EPISODE 651 - Mark J Wilson - Full of Beans - A dead professor. A missing student, And a time-traveling detective.

Mark is a scientist who works in gene therapy and very foolishly decided he had to write a novel about a time-traveling detective in his spare time.

I live in Washington, DC with my wife, Carrie, but I was born and brought up in Reading, England. My favourite place in the world is in the Cotswolds, just down the road from Oxford (where most of Full of Beans is set).

I went to college in Canterbury where I studied biochemistry and got a PhD. I have worked in biopharmaceuticals for the last 35 years or so.

I’m currently working in gene therapy, helping to develop a much-needed cure for Rett Syndrome.

I worked in Nottingham and Cambridge before moving back to Reading (so it can’t be all bad, right?). Then I came to America in 2009. It does seem like a drastic move just to get out of Reading again. I lived in North Carolina for 7 years before moving to the DC area.

Growing up in Reading gave me a fascination with trains and planes, being as how there wasn’t much else there to interest a kid. I loved hanging around at the west end of Platform 5, and when Concorde would fly over. And there was a Model Shop. I loved the Model Shop. And Eames’ model train shop.

My dad gave me lifelong passions for astronomy, physics, chess, cooking, and model-making. And I love model trains. Over the years, in my spare time, I’ve also been a watercolor artist and a music producer. I love electronic dance music.

Full of Beans is my first published novel and it is dedicated to Carrie and her coffee machine, which would constantly instruct us to “Fill Beans,” whether the hopper was full or empty. Without either of them this book might never have been written. It took over two years to write, on the weekends and holidays, and I learned a lot about writing.

I heard they are bringing back Clippy... ‘I see you’re writing a novel. Do you need help with that?’ I did need help, but instead I have relied on some actually talented hooman-beans for that.

The book was an editor’s nightmare to work on. We chose British English spellings (like ‘colour’) and phrases (such as ‘bugger off’) to go with most of the settings and characters. However, we also chose to go with the Chicago Manual of Style for other stuff like punctuation, rather than the Oxford Guide to Style. Sorry Oxford. Please check the CMOS before levelling criticism at the editing; it was a heroic effort. Thanks Kevin and Avery.

Feel free, however, to debate the choice to liberally use the Oxford comma. And to jolly-well split some infinitives. And start sentences with conjunctions.

If strict British grammar is your passion, rather than a fun read, then hard cheese. It isn’t meant to be bloody Shakespeare. I’m sure there’ll be a new Booker Prize nominee along any minute now.

The artwork was accomplished with help from artlist.io, using its Comic Noir algorithm and many, many attempts, amalgamations, and many hours of editing images to get what I wanted. The book cover was a team effort with Joe and Michelle.

https://markjwilson.com/

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podcast produced by: https://truemediasolutions.ca/

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EPISODE 237 - Stewart Lee - Me and My Addiction - one man’s battle to break free from a life heavily impacted by alcoholism

About our Guest -
I grew up in Exeter, Devon and lived with my parents and 2 older sisters. I didn't really have a troubled life but from a young age I discovered alcohol and my journey into addiction began.

Drugs and alcohol consumed my life from that point on. It got so bad that I thought I would either end up in prison, a psychiatric unit or dead. Either by someone else killing me or succeeding in killing myself.

I managed to find a way to recover and now live a clean sober life. You could say the complete opposite of how I lived before.

I'm hoping now that if I share my experience through writing books I can help to inspire anyone that change is possible.

The Book: Me and My Addiction tells the intense, but overall positive, account of one man’s battle to break free from a life heavily impacted by alcoholism. This thought-provoking book gives the reader a no holds barred, insight into addictions, and their power to change people’s lives, often without the victim realizing until it’s too late.

Stewart’s reflection of the problems around addiction, along with his real, raw and (brutally!) honest stories will open your mind to see life through the eyes of an addict.

If you think you, or maybe someone you know, may have an issue with alcohol it provides answers to the questions that many are afraid to ask, a deeper understanding of how addiction works, along with hope that it’s possible to break the cycle of destruction and to turn your life around.

https://www.stewartleeauthor.co.uk/
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podcast produced by: https://truemediasolutions.ca/

Published: Aug. 31, 2023

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Episode 393 - Adam Nimoy - The Most Human, Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy

Adam was born during the Eisenhower administration to Leonard and Sandra Zoberblatt Nimoy. He attended the University Elementary School, a “lab school” run by UCLA, where he was subjected to numerous psychological experiments. The experimentation continued at UC Berkeley in the form of mind-altering substances from which he may, or may not, have fully recovered. In a state of absolute certainty, Adam attended Loyola Law School. He was wrong.

After seven years of practicing entertainment law and one moment of clarity, Adam left his life as an attorney to follow his passion of making films. After directing forty-five hours of network television, some of it sublime, some of it eminently unwatchable, Adam’s career plummeted due in large part to drug and alcohol addiction. On January 1, 2004, Adam entered 12-Step recovery hoping to achieve an attitude adjustment. This was a New Year’s resolution he knew he had to keep. For 8 years, he taught writing, directing and acting at the New York Film Academy and taught filmmaking at Beit T’Shuvah, an addiction treatment center where the residents kept him on the straight and narrow.

Book: The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy

"Engaging and immensely relatable, while at the same time offering deeply profound insights into Adam Nimoy's personal relationships, particularly with his famous father." — Eugene Roddenberry Jr., CEO Roddenberry Entertainment

Living with Dad was like living with a stranger— as a kid I often had trouble connecting and relating to him. But I was always proud of him. Even before Star Trek I'd see him popping up in bit roles on some of my favorite TV shows like Get Smart, Sea Hunt, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. And then one night he brought home Polaroids of himself in makeup and wardrobe for a pilot he was working on.

It was December 1964 and nobody had heard of Star Trek. Still, the eight-year-old me had watched enough Outer Limits and My Favorite Martian to understand exactly what I was looking at. Spock's popularity happened quickly, and soon the fan magazines were writing about dad's personal life, characterizing us as a "close family." But the awkwardness that defined our early relationship blossomed into conflict, sometimes smoldering, sometimes open and intense. There were occasional flashes of warmth between the arguments and hurt feelings— even something akin to love— especially when we were celebrating my father's many successes. The rest of the time, things between us were often strained.

My resentment towards my father kept building through the years. I wasn't blameless, I know that now, but my bitterness blinded me to any thought of my own contribution to the problem. I wanted things to be different for my children. I wanted to be the father I never had, so I coached Maddy's soccer, drove Jonah to music lessons, helped them with their homework— all the things dads are supposed to do. All the things I wanted to do. So what if my Dad and I had been estranged for years? I was living one day at a time. And then I got his letter.

Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3KvTi1s

https://adamnimoy.com/

original pub date - Wednesday, July 17, 2024

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