Latina Poet/Author Lisa Martinez Wants YOU to Write Too
About Lisa Martinez
My name is Lisa and my husband, Bo, and I are native Texans. My life has been filled with many challenges, and I must admit, there have been times when it was hard to find the blessing in the mess. But I thank God for His Divine intervention! He gave me writing and music to see me through every trial without completely losing my mind in the process.
My goal was to have my first book published before I was 50 – I turned 50 in May of 2021. Those who know me best know I am quite the procrastinator. So, it is no surprise that my book was over a month late from my original goal. Still, I am deeply grateful that I was able to accomplish my goal – it is a dream come true and I am so blessed!
If you are writing, please consider publishing your book to share with the world! We need to read your work.
Keep in mind that my books are not perfect. While I cringe whenever I see a typo in my work, I have decided to leave those typos in to encourage you to write as you are: imperfect, yet wonderfully made.
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Introduction
Good, beautiful day, beautiful, beautiful souls! This is Charla Anderson, host of the Charla Anderson show collector and connector of fascinating people, and everyone is fascinating, especially you. Today, I’ve got an incredible Latina poet, Lisa Martinez. We’re going to talk about how she has used writing and poetry and authoring books to share her overcoming journey, the addiction journey that she has written about, and I cannot wait to introduce you to her and give you some tips on growing your own writing style and getting your story out there. But 1st we’re going to do my little breathing exercise that I do.
Every week we’re going to breathe in calm for 7 seconds. We’re going to hold for 4 seconds and breathe out gratitude for 11 seconds. So here we go. Let’s breathe in some calm today. Here we go.
Hold, relax, release. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
This centers me. I hope it centers you. And let’s just be still and know. Take a few moments off of those devices every so often.
So Lisa Martinez, a local Texas girl that we met at the local library here, and we’re going to talk about libraries some. I’m very excited to have met Lisa during the author’s day, so tell me about who you are in this world, and what brought you into this gift of sharing your story, and of overcoming through poetry.
Thank you so much for having me, Charla. It was really, it’s an honor to be here. Thank you. Thank you. And really it’s just by the grace of God that I am here, that I you know that I continue overcoming every day. I got into poetry. I got into reading initially, just having a difficult childhood lots of things.
I know you’ve talked to many other people on your show, and we seem to have a common theme of a lot of trauma. That’s life, right? And then we all just try to find ways to overcome it. And reading has really helped me. Music has helped me getting lost in books and just expanding my worldview.
That has helped me tremendously because I’m not very well traveled physically. But mentally, I’ve been to many, many fabulous places, and that is because of the beauty of books. So I was inspired by reading from a very early age, and then, of course, in school we learned about poetry, and something just clicked with me because poetry was a lot like music.
And music really spoke to my soul as well. And so I really, you know, lyrics lyrics are like poetry, and I always wanted to write a song, and poetry was that I don’t read or write music, but poetry was very similar to lyrics and music. So that’s how I got into that.
Well, I love, love, love that you found books because it is an escape. It can be an escape. And there’s not one thing in the history of mankind that isn’t somewhere in a book.
Right. Can learn anything, anything. And now that they’re online, all that, of course. But you know, books are
Everybody has a story, and when we tell our story. So when we have a book, when we have something that we can physically share, you know we’ve got our books, you’ve got yours behind you. It’s really a powerful testament to what’s the word. I want to pervasiveness to really putting something out there, putting yourself out there, and when you especially tell your own story of the trauma and the overcoming. And then how you brought that to life in your book. So tell me somewhat something about how that came about, and when you started writing, I think oh, I know your goal to have a book out.
Yes, that was a goal I established when I was younger, because I always had a dream that I was going to be a writer, a singer and a teacher, that that was my childhood dream. And so then, as I got older, I said, Okay, well, 50 seems realistic. I’ll have a book published by the time I’m 50, and then my birthday came. In May of 2021.
I was 50, and you know I still hadn’t published my book, and I said, You know what I really need to get to doing this. So I discovered self publishing and had a bunch of poetry that I’d written over the years. So I put that in a collection of books, and that was my 1st book that I published. It’s some of my poetry from over the years, and did that, and haven’t stopped since.
And so your 1st one was a short story from an overcomer, part one.
Poetic expressions. Yeah, poetic expressions of an overcomer.
Okay, that was the 1st one. Okay, so you’ve got 4 books that I noticed on your Amazon account. Authors, page and speak what that is. What’s your author’s page? How people find you is https://amazon.com/author/martinezlisa They can find your books that way. And then yes.
Yes, ma’am, and then, of course, if you’re if they’re local in North Texas, I have some here, or I can ship them myself as well. But yeah, I have 4 books on there. One of them. One of them is a motivational journal, so it’s not necessarily a book per se. But it’s just something that I really because, growing up, I always doodled or just wrote my poetry out in different places, always wanted a special book that I can. Just, you know, journal or doodle in. I had a diary, of course, when I was younger. So this is something that I wanted to do for a long time, and I was, by the grace of God, finally able to get that together.
So we’ve got the gift of self publishing, which I believe has just opened up a whole new world, because back in the day when you wanted to get a book published, and you had to ship them manuscripts off and get approved, and get rejected and rejected and rejected, and all that so? One of the things that I love that you spoke is just do it imperfectly, imperfectly perfect. It does not have to be perfect. You want to do it well, you want excellence, but you also getting it out there just doing it right.
So many people I speak to they always tell me when they find out that I’m self published. They always tell me, “Well, I don’t have a degree, or I don’t write well, or you know I have the story that I want to share.” But I don’t really know how to do it. So I love speaking to people like that and just telling them, just get it out there, because, like you said, we all have a story to tell. I can be in a grocery line, and I’ll start talking to people, and I love hearing people’s stories like that. They’ll open up and tell me things.
I consider that such a gift from God, because we all do have a unique story to share. We all have experiences that can help us and enrich others lives if we just take the time to listen. So when people tell me about you know their self doubt. So we all have them. We all have self-doubt, and that’s why I leave my typos and things.
They make me cringe when I go back and look at my books I’m like, oh, no, look at that! I didn’t catch that. But I leave them there. I could easily change it, but I leave them there because I want others to see. It’s kind of a metaphor for how God loves us. We’re all imperfect. We’re all flawed, but He loves us, and He redeemed us through his son Jesus Christ. And I sorry if I get a little teary just thinking about it.
But that’s what I want to convey in my books like you don’t have to be perfect to do this. Don’t let others tell you that you’re not good enough. You can’t do this. You don’t. You need a degree you need perfect English. You need what have you? You can.
You can do all of this, and you may not get rich from it. I try every day to sell books, and sometimes it’s, you know, goes for long periods without any sales. But that’s not the point. The point is, I have connected with more than one individual who’s told me that my stories have helped them. My poems have touched them, and that’s what it’s about.
Beautiful. So yes, getting your story out there imperfectly, you know, and you know nobody wants to see their typos. But that makes that. That makes a big sense makes sense to do it. And you know, God, you know, this is the deal we’ve been fed. Some big fat lies in our life, and we’re not like that. God, you know, as God’s got this big judgment finger.
But just God is love, and if he is love, he can’t be, not love. He loves you, no matter what he loves you up in the gutter. He loves you, no matter what you’ve done, and he loves you regardless, and if you, if you don’t like where you are, you can change that. You can’t change where you how you got there. But you can change where you’re headed in the next.
And learn from it, and go.
And when you dwell on what’s wrong and what you’ve done wrong, and thinking that you can’t be forgiven. No, there’s only one example of a perfect person in the whole. a whole Bible, the whole world. And then, you know, God uses imperfect people, I mean, you know, David, and all those characters in the Bible. Every single one of them were flawed, and many majorly flawed, and he used them anyway, and so don’t ever ever sell yourself short and think that you have done something so wrong that are so bad that you can’t be forgiven. And it’s really you’ve got to. You’ve got to learn to forgive yourself, you know.
So that’s you. And because when you can just relax really and receive the love and the forgiveness, then your whole life becomes clearer. You know people, people, a lot of people don’t love themselves enough to receive that love. And so our job, and what you’re doing. And your storytelling is letting people see that you don’t. The nobody’s perfect, and we can just learn to forgive each other. Forgive ourselves, you know it starts with everything, starts with gratitude, but when we can start with gratitude. And then forgiveness, forgiving ourselves, thank thankful forgiveness and unconditional love, because just love is God loves, and the harder and the harder people are, the more they need it. I say this all the time: the harder people are, the more they need that.
Right.
That compassionate love because they can’t. When they can’t receive it. They can’t. They can’t give it.
You’re absolutely right. And I think we’ve all been there right. We’ve all been at a point where we couldn’t receive it, and we couldn’t give ourselves the grace that we needed. And that’s why I love also, when I encourage people, I tell them you know you God could be using you to reach another individual, because I believe he uses us all in different ways, and by withholding your story, you know you’re blocking the blessing that is for someone else. So that’s why I definitely encourage everyone to share whatever they feel that they can.
I don’t think I have it up here, but there’s a quote, and the lady’s name. I just saw it. This I have it stuck in my calendar, and it’s like Linda Pesovanto or Pesavento, something along the lines of no, there are people that will not, that can only here what they need to hear the way you tell it. That’s that.
Yes.
Loosely quoted, but you know some people will not hear the way I say it. They will hear.
Yes.
The same message from you, and can’t hear it from me. So we’ve got to tell when we can tell these stories of overcoming and just offering them as a gift to the grace, the grace to understand that we are. We’re you’re okay, no matter who and where you are.
Yes.
You are lucky.
I believe that wholeheartedly I love that quote. Thank you for sharing that.
I’ll try to find it. Put it in the notes when we post this thing, but so do you care to share what I mean you’re welcome to read some of your poetry. Do you care to share what your childhood trauma, or what you overcame whatever comes to your heart, that you want to offer to this audience. We’re just wanting to just love people. My message is absolutely.
I believe that that part of the storytelling is sharing those details, not to dwell, but to heal and to show, because the sad part about it is that this life is full of these types of things. So I was abused as a child numerous times by family members and non-family members, mostly between the ages of maybe around 8 to 12. And then I suppressed that.
I blocked it so well that I didn’t want to think about it. I forgot about it all until I was 17, and I was almost raped by someone. And then that brought everything rushing back to the forefront of what I had been through as a child, and just other traumas that I’ve experienced or just growing up poor, neglected as a child, witnessing physical violence, domestic violence in the home, you know just a lot of different things. When I tell people my details of my story, they always say I would have never guessed, Lisa, and that is all. By the grace of God. Because I you know, we we learn to compartmentalize, and I think someone one of your guests actually spoke on that before or maybe more than once, maybe more than one guest. But when we experience trauma we compartmentalize, and it’s easy to look at it as though it’s happened to someone else. So I view that as a blessing in some regards, because I think I would have made a lot more different life choices had I not been able to do that.
So, and then writing about it has become your life right? Yes, so that’s tremendous.
Yes.
Wow! I think sometimes we have guests coming in here, and if they, if you want to ask questions and come on screen, and you’re you’re welcome to do that, or.
I’m thinking, if I recognize the name that might be my brother, and he’s a he’s a big supporter of me, and you know what’s interesting, Charla, is that one of the things that I notice is that in a family dynamic siblings can grow up in the same household and experience a completely different childhood, and that’s not to say that my brother hasn’t had his own share of traumatic experiences. But we talk a lot as adults now, and there’s some times when he’s like, I didn’t know that I didn’t. I didn’t understand that. I didn’t see that. And it’s just, you know. Yeah.
Well, the I’m drinking perpetrators, the people that you know they’re very masterful right at manipulation, and offering fear if you tell anybody, and I don’t. Honestly, I don’t know that anybody gets through childhood without some trauma right? Most time. it is hidden and it and its fear factored in so grateful that you have support in your family.
As am I? Yeah, I wouldn’t have. He’s another big part of my, my ability to move forward and heal, because he’s always been like a best friend of mine. And yeah, so it’s it’s.
When you when yeah, the family dynamic like that. And so there’s, you know, I guess there’s good and bad in all families.
So what a great blessing! And certainly, if you guys, you know, if you want him to come on and say anything that’s this is your show, you know. We get to do what.
I’ll leave that up to him. His comfort. I know he’s a he’s. He’s a little under the weather today. I think so. I’ll just. But I appreciate that he’s online and supporting. That’s awesome.
Super.
But, you know, that’s 1. This is the win-win women platform. I’ll just say this because it is the only global interactive platform for women generally. It’s all women hosts. But we can have male guests, of course, but but you know, there’s not another interactive platform like this that is as massive as the goal is to reach 3.9 billion women, half the population of women in every nation, in every language, with this type of you know. I know that the goal is huge, and it’s awesome and beautiful.
And we do intend to continue expanding and growing. sharing our stories so that others have access. And then when the interactive people. You know, people want to come in and have questions and get their questions answered. We can do that either on or off recording. Right? So either way.
Yes, so I’d like I would like to kind of go back a little bit, and we were talking about compartmentalizing and how we? We can. We tell stories, as you know, as though they didn’t happen to us? I was just thinking like for the people that are listening, or who may watch the replay later. This is all part of going back and telling your story because it is like a healing process. It’s part of healing, even if you don’t share it with anyone just writing it down. And process processing is a big big part, I think, because I, as I mentioned before, for a lot of the things that I experienced, I suppressed for a long time and didn’t realize how detrimental that was until I actually loved someone. My one of my other books is about loving someone with an addiction, and I wrote my story based on the outlook for me, loving someone. So their addiction put things into perspective for me, realizing all the things that I had hidden or was not dealing with, or anything of that nature.
So do you want to talk about that a little bit? Can you share what that means, and how that comes out in the book?
Yeah, so I just you know. Oh. Again, there are so many experiences that we all shared that are hard to understand unless you experience them firsthand and loving someone with an addiction is something very similar, because a lot of people, a lot of people in my life actually told me, you know. Just write them off, just you know, that’s they’re never going to change. It’s you know you’re it doesn’t matter, and that’s not something that I felt.
God led me to do and and I understand now today I understand that from the perspective of it was not only to help the person that I love, but it was also to help myself. because I was at the time before I was drinking a lot to cover, you know, to hide my feelings, my experiences of what I had dealt with as a child. I was eating a lot over, you know, using food as a . What is the word I’m looking for?
It’s a protection or a barrier, you know.
Right? Yeah, as a substitute. I guess also for the things that I didn’t get, the love I didn’t feel or you know anything. Just some of the damage, the trauma that I was holding on to, that I wasn’t processing and letting go. That ended up coming out in my other relationships like I have a son and I now today I can see how I passed on some of my emotional trauma to my son, who never, who didn’t experience things that I experienced, but because I grew up I was so angry, and thinking I wasn’t angry, and things of that nature. He saw some things in me that you know that he picked up on, and that he’s processing today. So it’s just it’s a it’s a whole lot. So that you know you, you overcome that things you don’t think about in the moment you think. Oh, I’m doing okay. You know, I’m working. I’m getting up and doing what I need to do. I’m doing just fine. But in reality you’re not.
Truly and it does generational pass on if we don’t deal with it. So that’s a big deal.
Exactly right.
You’re what you’re saying reminds me of. Several years ago I came up with like what I call a forgiveness release. And actually, it’s written in this tiny book with a big message, the candy bar hugs. It’s written in there to my kids. It said I did what I did. I didn’t do what I didn’t do. I did all that I knew to do with what I knew at the time. just like you did, and are doing in your life right now. I love you, and when we can stop and recognize that people are only doing what they do because of who they are, not who we are.
People can’t. And I say this also. You know nobody can hurt your feelings without your permission. Nobody can bully you without your permission. Nobody can make you upset without your permission.
But we don’t realize that so often we think it’s out there when it’s really in here. And one of my one of my exercises was really kind of about. Everybody is hurt at 5 years old or 7 years old, or that some age that we get to a point where I will never! We say to ourselves, we make a declaration to ourselves, I’ll never be hurt like that again, or I’ll never let them do that to me.
I’ll never be bullied like that. I’ll never be humiliated like that, whatever it is, and we make a declaration to ourselves. and don’t really remember that we did it. We put it back here in the back of our head. And so the rest of our lives. We’re operating out of that blind spot. We’re not paying attention to. you know. And recognizing that so many of the addictions of things are food, you know, we’re putting on layers so that nobody can touch that part of you anymore. So far.
You know is that does that make sense? And that’s really this little 5 year olds. If you can peel away those layers in your mind looking at someone that has hurt you or is, is upset, or, you know, is in a 1 of those traumas. You know you. You can just look and peel away, and their little 5 year old sitting there, just you know. their spirit and their soul, and their heart is just sitting there without the body, basically. And you can start having compassion for that child that every one of us has inside of us.
That tiny child that was traumatized in a way that it’s really sad to see. But it’s it’s I think it’s a very big truth that most of us come up with that I’m not enough. I’m not good enough, you know, and we then we start building these barriers.
One way or the other.
Absolutely. And I think also, what also happens a lot of times is that we don’t realize how, by protecting ourselves, we’re actually hurting others. not just hurting ourselves, but also hurting others. So it’s a it’s it’s it really does. Process is a big word for me. processing our emotions, processing our experiences. Really, excuse me, really does help get that? Get a lot of that? Excuse me. Something in the air just thought all of a sudden tickled my throat. Just getting through the process really helps you get through all of that. and whittled down to your inner child and helping your so inner child heal.
Loving, that loving, loving, loving, loving, loving, that little, that little child that has no you know that that’s our, that’s our inner core. And it’s in having empathy and sympathy towards them. Right.
Absolutely.
Just loving them, are loving our own little inner child and starting to forgive and recognize that if we don’t like that story, actually, we can kind of rewrite our story right? Have you noticed that, have you? Can you talk about that? And
Oh, absolutely! I love how you know I’m 53 years old now, and I remember being at a point where in time where I used to think, oh, the fifties is old, and I really don’t feel that old now. So I laugh about that memory. But I just love how, with every breath that I still have. I am like a book. I am like a blank page of a book, and I can start writing a new chapter, for of myself, for God. He is my ultimate author. and you know I can live my life. I can learn from the past, be it my own past. Be it my loved one’s own past, be it yours, anyone that I interact with, and that I can learn from. If I have that mindset, I can learn. I can take all of that in, and I can write a new chapter in my story and make it even better.
You can completely make a different ending. Right? As for certainly and and so just I mean, culturally, culturally, I don’t think I run across a whole lot of Latina poets. Right? Yeah.
Right.
So culturally that’s a difference. You’re taking a different path than you may have expected to take, you know, or that you thought you’re or that people. Oh, you know you write poems, you know that kind of thing.
Right.
There’s not a bias for me. But it’s interesting that we have cultural, you know, preferences.
Absolutely. One of the things that I love, that I have a poem that’s called Toot your own horn, baby. And it’s really just about celebrating yourself, because I grew up in a household that was very. Women have to be quiet. Women have to be subservient women have to not be too smart, not be too anything. And so I wrote that poem for that very reason, because no one. None of the women in my family celebrated themselves or celebrated me anything.
I can remember writing poems as a child and get presenting them to my mother. And you know it was like, you know nothing. So really not not supportive, no support. So I had to learn how to support myself and keep my dreams alive and you know. it’s not about being overconfident or cocky, or anything like that. There’s no problem with celebrating your successes, whatever your success looks like, even if it’s just getting out of bed in the morning and putting on a different set of clothes from your pajamas. That’s if that’s success for you then celebrate it. That’s your success. It doesn’t have to be measured by anyone else. It’s measured by you and God. So as long as you’re making progress. Celebrate those things. And you know, like, I said, growing up in the household, that I did, always hearing that I shouldn’t be these things. I shouldn’t do these things.
One of the things that I am proud of is, I was the 1st generation female in my family to get my associate’s degree, and I got my associate’s degree at 51. So it took me a long time to get there, but I did, by the grace of God and the support of my husband. I was able to do that, and I’m just so thankful, so grateful, because I remember growing up in a household like I said, where you’re told you shouldn’t be too smart. You shouldn’t read all those books, I mean, I heard that constantly. I shouldn’t read all those books. It’s not good for me.
Yeah, don’t, don’t! Don’t get a step out of your lane here, you know, and you I don’t know if you listen to oh, what’s her name? My Latina boss? My other show.
Yes, I did listen to.
Oh, my gosh! This girl! You know when she, the trauma that she experienced. Almost beyond comprehension.
50.
52 brothers and sisters, and she’s only one that has broken out of the hood.
Yeah.
You know, and now she’s owning companies and doing all this stuff. She had to go through a lot of work to get through that the anger that you hold inside her.
Yes.
And the anger and the smallness that they that you’ve been taught to be small, and you know, and not follow your dreams. Who do you know? And I got it, too, I mean, don’t get too big for your britches, don’t you know? Be content with what you have? And don’t you know? Don’t think there’s a saying.
And I just recently said this on. I think it was this last week, anyway. Be content with your lot. Don’t think you’re meant for things when you’re not. And at 1st blush, it’s like, Yeah, I want to be content. But then don’t think you’re meant for things when you’re not. And so that was like this, saying that I couldn’t quite grasp the depth of it. And when I finally was like, Whoa, that’s not a good saying, in a way.
Yeah.
I want to be content in all things wherever I am is where I have. I want to, you know, love where I am, so that because it’s the only place I have to start from today. right? Right? Right? So. But don’t think you’re meant for things when you’re not. That’s very demeaning.
Yeah, it can be. It can.
That I heard if you’re not careful. So Yes.
Especially if you have that.
It’s Mirna, my Latina boss. So she’s such a doll. But so thank you for listening to some of the other shows, because it’s a you know. I feel like we’re. This is the ending. This is the last show of 2024. It’s amazing to me. And February.
Relations, yeah.
February. We’re gonna have the 100 show and start season 3.
That’s amazing.
Being a blink your eyes. Time is not slowing down for any of us. Right? It’s like.
For any of us. Yes, yes.
Fast fast. So I’m grateful to that. You know, we’ve gotten this far where we can actually and when we met it was in, was it in this summer? The summer library? So yes, and let’s talk about the libraries, because I know you mentioned that earlier before our show. And it was like, Yeah, that is what the lie. I believe it was decades ago. Somebody said, about 3% of the population takes advantage of the local libraries.
Wow!
And if that’s the case, when everything you can ever need or want you can find in a library or bookshop, or whatever. But they’re free, and virtually for a free resource to have the world at your fingertips.
Absolutely. Yeah. I would not be the person I am today without our local libraries. I grew up in Houston, so the Houston Public library was a really big part of my childhood, and then, of course, the school library that we had in our schools, but just having that free access to books really opened up a whole new world for me, and that’s how I knew I wanted my life to be different. That’s how I knew to dream of a different life than what I was living or experiencing as a child was through books. And again, I wouldn’t have had that without public libraries.
And so now you’re really engaged in. So we’re living in North Richland. We both live in North Richland Hills, Texas, which is right in the mid cities between Dfw. On the Fort Worth side of Dfw. Airport and the North. Our library locally is very, very good, and has a lot of programs and such.
Wonderful, wonderful people, and they do so much for them. They’re really trying to increase their support of local artists. So when you and I met. It was at a local author day that they had, and they had a big selection process. And I was really nervous because I was thinking, oh, I’m probably not going to get picked, but I so wanted to be picked, and I was so happy when they picked me to be a part of the panel.
It was. It was amazing to me. So I’ve been publishing these books and doing my stuff. But I don’t. I haven’t engaged. I haven’t really gotten out there haven’t done a lot of promotion and.
I think.
That needs to change. So I’m like, yeah, I want to. I want to participate. So.
Yeah.
Now we’re going to kind of tag team a little bit and find out when some of these shows and things are.
Absolutely. Yeah. This area out here. They have been very kind and generous to authors and poets like me. Wataga, Haltom City, Hurst. They’ve all had their own versions of author days as well. And so it’s been really phenomenal to see the support, not just from the library itself, but from the community for local authors and poets like me.
It was like a free lunch for us to go to. You had to get a ticket in advance, otherwise you wouldn’t have you know it’s very limited. Yeah. But I was I when I saw it, I was like, I’m gonna oh, I wanna go to that. I wanna participate in that. Put my book.
And it was.
You’re such a blessing, because pretty much every person that attended bought a book, and that I believe that is the most sales that I’ve had as an author is from North Richland Hills author day, so I’m so very thankful. But it was just wonderful. The support was phenomenal.
So the message is, find your local library and get involved. Find yours.
Absolutely.
And when you I mean we’re we’re buying books on time, you know, all the time these days it’s easy just to get on and do a kindle or whatever. But I’m I’m a i like the feel of it.
Me too.
I want to turn.
Nothing beats the smell and the feel of a hardcover book.
And so we’ve got. I just totally think that this is an encouragement. This is a commercial for you to get out there. Go to your local area and find out.
Absolutely.
When you can have them for literally free in your name, you know, and then.
Because there are a lot of events where they’ll ask you to pay a vendor fee. The libraries typically don’t ask you to do any of that, they’ll just. They’ll put on this whole thing for free for you. And that’s just wonderful, because when you are self published, every penny that you’re spending on your books, is it counts. It matters.
Totally. So you’ve got some insight that I don’t have. So even so the one of the when you say you self publish, or did you? I mean I went through Amazon Kdp.
So did I.
Okay. So there’s a lot of people that will help you with all that. But it’s also not that hard. If you.
No.
You know, just kind of work through it. And so find, yeah, finding somebody to encourage you. Yeah, to do that, you know absolutely. Lisa certainly would love to help.
I offer that freely. If anybody needs to learn the format, it’s free. Amazon Kdp does it for free. You just have to format your books specifically, in a certain way, I’d be more than happy to help out with that. And I encourage everybody to try to submit at least one story. That’s amazing. So
So. Yeah, but it’s, you know, out here, when you haven’t done it, it’s like, Where do you start? It’s overwhelming how? There’s no way. I don’t. I don’t know how, even though you may have your story. So I was. I’m a zig ziglar legacy, certified trainer, and Zig Ziglar, who is one of the top motivational speakers ever to walk this earth, and he died in 2012. But I got to know him, and I know his family. It’s, you know, great, great people. But every time I saw him, and every time I saw him with anybody else he would goes. Have you written your book yet.
Have you written your book yet? Have you? Many years later I finally did, but it was, you know, that was a part of my culture back then, you know, it’s like. Me write a book, you know why me, you know so I was just a flight attendant. Remember, man, I said that a lot.
I was a 34 year award, winning flight attendant, but I would just say, Oh, I was just a flight attendant. And then. you know. Then somebody said, What do you quit saying that? And I was like, oh, because I was an award-winning flight attendant, and could, you know, could raising 3 plus 3 kids, right, you know, doing working Max hours commuting. And you know, you know, man,
I can do anything. Right? Yeah, yeah, it’s a perspective change. So often, we, it’s just what we do. It doesn’t feel like very much. It’s just I just, you know, I’ve published some books, so it doesn’t feel like it’s a big deal. It’s just what I did.
But you talked about celebrating those things a little bit earlier, which I think we tend to. Well, it’s just what I did. It’s not a big deal, but to other people. It’s an encouragement might just be the motivation they need to do to take that next step absolutely carried the Olympic torch for Delta airlines for the Salt Lake City, Olympics I have I. For a long time it was not displayed, and now it’s downstairs, you know, on the wall I was like.
And one of the something I read many, many times, Sarah Van Breathnack. Simple abundance. It’s a daily book that I’ve read multiple times over the years that she was like that. you know. She had all these accomplishments, had all this stuff going on, and you would walk in her house in her office, and nobody knew, you know there was no evidence. And so she finally decided, and that’s where you come back to toot your own horn right. Poem right?
I think that’s a really great one. Do you have any desire to read one of your poems or speak it? And I. By the way, you’ve got some shorts on Youtube of some of your poems, and most of your poems are kind of short. At least the ones I’ve seen are fairly short, but they’re impactful. Thank you. Yes, you want to read one here.
I can pull one up. As I mentioned before, the library one is a work in progress, so it’s not finished, but I don’t mind sharing it. What I have written so far. If that’s okay with you.
Sure, because you said you were going to write an ode. This was before the show, so you mentioned it called the Ode to the library.
Oh, to public library! Yes.
Two people sat in conversation,
sharing thoughts on the current city finances.
Both seemed strong with their observations,
Remaining steadfast in their stances.
“The library is a taker!”, one stated.
“The library is a giver!”, the other countered.
On and on the two debated,
Determined to be unmoved in this encounter.
I happened upon the two,
As their talk quickly grew heated,
Pondering what I could do,
To make neither feel defeated.
Respectfully, I sat and listened,
Contemplating what each had to say.
Soon my eyes began to glisten –
(I can get emotional that way),
Recalling what the library,
Took and gave to me,
I didn’t want to be contrary,
But wanted them both to see…
I whispered, “You’re both right.”
Neither stopped their banter.
I repeated louder, “You’re both right!”
Surprising the two ranters.
“You’re both correct when you state,
The library is a giver and a taker.
If you’ll allow me to share my tale,
Maybe you’ll agree thereafter…
When I was little the library took from me,
All the things I didn’t want,
And helped me turn the bad times,
Into something more gallant.
The library took my little mind,
And gave me adventures galore,
I wouldn’t have been able to get,
If not for their books to explore.
And that’s where I’m at. With that one.
It just gives me chills and literally tears to my eyes, because it’s the truth.
That’s powerful. I’m just so grateful. So grateful to libraries. Even to this day, I go to the library every week, like at least once a week.
Oh, and you know you can’t beat the price. I mean, I mean, it’s like, how else is the world of wisdom right there at your fingertips and.
Absolutely.
And much more and fun, I mean, when I was taking my granddaughter, and they would have the the story time and the reading time and the play time and the you know, and the interactive time in that back corner of that of our library that has such a huge area of just build, you know, where the kids can play and sit and read, and all that. And I’m talking about babies, you know, even little bitty ones, and having the story time. That was a beautiful experience when I started really doing that with her. And she’s she’s 3 now, but and we don’t get often because she doesn’t live.
Anyway. Well, time goes really fast here, Lisa, I’m grateful for your participation. I’m grateful that you chose to come on and be my guest, and that it has worked out so thankful.
For your patience, too. I know we tried a couple of times, and weren’t able to.
Honestly.
Connect.
Well, we can only do what we can do.
I believe that we, you know timing is perfect, you know I don’t have. I don’t have to. I don’t have to have a lot of angst around anything. I believe that everything is always working. I say this often everything’s always working out for me, and even when it doesn’t feel like it, it is.
Right it is.
Because place I have right?
Yes.
When you stop realizing that you should have, could have, would, or wish you would have, and you can’t change that. So.
Exactly.
But where you are right now is, you can change, you can. Yes, and the next step, and every word matters, every word matters. So in all these books, every word matters, and that means every word in that library, every word in your heart, every word that comes out of your mouth matters. Speak what you want, not what you don’t want.
Very.
A lot of my big messages right?
So, and if you listen to me much, you hear me say it all the time, so. So I want to once again. Would you really get clear on how people can find you on? And I don’t. I don’t think you have a website right now, but we’ll work on that. But yeah. you are a presence. But you have. Go ahead and speak to your authors, Page and your Facebook, how they can.
Yeah, if they look for me on social media, I am on Instagram. I’m https://www.instagram.com/poetlisamartinez/ on Facebook. I’m on https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100073398005484
and then on Amazon. It’s if you just if you type in https://amazon.com/author/martinezlisa And that takes you right to my author page on Amazon, and you’ll see all the books that I have available, and you’ll see my author, Bio, and all that good stuff.
That’s very cool, and if you are willing and want to share the words you read out of your I’ll put it in the description of our show when I get it out there, and.
Yes.
And I know, even though it’s not finished, or you may or may not want to do that. That’s up to you. But if you want to.
No, that’s fine.
I was. It feels like that was an experience you would literally.
Yes.
Yeah, it feels like.
It really is.
Yeah, so that and and and most of our stories and most of the stories come from. you’re some literal happening, you know, something definitely happening.
Big supporter.
Of what of the library?
Of libraries. Yes.
Well, I appreciate you being here. You have just a special gift, right? You’re out here, and you’re making a presence and a difference, and I know that your family is the your brother and your husband. Your family, that is with you now, is very much supportive of you.
They are, and I’m very blessed. I’m very thankful, even if you just have one person in your corner. It’s amazing.
And if you don’t have a person in your corner, find one of us, we’ll get in your corner.
I’ll be in your corner. Yes.
Always look at wanting that underdog to come and to feel the freedom of just loving yourself enough, receiving love. the freedom, the freedom that that brings. And so we’re going to just go ahead and find a time to. So this will be out this afternoon, probably for you. I’ll probably get it to you on Vimeo or tomorrow. And then in a couple weeks, it’ll be on podcasts all over the place. So we’re going to it. Just, you know, this is the end of 2024 man. Did it go fast? And was it different than we.
I. You know I’m in. I’m 71, right? So you’re 50. You said something, and I was like, man these years. Get faster and faster and faster and faster, and thank you for anyone who’s taken a listen, and to know that you are perfect exactly who and where you are. There’s nothing you can do to be loved more or less. By God.
we love you, you learn to love yourself and receive that, and I. It will open up a whole new world.
So remember to Always, Always Choose Joy.
Important Links
- Lisa’s Email: poetlisamartinezhtx@gmail.com
- Website: https://amazon.com/author/martinezlisa
- Phone : 208-845-3377
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100073398005484
- Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/poetlisamartinez/
- YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@poetlisamartinez
BOOKS:
Overcomer, Part I: An Addiction Journey (Short Stories from an Overcomer)
A Motivational Journal From One Overcomer to Another
an Overcomer, Part II: Does Young Love Last? (Short Stories from an Overcomer)
Connect with Charla Anderson:
For more insights and to follow Charla’s creative journey, check out her website and her other projects:
- Website: CharlaAnderson.com
- YouTube: Check out her channel for beginner art tips, life wisdom, and more!
- Win Win Women: Catch her on winwinwomen.tv to watch her shows and learn more.
About Lisa Martinez
My name is Lisa and my husband, Bo, and I are native Texans. My life has been filled with many challenges, and I must admit, there have been times when it was hard to find the blessing in the mess. But I thank God for His Divine intervention! He gave me writing and music to see me through every trial without completely losing my mind in the process.
My goal was to have my first book published before I was 50 – I turned 50 in May of 2021. Those who know me best know I am quite the procrastinator. So, it is no surprise that my book was over a month late from my original goal. Still, I am deeply grateful that I was able to accomplish my goal – it is a dream come true and I am so blessed!
If you are writing, please consider publishing your book to share with the world! We need to read your work.Keep in mind that my books are not perfect. While I cringe whenever I see a typo in my work, I have decided to leave those typos in to encourage you to write as you are: imperfect, yet wonderfully made.
—
I’m Charla Anderson, host of The Charla Anderson Show, Collector & Connector of Fascinating People (and EVERYONE is Fascinating!) on live TV, streaming and podcasts.
As a Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer, a retired award-winning flight attendant, Olympic Torch bearer, personal development junkie, Inspired Speaker, Published Author and Your Courageous Coach, I want to share my passion of living life full-out, saying YES to intriguing opportunities, and encouraging YOU to do the same. Let’s jump on a discovery call and get to know each other. Find all things Charla at CharlaAnderson.com/links.
On The Charla Anderson Show, We discuss Mindset, How much Your WORDS matter, Princess to Queen energy, mantras, HOPE, Faith, Miracles, Overcoming, and much, much more, including learning from amazing guests.
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