Unveiling the Narrative: Rhonda Parker Taylor's Journey into Writing
Rhonda Parker Taylor, a distinguished author, joins us to discuss her debut novel, "Crossroads," a suspenseful narrative released in February 2023. The book, which has garnered endorsements from notable figures such as bestselling author J.J. Herbert and Golden Globe-nominated actress Muriel Hemingway, intricately weaves a tale set in Indianapolis during the 2000s. Throughout our conversation, we delve into the profound themes explored within the narrative, including the complexities of personal identity and the moral dilemmas faced by the characters. Taylor articulates the significance of mentorship in her journey as a writer and reflects upon the life lessons that influenced her storytelling. Through this episode, we illuminate the emotional landscapes that underpin "Crossroads," inviting listeners to contemplate the intricate balance of life and the human experience.
The dialogue features an insightful discussion with Rhonda Parker Taylor, an accomplished author whose recent work, 'Crossroads', has garnered notable attention. Rhonda's journey began with a fashion merchandising program, which ultimately led her back to her roots in Indiana, where she discovered her passion for writing. Her debut novel, released in February 2023, is characterized as a suspenseful masterpiece, receiving endorsements from acclaimed personalities such as bestselling author JJ Herbert and Golden Globe-nominated actress Muriel Hemingway. The podcast delves into Rhonda's writing process, the thematic elements of her novel, and the personal experiences that shaped her storytelling. A significant portion of the conversation focuses on the intricate balance of emotions portrayed in 'Crossroads', particularly how the characters navigate through personal and societal challenges. Rhonda articulates the profound impact of mentorship throughout her life, emphasizing the importance of supportive figures who have guided her along her creative path. This episode serves as a compelling exploration of artistic inspiration and the transformative power of literature.
Takeaways:
- Rhonda Parker Taylor's debut novel, Crossroads, released in February 2023, explores complex themes of crime and personal struggle.
- The endorsement of her novel by notable figures such as JJ Herbert and Muriel Hemingway enhances its credibility and appeal.
- Throughout the episode, Rhonda emphasizes the significance of mentorship in personal and professional development.
- The discussion highlights the protagonist Paris Pennington's struggles with work-life balance, reflecting broader societal challenges.
- Rhonda articulates the notion that personal experiences shape one's perspective on justice, as illustrated by her own life events.
- The conversation underscores the importance of resilience and self-acceptance in navigating life's adversities and emotional turmoil.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Barter College
- JJ Herbert
- Muriel Hemingway
Transcript
My guest today, Rhonda Parker Taylor.
Speaker A:After completing a fashion merchandising program at Barter College in Arlington, Texas, Rhonda returned to Indiana where she eventually found her passion for writing.
Speaker A: ece, was released in February: Speaker A:Endorsed by best selling author JJ Herbert and Globe Golden Globe nominated actress Muriel Hemingway, the novel has been hailed as a captivating crime duel that keeps readers intrigued from start to finish.
Speaker A:We welcome her to the podcast.
Speaker A:Well, Rhonda, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker A:How you doing today?
Speaker B:Good, good.
Speaker B:I just love that little introduction music while you're, while you're starting to record.
Speaker B:It's been so long since I've been around a piano.
Speaker A:So it's like, and we had to have a little suspense music because, because you're in book there.
Speaker B:So yeah, just kind of fell out of me and I was ready to keep on going with the concert.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:That's, that's our goal, is to relax the guests so that we can ask him tough questions and throw them off.
Speaker A:So I love to ask my guests this question.
Speaker A:What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Speaker B:The best piece of advice I, I learned in school.
Speaker B:And you know, typically I go lean on some things that either my mother or my father said, but this one I really think lately has kind of risen to the top.
Speaker B:And that is trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not into your own understanding as I've seasoned.
Speaker B:And I realized that sometimes my choices aren't the right choices.
Speaker B:Sometimes life hits and sometimes you don't understand why life hits.
Speaker B:And you might sometimes want to challenge those, those feelings.
Speaker B:And you know, you, I, I sometimes say I have an inner beast in me when I want to get courage.
Speaker B:But sometimes that inner beast is that negative thought process that comes along with the questioning of why.
Speaker B:So in today's thought process especially, I've been really reflecting on what's in my power to change, what's not in my power to change, and who really has my back.
Speaker B:And most of the time it's in those quiet moments when you say, hey Lord, either thank you for a wonderful day.
Speaker B:Hey Lord, thank you for a terrible day.
Speaker B:You feel my heart, whatever it might be.
Speaker B:And it can be insurmountable sometimes, whether it's for success that you've had or whether it's failures that you've had or whether it's a heartbreak, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker B:All of them require some kind of understanding.
Speaker B:And you know, I went to a private Christian School.
Speaker B:And sometimes I don't give it the credit that I need.
Speaker B:Yes, definitely, to have that teaching.
Speaker B:I might give an individual credit, I might give, you know, this education credit.
Speaker B:But I don't really sometimes talk about the fearlessness, the, you know, or the fierce lives that supported me during that process.
Speaker B:And I can even say today, you know, just recently I went to a friend's mother's funeral and I kiddingly nudged one of my friends that I grew up with since, you know, pre kindergarten and another Winston's Junior High School.
Speaker B:And I said, do you realize we're 60 years old and Mr.
Speaker B:Limbach is still standing, sitting behind us?
Speaker B:And this was the dean, you know, the dean that, that all of our lives that you had fear of because they were the authority figure at every major event, you see him walking in the door.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Yeah, those stories and those impacts are so neat.
Speaker A:Speaking of people who've impacted our lives, as you think about your journey in life, who are some people who served as an inspiration for you or maybe a mentor along the way?
Speaker B:I am a firm believer in mentors.
Speaker B:When I, my first real mentor was in my junior year of high school and I had to pass a English proficiency test, believe it or not, I'm a best selling author and I couldn't pass the English proficiency test.
Speaker B:And it was a teacher, Mrs.
Speaker B:Donnelly, that said, come to my house this summer.
Speaker B:We'll work through the work, through the workbooks, we'll get you up to speed and you'll pass it your senior year.
Speaker B:So that would be my first mentor.
Speaker B:But then through life, there has always seemingly been somebody that was there tormenting me.
Speaker B:It could have been my first and I had no idea what I was doing as a young woman in business.
Speaker B:It could have been my mother or my father another time where they gave me words of wisdom that I didn't really want to hear.
Speaker B:It could be J.J.
Speaker B:hibbert, which helped me get my book out the door and gather an endorser that everybody would dream about with the Golden Globe nominated actress Meryl Hemingway.
Speaker B:But I believe in the power of mentorship.
Speaker B:And I found that if I don't look for it, then what ends up happening is I fall back because I haven't put that cocoon around me of people that believe in me.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:So growing up in Noblesville, Indiana, what were some of the most memorable experiences of your childhood?
Speaker B:Oh man.
Speaker B:The fact.
Speaker B:Well, one of them, I just did a, did a art, art collage on it.
Speaker B:And I kept thinking, how am I going to Present this to her.
Speaker B:But it was when I was a small child and one of my friends that had her.
Speaker B:Her birthday the same day as mine and I, only she was two years older.
Speaker B:We were out taking dandelions and making a chain.
Speaker B:And we would make chains and, you know, sometimes we would do the love me, love me not things that you.
Speaker B:The simple pleasures of life.
Speaker B:And then we hear the bell because they would use a.
Speaker B:It's almost like a cowbell ringing for dinner because we didn't have street lights.
Speaker B:So there wasn't like, you have to be in by dark.
Speaker B:But it was earlier than usual.
Speaker B:And we're looking around wondering why, and all of a sudden, everything's changing.
Speaker B:And it was a tornado coming.
Speaker B:So here, two young girls running to the house before it starts, storming with their flowers on a chain that they had been working on all day long.
Speaker B:And what that symbolizes to me is the simplicity that life can be to making joy that cost nothing.
Speaker B:And there were things like that everywhere in Noblesville.
Speaker B:It's almost nostalgic.
Speaker B:Sometimes people will say, well, let's turn on Hallmark or something that's very loving and caring.
Speaker B:And I can literally say, I grew up in Hallmark.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because everybody's people, you know, every neighbor was in every neighbor's business.
Speaker B:Every.
Speaker B:Everybody was, you know, having an up and down.
Speaker B:There was always a Christmas, you know, parade and Santa was on skates, and there was always.
Speaker B:There was always something that was joyous that required you, nothing but for you to show up.
Speaker B:Yes, it was small.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Opportunity, some people would say, wasn't there, but we found the opportunities and we were able to grow up and realize that life was.
Speaker B:Could be glorious if we wanted to make it that way.
Speaker B:You could make it something different, but you know, it.
Speaker B:But if.
Speaker B:If we all behaved, everything could be okay.
Speaker A:We love that.
Speaker A: , during the night during the: Speaker B:Well, I.
Speaker B:I think it was twofold.
Speaker B:One, I was fearful of trying to do it someplace else because the reason, you know, I knew Indianapolis, so that was.
Speaker B:And it's not a place that people write about a lot.
Speaker B:And there is a lot of charm in Indianapolis.
Speaker B:It's a simple.
Speaker B:It's like a big city, but it's got a small town feel.
Speaker B:And so I wanted to bring that history that we all love here.
Speaker B:And then I also wanted to develop characters that had the same roots and mentality that I was raised with.
Speaker B:So, like, for instance, work is your identity.
Speaker B:Now.
Speaker B:A lot of people would Say, well, that's not healthy.
Speaker B:Well, that's kind of the whole premise of Crossroads is everybody in the book is imbalanced in some way and dedicated to something that's not necessarily the right thing.
Speaker B:You have Paris Pennington, who's dedicated to her work.
Speaker B:She's a workaholic.
Speaker B:You have Dave that's dedicated to law and order.
Speaker B:That's the defense or the prosecutor of.
Speaker B:Of the CR.
Speaker B:In the.
Speaker B:In the legal system.
Speaker B:You have Billy Knuckles, who's dedicated to his friendship so much that he gets involved in a crime because he.
Speaker B:He's not aware enough to stay.
Speaker B:Stay.
Speaker B:Keep his butt at home, you know, and so you have all these people with life balance issues, and it allowed me to explore that and the emotions that go along with putting people in a room that have balance issues.
Speaker B:So you have them exploring the emotions of anger, fury, and envy.
Speaker B:And in Proverbs it says anger is cruel, fury is overwhelming.
Speaker B:But who can stand before jealousy?
Speaker B:Envy makes the bones rot.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So you mentioned Paris Pennington.
Speaker A:She seems to be a complex character.
Speaker A:What makes her personality so compelling as a protagonist?
Speaker B:The fact.
Speaker B:Well, first of all, she's based off of a lot of the women that I knew in business that were just so lovely of leaders that you could.
Speaker B:You wanted to hate them, but you can't.
Speaker B:Now that is kind of like looking at Hallmark or something else.
Speaker B:And you have all these beautiful people, and they're wonderful and they're doing things right.
Speaker B:So they seem.
Speaker B:But then they just can't keep it together.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:You know, And Case, what makes her compelling is the fact that she's trying.
Speaker B:And it's like the wind.
Speaker B:Like she's running the 440 and she's hitting that fourth corn curve, and that wind is, you know, going against her, and it's like she's on a treadmill.
Speaker B:Everything she does starts is like water going through her hands.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:So who are some other key supporting characters you want to kind of talk about in your book Crossroads?
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Well, Dave is the prosecutor, and he is the first, the kind of person that we see in the legal system all the time that dedicates themselves.
Speaker B:They.
Speaker B:You know, there's something in their.
Speaker B:In their past that makes them believe in the system and they.
Speaker B:They really feel like they're doing all the right things.
Speaker B:And in his case, it's his grandfather.
Speaker B:So he's very history and law and constitution, institutional oriented.
Speaker B:But he's lonely.
Speaker B:And how many of us out there are doing things?
Speaker B:And we think we're doing the right things, but because we're dedicated to something that's an inanimate object, we're making mistakes in our own lives.
Speaker B:It could be.
Speaker B:It could be the Constitution.
Speaker B:It could be politics.
Speaker B:It could be, you know, heck, it could even be church if you're not careful, you know, when you.
Speaker B:When.
Speaker B:When it's an institution that's preventing you from your own real purpose and your own humanity.
Speaker B:So he is actually the one, and he has a desire for more, but he won't step out of it to create.
Speaker B:And he even longs for it.
Speaker B:Throughout the book, Billy Knuckles is the one that just goes along with the crowd.
Speaker B:And he gets in the car, and now he's in a pickle because now he's got to decide whether he's going to turn his friend in or is he going to take the charge.
Speaker B:And that's a terrible place.
Speaker B:But how many of us have gotten in the car, especially in our youth, or did something that maybe we should have gotten caught at, or maybe we did get caught at and that we've had the same.
Speaker B:Same scenarios, or our friends did something stupid, whether they were drinking, whether they were doing drugs, whether they were doing something that they shouldn't have been.
Speaker B:And you get in this middle of it, and how do you get out?
Speaker B:There is no good way out.
Speaker B:So he represents all of those times that we made the decision to do something that our conscious told us, our parents told us, told us, everybody told us, don't do that.
Speaker B:Leave them alone.
Speaker B:You're gonna get in trouble one day.
Speaker B:You're gonna get burnt.
Speaker B:He's that guy, right?
Speaker B:And that's Billy Knuckles.
Speaker B:Because we can say we've all been a knucklehead at some point, right?
Speaker A:Is that we gave him the name Knuckle.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:So, you know, in your book Crossways, you have.
Speaker A:Paris has run into some harrowing events that kind of turn her life upside down.
Speaker A:How did you, as a.
Speaker A:Someone who's like, maybe wants to get into writing more, how did you begin to develop the plot and events that make this a suspenseful, suspenseful engagement?
Speaker B:Well, the first thing that I did is when I started doing writing crosswrites.
Speaker B:I really wanted to show how the legal system puts everybody in a room, and nobody's going to be a winner.
Speaker B:Because it doesn't matter whether you're the jury, it doesn't matter whether you're the judge, it doesn't matter whether you're the defense.
Speaker B:It doesn't matter whether you're, you know, on the prosecution sides, you're all losing something.
Speaker B:So I wanted to show that the system, no matter how perfect we want to think it is, it's very imperfect and it's.
Speaker B:And there is no winner or loser in it.
Speaker B:Everybody's really a loser.
Speaker B:But as I developed the characters, they started getting these little edges about them.
Speaker B:I took a soap note, which is for the medical community, is how they track our history.
Speaker B:Whether we broke an ankle, whether we smoked, at some point, we got emphysema, whatever it might be.
Speaker B:And I defined each person by their physical and their mental health, where they were at in their behaviors, where were they at in their learning cycles, where were they at and what we would normally say about ourselves if we were going to be analyzed our, our friends, our loved ones, and say, okay, now let's put them through this process.
Speaker B:And what I thought was gonna happen and who I thought was going to be the, the, the complete villain and the lesson, I realized that the characters brought more of attention by their actions then.
Speaker B:And that's where they started falling into line to a more of an Agatha Christie kind of clue.
Speaker B:You have the, the crime, but then you have all these behaviors and people doing things because they're out of balance.
Speaker B:They're not acting as if they were grounded solid normal, you know, every day.
Speaker B:This is their, you know, their life for excellence.
Speaker B:Instead they, they have their issues.
Speaker B:And then I realized that I, I had a bigger meaning in that and, and a bigger thought process process in that.
Speaker B:And that is when you're out of balance and you're not grounded in reality and you don't have your 13 dimensions of life in some kind of order, something can happen to you too.
Speaker B:And it doesn't mean it just is life hitting moment.
Speaker B:People can, can plot on you people, you can betray yourself.
Speaker B:All these things can happen to you.
Speaker B:If you've ever watched wildlife, I have a, a hawk I've been watching lately.
Speaker B:And you know, you talk about predators and how they groom.
Speaker B:Did you ever think hawk grooms their prey?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker B:You would think that they would come down and swoop and, you know, off goes the squirrel or the rabbit or whatever.
Speaker B:No, they will sit at the table and eat with you just like Judas did with, with Jesus.
Speaker B:And then they'll, they'll come back when they're hungry and when the, when the other one's not paying them any attention because they're already used to them coming to the dinner team.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I'm curious.
Speaker A:You wrote about the legal system in this book.
Speaker A:How much.
Speaker A:How do you balance making sure you explain or have an authentic legal system in your book without being so legalistic that you lose people.
Speaker A:Because I get to find balance.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:I used more of.
Speaker B:So there's two things that are three things that I did.
Speaker B:One, at the time.
Speaker B:Time I was doing a crime watch over the legal system to see that it was fair and just and doing reports on that.
Speaker B:So I got to see the system.
Speaker B:And you're right.
Speaker B:I didn't want it to be like a Grisham or a Patterson, where all the legal.
Speaker B:Lisa.
Speaker B:I wanted it to be about the behaviors, but I knew the structure that needed to be there.
Speaker B:And then the second thing is I.
Speaker B:I rode with the police, and they knew what I was doing.
Speaker B:And so I got a chance to see how they interacted when there was, you know, a crime and how they helped each other.
Speaker B:Almost like a football team, you know, members would be to make sure that they get through the.
Speaker B:The site, you know, especially if it's.
Speaker B:There's someone new that's never, you know, gone through the process.
Speaker B:And the third was I focused on the characters.
Speaker B:I wanted it to be about how they perceived the legal system and their life based on what they were experiencing and seeing.
Speaker A:So you picked a murder trial to be.
Speaker A:The way you talked about issues of justice and betrayal and personal transformation.
Speaker A:You could have picked any particular kind of trial.
Speaker A:Why'd you pick a murder trial?
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:Well, I think one.
Speaker B:One of them is.
Speaker B:I do like to watch the crime thrillers like that, but.
Speaker B:But I wanted to explore, and this is just very deep and personal to me, what would.
Speaker B:Would happen if it was me when I was 17.
Speaker B:I guess I was 16 when it happened.
Speaker B:In 17, when we went to court, a man did come into my job and held me at knife point.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:And I called on the name of Jesus for help.
Speaker B:And then something in my mind told me, tell them.
Speaker B:Tell them you're 15.
Speaker B:And I did that.
Speaker B:And he let me go.
Speaker B:So I knew that I was lucky.
Speaker B:I knew that it could have been worse.
Speaker B:I knew I could have ended up the girl on the tracks.
Speaker B:But I had never owned up to that experience from that way of what would have happened had I not been taught to call on the name of Jesus.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:So I was able.
Speaker B:They allowed me to explore it.
Speaker B:What would happen?
Speaker B:What would the police do?
Speaker B:How would it happen?
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And realizing that.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:That there would be people that had emotions, but really it became part of the process.
Speaker B:Nobody wins.
Speaker B:Nobody wins.
Speaker B:It becomes a process of the next thing this person has lost.
Speaker B:Now we have to Find the person, do it, that did it, and that person loses.
Speaker B:And then you go through.
Speaker B:And it also made me realize that, hey, because, you know, I'd often wondered, well, what would have made a difference?
Speaker B:Why me saying, other than me saying, calling on the name of Jesus, what really made the difference and the age made the difference to him.
Speaker B:That's where his moral boundary was.
Speaker B:God revealed to me what his moral boundaries was.
Speaker B:And because I was a minor, he let me go.
Speaker A:So this sounds like a really interesting book.
Speaker A:So what do you hope readers take away from reading your book?
Speaker B:That you enjoy your purpose, that you enjoy the life you've been given.
Speaker B:Don't second guess it.
Speaker B:Don't.
Speaker B:Don't go to a place where envy is your, your mode of operations, where you can't.
Speaker B:You've.
Speaker B:That you're disintegrating your own life by looking on social media, seeing that everybody else has a perceived perfect life, that, that people look at the fact that anger can destroy your own mode of operations and destroy relationships.
Speaker B:That you can look at fury, that it can take you to a place that you don't want to ever go, and that these are three emotions that were warned about that destroys your, your own purpose and how you're supposed to behave in society.
Speaker B:Society.
Speaker B:We're in a violent time in our society.
Speaker B:And if we don't start teaching ourselves not only how to be resilient when things happen and not become that anger person, angry person, but also how do we not become, you know, one of these people that are furious and running around destroying others, and how do we stop comparing our lives to others and realizing that, hey, surround yourself with what you love.
Speaker B:Don't buy into the fact that you're supposed to have the mansion in the historical district, that you know that and everybody knows your name.
Speaker B:And it doesn't work like that, you know, it just doesn't work that way.
Speaker A:No, it doesn't.
Speaker A:So you talked about some incredible endorsements you got.
Speaker A:What other kind of feedback you're getting on the book?
Speaker B:I've had everything from A to Z.
Speaker B:So obviously Meryl Hemingway, when, when I got the YouTube video called Merrill Hemingway praises Rhonda Parker Taylor's Crossroads.
Speaker B:And I, you know, for, for me, that's like the cream of the crop.
Speaker B:Someone asked me if anybody were gonna pay play Paris Bennington knew what you wanted to be and she would be perfect.
Speaker B:The reason being is she, she.
Speaker B:Not only is she a.
Speaker B:A good actress, but she has that purity in image, you know, and so I was probably the first one Thousand views.
Speaker B:I swear I was.
Speaker B:Because I was like, the back, you know, it was the pat on the back that I'd always wanted, right?
Speaker B:To see somebody say, this was great.
Speaker B:But then I've had other ones, too.
Speaker B:I've had a few that told me ways that I could have improved it that I had even thought of.
Speaker B:And then I'm like, oh, I could do that with my.
Speaker B:You know, because I have another one that's ready.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:So I've gone back and I've tried to, you know, to address those.
Speaker B:Those issues.
Speaker B:And then I've had some that just said, you know, this is wonderful to have Indianapolis in it and have the history.
Speaker B:You just never see that.
Speaker B:So I've had all over the spectrum, and I think that the fact that.
Speaker B:That I've been able to reach people, even when I'm at a book signing and it's not their genre and they stop to talk to me, it's like the most wonderful gift I can have that day.
Speaker B:I look forward to every book signing, listening to every person's story, no matter what age group it is, because I learn that the connections of people that go in when they're going into bookstores is all the same.
Speaker B:They may not even like the genre that you're.
Speaker B:That I write.
Speaker B:They might be only, you know, reading Christian literature, or maybe they're only doing historical or whatever.
Speaker B:You know, maybe they're into academics or, you know, or statistics or whatever the.
Speaker B:But it's always the same mission to find the book that takes them to where they want to be.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:So I love to ask my guest this question.
Speaker A:What do you want your legacy to be?
Speaker B:To be known as kind and compassionate.
Speaker B:And the writing aspect of my legacy, I want it to be help people realize that no matter where they go or how they.
Speaker B:How they communicate in this world or what connections they have, they can always, always have resilience, and they can always find a balance that brings them out.
Speaker B:It doesn't require for us to do anything but accept the experiences that we have and accept our authentic life for us to be happy.
Speaker B:And if I can guide people to realizing that being a human being isn't always a human doing, we can relax.
Speaker B:And that's very hard for me and books.
Speaker B:Books can help us do that.
Speaker B:But if we can lead with kindness, have a superpower of empathy, and end the day with some compassion, we have a legacy that hopefully everybody will always remember, because they'll remember that you were the one with the kind words.
Speaker B:You were the one that understood when nobody else did, even if you didn't agree with it.
Speaker B:And you were the one that showed compassion when they were hurting.
Speaker A:Wow, that's neat.
Speaker A:You kind of gave us a glimpse of something you're working on.
Speaker A:What's your next project?
Speaker B:Well, the next one coming out.
Speaker B:So I took all the characters.
Speaker B:I can kind of see it.
Speaker B:It's a workbook.
Speaker B:It's a self help on the 13 dimensions of life balance.
Speaker B:It takes the characters and if you identify with it, you can go through and you can go through the 13 dimensions which include physical health, mental health, spiritual health, emotional health, financial health.
Speaker B:There's 13 of them and we can work through it.
Speaker B:And the very first step to doing that is creating your own vision.
Speaker B:What you want for you, your family, your loved ones and what does that look like.
Speaker B:And then when you look down and do the exercises, you realize you're not doing most of it.
Speaker B:And then we recreate what does that list that look like the things that you should be doing to bring you happiness.
Speaker B:Example for me is I love puzzles, I love reading, I love music.
Speaker B:Television is about the 25th one, right?
Speaker B:Every every year, every single time I realign myself to my vision, I have to admit that television is the 25th one.
Speaker B:Why am I spending so much time in front of it?
Speaker B:And you realize that you, you can create the life you want.
Speaker B:And then after that there's a poem and a 31 days to resilience poem and reflection book that's coming out and then then another fiction one and it's called the Journey of Hope.
Speaker A:Oh, I love it.
Speaker A:Where can people find your book?
Speaker A:Crossroads that connect with you on social media.
Speaker B:Rhonda Parker taylor.com Try to make it easy.
Speaker B:That's my website, that's most of my social socials and I'm on most of the, the big ones at least.
Speaker B:Twitter, Tick tock, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
Speaker B:Trying to maybe do a few more.
Speaker B:I've been thinking about that lately.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:You know, I'm probably missing a few people out there by just sticking to the regular ones.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We want to thank so much for taking the time and sharing an in depth look at your book with us.
Speaker A:And may people go out and give it a review on Amazon.
Speaker A:It helps it get more, more likes and more views and buy the book and maybe give it a gift to your friends.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker B:I enjoyed everybody.
Speaker B:Everybody have a great day.
Speaker B:And if it's meant to be, it's up to you.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:Thanks so much, Rhonda.
