7.13.2026 - Nancy Reeder--Storyteller, Author, Hikerzen

She will be appearing at "Wise Women & Fearless Sisters | An Evening of Storytelling" on Sunday, July 19, along with Sara Wilcox, Donna Catton-Johnson, and Cindy Berryman-Fink. For tickets: https://tinyurl.com/5ay9nyus

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Good morning. This is the Blaine's World Podcast, where conversations are worth hearing and seeing. You can watch each week on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. You can also listen in our Spotify Apple Podcasts. And for more information and past episodes, you can visit my website, which is behind the Blaine's World.net. I'm your host, Blaine Greenfield, coming to you from my Zoom studio in lovely downtown Fairview, North Carolina. Each week we focus on positive news and uplifting stories about people and organizations in both Western North Carolina and throughout the country. And toward that end, it's my pleasure to introduce my guest today, and she is uh Nancy Reeder. And Nancy, you can wave to all your friends and friends who are watching this. Give them a big wave.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Yes. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Okay. And she mentioned that in 1998, Nancy left the classroom after 23 years teaching elementary grades to be a storyteller with no idea where that would take her. So you were like the youngest classroom teacher ever you you saw at the age of nine, was that it when you started teaching?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Youngest uh teacher in the district. She became a no storyteller with no ideas where that would take her. From Australia to Thailand and South Korea, and hiking the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Coast Trail. She found stories, even writing a book about her adventures. She's currently the president of the North Carolina Storytellers Guild and also a member of the Asheville Storytelling Circus. So let me ask you if I can then.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

So it just seemed to be the the right thing to do at that time. I was 98.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

What did you teach?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Uh elementary grades. The longest was kindergarten. That was 13 years. And then I taught fifth grade and um uh third grade and sixth grade. I I started out in teaching sixth grade. That at that time that wasn't in the elementary school.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

And when you started teaching, when you were teaching, um, was that what you'd always wanted to do in terms of as a kid? Had you always wanted to be a teacher?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Since second grade.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

I loved my teacher in second grade and I said that's what I'm gonna be. Actually, when I was in high school, I wanted to be uh an astronaut. And and but at that time, it was the program wasn't open to women, and but I I still wanted to be a teacher, but I always dreamed of that. And in fact, I I did start flying at one point um in my life and took some flying lessons. But yeah, I I've always been an educator.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

You mentioned that second grade teacher. Did you stay in touch with her after the after the fact?

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Uh yes, uh sort of. Um I I had moved to another school when I started fourth grade. And so uh I I believe I during that year I was telling her I'm gonna be a teacher like you. I I just sensed that. But um, yeah, I w I moved away, so I I couldn't keep up. I did keep up with my fourth grade teacher because I had to go to three different schools in in elementary grades because we were moving, and that fourth grade teacher I did contact because she got me in into reading. I didn't like reading, um, I didn't want to do it. And she um read a story in right after lunch, was reading, oh, it's a popular series, I can't think of it. And I was like, I love to read now. That's where it started opened up for me.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

It's very cool, especially if you got to tell the teacher that, you know, because I've been a teacher in my life, and it was so nice when students stayed in touch, you know. So uh that she was the inspiration behind you um uh storytelling and her one story. You remember that's incredible as a fourth grader.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

So you rate I've had students contact me. I have two students that live in the Asheville area that contacted me, and one is um near where I taught in in the uh near Statesville in North Carolina. She just contacted me about it half uh maybe seven months ago. So it's fun to hear from my students too.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Have any of your students become storytellers or teachers?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Um, not that I know of. No. Uh neither one of them did that contacted me from in town. One lives in Asheville, as I said. Uh, but um no. And I we we've talked about me coming because they didn't know I became a storyteller and coming to um their business to share stories, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

But talk about the fact then you became a storyteller after a career in education. Um, what was there anything that led you to become a storyteller or any one incident? We just woke up and said you want to be a storyteller?

SPEAKER_01 5:33

I I think it was in me since I was little. I mean, I would tell stories to my dolls. Uh, and even in high school, I realized when I would study for a test, I stood in front of my mirror in my bedroom and I would like teach the information, and that's how I studied for tests. But there was a problem with that because I would tell, make it into a story as I'm looking at myself in the mirror, and it helped me learn that part. But to do that for all the subject matter I needed to learn, I didn't always do so well. Um, but that process was in me as it through throughout my life. I just realized that. Um, I don't think I I I I would tell friends, oh, I stay in front of the mirror until teach the information to this body of imaginary people. Um, and that's how I worked. Just part of me, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

It's a great concept. Let me ask you that. So you did that when you were a student. Do you now do that as a storyteller? Do you tell a story to imaginary people before you tell the story?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Oh, yeah. I tell I live in the mountains, like I said, and I'm looking out my doors and I see just a bunch of trees. That's who I tell stories to to work on the stories. You have I I just heard from another teller, the more you tell and you learn your stories that way. Some people write everything out. I write notes and draw pictures when I work on a story. And some important words I want to make sure I say might be next to the picture. And then I go outside and I sometimes carry my page with me when I'm first learning. But eventually I just go out and I I tell stories to the trees.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

You tell them to dolls.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

And they listen. They listen. I know they are.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Do you still have any of those dolls? Do you tell them those stories to the dolls? The dolls you had as a kid.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

I did as a child. Okay. Well, I no, I don't. But I when during the pandemic, I did I have because I taught kindergarten for 13 years, that was the longest time frame. Uh, I had I c had a collection of different little doll things, uh stuffed animals. And we did um morning talk in the morning and we would pass it to each child, and it was a duck. I still have that duck. And so sometimes during the pandemic, I played games with so we would hide them in the house or we put them in the bedroom and move them around, and then we'd the um with my partner, and then we try to figure out what is it doing? The other person had to guess, what is it doing? It was just one of those things we did during the pandemic. But uh I I had um I did something that I loved having, and that was um, I forget what I called it, but we would pass the duck around, stuffed duck around to each child, and they could pass and not say anything, or they would share one thing. And that's how I started my classes, even when I went to third grade. Uh, I think that's important. It gives every child a chance. And I had one student who never said anything, just passed it on, probably till January. And then one day she said, My dog, I I think it was about a pet, I can't remember. And I'm like in awe, she finally said something. Now she talked with me, but not to the whole group like that. So I think it's an important part of teaching to have that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

My wife had used that, she was a guidance counselor, and I think what they call it a storytelling stick or something like that. They pass it around, and when it was your turn, you had the choice to either tell or or or to pause. And I forget what they call the technique, but it's you know, other people use that as well. Um I'm interested too. I guess it could be used in storytelling as well. Have you have you used that at all? Have you seen it passing around something and each person has to talk that way?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Yeah, I I've done it with workshops, uh, and I've I think I've seen it done elsewhere as well. And I don't know if we pass something around, but everyone had an opportunity and share a just well, we do that in the circle, in the Asheville storytelling circle meeting. We sometimes the uh person who's in charge of the meeting, it's it's often the president of the of the of that circle, he would make a suggestion of what everyone can share. And it might be um it it your favorite book right now, your favorite story as a child. He did that one was just recent. And so we go around the circle and each person would would share that. So yes, uh, and then we do that all the time when the circle meets uh once a month in uh Asheville.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

I kind of like what you're saying, the physical presence of having something in your hand or you know, kind of indicates that you have the option to pass or or not.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Yeah, I mean, the for the children, that was only the person holding it would speak. Uh, no one else would interrupt. And so that was that was a concrete object for them to hold. As adults, we didn't we don't pass anything around, but uh we just go around the circle because we sit in a circle uh when we start, just like Ashville's storytelling circle.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

When you became a storyteller, so that was after your teaching career. And do you remember the very first story you told? The first one you told after you became a teacher. Oh well, if not the first one.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

I I had a job, I I got I had a job and it was with a church group, a group of children, fourth, fifth graders, and they were uh I I can't remember what I told. I'm sorry. No, it's not the first time. But that was the f I remember that first time because I took my drum with me. Uh I I decided when I decided to be a storyteller, I thought I need to have uh uh a drum. And so I went, I was living in Statesville, I drove to Asheville to buy a drum. Um, oh, I can't even think what it's called. I still have it. Um from Africa, a big drum. And I took it with me to that to with there, and I shared stories, and then I had each child have a turn to play the drum. And one of the girls, she was a natural. I could not believe how she just took to that drum and I was in awe. So, but then I decided I have a story that I don't, I'm not a musician. I never could get the beats down for playing a drum uh with other groups, but I still have it. So I don't use it too often anymore.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

How many stories do you have at your disposal at this point in time? Wall Park.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Um, I'm not a professional. Well, I am a professional storyteller, but I'm not out there doing work all the time. I I guess probably about 20, 15 to 20. And that's that's very low for someone who who this is their work that they do all the time. Uh, because I write and and do other things, I on hike, I I'm not a full-time storyteller.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Talk to you though about the writing process. So in terms of a story, how do you go about writing? Do you start from scratch and just write like every morning at seven o'clock in the morning until you finish? Or how does it how do you develop a story that you're going to tell?

SPEAKER_01 13:19

I on a couple occasions I've just started telling a story, uh, and I've never written it down. Uh but for the most part I do write it out. And then I start talking about it and talking out loud. When I'm driving, I might talk aloud. Uh I at one time I had a lot of driving I had to do to get to different places where I was working, and I would just talk at the story. And then I think, oh, I want to keep that. And that was a problem when I was driving because I couldn't write it down. Uh, but um that's what I've done. Um uh and then I draw the pictures. When I first started out, I was drawing big pictures. So I got a big drawing sketchboard and was drawing big pictures of the of the story, of the storyline. But now I just use a notebook page and just draw a little figure.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Well, one of the nice things nice things about that, I would imagine, it almost prevents you from memorizing it because all you're looking at are the pictures, as opposed to writing out the whole thing word for word.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Right. I I I do not I I sometimes memorize the beginning and the ending, so I have that set. But the middle can move and learn and change and grow and um anyway.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

But where do you get your ideas for the stories?

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Wherever it comes from. Um sometimes I think of something I've done in my life, but I tell a lot of stories that are folk tales and um other uh avenues of story, time of story, um uh historical stories. I do grandma Gatewood. I was asked when I don't know if you're familiar with that who she is. She's the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail by herself in 1955. And a book came out in 2014 about um her journey. Uh, it was actually a relative of hers who had written the book decided to write her story because it was quite fascinating. And a library in in Franklin, where I live, uh, the librarian asked, because we have hikers coming through in the in the spring, and she asked, and they have big events at the library and different places in town for this for this uh hikers. And she asked if I would do a book review of that book during this time period. And it's in April, mostly March and April. And when I was doing it, I thought, you know, I'd already hiked the trail. And I thought, I think I want to, I want to, I want to have something about the um uh I I want to become her. That's what it came out to be. So I asked them about it. Is that okay? And so I dressed up as her, and for the first 20 minutes, I was her sharing her story, and it was fun. Uh, the the people loved it, and then I left and brought came back as myself, and then we talked about the book and her life and her story. You still I've done that performance at numerous places at uh festivals and gathering places, yeah. And that's been fun.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Okay, so that's probably fun to dress up then. Do you dress up as any other characters?

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Uh, I have in the past, but not recently. So, but I have looked at doing some others as well. Um, it there's a lot you can do with storytelling, and you sometimes get overwhelmed with all that you want to do, but I have not done anyone else like I do Grandma Gatewood.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

So I imagine that that would be fun. In terms of some of the things you do also, so you now in your spare time, I'll I'll call it. I love it, that not only you retire from teaching, but you also present the North Carolina Storytelling Guild and you're a member of the Asheville Storytelling Circle. Uh, do you like heading the organizations? Do you enjoy that part of what you do?

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Uh it's it's a challenge at times. It's there, I want to I want to see the guild do more things, but we we just it's unit's just difficult to get everything that I'd like to see us doing, but that's for the for the future. And but we have a lot of things going on. Uh we have two retreats, one in the spring, a spring workshop at Wild Acres, and then we have another in the winter uh down at the beach, actually. Um uh Fort Can Fort uh Fort Oh, what's it called? I'll think of it in a moment, where we have a workshop and bring in other storytellers to present it. Uh and then we have a Carrie, the Carrie Festival, which is in the first weekend of November, the first Friday and Saturday. It's November 6th and 7th in this year. So it it's been growing. We we've brought on a lot more members into the group, and it's fun to see, you know, I'm trying to connect with other with members of the guild. Uh and anyway, it's been fun.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

And so now each each of these.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

I do want to make sure we oh go ahead. I'm sorry, you want to make sure what that that at the story parlor coming up that we have that event going on on uh as you mentioned, uh, that some of the tellers of that group are also in the guild. Uh Donna Catten Johnson is, and um, and so it's nice to see um events going on all over the state, uh, storytelling events. And just like the story parlor is putting this one on, as uh that I was in one a few months ago, also there. And um it's been it's been exciting to see more and more locations where people are bringing forth storytelling. And we have a lot of it going on in Asheville, uh, different groups, not just the circle. Um, so that's exciting.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Well, since you mentioned that, why don't we just talk a little bit about it?

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Everyone's lives.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Yeah, we can talk about that a coming gig. That's going to be on what Saturday, July 19th, and talk about what's going to happen on that show and where it is. I think we've frozen you a little bit. There you are. So you may have to be.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Well, there's four of us, and the yes, and a tie, yeah, Donna, and then there's um uh uh uh Cindy Berriman Fink and Sarah Wilcox. Uh and so each of us is look have looked at the title of the of the event. It's called Wise Women and Fearless Sisters. And so when I looked at that, uh I thought, hmm, what would I tell? Fearless sisters. That word kind of connected with me. What am I fearless about? Um, and then of course, wise women, wisdom. Uh, and so I I had looked forward to going, and then uh we had some cancellations, and so now I'm sharing a story, and I'm actually sharing one from my Pacific Crest Trail hike, uh, and a little bit from my Appalachian Trail hike. So um, and and the I know someone else is sharing a story connected to um when she was um oh, what did she do? Uh she was oh a telegraph. She was she did uh I she walked out or she told telegraphs to people. I I forget after you have to come and see. And so you can see I'm looking at my notes to remember how she worded it. Um uh anyway, I oh I can't find it right at the moment. But she oh, it was when you go to the door and you tell a telegraph, that kind of thing. I'm I'm curious what it is.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Well, remember that singing telegram, singing telegrams? Remember that singing telegrams?

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Yes, yes, that's what I think it was singing or a combination of singing and sharing a store, uh, a telegraph. Yeah, a telegram. Yeah, you don't see that. So that will be fun.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

And and you don't see that anymore. Singing telegram. The um yeah, that would be a fun thing to do. So you have this show coming up. Talk about you have some other gigs coming up as well after this one, right? What else is coming? Up in the future.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Right. Mainly they're involved with my book, but because my book is about my hike, the Appalachian Trail with my friend Lonnie Bush, where the performances or the book signing and all of that, it also will have me sharing stories from the trail. Because the book, when we finished the trail, I didn't think, I thought, oh, I don't have any stories. And then they started coming up and then I started flowing. I thought, oh my goodness. And so I've written a book about our hike, and it includes all these different little events that happen that have become stories. Uh, and so it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

So how long did that hike take you? What how long did it take?

SPEAKER_01 22:52

The book, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Oh no, the uh the the hike the hike itself.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

The hike, the hike. Uh well, we we went for four months uh from the beginning of August to December, August, September, October, November. Well, actually five months. And then we were in, we hiked southbound. And then we we were in uh Virginia and we had to get off the trail for an event because it was we were getting with family. It was early before Christmas, but before around the 17th of December, and we saw signs that there were snow coming. And that that particular day we got back to Asheville, where we were staying with my friend's daughter, and we had 20, we had 12 inches of snow that night. And that winter, it was in 2009, it continued to snow over and over. And so it was snowing, and we had snowstorms in Virginia and south constantly. So we decided to go back and finish the trail in the next fall. Because we thought about going in in once the February and March, once the storms calmed down, but we decided we'd like hiking in the fall and into winter, into the winter. So we returned. So it was about seven months to finish the whole thing, to do the whole trail. Seven and a half.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

You mentioned that. I remember it well because we moved to Asheville in 2009. We moved here because it was supposed to be such beautiful weather, and it was all that snow that that that one time that winter in 2009. I remember it well. There's a lot of snow. So it took several months.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

So yeah. I'm sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

No, so you were when you were hiking, so you were going straight through to take breaks, or you just went straight through No, straight through.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah. We did have to get off for a wedding for a few days, but then we went right back. So yeah, from August 29th till December 17th, we were on the trail, except for the wedding when we were off for a few days. But when you're when you're hiking, you do get off the trail for take zero days, as we call them, where you just stay in a motel in town and eat. Eat a lot.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

That was very adventurous. Had you ever done that before?

SPEAKER_01 25:17

No, no. I I had not even, well, I should say when I was uh in sixth grade, I was a Girl Scout, and our scouts leaders were taking us camping, and I was so excited. I wanted to go out and camp and hike. And they I thought I'd be in a tent. I'd never been that, didn't that, and then they had us in a big building on cots. I was so dis disappointed. And so it took me quite a few years to when I finally, by mistake, moved to Franklin. It wasn't planned, but it just happened. Um, and then I discovered the Appalachian Trail. Um, so it's all meant to be, but it I didn't it did not plan it.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Tell me if you would, what's the other big trail that people um hike overseas? It's the um the the one everybody uh to go like six months it takes. You know, I'm talking about names escaping me. Where is it? It overseas somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

It's in oh yes, yes, in Spain. Um I always forget the name of it.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

I'm looking that one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

That one is where you're more or less you don't camp out. Right. We slept in our tent all the time when we were on the trail. Whereas they move from one town, one little host, not a hostel, but a little place where you can spend some time and drink some wine and have plenty of food and place to sleep, and then you go out and hike the next day to the next place. That's how that trail is. I can't think of it.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

I I have it, I think here Camino de Santiago, the French one, yes, Santiago Trail.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Is that something do you want to do?

SPEAKER_01 27:07

That I want to backpack in Europe and go on trails, but see that trail isn't what I like. I love being out in the woods for days on end. The longest we were on the trail was 10 days, right? Uh, and that and we didn't go to a town or anything, we just had our all our food and continued. So uh, and we did that in Virginia. So that's what appeals to me.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

Okay. Talk then about the fact then you had all of a sudden you're doing storytelling, you're then teaching. What was the idea behind the book? Had you ever written a book before?

SPEAKER_01 27:49

No, no, I did not, and but I kept a journal on the trail. And um, and so but something happened on our hike that uh because I I uh had decided to finish the trail for my cousin's daughter, who in uh 1990 she hiked southbound. That's why we hiked southbound, because we don't like hiking in the hot summer months, and I knew of Molly, Molly LaRue is her name. Um she had hiked um southbound with her partner Jeff, Jeff Hood, and that was 1990, and unfortunately, they were murdered in a shelter in Pennsylvania Trail with my friend Lonnie and I. I remembered her and I thought, hey, why don't we hike it south? Then we don't have to worry about hiking in the hot summer months. And then I had the idea as we were planning and getting everything ready. I thought, you know, I'm gonna finish it for her. And that prompted some things to happen on our hike that I could not believe. I'm sorry. Um that I couldn't believe that that could happen. And I want to go into detail because that's too involved, but uh, that's why I wrote the book because it pertained right back to Molly and Jeff. And there were other things that happened on our hike. So um there's a line that I gave you that starts the book. Uh, I can read that. This true story of two Appalachian Trail southbound hikes, one the adventure of a lifetime, the other ending in tragedy, and how they came together 20 years apart.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

So in terms of writing the book, in the terms of writing the book, how long did it take you?

SPEAKER_01 29:54

And I'm sorry, how long?

SPEAKER_02 29:56

How long did it take you?

SPEAKER_01 29:56

In writing it? Oh, I didn't answer that, did I? I had like I told you, I had the journal, and then it it took probably five years. I knew I wanted to write it, but I just didn't know how. And during the pandemic, I thought, okay, I can't go anywhere. I'm gonna really put this together. And that's when it came together, and then then it's been, it just got it was just published in April. Uh part of my problem was I was in contact with Molly's dad, uh, my uncle, my aunt, my cousin, uh, and that, but I couldn't get in contact with Jeff's mom. And I just recently was able to do that. So that's what was my finishing point of what I needed to have is to to have the book complete.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

So that's your first book. Do you have a second book in mind now, or you will there be another one?

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Uh I I wrote a children's book that I have it's not my publish uh from the uh PCT hike, the Pacific Crest Trail.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

And I have a novel, and that's just uh fiction. Uh and so they're the two next projects I have, along with all my storytelling.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

So it's so you're in the process of writing that novel or you finished it already? The novel? I think we may have lost Nancy. There you are.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Ah we're cutting, we're cutting out again. Say that again.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

You're cutting out on you finished the you finished the novel or it's in the process of being finished, the novel.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

No, no, it's finished and published. Um, I have it right here.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Okay, very nice.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Uh it's called Unsheltered, and that's a photo of me. I can't, I don't know if you can see it. I can see it. Photo of me in the uh crossing the river in in the uh in Maine. So now out of all the stuff. Yeah, I finally was able to finish it.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Out of all the stuff you've done, so teacher, you've uh storyteller, you've um now in charge of these organizations, a writer. What's your favorite thing? Your your favorite thing.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Boy, I love being out in the woods. I love hiking. Um but I love telling stories too. It's hard, and and I love writing. Um it's challenging at times, especially when I get stuck with where I want to go with something. But uh I I I I I haven't been out for a hike for a while because it's been too warm. I don't like hiking in the heat, and neither does my partner, and so I'm missing it. Uh and I guess that's all.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Okay, Nancy, before we lose lose you, I think we're having some technical difficulties. Let me just ask you again, then if folks want to get in touch with you for a couple of things. One, in terms of finding about Nancy Reader, do you have a website or do you have a page people can go to?

SPEAKER_01 33:19

And that's yes, Nancy, Nancyreader.com. And uh my book is available uh on Amazon. It's in paperback, hardback, as well as large print. It's also available at BAM uh as well as um Bar Barnes and Noble. And there's other sources too. So um that is available.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

If they go to if they go to NancyReader.com, will you also find out about your upcoming uh speaking gigs and find out about some of these organizations you're involved in?

SPEAKER_01 33:58

Uh now it I haven't included that on my website, and that's an important thing to do. I I will get that going. I'm on Facebook and I have I have I'm not a big Facebook entry, you know, putting something on each day, but I I do feel that I'm getting involved with other things going on and and I want to uh include them. So I think that's something I will be doing on Facebook so that people know what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

And as you mentioned, I think it'd be great if you included it on the website. So if people want to find out about you, they can find out the books, but they can also find out you're speaking gigs, including the one at the 19th. And the last question after that, do you have any other presentations lined up officially yet? You know of?

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Uh I'm I'm in Highlands, North Carolina, on next Wednesday at noon to 1:30. I'm going to be sharing stories from the trail and have books for people if they'd like to buy one. And then there's also a gig going on on August 1st here in Franklin. It's a library event where there's uh numerous art artists of different types. I will be presenting, I'll be telling some stories from the trail and selling my books, and that's it. Um, that's it. Uh, I'm doing that for different people are going to be speaking at different times. I don't know exactly what time I will be, but it's for half an hour that I'll be sharing stories from the trail that are in the book. So um I'm so busy with that right now. And then of course at the story parlor, uh, I'll be sharing stories, beginning with a story from the AT and then ending with a story from the Pacific Crest Trail. And that's Sunday, October. Oh where did October come from? Uh, July 19th, with at 6 30 in the evening, doors open at 6. And that's with my friends Sarah and Donna and um and oh, I don't know the other. Oh, I don't have a member name. And Cindy. Okay. And we look forward to having people come and uh hear our stories.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

Well, yeah, like thank you.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

And it's called Wise Women and Fearless Sisters.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

I'd like to thank you for being my guest on this edition of the Blains World uh podcast. I also like to thank my producer Kim Jones, and uh one of these days we'll actually speak not only on on Zoom, but we'll actually bump into each other in person. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Yes, I like that idea. All right, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Likewise.