Transcript of Msgr. Kenard Tuzeneu Interview

Voice Over: Let's return to ‘This Week in America’. Here's your host Ric Bratton.

RB: Welcome back everybody Coast to Coast. ‘This Week in America’, ‘The Cloud People is a fun and vibrant fantasy novel by Kenard Tuzeneu, a Catholic priest for 42 years. Currently, serving as pastor of a large Parish in Southern New Jersey now. It's the story of Billy a typical middle grade boy who's excited to spend a summer vacation with his grandparents in Indiana. And on this trip he gets to go alone. The vacation is filled with lessons of life, loyalty, and friendship and lots of surprises and a big one at the end that will leave you guessing. Msgr. Kenard Tuzeneu as a new author of the imaginative young adult fiction ‘The Cloud People’ is our guest on ‘This Week in America’. Monsignor welcome to the program. It’s a pleasure to have you with us.

Msgr Ken: Thank you. Good morning. Good to see you. Good to be with you. Thank you.

RB: It is a pleasure to have you here. I love this story, and there's so many elements that is designed for people a little younger than me, but I enjoyed this story as well. And it gets you thinking about all the different themes you bring up in the book. This is the first book that you've written. What prompted you to write this book? Where did the story come from?

Msgr Ken: Well I remember as a kid I always liked to use my imagination. And even with my family, I would like make up stories so ever since then I've always had that as part of my nature, and as my work as Pastor I write a little letter each week in the bulletin, and I try to not just do religious things but things that are going on in people's lives, and at Christmas I always write a little something that's kind of like a gift to them. Well, this started. It's just kind of like an idea. I was on my way to visit my brother in Tennessee, my younger brother, and I was looking out the plane and I saw clouds and all sudden just the idea came to me. I suppose I saw people in the clouds, and then it started as just kind of like a simple little story but then I said this has to be a book because I just kept writing it through and it grew yeah so.

RB: That's interesting that was the basis. That real life was the basis for this story, ‘The Cloud People’. What was the reaction? You mentioned the people in the congregation are used to having you write things in the, you know, the bulletins and messages, that type of thing, and now they find out that Monsignor actually has a book that he's published. What was the reaction with the people in the church?

Msgr Ken: Well, it's kind of interesting because I kind of kept it a secret while I was writing it. I guess part of it was because I wanted to make sure I could actually finish it. I was trying to like keep the theme private because to me I thought it was unique and knowing I'd really done anything like that so I guess I was kind of like protecting it, but then when I finally got it done and I announced it they were all kind of excited and pleased -- a very, very supportive. It was a nice reaction. It's interesting I have a mixed parish, but a lot of them are seniors and they were very, very supportive and a number of them have bought it and read it so I think I have more senior citizens reading it than the kids even though it's a kind of a kid’s story.

RB: Well, I'm glad to hear that so I'm not the exception to the rule by saying that I enjoyed the book as well. The book is ‘The Cloud People’. The author by Kenard Tuzeneu. And I'll spell that for you and if you're Googling it and we got the direct link to Amazon on our website. ‘This Week in America’ can be hardest put. K-E-N-A-R-D T-U-Z-E-N-E-U, a new author. The name of the book is ‘The Cloud People’. You'll find it at Amazon and all of the usual places. You mention this is your first book. Is this the first attempted writing that you've done on this level?

Msgr Ken: It is. I did a couple of like short, short story. I mentioned that I write stuff for Christmas, but one story that became a little bit longer, I called it, ‘Santa and the Easter Bunny’ so that was not like a full book but it was kind of like just a fantasy story for Christmas that I gave to people in my parish and families just kind of like connecting Christmas and Easter but this is the first book book that I've actually written.

RB: Yeah, what was it like writing this book? Was it difficult to write the book? You had this idea you're working on it. You've had this kicking around in your mind for a number of years and you start writing it. Was it difficult, more difficult than you thought it was going to be to write this book?

Msgr Ken: Definitely! It certainly gave me a respect for people that write books and people that read a lot of books. I can't imagine how they do it because like I had the idea. I said, okay, well that's nice but that's just like an idea. What do I do with it now so I just started writing. I would just do a little bit at a time; and to be honest if it wasn't for Covid, which was a terrible tragedy for many, many people, I don't know if I ever would have written it because what happened is as things were closed down and the parish office was closed I said well what am I going to do with my time, and I said well maybe I'll use that to finish the book because I said well maybe if it goes any place maybe if I raise any money I can use it to support the parish in our projects so that's what I would do I would kind of like come into the office and take care of messages and things and then I would start to write the book and then so that really gave me the time to finish it. So if it wasn't for that I don't know if I ever would have got it done. Besides the idea of the, you know, the thoughts of the story, it was just finding the time to do it because I always joke I said well I have a full-time job so I'm not really into a full-time author so that was a challenge.

RB: Well, it is difficult for someone like yourself. I'm very busy and then you're trying to write this and you write a little bit and then you don't get back to it for a while and as you mentioned Covid one of the few benefits of that was the fact that people had time to do things and maybe connect like they hadn't before in your case writing a book . We've mentioned the themes in the book. The book is ‘The Cloud People’ by Kenard Tuzeneu is our guest on the program. What do you hope people get from the book besides a story well told about Billy and what he goes through and what he sees and how he deals with it. What do you hope the reader takes awa?. What was that like?

Msgr Ken: When I write my stories for Christmas I always like to leave a point and so I was just basically trying to like communicate the essential values at the most basic level. I just wanted to encourage young people to use their imagination. I mean I think that's something that maybe that we've lost and I think that's a gift that we have particularly, I think for young people, someone would encourage them to use their imagination and of course interwoven in there is certain basic values like family values. I just wanted to encourage like respect and the family love of family friendship. There's a big theme of friendship kind of like is a sub theme honoring our veterans. A couple of the stories involve the family members and kind of like their service so honoring the fact that I know I cried myself when I wrote part of it because my dad was a veteran so that was a part that was close to me. It just was those basic themes and values is what I wanted to communicate.

RB: You mentioned the idea came from an actual flight that you were on and that inspired you to ultimately write this book, ‘The Cloud People’. What impacted that experience of seeing the cloud and faces in the cloud. What was that experience like for you? What impact did that have on you?.

Msgr Ken: It was kind of like a light bulb because I would just, I always like to be by the window when I fly, and I think like many people I've always been fascinated with clouds. I mean you can obviously see all kinds of things in here but I just remember looking out and it's, I remember thinking of myself, what would it be like you know. When I started to think you know I suppose there's a whole group of people like a whole another level of existence so it was kind of like a light bulb moment I thought well that's really cool and the next thing I said you know this should be a, this should be a story. You know so it was just kind of like almost like an inspiration for me anyway.

RB: When you wrote the story did you have any help? Did you bounce any ideas off anybody especially during that time period when it was very difficult to get contact much contact with people. Any help in writing ‘The Cloud People’?

Msgr Ken: Early on I ran it by a couple of people and a couple of younger people. They're just kind of like you know because I don't normally write like children's stories so they just kind wanted to get their input and I got some good suggestions from them. The biggest one was that my style of writing is normally narrative and was suggested to me that it should be told from the point of view of Billy and so I thought well that's kind of like a good thing so I had to start rewriting from the beginning to change that you know from a narrative to him telling the stories. I think that was a good suggestion and then someone else in the Parish is a writer and gave me some suggestions so I early on I kind of like got a little bit of a pointers and that kind of like helped me to change the direction I think it was a big help for me. I think it helped to improve the story.

RB: With us on the program is Msgr. Kenard Tuzeneu. That's T_U_Z_E_N_E_U. The book is ‘The Cloud People’. You'll find it at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble all of the usual places. Any similarities between you and Billy.

Msgr Ken: I always said that there's a lot of that sort of autobiographical stuff in the story, but yeah there's a little bit of Billy in me definitely. You know as a kid I used to love to climb trees. We had a an abandoned farm behind us and a lot of apple trees and that was like our playground so Billy climbing the tree you know that was fascinating and then him flying in the clouds many times I can remember looking and just imagine what would that be like to like float above the trees so yeah definitely there's a lot of me in Billy or Billy in me.

RB: Well, it's fascinating to see Billy and what he goes through his first time taking this trip to spend summer with his grandparents and what he goes through in the emotions and the friendship and as the story that unfolds and the book, ‘The Cloud People’, what were the biggest challenges for you maybe obstacles in writing this? You mentioned just getting started and then working around your schedule what were some of the challenges you faced in writing this?

Msgr Ken: Yeah I don't know how other people. I mean, like, I didn't have the whole story in mind so I really just started with the basic concept and then as I would write I would kind of like go to a certain point and say I have to think to myself what's next. What's gonna happen. Which was sort of fun in a way, but then and then like maybe I'll get an idea I said well how am I going to get to that point so it was just kind of like the story was evolving and kind of like imagining like what could happen next so it was just sort of like and I had to wait for. That's the hard part of writing . It is like if the ideas don't come I mean nothing gets written so I a couple times I would get like stuck with the plot and kind of like waiting for an idea to come to me and then kind of like that would I would go with that and then maybe I would have to wait till something else came but then eventually it started to come together.

RB: When people are writing almost anything in a book, a term paper, anything like that sometimes you get that writer's block that you talked about. That how do you handle that. Do you just force yourself to come up with something or walk away, forget it and let the ideas come to you at the at the appropriate time

Msgr Ken: I kind of like take a break because you can't force it to come. I know it's even like for preaching I mean like yeah I gotta wait for an idea to come and you can't force it you know because I've actually started a sequel and so I'm going through this all over again. You know and you kind of like have to wait for something to come to kind of like figure out where and sometimes I have an idea and I say well no that's not quite good and then another one would jump into your mind and say well I think that's a better direction so yeah you kind of have to wait for the inspirations to come into mind to the work to move forward.

RB: How is it writing a sequel? This will be the second book. I'm sure you learned lessons from the first book. How valuable is that experience of having one that's already published in getting the preparation done for the second book?

Msgr Ken: Well it's definitely helpful because I've been down that road, you know, before plus I have the basic plot and characters down so one sense it's like easier because you know the basic points are there and I just know it's the question of taking it into another direction and plus its kind of like getting into it and part of me says I'm gonna know what happens too so I need to sit down and write this yeah.

RB: I can't wait to see what's going to happen. So our guest of the program is a Msgr. Kenard Tuzeneu. T_U_Z_E_N_E_U The book is ‘The Cloud People’. You'll find it wherever books are sold. I love the book cover there and we'll talk about that in a second going through the mechanics of actually getting the book published once it's written. So many of these stories you talked about in the beginning when Billy went through sort of reflects your life or experiences. Do you have a favorite part of the book that you really enjoyed writing and maybe even recalling some of your experiences?

Msgr Ken: Well the farm reminds me of my grandparents place which was at one time a farm even like the house where I grew up there was an abandoned farm behind it so certainly that part of it you know the climbing the trees and all that and then the as I said my dad was a veteran so I enjoyed I like including those parts into it but I think probably my favorite was the ending which kind of like just came to me and it was kind of like was a surprise and it was kind of like it gave me a real sense of satisfaction well that's kind of like cool and it really I wanted to kind of like be people guessing you know.

RB: Well, I didn't want to say too much in the beginning on that but you're going to enjoy the end and you really nailed it with that the ending in all of the books so many great lessons in the book, ‘The Cloud People’, a story well told by our guest Msgr. Kenard Tuzeneu. The book available Amazon, all the usual places, mention a little bit of Billy in you any other characters or circumstances there again that sort of reflect your past you mentioned you know your farm, the grandparents farm. You really tapped into real life for some of the situations didn't you?

Msgr Ken: Yeah, I tried to yes, yeah, and then some of them remind me of family members because I've had veterans in the you know in the family and like my experience of growing up with family and relatives so that you know that's definitely in there because, yeah, I grew up under thanks be to God got a close knit family, you know, so there was always that, you know, that bond, you know, so I think that there's definitely a lot of that in it.

RB: There, talk about it, we'll switch gears to sort of the business aspect of writing. The creative part you've got done, you've got the book, I'm ready to ready to go and publish this. Talk about being out there and attempting to get the interest of a publisher and getting the book published. What was that like for you? Is that like a whole new experience working in the on the business side of writing?

Msgr Ken: Yes, it's maybe even more difficult than writing because I found out that that it's not an easy world to get into. First, I mean I discovered it very quickly, I mean, like going directly to Publishers is almost like impossible unless you have like a history, which I did not. So then I started researching publishing agents and I submitted to a couple that seemed like it might be a nice fit, and I always say I'm very proud I was never rejected I just never heard back so that that was interesting and when I went to the lists I would see like the kind of things that they were interested in and it was kind of like well I guess that's not a good fit. So I've done it and I sort of like given up and then every once in a while let me go back and look and then all of a sudden Christian Faith Publishing came up and I thought oh that's good you know because it's faith based. I said maybe they'll like what I have to say so I contacted them, I got the publishing packet, and they were very good to work with so they helped me. Obviously it's a self-publishing so it's not the same thing as you know being quote unquote a regular publisher, but they were very, very helpful in it. He guided me through the process, and I think it helped make the book even better, so yeah that was an important part. I'm glad that I found them because they were a friendly company and they helped me to get it finished.

RB: An important part is the book cover and so often you see people that don't pay a whole lot of attention to that. They did a nice job; you did a nice job on the cover of the cloud people that really with the color and the cloud in the background, the hot air balloon. It really captures your attention. How difficult was it to come up with a with a cover that you thought would capture people's attention and reflect favorably on the story?

Msgr Ken: But for me it was pretty easy because that's one of the things that they ask, you know, as part of the process because they have different departments that help the different deal with the different aspects. So they asked for a suggestion for the cover and I just had the written concept of what they put on the actual cover of I wanted, you know, the cloud-faced the balloon because that was part of the story and then the main characters are like in the lower corner and that's basically all that I said to them and then they came up with this and that was pretty much like it from the beginnings. I thought it was very creative, and I liked it like from the get-go so their creative department came up with the design and I think they nailed it so I really didn't draw anything or I just gave a quick you know visual description of it and they did the rest so they did all the hard work.

RB: Well, it's very attractive cover that captures your attention. The book is ‘The Cloud People’, you'll find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, the usual places. You said I wanted to write something with family values, no horror, no hidden messages except for family, faith, and life, and mission accomplished with that. You did an excellent job of touching all of those topics there. Talk about how important that was for you to, and you deal with young people on an ongoing basis, to give them positive reading material out there.

Msgr Ken: Yeah, I think that's very important because even like when I watch television commercials come on and I see like, I'm not into gaming at all, but you know the games that are advertised, the movies, everything is dark, yes, and negative, and even like I see among young people they're sort of like bombarded you're with that and even like you know kids in school I think they they're forced to deal with stuff that I don't think, I always say, the kid should just be a kid. I mean they should just enjoy life because I remember that's what I was able to do thanks be to God you know I enjoyed my childhood so I think that's what I wanted to just you got to enjoy life. I mean I think as an adult world puts too much pressure on young people they don't allow them to just enjoy life in a positive way and I think that's certainly what we're intended to do I think that's certainly that's what God wants us to do so it was very important to kind of like try to communicate that too. You gotta have fun in a good way.

RB: You know it's interesting because you see for example competitive sports, now travel sports, and kids are like eight, nine, ten years old and spending summer or after school hours and weekend hours doing that and not a couple of older guys talking about how it used to be and how much fun we had growing up, but were we better off when we had the apple tree out back and we could go outside and find our own amusement and breathe some fresh air.

Msgr Ken: I, yeah, absolutely. I think, I remember as a kid like it was punishment to come in, oh yes, you know, and for me the lighter the later I mean I love being outside, and you know thanks be to God for sports. I mean I think it's a great outlet for kids, but you wonder like,I was never part of you know organized sports. Part of it just very quickly, I tried it for a little league one time, and I got cut the first. All I want to do was throwing the ball back and forth, but I mean like outside of organized sports I mean like we had just keep up pick up games. I mean so I mean it seems like they don't know how to make fun on their own it's got to be an organized sport which is fine, I think that's wonderful, but I mean what about just creating your own, you know amusement, your own fun in a positive way that you're using their own creativity. I mean something doesn't have to be organized for you I mean what do you do on your own.

RB: Well you've given them a positive outlet in this book, ‘The Cloud People’. A minute or so left in the program. You mentioned the new book you're working on. How long before you think that'll be published?

Msgr Ken: Well I have the basic idea. In fact, just the last few days, I had kind of like a breakthrough in terms of where to take the you know the plot. So this one's going to be a little bit more dramatic shall we say not in a negative way but a little bit more intrigue to it I think so taking a little bit of direction. So this one I have a little bit more adventure to it you know so I'm hoping maybe by the end of the year. Maybe even by the Fall if I can.

RB: Yeah, that would be fantastic. I'm going to love to have a chance to talk about that as well, and you've done such a wonderful job with this book, ‘The Cloud People’. Talk about the satisfaction of doing this. You went through: I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking about it, I'm going to go ahead and start, I start, I'm going to continue it. Now you're to the point where you pick up a copy of ‘The Cloud People’ for the first time, got your name on the cover, the cover is inspired by you, inside is your story. What was that like the feeling of accomplishment when the book is actually published in and people can read it and enjoy your story?

Msgr Ken: Yeah, kind of like that sort of surprised me because like I when I finished it, and then kind of like the final phase, and they're going to actually publish it, and they got my first copies of them, and then it didn't like hit me like right away, and also like holy smokes, well, I actually did, and actually I was proud telling this. I told the staff first, and I announced that at all the Masses on the weekend you know so it was yeah I wasn't caught with the writer evidential when it like I guess like reality kicked out. I said holy smokes I actually did this, and as you say you hold the book and you look at it and you say well wow I did this.

RB: What an accomplishment and sharing this one remarkable story, this epileptic story with so many people all around the country. The book is ‘The Cloud People’ by Kenard K-E-N-A-R-D Tuzeneu T-U-Z-E-N-E-U Book available at Amazon, the usual places, also at kingpagespress.com. They're the author’s marketing consultant and arranged our conversation with Monsignor today. Monsignor, it's been a pleasure having you on the program. Wonderful job with this first book and hopefully we can talk about the second one as well. Thank you for spending some time with us on the program.

Msgr Ken: I appreciate it. Thank you very, very much. You have a great day!

RB: You're welcome. And once again the book is called, ‘The Cloud People’, by Kenard Tuzeneu. All the information on our website, ‘This Week in America dot us’, and we're back on today's program right after these messages.

Voice Over: ‘This Week in America’ is online. You can visit our website: ‘This Week in America dot us’ Scott Pinkerton associate producer of ‘This Week in America’ Jay Anderson segment producer Ben Watson webmaster Otto Bache director of engineering and TV production ‘This Week in America’ produced and is a trademark of Blue Funk Broadcasting LLC. For information on all of our guests and to listen to this week's show our website again at: ‘This Week in America dot us’, and I'm Sean Bratton executive producer of ‘This Week in America'.