Hello Travelers!
Thank you, so much!!
If you love the show, please do join in on the five-star reviews for Evenings Kingdom on Apple Podcasts. (To do so, just subscribe via Apple & then scroll down on the page that lists all the EK episodes.)
"OTHERWORLDLY" "MESMERIC" "ENCHANTING" "INSPIRING" "BEWITCHED" "PURE MAGIC" "A DELIGHT "
Thank you so much, my friends.
"OTHERWORLDLY" "MESMERIC" "ENCHANTING" "INSPIRING" "BEWITCHED" "PURE MAGIC" "A DELIGHT "
Thank you so much, my friends.
Progress Bar
Once I finish a draft, I edit every page 20ish x before sharing with my first readers. Jeanne, BryAnne, Maugi, Kristy, Hana, George, Gillie, Jason and Colin; I am forever in your debt. Collaborating with you is one of the great joys in my life!
I let my books ‘rest’ between complete edits so I can rework with fresh eyes. One of the best ways to do this is alternate work on multiple projects:
Secret new project ‘LT’. 3+ book fantasy series of standalone, interlinked short stories :)
Book One, goal around 60,000 words total (240 pages)
Episodes 1-5: 50,508 words (202 pages) 85% - with first readers now!
Episodes 6-7: outlined * sketched in- 20%
Books Two & Three - outlined 1 %
Evenings Kingdom
Books One (The Last Vampire) & Two (Flight of the Shaman)- 138,000 words - 100% Complete
Progress on Episode 28 for podcast - interview recorded, not yet edited
Book Three (Evening's Chrysalis)
‘Mary’ thread - 32,500 words; ‘Red Nor’ thread -38,000 words
Finish First Draft - 10%
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About Paula
Paula Schmidt’s short stories are published in The Art Mag, Sierra Nevada Review and Library Journal’s Self-e Select Collection, and have won awards and scholarships, including a three-month residency with the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation and a paid residency with the NOEPE Center for Literary Arts. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband and cat.
Evenings Kingdom, her serialized epic fantasy, is available on Apple Music, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
Evenings Kingdom, her serialized epic fantasy, is available on Apple Music, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
Where did you get the idea to write & podcast Evening's Kingdom?
As I've talked about on the show, I've been painfully shy for most of my life.
But in 2019 when my beloved sister asked me to give a toast at her wedding, I didn’t think twice. As I stood up before the crowd, I was so nervous I thought I’d crack my champagne glass. And yet... as I looked at Julia’s beautiful face, telling stories about the grace and bravery with which she’s carried our family through loss, wishing her well on their adventure through life together...
the words carried me away.
When I finished, there was a ringing silence.
And then a standing ovation.
Best of all were Julia’s happy tears. Maybe a shy person could speak up after all!
So I began reading aloud to my husband in the evenings, practicing my diction. He’s incredibly supportive. And he knows how dedicated I am once I put my mind to something.
We came to love our nightly readings. And then it hit me. I bolted up as if I’d been zapped: Evening’s Kingdom could be podcast! And I could perform it!
And so, very slowly, in the small hours before and after my dayjob, I began serializing Books One and Two of Evening's Kingdom into cinematic audio installments.
Like Ouma, many of us don’t want the particular ticket we received from the Fates. Yet here we are, on the ride regardless.
Like Ouma, we can choose to become the hero of our own story. We can make friends along the strange paths life forces us to take. We can witness and dance with the magic, the Mystery, which connects all of us. Because life is magic.
Now, a little backtracking about the origin of Evening's Kingdom.
My husband is very supportive because we’ve been together for nearly fifteen years. Through many joyous times and countless adventures around the world... as well as miscarriages, mistakes, losses and seriously lean times, living for months on potatoes and onions; digging through our cushions for gas money. We know how strong we are because we have walked through fire.
After our first miscarriage in May 2018, I was diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases. We were told they were irreversible.
I was devastated. This was not the journey I wanted.
As I mourned our son, I realized how much fear and self-loathing I carried. I resented myself for losing our baby. I resented my body for ‘being sick’, especially when I've always been so diligent about wellness. I resented the strains I’d placed on us with the cost of my medical care. And my beloved husband was grieving and unhappy too. We were faltering, badly. And to top it off, I felt like a fraud at work.
Despite years of my best efforts, I've never been able to transition into the only thing I've ever truly wanted - a full-time career as a professional author, nested within a web of artists, allies and mentors, all championing forwards a more beautiful world.
To live in flow, slowly and simply, all over the world, creating and sharing book after book with all of you...
But I was as far from that as could be imagined. I felt like a complete failure - as a wife, an animal, an artist.
Rock-bottom.
Bewildered and broken and with no idea what to do, a dear friend took me out for coffee.
“Have you ever heard of Ayahuasca?” she said.
Ayahuasca. The sacred jungle brew that bestowed…vomiting and diarrhea and ten years of therapy crashed together in one single night. Yes, of course I’d heard of it. I’d read William Burroughs’ account when I was in college and was intrigued, but until that moment, I had absolutely zero yearning to speak with an ancient plant deity for guidance. Epecially not if it meant possibly crapping my pants in a room full of strangers. And have I mentioned that I was fiercely atheist at the time?
But that morning, something was different.
Sitting there with C in the sunshine with a warm cortado in my hands, at just the mention of Ayahuasca, I felt a vibrant, full-body tingling all over. I felt as if I were looking up at C from the bottom of a well, and she’d thrown me down a lifeline.
We don't get to choose our struggles, but we can choose to become the heroes of our own lives.
I knew what I needed to do. I needed to submit to the universe, and ask for help.
So I did.
Long story short. The moment I began my first journey sitting with Ayahuasca, my fear and awe were dissolved in a pure, otherworldly love. As so many others have experienced, the nights I spent in ceremony are some of the most treasured moments of my entire life. Intense, yes. I did not crap my pants, no. And in that first ceremony, not only did Mother Ayahuasca take away my fear and help me make peace with my past, She gave me a vision.
The vision's name was Ouma.
The troubled, reluctant young healer appeared in my mind - and refused to leave.
Ouma wasn’t me. I didn’t know who or what she was, what my visions of her meant, why they kept getting stronger, or what she wanted from me.
It was almost a year before I realized - she was a story.
Ouma refused to let me forget about her. Because she was on the cusp of an epic quest across an ancient, magical world - and even though she felt like a fraud, incapable of the task the Fates asked of her, she was the last of her murdered tribe, and the only one who could avenge her people.
But she wasn’t just a story, I realized.
She was a guide.
As Ouma crossed the Singing Sands with otherworldly allies and unlikely friends, I wrote Evening’s Kingdom in a fever dream of five o'clock-in-the-mornings before my day job.
While Ouma unlocked a whole new world- I wrote, and edited, and edited, and edited.
A little over a year later, I'd written not one, but two books: Evening's Kingdom.
I'll always be on my wellness journey. I'm grateful to say that (by living in a modified dieta, as it happens), both my autoimmune conditions are in full remission. I feel incredible. We have a wonderful life together, full of joy and adventure, balancing an intense international work schedule. While we are very happy for our friends with toddlers... we're wildly grateful to be able to focus on each other instead!
Life rarely gives us clear answers. Sometimes, she gives us a gift instead. We've had two more miscarriages. And, for my birthday in 2022, Andrew gave me the most wonderful kitten. Our life is full of love, travel, and profound friendships.
I believe Evening’s Kingdom is a gift, truly from beyond the horizons, and all rational understanding. I hope it brings you as much joy as it continues to bring me.
At the very least, I hope it will bring magic into your day. Please enjoy!
Listen in via:
EveningsKingdom.com,
Apple Music, and
Spotify.
But in 2019 when my beloved sister asked me to give a toast at her wedding, I didn’t think twice. As I stood up before the crowd, I was so nervous I thought I’d crack my champagne glass. And yet... as I looked at Julia’s beautiful face, telling stories about the grace and bravery with which she’s carried our family through loss, wishing her well on their adventure through life together...
the words carried me away.
When I finished, there was a ringing silence.
And then a standing ovation.
Best of all were Julia’s happy tears. Maybe a shy person could speak up after all!
So I began reading aloud to my husband in the evenings, practicing my diction. He’s incredibly supportive. And he knows how dedicated I am once I put my mind to something.
We came to love our nightly readings. And then it hit me. I bolted up as if I’d been zapped: Evening’s Kingdom could be podcast! And I could perform it!
And so, very slowly, in the small hours before and after my dayjob, I began serializing Books One and Two of Evening's Kingdom into cinematic audio installments.
Like Ouma, many of us don’t want the particular ticket we received from the Fates. Yet here we are, on the ride regardless.
Like Ouma, we can choose to become the hero of our own story. We can make friends along the strange paths life forces us to take. We can witness and dance with the magic, the Mystery, which connects all of us. Because life is magic.
Now, a little backtracking about the origin of Evening's Kingdom.
My husband is very supportive because we’ve been together for nearly fifteen years. Through many joyous times and countless adventures around the world... as well as miscarriages, mistakes, losses and seriously lean times, living for months on potatoes and onions; digging through our cushions for gas money. We know how strong we are because we have walked through fire.
After our first miscarriage in May 2018, I was diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases. We were told they were irreversible.
I was devastated. This was not the journey I wanted.
As I mourned our son, I realized how much fear and self-loathing I carried. I resented myself for losing our baby. I resented my body for ‘being sick’, especially when I've always been so diligent about wellness. I resented the strains I’d placed on us with the cost of my medical care. And my beloved husband was grieving and unhappy too. We were faltering, badly. And to top it off, I felt like a fraud at work.
Despite years of my best efforts, I've never been able to transition into the only thing I've ever truly wanted - a full-time career as a professional author, nested within a web of artists, allies and mentors, all championing forwards a more beautiful world.
To live in flow, slowly and simply, all over the world, creating and sharing book after book with all of you...
But I was as far from that as could be imagined. I felt like a complete failure - as a wife, an animal, an artist.
Rock-bottom.
Bewildered and broken and with no idea what to do, a dear friend took me out for coffee.
“Have you ever heard of Ayahuasca?” she said.
Ayahuasca. The sacred jungle brew that bestowed…vomiting and diarrhea and ten years of therapy crashed together in one single night. Yes, of course I’d heard of it. I’d read William Burroughs’ account when I was in college and was intrigued, but until that moment, I had absolutely zero yearning to speak with an ancient plant deity for guidance. Epecially not if it meant possibly crapping my pants in a room full of strangers. And have I mentioned that I was fiercely atheist at the time?
But that morning, something was different.
Sitting there with C in the sunshine with a warm cortado in my hands, at just the mention of Ayahuasca, I felt a vibrant, full-body tingling all over. I felt as if I were looking up at C from the bottom of a well, and she’d thrown me down a lifeline.
We don't get to choose our struggles, but we can choose to become the heroes of our own lives.
I knew what I needed to do. I needed to submit to the universe, and ask for help.
So I did.
Long story short. The moment I began my first journey sitting with Ayahuasca, my fear and awe were dissolved in a pure, otherworldly love. As so many others have experienced, the nights I spent in ceremony are some of the most treasured moments of my entire life. Intense, yes. I did not crap my pants, no. And in that first ceremony, not only did Mother Ayahuasca take away my fear and help me make peace with my past, She gave me a vision.
The vision's name was Ouma.
The troubled, reluctant young healer appeared in my mind - and refused to leave.
Ouma wasn’t me. I didn’t know who or what she was, what my visions of her meant, why they kept getting stronger, or what she wanted from me.
It was almost a year before I realized - she was a story.
Ouma refused to let me forget about her. Because she was on the cusp of an epic quest across an ancient, magical world - and even though she felt like a fraud, incapable of the task the Fates asked of her, she was the last of her murdered tribe, and the only one who could avenge her people.
But she wasn’t just a story, I realized.
She was a guide.
As Ouma crossed the Singing Sands with otherworldly allies and unlikely friends, I wrote Evening’s Kingdom in a fever dream of five o'clock-in-the-mornings before my day job.
While Ouma unlocked a whole new world- I wrote, and edited, and edited, and edited.
A little over a year later, I'd written not one, but two books: Evening's Kingdom.
I'll always be on my wellness journey. I'm grateful to say that (by living in a modified dieta, as it happens), both my autoimmune conditions are in full remission. I feel incredible. We have a wonderful life together, full of joy and adventure, balancing an intense international work schedule. While we are very happy for our friends with toddlers... we're wildly grateful to be able to focus on each other instead!
Life rarely gives us clear answers. Sometimes, she gives us a gift instead. We've had two more miscarriages. And, for my birthday in 2022, Andrew gave me the most wonderful kitten. Our life is full of love, travel, and profound friendships.
I believe Evening’s Kingdom is a gift, truly from beyond the horizons, and all rational understanding. I hope it brings you as much joy as it continues to bring me.
At the very least, I hope it will bring magic into your day. Please enjoy!
Listen in via:
EveningsKingdom.com,
Apple Music, and
Spotify.
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