it the same way as we are. It's this world doesn't look at so those perspectives so much anymore. And I think it's so good to do that sometimes. Wait, how did you handle this? And how are you handling it?

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Yeah, and our hand, our family handled it, you know, a certain way. And I've seen other families handle it differently. I I feel very blessed to have had, I say, you know, like a village, a tribe that helped raise me because I had grandparents that lived on our ranch with us, great grandparents that lived on the same ranch as us. So we were all in it together, and we had really great friends in the community we lived in that, you know, helped take me to and from school and helped with things with my brother, helped my parents a lot with, you know, multitasking with us kids and work and because my parents still worked, of course, you know, during the same time. And yeah, so and then later in life, when other bad things happened, it was those core values that I had been raised with that helped to cope with those other things that came up in life. So yeah, I really think all things kind of happen how they're supposed to, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Exactly. That is so cool. I I love the fact I we didn't live so close to my grandparents, but we were up there a lot. We were I was always playing with my aunts and uncles and my cousins because we were all about the same age and doing that. What was that like to grow up on this ranch with all your family around and your grandparents and your great-grandparents and all this? So I imagine that comes into your book a little bit as well, this idea of family and stuff together. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah, yeah, it does come into the book a lot. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, just little things like helping carry firewood and you know, helping to water the grass and things like that. And then we would have snack time at my grandparents' house or my grandparents' house almost every day. So we would see them. And my, you know, my grandma would teach me how to sing certain nursery rhymes, and my grandpa would teach me how to fix things on the tractor, and so it was a very special upbringing because we were all so close right there. And as I got older, my great-grandparents would travel a lot, and so they'd be gone three or four months out of the year, and so we would go and sneak into their house and see, you know, oh, any if anybody's been in here since they've been gone and checked on things for them, and then and then it was always wonderful to see when they'd come back and they would always tell us about their adventures to Utah and Arizona, and so and that's where I think some of my love for travel came from was from them as well.

unknown 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Oh, yeah, when you hear stories at their knees and at their feet, that whole it's gotta just be bring your imagination alive and stuff like that. So have you traveled a lot then? Where have you gone?

SPEAKER_02 12:17

And yeah, yeah, we actually travel a lot. My parents were both teachers as I got older in life. They weren't, you know, to my younger years, but as I got older, and so we would have the summers to travel. And traveling was really important to my parents too. So I have been now have been to every state west of Tennessee. So I just have the northern states and northeastern states to visit. And some of the I have not been to Florida, but I've been to quite a few states, and I've been to lots of national parks, and we do a lot of camping, a lot of fishing, a lot of hiking. So we are outside as much as we can be. I'll be going on my first cruise ever this summer, so I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Oh, but not on the dirt this time. Yeah, I'll be on water. The next one will be playing in water.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Yeah, it's playing in water, will be the next one. Playing in the snow will be one too, because we get a lot of snow where I live in northeastern Nevada.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

So I was gonna say, if you're up there, you're getting you're getting all the weather like we do. Yeah. Yeah. I remember growing up, it was always the backyard, and we had we literally were making mud pies. I mean, it was we had a little pit of dirt and we would go get water and we would, yeah. We lots of dirt pies that my mother and my father, I'm sure, did not appreciate tasting as much as we were doing, but we were gardening and all that. So I yeah, I get it. We camped, we whenever we would go places, we would do the national parks and camping, and my parents just and we were museums and things like this. We my grandpa would take us to like parks and stuff, but mostly it was zoos, and it was always that kind of educational family where you can actually do stuff together, kind of things. So yeah, yeah, those are good memories.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Yeah, yeah. And the era that we grew up in too was you know the 80s, and so we were outside a lot, we didn't do much in the house, you know. Spring and summer, we were never in the house, not until the sun went down. So since we lived on a ranch, most everything we did included dirt.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Either taking care of the animals or playing with the animals.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Yeah, we did a lot of gardening, and we lived on a great vineyard. So wow. So we helped a lot with you know irrigating and harvesting and all of that.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

So did you have to move pipe? Because where I lived growing up, it was moving pipe.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Yeah, not a lot of pipe, just a lot of dirt. We did a lot of shoveling, dirt, and then yeah, smaller pipes, you know, for the furrows, but right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

We had alfalfa farms, so we literally had to like pick up and move pipe.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Yeah, luckily I didn't have to do that as much as my brothers and sisters did, but oh, those aphids everywhere. Oh anyway. Very cool. So so what was like when you were growing up, were there authors and people that you were inspired by or that you found were your favorites, or even favorites nowadays that you like look to as coaches?

SPEAKER_02 15:21

Uh Laura Ingalls Wilder. You know, I I read a lot of those books when I was growing up, The Little House in the Big Woods and all of that. Nowadays, I read a lot of Richard Paul Evans' books, I read Nicholas Sparks. I tend to actually, and I don't read a lot of biographies, I tend to like, you know, the escaping from reality type books, but I do read, um, read a lot of history, actually. So I really do love like historical fiction, and I do love reading about places in history, like ghost towns and things like that, because it interests me how things change over time. Well, in your travels, you should just like read it and go. I do a lot of that before the travel reading, after the travel reading. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Oh, I love that. Yeah, no, I'm a big fan. I I love history too. I just didn't want to take the tests in class. I love learning history and reading all the books and stuff. I just don't want to take the tests. So yeah. The English teacher and me, my my students would leave and go, is this a history class or an English class? I said, Yes. Yes. Same thing. Being successful. What is your favorite place you've been and what you've learned about it then from your reading and stuff?

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Oh goodness gracious. You know, one of the most recent favorite places I've been is the Redwoods in Northern California. We've done some exploring it that way, and it's just so beautiful. And the history of the logging in that area and how things have changed with that. And we actually have some ancestors that lived up in that area and did a lot of like abalone hunting and fishing right on the coast there.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

So the genealogy at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And the Native American tribes, you know, that lived in that area. We've learned a lot over the years from things that that they did and how they hunted and fished up in that area. And so yeah, it was that that trip this last summer was just beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Do you guys get driving through the Redwood Zen there?

SPEAKER_02 17:31

And yeah. Most of our trips include a lot of driving.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah. Driving and stopping and driving and stopping.

unknown 17:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

The best way because if you're on a bus or you're in a plane, you dismiss all of that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

And we're pretty well known for just stopping and seeing, like, we'll be driving and be like, wait, stop. And we'll see a house or something off in the distance, and you know, a cave or even a museum, you know, for near city. And we'll just stop and explore and then go on our way.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

That's the best way to do a vacation. Not have to worry about it and just stop and enjoy life as it's going.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Yeah. My mom always says it's about the journey, not the destination.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

So I love mom. Mom's got it. I wish more parents were there. With what I see. Well, tell me, what are some themes and ideas or messages that you you see coming through your book that you feel are important for everyone? I mean, Debbie obviously saw something, your mom saw something. What is it that that's important that you see that we can gain from your book?

SPEAKER_02 18:42

I think a lot of just family values and enjoying life, even though there's, you know, there's bad things that happen to everybody, and life can be rough if you just focus on the rough. And so this book, I really hope that it helps people to see that that even if something bad is happening in your life, there's still always something to be thankful for. And sometimes it is the smallest of things. For instance, one part in my book that was not an easy chapter to write because it was some really sad things that were happening, but we were able to focus just on like the beautiful flowers that were growing outside. And you know, the weather was nice and sunny out. And so just being able to always find something to be thankful and joyful for, even in really hard times. And I think that's a really important message for everybody. And yeah, life is hard, life is not easy. And so it's just I'm hoping that message will come through that there are things to be thankful for. And also, like I said, the family values that it's really important to hold your family close and cherish each other's, you know, good and bad.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Right, and it's right. It's like when we are going through so many hard things that we don't stop and see those small little miracles and those small little things along the way. Yeah. Did you remember those at the time, or did you notice those, or was it only when you started looking back that you notice those moments, realize those?

SPEAKER_02 20:14

That's a great question. I think little bits in here throughout my life, you know, I'd be reminded of, oh yeah, you know, dad told me to focus on the beautiful flowers. Or, you know, oh yeah, mom told me, you know, listen to music. Little things, you know, would come through, but really in writing this book, it became more apparent and helped me to remember that that I had so much to be thankful for, even in hard times. So yeah, it was very reflective. And perhaps maybe the adults noticed that at the time, but I don't know if they noticed that or if they were just living life, you know, that's just kind of how it all happened.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Yeah, there's a good question. It's like sometimes because I know as an adult, I'm so like sometimes I I just like go through every day and like what happened today. I don't even know. So I need to stop more too and do that. Um is there something I just I'm curious, is there one story that in your book that stands out to you a moment that you'd share with us or share a portion of that with us? So like like your favorite or most standing out parts?

SPEAKER_02 21:29

There's lots of favorite, but there is uh a part in particular that I find kind of funny that uh nobody else um at the time probably even thought anything of it. But there was when I was in kindergarten, there was a lady that would take our lunch cards every day for lunch and punch them, you know, and then we would go through the lunch line. And every day she would ask me how my brother was. And at five, I was a little annoyed by the middle of the year when she every day would ask me, How's your Brother. I'm like, he's fine.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

He's my he's my brother. Gosh.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

And there was one day when I knew he wasn't fine because he had just relapsed for the second time with leukemia. And I was actually in an odd way kind of excited that I could tell her like specifics about how he wasn't fine. And so I replayed this conversation over in my head as I'm in line, you know, waiting to give her my lunch card. And then I handed her my lunch card and she asked again, you know, how's your brother? And I said, actually, you know, he's not so fine. And so I went into detail for her. And she's like, Oh, yeah, I knew all of that. I just want to know how he was. And I was like, What? I was all right for you. That's not at all how I expected you to react. But and so it's kind of funny. It was kind of funny looking back, writing that. And and then later the lunch lady, the lunch card lady comes up again throughout my story, and she ended up impacting me more than I thought she would, or than I thought she did. I didn't realize that until I wrote this book, but it's sometimes oftentimes it's strangers and people that we don't even maybe are not super close to that really have a big impact on our life without us even realizing it.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Is she still alive? I don't think so. That would be fun to like send her a book.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

I know. And I'm really sad that I don't know her name. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Well, when we're five, it's like I think there's only like a few teachers that I actually remember their names. But I don't remember all the people that, yeah, I interacted with, and I wish I did more.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Because you're right, they have so much impact on us, and we don't even yeah, and like a lot of the nurses at the hospital, you know, and the doctors, I don't remember all of their names, and I wish I did, but I, you know, they were they became really good friends of mine, you know, but they were just I say they're God's angels that you know, people God places people in our lives when they're meant to be there, and they were meant to be there during that time period, and then there's different angels along the way that are placed in our lives.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

And new angels every day.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

I think that's another important message that all of us need to redo too is like how people, not just the things and the events that happen, but the people that come in and out of our lives to be so grateful for them. We often just take them for granted. It's just like, oh, this person was here, and we don't stop and better life a day.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and we don't know, you know, sometimes the impact we have on other people. Often I'd say 90% of the time we don't know, you know, something we said or did that that maybe impacted somebody else, whether it be good or bad. So that's why it's I I try really hard to be good to even strangers because you don't know what impact that smile or that hello had on their day.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

So that is so true.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

So what's next? What are we working on now? I mean, now we've yeah, we've got this book out doing, but are we planning more things? I know we've joked about other things, stuff like that too, but you say you were wanting to write a book. Is there another book that you had wanted to write that you're also going into?

SPEAKER_02 25:24

I haven't started another book yet. I've got a million of them in my brain, but I don't have made it out onto paper yet. Right now I'm just kind of learning this. This is my first ever book. So learning about the book signings. I have a couple of those scheduled. So I'm excited about those. I have one in Utah and one in the South Jordan part. Yeah, South Jordan, Utah, and then I have one scheduled in Reno. So I'm excited to do those and meet new people.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

And when are those coming up?

SPEAKER_02 25:54

So the one in South Jordan September 5th, and the one in Reno is August 20th, I believe. So those are coming up soon. And then I know it's not, you know, it's oh it's soon, believe me.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

I know it's like it'll come faster than we all want it to, but sure.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Yeah. And then in the future, I would like to kind of keep with the theme. So I was seriously thinking about like playing in the mud or playing in the snow or play oh good. So I wasn't a person. You were some of those other titles as I I age and go through my life. So there might be a few more memoirs coming.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Nice. What's good? That's exciting. Well, where can we find this one and follow you on your journey?

SPEAKER_02 26:40

That's a really good question, also. So I do have a website, it's authorkimberlythorn.com. And Kimberly, a lot of people spell it wrong. It's L-E-Y Thorn. So that's important if you're trying to find me. I'll put it in the link as well. Yes. Yeah. And then I do have Facebook and Instagram author pages as well. So and those are Kimberly Gige Thorne. Gija is my maiden name. So that's also my author name. I thought that was important to include our my main name on there. Our family line kind of going a little bit. We don't have any more Gijas coming up. So I thought it was important that name get carried on.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

That it's interesting because I did, I took my maiden name as well as my so it's Tony Harris Rabbi. I kept that going as well. Because yeah, it's just it's like nice to conclude that part of my life as an author in there, I think, too. That's great. Your book on your website, Amazon, where can we go?

SPEAKER_02 27:44

So I have if you would like signed copies, I have those on my website. I both have hardback and paperback, and then everywhere else online Barnes Noble, Walmart, Amazon. You can get it there. And I do have an ebook now out and an audiobook, hopefully coming soon. So I'm working on the audiobook as well. And I'd like to try reading it myself. So that way that that character of my five-year-old self comes through.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

I I was I was nervous about doing my own when I did mine, but I actually really enjoyed it. And when I listen to it now, I'm like, okay, it's not that it's just not as bad as I thought. Because I listening to my own voice has been a thing my whole life. But yeah, it there's something about it that's I loved doing it. It was very cool for me to read my book and hear myself out loud with it. But you're right, that five-year-old self coming through would be so.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yeah. So I'm hoping that is my next like big adventure is getting that audio book done. And hopefully that will be done in the next couple of months. And that will be out and ready as well.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

So morning.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Yay.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

I'm so excited for you. How are you feeling with all of this?

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Is it just it's been a roller coaster of emotions that I wasn't expecting, you know? I actually thought it would just be all super exciting, but I think because it's such a personal history, and you know, because it is a lot about my thoughts and emotions, it's been just a roller coaster of emotions and feelings that have come up. I'm super excited one day and then I'm super scared and nervous the next because I think, oh, I don't know. I want everybody reading about my encounter with the lunch card lady.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. It's fun. I mine is I I'm not writing a memoir, but a lot of personal experiences get into my stories because I'm drawing on those. And yeah, it's like, is someone gonna take this personally? Oh, if this person reads it, are they going to think it's them and or are they gonna know it's them? And like so, I I feel you. It's like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

Yeah, so it's yeah, it's been a definitely an experience and one that I wasn't quite expecting. Like I said, when I originally wrote this book, it was just for my mom, and I figured I'd copy and share it with a few, you know, close family members and maybe some friends, but yeah, so then it all went in a different direction very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

The Lord knew, but if but here's the thing if you had known it was gonna go into the world, you probably would not have finished it, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

I don't know. True, or I probably would have written it very differently. And it would be the same. I probably would have been a lot more guarded. I wouldn't, I'm not usually somebody who's very open with my thoughts and emotions. I have pretty good walls up, and so I think I would have written it totally differently. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

It's a good thing we did it.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

Yeah, but yeah, I I think looking back that it was all meant to be. And again, there are a lot of life lessons in the books that I think will be good for every I mean, there's something I think that everybody could take from it. I know some people read the title and they think playing in dirt, and then you know, it's a family's journey battling childhood cancer, and that sounds really sad and hard to read. And I want people to know it's really not hard to read. It's actually there's a lot of happy, joyful moments in the book, and I hope that's what people take away from it. It's that the happiness that still occurred during me a very sad time.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Beautiful thing. I know it's like hard to get people to like, am I gonna be sad? Yes, it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

And I'm one of those that tends to not read books. I don't want to be sad. I don't, you know, I don't like to read books to be sad or scared or upset or anything. So so I totally get that. But this book is I want people to know it's not like that, it's not sad and depressing. And there's a few little moments here and there that are sad, but overall it's just a very light-hearted five-year-old girl enjoying life.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

And such a beautiful view to take life with is that innocence of a child, I think.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Yeah, yeah. And I am reminded of that daily with my teaching. I teach six days a week, children online, and they helped remind me of that every day. That you know, the children are just so innocent what they're thinking, and it can bring us to a lot of points now. Yeah, yeah, very much.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Well, I always ask my guests if there's a message or a last thought or something that you feel you need to say that to leave us with as we go forward today. So if you have any last thoughts or messages that you feel you need to share with us.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

My biggest just last message is just for everybody to remember that angels are everywhere, whether it be your dog, your cow, a person that you know has a flat tire that day, just angels are everywhere around us. And just be aware of that. And that God places people in our lives for a reason. And whether it be for them to help us or for us to help them, that we're all in this journey together.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Thank you so much. And I am going to try and see if I can make it up to the Jordan book signing. That would be so nice to meet you in. And if you ever get down this way, we'll have to hang out and do so.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Yes, absolutely. And as I get more book signings, I'll be sure to post those on my both my website and my Facebook page and my Instagram. So so everybody can check those out there.

unknown 33:29

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 33:30

The more we get, the better it is, right? The more fun we get to have. So everyone go check out Kimberly's new book, Playing and Dirt, and enjoy your journey in life and know you're not alone, but see those angels around you. We'll see you next time on Roundy's Rants, Raves, and Reviews. Thank you again.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Thank you.