Coy Hall - Historian and Horror Author of "Promise of the Plague Wolves"

[00:00:00] We're all living in a World Gone Geek. It's time to geek hard or go home. The podcast is real. Here's your host, Grounded Geek.

[00:00:30] We're grateful that you're there. Absolutely. Because that's primarily our audience's podcast. We'd love to get you to come to YouTube and see us live and actually interact with our guests and us. That would be fantastic. Unfortunately, right now there's one person in the audience but that's great. We're going to see who else.

[00:00:47] No, fortunately, I say unfortunately, I say it because it's probably my other stream like what you know my monitoring string. Got you got you got you got you. If it is a real person, I'm absolutely grateful that you're there. It's not unfortunate.

[00:01:00] It's very fortunate. If it's just my monitoring then I mean, big time Uber fortunate. Exactly. Well, hey guys, welcome. It's great to see you guys. This time, it didn't have to wait so long to see you guys. Just saw you guys Saturday.

[00:01:16] Saturday. We were all amazing event Cleveland gaming classics. Oh, yeah, Cleveland gaming classic. Kudos to Tom and all the crew that put that together. Wow.

[00:01:28] It was a great time.

[00:01:30] So it's the first year. It was three days. The first day night was a preview night for all access and VIP. That was a lot of fun. DJ stuff all night.

[00:01:41] People got into the games right away. A lot of the vendors were still setting up during that time because that's kind of what it was for but we still got to meet a lot of great people that evening.

[00:01:50] I didn't expect to see cosplayers that early, but there are already cosplayers there which was a lot of fun. And then Saturday was really the main event. Right? That's when everything started up.

[00:01:59] Yeah. Well, it was the main event because you guys were there right? Is this more shade?

[00:02:06] No, I'm saying like they all I anybody could see before that was me and then Saturday, they're like whoa.

[00:02:12] You're right. You're there. Saturday was a party. It is. The triad, the triangle, the three.

[00:02:21] Guess who that one viewer was my daughter. Right?

[00:02:26] I'm grateful for you. So I, you don't have to worry about that. That's that that figures out that I truly didn't think it was my monitor feed.

[00:02:35] But all right. There was a human being on the other end of that.

[00:02:38] Well, that's going right. You know, I feel terrible. Well, good.

[00:02:41] That's gracious. All right, thanks. Good. I see. Yep. That's it. That's it for us. Sorry, boy. Well, maybe next week.

[00:02:48] I have this point of my daughter. Just retry. Just redo. That's it. Just run it.

[00:02:54] Tell us, you know, giving your rundown. We'll start with you, Alia. What did you think of the gaming classic? This was you were with me last year.

[00:03:03] You tell you came. Did you come out for I think you might have missed that one. I missed last year. Yeah. Totally.

[00:03:08] I missed you and me, Alia. What did you think of the larger scale and the bigger event? What, what did you like about it?

[00:03:18] Honestly, I truly loved everything. I really enjoyed. You touched on it a little bit, but I really enjoyed just being able to actually meet with the vendors.

[00:03:29] And everyone was so polite and friendly, very welcoming.

[00:03:35] And one of my favorite things is just being able to see how big the geek community actually is.

[00:03:43] And I think you know sometimes we just stand our little bubbles or we meet each other on a twitch or wherever.

[00:03:50] But it is so nice just to be able to see everyone in the same place, appreciating the same things even across all ages.

[00:04:00] You know kids well seasoned folk. It goes across all. It goes across all ages.

[00:04:09] But outside of that, I will say that one of my one of my favorite things was the cosplayers and I really appreciated all of the gaming that they had.

[00:04:26] So me being younger, not necessarily being as acclimated with like arcade games or some of like the old school retro games.

[00:04:38] I really appreciated that. I think that that was like just really cool to see.

[00:04:44] I love seeing kids playing and having appreciation for retro stuff.

[00:04:49] I never even thought about that. That's true. The whole arcade game, arcade gaming sort of thing just doesn't exist anymore.

[00:05:00] You're muted. And probably for the best.

[00:05:06] But you know, like Jeff and I when we were at college, we would you know many trips across the street to Flamingo arcade where we'd be dumping.

[00:05:16] And $10 of dollars of quarters into various machines X men especially a lot to X men.

[00:05:23] But yeah, like that that whole experience that whole thing just doesn't exist anymore with consoles being as powerful as they are gaming computers and multiplayer online.

[00:05:33] I didn't even think about that. That's a really good great point that a lot of these younger kids probably had no idea what it was like to go up to an arcade machine and just play or pinball machine.

[00:05:45] Oh, those pinball machines were fantastic. Anyways, they live a similar experience at David Busters and stuff.

[00:05:51] They're trying to do that. But you did it again. It's very there. No, I did.

[00:05:56] I had to talk to you at the draw. Thanks for drawing attention to it. I tried to do it all suddenly.

[00:06:01] And now everybody knows. No, I'm kidding. Jeff was coughing.

[00:06:05] But yeah, it's a little bit different in the Dave and Busters. It's a lot more kind of like a spectacle.

[00:06:12] But in different types of games and everything is like tickets and like plushies and whatnot now.

[00:06:19] But yeah, to just drop a quarter and play and then drop another and another.

[00:06:24] Now they drop quarters. Yeah, we have to drop quarters at the convention.

[00:06:31] It was still the kind of that same arcade experience you're playing right next to other people playing other games, all the sounds at once.

[00:06:37] Like that experience is just a problem. A lot of memories for me. I'm sure it did for you as well.

[00:06:41] You know, absolutely. And I also really wanted to say that they had small pinball machines for the kids.

[00:06:48] And I think that that was just honestly. That really is one of my favorite things. Also when I think it was me and you know, it was one of the interns.

[00:06:58] We was walking to go meet Utah in the line of the battle tech battle tech and see Jeff on stage.

[00:07:09] Because Jeff was doing his thing.

[00:07:13] There was like this little girl and she had that vest on so that we she could go through the little obstacle course to try to get all the power.

[00:07:21] CGC power. Yeah, yeah. Yes.

[00:07:24] Was a play on the old video video power TV show.

[00:07:27] TV show was other Nickelodeon shows.

[00:07:30] Double or the ledges hidden temples kind of homage to all of those. Yeah.

[00:07:35] That was that was virtually did that too. This was like the brainstorm that they had becoming it was fantastic.

[00:07:41] It looked like yeah, worked out great. It was phenomenal. Yeah. I just loved it.

[00:07:46] I really love seeing the kids playing. Even if they have no idea what it's from or why they just really look like they were having a great time.

[00:07:54] Utah, tell us about the battle tech because that was the I think that was kind of a big experience for you.

[00:07:59] The only one of the three of us that got to do it.

[00:08:01] Yeah. So yeah. So the two the two biggest things that I really wanted to do at CGC this year was meet to Misney which unfortunately didn't happen.

[00:08:10] Everything was okay with the Misney family. There was a family emergency so you couldn't show up.

[00:08:14] But then also do battle tech and battle tech thank goodness I was able to do it.

[00:08:20] The last time I did it was back in the early 90s back when it was a thing they actually had battle tech centers.

[00:08:27] They called them where they had they've got these pods with kind of a magnified 3D display in front of you.

[00:08:35] And you've got other displays. It's like a little cockpit where you can control a mech.

[00:08:39] You've got a throttle to your left and a joystick and triggers and buttons for weapons to your right.

[00:08:44] And all it is is a bunch of people sitting in these pods piloting huge mechs trying to blow each other up for five, ten minutes.

[00:08:54] And it was fantastic. It was just as good as I remembered.

[00:08:59] I had a blast. Literally had a blast.

[00:09:03] I came in second, which was great because somebody had admitted in our group that they had played before and was chomping at the bit to get back into it.

[00:09:12] I'm like, oh okay we've got a ringer here. We're all screwed.

[00:09:16] But it was a wonderful experience and they were ahead of their time.

[00:09:19] That was like the first time it was kind of an immersive experience before VR before AR and also multiplayer because back then

[00:09:27] the center as you could have matches with up to I think 20 people, 20 mechs in the same arena playing at the same time.

[00:09:36] And there are different types of games like that. Team games.

[00:09:39] We were just doing kind of a deathmatch thing where it was every person, every mech for themselves.

[00:09:44] And so that was a blast. That was a great visit to my menace and nostalgic kind of video gaming past.

[00:09:55] And I forgot that they also print out like mission reports at the end.

[00:09:59] And what was fantastic was I have forgotten that they kind of do like every time there was an event during during your match somebody gets blown up or whatever.

[00:10:08] Then a little note gets put in on your mission brief and you know they have things like this was before AI by the way.

[00:10:14] So you see here things like the burning wreckage of Kelsey's Hellspon is a reminder of all of the prowess of Utah's battle skills that happened.

[00:10:23] And that happened 24 seconds into the match. So there's a whole bunch of stuff like that.

[00:10:28] But it was, it was a lot of fun. You know all the pinball machines were so great.

[00:10:33] There is certain. The video games it was.

[00:10:38] It was really awesome and I think I hope that it's in the same spot next year because I think I think they were successful.

[00:10:45] The attendance was great. It wasn't very crowded, which was nice too. The vendors all look busy.

[00:10:52] So I think this is a really great trajectory for this for this convention for the show.

[00:10:58] Yeah, they've already picked the dates for next year. At least they told the vendors.

[00:11:04] I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say it out loud and I've seen it in public.

[00:11:08] Maybe I won't say it mute yourself. No, that'll be helpful.

[00:11:15] Oh, here we go. No, that's 2023. Okay. I was just looking to see if there's a public announcement before I said anything.

[00:11:21] You probably shouldn't say anything. It's still multiple days though. It seems to be the plan.

[00:11:26] So it looks like everything's according to nice going to be repeated and hopefully battle tackle be back all that kind of fun stuff.

[00:11:35] Yeah, that'll be fantastic. I do want to mention so we had a booth which was awesome.

[00:11:41] We got to get involved in some of the other activities there.

[00:11:45] There were a lot of indie devs we gave out some awards. We not we has say we like Wargon Geek did it but the CDC did.

[00:11:54] I got to be a part of that that was kind of fun to see some of these folks win some awards.

[00:12:00] One of the award winning games gave me a copy of it.

[00:12:04] Connected clues they won for Best Party Game and they gave me a copy because it's something that we can actually play on the show.

[00:12:12] So they want us to use it for a game night. I invited them to come back so when they come back,

[00:12:18] we're going to do a game night with them. It's kind of a it's a fun little party game that you literally we couldn't play it from here.

[00:12:24] Like you don't have to have cards in front of everybody like somebody could just run the cards and everybody can still play.

[00:12:30] It's really yeah so it works out perfect for something like this we could twitch it and involve the audience and everything.

[00:12:36] So they won. Yeah, there were some really great games there.

[00:12:41] A couple of them coming on the show, Molle Maiden. You can wish list that now on steam but it is a great little kind of Metroidvania kind of Scott Pilgrimish feeling our

[00:12:53] art style with like comic. You know, looks where you're a little girl turns into a drill and the game mechanics on it are really cool.

[00:13:03] I played the demo. Molle as in like Molle and gotcha.

[00:13:07] And I tried the demo with the keyboard even though it explicitly told me that a controller would be best experience as it started up.

[00:13:16] And I was miserable at it. So I know that a controller would be better but it was really out of the game mechanics were kind of clever so I think that that one most fun I think or something was one of

[00:13:27] the things so it won an award there coming on the show. There's a couple of other games we'll talk about them as we get closer because they're coming on the show to talk about

[00:13:35] them so it's going to be a lot of fun cool and then what about the one that I really liked? I can't do which one that is that darkness you didn't dark.

[00:13:42] No, absolutely.

[00:13:44] That one best art direction or something one something and it is fabulous looking it's a really really cool game that a really nice play.

[00:13:54] That's another one you can wish list on steam so both Molle maiden and absence of light check him out on steam they're both very fun to play and their wish listable right now they're not available for purchase.

[00:14:05] But you can get it on wish list that'll help them out a lot even even if you end up getting the game it helps them you know get that promotion out there more wish list that it does have.

[00:14:15] So go ahead and do that that would be great but the last thing I want to mention is that we at our booth we went to raise money for rainbow babies in

[00:14:23] shoulders hospital through a charity extra life. Yeah, which was great we had some Mario Kart challenges, which was kind of amazing I don't have the board in front of me but someone

[00:14:34] named Jacob did rainbow road SNES in like 130 130 no 130 130.

[00:14:41] The one above it that was his friend and apparently it turns out he's like second in the state in Mario Kart like there's this whole

[00:14:51] nationwide guild or something like a part of the Ohio yeah, League and he's literally second in the state.

[00:14:57] So once he set that record nobody else donated because nobody wanted to try to beat it like he like we kind of sabotaged our own.

[00:15:06] A lot of people came back to sure he could beat it and he came back so hopefully we were hoping people would be like yeah I can do that.

[00:15:13] I think eventually people were like yeah, yeah but we made a lot of money for rainbow which was good.

[00:15:19] We it was a good opportunity to do that.

[00:15:22] We do want to remind folks that that's coming up in November the 24 hour marathon you time I are still working on when we're going to do it for sure because that weekend is busy

[00:15:32] but we are still doing a marathon and that weekend I may actually be doing some stuff with green dragon in an Akron cool for the event so we maybe doing some live stuff right there at the venue

[00:15:47] to raise money and then you you time I will do the 24 hours a little bit later hopefully trying to coordinate that together.

[00:15:55] But you do want to check that out it's an extra life extra dash life dot org you can get more information you can do your own 24 hour marathon raise money for your local children's hospital just by playing games.

[00:16:06] It's like a 5k or a marathon that you can do from your couch I love it that's yeah so I get out there check it out underneath right now scrolling across the bottom of the screen if you're watching is is how you can donate.

[00:16:20] Yeah you can actually donate there but if you want to play you can also go just cut it off at participants slash grounded geek and put that URL and then or actually you can go there click the world and get join our team got that way

[00:16:35] everything that you raise helps the whole team so it's kind of great but then you can still raise it for your children's hospital so that's pretty cool yeah so there you go extra life check it out it's great if you're a gamer it's kind of an old brainer

[00:16:48] to do it yourself so do it yourself fundraiser you can help the kids just by doing something you already left to do it.

[00:16:57] I already have done many times playing 24 hours in a row some people when I tell them they're like yeah that was last Tuesday I think and I'm like all right great

[00:17:05] now you can go for the kids.

[00:17:09] I was trying to think of a word that rhymed with with gamer and no brainer but I was too slow.

[00:17:15] I saw your I saw your brain working there for a second I was trying to finish off saying they let you get it in there but then yeah that was good.

[00:17:22] That was a fail.

[00:17:23] Yeah so that's that was what all happened this weekend lots of stuff going on was very exciting time can't wait for next time

[00:17:31] but tonight we have a special guest on the show let me I was not prepared hold on I had it up on my screen just second

[00:17:38] but remember I had to restart my computer because my camera wasn't working and now I'm here Utah say something something.

[00:17:44] You know what I'm curious about is how I can only yes thanks a lot Utah go Leah told you to stay something.

[00:17:55] No I'm curious about how you guys stay up for 24 hours obviously it's a great cost don't give us a just like if it's a normal regular

[00:18:04] regular two days regular right.

[00:18:06] Regular regular regular regular regular day we're good at an author on the show I'm gonna ask him if that's an actual word.

[00:18:12] Oh yeah is in the actual.

[00:18:15] It's a regular your just make it up you know people say it all the time regular this time.

[00:18:23] I've never heard anyone say it.

[00:18:26] Oh, so it's a me.

[00:18:27] Definitely a lea thing.

[00:18:28] No, maybe it could be a sandwiching their family.

[00:18:31] They have their little sayings right?

[00:18:33] And it may be a generational.

[00:18:35] Maybe all the kids are saying,

[00:18:36] regular now.

[00:18:38] Rachel, Rachel, you're still in the chat.

[00:18:40] Are the kids saying regular?

[00:18:41] Is regular a thing?

[00:18:44] Rachel, yeah.

[00:18:45] Don't let this be a social.

[00:18:46] She's going to side with a lea no matter what, I feel like.

[00:18:49] Okay, we've got a couple people.

[00:18:51] A money says, she's also heard that before.

[00:18:53] Okay, they've heard it before you guys are great.

[00:18:55] All right.

[00:18:56] Did you say a money is a money in the chat?

[00:18:59] She's heard it.

[00:19:00] That's my best friend.

[00:19:00] So it's so it's Rachel.

[00:19:02] All right.

[00:19:02] You're vindicated.

[00:19:03] We're just old.

[00:19:04] We're old fogies.

[00:19:05] Yeah, I'm sure.

[00:19:06] We're not all right.

[00:19:07] Dude, the people still,

[00:19:08] do people still say on fleek?

[00:19:10] Is there is that just, is that gone?

[00:19:12] That's we don't know that's not a regular,

[00:19:14] it's not a regular, regular thing anymore.

[00:19:16] No, but saying it's not a regular, regular thing anymore.

[00:19:20] You know, but it's not a, it's lit.

[00:19:24] I know that much right?

[00:19:25] Is it lit?

[00:19:26] Is there things still?

[00:19:27] Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:19:29] This is how we make those phrases go away, you talk.

[00:19:33] As old people, we use them in regular conversation and then people are like,

[00:19:38] yeah, I guess that's done now.

[00:19:40] Yeah, Rachel.

[00:19:44] Yeah.

[00:19:46] All right, I'm joking.

[00:19:47] I'm kidding, those are okay.

[00:19:48] Well regular regular, there you go.

[00:19:50] I was wrong.

[00:19:50] That's, that's heavy.

[00:19:52] All right, I did get cool.

[00:19:54] All right.

[00:19:55] Your daughter said yes.

[00:19:56] I know I saw it.

[00:20:50] All right.

[00:20:52] All right.

[00:20:54] So now that we have used that to pass the time, today,

[00:20:57] we have an opportunity to do something special for you.

[00:21:00] It's a front row seat to geek out, groove and laugh with us as we celebrate

[00:21:04] the irresistible connection between film, television and music.

[00:21:08] So join me and our fantastic guests on music, Gung Geek,

[00:21:12] exclusively on Spotify.

[00:21:16] All right.

[00:21:18] Today we have an author who's a master of mysteries and horror,

[00:21:22] who also wears the hat of a history professor.

[00:21:24] His unique blend of historical knowledge and dark storytelling creates a captivating narrative

[00:21:29] that transports readers to both the real and the imagined past with a passion for western science

[00:21:34] fiction, crime, fantasy and more.

[00:21:37] His work transcends genres.

[00:21:38] He's the author of The Hangman Feeds the Jackal, a Gothic Western.

[00:21:42] And his latest release, The Promise of the Plague Wolves, which I actually had a chance to read.

[00:21:47] And it's phenomenal.

[00:21:48] He is Koi Hall.

[00:21:50] Welcome to the show.

[00:21:51] Hey, welcome.

[00:21:54] Hey, welcome.

[00:21:55] Glad to join us.

[00:21:56] We're going to still with us after all.

[00:21:58] Thank you.

[00:21:58] We put you through for the last 20 minutes there.

[00:22:02] It was lit.

[00:22:03] There you go.

[00:22:04] Here we go.

[00:22:04] Hey, that's just the regular, regular show that we do here.

[00:22:08] That's just how it works.

[00:22:10] You're right.

[00:22:11] That's just how it goes.

[00:22:12] All right.

[00:22:13] Well, Koi, welcome.

[00:22:14] This, you're, we'll get in deep into the book here in a little bit.

[00:22:18] But it just dropped a couple of weeks ago.

[00:22:21] Just a few, not maybe a week ago, right?

[00:22:23] The 12th, yeah.

[00:22:25] Yeah, promise of the Plague Wolves.

[00:22:27] How long has that been, you know, gestating and finally is out for everyone to see?

[00:22:35] Yeah, I know.

[00:22:35] It's a bit your baby, right?

[00:22:37] Isn't that how you think of it as enough?

[00:22:38] Yeah, I like the word just.

[00:22:41] It's a lot.

[00:22:43] It's spelled a long time.

[00:22:45] I actually, this character and it's Doran Toth.

[00:22:49] And he's the main character.

[00:22:51] He has this gray, how name vinegar Tom.

[00:22:54] And they actually appeared in my first book.

[00:22:57] It was called Grimoire the Foreign Posters, which came out in 2021.

[00:23:02] And there was a story in that book.

[00:23:03] It was a collection of six stories.

[00:23:07] And it was a story called The Nightshade Garden.

[00:23:11] And it was set in Hungary and the 17th century.

[00:23:14] And that's where those characters came to be.

[00:23:17] And I wanted to create kind of a series around him as an occult investigator.

[00:23:24] And so the, I finished this novel and submitted the manuscript back in August of 2022.

[00:23:33] Wow, wow.

[00:23:34] Wow, that's amazing.

[00:23:36] Well, you sent me an advanced copy.

[00:23:38] I got to read it, which I really appreciate.

[00:23:40] Thank you so much for doing that.

[00:23:42] And it was great.

[00:23:44] And I'll be honest, like I read a lot of authors.

[00:23:48] You know, I try to get on the show and they'll send stuff.

[00:23:51] And it's okay.

[00:23:52] I mean, there's some good stuff out there.

[00:23:53] You know what I mean?

[00:23:54] But you can kind of tell,

[00:23:56] maybe they need a little more work or a little bit,

[00:23:59] get a couple more books under them or something.

[00:24:01] But man, I dug right into yours and I could just tell that this was something

[00:24:05] that you do.

[00:24:06] Like this is your thing and the tension to detail into history because I really like alternative

[00:24:11] history types stories.

[00:24:14] But when you introduce these characters, Doran Toth and the dog is my favorite character

[00:24:19] of Anna Gautam.

[00:24:20] And he's a whole personality.

[00:24:22] It's just like he's one of the best characters.

[00:24:24] And the whole time I'm reading it, I felt like there's got to be more like I wondered if it was part

[00:24:30] of a series I was missed.

[00:24:31] Like I only jumped in because I only met you online here.

[00:24:35] And there were more books, but I guess so there was just a short story beforehand.

[00:24:39] But there's more to come.

[00:24:40] Well, yeah.

[00:24:41] There was one short story before that or before the novel and Grimore the Foreign

[00:24:46] Posters.

[00:24:47] And then in a collection and anthology called Fiends and the Furrows which is a collection of folk

[00:24:52] horror.

[00:24:53] I have a store, a Doran Toth story called Harold of the Red Hen.

[00:24:58] And then this novel.

[00:25:00] So there are two short stories and then the novel.

[00:25:03] And I want to do at least two more novels.

[00:25:05] The next one's going to be called The Vile, Saint.

[00:25:07] And it's going to be set in 1687 in France.

[00:25:11] Okay.

[00:25:11] And then the third one is entitled but I want to take him to Port Royal, Jamaica

[00:25:17] and have some like some piracy.

[00:25:20] Oh my gosh.

[00:25:21] And I'm a pirate fan.

[00:25:24] Cowboys and pirates like I would love a mashup between those.

[00:25:28] Yeah, I like to move for those.

[00:25:30] Cowboys.

[00:25:30] Well, let me let's face it.

[00:25:31] My favorite Assassin's Creed game is Black Flag.

[00:25:33] It's just my far hands down and then Red Dead Redemption is my favorite game of all time.

[00:25:38] So if you combine those two games into a book, I would be all over that.

[00:25:42] What?

[00:25:43] Well, what's interesting about that is piracy is contemporary with a lot of things

[00:25:48] that you don't think it's contemporary with like the Salem Witch Trials occurred in the

[00:25:53] same year that the earthquake destroyed Port Royal and that pirateness to there.

[00:25:59] So I mean, there were in both in 1692.

[00:26:03] So they're actually contemporary.

[00:26:05] I think like Blackbeard is just 17 teens.

[00:26:08] So he's just the generation after Salem.

[00:26:12] There's room for all that occult stuff.

[00:26:13] Yeah, yeah.

[00:26:14] I think so.

[00:26:16] Actually, I really love the characters Doran Toth and like I said, the dog, can you tell?

[00:26:23] Tell everybody just give a little bit of background on that organization that he's a part of because

[00:26:29] like he's almost like, I mean, I don't want to say John Wick but you know how John Wick has that

[00:26:34] Hulk society of assassins and stuff.

[00:26:37] These guys all have dogs, I think, right?

[00:26:39] It's the right question I got.

[00:26:41] That's the gimmick.

[00:26:41] Yeah, yeah.

[00:26:42] Tell me tell us a little bit about this organization.

[00:26:44] He's a part of and why he's doing this.

[00:26:46] So I had to make something up there and the short stories I didn't have to do that because it was

[00:26:52] you just kind of thrust him into the action there and then it happened.

[00:26:56] And with the novel, I felt it needed some type of glue to hold it together.

[00:27:04] So I created this organization.

[00:27:05] I had this idea of the it's called the Order of St.

[00:27:08] Gwenfort and Gwenfort is a saint that is a what you would call a folk saint.

[00:27:15] He's not an official saint but he's from the 13th century and this is real.

[00:27:20] This is not what I made up and he is a gray hound.

[00:27:24] The Catholic Church as a folk saint, I mean it's not official but it's a gray hound and its name

[00:27:30] was Gwenfort and it was in 13th century France and it was people went to it for healing and things

[00:27:35] like that and in that time.

[00:27:38] And so I had read this book called the Holy Greyhound and I thought that was a great idea.

[00:27:44] This whole legend of this dog saint and so I made up this organization called the Order

[00:27:50] of St. Gwenfort and all the occult investigators is like the secret arm of the church and at times

[00:27:58] of the Pope just sending these guys around.

[00:28:00] And all of them have a gray hound with them and these are like special gray hounds.

[00:28:06] You know they're not screaming when you touch their butts and stuff.

[00:28:10] They're not like that type of gray hound.

[00:28:12] They're like tough, mean, gray hound.

[00:28:14] Yeah and they have the what Toth always says and it's his courage, you know,

[00:28:21] vending your tombs as courage.

[00:28:24] And so yeah, they all get to meet two of them in the book. The older brother of St. Gwenfort

[00:28:34] Abelard he has a dog named God free and I think there's only two in the book but I'm going

[00:28:40] to bring more in and future books are going to be other investigators in their dogs.

[00:28:44] Yeah, that was one of the things I liked the most about it was that little bit of backstory.

[00:28:48] It's just enough to like tease. It's like you know it grounds it in this reality that you know

[00:28:53] there's a bigger world of this going on and now I'm like okay now I gotta meet some of these

[00:28:58] other people but obviously these two you know are the ones that you kind of fall in love with

[00:29:04] and vinegar Tom is like a hero in this book like he just he's you can tell that you're a dog lover

[00:29:11] and I know that if you go to your website it's clear you have a dog. In fact, I think your dog

[00:29:15] may even make a cameo appearance in this or at least an avatar that represents your actual dog

[00:29:22] is that true? Very thinly veiled yeah. The dog the dog that he meets and this dog is going to become

[00:29:30] part of the series too. It's a great pair and he so I have a great pair and he's and I'm obsessed

[00:29:34] with the pair and he's dog. I just love them so and I had to put one in the book

[00:29:41] my dog's name Duncan so and so he is the whole model for the dog in the book whose name is

[00:29:47] Bacina and he's a boy and it's in the dog in the books of girl that's how that's the only

[00:29:53] J. C. The name change and he's a girl in the book but essentially it behaves like this dog

[00:30:01] and yeah so that's going to be part of the series too so it's going to be Doren Toth with

[00:30:05] the Greyhound on one side and the big bulky grape tyrannies on the other side. That's fantastic.

[00:30:12] Sounds like fun. So you mentioned you know how some of the things like St. Gwynnefort was like a real

[00:30:18] or folk saint but it's actual history that exists. I want to know a little bit about your

[00:30:24] journey from being a history professor to a horror mystery author because honestly like again

[00:30:31] I like I said I really enjoy alternate history and it makes me go and look up things like what

[00:30:38] is that part real did that really happen? And it's like you've done it's like clear that you know

[00:30:43] your stuff like you've done your research like because I did I looked up St. Gwynnefort I looked up

[00:30:49] some of the different like you know kind of demon names and the books that you reference and things

[00:30:54] like that and their real books and their real like you know things that people have written about

[00:31:00] and you just you integrate that in there it just makes it makes you wonder okay sweet

[00:31:05] that this actually happened during the flood times but yeah so tell us how you know which came

[00:31:11] first we always a writer and then went into history or were you always in the history and then

[00:31:16] became a fiction writer what kind of how did that happen? First I was a writer you know I started

[00:31:21] writing when I was in my young teens and I that was what I wanted to do first and so I I wrote

[00:31:31] my first novel when I was 18 and it's it's the worst thing that ever exists is called a

[00:31:35] asylum of the inkibus and nobody nobody will that sounds great. It sounds like a sci-fi original movie

[00:31:43] or something and it's worse like significantly worse than a sci-fi original movie nobody's

[00:31:52] ever going to see it ever it's going to be this it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's not what he

[00:31:57] wants to see it. What if we want to see it? I'm very curious. I'm not going to not going to burn

[00:32:10] the man you script I'm a key witness to out you but it's never going to see the light of day but

[00:32:14] so but what it was I was writing and then I was interested in history as well and believe it or not

[00:32:24] it took me a long time to put those two together and think you know maybe instead of trying to write

[00:32:31] contemporary stuff and compete along those lines maybe you should combine those interest and set the

[00:32:36] same the same stories that you're writing and set them in these eras and in the past in my favorite

[00:32:42] era the studies at 17th century the 1600s and that's what I you know mainly what I studied when I was

[00:32:49] in school and so that was one of those things that unless you're talking about the Salem Witch Trial

[00:32:54] there's not really an era that is written about often but it's interesting because that's like one

[00:33:01] foot in the middle ages and has one foot in the modern era and there's this push and pull of

[00:33:07] modern and and and ancient ways of thinking and that was the really the first story that I did

[00:33:19] that combined those two interests was called Sire of the Hatchet and it was in fiends and the

[00:33:25] Foros one and it was the the folk core anthology and that's ever since I've been writing

[00:33:35] stories you know set in that period and sometimes I go back to the middle ages for stories and

[00:33:40] sometimes I have a crime novel coming out in November and it's set in the 1950s so sometimes I

[00:33:46] am sorry that's about as modern as I'll get maybe 1960s you know but nothing more than that

[00:33:55] now so what draws you what what do you think it is that draws you to the doing it in the historical

[00:34:01] rather than a modern times like is it just well interesting for you is it you know what modern

[00:34:08] times are scary enough as that is what I feel like what drew me to it is my favorite genre to read

[00:34:19] a science fiction my favorite authors Philip Kadek and I obsess over that and I love 1960s science

[00:34:31] fiction like that's just that's the pinnacle of all writing as far as I'm concerned I love it

[00:34:37] and when I first started writing I would try to write science fiction and be kind of derivative

[00:34:45] of Philip Kadek and Harlan Ellison and stuff and I couldn't really find my own way of doing it

[00:34:50] but I like the world building of science fiction and so if you write something in the past like this

[00:34:56] which is an Austrian 1686 this novel it requires world building because it's not a familiar

[00:35:04] saying to people so I feel like I get to exercise that world building with historical fiction

[00:35:10] and the stories you tell the plots are the exact same if it was set you know in modern times

[00:35:16] I mean they function by beat by beat the story does the same as contemporary fiction it's just

[00:35:21] the world building kind of tricks you into thinking it's a different type of story

[00:35:28] do you have any like methodologies for or like

[00:35:34] like things that you do to really get the ideas flowing do you have like a no pen and pen

[00:35:39] and just write out different things yeah my my ritual is this is like the only ritual I have I always

[00:35:45] buy a new journal like a new notebook it's like one of those nice notebooks like a leather notebook

[00:35:54] and I get that at the beginning of the process and I think if this is the idea book

[00:35:59] and I just free thinking write anything that comes to mind anything

[00:36:06] that I absorb in my daily life if I'm reading a book and I think I like that word I'm going to

[00:36:11] put that word in the book you know this is unusual word or it's just any idea just

[00:36:17] that comes to mind and I just fill this book up with ideas and then the book takes shape in

[00:36:22] that notebook and I kind of build it from there obviously only the only method I really have

[00:36:30] you mentioned Philip K. Dick is an influence time was not the question I was going to ask was

[00:36:35] are there other authors that have also kind of influenced you who do you read on a regular basis

[00:36:40] can my absolute favorite authors would be Philip K. Dick and you know I like other science

[00:36:47] fiction writers to a lot in a time one of my Roger Roger Zalazni and like Lord of Light you

[00:36:59] books like that and Raymond Chandler is one of my favorite writers I like crime fiction

[00:37:08] from the 1940s and 50s see I like the science fiction for the imagination and I like the crime

[00:37:14] fiction for the voice are the strong voice of people like Raymond Chandler or David Guttas like

[00:37:20] he wrote Shoot the piano player in 1950s noir novel set in Philadelphia

[00:37:29] and dark passage if you like Humphrey Bogart if you're a Humphrey Bogart fan of his movies you

[00:37:35] made him a film version of David Guttas novel dark passage those are things I like and as far as

[00:37:43] horror my favorite would be MR James the ghost stories of MR James I like the older stuff like that

[00:37:51] um I love his his ghost stories and he was a medieval historian too so he's like one of my idols

[00:37:58] he was a medieval historian Anna writer of ghost stories and he's a great to me he's the greatest

[00:38:06] author for fiction that's cool I love it and I'm not either I mean I've heard the name but I've

[00:38:11] never read anything by him um is pal I'm now you've got me curious I'm looking it up or

[00:38:17] I can order well the BBC back in the 70s used to have the ghost stories for Christmas and they

[00:38:24] would always use an MR James story okay and so I mean yeah his famous stories would be like the

[00:38:30] ash tree and casting the runes maybe his most famous story it was made into a film with Dana Andrews

[00:38:38] in the fifth 1957 called Night of the Demon yeah oh I remember that I don't know I

[00:38:44] remember that as a demon yeah it's an I and that's that's an adaptation of his word um he's got a

[00:38:51] lot of collected stuff on Kindle because it looks like some of might be in the public domain I think

[00:38:55] a lot of it is the public domain yeah it's over 100 years old wow I gotta add this to my list now

[00:39:02] to start reading I did notice on your bookshelf you've got a it looks like a black mask magazine

[00:39:07] right yeah so the the crime fiction uh yeah I'm obsessed with pulp fiction like actual

[00:39:19] pulp fiction not the Tarantino movie but the black mask magazine um and any of that stuff from

[00:39:29] the 30s and 40s those short stories I just I love and that's been a big influence on me

[00:39:37] really I love like hard boiled riding like it's mean so so tough you know like right um like

[00:39:45] um I don't ride like that I don't imitate that but I like it you know

[00:39:50] I it would be like a caricature I'm the farthest thing you can be from a tough guy but like

[00:39:56] the I love I love like the privatized stories you know yeah exactly

[00:40:02] dash on him at the multi-falk and with Sam's face yeah I'm just obsessed over those things

[00:40:08] that's so cool yeah I'm mute

[00:40:15] all right have you read Alfred Bester yeah demolished man oh we just read yeah

[00:40:21] yeah we just oh yeah that was good Alfred Bester's I love him and um the star is my destination

[00:40:27] that's fantastic and but the demolished man is incredible and that's what makes me think of when

[00:40:32] you said like the kind of it's a really interesting mix of that that detective style and like

[00:40:38] sci-fi and he's a big big influence on Philip K. Dick I mean he was early early 50 mid 50s

[00:40:46] you know I think 55 or something maybe around 53 I think and the demolished man was 1953

[00:40:53] and uh Brian Philip K. Dick was the running short stories you know

[00:40:59] before he got into novels yeah and so yeah I love Bester yeah

[00:41:05] so who else do you like as a side if you if you're interested in reading science fiction I'm

[00:41:08] curious about that yeah well so the reason I mentioned that one is some friends of some friends

[00:41:13] of the podcast have another podcast that's a friend of this podcast called promptly written

[00:41:20] and uh one of them is an author who's written several books um and then Matt is a short story author

[00:41:27] he's he's a friend of ours and they do a podcast together where they take a prompt from their

[00:41:33] their followers on Facebook and stuff usually Utah it seems like it's a lot of them in there

[00:41:38] I've had a few like he's usually you're as usually when though it seems like if you want to hear

[00:41:43] but they get a prompt and then the two of them will over the next month will write a short story

[00:41:47] and then they read it on the show and they talk about the writing process and how they you know

[00:41:51] and sometimes they're great and some of them they're like you know well I only had 30 days

[00:41:55] is what we had you know but I think they're all pretty good considering and uh absolutely

[00:42:00] they also do a occasionally we'll read a book together and yeah and we do a crossover episode

[00:42:08] usually in May or March March or it's an M month March I think it's March beginning

[00:42:13] yeah yeah yeah March where we all do write the short stories with them so we all

[00:42:17] all five of us do a do a uh and we read a book together and this the the Mollish man was the one

[00:42:24] that we had read um and yeah but I love him a lot I really love it was the first one that we did

[00:42:33] together in the first crossover right my bad uh the pale blue I didn't have as much of a impact as

[00:42:38] the Mollish man did apparently but I loved it because it's that alternative history you know

[00:42:43] it's all about you know Poe getting involved in a murder mystery like that was pretty amazing

[00:42:48] so that was another good one but um it was better than the movie it's all I got to say it sure was

[00:42:52] very much we did both because we're the kind of the movie side and they're the book side so we

[00:42:57] um but yeah uh I don't know as far as like I mean my my all-time favorite author is Stephen King

[00:43:04] I just I adore him I discovered him at a very young age probably younger than I should have been

[00:43:09] to read Stephen King and I've been hooked ever since um I really like Neil Gaiman those are kind

[00:43:16] of more you know modern others are authors is still alive I love Lovecraft uh you know um not all

[00:43:22] they're hard they're harder to read some of them yeah um then then some of the more popular stuff but

[00:43:28] yeah um that kind of I like I'll read just about anything though um so but yeah the promise of

[00:43:35] the plague wolves it was right at my alley I thought that was a really you know and I want to warn

[00:43:42] people I'm gonna just throw this out there I told we talked about these amazing dogs in

[00:43:47] this cool investigation um and I don't want people to think that it's just it's just about like

[00:43:53] these sweet dogs that are really cool there's a lot of like horror going on in this thing too

[00:43:58] there's a lot of you know scary stuff and and you know it's a little body horror and some things

[00:44:04] like that but that that was also quite good it's about the plagues and uh and some really really

[00:44:11] creepy scary creatures which were really good oh you've got a visitor

[00:44:17] you can see this is a cute cute cute thing it's something oh that's the

[00:44:24] there's some spirit open to do the fact that he just walked in and was like this is uh

[00:44:30] like they mentioned the dogs I better come in yeah yeah and again we love you get podcast listeners

[00:44:37] but you're not seeing beautiful dogs that we're about to get a glimpse of here oh he's a big one

[00:44:45] no i just knew he's a 160 pound baby

[00:44:52] just a big bebba and he's not he's being just for some reason camera shy right now

[00:44:57] oh just don't know Jeff mentioned that uh that he makes an appearance you know a cameo appearance in

[00:45:03] your book but I want to say that he makes a lovely cameo appearance in the youtube video you did

[00:45:10] the journey into the car volume two right which I thought which I found it would do I found very

[00:45:15] entertaining so right so I did those for this month shot him out of here

[00:45:28] he's doing his round of wooving um that he does each night but

[00:45:32] I for the the school that I work at does every uh October it is like

[00:45:39] wanted me to come up with this thing for like a scary story type of thing and um it was

[00:45:48] started was during the pandemic it was like right there in the height of that so we couldn't do anything

[00:45:52] in person so i had to think of something something something to do and you know i'm not the

[00:45:58] the most charismatic human being on camera so i was thinking i'm gonna make my i'm gonna make my

[00:46:02] animals do stuff on camera because people will be looking at the animals and they won't be looking

[00:46:10] at me and um so in the first video we have a bingy the cat which actually it was my sisters cat

[00:46:18] we went to her home film just where you serve her black cat so like we gotta go we gotta go after

[00:46:25] the black cat you know and he sets behind me in that one this is volume one

[00:46:33] yeah then just don't think any riffs down decorations during it i swear to you so he does that

[00:46:41] and in that moment my entire being is just saying do not break here right there

[00:46:48] I don't look because i know i know it's gold and i know he's rip and he's just like could you just

[00:46:53] your stuff crashing behind me and i'm just Vincent pricing it still you know

[00:46:59] laser focus that's hilarious and just absolute turmoil and so i had

[00:47:05] at that time like dammit do not break and look back and like my wife is behind the camera and stuff

[00:47:14] and she's laughing and in that moment she's very and this is very subtle thing the camera shakes

[00:47:23] and it's because they're behind the camera laughing so to make it even worse i'm looking at them laughing

[00:47:28] you know and they're really good at you getting from both sides is my sister and my my wife was

[00:47:33] like side by side by the camera here and i'm just trying out the lab that's okay i'm gonna go back

[00:47:38] and watch her that though give me 30 seconds but it's just yeah it's just a little wobble and uh

[00:47:43] then in the second one i could i couldn't top bingy you know he's just too it was too impressive

[00:47:49] it worked very well so i was like i got to get the the huge dog in here and to do something

[00:47:55] and he's too lazy to actually do anything and so i'm like i'm gonna make him jump jump on this table

[00:48:02] and grab an apple and what the hell does he care about an apple you know it's like the apple

[00:48:07] setting up there and we just kept doing it and doing it and he would just walk in there and stare

[00:48:11] and walk off walking there and stare we're just gonna kind of coax and throw that get to apple

[00:48:19] you know um and we try to put like 30 minutes to get into jump and finally we come up with an idea

[00:48:25] to rub steak fat all over it they get like state grease on the apple so it says it gets nasty

[00:48:33] apple setting on the table like staining it and it's just sitting there glistening

[00:48:39] and it looks like a cartoon apple or something you know um but it's a state grease but

[00:48:44] if you watch that yeah there you go the camera trick they're talking one or two and the first

[00:48:51] time he jumped up here and he's so huge you know he's like the whole the whole camera and everything

[00:48:59] shakes because of doing so i added like these like alien sci-fi sounds to it like he's this creature

[00:49:04] attacking the station work with children are animals and i think that's why they're they're gonna

[00:49:11] make it difficult for you i have to retire from the journeys into the cob too because i can't i don't

[00:49:16] have anymore animals how can you talk about how can you talk about yeah but you live in west Virginia

[00:49:24] there's plenty of animals out there wild animal yeah just just just just just just

[00:49:31] grease up a couple more apples and more mountain lion and then just like just you've gotten

[00:49:37] frolic with deer yeah just just a blur which it's a phone and yeah yeah i should work you know

[00:49:46] get a lot of ticks yeah that's for sure talk about a horse right yeah so yeah you think about it

[00:49:56] yeah you uh uh alia brought that up that you you are from west Virginia alia and i are both

[00:50:04] from west Virginia as well um back that grew up in honeyton um for until uh my seventh grade year

[00:50:11] moved to Boston for about half a year and then i was in south point right across the river there

[00:50:17] uh for until i graduated high school so and alia you weren't far from there right

[00:50:23] oh i was far from there i lived in branchland which i don't think any of you are familiar with

[00:50:30] yeah that's not like you know it's like an hour uh budget hour if i have a way from honeyton

[00:50:39] so yeah um are you familiar with like Milton area yeah yeah yeah

[00:50:46] so i i went to cabal midland okay so you know it's not not too far then same cast

[00:50:52] no no no i that was what i transferred oh god yeah well when i transferred but i went to Lincoln

[00:50:56] county before that are you familiar with Lincoln county yeah yeah yeah don't ask me to point

[00:51:02] out on an app yes that's okay we don't need that yeah you don't have to do that i can pretend yeah sure

[00:51:10] yeah so when you born and raised there and honeyton coir is that uh no um

[00:51:18] uh no i actually not far away i was born and my dog keeps barking he's very upset but i was born

[00:51:25] and Kentucky and moved here my my wife went to school at martial and um so

[00:51:32] that's why that's my my connection here so it's okay i hopped state lines yeah yeah yeah

[00:51:39] yeah martial i grew up on that campus my mom uh retired as uh she worked at the library at marzo

[00:51:46] almost her whole life my whole life at the library as a head of the cataloging department

[00:51:51] that's for sure you're tired from yeah so i was she was a single mom and so i i literally lived in

[00:51:56] that library it's the reason i love books so much today is because i grew up in that library i thought

[00:52:00] it was odd too because this not something we knew about one another but when you reached out to me

[00:52:06] so because you asked me what part are you from and i said well it's honeyton i'm just trying to

[00:52:11] explain where it was and you're like i grew up there yeah yeah you don't need to explain you know

[00:52:18] yeah i went a small world yeah yeah i went to Miller elementary there in honeyton i lived uh i lived

[00:52:26] on Utah place we were we're in watham walking distance to the park yeah Utah didn't live

[00:52:31] that was it wasn't yeah that was my first exposure to Utah was Utah place place spelled it

[00:52:37] wow that's so i've got it spelled even more different so it was eut a w or something like

[00:52:44] sound to do you remember fanatically sounded out wasn't yeah but it was like it was it meant

[00:52:49] it was like you know fate that i was gonna eventually become friends with you though

[00:52:53] obviously there was another Utah in your life that came back late yeah i wonder did i have any

[00:52:59] Jeff's or you know i don't think so that's too funny um but yeah that's really cool so

[00:53:07] do you teach it martial then or where do you where do you teach now i'm in Kentucky at Ashland

[00:53:11] community college oh okay cool yeah it's been a lot of time and i actually learned too when i

[00:53:15] looks in south point that's right across the other bridge yeah south point we we claim you know

[00:53:23] where the there's a little sign on the edge of the river this is if you stand here it's the only

[00:53:28] you can see three states at once yeah yeah which is kind of interesting it's like oh look there's

[00:53:33] lots of new year there's Kentucky and if it turned around there's Ohio right yeah yeah too fun

[00:53:41] that's awesome um i lost where i was we started waxing the nostalgic about the honey thin and now i'm

[00:53:48] like lost my place um oh yeah so when you're teaching so how do you balance your academic life as a

[00:53:56] history professor with your creative life as an author well you'd i what i tried to do from

[00:54:06] for me writing every day is important so i have to have continuity day today especially with big

[00:54:12] projects like a novel because you know that could take um writing the first draft of novel connect

[00:54:18] two months you know every writing it every day and um and i have to have that continuity

[00:54:26] and so what i'll do is write try to make a habit out of it and i'll do it the same time each day

[00:54:31] um i'm naturally a morning person so i get up and i start writing around five o'clock in the

[00:54:36] morning and i write until seven sorry five until seven each day and that's it um five until seven

[00:54:44] and then go on with my regular day but i devote those two hours to writing each morning

[00:54:50] and then that makes it makes it pretty easy to balance that way yeah now the other books it is a plan

[00:54:56] yeah the other books that you have mentioned um were short story collections is promise

[00:55:04] of the play where's the first full-length novel then or is there another the hangman feeds the

[00:55:09] shackle that was uh is my first novel and then so the promise of play was a second novel another

[00:55:15] two short story collections yeah i actually uh mentioned that in the uh in the intro and then

[00:55:22] ask that question anyway so there you go that shows how much i was being in the sentence myself

[00:55:27] for the novels to appear um but writing is one of those things that you see the tip of the iceberg

[00:55:34] and there's a lot more under the water so i think before my first published book i had written

[00:55:40] up to that point six novels that were unpluged and um just this practice you know like that one i was

[00:55:47] talking about when i was eighteen and yeah um and so i i have a you know there's this on these old

[00:55:53] files and i kind of think when i you know if i ever hit a dry spell maybe go rework one of those

[00:56:00] old novels and so i have a stack of novels you know to work with but i but i'm not going to do that

[00:56:07] just yet so steven king has talked about that i think and i think in one of his because he likes

[00:56:12] to write about writers a lot uh they say right what you know and there you go but um i think it was

[00:56:19] oh gosh which one was it there was there was one i'm blanking on the title of it takes place near

[00:56:26] lake and it's it's a novel um but in it it's a writer and he has like a trunk with a bunch of his

[00:56:33] like of books that he can pull out whenever the publisher's bugging him for something that he

[00:56:37] yeah that's what he's what he's working on he's like well here's one i have kind of in the

[00:56:42] that's why i think for him that's what pet cemetery was yeah i think he had um back in like

[00:56:49] 83 or whatever he had a deadline and so he just picked up pet cemetery and finished it i think

[00:56:56] it was one of it's what they call trunt novels you know yeah that's fantastic that's what he did

[00:57:01] with pet cemetery yeah is it dark after talking about no no it was uh i'll find it out i'll look it

[00:57:08] up when when after dark is the one that break in like i think that's one where he is his his uh alter ego

[00:57:16] old rangers pen name comes after him basically is like a so he was imagining Richard Bachman i guess

[00:57:22] was gonna come and get him or something um and i think that was well inspired it because somebody

[00:57:28] somebody forced him out of you know that because they recognized his writing and said we think

[00:57:34] your Richard Bachman he's like dog on it it's like fine you know what i think is a lot better than

[00:57:41] how i think jk Rowling did it because i'm pretty sure that she released the the first uh

[00:57:47] whatever it is uh Richard Robert gold tweeter after giving that that's bobcat gold tweeter what is

[00:57:52] it it's like a gill brace or something yeah she released that first novel and it didn't do very well

[00:58:02] and then somehow at least at least really jk Rowling in the next thing you know it sold like a billion

[00:58:08] copies the next step so you know i don't know Richard Bachman was selling books even when steven king

[00:58:15] they didn't know what steven king so at least he's got that going for him i guess but not as many

[00:58:19] as steven king but um now you know now he just throws it on there for fun like he still wrote like

[00:58:24] three more Richard Bachman books well after everyone knew uh and so it was just kind of fun um

[00:58:32] um so i like steven king quite a bit too um i like his earlier stuff best i think my

[00:58:39] favorite probably the shining is probably my favorite of the novels you just you nailed it that's

[00:58:44] like don't don't get them stung oh my gosh so the shining is my all-time favorite steven king book

[00:58:50] even though the stand is probably new it's probably very much yeah the stand is very much

[00:58:56] you know one of the greats and everyone says that's number one but the shining is for me that was

[00:59:02] one of the first books that i remember being scared to death reading like movies scare me easily

[00:59:12] right because it's visual there's music there's also but i remember reading the shining and literally

[00:59:16] being like i'm done for the night i'm just gonna let's do it yeah the head the head you animal

[00:59:27] and that's what he that's what Kubrick took out of it on now it's not the one they start moving in

[00:59:32] the book my imagination was just one thing that's scary and nothing it stands out that novel

[00:59:38] my memory are the wasps the wastes yes another thing kubrick caught two amazing things that never made

[00:59:46] it to film yeah yeah and i love don't get me wrong i love the kubrick film it's a great movie

[00:59:51] it's just a terrible adaptation of the book right on its own it's a very scary chilling movie but

[00:59:57] not not even close to what the book you know put forth in terror for me i think is still way

[01:00:03] scarier than the book or in that the movie so anyway but yeah steven king exactly he's yeah don't

[01:00:10] give me started on that if that's where i love it i love it so much that mat the other guy was

[01:00:15] telling you about look from promptly written keen i are starting a steven king podcast where we're

[01:00:19] going through the dark tower series and all of the the steven king extended universe that are

[01:00:25] connected to it so uh that was a little plug for that till so be looking out for that guys it's

[01:00:31] coming up what's your name of that like i guess doge it's called other worlds than these there it is

[01:00:36] and i said they're really cool with my uh suns infection voice that i get a lot more deeper out

[01:00:43] that that'll be gone by the time we actually record that and then and then i'll sound like me again

[01:00:47] other worlds and these yeah i'm not nearly as intimidating right okay so um i think i have some

[01:00:57] friends on here watching but they are writers so i am curious about the publishing process or like

[01:01:03] what your process is or any advice that you could give them if they're still tuned in yeah just

[01:01:10] i think a good way to establish relationships with publishers is through doing anthologies

[01:01:17] and publishers will do open call anthologies usually themed and the publisher who did my

[01:01:24] three of my books the grimoire and grimoire book and hangman and promise of plague wolves it's

[01:01:31] called nose touch press and they did the fiends and the furrows and they also even earlier than that

[01:01:39] did a an anthology back in 2015 called wax and wane which was witchcraft stories and i had that

[01:01:49] was my first connection with them so that the i with wax and wane in 2015 i had and this was just

[01:01:55] like an open submission call and i submitted to them and that was accepted and then they did in

[01:02:01] 2018 they did the fiends and the furrows the folklore anthology and i did sire the hatchet and that

[01:02:08] was accepted and they at that point reached out to me and asked me if i wanted to do a book with them

[01:02:14] and that was my way and into it and so grimoire is the book that came out of that and then we did

[01:02:22] done two more sense um but i think you know as far as networking and getting to know publishers

[01:02:30] and um usually behind the name there's just a few people you know and once once you get to know them

[01:02:36] that's um there's there's gonna be kind of strong connections to have and the best way

[01:02:44] to do that is short stories i think as a writer period you really must write short stories first

[01:02:52] Ray Bradbury is another one of my favorite writers and he had um as his book i remember reading

[01:02:59] and it was like as a hundred stories by Ray Bradbury okay and a man writes like thousands of

[01:03:04] stories but he's like this is the top one hundred the top one hundred Ray Bradbury sure

[01:03:10] sorry and it just this unreal like sixteen hundred page book and but he was just great introduction to

[01:03:16] up and i took that that that introduction to me it's like a hundred by Bradbury or something like

[01:03:24] that and that introduction written by him was my i considered my education and writing totally

[01:03:30] like he and his advice influenced me more than anybody and i'll tell you what he said he said

[01:03:36] you want to write short stories before you tackle novels because you need a lot of successes and

[01:03:41] a lot of failures and you want them just quick turn around and what failure failure failure success

[01:03:46] failure success failure failure success failure success um because you got to have those little crumbs

[01:03:51] to keep you going this little success as little victory is to keep you going and he said if you

[01:03:56] write a novel it's going to take you six months and if it keeps getting rejected there are no

[01:04:02] successes or i just long term waiting failure and and so he said the really need to cut your teeth

[01:04:09] and his advice was write one million words of short stories before you write a novel wow

[01:04:17] and a million words of short story for a three hundred page novels about eighty thousand words

[01:04:22] to put that in perspective of like oh short story eighty so a common short story might be five

[01:04:29] thousand words right you know zero a million words and i did that like i actually wrote a million

[01:04:35] words of short stories because Ray Bradbury i was like well Ray Bradbury was

[01:04:40] why do you not know why don't listen to this guy and i did that it took me ten years to write

[01:04:46] that a hundred thousand words a year of short stories and that works up like twenty five short

[01:04:51] stories a year like you know four thousand words of piece maybe varying length and took me ten

[01:04:58] years to write a million words and he said don't don't go to school for writing it's not going to

[01:05:04] help you uh nobody can teach you how to write there's only one way to do it it's read constantly

[01:05:10] and write one million words wow and it's true i mean i think it's absolutely true there's no

[01:05:17] magic trick to writing it's just like that's like that ten thousand hour rule you know get in

[01:05:23] there and do it and write and write and write um and um that that that's to me is getting back to

[01:05:33] the right way off track there but um running short stories for anthologies is a good way to establish

[01:05:39] relationships with publishers that actually helps segue into my next question i know that you're

[01:05:45] also involved with the city and wolf right tell us a little bit about that um because you guys

[01:05:51] have any ecology right now that you're looking for submissions for right right yeah well i wanted

[01:05:55] to start my own press i thought that would be kind of a stupid thing to do you know like one

[01:06:02] six six six six six six six six rates you know less than one percent so what let's let's give

[01:06:07] it a shot why not let's see what happens no no no i i it's one of those things it's really just

[01:06:14] the labor of love on the side and the city and wolf's going to do historical horror anthologies

[01:06:21] and i'm gonna do one per year one per year and the first one that we're doing and this is an open

[01:06:28] call it's ongoing anybody wants to submit a story to this it's for the first world war

[01:06:34] it's it's called death's other kingdom which is you know if you know t s alie at the poem

[01:06:41] they are a really good one from t s alie at the don't but i thought it was cool and so death's

[01:06:48] other kingdom horror tells of the great war and a world war one and this is an open call for stories

[01:06:57] that are four thousand to nine thousand words long so i want substantial stories not just short

[01:07:02] shorts but the um anybody's welcome to submit and you're just going to sitian wolf calm is um and

[01:07:10] it's scy scy th i a n but the um that's what the press is and i i'm going to do a different thing

[01:07:23] each year i love like ancient Egyptian history so i'm going to do like an ancient Egypt anthology

[01:07:30] and i'm going to do i love like i write about the 17th century so i was going to do it

[01:07:34] the 14th france like versai and stuff like that's out that era and just

[01:07:42] if if since it's a labor of love my thinking is um if it's not very marketable and nobody

[01:07:49] else going to do it i'm gonna do that i'm gonna fill i'm gonna fill this void i'm gonna step in

[01:07:54] and and i would want to read that book and so i'm gonna create those books yeah i thought i

[01:08:00] think that sounds fascinating but when i saw that uh call um i mean i'd love to be a writer like

[01:08:06] that's something i've always wanted to do and i've written lots of things in the past like never

[01:08:11] written a novel that's sitting in over there written a lot of short stories that'll never see the

[01:08:15] white of day either mostly because i lose them and who knows where they are so maybe they will

[01:08:20] see the light of days and we're gonna find him in a trunk and like publish it and be like who wrote

[01:08:24] this truck and someone else's house exactly yeah no i um but i think that's fascinating it made

[01:08:30] it actually like sparked me to start thinking of like ideas like what kind of you should do it you

[01:08:36] never know well i'd have to write it between now and november first which is uh you know we'll see

[01:08:42] if that's the kind of one horror it actually sounds pretty cool yeah it's an idea so i did come

[01:08:48] up with an idea again it was just like what i'd be able to tell say when we're looking at this um we

[01:08:54] want um diversity and and place and theme and characters and all that and i think the toughest

[01:09:02] way to get into the anthology is writing about trenches at this point um right no kidding three four

[01:09:09] so the stories that we've received to build trenches yeah so i want stories in the air

[01:09:16] animal stories that see um and stories in trenches yeah because i think i think the first thought

[01:09:22] that comes to mind with the war's trench warfare and so it's your story i want those but it's

[01:09:29] gonna be a lot of zoom in a lot of competition because i'm not going to you know it's not gonna be all

[01:09:33] trench stories i want like a submarine story like i german you bow type of thing oh yeah that can be

[01:09:42] asserted in world war okay yeah i know there's so many things in it you know that you can go

[01:09:47] yeah yeah and it takes place everywhere around the world it doesn't just take place in france and

[01:09:52] germany you know they're fighting in africa and they're fighting in the middle east and they're

[01:09:58] fighting um in russia and they're fighting all around so well i will admit the idea that i had does

[01:10:04] happen in france but it's not in a trench some maybe at least it's a tracin a little small town

[01:10:12] it's yeah right it see i'm i'm also you know a video i also think in terms of short films and

[01:10:17] i'm like i wanted i'd rather be a filmmaker than a writer but i like to write and then film it

[01:10:21] uh-huh and so my my it came to me as a short film so small cast in a in a you know kind of claustrophobic

[01:10:29] setting in france during the war and i've actually done some research and there no trenches

[01:10:36] to some of the you know the old mythology of that area and uh how that might be a real thing

[01:10:45] that came to life and that's that's something that i was working on so when you say something

[01:10:50] like me can have an ultradacin a cinematic cinematic is good and stories you visualize it

[01:10:56] i'm a i'm a movie fanatic anyway so i'm like i love same cinematic stories i can visualize easily so

[01:11:04] if you take that approach so we'll see we'll see that's a little bit not a lot of time

[01:11:09] there's no poetry submissions just so you know so yeah it says that specifically so sorry i'm looking

[01:11:15] at just just reading through this site here that's okay it is not missing i don't think

[01:11:23] what one day maybe the only thing was with this one with the first one i'm trying to keep it compact

[01:11:31] too i want to keep the book around 200 pages so i'm gonna get around eight stories you know eight

[01:11:36] stories and kind of keep it i think people say anthology's where out there welcome you know if

[01:11:44] you're reading a themed themed collection it's 400 pages and you're reading the same type of

[01:11:49] stories over and over again i think they can get very very tiresome so i think 200 pages is about

[01:11:55] we have some friends that published a lot of essay anthologies on different pop culture topics and

[01:12:02] stuff and those guys have right i have talked about that too just for me all the submissions and

[01:12:09] just kind of like trying to weed through uh what works i do have a question though that might be

[01:12:14] on other writers minds if you if you submit to something like this if you submit to an anthology

[01:12:20] is that still a short story you can publish in your own short story collection you know like

[01:12:26] i know this steven king uh a lot of his short stories that he publishes in his own

[01:12:30] collections have been in magazines and all other different places so you still retain the

[01:12:35] you know the rights to do that how does that work yeah um if if if when you get a contract for a

[01:12:41] short story um what a red flag it's it's a predatory contract if they have perpetual rights

[01:12:50] you know that's never good if they if they ask for perpetual rights generally what

[01:12:55] a kind of a a clean you know safe contract is the the people who publish this story will have

[01:13:03] exclusive rights to that story for one year from publication okay meaning that they ask

[01:13:12] don't post it online don't publish it in a book so they have a chance to publish that the whole

[01:13:17] point right and and sell it you know you want to say we want that we don't want to

[01:13:22] in for one year and after one year we're all rights and this is a good again a good contract

[01:13:29] all rights revert back to you yeah okay all of them go back to you everything and everything goes

[01:13:34] back to you and um the that's a standard contract so if you were to publish this in this world

[01:13:44] or one book i'm thinking it's gonna come out like May of next year i would ask that

[01:13:49] just let me hang on to this until May 2025 and then and it goes back to you and do whatever you

[01:13:54] want with that at that time yeah that's great yeah it's got to be fair right you know if you

[01:14:01] you want the publisher of the anthology to be able to include it in and make their money and

[01:14:07] publicize and spread the word essentially what's your you're paying for when you buy a short story

[01:14:12] from somebody's a year i want this story is it gonna be mine to use for a year you know and then it

[01:14:18] goes back to you you're just leasing the story you don't get a story from the first and you know

[01:14:26] I'm gonna pay you to hand this over to me for a year and i'll give it back to you right

[01:14:31] cool well koi thank you so much for being on the show this has been fascinating it's great

[01:14:37] to talk to you it's really great to hear some of the kind of behind the scenes of that story i

[01:14:41] really appreciate the opportunity to have read it i think i'm gonna have to get a physical copy now

[01:14:48] thank you so and next time i come down to Huntington i'm gonna find you and get you to sign it

[01:14:52] we'll see all right well didn't we're now i don't go to Huntington as often but i have lots of

[01:14:58] friends down there so i'll send somebody to hunt you down and i get a stop that sounded like a

[01:15:03] Stephen King novel Jeff it'll be a little bit like

[01:15:08] campy bets i want to be and just looking at her and she's carrying a baseball bat or an axe

[01:15:14] just run away you can't miss me it's i'm the i'll be the guy walking the huge white dog

[01:15:20] outside he knows monster dog that's me probably have you seen me out there no frolicking with the

[01:15:26] deer yeah that's right yeah right yeah right yeah video that's my top secret like

[01:15:31] oh really movie project there you go so tell everybody how they can find you online

[01:15:38] also remind everybody where they can pick up a copy of promise of the playfuls

[01:15:42] yes so my that's my latest novel the promise of playfulves and it is available everywhere

[01:15:48] if you want to buy it from amazon or Barnes and Noble it's all obviously available there

[01:15:54] but you can also get it from local bookshops by through bookshop.org bookshop.org and you can

[01:16:00] order it and say if you have like a mom and pop bookstore indie bookstore in your community

[01:16:06] they'll buy they can buy it through that and it is available that way as far as

[01:16:14] getting in touch with me or checking out on what i'm writing my website is koihaul.com easy

[01:16:21] enough koihaul.com or the cithian wolf.com and i'm on twitter i'm not going to call it that other name

[01:16:29] thank you on twitter at at koihaul books and i tweet there yes um

[01:16:38] and i might read to me something from you but at koihaul books there and the instagram the same at koihaul

[01:16:46] books uh technical on facebook but i don't really don't use face but is he he's i'm at the blue

[01:16:56] sky place to trying something else news so yeah yeah and some koihaul there is some

[01:17:03] i have a good word over there too we have a world gun geek on blue sky i don't think i actually

[01:17:08] what do you call it over there i don't think i've tweeted anything there i think it's a tweet all

[01:17:12] all those i tweet on parads i tweet on twitter and i tweet on x tweet tweet on uh everything

[01:17:19] is a tweet now it's a tweet or a post yeah exactly that's it it's like cleavix and tissue

[01:17:26] but uh yeah koi has been a pleasure talking to you i'm absolutely we'd love to maybe we'll have

[01:17:33] you back next year and talk about the anthology when you've got that yeah that'd be wonderful

[01:17:39] and you can tell them all about how awesome my story is when i get it yeah you have bragging

[01:17:45] rights at that point that's right we'll see you're that's i'm very short of time to flattery

[01:17:53] um this is this is the best non-trane story i've ever read

[01:17:59] i am literally sitting here telling and saying oh gosh 30 30 days is just not a lot of time

[01:18:04] to write a short story and Matt shigeric is out there somewhere

[01:18:07] we were just we were just talking about promptly yeah right yeah i mean you do it like you

[01:18:12] dude we do this every month shut up all right so if you can do it he's like you know the minimums

[01:18:17] 4,000 words think of it as 500 words a day you can now oh no i don't know i definitely can do it

[01:18:24] that's smart that's a smart way to do it that's not a good word no i'm going to give that a try

[01:18:30] so i've been trying to do the five o'clock thing that you said i'm a little bit of more

[01:18:36] morning person my alarm goes off at 5 30 now but i get up around 7 30

[01:18:42] so i need to get past that part um but then i will be able to write for that and then i teach

[01:18:48] i teach it 9 30 so there is time in there you know i mean just set your alarm to two hours earlier

[01:18:53] 500 words out yes that's for three three three you know i'm not gonna do that no no not gonna

[01:18:59] happen i'm just gonna get angry i'm gonna throw my alarm right just got five 30s already

[01:19:06] hard i mean i i right now i wake up you know because i'm an old man i wake up at like you know

[01:19:11] before the alarm anyway a little bit and then i grab my watch and put it on so that when the alarm

[01:19:16] goes off it'll it'll vibrate my watch instead of waking up my wife so that seems to work out

[01:19:22] if i do it three o'clock it's gonna wake her up because i'm not gonna wake up in time to get the watch

[01:19:27] you know my whole method is like ruined so okay all right all right all right yeah i have to

[01:19:33] i have to charge it overnight or i can't react to bed or it'll die you know correct so anyway

[01:19:38] there's a method to my madness if you say so yeah all right well this has been a great show again

[01:19:45] thank you koi for being here i think what do we have next let's see um i don't know what we have next

[01:19:50] i don't remember who's i don't i think i'm still trying to nail down the guest for

[01:19:55] for the next show which is in two weeks right here 9 30 on facebook and twitch and youtube as we are

[01:20:02] at this very moment we also will be oh i wanted to remind people so if you want to see a little bit

[01:20:08] more about cleveland gaming classic go to our youtube channel we did broadcast live from there

[01:20:12] about the length of an actual show which is now in 15 minutes typically hour 30 um and that was

[01:20:18] a lot of fun we did some live commenting commentating on uh Mario Kart which was kind of interesting

[01:20:24] yeah um but yeah check that out on youtube it's just your regular regular yeah check that out and

[01:20:31] then um don't forget to check out music gun geek our new music show exclusively for spot

[01:20:38] pilla exclusively for spotify subscribers because if you're not a subscriber you'll only hear

[01:20:45] the previews of music but you get the whole song is just subscribe check that out it's a lot of fun

[01:20:50] to go through nostalgic old soundtracks with some of our other guests who have come on koi do you

[01:20:54] have a favorite movie soundtrack like uh what's the pop soundtrack not the orchestra but actual songs

[01:21:00] like the radio song yeah yeah like song songs I put you on the spot yeah you can get thinking

[01:21:08] about it too i love like these songs like that end ended movies in the late 80s like when they would

[01:21:15] have like a rap song about the movie and so like uh like you need to do a tutorial

[01:21:20] to your early power i'm going with that yeah that's a good one that's actually a pretty good soundtrack

[01:21:27] too we're just watching that movie the other day the original one um cool and then we'll be in touch

[01:21:32] because we have a podcast that that talks about exactly that yeah wax work records put those out

[01:21:38] I go always I collect those they go see the guests on that show that's fine well be in touch we'll

[01:21:45] be in touch so check that out if you're a spotify subscriber we'd love for you to follow that that

[01:21:50] helps us out even if you don't listen to we like you listen to it do but we'd like to get followers

[01:21:55] as well to help get so that more more people will see it and then listen to it uh so follow us on

[01:22:02] Twitter x whatever you want to call it instagram tick-tock we're gonna start tick-tocking again

[01:22:07] I promise i think i'm gonna put a lia in charge of that and then uh instagram all at world gun geek

[01:22:13] and you can find us there and find out what we're doing and what what's going on and communicate

[01:22:18] be part of the community we'd love for you to do that thanks again for this uh episode you

[01:22:23] tying and alias always it's great to have you guys always a pleasure and thanks for watching we

[01:22:29] will see you guys in two weeks right here weeks bye i am waiting so my the podcast is real is a world

[01:22:38] gong geek production