Wise Not Withered

Welcome to the Wise Not Withered Podcast! It's Episode 4 of Season 3, where I dive into behind-the-scenes stories and experiences that I've been through over the last four years since starting this project in earnest. The five key points of today's episode are as follows: Accidentally thought a male artist was a woman...! Learning, growing — being right where you are in your life Painful conflict...

Welcome to Season 3 of the Wise Not Withered Podcast! It's Episode 3, and here are my five key points for today: Entertainment Lawyers THE CONTRACT!! The first 10 episodes: interviews with wise women from my own life Originally 12-15 characters until I realized I NEEDED MOOOORE!! Mentoring teenagers Listen to the entire episode on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify!

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 2 of the Wise Not Withered Podcast! There are five key points today. The summary is as follows: Character idea that ended up getting scrapped/merged. 86-year-old musician (guitarist, singer-songwriter, composer) who tours for six months with husband who is terminally ill and eventually passes - my own ideas and open-ended thoughts about death Podcast theme music - firs...

It's Season 3 of the Wise Not Withered Podcast! This season is a personal challenge for myself, while also an opportunity for me to open up about all of the experiences I've gone through over the last three and a half years since beginning this project in earnest. Instead of reading from a script as I have done in the past twenty-five episodes, I will be writing five key points and riffing on thos...

Hello and welcome to Week 25 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! Today I am thrilled to present the LAST character of the project: Cassika, our 86-year-old Mermaid Queen!! Cassika's writer is Jumleni , from New York, and her illustrator is Marina , from Egypt! I found Jumleni on Instagram, while searching for some kind of hashtags about poetry. Her words grabbed at me and I was so excited...

Welcome to Week 24 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week I am happy to introduce Farah, our 45-year-old Super-Mom! Farah is a school teacher, and a struggling widowed mother of two, dealing with depression and insomnia. I thought it would be interesting for Farah’s superpowers to develop in her middle age, rather than in her teen years or twenties—again, we are trying to break the...

Hello and welcome to Week 23 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week we are introducing Beatrice, our 45-year-old Singing Therapist! The writer for this character, Agatha, was actually the only one to reach out to me to join the project, which was pretty interesting from a creator's standpoint. I haven't done much at all in terms of promotion, so it was cool that someone somehow fou...

Welcome to Week 22 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! Today I'm excited to present Kaya Ray, our 50-year-old Independent Nurse! Kaya Ray is actually one of just three characters in the Wise Not Withered project whose concept I did not originally come up with myself—two others are amalgamations of the writer's and my ideas ( Tsalo-Sesha from Week 7, and the Singing Therapist, who is yet t...

  Welcome to Week 21 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week I'm thrilled to present Valeria, our 56-year-old Apocalyptic CEO! Valeria is the chief executive officer of a tech company, and finds herself in the middle of a mysterious apocalyptic situation. Her story is most definitely one that is suited for a video game; one of the very first ideas I had with this character is that i...

Welcome to Week 20 of the Wise Not Withered character showcase!! Today I am ecstatic to present Rabiya, our 47-year-old Tactician Queen! This character and story has so much depth and so much potential. Her original idea is based around one of my favorite video game series, Fire Emblem, where the character/player is often the tactician on the battlefield, commanding and ordering the other units to...

Welcome to Week 19 of the Wise Not Withered character showcase! This week I’m excited to talk about the Blind Assassin character. Unfortunately she does not have a writer OR illustrator at the moment; both women dropped out, so I have some work to do to find new artists. The original writer for this character had suggested we leave her unnamed, to add some mystery and interest. Now that she is no...

Welcome to Week 18 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week I am proud to present Ronda, our 58-year-old pirate captain! Her dark, epic story was written by Priyanka from India , and captivating illustrations by Fanny from Mexico . When it came to the Pirate Captain, I really had no idea what I wanted the story or her look to be like. I personally have very little experience with pir...

Hello and welcome to Week 17 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week I'm excited to present Elizaveta (Liza), our 64-year-old Pop Star CEO! This character's story was written by a Russian writer, and so she herself is Russian as well. The illustrator I originally had do the drawings of Elizaveta unfortunately disappeared, so we will have to use our imaginations until I find a new il...

Hello and welcome to Week 16 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I'm thrilled to present Nardeen, our 75-year-old Herb-Tracking Navigator! This character was actually the very first one I came up with, and I'm so very happy with how she and the other characters turned out in her story. The writers for this story were Heba , from Palestine, and me. Nardeen's wonderful, detailed illustratio...

Full transcription available on WiseNotWithered.com: https://wisenotwithered.com/2020/03/17/dance-teacher-yanti/

Hello and Welcome to Week 14 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week I am proud to present Tala, our 103-year-old Magical Blessing-Granter! The illustrator for the oldest character of the entire project is Zahra , from Iran. I absolutely adore the illustrations that Zahra made for Tala. She worked so hard, creating five fully colored, incredibly detailed pictures. In the sketching a...

Welcome to Week 13 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I am recording from my kitchen table today, for a change of scenery. It's a little windy outside, so you may hear the gentle tinkling of the wind chimes right outside my front door throughout this episode. This week features the last PAIR of women: our fire and water twins, Feu and Sui. Their supernatural story about parallel worlds a...

Hello and welcome to Week 12 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I'm fighting off a cold right now, so bear with me as my voice is a bit croaky. Today's character is extra special because I think of her as a flagship of sorts of the entire project. I'm thrilled to present Candace, our FPS (first-person shooter) Housewife! Candace was one of the first characters I thought of conceptually....

Hello everyone, and welcome to Week 11 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! This week is one of only three PAIRS of women, and this time, they are a MARRIED COUPLE AND BUSINESS-PARTNER SUPER-HEROOOOOOOOEEESSS!!!! I am absolutely delirious to present Tanvi and Gabby, our Diner-Owning Superheroes! They are both forty-two: they met and fell in love while in college, and have been together eve...

Welcome to Week 10 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I'm honored to present our Wild West Tavern Owner, Meg. She owns and runs a business called "Wild Meg's Saloon and Cabaret Lounge". Illustration by Pepi For a couple years I did Lyft driving on and off. One of my passengers was an elderly gentleman who started telling me about how much he loves Wild West films. I hadn't (and still hav...

Welcome to Week 9 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! While each of these characters has a special place in my heart, I have to admit that this week's character is—by a small margin—my favorite of the twenty-five. I am ecstatic to present... NANCY SPACE ROCKET! I had lots of ideas about Nancy Space Rocket before I found someone to write her story. I knew that I wanted her to be sassy, sar...

Happy New Year and welcome to Week 8 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I'm thrilled to present a very special pair of characters: Athiei and Akuol, an aunt and niece potion-brewing witch duo. The illustrator for these characters was Joy Ajuong, whose family originates from South Sudan; our witches have strong influences from the Dinka people who are indigenous there. Our American writer...

Welcome to Week 7 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I took a break last week, and I will take another break in another six or seven weeks, so thank you for your patience! I am so excited to showcase Tsalo-Sesha Serena, the Mother of Nature. This character is particularly special because from conception all the way through to the completion of her story, she is truly the product of colla...

Welcome to Week 6 of the Wise Not Withered character showcase! I am thrilled to present the character, story, and illustrations of Deni, a ninety-nine-year-old "cat lady", who has quite a fantastic saga of her journey back to her home with her cats, training them to hunt and battle, and live as wild cats do. Similarly to Nero, the Retired Cyborg 's story, I simply gave my bare-bone idea (which was...

Welcome to Week 5 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! Today we are presenting the Widowed Writer, 40-year-old Ahlaam. I am currently losing my voice a little bit, so please bear with me again in this episode! My initial ideas for this character— the youngest of all twenty-five—was that her husband passes away unexpectedly, and she struggles to let herself feel the pain and move through th...