May 7, 2026 • 28 mins
Two lifelong friends with fifty years of shared history, Linda and Janet sit down on the Writer's Class Podcast to talk about their debut book Tutu's Pearls — a deeply personal project about legacy, life lessons, and the stories we leave behind. In this episode, Linda and Janet open up about their writing journey, their creative process as co-authors, and what inspired them to transform five decades of friendship and wisdom into their first book. Whether you are a first-time author, a reader who loves authentic storytelling, or someone thinking about the legacy they want to leave, this conversation will stay with you long after it ends.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Writer's class. Anyway, I
remember that I'm talking about the Writer's class, which is
the one that I don't have favorites that I don't
I like the lease. I don't have favorites, though I
love you all. My four podcasts evenly not important. I'm Willnona,
and I remember to introduce myself dak now, but I'm
almost professional, like this is the Ladies Tale podcast, like
(00:23):
I have like a producer or a director in the room.
You know, I is no, I am never that professional
when I have was in the room. I'm gonna do
this one day. I'm gonna be professional and I'm gonna
show up and I'm gonna act like I'm an actual
anchor of a podcast slash show that's never happened. But
it was fun to say I'm Malona and I'm part
of the ENDI. I thought, ladies, ooh, y'all. I think
(00:44):
I'm gonna have to need a cognancy test after that.
I just introduced myself twice. I've never done that before,
like I forgot my own durned name. Those When I
said part of the NDI I thought, ladies, that means
one half and the other you know, together we wrote books.
There's a few of them. This end I thought divorce
was bad end. I thought I being gird up with
zz if only Army your Memory, in Verse, Foreign Coffee,
widdows Web, and Widow's Debt. If you are counting, that
(01:07):
is six books. Y'all want to do the sign language part.
Six books, so if you want to, we can add
another twenty one books and you will get a full total,
sorry total of twenty seven books. That's the many we've written.
You can find those on www. Dot and I thought
ladies dot com. By the way, we just finbered. We
(01:29):
just finished number twenty eight and I started number twenty nine. Hey,
I'm rolling on thirty now and that does not encounter
include my mysteries, but that's okay. I don't want to
brag about me. I am the narcissist of the group.
But still the other things to do, like I have guests,
So you don't want to hear any more about me.
You want to hear about our wonderful guests. Wonderful guest.
Would you like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Hi, I'm Janet, Helloha, I'm Linda.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Do anything about you?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
We're gonna say three things about ourselves. I'm addicted to
coffee from the moment I get up to the moment
I go to bed, sleep like a baby.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
It doesn't matter, at least for a couple hours.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I really like being outside, and I really like foggy days.
So those are three things about me.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
That's all true. She also likes cheeseburgers. I'm gonna tell
her that too. Three things about me. I really enjoy music,
and I know Dana does too. So every Sunday night,
I listen to my Grateful Dead show on the radio
on Lava one oh five point three from four to six,
(02:48):
and I fold my laundry and do all my tours
and get ready for Monday, which I love. So I'm
rocking around the house. What else about me? I like
to be outside, like Janet too. I'd rather be inside
outside than inside. I come in, i'd to rest and
to sleep. And I always have water with me. I'm
a water junkie. I take it to bed, I drink
it in the middle of the night when I get
up to go to the bathroom. So that's my thing.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Okay, first of all, you're a water junkie. That's not
even fair. You cannot be a junkie when it comes
to water.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes, you can't. Water is so good for you, keep
you hydrated.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, that's how we know it's not a junkie thing.
I remember.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I remember being in grade school, right, and they used
to take you out to get a drink of water
at a certain time, and you had to stand in
line at the drinking fountain and tell it was your turn.
And I would sit there in my turn and I'd
just be chugging and people would be like, move, hurry up,
we don't have time, and I'm like, I don't care.
I'm still really thirsty. So you think I have a
kidney problem, but knock on wood, ting tin tink, I
(03:48):
don't think I do. So I think I just like
water or it can be flavored.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So yeah, oh that is hilarious. So you were one
of those kids. Yeah, you said you like foggy days,
but you both like being outside. So is it like
foggy London days with the drizzle on your head or
just like foggy like I got up and for everyone
else in the world, I need coffee.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Well, it depends on what I have to do, whether
I'm talking about mind fog or ocean fog. There are
those days where I wake up with the mind fog.
But since I have a very close friendship with very
strong coffee, I'm usually able to.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Burn it off pretty early in the day.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Not so much with the fog here in the Pacific Northwest.
It can hang around for a long time. And I've
always loved a good foggy day. I'm close to the water,
so I get my fair share of foggy days, either
one A little from column A, a little from column B.
You know, brain fog beach frog.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
They both work.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Okay, First of all, I'm just starting to understand what
brain fog is. Apparently, like, Oh my god, never ever
ever do I want this? It feels like la small
has just settled in your head and it's not going anywhere.
And I'm addicted to caffeine. I can't burn it off.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
No, but coffee works if you drink coffee.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I'm allergic. I'm allergic to caffeine. I asked, what I
mean to say, I'm allergic to caffeine.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Well, I'm sorry, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So am I. Every day every day someone makes a
kind of coffee, I'm like that most delicious, and y'all
are operating now oh yeah, but that's okay.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I travel internationally with my little French press and I'll
carry it into restaurants, have my own coffee in it,
and say charge me for a cup of tea, but
just bring the hot water and I'll make my own
coffee right at the table because I want it.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I want the coffee to work.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I want to travel with you, ma'am. And I don't
even I can't even drink the coffee, but I just
want to travel with you, maab.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
We have a good time.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So both of you like to be outside, but somehow
there's a book. Yeah, I'm inside for how long to
make this book? And were you happy or unhappy about
this process?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I've known Frenchies since I was seventeen years old and
she was twelve. I call her Frenchie. It was a
childhood nickname, and so more often than not I will
refer to her as Frenchie. So we've been friends with
each other. I'm sixty seven today, so you can do
(06:44):
the math. And even though you know we both got
married young, we both had children. She moved away, but
through life we've always reconnected. We were when each other's
parents died, we were there for each other. When our
(07:05):
husbands died. We were there celebrating each other's gains and accomplishments.
And they're sitting quietly next to each other in the
darkness when one of us was broken. And those are
bonds that don't happen often when life people come and go.
(07:28):
They represent a certain time, but very few people come
through life all the time. I'm sorry one. So our
friendship has survived a lifetime of you know, wonderment and
(07:51):
bereavement and our children's teenage years and traveling together. We've
gotten older and we're not you know, needed at home on.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
A day to day basis.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
So when she approached me about doing the artwork for
this book, it was for me a gift back and
thanking her for all the wonderful years that we've had
as friends, back and forth, and just celebrating her and
her grandchildren. And you know, it was a wonderful experience,
(08:31):
just the time we had together and the laughter.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And you know, some of my.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Ideas can get pretty far fetched, and she was always
there to rain me in, you know, pull me back
in when I was like, oh, we could do this,
or we could I can paint that, or and you know,
at times she's like I want to say this, and
I'm like, oh, I don't think we should say it
that way. And we've really listened to each other and
(08:58):
really respected each other views. So it to me, it
was a culmination of all the love I have for
my friend, for her family, for our memories that we've
made together. Absolutely a wonderful experience. I would recommend it
to anyone who has a friend like I do.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Okay, Linda, I feel like she loves nothing for you
to really say, So that's a lot to you anyway.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, good, she left a lot. So I just want
to explain the name of the book. It's called Tototh Pearls.
Tutu is a word for grandparent in the Hawaiian language,
and it's also what my grandchildren call me, and pearl
stands for pearls of wisdom. So it's a giftable picture
book that has why sayings and original and whimsical art.
(09:51):
And for me, Totooth Pearls was really my phoenix rising
from the ashes. So I approached Janet after my husband
passed away in twenty twenty three and said, look, I
want to leave something for my grandkids and I'm asking
you to come help me on this project, so would
you be willing to do it? And I said, I
just want to leave them the things that are most
important in life. Some of the sayings like oh, I
(10:15):
don't know what's a good one, Janet, You know, like
dance like no one's watching, or the grass is greener
the grasses and greener on the other side of the hill.
The grass is greener where you water it. Things to
really think about and sit with that represent those things
that are really important to a life well lived. And
what my husband who passed away was wonderful. He is
the nicest man I ever met in my entire life,
(10:36):
and he just, you know, showed me a beautiful thing
on what's important and I just needed to write it down.
And I'm so glad that my friend of fifty years
was willing to do it with me because she made
it a gas. It was a very fun process and
we're still having fun and we're writing more. We've got
four already done, not thirty, but we've got a total
(10:57):
of five done, five done, and only one is published.
So you can find us on BookBaby dot com or
you can find us on our website at Tutu's books
dot com, t U t u s b o okas
dot com.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Oh wow, I feel like my job is completely and
totally done. Now, yeah, the background story, we've got everything, But.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Why did you choose not everything, not even clothes?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Why did you choose tou tou out of like all
the languages that you could have chosen to two?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
As a Hawaiian saying yes, so t u t u
to tutu is what uh? In Hawaii, the grandchildren will
call both the grandmother and the grandfather touto. So it
could be two two man or too too lady, or
it could be too to Linda that's my name, or
as Janet would call me too too Frenchy, or it
could be a two two with a man's name on
(11:52):
the end of it. But my kids call me too too.
They call their other grandmother grandma, but they call me
tu too. So that's why we chose it, since we
were writing it for my grandkids. And actually the dedication page,
if you look at it, has a picture of my
husband who passed away with my grandkids.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So okay, this book sounds absolutely heartbreakingly sweet. Now I'm sorry,
I'm going to get wisdom and it's going to be
pulling on a heart strings, Good gracious. I started off
with y'all being outside. I thought I was going to
get some cute indoor stories. But now I have heart
strings and tears in the corner of my eyes. Good gracious,
(12:28):
not me at all. So this does bring me to
a whole nother question. So this is the fifty years Friendship,
five books, So we're getting one book and ten years
of wisdom per each book.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I don't think it breaks down that way, but that's
a thought. I always have ideas for other books that
I want to do. I was trying to convince Frenchie
to do out an adult for that book, because that
would make me laughs, you know, a little drinking, you know,
(13:12):
just the reality of being, you know, a senior citizen
in these times. You know, we were children of the sixties,
children of the seventies, so it's you know, we listened
to the Grateful Dead, and we had a hell of
(13:33):
a youth and it was good. It was really good.
And I expect that my my senior years will be
as fun and rewarding as other parts of my life,
because I'm still having a great time. I'm still laughing,
still trying new things. I'm still, you know, encouraged to
(13:59):
keep going. And part of that was, you know, the
book project. It was it always has me thinking, what
are we doing next? Where am I going with this painting?
Why do I want to do this painting? Do you
feel anything when you know? Do I feel anything when
I look at it? And so it's it's just a
(14:20):
great it's a great time, and I would hope that
everybody of our age is having as great of a
time doing what they love doing as we are.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Supers to know one you said you love learning new things?
So Janet, Linda, what do we learn new? What are
we doing next? And then there were two just for Janet.
I heard painting, but I didn't hear writing. Who did
you paint for me?
Speaker 4 (14:48):
I am not the writer.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Frenchy's very kind and saying that we co authored the book,
when in fact she would come up with the ideas
and I'd look at them and say, I think I
can paint this, or I think I can get close
to what I feel when I.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Look at these words.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So that's what I would do, and occasionally I would say, oh,
I don't think we should say it this way.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I think maybe if we say it this.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Way, it will it will feel better and I'll get
the right feeling in the painting. So that was one
of your questions. What was your other question? Because I'm
it's already gone.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
What did yell arn new?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Oh my gosh, what did we learn new? Well?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Podcast, I learned that Linda is very She can understand
computer language much better than I can. And she put
it all together on the computer.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
She did you know.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I would say, oh, I think this picture goes next,
and I kind of laid it out, but she was
able to put it all in in the computer and
have it come out and look like a book. And
she was like, I've never done this before. And I
would tell her, well, you're brilliant because you're teaching yourself
how to edit a book and that is not in
(16:15):
my skill set in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
I just am like, I'm walking outside, can't do it.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
And she persevered taught herself how to do it. I
would show up with all the photographs of the paintings.
I would go to her house and in a week
to ten days, we have the layout done, we have
all the everything figured out where the dedication was, and
we would be able to do it in week to
(16:44):
ten days every single time. So she kudos took Frenchy
for learning that I learned or relearned that my brain
doesn't think like that. It's like math. Computers and math
are like the same thing. I'm just like, uh so,
(17:05):
way to go, Way to go, my friend.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yes, and we all of our books aren't the same format.
So tow tooth Pearls is definitely the wisest of the books,
and that's the wisdom I wanted to leave for my grandchildren.
But the other two two series are kind of different.
One is called to two Eats, and it's the recipes
that we learned with our parents and grandparents and aunties
(17:30):
and uncles in the kitchen that were I'm sure they
came from a cookbook once upon a time, but I
don't know where or when, and we just learned at
their side doing it with them. So we wrote that
down for our children so that they could be the
keeper of the family recipes and then move on. And
then we wrote one called two Too takes a Trip,
and that's all about travel etiquette. And again it's all
(17:51):
the same kind of format, very minimal words and great art,
so it kind of makes it all pop. My personal
favorite was called Tutuo's on the Road Again, and that
one's all to Grateful Dead Lyrics. But when we spoke
with the owner of the lyrics with the Grateful Dead,
it's called Alfred Music. I think. When we spoke to them,
(18:15):
because it's copywritten material, and we talked to them about,
you know, what kind of royalties they would need. It
turned out that if we published it the same way
we published Tutoos Pearls, we would owe them a dollar,
two dollars and fifty four cents for every book we sold,
which isn't going to work for me. So we figured, Okay,
we're gonna wait on that one. And maybe we never
actually published that one, but I had a gas doing it,
(18:37):
and we may just reuse the art for something else.
And then we wrote one called two two Loves Hawaii,
and we've got three more in the works right now.
So Tutu is going to go to Washington and Scotland.
What was the other one, Janet Japan?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Maybe I want to do the Adult Alphabet Book.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And the Alphabet Book. So we've got other projects to
do and we really enjoy it. We typically wait till
the rainy season that's when Janet can paint. So we're
coming into spring and summer, so Janet's going to be
outside in the garden and then she'll come in the winter.
But we'll talk about our outline and our concepts of
what we want it to be and what we want
it to look like. Our books are short, they're only
(19:13):
about I mean, they're forty five pages, but it only
takes about fifteen minutes read. But it's the things that
you find within the pages can really stick with you.
And there's a lot of values in there to talk
about with your family. So a lot of times our
book ends up on a coffee table because it's something
you can pick up and just look at and go, wow,
all right, I want to talk about that. Here's an example.
(19:35):
There's a painting that Janet made of all the woodland
animals around a big table and has a little extension
on it and the saying underneath it says, if you
have what you need, build a longer table, not a
higher fence. There's some heavy things in that. What does
that mean to a kid? What does that mean to
an adult? So it's really a book that can help
bridge the generations and give you something concrete and complex
(19:57):
and value oriented to talk about rather than you know,
our typical uh what you might call video games or
you know, movies or whatever. So it can add a
lot of value to a family.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Okay, this sounds amazing. It sounds very thoughtful. I felt, okay,
a little too thoughtful for people who've gone through some life.
I'm not gonna lie, You're gon't think about things and
where did I end up? How did I get here?
It may inspire you to start telling your own lessons
to your young kids. But oh, now I've done my
(20:31):
little advertisement for the two tooth Pearls book. What would
you tell people who are of your generation and maybe
lacking some computer literacy? Here and they go, I'm writing
a book to leave for the grandkids. What advice would
you give them?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
You're never too old to learn something. Now it's okay.
There's also I talked to another woman who recently who
wanted to leave Oh, it was last night. She wanted
to stories about how she left Germany in ninety forty
two or something, and she was seven years old and
came to this country and then she ended up working
(21:12):
in New York City for a luxury fashion of French
luxury brand, and she wanted to leave those stories for
her kids and grandkids who grew up here. But you know,
all of that backtrack and coming to this country not
knowing English and all of this stuff, and at a
time when you know, there wasn't a lot of warmth
towards German people, you know. And so I was telling her,
(21:35):
you can go There are places online that offer books
that are almost like journals that will prompt you about
what to say, and a lot of times you can
even transcribe it and not have to write it all down.
So she was going to look into that, but there
are methods out there.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
So Janet, I would encourage anybody to write their story
down because I honestly, honestly believe that every life has
a beautiful story, and until you lay it down on paper,
you won't know whatevery You won't know until you start
(22:14):
what you have bottled up inside of you, just one
story after another, and we all have them, they're all different.
Write it down. Because my parents were pretty good about
writing stuff down. But I still have questions that are
going to go unanswered because they're gone and I don't
know exactly and I can't call them up and say,
(22:38):
you know, Dad, you fought in World War two and
land it on the beaches of Normandy for D Day.
We never talked about it. I have the history of it,
but I would encourage all of us to write our
lives down. Might never ever be a book, but your
(22:58):
family and those that come after might really appreciate knowing
what your life was like, knowing what it was like
to live or be born in nineteen ninety two or
two thousand and five or whenever it was. All of
our lives are different, but we should all celebrate our lives.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
That's that would be my suggestion. Just do it. Just
get out there and write it.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
How has this book taken you to unexpected places? Like
when you started off, what did you think you were
going to go with it? And what more were You're like, wow,
this is different.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Well certainly not a podcast. I had no idea that
when we're going to do something like this. I you know,
I was in the middle of my grief when we
were starting to toose Pearls and so really when we
finished it, I just felt like, oh, we're done, because
I just wanted to leave something for my grandkids. Okay,
we did it, but as I look at it, it's
(24:00):
it's got some really deep value to it. So it's
leading me to all these new places with Janet, which
we're really enjoying. We did take it all over Northern
Europe together, which was a lot of fun, and getting
our pictures taken everywhere with the book and giving some
copies away and whatever, and we've donated a bunch too,
(24:20):
So I'm looking forward to see where else it takes us.
But our dream, I think together Janet, is to go
to like Lake Puomo for a month and sit there
and write a book. We would love that Toto goes
to Italy, you know, or goes to the lake district whatever,
But we think that would be really fun.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
So Janet, where have you wanted? That's unexpected?
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I'm sorry, what?
Speaker 1 (24:47):
What? Where did you? What did this journey take you?
That was unexpected.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
For me?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
It was the moment that I saw the artwork and
the words together in book form. It made it all
very real and I didn't expect to feel that way
about it. I didn't expect to look at it and
be like we did this, This is something we did.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
It came from to little piece of us, each of
us that are in that book.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
You know, every painting I do, there's a little piece
of meat in each of those paintings, and every everything
that she wrote down that she wanted to say, there
was a piece of her.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
And so you look.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
At it and you realize we came together and created this,
this piece that doesn't fit in any box. It doesn't
you know, it's really hard to label what is this?
Who's it for? And I'm like it can be for everybody.
They're all things that we either knew what one time
(26:00):
and forgot or we still know, and it reinforces that,
you know, be kind to yourself and other people.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Just be kind.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Doesn't cost you anything to be kind.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
It was just seeing.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
The birth of our creation in a way of the
paintings or the artwork and the words together that I
was surprised at how much it meant to me when
I saw it done the first time. So that's my answer,
and I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Like she would also be like, I'm sticking to my guns.
Never mind, Sorry, y'all. I'm bouncy and it's us ads evening,
You know exactly how I get when it becomes evening
And do an interview where you're like, what, well, no, no,
what are you doing? Okay, y'all, So we have come
to the end of our interview, So I have one
last question. Where can we find your books and follow
(27:01):
you on social media so we can get more information
about your books and your lovely writing life.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Well, you can find our book on BookBaby dot com.
It's also available on Amazon, but we do have a
social media presence on our own website, Facebook and Instagram
at two twosbooks dot com spelled t U t u
s b o ok s dot com. And we hope
(27:28):
you know you'll find that you want to purchase this
and if you do, please leave a review. We would
love that. So our tagline is timeless words, playful art,
generations connected, and at least I believe that our book
has the ability to do all of that.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Thank you for coming in today. I really appreciate having
you guys's guests. You have been so much fun. I
feel a little wiser already, which is sad because I
didn't come in my head a little heavier Now that
I have.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Some wisdom in it.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
You can find out every I'm gonna wrap it up
for us over here. You can find out everything that
your ladies are doing at www dot and I thought
ladies dot com. And while you're there, go down to
the bottom of the page and you can see the
three charities that we probably support. We asked that you
give them a little support too, does not necessarily mean money.
You know, you can get your hands dirty and actually
build an orphanage in Ethiopia. Or maybe you have a
(28:26):
little wisdom, as we discussed today, that they kid use
because they're always looking for experts to help them figure
something out. Either way, we thank you in advance for
helping them, and remember that wisdom is all around you
if you're open to finding it and accepting it. So
peace and love you guys from well no, not in
the Missing Jade. Oh yeah, thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Bye.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Writer's class. Anyway, I
remember that I'm talking about the Writer's class, which is
the one that I don't have favorites that I don't
I like the lease. I don't have favorites, though I
love you all. My four podcasts evenly not important. I'm Willnona,
and I remember to introduce myself dak now, but I'm
almost professional, like this is the Ladies Tale podcast, like
(00:23):
I have like a producer or a director in the room.
You know, I is no, I am never that professional
when I have was in the room. I'm gonna do
this one day. I'm gonna be professional and I'm gonna
show up and I'm gonna act like I'm an actual
anchor of a podcast slash show that's never happened. But
it was fun to say I'm Malona and I'm part
of the ENDI. I thought, ladies, ooh, y'all. I think
(00:44):
I'm gonna have to need a cognancy test after that.
I just introduced myself twice. I've never done that before,
like I forgot my own durned name. Those When I
said part of the NDI I thought, ladies, that means
one half and the other you know, together we wrote books.
There's a few of them. This end I thought divorce
was bad end. I thought I being gird up with
zz if only Army your Memory, in Verse, Foreign Coffee,
widdows Web, and Widow's Debt. If you are counting, that
(01:07):
is six books. Y'all want to do the sign language part.
Six books, so if you want to, we can add
another twenty one books and you will get a full total,
sorry total of twenty seven books. That's the many we've written.
You can find those on www. Dot and I thought
ladies dot com. By the way, we just finbered. We
(01:29):
just finished number twenty eight and I started number twenty nine. Hey,
I'm rolling on thirty now and that does not encounter
include my mysteries, but that's okay. I don't want to
brag about me. I am the narcissist of the group.
But still the other things to do, like I have guests,
So you don't want to hear any more about me.
You want to hear about our wonderful guests. Wonderful guest.
Would you like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Hi, I'm Janet, Helloha, I'm Linda.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Do anything about you?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
We're gonna say three things about ourselves. I'm addicted to
coffee from the moment I get up to the moment
I go to bed, sleep like a baby.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
It doesn't matter, at least for a couple hours.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I really like being outside, and I really like foggy days.
So those are three things about me.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
That's all true. She also likes cheeseburgers. I'm gonna tell
her that too. Three things about me. I really enjoy music,
and I know Dana does too. So every Sunday night,
I listen to my Grateful Dead show on the radio
on Lava one oh five point three from four to six,
(02:48):
and I fold my laundry and do all my tours
and get ready for Monday, which I love. So I'm
rocking around the house. What else about me? I like
to be outside, like Janet too. I'd rather be inside
outside than inside. I come in, i'd to rest and
to sleep. And I always have water with me. I'm
a water junkie. I take it to bed, I drink
it in the middle of the night when I get
up to go to the bathroom. So that's my thing.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Okay, first of all, you're a water junkie. That's not
even fair. You cannot be a junkie when it comes
to water.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes, you can't. Water is so good for you, keep
you hydrated.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, that's how we know it's not a junkie thing.
I remember.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I remember being in grade school, right, and they used
to take you out to get a drink of water
at a certain time, and you had to stand in
line at the drinking fountain and tell it was your turn.
And I would sit there in my turn and I'd
just be chugging and people would be like, move, hurry up,
we don't have time, and I'm like, I don't care.
I'm still really thirsty. So you think I have a
kidney problem, but knock on wood, ting tin tink, I
(03:48):
don't think I do. So I think I just like
water or it can be flavored.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So yeah, oh that is hilarious. So you were one
of those kids. Yeah, you said you like foggy days,
but you both like being outside. So is it like
foggy London days with the drizzle on your head or
just like foggy like I got up and for everyone
else in the world, I need coffee.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Well, it depends on what I have to do, whether
I'm talking about mind fog or ocean fog. There are
those days where I wake up with the mind fog.
But since I have a very close friendship with very
strong coffee, I'm usually able to.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Burn it off pretty early in the day.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Not so much with the fog here in the Pacific Northwest.
It can hang around for a long time. And I've
always loved a good foggy day. I'm close to the water,
so I get my fair share of foggy days, either
one A little from column A, a little from column B.
You know, brain fog beach frog.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
They both work.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Okay, First of all, I'm just starting to understand what
brain fog is. Apparently, like, Oh my god, never ever
ever do I want this? It feels like la small
has just settled in your head and it's not going anywhere.
And I'm addicted to caffeine. I can't burn it off.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
No, but coffee works if you drink coffee.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I'm allergic. I'm allergic to caffeine. I asked, what I
mean to say, I'm allergic to caffeine.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Well, I'm sorry, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So am I. Every day every day someone makes a
kind of coffee, I'm like that most delicious, and y'all
are operating now oh yeah, but that's okay.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I travel internationally with my little French press and I'll
carry it into restaurants, have my own coffee in it,
and say charge me for a cup of tea, but
just bring the hot water and I'll make my own
coffee right at the table because I want it.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I want the coffee to work.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I want to travel with you, ma'am. And I don't
even I can't even drink the coffee, but I just
want to travel with you, maab.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
We have a good time.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So both of you like to be outside, but somehow
there's a book. Yeah, I'm inside for how long to
make this book? And were you happy or unhappy about
this process?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I've known Frenchies since I was seventeen years old and
she was twelve. I call her Frenchie. It was a
childhood nickname, and so more often than not I will
refer to her as Frenchie. So we've been friends with
each other. I'm sixty seven today, so you can do
(06:44):
the math. And even though you know we both got
married young, we both had children. She moved away, but
through life we've always reconnected. We were when each other's
parents died, we were there for each other. When our
(07:05):
husbands died. We were there celebrating each other's gains and accomplishments.
And they're sitting quietly next to each other in the
darkness when one of us was broken. And those are
bonds that don't happen often when life people come and go.
(07:28):
They represent a certain time, but very few people come
through life all the time. I'm sorry one. So our
friendship has survived a lifetime of you know, wonderment and
(07:51):
bereavement and our children's teenage years and traveling together. We've
gotten older and we're not you know, needed at home on.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
A day to day basis.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
So when she approached me about doing the artwork for
this book, it was for me a gift back and
thanking her for all the wonderful years that we've had
as friends, back and forth, and just celebrating her and
her grandchildren. And you know, it was a wonderful experience,
(08:31):
just the time we had together and the laughter.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And you know, some of my.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Ideas can get pretty far fetched, and she was always
there to rain me in, you know, pull me back
in when I was like, oh, we could do this,
or we could I can paint that, or and you know,
at times she's like I want to say this, and
I'm like, oh, I don't think we should say it
that way. And we've really listened to each other and
(08:58):
really respected each other views. So it to me, it
was a culmination of all the love I have for
my friend, for her family, for our memories that we've
made together. Absolutely a wonderful experience. I would recommend it
to anyone who has a friend like I do.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Okay, Linda, I feel like she loves nothing for you
to really say, So that's a lot to you anyway.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, good, she left a lot. So I just want
to explain the name of the book. It's called Tototh Pearls.
Tutu is a word for grandparent in the Hawaiian language,
and it's also what my grandchildren call me, and pearl
stands for pearls of wisdom. So it's a giftable picture
book that has why sayings and original and whimsical art.
(09:51):
And for me, Totooth Pearls was really my phoenix rising
from the ashes. So I approached Janet after my husband
passed away in twenty twenty three and said, look, I
want to leave something for my grandkids and I'm asking
you to come help me on this project, so would
you be willing to do it? And I said, I
just want to leave them the things that are most
important in life. Some of the sayings like oh, I
(10:15):
don't know what's a good one, Janet, You know, like
dance like no one's watching, or the grass is greener
the grasses and greener on the other side of the hill.
The grass is greener where you water it. Things to
really think about and sit with that represent those things
that are really important to a life well lived. And
what my husband who passed away was wonderful. He is
the nicest man I ever met in my entire life,
(10:36):
and he just, you know, showed me a beautiful thing
on what's important and I just needed to write it down.
And I'm so glad that my friend of fifty years
was willing to do it with me because she made
it a gas. It was a very fun process and
we're still having fun and we're writing more. We've got
four already done, not thirty, but we've got a total
(10:57):
of five done, five done, and only one is published.
So you can find us on BookBaby dot com or
you can find us on our website at Tutu's books
dot com, t U t u s b o okas
dot com.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Oh wow, I feel like my job is completely and
totally done. Now, yeah, the background story, we've got everything, But.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Why did you choose not everything, not even clothes?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Why did you choose tou tou out of like all
the languages that you could have chosen to two?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
As a Hawaiian saying yes, so t u t u
to tutu is what uh? In Hawaii, the grandchildren will
call both the grandmother and the grandfather touto. So it
could be two two man or too too lady, or
it could be too to Linda that's my name, or
as Janet would call me too too Frenchy, or it
could be a two two with a man's name on
(11:52):
the end of it. But my kids call me too too.
They call their other grandmother grandma, but they call me
tu too. So that's why we chose it, since we
were writing it for my grandkids. And actually the dedication page,
if you look at it, has a picture of my
husband who passed away with my grandkids.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So okay, this book sounds absolutely heartbreakingly sweet. Now I'm sorry,
I'm going to get wisdom and it's going to be
pulling on a heart strings, Good gracious. I started off
with y'all being outside. I thought I was going to
get some cute indoor stories. But now I have heart
strings and tears in the corner of my eyes. Good gracious,
(12:28):
not me at all. So this does bring me to
a whole nother question. So this is the fifty years Friendship,
five books, So we're getting one book and ten years
of wisdom per each book.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I don't think it breaks down that way, but that's
a thought. I always have ideas for other books that
I want to do. I was trying to convince Frenchie
to do out an adult for that book, because that
would make me laughs, you know, a little drinking, you know,
(13:12):
just the reality of being, you know, a senior citizen
in these times. You know, we were children of the sixties,
children of the seventies, so it's you know, we listened
to the Grateful Dead, and we had a hell of
(13:33):
a youth and it was good. It was really good.
And I expect that my my senior years will be
as fun and rewarding as other parts of my life,
because I'm still having a great time. I'm still laughing,
still trying new things. I'm still, you know, encouraged to
(13:59):
keep going. And part of that was, you know, the
book project. It was it always has me thinking, what
are we doing next? Where am I going with this painting?
Why do I want to do this painting? Do you
feel anything when you know? Do I feel anything when
I look at it? And so it's it's just a
(14:20):
great it's a great time, and I would hope that
everybody of our age is having as great of a
time doing what they love doing as we are.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Supers to know one you said you love learning new things?
So Janet, Linda, what do we learn new? What are
we doing next? And then there were two just for Janet.
I heard painting, but I didn't hear writing. Who did
you paint for me?
Speaker 4 (14:48):
I am not the writer.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Frenchy's very kind and saying that we co authored the book,
when in fact she would come up with the ideas
and I'd look at them and say, I think I
can paint this, or I think I can get close
to what I feel when I.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Look at these words.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So that's what I would do, and occasionally I would say, oh,
I don't think we should say it this way.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I think maybe if we say it this.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Way, it will it will feel better and I'll get
the right feeling in the painting. So that was one
of your questions. What was your other question? Because I'm
it's already gone.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
What did yell arn new?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Oh my gosh, what did we learn new? Well?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Podcast, I learned that Linda is very She can understand
computer language much better than I can. And she put
it all together on the computer.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
She did you know.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I would say, oh, I think this picture goes next,
and I kind of laid it out, but she was
able to put it all in in the computer and
have it come out and look like a book. And
she was like, I've never done this before. And I
would tell her, well, you're brilliant because you're teaching yourself
how to edit a book and that is not in
(16:15):
my skill set in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
I just am like, I'm walking outside, can't do it.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
And she persevered taught herself how to do it. I
would show up with all the photographs of the paintings.
I would go to her house and in a week
to ten days, we have the layout done, we have
all the everything figured out where the dedication was, and
we would be able to do it in week to
(16:44):
ten days every single time. So she kudos took Frenchy
for learning that I learned or relearned that my brain
doesn't think like that. It's like math. Computers and math
are like the same thing. I'm just like, uh so,
(17:05):
way to go, Way to go, my friend.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yes, and we all of our books aren't the same format.
So tow tooth Pearls is definitely the wisest of the books,
and that's the wisdom I wanted to leave for my grandchildren.
But the other two two series are kind of different.
One is called to two Eats, and it's the recipes
that we learned with our parents and grandparents and aunties
(17:30):
and uncles in the kitchen that were I'm sure they
came from a cookbook once upon a time, but I
don't know where or when, and we just learned at
their side doing it with them. So we wrote that
down for our children so that they could be the
keeper of the family recipes and then move on. And
then we wrote one called two Too takes a Trip,
and that's all about travel etiquette. And again it's all
(17:51):
the same kind of format, very minimal words and great art,
so it kind of makes it all pop. My personal
favorite was called Tutuo's on the Road Again, and that
one's all to Grateful Dead Lyrics. But when we spoke
with the owner of the lyrics with the Grateful Dead,
it's called Alfred Music. I think. When we spoke to them,
(18:15):
because it's copywritten material, and we talked to them about,
you know, what kind of royalties they would need. It
turned out that if we published it the same way
we published Tutoos Pearls, we would owe them a dollar,
two dollars and fifty four cents for every book we sold,
which isn't going to work for me. So we figured, Okay,
we're gonna wait on that one. And maybe we never
actually published that one, but I had a gas doing it,
(18:37):
and we may just reuse the art for something else.
And then we wrote one called two two Loves Hawaii,
and we've got three more in the works right now.
So Tutu is going to go to Washington and Scotland.
What was the other one, Janet Japan?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Maybe I want to do the Adult Alphabet Book.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And the Alphabet Book. So we've got other projects to
do and we really enjoy it. We typically wait till
the rainy season that's when Janet can paint. So we're
coming into spring and summer, so Janet's going to be
outside in the garden and then she'll come in the winter.
But we'll talk about our outline and our concepts of
what we want it to be and what we want
it to look like. Our books are short, they're only
(19:13):
about I mean, they're forty five pages, but it only
takes about fifteen minutes read. But it's the things that
you find within the pages can really stick with you.
And there's a lot of values in there to talk
about with your family. So a lot of times our
book ends up on a coffee table because it's something
you can pick up and just look at and go, wow,
all right, I want to talk about that. Here's an example.
(19:35):
There's a painting that Janet made of all the woodland
animals around a big table and has a little extension
on it and the saying underneath it says, if you
have what you need, build a longer table, not a
higher fence. There's some heavy things in that. What does
that mean to a kid? What does that mean to
an adult? So it's really a book that can help
bridge the generations and give you something concrete and complex
(19:57):
and value oriented to talk about rather than you know,
our typical uh what you might call video games or
you know, movies or whatever. So it can add a
lot of value to a family.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Okay, this sounds amazing. It sounds very thoughtful. I felt, okay,
a little too thoughtful for people who've gone through some life.
I'm not gonna lie, You're gon't think about things and
where did I end up? How did I get here?
It may inspire you to start telling your own lessons
to your young kids. But oh, now I've done my
(20:31):
little advertisement for the two tooth Pearls book. What would
you tell people who are of your generation and maybe
lacking some computer literacy? Here and they go, I'm writing
a book to leave for the grandkids. What advice would
you give them?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
You're never too old to learn something. Now it's okay.
There's also I talked to another woman who recently who
wanted to leave Oh, it was last night. She wanted
to stories about how she left Germany in ninety forty
two or something, and she was seven years old and
came to this country and then she ended up working
(21:12):
in New York City for a luxury fashion of French
luxury brand, and she wanted to leave those stories for
her kids and grandkids who grew up here. But you know,
all of that backtrack and coming to this country not
knowing English and all of this stuff, and at a
time when you know, there wasn't a lot of warmth
towards German people, you know. And so I was telling her,
(21:35):
you can go There are places online that offer books
that are almost like journals that will prompt you about
what to say, and a lot of times you can
even transcribe it and not have to write it all down.
So she was going to look into that, but there
are methods out there.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
So Janet, I would encourage anybody to write their story
down because I honestly, honestly believe that every life has
a beautiful story, and until you lay it down on paper,
you won't know whatevery You won't know until you start
(22:14):
what you have bottled up inside of you, just one
story after another, and we all have them, they're all different.
Write it down. Because my parents were pretty good about
writing stuff down. But I still have questions that are
going to go unanswered because they're gone and I don't
know exactly and I can't call them up and say,
(22:38):
you know, Dad, you fought in World War two and
land it on the beaches of Normandy for D Day.
We never talked about it. I have the history of it,
but I would encourage all of us to write our
lives down. Might never ever be a book, but your
(22:58):
family and those that come after might really appreciate knowing
what your life was like, knowing what it was like
to live or be born in nineteen ninety two or
two thousand and five or whenever it was. All of
our lives are different, but we should all celebrate our lives.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
That's that would be my suggestion. Just do it. Just
get out there and write it.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
How has this book taken you to unexpected places? Like
when you started off, what did you think you were
going to go with it? And what more were You're like, wow,
this is different.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Well certainly not a podcast. I had no idea that
when we're going to do something like this. I you know,
I was in the middle of my grief when we
were starting to toose Pearls and so really when we
finished it, I just felt like, oh, we're done, because
I just wanted to leave something for my grandkids. Okay,
we did it, but as I look at it, it's
(24:00):
it's got some really deep value to it. So it's
leading me to all these new places with Janet, which
we're really enjoying. We did take it all over Northern
Europe together, which was a lot of fun, and getting
our pictures taken everywhere with the book and giving some
copies away and whatever, and we've donated a bunch too,
(24:20):
So I'm looking forward to see where else it takes us.
But our dream, I think together Janet, is to go
to like Lake Puomo for a month and sit there
and write a book. We would love that Toto goes
to Italy, you know, or goes to the lake district whatever,
But we think that would be really fun.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
So Janet, where have you wanted? That's unexpected?
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I'm sorry, what?
Speaker 1 (24:47):
What? Where did you? What did this journey take you?
That was unexpected.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
For me?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
It was the moment that I saw the artwork and
the words together in book form. It made it all
very real and I didn't expect to feel that way
about it. I didn't expect to look at it and
be like we did this, This is something we did.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
It came from to little piece of us, each of
us that are in that book.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
You know, every painting I do, there's a little piece
of meat in each of those paintings, and every everything
that she wrote down that she wanted to say, there
was a piece of her.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
And so you look.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
At it and you realize we came together and created this,
this piece that doesn't fit in any box. It doesn't
you know, it's really hard to label what is this?
Who's it for? And I'm like it can be for everybody.
They're all things that we either knew what one time
(26:00):
and forgot or we still know, and it reinforces that,
you know, be kind to yourself and other people.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Just be kind.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Doesn't cost you anything to be kind.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
It was just seeing.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
The birth of our creation in a way of the
paintings or the artwork and the words together that I
was surprised at how much it meant to me when
I saw it done the first time. So that's my answer,
and I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Like she would also be like, I'm sticking to my guns.
Never mind, Sorry, y'all. I'm bouncy and it's us ads evening,
You know exactly how I get when it becomes evening
And do an interview where you're like, what, well, no, no,
what are you doing? Okay, y'all, So we have come
to the end of our interview, So I have one
last question. Where can we find your books and follow
(27:01):
you on social media so we can get more information
about your books and your lovely writing life.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Well, you can find our book on BookBaby dot com.
It's also available on Amazon, but we do have a
social media presence on our own website, Facebook and Instagram
at two twosbooks dot com spelled t U t u
s b o ok s dot com. And we hope
(27:28):
you know you'll find that you want to purchase this
and if you do, please leave a review. We would
love that. So our tagline is timeless words, playful art,
generations connected, and at least I believe that our book
has the ability to do all of that.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Thank you for coming in today. I really appreciate having
you guys's guests. You have been so much fun. I
feel a little wiser already, which is sad because I
didn't come in my head a little heavier Now that
I have.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Some wisdom in it.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
You can find out every I'm gonna wrap it up
for us over here. You can find out everything that
your ladies are doing at www dot and I thought
ladies dot com. And while you're there, go down to
the bottom of the page and you can see the
three charities that we probably support. We asked that you
give them a little support too, does not necessarily mean money.
You know, you can get your hands dirty and actually
build an orphanage in Ethiopia. Or maybe you have a
(28:26):
little wisdom, as we discussed today, that they kid use
because they're always looking for experts to help them figure
something out. Either way, we thank you in advance for
helping them, and remember that wisdom is all around you
if you're open to finding it and accepting it. So
peace and love you guys from well no, not in
the Missing Jade. Oh yeah, thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Bye.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.