Big Better Best Books: Recent Episodes
Katarina Wallentin
With Authors, Readers & Other Endangered Species.
Welcome to the Big, Better, Best Books podcast, a different kind of conversation with writers, illustrators, publishers, and book lovers from all around the globe.
True storytelling is an art that refuses to die, a magic that will not be diminished. Every first page is the beginning of something new, a dance between author and reader that has never existed before.
What creates a tale we get lost in? A story that touches us? What is fan fiction and why can't our kids get enough of it? Where is that elusive road to publication? And how do you write a book that changes the world?
Your guide is author, speaker and dreamer – Katarina Wallentin. Come join us!
Welcome to the last episode of the Big, Better, Best Books podcast. We are saying goodbye as Katarina takes a break from the amazing world of books and goes on some other wonderful adventures.
Thank you to everyone who has listened, everyone who has sent emails, and everyone who has ever recommended Big, Better, Best Books to one of your friends. If you would like to listen to any of the previous episodes, you will continue to be able to find them at bigbetterbestbooks.com or katarinawalletin.com
Remember: Books ARE magic. They HAVE magic. And they can create magic, if you allow them.
Do you have the magical capacity of awareness? Today’s guest is Diva Diaz, a woman of many talents who has also recently become a children’s book author. Her first book is called Magia and the Feelings That Flew...Away, a book with a melody, one that takes you on a journey that children and adults of all ages can learn from and enjoy.
Magia is a little girl who lives in a magical land where many things are the opposite of what they appear to be. The book follows Magia’s journey to school one morning as she encounters different things and takes on the same feelings as those things. But she realizes those feelings she has are not her; it’s just her awareness of the world around her.
In Diva’s personal life, she works with something in Access Consciousness called X-Men, which is about how aware we truly are. Listen to learn about the difference between sensitivity and awareness, and how what we think is so wrong about us is actually our greatest strength, power, and ability.
Key takeaways:
- The traditional form of rhyming: a melodious journey
- What’s the difference between sensitivity and awareness?
- Getting back to the core of who we were before we learned to be scared, doubtful, or untrusting
- There’s nothing wrong with any child, it’s about the capacity behind the behavior
- A huge door is opening for children labeled with autism, ADHD, and other “disabilities”
- Asking questions that empower your children
- The next Magia book: what new adventures will she go on and what will she learn?
Resources:
- Magia and the Feelings That Flew...Away
- TheAdventuresOfMagia.com
- DivaDiaz.com
- Access Consciousness X-Men
What is one of your best book experiences? Talking about your favorite books can be a difficult conversation, especially if you’re an avid reader like today’s two lovely guests, because books serve different functions in different times and different areas of our lives.
Rebecca Hulse and Marilyn Bradford join Katarina today to discuss the books that have made the greatest impression on them in different periods of their lives, and how these books have impacted their lives.
Listen to open up new possibilities with books, discover new books, and learn how certain books find you, change you, and show you that other realities are possible beyond this reality.
Key takeaways:
- Choosing the best book is impossible
- Opening up whole new worlds of possibilities with books
- Different books give us different things at different times of our lives
- What is one of your best book experiences?
- Characters who choose something greater
- It’s not always about how well-written a book is, it’s about a sense of something greater
- When the experience is over, what next?
Books:
- Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
- Be Here Now by Ram Dass
- Being You, Changing the World by Dr. Dain Heer
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
- Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
- The Nightingale: A Novel by Kristin Hannah
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
- Endgames (The Imager Portfolio) by L. E. Modesitt Jr.
- Wild Magic (The Immortals) by Tamora Pierce
- The Place by Gary Douglas
- Just One Damned Thing After Another: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book One by Jodi Taylor
- The All Souls Trilogy
- Still Life by Louise Penny
- Enid Blyton’s Famous Five Series
- His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
- City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
- The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman
- The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
What is erotic literature? What is it that actually draws us to it and makes it so exciting? Erotic fiction has always existed, even in ancient times, and erotica is much bigger than a sexual act. It gives us something that makes the world bigger and pushes our boundaries.
Georgia Watson is an Access Consciousness facilitator, a horse person, a painter, and she also has a secret business as an online dominatrix. She is today’s expert, and together we will explore the topic of erotic novels, why we read them, and what makes them so enticing.
Listen to learn more about pleasure and exploring your fantasies through erotic fiction and how the things that turn you on can be empowering, fun, and experienced without shame and completely guilt-free.
Key takeaways
- Erotica versus porn: what’s the difference?
- Fantasies don’t have to mean anything about you
- Why do women write erotic fiction?
- The seduction and flirtation of build up and anticipation in erotica
- What if this topic didn’t have to have a stigma attached to it?
Resources:
- BretandGeorgia.com
- Georgia Watson on Facebook
- Secretary (movie)
- Basic Instinct (movie)
- The Handmaiden (movie)
Books:
- Lady Chatterley's Lover
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Delta of Venus
- Fingersmith
If you have a manuscript in a drawer that wants to get out, this episode is full of tips and inspiration for you to get started again. Today’s guest is Jan Bertoft, Swedish author of the book Minnets slutna rum, which in English translates to The Memory’s Locked Room, or The Locked Room of the Memory.
Jan has been writing his whole life and worked in journalism before starting a career in consumer issues for a Swedish NGO, but in his spare time, he began co-creating a fiction project with a friend. When his friend got ill and he was no longer able to work on the book, it went into the drawer for several years before coming back out again.
Listen to hear this author’s journey to publication, what it was like co-creating with someone, and the details of the process from idea conception to working with a publisher and then finally holding the finished product.
Key takeaways:
- Why did the book go into the drawer?
- How one book led to another
- Feedback from the publisher: having a good editor and receiving criticism
- Creating the time to write
- What it’s like co-creating a book
- Choosing a publishing company
- Advice for taking your book out of the drawer
Resources:
- Hoi.se
How can you receive a book in different ways? Actually having the time to pick up a book doesn’t always happen, which is why audiobooks can be such a gift to those who have busy lives and still desire to receive books.
Today we are talking with two audiobook narrators, Max Zoulek and Megan Hill, and an audiobook listener, Laleh Hancock. Narrating an audiobook is not just about reading the words, it’s about getting the energy behind them, and listening transports you to a different world.
Join us as we explore what gets created and what happens when we listen to audiobooks and when we record them. If you have never listened to an audiobook, it may be time!
Key takeaways:
- Being the voice of a book changes you
- Getting the energy of the words
- Listening to a book is a different experience from reading a book
- When authors read their own book
- Preparation and feedback for narrators
- Including your body in a different way when you listen
Resources:
- Access Consciousness Publishing
- Access Consciousness book shop
Audiobooks:
- Divorceless Relationships
- Being You, Changing the World
- Right Riches for You
What is being you to you? Today is a special storytelling episode, as we talk about a book called “The Very Greatest Adventure is You Truly Being You,” a compilation of stories and quotes from people all over the world about what it really means to be you.
This conversation is an invitation to see the difference of you and acknowledge and celebrate it, not from separation, but really getting the gift of you that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
Listen to hear from some of the contributing writers from the book share their inspiring stories on the podcast and discuss the experience of creating the book together and learning about each other and themselves through the process.
Key takeaways:
- Being you is something you create
- Storytelling with the authors
- Are you going to a party?
- Coloring outside the lines
- Why don’t they get it?
- No need to hide
- Being you, changing the world
Resources:
- The Very Greatest Adventure....Is You Truly Being You
- Being You, Changing the World
- TheVeryGreatestAdventure.com
What if being happy in this reality was just a choice? Today’s guest is a multi-talented, multi-tasking artist, Rüdrani Devi, who has written a book called “Choosing Happiness.”
“Choosing Happiness” is about the things that keep us from choosing to be happy in this reality and the tools we can use to navigate our own journey to happiness. In the book, Rüdrani shares experiences from her own life and how she has changed her awareness.
Listen to learn about Rüdrani’s personal journey, the struggles she has overcome, and the many things she is working on as an author, shaman, film producer, facilitator, singer, and aromatherapy company owner.
Key takeaways:
- Why did she choose to write Choosing Happiness?
- In the book, Rüdrani shares her journey of changing her perspective and choosing something different
- The circumstances surrounding her other books, the Mumbai Massacre, and how the books chronicle her journey
- Rüdrani highlights her favorite tools from Choosing Happiness
- What is her writing process and how does she see her books as entities?
- Her personal life and how it has been affected by her writing
Resources:
- Choosing Happiness
- TheClearingStatement.com
- AccessConsciousness.com
- RüdraniDevi.com
How do you live beyond a tragedy? My guest today is Vladica Djordjevic, who shares her experiences and the process of writing her beautiful book “You are the Power: Choose to Create the Life You Desire.”
The book tells the story of the devastating murder of her son and how she made a choice to live and be a change and contribution to consciousness through this experience. “You are the Power” is an invitation for everyone, not just those who have experienced tragedy, to wake up and to be present with their life and choices, whatever occurs.
Listen to learn how Vladica found a different kind of empowerment than what is expected and projected in this reality, how she discovered the strength to choose to live beyond the experience, and the ways in which writing the book was her healing process.
Key takeaways:
- Writing this book was a healing process for Vladica
- What it means to be empowered to go beyond a tragedy
- Being grateful is a practice
- Tools for choosing to live after tragedy
- Vladica wants to help others understand and use their powers and capacities to generate their lives in a totally different way
Resources:
- You are the Power: Choose to Create the Life You Desire
What is a ghostwriter? The ghost behind the pen. The surrogate parent. With the rise of self-publishing and the interest of personal journeys and stories, many people have the desire to share their story, even if they aren’t themselves writers, and ghostwriters give them the opportunity to do this.
Today, I am joined by the mysterious Teresa Stenson to talk about the secrets of ghostwriting. She is a published author under her own name, but also works with many other clients to help them tell their stories.
Join us to learn about what a ghostwriter does, what it’s like to be a ghostwriter, how they find the right voice, and the skill of grasping the essence of how a person expresses him or herself.
Key takeaways
- Ghostwriters: how do they work?
- Tricks for getting unstuck
- The ghostwriting market
- Writing autobiographies for other people
- Advice for those interested in the profession
- Ghostwriting opens your eyes to look at the world in a different way
What is your voice and how do you find it? Your body has a voice, a physical voice. You also have a voice in the world, and as a writer, it’s not always easy to define that voice.
On today’s episode, I have the multi-talented, artist-creator Chris Hughes with me. He has worn a lot of different hats, and he is now the managing director of an antique and art business in Australia while also traveling the world facilitating seminars and classes about voice and all the different aspects of what that can be.
Join us to learn about how to find your voice in writing. Your voice actually extends so far beyond what you think it is. What do you want people to hear? How can your voice create a greater future on the planet for all?
Key takeaways
- What’s my voice today?
- The success trap and stardom vs fame
- Getting clear on what you want to create and how to invite that into being
- Have fun and stop trying to get it right
- What if everything in your life was an expression of you and your voice?
Resources:
- ActionsForFutures.com
- https://www.accessconsciousness.com/en/public-profiles/christopher-hughes/
Relationship. Are you sure you want one? Today, my two guests are Brendon Watt and Simone Milasas, amazing facilitators of consciousness, and formerly in a relationship together. Now they go around the world facilitating classes about Relationships Done Different.
Together, they wrote a book called Relationship. Are you sure you want one? It’s filled with personal stories and tools to create an awesome relationship, if you choose, because relationship shouldn’t be a necessity; it should be a question.
Tune in to learn what it means to have a creationship, not relationship, and why you should first have a relationship with yourself before having one with someone else.
Key takeaways:
- Different, not differently
- The book provides both the woman’s and man’s perspective on relationships
- Giving your partner what they want
- Creationship, not relationship
- How can you allow someone to care for you if you don’t care for yourself?
- The five elements of intimacy
Resources:
- Relationships Done Different
- Book: Relationship. Are you sure you want one?
So many people try to communicate from a space that’s not them. Are you being you? Are you communicating from who you are? Or from the idea of who you think you should be? When you’re willing to show up as the uniqueness that you are, that is such a contribution to the planet.
My guest today is Kass Thomas, author of 7 Steps to Flawless Communication. Join us as we discuss the book and how Kass was inspired to write this excellent guide for greater communication, taking a complex topic and making it accessible to anyone.
Listen as Kass takes us through the steps and explains what it takes to become better communicators, and how that begins with understanding ourselves. Learn exercises and tools for transforming the way you connect and communicate with everything and everyone around you.
Key takeaways:
- Why she wrote the book
- The book is short and simple to understand, yet so powerful
- Step one: show me the magic
- Exercises and tools for better communication
- Expand your zone and reconnect with the universe
- Your communication is without flaw when you are present with it
Resources:
- KassThomas.com
- 7 Steps to Flawless Communication
Have you ever wanted to talk to a professional publisher? Today, I’m joined by two! Christine McCarthy and Grace Douglas run an amazing publishing company called Access Consciousness Publishing where I have published three books.
We’re going to explore what it’s like to run a publishing company today and how they work. ACP publishes self improvement books on a variety of different topics, like relationships, sex, business, bodies, and more.
Join us to learn some tips for authors who want to work with publishers and the kinds of books Access Consciousness Publishing is looking for. Grace and Christine also discuss the future of the changing publishing world.
Key takeaways:
- What kind of books do they publish?
- Things authors should avoid when working with publishing company
- The evolving publishing industry
- Creating a dynamic translation
- How important is the title of a book?
- A cover that represents the book
Resources:
- Access Consciousness Publishing
Books:
- Madeleine Books
- The Hobbit
- The Baby Unicorn Manifesto
- The Baby Dragon Manifesto
- Clara & the Climate Changer
Today we have one of my favorite authors on the show, Anne Maxwell. She has written a book called Would You Teach a Fish to Climb a Tree? The book is being translated this year into six languages this year, and it’s a different take on kids with ADD, ADHD, OCD, and autism.
The title of the book comes from a quote by Albert Einstein: “Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it’s stupid.” As a therapist who has worked with kids and families for almost 30 years, this was so descriptive of the kids that Anne worked with that were made so wrong.
Join us to learn tools for empowering and understanding kids who are a little different, hear stories of success, and find out how we can change things for the future by changing the way we interact with our kids.
Key takeaways:
- Anne Maxwell, Gary Douglas, and Dr. Dain Heer wrote the book from different professional and experiential perspectives
- What if there’s nothing wrong with these kids, what if they’re just different?
- Whatever culture you’re in, there is a universal “fish”
- Tools for parents to use with their kids
- What if your job as a parent was to teach your kids to choose?
Resources:
- AnneMaxwellLCSW.com
- Anne Maxwell on Access Consciousness
Books:
- Would You Teach a Fish to Climb a Tree?
- The Baby Unicorn Manifesto
- The Baby Dragon Manifesto
Reading is fun and entertaining, but it also can be thought provoking and inspiring. In the world of fantasy novels, it’s possible to create rich stories with fascinating magic systems, interesting characters, and complex political themes.
My guest today is L.E. Modesitt, Jr. He’s an amazingly prolific science fiction and fantasy writer, with 76 books either published or in the production process, and he’s working on his 77th book now.
Join us to learn how he became a writer, what his creative process is like, where he gets his inspiration to write so many fantastic stories, and what drives him to share these stories with others.
Key takeaways:
- Becoming a successful writer didn’t happen overnight
- His curiosity about how things come to be is a big part of his inspiration
- He uses stories to inspire people to think
- Really driven writers write because they have to
- Each book is something unique that he forges
Resources:
- www.LEModesittJr.com
Who are the people who translate books into other languages and how do they do it? My guests today are two amazing, professional translators who speak and write in many languages, Katioucha Zakhanevitch in Belgium and Corinna Kaebel in Austria.
The elusive art of translation is something that requires more than just the ability to speak and read in multiple languages. It requires a deep understanding of the cultural context, intuition, creativity, and skill as a writer.
Tune in to learn what it takes to be a great translator, how translation is a creative process, and why it’s important to understand the energy of the book and the intention of the author above all else.
Key takeaways
- To translate, you need to have fluency in both languages and understand the cultural context, what’s behind the words
- It’s important to be true to the author and true to the audience
- A translation isn’t just a commodity, it’s a creation in itself
- Listening to the book, the rhythm, the sound, the tone of the text
- When it works and when it doesn’t work: you just know, it’s a gut feeling
What is fan fiction? Have you ever finished a television show, book, or movie and wished it could go on or felt disappointed in the ending? If so, fan fiction might be the answer!
According to our expert guests, Emilia Foot Wallentin and Ellen Santiago Pettersson, fan fiction is a continuation of a franchise you think ended too early or your own personal input of something you feel it was was missing, such as minority and LGBT representation.
Tune in to learn what inspires people to write fan fiction, why people are so passionate about it, and how you can get involved in reading or even writing your own fan fiction online.
Key takeaways
- What is fan fiction exactly?
- When writing RPF (real person fiction) authors must be careful
- What’s so fun about writing fan fiction?
- People often use fan fiction to write in representation they want to see, such as LGBT characters
- Explaining the different terminology used in fan fiction
Resources:
- ArchiveOfOurOwn.org
- Fanfiction.net
What is erotic literature? What is it that actually draws us to it and makes it so exciting? Erotic fiction has always existed, even in ancient times, and erotica is much bigger than a sexual act. It gives us something that makes the world bigger and pushes our boundaries.
Georgia Watson is an Access Consciousness facilitator, a horse person, a painter, and she also has a secret business as an online dominatrix. She is today’s expert, and together we will explore the topic of erotic novels, why we read them, and what makes them so enticing.
Listen to learn more about pleasure and exploring your fantasies through erotic fiction and how the things that turn you on can be empowering, fun, and experienced without shame and completely guilt-free.
Key takeaways
- Erotica versus porn: what’s the difference?
- Fantasies don’t have to mean anything about you
- Why do women write erotic fiction?
- The seduction and flirtation of build up and anticipation in erotica
- What if this topic didn’t have to have a stigma attached to it?
Resources:
- BretandGeorgia.com
- Georgia Watson on Facebook
- Secretary (movie)
- Basic Instinct (movie)
- The Handmaiden (movie)
Books:
- Lady Chatterley's Lover
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Delta of Venus
- Fingersmith
If people stopped ignoring spirits, what would be possible? What would happen in the world? Consciousness is available and magic is all around us, and you can make it dark or you can make it bright. It’s your consciousness that affects the universe, not the universe affecting your consciousness.
Shannon O’Hara heard voices and saw things as a child, thinking it was normal. Not until she was a little older did she begin to think she was crazy. Shannon’s book, Talk To The Entities, is about getting out of the fear, the judgment, and the upset about being conscious, especially of ghosts.
Listen to learn what it means to be conscious of entities (or ghosts), and why we don’t have to be afraid of them. Shannon shares the basic tools for dealing with ghosts, the different ways of perceiving entities, and why it doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult.
Key takeaways
- Shannon co-created her book with entities
- People who are entity sensitive are not part of the mainstream and not empowered
- Shannon is currently working on a children’s book about entities
- Dealing with ghosts isn’t scary, it isn’t complicated, it isn’t hard
- It’s your consciousness that affects the universe, not the universe affecting your consciousness
Resources:
- Talk To The Entities website
- Talk To The Entities book
This season is the time to read books. One of the most beautiful things about the holidays is the ability to sit down and throw yourself into the adventure of a book, into another world.
What if this holiday, you actually took the time to read a physical book with printed words and pages that you can hold onto?
Walk into a real bookstore, see which book you’re drawn to, and buy it. Happy holidays!
What if you can actually have ease with grief? Dying Happy: The Gift of Choice is a book by Wendy Mulder about looking after someone who is dying and doing it with ease and gratitude.
The biggest tool for Wendy was, right at the beginning, she made the choice care for her mother with ease, without stress, and without getting caught up with all the things that might go on when someone is ill.
Listen to learn how to receive the gift of being with someone who is dying, experiencing gratitude each day through the tools of Access Consciousness and the the possibility of choice, which honors that person and their life.
Key takeaways
- Wendy’s book, Dying Happy: The Gift of Choice, came about through her experience taking care of her dying mother
- She made a choice in the beginning to go through the process with ease
- Access tools helped her experience each day with gratitude, freshness, and enthusiasm
- What if you didn’t have to go into sadness?
- The choice that you give your loved one by being with them with no point of view and no judgement is honoring of them and their life
Resources:
- Dying Happy: The Gift of Choice
- Kindness With Grief
- Learning From Grief
A hero is someone who saves the day, does great things, and inspires awe, but what does it mean to be an unlikely hero? And why do these heroes in particular inspire us so much?
Bret Rockmore, Rebecca Hulse, and Marilyn Bradford join host Katarina Wallentin to discuss how the characters from the stories and books we love help us by reflecting our own longing to choose something greater and our own ability to change the world.
Listen to understand how anyone can be an unlikely hero, and how even the smallest acts can make the world bigger. Heroism comes from getting out of your comfort zone and choosing something greater.
Key takeaways
- What the bleep is a hero?
- There’s a longing in everyone to move out of their comfort zone, and many of the books we love are about unlikely heroes who inspire us
- What is stopping us from being heroes?
- A true hero empowers others to be heroes
Resources:
- Marilyn Bradford
- Rebecca Hulse
- Bret Rockmore
Books:
- The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings
- The Hunger Games
- The Magic of Recluce
- Anne of Green Gables
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians
- Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Harry Potter Series
- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
What does it mean to be a gentleman in today’s world? Dr. Dain Heer’s powerful new book, Return of the Gentleman, is creating a space for guys with a desire to be both potent and caring, sexual and kind.
It’s not just about men and women, or the male and female gender stereotypes. It’s about all of us as people. Women are invited to the conversation with open arms to change the conversation in a way that brings kindness, caring, and a sense of joy in playing together in whatever way we do.
Listen to learn what it truly means to be a gentleman, and how to explore what else is possible by honoring ourselves and others.
Key takeaways:
- Dr. Dain Heer wants to create a space where men finally have the ability to say what is true for them in a supportive environment
- How does the #Metoo movement fit into the idea of being a gentleman?
- Both men and women desire the same thing: to come together
- Find out more about being a gentleman in the world and how to use consciousness to get there with Dain’s book, Return of the Gentleman
Resources:
- Return of the Gentleman book
- ReturnoftheGentleman.com
- Dr. Dain Heer
What do monsters, peacocks, and unicorns all have in common? Children’s book authors Simone Padur and Susanna Mittermaier--along with podcast host and author Katarina Wallentin--have written inspiring stories that teach both children and adults in magical ways.
Inspiration can strike anytime, anywhere, and asking the question: “What needs to be created right now?” opens up a world of possibilities to explore messages that have the power to impact people of all ages. In a way, stories create themselves sometimes, and once they are born into the world, they can take on a life of their own.
Listen to learn about the creative process of writing books for children and how the spark of an idea can take many forms and arrive unexpectedly.
Key takeaways
- Ideas come in different ways, and the inspiration for a story can sometimes be fleeting
- Children’s books often possess universal messages that benefit adults as well as children
- Once a book is out in the world, it has its own life, creating and pulling in readers
Resources:
- KatarinaWallentin.com
- SusannaMittermaier.com
- Simone Padur
- The Baby Unicorn Manifesto
- Things That Go Bump in the Night
- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
With Authors, Readers & Other Endangered Species.
Welcome to the Big, Better, Best Books podcast, a different kind of conversation with writers, illustrators, publishers, and book lovers from all around the globe.
True storytelling is an art that refuses to die, a magic that will not be diminished. Every first page is the beginning of something new, a dance between author and reader that has never existed before.
What creates a tale we get lost in? A story that touches us? What is fan fiction and why can't our kids get enough of it? Where is that elusive road to publication? And how do you write a book that changes the world?
Your guide is author, speaker and dreamer – Katarina Wallentin. Come join us!