All about writing and ideas and other stuff...
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Loved loved loved the interview... Barney is absolutely the best!
Walk in the story, presents wearing it is amazing storytellers and artists this is episode 57 I warehouse Barney Smith's storycomma.com and with us is the award winning celebrated author and Alan van how you doing welcome to the bulk of the show I'm doing good Barney and so grateful that you invited me to the podcast today and the show just just completely honored flattered to be here absolutely we were talking before went on the air that's one of the things that I that I love about your work van is that it you have so many different genres you got some leadership books you got zombie survival books that seem to be really hot right now and you also got a few acclaimed books like you know to come to to come there like the old man in the hospital which has been a lot of red and also bear which we're going to talk about to that which actually has a lot of good reviews on it as well but before we jump right in and start talking about some of your work how to get have a background on how be back on how you started that writing books that's a great segue to just kind of like tell you guys it maybe around the 6th grade think about that going all the way back for me the six rail is probably a bit in the in the 70s and I had a I had a 6th grade English teacher who said you know what you got a pretty good style going there Mr van man you should continue to write and I appreciated her just you know in the 6th grade just giving me a little bit of encouragement to write an I was writing some sci-fi but I can I Can you imagine 6th grader writing sci-fi and space and space exploration and Anna teacher uh a 6th grade teacher say hey you really should continue to do this and then just kind of like started from that so talk to us about So what do you eat you first started getting into the habit and So what was and you were in the menu in the military so were you writing while you're in the milk did you have stories that you're writing out or in some ideas or was it all kind of blank slate stuff and then you just started writing about five or six years ago how'd that work so you know what I'm saying so I joined the marine core back in 1985 and so I didn't do a lot of writing for the first major part of my career I was in the Marines for 21 years but somewhere around 2000 the year 2000 I found myself being a criminal investigator in the marine core and I was traveling across the Southern California desert daily and that desert is massive and so you might find yourself in a car driving from one point to the next point for about four hours and I just started to think of ourselves I think I'm going to do something and a lot of times there was no radio signal that you could pick up so you couldn't listen to the radio Even so I just started I grabbed a little tape recorder and if you gave me a minute I pulled it out of my little desk drawer back here I had a tape recorder and I and I used that tape recorder for my criminal investigations but I started to also use it to kind of like record myself as I was in the car just some story ideas that I was thinking and what are the first story ideas I had was about you know this alien spacecraft that was you know out in the desert and I start to do a little bit of research and you know if you go online you can find people who think that there is a you know government base that secret that's you know buried underground in the president of 29 palms California and I I I found that you know back in the 2000s and I just thought that was so fascinating that there's people who think that there's these you know weird things going on with the government and and here we are today with everything that's going on in the world and it and it just kind of like magnifies exactly what people are interested in and I want to say this in the best interest of readers and writers because that's what we do we write and we read and we create stories but what we also ours were professional liars are we not we are we are professional expert liars and and when we say there's a secret you know military base buried underground in Joshua tree CA it's a lot it's a good line it's a good line it's a good story so you're you're the first genre used really started to work on was was with sci-fi then was that kind of like your first passion you start heading in that direction or absolutely just started working in sci-fi and I want to tell writers you know when when I did a little bit of research about the writing craft as a writer I realized that you know one of them and I wanna I wanna ask you about this party if somebody said Barney hey what's the most profitable shanra to write in where did where did you like go back to your statistics and check your charts and you'd come back and say well you know religious writing is very profitable and then you might come back and say well you know also romance is super profitable for me I don't write romance and I don't really write religion it's all so I just go with science fiction and I go with the thing that I just I had like the most passion about it was like the zombie apocalypse and and I just go with that and and it might not be like the top the top top I'm genre about that sells but it is the top top genre that I had the most fun with and you have you know according to your website here you have 4 four zombie outbreak survival books as you call them also there's probably another if you say for that are on that website there's probably another 12 to 13 better out there on different platforms so wow and so I just I'm so I'm so blown away by how popular zombie the zombies Andra has has been it it has been like it blew me away I wrote about zombies because I just having fun and it just blew me away how popular that genre could be now you know for a writer you say well you know well how much money have you made by writing about zombies I will tell you why hasn't been very modest but it has been fun every step of the way and so and so your job is it 'cause they're they're called zombie outbreak survival that's the thing and then the other: you have get it right or die zombie hive incident 83 definitive test you have to set the rules is this a if someones interested this is this what genre is this like a story with characters in it or is it or is it more or less kind of like a a fictional how to guide how would you describe it so that's a great question So what happened was I watched like every zombie movie you can imagine and that's where it all started I watched the night of the living dead I mean just go back and just name a zombie movie and I watched it and what I noticed in those zombie movies they never really kind of like clarified how it all started and they never really sort of like made a connection about you know the science of what was going on and I said you know we I can do this I said listen here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna tell you how it all started I'm gonna tell you about the science I'm going to tell you about the numbers I'm going to tell you about everything that you don't wanna know about the zombie apocalypse but I'm gonna tell it to you from a nerd's perspective and you're gonna hear and understand exactly how this might have happened and how it will happen and so I started talking about you know the Anna I'm careful today because we're in a pandemic and's scariest this pandemic is I'm I'm very careful if you noticed I haven't spent a lot of time lately talking about the zombie apocalypse because I'm so respective of how does this current xWe're in a pandemic and scariest this pandemic is I'm very careful if you notice I haven't spent a lot of time lately talking about the zombie apocalypse because I'm so respective of how 6 words or I honestly don't want to turn it into a joke right or I mean this is serious the pandemic a serious you know covid is serious I am a just so you guys know I am a two time covid survivor oh wow OK and I blame my kids for that to say guys now totally zombie outbreaks for is it it's the same character that's that's throughout all of them or is it going said captain so captain van Allen which is me in the zombie apocalypse is if I had to like turn it into a character there is a character by the name of captain van Allen who is trying to tell people that the zombie apocalypse is coming and you guys are so ill prepared for it and here's what you need to understand and know to get ready for the zombie apocalypse and so that's that's where the zombie outbreak survival goes through I have an I want to be honest you know I don't want to say that I know everything there is to know about zombie outbreak survival but I've done a lot of research you know being in the Marines for 21 years understanding in the marine core we actually had marine core training that was sort of like gravitated around a pandemic outbreak and so if you look at the movie contagion I go back to that movie that movie contagion with you know who was the big stars in that movie was it Matt and just could just go check out that movie contagion which was sponsored by the CDC they were trying to let people know about how these outbreaks happen and the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak was not a fluke if we're not careful we're going to find ourselves dealing with a pandemic outbreak pretty soon and this so so whenever the politicians tell you nobody saw this coming I would always tell you that's not true everybody everybody who was somebody saw this pandemic conch and the truth truth be told is that this pandemic covid is a small pandemic we have lossed 500,000 people here by the end of February that's a that's a tragedy on all occasions but if this were the big one if this were the big one we'd be talking about 2 to 3,000,000 people is 500,000 yeah in America yeah in America and globally we'd be talking about 50 million people to 100,000,000 people globally at now and if you go back to I'm always like I said I'm I'm a nerd and I look at the math statistically and if you look at the math 500,000 people statistically is almost insignificant but but I don't want to say that and dismiss the tragedy of the lives that have been lossed what I want to say is that it is very serious and what I've tried to do with my writing was I tried to highlight you know the idea that there are pandemics that are coming in waves as we look at as we look at what happens in the world and if we're not careful and then people don't take it seriously it can be very it can be much more tragic than it has to be all we have to do I was gonna say have you seen because of that have you seen that like an increase in and any of your readerships for your zombie books or zombie genre in general have since the pandemic have you seen that and I haven't found yeah I've seen an increase and I've been careful like I said I didn't want to play against the current pandemic and offer and right things that kind of made it seem comical or entertaining and so I've hesitated so I have not published anything recently related to the zombie apocalypse or the zombie pandemic or even the kovid pandemic and I'm just waiting for a chance when we get through this that we can all get back to thinking about a pandemic in an entertaining way rather than the the real tragedy that it is I don't want to do that right and speaking about like some levels of escapism there you have that one book I think you just did a re release of fair do you wanna join great reviews for that it's it's a talk to talk to talk to the audience a bit about about bear this is like a it's a it's a good problem to escapism this is something that you're not normally saying few in quarantine inside your house so it is actually kind of like a completely different shift so you want to be out there I will and thank you for bringing that up so you know there started for me about 10 years ago with a dream I had and I woke up from this dream and I said oh I gotta write that which is believe it or not I do this all the time and I recommend if you're a dreamer and you have these dreams whether they are scary dreams or fun dreams just get a wake up and start writing and you know what you can pop open the app on your phone and dictate you don't even have to write it you can just dictate it in there and you've got a story idea and so bare started as a story idea and as I kind of like worked through that was my first full link book and I and I worked out some of some of the details and I talked to this research kind of like did a little bit of like checking on what bears do and what they don't do and I didn't know what I didn't know about bears until I started writing that book about bears and I kinda like went through the whole you know like immersion exactly what bears do what they don't do how they act how they don't act and this creature and I and and so you can go online you can find a number of books about bears and what I what I find the most interesting in the reviews is when people tell me Oh my God that is so true ah man they're like Oh my God I live in bear country you know and we have bears outside our window and I'm like going yeah that's kind of what the whole story is about is you live in bear country and Anne you kind of don't know what these creatures are thinking and so so Barney you asked me about the rewrite and what I did was I took a look at bear 'cause I had I've written there like I said about 10 years ago and I wanted to kind of like give it a more professional it was self published so published for a lot of people self published I think means you know lower quality but I didn't want the book to be lower quality I wanted it to be high quality and and so I took a chance to like just kind of like go through re edit at work with an editor or work with an artist on the cover and I wanted this version of bear to be the final version and that's where we are where we're at the final version I'm never gonna go back to the bear and do another edit to do another addition to do another version this is the final I'm so happy and proud of it I want to give kudos to a an editor that I worked with by the name of Sharman Monroe I want to give another kudo to the artist for the cover whose name is Charles Wolf Charles Wolf is a gunnery Sergeant retired in the United States marine core and you can go online and look up gunnery Sergeant Charles Wolf and find he does like the most corny art of military like just just it's almost like the kind of cartoons that you see on a Sunday newspaper and I asked him I said hey guns are you OK if maybe you can do cover like for a book and he said send me what you what you thinking and within like two weeks many men charles wolf connected and he came up with this current cover for bear and boy i tell you i'm just so proud of what he did the previous cover for bear was a picture that i pulled xAnd I asked him I said hey guns are you OK if maybe you can do cover like for a book and he said send me what you what you thinking an within like 2 weeks many me and Charles Wolf connected and he came up with this current cover for bear and boy I tell you I'm just so proud of what he did the previous cover for bear was a picture that I pulled off the Internet and I think what I want to say to writers you want to be careful about doing that because it can open you up to liability if you pull a picture off the Internet and you don't have exclusive rights to that picture or the use of that picture right but in this case I was able to work with gunnery Sergeant Charles Wolf this guy has his artwork is like Sunday cartoon a comics types type work and then he came up with the cover for bear and I was I was floored as like that that is the bear and so and so bad so is it is it was this is kind of a horror genre or action what would you consider this I would consider this horror and I was asked that question you know when we talk about horror I mean we got I mean I want to talk about just real quick about horror horror can form in many different you know facets when you look at something like saw so it's pretty horrific or story about like saying for instance clariece and who's the balance of the lambs there yeah that some people tell you that's horror but some people say that's a thriller and then you look at uh uh and I want to just kind of like transition to you know a story like jaws and jaws is horrific and a little bit thrilling but it's also horrific and then khujo I and I didn't think about this as I was writing the book I want to promise you guys that I had no thoughts of cuju as I was writing the book but somebody told me after I wrote the book and they read it they said Oh my God it's just like Joe and I thought I better go read Kojo by Stephen King and so I did I read Kojo by Stephen King and I liked it and I said yeah that's pretty horrific you know just the idea that there's this rabbit dog that is terrorizing this family and and Stephen King wrote that with such clarity very good book highly recommended and I am so does genre I would say is absolutely horror it is absolutely also thrilling but it's when you talk about a bear who terrorizes a family in the Woods that's kind of what you get with there no is I'm just kind of curious is bugs kind of like a genre sequel to that or is that in the same room Brown 'cause you wrote a book called bugs as well so bugs is if you go back to bugs bugs is a little bit So what I tried to do is I tried to rewrite bugs bugs is one of my favorite stores it's one of my favorite stories it's a story about space adventure space manga space so it has absolutely no connection to bear whatsoever OK but it is one of it is one of my favorite stories and it just kind of like talks through this this space adventure where they encounter alien bugs and when I tried to do was at some point I was noticing that bugs didn't get as much attention for one of my favorite stores it get as much attention as I wanted it too so I tried to re craft it and you can do that as a writer you can recur after you can re color the the cover you can change the title the subject you can republish and see what happens and sometimes you you hit it and sometimes you don't I changed bugs to see in I'm going off the top of my head still home into this see in SEV tour malinas lossed that's what I changed bugs too and it's basically bugs it's the same story but it is the story of a space exploration vehicle a vessel that encounters these alien bugs and the story hovers around a character in her world she is called a space navigator there's CNS EV torma lean attorneys Los I'm telling you guys this is my favorite favorite store stream from the author of all your books this one is your favorite this is my favorite my favorite favorite there's like nobody is like I am my IAM my favorite author and in my books are my favorite books if you ever ask me like girl what are your favorite books I would like well my favorite book is bear my favorite author is is vanallen anan my favorite my favorite at my next favorite book is that you know SNSD vetor malinas so so yeah you can you can always hit me up and an ask me what my favourites are and I'll tell you very honestly transparently say that if you're a writer I think you should be your favorite reader you should write for you and be your favorite audience and beer you know and whether you have a pseudonym or a regular name just know that you know when you're writing if you're happy with what you've produced an written that's the most important thing that is just a beautiful thing to be able to say that you know he say hey all these reviews I got a lot of negative reviews like I'll give an example my my zombie will get it right or die it's like 5050 people love it or hate it and I'm sorry 5050 people love it or hate it but I love it hello get it right or die and I gave that book to a group of people men who were in prison here in Texas and they completely like ran that book you know several copies of that book around the prison yard and there were like guards at the prison who were telling me like hey you don't know this but everybody that there's like a line of people waiting to read that book it's just so entertaining I mean that's what you get you know you want to just kind of like be entertaining and and have somebody resonate it doesn't have to be everybody there really doesn't have to be everybody but just to just to know that you like it you wrote it you your your favorite fan and and then you go and and have some fun with it so he meant we were talking earlier like you sci-fi that's your go to genre whether it be like a subgenre of like horror thriller any of that stuff but you also have I find fascinating a you also write management books yeah so is there a is is this something that is that you have a passion for that as well is this how did you start running like management and leadership books well I have a background in psychology and sort of like just just talk about some of the things that we're seeing in the business world and if you go and you look at my book that talks about workplace bullying one of those topics it's a it's a topic that's like dear and near to me how many of us go to work and we have to face you know workplace bullies and even in the current environment of politics you know I mean I've said this very recently on social media you know you're gonna find yourself in a workplace environment where people threaten you that's not OK candle and you shouldn't tolerate it and you should you know just kind of push back and hold you know the line when it comes to workplace bullying and when it comes to workplace violence threats of workplace violence whether it's racial discrimination sexual harassment you have every right to expect that your workplace will be free from those type of problems And sharing some ideas about workplace bullying about workplace violence about how we kind of like navigate that especially in the current environment of what we've seen you know with you know storming the Capitol and things like that and the politics so very important for me to kind of like I might actually write some more ideas about that if I get a chance some of writers perspective is there right you're when you write your your books will be the sci-fi or thriller books do you ever take any idealized versions of of of people that would be responding to your management books as like idealized characters like how much of the psychology do you put into your characters based off of your leadership books for for your sci-fi books so in as a great question happy to say that whenever you read any character in any one of my fiction books those characters are probably based on somebody I know and they are you know I've got people who like email me later and go hey is that about me no it's not but but I can't help but right about people I know and people I've seen and people I've encountered in some cases I can't help it right about me you know so so I'm always like listening to people's stories I so so one of the things I do is whenever I meet people or work with people or talk to people I'm so just kind of like in tune to what their story is what their background is where they're from what have they seen in life and I kind of start I start an interview and it's and it's an informal impromptu interview and I started just like we're having this conversation right now I start to ask them you know where are you from what did you do where did you pick that up and what's your what's your background an an I and what I feel like is that when I start to write these characters like if you go through the book fair or if you go through the zombie apocalypse books or even you know the books like that workplace bullying you're gonna see layers of people that I have met over years that I have kind of like understood where they're from what they did what they think and I try to like lay them in layer them into the story and I would tell writers you have to be careful about that because you don't want to you know you don't wanna write about your mom and she's still alive and I've I've told my mom my mom is still alive by the way I've told her as soon as she dies I'm writing a whole bunch of books about her she's not gonna want to read she not gonna like any of them Mount one I don't wanna read about one so So what about I guess my question because of these these two very distinct and separate genres is that you have obviously we can tell the differences between the genres of 1's being a measure but what would you say is the red or both of these were the similarities that you've seen in the in writing like management books and then fiction books for me writing is kind of like a process I mean burning I'll tell you I have a full time job and so I'm pretty busy with that I'm pretty busy with my kids pretty busy with me and So what I often try to do is just in the moment if I feel a story bubbling and it just kind of bubbles it simmers a little bit and it kind of bubbles up and it bubbles up in a puzzle bubbles up at some point I've got to write it and and that's what I do and it it doesn't flow with you know where your sci-fi writer or your hard writer or you you know you need to write the next story about bear by the way there will be a bear too by the way oreily OK listen exclusive then this is the first announced raises yes yeah OK yes am I already inside this brain is the entire story of bear 2 so but there's also going to be uh additional zombie stories and even when I when I kind of like wrote you know like I said zombie outbreak survival get it right or die think about that title get it right or die yeah that was all about how when you watch a zombie movie like night of the living dead they don't get it right they don't get it right like like like that the the girl who is running around in the zombie apocalypse with a tank top and short short shorts an you know an airline going you can't be running around in a zombie apocalypse dressed like that I don't get it right and then you know they they you know just the idea that somebody is going to like take a baseball bat and just start smacking zombies you know how hard that is it's not easy and what happens you know and I set this up so if you ever watch it go back to The Walking Dead and you say oh man there's so many flaws in that show about real survival and just one example and this is going to be very gory and this is part of horror you know when when the guy takes a baseball bat and he just starts smacking zombies with his baseball images Max Max Max Max Max and all that splatter is going everywhere every bit of that splatter is contaminating right yeah they're like you're catching what made them zombie yeah you not gonna survive alright so and I'm sitting here going you can't do that so I am so part of what I wrote was about how you know in the movies we can't like talk about zombie apocalypse survival because of the entertainment value but we never really get into the real the real attitudes about survival and and the zombie apocalypse and and not only the zombie apocalypse but pure pandemic survival and I've said this in in I said you know I can't I can't get people in a pandemic to wash their hands alright so how you gonna get people in a in a zombie apocalypse to wash their hands yeah it's a good point yeah so when you write this stuff So what is your what would be some tips that like as you've been running now for you know you know well over a decade what are what are some tricks in in and procedures or things that you've done now that you wish you knew like 10 years ago great question I wanna be committed to the research when you write a story Ann if you're gonna write a story about bugs research bugs and if you're going to write a story about bears research bears an don't take it for granted that you can't layer in an this is I think some so somebody read one of my books and she called it the 4th wall I'm careful to use that because I'm not sure I completely get what she meant but what I think she meant is that how you layer in facts and truth and research into fiction that makes the fiction a whole lot more real and you can kind of like you can develop a story let's say you're writing a story about an alien invasion and they're going to you know come here to earth and they're going to take over parts of the government it would help you when you write that store to make sure you understand the the branches of the government the constitution the legal arguments of the government and you don't have to like make that all it doesn't have to be exactly everything you write about in your story but it cannot hurt you if your story layers in a huge amount of truth and research and not only that but history and you can kind of like layer in the fiction on top of all those different things the reader that this is what this is my theory and I haven't seen this anywhere and I don't don't hold him to it but my theory is is that the reader will buy into it more because it just seems more valid and it's not completely fabricated it has a lot and I saw this with books like Dan Brown Dan Brown and his books like this is the magic code he layers in all this like layers and layers and layers in fact and if you ever research some of the things that are in his books you're going to find it makes his books so much more believable it makes it so much more believe why not that's kind of what I wanted to do with all of my writing is to be able to sort of like blend that level of research and truth and honesty with the fiction so that the reader can kind of like go Oh my God it's so believable but I mean but that's where we are with some of some of the things that are going on politically in the world today is that you know people are like blending the truth with with the fiction and so many people are buying into it that they're getting in trouble and I don't want it I don't want people to get in trouble I really don't I I think you have to have a sense that you still reading fiction right and so and so you know with that do you find it easier or harder to write a story that is I guess more more fabulous in a way like space ships or or you know or issues of like zombie apocalypse what would you order bear which ones you find actually that you have to be you're trying to be more specifics on the on the research so so my zombie writing is always much more precise and specific on the research space and science fiction gives me a little bit more freedom to just kind of like write an not stick to anything more than I've seen like with either Star Trek or Star Wars and and I can kind of like go it's so so whenever I write science fiction and space it's fun and I don't have to be so driven by you know the science now I I can create things I can talk about warp speed and the warp speed is completely fabricated I can but I can talk about that without having to like layer in you know the definition of warp speed but when I write about you know bear or when I write about the bugs I kinda an end and so and I want to say this there's another bug store coming out my daughter wrote a story about bugs when she was in the third grade and she gave me her three page story and told him she wanted me to make it into a book now that was almost 15 years ago i still written her story so cTruth with with the fiction and so many people are buying into it that they're getting in trouble and I don't want I don't want people get in trouble I really don't I think you have to have a sense that you still reading fiction right and so and so you know with that do you find it easier or harder to write a story that is I guess more top more fabulous in a way like space ships or or you know or issues of like zombie apocalypse what would you order there which one do you find actually that you have to be you're trying to be more specific this on the on the research so so my zombie writing is always much more precise and specific on the research space and science fiction gives me a little bit more freedom to just kind of like write an not stick to anything more than I've seen like with either Star Trek or Star Wars and and I can kind of like go it's so so whenever I write science fiction and space it's fun and I don't have to be so driven by you know the science now I can create things I can talk about warp speed and the warp speed is completely fabricated I can but I can talk about that without having to like layer in you know the definition of warp speed but when I write about you know bear or when I write about bugs icon to an end and so I want to say this there's another bug story coming out my daughter bring a story about bugs when she was in the third grade and she gave me her three page story and told him she wanted me to make it into a book now that was almost 15 years ago I still written her story so I've gotta write that story but I've but as writing that story I've got to do a lot of research about bugs you know you know when you talk about you know a spider a spider is an arachnid it's not an insect right you know a scorpion a scorpion isn't is an arachnid did you know that and you kind of have to like look at all the different information that you've got to know and I'm I'm sitting here going you know just as an example I'm telling you how much research I've done about bugs centipedes did you know that centipedes always have an odd number pair of legs OK you don't know that who knows that centipede can have seven pairs of legs 9 pairs of legs 11 pairs of legs it cannot have 8 pairs of legs or four pairs of legs and in the insect world a centipede is one of the few insects that has more than six legs and you're sitting there going he's going I need it I need to make sure I know all of this as I start to write these stories about bugs to make sure let me ask you I'm curious is your zombie apocalypse books bear and bugs in their sci-fi is it a shared universe like is it 1 big like this the zombie apocalypse is that part of the same timeline as your sci-fi or or any of that stuff how does that's great great chance to talk about no there's no connection between you know the bear the bugs sci-fi zombies it almost is its own world even you know as I kind of think about some of the things I want to write about continuing to write about business world and the workplace you know that it just like I said you know for me now I know there are a lot of writers who will tell you to pick a job and stick to it I'm just not there yet I'm not there yet I'm I'm pretty much writing whatever I feel like writing and like I said as some idea starts and it kind of bubbles up and it bubbles up and bobs up and I got it right and for the most part it could be anything really could be anything it could be anything mostly it's probably gonna be about aliens MM sci-fi and if it is any writers are out there listening you know you say well what's what's the most money making genre on the planet I would say religion and an romance both of which I don't rank do you we'll ever have like a like a like a mashup bulk of like aliens versus zombies has that ever happened well that is a great idea I haven't even thought about that aliens and zombies and mamelon thinking you got me thinking Barney don't be surprised look I'm trying to be cool trying to cool so this is great so where to work where are you knocking on the hour already so they're working people find your work where can they read more of your stuff I would say just go to vanallenfiction.com catch me on Twitter I host a Tuesday Twitter feed called better Tuesday hashtag better Tuesday and catch around Facebook and Instagram if if there are any writers out there and you guys want to just connect with the writing community I recommend Twitter at recommend my hashtag it's hashtag better Bett ER Tuesday T I'm sorry Tuesday that's the number 2 SD ay better two day Oh yeah yeah right there and so I would want you guys to just kind of like communicate and connect with other writers and readers and there's a huge like flow of people that go in and out a better Tuesday on Twitter On Facebook I try to stay grounded because my family has told me that they want to know more about me and my kids and so I so you'll see on Facebook crap got pictures of me and make pictures of the kids and I talk about some of the funny things they say my my kids are my kids are the funniest kids even when when I tested positive for covid you know my son is 16 he he comes to me and he goes so bad are you gonna die Ashton I don't think I'm gonna die he says well if you die can I have your motorcycle leave this room right now panda I've I've told my family that I would add a little bit more family humor to my Facebook but so Twitter is all about writing Facebook is about writing as well but has a little bit more kind of family stuff in there because there's people in my family though you ever gonna marry kids they already been talked about these crazy kids well great well thanks a lot man and so next time you have something coming out always come back if you have any other books that you want to talk about running out of your any other writings that you have no I will hey this has been very encouraging I'm I'm so inspired that you know as I count like think about this I gotta get busy I gotta get back to work to the drawing
Thanks a lot man and so next time you have something coming out always come back if you have any other books that you want to talk about running out of your any other readings that you have this has been very encouraging I'm I'm so inspired that you know as I kind of like think about this I gotta get busy I gotta get back to work to the drawing table Turn my Facebook but Twitter is all about writing Facebook is about writing as well but has a little bit more kind of family stuff in there because there's people in my family go you never have kids talk about these crazy kids well great well thanks a lot man and so next time you have something coming out always come back if you have any other books that you want to talk about running out of your any other writings that you have Meanwhile will hey this has been very encouraging I'm I'm so inspired that you know as I kind of like think about this I gotta get busy I gotta get back to work after the drawing
I got your Sheriff hat on my my my zombie survival RTG chat is that where did you get that hat anyway so this hat you can buy a hat like this at Cabela's in Texas OK and I just added my little 10 star trying to see if you guys can see that I just added my little sheriffs badge to kind of give me that that Rick Grimes field right
Again, my apologies for the rough draft format of this transcription. Please give a look and listen to the interview on YouTube.
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