Speaker 1: I brought up stuff that I've never brought up before,
Speaker 1: not even to Amber. I wrote stuff in this book
Speaker 1: that Amber didn't know, that no one on the planet
Speaker 1: in fact knew. And it wasn't until I finished the
Speaker 1: manuscript itself that I needed to call Amber and tell her, Hey,
Speaker 1: there's some stuff in this book that you don't know about. Okay,
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. This is a special episode, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to read your questions about Like a River tomorrow.
Speaker 1: As this releases every Monday morning, So as this releases
Speaker 1: tomorrow is August first, if you're listening to it in
Speaker 1: real time or on the actual day it releases, which
Speaker 1: most people probably won't. But for the people that are,
Speaker 1: my book, Like a River comes out tomorrow. So motivated
Speaker 1: by that, so excited, I mean, probably little bit nervous
Speaker 1: about it too, because it's just I looked back on
Speaker 1: the process of this, and January of twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: is when I finished the proposal to start pitching to publishers.
Speaker 1: So before that, you know, is when I was putting
Speaker 1: my thoughts together. So it's been quite a process. And
Speaker 1: I remember putting together that proposal and when we finally
Speaker 1: ended up getting the publishing deal, the green light to
Speaker 1: write the book. They were talking about fall of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, and I remember thinking, that's decades away. It
Speaker 1: feels so long from now and now here. We are
Speaker 1: literally one day tomorrow it releases. And so if you
Speaker 1: haven't gotten like a River yet, first of all, let
Speaker 1: me just give you my little pitch. This is my
Speaker 1: life story and well at least the last five years,
Speaker 1: which have been the most impactful of my entire life,
Speaker 1: and we're going to cover in this book with me,
Speaker 1: I'm going to cover the the journey through grief and
Speaker 1: loss of my little boy, three year old boy River
Speaker 1: as we lost him, my wife and I lost him,
Speaker 1: And the book is going to open with that. In fact,
Speaker 1: I got one right here. I got it right here.
Speaker 1: The book opens with that. Chapter one. We're going straight
Speaker 1: into it. So let me start reading the very beginning.
Speaker 1: It says, soak in this moment because it won't last forever.
Speaker 1: It was the last thought I remember having before everything changed.
Speaker 1: So right at the beginning of this book, we're getting
Speaker 1: into the meat of what happened, the catalyst that then
Speaker 1: turned into many other things that happened in my life
Speaker 1: that are worth telling they that's an understatement. It's so
Speaker 1: important for me to tell this story that I'm literally
Speaker 1: giving up the biggest passion hobby career of my life,
Speaker 1: and that's touring as a musician. I'm giving all of
Speaker 1: that up because I believe that this message in this
Speaker 1: book and me supporting the book and trying to get
Speaker 1: it into as many hands as possible is more important
Speaker 1: than all the fame and all the glory, and all
Speaker 1: the stages and all the money and all the festivals
Speaker 1: and all the shows forever that I could breathe there
Speaker 1: on this earth. I think I'm pretty sure, especially if
Speaker 1: you know me, that's a statement. I'm making a statement
Speaker 1: for my life about this. Okay, what I want to
Speaker 1: do today because it comes up tomorrow. So if you,
Speaker 1: if you haven't gotten one, please help me and get
Speaker 1: this book. And the reason I say help me is
Speaker 1: because in these next seven days eight days, it's very
Speaker 1: important for all those best seller lists. Why is that important? Well,
Speaker 1: that's important because that kicks you up on the algorithm
Speaker 1: that gets you onto other lists. And there's certain people,
Speaker 1: certain kinds of people that don't know me, that only
Speaker 1: buy books on those lists. So why is that important
Speaker 1: because that gets it, that spreads this word, this message
Speaker 1: in this book further than my own reach, further than
Speaker 1: people that would listen to this podcast, further than country
Speaker 1: music or smiths or fans of me in general. So
Speaker 1: that's why it's important to kick up the sales enough
Speaker 1: to get on some kind of bestseller list. So that's
Speaker 1: my immediate short term goal right now. I asked Instagram
Speaker 1: if you guys had any questions about this book, and
Speaker 1: then promise that I would read them on the podcast.
Speaker 1: And so typically on this podcast, I answer your questions
Speaker 1: when you email me Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. Today,
Speaker 1: I'm going to break the form just a little bit,
Speaker 1: just shy of two hundred episodes, and I'm gonna answer
Speaker 1: questions specifically about like a river and there's a bunch
Speaker 1: and so I'm just gonna kind of scroll through. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna scan them a little bit and see if it's
Speaker 1: something that I've already repeated or not, and we'll just
Speaker 1: see what happens here. First question says, is the book
Speaker 1: too soon to share with a friend who just lost
Speaker 1: her twenty year old son last month. No, I would
Speaker 1: say no. I would say that it's it would be
Speaker 1: too soon for a lot of things in the grief process,
Speaker 1: like telling her it's time to get us, it's time
Speaker 1: to go, it's time to go back to work, it's
Speaker 1: time to be engaged, it's time to put on your
Speaker 1: makeup and pick up your bootstraps and go. It's too
Speaker 1: soon for that. But as you bring her lasagna one
Speaker 1: night and you're speaking with her, it might not be
Speaker 1: something that you say, like, hey, you need to read
Speaker 1: this book. But you might just bring a copy of
Speaker 1: Like a River and put it on her table and say,
Speaker 1: this is a guy that lost his son. He explains
Speaker 1: the whole process, his whole entire grieving process, page by page.
Speaker 1: If you want to see what happened, what didn't work
Speaker 1: for him, and then what eventually did. If you want
Speaker 1: to read that, here here, just drop it on the
Speaker 1: table right here. I don't think it's too soon for that.
Speaker 1: Somebody says, here, I'm seeing you in Albuquerque in a
Speaker 1: few weeks. Will the book be available there? I'm so excited. Yes.
Speaker 1: We don't know exactly how the book's going to be available.
Speaker 1: We're going to probably work with local vendors, so local
Speaker 1: bookstores that carry it will probably invite them to come
Speaker 1: to our shows and bring some with them that will
Speaker 1: prevent us. Well, first of all, there's all kinds of
Speaker 1: reasons why ye Apparel can't physically carry it unless we
Speaker 1: buy them and resell them. So the easier process is
Speaker 1: a local bookstore comes in to our shows, which is
Speaker 1: very possible, and we'll make sure that it's in Albuquerque.
Speaker 1: Here's what it says, will you be selling a limited
Speaker 1: stock of signed copies I'm gonna sign. I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna always sign books, so if you need, if you
Speaker 1: need a sign book, I'm not hard to find. I
Speaker 1: will always sign books. And the next one says, how
Speaker 1: do I get a signed copy? There's gonna be lots
Speaker 1: of ways. I'll continue to tell you different ways, but
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna slow that down. There's not like a
Speaker 1: limited number that I'm gonna sign. This question says, do
Speaker 1: you have this book on tape? I'm just a fireman.
Speaker 1: I'm not very good at reading. You know it's interesting, Yes,
Speaker 1: this book is going to be on audible. But and
Speaker 1: I know he's joking, and this is actually my friend Jared.
Speaker 1: I know Jared, but it is interesting. Let me just
Speaker 1: throw this out there that I realize there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that think I don't read books. It's not
Speaker 1: my thing. I don't read books, and so the audiobook
Speaker 1: is for you. Great, But I would challenge you to
Speaker 1: give this book a shot because I'm not a really
Speaker 1: smart guy, and I think, I hope, I pray, and
Speaker 1: I believe that even the person that says they can't
Speaker 1: read very well, or they don't read and they don't
Speaker 1: like reading, or they get too distracted with reading, I
Speaker 1: would be willing to bet that this book is still
Speaker 1: okay for you because I think I speak in a
Speaker 1: language that you could understand. I'm not super intellectual, right,
Speaker 1: give it a try, Give a try, please. This person says,
Speaker 1: do you have Bible verses in it? Yes? I do.
Speaker 1: Every chapter is going to start with a Bible verse.
Speaker 1: Plus there is some other things I unpack in there.
Speaker 1: Will it be on Amazon? Yes it will. That's an
Speaker 1: easy way to get it. Amazon's super easy. This person says,
Speaker 1: what's the best part of the book? I could tell you,
Speaker 1: but then that would be giving it away, wouldn't it.
Speaker 1: I will say this for those of you that know
Speaker 1: me and know my story, I'm not necessarily saying this
Speaker 1: is the best part. But for those of you that
Speaker 1: know me, know that River, my son, he's the one
Speaker 1: that gets on the title of this book. He's the
Speaker 1: one that gets you know, the first chapter and the
Speaker 1: catalyst and so much that happens after it. But truly,
Speaker 1: the star of the book itself is Maverick. I'll give
Speaker 1: you that much. Next person says, I'm a school librarian.
Speaker 1: Will you come speak to our FCA club in San Antonio? Certainly,
Speaker 1: certainly you could. You could find me on my website
Speaker 1: grangersmith dot com. There is a contact page and there
Speaker 1: is a speaking request form. Typically, I do not charge
Speaker 1: anything for speaking at something like that or church. Next
Speaker 1: question here says what has the Lord taught you while
Speaker 1: writing this book? Oh, man, I would say patience because
Speaker 1: it's been a long time. It's been a long slow ride.
Speaker 1: Making an album is a lot quicker than this. This
Speaker 1: question says, I'm excited to read it. My question is
Speaker 1: for your wife, what were your thoughts on this book? Well,
Speaker 1: Amber's not sitting here with me, but Amber has been
Speaker 1: so supportive, so supportive, and it's been very interesting because
Speaker 1: as I write some of the stories in the book,
Speaker 1: and as you might have noticed, those of you that
Speaker 1: are watching this podcast right now maybe on YouTube, you
Speaker 1: might notice that I'm actually sitting in the place where
Speaker 1: Amber does arise. I wanted to change up this episode
Speaker 1: since I'm not answering typical questions. I'm sitting in her spot.
Speaker 1: But she's been so encouraging to me, and there was
Speaker 1: interesting times when I was writing a part of the
Speaker 1: story and I would say a fact about what was happening.
Speaker 1: For instance, there was one time when I was talking
Speaker 1: to Amber in the book and I said, we were
Speaker 1: sitting on the edge of the bed having this discussion, right,
Speaker 1: And later she comes to me and she goes, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we weren't sitting on the edge of the bed.
Speaker 1: We were sitting on the stairs at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the stairs. I trust her memory over mine, and I
Speaker 1: was like, you're right, You're totally right. The meat of
Speaker 1: the conversation in my mind was so important that it
Speaker 1: took over the facts of my surroundings and where I
Speaker 1: actually was very interesting that happened in different places of
Speaker 1: the book as I had as I sent it to
Speaker 1: all the people that were involved, and they came back
Speaker 1: with me and were like, yeah, try this try this.
Speaker 1: Here's the question says, will the book be about the
Speaker 1: timelines of grief that you experienced? Yes, somewhat, somewhat yes.
Speaker 1: What was the most difficult sentence you wrote in the
Speaker 1: book and why? H I don't really know. I can't
Speaker 1: really tell you the most difficult sentence, but I tell
Speaker 1: you the most difficult chapter was chapter seven. It's called
Speaker 1: the Dark Night of the Soul, and it was difficult
Speaker 1: to write, but that's an understatement compared to how difficult
Speaker 1: it was to live. And the Dark Night of the
Speaker 1: Soul comes six chapters after we lost riv so that
Speaker 1: story was at the very beginning. So don't think it's that.
Speaker 1: What I've been saying is as people as I've given
Speaker 1: this book out and people have read through, and sometimes
Speaker 1: they'll text me and there'll be a certain amount of
Speaker 1: pages in and they'll say, you, granger, I read I'm
Speaker 1: at I'm trying to find where it is. I'm at
Speaker 1: page you know, ninety five or whatever. Yeah, we're in
Speaker 1: ninety five, ninety six hundred, and I realized that they're
Speaker 1: in the Dark Night of the Soul chapter and they're like, man,
Speaker 1: I just can't believe this. I can't I can't believe
Speaker 1: this chapter, et cetera, et cetera. In my usually I
Speaker 1: don't reply because what I'm really is read chapter eight.
Speaker 1: You get the chapter seven. You might get stuck, and
Speaker 1: you might you might get a really weird feeling, a
Speaker 1: really bad feeling. You might understand a little bit of
Speaker 1: how it felt to write it and experience it. But
Speaker 1: the best thing I could say is get the chapter eight.
Speaker 1: Read chapter eight, then we'll talk. Then we could talk.
Speaker 1: It almost needs to come with a warning label. I'll
Speaker 1: give you this book, or you could buy this book,
Speaker 1: but don't message me at chapter seven, message me after
Speaker 1: chapter eight. This question says, what is your greatest hope
Speaker 1: that comes from this book? My greatest hope is that
Speaker 1: even one person, and that's the reason I want to
Speaker 1: get it into so many hands is to help the
Speaker 1: odds of this but that even one person could find
Speaker 1: the same hope and peace and rest at the source
Speaker 1: of the river during their darkest time, during their maybe
Speaker 1: their darkest night of the soul, like I did, and
Speaker 1: this book the Lord used as a catalyst for that.
Speaker 1: That's that's my greatest hope. Question says is it tough
Speaker 1: for you or Amber to read through the book. Well,
Speaker 1: I read the audiobook. Obviously, I've read it many times
Speaker 1: after I've written it for the editing process, but I
Speaker 1: read the final copy for the first time while I
Speaker 1: was reading the audio recording the audiobook, and that was
Speaker 1: the really first time, the first time that I heard
Speaker 1: all of my changes in my little edits together, flowing together,
Speaker 1: not just in clumps and sections. And I cried probably
Speaker 1: every chapter, not always sad tears. Put it that way.
Speaker 1: This question says, would you rate how hard it was
Speaker 1: to write? Surprisingly, not hard. It was not hard. I
Speaker 1: mean we're not talking emotionally, we're talking just physically. Practically.
Speaker 1: It was not hard to write because it was all
Speaker 1: right there in my head. I was ready to come out.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of scanning around here on these questions. When
Speaker 1: did you decide you were open, You're going to open
Speaker 1: up and write this book? Probably about September twenty twenty one. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two was the proposal. January twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: was when we was that right, No, I'm good, my
Speaker 1: ears mixed up twenty twenty. September twenty twenty was the
Speaker 1: first was like, yeah, I got to write a book,
Speaker 1: something like that. I don't know how many of y'all
Speaker 1: know that COVID kind of messed up all of our
Speaker 1: memories on months and years. There's a lot of questions
Speaker 1: like that, what made you want to write this book?
Speaker 1: You know what? I just woke up one day. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I had thought about it a lot, and I woke
Speaker 1: up one day and just thought, I got to do it.
Speaker 1: I need to do it. I need to start the process.
Speaker 1: So I called my brother Tyler, who's my manager, and
Speaker 1: he said, well, I think my advice to you is
Speaker 1: to call two people that you know that have written books.
Speaker 1: And one was Ryan Mickler, who has the Order of
Speaker 1: the Order of the Man podcast. Message him because he's
Speaker 1: just releasing a book. And then message ed my Latt,
Speaker 1: who's written hundreds of books. So I did that. Both
Speaker 1: of those guys were very helpful and sent me in
Speaker 1: the direction of a literary EI who then could say, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: here's the process, here's what we need to do. Here's
Speaker 1: what you need to put together before we can propose
Speaker 1: this to different publishers. This question says what your was
Speaker 1: your wife a big part of helping you deal with
Speaker 1: the loss. You could read the book for that one,
Speaker 1: because that's up for that's up for a good conversation.
Speaker 1: This question says, I'm a fan of your music. I
Speaker 1: share the same faith. Why should I read this book?
Speaker 1: Lord knows I do need help in my life? That's interesting.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting question. By country Boy Revival, that's his
Speaker 1: name on Instagram. I would say this, country Boy Revival,
Speaker 1: I would say this, will you if you like my music,
Speaker 1: if you've been a fan of my music, and I
Speaker 1: would say that it might be right to say that
Speaker 1: as I've put out a music video from a song
Speaker 1: that you've liked, you've trusted me with that music video.
Speaker 1: I would say, may I extend that trust to this book?
Speaker 1: May I ask you to trust me that you should
Speaker 1: read this book. I could go through some generic reasons,
Speaker 1: but I would ask, will you trust me and read
Speaker 1: the book and let me know what you think. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back
Speaker 1: to continue these questions. Okay, this podcast is brought to
Speaker 1: you today, as you could probably guess by my book
Speaker 1: Like a River, That's what I want to talk about.
Speaker 1: Because as I sit here and record this, it is
Speaker 1: still not available to the world, but it will be
Speaker 1: on August first by the time you are hearing this.
Speaker 1: If you're hearing this right now and do not have
Speaker 1: the book Like a River, I would encourage you to
Speaker 1: go to Amazon dot com, pullet your app, pull out
Speaker 1: your Prime app, pull out your Walmart dot Com app
Speaker 1: if that's what you use, or Barnes and Noble, wherever
Speaker 1: you like to find books. I would encourage you to
Speaker 1: check out my book Like a River. And if you
Speaker 1: are a fan of this book, if you already know
Speaker 1: a little bit about this book, and you know that
Speaker 1: it could help people, maybe someone that's hurting or lost,
Speaker 1: or broken or heartbroken in any way, then you think, well,
Speaker 1: down the road, I want to get that person a book.
Speaker 1: I would encourage you to get it today for them
Speaker 1: so that we could make a bigger impact with the
Speaker 1: immediate number we get this week on that book. If
Speaker 1: that doesn't make any sense to you, here's what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say. This is our best shot this week,
Speaker 1: because it's brand new and it has pre orders included.
Speaker 1: This is our best shot to get on some kind
Speaker 1: of bestseller list. If it does that, it gets into
Speaker 1: the hands of so many others. So that's my goal.
Speaker 1: Is to get this book my story. When I lost
Speaker 1: my son Riv, I had no idea the pain that
Speaker 1: I would be plunged into, and that it was a
Speaker 1: kind of pain that I could not bring myself out of.
Speaker 1: I learned that I didn't have to do that, and
Speaker 1: I want to show other people as many people as
Speaker 1: I can, so they don't go to the extent in
Speaker 1: their brokenness that I did. That's in a nutshell, that's
Speaker 1: why I wrote Like a River. It's it's a story
Speaker 1: of hope. It's a story of purpose on the other
Speaker 1: side of your pain. Please check it out. It comes
Speaker 1: out August first, as we speak. It's called Like a River.
Speaker 1: It's my brand new book. All right, we're back here
Speaker 1: answering your questions about the book. Like a River comes
Speaker 1: out tomorrow, August first. If you're listening real time. If
Speaker 1: you're not listening real time, then out it is out
Speaker 1: and you could find this book anywhere you like to
Speaker 1: find books. Amazon is super easy. If you go to
Speaker 1: grangersmith dot com at least right now there is that's
Speaker 1: we're kind of using that as the hub that has
Speaker 1: all the links to all the different places that sell
Speaker 1: books like Walmart dot com and Barnes Andnoble dot com
Speaker 1: and Amazon dot com all that kind of stuff, So
Speaker 1: you could find the book at any of those places.
Speaker 1: And I would say, and this is not an advertisement,
Speaker 1: but I would say, Amazon, you know, it's super easy,
Speaker 1: and it's not going anywhere for a while at least.
Speaker 1: Moving on with your questions, I asked you to Aunt
Speaker 1: to give me some questions on Instagram, and I'm just
Speaker 1: kind of scrolling through here questions specifically about the book.
Speaker 1: This question says, was it therapeutic in a way? And yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty common question, and sure, yeah, absolutely. I
Speaker 1: told I've told this story of about losing riv and
Speaker 1: what has happened to me afterward. I've told the story
Speaker 1: many many times, whether it's on the Smiths or I've
Speaker 1: mentioned it many times on this podcast. I've talked about
Speaker 1: it on radio shows and Good Morning Americas and Today's
Speaker 1: shows and you name it. I am second shows. But
Speaker 1: writing the book was different than all of them because
Speaker 1: it was much deeper. It was going into a world
Speaker 1: that was much more detailed, and I brought up stuff
Speaker 1: that I've never brought up before, not even to Amber.
Speaker 1: I wrote stuff in this book that Amber didn't know
Speaker 1: that no one on the planet in fact knew. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I finished the manuscript itself that I
Speaker 1: needed to call Amber and tell her, Hey, there's some
Speaker 1: stuff in this book that you don't know about. So
Speaker 1: that's that. Yeah, so it was therapeutic in that way. Yes,
Speaker 1: The question says, book signings in New York next next week.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing you on August the second. She said, I'm
Speaker 1: reading it right now and it's taking my breath away. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. I'll find you. I'll find you. We will
Speaker 1: be doing signings. Here's the question says, is it appropriate
Speaker 1: for a seventeen year old that loves your music? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll say seventeen. Yes. I would say you might have
Speaker 1: caution with your younger kids twelve and under eleven and
Speaker 1: under may caution. You may want to read it first.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it's bad for kids, but I would
Speaker 1: as a parent, I would read it first. I have
Speaker 1: not let my kids read it yet. I'll put it
Speaker 1: that way. Seventeen Yep. Great. Here's what it says. No question.
Speaker 1: Just wanted to say, I'm so excited for it to
Speaker 1: be delivered. Thank you. Here's what it says, is your
Speaker 1: book saying, you agree with Calvinism. If so, why I
Speaker 1: know it's the books. No, the book does not say that.
Speaker 1: Here's one that says, does this book tell us the
Speaker 1: secret to why I am depraved? I don't know. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think so this is good. You guys are
Speaker 1: getting so deep on these Uh. Here's one that says,
Speaker 1: how did you decide what the chapters of this book
Speaker 1: would be in what order? That was? That was done, thankfully,
Speaker 1: in the in the proposal process. So I did that
Speaker 1: before I even wrote them. I knew the order of
Speaker 1: the chapters before I wrote the actual book, and the
Speaker 1: chapters were just had working titles, so I was able
Speaker 1: to know, I'm going this direction with it, I'm going
Speaker 1: out on chapter two, I'm going this direction. Chapter three,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk about this chapter four, I'll go here.
Speaker 1: So that was that made it a lot easier to write.
Speaker 1: So putting that in order before anything else happened was
Speaker 1: critical to the way my brain worked. Here's another question saying,
Speaker 1: was writing this book healing for you? Yeah? In so
Speaker 1: many ways, In so many ways, it was healing for me.
Speaker 1: But truly, let me tell you, that's not why I
Speaker 1: wrote it. I didn't write it so that it would
Speaker 1: be healing for me. That's cool, that's a great that's
Speaker 1: a great little point. But I wrote it so that
Speaker 1: it would be healing for you. Really, truly. Here's one
Speaker 1: that says, if I haven't experienced loss of a kid
Speaker 1: slash young loved one, is it still something I'll enjoy?
Speaker 1: I would say, I would say absolutely. This is not this.
Speaker 1: This is not a book directed towards people that have
Speaker 1: lost a child. I would say that it works really
Speaker 1: well with that group. But that's not at all who
Speaker 1: it's for. It's for everybody, truly. This is my story
Speaker 1: what happened to me. Take it however you want to
Speaker 1: take it, but it's for everybody. It's a message for everybody. Yes,
Speaker 1: here's the question that says, what did your community look
Speaker 1: like for you and your wife before and after your loss?
Speaker 1: Had we had a good community on both sides. They're
Speaker 1: good neighbors, good friends, good fans, good family. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: had it on both sides. Very very thankful for that.
Speaker 1: When will it be available in Europe? Oh? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I wish like a
Speaker 1: river would get out there quicker, But that's something I
Speaker 1: cannot control. Here's what it says, such a powerful read.
Speaker 1: Thank you. When will it be mailed? You should get
Speaker 1: it tomorrow. You should get it tomorrow from when you
Speaker 1: hear this podcast. Here's what it says. When you felt
Speaker 1: like you couldn't go any further, like you couldn't take
Speaker 1: another step, what did you do? Yeah? You know. That
Speaker 1: is something I really go into detail about in this book,
Speaker 1: is the step by step process I did and the
Speaker 1: extent of the steps that I took, and most of
Speaker 1: them nine point nine nine percent of the steps I
Speaker 1: took and things that I did, like you said, when
Speaker 1: I couldn't go any further, ninety nine percent of it
Speaker 1: did not work. In fact, most of it made things worse.
Speaker 1: And that's why I want you to read it, so
Speaker 1: that maybe you don't have to go through as many
Speaker 1: things as I did before you find the one percent.
Speaker 1: There's anyone says, no question, just looking forward to purchasing,
Speaker 1: purchasing the book and meeting you in August and Tulsa,
Speaker 1: me too. Here's one said, if I pre ordered it
Speaker 1: on Amazon? Am I going to get one? For sure? Yes?
Speaker 1: Yes you will, lindsay on here says is it hard
Speaker 1: putting your personal story out for everyone to see. That
Speaker 1: is the most difficult part. That is, hands down the
Speaker 1: most difficult part is not only putting my story out,
Speaker 1: but putting the most vulnerable parts of my story out
Speaker 1: in the open. That's very difficult. It's worth it. The
Speaker 1: payoff is worth it. The ability to possibly reach someone
Speaker 1: with a ray of hope, with an idea of peace
Speaker 1: and hope and rest within the darkest night for them.
Speaker 1: If I could reach them with that, it's worth it.
Speaker 1: Is worth all of the embarrassment and uncomfortable moments that
Speaker 1: I would have sharing my story within the public. Here's
Speaker 1: another one says the same thing. Do you feel vulnerable
Speaker 1: now that parts of your story you are about to
Speaker 1: be heard for the first time? Yep, I do. What
Speaker 1: was the hardest thing about writing this book and how
Speaker 1: did you cope to keep writing? The hardest part about
Speaker 1: writing the book really was the patience in the process itself,
Speaker 1: because I want to just do things and get it done,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I would hit a block and be like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I can't. I need to stop now.
Speaker 1: I need to wait for the creative energy to roll again.
Speaker 1: I don't have it right now. And you can't just
Speaker 1: power through it, like mowing the grass. I used to
Speaker 1: have a lawn business, and when I would mow grass,
Speaker 1: you could just power through it. You're tired, you can't
Speaker 1: think anymore, your sunburn you just you just go them
Speaker 1: to power through them, to finish. But you can't do
Speaker 1: that with creative things. That's the hardest part. Here's the
Speaker 1: question says, how do you cope with PTSD? Lots of
Speaker 1: different ways and few of them work. That's exactly I
Speaker 1: lay that out as clear as I can in the book. Yeah,
Speaker 1: here's what it says. It might be too soon to ask,
Speaker 1: but do you plan to write more books in the future.
Speaker 1: I do. When I signed over with Like a River
Speaker 1: to HarperCollins, my publisher, it was a four book deal.
Speaker 1: Four books, So this is the first one, and you
Speaker 1: should expect in some form maybe different kinds of books.
Speaker 1: But three more and Lord willing more after that. I
Speaker 1: really enjoyed the process, and so I really hope that
Speaker 1: there are many more. Let's see here, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of questions that say, what was the most difficult part
Speaker 1: of writing the book? Or was it therapeutic? And was
Speaker 1: it difficult? Was it hard? Was it. I've got a
Speaker 1: lot of questions like that, will you be doing a
Speaker 1: book tour? I see a lot of those questions, and
Speaker 1: the answer is kind of. I'm going to be going
Speaker 1: around and doing different conferences and preaching different places, So
Speaker 1: it's not going to be officially a tour, but I
Speaker 1: will be going to a lot of different places with
Speaker 1: this book after music touring stops. Yes. Question here says
Speaker 1: is it appropriate for teenagers? I would I would read
Speaker 1: it first if you're if you're a teenager and you
Speaker 1: don't have anyone that's supervising you, then read it. If
Speaker 1: you're a parent asking me that, then you read it
Speaker 1: first and then advise. I'm saying personally, it's okay for you.
Speaker 1: Here's one It says, when will you let your kids
Speaker 1: read or have it for them to read? Still praying
Speaker 1: through that, Yeah, there's some parts in there that I'm
Speaker 1: still praying through for them. Here's one says, what is
Speaker 1: your favorite chapter? By the way, big fan of the podcast,
Speaker 1: thanks Braden. That my favorite chapter? Probably there's there's uh
Speaker 1: several that I love because because of different reasons. Chapter
Speaker 1: five is about my dad and a lot of people
Speaker 1: walk away and they're like man, I like chapter five,
Speaker 1: so that's that's a big one for me. But m hm,
Speaker 1: chapter eleven it's a good one too. Chapter eight, that's
Speaker 1: a good one too. Not because I'm like, oh I
Speaker 1: wrote a cool chapter. I'm because the story in it
Speaker 1: is impossible for me to have made up. Are you
Speaker 1: planning to be a guest speaker at church? Yeah? I am.
Speaker 1: If you would like me too, you could talk to
Speaker 1: your pastor and you could reach out to me through
Speaker 1: grangersmith dot com and the contact page. Yeah. Somebody says
Speaker 1: where can I buy it? Yeah? Amazon, it's a good
Speaker 1: place that's old to start with that, but you any
Speaker 1: place that you like to buy books. This question says,
Speaker 1: will it be released only in hardcover editions? Is there
Speaker 1: a soft cover coming down the road? I believe. So
Speaker 1: this is my first time in the book world that
Speaker 1: I believe that they start hardcover like this, and then
Speaker 1: they for a while and then they go to soft cover.
Speaker 1: But it's cool to have these, especially this one, this
Speaker 1: particular one I'm holding because this is the first print,
Speaker 1: the first edition, so there are already at least one
Speaker 1: word that needs to be changed from this edition. So
Speaker 1: what we'll do is and I've turned that in. So
Speaker 1: they go back and on the second print when they're
Speaker 1: ready to reorder, Lord Willing, then it's the second edition
Speaker 1: and it's got that one word fixed, right. But at
Speaker 1: that point, the first edition doesn't exist anymore. So it
Speaker 1: becomes a kind of a novelty, kind of a keepsake,
Speaker 1: kind of more valuable than any of the other versions.
Speaker 1: So if you get a soft cover down the road,
Speaker 1: cool most of what people read will probably be the
Speaker 1: soft cover, but there will only be this one run
Speaker 1: of first edition hardcovers. Here's a question that says, did
Speaker 1: you include how you arrived to forgive yourself through Christ?
Speaker 1: I think many are struggling believing that Christ covers all
Speaker 1: and they are not exempt for God's grace. That perseveres
Speaker 1: I'm oh, that prevents them forgiving themselves, which hinders their
Speaker 1: relationship to God. Sorry, I read that in three different pieces.
Speaker 1: Let me read it again together. Did you include how
Speaker 1: you arrived to forgive yourself through Christ? I think many
Speaker 1: struggle believing that Christ covers all and they are not
Speaker 1: exempt for God's grace, and that prevents them from forgiving themselves,
Speaker 1: which hinders their relationship with God. I would highly recommend
Speaker 1: you read this book because I think you'll find that
Speaker 1: there is a flaw in what you're saying. Well, you're asking,
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure sure that this book lays out
Speaker 1: pretty well that you can't forgive yourself. That's something somebody
Speaker 1: else has to do, right, that's complicated. But read the book,
Speaker 1: we'll talk. Read the book, then we'll talk. This one
Speaker 1: says what chapter was your favorite to write? So that's
Speaker 1: different than what's my favorite chapter? What was your favorite
Speaker 1: chapter to write? And that's five? Chapter five? Chapter five
Speaker 1: one was I loved writing that chapter. I'm scrolling through
Speaker 1: with my eyes on my phone, scrolling through Instagram questions,
Speaker 1: and I am kind of scrolling now looking for a
Speaker 1: question that's different. That's why I'm pausing because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of questions that are the same, like what was
Speaker 1: the hardest part about writing it? How long have you
Speaker 1: planned this? When did you decide to write it? How
Speaker 1: many drafts of this book are there? That's interesting. I
Speaker 1: don't know twenty, there's a lot. I just wrote, and rewrote,
Speaker 1: and rewrote, and rewrote, and rewrote over and over. Did
Speaker 1: you ever have a writer's block and how did you
Speaker 1: handle it? Yeah? I did the best thing to handle
Speaker 1: a writer's block. The best thing is a really good
Speaker 1: night's sleep and some decent food and stay hydrated. Really,
Speaker 1: there's so many other things you could do, but if
Speaker 1: you don't do those three things, then you're gonna have problems.
Speaker 1: No matter what you're doing, you're gonna have problems if
Speaker 1: you're not getting good rest, good fuel, and hydrating. Sound stupid,
Speaker 1: but that's the real deal. There's one says, what was
Speaker 1: the process from conceptualization to publishing? The key to all
Speaker 1: of that was there was a I found an agency,
Speaker 1: a literary agency called the FED Agency. And there're stuff
Speaker 1: that you don't think about when you're just reading, casually reading,
Speaker 1: but if you open up the first page, it says
Speaker 1: this author is represented by the FED Agency. It's like
Speaker 1: on the literally the first page. And they're the glue
Speaker 1: that just really connects a lot of things and holds
Speaker 1: it together. So they are the people that said, Okay,
Speaker 1: what are you thinking? What's your working title here? What
Speaker 1: what kind of chapters are you thinking? What's the book about?
Speaker 1: Who is it to? Who's a demographic? Who do you
Speaker 1: think will read this? Who does it matter to you?
Speaker 1: What's the message you want those people to hear, okay,
Speaker 1: So they just walk through different questions and help me
Speaker 1: decide how I'm gonna go about it, how I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get that blank page going on page one on chapter one,
Speaker 1: where I'm going with it. And they also help take
Speaker 1: this whole thought idea, because before Like a River was
Speaker 1: a book, it was just a proposal. And the Fed
Speaker 1: Agency takes this proposal and they go, hey, this isn't
Speaker 1: a book yet, but here's the idea of it, and
Speaker 1: here's who's writing it, and here's the story that he
Speaker 1: wants to tell that he hasn't told yet, but he
Speaker 1: wants to tell. And they pitch it out to all
Speaker 1: these different publishers and they say, who wants this, who's
Speaker 1: interested in taking this and helping put this on shelves
Speaker 1: and different different e commerce stores. We ended up getting
Speaker 1: our publisher. You know. They came forward and we talked
Speaker 1: to a lot of great ones. We prayed through that
Speaker 1: whole process, and then when the right one came, and
Speaker 1: after we'd prayed a lot about it because it's so important,
Speaker 1: then they said, okay, green light go. We love it.
Speaker 1: We love your concept, we love your title, we love
Speaker 1: where you want to go with it. It's all yours.
Speaker 1: You have four months. I think that's about what they
Speaker 1: gave me about something like four months. You have four
Speaker 1: months to write it, have it turned in by this day,
Speaker 1: and I think it was September first of last year,
Speaker 1: and I was like cool, So I finished it in
Speaker 1: two months instead of four, and that was it and
Speaker 1: we were off to the races. I am so encouraged
Speaker 1: by so many people that have reached out and that
Speaker 1: are interested in this book. And I am as I'm
Speaker 1: sitting here tonight as I record this ahead of time,
Speaker 1: I just can't imagine what the feeling will be when
Speaker 1: people are actually reacting to it and messaging me after
Speaker 1: they've actually read it, because from now right now, most
Speaker 1: of the world has not seen it or read it.
Speaker 1: So this is the last podcast that I will do
Speaker 1: Lord Willing that I don't that people don't know the
Speaker 1: story of Like a River, and so I'm just I'm excited,
Speaker 1: and I want to make my plea one more time.
Speaker 1: If you haven't checked this book out, grab it and
Speaker 1: what really helps me. Let me reword that what really
Speaker 1: helps this book and the message behind it is the
Speaker 1: first week. What matters is those sales on the first week.
Speaker 1: And so I kind of started the podcast with this,
Speaker 1: but I'll say it again. This is what I've learned
Speaker 1: through endless zoom calls with the publisher that that first
Speaker 1: week matters a lot because we either will or will
Speaker 1: not end up on some kind of bestseller list. And
Speaker 1: if we do, then there are people that will buy
Speaker 1: it just because of that, and there will stores that
Speaker 1: will carry it just because of that. If we don't,
Speaker 1: then that's okay, but we won't be on those lists,
Speaker 1: and it will just won't get into the new level.
Speaker 1: It won't get into the next level of buyers. The
Speaker 1: next level of buyers is who I'm partially interested in
Speaker 1: because they don't know me at all. They've never heard
Speaker 1: my name, they don't know my music, they don't know
Speaker 1: my story, they don't know about River. They're just casual
Speaker 1: book readers that could be very surprised by the contents
Speaker 1: of this book. So all that to be said, the
Speaker 1: way to get to them is by having a good
Speaker 1: first week. And the way to have a good first
Speaker 1: week is that if you're thinking about getting this book
Speaker 1: for someone for like Christmas or their birthday, and you're
Speaker 1: thinking I'll grab one for me now, and I'll grab
Speaker 1: this book later for Christmas. I would encourage you just
Speaker 1: to go ahead when you're getting it on Amazon or whatever.
Speaker 1: Just make it too right now, make the quantity too
Speaker 1: so that then you can hang on to the second
Speaker 1: copy and then you'll give it to them later for Christmas,
Speaker 1: so that those numbers do better the first week. This
Speaker 1: revealing a lot. I don't think I've ever been this
Speaker 1: upfront and kind of sales pitchy with any music or album,
Speaker 1: and I think that should say something about what this
Speaker 1: means to me compared to album. I've never sat on
Speaker 1: a podcast and told you to please buy two albums
Speaker 1: or go stream at a million times. I've never told you that.
Speaker 1: I just said, if you like the music, play it.
Speaker 1: I hope you like it. This is different. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: give this book a shot. If you're not a reader,
Speaker 1: give it a shot. The audiobook is cool and I
Speaker 1: love it, but this is what counts for these bestseller lists.
Speaker 1: So give it a shot and then let me know
Speaker 1: what you think. Email me Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: That is the normal email I read for this podcast,
Speaker 1: So check it out. Email me let me know what
Speaker 1: you think. Let me know if it stirs something in you.
Speaker 1: Let me know if you hate it. If you're like, man,
Speaker 1: don't ever write a book again. This is terrible, let
Speaker 1: me know that too. But either way, I love you guys,
Speaker 1: and I'm so excited about what is going to be
Speaker 1: August first, the release of Like a River. See you, guys,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith Podcast. I appreciate
Speaker 1: all of you guys. You could help me out by
Speaker 1: rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe
Speaker 1: to this channel. Hit that little like button and the
Speaker 1: notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload
Speaker 1: a video. If you have a question for me that
Speaker 1: you would like me to answer, email Grangersmith Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. Yi