This content was created by Kenston Henderson CSP EPIC Experiences Guaranteed. This content was uploaded by Kenston Henderson CSP EPIC Experiences Guaranteed. This is a YouTube podcast episode titled "The Empower U Podcast Interview with LaDell Jones" (created 2021-04-11) from the Empowering Podcast Authorship Series by Live With Life. It is an English interview-style conversation hosted by Kenston Henderson (identified as "Kenston Henderson CSP EPIC EXPERIENCES GUARANTEED") with guest LaDell Jones, who discusses her personal background, ministry work with youth, her novel Nightmares and Daydreams, writing challenges and advice, target audience, and where to purchase the book. The transcript includes additional brief interjections from a third speaker labeled "Speaker C."
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Hello and welcome to the Empowering Podcast Authorship Series brought to you by Live With Life. In each episode, we interview a self-published author to talk about their journey to becoming an author and to reveal tips to help future authors release their story to the world. I'm your host, Kenston Henderson, founder and Chief Empowerment Officer of Live With Life. And in today's episode, we have as our featured author Ladel Jones. Ladel was born in Alliance, Ohio to a single teenage mother. At 2 months old, the family which included her older brother, grandparents, and several aunts and uncles, moved to Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Between the ages of 10 and 13, Lydell was abused by a relative. This led her to be placed in the system at age 13. In the year— in the 6 years that followed, she resided in 2 foster homes and 6 group homes. She became a single mother at 15 and the single mother of 4 by age 23. Now Lydell operates in many functions of ministry, first in her local church, Greater Christ Temple under the leadership of Pastor Wayne Moore, Sr. She is a part of the youth department staff, teaching their Bible study classes, mentoring, tutoring, and assisting with other— with the planning and execution of activities that engage the youth. She is the editor-in-chief of Call to Nations magazine, media director for Call to Nations Ministry, president of Transformative Prayer Ministries, president of Joshua Generation of Change, and the author of Nightmares and Daydreams. Just to name a few. Her purpose is truly to bring the kingdom of heaven to those who do not yet realize it is at hand and to encourage those who have left the narrow path to return before it is eternally too late. And again, Ladel is the author of the book Nightmares and Daydreams. Welcome, Ladel.
Hello, hello. Thank you for having me. I'm so honored to be with you today.
Yeah, no problem. I'm excited to interview you now. Now tell us about your book. Nightmares and Daydreams.
Okay, Nightmares and Daydreams is a fiction novel, and it is based in Washington, D.C., and it follows the life of 4 young people who are entering high school, and these 4 young people have totally different backgrounds, so, you know, they are facing different challenges in their life at this point, like really serious, uh, challenges. And so the book is designed to show that no matter what we're going through, where we are in life, God has a way of bringing us through with victory. And so it's really, um, it's a witnessing to the young people is really what the book is, but from a real world perspective, like real life you know, meaty, real-life topic.
That's good, that's good.
And so was there something, um, that was— that inspired you, uh, to write this book? And what was it?
Real life.
Real life.
You know, just from, from the, the short, uh, bio, you know, I as a young person faced a lot of adversity and didn't have structure and didn't have people who could speak life into me. And so it's very important for me to, to try and, and be a, a person that stands in the gap in that way for young people who may not have people in their environment who can, you know, speak a word of life to them and let them see that there is another way, you know, that your environment doesn't really um, you can overcome your environment, you know, and can do it as a young person. You don't have to wait until, you know, you grow up and you move yourself out of environments. Like, you can really thrive within your environment, but you, you need guidance. You need someone to show you that there is an opportunity to do that.
That's good, that's good, that's good.
Now, now tell me, is there a specific audience this book is more relevant, uh, for?
Well, the book is geared towards, uh, the youth, so I would say age 12, so that preteen age to adulthood. The adult characters do have meat though, so there is something for even the, the parents of young people, teachers of young people, like, you know, anyone who is— who has an ability to influence a young person. This book is, is here for them as well because it shows, look, we do have a responsibility.
That's good.
You know, we have a responsibility to this generation to not just let them, you know, fall by the wayside or say, well, that's just this generation, they're this way or they're that way. And I think that that is so detrimental. And so this book really helps to empower adults to say, yeah, I have a better responsibility to step in here.
That's good, that's good.
Now tell our audience, um, you know, when you were going through the book writing process yourself, what were some barriers that you faced and, and how did you, you, you get over those?
Let me tell you, being my first book and the fact that it was fiction, you know, um, I love to write, always have, but but there is an intimidation factor when you are trying to write a book, you know, and there's always, you know, that voice trying to tell you you won't be able to do it, you know. So really, the biggest barrier I ever have is me, you know. I don't allow outside forces to really sway me one way or the other. That's just how I'm built, you know. I'm built for adversity. So, but when it's you, you know, they're saying your biggest enemy is is you, and your biggest enemy is me, you know. And so just talking myself down off ledges, like, you know, let's do one page at a time, let's do one chapter at a time, let's, you know. And actually, um, listening to myself, because sometimes you can have, you can have a thought process of how you want to accomplish something, and you'll start off great, you know. Starting off sometimes for some people is hard because of fear factor. So I'll throw that in there. Sometimes the fear factor will keep you from starting as well. But sometimes you can be gung-ho and you start off, but then once it starts getting a little hard and start getting a little tricky, then that's where that battle, like, you got to get this done, you have to finish this, you have to complete what you started. So I, I think the biggest obstacle was myself.
That's good, that's good.
And that's, that's many, many people's, uh, story is overcoming themselves, their, their thinking, their— what, what thoughts are coming into your head that, uh, we call it belief system, and, uh, that can get many people down and out of the whole process of, uh, not just— not even just the book writing process, but achieving anything. And so it's overcoming that piece. So, so what would you tell, um, uh, our audience, those who are in the book writing process, on— they may be at a standstill in their— the writing process. What would you encourage them with?
I would encourage them with what is it that, uh, made you want to write the book in the first place? I know for me, because of my desire to positively impact youth, yeah, and not wanting to, um, I don't even want to say not wanting, I cannot turn from that. That is, that is my purpose, you know. So if you want to live a purposeful life Yeah, whatever you're doing is— it has to be geared around that purpose. If you think on it and you say, this is something I know I'm never going to be able to escape because it's why I was born, you know, anytime I get, um, so-called— I say so-called writer's block because writer's block to me is just you just ain't feeling like writing, you know.
Um, you don't gotta have a technical term.
Yeah, right, right. The Lord told me a long time ago, writers write. And every time I feel like I don't want to, I want to do it, I hear writers write, writers write, you know. And so for me, it's, you know, go back to what, what is it that pushed you in the first place and want to write a book. Yeah, because 9 times out of 10, it's attached to your purpose.
Yeah.
And that's something you can't run from. You can't— I don't care how much you put your head under the blanket it's gonna— it's in you so deep that it's gonna then start to torment you because you're out of— you're out of alignment. You're out of what, what makes you who you are, you know. Purpose is a part of who we are, so it's, you know, you can't escape it.
Yeah, that's good, that's good, that's good.
Audience, you heard her. Now you just gotta take action. Take action. You heard it. Now it's time to take some action. And so, Ladel, where can people, uh, find and purchase your book?
Okay, you can go to Amazon. I'm on Amazon. You're gonna go to Barnes Noble online. And then I also have, uh, a business called Right Heal Transform, so you can go to righthealtransform.com, you can order it there. Um, yeah, those are the, the 3, 3 places you can get it.
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you, Ladel, for spending this time with us in this episode, and We wish you the absolute best in everything that you do and going to do and the impact you're going to continue to have with our youth and our leaders because we need good leaders leading our youth. So thank you again for sharing this space with me.
