Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where
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I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five
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So if you're looking for motivation, you're in
the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome
to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership. I'm your host, Sheila Slick.
And my special guest today is Joseph Bolton.
He's been an army officer, space operations specialist,
a combat veteran, a math teacher, and is author
of Old Grandmother's Tree, a series of books.
Joseph's rich heritage spans French -Canadian,
Native American, Spanish, English. and Irish
roots, which inspired him to pick up a pen and
preserve his heritage. Welcome to the show, Joseph.
Oh, thank you. I'm really happy to be here today.
Did I get that correctly? You did. You did get
it right. So, you know, it inspired me. You know,
what started this, I think as a child, it was
always very inquisitive about where we came from.
And I would ask my grandparents questions, especially
about Quebec, where they came from. And my aunts,
my great, my grandfather's sisters as well, and
would hear stories about my grandfather and his
siblings going out to visit the old family farm
and their cousins in Quebec. My grandmother tells
stories about her parents didn't have any children.
And they went to St. Anne de Beaupre Shrine up
in Quebec City and prayed for a child. And the
rumor is, the story is, that my great -grandmother
came back expecting her first child on that trip.
So I was very much inspired. But of course, you
know, growing up, you know, in the 70s and 80s,
we didn't have the tools that we do today to
research your family history. So it was kind
of a dark cloud. But I had a sense that there
was something really important behind that kind
of veil. And then... You know, more recently,
you know, of course, with tools like Ancestry
.com and DNA tests, it really opened up the door
to discover my ancestors. And one of all those
ancestors in Quebec, the one that really inspired
me was an Algonquin woman. Her name was Mirimete
Ouagwe, and she lived in the mid -1600s in Quebec
to the end of the 1600s. And her life just turned
out to be very well documented. by the Jesuits
who lived in Trois -Rivières. And her story kind
of begins in 1652. She was married to an Algonquin
husband also. His name was Azabavish. She was
22. They had two small children, a boy and a
girl. And one morning, Mohawk, another indigenous
tribe from New York, came up. They attacked her
village. And in that attack, her husband was
killed. And her two small children were taken
from her. And she never saw them again and never
knew what happened to her. It was an open question
for the rest of her life. Five years later, she
married a French settler named Pierre Calque.
And Pierre and Rimeté Wiyawagwe became my ancestors.
And not only my ancestor, but the ancestor of
thousands of French Canadians in Canada and the
United States. So she has a very important part
of a history of Canada. And the other part that
really inspired me about her life. So she has,
she starts off at 22, which is barely out of
her teens and she loses everything. So go ahead
towards the very end of her life when she died
in January of 1699, she was 68. And the priest
in trauma of a year wrote about her. And he wrote
this very brief eulogy in his notes. And he said,
Mrimete Wiyawagwe lived a full life with dignity,
respect, and love. A courageous and loving Algonquin
woman. And it's such a beautiful eulogy. It's
probably the most effective one I think was ever
written. If a life can be summed up in just two
lines like that, and at the end of our life,
if someone can stand up and say, We lived a life
of dignity, respect and love and courage. We
have lived well. And so between those events,
when she was 22 years old, she lost her first
family. At the very end with this priest kind
of lauds her as being, you know, a strong, inspiring
member of the community and very respected. And
imagine this also, she's not only a woman. This
is end of the 17th century. So women don't have
the highest status. So right off the bat, her
status is a little bit lower, but then she's
also an indigenous Native woman. So it's even
higher of a bar for her to get up to have something
written, to be noticed that way. So between those
two events, I figured there has to be a great
story in there. And so that led to the creation
of Old Grandmother's Tree. You know, I would
say that other people who have notable ancestors
have written historical fiction about them. And
this is a little different. So I have taken real
facts of her life, the end of her life in 1699
and the attack that happened. But I retold her
story in the language of a folk tale. So in this
reimagined old Quebec that she and her family
and her descendants live in, there are Native
American -inspired trickster animal characters
that live throughout the story. They're kind
of immortal, so they're always there in other
stories even throughout time. And there's a little
bit of magic. And so I chose that as a narrative
language because folktales are universal in every
culture. And so when you read it, even though
the stories are original, you will say, this
feels familiar because it's a very deep language.
Because folktales talk about the human experience
and how to live well, how to live well within
the world that you're existing in, whatever culture
or place you are. One of the magics of what we
developed the story is that you can pick any
volume of the book and pick any story and read
it, and the story will stand on its own. But
as you read any of the stories in any order that
you want, it's like putting pieces of a mosaic
on a wall. A much bigger and grander story will
emerge. Have you experimented in doing clips
or turning certain scenes into... Well, I'll
tell you what I'm thinking. This series of books
is ready -made to be created into a streaming
TV show, like on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, or Netflix.
It's all ready to go. You have these stories.
They're a collection of stories. They're interrelated
characters, so it would be very episodic. You
have all these illustrations, which makes it
very easy because it's already storyboarded for
somebody to create this into either a film or
a show, reoccurring show. And I also think it's
very entertaining. It is. And a lot of people
who read these books, and this is because they're
illustrated, it means they're meant for little
children. A lot of adults read these books and
really enjoy them. And they also enjoy reading
them, you know, and sharing them with their children
and grandchildren as well. So it's ready to go.
It's entertaining. It's very positive and inspiring.
It's not, the morals of the story don't hit you
over the head, but they're there. And it's ready
to go. And so I really, I've had people tell
me that it's going to happen. And I'm going to
say yes, I think it's going to happen. I don't
know when, but it will. I think so. And you also
have that teacher background. And so I'm sure
that you have lessons within all of this creativity.
And I absolutely love how you incorporated her
heritage, your culture, your family. But then
you also morph them into different types of characters,
right? Like even the animals. So how did you
grow or what did you learn while you've been
creating all these books? One is I love storytelling
and creating stories. The other part is that
trying to do this, and especially if you're going
to create a book, that if you're going to do
it and you're going to do it right, if you're
going to do it, put out a quality product and
not just throw something out there, then it's
going to take thousands of hours of work and
it's going to take a lot of money. You're going
to have to invest. It is something that in theory
you could do yourself. But you really can't do
it well by yourself. You need help. And that
will cost money. The illustration process in
itself was very expensive because I have to pay
the artists up front. I can't like have them
work on spec because I have to live, you know,
on their art in their own careers. So that is
one part. And I think so that's part of the biggest
thing I learned from that was this is a lot more
work than I ever thought. Having experienced
this creative process, it's very interesting
how when I've talked to other writers, how they
all have different ways of doing it. Some people
write outlines. Myself, I see a story in my mind
as a movie, plays out over and over again and
kind of replays and it changes a little bit,
changes things around until it's ready to go.
And then I sit in front of the computer and I
type it all out and I got a good draft. So everybody
has a different process. But the other aspect
I kind of, it's interesting is that characters
live within yourself. If you're a writer and
you imbue your characters with a sense of life
and their own personalities, you realize that
they have kind of an independent existence within
yourself. So when you put them in other stories,
you don't really tell them what to do. You really
create the setting and they do what they're going
to do. And you just write down what you see them
do. And so that's some of the things I've learned
about the creative process. You also offer speaking
engagements. Can you tell me a little bit about
that? I do a lot of podcasts internationally,
some of them in Canada, some of the United States.
I was recently, had an article just recently
published in a Magog Quebec newspaper. And I
was also recently interviewed by an established
journalist from the Toronto Globe and Mail. So
hopefully there'll be an article about the books.
So I do a lot of that, the books, but a lot of
that work, because there's so many other books
and products out there you're competing with,
competing for attention. I do a lot of footwork.
In fact, even tonight I'm going to be, I was
invited as a guest speaker for a French Canadian
club in a city just south of me in Worcester.
tonight. I'm going to be doing a guest speaking
at two other festivals, French Canadian festivals
in New England later this month. And, you know,
I do a lot of traveling. I've gone up to Pembroke,
Ontario, where there are Algonquin communities
and introduced the book to them, which they really
like and love. I've gotten the books into libraries
in Quebec and also Pembroke, Ontario. So you
have to do a lot of promotion on your own. Because
putting the book on Amazon is not going to make
it sell. You have to put the effort in. But I
love how you are also spreading the message and
sharing the story in all these different places.
I hit scene here on your website. Would you like
to share the website? How can we learn more about
you? Oh, yes. Yes. So the website, I really recommend
that everyone take a look at it. It's oldgrandmotherstree
.com. It's written as one word, oldgrandmotherstree
.com. No apostrophe in there. And in there, you
will find my biography. You'll find a biography
of Natasha Pelley -Smith. She's the Toronto -based
artist who did all these beautiful illustrations.
You'll find a quick summary of each of the books.
There is a mosaic we created with... Just a small
sample of some of the illustrations that are
in there, and you can take a look at that. And
there's also a character Wikipedia. And it talks
about all the different settings and different
characters. But if you're wondering, if you want
to get a sense of what the stories are about
before you order the books, the character Wikipedia
is going to be a fun place to explore because
you get to see these characters and learn some
kind of interesting things about them. In fact,
some things, details are in the Wikipedia that
are not in the stories themselves. So you can
look at that as well. There's also other original
documentation, an assessment about Mimete Wiawagwe.
It's more of like a assessment about, you know,
where the information came from that helped me
to discover a story that's there too. So it's
a very busy website and it's a fun place to explore.
And there's also links where you can buy the
books on Amazon and they're available in French
as well as English. Before we wrap it up, I want
you to share what would you say is one of the
best morals of one of the stories that you have
in your books? I think my favorite chapter of
the whole book, it's on page 129 in volume two
of the second book. But in that. McKeish the
turtle, riding the back, Uncle McKeish the turtle,
riding the back of his nephew, Poku the moose,
are heading home back to Mount Orford in Quebec,
walking on a trail, talking to each other. And
while they're talking, Uncle McKeish is feeling
very, being older, a much older person is feeling
down on himself. He's telling, oh, I did terrible
in these adventures. All I do is get into trouble.
Mischief for you to get me out of. And he goes
back and forth with the nephew. The nephew's
always very positive. And Uncle McKeish says,
you know, you must get tired of me. I repeat
all my stories. And the nephew, Poku the Moose,
says, oh, no, I learned something new with every
retelling. And at the very end, when McKeish
is just fed up, he says, why won't you let me,
you know, feel some self -pity here? He's feeling
down on himself. And the nephew says. Nephew
Moose says, he says, Uncle Makish, I'm not going
to let you do that. And he says, you know, if
it wasn't for you, all the people right after
the great ice had melted, if you weren't there
with your brother teaching them how to live,
they never would have survived. And he says,
I don't care if you weren't able to do this,
that, and the other thing on our adventure. The
important thing is you are the best uncle to
me and I love you. So that conversation to me
is one of the real hearts of the book about family
and relationships and listening to your elders
and valuing your elders and, you know, that relationship
that transcends generations. And I think that
is probably my favorite chapter of all the stories
of the books. And there's a lot of good chapters
in there. But that would be the one that probably
has like the heart of what the books are about.
Well, thank you so much for sharing your books
and your story and your heritage with us today,
Joseph. Well, I'm glad to be here. And thank
you all for tuning in to another episode of Milestone
Moments in Business and Leadership. Until next
time.