The Book Drop Mic with Jason Wright

Steve Dunn Hanson: Light: A Story of Discovery and Transformation

• Season 1 • Episode 8

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Steve Dunn Hanson joins Jason to chat about his brand new book, LIGHT — A Story of Discovery and Transformation. You'll enjoy their discussion on how fiction has the power to do much more than entertain. Writers like Steve have a gift for inspiring us to make changes in our lives, sometimes long overdue changes, and to really ... feel. We're honored to welcome Steve to The Book Drop Mic.

Buy Steve's book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CN5YNZ5G

Learn more about Steve:
https://stevedunnhanson.com/

Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com

About the book:
When a tech executive’s seemingly perfect life is turned upside down by his family's sudden abandonment and his business's looming failure, he begins to have otherworldly dreams that can unlock a new reality and transform his destiny.

Alef Welch, a brilliant young CEO, is living a charmed life as head of a trendy conversational software company until his wife and daughter unexpectedly leave him. As he tries to reunite his family, a trusted business colleague turns on him as well, and the company he’s dedicated his life to is about to flatline. As he drifts toward the black hole that seems to be his fate, he has extraterrestrial dreams that open the door to unimaginable potential and freedom. He is left with a momentous choice between his current life and the possibilities of his dreams. But will the promise of a new world be worth the price of leaving his old one behind?

Written in the same vein as Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, this compelling story of personal growth and spiritual awakening will leave you feeling inspired and hopeful.

This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.

Speaker 1:

Hello, my friend, welcome to the Book Drop Mike brought to you by Ink Veins. You might know that Ink Veins is becoming your source for book publicity, promotion and press releases. Also so excited to remind you that the Christmas show tickets are, yes, on sale. Yes, they are indeed on sale. We are heading to 20 cities. Jenny Oaks Baker, her five years family and I heading to 20 cities between, well, black Friday and December 23rd.

Speaker 1:

So excited, a little exhausted, but mostly excited thinking about this tour and going to seven, eight states, something like that, plus Calgary. We're so excited about it and we hope that if we're coming to a city near you that you'll come say hello. Ticket information available at JennyOaksBakercom. You can, of course, visit my website as well and find links. There's a VIP reception happening in most of the cities before the show where you can chat with us and Jenny and take a photo and get a copy of our brand new book Witnesses of Christmas. Excited about that as well.

Speaker 1:

Okay, really mostly excited about today's guest, not just because I think that he's an exceptional writer, but because I think that we see fiction similarly as a tool to transform, inspire, maybe even nudge people to change, even if it's just a tiny adjustment here and there in our lives. We met at a writer's conference some years ago and have known each other ever since, been friends. He's such a good man. His name is Steve Don Hansen and I'm so glad to welcome him here at the Book Drop Mic. How are you, my friend?

Speaker 2:

I'm doing really well. Thank you for having me here.

Speaker 1:

I was so excited, excited to do this, excited to have you talk about your new book, a Light, a Story of Discovery and Transformation which, by the way and you pointed this out to me very humbly before we began taping today it is number one in your category on Amazon as of this taping right now. Congrats on that. That's pretty fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you.

Speaker 1:

All right, we're going to talk about the book, of course, but first, I think our audience would probably appreciate knowing I think they always do a little bit about the creator before necessarily hearing about the creation. So you, as the writer-creator of this fantastic new book, who are you, steve?

Speaker 2:

Well, maybe I'm still trying to discover that. I've had a little experience in my life. I have been in everything from a political pollster to a volunteer chaplain in the jails. I have a wonderful wife that we've been married for many decades and we have a house full of grandchildren who we rent out, if you're interested. And my writing I've been writing kind of on the side for several decades and now more or less full time at it. I've had publications, my articles have been in national magazines and I have something like eight or nine books that have been published.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic. Well, I just have to back up for a minute, because you said something that made me smile the fact that you worked in politics and political polling, and also as a chaplain at a jail those two things might be more similar, perhaps, than we realize.

Speaker 2:

Maybe some similar personalities, huh.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. I have read through your full bio on your website and of course listeners know that links to all the good things that you do and who you are, and your books will be available in the show notes. So be sure to check those out and just click, click here and there to go see more about Steve. But yeah, your full bio is pretty, pretty fascinating the things you've done, and we'll link to that and I would invite people to maybe dive in a little bit deeper than you might normally.

Speaker 1:

Steve has lived a long and interesting life for some pretty interesting educational, transformational experiences, some might say that have led him to. I think as we get older and we have more experiences, our writing just gets better. That's just the nature of being a writer. I think painters and songwriters and everyone would say the same thing, particularly in the arts, that the longer we live, the more we absorb our day to day experiences, the people we meet, the conversations we have, the successes and the trials, all the failures, those things all add up to a really interesting canvas that we get to work with as we create and I certainly think that applies to this to like a story of discovery and transformation, which I kind of tease in the beginning.

Speaker 1:

Steve, I think you and I sort of share this in common, this idea that, yes, we can write fiction that is entertaining and compelling and of course it's fiction, so it's just coming out of our noggin, right. But I think that we can if we're interested in doing it and not all writers are, and that's okay but I think we can also use fiction to teach some real life principles. So talk to us about the new book and how. Maybe this idea that you're doing more than entertaining but you're trying to teach, maybe it applies here.

Speaker 2:

In line with what you were saying. I was just thinking. As one gets older, it isn't just the experiences that they've had that perhaps gives them greater understanding, but perhaps their ability to articulate what they have experienced and how that might apply in other people's lives increases as well. This book Light is maybe allegorical, is a correct word to use here where I've tried to use interesting and symbolic contexts here to bring out aspects of our lives that we might take a close look at and make modifications that could bring a greater deal of satisfaction and happiness and purpose in our lives. And the context I've set this in is the idea that there are other universes and that those other universes are more involved in our lives than what we think about.

Speaker 2:

For example, I start the book off with a conversation between unnamed individuals that goes something like this I have a question yes, are there other universes? Yes, are there intelligent beings there? Yes, do they interface with us? Yes, how? Why? You'll know when you're ready. So that kind of introduces the book itself and the story involves a young man who is a computer guru, who is involved in the startup of a company and they've just done fantastically well with the conversational AI, artificial intelligence. But his life has been focused on his business and not on his wife and his five-year-old daughter. And they leave him and this kind of opens up the door for a period of discovery and he starts having these strange dreams of his grandfather, who died 15 or 16 years before. And they aren't just dreams but they're real.

Speaker 2:

And it turns out his grandfather says he's in another universe and he's giving counsel to his grandson in what he calls tenets that are principles that will help this young man see himself clearly and his faults and his challenges in ways that he hadn't seen before. And anyway, that opens up the door for an opportunity to change his life. But the big question is, will he change his life? And maybe that's the question that each one of us ask ourselves.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, not just will we, but are we even willing to, or are we willing to even have the conversation to accept that maybe our lives do need to change or, as I said earlier, be nudged in one direction or another? This feels a little bit like the shack which was such a breakout hit, maybe. What was that 10 years ago? You read the shack, you familiar with it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, this would be along the same lines. Another principle or another thought that comes in here is how do we look at our experiences? They are temporary, but we let them absorb us on occasion and we let them dictate to us who we will be, rather than who we are dictating to the experience how we're going to handle it.

Speaker 1:

Interesting. So is the book for someone who's trying to improve their marriage, their relationship with their partner. Is it broader than that? If someone's listening right now and trying to decide do I go check this out or not, do they need to check a box in order to go pick this up?

Speaker 2:

Not at all. In fact, a book that I've compared it to is the All-Kinlist, where the principles are general and are to be applied in specific conditions or circumstances. The storyline here has to do with a marriage on the one hand. It also has to do with his dealings with his partners in his business and the challenges he's having there. The principles can be applied across the board and I think are applicable to just about everybody period regardless of what your vocation or your marital status is or where you are in your life. You could be 20 years old, you could be 80, and they're still applicable. I think interesting to contemplate.

Speaker 1:

Those are terrific comparisons, the All-Kinlist love, love, love that book. For those that have not read it, it's by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. It is a gorgeous, gorgeous book and it has been an international bestseller Every place. The book has been translated, it has made an impact in the world and love, love, love that book. And compared to also, as you said, to the shack, which I enjoyed a great deal. The movie had some changes made. Many people listening probably saw the movie and perhaps didn't read the book. But if you did see the movie and didn't read the book, I would recommend going back and reading the original shack.

Speaker 1:

It's such an interesting way again to introduce these principles, whether they are religious or spiritual, just this idea that you can sort of step into this other world knowing that you're suspending disbelief. Right, you have to sort of say, okay, I recognize that the author is creating something here. For me, this isn't nonfiction, it's not, you know, even historic fiction. It's just this completely new world that came, in this case, from Steve's head. But, boy, when I'm there, the lessons, the emotions, the conversations, even the dialogue feels real to me, and I think that's how we learn. And as someone who's written a number of books that sort of fall into this category, whether it's the 17 Second Miracle or Christmas Jars and even the Christmas show that I've created with Jenny Oaks Baker. You know it's about this fictional shepherd named David. It's the role that I play in the show and of course he didn't exist and he even admits at the end of the show that he's not a real character, that it's just me playing him. But we hope, as people experience the show or, in this case, your book, they're willing to say okay, I get it, it is fiction, this isn't real, but I think I can learn something from this and I think my life can be better in a really nonfiction kind of way. I just think that's such an interesting marriage when we do that.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you're listening and you love books that perhaps don't lean on theme, perhaps you like novels that are just it's the beach read, you read it, you enjoy it, you stick it on the shelf. You maybe even forget you ever read the thing. That is completely okay. And who hasn't read a book like that? That it's sole purpose whether it's a Grisham or a Patterson or whatever it's just to entertain you, to just take your mind off your worries for a few hours or a few days. That's terrific, and I also love books and movies and shows like that.

Speaker 1:

But again, to me, and I sense, to you, there's something really special about a book that tries to do just a little bit more, to take this new fictional world, to pull a real reader into it and then say, okay, let's learn some real life lessons. And I think that readers are going to experience that with this, all right. So I always challenge authors on the show. You gave us a great description of the book. Of course it'll be a longer description on the Amazon link that we'll post in the show notes. But if I had to just really force you, steve, to tell me in like 15 seconds or less what the book is about the classic elevator pitch, what is it?

Speaker 2:

Well, as I've said before, it's written in the same vein as the Alchemist. It is symbolic, but it's subtly symbolic, and it has a compelling story of personal growth and spiritual awakening that I believe will leave the reader feeling inspired and hopeful. They will be caught up in the story and in the personalities, but they will have the opportunity to feel. One of my readers has made that very statement and I read this book and I felt the power and the message that was being portrayed.

Speaker 1:

Well, there it is.

Speaker 1:

I mean, if you liked the shack, if you liked the alchemist, if you, there's another book called the Peace Giver, which some might be familiar with. It just occurs to me that you might look up on Amazon as well. And if you feel like boy, that's actually a really insightful review from that reader, steve, this idea that the book made you feel like what more could an author or creator, a songwriter, ask for than to create something that just conjures up real feelings in a world that is pretty dark sometimes and where light can be hard to come by? What? What better review than knowing that you produce something, steve, that a reader absorbed, felt, light, felt, felt something, felt some connection, perhaps to heaven or to God or to whatever they might believe in. That is, that is beyond this life.

Speaker 1:

And maybe, most importantly, if you're just interested in, in reading something that will inspire you to make just one change, what if you just read this book and Steve asked you this rhetorically if a reader came up to you and said I read your book and I don't know if it's going to change my life or not, see, but I read the book and it inspired me to do something different today, in this moment, I made a different choice than I might have yesterday, because of the lessons and the experiences and the characters you created. Does that make writing worth it, steve?

Speaker 2:

That makes. That gives the full purpose to writing. As far as I'm concerned, and along those same lines another reader made this statement I believe I'm a better person from having read this book.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, again, I don't know what more you could ask for, so I'm I'm excited for for folks to discover the book. I confess I have not finished it I am in the middle of it now but I'm excited about where it's going and I can see why you're excited that it's number one in your category on Amazon Pretty exciting stuff. Tell us what's next then. What is next for Steve after this?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm actually. I have a middle grade book called Peter and the Prince, peter and the Promptor, which involves a magic amulet. It's the setting is the the early 50s in St Louis and grade school and a grade school there where racism is rampant but there's a sort of an intersection here between between racism and bullying and love and kindness, and I'm excited about that. That book, again, it's principle, it's principle focus, but on a 12, 13, 14 year old level. So that will be coming out maybe the end of end of 2024. I also have a nonfiction book I call the Plan that will be coming out in 2025 likely, and I also have written in a musical play that it's called. It's called Legacy, in conjunction with my friend, Jackie Halverson, who's an extraordinary musician. So it's a musical and that will be going into production this next year as well.

Speaker 1:

Well, you've got a few things on your plate. That's fantastic to hear and it sounds like you're. You're not slowing down and and we thank you for that. We thank you for living a colorful life which has given you an extraordinary, just variety of experiences that that add color and detail and lessons to your writing. I certainly appreciate that and appreciate your friendship and appreciate you being on the show today. Again, if you're listening, check the show notes for links to Steve and his work, his bio, lots of great stuff about Steve and his life available online, and thank you for coming by the mic. We appreciate you, steve.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. Thank you so much Jason.