ALZ AUTHORS: A Decade of Stories that Change Culture

Episode Transcript
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Don Priess (00:00):
When the world has got you down, Alzheimer's sucks.
It's an equal opportunitydisease that chips away at
everything we hold dear. And todate, there's no cure. So until
there is, we continue to fightwith the most powerful tool in
our arsenal, love. This is Loveconquers alls a real and really

(00:22):
positive podcast that takes adeep dive into everything,
Alzheimer's, The Good, the Bad,and everything in between. And
now here are your hosts, Suzi,singer Carter and me. Don
Priess,

Susie Singer Carter (00:40):
hello, everybody. I'm Susie singer
Carter, and

Don Priess (00:43):
I'm Don Priess, and this is love conquers all.
Hello, Susan

Unknown (00:48):
Donald, hello. How are you? I'm swell, and yourself.

Don Priess (00:53):
Yes, yes, I am. I am me, yes, I am.

Wow,

Don Priess (00:59):
yeah. What's happening.

I think, I think you need some rest, is
what I think. I don't know I do.
Yeah, me too. Me too. So

Don Priess (01:10):
going to bed at 330 in the morning, thing every
morning, and having coffee attwo in the morning, I think
that's a bad idea. I

don't know.
Yeah, it's, it may be, but it'sjust a pattern we're in now,
ever since working and moving,this is what we do. We are, I we
drink a lot of caffeine, andwe're so hyped up, like, like,
we're hopped up on, not Benny's,but on caffeine,

Don Priess (01:37):
yeah, and dinner, which we eat at, you know,
midnight. So you know,

this is the life of pretty filmmakers. We
can't help it. It is neverending. But the good thing is,
is that our documentaries Comingout August 1, No Country for Old
people, is going to be a threepart series, Docu series, and
starts on August 1. And wereally would love everybody to

(02:04):
go to Amazon, stream it, watchit, and if you like it, review
it, so that other people willget a chance to get that on
their radar. Because everybodyneeds to know all the
information that's in thisdocumentary. It's so, so
important. And we spent quite aquite a lot of sweat equity into

(02:26):
this to to really expose what'sgoing on so that maybe we can
protect others from goingthrough what others have already
gone through and are goingthrough right now, which is not
pleasant. The opposite.

Don Priess (02:40):
I was thinking that it took, it's taken us over
three years to get to thispoint. And you think of all the
the suffering that's been goingon during those three years
every day, yeah, and it's, youknow, and between now and the
time it actually airs on August1, how much more will be. And

(03:00):
that's why this is so important,and why we need to get this
message out and make change andmake it now, because it's just
too many people are are fallingto the to the system, and

Unknown (03:13):
yes, we changed and

now, and our system may be even getting
worse, if that, if that's evenpossible. So you know we have to
prepare for first that as well.
And it's a, it's a, it's a poopshow, sometimes, sometimes life.
But you know what the good thingis, is that we know that, you
know we, we are launching amovement called roar. And you

(03:35):
can go to our website, at NoCountry for Old people.com. And
you can check it out. It standsfor respect, oversight, advocacy
and reform for long term care.
It's it's a way to activate andand galvanize our public and our
collective to to really speakout and be a voice for the

(03:57):
voiceless. And we do know thatit might seem hopeless, but it's
not because everything thatseemed hopeless before our me
too, movement, our Black LivesMatter, our LGBTQ, all these
movements required a collectivevoice, and that collective voice
cannot be ignored. It just can'tso it's very important that we

(04:19):
pull together as a communityagain, because we can't do it.
We can't rely on people who, youknow, who have been, actually,
there's been so many people whohave been Tyler, tirelessly
advocating, and it doesn't work.
Traditional advocacy doesn'twork in these, you know,
situations that are subsidizedby lots of money. So, you know,
but we are more powerful thanthat. That is our current. We

(04:42):
are the

Don Priess (04:44):
current. And it's truly, yeah, it's truly a
collective too. It has nothingto do with what side of the
aisle you stand on, whetheryou're right left. It does. The
system doesn't care. And, youknow, frankly, aging doesn't
care where you stand.

Unknown (05:00):
Opportunity that's everything Yes, absolutely is
and, and so let's all do ittogether.

Do it together. Yes, and, and, you
know, is that a good segue intoour guests that we are going to
invite on? I'm very

Don Priess (05:16):
to find out we can try that and see if it is a good
try that,

because we have, we have a very well. This
is one of our guests. This isgoing to be her third time on on
Love conquers halls and but it'sa very special occasion and such
an amazing resource. I'm notgoing to give it away. You give
you, you introduce and thenwe'll, and then we'll we'll love

(05:41):
them up. We'll give them a lotof love, because we love them.

Don Priess (05:45):
Sounds good to me.
Today's episode is acelebration, not just of an
extraordinary milestone, but ofa movement. We are joined by two
remarkable women from allauthors the global community of
authors writing aboutAlzheimer's and dementia, where
it is said, one story can changea life. Hundreds can change a
culture. Mary Ann Shuko is aregistered nurse, author of

(06:07):
numerous books, including bluehydrangeas, an Alzheimer's love
story, and a founding member ofall authors. She turned her
decades of dementia care intopowerful storytelling, then live
the story herself, caring forboth her parents. Joining her is
Christy Byrne Yates, a licensededucational psychologist, author

(06:27):
and coach in building a legacyof love. She shares her
experience caring for herparents while raising her own
children, truly living thesandwich generation life,
Christy and Marianne blend livedwisdom with professional
insight. CO hosting the all'sauthors podcast, and today
they're here to talk about theall's authors 10th anniversary

(06:49):
and their upcoming filmfestival. So without further
ado, let's say hello to Mary AnnShuko and Christy Byrne Yates,
Hello,

Mary Ann and Christy. Welcome, welcome,
welcome.

Unknown (07:07):
Thank you for all those kind words.

You deserve it. You deserve it. 10 years is
a milestone.

Marianne Sciucco (07:16):
I know it's only supposed to be for one
month,

right?
You're a pioneer. Because westarted love conquers all at the
end of 2019 right, before covid.
And I feel like five years hasbeen, you know, almost six years
we're, it's, it's like, how didwe last? You know, and you're
going 10 years is like, You'rethat. That's like trailblazing.

(07:41):
You were trailblazing back then,right? Yeah, it all gets
started.

I had this idea of trying to connect other
authors of books on Alzheimer'sand dementia to help cross
promote one another. It was nota altruistic endeavor at first,
it's like, let's see if we canget, you know, some people to
pay attention to us. So weembarked on a one month program.
There were five of us at thetime, and three of us really

(08:11):
clicked and enjoyed what we weredoing. We were blogging for each
other and sharing social mediaposts and things like that. Back
in 2015 and then we got backtogether a year later and said,
Why don't we start a blog, andinstead of talking about our
books, we'll invite other peopleto talk about their books. So we
didn't know what would happen.
We thought, well, is anybodygoing to want to write a blog

(08:32):
post for us? Because nobodyknows who we are. So we said,
well, we'll give it a try. Itwas for June. We needed 20 blog
posts. We had did one a day,Monday to Friday each week, and
at the end of the month we had,we still had blog posts coming
in. So we said, well, what arewe going to do with this? Well,
we'll just keep it going. We'llsee what happens. And here we

(08:52):
are,

amazing.
And it always boggles my mind,because, you know, it's like
when I did my mom and the girlof my short film, I thought
people were encouraging me do afilm on Alzheimer's. I was like,
what, just what the world needsis another film on Alzheimer's,
right? And then I was, I reallystand corrected, because people
do need the more stories thebetter, right? And so, you know,
you think about, oh, here youare. Like, I don't know how many

(09:18):
books and authors you've had onyour how many? How many have you
written? 400 400 so. And thoseare people that have written
some, many of them, multiplebooks, right? Yeah. And so, when
you write and so, you thinkabout how many stories there
are, but, but we can't haveenough stories. Isn't that?
Right? Don't you think, right?

No, with all of these stories that people
still don't know anything aboutthis disease, we we need more
stories, and we need them comingfrom other places around the
world, and other voices too.

Don Priess (09:54):
And Christy, how did you become involved in the in in
this amazing venture?

Unknown (09:59):
Yeah. Know, I am just I bask in the the wisdom of these,
these women who started thisprogram, and Mary Ann found me,
contacted me, I guess she foundmy book, or someone referred it
to her. They were looking. Yeah,they were looking anyway. So she
asked me if I'd be interested,and I was very interested. I was

(10:21):
a self published author, but Ihad a story to tell and and I
just, I have to tell you, it wasvery cool to be a part of it.
But it was shortly after, thisis in 2021 when I published my
book. And then shortly afterthat, Marianne contacted me, and

(10:42):
it wasn't too long after thatthat they did a poetry reading
online, and I attended that, andI was blown away. I was blown
away by the quality of poets,that all of these people were
telling stories, heartfeltstories, and I just said, Hey, I

(11:02):
want to do more with you guys.
Tell me I had recently takenearly retirement after working
20 years in the school system asa school psychologist, and
really wanted to focus onsupporting people in the
sandwich generation. And I said,What can I do? I'm a volunteer
because I have helium handsright? Whenever somebody says,
hey, we need somebody to dosomething. My hand just shoots
up. I don't even have anycontrol over it. But I jumped

(11:24):
in.

Mental note.

Unknown (11:30):
I jumped in, and I have enjoyed it so much. And so it's
so impressive what they've donein, you know, really, 10 short
years, and just the quality ofauthors that are there, but also
podcasters and storytellers andfilmmakers like yourself. Susie,
it was just so incredible. Andso we're just very excited about

(11:53):
this 10 year anniversary. And Ilove hearing Mary Ann tell the
story, and any of the founderstell the story about how they
found each other, kind of like,who knew, who knew this was
going to happen? So it's

really, right, right? Really wonderful.
So how

Don Priess (12:07):
different is the Oh, I was going to just say, how
different is the landscape? Doyou feel in awareness,
knowledge, public knowledge, ofAlzheimer's, but not only just
Alzheimer's, the disease, buthow it affects everyone? How
different is it now than it waswhen you started 10 years ago?

Yeah,

I think that there's, you know, because of so
much more being shared, peoplearen't afraid to talk about it.
When I first published my book,people didn't want to even know
about it, and thought that itwas terrible to write a book
about Alzheimer's, and thereweren't that many books
available. While I was writingit, I tried to do research, and

(12:45):
I was looking for memoirs andnovels, and there wasn't much
out there. But now, I mean,there's new books coming out
every week, and we have beeninundated with requests for
people that want to be part ofall those authors. And you know,
people come to our events. Thepodcast has got excellent
downloads. We know that peopleare listening. We know that

(13:05):
people are reading. And it, Ithink it's a big change from 10
years, or even 15 or so years,you know, from when I when I
started with writing the book.

I think it's such a great niche, because
I think it was, it's such agreat niche that you guys have
carved out, because you you havebecome the preeminent
destination for people withthese with books on dementia and
Alzheimer's and caregiving,because and that that you know
that was an that was not therebefore you and and You bring a

(13:39):
quality the the way that youcurate these, these, you know,
books, you curate them with asense of quality and and, you
know, discern. And so whenpeople do read a book that's
recommended by you, by allauthors, we know it's going to
be good. And that's very that'sthat's incredible, because
nobody has time to waste onsomething that's that's written

(14:01):
poorly. It's like films, thesame thing I, you know, I was
invited to go to film because Iwe did an Alzheimer's film, and
we'd go and watch some of thesefilms and wonder, how did they
ever get made? They're sodestructive, they're not they're
not productive, you know, yeah.

Don Priess (14:16):
And then how did they even get chosen for the
festivals? You know, there was,it seemed there was, there was
no, it's just, oh, here itexists. So therefore we'll put
it in that's not exactly butbecause it exists doesn't mean
that it

right. You raise the bar. And that's
important, because thatinformation is is incredibly
important, information thatneeds to be accurate.

Unknown (14:41):
And I want to say, I think what's really cool and
very unique and necessary isthat there are so many genre of
books and art forms representedthat are part of the Al's
authors families. There arechildren's books, right? How to
talk to children of. Aboutsomeone who has dementia. I come

(15:02):
from working in schools, and Iknow that learning how to tell
children about things likewhat's going on with Grandma,
what's going on with Grandpa, orwhat have you, that's so
important. And then we havebooks written from people who
are currently experiencing andliving with some form of
dementia, that's hugelypowerful, because it's just a

(15:23):
beautiful road map like the andthey're vital really wonderful
writers, and it's just it'sgreat for people to see this,
because we're also dispellingand and kind of shattering some
of the stereotypes that are outthere and under people are
seeing a different side and thatthere's life after a diagnosis,

(15:46):
and how do we live a great lifewith that? So I think it's
really important to see allthese different kinds of books
and art forms told from manydifferent stories. Fiction books
are fabulous because we canrelate to them a little
differently. So it's all genre,right? So I think that's really
important to point out.

I love that I like and I do think fiction is
great too, right? You know,because it didn't you, you can
guide it and and, you know, withthe knowledge that you have,
it's so important. And I see itin films all the time. I
actually get angry when I watchsomething that's lauded. I won't
mention certain things, butthere's been so many films that
have been lauded, and you thinkit's only they're lauded because

(16:27):
there haven't been enough, andbecause they're really
inaccurate, and they're really,you know, misrepresenting and
are and they're just notaccurate. And so it sets up a
false kind of bar. If youhaven't gone through it yet. So
you know, it can be verydisappointing. So I think it's
so important to have thataccuracy and and finesse with

(16:51):
how you curate and what getschosen, what I know Mary and I
you've spoken about that beforeon our other podcasts about how
you curate, curate and what getschosen and what doesn't right?

Yeah, and we've grown, like, even stricter
than we only started, you know,we would kind of, you know, we
we give the authors the benefitof the of the doubt. We were
doing a book a week, and nowwe're doing a book a month, so
we only have 12 spots a year. Sowe have to be even more
discerning, so every book isvetted by one of the

(17:24):
acquisitions authors. All ofthem have cared for a parent,
primarily a parent or parentswith dementia, but also have
written their own books so theyknow what a good book is
supposed to be like, and theyread the books from, you know,
cover to cover, andcorresponding with the authors.

(17:46):
And then the authors have tomeet another certain set of
criteria. They have to have anactive social media presence,
and, you know, they have to beout there working their own book
as well. And they have to have acertain number of reviews. And
we take about 60 of the booksthat come our way, and one of
the things that we did was thisyear when we went down to 12

(18:09):
books because we were stillgetting books that we would like
to feature, but they kind ofjust didn't, weren't 100% so we
started a new thing called therecommended reads. So we will
put books in that category.
There's a category on thewebsite just for that. So it's
kind of small right now. Wehaven't really, yeah, we haven't
expanded on it too much, but wewere getting so many books, we
were backed up by like, sixmonths. And, yeah, we were

(18:32):
uncomfortable with that, becausethe authors would be so excited,
and then to find out they had towait six months to see their
book on all authors, and by thenthey would have lost their
enthusiasm. So we decided, youknow, this was one way to, kind
of, like, fine tune it evenmore. And then in the past, for
like, the first, you know, nineyears, eight or nine years, we

(18:55):
didn't charge any fees. And sothen we had to impose a fee, but
they get a lot. Okay, they get alot for their their money. They
they every new author who comesin gets podcast. They're on the
podcast, and they get to sit onthe homepage for a month as the
featured author of the month.

(19:16):
And we you know they're in thenewsletter. They get twice in
the newsletter, they get asocial media blast. They may be
invited to some of our virtualevents, depending on what we're
talking about. So, you know,they we give a lot for that. We
believe that it's, you know,money well spent. Generally,
yeah, they're on the right sidefor people looking for that.

(19:38):
Yeah,

absolutely, because I, yeah, because my mom
was diagnosed in her, like, Iwant, what was it? 2009 ish
around that time, and I, firstof all, there was no podcast
about it. There was barely anybooks. I think I had. The only
book I read was Greg O'Brien'sright? And that was, you know,

(19:59):
and. I it was so raw that Icouldn't even, like, get through
it, because it was verydisturbing, right? I wasn't
ready for that information.
Gregor write it. Wrote a memoirbasically about his Alzheimer's
journey. And he's an incrediblejournalist and incredible
writer, and I actually got hadthe chance to interview him all
these years later, but, and hewas just a delightful human

(20:22):
being, but that there wasn'tmuch to go, you know, there
wasn't a lot of information,right? So you guys, and I can
tell you that I've had so manyauthors come to me and go. So,
you know, all authors, can yougive us an introduction? And I
say, Well, yeah, that's not my Iwon't do it. If I don't know the

(20:45):
book, I will not you know, can

Don Priess (20:48):
you tell where somebody's coming from? Because
what we've noticed now is thespace has become very cluttered
with maybe some people whoaren't in it for the right
reason, who are in it becausethey see it as an opportunity to
make a few bucks here and there.
And, you know, you see it insome of the podcasts, you see it
in social media. You see peoplewho are out there for the wrong

(21:11):
reasons. Can you sense that?
Have you run into that as peoplesubmit their

Unknown (21:17):
their books? Yeah, we do. I think so. I think so, and,
and, you know, we are definitelyabout, like we say, lighting the
way for others. And it's notjust the caregivers. It's also
people who are experiencing andliving with some form of
dementia, but but also just abig caring heart for the

(21:40):
caregivers, because the impacton the family is huge, and it's,
it's, it lasts for a long time,and it changes who we are. I
mean, Susie, you probably haveexperienced that. It changes who
you are. And so we want to beable to show the love, the
compassion, as well as thestruggle, right? So I think

(22:05):
we're looking always for peoplewho are, are in it for the right
reasons, too. So I think that'sreally smart. Don you're at
You're right. I mean, there aresome folks who might not be,
that might not be where they'regoing, but I think all, I think
Mary Ann just said it. You know,we're all of us in the not just
the acquisitions team, buteverybody who's a volunteer at

(22:27):
Al's authors has been touched bythis, and so we're definitely
coming from a place of love forpeople and and caring about
where we're going so

and understanding, understanding
experience. That's that's key,right? It's key with something
like this, because, still, ourour medical industry doesn't
really have a lot, you know,they're very uninformed, for the
most part, about dementia andAlzheimer's, so they're really

(22:57):
not a resource for most of us,you know, when someone gets a
you know they're getting adiagnosis, and you're given,
like, maybe a pamphlet, maybe,

Don Priess (23:09):
and a couple of drugs and and there you go,
yeah,

Unknown (23:13):
come back next year.

Yeah. And it's, it's very frightening.
It's scary. It's beyond scary.
And so you're left to your owndevices, and trying to figure
out, navigate it is justincredibly hard. So, yeah, Don
and I have have seen theindustry like, as you have grow
and grow and grow. You know,we've heard that, you know, the
5 million caregiver staff, like,thrown around like, you know, to

(23:38):
like the hungry wolves, and weare so worried about that,
because it's important that youkeep it, you know, safe and and
and authentic. So, but you guysare doing a great job at that,
obviously, of and we're lots ofrespect for you for that. How,
how, how? So we talked aboutpeople who have stories, and

(24:01):
there's so many stories, butthere's always room for more
stories, because everybody'severybody has just a little bit
more story, right, a differentstory that might resonate with
another person, that might justhit them right where they live.
So what if someone's never beenan author? What do you
recommend? How do they start?

Unknown (24:24):
Oh, that's a that is a great question. You

just start writing, because when you start
in, what you have, you know, bythe time you think you get to
the end, you're gonna have toput it, redo, the whole thing
all over. Anyway, then you mightdiscover your beginning is in
the latter half of the book. Andthen you might discover that
there's much of it that you needto just delete. So the most

(24:50):
important thing is to startwriting. Because you can't edit
an empty page, a blank page, youneed to have, you know, stop
putting things down if you savedyou. If you kept a diary or a
journal, if you havecorrespondence, emails, letters,
text messages, whatever you havethroughout that journey, you can
turn that into resources for foryour story, to help juggle your

(25:14):
memory so that you can putthings into order and and figure
it all out. So you know, youjust need to get started, and
it's going to be a long process.
It's going to be like, you know,your movie, it's going to take
years, and you're going to behave to restart again and figure
it all out over and over again,and you do about 20 drafts

(25:35):
before you really even done. And

Don Priess (25:38):
is that specific guidance that you are. Is that
something that you offersomebody, if you see promise in
a book, you say, wow, there's alot here, but it's not a book.
Is that something that that youdo

Unknown (25:52):
some of us have, yeah, I think, right?
Mary Ann, we sometimes, I mean,some of our acquisitions
editors, right, have read a bookand said, You know, it's not,
here's some things that we wouldnote, and if you kind of look at
this, maybe make some changes.

(26:12):
It could just be finding areally great line editor or and
it doesn't have to be superexpensive, you know, there are a
lot of ways to get the writingcoaching you might need, but so
yeah, we would definitely dothat because we wanted you. We
want our authors work to be torepresent them well too, right?

(26:32):
So that's important. And Ithink, you know, we're kind of
entering a weird place, right?
And I don't know how you all,you both see this too, but in
the advent of AI, the temptationis to just do it that way. And I
would, I would caution peopleand say, right from your
authentic place, because that'swhere we're going to find heart,

(26:57):
and we're going to findsomething beautiful sometimes,
you know, we do have some booksthat are written by people who
have a medical background, andso we're just looking for, are
they presenting things in areadable way, but also not
making promises for A final cureor something, right? May not be

(27:20):
truly accurate, so we want to becareful about that, but

those are some things. Yeah, I think of
that. It's a great point thatyou bring up about AI, because
you know as writer, and I'vebeen a writer my whole career,
and I feel like, you know, whatis that? What is, how does that
impact us as as writers?
Because, you know, I wouldn'tuse AI to write, although I am
not opposed to it helping me,you know, draft a post for for

(27:53):
the internet. That's that'shelpful. I have to say, I have
never, not edited it, becauseit's never like my voice, and
it's never exactly human, andyou know, and it just and it
always sounds derivative, but itgets you started if you're in a
hurry for sure, right? Yeah, I

Unknown (28:16):
think it's totally legit for things like a post or
something on your website kindof thing, to punch it up or make
it clear or concise, right?
Yeah. And I definitely think itcan be a great first draft. Who
was it? And Lamont, that's yourcan I say the word is that the
shitty first draft? I mean,that's what

I read that book, read that book, Yep, yeah,

Unknown (28:42):
yeah. So maybe that's where that comes from. But yes,
you can go back and edit and butthere are, and we do have for
authors that we've accepted. Wehave a Facebook group for our
authors who want to continue tohone their craft, and so we try
to engage as much as we can inthere too, so,

and we've done workshops too. We just, we do
workshops a lot of the time.
It's more on marketing. They'vealready written a book. So,
yeah, they've already writtenthe book. So now we try to do
workshops with them to show helpthem get it out there. And
that's

so great, because, you know, how many
people can get a publishingdeal? Most people, especially on
a niche topic like Alzheimer's,they're going to probably end up
self publishing Correct. A

lot of them are published or small presses.
But even with a small press,they only market you for a brief
time, a few months, and thenyou're on your own. So they are
and, you know, I always saymarketing is a degree in
college. You get a bachelor's.
So just because you've got abook and you take go to a few
webinars and read some blogposts, you're not gonna know how

(29:54):
to market your book. I mean,it's a it's a lot,

it's.

Don Priess (30:00):
Worst environment.
It's ever changing. It's everchanging too because of the
technology, the way in thelandscape is completely
different now than it was twothree years ago.

Same as a movie, same as a movie like it
used to you'd go to RottenTomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes is
like yesterday's news now. Nowit's what is it? Don letter box.

Unknown (30:22):
Letter box. Yeah, I haven't even heard of that one.

No, yeah, that's the one. Now we have to
that's the one. So now we haveto acquaint ourselves, yeah,

Don Priess (30:32):
are there other than just books or in poetry? Are
there other mediums that comeinto play, ie, music, film, you
know that that it's as becomingpart of the alls authors,
universe

festival, right? Some of the authors,
that's what they do. They doartwork where they work with
people with dementia, and do artworkshops and things where we're
doing a book right now. It'scalled, it's a six word memoir
book. Are you familiar with thesix word memoirs? You write your
stories using six words? Yeah.
So we put out a call to peopleon the six words website to tell

(31:11):
us their dementia story in sixwords. And so we got, like, a
lot. So I said, why don we makea book? And we we put out a call
to some of the authors that weknow work with art in with
people with dementia, and askthem, Do you have any any
artwork you could share for thisbook? And they they've said, Oh,
yeah. They we have, like, fourpeople that are going to

(31:32):
participate

already.
What give us one of the memoirs?
Can you share one memoir of thesix word memoir?

I'll share the one that was the first one I
ever heard, which was from SusanCushman, one of our authors. And
she did not have a goodrelationship with her mother,
and they were estranged formany, many years, but she
stepped up to care for her whenher mother had Alzheimer's, and
this is what she said, Theupside to Alzheimer's new
mother, because her motherforgot what it was that bothered

(32:04):
her about her daughter, and thetwo of them became best friends,
and at the end of her mother'slife, they were very close, had
a loving relationship. So

isn't that incredible?

Yeah, and that's not the only one. We have
other authors in ourorganization who have had the
same experience, yeah, caringfor somebody that they didn't
get. You know, they had aturbulent relationship with,
right?

Unknown (32:31):
Marianne, don't? We have some folks who are
podcasters and maybe, maybethey've written something as
well, but they their primaryposition is that they do
podcasting, and they are puttingout information around Alzheimer
Alzheimer's dementia caregiving,and so they're part of our oz

(32:53):
authors family. Andyeah, like Lance Latin. Yeah,
Lance Latin.

Well, it all come down to we want to give
people like a lot of differentmedia to choose from. Maybe they
don't like to read, they don'thave time, they don't want to
sit down listen to read a book.
It's hard when you're acaregiver, when you're reading a
book, that's what you're doing.
You aren't doing anything else.
Your hands are occupied. Guysare occupied. What? What can you
do? Well, you can listen to anaudio book, or you can listen to

(33:19):
a podcast. So we provide thepodcast. You maybe you don't
like books at all. You justprefer to watch a film, a
documentary, or even, you know,just a story. So we try to find
those and, you know, they'reobscure things. I mean, people
like, you know, Hollywood andstuff. They don't they don't

(33:40):
need us, so then they don't comebut we've worked with people
that are like struggling tofind, you know, viewers Well,
listeners or readers. So that'skind of what we do. So the film
festival been wanting to do itfor a while, talking about it
for over a year, I think, and wehave right now five films that

(34:00):
we're going to present. It may,may turn out to be only four,
but that's okay, and we're goingto do it in the fall. It starts
in September, runs throughDecember. And how we're going to
work it is that you you will geta link to watch the movie at
your own convenience a week orso before we gather together

(34:23):
online to have a discussion withthe creators. And then you'll
have, you know, be able to talkand talk to them and learn more
about it and share stories andall that. And then everything we
do is recorded, so now we havecontent for our podcast, and we
have content for our YouTubechannel, so people can again,

(34:45):
watch on YouTube if they want,or listen to it on the go, on a
podcast, and those people thatmaybe didn't make the meeting or
didn't know about it, you know,a year from now, and say, Well,
what's this all about? And thenthey can go look for the movie
as well. Well. So we have you,Susie Yes, presenting the first
hour of No Country for Oldpeople. So we're thrilled about

(35:10):
that. And then we have MaryCrescenzo, who did the quote of
play. Her play is, it was calledPlanet a and she is a person who
has spent most of her lifeworking with people with
dementia, using the arts, music,dance, artwork. She's an artist.
She's multimedia, very talented,and she's a phenomenal writer.

(35:32):
So she had written this play,and they filmed it, and it's
kind of unusual. When I firststarted to watch her, I was kind
of like, what is this? But isthis? But the writing was just
so beautiful that I justcouldn't stop listening to it.
And it was just her, like herfriends in the Acting Program,
reading the script, and each onewas in character, telling a

(35:52):
different part of the story fromdementia, like whether it was
the person who had the dementia,or it was their daughter, or
whoever it was, it was verycompelling. We have Frank
Silverstein, who did a shortfilm called lousy loving the
time of dementia, about caringfor both of his parents who had
dementia at the same time. Thatwas very trending, as you can
imagine. And then see NathanBrown, who is with exposed

(36:17):
dementia, and his movie iscalled the present, and it's a
Christmas story, and it's abouta family dealing with the
aftermath of the loss of themother to Alzheimer's, and now
it's the holidays and howthey're handling that. And kitty
Norton wine women and dementia,we're hoping that she'll be

(36:38):
joining us. We got our fingerscrossed, because hers is a great
film, and I love her whole storybecause I love RVing, and when
she was on her journey,she was one of our authors early
On, and that was with her blog,lickety Glitz I think that was,

(37:02):
yeah,

it was cool, yeah. And so was it
splits. Lickety splits. I

think it was Blitz. Look at he splits.
Anyway. She kept the blog, andshe developed a big audience of
caregivers, other women. So whenher journey ended, she got in an
RV and she traveled all acrossthe country, United States, to
meet these women, and theyfilmed it in their discussions,
and they're talking aboutcaregivers, and they're having a
glass of wine, and it's funny,and it's just delightful. So

(37:32):
she's had a lot of success withthat. She's doing really well,
so we hope that kitty will be apart of it. So that's what we're
doing. And I've just like, I'velearned about two other things
since we started this, but Ithink we're gonna cap it at

Unknown (37:45):
that Mariana just means that next year we have to make
this an annual event. Okay,we're just giving ourselves more
work. Let's be honest, you and Iare gonna be at this again. So,
yeah, we hope

is successful.
We did one with the movie calledKeys, bags, names, words, which
was from the UK, and that wasvery impactful, and that had a
lot to do with dementia in thearts, and was with that was, you
know, we tried that format watchthe movie when you can, you
know, caregivers don't have timeto sit at the front of the

(38:14):
screen two o'clock on Tuesday,so we watch it and then come
back in and we'll Talk about it.
So that seemed to work reallywell.

Looks like a book club. You read it first,
yeah? You get together, right?
Yeah, exactly, yeah. I

don't like, I don't like streaming videos and
movies on these zoom calls andthings, because they always get
messed up.

Don Priess (38:38):
They're free. Yeah?
They're doing, Oh, it'sterrible,

yeah, crash, it's hard. We've done a
lot of we've done a lot,

Unknown (38:44):
yeah, can't do it. So that's why we said, let's not do
that. Yeah? So, you know,

it's tricky. Oh, my god, yeah. I
mean, we lament over everysecond of every frame, and then,
then you've got it up theregoing,

Don Priess (38:57):
and you don't even know how people are seeing it,
everyone's seeing some people,some people you have no idea.
So,

yeah, it's so difficult for us. We're like,
we're literally flop sweating.
Yeah, it's terrible. It'sterrible. Yeah, so, well, I
that's that's much better. Thatmakes much more sense, and
they're going to get a muchbetter experience with the film.
And so that's good. I'minterested. One other thing is a
little bit, just a little leftturn, but I'm interested,

(39:27):
Christy, because you said youyou work with children before,
right as you and I think it's soimportant to introduce dementia
and Alzheimer's to children asyoung as you can, as young as
you think that they canunderstand it, and because I
personally saw the differencebetween the children of the

(39:48):
frontline providers who werethere, like the CNAs and stuff,
when my mom was, you know, inassisted living, and they would
bring their children on theweekend. Is, and the children
were so non plus about it. Theywere just that, you know, that's
Jack. He here, Jack, here's theremote, because the Jack was
getting agitated, right? Andthey just had no problem with

(40:10):
it. It's like, No, you Here itis. You left it over here. Oh,
you want water? Okay, hold on.
And this is like a five year oldgoing and not not getting upset,
not just understanding what'sgoing on and not disrespecting
it, but just knowing that's whatJack does. Yeah, I think it's
important, because in you know,and juxtaposed to that was me

(40:32):
bringing my friend's daughter tovisit my mom. I was babysitting
her, and she had never beenaround, apparently, elder
people, and she was beyondfrightened, like, yeah, like, so
scared. And I thought how sadthat was, right? Because she's
missing out and the other andthe and our other generations

(40:54):
missing out because there's somuch to give each other. So,
right? What do you think? Imean, yeah,

Unknown (41:01):
I feel really strongly that it's, it's, it is important
to prepare kids not to to tolessen fear, and you just, it's
very you can normalize this. Youknow, even though we know
Alzheimer's is not a normal partof, you know, not everyone's
going to get it on a normal potof aging. But you know what is

(41:24):
love is normal, compassion isnormal, and children are
natural. What I found working inschool systems, children, you
know, left to their own devices.
They're just reallycompassionate. They get it this
one over here needs a littleextra time. That one over there
needs a little help now andthen. They don't, they don't get
upset about it until someonetells them, oh, it's not fair

(41:47):
that that child's adults kind ofmess that up a little bit,
right? We can, yeah, we can.
Kids like you were describing,you know what they want. They
want to be compassionate. It's anatural thing for them, and but
if they're if they're kept awayfrom it, right, if we are trying

(42:07):
to protect them, that's moreabout our discomfort as the
adult. That is comfort. Now,there may be times when a child
is highly sensitive, you know,they may have their own special
needs, and then we need to beaware of that and cognizant of
that, and then approach thatmaybe a little differently, but
I think it's important to alwayslet kids be able to have that

(42:32):
exposure, especially if it's aloved one, you know, yeah, it's
so good for them. And what Ialso like to say to people is,
you know, in care giving as asandwich generation parent,
you're training your kids abouthow to treat you so you know
what, you acting in reallycompassionate, wonderful ways

(42:55):
too. And you're not always goingto sometimes you're going to
show up and you're not going tobe your best self. Yeah, that's
okay too. You can talk aboutthat, but it's about having
those age appropriateconversations. But I agree with
you. I think it's so importantwe think we're sheltering kids,
but who we're sheltering isourselves, and we have to check

that all the time. I say that all the
time, that when I thought I was,I thought I was, you know,
helping my mom avoidembarrassment. But it was really
mine in the beginning, that itwas my embarrassment, and so I
learned that. And I alsolearned, you know, when my mom
was not doing well at the at inthe nursing home, which was the,

(43:36):
you know, instigated thisdocumentary my granddaughter,
who was two at the time, only,only met my mom, because it was
during covid on Zoom once a weekas a baby, when, when she
finally got to see her and momwas in bed, and she just climbed
right on top of the bed. I don'tknow if you've seen that, if you

(43:57):
remember that Marion, it's inthe it's in the trailer, but she
climbed right up there, and shejust got on and just patting her
and petting her and saying,Nanny, Nanny, Nanny. And then
looking back at her, and my momwould smile, and then my mom
would go to kiss her, and thetwo of them would kiss and then
she'd lay her head down. Theytalked. They had a conversation.

(44:18):
Word, yeah, that's saying aword. We sat there as adults. We
literally like, I get chillsthinking about it. We literally
were like, What is going on? Oh,my God, this is amazing, you
know. And I had people tell me,when my mom lived with me with
Alzheimer's, they said, Oh, isthis fair to your daughter? My
because my daughter was ateenager, are you sure you want

(44:38):
to bring your mom? And it waslike, Maybe I shouldn't. Am I
doing the wrong thing? You know?
And I put this in that in myshort film, where, a year later,
my daughter said, and it was noteasy. She said, I'm not ready
for nanny. Nanny to go. She wasshe, we. It was the best
experience we could have had.

Unknown (44:57):
Yes, it is real life.
Learning compassion in realtime. I always say empathy in
action is compassion. And sowhen we do that, when we allow
that to happen, of course, it'sgoing to be hard at the end, of
course. And yet, that's a norm,that is we are. I mean, I happen

(45:17):
to believe we're all going topass away at some point. There
are people who believe that thatnever has to happen, but I
believe that it probably will,and so it's a normal thing, and
we have to be able to talk aboutit and deal with the hard
feelings and realize that we canalso get through those and that
love will remain. So it's reallyimportant to allow kids to just

(45:40):
experience human emotions.

We have a ton of kids books, yeah, in our
collection, they're great andthey're beautiful, so people can
look great. And that we havelike for young, very young
children all the way throughgrade school and in young adult.

I love it.
I think it's so importanteverybody go on all authors and
and look at those books, becausethat's so important. I read to
my little granddaughters. I havea two year old, another two year
old now, and if and that twoyear old that I was telling you
about is now five. And you know,they love books. We read books
and before bed every night, andI have read them books that were
given to me from guests, right?

(46:22):
And I read that to them, andthey love it. They love it. And
so I think, yeah, go, go toall's authors then, and look at
the list of books that theyhave. It's, it's such a great
resource. You guys are doingsuch an amazing thing by by
aggregating all of this greatcontent. It's just, it's, it's

(46:43):
really a gift. It's really agift. So I can't, I just thank
you so so so much,

Don Priess (46:50):
and anything. Thank you for the 10th Anniversary.
Are there any others big specialevents for the 10th Anniversary?
Or what is it just kind of,well, we're running laid out for
the year.

Yeah, well, some of them we've already done.
So that's, you know, we've had afew virtual events. We were
doing a book club. We did thatfor the first half of the year.
That stopped. Now, all thosesessions are on our podcast and
YouTube channel so people cancatch up if they missed it. But
we're doing a giveaway, and youcan go on the site, all's

(47:24):
authors.com and enter thegiveaway. And we're giving away
many custom caregivercollections, one every month. So
the custom caregiver collectionis a collection of books that we
will curate for you, and it canbe as many books as you want.
There's usually about 15 in aset, but you can have as many as

(47:45):
you want. Some people have had30 books. Yeah, what they come
they come with, like a littlewith bookshelves, and it's like
a whole thing, and we will helpyou find the books that you
want. So if you were justlooking for books, say, I did
one for a a support group whereI live, and it was mainly women
caring for the husband. So thatwas the books that we chose. You

(48:08):
know, yeah, yeah. So we youcould win a mini collection, and
it's three titles, and you tellus what you are looking for if
you want a caregiver guide, ifyou want a book about caring for
your father or your your wife,whatever you're looking for, we
will put that together for you.
So we're giving away 12 of them.

(48:29):
So we've already done, I think,four or five. So, yeah, go on
the website and put your namein. You never know you

might win.
So good. That's a good deal, youguys. That's amazing. I mean,
that's that is you guys. Youguys so good. You do so many
good things, and you're alwaysbusy, busy, busy, busy. And I,
you know, I feel like I've beenout of the loop for the last
three years because ofdocumentary. I feel like I I've
tried to stay in touch witheverybody as much as possible.

(48:57):
But just getting our doc, justgetting our our podcast done has
been like, oh, because, youknow, it's just been hard, and
we did not want to lose I didnot want to stop the podcast,
because I love it so much. Ilove being in this community. I
I love I think I still have alot to share, and I will
continue to have a lot to share.

(49:17):
And I think, and I love talkingto other people with their
shares. So here we are now. Wecan spend a little more time
with our community. And I loveyou. I love, love, I love. You.
Know, all authors, you guys doincredible work. So thank you
for sharing your 10thanniversary with us, and you

(49:38):
keep mentioning you loveChristy. We're all about love.
We're all about love. That'sgreat. Don, why are we all about
love? Don

Don Priess (49:45):
you want to know why? Well, that's because love
is powerful, love is contagious,and love conquers all we do.
Thank everyone for watching,listening today, if you like
what you heard and saw, well,just like us, share. Get. The
word out there, and definitelygo to all they love us. And
definitely go do all'soffers.com and check out what's

(50:05):
going there, because there's alot going

Unknown (50:07):
on and going on.

We appreciate you listening to us
and you're watching

Don Priess (50:14):
Absolutely yeah, and watch for no country, for old
people. August 1 Amazon, onAmazon. We can't wait for
everyone to see this. It'sreally important. And again,
thank you for joining us today.

Unknown (50:28):
So thank you.

Thank you so much. You're so welcome. You.

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