Latest / Voices for Voices® / Writing Through the Darkness Reveals the Light of Christ | Episode 212

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Writing Through the Darkness Reveals the Light of Christ | Episode 212 · Voices for Voices®

0:05
Justin Alan Hayes: Welcome again to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
0:10
Justin Alan Hayes: I am Justin Alan Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices.
0:15
Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you for joining us today.
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Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you if this is your first episode or if you've been with us the whole ride through our catalog, or if you've been with us the whole ride through our catalog, which we're at I believe we're at 210 episodes when this will air.
0:34
Justin Alan Hayes: So we can't do that without you.
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Justin Alan Hayes: So if you can give us a thumbs up, you can like, share, subscribe all that fun stuff.
0:43
Justin Alan Hayes: We would appreciate that.
0:45
Justin Alan Hayes: And we have our guests who've been gracious to stick around for a second episode so we can learn more about his experience as an author and inspiring others.
1:00
Justin Alan Hayes: So joining us for this episode is author Gabriel Bloor.
1:06
Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you for joining us again.
1:09
Gabriel Bloor: Thank you for having me again, justin, and to pick up where we left off.
1:12
Gabriel Bloor: One of the things you mentioned was talking a little bit about being into my mind as an author, and that's something I want to talk about and something I do believe it is really misunderstood about authors.
1:28
Gabriel Bloor: People think writing a book is easy.
1:32
Gabriel Bloor: Some people think writing a book is easy and when they realize it's not easy, that's why they use AI to do it for them.
1:39
Gabriel Bloor: And, as I said in the last episode, I may use chat, gpt, but I never have it write it for me.
1:48
Gabriel Bloor: Now, will I have it write a snippet of something of an idea that I'm working on?
1:50
Gabriel Bloor: Yes, but I don't use that actual snippet in my story.
1:56
Gabriel Bloor: What I'm looking for is stimuli.
1:59
Gabriel Bloor: I'm looking for how something is described, how something is discussed, looking for how something is described, how something is discussed.
2:06
Gabriel Bloor: If I have not experienced something like smoking, for example, I'll probably ask chat about what happens.
2:13
Gabriel Bloor: What are, what goes on, the stimulus of doing such a thing?
2:17
Gabriel Bloor: I mean, granted, I didn't ask at the time, I had asked several church members that I knew that did smoke time.
2:27
Gabriel Bloor: I had asked several church members that I knew that did smoke, but the whole point of it was that I'm looking for specific details.
2:32
Gabriel Bloor: There are authors out there that do one of two things they're either super detailed, where they control the reader's mind of what they're seeing, and then you have the other authors that either are somewhat vague or they don't give enough detail, and I've come across both on the spectrum.
2:55
Gabriel Bloor: What I like to do personally is I like to give enough detail for you to get an idea what's going on, but I like to introduce little details, little quirks that are meaningful but sometimes would be considered overlooked.
3:16
Gabriel Bloor: And the reason why I do this is because it gives you a different perspective.
3:22
Gabriel Bloor: I don't know if you've heard of him, but one of my favorite Christian rappers is NF, and in one of the songs that he sung I can't remember which one he said aim at my reflection, shatter my perspective, my perception, and perception and perspective have similar meanings, but that has been my biggest thing as an author for the past four years is perspective.
3:49
Gabriel Bloor: What is the perspective of this?
3:55
Gabriel Bloor: I would say to myself, and I would take said perspective and I would change it.
4:01
Gabriel Bloor: A lot of my books for the past four years have been about different perspectives.
4:09
Gabriel Bloor: You have to look carefully.
4:11
Gabriel Bloor: But I put a lot of false Christian theology in said books and I refute them, and not refute them in a way where it says this is wrong or this is bad.
4:23
Gabriel Bloor: I show the issue in said thing.
4:25
Gabriel Bloor: For an example, we've all heard of Bible thumpers.
4:30
Gabriel Bloor: Right In my novel Clouds World of Chaos, I put Bible thumpers in there.
4:37
Gabriel Bloor: I put a pastor in there who did not like being questioned because it felt like they questioned his authority.
4:46
Gabriel Bloor: I put a mindset in Clouds World of Chaos that is common in many of our churches and I showed from a lost person's point of view just how damaging that is, just how much that causes issues.
5:03
Gabriel Bloor: But with that said, I did bring a Christian character who I based off of, like Moses, like Noah, like the judges during the split between the kingdoms, of, like the judges before the rise of the kingdom of Israel, I had that one righteous who lived for Christ and I wrote him in such a way where he's not perfect but there is a heart sold out to serve Jesus.
5:39
Gabriel Bloor: And I did this specifically because I'm trying to point out the difference between man's doctrine and actually living for Christ, because we both know they conflict, because man's word is fallible.
5:56
Gabriel Bloor: Man's word is finite.
5:58
Gabriel Bloor: God's word is true, is perfect and will last eternity eternity.
6:05
Gabriel Bloor: Like I said, he's not perfect, he has problems.
6:10
Gabriel Bloor: I mean I specifically gave him a split personality based off of the battle we have of the flesh and spirit, which was a lot of fun like way too much fun for my personal opinion but it that's why I write the things I write.
6:29
Gabriel Bloor: I do the things I do.
6:30
Gabriel Bloor: I mean a lot of my, a lot of my books that I have coming out every last 30 of them and there might be more by the time I publish the next one is that sometimes I will write from the lost person's point of view.
6:47
Gabriel Bloor: I don't go the traditional routes of how a person is saved in a book.
6:54
Gabriel Bloor: I don't.
6:55
Gabriel Bloor: Do I always say and do I don't?
7:00
Gabriel Bloor: I'm not the kind of Christian where you just pray and then all of a sudden, magically, everything gets better.
7:05
Gabriel Bloor: No, that's not reality, it's not at all.
7:10
Gabriel Bloor: I have a hard time reading so many Christian books.
7:14
Gabriel Bloor: It's because, oh Lord, please save me.
7:16
Gabriel Bloor: I do not write for rainbows and unicorns.
7:21
Gabriel Bloor: If you're looking for a feel-good book, bypass me by all means.
7:25
Gabriel Bloor: I invite you.
7:26
Gabriel Bloor: Reading my books is a war zone.
7:29
Gabriel Bloor: I go into the nitty-gritty.
7:32
Gabriel Bloor: I talk about blood, I talk about guts, I talk about gore and yes, there are snapping necks, beheadings, blood everywhere.
7:39
Gabriel Bloor: I do not sugarcoat nothing at all.
7:44
Gabriel Bloor: You ask the hard question.
7:45
Gabriel Bloor: I will give you the hard answer.
7:48
Gabriel Bloor: I got a book.
7:48
Gabriel Bloor: It's called Possessed.
7:50
Gabriel Bloor: You can tell where this is going If you've heard of the Exorcist.
7:57
Gabriel Bloor: You can't say it's the same thing, but it was.
8:01
Gabriel Bloor: I have not seen the Exorcist, I haven't read the book.
8:04
Gabriel Bloor: The same thing, but it was.
8:08
Gabriel Bloor: I have not seen the exorcist, I haven't read the book, but there was.
8:09
Gabriel Bloor: You know about romans when paul was casting out demons and some of the pharisees were like oh well, we could do that too by paul's god.
8:16
Gabriel Bloor: We say come out of this person.
8:18
Gabriel Bloor: And the demon looks at the, the pharisee, and goes I know Paul, I know Jesus, who are you?
8:26
Gabriel Bloor: And that's my point in the book.
8:29
Gabriel Bloor: Possessed Is that my main character is a Christian.
8:38
Gabriel Bloor: There is a demon-possessed woman in an underground morgue and my main character's partner is like I can prove to you that you're you.
8:50
Gabriel Bloor: Trying to be celibate, waiting for the right woman is wrong.
8:52
Gabriel Bloor: I mean, I go into the some sexual immorality.
8:54
Gabriel Bloor: Now I do not describe any of that because that's disgusting and we don't need any of that.
8:59
Gabriel Bloor: I'm showing that there are people out there that will say being promiscuous is okay, pastors included.
9:06
Gabriel Bloor: And what happens is that she gathers all these religious leaders.
9:13
Gabriel Bloor: I mean, I got an imam in there, I have a high.
9:15
Gabriel Bloor: I got a Catholic priest, I got a pastor, baptist, methodist, lutheran I have 12 that go in there.
9:22
Gabriel Bloor: I have 12 that go in there, and this one pastor, a Baptist pastor of this mega church.
9:29
Gabriel Bloor: He's got thousands of people and he specifically goes to my main character and saying your partner's fine, it's okay to be all right, jesus covers all that.
9:40
Gabriel Bloor: And when they get to the underground, when they meet the demon-possessed woman, I have a confession to make.
9:50
Gabriel Bloor: Originally she was going to be naked and I don't say that with pride.
9:56
Gabriel Bloor: I was like Lord, I can't do this.
9:59
Gabriel Bloor: I can't do that.
10:01
Gabriel Bloor: This is a whole new level.
10:02
Gabriel Bloor: This is a whole new level and I actually fought with God over this book.
10:08
Gabriel Bloor: I really did so bad, it made me sick.
10:11
Gabriel Bloor: And then I spoke to my mother and she gave me some very good insight on what boundaries I have to put into place when you deal with said issues.
10:21
Gabriel Bloor: And once I spoke to my mother.
10:23
Gabriel Bloor: Once I spoke to my father who is my father, is the pastor of the church I go to I felt at ease, and then I was prepared to take the next step to write this book.
10:35
Gabriel Bloor: So she wears a thin white gown that is stained with blood.
10:40
Gabriel Bloor: This pastor of this mega church approaches her, puts his hand on his shoulder and says in the name of jesus, that commanding voice, I command you to come out of her.
10:53
Gabriel Bloor: And he smiles and she looks at him and says who are you?
10:58
Gabriel Bloor: Rips his head off and it follows suit with basically everybody else, except for my main character.
11:09
Gabriel Bloor: The difference is, and what I'm trying to display is that there's a difference between someone who acts like they live for Christ and the person who actually does.
11:22
Gabriel Bloor: My main character, even though had the pastor of the megachurch blabbing in his ear, even though he's got temptation all around him, he's like no, no, I will not go this route.
11:37
Gabriel Bloor: I will not do this.
11:38
Gabriel Bloor: Here is the line in the sand.
11:40
Gabriel Bloor: This is my flag.
11:42
Gabriel Bloor: I will go no further.
11:44
Gabriel Bloor: The sand, this is my flag.
11:51
Gabriel Bloor: I will go no further.
11:52
Gabriel Bloor: I started that book in 2022.
11:53
Gabriel Bloor: I haven't finished it yet, but the ending is still in my head.
11:54
Gabriel Bloor: If I sat down long enough, I could probably finish it, but I have all these other things that I'm working on, so it will be, it will be done eventually.
12:02
Gabriel Bloor: I probably will end up changing the title.
12:06
Gabriel Bloor: I think the word possessed is used a bit too much and I want to disassociate from the other things that are out there.
12:12
Gabriel Bloor: But what I'm trying to say is that I bring a new food group to the table.
12:21
Gabriel Bloor: I am not the kind of author out there who's going to write about unicorns and rainbows.
12:27
Gabriel Bloor: If there are unicorns, they're probably out there to eat you.
12:33
Gabriel Bloor: Praying to God is not going to make everything in life become magically perfect.
12:40
Gabriel Bloor: Most of my characters come from rough backgrounds.
12:43
Gabriel Bloor: They had some kind of family issues, they have some kind of mental illness, they deal with some kind of problem, they have some form of heartache.
12:52
Gabriel Bloor: They're all going through something.
12:55
Gabriel Bloor: The reason why I do that is because nobody's perfect.
12:59
Gabriel Bloor: Nobody is going to have their life all put together.
13:03
Gabriel Bloor: I had a church member loan me a book and she says you're going to like this.
13:07
Gabriel Bloor: It's dark, it's creepy.
13:09
Gabriel Bloor: I read it.
13:10
Gabriel Bloor: I was bored.
13:10
Gabriel Bloor: I'm not going to mention the author, I'm not going to mention the book.
13:17
Gabriel Bloor: It wasn't boring because it wasn't written well.
13:21
Gabriel Bloor: In fact, it was written pretty good.
13:23
Gabriel Bloor: It was decent.
13:25
Gabriel Bloor: The action was tasteless, the what's the word?
13:33
Gabriel Bloor: The stakes weren't high enough.
13:35
Gabriel Bloor: Oh sure, was the man's adopted son going to die if he didn't do the one thing that he spent his entire life not wanting to do, because the enemy has his son?
13:48
Gabriel Bloor: Yeah, that's pretty hot.
13:51
Gabriel Bloor: No, that wasn't enough for me.
13:52
Gabriel Bloor: It wasn't enough.
13:54
Gabriel Bloor: There was no, oh great, my legs got blown out.
13:58
Gabriel Bloor: I have to crawl 20 feet to go.
14:02
Gabriel Bloor: Do this one thing.
14:03
Gabriel Bloor: I'm not saying to be a great author in my eyes, you have to do said thing.
14:08
Gabriel Bloor: No, if you want to be a good author in my eyes, write about the pain.
14:14
Gabriel Bloor: No, don't give me white, exploding pain that erupts in my brain.
14:20
Gabriel Bloor: No, no, no, no, no.
14:22
Gabriel Bloor: Give it to me mentally.
14:25
Gabriel Bloor: Attack, invade my mind in such a way that if I put the book down, it hurts.
14:31
Gabriel Bloor: That's what I do.
14:35
Gabriel Bloor: Um, we both know him, david Solomon.
14:40
Gabriel Bloor: Him and his wife are reading my book, the Guardian Circle, which is one of the first books I have finished in the past four years.
14:48
Gabriel Bloor: It's the first book I managed to finish in a very long time, the first book that I finished when I was 13, is one that will never get published.
15:00
Gabriel Bloor: One because I lost it, and two, it wasn't the greatest, but I'm willing to admit that David and his wife it was actually Amanda who said this is like watching a movie because of how I did it.
15:16
Gabriel Bloor: It drew them in.
15:18
Gabriel Bloor: David ended up telling someone he knew that the Guardian Circle is dark.
15:24
Gabriel Bloor: That was a drop in the bucket.
15:30
Gabriel Bloor: How I write with the first person, with the little details.
15:35
Gabriel Bloor: When my character in the Guardian Circle, pericles vanguard, when he falls out of that building and lands in the dumpster and scrapes his knee across the barred handle of a bicycle, you shirk back in pain because it gets you too.
15:53
Gabriel Bloor: When he has to go, because my character, pericles, has ptsd from an accident that killed both of parents, when he sees his mom get ran over again in his mind, but as an adult, you automatically jump back.
16:10
Gabriel Bloor: You're like what, how?
16:12
Gabriel Bloor: One, she's already supposed to be dead.
16:15
Gabriel Bloor: And two, why is she coming after him?
16:26
Gabriel Bloor: When I write a story, it's an invasive species.
16:27
Gabriel Bloor: It's meant to not attack the reader as in a way where I'm going after you.
16:29
Gabriel Bloor: It's meant to attack the reader in such a way where it one it questions their perspective on life.
16:35
Gabriel Bloor: Is what we think real?
16:37
Gabriel Bloor: Real.
16:37
Gabriel Bloor: Two is what we believe real, because we all have a standard of what we think God is and we always stick him in this box.
16:46
Gabriel Bloor: And I made that very evident in the Guardian Circle.
16:49
Gabriel Bloor: I made that very evident in Project Chrysalis.
16:51
Gabriel Bloor: I made that very evident in Cloud's World of Chaos.
16:54
Gabriel Bloor: But is it true?
16:56
Gabriel Bloor: The answer is no, and that's my point.
17:00
Gabriel Bloor: That's always been my point.
17:04
Gabriel Bloor: I draw in readers.
17:07
Gabriel Bloor: I don't take them by the hand and say let's go on an adventure.
17:12
Gabriel Bloor: I'm usually the guy who walks in the interrogation room and cracks the knuckles and go, I will break you.
17:22
Gabriel Bloor: It's on my bio If you read my bio warning, warning, warning.
17:30
Gabriel Bloor: This is a war zone, but I greet every one of them as a soldier because they're not for the faint of heart.
17:40
Gabriel Bloor: It's dark.
17:41
Gabriel Bloor: My father told me four years ago Gabriel, no Christian publisher is going to want your books, you're too dark.
17:50
Gabriel Bloor: Five Christian publishers later, I get taken in by a secular publisher.
17:57
Gabriel Bloor: Sure, my father wasn't wrong?
18:08
Gabriel Bloor: Excuse me, my father wasn't wrong.
18:09
Gabriel Bloor: I am very dark.
18:09
Gabriel Bloor: I'll ask the hard question.
18:10
Gabriel Bloor: I will give the hard answer.
18:11
Gabriel Bloor: I'm not scared In one of my books, as much as I hate to say it.
18:17
Gabriel Bloor: One of them is going to get raped, and that's not to show.
18:22
Gabriel Bloor: I'm not divulging into the evil of it, I'm showing it, not in great detail, but I'm showing how you can walk through that.
18:33
Gabriel Bloor: I'm showing how God can come alongside you.
18:37
Gabriel Bloor: In that I show the sin of my characters.
18:41
Gabriel Bloor: I don't make them perfect, even within Clouds, world of Chaos, the one righteous character, his name is Alephrios, which is Greek for freedom.
18:51
Gabriel Bloor: I told you he has a split personality and it represents the flesh of our bodies and the spirit of Christ that is within us.
19:02
Gabriel Bloor: They are constantly conflicting each other and there are times where Elefrios' voice will change when Grimm, his second personality, comes in and see Grimm evolves.
19:17
Gabriel Bloor: At first he's just like this mindless killing thing that wants to lay waste to everything he touches.
19:23
Gabriel Bloor: His voice is sporadic and it's like I want to kill, I must have death.
19:28
Gabriel Bloor: And Alethri was like no, you won't.
19:30
Gabriel Bloor: And then Grimm changes and he goes well, now it's my turn.
19:38
Gabriel Bloor: It's the complete flip.
19:41
Gabriel Bloor: It's from the mindless killer to the methodical predator.
19:45
Gabriel Bloor: And it's all to show a point Mindless rage is easily controlled by someone else.
19:54
Gabriel Bloor: It's easily manipulated.
19:56
Gabriel Bloor: Methodical, it's almost impossible.
20:00
Gabriel Bloor: That is what I do.
20:17
Gabriel Bloor: I currently have schizophrenia in my head.
20:20
Gabriel Bloor: So eventually I'm.
20:21
Gabriel Bloor: I got a book I'm writing.
20:22
Gabriel Bloor: It's got Elden Ring vibes in it, that dark souls, those twisted, decrepit monsters, the different kinds of gods, the oh so powerful prophets, and then you have this little man with a sword that's going Watch me beat every last one of you.
20:40
Gabriel Bloor: I don't care how many times you respond, but there's a point In that book.
20:47
Gabriel Bloor: It's called the Forsaken Monarch, the Broken Crown.
20:51
Gabriel Bloor: The title is the Forsaken Monarch.
20:55
Gabriel Bloor: Jesus is supposed to be king over this world, but he was forsaken as ruler.
21:01
Gabriel Bloor: The Forsaken Monarch be king over this world, but he was forsaken as ruler.
21:04
Gabriel Bloor: The forsaken monarch.
21:05
Gabriel Bloor: In the book Christ is known as the divine breath, who my character is a follower of.
21:14
Gabriel Bloor: Each piece fits in.
21:17
Gabriel Bloor: Do I always say that Jesus Christ is in the story?
21:36
Gabriel Bloor: No, I don't.
21:37
Gabriel Bloor: Do I always have my character say, oh God, help me?
21:39
Gabriel Bloor: No, I don't, I'll, it's done.
21:40
Gabriel Bloor: It's so cheesy.
21:43
Gabriel Bloor: The way they say it, the way they act.
21:45
Gabriel Bloor: It puts a bad taste in my mouth.
21:48
Gabriel Bloor: It's like why it is.
21:51
Gabriel Bloor: I can't say it's blasphemy because I'm pretty sure they have the best intentions, but there are some Christian movies I've watched out there.
22:01
Gabriel Bloor: It's like this isn't fit to watch this.
22:04
Gabriel Bloor: It is pretty bad.
22:06
Gabriel Bloor: I have to watch children Christian TV shows that I find more soul fulfilling, because it has that desire to live for Christ, that desire to show his love, than the more adult ones because they're so horrible to me.
22:27
Gabriel Bloor: Now, everyone has their own opinion, but I write my books very similar.
22:36
Gabriel Bloor: My father writes his sermons.
22:39
Gabriel Bloor: If I, I will take out the actual scripture and put it in my story.
22:44
Gabriel Bloor: Now, do I quote scripture specifically?
22:48
Gabriel Bloor: I do not, but there are paraphrases, there are hints, there is segments where you go wait a minute.
22:57
Gabriel Bloor: Didn't Jesus say that?
22:58
Gabriel Bloor: Wait a minute?
23:00
Gabriel Bloor: Didn't Paul do that?
23:01
Gabriel Bloor: Wait a minute?
23:02
Gabriel Bloor: Why does he look like one of the prophets of the Old Testament?
23:05
Gabriel Bloor: That is what I do, because I will not put man's doctrine alongside of Christ's teaching.
23:16
Gabriel Bloor: They don't go together, they don't mix, because mankind has their own bias.
23:22
Gabriel Bloor: I have my own bias.
23:24
Gabriel Bloor: My bias is that if it's not Christ, if it's not Christ, as Christ is king, I don't want to hear any buts.
23:33
Gabriel Bloor: Christ is king.
23:34
Gabriel Bloor: Matter of fact, does that mean I'm perfect in how I follow Christ?
23:38
Gabriel Bloor: No way, no way.
23:40
Gabriel Bloor: I'm human, like everybody else.
23:42
Gabriel Bloor: That doesn't mean I'm going to die trying.
23:45
Gabriel Bloor: That doesn't mean I don't struggle writing certain segments, but I will say I've had quite a few of my church members, a handful of my church members, read some of my books because I want the feedback.
24:09
Gabriel Bloor: It's hard for me to get feedback because, as a darker, our author, it is difficult.
24:15
Gabriel Bloor: Not every I lost.
24:16
Gabriel Bloor: I lost somebody that I thought was a friend because they considered me too dark as a writer.
24:20
Gabriel Bloor: It's hurt, hurt, but please don't pity me.
24:24
Gabriel Bloor: It's in the past, I'm not going to let it ruin my future.
24:28
Gabriel Bloor: But I had a church member read a couple snippets of my books that I had prepared.
24:35
Gabriel Bloor: She comes back to me, she hands me the folder and says, gabriel, I have never read a Christian author who wrote a walk to salvation in the way you have.
24:49
Gabriel Bloor: And it's not because of me, it's not.
24:55
Gabriel Bloor: It's because I wanted.
24:57
Gabriel Bloor: I didn't want it to be cheesy, I wanted.
24:59
Gabriel Bloor: I didn't want it to be cheesy, I didn't want it to feel like, oh, it's another feel-good nature and oh, I'm saved and now I can live however I want, or now I must live this life, and blah, blah, blah, no, no, no.
25:14
Gabriel Bloor: You don't always feel a change when you become saved.
25:20
Gabriel Bloor: You don't always feel different.
25:27
Gabriel Bloor: But I will say, when you do actually accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there is a weight that comes off.
25:36
Gabriel Bloor: And it's a matter of what that weight is.
25:40
Gabriel Bloor: I wrote it to you in my email when I got saved.
25:46
Gabriel Bloor: Before I was saved, I realized just how alone I would be for all of eternity without Christ.
25:51
Gabriel Bloor: So when I asked the Lord to come in my life, I said, lord, I don't want to be alone.
25:56
Gabriel Bloor: Did I have to be reminded of it years ago?
26:01
Gabriel Bloor: Yeah, I did that's because I kind of lost my way and you know that happens.
26:07
Gabriel Bloor: But I knew, I know I'm saved because I know, no matter what, I'm not alone.
26:17
Gabriel Bloor: I have Christ within me.
26:18
Gabriel Bloor: Now, does it always feel like I'm not alone?
26:21
Gabriel Bloor: I have Christ within me Now, does it always feel like I'm not alone?
26:23
Gabriel Bloor: No, because I'm human, I'm going to get where I feel lonely, kind of things.
26:26
Gabriel Bloor: But I know if I open up my Bible I will find Christ.
26:31
Gabriel Bloor: I know if I look within the spirit that was given to me, I will find Christ.
26:41
Gabriel Bloor: And that is what I did.
26:55
Gabriel Bloor: That's what I wrote in Project Chrysalis the weight and guilt, the anger my character felt was felt forgotten.
27:02
Gabriel Bloor: He had no family of his own.
27:04
Gabriel Bloor: His parents were killed in a car accident.
27:07
Gabriel Bloor: He had no friends.
27:10
Gabriel Bloor: He had a brain tumor that went from his frontal lobes to the back of his head.
27:14
Gabriel Bloor: He should have died one of the only books that I have ever written where the prayer is said once and then answered the next day.
27:26
Gabriel Bloor: I did that for a reason.
27:26
Gabriel Bloor: I was making a point.
27:27
Gabriel Bloor: You see, some people say, oh, miracles were of the past.
27:31
Gabriel Bloor: No, they're not.
27:32
Gabriel Bloor: They just don't come the way we think they will.
27:35
Gabriel Bloor: One of the things I did in the Guardian Circle is Pericles sees this Christian family.
27:44
Gabriel Bloor: The pastor of his church is married to his therapist, who's also a Christian, who also ends up becoming his wife at the end of the book.
27:53
Gabriel Bloor: They're all Christians.
27:55
Gabriel Bloor: They all go to the same church, obviously because they're a family.
27:58
Gabriel Bloor: The point of it was is that he sees a difference in their life.
28:03
Gabriel Bloor: He sees a light in their eye.
28:06
Gabriel Bloor: He sees a hope.
28:08
Gabriel Bloor: That's what he wanted In each of my books.
28:13
Gabriel Bloor: If my main character isn't the Christian and there's a side character who is, there's always a hope.
28:21
Gabriel Bloor: There's always a hope.
28:22
Gabriel Bloor: There's always a light.
28:23
Gabriel Bloor: With Clouds, world of Chaos, I described it as a black candle that as the wick melts, it melts gold.
28:36
Gabriel Bloor: Because we still have the flesh, we still will sin, but as we live for Christ, it says so in the Bible.
28:45
Gabriel Bloor: As the heat of the world comes against us, what's it going to be?
28:49
Gabriel Bloor: Wood, hay and stubble, or gold, silver and precious gems?
28:53
Gabriel Bloor: So even before my main character in God's world of chaos met the man that was going to be that candle in the dark for her, god was telling her he was coming and that at one time he was going to get snuffed out, but again that light would return.
29:15
Gabriel Bloor: That's what I do.
29:20
Justin Alan Hayes: That's incredible.
29:21
Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you for being so transparent and describing it in such detail.
29:29
Justin Alan Hayes: It really just takes us, the viewer, the listener, into the mind of you and what it takes and all the different ways, how connections are made.
29:46
Justin Alan Hayes: And we talked about last episode of how we could have something stewing in our mind and then an event, something happens, and it's like, oh yeah, I'm going to bring that back in here and we're going to connect it and and do that.
30:05
Justin Alan Hayes: So I think that, along with just explaining getting that, getting that feedback is it's critical.
30:14
Justin Alan Hayes: I think being an author, just being a person in business or what have you, getting that feedback is always a helpful thing to.
30:24
Justin Alan Hayes: To get the last thing I I just wanted to ask we got about three minutes left.
30:32
Justin Alan Hayes: Oops, no, no, no, this is good.
30:36
Justin Alan Hayes: Trust me, I like it much better when the guests talk and less me talking, so this has been absolutely fine.
30:45
Justin Alan Hayes: Like I said, I prefer that and our viewers and listeners do too.
30:51
Justin Alan Hayes: So, when it comes to you mentioned different authors and and getting feedback, how important is that?
31:02
Justin Alan Hayes: If there are I don't know, there's groups out there, uh, how important is that being able to bounce those ideas off others in an electronic form as well as, like you said, when you were at church you, you know you were you handed paper a copy of what you had Can you speak to.
31:30
Justin Alan Hayes: If individuals see groups out there, what that can do.
31:37
Gabriel Bloor: There are a lot of groups out there.
31:40
Gabriel Bloor: I mean, whenever I look on feed facebook, it's always hey look, there's this author's group, and then there's this author's group, and then there's this author's group, and this is a christian author's group.
31:48
Gabriel Bloor: And I'm like boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring.
31:50
Gabriel Bloor: And it's not because I, they probably have no interest of me.
31:56
Gabriel Bloor: It's just I am not your common Christian author at all.
32:00
Gabriel Bloor: I'm not even your as a person and as an author, I am literally waiting for people who are going to pick up my book and write a view about how much they hate it.
32:22
Gabriel Bloor: I'm waiting for it, I'm expecting it, and you're going to get that, and that's something that needs to be known.
32:33
Gabriel Bloor: There are going to be people who are going to pick up your book and hate, just to hate, because they're miserable.
32:38
Gabriel Bloor: You can write the next token series.
32:42
Gabriel Bloor: It doesn't.
32:42
Gabriel Bloor: Please don't do a token ripoff, don't?
32:45
Gabriel Bloor: I cannot believe.
32:46
Gabriel Bloor: I did a little research of how many token ripoffs there were and I was like are you kidding me?
32:50
Gabriel Bloor: And that surprised me because I was like am I the only author out there that writes original stories, that writes original characters, that writes original backstories?
33:00
Gabriel Bloor: It's like come on, we, we need to get more in tuned with the person.
33:05
Gabriel Bloor: We're not reading about Tolkien, we're reading about you, and so my point is that sometimes, being in these groups, it's a hit or miss.
33:15
Gabriel Bloor: A lot of them for me have been misses.
33:16
Gabriel Bloor: I'm better off just asking my friend, or, because he actually doesn't write dark and doesn't really go into horror, I ask my sister, or ask my father, or I'll talk to my grandmother, or I'll talk to different people at church.
33:33
Gabriel Bloor: I'll talk david.
33:34
Gabriel Bloor: Um, I have a couple people on discord that I talked to.
33:38
Gabriel Bloor: I mean, I've I got a live stream video gamer to read one paragraph of one of the games that I'm making.
33:46
Gabriel Bloor: He's like just from this paragraph, I know you're a good writer.
33:49
Gabriel Bloor: Wow, I have a.
33:50
Gabriel Bloor: I have like three streamers waiting for my book to come out, and that's one of the things that killed me is that you have people that will tell you we can't wait for you to get published, and then you're like, all right, let's go get a publisher.
34:10
Gabriel Bloor: And I'm telling you that is going to be a stab to the heart when you get turned down.
34:15
Gabriel Bloor: It's a hit or miss.
34:16
Gabriel Bloor: It's a hit or miss with publishers.
34:18
Gabriel Bloor: It's a hit or miss with groups and for me actually, groups have become more of a a hindrance for me because I I'm still in college.
34:27
Gabriel Bloor: As I said, I'm getting my bachelor's in psychology.
34:30
Gabriel Bloor: I'm working on psychology.
34:32
Gabriel Bloor: I'm the second eldest son to seven siblings.
34:35
Gabriel Bloor: We live on the church ground.
34:37
Gabriel Bloor: I have a part-time job.
34:39
Gabriel Bloor: I am the custodian of the church I go to.
34:42
Gabriel Bloor: I'm the Sunday school teacher.
34:44
Gabriel Bloor: I help my mother around the house.
34:47
Gabriel Bloor: I help my mother when it comes to the homeschooling.
34:49
Gabriel Bloor: I help take care of the dogs.
34:51
Gabriel Bloor: I help with certain church members.
34:53
Gabriel Bloor: I got a large plate.
34:55
Gabriel Bloor: I talk to all these people.
34:56
Gabriel Bloor: I help with certain church members.
34:58
Gabriel Bloor: I got a large plate.
34:59
Gabriel Bloor: I talk to all these people.
35:00
Gabriel Bloor: I try to help other authors.
35:04
Gabriel Bloor: I try to help other gamers.
35:05
Gabriel Bloor: I do what I can, all over the place.
35:06
Gabriel Bloor: So I kind of get really, really full.
35:07
Gabriel Bloor: So I find them more of a hindrance.
35:08
Gabriel Bloor: But that's me personally.
35:09
Gabriel Bloor: What my best advice is is that talk to the people you're close to.
35:13
Gabriel Bloor: But my best advice is that talk to the people you're close to friends, family members, find out what they like, find out what they enjoy, and then go to said person about an idea, with what you know about said person, bounce the ideas that you know most closely relate to said person.
35:39
Gabriel Bloor: Um, david doesn't really go into horror.
35:43
Gabriel Bloor: David solomon doesn't really go into horror.
35:45
Gabriel Bloor: It's just too much, too much for him, while his wife, on the other hand, does enjoy it.
35:51
Gabriel Bloor: So while I mean I have them both in the same discord feed, I know she'll like more killing clowns than he will.
36:01
Gabriel Bloor: I know she'll like um, what is it?
36:04
Gabriel Bloor: Faces of the forgotten, another horror story about a face eater, a face dealer.
36:10
Gabriel Bloor: But on the other hand, on the flip side of that, I know david will like the guardian circle.
36:15
Gabriel Bloor: It's like spider-man without webs, because pericles has almost a precognition because his ptsd turned into almost like a spidey sense so he can sense danger before it happens.
36:29
Gabriel Bloor: Um, I know david will like a more um stuff similar to like, so like star wars.
36:37
Gabriel Bloor: So he probably well, he probably wouldn't like um the guardian, not the guardian circle.
36:43
Gabriel Bloor: He probably wouldn't like cod's world of chaos because it is more horror.
36:47
Gabriel Bloor: He'll like project chrysalis because it's more of that dystopian sci-fi.
36:53
Gabriel Bloor: It's not like sci-fi, but it's dystopian thriller kind of feel to it.
36:57
Gabriel Bloor: It's um, it's a new world order.
37:02
Gabriel Bloor: You have the dictator.
37:04
Gabriel Bloor: Think of a mixture of the hunger games with um jason bourne.
37:08
Gabriel Bloor: Okay, so it's like that.
37:12
Gabriel Bloor: You have to find the right people you can't just go up to.
37:16
Gabriel Bloor: At times you can go up to random people and say, hey, I want to ask you about this.
37:21
Gabriel Bloor: But read the body language of the person.
37:23
Gabriel Bloor: Where do they dress, how do they dress, how do they hold themselves, what's their facial expression?
37:28
Gabriel Bloor: And sometimes not every person is approachable as the other, approachable as the others, as the other, and as someone who can literally talk to anyone about anything at any given time.
37:40
Gabriel Bloor: I read people.
37:40
Gabriel Bloor: I read people easily and I know how to pick up topics.
37:47
Justin Alan Hayes: That's just how I work great, thank you for going to we're.
37:51
Justin Alan Hayes: We're gonna get timed out here very.