From Hollywood to Successful Novelist: Kay A. Oliver's Inspiring Journey
This is the EWN podcast network.
Cathy:Welcome to Late Boomers, our podcast guide to creating your 3rd act with style, power, and impact. Hi. I'm Cathy Worthington.
Merry:And I'm Merry Elkins. Join us as we bring you conversations with successful entrepreneurs, entertainers, and people with vision who are making a difference in the world.
Cathy:Everyone has a story and we'll take you along for the ride on each interview, recounting the journey our guests have taken to get where they are, inspiring you to create your own path to success. Let's get started.
Cathy:Hello. I'm Cathy Worthington. Welcome to the Late Boomers podcast where our guest today is author k a Oliver who has a bold story about reinventing herself.
Merry:And I'm Merry Elkins. Our Boomer listeners will be inspired to hear about how this survivor of the Hollywood system became an award winning author. She has just been named author of the year in fiction, woohoo, from the International Association of Top Professionals. Welcome, Kaye.
Kay A. Oliver:Thank you. It's an honor to be here with you 2 ladies. Great to have you.
Cathy:Thank you. You have a unique story. Please tell us about your background and how that brought you to the successful place where you find yourself now in your writing.
Kay A. Oliver:Yes. Well, when I was younger, I loved writing, and I always have loved storytelling one way or another. So when I went for my degree, I got radio TV film degree, and then I got a master's in business, and I worked in Hollywood. My first job was at television. And is you know, if you've worked in Hollywood at all, you know television's a different animal than the movies.
Kay A. Oliver:Mhmm. And I got a job working for Lew Wasserman, the late great Lew Wasserman at Universal Studios, and I enjoyed that immensely. And of Universal? Yes. Owner and head of Universal.
Kay A. Oliver:One time agent for people like Jimmy Stewart and Ronald Reagan. So very politically involved. So, from there, I did some work for Disney and work at Warner Brothers and ended up, well, didn't end there, but went to, DreamWorks when Spielberg, Katzenberg, and Geffen started that and worked, 1 on 1 with Geff with, Katzenberg and, Spielberg periodically, and then I went on to do Power Rangers. What I found was yeah.
Merry:With with my son.
Cathy:Oh, my son loved the Power Rangers.
Kay A. Oliver:Oh my god. I learned a lot. I became an expert. I know. So but while I work at DreamWorks, I had a first and last, which, you know, for your listening audience is you if you write a screenplay, they get to look at it first.
Kay A. Oliver:And if they don't want it, then you can shop it out. And if someone makes you an offer, you get a they get a last chance to look at it as well. Well, that's a good
Merry:deal. Uh-huh.
Kay A. Oliver:But my screenplays were strong female independent women characters, and I was told those aren't marketable. Of course.
Cathy:And they were a little bit backwards.
Merry:Times have changed.
Kay A. Oliver:Times have changed a little bit.
Cathy:Enough. Not nearly in not nearly enough.
Kay A. Oliver:So, I had battled cancer at one point, breast cancer, and I was working for a studio back then who will rename Nameless. And I was let go of my job the week I reported my diagnosis. So I lost my job and my income and my insurance. Oh, god. So I I you're right.
Kay A. Oliver:I survived that with the help of a lot of
Cathy:suit that is, though.
Kay A. Oliver:Isn't it? Well, you can either fight your cancer or fight the lawsuit. I I
Cathy:I know, and you It's pretty hard to do that.
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah. Yeah. It's it you know, cancer is an amazing beast to survive. I remember praying, you know, like, lord, if it's my time, just take me because this is difficult, very difficult. And, anyway, I did survive that, obviously.
Kay A. Oliver:Here I am.
Cathy:And there you are.
Kay A. Oliver:And when I kept hearing the things about women not being marketable and strong independent characters, you know, that are female, you know, don't move the the dollar signs. I decided that, well, last time I was out of a job, it wasn't my choice, and I survived. This time is gonna be my choice, and I'm going to start writing. And I did.
Merry:You know, that leads that's basically the question I was gonna ask you about how and why you transitioned from working in Hollywood to becoming an award winning author. I mean, I could just say author, which is hard, but award winning author?
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah. I know. Yeah. I have 25 awards to my name. Some of them you see behind me.
Kay A. Oliver:But, yeah, creative control. My first book, strong female character, won 4 awards, so I knew I was on the right
Cathy:track. Mhmm. And you've got some on your website. It looked like there were, like, 9 novels on there now. How many novels have you written?
Cathy:10. 10. 10.
Kay A. Oliver:The 11th one is written and will come out next month, and I'm writing my 12th as we speak. I had to stop for this. So
Cathy:Oh, dear. We're interrupting the writing flow. Right. Oh, dear. So what was it like working for well known producers and directors like Lou Wasserman and Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg that you mentioned?
Cathy:Yes. So What capacity were you usually working for them in?
Kay A. Oliver:For Universal Studios, I oversaw the material control. That means anything the studio uses, anything as a set or TV show on the lot would use, you make sure that we have everything that they would need if they need to come and pick up lumber to build a set or anything like that. So a a material control analyst for the studio operations. And then I did a a little of the legal work of clearing movies before they came out. So I did those
Cathy:That's that's wearing different hats.
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah.
Cathy:And A total I think material control for a studio is nothing that, like, we, the public, would even think existed.
Merry:Right.
Cathy:I I I work in in Hollywood, and I would never even know that job was a job, you know, that it existed.
Kay A. Oliver:Something I started when I was working there is because I graduated from Cal State Fullerton, I graduated without ever having to put feet on a studio lot, and I thought that's odd. Right? That's odd. I I worked for you know, we had cable back then. Right?
Kay A. Oliver:You do the local cable shows. And so I set up a program where the comm department would bust in a bunch of students, put them in a room, and then have different executives throughout the studio come through because a studio is a little city. Universal Studios, Paramount, is a little city. You've got cleaners. You've got stores.
Kay A. Oliver:You've got nail salons. You've got food. You've got everything that a city needs. Yeah.
Cathy:Don't forget the coffee shop like in La La Land.
Kay A. Oliver:Everybody knows exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Because Warner Brothers has 2 or 3 Starbucks, I think, West. Yeah.
Kay A. Oliver:So, people don't realize that. And sometimes the best way to get a foot in the door is mail room, stationery ordering. You you know, everything needs to be there. Cleaners are there. I mean Mhmm.
Merry:You name it. So I would have to go to another type of job there? What was that? Did that progress to another type of job there?
Kay A. Oliver:Oh, no. No. No.
Cathy:You had a big that was a big job.
Merry:Oh, it's a huge job.
Kay A. Oliver:Oh, but you were a control analyst. Well, not really because I went from that to the legal.
Cathy:To the legal.
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah. So and then when I then then when I got hired at, DreamWorks, it was a consumer products arm. So I helped I helped make Shrek look like Shrek all around the world. There's no place you can go on vacation and get away from it. I learned that very quickly.
Merry:It's true. Well, especially with the well, like, with Disney, everything's out there everywhere. What what was it was it product placement or working with the products in a different way?
Kay A. Oliver:Creating the products for retail stores around the world. Yeah. Oh. So you wanted to have a Shrek dollar, Shrek calendar, Shrek figurine. Yes.
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah.
Cathy:Mhmm.
Kay A. Oliver:So Shrek changed between movies 23. He got a little taller, a little healthier. So there's something you never
Cathy:What? That's so funny.
Kay A. Oliver:Or you sit around the room discussing what note, musical note a Shrek fart should be. Conversations you never think you'd ever have.
Cathy:That's really great.
Merry:I was about to ask you if you had any interesting stories. That's certainly one of
Cathy:them anymore.
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah. I have a few. Okay. And you know what I loved about working at Universal and working with Wasserman and well, there's a couple of things. One thing is he was an inventor of sorts.
Kay A. Oliver:Right? He helped to invent the points behind, for actors' agreements where you get paid a certain amount upfront, then you get paid all the points behind how much money the movie brings in. He was an architect in that. And then Jeffrey Katzenberg is the same kind of way. He puts, money into innovation and helps make animation quicker and then also more lifelike.
Kay A. Oliver:So that's you know, they contribute in ways we never think, you know, studio heads might do. So that's
Cathy:always great. Coming down from the top and influencing the whole company like that. That's great.
Kay A. Oliver:The whole world. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And the thing about DreamWorks is you could walk through the commissary, and every table might have a completely different language because they would get their talent from around the world.
Kay A. Oliver:Mhmm. So that was that was awesome.
Cathy:But Well, anybody like me who sits through all the credits at the end of an animated film, I just am blown away by the number of companies participating and the number of countries always.
Merry:And the number of people.
Kay A. Oliver:Yep. Yep.
Cathy:Sheer number is thousands of people, but you just to I love watching the credits roll because you just can't believe that anybody could coordinate all those people.
Merry:They ought to be even slower down the screen.
Kay A. Oliver:You also yeah. They they should, but you also know that's not everybody. Right? Because that's not including parking people or whatever. Right?
Kay A. Oliver:So Right. Right. That that contributed one way or another.
Merry:Yeah. So Well,
Kay A. Oliver:talk That's
Merry:I I really would love to hear about your writing and about the process you go through, how you started. Do you have a, out do you work certain hours of the day? Are you disciplined every day? I mean, talk talk a little bit about your writing process.
Cathy:Mhmm.
Kay A. Oliver:I don't know if it's discipline or passion, but, my first book came from a lifelong well, the lifelong for many years, I've had this question. Why do we bring up every mummy we find in Sudan or Egypt? And are we disturbing their peace? Because here, you're not allowed in many graveyards. You're not allowed to dig up people.
Kay A. Oliver:You just can't go dig them up. And, you know, you have to it's sacred. And so I thought, well, maybe I should look into that, venture into it, and I started writing a novel that it's called disturbed tombs. That's the first book. And, I talk about you know, I'd come up with my own answer to that question.
Kay A. Oliver:So that's what got me started.
Merry:Do all your books answer questions?
Kay A. Oliver:No. Unless you wanna know who killed somebody, then, yeah, cozy mystery questions. Yeah. Then but that is but it it they do, in my books, have a lot of humanity. They have a lot of things that you experience in life, you know, even a husband and wife team, his flaws, her flaws, you know, how they support each other, you know, that kind of thing.
Kay A. Oliver:So and then one only one of my books is inspired by a true story, and that's road to Elysium. And that one's won 10 awards on its own. So
Cathy:And do you write do you write every day a certain number of hours? How do you do that?
Kay A. Oliver:I I do not. I I I I write and get what part of the story so I'm not a plotter. I know the beginning of my story, and I know how I want it to end. And I can see it in my head like a movie for lack of a better
Merry:You're a pantser.
Kay A. Oliver:Yes. I'm a pantser. I'm by the seat of the keys.
Merry:And Sure. Tell our audience what that is.
Kay A. Oliver:That is someone who just wings it for lack of a better way to say it. You just write as you think, and it comes into your head. Though I have the ideas, but, you know, it it I just continue to write. I am always have been someone who can write fast. Uh-huh.
Kay A. Oliver:You know, if you want me to write a memo, I'll get it to you in 20 minutes in perfect condition. You know? Like, boom. Here's a 3 page memo. So when I sit down to write, like, today, I've written a chapter in, probably an hour, hour and a half, maybe.
Merry:Oh my goodness. How many pages?
Kay A. Oliver:I I write 10 pages for a chapter now.
Merry:Mhmm.
Kay A. Oliver:So, I'm on chapter just gonna start chapter 4 after we hang up here. But I can I can sit and write all day, and I have a dog that lets me know that I've been sitting too long? So yeah. So when I get this I have to get it out of my head. I don't know if you know how that feels, but it's in here.
Kay A. Oliver:It's like, if I miss a day and I didn't sit down and write what I was thinking about, I go, I have to sit down and get that out of my head so that I can get the next part. So, you know, people have asked me to help them write books. I go, I can't. I've got 3 books in my head, and I need to get them out. So
Cathy:Wow. They just come to you like that. It's
Kay A. Oliver:They do.
Cathy:That's very magical.
Kay A. Oliver:It is.
Cathy:Pulling pulling magic from the universe, right, and just putting it
Kay A. Oliver:I think so. I think I'm a conduit for somebody up there. I don't you know, I just sometimes I amaze myself when I go back and read something and go, I wrote that. So, you know
Merry:Absolutely.
Kay A. Oliver:Absolutely. Yes. You understand. So but I also offer writing tips for new starters.
Merry:Oh. So on my website a few.
Cathy:Well, we've got that for we're gonna ask you that later. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Go ahead.
Cathy:Go ahead. Maybe you can do it now too.
Kay A. Oliver:Alright. Okay. I will go ahead and do that. Like you said, if if you're a brand new writer, the best thing you can do is set up a space that's yours for writing. I have a desk that face the window so I can see outside, and I have a nice little plant because that makes me feel good.
Kay A. Oliver:And I'm comfortable. I bought the desk just for this. I bought the chair just for this. So I have a place. You should write, you know, if you've never written before, 20 minutes a day.
Kay A. Oliver:If you can, start that way. If you do want a plot, if you're that kind of person, and funny that I'm not because I'm a Virgo Virgo, I I plan everything. You know, just just start writing. What you need to remember is novels award winning novels are not made in the draft, second draft, or third draft. They are made in the edit stage.
Kay A. Oliver:So just write. Just write and get your thoughts on the paper. Do not try to perfect it when you first start writing.
Merry:It's hard to do.
Kay A. Oliver:Never end at the end of a chapter for the day, and maybe not even at the end of a sentence because
Merry:That's what Hemingway did. Hemingway would would basically write the first what did he do? He wrote the first line of the next chapter and then put put the book down till the next day.
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah. You can do that or you can stop anywhere, but don't don't stop at the end of the chapter, you know, because you you you get them off, a little off.
Cathy:But if you have something the next day, you might not have any new information.
Kay A. Oliver:Or new thoughts. But if you have a thought point already because you've written half the sentence and you left it, then you read that sentence and go, oh, yeah. That's where I was, and you pick up.
Cathy:Oh, I love that.
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah.
Cathy:And on a slightly different subject, are you on a path to having any of your novels being turned into films?
Kay A. Oliver:People are asking for Road to Elysium. So I'm like, oh, this is this is weird. Yeah. So, I have shared a couple of, my screenplay with a few. Netflix has it.
Kay A. Oliver:There's another streaming service that has it, and the producer friend that has it.
Cathy:So you turned it into a screenplay already?
Kay A. Oliver:I have.
Cathy:Oh, good. Great. You. Yes. Because you you have a lot of experience with that.
Kay A. Oliver:You're right. I I do. So, I've went ahead and wrote that just in case, and, we're shopping it around a little bit. So we'll see.
Merry:Oh, that's exciting. Exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any more tips for writers that you can give us or give me?
Merry:And also, what about somebody, because we do have a boomer audience, what about someone who's of a certain age? And, they just decide, I've always wanted to write like you or you always have written. How did they start?
Kay A. Oliver:I was over 60 when I started writing. I started writing in 2020. 2020. So
Cathy:So you've written 10 books in 4 years?
Kay A. Oliver:Yes, ma'am.
Cathy:And won 25 awards. 11. Oh my gosh. That's about a high achiever. That's brutal.
Kay A. Oliver:Like like I said, I write fast, and I
Merry:haven't read a lot
Cathy:of other
Merry:I I think I've written one book in in 8 years.
Cathy:Love it.
Kay A. Oliver:That is yours is yours fiction or
Merry:It's fiction.
Kay A. Oliver:It's fiction. Okay. So here's a little trick I do. I have lots of great girlfriends and guy friends. And all my characters, by the way, the main characters of every one of my novel starts with the letter k.
Kay A. Oliver:Oh, wait. My first name is k.
Cathy:Oh, I
Kay A. Oliver:wonder why. So but, my Don't use mine.
Merry:Mine starts with a k too.
Kay A. Oliver:Oh, it does? Okay. Oh, well
Cathy:She's already used 11 of them at least.
Kay A. Oliver:Yes. So she
Cathy:may have hit yours.
Merry:She might have.
Kay A. Oliver:I asked my friends to give me a last name that they wish they have at some point. So Doris in my first book, her character name is Doris Wolf. My friend Doris liked the name Wolf. And so I have this whole character built already because I know Doris. I know what she likes.
Kay A. Oliver:I know what she doesn't like. I know her highly intelligent. This is perfect for that character. And I don't have to sit there and make up all the stuff about a character because I've got one. Oh.
Kay A. Oliver:I've got her already.
Merry:From from life.
Kay A. Oliver:It is from I use a lot of stuff from life. I do. Yeah.
Merry:And and do you also like being in your books?
Kay A. Oliver:Yes. They do. And if it's a seed I'm a little nervous about writing, I'll call them and go, I wanna write this seed. They're like, no one knows who we are. I'm like, don't be too sure.
Cathy:What about for people that might not be that brilliant at creating that? What how can they start? How can they get started? What's a tip for people that
Kay A. Oliver:wanna start late in life? Oh, yeah. Just just I'm sure you know how many people you talk to that say I have a book inside me? Well, could you sat down to start writing it? That's the hardest part, I believe.
Merry:It is. Because Sitting down and doing it.
Kay A. Oliver:Sitting down and doing it and not doubting yourself. You have to believe in yourself and trust in yourself. And trust trust
Merry:that it trust that it will come from the universe.
Cathy:And trust trust what's coming out on the page is gonna work at some point. Just trust it and keep going. Right?
Kay A. Oliver:And and write it for yourself because I'm gonna tell you that when you go to publish it, someone's gonna come back and tell you that resonated with me because we are all human. You might think, well, nobody was gonna want to read this. You're wrong. Yeah. You're wrong.
Kay A. Oliver:Because I I mean, I thought that too. You know? When I first read my first book, people are gonna think I'm crazy. This you know, we're talking about, you know, escalating people out of the ground and communicating with them. And
Cathy:They they embraced you instead of instead of disbelieving you. It's really great. How do you draw on your own experiences to give your character's life? Do you do you actually, like, say, have a character that has breast cancer? Do you have a cancer that a character that works at Hollywood studio?
Cathy:Or do you draw from that?
Kay A. Oliver:I I've actually draw from my interest. If I wasn't working in Hollywood, I bet would have been an archaeologist. Oh,
Cathy:okay.
Kay A. Oliver:Yes. So my first character is an archaeologist. I love sciences, so I have an anthropologist in one. You know? So I tend to give them the ologies of a profession.
Kay A. Oliver:And then I love research, so I do a lot of research. So I got a compliment that my first book, because I traveled to Sudan and everything, that, oh my gosh. You know, have you been there in that country? Because you're so accurate. And I'm like, no.
Kay A. Oliver:It was research and Google Maps and Google pictures and yeah. So, you know, you
Merry:can get caught up in research a lot because I love research too, and I sometimes would rather do research than write.
Cathy:Yeah. But you know how they say write what you know, but you're saying Yes. You don't have to if you're thorough enough.
Kay A. Oliver:If you're thorough enough, you don't have to, but
Cathy:you're guy the other day, and he said a friend of his wrote a book about baseball that took place in Brazil. He'd never been to Brazil. He'd never played baseball, and he knew nothing about baseball. And he said everything literally in the book was wrong.
Kay A. Oliver:Oh. A
Cathy:baseball a baseball guy read it and said nothing would work for baseball that you're mentioning. Take the baseball out, but it was about that. And then he said nothing from Brazil rings true when he gave it to a Brazilian. So he had to change the whole thing to Florida or some such thing.
Kay A. Oliver:Okay. Yeah.
Cathy:Okay. It's so crazy, but, obviously, you can do research that can take your reader right where you want them to be.
Kay A. Oliver:Right. But then you you know, because we all live life, I can I, you know, write about yes? I haven't written about breast cancer or something like that, but I'd still write about experiences that I have. Or Spielberg taught me that, you know, you take a scream to a laugh or a laugh to a scream without foreshadowing, and I love to do that. So in one of my books, there's a situation where it's drama, drama, drama, and then, oh my gosh.
Kay A. Oliver:It's happening again. And then all of a sudden, this oh, no. That sounds what's happening. And people go, wait. What did I just read?
Kay A. Oliver:And it becomes comical. So, you know, that's how life is. Right? You walk into a room, you might trip. You know?
Kay A. Oliver:You don't see that in books often. I put that in my books. Uh-huh. I put yeah. I put real life stuff in there.
Kay A. Oliver:You know? Wives tickling their husbands, and then they're they're in the middle of a murder investigation. His wife can't, you know, I just I just had to do do that do that, honey. You were right in front of me. You know, that kind of stuff that we actually do in life.
Merry:Yeah. What don't you always pull from your own life? Any writer does
Kay A. Oliver:because that's
Merry:really all they know. When they say write what you know, it isn't always the subject. It often is just write your experiences into that character.
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah. That's where you put it. Yeah. Yeah.
Merry:Well, tell tell us more about some of the books you've written. And and and can you name them again for our audience? And also, a lot of your books we understand talk about female resilience. Is that in all of them? Absolutely.
Merry:Oh.
Kay A. Oliver:Yes. That is in all of them. They're all strong, independent women with respectful, you know, high end jobs, which, you know, technological or scientific or something like that kind of profession. And if they have a romantic other, a boyfriend, or falling in love with someone or a husband, they, they have a mutual respect for each other. That to me is very important where, you know, they share their lives together, walk together, and both respect each other's careers.
Kay A. Oliver:So that is always something. Are they flawed? Sure. We're all flawed. Are they playful?
Kay A. Oliver:They're all playful because I'm playful. I'm mischievous. Let me correct that. But, so I love it. Give me a give me a chance to do play a fun practical joke, and I'll do it.
Kay A. Oliver:And so my first set of books are the disturbed tubes, the doctor Cali worthy, series, and I'm writing book number 4 as we speak. But that book is, you know, archaeological. That's the one where I said to answer the question, what what happens when we dig up all these mummies? We find 28, we dig up 28. I know it's under the guise of science, but isn't it?
Kay A. Oliver:So, that series has a little bit of paranormal in it. And then I have the sisters in cold blood series, the Shaw investigation series. That one starts off with a woman inheriting a house, having to do research how she ended up here inheriting it because she didn't think she was related and finds out she was. But she finds a letter dated 19 09 from a serial killer confessing his killings, and nobody's ever seen him on the radar. So she goes to find those bodies to to close those cases even though it was 19 0 9, and the police didn't wanna do anything about it because everybody should be dead at this point regardless.
Kay A. Oliver:So that starts off that, and her and her husband become an investigative team. And I have £5 of Pressure is the second book where the, skeleton is found in a house they're tearing down, and they wanna go back. That would be a cold case as well. And then the new one coming out, before he kills, is the 3rd book that's coming out this month. Our next month is still November.
Kay A. Oliver:So I've got those. Go ahead.
Merry:Do you have a favorite book, or is that, like, you know, singling out your your of one child when you're a mother? No. Or or
Kay A. Oliver:in Hollywood, the one project you're working on is always your favorite book. Right? Whatever movie you're shooting at right now is your favorite movie. Yeah. So it might be Road to Elysium because it has received so much acclaim.
Kay A. Oliver:It seems to be the one that everybody recognizes me first and then discovers my other ones. I have a couple of I took a little shot into romance, but then I found out I was doing hardboiled cozy mysteries anyway because I just don't have 2 people staring at each other and starry eyed, and I this is not me. There has to be action adventure. Love's calculated risk is a female accountant who gets a new client, and he's charged with crimes that their firm should have, you know, caught. And so she goes out to help, you know, show his innocence.
Kay A. Oliver:And in the sense, they get caught up in crime and get shot at, and they have to hide out and yada dada. And at the end, you know?
Cathy:I have another question about the you mentioned series. So couple of your series, it sounds like you write some of them out of order. Like, you switch series, or did you write the whole series?
Kay A. Oliver:No. I write them out of order. Yes.
Cathy:You write them
Kay A. Oliver:out of order.
Cathy:That's what I thought you were saying, and I thought that's phenomenal. It is phenomenal. In your head and go back to the other series.
Kay A. Oliver:Well, you know what's funny is
Cathy:should do an exam of your brain. You're amazing. Yeah.
Kay A. Oliver:That helps me break the series apart. So if I wrote 3 books together, I kinda start losing track of what what book did that happen in. And
Cathy:if I write
Kay A. Oliver:a book and then jump to the other series and write a book, then I go back to this series, I know clearly where I'm at for me.
Cathy:Oh, it sounds like it'd be the opposite for me.
Kay A. Oliver:Yeah. No.
Cathy:It's scary. Well, you have you have demonstrated It keeps You've demonstrated you've demonstrated so much resilience as a woman and survivor. So what would you like to leave our listeners with today as a takeaway? Just elaborate on some of your give us some inspiration.
Kay A. Oliver:Absolutely. Trust yourself. If you can think about doing it, do it. And if people around you are not supportive, find people who are. You choose your friends.
Kay A. Oliver:I have great friends. I know my first little novellas were not all that great, but they told me they were awesome. And they encouraged me to keep writing, and that's important. And get into communities of whatever it is you wanna do. If you wanna, you know, become a florist, join communities that, you know, there's so much online.
Kay A. Oliver:You don't even have to go to meetings. You know, you can do Zoom calls and everything online and and get people around you who are gonna support you because they all started where you're starting. And there's nothing you can't do. If you wanna do something, do it. There's a way to get it done.
Kay A. Oliver:Be creative. All problems are solved with creativity. Really, they are, even in life. So and then my my words are do everything you do with the intent of love, including yourself. So when you breathe in and out, you're refilling your lungs with lungs with the nutrients that you need to live, and so you're taking care of yourself.
Kay A. Oliver:So do everything you do with the intent of love. Take care of yourself. Do what you need to do for you.
Cathy:Oh, that's powerful. Glad we met you.
Merry:Yeah. Thank you. That that is very powerful. Thank you.
Cathy:And I love how you express it all at one you have such a message for all of us. It's really great.
Merry:In every walk of life. Every walk of life. Absolutely. Okay.
Kay A. Oliver:Matter if you have disabilities or not, find a way to do it. Yeah. And I
Merry:don't know how to make it.
Kay A. Oliver:If it's a passion, you know that old, if it's a passion, it's not working. You know, you're not working. You're not doing a 9 to 5. It's because it's your passion. It's just what you wanna do.
Kay A. Oliver:There's something that has been given to you, every individual, I believe this, that you're passionate about. Do it. Mhmm. Yeah.
Merry:Every person has a voice.
Cathy:Do it.
Kay A. Oliver:Yes. Just do it.
Merry:Just do it.
Kay A. Oliver:Now we sound like Nike. Yeah. Yeah. We do.
Merry:I yeah.
Cathy:I I
Merry:would I didn't wanna say anything. But it but it's it's true. Kayce, thank you so much. Our guest today on Late Boomers has been Kaye Oliver, award winning author of 11 novels. Visit her website at kayoliver.com and read her books.
Merry:I'm gonna read some more. Thank you so much, Kaye.
Kay A. Oliver:Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure for both of you.
Cathy:And we wanna thank our listeners for subscribing to our podcast and checking us out on YouTube and recommending us to your friends. We appreciate you. We'd love to have you give us a 5 star review, and we wanna hear about your experiences with late boomers and what gets you inspired like today's conversation. We are on Instagram at I am Cathy Worthington and at I am Mary Elkins and at lateboomers. Thank you for listening, and be sure to listen next week to our late boomers podcast when we feature Eric g, who will teach us about personality types coaching.
Cathy:I wonder if we get to hear what our types are. I hope.
Merry:I hope so.
Cathy:Thanks again, Kaye.
Kay A. Oliver:Thank you. A pleasure.
Cathy:What a pleasure to meet you.
Kay A. Oliver:Pleasure to meet you guys too. This has been fun.
Cathy:Thank you for joining us on Late Boomers. The podcast that is your guide to creating a 3rd act with style, power, and impact. Please visit our website and get in touch with us at lateboomers.biz. If you would like to listen to or download other episodes of Late Boomers, go to ewnpodcastnetwork.com.
Merry:This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and most other major podcast sites. We hope you make use of the wisdom you've gained here and that you enjoy a successful third act with your own style, power, and impact.
