October 24, 2023 • 22 mins
Bruce Lindsay spent nearly four decades on television reporting on many of history's defining moments. Now it's his turn to answer a few questions as our guest at The Book Drop Mic. Join us as we discuss his beautiful new book: The Christmas List of Richard Lindsay.
Buy Bruce's new book:
https://shadowmountain.com/product/the-christmas-list-of-richard-lindsay/
Learn more about Bruce:
https://shadowmountain.com/author-book/bruce-lindsay/
Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com
About the book:
Based on a true story of a boy who helps bring Christmas to his family despite the hard times of the early 1930s.
Young Richard wonders if Christmas will come this year. Money was tight for most families during the Great Depression, and the Lindsay family was well-acquainted with hardship. When Richard asks his widowed mother about Christmas, she reassures him that their family has everything they need. Without a Christmas turkey, they will have the fat red rooster from the chicken coop.
“What about the rest of Christmas?” Richard asks. “Where will that come from?”
His resourceful mother invites him to write down the names of people he loves, and asks, “How could you share Christmas with them?”
Richard has an idea. He has exactly one dollar in coins that he’d saved from neighborhood jobs. He will buy everyone on his list a five- or ten-cent present from the corner store.
With his Christmas list in hand, he chooses a handkerchief for Grandma Emma, a tin of marshmallows for his brother, hair clips for his big sisters, and crayons for little Grace. He finds bookmarks for his teachers and his uncles. He even picks out a red jawbreaker for his best friend, Heber. But what should he buy his mother? On Christmas morning, Richard is excited to see the joy on the face of each person on his list, especially his mother’s.
The beautifully illustrated picture book by award-winning illustrator Dan Burr brings to
life this meaningful story about the joy of giving and bringing happiness to the people you love at Christmastime.
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello there, world.
Welcome to the Book Drop, mike,brought to you by Ink Veins,
your source for book publicity,promo and press releases.
This is, of course, your host,jason Wright.
And listen, if you havefollowed me, you know that I
love Christmas books.
I have loved reading Christmasbooks my entire life.
I have loved listening to justthe perfect Christmas story
(00:26):
whether it's the originalChristmas story or any just
beautiful Christmas story duringthe holidays, since I was very,
very young and I've written afew Christmas books myself.
But I particularly lovechildren's picture books wrapped
around this holiday.
So when I heard about the bookthat we are discussing today, I
was giddy.
I'm so excited, honored towelcome to the Book Drop Mike,
(00:49):
bruce, lindsay, hey, bruce.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hey, jason, thank you very much it is.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
we were just saying before we started recording.
We're on Zoom so I get to lookat you and it's like I'm looking
at my television when I livedback in Pleasant Grove all those
years ago.
How is retirement treating you,bruce Lindsay?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I highly recommend it .
I mean not for you immediately,but life is good.
Every day is good, jason, it'sa delight to be able to have a
little extra time to do things.
Actually, that's the reason Igot involved in this book.
I had a little extra time,something that had been knocking
around in my mind for years,and so it's liberating.
Thank you, life is good.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Good Well, you deserve to feel that way.
By golly, you spent.
How many years were you ontelevision?
Tell us a little bit about that37, I think it's the correct
count.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
That's enough.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Was that all in KSL?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
No, no, that was mostly KSL.
I spent a couple of years inLos Angeles, a little time in
Las Vegas just getting startedout, but yeah, pretty much Salt
Lake City was the most of thetime.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Well, certainly we have a lot of listeners out west
who will recognize you by thethumbnail that we'll put up for
this episode.
Recognize your handsome faceand your voice, of course, rings
so familiar in my ears fromyears of watching you on the
news.
Tell us a little bit about whoBruce Lindsay really is.
(02:17):
How did you end up number oneon camera?
And then what was the decidingfactor?
To say you know what?
This has been an incredible run.
I think I'm ready to step awayand do some other things.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Okay, to your first question.
It just rings a bell that Ihadn't put together before,
jason.
But actually the reason I woundup on camera is a Christmas
story.
I have put that together untilthis very moment.
When I was in grade school Ithink I was in second or third
grade there was in the schoolnewspaper Plymouth School News.
(02:53):
We had the Christmas edition ofthe Plymouth School News.
That's as a second grader Ioffered my first Christmas story
that I wrote.
It was pretty much a retellingof the nativity and it was a
pretty stark, as I couldn'tspell beautiful.
But there was a girl who was acouple of years ahead of me.
In fact I remember her name butout of respect on a podcast
I'll keep it to myself.
She was older and wiser by acouple of years.
(03:16):
Not a lot of children listen tothe podcast.
I can go ahead and talk aboutsome sensitive issues, okay.
So her story was why I knowthere is a Santa Claus and she
knew there was a Santa Clausbecause the night on Christmas
Eve her parents were away andshe went through the entire
house, the closets that sell her, everywhere, and she scoured
(03:38):
the place and there was noevidence of any of Santa's swag
that was going to show up, butthere it was the next day, so
she knew there was a Santa Claus.
Well, I had an inquiry mindeven in the second grade, and I
had that appeal to thescientific method let's go give
it the test.
And so I found myself homealone and did the same
(04:00):
experiment she did, and I had avery different result, jason.
I found everything.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But what I found was my greatest wish, my fondest
wish, my most memorableChristmas gift from Santa.
It was an eight millimeterwind-up brownie movie camera
with film.
You know what film was?
I mean film, it predates you.
But that just really geeked meout and I became the
neighborhood chronicler ofinconsequential stuff on my
(04:30):
wind-up movie camera and thatprogressed into a hobby and
later bought a better camera anda sound projector and learned
how to edit film not video, butfilm tell stories.
So by the time I was in highschool for a number of reasons,
including the fact thatbroadcast journalism didn't seem
to entail a lot of math, I justfelt words and pictures and
(04:56):
telling stories with pictures.
So it was kind of a natural.
And television news was in itsalmost its adolescence, it was
just coming of age and I wasvery enamored with that.
So it was a natural fit and itwas a good fit for me.
It played to my strengths andkind of helped me minimize my
weaknesses and so I felt like itwas a good fit.
(05:17):
That's kind of how it happenedas a result of that Christmas
present and that terrible,wonderful discovery.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I love that.
How old do you think you wouldhave been then, did you?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
say I would have been eight, or nine.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Okay, well, so about the same time I was living in
Chicago, illinois.
We had been there a couple ofyears.
I would have been well, Icouldn't have been nine because
we'd moved to Charlottesville,virginia, by then.
So I was seven or eight.
But I had a similar experiencewhere I got up in the middle of
the night on Christmas Eve and Ifound a bicycle for me it was
(05:56):
obviously for me and not one ofmy siblings and I could not
believe that Santa had broughtme this same bike that I had
been asking for, not somethingsimilar, but the same cheap bike
I had been asking for and so Iwas too afraid to get on it.
But I pushed it down thehallway of our little ranch home
(06:20):
and back down toward the tree,and my sister told me the next
day that when we got up shethought something was amiss.
The bike had been moved.
I guess I had moved some stuffout of the way.
But I did not become as aresult of that a professional
racer or ever, or bronze oranything.
I don't have quite the samekind of anchor experience there,
(06:42):
but I do love that.
I can just picture you backthen again for those of you
listening who are not as old aswe are, where we actually had
these things that were calledactual cameras with real film
inside, and I remember being atBYU years ago and watching an
actual film that some studentshad done being edited and just
(07:06):
spliced and cut, and spliced andcut and literal pieces of film
falling to the floor andlearning what that meant the
scenes that end up on thecutting room floor.
Boy, things have changed just alittle bit, huh.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
They have.
You only had one chance on thatedit.
I mean when you tore the filmwith your bare hands using the
sprocket hole.
It's the start it was.
It was done.
That was your edit right.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That was it.
Yeah, that was it.
So okay, so now we get to, soyou retire about a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
About a decade ago, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And you're doing what you're doing some consulting,
some writing, some speaking.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Well, I thought of doing all of that and I had well
, I had certain notice that Iwas retiring about a year.
I wanted to give the stationnotice.
After 37 years, you know youowe them a little notice and you
work on contracts and five yearcontracts.
And so we had a very friendly,amicable discussion that this
has been a great run for me andI'll be 62.
(08:07):
And I think that'd be greattime for me to move on and do
something else.
But so that was all prearranged.
Then I was invited with my wifeand our son to do some church
service out of the country forthree years, and so that was an
abrupt transition and post thatthere was some reacclamation
(08:31):
into civilian life and digitalconsulting, found out that the
world kind of moved on in termsof the digital world and we made
a little contribution there.
And then we've enjoyed ourgrandchildren, we travel, we,
you know, write once in a whileand life has been good, and so
(08:52):
that's kind of my story.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
So then, how do we get to the day when you sit
either with your wife or yourfamily, or perhaps you had a
connection already with withShadow Mountain, with the
publisher and this, this notionof the Christmas list of Richard
Lindsay comes to mind this,this brand new children's
picture book, which, of course,will have links to where folks
(09:15):
can find it in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Well, actually it started long before that,
probably, jason, a good 25 yearsago, because the kernel for
this story is a series of eventsthat really happened but I was
familiar with, I heard aboutmany, many, many times and, of
course, in my life, and at least25 years ago, I looked on my
(09:38):
computer files it was about 25years ago I once started
gathering string and trying towrite some, you know, rough
draft of a Christmas story, andit never really had time to
focus on it or publish it, nordid I really know what it was I
wanted to say, but it was twoyears ago, roughly a little more
(09:59):
than that.
I was sitting where I'm sittingnow.
I'm in a vacation home andwe're sitting in this chair and
I really want to do.
I really want to put thistogether.
There's something I want to say, and I discovered the message
that I really wanted to share.
So I wrote a draft in anotherviewer.
You're a writer, you know howthis works.
You don't just write it andhand it in right, you go over
(10:19):
and over and over and over andgot into where I thought well,
so I'm willing to share thiswith somebody else.
And so I wrote my first eversubmission letter to publishers
and I sent it off, sent it toShadow Mountain, and their
website didn't have anyconnections.
Their website said give us sixweeks or whatever it was here.
And six weeks went by and 12weeks went by and months went by
(10:43):
.
Well, we'll keep sending thisto some others.
And then, out of the blue, Igot a phone call.
It had been I don't know fiveor six months.
They said we're reallyinterested in your book.
I'd like to think aboutpublishing it a year from
Christmas.
So it took a while but the bestpart is in the interim.
(11:04):
They signed up Dan Burr to bethe illustrator and more than
half of a wonderful illustratorChristmas book is the
illustrations.
Last week my wife and I had theprivilege of going to Idaho and
meeting with Dan for the firsttime.
With MediMonzum We'd done a lotof you know back and forth,
consulting and through the artdirector, but what a gifted
artist.
(11:25):
And the purpose of a children'sChristmas book, in my humble
opinion now, being a grand dad,you know is to sit down with a
child next to you or in yourarms of you know it's a close
enough child and read aChristmas book aloud.
And this was the favoritetradition in the Lindsay home
for years and years and yearsand we have stacks of Christmas
(11:47):
picture books.
We got one, you know, everyyear in world.
So that's a lot of picturebooks, and on an open stairway
that comes up from our kitchenmy wife stacks these and on
between the bollisters up allthe steps as part of the ringing
out Christmas.
I love that, and whether thechildren are home or
grandchildren are home, even now, to me it just means the world
(12:09):
to sit down with some reallygood.
There's some stinkers, butthere's some really, really good
Christmas books that are just adelight to take a few minutes
and to share.
But I wrote this specifically tobe read aloud and there are
elements that make that possibleand make that desirable.
As a news writer, our trainingwas to be accessible in our news
(12:33):
company, not to use great bigPaulus, a lot of big words.
You know we don't say dumb itdown, but just make it
accessible.
And so aren't any great bigwords in this story and it took
me a long time to boil that down.
I see Shadow Mountain said thisis suitable for four to eight,
which I hope it's not off.
(12:54):
Putting that that means thatmeans you know, at a reading
level you can absorb that.
But there are levels of meaning, I think, in this book that
grow over time.
To somebody even as old as you,jason can say oh, there's an
insight, that's a, that's a gem,that's something that I can
take away for Christmas.
And let's face it, christmasbrings out the inner child in
(13:14):
all of us, unless we areevidence or Scrooge.
And then even he came around.
So I, like you, I love picturebooks for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, well said and I could not agree more.
The perfect children's bookit's.
It's got to convey, read aloud.
You just have, you have to beable to sit on their bed or by
the fire or in the living roomor wherever you are, and read it
and have that, have that childglued to the illustrations and
(13:45):
just just sort of listening.
I, I do love.
I love a good read aloud.
So the illustrations in thebook by neighbor are phenomenal.
I noticed, my wife and I bothnoticed as we read through it.
The illustrations pull you inas if you are there and that's
really really hard to do in achildren's picture book and, as
(14:06):
you said, not not all of them doit really well.
We're being polite, some arenot as great as others, but this
is so.
It's the colors, the setting,the lighting, even on the
illustrations it pulls you inand you feel like you are the
silent participant to the scenesas they unfold.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I was delighted at what he did Another kind of a
gem.
Some Easter eggs he hid inthere for me.
I sent down a lot of visualmaterial to say, since this is
based on a series of real eventsand real people, some
photographs, pictures,photographs from this.
This is a story from 90 yearsago.
This Christmas it sounds like along time ago, yeah, 1933.
(14:55):
And so it shows real placesthat are no longer.
I'm old enough to remember them, but they're gone now and I've
had a lot of really interestingreaction the last few weeks
since the books been publishedpeople I didn't know who are
from the same area it's.
Oh, I recognize that school, oh, I recognize the store.
Dan just did a wonderful jobcapturing not only a time period
(15:18):
but the actual ethos of wherethese real events took place.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, the art is beautiful.
I wonder when you wrote thisand you submitted it and you
waited those long, long weeks tohear back?
I don't know exactly what thatis like, but did you allow
yourself to imagine how specialthat would be to walk into a
(15:45):
bookstore which I'm sure you'venow done and to physically see
the book on a shelf, on aChristmas table or under the new
arrivals?
I mean, did you allow yourselfto imagine what that might
actually feel like?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Actually I haven't been in the bookstore yet to see
it, but I've had others havesaid this.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
You better get into the bookstore Berthunze.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Really no, but I'll tell you this.
When I received my first copyof the book, I had that
experience.
I guess that you're alluding tothat.
It's like, oh my word, this isa fulfillment of not only time
and work but a lot of emotionalinvestment.
You look at it, it's kind oflike a newborn baby.
(16:25):
What part looks like me andwhat part looks like her?
What did the artist contribute?
It's a wonderful thing.
It's pretty heady experience.
I guess that's why you keepwriting books, huh.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It is.
It is a heady experience and itis why I keep writing and it
never gets old.
I just opened a couple of weeksago and saw my Christmas book
with Jenny Oaks Baker, which, ifyou go back to the show notes
folks, you can find the episodeof Jenny and I discussing that.
I had the same experience Ithink that's book 18 or 19 and
opening the box with my wife andpulling it out and seeing it
(16:57):
for the first time.
It is a heady experience Foryou, I'll say, and I remember
another writer explaining thisto me when my first book came
out and asking me how does itfeel to know that, yes, your
family will buy it and read itand your friends will buy it and
read it, and maybe folks fromyour congregation will buy it
and read it and you know themand you've been in their home
(17:18):
and you maybe even know wherethe book will sit on their
bookshelf or on their mantel.
But you don't know all of thepeople, thousands of people
around the country, maybe evenaround the world, who you'll
never meet.
You don't know their names andthey only know you because they
got an Amazon recommendation ora Barnes and Noble
recommendation or whateverrecommendation, they picked the
(17:38):
book up and they took it home.
Now it means something to themand in this case, as a
children's Christmas book, itmeans something extra special to
them and for years this bookwill become for that family in
Idaho or California or New Yorkor Canada, a part of their
tradition.
And you don't even know whothey are and you'll never meet
them and you'll never get tothank them.
(17:59):
And that for me, knowing thatthere would be thousands of
people with something I createdthat would become a part of them
, we'll talk about a headyfeeling for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Well, it's rewarding and you hope that it gives a
contribution, because if you hada good book and there are lots
of good books and you've had achild, and you've had a
Christmas tree or a fire andyou've read the story, a story
you know how wonderful that is.
So, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So before we ask you what's next, I just have to ask
the elevator pitch.
You know what the elevatorpitch is.
You've been in the business along time, so you've got
somebody in the elevator.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I always worked on the first floor.
But go ahead, we'll try, allright.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Well, you've been called up to the boss's office
for 30 seconds.
What is the?
And again, all of this will bein the show notes, but what is
the 30 second pitch for thisbook?
What is it really about at itscore?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Okay.
At its core, this book is notabout the hardship, although
there's hardship At its core.
This book is not about anyspecial present, although there
are presents.
At its core, this book is aboutan amazing Christmas gift that
I hope people will celebrate andthat is the gift that's hiding
in plain sight and that is thegift of people to love and that,
(19:17):
for the character in the bookand, I hope, for the reader, is
a very satisfying discovery thatChristmas is filled with joy,
not because many of you give oryou get, but look around you at
the people you're blessed withto love.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Amen, amen and amen.
There's our soundbite for theinterview.
That's perfect.
It's hard sometimes to talkabout our own books, in
particular, to do it in thatlittle elevator pitch, but that
makes me want to end thisinterview abruptly and go home
and reread it again.
You're so right.
It's about the love, the lovethat we give, the love that we
(20:00):
share, the love that we're notjust willing to give but to
receive.
Very well said.
Before we say goodbye, tell uswhat's next.
I mean, you've got one underyour belt.
Are there more books to come?
What sort of things do you seein your future?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well, a dozen or 15 years ago I produced another
book which was kind of ananthology of short stories said
in a delightful town that'sbarely fictitious out west here.
It was based on hometownnewspapers.
I was a fan of those hometownweekly newspapers People who
(20:41):
went on a trip and who hadso-and-so for Sunday dinner and
who went to the doctor and whatfor, if they'll tell you.
It was a little expose of thestory behind the stories in all
those hometown newspapers.
It was a very lightheartedthing.
I had a lot of fun with that.
In the last 15 years most ofthose hometown weekly newspapers
have not done well in thedigital age.
(21:03):
I'm feeling it's time torevisit partly growth and see
how things are going in theabsence of the newspaper.
That's, in the back of my mind,something I'm doing with.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I like that.
I like that Well betweenspending time with your family
and your faith and thosegrandkids I'm sure you love very
much.
I, for one, hope that you dofind time to revisit that.
I'd love to have you back onthe show sometime and let's talk
about whatever the next projectis.
Folks, go pick this book up,buy a copy for yourself.
(21:40):
Buy a copy, or 10, or 20, or 30for your neighbors, people you
go to church with, people thatyou miss, or two and love.
Don't just give the book but,more importantly, give a little
bit of yourself, give a littlebit of love for Christmas.
Thank you, bruce, you're thebest.
Thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Thank you, jason.
I'm very grateful.
Merry Christmas to you when itcomes around.
Bye, bye, bye.
Hello there, world.
Welcome to the Book Drop, mike,brought to you by Ink Veins,
your source for book publicity,promo and press releases.
This is, of course, your host,jason Wright.
And listen, if you havefollowed me, you know that I
love Christmas books.
I have loved reading Christmasbooks my entire life.
I have loved listening to justthe perfect Christmas story
(00:26):
whether it's the originalChristmas story or any just
beautiful Christmas story duringthe holidays, since I was very,
very young and I've written afew Christmas books myself.
But I particularly lovechildren's picture books wrapped
around this holiday.
So when I heard about the bookthat we are discussing today, I
was giddy.
I'm so excited, honored towelcome to the Book Drop Mike,
(00:49):
bruce, lindsay, hey, bruce.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hey, jason, thank you very much it is.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
we were just saying before we started recording.
We're on Zoom so I get to lookat you and it's like I'm looking
at my television when I livedback in Pleasant Grove all those
years ago.
How is retirement treating you,bruce Lindsay?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I highly recommend it .
I mean not for you immediately,but life is good.
Every day is good, jason, it'sa delight to be able to have a
little extra time to do things.
Actually, that's the reason Igot involved in this book.
I had a little extra time,something that had been knocking
around in my mind for years,and so it's liberating.
Thank you, life is good.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Good Well, you deserve to feel that way.
By golly, you spent.
How many years were you ontelevision?
Tell us a little bit about that37, I think it's the correct
count.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
That's enough.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Was that all in KSL?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
No, no, that was mostly KSL.
I spent a couple of years inLos Angeles, a little time in
Las Vegas just getting startedout, but yeah, pretty much Salt
Lake City was the most of thetime.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Well, certainly we have a lot of listeners out west
who will recognize you by thethumbnail that we'll put up for
this episode.
Recognize your handsome faceand your voice, of course, rings
so familiar in my ears fromyears of watching you on the
news.
Tell us a little bit about whoBruce Lindsay really is.
(02:17):
How did you end up number oneon camera?
And then what was the decidingfactor?
To say you know what?
This has been an incredible run.
I think I'm ready to step awayand do some other things.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Okay, to your first question.
It just rings a bell that Ihadn't put together before,
jason.
But actually the reason I woundup on camera is a Christmas
story.
I have put that together untilthis very moment.
When I was in grade school Ithink I was in second or third
grade there was in the schoolnewspaper Plymouth School News.
(02:53):
We had the Christmas edition ofthe Plymouth School News.
That's as a second grader Ioffered my first Christmas story
that I wrote.
It was pretty much a retellingof the nativity and it was a
pretty stark, as I couldn'tspell beautiful.
But there was a girl who was acouple of years ahead of me.
In fact I remember her name butout of respect on a podcast
I'll keep it to myself.
She was older and wiser by acouple of years.
(03:16):
Not a lot of children listen tothe podcast.
I can go ahead and talk aboutsome sensitive issues, okay.
So her story was why I knowthere is a Santa Claus and she
knew there was a Santa Clausbecause the night on Christmas
Eve her parents were away andshe went through the entire
house, the closets that sell her, everywhere, and she scoured
(03:38):
the place and there was noevidence of any of Santa's swag
that was going to show up, butthere it was the next day, so
she knew there was a Santa Claus.
Well, I had an inquiry mindeven in the second grade, and I
had that appeal to thescientific method let's go give
it the test.
And so I found myself homealone and did the same
(04:00):
experiment she did, and I had avery different result, jason.
I found everything.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But what I found was my greatest wish, my fondest
wish, my most memorableChristmas gift from Santa.
It was an eight millimeterwind-up brownie movie camera
with film.
You know what film was?
I mean film, it predates you.
But that just really geeked meout and I became the
neighborhood chronicler ofinconsequential stuff on my
(04:30):
wind-up movie camera and thatprogressed into a hobby and
later bought a better camera anda sound projector and learned
how to edit film not video, butfilm tell stories.
So by the time I was in highschool for a number of reasons,
including the fact thatbroadcast journalism didn't seem
to entail a lot of math, I justfelt words and pictures and
(04:56):
telling stories with pictures.
So it was kind of a natural.
And television news was in itsalmost its adolescence, it was
just coming of age and I wasvery enamored with that.
So it was a natural fit and itwas a good fit for me.
It played to my strengths andkind of helped me minimize my
weaknesses and so I felt like itwas a good fit.
(05:17):
That's kind of how it happenedas a result of that Christmas
present and that terrible,wonderful discovery.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I love that.
How old do you think you wouldhave been then, did you?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
say I would have been eight, or nine.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Okay, well, so about the same time I was living in
Chicago, illinois.
We had been there a couple ofyears.
I would have been well, Icouldn't have been nine because
we'd moved to Charlottesville,virginia, by then.
So I was seven or eight.
But I had a similar experiencewhere I got up in the middle of
the night on Christmas Eve and Ifound a bicycle for me it was
(05:56):
obviously for me and not one ofmy siblings and I could not
believe that Santa had broughtme this same bike that I had
been asking for, not somethingsimilar, but the same cheap bike
I had been asking for and so Iwas too afraid to get on it.
But I pushed it down thehallway of our little ranch home
(06:20):
and back down toward the tree,and my sister told me the next
day that when we got up shethought something was amiss.
The bike had been moved.
I guess I had moved some stuffout of the way.
But I did not become as aresult of that a professional
racer or ever, or bronze oranything.
I don't have quite the samekind of anchor experience there,
(06:42):
but I do love that.
I can just picture you backthen again for those of you
listening who are not as old aswe are, where we actually had
these things that were calledactual cameras with real film
inside, and I remember being atBYU years ago and watching an
actual film that some studentshad done being edited and just
(07:06):
spliced and cut, and spliced andcut and literal pieces of film
falling to the floor andlearning what that meant the
scenes that end up on thecutting room floor.
Boy, things have changed just alittle bit, huh.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
They have.
You only had one chance on thatedit.
I mean when you tore the filmwith your bare hands using the
sprocket hole.
It's the start it was.
It was done.
That was your edit right.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That was it.
Yeah, that was it.
So okay, so now we get to, soyou retire about a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
About a decade ago, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And you're doing what you're doing some consulting,
some writing, some speaking.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Well, I thought of doing all of that and I had well
, I had certain notice that Iwas retiring about a year.
I wanted to give the stationnotice.
After 37 years, you know youowe them a little notice and you
work on contracts and five yearcontracts.
And so we had a very friendly,amicable discussion that this
has been a great run for me andI'll be 62.
(08:07):
And I think that'd be greattime for me to move on and do
something else.
But so that was all prearranged.
Then I was invited with my wifeand our son to do some church
service out of the country forthree years, and so that was an
abrupt transition and post thatthere was some reacclamation
(08:31):
into civilian life and digitalconsulting, found out that the
world kind of moved on in termsof the digital world and we made
a little contribution there.
And then we've enjoyed ourgrandchildren, we travel, we,
you know, write once in a whileand life has been good, and so
(08:52):
that's kind of my story.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
So then, how do we get to the day when you sit
either with your wife or yourfamily, or perhaps you had a
connection already with withShadow Mountain, with the
publisher and this, this notionof the Christmas list of Richard
Lindsay comes to mind this,this brand new children's
picture book, which, of course,will have links to where folks
(09:15):
can find it in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Well, actually it started long before that,
probably, jason, a good 25 yearsago, because the kernel for
this story is a series of eventsthat really happened but I was
familiar with, I heard aboutmany, many, many times and, of
course, in my life, and at least25 years ago, I looked on my
(09:38):
computer files it was about 25years ago I once started
gathering string and trying towrite some, you know, rough
draft of a Christmas story, andit never really had time to
focus on it or publish it, nordid I really know what it was I
wanted to say, but it was twoyears ago, roughly a little more
(09:59):
than that.
I was sitting where I'm sittingnow.
I'm in a vacation home andwe're sitting in this chair and
I really want to do.
I really want to put thistogether.
There's something I want to say, and I discovered the message
that I really wanted to share.
So I wrote a draft in anotherviewer.
You're a writer, you know howthis works.
You don't just write it andhand it in right, you go over
(10:19):
and over and over and over andgot into where I thought well,
so I'm willing to share thiswith somebody else.
And so I wrote my first eversubmission letter to publishers
and I sent it off, sent it toShadow Mountain, and their
website didn't have anyconnections.
Their website said give us sixweeks or whatever it was here.
And six weeks went by and 12weeks went by and months went by
(10:43):
.
Well, we'll keep sending thisto some others.
And then, out of the blue, Igot a phone call.
It had been I don't know fiveor six months.
They said we're reallyinterested in your book.
I'd like to think aboutpublishing it a year from
Christmas.
So it took a while but the bestpart is in the interim.
(11:04):
They signed up Dan Burr to bethe illustrator and more than
half of a wonderful illustratorChristmas book is the
illustrations.
Last week my wife and I had theprivilege of going to Idaho and
meeting with Dan for the firsttime.
With MediMonzum We'd done a lotof you know back and forth,
consulting and through the artdirector, but what a gifted
artist.
(11:25):
And the purpose of a children'sChristmas book, in my humble
opinion now, being a grand dad,you know is to sit down with a
child next to you or in yourarms of you know it's a close
enough child and read aChristmas book aloud.
And this was the favoritetradition in the Lindsay home
for years and years and yearsand we have stacks of Christmas
(11:47):
picture books.
We got one, you know, everyyear in world.
So that's a lot of picturebooks, and on an open stairway
that comes up from our kitchenmy wife stacks these and on
between the bollisters up allthe steps as part of the ringing
out Christmas.
I love that, and whether thechildren are home or
grandchildren are home, even now, to me it just means the world
(12:09):
to sit down with some reallygood.
There's some stinkers, butthere's some really, really good
Christmas books that are just adelight to take a few minutes
and to share.
But I wrote this specifically tobe read aloud and there are
elements that make that possibleand make that desirable.
As a news writer, our trainingwas to be accessible in our news
(12:33):
company, not to use great bigPaulus, a lot of big words.
You know we don't say dumb itdown, but just make it
accessible.
And so aren't any great bigwords in this story and it took
me a long time to boil that down.
I see Shadow Mountain said thisis suitable for four to eight,
which I hope it's not off.
(12:54):
Putting that that means thatmeans you know, at a reading
level you can absorb that.
But there are levels of meaning, I think, in this book that
grow over time.
To somebody even as old as you,jason can say oh, there's an
insight, that's a, that's a gem,that's something that I can
take away for Christmas.
And let's face it, christmasbrings out the inner child in
(13:14):
all of us, unless we areevidence or Scrooge.
And then even he came around.
So I, like you, I love picturebooks for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, well said and I could not agree more.
The perfect children's bookit's.
It's got to convey, read aloud.
You just have, you have to beable to sit on their bed or by
the fire or in the living roomor wherever you are, and read it
and have that, have that childglued to the illustrations and
(13:45):
just just sort of listening.
I, I do love.
I love a good read aloud.
So the illustrations in thebook by neighbor are phenomenal.
I noticed, my wife and I bothnoticed as we read through it.
The illustrations pull you inas if you are there and that's
really really hard to do in achildren's picture book and, as
(14:06):
you said, not not all of them doit really well.
We're being polite, some arenot as great as others, but this
is so.
It's the colors, the setting,the lighting, even on the
illustrations it pulls you inand you feel like you are the
silent participant to the scenesas they unfold.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I was delighted at what he did Another kind of a
gem.
Some Easter eggs he hid inthere for me.
I sent down a lot of visualmaterial to say, since this is
based on a series of real eventsand real people, some
photographs, pictures,photographs from this.
This is a story from 90 yearsago.
This Christmas it sounds like along time ago, yeah, 1933.
(14:55):
And so it shows real placesthat are no longer.
I'm old enough to remember them, but they're gone now and I've
had a lot of really interestingreaction the last few weeks
since the books been publishedpeople I didn't know who are
from the same area it's.
Oh, I recognize that school, oh, I recognize the store.
Dan just did a wonderful jobcapturing not only a time period
(15:18):
but the actual ethos of wherethese real events took place.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, the art is beautiful.
I wonder when you wrote thisand you submitted it and you
waited those long, long weeks tohear back?
I don't know exactly what thatis like, but did you allow
yourself to imagine how specialthat would be to walk into a
(15:45):
bookstore which I'm sure you'venow done and to physically see
the book on a shelf, on aChristmas table or under the new
arrivals?
I mean, did you allow yourselfto imagine what that might
actually feel like?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Actually I haven't been in the bookstore yet to see
it, but I've had others havesaid this.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
You better get into the bookstore Berthunze.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Really no, but I'll tell you this.
When I received my first copyof the book, I had that
experience.
I guess that you're alluding tothat.
It's like, oh my word, this isa fulfillment of not only time
and work but a lot of emotionalinvestment.
You look at it, it's kind oflike a newborn baby.
(16:25):
What part looks like me andwhat part looks like her?
What did the artist contribute?
It's a wonderful thing.
It's pretty heady experience.
I guess that's why you keepwriting books, huh.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It is.
It is a heady experience and itis why I keep writing and it
never gets old.
I just opened a couple of weeksago and saw my Christmas book
with Jenny Oaks Baker, which, ifyou go back to the show notes
folks, you can find the episodeof Jenny and I discussing that.
I had the same experience Ithink that's book 18 or 19 and
opening the box with my wife andpulling it out and seeing it
(16:57):
for the first time.
It is a heady experience Foryou, I'll say, and I remember
another writer explaining thisto me when my first book came
out and asking me how does itfeel to know that, yes, your
family will buy it and read itand your friends will buy it and
read it, and maybe folks fromyour congregation will buy it
and read it and you know themand you've been in their home
(17:18):
and you maybe even know wherethe book will sit on their
bookshelf or on their mantel.
But you don't know all of thepeople, thousands of people
around the country, maybe evenaround the world, who you'll
never meet.
You don't know their names andthey only know you because they
got an Amazon recommendation ora Barnes and Noble
recommendation or whateverrecommendation, they picked the
(17:38):
book up and they took it home.
Now it means something to themand in this case, as a
children's Christmas book, itmeans something extra special to
them and for years this bookwill become for that family in
Idaho or California or New Yorkor Canada, a part of their
tradition.
And you don't even know whothey are and you'll never meet
them and you'll never get tothank them.
(17:59):
And that for me, knowing thatthere would be thousands of
people with something I createdthat would become a part of them
, we'll talk about a headyfeeling for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Well, it's rewarding and you hope that it gives a
contribution, because if you hada good book and there are lots
of good books and you've had achild, and you've had a
Christmas tree or a fire andyou've read the story, a story
you know how wonderful that is.
So, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So before we ask you what's next, I just have to ask
the elevator pitch.
You know what the elevatorpitch is.
You've been in the business along time, so you've got
somebody in the elevator.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I always worked on the first floor.
But go ahead, we'll try, allright.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Well, you've been called up to the boss's office
for 30 seconds.
What is the?
And again, all of this will bein the show notes, but what is
the 30 second pitch for thisbook?
What is it really about at itscore?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Okay.
At its core, this book is notabout the hardship, although
there's hardship At its core.
This book is not about anyspecial present, although there
are presents.
At its core, this book is aboutan amazing Christmas gift that
I hope people will celebrate andthat is the gift that's hiding
in plain sight and that is thegift of people to love and that,
(19:17):
for the character in the bookand, I hope, for the reader, is
a very satisfying discovery thatChristmas is filled with joy,
not because many of you give oryou get, but look around you at
the people you're blessed withto love.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Amen, amen and amen.
There's our soundbite for theinterview.
That's perfect.
It's hard sometimes to talkabout our own books, in
particular, to do it in thatlittle elevator pitch, but that
makes me want to end thisinterview abruptly and go home
and reread it again.
You're so right.
It's about the love, the lovethat we give, the love that we
(20:00):
share, the love that we're notjust willing to give but to
receive.
Very well said.
Before we say goodbye, tell uswhat's next.
I mean, you've got one underyour belt.
Are there more books to come?
What sort of things do you seein your future?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Well, a dozen or 15 years ago I produced another
book which was kind of ananthology of short stories said
in a delightful town that'sbarely fictitious out west here.
It was based on hometownnewspapers.
I was a fan of those hometownweekly newspapers People who
(20:41):
went on a trip and who hadso-and-so for Sunday dinner and
who went to the doctor and whatfor, if they'll tell you.
It was a little expose of thestory behind the stories in all
those hometown newspapers.
It was a very lightheartedthing.
I had a lot of fun with that.
In the last 15 years most ofthose hometown weekly newspapers
have not done well in thedigital age.
(21:03):
I'm feeling it's time torevisit partly growth and see
how things are going in theabsence of the newspaper.
That's, in the back of my mind,something I'm doing with.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I like that.
I like that Well betweenspending time with your family
and your faith and thosegrandkids I'm sure you love very
much.
I, for one, hope that you dofind time to revisit that.
I'd love to have you back onthe show sometime and let's talk
about whatever the next projectis.
Folks, go pick this book up,buy a copy for yourself.
(21:40):
Buy a copy, or 10, or 20, or 30for your neighbors, people you
go to church with, people thatyou miss, or two and love.
Don't just give the book but,more importantly, give a little
bit of yourself, give a littlebit of love for Christmas.
Thank you, bruce, you're thebest.
Thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Thank you, jason.
I'm very grateful.
Merry Christmas to you when itcomes around.
Bye, bye, bye.
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