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 here, this is a story over everything, episode 43.5, and I'm back
here. The reason I'm stumbling over myself is because I'm kind of afraid. I'm afraid
because I'm talking to a horror author, Squall Charlson. He's here with Terra Valley book
number two, You're Not My Sensei. Squall, welcome to the show.
Don't be scared, I only write scary things. I like to think I'm a pretty nice guy, usually.
Usually, there's that line, there's that line. So, I'm going to jump right into this and
just ask you, what was the inspiration for this book? Do you have any background in martial
arts that informed this, or was it just something else?
I mean, yeah, there's a character in this book, his name is Chuck, and I like to think
that all my characters sort of come from some sort of place of who I am or who I was. And
I feel very drawn to Chuck because I wanted to get into karate when I was younger, but
it wasn't that I wasn't coordinated or wasn't good, but my mom just didn't want me to go
and do it because I got into enough fights as is. She didn't want me actually knowing
how to throw kids around if I really got into the spirit of it. So, in a way, I was sort
of like Chuck where I was very like, I want to do this, but I'm kind of apprehensive.
I didn't have to deal with any karate zombies or anything like that. So, when I was thinking
of all the kind of ideas I wanted to do for this series, we were watching Cobra Kai at
the time. And I thought to myself, you know what? This is so fun, like how they take this
original movie that, you know, hated or love it. I mean, what it turned into in the sequels
following the first Karate Kid are debatable, but what the show Cobra Kai does is so much
fun and I just love the idea of karate in the valley, you know, Terror Valley. And I
was just like, you know, this kind of goes hand in hand. And so I was like, well, what
would a scary karate story be like? You know, what would that entail? And I kind of came
up with the idea of, you know, this kid moving to a new place and they have to go to this
new karate dojo and maybe a little worse than Cobra Kai where everyone sort of brainwashed.
And then I kind of took it a little bit further. I'm like, well, what if they are like undead
zombie karate students? Spoiler alert, sorry. And you're not my sensei. That's where it
came from.
Oh, very cool. Very cool. So that's interesting. By the way, I was thinking about the book
yesterday because I, yeah, I was thinking about last night. I finished it yesterday
like before around noon or two or something like that. And then it hit me like at six
or seven at night. Chuck Chuck Norris. Is there anything there with the name Chuck?
Because I know you said you don't really sometimes it seems like you're you're kind of funny
about your names either. It was something super intentional or it's just you like it.
You like the sound of it. But did you like the sound of it? Because it made you think
of Chuck Norris.
No, actually, that's the first time I thought of Chuck Norris, which is really funny. I
knew someone named Chuck who I kind of picture. I hate to like use the words of like, I don't
know. You've read the book. Chuck's kind of an outlier on the outside. He's kind of, you
know, not very popular. And I knew a Chuck growing up that kind of fit that mold. And
I was just like, I workshopped a couple of different names. But I was like, I kept coming
back to Chuck. I'm like, I really like that. It just sounds like such a contrast to Remy,
Remy and Chuck. It just sounded really nice together the more I wrote it and kind of just
kept it. But yeah, Chuck Norris, that's good. Hopefully other people might think that there's
a connection there too. That's good.
I think they will. I think they will. It'll be good. It actually, it kind of, did you
ever see the movie Sidekicks? The Chuck Norris movie from the movies? Yeah. So I, all I remember
is the guy's rising out of the water and it's all the kid's imagination, but it's not or
whatever. So that kind of all fits. And even if you don't have that touchstone, I think
just Chuck Norris himself, that's enough. People, I think people will get the, you know, get
a little kick out of that. So that'll be fun. But he's obviously that. No, no, definitely
not. It's, it's, it's a little bit, a little bit. Yeah. So the, the other question I was
going to ask is, let me see. Oh, so I don't want to get too much to the spoiler territory
yet. We'll, uh, for the last five minutes, we'll do some hard spoilers. Um, so what is
or rather, so as people may know or may not know, uh, Tara Valley is very much inspired
by the Goosebumps. You want to be basically the successor to R.L. Stein and you know,
if you keep working at it, I'm sure you will. So, um, is the transfer student, uh, to quote
in anime trope, is the transfer student thing common in R.L. Stein's books at all, or is
this something that you've introduced, uh, with this? No, and I think you'll find, um,
it kind of transcends Goosebumps. Goosebumps I think is like the one that we might think
about more just because a lot of these stories involve sort of fish out of water scenarios.
Like you're not in your comfortable, um, you know, normal, uh, town or, you know, in your
old house or around old friends that you can really, you know, pull from. And I think that's
what really makes Goosebumps work is because a lot of the kids in those stories have moved
or are experiencing something new, which I know a lot of children go through, unfortunately,
you know, they're moving around all the time. They, you know, have to go to a new school.
Like for me, I went to an elementary school and we moved across the city that I lived
in and my mom still let me go to that elementary school for like the last two years of, um,
you know, then, and then she was like, all right, when middle school happens, we're just
going to pivot and you'll go to the middle school with all these kids on the other side
of the south of the city that you've never been in school with. And it was a disaster.
Um, I think like, yeah, I want to do stories like that, but I also want to look at sort
of like what wasn't done, you know, like a lot of kids don't move a lot of kids, you
know, grow up in the same spot that they've been, you know, since they were a baby, they
have the same friends, they have the same, you know, people around them their whole lives.
And so I want to kind of do like a healthy dose of that. Whereas the first one in, um,
schools out for never, Freddy kind of experiences something new with his day in day out, um,
familiarity. Whereas Remy has to kind of plunge head first into, you know, a new town, new
people, new, um, zombies, you know, a lot of stuff like that sort. Um, but yeah, a lot
of goosebumps do have those sorts of stories where it's a new kid or, you know, transfer
student of sorts.
Right, right. Yeah. And you know, like I cited the, the, you know, the anime trope, like
it's great to bring a new kid into a school and then it's just, you get to see the whole
world through their eyes and everything. And that's a really good way to do things. But
I, I, um, I think I previously pointed out that I liked that you went from having you
started with Freddy and you went to Remy. So you've got boy girl. And then now you're
also seeing you've got it's hometown versus new in town. And I really think that's a valuable
thing to do. And it's, you know, it's great that you're doing that already. Um, so I look
forward to seeing what's different about the next place. I can already guess one thing.
And I feel like, uh, do you, is the title announced yet? It was at the end of the book
technically at the end of the book, it's on the back of the cover. Um, the next title
number three is going to be called the this way to camp blood, which is another goosebump
staple is a camp story. He would do one a year, um, that would release in the summer.
So I'm going to try to do one that's not quite a camp story, but it takes place in a camp
setting. And that's all I'm probably going to try for now. Got it. Okay. Well, I think
there's at least one reference or one hint as to what that's going to be in this book.
And there may have been one reference to it in the first book as well. Right. Yes. So
the very first line in the first book, I, um, I took it out intentionally because I
didn't want people to read that. And camp blood is also, um, sort of has a relation to
Friday the 13th series. That's originally what they were going to call that series was
camp blood. Um, so I didn't want people to read that first line and be like, oh, he's
just trying to, you know, milk this or, you know, cash in on that. Definitely not the
very first line in the first book was I stayed up all night, you know, watching a back to
back horror movie marathons. So no wonder I fell asleep in class. He was watching camp
blood. We'll just say that movie series universe. Okay. Very cool. I like that. I like the,
uh, is that called vaporware when people make something up that exists in the universe and
not outside of it like that, like a property or whatever? Maybe. I think it's just like,
you know, typical universe building. And I want this all to sort of take place in any
ville USA, but also like everything is in the exact same sort of location too. So you're
not quite sure. Um, but everything in the universe will be in universe and I might even,
you know, future titles crossed over some characters that were in older stories and
new ones. That's a very cool story. You know, that's a fun potential. So I liked that idea.
Okay. Well, that's really cool. Um, now I have to say, okay, okay. Um, I'm not, I'm
not a horror reader, so this is, you know, this is a new territory for me. So thank you
for filling me in on that. Um, so let me see, what's the next thing? Uh, I'm going to, so
the books felt, or they were about the same length. Is that accurate to say you, you basically
targeted, did you, did you target the same length or you came up with one length for
the first book and then you said, I'm going to try to keep them all at this, uh, at this
length. Um, I had a goal of 25,000 words, which is about the typical length for one of these,
you know, scholastic release, middle grade chapter books. Um, and I was aiming for that
here too, but I got closer to about 30,000 words cause I got to the end. I was just like,
oh man, there's so much stuff I want to do right now. And then I went back and revise
it at night. Typically when you revise like the first one, I took out like two or three
chapters worth of stuff. So it went from like 28,000 down to 25,000. This one, I went from
like 26,000 up to like 30,000. Like I was just adding more and more stuff. And cause
I'm like, Oh, I want to do this. Oh, I set the head up. I should talk about that here.
Um, there's a lot more fun to kind of like go back in from the beginning of this one
and sort of set all that up. Like I even went through and like mapped out my entire story
beats. I'm holding up some paper here of like my, uh, you know, point to point of this happens
that leads to this, you know, every kind of chapter idea. So I could kind of go through
and block where I was. Um, cause I kind of got into a, a rut with this one. Whereas in
the first book, if I ever wrote myself into a corner or did something really crazy or
stupid, I could just reset the day and Freddy's back in his classroom. But with this one,
I had to have very specific things happen in order to map out where Remy is or where
Remy needed to go. And I would get to certain parts. I'm just like, how do I get her back
to like the school or how do I get her to go here or do this? And so it was a lot of
fun to kind of like revise it and restructure it after I had written like two thirds of
it and finish it off that way.
That's cool. Yeah. I was thinking about too, um, everything takes place in the school in
the first book and everything takes place everywhere. There's probably five or six main
locations in, uh, for Remy to visit. So like there's her house, there's the school, there's
the dojo, there's kind of the road in between. Uh, and then where else is there one more
location?
No, I think, I think that's it. Like just the town, I guess itself would be a location
of her, like, you know, like on the streets or sidewalks and whatever. Um, so from going,
going from one to five, you know, in the school, you can have different rooms and sort of treat
that as a different location. But
That's true. Like the hallways, the hallways and in front of the lockers is definitely
a set. Like that's a location where a lot of stuff happens. So that's, that's cool.
And then you have the, was it, uh, yeah, the front office, which is in the middle of the
school, which I liked you pointing that out. Like what is it? Like,
I had a school that was like that and it was stupid. Everybody made fun of it. So I was
like, oh, I'm going to put that in the book.
I liked that detail. It was good. That's good. So did you have to, so it's weird. I got like
a real familiar, uh, and like cozy feeling almost with Freddie going through his day
and looping. And it definitely gave me a certain vibe. And I didn't get that vibe here. Not
that it wasn't cozy or homey or anything like that, but it was, I dunno, maybe the horror
elements of what Freddie went through were like kind of offset by the comedy. So there
was a little bit more warmth in there too. And it's like, he almost gets like this, like
he has an interesting arc and he has more of a progression like with outside, uh, you
know, adult, well, I don't want to spoil anything too much, but like adult people who like advise
him sort of, right? So whereas Remy, even though she has people she can count on, uh,
she's very much removed from them and she's very isolated. So again, I like the contrast
so far. You've got like this coziness and then you have this contrast and this, this
isolation that Remy, uh, you know, has to deal with. Um, did you ever consider like
giving her a little more help or like, did you always have in mind that she would be
this isolated? Did you kind of play with that and just see what felt right to you?
I mean, going back to like the first book, I think Freddie did a lot of it on his own
as well because of the twist of things and because of him actually, you know, experiencing
this on his own, even though, um, try to make this as spoiler light as possible. There were
other people and other forces that could have intervened and tried to, but really it was
up to him to sort of figure out what's going on to him on his own. What I wanted to do
with this was I really liked the idea of going back to like R.L. Stein and Goosebumps. He
always has, you know, like the adults never believe the kids. The kids are always on their
own. The kids always have to, you know, fight Dracula. They have to fight the swamp monster.
They have to go off and kind of do their own thing. And sometimes even like those interpersonal
communication between the kids. Like if there's like an older brother or sister, they won't
believe them until like halfway through the book and sort of formulaic in that regard.
And what I wanted to do with this one was I really wanted to make it seem like these
two characters knew what was happening and then to sort of strip away all of those things
until it is just Remy. And she does have help later on in the book. Um, and she does have
adults that she can turn to, which is, I really like kind of where that third R comes in.
Um, but ultimately with a lot of things in our own lives, like it's our own battles.
It's our own sort of conquering of our fears that allow us to get through those hard times
and allow us to grow as a person. And that's, I think at the root of the book, what I really
wanted it to be about was all these things that are out of our control and all these
things that we know can help us and could, maybe won't always. And sometimes it is up
to us to, you know, persevere and fight through that. And hopefully, you know, we come out
on the other side of it. Right. Yeah. I did find it really interesting how like when that
third arc started to happen, first of all, that was like almost exactly 70% through the
book. Um, and I thought, that's interesting. Like that's like, okay. Like I was kind of
not waiting for something to happen, but I was, I was not expecting that to happen. Certainly.
Um, and I even expected it to go. Yeah. No, it was good. It was good. And I expected it
to kind of go one direction and, uh, we'll wait like 10 more minutes before we really
get into it. Yeah. I really liked what, um, I really like what you did, but I like how
no matter what happened, Remy was still the one who was responsible for dealing with things.
And I liked the direct callback to the beginning of the book, um, at the end there. And, uh,
this is kind of a spoiler, but it's not really, cause I'm going to remove all the context
of it. I, as the book was progressing, I was thinking, when is Remy going to say, you're
not my sensei because, uh, it's just a great title and she, it's, it's, it's a declaration.
It has to be said in the book. Right. And then when it finally was, it was so cathartic
and I really appreciated that. And I thought that was really cool. And I like to, um, oh,
I know what we can talk about for about 10 minutes. Uh, you have a fantasy book, a larger,
uh, spin is the series that you're working on as well. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, that
being said, I'm going to take a step back. Uh, I have heard it said that whether it's
science fiction or fantasy and maybe even horror, you can say that there's either like
a hard magic system or there's a soft magic system in it. Do you have you heard that and
do you agree or not? Yeah. I mean, like there's, there's definitely a line in the sand of like
how technical things are or how like magical. And I think that's kind of like the deciding
factor between sci-fi and fantasy is like, you open up a fantasy book like door to our
Martin and you're expecting, oh yeah, there's undead people that, you know, can wield fire
and there's also dragons, but you open up like an Andy Weir novel who's, you know, talking
about a guy stranded on Mars. You expect there to be a lot more realism of like, how is he
going to grow potatoes with his own, you know, fecal matter and just kind of going from that.
And I really liked the idea of bridging that line between the two, because I think there's
not a lot of books that operate on both sides at the same time of you bring technology back
to like, you know, stone age or something and they'll think it's magic. You put somebody
that is, you know, you or I in today's day in another universe and like the stuff that
they see as magic and then kind of walking that line and kind of boiling it down to like,
how does that operate? How does that work as both? I think is a fun thing, but not a
lot of authors I've seen do that.
Okay. Well, I am talking about that because I was thinking about the, like you have a
very, and this isn't a spoiler because it talks about karate zombies on the back and
you have a very specific like methodology or a way that you demonstrate what's going
on and when things are going to get crazy in the book. And it basically has to do with
the red bandanas that all the solar strike kids are wearing. So, so, you know, there's
the swirling of them, there's the flapping of them, all those different things like indicate
something going on and they indicate, you know, when they are there and you know, when
she specifically feels that she's going to be in trouble. And then there's something
that happens with her towards the end where it almost seems like there's a force and then
there's a counter force and the sensei of solar strike is wielding or operating with
that force and then Remy is operating with the opposite force. And you, but you don't
name them. You don't try to over explain. So while there's a very like all the rules,
all the way that it operates in the world, because it is fantastical. I don't know if
you can say horror is magical or horror is fantastical specifically, but the way I'm
looking at it, just mechanically, it is because these are unexplainable things. They're unseen
things. They are breaking the normal rules of the world. It's supernatural in the origin,
or, and we don't know what the origins are. Now, they could, you could have, there's a
hell machine in terror Valley that the devil has created in order to, you know, reap, you
know, like say the moon, right. Suck out terror from the kids or whatever. Right. But you
don't have to do that. And you could argue that that would make it a worse series. So
you're being consistent and like mechanical and methodical in how you display the way
things work, but the way things work is still hidden and wrapped in mystery. And I'm assuming
by the fact that you're nodding and making positive noises, that's definitely your intention.
Will you ever consider being more technical, being more hard with the magic and with the
mystery of what's going on? Or is that to you, like the key element that you want to
play with that mystery, that vagueness? I mean, that's what makes things scary. I think
it's the unknown of how did this happen? How does that work? Like you watch a serial killer
movie, like a slasher, like scream for instance, and you know, one of these main characters
is the killer. Then you just have to figure out like, how are they getting away with this?
How are they doing this? And that's sort of like the appeal of those. And well, I feel
those are more like a mystery genre. I do like the fanatical, you know, like something
that can't be quite explained. And I think there's a lot of stories out there that try
to explain that, or there are remakes that show you like they over explain it, or they
like, you know, try so hard to make it believable. Like you look at like Marvel and DC, for instance,
Marvel comics have always been more technical, whereas DC comics have always been kind of
more magical. You know, you got Superman flying around. Batman's like the only, you know, outlier
of that. But in the movies for Marvel, they do a lot of stuff that DC comics did really
well where they don't explain it. But then they release more and more movies that kind
of, you know, start to explain things more and more like where did these, you know, Infinity
Stones come from? And it's like, it doesn't matter. They're there. This big purple dude's
gonna use them. He's gonna wipe out half the universe, get together, and go kick his ass.
You know, like, what do you, why do I need this explained to me? Yeah, explain what they
do. That's great. But I feel like as a reader, right? You want to be able to jump into a
story where you can connect with the main character and you sort of live through everything
through their eyes. And so they're not going to know inherently what these red headbands
are doing to the kids. They're only going to see the correlation between, okay, all
of these kids that everyone is afraid of in this town have those headbands. Oh, man, my
best friend. Well, you know, I use that very lightly. Best friend, my only friend here
ends up getting one of those headbands. And he turns into Chuck Norris, you know, like,
there's, you kind of see things together. And at the end of it, you might not ever really
fully know. And I think that's just like, good storytelling, like a filmmaker will show
you something, a bad filmmaker will tell you something. And I think that very much applies
to a story too, that if you're going to operate in that, you kind of have to decide, do I
explain everything? And I feel like in this case, if I did with these stories, it just,
it wouldn't, it wouldn't feel right. It doesn't feel the same, you know, like there's an element
of it. And you take that humanity and you put it through that small little envelope
of space of how they can operate and they have to kind of figure their way out through
it. I don't know. I think it's more fun that way.
So let me ask you something as a writer, does it save you time to just say, somehow this
is happening, I don't really understand it. And I'm just going to move forward and say,
how does that affect my main character? And what does that put them through? Is that what
you do?
I mean, yes and no. Like there's, there's a lot of other tricks that I do that as a
reader, I gloss over a lot of pros. Like I listen to people explain like every little
detail in a room. I explain like every little detail on a person's face. And I'm like, I
fall asleep reading that. I, you know, I gloss over that. That doesn't do anything for me.
I know a lot of people are like, I need to know exactly like how many freckles are on
the left side of this character's face. But for me, like there's a character in this book
who I describe their hair only because I know later on, I'm going to have to re-describe
that specific character and the change that happens. And that's why I include that detail.
I don't try to over-include details just for the sake of it, just to, you know, fluff up
word count. I like to describe things in a very natural way and a very like, what do
I need to know? Okay. I don't explain anything about Remy, but you probably have a really
good idea of what she looks like or who she is. Same with Chuck, you know, like I try
not to over-explain things because I think it helps the reader settle in more instead
of like, you remember like when Hunger Games came out, like the books and the movies, they
had a character in there. Her name was Lure. I don't know what is, what is her name? Oh,
I'm thinking of a different book. But there's a character in there, right? She's like this
little girl that teams up with Katniss who in the book, it very much describes her as
being black. And so when the movie came out and they cast a black actor to play her, people
lost their mind. I don't know why, maybe they just didn't read it correctly. But like, I
read that book and came away with like, oh yeah, you know, she wanted, Suzanne wanted
to make that character black and she, you know, described it to a pretty good detail
that in my mind, I was like, yeah, that's exactly. And then I saw the movie. I'm like,
yeah, it's perfect. But like, that's the thing. Other people have like their own specific
mindsets. And so I feel like these will probably never be a book or a movie. I want everybody
to be able to like pick them up, picture themselves or picture whatever they want without my writing
obstructing that or like taking away anything that they had going on, you know?
Yeah, no, I think that's cool. And I actually, I thought about that too. I thought I have
no idea what these kids look like other than Freddie or Chuck's acne. And I think he's
a little pudgy. I think that was specifically mentioned. At least that's what I saw though.
You know?
I didn't, I didn't fully mention it, but I gave you context clues that you might, might
lead you to that. Like with his unbalance and how short he is for his age and how Remy's
the shortest of her class. Like there's, there's a little context clues in there.
You know, that's good, but it's nice cause it's like, you're just drawing a comparison
between two characters, but it doesn't fully describe. So I do like that style. And I gotta
say, so I'm a, I'm reading a superhero series with my kids sort of off and on, and it's
very, it's first person and your books are first person. And I, I actually don't really
get first person like it, like I wouldn't write first person. And I don't think I've
ever really read anything that was first person. Like maybe, yeah, I don't think I've ever
read anything besides, you know, your stuff. And then this superhero book I'm reading and
like maybe one other thing that's first person and it's really weird. But like it really
does give a different effect and it really is immersive. I can see that. And I appreciate
that. And it's just, it's really interesting how little detail you have to give and how
little context you have to give in order for people to understand, especially cause it's
not a, you know, completely foreign world. It's a mundane world for lack of a better
term. And it's the things that are different in it that stand out, that upset the balance
of it, that throw the kid off and that make it horrific or fantastical. And I think that
makes a lot of sense to just like focus in on those things and it definitely works. So
I do like that. And so I guess that's like, as a third person only, like third person
limited guy, that's my favorite style of writing. That's what I want to read. That's what I
want to write. I like this first person writing has my stamp of approval and it's really cool
how effectively it can be used. And I appreciate that. So,
Well, see, I come from a background like you too, like I love reading third person. I just
could not get into first person. Cause like a lot of children's like younger aged books
are written in first person, just to kind of help guide a little bit. You can kind of
get into the mind of that character a little bit better. But I never thought that like,
I would like writing first person until I started doing it. Now there are other people
out there like bringing up the hunger games again, the hunger games is told in first person
present tense. And it's really hard. It's really jarring to me personally to read that
because I love, you know, like past tense third person. And I kind of do like past tense
first person here. I almost tell it like they're telling the story, which I think a little
more interesting and makes it more fun for me to kind of guide through it. Cause I can
kind of put my own emotion in there rather than being, you know, standing back and saying,
well, how would this character feel? What does this character thinking? I can really
kind of put you into the shoes of Remy, of Freddie, of our next characters, you know,
and just sort of blast away. Right, right. That's cool. Now you said, well, I don't want
to get into that. I actually do want to get into spoiler talk now. Yeah. So I should go
soon. So we should do spoiler talk. What, so the hair thing you were talking about.
So again, we'll give people like 10 seconds to get out of here with spoilers. So I want
to ask you, I'll give the topics. I want to talk about the hair. I want to talk about,
what do I want to talk about? I don't know. Oh, one thing I want to mention just to pad
out our time a little bit more is I was confident that one of Freddie's friends was black in
the last book. I can't remember his name now, but I thought, Oh, this is his black friend.
Huh? Dean? Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. But I thought, yeah, there's a few of them there. I don't
remember their names right now off my head. I thought that was, I thought that was really
cool. And then like over here with these characters that I thought it hit me like, Oh, this is
really cool. Cause like, there's no context on who these people are except for the immediate
stuff. And I really appreciate that. Cause like anybody can read it and just feel comfortable
with it. And there's no, there's like nothing to alienate. Cause it's kind of like, you're
doing like suburbia and you're doing school, you're doing kid stuff. And that's like a
very common, like they call it fly over country for a reason. That's not most of the country.
It's rather most of the country isn't suburb, isn't urban and isn't big city. Most of it
is the small town type of stuff, which is something great. Cause I think most kids,
regardless of where they live, their experience is mostly kind of that more small town, quiet
subdued type of thing, even if they're in like a big school with, you know, lots of
different grades or whatever. So that's really cool. All right. So now spoilers, major spoilers.
So the hair, that's the toupee, right? Specifically the, the two, no, I, I, I did two, I think
I guess I described two characters hairs in this book. Yes. The toupee for one of Mr.
Flum. And then the, the boy that stopped Remy from going into school the first day had like,
oh yeah, actually blonde after the influence of the sensei washes away. Right. But yeah,
so there's the toupee thing, which that was an idea I had as soon as I came up with the
idea of the headbands. Cause I'm like, I bought, I bought a headband. I almost wore one for
this, but I realized we're just going to do audio. Maybe the other interviews, if you
guys watch any others, I'll probably have a headband on. You feel cool. Like the Barbie
movie had just come out and like, he has this like wicked purple headband. And originally
I wrote the headbands and everything being purple. Cause in my mind, that was sort of
the solar strike of it. And then I got the amazing art back and I was just like, oh man,
that red looks so bad. I know people are going to have a problem if, if it's purple in the
book, you know, but I went, yeah, I changed it all the red and I'm like, I like this more,
I think. Um, okay. But yeah, so there's, there's the toupee that has the hidden headband underneath,
which, um, only one person I was like, kind of like, I have a few friends that I write,
like obviously Lauren, who's my editor, my wife, she, um, she kind of gets every chapter
as I finish it. And so sometimes I'll come out and I'll be like, I finished a chapter.
She's like, okay, read it to me and I'll read it. And then she'll be like, okay, continue.
And I'm like, that's all I wrote. She's like, well, get the, get back in there, keep writing.
Um, and she didn't even see the toupee thing coming. And I thought I was making it a little
too obvious. Um, so I think that that one worked really well, but, uh, yeah, fun. Did
you, um, can I ask you a question? Did you get the impression that the kids, the students
of solar strike karate are not just like kids that have been, I want to say like abducted
or taken in within like the last year or two, but like over decades, did you kind of get
that? Oh, I did get that by the, I got that by the end. And then it like threw me off
because I thought, well, how are, first question, how old are all these kids and what are the
age ranges and are they like frozen at that age? And then how are they integrate integrate
to society? Because it's like, yeah, Hey mom, it's, uh, I left you in 1987, come pick me
up. Like, how are you going to do that? You know? Right. Um, yeah. One of the things I
really was going to talk about more was sort of like the disappearance of the families
and like Chuck would kind of be our central character that we would see that start to
happen. But then I was like, you know what's scary? If I just, if I describe it briefly
that this is happening and that you don't know, that's the scarier part is that principal
coke doesn't know what happens. Everybody else in the town that's aware of it doesn't
happen, uh, that, you know, doesn't know. And all the kids talk about it too, but even
they don't know. So I thought that was kind of like more fun to do it that way. More sinister.
And it is more sinister, but it's also a better logistically. Like if you had 30 kids disappear
one year, that would be nuts. Right. If it was like one kid every year or whatever for
a long time, that's kind of worse in a lot of ways, but it makes it easier to absorb
the loss. You know, they almost got Sensei Roberts, but, uh, maybe she got out. You don't
know. Maybe she, she pulled a Remy. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And that was weird too. That was
a cool thing too. So like, all right, so now we can talk about the spoilers about that
third arc. So, you know, you have these, uh, you have Sensei Roberts and you have a principal
cope, right? Yep. Uh, they, they come in and they basically help Remy like when she's all
out of options and she's basically screwed by the way. So one of the things that you
did, I think to get remedy to the school was that like find my iPhone thing that she has
paired with her dad so they can find each other. That was super cool. I thought that
was really novel. And I like, like hearing you talk about it, the way you talked about
it, I thought, Oh, so Squall just made that up when he had to figure out a way to get
her there. But even if you didn't, it's cool because it's like, it's not seated at all.
And it's, it, but it's not like a DSX Mac. It doesn't come out of nowhere. Right. It
does feel natural, which was great. Well, the problem that I was having that I like,
I took like two, three weeks off from writing this just because I was getting really frustrated
because I had her, I had that principal cope and her talk about solar strike happen inside
the school, like literally right after how we got beat up by Chuck when Chuck gets fully
possessed by the headband. I had that happen in the school. And then the message was like,
they are coming, get out of the school. And so then I had her like, try to get out of
the school. And like, I had like, Mr. I had this whole scene of like Mr. Flum chasing
after her. And I was like, wait a minute, but if I want to do like the reveal later,
I kind of have to play it, you know, a little more level headed because in the last book,
I really wanted you to feel like the character you couldn't trust becomes, you know, like
your, your greatest confidant, like your greatest ally in this. And that was the coach. And
so I kind of wanted to do that with this. Like you're like, well, maybe principal cope
is up to something. Maybe Mr. Flum is going to, you know, but I'm like, no, it's really
what you think it is to kind of like double get you up. But I like had her like getting
out of the school. And I'm like, well, how do I get her dad to the school? Cause that's
ultimately how she's going to get to the school. And by the time I rewrote it, I was like,
what if she just gets expelled? What if he's just like, yeah, you're out of here that would
immediately send dad off to the school and that would immediately get her to go after
and find him. And I was like, Hey, sometimes it just takes like three weeks of, you know,
not thinking about it, but like have that little eureka moment. And that's kind of where
everything came from after her house gets broken into.
Yeah. And I fully expected for him to be at the dojo and for him, for her, the final conversation
to be at the dojo, which we do eventually get, which is cool, but I like how it's kind
of like two tiered there. I like how it's two tiered there. That's good.
Yeah. Cause it's better to go to the dojo for him, but if they have him elsewhere, then,
you know, they don't have to worry about anything about another adult getting loose or so I
was like, okay, yeah, sorry.
Yeah. And then, and then I like how you, you split up, cope goes with her dad and then
Remy goes with her sensei and it's like, okay, well what's going to happen now? And I like
to that Remy like doesn't get what's going on at all. But her sensei and then like you
get the extra reveal. So there's like, there's like three or four reveals in the end game
of the book, which is really cool. Cause it's like, well, where can it go from here? Like
she has to fight the sensei or whatever. And that's the logical conclusion, but how you
get to it is really interesting and exciting and it adds different elements to it. So I
did feel like it was a little bit like with, with the looping, like, okay, so this has
happened before, but that's not a bad thing. And, but I don't think that should define
every book and I doubt that's your plan.
No, no. Yeah.
To have, you know, this has happened before and an adult and the kid are going to get
paired together, whatever. It makes sense. And it made it, I just, I liked the history
that there was there with her and sensei Roberts, well, I think their history alone and then
Roberts and then the solar strike sensei. And I think she didn't know Remy kept from
her the name of the school until like things were bad. And then that set her off and that,
so like it almost seems implausible that cope and Roberts would be there at the same time.
But really, if you think about the way it worked out, it makes sense that it would happen.
I had to really kind of like break it down and like structure it. I took out a whole
chapter where she like left her another message and I was like, why is she like leaving her
two messages? She should leave her a message approximately four to five hours before I
need her on the scene. Okay. How does that fit her? And I put it there, you know, like
right after she gets expelled and then sets off everything. Right. So that's really cool.
I like how that timed out. And then I like that there's that history there. And again,
like going back to like hard magic, soft magic thing, like something happened before there
are defined rules. We don't necessarily know what they are. Obviously Remy realized when
she tears off, uh, there's that Chuck's hair and the headband comes off that like the headband
is some sort of conduit that connects the sensei to the kids. And then I like that extra
thing that like, because Remy didn't bow to the sensei in that first, like was that chapter
two or three? It was super early on chapter like seven. Yeah. Okay. The first time she
did the dojo. Exactly. It's the second time. I had it originally as the first time, but
it's the second time when she goes back and she has to fight Chuck. Um, okay. That's right.
Yeah. It is before fighting Chuck because Chuck bows and then that starts the enchantment
or whatever that the sensei has on him. So like I said, it's like, it's cool cause it's
very clearly defined rules. And once you know them after the fact, you can go back and say,
oh, okay. So this makes sense because of all these things mechanistically had to happen,
but still what's the mystical source behind it? Who knows who cares? It creates the, the
horror and it creates the, the, you know, the exciting, you know, twisted nature of
the world for Remy to have to go through. So that was cool. Well, the original title
was, uh, uh, what was the original title? Bow to your sensei. And that's what I was
going with. And the few people, like the four people that I was describing my very, very
basic idea of this book before I flushed it out was like, Oh, Napoleon dynamite. I was
like, what? They're like, yeah, there's a character in that that says bow to your sensei.
I was like, Oh my God, you're right. I haven't thought about that movie in like 20 years.
And yeah, I cannot name it bow to your sensei, even though like that was the main idea I
had was these kids bow and then he kind of takes them over. Um, or he has like, you know,
a very faint connection, which he's able to get, I think just by proximity, which is why
Remy hears the voices and why she sees the things she does. But it's Chuck who active
it's Chuck who actively bows and gets that, you know, direct connection that then the
headband sort of completes the complete, you know, conversion of his will and his, you
know, body over to this, this force. Right, right. That makes sense. So by the way, that's
your, that's because you have a new MacBook, right? That's what this is. Yeah. Yeah. So
I heard somebody else on a podcast talking about they did something and their MacBook
did. Yeah. There you go. It's like gestures, right? Yeah. That's hilarious. Guys. I'm sorry
you didn't see that. Maybe you'll have to go to the next one. It's cool. Yeah. Speaking
of water, I was just saying Napoleon diamond, but anyway, um, but you know, it's really
funny about the title. Now you're not my sensei is that I did want that as a line. And I had
that actually early on when she first fought Chuck in the dojo. And then I, as I got closer
to the end, I was like, nah, I need to have it at the end. That's it's gotta be like the
line before the kill. Is that what they call it? Like when, before Arnold Schwarzenegger
blows up a terrorist, you know, I want, I wanted that for Remy. I wanted that sort of
like cathartic, like you said, moment of it coming full circle. Right. And I needed my
favorite one of those are too. Right. My favorite one of those is from total recall. Oh yeah.
That is a first. Yeah. Oh man. Sorry. I went off on a whole thing like not too long ago
about that, but that's, this is not the time or place for that. But yeah, I mean, so, uh,
I really liked, and you know, speaking of, you know, circling things, I like how her
punching the tree is the first thing we see Remy doing really. And calling back to that
and knowing that that came from sensei Roberts, uh, and that she's using it to now defeat,
you know, the ghoul sensei or the solar strike sensei, whatever. Um, like that's so cool
and that really worked. So I liked that, that bookending effect and yeah, I just liked the
bookending effect. I think that's very cool. So that was a good, and it felt really good
and it was nice. So I didn't even plan that. That just kind of came out as I was writing
and then I was, I thought about a little bit more. So when I went back and like did my
final revision, I kind of fleshed it out a little bit here and there, but like it's,
it's with anything in life, like whether you're playing a musical instrument, whether you're
writing or practicing karate, every time you practice, every time should always be a learning
moment. It should help impact, you know, what you do later with that skill. And that's,
I thought, I thought it was a fun little, you know, nod to that of her back in her front
yard training on punching and taking it out on a portrait. Yeah, that was cool. That was
cool. And it made me think, I don't know, I don't remember where I got this from, but
maybe I was doing research that like a lot of the karate stuff, maybe it was when I was
in my little Bruce Lee phase, cause I was, I watched the documentary and I wanted to
learn all about Bruce Lee and his kendo and everything else. But like from what I learned
years ago, it was like the, you know, your Kung Fu is better than my, or, you know, my
Kung Fu is better than your Kung Fu. Like these different schools of martial arts, they
had like mythos and misdirection around them in order to like fool people and like make
it more mysterious and like almost even like kind of add reputation or like a fear factor
to intimidate people to like quell conflict. So like, I remember reading about that this
one school would teach people how to rip somebody's heart out of their chest. And the way that
you do it is you do like, you know, a hundred times a day, you make a claw with your fist
or with your hand and you push forward as hard as you can and you do it a hundred times.
And then you do it through, you do it in air, then you do it in water, then you do it in
sand, then you do it through like beans and you do it through rice or whatever. Like you
scale up until like you're doing it through rocks. And then eventually after doing this
for years, you now know how to rip someone's heart out of their chest. And it kind of reminded
me of that, her punching the tree. And it just, it gave me a flashback to that, that
I have a touchstone too. And it works on its own independent of that, but I just thought
that was a really cool moment. And had you heard anything like that that you were throwing
back to or, or, or not?
Yeah. From what I know, like a lot of that is just repetition and like doing the same
thing over and over again. And I also kind of wanted to have like a last minute redirect
where it's the last point, right? Remy has to win. She's smaller than this guy. He's
descending on her. And like my wife, she was like, I thought for sure she was going to
like uppercut him or like she would like punch him and punch through him or something would
happen. And, you know, just, just the idea of her like, you know, doing that movement.
Yeah. I think it blends in with those sort of, you know, teachings very well.
Right. Oh, I got to say, I really liked, and I could, we could have talked about this in
the spoiler free area, but I really liked your combat. I think you did like a, like
that fight where you highlighted their size difference and how she used that to her advantage
was great. And also just like the brutality of possessed Chuck was like, that was, that
was rough. And, but I liked it. It was good. I didn't think you went too far. And I thought,
this is a horror book. That's horrible. What he's doing. It's horrific. It's, you know,
it's nasty and gross and like it works, you know? So I liked that and just, yeah, just
all the little stuff and fighting. I thought it was really good. And I thought, yeah, this
guy used to, you know, he used to watch power rangers. So yeah, you got it. You have to
scale everything. Like in terms of, you know, the character development in terms of the
horror aspect of it, like definitely this one's much scarier than the first one with
some of the imagery of like, you know, the students that break into her, her house, but
like, I feel like you have to have, you know, her ability when she takes out Howie the first
time real easy, you have to have Chuck's ability of copying her move. You have to have, you
know, like Chuck beating her with her own moves. You have to have Chuck, you know, completely
annihilating it so that by the time you do have her in the house and there's like five
of these other kids that have Chuck like, you know, power levels for a lot of the better
work, like if you feel a lot more scared for her because she already got, you know, beat
up by Chuck, same with like, you know, when she's facing off flum, that's going to influence
how she fights sensei. But the sensei obviously is more in control. He's more centered there.
And he also doesn't get blindsided by sensei Roberts. But you know, that's another thing.
Yeah. So I thought that was all really cool. And I think too, um, yeah, no, I was surprised
by the fighting and I thought, well, this is good because, um, like I, I'm not sure
how hard fighting is to write. Um, but like, you know, if you read the Hobbit, you know,
what happens? Bill gets knocked out and then he wakes up. If you read the horses boy, what
happens? Uh, he gets knocked out and then wakes up after the battle. So it's like even
in the first Harry Potter book, what happens? Harry passes out and he wakes up. I think it's
the first three books he passes out and wakes up in the hospital. Right. So yeah. If you
ever read Eric, like every chapter passes out. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's kind of a, you
know, it's something easy to do and the fights are hard to get right. But, uh, I think you
did a really good job with them. So that was, uh, that was really cool. So, uh, I think
I got to wrap up. Um, is there any stuff you want to talk about before I let you go? No,
I just had a lot of fun writing this one and, um, the reception so far has been really fun.
It's just, it's a different type of story. And I think I mentioned in the last one, you
know, that we recorded that we weren't able to release that I want to increase the scare
factor with every book. And I, I, what I have planned for the next one, there's some cool,
weird stuff in it that I want to do that I think might push the lines in a few places,
but I'm really excited to get into that. And I just have this fun idea of doing the three
where you have more science fiction for the first one, more like action for the second
one, and then just straight up horror for the third one. And I'm, I'm super excited
to get into it here. Um, and if you want to check out that or, you know, check out the
book, you can always visit us at terror Valley.com. Um, we're over on Twitter as well as terror
Valley books, which is like BKS, just cause you can't fit as many in the character limit.
Um, so you can follow us there. We'll keep it updated. And we're actually doing a fun
little thing this holiday season that by the time this goes out, it'll probably be going
on, but everybody that buys a book from here on out through the rest of the year, I am
going to match that and donate to a local school or library here in the Kansas city
area. So check it out. They're fun. And, um, I can't wait to come back and talk about the
third book and what you think of that one. Very cool. Yeah. I, I'm excited to hear what
pure horror is going to be like coming from news. Cause you know, like I said, I thought
like the, the big scary scene in a school's out for never the chase, I'll just call it
that the chase, the deadly chase that was, that was intense. Yeah. Uh, and then this
book got intense. So I'll, I'll, I'll be curious to see school unleashed. You know what that
looks like. All I'll, all I will say is that people are going to die in the most childlike
way. Okay. All right. Well, that'll be interesting. All right. Well, thank you so much for your
time. Uh, I'll have links for everything in the show notes and I guess that's about it.
So thank you folks for your time and attention until next time. Take care. This is MJ signing
out and squall as well. Thanks for having me on and all have a good one. Bye.
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 analysis, art and fiction. I cover
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