Dec. 23, 2024

042 - Going to SYCAMORE with Ian Rogers

042 - Going to SYCAMORE with Ian Rogers
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Season 2

Ian and I discuss what it's been like working with Sam Raimi so far in the well-known director adapting Roger's short story, The House on Ashley Avenue. We also discuss his origins in horror, his collection of short stories, Every House is Haunted, his recent book deals, the Blacklands, and his latest novel, Sycamore.

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WEBVTT

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You're listening to the Weird Reader Podcast, an extension of

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Jason's Weird Reads found on YouTube. Welcome, Welcome to the

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Weird Reads podcast, episode forty two. This week, I sat

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down with Ian Rodgers and we talked about his book Sycamore.

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It's a fun read. It's so fun.

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If you like occult detective books, then this book is

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right up your alley. I can't recommend it enough. I

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think it's one of my favorites. One reason for that

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is that it is it takes place in my backyard basically,

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so I recognized all the places that are mentioned in

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the book, and I absolutely love it when that happens.

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But there's so much more to this book. It's funny,

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it's got some maybe light spooky stuff, and it's just

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it's just fun. I can't recommend it, recommend it enough.

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And Ian and I, I dare say, we became friends

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on this podcast. I think stay tuned for that, because

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that's interesting, isn't it When you make a friend. I

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think it's it's interesting. Anyways, without further ado, here is

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my conversation with Ian Rodgers and his book Sycamore.

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If you like what I'm.

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Doing here and want to support the channel without involving

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any money on your part.

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You can do so by.

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Sharing the podcast on social media. You can also write

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a review on Apple Podcasts or rate the show on Spotify.

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I can't stress enough to you how much I would

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appreciate that alone. Please please, I don't want to bag here,

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but please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or rate

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the show on Spotify. As I just said, each and

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every way you can help out the channel and podcast

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grow would be greatly appreciated.

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Thank you so much.

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Today I am joined by yet another author that's somewhat

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new to me, but not all that new to me.

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I was introduced to Ian Rodgers' work through Daniel Brahm

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and if Daniel, if you're watching it all, I just

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want to say thank you for suggesting that I not

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only read Ian rodgers work, but also that I invite

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him on the show. Welcome to the show, Ian.

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Thank you very much for having me.

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Can you give yourself an introduction?

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Well, I am I'm a writer of supernatural horror and

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some detective fiction. I've gone into mixing the two of

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them together into what I call supernatural noir or super supernatural.

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It takes a long time to figure out how to

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say that word properly.

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You know, we're kind of joking around about that before, so.

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Holdly against anyone that that can't say it. But yeah,

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I've I guess most people have probably known me from

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my debut collection Every House is Haunted, probably because it's

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been adapted or it's been optioned by Sam Raimie and

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he's in the process of producing an adaptation of one

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of the stories in the book. And then I had

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a I would say there was a good almost ten

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year gap where I was still doing stuff, but for

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various reasons, I hadn't really had a lot out other

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than some short stories and some stuff at tour dot com.

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And then in the past year I've kind of been

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making up for lost time or lost books rather than

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I've been publishing quite steadily this past year.

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Yeah, I noticed there was a huge gap in publication,

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especially like where it's just your name attached, like discounting,

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like anthologies or magazines. There was like you had that

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collection out and then it was like what twenty thirteen,

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twenty twelve.

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Yeah, they were both out. Every House of Honey came

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twenty twelve, and the original edition of supernarent Real Tales

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came out like shortly thereafter, and then yeah, it was

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again it would seem like I had just sort of

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had gone away or went to law school for ten

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years or something, real life work. But it was just

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your your classic case of trying to find the right agent.

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I was shopping stuff. I was still doing it, but

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wasn't really getting a lot of headway that way. And

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just you find the right agent, you find the right people,

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and it's almost like the stars align. And again it's like,

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it's weird. Nothing's really different that I was doing. I've

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always been there, but now it's sort of as you said,

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there's been a lot of people who are sort of like,

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who who is Ian Rodgers? Where has he been? Which

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is great, you know, it's always nice when people are excited,

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but yeah, it's it's kind of wild even for me

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to say that it's been ten years since Every House

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Is Haunted, because there's been a whole new crop of

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readers and writers who don't know that book and are like,

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who is this guy? It's like rebooting my career in

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a way.

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Your book Every House Has Haunted has has warmed its

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way into other forms of media. I read A Head

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Full of Ghosts for the first time this year, and

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and your name. I was like, I wasn't astonished, but

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I was surprised that your name appears as a movie

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director and you're you're the director in this.

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Book Head full of Ghosts, Right, You're the director of

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Every House is Haunted.

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But I didn't get too big ahead in that. He

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made sure that wasn't just a filmmaker. I was a

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hack filmmaker, yeah.

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But you you were an Oscar Award winning filmmaker as well.

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So that's so he's kind of he's kind of complimenting

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you well at the same time taking a small dig

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by calling you a hack.

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I love it. I'm part of the culture now. It's

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a there's a whole bunch of people in there. There's

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that book is Rife with Easter egg. It's actually funny.

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I paid Paul back on that one in a book

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that I wrote several years ago that's now finally coming

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out next year. It hasn't been announced yet, so I

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can't talk too much about it. But I pay him

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back in kind in that book. And it's funny. There's

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a there's a priest in my book. They're very minor

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character named Father Gavin, who is named after Richard Gavin,

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a friend of mine. But there's a Father Gavin and

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Head full of Ghosts as well. It's like the books

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are even more connected than I thought. And it was

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funny because I didn't do that on purpose. It was

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only when I had reread Head full of Ghosts a

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few years later because I'm a big fan of Paul's

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work and I want to go back and reread that one.

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I was sort of reminded that and said, oh, that

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is this book that I've got where I'm paying back

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Paul for the reference actually has a second connection to

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Paul's books. So him reading that.

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That was quite the pleasant surprise though, because I wasn't

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expecting that. But Paul Tremblay, he also wrote the ForWord

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for the Semi Cemetery Dance re release.

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Of He actually for the original, but yeah in the

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it's in the re release, but yeah, he's Paul was

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obviously very generous and he was just the perfect person.

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I like to think of him as he's my my

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American doppelganger in that sense. Yeah, we have a lot

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of the same sensibilities. And even when he was doing

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his detective books. We both are big fans of detective

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fiction as well. Yeah, just super nice guy, extremely talented writer,

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can be happier for all of his success much much deserved,

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as they say.

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Yeah, from my understanding, you alluded to his detective work.

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He's he's written a lot more than I think what

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most average readers know about, and that has like either

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gone unpublished or or has been in print but then

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gone out of print, and that that's pretty interesting, I think.

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And another thing I think that's interesting is that.

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You and I we could have crossed paths here and

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there and not even known it because we live in

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within the same sort of area I'm in, like I'm

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close to Barry right, and that that actually makes a small,

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very small appearance in Sycamore, which we'll get to.

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But I didn't know that until I think we became

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Facebook friends, and I was like, I was just actually

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just saying that to my wife earlier that I was

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telling her with the podcast night and I I had forgotten.

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And then when I looked at it again, I was like, oh, right,

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he's uh, he's a fill all Canadian. And then yeah,

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when I saw where you were, it was like, I

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wonder if that'll come up, because yes, Sycamore takes place

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in my fictional version of six is a fictional town.

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But where I've stuck it, I mean, if.

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You know, you know, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

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Uh.

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We'll get to that in a minute. So I actually

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have a question or at least a statement about that.

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But I want to go back a little bit too.

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Uh uh. Every house is haunted.

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I mentioned to you before I hit the live button

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that my book club actually nominated that book for I

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think it was May, but I could be wrong. It

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could have been June or even April. I don't know,

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but it was around that area and and it won

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the It won the voting, so we read it and

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that was that was a lot of fun, and I

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wanted to ask.

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You about the actually before let me back up just

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a little bit.

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When we were talking about it before I hit the

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live stream, you said that some people are like, oh,

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I thought it was like a collection about haunted house stories,

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and that's not what surprised me. What surprised me was

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how it kind of ranged in its genres, because it

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doesn't just focus on horror. There's different genres involved.

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Yeah, you know, I was haunted at such a loaded word,

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and I really just wanted to explore the word in

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home and house, it's its own thing. I mean, people,

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you don't have to live in a house to have

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a home, So I really just wanted to explore that.

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I mean, the book really represents my first five years

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as a published author, which was of course short fiction.

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So I think there's a lot of reasons why that

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collection is a bit I would like to say scattered

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in the best way, hopefully if people enjoy it, that

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there's a little bit of everything. My very first story

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that I got paid money for was a story called

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The Tattletale and it's I mean, you could say it's

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kind of middle grade or young adults because it deals

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with children and sort of a debonic talent show for

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lack of a better term. But I still think of it

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as being quite dark. I'd say he was closer to say,

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Stephen King is The Body, which again it's about children,

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but I don't think anyone would call The Body a

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children's story. It's quite quite dark in its own way.

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But yeah, I mean I think for me that's the

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fun of a collection like that. You can you get

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a little bit of everything. So yeah, when when I

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when I did see the one or two reviews that

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were surprised that it wasn't twenty two Haunt the Stories,

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I never really felt bad about it, not for any

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real length of time, because when I read a collection

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from us from someone else, I'm kind of just expecting that.

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It's like it's like Stu, you know, like you're getting

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a little bit of everything in the pot, you know.

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I like that.

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Though there's other writers like Danielle Brohm. He likes to

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play with genre, and I really enjoy it when.

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I come across that.

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But it it's for some reason always surprises me because

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when I first heard of you and I was looking

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at your I was like, oh, this is this is

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a horror writer, like you know, period horror writer, period.

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And then you find like other genres and you're like,

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oh well.

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And one thing.

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One reason why I like that is because I think

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it comes across that you like to read more than

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just one genre. And I'm assuming that you do as well.

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I read everything, and you know, it's it's funny for

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me because you're You're exactly right, and thank you. I'm

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glad to appreciate that because some people would read that

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and they would see a story that there's one called

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The Riffs between Us in that story, and it's sort

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of sci fi horror. It's definitely still a horse story.

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It's dealing with death, but from a science fiction angle,

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and it's not like Spaceships until inpretation, but it's still

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00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:43.720
still a science fiction story. And I could see some

233
00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:46.799
readers walking at that who just think they're getting pure horror,

234
00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:49.720
and there's nothing wrong with that, but I have to

235
00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:51.440
I can only be myself. I can only write the

236
00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:53.399
things that I want to write, and you just hope

237
00:11:53.399 --> 00:11:55.000
that people are going to come with you on the ride.

238
00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:58.200
So I would never apologize for what I'm doing, much

239
00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:00.320
less including say a story like that in the election.

240
00:12:00.679 --> 00:12:03.120
Well at the same time understanding why maybe that one

241
00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:05.960
doesn't resonate with someone who just wants a pure horror collection.

242
00:12:06.200 --> 00:12:07.960
You know, yeah, absolutely.

243
00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:13.279
Do you think it's important for writers, especially to read

244
00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:15.039
a wide variety of genres?

245
00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:19.399
And if so, why, I mean I can only speak

246
00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:21.039
for myself. I mean, if I was if I was

247
00:12:21.080 --> 00:12:23.240
talking to say, a group of kids who are or

248
00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:26.360
even you know, adults who want to write. I just

249
00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:29.639
believe in reading broadly because I think if you if

250
00:12:29.679 --> 00:12:31.879
you say are say if you're a science fiction writer

251
00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.559
or a romance writer, and all you read are those genres.

252
00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:37.000
To me, all you're going to do is be is

253
00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:39.840
writing derivative fiction. It's just if that's all that's coming in,

254
00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:41.480
that's all that's going to come out. And there are

255
00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:44.159
some people that they want the formula, they don't want

256
00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:47.600
anything different, and there's again there's nothing wrong with that.

257
00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.120
People should should want what they want. But for me,

258
00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:53.919
and I think any writer who's driven ultimately by their passion,

259
00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:55.559
that's what's going to sustain you in the longer. It's

260
00:12:55.559 --> 00:12:56.919
not going to be awards, it's not going to be money.

261
00:12:56.960 --> 00:12:58.360
It's going to be how badly do I want to

262
00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:00.519
do this story? I have to do what I want

263
00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:02.559
to do. And the way for me to to to

264
00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:06.200
constantly keep that fire burning is to read lots of stuff.

265
00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:08.000
And for me, I can't Again, I can't speak for

266
00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:11.039
other authors. I read broadly, like I read everything I

267
00:13:11.080 --> 00:13:13.679
read or romance. I read westerns. I love westerns, you know,

268
00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:15.919
I've even written a couple if they're very good. But

269
00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:18.240
I for me, it's just the story, you know. I

270
00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:21.039
never really cared about the genre. You know. It's I

271
00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:23.519
could not believe if someone was recommending me a story

272
00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:26.000
like a book or something and they said this is

273
00:13:26.440 --> 00:13:28.799
I love this story. I love these characters. And I

274
00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:30.799
said to them, what, well, what is it? And they said, oh,

275
00:13:30.840 --> 00:13:33.600
it's a it's a historical romance. And I was like, nope,

276
00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:37.159
not interested. You know, I just think you're missing out,

277
00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:39.200
you know. And again, if people don't want to read

278
00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:40.960
what theyone want to read it absolutely, But for me,

279
00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:42.879
I try to keep an open mind. You know. It's

280
00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:45.840
for me, it's like like trying new food, you know,

281
00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:48.879
like I think, you know, I don't gain anything. I

282
00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:50.679
don't lose anything by not trying to. I might not

283
00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:52.960
like it, but it's I don't want to sound like

284
00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:54.639
a four year old who's there going No, I'm not

285
00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:59.639
even gonna taste it. You know, it doesn't cost me anything, right, Yeah,

286
00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:01.679
can tell a good story if I come up with

287
00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.559
I've been doing a lot of work in film and television,

288
00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:06.879
and some of it is adapt adaptations of my work,

289
00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:09.360
and some of it as original material, original films and

290
00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:14.039
television projects. And ironically, some of the ones that I'm

291
00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:16.399
most excited but I aren't even horror you know, like

292
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:19.399
the there are other genres because I love movies. You know,

293
00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:22.240
if you see my movie collection, it's everything. I watch everything.

294
00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:26.960
So there's a certain freedom with with film and TV

295
00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:28.639
where it maybe it doesn't take me as long to

296
00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:31.120
write a pilot or write a screenplay, so I'm more

297
00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:32.759
likely to say, well, if I have an idea for

298
00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:34.399
a wrong com, I'll write the wrong com if i'm

299
00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:37.120
really if I'm really inspired by, or if it's a Western,

300
00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:39.159
I'm going to write that. Whereas if it's a novel,

301
00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:42.960
maybe I probably hew closer to horror because it takes

302
00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:45.399
a lot longer to write a novel that's something that

303
00:14:45.879 --> 00:14:47.919
you know, horror is my base, horror or is definitely

304
00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:51.720
what I love, Whereas with film and TV, I can

305
00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:55.440
go closer to what I watch, and I watch everything,

306
00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:57.600
you know, It's just it's a different if it's a

307
00:14:57.600 --> 00:14:59.960
different level of work, it's a different level of involvement

308
00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:05.080
where I think, you know, even though I read everything,

309
00:15:05.080 --> 00:15:08.639
I don't see myself writing a paranormal romance or an

310
00:15:08.679 --> 00:15:11.720
alternate history book. I love those subjects and I'll always

311
00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:15.039
read them. But I was born and bred a horror guy,

312
00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:17.720
you know, Like, yeah, I've always been that way, so again,

313
00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:20.320
that's where my passion lives and that's probably where I'll stay.

314
00:15:21.240 --> 00:15:24.200
I like that answer because I'm somewhat similar. I do

315
00:15:24.279 --> 00:15:27.480
love to read broadly, but for me, it's like I

316
00:15:27.639 --> 00:15:30.919
swear to God, I always have something that's horror going.

317
00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:33.480
It's either like a collection or an anthology of short

318
00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:36.960
stories or a novel novella, but then I read. I

319
00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.480
always read a second book at the same time, and

320
00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:42.960
usually that's where I branch off with like fantasy or

321
00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:46.960
science fiction, or thrillers or you know, detective novels.

322
00:15:47.960 --> 00:15:48.840
But you know, I.

323
00:15:49.159 --> 00:15:54.519
Love the whole scope of reading and just I don't

324
00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:57.519
know it. To me, it's like a drug. Honestly, reading

325
00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:01.080
is like a drug, and I I like to pull

326
00:16:01.399 --> 00:16:06.440
from different I guess flavors. And I found it awesome

327
00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:11.960
that Sam Raimi he optioned the House on Ashley Avenue

328
00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:16.080
from Every House Is Haunted. That happened I think around

329
00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:19.080
the pandemic, didn't it, and then everything had to slowed down.

330
00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:21.200
Yeah, I'd have to look it up. I think it

331
00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:23.720
was around twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen. He actually optioned

332
00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:27.039
the whole book. He optioned all twenty two stories. I

333
00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:29.000
think it started with the House of Ashally. I mean

334
00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:31.440
that's the one that he's adapting right now, because that

335
00:16:31.639 --> 00:16:35.840
was the one that Roy Lee, the producer, and NBC

336
00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:39.600
Universal have been developing as a TV show shortly after

337
00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:43.159
the book came out. It's a long story. Basically, Ellen

338
00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:45.879
Datlous selected it for Best Horror of the Year. It

339
00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:47.879
fell into the hands of Roy Lee, who's this really

340
00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:51.720
big producer. He basically started the whole American remakes of

341
00:16:51.799 --> 00:16:54.480
Japanese horror movies like The Ring, The Grudge, The Eye.

342
00:16:54.759 --> 00:16:56.799
He did all of those, and not even just horror

343
00:16:56.840 --> 00:16:59.960
movies like The Lake House, which is a remake with Keannery,

344
00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:04.279
Departed with Leo DiCaprio, and Jack Setser remake. He produced

345
00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:07.680
all of that stuff. So he's incredibly talented with a

346
00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:10.240
great eye for story. And we met in Toronto while

347
00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:14.000
he was doing the Poultergeist remake with Sam Rockwell, because

348
00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:16.119
that's where they shot it. So we met in person

349
00:17:16.200 --> 00:17:18.640
and just really hit it off. And the idea was

350
00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:20.720
to do the story as a TV series, and I

351
00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:22.640
was hired to as a consultant, so I was working

352
00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:24.920
with him on it. I wrote the Bible for the

353
00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:28.240
TV show, and like a lot of TV shows, it's

354
00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:29.920
way harder to do a TV show than to do

355
00:17:29.960 --> 00:17:31.960
a movie. So we got to the pilot stage, a

356
00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.279
pilot was written and they just didn't shoot it and

357
00:17:34.359 --> 00:17:38.880
it kind of just went away. So what happened was

358
00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:42.000
a few years later, around yeah, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen,

359
00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:45.440
Roy brought the story to Sam because they were friends

360
00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:47.880
that they'd actually worked on the Grudge, the American remake

361
00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:49.680
of The Grudge, and they worked on the poulter Geist

362
00:17:49.720 --> 00:17:52.519
movie as well, so they were friends and he just

363
00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:54.400
basically said to Sam, I tried to do this as

364
00:17:54.440 --> 00:17:56.599
a TV show and couldn't get it going. Maybe you

365
00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:58.640
want to do it as a movie. So Sam read

366
00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:01.519
the story and really liked it, had his people contact me,

367
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.000
and I said, well this the story is actually kind

368
00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:07.079
of connected to some other stories in the book. So

369
00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:09.599
he he got the collection and then loved it, so

370
00:18:09.640 --> 00:18:11.319
he he optioned the entire book.

371
00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:15.799
And that's where did you grow up watching his movies?

372
00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:16.319
Like I did?

373
00:18:16.359 --> 00:18:19.839
Like, oh yeah, you can over here, there's an evil

374
00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:21.759
dead post. Oh yeah, yeah, there's no place in my

375
00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:24.039
office to hang in my wall. They're all bookshelves, so

376
00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:26.599
I just keep moving it around the room. But after

377
00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:29.720
he after he optioned it, he asked for my address

378
00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:31.680
and I was like, oh, please, let it be a visit.

379
00:18:31.799 --> 00:18:35.680
He's he coming over for coffee. He sent me an

380
00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:38.359
Evil Dead poster that he signed, just saying how excited

381
00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:39.680
he is to be working on the book with me.

382
00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:42.839
And yeah, I mean, you know what you can talk about.

383
00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:46.000
It's it's it's it's exciting, it's good for their writing career,

384
00:18:46.039 --> 00:18:47.799
the money is good and all stuff like. I'm not

385
00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:50.000
going to say that it's not, but it means so

386
00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:52.880
much to me more on a personal level, because I

387
00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:56.000
grew up watching horror movies. My parents didn't really believe

388
00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:58.440
in censoring us within within reason. The one rule in

389
00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:01.039
the house was if you have nightmares, or off, and

390
00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:04.319
the original Evil Dead was the only movie my sister

391
00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:06.240
and I had to turn off halfway through and rewatch

392
00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:08.839
in the morning because it was so messed up. So

393
00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:11.400
that was something I was I was really glad that

394
00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:13.279
I got to actually tell Sam that we had a

395
00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:16.200
skype chat, and he's a really nice guy, so he

396
00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:19.240
was really touched by that. And I remember when when

397
00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:21.279
all this stuff was going down. I told my sister

398
00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:24.480
and and she started crying, and she said, she said,

399
00:19:24.519 --> 00:19:27.440
Mom would be so exciting my mom had passed away,

400
00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:30.400
since Mom would be so excited because my mom was

401
00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:32.279
the horror influence. She was the one that showed us

402
00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:35.079
all this stuff. So yeah, I mean it's great, but

403
00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:37.480
on a personal level, it just really really means so

404
00:19:37.559 --> 00:19:39.240
much to me. And and that's that to me, is

405
00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:42.039
my main takeaway from this is that Sam's got this

406
00:19:42.119 --> 00:19:44.240
reputation is just being a really nice, down to earth guy.

407
00:19:44.759 --> 00:19:46.519
I can tell you, I could report from the front.

408
00:19:46.759 --> 00:19:48.599
It's totally true. He's the best.

409
00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:52.920
Yeah, absolutely, I mean that would make me a faint maybe,

410
00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:55.640
I don't know, maybe ugly cry for a little bit.

411
00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:57.880
There was there was a couple of the first week

412
00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:00.480
we spoke for about an hour, and because he's busy guy,

413
00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:02.680
he was just in the middle of post production on

414
00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:05.079
the Doctor Strange movie that he made, so I knew

415
00:20:05.079 --> 00:20:08.599
he was busy. But yeah, so the first five minutes

416
00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:10.240
or so was a bit of a bit of fan

417
00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:16.720
Boyingta He's just talking to me like he's complimenting my work.

418
00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:19.160
He told me that every house is haunted with like

419
00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:21.599
the best collection he'd read since Stephen King's Knight Shift,

420
00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:23.440
because I didn't believe him at all, But it's like

421
00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:24.519
I'd still nice to hear.

422
00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:27.119
That, especially coming out of him.

423
00:20:28.039 --> 00:20:30.720
Yeah. Well, and that's that's what my wife always says whenever.

424
00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:32.599
I mean, even despite all that, I mean, this is

425
00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:34.279
I mean, Paul will tell you the same thing. I'm

426
00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:37.319
sure imposter syndrome is real. It doesn't matter what kind

427
00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:39.240
of success you've got. I still feel that way. I

428
00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:42.480
still have constant doubts about my work. But my wife

429
00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:45.319
is my number one fan and and nothing, nothing bucks

430
00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:48.039
me up more than her saying Sam Raimi knows who

431
00:20:48.119 --> 00:20:51.000
you are and he's a fan of your work. Oh yeah,

432
00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:53.519
that helps helps a lot.

433
00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:57.359
So so his house son Ashley. Still moving forward.

434
00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:00.720
Yes, Actually we're supposed to be gain an update shortly.

435
00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.079
There's stuff obviously going on that I can't talk about,

436
00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:06.119
but that's all I can say between the because you're right,

437
00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.240
it was going on right before the pandemic started. So

438
00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:11.119
between the pandemic and then the streaming wars that are

439
00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:14.319
still sort of ongoing, lots of shuffling at Netflix, lots

440
00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:19.279
of people, different regime changes constantly. But the fact that

441
00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:23.000
they keep re optioning it. That's I mean, it's like Hollywood, right,

442
00:21:23.079 --> 00:21:25.759
I mean, money talks. So if they keep paying me

443
00:21:25.960 --> 00:21:28.559
to keep re optioning the book, that means that they're interested.

444
00:21:28.599 --> 00:21:31.119
But because I'm involved, because I'm actually working on the

445
00:21:31.160 --> 00:21:34.480
picture as a consultant, I can tell you for a

446
00:21:34.519 --> 00:21:37.480
fact that it's still it's still definitely happening, and hopefully

447
00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:41.200
there'll be an updates that I can actually talk about soon.

448
00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:43.759
And I hate saying tunes. I don't really know when,

449
00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:46.799
but it's really just I'm at the whim of them

450
00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:48.599
sort of telling me this is what's going on, and

451
00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:50.839
here's what you can actually talk about, because when you're

452
00:21:50.839 --> 00:21:52.279
in the inner circle, and I don't want to get

453
00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:55.200
kicked out of the inner circle and go blabbing about

454
00:21:55.240 --> 00:21:56.640
stuff that's that's obviously.

455
00:21:56.839 --> 00:22:00.319
I'm just happy to hear that it's still moving forward. Yeah, yeah,

456
00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:01.599
so that's that's great news.

457
00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:01.880
Now.

458
00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:05.400
From my understanding, last year was a really good year

459
00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:08.160
in terms of getting book deals and whatnot. And we

460
00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:11.400
have a question actually in the chat room here that

461
00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:14.079
that reflects that, and I thought i'd put it up

462
00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:15.680
because I had a question about it, and they have

463
00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:18.599
a question about it. So here it is a question

464
00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:21.880
for Ian. This is from Emmalayan. I think that's how

465
00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:24.039
you pronounced their name, and I hope I got that right.

466
00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:27.680
Upon reflection, what do you put down to your success

467
00:22:28.119 --> 00:22:32.599
in terms of small press publishers, given that you've had family, Sycamore, Gray,

468
00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:35.640
et cetera, all published in a short space of time.

469
00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:38.599
Well, you know what, the part part of the reason

470
00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:41.880
why I hadn't published for so long was because, first

471
00:22:41.880 --> 00:22:43.759
of all, I went through an agent or two. And

472
00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:46.720
that's a whole other story. It's just they're not not

473
00:22:46.839 --> 00:22:49.039
bad people, but they just it's like dating, and just

474
00:22:49.079 --> 00:22:50.839
they just weren't the right ones for me, and that

475
00:22:50.839 --> 00:22:53.200
that takes time to sort of. You work with them,

476
00:22:53.799 --> 00:22:55.759
you you find it they're not right for you, and

477
00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:57.079
then you have to go find someone else, and that

478
00:22:57.079 --> 00:22:58.680
could be a year. That's that's a year or two

479
00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:02.000
right there, right Because the people I was working with,

480
00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:04.880
we were sending stuff exclusively to the big five. You know,

481
00:23:04.920 --> 00:23:06.519
start at the top and then work your way down.

482
00:23:07.039 --> 00:23:11.119
So I was getting rejections, very very kind rejections from

483
00:23:11.160 --> 00:23:13.400
people who liked my work but a book wasn't right

484
00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:16.079
for them or or whatever. But when those things are

485
00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:18.599
being rejected, you don't have anything out, So it looks

486
00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:23.160
like again there's this there's this optics of oh yeah,

487
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:25.000
ian Ian hasn't published it a while, he must not

488
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:27.039
be doing anything. Maybe he's gone off. If he quit,

489
00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:30.519
he's doing something else. So I was doing a lot

490
00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:34.279
of stuff behind the scenes between the time it takes

491
00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:37.599
to find the proper representation, trying to find a place

492
00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:39.640
that wants to buy your books, that sort of thing.

493
00:23:39.720 --> 00:23:42.160
It was, that's that's where I would say, good seven

494
00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:44.400
eight years went, you know. And then I finally found

495
00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:47.640
the right agent. I'm represented by Jack Gernert at the

496
00:23:47.640 --> 00:23:50.759
Gernert Company, a fantastic agent. And again it's it's like daity,

497
00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:54.000
he's just he was the one who really gets my work.

498
00:23:54.039 --> 00:23:56.160
He's the champion, he gets it out there in front

499
00:23:56.160 --> 00:24:00.519
of everybody. And and again it was just really really struggling,

500
00:24:00.839 --> 00:24:02.480
or is a hard sell with the with the big

501
00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:04.880
five publishers, there's only a handful of infrints that really

502
00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:06.920
do it, you know. So and when I was trying

503
00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:09.480
to sell Sycamore in the black Lands, trying to sell

504
00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:13.480
a horror series isn't even harder sell. It's if they

505
00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:16.400
If if they're interested in it, they they want everything,

506
00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:19.920
they can really see the possibilities. If they're not, they

507
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:23.440
just see it as a huge inconvenience. It's like, oh no,

508
00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:25.720
that's too much. It's just like it's it's it's like

509
00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:29.000
a cat with a trail of tin cans, you know,

510
00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:31.279
tied to it. It's just the only part of it.

511
00:24:31.359 --> 00:24:33.119
So it really is just trying to find the right

512
00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:36.359
home for for a series. So that was it was

513
00:24:36.440 --> 00:24:39.160
me that that decided. I said, well, I'm going to

514
00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:41.200
go to the small presses, you know, the small presses,

515
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:43.400
and see if maybe some of these people and try

516
00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:45.319
and build my career that way because the Big five

517
00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:47.720
just wasn't happening and I just needed to have something out.

518
00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:50.319
I needed something new. So I just went to the

519
00:24:50.839 --> 00:24:53.599
small presses that were the ones I buy books from

520
00:24:53.680 --> 00:24:57.599
all the time, you know, Cemetery Cans, Earthlinge, you know,

521
00:24:57.759 --> 00:24:59.960
Thunderstorm on all these people, and I just sent out email.

522
00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:04.160
You know, these weren't even from my agents. My agent

523
00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:06.559
wasn't familiar with the small presses and the specialty presses.

524
00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:09.759
So I just sort of said again, it was almost

525
00:25:09.799 --> 00:25:12.559
like rebooting my career. I'm Ian Rodgers. I had this

526
00:25:12.599 --> 00:25:14.759
book out a while ago. Here's these books I'm trying

527
00:25:14.759 --> 00:25:18.279
to sell. And the one positive from the beginning was

528
00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:19.920
a lot of them arenay knew who I was. You know,

529
00:25:19.960 --> 00:25:22.680
they either knew what Every House Is Haunted was even

530
00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:24.480
if they hadn't read it. They obviously knew about the

531
00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:28.960
Netflix movie, so that definitely helped. I mean, the proof

532
00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:30.160
still has to be in the pudding and they still

533
00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:32.799
have to like your book. But yeah, it was really

534
00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:35.200
just sort of taking the reins of my own destiny

535
00:25:35.559 --> 00:25:37.960
and saying, I can't break into the Big five. No

536
00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:39.680
one wants these books yet. I'm going to have to

537
00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:40.960
try and do this another way because I just want

538
00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:42.839
the books sad. I want to start building the readership.

539
00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:47.160
So then yeah, Earthlane published my debut novel, Family, which

540
00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:52.720
is a haunted house story. Cemetery Dance published Sycamore, which

541
00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:54.920
is the first book in my black Land series, and

542
00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:58.880
PS Publishing published a short novella of mine called Gray

543
00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:00.920
that came out in the summer, which is kind of

544
00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:03.799
like a John Wick with angels and demons, is how

545
00:26:03.799 --> 00:26:06.880
we sort of describe it. Kind of a action fantasy,

546
00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:10.759
definitely weird, definitely not like anything that I've written. But

547
00:26:10.759 --> 00:26:12.400
these are stories that I've been writing for the years

548
00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:14.680
and just haven't been able to find homes for and

549
00:26:14.680 --> 00:26:16.880
then suddenly it just sort of came all at once,

550
00:26:16.920 --> 00:26:19.440
and like, Yeah, last year, I think I sold all

551
00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:24.839
together five books. Three of them have come out, two

552
00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:28.440
more are coming out next year. One of them hasn't

553
00:26:28.440 --> 00:26:30.319
been announced yet that I can't quite talk about yet.

554
00:26:30.359 --> 00:26:34.960
The one actually that Every House Is Haunted, has a

555
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:37.240
little reference to Paul Trembling in that because he paid

556
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:40.440
me a reference in A Head Full of Ghosts. Again,

557
00:26:40.480 --> 00:26:41.960
I wanted to pay him back. It's taken me a

558
00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:44.359
little while to get that book Paul published there, Paul,

559
00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:48.599
so it's hopefully you'll still get the reference. It's governed.

560
00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:52.559
Sycamore and Family.

561
00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:55.880
They were kind of released, not at the same time,

562
00:26:55.920 --> 00:26:59.119
but around the same time. Can you tell us a

563
00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:03.440
little bit more about family and and whatnot.

564
00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:06.039
Yeah, I mean I was. I wouldn't say I was nervous.

565
00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:08.720
I mean I I made sure that I talked to

566
00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:10.559
the publishers and everyone was cool. With the books that

567
00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:12.720
are coming out back to back, They're they're very different

568
00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:19.160
books stylistically, even in terms of the publishing markets. Family

569
00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:22.119
is A is a deluxe hardcover, so it's more for

570
00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:25.720
the collector's market. It's an expense more expensive book, whereas

571
00:27:25.720 --> 00:27:29.440
Sycamore is a trade paperback. So again, I the publishers

572
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:32.000
were fantastic. I cannot sing the phrase is enough of

573
00:27:32.039 --> 00:27:36.000
Paul Miller at earth Lane or Kevin Lucia and Dan

574
00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:39.119
you know Dan Franklin who I worked with at Cemetery Dance.

575
00:27:39.160 --> 00:27:42.240
Everyone has been so accommodating and so supportive, and they

576
00:27:42.279 --> 00:27:43.920
just know. One was concerned that these books are going

577
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:45.599
to be coming out kind of back to back, and

578
00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:48.480
they're in the sales wise, they're both doing really really well,

579
00:27:48.519 --> 00:27:50.960
So obviously it hasn't been a problem because again, you

580
00:27:51.160 --> 00:27:54.519
the collector's market and the the the regular book buyer's

581
00:27:54.599 --> 00:27:58.640
marketer are very different almost you know, customers and revenue streams.

582
00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:00.240
So I didn't think it was going to be a

583
00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:03.799
big deal, and no one else has either. But you know,

584
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:05.559
things will slow down a little bit. There's not going

585
00:28:05.640 --> 00:28:07.400
to be like five books coming out next year.

586
00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:11.279
Yeah, well, there tends to be like a slow release.

587
00:28:11.400 --> 00:28:13.839
Like working with publishers that can take up to like

588
00:28:13.880 --> 00:28:14.759
five years to release.

589
00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:17.079
A book, right, Yeah, And I didn't. I didn't. I

590
00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:19.599
didn't want to really go after people's purse strings too much.

591
00:28:19.599 --> 00:28:21.039
It was it was really more for me that I

592
00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:22.599
just really felt like I needed to get some more

593
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:24.200
books out, and I didn't want to do it one

594
00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:26.720
book a year, because I mean, if I did that

595
00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:28.119
with these books, that would be my books for the

596
00:28:28.119 --> 00:28:30.559
next five years. And I'm already writing new stuff. So

597
00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:32.559
the good thing with the book, and I've talked about

598
00:28:32.599 --> 00:28:35.079
this with my agent and even my film and TV manager,

599
00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:39.079
is and it's funny because they've all said this very independently,

600
00:28:39.119 --> 00:28:41.359
but they've said, like, releasing the book is a marathon.

601
00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:43.720
It's not a sprint. So this is not a movie

602
00:28:43.720 --> 00:28:45.880
that has to open big on a weekend. As long

603
00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:47.559
as the book is in print, it'll find It's always

604
00:28:47.640 --> 00:28:50.119
especially a series. When I was talking to the Spotify

605
00:28:50.200 --> 00:28:53.920
people who have done the audiobook, my Spotify team is

606
00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:56.720
fantastic there. They love the series. They loved it so

607
00:28:56.799 --> 00:28:59.839
much that they fast tracked Sycamore. They produced that audiobook

608
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:02.119
and like just over two months, which is unheard of

609
00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:03.920
if you know what it takes to produce an audiobook.

610
00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:07.440
But they want more black Lands books right away, and

611
00:29:07.480 --> 00:29:10.039
they said they're not even looking at sales. They don't

612
00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:12.200
they don't care about that. They're invested in the long run.

613
00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:15.519
This is this is a this is something that builds.

614
00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:17.519
Like with a series, you get invested. There's gonna be

615
00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:19.480
people that get in on the ground floor, and then

616
00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:21.880
there's gonna be people that aren't going to pick up

617
00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:24.680
the book until book three or four when they realize

618
00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:28.000
that I'm not pulling something that another series authors. That's

619
00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:29.319
where they walk away from it, or they just get

620
00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:31.279
too busy or get too distracted, and then they'll just

621
00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:33.319
go back and buy all of them. Right. So that's

622
00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:36.319
the way it is typically with a series. So as

623
00:29:36.359 --> 00:29:38.240
long as I keep writing them, they said, they'll keep

624
00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:41.119
publishing them. So yeah, yeah, I can do that.

625
00:29:41.559 --> 00:29:42.000
Awesome.

626
00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:47.079
You mentioned the the audiobook. I want to thank you

627
00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:50.640
first of all for sending me the ebook air and

628
00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:56.400
skip copy, which I ended up not reading. I went

629
00:29:56.440 --> 00:29:58.519
and I got the audio book when I noticed it

630
00:29:58.559 --> 00:30:00.960
was there, and I have to say that the narrator

631
00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:03.119
really nails down Felix's voice.

632
00:30:03.240 --> 00:30:04.240
At least I got to.

633
00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:06.480
Take them again. The Spotify I cannot tell. I cannot

634
00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:08.799
tell you how how excited I was. The Spotify thing

635
00:30:08.839 --> 00:30:11.359
was a bit of a surprise. And when my agent

636
00:30:11.359 --> 00:30:12.720
brought me the deal because we of course we were

637
00:30:12.759 --> 00:30:16.519
shopping audio rights and foreign rights. But he he sends

638
00:30:16.519 --> 00:30:18.799
me this text message, and my agent doesn't text usually

639
00:30:18.920 --> 00:30:21.160
emails me. I even know he had my text, and

640
00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:23.359
he was just like it was like good news Friday.

641
00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:24.680
And I was like, I didn't even know what he

642
00:30:24.759 --> 00:30:27.359
was talking about and what he told me. It was like,

643
00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:29.119
I have to be honest, I know what Spotify is.

644
00:30:29.680 --> 00:30:31.480
Did not know they had a publishing arm. Did not

645
00:30:31.559 --> 00:30:32.839
know that they did audiobooks.

646
00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:34.599
Yeah, neither did your book.

647
00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:36.359
Well, And when I spoke to them, when I when

648
00:30:36.359 --> 00:30:38.200
I this actually came up when I when I spoke

649
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:39.799
to the team, and they said that, yeah, it's only

650
00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:41.799
been like the last I think two years that they've

651
00:30:41.799 --> 00:30:44.160
really got into audiobooks and they've gone into it really hard.

652
00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:46.920
They're doing really, really great things. But they have been

653
00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:50.000
so fantastic, and they've had me really involved in the process.

654
00:30:50.480 --> 00:30:53.079
I got to audition the narrators. So that's why I

655
00:30:53.079 --> 00:30:54.880
thought it was great when you said that the narrator

656
00:30:54.920 --> 00:30:57.759
was great, because all I think I auditioned three of

657
00:30:57.799 --> 00:30:59.519
them and then they were all great. They're all very

658
00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:02.240
very talent linted when you see their bios, like one

659
00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:05.960
person works with I think it was Tina Fey at

660
00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:07.440
Kya lib or something like they have their they have

661
00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:10.160
their own company together, like these are these were heavy hitters,

662
00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:14.519
like narrators who do really big books. But one person

663
00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:18.839
was very much doing a Humphrey Bogart PI accent, and

664
00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:20.920
I was like, no, it was like the way that

665
00:31:21.359 --> 00:31:22.960
it was the only note that I gave, And I said,

666
00:31:22.960 --> 00:31:26.319
Felix is the anti PI. He is not. He's not

667
00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:29.400
former military, he's not the next cop. He is a

668
00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:31.599
very different background. That was how I wanted to distinguish

669
00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:34.720
himself and stand out different from other PI series. And

670
00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:36.720
they love that. They they they love that note, the

671
00:31:36.759 --> 00:31:39.799
anti PI, and that was what they used to to,

672
00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:42.839
you know, sort of hone the list down to these

673
00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:44.759
other people and that then, yeah, I think it was

674
00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:47.079
Andrew Tell. I think is his name or if that's

675
00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:48.960
actually his narrator name, I think he's got that's just

676
00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:51.680
like a pseudonym. But he was fantastic and he just

677
00:31:51.720 --> 00:31:55.279
really gets the voices and Sandra, he looks his ex

678
00:31:55.279 --> 00:31:57.559
wife is is quite prominent in the book, especially in

679
00:31:57.599 --> 00:31:59.920
the first chapter. So when they were auditioning, they were

680
00:32:00.039 --> 00:32:02.519
in the first chapter and one person was making her

681
00:32:02.599 --> 00:32:04.839
really shrill and bitter, and I was like, no, no, no, Like,

682
00:32:05.319 --> 00:32:07.759
Sandra's not not the shrill ex wife. She's a very

683
00:32:07.799 --> 00:32:10.640
strong person. She's very angry in that scene, but I

684
00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:12.640
did not want her characterized in that way. She's a

685
00:32:12.759 --> 00:32:15.480
very she's a very strong and very important character in

686
00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:18.640
the series. And the narrator that we picked just really

687
00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:21.799
got that, you know, in my opinion, he you know,

688
00:32:22.359 --> 00:32:23.960
you're not just picking this narrator for this book, and

689
00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:26.279
hopefully you'll be doing you know, more books in the

690
00:32:26.319 --> 00:32:28.039
series as Felix. I would like him to be the

691
00:32:28.119 --> 00:32:31.119
voice of Felix if he's interested in available, you.

692
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:36.359
Know, so decision that would be really good because I

693
00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:39.240
really enjoyed the audio book. Like I said, I was

694
00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:42.240
surprised because I got it from Audible, but instead it

695
00:32:42.279 --> 00:32:44.519
was a Spotify production, and I'm like, this is weird.

696
00:32:45.279 --> 00:32:47.680
Yeah, no, and I saw that too. Yeah, It's it's

697
00:32:47.720 --> 00:32:49.839
sort of how they're doing things where yeah it's available

698
00:32:49.880 --> 00:32:54.119
through Audibi or Audible, but Spotify produces the book. Yeah,

699
00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:55.160
I don't. I don't know.

700
00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:59.640
Yeah, so this is a series. This is the first book.

701
00:32:59.720 --> 00:33:02.400
Second is the first punk series. Does the series have

702
00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:03.119
a name yet?

703
00:33:03.640 --> 00:33:05.640
Yeah, it's called The black Lands, and it's actually kind

704
00:33:05.640 --> 00:33:07.839
of funny, unlike a lot of other series. I don't

705
00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:09.440
know if I'm not trying to say I'm on a

706
00:33:09.519 --> 00:33:11.440
kind of class or anything about it. Maybe I'm doing

707
00:33:11.480 --> 00:33:13.960
it all wrong. But like, I've been writing Blackland Stories

708
00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:17.359
for fifteen years. I started writing short stories and novellas

709
00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:20.599
with this character in the world, and it's taking me

710
00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:24.599
this long to do the first novel. So again, whether

711
00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:26.200
or not that's the right way to do it, but

712
00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:30.440
that's why I like Sycamore. Sycamore sort of honors those

713
00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:34.839
stories that came before without excluding the casual reader or

714
00:33:34.839 --> 00:33:37.000
the new reader who's reading the Blackland Stories for the

715
00:33:37.039 --> 00:33:40.640
first time. You probably read Sycamore and you realize that, oh,

716
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:45.680
Felix has got a bit of a history investigating supernatural cases,

717
00:33:45.799 --> 00:33:47.359
and that's really all you need to know. You know.

718
00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:50.759
It's a I really took a cue from Jeffrey Thomas's

719
00:33:50.759 --> 00:33:53.960
Punktown Stories. Jeffrey Thomas is a friend of mine, and

720
00:33:54.039 --> 00:33:55.920
I've been a fan of his work for so long.

721
00:33:56.279 --> 00:33:58.039
If you read a Punktown story, you don't need to

722
00:33:58.079 --> 00:34:01.119
know the whole world. He's published those in stay alone anthologies.

723
00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:04.880
But it's you know, he's just a very talented that way.

724
00:34:04.920 --> 00:34:07.119
It means a talented author anyway. But he knows how

725
00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:08.880
to write a story where it just functions as a

726
00:34:08.880 --> 00:34:11.760
standalone and if you like it and you want to

727
00:34:11.800 --> 00:34:13.599
know more, you can pick up more punk Town stories.

728
00:34:13.599 --> 00:34:14.800
But if you don't and you just like it on

729
00:34:14.840 --> 00:34:16.960
its own, that's okay too, you know. It's it's like,

730
00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:18.679
it's like when Stephen King makes a reference to some

731
00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:20.199
of his other characters. So a lot of his a

732
00:34:20.199 --> 00:34:22.280
lot of his world is sort of shared, and if

733
00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:25.119
you catch that reference or that easter egg, it enriches

734
00:34:25.159 --> 00:34:26.840
your experience and you say, hey, I know that person

735
00:34:26.840 --> 00:34:28.960
that's the character from the Dead Zone or whatever. But

736
00:34:29.039 --> 00:34:30.840
if you don't catch it, it doesn't it's not going

737
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:33.960
to affect your enjoyment of that story. You know. He's yeah,

738
00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:36.360
it's not a private club. He's just he wants to.

739
00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:39.960
He wants to, he wants to, he wants to, you know,

740
00:34:40.239 --> 00:34:42.480
reward people who are kind of paying attention. But he

741
00:34:42.519 --> 00:34:44.920
doesn't want to exclude someone who just is reading the

742
00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:47.280
book on their own right. It's trying to be everything

743
00:34:47.280 --> 00:34:49.079
to everyone. It's not easy, but I'm trying to do

744
00:34:49.159 --> 00:34:51.280
the same thing with the Black Plans.

745
00:34:51.559 --> 00:34:54.840
YE have to say that I love those punk Town books.

746
00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:57.840
I haven't read them all, but I have like a

747
00:34:58.239 --> 00:34:59.800
I swear to god, I have most of them on

748
00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:02.639
my Kendall. Yeah, that you can get, but I've read

749
00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:05.480
a lot of them, and that is that is quite

750
00:35:05.559 --> 00:35:07.199
the Uh.

751
00:35:07.239 --> 00:35:10.360
That is quite the Uh. It's kind of lengthy.

752
00:35:10.400 --> 00:35:12.719
I'm surprised that more people aren't into punk Town.

753
00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:15.199
So anyway, that's something that's one of those things where

754
00:35:15.199 --> 00:35:17.960
he's been doing it for a long time, even before

755
00:35:17.960 --> 00:35:21.360
I was even really publishing seriously, he was doing it

756
00:35:21.400 --> 00:35:23.840
like in zines like the staple bound ones that you

757
00:35:23.840 --> 00:35:26.800
would just get at, like like zan fairs and stuff.

758
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:29.000
But it's one of those ones where I just feel

759
00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:30.719
like he's one of these really. I don't know if

760
00:35:30.760 --> 00:35:32.920
I would say underappreciated or underrated, but I just I

761
00:35:32.920 --> 00:35:34.480
feel like there should be a TV show of punk Town.

762
00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:37.039
It's like the Blade Runner meets the Cthulhu mythos, you know,

763
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:41.559
like alls itself. I mean, and I don't see anyone

764
00:35:41.559 --> 00:35:44.159
else who's really done that. You can see pieces of

765
00:35:44.199 --> 00:35:46.000
things that where people have done something like that, but

766
00:35:46.519 --> 00:35:50.000
what he's doing is so unique that when you wonder,

767
00:35:50.039 --> 00:35:52.800
how come no one did this before? And too at

768
00:35:52.800 --> 00:35:56.039
the same time, how come you know Steven Spielberg or

769
00:35:56.079 --> 00:35:58.440
JJ Abrams hasn't just gone to him and bought the

770
00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:00.440
entire thing and then put him in a position and

771
00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:04.000
said you need to show run everything. I would watch

772
00:36:04.039 --> 00:36:06.079
the hell out give me what they say the five

773
00:36:06.119 --> 00:36:08.800
seasons in the movie. Give it to me, you know, absolutely,

774
00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:11.679
I would too, Uh.

775
00:36:11.719 --> 00:36:16.320
And you know what I in reading Sycamore, I going

776
00:36:16.360 --> 00:36:20.280
back to that the history of of Uh, of of

777
00:36:20.360 --> 00:36:24.559
Felix Ren. Do you get the sense that there's this

778
00:36:24.639 --> 00:36:27.320
isn't just the first story. And I really appreciated that.

779
00:36:28.119 --> 00:36:31.239
I didn't realize that there was more uh until I

780
00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:34.639
was reading it, because you get that sense of history.

781
00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:39.159
They mentioned cases that I guess went kind of sour

782
00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:41.880
uh in the past, and he doesn't.

783
00:36:41.599 --> 00:36:43.800
Want anything to do with the black Lands.

784
00:36:44.159 --> 00:36:45.920
Yeah, you know what, Well, it's funny because I mean,

785
00:36:45.960 --> 00:36:48.960
they're they're they're horror stories, they're kind of urban fantasy,

786
00:36:49.800 --> 00:36:51.840
but I'm always I'm always trying to ground them in

787
00:36:51.880 --> 00:36:53.480
some way. So I always think that if if a

788
00:36:53.519 --> 00:36:56.400
person is working these types of cases and you have

789
00:36:56.480 --> 00:37:00.239
any element of wherewithal, you're gonna know that in Likes

790
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:02.480
has said this, the more of these cases I work,

791
00:37:04.079 --> 00:37:06.000
the more likely I'm going to get killed one day,

792
00:37:06.039 --> 00:37:08.239
Like this is this is an aultery and insurance fraud,

793
00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:12.440
this is like vampires and wareholes stuff. Again, I've always

794
00:37:12.480 --> 00:37:15.800
wanted to sort of explore various walks of life in

795
00:37:16.119 --> 00:37:18.519
this world where paranormal has become the normal. People have

796
00:37:18.559 --> 00:37:20.599
grown up in a world where ghosts and losters exist,

797
00:37:21.920 --> 00:37:24.079
and I love the occult detective character, so I kind

798
00:37:24.079 --> 00:37:25.920
of also wanted to do my own spin on that.

799
00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:28.639
But I also wanted to sort of like I mean,

800
00:37:28.679 --> 00:37:30.440
I would say the two biggest inspirations for me on

801
00:37:30.519 --> 00:37:34.079
the on the black Lands, two shows that that I

802
00:37:34.119 --> 00:37:37.360
love that are due to my heart are Twin Peaks

803
00:37:37.840 --> 00:37:43.599
and The X Files. Yeah, you know, supernatural paranormal procedurals

804
00:37:43.639 --> 00:37:47.440
where you've got just as much emphasis on the crime

805
00:37:47.519 --> 00:37:50.840
detective aspect as you do on the supernatural. But I

806
00:37:50.880 --> 00:37:53.639
wanted to get past the whole you know, week after

807
00:37:53.679 --> 00:37:55.599
week Malder has to try and convince people that the

808
00:37:55.639 --> 00:37:58.400
stuff exists, right, and you never really succeed. Even Scully,

809
00:37:58.400 --> 00:38:00.559
who's seen the stuff half the time, does really believe

810
00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:02.679
it because she's the logical one and you can't blame her.

811
00:38:03.119 --> 00:38:04.760
But for my world, it was like no, no, I want,

812
00:38:04.760 --> 00:38:07.559
I want the world everyone knows that monsters exist, and

813
00:38:07.800 --> 00:38:09.800
that was something that were my manager and I are

814
00:38:09.800 --> 00:38:13.320
actually shopping the black Lands Moving in a series right now.

815
00:38:13.559 --> 00:38:16.400
And the way that we sort of describe the studio

816
00:38:16.480 --> 00:38:19.800
executives to sort of reduce it to its purest form,

817
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.000
like as a feeling is imagine your kid as a nightmare,

818
00:38:24.440 --> 00:38:26.360
a been a monster, and you go up to sort

819
00:38:26.360 --> 00:38:28.800
of make them feel better. You can't tell them that

820
00:38:28.840 --> 00:38:31.760
monsters don't exist, because monsters do exist in this world.

821
00:38:31.800 --> 00:38:33.760
They're going to learn about them in school eventually, So

822
00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:35.599
what do you say to your child? Right? So, like,

823
00:38:35.639 --> 00:38:37.639
that's the world these people are living in, and I

824
00:38:37.639 --> 00:38:40.400
feel like that's the great equalizer. That's something that I said,

825
00:38:40.519 --> 00:38:42.920
take away all the action sets, take away the cool

826
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:44.840
set pieces that I'm trying to come up with and design.

827
00:38:45.440 --> 00:38:48.559
That to me is a way of an access point

828
00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:51.239
to really sort of describe this series in the way

829
00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:53.320
these people are living in this world. It's not cool.

830
00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:57.599
People aren't They're not using magic to walk their dogs

831
00:38:57.639 --> 00:39:00.440
or do their taxes. As supernatural is a dangerous force

832
00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:03.440
that they've got a bit of an understanding of, but

833
00:39:03.480 --> 00:39:05.639
there's still lots they don't understand. That's what I always

834
00:39:05.639 --> 00:39:07.440
say about the world is like it's full of vampires

835
00:39:07.480 --> 00:39:10.000
and wear wolves, all these creatures that we know, but

836
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:11.880
there's all kinds of other creatures and the Blackmans that

837
00:39:11.880 --> 00:39:14.239
we don't know, that we don't have names for. And

838
00:39:14.280 --> 00:39:16.360
that's that's another thing that I really like about writing

839
00:39:16.360 --> 00:39:18.679
the series. I'll write about vampires and wear wolves, but

840
00:39:18.760 --> 00:39:22.159
then I'll also write about a completely original creation. When

841
00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:24.039
when I want to do do something on my own,

842
00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:26.519
I come up with my own monster. You know. I

843
00:39:26.639 --> 00:39:28.760
love I love working in the Black Pans. It's very

844
00:39:29.320 --> 00:39:31.119
there's no boundaries on it, you know.

845
00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:35.320
Yeah, just a clear things up for people who are listening.

846
00:39:35.880 --> 00:39:38.320
Can you tell us a little bit about what Sycamore

847
00:39:38.400 --> 00:39:42.079
is about and also explain what the Blacklands are a

848
00:39:42.079 --> 00:39:46.039
little bit so that people understand, you know, because we

849
00:39:46.119 --> 00:39:48.440
understand what you're talking about but they might not.

850
00:39:49.480 --> 00:39:53.400
Yeah, So Sycamore is it's a supernatural noir or a

851
00:39:53.400 --> 00:39:56.639
supernatural as I call it. It's sort of a detective supernatural

852
00:39:56.639 --> 00:40:00.599
detective story about a private investigator named Felix Ren and

853
00:40:00.679 --> 00:40:04.320
he lives and works in a world where paranormal has

854
00:40:04.360 --> 00:40:07.920
become the norm. Since the nineteen forties, these portals have

855
00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:11.280
been showing up all over the world, and they're doorways

856
00:40:11.599 --> 00:40:14.000
to a dimension that lies next door to our own.

857
00:40:14.360 --> 00:40:16.840
And because it's a world of perpetual night, there's no

858
00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:19.960
sun over there. They've dubbed it the black Lands. And

859
00:40:20.119 --> 00:40:23.559
this dimension is filled with every supernatural creature that you

860
00:40:23.599 --> 00:40:26.280
can imagine, and whole lots more that you can even imagine,

861
00:40:26.719 --> 00:40:29.440
and occasionally they get dumped over into our world and

862
00:40:29.480 --> 00:40:33.199
occasionally we cross over to their world. So there's a

863
00:40:33.239 --> 00:40:35.679
bit of a stalemate that's going on. We've been trying

864
00:40:35.719 --> 00:40:40.159
to study them and understand them. We can't close these portals,

865
00:40:40.280 --> 00:40:43.159
so various world governments will put up barriers, you know,

866
00:40:44.559 --> 00:40:46.880
they'll build facilities around them so they can study them.

867
00:40:47.320 --> 00:40:49.199
It's a containment, you know, but it's very much trying

868
00:40:49.199 --> 00:40:50.599
to put the finger in the dike. You can only

869
00:40:50.599 --> 00:40:52.480
do that so long before you reach a critical mass.

870
00:40:52.519 --> 00:40:54.840
So that is sort of the dread that's hanging over

871
00:40:54.880 --> 00:40:57.280
the heads of the people in this world. That's that

872
00:40:57.280 --> 00:40:59.800
what I would say, is the endgame, the longer arc

873
00:41:00.039 --> 00:41:02.840
I'm sort of tentatively dealing with. But I also like

874
00:41:02.840 --> 00:41:04.239
the sort of the people on the ground, and that's

875
00:41:04.239 --> 00:41:06.800
why I like Felix. He wants to help people, so

876
00:41:06.840 --> 00:41:09.840
he's trying to help them with their paranormal problems. But

877
00:41:10.039 --> 00:41:13.599
Sycamore starts off. He's just kind of fed up. He's

878
00:41:13.639 --> 00:41:16.239
he's kind of he's afraid. He knows that if he

879
00:41:16.320 --> 00:41:19.320
keeps continuing this kind of work, it's it's going to

880
00:41:19.400 --> 00:41:22.000
kill him eventually. This is this is very dangerous work.

881
00:41:22.480 --> 00:41:25.559
So a woman in the town of Sycamore contacts him

882
00:41:26.079 --> 00:41:29.599
to find her missing husband. So he figures this is

883
00:41:29.639 --> 00:41:31.599
just a regular missing person's case. I'm going to take it.

884
00:41:31.639 --> 00:41:33.480
I mean, it's practically a vacation for him. I'm just

885
00:41:33.480 --> 00:41:35.840
going to go up to this town and and help

886
00:41:35.880 --> 00:41:38.480
this woman with her case. But what he finds out

887
00:41:38.559 --> 00:41:41.559
is that this woman's husband is dead and she wants

888
00:41:41.599 --> 00:41:44.480
Felix to find his body. And then he also finds

889
00:41:44.480 --> 00:41:48.119
out that Sycamore has come kind of the hunting ground

890
00:41:48.159 --> 00:41:50.880
for a serial killer that's active in the area. So

891
00:41:52.159 --> 00:41:54.679
it's not so much the vacation that you thought it was. Yeah,

892
00:41:54.719 --> 00:41:56.920
and of course things are going to go sideways in

893
00:41:56.960 --> 00:42:00.000
a supernatural way. Or I Phelis kind of just realized,

894
00:42:00.360 --> 00:42:04.199
is that even though he doesn't want to have anything

895
00:42:04.239 --> 00:42:07.000
to do with the supernatural, sometimes it doesn't really matter

896
00:42:07.079 --> 00:42:10.159
what you what you want, your your destiny, you're what

897
00:42:10.159 --> 00:42:12.320
what what what your life is meant to be is

898
00:42:12.360 --> 00:42:15.119
going to course correct you into this. You know, I'm

899
00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:18.159
not spoiling anything might say the case takes a supernatural

900
00:42:18.599 --> 00:42:21.400
bend in that way. It's but I like the fact

901
00:42:21.440 --> 00:42:24.840
that it's something that he's sort of fighting against, you know,

902
00:42:24.920 --> 00:42:27.800
it's it's something that he knows he's good at but

903
00:42:27.840 --> 00:42:32.719
doesn't want to do. You know, it's it's it provides

904
00:42:32.760 --> 00:42:35.119
a very interesting character dynamic, you know, as much as

905
00:42:35.119 --> 00:42:36.599
it is with him and his ex wife, his ex

906
00:42:36.679 --> 00:42:40.000
wife is his partner. And again that was me sort

907
00:42:40.039 --> 00:42:42.360
of playing with the detective trope where you've got this

908
00:42:43.119 --> 00:42:47.239
back talking secretary with the sexual tension. I wanted to

909
00:42:47.280 --> 00:42:48.840
sort of take that and do my own thing with

910
00:42:48.920 --> 00:42:50.800
it and say, well, I don't want to have this

911
00:42:50.880 --> 00:42:52.159
whole thing, whether it or are they ever going to

912
00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:54.159
get involved? Are they ever going to hook up? Let's

913
00:42:54.239 --> 00:42:56.039
let's go past all that. Let's say they've already done

914
00:42:56.079 --> 00:42:58.679
all that. They've been married, now they're divorced, and now

915
00:42:58.679 --> 00:43:01.239
they're trying to see can we be friends again? They

916
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:04.079
kind of need each other. Felix needs an assistant. Sandra

917
00:43:04.239 --> 00:43:07.000
needs a job. She's a former scream queen. She used

918
00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:09.280
to be an actress, but now she's too old. She's

919
00:43:09.280 --> 00:43:12.639
she's a whopping forty, and she can't get jobs anymore,

920
00:43:12.719 --> 00:43:14.920
you know, because that's the way the Hollywood system is.

921
00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:19.920
So she has this background, she knows Felix. They they

922
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:23.280
can sort of tolerate each other. But that's you know.

923
00:43:23.400 --> 00:43:25.800
I like that dynamic. I like writing their characters as

924
00:43:25.880 --> 00:43:27.599
much as I like the writing the supernatural stuff. I

925
00:43:27.639 --> 00:43:29.639
think it's fascinating because for me, I don't have to

926
00:43:29.679 --> 00:43:31.480
deal with, oh, are they ever going to sleep together?

927
00:43:31.559 --> 00:43:33.320
Are they ever going to do this? They've already done

928
00:43:33.320 --> 00:43:35.639
all that. It's got really history, some of the good,

929
00:43:35.760 --> 00:43:38.199
some of it bad. But that's something that I think

930
00:43:38.280 --> 00:43:40.480
is really exciting for me as a writer and hopefully

931
00:43:40.519 --> 00:43:45.320
as a reader, that when you see them working together,

932
00:43:45.400 --> 00:43:47.679
it's like, oh, they've got this history and that's going

933
00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:50.639
to work against them as much as it's going to

934
00:43:50.719 --> 00:43:52.880
work for them. But it's never really going to be

935
00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:54.440
this Oh my gosh, are they going to are they

936
00:43:54.440 --> 00:43:56.039
going to sleep together? We're going to hook up? Like no, no,

937
00:43:56.239 --> 00:44:00.199
I'm just doesn't interest me. It's happened Malder and Scully right.

938
00:44:00.199 --> 00:44:02.519
I wouldn't say it ruined the series, but there's a

939
00:44:02.559 --> 00:44:07.000
reason why it was probably better that they didn't, you know,

940
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:09.960
like that dynamic is probably better without them, you know,

941
00:44:10.079 --> 00:44:10.639
it would.

942
00:44:10.400 --> 00:44:10.920
Have been better.

943
00:44:11.000 --> 00:44:13.320
I remember when I went to the movies to see

944
00:44:13.360 --> 00:44:15.519
the one of the movies, I forget which one, but

945
00:44:15.760 --> 00:44:19.119
the opening scene with them, and it is them waking

946
00:44:19.199 --> 00:44:22.199
up in bed, and I was like, did we really

947
00:44:22.239 --> 00:44:22.920
have to go there?

948
00:44:23.079 --> 00:44:25.760
Like they used to make fun of stuff like that.

949
00:44:25.800 --> 00:44:27.880
Then when when when I remember in early days, because

950
00:44:27.880 --> 00:44:29.679
again I was a hardcore X fell fan still lamb

951
00:44:30.679 --> 00:44:32.599
and they said that, oh no, we don't really see

952
00:44:32.599 --> 00:44:34.280
them getting together. And they, and I think it was

953
00:44:34.360 --> 00:44:37.039
the company, said well, could you really see us, you know,

954
00:44:37.280 --> 00:44:39.800
waking up looking into each other's eyes, turning off the

955
00:44:39.840 --> 00:44:42.480
alarm clock and then going out and hunting aliens together,

956
00:44:42.519 --> 00:44:44.320
and it was like and then you're right, they did that,

957
00:44:44.400 --> 00:44:44.719
and then.

958
00:44:48.360 --> 00:44:50.880
Oh it was Yeah, that was a little disappointing, but

959
00:44:50.920 --> 00:44:52.239
it's like whatever.

960
00:44:52.159 --> 00:44:55.000
You know what, there's some good writing. They're both great actors,

961
00:44:55.039 --> 00:44:56.519
so I mean, they make it work as much as

962
00:44:56.559 --> 00:44:58.920
they can. Yeah, for sure, I'm still a fan. Like

963
00:44:58.960 --> 00:45:01.679
I still even even if I don't like the later

964
00:45:01.760 --> 00:45:05.199
seasons as much as those early ones, they're still great

965
00:45:05.239 --> 00:45:07.519
to watch together. Even even the revival stuff when they

966
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:09.320
came back. Is it as good as the other stuff?

967
00:45:09.360 --> 00:45:11.599
Of course not. It's still great to see them. You know.

968
00:45:11.719 --> 00:45:14.599
I totally agree with you on that. Getting back to

969
00:45:14.639 --> 00:45:18.440
the black Lands, we talked earlier about how the Blacklands

970
00:45:18.480 --> 00:45:22.119
have appeared a lot over the years, Like you could

971
00:45:22.159 --> 00:45:25.400
almost say it's moving into decades now. Did you always

972
00:45:25.440 --> 00:45:29.039
know that because you were doing it in short form,

973
00:45:29.639 --> 00:45:31.320
did you always know that it was going to become

974
00:45:31.320 --> 00:45:31.800
a novel?

975
00:45:33.119 --> 00:45:34.960
Well, it's funny because yeah, you're right, Like I was

976
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:37.719
writing Blackland stories the minutes that I started publishing, like

977
00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:40.159
my standalone stories. So I think the reason why I

978
00:45:40.159 --> 00:45:42.280
didn't go right into the novel was because I wasn't

979
00:45:42.280 --> 00:45:45.079
writing other novels either, so I just wasn't really ready.

980
00:45:45.119 --> 00:45:47.719
I was probably taking the same baby steps towards A

981
00:45:47.760 --> 00:45:50.840
Blackland's novel as I was taking the baby steps towards

982
00:45:50.880 --> 00:45:54.000
the other regular standalone novels that I was writing. And

983
00:45:54.119 --> 00:45:56.559
I really, I really look back at a lot on

984
00:45:57.320 --> 00:46:00.719
what Jeffrey Thomas has done were I just felt like, oh,

985
00:46:00.719 --> 00:46:03.039
that's okay. If I take five or ten years to

986
00:46:03.039 --> 00:46:05.639
do the novel, that's okay. Like there's no there's no

987
00:46:06.239 --> 00:46:09.920
order I have to do this. And I always thought that, well,

988
00:46:09.960 --> 00:46:12.360
if people are fans, they'll just go back and they'll

989
00:46:12.360 --> 00:46:14.000
pick up all the other stories. Cause's because that's what

990
00:46:14.039 --> 00:46:15.639
I did with Jery Thomas. If you're a fan, you

991
00:46:15.679 --> 00:46:17.440
seek this stuff ahead. I would just go and buy

992
00:46:17.440 --> 00:46:19.320
I would buy an anthology just because it's got one

993
00:46:19.320 --> 00:46:22.039
of the stories or any of the stories, bring the authors.

994
00:46:22.039 --> 00:46:23.599
I'm just kind of I can't tell you how many

995
00:46:23.599 --> 00:46:26.639
anthologies I've bought because five of my favorite authors are

996
00:46:26.639 --> 00:46:28.559
in it, and I'll book done. I'll buy it right

997
00:46:28.559 --> 00:46:30.679
because because I'm a fan. That's that's what fans do.

998
00:46:31.440 --> 00:46:33.199
So for me, it was never really a concern. And

999
00:46:33.239 --> 00:46:35.400
even the stuff that goes out of print, well, you

1000
00:46:35.440 --> 00:46:37.960
know now that now that I'm doing the novels, well

1001
00:46:37.960 --> 00:46:40.119
I'll just do a Blacklan's collection and then I'll put

1002
00:46:40.159 --> 00:46:42.880
all the stories into one big book. So for me,

1003
00:46:43.119 --> 00:46:45.880
it was as long as I keep wanting to do

1004
00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:50.000
them and I've got that passion. I don't know, maybe

1005
00:46:50.039 --> 00:46:51.719
it just sounds really naive, but I feel like I

1006
00:46:51.760 --> 00:46:53.679
feel like passion is contagious, you know, like people are

1007
00:46:53.719 --> 00:46:55.880
really excited. You know. That was That was the one

1008
00:46:55.960 --> 00:46:58.679
thing that that I've been dealing with to a certain

1009
00:46:58.679 --> 00:47:01.840
amount with the film and television pitching. I pitched to

1010
00:47:01.880 --> 00:47:04.280
all these people so many meetings, and your eyes glaze

1011
00:47:04.320 --> 00:47:06.920
over because they reject everything. My manager basically says, they're

1012
00:47:06.920 --> 00:47:09.719
always looking for a reason to say no, not because

1013
00:47:09.719 --> 00:47:12.800
they're bad people, because it's it costs a lot of

1014
00:47:12.800 --> 00:47:14.559
money to make a movie or a TV show. It's very,

1015
00:47:14.639 --> 00:47:16.480
very involved, So they're always looking for a reason to

1016
00:47:16.519 --> 00:47:19.440
say no. And I've never been the kind of person

1017
00:47:19.480 --> 00:47:22.159
who's been really thin skinned. I've got pretty good armoor.

1018
00:47:22.199 --> 00:47:24.679
I don't I never take this stuff personally. You really

1019
00:47:24.719 --> 00:47:26.920
can't take it personally. In film and TV or it'll

1020
00:47:26.920 --> 00:47:29.280
we eat you alive. But the one thing that I

1021
00:47:29.280 --> 00:47:31.559
always say, and I say this to Peter, my manager,

1022
00:47:31.960 --> 00:47:35.920
was I'm never trying to convince them that my idea

1023
00:47:35.960 --> 00:47:38.119
is a good idea. I'm trying to convince them that

1024
00:47:38.159 --> 00:47:40.599
I'm excited about this idea. I want them to see

1025
00:47:40.639 --> 00:47:43.039
me being really excited and really enthusiastic, being like, oh,

1026
00:47:43.079 --> 00:47:45.400
I want to go to his party. His party sounds awesome.

1027
00:47:46.039 --> 00:47:48.119
Why is he having such a good time. I don't

1028
00:47:48.119 --> 00:47:50.480
want to conform to someone in saying oh, this is

1029
00:47:50.480 --> 00:47:52.599
why you should like this. It's like, no, no, no, The

1030
00:47:52.639 --> 00:47:54.559
Black Plans is awesome. That's why I write it. I'm

1031
00:47:54.599 --> 00:47:56.559
excited by it. That's why I've been writing these stories.

1032
00:47:56.719 --> 00:47:58.880
I want them to be like, why is he so excited?

1033
00:47:58.920 --> 00:48:01.199
Why is he so It's not to say that they're

1034
00:48:01.239 --> 00:48:05.000
going to find common ground. But even if they turn

1035
00:48:05.079 --> 00:48:07.079
me down and this has happened where they say, you

1036
00:48:07.119 --> 00:48:09.440
know what, this isn't for us, but we totally know

1037
00:48:09.559 --> 00:48:12.159
someone who would love that. You should meet with these people.

1038
00:48:12.519 --> 00:48:15.639
So never try. And I would say that this obviously

1039
00:48:15.679 --> 00:48:18.599
goes with publishing too. You never try to make someone happy.

1040
00:48:18.599 --> 00:48:21.239
You never trying to convince them that they should buy

1041
00:48:21.280 --> 00:48:24.320
your book. You just show that you're excited that you

1042
00:48:24.360 --> 00:48:26.480
did it, that this is something that you're passionate about,

1043
00:48:26.760 --> 00:48:28.800
and then they're gonna be like, why is this person

1044
00:48:28.880 --> 00:48:31.159
so excited? Why is this person so jazzed for this idea?

1045
00:48:31.880 --> 00:48:33.920
You have to really believe in yourself. It's tough. I'm

1046
00:48:33.920 --> 00:48:37.119
not saying that it's easy. I've got DoBeS constantly. But

1047
00:48:37.280 --> 00:48:41.880
all I ever fall back on is when I'm doing

1048
00:48:41.880 --> 00:48:45.039
the work, it's because I'm excited. It's because I'm passion

1049
00:48:45.400 --> 00:48:46.840
and it's not all the time. There's lots of times

1050
00:48:46.840 --> 00:48:48.920
I don't feel like writing. Everyone goes through that. But

1051
00:48:49.840 --> 00:48:52.920
the great, you know, the common denominator, the great equalizer

1052
00:48:53.320 --> 00:48:56.280
is I'm excited by this thing. And all I can

1053
00:48:56.320 --> 00:48:58.079
hope is that that's going to be contagious and that

1054
00:48:58.159 --> 00:49:01.079
you'll find those people, whether it's a publisher or a producer

1055
00:49:01.199 --> 00:49:03.639
or a studio executive, who is like, oh I love

1056
00:49:03.719 --> 00:49:06.079
that too, you know, Like there was there was one

1057
00:49:06.079 --> 00:49:08.960
person we were pitching the black Lands movie too, and

1058
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:12.039
his father had worked he was he runs a company,

1059
00:49:12.199 --> 00:49:14.440
say who was? But his father used to run Fox

1060
00:49:14.840 --> 00:49:17.000
and had worked with James Cameron on a number of movies,

1061
00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:19.280
and so it was me and the screenwriters, and we

1062
00:49:19.320 --> 00:49:21.079
just spent the first tent or fifteen minutes of this

1063
00:49:21.159 --> 00:49:25.559
new movie of this meeting talking too Aliens because we

1064
00:49:25.599 --> 00:49:28.440
all love the movie Aliens and them, and so it's

1065
00:49:28.480 --> 00:49:30.599
just we were just geeking out. Even even the executive,

1066
00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:33.599
the guy who runs this company, super nice guy, we

1067
00:49:33.599 --> 00:49:37.360
were just geeking out on Aliens and the Abyss and

1068
00:49:37.440 --> 00:49:42.400
Terminator because they're they They're they're business people obviously, but

1069
00:49:42.440 --> 00:49:44.719
they're in the movie business. Presumably they like movies. And

1070
00:49:44.719 --> 00:49:47.719
this was definitely someone who was just still had that love.

1071
00:49:47.960 --> 00:49:51.360
And you know, it's nice, you know, because again it's

1072
00:49:51.360 --> 00:49:53.440
it called. It all falls back to passion. You know,

1073
00:49:53.480 --> 00:49:55.760
if you're excited, that's what's gonna sustain you. It's not

1074
00:49:55.800 --> 00:49:57.719
can mean let any it's not new awards. You know,

1075
00:49:58.159 --> 00:50:00.960
it's going to be passion and a sport system. You know,

1076
00:50:01.079 --> 00:50:03.400
I think, yeah, yeah, you can't do it in a vacuum.

1077
00:50:03.719 --> 00:50:06.039
I definitely couldn't be doing this without without my wife.

1078
00:50:07.159 --> 00:50:10.239
Last year when I sold all those books, I won't

1079
00:50:10.239 --> 00:50:12.880
go into it, but it was probably the worst year

1080
00:50:13.800 --> 00:50:16.639
personal wise for my family and my wife's family for

1081
00:50:16.920 --> 00:50:20.119
medical reasons. For not us. We're fine, but everyone around

1082
00:50:20.199 --> 00:50:22.559
us has been going through and it's continuing to go

1083
00:50:22.599 --> 00:50:26.000
through various medical issues. So it's been a whirlwind man

1084
00:50:26.159 --> 00:50:28.239
like that. Like last year, I said, last year was

1085
00:50:28.280 --> 00:50:31.119
the summer of this and this. There there was no

1086
00:50:31.239 --> 00:50:34.280
middle ground last year, and it was really hard to

1087
00:50:34.320 --> 00:50:36.920
be excited about everything that I was doing while your

1088
00:50:36.920 --> 00:50:40.280
family is going through all this kind of medical hell.

1089
00:50:40.599 --> 00:50:43.440
And as I said, it's still sort of ongoing, but

1090
00:50:43.480 --> 00:50:46.280
it's it's also another reason why you have to have

1091
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:49.440
that support system. You have to have something else in

1092
00:50:49.480 --> 00:50:53.440
your life, because no one my family's fantastic, My wife's

1093
00:50:53.440 --> 00:50:56.039
family is fantastic. No one is telling me. They're all

1094
00:50:56.079 --> 00:50:57.840
telling me, you know, have your success. We want to

1095
00:50:57.840 --> 00:50:59.800
sell the don't don't linger on this. We want to

1096
00:50:59.840 --> 00:51:01.880
have fun stuff. They all they all want to have

1097
00:51:02.199 --> 00:51:04.119
things bad. But I always feel bad. I feel bad

1098
00:51:04.159 --> 00:51:05.880
when I want to tell someone about a good review

1099
00:51:06.079 --> 00:51:08.039
or I got the cover art for this new book.

1100
00:51:08.079 --> 00:51:09.800
It's like, how how do I tell them this one?

1101
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:12.199
So and so just came back from a hospital visit

1102
00:51:12.199 --> 00:51:15.519
after that, But I get it. It's just where I'm

1103
00:51:15.559 --> 00:51:19.519
living a very concentrated version of life right now where

1104
00:51:19.559 --> 00:51:22.960
it's just really really happy and really really depressing. Yeah,

1105
00:51:22.960 --> 00:51:25.159
And honestly, man, I couldn't do it if I didn't

1106
00:51:25.199 --> 00:51:29.039
if I wasn't married to such a incredible woman, you know,

1107
00:51:29.360 --> 00:51:30.559
if I have a family.

1108
00:51:31.039 --> 00:51:33.199
I'm sorry to hear that you're going through that, but

1109
00:51:33.760 --> 00:51:38.519
I've found weird parallels in life where you you have,

1110
00:51:38.840 --> 00:51:42.000
like you go through periods where nothing's happening, and then

1111
00:51:42.039 --> 00:51:44.920
you go through periods where everything's happening all at the

1112
00:51:44.920 --> 00:51:47.800
same time, like they're really good things and they're always

1113
00:51:47.800 --> 00:51:49.880
paired with really bad things.

1114
00:51:49.920 --> 00:51:50.880
Do you ever find that.

1115
00:51:51.079 --> 00:51:54.440
Oh well, and other than just again, it was you're right,

1116
00:51:54.519 --> 00:51:58.079
it was years of nothing. Everyone was basically healthy more

1117
00:51:58.159 --> 00:52:00.400
or less. Everyone's getting old. But it would is just

1118
00:52:01.719 --> 00:52:03.840
last year. And it wasn't even the summer, like I'm

1119
00:52:03.880 --> 00:52:05.559
talking like, it was like six weeks. There was a

1120
00:52:05.599 --> 00:52:07.360
six week period of time when I was getting all

1121
00:52:07.480 --> 00:52:12.199
these you know, acceptances for these books, and then my

1122
00:52:12.280 --> 00:52:14.360
family was getting all this horrible news and my wife's

1123
00:52:14.360 --> 00:52:16.119
families gained this horrible news, and it was just it

1124
00:52:16.159 --> 00:52:18.480
was whiplash. Man. It was just like, oh my gosh,

1125
00:52:18.519 --> 00:52:21.000
how how is all this happening now? It was like

1126
00:52:21.079 --> 00:52:24.320
is there an eclipse? Like what's going you know? But yeah,

1127
00:52:24.400 --> 00:52:27.760
it's just it was. It was great, it was awful,

1128
00:52:28.199 --> 00:52:32.760
but overall it was just really really overwhelming and exhausting

1129
00:52:32.800 --> 00:52:35.599
and in that sense like exhausting in the sense that

1130
00:52:35.679 --> 00:52:37.599
not not not even in a necessarily a bad way.

1131
00:52:37.639 --> 00:52:41.079
It's like you it's like exhausting emotionally but then exhausting,

1132
00:52:41.079 --> 00:52:42.599
like you've been to this really great party and you

1133
00:52:42.639 --> 00:52:46.599
just need to sleep for a week. It's I'm just

1134
00:52:46.599 --> 00:52:49.199
gonna look back line as this really wild, wild year.

1135
00:52:49.239 --> 00:52:52.199
But again, it always goes back to I'm just so

1136
00:52:52.280 --> 00:52:54.119
glad that I'm not alone. I'm glad that I've got

1137
00:52:54.159 --> 00:52:57.679
a really really good support system because I don't know,

1138
00:52:58.159 --> 00:53:00.440
you can't do it alone. It's funny because you're writing books, right,

1139
00:53:00.480 --> 00:53:02.679
and I think when you read books and you always

1140
00:53:02.679 --> 00:53:07.039
see that acknowledgment section everybody everybody says like, no one

1141
00:53:07.039 --> 00:53:08.960
writes this book alone. You know, like my name is

1142
00:53:08.960 --> 00:53:10.599
on the cover, this person's name is on the cover,

1143
00:53:10.760 --> 00:53:13.719
but you see every section is got I'm not even

1144
00:53:13.719 --> 00:53:16.199
just talking the research stuff. Oh this person gave me

1145
00:53:16.239 --> 00:53:18.320
this advice on guns this person gave me this advice

1146
00:53:18.320 --> 00:53:22.239
on dead Body. Forget all that. I'm talking support system man.

1147
00:53:22.639 --> 00:53:26.239
And that's why I love it. I'm just I cannot

1148
00:53:27.320 --> 00:53:29.280
I love the community. And that's the other part too.

1149
00:53:29.599 --> 00:53:31.519
They're their family as well. Like I said, we're talking

1150
00:53:31.519 --> 00:53:34.920
about people like Paul Tremblay. Josh Malerman gave me a

1151
00:53:34.960 --> 00:53:40.320
fantastic blurb for family and it just really like Josh

1152
00:53:40.360 --> 00:53:42.800
Malerman is like a performance artist of the written word.

1153
00:53:42.840 --> 00:53:45.800
He was just it wasn't just it, It wasn't just nice.

1154
00:53:45.840 --> 00:53:47.320
It was just like, oh, it was such a Josh

1155
00:53:47.360 --> 00:53:49.920
thing to say. And I was just so so touched

1156
00:53:49.920 --> 00:53:52.440
by it. Because we've swapped a few messages. He doesn't

1157
00:53:52.480 --> 00:53:54.679
live that far away from me. I've always invited him

1158
00:53:54.760 --> 00:53:55.960
up and say, hey, you can come up to have

1159
00:53:56.039 --> 00:53:59.400
some cocktails, you know. But that's what it is. I

1160
00:53:59.440 --> 00:54:01.400
just I love this community and it's it's something where

1161
00:54:01.440 --> 00:54:04.039
you're working with people who are we're working in a

1162
00:54:04.079 --> 00:54:06.639
business where you're doing it alone, right like you write

1163
00:54:06.679 --> 00:54:09.480
a book by yourself. So if you can make those connections,

1164
00:54:09.639 --> 00:54:12.039
it's great. And what I've realized is that I need

1165
00:54:12.079 --> 00:54:14.960
those connections. You know, I'm a loner. I'm pretty much

1166
00:54:14.960 --> 00:54:16.639
a learner. I don't have a lot of friends, and

1167
00:54:16.679 --> 00:54:18.400
the ones that I have a really strong my friends

1168
00:54:18.440 --> 00:54:21.400
sort of live broadly. But that's one thing I have

1169
00:54:21.519 --> 00:54:25.079
realized over the past year is the importance of those connections.

1170
00:54:25.320 --> 00:54:25.519
You know.

1171
00:54:26.280 --> 00:54:28.159
Yeah, that's that's beautifully sad man.

1172
00:54:28.599 --> 00:54:31.119
I totally feel what you're saying.

1173
00:54:31.639 --> 00:54:34.119
I have my own little support system and I don't

1174
00:54:34.159 --> 00:54:36.000
think I could do anything without them.

1175
00:54:36.159 --> 00:54:39.360
Yeah, well the kids say these days, man, if you

1176
00:54:39.440 --> 00:54:41.159
know you know? Yeah.

1177
00:54:41.239 --> 00:54:42.719
Yeah.

1178
00:54:42.880 --> 00:54:47.639
So So getting back to the black Lands, I wanted

1179
00:54:47.679 --> 00:54:51.239
to talk a little bit about super noirtol. I said

1180
00:54:51.239 --> 00:54:53.400
that slowly so that people can hear the noir in

1181
00:54:53.440 --> 00:54:58.840
the middle. It's not supernatural, it's super noir toal it's sort.

1182
00:54:58.639 --> 00:54:59.559
Of like noir fiction.

1183
00:55:00.400 --> 00:55:02.880
The noir part put rate in the middle there. Now,

1184
00:55:03.079 --> 00:55:05.239
this was a collection, it was released. I think we

1185
00:55:05.239 --> 00:55:08.719
were talking about this before I hit live in twenty twelve,

1186
00:55:08.760 --> 00:55:12.840
I think it was, and it's no longer available, But

1187
00:55:13.920 --> 00:55:14.760
is it coming back.

1188
00:55:15.480 --> 00:55:19.920
Yeah, it's going to be the second book in the series, ironically. Yeah,

1189
00:55:19.920 --> 00:55:22.039
you're right. It was the first collection that was done

1190
00:55:22.159 --> 00:55:25.639
over ten years ago. The reason why we decided not

1191
00:55:25.760 --> 00:55:27.519
to do it as the first book and reprint it

1192
00:55:27.559 --> 00:55:30.480
again was well. First and foremost, I wanted people who

1193
00:55:30.480 --> 00:55:32.880
have been following the black Lands to have something new,

1194
00:55:33.079 --> 00:55:34.599
you know, I didn't want to do this reprint that

1195
00:55:34.599 --> 00:55:38.519
they might already own. And second of all, I think

1196
00:55:38.519 --> 00:55:40.360
you need to start a series with a book, with

1197
00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:45.480
a novel. I think novels are bigger sellers. I think

1198
00:55:45.519 --> 00:55:47.400
that that was going to make the biggest imprint with

1199
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:51.360
this series as opposed to reprinting supernatural tales right away,

1200
00:55:51.960 --> 00:55:56.320
and even creatively, it actually worked out very, very well

1201
00:55:56.440 --> 00:55:59.960
because from a narrative point of view, the supernatural tale

1202
00:56:00.079 --> 00:56:03.039
to the collection, it's four novellas and a short story,

1203
00:56:03.079 --> 00:56:06.360
and the four novellas actually lead up to the events

1204
00:56:06.360 --> 00:56:09.440
in Sycamore, and then the short story at the end

1205
00:56:10.320 --> 00:56:12.880
it's kind of like a coda or an epilogue to

1206
00:56:12.960 --> 00:56:16.000
the events in Sycamore. It actually takes place the night

1207
00:56:16.039 --> 00:56:18.639
of Felix driving away from Sycamore at the conclusion of

1208
00:56:18.639 --> 00:56:21.239
the case, something that happens to him on the drive home.

1209
00:56:22.880 --> 00:56:25.320
It's so in effect, actually it's kind of a prequel

1210
00:56:25.360 --> 00:56:28.679
and a sequel to Sycamore. So it's actually perfect that

1211
00:56:28.719 --> 00:56:30.960
it's being published as the second book, and it gives

1212
00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:32.840
me a little bit of breathing room. I'm actually working

1213
00:56:32.920 --> 00:56:35.840
on the second novel now in the series, which will

1214
00:56:35.880 --> 00:56:38.960
be the technically the third book in the black Lands series,

1215
00:56:39.760 --> 00:56:41.719
and then we'll have at that point it will be

1216
00:56:41.800 --> 00:56:46.960
three Felix books. It will be Sycamore Supernatural Tales, the

1217
00:56:47.039 --> 00:56:49.960
second Felix Rand novel, and then I'm actually going to

1218
00:56:49.960 --> 00:56:52.480
pivot and I'm going to do the fourth book will

1219
00:56:52.519 --> 00:56:57.519
be an Alice Baffle novel. Because again, my whole point

1220
00:56:57.559 --> 00:57:00.000
of the series is that black Lands itself is the

1221
00:57:00.239 --> 00:57:02.599
is the main character. I want to see different people,

1222
00:57:02.880 --> 00:57:05.280
and I love it. I love a supernatural noir. I

1223
00:57:05.320 --> 00:57:08.239
think these stories he as much to the detective side

1224
00:57:08.480 --> 00:57:10.159
as they do to the supernatural, because I'm a big

1225
00:57:10.199 --> 00:57:14.000
detective fan. I love DASHL Hammett, Ross MacDonald, Robert D. Parker,

1226
00:57:15.280 --> 00:57:18.599
Lawrence Block. There's so much of those characters in Felix.

1227
00:57:18.960 --> 00:57:20.719
At the same time, I'm trying to distinguish himself and

1228
00:57:20.760 --> 00:57:23.119
make him very different. But then once I get to

1229
00:57:23.159 --> 00:57:26.760
this Alice Baffle novel, which again is already mapped, and later,

1230
00:57:26.800 --> 00:57:28.159
I know everything that's going to happen. I know how

1231
00:57:28.199 --> 00:57:31.519
it's going to feed into the series. Her story, her

1232
00:57:31.679 --> 00:57:35.079
her books are very different from Felix. They're they're more

1233
00:57:35.199 --> 00:57:39.880
like I call them paranormal procedurals. It's one part Silent

1234
00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:42.639
of the Lambs, one part X Files. That was how

1235
00:57:42.679 --> 00:57:44.920
I sort of described it to and to my manager

1236
00:57:44.960 --> 00:57:47.559
and my agent, was what if Clarice Starling from the

1237
00:57:47.599 --> 00:57:50.480
Silence of the Lambs instead of working for Behavioral Science

1238
00:57:50.480 --> 00:57:52.199
she went to work for the X Files. Both f

1239
00:57:52.320 --> 00:57:54.800
g I and It's it's a very easy jumper. It's like, oh,

1240
00:57:54.840 --> 00:57:58.239
that's kind of cool. Whereas Alice Baffle herself is obviously

1241
00:57:58.480 --> 00:58:01.800
definitely not Clarice Starling. He's definitely not Dana Scully. No

1242
00:58:01.800 --> 00:58:04.960
one is going to draw that parallel. She is much

1243
00:58:05.039 --> 00:58:10.440
closer to Daniel Craig's blunt instrument portrayal of James Bond

1244
00:58:11.400 --> 00:58:14.320
in the more recent James Bond films, where she is

1245
00:58:14.400 --> 00:58:17.639
a hardcore loaner. She does not work well with others.

1246
00:58:18.320 --> 00:58:22.079
She is She's not arrogant, she is just obsessive.

1247
00:58:23.119 --> 00:58:26.079
She's very, very to the point, to the point she's.

1248
00:58:25.960 --> 00:58:27.559
Driven by a lot of there's a lot of anger there.

1249
00:58:27.559 --> 00:58:28.760
You're gonna get You're gonna get a lot of the

1250
00:58:28.800 --> 00:58:30.800
background on why she is the way she is, why

1251
00:58:30.840 --> 00:58:34.320
she's not a good person who works well with others.

1252
00:58:34.360 --> 00:58:37.400
There's a reason why her age or her partner is

1253
00:58:37.599 --> 00:58:40.880
an agoraphobe who works from home. It's as much for

1254
00:58:40.920 --> 00:58:43.639
her safety as much for Alice's sanity that this is.

1255
00:58:43.840 --> 00:58:46.320
They actually work really well together. But I thought it

1256
00:58:46.360 --> 00:58:48.400
was a really fun, fun dynamic, and I want to

1257
00:58:48.440 --> 00:58:51.199
explore that in their own book. So that was something

1258
00:58:51.239 --> 00:58:53.840
else I like about the Black Plan series that even tonally,

1259
00:58:54.280 --> 00:58:56.960
the stories could be different that Felix's stories are straight

1260
00:58:57.000 --> 00:59:00.559
up protective noirs, Alison's are going to be more like, yeah,

1261
00:59:00.639 --> 00:59:02.760
kind of if you like Thomas Harris, if you like

1262
00:59:02.840 --> 00:59:07.719
more of the government conspiracies, police procedurals, but with a

1263
00:59:07.760 --> 00:59:11.280
supernatural angle. There're a lot more global in scope. Like

1264
00:59:11.480 --> 00:59:14.199
Felix is trying to help individual people with their problems,

1265
00:59:14.519 --> 00:59:17.880
Alice's stories are far reaching. They're dealing with government conspiracies,

1266
00:59:18.199 --> 00:59:20.639
secret stuff that no one knows about the black Lands.

1267
00:59:20.639 --> 00:59:22.800
There's going to be a lot of really creepy stuff

1268
00:59:22.840 --> 00:59:25.559
about you know, Felix knows this, He knows about vampires,

1269
00:59:25.559 --> 00:59:27.679
he knows about stuff that's comes to the world. Alice

1270
00:59:27.719 --> 00:59:30.280
has got the inside track of what the government really

1271
00:59:30.360 --> 00:59:32.719
knows about what's going on over there, and I'm really

1272
00:59:32.760 --> 00:59:36.159
excited to explore that. And I feel after two or

1273
00:59:36.159 --> 00:59:38.960
three books, that's a great way of sort of expanding

1274
00:59:38.960 --> 00:59:42.320
the series and going, oh, you know. What I can

1275
00:59:42.400 --> 00:59:44.480
say about the first Alice book is that it takes place.

1276
00:59:45.199 --> 00:59:48.880
It starts to take place in Florida, and that's where

1277
00:59:48.880 --> 00:59:52.000
the highest concentration of portals is. The Bermuda Triangle has

1278
00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:54.280
got more portals than anywhere. That's where the black Lands

1279
00:59:54.320 --> 00:59:57.840
phenomenon started in the nineteen forties, and that's where the

1280
00:59:57.880 --> 01:00:02.000
headquarters is of the Para Normal Intelligence Agency. It's located

1281
01:00:02.039 --> 01:00:05.440
in Florida. That's where their their base is because that's

1282
01:00:05.480 --> 01:00:08.559
where they need the most concentration of workers to really,

1283
01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:11.239
you know, confront this threat.

1284
01:00:11.880 --> 01:00:15.199
Yeah, I really I really loved Alice Baffle.

1285
01:00:16.039 --> 01:00:17.599
She's such a serious character.

1286
01:00:18.480 --> 01:00:23.480
But you know, talk when Felix and her are talking

1287
01:00:23.559 --> 01:00:29.159
to each other, there's this tension and banter, uh that

1288
01:00:29.719 --> 01:00:30.880
I just got a kick out of.

1289
01:00:31.679 --> 01:00:32.119
How did you?

1290
01:00:33.119 --> 01:00:34.960
How did you? Sorry? What would you say?

1291
01:00:35.360 --> 01:00:36.840
I was just going to say, like I wanted to

1292
01:00:36.840 --> 01:00:40.239
make sure that its Felix is very sarcasic, be kind

1293
01:00:40.239 --> 01:00:41.639
of funny, and I just really wanted to show that

1294
01:00:41.679 --> 01:00:45.559
if anyone finds that either too much or or if

1295
01:00:45.599 --> 01:00:47.920
they're very clear that he's using a defense mechanism, Alice

1296
01:00:48.000 --> 01:00:49.960
is kind of like the audience's character there who's just

1297
01:00:50.039 --> 01:00:54.039
not impressed by him and kind of a time. So

1298
01:00:54.320 --> 01:00:55.960
now Alice is tough as nail. It's not like she

1299
01:00:55.960 --> 01:00:59.199
doesn't have her own little little idiosyncrasies. But that's why

1300
01:00:59.239 --> 01:01:01.679
I thought that they would like they're not. They're not.

1301
01:01:01.800 --> 01:01:04.559
They're not hooking up. They're they're not. Like I'm saying,

1302
01:01:04.599 --> 01:01:06.199
if you're in a partnership where they want to work

1303
01:01:06.199 --> 01:01:08.480
together again, they don't really want to have it. That

1304
01:01:08.559 --> 01:01:11.440
gets It's sort of like strange bedfellows, right. They meet

1305
01:01:11.480 --> 01:01:15.000
each other in Sycamore because those circumstances demand. But this

1306
01:01:15.119 --> 01:01:18.159
is definitely not some sort of a meet cute.

1307
01:01:18.920 --> 01:01:22.440
No no, no, uh yeah, it's uh.

1308
01:01:22.519 --> 01:01:24.599
They don't get along. Let's just say they don't.

1309
01:01:24.719 --> 01:01:28.440
Outright fight, but they they disagree on a lot of

1310
01:01:28.480 --> 01:01:31.320
things and uh, and the way they sort of pick

1311
01:01:31.360 --> 01:01:33.599
at each other is what I was getting at their

1312
01:01:33.639 --> 01:01:37.119
banter there you sort of get the idea they don't

1313
01:01:37.119 --> 01:01:38.880
really like each other, but they're stuck here.

1314
01:01:38.920 --> 01:01:41.159
So, uh so.

1315
01:01:41.119 --> 01:01:43.239
How do you approach that when you're writing, when you

1316
01:01:43.280 --> 01:01:45.360
get that witty sort of banter is this is this

1317
01:01:45.480 --> 01:01:47.320
just sort of maybe the voices that are in your

1318
01:01:47.320 --> 01:01:50.000
head already or or do you really work at that?

1319
01:01:50.599 --> 01:01:53.599
Yeah? Actually, you know, that's a really good question. There's

1320
01:01:53.599 --> 01:01:56.760
definitely an organic quality because I've written a lot of

1321
01:01:56.800 --> 01:01:59.480
screenplays and screenplays if you I'm a chesa, you know,

1322
01:01:59.519 --> 01:02:02.239
they're they're all dialogue, right, So I come from a

1323
01:02:02.280 --> 01:02:06.480
dialogue background, and I want the dialogue to really not

1324
01:02:06.480 --> 01:02:08.760
not just to really popit but's but to sound realistic.

1325
01:02:09.239 --> 01:02:11.239
And at the same time, I don't want it to

1326
01:02:11.280 --> 01:02:13.039
be too quippy, you know, I don't want it to

1327
01:02:13.079 --> 01:02:16.440
be this very everything sounds like a line, you know, like, oh,

1328
01:02:16.480 --> 01:02:20.679
they sound so clever. Felix is very capable in some ways,

1329
01:02:20.719 --> 01:02:22.280
but I also want to make him very humans. He's

1330
01:02:22.360 --> 01:02:25.920
very vulnerable in some ways, and there's definitely an element

1331
01:02:25.920 --> 01:02:27.719
of vulnerability that I don't want to spoil in the

1332
01:02:27.760 --> 01:02:32.760
story that I think really humanizes Felix even more. And

1333
01:02:32.880 --> 01:02:38.760
Alice sees that, and I wouldn't even say she appreciate it. Alice. Actually,

1334
01:02:40.119 --> 01:02:42.199
I want to say it disgusts her or she's annoyed

1335
01:02:42.239 --> 01:02:44.440
by but she but Alice is Alice really is kind

1336
01:02:44.480 --> 01:02:46.960
of a blunt instrument. There's there's things she respects about Felix,

1337
01:02:46.960 --> 01:02:48.599
and there's things that she just does not at all.

1338
01:02:48.679 --> 01:02:51.079
This is this was not something where it's like, hey,

1339
01:02:51.119 --> 01:02:54.000
you know, it's not it's not Casablanca. You know, they're

1340
01:02:54.039 --> 01:02:55.800
not going to be friends walking off into the mist

1341
01:02:55.840 --> 01:02:58.159
in the end, like there, they'll probably bump into each

1342
01:02:58.159 --> 01:02:59.880
other again, and they'll probably work with each other again,

1343
01:02:59.920 --> 01:03:01.800
but it's not because they want to. It's gonna become

1344
01:03:02.239 --> 01:03:05.480
because circumstances allow. Alice can barely work with her partner,

1345
01:03:05.679 --> 01:03:07.239
you know, like and the only reason they do that

1346
01:03:07.320 --> 01:03:10.360
is because she lives, you know, two thousand miles away,

1347
01:03:10.440 --> 01:03:13.039
works from home. So but I like that. I feel

1348
01:03:13.039 --> 01:03:15.320
like I'm trying to make this series as realistic as

1349
01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:17.440
I want. I don't want. I don't want to ever

1350
01:03:17.559 --> 01:03:20.800
give this impression that oh everyone's recruiting there' suddenly they're

1351
01:03:20.800 --> 01:03:22.400
going to become the Avengers and they're going to be

1352
01:03:22.400 --> 01:03:24.840
this group that takes on the black Lands like that

1353
01:03:24.880 --> 01:03:28.559
doesn't interest me. I humans interest me. Their flaws interest me.

1354
01:03:29.400 --> 01:03:36.039
I like when those flaws make them shine. I'm not

1355
01:03:36.079 --> 01:03:39.280
a fan of oh my, my, my, my weakness is

1356
01:03:39.280 --> 01:03:41.480
a superpower. I don't I don't like those stories. No, no,

1357
01:03:41.519 --> 01:03:43.320
you're there's nothing wrong with happening week is they make

1358
01:03:43.360 --> 01:03:46.199
you human. They're not supposed to make you strong necessarily.

1359
01:03:46.199 --> 01:03:49.920
They make you human, so they make you relatable. Everything

1360
01:03:49.960 --> 01:03:52.960
isn't about something making you strong. You get strength from

1361
01:03:52.960 --> 01:03:55.239
other places. And I think that that's something that I

1362
01:03:55.280 --> 01:03:59.039
really like about Sycamore is with the way that certain

1363
01:03:59.079 --> 01:04:01.000
characters come out in the end and they don't all

1364
01:04:01.039 --> 01:04:05.800
make it. There is a strength, but there's but it's

1365
01:04:05.840 --> 01:04:08.199
not necessarily a strength of Oh I overcame this, Now

1366
01:04:08.239 --> 01:04:11.800
I can do this thing again. I think when Felix

1367
01:04:11.800 --> 01:04:13.719
comes out of it, and especially you'll see that in

1368
01:04:13.760 --> 01:04:17.719
the next book. There are scars, you know. I don't

1369
01:04:17.760 --> 01:04:19.840
want this to be a series where you don't have

1370
01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:23.079
anything where it's just there's no baggage from the next book.

1371
01:04:23.239 --> 01:04:25.639
There there as much as there are story arcs in

1372
01:04:25.639 --> 01:04:28.000
this series, there's character arcs. There's there are things that

1373
01:04:28.039 --> 01:04:30.760
people are going to go through that they're developed. There's

1374
01:04:30.800 --> 01:04:32.719
a there's a novella that I'm working on right now.

1375
01:04:34.039 --> 01:04:36.360
It's a black Lands novella, and it's it's a story

1376
01:04:36.400 --> 01:04:39.840
that takes place between Sycamore and in the second Felix

1377
01:04:39.960 --> 01:04:42.519
r n novel. And again, you don't need to read

1378
01:04:42.519 --> 01:04:46.519
it to know you know, it's still stands alone. But

1379
01:04:46.679 --> 01:04:49.280
for me, it was a way to really explore something

1380
01:04:49.440 --> 01:04:52.199
very traumatic that happens to Felix in Sycamore. And I

1381
01:04:52.199 --> 01:04:54.239
don't want to spoil it, but I really wanted to

1382
01:04:54.280 --> 01:04:56.440
deep dive into that before I got into Miss Paranormal,

1383
01:04:56.480 --> 01:04:59.320
because by Miss Paranormal is the title of the second novel,

1384
01:05:00.360 --> 01:05:03.719
I didn't really want to to not acknowledge it. But

1385
01:05:03.840 --> 01:05:06.880
Miss Paranormal is telling its own story, as it should,

1386
01:05:07.079 --> 01:05:09.440
and if you read Sycamore, that's great, But if not,

1387
01:05:09.519 --> 01:05:12.000
I don't want to exclude that that reader. So this

1388
01:05:12.000 --> 01:05:14.639
this connective tissue with this novella that I'm working on

1389
01:05:14.719 --> 01:05:16.920
right now. I wanted to say, well, you know what,

1390
01:05:17.000 --> 01:05:19.639
if you're a purist and you're a completist, you'll read

1391
01:05:19.639 --> 01:05:21.679
the story you say, oh that's really awesome, I really

1392
01:05:21.719 --> 01:05:25.119
love this story. But if you don't read it. You're

1393
01:05:25.119 --> 01:05:27.239
not You're not missing out. You know. It's it's hard.

1394
01:05:27.480 --> 01:05:29.239
It's hard to do these types of stories because you

1395
01:05:29.320 --> 01:05:31.400
sort of reach a point where you want people to

1396
01:05:31.400 --> 01:05:36.039
read everything. But I've never been afraid of a challenge,

1397
01:05:36.119 --> 01:05:38.119
you know, And and I'm learning a lot from what

1398
01:05:38.119 --> 01:05:40.559
other people have done another series. You know, that's that's

1399
01:05:40.559 --> 01:05:42.280
all you can do. You know, you're exactly right when

1400
01:05:42.320 --> 01:05:46.119
you talked about reading broadly my enjoyment, but I'm also

1401
01:05:46.159 --> 01:05:47.320
doing to learn as a writer.

1402
01:05:47.840 --> 01:05:50.679
Yeah, I'm excited to learn that you have so many

1403
01:05:50.719 --> 01:05:55.039
plans for this because I really enjoyed the first book, Sycamore,

1404
01:05:55.880 --> 01:05:58.760
and I want to devour more.

1405
01:06:01.119 --> 01:06:03.039
Were you going to say something No, No, I was

1406
01:06:03.039 --> 01:06:03.760
just gonna say thank you.

1407
01:06:05.480 --> 01:06:06.400
Another thing I loved.

1408
01:06:06.719 --> 01:06:08.719
We're gonna get back to the characters in a second here,

1409
01:06:08.760 --> 01:06:12.519
because I came up with a fun question that I

1410
01:06:12.559 --> 01:06:16.480
shot to you yesterday over Messenger. But before we get

1411
01:06:16.519 --> 01:06:17.960
to that, I just want to talk.

1412
01:06:17.760 --> 01:06:19.239
Briefly about the locations.

1413
01:06:19.320 --> 01:06:22.280
And it meant something to me too, because like we

1414
01:06:22.320 --> 01:06:27.960
live in like central Ontario, Canada, our area of the

1415
01:06:28.000 --> 01:06:31.719
woods don't really make we don't really make it into

1416
01:06:31.880 --> 01:06:35.400
novels and whatnot. Very often I had the funny thought like,

1417
01:06:35.440 --> 01:06:38.519
if you lived in New York City, you'd be like, oh, yay,

1418
01:06:38.559 --> 01:06:40.960
this book takes place in New York City, like all

1419
01:06:41.000 --> 01:06:43.079
these other hundreds and thousands have, right.

1420
01:06:43.840 --> 01:06:45.679
But when I'm reading a book that.

1421
01:06:45.719 --> 01:06:50.000
Has like a Realia and Barry mentioned in it, I

1422
01:06:50.079 --> 01:06:52.960
was like, this is awesome, man. So do you think

1423
01:06:53.320 --> 01:06:56.360
you're going to branch out at all though, like go international?

1424
01:06:56.519 --> 01:06:59.880
Or is it always going to be like around this area.

1425
01:07:00.559 --> 01:07:02.760
Well, first of all, it's very funny that you say that,

1426
01:07:02.800 --> 01:07:05.519
because when I was originally writing, when I first writ

1427
01:07:05.880 --> 01:07:09.039
was writing Sycamore, I was really nervous about you know,

1428
01:07:09.679 --> 01:07:11.760
is anyone going to want to read a story that

1429
01:07:11.800 --> 01:07:14.199
takes place in Canada, you know? Or should I be

1430
01:07:14.239 --> 01:07:16.639
bumping this to New York City? You know? Actually, not

1431
01:07:17.039 --> 01:07:19.320
just because of an American city, but it's also the

1432
01:07:19.400 --> 01:07:22.800
site of a lot of detective novels in noir. I

1433
01:07:22.840 --> 01:07:25.559
mean two of my favorites. I mean, following Angel by

1434
01:07:25.559 --> 01:07:28.920
William Gyortzberg is like my bible of supernatural noir. That

1435
01:07:29.039 --> 01:07:31.360
was a novel that was filmed as Angel Heart, which

1436
01:07:31.400 --> 01:07:33.840
is also a great adaptation which almost never happens where

1437
01:07:33.840 --> 01:07:35.960
You've got a great book and a great movie that

1438
01:07:36.119 --> 01:07:40.039
happens there. And even Clive Barker's Harry Demore stories are

1439
01:07:40.159 --> 01:07:42.360
largely said in Europe. You know, Harry Damore is a

1440
01:07:42.679 --> 01:07:46.159
New Yorker, you know, So the temptation to do that,

1441
01:07:46.599 --> 01:07:50.639
but it was funny. It was all the American people, readers, editors,

1442
01:07:50.800 --> 01:07:53.039
agents that said, no, no, no, it should be more Canadian,

1443
01:07:53.159 --> 01:07:54.559
you know, don't be ashamed of where you are. And

1444
01:07:54.559 --> 01:07:56.039
they were always like, we from all your movies, all

1445
01:07:56.079 --> 01:07:59.000
our movies in Canada. We know Canada. So Toronto is fine,

1446
01:07:59.000 --> 01:08:01.440
you know, right, which, you know, like you don't have

1447
01:08:01.480 --> 01:08:04.519
to try and do something that you're not, be somewhere

1448
01:08:04.559 --> 01:08:06.880
that you're not. I've never even been to New York City,

1449
01:08:07.159 --> 01:08:09.440
so I can't write about it. I could probably write

1450
01:08:09.440 --> 01:08:12.960
about it to a certain effectiveness because I've absorbed so

1451
01:08:13.079 --> 01:08:15.760
much media, you know, and let's face it, with Google

1452
01:08:15.760 --> 01:08:18.039
maps and everything. Yeah, I could probably pull it off,

1453
01:08:18.319 --> 01:08:20.359
but I would still feel like a phony because I've

1454
01:08:20.399 --> 01:08:23.000
never even been there, you know. So I've never written

1455
01:08:23.000 --> 01:08:25.600
the story set in New York City. I can say that.

1456
01:08:25.600 --> 01:08:27.239
I can say that quite firmly because I know that

1457
01:08:27.359 --> 01:08:31.199
I know what I've written. So yeah, there was some

1458
01:08:31.439 --> 01:08:34.640
there was some very early reluctance about setting this in Toronto,

1459
01:08:34.720 --> 01:08:37.319
and yeah, mentioning places that are really in barrier people

1460
01:08:37.359 --> 01:08:39.119
are going to care? Are they even going to know?

1461
01:08:39.479 --> 01:08:41.119
But this is one of these things where you just

1462
01:08:41.720 --> 01:08:43.720
you got to put your passion in the driver's seat

1463
01:08:43.720 --> 01:08:45.840
and say, I don't care what other people are gonna think.

1464
01:08:45.920 --> 01:08:49.239
This is energizing me. I know these places I've been to,

1465
01:08:49.279 --> 01:08:52.920
the place absolutely you you are writing from a place

1466
01:08:52.960 --> 01:08:56.119
of confidence. Is anyone gonna like it? Hour? But that later?

1467
01:08:56.199 --> 01:08:57.960
You know, I'm having too much fun right now. So

1468
01:08:58.520 --> 01:09:00.399
I would go on road trips with my life, which

1469
01:09:00.399 --> 01:09:02.640
we always did, but we were doing more than we

1470
01:09:02.680 --> 01:09:05.399
would drive up to yeat Berry or a really a

1471
01:09:05.760 --> 01:09:09.000
sycamore is, you know more or less? I wouldn't. It's

1472
01:09:09.039 --> 01:09:10.920
not it's not a really it's more or less where

1473
01:09:11.000 --> 01:09:13.159
it really is to a certain degree, you know.

1474
01:09:13.560 --> 01:09:15.680
And it's not a real town, right, it's not a

1475
01:09:15.720 --> 01:09:16.239
real town.

1476
01:09:16.640 --> 01:09:18.760
It's not it's not doubling for a real town. I

1477
01:09:18.760 --> 01:09:20.399
didn't want to do that because I'm kind of doing

1478
01:09:20.399 --> 01:09:23.960
some horrible things. I didn't want to say, oh, it's

1479
01:09:24.000 --> 01:09:28.640
just a really, but I've changed the name even geographically

1480
01:09:28.720 --> 01:09:31.880
or the stores. It's not it's definitely not a really.

1481
01:09:32.000 --> 01:09:33.600
It's kind of next door to a realia and it

1482
01:09:33.600 --> 01:09:37.000
really it gets mentioned quite a bit. But again, it's

1483
01:09:37.039 --> 01:09:38.760
also kind of fun to make up your own town.

1484
01:09:38.800 --> 01:09:40.920
I mean, Stephen King obviously did it with Castle Rock.

1485
01:09:41.119 --> 01:09:43.119
Lots of other authors have done it with other towns.

1486
01:09:43.479 --> 01:09:46.560
There's certainly a thrill and uh and some fun from

1487
01:09:46.600 --> 01:09:49.079
doing that. But yeah, it was really just a chance

1488
01:09:49.159 --> 01:09:51.439
to sort of say, yeah, this is this is my

1489
01:09:51.479 --> 01:09:53.439
neck of the woods. I was born in Toronto, I

1490
01:09:53.479 --> 01:09:55.439
grew up in Whitby. This this is my neck of

1491
01:09:55.439 --> 01:09:57.600
the woods. I've lived in Peterborough for the past twenty

1492
01:09:57.680 --> 01:09:59.319
years because that's where my wife is from and that's

1493
01:09:59.319 --> 01:10:01.279
where we've we've settled and I love it. It's like

1494
01:10:01.319 --> 01:10:04.600
it's my second home. I love it here. Will I

1495
01:10:04.600 --> 01:10:09.039
ever go international with these stories with Felix, Maybe not

1496
01:10:09.199 --> 01:10:11.960
as much, but again, because I'm telling other stories with

1497
01:10:12.079 --> 01:10:16.119
other people, Well, it's it's it's international, right, this is

1498
01:10:16.159 --> 01:10:20.279
an international issue. So that's the great part is when

1499
01:10:20.680 --> 01:10:22.560
one of the other things we talk about when we've

1500
01:10:22.600 --> 01:10:26.399
been pitching this Blacklands TV series is the comparison we

1501
01:10:26.520 --> 01:10:28.880
use is that I say it's it's a supernatural version

1502
01:10:28.920 --> 01:10:32.279
of The Wire, where The Wire is the series about

1503
01:10:32.880 --> 01:10:35.920
crime and police in the city of Baltimore, but each

1504
01:10:35.920 --> 01:10:39.439
season is different characters. The really the real recurring character

1505
01:10:39.560 --> 01:10:41.680
on in the Wire is the city of Baltimore. It's

1506
01:10:41.680 --> 01:10:44.520
not the characters. You know, they change each season. Some

1507
01:10:44.600 --> 01:10:47.159
of the cops stay the same, but like, the first

1508
01:10:47.199 --> 01:10:50.520
season is this the first second season is like, I

1509
01:10:50.520 --> 01:10:54.800
think it's the Stevedores, the the Docs. I think the

1510
01:10:54.880 --> 01:10:57.880
third season is the school district, so you're seeing teachers

1511
01:10:57.880 --> 01:10:59.840
and everything. It changes, and I thought that was fascinating,

1512
01:11:00.039 --> 01:11:02.239
think that I'd ever really been done before. So that

1513
01:11:02.359 --> 01:11:04.279
was how I said the black Lands is the recurring character.

1514
01:11:04.319 --> 01:11:06.640
I could tell stories everywhere to say how different people

1515
01:11:06.760 --> 01:11:09.199
from different walks of life are dealing with the supernatural

1516
01:11:09.640 --> 01:11:12.840
in their lives. So Alice is definitely one that I

1517
01:11:12.880 --> 01:11:14.960
could see moving around. But that was sort of the

1518
01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:17.960
purpose of her character is that she is so difficult

1519
01:11:18.000 --> 01:11:20.079
to work with, but she is still so good at

1520
01:11:20.119 --> 01:11:22.640
her job that she's never going to be fired. So

1521
01:11:22.760 --> 01:11:24.520
what they do is they just bump her around from

1522
01:11:24.560 --> 01:11:27.760
field office to field office where they need the work.

1523
01:11:28.119 --> 01:11:30.399
And narratively, that's great for me because now I can

1524
01:11:30.520 --> 01:11:35.239
have stories from different cities, whereas Felix is sort of

1525
01:11:35.279 --> 01:11:38.079
helping people in more or less the Toronto, the GTA,

1526
01:11:38.199 --> 01:11:40.640
the Greater Toronto area. He might go a little bit,

1527
01:11:40.880 --> 01:11:42.479
but it was just but mostly it's going to be

1528
01:11:42.560 --> 01:11:45.800
in there, and then other stories other characters would would

1529
01:11:45.800 --> 01:11:48.359
sort of go, would be elsewhere. But yeah, it's it's

1530
01:11:48.399 --> 01:11:51.039
definitely my intent to sort of say, here's how different

1531
01:11:51.039 --> 01:11:53.680
people in different countries are dealing with different types of

1532
01:11:54.000 --> 01:11:56.079
black Lands phenomena. Mm hmm.

1533
01:11:56.640 --> 01:12:00.640
That sounds very exciting, all right. Going back to that

1534
01:12:00.840 --> 01:12:05.000
question I mentioned while I was listening to the audiobook

1535
01:12:05.039 --> 01:12:06.920
for this, I had like this feeling that this would

1536
01:12:06.920 --> 01:12:11.159
make a really good TV show, like a serial. We

1537
01:12:11.319 --> 01:12:13.600
kind of brushed on that a lot while while talking

1538
01:12:13.680 --> 01:12:19.680
on this without actually hitting it, but it reminded me

1539
01:12:19.720 --> 01:12:22.600
of why I used to love series like Buffy and Supernatural.

1540
01:12:23.279 --> 01:12:26.520
You know, So I was wondering.

1541
01:12:27.000 --> 01:12:29.199
I thought i'd have some fun, and I prepped you

1542
01:12:29.319 --> 01:12:31.760
for this because I didn't just want to like blast

1543
01:12:31.800 --> 01:12:32.199
it at.

1544
01:12:32.119 --> 01:12:34.000
You and you'd be like, oh god, I don't know

1545
01:12:34.640 --> 01:12:37.479
I always appreciate it because.

1546
01:12:37.640 --> 01:12:40.560
I've had that happen to me, and I hate it

1547
01:12:40.600 --> 01:12:43.600
when my mind goes blank. So the question is, if

1548
01:12:43.680 --> 01:12:47.000
Sycamore were to become a television series, who would you

1549
01:12:47.119 --> 01:12:49.800
like to play the main character? So we're I was

1550
01:12:49.880 --> 01:12:53.800
going to focus just on three characters, the three that

1551
01:12:54.199 --> 01:12:57.760
that are in that mostly, and it's Felix, Alice, Baffle,

1552
01:12:57.960 --> 01:12:58.680
and Sandra.

1553
01:12:59.239 --> 01:13:03.560
So so let's start with Felix. Do you think would

1554
01:13:03.600 --> 01:13:05.399
you like to see play Felix?

1555
01:13:06.039 --> 01:13:09.880
He shot me if you yeah. When we were talking

1556
01:13:09.920 --> 01:13:12.439
about this, I had these initial ideas and it was

1557
01:13:12.479 --> 01:13:14.119
playing that. I was talking to my wife about it

1558
01:13:14.199 --> 01:13:15.960
and she was like, well, you always said this person.

1559
01:13:15.960 --> 01:13:17.199
I was like, that's the right I did'n id even

1560
01:13:17.239 --> 01:13:19.199
mentioned that to Jason. How did I forget this one

1561
01:13:19.359 --> 01:13:22.239
character or this one actor? But it was like, I was,

1562
01:13:22.359 --> 01:13:25.600
so Felix is so again, he's the anti PI. Right.

1563
01:13:25.640 --> 01:13:28.199
You can't cast someone who's like a big, muscle bound

1564
01:13:28.239 --> 01:13:30.039
guy because it's just not who he is. He's capable,

1565
01:13:30.159 --> 01:13:32.920
but he's not. You wouldn't look at him and think, oh, yeah,

1566
01:13:32.920 --> 01:13:35.319
he's an XPI much less he's gonna he's out there

1567
01:13:35.399 --> 01:13:37.560
kicking all this ask because he doesn't, he doesn't do that.

1568
01:13:37.680 --> 01:13:40.239
He's this doesn't interest me. Not the character I wanted

1569
01:13:40.279 --> 01:13:42.039
to write. It's not the character that he is. But

1570
01:13:42.199 --> 01:13:45.439
he's not some milk toast and capable person who's getting

1571
01:13:45.439 --> 01:13:48.000
this butt kicked all the time, either, So it's tough.

1572
01:13:48.279 --> 01:13:51.239
What what is he? So I was I was trying

1573
01:13:51.239 --> 01:13:53.239
to think of character or actors, and it was funny

1574
01:13:53.319 --> 01:13:56.039
that I was watching one of the more recent movies

1575
01:13:56.079 --> 01:13:59.039
that I like rewatching. It's a beautiful movie. Canadian director

1576
01:13:59.119 --> 01:14:04.079
and a Canadian actor was Denis Villeneuve's A Blade Runner

1577
01:14:04.119 --> 01:14:07.239
twenty forty nine, and was Ryan Goslin, And I thought

1578
01:14:07.279 --> 01:14:09.279
Ryan Goslin, it was just you don't look at him

1579
01:14:09.720 --> 01:14:11.439
and say that, oh, this guy kicks a lot of hats.

1580
01:14:11.439 --> 01:14:13.920
He's not there with like the washboard apps. He's not flexing,

1581
01:14:13.960 --> 01:14:16.680
he's not lifting piles of cinder blocks, you know, but

1582
01:14:16.800 --> 01:14:18.840
he's quite He looks very capable, you know, and he

1583
01:14:18.960 --> 01:14:20.680
looks and he's a detective. He's got the coat. So

1584
01:14:20.760 --> 01:14:24.000
I thought that's actually I would say he's a great actor.

1585
01:14:24.159 --> 01:14:28.960
You know, he's a Canadian. He's uh, he's he's he's

1586
01:14:29.119 --> 01:14:31.239
he's good. Looking, but he's not like a pretty boy,

1587
01:14:31.319 --> 01:14:32.720
I guess in my sense, So I mean like, I

1588
01:14:32.800 --> 01:14:34.920
feel like he would have that kind of appeals as

1589
01:14:34.920 --> 01:14:37.880
a leading actor. So I would say, yeah, you know,

1590
01:14:38.000 --> 01:14:40.079
Ryan Goslin, I think would make a good Felix. It's

1591
01:14:40.079 --> 01:14:41.840
funny because when I write these things, I'm actually not

1592
01:14:42.000 --> 01:14:44.319
picturing actors, even though when I read other books sometimes

1593
01:14:44.359 --> 01:14:46.880
I do picture actors. I can't reread the Stand without

1594
01:14:46.920 --> 01:14:50.359
thinking of the characters from the mini. It's just in

1595
01:14:50.479 --> 01:14:52.319
my head now. Because I love this band. I've re

1596
01:14:52.399 --> 01:14:56.119
redd it sometimes and I've watched the series many times,

1597
01:14:57.039 --> 01:14:59.399
but with my own stuff, I don't. I tend not

1598
01:14:59.520 --> 01:15:02.039
to really think of it that much. So it was

1599
01:15:02.079 --> 01:15:04.079
funny when you asked me, it was like, oof, you

1600
01:15:04.159 --> 01:15:07.279
know again. I had to go back with my wife,

1601
01:15:07.319 --> 01:15:09.520
who reminded me you always said Ryan Goslain's like, you're right,

1602
01:15:09.560 --> 01:15:11.439
How would I not go? Did I forget about that?

1603
01:15:12.199 --> 01:15:14.119
So I would say, yeah, Ryan Goslin for Felix, for

1604
01:15:14.479 --> 01:15:16.960
Alice is Again it's kind of hard. These are not

1605
01:15:17.720 --> 01:15:19.560
you want to go to, like, well, who is popular?

1606
01:15:19.600 --> 01:15:21.840
Who who are the who are the young up and

1607
01:15:21.880 --> 01:15:24.000
coming ones? And I was like these characters aren't young,

1608
01:15:24.239 --> 01:15:26.960
you know, like these aren't twenty somethings, and these guys are,

1609
01:15:27.720 --> 01:15:30.760
you know, Felix and Sandra are I would say like

1610
01:15:30.960 --> 01:15:35.239
mid to late thirties. They're not kids, and largely because

1611
01:15:35.239 --> 01:15:37.319
they had this history, you know, and they couldn't be kids.

1612
01:15:37.359 --> 01:15:39.680
They were married for seven or eight years. They're divorced,

1613
01:15:40.520 --> 01:15:42.319
so I knew that they were. They were a bit older.

1614
01:15:42.800 --> 01:15:45.760
Alice might be a little bit younger. I would say

1615
01:15:45.800 --> 01:15:49.479
that she is like between thirty and thirty five tops.

1616
01:15:49.560 --> 01:15:51.039
She's got a bit of a history with the Pia.

1617
01:15:51.119 --> 01:15:53.399
She's definitely not a rookie agent, but she's not I

1618
01:15:53.439 --> 01:15:56.159
don't see her as necessarily as old as Felix. So

1619
01:15:56.279 --> 01:15:59.760
I was thinking more of a like an Aubrey Plaza

1620
01:16:00.279 --> 01:16:04.319
or maybe a I mean Florence Pugh is I guess

1621
01:16:04.439 --> 01:16:06.079
is like everyone loves her and I love her too.

1622
01:16:06.119 --> 01:16:07.840
It's like she feels like it's an easy one to

1623
01:16:07.920 --> 01:16:09.239
go to. I was trying to think of someone a

1624
01:16:09.319 --> 01:16:12.600
bit more obscure, and I also I think it's quite tall.

1625
01:16:12.640 --> 01:16:14.479
I think Florence Pugh is kind of short. So I

1626
01:16:14.520 --> 01:16:18.000
would say like an Aubrey Plaza or against Sidney Sweeney

1627
01:16:18.039 --> 01:16:20.199
against another one. It's like she's popular right now, everyone

1628
01:16:20.279 --> 01:16:23.319
goes to her. So it's tough. It's it's really really tough.

1629
01:16:23.359 --> 01:16:25.560
It's like I would rather someone came to me and said,

1630
01:16:25.960 --> 01:16:28.279
here's ten people we were looking at, or here's here's

1631
01:16:28.319 --> 01:16:30.880
a couple of actors who who love this character and

1632
01:16:30.920 --> 01:16:32.720
they want to do it, right. That's that's the way

1633
01:16:32.760 --> 01:16:34.479
it is a lot of these things. Now. It's an

1634
01:16:34.520 --> 01:16:36.840
author like to read your book and they want to

1635
01:16:36.880 --> 01:16:38.920
do it. It's like whether or not they think they're

1636
01:16:38.920 --> 01:16:40.800
ideal or not. If especially if they're huge, they're going

1637
01:16:40.840 --> 01:16:44.359
to get your movie made, let them play the character. Yeah,

1638
01:16:45.399 --> 01:16:49.720
and Sandra again, because she's she's a former screen queen.

1639
01:16:50.239 --> 01:16:53.640
My mind immediately goes to like Jamie Lee Curtis or

1640
01:16:54.520 --> 01:16:56.960
t Wallace Stone. And again they're they're like in their

1641
01:16:57.159 --> 01:16:58.640
sixties now, so again like not.

1642
01:16:59.159 --> 01:16:59.960
That would be kind of weird.

1643
01:17:00.119 --> 01:17:01.880
Maybe it would be weird. I mean, I think they

1644
01:17:01.920 --> 01:17:03.560
could still do it. But again, you want to find

1645
01:17:03.960 --> 01:17:07.439
an actor who's more age appropriate, especially to go with Felix. Yeah,

1646
01:17:07.680 --> 01:17:10.640
so I say, someone who's who still has that sort

1647
01:17:10.640 --> 01:17:14.960
of gravitas and that presence. I immediately fell in love

1648
01:17:15.119 --> 01:17:18.520
with with Carrie Kune after I watched The Leftovers, which

1649
01:17:18.560 --> 01:17:21.720
was one of my all time favorite TV series, where

1650
01:17:21.760 --> 01:17:26.079
she's just got such a depth and complexity and but humor.

1651
01:17:26.119 --> 01:17:28.960
Then you see her in something like Ghostbusters, Afterlife or

1652
01:17:29.239 --> 01:17:32.000
the new one Frozen Empire, and she can do comedy

1653
01:17:32.079 --> 01:17:33.840
and it still bring a lot of good acting chops

1654
01:17:33.840 --> 01:17:37.279
to it. So it's like, for me again, it's something

1655
01:17:37.359 --> 01:17:39.199
that I had to think about, but now that it

1656
01:17:39.319 --> 01:17:42.239
came up in conversation when we were texting, it was like, yeah,

1657
01:17:42.319 --> 01:17:44.680
I could see her. I could really see someone like

1658
01:17:44.760 --> 01:17:47.479
Carrie kuns As as Sandra. Now now now I want that,

1659
01:17:47.560 --> 01:17:49.479
So thanks a lot. Now I've got to try and

1660
01:17:49.560 --> 01:17:51.560
find these people to be in my TV show. I

1661
01:17:51.680 --> 01:17:56.359
gave you a good yeah, that's aat all.

1662
01:17:56.439 --> 01:18:01.439
Right, final question before I take the chains off and

1663
01:18:01.560 --> 01:18:04.600
let you go for the night. I asked this of

1664
01:18:04.800 --> 01:18:07.560
every guest and I've been doing I've been doing this,

1665
01:18:07.720 --> 01:18:11.720
I think all of twenty twenty four. So now let

1666
01:18:11.760 --> 01:18:14.039
me give you just a little bit of a background

1667
01:18:14.079 --> 01:18:16.800
as to why I asked this question. One reason is

1668
01:18:16.880 --> 01:18:20.199
because I watch probably way too much of book Talk

1669
01:18:20.640 --> 01:18:24.920
and book Tube. I just love watching people talk about books,

1670
01:18:25.439 --> 01:18:28.600
and so it came to me like, sometimes there's these

1671
01:18:28.640 --> 01:18:31.680
authors who are doing really amazing things, but nobody's talking

1672
01:18:31.720 --> 01:18:32.199
about them.

1673
01:18:32.640 --> 01:18:33.079
Why is that?

1674
01:18:33.520 --> 01:18:36.920
And so I thought I would ask authors to talk

1675
01:18:36.960 --> 01:18:44.000
about who do you think is being left out of conversations?

1676
01:18:44.079 --> 01:18:46.439
Which authors do you think need to be talked about

1677
01:18:46.479 --> 01:18:47.000
more often?

1678
01:18:47.680 --> 01:18:50.560
Right? That's and again that's a tough one because it's

1679
01:18:50.600 --> 01:18:52.560
weird for me because like I really we had this

1680
01:18:52.640 --> 01:18:55.119
conversation earlier, like I read everything, so I say it,

1681
01:18:55.840 --> 01:18:59.159
and I admit that I'm not necessarily have that pulse

1682
01:18:59.159 --> 01:19:01.359
where I think, oh, this person is underrated or this

1683
01:19:01.479 --> 01:19:04.640
person hasn't talked about enough, because I'm usually talking about them.

1684
01:19:04.680 --> 01:19:07.399
So it's I'm always surprised, Oh, this author should be rich,

1685
01:19:07.439 --> 01:19:09.680
this author should be have this TV show. So it's

1686
01:19:09.720 --> 01:19:11.720
sort of shocking to me when when they're not. So

1687
01:19:12.439 --> 01:19:14.840
I it's funny. We sort of organically came up with

1688
01:19:14.880 --> 01:19:17.359
Jeffrey Thomas, and I would say there's someone who's been

1689
01:19:17.399 --> 01:19:21.079
publishing for a long time, obviously has his fans, obviously

1690
01:19:21.199 --> 01:19:23.640
is doing very well for himself. But he was He's

1691
01:19:23.680 --> 01:19:27.119
definitely someone where it's I feel like, how is like

1692
01:19:27.239 --> 01:19:32.319
a big five publisher, not scooped up everything, start with

1693
01:19:32.399 --> 01:19:34.680
the start with punk Town. But he's got all kinds

1694
01:19:34.680 --> 01:19:37.920
of other stuff that he's that he's still doing, and

1695
01:19:38.000 --> 01:19:41.439
he's a good writer. It's not even like, oh well

1696
01:19:41.560 --> 01:19:43.439
he does he does this stuff, but he's not there.

1697
01:19:43.479 --> 01:19:45.880
He's not the greatest word craft or wordsmith whatever saying

1698
01:19:45.880 --> 01:19:50.760
oh no, he's he's highly readable, very literary if if

1699
01:19:50.800 --> 01:19:53.079
that's if that's a matter like it's but but still

1700
01:19:53.119 --> 01:19:56.000
with a very pulp sensibility. You can tell that. You

1701
01:19:56.039 --> 01:19:57.840
can tell he's a very intelligent person. But you can

1702
01:19:57.840 --> 01:19:59.600
also tell them there's a lot of heart there, like

1703
01:19:59.680 --> 01:20:03.159
it's it's not you really are pulling for these characters,

1704
01:20:03.319 --> 01:20:05.640
you know, Like it's just and that's what it is.

1705
01:20:05.840 --> 01:20:09.159
I mean, he really gets what character is. It's it's

1706
01:20:09.239 --> 01:20:11.520
stuff happening to people. You've been made to care about

1707
01:20:11.600 --> 01:20:15.319
that plot, you know, it's just it's something that I

1708
01:20:15.399 --> 01:20:17.439
always try and do. It's the lesson that I've learned

1709
01:20:17.520 --> 01:20:20.239
is that if you have characters who are realistic and

1710
01:20:20.319 --> 01:20:21.880
that you care about them, then you're going to care

1711
01:20:22.680 --> 01:20:25.000
about what happens to them. And since we're writing horror

1712
01:20:25.039 --> 01:20:28.760
stories and stuff, it's usually awful things that are happening

1713
01:20:28.800 --> 01:20:31.359
to them, so you better care about them. There's a

1714
01:20:31.439 --> 01:20:35.159
reason why when we watch By the Thirteenth part twenty seven,

1715
01:20:35.399 --> 01:20:37.199
it can be kind of fun. Let's face it, we're

1716
01:20:37.239 --> 01:20:39.439
usually rooting for Jason because we don't care about these

1717
01:20:39.439 --> 01:20:41.800
stupid teenagers that he's hacking up because you don't know

1718
01:20:41.920 --> 01:20:46.479
them and they're just kind of you know. But if

1719
01:20:46.479 --> 01:20:49.840
you care about these people and you care about their peril,

1720
01:20:50.199 --> 01:20:52.199
it's you have more of an investment with them. So

1721
01:20:52.760 --> 01:20:55.800
I would say, yeah, I would say Jeffrey Thomas is

1722
01:20:55.880 --> 01:20:58.239
someone that I just I wish that he won the

1723
01:20:58.640 --> 01:21:00.920
publishing lottery and someone just came in and just bought

1724
01:21:01.239 --> 01:21:04.119
everything and came up with new additions for the punk

1725
01:21:04.159 --> 01:21:06.880
Town Omnibuses, and then he got he just gets to

1726
01:21:06.960 --> 01:21:09.039
do more. And I know he's still doing more punked down.

1727
01:21:09.479 --> 01:21:12.399
You know, It's it's not over for him yet. Yeah,

1728
01:21:12.479 --> 01:21:14.359
it could still happen, and it's absolute.

1729
01:21:14.640 --> 01:21:17.600
Yeah, yeah, I hope. And I would also say from

1730
01:21:17.640 --> 01:21:21.199
from the from another point of view, s P. Maskowski

1731
01:21:21.399 --> 01:21:24.239
is one of my favorite writers, and and again I'm

1732
01:21:24.279 --> 01:21:27.039
sure she's doing well. I don't know how well because

1733
01:21:28.079 --> 01:21:30.319
but I mean she's still publishing, obviously, but she's one

1734
01:21:30.319 --> 01:21:32.119
of these people where I'm thinking, oh my gosh, these

1735
01:21:32.760 --> 01:21:36.880
you know, the Scalute cycle that should be like a

1736
01:21:36.920 --> 01:21:38.640
big five, should be scooping it up and again re

1737
01:21:38.800 --> 01:21:42.039
releasing that as some you know, massive addition. I love

1738
01:21:42.159 --> 01:21:47.600
those stories. It's Pacific Northwest. It's it's small town, it's witchcraft,

1739
01:21:47.680 --> 01:21:50.279
it's ghosts. It's like she is she is ringing my

1740
01:21:50.399 --> 01:21:52.279
twin peaks bell, you know. It's just like I love

1741
01:21:52.359 --> 01:21:55.199
that area. I love that kind of stuff. It's she's

1742
01:21:55.199 --> 01:21:57.039
just one of those writers where I feel like she's

1743
01:21:57.079 --> 01:21:58.680
reading this for me. I feel like I feel like

1744
01:21:58.760 --> 01:22:02.800
I've I've hired her to write these books because it's

1745
01:22:02.920 --> 01:22:06.000
so my jam, you know so and when you see

1746
01:22:06.039 --> 01:22:08.359
these people and these are good people, like I know Jeffrey,

1747
01:22:08.439 --> 01:22:12.159
I know sp She wrote the introduction to the Family,

1748
01:22:12.279 --> 01:22:16.840
my debut novel with Earthlings. And it's not that she

1749
01:22:16.960 --> 01:22:19.119
just wrote good things about my book. I mean she

1750
01:22:19.600 --> 01:22:21.920
really understood what I was trying to do with that.

1751
01:22:22.000 --> 01:22:24.159
And that's always even better, right It means it means

1752
01:22:24.680 --> 01:22:26.319
isn't just that they read your book, It's that they

1753
01:22:26.359 --> 01:22:29.159
really understood it. And it was like one, I was

1754
01:22:29.199 --> 01:22:32.279
really touched, and two it was like, oh, this is

1755
01:22:32.319 --> 01:22:35.640
why I asked her to do this, because she's not

1756
01:22:35.800 --> 01:22:40.039
just talented, she is insightful and she's just got a

1757
01:22:40.079 --> 01:22:41.840
good heart. And when you see people like that, you

1758
01:22:41.960 --> 01:22:43.439
just want good things to happen to them. And so,

1759
01:22:43.560 --> 01:22:45.680
like I would say, among those Punktown books and the

1760
01:22:45.760 --> 01:22:50.000
Scalute cycle books starting with Knock Knock, I cannot tell

1761
01:22:50.039 --> 01:22:53.039
you how many times I recommended those books, gifted those

1762
01:22:53.079 --> 01:22:57.640
books to people at Christmas and holidays. Yeah, it's it's

1763
01:22:57.680 --> 01:22:59.520
like anything good, right, I mean, you recommend it. The

1764
01:23:00.159 --> 01:23:02.560
best type of marketing is word of mouth. It's the

1765
01:23:02.600 --> 01:23:05.840
one thing that that you can't predict, that you can't control.

1766
01:23:06.359 --> 01:23:08.520
It's it's grassroots, man. Yeah.

1767
01:23:08.840 --> 01:23:11.720
Before before I did this show, I I uh, I

1768
01:23:11.800 --> 01:23:14.840
did another. I did a podcast called The Darkness Dwells

1769
01:23:14.880 --> 01:23:19.000
Podcast and I had sp mccowske on there with Lard

1770
01:23:19.039 --> 01:23:23.600
Baron and uh uh John Lang and we were talking

1771
01:23:23.640 --> 01:23:26.800
about weird fiction. And that was a last I enjoyed.

1772
01:23:27.000 --> 01:23:28.760
I enjoyed talking to all three, but I you know,

1773
01:23:28.880 --> 01:23:32.439
I bring her up and and yeah, she was fantastic.

1774
01:23:32.520 --> 01:23:33.279
I love talking I.

1775
01:23:33.319 --> 01:23:35.399
Love all those people. By the way. I consider them

1776
01:23:35.399 --> 01:23:36.399
all very good friends.

1777
01:23:36.479 --> 01:23:36.720
Lard.

1778
01:23:36.800 --> 01:23:39.359
Lard and John gave me some of my very first

1779
01:23:39.479 --> 01:23:45.199
blurbs for Blackland's stories. They they both blurbed. Uh Supernashal

1780
01:23:45.680 --> 01:23:49.640
Laird blurbed give me a wonderful blurb for Sycamore. They

1781
01:23:49.760 --> 01:23:54.600
are They're They're as kind as they are talented. You know,

1782
01:23:54.720 --> 01:23:58.239
I'm I'm really really glad to I haven't seen them

1783
01:23:58.239 --> 01:24:00.319
in years because I between the pandemic and just not

1784
01:24:00.439 --> 01:24:02.239
having had a lot of new books out, I haven't

1785
01:24:02.239 --> 01:24:05.399
been to a convention and so long. But I mean,

1786
01:24:05.439 --> 01:24:07.279
you see them online, so you never feel like they're

1787
01:24:07.279 --> 01:24:10.079
too far away. But I love all those guys, great

1788
01:24:10.159 --> 01:24:10.680
great people.

1789
01:24:11.800 --> 01:24:13.199
Yeah, awesome.

1790
01:24:13.399 --> 01:24:16.800
So I want to thank you for coming along and

1791
01:24:16.960 --> 01:24:21.039
talking about Sycamore and your other works with me. And

1792
01:24:21.840 --> 01:24:24.199
I want to thank everyone who came along and watched

1793
01:24:24.239 --> 01:24:26.319
and the people especially who are going to come in

1794
01:24:26.359 --> 01:24:29.600
the future to watch and listen to on the podcast.

1795
01:24:31.399 --> 01:24:33.960
Where can people find you online if they want to

1796
01:24:34.920 --> 01:24:36.840
they want to get updates or whatnot?

1797
01:24:37.800 --> 01:24:40.239
Yeah, you know, I'm I'm on all the usual social

1798
01:24:40.279 --> 01:24:43.119
media channels. I'm on Facebook, not so much on x

1799
01:24:43.199 --> 01:24:47.119
I think there's been a mass sort of Exodus. I'm

1800
01:24:47.119 --> 01:24:49.119
still there, but I just post updates like it's all

1801
01:24:49.239 --> 01:24:51.760
for the business as usual. I'm I'm on Blue Sky,

1802
01:24:51.840 --> 01:24:54.119
though I'm on threads. I spend most of my time,

1803
01:24:54.159 --> 01:24:57.960
I would say, on Instagram, just because it's just it's pictures,

1804
01:24:58.000 --> 01:25:01.680
no conversation. So it's me of my books and my cats.

1805
01:25:01.760 --> 01:25:04.640
It's very it's very chill. You know. I'm going for

1806
01:25:04.720 --> 01:25:07.760
that vibe right now, you know. It's just I've got

1807
01:25:07.800 --> 01:25:10.760
a newsletter. I've got lots of websites. If you go

1808
01:25:10.840 --> 01:25:13.880
to Ian Rodgers dot ca A or Ian hyphen Rogers

1809
01:25:13.960 --> 01:25:16.720
dot com is my main web presence, but I was

1810
01:25:16.760 --> 01:25:18.760
a web guy before I started writing full time, so

1811
01:25:18.800 --> 01:25:21.199
I've got various websites. If you go to the black

1812
01:25:21.279 --> 01:25:24.800
Lands dot com, that's a website devoted entirely to the Blacklands.

1813
01:25:25.319 --> 01:25:27.960
If you go to Every House is Haunted dot com,

1814
01:25:28.600 --> 01:25:31.079
That's where I'm posting all the news and updates about

1815
01:25:31.119 --> 01:25:34.720
the movie and the book as well, obviously. So yeah,

1816
01:25:34.840 --> 01:25:37.600
I'm out there. Just Google me, you'll find me awesome.

1817
01:25:38.279 --> 01:25:40.000
And do you have anything coming out?

1818
01:25:40.279 --> 01:25:44.319
Any short stories or other novels that are coming out

1819
01:25:44.359 --> 01:25:46.760
soon that you can talk about that Readers can look

1820
01:25:46.800 --> 01:25:47.159
forward to.

1821
01:25:47.840 --> 01:25:50.800
Yeah, you know what I have. I can't really talk

1822
01:25:51.000 --> 01:25:54.520
specifics yet. I have an original horror novel coming out

1823
01:25:55.600 --> 01:25:58.800
early twenty twenty five. It should be announced soon. I

1824
01:25:59.479 --> 01:26:01.319
don't really know how much I can say. All I

1825
01:26:01.319 --> 01:26:03.159
can say is it's a non black Lands book, but

1826
01:26:03.239 --> 01:26:06.840
it's sort of a it's kind of The Ring meets

1827
01:26:07.000 --> 01:26:10.199
the Blur Witch Project. It's kind of a haunted film,

1828
01:26:10.560 --> 01:26:13.199
cursed film, kind of a book that I'm really excited about.

1829
01:26:14.800 --> 01:26:16.920
And yeah, there's there's actually a new edition of Every

1830
01:26:16.960 --> 01:26:19.520
House Is Haunted that's coming out right now. It went

1831
01:26:19.600 --> 01:26:23.279
out with a book box subscription service from a company

1832
01:26:23.319 --> 01:26:25.479
called Twisted Retreat. It's actually shipping right now. I just

1833
01:26:25.520 --> 01:26:28.319
got my copy on Friday. Nice, I can actually show

1834
01:26:28.319 --> 01:26:30.239
you a quick little preview. This is kind of fun.

1835
01:26:31.079 --> 01:26:34.119
So this is the new expanded edition of Everything. I

1836
01:26:34.159 --> 01:26:37.319
call it a newly renovated edition of Everything Sponted. So

1837
01:26:37.439 --> 01:26:42.079
it's got three never before published bonus stories at the end. Awesome,

1838
01:26:42.399 --> 01:26:46.079
nice sam Remi blurb on the back there. So, yeah,

1839
01:26:47.520 --> 01:26:49.479
it went out with the book box subscription, but it's

1840
01:26:49.520 --> 01:26:51.439
it's done really well. So there's going to be extra

1841
01:26:51.560 --> 01:26:54.880
copies that are available at the Twisted Retreat store, so

1842
01:26:55.600 --> 01:26:57.800
I don't think those will be available until next month.

1843
01:26:58.159 --> 01:27:00.439
But again, if you're following me on social media, I'm

1844
01:27:00.479 --> 01:27:05.000
definitely gonna bang the gong on that one, because again

1845
01:27:05.079 --> 01:27:08.439
it's doing really well. The box sold out completely and

1846
01:27:08.479 --> 01:27:10.920
I think it was over six hundred copies, so they

1847
01:27:11.000 --> 01:27:12.560
want to make sure they had some extra copies. I

1848
01:27:12.600 --> 01:27:15.079
think they'll be around thirty or fifty extra copies just

1849
01:27:15.199 --> 01:27:18.119
for the Twisted Retreat store for people who didn't buy

1850
01:27:18.199 --> 01:27:20.279
the subscription service if they just want to buy the

1851
01:27:20.319 --> 01:27:24.560
book itself. So yeah, that's Twisted Retreat dot com I

1852
01:27:24.600 --> 01:27:27.520
believe is their website, but I'll be announcing that once

1853
01:27:27.560 --> 01:27:28.159
it's available.

1854
01:27:28.600 --> 01:27:32.359
Awesome, yeah, awesome, awesome stuff. All right. I can't wait

1855
01:27:32.399 --> 01:27:32.920
to read more.

1856
01:27:34.680 --> 01:27:39.720
And you have an open invitation to come back, especially

1857
01:27:39.840 --> 01:27:43.000
when the next black Lands books come out. I would

1858
01:27:43.039 --> 01:27:45.279
love to read them and I'd love to discuss them

1859
01:27:45.359 --> 01:27:47.319
with you if you're willing to come back.

1860
01:27:47.600 --> 01:27:49.359
Oh yeah, absolutely. I had a great time. Thank you

1861
01:27:49.439 --> 01:27:51.880
so much for the great questions and oh this has

1862
01:27:51.920 --> 01:27:52.720
been great. I love it.

1863
01:27:53.199 --> 01:27:56.560
All right, we'll talk to you again soon, all right.

1864
01:28:01.239 --> 01:28:04.079
Thank you so much for listening to this episode my

1865
01:28:04.239 --> 01:28:09.560
conversation with Ian Rodgers. I've interviewed a lot of people

1866
01:28:09.680 --> 01:28:14.119
over the years. I don't have an exact number, but

1867
01:28:14.279 --> 01:28:18.600
I think it's around eighty horror authors that I've talked

1868
01:28:18.600 --> 01:28:22.960
to in the last ten years, and this one was

1869
01:28:23.119 --> 01:28:25.319
one of the more fun ones. I've talked to authors

1870
01:28:25.319 --> 01:28:29.319
who have written books in my area before, but Ian

1871
01:28:29.880 --> 01:28:33.560
was probably one of the most friendly and giving people

1872
01:28:34.000 --> 01:28:36.720
that I've ever talked to. So I was more than

1873
01:28:36.800 --> 01:28:41.720
happy not only to read his book, but to talk

1874
01:28:41.800 --> 01:28:44.479
to him about it. And I can't wait until more

1875
01:28:44.920 --> 01:28:49.439
books in the black Lands series come out, So stay

1876
01:28:49.520 --> 01:28:51.920
tuned for that because Ian will be back on the

1877
01:28:51.960 --> 01:28:54.720
show at some point and he will also be a

1878
01:28:54.800 --> 01:28:57.800
guest on what I'm hoping will be a very big

1879
01:28:57.920 --> 01:29:02.079
project starting in twenty twenty five. So, as I said,

1880
01:29:02.119 --> 01:29:05.680
stay tuned for that. So if you want to support

1881
01:29:05.720 --> 01:29:07.479
the show, there's a few ways you can do. So

1882
01:29:08.600 --> 01:29:10.960
the first and easiest way is to go on to

1883
01:29:11.039 --> 01:29:15.159
Apple Podcasts and give the show a five star rating.

1884
01:29:16.279 --> 01:29:19.199
When you do that, that shows Apple that you're interested

1885
01:29:19.279 --> 01:29:21.479
in it, and so it's more willing to share this

1886
01:29:21.680 --> 01:29:25.239
podcast with other listeners who like this type of content,

1887
01:29:25.880 --> 01:29:28.439
So if you're willing to do that, I would appreciate

1888
01:29:28.520 --> 01:29:31.039
it so much. And also, if you want to support

1889
01:29:31.479 --> 01:29:34.880
the show with your hard earned money, you can join

1890
01:29:34.960 --> 01:29:39.359
the Patreon. The links for that are in the show notes,

1891
01:29:39.600 --> 01:29:42.840
so definitely check that out. All right, So that is

1892
01:29:42.960 --> 01:29:45.840
it for this episode. I thank you so much for

1893
01:29:45.920 --> 01:29:48.800
coming along and we will see you guys in the

1894
01:29:48.920 --> 01:30:06.119
next podcast. Litt