- 2 days ago
CTP (S3ESepSpecial5) Trauma, Healing, and Human Connection
Linda Williams joins us to discuss her debut collection "The Beauty and the Hell of It and Other Stories," a powerful series exploring trauma, healing, and human connection through 14 short stories.
• Collection of 14 stories ranging from 10-15 pages each
• Title comes from a line about marriage—choosing your partner every day is "the beauty and the hell of it"
• Stories follow women through periods of trauma, mental illness, grief, and loss
• One story explores a sexual assault survivor's unexpected reaction to seeing her abuser again
• "Blind Date" offers lighter fare about a woman who pretends to be someone's date after he's stood up
• Final story uniquely written from male perspective, linked to another story from female perspective
• Book dedicated to a friend lost to suicide
• Writing provided catharsis for Williams while potentially helping readers process similar experiences
• Currently working on a literary novella and another collection centered on themes of betrayal
Find Linda Williams at www.lindawilliams.ca
Linda Williams joins us to discuss her debut collection "The Beauty and the Hell of It and Other Stories," a powerful series exploring trauma, healing, and human connection through 14 short stories.
• Collection of 14 stories ranging from 10-15 pages each
• Title comes from a line about marriage—choosing your partner every day is "the beauty and the hell of it"
• Stories follow women through periods of trauma, mental illness, grief, and loss
• One story explores a sexual assault survivor's unexpected reaction to seeing her abuser again
• "Blind Date" offers lighter fare about a woman who pretends to be someone's date after he's stood up
• Final story uniquely written from male perspective, linked to another story from female perspective
• Book dedicated to a friend lost to suicide
• Writing provided catharsis for Williams while potentially helping readers process similar experiences
• Currently working on a literary novella and another collection centered on themes of betrayal
Find Linda Williams at www.lindawilliams.ca
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to the Constitutionalist Politics Podcast, a.k.a. CTP.
00:07I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard, and that's L-E-N-A-R-D.
00:12CTP is your no-must, no-fuss, just-me-you-and-occasional-guest-type podcast.
00:19I really appreciate you tuning in.
00:22As Graham Norton will say, let's get on with the show!
00:25Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of the Constitutionalist Politics Podcast.
00:33Joining me today is Linda Williams, who doesn't know how to spell Linda.
00:39Or should I ask, do you parents not know how to spell Linda with a Y instead of an I?
00:48And then you became an author. Your parents can't spell, and you're an author, Linda Williams with a Y.
00:55You know, there's actually an interesting story about my name.
01:00They didn't discuss how to spell it, and then they decided to take out life insurance about three weeks after I was born.
01:07And then, of course, they had to decide, and somebody asked them, is it with an I, is it with a Y?
01:13So they thought fast.
01:14And you said Linda Carter of Wonder Woman fame back when? I used to love that series.
01:24And so glad, this is way off topic already, but so glad, finally, they corrected the error of their ways when they rebooted,
01:35And finally, she had a cameo in, I think, the third film.
01:41It's like, to me, when you do reboots like that, you owe the original that you're piggybacking off of at least a cameo.
01:52100%.
01:53So, for those looking behind the scenes, I am holding up my notes.
02:00The Beauty and the Hell of It and Other Stories, a stunning debut story collection that echoes life's challenges by Linda Williams.
02:12Linda with a Y.
02:13Okay, I'll stop doing that now.
02:15Hopefully, people have got it in their heads now.
02:18And, of course, the video behind the scenes version, I'll have your name spelled along the bottom, but we needed to repeat it multiple times for the audio-only crowd and the transcript-reader crowd.
02:37Thank you much.
02:38Thank you so much.
03:08But you're not ruling any out.
03:11That's good.
03:12No.
03:13I was born and raised in the eastern townships of Quebec.
03:19And when I was 19 years old, I moved to Alberta.
03:22I actually made the trip on a Greyhound bus, suitcase full of dreams, didn't know what I was getting into.
03:29And, yeah, I moved around quite a bit in those first few years, all within Calgary.
03:35Spent a stint in Edmonton, moved back down to Calgary.
03:38I packed away some dreams, which included a lot of stories I put in a drawer.
03:43And when the pandemic happened, I decided to pull those out and get a book together.
03:49Perfect.
03:50Perfect.
03:51I, myself, have a book, How to Write a Book and Get it Published, hence Tips and Techniques, which is exactly aiding people who, you know, I've got these stories, but how do I really get them into a book, right?
04:09The concept, to the actual writing, to the publishing, and the marketing thereafter.
04:15Because a lot of people got stories, but they need help taking those first steps.
04:23Absolutely.
04:24We get stuck, right?
04:25Yeah, oh, and even the biggest name writers can have a writer block at some point.
04:37It's normal, it's natural, and I talk about that in the book, and that also, to try to, you know, pressuring yourself to write might only make it worse, right?
04:52Yeah, I think everybody has a different process, and part of it is just discovering what your process is, right?
05:05Exactly.
05:05In How to Write a Book and Get it Published, Hence Tips and Techniques, I indeed write.
05:10I can't tell you exactly how to write something, but I could talk about some of the different methodologies and what works for some people, and hopefully something, I say, helps you.
05:26Exactly, because I know several people who are indeed writing books with the aid of my book currently, that'll be out later in the year or next year.
05:41So, the beauty and the hell of it and other stories, what was the, it's a Christian show, so the joke, genesis of that.
05:51So, the genesis of the title is actually a line from the final story in the book, and the line is about marriage, and basically, it's talking about how we don't just choose our partner when we say our vows, we're actually choosing them over and over every day, which is the beauty and the hell of it.
06:17Yeah, if you're expecting all rainbows and lollipops, you shouldn't be getting married, right?
06:26And that's just not realistic.
06:29We are all human, frail, and flawed.
06:32We all have our expectations, which sometimes aren't realistic.
06:36And things aren't always going to go our preferred way, and a marriage is indeed, I still wear my wedding ring, but I'm divorced, so been there, done that, understand, right?
06:55So, your book, Ben, is indeed about give and take and human condition and things of that nature.
07:04Absolutely.
07:07A lot of the stories follow women through periods of trauma, mental illness, challenges related to grief and loss.
07:17There's actually a lot of death in the book.
07:20So, hey, you morbid people.
07:24I'm laughing, that's a joke, but I guess maybe not really.
07:29For the morbid folks, this is your kind of book.
07:32But seriously, so how many sub-stories are in there?
07:40So, there's 14 stories in the collection, ranging from about 2,500 to 5,000 words.
07:47So, in the 10 to 15 page mark, nice and short.
07:51Uh-huh, uh-huh.
07:52Right, because that's the other thing.
07:54I call it the Twitter attention span, right?
08:00These days.
08:01Everybody, give it to me short.
08:04Book reading is on the decline.
08:07In fact, right, kids in school want to use AI to cheat.
08:11And give me the synopsis of the book that I could turn in, rather than me read it and actually write something about disease.
08:19A lot of people told my Terror Strikes book is only 250-ish pages, the actual story, for the same reason.
08:30I was on a show the other day talking about it, and Savaged Unfiltered, I co-host.
08:39And Michael asked, is there a chapter on, like, riots?
08:45Because we're dealing with L.A. riots.
08:48So, I guess I better say, for the benefit of everyone hearing or seeing now or reading,
08:55we're recording on June 11th of 2025, despite whenever you may be hearing it.
09:03And no, I didn't put a chapter in about riots or cyber attacks or attacking the electrical grid
09:11and putting us all back several centuries, because the book would have got too big, even for a novel.
09:20For today, everybody's short attention span.
09:24And with the economies, the way they've been, people seem to have less disposable income,
09:34keeping the cost of the book down.
09:37Is your book on Amazon, I take it?
09:40It is available on Amazon and through Barnes & Noble on my publisher's website, if you're up here in Canada.
09:48Uh-huh, uh-huh.
09:49And so, what's the overall page length?
09:53Um, I think it comes just under $200.
09:57What do I have?
09:58I think it's like $187.
10:00Right.
10:01Which, again, helps then in these tougher times and people with less disposable income,
10:07your book will be far more affordable than some others' books.
10:13Yeah.
10:15Yeah, and...
10:16That wasn't your initial thought, though, when putting it together.
10:21It wasn't my initial thought, but it's definitely a bonus.
10:26And even when we're talking about attention span, it's my own as a writer, what I have the bandwidth for.
10:33There's a reason I write short stories and not novels.
10:36Yeah, in my how to write a book, get it published, I talk about some people have short stories that are similar,
10:47and really, you can weave three or four short stories into one novel, tying them together as subplots to make one full novel,
11:00if that theme is somewhat the same through them.
11:06And yours sound like they have a lot of the same themes, but still, it's, again, as you said, right?
11:20Your method is not my method, which is not somebody else's method.
11:24And what you're comfortable writing is short stories, so that's what we got.
11:31Absolutely.
11:33And I think you're right about the themes being very close together.
11:37I think every writer has a topic that they gravitate towards, and that's okay.
11:45Like, there's a time when I tried to work against it, I thought I should have more range, you know, some writers do that well.
11:51But, you know, if there's an area where you shine and where you sing, you stick with that, right?
11:58Yeah, right.
11:59Like, to use Beyonce as an example, right?
12:05People ragging on her about the country album.
12:09Well, I come from a musical family and wrote and recorded music myself for a while, but never got a record deal like my father was able to have.
12:20So I get musicians, though, want to expand and spread out and do something.
12:29So people love either the Beyonce country album or they hate it.
12:36It's like way back when, too, Van Halen, the third Woman and Children first album, and there was keyboards on there.
12:44Some people who wanted to hear Running with the Devil with a different set of lyrics over and over and over again were upset, right?
12:54But Eddie said, you know, I'm a musician.
12:58I want to do some other things, too, not just the same old thing over and over.
13:05We want to grow as artists, right?
13:09Absolutely.
13:11But at the same time, as you said, not try to push something you're not comfortable doing.
13:19Precisely.
13:21Yeah.
13:22I mean, some of the heavy subject here, like one of the stories, is dealing with a woman that dealt with rape.
13:38So that one comes, I wish it didn't come from a bit of personal experience, but if you've been assaulted, whether it's sexually or physically, there's stages you go through, I think, of grieving, of loss for a sense of safety that you don't get back.
14:00But at some point, you often wonder, what would I do if I ever saw this person again?
14:08So that's where the story came from.
14:10And it isn't actually a particularly triumphant story.
14:15Like, we often have...
14:18We all want that happy ending.
14:20Yeah.
14:20We want the happy ending, and sometimes what we want is a revenge fantasy.
14:26And that doesn't happen in the story.
14:30It's actually a very quiet encounter, in a way, because a trauma response that we don't talk about all the time is fawning, right?
14:40Where you just kind of, you're paralyzed, you freeze.
14:42So that's sort of what happens to her in the situation.
14:47It's not what she expected at all.
14:50And exploring that territory was just...
14:54It was healing for me.
14:55It sounds like, oh, this would be really depressing to write this, or it would make you really angry, but it was very cathartic.
15:01And can be for others also, which is part of the point why I say you have a story you might not think.
15:13You may be good at being able to tell it, but it's like there's an audience for everything.
15:20The question is whether you find it.
15:23And it can be helpful to people, that particular story helpful to someone who's dealt with assault or knows someone who has and may be uncomfortable around them because they don't know what to say or do or think in being their friend.
15:47Yes?
15:48Absolutely.
15:49And that's really my hope for the story, that it can resonate with people, provide comfort for them, maybe help people connect.
15:59As you said, people don't always know how to react, right?
16:02So it can start conversations, too, around that.
16:06Absolutely.
16:07I, myself, don't like talking about it, but feel I need to talk about it.
16:13I am a suicide attempt survivor.
16:16So in my Terror Strikes book, there is a suicide prevention sub-thread through it.
16:23Again, sharing in the hopes that, not just cathartic for myself, but hopefully can help others at the same time.
16:34Absolutely.
16:35And that's another connection to the book, actually.
16:38It's dedicated to a friend I lost to suicide.
16:41See, this is why I don't pre-script shows, right?
16:48You came into the green room, I said, the only one thing, I'm going to joke about your name to get it sick into people's heads.
16:56Beyond that, we're hitting record, we're going, whatever rabbit hole opens, opens.
17:02And, indeed, there we went.
17:07Exactly, yeah.
17:10So what other – I don't want to give all the stories away.
17:18At the same time, though, we want to tease enough of it to make sure they want to buy the book,
17:26knowing it's not a traditional novel, but a collection of short stories.
17:33So there's some lighter stuff in the book, too.
17:37It's not all about death.
17:39Oh, my Terror Strikes book, I have a comic relief chapter, right?
17:45No matter how serious things are, we've got to keep a sense of humor.
17:52And we've got to be able to laugh at ourselves, or we shouldn't be laughing at anybody else.
17:58So I'm glad to hear you say amongst the serious stuff, there is also lighter stuff.
18:05Please go on now that I've interrupted you.
18:09Absolutely.
18:10So there's a story called Blind Date, and it's about a woman who's recently lost her job.
18:16And she's kind of struggling with her identity because of that, because she's kind of shaped herself around her work.
18:24As a lot of people do, yeah.
18:26Exactly.
18:27And she's coming to the restaurant where her brother works just to drop off the car keys.
18:34She's borrowed it, and she notices this man who's allegedly waiting for a blind date, but he's been there for 25 minutes.
18:43He's clearly getting stood up, and she makes a split-second decision to take advantage of the situation.
18:51She takes the seat, and she decides she's going to roll with it, see if she can carry it all the way to dessert.
18:58And the story just follows that evening.
19:03Very interesting.
19:04Very different.
19:06Certainly not something that's normal fare.
19:10So very much indeed an attractive addition.
19:16So much different than anything else.
19:19Although when you said that about the blind date, the guy's been there for 25 minutes, so something obviously was up.
19:27My mind immediately went to the Blumhouse horror film.
19:33Oh, I can't remember the name of it.
19:39It's a one-word title where indeed a guy's at the restaurant.
19:46He's playing as if he's there for a blind date, and in fact, someone shows up, and he's an ass because he's not really there for the blind date.
19:56He's there to try to get someone else who's actually on a blind date to murder the person she's on the date with.
20:06I wish I could, again, it was a Blumhouse film that came out several months ago.
20:12I wish I could think.
20:14It's like an app, the name of it.
20:18I can't think of it.
20:19But anyway, someone looked up.
20:21Because, again, that's like, wow.
20:25That's really different.
20:26Yeah.
20:28And then there's the final story is different to the other ones, just in the sense that it's written from the perspective of a man.
20:37It is a little bit sad, but it's also the only story that's linked to another one in the book, which is written from the perspective of the woman he's in love with.
20:48So, you kind of took the he said, she said principle.
20:58All the other ones are from a female perspective.
21:01So, you thought, let's do one from the other perspective.
21:07Exactly.
21:08It's a bit of a bonus story.
21:10And I'm not sure if I write as strongly from the perspective of a man as a woman.
21:15We'll see what people say.
21:17Right, right.
21:19That's understandable.
21:22Okay.
21:23At any rate, my shows don't go very long.
21:28So, do you have a website yourself where people can find you?
21:35I certainly do.
21:36I have a landing page at www.lindawilliams.ca.
21:43Of course, the .ca, because you're in Canada.
21:49Most countries have an extension based on the country, whereas the U.S. with so many domains, we've got a whole bunch of other weird extensions.
22:03I was hoping when my Terror Strikes came out to do a Terror Strikes dot book site.
22:13But that extension, being a former IT guy, I pay attention to all that.
22:19While it's been talked about coming out for years, it still ain't there.
22:25And it's like, that seems like something that there should be a dot book.
22:31Because even though people are reading us with self-publishing, it seems that more and more and more books are on the market.
22:43So, that's a perfect extension.
22:45So, when I'm thinking of any book name, a dot book should be there.
22:53Absolutely.
22:54It's so interesting.
22:55You work in IT.
22:56So does my husband.
22:57Yeah, I used to.
22:58I'm on disability now.
23:00But, yeah, yeah.
23:01Small world, as they say, right?
23:04Absolutely, yeah.
23:05Yeah, I loved working in IT.
23:08Now, Mickey, your publicist, I'm talking with a few people that Mickey helps publicize their work.
23:21I just talked with Allison McBain the other day about AI.
23:29That hasn't aired yet either.
23:31It will likely air before the one with you, though, so people will be able to look back to that.
23:39I saw that AI stuff coming years ago.
23:43And yet the law, of course, is now in a, is all messed up and people in a panic and all kinds of cases in court.
23:52Because the laws were never changed to be able to deal with the issues of copyright and plagiarism and fair use and all that stuff.
24:04So, that leads to an obvious question.
24:08You didn't use AI to cheat, right?
24:11You actually wrote everything in your stories, yes?
24:17Absolutely.
24:18And, oh, AI terrifies me.
24:23It's coming for us.
24:25I don't think we have a choice about whether it's going to happen.
24:29We crossed that exit a long time.
24:32Yeah, that lexicon is crossed.
24:35And you can't put the paste back in the tube, as the saying goes.
24:39Exactly, yeah.
24:42But I really do feel for the writers who've had their work ripped off, right?
24:47That's, oh, it just makes me so angry.
24:50And that's why I don't use it, right?
24:53You know, you have to remember where it's coming from.
24:56Exactly.
24:56In some cases, you can't trust what it's given.
25:00The terms of service may say, you're using us, you can claim it as your own, but you don't know what they've lifted without a proper accreditation and attribution.
25:13And you're the one on the hook if something in there lands up being plagiarized from something and someone want to raise a stink about it.
25:24Exactly.
25:25Yeah, I didn't, again, unscripted, right?
25:32I sure didn't plan on talking about AI with you, but there's that connection with me and your husband, both IT, me being former.
25:42So it was a logical question to ask and something I do go into how to write a book and get it published.
25:51Don't cheat.
25:52You're the one on the hook.
25:54For the fraud or the copyright or plagiarism violations, should they occur?
26:03Not to say I don't use AI to, like, create an image.
26:07Oh, give me an image with this and that and the other thing.
26:12But then I put underneath, generated by Galaxy AI.
26:17You've got to cover yourself.
26:20But these kids just feel like, well, I typed in the prompt.
26:26I get to use whatever it gives me as my own.
26:30No, life don't work that way.
26:34Exactly.
26:35Do you have something else in the works now coming?
26:40I do have a couple of things on the go.
26:44One thing that looks like it's turning into a literary novella, which is always, again, short.
26:51And then I'm working on another collection of stories centering around themes of betrayal.
26:56So how we betray ourselves, each other, the earth, and so on.
27:01Uh-huh.
27:02Yeah.
27:03Some people are good at lying even to themselves.
27:07Yeah.
27:08Exactly.
27:09Yeah.
27:10I think those might be the biggest lies we tell, right?
27:13Yeah.
27:14Ones we sucker ourselves into believing.
27:16Yes.
27:17Exactly.
27:19Okay.
27:19So thank you, Linda, with a Y, Williams, for coming on today.
27:25I'm glad you came.
27:27Take care.
27:28Have a good night.
27:29Thank you so much.
27:31It's been a pleasure.
27:32Take care.
27:33Thank you for having tuned in for a Christitutionalist Politics Show.
27:38If you haven't already, please check out my primary internationally available book, Terror Striped,
27:44coming soon to a city near you, available anywhere books are sold.
27:49If you have locally run bookstores still near you, they can order it for you.
27:56And let me remind, over time, the fancy high production items will come.
28:01But for now, for starters, it's just you as a very appreciated listener by me.
28:09All substance, no fluff, just straight to key discussion points.
28:14A show that looks at a variety of topics, mostly politics, through a Christian U.S. Constitutionalist
28:22lens.
28:23So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
28:26Take care.
28:27God bless.
28:27Like and subscribe to the Constitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes.
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