Épisodes

  • Softest Lore Ep. 41 - Crossing Fifty-One, Not Quite a Memoir by Debbie Russell + Interactive Bookish Game
    Oct 20 2025

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    Guess what? It's interview time! I had the pleasure of interviewing Debbie Russell, an incredible memoir author. Dive into the realities of life and how each moment weaves a result we can trace back generations at a time.


    Synopsis:

    Three Generations of Family Secrets and Midlife Crises All Set the Stage for One Dream to Come True.

    A week before Christmas 1951, Dr. Ralph Russell risked everything to voluntarily enter a locked federal drug-treatment facility known as a "narcotic farm."

    Sixty-five years later, Dr. Russell's granddaughter Debbie suffers a debilitating crisis of identity when her father (Dr. Russell's oldest son), always her biggest fan, is accepted into hospice.

    Debbie's investigation into her paternal lineage reveals family secrets and ignites her mother's volatile outbursts, propelling her into therapy.

    When therapy fails her, the grandfather Debbie never knew saves her, and she collaborates with her dying father one last time to make her biggest dream come true.

    Crossing Fifty-One pulls back the curtain on the internal struggles of midlife and provides a blueprint for redefining one's self beyond the constraints of addiction and dysfunctional family dynamics.


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    Hello my Snazzy Individuals! Like what you heard? Please consider leaving a review and checking out my official social media for tips and exclusive content regrading my writing process and the fun behind-the-scenes of creating this podcast!

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    Laura <3

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    32 min
  • Softest Lore Ep. 42 - Too Much The Lion by Preston Lewis + Interactive Bookish Game
    Oct 20 2025

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    Guess what? It's interview time! I had the pleasure of interviewing Preston Lewis, an incredible western author. Dive into this civil war story, expertly weaved history and plot lines that makes your blood pump and your mind shift into overdrive!

    Synopsis:

    The soldiers did the fighting; the generals, the Infighting

    In the waning months of the American Civil War, a delusional Confederate commander makes a desperate attempt to change the course of the South’s dwindling hopes by invading middle Tennessee. The tragic result of Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood’s misplaced hubris devastates his Army of Tennessee and alters the lives of the citizens of Franklin, Tennessee.

    In a historical novel reminiscent of The Killer Angels, Too Much the Lion follows a handful of Confederate generals, infantrymen and local residents through the five days leading up to the horrific Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. The lives of soldiers ranging from Major General Patrick Cleburne to Brigadier General Hiram Granbury and from Sergeant Major Sumner Cunningham to Corporal Sam Watkins will be forever changed by Hood’s decisions and mistakes.

    Franklin civilians like apprehensive and loving mother Mary Alice McPhail and teen Hardin Figuers, desperate to serve the Confederacy but too young to enlist, are ensnared in the events that will bring death and devastation to their very doorsteps. Devout Confederate Chaplain Charles T. Quintard must reconcile his religious beliefs with his support of slavery. Slaves like the elder Wiley Howard and the inquisitive young Henry B. Free are trapped on the fault line between what has been and what could be.

    Too Much the Lion offers an unvarnished account of the dying days of the Confederacy in a powerful and moving narrative of honor and betrayal, bravery and cowardice, death and survival. Told with poignancy and honesty by an accomplished novelist, Too Much the Lion achieves for the Battle of Franklin what The Killer Angels did for the Battle of Gettysburg, providing a classic fictional account of one of the Civil War’s pivotal encounters.

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    Hello my Snazzy Individuals! Like what you heard? Please consider leaving a review and checking out my official social media for tips and exclusive content regrading my writing process and the fun behind-the-scenes of creating this podcast!

    I have a merch shop! https://softest-lore.myspreadshop.com/

    https://www.instagram.com/softestlore/

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    And before I forget, please consider supporting an indie author and checking out my newest work! 7 Moons Hotel is out now!
    Thank you for listening,
    Laura <3

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    36 min
  • Softest Lore Ep.40 - The Homeplace by Kevin Wolf + Interactive Bookish Game
    Sep 8 2025

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    Guess what? It's interview time! I had the pleasure of interviewing Kevin Wolf once again! Dive into the fascinating creation of The Homeplace as well as an amazing conversation about the world of writing.


    Synopsis:

    Chase Ford was the first of four generations of Ford men to leave Comanche County, Colorado. For Chase, leaving saved the best and hid the worst. But now, he has come home. His friends are right there waiting for him. And so are his enemies.

    Then the murder of a boy, a high school basketball star just like Chase, rocks the small town. When another death is discovered―one that also shares unsettling connections to him―law enforcement’s attention turns towards Chase, causing him to wonder just what he came home to.

    A suspenseful, dramatic crime novel, The Homeplace captures the stark beauty of life on the Colorado plains.


    Buy the book here


    Support the show

    Hello my Snazzy Individuals! Like what you heard? Please consider leaving a review and checking out my official social media for tips and exclusive content regrading my writing process and the fun behind-the-scenes of creating this podcast!

    I have a merch shop! https://softest-lore.myspreadshop.com/

    https://www.instagram.com/softestlore/

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    And before I forget, please consider supporting an indie author and checking out my newest work! 7 Moons Hotel is out now!
    Thank you for listening,
    Laura <3

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    59 min
  • Softest Lore Ep. 39 - Trini! Come!: Geronimo's Captivity of Trinidad Verdín, A Novel by Michael Farmer + Interactive Bookish Game
    Sep 8 2025

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    Guess what? It's interview time! I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Farmer, an amazing historical fiction author. Dive into Trini Come! and learn about the true events that followed this incredible account.


    Synopsis:

    Based on an historical event, Trinidad Verdâin's story reveals the courage, suffering, and lessons a twelve-year-old girl learns about Apaches and herself during her captivity with the Naiche-Geronimo band hiding, fighting, and raiding in northern Sonora. After breaking their surrender agreement with General George Crook in late March 1886, forty Apaches (eighteen men, fourteen women, and six children) led by Geronimo established a camp at the top of the Azul Mountains in western Sonora and began raiding north. They crossed the United States border with Mexico east of Nogales, Arizona, stole horses from the village of Calabasas, and on the morning of April 27, 1886, attacked the Artisan and Petra Peck Ranch about eight miles northwest of Nogales. They killed pregnant Petra and her two-year-old son, Andy, and were about to kill her niece, Trinidad, when Geronimo decided to spare the child and took her captive. Later that day Geronimo also let Artisan Peck live after he was taken while branding cattle. The Apaches carry Trinidad east deep into the Pinito Mountains where she witnesses an ambush of black soldiers before Geronimo leads the band back west to the Cibuta Mountains where they are attacked by Mexican militiamen who are mostly Tohono O'odham Indians. The Tohono O'odham militia suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Apaches who show them Trinidad, challenging them to come take her. Instead the militia run away. The Apaches return east and establish a camp on the Râio Santa Cruz and in the Cocâospera Mountains while they raid for livestock and fight US Cavalry. Trinidad becomes friends with a boy, Garditha, near her age who teaches her to use a sling. She helps him learn Spanish; he helps her learn Apache. While practicing with their slings they are attacked by three vaqueros who want the boy's scalp for Apache scalp reward money, but Trini and Garditha drive the attackers off. Geronimo later leads the vaqueros into a trap using Trini for bait. With the US Cavalry hot on their trail, the Apaches split into three bands, the smallest being Geronimo's, which includes Trini, and they plan to reunite about a hundred miles southeast in the mountains at the confluence of the Yaqui and Aros Rivers. While going up the Râio Dolores, Geronimo's band is attacked by Mexican militia. Geronimo tries to escape with Trinidad behind him but his horse stumbles and they are both thrown off. Trinidad uses the fall as an opportunity to escape to the Mexican militia led by Don Patricio Valenzuela. After giving her story to the US Cavalry led by Captain Lawton and Mexican authorities, her Uncle Artisan returns her back to Nogales"--


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    Hello my Snazzy Individuals! Like what you heard? Please consider leaving a review and checking out my official social media for tips and exclusive content regrading my writing process and the fun behind-the-scenes of creating this podcast!

    I have a merch shop! https://softest-lore.myspreadshop.com/

    https://www.instagram.com/softestlore/

    https://linktr.ee/softestlorepodcast

    And before I forget, please consider supporting an indie author and checking out my newest work! 7 Moons Hotel is out now!
    Thank you for listening,
    Laura <3

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    39 min
  • Softest Lore Ep. 38 - Sister Lumberjack by Candace Simar + Interactive Bookish Game
    Jul 9 2025

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    Guess what? It's interview time! I had the pleasure of interviewing Candace Simar, an incredible historical fiction author! Dive into Sister Lumberjack! With unlikely friendships forged, navigate the unique reality of Sister Lumberjack!


    Synopsis:

    Bottle fever has Nels Jensen by the throat. Swindled out of his summer’s pay, he heads to the logging camps of Northern Minnesota, only to discover he is blacklisted at reputable operations. He is neither a thief nor a liar, but he cannot prove his innocence. Widow Solveig Rognaldson is left alone with heartache and a mortgage. Without a well-paying job, she will lose her Foxhome farm. Her son marries and moves away. Though she feels too old, she musters courage to strike out on her own. She has to save the farm by herself. She has no one else. Trouble follows Sister Magdalena, a jolly nun who struggles with rules. A giant of a woman, she is sent to sell hospital tickets to lumberjacks working the forests of Minnesota. It is dangerous work, and those with a ticket receive free health care if they are injured. She travels alone to isolated logging camps in the dead of winter, sometimes by snowshoes. The jacks call her Sister Lumberjack. These three lives intersect at Starkweather Timber, a haywire logging camp, where everything goes wrong. Their unique friendship turns their lives in unexpected directions.

    Read Sister Lumberjack

    Follow Candace Simar here


    Support the show

    Hello my Snazzy Individuals! Like what you heard? Please consider leaving a review and checking out my official social media for tips and exclusive content regrading my writing process and the fun behind-the-scenes of creating this podcast!

    I have a merch shop! https://softest-lore.myspreadshop.com/

    https://www.instagram.com/softestlore/

    https://linktr.ee/softestlorepodcast

    And before I forget, please consider supporting an indie author and checking out my newest work! 7 Moons Hotel is out now!
    Thank you for listening,
    Laura <3

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    39 min
  • Softest Lore Ep. 37 - Death Under the Deluge by C.M. Wendelboe + Interactive Bookish Game
    Jun 23 2025

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    Guess what? It's interview time! I had the pleasure of interviewing C.M. Wendelboe, a murder mystery author with western flair! Dive into his novel, Death Under the Deluge where the twists and turns will keep you guessing. With an intricately weaved plot, fall into this new mystery and stay on your toes! You never know what happens next.


    Synopsis:

    A corpse is found lashed to a submerged cabin under the Missouri River just south of a Sioux Indian reservation... A corpse tied there perhaps seventy years ago... A corpse shot and tied there just before the river was flooded over a resort island first discovered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition...

    FBI Agent Manny Tanno is assigned to assist local law enforcement in the decades-old homicide. Suspects abound, including the owner of a trucking company and a long-dead Lakota Code Talker for the Army in World War Two.

    And dangers abound as a deputy sheriff also investigating the case is murdered. Manny's life is threatened as he's repeatedly attacked, barely escaping death himself.

    Will he survive to solve the cold case and the killing of the young deputy sheriff? Is there even a chance he can find the killer of the deputy? Or any chance the murderer of the floating man is still among the living? Manny must dodge bullets as he works to stay alive long enough to catch the killers.

    Buy the book here

    Follow C.M. on his new mysteries here

    Support the show

    Hello my Snazzy Individuals! Like what you heard? Please consider leaving a review and checking out my official social media for tips and exclusive content regrading my writing process and the fun behind-the-scenes of creating this podcast!

    I have a merch shop! https://softest-lore.myspreadshop.com/

    https://www.instagram.com/softestlore/

    https://linktr.ee/softestlorepodcast

    And before I forget, please consider supporting an indie author and checking out my newest work! 7 Moons Hotel is out now!
    Thank you for listening,
    Laura <3

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    27 min
  • Softest Lore Ep. 36 - Madame Mustache by Manuela Schneider + Interactive Bookish Game
    Jun 19 2025

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    Guess what? It's interview time! I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Manuela, a historical fiction author. Dive into the interesting world of Madame Mustache. Learn her story and the way Manuela expertly weaves the truths behind forgotten history.


    Synoposis:

    The Memoir of Madame Moustache shows how the formative years of a gambler affected her as a career woman in the Old West.

    Eleanor Dumont earned the famous nickname “Madame Moustache” during her early life as the most well-known of all blackjack dealers in American pioneer days. One of the bravest and most adventurous women of her time, she became the first female owner of a gambling hall in U.S. history.

    Her looks and French Creole charm were legendary. So were her people management skills. She kept rowdy miners, outlaws, and prostitutes under control with the help of a loaded gun, if necessary.

    Follow her unique and tragic life from the pinnacle of success to betrayal and, yes, even murder. Join Madame Moustache on her wild ride through the California Gold Rush with the first book of a three-book series. Learn why she was both a pioneer character and a legend.


    Find book here

    Manuela's Website here

    Support the show

    Hello my Snazzy Individuals! Like what you heard? Please consider leaving a review and checking out my official social media for tips and exclusive content regrading my writing process and the fun behind-the-scenes of creating this podcast!

    I have a merch shop! https://softest-lore.myspreadshop.com/

    https://www.instagram.com/softestlore/

    https://linktr.ee/softestlorepodcast

    And before I forget, please consider supporting an indie author and checking out my newest work! 7 Moons Hotel is out now!
    Thank you for listening,
    Laura <3

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    55 min
  • Softest Lore Ep. 36 - One More Mountain by Mansur Nurdel + Interactive Bookish Game
    Jun 16 2025

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    Guess what? We have a memoir to dive into! Listen to the brave story behind Mansur Nurdel and his journey to America. From the roots of religion to the valor of embarking on a life changing journey.

    Synopsis:

    This book is the inspirational true story of young man willing to risk it all.

    Since the Islamic Revolution began in 1979, millions of Iranians have fled to Turkey seeking refuge from religious and political persecution. In 1988, I was one of them.

    My family are followers of the Baha'i Faith, a religion founded in Iran and practiced by millions of people worldwide today. Muslims in Iran consider it a blasphemous, illegitimate religion. For more than four decades, Baha'is in Iran have been stripped of all human rights. We are routinely arrested, detained, tortured, imprisoned, and executed without cause.

    This is my story about what life was like living under Islamic rule. It's a story about determination, perseverance, and Faith.

    I was 25 when I fled Iran with two friends. We crossed the forbidding Zagros Mountains in the height of winter, seeking asylum in Turkey. More than a year later, I arrived in America, speaking little English, knowing no one, and understanding little about the country except what I gleaned from television.

    One More Mountain provides a never-before-seen look at what life in Iran is still like for those who have no power, no voice, and no freedoms.


    Find the book here

    Follow Mansur on his journey here

    Support the show

    Hello my Snazzy Individuals! Like what you heard? Please consider leaving a review and checking out my official social media for tips and exclusive content regrading my writing process and the fun behind-the-scenes of creating this podcast!

    I have a merch shop! https://softest-lore.myspreadshop.com/

    https://www.instagram.com/softestlore/

    https://linktr.ee/softestlorepodcast

    And before I forget, please consider supporting an indie author and checking out my newest work! 7 Moons Hotel is out now!
    Thank you for listening,
    Laura <3

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    28 min