Food, Climate, and Racing Boats (Hour 2)

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.

And here are your hosts,

John Minow and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back, Minow, the mayor here.

Good luck on Tuesday morning, 57 in Green Bay, 55 in Alpton, 55 in Oshkosh.

Hi today, mid-70s and mostly cloudy.

It is our Scotty summer text-to-win statewide contest.

Your daily chance when a pair of Milwaukee Brewer club-level tickets or $100 in cash.

Plus, every entry puts you into one of the grand prize drawings of Wisconsin Dells Area Vacation or Dork County Vacation.

All right, so this keyword is tan.

TAN TAN.

So just download the Civic Media app in the Apple or Google Play stores, choose WISS or WGBW and use the text button to send the keyword TAN for your chance to win in the statewide contest.

At this hour, you're playing for $100 cash and the keyword again is TAN TAN.

You've got till the end of the hour.

Good luck texting.

And again, every time you text, you get a chance to win and you help Jim and John.

Right.

Come on, we can.

We need it.

Yeah, come on.

We need it.

We haven't won

yet.

All we do for you

people.

We're competing with.

other civic media radio stations and we always come in second.

We're not, we're not like in second.

You're lucky through second.

Didn't need that.

Didn't need that.

Not for

a

company.

Wow.

We

got Larry

Kiedesbeck and Lutia Vanderveld in here, New Leaf Foods.

And I just love your mission statement.

The goal of the event is to address the concerns of our community as they relate to climate change, our food system and policy to empower people with the tools to create change.

Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin, FoodWise, NWTC, Green Bay Citizens Climate Lobby, NW, Northeast Wisconsin, Bird Alliance, Slow Farmers Co-op, Community Water Coalition.

You're bringing all these people together for a very good cause and I think you guys need not only just a pat on the back, but you need a little bit of a boost publicity-wise because this is such an important thing that you're doing and you're doing it from a grassroots level.

So Lauren and Latia, thanks both for being here and tell us what is going on.

Yeah, I mean Lutia, do you want to take it away from here?

I know you're the main event organizer, so.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I was doing an AmeriCorps term of service with New Leaf Foods, focusing on education and outreach.

And so when I started my term in January, that's when the idea of having a round table like this was brought up.

And so it's something that New Leaf has wanted to do for quite a while, just bringing the community.

eat together to talk about food.

And so yeah, in January is when this all really got started.

And we knew that we wanted to not just talk about food, but make sure that we are bringing attention to other things that fit in with the new leaf mission as well.

And so that's where the idea of climate came in and then later on policy.

And we want attendees to walk away, not just learning about these things, but having actionable things to do afterwards.

So we don't want to just bring them problems.

We also want them to be able to walk away with solutions.

I see

one thing here at Jim Talks, but it's one of your things here is the Eat Lancet Planetary Diet, Food Waste and Climate Change.

Jim always says, we don't have a food issue, we've got a supply issue.

Distribution.

Distribution.

We don't have a supply issue, we got a distribution issue.

And this climate change, when you talk about that, that's affecting certain groups of food, right?

Tell me about the climate change, because you're going to spend some time on that, and how that's affecting our food supply.

Yeah, so that is something that a slow farmers co-op will be going more into, but they will be talking about the effects of climate change on different crops and growing and how with the way that the climate is changing gets affecting everything from water to soil to the quality of food.

So that is definitely something that we're going to get that farmer input on how climate change affects that.

And we'll also be getting a little bit of input into how

Climate change also affects like food distribution and things like that So that's something that we will get more into with the food-wise aspect of it Well, they will be talking a bit more about food insecurity and climate change.

So we people are gonna come to this They're gonna learn a lot But I really like the fact that you're gonna give them a not its due list but an action plan when they leave like what are some of the things that will be on the action plan Do you think I mean, I know you haven't had the meeting yet, but what are you envisioning?

So what we are asking round table

attendees not attendees sorry we're asking the roundtable speakers to have action items to come with them so that they can share at their tables so that is something that each speaker will be able to bring to their own table and then kind of what we see

for the most part will definitely be the policy aspect.

So being in touch with your state representatives and letting them know like this is what we want to see in Wisconsin.

Like we want to support these sort of food and climate initiatives.

We also see people just getting more organized, not organized, more involved in their communities.

So these are the things that are happening right here in Green Bay and Brown County in Northeast Wisconsin.

And this is what you can do to help.

This is how you can be involved.

And also like the Eat Lancet diet, like here are things that you can do as an

individual on your own diet level that you can do to support the climate right now.

That's awesome.

And I want to talk a little bit about your background and how you got into this.

But before I want to add, I think it's really important that this at this seminar, this roundtable that you're having, that policy is brought up and that you work with the governments.

But we do that a lot.

John does a lot of things with the government for.

Policies for the veterans, you know, we're trying to lobby a little bit for these tiny homes and I do some things for the homeless I think there should be some things that are different and and they're they're very active and you can do it locally here City County, but you know the state is very receptive to new ideas I think they are but that'd be interesting to see what kind of things you come up with besides I'm sure there's gonna be things with with I don't know how much you get into hold the runoff and the water What happens with some of the pollution things?

I think it's more

That's part of this, right?

I mean, I think you

saw that on the agenda

here.

Okay, so that's that's important stuff.

Lauren, explain your your role in all this and where the passion comes from because that's always the key.

That's the number one thing we always want, not just a job.

Where's the passion come from?

Yeah, so my role, obviously, you know, communications coordinators to try to get the word out as much as possible.

So thanks for having us today.

First of all,

glad

to have you.

And yeah, the passion for me is, you know, I might not be

the most knowledgeable person on the New Leaf team when it comes to the actual science behind climate change and like you know making decisions about what you can do as an individual and you know in your community but I definitely want to do anything I can to like push the message so that you know I myself if I was just a member of the community this is something that I would be super interested in because not only am I like a foodie I care about a planet you know and I try to be aware and active in the community like know what's going on so

I guess that's where my passion comes from is just kind of this sort of this caringness about the planet and like the future of our food.

How is the Northeast Wisconsin region with something like this?

Because, you know, we're talking about some of the cool areas delivered to like Boulder, Colorado.

I could see this being huge, you know, someplace in Oregon.

I could see it being huge, but we're such a meat and potatoes kind of place here.

How is it received around this area?

I would say you're right with we are kind of

I guess more traditional in the way that you would think about diets and just like farming and things like that.

But there are also like a ton of little, I don't want to say little because they're they're mighty, a little but mighty community partners that we have that are all invited to this.

And just, you know, I was just with Wellow recently and they were awarded a huge funding opportunity

that only Robert Wood Johnson.

Yes.

Yeah.

And I think it's only like less than 10 organizations throughout.

the U.S.

are awarded it.

So we do have some force here in Northeast Wisconsin for things, you know, food insecurity, climate concerns, things like that for sure.

They've been on here and I was pleased that they got that.

They work hard.

They're

very

active.

But yeah, Wellow is a very broad brush.

And I think they'll be a good partner with you because they kind of want to do everything with food, health, wellness for the community.

But I like the

fact that even like...

Splinter organizations if you want to call it that like that they did like even the people we had on from the the plant type things and growing You know where you could go and pick you know They're really trying to encourage people to grow a lot of their own stuff.

You know, that's a and that's a big factor with this, isn't it?

I mean you guys try to really advocate for that

Oh, yeah And like definitely that's gonna be part of new Leafs presentation our our president Lynn Walter is gonna be our speaker and she's gonna talk about you know our projects that we have That are gonna be in a way like our actionable items for people as you can learn more about

Um, the orchard project that we have, you know, I've talked about bountiful branches with you guys before and growing your own.

So,

okay.

You really lit a spark with him.

You know

that, right?

He won't, he won't stop talking about that.

He wants to build his own orchard.

Good.

Good.

That means I did my job.

Yeah.

In the city,

I live in the hood.

It's

going

to be cool.

I got a lot next to me and I different

trees in

the

hood, right?

Half

a

million dollar for story house.

It's going

to be

great though.

Right garage.

Right next.

No, it is not.

And that next door though, I think there would be.

Good for my grandkids too to come out and see different.

Absolutely.

Like

everybody knows we can cherry trees and apple trees, but there's other things that we can grow here that I think.

two of each, and I think, you know, they can have little picnics in there.

It's gonna be

awesome.

I really want to do that.

I mean, I got, it's a decent size lot,

so.

Yeah, well, you should definitely make use of it.

I think

it'd be so much fun.

What

are you laughing

about?

I

think it's gonna be fun.

I think the picnics line took me out.

What, the

kids?

You see them under there, like, pear tree having a little picnic, you know, at grandpa's place?

I think it's

awesome.

Remember

the bees, though, Jim.

Oh, yeah, that's

true.

Remember right there, whole pollination thing that last

time you were here?

That's right.

Everything needs to be pollinated.

Yeah, so that was a

learning moment.

We learned quite a bit about it.

Every time we have you guys on, we learn a

lot.

That's what New

Leaf

is here

for.

I didn't know

that.

Well, how long has New Leaf been around?

And who started it?

Who decided that this area needs something like this?

Oh, gosh.

Yeah.

Well, New Leaf's been around since 2011.

They started out as a...

Food co-op so they were looking to open a co-op grocery store right here in downtown Okay, and the nonprofit was sort of created alongside of the co-op

and

so the co-op Failed but the nonprofit continued on so it's been around for about 14 years And I do believe that Lynn has been the president the entire time

she I don't think she was the one who initially started it

but

someone and I can't remember who this is but someone reached out to Lynn she had just retired and they were like hey like

You're free now.

You're retired.

Can you help us, you know, get this up and running?

And she's been with us ever since.

So she's been, I guess, semi-retired this entire year.

You know, those food co-ops, they sound such a fantastic idea, but they're tough to thrive,

aren't they?

But they can work, too.

I just want to say there.

I

was part of that.

And

it's

too bad that didn't work, but you know, they sold memberships because you need that.

You need to seed money

to get that thing going.

And

a lot of people volunteer but for food.

And yeah, that was maybe, maybe she was ahead of her time to do that here in Green Bay, but

you know,

Nashville, they're very successful.

Milwaukee has a really good one.

So, I

mean, they can't happen.

Anyway, I think it's good that they took the other piece of that and are doing what you do and more on the education side of

things.

Maybe it's time again, because Oshkosh has a very good food co-op downtown, right?

So maybe it's time, maybe.

You said 14 years

ago, maybe it's time.

What do they

do differently, Todd?

I mean, why is that one so successful?

I wish I could tell you, I don't know.

Maybe it's because it opened a little bit later.

It was in the last couple of years that opened.

But I think there's probably enough community support for something like that now that maybe we should try that again.

And I think you need to have the site.

I think it was just a concept.

And to give money to a concept is...

If you really want it, you'll do that.

But

if they would say, look, here's the site.

This is, I just think maybe the cart before the horse a little bit, but.

I think Todd's right.

I think people in here, you just look at our farmers market.

Not that that's a barometer, but boy, those things are just

huge.

It is.

It's

unbelievable.

And, you know, the fact that, you know, some people, it's not,

it's not dissimilar.

No.

I mean, the idea.

Yeah.

No.

Well, I'm excited for the Broadway market whenever that opens.

So sorry.

They've been on

here too.

Because that, that's one of their big focus things is something like this,

co-op

being a part of it.

So, but again, these are great ideas, but boy, there's just that fine line between.

being really successful, like, gosh, gosh, we're not making it here.

There almost seems to be

no in between.

Yeah.

And some of these things, if you start too big,

that's more difficult.

You bite off

more

than you can chew.

Right.

So

we're just, we're very supportive of what's going on on Broadway, but we think

that's...

Yeah, that

would definitely be worth, I think, discussing with, you know, our board and seeing the future of New Leaf, ultimately what we want are...

our next, I guess, mission to be.

Yeah.

Well, to partner with the public market is a really good idea.

Very successful in Milwaukee, but as

you know,

that thing, you know, went under a couple of times before it got successful.

Those are tough, tough things to do.

But you

still need that.

You mentioned seed money.

You

gotta have that.

You can't be rubbing the two nickels together

every week.

That's

the key.

But anyway, that's gonna be great something worth a

break in your name with your sponsor.

I'm

good.

I'm

sure that's funny.

I'll be faster.

I'll talk.

I guess I'll

create

it.

Lauren and

Latia, newly foods, back right after this.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

And the Scotty Summer Text to Win contest is on right now.

And this hour's keyword is tan, T-A-N, tan.

If you don't have the Civic Media app, download that right now in the Apple or Google Play stores.

Choose your station, W-I-S-S or WGBW.

Use the text button to send the keyword tan for your chance to win in the statewide contest this hour.

You are playing for $100.

and also going into the drawing to, uh, to win those, uh, vacations, Wisconsin, Dallas area vacation, Door County vacation.

Good luck.

You've got till the end of the hour to text the word tan.

Once again, here's John Minow and Jim Schmidt.

Thank you very much.

Welcome back.

Lauren Kiesbeck and Lucia Vanderveld and newly foods, climate food and policy round table.

And Lucia, I give you credit being a native of Dallas and moving up here to Green Bay and, uh, you're staying loyal to your, to your fellas down there in Texas.

I am, I am.

even though some days it's can be a little hard to be a Cowboys man.

But

we went through that here too.

So hang in there.

But you know what's funny is we I with coach when coach McCarthy was there, I was like a big Cowboy fan,

obviously.

But it's

like I really pulled for him so much

that

it's that's a tough gig down there with Jerry Jones and everything, isn't it?

I, you know, I don't want to say too much about it, but indeed, I would say yes.

Who's

more passionate Packer fans or Cowboy fans?

Well, but

that's

that's a tough

one because you

guys are

America's team, you got the most.

People love the Cowboys, but boy, you've had a dry spell.

And longer than when you think, oh, it doesn't that long ago that you guys won, but it was a long

time ago.

It's been a while.

Well, I mean, my favorite Cowboys player of all time was Jason Whitten, and he never got a ring.

And so that's something that I take personally, to be honest.

But I would agree that your ownership is significantly different than ours, right?

Than anybody's, really.

After the games, all the press conferences, they go to Jerry Jones.

One of their team goes to the GM.

They usually go to

the coach.

But I don't know, he's Jerry

Jones.

I hope you do.

I do like the stadium.

And like I

said, I have

friends down there.

I've gone to a few games.

But anyway, we're still going to work on you, though.

Don't think we're

going to let you off the hook.

We will

still try to convert you.

So this thing is coming up.

On the 14th, you have this educational seminar that you're sponsoring.

It has a lot to do with food supply, the climate change, so many great speakers coming in.

And what I like about this, and I want to talk a little bit more about who you want to attend.

But the fact that they're going to leave with something to do, and I think that's really important.

And then one of the things I want to talk about is the two community orchards going up in Bellevue.

Oh, yeah.

So go

ahead, take it away.

True.

So if we're gonna talk about the orchards, that's tomorrow actually going up.

10 o'clock, Moonrise Park.

Yep, he's got it.

So we're actually looking for anyone who wants to help like install those trees.

You are totally welcome to come.

This would be

perfect for you for your

orchard.

Yeah.

What time?

No, I am

really

interested in that.

I gotta tell you when you get weird in here when I was a while ago, but I didn't know we could grow all those trees in Green Bay.

I'll be honest with you.

I didn't either.

I thought they were like Texas or Florida or California.

Right.

I knew everybody knows apple trees, right?

Cause everybody had those when they were a kid, but I just four or five different types of trees here in Green Bay.

I think that's like really cool.

Yeah.

So I guess, yeah, if you wanted to come tomorrow, you can see more trees that we're going to install, but.

What are

you

planting tomorrow?

And what

do you mean?

Tomorrow is.

The village of Bellevue Parks Rec and Forestry is more in charge of the trees being installed, so we don't even know what we're installing.

But it'll be a nice handful of trees at each park, and the second park, Bethel...

edible forest, they're going to talk about, you know, their mission for that park in the future because they're trying to build, um, what I would imagine is similar to our like Seymour Park food forest.

Um, in the, in the village of Bellevue.

So,

so it's tomorrow beginning at 10 o'clock

at

Moonrise Park, the Moonrise Court in Bellevue.

And then the village of, uh, the village of Bellevue parks, rec and forestry department are coming together to install both of them,

but they

are looking for volunteers, right?

For both Moonrise Park and the, um,

Bellevue Park, correct?

Yep.

So the

trees

we plant are Bethel Park.

Bethel Park.

The

trees we plant tomorrow, when will be able to eat fruit off of them?

Two years, three years?

You know, that's probably a question for the Village Bellevue, but I would say usually the nurseries that we get these plants from, they don't, you know, grow them all the way till they can, you know, become fruit bearing because it's just a lot of money put in to raise them for five plus years.

So they usually raise them

before they're able to bear fruit.

So I would say probably like a few years.

Luthier, I don't know if you have anything to say on that as well.

I'm going to find that out because that's interesting to me.

I don't want to plant the tree and have it.

Maybe you can see Holly do it because there's a technique to planting.

And also the more mature the tree is, the more expensive it's going to be.

So if you can have a little trust in the process and get it earlier when it's more of like a seedling or

You know, something smaller, it's going to be.

Yeah, I'm not going to

wait

five, six years.

He's going to

know.

Then on June 14th from nine to one is your big name.

Go ahead.

Once again, talk with us.

NWTC Great Lakes Energy Education Center, 27 to one, Larson, Rodin, Green Bay people.

Do you want them to reserve a spot or to register?

Okay, go ahead and talk with those.

If you don't mind.

Yes, so you can go to the Newly Foods website and navigate to our events page and you can register there.

You could also go to our Instagram and go to the link in our bio and register there.

So yeah, we do want you to register.

You unfortunately missed the deadline to be able to have lunch when you register, so you can just register for no lunch.

So it's $10?

Yes, $10.

Still a really good time to learn about the food climate and policy thing.

Although I'm

surprised that you're serving for lunch until I read the

whole thing.

You're having a taco bar.

Yes.

But

talk about all local producers.

Yes.

That's why the deadline for food was also kind of push up for us is because they're smaller, you know, a more locally sourced thing.

So they need to know ahead of time.

Yeah.

Well, I think that food co-op thing is still something to kind of look

at one more time.

I really

do.

Yeah.

I because there's successful ones.

And like it's just Oshkosh.

What's there's not a huge difference.

There's no reason for it not to work here.

Yeah.

Again,

you got to get that big sponsor or something to have that seed money.

Jim can step up.

Absolutely.

Dude, I got the orchard I got to take care of.

Let

me do that

first.

I got to harm it.

I'm going to note that down.

Please

do.

She

says it's going to cost me money because I want those trees to bear fruit like in a year or two.

I'm not going to wait six, seven years till my

kids are nice.

You better get them planted

now,

Jim.

I know.

It's exactly what she's telling me.

I'm going

to go

tomorrow.

I will be there at 10 o'clock.

I want to see that.

Yeah, you should be.

I will be there.

Take some

pictures.

Yeah, well, that's going to be fun.

We'll talk about

that.

That'll

be

awesome.

I'll tell you what, they sure are good.

two great spokespersons.

Yeah, you guys are awesome.

You guys are fantastic.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah.

Anytime.

Appreciate

it.

Come back and tell us how the seminar went and then update us on this orchard thing.

Yeah, definitely.

Lauren and

Lutia.

Lutia is a Dallas Cowboys fan.

Just throwing that out there

for us.

Not letting

you out there.

Throw it

out there.

Back at this.

Summer, summer,

summer.

All right, let's do it.

The Scotty Summer Text-to-Win Contest.

All the details with John Minow and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, that's right.

It's our Scotty Summer Text-to-Win Statewide Contest.

Your daily chance when a pair of Brewer Club level tickets or $100 in cash.

Plus, every entry puts you into one of our grand drawings of a Wisconsin Dells area vacation or Door County vacation.

So this hour's key word is tan, T-A-N, tan.

So just download the Civic Media app in the Apple or Google Play stores.

Choose WISS or WGBW and use the text button to send in the keyword TAN for your chance to win in this statewide contest.

This hour you're playing for a hundred bucks you got till the end of the hour to text in the word TAN.

Good luck from Mino and the Mayor.

That's awesome.

Hey, thank you

very much.

Welcome back.

You know, I love local authors, love what they do.

I'm one of them and it's a tough gig, but it's a very satisfying gig and we got an old friend, Spike Pedersen.

An author extraordinaire.

Good morning, Spike.

How are you?

Morning, John.

Man, it's been a while.

Good to hear your voice again.

Now, I was your best customer.

I was your most frequent customer for about six years when you ran a great little hardware store in Allaway, correct?

Yes, yes.

That was a fun time.

Those, I miss a store like that so much, Spike, where you could walk in and everybody that works there.

has like done whatever project you're working on and you need this kind of a widget for the whatever whatever and you guys would all you'd have the bins and you guys would know exactly where to go and you just don't have those places anymore, huh Spike?

Not so much, you know, actually it was easier than you thought because we got asked the same 20 questions every day.

So we only had to be an expert in 20

ways.

It was always like, my wife, even just give me a hard time.

How many trips are you going to make to spike before this one's done?

Because that was the key, man.

You guys would always know where to go and what you had.

And I love those, those little places.

Well, tell me about your career now in post retirement, I guess, as an author.

Yeah, we're living in the Wisconsin rabbits now doing the retired life.

um whatever we get bored we hit the road try to do some traveling we were uh just up in dark county a day or uh a couple days ago and we went to lolos food truck had a wonderful food we went to the third avenue players and saw a wonderful play um called buyer and seller it was hilarious but

Other than that, I try to stay home, mow the lawn and write, write, write.

So when I write, a lot of times it's, it's, um, in weird, like I'll write from like three till five in the morning at times because there's nothing else to do and you can totally focus.

Do you find that way?

I mean, you got to be kind of disciplined to really be a writer.

Don't just spike.

Yes, really, really have to be disciplined.

Although I find myself not being normal in that way.

I like to write when I go to a public place like a coffee shop.

So I can watch people.

I put on my earphones and I found music in my head because that kind of that kind of occupies two thirds of my brain.

So now my creativity can be uninterrupted.

So I think I'm different than that.

But that's the way I do it.

And I try to do that.

Afternoons after we have our slow start because we're retired.

Everybody has a different way.

But you got to get into that groove to really make progress.

Correct.

Yes, yes, you sure do.

Discipline is number one.

I need to work on that yet.

So do I, trust me.

Jim, you got discipline.

That writing, I have a daughter who just that's what she does.

She writes, she's a publisher.

She lives out East now.

And it's great.

I'm really proud of what she's doing, but she works with you with authors and they're all a little bit different in terms of their style.

Yet they're all like really

Interesting people super nice creative people and she really enjoys working with different people.

What is your like?

What do you love to write about the most out of all the things that are out there?

Well, you know I have a guy who likes great adventure stories and I like to do that type of thing But my stories are not totally based in just an adventure, but that's what gets me up in the morning and says wow

Let's do something that's really exciting.

And I pick up a lot of these by observing people just a little scene.

Somebody walking down the street, a child playing with a toy, and that's what pops something in my head to make that.

work.

And one of them is my wife Nancy.

She's really my muse.

She'll do things like start squirt gun wars in our living room, things like that.

And that I take in the night.

As soon as I'm done being sodden by that, by the squirt gun wars, I rush over to my laptop and I start putting down words.

That's what I mean.

You're a creative writer.

Talk about your

most

recent book spike.

Well, my most recent book, the one that I wanted to talk about today is called

secrets of Hanalei Bay.

And, uh, I can tell you a little bit about it.

Yeah, please do.

You go right ahead.

Okay.

This all started when I was riding my motorcycle down the street in my neighborhood and I see a bunch of smoke billowing up into the sky.

So, you know, I'm a guy, I'm going to go rubber neck.

So I go over to this, to where I, the smoke is coming from.

And there I see a woman standing outside her birding condo, internightgown barefoot and nothing left to her name.

Now that

got me started down this road.

And though my book begins there with that scene, it's a mystery thriller set on the lush island of Kauai.

My protagonist, Chloe, flees the whole Hanalei Bay to escape her old life.

But instead of finding peace, she stumbles into danger, ancient secrets, and a twisted plot could affect the fate of the world.

Between Chloe's missteps and the men who cherish her emotions and for their own gain, Chloe is kidnapped and betrayed.

Will she make the right choice?

Is the fate of the ultimate weapon in her hands?

Or is it just an illusion paraded over her by heroes and madmen?

And what of this magic she seems to possess?"

Wow.

All

right.

And that's all from your mind.

Wow.

That's

whoever wrote- Every bit of it except for the woman that I saw outside her burning condo came from my imagination.

That's incredible.

What you just read or recited

Those jacket covers, I would buy that book.

I agree.

And that is

important

to me.

That's what my daughter does.

She writes these jacket covers and it's like, you know, that will get you to buy or not buy the book.

Well, is she ready for my next book?

The jacket

cover?

Well, that was a resounding no.

She doesn't work with the newbies anymore.

She'd probably do it for you, I'd ask her.

Spike, that's gotta be fun

to create

a person in your mind,

a

character in your mind.

I

get characters out of nowhere.

Right.

You creative writers are just a special breed of writers.

They truly are.

I

mean, we have people that write on travel.

They've been in here.

We've had people that write poetry.

They've been in here.

But that creative writing really just, maybe you don't even know where it's going to go.

Oh, absolutely.

You know, and that's the fun part of writing.

You know, when I start, I have a story and I do a really, really rough outline that I don't even bother to spell check or put punctuation in.

And then I take that and I start writing it.

But that's not where I'm going.

The story takes over and the story leads you down the path.

And it's just this pure discovery.

And it's great.

And that's the part I love, except for when it doesn't work and doesn't come out in finished form.

We're at Spike Pederson,

author.

What's the name of your most recent book, Spike?

Secret of Honolay Bay.

OK.

So Spike.

I mean, you ran a hardware store successfully.

Great hardware

store.

Spikes hardware in Allaway,

right on libel.

Did you always do this for your little kid?

Did you write grade school, high school?

No, I didn't actually, but really got me into the writing bug is that when I was in the hardware store, I was writing a weekly column for the Green Bay Press Gazette.

I remember that.

Yep.

And it was about hardware and home repair, which is really, really dry.

So I had to find a way to inject some Huber and still get the message across.

And so that's where I found it fun.

And that's what got me started on the writing path.

And after the store was gone, I started writing and I wrote my first book at first light and now I'm on to my second one.

on.

What advice would you give to anybody?

Because I think it's one of those things everybody wants to do it.

Don't really know how to approach it.

And I'm not sure if there is any one set in stone way to approach it.

What advice would you give Spike from doing this from the grassroots level to anybody out there listening that says, I think I've got a book inside my head.

Not sure how to bring it out.

Well, that's a really good question.

And I talked to a lot of people about this.

You know, most people have some kind of a book in their head.

And the first thing you have to do is just sit down and write a few words down about it and then develop it more and think about it.

But, you know, they always say, write what you know.

I say, don't do that.

Write who you are and be brave and don't worry about exposing yourself.

Expose thyself and you will be successful.

Are there people in your books, are there characters in your book that are based on you?

No, no, I'm way too boring for that I've never had a character that I'd based on me although there are probably some parts of me in every character

But how about people you've met in life does somebody read your book and say will you talking about me in there?

Yeah

Well mine is mine is a collaboration of several people that make a character generally I do have one person in my first book that it was all about them that that person was He was unique

And I felt that that person made a good character.

And so I just wrote that character as if I was having a conversation with him.

But that's the only time.

Other than that, everybody is fictional.

So when you start your next book, when you sit down to write that book, do you have an outline knowing exactly the directions it's going to go and how it's going to end?

Or does it develop as you're writing?

I have a really, really rough outline.

First, it's an idea in my head for a long time.

Then I write down 10 paragraphs of 10 words each.

just take me in a direction.

And then I start putting words on paper and then it just kind of pops out from there.

Like I said, the story takes over and that's really the fun part.

See, I love, I love like stories based, you know, from local writers because you know some of the things that are coming into their writing is part of

our experiences of living around here, and I know yours is based in Hawaii on this one, but I like it when people can take certain aspects of their life, and even though they're given it to a fictional character, it really finds a way to bring that character to life that you can relate to.

I like those kind of characters, Spike.

I got a feeling you do too.

I do.

I do.

As a matter of fact, though, I start this book in Door County, Wisconsin.

Okay.

My main character grew up there, had her children there, and

Once she's done with raising her kids, she realizes that she never got the shot in life that she wants.

And so then she decides she's going to sell everything, move to Hawaii.

She bought a car, she bought a condo, she bought everything she needed.

And who we slayed the condo burnt down and she was left barefoot in her nightgown.

Nothing in her life.

And

that's

the hook.

Then that's the hook you got from actually seeing a woman in that situation.

I did.

I did see that

exact

situation.

I do too.

That's awesome.

I mean, it is.

I just, that you're pulling it all together.

Yeah, this, you really, really enjoy this.

You can hear it in your voice, Mike.

So how does it go?

Tell me about the, I mean, the writing we've talked about, the whole marketing, the business side, getting it out there.

Is that a struggle or is there a platform for you, new, I guess, new authors or novice authors?

Yes, as hard as it is to produce a book and get it done, finish it.

That's the easy part.

The hard part is marketing it.

And boy, that's really hard.

And there's thousands of authors like me out there trying to get their book marketed, getting people to know it.

And I'm so glad, so grateful that you guys asked me to come on because marketing is the hard part.

And I wish I would hire someone to do it.

But that's off some money.

Yeah, I want it's and it's better coming from you.

Just our only advice is call Oprah Winfrey.

She got on the book club.

You think you ever get to the

book?

Spike, how

can

people

get your

book?

Yeah.

It's on Amazon.

Secrets of Honolay Bay will be available June 16th.

My first book at First Light is available now.

They're both on Amazon.

It said the name again at First Light?

Yeah.

first light.

That was my first book and it is available right now on Amazon.

Second book, the one we're talking about today, Secrets of Hanalei Bay will be available June 16th, but you can pre-order it.

Do you have an intern there somewhere that could just run out and do that right now?

Yeah, no, don't.

Comes in

tomorrow.

I will look those up, Spike.

I'm really impressed with what you've done and knowing you for like

30 years or whatever to see this side of you with the creativity part.

It's really cool.