1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,599 Hello on good morning everybody. Good. How are you doing today? I'm 2 00:00:04,599 --> 00:00:07,639 doing good. How are you? Absolutely fantastic? Janis Man. I love 3 00:00:07,679 --> 00:00:13,039 your accent. Oh I still have it. Huh. I'm the back to 4 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:17,480 Boston for about thirty years. Thirty years. Oh, you never lose that. 5 00:00:17,519 --> 00:00:19,519 I mean it was Mark Twain that used to say all the time, 6 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:23,359 you don't ever lose your accent because that is your personality and that is everything. 7 00:00:23,559 --> 00:00:31,920 You are everything. Huh. Yeah, that's a lot, so is 8 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:35,359 your book. How is it that you can have so much of a real 9 00:00:35,439 --> 00:00:40,039 world inside this book? I mean, I mean you really don't hold back 10 00:00:40,079 --> 00:00:43,479 when it comes to, you know, the struggles of racism and women's rights 11 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:47,280 and things. I mean, you you deal with real stuff. Yeah. 12 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:51,320 I feel like that's why I wrote it. I didn't really want to write 13 00:00:51,359 --> 00:00:55,520 a book and not say anything. But see, I like that because that's 14 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:58,560 the big thing right now, is that they want the authors and the poets 15 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:00,840 and the musicians to start seen some things and if it doesn't show up in 16 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,920 print, then nobody else will talk about it. Yeah. Really so. 17 00:01:06,079 --> 00:01:08,599 But the other thing about it is it's not preachy. It's just telling a 18 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:14,400 story and through the story you get the lessons. The name of the book 19 00:01:14,439 --> 00:01:19,000 that we're talking about is Looking Up Invasion. What led you to this title 20 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:19,640 for the book, because, I mean, you know how people are. 21 00:01:19,719 --> 00:01:23,319 They like to judge a book by its cover. But I believe that title 22 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:27,280 is the selling point. Yeah, it's it's a combination of things. Looking 23 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:33,239 Up refers to the name of the farm where the aliens land, but it's 24 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:41,840 also a philosophy. The farmer family came from modest means, they were poor 25 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:46,120 in the depression, and they got plucked out of the sea of migrant farm 26 00:01:46,159 --> 00:01:53,359 workers in California. They came from Oklahoma during the depression, and a guy, 27 00:01:53,519 --> 00:01:56,079 a rich guy, rescued him and put him on the farm and ended 28 00:01:56,159 --> 00:02:01,079 up giving him the farm. And they developed a toy called the Looking Up 29 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:05,599 way. And the other side of it is that some of the family members 30 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:10,639 have a facial deformity where their left eye is misaligned and it points up into 31 00:02:10,719 --> 00:02:16,360 the left, so that gave them the looking up idea. The looking up 32 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:21,319 means you get your head out of wherever you like to tucket and look around. 33 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,199 You look at the people around you and consider them. How are they 34 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:29,000 doing? How are they feeling. So it's about it's about empathy there, 35 00:02:29,039 --> 00:02:34,120 and the invasion is unintentional. The aliens didn't mean to come. They didn't 36 00:02:34,159 --> 00:02:39,680 come into spaceship with superior weapons. They showed up poor and unexpected and and 37 00:02:39,719 --> 00:02:44,159 they have nothing in terms of weapons or anything, and they don't intend to 38 00:02:44,199 --> 00:02:50,280 take over. But by the end you're wondering with the cultural changes that they 39 00:02:50,319 --> 00:02:57,759 go through, just who is invading who? Yeah? Right, But see, 40 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,159 that's that's what's great about the way that you write books is the fact 41 00:03:00,159 --> 00:03:02,120 that you give us that little cliffhanger kind of of an age that makes you 42 00:03:02,159 --> 00:03:06,879 wonder, Okay, what would happen if this were happening right now, and 43 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:13,039 how would I react to it? Yeah, exactly. It's in contemporary California, 44 00:03:13,199 --> 00:03:15,919 and it's a real family, and how do they react to a green 45 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:23,800 skinned family that just shows up on their farm unexpectedly from a completely unknown world, 46 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:29,439 And seeing as they're desperate for help, they hire them and keep them 47 00:03:29,479 --> 00:03:34,520 hidden and they get to know each other. And it's amazing what the cultural 48 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:38,960 differences are. But it's kind of difficult to empathize when you have no idea 49 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:44,280 where somebody's coming from. But they listen and pay attention and manage to do 50 00:03:44,319 --> 00:03:51,000 it anyway. And it's a lesson in how different our perspectives can be and 51 00:03:51,039 --> 00:03:54,319 how somebody might seem like they're totally crazy to you, but if you take 52 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:59,599 the time to understand where they're coming from and what their background is, what 53 00:03:59,599 --> 00:04:02,680 they're saying, it might make total sense to them. Yeah, it almost 54 00:04:02,719 --> 00:04:05,080 goes along with the things that we learned as kids. Walk a mile in 55 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:11,639 my shoes and then let's have a conversation exactly. That's the theme basically. 56 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:15,599 Yeah, when you create a world, and especially a new world like this, 57 00:04:15,199 --> 00:04:19,360 as the author, how do you find yourself believing in it so that 58 00:04:19,399 --> 00:04:25,439 we as the reader believe in it as well? Well? You have to 59 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:30,040 completely immerse yourself in it for a time. I spent many days without writing 60 00:04:30,079 --> 00:04:34,720 where I really thought this through about how this world was. And you have 61 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:40,879 to consider every detail like what do they eat, where they get their food, 62 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:47,560 what is their social structure, what's their infrastructure, what resources do they 63 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:53,240 have and not have, and what's their technology level. You have to consider 64 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:58,680 all the aspects of the society to make it whole. And then once you 65 00:04:58,759 --> 00:05:00,600 do, you've got to work world and you can work in that world and 66 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:06,000 it kind of works itself after you've got the parameters set up the part of 67 00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:10,600 the book in the world, and in my second book, when I spend 68 00:05:10,639 --> 00:05:15,839 more time in this alien world, it's very freeing. You don't have to 69 00:05:15,879 --> 00:05:19,680 tie yourself to anything going on on Earth. You just can immerse yourself in 70 00:05:19,759 --> 00:05:25,319 that world and write pretty much whatever you want as long as it's consistent. 71 00:05:25,959 --> 00:05:29,519 Well, I love the way that you that you introduce these characters from from 72 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:31,000 a different place, because you know, we always think that it's going to 73 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:34,519 come in with you know, fighting spaceships and you know they're coming in to 74 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:39,120 take over the planet, and in reality that you've got a book here about 75 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:42,519 relationship. And I think this would be my new vision of this is how 76 00:05:42,519 --> 00:05:45,759 I would like to meet an alien and one on one place, maybe at 77 00:05:45,759 --> 00:05:48,560 a nature preserve park. It's like, whoa you? You don't look like 78 00:05:48,639 --> 00:05:55,439 me? Who are you? Yeah, that's pretty much how it comes up. 79 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:59,360 But they show up at your door. But that's the way I would 80 00:05:59,439 --> 00:06:00,879 want it. That's exactly the way that I would want to do that though, 81 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:04,800 because you really give you know, you give us that opportunity to say 82 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:10,279 I've never had this ever explained to me this way. This is a new 83 00:06:10,319 --> 00:06:15,920 way to look at it exactly. It's all about perspective. Yeah, is 84 00:06:15,959 --> 00:06:16,959 it? Is it wrong to think though that, you know, because you 85 00:06:16,959 --> 00:06:19,120 know a lot of people say, oh, this is a science fiction book. 86 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:21,519 But but to me, the realm of the reality is is that you 87 00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:25,439 know, I understand that it's sci fi, but you make it real. 88 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:30,959 Yeah, it's hard to genrefy this. I you know, I struggle with 89 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:34,160 the genre in sci fi because of the portal, and there's other aspects that 90 00:06:34,199 --> 00:06:38,800 they come through, and there's other aspects that are sci fi and science. 91 00:06:39,759 --> 00:06:45,879 It's also fantasy, but it's also I would almost dare say it's literary because 92 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,920 the themes are what really dominate the book. This is the kind of thing 93 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:53,959 where you know, young adult readers read a book like this and all of 94 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:56,319 a sudden they're gonna start talking about it, and then they're gonna then they're 95 00:06:56,319 --> 00:06:58,959 gonna fit into that world, you know how they like to do that. 96 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:02,720 They're very faithful to the authors. Yeah, they could be really you know, 97 00:07:04,279 --> 00:07:09,480 yeah, into this world. And yeah, I'd like to see a 98 00:07:09,519 --> 00:07:14,439 series or a movie, but I haven't really got the wherewithal It would be 99 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:16,240 great. I think it would catch on big. Oh my god, there's 100 00:07:16,399 --> 00:07:20,519 enough YA readers out there that know how to do TikTok and know how to 101 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:24,040 do videos and things like that. I wouldn't be shocked if they don't make 102 00:07:24,079 --> 00:07:26,519 up their own videos and all of a sudden it starts ending up in your 103 00:07:26,519 --> 00:07:30,279 emails. That'd be fun. Yeah, would Yeah, that'd be great. 104 00:07:30,839 --> 00:07:35,600 They do that for me when your characters aren't perfect, because so many times 105 00:07:35,639 --> 00:07:40,079 authors like to have the perfect family, the perfectness, or if they're not 106 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:43,199 perfect, it has to be the tragic. And so that's what I love 107 00:07:43,199 --> 00:07:46,480 about this is the fact that your characters aren't perfect, and I think that's 108 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:50,759 very relatable. Yeah. I tried to get very into their heads, and 109 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:56,519 I kind of I like to rip the top of their heads off and report 110 00:07:56,560 --> 00:08:00,720 what they're really thinking. Yeah, and it's not all it's perfect, and 111 00:08:00,759 --> 00:08:03,519 it's a lot of things that they wouldn't say out loud, and a lot 112 00:08:03,519 --> 00:08:07,959 of things that maybe they wouldn't even admit to themselves. But it gives them 113 00:08:07,959 --> 00:08:13,480 a lot more depth developing the characters. I usually put pictures or I envision 114 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:16,000 people who would be playing this if it were on television or in a movie. 115 00:08:16,079 --> 00:08:24,040 How did you develop these characters well? Picturing them it's hard to say. 116 00:08:24,079 --> 00:08:33,519 I got well, I picture Valco as being Jason Manoah for starters, 117 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:39,960 but it's it's just kind of they come to me in my head and their 118 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,480 whole characters. And the thing about them is I know them so well that 119 00:08:43,919 --> 00:08:50,600 I can just drop them into a scene and a situation and they just take 120 00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:52,840 over and run with it and do what they do, and I just type 121 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:58,600 as fast as I can, well, they're doing it because they're so well 122 00:08:58,639 --> 00:09:03,559 developed that I kind of guess subconsciously I know what they're going to do, 123 00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:07,759 or I sometimes they surprise me though, that's the one part, and the 124 00:09:07,879 --> 00:09:11,039 character just does something that you didn't expect, and it usually works out really 125 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:15,039 really good with the rest of the books. Yeah, but usually when something 126 00:09:15,039 --> 00:09:16,399 like that happens, you have to go back a couple of pages and kind 127 00:09:16,399 --> 00:09:20,360 of set up the scene there because your continuity has got to be spot on. 128 00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:26,399 Yeah yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. There's lots of revisions catching 129 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:31,799 all those things. But I've found that my memory is really good. I 130 00:09:31,799 --> 00:09:35,559 can remember everything about the character I don't really have to write them down and 131 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:39,480 stuff. Like some people have a file where they write notes about all their 132 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:46,240 characters, and I'm finding that I remember everything about them as if I know 133 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:48,919 them from one writer to another writer. What is your writing time? What 134 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:54,759 is your energy space? You mean at length of time to complete or daily 135 00:09:56,240 --> 00:10:00,240 on a daily basis, because mine, I'm a morning writer. Yeah, 136 00:10:00,279 --> 00:10:03,279 I'm a morning writer. Yeah, definitely a morning writer. Yeah. That's 137 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:05,000 that's when things are nice and clean and let's let's get on with this thing. 138 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:09,000 That's make it happen. Yeah, And sometimes I'm a panther and right 139 00:10:09,039 --> 00:10:13,399 now I'm kind of more like a plotter. But I started out as a 140 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:18,320 panther. And and I got on a tear one time while I was writing, 141 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:22,559 well I had it was the second draft of this first book. But 142 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:28,279 on the alien side, I went on a tear one time for like a 143 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,919 month, and I just started writing the whole alien side of the story. 144 00:10:31,159 --> 00:10:37,440 Wow, and got into that world completely. And uh, I wrote all 145 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:43,279 the way up into book four on the alien side. But the Earth side, 146 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,279 like I say, is a little harder to do because I tied to 147 00:10:46,519 --> 00:10:52,639 uh actual events, So that's more of a plot plotting, pre you know, 148 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:58,679 outlining kind of ideal because I'm trying to coordinate with the real world on 149 00:10:58,759 --> 00:11:01,639 the Earth. Speaking of that real world, how long does it take you 150 00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:05,039 to come back to the real world when you when you put yourself in a 151 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:07,399 position like this, Because I mean, even as an on air talent and 152 00:11:07,519 --> 00:11:11,960 radio if I'm doing a show for a different city, my mind believes I'm 153 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:13,840 in that city and it takes me a while to find out that I'm here 154 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:18,840 in Carolina. Well that's really good. So you put yourself in somebody else's 155 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:22,399 shoes kind of that way. That's exactly that. Maybe that's the reason why 156 00:11:22,399 --> 00:11:26,639 I can relate with these aliens. Yeah, it's kind of like when I 157 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:31,879 went to Disneyland and I came out of Disneyland and LA looked like a fake 158 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:39,200 world and Disneyland seemed like it was a real world. Hey, we've got 159 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:41,639 something in common. I love for stuffed animals. I still have my stuffed 160 00:11:41,639 --> 00:11:46,440 animals from when I was a kid. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh 161 00:11:46,559 --> 00:11:50,600 yeah. Oh. I ended up having a losing when I lost my parents 162 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:58,679 and then moved and everything, but I still have a dinosaurs. Dinosaurs. 163 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:01,399 See, now, that would be a great book Aliens Meeting Dinosaurs. I 164 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:05,440 haven't read a book like that. Oh, there you go. Now, 165 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:07,919 what genre are you going to put that in? Right? See, that's 166 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:13,159 the business side of writing you're talking about now, yeah, historical fiction. 167 00:12:16,279 --> 00:12:18,240 Well where can people go to find out more about your writing? Because I 168 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:22,039 mean you you let me in on a little insight there that you're already working 169 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:24,960 on the the you know, your four books into the alien story. So 170 00:12:24,039 --> 00:12:26,759 now I know that people need to follow you and give you a lot of 171 00:12:26,799 --> 00:12:33,480 love. Yeah, they can look me up on looking Up, look and 172 00:12:33,799 --> 00:12:39,039 up dot us us. I love it. I love it. That's my 173 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:43,240 website. Well you've got to come back to this show anytime in the future 174 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:46,480 because the door is always going to be open for you. Okay. Well, 175 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:48,720 I have your phone number, and when I get my other book, 176 00:12:48,799 --> 00:12:54,399 I'm hoping to get it done by summer maybe sooner. Well then I expected 177 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,799 to have a conversation with you in about five months. Then. Oh that'd 178 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:03,080 be great. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope other people enjoy 179 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:07,279 it. Oh, I know they will, They absolutely will. Yeah, 180 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:11,360 I think so. I had sure fun writing it. Well, it shows 181 00:13:11,679 --> 00:13:15,919 having fun writing the second one, although it is a little bit more difficult 182 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:22,279 because it's contemporary and I'm getting up into two thousand, like year two thousand 183 00:13:24,399 --> 00:13:26,919 and tying it to actual events. So things are getting a little hairy. 184 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:31,440 Now, Okay, let's talk about that just for a second here, because 185 00:13:31,159 --> 00:13:35,360 that's what happened to my first book, because it's called Halloween seventy eight, 186 00:13:35,559 --> 00:13:37,840 and when it started catching up to the real world as an author, I 187 00:13:37,919 --> 00:13:43,200 was going, I don't know, I don't I like writing about things in 188 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:46,159 the past and living in that moment. So what is it like for you 189 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:50,360 to be able to I mean, you're stepping up here into the two thousands, 190 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:52,600 like you said, Yeah, I meant to act at twenty twenty at 191 00:13:52,639 --> 00:13:58,000 the end of this book see this new book. But well, one thing, 192 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:03,279 the COVID epidemic sure hit me because I had the first book ending in 193 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:07,759 twenty twenty and there's a scene at the fairgrounds which is kind of critical, 194 00:14:07,559 --> 00:14:13,559 and I realized if out March of twenty twenty that that wasn't going to happen, 195 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:16,159 it wasn't going to be a county fair in twenty twenty in the fall, 196 00:14:16,559 --> 00:14:22,480 So I ended up backing up the whole series by three years. So 197 00:14:22,559 --> 00:14:28,279 I made the first book twenty fourteen to twenty seventeen instead at twenty twenty. 198 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:33,120 So I had to I learned right then that don't write contemporary like that. 199 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:37,919 Have a couple of years. The whole world didn't know what was going to 200 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:41,039 happen then, So true, all you had to say was March of twenty 201 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,639 twenty, and I knew exactly what I was doing at that time. Everything 202 00:14:43,679 --> 00:14:48,080 that we were scheduled to do done, It was over with, and so 203 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:52,080 I'll never forget that period of time. Yeah. Yeah, it should have 204 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:54,320 devastated everything. That's like, nobody in the world knew what was going to 205 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:58,679 happen next, So how could I write that? So I had to give 206 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:01,960 myself a little distance, moved everything back, and there's a lot of eclipses 207 00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:07,080 in there because my aliens are definitely afraid of eclipses because of their religion. 208 00:15:07,799 --> 00:15:11,519 I had all the eclipses tied to real time. Oh wow, And I 209 00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:15,840 had to back those all out and change some of the schedule of the book 210 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:20,840 to meet the eclipses that occurred in twenty fourteen to twenty seventeen instead of the 211 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:26,399 ones from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty and it actually kind of worked out better. 212 00:15:28,919 --> 00:15:31,960 Wow. Wow, it was a lot of work. Wow. Well, 213 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:35,799 please come back to the show in the future and have yourself a beautiful 214 00:15:35,879 --> 00:15:39,919 day today. I love your story. Well, thank you so much and 215 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,440 thanks for having me. You bet you'd be brilliant.