This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work
at MJMunoz.com. I am unbelievable. I surprise myself sometimes. Well, let me
let me stop real quick and say this is story over everything over everything
episode I'm not sure which one yet because I'm in flux. I'm a creature of
mercurial nature. You can never tell exactly what I'm gonna do or where I'm
gonna go or how I'm going to title things. So that's uh that's not a brag
and that's also not a self-recrimination. It's just just me being honest and open
with you. Just like I'm gonna be honest and open with you and tell you that I
had planned on this Squall Charleston interview for I don't know not less than
a week maybe three or four days and I refused to I thought about it but I
refused to ultimately test out the recording system for StreamYard which I
was trying for the very first time and I've been interested in StreamYard for a
long time probably over a year and I've never tried it myself because I thought
oh it's not for me it's too expensive but I thought you know what I'm gonna
give it a I'm gonna I'm gonna wing it this time. It's a duck joke.
StreamYard's logo is a duck. You think it was funny? Anyway sorry moving on. So I
went on StreamYard with Squall. I invited him. There was no issue. Super great. He
was great. He was on time. In fact he was waiting for me a little bit and I finally
got there because I was like I don't know I don't know I was just distracted
for some reason and I got there and he was gracious enough to be real cool and
we talked. We had a good conversation. We talked about a bunch of stuff and it was
a great conversation and at the end of it I realized I don't think I recorded
that and he said no I'm sure you did right and I said no I'm pretty sure I
didn't and then I hit a button and then he said oh there goes it's recording
because it told us both that we were recording whereas it didn't tell us both
that we were recording when I said I'd hit the recording button so yeah that
that did not go well and it's all my fault and I should have been more
careful and he was gracious enough to say hey you know what not a big deal
when you have time let me know we can redo this and I said okay and then I
thought about it and I thought I don't want to waste this guy's time. He was cool
enough to do the interview and he was cool enough to like not waste time like
we didn't waste time we talked about things in an interesting way I think I'll
plan to do a little bit more of a structured conversation with him about
the next book but this was really good it was a good talk it was a good
conversation I you know I had fun I don't know if you would have enjoyed it
but I think I but I know I had fun and he seemed like he had a good time so I
thought that really sucked to just like you know have him redo this thing all
over again especially because some of the stuff that he said in this episode I
know he said to people previously because I listen to at least one of his
other interviews which I'm gonna include the links to the other interviews that
he did yeah I'm gonna include the links to the other interviews that he did in
the show notes here and you can check those out as well those are well anyway
I've listened to one of them already at the time of this recording and it was
good and I do plan on listening to the other one I just had poorly managed my
time and I was not able to until well until here we are now and I have so
anyway without further ado I'm gonna go ahead and talk about the book based on
my thoughts my experience with it my reading of it my reactions to it and
then I will include the small amount of extra you know redoubled looped
interview that I did with Squall at the end of it because I thought you know I
owe it to this guy who at least you know not keep him for very long but you know
have him say something so you get to hear a little bit of Squall talking
about the book and kind of giving a pitch for it and I'm right along there
with him saying yeah this is a good book I enjoyed it and I'm gonna tell you
about why I enjoyed it how I enjoyed it now I'm not gonna go into spoilers in
this discussion of the book this is another book chat I guess you could say
it's an unofficial skimming leaves episode or I mean I just make it an
official skimming leaves episode that's fine with me but yeah that's what I'm
gonna do and hopefully you'll enjoy it I enjoyed talking to him originally but
yeah it's a cool book I'll talk about some of the fun points in it and then I
will let you hear the micro interview with Squall and actually good news for
you we will be back in December maybe January though because it comes out
like really late in December and I don't know what his plans are for the holidays
or anything like that so maybe January we'll be back and there will be a
Squall Charleston interview a real one an official one done here on this channel
on story over everything and you'll get to listen to that and enjoy it and yeah
that's the plan so that's gonna be for the second book in the Terra Valley
series and now I'm gonna talk about the first book in the Terra Valley series
which is called schools out for never so I'll spend the first five minutes or so
talking about the book in a non spoiler way and then I might talk about a couple
spoilers actually sharing some insights of stuff that I talked about with Squall
so in the interview that wasn't recorded so yeah I I liked the book I thought it
was good there was nothing inappropriate in it although there was definitely scary
things that happened and people being bad another question has popped into my
mind now that I'm thinking about it but I'll get to that later but yeah it was
very good you know Squall talks about these books being in the vein of R.L.
Stein's Goosebumps the at least the original 62 I don't know what makes the
distinction of the later Goosebumps books are they you know less scary more
scary are they more in one genre another I'm not exactly sure about that but I I
didn't realize that there were 62 Goosebumps books and Squall says he was
reading those when he decided that he could write this stuff and so he did
which is which is pretty fun he and I have a similarity in that we both found
you know Goosebumps to be interesting like it wasn't always a scary story but
there's something you know sometimes deeper in the story something sometimes
a really good like character story and I don't know if Squall set out to write
this as a deeper kind of you know character study type thing and not just
something that has you know chills and thrills and scares in it but it does
have like a really nice emotional core to it and I really did enjoy that so for
those who don't know and Squall's gonna talk about this too I think in the
interview it's basically Brown Hog's Day meets what meets school I guess you could
say it's a middle grade horror book and that's what it is this kid is repeating
the last day of school the last day of the year before he gets to go out for
summer which is where the title comes from which is a great title and I believe
Squall said he came up with the title first then developed the concept so
that's that's a pretty fun thing to do a pretty fun way to do it I think there's
a lot of like you know a lot of energy there's a lot of enthusiasm even though
the story was like it had sweet moments and it's interesting moments and it's
retrospective or introspective moments rather I can feel like a lot of
enthusiasm and a lot of excitement coming through the book the whole way
through which is really great and it's funny well it's funny it's a funny book
it starts out really funny a little mundane like the characters are
interesting there's not really like boring parts that you want to skip or
gloss over anything like that but like the setting is very much mundane it's
just an ordinary day at school and this isn't really spoilers because you know
it's a book that has this Grunhock's Day type thing going on and that's in the
blurb and everything it's just a normal day at school and it's a day that sucks
for the main character of Friday Shiner and it's I don't know it was like sort
of homey sort of nostalgic from my school days like he captured that really
well he captured I feel like school captured like the real aspects of school
and then like the TV sitcom you know Wonder Years Boy Meets World you know
whatever else you watched type of aspects of that kind of world that that
life that kids have and I thought it did it in a really cool way and I really
enjoyed that and I yeah I just it was like a really cozy nice book there were
funny moments in it and it just kind of you know slid me into the mindset of a
kind of lulled me to sleep of me in the the thinking of being back in school back
in the day and what it was like and then there's the trigger I guess you could
say and things start to ramp up and essentially again this is not a spoiler
essentially Freddy dies and then he wakes up again in class just like he woke up
again in class or woke up in the first chapter of the book and that starts the
loop it starts the cycle it gets you into it to get you introduced to what
exactly is going on in this world in this time and place and it's cool it's
very effective it's not you know a groundbreaking earth-shattering concept
we've had loops and obviously there's the famous Groundhog today which
apparently is based off of the book I believe in a previous interview Squall
did say that the book called replay is actually what got turned into Groundhog
saying I think that's what he said but he talked about it in our interview but
of course that's the one I lost so anyway yeah so that's really interesting
it's you know it's a it's a novel concept it's something that's been done
in a lot of things and I think squall did a really good job of it it never got
boring it never got tedious the ways that Freddy dealt with it and branched off
were novel interesting and again it was entertaining the whole way through
there's a mystery where there's like a monster or creature or a bad guy after
Freddy too in this world and you kind of have to figure out how that works as
you're reading the book and most things become clear but there was something
happened at the end of the book that I hadn't even really noticed and there was
something he explained to me I can I can go into to spoiler territory here
there was something that's called explained to me and I didn't really
catch it at first but then as I you know let him explain the whole thing I
understood what he was going for and it made sense and while it didn't hit me
that way it still worked because while I didn't understand the author's intent
the effect of what he showed not the motivations behind it but the effect of
what he showed in the book was scary and did add a level of threat and a level of
suspense and then actually this same character who I didn't realize
who I did not realize was the same character ends up again this is a
spoiler section so if you want to hear it then listen away ends up going after
Freddy and trying to kill him even if it kills them and that was really
interesting and even at that part of the book like stuffs on fire there's a knife
being brandished like Freddy's very obviously going to die if something else
doesn't happen and gosh that was really interesting and like I don't think I
don't know if technically that would be the climax I don't think it is the
climax but it was like a very climactic set of events and then it after that
it's not like I guess maybe that is the climax and then there's a denouement because you get
some revelations and you get to understand a little bit better the nature
of the world and how it's moving and how it's going and it's really interesting
and exciting and I don't think he went too far with it I definitely think this
is something a kid could handle especially you know in a book maybe
seeing it on a TV show or depicted a movie you're seeing it depicted on
screen visually with real people might be too much seeing a cartoon might be
okay and that was something that's well I talked about too like you know reading
it processing it through a book through through the medium written word it's a
lot different than it is to see it and like you can have a little more
wiggle room you can have a little more leeway and I definitely feel like he
pushed the envelope but again it I didn't I don't think he went too far and
I enjoyed everything that he he put in there and it was creepy and a little
scary and not like I was scared that something was gonna happen to me but I
was just you know that Freddie really felt like he was in danger and that was
really interesting and really fun so it was good in that respect
excuse me we talked a little bit about how the intricacies of the looping
thing worked and I thought it was really fascinating how he planned it out
basically you know he started off with the idea and then said well this is what
I wanted to end and then what do I have to provide in the beginning or
throughout the story for it to work that way and while he doesn't really plan on
doing sequels to these books he as he was nearing the end of Terry Valley
book one which is again Sword of the Never he said I should add some things in
that could be potential sequel bait and he told me that he was actually gonna
add an additional looper into the story and that I picked up on a character
being potentially having gone through these loops as well and anyway it was
really cool cuz like I was telling him I don't like I almost exclusively want to
write series and you know I'm I think I find it commendable that you are able to
take an idea that's so cool take a such a neat fun idea that you could really
play with and something that I in fact thought about after I was done reading
the book I thought huh you know is there a plot hole here is there a bottle there
how do these things work out with each other you know who is this character
what are they what kind of monster is it whatever and like you know how many more
stories could you tell just at this school just at this class just with the
fifth grade just with whoever else was involved or their stories from the past
that you could tell would you want to do that why would you that what was the
motivation be if they're all looping them you know how exciting can that be
but even so I thought maybe you could make it more exciting by having the
loops and maybe you do a kid looping in every era or you know you could do you
know just fifth graders loop and just do a whole long series of just fifth
graders looping different days of the school year even like that would be
super interesting but you know so I'll saw that opportunity he said I'm gonna
put that away I'm not gonna do that with this book but I am going to add in some
things at the end here that could open it up for a sequel if I wanted there to
be one and I thought that was really interesting and you know he mentioned
you know that it would kind of be cool for people to one day say oh I really
like Terra Valley or you know schools out for never that's my favorite Terry
Golly book you know are they gonna do another one can they do another one
where's the next one that kind of thing and then he'd say well actually I have
these little seats planted here so he mentioned that he was gonna do that for
his next book which is coming out December 19th 2023 it's called you're
not my sensei and I'll I'll let him give the pitch in the interview but that
sounds like a fun book I think it's cool that his first book stars a boy and the
second book stars a girl and that while Freddie's dealing with regular school
angst or whatever you know I don't imagine that Remy who's the girl in the
next book is gonna be looping but she is kind of dealing with a totally different
environment it's you know similar it's a definitely a kid environment but it's
not it's not just another story set in school so that's that's fun and that's
it's nice already that schools kind of planning things out to have them branch
out and be you know each thing be its own thing for now and I think that's
good and I told him I look forward to reading the next one and I do and I look
forward to successfully recording an interview with him at that time to
discuss that book that second book and then we'll just have schools out for
never be the last episode except the mini interview that I'm gonna have with
him here at the end so anyway it was a good book I recommend you go out and get
it now you can get it on Kindle Unlimited or you can buy it paperback
you buy digital I bought a digital copy of it just cuz I'm like trying to
protect the earth man and yeah so anyway I again I advised the book it was a good
read it was a fun read Squall talks about how he wanted this to be like a
movie and I ended up calling it a movie at some point in our interview and he
was like oh there you go it's a movie you're even saying it I said yeah you're
right and it does feel like a movie it's got that good kind of pacing and gosh
it was a lot of fun it was a lot of fun I really enjoyed it and there was
nothing I mean like I don't know I it was definitely kid appropriate you don't
have to be worried about giving it to one of your kids and that was one thing
squall said he's been working with kids recently or as of late I guess you could
say and he doesn't he wanted this to be something that would be great for kids
to read and that you know other than the interesting people who say you know
everything's the devil that probably nobody would have much of an issue with
him or with the content of the book and I agree as a concerned parent is a
concerned father who's I've I know I have advised my kids to read the book
and I think it would be totally appropriate and I think there's something
to learn there's something to benefit from in reading this book
yeah there is there definitely is not only the entertainment but there's a
secondary thing with you know Freddy's character arc and his growth that
happens in the story that's really cool and I'll leave it at that I'll leave it
at that you should go check it out it's a cool book fun book scary creepy
suspenseful but also like poignant poignant makes you think and yeah I
just I really enjoyed it I've said that a few times so I'm gonna stop saying it
now anyway I will let the interview play now and I think I have an outro attached
to that so I'm not gonna do an outro here so one issue with the audio is that
my volume is very low so I brought squall down to my level literally and
you're just gonna have to crank it up so you can hear the episode well for the
interview it's about six minutes long so go ahead and do that and enjoy I will
test out my microphone next time before we record so we're back hello we're back
but wait a minute we never put an episode out to begin with no we didn't
because I am a fool and I failed to test things properly and I touched one
recording button that wasn't really a button and I thought we did a whole like
45 minute long thing of recording and we didn't and I apologize to you a thousand
apologies for wasting your time we've all been there so yeah actually the guy
named dropped or didn't name drop earlier I was accidentally an hour late
to him because I like didn't understand the time zones and he was like hey it's
no big deal I understand let's just do this and we had a really good
conversation so yeah I don't know what to say other than I'm so sorry this will
be a lesson for me a lesson long remembered for me because yeah I totally
botched this and again I'm sorry but squall we had you here to talk and we
talked about your book terror Valley we talked about your history well we talked
about a bunch of stuff that we won't go into right now if we do a re-recording
great if not why don't you just tell us like three minutes to Rovelli it was a
great book I read it I enjoyed it it was like a movie in my mind reading that
book why don't you tell us a little bit about it and where people can find you
and we'll see what happens next well let's start the timer hey I'm squall
Charles and you may know me from a different few different places but
primarily it's probably gonna be Tokusatsu where I did a lot of content
back in the day through different official mediums through my own YouTube
through you know all this other crap but basically my passion my dream has always
been since I was a child to become an author and I've been trying to write a
book for a few years now and just having a full-time job just doing all this
stuff in between it's just been really really hard to sort of continue that and
to sort of keep it up and so I thought you know what I'm gonna write something
a little bit smaller something for younger kids who I work with or in my
life all the time just kind of do something fun for them so I wrote a book
series called Terror Valley and the first book schools out for never is
available now and it's about a young boy named Freddie Shiner who on his very
last day of fifth grade finds that once the day comes to a close as soon as the
school bell rings his day repeats over and over again and you know he starts
noticing things here and there like there start to be harder questions on
tests yeah I know who does tests on the last day of school the teacher seemed to
be a little bit meaner his friends are different and that he might not be the
only one looping if you want to check that out it's pretty good it's like a
two three hour read you know it's meant for like middle grade young adult
goosebump theme goosebump vein horror I don't know what else to say you know
like go check it out it's fun you can find us over at terror Valley calm you
can buy the book on Amazon if you type in terror Valley or my name's Squall
Charleston and get yourself a copy for you know the young one in your life or
you know you know indulge yourself a little bit go back to those golden days
of Goosebumps and tear into something that's just as fun back I am not the the
62 book Goosebumps reader like Swell is I read my fair share of Goosebumps back
in the day and I enjoyed those a lot and I really enjoyed this like I said
earlier and it's ironic in a weird cosmic way I've made you into a little
bit of Freddy Shiner today with I'm so sorry once again but it was a great book
I really enjoyed it I want there to be I think there's sequel potential although
we talked about that and yeah I hit a few things in there yeah and that's good
that's excellent you want to have those open loops that you can come back to if
need be if you know I just replace the exact same book again that's a great
idea underneath you can just call it the quest for more money right yeah so yeah
that was great and I enjoyed our time talking but unfortunately for the
listeners this is where it ends so in in our own way we got our horror
experience of looping and the audience if they wanted to hear more about it
they get a horror show too and that they just they're not gonna get what they
wanted because that's all like this sometimes right yeah we've all been
there but hey if you want a full episode let us know we'll come back we'll do a
full one maybe just save it for me know the next book number two that's coming
out it's called you're not my sensei and it's about this young girl named Remy
moves to a new school and new town and her favorite hobby is karate so she
joins the only karate dojo that's in the area and finds out that it's full of
karate zombies you'll want to check that one out comes out in December
give me talk I love the this one released October 6th and the next one's
gonna be December do you know what you get 19 19 okay cool so like barely three
months in between them right hmm trying to do on every other month okay that's
fantastic I love that it's great so mostly cuz my wife said you shouldn't
do one a month which I was going to but she's like no just you know give yourself
a little bit of a break all right listen to your wife she's always yeah all right
well once again folks that's it for now we'll probably just come back and do the
next one because I'm sure I'll enjoy that one and we'll have even more to
talk about but there are already great interviews out there with at least two
other channels I believe so I'll leave links to those in the description as
well as everything to help help you find squalls where he is and his page so you
can buy the book yourself and get it it's also in Kindle Unlimited if you
want to go that but I say just buy the book it's great do it I mean I'm gonna
look at a great deal it's free might as well yeah why not all right well once
again Squall thank you so much and until next time folks this is MJ signing out
take care I hope you enjoyed that go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions
comments or other feedback you might have there you can find all of my
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look around you're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well
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