Latest / The Whitfield Report / TWR Monday | Travis Davis: World War I's Impact on Family Bonds in "One of Four"

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TWR Monday | Travis Davis: World War I's Impact on Family Bonds in "One of Four" · The Whitfield Report

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  The right to offend is not some pesky little part of freedom of
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  speech that we have to put up with.
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  It is the heart and soul and lungs of freedom of speech.
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  It is the coursing lifeblood of human process.
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  It is the instigator of liberty and modernity and science and
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  understanding. What a laughing stock today's
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  student leaders are that they can so casually dismiss the
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  right to be offensive without realizing that their lovely,
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  enlightened lives are the gifts of individuals who gave offence.
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  Offensiveness is not just something we have to
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  begrudgingly accept. Offensiveness is the motor of
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  human progress. Now broadcasting from the Right
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  to Offend media studios in sunny South Florida, bringing you the
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  latest in politics, current events, art and pop culture.
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  This is the Whitfield Report live with Sam Whitfield.
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  But giving offense is good. In fact, it's essential.
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  All righty, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Monday
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  edition of the Whitfield Report. I am your host, Sam Whitfield,
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  recording here at Right to Offend Media Studios.
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  Joining me today is someone who I've been wanting to get on the
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  podcast for a while, and evidently he's been wanting to
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  come on the podcast for a while. So glad we finally got him on.
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  But Mr. Travis Davis is here who he writes in the same genre that
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  we all do in my circle, the political thriller espionage.
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  But his style is a bit different because he instead of going in
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  the direction of the Cold War and World War Two, he goes back
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  even further and his first thriller, one of four, which is
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  a World War One thriller. I'm very interested to read
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  that. It's on my list.
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  Travis was also, according to his bio here on X, an Army Cav
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  scout. So very interesting.
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  Travis, welcome to the Withhold report.
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  Hope you're doing well, Sir. Well, thank you, Sam.
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  Appreciate. Yeah, I was like, man, I want to
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  get on the podcast. How do I do that?
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  I'm going to reach out to him. I, I really, I really appreciate
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  it. Yeah, I've, I've been meaning to
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  reach out to you, but I'm like, oh, man, Travis, he always looks
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  like he's busy. But yeah, no, I I appreciate it.
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  You were recording this on a Thursday, even though this will
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  air on a Monday. And you actually had Andrew
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  Nelson on your podcast. He was a friend of the shows.
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  Yes. Great guy.
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  We love Andrew and that was a quarter way through the episode
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  and so far it's pretty good. Yeah, he's a that was a really
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  good writer. He's a real good human being.
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  So that's which is nice. Yeah, salt of the earth it was.
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  I live in live in Florida, and after the, you know, when the
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  Hurricanes were on the way here, he was one of the first people
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  online who actually reached out to me to make sure that my
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  family and I got out OK. So yeah, he's a terrific guy.
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  Yep, there he is. But anyway, well, Travis, I
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  imagine you have quite the background, Sir.
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  So just, you know, tell me a lot about about, about yourself
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  starting off. A lot of people don't know I'm a
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  high school dropout. So I, I dropped out of high
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  school, 11th grade, joined the Army Friday.
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  I dropped out a Monday or Tuesday.
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  I was in the Army 17 years old. He was an 11 delta time 19D Cav
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  scout member of the constant specialist.
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  And I happened to get my GED before I even would have
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  graduated about a about a year early.
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  I just took the test, passed it, and then, you know, took some
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  college courses that are interest me around history and
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  science and biology and things like that.
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  I stayed in, I retired 1995 and I got into technology.
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  So I've worked for companies ES, you know, back in the day,
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  Microsoft, Terra, Symantec, Numara, BMC.
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  So in the sales side, in the consulting side, and I really
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  did like it. And I just retired from there
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  about 3 years ago. And now as I write, I do my
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  podcast and I'm also a aid on a special needs bus for the school
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  district. So I hang out with those kiddos.
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  But almost every day you could write a book about what goes on
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  in those buses. But they're just amazing,
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  beautiful children. From elementary to high school,
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  there's beautiful, beautiful kids, young men and women.
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  Yeah. Well, you know, I have a
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  physical disability. I have cerebral palsy.
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  So, you know, I was on those buses a lot going up.
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  And, you know, I really appreciate, you know, people
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  like you who, you know, are willing to do that.
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  It's it's not always easy. You know, I tried to make it
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  easy for everyone, but, you know, unfortunately some of
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  those kids, you know, aren't always easy.
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  Well. They're not.
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  But you don't know what they're coming out of, right?
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  So when they walk out of that door, you don't have no idea
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  what's behind that door. So every day is of every day is
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  a new day. Yeah.
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  Every day is not Groundhog Day. Every day is a new day.
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  Right. And you know God wants you for
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  doing that, Sir, so. Thank you, I enjoy it.
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  So what then was your path to becoming an author?
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  Was this something that you always wanted to do and you're,
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  you know, or was it something that you picked up later on
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  after, you know, your military service?
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  So I started in the literary field about 20, what, 25 years
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  ago or so. I was the tech editor for Q
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  Publishing for the Microsoft MCSE series.
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  Whoa. And so I did.
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  I used to read books after they're printed to make sure
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  they're technically correct or I'd even get manuscripts and
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  technically edit those. So I did that for queue
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  publishing for, you know, a few years.
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  And then one day the, the publisher asked me say, Travis,
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  you, you want to help write a book?
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  So I said, sure, I'd love to. So it was a Windows 2000
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  security handbook and I wrote the chapter on Kerberos, which
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  is a security protocol in the Windows 2000 Active Directory.
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  And I knew absolutely nothing about it.
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  So I just had to do a lot, a lot of research.
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  It was great. I learned a ton and you know,
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  then I got away from it and about 3 years ago, I've always
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  had a great imagination. And about 3 years ago I just I
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  had an idea for a book, Flames of Deception, which I'm re
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  releasing on March 25th under my own publishing company, My
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  Empress. It's called Flames of the
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  Section. Cocked Pistol.
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  And. So that's coming out on March
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  20. So I did that and I wrote
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  another one, Cobalt Rise and Fall, The Great Reset, which
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  will be out later on this year under my imprint.
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  Then I and I was in the third, I was in the third book of the
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  Team Texarkana series, and I've always been interested in World
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  War One. It's just fascinating.
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  Oh, I had an idea. I ran out by my son and he goes,
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  oh, dad, hey, add this kind of twist to it.
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  And so I did that and I stopped 50,000 words into a book.
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  I stopped which that's that's half a book over over half a
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  book. And I started writing one of
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  four World War One through the eyes of an unknown soldier.
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  And I couldn't stop. I felt a calling or a need to
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  get the story that that unknown soldier couldn't tell, but in a
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  way that would not only get his story out, but would benefit a
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  father and son as they were rebuilding their relationship.
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  So a couple quick things. So First off, it sounds like you
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  were a technical writer for I Was.
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  Well, yeah, that's interesting because that's actually what I
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  do professionally. Like for my day job I'm yeah, I
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  actually got my technical writing degree from University
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  of South Florida. And then, you know,
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  unfortunately after I, after I graduated, the the pandemic was
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  still going on. So the tech sector wasn't really
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  hiring. I was in kind of the sticky, you
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  know, situation of, Hey, these aren't your level positions, but
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  also we want you to have five years experience even though you
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  just graduated from college. So now I so I've just been
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  freelancing actually kind of online and it's actually turned
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  out well for me. Now I've also got like, you
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  know, authors and, you know what, not reaching out to me.
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  And it's also helped me, you know, kind of turned this
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  podcast into a bit of a business, too.
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  Yeah, yeah. Well, that's interesting.
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  So I'm LinkedIn with a guy named Rod Trent.
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  You know, I will connect you 2 together.
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  I've known him for my entire technical career, I think.
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  And he writes right now for Microsoft Press.
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  Awesome. And I just had him on my pod.
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  He writes books, too. He'd be great to have on your
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  podcast, Rod Trent And so I, I don't know how many white papers
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  I've written. I started a software company
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  where I had to write the whole manual for the software.
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  You know, user guides, everything.
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  I had to take a class in college My, my, I think it was my, the
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  beginning of my junior year where I had to learn like design
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  theory and I had to use Adobe. I, I should remember the name of
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  the software because it gave me, it gave me nightmares, but it's
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  basically a, oh, Adobe, Adobe Indesign.
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  I had to learn Adobe Indesign, which is not easy, that that's
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  not like an easy program to, you know, use for layout.
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  And I, I remember like I would get like sometimes I would like
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  wake up in the middle of the night in like, you know, a cold
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  sweat, like, you know, thinking I was going to fail the, the
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  class. But I actually ended up getting
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  a design award. And turns out that all that
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  design theory that I never thought I was gonna use actually
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  turned out to be really helpful when I went into
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  self-publishing. Well.
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  Yeah. You know, to any college kids
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  still out there, just be just, you know, if there's a college
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  class that you're taking that you don't think you'll ever use,
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  you know, you never know. You might actually, you know,
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  use something particularly in graphic design.
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  Yeah, except, no, I, I agree. There are things that you think
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  you might not use. You're going to be able to use
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  that I use, you know, that I picked up in the military that I
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  still use today in some respects or another.
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  Whether? Yeah, you.
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  Know whether it's what I put in my writing, how I convey
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  messages, or any things like that.
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  Yeah. So you mentioned, you know, that
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  you wrote one of four, the story about the Unknown Soldier there.
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  It is very cool. What was it about that story,
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  and what was it about the Unknown Soldier that you know,
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  drew you to write about? You know?
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  So I've done did a lot of research on it.
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  I just was very interested in the story.
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  Nobody knows who he is. He's only known nobody to God.
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  But I wanted to be able to tell a story in a way that when you
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  read the book, you don't know who he is.
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  You'll you'll never find out who he is.
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  There's no attributes of that of the main character.
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  So I wanted to tell his story about what you know, How do you
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  basically starts off as how did they choose that soldier to go
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  in the tomb? And that's, you know,
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  historically correct. Then I go into the, you know,
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  basically the timeline of the first Expeditionary forces,
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  eventually the 1st century division and tell it in a way
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  from a private and an NCO perspective, not from a general,
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  not from a, you know, strategy or whatever, right?
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  I want to tell it from a tactical perspective of that
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  that soldier and how he changes in combat mentally, personally,
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  leadership wise. And I want to tell that story
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  and then relate it back to a father and son who retrace his
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  footsteps because they find the the diary, his diary hidden in
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  the Bible in present day France. And by doing that, the son can
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  see what war did to his father and it builds him back as a
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  father and son. The relationship, it will never
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  be broken again. Beautiful.
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  So it's really more of a father and son story as opposed to, you
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  know, a straight up like war. It's not, Yeah, I'd say it's not
• 13:42
  a war book. It's a book about war.
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  I mean, the ramifications of war on the combatants, the people
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  that live in the combat zone and the people when the soldiers
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  come home. Yeah.
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  And it's a it's a dual timeline. So they read, you know, they
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  they enacted my wife and I this summer.
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  We went to France and relive the book.
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  Wow. Yeah, So what, what what was
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  about World War One in particular when writing, you
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  know, this, this book that that drew you, that, you know,
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  because you could have done any, you know, number of eras you
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  could have done, you know, World War 2 with the Cold War, you
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  know, Korea even, lots of lots to choose from.
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  But what was about World War One and that era that drew you to
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  it? I think it's we we live from the
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  ramifications of World War One in the Treaty of Versailles of
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  this day. And it's the first war of Modern
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  Warfare. It was the first time that U.S.
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  forces have ever been in Europe to fight.
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  And it was so pivotal in, you know, the 20th century.
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  I wanted to be and there not a lot of books about there.
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  You know, you got War and Peace all quite on the Western Front.
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  You got the movie 1917, I think in 1916, which is phenomenal
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  book or movie. And the books are great.
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  And even one of Ford's been kind of like, OK, this is in that
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  that category of that this is that good of those books.
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  But I just want because not a lot of people know of it.
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  But I think when you read of it, you'll get, you'll get a bit of
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  history that you didn't know that you never even thought of.
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  And the way I the way I relate it back to that, that one
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  soldier and how we affect so many lives in in the 18 months.
• 15:38
  Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I'm always, you know,
• 15:43
  I'm, I'm personally, I'm a, you know, I'm a history buff and,
• 15:46
  you know, a political buff too. And it's, you know, it's amazing
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  how much especially like, you know, World War One has kind of
• 15:54
  gotten overshadowed, you know, by the immensity of World War 2,
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  you know, just because, you know, the Third Reich and all of
• 16:06
  that, you know, and other factors as well.
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  But I, I think a lot of people forget that, you know, World War
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  One was, you know, pretty, you know, catastrophic.
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  And in many ways it was, it was the first.
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  I know people always say the Civil War was the first modern
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  war, but in in my eyes World War 1 was really the first, you
• 16:32
  know, modern war. Yeah.
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  I mean, you had gas, you had machine gun, you had accurate
• 16:39
  artillery, you had the rifles, you had airplanes, blimps.
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  I mean, it all came out of, you know, because of World War One,
• 16:50
  basically. Yeah, and, you know, I, I think,
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  you know, everyone always asks the question, well, you know,
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  how did Hitler come to power? And in Germany, you know, I
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  think, you know, people love to, you know, put like a political
• 17:07
  spin on all that and try and read it through today's eyes.
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  But at least in, you know, the way I've always read is, well,
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  you know, Hitler came to power because there's several factors.
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  But essentially Germany got a raw deal at the end of, you
• 17:22
  know, World War One. And you know, the supposed war
• 17:27
  to end all wars you know led to World War 2 and subsequently the
• 17:35
  Greatest Generation taking up arms.
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  I mean the the Middle East mapped out, Africa mapped out
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  after World War One. You know, Germany lost all the
• 17:44
  colonies in Africa. They, you know, Middle East was
• 17:48
  carved up. So it was definitely had a lot
• 17:51
  to do with any right. You know, Hitler felt slated
• 17:53
  that he wanted Germany to be back unified from what it was
• 17:58
  pre World War One. Yeah, well, that and the fact
• 18:02
  also that he, you know, they failed him out of our school
• 18:05
  too. And if, you know, if they hadn't
• 18:09
  done that, maybe, maybe he would have become a painter.
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  Yeah. So it probably been pretty dark
• 18:15
  pictures, but yeah, yeah, my, my wife's German, so I'll be out.
• 18:18
  Yeah, with that thing. Yeah, yeah.
• 18:21
  And I mean, you know, you mentioned the Middle East, you
• 18:25
  know, there's, there's so much, you know, even with like, you
• 18:29
  know, world one that you know, impacts us today that a lot of,
• 18:36
  you know, Americans always don't even know about.
• 18:40
  I mean, Halloween before World War One was, you know, the
• 18:44
  chocolate bar and everything was really revolutionized in World
• 18:48
  War One because they had the way to get nourishment to the troops
• 18:52
  calories, right. And trick or treating really
• 18:56
  came out, from what I've read out of World War One, to giving
• 18:59
  candy away. Yeah, the, you know, the Clark
• 19:02
  Bar and some of these other bars have been around for a long
• 19:05
  time. And it was because they need to
• 19:08
  get calories to the soldiers. Yeah, I mean, you know, same
• 19:13
  thing and, you know, World War 2 with, you know, rations and you
• 19:18
  know all that. So yeah, I've had my share of
• 19:21
  sea rations. Well, I'm sure you know what
• 19:23
  what was. If you don't mind, what was your
• 19:26
  experience in the Army like? I love it.
• 19:30
  So Armor Reconnaissance Specialist or Calf Scout is
• 19:34
  basically the reconnaissance for a core, if it's an armor Calvary
• 19:38
  regiment or division or battalion.
• 19:42
  I had a 30 man scout platoon, 29 enlisted, one officer, normally
• 19:46
  a first Lieutenant in, in like an armored battalion and just
• 19:49
  love them great guys. We would go out and our, you
• 19:52
  know, our job is to locate the enemy.
• 19:54
  And so they can make those the, the commanders can make plans
• 19:57
  off of what we found and where we found it, when we found it,
• 19:59
  what the, you know, spot report, you know, size, activity
• 20:03
  location, a salute size, activity, location, unit time,
• 20:05
  equipment. I mean, that's, that's 40 years
• 20:08
  old. And I remember that.
• 20:09
  That's what salute means. Yeah.
• 20:12
  So you weren't, you weren't in. Well, I mean, I don't know it
• 20:16
  is, you know, are are the scouts like in the Special forces or
• 20:20
  anything like. That or no, it's it's it's not
• 20:23
  there's not a lot of calf scouts in in the Army.
• 20:26
  There's, you know, 30 in a, in a battalion, not allowing people
• 20:30
  in battalion probably, you know, through 400 maybe.
• 20:34
  But it's very, it's unique in the ability that even though my
• 20:40
  MOS was a 19D, I mean, I flew in helicopters.
• 20:43
  I was in the left front seat and OH, 58 for three years, you
• 20:47
  know, I was in a straight leg. If triple tune UE's guys flew in
• 20:51
  Vietnam, we walked in and flew out or flew in, flew out and
• 20:55
  walked in. We never did both, you know,
• 20:58
  being in an S2 or an S3 shop, intelligence shop or platoon.
• 21:01
  So the diversity of what you're able to do.
• 21:03
  I drove for a deputy brigade commander, brigade start major.
• 21:07
  So the things you were able to do in that job is just you don't
• 21:10
  you don't get bored. You're always changing and doing
• 21:13
  something else in that career field.
• 21:14
  But I like it now when my son went in the Army, I didn't told
• 21:17
  him don't do it because I wanted to.
• 21:19
  You don't have a job when he got out of the Army and he's he's a,
• 21:22
  he was a geospatial guy, imagery analyst.
• 21:25
  Nice, nice. Yeah, I I'm told, you know,
• 21:28
  those guys make good money. Oh, you.
• 21:30
  Got a good job. Works up in Northern Virginia
• 21:32
  for the aerospace industry, for the government, Yeah, you got.
• 21:35
  Yeah, my, my, my best friend's brother does stuff like that for
• 21:43
  Bozell and Hamilton out in California.
• 21:47
  Yeah. Big, big, big defense
• 21:49
  contractor. Yeah, yeah.
• 21:51
  So he's, you know, he's 31 years old and already makes like, you
• 21:57
  know, 7 figures. Can't beat that with a stick.
• 22:01
  No, you saw a lot of books. Yeah, well, I, I, I keep telling
• 22:05
  him I'm like, you know, hey, Jake, you know, purchase more of
• 22:08
  my books and give them out to your friends.
• 22:11
  I, I, you know, I, I could use some of that, you know?
• 22:14
  Yeah, Oh yeah. Money.
• 22:16
  Yeah, I'm pretty excited about the relaunch of Flames and
• 22:19
  Deception Total. Almost.
• 22:20
  Not a rewrite, but very heavily edited and a lot of new stuff in
• 22:24
  there. I'm pretty excited about that.
• 22:27
  Yeah, we'll, we'll talk about that one because I, I saw the
• 22:30
  title and, you know, I don't know how much you've checked out
• 22:33
  my bio, but my, my series is actually called Shadows of
• 22:38
  Deception. I promise you folks, you know,
• 22:40
  neither of us were not copying each other, at least I don't
• 22:43
  think. But yeah, they're, there's
• 22:46
  something about the, you know, the word deception that just,
• 22:50
  you know, for thrillers always, you know, is, is really it, you
• 22:54
  know, it's an it's an attention getter, so.
• 22:57
  Yeah, the The Premises Geospatial Imagery Intelligence
• 23:01
  analyst has uncovered the best kept secret in the 21st century
• 23:10
  by analyzing images from the oil fields in Russia, Siberia.
• 23:15
  And that sets off a whole clandestine operation to figure
• 23:18
  out what's going on. And at the same time, Russia,
• 23:21
  China and India form an alliance and are moving troops around the
• 23:25
  world and purposely avoiding the United States, though, and at
• 23:28
  the same time, China launching a very sophisticated cyber
• 23:34
  espionage against a green energy grid.
• 23:36
  And if you looked up what cock pistol means, it'll tell you in
• 23:40
  the book what that means. It's there's a reason why that
• 23:44
  name is part of the book, the secondary title.
• 23:47
  What? So you mentioned that this is a
• 23:49
  rewrite that you're doing, so when did you first write claims?
• 23:55
  2022. Interesting.
• 23:58
  So so I mean, the the Russia Ukraine war was already on, but
• 24:04
  it wasn't fully had you had an idea of, you know, to do
• 24:09
  something like that before Russia Ukraine or did did Russia
• 24:12
  Ukraine? So I, I, I had the idea in
• 24:16
  February of 2022 and I started writing in March.
• 24:20
  I think the Russians invaded in February of 2022.
• 24:23
  Is that a big aspect part of the book at all?
• 24:27
  Right then they know they got their, they feel like they got
• 24:29
  their butt kicked. But it's more it's it's it's
• 24:32
  sort of like a techno thriller in the like, like a maybe a Tom
• 24:37
  Clancy, Kive Clustler type kind of book.
• 24:41
  And I then I form a team out of that, out of these three people,
• 24:45
  Tex, Tyler and Kim, because their unique ability form a
• 24:49
  team. Yeah, I mean it is, it is
• 24:55
  interesting. You know, I, I kind of figured
• 24:57
  you were off, you know, that you were off tune your own thing.
• 25:01
  But it is variance and how often times, you know, just through
• 25:08
  coincidence, a lot of our fiction mirrors what's going on.
• 25:15
  So there's actually in at the end of my second book, the 4th
• 25:23
  Estate in the Shadows of deception to like, there's
• 25:25
  actually a presidential assassination attempt that I had
• 25:31
  written, that I had written, you know, at the beginning of last,
• 25:36
  of last year. And then like around June,
• 25:40
  people were like, you know, did did you take?
• 25:44
  And I'm like, and I'm like, I'm like, no, no, I, I wrote that,
• 25:48
  you know, way back before the assassination attempt even
• 25:53
  happened. Yeah, there's a lot of, there's
• 25:57
  a lot of truth and fiction. Yes, sometimes.
• 26:03
  Sometimes in you know, not the most you know settling ways
• 26:08
  either. Yes, I agree.
• 26:10
  But I do write, you know, I'm, I'm actually there, there's a, a
• 26:15
  woman and one of four, the French girl that actually finds
• 26:19
  the diary and watches the soldier get killed.
• 26:21
  She witnesses death, you know, in the book she gets killed in
• 26:26
  World War 2 in the French Resistance.
• 26:27
  And I'm actually writing her story.
• 26:32
  Gotcha. So are you planning on like
• 26:35
  doing an era's, you know, series with like one of four and making
• 26:41
  it into like a, you know, a history?
• 26:45
  I I do I have AI have a Korea war idea that I'm working on.
• 26:52
  I also looking at doing World War One series of the units that
• 27:02
  I was in in the army that were in World War 1.
• 27:05
  So I was in the first history division, I was in the third
• 27:08
  history division, I was in the Second Armored Calvary Regiment
• 27:12
  and writing a story around that. I think the third entry would be
• 27:15
  the Second Battle of the Marne, the second ACR.
• 27:18
  Figure that one out. But I'm thinking units that I
• 27:20
  was in writing a story about those in World War One.
• 27:23
  I think that'd be kind of kind of cool.
• 27:25
  Yeah. Well, especially also you
• 27:27
  mentioned Korea that, you know, that would be, that would be,
• 27:31
  you know, fascinating because, you know, unfortunately in Korea
• 27:34
  is called, you know, the forgotten war.
• 27:39
  You know, Viet, Vietnam gets, you know, a lot of attention,
• 27:45
  unfortunately for a lot of the wrong reasons.
• 27:47
  But, you know, it's still, it still does.
• 27:52
  You know, since I've been alive, you know, with Vince Flynn and
• 27:55
  Jack Hart, you know, we have all the War on Terror.
• 27:59
  Yeah, Bucks. So, yeah, I didn't want to write
• 28:02
  one of those. It's just, I think that I think
• 28:06
  they write it well enough that it'd be tough to write, you
• 28:08
  know, get into that genre. Yeah, well, I mean, you know
• 28:12
  that. Well, that's the other thing
• 28:13
  too, is like every author has to find their niche.
• 28:17
  And the, the one thing I always tell you know, new authors, I
• 28:22
  mean, I've, I've been writing for the past decade.
• 28:26
  I've only been, you know, a published author for two years
• 28:29
  at this one point. And the one thing I was telling
• 28:31
  new authors is, you know, if you're starting out, just write
• 28:36
  for your write for yourself because especially in this
• 28:40
  genre, because you may be, it may be a great writer, you may
• 28:45
  in some people's opinions even be better than some, like Tom
• 28:49
  Clancer, Jack Carr. But that doesn't mean that you
• 28:52
  are Tom Clancer, Jack Carr and you're not going to get the, you
• 28:57
  know, the royalties right away. And you know, you're not going
• 29:02
  to skyrocket to overnight success.
• 29:05
  So. Exactly, exactly.
• 29:08
  I look at it as a, you know, I enjoy just telling a story and
• 29:13
  people enjoy the story and take, you know, take a break from
• 29:16
  their normal lives for just a little bit and, and go somewhere
• 29:20
  else in their head by reading the words that I'm putting down
• 29:22
  on paper. Yeah, well, and, you know, for
• 29:24
  me personally, like writing in the political thriller genre.
• 29:27
  I mean, I, I was, I was in the College Republicans while I was,
• 29:32
  you know, still in college and I, you know, I dabbled in
• 29:36
  politics a little bit. So it's a, you know, it's all it
• 29:41
  takes is actually a lot less thrilling than in thrillers, but
• 29:46
  it's still nice to, you know, suspend your disbelief a little
• 29:50
  bit and just weave, you know, tails like you.
• 29:53
  I have a pretty. I have a pretty act of
• 29:56
  imagination. Me too.
• 29:59
  Yeah. And say the least, you know,
• 30:02
  fighting can be pretty therapeutic, I thought.
• 30:05
  Oh yeah, I agree 100%. Well, how'd you kind of jumping
• 30:11
  gears a look, but how do you get into a podcast?
• 30:17
  So I when I wrote Flames of Deception, I had no idea about
• 30:23
  writing a book or authoring a book or publishing or anything.
• 30:29
  So I said what a better way to do than interview people that
• 30:32
  have done it. So that's why I started author
• 30:35
  eke, which eke in German or in English is Corner.
• 30:38
  It's German for corner. So all the corner.
• 30:41
  So I wanted to be able to, you know, interview people that have
• 30:44
  sold one book, people that sold a million books, people that are
• 30:47
  editors or audio professionals or voices.
• 30:50
  And so I've done I've released 100 episodes.
• 30:54
  And again, it's, it's, it's genre, you know, who cares what
• 30:59
  genre it is? I've interviewed children's
• 31:01
  authors, every spiritual books, you name it.
• 31:04
  I've interviewed folks because I just think it's interesting
• 31:06
  because everybody has a nugget of information that you can get
• 31:10
  to help you along your path. And that's just just the goal of
• 31:14
  it. Yeah, I mean, even since I've
• 31:17
  been, you know, interviewing authors, you know, for the past,
• 31:20
  you know, two years, you know, my, my show used to be mostly
• 31:27
  like, you know, news and like politics and then some, you
• 31:31
  know, current events. But like, ever since I've
• 31:33
  started interviewing, you know, people like, like I've been
• 31:36
  interviewing all these authors and it's definitely helped, you
• 31:40
  know, develop my writing, you know, just by just by gaining
• 31:45
  insight from other authors. And then plus, like, you know, I
• 31:50
  find all the authors that I've had yourself included, like they
• 31:55
  have a story themselves to tell, which I always find very
• 32:00
  interesting. Yeah, it's very, Yeah.
• 32:04
  I've got an idea for a, a more of a in a perspective book, but
• 32:09
  it's it'd be tough. It'd be tough for me to write.
• 32:12
  I have the title. It's called, you know, son,
• 32:16
  father, grandfather. Yeah, it's all those three
• 32:22
  things. But yeah, maybe I'll get to it.
• 32:24
  But yeah, so you're right. And all everybody that I've met
• 32:28
  is very helpful. There's no, I've met anybody
• 32:31
  that, you know, won't try to help you or read AARC copy for
• 32:37
  you or give you some feedback. I found it very symbiotic.
• 32:39
  The relationship in the author community is very, very good at
• 32:42
  that. Yeah, well, yeah, I, I find it
• 32:45
  much the same way, you know, same in the, in the podcasting
• 32:49
  community, which has changed a bit because like I, I've been
• 32:53
  podcasting since 2008. So I've been at this for quite a
• 32:58
  while. The podcasting space, depending
• 33:01
  on, you know, which I guess genre you're in.
• 33:04
  It used to be like really, you know, competitive.
• 33:07
  I I wouldn't really say cutthroat, but like, you know,
• 33:10
  not a lot of people were, you know, it was kind of our man for
• 33:14
  it was kind of every man from self for a while.
• 33:17
  But I think as the, you know, as the medium has kind of, you
• 33:22
  know, evolved and grown over the years, people are a lot more
• 33:26
  helpful. And then like, you know, just
• 33:29
  again, with the writing community, like everyone's
• 33:33
  giving each other shout outs and you know, I try and, you know,
• 33:38
  shut other people out. And you know, it's, it's been a
• 33:43
  little, I don't want to say weird isn't the right word, but
• 33:47
  very humbling is that word because I, I got Adm from, you
• 33:51
  know, someone yesterday who I didn't know from Adam and they
• 33:55
  were just like, you know, dude, you're one of my all time
• 33:57
  favorite authors And I'm like. Well, that's cool.
• 34:00
  And I'm like, you know, like, wow, who am I?
• 34:03
  Like I, you know, in the grand scheme of things, like I, you
• 34:07
  know, I'm, I'm a nobody and yet, you know, here, here's this, you
• 34:11
  know, here's this guy saying that like, you know, you're a
• 34:14
  legend or something like that. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm,
• 34:19
  well, crap. And that's at the bottom of the
• 34:20
  ocean. So if anybody recognizes me, I
• 34:23
  feel pretty good about that. Yeah.
• 34:27
  I mean, I mean, I think there's a lot to specifically like with,
• 34:33
  you know, the writing, you know, podcast genre and, and there are
• 34:38
  a couple of them now too. But I find, you know, even with
• 34:44
  listening to a few of them, you can always gain, you can always
• 34:49
  gain insight, even if you're listening to the same interview
• 34:52
  with, even if you're listening to the same person on different
• 34:55
  podcasts, so. It's something just to help you
• 34:58
  get over that, that maybe you're not as motivated by you.
• 35:01
  You're somebody that you know, wrote a book and or published
• 35:05
  the book. It's oh, you know, now I'm OK.
• 35:07
  Now I get motivated. Now I can I feel good about let
• 35:10
  me get back into it. Let me get back and write
• 35:12
  something. Yeah.
• 35:13
  Well, you know, sometimes, like, sometimes, like I, you know, I
• 35:18
  know authors who they're really good at writing the story, but
• 35:23
  then they don't know how to, you know, market it or really how
• 35:27
  to, you know, it's tough. Yeah.
• 35:30
  That that is tough even, you know, even from, even for me as,
• 35:34
  you know, someone who does technical writing and social
• 35:37
  media, you know, for a living, it's kind of, you know, it's
• 35:43
  insane. With podcasting, it's it's, I
• 35:46
  always tell people the fun part of podcasting is recording and
• 35:50
  sitting down with people. Yeah.
• 35:52
  The, the hard, the hard part of it, honestly the hardest part I
• 35:56
  find, at least for me with podcasting is honestly like
• 36:00
  putting out little clips and getting those on social media.
• 36:05
  And then like, you know, I don't really like TikTok or Instagram,
• 36:08
  but you kind of have to be on those.
• 36:10
  You have to be on the now to and we use the same platform.
• 36:15
  I use Riverside too and again, you can cut those Nuggets out
• 36:20
  and then I do. I haven't done a couple weeks,
• 36:23
  but I like doing what I call booking a beer and it's a
• 36:26
  minute, minute and a half. I talk, I have a book and I have
• 36:30
  a different beer or maybe in different locations that I'm
• 36:33
  trying to talk about the book and the beer together.
• 36:35
  And it's just like I have a fun thing to do.
• 36:37
  Minute and a half, get a book and maybe new beer and something
• 36:42
  to do. Yeah, well, well, you know,
• 36:45
  Riverside is great, you know, which is what we're using.
• 36:48
  And you know, that's what that's why I love the Monday podcast.
• 36:51
  I do, you know, so, you know, clean.
• 36:55
  But then on Wednesdays, I actually do a live stream, like
• 36:59
  late night show stop podcast on Rumble with my coast.
• 37:05
  Cool, Max. And yeah, we've had Andrew on
• 37:10
  there just to like comment on, you know, current events.
• 37:15
  And I think after doing that, I think after doing my show, he,
• 37:20
  you know, he's been a lot more open to.
• 37:24
  Yeah, so. Yeah, so I.
• 37:28
  Get I get a kick out of his and FX Reagan's I get a kick out of
• 37:31
  his stuff too. He's like, OK, this is
• 37:33
  interesting. Yeah, so at least for at least
• 37:36
  for Andrew, you can you can blame that Soya on awesome, on
• 37:41
  me, great. But yeah, I mean, Riverside's
• 37:46
  been great, Rumbles been great, YouTube actually.
• 37:50
  Unfortunately they banned my podcast for for community
• 37:58
  guidelines violations. They won't tell me which one.
• 38:03
  They don't know they're. Violated, but you know I'm
• 38:07
  persona non grata on YouTube. As happens.
• 38:12
  But you know, you roll with the punches.
• 38:15
  I guess so. Exactly.
• 38:19
  As far as influences, as far as writing goes, like who would you
• 38:24
  say your influences are? Robert Ludlum, Clive Kessler,
• 38:30
  the old Clive Kessler, the, you know, the original Clive
• 38:32
  Kessler. Let's see.
• 38:36
  Tom Clancy. I wanted to go in the Navy after
• 38:38
  reading for Red October, but yeah, I think that's Dan Brown.
• 38:41
  Some of them. So yes, some of that genre.
• 38:44
  Yeah, Now I've noticed that your books and everyone else I've
• 38:48
  talked to, you know, mine included, are always
• 38:51
  significantly shorter than say, Ludlums or Clancy's books,
• 38:56
  which, you know, that's not a knock at all.
• 39:00
  You know, I, I actually think that some of the shorter books
• 39:02
  are, are better. Some of those those Robert
• 39:05
  Ludlum books are like, you know, oh, I mean one.
• 39:08
  Of the first books I've I remember reading is The World
• 39:11
  According to Garp that it's a big book.
• 39:15
  Yeah, why? I remember, I remember I was a,
• 39:21
  a teenager, you know, when the, when the, when the Bourne
• 39:25
  movies, you know, were a thing. And so I was like, oh, I'm, you
• 39:28
  know, I'm going to pick up the Bourne Identity and read that.
• 39:32
  Did I did read that in its entirety.
• 39:35
  I think it took me like 6 months because it, you know, it's a
• 39:40
  large book, way different, way different from the movie too so.
• 39:45
  The books are I love Robert Ludlum.
• 39:49
  Yeah, fabulous. I actually in one of my like
• 39:53
  earlier, you know, like short stories that I wrote when I
• 39:56
  didn't know what the hell I was doing.
• 39:57
  I actually, you know, I named the character Vince Ludlum kind
• 40:02
  of as a, as a nod to, you know, Vince Flynn and Robert Ludlum.
• 40:09
  Cool. So, yeah, so you've got you've
• 40:18
  got one of four and then you've got Flames of Deception coming
• 40:21
  out soon as well. Anything else in the works?
• 40:25
  You mentioned the? No, I mean, I'm working on that
• 40:31
  kind of the book offshoot from one of four, but other than
• 40:35
  that, just some ideas I'm kind of kicking around.
• 40:39
  There very cool. I'm always curious to know do
• 40:42
  you have like any process like for writing or any schedule?
• 40:47
  No, I you know, I just write when I can between the routes
• 40:50
  and stuff. Yeah.
• 40:53
  But I try, I try to write. You know, I like writing in the
• 40:56
  morning. I don't in the afternoon kind
• 40:57
  of, you know, brain dead. But I do that.
• 41:02
  I like listening to music. When I write, I'm thinking about
• 41:06
  writing a a play for one of four, one or two person play.
• 41:15
  I've been told to make a good a great movie.
• 41:17
  Very it's a very theatrical book, cinematic, very cinematic
• 41:21
  book. So who knows?
• 41:23
  Yeah, I've, I've been told that mine would make a, a great, you
• 41:27
  know, Netflix show. And I I tell people I'm like,
• 41:29
  well, I'm like, you know, thank, thank you.
• 41:32
  But also like, you know, I'm sure I'd have to get in line
• 41:36
  behind like. You know everybody's.
• 41:38
  There, Yeah. There's so many other, you know,
• 41:41
  series like, you know, we mentioned Andrew Nelson's like
• 41:46
  his books could easily, you know, be made into.
• 41:52
  Yeah, exactly. I agree 100%.
• 41:54
  You know his, his, his books and I know he'll hear he'll, he'll
• 42:00
  hear this. I actually enjoy the the James
• 42:03
  McGuire books more than I enjoy the Alex Cross books.
• 42:08
  So yeah. But anyway, well, any other, you
• 42:16
  know, any other, you know, we covered a lot of ground.
• 42:20
  You get one of four in Amazon or Barnes and Nobles or wherever
• 42:23
  and audio ebook hardcover softcover get off my website
• 42:27
  authortravisdavis.com and you also can pre-order flames of
• 42:31
  deception sign copies from my website and you can also
• 42:35
  pre-order the ebook from the Amazon dot com right now.
• 42:38
  Yeah, so it is so your books are on Audible as well.
• 42:43
  So that's that's cool. Yeah, so are so are mine.
• 42:47
  It's a bit, it's a bit, it's a bit of a process, but it's it's
• 42:52
  worth, I find so I. Agree.
• 42:57
  Yeah. So and then, you know, Amazon,
• 43:00
  you know, and all of the usual places.
• 43:03
  Yes, sadly, ladies and gentlemen, they still won't
• 43:06
  allow us to do paperback pre-orders for whatever reason.
• 43:11
  Yeah. I haven't figured that out.
• 43:13
  I they, they don't, I don't think they allow you to do it
• 43:17
  through KDP because I've worked and that's the, that's the one
• 43:22
  question I always get from like readers is, is there a way to
• 43:26
  pre-order the, the print copies? And I'm like, yeah, Nope.
• 43:30
  I would just recommend like bookmarking the page or whatever
• 43:33
  and then coming back on, you know, stay.
• 43:38
  I think all the top five publishers have that locked up
• 43:41
  till all their books are automatically going to the
• 43:43
  bestseller list. You know, pre-order stuff.
• 43:46
  Yeah, probably. Definitely.
• 43:48
  Definitely, even if they probably don't sell them all to
• 43:50
  somebody to order them. You know, they, they probably,
• 43:54
  well, you know, they've already, you know, there there was that
• 43:59
  Penguin lawsuit that came out a few years ago that revealed
• 44:03
  that, you know, people are just buying, you know, copies on
• 44:06
  Mass. So Yep.
• 44:08
  Yep. Yep, is what it is.
• 44:11
  Yep, I mean, you know, indie authors are also easier to get a
• 44:17
  hold of for a podcast as well. So that's why I also appreciate
• 44:22
  this scene. So.
• 44:24
  Yep, exactly. But anyway, so you know, you can
• 44:28
  find your books on Amazon Kindle, Audible, all those
• 44:34
  places and then the podcast where I can find.
• 44:38
  I find it on YouTube and off the off all popular streaming
• 44:42
  channels. Yeah, go ahead, author Eke check
• 44:45
  them out. They have 100 episodes and
• 44:46
  they're range from all sorts of folks out there.
• 44:50
  Cow Mills, Jack Carr, you know, folks you've never even heard of
• 44:55
  but are fantastic writers. I go out there and check them
• 44:57
  out. Wow, so.
• 44:59
  Eric Bishop, you know all these. Folks, yeah, I always have to
• 45:02
  shout at Eric because he's Eric is one of the most generous.
• 45:06
  He is a fantastic individual. In this field, he's he's helped
• 45:11
  me out a lot. You know, he was very gracious
• 45:15
  in letting me go on, you know, his podcast, you know, when I,
• 45:22
  when I first, you know, when I first interviewed him now, which
• 45:26
  was probably he's been on the show like 6 times that when I,
• 45:29
  the very first time I interviewed him, his, his whole
• 45:33
  thing was well, you know, saying I, I was told that, you know,
• 45:36
  you're like the Joe Rogan of any podcaster.
• 45:39
  So, you know, excellent. I want to be like, you know,
• 45:43
  like, so you know, where, where, where's the million up, where's
• 45:47
  the million listeners? So we had some fun with that,
• 45:50
  but maybe one day. But yeah, he's always great.
• 45:55
  And, you know, just this entire community has been, yes,
• 46:00
  awesome. So I agree.
• 46:02
  Excellent. All right, well, and you know,
• 46:05
  if you ever need a guest, I'm always open to come on.
• 46:09
  Well, we need to. Get you booked in.
• 46:10
  Get you booked. Yeah, sounds good.
• 46:12
  I'll. Definitely send you a copy SO.
• 46:14
  Yes, excellent. All right, folks.
• 46:17
  Well, thank you for, you know, tuning in.
• 46:19
  Thanks to Travis for joining us. Appreciate it.
• 46:24
  Thank you very much. You know, appreciate you having
• 46:27
  you on, Sir. And we will see you on the
• 46:31
  Wednesday Night Live show. And until then, take care and
• 46:36
  God bless everyone. Thank you.
• 46:38
  Appreciate it. The right to offend is not some
• 46:44
  pesky little part of freedom of speech that we have to put up
• 46:47
  with. It is the heart and soul and
• 46:49
  lungs of freedom of speech. It is the coursing lifeblood of
• 46:53
  human progress. It is the instigator of liberty
• 46:57
  and modernity and science and understanding.
• 47:01
  What a laughing stock today's student leaders are that they
• 47:05
  can so casually dismiss the right to be offensive without
• 47:09
  realizing that their lovely, enlightened lives are the gifts
• 47:13
  of individuals who gave offence. Offensiveness is not just
• 47:18
  something we have to begrudgingly accept.
• 47:21
  Offensiveness is the motor of human progress.
• 47:25
  Thank you for watching the Whitfield Report live on The
• 47:28
  Right to Offend Media Network. Make sure to check out Sam's
• 47:32
  books on Amazon, Audible, and Kindle.
• 47:36
  You can follow Sam on X at Sam W under score, NGC and the Right
• 47:42
  to Offend Media Network at RTO Media.
• 47:47
  Like, comment, subscribe and share with your friends.
• 47:51
  And until next time, God bless. God save this great nation.
• 47:58
  God, freedom, legacy, in that order.