- 3 minutes ago
- #yayadiamond
- #dreamchasersradio
- #podcast
- #interview
Amazon: https://a.co/d/05FMxqUI
Watch this Dream Chasers Success Stories interview featuring Lloyd and Nancy Musselman. Learn about their path to building their vision.
In this episode of Somewhere Between Then and Now, Yaya Diamond sits down with Lloyd Musselman and Nancy Musselman to discuss their personal journeys. This conversation highlights the experiences of individuals dedicated to pursuing their ambitions and the lessons learned along the way. If you are looking for authentic personal growth stories from people who have navigated their own unique challenges, this discussion offers a direct look into their lives.
Listeners will gain insight into the motivations that drive successful couples to keep moving forward. By sharing their story, Lloyd and Nancy provide a relatable perspective on what it takes to maintain focus on your goals while navigating life changes. Whether you are seeking inspiration or simply interested in hearing about different approaches to success, this interview provides a clear window into their philosophy.
Subscribe for weekly success stories and personal growth breakdowns, and let us know in the comments what topic you would like us to cover next.
#yayadiamond #dreamchasersradio #podcast #interview
Tools and Services I use:
Appsumo has the best lifetime deals ever!!! I love this site.
appsumo.8odi.net/yayadiamond
Best website for musicians. Try it for free on me: https://buff.ly/2GMYugG
Make money with Fiverr.com: https://buff.ly/2KjTVvV
Our Amazon store: https://buff.ly/34RYNlm
Vidiq is the best youtube booster: https://vidiq.com/yayadiamond
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. My affiliate links usually provide either a free trial or discount so go try them out on me! Thank you for supporting DreamChasersRadio.com so I can continue to provide you with free content each week!
Privacy Policy: https://buff.ly/2XSrflS
™Yaya Diamond
Red Hot Reality Ent. LLC
Watch this Dream Chasers Success Stories interview featuring Lloyd and Nancy Musselman. Learn about their path to building their vision.
In this episode of Somewhere Between Then and Now, Yaya Diamond sits down with Lloyd Musselman and Nancy Musselman to discuss their personal journeys. This conversation highlights the experiences of individuals dedicated to pursuing their ambitions and the lessons learned along the way. If you are looking for authentic personal growth stories from people who have navigated their own unique challenges, this discussion offers a direct look into their lives.
Listeners will gain insight into the motivations that drive successful couples to keep moving forward. By sharing their story, Lloyd and Nancy provide a relatable perspective on what it takes to maintain focus on your goals while navigating life changes. Whether you are seeking inspiration or simply interested in hearing about different approaches to success, this interview provides a clear window into their philosophy.
Subscribe for weekly success stories and personal growth breakdowns, and let us know in the comments what topic you would like us to cover next.
#yayadiamond #dreamchasersradio #podcast #interview
Tools and Services I use:
Appsumo has the best lifetime deals ever!!! I love this site.
appsumo.8odi.net/yayadiamond
Best website for musicians. Try it for free on me: https://buff.ly/2GMYugG
Make money with Fiverr.com: https://buff.ly/2KjTVvV
Our Amazon store: https://buff.ly/34RYNlm
Vidiq is the best youtube booster: https://vidiq.com/yayadiamond
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. My affiliate links usually provide either a free trial or discount so go try them out on me! Thank you for supporting DreamChasersRadio.com so I can continue to provide you with free content each week!
Privacy Policy: https://buff.ly/2XSrflS
™Yaya Diamond
Red Hot Reality Ent. LLC
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:08Hi, I'm Lloyd Musselman, and I'm Nancy Musselman, and we're here with Yaya Diamond.
00:30On Dream Chasers, we won't wait. Subscribe today before it's too late. Inspiration flowin' just like the breeze. Chase your
00:39dreams and feel at ease.
00:44Be good. Be very good.
00:48I am being very good. I am being very good. I want to welcome you to Dream Chasers Radio. It's
00:55me, your host, Yaya Diamond.
00:56I am the founder and the host, and I am the mostest. No, that didn't come out right. It doesn't
01:02matter if it came out right or not, because we have two amazing people sitting right here in front of
01:06you, and I am so very excited to have them here.
01:09It's very rare that we have two guests on one show, so I want to welcome you both here, and
01:15thank you guys so much for being here. I appreciate it.
01:18Well, we're delighted to be here with you.
01:21Right.
01:21Thank you, thank you. So, let's get back to the point. I want to talk about this. Well, are we
01:27talking about two books today, or one book of poetry?
01:31My goodness. I absolutely loved this cover. Can you tell me about the cover of this before we get started?
01:40Well, the cover was created by one of the two illustrators from BookFuel, the people we've been working with, and
01:49the title was suggested by them along with several others, but we loved this one.
01:54Somewhere between then and now, poems for everyday people, and the then and now, you see to the walking man's
02:05left, sort of the then, the old house, the muted colors, and then the now is the big city, and
02:19it's in other colors.
02:20Yeah.
02:21And so, he's walking down the trail, hands in pockets, thinking about his life, which is what the poems are
02:31all about, somewhere between then and now.
02:34Wow. You know, I'd like to just stay then. Then is good for me. Then looks more appealing than now.
02:46Well.
02:47Can somebody find me that house?
02:49Well.
02:54Well, might I say that on the back of the book, I was to write a piece about the poems,
03:00and among the things I wrote is that we're all searching for meaning, and I've been searching for meaning for
03:05a long, long time, and that we're all everyday people, and I'm writing for everyday people.
03:12That's amazing.
03:13And so, that's what these poems are about, they're not extremely esoteric, they deal with ordinary people, and ordinary situations,
03:23and they start with a young college student, it's quite autobiographical, sitting on a hill at dusk, on his campus,
03:33looking at the traffic below, going thither and yon, with their lights on.
03:38And he's wondering about, and he's wondering about, and he's wondering about who he is, and what he's about, and
03:44what is life all about.
03:46And so, that starts the book of poetry that's made up of over 65 poems.
03:52Wow.
03:54So, okay, so before we do that, before we get into your books, before we, you know, let's talk about
04:00you.
04:01Maybe we should have your wife talk about you, I don't know.
04:04Okay.
04:06All of the experiences that you've had, as a husband, as a father, as a teacher, a traveler, a writer,
04:12how would you describe yourself today?
04:17Nancy, would you like to go first?
04:20Well, I don't, I don't really know where to start.
04:24We, we've been married for 63 years, and we just have enjoyed most of those years.
04:34We've traveled a lot, we've, we have good friends, we just have had a good life.
04:43So, that's, that's where we are right now, and we're still having a good life.
04:47Right, that's amazing.
04:48Right, I, I don't want to say too much, because I might move into some other question that you might
04:55have, that we're, it's, it, it goes more directly, but we have, well, let me just put it this way.
05:04When people wonder, well, you know, what's it like to be married for 63 years, and how do you, how
05:10do you do it?
05:12And, and I say, well, we're able to laugh in the morning, and we're able to laugh at night.
05:18Yeah.
05:19And, if you're able to do that, then, you're well on your way, I think, to having a fulfilling life
05:27together.
05:29That sounds amazing.
05:30I'm halfway there.
05:32I'm halfway, I'm halfway, I'm halfway there.
05:35Yeah, yeah.
05:36Well.
05:36But, it's, it's, you know, it's one of those things where it just keeps going.
05:42It just doesn't stop.
05:43It's like, I woke up this morning, and we're still here.
05:46Okay, we can do this one.
05:50But, you guys have had a lifetime of marriages.
05:53I mean, you know, marriage has taught you love, and companionship, and growing together, and, you know, what was it
06:01like when you were younger, compared to now when you're older, and more knowledgeable?
06:07Yeah.
06:09Well, Nancy, I'll start, but you want to, or you want to start?
06:13Well, no, you go ahead, I'll be thinking.
06:15This leads to 63 years when we're arguing with one another over who goes first.
06:21Or we're encouraging one another, who goes first.
06:26Well, I think, as I say in the inscription in the second book, which is The Interrogator, which we'll eventually
06:35get to, I dedicate the book to Nancy, who taught me the meaning of love.
06:43And I think that over the years, and you've experienced this, too, I'm sure, Yaya, that love means more than
06:54and goes beyond romance.
06:57Oh, yes.
06:58And that the romance part of it, you know, might become an ember from what it originally had been.
07:07But you're living together, and you're caring about one another builds and builds, and some things you take for granted,
07:20and some things you don't.
07:22But I will say this, I think if I could put it in a capsule, it's what we do every
07:29evening.
07:30And that is, you know, after a hug and a goodnight kiss, Nancy follows me down the hallway.
07:38She goes to bed a little later than I do.
07:40I'm older, and she actually tucks me in.
07:45And then I say to her, thanks for being here.
07:51And she says, I'm happy to be here.
07:55Mr. Kim, y'all need to stop making me all mushy and stuff.
08:00That is so beautiful, though.
08:02I mean, not a lot of people have that, you know.
08:06Wow, that is beautiful.
08:07And I'm glad that you guys are together, and that your journey is together.
08:13It's important, you know.
08:14We started out from such different places.
08:17I grew up on a farm in northeastern Colorado.
08:23Lloyd grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, in the big city.
08:26And we just have such different backgrounds.
08:30But we came together in college and just have made it this far.
08:37Yep.
08:38That's amazing.
08:39That is amazing.
08:40So your poetry collection, let's get into that, is called Somewhere Between Then and Now.
08:46That's the first book that we're going to be talking about.
08:48What does that title mean to you?
08:50I know that you liked it the most, right?
08:53But why don't you feel that your memories and experiences were worth turning them into poems with this particular title?
09:02Well, someone once asked me when I started writing poetry, and I said, 50 years ago.
09:10And that's correct.
09:12And, in fact, the first poem I ever wrote is in the book.
09:14It's called Match.
09:15Wow.
09:16And it's about a tennis match that I saw.
09:19And so what this book attempts, at least, is to tell not only my story, but the stories of people
09:28I've gotten to know.
09:31And some people I've gotten to make up over a 50-year period.
09:36So somewhere between then, when all this started, and now.
09:42And now is not an ending point.
09:45It's simply a continuation of the journey that prompted me to start writing poetry.
09:53Nice.
09:54Wow.
09:55Wow.
09:56You know, like I said, I love the cover and everything.
09:59But so many of your poems begin with very personal memories, like people, places, or seemingly ordinary moments, right?
10:06What is it about the ordinary moments that make you stop and think, there's a story here?
10:12Right.
10:12Well, it's, you know, I really feel that ordinary moments are the moments that we all experience.
10:23And Nancy can speak to this in just a sec.
10:25But I think that ordinary moments are the architecture of our lives.
10:35If I were looking for something super dramatic to write a poem about, I might be waiting forever.
10:42Ah, tell me about it.
10:44But the ordinary sometimes has within it the seed of something extraordinary, depending on the person who brings their own
10:56personality to the reading of the poem.
11:00And so, for example, the poem, She Will Return, is a poem from my imagination, about a man who is
11:12waiting for the woman in his life to return.
11:18And I think there are probably thousands of people out there, if they were to read the poem, who could
11:25relate to it.
11:26Yeah.
11:27Yeah.
11:27And that is true of the first one called Hills, where the boy is sitting on the hill and thinking
11:34about life and what he is to become in life.
11:37There are all kinds of entry points for people to plug themselves in and see themselves as one of the
11:50characters in the poem or simply look off into the distance and say,
11:58Well, I can see myself even writing something like that because that's me somehow.
12:05Nancy, what do you think about some of this?
12:08Well, I really don't know what to say because I do not write poetry.
12:13I listen to it.
12:15I love to read it.
12:17But I just follow what Lloyd wants to do.
12:22And I might say, Yaya, and we might get to this later, there is a poem for Nancy in the
12:30book.
12:30And it's called The Gardener Lays Down Her Gloves.
12:36And I felt, Yaya, somebody might ask, well, how did you get started on such and such a poem, such
12:44as The Gardener Lays Down Her Gloves?
12:46Right.
12:47And my response is that once you can, you grab onto a metaphor and the metaphor works for you, then
12:58the poem begins to write itself.
13:00Yeah.
13:01And in Nancy's case, she becomes the gardener who upon her retirement from teaching middle school, which is not the
13:11easiest grade level to teach.
13:14She is finally laying down her gloves, but she lectures the plants and the flowers first to be good and
13:24responsive to the person who's taking her place.
13:29And it's Nancy's poem.
13:31Right.
13:32And it's Nancy's favorite poem.
13:33Right.
13:34It is.
13:35And I usually get tears in my eyes whenever I read it because it is so personal.
13:42And I have experienced it so, so deeply.
13:46So I, I just love that poem.
13:50Well, she says she loves to read them and, you know, you're going to have to continue to write them.
13:55I'm not, I don't think you're off the hook here yet.
13:59Well, well, Yaya, maybe yours is coming down the road.
14:02We never know.
14:04Okay.
14:06I will be here for that, hopefully.
14:09An afternoon with Yaya.
14:11You know, that, that, that can be, that, that, that could go either way.
14:17Okay.
14:19But I want to know, you spent so many years as an educator, including teaching American history in Singapore, right?
14:25Right.
14:26How did your students and your experience as a teacher influence the writer you eventually became?
14:35Well, at first I did not want to go to Singapore because I thought trying to jam so much American
14:44history into a nine day course was unworkable.
14:48But once I got there and became familiar with my surroundings and the kids, some of whom came from Russia,
14:56the People's Republic of China, many from, some from Malaysia, Indonesia, and most from Singapore.
15:03Uh, they were teaching me as much as I could teach them, I think.
15:08And so bringing the history of my country warts and all to them, I think was appreciated by them finally.
15:18Uh, and, uh, some of them still stay in touch after 20 years.
15:22Oh, wow.
15:23Uh, and some of them are in, in the book, uh, palms that I wrote for them about them.
15:31Uh, so.
15:35It touches you, huh?
15:36Oh, it, it, it, it does.
15:38In fact, uh, you, you might've enjoyed being there in some of the classes cause we would sing in class,
15:46sing, sing, sing American songs.
15:49We would sing, sing over there about world war one, and then we would do something else.
15:56And then I'd read some of my poetry or I'd read poetry by other people about events.
16:02Uh, and the kids, uh, just clung to it.
16:07I mean, what they did not want to have to go through became something that they, many of them loved.
16:14And they would send me cards and they'd send me pictures and, and, uh, some would take Nancy and me.
16:23Nancy went with me about a dozen times to Singapore.
16:26Uh, they would take us out to eat and, uh, walk with us down Orchard Road.
16:32The big marketing road in Singapore and, uh, just, uh, it's hard for me to put into words.
16:41They, they just surrounded me and sort of penetrated me, uh, and made a good life, even better.
16:52That's amazing.
16:52And you didn't even want to go.
16:54Not at first.
16:56Not at first.
16:57No thing.
16:57Don't know what a blessing is until you get there.
16:59Right.
17:00That's right.
17:02My gosh.
17:03So, okay.
17:05You're not just a poet.
17:06We're just going to get over this.
17:08We're just going to get over.
17:09Cause you're not just a poet.
17:10And not that, that your poetry book is, you know, somewhere between then and now it's not, it's not amazing.
17:16I'm not going to, I'm not, but you have a novel.
17:21Didn't know.
17:21I knew that.
17:22Did you, the novel, the interrogator actually began as a short story written for your Singapore students, right?
17:30What inspired you to write that story?
17:32And what made you realize that there was a much larger story waiting to be told?
17:39Well, uh, one of my students, uh, she went by the name Lynn as a first name, uh, is from
17:49Myanmar.
17:49And she went home because her father was ill.
17:55And once she went home, she couldn't get back out again because the military had overthrown the government.
18:02And so I thought about Lynn and I was still able to contact her by email.
18:09So I wrote this little short story called the interrogator about this woman, young woman, whose job it was to
18:20interrogate American flyers who had been shot down in the Vietnam war.
18:28And at first I didn't even name it, the Vietnam war, I just said in an Asian country.
18:34And so it became just a very short story, which I then enlarged on.
18:41And once I started to enlarge it just a little bit, I began sending parts of it to some other
18:48Singapore students and see what they thought of it.
18:51And the whole thing only runs about 20 or 21 typewritten pages.
18:58And I would knock out a little couple of pages of it in between television programs and just having fun
19:07with it, not meaning to do anything great or monumental.
19:13And then finally, as things were getting serious in the little story to my Singapore students, one of them wrote
19:22to me.
19:22She said, thank you for the story.
19:25But she said, you're not going to make us cry, are you?
19:30And I knew I was and I did.
19:34And that's part of the story.
19:37And so it's and it just laid there.
19:42And I thought maybe I would send some poems to BookFuel and attach the little short story.
19:52So they would have something maybe called poetry and prose, you know.
19:58I got you.
19:59And so they seized on the short story.
20:05And I thought, my gosh, what's what's happening here?
20:10And my contact person there, Ashley, Ashley Ross.
20:15Yeah.
20:15Has been just so important in all of this.
20:19She is.
20:21She's wonderful.
20:22And she and I, and I've told her this, engaged in a rhetorical arm wrestling match as they were as
20:33they were enlarging the story.
20:36And I was saying, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that, you know, and the rest of this.
20:45And so whatever.
20:47Whatever.
20:50What we have, I think, is a really good story, a good yarn.
20:54And as I say on the back of the book, and then I'll quiet down for a moment, for a
21:02moment, is this takes you from Vietnam to Singapore to a suburb of San Francisco and finally a small vegetable
21:15garden.
21:16And it is a sweeping story about forbidden love and about choices and human nature and life and death and
21:37birth and finally coming home.
21:42So, yeah, I'm very pleased with it.
21:46Wow.
21:47That's amazing.
21:48That is amazing.
21:49Wow.
21:50And you lost.
21:55You lost.
21:56They won.
21:57Yeah.
21:58The arm wrestling match.
21:59They did.
22:00They did.
22:00And I know, Ashley, she's not giving it up very easily.
22:04She's not going down easy.
22:06You had a fight there, boo.
22:08I'll tell you what.
22:11So if someone I mean, we're we can't stay here forever.
22:14Right.
22:14But I have had such an amazing time with you.
22:17But if someone reads both of your books, she had the first book here.
22:20Someone somewhere between then and now.
22:23Right.
22:23Poems to Everyday People.
22:25And you also have your novel, The Integrator.
22:29If someone reads these books.
22:31Right.
22:32And you they get a chance to meet you or personally.
22:38Right.
22:38What is the one thing that you hope your writing allows them to understand about you and the life you
22:45lived?
22:51Well, first off, that's a good question.
22:54Um, I hope they I hope they know.
22:58I hope they know that regardless of my background, regardless that I'm the guy who wrote the poems and wrote
23:08the some of the novel.
23:10Well, Book Fuel wrote much of the novel, regardless of all that, I'm one of them.
23:19I am I am with you.
23:23I, I have the same dreams.
23:26I have the same questions about life.
23:30And hopefully my poems will not only express that, but will help the reader articulate, express their dreams and their
23:43questions about life.
23:45And when you get to the interrogator, the decisions that knock the young woman, the North Vietnamese woman has to
23:55make, will, will hit the reader hard.
24:00So the reader knows, oh, my God, what she just decided and how that's going to change everything in her
24:11life and that they will appreciate her.
24:16Yeah.
24:17Yeah, that's amazing.
24:18Wow.
24:19Well, Lloyd and Miss Wilson, man, thank you so much.
24:23I forgot your first name.
24:24I'm so sorry.
24:26Nancy.
24:27Nancy, thank you so much for hanging out with Lloyd.
24:30Seems like you're a great support and he couldn't do this without you.
24:34That's true.
24:35See, so there you go.
24:38There you go.
24:39So don't put him on the couch tonight.
24:40Okay.
24:44Not tonight.
24:45Not tonight.
24:46He did a good job.
24:46He did a good job.
24:48I want to thank you both for being on the show.
24:50We're going to go ahead and put both books.
24:52So you guys have the two books.
24:54Here is the poetry book, Somewhere Between Then and Now, Poems for Everyday People, as well as the novel that
25:01my girl, she won out.
25:03Yay.
25:04You lost, Lloyd.
25:06The interrogator.
25:08And, you know, you have the two options, whether you like poetry or novels, I'd say get both if you're
25:15in the mood to learn more about his life.
25:17Because I think this is not just fiction.
25:21This is a little bit more.
25:23And I think you can learn a lot from just the life of this amazing person, Mr. Lloyd Musselman.
25:30Thank you guys so much for being on the show.
25:34Okay.
25:35Thank you, Yaya.
25:38And thank you guys so much for tuning in.
25:39We have all that information.
25:40The link's in the description so that it'll be easy for you guys to find that book and find both
25:45books, actually.
25:46And until next time, guys, don't forget to be different.
25:49Lloyd, you guys don't go anywhere.
25:51I still have a question for you.
25:54Oh.
26:12And if you want to try to speak to her, I'll tell you guys until next time.
26:12Bye-bye.
26:13And you, guys.
26:13Bye.
Comments