1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,360 This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:12,240 at MJMunoz.com. I am here, this is a story over everything, episode 43.5, and I'm back 3 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:17,000 here. The reason I'm stumbling over myself is because I'm kind of afraid. I'm afraid 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:21,760 because I'm talking to a horror author, Squall Charlson. He's here with Terra Valley book 5 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:26,240 number two, You're Not My Sensei. Squall, welcome to the show. 6 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:31,960 Don't be scared, I only write scary things. I like to think I'm a pretty nice guy, usually. 7 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:39,800 Usually, there's that line, there's that line. So, I'm going to jump right into this and 8 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:45,280 just ask you, what was the inspiration for this book? Do you have any background in martial 9 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:48,400 arts that informed this, or was it just something else? 10 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:53,720 I mean, yeah, there's a character in this book, his name is Chuck, and I like to think 11 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:59,040 that all my characters sort of come from some sort of place of who I am or who I was. And 12 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:03,640 I feel very drawn to Chuck because I wanted to get into karate when I was younger, but 13 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,880 it wasn't that I wasn't coordinated or wasn't good, but my mom just didn't want me to go 14 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:12,080 and do it because I got into enough fights as is. She didn't want me actually knowing 15 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:18,780 how to throw kids around if I really got into the spirit of it. So, in a way, I was sort 16 00:01:18,780 --> 00:01:22,080 of like Chuck where I was very like, I want to do this, but I'm kind of apprehensive. 17 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:27,320 I didn't have to deal with any karate zombies or anything like that. So, when I was thinking 18 00:01:27,320 --> 00:01:32,360 of all the kind of ideas I wanted to do for this series, we were watching Cobra Kai at 19 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:37,760 the time. And I thought to myself, you know what? This is so fun, like how they take this 20 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:43,820 original movie that, you know, hated or love it. I mean, what it turned into in the sequels 21 00:01:43,820 --> 00:01:48,500 following the first Karate Kid are debatable, but what the show Cobra Kai does is so much 22 00:01:48,500 --> 00:01:54,680 fun and I just love the idea of karate in the valley, you know, Terror Valley. And I 23 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:57,640 was just like, you know, this kind of goes hand in hand. And so I was like, well, what 24 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:03,240 would a scary karate story be like? You know, what would that entail? And I kind of came 25 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:08,200 up with the idea of, you know, this kid moving to a new place and they have to go to this 26 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:15,440 new karate dojo and maybe a little worse than Cobra Kai where everyone sort of brainwashed. 27 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:19,400 And then I kind of took it a little bit further. I'm like, well, what if they are like undead 28 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:26,640 zombie karate students? Spoiler alert, sorry. And you're not my sensei. That's where it 29 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:27,640 came from. 30 00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:33,720 Oh, very cool. Very cool. So that's interesting. By the way, I was thinking about the book 31 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,500 yesterday because I, yeah, I was thinking about last night. I finished it yesterday 32 00:02:37,500 --> 00:02:41,660 like before around noon or two or something like that. And then it hit me like at six 33 00:02:41,660 --> 00:02:46,280 or seven at night. Chuck Chuck Norris. Is there anything there with the name Chuck? 34 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:50,240 Because I know you said you don't really sometimes it seems like you're you're kind of funny 35 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:53,840 about your names either. It was something super intentional or it's just you like it. 36 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,400 You like the sound of it. But did you like the sound of it? Because it made you think 37 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:57,400 of Chuck Norris. 38 00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:04,920 No, actually, that's the first time I thought of Chuck Norris, which is really funny. I 39 00:03:04,920 --> 00:03:11,640 knew someone named Chuck who I kind of picture. I hate to like use the words of like, I don't 40 00:03:11,640 --> 00:03:16,920 know. You've read the book. Chuck's kind of an outlier on the outside. He's kind of, you 41 00:03:16,920 --> 00:03:23,120 know, not very popular. And I knew a Chuck growing up that kind of fit that mold. And 42 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:26,480 I was just like, I workshopped a couple of different names. But I was like, I kept coming 43 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:31,760 back to Chuck. I'm like, I really like that. It just sounds like such a contrast to Remy, 44 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:36,480 Remy and Chuck. It just sounded really nice together the more I wrote it and kind of just 45 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:40,840 kept it. But yeah, Chuck Norris, that's good. Hopefully other people might think that there's 46 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,120 a connection there too. That's good. 47 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:46,920 I think they will. I think they will. It'll be good. It actually, it kind of, did you 48 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:52,200 ever see the movie Sidekicks? The Chuck Norris movie from the movies? Yeah. So I, all I remember 49 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:56,560 is the guy's rising out of the water and it's all the kid's imagination, but it's not or 50 00:03:56,560 --> 00:04:00,600 whatever. So that kind of all fits. And even if you don't have that touchstone, I think 51 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,120 just Chuck Norris himself, that's enough. People, I think people will get the, you know, get 52 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:08,680 a little kick out of that. So that'll be fun. But he's obviously that. No, no, definitely 53 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:20,200 not. It's, it's, it's a little bit, a little bit. Yeah. So the, the other question I was 54 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:26,680 going to ask is, let me see. Oh, so I don't want to get too much to the spoiler territory 55 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:34,160 yet. We'll, uh, for the last five minutes, we'll do some hard spoilers. Um, so what is 56 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:39,880 or rather, so as people may know or may not know, uh, Tara Valley is very much inspired 57 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,920 by the Goosebumps. You want to be basically the successor to R.L. Stein and you know, 58 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:50,080 if you keep working at it, I'm sure you will. So, um, is the transfer student, uh, to quote 59 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:54,200 in anime trope, is the transfer student thing common in R.L. Stein's books at all, or is 60 00:04:54,200 --> 00:05:00,240 this something that you've introduced, uh, with this? No, and I think you'll find, um, 61 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,760 it kind of transcends Goosebumps. Goosebumps I think is like the one that we might think 62 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:11,680 about more just because a lot of these stories involve sort of fish out of water scenarios. 63 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:18,640 Like you're not in your comfortable, um, you know, normal, uh, town or, you know, in your 64 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:23,440 old house or around old friends that you can really, you know, pull from. And I think that's 65 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:29,080 what really makes Goosebumps work is because a lot of the kids in those stories have moved 66 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:33,600 or are experiencing something new, which I know a lot of children go through, unfortunately, 67 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:38,240 you know, they're moving around all the time. They, you know, have to go to a new school. 68 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:42,400 Like for me, I went to an elementary school and we moved across the city that I lived 69 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:48,840 in and my mom still let me go to that elementary school for like the last two years of, um, 70 00:05:48,840 --> 00:05:52,640 you know, then, and then she was like, all right, when middle school happens, we're just 71 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:56,680 going to pivot and you'll go to the middle school with all these kids on the other side 72 00:05:56,680 --> 00:06:03,160 of the south of the city that you've never been in school with. And it was a disaster. 73 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:09,240 Um, I think like, yeah, I want to do stories like that, but I also want to look at sort 74 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:14,000 of like what wasn't done, you know, like a lot of kids don't move a lot of kids, you 75 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,920 know, grow up in the same spot that they've been, you know, since they were a baby, they 76 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:21,400 have the same friends, they have the same, you know, people around them their whole lives. 77 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:25,920 And so I want to kind of do like a healthy dose of that. Whereas the first one in, um, 78 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:31,920 schools out for never, Freddy kind of experiences something new with his day in day out, um, 79 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:37,760 familiarity. Whereas Remy has to kind of plunge head first into, you know, a new town, new 80 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:44,320 people, new, um, zombies, you know, a lot of stuff like that sort. Um, but yeah, a lot 81 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:49,680 of goosebumps do have those sorts of stories where it's a new kid or, you know, transfer 82 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:51,120 student of sorts. 83 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:55,280 Right, right. Yeah. And you know, like I cited the, the, you know, the anime trope, like 84 00:06:55,280 --> 00:06:58,440 it's great to bring a new kid into a school and then it's just, you get to see the whole 85 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:00,760 world through their eyes and everything. And that's a really good way to do things. But 86 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:05,720 I, I, um, I think I previously pointed out that I liked that you went from having you 87 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:09,280 started with Freddy and you went to Remy. So you've got boy girl. And then now you're 88 00:07:09,280 --> 00:07:15,240 also seeing you've got it's hometown versus new in town. And I really think that's a valuable 89 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:19,200 thing to do. And it's, you know, it's great that you're doing that already. Um, so I look 90 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:22,840 forward to seeing what's different about the next place. I can already guess one thing. 91 00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:26,360 And I feel like, uh, do you, is the title announced yet? It was at the end of the book 92 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:29,840 technically at the end of the book, it's on the back of the cover. Um, the next title 93 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:35,200 number three is going to be called the this way to camp blood, which is another goosebump 94 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:40,280 staple is a camp story. He would do one a year, um, that would release in the summer. 95 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:47,040 So I'm going to try to do one that's not quite a camp story, but it takes place in a camp 96 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:52,080 setting. And that's all I'm probably going to try for now. Got it. Okay. Well, I think 97 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:57,520 there's at least one reference or one hint as to what that's going to be in this book. 98 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:02,320 And there may have been one reference to it in the first book as well. Right. Yes. So 99 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:07,440 the very first line in the first book, I, um, I took it out intentionally because I 100 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:12,640 didn't want people to read that. And camp blood is also, um, sort of has a relation to 101 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:16,560 Friday the 13th series. That's originally what they were going to call that series was 102 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:21,240 camp blood. Um, so I didn't want people to read that first line and be like, oh, he's 103 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:26,320 just trying to, you know, milk this or, you know, cash in on that. Definitely not the 104 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:30,360 very first line in the first book was I stayed up all night, you know, watching a back to 105 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:35,360 back horror movie marathons. So no wonder I fell asleep in class. He was watching camp 106 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:41,960 blood. We'll just say that movie series universe. Okay. Very cool. I like that. I like the, 107 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:45,200 uh, is that called vaporware when people make something up that exists in the universe and 108 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:49,720 not outside of it like that, like a property or whatever? Maybe. I think it's just like, 109 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:54,640 you know, typical universe building. And I want this all to sort of take place in any 110 00:08:54,640 --> 00:09:01,440 ville USA, but also like everything is in the exact same sort of location too. So you're 111 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:07,120 not quite sure. Um, but everything in the universe will be in universe and I might even, 112 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:10,760 you know, future titles crossed over some characters that were in older stories and 113 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:16,400 new ones. That's a very cool story. You know, that's a fun potential. So I liked that idea. 114 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:23,640 Okay. Well, that's really cool. Um, now I have to say, okay, okay. Um, I'm not, I'm 115 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:27,880 not a horror reader, so this is, you know, this is a new territory for me. So thank you 116 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:35,040 for filling me in on that. Um, so let me see, what's the next thing? Uh, I'm going to, so 117 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:39,560 the books felt, or they were about the same length. Is that accurate to say you, you basically 118 00:09:39,560 --> 00:09:43,120 targeted, did you, did you target the same length or you came up with one length for 119 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:46,400 the first book and then you said, I'm going to try to keep them all at this, uh, at this 120 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:54,640 length. Um, I had a goal of 25,000 words, which is about the typical length for one of these, 121 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:59,920 you know, scholastic release, middle grade chapter books. Um, and I was aiming for that 122 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:05,200 here too, but I got closer to about 30,000 words cause I got to the end. I was just like, 123 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:09,080 oh man, there's so much stuff I want to do right now. And then I went back and revise 124 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:13,640 it at night. Typically when you revise like the first one, I took out like two or three 125 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:19,560 chapters worth of stuff. So it went from like 28,000 down to 25,000. This one, I went from 126 00:10:19,560 --> 00:10:23,960 like 26,000 up to like 30,000. Like I was just adding more and more stuff. And cause 127 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:28,000 I'm like, Oh, I want to do this. Oh, I set the head up. I should talk about that here. 128 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:32,960 Um, there's a lot more fun to kind of like go back in from the beginning of this one 129 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:39,160 and sort of set all that up. Like I even went through and like mapped out my entire story 130 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:44,720 beats. I'm holding up some paper here of like my, uh, you know, point to point of this happens 131 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:48,080 that leads to this, you know, every kind of chapter idea. So I could kind of go through 132 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:53,920 and block where I was. Um, cause I kind of got into a, a rut with this one. Whereas in 133 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:57,720 the first book, if I ever wrote myself into a corner or did something really crazy or 134 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:02,760 stupid, I could just reset the day and Freddy's back in his classroom. But with this one, 135 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:07,840 I had to have very specific things happen in order to map out where Remy is or where 136 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:13,040 Remy needed to go. And I would get to certain parts. I'm just like, how do I get her back 137 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:17,120 to like the school or how do I get her to go here or do this? And so it was a lot of 138 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:21,920 fun to kind of like revise it and restructure it after I had written like two thirds of 139 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:23,920 it and finish it off that way. 140 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:29,960 That's cool. Yeah. I was thinking about too, um, everything takes place in the school in 141 00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:34,200 the first book and everything takes place everywhere. There's probably five or six main 142 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:40,200 locations in, uh, for Remy to visit. So like there's her house, there's the school, there's 143 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:45,240 the dojo, there's kind of the road in between. Uh, and then where else is there one more 144 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:46,240 location? 145 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:50,400 No, I think, I think that's it. Like just the town, I guess itself would be a location 146 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:55,400 of her, like, you know, like on the streets or sidewalks and whatever. Um, so from going, 147 00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:59,680 going from one to five, you know, in the school, you can have different rooms and sort of treat 148 00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:01,200 that as a different location. But 149 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:05,640 That's true. Like the hallways, the hallways and in front of the lockers is definitely 150 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:09,480 a set. Like that's a location where a lot of stuff happens. So that's, that's cool. 151 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:14,480 And then you have the, was it, uh, yeah, the front office, which is in the middle of the 152 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:17,480 school, which I liked you pointing that out. Like what is it? Like, 153 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:21,240 I had a school that was like that and it was stupid. Everybody made fun of it. So I was 154 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:23,680 like, oh, I'm going to put that in the book. 155 00:12:23,680 --> 00:12:29,440 I liked that detail. It was good. That's good. So did you have to, so it's weird. I got like 156 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:34,280 a real familiar, uh, and like cozy feeling almost with Freddie going through his day 157 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:39,800 and looping. And it definitely gave me a certain vibe. And I didn't get that vibe here. Not 158 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:47,160 that it wasn't cozy or homey or anything like that, but it was, I dunno, maybe the horror 159 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:52,760 elements of what Freddie went through were like kind of offset by the comedy. So there 160 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:57,160 was a little bit more warmth in there too. And it's like, he almost gets like this, like 161 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:01,400 he has an interesting arc and he has more of a progression like with outside, uh, you 162 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:05,360 know, adult, well, I don't want to spoil anything too much, but like adult people who like advise 163 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:10,720 him sort of, right? So whereas Remy, even though she has people she can count on, uh, 164 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:15,440 she's very much removed from them and she's very isolated. So again, I like the contrast 165 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:18,400 so far. You've got like this coziness and then you have this contrast and this, this 166 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:26,280 isolation that Remy, uh, you know, has to deal with. Um, did you ever consider like 167 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:30,200 giving her a little more help or like, did you always have in mind that she would be 168 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:33,600 this isolated? Did you kind of play with that and just see what felt right to you? 169 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:38,000 I mean, going back to like the first book, I think Freddie did a lot of it on his own 170 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:44,440 as well because of the twist of things and because of him actually, you know, experiencing 171 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:50,080 this on his own, even though, um, try to make this as spoiler light as possible. There were 172 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:54,400 other people and other forces that could have intervened and tried to, but really it was 173 00:13:54,400 --> 00:14:00,160 up to him to sort of figure out what's going on to him on his own. What I wanted to do 174 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:06,360 with this was I really liked the idea of going back to like R.L. Stein and Goosebumps. He 175 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:10,960 always has, you know, like the adults never believe the kids. The kids are always on their 176 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,720 own. The kids always have to, you know, fight Dracula. They have to fight the swamp monster. 177 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:18,240 They have to go off and kind of do their own thing. And sometimes even like those interpersonal 178 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:22,600 communication between the kids. Like if there's like an older brother or sister, they won't 179 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:27,680 believe them until like halfway through the book and sort of formulaic in that regard. 180 00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:32,040 And what I wanted to do with this one was I really wanted to make it seem like these 181 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:37,440 two characters knew what was happening and then to sort of strip away all of those things 182 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:42,720 until it is just Remy. And she does have help later on in the book. Um, and she does have 183 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:47,320 adults that she can turn to, which is, I really like kind of where that third R comes in. 184 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:52,760 Um, but ultimately with a lot of things in our own lives, like it's our own battles. 185 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:58,560 It's our own sort of conquering of our fears that allow us to get through those hard times 186 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:02,840 and allow us to grow as a person. And that's, I think at the root of the book, what I really 187 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:06,520 wanted it to be about was all these things that are out of our control and all these 188 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:12,280 things that we know can help us and could, maybe won't always. And sometimes it is up 189 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:18,200 to us to, you know, persevere and fight through that. And hopefully, you know, we come out 190 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:25,360 on the other side of it. Right. Yeah. I did find it really interesting how like when that 191 00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:30,000 third arc started to happen, first of all, that was like almost exactly 70% through the 192 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:35,480 book. Um, and I thought, that's interesting. Like that's like, okay. Like I was kind of 193 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:40,080 not waiting for something to happen, but I was, I was not expecting that to happen. Certainly. 194 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:45,400 Um, and I even expected it to go. Yeah. No, it was good. It was good. And I expected it 195 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:51,920 to kind of go one direction and, uh, we'll wait like 10 more minutes before we really 196 00:15:51,920 --> 00:16:00,760 get into it. Yeah. I really liked what, um, I really like what you did, but I like how 197 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:04,980 no matter what happened, Remy was still the one who was responsible for dealing with things. 198 00:16:04,980 --> 00:16:10,760 And I liked the direct callback to the beginning of the book, um, at the end there. And, uh, 199 00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:14,120 this is kind of a spoiler, but it's not really, cause I'm going to remove all the context 200 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:19,760 of it. I, as the book was progressing, I was thinking, when is Remy going to say, you're 201 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:25,860 not my sensei because, uh, it's just a great title and she, it's, it's, it's a declaration. 202 00:16:25,860 --> 00:16:29,000 It has to be said in the book. Right. And then when it finally was, it was so cathartic 203 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,480 and I really appreciated that. And I thought that was really cool. And I like to, um, oh, 204 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:39,760 I know what we can talk about for about 10 minutes. Uh, you have a fantasy book, a larger, 205 00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:48,440 uh, spin is the series that you're working on as well. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, that 206 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:53,920 being said, I'm going to take a step back. Uh, I have heard it said that whether it's 207 00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:58,800 science fiction or fantasy and maybe even horror, you can say that there's either like 208 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:03,600 a hard magic system or there's a soft magic system in it. Do you have you heard that and 209 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:08,440 do you agree or not? Yeah. I mean, like there's, there's definitely a line in the sand of like 210 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:14,120 how technical things are or how like magical. And I think that's kind of like the deciding 211 00:17:14,120 --> 00:17:18,400 factor between sci-fi and fantasy is like, you open up a fantasy book like door to our 212 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:22,420 Martin and you're expecting, oh yeah, there's undead people that, you know, can wield fire 213 00:17:22,420 --> 00:17:27,700 and there's also dragons, but you open up like an Andy Weir novel who's, you know, talking 214 00:17:27,700 --> 00:17:32,680 about a guy stranded on Mars. You expect there to be a lot more realism of like, how is he 215 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:37,640 going to grow potatoes with his own, you know, fecal matter and just kind of going from that. 216 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:42,560 And I really liked the idea of bridging that line between the two, because I think there's 217 00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:49,360 not a lot of books that operate on both sides at the same time of you bring technology back 218 00:17:49,360 --> 00:17:54,080 to like, you know, stone age or something and they'll think it's magic. You put somebody 219 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:59,560 that is, you know, you or I in today's day in another universe and like the stuff that 220 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:04,760 they see as magic and then kind of walking that line and kind of boiling it down to like, 221 00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:09,400 how does that operate? How does that work as both? I think is a fun thing, but not a 222 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:12,520 lot of authors I've seen do that. 223 00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:18,840 Okay. Well, I am talking about that because I was thinking about the, like you have a 224 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:22,880 very, and this isn't a spoiler because it talks about karate zombies on the back and 225 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:30,280 you have a very specific like methodology or a way that you demonstrate what's going 226 00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:33,840 on and when things are going to get crazy in the book. And it basically has to do with 227 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:41,320 the red bandanas that all the solar strike kids are wearing. So, so, you know, there's 228 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:44,480 the swirling of them, there's the flapping of them, all those different things like indicate 229 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:48,160 something going on and they indicate, you know, when they are there and you know, when 230 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:53,240 she specifically feels that she's going to be in trouble. And then there's something 231 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:59,280 that happens with her towards the end where it almost seems like there's a force and then 232 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:04,760 there's a counter force and the sensei of solar strike is wielding or operating with 233 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:10,360 that force and then Remy is operating with the opposite force. And you, but you don't 234 00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:20,760 name them. You don't try to over explain. So while there's a very like all the rules, 235 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:24,640 all the way that it operates in the world, because it is fantastical. I don't know if 236 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:30,160 you can say horror is magical or horror is fantastical specifically, but the way I'm 237 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:35,000 looking at it, just mechanically, it is because these are unexplainable things. They're unseen 238 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,600 things. They are breaking the normal rules of the world. It's supernatural in the origin, 239 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:44,840 or, and we don't know what the origins are. Now, they could, you could have, there's a 240 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:49,560 hell machine in terror Valley that the devil has created in order to, you know, reap, you 241 00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:55,400 know, like say the moon, right. Suck out terror from the kids or whatever. Right. But you 242 00:19:55,400 --> 00:20:00,440 don't have to do that. And you could argue that that would make it a worse series. So 243 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:05,440 you're being consistent and like mechanical and methodical in how you display the way 244 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:11,000 things work, but the way things work is still hidden and wrapped in mystery. And I'm assuming 245 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:16,360 by the fact that you're nodding and making positive noises, that's definitely your intention. 246 00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:21,920 Will you ever consider being more technical, being more hard with the magic and with the 247 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:26,200 mystery of what's going on? Or is that to you, like the key element that you want to 248 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:30,720 play with that mystery, that vagueness? I mean, that's what makes things scary. I think 249 00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:36,000 it's the unknown of how did this happen? How does that work? Like you watch a serial killer 250 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:40,800 movie, like a slasher, like scream for instance, and you know, one of these main characters 251 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:44,360 is the killer. Then you just have to figure out like, how are they getting away with this? 252 00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:49,360 How are they doing this? And that's sort of like the appeal of those. And well, I feel 253 00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:56,000 those are more like a mystery genre. I do like the fanatical, you know, like something 254 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:01,760 that can't be quite explained. And I think there's a lot of stories out there that try 255 00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:07,880 to explain that, or there are remakes that show you like they over explain it, or they 256 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:14,440 like, you know, try so hard to make it believable. Like you look at like Marvel and DC, for instance, 257 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:19,320 Marvel comics have always been more technical, whereas DC comics have always been kind of 258 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:24,060 more magical. You know, you got Superman flying around. Batman's like the only, you know, outlier 259 00:21:24,060 --> 00:21:29,400 of that. But in the movies for Marvel, they do a lot of stuff that DC comics did really 260 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:34,120 well where they don't explain it. But then they release more and more movies that kind 261 00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:37,720 of, you know, start to explain things more and more like where did these, you know, Infinity 262 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,520 Stones come from? And it's like, it doesn't matter. They're there. This big purple dude's 263 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:45,600 gonna use them. He's gonna wipe out half the universe, get together, and go kick his ass. 264 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:49,880 You know, like, what do you, why do I need this explained to me? Yeah, explain what they 265 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:57,920 do. That's great. But I feel like as a reader, right? You want to be able to jump into a 266 00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:02,880 story where you can connect with the main character and you sort of live through everything 267 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:07,840 through their eyes. And so they're not going to know inherently what these red headbands 268 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:12,760 are doing to the kids. They're only going to see the correlation between, okay, all 269 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:18,320 of these kids that everyone is afraid of in this town have those headbands. Oh, man, my 270 00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:24,160 best friend. Well, you know, I use that very lightly. Best friend, my only friend here 271 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:29,320 ends up getting one of those headbands. And he turns into Chuck Norris, you know, like, 272 00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:33,800 there's, you kind of see things together. And at the end of it, you might not ever really 273 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:39,000 fully know. And I think that's just like, good storytelling, like a filmmaker will show 274 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:45,080 you something, a bad filmmaker will tell you something. And I think that very much applies 275 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:50,120 to a story too, that if you're going to operate in that, you kind of have to decide, do I 276 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:56,280 explain everything? And I feel like in this case, if I did with these stories, it just, 277 00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:00,760 it wouldn't, it wouldn't feel right. It doesn't feel the same, you know, like there's an element 278 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:07,320 of it. And you take that humanity and you put it through that small little envelope 279 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:11,920 of space of how they can operate and they have to kind of figure their way out through 280 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:15,720 it. I don't know. I think it's more fun that way. 281 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,640 So let me ask you something as a writer, does it save you time to just say, somehow this 282 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:23,040 is happening, I don't really understand it. And I'm just going to move forward and say, 283 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:26,880 how does that affect my main character? And what does that put them through? Is that what 284 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:27,880 you do? 285 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:33,160 I mean, yes and no. Like there's, there's a lot of other tricks that I do that as a 286 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:40,680 reader, I gloss over a lot of pros. Like I listen to people explain like every little 287 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:46,880 detail in a room. I explain like every little detail on a person's face. And I'm like, I 288 00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:50,960 fall asleep reading that. I, you know, I gloss over that. That doesn't do anything for me. 289 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:54,840 I know a lot of people are like, I need to know exactly like how many freckles are on 290 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:59,920 the left side of this character's face. But for me, like there's a character in this book 291 00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:06,320 who I describe their hair only because I know later on, I'm going to have to re-describe 292 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:13,400 that specific character and the change that happens. And that's why I include that detail. 293 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:17,280 I don't try to over-include details just for the sake of it, just to, you know, fluff up 294 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:23,420 word count. I like to describe things in a very natural way and a very like, what do 295 00:24:23,420 --> 00:24:27,800 I need to know? Okay. I don't explain anything about Remy, but you probably have a really 296 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:33,800 good idea of what she looks like or who she is. Same with Chuck, you know, like I try 297 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:39,560 not to over-explain things because I think it helps the reader settle in more instead 298 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:43,960 of like, you remember like when Hunger Games came out, like the books and the movies, they 299 00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:49,640 had a character in there. Her name was Lure. I don't know what is, what is her name? Oh, 300 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,920 I'm thinking of a different book. But there's a character in there, right? She's like this 301 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:58,980 little girl that teams up with Katniss who in the book, it very much describes her as 302 00:24:58,980 --> 00:25:05,440 being black. And so when the movie came out and they cast a black actor to play her, people 303 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:10,760 lost their mind. I don't know why, maybe they just didn't read it correctly. But like, I 304 00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:14,240 read that book and came away with like, oh yeah, you know, she wanted, Suzanne wanted 305 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:18,480 to make that character black and she, you know, described it to a pretty good detail 306 00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:21,920 that in my mind, I was like, yeah, that's exactly. And then I saw the movie. I'm like, 307 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:25,760 yeah, it's perfect. But like, that's the thing. Other people have like their own specific 308 00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:31,880 mindsets. And so I feel like these will probably never be a book or a movie. I want everybody 309 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:37,980 to be able to like pick them up, picture themselves or picture whatever they want without my writing 310 00:25:37,980 --> 00:25:43,480 obstructing that or like taking away anything that they had going on, you know? 311 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:48,280 Yeah, no, I think that's cool. And I actually, I thought about that too. I thought I have 312 00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:53,360 no idea what these kids look like other than Freddie or Chuck's acne. And I think he's 313 00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:58,080 a little pudgy. I think that was specifically mentioned. At least that's what I saw though. 314 00:25:58,080 --> 00:25:59,080 You know? 315 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:03,440 I didn't, I didn't fully mention it, but I gave you context clues that you might, might 316 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:08,000 lead you to that. Like with his unbalance and how short he is for his age and how Remy's 317 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:12,160 the shortest of her class. Like there's, there's a little context clues in there. 318 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:15,440 You know, that's good, but it's nice cause it's like, you're just drawing a comparison 319 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:20,280 between two characters, but it doesn't fully describe. So I do like that style. And I gotta 320 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:25,160 say, so I'm a, I'm reading a superhero series with my kids sort of off and on, and it's 321 00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:31,040 very, it's first person and your books are first person. And I, I actually don't really 322 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:35,520 get first person like it, like I wouldn't write first person. And I don't think I've 323 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:41,720 ever really read anything that was first person. Like maybe, yeah, I don't think I've ever 324 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:47,360 read anything besides, you know, your stuff. And then this superhero book I'm reading and 325 00:26:47,360 --> 00:26:51,680 like maybe one other thing that's first person and it's really weird. But like it really 326 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:56,880 does give a different effect and it really is immersive. I can see that. And I appreciate 327 00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:01,800 that. And it's just, it's really interesting how little detail you have to give and how 328 00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:04,920 little context you have to give in order for people to understand, especially cause it's 329 00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:08,920 not a, you know, completely foreign world. It's a mundane world for lack of a better 330 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:13,620 term. And it's the things that are different in it that stand out, that upset the balance 331 00:27:13,620 --> 00:27:20,200 of it, that throw the kid off and that make it horrific or fantastical. And I think that 332 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:25,200 makes a lot of sense to just like focus in on those things and it definitely works. So 333 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:28,760 I do like that. And so I guess that's like, as a third person only, like third person 334 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:32,480 limited guy, that's my favorite style of writing. That's what I want to read. That's what I 335 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:36,760 want to write. I like this first person writing has my stamp of approval and it's really cool 336 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:40,040 how effectively it can be used. And I appreciate that. So, 337 00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:45,240 Well, see, I come from a background like you too, like I love reading third person. I just 338 00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:50,160 could not get into first person. Cause like a lot of children's like younger aged books 339 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:53,840 are written in first person, just to kind of help guide a little bit. You can kind of 340 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:58,100 get into the mind of that character a little bit better. But I never thought that like, 341 00:27:58,100 --> 00:28:02,400 I would like writing first person until I started doing it. Now there are other people 342 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,440 out there like bringing up the hunger games again, the hunger games is told in first person 343 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:11,560 present tense. And it's really hard. It's really jarring to me personally to read that 344 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:16,960 because I love, you know, like past tense third person. And I kind of do like past tense 345 00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:21,560 first person here. I almost tell it like they're telling the story, which I think a little 346 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:26,840 more interesting and makes it more fun for me to kind of guide through it. Cause I can 347 00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:31,600 kind of put my own emotion in there rather than being, you know, standing back and saying, 348 00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:35,280 well, how would this character feel? What does this character thinking? I can really 349 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:41,040 kind of put you into the shoes of Remy, of Freddie, of our next characters, you know, 350 00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:49,040 and just sort of blast away. Right, right. That's cool. Now you said, well, I don't want 351 00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:54,520 to get into that. I actually do want to get into spoiler talk now. Yeah. So I should go 352 00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:59,560 soon. So we should do spoiler talk. What, so the hair thing you were talking about. 353 00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:03,000 So again, we'll give people like 10 seconds to get out of here with spoilers. So I want 354 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:08,200 to ask you, I'll give the topics. I want to talk about the hair. I want to talk about, 355 00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:12,640 what do I want to talk about? I don't know. Oh, one thing I want to mention just to pad 356 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:18,680 out our time a little bit more is I was confident that one of Freddie's friends was black in 357 00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,880 the last book. I can't remember his name now, but I thought, Oh, this is his black friend. 358 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:29,400 Huh? Dean? Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. But I thought, yeah, there's a few of them there. I don't 359 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:33,120 remember their names right now off my head. I thought that was, I thought that was really 360 00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,320 cool. And then like over here with these characters that I thought it hit me like, Oh, this is 361 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:40,480 really cool. Cause like, there's no context on who these people are except for the immediate 362 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,120 stuff. And I really appreciate that. Cause like anybody can read it and just feel comfortable 363 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:47,120 with it. And there's no, there's like nothing to alienate. Cause it's kind of like, you're 364 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:50,240 doing like suburbia and you're doing school, you're doing kid stuff. And that's like a 365 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:54,560 very common, like they call it fly over country for a reason. That's not most of the country. 366 00:29:54,560 --> 00:30:00,040 It's rather most of the country isn't suburb, isn't urban and isn't big city. Most of it 367 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:04,680 is the small town type of stuff, which is something great. Cause I think most kids, 368 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,960 regardless of where they live, their experience is mostly kind of that more small town, quiet 369 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:12,120 subdued type of thing, even if they're in like a big school with, you know, lots of 370 00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:17,040 different grades or whatever. So that's really cool. All right. So now spoilers, major spoilers. 371 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:24,480 So the hair, that's the toupee, right? Specifically the, the two, no, I, I, I did two, I think 372 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:29,640 I guess I described two characters hairs in this book. Yes. The toupee for one of Mr. 373 00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:35,480 Flum. And then the, the boy that stopped Remy from going into school the first day had like, 374 00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:44,560 oh yeah, actually blonde after the influence of the sensei washes away. Right. But yeah, 375 00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:48,920 so there's the toupee thing, which that was an idea I had as soon as I came up with the 376 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:53,000 idea of the headbands. Cause I'm like, I bought, I bought a headband. I almost wore one for 377 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,280 this, but I realized we're just going to do audio. Maybe the other interviews, if you 378 00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:00,920 guys watch any others, I'll probably have a headband on. You feel cool. Like the Barbie 379 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:05,520 movie had just come out and like, he has this like wicked purple headband. And originally 380 00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:11,080 I wrote the headbands and everything being purple. Cause in my mind, that was sort of 381 00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:16,240 the solar strike of it. And then I got the amazing art back and I was just like, oh man, 382 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:20,880 that red looks so bad. I know people are going to have a problem if, if it's purple in the 383 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:25,440 book, you know, but I went, yeah, I changed it all the red and I'm like, I like this more, 384 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:33,560 I think. Um, okay. But yeah, so there's, there's the toupee that has the hidden headband underneath, 385 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:39,960 which, um, only one person I was like, kind of like, I have a few friends that I write, 386 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:44,960 like obviously Lauren, who's my editor, my wife, she, um, she kind of gets every chapter 387 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,160 as I finish it. And so sometimes I'll come out and I'll be like, I finished a chapter. 388 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:52,360 She's like, okay, read it to me and I'll read it. And then she'll be like, okay, continue. 389 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,960 And I'm like, that's all I wrote. She's like, well, get the, get back in there, keep writing. 390 00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:59,880 Um, and she didn't even see the toupee thing coming. And I thought I was making it a little 391 00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:08,720 too obvious. Um, so I think that that one worked really well, but, uh, yeah, fun. Did 392 00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:13,840 you, um, can I ask you a question? Did you get the impression that the kids, the students 393 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:20,600 of solar strike karate are not just like kids that have been, I want to say like abducted 394 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:25,680 or taken in within like the last year or two, but like over decades, did you kind of get 395 00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:30,840 that? Oh, I did get that by the, I got that by the end. And then it like threw me off 396 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:34,880 because I thought, well, how are, first question, how old are all these kids and what are the 397 00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:38,880 age ranges and are they like frozen at that age? And then how are they integrate integrate 398 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:44,240 to society? Because it's like, yeah, Hey mom, it's, uh, I left you in 1987, come pick me 399 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:49,920 up. Like, how are you going to do that? You know? Right. Um, yeah. One of the things I 400 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:54,160 really was going to talk about more was sort of like the disappearance of the families 401 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,880 and like Chuck would kind of be our central character that we would see that start to 402 00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:03,440 happen. But then I was like, you know what's scary? If I just, if I describe it briefly 403 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:09,040 that this is happening and that you don't know, that's the scarier part is that principal 404 00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:12,840 coke doesn't know what happens. Everybody else in the town that's aware of it doesn't 405 00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:17,300 happen, uh, that, you know, doesn't know. And all the kids talk about it too, but even 406 00:33:17,300 --> 00:33:23,040 they don't know. So I thought that was kind of like more fun to do it that way. More sinister. 407 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:27,960 And it is more sinister, but it's also a better logistically. Like if you had 30 kids disappear 408 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:32,520 one year, that would be nuts. Right. If it was like one kid every year or whatever for 409 00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:37,160 a long time, that's kind of worse in a lot of ways, but it makes it easier to absorb 410 00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:42,880 the loss. You know, they almost got Sensei Roberts, but, uh, maybe she got out. You don't 411 00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:47,280 know. Maybe she, she pulled a Remy. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And that was weird too. That was 412 00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:50,320 a cool thing too. So like, all right, so now we can talk about the spoilers about that 413 00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:54,480 third arc. So, you know, you have these, uh, you have Sensei Roberts and you have a principal 414 00:33:54,480 --> 00:34:00,200 cope, right? Yep. Uh, they, they come in and they basically help Remy like when she's all 415 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:04,760 out of options and she's basically screwed by the way. So one of the things that you 416 00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:08,600 did, I think to get remedy to the school was that like find my iPhone thing that she has 417 00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:12,360 paired with her dad so they can find each other. That was super cool. I thought that 418 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:16,400 was really novel. And I like, like hearing you talk about it, the way you talked about 419 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,560 it, I thought, Oh, so Squall just made that up when he had to figure out a way to get 420 00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:25,400 her there. But even if you didn't, it's cool because it's like, it's not seated at all. 421 00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:29,720 And it's, it, but it's not like a DSX Mac. It doesn't come out of nowhere. Right. It 422 00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:33,440 does feel natural, which was great. Well, the problem that I was having that I like, 423 00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:38,040 I took like two, three weeks off from writing this just because I was getting really frustrated 424 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:44,880 because I had her, I had that principal cope and her talk about solar strike happen inside 425 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:49,520 the school, like literally right after how we got beat up by Chuck when Chuck gets fully 426 00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:53,680 possessed by the headband. I had that happen in the school. And then the message was like, 427 00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,480 they are coming, get out of the school. And so then I had her like, try to get out of 428 00:34:56,480 --> 00:35:00,640 the school. And like, I had like, Mr. I had this whole scene of like Mr. Flum chasing 429 00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:04,200 after her. And I was like, wait a minute, but if I want to do like the reveal later, 430 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:09,920 I kind of have to play it, you know, a little more level headed because in the last book, 431 00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:15,360 I really wanted you to feel like the character you couldn't trust becomes, you know, like 432 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:19,360 your, your greatest confidant, like your greatest ally in this. And that was the coach. And 433 00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:22,280 so I kind of wanted to do that with this. Like you're like, well, maybe principal cope 434 00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:26,400 is up to something. Maybe Mr. Flum is going to, you know, but I'm like, no, it's really 435 00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:30,480 what you think it is to kind of like double get you up. But I like had her like getting 436 00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:33,840 out of the school. And I'm like, well, how do I get her dad to the school? Cause that's 437 00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:37,600 ultimately how she's going to get to the school. And by the time I rewrote it, I was like, 438 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:41,520 what if she just gets expelled? What if he's just like, yeah, you're out of here that would 439 00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:45,200 immediately send dad off to the school and that would immediately get her to go after 440 00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:50,400 and find him. And I was like, Hey, sometimes it just takes like three weeks of, you know, 441 00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:54,040 not thinking about it, but like have that little eureka moment. And that's kind of where 442 00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:57,640 everything came from after her house gets broken into. 443 00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:05,400 Yeah. And I fully expected for him to be at the dojo and for him, for her, the final conversation 444 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:09,060 to be at the dojo, which we do eventually get, which is cool, but I like how it's kind 445 00:36:09,060 --> 00:36:14,160 of like two tiered there. I like how it's two tiered there. That's good. 446 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:20,440 Yeah. Cause it's better to go to the dojo for him, but if they have him elsewhere, then, 447 00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:24,400 you know, they don't have to worry about anything about another adult getting loose or so I 448 00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:26,600 was like, okay, yeah, sorry. 449 00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:31,840 Yeah. And then, and then I like how you, you split up, cope goes with her dad and then 450 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:35,680 Remy goes with her sensei and it's like, okay, well what's going to happen now? And I like 451 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:40,320 to that Remy like doesn't get what's going on at all. But her sensei and then like you 452 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:45,080 get the extra reveal. So there's like, there's like three or four reveals in the end game 453 00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:48,600 of the book, which is really cool. Cause it's like, well, where can it go from here? Like 454 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:52,280 she has to fight the sensei or whatever. And that's the logical conclusion, but how you 455 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:56,920 get to it is really interesting and exciting and it adds different elements to it. So I 456 00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,960 did feel like it was a little bit like with, with the looping, like, okay, so this has 457 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:05,440 happened before, but that's not a bad thing. And, but I don't think that should define 458 00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:06,920 every book and I doubt that's your plan. 459 00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:07,920 No, no. Yeah. 460 00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:12,120 To have, you know, this has happened before and an adult and the kid are going to get 461 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:19,040 paired together, whatever. It makes sense. And it made it, I just, I liked the history 462 00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:23,080 that there was there with her and sensei Roberts, well, I think their history alone and then 463 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:31,040 Roberts and then the solar strike sensei. And I think she didn't know Remy kept from 464 00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:36,600 her the name of the school until like things were bad. And then that set her off and that, 465 00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:41,440 so like it almost seems implausible that cope and Roberts would be there at the same time. 466 00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:44,720 But really, if you think about the way it worked out, it makes sense that it would happen. 467 00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:48,400 I had to really kind of like break it down and like structure it. I took out a whole 468 00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:52,080 chapter where she like left her another message and I was like, why is she like leaving her 469 00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:58,400 two messages? She should leave her a message approximately four to five hours before I 470 00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:01,840 need her on the scene. Okay. How does that fit her? And I put it there, you know, like 471 00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:07,400 right after she gets expelled and then sets off everything. Right. So that's really cool. 472 00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,240 I like how that timed out. And then I like that there's that history there. And again, 473 00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:14,680 like going back to like hard magic, soft magic thing, like something happened before there 474 00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,800 are defined rules. We don't necessarily know what they are. Obviously Remy realized when 475 00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:23,520 she tears off, uh, there's that Chuck's hair and the headband comes off that like the headband 476 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:27,880 is some sort of conduit that connects the sensei to the kids. And then I like that extra 477 00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:33,160 thing that like, because Remy didn't bow to the sensei in that first, like was that chapter 478 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:37,960 two or three? It was super early on chapter like seven. Yeah. Okay. The first time she 479 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:44,000 did the dojo. Exactly. It's the second time. I had it originally as the first time, but 480 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:48,120 it's the second time when she goes back and she has to fight Chuck. Um, okay. That's right. 481 00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:53,160 Yeah. It is before fighting Chuck because Chuck bows and then that starts the enchantment 482 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:57,160 or whatever that the sensei has on him. So like I said, it's like, it's cool cause it's 483 00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:01,600 very clearly defined rules. And once you know them after the fact, you can go back and say, 484 00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:05,380 oh, okay. So this makes sense because of all these things mechanistically had to happen, 485 00:39:05,380 --> 00:39:10,080 but still what's the mystical source behind it? Who knows who cares? It creates the, the 486 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:14,440 horror and it creates the, the, you know, the exciting, you know, twisted nature of 487 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,560 the world for Remy to have to go through. So that was cool. Well, the original title 488 00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:26,520 was, uh, uh, what was the original title? Bow to your sensei. And that's what I was 489 00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:32,680 going with. And the few people, like the four people that I was describing my very, very 490 00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:38,480 basic idea of this book before I flushed it out was like, Oh, Napoleon dynamite. I was 491 00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:42,200 like, what? They're like, yeah, there's a character in that that says bow to your sensei. 492 00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:47,480 I was like, Oh my God, you're right. I haven't thought about that movie in like 20 years. 493 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:52,240 And yeah, I cannot name it bow to your sensei, even though like that was the main idea I 494 00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:58,200 had was these kids bow and then he kind of takes them over. Um, or he has like, you know, 495 00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:04,600 a very faint connection, which he's able to get, I think just by proximity, which is why 496 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:11,520 Remy hears the voices and why she sees the things she does. But it's Chuck who active 497 00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:17,560 it's Chuck who actively bows and gets that, you know, direct connection that then the 498 00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:24,320 headband sort of completes the complete, you know, conversion of his will and his, you 499 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:31,120 know, body over to this, this force. Right, right. That makes sense. So by the way, that's 500 00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:36,760 your, that's because you have a new MacBook, right? That's what this is. Yeah. Yeah. So 501 00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,680 I heard somebody else on a podcast talking about they did something and their MacBook 502 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:45,000 did. Yeah. There you go. It's like gestures, right? Yeah. That's hilarious. Guys. I'm sorry 503 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:50,560 you didn't see that. Maybe you'll have to go to the next one. It's cool. Yeah. Speaking 504 00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:55,440 of water, I was just saying Napoleon diamond, but anyway, um, but you know, it's really 505 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:59,760 funny about the title. Now you're not my sensei is that I did want that as a line. And I had 506 00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:06,600 that actually early on when she first fought Chuck in the dojo. And then I, as I got closer 507 00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:11,840 to the end, I was like, nah, I need to have it at the end. That's it's gotta be like the 508 00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:15,520 line before the kill. Is that what they call it? Like when, before Arnold Schwarzenegger 509 00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:22,120 blows up a terrorist, you know, I want, I wanted that for Remy. I wanted that sort of 510 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:28,640 like cathartic, like you said, moment of it coming full circle. Right. And I needed my 511 00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:34,560 favorite one of those are too. Right. My favorite one of those is from total recall. Oh yeah. 512 00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:41,960 That is a first. Yeah. Oh man. Sorry. I went off on a whole thing like not too long ago 513 00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:47,080 about that, but that's, this is not the time or place for that. But yeah, I mean, so, uh, 514 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:50,720 I really liked, and you know, speaking of, you know, circling things, I like how her 515 00:41:50,720 --> 00:41:55,640 punching the tree is the first thing we see Remy doing really. And calling back to that 516 00:41:55,640 --> 00:42:01,000 and knowing that that came from sensei Roberts, uh, and that she's using it to now defeat, 517 00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:05,960 you know, the ghoul sensei or the solar strike sensei, whatever. Um, like that's so cool 518 00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:12,560 and that really worked. So I liked that, that bookending effect and yeah, I just liked the 519 00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:16,040 bookending effect. I think that's very cool. So that was a good, and it felt really good 520 00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:20,720 and it was nice. So I didn't even plan that. That just kind of came out as I was writing 521 00:42:20,720 --> 00:42:23,360 and then I was, I thought about a little bit more. So when I went back and like did my 522 00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:27,360 final revision, I kind of fleshed it out a little bit here and there, but like it's, 523 00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,280 it's with anything in life, like whether you're playing a musical instrument, whether you're 524 00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:36,800 writing or practicing karate, every time you practice, every time should always be a learning 525 00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:41,720 moment. It should help impact, you know, what you do later with that skill. And that's, 526 00:42:41,720 --> 00:42:46,840 I thought, I thought it was a fun little, you know, nod to that of her back in her front 527 00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:53,920 yard training on punching and taking it out on a portrait. Yeah, that was cool. That was 528 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:56,720 cool. And it made me think, I don't know, I don't remember where I got this from, but 529 00:42:56,720 --> 00:43:01,920 maybe I was doing research that like a lot of the karate stuff, maybe it was when I was 530 00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:05,960 in my little Bruce Lee phase, cause I was, I watched the documentary and I wanted to 531 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:10,720 learn all about Bruce Lee and his kendo and everything else. But like from what I learned 532 00:43:10,720 --> 00:43:14,520 years ago, it was like the, you know, your Kung Fu is better than my, or, you know, my 533 00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:17,880 Kung Fu is better than your Kung Fu. Like these different schools of martial arts, they 534 00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:23,980 had like mythos and misdirection around them in order to like fool people and like make 535 00:43:23,980 --> 00:43:29,920 it more mysterious and like almost even like kind of add reputation or like a fear factor 536 00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:34,000 to intimidate people to like quell conflict. So like, I remember reading about that this 537 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:37,720 one school would teach people how to rip somebody's heart out of their chest. And the way that 538 00:43:37,720 --> 00:43:41,600 you do it is you do like, you know, a hundred times a day, you make a claw with your fist 539 00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:45,640 or with your hand and you push forward as hard as you can and you do it a hundred times. 540 00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:49,920 And then you do it through, you do it in air, then you do it in water, then you do it in 541 00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:53,040 sand, then you do it through like beans and you do it through rice or whatever. Like you 542 00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:56,000 scale up until like you're doing it through rocks. And then eventually after doing this 543 00:43:56,000 --> 00:44:00,980 for years, you now know how to rip someone's heart out of their chest. And it kind of reminded 544 00:44:00,980 --> 00:44:04,600 me of that, her punching the tree. And it just, it gave me a flashback to that, that 545 00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:10,080 I have a touchstone too. And it works on its own independent of that, but I just thought 546 00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:14,720 that was a really cool moment. And had you heard anything like that that you were throwing 547 00:44:14,720 --> 00:44:16,520 back to or, or, or not? 548 00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:20,960 Yeah. From what I know, like a lot of that is just repetition and like doing the same 549 00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,840 thing over and over again. And I also kind of wanted to have like a last minute redirect 550 00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:31,080 where it's the last point, right? Remy has to win. She's smaller than this guy. He's 551 00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:35,160 descending on her. And like my wife, she was like, I thought for sure she was going to 552 00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:39,840 like uppercut him or like she would like punch him and punch through him or something would 553 00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:45,440 happen. And, you know, just, just the idea of her like, you know, doing that movement. 554 00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:51,800 Yeah. I think it blends in with those sort of, you know, teachings very well. 555 00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:56,600 Right. Oh, I got to say, I really liked, and I could, we could have talked about this in 556 00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:59,800 the spoiler free area, but I really liked your combat. I think you did like a, like 557 00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:03,880 that fight where you highlighted their size difference and how she used that to her advantage 558 00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:10,880 was great. And also just like the brutality of possessed Chuck was like, that was, that 559 00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:14,080 was rough. And, but I liked it. It was good. I didn't think you went too far. And I thought, 560 00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:18,000 this is a horror book. That's horrible. What he's doing. It's horrific. It's, you know, 561 00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:24,040 it's nasty and gross and like it works, you know? So I liked that and just, yeah, just 562 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:27,040 all the little stuff and fighting. I thought it was really good. And I thought, yeah, this 563 00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:30,480 guy used to, you know, he used to watch power rangers. So yeah, you got it. You have to 564 00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:34,280 scale everything. Like in terms of, you know, the character development in terms of the 565 00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:39,160 horror aspect of it, like definitely this one's much scarier than the first one with 566 00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:43,680 some of the imagery of like, you know, the students that break into her, her house, but 567 00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:49,040 like, I feel like you have to have, you know, her ability when she takes out Howie the first 568 00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:54,880 time real easy, you have to have Chuck's ability of copying her move. You have to have, you 569 00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:59,320 know, like Chuck beating her with her own moves. You have to have Chuck, you know, completely 570 00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:03,760 annihilating it so that by the time you do have her in the house and there's like five 571 00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:09,200 of these other kids that have Chuck like, you know, power levels for a lot of the better 572 00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:14,520 work, like if you feel a lot more scared for her because she already got, you know, beat 573 00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:19,080 up by Chuck, same with like, you know, when she's facing off flum, that's going to influence 574 00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:25,440 how she fights sensei. But the sensei obviously is more in control. He's more centered there. 575 00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:29,680 And he also doesn't get blindsided by sensei Roberts. But you know, that's another thing. 576 00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:35,700 Yeah. So I thought that was all really cool. And I think too, um, yeah, no, I was surprised 577 00:46:35,700 --> 00:46:41,120 by the fighting and I thought, well, this is good because, um, like I, I'm not sure 578 00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:45,920 how hard fighting is to write. Um, but like, you know, if you read the Hobbit, you know, 579 00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:50,720 what happens? Bill gets knocked out and then he wakes up. If you read the horses boy, what 580 00:46:50,720 --> 00:46:54,840 happens? Uh, he gets knocked out and then wakes up after the battle. So it's like even 581 00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:58,480 in the first Harry Potter book, what happens? Harry passes out and he wakes up. I think it's 582 00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:02,960 the first three books he passes out and wakes up in the hospital. Right. So yeah. If you 583 00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:10,960 ever read Eric, like every chapter passes out. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's kind of a, you 584 00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:14,960 know, it's something easy to do and the fights are hard to get right. But, uh, I think you 585 00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:19,320 did a really good job with them. So that was, uh, that was really cool. So, uh, I think 586 00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:24,560 I got to wrap up. Um, is there any stuff you want to talk about before I let you go? No, 587 00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:29,120 I just had a lot of fun writing this one and, um, the reception so far has been really fun. 588 00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:34,000 It's just, it's a different type of story. And I think I mentioned in the last one, you 589 00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:38,880 know, that we recorded that we weren't able to release that I want to increase the scare 590 00:47:38,880 --> 00:47:46,880 factor with every book. And I, I, what I have planned for the next one, there's some cool, 591 00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:53,440 weird stuff in it that I want to do that I think might push the lines in a few places, 592 00:47:53,440 --> 00:48:00,040 but I'm really excited to get into that. And I just have this fun idea of doing the three 593 00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:04,720 where you have more science fiction for the first one, more like action for the second 594 00:48:04,720 --> 00:48:11,040 one, and then just straight up horror for the third one. And I'm, I'm super excited 595 00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:15,760 to get into it here. Um, and if you want to check out that or, you know, check out the 596 00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:20,480 book, you can always visit us at terror Valley.com. Um, we're over on Twitter as well as terror 597 00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:26,360 Valley books, which is like BKS, just cause you can't fit as many in the character limit. 598 00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:30,800 Um, so you can follow us there. We'll keep it updated. And we're actually doing a fun 599 00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:35,280 little thing this holiday season that by the time this goes out, it'll probably be going 600 00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:42,400 on, but everybody that buys a book from here on out through the rest of the year, I am 601 00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:46,640 going to match that and donate to a local school or library here in the Kansas city 602 00:48:46,640 --> 00:48:53,720 area. So check it out. They're fun. And, um, I can't wait to come back and talk about the 603 00:48:53,720 --> 00:48:59,280 third book and what you think of that one. Very cool. Yeah. I, I'm excited to hear what 604 00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:03,760 pure horror is going to be like coming from news. Cause you know, like I said, I thought 605 00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:08,600 like the, the big scary scene in a school's out for never the chase, I'll just call it 606 00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:13,400 that the chase, the deadly chase that was, that was intense. Yeah. Uh, and then this 607 00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:17,080 book got intense. So I'll, I'll, I'll be curious to see school unleashed. You know what that 608 00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:24,360 looks like. All I'll, all I will say is that people are going to die in the most childlike 609 00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:29,480 way. Okay. All right. Well, that'll be interesting. All right. Well, thank you so much for your 610 00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:34,220 time. Uh, I'll have links for everything in the show notes and I guess that's about it. 611 00:49:34,220 --> 00:49:38,280 So thank you folks for your time and attention until next time. Take care. This is MJ signing 612 00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:45,280 out and squall as well. Thanks for having me on and all have a good one. Bye. 613 00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:51,720 I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other 614 00:49:51,720 --> 00:49:58,160 feedback you might have there. You can find all of my analysis, art and fiction. I cover 615 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:04,320 books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more. Look around. You're sure to find something 616 00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:08,480 else that you'll enjoy as well. This has been a story over everything production.