The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Rose Marie and the Crystal of Desires: Book 2 in The Leunam Tales by Jose Oldenburg

Episode Date: April 5, 2025

Rose Marie and the Crystal of Desires: Book 2 in The Leunam Tales by Jose Oldenburg Amazon.com Theleunamtales.com A princess with a bow. A boy returning from the dead. A mother lost in grief. And a kingdom where the dead grow into trees. When young Rose Marie discovers a powerful crystal, it reveals what every person longs for most. But when her mother gazes inside, she sees only her lost son. As the Queen becomes consumed by the past, Rose Marie faces an impossible question: can you compete with a memory? A beautifully written and illustrated fantasy that explores grief, love, and the strength of those who choose to stay. A breathtaking tale of loss, longing, and the quiet magic of presence. This adventurous tale will guide you through Rose Marie's greatest fears and wildest dreams, ultimately leading you to a place of inner peace. Along the way, family conversations take a meaningful turn toward truth and acceptance. Rose Marie and the Crystal of Desires is book 2 in The Leunam Tales. Book 1: Horatio in the Wind. Book 3: August Enchanted.The Y.A. Version (coming soon)

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with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hey folks, it's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. Ladies and gentlemen, there are the things that makes official welcome to 16 years, 2300 episodes of the Chris Voss Show. We're just rocking over here doing our thing, our thing as it were, and we just need you to listen in, write stuff down, learn, make your life better, grow, all that sort of good

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We're going to be talking to about his two book series and maybe more to come. We'll find out. Jose Oldenburg joins us on the show. He has two books out that are in a series called the Loonam Tales. And his first book was called Horatio in the Wind, book one in the Lumen Tales out January 1st, 2019 and his second book that's a follow up to it, Rosemary and the Crystal of Desires,

book two in the Lunam Tales, out March 6th, 2025. Welcome to the show, Jose, how are you? Thanks for having me, I'm great. Thanks for coming, we really appreciate it. Give us your dot coms wherever you want people to find you on the interwebs. So they can find me, they can find the books at the Lunum Tales. I always tell people Lunum is easy to remember if you think of Manuel in reverse. Thelunumtales.com. That's where the books are hosted. Hmm. And that's it. That's where you find them. Give us an overview of the latest book, book two in the series. Rosemary and the Crystal of Desires. It's a children's book.

These are children's books, but I wanted to make children's books. I always say that they are for the adult's inner child and for the child's inner adult. They're for kids ages, you know, seven to sixty-five. And it's a book about, they deal with grief and

loss and moving on. It's about a girl who loses her brother and she finds a crystal that gives the holder what they most desire. So she gives a crystal to her mom and her mom just sees her lost brother and eventually asks the crystal to bring him back. The boy comes back, but he comes back enlightened and, you know, beauty and all these themes of moving on and so. Wow. And you started towards children's books, but the children, inner child of people, what ages do you think the book is targeted to? It's been very interesting because for example when I go read

them at schools and stuff I've been asked to read them for kids say ages up to six and usually they'll be really caught up in the mystery and the audio companion the books really feel like they feel like Pixar movies but they won't the themes of like loss and grief and what the books really feel like they feel like Pixar movies, but they won't the themes of like loss and grief and what the books really deeply talk about will go over their heads. So the meetings are usually more about, you know, the process of being an author. But when I go and I talk to kids that are ages seven to 10, then it gets really interesting. So I feel like it's for, is it children's books, is it children's books for kids that already have the level of understanding that,

you know, they're reading novels. Yeah, they just happen to be short stories, but their reading comprehension is pretty profound. Wow. Wow. Now this is book two in the series. Yeah. Tell us about book one, Horatio in the Wind that started the Lumen Tales. Horatio in the Wind is about a boy who loses his father and he becomes afraid of passing away, finds this crystal, the same crystal that his sister uses to bring him back, and he uses it to trap death.

He kidnaps death with the crystal and gives everlasting life to his kingdom, but soon realizes that life without death is not what he expected. So he has to find the courage to let death go, let people pass away. Pete Wow. And what was the reasoning behind the plot of the lunum tales? The lunum tales. I was a very scared kid. Specifically about death, when I was little, I would cry myself to sleep. I didn't want to die. I didn't want to pass away. I didn't want anybody to pass away. And I was encouraged to write stories. So when I was nine, I wrote this

story about a king who kidnapped death. And it's interesting because, you know, the first book is dedicated to Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, because in 1987, Jim Henson adapted to TV a Russian folktale from the 1800s called The Soldier and Death. And I saw that story when I was a little kid and it really imprinted in me and then I created my own version. So in a way, in a way Horatio Nguyen is a modern reimagination of a Russian folktale from the 1800s. Oh wow. The modern war thing from Russia. So, what was it that

impacted you that made you so afraid of death? What was, was there something that happened in your childhood that impacted that? Javier Pérez It's an interesting story. My mom believes that it was passed to me during pregnancy because my grandfather, her dad was having open heart surgery while she was pregnant with me. It was a delicate pregnancy. She was in bed. She was afraid of losing me. She was afraid of losing her dad and says that she spent a lot of time thinking about that because I didn't really experience like nobody. Nobody in my family died when I was a kid. I just grew up being before I was afraid of it, I was apparently very intense about it, like when some uncle died, I told my aunt or like great aunt that he

was fluttering with the birds or some shit like that. I mean, you know, there's, there's all sorts of reasoning that we use to deal with death, especially when we're young, we don't understand it. And so, you've intertwined some of that experience to help kids, other kids, maybe be able to square that circle a little bit when dealing with death. J.C. Well, and I feel like culturally, we are kind of ill-prepared to accept our own mortality. So, more than dealing with death,

I hope that the books let people sort of feel connected to the fact that this isn't a rehearsal, this is your life, you're living it right now, it's passing a day at a time. And a fear of death sometimes is really, it translates into a fear of life. The books are infused by knowledge from the stoics. They're more about accepting our mortality so that we can live fully than really focusing on, oh, they're about death. They're about life. Pete I think, you know, a lot of people, when you're young, you know, you're trying to understand these meanings in life, you know, society, this is what we do. And you're young, you're trying to understand these meanings in life, you know, society

is what we do and you're like, that doesn't sound very fun. And they're like, you know, we do it anyway. Go get a job, go get debt and then take your ass off on your life. There's a theme in the books of becoming one with the stars or one with nature when we pass. We're made of stars, we're made of the nothingness that surrounds us. And we came from it and to it we shall go back and there's nothing scary about that. Pete Slauson That's true. You know, one of the things I study,

I don't know if you've ever studied it, memento mori in Latin is the meaning, remember you must die. And it comes from Stoicism, it comes from Marcus Aurelius meditations. It's a basic core concept of Stoicism. Yeah, to remember that you will die. Yeah. And it really helps because you, you know, anything of value in life is rare, right? Diamonds, gold, I mean, actually, if you understand how diamonds are, Tabir's buys them all up and stores them and hoards them. But anything of value in his life is

rare. That's why true love is so sought after because it's so rare, it's so hard to find. Life is hard to find. When you understand, you know, the millions or billions of sperm that are put out during a sexual act and only one of those sperm just gets to... It's crazy luck. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy luck. If you're alive right now, listen to this, you have won one of the greatest lottery systems ever in the universe because most everything dies and sometimes it doesn't

even make it to birth. I mean, like I said, men are given, you know, billions of sperms a month and a lot of it gets wasted and those are all potential people. Yeah. And yeah, I've often said this that, you know, like one of my dogs were having cancer and I was hospice carrying them, people were like, oh, you should just let them go. And I'm like, no, they won one of the greatest lotteries in this world. Life is precious because it is rare, because it can be taken from you at any moment.

You can lose it at any moment. You can be fine, healthy, and the most perfect of health, like that guy who spends $2 million a year to have the most perfect medications and supplements and blah, blah, and the most perfect of health, like that guy who spends $2 million a year to have the most perfect medications and supplements and blah. All right. He could get it by the bus tomorrow. Yeah, yeah. He could be at the beach and a coconut could fall on his face. Yeah, it could fall on his face. He doesn't ever know. Yeah, it ends like that, man. And I like to be really hyper hyper I don't know if I'd like to I just happen to be that's the way my brain works I'm just like hyper aware of

the fact that my life will end and I tried to live every moment to the fullest whether I'm like brushing my teeth or just hanging out with my mom you know what I mean I and I also it took a lot of work to not be afraid of dying, of passing away, to realize that that fear actually paralyzes you in your life. It gets in the way of your living. I mean, I was probably dead for millions of years before I came here and I'll go back to that. You know what I mean?

Like, go back to become one with the oneness. Yeah. I mean, I'm an atheist. I used to, I grew up in a religious cult and they used to tell me, they used to go, you know, what you believe is that when you die, you're just going to cease to exist and go off into the ether. And I'm like, yeah. And they go, you know, but you'll just be in blackness, dead.

And I'm like, I probably won't be very conscious about it. Like I'm not going to be like, I'm just sitting here dead, eh? Floating through the air. I'm pretty sure it's not like that. I'm pretty sure I won't be aware of whatever situation I'm currently in. And that's fine. If that's the way it is. Yeah. If my ayahuasca trip was right, there is a oneness to all of it. Yeah. It'll just be like that. But no, I mean, it's not like I'm going to be sitting around going, geez, I wish I could go to 7-Eleven right now.

Yeah. You know, there may be something, I just kind of, I used to joke and say, you know, hey, if there is something after this life, considering I didn't factor for it, bonus round. Jared And it's interesting because some people, the people that call it nothing, right, oh, nothing happens. When you die, nothing happens. You go back to nothing. And where did you come from? You came from nothing. Pete You came from nothing.

Jared You go back to your creator then. Pete You go right back to the thing. And, you know, I mean, nobody gets out of here alive, but one of the other things is, you talked about how people will do all sorts of crazy things to deny death. I think there's a book called Denial of Death that I read in high school that's really- Daniel Hicks Denial of Death, I have that book here. Pete Slauson Yeah. And it talks about how we do all these things to deny death. And one thing I used to see from people that were of

certain religions is I would see this restriction they would do, and part of it is a control factor for any sort of, it's not just religious space, it's a control factor for humans, but to deny them pleasures and tell them the pleasures are sinful and evil and blah, blah, blah, and, you know, make them suffer through your will. But I would see people that would take this life and they would, they're like, I'm not going to travel, I'm not going to experience certain things, I'm not going to watch movies that are too artistic and maybe they have too much swear words in them or nudity. I'm not going to do these things, I'm not going to drink coffee, I'm not going to drink Coke, all these limits to this life.

And I used to sit and look at it and go, if there's a creator that seeded all this stuff and said, have fun, knock yourselves out, enjoy yourselves, if there was a creator, this is the gift that he's given to us, all these wonderful things in life, so why not embrace them and enjoy them? You know, why not dine on them? And you know, they give you that whole free will and you got to do what God wants because whatever you're not going to have. But I mean, I guess people, everyone enjoys their lives in different ways, you know what

I mean? Like in limitations, there's a lot of products that like, for example, like if I consume, if I consume Coca-Cola or I drink any, it makes me feel like absolute trash. So I enjoy consuming them. Like I am called towards sugar the same way that everyone is.

But when I consume it, I feel like a trash can. So I limit the consumption. And I have, it's funny, I've had cousins make fun of me being like, oh, you don't enjoy life. And I'm like, no, I enjoy life my own way. If I don't consume that, I feel amazing. I'm only tempted to consume it when I have it in front of me. Once it's not in front of me, I'm God thankful that I didn't drink it. And so, I mean, you see people put a restriction on life where the greatness of their life

isn't they don't enjoy, they don't ever fulfill life. And I've seen that, I saw that my father's passing, he was so afraid of death, he was so afraid to die. He was so afraid of, yeah, he was very afraid of it, especially at the end. And I know he wanted to cling to life because it meant so much, but he was so scared of it. He was so scared of the end and he would just fight against it. And that was fine, but you know, there's a favorite line that I have in from No Country for Old Men and it's a great scene. And then Tommy Lee Jones goes into, see, I believe it's his uncle or his grandfather, one of his relatives, and he's wheelchair bound in this house in Texas in the middle

of nowhere. And he comes there to check in on him and talk about life. And the old man in the wheelchair says to him, he says, what you got ain't nothing new. It ain't all about you. You can't stop what's coming. That's vanity. And the basic message is, is life is going to come at you and death is going to come at you and whatever happens is going to happen. You can't think that you're above it all. You can't be vain to think, you know, that's not going to happen to me. And it's a vanity in believing that, you know, whatever.

And I think we get vain in our lives. We think we're immortal sometimes. We think we're going to live forever. I've certainly thought, you know, maybe my dogs are going to live longer than they did. And certainly my early ones did, and I expected my older ones too, and they died shorter. And so you just never know, but this bullshit that we kind of, I don't know, we kind of mental masturbate ourselves with, that we're above it, that it won't happen to us, that we'll live forever, that we don't need to mind the time is vain. Well, I think fear is another type of mental masturbation, you know what I mean? It's like the opposite.

If I feel myself like not good enough or not strong enough and not hot enough, not whatever enough, that's also a form of vanity where I'm like not feeling myself above life, but beneath it. And it's like, I find it very interesting that you said, you know, your father was afraid of the end at the end, because I think about that a lot. And I feel like I would like to face life or death. No, like I try to remind myself like I you know, I have a 10 I could have

in the past had a tendency towards insecurity and had to do a lot of work to be like there to do the things I wanted to do if I wanted to play music, I wanted to write the books, dare to feel, you know, right size, not above. I would like to think that I'll face death the way that many people have faced it. What's his name? He wrote The Power of Intention. Wayne Dyer, who just said, oh, it's beautiful, I think, were his last words. So he speaks about the last words of many people and some just say, God, it's beautiful. I think where his last words, so he speaks about the last words to many people. And some just say God, God, God. I like to be able to live a life,

live such a life that when the time comes to die, I can look death in the eye and just go, all right, here we go. Yeah. You know, I don't want to be afraid. The line from Marcus Aurelius is death smiles upon us, all we can do is smile back. Yeah. Yeah.

And if we're aware of that, you know, daily, it's a reminder to, for example, if you struggle like me, if you struggle with confidence and I want to do something, just remind myself that I'm going to die. And then just go for it because exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And I, when I want to do something and just remind myself that I'm going to die and then just go for it because exactly, exactly, exactly. What do you have to lose? Yeah. I mean, you know, and you know, I remember, I remember when I put my dog through raw

diet to try and extend her life from cancer, they'd given her a three day death sentence. And they're like, she's got cancer. I take three days, come back and we'll call the ball. And I went home and I said, wow, you know, this seems, you know, is there anything I can do for her? She hadn't been eating, of course, showing all the signs that many dogs will do in the wild.

What they do is they stop eating, they go off, dig a hole away from the tribe and they pass away. And that's how they, you know, because when you're weaker, you know, things will come for you in the environment, in the wild. So they kind of know that they're on their way out and they go try and find a place to hide and a safe place to pass. And so I said, you know, she's got a death sentence. What's the worst that can happen in me trying to keep her, let her live longer by seeing if

there's something I can do. And so I found that by giving her a raw diet, and there were people that, you know, they did this thing with the raw diet that could basically make it so that she could possibly get the nutrients that she wanted. And then we did that. She started eating and she lived for another year to almost two years, three quarters. That's amazing. I love that. I love that man. It was all because we got her eating her natural diet, her in the wild diet,

where she was just eating red raw meat all the time. No sugar, all fat. Turns out cancer hates fat. Jai Radha Cancer loves sugar. Pete Slauson Loves sugar. And you know, that was an example. One of the things I have that I would describe to anyone to have, because you talked about how, you know, we need to be mindful this daily that, you know, we're, death's door is always the present. And so, I keep a thing from momentum more. You can find this on Etsy and you can buy this chart that has all the weeks of your

life or potential of your life up to a certain age. So, I have mine that goes from zero to a hundred, assuming I live to a hundred. My father lived to, I think, 74, 76. I can't remember, but it's marked on the weeks. And each mark is filled in of my life, of a week of my life. So it's sent to me filled in with, at my age, all the weeks gone. And that's when I kind of looked at it and realized that I'm in the fourth quarter, third or fourth quarter of my life, depending upon how long I live. And my father did have a lot of health issues long before, you know, 10 or 15 years younger than I am. I don't have any of those issues, so I'm hoping I'll extend my life beyond this.

Going strong. Yeah, but you never know. Well, we've also learned some, yeah, go ahead. So each week I click off the week of my life and it shows me, you know, there's like this much, there's this much here of weeks that I've lived and then there's like this much of left. But yeah, and you're like, ah, shit. And you're like, wow.

And it really kind of compresses and keeps you focused. And I keep that on my fridge so that every day I'm reminded of it. I want to get it because it's like like I, you know, I'm 36. People think I'm in my 20s, but like when I look at the back, I'm like, yo, like a lot of it starts to fly. You know what I mean? It starts to go by really quick. And when you see it in weeks or when you see it in months, you really realize you don't

get that many. You don't get that many. You don't get that many. So live it up. Say, I love you. Hug people. Take risks. Live your life like there's no tomorrow. So I'll try and find, let's see, Memento.

I think if you search Memento Mori Weeks calendar, weekly calendar, Memento Mori weekly calendar, and or a weekly calendar, and I believe you'll find it there. And they have these calendars where you can literally fill in each week and they track, you know, how much time you have used and how much time you have left. You have less. And I think it's important even for people

that like at your age, where, you know, you're starting using one of the best times of your life. even for people at like at your age where, you know, you're. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Because. 30 is one of the best times of your life. And you know, this is important to do it. And you know, death is coming one way or another, no matter how vain you want to be,

that it's not coming for you or you're above it all, you're going to live a long life. You can all be hit by a bus tomorrow. A car could cross through, you know, somebody's texting on their phone. Yeah. They drive through the intersection. That's it. You're game over. I, you know, somebody's texting on their phone, they drive through the intersection. That's it.

You're game over. I, you know, I always say goodbye to people in my life, any girlfriend I ever had, I kiss them when they leave and I kiss them when they come back. Because I realized that there's a moment they could walk out the door and something could happen to them and I never see them again. And that may be the very last time. And that's happened with my dogs, it's happened

with other people I've loved. And it's happened with my dogs. It's happened with other people I loved. And it's tragic when you can't have those final conversations. I, I tried to, I tried to do that as well. I always, I always tell my parents how much I love them. Uh, I, it's very common in, in Latin America, but I'll still refer to my mom and dad, like mommy and daddy. It's, it, I still, I treat them like when we're having emotional conversations, I treat them like when we're having emotional

conversations, I treat them like I'm a kid. They treat me like I'm a kid when it comes to saying, when it comes to loving on each other, you know, and I love that. I love that about us. Like we, I, I, you know, love you daddy, love you mommy. I like, as if I was a kid, because one day I'm not going to have them. I know for a fact I will not regret not having loved on them enough. And the same applies for people. Yeah. Life is short.

So I'm glad you're writing these books that help kids. Is there any future books in the series coming out? There is actually. So I'll show you, this is a hardcover. This is Horatio and the Wind's hardcover. And so it's Horatio in the wind book one of the Loom Mamm tells Rosemary and the Crystal Desires and I have August Enchanted it's coming out in October August Enchanted is I'll show you the cover right here oh yeah August Enchanted is my first novel it's a direct sequel to the books. And I'll tell

you a little bit about it. It's about their father. So Rosemary and Horatia, the whole shebang with being afraid of dying is because they lost their dad. So August is their father. From his perspective, he disappeared because of the same crystal. He disappeared for 70 days. But when he comes back, it's been 70 years. He's a child. He's a child, he's 12, he has memories of having been an adult, he has memories of having had kids and there's not a kingdom anymore and he's trying to find his place in the world so he starts to write letters with his daughter who is now a grandmother. So you have this child father and this old lady daughter writing to each other and the novel is in part this letters.

Pete Slauson Oh, that should be very interesting and very exciting for people. And then you said, is it up on Amazon yet to… Javier Larrondo So, the books, Horatio and Rosemary are available everywhere that books are sold. Amazon, Barnes & Noble. You want the hardcover copies, you can buy them on Amazon or you can buy them at thelunamtales.com. I'll show it on the screen. Thelunamtales.com. That would be buying it direct from my store. I just published Ros Rosemary last week so I still have to upload the product pictures for Rosemary but it's available on the website too but if you want to you know go feel and say if you can buy them from Amazon or Barnes &

Noble. That should be fun then. I'm glad you're writing books that help people get through some of their issues and influence them and maybe put away some of their fears and help them face, you know. You can't stop what's coming, folks. That's vanity. You can't stop what's coming. But also FYI, like they are really fun, fun books. I want to read you a little bit. I wrote this message in the back of the books, if I may read it to you.

Sure. It says, what are these books trying to say? Lunam Tales, though written through the lens of children's stories, aim to illuminate a deeper spiritual truth about grief and loss, one that many may not have fully explored or understood. For some, these books may simply be entertaining for their fantasy elements, and if that is the case, let it be so. However, if the story stirs something deeper within you, a feeling, a knowing, or a question

about the nature of death, know that this too is their intended purpose. These tales seek to present death not as an end, but as a relative truth. We are only from our limited human perspective. In absolute terms, death is a return to nothingness, the vast, infinite space from which all life emerges. It is a return to oneness, the source from which we came and to which we all life emerges. It is a return to oneness, the source from which we came and to which we all inevitably return. They feel like movies, the books. Like I'll show you a couple of the illustrations. Like I'm a filmmaker myself. I make films. I make two short films a year, put them in festivals, go to the festival. So I want it. I wanted

the original idea behind this book was that they would become movies. So they come with soundtracks and the soundtracks have like a whole orchestra. The soundtracks really create a whole experience. If you scan the QR code on the opening page you can get the soundtrack and it makes the books feel like a Pixar movie in your lap. The soundtracks are amazing and yeah that's the the goal. Keep selling them. I would show you a hardcover copy of Rosemary, but I sold all the ones that I had, so I have to order more. That's good. We'll have a link on the Chris Foss show.

Yes. So there. As we go out, Jose, tell people where they can onboard with you, where they can order the books, Sawyer.com, et cetera, et cetera. So if you want to follow me on Instagram, it's jose.oldenburg. If you want to get the books, thelunamtales.com. If you want to on YouTube, I'm joseoldenburg. But like I'm most active on Instagram and you can message me there. If you have any questions, you can also message me on the site.

I would be happy to, you know, send you the books, sign them for you if you want. Whatever you need, I'm here for the audience. Whatever you need, check it out, have fun, enjoy it, and all that good stuff. Thank you very much for coming on the show, bud. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And thank you. And thanks to our audience for tuning in. Order the book where refined books are sold. It's latest is out March 6, 2025. Rosemary and the Crystal of Desires, book two in the Lunum Tales. Thanks for my audience for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com, Forchance Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Forchance Chris Foss, Chris Foss One on the TikTokity and all those crazy

places on the internet. Be good to each other, stay safe. We'll see you next time. And that should have us out, man.