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How are you doing today, sir, and we'll go to absolutely here you

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here, yeah, here you go
again. It's it's time to talk about

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Zeus the Mighty. Well, I'm
excited. One of the things that you've

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always done, and I've loved this
because my wife is a school teacher,

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is that you have made a connection
with students and you give them reason to

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have hope for tomorrow. We know
that this is a seven book series,

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so therefore you you're giving them something
to look forward to. Oh gosh,

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thanks, yeah, I hope.
So you have done. This is the

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fifth book that's out now, and
they come out once a year, and

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I've had, you know, young
readers tell me they read in the day

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so they can read it and then
they just have to wait three hundred and

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sixty four days till the next book
comes out. But you know, Chrispin,

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it doesn't feel like a year.
It really doesn't feel like a year.

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No, I know, I know, And yeah, I write when

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I write these books. I've finished
this book about a year ago, so

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it's always like I've got to sit
down and catch up with where I left

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off with the characters because I'm always
working on the next book. But That's

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the fun thing about these characters too, is they're just always They're always moving.

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They're always in motion, these pet
pet rescue characters who believe they're Greek

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gods, and even whenever they're one
adventure ends, they immediately go right into

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the next adventure. And you don't
even need to read these books in order,

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really did. You can kind of
pick up whichever one has a cover

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that's the most appealing for a young
reader, and they can read it and

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get familiar with the characters right away
and getting used to the world right away,

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and then if they like it,
they could pick up previous books in

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the series. Yeah, where did
you get the idea to come up with

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a tentacle soothsayer? I mean,
it's it's a cool way to just kind

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of bring something into the story.
But but I mean, as an adult,

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I'm still going, oh my god, it's an octopus. Oh my

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god. Well, that's the big
challenge with this because it does take place

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in a pet rescue center that's the
real world, but these animals bull believe

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they're in ancient Greece. So I
needed the villain in this installment to be

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a character from the mythologic Proteus,
who is a shape shifter in mythology,

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can change into any other form,
And the only way to get the Southsayer

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to tell the future is to capture
Proteus when he's sleeping. So I just

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think, Okay, what kind of
animal might be at a pet rescue center?

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They can shape shift, and you
know, having a national geographic connection.

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I've written a lot about wildlife and
history and animals too. I know

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that there's an animal called a mimic
octopus that can change in nature. It

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can change its shape and its texture
and its color and turn into so it

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makes itself look like a starfish or
a lion fish or various other fish.

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So I said, this is a
perfect candidate to be the villain in this

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book. Will make Proteus a mimic
octopus, and it can be an animal

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that's on loan to the pet rescue
center. So once I get all of

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that, my head wrapped around all
of that, then I can just write

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the story and base it off Greek
mythology. Part of that story the illustrations.

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I love the way that you evenly
balance out the illustrations inside this book.

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Oh thanks, Yeah, that's a
big part of it. You know,

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just writing the book is only a
small task. Then I collaborate with

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the the artist. There's really great
it bringing this world to life because some

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of these concepts are kind of hard
to explain, and so his illustrations make

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it kind of take away some of
the heavy listing to have to explain,

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Oh, they're fighting a hydra monster
that in real life is actually a toilet

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that's stuck on flush. So the
artists can go in and kind of combine

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the two ideas, and you know, and there's also more appealing to young

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readers because in that way, it's
almost like a graphic novel. As they

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took the pages, they could see
these characters, and it's not quite a

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comic book, but it's certainly a
fast read. It feels like it's sometimes

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you use the earthquake in a way
because I mean, especially today, there's

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a lot of earthquakes today. Kids
know that story. Now you've put it

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into a story. Now they can
see how there's a lot to be discovered.

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Yeah, I mean, once again, it comes down to how can

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I shake things up at the pet
rescue Center? And honestly, an earthquake

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is the easiest, the easiest way
to do it the kind of it does

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it changes the world that expands their
ocean. That the agency which is in

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the pet center is actually the aquarium
Um and this an installment actually, so

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Zeus gets to spend most of it
exploring under water, and he does that

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by walking around inside of a little
hamster ball. That's because it's attached to

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an air supply like a little dive
helmet. And you know, it maybe

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bends the laws of physics a little
bit. But we're talking about the hamsters

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and cats and dogs that talk to
each other and going Greek. We live

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Greekness every night, So I think
it's it's forgivable. Now when you when

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you write about animals like that,
do you find yourself in real life when

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you're walking in on the streets that
you're talking to animals, Because I do.

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I love talking to animals all the
time. Well, I actually live

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on a farm. And one of
the animals in my book series, Hermes,

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is a hen, is based on
one of our one of our hens.

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The artists based her look on the
hen, and so yeah, I'm

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always and I call Hermes is what
is my favorite hand? I call her

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my minion. We have like I
don't know at this point over thirty chickens,

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but she's my favorite. And you
know we've got Unfortunately, the other

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animals we have, we got donkeys
and towels and sheep. They don't quite

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work in a head center environment.
So I don't think they'll be starring in

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the series. But I trust me, i'd just like you. I talked

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to the animals all the time.
Oh, and chickens were my thing when

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I was a kid. What we
would do is before we go out and

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feed the cattle, we grab we
go in and grab a hand and then

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we would take the hand with us
to put up on the haystack because they

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would all if there was a snake
or if there was a rat or a

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mouse up there, they would get
that before we would be startled by them.

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That's awesome. That's a great idea. Yeah, they That's one of

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the things I love about them is
they will eat the scary insects and the

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stinging insects and the rats and all
that are scared them away. Yep.

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And before when I actually not too
much with a sideboy. When I lived

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in Mexico, we had chickens and
I would put a chicken on my shoulder

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and they would eat all the mosquitoes
and feeries. They're kind of like mosquito

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force field. Yeah, I mean, I mean, and even in this

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forest that I live here, we've
got chickens and someone someone's got a rooster,

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so it's fun to be walking through
the forest and you hear that rooster

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making it sounds. I mean,
there's such a story with chickens, and

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I just and I just love the
fact that you love chickens as well.

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Oh yeah, and that's I had
to put one into the series. You

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know. It's Backyard Chicken is such
Backyard Chicken such a push and phenomenon right

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now, so many people in the
chicken, especially when the prices of eggs

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went out. Yeah, that I
think a lot of people now can relate

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to seeing a hen in a pet
rescue center because why not, there's just

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like having any other bird, and
this one might make you breakfast. Are

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you going to turn this into a
podcast series in the way where you can

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do episodes that are thirty five forty
minutes long so you can have many episodes,

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or are you going to do something
because I mean, it's it's like,

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I love the fact that this is
book number five, but it's like,

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Okay, now I want to see
it in action. Well gosh,

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yeah, you know, Disney bought
National Geographic a while ago and they have

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their own TV channel, so I'm
always hoping that they might turn it into

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like a Disney Plus show, something
for young viewers. But right now there's

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no plans. There is a podcast
where they take the miss and it's called

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Breaking Out and it's very popular.
It was actually started in the book series

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and now it exists outside of the
book series. But yeah, I would

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actually love to see if they would
turn the books into something into another format,

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like, you know, a TV
show or yeah, it could be

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like an audio adventure and a podcast, but right now, unfortunately there's no

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plans. Wow. Well, congratulations
on Zeus the Mighty The Voyage of the

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Oddest. See I love that the
oddest. See that's a good word there

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for you, Crispin. Thank you, Thank you very much. Please come

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back to this show. You know, the door is always going to be

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open for you. Dude. Oh, I'd love to come back. I'll

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come back next year when the next
one come. Batter. Oh, thanks

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for having me. You'd be brilliant
today. Okay, thank you as do

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my best,