Episode 71 - The Typo Seemed Insignificant...

[00:00:02] What's up everyone, welcome to Episode 71 of the Promptly Written Podcast, where every month we take a writing prompt provided by you, write stories based on it and then break them down for you. My name is Matt Sugerik and with me as always, Ian Lewis. What's up Ian?

[00:00:32] What's up man? Oh, you know, not much. I'm a little flustered today so I'm a little all over the place so just, I'm just warning everybody, like usually I have a nice little like text document here that has notes about

[00:00:46] like bullet points about what I want to hit so I don't go off the fucking rails and I didn't have a chance to do any of that today. I thought I would have time but that ended up not going as planned so I'm kind of

[00:00:58] winging it which is exciting. I don't know if it's good or bad. Whatever works man, we're gonna make it happen. We'll see how it goes. Before we actually get into the podcast though, like you know, we have like little sidebar

[00:01:11] things that we talk about every once in a while. We do watch corner to talk about watches. We've talked about pens before. I kind of have a new interest that's been kind of consuming my life and I just want

[00:01:23] to kind of break it down just in case there's any listeners out there that also enjoy this particular hobby. They might be able to give me a little advice because I'm just starting out trying to get what behind the ears but I started smoking cigars.

[00:01:39] This world is a world that I can't even begin to tell you how much is out there. It's mind blowing. Any hobby you get involved in, do you find out how deep the rabbit hole is?

[00:01:53] It's just crazy because it's all started like I was at a graduation party for one of my daughter's friends and my buddy he's like, hey I got some cigars, do you want a cigar?

[00:02:03] You know, I'm good and I just sat there while the two of them were smoking the cigars and I'm like, god damn those smoke good. And then the whole time he's like, you sure you don't want one?

[00:02:13] And their cigars were like halfway done and I was like, no, I'm good but I couldn't stop thinking about cigars. So I talked to him and they opened up this tobacco shop not too far away

[00:02:22] from me and I went in there and I got some of the ones that he had and I was like, you know these aren't too bad. And then, you know I'm a big Metallica fan and a few years ago they had a,

[00:02:36] they have a whiskey called Blackened that's like co-made with them. And James Hadfield I guess is a big cigar smoker or he has taken it up recently and he worked with the guy from Blackened and the head of Drew

[00:02:51] Estate Cigar Company to make a Blackened cigar so I picked up one and I was like, I'm not gonna lie to you. Like it was a little too strong for me. I was a little upset because I really wanted to love the Metallica cigar.

[00:03:04] So I'm curious are you inhaling them or are you just puffing on them? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you don't inhale but... Well, I know you're not supposed to but I think some people do.

[00:03:14] Well, so here's the thing if like I've been seeing a lot of TikToks of James Hadfield with his cigar right so I want to try it and he does exhale smoke through his nose.

[00:03:25] So there were a lot of people that were like, oh, you're not supposed to inhale those. This guy is destroying his lungs or whatever. And then like I'm going through all the comments and somebody's like, no, you freaking noob or whatever, like he's retrohailing. Whatever that is.

[00:03:42] So retrohailing is pushing the smoke from your mouth through your nasal cavity without it entering your lungs. Oh, okay. So like I learned how to do this kind of like I'm really bad at it. It looks ridiculous.

[00:03:55] Like my son was laughing at me and actually my wife was laughing at me too because like there was one night I was sitting out there with a cigar and I couldn't tell if I was doing it right or not.

[00:04:03] So I actually took my phone out and had the camera point at me and every time I exhaled I was looking to see if smoke was coming out of my nose. It had to be the most ridiculous thing in the world but like I'm getting it

[00:04:16] but it's really hard. I can't even explain how to do it. You have to like kind of push the smoke back in your mouth with your tongue and it kind of if you do it in one solid exhale it actually pushes the smoke out through your nose.

[00:04:29] It's so weird. Like I still have, you know how like when you're learning to do something and you accidentally do it once and you're like sweet? Yeah, yeah. That's where I'm at right now. Like I can't like necessarily do it on purpose

[00:04:39] but every once in a while when I try it happens. So I'm hoping that like some muscle memory or something will happen and I'll be able to do that but what's crazy about the retrohale is I guess there's a lot more, I don't want to say sensors

[00:04:53] because they're not sensors. What do you call like the scent like whatever? There's a lot more of... You taste it more as you're getting at it? Yes, you get more of those notes and it's crazy because you know I've always been one of those people

[00:05:04] like people drink bourbon right? They're like oh well I taste notes of tobacco and hickory and blah and blah and I'm like I fucking taste bourbon. Full leather. Right, right and then like people with wine would be like oh there's definitely notes of Blackberry

[00:05:17] and like you know like all this bullshit and I'm like I just fucking taste wine but like I'm sitting there and I'm smoking the cigar and I'm like it's... It tastes like a fucking cigar. You know what I mean?

[00:05:27] Like if you've ever smelled a cigar that's what it tastes like but like as I'm sitting there I'm like reading detailed reviews and like again I could bore the fucking shit out of everybody with all this but essentially like there's... The cigar is breaking down into thirds

[00:05:41] and every third has like a different like notes or whatever and when you're reading it and smoking at the same time like every once in a while I was like holy shit I think I just fucking tasted leather. It's weird, it's so fucking weird but like

[00:05:54] I'm having a great time with it. It's super relaxing. I just sit outside. I'm super obsessed with making sure the cigar is burning evenly so I'll be like touching up the burn with my lighter to make sure that like the... It's...

[00:06:06] I don't know I can't explain how fun it is but like if there's any cigar smokers out there that either have tips favorites anything any sort of advice at all hit me up I always give my Twitter handle it's just at matchcigaric

[00:06:21] I'll give it again later but if you're a cigar smoker join the Facebook group hit me there I want to know everything okay That took way longer than I wanted it to but I'm so excited about the cigar thing You sound like it yeah

[00:06:34] So anyways let's get down to like what we normally do here and talk about writing and shit So you know we just came back from our hiatus last month and due to the fact that we were both reading two stories we didn't really do general discussion

[00:06:52] we kind of just jumped right into the story so there's one thing that we haven't gotten a chance to talk about just because of everything that happened and we both did the NYC midnight 250 word micro fiction challenge it's actually last year at this point

[00:07:07] but I just kind of wanted to recap how it went we never talked about it so I just figured we I figured we should talk about it real quick so we both did it I'm gonna go first real quick because I'm going to talk way less about this

[00:07:20] and then I'm gonna let you kind of go for it um I did the first round I didn't make it past the first round my genre was sci-fi which really kind of upset me because I don't really think I write sci-fi a lot

[00:07:33] my action was taking a deep breath and my word was special so I was actually really kind of excited that like my action was actually an action and I didn't get some stupid like you know did you get something like worm as a thing or something right right

[00:07:46] but um so everything I did I thought I wrote a pretty decent story I think we might do a short episode one day when we read the stories we did I thought I did all right I was happy with what it came out with

[00:08:01] I got some good feedback from the judges but ultimately I did not make it past that first round um you however did so why don't you tell us a little bit more about your experience since you had an actual experience

[00:08:14] well I think um although in some sense it was more challenging because of the the word length 250 words yeah um I think in some sense I enjoyed it more than the thousand word stories that we did the prior year simply because it just didn't take me as long

[00:08:34] I didn't have to invest as much time in it you know what I mean okay um but the but just the added challenge of having it be so short and I think made it more fun maybe yeah 250 was hard I mean it was

[00:08:45] it was hard but the like a thousand word story is just long enough to get going you know what I mean and like you develop something good sure and you're like I want to keep going but you can't whereas with 250 words it's so short that like

[00:08:58] you don't have enough space to really develop anything that you're gonna get attached to you know what I mean so it forces you to just like be economical and just do it yeah for sure um but I my I don't remember all the details

[00:09:12] I had my first story had to be a comedy which see we usually share them I can I can search my email and see if I have emails from you well I probably texted you but my texts get deleted after

[00:09:24] three days so I don't have it what do I have here I have but comedy is like next to romance like I it's the last thing I'd want to get because I can't do spontaneous comedy

[00:09:36] yeah I would never well no I think you can do comedy I think you're selling yourself a little short there uh romance I would do it I can do it sometimes but like I don't know maybe they

[00:09:47] called it humor it was humor or comedy but like my setting was a HR training like session or something like that um I think my word was smack or smacked maybe I don't remember what word

[00:10:01] I had to use for action but I did get past the first round which I was happy about because my goal along with just to get to the second round sure sure um the judges seemed to like

[00:10:12] the first story quite a bit the second story I was I was more um I was feeling more confident on because my genre was drama which I felt more comfortable with um and I really liked the story

[00:10:25] I came up with but I uh I don't think I nailed the genre too well I think it was more and it'd be more thriller than drama got you um despite it being I thought a well-written story but um and

[00:10:42] you know I got good feedback in both cases from the other writers you know because you can go under the form and that kind of thing so I really thought that I was gonna get into the third round

[00:10:52] but um I wonder if you know I will say the competition was higher too because I read the other stories and um they were all pretty good so good I think maybe maybe I didn't nail the

[00:11:06] genre well enough I don't know yeah I mean I I even I was happy with the feedback I actually got from the judges too which was a little different from the year before I mean like

[00:11:15] and you know it's like you have like I forget what it was like maybe seven judges or something like five or six something like that right I don't know that you um you get feedback from let me see

[00:11:25] I got one two three four oh maybe it's only three but anyways um I got some pretty decent feedback from that I did not participate in the forums this year so I didn't really I didn't really I

[00:11:41] always want to know who I'm up against you know what I mean because you you get to see the stories from well you can see anyone's stories but like you can target the ones that are in your

[00:11:50] group to see who you're up against yeah I don't I don't remember if I just didn't participate or if nobody else in my group really did so I just didn't either or I don't really it's been so long

[00:12:02] at this point that I don't really remember what happened I just know that so we did a thousand right we did a thousand the first time and then 250 this time correct maybe we should try the

[00:12:11] 500 I don't know but I was also thinking like I don't know I think I've talked about it here before at some point I wouldn't mind trying one of the screenwriting ones um or something so we'll

[00:12:25] have to see if maybe we can work a 2024 I mean would you be down to to do another one or do you think it's run its course at this point oh I don't know we'll see okay yeah catch me in

[00:12:36] the right mood all right well we'll see I mean I still I'm still on their email list I don't know if I've gotten anything from them super recently but the next time I see anything I will

[00:12:45] that looks interesting I'll let you know but anyways I would I do want to say congratulations on making it to the second round thank you and I did enjoy both of your stories I remember the

[00:12:55] I definitely remember the HR one and I thought that that was really kind of charming well you know what I have to I have to thank you for um you know maybe what ended up being

[00:13:06] the punchline in that story because I had sent it to you and um you know the the the humor in it that I thought was in it was more in the irony of what happened to the character and I kind of

[00:13:19] left it at that but you thought it needed sort of like this little zing at the end which oh I do remember that yeah I took your advice I put it in there and I think I think it I think that

[00:13:29] was well received awesome as far as like the feedback goes so good deal yeah I mean I did like that story so I think maybe we should do um a short episode as a bonus maybe sometime

[00:13:41] sometime this year at some point if we want to throw a bonus out there where we just read our 250 word stories like five ten minute episode yeah that's fun cool so yeah look for that

[00:13:51] in the future um we'll get those out because I think I think that one's definitely that one's definitely worth being shared uh if you want to share it so all right I think that's all I

[00:14:02] have to say about the NYC midnight thing you got anything else no all right cool so um another thing that we that we usually do at the beginning of every year and I think I do this a little more

[00:14:13] so than you but um I like to set like reading and writing goals for the year it's almost July and you're talking about the beginning of the year I know I know well I mean we our hiatus started

[00:14:25] in January and we really didn't you know so we missed did we miss six months I'm almost not quite almost so um you know it's just one of those things so I did set a reading goal

[00:14:38] at the beginning of the year and I'm pulling up good reads right now because I think I probably I know I didn't reach my goal last year um and I can confirm that yeah I only read

[00:14:50] I only read 10 books in 2023 um so I set a goal for 20 of this year and I've only read seven at this point but you know I got time to catch up or at least come close I think

[00:15:03] you don't do the good reads challenges do you I do not know okay so um and then you know I always think about writing goals and I always think about talking about writing goals and then

[00:15:15] I always talk about my goals and then I never meet my goals and you know I was thinking about this last night is as I saw this this uh this little bullet point in our show doc

[00:15:26] ever since we started doing this I'm like oh I gotta write a novel I gotta do this long thing I gotta do this and it's just like I have ideas I haven't been motivated enough to write them

[00:15:38] which is it's all me but I think at this point in my life at least for right now like I got the whole teaching thing going on I got the job like the regular full-time job like

[00:15:49] I don't think there's anything wrong with being a guy that just writes short stories well no of course not I mean um so I think that's just what I'm gonna assume at this point

[00:15:58] because I always have this like this guilt when I'm doing other things that like I'm not working on this or not doing that and I and like it's just like I'm gonna stop talking about

[00:16:09] it and then maybe one day without the the and I know it's just pressure coming from me but this self-imposed pressure maybe without that things will start to develop or maybe they

[00:16:20] won't but I think what I need to do right now is just look and just be like this is who I am and if anything else comes of it great but like I don't need to be a novelist to be a writer

[00:16:33] right I would agree so so I think that's just where I'm at so like as far as writing goals for this year I don't ever want to have a hiatus in the podcast again so as of right now

[00:16:46] my goal is to write a short story a month that I'm going to share with you guys and if anything more than that happens you know that is fantastic but right now

[00:16:54] I'm not setting goals that I know I'm just not gonna hit because I've done it for the past five years and I've got nothing to show for it so I'm just gonna be fucking realistic with

[00:17:02] who I am and I'm gonna be the short story guy for now fair enough yeah so I know that you you're cranking away at your next um you're on a re are you on the driver book or you're on

[00:17:14] the reef book no driver's done driver's done so you're on the reef I'm on the reef yeah so I actually have a writing goal this year um my my goal so I have two goals my my real goal is

[00:17:30] to have the book done by the end of the year done or released uh sort of both but at the bare minimum just done okay um which is totally doable and I think it's doable to have it released potentially

[00:17:45] by the end of the year too um but my my stretch goal which I think is also realistic although time is flying um is to have the book done by the end of summer oh not not released but but done

[00:17:59] writing now um that doesn't include revising going back and changing tweaking stuff like that but just having the story complete um because I'm in I'm in the home stretch and if you recall I I'm I don't have an outline for this novel I'm writing completely organically I remember

[00:18:21] I was actually I'm actually still very excited about that well I knew where I wanted to be from A to Z it was just what happened in the middle that I wasn't sure about totally like I had a

[00:18:29] vague idea yeah and I'm getting close to to Z but the question is is how much space in the book will be dedicated towards those last couple moments you know because we're getting to

[00:18:43] I guess what would be the climax of the book and so okay like are you over the two-thirds mark would you think like I mean you're really yeah I mean I'm in the last

[00:18:55] quarter I might even be in the last fifth of it I mean it's okay I am at least from a from a time span perspective I am probably one to three days of the story's timeline

[00:19:12] away from the end okay and the the the time span I would say for the whole story is probably I don't know we can have two weeks something like that okay so like how many chapters are you at

[00:19:27] right now like what's happening I'm on chapter 44 right now you think you're gonna hit 50 um probably okay so yeah you're really yeah it's chapters yeah I'm like it I think I'm in the 70,000 word range right now maybe okay 60 to 70,000 I'm betting I'm gonna be around 80 when I'm

[00:19:49] done is my guess but it's fantastic yeah so that that's that's my goal to get that to get that finished up and hopefully have a release by the end of the year or get the latest early next year now

[00:20:03] remind me here this is this is this is the third the third this is the third read book and there will be two more after that okay and then the read will be done and then I as far as

[00:20:14] I'm concerned and then I will be done with series I just wanted to do stand-alones you know what I I really kind of like that um don't get me wrong oh my god I just hit the microphone Jesus Christ

[00:20:27] um don't get me wrong I love reading a series but sometimes like even when I'm looking at ads for books you know that I get my email or whatever I'll click on something that sounds

[00:20:40] interesting and then when I get to the Amazon page it's if it's like first of seven I'm just like I'm out right I'm out like I don't even buy it because it's just like I'm not the type of person

[00:20:50] like if I read I'm reading like a chapter or two a day like I don't sit down and read for hours a day it's usually like first thing in the morning sometime at night sometimes when I'm taking a

[00:21:02] shit you know you know the like the downtime right um it's like I'll get a chapter or two a day so like if I start like a seven book series that'll take me a year you know what I mean and then I won't get

[00:21:15] to read anything else about that series so like I actually outside of what you've written the Harry Potter series and the Dark Tower almost pretty much everything I read is standalone

[00:21:30] yeah it's just it just is a writer it's so much investment to you know to commit to a series well it's hard too because like I remember being in school and having this conversation with

[00:21:43] one of my instructors because we were talking about you know traditional publishing and very often when you're working with you know a publisher or an agent or something like that if they like your story they're going to be like great what's what's this character going to do next

[00:22:00] like where's my series like where is my Harry Potter you know what I mean and it's just like from what I understood at the time like a lot of the times if you said nothing then they almost

[00:22:11] lost interest because they want to catch the reader with something and keep pulling them in whereas as like like you said as an author like I think I it is a giant investment

[00:22:22] I mean you're you're crafting a story over five volumes you know like if you said this one's going to be 80 000 words yeah I'm guessing yeah so if you just use that as a template and I know

[00:22:33] that there's been some fluctuation or whatever but if you're talking about something like writing 400 000 words potentially that's a giant commitment and yeah and I think a lot of times like you might want to finish that story but you also probably want to chase

[00:22:48] the thing that's new and shiny oh yeah right for sure yep so I don't know it seems like it's a different it's a difficult like kind of beam to balance on or whatever look at me throwing in fucking like

[00:22:59] Olympic style like uh oh that's fun the other the other thing too is that some of the new shiny things that you get enamored with are just stand-alone it's not like oh I've got another

[00:23:11] idea for a separate series it's like oh I have this idea for like a one book standalone thing yeah and you know that that's all it is and you can sort of invest everything into that one book

[00:23:22] and be done with it and walk away whereas you got to save a little on the tank for for a series you know you can't you can't put it all on the page on the first book well right and I mean like well

[00:23:34] and I mean like I don't have any personal experience from that but if you have you ever been writing like uh like one of the driver books and one of the reef books and want to do

[00:23:40] something and be like you know what it's not time for him to do that now I gotta wait until the next book for him to do that or maybe that's like it's not time to reveal this yet

[00:23:48] I actually haven't had that but I could see that being a risk or a temptation yeah on your writing it but it's more of just like just having to pace things and just and think about stretching

[00:24:01] the events and the character development across multiple books and so I kind of approach it as like I already kind of have an idea ahead what's going to happen ahead so it's like

[00:24:13] I don't I've already committed to like saying I can't reveal that till down the road you know what I mean right right right right so so do you have you have like stand standalone ideas ready to go

[00:24:23] I have high level ideas um I have an idea of where things need to progress to but I I don't have plot points yet really gotcha gotcha so did it start with a character did

[00:24:38] it start with are you talking about the current book no no like your standalone like what what got you the idea for the stand alone for standalone the standalone stuff oh these are really really

[00:24:47] vague abstract ideas so okay um I really don't these are more like impressions or vibes I have almost okay very I mean it's more complex than that but it's it's nowhere near even like an

[00:25:03] A to Z kind of a thing gotcha it's just ideas about characters maybe in a setting okay um in you know kind of world building maybe a little bit but nothing close to a story gotcha

[00:25:15] gotcha yeah I have those every once in a while I feel like it'd be cool if a guy was doing this and then well and then the idea may never develop beyond that right I've got a couple

[00:25:25] ideas that have been backburnered because I never they never came to fruition gotcha gotcha so would you think that like I know that in the past you've gone like driver reeve driver reeve and like you've got bounced back and forth do you think you would

[00:25:42] go reeve standalone reeve or are you just going to keep going with the reeve until the reeves done the plan right now is to tackle so if you recall the character John post who's it

[00:25:52] popped up in the podcast a couple times um he's sort of like the you know early 60s secret agent kind of guy yeah yeah yeah um the thought was to maybe do a john post novel

[00:26:07] something short and thrillerish and you know sort of uh you know maybe maybe a little pulpy I don't I don't know but the idea was maybe to do one of those is like a palette cleanser

[00:26:18] how pulpy would be fun I think yeah I don't know how pulpy would be but like something that's more in that it would be at least styled a little bit more of like

[00:26:27] you know that dime store novel kind of yeah um you know not real long you know kind of a thing that would be a totally different trajectory and goal and vibe and point to what I'm doing

[00:26:42] compared to what I'm doing with the reeve then I would go back and do the fourth reeve book and then the question would be because I don't have a solid enough idea idea yet do I do something

[00:26:52] in between books four and five for the reeve right do I just do it back yeah I don't I don't have that answered yet got you man I gotta tell you I'm a little intrigued by this pulp thing

[00:27:04] yeah don't don't lean too much on the pulp comment it no but you know it's just something that like it kind of crossed my path not too long ago I was in Barnes and Noble and I was um

[00:27:14] it wasn't actually like a pulp or dime store novel or anything but I picked up like a copy of the Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazine or whatever and like I didn't buy it but I was like thumbing

[00:27:24] through and I was like you know what stories like these these little mysteries like these little like real quick like little mystery things are super fun and it kind of crossed my mind like it would

[00:27:35] be kind of fun just to write like a noirish kind of thing you know like a like a film noir on the page if you will right right but unfortunately like none of the ideas I have really fit that so

[00:27:48] but that might be something that I would consider like trying to jump into because for some reason that feels like less pressure to me than the other ideas that take like the other ideas I have like

[00:28:00] I don't know I feel like they're a little heavy like when it comes like to the the theme of the stories or whatever right whereas like if you're just doing one of these like little

[00:28:09] like you're like who done it kind of things um I don't feel like that kind of pressure's there like you're not looking to it's not really high art I guess yeah no I mean you're just you're just

[00:28:20] telling a story you know what I mean it's it's I think it's a lot more similar to like what we do here because you know we try to constrain ourselves with a couple thousand words we get

[00:28:29] these prompts that force us to write something that we may not like you know have come up with otherwise so it's just like to me when we write these stories like I I don't really feel

[00:28:40] a whole lot of pressure like I get the idea I do it if it works then we either have a good laugh or you go oh man or something like that and if it doesn't then no harm no foul we move on to the

[00:28:51] next month you know what I mean right um so I think I don't know we'll see I don't want to I don't want to like I said I'm not setting goals this year but like that is kind of

[00:29:01] intriguing to me something just kind of like a fun like kind of throw away just fun kind of story to tell yeah we'll see what happens yeah so I'm gonna ask you we have been recording for 31 minutes

[00:29:15] do you want to talk about this next topic or do you want to jump into the stories oh it's up to you we can just jump into the stories if you want let's just jump into the stories

[00:29:23] we can save it for maybe a month where we don't have anything to talk about we'll put it first on the on the list for next month so that we don't because this was writing I think you

[00:29:31] actually had this there last month but there was just no way with I had it there in January I think okay okay so we're gonna I'm sorry I'm so sorry I'm sorry to you I'm sorry to everybody

[00:29:46] he had this fucking thing that he wanted to talk about January it's fucking June 27th we still haven't talked about it and I'm about to push it out another month I'm so sorry but yeah I think

[00:29:58] just I think in the interest of time we're recording this a little bit of late I think I just have a feeling we're gonna go off the rails with that so we're just gonna

[00:30:06] pin it and that gives people a reason to come back next month all right so what was the prompt this month oh yes you want to read this it was Utah that yeah the the

[00:30:21] typo seemed insignificant but it really wasn't Utah is a tough prompt this one was hard man like I had a really hard time with this like I mean I'm not even lying to go back to the cigar thing

[00:30:35] right the ones that I've been buying ring size 54 ish if that means anything to you about six inches long these cigars take anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours to smoke okay

[00:30:47] like it's a commitment like I'm chilling in the backyard I got some lights on got my little bluetooth speaker I can tell you that I probably sat with like music playing through at least two or three cigars just thinking about this prompt and came away with fucking

[00:31:05] nothing like I didn't have the idea for the story that I'm gonna read for you in a little bit until last week yeah it was something that I I wanted to be very clever with I wanted to come up with a

[00:31:18] clever typo and I what I came up with isn't I don't think it's clever at all but you know I realized very quickly that if I'm gonna spend time trying to come up with something clever

[00:31:30] I'm not going to get a story written at all so I I abandoned the idea of clever pretty quick I actually I'm not afraid to admit this I I sat there I googled most common typos

[00:31:41] oh that's a good idea and I would I do no it was not a good idea I probably went through like freaking 30 different websites that all had these most common typos blah blah blah blah and I read I read them all and I still came away with nothing

[00:32:00] no I like I can't even tell you how I came up with the idea that I did we'll talk about that later but I'm interested to see what you did because I was reading I was looking through the show doc

[00:32:10] earlier right and I saw your title oh wait I'll wait because I don't want to ruin your title I want you to tell your title but I read it is something different and now I'm intrigued

[00:32:20] I was intrigued before but now I'm even more intrigued so um what do you got for us well my story is about 1300 words and it is titled punk musings okay so so when I

[00:32:34] originally read the doc I thought it said pink musings and I was like wow I was like that seems very like off for Ian Lewis I don't even know what that would be about musings I don't even

[00:32:44] know what that means and then like I saw a story about an artist or something no we were talking about the reading and writing goals and I was like just in the back of my head I'm like

[00:32:50] holy shit that's not pink that says punk now now it makes it makes more sense to me within the typo kind of thing we're like going into inception type stuff here wow

[00:33:04] no that would be really clever if you could pull that off you just kind of blew my mind right there wow I need to watch that movie I haven't seen it for a while oh no it's been a minute and I

[00:33:11] don't think my wife's ever seen it my son loves it oh shame on her dude do it in inception is probably like I mean I have my list of favorite movies like but like inception is top 10 it's still

[00:33:24] one of I mean as much as I love it there's a ton of movies I love I don't know if it's top 10 I'd have to really think about it but as far as the movies that have come out in the last 20 years

[00:33:33] and I think inception is still within that window I know we're getting old here hold on oh but like double check that one in section stands out is like I walked out of the theater

[00:33:42] blown away like partly demoralized thinking that I will never write anything as cool as that story like it it it stands out head and shoulders is one of the best films I think right it's 2010

[00:33:55] it's been out 2010 2010 geez so 14 years I'm gonna have to this is going back on my list I'm watching this again sometime soon because like it's one of those things where like literally every time I watch it my mind is blown still like I know what's gonna happen

[00:34:10] like I know what happens in the movie but it is so well done it's so well written like the cinematography is great like everything about it is yeah it's really essentially perfect like the acting's phenomenal it's it's and like if you think about like the effects and

[00:34:27] shit that went into this it could have went really wrong really quick you know what I mean right and it just didn't it's just so good but anyways okay done talking about inception we're going back to punk musings okay so whenever you're ready I'm ready all ready

[00:34:49] it was the kind of heat that seemed to radiate from everything just oppressive so hot that it took too much effort to even look up at the sun's glare it just beat down on you beating you

[00:35:00] down until you were beaten the rest of town seemed to know it because they were nowhere to be seen empty parking lots empty stoops just the boring beige tourfronts and overhangs with minimal windows

[00:35:12] dry as dirt dry like when your lips get stuck to your teeth I imagine someone thought these places looked inviting at one time the roll arena in the drugstore and all the cracked asphalt in front 70s maybe 60s someone built those places with an actual design

[00:35:30] in mind but there was nothing blander except maybe my car it was a yellowy golden cream forward ltd from way back a real hooptie I guess you could say even with all the windows down and an arm out

[00:35:44] the window I couldn't get a breeze it was just stagnant like dirty pool water I figured maybe that's where everybody was hanging out at the pool or hanging out where there was a c but there

[00:35:57] was nothing happening there or at the pool there never was there was never anything happening anywhere in town so I just drove with some obscure punk band playing on the tape deck my buddy Nate always

[00:36:10] used to get tapes of all these bands that were still underground all that rebellious subversive stuff I don't know it sounded all right to my ears I guess we listened to that stuff pretty

[00:36:21] much exclusively but I knew most of them were probably just a bunch of posers but that was the scene really going to see some punk band arguing about some punk band going to see some punk

[00:36:34] band again that was the scene it was just a merry-go-round driving from place to place associating with a various cast of characters generally just wasting time it just so happened that there were three of those characters at the gas station I was driving by and so I stopped

[00:36:51] to see what they were up to Tommy Zane Rip that was their names you could pretty much count on always finding them together Tommy with his pennywise tattoo Zane with his second hair color that week

[00:37:04] and Rip fiddling with a cigarette while pumping gas Tommy had a bag of twizzlers in hand and tuned his mouth hanging out like a cowboy chewing straw hey hey man gig at O'Connor's tonight he

[00:37:17] said oh yeah I said from behind the wheel who's playing dead pedal dead pedal a local band formerly known as the honeys formerly known as the toggles and before that jockey itch they were always changing

[00:37:35] their name the front man was a guy named Brian decent lyricist all right I might check it out I said hey hey Tommy said pointing across the street check out that sign I followed his finger to the

[00:37:49] health food store that sat at the corner there was a cheap looking sign advertising their smoothies Brian pep with each sip it read Brian pep Brian pep wait brain pep that's what it was supposed

[00:38:05] that's what it was supposed to say Tommy chuckled that should be the next band name dude Brian pep yeah man Brian pep he seemed more amused by it than I was so I said later and then rolled on

[00:38:20] I was on my way to pick up my friend Chaz anyway Chaz and his girlfriend Tabitha probably they were about as inseparable as Tommy Zane Rip they like malt liquor and playing dice

[00:38:31] things like that board games too I rolled up to their place in my hoopty and saw that Tabitha's gremlin wasn't in the lot surprising I found Chaz in his apartment watching the never-ending story

[00:38:44] for the millionth time I sacked out on his couch for a bit we ordered to meet lovers pizza and some wings but otherwise tried not to move much he only had a window unit for AC and it was

[00:38:56] older than the LTD I thought dead petals playing at O'Connor's tonight want to check it out I asked yeah maybe Chaz was always non-committal as non-committal is a scruff that came and went on

[00:39:09] his chin he had these dark rimmed glasses he wore and had that perpetual college student look about him it'll be hot he said yeah it'll be hot I thought about a bunch of people crammed into

[00:39:22] O'Connor's no air movement hot heavy breath all the sweat and the volume cranked up all the way but it would be a show anyway something to do all the salt in the food got to me then and the room

[00:39:36] seemed to close in as still as it was and I was damp under the arms and around the waistband of my underwear people talk about the meat sweats but I never believed them at some point I

[00:39:46] stuck my head under the kitchen faucet and probably drank a gallon seriously I sat on the couch bloated while we watched Beastmaster neither of us really talked I suppose that's a sign of a good friendship

[00:40:00] that you don't have to say much or maybe just an old one I knew Chaz since kindergarten when he used to carry a Scooby-Doo lunchbox everywhere Chaz dozed a bit maybe I did a bit too eventually

[00:40:12] it started to get dark and it drew us outside in the hopes things would have cooled down some but it hadn't in fact it seemed like everything had just held in the heat all day and was now

[00:40:23] releasing it back into the air we stood there just sweating not even one descent on his cheap patio furniture since it would make your underwear stick to your skin even more but eventually we got into the LTD and headed over to O'Connor's house

[00:40:38] it wasn't a very big place had a basement though and that's where the band set up I took a peek inside people were crammed in around them drum kit squeezed between the water heater

[00:40:50] and the washing machine Toby the basis was off to the side a bit stooping under the ductwork frontman Brian stood right at the bottom of the stairs guitar and mic stand position so that he

[00:41:01] was playing and wailing up the staircase to the people standing by the side door and milling about the driveway that's where Chaz and I stayed I saw Tommy's aen rip so low cups in hand

[00:41:13] laughing and carrying on they looked like they'd been there a while someone passed a joint the blast of the music practically shook the house and the small crowd clung together in a

[00:41:24] sweltering mass some dude with chains in a mohawk weaved his way up through the crowd to get a better look I guess he thought those credentials gave him that privilege you know being more

[00:41:35] punk and all everyone was hooked though as Brian strummed the opening chords to one of their better known songs that also happened to be pretty catchy I could see it being a single they played to the

[00:41:46] course a couple times and everyone was really hooked then but after it was over Brian huffed an announcement into the microphone we're no longer dead peddily said we're Brian pep pep this drew a few confused laughs and somewhere in the background I heard Tommy yell yeah Brian pep

[00:42:07] the band went into another frenetic song and I remembered the sign across the street from the gas station at first I thought the typo seemed insignificant but it really wasn't it had changed the course of a band called dead pedal and proved me wrong sometimes there was something

[00:42:23] happening in town the end all right man I gotta tell you there was like I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia in this for you and me both I think I think this like just it feels like our

[00:42:40] early 20s doesn't it I mean like kind of there were there were there were lots and bits of pieces of different things I've seen and experienced you know a lot of it from those years but a

[00:42:53] lot of things just that I had witnessed or experienced and sort of morphed into a story I mean there's stuff from all over yeah but it was just like great like you started setting the scene

[00:43:03] and I like I like you know me like I'm a dazed and confused person I watch it like twice a week so when you were talking about the role arena in the drug store like I was kind of like

[00:43:12] in days to confused what I really like one of the first things that really like grabbed my attention was when you were talking about the LTD and how like even with the windows down your arm

[00:43:23] out the window you couldn't get a breeze like I think that just says like like I don't know like why that description felt so real to me but I was in the car at that point like I was

[00:43:33] literally in the car at that point and then like I don't know there was just like so much little stuff like did you hear me laughing at some points yeah you left a jockey itch I did

[00:43:45] laugh a jockey itch I laughed at Brian Pep the first time you said it to but I was like I usually lean back in my chair a little bit so I'm not right up against the microphone

[00:43:54] but like everything about this like felt like even when they were like sitting there and when you said meat lovers pizza and wings like how many fucking times have we eaten

[00:44:03] meat lovers pizza and wings like I mean this is just like there were so many just like little things that just made me feel younger again which I needed so I mean I mean just just for that reason

[00:44:16] I mean I think this was really well done because I was just like in I was sucked into the story like I was in your story nice and I'm gonna go on record and I'm gonna say that chains in a

[00:44:25] Mohawk do give you privilege to move to the front of the crowd you know what that was I was super annoyed I was at a show once and it was like it was like a pop punk show it's not like hardcore

[00:44:34] punk you know what I mean right it was you know just this this this kid who was like he looked like he played in rancid like like super tall mohawk you know cut off like jean jacket shirt thing

[00:44:49] you know chains you know like he just you know he he sort of looked out of place because it wasn't that punk of a show but anyway he like you know was like muslin his way up to the front

[00:45:01] because he thought like you know just kind of walking around people and had no time of day for them it's like you know if you show up to the show early enough to get up front you know you

[00:45:12] you earned it you got there early and you that's your spot you know what I mean you don't like wind your way up to the front like but like he just the way he was walking you could tell that

[00:45:21] he thought he was more punk than everybody or something and like for that reason he should be up front I don't know it was super annoying I'll just never forget that no but it just

[00:45:31] made me laugh because I was sitting there and it's just like I I mean I could definitely see that happening for sure like get the fuck out of my way preppy where's your mohawk like you know what I mean

[00:45:45] it makes me laugh I have a real question for you when was the last time you watched Beastmaster actually not is not as far back as you might have guessed I think I saw I saw it within

[00:45:59] the last decade I think holy shit I don't know where or when but I I saw it somewhat recently now never ending story it's been further than that but oh yeah I gotta put that in the show

[00:46:10] notes too I forgot about that and now I probably haven't watched the never ending story since I was a literal child yeah right right but like Beastmaster I think it was like I remember watching it on

[00:46:21] like TBS Saturday afternoon something and I was like I just wanted to go back and rewatch it to see if it like held up at all does it and I was disappointed I was very much disappointed so I

[00:46:32] shouldn't watch it because I was planning on watching it well I mean for nostalgia sake it's probably worth watching but you know there were it's I don't know there's a lot of those films

[00:46:40] sort of in that vein that were like always on TBS and you know weekend in the afternoon you'd watch it and as a kid you just ate it up TBS is still kind of pretty fantastic

[00:46:51] although I think FX is really like they're getting me these days just because like I'm the type of person where if the hangover's on in like one two or three I'm gonna watch it

[00:47:02] it's just where I live right now and they've been uh FX has been doing a lot of that recently but I am going to jump into at the very least Beastmaster never ending story I probably need

[00:47:13] to watch it's been a long time long long time my brother actually has a full never ending story sleeve oh really on his arm yeah never ending story yeah it's been a long time before yeah I'm like I

[00:47:29] probably haven't seen that since the 80s since I was a kid right well really well done you get sucked me in and I think I think you handled like I the brain and Brian that's

[00:47:41] that's a really good typo to exploit I think I think that was really that again was taken from reality but it's not that interesting of a story so I think I think it was clever though

[00:47:52] like I think it is the best I could do no it was really really well done I hope that I hope that mine comes across like that and uh so yeah good job thank you fantastic all right so

[00:48:05] wow this is sweet we're only 50 minutes all right I actually dude this is crazy 1300 words on the dot nice oh wait a second that includes the title fuck uh you know what that that does happen

[00:48:18] 1296 there you go so I also went short um short for me I usually don't hit anything like this right definitely short for you but um yeah so mine's 1300 words or 1296 and um it's called the

[00:48:39] leftovers so you ready yeah I'm ready all right here we go good afternoon distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the board I'm sure that nothing that is about to be said should come as a surprise

[00:48:54] to any of you given the events that have played out over the last six weeks six weeks it's been exactly six weeks since my father's passing I heard the rumblings from the start

[00:49:08] they were kind of hard to miss if I'm being honest they began the minute the memo announcing his death went out you know the one the one that mistakenly identified my 11 year old kid brother

[00:49:18] as the successor meant to lead this company into the future you must forgive my dear uncle his pen was no doubt unruly as he crafted the notice that not only announced the passing

[00:49:28] of his only sibling taken from us far too soon but also revealing to all that he would not be the one taking the seat at the head of the table not him but I his dim-witted nephew fresh out of business

[00:49:41] school without a fraction of the experience that he had gained over the years of working in his brother's shadow and his father's before that does that sound about right the typo seemed

[00:49:53] insignificant at the time but it really wasn't sure it could be chalked up to a simple clerical error my brother's name and mine only differ by a single letter it was an easy slip-up especially

[00:50:06] when one considers the grief-stricken state that he was in the issue presented itself in your reaction to the memo and I'm using the collective view here the whisperings were far from contained by the walls of the offices cubicles and conference rooms I'm sure you

[00:50:21] remember some asked what the difference was between myself and my brother both of us are mere children incapable of understanding the intricacies of dealing with the day to day here let alone planning for future growth what was my father thinking when he chose myself over his

[00:50:36] own dear brother who had been his right hand for nearly two and a half decades it was you my dear board members of whom he was thinking during the first conversation I had with my

[00:50:48] father concerning the state of the business he expressed concern that growth had become stagnant my grandfather built this company up from its roots starting in a midwestern garage and ending in the plush fifth avenue office that we occupy today ever since we've done nothing but tread

[00:51:04] water don't get me wrong we've maintained a healthy bottom line and continue to turn profit but only marginal ones at best let's face the facts for a moment when was the last time

[00:51:16] we launched a new product a new one not an update of an older discontinued model with a shiny new rapper and flashy marketing campaign that's what I bring to the table a fresh set of eyes

[00:51:29] not held back by past successes failures or the fear of trying something new a professor told me once that if a business wasn't growing it was dying I shared this sentiment with my father during one of our discussions prior to his death

[00:51:44] and it lingered at the forefront of his mind until his dying day this is why I stand before you today when my uncle sips my ties on the beaches of Maui having the time of his life from what I

[00:51:54] understand I'm ready to lead you into the future while he already had one foot in the grave metaphorically speaking the three of us discussed many options at great length and amicably came to the conclusion that was announced but none you could see past the fact that

[00:52:11] you'd be reporting to someone you felt to be inferior your true colors were on display beginning that day and even after everyone had a good chuckle over the typo not a day went by where I

[00:52:22] didn't hear a new joke about myself my brother or my uncle this was nothing but nepotism at its finest a rich kid gets raised in the life of luxury gets a high dollar degree from a private

[00:52:34] school and when he graduates he gets control of daddy's company snatched right out from the hands of those that really deserve it again that sound about right well y'all forgot about one

[00:52:47] thing you each of you have sat on my father's board of directors for as long as I can remember he went through painstaking measures to ensure that this company ran as a democracy with nothing happening that didn't receive a majority vote from you his most trusted advisors

[00:53:05] that was the reason he and my uncle ultimately agreed in my assuming the role as chief executive officer as you all would no doubt be able to keep me grounded he trusted you with all his heart

[00:53:17] he trusted you I don't it has become clear to me that we'll never be able to see eye to eye each of you began to unravel even the slightest mention of change and the disgust that some

[00:53:30] of you have conveyed publicly at having to work for someone less than half your age in some cases was appalling in order to accommodate these discomforts for you you are all now hereby relieved of your duties effective immediately for those of you at retirement age your full

[00:53:47] pensions will be honored for those of you not quite there yet you'll find a very generous sephirins package waiting for you when my uncle returns from his vacation he will assist me in filling your vacated seats on the board with internal candidates who are unintimidated by

[00:54:01] innovation term limits for board members will also be introduced in an attempt to avoid situations like this in the future let me be very clear none of this is negotiable as we conclude I do want

[00:54:17] to thank each and every one of you for your service you were my father's biggest confidence and I would be remiss as if not to acknowledge your accomplishments which have no doubt contributed to the success of the company over the years leading to my assuming this

[00:54:30] position today for that I thank you and ask you to grant me one small request as you know upon his passing a bronze bust of my father was made and sits upon a pedestal next to

[00:54:44] my grandfather at the entrance of this very room as a reminder of those great leaders that came before us I've arranged for the aid of you to receive this same honor there is no denying

[00:54:56] your influence on this company and I would be honored if you agree to join them I'll offer an additional $10,000 stipend for those willing as I understand the casting process to be a little less than comfortable for those still breathing I watched eight

[00:55:12] distraught faces slowly nod an agreement perfect eight men in matching black suits entered the room took a place standing beside each one of the former board members once again I thank you for your service as the words left my lips eight syringes pierced the necks of eight

[00:55:32] former executives their shoulders slumped as they lost consciousness while each assigned caretaker guided their faces gently to the conference room table ensuring that no damage was done to my future office adornments are they ready for them downstairs yes sir

[00:55:49] perfect let's give this show on the road and remember I want them smiling of course sir sir what is it what do you want us to do with you know the leftovers I shrug my shoulders let's feed it to the dogs

[00:56:09] well that's quite quite the monologue there and with a with a mat a mat surprise ending my favorite thing in the world favorite thing in the world is when you go

[00:56:24] it's like the little snicker that's all that's all I need that's all I need for many like the whole time I'm like this this this you know this diet tribe is pretty straightforward like I don't

[00:56:37] know where he's gonna go with it though because I'm like you know I see I feel it coming to a close and I know it's not that long and you know it's all been pretty you know there's some victory

[00:56:49] all there but it's all still very much um you know I guess above board and normal sure and then the guys in suits come in or whatever yep that's all it takes eight dudes in suits yeah and then

[00:57:03] we're in mat world yep very brief amount of time like it was it was something new like when it was funny like I got a couple of things like when my wife read this she was like I like it

[00:57:14] it's a little unbelievable though and I was like what do you mean and she was like well you know he just murdered eight people they're definitely gonna find out and I was like I don't know and she was

[00:57:24] like how are they not gonna find out and I was like he's got like people waiting to cast them in bronze like this dude's got resources like you know what I mean that's true yeah you think he

[00:57:36] he can dispose of a couple bodies no problem yeah I think I think like here's the thing I'm not saying that I can do it or that I know people that could do it but I'm pretty sure there are people out there

[00:57:48] that can make people disappear yeah I don't know I mean that's what the movies taught me like like the mafia they just like gotta like roll them in a dumpster nobody fucking says two words

[00:58:00] I mean I feel like these days like maybe not today you know you get you get found out pretty yeah cameras everywhere there's there's evidence but I mean there may have been a you know a day in

[00:58:13] time or that certainly could happen but yeah and to be fair I guess this wasn't really set in a day or time but I mean I don't know it feels pretty that's true and you know modern though doesn't

[00:58:24] a little bit like you could also you could this could be like in a dream within a dream like inception land you know what I mean like sure so it doesn't matter that you just off date people

[00:58:35] because it's not real all right then his eyes opened you know like yeah no um but yeah like when I originally sat down to do this it was going to be a letter like I wanted to write I was just

[00:58:48] going to be reading a letter like and then when when I was getting through it that's how it started like it was like instead of good afternoon just extinguished ladies in general of the board

[00:58:57] it just started ladies in general of the board it was going to read like a like a resignation letter or just like a memo but then I was like you know I got to map this up a little bit

[00:59:07] so then I just decided to have him read so I do want to ask you one thing though because this came up when my wife was reading it and I wasn't sure how how to really deal with this

[00:59:16] so you've done stuff like this before so I was gonna I was gonna ask you this um the majority of this is a monologue so right typically when you have paragraph changes in a

[00:59:26] monologue you use an open quotation but you never close it because the same person's talking but at the next paragraph you open it again right to let the reader know that the person's still talking

[00:59:38] right but yes you know this is you know pretty much a thousand words of that so like when my wife came back to me she was like what's up with the the open quotations and

[00:59:48] and no closing and I was like well I was like here this is why and she was like well it was I think when it happens like normally it's probably like two paragraphs you know what I mean

[00:59:59] it's not a thousand words of somebody talking so yeah I figured the the other option would be to just put the whole monologue in italics but I find that kind of fatiguing to read

[01:00:10] but I know that you've done like large bits of italics before so what do you how would you have approached this as far as formatting goes yeah so I think you did it the right way because

[01:00:25] you're in a scene where um you know there's gonna be it's not all monologue right there's there's you're writing the the speech part of it mostly but then you're gonna shift into you know the character having his own thoughts he's gonna see things happening in the room

[01:00:45] um the other characters are gonna react and so like setting it off of the way you did with with the quotation marks that's that's the right way to do it the times that I've used italics

[01:00:59] are either if I'm in third person and I want to write the character's thoughts I will do italics right that's usually the only one I use italics yeah the other time I've used it

[01:01:10] is when I'm doing um I've done it for like flashbacks you know it was like more of a stylistic thing and then that was in the driver right or was that in the second reef book

[01:01:22] it was in both okay so the reef the reef the first read book had actually this the first two read books mostly the first one but the two of them both had

[01:01:33] first person flashbacks and so I did those in italics um in the driver series I also did some flashbacks and then in the fourth driver book there was this sort of like this weird like

[01:01:44] each chapter starts out in third person and then it shifts to first person and then that's when I went to italics but yeah you're not the only person that has come that just said that they don't like

[01:01:54] reading large swaths of italicized print um you know it just depends so it is it is a consideration that you should even mind it is it's one of those things where I think like

[01:02:07] what made it easier for me is like when I was reading your book and there was like I like there was like full chapters almost of italics right like short chapters but full chapters yeah

[01:02:18] I would actually increase the font on my kindle oh that's an interesting idea and it made it a little easier with the italicized print but in a print book I would probably I think if I was

[01:02:32] going to publish a print book that had a large section of italics I would probably do a couple different font sizes and get get a couple sent to me to see how it looked yeah I never thought about

[01:02:46] that um in uh Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men which I I want to read some more McCarthy but I wanted to reread that one sure I wanted to reread the road as well but at any rate

[01:03:00] in No Country for Old Men he's got that same exact thing not blended in each chapter but he's got most of the chapters are third person no no italics but then there's these first person

[01:03:13] chapters for the sheriff character that's an italics and so I don't know if that's where I I saw it and thought it was okay to do he breaks a lot of rules obviously in his writing but

[01:03:24] sure well I mean see that's the whole thing like they teach you the rules so that you can break them there's certain rules you gotta follow but then like really the people who have really like

[01:03:33] done really good shit said fuck the rules but they know the rules it's a it's a risky game to play sure sure and if you can do it in in a way that is still understandable and accessible then yeah

[01:03:45] I think you're fine it's like one of those things like I run through this um in in photography sometimes too like um JJ Abrams famously got shit for lens flares yeah like overusing them

[01:03:58] I don't mind a well-placed lens flare and I remember when I was a photography student I took a shot that had a lens flare and my teacher was not my instructor was not a huge fan of lens

[01:04:11] flares and they were like you she was like uh you know you shouldn't have the sun in the frame because this is what happens and I was like no I did that on purpose and she just kind of looked at

[01:04:19] me to see if I was telling the truth and like we had a pretty good rapport with each other so she knew I wasn't fucking with her but like you teach the rules because like arguably like if you have

[01:04:31] like the full blown sun in your frame it's gonna fuck with your exposure if you don't know what you're doing right yeah so I mean it's it's not something you technically should do until

[01:04:40] you know how to do it like I would prefer beginning students not do it because like I said it fucks with your exposure but if somebody does something that isn't quote unquote like correct

[01:04:51] but they come to me and be like look I tried something and I think it worked out this way I mean how could you possibly how could you possibly fault somebody for trying to innovate

[01:05:01] you know what I mean well yeah I mean there's there's like I mean look at the filters on on like Instagram for the photos right like you can add different effects that

[01:05:10] in some respects you know would be considered a mistake in a photo you know like if you have like you know I don't even remember the name of the effect but it makes it look all like out of

[01:05:22] focus and stuff like a blurr kind of thing and it's like well obviously you don't want to take a blurry picture but like from a stylistic point of view maybe it's appropriate to have a blurred

[01:05:31] picture for whatever you're trying to convey sure and it's like I run into stuff like that at work all the time because most of the stuff I do for work is actually like event photography

[01:05:40] and I'll give people slightly out of focus photos if somebody happened to be moving or something but like mostly what I'm trying to capture is like an expression on the face I'm trying to

[01:05:51] capture a moment so even if my photograph isn't technically perfect but you can see that emotion coming off of your subject right I'm going to give you that photo even though I know it's

[01:06:01] not perfect because I could give two shits if it's technically perfect because look at that look on that person's face you know what I mean so it's like you need to know the rules and then

[01:06:09] you kind of have to to work them but like it's just like I want you to know that you're doing it not it's like a cop out you know what I mean yeah but yeah all right so before we go what are you

[01:06:21] reading I'm still working on that Ian Fleming biography I'm really close to being finished with it though I will have finish it by the next time we talk how um are you liking it

[01:06:31] because I think you said that you had read some stuff about Ian Fleming you know prior but this was supposed to be more like complete or whatever well I mean it's yeah I have not read any of the other

[01:06:41] biographies but this one seems so comprehensive that it's like I don't even know that I would need to look at the other ones necessarily but yeah I'm enjoying it but it you know at the same time

[01:06:51] it's like a lot of these people back then I think it was just the way they communicated but they you know they would write letters to each other um you know what I mean like there's no

[01:07:02] you know they had phones and stuff but like there was no internet no email no text but so of course all these physical pieces of communication still exist and you get a lot of these personal interactions and in some respects you almost feel like you're

[01:07:16] not quite but almost to the point of like reading somebody's diary almost you know what I mean yeah I was just gonna ask do you feel like you're kind of violating his privacy

[01:07:23] it it does a little bit sometimes and so in that respect it's like you feel like you really feel immersed in this person's life and the people around them because he spends the the

[01:07:33] biography actually spends I think too much time but he spends a really inordinate amount of time about all the people around him and so you learn about all these people who they were the

[01:07:42] personalities sure and so it really paints a pretty full picture but at the same time you're like you feel so immersed in this person's life you're just like you almost like I don't

[01:07:51] know feel feel bad about it but got you so but it's interesting for sure I actually had a conversation similar to that with my brother-in-law he was in town a couple of weeks ago because we were talking

[01:08:03] about you know stuff like that like Kirk Cobain's diary when they publish it like I won't yeah like I would never want to read that I won't read that like he didn't want that I felt that way

[01:08:14] when I was reading Harper Lee's that that book what was the second one oh yeah you told me about that the the associated with to kill Mockingbird was the sequel right and what it turns out

[01:08:27] what it turns out it really wasn't a sequel it was like a it was an unpublished like first draft oh yeah okay she didn't want anybody to see that right right so like when I got done with that

[01:08:38] I was like well I'm glad that she made all the changes that she did because I mean ended up being one of my favorite books of all time but I wouldn't want any like yeah I think violation

[01:08:52] so this really would tie well into the conversation that we skipped okay so what I'm not saying we go into it but like what what I'm getting at is like I think you got to respect the artist wishes in

[01:09:01] that case absolutely so we'll put a pin on this and I'm sure we'll hit it next month when we're talking about the the other thing that we're just gonna leave unnamed right now

[01:09:09] um but yeah um right now I'm I've barely made a dent in You Like It Darker by Stephen King it's a it's a collection of short stories um I just haven't been reading this month

[01:09:23] we were on vacation then my brother-in-law was in town then the next week work was crazy I was just like it was it so I'm still working on that I hope to have that done by the next time

[01:09:36] we talk because I according to my Goodreads app uh I'm at seven out of 20 but that means I'm two books behind so I need to play a little bit of catch up if I want to hit that goal all right well

[01:09:49] we want you to know what you we want you to know what you want us to write about is that how I always say it because that's a really fucking okay we want to know what you want us to write

[01:09:57] about to do so visit our Facebook group facebook.com slash group slash p written pod that's where you can participate in all the polls where you'll get to pick the the next prompt

[01:10:09] and we throw some like writing stuff out there I think Ian you've been doing that more than me recently but I like your words of the day and your writing thoughts and shit like that so that's

[01:10:17] fun um we're also on twitter or x at p written pod or you can email us directly at promptly written pod at gmail.com um Ian where's the best place for people to go to find out more about

[01:10:28] your work? Ianlustfiction.com and if you want to get in touch with me I'm at matcha garic on twitter or you can go to matcha garic.com for a bunch of other ways to reach out and remember if you'd

[01:10:38] like cigars I want to know everything volumes one through five of promptly written are available on amazon in both paperback and kindle format that is five full books of short stories by Ian and I everybody should be reading this right? Yes and reviewing it. Reading it, reviewing

[01:10:57] it, buying it, gifting it like whatever get it out there it's great um if you're a Kindle unlimited subscriber here's some good news for you they're all included in your subscription

[01:11:06] go read that shit will we get like a penny a word or some shit like that? Oh it's so fractional I don't know I don't know what it is it's probably like a fraction of a penny a word but

[01:11:14] yeah give us those fractions of pennies and then you know we'll um hopefully get full pennies one day I don't know where I was going with that but whatever um our next episode oh

[01:11:25] shit I don't know what the next prompt is um I don't either I'm gonna do this we're gonna do this live I'm not even gonna edit this shit out um let's see okay so our next episode

[01:11:42] will be episode shit hold on now I fucked up and I closed the wrong tab all right our next episode will be episode 72 and it will drop on August 5th the prompt will be

[01:11:57] without question it was the worst possible outcome and that was given to us by Jeff Ford so thank you Jeff um and I'm actually gonna thank you again because that's way I think that's gonna be way

[01:12:09] easier than what you taught gave us and all this shit yeah this is a little bit more lenient yeah but at the same time like I might cut that out too because if I keep talking shit about Utah

[01:12:18] he's gonna come back with something crazy hard just to fuck with us I know it but anyways uh thank you Jeff um can't wait to see what comes out of this one if you like what you hear please leave us a

[01:12:29] review on apple podcast or wherever you listen so that we can help get the word out uh that's it for today see you next month later