From Burnout To Book Deals + Resiliency with Teri Brown (part 1)

Send us Fan MailBurnout can feel like a locked room; Teri Brown found the key on a tandem bicycle. After years in an emotionally abusive marriage, she rode 3,102 miles across the United States and came home with a bolder truth: the hardest part isn’t “can I do it?”—it’s “what do I want?” From that moment, the words flowed, and a novelist’s voice took shape.We dive deep into how Teri crafts character-driven fiction that feels timeless. She shows why people in the 1890s and people in 2025 share the same emotional DNA: grief, love, hunger, hope. You’ll hear the origin of Sunflowers Beneath the Snow, a Ukrainian family saga inspired by three pages of real events wrapped in eighty-two thousand words of imagination. Teri explains how she trades perfect, unbelievable protagonists for flawed, compelling humans, and why she’ll delete tens of thousands of words to protect a character’s voice.Creativity lives in the margins of our lives, so we talk about widening those margins. Teri “storms” along the beach to clear mental noise, writes in long, intuitive bursts, and uses retreats and coffee shops to put distance between the page and the laundry buzzer. We face the guilt many of us—especially women—feel about putting art before chores, and we offer practical ways to build boundaries that honor your work. Then we pivot to play: Little Lola and Her Big Dream, a children’s story about a train who wants to be an astronaut. The twist? NASA later announced its lunar rail concept, turning Lola’s “impossible” dream into a near-future headline.The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience is now available for download as an audible.  Check it out!Support the showSubscribe to Our Weekly ThinkLetter FacebookInstagramCheck out our Book Series:The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and ResilienceMagical Mornings JournalDisclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real EstateNatalie Davis is a licensed broker with Keller Williams Realty Downtown, LLC