December 25, 2025 • 20 mins
Entering Christmasville - is the first in a series called: Ghost Town Christmas. Author Patricia M. Boardman reaches back to her teenage years, remembering the joy of discovering her German roots. A quaint pioneer church stood over her ancestors, as it does today…it’s the only building left in a ghost town and inspired her to create this tale. It’s 2007, 71-year-old Nettie Holmes carves porcelain Christmas houses .She pours all her love and patience into this hobby. Each a work of art. Nettie loves everything about Christmas, all the old ornaments that have lost their luster, are treasures in her mind. She can control her hobby and love for the holidays, but her family’s life she cannot. Enter Nettie’s daughter and granddaughter. Her daughter Noel used to love Christmas too, but now she has disdain for her mother’s passion. Noel was adopted when she was four years old. She senses a clock ticking and she wants to find her biological parents before they die. Nettie, a genealogist, has tried for many years to locate her biological parents, but her failure to do so weighs on her heavily. Then there’s Nettie’s granddaughter, Miki who lives and works in Chicago - a far cry from the simple farm girl life he’s lived. But Miki has just announced she’s coming home to Iowa as she’s gotten a job renovating historic facades in Nettie’s hometown where the town has voted to create a museum on Main Street. Nettie and Miki find themselves teaming up to excavate the old ghost town for artifacts. What happens next - secrets are uncovered there that turn Nettie’s life upside down! Things she did not want to relive or have revealed - long buried secrets intended to stay hidden forever. As Christmas approaches, the three women come together - finding answers to their prayers to unify and grow their family together on a special Christmas Eve. They all find a home of love because of a special baby boy at Christmas. “Patricia Boardman’s book is a tapestry woven with love, charity, tragedy, truth and inspiration” praises Richard Paul Evans #1 New York Times bestselling author.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Oh, I'm fine, just fine.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You read you have a book like this and you're
just fine. Heck no, you should be hardly jolly.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes, it's the right it's the right front time.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Of the year when you write a book called Entering Christmasville.
I mean this, you know, the thing that I did
as a reader is right away, I'm going, Wow, the
term home has a new definition. And what does it mean?
What does it mean to you now that that you're older. Uh,
you know, because as children, you know, home is a house,
but as an adult, home is home?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, yes, it and which kind of home?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And if you look at the big perspective, it's it's
it can mean many different things.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And that's kind of what I'm trying to say in
the story. I I mean, you.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Know, doing genealogy is maybe me look at the long
perspective about you know, our lives are very short. And
also I I really discovered in doing the work that
I did that that life and so it seems like
the world is a big place, but it's really a
small place. And it's kind of ironic. But you know,
(01:07):
I just two years ago I discovered that my ancestors
were actually one of the people that founded Plymouth, Massachusetts
Bay Colony. Wow, And I didn't know that until a
couple of years ago. And it's like, oh, my gosh,
I wish I knew that as a kid. History would
have been interesting to me. But you know what I mean.
But those people and if you watch like the Roots Show,
(01:28):
they'll have those actors on and they'll go, oh, guess what,
you have a fellow actor that's you know, your relative.
And that's when I realized the world really is a
small place. That's what doing GELG has taught me. And
how we treat each other so important.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You know, you talked about how short life is. I've
been a daily writer since July of nineteen ninety four,
and you would think that, wow, you know, twenty nine
years of writing, there should be a lot of things.
There's not. Twenty nine years of writing is not very
very many books at all.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
No, No, it is interesting, isn't it? And so yeah,
and I know, like I wish I had stories from
my ancestors, but they didn't get passed down?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Did they? All that rich history?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
If I had just a single page written about it,
it would be amazing, But it was not passed down.
And it's funny how you go through your life and
it seems kind of insignificant and you get caught up
with the daily routine of things and you don't take
time to leave a written record, But it just means
so much to the people that you know that you
(02:32):
leave behind to have something to you know, it's that
kind of a marker and it's really about you because
you've got their DNA.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You know, when you study family history like that. I mean,
one of the things that I'm taking note of with
modern day AI technology is how they can put motion
in those ancient black and white photographs. Is that fair
to us to see that? I mean, how do you
feel in situations like that, because I mean, in my home,
we've got really old photographs of my wife's father, but
(03:01):
it would be fascinating to see that photograph move.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Oh yeah, no, I think it's great. Anything you can
do to uh, to make things more real. Well, I
think about Natalie Cole. You know, she shed her she
didn't have her dad, but then she made a record
with a duet and then she made a video and
it had to be very cathartic for her to reach
out to him in that way. And to feel his presence.
(03:27):
And that's why I say, when you're writing, and I
think that's wonderful with the pictures, anything to.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Make things come alive.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
You know what I always love was that movie Time
Machine and avers as a kid, I thought, oh, man,
I wish I could go back in time and see
things what really happened here? You know what, what was
it really like when George Washington crossed the Delaware? You know,
because we know there's stuff we don't know it God forgotten.
And so that's kind of where I come from. Whenever
(03:54):
I'm thinking about any stories, I have already spent a
nurse an a time trying to gather all the evidence
I can and then try to, you know, put it
down in a story, to make something come alive, to
make history come alive in.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
A story entering Christmasville. Nettie Holmes is a very creative soul,
but she also has a very personal life.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, yes she does.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And and then her daughter, she adopted her daughter, so
she has a lot of love to give. But you know,
you know, you sense there's there's an emptiness there, a
loneliness that you just don't know what that's about. And
she just loved her daughter, Noel. But you know, I've
(04:36):
I did one of my friends. I did her geology,
and I always wanted to do someone who was adopted
because it scared me and I didn't know if I
could do it. But it was very interesting getting the
non identifying information and then trying to figure that out.
And with Nettie, she wants to find that information. And
the people who are looking for their biological parents have
(04:58):
an anxiety about it, such an anxiety because they want
to know was I abandoned right or was I loved?
What were the circumstances. It's just very human that you
want to know, and there's just so much tension about that.
And my girlfriend it's a timeline too. There's a timeline
(05:19):
because that person could be dead. If you wait too long,
they could be gone. And that's kind of what's in
the story with the mother and daughter that she's very
h she loved her mother, but she just got to
know the answers these questions and it creates a tension
between the two women and a bit of a distance.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, but that distance so is like you have to
don't you have to refocus your your thought process. I
understand that that Noel wants to go back and find
out who her parents are. But at the same time,
you got to be able to love within the moment
with I mean with with with Nettie and everything, because
because you can't let that go.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
No, no, But it is interesting because you for a
while you have to go to that other place. Yeah,
you know, it's just like I don't know, when you're
acting and you're studying a part, you really aren't part
of much part of the world that's really going around
you because you got to to just envelop yourself in
another person and be there and and once you get
(06:16):
used to it.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Then it's okay.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And then if everybody gets along, great, then you know,
then you've got a bigger family. But it may just
be a temporary thing, and sometimes you just feel the
anxiety that you've got to learn all you can.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Doesn't Entering Christmas feel kind of inspire the reader to
maybe do their own investigating inside their family because I
know nothing about my family. I really don't. And the
reason why it's really why, I really because I know
my grandparents came from Germany. Yes, we had a great
times as you know, as a family, but anything before that,
it's like, you know, am I supposed to know? And
and and what am I doing? So that somebody in
(06:50):
the future will know about me? And that's the reason
why why I'm a daily writer. A so I don't
forget live and B so that someone has something in
the future.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
That is you know. And I remember my grandmother taking
me through books, picture book that she made of her family.
And of course in the old days, so many people died.
You might have five children, you're left with maybe one
or two, and then their stories and it's like they're forgotten.
And that bothers me. I don't like people to be forgotten,
(07:20):
right because I don't want to be forgotten. And I
felt so lonely as a child. We had a home
life that could be fun, but it was also you know,
punctuated by violence, let's put it that way, and it's
really hard to overcome that. Mentally, you feel unloved and
I don't want for people to feel that way.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
With Noel, when she starts digging into things and she
starts finding some buried history, it reminds me right away,
I'm going, wow, how much of the family tree is
based on hearsay and not physical facts? Because because Noel
is getting some physical things here.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's piece of it together. And you know,
my mother was an illegitimate child and she was told
that her father was in the war and he was
married in our parish, I mean, and that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Was that he was married.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
So she was never told and four people knew who
her father was all around us, and nobody gave up
that secret, very powerful secret. Things were different in the
old days. And she used to sit in the back
of the church. She tell me, I just watched people
leave and I see who I thought. I looked like hmmm.
And when it came down the end because of DNA,
(08:33):
we found him and he was all around us. But
he was not in our parish, but our cousins were,
so so there were connections and they were all around
us and we didn't even know. And you know, it's
just kind of sad that it happened like that. But
there aren't secrets. People had secrets and they kept secrets
back then. There's no secrets anymore with DNA, right right,
(08:54):
So nos.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So interesting you bring that up because about about ten
years ago we got in word that there was somebody
that was in the Chicago area that looked pretty much
like my sister and I and so my sister went
looking for it and it turned out to be from
my father's other family, and it is. It was a sister.
Oh and so I mean, and to this day, Jamie
and I are like, I mean, it's like what we
(09:15):
come from two different families, but we're from the same guy.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, crazy, it is crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
But once again, it's all based on hearsay, her version
of the story versus my version of the story, and
we crash. And that's why books like this are so important,
that that people take them in and really study the
word home.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yes, yes, and it's Christmas, and Christmas is about love
and home. That's ultimately what it's about, not the presence
and all the other stuff. It's about being together. And
that's why I always liked the green story that we
grew up with one of your kids, you know, and
it's amazing. You know, you can take away all that stuff,
but you're not going to take away the spirit of someone.
(09:55):
Or you see that in people that lived through the Holocaust,
and yet they came out and you know, they're really
tortured inside about many many things, but they go out
and live a very productive life and move forward with
you know, positivity, and it's amazing what how resilient people
can be.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, where along the lines did you realize that you
were going to make this a multi generational book in
the way that, you know, because there aren't too many
stories like this, and I think this that's very inspiring
for a lot of people. It's like, wow, thank you,
you know, because we could talk about my grandmother, we
could talk about my mother, we could talk you know.
I mean, it's just amazing on how how how evenly
balanced this story is.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh, thank you, I really appreciate that. Yeah, you know, well,
I think, you know, women usually are the people who
keep the stories. Not always, but women have so many feelings,
you know, about these things. And you know, in my
experience going collecting genialg the men usually aren't at least
bit interested. But there are men who are. And that's
(10:53):
why I found out about my book. Once I started
selling it, I thought, well, I was writing a women's
story kind of, you know, I felt my audience was women,
but I found out otherwise.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I mean, there's you know, guys working out the gym.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Probably those kind of bet you know, workout rats probably
aren't gonna be interested in the book. But men who
believe in their faith and are more tender like that.
They just wrote back and they told me they love
my story. And I was like, well, I did not
expect that, but it is true. And there's there's a
(11:25):
lot of people men who do genealogy too, And and
it's funny the stuff that can happen in a story.
I mean, it's like it's like reading it. You couldn't
make it up in a screenplay, you know what I mean.
Some of real life is way better than something you're
just gonna just make up, you know. And when I
(11:45):
was a I started when I was fifteen doing genealogy,
and I had a My great great grandfather was in
the Civil War all the way up through His unit
was up up through Gettysburg, and he was wounded at Chancellorville.
But anyway, the thing was, I thought he was a hero,
and I just like, oh, man, I got a little
(12:06):
more about him. And then, as it turned out, I
later in life, I found two elderly relatives. They were
each ninety seven years old and in a nursing home,
and I went to see him. They had perfectly sharp minds,
and they said, yeah, you notice that. Well, first of all,
I found out that one of the relatives said, did
you know that my family murdered somebody in your family?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And I'm like what?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
And so the man he was in the Civil War,
one of his daughters was murdered and so, and what
happened was they said that on his deathbed.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
When that guy was dying, he said, I don't want
to die. I'm scared. I'm scared.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
And his wife said, what are you scared about. You're
going to go see God. He's all gonna be all right,
just be at peace. He says, no, that's just it.
I don't want to see God. I murdered your sister
and he was eight months pregnant and no one knew.
And then he turned around and married her sister. Wow,
and who could And so anyway, as it turned out,
(13:09):
I found these other two ladies that were you know,
ninety seven, and the last one said, did you notice
that nobody in the family knows about Charles? And I
said yes. I talked to people and they go, there's
no Charles in the story. And I go, yeah, I know,
I am. I descend it from him. He goes, no,
there's no charge there's no Charles in our book of names,
you know, as he's not even in there.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And I just was baffled by that.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
She said, did you notice that his name is I said, yes,
that did come up, and I don't understand. She said, well,
that's because he was molesting his own daughter.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
And then she got pregnant and he married her off.
Then I knew why he killed her.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Can you imagine he probably figured out that's not.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
His baby, yep, yep.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
And he poisoned her with arsenic and so that's a
horrible long death and you're eight months pregnant.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Uh horrible, you know. Uh So.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Anyway, yeah, you just never know, and uh, you know,
I don't know how much time we have. But I
remember when Ted Turner did that series on on the
Civil War on Gettysburg, and and he was going to
do three. He did Gods, Gods in General, what was
it Gods in Generals or something anyway, and that was
the second one, and then he was gonna do a
(14:29):
third one, but he never did, and it was going
to be the last full measure. That was actually the
story about my ancestors time in the Civil War. And
there's the man whose diary they took Oh my gosh.
He they based it off this diary that he wrote.
And he was amazing diary and he was such a
wonderful man and and he couldn't be more different than
(14:50):
my ancestor. You know what, I would read clips in
there that all the some people are grumbling and they're unhappy.
Oh that was probably my ancestor then, I suppose, uh,
but it was very fun. He tells the story about
one day he got on leave in Washington, d c.
And he thought, I'm going to walk over and stand
on the White House lawn so I can tell my
parents I stood on the lawn.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
You know, they'll be so excited.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
And he said, I was standing there and all of
a sudden the front door opened and it was Abraham
Lincoln and he came out and picked up a newspaper and.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
He was just standing there.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
He was just in awe.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
It's like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
He came out, picked up the newspaper, and the guy
in Abraham Lincoln waved to him and he said what
you did? Are you in? And he said, well, the
first Minnesota is Oh, they're the best fighters we've got.
And yeah, he talked to him for a few minutes.
He said, now, young man, I got to go in.
I got a lot to do, and he goes okay,
and he was leaving the White House. He threw his
hat in the air and he was yelling like yippie.
He said, I can't believe I'm gonna be able to
(15:42):
tell my family I met Abraham Lincoln. And you know,
even though my an sister was a disappointment, I love
that man, and I always wanted to do a story
of it. So I thought it was funny that Ted
Turner never did do it, because I would like, I'd
love to do that story. It's very interesting. So you know,
real life is so much more interesting. And even though
(16:02):
my characters are fictional, it's really kind of based on
my work doing genealogy. So when I was a kid,
we'd drive up to Elkport, and that's where my ancestor
was from, and he went to that church that I
have pictured in the book, and that's the only thing
that really survived the tearing down of the town. There
was a flood, and so that's why it's the Elk
(16:24):
part of the ghost town, because they tore everything down,
but some of the local people save the church and
it's a beautiful little church, and I just had so
many fond memories of going there as a young person
and tramping through the cemeteries, and you know, it was
all different before Roots. Yeah, Roots changed everything. And then
Centennial came out, and that's.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
When I wanted. I really knew I wanted to be
a writer.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So I thought, I want to take all of my
genealogy and write a story, a sweeping story, like say Centennial.
And I thought I was very inspired by that. So
I got on the board of a history society at
one point, and then I started writing these cemetery tours
as a fundraiser, and it was It was really interesting
(17:07):
because I have kind of a film background, and I
you know, I've written screenplays.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I just I knew how to do it because I
lived it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
So I just wrote a whole story where small groups
had come up and they meted a grave and someone
would tell the story and then we'd reenact scenes with
stage coaches and antique fire engines and all kinds of
fun stuff. It was a fun community project and that's
how I found my voice, was was doing all those
(17:38):
Before then I was very insecure, and then I didn't
think I could do it. When I started this book,
I actually, uh, Richard Paul Evans is my mentor, and yeah,
he is a tremendous man. Well, he's known as the
king of self publishing and he started with The Christmas
Box and uh, and that became a movie with Marino
(18:02):
Haarra and Richard Thomas and I always love that story.
So I thought, you know what, I want to read
the book. It's one of my screenwriting friends. You should
write a book and then write the screenplay. You'll make
a lot more money. And so I always had that
on my mind, and so I thought, you know what,
I need to keep reading books and comparing them, see
how you adapt stories, things like that. So anyway, I
went ahead and purchased the book and then there was
(18:24):
a button there it said do you want to follow
the author? I thought, well, I need to learn about
this technology. And I thought, yeah, what they heck, let's
follow him and find out what he does, how he
uses it, you know, the Internet and such. And so
I clicked on it, and about three weeks later he
sent emails to everybody and said, I'm starting a new
writing class and we'd like you to join. And it
(18:45):
was very inexpensive too. It's like it's like sixteen dollars
a month, wow. And we have weekly meetings and we
read to each other and give each other feedback, and
then we have other classes where Richard comes on and
teaches us marketing and you know, I mean, it's just amazing.
And and you know what, ten months later, I had
(19:05):
a book.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It was done.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Where can people go to find
out more about you? Patricia to fight? Because this is
book one of a series of ghost towns. So I
want people to follow you because I mean, you're going
to probably take every every bit of those lessons you've learned,
and you're going to teach future writers as well.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yes, I am, and I want to.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I want to create a podcast too about history like
Profiles and Courage.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I love that series.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
And I want to redo my pint Tights Pioneer program
so that people can use it or download it and
use it too.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I'm on.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
My book is for sale on Amazon and Books a Million,
and you can go on my Facebook page it's p M. Boardman,
author and you can contact me there and if you
want an autograph copy, you can contact me from there.
And I'll mail it to you personally, so anyway, that's
how you would contact me. Thank you so much for
(19:57):
letting me come on.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Absolutely because I expect to talk to you in Book
two is ready to go. I don't want to rush yet,
but we got no.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
No, it's it's going to be about Utah. The next
Juras be set in Utah and the ghost Town is
a mining town during the Depression.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Wow, that's gonna be a good one. That's gonna be
a good.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Will you love your energy?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
You'll be brilliant today.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Okay, I will thank you
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Oh, I'm fine, just fine.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You read you have a book like this and you're
just fine. Heck no, you should be hardly jolly.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes, it's the right it's the right front time.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Of the year when you write a book called Entering Christmasville.
I mean this, you know, the thing that I did
as a reader is right away, I'm going, Wow, the
term home has a new definition. And what does it mean?
What does it mean to you now that that you're older. Uh,
you know, because as children, you know, home is a house,
but as an adult, home is home?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, yes, it and which kind of home?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And if you look at the big perspective, it's it's
it can mean many different things.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And that's kind of what I'm trying to say in
the story. I I mean, you.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Know, doing genealogy is maybe me look at the long
perspective about you know, our lives are very short. And
also I I really discovered in doing the work that
I did that that life and so it seems like
the world is a big place, but it's really a
small place. And it's kind of ironic. But you know,
(01:07):
I just two years ago I discovered that my ancestors
were actually one of the people that founded Plymouth, Massachusetts
Bay Colony. Wow, And I didn't know that until a
couple of years ago. And it's like, oh, my gosh,
I wish I knew that as a kid. History would
have been interesting to me. But you know what I mean.
But those people and if you watch like the Roots Show,
(01:28):
they'll have those actors on and they'll go, oh, guess what,
you have a fellow actor that's you know, your relative.
And that's when I realized the world really is a
small place. That's what doing GELG has taught me. And
how we treat each other so important.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You know, you talked about how short life is. I've
been a daily writer since July of nineteen ninety four,
and you would think that, wow, you know, twenty nine
years of writing, there should be a lot of things.
There's not. Twenty nine years of writing is not very
very many books at all.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
No, No, it is interesting, isn't it? And so yeah,
and I know, like I wish I had stories from
my ancestors, but they didn't get passed down?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Did they? All that rich history?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
If I had just a single page written about it,
it would be amazing, But it was not passed down.
And it's funny how you go through your life and
it seems kind of insignificant and you get caught up
with the daily routine of things and you don't take
time to leave a written record, But it just means
so much to the people that you know that you
(02:32):
leave behind to have something to you know, it's that
kind of a marker and it's really about you because
you've got their DNA.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You know, when you study family history like that. I mean,
one of the things that I'm taking note of with
modern day AI technology is how they can put motion
in those ancient black and white photographs. Is that fair
to us to see that? I mean, how do you
feel in situations like that, because I mean, in my home,
we've got really old photographs of my wife's father, but
(03:01):
it would be fascinating to see that photograph move.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Oh yeah, no, I think it's great. Anything you can
do to uh, to make things more real. Well, I
think about Natalie Cole. You know, she shed her she
didn't have her dad, but then she made a record
with a duet and then she made a video and
it had to be very cathartic for her to reach
out to him in that way. And to feel his presence.
(03:27):
And that's why I say, when you're writing, and I
think that's wonderful with the pictures, anything to.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Make things come alive.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
You know what I always love was that movie Time
Machine and avers as a kid, I thought, oh, man,
I wish I could go back in time and see
things what really happened here? You know what, what was
it really like when George Washington crossed the Delaware? You know,
because we know there's stuff we don't know it God forgotten.
And so that's kind of where I come from. Whenever
(03:54):
I'm thinking about any stories, I have already spent a
nurse an a time trying to gather all the evidence
I can and then try to, you know, put it
down in a story, to make something come alive, to
make history come alive in.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
A story entering Christmasville. Nettie Holmes is a very creative soul,
but she also has a very personal life.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, yes she does.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And and then her daughter, she adopted her daughter, so
she has a lot of love to give. But you know,
you know, you sense there's there's an emptiness there, a
loneliness that you just don't know what that's about. And
she just loved her daughter, Noel. But you know, I've
(04:36):
I did one of my friends. I did her geology,
and I always wanted to do someone who was adopted
because it scared me and I didn't know if I
could do it. But it was very interesting getting the
non identifying information and then trying to figure that out.
And with Nettie, she wants to find that information. And
the people who are looking for their biological parents have
(04:58):
an anxiety about it, such an anxiety because they want
to know was I abandoned right or was I loved?
What were the circumstances. It's just very human that you
want to know, and there's just so much tension about that.
And my girlfriend it's a timeline too. There's a timeline
(05:19):
because that person could be dead. If you wait too long,
they could be gone. And that's kind of what's in
the story with the mother and daughter that she's very
h she loved her mother, but she just got to
know the answers these questions and it creates a tension
between the two women and a bit of a distance.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, but that distance so is like you have to
don't you have to refocus your your thought process. I
understand that that Noel wants to go back and find
out who her parents are. But at the same time,
you got to be able to love within the moment
with I mean with with with Nettie and everything, because
because you can't let that go.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
No, no, But it is interesting because you for a
while you have to go to that other place. Yeah,
you know, it's just like I don't know, when you're
acting and you're studying a part, you really aren't part
of much part of the world that's really going around
you because you got to to just envelop yourself in
another person and be there and and once you get
(06:16):
used to it.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Then it's okay.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And then if everybody gets along, great, then you know,
then you've got a bigger family. But it may just
be a temporary thing, and sometimes you just feel the
anxiety that you've got to learn all you can.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Doesn't Entering Christmas feel kind of inspire the reader to
maybe do their own investigating inside their family because I
know nothing about my family. I really don't. And the
reason why it's really why, I really because I know
my grandparents came from Germany. Yes, we had a great
times as you know, as a family, but anything before that,
it's like, you know, am I supposed to know? And
and and what am I doing? So that somebody in
(06:50):
the future will know about me? And that's the reason
why why I'm a daily writer. A so I don't
forget live and B so that someone has something in
the future.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
That is you know. And I remember my grandmother taking
me through books, picture book that she made of her family.
And of course in the old days, so many people died.
You might have five children, you're left with maybe one
or two, and then their stories and it's like they're forgotten.
And that bothers me. I don't like people to be forgotten,
(07:20):
right because I don't want to be forgotten. And I
felt so lonely as a child. We had a home
life that could be fun, but it was also you know,
punctuated by violence, let's put it that way, and it's
really hard to overcome that. Mentally, you feel unloved and
I don't want for people to feel that way.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
With Noel, when she starts digging into things and she
starts finding some buried history, it reminds me right away,
I'm going, wow, how much of the family tree is
based on hearsay and not physical facts? Because because Noel
is getting some physical things here.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's piece of it together. And you know,
my mother was an illegitimate child and she was told
that her father was in the war and he was
married in our parish, I mean, and that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Was that he was married.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
So she was never told and four people knew who
her father was all around us, and nobody gave up
that secret, very powerful secret. Things were different in the
old days. And she used to sit in the back
of the church. She tell me, I just watched people
leave and I see who I thought. I looked like hmmm.
And when it came down the end because of DNA,
(08:33):
we found him and he was all around us. But
he was not in our parish, but our cousins were,
so so there were connections and they were all around
us and we didn't even know. And you know, it's
just kind of sad that it happened like that. But
there aren't secrets. People had secrets and they kept secrets
back then. There's no secrets anymore with DNA, right right,
(08:54):
So nos.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So interesting you bring that up because about about ten
years ago we got in word that there was somebody
that was in the Chicago area that looked pretty much
like my sister and I and so my sister went
looking for it and it turned out to be from
my father's other family, and it is. It was a sister.
Oh and so I mean, and to this day, Jamie
and I are like, I mean, it's like what we
(09:15):
come from two different families, but we're from the same guy.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, crazy, it is crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
But once again, it's all based on hearsay, her version
of the story versus my version of the story, and
we crash. And that's why books like this are so important,
that that people take them in and really study the
word home.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yes, yes, and it's Christmas, and Christmas is about love
and home. That's ultimately what it's about, not the presence
and all the other stuff. It's about being together. And
that's why I always liked the green story that we
grew up with one of your kids, you know, and
it's amazing. You know, you can take away all that stuff,
but you're not going to take away the spirit of someone.
(09:55):
Or you see that in people that lived through the Holocaust,
and yet they came out and you know, they're really
tortured inside about many many things, but they go out
and live a very productive life and move forward with
you know, positivity, and it's amazing what how resilient people
can be.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, where along the lines did you realize that you
were going to make this a multi generational book in
the way that, you know, because there aren't too many
stories like this, and I think this that's very inspiring
for a lot of people. It's like, wow, thank you,
you know, because we could talk about my grandmother, we
could talk about my mother, we could talk you know.
I mean, it's just amazing on how how how evenly
balanced this story is.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh, thank you, I really appreciate that. Yeah, you know, well,
I think, you know, women usually are the people who
keep the stories. Not always, but women have so many feelings,
you know, about these things. And you know, in my
experience going collecting genialg the men usually aren't at least
bit interested. But there are men who are. And that's
(10:53):
why I found out about my book. Once I started
selling it, I thought, well, I was writing a women's
story kind of, you know, I felt my audience was women,
but I found out otherwise.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I mean, there's you know, guys working out the gym.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Probably those kind of bet you know, workout rats probably
aren't gonna be interested in the book. But men who
believe in their faith and are more tender like that.
They just wrote back and they told me they love
my story. And I was like, well, I did not
expect that, but it is true. And there's there's a
(11:25):
lot of people men who do genealogy too, And and
it's funny the stuff that can happen in a story.
I mean, it's like it's like reading it. You couldn't
make it up in a screenplay, you know what I mean.
Some of real life is way better than something you're
just gonna just make up, you know. And when I
(11:45):
was a I started when I was fifteen doing genealogy,
and I had a My great great grandfather was in
the Civil War all the way up through His unit
was up up through Gettysburg, and he was wounded at Chancellorville.
But anyway, the thing was, I thought he was a hero,
and I just like, oh, man, I got a little
(12:06):
more about him. And then, as it turned out, I
later in life, I found two elderly relatives. They were
each ninety seven years old and in a nursing home,
and I went to see him. They had perfectly sharp minds,
and they said, yeah, you notice that. Well, first of all,
I found out that one of the relatives said, did
you know that my family murdered somebody in your family?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And I'm like what?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
And so the man he was in the Civil War,
one of his daughters was murdered and so, and what
happened was they said that on his deathbed.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
When that guy was dying, he said, I don't want
to die. I'm scared. I'm scared.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
And his wife said, what are you scared about. You're
going to go see God. He's all gonna be all right,
just be at peace. He says, no, that's just it.
I don't want to see God. I murdered your sister
and he was eight months pregnant and no one knew.
And then he turned around and married her sister. Wow,
and who could And so anyway, as it turned out,
(13:09):
I found these other two ladies that were you know,
ninety seven, and the last one said, did you notice
that nobody in the family knows about Charles? And I
said yes. I talked to people and they go, there's
no Charles in the story. And I go, yeah, I know,
I am. I descend it from him. He goes, no,
there's no charge there's no Charles in our book of names,
you know, as he's not even in there.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And I just was baffled by that.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
She said, did you notice that his name is I said, yes,
that did come up, and I don't understand. She said, well,
that's because he was molesting his own daughter.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
And then she got pregnant and he married her off.
Then I knew why he killed her.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Can you imagine he probably figured out that's not.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
His baby, yep, yep.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
And he poisoned her with arsenic and so that's a
horrible long death and you're eight months pregnant.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Uh horrible, you know. Uh So.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Anyway, yeah, you just never know, and uh, you know,
I don't know how much time we have. But I
remember when Ted Turner did that series on on the
Civil War on Gettysburg, and and he was going to
do three. He did Gods, Gods in General, what was
it Gods in Generals or something anyway, and that was
the second one, and then he was gonna do a
(14:29):
third one, but he never did, and it was going
to be the last full measure. That was actually the
story about my ancestors time in the Civil War. And
there's the man whose diary they took Oh my gosh.
He they based it off this diary that he wrote.
And he was amazing diary and he was such a
wonderful man and and he couldn't be more different than
(14:50):
my ancestor. You know what, I would read clips in
there that all the some people are grumbling and they're unhappy.
Oh that was probably my ancestor then, I suppose, uh,
but it was very fun. He tells the story about
one day he got on leave in Washington, d c.
And he thought, I'm going to walk over and stand
on the White House lawn so I can tell my
parents I stood on the lawn.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
You know, they'll be so excited.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
And he said, I was standing there and all of
a sudden the front door opened and it was Abraham
Lincoln and he came out and picked up a newspaper and.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
He was just standing there.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
He was just in awe.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
It's like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
He came out, picked up the newspaper, and the guy
in Abraham Lincoln waved to him and he said what
you did? Are you in? And he said, well, the
first Minnesota is Oh, they're the best fighters we've got.
And yeah, he talked to him for a few minutes.
He said, now, young man, I got to go in.
I got a lot to do, and he goes okay,
and he was leaving the White House. He threw his
hat in the air and he was yelling like yippie.
He said, I can't believe I'm gonna be able to
(15:42):
tell my family I met Abraham Lincoln. And you know,
even though my an sister was a disappointment, I love
that man, and I always wanted to do a story
of it. So I thought it was funny that Ted
Turner never did do it, because I would like, I'd
love to do that story. It's very interesting. So you know,
real life is so much more interesting. And even though
(16:02):
my characters are fictional, it's really kind of based on
my work doing genealogy. So when I was a kid,
we'd drive up to Elkport, and that's where my ancestor
was from, and he went to that church that I
have pictured in the book, and that's the only thing
that really survived the tearing down of the town. There
was a flood, and so that's why it's the Elk
(16:24):
part of the ghost town, because they tore everything down,
but some of the local people save the church and
it's a beautiful little church, and I just had so
many fond memories of going there as a young person
and tramping through the cemeteries, and you know, it was
all different before Roots. Yeah, Roots changed everything. And then
Centennial came out, and that's.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
When I wanted. I really knew I wanted to be
a writer.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So I thought, I want to take all of my
genealogy and write a story, a sweeping story, like say Centennial.
And I thought I was very inspired by that. So
I got on the board of a history society at
one point, and then I started writing these cemetery tours
as a fundraiser, and it was It was really interesting
(17:07):
because I have kind of a film background, and I
you know, I've written screenplays.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I just I knew how to do it because I
lived it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
So I just wrote a whole story where small groups
had come up and they meted a grave and someone
would tell the story and then we'd reenact scenes with
stage coaches and antique fire engines and all kinds of
fun stuff. It was a fun community project and that's
how I found my voice, was was doing all those
(17:38):
Before then I was very insecure, and then I didn't
think I could do it. When I started this book,
I actually, uh, Richard Paul Evans is my mentor, and yeah,
he is a tremendous man. Well, he's known as the
king of self publishing and he started with The Christmas
Box and uh, and that became a movie with Marino
(18:02):
Haarra and Richard Thomas and I always love that story.
So I thought, you know what, I want to read
the book. It's one of my screenwriting friends. You should
write a book and then write the screenplay. You'll make
a lot more money. And so I always had that
on my mind, and so I thought, you know what,
I need to keep reading books and comparing them, see
how you adapt stories, things like that. So anyway, I
went ahead and purchased the book and then there was
(18:24):
a button there it said do you want to follow
the author? I thought, well, I need to learn about
this technology. And I thought, yeah, what they heck, let's
follow him and find out what he does, how he
uses it, you know, the Internet and such. And so
I clicked on it, and about three weeks later he
sent emails to everybody and said, I'm starting a new
writing class and we'd like you to join. And it
(18:45):
was very inexpensive too. It's like it's like sixteen dollars
a month, wow. And we have weekly meetings and we
read to each other and give each other feedback, and
then we have other classes where Richard comes on and
teaches us marketing and you know, I mean, it's just amazing.
And and you know what, ten months later, I had
(19:05):
a book.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It was done.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Where can people go to find
out more about you? Patricia to fight? Because this is
book one of a series of ghost towns. So I
want people to follow you because I mean, you're going
to probably take every every bit of those lessons you've learned,
and you're going to teach future writers as well.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yes, I am, and I want to.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I want to create a podcast too about history like
Profiles and Courage.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I love that series.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
And I want to redo my pint Tights Pioneer program
so that people can use it or download it and
use it too.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I'm on.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
My book is for sale on Amazon and Books a Million,
and you can go on my Facebook page it's p M. Boardman,
author and you can contact me there and if you
want an autograph copy, you can contact me from there.
And I'll mail it to you personally, so anyway, that's
how you would contact me. Thank you so much for
(19:57):
letting me come on.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Absolutely because I expect to talk to you in Book
two is ready to go. I don't want to rush yet,
but we got no.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
No, it's it's going to be about Utah. The next
Juras be set in Utah and the ghost Town is
a mining town during the Depression.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Wow, that's gonna be a good one. That's gonna be
a good.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Will you love your energy?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
You'll be brilliant today.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Okay, I will thank you
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