October 22, 2025 • 20 mins
What if the strangest place from your childhood hid a thousand-year-old secret? Join us as we dive into Ron Teachworth’s The Mound, a coming-of-age mystery where a missing sheep unearths ancient mysteries and the supernatural lingers just beneath the surface. Discover how history, adventure, and the metaphysical collide in this unforgettable conversation with the author himself. Get ready to see your own backyard in a whole new light.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, it's Benji cole, son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host the syndicated talk show People of Distinction, the
talk that gives you an in depth view of some
of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Email me directly through Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com
if you'd like to get involved with what we have going,
(00:28):
and as always, please continue to like and follow our broadcasts.
People of Distinction is an internationally syndicated show solely due
to the love and support that you all continue to show.
We're available across all major podcasts distributors, and like I mentioned, people,
if you keep following, We're going to continue to put
out the content. Now sit back and strap in because
we are delighted to showcase this next guest on our network.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And on the line with us. Today we have the
impressive Rawn teach Word. Now we're gonna be discussing Ron's
incredible book entitled The Mound. All right now, listen, it's
Amazon's Barnes and Noble, but most importantly it's Ron teach
worthliterary dot net head on over there, listen, gather more
information on him, more information on this fantastic book. But
(01:19):
remember Ron has been putting this from work man, and
he has three other books that you're gonna want to
take a look at as well. Once again, that's Ron
teach Worth Literary dot Net. And listen, it is an
absolute pleasure to have Ron here on the line.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Listen, you know there's something about this novella that he
has written. It's when I was reading it when we
were doing research and preparation for this book, like it
reminded me.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
It took me back.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Okay, listen, we all remember that one strange place from
our childhood, right the spot.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
That the grownups told us to avoid. Okay, Well, well
what if that landmark.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
What if that local spot in your town was a
thousand year old secret, Okay, a place where the past
isn't just history, it's.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
A presence all its own.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, that's the reality for our main protagonists in the
novella that we're discussing here today, the Mound. You see,
we're sitting down with Ron to unearth the story behind
this gripping coming of age mystery where a simple search
for a lost sheep leads to a warning about powers.
(02:35):
We don't fully understand. And that's all I'm gonna say
on it right now, Sit back, strap in, and.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Get ready for a roller coaster of a ride.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Ron, first and foremost, Man, welcome to the network, and
thank you very much for being here with us. How
you doing.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Today, sir, I'm doing good.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Thank you. Ron.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Listen, it is an absolute pleasure to have you here. Man,
I really do mean that you have written a number
of books. The Mound, of course, is the anchor, but
we're gonna touch up on some of the other ones
as well, and we're looking forward to this discussion. Okay,
before we jump into the book, before we go into
a lot of the messages and the themes to be discovered,
let's start off at that foundation and tell us a
(03:16):
little bit more about yourself and your background.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Ron.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
You know, I'm from Detroit, the Detroit area. I was
raised and I went to school here and I went
to graduate school in visual art, but I also went
to the London Film School, and so you know, it's
been a great place to live and.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
To work and I'm very very comfortable here, and.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So my my background is sort of like visual art,
but I about halfway through my career I started to
do some writing, and it got me to to, you know,
to where I'm at today, doing.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
A little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, listen, without further ado, we know about your background,
we know more about you will tell us more about
this fantastic book, The Mound.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
So let me just tell you first of all, it's
it's a novella, you know, which is it's short, it's
a little shorter than a novel.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
And I spent my summaris in.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Tennessee, uh in a kind of like the Ohio Valley
U and I came across a whole bunch of natural
sort of mounds is what they were. And they were
mounds from early civilizations.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
In this area.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
They're actually the mounds the mountain builders are Native Americans
going back about a thousand years, and they did a
lot of things with land and with mounds, and so
as a kid, you know, we used to do different
things and run into mounds and climb.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Up the mound.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
And so that's kind of it's a little bit on
a biographical in that sense that I experienced these mounds,
these real mounds in Tennessee, in the eastern northern part
of Tennessee, and became familiar with a little bit familiar
with the natives that lived there, used to live there,
(05:32):
and some of the artifacts that they left behind.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Ron, let's explore that a little bit further. Okay, but
before we move on here, listen. Okay, clearly this is
something that has a connection to you, right, it has
a connection to your upbringing, to your experience.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
But why was it important or I guess what was
the through line right, the precipice that led you into
writing this novella.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, you know, they were a mystery uh and uh,
and that sort of appealed to me, like why did.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
They build them? What's what are they about? And come
to find out many of them are burial sites and the.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Ones you know, so that kind of gave me a
kernel of of interest and knowledge to sort of develop
a story. The Mound is a novella that's designed for
middle school students. So I wanted to do something about
(06:39):
middle school students, and I wanted to do something that
included a story that brought this kind of miss mysterious
stuff along with these mounds that were built a thousand
years ago, and so m that's that was the that
(07:02):
was the beginning of the of the novella, and the
structure for the story was about these two young a
young woman and a young man that are in middle
school and and the girl.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
There's a girl and there's a guy. And the girl.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Lives on a very very very high tech farm and
they raise sheep and lots of other things too, but
they they raised sheep, and they raised prize winning sheep,
and it was interesting and uh so the essence of
the essence of the story is sort of like their
(07:46):
prize winning sheep goes missing.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
So in that sense you might say, well, it's a
little bit of a mystery. Why why did the why
did the sheep go missing? Uh? The young man who
meets meets up with her. His father is.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
A a doctor of of animals.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Yeah, and he grows up on a.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Farm as well, but it's mostly taking care of the
animals in in the in the community and and.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
He's part of that.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
So what happens is, uh is they compete. The girls
family competes with their sheep, and one of their cheap
wins an outstanding award.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Uh And it's.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
The most attractive and has all the attributes of that
that are required for competition, and and and just coming
up on the the time frame of when they have
to submit the sheep, you know, to the eight fair
or to the state competition.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
The sheep disappears, and.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
He knows some of the natives are people living in
this area that that are familiar with animals and familiar
with the mounds.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
And it turns out that he had built when he was.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Younger, he had built, along with one of his buddies,
he had built a house, a treehouse up on top
of a mound, was you know, a nice elevation and
all of that, and they played up there and had
fun up there. And he decided when this girl that
(09:47):
he has met in school, when her sheep went missing,
he decided to sort of seek out and get some
information to try and figure out.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Just what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
The the sheep was sort of within, you know, a fence.
It couldn't have run away, you know, it was really
all the sheep were fenced in.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
But it was on on maybe like.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Twenty thirty acres of land, and there were mounds on
the land.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
And so that is the beginning of the story.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
And let's try to figure out, you know, where's the sheep.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
They need the sheep to submit him to submit.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
The sheep to the state fair, and all of a
sudden the sheep goes missing.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
You know, Ron, listen, man, you you've done something very
creative here, right, because you're balancing a lot of different
aspects here. But you're I mean, this book is it's
an adventure at times for kids, right, it's a historical.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Mystery at times.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
There is even a touch of the supernatural that's infused.
So like, I'm curious, Ron, from a writing perspective, how
did you balance all of this rather like while you
were well you were writing it. How did you balance
it while keeping the story grounded, keeping it believable for
the reader, and still delivering that sense of mystery, that
(11:17):
sense of wonder.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
You know, all my all my work touches on the metaphysical.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
So that I'll just say that, you know, the novel
that I wrote is touches on the Metaphysical, a collection
of short stories. All of them have an element of
to some degree. Usually it's not a big metaphysical element,
but usually there's an element of metaphysical activity or meaning
(11:48):
in the stories.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
So that that's why I got into this. Okay, he
decides The young boyt decides.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
To find an older an older native who's missed, whose
experience goes way back, and they start to talk and
they start to decide. Uh, the boy and the young
boy and the young woman decided to sort of tap
(12:17):
into his knowledge to see if he can help them
recover the missing sheep.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
You know, I'm interested in in.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Creating a story that kind of pulls the reader, and
this in this situation, a middle school reader, and keeps
them sort of like on the edge of their seat
until the challenge gets resolved.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I'm gonna tell you this, and I'm gonna keep on
telling you. Man, this is something you're gonna have to
to go on purchase. Man, it's gonna keep you at
the edge of you see. Okay, head out over to Amazon,
Barnes and Noble. Most importantly, remember his personal website, Ron
teach Worthliterary Dot ned.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
You got to pick up your copies of The Mound.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
And while you're at it, remember there are three other
books that he's written today, and we're going to go
into one of them in just a moment. But my
final question here pertaining to The Mound, as we close
out of it, run, I've told you and I've mentioned
this a number of times to my listening audience. I'm
a New England boy born and raised, okay, and I've
(13:27):
lived in Los Angeles now for decades, but I remember
vividly growing up in New England. And listen, New England
is very historical, right, I mean there are buildings, there
are homes there that are hundreds of years old. And
I remember growing up every place carried in aura. Every
(13:52):
place had a story around it of which place was haunted,
and which place had this tragedy that had happened there
or this tradition around it, and so on and so forth.
And I want to now, no, right, and I want
to see it from your perspective here, run, How do
(14:12):
you hope that your book might change the way a
young reader looks at the landscape that they have around them,
especially if they live in an area with its own I'm.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Interested in history, and I knew that in school.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
I actually started.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Out my career teaching high school, and I knew that
in history when they teach history, they don't really go
into much that's pre Columbian. And so that's what this
story does. This story is the design to kind of
(14:53):
educate young readers about pre Columbian activity in the Ohio Valley,
and there was a lot of it, and it has
lots of interesting aspects to it. Maybe you've heard of
the Serpent Mound, which is a very famous mound in Ohio.
But I wanted the story to kind of educate young
(15:16):
people about this history in North America. And I think
I create one characters, it's the young girl's mother, who
is also very interested in history and interested in all
of the artifacts and all of the different kind of
(15:37):
tribes that existed in all of the things.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
That they would do.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So it it brings young people, I hope, into a
place that's beyond what they might learn in school.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Goes a little bit back, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
And and so there's quite a bit of it of
narrative about the cultures back then. And you learn as
you're reading this story about this missing sheep and trying
to find it and using the mound to do that,
you learn about Native Americans in early early times.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Ron my last question here for you, man with pain,
and forward now to another one of the books that
you've created, and listen dealer's choice here right. Choose another
one of your books and tell us a little bit
more about it.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
So we know what to expect when we pick it up.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Well, the one that's more involved, and I would say
more commercial, if I could say, use that word. The
Annunciation takes place in Florence, and I traveled to Florence
quite a few times to the San Marco Convent, and
that's the place where Fra Angelico did these incredible frescoes
(17:05):
on the inside of this convent. And I wrote a
story about a group of college students that go there
and get challenged in many ways. So The Annunciation is
also about art.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
You know. I went to graduate school in art and
I studied art.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
History and I really really really and I took a
group of students, you know, on tours like this, college students.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
So The Annunciation is one of my favorite stories.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
People, Listen, there's a there's clearly a pattern of history
here right among these books. And they're not just entertaining.
They're going to like if we go back to the Mound,
but really all of his books, I mean he just
mentioned the Annunciation, they're going to have you looking at
(18:00):
something that is so mundane in recognizing the history behind it,
or at least searching for the history behind her, right
Like they're going to have you looking at your own
backyard and wondering what it was two hundred years ago,
who lived there? The story is lost to time, and
I promise you may your imagination is going to be running.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I live in Michigan, north of Detroit, and I you know,
I live kind of in a rural area, and about
you know, about ten years ago, I discovered behind our house,
back not on our property, but just back there, there's
at least two mounds. And the reason I know their
mounds is because they're near water.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
You have to they have to build.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Something near water. We have a small river that runs
behind our house, and I used to walk back there
and look at that mound. It's not as big as
the one in the story that I wrote about, but
it's still about fifteen feet high.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Anyway, They're everywherewhere.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
They're everywhere exactly right, And that that's the point, ron right, Like,
that's the That's the message here, is that history is
all around us, right beneath our feet, where wherever we're walking.
There are stories to be uncovered. Babe, this is the
precipice to one of them, all right, And hopefully you
(19:23):
embark upon a lot more yourself. But it starts here. Man,
head on over there, pick up your copies today. Ron,
this has been an absolute player, the true pleasure man.
I really do mean that, like an absolute delight. Thank
you for writing the books, but more importantly, thank you
again for being a guest here with us to discuss
it all on people of distinction.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Thank you very much,
Hey, it's Benji cole, son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host the syndicated talk show People of Distinction, the
talk that gives you an in depth view of some
of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Email me directly through Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com
if you'd like to get involved with what we have going,
(00:28):
and as always, please continue to like and follow our broadcasts.
People of Distinction is an internationally syndicated show solely due
to the love and support that you all continue to show.
We're available across all major podcasts distributors, and like I mentioned, people,
if you keep following, We're going to continue to put
out the content. Now sit back and strap in because
we are delighted to showcase this next guest on our network.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And on the line with us. Today we have the
impressive Rawn teach Word. Now we're gonna be discussing Ron's
incredible book entitled The Mound. All right now, listen, it's
Amazon's Barnes and Noble, but most importantly it's Ron teach
worthliterary dot net head on over there, listen, gather more
information on him, more information on this fantastic book. But
(01:19):
remember Ron has been putting this from work man, and
he has three other books that you're gonna want to
take a look at as well. Once again, that's Ron
teach Worth Literary dot Net. And listen, it is an
absolute pleasure to have Ron here on the line.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Listen, you know there's something about this novella that he
has written. It's when I was reading it when we
were doing research and preparation for this book, like it
reminded me.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
It took me back.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Okay, listen, we all remember that one strange place from
our childhood, right the spot.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
That the grownups told us to avoid. Okay, Well, well
what if that landmark.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
What if that local spot in your town was a
thousand year old secret, Okay, a place where the past
isn't just history, it's.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
A presence all its own.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, that's the reality for our main protagonists in the
novella that we're discussing here today, the Mound. You see,
we're sitting down with Ron to unearth the story behind
this gripping coming of age mystery where a simple search
for a lost sheep leads to a warning about powers.
(02:35):
We don't fully understand. And that's all I'm gonna say
on it right now, Sit back, strap in, and.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Get ready for a roller coaster of a ride.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Ron, first and foremost, Man, welcome to the network, and
thank you very much for being here with us. How
you doing.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Today, sir, I'm doing good.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Thank you. Ron.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Listen, it is an absolute pleasure to have you here. Man,
I really do mean that you have written a number
of books. The Mound, of course, is the anchor, but
we're gonna touch up on some of the other ones
as well, and we're looking forward to this discussion. Okay,
before we jump into the book, before we go into
a lot of the messages and the themes to be discovered,
let's start off at that foundation and tell us a
(03:16):
little bit more about yourself and your background.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Ron.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
You know, I'm from Detroit, the Detroit area. I was
raised and I went to school here and I went
to graduate school in visual art, but I also went
to the London Film School, and so you know, it's
been a great place to live and.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
To work and I'm very very comfortable here, and.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So my my background is sort of like visual art,
but I about halfway through my career I started to
do some writing, and it got me to to, you know,
to where I'm at today, doing.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
A little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, listen, without further ado, we know about your background,
we know more about you will tell us more about
this fantastic book, The Mound.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
So let me just tell you first of all, it's
it's a novella, you know, which is it's short, it's
a little shorter than a novel.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
And I spent my summaris in.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Tennessee, uh in a kind of like the Ohio Valley
U and I came across a whole bunch of natural
sort of mounds is what they were. And they were
mounds from early civilizations.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
In this area.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
They're actually the mounds the mountain builders are Native Americans
going back about a thousand years, and they did a
lot of things with land and with mounds, and so
as a kid, you know, we used to do different
things and run into mounds and climb.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Up the mound.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
And so that's kind of it's a little bit on
a biographical in that sense that I experienced these mounds,
these real mounds in Tennessee, in the eastern northern part
of Tennessee, and became familiar with a little bit familiar
with the natives that lived there, used to live there,
(05:32):
and some of the artifacts that they left behind.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Ron, let's explore that a little bit further. Okay, but
before we move on here, listen. Okay, clearly this is
something that has a connection to you, right, it has
a connection to your upbringing, to your experience.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
But why was it important or I guess what was
the through line right, the precipice that led you into
writing this novella.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, you know, they were a mystery uh and uh,
and that sort of appealed to me, like why did.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
They build them? What's what are they about? And come
to find out many of them are burial sites and the.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Ones you know, so that kind of gave me a
kernel of of interest and knowledge to sort of develop
a story. The Mound is a novella that's designed for
middle school students. So I wanted to do something about
(06:39):
middle school students, and I wanted to do something that
included a story that brought this kind of miss mysterious
stuff along with these mounds that were built a thousand
years ago, and so m that's that was the that
(07:02):
was the beginning of the of the novella, and the
structure for the story was about these two young a
young woman and a young man that are in middle
school and and the girl.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
There's a girl and there's a guy. And the girl.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Lives on a very very very high tech farm and
they raise sheep and lots of other things too, but
they they raised sheep, and they raised prize winning sheep,
and it was interesting and uh so the essence of
the essence of the story is sort of like their
(07:46):
prize winning sheep goes missing.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
So in that sense you might say, well, it's a
little bit of a mystery. Why why did the why
did the sheep go missing? Uh? The young man who
meets meets up with her. His father is.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
A a doctor of of animals.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Yeah, and he grows up on a.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Farm as well, but it's mostly taking care of the
animals in in the in the community and and.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
He's part of that.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
So what happens is, uh is they compete. The girls
family competes with their sheep, and one of their cheap
wins an outstanding award.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Uh And it's.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
The most attractive and has all the attributes of that
that are required for competition, and and and just coming
up on the the time frame of when they have
to submit the sheep, you know, to the eight fair
or to the state competition.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
The sheep disappears, and.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
He knows some of the natives are people living in
this area that that are familiar with animals and familiar
with the mounds.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
And it turns out that he had built when he was.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Younger, he had built, along with one of his buddies,
he had built a house, a treehouse up on top
of a mound, was you know, a nice elevation and
all of that, and they played up there and had
fun up there. And he decided when this girl that
(09:47):
he has met in school, when her sheep went missing,
he decided to sort of seek out and get some
information to try and figure out.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Just what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
The the sheep was sort of within, you know, a fence.
It couldn't have run away, you know, it was really
all the sheep were fenced in.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
But it was on on maybe like.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Twenty thirty acres of land, and there were mounds on
the land.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
And so that is the beginning of the story.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
And let's try to figure out, you know, where's the sheep.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
They need the sheep to submit him to submit.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
The sheep to the state fair, and all of a
sudden the sheep goes missing.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
You know, Ron, listen, man, you you've done something very
creative here, right, because you're balancing a lot of different
aspects here. But you're I mean, this book is it's
an adventure at times for kids, right, it's a historical.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Mystery at times.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
There is even a touch of the supernatural that's infused.
So like, I'm curious, Ron, from a writing perspective, how
did you balance all of this rather like while you
were well you were writing it. How did you balance
it while keeping the story grounded, keeping it believable for
the reader, and still delivering that sense of mystery, that
(11:17):
sense of wonder.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
You know, all my all my work touches on the metaphysical.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
So that I'll just say that, you know, the novel
that I wrote is touches on the Metaphysical, a collection
of short stories. All of them have an element of
to some degree. Usually it's not a big metaphysical element,
but usually there's an element of metaphysical activity or meaning
(11:48):
in the stories.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
So that that's why I got into this. Okay, he
decides The young boyt decides.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
To find an older an older native who's missed, whose
experience goes way back, and they start to talk and
they start to decide. Uh, the boy and the young
boy and the young woman decided to sort of tap
(12:17):
into his knowledge to see if he can help them
recover the missing sheep.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
You know, I'm interested in in.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Creating a story that kind of pulls the reader, and
this in this situation, a middle school reader, and keeps
them sort of like on the edge of their seat
until the challenge gets resolved.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I'm gonna tell you this, and I'm gonna keep on
telling you. Man, this is something you're gonna have to
to go on purchase. Man, it's gonna keep you at
the edge of you see. Okay, head out over to Amazon,
Barnes and Noble. Most importantly, remember his personal website, Ron
teach Worthliterary Dot ned.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
You got to pick up your copies of The Mound.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
And while you're at it, remember there are three other
books that he's written today, and we're going to go
into one of them in just a moment. But my
final question here pertaining to The Mound, as we close
out of it, run, I've told you and I've mentioned
this a number of times to my listening audience. I'm
a New England boy born and raised, okay, and I've
(13:27):
lived in Los Angeles now for decades, but I remember
vividly growing up in New England. And listen, New England
is very historical, right, I mean there are buildings, there
are homes there that are hundreds of years old. And
I remember growing up every place carried in aura. Every
(13:52):
place had a story around it of which place was haunted,
and which place had this tragedy that had happened there
or this tradition around it, and so on and so forth.
And I want to now, no, right, and I want
to see it from your perspective here, run, How do
(14:12):
you hope that your book might change the way a
young reader looks at the landscape that they have around them,
especially if they live in an area with its own I'm.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Interested in history, and I knew that in school.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
I actually started.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Out my career teaching high school, and I knew that
in history when they teach history, they don't really go
into much that's pre Columbian. And so that's what this
story does. This story is the design to kind of
(14:53):
educate young readers about pre Columbian activity in the Ohio Valley,
and there was a lot of it, and it has
lots of interesting aspects to it. Maybe you've heard of
the Serpent Mound, which is a very famous mound in Ohio.
But I wanted the story to kind of educate young
(15:16):
people about this history in North America. And I think
I create one characters, it's the young girl's mother, who
is also very interested in history and interested in all
of the artifacts and all of the different kind of
(15:37):
tribes that existed in all of the things.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
That they would do.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So it it brings young people, I hope, into a
place that's beyond what they might learn in school.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Goes a little bit back, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
And and so there's quite a bit of it of
narrative about the cultures back then. And you learn as
you're reading this story about this missing sheep and trying
to find it and using the mound to do that,
you learn about Native Americans in early early times.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Ron my last question here for you, man with pain,
and forward now to another one of the books that
you've created, and listen dealer's choice here right. Choose another
one of your books and tell us a little bit
more about it.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
So we know what to expect when we pick it up.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Well, the one that's more involved, and I would say
more commercial, if I could say, use that word. The
Annunciation takes place in Florence, and I traveled to Florence
quite a few times to the San Marco Convent, and
that's the place where Fra Angelico did these incredible frescoes
(17:05):
on the inside of this convent. And I wrote a
story about a group of college students that go there
and get challenged in many ways. So The Annunciation is
also about art.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
You know. I went to graduate school in art and
I studied art.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
History and I really really really and I took a
group of students, you know, on tours like this, college students.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
So The Annunciation is one of my favorite stories.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
People, Listen, there's a there's clearly a pattern of history
here right among these books. And they're not just entertaining.
They're going to like if we go back to the Mound,
but really all of his books, I mean he just
mentioned the Annunciation, they're going to have you looking at
(18:00):
something that is so mundane in recognizing the history behind it,
or at least searching for the history behind her, right
Like they're going to have you looking at your own
backyard and wondering what it was two hundred years ago,
who lived there? The story is lost to time, and
I promise you may your imagination is going to be running.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I live in Michigan, north of Detroit, and I you know,
I live kind of in a rural area, and about
you know, about ten years ago, I discovered behind our house,
back not on our property, but just back there, there's
at least two mounds. And the reason I know their
mounds is because they're near water.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
You have to they have to build.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Something near water. We have a small river that runs
behind our house, and I used to walk back there
and look at that mound. It's not as big as
the one in the story that I wrote about, but
it's still about fifteen feet high.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Anyway, They're everywherewhere.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
They're everywhere exactly right, And that that's the point, ron right, Like,
that's the That's the message here, is that history is
all around us, right beneath our feet, where wherever we're walking.
There are stories to be uncovered. Babe, this is the
precipice to one of them, all right, And hopefully you
(19:23):
embark upon a lot more yourself. But it starts here. Man,
head on over there, pick up your copies today. Ron,
this has been an absolute player, the true pleasure man.
I really do mean that, like an absolute delight. Thank
you for writing the books, but more importantly, thank you
again for being a guest here with us to discuss
it all on people of distinction.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Thank you very much,
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.
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
The Male Room with Dr. Jesse Mills
As Director of The Men’s Clinic at UCLA, Dr. Jesse Mills has spent his career helping men understand their bodies, their hormones, and their health. Now he’s bringing that expertise to The Male Room — a podcast where data-driven medicine meets common sense. Each episode separates fact from hype, science from snake oil, and gives men the tools to live longer, stronger, and happier lives. With candor, humor, and real-world experience from the exam room and the operating room, Dr. Mills breaks down the latest health headlines, dissects trends, and explains what actually works — and what doesn’t. Smart, straightforward, and entertaining, The Male Room is the show that helps men take charge of their health without the jargon.