← Living The Next Chapter: Candid Conversations with Authors and Writers for Readers Searching for a New Read
Living The Next Chapter: Candid Conversations with Authors and Writers for Readers Searching for a New Read
E678 - Robert Howell - Canadian Author of the Gothic Horror, Blood Castle, the sequel to Blood Mansion
00:45:44
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- [00:01]
A
And there's a story behind that, too. Because originally, when I wrote the first book, Blood Mansion, I didn't call it that. I called it the House that Peter Built because Peter was the main ghost there that built the house and everything. And when I sent it to the publisher, he gave me a call. He said, look, I love the book, but I could only publish it if you want to change the title, because I hate the title. And I understood it because he said, look, he said, if your name was Stephen King, then people would know you're writing a horror book. But the House that Peter Built could be a drama, it could be a romance, it could be a comedy. Yet they don't know your name in horror yet. So I said, okay, I accept that. Let me find another title and another time that I'm driving around trying to figure out what. And all of a sudden, it hit me. Blood Mansion sounds good. So I rushed back to the house. I immediately googled to make sure there were no other titles of books that name. And there wasn't. I sent that message to the publisher five minutes later. I said, okay, I got the ISB number right away. You love it that much? And it was only after that that that I started thinking, you know what? Blood Mansion. That could lead to a series of books. And sure enough, Blood Castle came next. And Blood Village is coming, everybody.
- [01:15]
B
Welcome back to Living the Next Chapter. I get to talk to authors around the world. And what's the most fun for me, I gotta tell you, is talking to a Canadian author. Yay. Because it's great to have somebody from Canada, my home country, here on the show. We're in a different province, but we're still friends. And I'm excited to have the story writer here with me. Isn't that great? That's Storywriter Ca is the website. It's a beautiful website. Like, I'm just captivated. I have it on my screen. While we're chatting, I'll try to focus on my guests and not his amazing website. Really excited to have Robert here on the podcast. Robert, welcome to the show. Glad to have you here.
- [01:52]
A
Thank you very much. It was great to be here.
- [01:53]
B
Excellent. I love the website, my friend. Well done. There's a lot of stuff going on here. Let's talk a little bit right from the beginning about your website, Storywriter Ca. Great website address, by the way, first time viewer to your website. What are we going to see? Because I'm enjoying it right now.
- [02:09]
A
Well, it starts off, of course, without. My latest publications are, which is the Blood Series Blood Mansion, Blood Castle. I also talk about the other books coming up, which is a devil of a time coming out next month. I have a page, of course, about myself and my writing. I have a special page dedicated to fellow authors or indie authors that don't really get much publicity. So I read their books and then I put a little blurb on my website for them. I always clear it with them ahead of time, of course. And then of course, I have some about my other writings. I write for children sometimes and I also do special stories. You know, people ask me to do a story for their child or something like that. So I get the information and I write them a story for a fee.
- [02:52]
B
Wow. Okay. Maybe not as scary for a child.
- [02:56]
A
Always enough for the children. Depends on what they want. Because there's one I have up there, for example, that says that called a tooth fairy. I wrote that many years ago for a friend. She had a niece who was afraid of the tooth fairy. So I told her, give me information, what's your favorite toys? What's her favorite activities? And I wrote a story where she helps the tooth fairy save the children.
- [03:20]
B
Wow.
- [03:21]
A
And after that, apparently she wasn't afraid of the tooth fairy anymore.
- [03:23]
B
Nice. It's a part counseling, part therapy, everything.
- [03:27]
A
You got a bit of everything in it.
- [03:28]
B
Yeah, I like it. Good. Let everybody know where you are in this big world of arts. I already know the answer. Listeners don't. Where are you? Where do you live?
- [03:36]
A
Well, I. I'm in Montreal, Quebec, which many people know is more French than English.
- [03:42]
B
Right.
- [03:42]
A
So I'm one of the exceptions here. We're only 20% of the population, although I speak French reasonably well, which is important here. But overall it's a comfortable climate. Not talking the weather, obviously, but I'm talking with the people and very friendly and lots of sights to see. I've been whoever comes here.
- [04:02]
B
Jade, is that where you're born and raised?
- [04:04]
A
I was born in Montreal. Raised mostly in Montreal, but also in Toronto. Oh, good. When I was younger, my parents a couple of times moved to Toronto. We even lived in a haunted house there. And then we moved back.
- [04:13]
B
Wait, there's a story there? A haunted house?
- [04:15]
A
Oh yeah, there's a story there.
- [04:16]
B
Okay, can you tell us a little bit about that? Because I think that would kind of feed into your writing a little bit.
- [04:21]
A
I was 13 years old. We had to move temporary for my father's work to Toronto. And the house moved into was a 100 year old house. It came with all the furniture and everything like that. And Everything seemed finely moved in. But then strange things started happening. Like, you know, you've heard of lights going off and on, you know, oh, it's electrical problem. Except the problem is when you see the light switch going up and down, that's a different story.
- [04:47]
B
Okay.
- [04:48]
A
And some of the things that I actually happen there, I feature in some of my books.
- [04:52]
B
Okay.
- [04:53]
A
Like in the basement, there was a washer, dryer. The washer was set at one end, the dryer at another. And to open the dryer, you had to really give it a pull and a cloth, you had to slam it. So my mother would go to the laundry, she'd open the dryer door, she'd go get the clothes out of the washer, she turned around, the dryer is closed. She finally get the clothes in. She started up, she'd leave, she'd come down an hour later, the clothes are wet because the dryer was open. No little things like that. And that's featured in Bud Castle.
- [05:21]
B
Okay, so that really had an impact on you growing up then?
- [05:24]
A
Oh yeah. You never forget things like that.
- [05:27]
B
No, no.
- [05:29]
A
I even wrote a story called Haunted about that book which was featured in an ezine magazine called Haunted Mtl.
- [05:38]
B
Nice. Okay. How long did you live at that house with all this weird stuff?
- [05:44]
A
We lasted nine months. My parents stayed there the full year. We moved ahead. They moved us out ahead of time.
- [05:52]
B
Wow. Okay, well, that's at that young age. That's definitely going to have an impression on you. That's amazing.
- [05:58]
A
The funny thing is I didn't writing haunting, you know, ghost books until, until a couple years ago.
- [06:03]
B
Okay.
- [06:04]
A
And that was inspired by another true life story.
- [06:06]
B
Were you a a reader of those types of books as a kid?
- [06:10]
A
Not as a kid. Later on in life, yeah, but not as a kid.
- [06:13]
B
Really.
- [06:13]
A
Okay, there. As a kid I was really heavy into sci fi.
- [06:17]
B
Okay.
- [06:17]
A
That was my vibe back then.
- [06:19]
B
Wow. All right. For readers, how many books currently do you have available for us as readers?
- [06:27]
A
Well, there's five that are available to be purchased all through Amazon. Two are with the publisher and three are self published. It's a young adults urban fantasy featuring basically a cross between Harry Potter and the Hardy Voice.
- [06:40]
B
Oh, I like that.
- [06:41]
A
Three young witches that use their ability to solve supernatural mysteries.
- [06:45]
B
That's a good combo of two authors that people or two writings that we would know for sure. That's an interesting combination.
- [06:52]
A
Yeah. And finally when I started writing the first story, which called Third Time's the Charm, it wasn't supposed to be about witches or anything like that the idea had been about a young orphan girl who's living in a girl's homes all her life and all of a sudden finds out that she has a family and she's from a wealthy family. But then it just evolved from there. They started writing their own story to me. And it ended up she met her two cousins at this house that they never heard about before, that they didn't know they were from a rich family. And then they find out they're from a family of witches. And it took off from there.
- [07:28]
B
All right, so from an author's perspective, what kind of authors inspire you? Like, is there an author or certain authors that you like to. To read?
- [07:38]
A
It's hard to name them all because I read a book a week.
- [07:40]
B
Wow.
- [07:42]
A
Yeah. On top of the writing and everything else I do in life, I read a book a week. I mean, my younger days, it was like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury. No, because I was asked that it was having a sci fi. But I've been bothering me nowadays it's like, be David Woods. It could be Clyde Cussler, could be any type of. I really lately get into archeological thrillers.
- [08:02]
B
Oh, that's an interesting one. Yeah, I like that.
- [08:05]
A
Yeah.
- [08:06]
B
Anything historical, I love to. Anything that's like based in history but still has a fantasy element to it, I like that as well. That's really interesting.
- [08:15]
A
Well, I think for me it's important when I'm reading a book. It's got to have as much fact behind it, even if it's all fiction, as possible, to make it believable. And I incorporate that into my stories too. So, like, I research every aspect of my books, even if it's about ghosts, because the ghosts in my books are all based on. On people who lived in the past.
- [08:35]
B
Interesting.
- [08:36]
A
I. I think it gives it a real element of. Of reality of it. So you, you want to be scared when you're reading these books because it's a horror book and you're more scared if you think there's some type of reality in it.
- [08:47]
B
Are you a visual writer? Like, are you watching this kind of happen as you're writing? There's that kind of aspect to your.
- [08:53]
A
Yes and no. The funny thing is, when I first started writing Blood Mansion, the first in the series, while writing the book, I would literally have nightmares that night that I was trapped in that house. Twice I had those nightmares. I couldn't get out of the house and those psychotic ghosts were after me.
- [09:09]
B
Really.
- [09:10]
A
So I guess maybe that is for realism to the Book.
- [09:14]
B
Is Blood Mansion based on a actual place that you know of?
- [09:18]
A
Yes and no. It was the. The whole book was inspired by my work because I used to. I worked. I still do. With a company where we used to repossess properties, and I'd have to go visit them. So one house I had to go to every week. Every time I went there, it gave me the creeps. There's no reason for it. It's just the layout, everything. And I went back to the office one day, telling everyone else in the office, you know, it gives me the creeps. Every time I go there, they were saying the same thing. So one of them, who knew I was a writer said, why don't you write a book about it? And all of a sudden, I had the ideas and I started writing the book. And that the house itself is not at all like my book, but the secondary building that was attached to this property is identical to the secondary building in my book.
- [10:01]
B
Oh, okay. What's. Without giving away any. A lot of big stuff in the book. What's in that secondary building?
- [10:09]
A
It's. The ground floor is basically a garage where they repair vehicles.
- [10:15]
B
Yeah.
- [10:15]
A
And the upstairs was like a reception hall and offices where they used to entertain clients. They used to sell wine.
- [10:23]
B
Okay.
- [10:24]
A
So they'd have. They'd have receptions there, and people would come in to look at their product and whatnot. But. And in the garage part, they used to repair all their vehicles that worked on the property.
- [10:33]
B
Okay. Does that building play any special significance in your story at all?
- [10:39]
A
Well, one of the first deaths happens there.
- [10:43]
B
There we go. Keep that in mind. Everybody be ready for that. That's gonna happen. Okay. For a new reader coming to you for the first time, then where would you say. Because you have so many great books to start with, is there a good starting point as a first purchase for you?
- [10:57]
A
Everything depends on what they like. If they like horror, then definitely start with Blood Mansion.
- [11:01]
B
Okay.
- [11:02]
A
Because Blood Castle is a sequel. And. And although you don't have to have read Blood Mansionary, Blood Castle, you'll know more about the characters in it if you had read the first book. But for those who like more of the urban fantasy, There's My Charm Trilogy. And then coming out next month, they have an urban fantasy for adults called the Devil of a Time. And that one's got. It's a detective, young detective working for a big company. He has no special abilities, but one day he's told he has to take on a client, and it turns out that the client is the devil his assignment is to find a lost demon, and he's given a Succubus to help him. And of course, the succubus has two jobs. Protect him and seduce him, because then they would taint his soul.
- [11:48]
B
Interesting.
- [11:49]
A
So he's got to spend the whole time trying to find this dangerous demon. They come up across a golem where they have to be careful with. This golem was very powerful. Meanwhile, he's trying to reduce to. To resist the Succubus because she's doing everything she can to seduce him.
- [12:08]
B
Yeah.
- [12:09]
A
But in the end, something happens to the two of them that neither one of them expected.
- [12:14]
B
Okay. We have authors that listen to the show, and I'm sure they're curious about how you create this world. Like, what is some of the starting points for you as you build this world and find your characters and develop the story?
- [12:30]
A
A lot of it ends up being based on things that happen in my life. Like Blood Mansion, I mentioned.
- [12:35]
B
Yeah.
- [12:36]
A
Visiting that house gave the inspiration. Then from there, I started researching it, what I can do and what I can write. But a lot of my ideas come from my traveling, from doing things. I absorb a lot of stuff. When I see things happen, I can see something happen out in the street. And that gives me an idea for a story.
- [12:53]
B
Okay.
- [12:53]
A
The whole idea is to keep your mind open wherever you are. Like Blood Castle, for example, which just came out. I was thinking of writing a sequel to Blood Mansion. I couldn't figure out how I was going to start it. And then one day, my girlfriend and I were visiting Niagara Falls, and my habit in the morning was to read a book or read the. Read a news. And I read local, local news. And they happen to have an article there about something new there called a wind Phone. And when I read up what a wind Phone was, I said, there's the start of my book. I got it just like that. Just like that. Because the wind phone, the idea of a wind phone is it just basically a phone in a wooden box in the woods with no attachments. But the idea is people will go there that had a recent loss, they lost family member, and they could pick up their phone and talk as if they're talking to their family member that's passed. And it kind of relieves them. It gives them a sense of peace. Yeah. They can say things they wouldn't say otherwise. But of course, I turn that into something a little bit more dangerous.
- [13:58]
B
Interesting. Okay. That's. I love that you're just always aware and you're always just kind of Receptive to whatever's coming towards you, around you. And you're just, you're not like buried in your books in an office somewhere. And you never go outside or you never get influenced by anything you, you have. You just let life kind of direct your thoughts and your writing. That's where that's great.
- [14:20]
A
You never know when you're going to get an idea from. And you should never be afraid to accept an idea. I mean, I. Every time I get ideas, I'll write them down.
- [14:29]
B
Yeah.
- [14:29]
A
So I keep on my computer a set of documents for story ideas. Doesn't mean I'll use them all, but they're there. And if I'm trying to figure out what am I going to write next, I can look at the story ideas. Oh, that could. Or I might be in the middle. Right. A book. I said, what am I going to do the scene next? I'll go look at my story ideas. And there's something in there that I could use in my book.
- [14:49]
B
Right. They're like building blocks for you. Yeah, yeah.
- [14:52]
A
I mean, I usually have like four or five, six word docs open at a time when I'm working on something.
- [14:57]
B
Okay, so what else can we do to inspire an author that wants to write in a genre like yours? Any other suggestions you could give to somebody listening. That would start.
- [15:08]
A
First off, never be afraid to write. Don't care about what everyone else says about your writing. Write. You feel like writing, you do it. Because the worst thing people do is I'm afraid to write because I'm afraid people are going to read it. They're not going to like it.
- [15:22]
B
Right.
- [15:23]
A
You know what? Who cares as long as you like it. If you like it, then other people will like it eventually. Once it gets out there, we're gets out there. And I think a second thing that's very important too is when you're working on, when you finish something and you think it's good, always have someone professional check it over. Like editing. Because even in the devil of a time, which I've edited self edited a dozen times.
- [15:48]
B
Yeah.
- [15:49]
A
I sent it to a professional editor and some of the changes he made and some of the errors she found was like amazing. I said, how did I miss that? How did I miss that? Yeah. So write everything out. Don't be afraid to make a mistake while you're writing because you could always fix it later.
- [16:03]
B
Right, Interesting. Yeah, that's a good point. I. To be self editing at the time of writing is you're just going to be going between circles you know, I don't like that sentence. Do it again. I'm going to fix that grammar. I'm going to fix this. Whatever.
- [16:17]
A
Right?
- [16:18]
B
Just get it out. Get it out, people.
- [16:20]
A
Every writer works differently. So don't think because one writer works one way, it's going to work for you. For me, I will write like two or three chapters and then I'll go back and reread those chapters before they go to the next chapter. For me, it's to refresh my mind or give me more ideas on where to go next. I do catch errors at the time, but that's not my idea from going back is to keep refreshing my mind. So I'll write a few chapters. I'll go back. Sometimes they'll go back up to reading eight chapters and read the whole thing again because I'll pick up something I forgot I mentioned earlier because nobody that I know of has eidetic memories. I can remember everything they wrote.
- [16:53]
B
No. No.
- [16:55]
A
So, yeah, but that's how I work. And I know people don't work that way. I know others write that will won't even look at their work until it's all done and then they'll go back and look at it and that's what works for them.
- [17:05]
B
So do you bounce around between writing like thriller slash horror to children's stories or like, is that how do you switch gears between those? Because they're totally different approach. Wouldn't it be?
- [17:17]
A
I know for me it's, it depends on kind of what I'm in the mood for.
- [17:20]
B
Yeah.
- [17:20]
A
I mean, I, I, I. Well, while working on Blood Castle, I was also working on A Devil of a Time. Two completely different genres.
- [17:27]
B
Yeah.
- [17:28]
A
At the same time I was writing a child, a children story for my, for my granddaughter because I try for like, I used to write for my kids. Every holiday I would write them a story where they're the heroes. So now I'm trying to do that for my granddaughter.
- [17:41]
B
Nice.
- [17:43]
A
So I have to start working one for Christmas for her now.
- [17:47]
B
That's amazing. I love that you have that as a, as a gift to your family. That's, that's a, that's an amazing little thing to have, I don't think.
- [17:54]
A
Well, it's a good legacy to leave.
- [17:55]
B
Right? Yeah. Right. It's a piece of you for them. And all kids love stories. And the fact that they're the hero of the story, that's, that's amazing. That's better than a T shirt with your name on it. Yeah.
- [18:07]
A
Well, I think it really helped because at least one of my children didn't like reading at all. And for me, it's really important for children to read.
- [18:14]
B
Yeah.
- [18:15]
A
So sometimes you have to find what's interesting for them to read something that they want to read. So when I started writing about them, they wanted to read it because they're in it.
- [18:25]
B
Yeah.
- [18:26]
A
And that got like my youngest son. It was really not into reading at all. But now every time I have a book come out, he reads it.
- [18:34]
B
Nice. It's great. I love the idea, too, that you have on your website about the guest authors and promoting them. Where did the idea come for to do that on your website?
- [18:43]
A
Well, I, I talk with a lot of different authors on different, different sites. Whether it's Instagram or, or, or, Or. Well, I call it Twitter still or whatever. And, you know, a few of them I talked to, you know, they're not getting that much traction.
- [18:59]
B
Yeah.
- [19:00]
A
So I asked him, would you like to. How would you like to be featured on a website? Some of them don't even have websites. So I told them what I was willing, what I wanted to do because I, you know, I speak to these authors. I wanted to give them a break too, and they love the idea, so that's why I do it. I have like right now 10 or 11 where I describe their book. I rate it and I tend to tell what people can go to buy it.
- [19:25]
B
That's very, that's kind. I don't see that often from authors thinking about promoting fellow authors. I love community in writing and authors that work together, but that's a unique thing. I haven't really seen that very often, so. Yeah, I just wanted to call that out as a nice addition to your website.
- [19:42]
A
Thank you. I don't know. Just this the way I feel.
- [19:44]
B
Yeah. Yeah, I like that. So let's talk about your most recent book. That's that you've been working on and that we're going to be getting as readers. Let's get a little more of the story and develop that a little bit more. Tell us kind of who some of these main characters are that we're going to hear about and find out about. And just a little bit about the story arc, what we experience as a reader.
- [20:07]
A
Which one do you prefer? Blood Castle or a Demlo Mataya?
- [20:10]
B
Let's do Blood Castle first.
- [20:12]
A
Okay. So the Blood Castle is a sequel to Blood Mansion. So you'll see even in the back of the book, it tells you. In Blood Mansion, 15 went in and only nine came out. So the course of Mundetta Blight Castle are the nine survivors. And they've added some new more things. Now, the idea of the book is there's two groups that started at Blood Mansion. One was from a reality TV show that did ghost hunting, and the other was from a legitimate investigative group that legitimately investigates paranormal activity. And to learn about those, of course, I watched all these ghost hunter shows, and I also got in touch with an organization that does paranormal research, and he gave me a lot of advice, and a lot of that's in the book. So in the first book, they meet unintentionally. They didn't want to meet each other there, but they did, and they had to learn to work together to survive. In the second book, they meet together accidentally because one group had already been called there. The other group ended up getting there because of a former member who had something happened at the windfall that led them to Blood Castle. So the two different groups again meet together. And in this case, it's a bit different from their first book because this time the ghost happens to be a mad scientist who made inventions. And some of his inventions are, shall we say, scarier than real life. And he uses his inventions to separate them, to attack them, to torture them, and in a couple of cases, to bury them alive. And they have to figure out how to stop him and to stop his niece, who happens to be a witch. So what are they going to do? She is on his side, apparently. And they have to go through two days of this castle attacking them at every means, including some scientific stuff. I actually did research on things that would send hallucinations at them. So they're hallucinating things. They don't know what's real. At times, their equipment starts malfunctioning because of what the scientist has done to the air that causes their machines to go bad. And then again, unfortunately, not all the characters can survive. So you have to read the book to see which ones do.
- [22:44]
B
Interesting. A target audience for this book in this series.
- [22:48]
A
Well, that would be adults who like ghost stories and horror stories.
- [22:51]
B
Okay.
- [22:52]
A
I mean, I. I wouldn't suggest it for anyone under 16. Yeah, there's. There's some foul language in it and stuff like that. I mean, it's. It's based on, like, real life. So the F cup bomb gets dropped quite a bit and stuff like that because, you know, you're being tortured. You're not thinking about. Yeah, you're like, we may be Canadian, but we're not stupid.
- [23:11]
B
Right. Yeah. We wouldn't be saying sorry very often either. No. Okay. All right. So that's good. We get an idea for that, for this, with that one. How many books in the series? For this one.
- [23:22]
A
So this is, this will be the second one.
- [23:24]
B
Okay.
- [23:24]
A
I'm working currently on the third one, which I hope to have out for next Halloween. I'm hoping to have each Halloween out, one out. And that one will be called Blood Village.
- [23:34]
B
All timed around Halloween.
- [23:36]
A
That's the, that's the, the goal. So far the publisher has been on board with that.
- [23:41]
B
Good. Yeah. That's interesting because you're basically writing to a calendar. Then you have a release date already predetermined, so you gotta, you gotta stick, stick up and go where you don't have time to, to waste or take a three month break. You gotta, you gotta work. Right.
- [23:57]
A
Well, fortunately, with the ideas flow, I can write fast. Like Blood Mansion. I wrote that in six weeks.
- [24:03]
B
Wow. Wow.
- [24:04]
A
Glad Village is taking a bit longer because I had a lot of other projects going in the middle, but I've already written over 200 pages on that one there. So one thing I use could flow. They just. I just, I can sit there sometimes for hours on end and blow up 20, 30 pages.
- [24:20]
B
I love it. So, okay, so you have Blood Mansion, you have Blood Village.
- [24:27]
A
You said Blood Castles just came out. Yes, and Blood Village will be the next one.
- [24:31]
B
Would be the next one after that. Okay, well. And they all start with Blood, so they all work.
- [24:36]
A
That's why I call it the Blood series.
- [24:38]
B
There you go.
- [24:38]
A
And there's a story behind that too, because originally when I wrote the first book, Blood Mansion, I didn't call it that. I called it the House that Peter Built because Peter was the main ghost there that built the house and everything.
- [24:50]
B
Yeah.
- [24:51]
A
And when I sent it to the publisher, he. He gave me a call. He said, look, I love the book, but I could only publish it if you want to change the title, because I hate the title. And I understood it because he said, look, he said, if your name was Stephen King, then people would know you're writing a horror book.
- [25:08]
B
Right.
- [25:08]
A
But the House that Peter Built could be a drama, it could be a romance, it could be a comedy. They don't know your name in horror yet. So I said, okay, I accept that. Let me find another title. And another time that I'm driving around trying to figure out what, and all of a sudden it's hit me. Blood Mansion sounds good. So I rushed back to the house. I immediately googled to make sure there was no other titles of books that name.
- [25:31]
B
Yeah.
- [25:32]
A
And There wasn't.
- [25:33]
B
Nice.
- [25:33]
A
I sent that message to the publisher five minutes later. I said, okay, I got the ISB number right away. You love it that much?
- [25:41]
B
Wow.
- [25:41]
A
And it was only after that that. That I started thinking, you know what? Blood Mansion. That could lead to a series of books. And sure enough, Blood Castle came next. And Blood Village is coming.
- [25:52]
B
Okay, interesting. All right, so we have that series that we can fall in love with. Let's talk about more because again, there's so much to talk about. What else can we fall in love with as a reader and kind of who is the reader for this next section of. Of things that you have to offer.
- [26:08]
A
So the next one that's going to be coming out is the Devil of a Time. This one's going to be self published because none of the publishers I approached to seem to be interested in this type of a book.
- [26:16]
B
Okay.
- [26:18]
A
It's got a lot of religious stuff in it, but not religious as in, you know, it's got Catholicism. But my version of Catholicism isn't necessarily the same as the Catholic Churches.
- [26:30]
B
Okay.
- [26:31]
A
So this is again, for adults because of the subject matter. I mean, you're not going to have children reading about succubuses trying to se people and some of the violence in the book. But in this case, the idea had come a long time ago. I started writing this book. This is one of those that took a long time. I started writing it about 15 years ago. And then I put it aside because life got in the way. And it's only after I wrote Blood Mansion that I dusted it off and said, you know what? This book has got to be finished. And that's when I sit down and finished writing that book. And in this case, I said, it's very different from the horror. This hasn't got really horror in it, but it does have some violence. And it's definitely on a different path than anything else they call urban fantasy. So you've got the devil, you've got demons, and you've got a poor normal guy with no abilities trying to fight his way through this. But he does have help. See, it turns out his brother's a priest, but he's more than just a priest. He is knowledgeable about some of the deep facts of the Vatican that nobody knows about, about how they fight demons, about the different things that they have available to help because he used to work there. So his brother helps him. And then he's got a cousin who's a monk that lives in Quebec, and he travels to visit the monk because the monk. His brother said the monk could tell you some stuff. And his monk used to be a demon hunter. And in the book you hear the story about how he became a demon hunter and why, but then how he left that to become a monk. And then further than that, it turns out that his mother is taking her vows to become a nun. So this kind of gives you a really weird version because he calls his. His brother father, he calls his cousin brother, and he calls his mother sister. So it's got. He's got the comedy in it too. I throw a lot of comedy in the books. Even the horrors, there's comedy in it.
- [28:37]
B
Nice.
- [28:39]
A
And then they have to go head to head against a golem. And it's not like golem from the Lord of the Rings.
- [28:44]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [28:45]
A
This is from the old Jewish Judaism where a golem was made out of mud and sticks and was made to guard villages. And this golem had been surviving for thousands of years and he only wanted to end it, but he couldn't die because he's a golem. So he had made a deal with the. The missing demon, whose name is Asmodeus, the most powerful demon in hell, that if he helped, if. If he helped us, if Modius do what he wanted, as Modius would grant him what he wanted. Humanity.
- [29:20]
B
Wow.
- [29:21]
A
So that all this is intertwined in it, as. Again, a lot of research went into this. I researched every aspect that I could.
- [29:29]
B
Yeah.
- [29:29]
A
So what I've written about golems is based on the real mythology. What's written about the demons is directly from Catholicism and so on. So I researched everything. It adds an interesting twist to it all. And then of course, the ending is a real twist, which I won't tell anyone about because you have to get to that.
- [29:47]
B
You have to buy the book.
- [29:48]
A
It'll be a shocker when you get to the very end.
- [29:52]
B
Would you ever want to see any of your writings turned into something visual?
- [29:56]
A
Absolutely. I mean, I've already been speaking to people and who knows, maybe some I can get some Hollywood director to pick up to do a movie on Blood Mansion. Yeah, I think that would be probably one of the better horrors to raise written and visualize in a while.
- [30:11]
B
Interesting.
- [30:12]
A
And I'd always thought of the. The My Charm trilogy, which is. I want to tell you about the young witches.
- [30:17]
B
Yeah.
- [30:17]
A
He turned into a TV series one day because the whole idea. I've written three books, but the idea is that I'm going to go back into it and each book is going to be a different mystery. They use their abilities to solve.
- [30:30]
B
Nice. Yeah.
- [30:31]
A
I think the TV series Charmed. Yeah. For that one.
- [30:35]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [30:36]
A
But. But instead, they're. They're much younger.
- [30:39]
B
Okay. Yeah. I just wondered if, like, authors can visualize what's happening in their mind beyond what they're writing on the paper. Right.
- [30:47]
A
And.
- [30:48]
B
And how that plays out, and maybe if it directs you a little bit to. Maybe you have an idea, but your characters have a different idea.
- [30:56]
A
That's kind of what happened with the third Time's the term. It was supposed to be, I said, about an orphan girl trying to find her way, and it turns out to be witches and everything like that. The character started writing. So, I mean, as an author, you kind of have to visualize everything. You can't just be static and writing down words, because as you're writing down the words, you're thinking about. You're thinking about the scene in the background. You're thinking about. About, you know, describing the house that they're in or. Or their activity, the clothes they're wearing. You have to kind of visualize everything. You can't say, well, she walked here and he walked there, and they did this.
- [31:28]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [31:29]
A
That's a very short book.
- [31:30]
B
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. But then again, then you switch gears and go to a children's book, and that's a totally different process, different audience, different content. What. What. What's fun about that for you, beyond legacy, for your family, writing that style of book? What. What do you enjoy?
- [31:51]
A
You know, I. I enjoy every aspect of each one. I mean, when I write in the children's book, I actually place. I mean, I raise four kids, and most of it is a single dad. They were all the same age within five years of each other. So I saw them growing up. I saw the things they're doing, and it's so easy to incorporate that into my books. And when I'm writing about. For the children's books, I'm thinking about my time with them when they were that age. And that's why it's easy for me to just go off the cycle of the adult book, to write those books, seeing it from their point of view, because I still remember their points of view. When you raise kids like that, it's easy to. My kids always came to me with everything when they wanted advice and what. They were never afraid to talk to me so I could get their point of view all the time. And I incorporate that kind of into my book. So when I switch to the hat to the children's Books. That's what comes to my mind. So it's easier for me to switch that switch, to flip that switch.
- [32:48]
B
Yeah.
- [32:49]
A
And then, of course, the adult stuff comes easy, too, because I read a lot of books and some of most of them are adults, so I even get ideas from books I read.
- [32:56]
B
Yeah, it's good. Yeah. Because you're pulling in from other people and we're all influenced by something. Right.
- [33:01]
A
And.
- [33:01]
B
Yeah, but you put it in your own terms, in your own world, and.
- [33:04]
A
Oh, yeah. I mean, I'll read what they say, but I'm not going to use their ideas. You know, it's just that, like, when I was. When I was writing Blood Castle, I kept going to reread a book called the Supernaturals by David L. Goleman because it had the same atmosphere that I was building in my book.
- [33:23]
B
Nice.
- [33:23]
A
Oh. If I needed to build that atmosphere in my head while I'm writing, I'd go and read that book.
- [33:27]
B
Right.
- [33:28]
A
So the ideas are different, the ghosts were different, the whole subject was different, but the atmosphere was the same. And it put that atmosphere in my mind when it went to write.
- [33:38]
B
Okay, what else beyond website podcasts and things like that are you doing to promote what you do and get out there and share your stories with people?
- [33:48]
A
Well, I had an interesting experience recently. My publisher also owns a small TV station called Phoenix TV in la. And I was invited down the Emmys this year. They do what they call a gifting suite, where they. They invite in some of the celebrities and whatnot, and they give them gifts and whatnot. We interview them. So I was invited down there to do some of the interviewing. So I got to meet these people. I did interview them. I even got to walk on the red carpet.
- [34:16]
B
Really?
- [34:16]
A
And there was another TV station there that interviewed me while I walked on the red carpet. So whatever it is, to get your name out there. And that was. I said something very different. I would never thought of doing that in my life before.
- [34:27]
B
No. Did you get to meet anybody that you like?
- [34:31]
A
No one you would say super famous. It's mostly the background people, the writers, the producers and directors of the smaller films, a couple of the B actors and actresses. I mean, there was one really interesting, a lady named Janet Lopez. She's an actress and a songstress, and she was one of the first interviews I had to do there. So I was kind of nervous. And she was really good at putting me at ease and whatnot and talking me through it. She helped me a lot. And actually, since then, we've still communicated once in a while through social media.
- [35:05]
B
Right.
- [35:06]
A
We're friends on Instagram, for example.
- [35:08]
B
Nice. Yeah. Sometimes it's not just, you know, who you know, but who knows about you. And by being in that environment, you get to rub shoulders with people that you admire. And in the industry, you never know. Right.
- [35:23]
A
What's gonna leave? Who knows? Maybe Monday she's gonna say, a producer may talk to her, and she's then saying, well, we ought to do a horror movie, the ideas, and say, oh, I remember this guy. You bought this book, Bud Mansion. That might be. You never know.
- [35:33]
B
Right. Interesting. Yeah, that's. That's an interesting thing, I think. I think as authors and writers, creative people be aware of these opportunities, get on somebody else's website and have your. Your book mentioned somewhere else. Like, a lot of opportunities that you. You are demonstrating for us that we can do as authors and creative people to help each other. I love. I love what you're doing.
- [35:56]
A
Yeah. But you know what part of it. You have to enjoy what you're doing.
- [36:00]
B
Right.
- [36:01]
A
And I enjoy. I enjoy that part of. I enjoy helping people. I enjoy writing. I enjoy talking about books. And although I'm more of an introvert than I am an extrovert.
- [36:10]
B
Yeah.
- [36:10]
A
I. When it comes to my books, it's like, I'm never afraid to talk about them.
- [36:14]
B
Yeah. No, it's great. Yeah.
- [36:17]
A
We.
- [36:17]
B
You have so many things to talk about. I love it. Is there any other thing from a reader's perspective? You're like, oh, you really need to check this out from your library and what you've done that you would really encourage readers to check out.
- [36:29]
A
Well, I'll post it under some other authors right now. If. If they're into horrors like the. I'm sure they'll love My Blood Mansion. They like ghost stories. But if you like ghost stories, check out the. There's two books by David L. Goleman. One's called Supernatural Supernaturals, and the other is called in the still the Night. Those are two really good ghost stories. I mean, everyone knows Stephen King.
- [36:52]
B
Yep.
- [36:52]
A
But one of my favorite movies of his is called Rose Red, and that's about a haunted house.
- [36:59]
B
Yep.
- [37:01]
A
But there's lots of good authors that. All I can say is people get out and read.
- [37:05]
B
Right.
- [37:06]
A
Find something that fascinates you. It doesn't have to. If cars fascinate you, then find a book about cars and readable cars. Whatever fascinates you.
- [37:14]
B
Right?
- [37:15]
A
No, it doesn't matter. Reading helps you learn stuff. It helps you. Your memory. You know, people Talk about a lot of their breed of Alzheimer's and stuff like that. Well, how you can hold stuff like that back is by reading a lot, learning. As long as you're constantly learning, you're doing well for your health.
- [37:35]
B
That's a great point. Excellent point. Anything that activates that memory and retention and learning something new, I think that's a great part of your brain. We don't want to put that in park mode. Right.
- [37:48]
A
But the key is to find something that interests you. Don't just oh, someone tells you about this book and you're forcing yourself to read it because you know the person said it's good. What's good for one person isn't always good for another. Go for something that interests you, whatever that subject is. I read an article not too long ago, this woman was in a bookstore, she worked there and this lady came in with her kid and she's trying to force him to buy a book because he wants him to read and he doesn't read. And she's just pushing towards this and pushing towards that. And this person that worked there came over and said, ask a kid what do you like to read about? That's why I mentioned car. He said, well, I like cars. She took him over to a section for his age group that had about cars and wouldn't you know what the kids started reading.
- [38:33]
B
Right.
- [38:34]
A
Because it was something that fascinated him.
- [38:36]
B
Yeah.
- [38:36]
A
And I say, I'll say the same thing with parents out there. You want to get your kids to read, then find them something that find out what the interest them and get them a book on that.
- [38:44]
B
Yeah, right. Because they're already, it's already built in their excitement for it, their interest, their curiosity, it's already there. So.
- [38:51]
A
And it often released other thing I said myself I was hyping in a sci fi back when I was in a kid and in teens, my first writing, my first short story I wrote ever. I sent it into a science fiction magazine. It was rejected. But hey, at 17 years old I tried to submit something nice. But nowadays I still, I still interest me, but it's not my, my, my, my top stories. I like to read.
- [39:13]
B
Yeah. Interesting. If you could write a different genre completely that you've never done, what would you take a stab at? What would you try?
- [39:24]
A
It's hard to say because I've talked, I've taken a stab in everything.
- [39:26]
B
Yeah.
- [39:27]
A
Probably the one I would have most difficult would be straight romance.
- [39:31]
B
Okay. Yeah, well, that'd be difficult. Yeah.
- [39:34]
A
That I'd have to really, I mean I have romance in my books and whatnot, but a straight romance would be difficult. And I've read, I read strictly better romance books and whatnot. Just not my forte.
- [39:46]
B
Right, interesting. Yeah. You know your lane, you know what you like to read, you know what you like to write. So.
- [39:52]
A
Yeah, and I like to write in what I like to read.
- [39:54]
B
Yeah.
- [39:54]
A
I mean I love to write an archaeological thriller. I just don't know enough about archaeology, but might be one day maybe I'll study something about the pyramids or. And I do feature a bit of that in my books, like in the Charm trilogy and the third book in the series. They have to travel from place to place to fight this evil they're fighting. And they're all archaeological places. They visit the pyramids, they go to Machu Picchu where they fight a big battle and things like that. So I researched all that stuff too. So maybe one day I'll do a straight archaeological thriller.
- [40:26]
B
That'd be interesting. Yeah. Another thing to add to your wide list of things you've been writing about.
- [40:32]
A
Well, I've got some ideas on that already written down.
- [40:34]
B
That's good. So like I mentioned at the beginning, love your website. I love everything you got here. I love the little clips on the home page too. Like I mentioned, there's a hands that come up and grab a book and rip it apart. There's kids walking through what looks like they're an abandoned castle or whatever. I'm like, it's just. I love all these little elements on your website. Can you, could you tell us more about the website and the address as well so we can send the listeners?
- [41:01]
A
Well, the address is www.storywriter.ca which I was lucky to snap back 20 some odd years ago.
- [41:08]
B
Great.
- [41:09]
A
Very lucky. That particular scene you're talking about was actually a trailer done by my publisher. But I'd be having another trailer added on there being done for a devil of time being being done for me. It's a GoDaddy site. So for any author it's easy to use, it's easy to build and it's easy to edit. So I recommend any author out there you have to get a website. You don't really know how to handle it and you don't want to start paying lots of money to something to do it. Go to. Go go to GoDaddy. They can set up websites, they're not expensive and they're easy to do. I am not techno. I'm kind of technologically challenged, especially when it comes to anything to do with programming. And anything like that. But I found it easy to use and I can keep adding to it, taking away from it anytime I want to.
- [42:02]
B
Right.
- [42:03]
A
But I like to put on my website the writing I'm doing. Sometimes I talk about something I might be working about. I tried to do a blog but I didn't. Wasn't successful with that because I'm not really good at that type of stuff. But I put every book that's going to be coming out like I speak about a devil over time is there. And then I just can add pages or switch things around when it's time to promote something else.
- [42:26]
B
Yeah.
- [42:27]
A
And it's easy to upload videos, it's easy to upload pictures. So I. I highly recommend any author get yourself a website. And if you don't want to pay someone to do it and you want something easy, go to GoDaddy.
- [42:39]
B
That's right. And if you want to check out even more authors, then go to the site as well. You'll get that. That link you can go through and check out all these amazing other authors. Get a review of their books and everything. It's just under guest authors. I've been reading through it. You got some great authors there as well. And I love that you do that.
- [42:55]
A
And they're all different types. There's. There's some that. Right. Or there's some that write chick lid. There's one that's. He writes about Canada's war past.
- [43:07]
B
Interesting.
- [43:08]
A
So him I know from high school.
- [43:10]
B
Oh really good.
- [43:11]
A
That's how I end up putting his book there. I asked him when he, when he put it out, I said hey, would you want me to mention on my website? He said love it. So I put on the website.
- [43:19]
B
Smart. It's really nice. I like that you do that. It's a great idea. Excellent. Well, I'd love for you to come back in the future and let's get an update. As you keep writing and as you keep sharing. It's the name of the podcast. You're living your next chapter. Right. So keep me in mind. I'd love to have a fellow Canadian back anytime possible.
- [43:38]
A
I absolutely love to come back.
- [43:40]
B
Right. That's amazing. Awesome, Robert. Thank you so much for being here, everybody. Again, Storywriter CA is a website. Great name for a website. I love it. Everyone gotta go check it out when you buy Robert's books. Not if, when. I would love for you to leave a great review, Robert. Love to hear your thoughts about what you're reading, what you enjoy. Your feedback would be great. And Go check out his amazing website. I'd love for you to check it out. Grab a copy of his books, share this with somebody so that they'll also fall in love with this amazing authority, and we'll get. We'll get a lot of books sold. That's the idea of all this. So, again, Robert, thank you so much.
- [44:17]
A
I love that that happened. The more I get sold, the more time I can spend writing rather than.
- [44:21]
B
I love it. Robert, thank you so much for being part of the show. This is great.
- [44:24]
A
Thank you.
- [44:28]
B
Hey, thank you so much again for pressing play. As you've heard, great guests on the show, and one thing you didn't hear in this conversation is what? What did you not hear? Think about it for a second. That's right. Not a single solitary commercial for a mattress or a supplement or whatever you call it.
- [44:48]
A
No.
- [44:49]
B
Why? Because we don't want to break up the conversation with commercials. So the fact that you're still here means that you are a fan of the show, I'm assuming. So if you want to help to keep the podcast going and to make me feel really happy, all I really care about is coffee. Okay. I just gotta be honest. I love coffee. I'm drinking one right now. Starting to get cold.
- [45:12]
A
I need.
- [45:12]
B
I need to warm it up. Helping us with our Buy me a coffee link over@livingthenextchapter.com and also in the show notes, helps kind of keep the lights on around here. Remember, I'm doing this for free. I. I'm paying for everything, so I would love to have a little coffee donation. You know, even five bucks kind of fills up my cup. And I would love to enjoy a coffee from you. So if you're interested, again, thank you for listening, but you can use our Buy me a coffee link and fill up the cup. Thanks for being here.