Literarily Speaking

Book Spotlight: The Life-Changing Power of One Question by Holly Hurd #spotlight

thewriterslife November 12, 2026 0 Comments

Title: The Life-Changing Power of One Question
Author: Holly Hurd
Publisher: Maison Vero
Pages: 236
Genre: Nonfiction

One Powerful Question Can Change Your Life.

In this empowering guide for women, Holly Hurd explores the transformative power of asking the right question at the right moment to unlock self-worth, confidence, and clarity.

Whether you’re navigating personal crossroads or professional change, this book will guide you to the breakthrough you’ve been seeking. With stories, prompts, and real-life examples from women who have radically changed their lives, this book reveals how a single, thoughtful question—posed to yourself or others—can help you find purpose, deepen relationships, and create connection. A former hedge fund founder turned women’s empowerment advocate, Holly Hurd combines business acumen with emotional insight to offer listeners a framework for self-reflection, personal growth, and bold action.

This book isn’t just about finding the right words—it’s about discovering your voice. Through guided inquiry and inspiring anecdotes, listeners will learn how to identify the question that could open the door to healing, opportunity, or reinvention. Whether it’s a whisper of curiosity or a cry for change, asking that one question may be the first step to a more courageous, connected, and fulfilled life.

Inside, you’ll find:

Empowering questions to ask in moments of doubt, change, or opportunity
Real stories from women who found clarity and purpose by asking just one question
Simple yet powerful tools for reconnecting to your intuition and taking the next step

If you liked How Successful People Think, Supercommunicators, or How to Become a People Magnet, then you’ll love The Life-Changing Power of One Question.

The Life-Changing Power of One Question is available at Amazon.

Excerpt:

PROLOGUE

What is the question that changed your life? It’s there. At first, many people struggle to pinpoint their question. But if you reflect deeply, you’ll likely uncover one—or even several—questions that have altered the course of your life in meaningful ways.

Each of us has experienced moments where a single question has led to a new path, a significant decision, or a profound shift in perspective. Maybe it was a question you asked yourself in a moment of self-doubt or clarity. Perhaps you turned to someone else for advice, and their answer illuminated a path you hadn’t considered. Or maybe you reached out to the universe, asking for a sign to guide you in an uncertain time. Whether the impact was fleeting or long-lasting, the power of that question remains undeniable.

My theory is that a question can help you take the next step. By asking thought provoking questions, we can find a way to the other side and a happier life. As women, we have spent our entire lives taking care of others, now it’s time to ask: What makes me happy? What do I want out of my life? Is there something I really want to do? How do I want to spend my life?

I’ve spent the last fifteen years interviewing women at inflection points in their lives. Maybe they were recently widowed or divorced. Maybe they were new empty nesters. Perhaps their parent has passed, or they lost a job or retired. There are so many transitions that can be difficult to walk through. These women found a way to move forward by asking a question that led to a business, venture or pursuit. You may not be looking to start a business but rather begin a different lifestyle after an inflection point. Regardless of where you are, I believe questions can lead you to what’s next.

Why write this book? In my life recently I’ve noticed what makes me happy, what makes me smile, what gives me fulfilment, and what gives me peace. Connecting with other people is my answer. And recent studies have shown it’s important to everyone and everyone’s health. Three recent studies and countless research articles have shown that connecting to the people in your world brings happiness. In fact, studies have shown that connecting with other people leads to a longer healthier life. Given that, connecting with others should definitely be on your health to-do list. This book will show you how questions help you connect and find your happiness.

Let me be clear: I don’t claim to have all the answers to the questions you may ask yourself or others. I am not a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist. If you are facing challenges such as anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns, I encourage you to seek the guidance of a licensed professional. This book is not intended to diagnose or treat mental health conditions. Instead, it is an exploration of how the right questions—asked with intention and clarity—can serve as powerful tools for growth, connection, and transformation.

Through extensive research and reflection, I’ve gathered insights from experts in communication, relationships, and personal development. My goal is to share their wisdom and offer a framework for uncovering the questions that can lead to greater happiness and fulfillment in your life.

I’m not a scholar or teacher but I believe happiness is the ultimate currency. Our world just went through a period of extreme disconnectedness, and we are at a major point of dividedness in our world. How do we get back to connectiveness and ultimately, more happiness? A question can give you that connectiveness and change your life and the lives of those around you, maybe only for a moment, maybe for a little while and maybe for a lifetime.

In your daily life, people want to connect and to be seen. How easy is it to connect? Something as simple as saying “It’s busy today, right?” “Quiet in here today?” “So cold outside, right?” It can be anything that gets the person to see you and lets them know you see them. Rather than just go through the motions of checking out, picking up your order, or walking to your desk, you can turn your workday or errand into an exchange that improves your health.

And in your personal life, whether in your relationship with others or your relationship with yourself, questions are amazing at getting you to examine where you are, where you want to go, and how you want to live your life. You will see examples of multiple stories throughout the book where questions led others to happiness You can use these questions to guide you to a clearer picture of what makes you happy and ultimately begin a journey to a happier life.

Your relationship with your boss, your employee, your partner, your mate, your parents, your friends, your child can all be improved with a single question. In this book you’ll learn what question to ask, and you’ll learn how to ask that question to work towards a better relationship with everyone you encounter and everyone you know - leading to your happiness.

Here’s my promise to you, my reader: by the end of this book, you’ll discover the value of asking the right questions—not just of others, but of yourself. You’ll learn how to start a meaningful conversation with a question that could spark change. You’ll identify the life-changing question you need to ask yourself right now. Whether you’re seeking a new career, a deeper purpose, stronger relationships, or greater overall joy, one well-chosen question could be the key that unlocks it all.

So, let’s begin this journey together. Let’s uncover the life-changing question that’s waiting to guide you toward your next chapter.

– Excerpted from The Life-Changing Power of One Question by Holly Hurd, Maison Vero, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

Author Bio

For the last 15 years, Holly Hurd has interviewed and profiled hundreds of women entrepreneurs through her platform VentureMom.com. This gives her unique insights into how women create successful ventures from scratch. Her website serves as a source of inspiration and guidance, showcasing stories of women who turned ideas into thriving pursites and businesses.

Holly’s first book, VentureMom: From Idea to Income in Just 12 Weeks, became a bestseller, offering readers a step-by-step blueprint to start a business in a short period of time. Now, her highly anticipated new book, The Life-Changing Power of One Question, will draw on her experience with women who are at inflection points This book explores how asking the right question at the right time can transform lives. Aimed at women at pivotal moments, it serves as a powerful guide for those seeking to redefine their happiness and create a fulfilling new chapter.

Holly began her career managing her own hedge fund at just 23 years old, specializing in futures and commodities trading. This experience sharpened her strategic mindset and entrepreneurial spirit, ultimately leading her to her true mission: empowering women to lead happier, more fulfilled lives.

Visit her website at VentureMom.com.

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VentureMom/

╰┈➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/venture_mom

╰┈➤ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollyhurd/

# Book Spotlights

5 Things You Should Know About The Relative Unimportance of It All by Tony Setley #5Things

thewriterslife November 08, 2026 0 Comments

We are so excited to have as our guest today, Tony Setley, author of 'The Relative Unimportance of It All'. He is here to tell us five things you should know about his book!

5 Things You Should Know About The Relative Unimportance of It All

By Tony Setley

1. You might recognize yourself in it, even before you agree with it.

If you’ve ever had a perfectly decent day and still gone to bed thinking you should have done more with your life, you’ll recognize the problem I’m writing about. That feeling can follow us through work, time with family, and even the things we’re supposed to enjoy. I wanted to ask where it comes from and whether we have to keep accepting its judgment.

2. It opens with a history question most of us can’t answer.

Can you name ten Roman emperors? Take a minute. These people once had an extraordinary amount of power over the world, and now most of their names mean very little to us. I use that as a starting point for thinking about our own expectations. If we’re counting on being remembered to make our lives worthwhile, we may want to reconsider the arrangement.

3. You can read it and still want the promotion.
You can still want to write a good book, build something useful, or get better at your work. I’m interested in what happens when a goal becomes responsible for your entire sense of worth. That’s a lot to ask of a promotion. The book makes room for ambition while questioning why success so often feels like something we need in order to be okay with ourselves.
4. It asks some uncomfortable questions about family.

One is whether calling our children our “legacy” gives them a job they never asked for. They have their own lives to live. What changes if we love them without needing them to preserve something of us? I think that question can help us become more interested in the people our families actually are, including when they don’t behave the way we imagined.

5. It doesn’t expect you to find the bright side of everything.

There are chapters about suffering and loss, and I take those seriously. Some experiences hurt without making us wiser. Some things cannot be repaired. I don’t think people should have to produce an uplifting lesson before their pain deserves attention. Any account of why life matters has to make room for the days when being alive is difficult.

~ Book Description ~

The Relative Unimportance of It All: and Why Everything Matters Anyway begins with an unsettling observation: given enough time, nearly everything human beings consider important will disappear. Fame fades, accomplishments are forgotten, institutions collapse, and even the most influential people eventually become little more than names—or vanish from memory altogether. Rather than resisting that reality with promises of legacy or permanence, the book takes it seriously. It argues that the mistake of nihilism is not recognizing that everything is temporary, but assuming that something must last forever in order to have mattered while it existed.

From there, the book shifts the question of meaning away from historical importance and toward lived experience. Every human being encounters life from within a present moment, whether emperor or laborer, celebrity or stranger. That equality of experience becomes the foundation for an ethic of “attentive goodness”: taking seriously the reality of the people and circumstances directly before us. The argument is applied to ordinary life, family, work, pleasure, suffering, loss, ambition, and attention. It does not claim that every action has equal consequences or that every moral choice is equivalent; rather, it distinguishes between the equal reality of persons and the very real differences in need, responsibility, harm, and consequence.

Ultimately, the book embraces the paradox contained in its title: from the perspective of vast stretches of time, very little about our lives may be important, and yet that does not make the lives being lived now meaningless. We do not need to become historically significant before the present deserves our attention. We can love, work, create, strive, enjoy, grieve, and act with goodness precisely because these experiences are real while they occur.

The Relative Unimportance of It All: And Why Everything Matters Anyway is available at Amazon.

╰┈➤Book Details

✦ Title: The Relative Unimportance of It All: And Why Everything Matters Anyway
✦ Author: Tony Setley
✦ Genre: Philosophy
✦ Sub-genre: Contemporary Philosophy
✦ Language: English
✦ Pages: Paperback 250, Digital 151
✦ Paperback ISBN: 979-8192127988
✦ Publisher: Independent
✦ Publication Date: August 11, 2026
✦ Price: Hardcover $19.86, Paperback $12.42, Kindle $4.99, Audiobook FREE with Membership Trial, Kindle FREE with Kindle Unlimited

~ Author Bio ~

The Rev. Tony Setley is a Lutheran pastor, author, chaplain, football coach, and public philosopher. His professional ministry has included congregational, military, campus, and federal law-enforcement chaplaincy. He holds degrees from Lebanon Valley College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree with a focus on preparing chaplains to help those dealing with moral injury. His writing explores the intersection of philosophy, theology, and ordinary human experience. He lives in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, with his wife and son.

Tony’s latest book is The Relative Unimportance of It All: And Why Everything Matters Anyway.

Connect with him on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TonySetley

╰┈➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonysetley/

# 5 Things You Should Know

Author Interview with Ken Tipton, Author of 'LOST VALLEY LOST INNOCENCE' #authorinterview

thewriterslife October 12, 2026 0 Comments

Today we are interviewing Ken Tipton, author of the memoir, Lost Valley Lost Innocence: The True Story of Best Friends Trapped in an International Boy Scout Sex Ring (TBRIS Media, LLC).

Ken Tipton is a serial entrepreneur, author, composer, screenwriter, award-winning filmmaker, and Air Force veteran whose life has taken him from building unconventional businesses and producing films to confronting a childhood history he kept largely buried for decades.

His memoir, Lost Valley – Lost Innocence, tells the true story of Tipton and his best friend, Greg Connor, who were groomed and sexually exploited as boys through a network connected to their experiences in Scouting during the 1960s. Told with candor, emotional honesty, and unexpected humor, the book examines childhood abuse, institutional betrayal, friendship, survival, and the consequences that can follow victims long after the abuse itself has ended.

Tipton has spent much of his life creating—building businesses, developing film and television projects, writing screenplays, and telling stories drawn from extraordinary experiences. In his seventies, he turned that storytelling toward the most difficult subject of all: his own past.

Through Lost Valley – Lost Innocence, Tipton hopes not only to document what happened, but also to give voice to survivors who spent years or decades believing that silence was their only option.

He lives in California with his wife, Darlene, and continues to write and develop new creative projects.

Ken’s latest book is Lost Valley – Lost Innocence.

Visit his website at https://lostvalleybook.com/.

Connect with him on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LostValleyFilm

╰┈➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostvalleybook

╰┈➤ BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ken-tipton

╰┈➤ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lostvalleybook

╰┈➤Substack: https://lostvalleybook.substack.com/

Welcome to Literarily Speaking, Ken. Can you give us a little background on why you wrote your book, Lost Valley -- Lost Innocence?

Thank you for having me. I wrote this book because I spent most of my life carrying memories I didn't know how to talk about.

From 1964 to 1964, my best friend, Greg Connor, and I were groomed and sexually exploited as child prostitutes in an international pedophile ring run through the Boy Scouts of America.

Here is an explanation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUkRd-EEqNk&t=27s

Watching Oprah Winfrey’s two-part episode in 2010 featuring 200 men who had been abused as boys helped me feel less alone and begin facing my own story. Eventually, I wanted to offer that recognition to someone else. I also wanted readers to know Greg and understand the friendship at the heart of the book. My hope is that telling what happened helps another survivor find words and helps adults recognize danger sooner.

At the heart of your memoir is the intense bond between you and Greg Connor. How did you two boys survive the horrific circumstances, including blackmail and murder?

We held on to the friendship we had before Lost Valley. Greg knew me as the boy who built forts with him, shared secrets, and laughed at his jokes. He understood parts of me that the adults around us never seemed to notice. When we were frightened or confused, having someone who knew us that well mattered enormously.

Humor was part of how we endured. Greg could make me laugh when I thought I would never laugh again. Those moments gave us a little room to breathe inside circumstances we could not control.

As secrecy, blackmail, and murder became part of our lives, we were still children trying to understand a world controlled by adults. Our friendship gave us companionship and comfort, and the abuse put terrible strain on that bond. The harm followed us into adulthood. I wanted to tell that honestly, including the things we did not understand about ourselves.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey writing your book?

The hardest part was opening memories I had spent decades trying to keep closed, then putting them on the page honestly. I had to revisit the fear and shame, including feelings that were painful to admit even to myself.

One of the most difficult things to explain is that a child can feel affection for someone who is exploiting him. Attention can feel like love. A place where terrible things happen can also hold happy memories. That confusion is part of how grooming works. I needed readers to understand how that felt from inside a child’s life. Describing those contradictions without hiding the harm or turning it into spectacle was the biggest challenge.

What is the main empowering lesson you want your readers to take away after finishing your book?

What happened to you was not your fault. Being frightened, confused, silent, or attached to someone who hurt you does not make you responsible for an adult’s actions. It took me far too long to understand that.

I also want survivors to know that they deserve support, however much time has passed. They can decide when and how to share their experiences, including privately with someone they trust. Nobody owes the public their story.

I cannot promise that telling the truth makes the pain disappear. I can say that being heard mattered to me. If a reader finishes this book feeling less alone and more able to ask for support, that would mean a great deal.

Do you have any advice for parents of young boys?

Make sure your son knows he can tell you something uncomfortable without being blamed or punished. Have ordinary, ongoing conversations about his body and boundaries. Respect his right to refuse unwanted affection, even from a relative, and help him identify other safe adults he can talk to.

Stay involved in his life and know who spends time with him. Pay attention to adults who push boundaries, encourage secrecy, or seek access that makes you uncomfortable. Apply the same expectations to respected leaders and family friends as you would to anyone else.

If he tells you something happened, listen calmly and take him seriously. Tell him you are glad he told you and that it was not his fault. Seek help to keep him safe. Children need information and a voice; adults remain responsible for their protection.

Further guidance for parents: RAINN and NSPCC.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most good to the people, what would that be?

I would build a movement that teaches adults to recognize grooming and helps survivors feel less isolated. I would want people to understand what support looks like in everyday life: listening when someone tries to tell you something painful, questioning boundary violations, and following through when a child needs protection.

I would invite current and former Scouts to take part. I still believe in the ideals of Scouting, and I later became a Den Leader and Scoutmaster. Helping survivors and protecting children are ways to put those ideals into practice.

The movement would also make room for people who want to help quietly. Someone can learn, volunteer, or support a survivor without making a public statement. I would judge its success by whether more children are protected and more survivors have someone they can turn to.

Two best friends. One hidden network. A childhood stolen under the cover of Scouting.

From 1964 to 1967, Kenny Tipton and Greg Connor were barely teenagers when men they had been taught to trust groomed and sexually exploited them through Boy Scout camps, trips, and activities.

What began at Lost Valley Boy Scout Camp outside St. Louis grew into an organized network that carried the boys through more than twenty states and into the hands of businessmen, law-enforcement officers, politicians, priests, educators, and other powerful men.

To survive, Kenny and Greg depended on each other. They made rules, kept secret records, negotiated with predators, and used intelligence, loyalty, and dark humor to hold on to some measure of control. As the danger escalated, they became caught in blackmail, betrayal, violence, and crimes that would haunt Kenny for decades.

Lost Valley – Lost Innocence is Ken Tipton’s firsthand account of stolen childhoods, institutional failure, buried secrets, and the lifelong consequences of survival.

But at its heart is something the men who exploited them could not take away: the friendship between two boys who protected one another when the adults around them would not.

Decades later, Ken finally breaks the silence.

Told with brutal honesty and unexpected humor, this is a survivor memoir about friendship, resilience, guilt, and the courage required to confront the past.

Some stories are difficult to believe because they are too horrifying to imagine.

This one happened.

Lost Valley – Lost Innocence is available at Amazon.

╰┈➤Book Details

🏕 Title: Lost Valley – Lost Innocence
🏕 Author: Ken Tipton
🏕 Genre: Memoir
🏕 Sub-genre: Sexual Assault/True Crime
🏕 Language:English
🏕 Pages: 365
🏕 Paperback ISBN: 979-8234067685
🏕 Publisher: TBRIS Media, Inc.
🏕 Publication Date: June 22, 2026
🏕 Price: Hardcover $27.99, Paperback $18.99, Kindle $7.99, FREE with Kindle Unlimited