Stephanie Thornton Plymale, AMERICAN DAUGHTER

2021-02-07 · 31:44 · Stephanie Thornton Plymale · Podcast Audio

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[3:18]there. Today's episode has been sponsored by author Joe Piazza's new podcast under the influence.

[3:26]Under the influence is a deep dive into the mom internet, a place haunted by aspirational

[3:31]marketing where it feels like every other moms is social media influencer trying to sell you

[3:35]something all while posed in white kitchens that never seem to get messy with toddlers and cloth

[3:40]diapers that never ever leak, a bastion of carefully curated lives that are hashtag blessed.

[3:45]And behind this airbrushed perfection is money so much money, billions and billions of dollars,

[3:50]a multi billion dollar industry we never talk about. Journalist and mom of two

[3:55]Joe Piazza brings a keen reporter's lens to examine how we got here. What it all means

[4:00]and how the commodification of motherhood is driving normal mothers to the brink. And through

[4:05]adults, she wonders if she should just join the ochre huge ranks of the moms to grammars,

[4:10]if she too can make thousands of dollars off beautiful photos of bath time,

[4:14]frolicking in fields of purple flowers, and posing her newborn next to a beautiful latte.

[4:19]And if this is the future of content, check it out. Joe Piazza's under the influence.

[4:25]Stephanie Thornton Plimell is the author of American Daughter, A Memoir with Alyssa Walt.

[4:32]She is the CEO of Heritage School of Interior Design and calls Portland Oregon home,

[4:37]a word with a lot of meaning as she grew up without one. She lived in a car on the beach with her

[4:42]five siblings. She was in a horribly abusive foster home and had a lot of traumatic experiences

[4:50]early in life which we will discuss. I'm sure she has supported in the meantime hundreds of

[4:55]students in her school of interior design and achieving their dream careers. And many alumni have

[5:00]gone on to win prestigious awards and begin wildly successful businesses of their own.

[5:04]She promotes heritage, the success of its students, staff, and continually growing community

[5:08]with philanthropic efforts and currently serves on the board of Project Lemonade.

[5:13]Welcome Stephanie. Thank you so much for coming on moms don't have time to read books.

[5:17]Thank you for having me. I could not be more excited to talk about American Daughter,

[5:22]A Memoir, and I'm just showing the cover to anybody watching on YouTube. Stephanie, this book,

[5:28]I opened it early on Saturday morning and I was like well I'll just like read a few pages now

[5:33]and then I'll go I don't know work out or do something or deal with whatever. I stayed in one spot

[5:38]for four hours and read the entire thing like I could not put the thing down. It's so good.

[5:44]It is so so so so so good. So thank you. I'm so happy to hear that from you and I can't wait to hear

[5:52]like what you think about it and what your thoughts are. Well first of all why don't you tell listeners

[5:58]what this memoir is about and you know you read the memoir it's so hard to say in just a brush stroke

[6:04]but basically after about 50 years of complete silence and living in shay with my story I decided

[6:11]to kind of come clean and write my story of my past of living homeless in foster care a severely

[6:17]mentally ill mother with multiple personalities drug addictions and just kind of this life of

[6:23]homelessness that I had all the way up until I got married. Well simultaneously my mother was

[6:28]diagnosed with terminal cancer and I was estranged from her because of a stalking order of her

[6:34]trying to take my life and burn my house down and you know horrendous things. I decided at that time

[6:40]it was time for me to get answers and I went into do a series of interviews with my mother

[6:45]because that's the only way she would talk to me is do an interview with her and then what came out

[6:50]the shocking horrific crime that happened against her and then the reconciliation and the process

[6:57]of healing our relationship and many many other layers that come out in this memoir and in my book

[7:03]to the point of the end where my mother and I fully reconcile. But it's so much more than that

[7:09]as if that wasn't enough. I mean that's what was so remarkable about this book. So first it's like

[7:16]all of just your ability to overcome the traumas of your early childhood and your retelling of all

[7:22]of what happened to you and all those scenes where I'm like literally like sitting there with like

[7:27]my hand over my mouth reading because it's like oh my gosh I can't believe this happened.

[7:31]But it's also what I thought was really beautiful. Well first of all there's I'm so excited

[7:37]it was I can't get words out. There's this whole like part of your background I don't want to

[7:42]give it away because I had no idea who was coming but your own story throughout history started

[7:47]where your family came from was also unbelievable especially the way you unveiled it the way you

[7:52]did. And the third part that I really loved is that it's really a love story between you and

[7:58]your husband and you had this whole moment of almost cheating and like it's really a love story.

[8:05]So I feel like it has like every element you know the mother the adversity the love story you know

[8:12]it's it was just and but it and it's true which is what the craziest part is and oh my gosh it's

[8:18]a true story. Even your mother's ability to overcome adversity. Oh my gosh there is so many layers

[8:25]for me I appreciate how you brought what I said and bringing in what you say because it is hard

[8:31]to really distill it the way it's just it's almost impossible to still it into this brush stroke

[8:37]so that we can go into more but you did a good job. Thank you. Thank you. Why did you write this?

[8:44]Why did you decide to take your story and put it in memoir form and do well. I started writing

[8:51]the minute I started working with my mom even before that I started to write my story before I

[8:57]knew the whole story but once this started to come out and these revelations and my relationship

[9:02]with my mom and and really my failing in my marriage that was able to be restored just everything

[9:10]needed to be told and it also just started to feel like a story that was for everybody

[9:15]and it is and it's this American story this is the it's the the story of the failings of a

[9:22]America I fell through every crack I fell through the education crack my mother mental health crack

[9:28]our family just fell through every crack possible but then I'm also the American story of being

[9:34]able to succeed and the opportunities that I've been able to have and it's also it's just an

[9:40]story of our history even I mean my family is the history of our country that came out of this

[9:48]so there's just so many reasons why this story needed to be told people will say and I was just

[9:53]telling my staff we were talking about this that I'm brave and it's not about being brave I

[9:57]feel free I feel free I don't

[10:00]to live in hiding. I'll have to live in shame. I'm an open book. And there's something

[10:05]just so freeing about that. It's literally you are an open book that is now

[10:09]since you're open on my desk. So like literally you are. Yeah, I could imagine that would be freeing.

[10:14]I mean, I don't know how you were carrying around that heavy load for so long. I don't know like

[10:20]how corrosive that must have been in so many ways, like keeping all those secrets. What was that

[10:25]like? It's exhausting. It was exhausting. Before I could even meet with somebody. So my husband

[10:33]had a big cruise of CEO and I was always having to meet and entertain people. And I would have,

[10:38]I'd have to make a plan of what questions and how would I answer them before every time I met

[10:44]a new person. If they said, where are you from? Where'd you go to school? I mean, these are how many

[10:49]siblings do you have? Well, I don't know. One was kidnapped. I don't know if I should add him. I mean,

[10:54]there isn't. There was no way for me to tell my story and be normal. It was exhausting.

[11:00]So that's why I just say I'm just so free now. It's all out there. And I don't feel. I mean,

[11:07]it was like I had all this external success. But inside, I was just broken. It was empty. It was a

[11:14]shell of a person before I started this. And now everything's integrated. I get to be a whole person.

[11:20]I have, even just my name thought and I took my name back. I didn't even have a name. I didn't

[11:24]know. I didn't have a grandparent. I didn't have a cousin. I had nobody. I had no history that I knew

[11:30]of. So I took it all back. And I'm just, I'm just so whole now. Wow. It's amazing. It's just

[11:37]amazing. And I don't know what it's like to have had these things either. So even when I was living

[11:43]in the back of a station wagon eating seaweed, I didn't know any better. And I wasn't unhappy.

[11:48]I wasn't unhappy. I was with my siblings. We were all together. I truly love the beach still.

[11:55]And we lived in the beach. And I've had to come to terms really through the process of writing my

[12:00]book. I lived outside. I lived in a car. I went to the bathroom outside. We ate seaweed. We didn't,

[12:08]this was my life that I had and I didn't know any different. And even some today, it shocks me.

[12:15]We were living like animals outside. And that is sometimes just staggering for me.

[12:21]And you even like bring in your own parenting in this book. And even the way you adopted your

[12:26]daughter. I mean, this adopt international adoption saga. I mean, that ended beautifully

[12:33]of your daughter. But you know, even your point of view of being able to say, look, like this,

[12:38]this was what my daughter was like when she was 11. And listen to what was going on with my mother

[12:43]and what was going on with me. And yet you have a child who's being raised, you know,

[12:48]three children, you know, but that are being raised totally quote unquote normally, right?

[12:52]And that's a very comfortable environment. And yet look what happened. I mean, I don't know,

[12:58]it's just, I tried to raise them idyllic. You know, I tried to be the opposite. And you know,

[13:04]I tried to give my daughter everything that I didn't have, which isn't always great at all.

[13:10]And that was that facade that I put on that you read about that I think we all do in a way,

[13:16]you know, we can hide behind this. I could hide behind this entire design business or all of this,

[13:22]but it's still there. And so not only do you do you still do interior designer, do you only run your

[13:27]schools? I just do it for fun. If you followed me on Instagram, I think you're following me.

[13:33]I am constantly redesigning stuff. I'm constantly styling. And I do that for the school,

[13:37]but I also just it's just my fun passion. I don't have time to work with clients anymore.

[13:42]I just run the schools. And then now I'm doing a lot of philanthropic work and stuff with the book

[13:48]and starting a podcast and, you know, starting on my next book. But design, you'll see on my Instagram.

[13:55]It's my love. Slow down and go back for a second. Tell me about the book and the podcast.

[14:01]So I'm starting a podcast called Overcoming. And I'm interviewing extraordinary people who've

[14:06]been through extraordinary circumstances work come out on the other side to share their stories or

[14:12]strategies to help inspire other people to share their stories and to gain more strategies on how

[14:20]to overcome. So it's all about overcoming next year. Don't we all need that right now after the

[14:24]pandemic? Yes. And so that's what I'm doing. My book working title is called Overcoming. So it's

[14:30]gonna be more, you know, I didn't share everything in American daughter. Oh my gosh. That I

[14:37]find that I find hard to believe. Oh my gosh. Oh, no, no, I there's I scaled it. People say, wow,

[14:43]did you just really let it out? And it's like, no, we actually had to end it a lot out for this

[14:48]book to make sure that this book was, you know, just perfectly aligned with the story.

[14:54]There's still more about becoming, oh my gosh, I can't wait because if you think about being

[14:58]homeless all the way up until I got married, I was in and out of cars, foster homes, I fell

[15:03]through that whole system, aged out, got kicked out my senior year for not getting my tags done

[15:08]on my car. So I had to live with no parenting, no guidance. Can you even imagine you're senior year,

[15:14]I think about my kids and how vulnerable they are and to just be in their car,

[15:19]staying in somebody's sofa, they're senior year. I mean, it's just, it's just astounding

[15:24]how much I fell through these cracks. So what is that like then if like, if your child complains

[15:29]about something or you just like, don't even, I'm not, I'm not, I've, they don't like me to do that,

[15:37]you know, they're not into that. I've never, I've never been like that. I never shared my story

[15:43]with my kids. They never knew until I wrote this book. They only had glimpses of seeing my mother,

[15:48]they knew there was a stock in order, but I shielded them from everything. So they found out

[15:55]about my story when I wrote this book. Oh my gosh, and what was that like for you?

[15:59]Well, I just wanted to protect them from everything. You know, what was it like,

[16:03]finally having them now learn it? What was that experience like? Did you hand them the copy of

[16:07]the manuscript? Like literally, literally, you were just, yeah, literally here. But here it is,

[16:12]if you want to read it, you know, here's the story, but you know, they lived also with their mother

[16:18]not being truly a whole person either. You know, and I, I hate that about the story because

[16:24]they didn't get a find out about their history. Now, if I was raising my kids now, I'd be sharing

[16:29]these wonderful, successful things from my family. I'd be sharing the horrific parts of our

[16:36]American heritage that we all have, you know, in terms of the Washington's, the horrible things

[16:41]they did, the good things that they did. So I, but they never got to grow up knowing their heritage,

[16:47]what my grandkids will. But if I had the story, that would have made them more whole too,

[16:53]instead of a mother who had no history, no background, and shared nothing.

[16:58]Well, don't beat yourself up. I mean, I'm sure you've done an extraordinary job. You can

[17:04]sense how much you love and don't on your kids in the book. And I'm sure they're amazing people

[17:08]in their own rights. And I'm sure you did a fantastic job. So whatever you needed at that point

[17:13]to get through, like, that's what you needed then. And now you're ready for that. Yeah, exactly. And

[17:19]I don't have any regrets. I do feel like I, I really tried hard having no skills. I mean, if you

[17:25]think about it, I had no parents. I was really homeless orphaned. And then I decided to have a family

[17:31]with no skills. I just had to muddle my way through. And for me, being as loving and doting on them

[17:38]was a safe thing to do. You know? Oh my gosh. And so when process of writing this, were you like

[17:44]sobbing over your keyboard? What was that like? Oh my gosh. It depends on the parts. You know,

[17:52]it depends. So when I found out about my mother and what happened to her, so during the interview,

[17:57]when she told me what had happened, and she said, go look it up in the papers, 1953, and you'll find

[18:03]out. And I still didn't believe her. You have to understand what my mom's been in and out of

[18:06]psych courts over a hundred times in my lifetime or jail. So anything she says, you would take with

[18:12]a grain of salt. So to find out what happened and to have never asked the questions that I, I wish

[18:19]that I had earlier, but it was about the right timing. To find out what happened to her felt like

[18:25]somebody kicked me in the stomach a hundred times. And it's just that the physical pain of what

[18:30]she went through being abducted and getting raped is just it was horrific. But it also then created

[18:38]a lot of compassion that I had for her. You know, finding out even if you read the first chapter,

[18:44]and my mother describes trying to to end her pregnancy with me. Just like we're sitting here talking,

[18:51]my mother told me with no emotion. And I wrote it that way. If you reach up to one,

[18:55]this is right out of her mouth, exactly how it went down in the interview. She had no feeling

[19:01]or compassion. Stuff like that is really hard to learn and into process. So that was hard, you know,

[19:08]and then, but what I'd like to say is that once I realized what happened to my mother, her personality

[19:13]is her mental health, her addiction, it all made sense. It all made sense at that point in my

[19:20]compassion for her grew. But also, I was to a point in my life where I mattered. I never mattered.

[19:27]I never mattered to my mother. I never mattered in the system. I never mattered. I matter now.

[19:32]And I mattered. And I was still going to get the answers. And she was still going to keep going

[19:38]through the interviews whether she does interviews went on for two years. Oh my god. She wanted them to

[19:43]stop. But I set the next one up week after week, you know, until I was done. And that was two

[19:49]years later. But the interviews went from being interviewing her to us having a relationship

[19:55]and forming a bond and love that we never had. Those very meaningful.

[20:00]Well, the way that you wrote it and the way you discovered and shared your discoveries,

[20:05]like, we all, well, I can't talk for anybody else. And now I need to find people who read this book,

[20:09]so I can talk to them about it. And you're in my book club, I'll do it. I'll put them in my book club.

[20:15]They're in my book club. But like, we all felt that too. Like, we all went through that like period of

[20:20]like, oh my gosh, that's what happened. Like, so then you have to like go back in your mind and say,

[20:25]like, does that change the way I view this person? Now that I have this information,

[20:28]can I reshuffle and readjust, you know, like a filter or something when you have new data?

[20:34]It's just crazy. I haven't really met any of, I've only met one person who said,

[20:40]I cannot forgive your mom. I do not care what happened to her. I have only one person.

[20:46]Well, what happened to that person? You know, like then that person probably has a lot of

[20:50]stuff they're carrying around to, you know, most of the time people's reactions to things are

[20:55]based on their own stuff to basically and most people and most people which was important to me

[21:02]that my mother's story be told and that people would have compassion on others with mental

[21:11]health issues because I did. I did. I mean, I grew up in a way that I'm so thankful that I don't

[21:21]have mental health issues and most of my siblings do and they didn't quite come out. And so

[21:26]often it's just not the fault of the person. It's what's happened to them. And you see that in

[21:32]American daughter. You see what happened to my mother and it makes perfect sense how this can happen

[21:38]to somebody. I know you're clearly protecting the privacy of some of your siblings. But in my sort of,

[21:43]you know, greed at your story, running more and more, I was like, I want to picture, I almost

[21:49]googled and was like trying to, I was like, I can't do this. This is creepy now. If I'm trying to

[21:53]like Google your siblings and your mom and I was like, should I try to look up the articles? Like

[21:57]maybe I'll look and investigate it anyway. Well, they're out there. I know I'm sure. Okay. People do,

[22:03]people do all the time. I notice if I Google myself, I see what other people are Googling.

[22:08]Yeah, exactly. Right. They're good girls in it. Well, we all do that. And I think in overcoming,

[22:13]I'll probably share more about some of the stuff that people really are interested in,

[22:18]similar to you where they just wanted to know more. And it's not going to hurt anybody by sharing,

[22:23]you know, so are your siblings that you're still in touch with and that are remaining, are they okay

[22:28]with where you've sort of. Well, so, you know, you know, Dominic, who was kidnapped. Yeah. Yeah,

[22:34]he lives in New York and he's, you know, living his life. He's had a rough life, you know,

[22:39]prison stays and, you know, and is to be expected, you know, he had a really rough life. And

[22:46]other siblings, you know, I have one of my siblings has been diagnosed with five different mental

[22:51]illnesses. And he makes my mom look like a walk in the park, just to be honest. It's really,

[22:57]really scary. So a lot of, you know, they just, a lot of this trauma and, you know, and honestly,

[23:06]like a literacy, I mean, we, I didn't learn to read till I was 11 years old, we lived outside,

[23:11]we did not go to school. We, the first time I went to school, the first time I went to school

[23:17]was in my foster home hours where I was held captive is what I like to say because I was

[23:22]literally tortured there was my first time in school. So you imagine how traumatic school was for me.

[23:29]And my siblings, you know, they were barely literate, you know, your early childhood is so traumatized

[23:37]like this. I love how you talked about the boyfriend who worked at Radio Shack sitting there,

[23:42]you know how to read. Like that was like, oh, that was just beautiful. I mean, heartbreaking,

[23:46]but beautiful. And even how you described Rick and your complicated feelings about him and everything.

[23:51]And the passage, can I just read like a paragraph? Is that okay? When you were talking about

[23:57]Rick and how he always used to tell you that you were beautiful inside and out and how he said that

[24:02]to you over and over again. And then you said, on the morning of his funeral, a homeless woman

[24:06]came up to me in Starbucks drawing closer than a stranger would with no alarm at all. I let her

[24:11]reach out and touch my face. You're beautiful, she grinned. I can see your beautiful inside and out.

[24:17]It was Rick's mantra to me. And in that moment, I had no doubt that the message was from him,

[24:21]the gift of it knocked me out, rocked me from my roots of my hair to the soles of my feet.

[24:26]It was a moment as otherworldly as the one in that vintage bar at the piano when music flowed

[24:31]from beneath my hands with no explanation. That was my first memory with Rick. And this would

[24:35]be my last, both of them shimmering, glittering with mystery. Oh, beautiful. That made me cry

[24:42]thinking about that moment, his funeral and readers haven't been able to read about Rick,

[24:48]but Rick was a con man, Rick stole a mail truck and took us to Mexico. I mean, it's just stuff

[24:55]movies are made out of. This is like crazy stuff, but he was a con man. He'd been in prison.

[25:01]He'd even taken someone's life in prison. And I didn't make the book, but I loved him.

[25:08]He was like Santa Claus to me. I mean, he show up here and there, drug that. I was like,

[25:12]oh my God, he's back. I loved Rick. And he, when you read about his turn around and his recovery

[25:20]from drugs and alcohol became one of the most amazing human beings I'd ever met. And I loved

[25:25]with a great relationship. And he even did things like, you know, I'm a designer and I own these

[25:31]schools now that he was the first person to take me to beautiful homes in Portland that he was

[25:36]working on as a contractor to show me what interior design really was. And he would take me to

[25:42]these beautiful houses. And it was like, I got to touch the fabrics. And so there were things

[25:46]about Rick that I think as a child, I saw in him that nobody else saw. And even before he died,

[25:53]he asked me, what did you see in me? And why do you love me? Are you crazy? Like, you would say,

[25:58]are you crazy? What in the world is wrong with you? I love that relationship. And how, you know,

[26:04]all these signs that you, you point out over and over in the book, right? That you feel like,

[26:10]you know, it's just, I don't know. This whole book is like, there's some sort of like spiritual

[26:16]thread to everything that is just so inspiring. I mean, I sound like a broken record, but,

[26:23]you know, I'm so glad you see that because in so many ways, sharing my story, it has this like

[26:31]a little bit of a magical way in people's lives. Because this book affects everybody in a different

[26:38]way. And then everybody in their own life, as crazy as this story is, as we've just laid out

[26:44]here, everybody sees themselves in American daughters. It's a truly an American story. And I didn't

[26:50]set out to do that. It's just, it is that. Is this going to be a movie? I'm sure it is. Or talking

[26:56]about a mini series, which I think would be far better than one movie. We all want a mini series,

[27:02]right? You'd like to binge those. I love how now the mini series is rebranded as a limited series

[27:09]as if it's like a completely different animal. Whereas, yeah, exactly the same, but whatever. I'm

[27:13]just going to let it go. But yes, it's great. The limited series is like a 10 hour movie. It's perfect.

[27:19]It's fantastic. And that's what we all really want. Yeah. And I think there's so much layering

[27:23]to the story. Like you said, from my story to my mother's story to our history to to all the people

[27:29]in this in this book, I think it'll be a really good series. So we'll see another talking about it

[27:35]working on it. Okay. I'm excited to hear about it. Yeah. Do you have advice to aspiring authors?

[27:42]Yeah. Have you written a book? I did read that about you. I have I've written a couple. I've

[27:47]written unpublished books. I have an anthology coming out very soon. They do.

[27:52]Moms don't have time to quarantine anthology comes out in two weeks.

[27:55]Oh, really? Oh, that's so exciting. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Oh, that's so exciting.

[28:02]You know, my journey of publishing was really wild as wild as this book is. So I published with

[28:08]Greenleaf, which is a hybrid publishing and I published American daughter because I just,

[28:13]I like to learn the hard way on everything. So I published it. It went straight to number one

[28:19]bestseller in memoir. I was on the today's show and it just exploded. And then HarperCollins bought

[28:25]the book two weeks later, took it off the market. And then I've had a fabulous experience with

[28:30]HarperCollins. And so that's kind of the the next phase of American daughter. So I've got I've

[28:35]had a chance to do both. And I really love both experiences. So I think if you have a chance to work

[28:42]with a publisher, I think it's fabulous. But if you could also get a chance to self publish,

[28:46]I think it's a wonderful education for people. And I just don't think that people should tell you

[28:50]not to do something like this. If you want to write a book, write a book, do it. It's the best.

[28:56]It was one of the best experiences of my life. I'm free from it. It was hard as it was. It was

[29:02]so fulfilling. I just think writing a book is so fulfilling. It's just, it's such a major accomplishment.

[29:08]And I just recommend if that's something you want to do to go for it. Don't let anybody tell you

[29:12]oh, that book's been done before or any of the negativity. I heard it all. I heard it all. I got the

[29:17]looks of who cares. You know, what's another story. But you know, I'm, even if I just did it for myself,

[29:24]it's fabulous. But the book's going to touch people's lives and you need to go for it. You definitely

[29:29]want to know your audience. You want to be kind of clear about your, you know, what the purpose of

[29:34]your book is for. So there's, there's a lot of things. I want to teach a little class on publishing,

[29:39]because I feel like I've been through, I've been successful as a self publisher and I've been

[29:44]successful working with a wonderful publisher like HarperCollins. So great. So we'll be signing

[29:50]us next year. Oh my gosh. Well, Stephanie, thank you. This book really touched me profoundly.

[30:00]As you've said, it's such so many other people and will continue to do so.

[30:03]And I am just like so in awe of you.

[30:07]And like, I feel like I have this place in my heart for you now that I know so much about

[30:12]you and have gone through this like book journey here.

[30:14]And it's really amazing.

[30:17]And I'm thrilled to have you in book club at some point soon.

[30:20]And I just congratulate you from the bottom of my heart.

[30:23]Well, I love being on your show.

[30:25]I love following you.

[30:26]I love your positive energy.

[30:28]So thank you for having me.

[30:29]Thank you.

[30:30]Thanks for coming.

[30:31]Thanks for following me.

[30:33]Oh, I'm all in.

[30:36]Amazing.

[30:37]All right.

[30:37]Have a great day and thank you.

[30:39]Okay.

[30:39]Thank you.

[30:40]I'll talk to you soon.

[30:41]I can't wait to be in your book club.

[30:43]Me too.

[30:44]Thank you.

[30:44]Okay.

[30:45]Bye.

[30:47]Today's podcast has been sponsored by under the influence,

[30:51]a new podcast by author Joe Piazza.

[30:54]And just a reminder, again, please pre-order a copy of my book

[30:57]Moms Don't Have Time To, A Quarantine Anthology,

[31:00]and go to my website under the anthology tab for the fundraiser.

[31:06]And I hope you'll buy a ticket and join me for, and I should have mentioned,

[31:10]I'll proceed to go to COVID-19 research.

[31:13]So please join me for the fundraiser.

[31:16]Thanks so much.

[31:16]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

[31:20]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Zebioans and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

[31:25]Also sign up for my newsletter at Zebioans.com and sign up for my virtual book club

[31:29]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.

[31:32]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the Sound Editing.

[31:36]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and now