The Taoist Online Interviews Writer Heidi Pyper

Welcome to another episode of The Taoist Corner Podcast. Today, rather than continue our work through 365 Tao by Ding Ming-Dao, I’ll interview writer Heidi Pyper, who recently won The Taoist Online’s holiday writing contest!

Heidi Pyper's storytelling not only paints vivid pictures with words, but it also knits the very fabric of her being into each narrative. As this episode unfolds, she takes us on a deeply personal voyage, exploring the memories of her late father and the indelible impact of his surprise theatrical foray. Winner of the Taoist Online holiday writing contest, Heidi's voice is a mix of nostalgia and wonder as she reflects on the complexities of her writing journey. We navigate writers' often surprising decision-making process, examining how Medium has shaped her as a storyteller and the importance of choosing which memories to embrace and which to let flutter away like leaves in the wind.

You can read her touching and heart-warming winning story below.

When Christmas Brought Me The Gift Of Discovering My Father’s Light

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Daoist Corner podcast. I'm your host, patrick Stewart, founder and chief editor of the Daoistonline and projectjadenet. Normally what we do is we work through a book called 365 Dao by Ding Bing Dao, but today we're going to do something a little different. You see, during the holidays, the Daoist online had a writing contest a holiday writing contest, where writers were supposed to turn in their favorite holiday memory. The winning author, writer, heidi Piper, wrote an amazing, heartfelt story about her father, who has now since passed away. One Christmas, heidi's father decided to surprise his children by inviting them to the theater, only to not attend. His children were surprised to learn that not only was he in fact there at the theater, but was actually performing on stage. So, without further ado, let's welcome writer and contest winner Heidi Piper. First of all, congratulations for winning the contest, thank you All right.

Speaker 2: 1:33

so I just want to say thank you for the first number one.

Speaker 1: 1:35

You're very welcome, Absolutely. Why don't we actually start tell us a little bit about yourself and how long you've been writing?

Speaker 2: 1:44

So my name is Heidi, my pen name is Heidi Piper, and I've been writing on and off for years Poetry I started writing poetry with more focus about four years ago and then writing properly writing about a year ago, but forever. I've always had notebooks. I've always written kids stories. I spent a lot of time as an educational writer so I was always writing educational stories like that. So I've been writing sort of all my life, but actually focusing and creating projects and, most importantly, finishing projects has been just the past few years. I'm a great starter but not a very good finisher. So discovering medium I discovered medium in May last year and that's changed everything. Just knowing that I can put a piece of work up there, get feedback, read other writers, it's just really really motivating and learning to craft a piece of work. And there's so much to learn from the writers on medium. The advice that they give and also the stories that you read that the quality there is incredible. So that's been the past year has really been instrumental in my writing.

Speaker 1: 3:11

Well, it seems to be going really well, at least for the writing contest. I mean, we were just talking before we started recording that your article that you submitted for a holiday writing contest was by far and away the best article that we had for submissions. Can you take me through why you chose to write about your dad and that story?

Speaker 2: 3:38

That story it's been. I actually I think it just what. Trying to be succinct with my response, but I think what I like about writing particularly writing about writing on medium is I always start off with an idea and think that's what I'm going to write about, but in the process of writing something else comes up, and that's what happened with my dad's article. I was writing something about. I think I was writing about your dreams and holding onto your dreams and why they're important and they're not just airy fairy dreams. And then it just sort of came out on the page my dad's story, and it just flowed from there really, and I sort of remembered I was taken back to the time. So that time I mentioned in the story where he was unveiled to us on stage and we had no idea about his love of theatre, and that was just a really magical time.

Speaker 2: 4:46

And whenever I tell people about that I always well up. My father died. As I said, he died about 17 years ago, so that's a very strong childhood memory. And then it just flowed from there really. So it was sort of, you know, I was wondering, well, what shall I write about? And then the main idea just came to me as I was testing out other ideas. Was there anything?

Speaker 1: 5:12

in the article that you I know as a writer a lot of times I'll go through and I'll cut things out and I'll kind of move things around. Was there anything specifically challenging or things you've left out that in this article, that you just either thought that it wasn't important or wasn't time?

Speaker 2: 5:34

There was a lot. I think I went into a lot of detail. Yeah, I went into a lot more detail about the theatre. The theatre, that particular theatre where I mentioned that, was just fundamental to our upbringing at one point. Me and my sister particularly and I was going into a lot of detail about that we went on stupantos. My dad wrote plays that me and my sister starred in as well.

Speaker 2: 6:05

So, I thought it's hard not to cram in all of that information. And it's such an old I don't know if I got that across in the story I was really trying to emphasise the fact that it was really old. The toilet was outside. You didn't want to go to the toilet. You'd hold on to it so tight because you thought, oh, I've got to go down those steps, slippery, slimy stone steps as well.

Speaker 2: 6:33

But it was a real hub and it had a core audience who always came back and yeah, and then dad just became very known for his comedy performances, which is really nice. You know, when you're a kid and you're looking up and sort of idolising your dad on stage. It was really great. So we were there for a year. I think I was 11 when we first stepped in there, maybe 10, 11. And then 18 was.

Speaker 2: 7:03

And then I mentioned he wrote the panto, the very smutty adult panto he didn't want me to be a part of because dad was such a prude at home he couldn't, you know, if you mentioned the word virgin he would talk all around it. He couldn't explain what that was. He was just classic sort of prudish parent. But then on stage, that's where, just where he put everything. That's where he sort of let go. He wrote that pantomime which was hilarious and very, very shocking for me. That kind of thing went on in his mind. It was Hansel and Gretel, so I mean I could have gone on and on really about that theatre, which isn't the well the building's there now, but now it's a fancy evening venue, so it's changed.

Speaker 1: 7:57

You know I also. You said you know your dad had a problem with like it's kind of prudish and like would never really want to talk about the word version. I remember you know we I think most of my generation learned what a version was from the movie Hocus Pocus. Do you know that movie?

Speaker 2: 8:17

I do, I do, and I have seen that recently with my daughter. I can't, I can't remember the, the, the virgin reference, though.

Speaker 1: 8:26

So the only a virgin can like the black candle which brought the witches back.

Speaker 2: 8:30

Okay.

Speaker 1: 8:32

And all the kids had to turn to their parents and be like mom, what's a version? Yeah, they're like don't worry about it, don't worry about it.

Speaker 2: 8:41

Yeah, my dad's classic was that that came up with some kind of a dragon movie. You know, back in the day where they would, they would sacrifice virgins and in some medieval village, and that that was that's what came up in our family. I was a virgin and dad said oh, I don't know, it's something to do with the olden days, I think. And that's how the sex education went in our house. There was, there was just none of it, so tell me, tell me more.

Speaker 1: 9:09

Oh, I was going to say tell me more about your dad. Like what, what about your dad? I mean, I know you said a little bit, but like what's not in the article, right? Like, tell us, tell us more. I know he unfortunately passed away at a rather early age.

Speaker 2: 9:24

Yeah, I know what you mean with that, I think so. So dad was 53 when he died and so when you, when you mentioned sort of your, your previous question about what to leave in and what to take out, it was hard to know what to put in about his personality, because he was, he was a very quiet man and then he had this funny bone and he had this love of theater, which and so he would he would let himself go on stage, but, and with a select bunch of people. But he, he inside, was a very stressed man and I think, I think that's what led to his heart attack. He would worry a lot about things, but he never expressed those worries and I think, I think a lot of that comes from his childhood. So I mentioned, he just had no, he just had no education in any sense. He, he had no sort of formal education, but then there was no sort of emotional nurturing either. He had, he knew his family loved him, so there was no sort of abuse or anything like that, but it was just that total lack of guidance and he had to figure everything out himself.

Speaker 2: 10:31

So he, he was quite remarkable in the fact that he had no education, but he was one of the most knowledgeable people. So he, he made a point, very he made. He made a point of learning everything he could about everything. He was a very interested, curious person. So if you would bring up Shakespeare, he could hold a conversation about Shakespeare or classical music, or so he was. He was quite remarkable in that.

Speaker 2: 10:58

But he, yeah, he was very, very stressed, sort of quietly stressed person and he used to joke that he was, he was faking you know the, the Oliver Twist, the movie I'm trying to think of, the, the musical, do you know that one? The classic depiction of Fagan. He used to joke that he was like that which was so spot on, he was from his childhood, like he was proper penny pinching and he was. He was always would you want that, for no, you don't need that and he would sort of. You know, he was always sitting with his receipts carrying them. So he was quite, he was quite a character.

Speaker 2: 11:43

So he was a big mix of things. He was a big mix of things and he was just, yeah, it was just great fun to chat to. You know, we always used to put the world to rights and, yeah, particularly when we got older and we could, we could join him in the pub. He loved that. So then we'd spend. We'd spend many nights over a beer just discussing various topics until until we got kicked out. Basically so, yeah, he was, he was a character.

Speaker 1: 12:12

How did he get involved in theater, Like in like. How did he start that?

Speaker 2: 12:18

I actually don't know. I don't know at all. It just he must have. What I'm thinking is he must have gone out looking for it, because he did always used to tell that story that I wrote in the article about how he tried and somebody just disliked him, and then he took that to heart that particular day and he just he didn't go back and it must have just been on his mind. So I actually don't know at all, but I'm guessing that's what happened. And then that was just, I think, every weekend, every evening, yeah, it was just all theatre all of the time. And yeah, like I said, he used to bore me silly, being like oh, heidi, is this script Test me again? No, please, but it was quite fun. But at the same time gosh, it's the hundredth time I've grown from your lines, but he was just, he was just obsessed with it. Yeah, he just absolutely obsessed with it. He loved it.

Speaker 1: 13:22

And I know in your story you guys were surprised to see him on stage. Was that the? Were you surprised because, I mean, you didn't know he was going to be there, you didn't know he enjoyed being on stage Like which, which surprised both.

Speaker 2: 13:41

Both, yeah, definitely both we. We I can. I can really remember mum saying we're going to the theatre and that was, that was such a treat. And then in the next breath she said dad's not going to be there. And we just went, well, and I can remember really feeling, oh, this is not well, this sucks. You know, why isn't dad going to be there? So to have that initial disappointment.

Speaker 2: 14:05

But then he was there because he was on stage. So there was that, that shock, which was, which was lovely, and, yeah, just the strangeness of it, because it was. I think it was a production of Cinderella, it was a pantomime. So he, like I said, he came out with his the makeup you know how you have the really orange face so you're not washed out and the big cheeks and the frilly clothes and everything, and it just, it was just so, so strange. It was just so not what we'd ever seen him do, because he was. He was a painter and decorator. He was always covered in muck and paint and, you know, wearing big boots and dirty clothes. And there he was.

Speaker 1: 14:46

Is that where you? Is that where you thought he was? Do you? I mean, do you remember like? Did you just think he was working on a job, or we? Where did you think he was?

Speaker 2: 14:56

It didn't make sense. So mum said he was working, which didn't make sense at all. But I just remember thinking oh, that's not, that's not right. But then I didn't give it much thought, I just sort of knew no, no, so the the explanation she gave didn't make any sense, but I had no idea where he was. But they were a fan of doing that, actually, mum and dad, they they liked to I think that was probably my mum's idea to surprise us like that, because they surprised us with the holiday one time. They said we were, we were driving down to the seaside and then we ended up in Heathrow Airport. So they liked things like that, they liked to keep us in the dark. And the big reveal they did that quite a lot.

Speaker 1: 15:43

You're a good talker, you're like this is. This is why I was really nervous that I'll cut this part out. But I was really nervous that you know, I saw I interviewed a lot of people for, like you know, jobs and whatever. And get those people on interviews where they don't speak, like they don't say anything, like they only answer the question, they don't know how to keep going and you're just like do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. I'm just whistling your thumbs.

Speaker 2: 16:12

Oh, that's nice. You say that then because I had no idea what to expect either. I just know how you do.

Speaker 1: 16:17

Yeah, at the end of your article you've got it says me my brother and sister are raising money for the British Heart Foundation. How long have you all? Is that new? Have you been doing that for a while? Tell me about that.

Speaker 2: 16:34

That's very new. In October last year, my brother messaged me and said would you like to do a marathon in April? It's coming up. It's two months away now. I just immediately wrote back and said, no thanks. He went oh, go on. My brother and sister are younger than me only about four or five years. My sister's doing it too. What's happened is my brother and sister are close. We all live in the same place. Now again, my brother and sister are very close and they spend a lot of time together.

Speaker 2: 17:18

I always feel left out because they've got the same social group. They're very extrovert people, whereas I'm very introvert, so they love going out socializing. Whenever I join them, I just feel like, oh, I just feel like, no, I'm not comfortable here, I need to go. I don't get to spend much time socially with them or doing anything. Actually, that's a good. It was a good motivating factor for me to say yes, I'm not really a runner.

Speaker 2: 17:48

5k has always been my limit. I've done 10K a couple of times and I'm training for this marathon now, and we're supporting each other on WhatsApp, so it's quite fun Watching each other's updates. We send screenshots of our running apps and stuff, but to be honest, I'm hating it, I'm struggling. I did a run yesterday and I was cursing and swearing because I kept having to stop, because my lactic acid was building up in my legs and I ran the furthest I've ever run yesterday, which was 15K, and it felt like I'd been running for five days. It's the feeling of that, and I'm not even. What is that? That's about a third of the distance, isn't it so? But today is the first day where the marathon feels achievable. So the whole point of doing the marathon is hey, we've got my dad, we're raising money for the Bridge Heart Foundation because he passed away from heart attack, and I want to bond with my sister and brother. I want to have a nice meaningful memory that doesn't involve everybody getting really drunk. So, because that's all it's been so far oh boy.

Speaker 2: 19:07

So yeah, so that's that story in a nutshell. So in two months' time hopefully a little over two months' time, hopefully I can say I've got a marathon under my belt. Laughter, cut it.

Speaker 1: 19:22

Well, good luck on the marathon. That's something I have never done and there's no way anyone will ever make me do that. I Would die. I think I'd die, I think I. I just converted that into miles as you were speaking and I was like, oh my god, I don't think I've ever, I don't think I've walked that far in my whole life combined like I know.

Speaker 2: 19:45

And I really thought. I thought, as I've been training, I thought I'm gonna become one of these people who's gonna tell people to do marathons. And I thought it's the opposite, I'm gonna tell everybody don't do it. It's just you either. I think you're either a runner or you're not. And I've, I've, always wanted to be around. I don't know why. Nobody, I you know, apart from my sister. She's a good runner, but really I, I don't know why I've always thought I should be good at running. And now I realize I'm giving my pursuit my self-permission to dislike it and to say I. But who knows, in two months time maybe I'll be transformed, but I can't see it. I don't know. I'll start.

Speaker 1: 20:28

What should we do? Another writing contest here in a couple of months? Then I hope you read that article about your. I'm sure what will be the I love running, running. Yeah, so fun. Let me tell you about running.

Speaker 2: 20:44

I just say one thing that was interesting yesterday was I've never gone beyond my comfort zone with exercise, and yesterday I did that for the first time, and that that's. That was quite a moment where you think there's just like a life lesson, isn't it? If you really really want to progress, you have to go. Yeah, I was thinking about that, you, you have to feel the pain at some point. So, yeah, I, that's that's where I was yesterday, feeling the pain, but hopefully growing.

Speaker 1: 21:11

Well, good luck with the marathon. I'll never do, but I Wouldn't say thank you again for writing this amazing story and opening up and sharing something that was very personal. It was a little nervous about asking Questions on. You know it's a personal, heartfelt story about your dad. So, yeah, thank you very much. We all loved this story as editing team and I Just absolutely like. As soon as we read it, we just knew this was, this was the, this was the one that was gonna win. Yeah, I really appreciate you Stopping by and hanging out for a little while today and thank you.

Speaker 2: 21:57

Can I say big thank you to you and your publication and all your editors and for the competition as well, as I really enjoyed writing it and, yeah, I've enjoyed this interview and it's just lovely, lovely to meet people in real life as well, all these writers that Sort of you know behind the articles. It's really lovely to meet you. So, thank you, thank you very much, oh.

Speaker 1: 22:18

You're very welcome. And, yes, it is. It's really really nice to Finally, you know, put faces. And here, you know you, people are not icons, right, people are human beings and getting to interact with them in a different, you know more personal ways is Really eye-opening and you kind of discover that what we're, what we're doing on on medium and online, it really has a effect on a real person. And once you kind of put that two and two together, that gives you the motivation or at least it gives me the motivation to keep going, right.

Speaker 1: 22:54

So I know a lot of times you write and you think, man, like this just isn't like who's reading this stuff, like I'm writing and working all this time, like what for what, like what is happening, and so, yeah, it's really good. Then that's why we have the discord community To, you know, really kind of hang out with each other and get to know each other. So I'll put the link to the discord Server in the description and anyone can join and come hang out with us and like amazing writers like Heidi. Well, thank you very much, heidi. I really appreciate it. We'll never need to see you.

Speaker 2: 23:26

Bye, thank you, bye, thank you.