Author of Baden-Powell's Beads on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes

Join Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes as we profile organizations and leaders who lead by example. With extraordinary acts of kindness and charitable giving that help countless lives daily, these organizations and leaders embody "Be the change you want to see in the world".

Throughout 2013, Living Your Best Life will feature various authors of books that empower, inspire, and motivate one to think deeper, learn more, while keeping us intrigued.

On  Saturday, March 23, 2013 tune in to hear from orthopedic surgeon turned author, Paul Parsons.
Paul Parson has written a fascinating fictional titled, Baden-Powell's Beads, a "page-turning novel that entertains the reader from the opening sentence to the final page." The book is based on the true story of the original Zulu beads given by the founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden-Powell to Scoutmasters.

Paul Parsons' Baden-Powell's Beads, the first book in the Beads series, uses historically accurate events and religious history to weave a gripping, fast-paced thriller that keeps readers enthralled until the very end. Paul will also share about book marketing and what it took to launch this series.

Living Your Best Life, a radio show that empowers, inspires and motivates one to live their BEST life, can heard on 760 AM in the Middle-Tennessee Region, military bases, and streamed live on U-Stream.TV from 9-10AM CST. (This show was aired on WTST, a member of the HBCU radio network.)


More About The Author

The oldest of three, born into a career military family, Paul grew up on naval bases throughout the world. At age 10, while in Puerto Rico, he came down with a serious kidney ailment and was confined to bed for one year. It was during this time he discovered he could excel academically. His sophomore and junior years in high school were spent in Madrid and Seville, Spain, away from his parents stationed in Sigonella, Sicily. After graduating in Jacksonville, Florida, he attended Dartmouth College and rowed all four years on the lightweight crew team, traveling to England for the Henley Royal Regatta after his senior year.

Medical school at the University of Tennessee provided another travel opportunity as Paul was the first exchange medical student from UT to Egypt, where he studied infectious diseases for two months. As a practicing orthopedic surgeon, he’s traveled to Russia, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary as part of a performing arts medicine delegation. Other recreational travels include trips to Hawaii, Tahiti, Scotland, various sites around Europe, and a week on the Amazon River.

A voracious reader, Paul made it a goal to study prolific late twentieth century American novelists by collecting and reading their works in chronological order. Those whose books he’s completed include Jean Auel, Tom Clancy, Nelson DeMille, Vince Flynn, Diana Gabaldon, Terry Goodkind, John Grishsam, Gary Jennings, Steven King, James Michener, Robert Ludlum, and Wilbur Smith (admittedly not American, though one of the best).  He’s halfway through Greg Iles, Larry McMurtry, and Easton Press’ 100 Greatest Books. Other interests include golf and guitar picking (a requirement if living near Nashville).

Baden-Powell’s Beads is the first of his six novels to be published, with a release date of April10, 2012.

Paul lives with his wife and two dogs in Brentwood, Tennessee and has a second home in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Paul D. Parsons Website

More About Lord Baden-Powell 

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, (February 22, 1857 – January 8, 1941), also known or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder of the Scout Movement and first Chief Scout of The Boy Scouts Association.

After having been educated at Charterhouse School, Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910 in India and Africa. In 1899, during the Second Boer War in South Africa, Baden-Powell successfully defended the town in the Siege of Mafeking. Several of his military books, written for military reconnaissance and scout training in his African years, were also read by boys. Based on those earlier books, he wrote Scouting for Boys, published in 1908 by Sir Arthur Pearson, for youth readership. In 1907, he held the first Brownsea Island Scout camp, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting.

After his marriage to Olave St Clair Soames, Baden-Powell, his sister Agnes Baden-Powell and notably his wife actively gave guidance to the Scouting Movement and the Girl Guides Movement. Baden-Powell lived his last years in Nyeri, Kenya, where he died and was buried in 1941.

Photo credit: Pictures of Paula D. Parsons at book signing by Genma Holmes