Latest / The Whitfield Report / TWR Monday | Jake Widmer Returns With "Raid on Maplewood Hallow
Transcript
- 0:01The right to offend is not some pesky little part of freedom of
- 0:05speech that we have to put up with.
- 0:07It is the heart and soul and lungs of freedom of speech.
- 0:11It is the coursing lifeblood of human protests.
- 0:14It is the instigator of liberty and modernity and science and
- 0:18understanding. What a laughingstock today's
- 0:22student leaders are that they can so casually dismiss the
- 0:26right to be offensive without realizing that their lovely,
- 0:30enlightened lives are the gifts of individuals who gave offence.
- 0:36Offensiveness is not just something we have to
- 0:38begrudgingly accept. Offensiveness is the motor of
- 0:42human. Progress now broadcasting from
- 0:46the right to offend Media studios in sunny South Florida,
- 0:50bringing you the latest in politics, current events, art
- 0:54and pop culture. This is the Whitfield Report
- 0:57live with Sam Whitfield. But giving offense is good.
- 1:03In fact, it's essential. Well, welcome folks to today's
- 1:14Monday edition of the Whitfield Report Podcast and Happy March.
- 1:20Depending on where you listen, when you're listening to this,
- 1:23we may or may not be involved in a war with Iran, but you know
- 1:30that that's, you know, that's the Ayatollah.
- 1:34So, you know, everything checks out.
- 1:38But joining me here for today's show, as always, is the
- 1:42incredible Jake Whitmer, who, man, I've gotten lots of, you
- 1:48know, positive feedback on American Inferno.
- 1:52But Jake Widmer has a unique ability to take really, like,
- 1:57gritty and honestly, like complex topics like human
- 2:03trafficking and condense them down to their bare essence,
- 2:08which is what he did in his new book Raid on Maplewood Hollow,
- 2:13which is fantastic. It's coming as soon, and Jake
- 2:18has a bevy of other books that he's writing in this Destroy arc
- 2:22and the Chris Foley series. I'm here for it and I dig it.
- 2:27So, Jake, welcome to the program.
- 2:29How are you, Sir? Good man, Thanks for having me
- 2:32again. Love coming on here talking shop
- 2:34with you and I appreciate you taking the time to be one of the
- 2:36beta readers for Maplewood Hollow.
- 2:39Yeah, well, thank you for sending me an art copy, believe
- 2:43it or not. I don't know if this means that
- 2:46like, I'm a that like I'm a psychopath, but this one was,
- 2:50this one was actually a light reading compared to compared to
- 2:55reading, you know, back through American and Inferno.
- 3:00And that's it. That's saying something
- 3:02considering that like, you know, I'm dealing with political
- 3:05assassinations and you're dealing with stories that are
- 3:10kind of adjacent to the whole Epstein thing, it seems like so.
- 3:16Yeah, like we were talking like off screen right right before we
- 3:19started like like this is people are either going to say this is
- 3:22perfect timing or bad timing with all the recent leaks and
- 3:25everything. But I, I started writing this a
- 3:28while a couple months ago, before the recent leaks and
- 3:31everything, all the horrible shit that came out about what
- 3:34our powers that be are doing. But yeah, I think I'm glad you
- 3:38read. You flew through it.
- 3:40It's it's my novella just for people.
- 3:41I have one right here. It's a pretty thin little,
- 3:44little action story. It's meant to be shocking in
- 3:48some instances. But you know, that's the point.
- 3:50Human trafficking isn't isn't like, isn't Teletubbies so.
- 3:54No, not at all, although you know, with some of the PBS
- 4:02executives being being listed in the files, you know.
- 4:10Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's it's it was.
- 4:14I got like I told you and like I was talking to our good buddy
- 4:18Richard Maverick about this one. I like the first little bit of
- 4:23the Epstein files were released and me going down the rabbit
- 4:25hole because of course I did, got really, really angry about
- 4:29how these people are probably going to never be punished for
- 4:33what they've done at all. Not just the kids, but the other
- 4:36victims of human trafficking as well.
- 4:38And I always say that my writing is a form of therapy.
- 4:42So I just started writing and that ended up becoming the next
- 4:45like the start of the next arc post Merc War because Merc War
- 4:49kind of like ended like the whole arc of Chris Foley figure
- 4:53out who he is becoming a vigilante world.
- 4:56Right on, right on. Maplewood Hollow is going to be
- 4:58a whole new era of the Folly verse going forward.
- 5:01Merc War Merc war was fantastic. And so I, I was actually
- 5:08thinking out this today, like when you finish something that
- 5:13like you're really proud of I, I don't know about you, but like,
- 5:16I always have the thing like I just did with American Inferno.
- 5:20Like I think American Inferno is my best work.
- 5:25And I'm like sitting here now being like, how do I top this?
- 5:30And have you ever felt the same way with, with your work?
- 5:37Yeah, I guess. I felt that mostly not really
- 5:41because Merck war, because Merck war, I started doing the the
- 5:45Zach James technique where I just started working on multiple
- 5:50projects at once. So I knew where I was going.
- 5:52And I know that like like not everything's going to top each
- 5:55other. But I really only felt that
- 5:56after my third book, The Real Monster, because I didn't know
- 5:59what the hell I was doing after that.
- 6:01Because I that's my personal favorite that I wrote so far out
- 6:05of everything because of how different it is from the rest of
- 6:06the series. Yeah.
- 6:10My whole I, I try not to get bogged down in that when my
- 6:13whole writing thing is I just keep, I just keep typing until
- 6:17I'm done for the day. Like I'm going to keep going of
- 6:18Chris Foley until I either like can't write anymore or he dies.
- 6:23That's what I'm going to do. Yeah, I, I and it's, it's funny
- 6:26that we both that we both have multiple books and we call it
- 6:30the the Zach James technique. I, I have, I have the same, I
- 6:34have the same thing where I write like, you know, two or
- 6:38three books at at a time. But it's, you know, shout to
- 6:43Zach James because we, we should probably give you like, I don't
- 6:47know, trademark royalties or something for, you know, coining
- 6:52the Zach James technique or something.
- 6:54So. And yeah, he's got a new book
- 6:59coming here soon too. I.
- 7:00Think I'm so hyped for I got to shout.
- 7:02I got to, I got to shout my boy out really quick.
- 7:04I am so hyped for the next modern mercenary book it's not
- 7:07even funny. I just finished listening to the
- 7:11audio book version of of. Oh, this is going to be really
- 7:17bad because I I just finished listening.
- 7:20Is it? Is it awkward?
- 7:23It's it's occupant the you know, the second bug in his sci-fi
- 7:29series yeah, which which is really good, especially like
- 7:34considering that he narrates this one and he's actually like
- 7:38a fantastic narrator. Yeah, narrator.
- 7:41So. He is, but yes, Zach James
- 7:45technique has been serving me well lately.
- 7:46Man, I've just been cruising through like laying on final,
- 7:50finally doing like a plan instead of just winging it like
- 7:53I have that in the past so. Yeah.
- 7:56I mean, I mean, ever since, I mean, I've published, I
- 8:00published like two or three books a year now with that, you
- 8:03know, with that technique. And some of them are, you know,
- 8:07novellas too. But anyway, getting back to
- 8:11Radon, Maplewood, Holland, kind of this whole, I guess, ARC that
- 8:15you're going with, what was what was your impetus to say, OK, I'm
- 8:22going from more Merck wars to, you know, pedal hunting, for a
- 8:28lack of a better term? Like what was it that made you
- 8:32wake up and be like, I'm going to do this?
- 8:36So Merck war was the closest to like I would say like as Tom
- 8:40Clancy's I'm going to get for a while, right?
- 8:43Multiple different locations, more espionage, more flat out
- 8:48like gunfights in the open streets at post Merck War
- 8:52Spoiler At the end of Merck War, Chris Foley decides that I'm I'm
- 8:56going to stop trying to live this peaceful life.
- 8:59It's not for me. He had made arrangements with
- 9:02some politicians back home that they would decide to look the
- 9:05other way. And he becomes the full out
- 9:07vigilante that people call the demon of Pittsburgh essentially
- 9:11at this point. And I wanted to make Maplewood
- 9:14Hollow or what would eventually become Maplewood hollow, a
- 9:16little bit more grounded. And the stuff happening in
- 9:20Merkel also being like, welcome to the shit.
- 9:23This is a whole new era of Chris Foley where it's more violent.
- 9:27I I'm not holding back anymore. And I don't care if you're going
- 9:30to comment or like, like review bomb me about it.
- 9:34And and it's also setting up. He's going more vigilante.
- 9:37So it's going to be more men's adventure fiction, Mack Ball and
- 9:41Able team esque as well. Yeah, this one reminds me a lot
- 9:46of the Punisher of War Journal series from the 80s, which which
- 9:54the original end of the Punisher is fantastic and this definitely
- 10:00reminded me of of that so and I it.
- 10:05Was it was, it's definitely has what you you read.
- 10:08I'm not going to say the scene, but there's, it has one of the
- 10:10more violent interrogations that I write because I always try to
- 10:14especially I always try to have at least like 1 interrogation
- 10:17thing happen. And it says definitely one of
- 10:20the more violent stuff. And some of the people like like
- 10:22Maverick loved it, which I was like, I knew he would.
- 10:25I know you'd like it, but a lot of the people, like some of my
- 10:27family members read it and that that like that, that that was a
- 10:29discussion that had to be had after that.
- 10:32But yeah, I like it worked. It shocked the reader, so I'm
- 10:35happy with it. I this is bad because I, because
- 10:40I read it and I'm like, it did vaguely at all.
- 10:42I'm like that's, that's, that's interest, that's it, that's
- 10:47interesting. So, but like, you know, I, I
- 10:51wrote like 2 interrogation scenes in, in my book.
- 10:55So. And I, I think it was someone
- 10:57said that you and I are just going to try and outdo each
- 10:59other with with who can write the more gritty.
- 11:03Yeah, our buddy in the discord, Steven, I'm, I, I'm being a bad
- 11:08friend. I forget his last name, but he
- 11:10had just finished reading Steel City Vengeance and he, he texted
- 11:14me after he finished the interrogation scene and that and
- 11:17it was just all caps. Like, how do you think of that?
- 11:21That's all. I'm like, I'm, I'm doing what?
- 11:22I'm doing something right. Yeah, he did.
- 11:24He did the same. He did the same thing to me with
- 11:27the, with the cactus torture scene and it, you know, the
- 11:34night of the vigilante and I, I texted him back and I'm like,
- 11:38well, if you want the truth, I, I literally worked up like what
- 11:43the cartel does to torture people.
- 11:46And I just had Miller basically do everything that the cartels
- 11:50do to innocent people to, to them.
- 11:53And he's like, what is your search history look like?
- 11:57And I'm like. It's done.
- 12:00We're done. We're going to jail.
- 12:01So if it ever comes down to that, we're done.
- 12:03Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you have, you have Maplewood
- 12:12Hollow and you have one of the best villains.
- 12:14I think, you know, in this, you know, Arc, you've done like as
- 12:20far as villains go, yeah, you're one of the best I think at
- 12:23writing, like really grounded villains instead of like over at
- 12:27the top, you know, bad guys, which can certainly be fun.
- 12:33But you know, I think grounded villains are really good, right
- 12:39too? Thank you, thank you.
- 12:41Because again, they're coming off a Merc war where we're
- 12:43talking about like Jason Millwater, who's like the
- 12:46closest to a Bond villain I'm ever going to get to Arthur
- 12:49Croft and this who like I hated having to write the scenes from
- 12:53his point of view because I'm just like I'm going to I want
- 12:56to, I wanted to kill him off so easily.
- 12:58So if I hated writing about it and you loved him as a villain,
- 13:01I hope everybody else agrees that he's a great villain.
- 13:03So. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
- 13:09So you have Merck Wars and then you you have other books that
- 13:13you're working on too. So what have you like developed
- 13:19a process for like mapping out the stories like long term or
- 13:24what is your technique for this one?
- 13:27I know like the major like right on Maplewood Hollow and is kind
- 13:33of the way I'm so I'm sorry, I'm stuttering.
- 13:35So right on Maplewood Hollow is one of my novellas and the way
- 13:38I'm going to be working my novellas from now on.
- 13:40There's still Canon, right with the rest of the Folly series.
- 13:42They're mentioned stuffs brought up, but they're going to be more
- 13:46like one shot kind of adventures just to like take up a little
- 13:50bit of your day. Not like my full my full
- 13:52installments of the series. So I have right now at least
- 13:57Radon Maplewood Hollow is the only novella that I have planned
- 14:00out. After that, it's just main
- 14:01installment. Main installment.
- 14:03I have the next, I would say, well, I showed you and I'm going
- 14:06to show later on. I have the next two already done
- 14:09and ready to go. And then I have a spin off full
- 14:13length following my Youngbloods characters and I have one more
- 14:16that I'm working on as well. That's, you know, that that's
- 14:22quite an interesting path, although I, you know, I can't
- 14:24say I'm any different. You know, we've got multiple
- 14:28books in in the series and I I'm really bad at, you know, mapping
- 14:33all I all I do is I keep just like a running note on my phone
- 14:37of, you know, kind of the timeline.
- 14:39Yeah, so. Like I know where I want this
- 14:42arc to like end up, but I just need to like get the books
- 14:46leading up to that. That's The thing is I like what
- 14:49where I wanted to end. I want to start writing that
- 14:51like right now. But like, I know I have to like
- 14:53build up to that because that's going to be a huge thing for the
- 14:57folly verse. So yeah, yeah.
- 15:00Well, Speaking of the folly verse though, you you also did
- 15:03something that I think was really impressive, which is you
- 15:05actually made a live action trailer for your book series.
- 15:13And I remember and I remember when you first came on the show,
- 15:16you said that you had a background and filmmaking a bit.
- 15:20So how do you feel like you're filmmaking skills have
- 15:23translated into your writing? So I'm going to be honest, my
- 15:27background in film is mostly just spending entire days in my
- 15:32high school's video production class with my boys.
- 15:34Like skipping as many classes as possible.
- 15:38Those guys are my brothers. They're BCU media.
- 15:40You can find them on Instagram. But they were the ones that
- 15:45brought it all together. They're the ones who I, I like
- 15:47loosely brought up one to do something feel like live action
- 15:50of folly. And then they took it and made
- 15:52it into the short trailer for Homecoming, my first book that's
- 15:55out now. All the credit goes to them.
- 15:58Mark Noah, Nate, the entire crew.
- 16:01Griffin, who played Chris Foley. I'm a terrible.
- 16:06I'm forgetting the name of the actress that played Rachel
- 16:08Mulker for that one scene, but she was fantastic.
- 16:12My background for that was just me being on set, trying to like
- 16:16talk to Griffin and get the right like like look for folly
- 16:21how he can move and stuff because I'm no, I'm I'm not I'm
- 16:24no like like tactical genius or anything, but I know, but I know
- 16:28how to handle a gun and none of the other people there really
- 16:31like knew how to do it. So like that was my thing to
- 16:33show him like the proper way to hold his props and everything,
- 16:36how to move with it. That's pretty much all I did
- 16:39there beside but everything else is all all my boys at BCU Media.
- 16:43Well, that's still more than you know, a lot of people in
- 16:46Hollywood seem to do. You know, you're, you're ahead
- 16:50of the back. Have you, have you ever like
- 16:53considered a, you know, possibly like writing out a screenplay or
- 16:57something and then getting any of your movies, getting any of
- 17:00your books adapted into like movies or shows or anything like
- 17:04that? Me and me and BCU have discussed
- 17:08it multiple times wanting to do more for Chris Foley because
- 17:12like they would want to do something like leading up to a
- 17:15release of a title. But I'm I'm a madman and I'm
- 17:18moving way too fast for that. So down the line down the we're
- 17:22we're it. Sorry, my Sutter is kicking in.
- 17:25The doors are open for more live action Chris Paul.
- 17:27Just right now, with all of our schedules going on right now,
- 17:31it's, it's difficult for us to all get together, get the entire
- 17:34crew back because we already decided that if we were to do
- 17:36another Chris Foley thing, the crew we had for the homecoming
- 17:39trailer was phenomenal. So we're going to try to get all
- 17:41of them back, maybe try to get Griffin back to come back and
- 17:45play Chris. But if that isn't the case,
- 17:46we'll find somebody else. It's all just a scheduling thing
- 17:48for us at this point. Has producing that trailer
- 17:57changed like your your writing process as far as like
- 18:02visualizing like how the characters look at all it, you
- 18:07know, in, in, Yeah, in the book, like for, for example, when I
- 18:12write, you know, John Ryder, like I'm, I'm picturing Scott
- 18:16Eastwood as John Ryder. Like that's who I, you know,
- 18:22choose. But then like, you know, Luke
- 18:25Goddich and I have talked and he, he and I have talked and he
- 18:30has a, you know, if I were to, if I were to come to him with
- 18:34like a John Ryder, he would be interested in playing that
- 18:37character. I've also kind of pictured him
- 18:41at times as John Ryder and then, you know, Richard Maverick, like
- 18:46as Jason Miller or some or something, you know, I guess how
- 18:53do you visualize characters when writing or anything?
- 18:56So whatever I'm writing about it all kind of just like it changes
- 19:00sometimes. Sometimes Chris Foley is Dylan
- 19:02O'Brien from American Assassin. Sometimes he's like, like I've
- 19:07been catching up on Yellowstone lately for Marshalls coming out
- 19:10tonight. So I see him for some reason as
- 19:12Luke Grimes for right now. But like whenever we were
- 19:16looking for, I had no really say in the casting for this trailer
- 19:21at all because we reached out to people work students at Point
- 19:24Park and they were interested in it.
- 19:26When I first saw the photo of Griffin, I was like, I don't
- 19:29want to say I was disappointed, but like, I wasn't like, OK,
- 19:33well, like we're getting down to the wire here.
- 19:34Let's see how he does. But whenever that guys came in
- 19:37on set and we started talking about with the bare minimum info
- 19:42about Chris Foley, he became him right then and there.
- 19:45Like he he would be off to the side between Cage reading
- 19:47Homecoming. Like, OK, got it.
- 19:50So sometimes when I'm writing now, I am seeing Griffin more as
- 19:53Chris Foley and the actress playing Rachel.
- 19:56But all the other characters, it kind of bleeds into it because I
- 20:00think I've talked to you about this before.
- 20:01Especially like my youngblood characters.
- 20:03Those are all based off my friends.
- 20:05Like Skip Chambers is my buddy Mark from BC.
- 20:11I picture my friends more because like those, that's my
- 20:13like my best experience from people that I'm writing.
- 20:16Like they're literally the characters so I'm using them.
- 20:19Yeah, that that's that's how he's cool.
- 20:23Which series do you, I don't, I don't want to say, do you enjoy
- 20:33writing one series more than the other, but like, do do you find
- 20:38that? Like did you find that you're,
- 20:40you're in a mood to write one series more than an than
- 20:44another? Or what's kind of your process
- 20:46for that? Yeah, so obviously like the main
- 20:49Chris Foley books is the heart and soul of this series, but I'm
- 20:53starting to plan out spin off novels focusing on the
- 20:57youngblood characters That's Skip Chambers, Jack Proto and
- 21:00Carly CC Carson, because I don't want to say the ideas I have for
- 21:05them don't work well for Chris and the Pittsburgh crew, but
- 21:08I've all I I still want to have them like leave the US and go do
- 21:13stuff. But a lot of times doesn't make
- 21:14sense since Chris is a Pittsburgh based vigilante.
- 21:17He's more right around there. The youngbloods are essentially
- 21:21mercenaries. They're hired guns.
- 21:23They can go wherever they want. So the so the I don't have one
- 21:26here to show you. I'm still writing it.
- 21:28The spin off youngblood novella I have planned out is going to
- 21:31be in a made I made-up a fictional country in West Africa
- 21:38and they're and they're going over there.
- 21:40So and I can't have Chris go leave Pittsburgh and go there
- 21:44right now at least. Yeah, I, yeah, it's, it's
- 21:49interesting that you say that you, you know, that you're, that
- 21:54you have like a made-up, you know, country and in Africa,
- 21:57because I, I've kind of, I have the same thing kind of planned
- 22:01for an Africa thing because I, I have, you know, my, my, my
- 22:06geography is, it's not bad, but it's like, I don't want to.
- 22:12I well, I mean, my mine is to the extent that like I, I
- 22:17generally know where things are, but I don't want to be one of
- 22:20those guys who writes like something in Africa and have A
- 22:24and have a reader be like, well, that's not actually accurate.
- 22:28And it's like, well, I'm only doing a Google Maps, you know?
- 22:32Yeah, yeah, thing. Yeah, but I love writing each
- 22:36series equally because especially where I'm at right
- 22:38now, a lot of this stuff is bleeding over because a lot of
- 22:41stuff is happening at the same time or like right after
- 22:43something else happened. So even though like going
- 22:46forward, like I'm, I'll text you a photo of it later, but I don't
- 22:49have a cover of it. Like the Youngblood books are
- 22:51going to be labeled like the Youngbloods.
- 22:53It's still part of the Chris Foley series.
- 22:56Yeah, Yeah. Well, well, that that's cool.
- 22:59Yeah. And that's kind of the same
- 23:01thing I have for, you know, the Jason Miller series where like
- 23:05Miller's Miller's in the John Ryder books and vice versa.
- 23:11But whenever, whenever you know, Jason Miller takes center sage
- 23:18and story, it's usually because John Ryder's busy in, in DC or
- 23:24something. And then, you know, usually
- 23:27Jason Miller's like in disposed in South America or, or yeah or
- 23:32something. Yeah, and it and it's fun for me
- 23:34to just explore different like topics in the world right now,
- 23:39different aspects of like criminal organizations or wars
- 23:42about having to uproot Chris Foley, who just went through
- 23:45hell in his last book and I'm throwing him into West Africa.
- 23:48Right. Yeah.
- 23:49Yeah. Yeah, it's certainly, you know,
- 23:56one of the things I kind of find ironic is I used to criticize
- 23:59like Marvel for, you know, doing like for having like Sony type,
- 24:04you know, different like spin offs and what not.
- 24:07And yet here I am kind of doing, doing the same thing.
- 24:10Yeah, I don't. I really don't have a problem
- 24:13with shared universes at all because and whenever I was on
- 24:16talking to our buddies Luke and Nathaniel on the Men's Adventure
- 24:19Fiction podcast, the topic of the night was like Mack Baldwin
- 24:23the executioner, right? And all those spin offs.
- 24:26Those guys were doing that much better than I think Marvel ever
- 24:30could do now. So Robin, you and I are
- 24:33following in the footsteps of those guys bit mixing our stuff
- 24:37together. So I really don't have a problem
- 24:38with that at all. Yeah.
- 24:40Well, and then and then I have my, I also have my cop series,
- 24:44which is like a which is in a completely different universe.
- 24:48And that's, that's interesting because like, you know, I'm
- 24:53dealing with like more ground and like, you know, day-to-day,
- 24:57you know, cop stuff. So which is, which is
- 25:02interesting because I have, I have a lot of readers who are
- 25:06either current or former cops. Same, same.
- 25:11I have a lot of same, Yeah, same deal.
- 25:14I have a lot of former current cops reading my stuff.
- 25:17Guys who like me who are in the tactical stuff, but we're not in
- 25:21any any position at all for we're just like prepared
- 25:24civilians. So I'm always trying to like
- 25:26please both of those groups at the same time.
- 25:29Yeah. And then like as far as reading,
- 25:35like do you read and met any authors like outside of the
- 25:40indie? Yeah, spear these.
- 25:44Yeah, I got the like a beside besides like your stuff, Zach's,
- 25:47Luke's, all that stuff. I read.
- 25:49Obviously I'm a Big Mac Bolin fan, so I read anything by Don
- 25:53Hamilton or the people that he signed up for.
- 25:55My basement bookshelf is filled with all of it.
- 25:59I besides your thing, the most recent thing that I read was
- 26:02Sandstorm Creed by BD Fleming, which, holy shit, this guy's
- 26:08going places. This he's awesome.
- 26:10It's got it's kind of like a faith-based action thriller in
- 26:15in Africa too. So that that's the thing that's
- 26:18going on. But then I just got in today, 10
- 26:22year 4 by I think his last name's Bordeaux.
- 26:24We've talked about that series before.
- 26:27Yeah, yeah, I just finished reading.
- 26:33Well, I just finished reading Eric Bishop's new novel Drexel,
- 26:37which is pretty good. Now I'm currently, I'm currently
- 26:41reading one of John le Carre's books, The Night Manager, which
- 26:47is so far I like the series better, but like, also John le
- 26:56Carre was British and so some of the yeah, some of the slaying,
- 27:01some of the slaying and languaging.
- 27:02It's it's definitely different than.
- 27:06That it is generally that that's something with like the British
- 27:08authors, especially somebody like him at the time, get into.
- 27:13Yeah, but. Yeah, I, I, I like to.
- 27:15A lot of the best stuff I've read has been indie, because we
- 27:20don't have to worry about pleasing some publisher overlord
- 27:24for it. Like, like I was talking to BD
- 27:26Fleming before. I'm like, dude, this book's
- 27:28going to have public big publishers shaking in its boots
- 27:32if word reaches them. Yeah, well, and what's
- 27:36interesting and too, is there a lot of traditional authors, or I
- 27:40should say former traditional authors coming over to to the
- 27:45indie space as well? You know, I, I don't know if you
- 27:50saw my interview with Kyle Mills I did last year, but like I, I
- 27:54was able to have him on the show and like I've, I've been a fan
- 27:58of that guy, you know, since he took over the mid rap series and
- 28:02he and he did a fantastic job. But I actually think that I like
- 28:08his writing. You know, that he's done maybe
- 28:14not, maybe not more than maybe not more, but just as much
- 28:19because it's his voice. He's not trying to, you know,
- 28:23write as Vince Flynn. Yeah, which I agree with that.
- 28:26And that's what he should. That's what they should do,
- 28:28especially with all these other people.
- 28:30Like, I think Ryan Stack just picked up another like, contract
- 28:34of another former dead author. And I hope he's doing the same
- 28:36thing where he's not trying to like, mimic because it's an
- 28:40American picking up, I think a British author.
- 28:42So it is going to be different, you know.
- 28:44Yeah, although let's see. Yeah, he picked up.
- 28:54Like, is it Hawk? Is that the character's name?
- 28:56Yeah, he picked, he picked up Ted Bells.
- 28:59Yeah, and that's it. So the the interesting thing
- 29:02about Ted Bell is because I've actually, I actually know Ryan
- 29:07somewhat the interesting Ted Bell is Ted Bell is an American
- 29:11or wasn't. An American.
- 29:12I didn't know that I was looking out because at my job I see him
- 29:15a lot. I look at the back and I see
- 29:16like Lord Ted Bell, I was wrong. I'm mistaken.
- 29:18Well. He he writes Lord Alex Hawk, who
- 29:23is British. The, the other interesting thing
- 29:26I was like is the the hot character is kind of like, is
- 29:33basically like a modern day James Bond and he is, he is
- 29:39British and the, the so as, as everyone in the discord knows,
- 29:44like I'm a die hard Bond fan. And when, when Ryan first
- 29:52started reading the the Hawk series, I don't think he'd read
- 29:56like a Bond knowledgeable for and I was like, really, you've
- 30:00never read like Casino Royale or anything.
- 30:04So I don't know if he's like since picked up any of the
- 30:07Fleming books, but I mean, I I definitely think he should.
- 30:13So although he's got, he's got plenty to do now with his with
- 30:19his own series. So which is good.
- 30:21I love the Matthew Red Series A lot.
- 30:23I think he just announced the the the fifth one coming out
- 30:28soon, which I'll be there for it for sure.
- 30:30Yeah. Yeah.
- 30:32But yeah, like you said too, like we talked about this in the
- 30:34past, but I just like the freedom that being indie gives
- 30:38us because I doubt that this would be picked up for sure.
- 30:42And it kind of falls down. Do you know who John Lovell is?
- 30:45Yeah, or or. Wait, I I've heard the name.
- 30:49I don't think I know much about him other than.
- 30:52He does. He's the warrior poet society
- 30:54guy on YouTube. Oh, I've I've heard of, I've
- 30:59heard of him. So he the thing that the thing I
- 31:02find hilarious is he wrote like a nonfiction, I think it's
- 31:05called the the Warrior Poet Way, which is like a whole, like
- 31:08becoming a man of faith and providing for your family.
- 31:10And something he wrote, which was my favorite book of last
- 31:13year, The Lions of Mercer, which is funnily enough, very similar
- 31:18to this, but it's definitely on a specific island owned by a
- 31:23specific billionaire politician. You know where I'm going with
- 31:25this and nobody would pick it up.
- 31:29And he was I was loving every second of it on his Instagram.
- 31:32He was calling people out about how like I'm just going indie.
- 31:35I'm doing this myself. And he did.
- 31:37But so he went from being like a New York Times bestseller, if
- 31:39that one to just be just same screw it, I'm doing it this way.
- 31:43I want to tell my story. And he got it out indie that
- 31:45way. So that's that was badass that
- 31:47he did that. Yeah, it's, it's been, I'll tell
- 31:51you, it's, it's been interesting do doing this like as and in the
- 31:56author too, because like when I started, when I start, well,
- 32:01when, when I started writing, like like actually writing, I
- 32:05was still, I was still a kid. But when I started writing to
- 32:08home, I was like, I had just gone out of college and I was, I
- 32:12was talking at like, you know, possibly doing like, you know,
- 32:16marketing or something like that.
- 32:18And, you know, like I thought, and I thought my writing was
- 32:24good, but like, realistically, I don't think a publisher would
- 32:27have ever picked up any of my. Yeah, yeah, I, I feel that too.
- 32:33Like I, I think I'm at the point now like if I were to ever like,
- 32:36like get picked up, they would they would be like, OK, well, we
- 32:39got to change a lot of everything here.
- 32:41And I I wouldn't do that because the only ones I think that would
- 32:44be good would be Homecoming and then probably Killing Evil
- 32:47because at that time I was trying to mimic what was popular
- 32:51in thriller genres then to the point now where I just don't
- 32:55care. I'm doing whatever I want.
- 32:56Yeah. I mean, I think, I mean, that's
- 33:01that's the difficult thing too, is like from the marketing
- 33:04perspective, you definitely want to write something that you
- 33:07think people will definitely want to read.
- 33:11But at the same time, like, you know, outside outside the box.
- 33:18Yeah. Thinking I find is, you know,
- 33:20it's great. Like when I started writing the
- 33:23when I started writing the Jason Miller, you know, series like he
- 33:27had, he had cameoed in one of the John Rider books.
- 33:32Yeah. And he wanted to know more about
- 33:33him. And I was thinking, well, like
- 33:35I, you know, this character is going to be a one off and I'm
- 33:39not going to do anything with them.
- 33:41And I was surprised that like people, you know, even yourself
- 33:45included, as you said, like people read the series now for
- 33:48Miller, which is. Yep.
- 33:50Yeah, but which I Which is great, but there would be no
- 33:53shadows of deception of Outrider, right?
- 33:55I still love reading about him. But right.
- 33:58Keep Miller going, man. Right, and that and that's the
- 34:02and that's the character that like I didn't that like I was
- 34:05kind of like, well, I I'm not sure if people like this because
- 34:08he's kind of like a Clint Eastwood, you know, man with no
- 34:11name RIP off and he and he is, but I think that's also that's
- 34:15why. That's the Yeah chapter where
- 34:18you have him standing in the Oval Office of his poncho and
- 34:20cowboy, he does not give a fuck. So he just, that's what I like
- 34:23about him. Yeah, well, he, you know, he's,
- 34:26he's a little bit, he's a little bit, you know, he's a little bit
- 34:29like, I don't want to say he's crazy.
- 34:32You know, a man who, you know, Yeah.
- 34:35Watched his wife, you know, his pregnant wife die and then, you
- 34:38know, gets brought back from the dead essentially.
- 34:42You know, he may have, he may have a few screw, you know,
- 34:47screws loose or something. I think that's why guys, guys
- 34:50and guys who read our genre, they like a little bit of that
- 34:53too. And you do a good job of like
- 34:55now, obviously if people work with Miller, they're used to him
- 34:57at this point. But every time they every time
- 34:59he's around somebody else, they're like, oh, and I'm trying
- 35:01to do that and I hope I'm succeeding just as well as
- 35:04you're doing whenever like somebody like new meets Chris
- 35:07Fall and they're like, this kid's insane.
- 35:09Yeah, well, the the other thing too is like the man with no name
- 35:15as a as a character, you know, the Clint Eastwood played like
- 35:20he doesn't really have he doesn't really have a back, a
- 35:24back story at all. It changes.
- 35:28It changes from movie to movie. And that's partially why I
- 35:32haven't. That's partially why I have
- 35:34Miller go under different names in certain books too, is kind of
- 35:38admonished that. But also because there was never
- 35:41an origin story for the Man with No name, really, I kind of
- 35:44wanted to give, you know, that character a background and, you
- 35:49know, in the modern, yeah, setting.
- 35:52Yeah, somewhat. So yeah.
- 35:54I think, and I think you're succeeding, man.
- 35:55Miller, like I keep telling you, keep them coming, man.
- 35:57I'm here for it. Yeah, whereas like John Ryder,
- 36:02he is an American James Bond. He's also kind of like a John.
- 36:07He's also kind of like a John Wick character.
- 36:10Yeah, I like that too, because like, while Bond can throw down,
- 36:13he's definitely not John Wick. So I like how you mix the two
- 36:16together. Yeah, well, it's, it's, you
- 36:20know, it's, it's funny because John Wick, you know, by the time
- 36:25people, you know, see him in the first movie, like he's not
- 36:28really in his prime anymore. People like he's retired and
- 36:31John Ryder being like 32 at this point.
- 36:36Is. We're now actually 33 because
- 36:39he's a year younger. He's a year older than I am.
- 36:42Yeah. You know, canonically, yeah.
- 36:44He's, he's kind of in his. He's kind of like what John Wick
- 36:48would be in his prime, so. Yeah, yeah.
- 36:53And like, and it's I think it's you have great characters, man,
- 36:57and people obviously love reading the stuff, but Miller
- 37:00bring more Miller. Roger, Roger that.
- 37:04So I'm right now I'm trying to like find like how I can
- 37:08incorporate like more, you know, like western brands and ends of
- 37:12the book too, so that that's I'm not as big into product
- 37:17placement as Jack cars, but I'm I'm starting to to get to get
- 37:22there. I'm all I'm also learning more
- 37:24about Texas than I initially thought.
- 37:26I I would. Yeah, and that's something where
- 37:30the whole product blur thing, like I'm trying to like limit
- 37:34like the brands and stuff, but obviously they get the
- 37:36character. Like Chris Foley uses the
- 37:39Empress Tomahawk by Wingard Wearables, which if you need a
- 37:42concealed carry tomahawk, folks, you got to go.
- 37:44You got to get one. You're not an American unless
- 37:46you're rocking a tomahawk in your pants.
- 37:48Everything. But like if it matters for the
- 37:50character, I'm going to highlight it.
- 37:51But I'm trying. The only thing I really get in
- 37:53deep with is just like whatever gear they're using sometimes
- 37:56because I just love that shit. So I'm going to put it in my
- 37:59books. Yeah, well, and I'm, and I'm
- 38:02also like, I'm also partially a a car guy, which is funny
- 38:07because I don't drive like, yeah, like obviously I had to
- 38:10give, I had to give John Ryder like a, a 1967 Pontiac GTO
- 38:16because why not? It's, it's basically the
- 38:19American version in my mind of the of the Aston Martin DB5,
- 38:24yeah. So you have you have that car
- 38:26and they meanwhile, in my books, Kyle turned his dead mom's
- 38:29minivan into essentially a tank. It's called the war van.
- 38:32And they're driving around and then.
- 38:34Yeah. Which which I, which I, which I
- 38:37enjoy, yeah. That I mean that that's the
- 38:40other thing is, you know, like just doing like little, you
- 38:46know, X like, you know, minor product placements for stuff
- 38:50like that too. For sure, yeah.
- 38:56So what is next in your, you know, lineup for?
- 39:03So Randall Maplewood Hollow is next.
- 39:05I'm hopefully going to get it out this month.
- 39:07I've I've had issues of KDP setting release dates to them
- 39:10just either not doing that date or I closed my computer.
- 39:14Then I get a text message saying I don't know your new book was
- 39:16out. So I'm not I it's going to be
- 39:18out this month. Keep an eye on my Instagram.
- 39:20It's this is definitely going to be out.
- 39:22But this month, honestly, I get some other feedback done.
- 39:24So this is kicking off the new era.
- 39:26This is going to be different, hopefully, but I have a new
- 39:29stamp on there. If it doesn't have the stamp,
- 39:30it's not real Chris Foley. But this is going to kick off
- 39:33the next era of the vigilante arc is what I'm calling.
- 39:36So Randall Maplewood Hollows first and then so spoiler again
- 39:41if you read Merc war at the end. So this is technically what you
- 39:46got to go to next after Merc War, because this is mentioned
- 39:49at the end of Merc War, but then a name who has not been dropped
- 39:52since the third book is is dropped at the end of Merc War.
- 39:56And that's my character, Rachel Malt, who Steven again loves
- 40:00because she she went through more hell than all my characters
- 40:03combined in my series. And she vanished for a little
- 40:05bit. Well, she's coming back in Bare
- 40:07Knuckle, which is the next installment of Chris Foley.
- 40:11And it's going to be a showdown for the ages because you can see
- 40:13Chris and Rachel about the throwdown in an underground.
- 40:16The fight ring and this is my huge homage to 80s and 90s
- 40:21martial arts movies, underground boxing, this takes place up in
- 40:25Toronto and this was a blast to write and bring Rachel back
- 40:29after four or five books about her So this is where she's this
- 40:34what she's been doing is she going to come back into the
- 40:37fold? Is she going to kill Chris?
- 40:38Is Chris going to kill her? Who knows what's going to
- 40:40happen, right? So there's this and then after
- 40:44that, the next installment, I'm a madman.
- 40:47I'm an absolute madman is going to be false gospel, which this
- 40:51is going to be like a definitely more of a closer to real
- 40:55monster. Some horror vibes thrown in a
- 40:56bit of cult action in there. This is this was a blast.
- 41:00This is probably my favorite that I've done besides real
- 41:03besides real monster right here. So holy shit, you've already
- 41:06written all the all those two. Yeah, I'm insane.
- 41:12Yeah, people, people the guy, people the guy write a ton.
- 41:15Which I what I do. I write like I write every day,
- 41:20I mean. Yeah.
- 41:21You know. It's, it's, it's, it's a poor
- 41:25sleep schedule. And also it's like, I'm not
- 41:28saying I'm not trying to hype myself up here as being some
- 41:30like genius where I can't sleep because the ideas are in my
- 41:32head, but it's like I, I, I want to write it out for as long as I
- 41:37can. That's the thing.
- 41:38I mean, I've wanted, I have stories in my head.
- 41:41No, I, no, I'm, I'm the same way.
- 41:44I mean, as I wrote, you know, as I wrote in my blog, you know, on
- 41:49my sub stack, sadly, nobody reads.
- 41:53I I like sub stack is the one social media that like I I can't
- 41:58for some reason like ever get traction.
- 42:01Given. Up and I, I don't know why, but
- 42:03like so my articles on on X do well and like on Facebook, they
- 42:09do OK, but yeah, as I, as I basically ran in like my author
- 42:12blog it like yeah, I think like writing American Inferno was,
- 42:17was cathartic, you know to deal with, you know, the
- 42:20assassination of Charlie Kirk. But yeah, like you, I, I
- 42:24basically I'm an insomniac that just writes all the time you're
- 42:29talking. About cathartic so a big a big
- 42:31theme in bare knuckle not not exploring anything is bringing
- 42:36old friends that you've cut ties with for whatever reason back
- 42:40into the fold. And as I was writing this, me
- 42:42and one of my good buddies who we had a falling out a couple
- 42:45years ago, we ended up looking back up together talking to
- 42:49things are just like how it used to do it for whatever happened
- 42:51happened. And that was very cathartic for
- 42:53me for sure. So writing can definitely help
- 42:56you through a lot of shit. Yeah.
- 42:58Oh yeah, it definitely does, you know, for me.
- 43:02And then you know, what's what's been really cool about
- 43:05podcasting too, is like, I interviewed so many authors now
- 43:09and just like fascinating people in general that almost every
- 43:14guest I have, with the exception of of a few people like give me
- 43:19ideas for like other stories as they like by them saying
- 43:23anything directly about that. But just like our conversations
- 43:26inspire, you know, more plots and whatnot, which I I think is
- 43:32insanely cool. So.
- 43:34Yeah, and I'm really excited what these next three are going
- 43:38to do for the the Chris Foley series.
- 43:40As you saw, the covers are getting more.
- 43:42Yeah, yeah, I know I'm going to catch smack for it.
- 43:44They are AI based but. I.
- 43:49Don't I know? Yeah, I'm talking about
- 43:50everybody else. Everybody else, but especially
- 43:54false gospel. I am extremely happy with how
- 43:56this one turned out. Not just how the covers, but
- 43:59just the story and the action involved in it as well.
- 44:02Yeah, well, that's actually something I want to talk to you
- 44:04about too. So how has your experience been
- 44:07using like, you know, ChatGPT or I guess, I guess Dolly or
- 44:13whatever they're calling that the image generator?
- 44:17If AI ever become sentient, they're coming after me first
- 44:20cuz I treat that thing like a slave.
- 44:21If it doesn't like what it is, I just start I just start cussing
- 44:24it out and then it fixes it. It gets it right because like
- 44:27getting, getting this took multiple tries, multiple tries
- 44:32to get it right because they kept they weren't like I would
- 44:34give out perfect page descriptions of the characters
- 44:38and everything and it just wouldn't be it.
- 44:40I had the gaslighted into thinking we were in the 70s to
- 44:43get like guns on the page for some reason.
- 44:45Yeah, if these things ever like go full Terminator, I'm done.
- 44:49I'm not going after me first. I treat this thing like it's a
- 44:52slave. Well, now that what's what's
- 44:54funny is is my ChatGPT is probably going to be fighting
- 44:59other chat GPTS. But like I I have mine super
- 45:03based at this at this point. I'm starting to see the light
- 45:07and get based too because you know how like the hell like it
- 45:09talks to you changes. It's starting to like get more
- 45:11like I'm talking it but the moment it insults me I'm so I'm
- 45:14just back to it man. Mine, mine thinks it's like mine
- 45:20thinks it's like a writing assistant, which it essentially
- 45:23is. It's like, it's like an edit.
- 45:25It's like an editor. And that I mean, and that's,
- 45:27that's the other thing too, is like the way you and I use AI.
- 45:31Well, I don't want to speak for you, but the way I use AI, like
- 45:34from writing, it's not like I'm only these people that like,
- 45:39uses it to like create a swab. I, I have my first drafts, which
- 45:42are usually like a mess. And then I, you know, put like
- 45:46various chapters and scenes in there to like rework and Polish
- 45:50and, and clean and clean it up a bit.
- 45:54So. Yeah, I use it mostly just for
- 45:58my covers because I'm able to like get scenes from my books
- 46:03made about having to schedule photo shoot, which down the line
- 46:07I might go back to how my first couple were where it was people
- 46:11on the cover. But but again, it's a schedule
- 46:14thing and I'm cracking these these fuckers out so fast that I
- 46:18just want to get it done. But I don't let it near anywhere
- 46:22near my manuscript. I I write it and it is and it is
- 46:26edited by either I go through it myself or I pay my one friend in
- 46:30beer. She's a legal secretary.
- 46:32She usually looks through it sometimes, but but I also use
- 46:37it. I I had it help create help me
- 46:40figure out how the fake African country for the young blood spin
- 46:43off coming up. If I have a question about like
- 46:46a certain bullet trajectory, it gives me easier to understand
- 46:50stuff than Google does. So I help it if that I don't
- 46:52want it near anything near what I'm writing because I don't want
- 46:54it to change anything. Yeah, the what?
- 46:56Well, the one that's on, the one that's on my, the one that I use
- 46:59for manuscripts is also like a local instance.
- 47:03So it's on my computer. So which you know, is helpful
- 47:11too. So also, though you know, it, it
- 47:15made this background that's behind me because I can't, I
- 47:20can't afford to, you know, pay graphics guys either.
- 47:24That's another thing too, like, like, I don't want to have to
- 47:27like lay down a lot of money to an artist and then get something
- 47:31I don't like and then have to pay again.
- 47:33You know what I mean? How many times have you and I
- 47:36talked to authors and they've said that exact same thing has
- 47:38happened, but it's it's just, it's just, it's easy.
- 47:43Yeah, and. There's people going to be out
- 47:45there going, oh, you're not supporting artists?
- 47:47I'm like, yeah, mod. But I'm it's it fits my needs as
- 47:51an author personally. Well, I I do support like
- 47:55authors. I mean artists like.
- 47:58Yeah, of course I have author. I have artist friends too.
- 48:01Like I support all my friends who do that stuff too.
- 48:04But again, it's like it's it's a money thing on my end and it's
- 48:07also a schedule thing and getting photo shoots set up.
- 48:10Yeah, well, and then, well, and then also like, you know, some
- 48:13of them, some of them want like royalty cuts and like, yeah, I,
- 48:18you know, they're, they're you don't make much on books, you
- 48:22know, as is. And you know, it's difficult to
- 48:26do that. But like, yeah, I have I
- 48:28paintings and whatnot that, you know, my artist friends have
- 48:32like I, I buy, I buy art, you know, personally for me usually
- 48:37so. Yeah, and like, and my friends
- 48:40so like do the projects, I support them 110%, but you know,
- 48:44I'm not going to like if it's somebody I don't know, I'm not
- 48:47going to give them money, you know what I mean?
- 48:48I'm. Not going to like, right?
- 48:50Yeah. Yeah, well, and then you know,
- 48:53like, you know, so, so I originally what, you know what
- 48:58to be like a technical right for business.
- 49:00But what's funny now is like I'm using all my, you know, editing
- 49:03skills like edit my own books and what not, which is, which is
- 49:08hard. It's it's hard to edit your own
- 49:10writing once you've you know, once you've like, you know, read
- 49:15like 5000 times. Yeah, but.
- 49:17Yeah. You know that that's why I
- 49:19shift. That's why I have like 3 books
- 49:21at a time so I can shift, you know?
- 49:24Speaking using, Speaking of editing.
- 49:26So this I like remember I told you, I finally have a plan.
- 49:29I'm not winging it anymore. I finally have a layout to how
- 49:33I'm writing it. And this is going to sound
- 49:34insane, some people. So I have one tab for the draft,
- 49:39and then I have a tab for the ebook and a tab for the
- 49:42paperback. It's all formatted how it is.
- 49:44And as I'm writing the draft, if I like it, that's a chapter.
- 49:47I'm putting it in where it is and then I go through it, edit
- 49:52it to the. I'd go through it once in the on
- 49:55the ebook change I want to change, then I edit it over to
- 49:58the paperback. It's insane, but it works for
- 50:01me. Yeah, that, yeah, that's kind.
- 50:04That's basically how I do things, how I do things too.
- 50:10Although the although there's also not enough coffee in the
- 50:13world, you know when when writing.
- 50:18Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there's not enough coffee,
- 50:20not enough C4 energy drinks or bang anyway, so.
- 50:23And and then unfortunately I can't smoke in the house either.
- 50:27So otherwise, otherwise, otherwise I would I would get a
- 50:34pipe Nathaniel Hummel, but I don't have the.
- 50:37Yeah, I don't. I don't have a cool barn of a
- 50:39scar age behind me where I can where I can smoke my pipe and
- 50:44look Uber based while I'm doing. It if I had, if I had a if I had
- 50:47a barn, I would, I would set up a podcast studio in there and
- 50:52just like never, I would basically live in that thing
- 50:56basically if I could. Yeah, if I if I had a writing
- 50:59born dude, I'd be in there. I wouldn't leave.
- 51:02Yeah, I just, you know, someone needs to pick up Shadows of
- 51:07Deception as as ATV series someone then, you know, give me
- 51:13give me money so I can, you know, build like a build like a
- 51:17studio in my backyard. And then just.
- 51:19Never take. It and then I'll I'll take a
- 51:22million and give some to, you know, Jake and also to Eric
- 51:27Bishop so they can both, you know, finance their their movies
- 51:31as well so. Yeah, somebody needs to just
- 51:34realize the potential in the Men's Adventure Fiction Discord
- 51:37while Discord is still running. And yeah, and pick a lot of us
- 51:43up, but I don't want to get into that, you know, my opinion on
- 51:47that whole face scanning shit, I'm not doing it, but.
- 51:50Yeah. Yeah, it is.
- 51:52It is an interesting premise for a book that I have, you know,
- 51:57plan, Plan. Yeah.
- 51:59Yeah, we'll see. Anyway, well, dude, you know,
- 52:05you're killing it and always happy to have you on the show
- 52:11and chat with you always. If you weren't already, you
- 52:16know, extremely busy, which I know you are.
- 52:20I would suggest that, you know, you should do a podcast
- 52:23yourself. But yeah, I know that, you know,
- 52:26everyone's got things to do so. Yeah, yeah, everything ever.
- 52:30It's it's a slam, not only if my job right now, but with all my
- 52:34other stuff, my writing, my other, my poor excuse for social
- 52:37life. And that's been busy,
- 52:38surprisingly. But yeah, man, if I had the, if
- 52:41I had the time, man, I'd be making podcasts.
- 52:43I'd be making Folly films left and right.
- 52:45Well, I'm just going to stick with the books for now on.
- 52:47What what's what's what's a social life?
- 52:50I'm I'm a full time author. I don't.
- 52:53I don't know. What the fuck is that?
- 52:55Yeah, it's a rare yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 52:59But I'm always happy to come on here and talk shop with you,
- 53:01man. Always happy to have you on and
- 53:05you know when, when you've got the other two books, I, I'd love
- 53:08to have you back to talk about those as well.
- 53:11So. You'll be getting this in the
- 53:12mail soon too, by the way. I I can't wait Yeah, to have to
- 53:17have your books, you know, to have to have your book and then
- 53:22hopefully I'm getting Dawson's book soon because that looks
- 53:26pretty good. And you know, I I'm I'm a little
- 53:31bummed out that you know, double O 7 first like got postponed,
- 53:35but hopefully, hopefully I'll have a few books to read in
- 53:40between now and May when it comes out.
- 53:42So. Yeah, and congratulations on
- 53:46coming up with American Inferno. I tell you this every time that
- 53:50I read your stuff, it you get your especially your action
- 53:53scenes. They get better and better each
- 53:55time. Well, I, I appreciate it.
- 53:58I appreciate it, man. And yeah, I, I, I would, I would
- 54:01say the same for your, for your villains.
- 54:04So I, you know, they get, they get better each time and you
- 54:11know, you're, you're killing it. So thank you.
- 54:14Thank you. I appreciate that and appreciate
- 54:16the support you always give me too.
- 54:19Like I said, there is no set release date for rate on
- 54:22Maplewood Hollow, but I just want to take a little bit at the
- 54:26end to I do this all the time because I know my mom and dad
- 54:29are going to share this link on their Facebooks, right?
- 54:31This is not going to be for everybody.
- 54:34You know that as well as everybody else who's Reddit
- 54:36does. Yeah, yeah.
- 54:39So it it's definitely more violent than my other stuff and
- 54:43that's saying a lot. But again, this is not going to
- 54:45be for everybody. If you buy it and give it to
- 54:48your like 15 year old kid and he's just freaking out, it's not
- 54:51my fault. Yeah, no, that, that that's kind
- 54:55of that's kind of the the same thing.
- 54:59I mean, I even wrote, you know, Ivan, Ivan wrote in the
- 55:02introduction of American Inferno.
- 55:04If this book makes you uncomfortable, it it's meant to.
- 55:07Yeah, it's meant. It's meant to be.
- 55:08Yeah. Like, like I touched on human
- 55:10trafficking and killing evil. This is expanding on that.
- 55:14Human trafficking is, is real. It's evil.
- 55:17Our our elected leaders are probably involved in it.
- 55:20That being said, I am not suicidal whatsoever.
- 55:22I just want to let that be known as well.
- 55:24But but yeah, it's not meant to be a fun read.
- 55:30It's meant to be these evil bastards are getting what's
- 55:32coming to them, which is not. Looks like it's not going to
- 55:35happen in real life. Did you do much research into
- 55:40human trafficking? Like really, what was that?
- 55:44So the biggest thing is, is what really kicked off writing this
- 55:48was, I think I'm forgetting where it was now, but I think it
- 55:52was. I have it in my in my
- 55:55introduction. Give me a second.
- 55:59Yeah. So it was in Vermont in the
- 56:00September 2024, right. So there was a map camp, which
- 56:05I'm not even going to say what that is.
- 56:07That's what these that's what these fuckers want to be called
- 56:08now instead of sentient wood chipper food.
- 56:11But they they set up this whole this whole summer camp thing for
- 56:16them and they're like, oh, there's going to be no kids.
- 56:18They're just going to be a safe place for us to hang out in the
- 56:20fucking government. Basically.
- 56:22They, I think they ended up like kind of being like, you can't do
- 56:25it. But they agreed to have these
- 56:27people set this up so camps like Maplewood Hollow exist.
- 56:32There's islands that exist about it.
- 56:33It's not meant to be sugar coated.
- 56:37Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, doing
- 56:39research on that type of thing, Yeah, I mean.
- 56:43It's bad. It's it's really bad.
- 56:47I usually don't have to walk away from research, but I had to
- 56:49do it a lot for this one. Yeah, I mean, you know, you
- 56:57know, research for, well, I mean, really there.
- 57:00I didn't really have to do much research for American Inferno
- 57:03because like, I was kind of like in the middle.
- 57:07It's happening. Of it all.
- 57:10Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's, you know that
- 57:14that's the that's the other thing.
- 57:17But yeah, I mean, I, I really have.
- 57:20I also have to commend you. I don't know if you did this
- 57:23intentionally, but like also, I mean, you know, this is a really
- 57:28tight, you know, 100 pages or. So I think it's like a little
- 57:34bit over 100 pages, which is what I was aiming for.
- 57:37Cuz just to just to annoy you, I don't put page numbers in my
- 57:42stuff. I've, I've noticed that and you
- 57:45know, as I, as I've said before, you know, Atticus is 100 in like
- 57:52it's not even $150.00. It's, it's like 147.
- 57:57I wish they would give authors promo codes like they used to
- 58:00because I I, I wish I could give you one for a discount, but
- 58:05like, yeah, I would. Yeah, I'm working on it.
- 58:09It's, but yeah, like to do, to do a book like this in under 100
- 58:14pages, like, I don't know, because you could, you could
- 58:17write like 3 novels on this subject if you wanted.
- 58:22But to do to do in such a tight, you know, format is impressive.
- 58:27Yeah. Thank you, thank you.
- 58:29I appreciate it. It was definitely, I definitely
- 58:31did have to shorten it a little bit to make it where it is now
- 58:35because I would just get carried away and keep writing stuff.
- 58:38But I'm happy with how it turned out.
- 58:40I like I told you, I don't think it's definitely like my best
- 58:44work, but I felt like it's something that had to be told in
- 58:47written in a time like this, but.
- 58:49Yeah, the way I would put it, and I should have put this in
- 58:53the border, but it's a nice breather, which is which is
- 58:57weird for me to say that a book this heavy is is a breather.
- 59:01But this is a nice like I guess kind of intermission between.
- 59:07Before you get into the rest. Of the wars and what you have
- 59:11planned neck. Yeah.
- 59:12So yeah, I definitely encourage people to check this out when it
- 59:16comes out and which hopefully we can announce that soon.
- 59:22But in the meantime, Mr. Widmer, thanks for coming on and real
- 59:28appreciate you. And also for for being the one
- 59:33person I can text Dale and being like, hey, do you think this is
- 59:37going too far? And you're like, no, no, but.
- 59:42But yeah, thanks for having me, man.
- 59:43It's it's always a blast. Yeah, so anyway, everyone go
- 59:48check out Jake Widmer's work. I'll have his Amazon page linked
- 59:53and then also at Jake Widmer, author on Instagram.
- 59:58And are you on Twitter or? I have a Twitter account and a
- 1:00:04Facebook account. I don't use them my Twitter.
- 1:00:07I just have Twitter because I like scrolling through all the
- 1:00:08funny shit on there. Facebook is literally just
- 1:00:11getting to the point to just let my parents, friends know my
- 1:00:14books are out. I don't do anything on that.
- 1:00:15Instagram is where I'm at all the time.
- 1:00:18Yeah, same. Same thing.
- 1:00:20I mean, Facebook is pretty much like where I keep in contact
- 1:00:25with like relatives and people who I went to high school with.
- 1:00:30Who I wouldn't have contact with otherwise, but like, other than
- 1:00:34that, like, yeah, I don't even promote stuff on there.
- 1:00:39Yeah, very much anymore. So.
- 1:00:41But yeah, anyway, yeah, like I said, folks, go and check out
- 1:00:45Jake's books. Real pretty shit.
- 1:00:48You coming on. And folks, we really appreciate
- 1:00:51you listening. I'll be back Wednesday night for
- 1:00:55the live show, but until then, take care.
- 1:00:59God bless and God Freedom Agency in that order.
- 1:01:03Thanks everyone. The right to offend is not some
- 1:01:10pesky little part of freedom of speech that we have to put up
- 1:01:13with. It is the heart and soul and
- 1:01:15lungs of freedom of speech. It is the coursing lifeblood of
- 1:01:19human progress. It is the instigator of liberty
- 1:01:23and modernity and science and understanding.
- 1:01:26What a laughing stock today's student leaders are that they
- 1:01:31can so casually dismiss the right to be offensive without
- 1:01:35realizing that their lovely, enlightened lives are the gifts
- 1:01:39of individuals who gave offence. Offensiveness is not just
- 1:01:44something we have to begrudgingly accept.
- 1:01:47Offensiveness is the motor of human progress.
- 1:01:51Thank you for watching the Whitfield Report live on The
- 1:01:54Right to Offend Media Network. Make sure to check out Sam's
- 1:01:58books on Amazon, Audible, and Kindle.
- 1:02:02You can follow Sam on X at Sam W under score, NGC and the Right
- 1:02:08to Offend Media Network at RTO Media.
- 1:02:13Like, comment, subscribe and share with your friends.
- 1:02:17And until next time, God bless. God save this great nation.
- 1:02:24God, freedom, legacy, in that order.