June 7, 2025 • 45 mins
Every storyteller starts somewhere. For J. Stephen Beam, it began in the red clay hills of northeast Mississippi, where stories were passed around like heirloom recipes—spoken with reverence, humor, and heart. In this premiere episode of Stories from Cold Springs, Stephen steps out from behind the narrator’s chair and into the spotlight to share his own story—one rooted in family, hard work, and a lifelong yearning to create.
Interviewed by his wife, Dawn Beam—an accomplished judge and podcast host herself—Stephen opens up with gentle candor about his winding path from a 60-acre family farm, to the classroom, to a decades-long career as a physician. But even as he was healing others, a quieter voice inside was always asking, When do we tell our own stories?
That answer arrived later in life, sparked by an act both simple and profound: digging a grave for a beloved dog. That moment would become the emotional first scene in The Death Letter, Stephen’s debut novel set in the fictional town of Cold Springs—a place not unlike the one where he grew up.
What follows is a conversation full of laughter, memory, and meaning. Stephen reflects on the power of imagination, the detours we take, and the truth that creativity doesn't come with a deadline. His second novel, The Bondage of Innocents, tackles the subject of human trafficking with both urgency and empathy, and two more novels are already in the works.
More than just a personal history, this episode is a quiet call to anyone who’s ever felt a story stirring inside. Whether your medium is music, woodworking, painting, or pie crusts—Stephen reminds us that the creative spark never truly fades. It waits. And when the time is right, it lights up everything.
After you give this episode a listen, you will understand the episode's title!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hello everybody and welcome to Stories from Cold
Springs, a place where we talkabout creativity and
storytelling.
I'm your host, jay Stephen Bean.
Let's talk about storytelling.
Traditionally, storytelling wasall oral, back in the dawn of
our history.
(00:27):
As time passed, writing beganto take effect and the stories
that had been handed down fromgeneration to generation were
written down so they could besaved that way, moving further
forward toward present day, manyother models of recording
(00:48):
stories were invented, and wehave them today.
Today, there are just aplethora of different types of
ways to record stories,including digital, including TV,
including radio and includingpodcasts.
So things have moved forward inquite an amazing way over the
(01:12):
years.
You might wonder exactly wheredoes the title Stories from Cold
Springs come from.
Well, you may not know that I'ma novelist.
Well, you may not know that I'ma novelist and my stories are
set in the mythical small townof Cold Springs, mississippi.
And yes, it's based on a realsmall town where I grew up.
(01:35):
You know they say you writestories about what you know and
places you know about intimately, and so that's what I've done.
Featured in my novels are ColdSprings and the communities
around Cold Springs where myearliest memories come from.
In those days I heard a lot oforal storytelling.
(01:57):
People would come to our homeand tell stories about the
community or tell stories aboutsomeone in a community.
My mother was a greatstoryteller.
She would tell stories aboutthe community or tell stories
about someone in a community.
My mother was a greatstoryteller.
She would tell stories abouther youth, where she grew up,
about her family members, aboutthings that happened in the
community that she couldremember.
(02:17):
I was fascinated by that.
I was the youngest of threechildren, so I didn't get to
tell many stories.
I mean, what did I know?
My father would occasionallytell a story, my oldest brother
told a lot of stories and mymiddle brother tried his best
and managed to make up severalstories, but I usually kept my
mouth shut and nobody asked mefor a story anyway.
(02:40):
As time passed, I began to readand see the stories there
written on paper and I wasfascinated with that whole idea.
So that's where this podcastsprings from, from me
individually and personally isfrom those days.
I also want to talk about morethan just storytelling or story
(03:03):
writing or story recording.
I want to talk about creativityin general.
There are so many other ways tobe creative and to actually
tell stories, but not in thewritten word or in the recording
word.
I think of woodworking,metalworking, cooking.
That takes creativity Artists,painters, people who draw
(03:27):
pictures creatively.
So there are many ways to lookat this whole phenomenon of
storytelling, not just by thewritten or the verbal stories.
With that being said, my veryfirst guest on this new podcast
for me is my partner, my fellowcollaborator, my best friend and
(03:55):
my wife.
Isn't it nice when all thosecan be said together.
Dawn Beam also has her ownpodcast available out there
wherever you might find yourfavorite shows.
So welcome Dawn.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Hello Stephen, Thanks for having me on your first
podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, thank you for being here.
You give me a certain sense ofconfidence by your being here.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You're going to do great.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, I mentioned that Dawn has her own podcast.
Would you tell us a little bitabout your podcast?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I have a podcast called Hope Mississippi and in
that podcast we tell wonderfulstories of hope throughout
Mississippi.
We also talk about the needs inMississippi.
One in four of our kids livesin poverty.
One in five are food deprived.
So it's important that weeducate Mississippians about the
need for hope in some of ourdarkest areas.
(04:51):
Also, to educate about thescience of hope.
I read a book called HopeScience by Chan Hellman and it
really inspired me to realizethat a lot of people just can't
see that tomorrow can be betterthan today, and so as we help
them to set goals and show themthat they can in fact improve
(05:12):
their lives, that builds hopeand they say, hope begets hope.
So my dream is for HopeMississippi to help unify
Mississippians around the needsof our state and encourage
Mississippians around the needsof our state and encourage
Mississippians to get involved.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
That sounds wonderful and uplifting and I can assure
the listeners out there thatI've heard her shows and they
are very uplifting.
If someone out there would liketo just check out what you're
doing, how could they find oneof your podcasts?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I have them posted on a Facebook page called Hope
Mississippi and they're also onyour Spotify Apple.
Several different domains carryHope Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Today, Dawn is going to switch the tables on what I
hope to do in the future.
My goal is to have guests onand find out about what they do
in their creative walk in thislife, but today I'm under the
gun, so fire away.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, I'm excited to help tell your story You're
growing up and about yourwonderful book and also the many
talents that you have and whyyou appreciate the importance of
storytelling.
So the setting is Cold Springs,but that's based on your
growing up.
Where'd you grow up?
(06:36):
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
In northeast Mississippi.
There's an area there that isdifferent from any other area in
the state.
There are a lot of hills.
It's basically the foothills ofthe Appalachian Mountains,
without all the big mountainsthere mostly hills.
It's a rural area and the smalltown the main town in the
(06:58):
county is the county seat.
It's called Fulton, mississippi.
I didn't grow up in Fulton.
I grew up out from Fulton,actually about 10 miles, on a
little farm, a 60-acre farm.
While I was growing up wefarmed that little farm.
Only about half of it wascleared for fields, but I grew
(07:19):
up working in those fields andin gardens.
It's not the best place in theworld that particular area to
raise crops, but everyone raisedcrops.
Both my grandfathers werefarmers, so my father I called
him Daddy had his own littlefarm.
He bought some land from hisfather, my grandfather.
However, it wasn't a good wayto make a living, so he also
(07:44):
worked in other ways, such asmainly, I recall growing up he
cut timber for a living.
While my mother was a housewife, as most women were back in
those days we're talking aboutthe 50s and early 60s she was
actually in charge of thefarming most of the time.
I had an older brother who wasold enough to operate the
(08:05):
machinery, and he was actuallymy hero, more so than my own
father was, and so I hung aroundwith him as much as I could
growing up, but I had all thosechores that people on farms have
to do.
We had electricity but wedidn't have indoor plumbing so
there was water to be drawn fromthe well, so that was one of my
(08:26):
chores Feeding our animals,which included a mare that we
used for plowing, andoccasionally my just older than
me brother and I would ride her,but she had the unique ability
to find the nearest tree with alow hanging limb and she would
scrape us off and we neverseemed to be able to break her
of that habit.
So we eventually gave up.
(08:48):
My best friend, my runningaround buddy in those days, was
my brother, just older than me.
We had to work together and weplayed little boy games together
cowboys and Indians and allsorts of things like that
climbing.
We had three trees closetogether.
We turned those into a pirateship and we could go from one
(09:09):
tree to the other across thoselimbs.
There were vines in there thatsometimes we can swing on.
So we played a lot ofimaginative games.
Most of the games and the ideacame from my older brother and
when he got tired of them wewould just have to quit because
it's the kind of stuff that Icouldn't play alone.
So that's how I grew up.
(09:30):
I went to a little county schoolthrough the ninth grade and
then we moved on to Fulton,which again is a county seat,
and the high school was there.
There were, I think, 24 peoplein my junior high class and I
went to Fullerton.
There were 130, so I was a fishout of water for a while.
I was always a pretty goodstudent but I was intimidated,
(09:55):
especially my first year there.
But I always had these thoughtsof stories in my head that I
never tried to do anything withthem, but they were always there
.
I guess you could say I had agreat imagination.
I started really reading when Iwas around sixth grade.
I read before that picture booksand that kind of thing, but
(10:17):
today I think they're calledchapter books.
I really started reading in thesixth grade.
I read two books that reallyaffected me.
One was called the BlackStallion, which I'm sure some of
you have heard of, and theother was called Light in the
Forest.
Those were the two first longnovel-length books that I read,
and I remember being charmed andamazed by the fact that someone
(10:41):
had written words down and hereit was, on these pieces of
paper that I read, and I couldsee in my mind's eye what they
saw while they were writing it.
Now, we're all individuals, soI'm sure I saw it a little bit
differently, but that seemedalmost magical to me.
The very idea that someonecould do that held a great wish
(11:04):
inside me to be able to do sucha thing.
But as time passed, as lifegoes on, you get into your life
and you do a lot of other thingsinstead of writing.
So I was late coming to thewriting game, at least to the
point of getting my workpublished.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So let me just brag a little bit about you.
You served as a doctor for manyyears a medical doctor, and
worked with the veterans.
The VA center helped establisha pre-medical clinic in the
Hattiesburg area.
So you have done a lot ofthings before you started
writing in the last few years,right?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Oh yeah, when I was in high school I thought I hated
science.
I'd had a kind of badexperience in the ninth grade
with basic biology, but mygrades were okay Actually they
were pretty good, but I didn'treally like it that much, I
didn't think.
But in the 12th grade I decidedto take chemistry and my
(12:07):
teacher there was amazing to me.
He was such a cool guy who wasso organized, yet he allowed his
students to talk if they hadsomething to say about the class
.
And I fell in love withchemistry just basic chemistry
(12:28):
that you would learn in highschool.
I liked the way things worked,I liked the smells in the lab, I
liked everything about it.
So I decided then that I wantedto be a chemistry teacher, a
high school chemistry teacher,and I really hadn't thought
about it until the 12th grade.
So that was my goal.
I went to a community well, wecalled it a junior college, they
(12:48):
call it community college nowthey're in the small town of
Fulton and went on and graduatedfrom the University of
Mississippi, commonly called OleMiss.
I found a job teaching highschool chemistry.
Seven years I taught chemistryand physics and biology.
Those were the main courses Itaught.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Just have to make this plug Of the seven years
that you taught, three out ofthe seven you were a star
teacher and I think that's justso incredible To know you.
You're just a loving and caringperson and I think that showed
in not only your teaching.
But then how did you come to goto medical school?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Speaking of teaching, I love teaching.
I love the kids.
I always have to remember thatI taught classes that the
students that were in theregenerally wanted to be in there.
So problems with disciplinewasn't a big deal with me and I
just, I guess I had a knack withdealing with kids who got a
(13:50):
little unruly, so I never hadany major discipline problems,
had any major disciplineproblems, so that's another
reason I loved it.
I guess I taught at twodifferent schools, but at the
end of seven years of teachingwell before that last year,
somewhere in the middle of thatyear, I was going through some
(14:10):
changes in my life and I had afriend who said he'd always
wanted to go to medical school.
I really hadn't thought aboutit, although in college my
roommate was pre-med and helater was in medical school and
became a physician.
The two main girls that I datednot at the same time make that
(14:33):
note.
Actually they were best friends, but I believe it or not, it
worked out they were alsopre-med, and so when I was in
college those folks, and otherfolks too, that were in pre-med
or chemistry or pre-engineeringwould give me a hard time about
taking the hard chemistrycourses, for example, because I
(14:54):
really didn't have to take thosecourses in order to be a
teacher.
They had more teaching-relatedchemistry classes that you could
take.
That would give you thefoundation that you needed in
order to teach high schoolscience.
However, I liked the hardercourses, but I guess even more
(15:15):
than that, I liked the peoplethat were in those courses and
so I took those courses, neverthinking that in the future that
that would come back to be agreat plus for me.
So anyway, my friend mentionedmedical school and the point I
was in in my life.
I decided that I would take theMCAT, which is the test you
(15:38):
have to take in order to getinto medical school, and I did
very well on it, not because I'mthe sharpest knife in the
drawer, but because a lot of ithad to do with high school
science-related things, which Iwas very up on.
I applied for medical school atthe University of Mississippi in
Jackson, at the medical center,and I must tell this story when
(16:01):
I went there for my interview,I had three people who
interviewed me.
First was a psychiatrist whointimidated me, but I told
myself not to fidget, not totalk too much and just to answer
his questions.
So during the process of theinterview, which lasted about 15
minutes, I kept telling myselfdon't fidget, just answer the
(16:24):
man's questions, which I did.
And then I had anotherinterview with a biochemist and
then finally I met with thechairman of the selection
department.
There was an eye-opener for me.
Very nice man, gregarious, madeyou feel very at ease from the
very first, and so he asked me,I suppose, the typical questions
(16:48):
.
And then he said tell me whatyou ate growing up.
We'd already been through theprocess of telling him how I
grew up, as I've already sharedhere with you, but he said tell
me what you ate growing up.
So that kind of stumped me.
I mean, it's an easy question,but why would anyone ask that?
So I did.
I went through the list in myhead and I told him what we had
(17:11):
to eat.
And he said well, you'releaving something out.
And I said I don't think soMade me a little nervous
actually when he said that.
So I ran back through my headwhat I'd said and I just can't
think of anything else.
He said I bet you ate a lot ofpinto beans.
And I said well, yeah, that'strue, I didn't say that.
(17:31):
But yes, we ate a lot of pintobeans.
He said you know how?
I know that.
And I said no.
He said I grew up in West Texason a little farm very much like
you just told me about you grewup on, and I ate the same food
that you ate, including a lot ofpinto beans.
To this day, I'm convinced thatone of the reasons I got into
(17:54):
medical school is because I atea lot of pinto beans growing up,
and so for all you folks whomaybe like to get in medical
school, start eating pinto beans.
I mean, it's a surefire way toget in.
So you practiced medicine for 35years, basically here in
Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Enjoyed doing that, but always long to write.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yes, even when I was a teacher, I would write little
stories, and never meaning tokeep them, I would just write
them out in long hand, cursively, and those stories all were
lost.
It's probably a good thing,matter of fact, even in junior
high I wrote stories, but allthose are lost as well.
(18:38):
After practicing medicine forseveral years, I still would do
that kind of thing andeventually, some 25, almost 30
years ago now, I wrote a novel.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing, but I did it, and it was
a struggle to go from onechapter to the next and try to
(19:01):
include things that I could seein my head, because, you must
understand, I could see thesestories in my head, but then I
would put that down on paper andthen I would read it and it
didn't exactly say what I wasseeing.
So I worked at getting betterwith that.
I finished it.
I was proud that I'd been ableto do that and at that time in
(19:22):
my life I thought to myself well, I'm not going to worry about
this anymore, I've written anovel.
It's always in the back of myhead to write a novel.
So I'd done that, so I can moveon to something else.
But I shared it with threepeople and all three of those
said you should look at tryingto get this published.
And I said are you crazy?
No way I would try to get thispublished.
(19:43):
I didn't want other peopleseeing my writing.
What if it wasn't good enough?
So I guess you could say Ilacked the courage to move that
one step further, to investigatewhether or not I actually could
get it published.
And so that's where I was aboutthree years ago now.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
But all of that changed.
So tell us about your firstbook, the Death Letter.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Well, let me go back a little then to tell you about
that first book, how it came tobe.
I was nearing retirement frompracticing medicine and I knew
that I needed something to do.
I don't fish very much, I don'treally hunt at all.
I tried golf over the years andwas never very good at it and
(20:29):
didn't take the time to get goodenough at it.
I could have gone out andplayed with the doctor friends,
but I didn't want to put in thetime to be good at it.
I could have gone out andplayed with the doctor friends,
but I didn't want to put in thetime to be good at it.
Golf is one of those games thatif you don't put in the time
and do some practice, you're notgoing to be very good.
It's kind of embarrassingsometimes to go out and
(20:52):
everybody else have to wait foryou while you look for your ball
.
What could I do?
I'd had several patients overthe years who retired without
any kind of plan and it seemedinvariably they didn't live very
long.
I'd had many patients who hadplans.
There were people who didwoodworking and even made money
(21:13):
at doing woodworking.
I had all the guys that wantedto play golf every day.
And they did that.
That's what they'd alwayswanted to do.
Some wanted to travel which, bythe way, don and I like to do,
but you can't fill your lifedoing that.
I didn't think, so it came backdown to what do I really want
(21:33):
to do?
And, of course, writing cameback into my mind.
What would I write?
How would I write?
I don't know how to write.
With those thoughts in mind, Ithought I'll just write a little
short snippet of a story thatinvolves a man burying his dog.
(21:56):
And yes, that came fromsomeplace.
Don and I had a sweet black labthat wandered out into the road
and ruled Etiwama County, whereFulton is on our old farm place
.
We have that now and he was hitby a car and we had to have him
put down.
So they they being the vetclinic said we can take care of
(22:20):
the body if you want us to.
And we said no, it's our dog, Iwant to bury him.
So we got back up to our house,and across the yard from our
house there's a big pine tree,and so I commenced digging that
grave.
Don didn't like that very much.
We had tried to find someone todig it for me, but I really
(22:42):
wanted to do it myself, so westarted it, of course, ran into
roots and she went off to thenearest little town and got us a
pick.
I had an ax and a shovel and ittook me two or three hours to
dig that grave.
But I didn't rush.
I took my time, didn't hurtmyself, rested, drunk plenty of
(23:02):
water.
I've had some medical training,so I know you need to do that.
And we finished that.
We had our dog, whose name wasNoel, by the way.
He was on the front porch andwe took him out to lay him
beside the grave.
Neither one of us just wantedto pitch him in, so we carefully
(23:23):
led him down into the grave andthen we said a few words over
him and a little prayer and thenthrew in the dirt.
It was a sad moment for us, buta very graphic moment in my
mind, and it had been in my mind.
This was in August.
So in October I decided I wasgoing to write that story and
(23:47):
that was all I was going to do.
So I began the story and thenyou get hit with several
questions.
If you're going to make this astory about yourself, then it
would be me digging the grave.
But what if somebody else dugthe grave?
Who would that be?
So I had to come up with thatcharacter.
Well, since I've gone that farwith it, I thought what if
(24:10):
someone else drives up whilehe's digging the grave?
Who would that be?
And that was the first time Imet Jesse, who was the main
character in the book.
Well, why did he come?
Does he have a problem?
What's going on?
How's he related to this man?
Did he just know him?
Who is this old man digging thegrave?
Turns out he was the countysheriff and this was his we'll
(24:33):
call him adopted son.
Not exactly that, but he hadgrown up in that house.
And then the story started tocome to me.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So Cold Springs?
Actually, the idea that comesfrom the area where you grew up
in in Etiwamba County is thatright?
Speaker 2 (24:52):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And you talked about how Noel died at our house, but
that's a house on our propertyin Etiwamba County.
We live currently in SouthMississippi, but we have a house
in Etiwamba County, so that'swhere Noel passed, where you dug
the grave, and so from thereyou developed characters that
(25:15):
came into that story.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
That's right, and we have a house there, a small
house that we built some 12years ago now, but I wanted an
old house, so in my story it'san old house that's been there
since probably the 1920s,Starting with the burying of the
dog and a character driving upand the conversation between the
(25:41):
two of them out in ruralEtowahma County and I didn't
call it Etowahma County the townnearby that these characters
had more familiarity with wasCold Springs, which was really
Fulton, but I renamed it so thatI wouldn't first of all I
(26:03):
didn't want to insult anyone,maybe in the future, but also I
knew that I could put perhapsstructures in that town that are
not really there in real life.
So it just made it easier towrite about it.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It has been well received your book, the Death
Letter in the Ittawamba in NorthMississippi, because a lot of
folks can easily visualize yourcharacters right.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
That's right.
I wrote the story, sent it toone of my high school classmates
and then to a couple of otherpeople that would know their
area and asked them if theythought I had captured the area.
And they thought it was spot on.
The story itself couldcertainly have happened there.
It was more exciting than mylife was, as I was growing up
(26:54):
there.
But you know it's a novel soyou have to make it interesting.
Now.
It was well accepted in thatarea, but it was accepted all
over the state of Mississippi.
The only place I think that Ireally didn't have book signings
was over in the Delta area, butSouth Mississippi, down to the
coast, up in North Mississippi.
(27:16):
I had signings in all thoseplaces and it was in bookstores
in the state.
And so for a first-time bookfrom a local publisher, it did
extremely well that by thepublisher and some other authors
that I met over the course ofnot only my book signings but
(27:39):
just in general, because once Ibecame known as a writer then I
met other people who were tryingto do the same thing.
So the acceptance was there.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So now the death letter is coming out in a
reprint right in April.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
It'll be out in April .
The original was hardback.
I should mention how I even gotit published so that's
difficult.
Published through, actually, afriend of Dawn's who had
published, by this time I think,five books, and he put me on to
a publisher in Jackson, a smallindependent publisher who
(28:20):
looked at the book, liked it,acted also as the editor and not
only the publisher, and severalmonths later he was able to get
it out for me.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So tell us just a little bit about the death
letter.
Don't give away the surpriseparts, but just kind of a little
tease to the listeners of whatthe death letter is about.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, there is a surprise in it and no, I'm not
going to give that away.
But the reason that Jesse comesto see the sheriff is because
it's been a year now sinceJesse's wife disappeared with no
sign of anything wrong in thehouse.
He came home one day fromuniversity he has a backstory
(29:06):
himself, but basically he stayedover at the university, which
is about 70 miles away, duringthe week and went to school to
finish up his college degree.
She was a school teacher, hiswife Mary, in the local area
there.
So that was a system that theyhad.
He would go over there andspend Monday through Thursday
(29:29):
and then come home and she wouldalways be there to greet him,
except on one particular day.
He comes home and she's notthere.
Her car is missing, her dog ismissing.
He calls her parents and theysay they've been a little
worried about her, but she'sprobably just out shopping or
(29:51):
something or visiting with afriend.
She didn't come home at allthat night, so of course he's
getting even more worried.
He calls the principal at theschool and said well, she didn't
come to work yesterday eitherand we haven't been in touch
with her.
He talked to his fatherbasically his father, the
sheriff who said, well, she'sprobably just out and neglected
(30:12):
to tell you, but he agreed thatit was worrisome.
So so they come and investigatethe house.
Can find nothing out of theordinary, so eventually they
start giving up.
They even had the state policecome and investigate the
situation and nobody reallyseemed to be that concerned
anymore, except Jesse.
(30:34):
What had happened to his wife?
It's been a year, maybe shejust ran off, but why wouldn't
she let her parents know she wasclose to them?
And she hadn't let them knowanything either.
So that's the setup for thestory.
I will add here that I was at abook signing and that's
basically what I would say.
People, what's your story aboutthis particular book signing in
(30:55):
a small town, mississippi,everyone except they were all
ladies, and everyone except onehad read the book.
And the lady that hadn't readit said well, what exactly is
your story about?
And I was ready to go into thatlittle spill that I just gave
here.
And this lady popped up andsaid it's about relationships.
(31:15):
And this lady popped up andsaid it's about relationships
and it's about how mistakes youmake when you're young come back
to haunt you later.
And I said may I use that somany times.
That's what I say, instead ofgiving the story the back story
that I just gave you about it.
That's what it's about.
It's done well.
(31:37):
It's been called a page-turner.
People from all over, fromevery strata of life those with
money, those who don't have muchmoney teachers, doctors,
loggers, bankers have allthoroughly enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Lots of twists and turns.
I don't know how you know havesuch an incredible imagination
adultery, crystal meth labs,murder, all kinds of things all
rolled up in one.
You just never know whatdirection it's going to turn,
and I'm very proud of you andwhat you have done with that.
(32:16):
Now you've got a second bookthat's out.
Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
The second book.
First, let me tell you how Icame to write this particular
book.
I was well on the way ofwriting a second book and Donna
and I were talking one night.
She said you know you shouldwrite about human trafficking.
And I said I don't knowanything about human trafficking
other than the very superficialthings that most people who
listen to the news or read thenews know about what a scourge
(32:45):
it is right now.
But I can learn.
And so I went online and boughtsome books and read those books
and started really perusing theinternet for stories.
I decided, well, I was going todo it, and I came up with a
story about a young 16-year-oldgirl who gets caught up in human
(33:06):
trafficking.
Well, that part wasn't so hardto come up with because it
happens all the time.
I looked for a little bitdifferent device to write about,
first of all, to make the story, and the second thing was to
make it as real as I could, in away that people understood that
(33:27):
this could happen to literallyanyone 16 years there are cases
down to 9 or 10 years old peopletaken into human trafficking,
male and female, mostly femalesand so I wrote about her, who's
a total innocent who was pulledinto human trafficking through
(33:48):
no fault of her own and wasstuck.
How can we help her get unstuck, was my thought.
That's the gist of the story.
You learn about what she goesthrough.
Again, it's set in cold springs.
Again it's set in cold springs,and so it occurred to me.
Just like we are today, if wedon't know much about it, it
(34:13):
goes on all the time and we'rehere amongst it.
So what about the other peoplein town?
Did they know this was going on?
Well, of course they didn't.
What are they doing?
They are living their life, butI want to write about them as
well, but I wanted to putsomething in there that made it.
So there's a reason for them toget interested in her
(34:35):
predicament, and so it's kind ofa parallel storyline.
That storyline begins inMilwaukee, and I love Milwaukee.
I spent three years there whenI was doing my medical residency
, and so I started it there, andeventually everybody ends up in
(34:55):
Cold Springs, and then we justhave to see what happens to her.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
But again, the consistency of relationships.
You have lots of very healthyrelationships and then unhealthy
relationships and that book iscalled the Bondage of Innocence,
but it also helps people toopen their eyes to the idea that
human trafficking can be rightunder your nose and you just
(35:22):
don't realize that's going on.
I know you've got our AttorneyGeneral, lynn Fitch, who's
written a brief statement on theback, and also you have
information in there about howfolks can learn about human
trafficking and be a part of thesolution.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
That's true, and along with that, in one of the
books that I read, it waswritten by a lady from Oregon
who specializes in rescuingmainly adult women from human
trafficking.
It's a fascinating book, and Inyour Own Backyard is the name
of it.
I highly recommend it if youhave an interest in learning
(36:03):
more.
But when I finished the roughdraft, I decided I needed
someone who knew what they weretalking about to look at it and
see how far off from whatreality is.
Did I write this book?
Because I wanted to be sure notto write something that wasn't
(36:26):
based on the truth of theproblem.
And so I emailed herorganization and, lo and behold,
the next day she emailed meback and said I have a little
time now, send it to me and I'lllook at it.
And so she did.
And a couple of weeks later shesent it back, said I really
enjoyed your story.
Uh, you wanted somerecommendations, and here they
(36:48):
are.
And she gave me about fourrecommendations and I followed
all those to a t.
So I'm comfortable that there'sa lot of truth in it.
People ask if my stories areeven with the first book, if
they're based on fact, and myanswer answer and I mean this is
I don't know how you writeanything fiction-wise that isn't
(37:12):
somewhat based on fact, becausewe live our lives and we learn
things and we can read a lot offiction, which I've done over
the past but it doesn't stick inyour mind for the most part
like what really happens in lifeand affects people.
So that was my goal with thisbook is to make it as accurate
as I could.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And so where can folks get a copy of your latest
book, the Bondage of Innocence?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Well, this is by a different publisher, an original
publisher out of the Jacksonarea.
As I've already mentioned,fabulous gentleman by the name
of Joe Lee Doesn't work outsidethe state of Mississippi and
doesn't have any wish to do that.
He's an author in his own rightand he's a very good editor as
(38:00):
well.
So I decided to look foranother way to get my books out
there.
And because, again through Dawn, her sister's husband had had
dealings with a company calledMorgan James out of New York and
they have several sites aroundthe country, as a matter of fact
(38:20):
, internationally they agreed topublish it.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Do you have any other books in the works in the
pipeline?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
She asked that as if she didn't know, didn't she?
Yes, busy at work, editing andfinalizing my third book, the
Cotton House.
That will involve a lot ofthings in the way that I grew up
.
It's set more in the past thanit is the present.
I don't know exactly when it'llbe published, but we already
(38:49):
have one book new book and areprint coming out this year.
So it'll come out no later thannext year, and I'm basically
working now on my fourth book,fire Tower.
It has to do with some thingsthat happened also in the more
recent past and also in the morerecent past.
All of these are set in thatsame area, around the basic
(39:11):
place that Jesse grew up andwhere the sheriff was.
All involve the town of ColdSprings, and there are other
surrounding towns that I don'tchange the names of.
For example, there are scenesin Tupelo, there are scenes in a
little town called Belmont,things in Birmingham and things
in Memphis.
I'm comfortable there.
(39:32):
So my plan is I'll probablynever write anything other than
set in those areas, but that onewould come out, I guess, two
years from now, about 15,000words into it.
I have in my mind what happens.
I just need to write it out.
When I write my stories I maynot know exactly where I'm going
(39:58):
, but Stephen King once saidthat create your characters,
create their surroundings andwrite about them, and you will
be amazed at some of the thingsyour characters do.
And I've had characters saythings or do things that were
not even in my head until theyended up on I shouldn't say on
paper, but the computer as Ityped it.
So I'm comfortable now inknowing that I can write a book.
(40:21):
I'm comfortable in knowing thatit'll have an end point and I
have gained the confidence thatI need to do those.
So, as I'm doing this new bookthat I mentioned that will come
out hopefully in two years itstill has a lot of work to be
done on it, scenes to write, butI know basically how it's going
(40:42):
to end.
Once you get to that point andknow where you're headed, it
makes it much, much easier toget there.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I'm so proud of you for taking on writing and for
really the wonderful commentsthat I've heard along the way as
people have read your work.
So what about this podcast?
What is your vision for that?
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Well, what a great question.
I would like to talk aboutcreativity in general.
There's so many stories outthere that really aren't shared
that often.
You can hear them on specialtybroadcast, I guess, or on public
radio.
But there are people who dothings that are very creative
(41:26):
that we kind of pass by and notconsidering them creative.
Now, I'm sure many of you havegone to someone who's a
woodworker, builds things andkind of explain what you want
and they say, well, tell meabout it.
And then they come up with it.
They're very creative that way.
(41:46):
Not only with that.
But what about musicians, forexample?
Don and I recently met a verytalented cellist.
He's been all over the worldplaying his music.
He's well thought of, so peopleknow about him.
He might have stories and we'veheard some of his stories.
(42:07):
That would be good for astorytelling time like this,
with all of his abilities to becreative and what he's done with
his life.
So there are just so manyavenues.
So that's my goal to maybe haveone podcast a month, maybe some
more often if I run acrosspeople that I want to go ahead
(42:29):
and get recorded so that we'llhave their story down.
But from the mundane storiespeople would consider mundane,
of how you build something inyour woodworking shop to the
sublime stories of aworld-renowned cellist.
(42:51):
But they have that thing incommon they're creative and
they're creators.
And that's not something thatis just for certain people.
There are many, many peoplewith that gift.
Many of us don't use them veryoften and it's the kind of gift,
(43:13):
say, a woodworker.
You might even have the gift ofwoodworking, but if you don't
ever try and hone your skills,you'll never be a great
woodworker.
Same thing with musicians, samething with chefs they have to
learn and work at their craft.
So those are the kind of things.
And then, obviously, I want totalk to writers and novelists
(43:38):
about how they create thestories that they put out there
and how they create theircharacters.
I'm sure I'll learn a lot.
So that's my goal for this.
I'm excited about it, veryexcited about it.
I think the possibilities aregreat for doing this.
It's just another creative sideof my personality that I can
(43:58):
use.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
We talked about your book writing, but you've also
been very active in the theater.
I'm reminded, the first time Iever met you, you were running a
guitar and singing.
So you come at this through avariety of experiences.
What is your hope to accomplishwith your podcast?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I think, for people to know that there are other
people who are out therecreating things, and my hope
would be for those who, like Iwas at one time, don't have the
courage to step out and try todo something on their own, or
that's passed them by.
(44:39):
They're maybe no longerparticularly young, or maybe
they're young and nobody's evertold them they're good at some
particular something, that theywill hear the stories of these
folks and they will then stepout and reach into themselves
and get in touch with their owncreativity, because I assure you
(45:00):
it's there.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
And it's very rewarding when we share that
creativity with others.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
I can't think of anything more creative than that
.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Well, honey, I think that's about a wrap for today.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
My goodness, that went by quickly.
I hope it was that way for thelistener.
Join us next time for our nextedition of Stories from Cold
Springs, and thank you forlistening.
God bless.
Hello everybody and welcome to Stories from Cold
Springs, a place where we talkabout creativity and
storytelling.
I'm your host, jay Stephen Bean.
Let's talk about storytelling.
Traditionally, storytelling wasall oral, back in the dawn of
our history.
(00:27):
As time passed, writing beganto take effect and the stories
that had been handed down fromgeneration to generation were
written down so they could besaved that way, moving further
forward toward present day, manyother models of recording
(00:48):
stories were invented, and wehave them today.
Today, there are just aplethora of different types of
ways to record stories,including digital, including TV,
including radio and includingpodcasts.
So things have moved forward inquite an amazing way over the
(01:12):
years.
You might wonder exactly wheredoes the title Stories from Cold
Springs come from.
Well, you may not know that I'ma novelist.
Well, you may not know that I'ma novelist and my stories are
set in the mythical small townof Cold Springs, mississippi.
And yes, it's based on a realsmall town where I grew up.
(01:35):
You know they say you writestories about what you know and
places you know about intimately, and so that's what I've done.
Featured in my novels are ColdSprings and the communities
around Cold Springs where myearliest memories come from.
In those days I heard a lot oforal storytelling.
(01:57):
People would come to our homeand tell stories about the
community or tell stories aboutsomeone in a community.
My mother was a greatstoryteller.
She would tell stories aboutthe community or tell stories
about someone in a community.
My mother was a greatstoryteller.
She would tell stories abouther youth, where she grew up,
about her family members, aboutthings that happened in the
community that she couldremember.
(02:17):
I was fascinated by that.
I was the youngest of threechildren, so I didn't get to
tell many stories.
I mean, what did I know?
My father would occasionallytell a story, my oldest brother
told a lot of stories and mymiddle brother tried his best
and managed to make up severalstories, but I usually kept my
mouth shut and nobody asked mefor a story anyway.
(02:40):
As time passed, I began to readand see the stories there
written on paper and I wasfascinated with that whole idea.
So that's where this podcastsprings from, from me
individually and personally isfrom those days.
I also want to talk about morethan just storytelling or story
(03:03):
writing or story recording.
I want to talk about creativityin general.
There are so many other ways tobe creative and to actually
tell stories, but not in thewritten word or in the recording
word.
I think of woodworking,metalworking, cooking.
That takes creativity Artists,painters, people who draw
(03:27):
pictures creatively.
So there are many ways to lookat this whole phenomenon of
storytelling, not just by thewritten or the verbal stories.
With that being said, my veryfirst guest on this new podcast
for me is my partner, my fellowcollaborator, my best friend and
(03:55):
my wife.
Isn't it nice when all thosecan be said together.
Dawn Beam also has her ownpodcast available out there
wherever you might find yourfavorite shows.
So welcome Dawn.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Hello Stephen, Thanks for having me on your first
podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, thank you for being here.
You give me a certain sense ofconfidence by your being here.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You're going to do great.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, I mentioned that Dawn has her own podcast.
Would you tell us a little bitabout your podcast?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I have a podcast called Hope Mississippi and in
that podcast we tell wonderfulstories of hope throughout
Mississippi.
We also talk about the needs inMississippi.
One in four of our kids livesin poverty.
One in five are food deprived.
So it's important that weeducate Mississippians about the
need for hope in some of ourdarkest areas.
(04:51):
Also, to educate about thescience of hope.
I read a book called HopeScience by Chan Hellman and it
really inspired me to realizethat a lot of people just can't
see that tomorrow can be betterthan today, and so as we help
them to set goals and show themthat they can in fact improve
(05:12):
their lives, that builds hopeand they say, hope begets hope.
So my dream is for HopeMississippi to help unify
Mississippians around the needsof our state and encourage
Mississippians around the needsof our state and encourage
Mississippians to get involved.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
That sounds wonderful and uplifting and I can assure
the listeners out there thatI've heard her shows and they
are very uplifting.
If someone out there would liketo just check out what you're
doing, how could they find oneof your podcasts?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I have them posted on a Facebook page called Hope
Mississippi and they're also onyour Spotify Apple.
Several different domains carryHope Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Today, Dawn is going to switch the tables on what I
hope to do in the future.
My goal is to have guests onand find out about what they do
in their creative walk in thislife, but today I'm under the
gun, so fire away.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, I'm excited to help tell your story You're
growing up and about yourwonderful book and also the many
talents that you have and whyyou appreciate the importance of
storytelling.
So the setting is Cold Springs,but that's based on your
growing up.
Where'd you grow up?
(06:36):
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
In northeast Mississippi.
There's an area there that isdifferent from any other area in
the state.
There are a lot of hills.
It's basically the foothills ofthe Appalachian Mountains,
without all the big mountainsthere mostly hills.
It's a rural area and the smalltown the main town in the
(06:58):
county is the county seat.
It's called Fulton, mississippi.
I didn't grow up in Fulton.
I grew up out from Fulton,actually about 10 miles, on a
little farm, a 60-acre farm.
While I was growing up wefarmed that little farm.
Only about half of it wascleared for fields, but I grew
(07:19):
up working in those fields andin gardens.
It's not the best place in theworld that particular area to
raise crops, but everyone raisedcrops.
Both my grandfathers werefarmers, so my father I called
him Daddy had his own littlefarm.
He bought some land from hisfather, my grandfather.
However, it wasn't a good wayto make a living, so he also
(07:44):
worked in other ways, such asmainly, I recall growing up he
cut timber for a living.
While my mother was a housewife, as most women were back in
those days we're talking aboutthe 50s and early 60s she was
actually in charge of thefarming most of the time.
I had an older brother who wasold enough to operate the
(08:05):
machinery, and he was actuallymy hero, more so than my own
father was, and so I hung aroundwith him as much as I could
growing up, but I had all thosechores that people on farms have
to do.
We had electricity but wedidn't have indoor plumbing so
there was water to be drawn fromthe well, so that was one of my
(08:26):
chores Feeding our animals,which included a mare that we
used for plowing, andoccasionally my just older than
me brother and I would ride her,but she had the unique ability
to find the nearest tree with alow hanging limb and she would
scrape us off and we neverseemed to be able to break her
of that habit.
So we eventually gave up.
(08:48):
My best friend, my runningaround buddy in those days, was
my brother, just older than me.
We had to work together and weplayed little boy games together
cowboys and Indians and allsorts of things like that
climbing.
We had three trees closetogether.
We turned those into a pirateship and we could go from one
(09:09):
tree to the other across thoselimbs.
There were vines in there thatsometimes we can swing on.
So we played a lot ofimaginative games.
Most of the games and the ideacame from my older brother and
when he got tired of them wewould just have to quit because
it's the kind of stuff that Icouldn't play alone.
So that's how I grew up.
(09:30):
I went to a little county schoolthrough the ninth grade and
then we moved on to Fulton,which again is a county seat,
and the high school was there.
There were, I think, 24 peoplein my junior high class and I
went to Fullerton.
There were 130, so I was a fishout of water for a while.
I was always a pretty goodstudent but I was intimidated,
(09:55):
especially my first year there.
But I always had these thoughtsof stories in my head that I
never tried to do anything withthem, but they were always there
.
I guess you could say I had agreat imagination.
I started really reading when Iwas around sixth grade.
I read before that picture booksand that kind of thing, but
(10:17):
today I think they're calledchapter books.
I really started reading in thesixth grade.
I read two books that reallyaffected me.
One was called the BlackStallion, which I'm sure some of
you have heard of, and theother was called Light in the
Forest.
Those were the two first longnovel-length books that I read,
and I remember being charmed andamazed by the fact that someone
(10:41):
had written words down and hereit was, on these pieces of
paper that I read, and I couldsee in my mind's eye what they
saw while they were writing it.
Now, we're all individuals, soI'm sure I saw it a little bit
differently, but that seemedalmost magical to me.
The very idea that someonecould do that held a great wish
(11:04):
inside me to be able to do sucha thing.
But as time passed, as lifegoes on, you get into your life
and you do a lot of other thingsinstead of writing.
So I was late coming to thewriting game, at least to the
point of getting my workpublished.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So let me just brag a little bit about you.
You served as a doctor for manyyears a medical doctor, and
worked with the veterans.
The VA center helped establisha pre-medical clinic in the
Hattiesburg area.
So you have done a lot ofthings before you started
writing in the last few years,right?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Oh yeah, when I was in high school I thought I hated
science.
I'd had a kind of badexperience in the ninth grade
with basic biology, but mygrades were okay Actually they
were pretty good, but I didn'treally like it that much, I
didn't think.
But in the 12th grade I decidedto take chemistry and my
(12:07):
teacher there was amazing to me.
He was such a cool guy who wasso organized, yet he allowed his
students to talk if they hadsomething to say about the class
.
And I fell in love withchemistry just basic chemistry
(12:28):
that you would learn in highschool.
I liked the way things worked,I liked the smells in the lab, I
liked everything about it.
So I decided then that I wantedto be a chemistry teacher, a
high school chemistry teacher,and I really hadn't thought
about it until the 12th grade.
So that was my goal.
I went to a community well, wecalled it a junior college, they
(12:48):
call it community college nowthey're in the small town of
Fulton and went on and graduatedfrom the University of
Mississippi, commonly called OleMiss.
I found a job teaching highschool chemistry.
Seven years I taught chemistryand physics and biology.
Those were the main courses Itaught.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Just have to make this plug Of the seven years
that you taught, three out ofthe seven you were a star
teacher and I think that's justso incredible To know you.
You're just a loving and caringperson and I think that showed
in not only your teaching.
But then how did you come to goto medical school?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Speaking of teaching, I love teaching.
I love the kids.
I always have to remember thatI taught classes that the
students that were in theregenerally wanted to be in there.
So problems with disciplinewasn't a big deal with me and I
just, I guess I had a knack withdealing with kids who got a
(13:50):
little unruly, so I never hadany major discipline problems,
had any major disciplineproblems, so that's another
reason I loved it.
I guess I taught at twodifferent schools, but at the
end of seven years of teachingwell before that last year,
somewhere in the middle of thatyear, I was going through some
(14:10):
changes in my life and I had afriend who said he'd always
wanted to go to medical school.
I really hadn't thought aboutit, although in college my
roommate was pre-med and helater was in medical school and
became a physician.
The two main girls that I datednot at the same time make that
(14:33):
note.
Actually they were best friends, but I believe it or not, it
worked out they were alsopre-med, and so when I was in
college those folks, and otherfolks too, that were in pre-med
or chemistry or pre-engineeringwould give me a hard time about
taking the hard chemistrycourses, for example, because I
(14:54):
really didn't have to take thosecourses in order to be a
teacher.
They had more teaching-relatedchemistry classes that you could
take.
That would give you thefoundation that you needed in
order to teach high schoolscience.
However, I liked the hardercourses, but I guess even more
(15:15):
than that, I liked the peoplethat were in those courses and
so I took those courses, neverthinking that in the future that
that would come back to be agreat plus for me.
So anyway, my friend mentionedmedical school and the point I
was in in my life.
I decided that I would take theMCAT, which is the test you
(15:38):
have to take in order to getinto medical school, and I did
very well on it, not because I'mthe sharpest knife in the
drawer, but because a lot of ithad to do with high school
science-related things, which Iwas very up on.
I applied for medical school atthe University of Mississippi in
Jackson, at the medical center,and I must tell this story when
(16:01):
I went there for my interview,I had three people who
interviewed me.
First was a psychiatrist whointimidated me, but I told
myself not to fidget, not totalk too much and just to answer
his questions.
So during the process of theinterview, which lasted about 15
minutes, I kept telling myselfdon't fidget, just answer the
(16:24):
man's questions, which I did.
And then I had anotherinterview with a biochemist and
then finally I met with thechairman of the selection
department.
There was an eye-opener for me.
Very nice man, gregarious, madeyou feel very at ease from the
very first, and so he asked me,I suppose, the typical questions
(16:48):
.
And then he said tell me whatyou ate growing up.
We'd already been through theprocess of telling him how I
grew up, as I've already sharedhere with you, but he said tell
me what you ate growing up.
So that kind of stumped me.
I mean, it's an easy question,but why would anyone ask that?
So I did.
I went through the list in myhead and I told him what we had
(17:11):
to eat.
And he said well, you'releaving something out.
And I said I don't think soMade me a little nervous
actually when he said that.
So I ran back through my headwhat I'd said and I just can't
think of anything else.
He said I bet you ate a lot ofpinto beans.
And I said well, yeah, that'strue, I didn't say that.
(17:31):
But yes, we ate a lot of pintobeans.
He said you know how?
I know that.
And I said no.
He said I grew up in West Texason a little farm very much like
you just told me about you grewup on, and I ate the same food
that you ate, including a lot ofpinto beans.
To this day, I'm convinced thatone of the reasons I got into
(17:54):
medical school is because I atea lot of pinto beans growing up,
and so for all you folks whomaybe like to get in medical
school, start eating pinto beans.
I mean, it's a surefire way toget in.
So you practiced medicine for 35years, basically here in
Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Enjoyed doing that, but always long to write.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yes, even when I was a teacher, I would write little
stories, and never meaning tokeep them, I would just write
them out in long hand, cursively, and those stories all were
lost.
It's probably a good thing,matter of fact, even in junior
high I wrote stories, but allthose are lost as well.
(18:38):
After practicing medicine forseveral years, I still would do
that kind of thing andeventually, some 25, almost 30
years ago now, I wrote a novel.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing, but I did it, and it was
a struggle to go from onechapter to the next and try to
(19:01):
include things that I could seein my head, because, you must
understand, I could see thesestories in my head, but then I
would put that down on paper andthen I would read it and it
didn't exactly say what I wasseeing.
So I worked at getting betterwith that.
I finished it.
I was proud that I'd been ableto do that and at that time in
(19:22):
my life I thought to myself well, I'm not going to worry about
this anymore, I've written anovel.
It's always in the back of myhead to write a novel.
So I'd done that, so I can moveon to something else.
But I shared it with threepeople and all three of those
said you should look at tryingto get this published.
And I said are you crazy?
No way I would try to get thispublished.
(19:43):
I didn't want other peopleseeing my writing.
What if it wasn't good enough?
So I guess you could say Ilacked the courage to move that
one step further, to investigatewhether or not I actually could
get it published.
And so that's where I was aboutthree years ago now.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
But all of that changed.
So tell us about your firstbook, the Death Letter.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Well, let me go back a little then to tell you about
that first book, how it came tobe.
I was nearing retirement frompracticing medicine and I knew
that I needed something to do.
I don't fish very much, I don'treally hunt at all.
I tried golf over the years andwas never very good at it and
(20:29):
didn't take the time to get goodenough at it.
I could have gone out andplayed with the doctor friends,
but I didn't want to put in thetime to be good at it.
I could have gone out andplayed with the doctor friends,
but I didn't want to put in thetime to be good at it.
Golf is one of those games thatif you don't put in the time
and do some practice, you're notgoing to be very good.
It's kind of embarrassingsometimes to go out and
(20:52):
everybody else have to wait foryou while you look for your ball
.
What could I do?
I'd had several patients overthe years who retired without
any kind of plan and it seemedinvariably they didn't live very
long.
I'd had many patients who hadplans.
There were people who didwoodworking and even made money
(21:13):
at doing woodworking.
I had all the guys that wantedto play golf every day.
And they did that.
That's what they'd alwayswanted to do.
Some wanted to travel which, bythe way, don and I like to do,
but you can't fill your lifedoing that.
I didn't think, so it came backdown to what do I really want
(21:33):
to do?
And, of course, writing cameback into my mind.
What would I write?
How would I write?
I don't know how to write.
With those thoughts in mind, Ithought I'll just write a little
short snippet of a story thatinvolves a man burying his dog.
(21:56):
And yes, that came fromsomeplace.
Don and I had a sweet black labthat wandered out into the road
and ruled Etiwama County, whereFulton is on our old farm place
.
We have that now and he was hitby a car and we had to have him
put down.
So they they being the vetclinic said we can take care of
(22:20):
the body if you want us to.
And we said no, it's our dog, Iwant to bury him.
So we got back up to our house,and across the yard from our
house there's a big pine tree,and so I commenced digging that
grave.
Don didn't like that very much.
We had tried to find someone todig it for me, but I really
(22:42):
wanted to do it myself, so westarted it, of course, ran into
roots and she went off to thenearest little town and got us a
pick.
I had an ax and a shovel and ittook me two or three hours to
dig that grave.
But I didn't rush.
I took my time, didn't hurtmyself, rested, drunk plenty of
(23:02):
water.
I've had some medical training,so I know you need to do that.
And we finished that.
We had our dog, whose name wasNoel, by the way.
He was on the front porch andwe took him out to lay him
beside the grave.
Neither one of us just wantedto pitch him in, so we carefully
(23:23):
led him down into the grave andthen we said a few words over
him and a little prayer and thenthrew in the dirt.
It was a sad moment for us, buta very graphic moment in my
mind, and it had been in my mind.
This was in August.
So in October I decided I wasgoing to write that story and
(23:47):
that was all I was going to do.
So I began the story and thenyou get hit with several
questions.
If you're going to make this astory about yourself, then it
would be me digging the grave.
But what if somebody else dugthe grave?
Who would that be?
So I had to come up with thatcharacter.
Well, since I've gone that farwith it, I thought what if
(24:10):
someone else drives up whilehe's digging the grave?
Who would that be?
And that was the first time Imet Jesse, who was the main
character in the book.
Well, why did he come?
Does he have a problem?
What's going on?
How's he related to this man?
Did he just know him?
Who is this old man digging thegrave?
Turns out he was the countysheriff and this was his we'll
(24:33):
call him adopted son.
Not exactly that, but he hadgrown up in that house.
And then the story started tocome to me.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So Cold Springs?
Actually, the idea that comesfrom the area where you grew up
in in Etiwamba County is thatright?
Speaker 2 (24:52):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And you talked about how Noel died at our house, but
that's a house on our propertyin Etiwamba County.
We live currently in SouthMississippi, but we have a house
in Etiwamba County, so that'swhere Noel passed, where you dug
the grave, and so from thereyou developed characters that
(25:15):
came into that story.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
That's right, and we have a house there, a small
house that we built some 12years ago now, but I wanted an
old house, so in my story it'san old house that's been there
since probably the 1920s,Starting with the burying of the
dog and a character driving upand the conversation between the
(25:41):
two of them out in ruralEtowahma County and I didn't
call it Etowahma County the townnearby that these characters
had more familiarity with wasCold Springs, which was really
Fulton, but I renamed it so thatI wouldn't first of all I
(26:03):
didn't want to insult anyone,maybe in the future, but also I
knew that I could put perhapsstructures in that town that are
not really there in real life.
So it just made it easier towrite about it.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It has been well received your book, the Death
Letter in the Ittawamba in NorthMississippi, because a lot of
folks can easily visualize yourcharacters right.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
That's right.
I wrote the story, sent it toone of my high school classmates
and then to a couple of otherpeople that would know their
area and asked them if theythought I had captured the area.
And they thought it was spot on.
The story itself couldcertainly have happened there.
It was more exciting than mylife was, as I was growing up
(26:54):
there.
But you know it's a novel soyou have to make it interesting.
Now.
It was well accepted in thatarea, but it was accepted all
over the state of Mississippi.
The only place I think that Ireally didn't have book signings
was over in the Delta area, butSouth Mississippi, down to the
coast, up in North Mississippi.
(27:16):
I had signings in all thoseplaces and it was in bookstores
in the state.
And so for a first-time bookfrom a local publisher, it did
extremely well that by thepublisher and some other authors
that I met over the course ofnot only my book signings but
(27:39):
just in general, because once Ibecame known as a writer then I
met other people who were tryingto do the same thing.
So the acceptance was there.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So now the death letter is coming out in a
reprint right in April.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
It'll be out in April .
The original was hardback.
I should mention how I even gotit published so that's
difficult.
Published through, actually, afriend of Dawn's who had
published, by this time I think,five books, and he put me on to
a publisher in Jackson, a smallindependent publisher who
(28:20):
looked at the book, liked it,acted also as the editor and not
only the publisher, and severalmonths later he was able to get
it out for me.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So tell us just a little bit about the death
letter.
Don't give away the surpriseparts, but just kind of a little
tease to the listeners of whatthe death letter is about.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, there is a surprise in it and no, I'm not
going to give that away.
But the reason that Jesse comesto see the sheriff is because
it's been a year now sinceJesse's wife disappeared with no
sign of anything wrong in thehouse.
He came home one day fromuniversity he has a backstory
(29:06):
himself, but basically he stayedover at the university, which
is about 70 miles away, duringthe week and went to school to
finish up his college degree.
She was a school teacher, hiswife Mary, in the local area
there.
So that was a system that theyhad.
He would go over there andspend Monday through Thursday
(29:29):
and then come home and she wouldalways be there to greet him,
except on one particular day.
He comes home and she's notthere.
Her car is missing, her dog ismissing.
He calls her parents and theysay they've been a little
worried about her, but she'sprobably just out shopping or
(29:51):
something or visiting with afriend.
She didn't come home at allthat night, so of course he's
getting even more worried.
He calls the principal at theschool and said well, she didn't
come to work yesterday eitherand we haven't been in touch
with her.
He talked to his fatherbasically his father, the
sheriff who said, well, she'sprobably just out and neglected
(30:12):
to tell you, but he agreed thatit was worrisome.
So so they come and investigatethe house.
Can find nothing out of theordinary, so eventually they
start giving up.
They even had the state policecome and investigate the
situation and nobody reallyseemed to be that concerned
anymore, except Jesse.
(30:34):
What had happened to his wife?
It's been a year, maybe shejust ran off, but why wouldn't
she let her parents know she wasclose to them?
And she hadn't let them knowanything either.
So that's the setup for thestory.
I will add here that I was at abook signing and that's
basically what I would say.
People, what's your story aboutthis particular book signing in
(30:55):
a small town, mississippi,everyone except they were all
ladies, and everyone except onehad read the book.
And the lady that hadn't readit said well, what exactly is
your story about?
And I was ready to go into thatlittle spill that I just gave
here.
And this lady popped up andsaid it's about relationships.
(31:15):
And this lady popped up andsaid it's about relationships
and it's about how mistakes youmake when you're young come back
to haunt you later.
And I said may I use that somany times.
That's what I say, instead ofgiving the story the back story
that I just gave you about it.
That's what it's about.
It's done well.
(31:37):
It's been called a page-turner.
People from all over, fromevery strata of life those with
money, those who don't have muchmoney teachers, doctors,
loggers, bankers have allthoroughly enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Lots of twists and turns.
I don't know how you know havesuch an incredible imagination
adultery, crystal meth labs,murder, all kinds of things all
rolled up in one.
You just never know whatdirection it's going to turn,
and I'm very proud of you andwhat you have done with that.
(32:16):
Now you've got a second bookthat's out.
Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
The second book.
First, let me tell you how Icame to write this particular
book.
I was well on the way ofwriting a second book and Donna
and I were talking one night.
She said you know you shouldwrite about human trafficking.
And I said I don't knowanything about human trafficking
other than the very superficialthings that most people who
listen to the news or read thenews know about what a scourge
(32:45):
it is right now.
But I can learn.
And so I went online and boughtsome books and read those books
and started really perusing theinternet for stories.
I decided, well, I was going todo it, and I came up with a
story about a young 16-year-oldgirl who gets caught up in human
(33:06):
trafficking.
Well, that part wasn't so hardto come up with because it
happens all the time.
I looked for a little bitdifferent device to write about,
first of all, to make the story, and the second thing was to
make it as real as I could, in away that people understood that
(33:27):
this could happen to literallyanyone 16 years there are cases
down to 9 or 10 years old peopletaken into human trafficking,
male and female, mostly femalesand so I wrote about her, who's
a total innocent who was pulledinto human trafficking through
(33:48):
no fault of her own and wasstuck.
How can we help her get unstuck, was my thought.
That's the gist of the story.
You learn about what she goesthrough.
Again, it's set in cold springs.
Again it's set in cold springs,and so it occurred to me.
Just like we are today, if wedon't know much about it, it
(34:13):
goes on all the time and we'rehere amongst it.
So what about the other peoplein town?
Did they know this was going on?
Well, of course they didn't.
What are they doing?
They are living their life, butI want to write about them as
well, but I wanted to putsomething in there that made it.
So there's a reason for them toget interested in her
(34:35):
predicament, and so it's kind ofa parallel storyline.
That storyline begins inMilwaukee, and I love Milwaukee.
I spent three years there whenI was doing my medical residency
, and so I started it there, andeventually everybody ends up in
(34:55):
Cold Springs, and then we justhave to see what happens to her.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
But again, the consistency of relationships.
You have lots of very healthyrelationships and then unhealthy
relationships and that book iscalled the Bondage of Innocence,
but it also helps people toopen their eyes to the idea that
human trafficking can be rightunder your nose and you just
(35:22):
don't realize that's going on.
I know you've got our AttorneyGeneral, lynn Fitch, who's
written a brief statement on theback, and also you have
information in there about howfolks can learn about human
trafficking and be a part of thesolution.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
That's true, and along with that, in one of the
books that I read, it waswritten by a lady from Oregon
who specializes in rescuingmainly adult women from human
trafficking.
It's a fascinating book, and Inyour Own Backyard is the name
of it.
I highly recommend it if youhave an interest in learning
(36:03):
more.
But when I finished the roughdraft, I decided I needed
someone who knew what they weretalking about to look at it and
see how far off from whatreality is.
Did I write this book?
Because I wanted to be sure notto write something that wasn't
(36:26):
based on the truth of theproblem.
And so I emailed herorganization and, lo and behold,
the next day she emailed meback and said I have a little
time now, send it to me and I'lllook at it.
And so she did.
And a couple of weeks later shesent it back, said I really
enjoyed your story.
Uh, you wanted somerecommendations, and here they
(36:48):
are.
And she gave me about fourrecommendations and I followed
all those to a t.
So I'm comfortable that there'sa lot of truth in it.
People ask if my stories areeven with the first book, if
they're based on fact, and myanswer answer and I mean this is
I don't know how you writeanything fiction-wise that isn't
(37:12):
somewhat based on fact, becausewe live our lives and we learn
things and we can read a lot offiction, which I've done over
the past but it doesn't stick inyour mind for the most part
like what really happens in lifeand affects people.
So that was my goal with thisbook is to make it as accurate
as I could.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And so where can folks get a copy of your latest
book, the Bondage of Innocence?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Well, this is by a different publisher, an original
publisher out of the Jacksonarea.
As I've already mentioned,fabulous gentleman by the name
of Joe Lee Doesn't work outsidethe state of Mississippi and
doesn't have any wish to do that.
He's an author in his own rightand he's a very good editor as
(38:00):
well.
So I decided to look foranother way to get my books out
there.
And because, again through Dawn, her sister's husband had had
dealings with a company calledMorgan James out of New York and
they have several sites aroundthe country, as a matter of fact
(38:20):
, internationally they agreed topublish it.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Do you have any other books in the works in the
pipeline?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
She asked that as if she didn't know, didn't she?
Yes, busy at work, editing andfinalizing my third book, the
Cotton House.
That will involve a lot ofthings in the way that I grew up
.
It's set more in the past thanit is the present.
I don't know exactly when it'llbe published, but we already
(38:49):
have one book new book and areprint coming out this year.
So it'll come out no later thannext year, and I'm basically
working now on my fourth book,fire Tower.
It has to do with some thingsthat happened also in the more
recent past and also in the morerecent past.
All of these are set in thatsame area, around the basic
(39:11):
place that Jesse grew up andwhere the sheriff was.
All involve the town of ColdSprings, and there are other
surrounding towns that I don'tchange the names of.
For example, there are scenesin Tupelo, there are scenes in a
little town called Belmont,things in Birmingham and things
in Memphis.
I'm comfortable there.
(39:32):
So my plan is I'll probablynever write anything other than
set in those areas, but that onewould come out, I guess, two
years from now, about 15,000words into it.
I have in my mind what happens.
I just need to write it out.
When I write my stories I maynot know exactly where I'm going
(39:58):
, but Stephen King once saidthat create your characters,
create their surroundings andwrite about them, and you will
be amazed at some of the thingsyour characters do.
And I've had characters saythings or do things that were
not even in my head until theyended up on I shouldn't say on
paper, but the computer as Ityped it.
So I'm comfortable now inknowing that I can write a book.
(40:21):
I'm comfortable in knowing thatit'll have an end point and I
have gained the confidence thatI need to do those.
So, as I'm doing this new bookthat I mentioned that will come
out hopefully in two years itstill has a lot of work to be
done on it, scenes to write, butI know basically how it's going
(40:42):
to end.
Once you get to that point andknow where you're headed, it
makes it much, much easier toget there.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I'm so proud of you for taking on writing and for
really the wonderful commentsthat I've heard along the way as
people have read your work.
So what about this podcast?
What is your vision for that?
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Well, what a great question.
I would like to talk aboutcreativity in general.
There's so many stories outthere that really aren't shared
that often.
You can hear them on specialtybroadcast, I guess, or on public
radio.
But there are people who dothings that are very creative
(41:26):
that we kind of pass by and notconsidering them creative.
Now, I'm sure many of you havegone to someone who's a
woodworker, builds things andkind of explain what you want
and they say, well, tell meabout it.
And then they come up with it.
They're very creative that way.
(41:46):
Not only with that.
But what about musicians, forexample?
Don and I recently met a verytalented cellist.
He's been all over the worldplaying his music.
He's well thought of, so peopleknow about him.
He might have stories and we'veheard some of his stories.
(42:07):
That would be good for astorytelling time like this,
with all of his abilities to becreative and what he's done with
his life.
So there are just so manyavenues.
So that's my goal to maybe haveone podcast a month, maybe some
more often if I run acrosspeople that I want to go ahead
(42:29):
and get recorded so that we'llhave their story down.
But from the mundane storiespeople would consider mundane,
of how you build something inyour woodworking shop to the
sublime stories of aworld-renowned cellist.
(42:51):
But they have that thing incommon they're creative and
they're creators.
And that's not something thatis just for certain people.
There are many, many peoplewith that gift.
Many of us don't use them veryoften and it's the kind of gift,
(43:13):
say, a woodworker.
You might even have the gift ofwoodworking, but if you don't
ever try and hone your skills,you'll never be a great
woodworker.
Same thing with musicians, samething with chefs they have to
learn and work at their craft.
So those are the kind of things.
And then, obviously, I want totalk to writers and novelists
(43:38):
about how they create thestories that they put out there
and how they create theircharacters.
I'm sure I'll learn a lot.
So that's my goal for this.
I'm excited about it, veryexcited about it.
I think the possibilities aregreat for doing this.
It's just another creative sideof my personality that I can
(43:58):
use.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
We talked about your book writing, but you've also
been very active in the theater.
I'm reminded, the first time Iever met you, you were running a
guitar and singing.
So you come at this through avariety of experiences.
What is your hope to accomplishwith your podcast?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I think, for people to know that there are other
people who are out therecreating things, and my hope
would be for those who, like Iwas at one time, don't have the
courage to step out and try todo something on their own, or
that's passed them by.
(44:39):
They're maybe no longerparticularly young, or maybe
they're young and nobody's evertold them they're good at some
particular something, that theywill hear the stories of these
folks and they will then stepout and reach into themselves
and get in touch with their owncreativity, because I assure you
(45:00):
it's there.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
And it's very rewarding when we share that
creativity with others.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
I can't think of anything more creative than that
.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Well, honey, I think that's about a wrap for today.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
My goodness, that went by quickly.
I hope it was that way for thelistener.
Join us next time for our nextedition of Stories from Cold
Springs, and thank you forlistening.
God bless.
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