The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – From Disaster to Destiny by Beth Eades Jones

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

From Disaster to Destiny by Beth Eades Jones https://www.amazon.com/Disaster-Destiny-Beth-Eades-Jones/dp/1664218351 There are always two sides to every story. In this post Civil War story we can come to understand the feeling and losses on the South or the Confederacy side. These are the losses felt by the every day citizens, both the soldiers who fought and died and those they left behind. The same scenario was evident in the North. War (truly) is hell, as one character states in this story. The Mail Order Bride became a true American phenomenon of the late 18th century. This is the story of one particular pair of Southerners involved in this adventure in far off Wyoming Territory.

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She is the author of the book called From Disaster to Destiny. We're going to get into some of the insights of her book and forthcoming books as well. It's a post-war mail-order bride story of love, loss, and new beginnings in the Wyoming territory. They had mail-order brides back then. Wow, that's cool. Nowadays, you see it all over these apps and stuff. We're going to end with her. She became interested in her writing as a teenager but didn't pursue it actively.

She grew up on a farm and especially love working with horses. She sang and performed quite a lot, but never professionally. The need to express and informed became stronger as life went on. She recently wrote two works of fiction. both are based on central values the Christian faith, along with American history. Both are inspirational romances. She likes to read

such works and try to pattern her new endeavors after that. Welcome to the show. How are you, Beth? I'm doing fine. I'm so glad to get to be here. We're so glad to have you. Give us your dot com's website. Where do you want people to find out more about

you on the interwebs? There's a lot of places, especially where my book is going to be introduced. I've got a new one coming out. It's actually the same story, but I always long for the opportunity to make it better. I actually had from disaster to destiny published in January of 2021. So it's been out there for a while. And I recently found it even on eBay. But anyway, I'm I really wanted to do a better job of this, and I really never thought I would have the opportunity. But when I got an email and a call from Books to Life Marketing and got a very wonderful review from a gal that works for them by the name of Sarah Lopez, it encouraged me to just go again. Do a do-over, do another one.

And this time make it the way you wanted to be. Make it the way you want to be. I don't know how many opportunities people get to do this, but I'm so grateful. So give us a 30,000 overview of what's inside this book, what the protagonists are up to, etc. It starts out with a man that was in the Civil War, wounded in battle. He had a head wound and he had amnesia for eight years. Wow. And it pictures him coming back home to.

centerville, which is right outside of Charleston, South Carolina. And I put, as life goes on, and you kind of know people and you do things and places and all. I had an uncle who lived in Charleston, South Carolina for 30 years. He grew up in Kansas, but moved there because his wife was sick with multiple sclerosis, and that climate would be better for her. And he lived there for all of his life. He became a real estate tycoot and everything. And so I thought, I got to have something going on with Charles in South Carolina because Uncle Jack so that's why he that's why this young man who named is Paul um is from Charleston South Carolina and but he he he cut suddenly gets his memory back all it was banged and that can have I've heard that people have amnesia even

for a long time suddenly you just come back and this is what happened to our hero so anyway here we are here we are and he's home and then he finds out that his girl that he thought would always be there is gone oh she would become a male or Bride. Wow. To a man in Montana. What? And long story short, he gets out of a train.

He gets there. It's too late. Broken Heart. I can't do anything about it now. Honorable people, honorable people. And so he didn't have any hope for his life at all. He didn't have any idea. What he'd do?

If God help, he ends up in a small town, I'm called Lowell, North Wyoming. And avalanche stops the train. He's going home once. He might as well go and go home because his folks missed him. He's in only. child. Yeah.

They need him. And so he's going back home. An avalage stops him. So he's a low, he gets stuck in a lower Wyoming. And there is where he meets Paulette. Hmm. And Paulette is turned out to be not a mail order bride after all from Alabama. They both lost people in the Civil War.

And she lost your dad and her intended in the Civil War. And there's, it shows that, you see, I'm in Northern, I've always been in Northern. Kansas is a battleground for free or slay. But in Kansas, it was awful. In order to have the Kansas region, it was awful. There's the first begun right there of the Civil War. And here we are in Pellet.

It goes out there as a mail order bride, but that didn't work out. So here she is. What am I going to do now? They end up finding each other, and it's just right how it turns out. But it shows that I think the title is about right. From disaster to destiny, you get an impossible situation. War can bring it on, a devastating fire can bring it on, a horrible accident can bring it on, a diagnosis of cancer or something can bring it on.

So what did people do with that? This shows that you don't have to lose faith, that you don't have to give up, that you can go forward and know there's something good, that you have a good destiny ahead because I'm a Christian and so is my husband and our family. We don't just, we don't just, we don't just go to church. We try to live it. And faith is something that people need. And it's not pie in the sky.

God's watching you, that kind of thing. And so I was trying to bring that out in my book. Ah. And now, what was the reason you chose the setting of the Civil War for this? I don't know. I read a book about it. I thought, why did anybody think there was a good thing? We should not have had to fight that Civil War.

Yeah. Yeah. Southern oligarchs, pretty much the ones who ran that war and everybody had to pay for the rich guys to. And you see, you see, Chris, that happens now. Yeah, not when the one thing man can learn from his history is a man never learns from his history. See, that's that. But anyway, that, but I wanted to change it. I made some stupid mistakes.

I've never done this before. Little typos and I let him go. At the end of 2020, 2020 was a horrible time. Yeah, it was tough. for everybody. It's definitely weird. Yeah. So anyway, that's why, but I've got a chance to do it over again.

So I'm changing the name. It's the same but different. And the book is the same but different. It's from, two disaster from destiny. So I've turned it around. Two disaster from destiny is the same thing. And the story, the story is the same.

And the characters are the same. And the outcome is the same. but I've made it, or I could be proud of it. You can't be proud of it yourself, you know, saying I had to be proud of my own work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, one of the themes of the story is loss, loss of family, identity, home, and hope. That's a lot of loss to take on. That sounds like my 2008.

And how did you emotionally connect with these struggles writing the novel? What did you pull from your history experiences? Too common, but I was a young divorcee with three young children. Oh, wow. So that kind of set me up for thinking maybe life isn't easy. I knew it wasn't easy, but maybe life isn't going to be like I thought it would be. Maybe it's going to be totally different, what now God. Yeah.

I mean, a lot of people, they think life is easy and fair, and I don't know who the hell raises them to think that. But somebody failed them. And life isn't fair. Life isn't easy. It's a survival game pretty much, yeah. And so you get into it with all the stuff about what goes on with the, with the Civil War. And many historical novels talking about this war focus on battles and politics, but your story highlights the people affected by the war. Why did you make that choice in your book?

Well, it's because it happens. It just does. People, anyhow. It's not about industry. It's not about who has how much money, who has much influence. It's people. And we're all people, and we all live on this planet, and why can't we just be good at each other? Yeah, why can't we all just get along? I understand what that old Indian saying how you can't judge a person until you walk a mile in his moccasins an old Indian thing I heard about his kid you can judge a person you better not until it lets you go walk a mile in his moccasins ever heard that no isn't that good I think I have yeah I it's old my ADHD was kicking in so it's a story of life living survival and redemption that's why we love these stories is because is hopefully they have a good ending and all the, all the challenges are resolved, the cathartic moments are resolved. And so we like these stories because it gives us a light at the end of the tunnel, I think, maybe.

The tunnel, absolutely. We all sometimes need a light at the end of the tunnel. And hopefully it's not the freight train coming your way to quote Metallica. That's where, Chris, that's where faith comes in. You do have to have some faith. That's the beautiful part about human beings is their hope. And if wasn't for that, I don't know, I think we'd be unredevable for that. matter.

Was there a particular character in the book whose emotional journey felt especially personal or meaningful to you as an author? I don't know for sure. It's probably my heroin. It's probably a lot. There's a couple other women in there, but I think probably she is a main one. I've got a couple of sisters that are in middle age and one of them's a widow and the other when it's not a widow, but their sisters, and they have a good conversation about things,

including this couple that ends up in the same boarding house. I think it's mostly Paulette, because she just had, she had, what now? What? Nothing to live for. Here I got, of course, I had the responsibility of three young children and no really any good means of support, but people in my church and people in my family came together and people I didn't even know, came together to help me when my husband was A-O-O-X with A-W-L. At that time, at that time. We need each other, whether we like it or not. You got to roll with the punches sometimes because if you don't, you're just going to get the hell beat up. So you got it, you might as well learn to roll with it as it were.

Now, you have a line in here, war is truly hell. What do you message are you trying to send on the human cost of war to people? One thing that I have in a little bit newer edition, I just kind of tweaked it some and add a little bit here and there, flavored it up. some I think it'll be a more fun read than the original one. But it is. Can you imagine? I have a son who was not, he was the Air Force, but he wasn't actually hand-hand combat.

But I also know some guys that were in Vietnam's that were. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Killing another people. Killing other human being has an indelible imprint that it makes on you. It's especially if you're doing it for, I suppose if you're doing it for your own enjoyment.

you're some sort of serial killer, that's a different. But I was watching recently a guy who was on a podcast who'd been an ABC or maybe still is a Navy SEAL. Actually, I don't think you ever stop being a Navy SEAL. But he was talking about hand-to-hand combat and death right there. And he was talking recently about how he shot the father because the father had a bazooker or a Uzi. And those were, you were not supposed to have those in Iraq. They were banned. And so if they caught you with one, they just.

take you out because they figured you're up to no good. And they'd take out the father and then they'd go check the body and then they'd watch the family. They'd have to take the family out of the house. The family would be screaming and crying. He's like, you can literally see the hate in the kid's eyes that you've just made three new terrorists. And they don't understand that it was either him or the sniper. And it wore as hell. And he talked about it. He goes, it changes you. And you're going to live with it and you've got to be careful. You have to be careful how you deal with it too.

Yeah, it does. It does. And Paul lost his memory, but in a way, he was glad because one thing I put in there is he was telling his parents, he said, I didn't know who I was. I had no idea about my own life, but I felt sorry for the people, but he was helping in the hospital. They didn't know what else to do with him. And I say that in the story. So he helped, he assisted with patients.

And he said, he said, I connected with the soldiers. because they're the ones that suffered war the most. And then the family's next. And that, of course, that's how it works. Yeah, definitely. But this other one is going to be just as good or it's going to be better. It's going to be proud of it. That one, I didn't even care of it so very much because I really didn't, I wasn't

proud of it. But I'm going to be very proud of this one. And it should come out the last week of this month. Okay. So it's coming out soon. So send us a link when that does come out so we can add the link to it. but for the thing. Do you want people to buy the book that I'm currently looking at on Amazon or you want

them to wait for the next book? Or maybe they just click both. We can do both. We can do this out. And I'll get my list. Hang on. I'm going to get my list. I got one minute.

Okay. And we'll get a list of something here, I think. Nothing like being prepared for anything, huh? Yeah. Yeah. This one is going to be available on Amazon Kindle. Apple, Apple books, Google Books, and Ingram Spark, all those. And people will be able to talk to you on your website or follow on your website?

Do you have a newsletter or something? I don't right now. That's one of the things I'm doing, setting it out. I had one some years ago called Basics and Best, and it was all about going back to nature, going back to basics. I even told how you could even use baking soda and vinegar for almost every. everything. I had that on there. Everything under the sign, I had on basics and best.

And I see it's still out there. My husband, George, I say, oh, still there. You get it going again. We'll see. Yeah. Do you remember your, I'm going to call it? Do you remember your, oh, what do they call it? The passwords?

Username. Password, not right now. I need to be getting that done again. But no, I haven't. It's coming. It's coming. It's a lot of new life on it. It's like giving me new life.

It's a good feeling. Were there any prior other future books you're working on that you have plans for, maybe a series or anything like that? I had somebody asked me about this. You're going to have a series of Paul and Paulette? And I said, I don't think so, but I am on my next one, which should be coming out in the spring. And I haven't signed on the exact title for that yet, but it's called, I think it's going to be marvelous missions mandated. And it starts in, it's 20 years later than this one, it's in 1892, and it starts in London and ends up in Philadelphia. Oh.

And in it is a lawyer, barristers doing some pro bono work that are involved with the newly emerging Salvation Army, which actually started in East London. And also in connecting with adoption of a little boy who. It was aired a fortune and how that could develop. And this couple coming over here and what happened to them on Ellis Island and the things that came about on Ellis Island. And I want to tell you something, Chris, and everybody will think this is pretty neat. We have a touch lamp. It's got eagles on, touch lamps, all kinds. We have a touch lamp that has eagles on it, over the mountains, or you love that.

But I was writing this Marvelousians book here two years ago, I think. sitting there just writing on the pad. And I was writing the section where they're all coming. And see, everybody didn't have to go to Ellis Island. The rich people didn't have to go. But anybody that might have a disease of any kind, even a touch had to stop. Or, of course, the steerage passengers on these steamships

had to all stop at Ellis Island. I just tell us interesting things. Anyway, they had to stop at Ellis Island because this young lawyer's mother, they had to come along at a cough. So the doctor wouldn't free her to go on, you know, to New York City. So they had to stay here. They all stayed because of her. And anyway, the doctor had examined her.

And my eagle lamp went on, and it was sitting right there on this, my eagle lamp went on by itself. Oh, really? And it had done that song. There goes. It went on by itself. And oh, that's interesting as soon as soon, two or three days later, She's getting better. It's all cleared. They're leaving. He's on a he's on there on the boat heading on in now and someone's passing out the paper all about the Statue of Liberty. It was at the bottom, the poem at the bottom, you know, bring me your, you know, how that goes. I used to quote it. But bring me here.

The rest use, there's your steaming shore and all that. Bring them all. And then his name was Blake and her name was. Margie and they read that and they thought that the same thing at the same time, I hope that America isn't sorry for that someday. Yeah. There's probably the whole of it. And the eagle lamp went off by itself. Really? Wow. Yes.

Maybe that you could put that in the story or something. I'm thinking they can put not a footnote on this one. And this one I'm thinking I'm going to have a sequel to it. Oh, that might be really good. People love series. That's one of their favorite things. They love series and they love all that good stuff that goes on there. Let's see.

Now you talked about male or brides. Did they? I wasn't aware they had male honor brides back then. Did they really have them in the Civil War? Oh, yes. Yes, sir. It's a big deal of post-Sivil War. How do you know what she looks on?

They have them on dating apps on the Internet now. So you know, you can look what they, you can see what they look like. But I don't photograph. were still in infancy back then. Yeah, they were. How did you know what you were going to buy on the mail? True. They just had to go on.

Wow. Told you, it didn't look like a post. That could be, that could be, I could be, go one way or the other. You know, you might end up with a dude or I don't know. That's how desperate everybody is. Yeah.

I guess if you're already meal order, you're probably at the desperate stage and. Yeah. It was something. You got to, you just have. Take what you can get at that point. I think it turned out good for a lot of people, though.

When you're searching, we got two boys and two girls. The oldest son, he's into genealogy and that kind of thing. I don't think of anything but not any better. I passed a male order bride, but might have been. I don't know. Yeah, that would be a while. You don't even know who you're going to get. You're just like, I don't know, I'm getting a wife.

What does she look like? I don't know. Yeah. I never say she's skinny as a toothpick or fat as a barn door. She never said that. You brought the fat up, so I'll pull this joke that I had. put to the back. But yeah, I was like, I was like the one, I guess the old trick back then was you check with a shipper of what your purchase is going to be and see what the shipping was.

And that way you can kind of get a good idea of weight. Okay. Yeah, nah. I guess you're the one who brought up the fat part. So I, I roll with it. I was going to leave it. Boom. It's okay. I guess you still do that. You don't know. You could get, you could get a dog. You could get really. And back then, what are you going to do? Get in your cart and drive 200 miles. for three months and to complain. I don't like the wife I got or something.

She doesn't like me. That's even worse. She doesn't like you. That trouble is. Divorce wasn't back then, but now it's like changing shoes. It's just not, or don't even want or don't even bother.

They file about every seven years. I don't know what that. They really need to put a rim shot drum roll on, on sitting next to the marriage thing when they go. and I'll stick with you through sickness and health and forever. No one does that anymore. You know what? That's why a lot of people make their own, write their own bows.

Yeah. Like anyone's going to follow that either. The average marriage lasts seven years now. And the poor children. Somebody should do a test that somebody should do a test. There's not enough data that we collect on marriages, and there's probably a reason for that. But someone should do a test. and if people make their own vows,

what is the odds of that being successful long-term marriage compared to people who are too lazy to make their own vows and they just roll with them. Whatever that priest said. I'd be interesting to know the data. I really wish they'd do everything because even though a divorce rate's pretty high, the people that are in marriages sometimes,

I think about 50% of are miserable. Stay together, whatever. And hey, I give you a lot of props if you stay together for your kids because my parents did. And I'm so glad they did, and I was one of those poor kids who had to deal with that. But they weren't meant to be together either. When they called us about five or six years after we'd all left the house, they called us up.

And they go, hey, we're, we don't want you to be upset, but we're getting divorced finally. And we were just all clapping going, yay, you guys finally known what we've done all over lives. You guys were never met together. That's sad, but yeah, it happens. I know, but I'm glad they did it for us and we're better for it, I suppose. I don't know. The jury's still out on me, but maybe the rest of the kids are funny. Talking about that, two years after I was divorced, I found a guy by the name of George Jones.

Oh, the George Jones? Yeah. The musician? Nope. No, I'm not that old. But anyway, yeah, my husband came along just at the right time. In fact, someone asked him when he was 18, you know, I think you're going to get married someday. And he said, oh, I don't know, probably.

He said, who you're married? It'll probably be a woman who has, is a divorcee or a widow with children. And he did exactly that. Some guys make great stepdad. They really. Oh, yeah. And we had our own daughter together. She kind of seen the whole thing.

And we've been married almost 49 years. Congratulations. Yeah. You can hit the big 50 and then call it a day because it's a good round number. I'm just teasing. I know you are. I joke that way with all my friends. I got a lot of friends that have been married for long term.

Most of them are their childhood or not childhood sweetheart. That sounds weird. Most of them are like high school. They're their high school prom loves right at a high school. They got together and they just been together forever since. and those seem to be the relationships that last long. Yeah. Go ahead.

Can I read you the introduction to my Christmas book? Sure. Now, this is a Christmas book. Which title is this one? It can be any book, but this is the one that I'm going to have ready before Christmas. It's called My Dog Floppy. Ah. F-L-O-P-P-Y.

And it's about a crazy dog that I had when I was. Can I read you the first page? Please do. Okay. Hello, Dog. lovers, you're going to love this story. Even though those who do not particularly care for dogs will think this is a fun reading, I am almost sure of that.

The day I turned nine years old, my dad, I always called him Papa, came home from working at a relative's farm, helping with spring planning, as I recall. When he drove into the yard at our country home northwest of Stockton, Kansas, I ran to the car to see what he might have brought home. He always went to the grocery store on his way through town, and when Papa, Papa brought the groceries. There was always something special to eat, such as a half a gallon of ice cream that our family of six had to eat right away.

We made short, yummy work of that. Even though it was my birthday, I wasn't necessarily looking for anything special at that moment. But he handed me a shoebox to carry inside that holes punched in the top of it. Be careful with this, Bethy, there are eggs in it. Eggs don't wiggle around and make puppy sound. So I opened it up and out jumped a black and white bundle of cuteness. He plop right down and acted almost dizzy when he walked and his ears flopped around his little face.

So I named him floppy. He was a mutt or Heinz 57, as we called mixed breeds back then. His mother was mostly rat terrier and the daddy dog was mostly beagle. So no one seemed to know for certain because he was either wandering stray or roaming neighbor dog in the farming community where Floppy was born. We never got a good photo in. So I drew a picture that I think pretty much what it looked like, but put that in the book. And I just, this is the first of six articles about Ploppy. He was no ordinary dog, not by a long shot, so there are lots of stories about him.

Here is the first story, and it's not very long. Here is the first story. We got him when he was about six weeks old. He grew up on our farm with another dog and assorted barn cats and livestock, cows, etc. One day when he's about nine months old, our family of six got and our family, car and headed into Stockton about seven miles away. About a quarter of a mile from the house, I looked out the rear window and saw Floppy running along behind us and fading fast. I told Papa about it, he replied, don't worry about him. He will soon get tired and go home.

We did our shopping, visiting grandparents and other things, which took about two hours, then started to our home. As we reached the city limits to our astonishment, here came Floppy with his tongue hanging out, slowly making his way into town. He was not going to give up. No. And how we knew where we went, we never could figure out. He could have reached the highway and gone in the opposite direction or any place. We stopped and picked him up, the incredibly tired little pooch and gave him a ride home.

That marked the beginning of our little rambling rows, tramp dogs, adventures in the world of somewhere out there. That's a tenacious little dog. Yeah. He was a good. You have to get this. This is good. That was the rat terrier portion breed, right? A port, yeah, pork.

Yeah. He was mixed. He was part. Yeah. Those rat terriers, they're, they're pretty, they're, they lock on. Yeah. They can be tough. I got sorry about him in battles, too.

And he is beagle and whatever else. He was, he was about the size of a Cocker Spaner that or Beagle. Yeah. Yeah. Totally wild. That's wild. And now, as we go out, give people a final pitch out to order up your book, check out your wares, and all that good stuff. Okay.

Just go to the places where you can buy it. That's the main thing right now. And then when I get my basic and best backs up, we'll do some more. All right. Get my website back up. We'll do some more things. Yeah, get that website up and people can reach out to you and all that good stuff. Thank you very much for coming the show.

We really appreciate you coming on. And what a great story, Beth, from disaster. to destiny. And now it's changed to destiny from disaster. So watch for that on the Chris Foss show when that's issued later on this month, which would be July of 26. There's... No, August.

Or August. I'm sorry. I'm still... I'm still... I'm four days in, man. I'm still lagging. I'm still holding on to the end of July. I don't want to see the end of the year come yet. I hear you.

I'm not ready for Christmas and Thanksgiving. No, I'm doing. I get it. But we have to make that caveat because people are watching our videos from 20 years ago. And so every now they'll write some comment like, it's not 20. The price isn't, that isn't the price anymore. It's been 10 years. Sure, it's a lower price on Amazon.

Anyway, thank you very much for coming on. We really appreciate Beth. Thanks for audience for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortess, Chris Foss, and all the crazy place we are on the internet. Order per book, wherever fine books are sold. And we appreciate you guys tuning in. Or further show your family, friends, and relatives and all that. We'll see you guys next time.

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