Charmain Zimmerman Brackett, Publisher, Author, Journalist

00:00
Believe it or not, I am an INFJ.

00:10
Welcome to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I am your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in, for following along the podcast on Instagram @ChewingtheFatBR, and also for the folks who bought me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com. I really appreciate that. And I always appreciate the guests I have in the studio. She's an author, she's a writer, she's...

00:36
She's an artist and an actress in her own right. Please welcome this week, Charmain Zimmerman Brackett. Charmain. Hi. Hey, how are you? I'm good. It's good to see you and not in a theater setting. Yeah, that's usually when I see you. Right. Charmain, you're from the August area, right? I am. You have born and raised. Charmain is sister to Leonard Zimmerman, the artist that...

01:06
We all know and I think you were the first sister and brother that I've had. I just realized you're the first sister and brother I've had on the podcast. There you go. Awesome. Look at that. Yeah. Charmain, again, we met. I think we've met each other initially in, like I said, in theater circles, like out at Fort Gordon or Le Chat, Le Chat, or you know, or somewhere like that. Nice good world there. It really is. You know, when I came back to Augusta from Birmingham,

01:35
I made a promise to myself I was going to get more involved in the theater here. And man, you know, finding the sandbox there at Le Chat really was such a warm and welcoming experience as well as the Augusta Players and Fort Gordon. I guess Eisenhower. Eisenhower. And it's the President's Theater, right? It's the President's Theater now. It's not the President's Theater anymore. So, as all the names have changed, I tell you how old I am. But it was just such a warm and welcoming community.

02:04
remember just meeting and then finding out that you are writer and you know, all this other cool stuff going on is there's so many people, so many talented people in this area that have so much stuff going on that it's just, it's, it's amazing. The talent pool that this, this town has, growing up here and being a, being a writer was that something you were always passionate about? So I've done some,

02:33
I've talked to some groups before and I usually start off my author spiel with, you know, people ask me, did you always want to be a writer? And the answer is no, I never wanted to be a writer, but I had to be. It was one of those things that always called to me. And it was something that I couldn't not do. And so I remember going to college, I went to Augusta College and I majored in English and people were like,

03:02
So what are you gonna do? Be a teacher? And I have the utmost respect for teachers. However, my immediate response was no, because I knew that I was not called into a classroom with a bunch of little people or older people, because I didn't like standing up in front of them for one. But the love of writing, the love of reading, as a child, I love to read. I see all these.

03:28
reels about Gen X and how we were forced to go outside. And I thought, you know, I stayed in my bedroom and I read. That's what I did as a kid and a teenager. And I was one of those that, you know, you have the flashlight under the covers and you're reading. That was my life, Nancy Drew reading under the covers. So, so I majored in English. And when people would ask me that, I'd be like, oh, I've got to find something to do. And I ended up in a journalism class. And

03:56
I started writing for the Augusta Chronicle in the sports section when I was still at Augusta College. And that was just something that I really enjoyed telling those stories and meeting people. And over the years, I've met so many cool people. So it was just something I had to do. And then it is kind of a funny story. I would interview these authors and they would say, so my characters told me how to write the story. And I thought,

04:24
Okay, they're crazy. Um, until I started writing and you get these characters in your head and they have their own voice and then all of a sudden they are telling you what to do next. Oh, wow. Um, just by having, you know, listening to these dialogue, I, I, what, what would I imagine their dialogue to be? And as it progressed, that dialogue seemed to just take over on its own. Um, as my imagination.

04:53
would go. Not that I'm hearing voices or anything, but it is that whole inner voice thing. And you could hear the characters talking back, that makes total sense. That sounds like something they would say. That sounds like something they would do. And so it was that character driven narrative that brought my books to life, I guess. That's awesome. I mean, yeah, because I mean, it's more, it's world building. I mean, that's what you're doing.

05:19
I mean, you're not just creating the words that these characters say, you're creating their background that you never know about as a reader necessarily. It may never get explained, but you as the author know where they're coming from. Yeah, and just creating that entire world. And maybe it comes out in another book or a third edition, whatever, but yeah, but you have to have that initially to be able to push those stories forward. And I think you're right about like, is that something you wanna do, something you had to do?

05:48
I'm a big proponent of folks getting stuff that's inside out. We all deal with stuff inside, good stuff, bad stuff, get it out in some form, you know what I mean? Some sort of creative form, whether it be like performing, writing songs, singing, humming, playing an instrument, writing a book. Right. It just...

06:16
you know, you've, when you've got that stuff inside you, sometimes it's just very cathartic and it's what you, what your soul needs to get it out. And you never know what that stuff is going to then resonate with somebody else to the hearer or the seer or the listener or what a, you know, or the reader or whatever. So yeah, I think that's very important. And then it's very cool that you were like, I didn't necessarily want it, but it was in there. There are days when I sit there and think, I don't want to.

06:42
do this. I don't want to write a story. I've got like seven articles that I need to write. It's like, I just don't want to do it today. And there are people that authors, they're like, I just can't write unless I have inspiration. And I'm like, I don't even know what that means. You just do it. You've got the will to draw from. You personally have that will to draw from.

07:12
You mentioned working for the Chronicle in the sports department. That had to be very interesting at the time because even now, sports... I mean, just as a woman working in sports, because even now, it is more prevalent that you see female sportscasters and things like that, but it's usually a male-dominated industry or sub-genre.

07:41
It is. I grew up, my mom and I would watch the Atlanta Braves. I remember distinctly watching the Atlanta Braves and playing cards together as when I was like a preteen or younger. I think we started watching the Braves when I was about 10 and they were horrible at the time. So we would stay. So you were a true fan. Yes, we were. And then the Falcons too and they were horrible too. And I remember one year when they were actually kind of good and they were in the playoffs and

08:11
of Fulton County Stadium on December 24th. And it was freezing, so cold. And we would go back and forth into the bathroom because it was warm in the bathroom. And he'd be like, we could thaw out our toes for just a couple of minutes and go sit. And my dad would keep these scrapbooks of the Falcons. And I think I still have them. But every Monday morning, he would cut the stuff out of the newspaper. And it was just, I don't know.

08:34
I think that's probably where it came from. And I just thought that I wanted to be a sports writer. And so in high school, I went to Aquinas. We really didn't have a newspaper per se. It was this purple, I'm dating myself now, the purple mimeographed things. And so I remember writing a couple of little game stories there. And there's a photographer, amazing photographer. I shout out to Mike Adams all the time, because he's great. So if you're listening, that's Mike Adams.

09:04
We, um, a couple of years ago when there were four teams from the, um, Augusta area at the state basketball tournament, I was there writing for another publication and there I was, had my credentials. I had, um, everything in front of me sitting courtside and I thought, Oh my gosh, this is so cool. Um, because I did sports, but back in the.

09:33
the day when I started, I spent my Friday nights compiling the stats from football games. And so this is pre-internet, people had to call it in. The coaches would call in the stuff and I'd take all the stats and just the highlights of the game. And I was responsible for updating standings and all of that. We would leave at 1.30.

10:02
Saturday morning. And I remember one day leaving and they were, the first edition in the newspaper had already been printed and somebody handed it to me on the way out. And I was like, I do not wanna do this the rest of my life. So I did some other things, but, you know, like I said, two years ago being courtside for the state and we had all those state titles. It was so cool. That was awesome. And, you know, like the other day I went to, they had this clinic for,

10:31
these kids a golf clinic for, and it was women from the Augusta National Women's Amateur. They were there. And so I was focusing on the clinic, but I thought, I'm interviewing all these really fantastic players. I need to do a story at least to preview the tournament here. So I am back around to sports.

10:54
A full circle thing. You know, but it sounds like it sounds like sports were a core memory for you though, for remembering, you know, watching the games and being a part of that and being excited because like your parents were excited about it. And then it was a common, it was a family thing. So, yeah. And I played softball. I was horrible. I played softball in high school, but my parents, and that's, that's a great memory that I have that no matter what game, no matter where we were, my parents, my friend Lisa's parents, and I had a friend named Laura, her parents. So they were.

11:24
Those sets of pairs were always at every game. Every single game, we could travel an hour, two hours away and there they would be. That's awesome. That is awesome. Now you, like I said, I met you in theater. You mentioned in school that you did not wanna be in front of people. Yeah, no. How did that person that didn't wanna be in front of people decide to want to be in front of people in theater? Was that early on? Was that later? In high school, so I went to...

11:52
Like I said, Aquinas and we had award-winning drama groups. And I did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when I was a junior. That was such a great experience. But I always grew up as this very shy person, even though I wanted to perform and do those things, that just, just that fear, stage fright and stuff. And so my youngest child is 28.

12:22
But when she was four years old, she started taking ballet. It's Augusta Ballet now, but it was like Columbia County Ballet then. And her older sister was taking dance and at three, she said, I want to do what my sister's doing. So we put her in ballet and she did that from three until after she graduated high school. But I remember watching her at four years old. And she got out on that stage.

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and owned it with no fear. And she was very perturbed with the other little girls who got stage fright and were standing around just with their mouths wide open and looking at the lights and some cried, and you know, because they were on stage. And so that her first performance was Nutcracker, her birthday's November. So four years old, she just turned four, there she was. And then in May they did the Roar of Love. And so...

13:21
She was part of a group. They had to go behind the scrim all the way back, you know, come around on the other side and then come out in the front. And something happened with the person who was supposed to be leading them. You know, they had an adult bring them out. And we were at dress rehearsal and all of a sudden Allie comes out and she knows exactly where she's supposed to go, knows exactly what music she's supposed to come out. She does it. She does her thing. And I thought, she's four years old.

13:49
I am much older than she is and she's not afraid of this. What is wrong with me? And so she was my catalyst for thinking that's something I've always wanted to do and she doesn't let anything hold her back at four, at four. Right. And I'm an adult. I'm in my thirties and she's four. So, um, Barbara Feldman is a good friend of mine and she had Storyland theater. And I remember.

14:19
telling her I really want to do theater. And she's like, we'll come to my house and I'll let you, and you will sing for me. I said, okay. So I went to Barbara's house and I sang for her. And I ended up doing Cinderella in 2006, I think it was. So that was a few years after my daughter was about nine by then, but I did Cinderella and it was cool. And so that started this whole.

14:48
just being out on stage and her giving me that validation that there was talent there, that I could maybe do something on stage. And after that, I started auditioning for stuff and getting parts. And then they let me do Glenda and Wizard of Oz. And that was, that was such an amazing, amazing show. I was with Richard Justice and Michael Hamilton and, you know, people who are no longer with us. And Betty Walpert was the Wicked Witch of the West.

15:18
And I'm out there going, I'm on stage with all these fantastic people. Now that's awesome. That is awesome. Do you still, still try and find time to do some of that now? I mean, you've got all these voices in your head. I understand you're kind of. Well, the Wizard of Oz is, uh, the Augusta players is doing, are doing the Wizard of Oz again in 2025. And, um, yeah, so, uh, that's already on my radar.

15:45
Now that I've put it out there, I guess I'm gonna have to really audition for it. Scott, if you're listening. Yes, exactly. He knows. There you go. That's right. Hold Charmaine to it. Okay. Once you get past Jesus Christ Superstar, I'm gonna talk to you. So for your books and your writing, is there a certain genre that you fall into that you really love? I'm all over the place. All over the place.

16:14
I mean, I think that's the thing about writing for a newspaper is, you know, I've covered, I've covered all of it. I've written religion stories, I've written sports stories, I've covered sea council meetings, I've done stories on food, you know, I've done stories on entertainment, pretty much covered the gamut. I've even done some breaking news crime stories. Those were not my favorite. We'll talk about that in the second segment. But

16:44
I've covered all of those. And so when sticking with a genre, it's like, I have all these, I mean, I've written two children's books. Um, I wrote one that was based on my great grandmother when she was four years old, talking about four years old, four years old, four year olds. You can edit that part. Four year olds. Um, and she was born in 1890 and in 1894, her father owned a circus. It was called the ML Clark and sons. Um, uh,

17:14
Clark and Son Circus, they have one circus. And now Clark and Son, why can't I think about that? Anyway, so they had their own circus and she was the featured performer. She was an aerialist, an acrobat, a contortionist. That's what she started at. And then when she met my great grandfather, he was child labor. He worked for a tire plant in Ohio and he had

17:41
I mean, this is 1890s, early 1900s. And he and his brothers, three of his brothers, two of his brothers, three of them, they ran off and joined the Circus literally to get away from that environment. And so he was a trapeze artist and he joined the M.L. Cox and Sons combined shows. Now that I remember, it's there somewhere. And they met and I didn't know a lot about my circus background until like 2012.

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And I met a cousin and she had all that information. And I ended up writing a children's book about it because I didn't have enough to write like a book, full length book, just a children's book. And, but my grandmother had written the circus performer's daughter. She had written like a journal. And whenever they travel, she'd just write down notes and stuff about what she remembered about her mom. And she, Pearl was my great grandmother. She dried went.

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died when she was 36, she had tuberculosis. And then my grandmother Juanita, she was shy like me. And so she was afraid to be in front of people. And she didn't really talk about the circus background because people would, they pointed their fingers at them. You know, ooh, the circus people, it's bad reputation, that kind of thing. So she didn't really talk about it, but she wrote about it. She actually wanted to be a writer. And so one of the things that I did was put her name on the book and that one, the...

19:08
Georgia author of the year from the Georgia writers association in 2015, I think it was. So I've written that and then I wrote a story about boys in dance because my son, like I said, you know, my daughter was a dancer. So that first Nutcracker, he was there watching her. And he, there was one point in the show when the male dancer, the Cavalier picks the sugar plum fairy up and

19:35
promenades across the stage with her above his head. And my six-year-old son turned and looked at me and he said, wow, he's really strong. I wanna do that. So I got him in ballet. He did dance through into college and actually danced for Carnival Cruise Lines for a little while. Oh wow. And that's another one of my children's books. So my children's books are nonfiction. And then I've written 12, 14, something like that. Fiction, there are...

20:04
three that are science fiction fantasy. And then I wrote a series and you had Nicole Swanson on not too long ago and she is narrating all those books. So if you like audio books, please get the ones that Nicole did. It's the Grace's Augusta Mystery series and they're set in Augusta, six of them. And the one thing that I liked about the mysteries is with a newspaper article, there's a beginning and middle and the end. And it's pretty easy to figure out how to do that.

20:33
And with something like the science fiction fantasy, it's like, it could go on forever. You know, and trying to narrow down the plot for me was, you know, there are other authors could figure that out a little better than I can. But for me, it was a little more difficult because it's so nebulous. You know, you just go on, but with a mystery, you've got a dead body and you got to figure out who did it. And, you know, and then there's all this stuff in between. So there is a beginning, there's an end, and then there's a middle and...

21:02
The middle is where it's fun sometimes. And, but that's what I like about the mysteries. So I've spent more time to doing the mysteries, I guess than the others. Awesome. I love that. You would not think that like a children's book, when you think children's book, those are normally fiction because they're children's books. And for the fact that your children's books are actually non-fiction and based on actual people and stories and especially family, how-

21:31
How special is that to be able to incorporate your life into something like that? That's amazing. I love that. And now on top of all of that, you also have Augusta Good News. Yes, I do. And let me just say, there's not enough good news in the world. And I applaud you for recognizing that and saying, you know what? I'm gonna be a source of good news.

21:59
What is Augusta Good News about? So Augusta Good News is a daily digital newspaper and we're a member of the Georgia Press Association. So we are a newspaper. There's not a printed version. There's a printed magazine, which is a little bit different, but it has some of the stories from Augusta Good News. I spent 32 years at The Chronicle.

22:27
You know, a lot of the times, The Chronicle had all of it. It had the crime and the government. I didn't write any about that. I mainly focused on the features and I would go cover something and people would say, I just don't know why anybody didn't cover the good news. And I thought, I'm here writing about your story. So I'm covering the good news. But I think that, you know, we've been through some, I don't care what side of the political spectrum you are in, contentious.

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elections, you know, where both sides get very hot and angry sometimes. And, you know, coming through some of those, I mean, that's what happened with Happy with my brother. It was because of some political stuff. And he was like, you know, let's just put some joy out there. And coming through COVID. And then I was, there was an interim between Augusta Good News and Augusta Chronicle. And

23:25
I knew that that time was ending and I woke up one morning and I'm trying to ponder my life choices. Did I want to work at Starbucks? Or what am I going to do with my life? I know that this season is coming to an end and I don't know what to do next. And I woke up one morning and I saw a magazine and it said, inspiring women of Augusta. If I get a picture of my head of something, that is something I can work for.

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and work towards and I can make it real. If I can see it in my head, then I can make it real. With a lot of faith and hope and pixie dust and prayer. Anyway, but that is just something that like my books, I've been able to see those. So I woke up that one morning and I thought, well, that's cool. But how do I get from where I am to there? Because there's a lot of steps in there.

24:22
And so as I was thinking about it, it was like, what do you know how to do? Well, I know how to use WordPress. I know how to write a newspaper article. I know how to talk to people. I know how to find stories. I don't have a problem with content. That's not a problem. Okay. So if you had a magazine, well, when people started sending you stuff, you got deadlines and a magazine is so many weeks out, a couple of months out, and you get something in between there, what would you do with it? Well.

24:52
If I had a website, I could put it on the website. And so all of these gears started coming together. And the whole thing about finding a niche, what niche am I good at? And you know, another thing that popped into my head was a scripture and it's in Philippians, I think. And it's like, what's the reverse? Pure, lovely, of good report. Of good report.

25:21
And that's where I guess the good news came from. It's like, what do you focus on? For me, like I said, if I get a picture, that's what I end up focusing on. And that's what I'm drawn to. And in my career of news, I used to be a real hardcore 24-hour news junkie. And back when Columbine happened, there were two competing newspapers. And there were two competing newspapers.

25:48
whole task was to one up each other. I mean, the most of the country had stopped paying attention to what was going on. You know, it was done. We had our two weeks on CNN, but the Denver Morning News and the whatever the other Denver paper was every day, there was something and I was sucked into that. And, you know, there are a lot of things that I can't control, but I can't control that.

26:17
It made me depressed and worried and fearful. And there were all these other bad things that started to happen. And I try to preface this and say, yes, those are horrible things. Yes, we probably need to know about some of them, but we do not need to do what I did and spend so much time focusing on it that it became, I mean, I became an expert on it and that's not a good thing to be an expert on.

26:47
you know, the shooting and what did happen, what didn't happen, their notebooks, all the things that they did. It was, it kind of took over in a way. And so I cut cable in 2012. And that was one way that I stepped back. And I was like, you know what? I need to focus on things that are positive. And maybe I got some of that from my brother too. Cause he was like happy all the time and I get a happy button every time he makes one. And that's usually at least

27:16
or three times a week. So, you know, just the whole focus of, I mean, what are you going to focus on? My personality is such, I am, believe it or not, I am an INFJ, believe it or not, right here. Yes, as I've talked for all this time. But that's more of my personality. I take on what other people are feeling. I sense that I internalize all those things.

27:44
I can be a very depressed person. I can go into a dark place really fast. Fast, faster than that eclipse is coming. I can go into a dark place and it's hard for me to get out. So I have to take control over what's going on in my brain. And I think we probably went ahead and went into another section of your podcast, but where I was before.

28:11
in that iron arm period between the Chronicle and Augusta Good News, there was a big focus on the breaking news. I remember I was at Edisto Beach when I get a text from Mike Adams who mentioned earlier as a photographer. He's like, there's something going on over in downtown North Augusta. I was like, Mike used to listen, I think he still does, he listens to the police scanner and he had been in and he's like,

28:39
There's people talking over Gary, something just happened. I was like, oh no, I'm at Edisto, please don't tell me this. And that was the day that the guy started shooting at the cops, you remember that? In downtown Georgia Avenue, got the guy shooting at cops. And so we ended up getting a story and they're always supposed to be relaxing at the beach and I'm focusing on that. And it was that constant, if I got an email from Mark Bowen,

29:08
or Eric Abdullah is with Aiken County Sheriff's Department. There was something inside my body that went, it tensed up, it was like, oh God, that means somebody's dead. Yeah, yeah. And that means somebody, they're dead. Yeah, especially Mark Boyne, obviously, but Eric Abdullah or anybody with Ritz-Rittsburg County. Sheriff, when I got those, I just felt something internal because that meant I needed to be on top of it, make sure we got it out there, got it on the website.

29:38
And it, um, it just got to be at the point where, you know, I'd cut the cable news. I'd cut all of that from coming in all the time. And I needed that outlet of, you know, yeah, okay. Augusta is not perfect, but find me a city anywhere in this nation world that is. Yeah. And while we do have our share of problems.

30:04
We have some great things going on here. We have some great people here. We have great places to go. Please don't tell me there's nothing to do in Augusta. We have great theater. We have in any given day, you could find a musician playing at a restaurant. I mean, there are incredible musicians here. Nature's great. If you like kayaking, go kayaking. We've got like four or five companies that do it. You know, there's stuff.

30:32
kids here. There's all kinds of stuff. And, you know, while we have problems, we've got great stuff. So, I mean, I went through this phase on Facebook, I was like, I'm going to accentuate the positive. I'm only going to put in it. So I think all of that came together. So that was the, that was not a reader's digest version of the whole story. But, you know, focusing on what's good, what's our first pure, lovely, pure of good report. Think on these things, you know?

31:02
And as I started to think on those things, as I started to focus on those things, I remember somebody early on saying, you mean there's really that much good stuff you can write about? We're almost at 1000 articles. Oh wow. And about 18 months. I love that. 1000 and I cannot get to all of them. Yeah, I love that. I personally can't, my goal is to,

31:30
be able to hire some people at some point so that we can cover all this because there's always great stuff going on. I have met some amazing people. I've always met amazing people in Augusta and just to be able to continue this and that be the focus and people all the time when I tell them what I'm doing, they're like, oh, we need good news. People will send me messages. This is just like a breath of fresh air for me. I love Augusta Good News. I love going this.

32:00
Like I mentioned, the goal was a magazine. And so after about nine months of doing Augusta Good News, I sat back one day and thought, you know, the idea was inspiring women of Augusta. And my brother said, that's too long of a magazine title. So I was like, well, I've been calling it for that for a good year. So let's put a colon in there between the inspiring and women. And it can be inspiring women of Augusta.

32:30
Because the focus of that publication and it's a print publication is women in Augusta. Now my readership is 75% women. That's what Facebook tells me. So I found that audience there. But I try to focus on women in different segments of the community. A woman who is in the arts, a woman in business, a woman in a nonprofit, a woman...

32:55
a young woman like college or high school age. But in the issue I'm working on now, I've got a nine year old that I'm going to focus. She's going to be in the story because she was born with one leg, but she does 5Ks. And when you ask her, she runs. She uses that's the word she runs. She's got crutches. She runs with her dad. And that's something they do together. He's done marathons. In February, they did the, I guess, the half together.

33:22
the 5K portion. She's nine years old. I don't know how many nine-year-olds do 5Ks. She's done four. Wow. That's pretty amazing. So, you know, and, and another person that I talk about a lot because this woman just inspires me. Um, she graduated from West Point. So she was in the military, the army. Um, she became a medical doctor and then she had an illness that took, she had to have her leg amputated above her knee. And

33:51
So now she's medically retired, but she is a wheelchair athlete. Not just one sport, mind you. She does pickleball, rugby, what is that? Curling. Oh, wow. Tennis and, you know, all of these sports at a high level. I mean, when she, one year for tennis, she was like in the top 10 in the nation for wheelchair tennis. She won a gold medal last year at the.

34:20
Veterans games in Oregon in pickleball, first pickleball medal ever given. She got a gold. And she was recently named to the national rugby team. Yeah, I know. So it's like, you know, I look at her and think, I don't have any excuse not to do anything. And this she lives in Grobetown. So people, I mean, we just have some amazing people. So inspiring women of Augusta usually has six or seven stories. I threw in a food column.

34:49
this coming issue is going to have a home story because I love decorating and a lot of women do. And it's a magazine that men could read. I mean, it's got stories of people overcoming and people like and great photography. Yeah, I love that. And I love the fact that it not to oversimplify like the magazine or Augusta Good News is it's kind of the adage just like you see

35:19
You go to buy a white suburban, you're gonna see white suburbans everywhere. So if you focus on that, that's the stuff you start seeing more. So then more of these stories start to pop up because you're looking for them. That's where your mind is. So that's what's coming. That's, I love that. I love that so much. Yeah. And there's so much out there. There really is. And I wish, sometimes I say I wish that I had.

35:46
two or three of me so I could do them all. Because there's just not enough hours in the day to get it all done. For sure. And yeah, you talk about your time constraints and things like that, but like, aside from all of the writing and all the story finding, for you personally, what do you do outside of that for your own entertainment or your own hobby? I mean, what's bringing you joy? Yeah, I know, people, a lot of people are like, well, writing is my hobby. And I thought, well, my hobby's

36:16
My job is other people's hobbies. So, you know, how do you reconcile that? But I mean, with writing novels, I will say this, there are about seven novels on my computer. So when I die, you know, if my kids go in there, that probably will never see the light of day because they are that cathartic process of, you know, having these characters going through horrible things so that I can get all of that out. But one of the...

36:45
Wow. It's, um, it'll be eight years ago tomorrow. I don't know when this will be aired, but today is April 3rd. Um, so on April 4th of 2016, which is also the day that, um, my first Augusta mystery came out, Grace's Augusta mystery one murder under the Magnolias, um, which takes place during golf week, but not at a tournament. Um, I decided that, um, I wanted to do some stuff for my health.

37:15
Over the past several years, I've lost about 70 pounds. And during the pandemic, I had been, before the pandemic, I'd been going to the gym. I was a gym rat, went to the gym every day. Um, but during the pandemic, couldn't do that. And my parents, I didn't want to get sick and give it to my parents. So I stayed out of the gym for a while. Um, but what I did is I started walking every day and I started taking pictures on my walk because.

37:44
I just saw these cool things. I'm a hawk. People writing these messages, especially during April of 2020, encouraging messages in chalk on sidewalk and things like that. And I started doing it and putting it on Facebook and people were like, wow, I really, you know, they started liking it and making comments. Oh, how pretty things were. And so I just kept doing it. And I've never been, I always say I said I hated winter. That's what I always

38:14
taking pictures every day and putting on Facebook. And I have a hashtag of walks with Charmaine. I heard this little voice in my head say, you know, you can't say that you hate winter because you have found beauty in every season.

38:31
I was like, fine, it's my least favorite season, how's that? So, because it's true, I mean, and the funny thing is I take pretty much the same path every day, but I would take different pictures. Now, right now, my feet is full of azaleas, and I am not sorry about that, because I love azaleas, they're my favorite. But, you know, just finding something interesting, or I mean, it just has something blooming year round. That's true. So you can find something pretty, and especially people who don't live here.

39:00
You know, the ones that live up north, oh, it's so pretty there. Yeah. Well, we have something blooming all year round. Well, I wish I could have something blooming all year round. And I got a message from somebody the other day, like two or three days ago. And this, this person said, you just don't know how much you've inspired me. Because there's that consistency of being out there walking, you know, and doing, and trying to take care of yourself and take care of your body. And this person was talking about how they'd gone through, you know, some pretty tough times in a relationship and. You know,

39:30
They gained weight because emotional eating and, you know, that's real. That's very real. And I totally understand that because that's my thing. But I did that for a while, but then I decided, and I decided that's me. You know, I'm not saying everybody has to be like me. But my decision was, you know, instead of eating to make myself feel better, I feel better after I take a walk. Even though there are days I'm like, I don't want to go for a walk. Don't want to go for a walk.

39:59
but I'll make myself do that or I'm back in the gym too. I'll make myself do that. And then afterwards it's like, glad I did that because the endorphins are there and being out in nature and you got the vitamin C going and you've got all of that. And there's just something calming about being out in nature. And my husband will even say, if I hadn't had a walk, he's like, have you had your walk today? That means you're a little testy. I think you need to go for a walk.

40:28
But it's something about that calming thing. And for this person to say, you know, it really has inspired me and I want to, you know, do better for myself because what I've seen you do. That really is very humbling that somebody would send me a note on Facebook. Yeah.

40:52
All right, Charmy, this is the second segment of the show. Now we're going to dive a little bit deeper into your mental health journey. And we touched on it a little bit last segment there, but for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay? Well, you know, it's, it's definitely the going out and walking. That that's one of them. Um, but the focus, I mean, everything is mental. You know, I, I did have a, um,

41:20
during February, it was dark. And it was just that daily thing of, you know, having a reason. What is your reason? And, you know, I mean, there are days when you wonder, why do I do the things that I do? I don't really want to do that story. And I don't want to tell your story. I mean, I'm a human being. I go through that sometimes. But

41:48
but thinking about what other people have ever come and the fact that I started this to inspire people. I started Augusta Good News to inspire people and give people, you know, we went through the pandemic with people having mental health challenges and, you know, seeing more suicide rates and things like that go up and, you know, thinking what is it that I can do to keep myself uplifted? I mean, I have...

42:17
I had a family member that went through a tough time last year. And there were days when all I could do to that person is say, I love you. I love you because I would get messages. And this might be a little too personal. But I would get messages from that person saying, I just don't, I don't want to be here anymore. And it would break my heart. And I'd be like, I love you. That's the best I could do. And so I thought, I guess I'm just one of those kinds of people where...

42:47
I know that I have to pull myself up. I can't rely on anybody else to do it. And I mean, I'm the one that checks on everybody, except for my mom, okay? Mom's out there listening. Except for my mom, nobody checks on me. And it's usually those strong people that nobody checks on. So if you're listening to this and you got a strong friend, you need to go check on that person. Because one of the things that I learned is if I thought of somebody,

43:15
And I hadn't thought of them in a long time. I needed to check on them. I mean, that person would just come into my head and it'd be like, and I would send them a text message and then the message would come back. I really needed that, you have no idea. And so, how do I stay out of the dark place? It's just knowing that, you know what? If nobody checked on me, I'm gonna be okay. I'm gonna do the things that I know that help me. It's going on that walk. It's...

43:44
making sure I'm eating the right things. It's not, I mean, for me, certain foods I just stay away from because if I eat them the next morning, physically I'm not gonna feel well. Physically, I'm gonna feel crap, if I can say that. I'm gonna be very tired or very overwhelmed. So eating the right things, eating the right kinds of food, having fruits and vegetables and healthy foods, for me, that's a way that I...

44:12
stay physically healthy and mentally healthy. And sunlight, I like sunlight. And I think my photography is one of those things that just seeing the beauty in nature and looking for it. You know, that song years ago, stop and smell the roses. Count your many blessings every day. And sometimes that's hard. You know, people are like, well, you should just count.

44:40
your blessings and be thankful. And you know, if you're depressed, you're like, what blessing? I don't want to be thankful right now. Yeah, yeah. You know, when you're in that place, you're like, what is it that I'm thankful for? And really, I mean, sometimes you just have to pull yourself out of it. You have to force yourself out of it, even when you don't want to. And I think the thing that does that is, I mean, I know that I've got my children who love me and are depending on me. And I have my husband who loves me. And God, thank.

45:09
God for that man. Because he is, he's my rock. He's one of the reasons that I try to stay healthy. And you know, not to please him, but for the fact that he loves me so much that I need him. Yeah. You know? And you know, being there to take care of my mom and my brother, you know? I mean, I love what he does for the community. I don't know if I answered that question.

45:38
No, you did because, you know, it's, I feel very much the same way in certain aspects. It's like, you know, I started this podcast during the pandemic because of things that I was feeling. And, you know, I had a good friend that told me, it's like, hey, you know, and this was me putting all these obstacles in my way before I actually started. Like, I'd be like, I had this great idea, but then I was like, oh, no, I'm...

46:05
I gotta get this microphone. I gotta do this, I gotta do this, and I gotta do this, and I gotta do this. He's like, if you don't hit record and put an episode out, it doesn't matter what you think or how good you think it's gonna do for someone if they can never hear it. So if they don't know that there are these good stories out there, they don't know that there's positivity in the world, that there is light, that there is sunshine, you know, that there's beautiful flowers no matter the season.

46:34
you know, if you don't put that out there, it's almost doing a disservice to the folks that you wanted to help. Yeah. And yes, we all need to be, the strong ones we need to be checked on. Yeah. But I do think folks that have that empathetic nature and want, you know, those strong ones don't want other people to feel that way because they felt that way. Yeah, we know what it's like. We know what it's like. So I don't want you to have to feel that. So I'm gonna make sure that I've...

47:03
you've been going because I know there's somebody there that may need to see that picture that day or may need to hear that positive story. So I absolutely think you did answer the question. Yeah. I mean, you know, some of the things I draw inspiration. I mean, we all love one of those underdog stories, you know, and I've read my share of them. I've seen those movies. I would love movies like

47:28
Rudy and all of those underdog movies, the Disney movie where the bad news bears. You know, Americans love those kinds of worst to first kinds of things. And that's something I've been able to see with the person I was talking about before, the wheelchair athlete Lisa Maddox. One of the questions I asked her was about her mental health because to me, I thought losing a leg. I mean, what does that do for you mentally?

47:58
this person in high school was an all-star athlete. She played basketball. And so as a basketball player, she relied on her legs. Yeah. And she said, well, sports, for me, sports is that outlet. Sports is what helps me with my mental health. And I think a lot of ways when I'm writing these stories about other people, that really is helping my mental health. Because I'm focusing on their positive stories and trying to draw inspiration from them. Because I think that an-

48:28
I feel that's one of the reasons why I started what I started is I can give you these stories of people that live here. You may run into this person at the grocery store. Yeah. You may encounter this person in your daily life. It's great to, I mean, like recently my youngest daughter and I, we went to Columbia to see the Gloria Stefan show, Get On Your Feet. It's just On Your Feet, but it's from that song, Get On Your Feet. And she's got a song about...

48:56
coming out of the darkness and getting into the light. And one of the things that she did is, when they were trying to cross over from simply playing Spanish speaking, Spanish singing music into singing English songs, words in, please edit that, songs in English that had that Latin beat, they faced a lot of...

49:24
adversaries, you know, it was, it was hard for them to break over. They had these record producers are like, nobody's gonna listen to that. We're not going to give you the money. And they took their songs and took them to nightclubs and asked them, will you play this? And then from there, they started getting played on the radio and they, you know, it was, they had to work it. And, and, and I guess, you know, it's great to hear about Gloria, Stefan, woohoo. Um, you know, but I can hear about somebody in Augusta who has overcome.

49:52
a major challenge and maybe they don't have worldwide success, but that's a question. What is success? What does it come down to? If you only equate success with money, then there's so many things that will be lost out. If that's the only measure of success you have is money. But you're right. It's all in the...

50:22
the approach in being able to tell those stories again, so that message gets out. I have another friend that tells me all the time, he's like, Rob, you realize that you're, and he's in a podcast circle, he's like, you realize that you have a top 5% global podcast. And I was like, I mean, yeah. He's like, but you don't tell people that. I'm like, well.

50:52
why would I tell people that? It's not, you know what I mean? I'm not trying to, I'm not a toot my own horn type of person. Again, as I said before we started, I feel like what we do here is very important to me and I feel very empathetic and very precious of the stories that my guests allow me to tell or help them tell and guide them through telling. So it's not something I wanna degrade by, oh, you're this and you won these awards and all.

51:22
It's not about that. It's about you sitting here with me, telling me the things that are important to you and the things that make you get through those tough times. Yeah. Yeah, and in a way though, cause now I look back, when I had that idea of creating a website, I did not know how to build a website. I built my own website in 10 days and started putting content on it.

51:52
I don't know how did that, but see that's the thing too, is when you look back at where you've come from and what you've already come through in life and you go, okay, so I've written 14 books. I won a Georgia author of the year award. I won a, I did a story when I wrote for the Signal newspaper, I wrote for them. That was for Gordon newspaper at the time.

52:18
at the department of the army level. That's the highest level. I won a second place in their journalism competition. I won the inaugural yearby award for fiction. Okay, so yeah, I've got those things and I can go back and say, I know how to write. You know, at least, you know, somebody can affirm that I know how to write. But what are other things that I did for myself? Well, I walk every day. And that's a major thing that you can say you do that.

52:47
I lost 70 pounds and kept it off. You know, I've raised three great children. I have a wonderful husband and those are my victories. You know, you look at those things, what are your victories in your own life? Maybe those aren't your victories. You know, your victories are different, but what have you already come through? There's this meme on Facebook, you know, something about all the tough days in your life, you come through them.

53:16
You came through those. And one thing that my dad always said to me, and this is something that gets me through everything. And he told me this when I was a teenager and I was like, oh, you know. But he said to me that everything is temporary and subject to change. Everything is temporary. And so when you take that and you go, okay, I'm having a really bad day. I don't feel successful. I don't feel like I know what I'm doing.

53:45
I don't feel like I'm making an impact. I don't feel like anybody knows that I exist. But you know, I did this thing here and I accomplished this and all my other crappy, whatever word you wanna put in there, days, I've made it through. I've made it through this. I can get through one more. And if I can just get through today, I don't have to get through tomorrow yet. If I get through today, let me go to sleep and to just sleep on this in the tomorrow.

54:15
It'll be a new day. We can start over with a fresh plate. And yeah, I guess that's one of the, maybe that at the core of it is how I get through every day. And I mean, I, you know, I don't go around telling people, everybody that I'm a Christian or whatever, but my faith is very important. And it's the thing that undergirds all of it is knowing that I can pray. I can, you know, I have that.

54:44
to get me through.

54:51
Alright, and shall we? It's time now for the third segment of the show. It's time now for the Fast Five! The Fast Five! It's time now for the Fast Five! Fast Five! Sorry, I'm still working on the theme song. I know it's been four seasons, but it's work in progress. It's work in progress. Fast Five is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown. If you go to chewingthefatbr.com slash poddex, it'll take you to the link where you can download it from your Google Play or your Apple App Store. It was created for podcasters, but they're great.

55:20
a little interview and icebreaker questions as well. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna ask you five questions. It's first thing comes to the top of your head, no wrong. That could be quite scary. No wrong answers, you ready? Sure. Here we go, question number one.

55:39
What did your 15 year old self imagine you'd be doing right now?

55:45
Did I? I don't know. I think that was probably still in my my journalism phase. Yeah. I had no idea I'd be a publisher of a newspaper. I just thought it'd be a writer, I guess. I'm sure she'd be very proud of you right now, though. Probably. Question number two.

56:09
What makes you lose track of time?

56:13
when I get involved in a story, when I'm writing, I have no idea what time it is. And I look at the clock and think, how did it get to be seven o'clock already? And did I eat? I've been there on the, did I eat? For myself, for sure. All right. Question number three.

56:34
What is your most treasured memory?

56:41
There's just so many things in my life, you know, just just just pick one that pops to the top of the bubbles to the top because it's told you I see in pictures, I just see a collage of pictures. I mean, you know, being a mom and and seeing my kids dance and and and doing that I think I think it's all mother related probably just raising my kids because I have three and they all think that I have a favorite so

57:11
And they're all right. And they're all wrong. The dog is my favorite. All right, question number four.

57:24
Now you're an author, but what was the last book you read? I am currently reading Ward Clayton's book about the black caddies in Augusta. And it's something like legends of the game. He's actually got a, it just came out April 2nd, but I ordered an advance copy. So that's what I'm reading right now. Okay. Very cool. And question number five.

57:53
You've written some sci-fi books. Do you prefer Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Dune? Oh, Hitchhiker's Guide. Yeah. Douglas Adams fan? Yeah, because it's the humor involved with it. Dune's too serious. Too serious, yeah. For sure. I'm with you on that too. Well, Charmaine, that's our Fast Five and that is the show. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me.

58:22
Yeah, I appreciate that talking with me. Yeah, we took longer than an hour. No, no, no. This was great. If folks want to keep up with you and your, and your, Augusta Good News or your book series or anything like that. What's the best way that you can keep up with you? Augusta Good News is the website. It's AugustaGoodNews.com. I have.

58:45
On Facebook, it's at Augusta Good News. And then for my books, they're available on Amazon or if you're in Augusta, you can go to the book tavern and get them at the book tavern. And in the audio books from Nicole Swanson. Exactly. Audible. Yes. Get an audible membership and you can get the, if she's working on book six right now, actually, so there are six in that series and on Facebook, my author page is at CZ Brackett.

59:15
That might be Twitter. Just look it up Charmain Zimmerman Bracket author. Yeah, that one. There you go. Thank you so much for being here. I wish you nothing but success in everything and all of the things that you've got going on. And I just love the spirit that you bring to this town and to the work that you have. You're just a ray of light in this town. So much success in it all. Thank you.

59:43
And if you would like to support this podcast, do that by buying me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com. But until next time, look forward to the chance we have to sit a spell and chew the fat.