A teenager sent to rehab without ever touching drugs. A yellow‑Formica childhood stitched with bullying and bravado. A school shooting buried by a bigger headline. Jessica Danel’s story doesn’t ask for sympathy—it demands your attention and rewards it with candor, humor, and hard‑won wisdom. We sit down with Jessica to unpack the heartbeat behind her memoir, Bucket List from a Redneck Girl, and the Just Saying podcast she launched to give other moms a place to breathe.
Jessica walks us through the chapters that shaped her: Park Circle friendships and Catholic school scars, an El Camino first love on her terms, and a wedding day so chaotic she calls it “Jerry Springer.” She shares how she built a 208‑child preschool from her living room—then watched the 2008 crash squeeze the life out of a thriving business while her newborn needed open‑heart surgery. The conversation turns deeply personal as she details her daughter’s ongoing medical journey, a later genetic answer—16p11.2 duplication—that reframed years of questions, and the daily realities of autism, speech delays, and sensory‑driven anxiety. We talk inclusion that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, the steep jump from elementary to high school supports, and the small, stubborn wins that keep families going.
Through it all, Jessica’s voice stays warm and grounded. She owns her mistakes, explains how reconciling with her mom reshaped old narratives, and offers clear advice on marriage (be friends, share goals, compromise) and advocacy (document, ask, try again tomorrow). If you’ve ever felt misread by the systems meant to help, this conversation will feel like a hand on your shoulder. Stream the episode, grab the book on Amazon, Apple Books, or Barnes & Noble, and follow Jessica on Instagram, TikTok, and X. If the story moved you, subscribe, share with a friend who needs hope today, and leave a review—your words help others find ours.
Manifest your dreams with Happily Ever After: a cosmic toolkit for real life change.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
SJ CHILDS - SOCIALS & WEBSITE MASTER LIST
WEBSITES
- Stream-Able Live — https://www.streamable.live-COMING SOON
- The SJ Childs Global Network — https://www.sjchilds.org
- The SJ Childs Show Podcast Page — https://www.sjchildsshow.com
YOUTUBE
- The SJ Childs Show — https://www.youtube.com/@sjchildsshow
- Louie Lou (Cats Channel) — https://www.youtube.com/@2catslouielou
- Personal Profile — https://www.facebook.com/sara.gullihur.bradford
- Business Page — https://www.facebook.com/sjchildsllc
- The SJ Childs Global Network — https://www.facebook.com/sjchildsglobalnetwork
- The SJ Childs Show — https://www.facebook.com/SJChildsShow
- https://www.instagram.com/sjchildsllc/
TIKTOK
- https://www.tiktok.com/@sjchildsllc
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjchilds/
PODCAST PLATFORMS
- Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/4qgD3ZMOB2unfPxqacu3cC
- Apple Podcasts — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sj-childs-show/id1548143291
CONTACT EMAIL
- sjchildsllc@gmail.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
SJ Child Show is back for its 13th season.
Join Sarah Bradford and the SJChild Show team as they explore
the world of autism and sharestories of hope and inspiration.
This season, we're excited tobring you more autism summits
featuring experts and advocatesfrom around the world.
Go to SJchilds.org.
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
The heart of the city, she shines bright.
Oh yeah.
Stories of love and courage allthroughout the night.
SPEAKER_01 (00:35):
Hello, we're back at the SJ Child show today.
I am excited to bring Jessicain.
Is it Daniel?
Daniel?
I was, I didn't want tomispronounce it.
SPEAKER_04 (00:46):
It's Danelle.
SPEAKER_01 (00:48):
Danielle.
See, I would have, anyways.
Thanks so much for doing thatfor me.
Oh, it's so nice to have youhere.
I'm really excited to get intothis conversation, learn more
about you, find out what you'redoing, how we can support you.
So without further ado, pleaseintroduce yourself.
Tell us a little bit about youand what brought you here today.
SPEAKER_04 (01:07):
Well, thank you for having me on.
I do appreciate it.
Um, yes, my name is JessicaDonnell, and I just recently
wrote a book about my crazylife.
Um, and I started a podcastcalled Just Saying with Jessica
Donnell um about my crazy bookand about my crazy life and
about what happens, you know,stories about motherhood.
(01:29):
Um, I do have a child, I havetwo children with autism.
Um, and um I write about it inmy book, and um, I talk about it
a lot because it's hardnavigating through um something
you've never, you know,experienced.
And I understand certain thingsthat maybe moms that are just
(01:50):
going through it might not know.
So I talk about it on mywebsite, but I mean on my
podcast, excuse me.
And um, but we also talk aboutother things like um, you know,
uh when moms stop feeling uhworthy or they have mom guilt,
and which we all get a lot ofthat.
I have that a lot.
Um, and so those are some of thetopics I I basically based it on
(02:13):
my book.
So I have a so many differentthings that I put in my book
that I feel people can relateto.
And so we talk about, I don'treally go by it by chapter, but
there are certain things in mybook that I can I can talk about
that um because I obviously Idefinitely want to drive people
to my book because I think it'sa very funny, uh sad, and
(02:35):
relatable topics all througheach chapter.
And I think, like I said, Ithink people will see a little
bit of themselves in my book,and it's an easy read.
I have people said, Oh my god, Iread it in like a um less than a
day and a half, you know, likeit was just very quick.
And it's very it's like one ofthose things that's like, well,
how I'm talking to you is kindof how I wrote my book.
(02:56):
You have a copy of it with you,you can show us.
Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, here.
SPEAKER_01 (03:00):
Excellent.
Bucket list from a redneck girl.
Oh, I love that.
I gotta put that up really fast.
SPEAKER_04 (03:06):
That is so cute.
And so all the pictures are I Idesigned the cover too, and all
the pictures are just me, youknow, of my life.
And um, there's actuallypictures in the book too.
Um, not that I'm full of myself,but it's because um, you know,
Facebook and Instagram,everybody, what do they do when
you go to somebody's page?
(03:26):
You go straight to their photosand you stock them in the
photos, you know.
You want to see all, you want tosee everything.
So I felt like, well, I'm justgonna, I'm an open book,
literally.
I always tell people that I um Iwear my personality on my
sleeves and I carry all of mystories in my back pocket.
And I used to always do that.
And people are like, dude, youshould go write a book because
those stories are crazy, and Ican't believe those are true.
(03:47):
And I'm like, I swear,everything I'm telling you is
the absolute truth.
It knows nuts, but it's so true.
Everything happened to me inthis way, and I would tell it,
and they go, You should write abook.
So I decided one day to do it,you know.
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
Congratulations on doing that too.
Well, thank you.
It's important.
It's I think it's important asyou know, I one time had a it
was a reading uh professor, likehe, you know, went and taught
all the people about reading,why reading was good, about you
know, it was like more than justa reading tutor, like this guy
was like the reading professor,and he said something that I'll
(04:23):
never forget, and that is if youhave a story, you have an
obligation to the world to shareit because there's something in
that story that's gonna bedifferent or relatable for
anyone to be able to get in thatexperience from, so yeah,
because no nobody I know of hasbeen well, I'm sure there's
people out there, but start mychapter, my first chapter off.
SPEAKER_04 (04:44):
It's called Never Believed, and that's because my
parents dumped me, and I saydumped, and that's really not
the right word, but okay,dumped.
They dumped me in a drug rehabwhen I've never done drugs.
Never, ever.
Um, and so um here I was as ateenager, you know.
I I um wrote um for the schoolnewspaper, I was the school
(05:07):
photographer, I did this um ayearbook, I was a cross-country
track and basketball in sports,I was an officer for one for my
class, um, the rallycommissioner.
Um, I had lots of friends, and Inever went to parties.
I think I went to two my wholehigh school existence, and I
write about that in the booktoo.
(05:27):
But um, but like my parents justalways just saw the bad in me
and always thought I was doingsomething, and they put me in a
drug rehab, and so I was andthen when the back then in the
90s was 91 when it happened, um,they took my blood work and
said, Oh yeah, she's not ondrugs.
So then four years, four fourfour years, four days later, but
(05:50):
I had to spend four days in thisplace with a bunch of drug.
And in my lens of um, you know,a sports person, and I mean, I
thought I was I was in likeprison.
I thought I was in a prison.
It was terrible.
So I write about that in thevery beginning, but um I truly
believe that I've been through alot of different things in my
life because God was setting meup for the things that I have to
(06:14):
deal with with my kids and somethings in life.
And I felt like um, you know,when I was little, um I was
bullied a lot.
Um I have a lazy eye, I don'tknow what you would call it,
it's lazy eye.
And I um I was always calledPopeye.
Like kids were mean, and calledme Popeye, which was sucked
(06:36):
because Popeye was my favoritecartoon.
I loved it.
SPEAKER_01 (06:39):
Well, girl, look, I have these little ears because
it's called outer ear microcia.
And my whole life, guess what mynickname was?
Little ears, until I wasliterally in my 30s and someone
yelled little ears across thegrocery store at me.
Come on.
Like it doesn't get any worse,girl.
So I'm right there with you.
(07:00):
And in in fact, I too was putinto a place that I was not uh
should not have been a part of,and was there un totally against
my will because because theadults in my life were being
dishonest and were seeingthinking that I was the same
way.
Sounds like you suffered thatsame consequence.
SPEAKER_04 (07:22):
Isn't it crazy?
See, you'll find something.
See, I found somebody that canreally relate.
SPEAKER_01 (07:27):
We didn't even know before we got here, guys.
Oh my gosh.
So true.
And people probably don't knowthose things about me.
So that might be somethingpeople are just now hearing for
this.
SPEAKER_04 (07:35):
See, well, there you go.
I'm breaking breaking bread, andwe're also learning some things.
Um, yeah, so my one of mychapters is called The Popeye
Girl.
I mean, I lean into it.
I have uh um, I had twosurgeries when I was younger,
and so and as I write my book, Iwrite it in a way where I'm
talking to you, the reader, um,as I was thinking it during that
(07:57):
time.
So some of the thoughts might bea little not juvenile, but um,
you know, a little youngthinking.
And and as I get older, you'llsee my thoughts change.
And um, you know, I'm growinginto my adult self and the
confidence is getting better.
And um yeah, so I I do feel likeyou'll see, man, she's full of
(08:19):
herself, but it's not true.
I always felt like I was lessthan, but um, I never let people
think that I thought that way.
Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01 (08:27):
Yeah, absolutely.
No, masking is a big is a bigthing that I think that females
more than less are are requiredto do to be part of society.
So I couldn't agree more withthat.
And yeah, the challenges that wedo go through in our early life,
um, you know, whether or not wecan kind of step outside our now
(08:51):
lives to look to see how theyalign, generally do, and
generally have kind of set us upfor something that might be more
difficult for us in the futureto be able to embrace and say,
hey, I got through that sh I canalso get through this.
SPEAKER_04 (09:07):
I know one of the chapters in my book, I'm kind of
telling you chapter by chapterin a in a way because I kind of
want to touch on it a little bithere and there, but one of the
chapters was um the belt, thehand, or the hanger.
And so if you lived in the 70sand 80s, and that's how my dad
would um ask me how I wanted it,he would ask me the belt, the
hand, or the hanger.
(09:27):
And um, of course, I would saythe belt, and why?
Because my dad was six, threeand 220 pounds, and had his
hands were ginormous, and youknow, it was forceful when he
spanked you.
Um, the hanger always left weltsand for days, and that stung.
And sometimes my dad would hitme with the belt because he'd
have me over his knees and he'dhit me with the belt, but he'd
(09:50):
it would wrap around and itwouldn't really hurt, but then I
would cry harder, like I'dpretend like it did.
I'm like, oh gosh, that wasterrible.
I did the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01 (09:58):
I said, Oh, that didn't hurt.
SPEAKER_04 (10:00):
Oh no, not me.
I I I was like, that meant no,no more, no more.
And I was thinking, like, thatdidn't really hurt, but
whatever.
SPEAKER_01 (10:08):
I was dumb.
I said, uh, and that didn'thurt.
And they went, Oh, okay, abigger belt.
Got it.
SPEAKER_04 (10:14):
Yeah, right.
I don't think I might have donethat one time, I but I probably
learned my lesson is what I did.
But then it was funny because Iwas asking my mom, I'm like, I
never saw my brothers or sistersbecause I have two sisters and a
brother.
Um, I'm the middle girl, so Ihave an older sister, younger
sister, and an older brother.
And the brother, of course,could do no wrong.
(10:35):
And so, in fact, the the back ofmy book, it says, Marsha,
Marsha, Marsha.
If you understand what thatmeans, then you'll appreciate
this book.
Because I mean it's so true.
Yeah, I I I guess I was likeJan, I don't know, but um, so
but yeah, that nobody in my nokids in my family were ever uh
disciplined in that way.
And I asked my mom why, andshe's like, I don't know why,
(10:58):
you know, you know, um, it'sfunny because okay, let me tell
you a quick story.
I'm gonna digress just a bitch.
Just just a bit, a bit.
Oh my god, I can't see the wordlike three times.
SPEAKER_03 (11:09):
I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_04 (11:11):
This is great.
Okay, so when I was writing mybook, um, after I thought I I
got when I when the publishers,because I Christian Faith
Publishing took my book, andwhen they took my book, um I
thought it was at a place thatwas okay fine.
I can now share with friends tosee if they like it too.
And um, I went to Postnet, whichis a place here in California,
(11:34):
and it's kind of like uh Kinkosor like um a place that you can
print or send me all.
And so I went to post it and Igave them my book and I said,
please print up four five copiesor whatever.
And they were like a lot ofpages, and um, they said come
back in like three days, and Idid.
And um, I went back in, andeverybody that was there, and I
(11:55):
guess somebody somebody thatwasn't there, they go, Um, don't
be mad, but we downloaded yourbook.
Oh, and they said, reading it,and this one boy goes, I'm on
chapter three, you know.
And and so it was like a youngman um and a young lady and an
older lady, and I guess somebodyelse that worked wasn't there,
(12:15):
but he also was reading at homeat home, not just at work.
Like, and I felt like saying,like, well, no, but that wasn't
great, but I'm I was I was happyto get the feedback.
And one of the girls said, I Iswear you're you're talking
about me in there.
And so I just was like, I feltso warm, like that's great, like
that's exactly what I want.
(12:36):
I really want people to find alittle piece of themselves in my
words, and um I hope that's whatit does for people.
Um, I mean, you know, books arehard to sell, not many people,
unless you're on like major TV,nobody's gonna read your book.
But that's why I'm doing thesepodcasts because I want people,
I want to drive people to mybook because it's a very
(12:56):
interesting story, and I'm notjust trying to toot my little
horn.
SPEAKER_01 (13:00):
But um, that's what you're here for.
SPEAKER_04 (13:03):
It's a funny story.
It's a funny story.
So then I um I talk about in mybook, I talk about my my friends
and my neighborhood.
They're um the streets, not thestreet, but the neighborhood we
lived in.
We called it Park Circle.
And so I called one of mychapters Park Circle Friends,
and it's really a testament tohow close of uh friendships we
all had.
And it's almost like I mean,like the kind of like stand by
(13:27):
me kind of um friends that youknow you would play outside
until, of course, like everyonesays, the lights come on, or
right before it gets dark, youknow, and you come in and you're
all filthy and you you got holesin your knees and and your
jeans, and your mom's like,What'd you guys what'd you do?
Ah, nothing, you know, and thenshe's putting patches on your
knees, like these shiny patches.
(13:48):
Like I could have jeans, and mymom would put satin patches on
my knees.
Like, don't ask me why.
I would have to go through.
I would have I would have bluejeans and red satin patches on
my knees.
You know, she she didn't care.
It's like you know, it's sofunny, it's like just just leave
(14:08):
a holes.
Why does it have to have a patchover it?
Does it can't nowadays you haveyou buy the holes, right?
SPEAKER_01 (14:14):
You don't even buy whole jeans.
SPEAKER_04 (14:18):
Back then your mom was like, gotta put a patch on
it.
And I'm like, No, you don't.
Anyways, um, so but I meanthat's just kind of the era we
lived in, but which is the bestera, by the way, people.
SPEAKER_01 (14:30):
Loved it, loved it for real.
Love and hate.
It's a love-hate relationshipwith that.
SPEAKER_04 (14:37):
And then you know, the funny thing about my book
too is I put little Easter eggsall throughout the book.
So, like I talk about my yellowfor Micah kitchen because
everything in the kitchen wasyellow.
And for my yellow for Micah,everything was yellow, it was
all yellow.
I mean, and then the cabinetswere dark brown, so yellow and
dark brown.
It would, I mean, it looks likeCharlie Brown in my in my
(14:58):
kitchen.
It was crazy.
Everything in my house was likeeither yellow or brown.
I mean, it was gross.
But um, yeah, so little Eastereggs throughout the whole thing.
You know, I was singing,listening to Linda Ronstadt with
my mom's Avon brush.
You know, Avon was a big thingback in the day, her little pink
Avon brush.
But I mean, I just put littleEaster eggs in there about what
(15:20):
it was like to live during thattime.
And people read I go, I had thattoo.
Oh yeah, we went down thegeneric aisle in the in the you
know, my generic aisle was whiteand one was yellow.
So those were my generic colorson our in our in our
supermarket.
But I digress, I'm I'm going offon a tangent.
(15:40):
Um so I I went to privateschool, I went to public school.
I talk about um being going toprivate school and being slapped
around by the nuns, or no longera nun is what it's the chapter
is called, because they're nolonger nuns, but they still
slapped you around like youwere, like they were the nun,
you know.
Yeah, and I went so I went toCatholic school, um, but I used
to go to different all myfriends is different churches.
(16:03):
And so I grew up Catholic, butI'm no I don't consider myself
Catholic anymore.
I still have Catholic guiltbecause that is ingrained in
you.
I mean, and but I but I do um atthe time I was exploring
different religions and um youknow um but I was um yeah, I was
raised in the that Catholicschool was terrible, but I talk
(16:26):
about that in the book a littlebit.
And then I talk about highschool and how important high
school was and I wouldn't changea thing, that I loved it so
much, it was so great, you know.
Uh talk about losing myvirginity, which is like the
embarrassing, but I do talkabout it because it's something
that happens in life, and uhmine just so happened to happen
in the front of an El Camino.
(16:47):
But um, you know, yeah, I'lltalk about it.
It's funny.
Um, I took charge.
It wasn't something that itwasn't something I was afraid
of, it was something that Iwanted to do.
So I went there, I talk aboutit.
Um, and then I I had a threeo'clock high thing where
somebody wanted to kick my buttat school, and uh, anyways, just
(17:09):
like in the movies, like I'mgonna get you after school.
It was like such a big thing,and it was such a big thing at
my school.
It was insane.
There was a car, there was likea 1520 car caravan on the way to
the event.
It was just insane.
And I talk about that, and thenum something something happened
(17:31):
terrible to my high school.
We had a high school shooting,and it was one of the first in
America back in 1992.
And the reason why I didn't geta lot of coverage is because the
Rodney King verdict came out onthe 29th of April, and then the
riots, and then the next day theriots continued, and then the
next day was my shooting on aMonday.
(17:52):
Monday, and uh, we knew thegentleman that did it, he went
to our school, uh, graduated afew or a few years or no, he
didn't even he didn't graduatewith his friends.
That's why he came back to theschool uh to kill the um the
civics teacher, yeah.
The civics teacher that didn'tpass him, and so he he killed
(18:13):
the civics teacher and three ofmy friends, and um he shot nine
others and held like 80 hostagesfor like 12 hours.
It was an event.
Um it was terrible, but um, Italk about that in the book, and
then also um, you know, there'sa movie that was made of my high
school shooting with RickySchroeder, um, the Fonzie
(18:34):
Fonzie, which is Henry Winkler,right?
I keep forgetting his name, andthen Freddie Prince Jr.
They did a movie, um, you canfind it on Prime video, and it's
um called uh uh Siege at JohnsonHigh.
But but the but the uh or youcan look it up.
Look up Lyndhurst High Schoolshooting and it'll and and the
(18:58):
movie, and I think there's twodifferent names.
I'm not sure why.
I think maybe it was picked upby a different company or
something and renamed, but um,you can find both, I think, on
Amazon Prime, and uh so they didmake a movie about it.
It's very, very sad.
I can't I've only seen it once,I can't watch it.
It's too much.
SPEAKER_01 (19:15):
Yeah, oh I bet too much.
SPEAKER_04 (19:18):
Um, a lot of things have happened to me, and then so
uh there's more to the story.
I was hit by drunk drive.
I my car almost exploded with mein it, and there's just some
other things that have gone onthat I swear is the truth.
Um, and then um I wanna I have astory, I have a chapter called
My God Story because um I was abrat and I took off with my
(19:39):
friend to Utah.
And um on the way home toCalifornia, I because I can get
lost in my own neighborhood,like legit, this is the truth.
I went the wrong way and weended up in Idaho.
SPEAKER_01 (19:52):
Oh gosh.
Not so hard to do, not so hardto do here, believe me.
SPEAKER_04 (19:57):
I am the wrong way, and um, we ran out of gas, we
had no gas to get home.
I was 17 years old, and we madeit home, and it's a true, true
story, and you will not believea word of it, but it is
absolutely the God's honesttruth.
Every single last word, it'svery crazy, and I'm not gonna
say much more because thatchapter is so amazing that I I
(20:18):
want everybody to like just belike, What the hell?
Yes, so crazy.
Um, and so then I met my husbandin a nightclub.
He was a bartender, I was acocktail server, and we dated
for three years and then gotmarried.
We've been together 28 years alltogether.
Um married 25 years and stayingstrong.
(20:39):
And um, I mean, you know,marriage is not the easiest
thing in the world.
You've got to have compromise,and uh, you gotta be friends and
you gotta love each other, andyou guys have want to have the
same goals.
Those are my three advices likebe friends, have the same goals,
and remember to compromise.
And we have our roles, you know.
I like to cook and clean and dothings in the house, and he
(21:02):
likes to do all the other stuffoutside.
So he does his things, I domine, and we stay, we stay
happily married.
Um, and we um I have astepdaughter, and I talk about
um her mom um and therelationship between like I call
her bio mom, which isn't reallynice, but um, it's a terror.
SPEAKER_03 (21:21):
I do that same thing.
SPEAKER_04 (21:24):
Yeah, she's terrible.
I mean, terrible.
And we were in court.
Um, she would take us to courtall the time.
I ended up being in court and inlabor.
I started it was labor, and theydidn't believe she didn't
believe me.
And my husband's like, I need togo, we need to go.
(21:44):
She's in labor.
She I was having labor pains thenight before, but I didn't know
it was my first kid, right?
So I thought I just had Ithought I had a pee lot.
So I'd get up every 10 minutesto go to the bathroom.
Little did I know.
And so by the and I was gettingout of the car at the um at the
courthouse, and I was gettingout and I had my first major
contraction because I wasstepping down, and whatever I
(22:06):
was moving my however I wasmoving my body, I screamed out
loud, and my husband was like,Oh my god, was that a
contraction?
And I'm like, I don't know.
Like, I don't know.
And so then he was like, andthen I it was weird.
I had a contraction, and I waslike, Oh, I'm fine, and then I
would walk, la la la la la.
And then all of a sudden I'mlike, oh god, yeah.
And I go, oh, I'm fine.
(22:28):
It was so weird.
And then we we were in the andthen all of a sudden this lady
there, she goes, You're having ababy, like right now, dude.
Like you were having a baby.
You better go.
I was calling my mom.
I'm like, Mom, what should I do?
You know, she's like, go home orgo to the hospital.
And I wasn't about to have mykid in Long Beach because I
lived in Palm Springs at thetime.
And Doug's sister was gonna bethe well, she's a neonatal nurse
(22:50):
and she was gonna deliver.
And so I was like, I want mysister-in-law to deliver my
baby.
I don't want some, you know,yeah, I just didn't want my baby
born in in uh um Long Beach.
So then Doug had to stay therebecause they wouldn't postpone
it.
And I, my sister, picked me upand she drove me four hours in
(23:10):
traffic because that's what it'slike from Long Beach to Palm
Springs in California, eventhough it's a two-hour drive,
it's a four-hour drive intraffic and drove me home and I
had my baby, and Doug got therejust like 20 minutes before the
baby was born.
So it worked out, but crazy mom,back to the story, crazy biomom.
Um, I talk about the stories inthere, and I know a lot of
(23:31):
people will relate to all thestories.
If you're a stepmom and you, youknow, you totally will see the
story.
You totally will relate to whatI talk about because it's just
hard.
Um, and I treat my stepdaughterlike she's one of my own.
And she did eventually move inwith us during her like high
school years.
And I would say like the teenageyears was like giving birth, so
(23:54):
I always say like she's mine.
Yeah, like you know, it's a hardtime.
Um, so then I um I had a we hada son, and then my daughter came
along eight years later.
We all our kids are like eightyears apart.
Wow, I know I have a 32, a 24,and a 15-year-old.
SPEAKER_01 (24:11):
Oh my goodness.
And I'm 25, 16, 25, 15, and 13.
So we had that one big gap, butshe's my stepdaughter as well,
the 25-year-old.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (24:23):
Um, but um, I mean, we have a good relationship,
obviously.
But I mean, it's was reallytough at times and um it was not
easy.
But um, so then my son was born.
Um he we found out hasAsperger's.
And um, because he like thinkslike in a concrete, you know, he
(24:45):
won't think outside.
He's super intelligent though,like very bright.
I mean, super, super bright.
Um, and then my daughter eightyears later was born.
Well, first I skipped a littlebeat.
Okay, so I built one of thelargest preschools in
Bakersfield.
Um, yeah, it holds 208 kids.
Um, it was a 10,000 square footbuilding and a and a 30,000
(25:08):
square foot play yard.
And I built it from my livingroom, and I so I had a daycare
at home, and then I I built ontoa church or I had a church give
me one of their buildings, and Idid it there for a little while.
And then I had so I had thefamily and the church together.
And then somebody said, Myneighbor behind me, which I was
watching his kids, he goes, Ijust bought a commercial
(25:28):
property.
Do you want to build a preschoolon it?
And I'm like, um, yeah.
And he goes, I'll build theshell, and then you put the you
build the inside and theoutside.
And so um the shell was like 4.2million.
So I was like, Yeah.
SBA loan.
And I put it together businessplan.
I talk about it in the book,like I didn't know what I was
(25:50):
doing, I didn't have a degree ornothing.
I put together a business plan,and then I um I got a loan for
$700,000 or just under$700,000uh for the insides and the play
yard.
And I was off to the races, andit was great business at first,
and then the economy at 2008came around and it was like wah
(26:10):
wah wah.
And uh then my daughter wasborn.
Uh, I mean, I held it in.
I held it.
I we were doing good for acouple years, and then I got
pregnant, and then my which wasa miracle because I we were
trying for so long, eight years,like finally.
Um, and then um, so she was bornand needed open heart surgery.
(26:32):
And um my my focus was not onthe school, and I was shelling
money into the program becausewe went from we had like 188
kids down to 88 kids, and it wasreally difficult to um to
sustain that.
And my my daughter needed melike by her side at every
(26:52):
minute.
Um, so she had her open heartsurgery, it goes good, but um, I
talk about it in the book.
I mean, if you've never had yourbaby, infant, child ripped from
your arms to take to be to betaken to surgery.
I mean, it's like it is a thing,and a lot of different things
happened during that time thatare just unique to me and my
husband that I you won't believewhen I tell you the things that
(27:13):
we happen to us.
So um that's why the story ispretty interesting.
And then um, you know, we hadher chromosomes checked, and
they said, Oh, her chromosomesare fine, she has no problems
there.
Um, when two and a half, wefound out she had cerebral
palsy.
Well, and she has speechproblems.
Come to find out, my poor child,um we just checked her
(27:35):
chromosomes this year againafter 15 years because they said
that technology has changed.
Come to find out, my daughterhas what's called 16p uh.11.2
with duplication.
And anybody that has ever heardthat will know exactly what I
mean.
Or if you look this up,16p.11.2.
(27:59):
Um, and um and with duplication,what it means is um she has like
a mosaic of extra chromosomes inthis 16 chromosome P thing, and
which causes her to one of thethings is I'll have autism.
The other thing is um delayedeverything, uh speech,
(28:21):
specially.
And my daughter still, she's 15,you still can understand her.
Yeah, she leaves off thebeginning and the end of a word,
and so you kind of have to guesswhat she's talking about.
So now I just say, just type iton your phone.
Yeah, yeah.
Sorry, girl, type it on yourphone.
Um yeah, so she she had uh whatI thought was uh she was cute
(28:42):
and unique, and she's verysociable.
This is the thing, and soeverybody used to say, Oh no,
these she's she's just goingthrough something, she doesn't
have autism, she doesn't.
And um, but when she's gettingolder, and you can see that that
what she was doing as a littlegirl, which she was still doing
at 13, 14, now 15.
(29:04):
And um, you know, she flaps herhands um when she's excited,
she's just like does that a lot.
And um uh totally you can seethat it's not what it's not like
what they were saying.
She definitely something waswrong.
So I had her um a doctor come inand he goes, Yeah, for sure,
(29:26):
with the chromosomal andwhatever she has autism level
one, so it's not like severe,severe, but it's like, and I
asked him, I go, Well, do youthink that she's somebody that
can be live on her own?
And he said, No, like just thetime that he spent with her.
But I pray that that's not thetruth.
But I um so my daughter wentthrough surgeries, she's gonna
go through surgery every 10years.
(29:47):
Um, she's coming up on having todo another one, and um I felt
like I had my surgeries when Iwas little so that I could be
there for my daughter, who hasthis intense.
Anxiety.
You if she thinks if she washome right now and she thought I
was talking to a doctor on thephone, she'd freak out because
she has such anxiety about beinggoing to the doctors now.
(30:09):
She's like because she has to doMRIs and she has to do all kinds
of stuff, and there's differentthings for her heart.
And she just this is like shedoesn't even like to do an EKG,
and that's like the easiestthing.
You just put stickers on and youstill ill.
Like that freaks her out worsethan um like an echocardiogram,
which is like doing anultrasound.
She just she'll do theultrasound, she doesn't like it.
(30:30):
But man, the you put thestickers on her, she freaks out.
She's like, I can't do that.
Um, but um, yeah, poor girl,she's got a tumor now on her
back that needs to come off.
I mean, she just poor littlegirl's got so many problems that
I felt like some of the thingsthat I went through in my life,
I kind of prepared myself to bea better mom for her and um help
(30:50):
her through all her little dipsand valley, you know, like the
ups and downs of what she'sgoing through.
Um, she's in high school now,which is if you have any
children with autism and you'redealing with a bit in the
elementary school, it's onething.
But when you go to high school,it's like they're not as
forgiving to allow them in to beinclusive in all the classes.
(31:13):
So my daughter is in um in aspecial needs class.
Um last semester I asked if shecould do the math class in an
inclusive class if she could getthat math skills.
And she did do it, but this yearI tried to get her to go and she
cries and she throws it.
So I'm like, I'm not sure if I Idon't know what the um I don't I
(31:35):
just thought I don't want tolose the battle.
I I guess I lost the battle.
There's my dogs.
SPEAKER_01 (31:41):
No worries.
SPEAKER_04 (31:42):
The doorbell rang, delivery, and then my dogs were
like, I'm gonna eat deliveryman, I'm gonna eat them.
Um anyway, so but I do talkabout that in my book, and I
know I went off a little bit ofa tangent.
But um, yeah, my poor daughter,she struggles.
And so I do talk about mydaughter a lot on my podcast
too, and I and other people thatare struggling with similar
(32:03):
things, and I'm like, I relate,dude.
Like I can, I've been there withyou.
Um and in my book, I do talkabout other things.
I mean, um uh one of thechapters, and I'm just gonna say
it, but I'm not gonna talk aboutit.
It's called um Shh pretendyou're asleep.
So that doesn't tell youeverything.
(32:24):
Uh I don't want to talk aboutit, but it is in the book, and
um, I touch on that a littlebit.
And then um I had a JerrySpringer wedding.
Um, my family could not get overthemselves to let me have a damn
day.
So I call it Jerry Springerwedding because it was it was
nuts.
I didn't even get all thepictures for my wedding that I
(32:45):
wanted.
Um I always say, like, oh, weneed to we need to have a um a
renewer of renewal of our vows.
But then I always watch allthose um housewife, you know,
reality shows, and every timethey renew their vows, they
break up.
I'm like, I don't want to dothat.
I don't want to do it.
(33:05):
Did you have that do you?
Did you say?
SPEAKER_01 (33:07):
Oh no, no, we had we had a great okay.
No, mine's luckily.
Well, I'm on my second one, so Imade sure it was exactly what I
wanted the second time around.
SPEAKER_04 (33:18):
So I mean, I um and then I I come full circle at the
very end.
I ended up going back to I soldmy business to the landlord.
Um, it was terrible.
He didn't pay me all that he wassupposed to, and it was it was
like a shitty thing thathappened to me.
But then I went back and got mymaster's degree and um and I now
work in broadcast media.
(33:38):
I work um for a TV station and aradio company.
Um, I kind of have two jobs.
I don't know if I should besaying that.
They don't know about eachother, but um, but I do that and
then I do the podcast um on theside, and then I um at the end
of my book, I uh I talk aboutmastering my mistakes because I
realize that um I realize that Imade a lot of mistakes in life,
(34:03):
and my mom and dad did too.
And my mom, my mom, I don't careabout my dad, but my mom, my mom
made mistakes, but because and Irealize this at the end of the
book, which I don't know if anyof you out there, you have a
story in your back pocket, writea book because I swear, it
teaches you things, and youlearn so much about what things
that you just did not really seebefore, and like opened my eyes.
(34:27):
And I realized, like, my poormom, she didn't have the
internet, she didn't havesupport groups.
Um, she had a pamphlet my dadhanded her and said, I think our
daughter's on drugs, you know.
And my mom's like, Okay, youknow, and so um that kind of
thing.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, and so I kind ofunderstand my mom.
(34:48):
In fact, my mom and I are bestfriends now, and we call each
other a lot, and I'm there forher, and she's here for me.
And so that's really important.
And I realize things about mybrothers and sisters, and I
don't talk a lot about mybrothers and sisters because
really it's not a story that Ishould tell because they're
still with us, and it's they'restill my siblings.
(35:10):
We don't have a very goodrelationship, but they're still
my siblings, and it's not mystory to tell, you know.
Yeah, but um, but I master mymistakes at the very end and I
talk about them, and I do somebad things too.
Um, don't get me wrong.
I've I mean, I've done some badthings, and I talk about those
things too.
(35:31):
And um, it's so it's uh it canyou're gonna like the book.
I swear, people, you're gonnalove it.
I swear you're gonna love it.
And um definitely it's one ofthose books that you can share,
and uh young people can read itbecause it's not doesn't have a
lot of curse words or nastystuff in there.
When I talk about losing myvirginity, it's it's so PG 13.
SPEAKER_03 (35:51):
I'm like that's great.
SPEAKER_04 (35:53):
Yeah, it's kind of like I feel like it's a coming
of age story, and and um I'mjust waiting for Netflix to pick
it up.
Now I'm just using it.
SPEAKER_01 (36:01):
I love that.
No, why not?
That's great.
I love it.
So I just for those, excuse me,for those of you who are
listening and not viewing, umjust saying.net,
J-E-S-S-S-A-Y-I-N-G.net,jesssaying.net.
You can find the book, hopefullythere, as well as the podcast,
(36:22):
just saying.
Um, so make sure to go and andcheck those out and support her.
What about social media?
Anything that anywhere you wantus to go and support you on
social media?
Does the book have a page,things like that?
SPEAKER_04 (36:36):
Well, the book um on my on my website, I do have a
um, you can go, there'sdifferent pages on my book, so
you can or on my on my website.
So you can go to podcast andthen it'll take you to some
shorts, little shorts of mywebsite, but I'll show you where
you can go to find my um mypodcast, which is like Spotify,
iHeart, Apple, Google, all theplaces you can get a free
(36:57):
podcast, that's where I'll be.
And then also on my website, youcan go to book and it'll explain
to you all the places that mybook is sold.
Um, Apple, Amazon, Barnes andNoble, uh, Google Books, all of
those places.
I do have a TikTok.
I do have um at it's JessSaiyan, um, and uh Instagram at
Jess Danell.
(37:17):
If you just look up JessicaDenell and just I have like
Instagram, TikTok, uh uhFacebook.
I almost called it Family Book.
What the heck?
SPEAKER_01 (37:26):
Right, is that right on TikTok?
SPEAKER_04 (37:29):
Yeah, I know yeah, TikTok, it's uh Jess Jess
Saiyan, I think is what it'sunder.
SPEAKER_03 (37:35):
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (37:35):
Um, and Jess Danell is like all the others um for um
like X and um Instagram, yeah,Instagram, and my Facebook is
Jessica Denell because that'slike more personal, but you can
go see all my pictures of all mykids and my babies.
SPEAKER_01 (37:52):
I'm doing it.
Well, I'll make sure to gofollow you so that we can
support each other.
And um I'm excited to hear moreabout you know what's gonna be
coming in the future and andanything, you know, book
signings, things like thatyou're gonna be doing.
SPEAKER_04 (38:07):
I am doing a book sign, I don't have the date yet,
but it's a book signing here inBakersfield, it's at Barnes and
Noble, but I don't actually havethe date.
But I am working on a romancenovel.
SPEAKER_01 (38:17):
Ooh, okay.
SPEAKER_04 (38:20):
It's gonna be a um like a three or four part
series, and it's about a umwell, the first book is about an
ER nurse and a fiery, hot,steamy um firefighter.
SPEAKER_01 (38:32):
Okay, I love it.
That's exciting.
You're having all the fun,Jessica.
And you know, writing is such aspecial way to be able to be
creative and really just kind ofexplore, especially when you
retinant kind of a memoirs thatas you've done, explore the
(38:52):
past, like you said, learn moreabout yourself and your family
and your experiences, and thenfor that other side, that you
know, fiction novel to be ableto go and ex and and use that
creativity and imagination andjust let your uh imagination run
wild with that one, right?
SPEAKER_04 (39:12):
I think so.
Yeah, it's pretty the firstchapter is like, okay, I need a
shower.
I mean, it's I try not to makeit too because that's not just
in my I'm not I'm not that kindof person.
I don't do that in public, so Idon't do it's not terrible, but
it's still steaming to me.
SPEAKER_01 (39:30):
I think excited.
Well, thank you so much forsharing with us today.
And please go and support herand go to the website.
Also go to um Amazon and Spotifyand all the places you can get
podcasts and books to get thebook and the podcast and go to
her socials so you can supporther there.
And we will stay in touch sowhen the next book comes out, we
(39:52):
can have her back on and do thisagain.
Wonderful.
Thank you so much for your time.
SPEAKER_04 (39:58):
I I appreciate you.
Thank you so much for having meon.
And I I I'm glad that I was ableto connect with your audience
because it means a lot.
SPEAKER_01 (40:06):
Oh, it was so much fun.
Thank you so much, and let'sstay in touch for sure.
SPEAKER_04 (40:10):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (40:30):
Oh, yeah.
Stories of love and courage ofthat.
Love it.
(41:04):
Let's talk about it for familysoftly.
(41:46):
Let's see, look at it, get itbeautiful, the heart is fist and
(42:09):
strong, but this is a melody.
SJ Child Show is back for its 13th season.
Join Sarah Bradford and the SJChild Show team as they explore
the world of autism and sharestories of hope and inspiration.
This season, we're excited tobring you more autism summits
featuring experts and advocatesfrom around the world.
Go to SJchilds.org.
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
The heart of the city, she shines bright.
Oh yeah.
Stories of love and courage allthroughout the night.
SPEAKER_01 (00:35):
Hello, we're back at the SJ Child show today.
I am excited to bring Jessicain.
Is it Daniel?
Daniel?
I was, I didn't want tomispronounce it.
SPEAKER_04 (00:46):
It's Danelle.
SPEAKER_01 (00:48):
Danielle.
See, I would have, anyways.
Thanks so much for doing thatfor me.
Oh, it's so nice to have youhere.
I'm really excited to get intothis conversation, learn more
about you, find out what you'redoing, how we can support you.
So without further ado, pleaseintroduce yourself.
Tell us a little bit about youand what brought you here today.
SPEAKER_04 (01:07):
Well, thank you for having me on.
I do appreciate it.
Um, yes, my name is JessicaDonnell, and I just recently
wrote a book about my crazylife.
Um, and I started a podcastcalled Just Saying with Jessica
Donnell um about my crazy bookand about my crazy life and
about what happens, you know,stories about motherhood.
(01:29):
Um, I do have a child, I havetwo children with autism.
Um, and um I write about it inmy book, and um, I talk about it
a lot because it's hardnavigating through um something
you've never, you know,experienced.
And I understand certain thingsthat maybe moms that are just
(01:50):
going through it might not know.
So I talk about it on mywebsite, but I mean on my
podcast, excuse me.
And um, but we also talk aboutother things like um, you know,
uh when moms stop feeling uhworthy or they have mom guilt,
and which we all get a lot ofthat.
I have that a lot.
Um, and so those are some of thetopics I I basically based it on
(02:13):
my book.
So I have a so many differentthings that I put in my book
that I feel people can relateto.
And so we talk about, I don'treally go by it by chapter, but
there are certain things in mybook that I can I can talk about
that um because I obviously Idefinitely want to drive people
to my book because I think it'sa very funny, uh sad, and
(02:35):
relatable topics all througheach chapter.
And I think, like I said, Ithink people will see a little
bit of themselves in my book,and it's an easy read.
I have people said, Oh my god, Iread it in like a um less than a
day and a half, you know, likeit was just very quick.
And it's very it's like one ofthose things that's like, well,
how I'm talking to you is kindof how I wrote my book.
(02:56):
You have a copy of it with you,you can show us.
Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, here.
SPEAKER_01 (03:00):
Excellent.
Bucket list from a redneck girl.
Oh, I love that.
I gotta put that up really fast.
SPEAKER_04 (03:06):
That is so cute.
And so all the pictures are I Idesigned the cover too, and all
the pictures are just me, youknow, of my life.
And um, there's actuallypictures in the book too.
Um, not that I'm full of myself,but it's because um, you know,
Facebook and Instagram,everybody, what do they do when
you go to somebody's page?
(03:26):
You go straight to their photosand you stock them in the
photos, you know.
You want to see all, you want tosee everything.
So I felt like, well, I'm justgonna, I'm an open book,
literally.
I always tell people that I um Iwear my personality on my
sleeves and I carry all of mystories in my back pocket.
And I used to always do that.
And people are like, dude, youshould go write a book because
those stories are crazy, and Ican't believe those are true.
(03:47):
And I'm like, I swear,everything I'm telling you is
the absolute truth.
It knows nuts, but it's so true.
Everything happened to me inthis way, and I would tell it,
and they go, You should write abook.
So I decided one day to do it,you know.
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
Congratulations on doing that too.
Well, thank you.
It's important.
It's I think it's important asyou know, I one time had a it
was a reading uh professor, likehe, you know, went and taught
all the people about reading,why reading was good, about you
know, it was like more than justa reading tutor, like this guy
was like the reading professor,and he said something that I'll
(04:23):
never forget, and that is if youhave a story, you have an
obligation to the world to shareit because there's something in
that story that's gonna bedifferent or relatable for
anyone to be able to get in thatexperience from, so yeah,
because no nobody I know of hasbeen well, I'm sure there's
people out there, but start mychapter, my first chapter off.
SPEAKER_04 (04:44):
It's called Never Believed, and that's because my
parents dumped me, and I saydumped, and that's really not
the right word, but okay,dumped.
They dumped me in a drug rehabwhen I've never done drugs.
Never, ever.
Um, and so um here I was as ateenager, you know.
I I um wrote um for the schoolnewspaper, I was the school
(05:07):
photographer, I did this um ayearbook, I was a cross-country
track and basketball in sports,I was an officer for one for my
class, um, the rallycommissioner.
Um, I had lots of friends, and Inever went to parties.
I think I went to two my wholehigh school existence, and I
write about that in the booktoo.
(05:27):
But um, but like my parents justalways just saw the bad in me
and always thought I was doingsomething, and they put me in a
drug rehab, and so I was andthen when the back then in the
90s was 91 when it happened, um,they took my blood work and
said, Oh yeah, she's not ondrugs.
So then four years, four fourfour years, four days later, but
(05:50):
I had to spend four days in thisplace with a bunch of drug.
And in my lens of um, you know,a sports person, and I mean, I
thought I was I was in likeprison.
I thought I was in a prison.
It was terrible.
So I write about that in thevery beginning, but um I truly
believe that I've been through alot of different things in my
life because God was setting meup for the things that I have to
(06:14):
deal with with my kids and somethings in life.
And I felt like um, you know,when I was little, um I was
bullied a lot.
Um I have a lazy eye, I don'tknow what you would call it,
it's lazy eye.
And I um I was always calledPopeye.
Like kids were mean, and calledme Popeye, which was sucked
(06:36):
because Popeye was my favoritecartoon.
I loved it.
SPEAKER_01 (06:39):
Well, girl, look, I have these little ears because
it's called outer ear microcia.
And my whole life, guess what mynickname was?
Little ears, until I wasliterally in my 30s and someone
yelled little ears across thegrocery store at me.
Come on.
Like it doesn't get any worse,girl.
So I'm right there with you.
(07:00):
And in in fact, I too was putinto a place that I was not uh
should not have been a part of,and was there un totally against
my will because because theadults in my life were being
dishonest and were seeingthinking that I was the same
way.
Sounds like you suffered thatsame consequence.
SPEAKER_04 (07:22):
Isn't it crazy?
See, you'll find something.
See, I found somebody that canreally relate.
SPEAKER_01 (07:27):
We didn't even know before we got here, guys.
Oh my gosh.
So true.
And people probably don't knowthose things about me.
So that might be somethingpeople are just now hearing for
this.
SPEAKER_04 (07:35):
See, well, there you go.
I'm breaking breaking bread, andwe're also learning some things.
Um, yeah, so my one of mychapters is called The Popeye
Girl.
I mean, I lean into it.
I have uh um, I had twosurgeries when I was younger,
and so and as I write my book, Iwrite it in a way where I'm
talking to you, the reader, um,as I was thinking it during that
(07:57):
time.
So some of the thoughts might bea little not juvenile, but um,
you know, a little youngthinking.
And and as I get older, you'llsee my thoughts change.
And um, you know, I'm growinginto my adult self and the
confidence is getting better.
And um yeah, so I I do feel likeyou'll see, man, she's full of
(08:19):
herself, but it's not true.
I always felt like I was lessthan, but um, I never let people
think that I thought that way.
Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01 (08:27):
Yeah, absolutely.
No, masking is a big is a bigthing that I think that females
more than less are are requiredto do to be part of society.
So I couldn't agree more withthat.
And yeah, the challenges that wedo go through in our early life,
um, you know, whether or not wecan kind of step outside our now
(08:51):
lives to look to see how theyalign, generally do, and
generally have kind of set us upfor something that might be more
difficult for us in the futureto be able to embrace and say,
hey, I got through that sh I canalso get through this.
SPEAKER_04 (09:07):
I know one of the chapters in my book, I'm kind of
telling you chapter by chapterin a in a way because I kind of
want to touch on it a little bithere and there, but one of the
chapters was um the belt, thehand, or the hanger.
And so if you lived in the 70sand 80s, and that's how my dad
would um ask me how I wanted it,he would ask me the belt, the
hand, or the hanger.
(09:27):
And um, of course, I would saythe belt, and why?
Because my dad was six, threeand 220 pounds, and had his
hands were ginormous, and youknow, it was forceful when he
spanked you.
Um, the hanger always left weltsand for days, and that stung.
And sometimes my dad would hitme with the belt because he'd
have me over his knees and he'dhit me with the belt, but he'd
(09:50):
it would wrap around and itwouldn't really hurt, but then I
would cry harder, like I'dpretend like it did.
I'm like, oh gosh, that wasterrible.
I did the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01 (09:58):
I said, Oh, that didn't hurt.
SPEAKER_04 (10:00):
Oh no, not me.
I I I was like, that meant no,no more, no more.
And I was thinking, like, thatdidn't really hurt, but
whatever.
SPEAKER_01 (10:08):
I was dumb.
I said, uh, and that didn'thurt.
And they went, Oh, okay, abigger belt.
Got it.
SPEAKER_04 (10:14):
Yeah, right.
I don't think I might have donethat one time, I but I probably
learned my lesson is what I did.
But then it was funny because Iwas asking my mom, I'm like, I
never saw my brothers or sistersbecause I have two sisters and a
brother.
Um, I'm the middle girl, so Ihave an older sister, younger
sister, and an older brother.
And the brother, of course,could do no wrong.
(10:35):
And so, in fact, the the back ofmy book, it says, Marsha,
Marsha, Marsha.
If you understand what thatmeans, then you'll appreciate
this book.
Because I mean it's so true.
Yeah, I I I guess I was likeJan, I don't know, but um, so
but yeah, that nobody in my nokids in my family were ever uh
disciplined in that way.
And I asked my mom why, andshe's like, I don't know why,
(10:58):
you know, you know, um, it'sfunny because okay, let me tell
you a quick story.
I'm gonna digress just a bitch.
Just just a bit, a bit.
Oh my god, I can't see the wordlike three times.
SPEAKER_03 (11:09):
I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_04 (11:11):
This is great.
Okay, so when I was writing mybook, um, after I thought I I
got when I when the publishers,because I Christian Faith
Publishing took my book, andwhen they took my book, um I
thought it was at a place thatwas okay fine.
I can now share with friends tosee if they like it too.
And um, I went to Postnet, whichis a place here in California,
(11:34):
and it's kind of like uh Kinkosor like um a place that you can
print or send me all.
And so I went to post it and Igave them my book and I said,
please print up four five copiesor whatever.
And they were like a lot ofpages, and um, they said come
back in like three days, and Idid.
And um, I went back in, andeverybody that was there, and I
(11:55):
guess somebody somebody thatwasn't there, they go, Um, don't
be mad, but we downloaded yourbook.
Oh, and they said, reading it,and this one boy goes, I'm on
chapter three, you know.
And and so it was like a youngman um and a young lady and an
older lady, and I guess somebodyelse that worked wasn't there,
(12:15):
but he also was reading at homeat home, not just at work.
Like, and I felt like saying,like, well, no, but that wasn't
great, but I'm I was I was happyto get the feedback.
And one of the girls said, I Iswear you're you're talking
about me in there.
And so I just was like, I feltso warm, like that's great, like
that's exactly what I want.
(12:36):
I really want people to find alittle piece of themselves in my
words, and um I hope that's whatit does for people.
Um, I mean, you know, books arehard to sell, not many people,
unless you're on like major TV,nobody's gonna read your book.
But that's why I'm doing thesepodcasts because I want people,
I want to drive people to mybook because it's a very
(12:56):
interesting story, and I'm notjust trying to toot my little
horn.
SPEAKER_01 (13:00):
But um, that's what you're here for.
SPEAKER_04 (13:03):
It's a funny story.
It's a funny story.
So then I um I talk about in mybook, I talk about my my friends
and my neighborhood.
They're um the streets, not thestreet, but the neighborhood we
lived in.
We called it Park Circle.
And so I called one of mychapters Park Circle Friends,
and it's really a testament tohow close of uh friendships we
all had.
And it's almost like I mean,like the kind of like stand by
(13:27):
me kind of um friends that youknow you would play outside
until, of course, like everyonesays, the lights come on, or
right before it gets dark, youknow, and you come in and you're
all filthy and you you got holesin your knees and and your
jeans, and your mom's like,What'd you guys what'd you do?
Ah, nothing, you know, and thenshe's putting patches on your
knees, like these shiny patches.
(13:48):
Like I could have jeans, and mymom would put satin patches on
my knees.
Like, don't ask me why.
I would have to go through.
I would have I would have bluejeans and red satin patches on
my knees.
You know, she she didn't care.
It's like you know, it's sofunny, it's like just just leave
(14:08):
a holes.
Why does it have to have a patchover it?
Does it can't nowadays you haveyou buy the holes, right?
SPEAKER_01 (14:14):
You don't even buy whole jeans.
SPEAKER_04 (14:18):
Back then your mom was like, gotta put a patch on
it.
And I'm like, No, you don't.
Anyways, um, so but I meanthat's just kind of the era we
lived in, but which is the bestera, by the way, people.
SPEAKER_01 (14:30):
Loved it, loved it for real.
Love and hate.
It's a love-hate relationshipwith that.
SPEAKER_04 (14:37):
And then you know, the funny thing about my book
too is I put little Easter eggsall throughout the book.
So, like I talk about my yellowfor Micah kitchen because
everything in the kitchen wasyellow.
And for my yellow for Micah,everything was yellow, it was
all yellow.
I mean, and then the cabinetswere dark brown, so yellow and
dark brown.
It would, I mean, it looks likeCharlie Brown in my in my
(14:58):
kitchen.
It was crazy.
Everything in my house was likeeither yellow or brown.
I mean, it was gross.
But um, yeah, so little Eastereggs throughout the whole thing.
You know, I was singing,listening to Linda Ronstadt with
my mom's Avon brush.
You know, Avon was a big thingback in the day, her little pink
Avon brush.
But I mean, I just put littleEaster eggs in there about what
(15:20):
it was like to live during thattime.
And people read I go, I had thattoo.
Oh yeah, we went down thegeneric aisle in the in the you
know, my generic aisle was whiteand one was yellow.
So those were my generic colorson our in our in our
supermarket.
But I digress, I'm I'm going offon a tangent.
(15:40):
Um so I I went to privateschool, I went to public school.
I talk about um being going toprivate school and being slapped
around by the nuns, or no longera nun is what it's the chapter
is called, because they're nolonger nuns, but they still
slapped you around like youwere, like they were the nun,
you know.
Yeah, and I went so I went toCatholic school, um, but I used
to go to different all myfriends is different churches.
(16:03):
And so I grew up Catholic, butI'm no I don't consider myself
Catholic anymore.
I still have Catholic guiltbecause that is ingrained in
you.
I mean, and but I but I do um atthe time I was exploring
different religions and um youknow um but I was um yeah, I was
raised in the that Catholicschool was terrible, but I talk
(16:26):
about that in the book a littlebit.
And then I talk about highschool and how important high
school was and I wouldn't changea thing, that I loved it so
much, it was so great, you know.
Uh talk about losing myvirginity, which is like the
embarrassing, but I do talkabout it because it's something
that happens in life, and uhmine just so happened to happen
in the front of an El Camino.
(16:47):
But um, you know, yeah, I'lltalk about it.
It's funny.
Um, I took charge.
It wasn't something that itwasn't something I was afraid
of, it was something that Iwanted to do.
So I went there, I talk aboutit.
Um, and then I I had a threeo'clock high thing where
somebody wanted to kick my buttat school, and uh, anyways, just
(17:09):
like in the movies, like I'mgonna get you after school.
It was like such a big thing,and it was such a big thing at
my school.
It was insane.
There was a car, there was likea 1520 car caravan on the way to
the event.
It was just insane.
And I talk about that, and thenum something something happened
(17:31):
terrible to my high school.
We had a high school shooting,and it was one of the first in
America back in 1992.
And the reason why I didn't geta lot of coverage is because the
Rodney King verdict came out onthe 29th of April, and then the
riots, and then the next day theriots continued, and then the
next day was my shooting on aMonday.
(17:52):
Monday, and uh, we knew thegentleman that did it, he went
to our school, uh, graduated afew or a few years or no, he
didn't even he didn't graduatewith his friends.
That's why he came back to theschool uh to kill the um the
civics teacher, yeah.
The civics teacher that didn'tpass him, and so he he killed
(18:13):
the civics teacher and three ofmy friends, and um he shot nine
others and held like 80 hostagesfor like 12 hours.
It was an event.
Um it was terrible, but um, Italk about that in the book, and
then also um, you know, there'sa movie that was made of my high
school shooting with RickySchroeder, um, the Fonzie
(18:34):
Fonzie, which is Henry Winkler,right?
I keep forgetting his name, andthen Freddie Prince Jr.
They did a movie, um, you canfind it on Prime video, and it's
um called uh uh Siege at JohnsonHigh.
But but the but the uh or youcan look it up.
Look up Lyndhurst High Schoolshooting and it'll and and the
(18:58):
movie, and I think there's twodifferent names.
I'm not sure why.
I think maybe it was picked upby a different company or
something and renamed, but um,you can find both, I think, on
Amazon Prime, and uh so they didmake a movie about it.
It's very, very sad.
I can't I've only seen it once,I can't watch it.
It's too much.
SPEAKER_01 (19:15):
Yeah, oh I bet too much.
SPEAKER_04 (19:18):
Um, a lot of things have happened to me, and then so
uh there's more to the story.
I was hit by drunk drive.
I my car almost exploded with mein it, and there's just some
other things that have gone onthat I swear is the truth.
Um, and then um I wanna I have astory, I have a chapter called
My God Story because um I was abrat and I took off with my
(19:39):
friend to Utah.
And um on the way home toCalifornia, I because I can get
lost in my own neighborhood,like legit, this is the truth.
I went the wrong way and weended up in Idaho.
SPEAKER_01 (19:52):
Oh gosh.
Not so hard to do, not so hardto do here, believe me.
SPEAKER_04 (19:57):
I am the wrong way, and um, we ran out of gas, we
had no gas to get home.
I was 17 years old, and we madeit home, and it's a true, true
story, and you will not believea word of it, but it is
absolutely the God's honesttruth.
Every single last word, it'svery crazy, and I'm not gonna
say much more because thatchapter is so amazing that I I
(20:18):
want everybody to like just belike, What the hell?
Yes, so crazy.
Um, and so then I met my husbandin a nightclub.
He was a bartender, I was acocktail server, and we dated
for three years and then gotmarried.
We've been together 28 years alltogether.
Um married 25 years and stayingstrong.
(20:39):
And um, I mean, you know,marriage is not the easiest
thing in the world.
You've got to have compromise,and uh, you gotta be friends and
you gotta love each other, andyou guys have want to have the
same goals.
Those are my three advices likebe friends, have the same goals,
and remember to compromise.
And we have our roles, you know.
I like to cook and clean and dothings in the house, and he
(21:02):
likes to do all the other stuffoutside.
So he does his things, I domine, and we stay, we stay
happily married.
Um, and we um I have astepdaughter, and I talk about
um her mom um and therelationship between like I call
her bio mom, which isn't reallynice, but um, it's a terror.
SPEAKER_03 (21:21):
I do that same thing.
SPEAKER_04 (21:24):
Yeah, she's terrible.
I mean, terrible.
And we were in court.
Um, she would take us to courtall the time.
I ended up being in court and inlabor.
I started it was labor, and theydidn't believe she didn't
believe me.
And my husband's like, I need togo, we need to go.
(21:44):
She's in labor.
She I was having labor pains thenight before, but I didn't know
it was my first kid, right?
So I thought I just had Ithought I had a pee lot.
So I'd get up every 10 minutesto go to the bathroom.
Little did I know.
And so by the and I was gettingout of the car at the um at the
courthouse, and I was gettingout and I had my first major
contraction because I wasstepping down, and whatever I
(22:06):
was moving my however I wasmoving my body, I screamed out
loud, and my husband was like,Oh my god, was that a
contraction?
And I'm like, I don't know.
Like, I don't know.
And so then he was like, andthen I it was weird.
I had a contraction, and I waslike, Oh, I'm fine, and then I
would walk, la la la la la.
And then all of a sudden I'mlike, oh god, yeah.
And I go, oh, I'm fine.
(22:28):
It was so weird.
And then we we were in the andthen all of a sudden this lady
there, she goes, You're having ababy, like right now, dude.
Like you were having a baby.
You better go.
I was calling my mom.
I'm like, Mom, what should I do?
You know, she's like, go home orgo to the hospital.
And I wasn't about to have mykid in Long Beach because I
lived in Palm Springs at thetime.
And Doug's sister was gonna bethe well, she's a neonatal nurse
(22:50):
and she was gonna deliver.
And so I was like, I want mysister-in-law to deliver my
baby.
I don't want some, you know,yeah, I just didn't want my baby
born in in uh um Long Beach.
So then Doug had to stay therebecause they wouldn't postpone
it.
And I, my sister, picked me upand she drove me four hours in
(23:10):
traffic because that's what it'slike from Long Beach to Palm
Springs in California, eventhough it's a two-hour drive,
it's a four-hour drive intraffic and drove me home and I
had my baby, and Doug got therejust like 20 minutes before the
baby was born.
So it worked out, but crazy mom,back to the story, crazy biomom.
Um, I talk about the stories inthere, and I know a lot of
(23:31):
people will relate to all thestories.
If you're a stepmom and you, youknow, you totally will see the
story.
You totally will relate to whatI talk about because it's just
hard.
Um, and I treat my stepdaughterlike she's one of my own.
And she did eventually move inwith us during her like high
school years.
And I would say like the teenageyears was like giving birth, so
(23:54):
I always say like she's mine.
Yeah, like you know, it's a hardtime.
Um, so then I um I had a we hada son, and then my daughter came
along eight years later.
We all our kids are like eightyears apart.
Wow, I know I have a 32, a 24,and a 15-year-old.
SPEAKER_01 (24:11):
Oh my goodness.
And I'm 25, 16, 25, 15, and 13.
So we had that one big gap, butshe's my stepdaughter as well,
the 25-year-old.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (24:23):
Um, but um, I mean, we have a good relationship,
obviously.
But I mean, it's was reallytough at times and um it was not
easy.
But um, so then my son was born.
Um he we found out hasAsperger's.
And um, because he like thinkslike in a concrete, you know, he
(24:45):
won't think outside.
He's super intelligent though,like very bright.
I mean, super, super bright.
Um, and then my daughter eightyears later was born.
Well, first I skipped a littlebeat.
Okay, so I built one of thelargest preschools in
Bakersfield.
Um, yeah, it holds 208 kids.
Um, it was a 10,000 square footbuilding and a and a 30,000
(25:08):
square foot play yard.
And I built it from my livingroom, and I so I had a daycare
at home, and then I I built ontoa church or I had a church give
me one of their buildings, and Idid it there for a little while.
And then I had so I had thefamily and the church together.
And then somebody said, Myneighbor behind me, which I was
watching his kids, he goes, Ijust bought a commercial
(25:28):
property.
Do you want to build a preschoolon it?
And I'm like, um, yeah.
And he goes, I'll build theshell, and then you put the you
build the inside and theoutside.
And so um the shell was like 4.2million.
So I was like, Yeah.
SBA loan.
And I put it together businessplan.
I talk about it in the book,like I didn't know what I was
(25:50):
doing, I didn't have a degree ornothing.
I put together a business plan,and then I um I got a loan for
$700,000 or just under$700,000uh for the insides and the play
yard.
And I was off to the races, andit was great business at first,
and then the economy at 2008came around and it was like wah
(26:10):
wah wah.
And uh then my daughter wasborn.
Uh, I mean, I held it in.
I held it.
I we were doing good for acouple years, and then I got
pregnant, and then my which wasa miracle because I we were
trying for so long, eight years,like finally.
Um, and then um, so she was bornand needed open heart surgery.
(26:32):
And um my my focus was not onthe school, and I was shelling
money into the program becausewe went from we had like 188
kids down to 88 kids, and it wasreally difficult to um to
sustain that.
And my my daughter needed melike by her side at every
(26:52):
minute.
Um, so she had her open heartsurgery, it goes good, but um, I
talk about it in the book.
I mean, if you've never had yourbaby, infant, child ripped from
your arms to take to be to betaken to surgery.
I mean, it's like it is a thing,and a lot of different things
happened during that time thatare just unique to me and my
husband that I you won't believewhen I tell you the things that
(27:13):
we happen to us.
So um that's why the story ispretty interesting.
And then um, you know, we hadher chromosomes checked, and
they said, Oh, her chromosomesare fine, she has no problems
there.
Um, when two and a half, wefound out she had cerebral
palsy.
Well, and she has speechproblems.
Come to find out, my poor child,um we just checked her
(27:35):
chromosomes this year againafter 15 years because they said
that technology has changed.
Come to find out, my daughterhas what's called 16p uh.11.2
with duplication.
And anybody that has ever heardthat will know exactly what I
mean.
Or if you look this up,16p.11.2.
(27:59):
Um, and um and with duplication,what it means is um she has like
a mosaic of extra chromosomes inthis 16 chromosome P thing, and
which causes her to one of thethings is I'll have autism.
The other thing is um delayedeverything, uh speech,
(28:21):
specially.
And my daughter still, she's 15,you still can understand her.
Yeah, she leaves off thebeginning and the end of a word,
and so you kind of have to guesswhat she's talking about.
So now I just say, just type iton your phone.
Yeah, yeah.
Sorry, girl, type it on yourphone.
Um yeah, so she she had uh whatI thought was uh she was cute
(28:42):
and unique, and she's verysociable.
This is the thing, and soeverybody used to say, Oh no,
these she's she's just goingthrough something, she doesn't
have autism, she doesn't.
And um, but when she's gettingolder, and you can see that that
what she was doing as a littlegirl, which she was still doing
at 13, 14, now 15.
(29:04):
And um, you know, she flaps herhands um when she's excited,
she's just like does that a lot.
And um uh totally you can seethat it's not what it's not like
what they were saying.
She definitely something waswrong.
So I had her um a doctor come inand he goes, Yeah, for sure,
(29:26):
with the chromosomal andwhatever she has autism level
one, so it's not like severe,severe, but it's like, and I
asked him, I go, Well, do youthink that she's somebody that
can be live on her own?
And he said, No, like just thetime that he spent with her.
But I pray that that's not thetruth.
But I um so my daughter wentthrough surgeries, she's gonna
go through surgery every 10years.
(29:47):
Um, she's coming up on having todo another one, and um I felt
like I had my surgeries when Iwas little so that I could be
there for my daughter, who hasthis intense.
Anxiety.
You if she thinks if she washome right now and she thought I
was talking to a doctor on thephone, she'd freak out because
she has such anxiety about beinggoing to the doctors now.
(30:09):
She's like because she has to doMRIs and she has to do all kinds
of stuff, and there's differentthings for her heart.
And she just this is like shedoesn't even like to do an EKG,
and that's like the easiestthing.
You just put stickers on and youstill ill.
Like that freaks her out worsethan um like an echocardiogram,
which is like doing anultrasound.
She just she'll do theultrasound, she doesn't like it.
(30:30):
But man, the you put thestickers on her, she freaks out.
She's like, I can't do that.
Um, but um, yeah, poor girl,she's got a tumor now on her
back that needs to come off.
I mean, she just poor littlegirl's got so many problems that
I felt like some of the thingsthat I went through in my life,
I kind of prepared myself to bea better mom for her and um help
(30:50):
her through all her little dipsand valley, you know, like the
ups and downs of what she'sgoing through.
Um, she's in high school now,which is if you have any
children with autism and you'redealing with a bit in the
elementary school, it's onething.
But when you go to high school,it's like they're not as
forgiving to allow them in to beinclusive in all the classes.
(31:13):
So my daughter is in um in aspecial needs class.
Um last semester I asked if shecould do the math class in an
inclusive class if she could getthat math skills.
And she did do it, but this yearI tried to get her to go and she
cries and she throws it.
So I'm like, I'm not sure if I Idon't know what the um I don't I
(31:35):
just thought I don't want tolose the battle.
I I guess I lost the battle.
There's my dogs.
SPEAKER_01 (31:41):
No worries.
SPEAKER_04 (31:42):
The doorbell rang, delivery, and then my dogs were
like, I'm gonna eat deliveryman, I'm gonna eat them.
Um anyway, so but I do talkabout that in my book, and I
know I went off a little bit ofa tangent.
But um, yeah, my poor daughter,she struggles.
And so I do talk about mydaughter a lot on my podcast
too, and I and other people thatare struggling with similar
(32:03):
things, and I'm like, I relate,dude.
Like I can, I've been there withyou.
Um and in my book, I do talkabout other things.
I mean, um uh one of thechapters, and I'm just gonna say
it, but I'm not gonna talk aboutit.
It's called um Shh pretendyou're asleep.
So that doesn't tell youeverything.
(32:24):
Uh I don't want to talk aboutit, but it is in the book, and
um, I touch on that a littlebit.
And then um I had a JerrySpringer wedding.
Um, my family could not get overthemselves to let me have a damn
day.
So I call it Jerry Springerwedding because it was it was
nuts.
I didn't even get all thepictures for my wedding that I
(32:45):
wanted.
Um I always say, like, oh, weneed to we need to have a um a
renewer of renewal of our vows.
But then I always watch allthose um housewife, you know,
reality shows, and every timethey renew their vows, they
break up.
I'm like, I don't want to dothat.
I don't want to do it.
(33:05):
Did you have that do you?
Did you say?
SPEAKER_01 (33:07):
Oh no, no, we had we had a great okay.
No, mine's luckily.
Well, I'm on my second one, so Imade sure it was exactly what I
wanted the second time around.
SPEAKER_04 (33:18):
So I mean, I um and then I I come full circle at the
very end.
I ended up going back to I soldmy business to the landlord.
Um, it was terrible.
He didn't pay me all that he wassupposed to, and it was it was
like a shitty thing thathappened to me.
But then I went back and got mymaster's degree and um and I now
work in broadcast media.
(33:38):
I work um for a TV station and aradio company.
Um, I kind of have two jobs.
I don't know if I should besaying that.
They don't know about eachother, but um, but I do that and
then I do the podcast um on theside, and then I um at the end
of my book, I uh I talk aboutmastering my mistakes because I
realize that um I realize that Imade a lot of mistakes in life,
(34:03):
and my mom and dad did too.
And my mom, my mom, I don't careabout my dad, but my mom, my mom
made mistakes, but because and Irealize this at the end of the
book, which I don't know if anyof you out there, you have a
story in your back pocket, writea book because I swear, it
teaches you things, and youlearn so much about what things
that you just did not really seebefore, and like opened my eyes.
(34:27):
And I realized, like, my poormom, she didn't have the
internet, she didn't havesupport groups.
Um, she had a pamphlet my dadhanded her and said, I think our
daughter's on drugs, you know.
And my mom's like, Okay, youknow, and so um that kind of
thing.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, and so I kind ofunderstand my mom.
(34:48):
In fact, my mom and I are bestfriends now, and we call each
other a lot, and I'm there forher, and she's here for me.
And so that's really important.
And I realize things about mybrothers and sisters, and I
don't talk a lot about mybrothers and sisters because
really it's not a story that Ishould tell because they're
still with us, and it's they'restill my siblings.
(35:10):
We don't have a very goodrelationship, but they're still
my siblings, and it's not mystory to tell, you know.
Yeah, but um, but I master mymistakes at the very end and I
talk about them, and I do somebad things too.
Um, don't get me wrong.
I've I mean, I've done some badthings, and I talk about those
things too.
(35:31):
And um, it's so it's uh it canyou're gonna like the book.
I swear, people, you're gonnalove it.
I swear you're gonna love it.
And um definitely it's one ofthose books that you can share,
and uh young people can read itbecause it's not doesn't have a
lot of curse words or nastystuff in there.
When I talk about losing myvirginity, it's it's so PG 13.
SPEAKER_03 (35:51):
I'm like that's great.
SPEAKER_04 (35:53):
Yeah, it's kind of like I feel like it's a coming
of age story, and and um I'mjust waiting for Netflix to pick
it up.
Now I'm just using it.
SPEAKER_01 (36:01):
I love that.
No, why not?
That's great.
I love it.
So I just for those, excuse me,for those of you who are
listening and not viewing, umjust saying.net,
J-E-S-S-S-A-Y-I-N-G.net,jesssaying.net.
You can find the book, hopefullythere, as well as the podcast,
(36:22):
just saying.
Um, so make sure to go and andcheck those out and support her.
What about social media?
Anything that anywhere you wantus to go and support you on
social media?
Does the book have a page,things like that?
SPEAKER_04 (36:36):
Well, the book um on my on my website, I do have a
um, you can go, there'sdifferent pages on my book, so
you can or on my on my website.
So you can go to podcast andthen it'll take you to some
shorts, little shorts of mywebsite, but I'll show you where
you can go to find my um mypodcast, which is like Spotify,
iHeart, Apple, Google, all theplaces you can get a free
(36:57):
podcast, that's where I'll be.
And then also on my website, youcan go to book and it'll explain
to you all the places that mybook is sold.
Um, Apple, Amazon, Barnes andNoble, uh, Google Books, all of
those places.
I do have a TikTok.
I do have um at it's JessSaiyan, um, and uh Instagram at
Jess Danell.
(37:17):
If you just look up JessicaDenell and just I have like
Instagram, TikTok, uh uhFacebook.
I almost called it Family Book.
What the heck?
SPEAKER_01 (37:26):
Right, is that right on TikTok?
SPEAKER_04 (37:29):
Yeah, I know yeah, TikTok, it's uh Jess Jess
Saiyan, I think is what it'sunder.
SPEAKER_03 (37:35):
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (37:35):
Um, and Jess Danell is like all the others um for um
like X and um Instagram, yeah,Instagram, and my Facebook is
Jessica Denell because that'slike more personal, but you can
go see all my pictures of all mykids and my babies.
SPEAKER_01 (37:52):
I'm doing it.
Well, I'll make sure to gofollow you so that we can
support each other.
And um I'm excited to hear moreabout you know what's gonna be
coming in the future and andanything, you know, book
signings, things like thatyou're gonna be doing.
SPEAKER_04 (38:07):
I am doing a book sign, I don't have the date yet,
but it's a book signing here inBakersfield, it's at Barnes and
Noble, but I don't actually havethe date.
But I am working on a romancenovel.
SPEAKER_01 (38:17):
Ooh, okay.
SPEAKER_04 (38:20):
It's gonna be a um like a three or four part
series, and it's about a umwell, the first book is about an
ER nurse and a fiery, hot,steamy um firefighter.
SPEAKER_01 (38:32):
Okay, I love it.
That's exciting.
You're having all the fun,Jessica.
And you know, writing is such aspecial way to be able to be
creative and really just kind ofexplore, especially when you
retinant kind of a memoirs thatas you've done, explore the
(38:52):
past, like you said, learn moreabout yourself and your family
and your experiences, and thenfor that other side, that you
know, fiction novel to be ableto go and ex and and use that
creativity and imagination andjust let your uh imagination run
wild with that one, right?
SPEAKER_04 (39:12):
I think so.
Yeah, it's pretty the firstchapter is like, okay, I need a
shower.
I mean, it's I try not to makeit too because that's not just
in my I'm not I'm not that kindof person.
I don't do that in public, so Idon't do it's not terrible, but
it's still steaming to me.
SPEAKER_01 (39:30):
I think excited.
Well, thank you so much forsharing with us today.
And please go and support herand go to the website.
Also go to um Amazon and Spotifyand all the places you can get
podcasts and books to get thebook and the podcast and go to
her socials so you can supporther there.
And we will stay in touch sowhen the next book comes out, we
(39:52):
can have her back on and do thisagain.
Wonderful.
Thank you so much for your time.
SPEAKER_04 (39:58):
I I appreciate you.
Thank you so much for having meon.
And I I I'm glad that I was ableto connect with your audience
because it means a lot.
SPEAKER_01 (40:06):
Oh, it was so much fun.
Thank you so much, and let'sstay in touch for sure.
SPEAKER_04 (40:10):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (40:30):
Oh, yeah.
Stories of love and courage ofthat.
Love it.
(41:04):
Let's talk about it for familysoftly.
(41:46):
Let's see, look at it, get itbeautiful, the heart is fist and
(42:09):
strong, but this is a melody.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com