Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Blackout From Author J Luke Bennecke It Takes A Real Engineer To Create This Darkness
Transcript
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- 0:24Speaker 1: Hello and good morning everybody.
- 0:26Speaker 2: Everybody, It's just me. I'm all by myself.
- 0:28Speaker 1: Oh er, yeah, as an author. There's a lot of
- 0:31Speaker 1: people up there in that head. Come on, I've seen
- 0:33Speaker 1: the movie A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crow.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Come on, now that's true. There's a lot of us
- 0:38Speaker 2: in here. You're absolutely everybody's fine. Thank you. How are you?
- 0:42Speaker 1: Absolutely fantastic and excited to share a conversation with you
- 0:45Speaker 1: because not only do you have this unbelievable way of
- 0:48Speaker 1: making me feel like that I've stepped into a world
- 0:50Speaker 1: that exists, but you really do feed my imagination because
- 0:54Speaker 1: I have always feared any blockout and I don't know
- 0:58Speaker 1: if it's because I grew up in the Stateumtana with
- 1:00Speaker 1: the minimum missiles, and I just that was just our
- 1:02Speaker 1: way of life. But to read about this, you are
- 1:06Speaker 1: making something feel like this could happen again and again.
- 1:10Speaker 1: And I just love the way that you step into this.
- 1:13Speaker 2: Oh thank you so much, Erro. I appreciate that. I
- 1:15Speaker 2: think the scariest part.
- 1:16Speaker 3: About Blackout isn't really what's fictional, it's what's possible. All
- 1:21Speaker 3: the technologies in Blackout are either real or coming online.
- 1:24Speaker 3: So I just connected the docs. That's all I did.
- 1:27Speaker 1: Yeah, But that's the fun part about being a writer
- 1:30Speaker 1: versus an author, because a writer is the one that
- 1:32Speaker 1: goes in and researches, does the gut work and stuff,
- 1:35Speaker 1: and then says goes to the other side of your personality,
- 1:37Speaker 1: says all right, you put the story together. It's like
- 1:39Speaker 1: I already did the homework. You go ahead and put
- 1:41Speaker 1: it together now exactly.
- 1:43Speaker 3: Well, I've been an engineer for thirty five years, and
- 1:45Speaker 3: as an engineer, I'm kind of trained.
- 1:47Speaker 2: We're all trained to look for failure points.
- 1:49Speaker 3: As a novelist, though, I get to kind of imagine
- 1:51Speaker 3: what would happen when these things fail, and that's kind
- 1:54Speaker 3: of the fun part for me.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Well, my wife says that you have readefined the word dangerous,
- 1:58Speaker 1: and I laughed at at Herbie as I thought, oh
- 2:00Speaker 1: my god, that you just hit this man right on
- 2:02Speaker 1: the heart, because that's exactly what he's doing, because he's
- 2:05Speaker 1: given us something that is authentic and it makes you
- 2:08Speaker 1: feel like, oh my god, that is so dangerous.
- 2:13Speaker 2: I well, thank you.
- 2:14Speaker 3: That's nice of your wife to say. Thrillers kind of
- 2:18Speaker 3: let us experience danger. From my perspective, they let us
- 2:20Speaker 3: experience danger like from a safe distance. They allow us
- 2:24Speaker 3: all to kind of ask what would I do without
- 2:26Speaker 3: actually having to live it?
- 2:27Speaker 2: So that's kind of again the fun part for me.
- 2:29Speaker 1: How did you locate the balance of blackout? And the
- 2:33Speaker 1: reason why is because there really is a carefully and
- 2:36Speaker 1: maybe that's the engineer in you, because I know how
- 2:38Speaker 1: engineers are. You have to answer the question why every
- 2:41Speaker 1: time you take a breath right exactly?
- 2:44Speaker 3: Well, technology, from my perspective, it's not really good or bad.
- 2:48Speaker 2: It's just a tool, right, and so it's how we
- 2:50Speaker 2: look at things.
- 2:51Speaker 3: So to me, the issue isn't really like being dependent
- 2:54Speaker 3: on certain things. It's understanding those risks that kind of
- 2:58Speaker 3: come with the dependence, whether you're talking an AI or
- 3:01Speaker 3: the power grid, or self driving cars or water you know,
- 3:05Speaker 3: what have you. It's it's how much what kind of
- 3:08Speaker 3: risks do we have that come with us being dependent
- 3:11Speaker 3: on these new technologies.
- 3:13Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 3:13Speaker 1: And part of the reason why I think you just
- 3:15Speaker 1: scare the crap at me inside this book blackout is
- 3:18Speaker 1: because I always we have a big storm that's coming
- 3:20Speaker 1: to the Carolina said, I know is going to create blackouts.
- 3:22Speaker 1: And if you don't think, I'm not going to be
- 3:24Speaker 1: thinking about your book. It may not be warfare or
- 3:26Speaker 1: some sort of terrorism, but the fact of the matter
- 3:29Speaker 1: is it's a blackout. And that to me is no
- 3:32Speaker 1: different than Michael and Jason and even Freddy Krueger. The
- 3:35Speaker 1: blackout is the superstar here exactly.
- 3:39Speaker 2: It's it can be scary. Our entire existence.
- 3:43Speaker 3: Right now in this modern world we call the United
- 3:46Speaker 3: States of America is dependent on power and electricity more
- 3:51Speaker 3: so now than it was just a.
- 3:52Speaker 2: Few decades ago.
- 3:53Speaker 3: And so if you take that away, imagine a world
- 3:55Speaker 3: without cell phones, without gasoline, because the pumps aren't working,
- 4:00Speaker 3: without the internet, hospital generators are going down.
- 4:05Speaker 2: You're not able to drive anywhere, You're not.
- 4:07Speaker 3: Able to communicate at extended distances over your cell phone,
- 4:11Speaker 3: no texting. This phone call that you and I are
- 4:14Speaker 3: having right now gone, the entire iHeart network down, everything.
- 4:20Speaker 3: It's a completely different world than it goes back to
- 4:22Speaker 3: the nineteenth century. How we live back then, and none
- 4:25Speaker 3: of us, none of us, I think, are kind of
- 4:27Speaker 3: ready for that. And so this is somewhat of a
- 4:29Speaker 3: cautionary tale to kind of get us to kind of
- 4:32Speaker 3: wake up a little bit.
- 4:32Speaker 2: Through a fun way.
- 4:34Speaker 1: I envisioned you playing a game of chess while you
- 4:36Speaker 1: were putting this book together. We were sitting there and
- 4:38Speaker 1: you were saying, Okay, this player is here, this player
- 4:40Speaker 1: is there. What can I do to get this player
- 4:42Speaker 1: to move in this direction? Because I mean, there really
- 4:44Speaker 1: is such a system of thought in this to where
- 4:48Speaker 1: you carry us forward. You're not forcing us to do
- 4:50Speaker 1: anything as readers. We're sitting there as bystanders and witnesses
- 4:55Speaker 1: of this exactly.
- 4:58Speaker 3: Well, thank you, that's another compliment. I appreciate that. Yeah,
- 5:02Speaker 3: It's it's kind of like chess. How is this all
- 5:04Speaker 3: going to be put together? And when I write a book,
- 5:06Speaker 3: I put it together kind of methodically, and I have
- 5:10Speaker 3: eight different sub acts, and I have all my characters,
- 5:12Speaker 3: and I do a deep dive on each character, and
- 5:15Speaker 3: I have a backstory for each one, and yeah, I
- 5:16Speaker 3: just kind of let the characters tell the story. You're
- 5:20Speaker 3: an author, so you can appreciate this. It's you kind
- 5:22Speaker 3: of let let the universe kind of guide you through it.
- 5:24Speaker 3: There and it's this goes over here, and then this
- 5:27Speaker 3: goes over here, and ooh what if this happened over here?
- 5:29Speaker 3: And more conflict and more drama and more tension, and
- 5:32Speaker 3: before you know it, you have this multi layered, high,
- 5:36Speaker 3: fast paced, high tension story that kind of, you know, ideally, yes.
- 5:41Speaker 2: Scares the crap out of people and helps them wake up.
- 5:43Speaker 1: See, this is the very reason why I use an
- 5:45Speaker 1: old fashioned writing instrument, and I am a dipper. I'll
- 5:48Speaker 1: use an ink well. But the reason why is because
- 5:50Speaker 1: I believe in stream thinking, and like you're saying, when
- 5:52Speaker 1: a story comes to you, you don't need your fingers
- 5:55Speaker 1: to get in the wave. Oh I got to edit this,
- 5:56Speaker 1: Oh I gotta put this comment there. Blah blah blah
- 5:58Speaker 1: blah blah blah. There's too many things that get in
- 5:59Speaker 1: the way of the writing.
- 6:01Speaker 3: Mind exactly, and in this book here is a just
- 6:06Speaker 3: it's its basic essence.
- 6:07Speaker 2: It's a techno thriller about what.
- 6:09Speaker 3: Happens big picture emerging technologies that are kind of weaponized
- 6:14Speaker 3: against us. And it's written by me, you know, someone
- 6:16Speaker 3: with thirty five years of experience as an engineer helping
- 6:19Speaker 3: to build those infrastructure technologies that are that are actually threatened.
- 6:23Speaker 3: So I can kind of take my engineering experience and
- 6:26Speaker 3: knowledge and everything and put it into a kind of
- 6:29Speaker 3: a tightly woven story and let those characters kind of
- 6:32Speaker 3: come to life and see what happens. And I think
- 6:35Speaker 3: this is this is one of the best books I've written.
- 6:37Speaker 3: And it's it's I'm listening to it right now. We're
- 6:39Speaker 3: doing the we have Brad Wills, yes, he's yeah, he's
- 6:43Speaker 3: doing the audiobook, and so I'm listening to you know,
- 6:45Speaker 3: quality control, and I'm like, this is at I'm like
- 6:47Speaker 3: into my own story.
- 6:48Speaker 2: I'm patting myself. I'm like, this sounds like a real story.
- 6:52Speaker 2: It's good. I'm excited about it.
- 6:54Speaker 1: No, I'm glad that you're doing that, because I mean
- 6:56Speaker 1: a lot of people don't understand that that is not
- 6:58Speaker 1: going back there as an active conceit. We and radio
- 7:00Speaker 1: we have air check sessions all the time where they
- 7:03Speaker 1: are going back and they're listening and making sure that
- 7:05Speaker 1: we've got the right delivery and that where it's pitch,
- 7:07Speaker 1: volume and tone and tone and connection, and you're doing
- 7:10Speaker 1: exactly that you are in that moment. You're experiencing what
- 7:13Speaker 1: you wrote and and and to me, it's that that
- 7:15Speaker 1: outside thing. If you don't listen to it, then then
- 7:18Speaker 1: you're missing out on a major part of the journey
- 7:21Speaker 1: of even bringing this this book.
- 7:22Speaker 2: Forward, exactly.
- 7:24Speaker 3: And a lot of people that's that's how they read.
- 7:26Speaker 3: They read through audios, yes, and yeah, exactly. Another listen
- 7:31Speaker 3: to podcasts. A lot of people are driving around these days,
- 7:34Speaker 3: you know, got an hour two hour long commute because
- 7:36Speaker 3: of the economy or whatever, and you know they listen
- 7:39Speaker 3: to your podcast and thanks for everything that you're doing.
- 7:42Speaker 3: And if they want to listen to a book, this
- 7:44Speaker 3: is a great opportunity to kind of get to get
- 7:46Speaker 3: lost in another story about what might happen.
- 7:49Speaker 2: Some technologies are weaponized against us.
- 7:51Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Jay Luke Biniki
- 7:54Speaker 1: coming up next. The name of his book and a
- 7:59Speaker 1: scary one that blackout. We are back with Jay Luke Binnicky.
- 8:03Speaker 2: Well.
- 8:04Speaker 1: I have to kind of laugh at this when you
- 8:05Speaker 1: talk about that we're all listening to stories because the
- 8:07Speaker 1: radio industry. God love it. I do love it. I've
- 8:09Speaker 1: gotten forty six years out of it. But the fact
- 8:11Speaker 1: of the matter is the industry is saying that it's
- 8:14Speaker 1: the storytelling in the podcasting that's taking away their people,
- 8:17Speaker 1: and it's like, what do you want to do about it?
- 8:19Speaker 1: How about sharing some stories on that big old tower
- 8:22Speaker 1: up there? People, Come on now, you need someone here
- 8:24Speaker 1: that can tell a story like Blackout on your channel exactly.
- 8:29Speaker 2: Listen to Blackout. That's a great story. Man.
- 8:33Speaker 1: You got to tell me about Jake because inside your
- 8:35Speaker 1: creative imagination, who is this guy? And where did he
- 8:38Speaker 1: come from in your real life? Were you what a
- 8:40Speaker 1: Starbucks or a grocery store? You said, Holy crap, that's
- 8:43Speaker 1: him right there.
- 8:44Speaker 2: That's pretty much exactly what I said. Are you kidding me?
- 8:47Speaker 3: Oh?
- 8:49Speaker 2: You nailed it. You nailed it, dude. That's funny.
- 8:52Speaker 3: Yeah, he's uh. This is the third book in the
- 8:55Speaker 3: Jake Bendels series. The first book was Gridlock, second book Waterborne.
- 8:59Speaker 3: Third one, here's Blackout coming out October sixth, available for
- 9:03Speaker 3: pre order. And He's they That was my first book
- 9:06Speaker 3: that I wrote ten years ago Gridlock.
- 9:09Speaker 2: And they said, you know, write what you know.
- 9:10Speaker 3: And I didn't have a lot of creative juices back then.
- 9:14Speaker 2: I was just starting out.
- 9:15Speaker 3: So I'm like, well, I kind of base the guy
- 9:17Speaker 3: on me, but like a bad app version of me, smarter, braver,
- 9:22Speaker 3: more courageous, et cetera, et cetera.
- 9:25Speaker 2: And so that's kind of where that came from.
- 9:27Speaker 1: But see, that's what's fascinating, and that's why I even
- 9:30Speaker 1: created a view from the writing instrument on iHeartRadio. There
- 9:32Speaker 1: are so many writers that are sitting here listening in
- 9:35Speaker 1: their cars or at home or even in their office,
- 9:38Speaker 1: and they're going, I've got all of this work that
- 9:39Speaker 1: I've dedicated to, but I don't want to get it
- 9:42Speaker 1: out there because I'm afraid. And that's what I love
- 9:44Speaker 1: about you. It doesn't feel like that you're afraid to
- 9:46Speaker 1: get your stories out here because you know they're going
- 9:48Speaker 1: to be effective in our lives.
- 9:51Speaker 2: I'm trying.
- 9:52Speaker 3: It's you know, whether it's water or self driving cars,
- 9:55Speaker 3: are now the power good that we have vulnerabilities here
- 9:58Speaker 3: at our infrastructure and and doing this for thirty five years,
- 10:01Speaker 3: I've found some vulnerabilities and I put my bad guy
- 10:06Speaker 3: hat on and say, hey, if I was a bad
- 10:07Speaker 3: guy I wanted to cause terror, these are some things
- 10:11Speaker 3: I would probably do. And so hopefully it's a little
- 10:14Speaker 3: bit of a wake up call in the real world.
- 10:16Speaker 3: Even though this is a work of fiction, it's just
- 10:18Speaker 3: for entertainment. You know, what are we going to do
- 10:21Speaker 3: to kind of prevent this from happening? This would suck
- 10:23Speaker 3: if we had a nationwide blackout?
- 10:25Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 10:25Speaker 1: And the thing about it is that you inspire me
- 10:27Speaker 1: because my neighbor Fred, he's an engineer too. Everything that
- 10:30Speaker 1: you're doing is what he did as well. And so
- 10:32Speaker 1: whatever Fred is doing around his house with the power
- 10:35Speaker 1: generators and stuff like that, the rest of us do.
- 10:37Speaker 1: It's like, is that what Fred's doing? Oh, we got
- 10:38Speaker 1: to do with that. And so I mean that. And
- 10:40Speaker 1: I cannot wait to get Fred's reaction with this book,
- 10:42Speaker 1: because he's going to agree with you five thousand percent
- 10:46Speaker 1: and say, so, what do you want to do about it?
- 10:47Speaker 1: Let's do something right now. And it's almost like that's
- 10:50Speaker 1: what you're doing too, You're going, what are we going
- 10:51Speaker 1: to do about it? I've just given you the facts.
- 10:53Speaker 1: I know it's in storybook form, but I've just given you.
- 10:55Speaker 3: The facts, hairror facts and again all the technologies are real.
- 11:00Speaker 3: I've got six six facts at the beginning of the
- 11:02Speaker 3: book about you know, how many how old the power
- 11:04Speaker 3: grid is, love, all that all that stuff there and
- 11:08Speaker 3: so kind of kind of in a Dan Brown fashion,
- 11:11Speaker 3: that kind of sets this. It's a fictional story, but
- 11:14Speaker 3: it's grounded in reality. And that's the best lies are
- 11:17Speaker 3: based in some some sort of truth, as you know.
- 11:19Speaker 2: So I think that's that kind of adds a little
- 11:21Speaker 2: bit of a nuance to the story, makes it a
- 11:23Speaker 2: little bit better.
- 11:25Speaker 1: What did you learn from this project? Because life gave
- 11:28Speaker 1: you that engineering position and then all of a sudden
- 11:31Speaker 1: you're with these books. You're the author. So so all
- 11:34Speaker 1: the way through this transition, is it finally that your
- 11:36Speaker 1: voice is being heard?
- 11:39Speaker 2: Yeah, they say your your voice.
- 11:41Speaker 3: Your voice as an author doesn't really kind of come
- 11:43Speaker 3: online until you're in your third or.
- 11:45Speaker 2: Fourth novel there you go, maybe maybe four or yeah,
- 11:49Speaker 2: and this is my fifth fifth book.
- 11:51Speaker 3: So I'm thinking, uh, I'm starting to find my voice,
- 11:54Speaker 3: and there's an engineering voice and there kind of vis
- 11:57Speaker 3: a vis Tom Clancy. Yes, some of my my fans
- 12:02Speaker 3: are calling me the Lane and Tom Clancy where it's
- 12:06Speaker 3: a Tom Clancy type story where you have some engineering
- 12:09Speaker 3: and some some logic in there, but it's also fast
- 12:11Speaker 3: paced and high tension all that stuff. But it doesn't
- 12:14Speaker 3: have a lot of the deep, the nitty gritty details.
- 12:17Speaker 3: About three pages about describing a bolt or something on
- 12:20Speaker 3: a submarine. It's a little bit, a little bit easier
- 12:23Speaker 3: to read than an older, old Tom Clancy novel. So yeah,
- 12:27Speaker 3: that's uh, And I think that's part of what makes
- 12:28Speaker 3: it a little bit different and more fun than like
- 12:30Speaker 3: a typical thriller novel.
- 12:32Speaker 1: All right, so you're into this five books deep. Now,
- 12:34Speaker 1: I know for a fact about Tom Clancy as well
- 12:37Speaker 1: as Clive Owens, and how I've been with them both.
- 12:40Speaker 1: We've we've talked to all the authors that followed under
- 12:42Speaker 1: the same umbrella. Are you starting to put together a
- 12:45Speaker 1: team so that when you are ready to pass the
- 12:48Speaker 1: baton then the character of Jake will live on?
- 12:52Speaker 2: I am.
- 12:52Speaker 3: I have a fourth book that's already kind of coalescing
- 12:57Speaker 3: in my head.
- 12:57Speaker 2: I've got a little bit of an outline put together.
- 13:00Speaker 3: I won't won't reveal the details there, but Jank might
- 13:03Speaker 3: not make it through the end of that book. And
- 13:05Speaker 3: so he's going to be passing the torch onto a younger,
- 13:10Speaker 3: like a mentor. Someone he's mentored person, probably a strong
- 13:14Speaker 3: female protagonist, civil engineer, and you know, keep keep the
- 13:17Speaker 3: party rolling there, and then that gives us a spinoff
- 13:19Speaker 3: series and we can keep keep going for another However,
- 13:22Speaker 3: many books that she can she can document.
- 13:24Speaker 1: Yeah, I love what you're doing this. See, this is
- 13:26Speaker 1: what makes writing fun. So many people think I don't
- 13:29Speaker 1: want to be edited. I don't want people to judge me. No,
- 13:31Speaker 1: go for the adventure, man, there's an adventure in this.
- 13:35Speaker 2: There's an adventure. Everybody gets one star reviews. Don't forget
- 13:39Speaker 2: even Stephen King, this was a horrible book. You're like,
- 13:42Speaker 2: what that was the best book. It's a it's a
- 13:44Speaker 2: it's a creative process. It's subjective. So don't worry about that.
- 13:48Speaker 2: If you get it.
- 13:49Speaker 3: If you're an author, I say, finish your book, edit it,
- 13:52Speaker 3: spend a lot of time editing it, and get it
- 13:54Speaker 3: out there.
- 13:55Speaker 2: And uh yeah. You might have a few people that
- 13:57Speaker 2: kind of poo poo it a little bit, but more
- 13:59Speaker 2: often and not they'll be like, wow, I'm really glad
- 14:01Speaker 2: you wrote that. Thank you.
- 14:02Speaker 1: It's this has got to be a Blumhouse or a
- 14:05Speaker 1: Jordan Peele movie when you make it into a movie,
- 14:07Speaker 1: because they've got the courage and the guts to take
- 14:09Speaker 1: Blackout and make it so freakin' real on that big
- 14:13Speaker 1: screen that you're going to walk out of there going
- 14:14Speaker 1: Holy hell, what just hit me?
- 14:17Speaker 2: Exactly? That would be wonderful. Jordan Peele, give me a call. Yeah,
- 14:20Speaker 2: I listen to you.
- 14:22Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you?
- 14:25Speaker 3: My website has all the information. Jlukebenike dot com. It's
- 14:29Speaker 3: available for preorder and it comes out October sixth in
- 14:33Speaker 3: heartbook copy, hardbook format, audiobook, and ebook.
- 14:36Speaker 1: All right, we need to get together with Heather because
- 14:38Speaker 1: when it comes out in October, we got to talk
- 14:40Speaker 1: again because you're going to be going through some experiences
- 14:42Speaker 1: this summer. I'm going to be watching the world through
- 14:44Speaker 1: different eyes because of this book. So therefore we've got
- 14:48Speaker 1: to get together again and really jump into the process.
- 14:52Speaker 2: Thank you, Errol. That would be an amazing experience. I
- 14:54Speaker 2: appreciate the offer.
- 14:55Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
- 14:56Speaker 2: Okay, you too, have a wonderful day, Errol, Thank you
- 15:00Speaker 2: for your time.