This is MJ. I'm an author. I'm an artist. I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com
Welcome to story over everything. This is a special bonus slash
Personal slash potentially unnumbered episode that I'm doing kind of mid-april. I think it's mid-april. I don't know
I'm not even gonna check the date. That's how uh, that's how casual we're gonna be on this episode. Yeah casual anyway
Like kamikaze
I who will get that? I don't like anybody if you do though, you know, let's talk. Let's talk anyway
so I
have
Been
reading or listening a lot and
I found an incredible series of books that is short and
is
It's worth and its substance has nothing to do with the page count or the length that it would take to read these books
or the length in of time in which they were
Which was utilized for them to be written. I I believe that's an accurate statement to make
And I won't tell you quite what that series is just yet. However, if you
Have been around for a few episodes. I've mentioned Tolkien and Lewis's work that being
Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and which could we just call the Lord of the Rings saga or something like that anyway
and
the
Chronicles of Narnia
I've also enjoyed some of Lewis's other work, but specifically that I mentioned those fantasy series
Which is interesting because I am NOT a fantasy author or a an aspiring
Fantasy author though. I do have at least one fantasy book in my head if it can be called fantasy
Which I could argue for yes anyway, I
I
have discovered a new series of books and it was actually brought to my attention by my eldest child and
She started on them and
Told me you're really gonna like these books and I
listened to the first one and I really liked it and I just it I've
I've just consumed these books in a very short amount of time because they're that good and it actually
inspired me to add a dimension to the story over everything feed and
and general
Podcast slash whatever else you want to call it and that is this
That not only will I track my progress as an author and artist and analyzer and Chronicle all those things in story over everything
I will actively talk about books that I am enjoying or have enjoyed or think are wonderful
And I don't quite yet know the scope of how I will handle the books
I had the idea to I actually stumbled across something while researching something
while reading or listening to I think the Hobbit years like two years ago that somebody had done a
chapter by chapter analysis and breakdown of
the Hobbit and I
love that idea I
I really love the idea of actually taking any book and doing a chapter by chapter review and then a
Whole review, you know an entire book review after the fact and that seems like a really fabulous project to endeavor on
I think for now though
I'll start off kind of wave one or phase one of my story over everything book reviews or book
discussions book chats, I'm gonna call him I guess and
Yeah, this is a story over everything book chat today. We're talking about
Anyway, I I do like the idea of that and I like the shape that's taking my mind that I can
Broadly cover a book not book a book of not do a book of the month club type thing just yet
I'll wait till I have you know more clout or more more something or other
I don't know and I don't know the pace yet at which I will cover
The many books that I'd like to discuss because I want to keep it reasonable for myself, but also
You know consistent so I'm not doing I mean maybe a book a month is a good idea and maybe I can have it be
a bonus episode and
Or kind of well, no, I could it doesn't need to be a bonus
I can just replace all my episodes that would be fine because I don't want to yeah
Actually, that might be a fine idea to do one a month. Hmm. Okay. So yeah, like I said, I'm going easy
On myself and I'm I'm actually making this part of what I'm doing. This is me
I'm I'm giving you an insight into my creative process and honestly a lot of the time I have to talk things out for myself
Thinking in my mind only gets me so far
verbalizing what I have to say or the ideas I have really helps me in fact, I have had several I
breakthrough is too strong of a word for the
The level the humble level of my writing at this point
But I've had several breakthroughs for lack of a better term while narrating to myself or just thinking stories out loud
In fact that happened earlier in the history of story over everything where I was trying to write a book plot out
Just a single book or maybe a whole novel series. I think or series of novels rather
by
Bullet point was the idea and I was what that meant was I was just kind of
Dictating to myself and recording it and saying oh what if I did this? What if I did that?
This is the issue I have with this character. This is an idea. I have how I like that work
I molded over they said oh, this is what I'll do and actually
It was more than that
I was able to
Think and and share my thoughts and kind of stream some of them out as they were coming and then as I wanted to pause
And develop them I would pause the recording let myself mull over it for a few minutes and then again go ahead and record it
so
This mixture of structured and unstructured
Production of of content is a something I favor actually and I
Don't really have a desire to hold them as two separate things since they're all part of the creative process for me
I kind of like to have them
I don't know held in like with each other because I value them equally and in fact
I don't think I could do what I do without
doing both
meticulously planning and plotting things out and also just shooting from the hip and
Yeah, I so
What does that mean?
As if to prove the point to myself or just to please myself
I am just coming back from pausing and reflecting on what I'm saying and what I want to do
And I'm thinking I almost want to talk about one book at a time in a very broad
manner and
highlight key points from the book maybe the most
impactful or most enjoyable aspects of the book as well as
Try to sell anybody listening to me talk about this book on
The merits of the book without fully spoiling it
I might delve into some of the spoilers
But I'll try to avoid them as much as possible so that I can kind of tease and promote the book
Kind of work on that muscle of well
How can I make this book sound most appealing to people and maybe I'll even write that ahead of time
okay, I'm gonna spend time writing, you know for lack of a better word ad copy and
You know a promotional blurb type thing for the book to pitch it to people, you know today's listener of 2023 and beyond and
After I do that I can in a less structured way talk about the things that I enjoyed most in the book and also
Frame them or and then additionally to that discuss the
technique in the writing of the book that I find most appealing as a
reader so what did I enjoy that the author did and
as a writer
What do I enjoy that the author did that I feel like I could get away with doing as well because I think
that's a
wise thing to consider
Even if these books aren't all in the genre, I'm wanting to write because like I've said before I have no
No
Not that I have no interest in writing fantasy, but fantasy is not my primary
Genre that I'd like to write in
Unless you consider superhero X fantasy which I could see somebody forcing it to be if they were really wanted to be but you know
I mean kind of the more epic fantasy sword and sorcery type thing
Although I don't know is sword and sorcery
Considered to be separate from fantasy because I have heard sort of and sorcery can
Apply to things like the writings of Howard Conan and
Solomon Cain who I believe is called the Grey Pilgrim
But that that name or that title that Appalachian jumped into my mind before I could conjure the name
Solomon Cain, but
anyway
I've heard it referred to I've heard those things and probably
Princess of Mars or the Barsoom Saga by whoever that's by is that Kipling? That's not Kipling. That's uh, oh boy
Well, I don't remember his name, but
but
Anyway, it doesn't matter
It's uh, you can find that out easily enough Barsoom or Princess of Mars John Carpenter's is the an athelic. That's the titular character
Of the story. She's the eponymous hero John Carpenter of Mars, etc. Etc
Anyway, so that's how she well anyway, like I said, it's immaterial for now. You can look it up
I can look it up, but that's it's not a good time to do that. So I will just continue
I heard sword and sorcery referred referring to those sorts of things not
Lord of the Rings first for example, which contains literal swords and
Much sorcery so I don't know why there's a distinction there or that's just a different way to say it or if it's because
sword and sorcery stories stand apart from your
standard fantasy fare by perhaps having more gore more violence a different sort of edge to them
because Solomon Cain
was written by Howard who was a fan of
HP Lovecraft who
Specifically, I believe wanted to emphasize the actual
specifically, I believe wanted to emphasize the aspects of cosmic horror and
the ineffable and the strange and the weird in its classic
understanding or definition of the word and
emphasize those factors as opposed to the wonder and the grandeur perhaps of a Tolkien's fantasy or
even something mythological like Arthurian legend or even
No, I wouldn't say Robin Hood counts as fantasy at all. That's more like a period
adventure story than anything else
anyway, so
Yeah, like I said, I can try to pitch the books to you and
Then go ahead and just specifically talk about what I enjoyed from the book both as a reader and as a writer and things
that I would like
to exploit as a writer and for my readers to enjoy from my writing as well and
That sounds like it's a pretty good
setup for a
Sub series on story over everything and I like the name of story over everything chats or
The story over everything book chat book discussion something like that. I'll just be honest with you. I am a fan of chat GPT
I have
use of chat GPT 3 right now and
I will probably go ahead and throw a
Prompt into it to come up with a suggestion for what these book discussions should be called
Can you have a discussion if it's only one person? I don't know
I don't think so so book chat it chats even it's a less formal thing
But it almost more depends on a single person or rather on two people as opposed to a single person
So I'm not quite sure how to call that but I'll figure it out and I'll share those suggestions with you in fact
I am if you're looking at
the website at mgm news.com and seeing what other things I do and you've discovered it from story over everything being out there in a
Podcatcher or whatever on YouTube or any other Odyssey any other video site
Where you can find things like this and you're curious as to the different things I'm into and what I've used chat GPT
chat GPT for I use it to find a name for a series of
Podcasts let's just call them for the sake of argument that I'm doing right now where I'm recording an audiobook for something
That's of you know science fiction genre fiction for an anime actually where they're coming out with a book for it and
I ended up asking
For a lot a lot of suggestions for what to call it, and I didn't end up using any of them specifically I you
Reading through some of the key phrases. I came up with my own individual term
So if that's anything to go by I may end up using an individual idea or name or title for this
You know book chat thing that I come up with on my own after having a back-and-forth with the the AI
So anyway, that's those long diversion and that the thing is that it's Digimon Chronicles where I'm talking about the or where I'm reading
Actually the Digimon Seekers web novel that's being released on a weekly basis by I guess Toei Toei
Yeah, Toei who is the owner and operator of the Digimon?
License so anyway and just another insight into me. Yeah, I like Lewis
I like Tolkien, but I also like Digimon and I actually think Digimon has a very strong literary
Not basis, so I mean no not basis, but like core to it
And some of the stories are very fascinating and very well written
Even though it is a sort of monster of the week
You know kids show meant to sell stuff
but I kind of think I would argue that anybody who makes anything and puts it out there for people to
Read watch listen to enjoy is selling something in one form or another
Whether you're selling your ideology you're selling your books you're selling your comic book magazine or your superhero magazine
Or you're selling you know toys, so it's all kind of the same thing and I think story itself at its very core
is a device for selling something and
You exchange the time and attention of your audience for the
The message that you're trying to put forth to them and like I said, that's what you're selling to them and
I don't think that's a bad thing at all because we sell our morals and our ethics and
wisdom to our children the future you know our children our fellows and in future generations through the stories that we tell and there's
nothing wrong with that and
That's actually that idea that concept that I have of story
being such a powerful tool and
Being such a powerful mechanism and device is why I've called this show
story over everything because I believe story is the most important thing the details the graphics the
You know there's a lot of little nuances that go into how well a story lands
But and there's you know many genre and many media that stories can be in
but to me what matters is how well the stories conveyed and that the story actually has something good and beautiful at its heart and its core and
I believe I'm very selective with the stories. I enjoy and that they only are the good and the beautiful. They're only the ones that have
Something worthwhile in them
Anyway, I've waxed philosophical after not meaning to for far too long
So I will go ahead and bid you adieu for now. This is MJ signing out. 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 books tokusatsu comic books anime and more
Look around you're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well. This has been a story over everything production