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Nancy Grace Killer Reads: Solo Shot- Curse of the Blue Stone · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grease. Hi, guys, Nancy Grace here
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  Speaker 1: today is special edition with me a man we all
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  Speaker 1: know and respect. IRV Brandt, Senior Inspector US Marshall Service
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  Speaker 1: with International Investigations, Chief Inspector DOJ, Office of International Affairs.
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  Speaker 1: Has worked at embassies all across the country. But you
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  Speaker 1: may not know this about IRV Brandt. He is the
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  Speaker 1: author of a series of books about Jack Solo, and
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  Speaker 1: you can find him on Twitter at Jack Solo Author.
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  Speaker 1: All of these books are on Amazon, but the one
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk about today is Solo shot Curse
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  Speaker 1: of the Blue Stone. You know, the first thing that
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  Speaker 1: grabbed me when I saw this V is the front
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  Speaker 1: of the book. I'm pretty sure that's Big Ben and Parliament.
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  Speaker 2: It is Nancy and uh I specifically had that shot
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  Speaker 2: in mind.
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  Speaker 1: I love that shot. And I'm not going to dwell
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  Speaker 1: on the front of your book because what's inside of
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  Speaker 1: the book is so much greater than the front. But
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  Speaker 1: I love that you pigged that and then on the
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  Speaker 1: back side, you know, it stretches around. It just really
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  Speaker 1: puts me right there where everything happened. Okay, first of all,
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  Speaker 1: I love Jack Solo. I love that he's a poker player,
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  Speaker 1: and I love that he reminds me of this guy
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  Speaker 1: a little bit. Let's see who if it it's IRV Brant,
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  Speaker 1: because this guy is, as you say, a wise, cracking,
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  Speaker 1: cheek inspector. That would be you with the US Marshall Service,
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  Speaker 1: and you know the US Marshals. I got a soft
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  Speaker 1: spot in my heart for the US Marshall's and I'll
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  Speaker 1: tell you why. My first investigator slash bodyguard in the
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  Speaker 1: District Attorney's office was a former nfler, Robert McPherson. Everybody
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  Speaker 1: called him Mac. This guy had to be six ' eight,
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  Speaker 1: he's built like a fridge, and we went everywhere together.
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  Speaker 1: He had been assigned to the elected district Attorney, mister Slayton,
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  Speaker 1: and mister Slayton loaned him out to me and he
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  Speaker 1: went on to become the US Marshal for the Northern
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  Speaker 1: District of Georgia. And I just thought so much of him,
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  Speaker 1: and that was really my first contact with the US
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  Speaker 1: Marshall's Office. You could have picked a better character than
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  Speaker 1: Jack Solo. So tell me how did you come up?
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  Speaker 1: Because he's kind of like you, yet he's so different
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  Speaker 1: as well. He's kind of like Indiana Jones. He's kind
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  Speaker 1: of like James Bond, He's kind of like Brant and
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  Speaker 1: intertwine the US Marshall Service throughout the book to open
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  Speaker 1: up doors and avenues and little nunspots across the world
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  Speaker 1: that only a US Marshall would know about unless you're
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  Speaker 1: Indiana Jones. So I had to come up with Jack Solo.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Nancy. I started writing the Jack Solo series when
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  Speaker 2: I was with the US Marshall Service before I retired,
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  Speaker 2: and since I worked for the Department of Justice, I
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  Speaker 2: couldn't publish the novels, and so it was when I
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  Speaker 2: retired in twenty seventeen that I started publishing my books.
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  Speaker 2: But how I came up with Jack Solo. He's a
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  Speaker 2: fictional character, but he is based on my experiences, and
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  Speaker 2: there's a little of me in him, of course, But
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  Speaker 2: he's also the character. His genre, his attitude, his characteristics
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  Speaker 2: are based on some of my favorite authors and their
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  Speaker 2: title characters, like Robert Parker Spencer and Harlan Cobn's Mylon
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  Speaker 2: Myron Bolletar, and particularly Robert Kraft his detective Elvis Cole.
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  Speaker 2: I think Jack Solo gets a lot of his sense
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  Speaker 2: of humor as wise cracking detective from Elvis Cole.
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  Speaker 1: I love and he conjures up Indiana Jones but a
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  Speaker 1: whole but yet so different from Indiana Jones. So what
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  Speaker 1: really made me think of Indiana is the Blue Stone.
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  Speaker 1: This new book solo shot, which has you know, a
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  Speaker 1: secret meaning to itself, solo shot which I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to give away, but the Curse of the Bluestone. How
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  Speaker 1: many Jack solos have you written?
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  Speaker 2: Well, actually, I'm deep into book eight right now. I've
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  Speaker 2: published four. The next one should be out next year.
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  Speaker 2: It's called Forever Solo Society's Dragon Eastrom which is Latin
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  Speaker 2: for Order of the Dragon. And this one you're going
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  Speaker 2: to love because it's okay.
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  Speaker 1: All of us that don't speak Latin, which is everybody
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  Speaker 1: says it's a dead language. You may need to put
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  Speaker 1: that in English.
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  Speaker 2: You think everyone doesn't speak Latin, Really.
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  Speaker 1: No one speaks Latin. Actually, remember it's a dead language.
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  Speaker 2: Huh. Okay, I'll keep that in mind.
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  Speaker 1: Just a thought for your readers. They may appreciate it
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  Speaker 1: not being written in Latin.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, go ahead, Okay, Nancy, I think you're really going
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  Speaker 2: to like it. It's a good combination of the past
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  Speaker 2: and the present, like in verst of the Blue Stone,
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  Speaker 2: the Origins of the Hope Diamond. Well, in Forever Solo,
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  Speaker 2: I give you the.
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  Speaker 1: Family Where what where? Which museum house is the Hope Diamond.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's it's in the Smithsonian. And I spent a
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  Speaker 2: lot of time when I actually wrote the novel in
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  Speaker 2: the Harry Winston Gallery and the Natural History Museum and
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  Speaker 2: the Smithsonian staring at the Hope Diamond. Goodness, and I
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  Speaker 2: would go down to the cafeteria and write.
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  Speaker 1: Because I've taken the twins to the Museum of Natural
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  Speaker 1: History so many times, you know, with them growing up
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  Speaker 1: in New York, we have run up and down those
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  Speaker 1: halls so many times. Their favorite, of course is Sagachaweyah,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the Indian guide that led Lewis and Clark.
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  Speaker 1: But yes, that's where. So of course I was going
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  Speaker 1: to ask you, how how many times you is the
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  Speaker 1: museum to get this down? Oh? Another thing, I love
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  Speaker 1: that he always wears a a door. I guess that's
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  Speaker 1: what made me originally think of Indiana Jones. But okay,
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  Speaker 1: back to Jack's solo, how did you get the idea
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  Speaker 1: curse of the Bluestone.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it was when I was working at Interpol Washington, DC,
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  Speaker 2: and I was spending time just walking through the Smithsonians
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  Speaker 2: and my mind was, could you actually steal something from
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  Speaker 2: the Smithsonians? And I specifically thought of the Hope Diamond.
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  Speaker 2: And I wracked my brain on that, circling this and
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  Speaker 2: you know, looking at the Hope Diamond and all the security,
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  Speaker 2: and I came up with nothing really and I said, well,
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  Speaker 2: what if it went on display, what if it was loaned,
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  Speaker 2: what if it was loaned to the British Museum? Could
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  Speaker 2: someone possibly feel it from the British Museum. And that's
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  Speaker 2: where the idea was originally born, is the Hope Diamond
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  Speaker 2: was going to be sent out on loan and Jack
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  Speaker 2: Solo was going to be in charge of its security.
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  Speaker 2: So that's that's how the idea first formed, was just
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  Speaker 2: me walking around the galleries in the Smithsonians looking for ideas.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, you know, let's see, I guess it would be
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  Speaker 1: at the Metropolitan. Uh, you know, they have an entire
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  Speaker 1: Egyptian temple in the Smithsonian that the US helped I
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  Speaker 1: guess dig out of the water. Gosh, thinking about that
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  Speaker 1: and thinking about the Hope diamond. There are so many
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  Speaker 1: stories to be told, and it sounds boring that it
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  Speaker 1: would come out of a museum, But Curse of the
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  Speaker 1: Bluestone is anything but boring. It is not boring at all. So,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I didn't realize you had worked for innerpol
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  Speaker 1: as well. Now I hear you talk about various art
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  Speaker 1: I read about, you know, solo drinking in all sorts
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  Speaker 1: of great masterpieces, you know, like my Teas and so forth.
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  Speaker 1: What art inspired you to include that and Curse of
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  Speaker 1: the Bluestone.
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  Speaker 2: The Impressionists have always spoken to me. Monet van Go
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  Speaker 2: artists like that. And you were talking about the cover
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  Speaker 2: of Solo Shot, and it's pretty much Monet's Houses of Parliament.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it gives you that hazy it's a memory
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  Speaker 2: type view, you know, something that you've seen but just
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  Speaker 2: can't really place in your mind, or you know, it's
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  Speaker 2: kind of abstract. And those type of artists have always
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  Speaker 2: spoken to me. And I've spent so much time in
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  Speaker 2: the galleries in Washington, d C. Because I worked there
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  Speaker 2: for so many years, and that was my inspiration for
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the topics and themes of the Jack
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  Speaker 2: Solo mystery novels.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess wandering those halls, which one would you
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  Speaker 1: say is your favorite.
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  Speaker 2: Artist being Go?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, m hm.
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  Speaker 2: When I was in working at euro Poll, which is
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  Speaker 2: separate from Interpol and den Hague, I would fly into
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  Speaker 2: Amsterdam and take the train to don Hague to Europol headquarters.
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  Speaker 2: But I always made time to go to the Vangu Museum.
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  Speaker 2: And when you know, when before I went to uh Dnega,
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  Speaker 2: make time in Amsterdam to go to the Vango Museum.
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  Speaker 2: And Nancy, I got to tell you, when you walk
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  Speaker 2: up the stairs and to the second level of that museum,
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  Speaker 2: all of Van Go's self portraits are lining the walls
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  Speaker 2: and you can see them as you're walking up the stairs,
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  Speaker 2: and my knees would actually get weak and start to wabble,
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  Speaker 2: and I would have to hold on to the rail
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  Speaker 2: because it just spoke to me so much that once
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  Speaker 2: I made it to that level, I would have That's
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  Speaker 2: why they put the little couches out there for you
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  Speaker 2: to wow.
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  Speaker 1: You might because I was thinking of the self portrait
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  Speaker 1: that hangs in the Metropolitan in Manhattan, which I love
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  Speaker 1: so much, And it's amazing you said that, because one
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  Speaker 1: of my dream trips is to take the twins to
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  Speaker 1: Arles and retrace then goes steps as he painted the countryside,
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  Speaker 1: the haystacks, the windmills, all of that genre, you know,
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  Speaker 1: that phase, his Arles phase, which I'm not quite as
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  Speaker 1: famous as many of the others, but I really loved
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  Speaker 1: his paintings from Arles. Now, you know, what's another interesting
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  Speaker 1: thing where I understand where you get your prototype for
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  Speaker 1: the good guy Jack Solo, But where do you get
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  Speaker 1: your prototype for the bad guy in Curse of the Bluestone.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Nancy, I was born in a different time. I'm
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  Speaker 2: a child of the Cold War, and when I was
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  Speaker 2: in the military, it was still the Soviet Union, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, there was an East and West Germany. So
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  Speaker 2: bad guys were the Russians. And so you'll see in
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  Speaker 2: my yeah, my first four novels, the you know, bad
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  Speaker 2: guys are Russians, and it comes from my early days
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  Speaker 2: of you know, running around Europe when the Cold War
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  Speaker 2: was raging, and so in my mind, yeah, they make
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  Speaker 2: the perfect bad guys.
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  Speaker 1: So is that where you get the idea for the
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  Speaker 1: bad guy? And Curse the Bluestone?
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  Speaker 2: It is, and I added a you know, few twists
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  Speaker 2: to that. All the books, the first four novels, which
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  Speaker 2: selfless plug are available on Amazon. You can get the
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  Speaker 2: books a four of them for ten dollars.
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  Speaker 1: But have you voiced them? Are they audio books?
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  Speaker 2: No, I haven't done that yet.
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  Speaker 1: Book so I can listen to the others when I'm
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  Speaker 1: out jogging.
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  Speaker 2: Well, if you would read them for me, that would
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  Speaker 2: be great, because I hate the sound of my voice.
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  Speaker 2: But as soon as James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeming
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  Speaker 2: come available, I'll get the audio.
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  Speaker 1: You know, though it adds a lot is when people
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  Speaker 1: can do different voices, you know, they can actually sound like,
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  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I remember trying to read all the rold
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  Speaker 1: Dolls to the Twins and voicing remember the witches. I
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  Speaker 1: mean he didn't do just Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
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  Speaker 1: He did Matilda, he did Oh gosh. I read them
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  Speaker 1: all the Witches to the Twins, oh, even the short stories,
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  Speaker 1: and I would have to make up those voices. It's
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  Speaker 1: terrible at it. Of course, they were only like two
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  Speaker 1: years old, so they don't know how bad I was.
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  Speaker 1: What a wait, what about I guess you call them
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  Speaker 1: the Collie assassins.
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  Speaker 2: Oh okay, I just told.
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  Speaker 1: Him the Thuggies and I'm sure that's the wrong pro nun.
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  Speaker 2: No, that's no, that's no, that is that is correct.
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  Speaker 2: It's the followers of Collie. It was something that I
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  Speaker 2: you mentioned earlier about Indiana Jones. Uh. I borrow a
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  Speaker 2: lot from Indiana Jones. And those are the the followers
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  Speaker 2: of Collie Maw. And that's my fictionalization of the historical
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  Speaker 2: facts of the Hope Dimon. But my fictional.
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  Speaker 1: Suggy t h U G G E E. Did you
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  Speaker 1: make them up?
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  Speaker 2: No? No, the they're ron. It is real. He was
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  Speaker 2: most prolific serial killer.
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  Speaker 1: And Thuggies are real.
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  Speaker 2: The Thuggies were real. They were stamped out by the
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  Speaker 2: British uh a long time ago, but they weren't there
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  Speaker 2: or over one hundred without it doubt they make the
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  Speaker 2: perfect bad guys. But I fictionalized that that the Thugyes
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  Speaker 2: still exists as a secret crime syndicate.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that's a good twist. And of course Solo gets
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  Speaker 1: the keys of stealing Hope.
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  Speaker 2: Diamond Jack just has some bad luck sometimes.
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  Speaker 1: Man, he really does. You know, if he didn't have
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  Speaker 1: bad luck, hedn't have no luck at all. I got
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  Speaker 1: to say something. I love Curse of the Blue Stone.
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  Speaker 1: I love it, and you're how far are you on
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  Speaker 1: the next.
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  Speaker 2: One on book number eight or the one that I'm
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  Speaker 2: getting ready to.
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  Speaker 1: Publish, Well, the one in book number eight. I thought
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  Speaker 1: you'd already gotten a substantial way through it.
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  Speaker 2: Oh I am, And you're really going to like this
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  Speaker 2: one because it's mostly a Western that takes place in
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  Speaker 2: San Francisco in eighteen eighty one, then also Tombstone, Arizona
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  Speaker 2: in eighteen eighty five, and it centers around the pursuit
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  Speaker 2: and capture of Apache tribes, but fictionalize and give my
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  Speaker 2: fictionalization twist that these Apache tribes don't want to give
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  Speaker 2: away too much actually members of the temporary own life.
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  Speaker 1: Because I spend so much time in your head.
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  Speaker 2: People ask me about that a lot, and I tell
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  Speaker 2: them it's usually that it's because I'm from the state
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  Speaker 2: of intoxication. That's where most of these ideas come. But
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  Speaker 2: I also have dual residency because I'm also from the
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  Speaker 2: state of confusion.
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  Speaker 1: I hear you on that completely After investigating Calm all
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  Speaker 1: day on, I'm completely confused. Guys, you were hearing the
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  Speaker 1: voice of my longtime colleague and friend, IRV Brand. Many
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  Speaker 1: of you already know that he has been with the
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  Speaker 1: US Marshall Service and International Investigations Chief Inspector DOJ's Office
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  Speaker 1: International Affairs, working in multiple embassies, but also a best
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  Speaker 1: selling author of the Jack Solo series. His latest Curse
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  Speaker 1: of the Blue Stone, a Jack Solo mystery novel. It's
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  Speaker 1: on Amazon. I love it and I want to thank
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  Speaker 1: you for being with US. Indiana Jones slash James Bond
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  Speaker 1: slash Jack Solo slash IRV Brandt. Goodbye, friends, I'll see
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  Speaker 1: you at the bookstore.