Talk Show Update

We’ve just wrapped Show #6 and I’ve already learned one thing: I love this talk show! Happy, Healthy & Wise allows me to work in media again, and in an entirely new format – live radio! I’ve worked in movies, tv and publishing, but live radio is different. It’s immediate. No second takes. No rewriting the script. The spontaneous anything-can-happy element is what I find so fascinating. It keeps you on your toes, for sure.

We’ve had our share of technical malfunctions, and I had an asthma attack on air last week – Mitch filled in seamlessly until I was able to speak again.  We’ve also interviewed an eclectic mix of guests. The show has three focus areas: health & wellness (a broad topic that covers absolutely anything that affects you and your health) help for business owners and entrepreneurs (hey, it’s the Wild West out there!) and travel & entertainment. Our goal is to find the right mix of information, helpful resources and fun for our listeners.

This coming Friday, April 19, we’re going to focus on entertainment and I’m really excited about this show. Why? Because I get to talk about publishing! My guests will be Randy Plummer and Lisa Pitts – both are professional musicians, one is a teacher, the other is a performer. One has written a Christmas fiction story; the other is working on a non-fiction project. We’re going to talk about what it takes to make a living in the arts, and hopefully share some information with listeners who aspire to work in any artistic discipline.

I welcome your calls! Live radio is made for audience involvement, so tune in this Friday at 2pm and give me a call. Thanks for the kind notes of encouragement these past few weeks. It’s been a whirlwind. We have a new show website in the works; it will link you to all our guests and sponsors. That should be up and running soon, so stay tuned.

Have a grand week, and I’ll catch you on the air Friday on Happy, Healthy & Wise!

Happy, Healthy & Wise airs Fridays at 2pm on KWTO-AM560. Download FREE radio app RadioSpringfield from your favorite app store to listen on your mobile phone. Or visit the station’s website KWTO-AM to catch the show via live stream.

The Easter Cake

I wanted to share a few photos from our family Easter feast – and this time, I had absolutely nothing to do with this culinary disaster. I’ve had a very rough week physically so my sweet SIL Sandy made one of her wonderful angel food cakes. Yum! Alas, it didn’t turn out exactly as planned.

First came the icing  food color malfunction. She was aiming for bright spring yellow. The color she got was closer to Cheese Whiz. Then the red jelly beans bled. Eewww.

Undaunted, she pressed on, put it in the cake carrier and headed to the car. And then dropped it.

The unveiling at our house was hysterical. Had to share some pics of The Ugliest Easter Cake.  Hey, there could be a story here…

P.S.  It was delicious!!!  Thank you sweet sweet Sandy! Love you bunches.

Tune in Tomorrow

T- 19 hours and counting.

Sorry, feels like a space launch to me. Tomorrow afternoon our new radio show premieres. No butterflies here. Okay, maybe one. Ginormous. 20 lb. Butterfly. You know I hit the nail polish when I’m stressed. Makes me feel more professional. Yeah well, I’ve painted my nails twice this week. Went for a bold springy red that I found so distressing it kept me awake at night. So I scraped it off and went back to my tried and true Ingrid by China Glaze. Yes, I know. It’s brown.

I am thrilled to report that my very first guest is Jim Brawner, an old friend and true PR professional.  I wanted someone rock steady to co-pilot this shakedown cruise, which is how I’m thinking about this first broadcast.

You are cordially invited to tune it tomorrow at 2 pm and listen to the broadcast. If you’re in the SW MO area, you can turn your radio dial to 560-AM. Or tune in online at the station’s website: KWTO-AM Springfield MO. It’s streaming live. And call me! I take phone calls on this show, so give me a ring. Don’t be shy. Just call. It’ll be fun.

Thanks for your support and I’ll catch you tomorrow on Happy, Healthy & Wise!

Photo from Cafe Makeup.

One More Iron in the Fire

You know how sometimes opportunities come up that you’re not sure you’re ready for, but know you should absolutely do? Well, that happened to me in January.  I was posting along here at a good clip of about 3 updates a week, while balancing the demands of proSyre, the new biometric screening company we co-founded. Life was hectic, but good.

We’d just returned from a screening event in St Louis in time to attend a  new networking event here in Springfield. I was too tired to go, but I’d made the commitment so I painted my nails (cause I always feel much more business-y with fresh nail lacquer) and went.  The event was an over-the-top success – some 750 business owners crammed into an expo center for a half-day meet & greet – sorta like speed dating for business people.

I talked until I nearly lost my voice, and was preparing to leave. Mitch and I have this habit: we do everything on our daily to-do list – and then we do one more thing. He went to thank our host, and I spotted a woman I hadn’t spoken to yet. I went over and introduced myself. Turns out she is the vp of Springfield’s oldest radio broadcasting group; they own 4 stations. We talked for a couple of minutes; she pitched her advertising special which I had no interest in. I told her, “What we do doesn’t fit into a 30 second spot.”

We talked a little more about proSyre, our patient advocacy work, my background in tv and film and she said, “Would you like to host a talk show?” I looked at her and said, “No. But I think I probably will.”

Long story short, I’ll be hosting a new weekly 1 hour radio talk show each Friday afternoon at 2pm beginning this coming Friday, March 8th. Mitch will be producing the show. It’s called Happy, Healthy & Wise and will focus on a broad variety of health and wellness topics – including practitioner interviews, alternative medicine, organic products and green living, solutions small business owners entrepreneurs, etc.

The past few years have been brutal on a lot of us. People have been in survival mode far too long. I think it’s time to start thriving again. So, with that goal in mind, I’ll be interviewing people who have ideas and solutions that listeners will find actually useful!

The broadcast streams live on the radio station’s website, so you can be out of the coverage area and still listen in at KWTO-AM talk radio in Springfield MO.  I’ll be posting updates here and will be building a new site for the show, too, so stay tuned!

If you’d like information about how to feature your product or service, or are interested in sponsoring a segment – drop me an email: dk@happyhealthyandwiseshow.com.

Hanna Street on Pinterest

I’m just introduced a new Pinterest Board dedicated to Hanna Street. On it, I’m pinning book reviews, quotes from the book and interesting regional details from Northern Indiana where the book is set. The board will grow over the next few months, but I wanted to share a couple of my favorites today:

I found this grainy old photo of Alex and Ruby Campbell, who owned a Palomino Ranch on the edge of my childhood hometown. The Campbells were active in national politics; in fact, I read that Harry Truman visited their home. Mr Campbell was a prominent Fort Wayne attorney. Alex and Ruby rode in every major parade in the country and in our tiny hometown parades, too. Mr. Campbell died in January 1968, while returning from riding in the Rose Parade in Pasedena.

Fashion is a very good marker for the passage of time and, since this book is largely set in the 1970′s, I thought it would be fun to pin some of the most popular looks from that era. I was a long skirt and boot girl myself.

Be sure to check out the Hanna Street Board on your next Pinterest excursion – and feel free to repin. Have a great week!

Your Winter Sanctuary

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:  it is the time for home.” 

-  Edith Sitwell

In A Little Red Barn

One of my fondest memories of Indiana revolve around the times we stayed at my aunt and uncle’s orchard in Larill back in the 70′s. Simon’s Orchard sold home grown fruits and veggies and was the inspiration for Young’s Farm, featured in my novel, Hanna Street.

Farmers are notoriously early risers, and I remember vividly waking to the aroma of coffee, bacon and eggs cooking at 5 am while WOWO radio crackled through the house. (AM still ruled at the time.) The Little Red Barn Show originated in Fort Wayne, and was dedicated to the agricultural community. Jay Gould from the county extention office talked about farm news, futures, and other things of interest to the family farmers in 14 states and parts of Canada. Bob Sievers played music and hosted the show.

The Little Red Barn had the most grating theme song in the world, a bouncy  little ditty of the same name.  It’s one of those tunes that gets stuck in your head the first time you hear it. I believe a group called The Hilltoppers sang the show’s theme, but it was also immortalized by Elmer Fudd in a Looney Tune cartoon. I’ve posted a video of the Little Red Barn program interview from 1989 over on my new Pinterest Board called Hanna Street, so check it out.

I also found this clip of Judy Canova and my favorite female singer of all time, Rosemary Clooney, so I thought I’d paste it into this post. Listen at your own risk. It’ll stick with you.

http://youtu.be/B5qqQWkzl-E