From Adversity to Authorship A Tale of Tenacity with Rhonda Parker Taylor

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All right, we're back.

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My name is Brad Minus, I'm the host of Life Changing Challengers, and today I am so honored to have Rhonda Parker Taylor.

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She's an author, a researcher, also an entrepreneur, and she's got a really special story about overcoming adversity, learning disorders and some other challenges that she came in through her life, so this is going to be an amazing episode.

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I'm really looking forward to it.

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So, rhonda, how are you tonight?

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I am great.

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It would be better if it would really turn spring in Indiana, but we have the eclipse coming soon, so hopefully it'll all come out in the wash, but right now it's rainy.

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Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that.

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I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, so I understand what you're going through.

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The changes are crazy and we're just about to head into winter.

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Well, actually, no, you're heading into spring, so everything's going to be much better, I know for sure.

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Right now you're dressing for all four seasons every day.

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Oh wow, it's that unpredictable, huh.

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Yes, it's very unpredictable.

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Oh, wow.

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So I always ask the same question of everybody.

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So could you tell us a little bit about your childhood, how you grew up, to complement your family and the environment that you grew up in?

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Sure, so I'm originally from Indiana, but I'm not from the Indianapolis area.

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Originally I'm from a small town called Noblesville, which is in the northern part of the Indianapolis suburbs.

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It was a was small, and then I also went to a private school, so that school was only there was only 50 in my graduating class.

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That's how small.

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But it had very high standards.

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And if you wanted to talk about my family, they were a very much traditional patriarch structure loving, but you know you definitely had to perform at your highest level.

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My dad's favorite saying was if it's meant to be, it's up to me, which basically would tell us that all the time Don't compare yourself, don't put yourself in that windmill.

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If you want to do something then you have to be the one to do it, don't expect someone else to do it for you.

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But that was kind of challenging because I was the baby girl.

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There was five of us kids.

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I have a little brother, so I was the second to the youngest.

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I was kind of people would say I was social, but at the same time I was very timid.

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Things would frighten me, make me scared easily.

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So if I were to categorize myself as one of the dogs breeds, it's one of those ones that just hides behind their owners all the time.

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It was a difficult transition for me.

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Sometimes I flunked kindergarten.

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How do you flunk kindergarten?

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That's what I was going to ask.

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That's terrible actually.

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I just wasn't going to be ready, what they said.

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So, for me, socializing became my lifeline, and my older brother, I, considered him the smart one, so I didn't ever want to compete.

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So I just kept navigating towards social and supporting my friends and my family.

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And so, for me personally, I didn't do the self-development that I probably needed to at a younger age.

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And so, you know, instead of worrying about what I needed to learn and my challenges and expressing some of the challenges that I had, I would navigate, helping others and making sure for being successful.

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I would say that I probably had a learning disability.

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If I had to guess you know I've done a lot of studying in my adult years I would say I probably have some ADHD, not diagnosed with it, but just from knowing how I pop around.

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And my dad used to describe me as a butterfly.

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He said you're like a butterfly.

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All you do is go from flower to flower.

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Right, he said you're like a butterfly, all you do is go from flower to flower.

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Right.

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So I think for me, the challenges also became what I used to motivate me to, because I got humiliated in some cases when I was not being successful, like maybe some of my peers or some of my family members.

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So a good example is we had to pass an English proficiency test and to graduate, and I flunked in my junior year and you had to pass it with a C or better.

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So one of the teachers the English teacher her name was Miss Dolly.

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She said you know, I'll tutor you over the summer.

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So I had gone out and gotten a job at Arby's and I was sitting on her floor, you know, in the afternoons and working at night.

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And the summer was over, my senior year was coming and she had really gotten to know me.

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So this is where the power of a mentor really can make a difference, because she changed the whole trajectory of my life.

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Really.

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Yes, Because I passed and I went to pay her.

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I asked her how much I owed her.

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She said you just passed.

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Pay it forward.

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Yeah how much I owed her.

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She said you just pass, pay it forward.

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Yeah, and so so she.

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You know, she was probably only 98 pounds, just a little spitfire of a woman.

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And I found that I could be successful and I could be that business person that I thought I wanted to be and in my I always thought I had to shift and go in a direction that would require the math, the writing, the English and stuff like that.

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So I went, so I got to go to college.

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Because of that, that's amazing.

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And so then, yes, it was more like a junior college at first and it was in fashion.

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So I went to learn to be a buyer and I'm thinking I can in fashion.

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So I went to learn to be a buyer and I'm thinking I can do fashion.

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That was the thing for women.

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I went to the Dallas area, fort Worth, because all the rich and single people were supposed to live in Dallas.

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Old people like me remember the Dallas and the Dynasty shows.

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Oh, yeah, right, right, jr.

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Who shot JR?

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So I went down there and I learned that not only could I be successful, but I learned how to change the way I approach learning, visualization, and I always tried to do it through, you know, the techniques of a person that needs to hear it or see it, and I didn't realize I needed both and I needed to be able to do it with my hands, you know, and really engross myself in it.

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So here I am, you know, as a grown person with a doctorate.

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That's amazing.

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All the way through that just because one person spent the time with me.

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But I had to be prepared.

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And that's the thing that a lot of times that people don't realize you don't get opportunities unless you're prepared.

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It's not luck, it's opportunity and preparation.

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Meeting that's what luck really is.

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And what did your dad always say?

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If it's meant to be, it's up to me.

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There you go.

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That's it.

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You lived it.

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You absolutely lived it.

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I do want to ask a couple of things, because I know that earlier in life I don't know if it was high school or prior to that that you had been gravitated.

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You had gravitated toward writing even then, but you found it difficult.

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Can you tell me how you felt or what that actually looked like?

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Just in case that we've got somebody that's watching or listening, I should say that might have some of those symptoms that you know, to give them some hope and show them hey, there's a way to move past this.

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Oh, definitely.

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So.

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The first thing is when I was taking a writing class.

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Well, when I was younger, I was always carrying a book.

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I didn't realize it, but they were all way over my head, probably intellectually, but it showed that I had a desire to learn about the world.

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Here again, I came from a small town Encyclopedias, karma, you know all these things that you know that are really deep rooted.

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So that's the first sign that wait a minute, where is this coming from?

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But for me, I had to write and they said what's your first memory?

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And it took that first memory and it was in the writing 101 class.

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There again, I couldn't write and once I pulled that one thread out and saw the challenge that I had, it was the destruction of my pink blanket.

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That was my first memory.

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Oh, wow, okay.

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Like when you're a little kid, when you're carrying a little pink blanket around, and it was when my brothers and sisters decided it was time for it to go.

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They had to take your binky away.

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Yes, they did so.

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What it did, though, is when I sat down to write, I realized that not only could it be about your emotions and feelings, but there was a whole world that you can build out there.

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So I wrote about the memory, but then I also made it into a learning lesson about both in self-development because, you know, I was in a writing class, and I found then that I really enjoyed pulling out that emotion, and I think that if anybody ever reads whether it be any of my academic writing or my fiction novel Crossroads, you'll find that I spend a lot of detail more on the people and what their emotions like.

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Crossroads explores the emotions of anger, fury and envy, and so I spend that time navigating the individual and trying to create a bond between the reader and the characters, but it's really also with me, because we've all experienced all of that.

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No matter what your life is, whether it be full of blessings or full of challenges or a little mixed of both, we've all gone through some of those emotions at some point, gone through some of those emotions at some point.

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So the part about writing is it really assists one, whether it be for journaling, for fiction, for, you know, work, whatever it is.

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If you put yourself into it and you create something that you can be proud of, then you've successfully completed that day, and that great day is great.

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Oh, absolutely.

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And just for your information, everybody Crossroads, it's a suspense novel that she wrote and you actually wrote it in 2000, but actually didn't publish it till 2023.

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Oh, there it is.

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Here it is.

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It's Crossroads, and I do want to say that I'm really into the imagery part of things.

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So Indiana is considered the crossroads of America because of the railroad tracks.

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Originally the railroad tracks were here and well, there's still railroad tracks, but everything went through Indiana to get to any part of the United States.

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And Crossroads is about navigating the world and I wrote it in 2000.

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And the blessing of it was it took me.

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I was able to sit down and just write it and it took me about a year to get it all ready.

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I had a publisher ready and then my life started coming in and unraveled.

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I was, I was working at in academics I was also part of, I had just gotten promoted to be a campus director for a local college and then Hold on a second.

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We need to step back here.

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Just one quick second.

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Did you hear this?

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Did you actually hear this this woman was talking about she had to have a mentor to learn to write.

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Now she's a campus director.

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Can we sit there and say what a complete 360 that this woman did?

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She went from borderline learning disorder to an academic.

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That's absolutely, that's amazing how you were able to pull that out, and you did it with belief that you could do it and a lot of hard work, obviously.

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And you're that person and I'm really glad you stopped and made me take a step back, because I think that anybody out there in your audience that's going through a challenge.

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I have a little jingle that I have for you and it comes from Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and it's put one foot in front of the other and so be walking across the floor.

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Any challenge that's out there.

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Yes, you're going to have to take a second to gather your thoughts, practice the positivity to keep yourself from going over the edge, but then, once you start putting those feet and putting a plan in place and staying disciplined and believing in yourself, you can stay in focus.

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It can happen, but you have to realize the true challenges of making it happen and for me, you know, I thought it was going to be that first time when I had the publisher.

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Yeah.

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Then the world fell apart literally in my hands.

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I am sitting in my family room, I'm writing a letter, believe it or not.

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I'm writing a letter to somebody and there's a knock at the door and that knock, when I opened, it was my adopted son's girlfriend and a police officer.

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Oh officer?

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oh, and they had.

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They came to tell me that my adopted son had been shot and killed at work and that literally that's the age group too.

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She was working at a bar as a bouncer and they put somebody out and at when they came out at the last call, the guy shot this whole security team, and in that moment nothing else mattered.

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Of course, that book sat on my desk after that for the longest.

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I always had all the intentions of the world to get it published, but I hadn't found the lesson yet in it.

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I was still reinventing myself, because that challenge took me to a place that I'm like can I really work with college students at that age, the same age as my son?

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And I knew that I could under certain circumstances, but being on a college campus was going to be too difficult, so I stepped back from that and I created my own business, which was mentoring students.

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That had challenges oh well perfect whether it would be.

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they didn't know how to do a resume, they didn't know how to do the career search with the computers.

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And you know, a lot of people were trying to learn during that period about how to even do a job search with a computer, because it used to be do just the resume.

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Now it's this whole new computer age and nobody knew how to do it.

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And then also then eventually I pulled back the academics back into it and started mentoring for the people's masters and theses and dissertations.

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But I had to take the life lesson before I could take all those steps and before I could take all those steps.

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And then one day I had to go in and I had to get something off a floppy disk and it erupted and it had my book on it and I looked at it sitting because I had printed it at one point because I was getting ready to publish it Right right, and I looked at it sitting on my desk.

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It was still sitting in the same place I've been sitting and I had images of me having to retype and edit the whole thing.

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Oh my god, what found in the lessons.

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Oh my God, what we found in the lessons from losing a loved one and then looking like I was going to lose the book was that I had some skills that I needed to work on.

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Still, being a life learner is one of the most important things you can do for yourself.

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And I was talking to my sister and she says why haven't you published it?

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And I was like, well, you know I'm busy and that's, and you know, making every excuse.

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She says that's not it.

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She says you're afraid to make yourself vulnerable.

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And I'm like, no, that's not.

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You know, of course I don't care if you know people read you.

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She says you know, I don't care what people think.

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And sure enough, she was right.

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It required me to reevaluate my priorities, and I found that in that season, in that moment, I had to take a step back again and redefine what the lesson was supposed to be for me too.

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In the book I wrote the book as a reason to elevate myself and my skills, and I started hiding behind making others successful.

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I see so when your sister had said, okay, is it you need to make yourself vulnerable or is this going to make you vulnerable?

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Was it strictly about the writing?

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Was it that it was your art, that you'd never put anything out there before, that you needed to get that done?

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Or was there a piece of harris pennington in you that you didn't want the world to see within this masterpiece of fiction?

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I think it's both.

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I think that I didn't I fearful of putting it out there, but also I think, yes, there is a part of every character in there that's me.

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You could say it's Hinton, but you know I'm a people person.

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So even Billy Knuckles, who's the guy that has to debate whether he wants to be a rat against his friend or not, you know, I've never been in that situation, but guess what I could have been, because I was always putting people first, always, putting, you know, excuses for behaviors.

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You know, I was always the more responsible one in the group, you know, so it very easily could have been me.

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How many times have we had someone that's gotten into our car?

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We really don't know what they're talking about, right?

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So you know, so it very easily could have been me.

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How many times have we had someone that's gotten into our car?

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We really don't know what they're talking about, right?

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So you know, I think that it was.

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But Paris Pennington, definitely, people would always say that I always had it together.

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You know, even though most people that you know my story and know me since pre-kindergarten would say I didn't know you had a learning challenge or disability.

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They thought you know, they were like, oh, you were popular, you had this, and it's like they didn't know.

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You know, undertaking the challenge of exposing that, hey, everybody's house is made of glass and it can be easily shattered and might have been shattered many times.

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You know whether it be.

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You know the death.

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I've had several loved ones, we have a.

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I have a date that you know I dread every year because I'm like, ok, who am I going to lose this year?

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Because everybody that I've known and loved just died on September 19th.

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What?

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I'm sorry, that just threw me for a loop.

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But it's the truth, and so it's like that's a whole nother book that.

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I could write Probably.

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Because my mother died on it.

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Four years later my son died on it.

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Then my dad turned around and his was was going to be.

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They were telling us that he wasn't going to make it, and you know that it was a september 19th and and they we told him well, you know he's the same day as mom and she's.

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He said no, let him, let her have her day and do it after midnight.

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And so he died, died on September 20th, and then I have had an uncle, and then you know, it's like everybody, it's like everybody, and I think that what I can hopefully tell people is face those fears.

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Crossroads was a fear for me.

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You're right, paris Pennington is a part of me, but isn't me, but it is.

00:21:55.823 --> 00:22:02.068
We all navigate the world with a set of core values.

00:22:02.068 --> 00:22:09.128
My set of core values that was handed down from my father and my family is you must work.

00:22:09.128 --> 00:22:12.236
If you don't work, you don't have value.

00:22:12.236 --> 00:22:17.867
Work, you don't have value, and that's a big Midwest core value.

00:22:17.867 --> 00:22:21.083
And so that was Paris' core value.

00:22:21.103 --> 00:22:28.942
So, yes, there's a lot of Paris that's in it, but I had to realize that the commitment had to be to me also.

00:22:28.942 --> 00:22:36.525
I run around for 20 years pushing people to be the best versions of themselves.

00:22:36.525 --> 00:22:46.090
But I had stopped doing the self-care and I'm not talking about just, you know, fitness self-care.

00:22:46.090 --> 00:22:56.548
I'm talking about the self-care of emotions, self-care of relationships, self-care of mindfulness, self-awareness because I was doing it for other people.

00:22:56.548 --> 00:23:01.595
I was just pushing them forward and pushing them forward, and I don't regret that, trust me.

00:23:01.595 --> 00:23:12.463
I have gotten so much joy out of seeing people break through their own barriers, but it was just time for me to give myself that same chance.

00:23:13.946 --> 00:23:25.295
Yeah, there is a book and you probably know about it because just because of your academia but it's called the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

00:23:25.295 --> 00:23:26.020
You've heard of it.

00:23:26.020 --> 00:23:39.090
Yes, so she actually defines that person, because I used to be that person too Actually, I still am to a point, but I have come to a point where I've learned that I've got to take care of myself first and then move forward, but that took me a while as well.

00:23:39.090 --> 00:23:53.902
But she decides she defines it as the shadow warrior is the person that's always pushing other people to get to their best right they're the ones in the back, they're the shadow, but that shadow never sees the light right.

00:23:53.922 --> 00:24:01.207
So that's what you were saying is a classic definition of what Julia said was the shadow warrior.

00:24:01.207 --> 00:24:04.170
That doesn't say that there's anything bad about the shadow warrior.

00:24:04.170 --> 00:24:17.648
The shadow warrior is a very, most likely a very good person, but they don't do the things for themselves, they don't seek out the success for themselves, they only see it for other people, which is what you did, which is what I did in the same way.

00:24:17.648 --> 00:24:19.715
So, yeah, I can see that happening.

00:24:19.715 --> 00:24:35.058
I do have a quick question for you Was there any bit of that exposure of vulnerability that you wrote into Crossroads when the judge kind of outs Harris Pennington, when the judge kind of outs Harris Pennington.

00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:36.261
Was there a?

00:24:36.261 --> 00:24:54.173
Yes, because I think that everybody's been in a position whether it be a loved one, whether it be the court system or whether it be, you know even yourself where you've put yourself in a situation and then you're oust, as you would put it.

00:24:54.173 --> 00:25:03.359
But also, during the period of time when I was just before I wrote Crossroads, I had been part of the Crimewatch District.

00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:35.111
I had been part of the Crime Watch District and it wasn't where I lived, it was where my church was located in the Indianapolis area and they gave me a adopt-a-block area that was six blocks of about the worst in Indianapolis, and I learned a lot about the justice system and even though the United States has one of the best justice systems in the world, it's not perfect.

00:25:35.691 --> 00:25:36.372
Not even close.

00:25:37.031 --> 00:25:41.752
Right and there is no winners and losers.

00:25:41.752 --> 00:26:14.901
Everybody's a loser when you end up in the justice system, including the jury foreman, because you're in a vulnerable place and you learn a lot by just being in the room, Because it doesn't matter whether you're a victim, a prosecutor, a defense attorney, a judge, a jury, the family of the victim, the family of the perpetrator, all of them are in the room and now they have to be there for a period of time together.

00:26:14.901 --> 00:26:21.932
And now you have to decide okay, what am I supposed to learn?

00:26:21.932 --> 00:26:24.942
And that's what Paris went through and I went through that many times.

00:26:24.942 --> 00:26:31.094
I can remember this elderly lady that lived in those six blocks and she would call my cell phone.

00:26:31.094 --> 00:26:38.541
That was just, you know, around the time cell phones were really, you know, hot and she would call it and want me to call the police for.

00:26:39.663 --> 00:26:39.884
Oh.

00:26:40.585 --> 00:26:48.955
Because she said they wouldn't come if it was from her house phone because of the digits they would know.

00:26:48.955 --> 00:26:51.489
So I would call and they would be there in minutes.

00:26:51.489 --> 00:27:10.996
And I realized that when I wrote Crossroads I wanted to portray the imperfectness but at the same time the camaraderie of going through that process and I thought that's what the whole book was going to be about.

00:27:11.578 --> 00:27:11.759
Right.

00:27:12.121 --> 00:27:24.709
When I first started the journey, but then I realized that the characters kind of took over and their personalities kind of took over and I'm like, oh, this is a little bit more than that.

00:27:24.709 --> 00:27:43.173
It's not just about the injustices, it's also about the people and what they're capable of and what they're not capable of, and obviously the three emotions that I had said earlier, which is anger is cruel, fury is overwhelming.

00:27:43.173 --> 00:27:47.976
But who can stand before, just before, envy or jealousy?

00:27:48.457 --> 00:28:05.528
envy makes the bones rot that's strong and I realize that's a navigation of this that the world needs to hear to, even today, because how many times in social media do we try to compare ourselves?

00:28:05.528 --> 00:28:09.713
It goes back to some of the things that my father used to say that used to drive me crazy.

00:28:09.713 --> 00:28:10.675
It's been the youngest.

00:28:10.675 --> 00:28:12.647
Don't compare yourself to your older sister.

00:28:12.647 --> 00:28:15.019
Well, yeah, that's a little different.

00:28:15.019 --> 00:28:23.130
But today we're comparing our houses, our cars, our fitness, our jobs, our children, our.

00:28:23.130 --> 00:28:25.432
You know what they ate for dinner.

00:28:25.432 --> 00:28:27.915
You know cooked and bathed.

00:28:27.915 --> 00:28:30.924
So what's wrong with just being who you are?

00:28:32.808 --> 00:28:45.574
I get that and I totally see what you're coming from, especially with the propaganda that seems to be being put out today and it's causing those three emotions that you're talking about and people aren't.

00:28:45.574 --> 00:28:48.362
In my opinion, people aren't thinking right.

00:28:48.362 --> 00:29:14.404
You know when facts are placed in front of you and it's right there in front of you and all the evidence shows a black and white situation and all of a sudden everybody else is seeing gray, somebody's putting one thing that becomes viral and that piece of information, whether it's right or completely wrong, and takes over, it causes that fury and that anger and that's all they see.

00:29:14.404 --> 00:29:20.768
All they see is the red, you know, in front of them and they don't want to move forward and they don't want to see the facts.

00:29:21.289 --> 00:29:24.815
Right, and you get disgruntled with your own life, right?

00:29:24.815 --> 00:29:31.613
You know, instead of just enjoying hey, have you looked out the window of your house or your apartment?

00:29:31.613 --> 00:29:32.722
Have you gone for a walk?

00:29:32.722 --> 00:29:35.250
Have you enjoyed a puppy lately?

00:29:35.420 --> 00:29:47.155
And you know, whatever it might be that brings you joy, you know finding that life balance is very important to your mental health, your spiritual health, your physical health.

00:29:47.155 --> 00:29:56.012
Your body remembers everything and, trust me, I am the billboard of stuff happens.

00:29:56.012 --> 00:30:06.654
And if you don't learn to navigate that and be prepared, you know then when it does happen, life is going to hit.

00:30:06.654 --> 00:30:10.330
You know it could be today, tomorrow, a year from now, but it's going to hit again.

00:30:10.330 --> 00:30:15.550
So you should enjoy every moment the best you can.

00:30:15.631 --> 00:30:19.387
And it might mean that you had to work all day but didn't enjoy the work that you're doing.

00:30:19.387 --> 00:30:23.382
It might mean that you had to eat a hot dog rather than a steak.

00:30:23.382 --> 00:30:27.171
You know, whenever it might be, you know, enjoy it.

00:30:27.171 --> 00:30:37.202
You know it might be that you saw a raccoon go through your yard, and I'm a big nature lover, so you know that brings me the most joy.

00:30:37.202 --> 00:30:51.724
But if we can give ourselves a break and practice resilience, a break and practice resilience then we don't have to worry about all those emotions because we'll tailor it down.

00:30:51.724 --> 00:30:54.450
Emotional intelligence is very important for everybody.

00:30:55.392 --> 00:30:56.662
I agree with that wholeheartedly.

00:30:56.662 --> 00:30:58.547
So let's move forward.

00:30:58.547 --> 00:31:00.794
So let's go back to the story.

00:31:00.794 --> 00:31:03.803
Let's get back into Rhonda Parker Taylor's story.

00:31:03.803 --> 00:31:06.830
So your sister says why haven't you published it?

00:31:06.830 --> 00:31:10.529
Is that the turning point where you decide okay, it's time to get this thing going?

00:31:10.529 --> 00:31:15.932
You said that the floppy disk was corrupted, but you had a paper copy Right.

00:31:15.932 --> 00:31:17.546
What happened after that?

00:31:19.209 --> 00:31:24.411
There's four books on that floppy disk, so we were able to retrieve all but one, but it took me a while.

00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:36.355
I had to find, you know, the right tech guru, and I had to really put myself in a position where I had to realize how important it was to me.

00:31:36.960 --> 00:32:02.401
It was one of those things that meant more to me than I'd ever thought it did, and I could remember going to conferences and them saying some of the best novels are in somebody's closet and I thought I don't want them to be cleaning out my house and find this book in the closet, you know, when I'm 80 years old or whatever year it is.

00:32:02.401 --> 00:32:10.967
So I started looking then and I wasn't really sure which direction, because if you go the traditional route it takes a long time.

00:32:10.967 --> 00:32:17.266
It took a year after that date to get someone that I could partner with.

00:32:17.266 --> 00:32:26.140
I ended up going with a blended matrix publisher, which means they help you with the publishing they do that but they also will help you with the publishing they do that, but they also will help you with the marketing.

00:32:26.140 --> 00:32:43.790
And then you have a set budget that you guys both agree on and it's contract, and so it's kind of both self-publishing and traditional, it's a publishing publisher and they know what they're doing and I thought that was going to be the glory part of it.

00:32:43.810 --> 00:32:44.593
I was going to get it on.

00:32:44.593 --> 00:32:50.700
That kept telling everybody, I'll just be happy to get it on that capitol and everybody, I'll just be happy to see it in print, right.

00:32:50.700 --> 00:32:57.693
And we're in the middle of the editing process and they're like, you know, we really think that you need to send this book to somebody and have them write the foreword.

00:32:57.693 --> 00:33:02.330
And I'm like, well, I'll be glad to get someone to do write the foreword.

00:33:02.330 --> 00:33:04.531
You know, they're like're like no, that's not good enough.

00:33:04.531 --> 00:33:06.854
And then I got well, what are you talking about?

00:33:06.854 --> 00:33:10.655
They said, well, let's you know, who do you think would best represent it?

00:33:10.655 --> 00:33:15.943
And I'm like, well, it's suspense, so maybe like a dory spelling if I was gonna hit the sky for it.

00:33:16.685 --> 00:33:19.251
And they're like no, she, you know, that's not the right person.

00:33:19.251 --> 00:33:33.872
We think you need to send it, send a letter, and we'll deliver it to her and to her people, to, um, merrill Hemingway, and out there that are a little younger than us, and I don't know who Merrill Hemingway is.

00:33:33.872 --> 00:33:41.528
She's the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, the great author, and she also is an actress and writer also.

00:33:41.528 --> 00:33:45.007
Um, she would golden globe and, I think, academy awards also.

00:33:45.007 --> 00:33:46.299
She was nominated for Academy and I think Academy Awards also.

00:33:47.019 --> 00:33:48.365
She was nominated for Academy Award.

00:33:48.365 --> 00:33:48.988
That's correct.

00:33:48.988 --> 00:33:52.241
Yeah, I was a big fan of Muriel Hemingway growing up.

00:33:52.704 --> 00:33:55.084
Yeah, Beautiful woman, beautiful.

00:33:55.084 --> 00:33:57.328
I'm like I would cheat here.

00:33:57.328 --> 00:33:59.541
I'm from Noblesville, I'm a small town girl.

00:33:59.541 --> 00:34:07.442
There's where that whole hold yourself back a little bit and not have the networking that anybody else would have been pushing them out there.

00:34:07.442 --> 00:34:09.106
And they said, just write the letter.

00:34:09.106 --> 00:34:15.016
So it took me the weekend to write a letter and I'm like, well, we haven't gotten through the final edits.

00:34:15.016 --> 00:34:16.940
They said, no, she wants to see it in the raw.

00:34:16.940 --> 00:34:21.487
And I'm like, okay, here we go.

00:34:21.487 --> 00:34:29.887
So I got it together and I and the letter and you know, introduced myself and it took about a couple weeks and they brought it back.

00:34:29.887 --> 00:34:30.670
I did.

00:34:30.670 --> 00:34:34.625
She wanted to write the forward and she wrote a.

00:34:34.686 --> 00:34:36.775
She also did a YouTube video that's out there.

00:34:36.775 --> 00:34:37.639
I think it's called Rhonda.

00:34:37.639 --> 00:34:42.123
Uh, meryl Hemingway praises Rhonda Parker Taylor's crossroads.

00:34:42.123 --> 00:35:01.632
And I'll tell you, um, anybody that's out there that has a dream, actualize it, picture it, do it, practice yourself here and provide yourself purpose and be realistic, because it's not always the pie in the sky.

00:35:02.686 --> 00:35:24.974
But when I heard that video and her explaining why, that she was putting it part of her book club and that was that everybody in life comes to a crossroads at some point in their life and she explained that she had to, with her family having mental health issues, and everybody in crossroads has something.

00:35:24.974 --> 00:35:33.436
She said then there comes to a point in your life that you, when you hit that crossroads, that you have to realize that even chocolate has an expiration date.

00:35:33.436 --> 00:35:39.697
And I was like, oh my goodness, you know.

00:35:39.697 --> 00:35:40.338
She got it.

00:35:40.338 --> 00:35:46.853
She got the point that sometimes you have to navigate and change so that things don't happen to you, so that things don't happen to you.

00:35:47.514 --> 00:36:02.516
Crossroads is like a game of clues, agatha Christie clue game, where I try to provide just little tidbits About why people have different kinds of motivation.

00:36:02.516 --> 00:36:04.409
And she got it.

00:36:04.409 --> 00:36:10.273
And it was even though things were happening to Paris and people were dying and getting sick and everything.

00:36:10.273 --> 00:36:13.755
Really, it all could have been avoided.

00:36:13.755 --> 00:36:25.536
It all could have been avoided had she navigated her world with purpose and her own purpose, not everybody else's purpose.

00:36:25.536 --> 00:36:43.646
So, yes, we have the crime thriller and the judge and this, but really, deep down, had she been more aware of her life, she could have avoided a lot of it yeah, it is an amazing book and really went well.

00:36:43.686 --> 00:36:46.471
I mean, it takes you from the first chapter.

00:36:46.471 --> 00:36:51.519
You do a a very amazing job at background and you get to the background.

00:36:51.519 --> 00:36:53.672
I felt it pretty quick.

00:36:53.672 --> 00:37:00.251
Now there's a couple of reviews that you got and that people thought that it was you kind of it was a little bit slower getting to that point.

00:37:00.251 --> 00:37:01.155
I don't think so.

00:37:01.155 --> 00:37:14.976
I think you hit the nail on the head with the amount of background, especially when you started out with Detective Brown and then Paris and then going into the office and then her, you know, and her need to satisfy her boss and and the whole thing.

00:37:14.976 --> 00:37:16.864
I thought that was the background was fantastic.

00:37:16.864 --> 00:37:24.570
And then you get into the trial and it's yeah, and it just rocks and rolls from there, right, right, so, yeah, so you're absolutely right.

00:37:24.905 --> 00:37:26.766
Meryl Hemingway raises Rhonda Parker Taylor's new release Crossroads.

00:37:26.766 --> 00:37:29.588
Hemingway raises Rhonda Parker Taylor's new release, crossroads.

00:37:29.588 --> 00:37:42.541
And you really need to read this book because it is, yeah, it is something else I got to tell you and I usually would like end and I'd ask you for some steps that you should take, but you just rattled them off.

00:37:42.541 --> 00:37:55.570
Basically, the steps that, hey, if you want to do something, visualize it and don't let things stand in your way, and especially don't let your need to help others stand in your way.

00:37:55.570 --> 00:37:57.173
Did I get that right?

00:37:57.574 --> 00:37:58.657
It is exactly right.

00:37:58.657 --> 00:38:02.809
And you know, I have a workbook coming out.

00:38:02.809 --> 00:38:12.356
It'll probably be self-published because it takes life balance and it helps people that has that same problem.

00:38:12.356 --> 00:38:15.809
And you say, you, you did the same thing, you put it, I didn't don't.

00:38:16.210 --> 00:38:33.353
Or, you know, you, one of the things I found that I was doing and I I did this with my classes a lot of times I would do this, these exercises, but I would say, okay, I'm perfectly balanced, I do 30% this, 30% that, but the joy wasn't a part of it.

00:38:34.947 --> 00:38:47.266
So then I sat down and did my own exercises and it's like, oh well, I'm watching 10 hours of television and it's 50th on my list of things that I enjoy doing, you know.

00:38:47.266 --> 00:38:54.188
So it kind of helps navigate and I use the crossroads and I have the case studies of the different characters in it.

00:38:54.188 --> 00:39:00.619
But people can try to relate that you're not alone in this.

00:39:00.619 --> 00:39:08.266
This is a daily struggle for most people to have balance and to bring joy in their lives and to put themselves first.

00:39:08.266 --> 00:39:16.233
And those that aren't putting themselves first, they're not balanced typically either, because they're too far the other directions.

00:39:16.233 --> 00:39:31.746
So I'm hoping that as I continue to write because I plan to that I can take these life lessons that we do and put them in the characters to make them real and put them in the characters to make them real.

00:39:31.766 --> 00:39:33.248
Incorporate the things that you've learned.

00:39:33.608 --> 00:39:33.769
Yeah.

00:39:33.909 --> 00:39:36.733
And then help those characters develop that way.

00:39:36.733 --> 00:39:39.916
That's actually pretty brilliant, rhonda.

00:39:39.916 --> 00:39:45.402
That's pretty brilliant, yeah, to be able to take so, because I love books like this.

00:39:45.402 --> 00:39:47.994
This is something that I read all the time.

00:39:47.994 --> 00:39:52.188
I read Black Banner and Luke Wilson and these guys that have these like really delicate.

00:39:52.188 --> 00:39:55.050
You know thrillers out there and I love them.

00:39:55.050 --> 00:40:14.436
So this was like right up my alley and but the way to incorporate I don't want to call it, but call it self-development into the characters, that's brilliant because not only does it become a recreational activity but it becomes a self development activity.

00:40:14.436 --> 00:40:15.199
So you're getting two things in one.

00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:27.534
Like you were mentioning a list, you know your tv was the 50th, but if three or four is reading crime novels, and five and six are, and three and four is self-development, there you go, you get to fit it right in.

00:40:27.534 --> 00:40:29.367
You get to get two for the price of one.

00:40:29.367 --> 00:40:30.690
That's pretty brilliant.

00:40:30.851 --> 00:40:34.922
I love that idea yeah, and I think that we all can learn from fiction.

00:40:34.922 --> 00:40:44.853
You know I talked about the workbook, but the second book I take the girl that's at the end that got in the car with the wrong people and got herself in trouble.

00:40:44.853 --> 00:41:06.657
I take her and I I take an approach, a totally different approach to how she gets involved in things, and it's not only her being naive but her inability to tell right from you, know good from bad, and it's really just that openness that can get you in trouble too.

00:41:06.657 --> 00:41:16.340
So many a times we develop people to be victims I get it, give me one.

00:41:16.380 --> 00:41:21.695
Yeah, okay, all right.

00:41:21.695 --> 00:41:29.371
So you got the workbook coming up, and then you, and then what you were saying about the book with the character from the end.

00:41:29.932 --> 00:41:37.927
Right, and the working title right now is called Chosen and it's basically.

00:41:37.927 --> 00:41:49.039
It navigates how people, sometimes that aren't aware, especially young people, can get themselves in situations where they're victimized.

00:41:50.581 --> 00:41:51.963
That's something that needs to be put out there right now.

00:41:51.963 --> 00:41:53.324
People can get themselves in situations where they're victimized.

00:41:53.324 --> 00:42:02.989
That's something that needs to be put out there right now, because, I mean, the funny thing is, with social media and everything right now, I feel like some of high schoolers get victimized and don't even realize it until it's too late.

00:42:03.550 --> 00:42:08.909
I coach high school cross country and track and field and I see what's going on.

00:42:08.909 --> 00:42:09.550
You know what I mean.

00:42:09.550 --> 00:42:19.652
They talk about it and it's kind of in the background and these perfectly cheerful and kids that are brought up in great homes get caught up in this mess and it's.

00:42:19.652 --> 00:42:38.675
It's tragic and you know I watched some team members, you know, have like weighted GPAs of 4.15 and 4.0 and then turn out and have you know, 3.3, 3.4 the next month, the next year, because of something that happened and I.

00:42:38.675 --> 00:42:39.978
So that is a book that's.

00:42:39.978 --> 00:42:42.469
They're going to be definitely important to be looking out for.

00:42:42.469 --> 00:42:45.777
But yeah, that's.

00:42:45.777 --> 00:42:46.385
But that's amazing.

00:42:46.405 --> 00:42:51.329
So I'm tech, I am extremely excited to hear about that one, when you come up and publish that one.

00:42:51.329 --> 00:43:09.023
So for everybody out there, rhondaparkertaylorcom is where you can find everything, including that incredible YouTube video with Muriel Hemingway talking about Crossroads.

00:43:09.023 --> 00:43:14.775
With Muriel Hemingway talking about Crossroads, you can find the links to Crossroads for Amazon and Barnes Noble on her site.

00:43:14.775 --> 00:43:24.369
But I'm also gonna put it in the show notes so they can directly go right to that, right to that and find it on amazoncom, find it on barnesandnoblecom.

00:43:24.369 --> 00:43:25.990
I'm gonna make sure the link's right there.

00:43:25.990 --> 00:43:31.992
But you guys gotta read this book and then, of course, she's got some other books coming up that we're going to be looking for.

00:43:32.112 --> 00:43:35.197
So, rhonda, listen, thank you.

00:43:35.197 --> 00:43:36.385
Thank you so much.

00:43:36.385 --> 00:43:38.068
I can't imagine.

00:43:38.068 --> 00:43:42.797
You are an inspiration to all of us that had troubles.

00:43:42.797 --> 00:43:51.889
You know, in school I don't I wouldn't have a learning disability, I was just lazy, but, but you know, I felt like I did and I got over it in a different way.

00:43:51.889 --> 00:43:53.757
It was more of a like a pounding on the head.

00:43:53.757 --> 00:44:15.056
But you're an inspiration to where you know where you couldn't write, and then, all of a sudden, now you're a professor at a college and then you know getting your own business, and I just think it's amazing and what you've done and you're, and what you've taught us today about taking time for yourself, having a balance and to go after your dream.

00:44:15.056 --> 00:44:17.219
Visualize it, go after it.

00:44:17.719 --> 00:44:18.201
That's right.

00:44:18.201 --> 00:44:21.949
Because, If it's meant to be, it's up to me.

00:44:22.610 --> 00:44:23.152
There you go.

00:44:23.152 --> 00:44:25.518
That's perfect, thank you.

00:44:25.518 --> 00:44:27.550
Thank you, rhonda, for spending time with us.

00:44:27.550 --> 00:44:28.494
I really appreciate it.

00:44:29.125 --> 00:44:32.596
Thank you and everybody out there, be blessed and have a great day.

00:44:33.184 --> 00:44:34.938
Thank you, we'll see you in the next one, everyone.