Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX Studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is Fearless Formula with Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: And welcome to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX, where we talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I’m your host, Sharon Cline. And today in the studio we have the founder and executive director of Broadleaf Writers Association. He is also the author of four novels, including a novel called The Weight of Ashes, which was nominated for the Georgia Author of the Year Award in 2021. He has been in the AJC, the Publishers Weekly, Writer’s Magazine, Shelf Awareness, Great Name and City Lights with Lois Reitzes, which I listen to, uh, humbly. We’re so happy to have you in the studio. Welcome, Zachary Steele.

Zachary Steele: Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here.

Sharon Cline: Are you Zachary or Zach?

Zachary Steele: Um, it depends on what I’ve done that day. Um, no, I go by Zach most of the time. Professionally, I’ve stuck to Zachary. I think it makes my mom happy.

Sharon Cline: So only when you’re in trouble, you get called Zachary.

Zachary Steele: Only when I’m in trouble. So maybe I’m in trouble all the time. I really don’t know.

Sharon Cline: Today you’re Zach. How about that? So far? Yes.

Zachary Steele: On on most call centers, I’m Zachary. Oh, if that matters much. Interesting. So I don’t know okay.

Sharon Cline: That’s like when Siri calls Bucky’s busses. I don’t know if you’ve ever said not heard. Yeah. It’s like how do you get there. And it’ll just say busses on the left. You’re like, what?

Zachary Steele: Like I’m going somewhere. That is not where I think I’m going.

Sharon Cline: Well, I’m excited to have you here in the studio. You’re obviously an author, published author, successful, and you also really champion other authors, which is so great, which is kind of what I’m excited to talk to you about because it’s a bit of a passion project, like what I do with Fearless Formula. So why don’t we start with what Broadleaf Writers Association is about and how it got started for you?

Zachary Steele: Well, I’ve, um, I’ve been in the writing game for most of my life, and part of being a writer is going to conferences and getting involved in writing programs and things of that nature, and I found a few writing communities outside of the state that I really loved, and I loved the energy. I loved how much they inspired and assisted and supported one another. And I wanted that. And though we have pockets of some writing communities in Atlanta, I didn’t have that kind of defined, supportive, um, unit that, that I wanted so much. So I just started it, you know, I spent a year trying to figure out, okay, what is a nonprofit and how do you run one and and then found some people to help start with a board. And in 2015, we formed the organization and started running an annual conference and started slowly adding programing to it, which is now a podcast called Right Now. W-r-i-t-e W-r-i-t-e. Right now, right now, right now.

Sharon Cline: Um, amazing that you actually took a year to set it up properly and you had a lot to learn. I imagine, like you said, with the four one or what is it, 41C yeah.

Zachary Steele: It’s A50105011I.

Sharon Cline: Can.

Zachary Steele: Remember. It’s okay. It’s got some numbers.

Sharon Cline: Some numbers. Yeah. Nonprofit. So I don’t know anything about starting that. So what were the resources that you went to.

Zachary Steele: There’s um there’s a book by Bill Bryson called A Short History of Nearly Everything. And I love it because in the foreword, he talks about writing his book before that called In a Sunburned Country, and he was flying over the Pacific and seeing how big the ocean was and feeling very small, and suddenly had this desire to write this comprehensive book about everything. And so, in his words, he went around the world asking the smartest people the dumbest questions, and voila, there was a book. And I think that was my approach to starting broadleaf is I found people who run writing organizations who I consider to be the smart people, and went and asked them just pages of dumb questions until I got a grip on what I was doing. And that grip might have been like, you know, a greasy pole kind of grip, but but I had enough to get started. And, um, and we were able to get going. And I think it’s just been a learning process since then.

Sharon Cline: Your goal with broadleaf is to educate writers through seminars, webinars, programing and annual conference peer groups and networking events. So if I were a writer on my own, my little fledgling, whatever story, but I really want the support. That’s your sort of ideal person to be associated with the. Yeah, I mean.

Zachary Steele: I’d like I’d like to think we I mean broadleaf, the name comes from a couple of different things. Broad. We want to have a broad reach, genre, style, age, cultural background. It doesn’t really matter what it is. And the leaf is a page. And Georgia is home to the largest broadleaf forest. So it worked. And, um, and I like to think that we, we take that approach in everything we do. You know, we want to have, um, a large level of diversity. And I don’t just mean that as far as race or ethnic background or anything like that, I mean that in terms of what is written, what, what style, genre, age, it doesn’t really matter where you are in the process, whether you’ve just written your very first word or just want to write a novel, or whether you’ve published several books, we want everybody to be involved in this community and to have it be an inclusive place where you can come and be supported.

Sharon Cline: I saw on your Facebook page you have about 1500 people who follow.

Zachary Steele: Is that true?

Sharon Cline: Yes, that’s a lot. Well, I don’t know. Is that true? Wait, no.

Zachary Steele: No, it’s more of a social media thing where I’ve. I’ve kind of handed some of that off. But I also stopped paying attention to that number because I didn’t know what it meant in the end. Right.

Sharon Cline: I don’t I don’t even know exactly 1300. That’s a.

Zachary Steele: Good number. It means there’s 1500 people are somewhere in the algorithm.

Sharon Cline: That’s right. Which obviously touches that many lives. That’s important. What is the most satisfying part of being the founder and executive director of broadleaf?

Zachary Steele: Um, I don’t even know if it has anything to do with being the founder or executive director, other than I have a lot of communication with people, but my favorite time is when it’s the conference time and I’m there with a room full, or rooms full of writers who are pursuing this dream, this passion, and seeing the happiness as they as they connect. You know, for those who have never been to a conference and for me, when I went to my first conference, walking into that building is an eye opening experience. And instantly you are in a group of people who are you? They’re your people. They they share your joys. They share your failures. You know, they share the struggle of just trying to put words together, not to mention get published. And so being able to see them connect and then to have conversations with people who talk about how much it means to them to to be there with, with these people and to have learned what they learned and how inspired they are and ready to get back to write. And then the emails that I get throughout the year from people who are, um, anywhere on their journey and just looking for guidance, assistance, support, whatever it happens to be. Um, I love that part of it. And I don’t know if that’s because I’m the founder and executive director, or if it’s just because that’s what a writing community is.

Sharon Cline: What it sounds like you’re saying to me is, is the fact that there are that that feeling that you’re not alone because writing obviously seems to be such a singular, um, um, activity, but to have groups of people who only they, if they are in that same state of writing, can really understand and connect. That feeling of not being alone is powerful.

Zachary Steele: Yeah. And that’s one of the things that I say a lot is even though, um, making a book is not a solitary thing because you have a group of people who are helping you, when you sit down to write, you’re by yourself. It’s you and the people in your head. And that’s it. The friends that you have created and you exist by yourself, doing something, by yourself and going through a lot of the process by yourself. And it makes it all the more important to then get around other people who also do this by themselves, so that you can share and connect and make friends and mentors and find critique groups and beta readers and everything like that. I mean, you can’t do that in your room, you know? And so it’s it’s it’s a great part of it.

Sharon Cline: How exciting to see the lives that you affect and the potential legacy that gets left because of, um, being inspired as you were and you weren’t afraid to, to do it.

Zachary Steele: Um, I was terrified to do it. Okay. If you’re talking to me. Yes.

Sharon Cline: You felt the fear and you did it anyway.

Zachary Steele: Exactly. I felt the fear and did it anyway. I did it, um, because of the fear. I did it in spite of the fear, whatever it happens to be. But I feel like that’s that’s a lot of life is is. It’s okay to be afraid. That’s why I learned it took me a long time to learn that. But, um. But, yeah, I mean, I, I think my mom always put a. This way. We are like the bumblebee. She. She has done a lot of this in her life too. Just like. Well, I don’t have that. I’m going to just do it. We don’t know. We’re not supposed to fly. You know, physically, we’re not supposed to be able to do this. But. So we just do it. And and I feel like that’s kind of the approach that I took. And then somewhere along the way, I was kind of like, oh, wow, this is this is a lot. And and I certainly never do it because I want to have a legacy or so that I can be recognized. Right? I do love that. You know, I just just had an experience where I was at a Starbucks and somebody stopped random in the middle of nowhere, and somebody stopped. And they knew me from Broad Leaf and wanted to talk writing. And that was a cool thing. And that wouldn’t have happened without it. And for me, it wasn’t the recognition. It was being able to talk about writing with somebody that that knows that I’m a safe person to talk writing about. Um, and more. So, I mean, I just want it to live on beyond me. I want it to be something that isn’t about me. Never was about me. It was about the writing community. And then now the writing community is doing the work. You know, the board of directors that I have for Broad Leaf, they’re doing the work. And and that makes me smile. That’s another thing that makes me smile. And that is because of being in the position I’m in.

Sharon Cline: But I think the same way about this show because I don’t like it to be about me. I actually want to ask you a lot of questions. What’s it like to be you? What’s it like to be in your world? It’s exhausting. Yeah.

Zachary Steele: That’s what it’s like to be me.

Sharon Cline: Well, let’s go back to why it’s exhausting. Let’s go back a little bit. You’ve been okay. You’re from Florida, but you also did your high school years here in Georgia, um, in Forsyth County. Um, during that time when you’re in your formative years, did you always know you wanted to be an author? Did you always have stories in your head?

Zachary Steele: Yeah, I, I remember vividly, you know, when I started writing, I was 12. And, um, though I was probably a little young to be reading Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Allan Poe stories, really, and loving them. I loved the short story, and I started writing a lot of short stories at that time, and just I loved the creative side of it. I loved being able to tap into what is a very busy mind even then, and to pull things from it and create stories from it. So I, I always knew that that’s what I wanted to do. Um, like every writer, I’ve had many professions along the way. Um, but nothing that drove me as much as the the writing side of it. Hence, broadly, for I do freelance editing. I write, you know, I mean, it’s just like it’s an all encompassing thing that brings me joy. And it has since I was 12.

Sharon Cline: What other avenues like you were saying. You you do editing. And so what other ways are you in the writing world?

Zachary Steele: I mean, it’s all connected. It is. Right?

Sharon Cline: It’s huge. Right?

Zachary Steele: I mean, you know it. I whether I’m having just conversations with people about their work and trying to be a sounding board and offering feedback, or doing the freelance work, or doing the broad leaf side of it, or sitting down and writing my own stories, or going to conferences or festivals and having conversations about writing about the publishing industry. I’ve done several talks at local colleges for students that are in the writing programs about the publishing industry, or about writing. It’s kind of incredible how much there is attached to just the love of writing that has become part of my life.

Sharon Cline: You do a lot of interviews.

Zachary Steele: I do, I do. We have the podcast. Um, I’ve done, uh, writing programs in person, virtual. We have the conference. I was in the bookstore world for a long time and did author programs. I love being on your side of things for the same reason. It’s not about me. I just loved being able to get into why people are the way they are, why they do what they do.

Sharon Cline: That must be an interesting aspect of character development as well, because I’m so interested in people, other people, not so much myself. Let me just let me just clarify. Yeah, but in in having a love of, of human, you know, that must be part partly informs your way of making characters too, because I’m so interested in why people do what they do and with no judgment behind it, because everybody’s got their own way to live. And that’s great. Yeah.

Zachary Steele: You like, like me seem to enjoy channeling your inner five year old and and y y.

Sharon Cline: Yeah.

Zachary Steele: Y y. You know, you just keep asking because there’s always an answer to it. And when you’re talking about creating characters, I love the the frailty and and flaws of humanity as much as I love the good sides of it, you know, the great sides of personality and stuff like that and being able to take. What is from me, a living person in my head and build out what their history was, where they came from, and none of it ends up in the book. None of it ever sees light of day. But I understand them better. You know, it’s no different than sitting down as we did, you know, and just saying hello and then getting to know one another. Um, it’s my favorite part of creating stories is being able to create characters. And I guess I do okay with it, because I hear a lot from readers that talk about how the characters felt alive to them.

Sharon Cline: Have you ever met a person that sort of embodied the basic archetypes of some of the characters that you’ve made?

Zachary Steele: I think all of my characters have some element of many people that I’ve met. They’re never based off of one person, right? But they’re more of an amalgamation of of the many people that I have met, I though I’m much better about it now. I was never a talkative person as a child or even as an early adult. Um, I even still will sit quietly at a Starbucks or in a room and just watch people or listen. Um, not in a creepy kind of way, but in a I don’t really want to talk kind of way. So I’m just going to listen. And, and it’s interesting how much you can learn about not just the person, but about the human being that they are, that that we are.

Sharon Cline: Have you had to, through broadleaf, um, become more of an extrovert because of that? Or is it just as you’ve gotten older because I’m equal parts, I’m equal parts introvert, introvert and extrovert? I’m both. I’m 50%. So I do this. But then I shut down for a little while.

Zachary Steele: Yeah, I am, I am entirely an introvert and this will exhaust me to no end. Oh no kidding. Yes. And, um, I’ve I’ve said this so many times to people who have probably gotten tired of hearing this, but when I was a kid in school, if you were sitting next to me and you sneezed, I would blush because I knew everybody was about to turn around and look at me. I would not raise my hand in class because then I would have to actually use my voice. Um, I was just quiet, I was shy, I was awkward, I was all the things that a person who stands in front of 2 or 300 people and gives a speech is not. And I think that person, that kid, would have been terrified to know that this is what we’re going to be doing. And, um, and yet, as I’ve done it, as I’ve grown into it, um, I find that I love it, I love this, I mean, I do it’s and it’s not because I enjoy talking about myself. I’m like you. It’s like, I really don’t want to talk about myself, but I do want to talk about broadleaf, and I do want to talk about the characters I create and the stories that they live as if I not really the one that wrote it. I just want to talk about them, you know? Um, and, and I have found that I really thrive when I get that opportunity. I love it. Um, and then I go quietly, sit in a chair and, and try to recoup.

Sharon Cline: Some of the other authors that I’ve had on the show have talked about how much their characters start off one way in their mind, but as the story has developed, they they take on a life of their own. Have you found the same?

Zachary Steele: Um, the. Okay, so here’s another great advantage of being a writer going to a writer’s conference. This is a room full of people that are guaranteed to not look at you. Strange when you talk about characters like they’re real people. Yeah. And, um, and so when I say things like, well, I thought the story was going this way, but my character just refused to go. And so we ended up going this way. Or when I say I got stuck. So I stopped and I did a stream of consciousness interview with one of these characters, and she said something I’d never thought of before. The word never came to mind before, and it ended up being the answer. And so to answer your question, yes, because, um, and it’s part of a fantasy series that I’m working on is I very much believe that as writers, we are creating real world somewhere with real people in them. And, um, that doesn’t have to be true for me to love that and to to to live by it. So I the story and the characters will always guide where it’s supposed to end, even if I think I know where it’s supposed to go.

Sharon Cline: I’ve written songs before where I’ve had like, I have the melody already, and then I’m writing the song and I think I know what the theme of the song is, and it becomes something completely different. And it’s almost like why? You know who’s in charge here. Yeah, it’s a very interesting, uh, experience. Yeah. You know.

Zachary Steele: The, um, The Wizard of Oz is is a is largely it’s a book about grief. And, um, I didn’t realize until about halfway through it, and actually I had to stop for about 2 or 3 months, but I didn’t realize that I was processing grief from my childhood and having a best friend that committed suicide, and I just had never addressed it. And I started writing this book, and this all started pouring out, and I was like, oh my gosh, I didn’t even know I was carrying this with me. Um, what.

Sharon Cline: That must feel like. Yeah.

Zachary Steele: And so. So it’s very interesting to to then begin to dive into where stories come from and how we get the themes and the emotion into them, like, what are we drawing from?

Sharon Cline: So your book Weight of Ashes was nominated for the Georgia Author of the year in 2021. How did that happen?

Zachary Steele: Um, interestingly enough, um, that particular award used to be an open submission for writers, but then switched to publishers have to submit. And so my publisher submitted The Weight of Ashes for consideration, and it made it to the final ten. Wow. Um, in literary fiction in that particular category. And, um, I don’t know where it ended up in the voting. It wasn’t number one that I know.

Sharon Cline: How did that feel?

Zachary Steele: You know, just to be recognized. It felt fantastic. Um. I. Much like every writer, I still struggle with imposter syndrome. There’s still those moments where I feel like, ah, I don’t know if I’m supposed to do this or, you know, if I’m any good at this. I feel like I’m good at it. But having that level of validation always makes a difference. With my new book coming out perfectly normal, I have this list of authors that are like really big names, you know, that have given me these fantastic blurbs and sent me messages otherwise talking about how much they love this book. And I think that felt better than having, you know, the validation of being part of an award process or.

Sharon Cline: Do you feel like authors in general have to have or. Excuse me. Um. Maybe have a natural disposition of appreciating. The human experience. And loving the human experience, in other words. Connecting to different characters and making them so many themes unite us, you know, and are pervasive across the board of being a human. Do you believe that to be true? The thing.

Zachary Steele: That I. The thing that I believe most about writing and it may be it may not be universally true with every writer. But the thing that I believe the most about writing is that it it forces us to have a sense of empathy that we maybe didn’t have before. Because if you’re going to write a viable, believable, memorable character, it it has to have, um, it has to come from that character’s point of view. So everything, even if it’s polar opposite of the way I might think it has to come from that character. And so I begin to understand, even flawed, I begin to understand why people like in my characters sense anyway, why they make the decisions that they make, what led them to this situation. And, and I, I think personally have found that it’s created more patience with people than maybe I had when I was younger. And I don’t know if that’s a product of age of the writing, but maybe both. Yeah, but it for me, it’s a sense of empathy that it has generated and that I see that and hear that in conversations with writers more than I don’t.

Sharon Cline: Interesting. Because I was thinking, you’re sort of have a natural disposition, predisposition to have empathy, and that’s why you write, but you’re actually saying the opposite.

Zachary Steele: It may be that it existed before. And like I said, I don’t know if age has something to do with it. You know, just I’m maybe I just don’t have that knee jerk reaction that I might have when I thought everything meant the world was ending, um, more.

Sharon Cline: More fully realized empathy, maybe.

Zachary Steele: But I definitely in the last two books that I’ve written and the one that I’m working on now, I definitely feel like it has opened me up to people more than than I was before.

Sharon Cline: It’s really beautiful.

Zachary Steele: Oh, well. Good. I’ll write it down, so I’ll remember to say it again.

Sharon Cline: Do you have characters that you miss?

Zachary Steele: Um, yeah. And the fun part is, what I’m doing right now is the this third book that I’m working on with the publisher I’m with now, the Story Plant. Um, all of them take place in a fictional Georgia town called Hogan, and which is loosely based on my life in Georgia, but also in my life in Florida. So it’s a little bit of both. Um, and though I don’t have continuous stories with the same characters over and over, every story loops back with somebody else, or there’s some throwaway line about a character, or there’s something where you get a little bit more about what happened to the characters before. Um, and it’s allowed me to not necessarily have to let go of characters. Um, it’s it’s not. I think there are some where I’m fine. Um, this one coming up perfectly normal. My main character’s name is Nate, and I think I’m fine if that’s the last story I tell with him. I love him dearly, and he’s one of my favorite characters, but, um. But I don’t feel like I could miss him because he’s just always present. They don’t leave my head. They just don’t end up on the page again.

Sharon Cline: Do you? Feel like I’m trying to imagine if I were writing a character that I didn’t really love. Do you feel like you could embody those characters if you wanted to, because they’re so real to you in your mind?

Zachary Steele: You’re talking about the bad characters? Yeah. I’ve met some truly horrible people in my life. And, um, I think putting those kind of people on the page, it makes it easy to, for me as a writer to dislike them. I’ll never go as far as hate, because I feel like if I hate a character, I’m not going to want to write them truth. Um, and I think that’s where kind of digging in a little bit as to why is this character this way, and is there a path to redemption or are they hopeless kind of thing. But, um. I feel like the horrible people in my life helped define the bad people in my books. Mhm.

Sharon Cline: Well, living any, any place, any time. You’ve got some dark people that come in and out of your life. So state of the world. Yes it is. Yes. What do you think people generally don’t know about what it’s like to be a writer? The average person who isn’t a writer, what do you think they would really appreciate knowing.

Zachary Steele: That it that it’s harder than living itself? You know, I feel like I can I feel like I can do life a lot easier sometimes than I can accept the challenge of actually creating a story. Um, not to say that it’s so challenging that I can’t do it, obviously, but it is a hard, hard process. And you don’t just create a story and then, you know, if you have a publisher, if you’re fortunate enough to and then it’s in a book, even as somebody who has published work, I create a book and I might I might have my editor come back and say, no, this doesn’t work. Wow. Or you need to go rewrite this part of it, or we need more on this part of it, or this character doesn’t make sense right now. And so you have to go back through. And if you’re if you’re a reader and you’ve gone to author talks before and you’ve, you’ve countlessly, I’m sure heard an author say, I’m just tired of reading my book. And it’s true because you write it and then you go edit it, who knows how many times, and you have to read it through every single time. Then if you’re fortunate enough to get an agent or an editor to get it published, you have to go through three levels of edits with the publisher. The first is a story, the second is, you know, going through, um, the characters and all that kind of stuff. And then the last one is the dreaded grammar and punctuation, which, sorry to say, I am not a great, great person, but, um, but you read it. You read it so many times that you know it. It’s one of those things you’re just ready to move on. So it’s not it’s not just you sit down and create it and then it’s a book. There’s so there’s so much involved. And that doesn’t even speak to everything that’s involved in between that.

Sharon Cline: So if I were an author who didn’t have a publisher, if I was a self published. Person. Can you tell me the positives and negatives? I get the financial aspect of being a published author and having the backing. I understand that part, but I’m imagining me feeling like I’ve written a really good book and I’m happy to publish it on my own. And then an editor telling me all the things I need to to change. I’d be so mad. Yeah, that would be hurt, probably.

Zachary Steele: And that’s, you know, they talk about thick skin and all that, but you have to get used to it. You have to get used to the feedback. And one of my go tos is always you have to get past the hurt and hear the words, because nobody wants to write something and then have somebody tell you, no, there’s something in there. It doesn’t work because in your head you’re like, yeah, no it’s great.

Speaker3: Yeah. Right. No, you know I love this, you know.

Zachary Steele: And so and it doesn’t really matter how many times you’ve been published, you still have those moments where an editor or an agent comes back with, like, this doesn’t work. And in those moments, it’s a gut punch and it’s not something you ever get used to. Um, you just have to learn to, to take some time to process it and to see that, you know, their ambition is the same as yours, to create the best book possible. And it doesn’t mean that all of their opinions are correct, but it is part of the process for you to hear it and see if there is something that you need to do.

Sharon Cline: What an ego check that would be for me.

Zachary Steele: Oh, it’s difficult for people who can’t check their ego, I will tell you that.

Sharon Cline: Do you have to develop the skill of being able to put yourself aside? Because it’s a it’s a it’s a part of your soul.

Speaker3: It is, you know.

Sharon Cline: So it’s so precious.

Zachary Steele: Yeah, exactly. I mean, it is um, I equate it to losing somebody in your life, you know, taking something out of you and putting it out into the world. It’s obviously a very different thing, but it is part of you that no longer exists anymore. You know, in that working state, it is something that is beyond you. Maybe it’s better to equate it to a child growing up. I don’t know, but you know, it is part of you that exists in the world that you no longer have any control over. So yeah, child is better than. Yeah. And less morbid.

Speaker3: Um, but.

Zachary Steele: But yeah, it, um, it’s one of those things you have to, you have to be able to, to distance yourself from it at that point.

Sharon Cline: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the independent booksellers and as opposed to the big booksellers. I saw that you had posted that an article from ABC news about independent booksellers continued to expand in 2023, with more than 200 new store openings. That’s so exciting to hear.

Zachary Steele: I think you know. It’s interesting that the independent book community was thriving. Late 90s early 2000. Barnes and Noble borders, you know, sort of aid into that. And then independent bookstores started to die off. And, um, while the rest of the world is going the opposite way, where big corporate stores are the dominant ones over local like Amazon. Yes, over locally owned things, bookstores have started to grow. And that’s a fantastic thing, because it tells you there are still enough readers to support that. But but also it means that people are relying more on their community for, for that that entertainment for the books. Um, and, and I love that. I love seeing the independent bookstores growing again, because, I mean, I came from the independent bookstore world. I owned one for a brief time, and I saw that.

Speaker3: Yeah.

Zachary Steele: And and I still am very much indebted to them, not just personally, but professionally as well. And I want to support them and see them do well. So those stories make me very happy. Wordsmiths, wordsmiths.

Speaker3: Books, books.

Sharon Cline: How did you own wordsmiths books? Um, was 2000.

Speaker3: It was.

Sharon Cline: 7 to.

Speaker3: 2009. We opened.

Zachary Steele: In 2007, which was a wonderful time to open, because in the fall of 2008, the economy.

Speaker3: No right.

Zachary Steele: And so much like people who opened a business a year before Covid, there’s not much you can do when an entire economy collapses and there’s not people shopping, especially as a bookstore, because you run on razor thin margins. It’s not, you know, you don’t make a lot of money in a bookstore, right? And so when you when you have something disappear that large and yet you still have to pay people and you still have to pay rent, and you still have to pay utilities and pay for the books that come in. It can you can get underneath really quick. And we.

Speaker3: Did. Did you always.

Sharon Cline: Want to own a bookstore then?

Zachary Steele: I it was always a dream of mine. And I love that we, we had enough of an impact that I still, um, 15 years later and it’s been 15 years since it closed. Um, I still have people who will talk to me about that bookstore, and we we were there for a very short period of time, but I loved what we did because we were we were a bookstore, but we were also a music venue. And we would bring in, we would bring in I had this one, this great person, Russ Marszalek, who did all my programing, and he would bring in great authors, but also bring in these bands and, and we would have little intimate, you know, little.

Speaker3: Mini 40.

Zachary Steele: 50 person concerts. And some of these people actually went on to something. And so it was really it’s really cool.

Sharon Cline: Did you find that the pandemic really impacted authorship?

Zachary Steele: I can answer that from two sides. The Weight of Ashes came out during the pandemic. So yes, um, that publication was delayed twice because of paper shortages. And then when it came out. It was right in between the first phase of Covid and the Delta phase of Covid. There was about four weeks when that book came out that I could do. I did like 3 or 4 events and then I couldn’t do anything else. And so, um, that was unfortunate because again, it’s something I’m proud of and I want to be able to share with people. And I had people interested in doing events and stuff, but who was going to do them in person when you had Covid, you know. So, um, and then from a, from a broadleaf standpoint, um, yeah, absolutely. Because we could only do virtual programing and virtual programing is great because you can sit and watch an author talk or a conference or anything in your PJs, you know, whatever it is that makes you happy at home, popcorn dog, whatever. You know, you’ve got everything you need to feel comfortable and entertained. But the one thing you’re not going to do is buy a book because you don’t have them in front of you. And so if we had a book event or if an author was going to a bookstore that was doing a virtual programing where they might have sold ten, 15 books, they were selling 1 or 2.

Speaker3: Wow.

Zachary Steele: And and that’s just the people that were willing to actually then contact the store and say, hey, can you ship this to me? So it became very difficult on authors and therefore on bookstores and everybody in the industry because, um, the books themselves, the physical books weren’t selling. Now, that said, audiobooks and ebooks spiked and and that was good. Those weren’t because of programs necessarily, but because people were at home and they needed to absorb that, that that.

Speaker3: Passion.

Sharon Cline: Because broadleaf started in 2015. So you had five years of normalcy and then an immediate change. So you were able to compare and contrast what what the pandemic did.

Zachary Steele: Um, we were prepping for our fifth conference at that time and had to pivot. And, um, we like other because I stay connected with other executive directors and like other writing organizations, with the virtual conferences, we had one third the attendance of what we did in person. And then when we got back in person, we’ve had to build like this past year. We were getting to 2019 levels of attendance, and I think we’ll finally get there again this year. So it’s basically a five year period of of I don’t stalling and then having to push yourself downhill, you know, to get going again. And so um, we’re still and bookstores are no different with program. We’re still feeling the impact of it.

Sharon Cline: What does that say about physical presence?

Zachary Steele: Um, it says a lot, you know, I mean, it says one, that there is a very large portion of people who are very, very happy not leaving their home, especially think about, like, the Atlanta area, I mean, ten miles away. May as well be two days. You know, you’re not going you’re not going to go halfway across town for something when you can just sit at home and enjoy it. Um, and that speaks to our culture of the way we absorb things now. Um, but also, you know, seeing the attendance start to grow again. And I think, you know, we’ll get back to our levels and exceed it, that there’s still that hunger to have that personal connection, that personal contact. And, and I think that will never go away, even if like with our conference, we’re now doing a hybrid approach, the virtual side will still continue to grow. While the in-person part is is getting back to levels and then growing above it.

Sharon Cline: Will you tell me a little bit about the story plant? I see that you are. That’s your publishing company, correct? That is. Yeah. I read a little bit about it was founded in 2008. Um, and it’s been dedicated to publishing quality fiction and developing authors. How did you get associated with them?

Zachary Steele: Um, broadleaf, actually.

Speaker3: Um, interesting.

Zachary Steele: Yeah. Because through connections, I’m always looking for publisher representatives, editors, agents to whatever to bring into the conference. And, um, through a mutual friend, I was connected with Lou Aronica, who is the the main dude at the Story Plant. And honestly, as a man who knows more about storytelling than anybody I’ve ever met and has a tremendous history in the publishing industry dating back into the 80s and being personally responsible for starting a line of books, uh, that have to do with Star Wars novelizations when that didn’t exist. And so, um, you know, I have complete trust and faith in him. And when he said he was interested in the weight of ashes, I was like, I don’t want to talk to anybody else, you know, because I wanted it in his hands. And it became a much better book, much as perfectly normal did. It became a much better book dealing with him and his editing staff.

Sharon Cline: Will you tell me a little bit about how you said there’s a bit of a love story involved with the pandemic?

Speaker3: Oh, yeah.

Sharon Cline: So I’m such a romantic. I’m really excited.

Speaker3: To hear about this. It’s it’s.

Zachary Steele: Uh. You know, I, um, the pandemic will always be what it is, and there’s a lot to look back at that and go, oh, that was such a terrible time. Uh, my love life was not one of them, and I’m so. It was so random. I connect with people through broadleaf that are associated with other writing organizations. And at that time, actually, on this day, according to Facebook, five years ago, I connected serendipity. I connected with Jess, who was who was actually, um, overseeing Georgia writers through Kennesaw State University. And, um, we never communicated. I just, I sent a friendship. She took it. And then two years passed. Yeah, two years or so passed. And no, it’s like the way the algorithms work, this should not have happened. But she posted something about The Queen’s Gambit, and I saw it and commented on it. And then the next thing I know, we’re talking in messenger and then we’re meeting up and, um, and she’s like my other half. I mean, she’s just the most wonderful, supportive person that I could have ever asked for. And I love her and and her daughter. You know, as if we’ve always been together. And so. So for me, the pandemic pandemic forced me more on social media, which led to this random thing that turned into a relationship that has essentially redefined what my life is. And I don’t know, I mean, I guess I owe Facebook.

Speaker3: So people can say what you say.

Zachary Steele: About Mark Zuckerberg, but, you know, I owe him. I owe him my relationship.

Sharon Cline: You couldn’t have made that happen, though. Do you know what I mean? Like there’s no way to contrive that, um, it’s just, uh, serendipity.

Zachary Steele: Yeah, I think so. I think it was. I mean, we we talk about it all the time. It’s like it’s something that was supposed to happen, and it was beyond our control.

Speaker3: There’s something other than.

Zachary Steele: Other than to, you know, be able to talk to one another afterwards.

Sharon Cline: There’s something nice about that. Like a surrender in a little bit to me in that, like there are forces beyond our control that have, you know, ideas about what our lives are going to be like. There’s only so much we can control. Yeah, it’s kind of nice.

Speaker3: Yeah, I like it.

Zachary Steele: I like I like the idea of thing of the world and of life being bigger than we see it.

Sharon Cline: I’m glad I it’s not always the best to see it.

Speaker3: No. If it if.

Zachary Steele: It was all up to me, my, my world and the world itself would be in a total.

Speaker3: Mess.

Sharon Cline: My world would be have anxiety, like, riddled through it. Um, where would you like to see yourself? Like, what are your like five years from now? Ten years from now? What would you like your life to look like?

Zachary Steele: That’s tough because that’s a different question than it was 20 years ago. Just, you know, because I was thinking more about the professional side of my life. And though I am not where I want to be, you know, success as a, as a, as an author, it’s a personal definition. Um, I could say I’m successful in that. I’m working on my third book with the same publisher, and, you know, that’s success. It doesn’t matter what the numbers are. Um, where I would like to be is in 5 to 10 years, I would like to personally be able to sustain me and my family on my writing world, whether that’s, um, just the writing or writing and editing, whatever it happens to be. Um, I would like that to be. I’ve been kind of like, you know, a hoarder of things. I will carry a bunch at one time, um, and stay very busy. But I would like to simplify at this point and just focus entirely upon the thing that brings me the most joy professionally, obviously, personally as well.

Sharon Cline: Do you ever want your books to become a movie? Because in my mind, I’m picturing the story that I would write is like a movie in my mind, right? Yeah.

Zachary Steele: I mean, we are we’re a we consume visually, most of it, you know, I mean, you have podcasts, you have radio programs, things like this that, that are very auditory. But everything else is visual. Reels, TikTok, YouTube, everything that we consume is visual. And so when I write, I try to write visually. And so there’s a cinematic sense to the approach that I take. And I would love if they were handled correctly. I would like to say that that is a qualifier. I would love to see them as films or a series or whatever it happens to be that allows a story to get out there. So yes.

Speaker3: Absolutely.

Sharon Cline: So exciting. Because the fact that you already write cinematically, it’s like a step ahead, you know, where it wouldn’t be that difficult to then.

Zachary Steele: And I go back to to Lou Aronica as well, because he, he very much preaches detail and sensory detail and, and when you start to put a lot of sensory detail into a story, you start to evoke a visual. You start to evoke this sense of of being in that place while it’s happening. And, and I’ve very much taken that and run with it. And, and so I don’t there’s not a lot of rambling narrative in my work. There’s, there’s a lot of dialog, there’s a lot of action. There’s a lot of movement in, in not short chapters, but but short enough that, you know, you see the quick scene and then we move on kind of thing or carrying you to the next one. So I, I like writing that way.

Sharon Cline: Usually I look this up before the show, but I didn’t this time. Um, shame on you.

Speaker3: I don’t even know what we’re talking about.

Sharon Cline: Audiobook wise, do you have an audiobook for your books.

Zachary Steele: For Perfectly Normal? I do, and that was the first one, and it was such a surreal experience to we. I was able to listen to the final four candidates do a sample chapter. They all did the same chapter and and hearing four different interpretations of the same one. And I was out there with Jess, and we listened to him and listened to him and listened to him. And we finally chose Tyler Pirrung, who did his pirrung who did the narration or did the audiobook for Perfectly Normal and did a fantastic, fantastic job. But being able to listen to something like, I talk about not wanting to read my book again, but dang it, I listened to that thing. I downloaded it from audible and I was like, hmm.

Speaker3: This is great.

Zachary Steele: Um, so it’s a really surreal experience and I hope, I hope all of my books get that going forward.

Sharon Cline: I imagine when you’re hearing another voice, not your own, in your head, read your words. It’s like hearing it for the first time. I know I’ve done some books for some authors for their very first time. Hearing their story come from someone else’s voice. Yeah, how interesting that is and how legitimate it sounds as well. Like it’s this is a real story, right.

Zachary Steele: And and as somebody who does this, you know, and has done this, you know, before, um, you get to you get feedback, obviously the author gives you information about the characters and everything, but you still get to interpret it in some sense your way. And when Tyler did perfectly normal, there was one character in there that he interpreted in a way I had never envisioned.

Speaker3: Wow.

Zachary Steele: Just completely like he turned this character who’s like this YouTube, you know, wannabe viral person, a very high energy sort of thing. And he turned him into a lack of better phrasing, a New York Jew that, that and I listened to it, and at first I was like, what is that? And I started listening to it more and I was like, no, that’s that’s right. That’s what he is. And it was great because I hadn’t he’s, you know, a secondary character that appears in a few scenes. So it wasn’t central to my story, and I’d never really given it much thought. But being able. To hear somebody interpret a character and then the other characters as well. But this character in particular, in a way that I had never imagined it and will never be able to unimagine it now was it was really fun, I enjoyed it.

Sharon Cline: People ask me when I’m reading a book, doing the audio book narration, if I’m, like, really absorbing the story as I’m reading it. And it’s interesting. I don’t know if everybody does this because I don’t talk to anybody else that does these books. I probably should, but in my little booth, I’m reading the sentence, and it’s the energy behind the sentence that is most important to me. The words are obviously the way you get the energy out, you know, but they’re the vehicle for it. But like, is this sarcastic moment? Is this an angry moment? Is this a reticent moment? All of those different emotions are what is most important to me as I’m reading like a sentence or the paragraph, what is the point of this paragraph? You know, it’s to move the story forward. Well, what’s the, you know, the overall theme of it? And so it’s interesting to me because these characters, um, they’re very real to me as well, because they are different aspects of me I get to tap into. And it’s um, and I do know the story, but it’s more the emotion behind it. Like, I can tell you about the emotions, what drives this person as opposed to this person. The details of the story don’t seem as, at least as far as my narrating, aren’t like the most important thing. It’s more like I want the audience to feel what this whole sentence is all about. And yeah.

Speaker3: And I think.

Zachary Steele: That’s that’s a vital part of that particular job. Um, and I think it’s no different than looking at it from a movie standpoint or a television show, whatever series is that, you know, the, the actors portraying them. I don’t know why I said.

Speaker3: Actors as I turn into.

Zachary Steele: David Cross from Arrested Development. Um, anyway, the actors, the actors are putting that emotion into the characters, and they’re drawing everything out of who that character is for that moment. And I appreciate that you say that because, um, that’s such a vital component to that art.

Sharon Cline: Well, my goal always is for the author to feel like I’ve reflected what they wanted, you know, like, again, it’s sacred work in my mind because this is a part of your your mind and your soul and your energy and time. And I just like I know that, of course, the audience is who you’re ultimately wanting to please. But my goal is, are you happy? Is this what you imagined? Do you want anything different? Because I’ll do it. You know, I’m just such a pleaser regarding that. But it works for this.

Speaker3: So what you’re saying.

Zachary Steele: Is you turn into a party host.

Speaker3: So basically, is everybody happy? Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Are you good? Do you like that? Because I can do it different.

Speaker3: Do it differently.

Sharon Cline: I can do it better. I could do it better. I always feel like I can do it. I’m not stressed.

Speaker3: No no no no no.

Zachary Steele: You’re not an anxious person at all I don’t relate.

Sharon Cline: Well, Zachary Steele, I can’t thank you enough for coming to the studio and sharing what it’s like to be on your side in your world, and I admire so much that you have such a love of writing that it’s not about the popularity of yourself or the money. It’s more about encouraging other people to appreciate writing as much as you do. And that’s that’s such a beautiful mission. And like, I know that you’re like, it’s not about you, but it’s so exciting to imagine where all of this will end. Some, you know, someone’s life can be so impacted by a book that was encouraged to be written because you said a couple words that you would have never known. It’s it’s one of those things where it lands, where it’s supposed to, but it’s so exciting to imagine where it lands. Yeah. Because you have such good intentions behind it.

Speaker3: Yeah, I.

Zachary Steele: Try I don’t know what else to.

Speaker3: Say.

Zachary Steele: I try talking about me again.

Speaker3: I don’t know.

Zachary Steele: Um, no, but I look, I enjoyed this this has been a fantastic conversation and I’m, I’m glad to have had the opportunity. And any time I can talk about Broad Leaf and talk about myself a little bit.

Speaker3: Throw yourself in there a little. Just a little bit. Um, then.

Zachary Steele: You know, it’s it’s it’s a joy. And so and if we can do anything and I will always say we if we as an organization can do anything to help people find their way on their dreams, and even if that writing and that education that they gain helps them personally or professionally otherwise, then then we’ve done a good thing. And based on what we hear, I feel like we’re we’re on our way.

Sharon Cline: Well, if anyone wanted to get in touch with you, what would be the best way?

Speaker3: Go out of.

Zachary Steele: Your door and just scream my name, I’ll come running. Um. I’m always.

Speaker3: Listening. Superman hearing?

Zachary Steele: No. Um. Uh, broadly, Reuters.com is where you’re going to find Broad Leaf. Um, I’m. I’m easy to find. There’s contact points on there. Um, Zachary steel.com is where you can find information about me again. There’s there’s contact points on there. I’m also on social media and easy to find because I don’t have privacy settings. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

Sharon Cline: No, I’m the same way.

Zachary Steele: I think professionally I feel like I have to leave the doors open, you know, for people to come in.

Speaker3: It’s unnatural.

Sharon Cline: Isn’t it, though? I don’t like.

Speaker3: It.

Sharon Cline: It’s I do the same. And I’m just like, who’s looking at this?

Speaker3: Like I’m also.

Zachary Steele: That person at home is like, are the neighbors?

Speaker3: Coming over.

Zachary Steele: I don’t know if I want that.

Speaker3: Um.

Zachary Steele: But, um. But. Yeah. So, no, I mean, I’m very easy to find, and the weight of ashes is already out. Perfectly normal is coming out later this summer. Um, I hope people will experience Nate’s journey.

Sharon Cline: Well, I would love to have you back some time if you were ever interested. And and talk about more of the things that you’ve learned along the way. Um, I just really appreciate your being so candid with me, and thank you for taking the time to come to the studio.

Speaker3: Sure.

Zachary Steele: Thank you for inviting me.

Sharon Cline: Sure. And thank you all for listening to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX. And again, this is Sharon Cline reminding you that with knowledge and understanding, we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day!