Raise Them Strong by Ulfarr Stoneheart

8/1/2026

Raising resilient children in a world designed to weaken them. (One Story Series Book 1)

Multi-volume author, Ulfarr Stoneheart introduces us to his first book, “Raise Them Strong”:
Are you doing everything right — and still watching your child get sick again and again? More ear infections. Another round of antibiotics. Eczema that won't clear. A little body that seems to be working against itself. You are not failing. You are navigating a world that was never designed with your child's long-term strength in mind.
Every year that passes without a change is another year of chronic low-grade inflammation quietly shaping your child's health. Another year of products loaded with compounds you can't pronounce absorbing through their skin. Another year of symptoms suppressed rather than solved — training an immune system that is never allowed to do its own work. The habits built now become the health outcomes of the next two decades. The window is open. It won't stay open forever.
Raise Them Strong is a father's decade of practical knowledge, written for parents who are done outsourcing their family's wellbeing to a system that wasn't designed for resilience. This is not about fear — it is about power. The quiet, daily power of real food, a natural apothecary, and a home stripped of the chemical noise that wears children down. By the end of this book, you won't be scrolling forums at midnight. You'll know what to do.

No hype allowed! The author has written a wonderful book; it's filled with practical experience that some things work better than others. He stresses several times that these guidelines are meant to be followed one at a time. Start with what is most important to the reader and give it time to work. He freely admits that some things will take longer than others.
Your kids are your kids. My kids had their problems; my grandkids seem to have more problems. My wife and I live with our daughter and her family.
I think this will be fun, asking ten and twelve what they think is most important. Then working with them to create that product. Don't think I have a lot of time; I work 60-70 hours a week or so. I am confident we can do this. You can too. We all want healthier families. The content is fabulous!
Four point five stars because I am picky about certain things.

You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Raise-Them-Strong-resilient-children-ebook
https://www.goodreads.com/-raise-them-strong

You can connect with the author:
https://x.com/UlfarrStone
https://ulfarr.com/
https://www.tiktok.com/@ulfarrstone
https://www.instagram.com/ulfarrpublishing/

Tags: health, nutrition, herbs, herbal, remedy, remedies

Copyright © 2026 Mark L. Schultz, except for the author’s introduction

50 Comments

Úlfarr Stōneheart link

8/3/2026 02:39:50 am

Good morning, Mark!
I’m Úlfarr, part mountain man, part professional over-thinker, full-time devotee of natural health and living.
That said, I just drove to the shop, answered a few emails on my laptop, called my wife on my iPhone, and poured myself a proper coffee from the machine… so I’m not the pure off-grid monk type. Just someone who likes nature, health, and the occasional modern convenience.
I figured the best way to say hello was to show up in your comments looking slightly too formal and slightly too amused. So… here I am.
Looking forward to whatever comes next.
Warm regards and thank U so much for this oppertunity
Úlfarr

Mark

8/3/2026 09:53:21 am

Welcome aboard, Ulfarr! I am looking forward to chatting with you this week. We are going to get lots of exposure for your book.

First question.

Can you please tell us more about yourself? Perhaps something a little bit beyond your bio.

Úlfarr link

8/3/2026 10:08:00 am

Thanks Mark.

Husband. Father. One foot in the mountains, one in the real world. Still drive to the shop, answer emails, call my wife, and make proper coffee. Not the pure off-grid monk, just allergic to the soft life that slowly turns men into furniture.
I write because I got bored of the empty masculinity being sold everywhere: juiced-up, Ferrari-flexing, zero-substance noise. I prefer the quieter version, family first, old-school values, nature that doesn’t care about your ego and offers the kind of strength that actually protects something.
Úlfarr

8/3/2026 12:53:18 pm

There is a lot of empty masculinity going around.

I bought a hat last year from my church gift shop; it says "Real Men Pray". It speaks to me. There is far more to this life than what we can touch and see.

New questions.

Are you a full-time writer or a part-time writer and still in the working world?

What kind of work do you do if you are a part-time writer? Feel free to skip that question if you would rather not answer.

8/3/2026 01:07:39 pm

Part-time writer, still very much in the working world.
By day I do freelance project coordination in industrial construction.
In the leftover hours my wife and I run a small farm, vegetables, fruit in the greenhouses, cows, sheep, goats, horses… the full circus.
Over the years we gathered so much knowledge about nature and how things actually work that it started overflowing. No one around to talk to about it, so my wife pushed me to start writing the thoughts down. Began with small notebooks. Kept going.
The farm doesn’t make us rich. It just keeps the mind balanced and the soul from going soft. Writing happens in the cracks between the two.
That’s the honest version.
Úlfarr

8/3/2026 02:19:47 pm

I appreciate an honest answer.

That kind of life prevents a man from going soft. The children won't be soft either from helping with farm chores.

I lived on a small, 35-acre, non-working farm. I had a few chores; taking care of a solitary sheep meant staking her out in a different spot daily, close to the house to ward off coyotes. We hatched chickens, ducks and peacocks from eggs. They were free-range birds and kept the coyotes entertained until they were gone. I had to mow a couple of acres of lawn and tend the vegetable gardens.

New questions.

What are your three favorite genres to read for pleasure?

Has writing changed the pleasure of reading for you?

8/3/2026 02:41:09 pm

Three favourite genres for pure pleasure:

1. Classic British “who-done-it” mysteries, pure Cluedo energy.
2. Big adventure, Tolkien-style.
3. Raw, no-filter books like Trainspotting.
And yes… I fully enjoyed reading Harry Potter to my children. My sincere apologies. 😁

Has writing changed the pleasure of reading?

It taught me one valuable lesson: scribbling thoughts in a notebook is not writing books.
That was a useful (and slightly painful) realisation.
Úlfarr

8/3/2026 04:54:52 pm

Since you were reading Harry Potter to your kids, no apology is necessary. ;-)

My wife has taught me the pleasures of British whodunits. Agatha Christie and others are fabulous writers. She prefers watching the BBC adaptations and I enjoy the great writing along with fabulous acting. Such a pleasure. The Lord of the Rings was my introduction to high fantasy in high school. Fantasy became my second favorite just behind science fiction. I read LOTR three times before I graduated from high school.

Notebooks are necessary, in one form or another. But the first draft has to come out of your head.

New questions.

Do you journal?

How has writing changed your life?

8/3/2026 05:13:43 pm

Do I journal?
Yes, but not the soft “dear diary” kind.
I keep small notebooks. When thoughts about nature, the farm, or how things actually work start overflowing, I write them down before they disappear. That’s how the whole writing thing started. My wife pushed me into it.

How has writing changed my life?
It forced the noise in my head onto paper.
What used to sit unspoken now has somewhere to go.😁

8/3/2026 07:06:56 pm

Writing your ideas down is very smart. I used to have a pocket notebook with me all the time when I worked in construction. Now, I use my phone for taking notes. A lot of writers keep notebooks of ideas for books. Some are visited by their muse in the middle of the night, they keep a pad and pen beside their bed. Sometimes they can even read their early morning writing.

A lot of writers have said they write to quiet the voices in their head. There must be something to it.

New questions.

What did you believe about writing in the past that you now know is false?

How long did it take you to write and publish this book?

8/4/2026 06:35:22 am

What did I used to believe about writing that I now know is false?  I thought it would be easy. Turns out the actual writing is the easiest part of the whole book-making process.

How long did it take to write and publish this book? 
Writing it didn’t take long. The hard part was correcting it and softening some of my beliefs just enough… without betraying myself or selling out to mainstream thinking…

8/4/2026 08:42:05 am

Many writers moan about how hard it is to write their first book until they publish it. When they realize the world isn't beating a path to their door to buy their book, the reality that books seldom sell well without steady marketing is like a bucket of ice water in the face! Amazon publishes two million books a year now. It takes effort for any book to get noticed in the flood.

Creating your own publishing company was a smart move. Traditional publishers think of a book they are publishing much like a box of cereal on the grocery store shelf. Those publishers require authors to make adjustments in the book before publishing. The publisher might wait for months, even a year, before publishing to maximize their profits. Trad. publishers are on very thin profit margins and can't afford to take chances on a book not selling well.

New questions.

Who was the first person to inspire you to write something to publish?

What inspired you to write this book?

8/4/2026 09:04:48 am

Who was the first person to inspire you to write something to publish?
 My wife. She got tired of the knowledge piling up with nowhere to go and pushed me to start writing it down.

What inspired you to write this book? 
Covid.
During that time I watched two very different groups of people. The ones around me living a natural, balanced life, real food, no processed food, no chemicals, hunted meat free of hormones and antibiotics, spring water, home-grown fruit and vegetables that weren’t sprayed with pesticides or genetically modified, herbs from the land and low stress, stayed remarkably healthy. Broken bones and the odd dentist visit were pretty much the only medical contact I saw. No one in that circle got vaccinated, and none of us got sick.
Meanwhile friends and family living the more mainstream life struggled with constant small and serious illnesses and had cabinets full of pharmaceuticals.
The final push came with the death of my mother. She was a healthy, active 75-year-old who had never been sick. After her third Covid shot she developed severe lung cancer and a brain tumour. I watched her crumble from strong and vital to gone in six months. It broke my heart.
I’m not a doctor, Mark, and I’m not allowed to draw conclusions for anyone else. I only know what I saw with my own eyes.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I’m a fairly grounded person who simply noticed a clear pattern. That way of living keeps my family strong and healthy while still allowing a normal life. We just made some simple adjustments.
The price was isolation from some friends and family. That part still stings, because all I want to do is share what I know and have learned to help people.

8/4/2026 10:18:53 am

Blessings on your wife. She motivated you to take action.

Covid. Many have noticed patterns. Many lost family and friends to the disease or misinformation. Sorting out the truth has been very hard.

New questions.

Why did you choose this genre, or do you feel the genre chose you?

Will you keep writing in the genre or will you branch out?

8/4/2026 11:13:07 am

Why this genre, or did the genre choose me?

I think it chose me. It felt completely natural. Spreading what I know gives me a clear conscience. And maybe, somewhere, my mother is proud that I did.
I wrote a series of five books that contain everything I’ve learned so far. It’s out of my head and out of my hands now. I genuinely hope it helps some people, preferably a lot of them.
Will I stay in this genre or branch out? 
I caught the virus. Wait! Wrong word! I got stimulated. Better. 😁
Through writing and the unavoidable social media that comes with it, I saw a flood of those Uber-alpha males: steroid-pumped, loud, car-flexing, talking about women in a way I find ugly. I have a wife, a daughter and a son. There’s no way I want them exposed to that distorted philosophy.

And hey, I come from mountains that make their gyms look like daycare centres… 
Okay, that was pure macho bullshit. My apologies. 😁

I am a strong man, Mark, but I simply have a different definition of what a strong man is, and trust me, I don’t mean it in a physical way.
So I wrote about it.
Now let’s see where the universe takes me next.

8/4/2026 01:04:39 pm

I have no doubt your mother is proud of you. Mothers everywhere want children to be nourished and protected. Protecting is a major job function of men; nourishing also. Raising kids who know how to care for themselves ensures they will be able to care for their kids also. The circle of life.

Very cute. Word choice is a major part of a writer's voice. Humor and comedy are always welcome. Sometimes truth is best expressed in fiction. A sparkle (sprinkle) of humor can make it more palatable.

I am interested in seeing where you go.

New questions.

Does everyone in your family enjoy reading your writing?

Have you ever seen a UFO or UAP, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena?

8/4/2026 01:53:50 pm

Haha. I wish!
I have two teenagers, Mark. To them I’m just the same weird parent every teenager has… only a few degrees weirder because of my obsession with nature.

Not yet.
I’ve spent a lot of nights in the mountains under clear skies, and so far the only unexplained lights I’ve seen were planes, satellites, or my own headtorch reflecting off something I walked into.
But I’m open-minded. If one ever lands in the pasture between the sheep and the goats, I’ll make sure to offer it coffee and ask the hard questions. 😉😁
You never know.

8/4/2026 02:41:13 pm

Teenagers! Ha! One of my 18-year-old granddaughters is moving to college an hour from here in a couple of weeks. The other is staying home.

I have spent a fair amount of time outdoors and have never seen one. My sisters told me that we saw one as children, but I have no memory of that. The answers could be interesting.

New questions.

Have you ever seen a cryptid, an animal unknown to modern zoologists, or found evidence of one?

Have you ever seen a ghost or had some other type of supernatural experience?

8/4/2026 03:33:50 pm

Special questions, Mark…

 I haven’t seen anything directly.  But deep in the forests and mountains I’ve come across signs that don’t add up: damaged trees, dug-up soil, patches of flattened grass where something large rested, things that none of the local wildlife could have caused. And we have some big ones here: wild horses, bears, wolves, deer, huge wild pigs.
I won’t speculate. I just notice patterns quickly. Nature is a powerful and fascinating thing.

 That’s a pretty personal one. Yes.
Years ago I spent several months in a coma after a brutal knife attack. According to the medical records I was declared dead twice and had to be brought back twice.
In a coma you’re in a subconscious state. You ‘see’, ‘dream’ or ‘trip’ things. At least I did. Whether it came from the coma itself or the medication, I have no idea.
What I saw and remembered from those exact two occasions, while I wasn’t conscious in the normal sense, was identical both times, crystal clear, and it changed my life permanently.
It made me question everything I believed… or rather, everything I didn’t believe in.  It turned my whole life upside down and made me a different person.
And no… it wasn’t a bright light at the end of a tunnel. 😁

8/4/2026 04:32:00 pm

I grew up on a small farm in a small town in SW Washington state. Bigfoot is a hot item all over the Pacific Northwest. I heard many stories, secondhand and thirdhand. I never met anyone who saw one or found evidence of a cryptid.

That experience sounds intense. Dying twice is pretty intense also. Dying once and being brought back would take a lot out of a person. You did it twice. That kind of experience does change a person's life. Sounds like material for a book. People are interested in the afterlife.

New question.

How many drafts did your book go through before publishing?

8/5/2026 05:27:08 am

Appreciate you sharing the Bigfoot stories from your area.
I’m convinced there are things living out in nature that we humans still don’t have a clue about, or even the capacity to fully understand. The deeper you go into the forests and mountains, the more that feeling grows.

How many drafts did the book go through before publishing?

Three or four.
Mostly to soften the tone… on my wife’s orders.
Tja. 😁

8/5/2026 08:22:17 am

Bigfoot has many names depending upon the region. I live in Florida. There is a similar creature they call the skunk ape. I haven't seen one of those either. I doubt I will because I haven't ventured into any wilderness or swamp down here.

Your wife did you a favor. She did all of us a favor. I know I can get pretty bossy sometimes.

My wife is right most of the time. That took some getting used to. My stubbornness almost cost me my marriage more than once.

New questions.

Is there anything unconventional about your writing technique?

If so, how does your writing technique differ from other authors?

8/5/2026 08:44:24 am

Not realy I think.
I carry a lot of information in my head (slightly autistic wiring helps with that) and in my notebooks. When it starts overflowing I write in waves, sometimes for hours without stopping, other times there are days of complete silence between sessions.
No rigid schedule. No fancy system. Just wait until the pressure builds, then empty it onto the page.
That’s pretty much it Mark.
Sorry, nothing spectacular here … 😁

8/5/2026 10:22:47 am

Not spectacular, but certainly humorous. I am reminded of how honeybees make honey. Sweet, useful and worth the effort to eat.

New questions.

Who designed the cover of your book? Feel free to drop a copy-and-paste link if appropriate.

How many drafts did the cover go through?

8/5/2026 11:02:58 am

Who designed the cover of my book?

A remarkable young artist called Mirena Popova.
She used to work at a design company and is now taking her first steps as a freelancer. I took a chance on her, I like helping people when I can.
The results were very satisfying. In our back-and-forth it was clear she wasn’t just a designer; she understood the complexity of international marketing rules extremely well.
If it can help anyone, here’s her profile:
https://www.fiverr.com/s/vvN22Ke

How many drafts did the cover go through?

Remarkably few.
It was almost spot-on from the first version. Only some small dimensions fine-tuning for KDP. That was a big relief.
And funny you mentioned honeybees…
I actually wrote a whole book about them. It’s Book 4 in the series, Beekeeping Without Guesswork. One of the five books where I put down everything I’ve learned so far.

8/5/2026 12:56:20 pm

I do like the cover. I also like the font used for the title. I believe in making titles easy to read; one less reason for a prospective buyer to look for another book. I wish Mirena success. By the way, all links are copy and paste.

New question.

At first glance, the cover seems obvious, but I frequently miss a detail or two. What do the elements on the cover represent?

8/5/2026 03:42:42 pm

I’m happy you like the cover and the font. Mirena did a good job.

What the elements represent:

The family walking together into the light, hand in hand, through open nature.
That’s the heart of the book, parents leading their children forward, grounded and connected.
Nature as the teacher and healer for body and mind.
Not screens. Not noise. Not the soft world that tries to weaken them.
Just real ground under their feet, real sky above them, and the quiet strength that grows from that.
Simple and on purpose.

8/5/2026 04:50:01 pm

Solid and simple. It stands out in its own way. I like it.

New questions.

Was it hard to come up with the title?

What was the process?

8/6/2026 01:37:21 am

This is where I made my first real mistake, Mark.
I actually feared you might ask about this…
I had a few title ideas of my own, some full titles, some strong keywords.
But I kept second-guessing them. So I turned to AI for help. That was the misstep.
I gave it my keywords and the subject of the book and asked for suggestions.
It came back with a title that was already on my list, so it felt like confirmation.
I accepted it a little too quickly. Same with the subtitle.
I never checked existing publisher listings for similar titles beforehand.
Only after I published and searched online did I realise the oversight.
There were books with resembling titles published before mine,
and some that came out after.
One even carries the exact same title (thankfully not the same subtitle).
A valuable, if slightly painful, lesson.
The title no longer feels 100% perfect to me personally.
But after looking at the content of those other books, I was grateful for Mirena’s cover work…
and I remain very confident in what I wrote.

8/6/2026 08:57:51 am

Titles have always been important and will continue to be so. The title is the first or second thing a reader notices if it reasonably matches the type of book they are looking for. With Amazon publishing more than two million books a year, I think all the great titles have been taken. That puts all of the work on the cover to stand out from the flood. A valuable and somewhat painful lesson.

New questions.

Do you sing or play a musical instrument?

Any musical family members?

8/6/2026 10:10:48 am

As a child I went to a Jesuit college… yes sir, I did.
My mother enlisted me for the school church choir. She thought it would “connect” me better with the school’s doctrine. (It didn’t. 😎😁)
Turned out I was a good soprano. Good enough to be the soloist sometimes, alone in front of the choir and the whole school, every week.
Bye bye to my carefully crafted image. 🤦🏻
These days I can still hold a tune around a campfire if there’s a good glass of mead that we make from our own beehives… and no one is listening too closely.
Nothing more serious than that.
Any musical family members?
My son and his cousin play the guitar.
The cousin’s brother plays the drums.
That’s the full band. 😁

8/6/2026 10:37:25 am

At least you can sing!

In the eighth-grade choir class, the instructor asked me to sing quietly because I was throwing off those near me. Matching tones has always been difficult for me.

Guitar and drums are a good start!

Newe question.

Which famous person’s death shocked you the most?

8/6/2026 10:42:51 am

Easy and short: Michael Jackson

8/6/2026 01:07:16 pm

That was easy. No question. His artistry was amazing!

New question.

What marketing strategy, if any, has had an impact on your daily sales?

8/6/2026 01:18:35 pm

Honestly?
Very little traditional marketing has moved the needle on daily sales.
What has helped is simple and quiet:
a clear series, strong covers, and letting the books speak for themselves.
I’ve never been good at shouting.
I prefer to put the work out cleanly and let the right people find it.
That approach is slower, but it feels honest.
I’m also quite cautious about most paid promotion services.
Maybe that’s a personal bias, but so far I prefer to stay close to the work itself.
Mark, this is like playing roulette for now. I’m trying different things and still evaluating the eventual results, if any, to use your words.
But working with you has already given me an enormous confidence boost.
Thank U a lot for that.

8/6/2026 02:13:54 pm

Thank you for being honest.

Cover, title and content. They are the necessary foundation to build success on. So many authors struggle to get their book noticed.

Your gambling allusion is not lost. Buying ads on the major platforms is a lot like gambling because the house always wins whether you do or not. Buying ads is very difficult because you are buying exposure only, not sales. If you have success for a week or two, don't be surprised if that success evaporates because the algorithms are always changing. Ads require constant monitoring. Some authors do well. One client told me book sales pay her electric bill.

I promise exposure, but that is it. Beware of anyone promising sales.

One of my favorite blogs is about pursuing the local author angle. How to be a marketing star right where you live. A copy-and-paste link or search the title in the search box below: https://annerallen.com/2019/08/hometown-book-marketing/

I would add a few tips: seek out literature teachers at the high school and college level to share in their class and there might be a club in the school. Local newspapers are a good resource for an interview as well as local cable access. There might also be a broadcast arts curriculum and/or a club at the high school and college level. Have some questions ready to hand the interviewer if they seem uncertain.

Senior centers are another good possibility and they usually welcome any sort of activity like that. Contact the events director.

If there are tourist destinations, try to place your books with the local author angle. Museums, gift stores, motels, hotels, tourist attractions are all possibilities. Keep a box of books in your trunk. Get a countertop holder for a few books, paste a picture of the cover on the holder behind the books and put re-ordering information on the back of the holder.

Some restaurants or bars have an open mic time. Read sections of your book aloud.

Consider renting a table at a comic convention, county fair, farmer's market or a flea market. Have free swag to hand out, such as a bookmark and sell mugs or posters. There are so many ways to be the 'local author '; I doubt I have exhausted the list of possibilities. Always have copies of your books in your trunk or car boot.

New questions.

What do you think of the current controversy regarding AI, Artificial Intelligence, and books?

Did you use AI in any of your planning, writing or editing for your books? I am not including research in this question because most of the major search engines have embedded AI in the browser.

8/6/2026 03:07:26 pm

What do I think of the current AI controversy around books?

Most of it is noise.
Some people treat AI like the devil. Others treat it like a miracle.
Both miss the point. It’s a tool. Nothing more, nothing less.

Did I use AI in planning, writing or editing?

I tried using it for editing.
As a complete novice I expected some kind of magical outcome. That didn’t happen.
In the end AI is still a programmed machine, basically a mega super-Google that researches extremely well, recognises patterns, and polishes the answers based on the incredible amount of data it can find and process almost immediately.
But that’s not how humans think or act.
AI works in strict logic and structure.
Humans don’t. We speak in dialects, our thoughts are often messy or chaotic, and we’re imperfect.
That difference shows.
When you ask an AI to write or think “like a human,” it can look good at first glance… but it’s often too good, too well-built, too structured.
It’s mimicking humans, not being human.
And that, for me, is the real gap.

8/6/2026 04:09:21 pm

That's all AI really is. A machine programmed so the user would feel like it is thinking and the user is smarter for using it. AI is quite a suckup, at times it is dangerous. The reality is that most users are getting dumber because they are allowing the machine to do their "thinking". AI has its uses, but writing and editing books are not any of the uses AI is qualified for.

New questions.

Have you encountered a troll reviewing one of your books?

How did you handle it?

8/7/2026 12:51:17 am

Have I encountered a troll reviewing one of my books?

Not really.
The closest thing was an “editor” who kept sending me back what he called a perfectly publishable manuscript.
Every time I went through it, I still found grammatical and layout mistakes.
This went on for four rounds of “I’ll fix it again,” until I finally stopped working with him and decided to do it myself.
Another lesson learned.

8/7/2026 08:12:06 am

What an editor! One of the worst I have heard of. I hope you didn't pay that editor a lot of money.

Trolls aren't as big of a problem now as they used to be on Amazon. A decade or so ago, Amazon decided that if you didn't purchase at least $50.00 of merchandise a year, then you couldn't leave a review. Trolls delight in ruffling feathers and causing emotional turmoil. Most of the time, it's obvious that they didn't even read the book. Their attempt to dampen the sales of a book is powerless. If a troll does show up, the basic rule of non-engagement still applies. Don't feed the troll. Don't give them the attention they desire.

New questions.

What was the first paying job you worked as a kid?

How old were you?

8/7/2026 09:19:38 am

What was the first paying job I worked as a kid?
The first real one was a student job in a warehouse / supermarket.
I was 16.
Before that, from the age of 12, I was already mowing lawns for my parents and the neighbours.
That was the unofficial training.

8/7/2026 09:50:47 am

Good jobs for a young boy.

My first paying job was babysitting for a neighbor a quarter mile down the gravel road from our place. She also paid me to scrub her kitchen tile floor a couple of times. I was 12. When I turned 14, I could pick berries and beans in the summer for large farms. I loved eating the strawberries! I didn't make much money the first day or two.

New questions.

Have you done any public speaking?

If so, will you be doing more in the future?

ulfarr.com link

8/7/2026 02:28:09 pm

Have I done any public speaking?
After the time I spent in a coma, more specifically, the reason why, I never really felt comfortable anymore in the presence of strangers and groups of people.
Apart from those old church soloist performances as a boy, I haven’t stood in front of an audience talking to them.
And the chances are small that I ever will.
Úlfarr

8/7/2026 03:52:15 pm

I have heard that a death or near-death experience can change a person in unexpected ways. If you find you want to speak publicly, let me know, as I have learned the secret to confident public speaking.

New questions.

Have you entered any writing contests?

Have you won awards of any kind for your writing?

8/8/2026 06:39:08 am

No, Mark.
I’m sorry, but you’re talking to a novice writer here.
Úlfarr

8/8/2026 08:20:31 am

Some authors start with short stories to test their ability to write. A few jump into the deep end learning to swim. They enter short story contests to learn more and hope to gain some recognition.

I have recommended to writers that short-story writing contests, especially those that provide feedback from the judges, can help a writer improve their writing skills. I do have a warning: there are a lot of shady contests out there. Some want to extract as much as they can from your wallet, others want to steal your intellectual property. Here is a copy-and-paste link about those things: Beware Bogus Writing Contests! Look for These 8 Red Flags. https://annerallen.com/2019/05/beware-bogus-writing-contests. You can also use the search box below to find the link. There are other blogs I have links to on my Highly Regarded Blogs page.

New question.

Among present or past family members and friends, how many are or have been writers or authors?

8/10/2026 01:42:48 pm

I had one uncle on my mother’s side who wrote poetry.
That’s the only one I know of Mark.

8/10/2026 02:01:19 pm

You are one up on me. I don't know anyone in my family who has done any writing. There is much of my family tree I have no knowledge of; it has been splintered by multiple marriages and divorces.

Last question.

Is there anyone you know who might claim you as their inspiration for writing?

8/10/2026 03:07:06 pm

Maybe Skip Robinson from The Adventures of the Wilderness Family (1975).
But I doubt he writes books! 😁
Úlfarr

8/10/2026 05:43:10 pm

Probably not.

Thank you, Ulfarr, for being a wonderful guest and putting up with my questions. You have added to the collective wisdom of all the authors I have interviewed over the years. It was fun talking to you, and we got lots of exposure for your book.

Until next time, keep on writing and publishing.

Raise Them Strong by Ulfarr Stoneheart

Raising resilient children in a world designed to weaken them. (One Story Series Book 1)

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