Jan. 2, 2025

From Journalism to Fiction Roni Robbins' Inspiring Journey

Show Notes
Transcript

Send us a text

Join us in this captivating episode of Living the Dream with Curveball as we sit down with award-winning author and journalist Roni Robbins. With nearly four decades of experience, Ronnie shares her journey from journalist to author, revealing the challenges and triumphs in writing her novel, "Hands of Gold." Inspired by her grandfather's life, the book spans from the 1920s to the 1990s, weaving tales of love, resilience, and historical events like the Holocaust. Discover the fascinating stories behind her journalism career, her upcoming projects, and the impact of her work on family and readers alike. Don't miss this inspiring conversation!
www.ronirobbins.com
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

WEBVTT

00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:09.660
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome um, to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve cheap, cheap.

00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:29.440
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I had a real guest that teach, motivate and inspire.

00:00:30.100 --> 00:00:53.728
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Today I am joined by award winning author, reporter and journalist Ronnie Robbins. Ronnie has decades of experience as a reporter and she's got an award winning book. So we're going to be talking to her about her experience in our book and everything that she's been up to. So Ronnie, thank you so much for joining me.

00:00:53.923 --> 00:00:59.259
> Ronnie Robbins>Thank you for allowing me to be here and talk to your audience.

00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:03.100
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself.

00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:45.159
> Ronnie Robbins>So as you said, I've been a journalist for almost four decades now and about 37 years, um, I've written for some big publications like the Huffington Post and Forbes and um, New York Daily News, WebMD. I'm presently freelancing for um, Atlanta Journal Constitution, a local newspaper and a local daily newspaper and also Medscape, WebMD. And some 20 years ago my mom gave me cassette tapes that I used to create a novel.

00:01:45.319 --> 00:02:29.497
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, I worked on it when I was raising my children and I, it, it was published in 2022, uh, and it's won six awards including international and global book awards. And um, so I've had uh, I've been talking about my book and um, you know it was, it was quite the journey and quite different than I was used to as a journalist to write fiction. I did create, I did take a story that my um, mom. The cassette tapes were about her father's life, um, his adventures and near death experiences in Europe and um, in America.

00:02:29.593 --> 00:03:16.629
> Ronnie Robbins>And um, several major um, sections of the book have to do with the Holocaust and losing his whole family there and clinical um, trials for a treatment, um, for tuberculosis and just a love story between two people and what you have to go through in life when someone is sick and the other has to take care of a family. So it's, it's um, it's romance, it's adventure, it's drama, um, it's tragedy and ultimately triumph. So it was definitely a different path, a ah, side path for me as I'm continuing my journalism also.

00:03:16.969 --> 00:03:21.710
> Ronnie Robbins>Uh, so two, two different branches of my writing career.

00:03:23.810 --> 00:03:36.189
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah, and you've had a great career as a journalist. So tell us about some of the things you've done, some of the maybe famous people you might interview or some of the highlights of your career.

00:03:37.740 --> 00:03:54.400
> Ronnie Robbins>So I have interviewed Wolf Blitzer and Andy Gibb and uh, Usher, uh, or I've done stories that involved them and actually did meet them. Um, also Hank Aaron is in that list, uh, and a few others.

00:03:54.740 --> 00:04:37.350
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, but, um, you know, I've been a daily newspaper reporter. That's how I started. And. And I'm back doing a little bit of that now. Probably not on that daily schedule as I was churning out stories every day at one point, uh, earlier in my career covering beats, covering geographic areas, city government, police, fire, um, you know, crime, anything that happened. Um, uh, so in those areas that I covered in Florida and also in Birmingham, Alabama, um, and then I became, um, a weekly newspaper reporter.

00:04:37.459 --> 00:05:02.053
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, so business, Jewish, um, specialty. Uh, and then, uh, freelancing while I was raising my children and writing my book. Hands, um, of gold, by the way. Uh, and I, um. So I, um, went back and forth from freelancing, uh, freelancing while I was raising my children and writing the book and then freelancing now.

00:05:02.122 --> 00:05:36.482
> Ronnie Robbins>Now, um, and, uh, in between, I was working full time for newspapers. Um, and about a year ago, I was. Up until about a year ago, I was working at Medscape, WebMD, where I'm now freelancing for them, covering some of my same beats, uh, that I covered before, which were medical students and residents, UM, nurses and PAs. But I'm mostly doing the medical, um, students and residents now. So, um, you know, it's celebrity news.

00:05:36.665 --> 00:05:42.509
> Ronnie Robbins>It's. There was environmental, there was, um, health care, business.

00:05:43.199 --> 00:06:03.160
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, so I've been around the block a bit, and, um, it's not all glamour. Um, I was stalking Liam Neeson for a while, and, um, that seems very glamorous. But, uh, and I did get to see him a few times. Um, I saw Tyler Perry when I was covering. Um.

00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:30.961
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, there was a death. His daughter, um, Bobbi Christina Brown, uh, overdosed. And I was, um, and then ended up in hospice and passing away. And, uh, there were a lot of celebrities that passed through at that point, um, including Bobby Brown and Tyler Perry. Um, so some of it is glamorous and some of it isn't so glamorous. You're stalking.

00:06:31.026 --> 00:06:56.680
> Ronnie Robbins>You're just sitting out and waiting for the story. So a sort of paparazzi. Uh, so I was a paparazzi for a while, uh, a reporter for a bit. Um, but right now I'm mostly working from home and contributing stories for those two publications, Medscape and Atlanta Journal Constitution, with some stories on the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. So that's all always very exciting.

00:06:56.759 --> 00:07:02.060
> Ronnie Robbins>And when people see my stories, they'll tell me. And I love that too. It's a big ego boost.

00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:15.382
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, tell us about what it was like or how difficult or easy was it to make the transition from journalist to authority.

00:07:15.475 --> 00:07:57.949
> Ronnie Robbins>It was not easy, um, because even though I used a lot of the skills that I, uh, developed as a journalist in my writing, in my storytelling, um, in my research for the novel, um, making up dialogue was very difficult for me. One, uh, would say it would be fun and, um, freeing because I didn't have to. I could make it all up. I didn't have to stick to any set interview that somebody gave me. I did base the novel on the cassette tapes with my grandfather's voice, uh, throughout the book.

00:07:57.990 --> 00:08:46.240
> Ronnie Robbins>But then I made up other interactions that he had and different thoughts that I thought he might have at the time. Um, so that was challenging for sure. Uh, to not have all the information and have to plug in the information. The research, the storytelling was. Was easier for me. I, uh, knew how to do that. I mean it still takes a lot. I had to. This was before everything was all online. So I had to go physically to the Archives, the National Archives, and uh, discover uh, census information and other documents that would help me in.

00:08:46.600 --> 00:09:08.460
> Ronnie Robbins>In um, just being historically accurate in creating this novel and presenting the novel so that nobody challenged me, um, and said, no, this is not correct. I wanted it to be historically accurate in so many different ways. What they were saying, what their language would have been at the time.

00:09:09.429 --> 00:10:17.720
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, because this was early 1900s, uh, up until more present time. Actually not. It was 1980s, 19, uh, 90s. So from 1920s to 1990s, I had to change with the times. How would they refer to each other? Um, uh, what would they have been wearing? What was going on around them at the time? That all had to be, you know, captured in the novel to make it realistic. So very challenging, um, you know, worthy of challenge. But, uh, to. To have accomplished that, uh, but. But definitely, um, took a lot of time and research and since I was staying home with my children, um, raising my children instead of working full time, which, uh, was harder as a journalist. You know, you try to raise a family, it's hard to do at all. Um, and journalism is not a 9 to 5. It's a whenever to whenever the story breaks.

00:10:18.059 --> 00:10:20.707
> Ronnie Robbins>So it was. It was a lot to juggle.

00:10:20.803 --> 00:10:29.200
> Ronnie Robbins>And um, so I did have the freedom of being. Of staying home with them and I worked while they napped or while they were at school.

00:10:29.610 --> 00:10:55.190
> Ronnie Robbins>Uh, so I found time to create my novels. So, um, I'M you know, I. I think I've come a long way and. And definitely stretched myself to different, you know, using different capabilities than talents, uh, that I didn't know I had. Um, so, you know, that's always a great accomplishment.

00:10:57.210 --> 00:11:01.950
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Absolutely. Well, how did your family react to. To your book?

00:11:03.990 --> 00:11:54.460
> Ronnie Robbins>The reaction has been mostly positive. Um, 99.9% positive. Um, many people, uh, came out of the woodwork. Even family I didn't know came out of the woodwork, and they contacted me and said, I read your book or I heard about your book, and I knew your grandfather. And, uh, I didn't know all these stories. I'm glad you wrote these stories. I had some of that, like, distant cousins, cousins I'm still friends with now, or, uh, communicate with now. Um, m. A lot of support. My mom, of course, is super proud of me. Um, I had one aunt that wasn't so happy about it.

00:11:54.779 --> 00:11:57.220
> Ronnie Robbins>Uh, she didn't think I asked permission.

00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:00.607
> Ronnie Robbins>And, um, you know, I.

00:12:00.744 --> 00:12:03.312
> Ronnie Robbins>I took a lot of liberties with the information.

00:12:03.495 --> 00:12:09.600
> Ronnie Robbins>And there was some sex in the book, uh, so. Or innuendo.

00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:14.980
> Ronnie Robbins>And that might not feel good to somebody if this is about their parents.

00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:26.460
> Ronnie Robbins>I asked others that I was concerned about, what do you think about this, How I portrayed your family member, or this information that I shared in the book?

00:12:26.710 --> 00:12:32.346
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, that was questionable. And they said, it's fiction, right? And I said, absolutely.

00:12:32.538 --> 00:12:37.830
> Ronnie Robbins>So for some, that's okay, and for others, it feels too close to home.

00:12:38.210 --> 00:12:54.870
> Ronnie Robbins>So I really only had one person that wasn't totally on board with me about the whole thing. Um, but overall, the reaction has been very positive among readers, um, among family.

00:12:55.690 --> 00:12:58.470
> Ronnie Robbins>You, uh, know, like I said, I won six awards.

00:12:58.850 --> 00:13:15.909
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, and, um, m article was in the Jerusalem Post. I, uh, was in a book festival with Nikki Haley, Andrew Young, Benjamin, uh, Netanyahu from Livestream.

00:13:15.990 --> 00:13:24.049
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, Jodi Co. Uh, uh, Robert Oren, Michael. Um, I'm sorry.

00:13:24.049 --> 00:13:42.649
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, uh, Jon Meacham. So, um, there's so many, um, different achievements within the book, so I'm very proud of all of that.

00:13:44.950 --> 00:13:50.720
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay. Well, seems like this book was inspired by your.

00:13:50.830 --> 00:13:58.840
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Your grandfather, and he's a great inspiration to you. So, you know, kind of tell us about what an inspiration he was to you.

00:14:00.419 --> 00:14:12.840
> Ronnie Robbins>Well, I didn't know him growing. I did, in fact, know him growing up. So, um, I did get a sense of him from that. I, uh, know he was a religious man.

00:14:13.179 --> 00:14:13.419
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Ah.

00:14:13.419 --> 00:14:25.009
> Ronnie Robbins>What I knew. I had heard stories about him being sick. Uh, but I always knew my grandmother as the one that was, uh, lumbering with heavy legs.

00:14:25.509 --> 00:16:29.347
> Ronnie Robbins>And she uh, had some kind of circulation problems in her legs that prevented her from walking well. But what I learned from the tapes, um, was more about. He was a clinical trial patient, um, sort of an experimental treatment for tuberculosis. He contracted tuberculosis and he was told he was terminal at 27, but he lived till 87. And part of that was because he was this clinical trial patient for um, you know, sort of a test case for this experimental treatment called streptomycin, which is still used today. And people don't know that, um, don't realize that tuberculosis is still the largest worldwide infectious disease, uh, killer, um, globally. And that we think Covid, but Covid is also a upper respiratory illness that's similar. But uh, tuberculosis is still the biggest killer worldwide. And so he was on the ground level, um, groundbreaking, game changing drug, uh, that. That is still used today and paved the way for the medicine that is used today to treat tuberculosis. So there was that. My grandmother had to be the breadwinner at a time when women were not breadwinners. They stayed at home with their families. She had five children to raise, um, while he was in and out of rehabilitation for tuberculosis and had to stay away from the family. He also was involved in a workplace shooting spree. He was a supervisor at a TB rehabilitation center. This was written about in the New York Daily News, which I worked, I freelanced for years later, um, ironically. But he actually talked to the gunman.

00:16:29.443 --> 00:16:38.225
> Ronnie Robbins>There was a gunman, came in, wanted, is, was angry about not getting paid, um, shot, shot up the place.

00:16:38.378 --> 00:16:56.529
> Ronnie Robbins>My grandfather had what we call chutzpah, bravery, gall to go up to the gunman and talk to him. Now in my book he also saves people, um, by wrestling the gunman. But he, um. So there's that part of the story.

00:16:56.649 --> 00:17:13.203
> Ronnie Robbins>He was a trolley driver and he accidentally killed somebody. There's that they both lost much of their family in the Holocaust. They came here, um, between the wars, um, but he left, um, all.

00:17:13.291 --> 00:17:39.720
> Ronnie Robbins>They both left all their family in Europe, um, to come here to make that choice. And they wish that they could have done more. And also, uh, there but for the grace of God go I that they, you know, it could have been them. But they also had the guilt of why didn't I do more? Why didn't I try harder? How could this even happen now? Growing up, I didn't, I heard, I.

00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:44.900
> Ronnie Robbins>They didn't talk about this. So, you know, it was hush hush around the children.

00:17:45.279 --> 00:18:11.046
> Ronnie Robbins>So, um, this is all what I learned from listening to the Cassette tapes and researching my family, uh, and realizing m. How many uh, of his family members died in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Uh, so he had to live with that guilt uh, throughout his life. So there's, and then there's the love story, the 65 Year Love Story.

00:18:11.117 --> 00:19:08.480
> Ronnie Robbins>And they died on the date of each other, um, a uh, year apart. So that my grandmother, who was older, they actually were the same age when they both died. You know, with, with that math if you can figure it out, she was older, he died a year later. So they were both at the same age when they died a year apart to the day. So I saw that that was the initial spark. That was the love story, this 65 year love story. And at the beginning of the book, um, my grandmother says to my grandfather, um, do what you have to do to tie up loose ends and meet me in heaven. I almost named the book Meet me in Heaven. But that was. Other people had used that for books and movies. So I um, I chose Hands of Gold instead. But there, there's you know, several other parts of the book, um, involving the Holocaust, involving family.

00:19:08.910 --> 00:19:52.624
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, you know, you go through a life of somebody and, and the lives of, of their children. Um, if you span, you know, from the 20s to the 90s, in 1920s to the 1990s actually it goes back even further to 19 was born when my grandfather was born. So yeah, I think it was uh, he was um, an interesting character. He, he had a personality and, and he had some humor too. That's dispersed in the book along with Yiddish, the language that they would have used at the time. A little bit of Yiddish with a glossary at the end that nobody knows is there apparently.

00:19:52.751 --> 00:20:03.759
> Ronnie Robbins>But um, they, you can you get the context as you're reading it anyway, because that's what journalists do. Try not to make it hard on you to read anything.

00:20:04.500 --> 00:20:20.922
> Ronnie Robbins>So there it is. He was uh, an everyday, just uh, grandfather who had a history. And I, the, the message is that we all have our, have stories to tell um, in our lifetime worth sharing.

00:20:21.076 --> 00:20:39.930
> Ronnie Robbins>So I just happen to have taken it a step further than you know, the recordings that he left for the family, um, or articles or pictures. So you. I did research and created a novel out of it using the skills that God gave me to be able to do that.

00:20:41.670 --> 00:20:47.049
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that people need to be aware of.

00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:55.526
> Ronnie Robbins>Uh, well, I am starting to write a book, uh, based on my dad's life.

00:20:55.597 --> 00:21:40.071
> Ronnie Robbins>He was a blacksmith, um, he created, he was a metal Worker. Um, he also was involved in the Apollo space launches. He was a teacher of, uh, engineering. Um, so he had an interesting life also. So apparently another male figure, um, it's. The working title is A Mighty Arm. Uh, and I just started it. You know, he passed away in March. So I'm try. I've collected some documents and, and uh, if I get any time, uh, between writing, you know, for two publications and three editors, I think. I'm not even sure how many editors I have now.

00:21:40.096 --> 00:21:45.718
> Ronnie Robbins>But, um, uh, you know, I'm trying to fit in time to.

00:21:45.854 --> 00:22:05.526
> Ronnie Robbins>To also achieve, um, this in my life and, and write a book about my dad. Unlike my grandfather, he might not have wanted me to write a book. So uh, I think he's working behind the scenes to keep me super busy so that I, I don't have time to, you know, set aside for. For that.

00:22:05.597 --> 00:22:08.342
> Ronnie Robbins>But otherwise that's my, that's my goal.

00:22:08.405 --> 00:23:05.769
> Ronnie Robbins>And I'm continuing to write articles for Medscape, WebMD and um, uh, really Medscape, and also for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. So that's. That's the newest, uh, those are the newest projects that, that are underway for me. And people can Google and read about anything they want, uh, about me. Usually they can find me through. Through my website or um, just, you know, even Googling me and spelling my name right. You can find out a whole lot and read some of my, um, uh, my specialty is healthcare. So the articles and wellness. So the articles can. I've written about tuberculosis recently. Um, my latest one that just came out was Robots in a children's hospital. Um, Night Shifts was a recent one.

00:23:06.390 --> 00:23:14.971
> Ronnie Robbins>So, uh, anything and everything about healthcare and wellness and, and hospitals, I guess, and students.

00:23:15.155 --> 00:23:18.200
> Ronnie Robbins>Residents and students. So the medical community.

00:23:19.460 --> 00:23:20.759
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Watch your website.

00:23:22.500 --> 00:23:27.228
> Ronnie Robbins>My website is www.ronnierobbins.com.

00:23:27.284 --> 00:24:00.579
> Ronnie Robbins>you got to spell my name right. R O N I, R O B B I N S. Um, and you'll learn all about the book. Um, all about the book, all about the background to the book where I speaking next. Um, I have done, uh, I've been talking to book clubs and women's groups and church and synagogue groups, um, and traveling around the country to do that in America.

00:24:00.579 --> 00:24:15.036
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, so far, not outside of the country, but always open to opportunities to speak to different groups, uh, about the book, about the themes of the book, which are very relevant to today.

00:24:15.188 --> 00:25:03.420
> Ronnie Robbins>In fact, because of tuberculosis still in the news. Um, war is a big part of the book. Um, war raging in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere. Um, antisemitism, hatred in the world. Um, those are some of the themes that are recurring in our life today. Um, battles with, uh, upper respiratory illnesses, Covid still is, uh, lingering and others that people have to deal with. So you can learn so much about me about the book. Some of my articles are in there, especially if they have to do with the book.

00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:14.380
> Ronnie Robbins>Um, who's written about me Media Podcasts, which is my newest, uh, venture is to be on podcasts like this one. Thank you very much.

00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:28.380
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, thank you very much as well. And listeners, please go check out Ronnie Robbins work. Check out her book and all of her writings and everything that she's up to and going to be up to.

00:25:28.839 --> 00:25:34.539
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Please follow rate, review, share this episode to as many people as possible.

00:25:35.400 --> 00:25:57.594
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Jump on your favorite podcast app, follow, check out the show and share it. If you have any guests or suggestion topics, Curtis Jackson1978t.net is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and supporting the show, Ronnie. Thank you for all that you do and thank you for joining us.

00:25:57.761 --> 00:26:00.269
> Ronnie Robbins>Thank you very much for the opportunity.

00:26:01.170 --> 00:26:09.162
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurveball.com.

00:26:09.346 --> 00:26:14.089
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>until next time, stay focused on Living the Dream Dream.