- 2 days ago
What would you do if you were in China and suddenly you were being detained and taken to a jail. No one speaks your language and you don't speak theirs. That thought might be terrifying but today on The Cameron Journal Podcast, we are going to meet someone who has gone through this and lived to tell the tale. Chancellor Jackson is now an author but he was a football player for Stetson and is a Georgia native. We talk about his book, his story and a little writing shop.
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00:00Thank you very much.
00:30Today on the Cameron Journal Podcast, I am joined by Chancellor Jackson. He has written a book about a quite harrowing experience. There's a few places on the planet one never wants to go to prison. The Philippines, Thailand, possibly China. Well, this person has survived the latter of those three. And we're going to hear all about it and maybe get into some writing process and all this type of thing. So welcome to the Cameron Journal Podcast.
00:56Hey, Cam. Appreciate you. Blessings of balance to you. Blessings of balance to the viewers. Most importantly, a big shout out to y'all.
01:05No, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I want to dive right into the very beginning. Why don't you tell us a little about yourself and your book?
01:12Okay. So Chancellor K. Jackson is the name. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Went to Stetson University where I played football there for all four years.
01:24Then I lived in China for six months before things went left. Of course, you know what I'm saying? Got locked up out there. Came back to America. Began writing my first book, 14 Days in Beijing, which has ranked number one on Amazon over 15 times in multiple genres. Written and published other books after that.
01:45So now I've got my own publishing company, my co-speeding through the writing and publishing process.
01:51Very nice. Well, we'll have to talk a little bit of shop then. In my other life, I'm the director of publications, anthology, something other publishing.
01:59And I started out self-publishing before I joined them. So we'll get to that. We'll get there. We'll get there. It's the very beginning.
02:04So let's start with the 14 Days in Beijing. So you were living there for six months. What were you doing there?
02:15So I landed my first job out there teaching English to kids. So that's with that education. I was teaching kids as young as three years old, all the way up to about 12.
02:26But I was mainly working with the elementary school age range. It was absolutely harmonious. Kids were a lot of fun.
02:33China was a lot of fun. Meeting the foreigners, the locals, the natives. Food, immaculate. Culture. It's beautiful.
02:44So, yeah, China was absolutely lovely, all in all.
02:49Yeah. Yeah. So how did you end up being detained for two weeks by the Chinese? Let's get right to the mess of things.
02:57Yeah. So it's April 4th, 2019. I'm finna get ready to head to the event to meet some friends that we was going to just have a good time.
03:07So I was at the apartment by myself pre-gaming.
03:09I'm drinking a little Chinese wine cooler. Smoking a little cannabis. Get done. Make sure I got everything I need before I walk out the door.
03:20I hear a knock. Look through the people and there's the three officers from the Beijing police.
03:24So, of course, I'm spooked at this point. But they come in, they question me about drugs. I'm sitting there playing fool. Like, I don't know what they're talking about.
03:35Then they drug test me right there. I was like, OK, yeah, it's over with.
03:39Failed a drug test, of course.
03:40Now the cuffs are on me. And at this point, all forms of communication cease to exist. So I don't know what's going to happen next.
03:50There's no more communication as far as what we're going to do.
03:55I'm like, well, I'm just going to learn as I go. So, yeah.
03:59So pretty much 14 days is about just telling the whole story.
04:03Once I actually got to the jail where I was housed at, I was locked up 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 15 minutes to a cell, nine wooden beds.
04:10It's three soups a day. And all I had was a plastic bowl and a plastic spoon.
04:17That's quite, quite intense.
04:21I mean, I hesitate to ask. I mean, I mean, how I mean, what was it?
04:26I mean, you've kind of given us a good description already.
04:29But I mean, what what what was the day to day like trying to exist in this space?
04:33You know, obviously you stand out because you're not Chinese.
04:37You know, obviously you don't speak Chinese.
04:40So or Mandarin rather.
04:41So no one to talk to.
04:43How did you what was the day to day like?
04:47Literally.
04:48So I was like, 24 hours a day.
04:50We do not leave that cell.
04:52So it's really.
04:54Either standing up, sitting down on the bunks.
04:57And that's just pretty much it, just in the space is TV in the cell.
05:03But of course, it's we're in China.
05:04So I don't know.
05:05I don't know what's being said or, you know, I'm not even paying that no mind because I can't even comprehend what it's saying.
05:11So I was just left to my own devices.
05:14So just a lot of reflect time to reflect.
05:18But that was only for three days.
05:20So I was in it.
05:20I was the only foreign, the only English speaker.
05:24And the first cell I was in.
05:25And then on day four, they moved me to a new cell.
05:28And that's what I'm immersed with.
05:30Two other foreigners.
05:31Well, three other foreigners.
05:32Two of them are English speakers.
05:34One of them doesn't speak English at all.
05:37So that's what it means.
05:39Get better.
05:40It's just because I can at least talk to somebody at once.
05:42And then I get to learn about how the jail operates.
05:45What are the rules?
05:46There's nothing.
05:46I don't know what's going on.
05:47I've just been in the cell for three days now.
05:50You know what I'm saying?
05:51I don't know how long I'm going to be here.
05:53But I'm learning so much about how the process works, essentially.
05:57But I still don't know how long I'm going to be there.
05:59But ironically enough, everybody else knows all their information to the fullest detail.
06:02What their charges are specifically.
06:04How long they supposed to serve.
06:05The whole not.
06:06I'm just the only one that don't know anything.
06:10That isn't convenient.
06:13That's funny how that works.
06:17Fascinating.
06:19So then how did you eventually get out of that situation?
06:23On a random day, they just called me to come on.
06:28That would be on day 14.
06:31And they never told you what the actual problem was, what it was supposed to be.
06:36There was basically no information.
06:38They just took you, kept you, and then got rid of you.
06:42Pretty much, essentially.
06:43That makes sense.
06:45So then after your stay in the jail, how much longer were you in China?
06:51Oh, they took me straight to my apartment to pack up the rest of my stuff.
06:54And then straight to the airport.
06:56Not even an hour.
06:57That was like, yeah, boom, boom.
07:00That, yes, that certainly makes a lot of sense.
07:07So then what inspired you to write about it?
07:10And what's the main message of the book?
07:13So a good friend of mine named DeMarco Reddins, he was a traditionally published author before we graduated high school in 2014.
07:21So years later, you know what I'm saying, we were just hanging out.
07:25He was like, hey, bro, you didn't think about writing a book about the experience?
07:27I was like, psh, man, that's a good idea.
07:30I don't even know where to start, but that's a good idea.
07:32He took it even further.
07:33He took my phone, went to my notes, and left me a little outline.
07:37I just started filling in the outline.
07:40Caught a flow for how I wanted to tell the story.
07:42Moved it to Google Docs so I could type it up.
07:44Four months later, it was written.
07:46And then just spent the next six months just polishing it up and just getting it ready for publishing.
07:51Excellent.
07:52That's quite impressive, but an excellent way to start.
07:58I love a good outline.
08:02I've never understood the people who can just sit down and write stuff and have it come out.
08:08I need to have a plan of action.
08:10I need to know where things are going.
08:11I have to structure my thoughts.
08:13Otherwise, nothing will happen.
08:17That's why I've been preaching to a lot of people.
08:19It's like that's pretty much you creating the outline.
08:21That's your blueprint for the book that you're trying to write.
08:24It's like all the confusion or the anxiety of, okay, like you just said, I've got all these thoughts.
08:32If I'm not organizing it and structuring it so I can just go into tech, it's going to be overwhelming when you're trying to write it.
08:39So, yeah, I attest to that.
08:41No, no, certainly.
08:44So, at the start, you mentioned that you had gotten into more writing and publishing and written stuff since then.
08:49What else have you written?
08:50So, I have two romance novels, You Love, You Learn, and Real Love Never Dies.
08:56So, 14 Days in Beijing, You Love, You Learn, Real Love Never Dies is a trilogy.
09:01All three stories, you know what I'm saying, go together.
09:05So, but it's just different genres.
09:07So, it's just crazy how it ended up coming out because none of this was planned.
09:13Everything has been freestyled, you know what I'm saying?
09:16So, it's just been incredible.
09:19It's been an incredible journey.
09:20But I just dropped a new book today, released today, titled The Power of Becoming, Seven Pillars of Growth and Empowerment.
09:27I mean, it's ranked top bestseller, new release in humanist philosophy, and it was another genre in rights topic.
09:41Yeah, I know a lot of, I'm not surprised, I know a lot of former athletes do the speaking circuit for inspiration.
09:49So, since you played football all of those years, how does all that stuff bleed into your writing?
09:56Well, it's just taken, because football was something that I loved, admired, embodied, and was truly, truly passionate about.
10:07So, I was like, okay, it's just taking all that energy and then finding something else to put into it.
10:15I feel like every athlete goes through that phase of having to re-identify yourself once your sport comes to an end.
10:23And it's a battle.
10:25It's a battle, for sure.
10:26But you always know, it's like, man, when I find that next thing, whatever else it is, because I know when I get my audits up there, what that feels like and what that looks like.
10:37So, it's like, man, I just got to find that next thing.
10:39And what you do, man, nothing is going to be, you're a force to be reckoned with, for sure.
10:46No, certainly, certainly.
10:49It was, yeah, I just, I've, I was never played team sports in any capacity, because I can't throw anything or catch anything.
10:58So, that was never, that was never, that was never, never, never my area, never my thing.
11:03I was inside in the theater, in the concert hall.
11:06And everyone seems to always have these tremendous, you know, insights of things that they, you know, learned on the field or with different experiences or whatever have you.
11:16And so, it was, yeah, that always, that always just seems to abound in all those talks.
11:20You go to these conferences and inevitably someone who's played something, they have hired, to come and speak about how they used to play something and how it can, you know, help your business or whatever have you.
11:30Um, and so, um, yeah, it's a, it's a very difficult, uh, it's a, it's a very difficult thing, but it's good.
11:39I mean, yes, turning that passion to something else, you know, in kind of life after football is very, very important.
11:46Because that, I think it's, I think, I've always felt that's, and I don't know if you feel similarly, um, and this is even true for things like ballet, which has also a short lifespan, is you just spend so many years and that's absolutely everything you do and everything you are, and your life turns on that.
12:05And then one day, it just, it's kind of over sort of thing.
12:10Um, and I, so, I mean, I, so I guess this question is kind of germane to the book then I found, I found an avenue, um, is so when you were done with college, NFL didn't happen, or you didn't want to go that direction, and you decided to teach in China, what was that?
12:28How did you come to decide you wanted to teach English in China?
12:31How did you make that decision?
12:33Um, great question.
12:34Um, so, once, last game of my career came to an end, I wasn't sad or nothing because truly playing Division I football was the biggest dream and goal I had.
12:48Of course, everybody wants to make it to the league in one day, but I knew, I definitely wanted to play Division I football.
12:54Um, so, I was just really, just truly grateful and just, yeah, my heart full of gratitude for just accomplishing something that I truly wanted to accomplish.
13:06Um, so, I was truly content and was looking forward to just that next chapter.
13:11I knew, I, it was great because I'm like, I don't know what, what I'm going to do next.
13:16I have no clue, but I just got to figure it out.
13:18I got to just try a bunch of different stuff and then, you know what I'm saying, I'll figure it out eventually.
13:21So, I was just applying for jobs and mainly corporate positions.
13:26I'm talking, I'm getting flown out.
13:29I'm, I'm getting put up in hotels, like, the whole lot.
13:32I'm doing this for months and I kept getting told, no.
13:36Every job that I truly wanted or, you know what I'm saying, that I truly wanted, I kept getting told, no.
13:42And, I was like, okay, I done, I done graduated at this point.
13:47Like, I started, I started applying for jobs when the football season ended.
13:51That ended in November.
13:53It was kind of situated and I still ain't found nothing.
13:56I was like, okay, this is a lot more challenging than I thought it was going to be.
14:01But, I'm like, well, let's re-approach this thing because clearly, we've been trying corporate.
14:06Court might not be for you, family.
14:10Right.
14:11Time and time again, you keep getting told no.
14:12So, I was like, let's try something else.
14:14What else would you be good at?
14:15Talking with people, working with people.
14:17You're a people's person.
14:18So, okay, let's, let's just see what I can find in whatever capacity that can be.
14:26And, one day I was job searching.
14:28I seen a tab that I never noticed before.
14:30It's an international.
14:31I said, man, why haven't I thought to look outside the U.S. for opportunities?
14:35The world is so huge.
14:36So, I clicked on the tab and that's when I said, oh, yeah, teach English and kids in China.
14:41All right.
14:41And, they was like, yeah, we want to move forward with you as a candidate after the interview process and all of that.
14:46So, I was like, okay, yeah.
14:47After must have been told no, finally get a yes and it's on the other side of the world.
14:51Shit, man, I ain't saying no if there's a bus about it.
14:53This is what we're going to do.
14:54That's, no, I mean, that's, that's quite, that's quite impressive.
14:59Let's look at the other end now.
15:01So, you arrive back in the U.S.
15:03It's been a whirlwind two weeks, you know, sort of thing.
15:06You were going out, then you were in the jail, and then right to the airport and you're back, you know, in Los Angeles, whatever your point of entry was.
15:15What happened, you know, when your feet hit the ground in the U.S., what happened after that?
15:23What, are you in anything, what were you feeling, what were you going through?
15:26I was just happy, definitely happy to be out and be free and know I'm heading back, but it was still like, okay, I don't know what I'm going to do next.
15:36I got, I'm back to square, square one all over again, just like when football ended.
15:40I'm like, just like I did the first time, I'll figure it out.
15:43I'll figure something out.
15:44I'll figure it out.
15:45But it's mainly just, I don't know, just being in the moment, honestly, trying to figure out how to get my money back from, because it's still in China.
15:54So I'm like, I got to figure out all that out, how I'm going to get that back.
15:58Like, and then, of course, I'm just linking up with people, just seeing friends and family.
16:07And I didn't really start writing a book until that summer.
16:11So it was just putting time, just me just, just living life to full of us, honestly, full of us.
16:19I was like, man, I was locked up.
16:21You know what I'm saying?
16:22I thought it was going to be over with, but it's like, hey, we lit, so yeah, that's all.
16:27No, no, no, that's, no, I mean, I imagine that must have been, that must have been a lot.
16:34I, yeah, I, the bounce back is quite impressive.
16:37I think I would have just sat in the airport for a long while and just been unable to move.
16:43So you're, you're, you're a little bit faster than I would be.
16:46That's.
16:47Right.
16:48Never let a hard time humble us.
16:50Yes, they definitely, they certainly, they certainly, they certainly can.
16:56And I want to talk about your other books, because you mentioned two of them were romance.
16:59And I, I laugh because I had a woman on named Christina Braver recently, who is a woman that writes romance, all the, all this type of thing.
17:06The romance genre is primarily written by women.
17:09Yeah.
17:09Or other women.
17:11So why did you decide to write a romance book?
17:14Well, funny story.
17:16Same friend, DeMarco.
17:18This is a podcast where this is where you tell funny stories.
17:21That's how this works.
17:21This only works if you tell funny stories.
17:25Funny story.
17:26So the same partner, DeMarco, he was like, when 14 days was going crazy, he was like, hey, bro, you got to write the romance.
17:31You got to write the romance.
17:33Because at that point in time, I was, I went through, I was in a relationship when I went to China.
17:37And all that ended, you know what I'm saying, once I came back.
17:42So he's like, well, you got to write that story.
17:43You got to write the story.
17:44I'm like, bro, I am not trying to write that.
17:46I'm not trying to tap back into those emotions.
17:48None of that.
17:49I'm trying to just leave that be.
17:50I'm content for 14 days.
17:52I'm not even, like, pressed to put out anything else.
17:56He just kept telling me to do it.
17:58I was like, no.
17:58So it's months and months have passed.
18:01Probably almost, almost a year have passed.
18:05And I'm just, I took a course on just writing and self-publishing just to learn more about the field and the industry.
18:14And when I, and part of the course I paid for is talking about the genres.
18:19And it said romance is the top-selling genre.
18:22As soon as I saw that, I'm like, I don't win multiple.
18:24I don't, I don't hit number one in a lot of genres, but I ain't, okay.
18:28So I'm like, it was just a challenge for me.
18:30Then I saw that.
18:30I said, okay, man.
18:31So I hit Cubs up.
18:32I was like, hey, send me an outline for the romance genre.
18:36Send me the outline.
18:38I know that thing got two, about two and a half weeks.
18:41And boom, you know what I'm saying?
18:43Broke it up in two parts.
18:45Then just, you know what I'm saying?
18:46So that's how that came to be.
18:48Yeah.
18:50Boom, that's, that's, that's quite impressive.
18:51It's definitely interesting to have a male voice in that sort of, in that sort of genre.
18:58That's very, that's very different from what, what usually, who, who usually writes it and
19:03who's it's, who's it's written for.
19:05So.
19:05Other thing too, because I was like, I knew it was a female dominated genre.
19:09So I was like, okay, for sure.
19:12Authenticity sells.
19:14Anything that's taboo gains attention.
19:16So it was like, for sure.
19:18I'm like, it just makes sense to do it.
19:20So.
19:21Yeah.
19:22You know, absolutely.
19:23Absolutely.
19:24What's the, what's the main, the main thrust and plot of that book?
19:28It's just pretty much a man's first step towards gaining emotional intelligence.
19:33Interesting.
19:34Yeah.
19:35And time.
19:35And a lump sum.
19:36That's literally what the man is about.
19:38Obviously.
19:39But it also.
19:41Like I said, all three books coincide.
19:44So you love, you learn pretty much takes place before 14 days in Beijing.
19:49And then you got 14 days in Beijing and real love never dies.
19:53It touches on China.
19:55When I was in China prior to getting arrested.
19:58And then it recaps after what it just takes up.
20:02It takes after 14 days in Beijing.
20:05Once I get to the airport in America.
20:08I think I was in Seattle.
20:09Yeah.
20:10When I landed in Seattle, boom, it picks up from what happened.
20:13And for the next couple of months, which was the, the, the breakup I went through as well.
20:20So it, it's juicy.
20:23It's juicy.
20:25For sure.
20:26Yeah.
20:26Good to see you.
20:27No, no, no.
20:28It's, it's been some, it's been some time seeing anyone now.
20:33Yes.
20:34Well, that's good.
20:36Yes.
20:36Yes.
20:37I don't imagine someone like you would stay single for very long.
20:40So.
20:41Yeah.
20:41Yeah.
20:42Yeah.
20:42That's no, that makes, that makes perfect sense.
20:46Um, what is your favorite part about the writing process?
20:51Um.
20:54You said my favorite what?
20:56Your favorite part about writing, the writing process.
20:59Uh.
21:00Honestly, I enjoy it all from the brainstorming to getting it down on paper.
21:12That's fun to me.
21:13So the intricate details when it comes to setting it up the way I like to set it up, um, on Amazon
21:21or whatever.
21:22Um, and then of course, just the marketing behind it as well.
21:25So I enjoyed the entire process, honestly.
21:27I don't, I can say I have a specific favorite because it's all just fun to me.
21:31It's just creating.
21:32It's like, it's a, it's a creative project you need to do.
21:36And it is, there's not no school assignment.
21:38You know what I'm saying?
21:38It's something you just want to do.
21:40You know what I'm saying?
21:40Creatively.
21:41And so it's like, it's no rules.
21:43It's no, nothing.
21:45You can do whatever you want.
21:46So, yeah, it's fun.
21:48No, no, absolutely.
21:50What are you working on now?
21:53Continue to market the power of a government.
21:55Um, so that's, that's the objective right now is already doing well on the charts.
22:02So it's just, it's if we keep foot on the gas.
22:05Keep putting, keep putting.
22:06Well, and you aren't, you aren't good at planning on writing something else?
22:10Oh yeah, for sure.
22:11Yeah, yeah.
22:12I thought 14 days in Beijing is going to be my phone book, but clearly I told a lot.
22:17So yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to come up with something else.
22:19I just, as of right now, I'm not sure.
22:22No, you need like a nice, like football player college romance story or something.
22:27That's yeah.
22:28Yes.
22:28You need something like that.
22:30Like, you know, so always write what you know is the first rule.
22:33That's you love, you learn.
22:35That's it.
22:36That's you learn.
22:37Cause I played college football.
22:38So it's literally all of that too.
22:40Oh, good.
22:40Excellent.
22:41Yes.
22:41Yes.
22:42Well, there's definitely, I'm sure more to, more, more, more to plumb there.
22:46So that's, that's very good.
22:49I'm going to be, I'm going to figure something else out.
22:52But content creating, that's something I've been dabbling in for the past few years as
22:59well.
22:59It has success with certain posts.
23:02So, um, my biggest goal, the end goal for me is to turn 14 days of Beijing into some type
23:08of film or show series, animation or something.
23:14That's the end goal for me for sure.
23:17No, that's not, I think it would be very, that'd be, that'd be very, that'd be very, that'd be
23:20very interesting.
23:21And there's lots of, uh, there's lots of new, new potentialities out there for, for that
23:26either as an indie with a little bit of fundraising.
23:28Did you hear Kat Williams is opening a new movie studio in Georgia?
23:32No, I didn't know it was in Georgia, but I heard he was opening up a new one.
23:36I believe it is in Georgia.
23:37Tyler Perry, move over.
23:38Um, so that's, you're getting a new neighbor.
23:44So, um, yeah, no, that's, uh, that's, no, that's, that's really, um, yeah, there's, there's
23:50lots of possibilities that that'd be really, really cool.
23:53Absolutely.
23:54Absolutely.
23:54Excellent.
23:55How would you, uh, how would you describe your, your style if someone was getting ready
24:00to read your books?
24:01Um, for the most part, right now it's going to be storytelling, storytelling, see what
24:11I'm saying?
24:11I'm telling like true stories of what happens start to finish, but it's always going to be,
24:16um, insightful as well as entertaining, entertaining, um, it's always something you can take away
24:27from anything that I put out at some point of facet.
24:31Um, no, absolutely.
24:33That's, that's quite, that's quite, that's quite, um, quite, quite impressive.
24:37Quite, quite, quite interesting.
24:39That's a very, I, I, it's kind of funny you should mention that.
24:41One of the kind of habits I had to break myself up is I, I love to naturally tell stories relating
24:49from experience or things that I've heard from people who are all this type of thing.
24:51Unfortunately, it doesn't often make for very good writing in the traditional literary sense.
24:56So I kind of had to get used to, you know, storytelling through description and dialogue
25:02and all this type of thing.
25:03But sometimes, and I kind of do this with short stories sometimes, sometimes it's kind of like,
25:07no, I just want to relate what happened to you.
25:09I don't necessarily want to go through create, recreating.
25:13I just, I want you to experience what, what happened and how and all this sort of thing.
25:19And there's, there's some really great traditions of that in short stories, in short, in short
25:24story telling.
25:25There we go.
25:26Um, and, uh, um, and so I, I, I like that as a, as a style that that's kind of where I started
25:33from before I, you know, learned everything else and MFA and all that fun stuff.
25:4014 days in Beijing, the original version was a short story.
25:42It was like 30 some pages and that's the craziest.
25:47No, no, no.
25:48I think, I think there's a lot of it that comes a bit, a bit naturally.
25:51So when I did my MFA, I was working on my creative project, which is called Sweetgrass
25:57Saga.
25:58And it is Downton Abbey set in the antebellum South.
26:02Um, only it's basically gone with the wind, but this time we actually get to hear from the
26:05black people.
26:06Um, and it's, it's set on the plantation, loosely based on the plantation where my family
26:13is from called Bowling Green in Northeastern Mississippi.
26:15Wow.
26:16Um, yeah, because my father is a genealogy nerd and so he has gone and figured all this
26:22stuff out.
26:23And so, um, yeah.
26:25And so, so alongside, so in my, in the process of my writing and researching for that, I then
26:31went and read just everything I could get kind of my hands on, um, in terms of black
26:39narratives, black slave narratives.
26:40I wrote my long critical paper on the importance of black narratives in the great American literary
26:45canon and why it's not there and how that needs to be fixed right away sort of thing.
26:49But the thing, and there's a point to the story, I promise, um, is I think the thing that I
26:54found most interesting is how natural, I think, storytelling comes to the diaspora in this
27:04country.
27:04And I was reminded of something a professor in college told me named Dr. Anita Fleming-Rife.
27:10Um, and she was talking about, you know, griots in Africa, a lot of African tribes, their only
27:16history was oral.
27:17And once the last one died, that was the end of their history sort of thing.
27:20Writing, it was not always developed everywhere.
27:23And I think so much of that storytelling tradition, that keeping of oral history has just stayed
27:29with us on the side of the Atlantic.
27:32Um, and I, I think that's just all what, you know, so anytime someone has a chance to,
27:38to do that or use that sort of style where it's, you know, it starts out as a sort of,
27:42we're just relating what happens and then expands on it.
27:45I always feel like that's a bit of a gift from the past.
27:48Um, that's what I think my, my publishing company around.
27:53So it's Corley Publications LLC.
27:55Corley is my middle name.
27:56It means the core, the bare essence.
27:59And that's what we bring, the bare essence of entertainment.
28:03And like you said, what we do back in the day, we had no TVs, no phone, no tablets,
28:07none of that.
28:08Yeah.
28:08I'm talking radio was all that.
28:10What we do to entertain ourselves.
28:11No, no.
28:12One of the things I, one of the things I talked about in my long paper on it, as I said, and
28:16I, cause I was talking about how I had really worked in my book to kind of jam in a lot
28:23of stuff that I had been told.
28:24And one of my friends, Ms. Terry was the black mother, right?
28:28My mom was white.
28:29She was the black mother.
28:30I didn't know I needed.
28:30And we have been friends since 2008.
28:33And she would always ask me, she's like, why does no one ever write about a lot of the
28:38stuff that happened to us during slavery and during Jim Crow and reconstruction?
28:42And I said, a lot of it just wasn't written down.
28:45She's like, yeah, I know it was, it's stories kept in families.
28:48And so I wrote about that, like a lot of this in a proud African tradition was kept orally.
28:57Literacy was rates were not high until the 20th century.
29:00A lot of this stuff was kept, was kept orally.
29:04And so a lot of the, a lot of stuff and things we know that went on with different things was
29:11kept in stories, in families.
29:13And I, and I, I told her, I said, I'm, I will do my part.
29:16I will put together an academic paper with this stuff and say, yeah, I went out.
29:23I told people, I can do interviews here.
29:25You know, here's the start of it and encourage other people to do, to do the same, to begin
29:30the process of writing it down.
29:31And it's kind of odd to be like, it's been 150 years since slavery.
29:34We haven't written this down yet.
29:35No, no, we haven't.
29:39Um, yeah, yeah.
29:41So I, that, I just, but I think quantifying that oral tradition into written literature
29:46is so important.
29:47So I'm just glad you were inspired to write down your own, your own story and find your
29:54own unique voice in relating it as well.
29:56So that's quite spectacular.
30:00I told you there was a point to this whole thing.
30:04No, I appreciate it.
30:06Yeah.
30:07Yeah.
30:07Yeah.
30:08So you, you started in the publishing, in the publishing business.
30:11Are you publishing anyone else right now or just yourself?
30:14Uh, so I've worked with countless people, especially since 14 days, the original book,
30:20I've worked with countless people.
30:21I've only had two people actually finish and see it all the way through the way, at least
30:27like adopt my formula and see it all the way through.
30:30I only had two people do that and both of their books were number one as well.
30:33So, so I know, I know what I'm doing.
30:38You know what I'm saying?
30:39I know.
30:39No, no, no.
30:40I mean, it's, I mean, we receive probably several dozen book ideas, leads at something
30:47that they're publishing all the time.
30:49Um, and out of a dozen, one may actually go all the way.
30:53So I'm not, I'm not surprised.
30:55Ideas are cheap.
30:56Writing is expensive and time consuming.
30:58Um, so it's, yeah, I mean, there, I definitely, that definitely makes, you know, makes a lot
31:04of, makes a lot, a lot of sense.
31:06And yeah, it appears you've really, you know, lit upon something.
31:09Um, so that's, that's quite, quite, quite amazing.
31:13So it's McKinney.
31:15That's the first author.
31:17Um, and then Tanisha Sadler at the time, Tanisha, she was only 15 years old when her
31:22went number one of number one for like nine straight days.
31:26So yes, big shout out to her too.
31:29No, no, no.
31:30That's quite, that's, that's quite impressive.
31:31So, well, excellent.
31:33So this is the part of the show where we do plugs.
31:36So, um, why don't you let us know where we can keep up with you online, where we can
31:42buy your book, all this sort of thing.
31:44Oh man.
31:45The best search engine, Google, Google Chancellor, Kay Jackson, everything you need will pop up
31:51from my social media accounts, website, books, other podcast interviews I've done, the whole
31:57nine.
31:58So now that's the best way to find everything I'm doing.
32:01Y'all gonna get y'all a copy of the PowerPoint coming.
32:03I feel like we're now on Amazon, um, and any inspired authors out there, I'm happy with
32:09your boy.
32:10Excellent.
32:11All right.
32:11Well, thank you for coming on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:14I appreciate you.
32:15Blessings.
32:16Everybody that tuned in for the whole episode, I told you, you're a real MVP.
32:31That's all for this episode of the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:34Thank you so much for listening.
32:36Visit us online at CameronJournal.com.
32:40We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
32:43And I love to talk to my followers and listeners.
32:45So please feel free to get us on social media at Cameron Cowan on Twitter.
32:50And we'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:53And we'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:54We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:54We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:54We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:54We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:54We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:54We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:54We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:55We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:55We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:56We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:57We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:58We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
32:59We'll see you next time on the Cameron Journal podcast.
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