WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.379 It is possible to be thankful every moment, every 00:00:04.379 --> 00:00:08.439 day. It is possible to be thankful every moment, 00:00:08.660 --> 00:00:11.199 every day. It is possible to be thankful every 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:13.039 moment, every day. It is possible to be thankful 00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:16.920 every moment, every day. It is possible to be 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:18.640 thankful every moment, every day. It is possible 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:24.100 to be thankful every moment, every day. It is 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:26.480 possible to be thankful every moment, every day. 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:28.980 It is possible to be thankful every moment, every 00:00:28.980 --> 00:00:31.449 day. And I love listening to stories from people's 00:00:31.449 --> 00:00:33.850 childhood, which also helped me understand who 00:00:33.850 --> 00:00:37.689 those people are. Tell Me What Happened is sponsored 00:00:37.689 --> 00:00:40.950 by Sideline Ink Publishing, publishers of quality 00:00:40.950 --> 00:00:44.350 books, including Susan Salador's children's book, 00:00:44.509 --> 00:00:47.990 I've Got Peace in My Fingers, available worldwide 00:00:47.990 --> 00:00:51.210 wherever quality books are sold. Tell Me What 00:00:51.210 --> 00:00:54.990 Happened is also sponsored by laughsaver .com. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:59.020 Visit LaughSaver .com and record your laughter. 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:02.520 LaughSaver .com will keep it for you, now and 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.319 forever. Your family will appreciate it. It's 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:08.760 free and it's easy to use. That's LaughSaver 00:01:08.760 --> 00:01:12.579 .com. Today I'm fortunate to have as my guest 00:01:12.579 --> 00:01:16.200 Roy Huff, an award -winning, best -selling science 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:20.319 fiction author. Roy is Hawaii -based. He's also 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:23.560 a research scientist and a teacher. He has worked 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:27.120 on projects for NASA's Gozar Proving Ground and 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:30.219 has written numerous science fiction bestsellers, 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:33.579 including his latest, Seven Rules of Time Travel. 00:01:35.060 --> 00:01:38.019 Roy is also the author of the Everhill science 00:01:38.019 --> 00:01:41.480 fiction series. Thanks, Roy, for coming on to 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:43.680 Tell Me What Happened. I look forward to hearing 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:46.000 your story, although I know it deals with a great 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.079 deal of family pain. Thank you. It's a pleasure 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:50.959 to be here. Well, I'm thrilled to have you. I 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:53.459 love the idea of listening to an author tell 00:01:53.459 --> 00:01:56.079 us a story about their childhood. I teach high 00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:58.560 school English classes and they love to hear 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.859 stories from real writers. So I'm looking forward 00:02:00.859 --> 00:02:03.799 to hearing your story. Are you ready to tell 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:08.039 it, Roy? Yes, I am. All right, I'm going to stay 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:11.020 out of it. I'm going to mute myself. I'll try 00:02:11.020 --> 00:02:14.060 not to interrupt. The microphone is all yours, 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:17.800 Roy. Thank you. Well, I have quite a long story 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:21.840 and I could probably talk about a lot of different 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:24.199 aspects of my life. And I think they kind of 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:27.419 go together, a lot of them. One of the biggest 00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:30.539 events that happened in my life was when I found 00:02:30.539 --> 00:02:33.479 out that my father was HIV positive. I was in 00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:36.620 the eighth grade. And like a lot of things that 00:02:36.620 --> 00:02:38.879 happened to me in my life, just because of the 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:41.099 traumatic events and the challenges that I've 00:02:41.099 --> 00:02:44.840 had at the time, it didn't seem that big of a 00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:47.379 deal. I mean, it's kind of like, is this really 00:02:47.379 --> 00:02:50.210 happening? or kind of like denial. And a lot 00:02:50.210 --> 00:02:51.770 of things that happened in my life just seemed 00:02:51.770 --> 00:02:54.129 so matter of fact because I was used to those 00:02:54.129 --> 00:02:56.469 kinds of crazy things happening. I was born in 00:02:56.469 --> 00:03:00.069 Virginia, but my family moved to Kentucky. So 00:03:00.069 --> 00:03:03.050 for the first six years of my life, I lived in 00:03:03.050 --> 00:03:05.210 rural Kentucky in the Hills in a trailer park 00:03:05.210 --> 00:03:08.909 and it was rundown trailer park. I remember times 00:03:08.909 --> 00:03:11.550 in the winter, we had a big hole in the bathroom 00:03:11.550 --> 00:03:13.729 and air would come in and we'd get really cold 00:03:13.729 --> 00:03:16.509 in the winter time. And one time the trailer 00:03:16.509 --> 00:03:18.650 park, the trailer, itself caught on fire had 00:03:18.650 --> 00:03:20.430 some kind of electrical fire and then we went 00:03:20.430 --> 00:03:22.930 out and we waited for it to stop and then when 00:03:22.930 --> 00:03:24.930 it stopped we went back inside and like oh okay 00:03:24.930 --> 00:03:28.909 I guess we're fine so that was the kind of thing 00:03:28.909 --> 00:03:31.210 that I was used to growing up and at the time 00:03:31.210 --> 00:03:34.840 my father had been in the military but he suffered 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.099 from bipolar disorder as did many of the people 00:03:38.099 --> 00:03:41.319 in my family my grandfather also some other close 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:43.219 family members that I don't want to talk about 00:03:43.219 --> 00:03:45.659 because they're alive today but mental illness 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:48.699 has plagued and continues to plague my family 00:03:48.699 --> 00:03:50.740 so it's something that's very close to my heart 00:03:50.740 --> 00:03:53.319 and it's on my mind frequently but my father 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:55.860 suffered from both polar disorder and he was 00:03:55.860 --> 00:03:59.360 also a gay man and he was in the military at 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:02.800 the time and he eventually was let go because 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:06.020 they couldn't find him a position and I'm assuming 00:04:06.020 --> 00:04:08.060 that's code for they didn't want him because 00:04:08.060 --> 00:04:11.229 he was gay. and or because they recognized that 00:04:11.229 --> 00:04:14.569 he had some type of mental deficit. I don't know 00:04:14.569 --> 00:04:16.850 which one it is, so I can't really say, but it 00:04:16.850 --> 00:04:18.990 was clear to me that that's most likely what 00:04:18.990 --> 00:04:20.970 happened. He actually switched from one branch 00:04:20.970 --> 00:04:23.810 to another. I think, if my memory serves correct, 00:04:23.870 --> 00:04:26.990 he was in the Navy and the Army. But that's why 00:04:26.990 --> 00:04:29.810 we had moved from Norfolk, Virginia, was born 00:04:29.810 --> 00:04:31.930 in Portsmouth, to Kentucky, because I believe 00:04:31.930 --> 00:04:34.930 he was stationed around Fort Knox. So we had 00:04:34.930 --> 00:04:39.860 that going on and my parents eventually My mother 00:04:39.860 --> 00:04:42.920 found out that he was gay. And I remember the 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:45.939 last memory that I had of him before graduation 00:04:45.939 --> 00:04:49.759 was when I was four and he stopped by and I was 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:52.300 kind of half asleep. And I said, was dad here? 00:04:52.540 --> 00:04:54.759 And then my mother said, yeah, he was here. I 00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:56.519 said, why didn't you wake me up? I just, I have 00:04:56.519 --> 00:04:58.639 that memory. And then I remember eating a bowl 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:00.819 of split pea soup. So like split pea soup is 00:05:00.819 --> 00:05:02.519 just something that comes with me. Like whenever 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:05.899 I see split pea soup in the grocery store, kind 00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:07.540 of want to get it and it's just a memory that 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:10.899 I have that I associate with my dad and I always 00:05:10.899 --> 00:05:15.180 kind of idolized him and had this positive emotion 00:05:15.180 --> 00:05:17.060 about him which is very different than a lot 00:05:17.060 --> 00:05:19.800 of the people near where I grew up. After we 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:21.879 moved, eventually we moved to Charlotte, North 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:23.939 Carolina when I was six years old and a lot of 00:05:23.939 --> 00:05:26.759 people had resentment for their fathers not being 00:05:26.759 --> 00:05:29.939 there but I had other challenges. growing up, 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:33.000 other physical abuse with other people. And so 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.459 I just wanted to get out of the situation I was 00:05:36.459 --> 00:05:40.560 in. And so it was easy to kind of have an idealized 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:43.959 version of my father. And I didn't know that 00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:46.459 he had a mental illness until later on. I don't 00:05:46.459 --> 00:05:48.139 know exactly. I don't remember exactly when I 00:05:48.139 --> 00:05:49.540 found out that he had a mental illness, but it 00:05:49.540 --> 00:05:51.240 was I think was sometime in middle school or 00:05:51.240 --> 00:05:53.100 early high school that I found out. And so as 00:05:53.100 --> 00:05:55.259 I was growing up, I didn't have as much resentment. 00:05:55.500 --> 00:05:57.680 for him being gone because I understood that 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:00.699 he had a disorder and so that contributed to 00:06:00.699 --> 00:06:04.259 the reason and then I found really early on that 00:06:04.259 --> 00:06:07.480 he was gay. I got in an argument with my mother 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:10.899 and I think I was like seven or eight years old 00:06:10.899 --> 00:06:13.839 and I said I'm gonna go live with my dad and 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:16.240 then she said you don't want to do that because 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:18.939 he's gay and I just I just like I didn't know 00:06:18.939 --> 00:06:22.259 know what what to think I was just dumbfounded 00:06:22.259 --> 00:06:26.319 I just I knew knew what it meant kind of, but 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:29.899 it was just such a kind of a shocking and just 00:06:29.899 --> 00:06:33.319 unbelievable thing. And I didn't understand it 00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:36.620 completely. I wasn't angry with him. I didn't 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:39.240 understand why that would be that much of an 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:42.160 issue, but I was just, wow, okay. And it didn't 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:44.459 really come up later until when I was in eighth 00:06:44.459 --> 00:06:47.060 grade and we started getting social security 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:50.420 checks. And I said, why are we getting social 00:06:50.420 --> 00:06:54.560 security checks? and I guess because at the time 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:58.779 it was a fatal illness and so we were we were 00:06:58.779 --> 00:07:01.439 getting Social Security checks and so that I 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:04.480 found out he was HIV positive and so I was surprised 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:06.939 and we didn't know where he was for a lot of 00:07:06.939 --> 00:07:09.579 the time my mother said that he had moved to 00:07:09.579 --> 00:07:12.000 San Francisco and there were the rumors that 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.560 he had been using heroin or IV drug so he was 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:17.240 in at least to my knowledge a couple of high 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:20.819 -risk groups and this was early mid 80s And so 00:07:20.819 --> 00:07:22.899 I thought I was in eighth grade. So this was, 00:07:22.899 --> 00:07:26.740 this was around 1989. And so for my entire high 00:07:26.740 --> 00:07:30.759 school, I had this knowledge that my father was 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:32.899 dying of AIDS because back then, you know, there, 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:35.259 it was a death sentence, you know, there was 00:07:35.259 --> 00:07:37.300 medicine you could take, but it, you know, was 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:39.459 it, it wasn't as good as it is today. And so 00:07:39.459 --> 00:07:42.319 I knew at some point he would pass away, but 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:45.139 there were times, you know, growing up. And at 00:07:45.139 --> 00:07:47.759 first, people weren't aware of my father's situation. 00:07:48.019 --> 00:07:49.800 And I think eventually I did start telling people, 00:07:49.939 --> 00:07:52.519 and nobody really talked about it. But I remember 00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:55.879 one time I was in my history and English teacher's 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:58.819 class, and she taught both classes. And she was 00:07:58.819 --> 00:08:02.810 having a discussion about HIV AIDS. And she said 00:08:02.810 --> 00:08:04.930 that she didn't understand why they didn't just 00:08:04.930 --> 00:08:08.149 put all of them on an island. And I was just, 00:08:08.269 --> 00:08:10.769 I was just so upset because didn't feel like 00:08:10.769 --> 00:08:12.769 it was fair. And I, you know, I also knew at 00:08:12.769 --> 00:08:15.350 the time that it's not spread by that kind of 00:08:15.350 --> 00:08:17.750 casual contact. And even at the time, I mean, 00:08:17.750 --> 00:08:19.949 it was pretty common knowledge. It was difficult 00:08:19.949 --> 00:08:22.990 to catch. And so I was a little frustrated and 00:08:22.990 --> 00:08:25.389 upset. And so, you know, this, this kind of bothered 00:08:25.389 --> 00:08:27.170 me, but I, you know, I grew up in a very religious 00:08:27.170 --> 00:08:30.529 home. I grew up in a mixed race home. I grew 00:08:30.529 --> 00:08:33.940 up a lot of things that caused a lot of conflict, 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:36.220 you know, in different areas and based on different 00:08:36.220 --> 00:08:39.820 things. And the church that I went to was very 00:08:39.820 --> 00:08:42.519 strict and imagining what kind of challenges, 00:08:42.519 --> 00:08:45.120 you know, my father had to face growing up because 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:47.240 he didn't graduate high school despite the fact 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:50.580 that he performed very well. And I'm imagining, 00:08:50.820 --> 00:08:52.720 I asked my mother why he didn't graduate and 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:55.940 he was a senior. He made it all the way to senior 00:08:55.940 --> 00:08:58.240 year. He was doing very well. And I didn't get 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:01.419 the exact reason why he didn't graduate. But 00:09:01.419 --> 00:09:03.740 seeing how the illness has affected other people 00:09:03.740 --> 00:09:06.320 in my family, I'm pretty sure that it was related 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:09.200 to some type of manic episode. But I can just 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:12.259 imagine what he was going through, combined with 00:09:12.259 --> 00:09:15.120 the fact that he was a gay man, you know, the 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:20.000 challenges that he had to go through. And his 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:22.919 mental illness made it difficult because I've 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:25.639 seen how this illness can ravage someone's life 00:09:25.639 --> 00:09:27.899 and how you have a job and you can't hold down 00:09:27.899 --> 00:09:30.399 a job. You lose a job and it gets harder to get 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:34.519 another job and then you burn through your connections 00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:38.139 and your social network and people start to distance 00:09:38.139 --> 00:09:42.279 themselves from you and you end up in a cycle 00:09:42.279 --> 00:09:45.440 where you're either in jail or in the hospital 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:47.879 or on the street and it's really heartbreaking. 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:49.960 It's like you have to go through the five stages 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:53.000 of grief. over and over and over again and getting 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:58.519 people to accept that they have that kind of 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:01.639 illness is challenging and so you get victimized 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:04.379 twice once by the illness and then once by the 00:10:04.379 --> 00:10:06.519 people in your network who don't either believe 00:10:06.519 --> 00:10:09.620 or don't understand what you have to do because 00:10:09.620 --> 00:10:12.200 sometimes when you're with someone who has a 00:10:12.200 --> 00:10:14.379 mental illness it's kind of like living in an 00:10:14.379 --> 00:10:17.259 abusive relationship somebody can actually become 00:10:17.259 --> 00:10:20.720 physically abusive and as much as you want to 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:23.059 help them you have to physically distance yourself 00:10:23.059 --> 00:10:25.659 from them not just for yourself but for them 00:10:25.659 --> 00:10:30.460 also and you want to reach out to them but you 00:10:30.460 --> 00:10:32.940 have to do it in a responsible way and in a way 00:10:32.940 --> 00:10:35.779 that they're receptive to so you have to be aware 00:10:35.779 --> 00:10:38.759 of these social cues that they're giving off 00:10:38.759 --> 00:10:40.820 so that you can kind of read where they're at 00:10:40.820 --> 00:10:43.039 to see what kind of response you can give them 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:46.340 but normal people people that are a little bit 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:48.940 distant from the situation, they don't understand 00:10:48.940 --> 00:10:52.019 this. And the people with the mental illness, 00:10:52.139 --> 00:10:53.820 depending upon the severity of it, and I've seen 00:10:53.820 --> 00:10:56.679 it across the spectrum, they can lash out at 00:10:56.679 --> 00:10:58.940 people that are closest to them, the people that 00:10:58.940 --> 00:11:01.419 are trying to help them the most. And that's 00:11:01.419 --> 00:11:04.059 just the way that the illness can manifest at 00:11:04.059 --> 00:11:05.919 times. So the people that are there trying to 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:09.019 help them the most, they get hurt the most. And 00:11:09.019 --> 00:11:11.940 a lot of times for their own sanity, they have 00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:14.019 to withdraw and they have to distance themselves. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:17.019 And that can be heartbreak. I've just been in 00:11:17.019 --> 00:11:20.000 situations where I have to do that but I have 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.600 to bring myself back in. So I've mentioned it 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:25.779 as like a parallel to almost like losing a loved 00:11:25.779 --> 00:11:28.039 one but like not even losing a loved one but 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:30.720 having someone in your life who's gone missing 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:34.080 because you can't actually achieve that final 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:37.100 stage of acceptance because you don't know. So 00:11:37.100 --> 00:11:39.840 I can only imagine what he was going through. 00:11:40.259 --> 00:11:43.549 He had to go through that. And he had to go through 00:11:43.549 --> 00:11:46.250 the fact that he was a gay man. And this wasn't 00:11:46.250 --> 00:11:49.610 the 60s, but it still was not as accepting as 00:11:49.610 --> 00:11:52.669 it is today. I just, I can't imagine what he 00:11:52.669 --> 00:11:55.590 was going through. And so I never faulted him 00:11:55.590 --> 00:11:58.470 for not being there. I understood that he was 00:11:58.470 --> 00:12:00.549 gay. I understood that he had a mental illness. 00:12:00.610 --> 00:12:03.169 And so I couldn't hold it against him. I didn't 00:12:03.169 --> 00:12:06.389 hold it against him. And in fact, it probably 00:12:06.389 --> 00:12:08.830 allowed me to think of him, you know, through 00:12:08.830 --> 00:12:11.750 kind of a rose. colored haze to kind of have 00:12:11.750 --> 00:12:14.929 a positive view on on him and so I always wanted 00:12:14.929 --> 00:12:17.750 to talk with him and to develop a relationship 00:12:17.750 --> 00:12:20.649 if I could at some point in the future. I saw 00:12:20.649 --> 00:12:23.950 him again at my graduation, so we were able to 00:12:23.950 --> 00:12:27.570 get in contact a little bit, and I was able to 00:12:27.570 --> 00:12:29.830 develop a little bit of a relationship with him, 00:12:29.870 --> 00:12:32.429 but between the time I graduated and when I was 00:12:32.429 --> 00:12:35.549 21 when he passed away, his illness started to 00:12:35.549 --> 00:12:39.070 eat away at him. And eventually he died, the 00:12:39.070 --> 00:12:42.149 cause of death was malnutrition. So did he commit 00:12:42.149 --> 00:12:46.870 suicide or was it wasting from AIDS, HIV, or 00:12:46.870 --> 00:12:49.870 a combination of both? He was in multiple high 00:12:49.870 --> 00:12:54.289 -risk groups for suicide, and it's quite possible 00:12:54.289 --> 00:12:57.470 that that's what happened, that he did kill himself. 00:12:58.029 --> 00:13:00.850 And so I'm dealing with this now. Growing up, 00:13:01.429 --> 00:13:04.830 I didn't even have a full handle on the devastation 00:13:04.830 --> 00:13:08.149 that this can have, because I was not suffering 00:13:08.149 --> 00:13:12.559 from that type of illness. I... was a very optimistic 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:16.320 and positive person, and I still am today. So 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:19.000 I was able to set aside a lot of the problems, 00:13:19.019 --> 00:13:21.419 the poverty that I had, because I did believe 00:13:21.419 --> 00:13:24.399 in a positive future. You know, I was a trackie, 00:13:24.539 --> 00:13:26.960 you know. I, you know, it was Star Trek, the 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:28.919 next generation. That was my thing. And, you 00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:30.480 know, I was looking a couple hundred years into 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:32.559 the future and seeing all of the great advances 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:35.740 that we had technologically. And I had no doubt 00:13:35.740 --> 00:13:37.539 I was going to do great things, you know, when 00:13:37.539 --> 00:13:40.139 I grew up. Yeah, you know, I wanted to be a meteorologist. 00:13:40.660 --> 00:13:43.879 I remember when I was four years old I saw a 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:47.740 TV weatherman give the weather and then I went 00:13:47.740 --> 00:13:49.700 outside and I started knocking on all the trailer 00:13:49.700 --> 00:13:51.240 park doors telling them what the weather was 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:54.679 going to be. And from that point on, that's what 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:56.860 I wanted to be. I wanted to be a meteorologist. 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:58.940 And for that, I think my mother told me I wanted 00:13:58.940 --> 00:14:01.320 to be a clown. I don't remember the clown part, 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:07.120 but I remember the weather part. And so that 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.580 gave me a lot of focus that I think a lot of 00:14:09.580 --> 00:14:11.480 people didn't have. And so I was really excited. 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:14.840 And science fiction and Star Trek and all of 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:18.419 that kind of gave me an outlet and an opportunity 00:14:18.419 --> 00:14:21.039 to kind of... get outside of my own head and 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:23.840 my own circumstance and my own situation and 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:26.860 uh so yeah that's my story basically all right 00:14:26.860 --> 00:14:30.080 well thank you Roy for that very powerful story 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:33.379 so sorry that your father suffered from the HIV 00:14:33.379 --> 00:14:36.580 and all that you went through as a young man 00:14:36.580 --> 00:14:41.399 in terms of your poverty and the struggles and 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:43.960 yet here you are a very successful science fiction 00:14:43.960 --> 00:14:47.980 writer and also a man who seems to be incredibly 00:14:47.980 --> 00:14:51.580 optimistic despite everything. So my question 00:14:51.580 --> 00:14:55.100 to you is, how exactly has that childhood experience 00:14:55.100 --> 00:14:59.419 losing your father to HIV, how has that impacted 00:14:59.419 --> 00:15:02.919 you as a writer and a teacher and an overall 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:07.360 human being? How has all that affected you? Yeah, 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:10.779 you know, I mentioned that I... grew up with 00:15:10.779 --> 00:15:13.100 a very positive and optimistic vision and I still 00:15:13.100 --> 00:15:15.500 have very much a positive and optimistic vision 00:15:15.500 --> 00:15:18.100 and I know it may not look like that right now 00:15:18.100 --> 00:15:20.259 with all the challenges that we're facing you 00:15:20.259 --> 00:15:23.299 know I know a lot of people maybe have a dystopian 00:15:23.299 --> 00:15:25.940 view of the future but I do not I do not have 00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:28.480 a dystopian view of the future I'm very optimistic 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:30.919 I think we will solve a lot of the challenges 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:32.519 that we have and I'm not saying it's going to 00:15:32.519 --> 00:15:34.419 be easy or it's going to happen overnight but 00:15:34.419 --> 00:15:37.100 I do believe that things will improve and they'll 00:15:37.100 --> 00:15:39.799 continue to improve. And I think science fiction 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:42.980 is a great outlet to explore those possibilities. 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:46.580 Science can be a reflection of society. So with 00:15:46.580 --> 00:15:48.299 the challenges that we're facing, you know, we're 00:15:48.299 --> 00:15:50.299 seeing a lot of dystopian fiction out there just 00:15:50.299 --> 00:15:52.799 because people are expressing what they're seeing 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:57.379 or their concerns. I tend to have more optimistic 00:15:57.379 --> 00:15:59.860 endings and an optimistic future. So that's what 00:15:59.860 --> 00:16:01.919 people read in my writing. And that's because 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:04.740 that's what I like. I deal with enough pain and 00:16:04.740 --> 00:16:10.159 challenges and I like to show a path to reaching 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:12.700 that light at the end of the tunnel. We can achieve 00:16:12.700 --> 00:16:15.740 that. And even people that have severe mental 00:16:15.740 --> 00:16:18.860 challenges or learning challenges, I believe 00:16:18.860 --> 00:16:22.179 that everybody can achieve growth. And it doesn't 00:16:22.179 --> 00:16:24.340 mean that they're gonna be able to achieve, you're 00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:26.399 never gonna achieve 100 % of your goals. And 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:28.460 a lot of that comes from having a growth mindset. 00:16:29.340 --> 00:16:32.960 And I love that book, Mindset by Carol Dweck. 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:35.340 And as an educator, I think it's very germane 00:16:35.340 --> 00:16:38.240 to our industry. But I also think it ties in 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:40.419 with having an optimistic vision. If you don't 00:16:40.419 --> 00:16:42.340 believe that you can improve, if you don't believe 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:43.740 that you can grow, if you don't believe that 00:16:43.740 --> 00:16:46.100 things can get better, you're not going to try. 00:16:47.159 --> 00:16:48.620 You're not going to try. It doesn't mean you're 00:16:48.620 --> 00:16:50.519 always going to succeed. You're probably going 00:16:50.519 --> 00:16:52.159 to fail more times and you're going to succeed. 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:55.840 And that's just part of the process. But I can 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:58.240 explore that through the fiction, but I can also 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:00.960 communicate that with students and hopefully 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:04.740 educate people that they can have a life that 00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:08.200 they engineer. It may not be exactly what they 00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:11.400 hope, but they can have some say in what happens 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:14.700 in their life. So I think as an educator, that's 00:17:14.700 --> 00:17:16.680 important. And so I think the fiction is a great 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:18.900 way to communicate that. It's also a great way 00:17:18.900 --> 00:17:23.250 to help teach me communication because... I think 00:17:23.250 --> 00:17:25.509 to reach people through fiction, you have to 00:17:25.509 --> 00:17:28.910 be simple and precise and communicate a story 00:17:28.910 --> 00:17:30.970 in a way that they understand. And so it forces 00:17:30.970 --> 00:17:33.509 you to look at what you're saying and how you're 00:17:33.509 --> 00:17:35.450 saying and what it is that you really want to 00:17:35.450 --> 00:17:38.009 say. So I think they're all connected. Of course, 00:17:38.029 --> 00:17:39.950 having a science background is great for writing 00:17:39.950 --> 00:17:43.150 science fiction. So, you know, I love time travel. 00:17:43.289 --> 00:17:45.470 I love physics. I love meteorology. I mean, I 00:17:45.470 --> 00:17:47.730 love all of that stuff. So especially the theoretical 00:17:47.730 --> 00:17:50.559 side. So it's really fun. You know my latest 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:52.740 book on time travel, it's really fun to kind 00:17:52.740 --> 00:17:55.180 of theorize about different ways that we could 00:17:55.180 --> 00:17:59.680 travel through time and to explore that and it's 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:02.240 a great way to actually address all of the things 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:05.220 that you want and still achieve some escapism 00:18:05.220 --> 00:18:08.559 at the same time as a means of therapy. So that's 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:12.980 my view on it. Wow. That was a very powerful 00:18:12.980 --> 00:18:16.140 and moving story Roy. I'm astounded, impressed, 00:18:16.359 --> 00:18:20.630 amazed. that after all you've been through, you're 00:18:20.630 --> 00:18:22.970 still an optimist. And I want to thank you for 00:18:22.970 --> 00:18:25.869 coming on to tell me what happened. And I do 00:18:25.869 --> 00:18:27.890 look forward to reading your latest science fiction 00:18:27.890 --> 00:18:33.130 novel, Seven Rules of Time Travel. So that's 00:18:33.130 --> 00:18:36.630 our show. Thanks again to Roy Huff and to our 00:18:36.630 --> 00:18:40.490 sponsors. Specifically, I'd like to thank Sidelining 00:18:40.490 --> 00:18:44.450 Publishing and LaughSaver .com for their support. 00:18:45.349 --> 00:18:49.230 We're gonna end this show as we usually do with 00:18:49.230 --> 00:18:53.210 Susan Salvador's classic song Every Moment Every 00:18:53.210 --> 00:18:58.630 Day which is available on Spotify BTW So until 00:18:58.630 --> 00:19:02.829 next time this is Jay Rehak Asking you all to 00:19:02.829 --> 00:19:05.730 stay safe out there and try not to hurt anybody 00:19:06.059 --> 00:19:10.599 It is possible to be thankful every moment, every 00:19:10.599 --> 00:19:14.059 day. It takes practice and humility. It takes 00:19:14.059 --> 00:19:17.799 vision and civility. It takes beauty and the 00:19:17.799 --> 00:19:26.640 wisdom to see it everywhere. It takes practice 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:30.660 and humility. It takes vision and civility. It 00:19:30.660 --> 00:19:34.859 takes beauty and the wisdom to see it everywhere. 00:19:52.699 --> 00:20:00.059 It is possible to be thankful every moment, every 00:20:00.059 --> 00:20:00.579 day.