← 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
E710 - Corey Croft - Wrestling With Your Writing, A Novella - France V. Brazil
00:39:48
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- [00:01]
A
I hope I don't know you. I hope I've never met you. I hope you're not my mom. I hope you're not my. One of my friends. I hope you're not a regular at my bar. I hope that you're coming into this and you don't know me. You don't know what I look like. You don't know if I'm a boy or a girl or whatever. And I hope that you enjoy yourself enough to go back to the well with a empty bucket. I hope that you just you. I hope that you. I hope that there's something different about the way your blood travels in your veins after this and how it. What? The shapes that appear in that stream when your heart beats while you read it. You know, I don't. I want people to. I don't. If you love it, if you hate it, that's awesome because you felt something. If you put it down halfway through, that sucks, then I gotta. I have to. Either I wasn't for you or I have to. I have to do better. And I hope you have a nice day, everybody.
- [01:07]
B
Welcome back to Living the Next Chapter. It's the author podcast. We get to talk to great people from around the world. Now when you get to have an author on, you get great conversation and then they reach out and say, can I come back? You're like, oh, heck yeah. Come on. Like episode 403, Corey Croft was on and we talked about his journey and all of the things he's writing, and that was a great episode. You got to go back and listen to that. He's back. He's got even more to talk about and a novella that's going to be out there for you soon. We're going to talk about that. It's an interesting story to tell and I'm excited to have Corey back. Corey, welcome back to the show.
- [01:41]
A
Yeah, thank you for having me.
- [01:42]
B
Excellent. Corey, for those who are hearing for you from you for the first time, they haven't heard episode 403 yet and they're going to let everybody know where you are in this big world of ours.
- [01:51]
A
I'm in Vancouver, bc, so there you go.
- [01:54]
B
Gorgeous Vancouver.
- [01:56]
A
Up, up, up and over.
- [01:57]
B
Nice place. I've been there once. I loved it. I didn't want to come back downtario, but yeah, it's a great place. Good. Awesome. Back on episode 403, we were talking about your journey as an author. We covered a lot of territory because you've been writing a lot. You have some new project that's coming out. I would love to get your inspiration as a published author. You're doing a lot of in the space for a. An author that's listening. We've done this Last on episode 403. I'm interested to see where you are at now, any kinds of encouragement for somebody new to writing. Right. You've done a lot, you played a lot, you've experimented a lot. Maybe a new author who's debating on going with more traditionally published or more self published, I kind of get from you you have a preference. But for that author that's listening, what would you suggest to them as far as how to get their book out there?
- [02:54]
A
Well, in reality, I would say kind of get some feedback about your work. Now, there are books that are traditionally published. You know, they become huge books and they're way off the what's normally digestible or acceptable by a mainstream audience. But in my experience now there's a lot more realism. I will never call real, I will never call myself pessimistic, maybe not optimistic, but there's a realistic, there's a realism that comes with experience and the tempering of expectations. Now you always hear about, oh, that person was that one in the million, you know, that. That exceptional case. But you can't plan to be that exceptional case. The only thing you can really do is work on being you and doing the best that you can. So when you're deciding whether to go traditional or independent, the choice you have to make is how much work do you want to put in and how much heartache do you want to bear? Because when you are the one who is at the pilot seat and seeing the statistics and having to crunch the numbers and, you know, move the wagon, it can be a little difficult, it can be taxing. Conversely, it's equally as taxing and probably existentially dreadful to submit, you know, manuscript after manuscript to agent and publisher and, you know, receive rejections. So patience as well. But at the end of the day, depending on the feedback, because people will read your work, you can't just keep it close to your chest like some dirty little secret until it's like, haha world here. This is what I've been in my basement, you know, cooking up with bolts in the neck, you know, it doesn't work like that. So you need feedback, you need beta readers. And then they will really, their feedback, their constructive criticism will help you decide which route to take. Because traditional publishing, awesome. Independent publishing, awesome. It just depends on if you want to make it feel that way. So it's a number of variables. I mean, I would like to think that I have work that can do both. I just assumed that it would be a little more convenient for me to not be, you know, wrapped in the knuckles with the back of a butter knife a bunch of times when it comes to what I want to say. However, you know, I am working on some projects that could be more traditionally published, just not even so much in content. What it is, it's style and the way that the narrative is told. So. And that's also about growing. You know, you can't. You have to try new things. You have to explore. You have to. Like you just said, you have to. You have to, you know, not throw everything against the wall. But whatever you do throw against the wall, really go forensics on it, analyze it, you know, and then just figure out what works for you, what feels good, what feels natural, and what people enjoy. You know, it's an audience thing.
- [05:38]
B
I'm remembering why I loved having you back on episode 403, because you use these terms to kind of frame what you're saying, and you give context with examples, metaphors, and sayings. And I'm like. I remember listening back to our conversation back then and going, that you threw so many things at me and the audience that were just like. And for you, it's just kind of. I can tell that you write because you have a mastery of language and words, and you just. When you talk, they just flow out of you. And that I found to be enjoyable. And I'm already experiencing it again with you already. So this is fun.
- [06:18]
A
Yeah, I thought about that, and since we last spoke, and writing is one thing, but I think that articulation is just the need to be understood, which is why we all make art. You know, it's just like, I don't want. I don't think people. You know, for me, personally, I want to be. I crave to be understood not by a faceless audience, but just in. To just know that there's people out there that get what I'm trying to say and don't misconstrue or muddy up the message. I just sort of started. Sorry to kind of break it up, but I do believe that's why, like, there's this constant, like, running around a room looking for the keys underneath all the hats, just to be like, I got to get the right word. I got to get the right sentence to just make these people understand, you know?
- [07:00]
B
Keys under the hat. There's one right there. I like that. I think There's. When I, when I talk to you, Corey, there's. I love talking to you because you're entertaining, you're thoughtful, but there's a depth to, to your thoughts as well as you, as you kind of pontificate, there's a word for you pontificate around your stories and what you're writing. You. You just, it just flows out of you. And that's what I find enjoyable as a listener to, to connect with you this way and then realize that that flows into your writing as well. Right. So there's a. There's a correlation between the words you say and the words you write. And that's what I pick up from, from our conversations. One of the things you talked about around the differences maybe between traditionally published and self publishing is the creative control that you have more as an independent author and a writer. When you. And we just talked about this from your website and link everybody in the show notes to go check it out. But you. The COVID of your latest book that we're going to talk about today, you have control. You can do whatever you want. You don't have to go and get the blessing from someone higher up to say yes Corey, you can use that cover. Right? You can do whatever you want to do. And the story, because everyone can go to your website and see it now. But the story behind the COVID and kind of how this came to be because I'm looking at it going, I see the word Brazil kind of in the middle of the image but I'm trying to figure out what happened here. What is this cover? You told me the quickly the story. But can you share with people as they check out your website and see the COVID of the book? What's going on with this cover for your latest book?
- [08:32]
A
Yeah, I mean I so I like to my brother up until like either myself or my brother have done all my covers, the art, everything I did the last one I did it on canvas and then he helped me put it together. He always helps me. He always puts everything together. And he did the first three books the all the COVID art and everything and side as well. So this time I wanted. I had a very specific vision in mind. So I, you know, drew on special paper and tried a hundred times to get like the. The picture just right. And when I finally did, I scanned it and sent it to him. So it's supposed to be like the World cup and then writing inside of it essentially some of it blacked out but very sketchy and chaotic looking as well. I sent him a Three or four pages of Just My Handwriting by Corey Croft and France v. Brazil 98. Just. There's many, many, many different samples. And when I see, put them on this computer to kind of like take out the, take out the, you know, the, the smudge marks and, and the, the little imperfections. It just completely merged and went bananas. So he sent it to me. He's like, well, you know, this, it kind of got out of hand, but I think you'll like it. And I really do because it's just, just this chaotic, you know, just, just, just all over the place, messy, you know, kind of thing that you're describing. And that's exactly kind of what the book is.
- [10:00]
B
No, I think it's, it's intriguing. Like, I'm trying to figure it out. Like it's, it's enough for me to catch my attention and go, what is going on here? And that's what you need in a bookstore, on a website. You need somebody to pause and go, wait a minute, what's happening here? Like, it's not too on the nose, it's not too evident what's going on here, but curiosity's ignited just by looking at the color. Thank you. I like it. Yeah, it's great.
- [10:24]
A
Covers are crazy too, because like, the, like, if you read anything like that has to do with, like, tips to publishing or tips to having a good book, every cover looks the same. It's this weird. I guess it's not weird as much. Kind of a mundane, like starburst and blue or pink behind these bold, you know, Helvetica, all capital letters like the, the jury or the, the something and then the name. And it's just, I, I, I look at those and I just see like, okay, I know exactly what's going to be in this, even if I don't. Whereas, like, if I do see a book that has a cover that's not even looks professionally done, but if it's interesting, then I kind of want to at least read the back of that book and find out what's going on with that person, you know?
- [11:07]
B
Yeah. As we go through, and I scroll through your website, all of your books are here, all the different covers. You can, you can get a sense of the book just by the COVID Right. So that whole thing about, we talked about judging a book by the COVID I think you can actually judge a book by the COVID And when we talked briefly before getting record about the subject of your new book, there's a lot of chaos in the story.
- [11:29]
A
Yeah.
- [11:29]
B
Which is reflected on the COVID I think, I think that's a good match between story and cover.
- [11:34]
A
100%. Yeah.
- [11:35]
B
Yeah. All right. So your new book, your new novella, timing wise, just for the listeners as they are interested and curious about when this is coming out. Do you have a rough idea when this will hit?
- [11:46]
A
Yeah, we're going to do a soft launch on January 10th. It's looking like the desired date. And this one, normally I've put a lot more, I want to say, investment into my book launches, but with this one, it's. It is a niche title and it is a very, you know, kind of subdued, chaotic, but like very subdued and mellow story compared to the other ones. And more than anything, I just want it to see the light of day. Like, I don't. It's. It's gonna have a more, more particular audience, I think. It's not a story that's gonna. It's a story that kind of departs from a real traditional kind of especially mainstream paperback. So it's one of those. It's a slow burn that I just really want the world to see and to see what they think. Sometimes, you know, I write, as I was saying before to you that I write a lot of poetry. So sometimes it's just fascinating to me to not put a unedited or rough, you know, in the sense of grammar or thought poem out in the world. But it's just sometimes a curiosity and experiment to see how your art interacts with people who are either used to your art or have no idea what it's about. Because it may carry pieces of you and it does, let's just face it, it carries a lot of your DNA. But there's so many different sides to you that it's just interesting to see if people embrace that side or if they reject that side or if like four people say that side is that side. Sounds like me. You know, there's so many responses that you can get from your work and I'm really interested to see what the response from this particular title is.
- [13:32]
B
So when you write for our US Friends, niche for Canada. Niche. When you write a niche book and topic, you are, you are constraining yourself to a pretty targeted audience, I would think than a broad audience. When you go niche with a topic, do you have kind of in your mind who you envision a reader that's going to enjoy this story or pick this up?
- [13:55]
A
Yeah, I mean, I think any. Anybody who's really into a character driven narrative. So this one is, I mean, one reasons why it's A novella is. Because I didn't need to stretch it out to be hundreds of pages with the story that I have. Like there's no need to shoehorn this romantic subplot or have this, you know, like quirky, cute, you know, side character. Like have their, you know, their, their problems. You know, this is about one person who is essentially degenerating mentally, spiritually and emotionally. And it's a very, very kind of a closed circuit case study as to what an unchecked, you know, what a person, what an un. What basically what unchecked symptoms can lead to a sickness or what kind of sickness these unchecked symptoms can lead to. And it had its roots in influence. And as I wrote it, the original writing, which was many years ago, under a decade, but more than five, it was just done when it was done, like no more need to be said. If anything, I've been stripping away the last little bit just to make it as concise as possible. So people who. An audience who enjoys, you know, character development and a strong, you know, internal narrative, as well as those who really enjoy philosophy. It poses a lot of philosophical questions about life and death and choice, control, liberty, freedom, those, you know, fun things in a very non political way. Let me just say that because I realize those words have been, you know, they've been riding with someone else's bus pass for a while. You know what I mean?
- [15:29]
B
We just did it again, you know,
- [15:31]
A
so we're riding on this train, we're going on this locomotive. But it does have like a. To me, the literary influences that I would pick out would very much be. I mean, it's. I would find it more camusart because it's very existentially based. Like it's very. What am I? What's the world? What's the relationship between the two? How do I. How am I able to control this? How am I able to regain control? You know, that it's, it's all those kind of questions. And to me they're so pertinent right now because I, everyone, I'm a bartender and everyone that I talk to kind of bemoans the same loss of control, whether it be over our lives or our ability to make a life, or that we really can do. Who's doing what they love, who's doing, where their passion is, who knows what their passion is. We don't even have the time to sit down and find out what that is. You know, we're too busy busting our humps. So that's kind of who this is for. Is just people who have those questions or who also just want to feel sad because it's sad book.
- [16:37]
B
So was there. Was there a point where you had to wrestle with the earlier version of Corey, who originally wrote this book or this novella years and years ago? Did you have to wrestle with him? Because you're a different person today than you were back when you started for sure. Right?
- [16:54]
A
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. He was. He wrote the book with a lot of emotion, let's say, you know, and back in. Back. Back in the day, Croft, he was pretty grandiloque, you know, he was pretty. Like, he used. He liked his words, like. But he also liked to write them down for strangers to read in a way that he hoped would impress them, I think. And he's not around anymore. He's got. He's been. He's. He's. He's out back.
- [17:23]
B
He's moved on. He's moved on. Yeah.
- [17:25]
A
He's folded like a lawn chair under the dumpster. So, like, nowadays I try to use my. My vocabulary or my ability to fuse words together to find the best way to connect with people. So instead of trying to wow them, be like, ooh, this guy. This guy reads. I want people to be like, oh, this guy thinks, for instance. Or I want them to be. I don't want to. I want. I just. I just want to connect with people. I just want to share my stories and hopefully do to others. But a really good story does to me, which is make me think, which is. Make me feel, which is make me reconsider my life up into this point, you know, a really strong book that, you know, you hold, holds a place in your heart. So that has been one focus. And then the other was just like, I wrote the book. Yeah. When I was just less. Less, I guess, comfortable with believing the reader could pick up on subliminal hints and foreshadowing at the beginning. Like, I think I was a little bit more of an exposition monster when I first. When I first wrote it, at least the first draft. And it is a first draft, so I'll give myself a break. But it definitely was more syrupy and it definitely took a lot more poetic license. Whereas now it still does contain a great deal of poetry, but it's just tightened up.
- [18:49]
B
Did. Did you see yourself in the pages that you wrote back in the day, when you went back to kind of work on this project and prepare it to launch now in, like, 2026, is there a part of you that you look back and go, I still see elements of Corey Croft back then. He's still the same person even though you're different today.
- [19:08]
A
Yeah, of course. He's a baby. You know, he's like, he's still, I mean, like, I was, I think if I'm breaking it down in like a real, real woo woo kind of sense, like I was still uncomfortable with. I was creating characters so that I could expose vulnerabilities in myself back then. So it came out so much more history on it. It was just like I had to build up that character to be like, you are sad now. Show the world that you're sad, you're trist, you know, you're all these things. And so the character would, you know, almost like take on this Shakespearean, you know, know this, this, this, this thespian role of, of like grabbing, clutching their chest and like raising a fist to the sky. Whereas now, like, I'm comfortable saying if I'm happy or sad or mad or depressed, and I have no problem just allowing the characters to. Having to allow their feet to touch the earth a little more often seem more grounded. At least the characters that I, I'm using as a surrogate, you know, to beat because I can't swing a baseball bat hard enough for my own head, you know, so it's, it's one of those things where also I don't. One of the things that I did though, in that book, which I, which I'll commend myself when I still do, is like, you're not taking you as a, as a facsimile, as a carbon copy. You're taking a piece of you. So you can't. Like, I would. There's still a part of me that's like, yeah, but he would win in a fight, right? Or like, yeah, but this would happen, right? It's like, no, like that part of you, like, take away like this aspect of you and do this and then maybe borrow something from somebody else or to fill it in with like, you don't need. Not every character has to be like, has to carry your insecurities. Pick one insecurity at a time and then exfoliate that with that character. But you know what I mean? Just make it more direct so people can relate to it for readers.
- [21:03]
B
Then, as this book is coming out for us in January, I'm excited to, to see this the light of day and be on our, on our tables in front of us as we read. Tell us a little bit about the premise of what you've written. Because we chatted before, before we hit Record. And I'm already curious about how this book is, this story is going to unfold. But there's. There's several different kind of things happening to our character in the novella. But what do we need to know about this character himself before we jump into reading this?
- [21:33]
A
Yeah, we need to know that this character is coming is years removed from an extremely traumatic evening. So a traumatic series of events, unfortunate events that caused trauma, I guess you could say, and which had resulted in him having a complete mental and emotional breakdown, rendering him an agoraphobic who hadn't left his house for three years. Where we pick up on this story is he is found in him the ability to either convince, lie, or coax himself into believing that he has some control over his life. That which he never had before, that which I guess he had been searching for. So this control that he has is not his ability to control his life, but his ability to control his death. So the title of the book is called France v Brazil 98. And in large, I get. And I mean, it's written in the first couple pages, so you kind of have the premises he plans on, more or less. You know, he ending his life upon the conclusion of that game. And to him this comes or this has been like his chief concern in life. His way to regain control that he is able to choose effectively, choose decisively the moment that he's no longer with us. And he set himself up in a way where no one will miss him. Nothing. He has no real affiliations and no loved ones remaining. So he's put himself in a position where this is tenable and it's likely. And let's just say that he's unable to do it when he wants to. And that causes him to really kind of break even more. And it's again, like, it's. It's very much like a. It's a. It's a first person kind of character study. Like, a lot of the time when I was writing it, I did picture like the Marisa so character and several, like, Camus, you know, protagonists just dealing with this absurdity of like, I can't even kill myself. So to me it's kind of funny. It's.
- [23:57]
B
That's, that's. That's a.
- [23:58]
A
That's a black cherry humor right there. But, like, you know, it. To me there is like this, you know, almost like Kafkaes hilarity. And that his only plan was to do this. And even like this, almost like this, he can't. And there's a. To me There's a humor in that that kind of keeps this story with. Gives the story some levity. I would hope others can see that. But if not, like, if they take it at. On the left side, then that's fine too, because it's. Once it's in their hands, it's no longer my story. It's not my story to tell, it's their story to interpret.
- [24:38]
B
Yeah. And there's a. There's a caregiving angle as well, within the story, without giving too much away. But it seems like when I hear you talk about the fact that he's also a caregiver for someone else, that there's doesn't seem to be somebody there for him. So it's like he's on his own, right, on his own path, but there's nobody with him the way he is there for others. And I'm like, that's an interesting. That's interesting as well, because I think a lot of us who do kind of care for others within family or whatever, friends, when we don't have somebody watching our back. Right. And being in our corner, that's. That's pretty lonely, right?
- [25:15]
A
It is. And I find it's one of those things where it's kind of. It's. I. I'm sure this is a saying. I don't know who said it. I don't really. I'm not going to look, but it's one of those things. You can't care for other people if you don't care for yourself. You can't love someone else if there's no love inside of you for you. And he really personifies this because he. One of the things that I find. Sorry to attach to that. One of the things I find fascinating about this, the story, this character is he's been committed. Right. He has had his problems and he's been certified and medicated. So what I find fascinating about this is. Is that I wrote it before, obviously, the pandemic and before this really. This rush of, I guess, self help or the, you know, the deputization of, like, therapy is like numero uno ichiban. Right. So, yeah, it's fascinating for me to look back at that time and to see a character who is a little. How he would. How he's dealing with something that's become so paramount today. Like, it's. You would have thought that it was written, you know, last summer, you know, amid, like all this, like the new kind of, like the new jargon and the new buzzwords kind of coming in, but it Wasn't. It was written a long time before that. So it was something that I guess, you know, the. The idea of. Of. Of mental health has been on my mind for a while. And, I mean, that's why I write, to be brutally honest. But for him, like, it's this really interesting. Like, he knows. He's. He. There's certain passages where he gets worked up, bitter, angry, or just. Just annoyed to the point of, like, sterling vexation, and he walks it back and he's like, no, no, no, that's not what we do in the real world. Like, that's the old you. You're the new you. You can kill yourself, it's fine. Like, his. Almost like his serenity now is like, I can kill myself. If that makes sense. If you're a Seinfeld fan.
- [27:28]
B
Yeah. At the same time, though, frustrated at the fact that he can't.
- [27:32]
A
He doesn't know that yet. Like, yeah, he doesn't know that yet. Like, when he finds that out.
- [27:38]
B
Yes.
- [27:39]
A
Not a good day.
- [27:41]
B
Not a good day. We talked about the fact that there was a little bit of wrestling between you and the earlier version of you when you first started writing. Are you still wrestling with yourself today?
- [27:53]
A
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I don't even. I don't even know. It's far from stalemated. I mean, I think. I think as long as anyone, you know, maintains any level of remorse or regret, they're always going to wrestle with who they were. If there's anything that any of us ever feel bad about, ever, we're always going to, you know, have that. Have that monkey on our back. Maybe not a sociopath, but, you know, for the rest of us who, you know, have caring concern, we're, I think we're constantly grooming through the fields of, like, you know, yesterday's pasture and. And today, like, I still want it. There's ways I want to be better. There's ways I actively know that I can be better and still don't do it. And that's a real wrestle. I can be a better. Insert whatever word you want here. And I can improve my life whichever way, you know, all these, you know, follow the four winds, right? But I don't. And sometimes I. Oftentimes I find myself wrestling with that. Why don't you? Why aren't you? Why can't you? And, you know, in the skirmish, in the tornado of, you know, fists and feet, you know, I. It's. I. It's too much cacophony. I can't find the answer. And that further frustrates me.
- [29:14]
B
All right, so for a reader, they're going to read your new book coming up in January. Just any other thoughts for them? We talked about the character. Is there kind of a message to the reader that you want to make sure that they understand before they start diving into the story?
- [29:32]
A
I hope I don't know you. I hope I've never met you. I hope you're not my mom. I hope you're not my. One of my friends. I hope you're not a regular at my bar. I hope that you're coming into this and you don't know me. You don't know what I look like. You don't know if I'm a boy or a girl or whatever. And I hope that you enjoy yourself enough to go back to the well with a empty bucket. I hope that you just. You. I hope that you. I hope that there's something different about the way your blood travels in your veins after this and how it. What? The shapes that appear in that stream when your heart beats while you read it, you know? Yeah, I don't. I want people to. I don't. If you love it, if you hate it, that's awesome because you felt something. If you put it down halfway through, that sucks. Then I got to. I have to. I. Either I wasn't for you, or I have to. I have to do better. And I hope you have a nice day.
- [30:36]
B
You talked about the fact that the story goes out. It doesn't belong to you anymore as the author. It belongs to the reader. And it's up to them to kind of put it in their context. From your. From an author's point of view. From the writer's point of view, though. What is this novella not intended to be like when you were writing? Like, you're like, I'm not trying to do this. With this story. People can have their own response, but your intent as a writer. I wasn't trying to do what with this novella.
- [31:04]
A
I wasn't trying to glamorize mental illness or schizophrenia, like, tendencies. You know, I'm not trying to create. I'm never trying to create. I'm never. I'm never trying to make. Take away the seriousness or. Or to try and build up something that I find as being negative or destructful or. Or. Or sad. Quite frankly, when I write in general, when I write about awful people, which is often. And when I write about, you know, you know, like, sorrow and things like that, like, I'm not at a point where I'm like trying to pat myself on the back or get a ribbon for being, you know, you know, the most uncomfortable person in the room. I'm trying to express how I feel in the hopes that other people can relate to it and also see that, you know, like I, they can do it too. And sometimes, you know, I don't necessarily write with happy endings or some kind of inspiring message that's easy to see, but it doesn't mean that I'm making light or trying to throw a kind of self congratulatory party for, for terrible feelings and awful things and things that I wish I didn't have and you probably wish you didn't have. You know what I mean? It's. Yeah, to me this is, it's, it's, it's, it's cathartic and it's letting things out. And this, it's an explosion and people are free to sift through the debris however they, whatever shape they find those liquid metals and those, you know, smoldering plastics, I have no control over that. But all I can tell you is the explosion usually comes from a place of intensity and it's, it, it falls to the ground with, you know, the follow lands with good intentions at least.
- [33:07]
B
Corey, I'm again, I'm so thrilled that you have time to come back and talk about what you're working on. I'd love for you to keep coming back because I love talking to you and you make my brain warm just listening to how you present yourself and the way that you, the way you think out loud, it's just, it's inspiring. So I love having time with you, your website. Let's talk about that quick. Where they can go see the COVID of the book which we've been chatting about.
- [33:33]
A
Yes.
- [33:34]
B
They can follow you and stay in touch and watch you keep creating. And then I got one more question here at the end to wrap up but talk us through your website again so we can send people there.
- [33:43]
A
Yeah, so that's Coreycroft author.com Poor Croft author, I believe is my Instagram handle too. I was told to have some unity there. And yeah, on the website there are some pretty old oldies but goodies as far as short stories go. Some actual written poetry on there that I usually read it as opposed to writing it down on social media so I can kind of put something out later. But there are some examples there, links to buy the books, background info, all the media that I've done and what else. Yeah and then on my. More I'm mostly active on the, on Instagram. Unfortunately, that's the necessary evil that I've, you know, the potion that I've chosen to, you know, gulp, where I do poems in English and then translate to Portuguese and Spanish. The odd, I don't know, picture based bow. It's mostly poems. It'll be gearing more towards the book. But I found that I am not good at marketing myself and feeling like I'm, you know, throwing rocks at people's windows when it comes to trying to sell, which is a problem I got to deal with the thing I wrestle with all the time. I could be better at marketing and I could be more insistent on the purchasing of my work. But yeah, at this point, I'm just making art because I love making art.
- [35:09]
B
When authors and writers create characters for their novellas and their books, sometimes there's a relationship built with your character through the process. So for you, when you look at the character for your newest novella, just, can you explain to me and tell me what's your relationship like with this character? When's the last time you had an interaction with this character?
- [35:31]
A
I would say, well, when I, I originally wrote the book, like, he probably represented a lot of, like, what was going on in me at that moment because strangely enough, some it was just. It was a half real, half constructed moment that, where something happened and something. And I just. And I was, I bas. The original writing of the book. I had something. I'd had a strange night and went home and wrote, stayed up basically overnight writing the rough draft and then slept a little bit and then wrote the rest of it. Like it was very, very quick and then sort of looked at it and then just didn't think much of it. And upon returning to it, like, you can still see where you, it, you know, what it looks like. It looks like shed Cocoon was what it looks like. It looks like, you know, old webbing, because I can see the silhouette of the person that I was there when I wrote it. And the character was a very angry version of me at that point. And when I met him again, I guess when I started editing it, you know, shook his hand, you know, rub my knuckles from him squeezing way too hard and like he had something to prove and he's mad at the world. We had a talk and, you know, I talked him off a ledge in a way, and then we just eased his core. We just made him less angry and more forlorn. You know, he. I found out he wasn't angry. He was just. He was just. He was just frustrated, you know, right he was just so over his head with anxiety and worry, disquietude that he just. It came out his anger. He lashed out. He lashed out at me. He lashed out at everybody. So we just had to, you know, rework the angles and just ask the right questions to find out, okay, why are you so angry? Okay, then why? And a lot of wise. And that helped us refine him to a point where readers wouldn't hate him. And I didn't, you know, and I wasn't embarrassed to have him, you know, show up at a cocktail party and yell my name from across the room. It'll be like more like, hey, Ernest, come over here kind of thing. So.
- [37:41]
B
Yeah, Yeah, I like it. Awesome. All right, Corey, thank you so much for doing this again. You're. It's great to talk to you. I'm. Again, I just love having time with you. And as a podcaster, it's great when guests come back. So I know you're going to keep working on it. You got a lot of new things coming up in the future as well, beyond releasing this book in January, and I'd love to have you back. Just keep the door open for you. Come back as often as you want, my friend.
- [38:04]
A
I'm going to take you up on that.
- [38:06]
B
Awesome. Everyone, all information, as always, in the show notes. You know where to find everything for Corey and go grab a copy of this when it's available and make sure that you share this with somebody because you'll fall in love not just with this, but all of the things that Corey has. They'll take you on a journey, on a path. And make sure you got your seatbelt on, because you're going to learn something in the process. Corey, thank you so much for doing this.
- [38:28]
A
Thank you very much for having me.
- [38:32]
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.
- [38:41]
A
What?
- [38:41]
B
What did you not. Not here. 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. No. 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. 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. I need. 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.