Episode 545 - Andrew Goldsmith - US Army Ranger School Graduate, The Mediocre Infantryman's Guide to Ranger School

About the author

Andrew Goldsmith grew up in Los Angeles, California. In 2004, he joined the US Army infantry where he served as a machine gunner, team leader, and squad leader during nearly five years of service. Andrew deployed to Iraq twice, in 2006 and 2008, and graduated US Army Ranger School in 2008.

After leaving the Army in 2009, Andrew studied philosophy at the University of Hawaii. In 2011, he self-published his war-time memoirs, Zarqawi’s Ice Cream: Tales of Mediocre Infantrymen. Later, he would go onto to earn his law degree from the Pepperdine School of Law and passed the California Bar Exam in 2016.

Andrew has studied abroad in Spain and Uganda and adventured in many parts of the world including Iraq, Qatar, China, Mexico, and Western and Central Europe. He has spent time in almost every state in the United States, including touring the country by van, twice, and skateboarding down the entire coast of California in 2013.

Presently, Andrew is a practicing attorney, small businessman, and author. He enjoys skateboarding long distances, spending time with his family, and has a black belt in Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

Book: The Mediocre Infantryman's Guide to Ranger School (Modern Military Memoirs)

What do you do when you show up to Ranger School clueless, alone, and completely unprepared for the pain and suffering ahead? How are you going to survive one of the world’s toughest military courses, earn the coveted Ranger Tab, and come home in one piece?

Corporal Andrew Goldsmith isn’t a super soldier—he’s your average infantryman, and by his own admission, a pretty mediocre one at that. Yet through a twist of fate and dumb luck, he finds himself thrown into an ordeal designed to break even the most elite warriors. Severely sleep-deprived, perpetually starving, limping through injuries, and tormented by both the elements and the infamous Ranger Instructors, Goldsmith quickly realizes that surviving Ranger School will be the greatest battle of his life.

The journey isn’t always glamorous. There are no heroic montages, few dramatic triumphs— just the toilsome life of a ranger, and a lot of questionable decisions made under duress. With his comrades dropping like flies and his mental state teetering on the edge, Goldsmith has to dig deep to find a way through the madness, summoning the strength to endure a course so brutal that many describe it as worse than combat itself.

In 'A Mediocre Infantryman’s Guide to Ranger School,' Goldsmith shares his brutally honest, darkly funny, and surprisingly relatable account of his journey through one of the most notorious rites of passage in the U.S. Army. Part survival guide, part cautionary tale, this book isn’t just for aspiring Rangers—it’s for anyone who’s ever faced down a seemingly insurmountable challenge and wondered, “Can I really do this?”

https://a.co/d/7kVUVHf

https://www.instagram.com/mediocreinfantryman/

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Episode 544 - Derrick Jackson - Shadow One - Air Force Office of Special Investigations, world of criminal investigations and counterintelligence

About the author

Derrick Jackson joined the U.S. Air Force and served as a jet engine specialist on the F-15 Eagle, C-5 Galaxy, C-141 Stratofortress and C-17 Globemaster. After 10 years of service, he was recruited to become a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. His first assignments were as a criminal investigator at Tyndall AFB and Osan Airbase, Republic of Korea. He then volunteered to join OSI's Special Missions Branch at Hurlburt Field, FL to provide counterintelligence services for the Air Force Special Operations Command missions worldwide. After a brief stint at Bolling AFB, DC with the Protective Service Detachment, providing security for foreign dignitaries, Agent Jackson became the Chief of the Economic Crimes Branch at Joint Base Andrews. In 2014, Special Agent retired from the Air Force after 21 years of service.

Book: Shadow One - Torn between the love of his life and his career, Air Force Staff Sergeant Devin Jackson is recruited to become a Special Agent with the Office of Special Investigations.

When the Agents uncover an international human trafficking and drug smuggling ring, the crime syndicate decides to strike back; and soon the hunters become the prey. Once the pressure mounts, the team begins to crack and questions if one of their own has betrayed them. As Devin struggles to find balance between the disturbing reality of trafficking and his personal life; disaster strikes, and he fails to protect the person closest to him.

Depression, self-doubt, and grief overcome him until an old friend arrives back on the scene and provides the healing he needs to seek revenge and bring the criminals to justice.

https://a.co/d/hhTERZ2

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Episode 543 - Kymberly Kaslar - Faith Heal Love - Embarking on a Trip to Find Healing

Fulton Books author Kymberly Kaslar, who resides in Northern California, where she enjoys car events, traveling, reading, and spending time with her friends and her two cats, Bastet and Bishop, has completed her most recent book, “Faith Heal Love”: a stirring tale that centers around one woman’s expedition to Ireland, Italy, and Sweden in order to find the spiritual and emotional healing she requires after suffering at the hands of an abuser, then a cheating husband and losing everything precious to her in the world.

Originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas, author Kymberly Kaslar has called Northern California home for thirty-two years. She has been a civil servant to the state of California for over twenty-five years, but writing has always been her passion. She hopes her stories of surviving grief and abuse would help others find faith in God and in themselves. She has always been a car enthusiast, thanks to her mom and her love of Ford and Italian cars. After her mother’s passing in 2012, she formed Dreams and Drivers Inc. to incorporate her love of cars around bringing awareness to pancreatic cancer with monthly car and coffee events and car shows.

“How many times can a person survive having the rug jerked out from under themselves?” writes Kaslar. “Teagan became a widow at thirty-five, then became the victim of an abusive sociopathic manipulator who destroyed the young widow physically, emotionally, and financially. After years of abuse, she is finally free of Alex and is happily married and enjoying life and upcoming retirement with Jake. Then like a bad dream, Teagan gets her world turned upside down for the third time.

“In a fifteen-year span, she loses her husband, gets involved with a serial abuser, loses a child, loses her mother to pancreatic cancer, gets married, and then he turns out to be a lying, cheating, lazy narcissist!

“How could God let this happen to her? What signs did she miss? How the hell could this happen again?

“Realizing that God removed Jake at the right time and protected her, she took a different ‘healing’ approach. With the coaxing of her newly divorced friend Valo who had returned to Sweden, she decided to make this forced new chapter about having the faith to take care of herself by any means possible and lean into her faith for more guidance so she could heal and check her baggage, let go of all the past, and find the blessings that these tribulations have given her. Teagan realized that regardless of the pain and suffering, she was alive and needed to learn how to enjoy life. First up, she embarked on a divorce vacation to Ireland, Italy, and Sweden. Lastly, Teagan hoped to learn to love again and be loved.”

Published by Fulton Books, Kymberly Kaslar’s book is a poignant story filled with painful, gut-wrenching lessons, loss, tears, self-reflection, healing, forgiveness, romance, and finding real love. Candid and emotionally stirring, Kaslar shares her story with the hope of helping survivors of grief and abuse find faith in God and in themselves once more.

https://www.pr.com/press-release/929557

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Episode 542 - Oswald Black - Thievery and Grace, male-perspective fiction

Best-selling author Oswald Black uses dark humor, gumption, suspense, and contemporary politics to create works of male-perspective fiction as a competitive alternative to today’s mainstream publishing market. His barreling plot lines, unexpected twists, and mind-melting conclusions aim to leave his readers high, but most definitely not dry. His sophomore novel, Thievery and Grace, is now available.

Thievery and Grace: An Absurd Heist Comedy - An unlikely trio unites to swindle millions from a powerful pharmaceutical corporation by orchestrating a fraudulent sexual harassment case.

Wedding Bandits: A Pulp Dark Comedy - A team of con artists travel the country, marrying rich, unsought women, only to clean them out on their wedding night. The only problem is their last mark's father happens to be a secret underworld kingpin now bent on avenging his homely daughter's broken heart.

https://www.oswaldblack.com/

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Episode 541 - Amanda Quintero Aguerrevere - We Said Farewell, Stories of forced exile - modern migration and the enduring strength of the human spirit

Book: We Said Farewell: stories of forced exile - In We Said Farewell, Amanda Quintero Aguerrevere masterfully fictionalizes five testimonies rooted in her native Venezuela, capturing the emotional journey of a generation forced to leave their homeland. From families navigating economic crises to young people evading the grip of political turmoil, each story uncovers the reality of the Venezuelan diaspora, where resilience, identity, and survival are constants against overwhelming odds.

These narratives bring to life the intimate struggles of individuals facing the unknown—leaving behind loved ones, cherished places, and familiar routines. With a focus on the human cost of policy decisions and societal breakdown, We Said Farewell reveals how Venezuela’s upheavals continue to shape lives beyond its borders.

For readers of historical fiction, political drama, and immigration stories, this collection offers a deeply personal look into modern migration and the enduring strength of the human spirit. It is both a tribute and a testament to those who carry their homeland within, even when they must start anew.

Keywords: Venezuela migration stories, diaspora fiction, forced exile, resilience stories, Latin American diaspora, human impact of policy, political upheaval narratives, Amanda Quintero Aguerrevere, exile fiction, Venezuelan diaspora.

About

"We Said Farewell" presents five fictionalised testimonies rooted in my native country, Venezuela, capturing the emotional journey of a generation forced to leave their homeland. From families navigating economic crises to young people evading the grip of political turmoil, each story uncovers the reality of the Venezuelan diaspora, where resilience, identity, and survival are constants against overwhelming odds.

These narratives bring to life the intimate struggles of individuals facing the unknown—leaving behind loved ones, cherished places, and familiar routines. With a focus on the human cost of policy decisions and societal breakdown, We Said Farewell reveals how Venezuela’s upheavals continue to shape lives beyond its borders.

https://www.lesmotsdeamanda.com/

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Episode 540 - Lisa C Taylor - The Shape of What Remains, Choices one woman makes to heal from intractable grief

I think about imagination and creativity and its place in our fast-paced world. For me, writing is a way of slowing down. The cadence and layers in both fiction and poetry are something to savor—and I do—rereading books by my favorite authors and new authors I discover again and again. The words stay with me long after I've turned the last page. These poems and stories bring a deeper meaning to my daily life.

I can't remember a time when I didn't use writing to make sense of the world. The best writing reveals an emotional truth--different from the literal truth. As I tell my students, you owe nothing to reality. The best writing feels authentic even if it takes us to imaginary towns or leaps into a future we cannot know.

I am the author of the novel, The Shape of What Remains (Between the Lines Publishing/Liminal Press, 2025), two collections of short fiction, Impossibly Small Spaces (Arlen House/Syracuse University Press, 2018) and Growing a New Tail (Arlen House/Syracuse University Press, 2015). I also have five published collections of poetry including Interrogation of Morning (Arlen House/Syracuse University Press, 2022) and the collaborative collection with Irish poet and writer Geraldine Mills, The Other Side of Longing (Arlen House/Syracuse University Press, 2011).

Check my schedule on the Events page for a reading near you or contact me if you'd like to bring me to your hometown. Buy books (particularly from independent booksellers) and bring them as gifts next time you're invited to dine at someone's house. They last longer than a bottle of wine and you'll be one of the many heroes supporting small presses that often struggle to survive. You'll also be introducing writers to your friends.

Cover reveal for Lisa's new novel The Shape of What Remains, a story about the choices one woman makes as she begins to heal from intractable grief.

Pre-order is available now at Maria's Bookshop - Durango CO and Amazon.com. The book will be available February 18, 2025.

Book tour in spring of 2025. Please contact Lisa at whitewaterwriting@gmail.com with requests for readings, workshops, classroom visits, booksignings and book group adoption. Lisa is available to visit or Zoom with book groups. Find her on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads.

https://www.lisactaylor.com/

https://www.mesaverdewritersconference.org/

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Episode 539 - Beau L'Amour - Son of best selling novelist Louis L'Amour, Striving to maintain a legacy

Advancing A Legacy

Beau L'Amour is a writer and entertainment industry jack-of-all-trades. He is the son of best selling novelist Louis L'Amour and has managed his father's literary estate since 1988. Striving to maintain that legacy, he has done editorial work, revised unfinished manuscripts, managed a literary magazine and an audio/radio drama series, done art direction,

been a comic book writer and producer and become an expert in marketing. In the years since his father passed away L'Amour has helped sell over 120 million books, nearly 5 million audio programs and placed a number of books of short stories (out of 16 posthumous collections) on the Best Seller lists.

Beau is known for his Audio Publishing, Motion Picture Production & Book Publishing. Beau L'Amour was born in Los Angeles, California. His father was Louis L'Amour, a well known author of magazine and paperback fiction. His mother was Katherine Adams, the daughter of a silent movie actress and a southern California real estate developer.

Throughout a good deal of his youth Beau lived in West Hollywood, an unincorporated section of Los Angeles county, known as a center of counter-culture and beatnik life. He grew up surrounded by his parents eclectic and eccentric group of friends; Austrian philosophers, American Indians, FBI agents, members of the Hollywood Ten, Eastern European refugees, Thai aristocracy, mysteriously talented dealers in primitive art and a wide array of writers, from Ray Bradbury to Jim Thompson.

Beau attended West Hollywood Elementary School. In 1973 his family moved to West Los Angeles where he attended Emerson Junior High and University High School. After a year at Santa Monica College he went on to earn his BFA at California Institute of the Arts under the mentorship of director Alexander Mackendrick and illustrator and pioneering digital animator Ed Emshwiller. He also studied acting with Janet Alhanti and Harry Mastergeorge, and directing at UCLA with Ted Post.

https://beaulamour.com/

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Episode 538 - Tony Stewart - Carrying the Tiger - Living With Cancer, Dying With Grace and Finding Joy While Grieving

About the author

Tony Stewart has made award-winning films for colleges and universities, written software that received rave reviews in The New York Times and the New York Daily News, designed a grants-management application that was used by three of the five largest charities in the world, and led the development of an international standard for the messages involved in buying and selling advertisements, for which he spoke at conferences across Europe and North America.

Tony and his late wife Lynn Kotula, a painter, traveled extensively in India and Southeast Asia, staying in small hotels off the beaten track and eating delicious food with their fingers when cutlery wasn’t available. Carrying the Tiger is his first published book.

An inspiring story of love, loss and recovery

“[A] beautifully devastating memoir… a remarkable odyssey of learning to ‘live fully in the shadow of death.’” — Publishers Weekly BookLife (Editor’s Pick)

In the spirit of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air comes Carrying the Tiger, a life affirming memoir about the full circle of life and death.

When Tony Stewart’s wife, Lynn, receives a sudden and devastating diagnosis, they scramble to find effective treatment, navigate life threatening setbacks, learn to live fully in the shadow of death, and share the intimate grace of her departure from this world. Then Tony slowly climbs out of shattering grief and, surprisingly, eases toward new love.

There is uncertainty, fear, and sorrow, but also tenderness and joy, along with a renewed perspective on what it means to live and love with one’s whole heart.

“Captures emotions and experiences that will be familiar to anyone who’s stood by a loved one facing a cancer diagnosis... this is a work that will strengthen all who read it.” — Khalid Dar, MD, Oncologist, Mount Sinai Morningside

“A beautiful and very human love story which breathes an extraordinary generosity of spirit.” — David Newman, author of Talking with Doctors

https://www.tonystewartauthor.com/

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