Episode 85 - What Difference Does It Make?

[00:00:17] What's up everyone and welcome to episode 85 of the Promptly Written, where every month we take a writing prompt provided by you, write stories based on it, then break them down for you. My name's Matt Sugerik and with me as always, Ian Lewis. What's up, Ian? What's up, Matt? I am really, really excited to be back. I am so stoked. I am so stoked. So I think I'm gonna probably take a little longer with the question that I'm about to ask you. So like, what's been going on?

[00:00:46] I mean, mostly just the usual, you know, trying to write. I'm like maybe 40,000 words in on the book I'm writing right now, which is book number four in the Reeve series. Nice. It's been a rough patch writing in this case. You know, the words and the ideas just haven't been flowing as smoothly as I'd like.

[00:01:11] So are you are you still kind of just kind of free writing through the whole thing? Did you outline this? Like what's I'm kind of doing both. I sort of had a little bit of a rough outline, but there's like, you know, I don't know where the back half of the story is going to go before I get it to where I want it to be. So there's still a little bit of a flying by the seat of my pants. So you said you're you're 40,000 words in right now that thereabouts. Yeah.

[00:01:39] So like if you had to like, I don't know, like guesstimate, like, where do you think you're at in the book? Are you like halfway point? Are you past the halfway point? I don't know that I can answer that question. I mean, I feel like I'm probably at least halfway. But because there's so much unknown yet, I don't 100 percent know what else could happen. Gotcha. Gotcha. But but you're enjoying it. It's going good.

[00:02:04] It's going OK. OK, it's it's been it's just been weird. It's been a weird writing process so far. OK, fair enough. Now, you'll have to remind me because it has been a second since we spoke. When did you when did you start this? Probably about March time frame. Oh, OK. So right about the time when we stopped talking. I think so. Yeah. All right. So, yeah, I guess we should probably talk about that, huh? Yeah. Where have we been?

[00:02:34] So I just want to give everybody. Well, I'm going to start. I do want to start with with an apology to everyone, to you, because while I did have some shit happen that we're going to talk about in a little bit, like I could have communicated better. And instead, I just I kind of went silent across all fronts. Like it was just like I just kind of shut down. You know what I mean?

[00:03:03] So like just to back up, I'm not going to get into like the nitty gritty details, but like at the end of March, well, maybe mid-March, I was informed that my position was being eliminated from my job. And a lot of you out there that are listening know me personally. You know where I work. You know, you know what that place meant to me. And I think part of my reaction to losing that job was just because of like how it came about.

[00:03:32] And I don't know if everybody knows that. So like when I first started, I left a job that I wasn't happy with. I came over to work with with colleagues that I worked before and I enjoyed the work, but I really didn't like the one guy I was working for. So for the first couple of years there, I was kind of actively like, do I want to be here? Like, is this what I want to do?

[00:03:59] And then, you know, I had made friends with with the guys in the office next door to me. And one of those one of those guys, you would know. He's one of our friends from World Gone Geek. He's Jeff Ford. Oh, yeah. And when I started working with them, you know, they introduced me to their boss. Like my department ended up kind of fizzling out because the the the person I was working for left to go work for another company.

[00:04:28] And I had I had shown them a need that they didn't realize that they had. You know what I mean? So like they're the ones that convinced me to go back to school in the first place. Like I would never would have put a camera in my hand professionally if it wasn't for this place. And I look at where my life is now. And like I went from having a job that paid the bills to like a career that I really enjoyed.

[00:04:56] And I think part of what made that so special to me was I created it from the ground up. Like I actively worked with my boss to create the position like we created the title. We created the department. I wrote my job description. I was able to cater this entire position to their needs and match it up with like what I knew I could do. And it really just kind of I feel like springboarded my life into getting the education. It put it got me writing.

[00:05:26] Right. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I never would have done that if I never would have started going to school for this job, because I mean, I essentially started going to school because I didn't want to be hourly anymore. And I needed a bachelor's degree to have a salary position. But then like I fell in love with writing. It started this like so much, so many of the things that I've accomplished professionally in the past decade and a half. Was because of this place.

[00:05:54] So then, you know, in mid-March, I mean, I just I just got my review. It was a glowing review, like one of the best reviews I've ever had. And then I got a meeting scheduled and I was like, oh, we're just going to talk about the review. It's like normal process. Like and then it was just like rug pulled out from underneath me. And it was like it wasn't even like. I can't even say I saw it coming like I was completely blindsided by the whole thing.

[00:06:22] And then so now I'm sitting there and I and then I guess I don't know. I want to say that this was more of like a mental health thing than anything. I just kind of shut down because it was like. I proved to this company that they needed this role.

[00:06:45] And even after I got laid off, I'm working for them as a vendor like I haven't really lost. OK, so I mean, I lost my benefits. I lost a lot of my salary, but like most of the people who would just kind of send me an email and be like, hey, Matt, we need you to do this are now just sending a different email. Right. And they're paying me for it.

[00:07:11] So that that was just like it was kind of like a mind fuck there for a second, because I had one person saying like we need to you're like essentially in not so many words, you're expendable. You're I mean, granted, I worked for a children's hospital. A photographer is a non-essential role in a children's hospital. Like, first of I get that, right? It is a teaching hospital. But but I mean, that's true.

[00:07:40] But like if if it's if if push comes to shove and it's like two people are up there, one's a nurse and one's the photographer, the nurse is staying, the photographer is leaving. Right. Right. So like that's always been in the back of my head, like even like and even during covid, like I was scared during covid because like for a whole year. Non-essential employees weren't going in rooms. So like a lot of what I was doing, I couldn't do what I normally did because I was essentially a liability.

[00:08:07] That's one more person that doesn't need to be in that room in that room. Right. And but when I made it through covid, I was like, if I can make it through a global pandemic, like I think I've proved my worth to these people. So it was just really weird. Like I get laid off and then all of a sudden I'm signing contracts and sending out quotes to the same people. So it's like you don't need me, but you need me. And then other people would like I would run into people and they'd be like, what happened? And they're like, oh, my God, what are we going to do?

[00:08:36] And I'd be like, well, you're just going to have to pay me differently. So it was just really weird. And just like I kind of just mentally just shut down. Hmm. It was just it was really hard to handle because like it's it's kind of hard to hear that, you know, that somebody doesn't think that they need your services anymore. But then like the actions from the other people were telling you different. And yeah, it is weird. It is real.

[00:09:06] And in some ways, just because like my last day with the hospital was April 1st. So, you know, we're going on August. So what that's April, May, June, July. That's four months that I haven't been employed by them, but I've been working for them consistently. And it's just. I don't even know if I have any closure yet. You know what I mean? Because I'm still working with the people that I still work with.

[00:09:36] So it's it's still kind of it's still kind of odd to me. But like for those first couple of months, like. I was really questioning like. Myself worth. And it. I mean, I never there was never any like dark thoughts or anything like that. That's not what I'm saying, but it was just like I'm sitting there like what what am I going to do? So.

[00:10:03] So what I did, what I ended up doing was started my own business, started an LLC so I could formalize all this stuff. I got insurance. I got like I got some equipment. I got everything dialed in. I just got my logo done. I'm going to be starting on my website soon. And I'm I'm absolutely lucky that I have the ability like they gave me severance. I believe I should have got more severance, but apparently they cap it out at X number of weeks and you get what you get.

[00:10:31] So even though my years served weren't equal to the number of weeks, you get what you get. You know, I was lucky enough to get the severance. I was able to jump on my wife's insurance. For as shitty of a situation as it was, it probably couldn't have gone better. Does that make sense? Yeah. Mm hmm. So but yeah, for so I mean, but for those first couple of months, like there was nothing.

[00:10:57] Like I would spend my like I would do my work, but then I would just I would watch TV aimlessly. I wasn't reading. I wasn't doing anything like creative. I was only shooting what I needed to shoot for school or work. There was nothing going on. It was just kind of just this like sitting around feeling sorry for myself kind of thing. And that probably went on longer than I would have liked it to. But I wanted to talk about that openly because like that's what happened. You know what I mean?

[00:11:26] I'm not hiding from that. And like I don't think people I think people should be paying attention to mental health. And if like you shouldn't like I just I don't know. I just wanted to be honest with everybody. Like. Yeah, I mean, it's a it's a it's a big it's a big thing to have that happen. And, you know, you've got kids to support and. And it's just. Yeah, it's right. It's that's a big deal. And it's like even though like life can knock you down, like you'll get back up.

[00:11:55] Sometimes it takes a little while. But I feel like I'm I'm making it back up now. So I'm feeling pretty good. I was able to. So in addition to doing my own business thing, I was able to take on an additional photo class at the college. So I'm going to be teaching as much as they let an adjunct teach at the college. So I'll have two photo classes in English class and then in the spring I'm going to have three photo classes. Because I'm going to be teaching photo two as well. I'm going to be teaching the advanced photo class, which I'm pretty excited about.

[00:12:25] So I think between the teaching and what I'm doing here, if I can grow my client base just maybe just a little bit. We should be kind of like where we were at before. And then, you know, for a while I was, you know, and, you know, I can't say that I'm still not like a little bit. I'm still not a little bit bummed because I am really bummed. And I think most of it is like I truly believed in that hospital. Like I loved working there. Like I did charity events.

[00:12:54] I'm still continuing to do my charity events for them. I completely believe in their mission. It just sucks that I can't support them as an employee anymore. Right. But, you know, the place was very special to me. It will continue to be very special to me. And I just hope that, like, I'm kind of getting over this hump and we're kind of just like flowing back into the normal. So I want to apologize to you publicly for just the lack of communication overall.

[00:13:24] You got a lot on your plate. To the listeners out there, I very easily could have put something in the group months ago before I did. You know what I mean? So, I mean, you kept it alive with your words of the day and your writing thoughts and stuff like that. And I appreciate the hell out of that. I was just kind of just wallowing in my self-misery. And I'm proud to say that I think I'm out of it now.

[00:13:52] So I'm excited to get back to the regularity of this and start sharing some stories with you guys. Yeah, that's awesome. So that's where I'm at. I don't want to go any deeper or anything because it's likely that I get emotional still. I just kind of want to move forward and just kind of move right into the stories. Okay. What do you think? Yeah, let's do it. Okay, cool. The readers have been waiting long enough. You've been waiting long enough.

[00:14:22] The listeners, not the readers, I guess. The listeners, yeah. This prompt was given to us, what? It must have been back in February then, right? Or was it March? Yeah, something like that. When did we release the last episode? Did we release a March episode or no? I don't know that we did. I'm going to do some real-time follow-up right here and just pull up. I feel like maybe February was the last one. I see. Episode 84. It was March 2nd. So we did release a March episode. Oh, okay.

[00:14:52] So, and I would guess that if we went back and listened to it, you'd probably hear me going, all right, we're back on. It's going to be every month. Nothing's going to stop us. Yeah, we were back on track for a minute there. And then everything fucking stopped us. So I'm going to say it again. I am glad to be back on track. It was really fun writing this story this month, and I can't wait to keep writing more.

[00:15:18] So, Ian, why don't you remind everybody what this month's prompt was? This month's prompt was given to us by Chris Bednar, and it is, what difference does it make? This was a good one. This was very, like, wide open. Yeah, very generic. You could do anything with this. Bednar's good at stuff like that. You know what I mean? Yeah. Not that I don't like the hyper-specific ones, because they really do kind of make you think,

[00:15:47] but, like, this one kind of just was open and free. Yeah, it's nice to have some freedom. And I'm not going to lie, I saw this, I don't remember when I saw this, your story title. Because I think I saw it quite a while ago. Well, we talked about it. We met for dinner the one night. Yeah, you've had it in the doc here for a minute, and I'm super stoked. Well, I hope you like it.

[00:16:11] And I am sort of in a, you know, like I said, sort of like a writing funk a little bit. And I'm a little terrified about having to write a short story again, because I haven't had to do it for such a long time. And I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do, you know? That's true. It has been a minute. I'm rusty. A side note, before we get started, and we might cut this if it doesn't amount to anything, but like, you had sent me a Instagram thing.

[00:16:42] Oh, yeah. Must have been a couple weeks ago, maybe? Something like that. And did you sign up for it? I did not. Okay. I didn't either. But just because, I'll be honest, it was a fantasy story. We're being rather vague here. But it was a fantasy writing contest, right? Correct, yeah. And what was, it was a short story kind of thing. It was similar.

[00:17:07] It was a different company than, or a different organizer than one we've worked, the one we've done before. But it was the same kind of deal. Like, what, it was like 72 hours or something for 2,000 words or something like that? Yeah, something, something like that. I just saw that the one that we did do, and their name is escaping me right now. NYC Midnight. Yes, NYC. They have one right now that is two stories. Did you see this?

[00:17:32] I mean, I glanced at an email and probably read the word two stories and kept going. Yeah. No. Well, I, so I read a little further than you. Like, I'm not going to do it because I think it starts today. But, well, and today, for those of you listening, is July 30th. Um, or maybe it starts tomorrow on the Friday, but it's literally two 300 word stories in the weekend. I can't even imagine. 300 words is tough to tell a story.

[00:18:02] Well, and then two of them? Get out of here. Well, right. Yeah. Like, do I just want to, like, go insane for a weekend? Like, not happening. But to those of you doing it, best of luck. Good luck. All right. So that was just the sidebar. I didn't want to forget to talk about that. But, um, I'm ready for your story. Are you ready to read your story? I think so. I'm so excited. It's about 1700 words. All right.

[00:18:30] And the title is Hinge, A Driver Story. Yeah, you did. You wrote a driver's story. The only thing that could have made me more excited was a Raider story. A Raider story. Okay. I have a feeling we'll get there one day. Maybe. So the driver is, is done as a series. Um, that was a five book series that I did. And, you know, I, I always have them in the back of my head.

[00:18:56] So he, uh, he popped up here, um, in what was sort of a half baked idea that I'd had for a long time and I considered maybe doing something more long, long form with it. Um, if I ever really got the motivation to do it. But since I was hurting for an idea for a story, uh, back in March, April timeframe, I decided, ah, I'll just use it here. See what happens. There you go. Yeah.

[00:19:23] So, um, and just before you start, if you guys are listening and you haven't read these driver stories, go get them. Like, I'm pretty sure they're on Kindle for real, they're, they're relatively inexpensive, right? We're talking like maybe four or five bucks a piece. Uh, they're not terrible expensive. No, I did raise prices on them a little bit, um, from what they used to be, but they're not terrible. No. I'm pretty sure you usually run a sale every once in a while where people can at least grab the first one. Yeah.

[00:19:50] Sometimes like I'll probably do a back to school sale, you know, next month or this month, I guess when people actually listen to the episode, but yeah. You heard it here first. You heard it here first, folks. That's really hard to say, but if you haven't read them, I suggest you read them. Okay. Well, I guess I'll get started then. I'm ready. Trent Vance steered an old Plymouth duster into the Wirehauser Falls high school parking lot. His window was down.

[00:20:17] He had a cigarette in his mouth and the radio was cranked to smashing pumpkin zero. The brisk fall air blew ash all over the front seats. The same, the blue litter against the chain link fence where it would get stuck for all time. He eyed the football players clad in leather jackets, making their way toward the entrance. Across the lot, a junior was making out with his girlfriend in the front seat of his truck. A lanky girl hefted her cello case in one hand and her book bag in the other as she walked past.

[00:20:46] It was the usual school day with the usual school day events, but Trent remained in his car, just watching. What was he waiting for? Sadie Dean was already inside the school, careful to cover up the fresh cuts on her arm with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. Those that matched the ones on her stomach and thighs. Her friend Jesse was the only one who'd ever seen them before. That is, until last night. Her father had just about lost his mind when he saw them.

[00:21:14] He was beside himself to say the least, mouth open and eyes wide in a mixture of shock and anger and fear and love for his daughter. His homely, plain, unremarkable daughter, Sadie thought. She didn't have an explanation for him, not one that he'd understand. Not one that any parent would understand. What difference does it make? Last night. Sadie's father paced the cramped kitchen.

[00:21:41] Sometimes he hovered near her closed bedroom door, but never went in. He wasn't angry with her. He was infuriated with whoever was responsible for putting the thought of self-harm into her head. He kept running a hand through his hair like a nervous tick. Eventually, he left the house and drove two miles to the convenience store that anchored a small shopping plaza. His ex, Sally, was working the counter. He didn't pretend to buy anything, didn't make it look like a regular errand.

[00:22:08] He went straight past the magazine rack to the counter and leaned in, asking Sally questions in a hushed breath. Why did she do it? Last night. Sally's eyeliner ran. She sniffed, trying to hold it together. The store was near empty, but still she tried. She said she knew something was wrong, but didn't know what. Sadie wouldn't talk to her. Wouldn't talk to her own mother. She watched her ex-husband clench his jaw and start to pace.

[00:22:38] He gave her a pained look with wet eyes before he turned and left. After her shift ended, Sally went home to find her current husband not there and that her stepson Brad had broken into the liquor cabinet. She laid into him. She didn't hold back, pointing and screaming. He'd been shiftless and ungrateful for as long as she'd known him, despite her best attempts at making a happy home. Brad was Sadie's age. They went to school together. That should have mattered. Should have meant something. Why doesn't he care?

[00:23:10] Last night. Brad had sipped the Jack Daniels slow at first, mixing it with Coke. Then at some point he was drinking it straight. He'd pour small swigs, down them, and then go back for more. He approached the whole thing with hesitance, but soon figured out he wasn't drinking quite as carefully as he thought. The look he gave himself in the mirror told him that much. His eyes were floating, and he saw he'd spill some of the whiskey on the hem of his Danzig t-shirt. By then Sally had shown up and lit into him.

[00:23:39] He cowered and scowled, the same age-old posture. It was his face to the world, just some scrawny pissant in everybody's way. Again and again he was reminded that there was no way forward for him, not without resistance, not without catastrophe. Brad mumbled a curse under his breath, his angry eyes peering out from beneath his lower brow. He grabbed his jacket and something lethal from his father's closet. Then he slammed the door on the way out. Where is he going?

[00:24:10] Last night. Trent sat on the hood of his duster, smoking, just a stone's throw from the railroad tracks. His gaze was lost somewhere down the line. The sound of someone approaching made him turn his head. It was the place where juveniles sometimes hid under the bridge and stole a smoke, and so he'd half expected to see someone anyway. Trent squinted in the dark to see who it was stumbling toward him. Then he saw it was Brad Barnes, some kid from school. Brad gave a half-hearted nod and asked for a cigarette.

[00:24:40] Trent obliged and they smoked in silence. After another minute, Brad said, You want to see something cool? Then he pulled out a snub-nosed revolver from his jacket pocket. He hefted it in his hands, waited like he was weighing a decision. Bet I could sneak this into school tomorrow and nobody would know. Brad shrugged. I got half a mind, too. Bang, bang, bang! He blurted out, aiming at imaginary targets. What is he capable of?

[00:25:11] Last night. The driver rumbled through Wirehauser Falls, a phantom on wheels, a ghostly impression, a sight shrugged off by anyone who saw and promptly forgot his Camaro. He slipped in and out of the visible spectrum as needed, cloaking himself as he searched and sensed his way across town. His eyes, so painfully intense, scanned for a person of interest. He became missed. He became immaterial. He skimmed, became infused, wafted over, pierced,

[00:25:40] and weaved himself into matter, in and out, until he came upon a boy with a gun. A frightened boy. An angry boy. A boy whose heart, so full of hatred, could be read like a page in a book. The driver experienced the rush of emotions like they were his own, and he knew what he had to do. Will everything hinge on him? Last night. Trent endured the uncomfortable silence that followed Brad's outburst. He didn't say anything, didn't move.

[00:26:09] He just watched Brad with a sideways glance. Truth be told, Trent felt the nagging presence of something he couldn't pin down. Something haunting, something dark. He sat stocked still, letting the smoke just waft past his face. You ought to put that away, he said. His eyes locked on the gun. It was a gleaming, glinting thing in the streetlight. It drew one in, captured one's attention because it was so unnatural in Brad's pale hand. It was a thing that should not be.

[00:26:38] A circumstance of potential horror and tragedy. What will he do? Last night. Brad had felt electrified when he was pretend shooting the gun. It had felt like release. But Trent just sat there with no expression at all. No laugh, no chuckle, no grin. Not even any wide-eyed fear. Brad clinched the gun all the harder for it. And for a second, his body gave an involuntary violent shake of rage. His mouth twisted into a smirk.

[00:27:06] And then he turned and walked back the way he came. Still with a gun in his hand. It wasn't until he was a quarter mile away that he stuffed it back into his pocket. But by then, he was walking like an automaton. His face was vacant, as if his mind had gone blank. Where is the point of no return? Last night. Sally put the bottle of liquor away and wiped up the sticky spill of coke that Brad had left on the table. Her shoulders drooped and her eyes were puffy. The silence of the house seemed to ring in her ears.

[00:27:37] It was damning. She sat at the table in a daze. Her stare was lost somewhere other than the kitchen. Its depth was unfathomable. Unfathomable. Adrift and rolling, surging waves of internal turmoil that must have been behind the blank canvas of her face. There was something ebbing toward the surface of it all. It was in a sound. A simple everyday sound that she'd heard as Brad was leaving the house. The click of a door. A closet door. It was so mundane, yet somehow pregnant with all kinds of dread.

[00:28:05] What was lurking in that closet? Last night. Sadie's father sat outside her bedroom, leaning against the wall by the door. He listened for her. Any stirring he might hear. But there was only ever the occasional sound of her shifting on the mattress. Once or twice he knocked softly at the door. Even called out her name. The hall was dark though, just barely kissed by light that leaked in from the living room. Eventually his head felt heavy.

[00:28:33] And it would tip forward as he repeatedly nodded off. Half awake, he called out for her again, but there was no answer. Then he lay down on the floor, curled up, and fell into a fitful sleep. Where did he go wrong? Sadie somehow sensed it before it happened. The background noise of students in the hallway was there. But it somehow retreated to the back of her mind. And then time stopped. Sound stopped. And her heart stopped beating.

[00:29:01] The first shot split normal past into chaotic future. There were screams and panicked feet and kids shoving to get around each other, to get away. Another shot rang out. And the nightmare became real. Sadie tripped and was stepped on. She scrambled and dropped her backpack. Banging into a row of lockers. She looked over her shoulder, her face drained of color. And saw Brad with a gun. Does everything matter now?

[00:29:30] Trent slipped into the school, following Brad. He snuck closer and closer, coming up from behind. But he wasn't a 17-year-old in a flannel. He was a phantasmic, avenging thing. Consumed by self-righteousness driven over thousands of weary miles. Later, after he tackled Brad to the floor, he wondered about this. He wondered where that impression had come from. But by then, the school was crawling with authorities and parents.

[00:29:55] And Trent's actions, along with their impetus, faded into this splintered, surreal, half-remembered mist of acute stress response. He meandered out into the parking lot and pulled a cigarette from his chest pocket and lit it, watching a girl walk by with her father. The latter pulled his daughter close to him, an arm around her shoulder. And Trent heard him say, I love you, Sadie. You're beautiful. Don't ever forget that. Who are our better angels? The end.

[00:30:26] Jesus, man. We had a lot going on there. Yes. It was, uh, I think it might read better than, you know, than listen. Because, because of the way the story is structured, it's sort of got a pattern. Yeah. I think this is one of the ones that I'm definitely going to get a better handle on the second time I listen to it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because I'm also listening for, for recording stuff too. But like, um, there's just a lot to unpack here.

[00:30:56] So like, I'm just trying to break it down. So like we have Sadie, right? Mm-hmm. Sally was Sadie's mother? Yes. Brad was, is, I guess, Sally's stepson. So is that Sadie's stepbrother? Stepbrother. And the dad's name was? I don't think I named him. Do we name the dad or no? No. Okay. I don't think so. Okay, fair enough. Trent.

[00:31:26] Just some kid at school. Some kid at school. Yeah. Brad, we already got to. Who is wearing the Danzig shirt when I got to give you props for the fucking Danzig shirt? That's Brad. Fantastic. I got to say that it was very, um, there's a word. I don't want to say brave. I don't want to say brave. But, um, using a school shooting as. I really hesitated about that. Is a choice. Yeah.

[00:31:55] And I'm, I'm very glad that there wasn't, um, it wasn't graphic. You know what I mean? That, that, that, that, yeah. I mean, that's not the point. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. I did. I did have qualms about that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, because it's a thing that I think immediately, I mean, I'll say, I mean, I can say as soon as he said, like, do you, like, I think I could, I don't remember the exact words, but like, I think I could get this into school tomorrow. Do you think I can get this into school tomorrow? Uh, my ears perked up. I was like, Oh shit.

[00:32:25] Like shit's getting real. You know what I mean? Right. So, um, yeah, but I feel like there is a lot still to unpack even from what you got here because we didn't really get the reason Sadie was cutting herself. So there's like more you can go into there. I'm sure that there's stuff with, you know what I mean? So, yeah.

[00:32:49] So it's interesting because I, I actually have a short piece that's not complete with an unnamed Sadie character. Okay. In wire, how in wire house or falls. And she's dealing with dealing with that in the opening kind of story. And I, I never just, I never went anywhere with it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But there, there, I think that, that what you did was you kind of planted a seed that,

[00:33:17] that might blossom into a fuller driver thing. What do you think about that? Yeah. I don't know. I, I don't love the idea of, uh, taking like the short stories and then like changing them again, like making them into something bigger. Like there's something from an artistic perspective that irks me there. So I, I don't know what I would do now. I have had the recent idea of, if you recall, the first driver book was intentionally written with gaps in the narrative. Mm-hmm.

[00:33:47] Um, cause it was sort of meant to evoke the, the reader's imagination and get them to sort of fill in the blanks with their, with their own thoughts. Right. Right. I, I had thought about maybe going back and writing, writing in all the gaps. Oh, interesting. And I don't know that I would do that cause I also feel like maybe that's sort of a cheat, you know, cause the, the deal you make with the reader in the first book is that they get to use their imagination for the story rather than. Yeah. That's fair.

[00:34:14] But at any rate, like you could potentially take this story and leave it as is and fill everything in around it. Maybe. I don't know. Yeah. Um, but what I, what I, what I try to do with it. And again, this is why I think it would read better than listen better, but, um, everything hinges on the driver, not only thematically, but also structurally. So the way that story unfolds is you, you start with Trent, then Sadie, then Sadie's father,

[00:34:40] then Sadie's mother, then Brad, and then you get, um, Trent again, and then you get the driver and then you get Trent again, Brad, Sadie's mother, Sadie's father, Sadie, Trent again. So it all like drivers at the very center of the story structurally. And he's also, if you read into what happens in the last little bit, he's also fueling what happens there at the end with, you know, helping out Trent. Right, right.

[00:35:07] That's very, I like, I actually like the fact that you spoke that out because like in just listening, I don't know if anybody's necessarily going to keep track of the order of the characters because you're just listening like naturally. But the fact that you centered, like put the driver at the center of it on purpose, that's, that's, that's, that's just, it just goes to show the level of detail and the, and the work that you put, you put into these.

[00:35:37] That's, that's a really cool little, little tidbit there. Well, the driver is an experimental series. So I figured I'd, yeah, no, it was, I take a little artistic license. I love jumping in there like that. Like I love seeing these little, these little spurts because it's been like, when, when did the last driver come out? Was it last year? No. Or two years ago? No, it's been, I mean, I've done a Reeve book, I think since the last driver story. Okay. It's been, I bet it's been three years maybe. Wow. So yeah, it's been a minute.

[00:36:06] Maybe more, four years. It's, it's kind of given me the itch to go back and maybe reread. Yeah. I, I, I kind of had the same urge and what sometimes keeps me from it is like in my head, I really liked the world and the ideas, but I'm always like self-conscious that I didn't do them justice the way they were in my head kind of a thing.

[00:36:32] And so sometimes I'll make, oh, if I go back and reread it, you know, am I wanting to be disappointed? But like two, do you ever get like that George Lucas urge to go back and tinker and stuff and like, that's just a rabbit hole. I don't want to go down. Yeah. And I, I, I think I agree with you there. I mean, at some point you already sat down and said, this is done. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's like, why go back and redo the same thing?

[00:37:00] But I mean, we, when we meet the driver, he's already the driver, right? Mm-hmm. Yep. Do we ever. He's already established. Do we ever, was there, I apologize because it's been a while, but did we ever get any of the driver like pre-driver? No. So. That's something I've always been not willing to do. Okay. Have you ever thought, I mean, do you ever think about it? Like, do you kind of. I do. Okay.

[00:37:28] I do think about it, but up until now I've, I've always been against the idea because I always feel like prequels never live up to. Sure. Expectation. I, I'm almost thinking not, well, I guess it would be a prequel because it's, it's coming before the series you already have there, but I'm, I'm, I was thinking kind of like origin. Yeah. You know what I mean? I'm not going to say never. Never say never, but, um, I have, I have qualms about it.

[00:37:55] This is a, this is a theme between me and you because I, I always want origin stories for your characters. Yeah. Like I'm waiting for the, I'm waiting for the Raiders origin too. Well, you get some of that hinted at, right? Yeah. But like we can, in the books, but I feel like we could dive in. There, there was a, um, a writing quote. I haven't shared it yet, but it's in my list of quotes to share. I think. Yeah. And, but you know, I can't remember whose quote it is, but, um, you know, the, the gist

[00:38:24] of it, I think is like, you, you don't tell the reader like the whole story or something or tell part of it or something like that. I don't know. That's it. I mean, it, I, I guess like there's, see, that's part of what gets the reader to invest because they're like, ah, I want to know more. Right. You know, and if you give them everything, then there's nothing for them to want anymore. Or yeah, that, or they are disappointed with what you gave them. Well, that's on them. Tell them to write their own story then. Maybe. You know what I mean? They're like, I don't like the way you did that. That's fine. Go write your own story.

[00:38:55] It's like, I don't know. Oh man. No, I, I, uh, I can't wait to, to dig into that again. Cause I think I'm going to, I'm going to probably pick up. Well, and especially once I'm like editing everything, you know, in placing it, like all those little nuances are going to fill it. I'm real excited to listen to it again. Um, there was one other thing that it just kind of made me feel a little nostalgic when you were reading it was when you mentioned the juveniles under the bridge that sometimes stole a smoke.

[00:39:24] Well, I will say that, you know, many of the locations that were in this story. Cause that's, they served as inspiration. Okay. So fair enough. Cause that's what I was thinking. So I mean, I, yeah, as soon as you said it, um, I got very nostalgic for that and I made it a point to, to write that down because that with the Danzig t-shirt, I was transported back to high school there for a minute. Sweet. All right. You got anything else about a hinge? I don't think so. No.

[00:39:54] You, um, okay. I just got, do you think, do you think there's going to be more of these little driver snippets or is that just something I'll have to find out in the future? I, I don't have any plans at the moment. I do like being able to do, um, driver stories in the future. Sure. Um, cause he's a character that, you know, he's like a permanent fixture of my brain now, but the, the opportunity to write future driver stories with the new driver, if you remember

[00:40:24] how the last book ended also exists. Oh, not, not that I have plans for that, but it interesting. I could, I could go down that path if I ever get the idea. Oh, you heard it here first for folks. I have, I have like, let's see, you know, aside from the reeve, there's one more book, reeve book. I've got probably three more ideas that at least at this moment interest me enough to try to pursue them. Oh, sweet. Sweet. You know, not related to the driver, right?

[00:40:53] So like if those don't pan out or like whatever, I need something in between, who knows? So maybe I'll tackle the driver again. Yeah. Remind me after my story, but I actually have, um, there's been something that's kind of been like stuck in my brain ever since, uh, I was in school and, um, it's been popping back into my brain lately. So we, we might pop into that one. Is this what I think it is? Um, no, it's not that one. I don't think. Okay. I think I know which one you're thinking about, but I don't think it's that, but we'll talk about it later.

[00:41:22] Um, all right. So this month I got, I think, I think my story is a little shorter than yours. I think I'm just shy of 1500 words here. And, um, this one is called one thing after another. All right, let's have it. Okay. Here we go. The rain was the second thing I hadn't counted on tonight. The first was having to be out in it in the first place. You see, I'm a planner.

[00:41:50] I like to take the time to consider all potential points of failure when approaching a new project to avoid being surprised. I hate surprises. You're going to remember this when you meet my partner, Jonathan. He's less of a stickler for the details. He approaches any given obstacle almost as a gift, something to keep him on his toes. Whenever I see the corners of his mouth start to curl, I know that weeks of planning are about to be flushed straight down the toilet.

[00:42:18] You might be asking yourself how the two of us could possibly work together. Sometimes I ask myself the same thing. But that's when I remember a music video from when I was younger, when a sly cartoon cat taught me that opposites attract. The rain was coming down harder now, and my windshield was becoming problematic. With the defrost broken, the only thing I had to wipe it with was a few fast food napkins I found in the darkest corner of the glove box, and they had just about met their demise.

[00:42:46] I unbuckled and wriggled out of my jacket, grabbing the wheel just in time to correct my trajectory back to the gravel road. The jacket did an okay job of clearing my view, and I hit the gas. Water was starting to pool on the road, and my tires were worn to just about the point of racing slicks. The sooner I got back, the better. I usually don't like to debrief until after the job has been completed, but I can't help but dwell on the fact that the reason I had to leave in the first place was due to an

[00:43:15] error on my part. The fact of the matter is that even the most meticulously crafted plan can contain mistakes, and I have to own this one. It was a simple miscalculation. A miscalculation that was now costing us precious time. I had to go to three different stores, one across the county line, just to find the first thing that should have been part of our kit. I didn't want to leave Jonathan behind, but someone had to stick around in case Mr. Leslie came poking around.

[00:43:45] It didn't matter that our cabin was surrounded by 15 acres, 13 of which were wooded. Our closest neighbor always picked the most inopportune time to come a-knocking. If no one answered, he was known to let himself in, and that's something that we couldn't have. Not tonight. I pressed the gas to the floor. I couldn't be certain, but something felt different as I pulled into the driveway and killed the engine.

[00:44:12] The door to the shed was slightly cracked, but that wasn't super out of the ordinary. The frame had been rotting away for years, and more than once we've had a motivated raccoon work its way in there only to find there was no food, wreck the place, and leave. Eh, maybe I was getting in my own head. Nevertheless, I was back, and it was time to get this shit done so we could start planning the next one. My concerns were confirmed as soon as I opened the door.

[00:44:39] Even through the rain drumming on the roof of the car, I could hear a high-pitched whine coming from within the house. It came in three to four second bursts for about half a minute, and then stopped. Black smoke was billowing out the chimney, and the air had a mustiness about it that I just couldn't place. I grabbed the bag off the passenger seat and covered my head with it as I ran onto the porch and opened the front door.

[00:45:06] Have you ever watched a movie where you know that you don't want to see what happens next, but you can't look away? You fight through it, your mouth falls open, and it takes a moment to fully comprehend the shock and horror that has just presented itself to you on screen. Does that sound familiar? That's what happened here. I dropped the bag and stood in the doorway, framed by the storm behind me, and water started to pool around my feet.

[00:45:32] As if on cue, lightning crashed behind me, creating what I imagined was one hell of a visual. Jonathan! What the fuck?! He looked at me as a toddler would look at his mother after defiantly throwing his cereal bowl off his high chair to the floor while simultaneously shitting his pants. What? Who? Me? I didn't have to look very far to figure out the source of both the noise and the smell.

[00:46:00] Sitting atop the logs in the fireplace was a girthy leg, separated from its body just above the knee. Yellowish strings of fat were seeping out of the open wound and beginning to caramelize on the blistering skin. Jonathan stood towering over our latest victim, covered in blood, a chainsaw in his right hand, and a severed arm in the other. The corners of his mouth began to curl, and he waved at me with the arm. Tendrils of bloody viscera hung down, curling around his wrist.

[00:46:30] When I didn't respond, he waved again. Are you fucking kidding me? I was gone for what? An hour? You couldn't just fucking sit here. If I had been gone another twenty minutes, would I have come back to you wearing her goddamned face? Jesus Christ, man! This is fucking unbelievable! Jonathan muttered something under his breath that I couldn't quite make out. What was that? A little louder. What difference does it make?

[00:47:00] She was already dead. It's kind of fun. Here, try it! I was speechless. Well, almost speechless. For about a second. Maybe two. Okay, let's play a game. A quick review, shall we? Sure. Why did I leave in the first place? To get a bigger tarp. Good, good. And why did we need a bigger tarp?

[00:47:28] Jonathan raised the severed arm to his head and began to lazily slap the hand against his temple. Sometimes he was kind of funny. Because she was a bigger lady. She wouldn't fit the small tarp. Exactly. Because you didn't get the right size tarp. Okay, okay. I guess that's right, too. We can't move a big lady in a small tarp. This smart-ass motherfucker could not stop playing with this arm.

[00:47:55] He moved it from his temple down to under his chin. It was like he was contemplating an answer to a question that hadn't been asked yet. It took every bit of my composure not to bust out laughing. You were taking too long. And I got worried that something happened. I started to think I might have to move her myself, so I thought I could make her smaller. Well, as fucked as the situation was, the logic was sound. If you were three years old.

[00:48:24] What are we going to do about the blood? Did you think about that? Of course I did. I put the tarp down. Now I couldn't help it. Not a single bit of the blue tarp was visible beneath the bloodbath that presented itself before me. The haphazard method of amputation had sprayed blood across almost every visible surface within ten meters of the scene. In a matter of seconds, what started as a soft chuckle grew into a gut-busting cacophony of laughter.

[00:48:54] It dropped me to my knees. I almost slipped in the puddle of blood that was creeping ever so slowly toward the front door. I was wiping tears from my face when I heard the footsteps creeping up behind me. What in the Sam Hill is going on here? I responded without turning around. Oh, hey Mr. Leslie. I got to my feet and locked eyes with Jonathan, who I hoped was thinking the same thing I was. He grinned.

[00:49:22] Without a word, Jonathan tossed the power tool to me, and to my surprise, the severed arm at Mr. Leslie. Leslie caught it out of instinct and held on just long enough for me to get the chainsaw started. As he raised his hands in surrender, I thrust the spinning blade into his abdomen, pulling it up through his ribcage and out through his Adam's apple. I turned to Jonathan, who was beaming back at me. You know what? You're right. This is fun. Told you so. I tossed the saw back to him as I made for the kitchen.

[00:49:53] Where are you going? Called Jonathan. Jonathan. I'm getting a bucket and a mop. Well, what do you want me to do? I turned and smiled. Why don't you throw another log on the fire? Jeez, dude. I think we need to take another rake. So, I was, first of all, I was really writing for the reaction. Like, I love it when I get a jeez dude or something along those lines from you. But I wanted to share this.

[00:50:21] My wife read it just before we recorded, just to make sure there were no, like, stupid little errors. And she looked at me and she was like, sometimes I worry about you. Sometimes I worry about her. Listen, this is all good fun. There's no way a household chainsaw could take out a rib cage. At least I don't think. I have no idea. So, you came back in full force. The old Matt. I had to.

[00:50:51] I had to. Like, I couldn't. Well, you know what? It's funny because, like, in the past, when major life events have hit, like, so I'm thinking, like, we had to put my cat down. My dad died. I always did, like, these, like, retrospective, like, nonfiction, almost, like, feely things. So, I thought that I was going to write some, like, thought-provoking piece about, like, what had just happened to me. You know what I mean? And then I was like, you know what?

[00:51:22] I think I'd rather write about murder. So, that's what I did. Yeah, indeed you did. And you really lull the reader into that safe feeling that, oh, this is a normal story. There's nothing amiss here. Then there's all kinds of... Shenanigans. Horrific things at the end. So, your tone, I think your tone worked, right?

[00:51:51] You know, it's, you know, especially Jonathan, you know, his whole demeanor and, but just, you know, just, you know, his behavior and tone, I think, juxtaposed well against the narrator. Thank you. Who seemed a little bit more no-nonsense. Yeah. So, you've got some comedic, comedic, like, you know, back and forth there. Yeah.

[00:52:17] I went back today, actually, and I looked at my original notes for the story, and I was just looking, and I think I delivered because at the very end, I was like, I want this to be kind of lighthearted for how horrific it's going to be. And I think, like... Yeah, I mean, it felt like a black comedy, basically. Yeah, and to me, I don't know. There's something about that. I mean, that's something I think I tend to do. Like you said, I kind of like to lull a reader into a safe space and then just kind of, like, give it a twist.

[00:52:48] But I think if, like, if written differently, this story would have been really goddamn dark, right? Oh, yeah. Like, without all the humor and stuff in there. Yeah, I mean, you know, because you're left questioning, you know, what motivates these two and they, you know, where, you know, they're in a cabin that they, I think, own, but don't seem to, you know, worry too much about making a mess.

[00:53:17] I mean, there was a minor attempt to put the tarp down, right? But... That was my favorite part. And I was, like, watching my wife to see if she was going to laugh when she read it, and she skipped right over it and didn't laugh. And I was like, goddammit, he threw down the tarp. That's funny. Well, and then you mentioned the neighbor. I'm like, well, he's a goner. Like, that, you know... Oh, yeah. And then... He's going to show up. It was one of those things where that came about while I was writing, and I just kind of threw him in as, like, a throwaway. And then I, like, towards the end, I was sitting...

[00:53:45] It was bugging me because, you know, one of the things that they taught us early on, like, you know, it's like one of those things. If you mention something specifically, there should be a reason for it. It shouldn't just be, like, trash for it. Like, Chekhov's gun is what they call that. So, like, if... Yeah. If there's a broom in the corner of the house, it better come into play at some point. Otherwise, why the hell are you calling attention to it, essentially? Right. Right? So I was like, maybe, just maybe, I could throw a wrench in this whole thing, and Mr.

[00:54:15] Leslie could still show up. So I did. And then I had a chainsaw pulled through as Adam's apple. Yes, that was... You were particularly brutal. But... Some of your detail there at the end. Like, I could picture, like, a... Like, I don't remember some of those more modern zombie films that are also sort of like quasi-comedies. Yeah. That's sort of what I had in my brain.

[00:54:41] And I think when I first wrote it, it just, like, I skipped the ribcage part, so it went in his abdomen and out as Adam's apple. But I was like, that seems too fast. Because there's a lot to go through from the abdomen all the way up through the chest. So I was like, that's not something that's going to happen too quick. So I had to make it, like, make it a little gorier. But, like, at the same time, I didn't dwell on it. You know what I mean? It's like it happened and we moved on. Right, right. Which I think kept the tone. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

[00:55:11] It was a lot of fun. I mean, where did the idea come from? I mean, was it inspired by something? I wanted, I don't know, I really don't know where it came from, but the original idea was this guy was just going to walk in and see his buddy or his partner or whatever it ended

[00:55:38] up being just, like, completely dismembering this body. And then, for some reason, that's what clicked with the what difference does it make? It's like, she's dead already. What difference does it make? I mean, while you're spilling blood everywhere, that's the difference. But, you know, most of my ideas just come from thin air. Yeah, I didn't know if, like, you had seen a movie. No, I mean, I will say that I have been rewatching a lot of Criminal Minds lately.

[00:56:08] So maybe a little bit of that, like, might have inspired me. That's the only thing I can really think of. So, yeah. Yeah. I'm just happy to be back at it. That's all. Yeah. No, I mean, I'm happy to be surprised. I never know what you're going to give me. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, while we're talking about it, like, just story ideas, like, you know me, since the inception of this podcast, I've been talking about long-form story ideas and none of them ever get written.

[00:56:38] But there was one that I actually wrote, because of the way my creative writing degree was structured, whenever, like, it was either four or eight-week classes. So we never had enough time as a class to write a full screenplay or a full book. It was always so, like, when I was doing my screenplay stuff, usually we got through the first act.

[00:57:05] Like, we would have to summarize the whole thing, but what we would turn in in that four to eight weeks. It just seemed like rushing people to write, like, a full screenplay in eight weeks or whatever when you have to go through the critique back and forth. So we really just focused on that first act. And I wrote this first act, and it was essentially, like, the concept of the story is, like, when you die in this world, you don't know that you died. You end here, but you continue going on.

[00:57:35] And this character happened to be in, like, a car accident in which she perished. But before she died, she turned around and saw the old world behind her. So, like, she literally was walking away, but she was able for a split second to look back and see herself dead in a car crash. So I found out this is actually, like, kind of like a thing. And it's called, I got to look it up. It's called Quantum.

[00:58:04] It's not like a multiverse thing, but it's kind of a multiverse thing. Oh, no, it is. It's called the Quantum Multiverse. And it's a theory that all possible outcomes of a quantum event actually happen splitting the universe. So, like, say I die in this world. Like, yes, I would be dead here, but I would continue my life in an alternate universe that split off from that point with all the people that I know, but there might be slight differences.

[00:58:31] Like, after the relationship, like, goes split, like, I might not have as good of a relationship with this person as I did in the original one. And it's just the kind of the idea that nothing ever ends. It just keeps splitting off into. So once I found out that, like, this idea that I had was actually kind of based on an actual real thing, I haven't stopped thinking about it. But I mean, like I said, though, there's the things that grab you and won't let you go. That's what you got to write.

[00:59:00] You know, so I'm just not I'm not sure where I want to go with it. So what I need to do is I need to revisit the original screenplay. Because best case scenario, I already have the screenplay written for the first act. So I'm sure that, you know, there's been like five years or so since I've written it. So, like, I'm sure that, like, I might have different ideas or want to change some stuff. But that is a really good fucking outline for the first first act of a story. Yeah.

[00:59:24] So I'm going to revisit that, go back to it and see if maybe I can get something long form going officially. I'm not committing to it because every time I commit to it, I fail. But I'm just saying the opportunities there and I'd like to to dig into this a little deeper and see if it's something I can kind of develop further. Yeah, I mean, see what comes of it. You know, just just sit down and try to tackle it every day, you know, if nothing comes out.

[00:59:52] Well, and that's one thing, too, that I've never been, like, super good at is, like, I see that almost every successful writer or at least, like, every writer that, like, puts, finishes the work that they have ideas for usually has some sort of regiment. Like, they sit every day at a certain time or even if it's not every day, if it's, say, it's, like, a few days a week, but at the same time and, like, this is writing time. And I've never done that. I've never set aside that period of time to just write. And I think that's something you do.

[01:00:23] Yes. Like, isn't it usually over lunch or something like that? Yeah, I try to write for a few minutes at lunch. And, you know, you're only going to get a paragraph or two, you know, because I don't have a ton of time. But then, you know, usually in the evening at some point, I try to write as well. OK, yeah. And it's just like, but, like, even a paragraph or two. If you wrote a paragraph or two today, that's more than I wrote today.

[01:00:49] Like, I had about 10 minutes today and that's what I got was about two paragraphs because, you know, it's like you're deliberating on, you know, some detail or something. And you're like, you know, you're not literally writing that whole time. You know what I mean? But I mean, that's it, too. And like sometimes like my writing process, like when I'm going through these stories, sometimes I'm not writing a thing. I'm just sitting there thinking. I'm staring out into space trying to figure out what the hell, how the hell I want this to work. Yeah, that's where the outline is helpful.

[01:01:15] If you, you know, if you've got a good, really organic flow going on and things are just rolling, then that's super fun. But a lot of times to get to get moving, you need even if it's really loose and high level, you need you need some kind of structure. Sure. Sure. So, yeah, I'm contemplating to see and trying to figure out like what time because I used to write really well. Really late at night.

[01:01:39] Like I used to like when I was in school and working and doing all that shit, like my writing time was like midnight to two o'clock in the morning. Something like that. One o'clock to two o'clock in the morning. It was always late. That was my time. Now a day is like I'm still up that late, but I'm kind of winding down. You know what I mean? Like the cylinders aren't all firing at one o'clock in the morning anymore.

[01:02:04] I'm kind of like this is kind of like I'm going to meet like I might read sometimes even reading that late is hard. I might just be kind of like kind of scrolling on my phone or just chilling out, like watching something on TV just to kind of like decompress before bed. So it doesn't really work for me. So I'm trying to like I've never tried first thing in the morning. Have you ever tried first thing in the morning? Not not actual first thing in the morning, but I've I've tried to write morning and I have been successful at it.

[01:02:34] OK, I've heard that like that's kind of when the brain is like more active. I mean, I feel like I'm more creative maybe later in the evening when your brain's more relaxed, but it's it's I feel like you're definitely sharper in the morning. So I might give that a go. I know that there's like there's a whole community of people, I think, on Twitter. That's like an a.m. writing group where they like literally they're writing at 5 a.m. Whatever their local time is every day.

[01:03:04] And that's wild to me. Like, I'm not. Are you awake at 5 a.m.? Not usually. Normally, I'm a normally I'm six. Oh, Jesus, that's still early. I mean, I'm usually up between like seven and eight. It's like 5 a.m. is no go. But I'm thinking if I could like maybe kick off my day with even like. You know, like you said, you said earlier, like you might only get a paragraph or two shit. But if I do that five days a week, that's 10 paragraphs. You know what I mean? And that's more than I have now. By not doing it. Yeah, I think so.

[01:03:34] I think if you can sit down for like an hour in the evening, you could probably get a couple pages written, maybe two pages. And you know what? You do that even if you only get a half page or a page. You do that consistently for six months. You probably got. I mean, I like 40,000 words since March. I mean, that's a lot of words. It's been slow. That's been slow going, too.

[01:03:58] So, yeah, this just this story here is kind of reawakened something that I had unfortunately lost there for a little bit. And yeah, when I'm stressed out, I I'm automatically uncreative. Yeah, because it's because you have to be too serious. You know what I mean? Like there's so much going on that you it's almost like you your body. Subconsciously doesn't even allow you to enter that creative space because there's just too much jumble in there.

[01:04:28] You know what I mean? Something. I think there's there's there's something to that. And then but then again, there's only one person that can pull somebody out of that. And that's themselves. Right. I mean, so you got out. You got to want to you got to want to keep going. Right. So, I mean, all I know is I'm excited to be back into this. I'm kind of stoked. Like I did. I didn't teach English last semester because I fucked something up with my schedule. So I didn't even I didn't even teach that last semester. So, like, I'm excited to to get writing again.

[01:04:58] I'm hoping that, like, once I'm teaching the English stuff again, like, I don't know, I'm hoping it just reignites all of that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm real excited, though. This was a lot of fun. Yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad to. I'm glad we actually made it happen. Absolutely. All right. So there's one thing that we always do before we leave and we talk about what we're currently reading. So I am rereading No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy.

[01:05:25] And I am ashamed to say that I still haven't read this after all the years we've been talking about this book. I think you'd like it, but I think you maybe would like The Road better. You would tell me that. And I actually think I bought The Road. But yeah, I want to reread that one, too. How are you? Are you still digging it this time around? I am. And I tell you, I am. I didn't realize how, because my sheriff character in the Driver series, Sheriff Hildersham. Yeah.

[01:05:54] Is modeled quite a bit on Sheriff Bell from this book. Okay. And as I'm going back through it, I'm realizing, like, man, I really like. You took some inspiration, huh? Yeah. We'll say I took some inspiration. We'll leave it at that. But I'm like, wow, man, like he really feels like Hildersham. So just because I kind of currently ran into this. So I'm going to ask you.

[01:06:21] When you rereading something that you've already read, do you ever find yourself like zoning out or maybe not like as into reading as like something like fresh and new is? Potentially. Okay. I generally don't reread stuff that close together where I think that would be a huge concern. But I will say with this book, it's written in a very simple manner.

[01:06:46] It's nothing like Blood Meridian, which was very like almost like stream of consciousness type writing almost. Is that the one where the entire novel was a single sentence? Pretty much. So but it's it, you know, it's not written in a like a it's a it's a simple style. Okay. I wouldn't say it's like Hemingway like necessarily, but it's closer to Hemingway than not. Okay. That's cool. Yeah.

[01:07:08] The only reason I ask is because prior to what I'm reading now, I well, earlier this year, I started reading the Dark Tower series again because I never finished it. And I got I got one more. And I was like, I stopped somewhere in book five, I think. And it's been years. I mean, I think it's been over 10 years. So I started reading again and I knocked out the gunslinger and it took me for ever to get through the drawing of the three.

[01:07:38] And it's not because I was uninterested. It's just because it still felt so familiar. Like, I almost felt like I probably could have skipped it, but I definitely forgot stuff. And I definitely probably forgot stuff that is going to play a part later, I think. So I think it's good that I read it. But man, it almost felt like a chore because it was like it wasn't like I wasn't discovering anything new. I was just kind of remembering. Yep. So that's the only reason I ask.

[01:08:08] I'm currently reading Dungeon Crawler Carl book one by Matt Dinneman. Have you heard or I've heard the title? I know nothing about it. So these books are right up my alley. I when I first saw them advertised, I thought it was like a young adult kind of like written for kids kind of thing. So I like kind of discarded it and then multiple people have been talking to me about this book. Friend of the show, Chris Bednar, is one of them.

[01:08:37] And and my son, Josh, absolutely. He I think he's on the fourth book and he's like, you got to read it. You got to read it. So I was like, you know what? This last Dark Tower book was kind of slow for me. So I'm going to read something new. And I am like locked into this book. It's so much fun. And it's like I'm going to say I'm going to say right off the bat, it might not be for everybody.

[01:09:03] It reads very much like a video game, almost like their stats, their spells, their experience points for doing things. So it's like if you're somebody our age who grew up playing video games where you used to have to read shit on the screen. You know what I mean? You're going to feel right at home. It's pretty nostalgic for me. But like I think it might be a lot to handle for someone at certain points.

[01:09:31] There is just a bunch of information dumped on you. Just like a game would. It's just like here. You've earned this spell. Here's what this spell does. Here's what it protects against here. And so you have to read all that. And then you're trying to. So it can be kind of a lot. But for me, who, you know, video game fan really into it. I'm absolutely loving it. So like if that sounds interesting to anybody out there, like dive into these books. If you love them, tell me you love them.

[01:10:00] But don't tell me anything about them because I hear that they just continually get better as you go through the series. So I'm pretty excited about that. But that's what I'm reading right now. And I think my plan is to read one of these and then kind of go back to the Dark Tower and try to pick like jump back and forth between the two. Got it. Yeah. And the like, I mean, the Dark Tower, I think I was looking at it and I think it's collectively like. Like so many goddamn pages. I have to read. It's a commitment for sure. It really is.

[01:10:28] I think that the next book, the third one, I think it's it's around 800. Which isn't terrible, but the one after that. Is it Wizarding Glass is the fourth one, maybe? Yeah, I think so. I think that's I think 1100 pages. That's the best one, I think. But that's the one where you kind of get his backstory, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I do really like that one. And there's a lot of good information in there that I think goes to show like his motivations.

[01:10:59] And I think it really kind of brings. Do you feel like it brought everything together? Kind of. Yeah, it's it's something that I wish I wish that would have been the first book. And honestly, you could read that as the first book, I think. And it wouldn't affect anything else. But, you know. Oh, that's interesting. You wouldn't be missing anything. Well, you might be missing something because I think it starts out in the present present time. And then it does.

[01:11:30] Oh, geez. Why am I rolling? Yes. Roland recounts the story then. So, like, if the story started with his story and it wasn't like leading into it, you could read that first. And like, I think everything in the gunslinger. Well, not everything in the gunslinger, but a lot of the gunslinger would would make more sense. Because you're because the gunslinger. I was just like, I don't know what's going on. When you read the gunslinger, you have a lot of questions. And I think like that might have been his.

[01:11:57] I mean, I think the books were going to go down a rabbit hole here. But I think the books were written very far apart. Oh, they were. But you definitely have a lot of questions after reading the gunslinger. So, yeah. But anyways, that's what I'm doing now. That, Dungeon Caller Carl, back and forth until we finish. All right. So, as always, we want to know what you want us to write about. To do so, we need you to join the Facebook group.

[01:12:26] That's facebook.com slash group slash PRittenPod. Facebook's not your thing. You can email us at promptlywrittenpod at gmail.com. But it's really the Facebook group you want to be in. Because that's where we put out the polls. And you can suggest your writing prompts. And vote on the writing prompts that we're going to write on for future episodes. So, Facebook group. Go. Join. Click that button. Okay. Ian, where's the best place for people to find out more about your work? IanLewisFiction.com

[01:12:56] And if you want to get in touch with me, I'm at Matt Sugerik on Instagram. Or you can go to MattShigaric.com for a bunch of other ways to reach out. I'm going to get myself in trouble here. Because after all this time, I still didn't do what I was supposed to do. But volumes one through five have promptly written or available on Amazon. In both paperback and Kindle format. And if you're a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, they're all included in your subscription. So, since I just outed myself, we do have another collection that... We have it cut off, right? Oh, yeah. Now, so...

[01:13:26] I think it's six and seven. Do you think because of the gap that we just had? Because don't we usually cut off after September? Yeah. Do you think we should just add these three to it as well? So it'd be like July or it'll just... Actually, it would just be two more. It would be this episode and next month. Well, I think we had cut off even before what we've recorded this year. We can take that offline. But we will make sure that we get another volume sometime soon.

[01:13:55] I'm out of my funk now. So I should be able to knock these manuscripts out. Because I've been promising that for, I don't know, something like two years. Yeah. Our next episode will be episode 86. And it's going to drop on September 7th. The prompt will be, ask for forgiveness, not for permission. And that was also submitted by Chris Bednar. Thank you, Chris. Can't wait to see what we end up doing with that.

[01:14:23] Because I'm drawing a blank off the bat. I got nothing. So anyways, if you like what you hear, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen so we can help get the word out. That's it for today. We will see you next month. I promise. All right. See you. Bye.