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Welcome to the Grand Hill Chronicles podcast.

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My name is Don Bishop and I write as T.S.

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Pedramon.

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Now, as you can see behind me, I have a different backdrop.

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I am here at Author Nation and I have here with me author S.H.

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Blodgett, who also writes fantasy.

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Now, just to make sure I got things right, it's epic fantasy, correct?

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Correct, yes.

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I write new adult and young adult fantasy.

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Okay.

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Perfect.

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I mean, that's the same as me, but there are all kinds of authors here.

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There's... Wow, I just went blank.

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Cozy, Fantasy, and all kinds of stuff.

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So...

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Yeah,

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I think,

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so we spoke yesterday afternoon,

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kind of at the end of the conference sessions for the day.

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And we talked about our books and a lot of different things.

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So my viewers and listeners already know about Night Shady Unicorn.

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So why don't we see your book?

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And I don't even remember the title.

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So what's it called?

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It's called Blood and Betrayal.

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This is a crossover because the ages do range from about 18 to 20.

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And what we're looking at here is my feedback edition.

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A nice wrap that my amazing cover artist Alky designed it for me.

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And she even did a nice little limited edition.

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I think you're blocking the microphone.

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Oh.

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Sorry about that.

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Okay.

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But she did a nice little edition wrap around the edges as well with the back.

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And so you have a nice quote featured on both sides.

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And she did a really great job.

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This one was done here in Groom Smart.

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Yeah, I was going to reiterate that.

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So, yeah, it's got this nice spread on it.

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Yeah,

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Salke wanted to emphasize the impactful emotional quotes within the book on the

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flaps and especially on the front and the back of the book.

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So if readers choose not to have the dust jacket,

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they'll still have some of the most important and emotional scenes on the actual

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case itself.

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Okay.

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And I'm going to read this blurb and I have not rehearsed this.

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Hopefully I pronounce these names the way that you intend.

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So,

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in a realm torn into five clans,

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Cainria is forced to fight in the vilest underground rings for her sister's survival.

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Everything changes when an enemy clan, the Dusa, captures her.

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When offered a deal,

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Cainria agrees to provide critical information on her former clan in exchange for

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her sister's rescue.

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Scarred by her haunting past,

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a life-eating curse,

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and an unprecedented dark prophecy,

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Cainria must confront her fears,

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unearth the strength necessary to save her sister,

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and defy the menacing forces seeking to control her.

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As the son of the Dusa clan's leader, Haldin seeks a sense of worth beyond the shadows of his lineage.

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Fate entwines his life with Cainria's when she is assigned to his ninja team.

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As ancient bloodlines awaken and a ferocious enemy stalks his clan,

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Halden's journey forces him to challenge his father's control over Cainria as he

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finds his purpose alongside her.

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Cainria and Halden must brave the destruction of betrayal,

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the specter of forgotten blood oaths,

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and the ancestors' whispers of approaching doom.

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A united front to dawn a new era or set the darkest prophecy in motion.

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Okay.

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Yeah, and so you pulled this out yesterday, and I... Can I see this?

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I'm so clear.

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I opened it up, and it's up to her a little bit, and I wanted to read it.

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I still have it.

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I have books backed up.

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I like your little title image inside.

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Yeah, and like...

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Flipping through here, I can, just glancing at a few sentences, I can tell that there's stuff going on.

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Now, I noticed, and I brought this up yesterday, like you've got some Asian influence.

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It's right there on the dust jacket.

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It mentions ninja tea.

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Absolutely.

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And you have...

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Glossaries?

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Or what did you call it here?

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A world building and pronunciation guide.

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Yes.

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So like I have a pronunciation guide in my,

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in Forerunner and in Guardian,

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but I don't have a glossary to explain in terms.

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But I see like Ninjutsu and Jounin.

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And so why don't you tell us about...

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Sorry, and for the viewers, yes, I am nervous.

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Now that it's out there, hopefully I can stop being nervous.

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Why don't you tell us about the Asian influences?

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Where do you get those?

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I know you mentioned anime.

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Do you have favorite shows or?

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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So there's two major influences for Blood and Betrayal.

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The first one was, of course, an anime show.

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It's called Naruto.

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And growing up, that was one of the first animes I was ever introduced to.

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And I fell in love.

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I love the principles.

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I love the heralds of it.

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And there's just such strong scenes, camaraderie, and just so many great lessons.

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And I think that's really huge for Kato.

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I know.

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And it was a huge influence for me.

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I love the culture.

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I love the world building inside Naruto.

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It was so in-depth and so detailed.

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It made me watch all 1,000 episodes approximately between the spin-off series.

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I had no idea there were that many episodes.

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There was quite a bit.

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I was quite shocked when I learned that One Piece has something like 2,000 episodes.

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And still going.

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Yes.

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Although I think that it's in its final chapter now.

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So they say.

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So they say.

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I'm not entirely sure.

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I have not actually watched it myself.

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But I wouldn't mind getting into it.

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It's just very intimidating to watch that.

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Yeah.

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I watched the live action season one.

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And then I started on the cartoon.

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um and you know i'll i'll put it on while i'm doing something like uh setting up a

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cover um formatting yeah so i i mean i hired an artist to do the design but to to

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do like the hard cover and the paperback i do the formatting myself uh placing the

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elements on on the page that's awesome so like while i'm doing something that's

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It's labor-intensive, but not so much brain-intensive.

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I'll throw on something so I don't just get utterly bored.

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Absolutely.

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It's nice to have that background noise anyways, whether you're 100% of a history.

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In a way,

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it just feels like an emptiness,

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and I do that too when I'm writing all day,

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a hot tub music or a TV show or something on the background.

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It's nice,

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it feels more natural,

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and it's also nice to be able to tune in and hold it cast to the same time.

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I don't know if I can write with a show on.

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I rarely write with music on.

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I was a music major.

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And so when there's music on,

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I usually get,

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I'm consciously following the lines,

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the different instruments and whatnot.

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And it distracts me.

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I have recently, in the last couple of months, I did some writing with music on.

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But how do you, what's that experience like, writing with a show on?

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I usually just like to have the background noise and something nice that makes my

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area seem more warm and inviting.

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For me,

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it's just closer to right with something going on in the background because then

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you don't hear echoes or maybe a dong barking in the background or a pen drum or

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something that would be distracting.

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For me,

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the noise going on in the background helps me focus more because then I don't pick

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out those on noises that can just happen throughout the day.

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It's like an AC unit turning on or a washing machine alarm going off.

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It's easier to tune out everything when the noise is predictable and it's constant.

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And that way it helps to focus more on my writing.

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That makes sense.

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So can you tell us more about... Pardon me.

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Let's let the listeners and viewers get to know you a little bit.

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So where do you come from?

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What did you study in school?

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What's your background?

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How did you come to write it?

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Honestly, I grew up at the health store.

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My grandma introduced me to a local books and babies in Mederic Health when I was in elementary school.

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And I picked up my first ever book that I've ever had purchased for me,

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which is called Warriors Into the Wild by Eric Lechter.

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And it was...

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Phenomenal.

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It immersed me so quickly from the first page onwards.

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I don't know that.

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The premise is from the perspective of cats, but they also have horde lands.

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They also have just a really interesting system in world building that just makes it so unique.

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And I instantly fell in love with it.

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I loved it.

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It was a huge factor.

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How would you compare it to Martin the Warrior?

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Martin the Warrior?

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Martin the Warrior.

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I have not... You don't know?

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No, I don't.

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I read one of those books when I was young, and I don't even remember what species Martin himself is.

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If he's a mouse or a rabbit, I'm... Shame on me, because I really should know this.

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Was he a Martin?

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Yes.

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Maybe.

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Maybe.

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My daughter can tell you.

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My daughter is all into that.

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And she has... The last several months, she's been big in... Nicole Young's.

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I don't know.

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Rangers Apprentice.

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Do you know those books?

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Oh, yes.

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That's a wonderful series.

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Yeah.

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If it weren't for school and added cost, I'd totally bring her to this.

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Absolutely.

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She's... Anyway.

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So...

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What are you studying?

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So, yes, I started reading books back in elementary school.

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And from there on out, I loved reading.

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And I would write on the sign occasionally,

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but never took it entirely seriously because I was focused on physical therapy at

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the time.

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And I went to school and went to college at Grand Canyon University in Arizona for physical therapy.

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And I graduated and got top marks.

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It was great.

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Everything was on track.

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And then I married my husband, who's active duty and naughty.

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We ended up moving out to Jordan.

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And that was where he got stationed first.

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And I couldn't continue pursuing my higher education.

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So that went on my back burner for a little bit.

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And during that time, he went out for training.

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He was gone to Ripon's 20, half a year during the day.

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And as you can imagine,

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it's quite lonely in a foreign country,

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no friends and family and new to an area that you don't speak the language very well.

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So we were in lockdown.

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I had not much else to do.

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So I started writing.

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And that's one thing I love about books is that you can fall into a world that's so

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unlike how it takes you on Harrison during your own grounding.

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And writing, that's a whole new level for me.

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I was able to create the world that I've dreamed of.

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And I was able to make that world flourish and bring it to life inside my mind.

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And it became all consuming in the months afterwards.

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That's all I do from the moment I woke up in the morning to the time I turned off my lamp at night.

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I was just writing.

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And even in between those two times,

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I would have dreams where I'd wake up at two and be like,

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oh my gosh,

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I need to incorporate that right now.

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So I'd grab my phone, start pointing my notes out and write that down really quickly.

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And at the time, it was just a hobby.

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I didn't think I was going to pursue anything seriously.

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But then the months kept going.

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I finished my first book.

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Then I finished my second book.

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Then my husband returned and he started reading them and absolutely loved it and

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said that there's something promised there.

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So for Ian,

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he was my biggest cheerleader that really helped push me in that transition from

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making it something beyond just a hobby,

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maybe sharing my stories with Will.

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And that's something that I have in all my bios is that I hope my stories can find

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a little corner in everyone else's role as well.

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Awesome.

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Yeah.

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What a gold mine.

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So, uh, COVID also helped me, uh, kind of jumpstart my, not jumpstart, but, uh,

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really get going with my writing journey.

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And without getting too much into that, I'd done some, I had done some writing before.

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And with COVID, I was also away at training for about six months.

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So when training ended at the end of the day, I was in Georgia, my family was in Virginia.

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So I'm like, well,

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time to finally write that novel.

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And I,

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I got 30,000 words in,

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but,

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um,

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I,

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I had a journey to go to,

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to really get to,

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to producing a book,

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uh,

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and COVID and training and,

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Got that started.

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Also, I have been to Grand Canyon University.

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Really?

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I was a missionary in Phoenix.

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Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

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So I've been past, I think I even went into the library to use the internet, if I recall correctly.

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Just to email my family a couple of times.

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Yeah, it's a nice little campus.

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But there was another thing I wanted to comment on.

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What's your husband's MOS?

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His military occupational specialty, his job.

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He works in field artillery currently.

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He just promoted to captain last year and he'll be taking his command here next year.

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And he's doing amazing.

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He honestly thrives in it.

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And I am so impressed by him every day with what he's able to accomplish and the

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passion that he has for helping others,

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especially even in his field.

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He does such a phenomenal job.

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Yeah, and that's another point that I wanted to ask about your husband's involvement and or support.

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So like you said, he read your manuscripts and loved them.

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That's awesome.

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So I have my two books here.

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I'm not going to try to make this about me, but I have War Runner, which is available on Amazon.

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So I have my book one, which

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My wife has consumed, but she consumed it as a podcast.

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So after I had my manuscript, I...

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I read the entire thing out loud and recorded it.

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It was a good way to catch mistakes and to catch omissions and, you know, things, random things.

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And then I turned that into a restricted podcast for beta reader purposes.

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Oh, wow.

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So, like, my wife listens to it and my dad listens to it.

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Yeah.

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But this one, she has not read or listened to.

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But she was there and very instrumental in the creation.

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And not like all the time, because our lives have been upside down.

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And she's got the kids to take care of.

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And so like, well, I've got to go out and dictate or go down to the basement and type.

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She's taking care of the kids and...

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That's a lot.

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Taking care of all of us like that.

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Absolutely.

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But...

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When I need to explore some ideas, I go and I talk to her.

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And that has been the way that I feel she has contributed the most in support and

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just being somebody to talk to and being a sounding force.

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That's a huge blessing to have.

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That's a huge support to have in life.

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And one of the best things that we can ask for is to have a spouse that's

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incredibly supportive and thoughtful and do everything in their power to make our

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dreams awesome.

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Yeah.

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Let's talk about your goodies.

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Sure.

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We already saw the book with the dust jacket.

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Yes.

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And I like how you did both the case laminate and the dust jacket with different things on them.

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So with...

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With my books,

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it's either dust jacket for printed case lamina,

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where if you buy the version with a dust jacket,

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the underneath is just blue printed to look like cloth.

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Um, but I, I like this list.

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Um,

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so show us,

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show us your,

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your swag,

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the goodies,

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and you were talking about,

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um,

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uh,

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what do you call them?

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The, the boxes, what boxes?

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Yeah.

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They've become a very popular thing within the last, I think, couple years.

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Um, what really inspired me was Freely.

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That's the first one I've ever signed up for when she does fantasy, young adult.

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And they're slowly branching out soon to include epic fantasy.

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What's it called again?

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Fairy Loot.

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Fairy Loot?

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Yes.

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It's a UK-based, not like flute, but loot.

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Yeah.

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Fairy Loot.

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Like L-O-T.

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Oh, okay.

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Yes.

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Like a treasure chest.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Perfect.

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Yeah.

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And they're wonderful.

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The quality of bugs and the goodies you get with it is so amazing.

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And it inspired me to do my own book, Fox.

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So I recently got a few things started.

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I'm slowly building up the collection of swag.

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But one of the first things I wanted to work on was getting a character art

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bookmark done.

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And this is what I have.

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So it has my two characters, Seneir and Valden.

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They're both there.

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It's one of the most emotional or impactful scenes I have in the book.

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And for readers- Samria?

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Seneir.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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That's why I had the readers beware thing in the very few stages.

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I'm like, yeah, some things may not appear as you may think.

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And you didn't stop while I was- Well, I would never interrupt.

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That's like Coelacanth, which I always thought was Coelacanth.

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Well,

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if you've ever seen Demothrons,

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they often call it Nemothrons,

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just because of how wild the denominations came out of different characters.

(00:19:10):
And I wanted to take a book out of that, or take a page out of that, but there we go, that's the same.

(00:19:14):
Take a book out of that page.

(00:19:15):
Exactly, yes.

(00:19:18):
But I do have a really nice quote that's included within my book.

(00:19:20):
And then I have the character or the book artwork is actually right here on the pad.

(00:19:25):
And then I overlay it with the quote.

(00:19:27):
And then I have my little one betrayal.

(00:19:29):
The title is down here.

(00:19:31):
So that's one of the first items that I started incorporating with my book box.

(00:19:35):
And you took the elements that you had and you combined them into the bookmark?

(00:19:40):
Yes.

(00:19:40):
Okay.

(00:19:41):
Yeah,

(00:19:42):
I wanted to seamlessly integrate everything in such a way that it would go with the

(00:19:46):
book box very well on theme.

(00:19:48):
And if any readers would like to reuse the bookmark,

(00:19:52):
they would definitely know which book that's from,

(00:19:54):
no matter which book that's from,

(00:19:56):
which I thought was really neat.

(00:19:57):
And I love Selkies.

(00:19:59):
What she did on my cover is just gorgeous.

(00:20:02):
I loved her artwork so much.

(00:20:04):
I really wanted to highlight that here to show that her artwork goes further than just...

(00:20:09):
the paper bag or the hard bag.

(00:20:11):
And what she did was just beautiful.

(00:20:13):
So I really wanted to highlight that in the bookmark as well.

(00:20:16):
And then I also have a nice little logo sticker included with it.

(00:20:21):
People could put that on jeans, laptops, whatever they choose.

(00:20:24):
It's extra protected and waterproof.

(00:20:26):
So it is a very durable sticker,

(00:20:28):
which I did not know the difference of until I started going in the whole deep dive

(00:20:31):
breath hole stickers.

(00:20:33):
And there's a lot to consider about stickers, which I never thought.

(00:20:37):
So remind me, can you send me the link to where you ordered that?

(00:20:41):
Because I need to order some stickers of my own.

(00:20:43):
I'd be more than happy to.

(00:20:45):
And the last thing that I'm currently debating is I just got the really nice fancy

(00:20:48):
little business cards in,

(00:20:50):
have soft like a velvet touch finish on the outlet.

(00:20:52):
Oh my gosh, it's so nice.

(00:20:54):
And I incorporated a little bit, if you could tell here from the back of the logo.

(00:20:59):
And I use that as my little stamp as well.

(00:21:02):
Whenever I'm hand-signing books,

(00:21:03):
I have a little ink stamp that my husband gifted it for my birthday this year.

(00:21:08):
Absolutely.

(00:21:09):
I would do the same.

(00:21:10):
I can write this all down, send this to you later as well.

(00:21:12):
But he got a very full stamp where it has this design right here.

(00:21:18):
And I can just stamp it on every single book and then do a hand signature right underneath.

(00:21:23):
So I incorporate that to my little business cards.

(00:21:25):
It has a little tree on the front as well that gives readers all my socials between

(00:21:30):
my TikTok,

(00:21:30):
my Instagram,

(00:21:31):
my personal website.

(00:21:33):
And if they're interested in joining my street team, I even have that there too.

(00:21:36):
Yeah, I wanted to ask about your street team.

(00:21:38):
So I did write a few things that I wanted to remember to ask about the Asian influence from Naruto.

(00:21:47):
I haven't watched that show, so I had no idea.

(00:21:50):
A thousand episodes.

(00:21:51):
quite a bit yeah and that was one of the two influences that really helped me shape

(00:21:55):
this book and uh blood of betrayal is yeah it says so the series title is legacy of

(00:22:02):
the dragon yes okay cool do you know how long this series is going to be

(00:22:08):
I have everything plotted out for five bucks currently,

(00:22:11):
and there will definitely be some spinoffs in the future.

(00:22:13):
So we're going to get through one step at a time and focus on getting the four

(00:22:17):
series at first before spreading our wings and going out on the novellas and

(00:22:21):
everything else.

(00:22:21):
I'll be coming out as well.

(00:22:23):
And for anybody who hasn't really read much epic fantasy, these things can balloon.

(00:22:31):
So a very famous epic fantasy series called The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan,

(00:22:37):
finished by Brandon Sanderson.

(00:22:39):
was pitched to his publisher or his agent,

(00:22:44):
I don't remember,

(00:22:44):
as a three-book series,

(00:22:46):
maybe four,

(00:22:47):
but definitely not more.

(00:22:48):
I think it was three, a three-book series, and it was 14.

(00:22:52):
14 nice, thick books.

(00:22:56):
So you say five books?

(00:22:57):
I'd say five for now.

(00:22:59):
Probably 19.

(00:23:01):
You know, every year is a new year.

(00:23:02):
We'll see what the future holds.

(00:23:04):
Yeah,

(00:23:05):
and with Nightshade Unicorn,

(00:23:08):
book one ended just like where I conceived it would end from the beginning.

(00:23:15):
Book two, I had like a journey through the world.

(00:23:21):
I have that kind of planned.

(00:23:23):
And I figured book two was going to go here and there was going to be an event.

(00:23:27):
But as I'm writing, like...

(00:23:29):
It was turning out a lot longer, taking up more space than I expected.

(00:23:33):
I'm like, okay.

(00:23:35):
I had to come up with another event.

(00:23:38):
Well, and... No.

(00:23:39):
So the event at the end of book two was already going to happen.

(00:23:44):
But I did heighten it up a little bit.

(00:23:46):
Wonderful.

(00:23:47):
In order to be a good ending for the book.

(00:23:50):
And then the intended book two, the original coverage of the big arc...

(00:23:59):
might take another two books.

(00:24:02):
I honestly don't know.

(00:24:04):
We'll see.

(00:24:04):
319, we'll see.

(00:24:06):
Yeah.

(00:24:10):
And we talked about her husband, the supporting...

(00:24:15):
That's fantastic.

(00:24:16):
And so your street team, and let's include also the tools and platforms.

(00:24:22):
Like, I know you have a Facebook group for your street team.

(00:24:24):
Yes.

(00:24:25):
And I think yesterday you mentioned Discord also.

(00:24:28):
Absolutely, yeah.

(00:24:28):
Discord is becoming incredibly popular.

(00:24:31):
I've noticed an author, reader, can't wait.

(00:24:34):
I was with Discord since...

(00:24:36):
Basically, the year is released and using it solely for gaming purposes.

(00:24:41):
But I've noticed so many reader groups have been starting to transition over to

(00:24:45):
Discord and I started following them and it is becoming incredibly popular,

(00:24:50):
especially for authors and their street teams and their fans.

(00:24:54):
There's so many possibilities and you have so much freedom with Discord to build

(00:24:58):
the community that you want to shape.

(00:25:00):
And I absolutely love having some of my best fans there.

(00:25:05):
Would you,

(00:25:06):
and this is a random term that I'm throwing together right now,

(00:25:10):
but would you say that you have a support funnel?

(00:25:15):
It's like you have readers who are just going to read the book and then go on about their lives.

(00:25:21):
And then some people are going to be like, wow, that was awesome.

(00:25:24):
I need to be more.

(00:25:25):
I need more.

(00:25:26):
I need some contact with the author.

(00:25:28):
They jump in the Discord.

(00:25:30):
And then perhaps a subset.

(00:25:33):
And I don't know what your system is.

(00:25:34):
Perhaps a subset of those become beta readers.

(00:25:38):
And your street team is like a...

(00:25:41):
a single-digit number of people, if I recall.

(00:25:44):
I do have double digits.

(00:25:46):
Okay.

(00:25:47):
But it's not a huge number.

(00:25:48):
Yes.

(00:25:49):
You want to be more exclusive because you want to be able to interact with your

(00:25:53):
street team on a personal level,

(00:25:55):
and it's harder to maintain that consistency as it grows and grows.

(00:25:59):
A lot of authors can definitely manage it, especially when they have teams working to support them.

(00:26:05):
um as a newer author like myself i only have me and my pa online right now and we

(00:26:10):
both manage my street tune very well and these people are incredible what they have

(00:26:14):
done for my books has been phenomenal and i really appreciate everything they've

(00:26:19):
done for me especially in facebook and other social media and for my um for my

(00:26:24):
viewers or listeners however you consume this um

(00:26:28):
I don't really aim my podcast as an author's podcast.

(00:26:33):
You know, it's intended to be interesting for anyone.

(00:26:37):
The original concept was to share story narration and world building and things related to that.

(00:26:43):
So...

(00:26:45):
Some listeners will probably be like, whoa, there's like Discord servers for this?

(00:26:51):
Yes, there are.

(00:26:52):
And I have one also.

(00:26:53):
But I don't have a good,

(00:26:55):
healthy ecosystem because I've just...

(00:26:58):
I've been...

(00:27:00):
My life has been upside down.

(00:27:02):
I need to sort it out, so... But... Yeah, so... Why don't...

(00:27:10):
Can you tell us about the,

(00:27:12):
from,

(00:27:13):
from,

(00:27:13):
from readers and authors perspective,

(00:27:15):
like you have a Discord server,

(00:27:16):
what's that about and how does one get in there,

(00:27:20):
et cetera,

(00:27:20):
and through to the street?

(00:27:23):
Sure.

(00:27:23):
So I'll start from the reader's perspective as they happen to find out of Discord.

(00:27:29):
So I do have a Linktree, especially on the book boxes I send out with my books, my website.

(00:27:34):
Everything is very interconnected and makes it as easy as possible for readers or

(00:27:38):
potential readers to see everything on one exact location.

(00:27:41):
I highly recommend Linktree.

(00:27:43):
I am not sponsored by them, but I do use it avidly in a

(00:27:47):
I incredibly appreciate how useful and easy it is.

(00:27:50):
I copycatted.

(00:27:52):
I don't have Linktree.

(00:27:53):
I just set up my own page after that fashion.

(00:27:57):
Oh, absolutely.

(00:27:58):
It's a great model to have.

(00:28:00):
And for any of my readers that happen to open up my Linktree on any of my different

(00:28:04):
social media accounts,

(00:28:05):
websites,

(00:28:06):
books,

(00:28:06):
book links,

(00:28:07):
et cetera,

(00:28:08):
they'll see my whole list of different options that they have to go and join,

(00:28:12):
whether it's my Facebook group,

(00:28:15):
My generic Facebook for readers.

(00:28:18):
Non-exclusive, everybody's welcome.

(00:28:20):
Same with my TikTok, my Instagram, everything.

(00:28:23):
On the right, it's about the middle of my lint tree.

(00:28:27):
I have my option to join the Friday Discord server.

(00:28:29):
And from there, you can click on it.

(00:28:31):
It'll take you into Discord.

(00:28:33):
And I have a welcome page set up for readers.

(00:28:35):
Go ahead, read my rules.

(00:28:36):
what my Discord is about.

(00:28:38):
And if they like it, they can agree to the roles and they're welcomed into my Discord.

(00:28:41):
From there, they're funneled into different options that they can choose from.

(00:28:45):
I have different roles for them.

(00:28:46):
I have different colors.

(00:28:48):
I have a welcome space where we just have general chats.

(00:28:51):
We talk about our dog photos.

(00:28:53):
We'll talk about what we had for dinner.

(00:28:55):
We'll do fun mini games within the Discord.

(00:28:57):
We keep it really alive.

(00:28:59):
And it's a very nice welcome environment for anyone to join.

(00:29:02):
From there,

(00:29:03):
people are always welcome to look at my applications for street team,

(00:29:06):
ARC team,

(00:29:07):
beta reading team,

(00:29:08):
et cetera.

(00:29:09):
Everything's very easy and accessible.

(00:29:11):
So we know we come back to it in time and not considering it's appearing after a

(00:29:15):
couple of days or one every year.

(00:29:17):
I'm going to interrupt you.

(00:29:19):
And this might be off topic or it might be part of the system.

(00:29:23):
But yesterday you mentioned Patreon.

(00:29:26):
What do you use Patreon for and how does that figure into this?

(00:29:29):
So Patreon is my first comment.

(00:29:32):
stop for all my big novels.

(00:29:35):
Whether it's a character artwork being released,

(00:29:38):
free chapters for people to go ahead and read of unpublished works.

(00:29:42):
I do commonly post little mock processes, what might be going on in the next book.

(00:29:48):
So if readers want to get ahead of the game,

(00:29:51):
the type of those peaks,

(00:29:52):
they can go ahead and subscribe to my Patreon and I'll have free chapters of stuff

(00:29:56):
that hasn't been released yet.

(00:29:58):
Never reforeseen with your artwork.

(00:30:01):
And I try to get all my exclusive stuff there first.

(00:30:06):
And some tidbits I will share over to my social media accounts afterwards.

(00:30:10):
But Patreon always comes first.

(00:30:11):
And for those who, once I have to be a member, I always make sure to value them before anything else.

(00:30:17):
So I do give them priority access.

(00:30:19):
I also do intertwine that with Discord.

(00:30:20):
You can link the two.

(00:30:22):
And for anyone who is a Patreon subscriber,

(00:30:24):
they could automatically be given a Patreon role in Discord,

(00:30:26):
which gives them access to a private chat with only Patreon subscribers and myself.

(00:30:31):
So that way they also get priority and one-on-one communication if they would like

(00:30:35):
to talk to that group setting.

(00:30:37):
So apart from that private chat, your Discord server is a community of readers, of fans, and

(00:30:48):
where you don't necessarily interact personally?

(00:30:51):
Or how would you describe it?

(00:30:55):
So Patreon is very social media, like Instagram.

(00:30:58):
You post something,

(00:30:59):
you can get comments and get likes,

(00:31:01):
which is great,

(00:31:02):
but it doesn't make for long-term communication or an actual conversation.

(00:31:06):
So I take that conversational piece and bring it over to Discord,

(00:31:09):
where we can talk as much as we like or as little as we like.

(00:31:12):
We can send long paragraphs, and we'll be limited by characters or anything of the sort.

(00:31:18):
But,

(00:31:18):
um,

(00:31:20):
what about,

(00:31:21):
uh,

(00:31:22):
what is your,

(00:31:24):
what is your level of presence in the discord outside of,

(00:31:27):
uh,

(00:31:29):
the private chat for the patron others?

(00:31:31):
I am very active on Discord.

(00:31:33):
I'm very, very involved.

(00:31:34):
I'm on there every single day, and I make sure to respond to everybody that is.

(00:31:38):
The biggest thing for me is my readers right now,

(00:31:40):
and I value everything that they do and all the time they give me.

(00:31:44):
So if anyone posts anything, I will absolutely respond, no matter what.

(00:31:49):
Then what is the... I'm trying to understand the difference between the...

(00:31:54):
Like the Discord server at large and the one Patreon channel.

(00:32:01):
So what's the distinction?

(00:32:04):
So with my Discord general chat for everyone that has access, that one can also just be reused.

(00:32:09):
I'm sorry, these questions are so that I'm... Absolutely.

(00:32:12):
I have Discord.

(00:32:13):
Again, it's not very healthy and so...

(00:32:17):
No, I'm more than happy to help.

(00:32:19):
Even off podcast, I'm always here.

(00:32:21):
I'm happy to share what I have.

(00:32:24):
My general chat has readers also just talking to each other.

(00:32:27):
So I'm not always involved in those conversations.

(00:32:30):
And I sometimes, of course, I'm writing during the day or I don't have priority.

(00:32:35):
Like that is not my priority to monitor chat every single second or second day.

(00:32:39):
However, I do get notifications for my Patreon chat.

(00:32:42):
So if someone does post over there,

(00:32:44):
I will pause what I am doing to go over there and check to see what they have said

(00:32:48):
and responded for anything.

(00:32:49):
So for Patreon subscribers, they get priority in my Discord server.

(00:32:53):
And I will be sure to, like, interact with them from my general chat.

(00:32:56):
It may just take some time for me to get back to that.

(00:32:59):
Okay.

(00:33:00):
Because I have, with my Discord server, it was... I guess I had...

(00:33:07):
thought the whole ecosystem through yet,

(00:33:09):
but I offered that as a reward on the Kickstarter for my first book.

(00:33:15):
Oh, wow.

(00:33:17):
And I had intended to set up some kind of subscription,

(00:33:23):
whether it be Patreon or Ko-fi or Ream or whatever,

(00:33:28):
and then give those users access to the Discord server.

(00:33:31):
But I'm finding myself with too small a community.

(00:33:39):
And so I think perhaps I'll take this population that has this exclusive access and

(00:33:47):
make it that private channel within the Discord server and then open it up

(00:33:53):
otherwise for...

(00:33:56):
I absolutely would.

(00:33:57):
It's such a great way to have organic growth and that connection with your readers

(00:34:01):
that you otherwise wouldn't be able to get through just in their social media like

(00:34:04):
Instagram or Facebook.

(00:34:06):
It can be harder to be able to speak with them than you.

(00:34:09):
I feel like Discord is absolutely wonderful for indie authors,

(00:34:13):
especially those like us starting off or newer into our past than those that have

(00:34:17):
published 100 plus books.

(00:34:19):
And I know as time goes, grow, our audiences will grow and we're going to grow along with it.

(00:34:25):
And that's when you can really get your Discord set up in ways where you can start

(00:34:30):
having separate channels and make some private and make those exclusive to

(00:34:34):
different types of members in your community.

(00:34:37):
And the first thing to focus on is building up the amount of people in your Discord

(00:34:42):
so that we can get more organic interaction between just readers without you having

(00:34:47):
to start a conversation.

(00:34:49):
Sorry.

(00:34:50):
I do highly recommend there's bots that you can include within your Discord.

(00:34:54):
I have one that's like the question of the day bot and you can pre-program the

(00:34:57):
questions asked and you can make that a fun game like every single day.

(00:35:01):
Hey, today's question is, what was your favorite read last month?

(00:35:05):
And that starts...

(00:35:06):
whole entire page of just organic conversation.

(00:35:10):
And it helps readers connect with each other and with you because you might have

(00:35:14):
read the same book or you can start getting book recommendations.

(00:35:17):
And it's just a pretty nice, healthy way to be able to talk with everybody.

(00:35:20):
Cool.

(00:35:21):
Yeah.

(00:35:21):
I did not expect to be talking this much about disc births.

(00:35:25):
Me either.

(00:35:26):
And so then with Patreon,

(00:35:30):
You might have already stated, sorry if I missed it.

(00:35:33):
What else do you do as Patreon aside from Discord Access?

(00:35:37):
Right now, I just, like I said, I just post everything that comes out first there.

(00:35:41):
And I just focus on doing that.

(00:35:44):
And then I give all my other very divided attention to everything else afterwards.

(00:35:48):
But for now, I'm a relatively small author.

(00:35:50):
I am brand new.

(00:35:52):
And for now, I don't have any concrete...

(00:35:56):
paths to really expand on that.

(00:35:57):
I'm waiting to get my audience belt first and make sure that those that are already

(00:36:02):
following me feel very worse.

(00:36:04):
And I can keep my pondus going with it as well.

(00:36:06):
In the future,

(00:36:07):
I'll definitely say I'm going to be a lot more pageant,

(00:36:09):
but for now,

(00:36:10):
that's where I'm going.

(00:36:13):
Cool.

(00:36:19):
I think we talked about all these things.

(00:36:24):
We should talk about Lothar Nation.

(00:36:26):
Absolutely.

(00:36:27):
I'm so excited and thrilled for the opportunity to be here.

(00:36:30):
Yeah.

(00:36:30):
So for anybody who hasn't heard me talk about it,

(00:36:33):
because I've been super busy and haven't published many episodes of the podcast recently.

(00:36:40):
The previous episode was according to YouTube one month ago,

(00:36:45):
but that could be three weeks or it could be six weeks.

(00:36:47):
I don't know.

(00:36:50):
And then before that,

(00:36:50):
it was a couple of months,

(00:36:52):
but that's because I was,

(00:36:54):
I was head in the sand,

(00:36:56):
not in the sand,

(00:36:57):
but I was underwater trying to get this book finished and published.

(00:37:01):
It's a mountain to call in for sure.

(00:37:04):
So yeah, Author Nation is a conference for independent authors.

(00:37:09):
And it was previously... It takes the place of 20 Books Vegas, which was the conference.

(00:37:17):
It takes the same week in the year, the same venue, and mostly the same people.

(00:37:23):
But the management chiefs and the 20 Books brand...

(00:37:28):
went with that so author nation is is the conference now and we're here attending

(00:37:33):
sessions and learning about um you know there are sessions i remember last year

(00:37:40):
there was one called make your book unput downable yeah so it's that's the writing

(00:37:44):
craft um and then there are sessions about how to

(00:37:50):
how to handle your finances.

(00:37:53):
What should we call it?

(00:37:56):
Accountants.

(00:37:57):
Yes.

(00:37:58):
Here and ready to, which they're looking for customers.

(00:38:03):
And there are people here who need that service.

(00:38:07):
So the whole gamut of independent publishing is great.

(00:38:13):
Then Friday will be a different thing.

(00:38:16):
It will be RAVE, which stands for Reader, Author, Vegas event, or Reader and Author Vegas event.

(00:38:23):
It's a big book fair.

(00:38:24):
So I don't know if I'll get this published.

(00:38:28):
I usually publish on Thursdays.

(00:38:32):
Let's see if I can get this pushed out.

(00:38:34):
It shouldn't take too much editing.

(00:38:39):
So we'll see.

(00:38:41):
So you may be hearing this after the fact,

(00:38:44):
but if you hear this before the fact and you're in Vegas or within range of Vegas,

(00:38:49):
come to Horshu Hotel and on Friday,

(00:38:56):
the event starts at 10 a.m.

(00:38:59):
and it's a big book fair and you'll be able to get

(00:39:03):
blood and betrayal.

(00:39:06):
Do you have other books yet?

(00:39:09):
Yes, I do.

(00:39:10):
That's book one in my latest series, Legacy of the Dragon.

(00:39:13):
And then I do have another book, Shield of Ruinal, currently.

(00:39:16):
That's a different series called The Ruined Destiny.

(00:39:20):
What do you see as your, this is off the top of rave, but what do you see as your publishing pace?

(00:39:27):
How often, so you already had some manuscripts already.

(00:39:33):
What's your production pace going to be?

(00:39:36):
Well, that's what I spent most of this year exploring.

(00:39:38):
And I think I've really found a sustainable rhythm for the coming years.

(00:39:42):
And I hope to put out at least three books a year in the next couple of years.

(00:39:45):
I have free on track for next year.

(00:39:47):
I'll have my first box set out as well, which I'm very excited and thrilled about.

(00:39:51):
And hopefully it could start as well with the house crust.

(00:39:53):
So we'll see how the coming year goes.

(00:39:55):
And that's one thing I've really appreciated both from 20 Books and Authorization

(00:39:59):
is that these kind of conferences can really help us discover what we are like in

(00:40:03):
our author journey and what to predict and where to go next.

(00:40:07):
Okay.

(00:40:08):
I think that probably kind of wraps things up,

(00:40:11):
except I want to do show and tell from Michael and stuff really quick.

(00:40:15):
So if you're going to be here, I have my two books.

(00:40:18):
I only have the two titles so far.

(00:40:20):
They're going to be available hardcover, paperback, and e-book.

(00:40:26):
And I'm also trying different merchandise.

(00:40:31):
These, I have bookmarks, they didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped.

(00:40:36):
So I don't know if I'm gonna, I don't know.

(00:40:41):
I don't have a set price for them yet.

(00:40:45):
But

(00:40:46):
I think the characters are quite obvious.

(00:40:49):
But these, yeah, I just like I set eyes on them for the first time this morning.

(00:40:56):
I ordered them before I left Virginia and had them delivered to the house of an

(00:41:02):
author who lives here in Vegas area.

(00:41:04):
And he handed them to me, handed them to me this morning.

(00:41:09):
So I am excited to have them.

(00:41:13):
I wonder if I should have gotten them gloss instead of matte.

(00:41:16):
I'm also doing some 3D printing.

(00:41:19):
And I haven't placed a price on these yet, but I downloaded...

(00:41:25):
a unicorn model online, and I paid a few dollars for it.

(00:41:31):
I made sure to buy one that gave me commercial license.

(00:41:35):
And then I changed,

(00:41:36):
well,

(00:41:37):
I've printed some with the classical spiral corkscrew horn,

(00:41:43):
but the Nightshade unicorn is described as having a blade-like horn,

(00:41:46):
and it's depicted as such on the book covers.

(00:41:52):
But I am not a 3D artist very much.

(00:41:56):
And so I did a very simple blade-like form for that.

(00:42:02):
And then I started printing a bunch of these.

(00:42:08):
So we have,

(00:42:10):
basically,

(00:42:11):
if you've read the book,

(00:42:13):
you probably haven't read book two yet,

(00:42:14):
but there's Hranimon and the Nightshade Uticord right there.

(00:42:19):
I love the contrast.

(00:42:20):
It came out very well.

(00:42:22):
Yeah.

(00:42:22):
And I've experimented.

(00:42:24):
So like if you're here on Friday,

(00:42:26):
you're going to see with different colors of bases from bronze to red and green.

(00:42:36):
That's awesome.

(00:42:37):
A little bit of experimentation.

(00:42:39):
But then I thought, you know, I really should have...

(00:42:42):
unicorn horns.

(00:42:43):
Oh, absolutely.

(00:42:44):
Just a uniform horn to have and play with or sell on your shelf as a display item.

(00:42:50):
So I fought with Blender.

(00:42:54):
This is my first Blender model right here.

(00:42:57):
Cool.

(00:42:58):
And that's a unicorn horn printed in bone-colored filament.

(00:43:04):
That turned out really well.

(00:43:06):
Yeah.

(00:43:06):
And then I

(00:43:08):
I felt like it needed something at the bottom rather than just being plain and flat.

(00:43:12):
So I kind of made a little cap for it with the Nightshade Unicorn logo design on there.

(00:43:21):
But I know not everybody necessarily wants to be like canon accurate.

(00:43:29):
So I've been printing in different colors as well.

(00:43:32):
Which is really fun.

(00:43:34):
And then in Tinkercad, another tool, which is very basic and not as capable, but easier to use.

(00:43:42):
Um, not as capable as Blender.

(00:43:43):
In Tinkercad, I made a nightshade unicorn form and it was fun to make.

(00:43:50):
I think it's fun to have.

(00:43:53):
And they're, they're both hollow inside.

(00:43:56):
And again, I,

(00:43:58):
have played with different colors.

(00:44:02):
Good.

(00:44:02):
You have to collect them all.

(00:44:03):
They're awesome collections.

(00:44:05):
Absolutely.

(00:44:06):
Thanks.

(00:44:08):
I have not set prices on them yet.

(00:44:10):
I'm still researching that.

(00:44:12):
What would be appropriate based on the time that I put into them,

(00:44:16):
the material of the filament and the,

(00:44:18):
you know,

(00:44:19):
what else could I do with the printer?

(00:44:21):
And it's being monopolized by one print at a time.

(00:44:24):
So

(00:44:25):
Anyway, I think that's a wrap.

(00:44:28):
Sorry to be probably boring at the end.

(00:44:30):
Oh, not at all.

(00:44:31):
To be the one monologuing, but yeah.

(00:44:35):
Well, thank you so much for having me on your podcast.

(00:44:37):
It's been an honor to privilege.

(00:44:38):
Oh, where can readers find your books?

(00:44:41):
If they're not here on Friday, where should they go?

(00:44:44):
www.shblodget.com.

(00:44:47):
I have my website and they're everything I have direct on, especially through my literature.

(00:44:52):
Okay,

(00:44:52):
so they can,

(00:44:53):
like,

(00:44:53):
if somebody prefers to buy it from Amazon or from Apple,

(00:44:56):
they can find the links there?

(00:44:58):
Absolutely.

(00:44:58):
I have my books wide.

(00:44:59):
So Amazon, Barnes & Noble, pretty much every major rate home, you can find it online.

(00:45:04):
And I also do my direct book box list through my website.

(00:45:08):
Cool.

(00:45:08):
All right.

(00:45:09):
Thank you.

(00:45:10):
And we'll catch you next time on the Grand Hill Chronicles podcast.