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And again, for some context, we are going live to tape here
the last day of August thirty first, a mathematical genius, a formula that
speeds up space travel called Shortcut. His loving wife. When Laura Max disappears
after an attack that leaves Jason Max in the hospital, his only goal is
to find her and bring her back. Then he gets a message from Voyager
one Laura is alive in space. To get her back, He'll do whatever
it takes, even taking on government agents who might try to stop him.
Racing against the clock to perfect the formula in the system that relies on it,
and find a suitable craft to take him out there. Jason finds he
needs more than math to succeed this time and then forgettable near future hard science
fiction thriller from the producer of Donnie Darko and A Time to Kill and the
number one bestselling author and first editor of Eddie Wears The Martian Shortcut will have
you on the edge of your seats, joining us now to discuss his book,
Shortcut, a Jason Mass thriller, the movie, and so much more.
Bryan Thomas Schmidt, excuse me, Jason, I asked Jason Max probably,
and thank you so much for joining us here this evening. Pleasure to
have him. Thank you for having me. It's before we get into Shortcut,
your latest novel of many, by the way, you author of many
novels, you're an editor. We're going to talk a little bit about that
write in many different genres. But let's talk a little bit about you and
how you got into writing in the first place. Where you always into it
as a kid? Did you find yourself writing? Did you come to it
later? Tell us a little bit about that. Well, my mom says,
I never played with a toy the same way twice, and I used
to get frustrated when it wouldn't do all the things I can imagine. So
I guess I'm kind of a natural storyteller, because even in you know,
my play pen, I was trying to tell little stories with my stuff,
you know, So I think I came to it that way, and then
as time went on, I went into it and developed the craft and learned
to start telling stories. But it's always something that kind of leaned toward.
Started out like most people do, writing fan fick of my favorite children's books
with like friends in grade school and that kind of thing, and eventually I
would write TV scripts to my favorite shows as I watched and stuff, and
then kind of moved into more other things as time went on. So it's
interesting. And as I mentioned, you do quite a bit of editing.
Is in addition n to your own work, you editing others. I didn't
get it from all different genres, but you seem to gravitate mostly not exclusively,
but mostly towards science fiction sci fi. Why why does that that mode
seem to grab you more than the others. Well, I'm doing more.
I'm actually moving towards thrillers primarily, and this is a science fiction thriller.
My last three novels have all been thrillers, including and this is the fourth,
so I can say that I'm doing more thriller and mystery. That's my
next book is a mainstream mystery. But the reason sci fi started out is
because I am of the generation that Star Wars made us want to be storytellers.
When Star Wars and New Hope came out and seventy seven, my cousins
said, let's go see this movie called Star Wars, And I thought,
what a dumb name for a movie. You think they can come up with
something more sophisticated, right, So then I go to this movie. My
cousin's already seen it like seventeen times. He goes, trust me, you're
gonna love it. So I go and I was blown away. And I
fell in love with robots because there were these two amazing robots called Are two
D two and See three po And you know, the whole story was so
fantasy it just made you. I mean it was you know, I'd seen
all the different things before that. I've seen some episodes of Star Trek,
I'd seen Doctor Who which back then was kind of like, hey, look
at cabbage wrapped in tinfoil right away, right away, you know, soo.
But Star Wars took it to a whole new level with the special effects
and the realism of it. That just really made me excited about the stories
and stimulated my creativity. So start starts. You know, science fiction is
kind of the first love where I started, and that's kind of why I
started there. Ironically, the first book I wrote was not science fiction.
It was actually a love story, kind of like the Nicholas Sparks And that
book has actually been rewritten, is done, and we'll be out at some
point. But actually before that, I wrote a non fiction book to him
to think of it. I forgot about that one. But anyway, the
point is, yeah, I took kind of a circuitous path. But science
fiction is very much a passion of mine, and I like science and I
like to explore. You know, the central central theme of most science fiction
and fantasy too is what if? And so I like that central question what
if? The you know, positive different possibilities is a fun thing to explore.
Well, you know, I did some reading of your work and I
didn't notice that there is quite a bit of science, actual science, real
science, if you will, uh, and and math in your work.
That seems to be an important element. Is that fair? Is fair statement
to make that that's one of the things that you you like to include it.
I would say it's a fair statement about Shortcut particularly, there's a lot
of real math and science there because the story required it. Now, when
it comes to the John Simon thrillers, which are the three books I wrote
before this, and there'll be another one coming, those are more procedural,
and yeah, I was. I was. I went along on real ride
alongs, and I studied real technology and real trends, and I really wanted
it to be more you know, kind of near future and and and you
know, as close to accurate of what believable in that sense I say,
I'd say, I'd go for believability. So I really want things to be
as close. My original first story was kind of a Star Wars like space
opera, and that was a little more off the deep end. But this
what I'm gravitating towards now is more of real stories because to me, they
speak to me more in the real world. So stories that at least could
be plausible, you know. So that's where the science and math tends to
come in, is working with technology and things that are familiar, maybe taking
them to the next level, but not that far beyond what we can imagine
as possible. Because to me, that really makes me feel more connected,
and I think it makes readers feel more connected in some ways. Well,
it's a perfect segue to my next question, and he said, well,
what motivates you to write? Then? Is there any particular thing that you
mentioned Star Wars as a particular epiphany? There are other things that you hear
or city that will motivate you to write. What do you use for your
motivation? Well, I mean there's a lot of big questions I'm always looking
for answers for I was the geeky kid. I was the kid who got
bullied a lot, got picked on. I was also the kid who kind
of felt like the black sheep and my family so I kind of felt alone
a lot of it. So there was a lot of the questions of who
am I and what makes me valuable as a person, what makes you know?
What makes you a man? What's important? That's those are I mean,
those are important questions for anybody, but that is something that in particular
resonates with me. My dad was a farm boy. He he became a
doctor. He's very much into the working outside, getting sweaty thing. I
never found appeal in that. So that definition of manhood was always kind of
like that's what a man was to him because he grew up with that.
So for me, I always felt like maybe I wasn't a man, you
know, not that my dad ever specifically called me not a man. Okay,
I want to be clear about that. I'm just saying that there was
just that feeling that I was letting him down, you know, because I
was different, And so all of those are kind of questions that are part
of it. The coming of age into your own was a big part of
that for me, so figuring out, Okay, who am I, what
do I want to be? And can I be that and be okay?
So there's lots of those kind of questions that come in with my characters too,
and then there's bigger questions, you know, spending time as a loaner,
being picked on, kind of feeling outside. Uh, you know,
there's a there's a theme. We'll talk about it later more with short kept,
but there's a theme a lot in my work of learning that you're not
necessarily alone, and you don't necessarily need everybody, but you do need somebody,
and that you're part of a larger community, and it's okay to contribute
to that even if you don't get anything back. That's probably a common theme
for me. Why would you get use some of your ideas? I mean,
I know sometimes when I'm walking I'll see or hear something it will motivate
me. Right, you know, I do blog as well. Well.
I grew up. I grew up Evangelical Christian. I'm kind of more of
the middle ground these days than I was. But the first stories I wrote
the Dobby read were actually the Moses story, set in like a Star Wars
setting. Then told us an epic space opera, and that was a lot
of fun. But you know, everybody knows the Moses story. So as
I started actually writing, I thought it up when I was fifteen and followed
the Moses story like straight through. But when I got to actually writing it,
like twenty five years later or whatever, I said, I got to
make up some stuff so people don't know what's going to happen every five seconds.
You know, I had to kind of figure it out. So that's
what kind of made me kind of play off of things. So I play
off a lot of that with a lot of it is my sense of humor.
I'm always wanting to put people in awkward situations where I can evoke humor.
So John Simon is a is a technophobic old school cop in Kansas City,
and he is his partner is kidnapped and murdered his pregnant partner, and
uh, the only witness is an android or humanoid android. So he has
to work with this guy and they end up becoming partners and android joins the
force and that's a whole different thing and the other stories. But at first
he's like he's working with a with an f and robot. He doesn't want
to work with a robot. Man, you know, there's a stupid robot
that you know, he doesn't believe in, right, so he uh,
you know that that that clash, and then the robot, of course,
is trying to be more accepted, to be more human. So the robot
starts quoting you know, the cop movies and and and doesn't but doesn't know
the right context. So he's saying things but at the inappropriate times and different
stuff. So there's a lot of comedy. That's that's how I milked that.
You know, that series was. It's kind of kind a mix of
I call it. It's it's like Asimov's Caves of Steel, which was about
a noir story about a cop and a robot partner, mixed with Bosh,
which is one of the greatest procedural series ever made, and it's based on
Michael Gonnolly's books and that's on Amazon, and then mixed with Lethal Weapon with
that sense of humor of the Buddy Cup thing and lots of action. So
that's kind of what how I described. So that's that's where the ideas came
from. Those three things. How do I combine them into a story and
tell a story? That's one exam So, you know, idea just come
from things I see are here. I just got an idea for a story
I'm gonna write next from working with my audiobook narrators and I you know,
I want to do a story about audiobook mirrors that are stocked for their voice,
you know, crazy fan. Hey you're the guy. Oh you're the
other guy. I hate you, that kind of thing, and I think
that'll be interesting because you know lots of possibilities. I haven't seen necessarily seen
all of them before. I want to get in a moment or two.
I want to get because you mentioned robotics and robots, et cetera, and
of course that conjures up images today of AI artificial intelligence. I'm gonna get
your thoughts on that in just a minute, but before that, to wrap
up, would you say you have a writing process. For example, Kirouac
used to go and live clean for totally a week and sleep and be healthy
so he could spend days and days on ends drinking, drugging and just writing.
That was his process for continuous uh. And there are many other people
that have somewhat eccentric writing processes, and I'm not suggesting that yours is.
But do you have a particular process for when you write? Is or a
place some people I forget who it was at his own writing cabin in his
back jar Martin has to have that. That's one of the guys I know.
I know George, and that's that's the thing he's really struggled with.
This happened to be in a certain place to be able to write, and
he's got a cabin he off and goes off to but he also writes at
home. You know, for me, I don't have anything quite I mean,
yeah, well, I I sit down at my computer and I reread
the previous day's stuff and tweak it, and then that gets me in the
mode, and then I started writing it. And I usually outline little TV
guide outlines of a few scenes ahead of where I am, and I have
the basic structure of the three acts story in my head, because I tend
to follow the classic three acts said fields paradigm structure in most of what I
write, and so that's kind of my process. But as I get ideas,
Like my latest book I'm writing is all about Will Dunlap, mystery about
a former missionary kid whose father was murdered in the Philippines. So he left
and he went home and he kind of abandoned his mother there and his mother
and his sister. Years later, he's a PI in Kansas City and somebody
there comes and pays him money to go back and investigate, you know,
a murder that ends up involving the grandfather of his girlfriend. Then his ex
girlfriend's dead, and so he's trying to figure out what's going on. So
it's all set in the Philippines. All of that, there was a whole
lot of research I've had to do, not only from language but culture.
I happen to have a fiance who's from the Philippines, so that helped.
But I spent time with the police there. I have a police consultant.
I have a former council member of the city council that's a kind of a
member one of my consultants. And I spent a lot of time reading books
about the area and history and all that. So it's a very research heavy.
So it really depends if there's a real research heavy thing. Like jork
Gut was very research heavy. There's a different process for a different book,
but generally, like I said, I write in Scrivener my first draft.
Scrivener is a writing software that's twenty five bucks thirty five bucks that everybody can
get and I can save everything it's drop box and then access at both on
my laptop, my phone, or my iPad. So it's awesome. Wherever
I go, I can write, so I'm not one of those guys that
has to sit in particular places I can. I can write in the dentist
office, I've written a scene for like few minutes and done it. I'm
lucky that way, but I just need to be able to shut things off
into focus for a little bit. Well, you mentioned robots, robotics,
and obviously for any sci fi right, and of course going forward to any
kind of thriller might include AI because obviously the potential for harm done by it.
But I don't want to put words into your mouth. That's that's never
our point here. First of all, what are your feelings in general about
artificial intelligence? As a writer? Now we know there are writing programs that
can write for you, so somewhat sometimes it takes the human element out of
it. And then, of course within a sci fi thriller or a thriller
again like how the robot in two thousand and one, the Terminator series,
et cetera, the malevolent artificial intelligence. First, what are your feelings in
general about AI? Do you think it's could be a positive thing? And
then as a writer and then incorporating that into your work, But first,
what are your general feelings about artificial intelligence? Good thing, bad thing,
neutral thing. Well, I've always found technology fascinated in general, so I
do find artificial technology fascinating of course, going back to my love of robots,
which I mentioned earlier. But the thing about this is these are tools.
Now you can, yeah, you can get an AI to write you
a book, but it's not gonna have the soul and the heart of a
human written book because there is no soul at heart behind it. There's a
certain element that you cannot recreate. And you know, so in general,
people people who think of them as a lazy tool that they can use to
get by their own laziness, Well, that's that's misuse of technology. That's
not what it really is suited for. And and you know, also you're
stealing if you use certain things that have been programmed by certain people's other you
know, data, without their permission. That's a copyright violation. But it's
also intellectual property. It's not your own. So you know the problem is
you get this book that maybe an amalgamation of all these different writers Stephen King
and Peter Klein's and Jonathan Mayberry and who you know, whoever's Jim Butcher,
whoever's been programmed in there. The problem is it'll sound kind of like all
those but it doesn't really sound like one person. And then when you start
talking to describe your book, it's not going to sound like you either,
because you are. It's not your voice. It's some fake voice that an
AI created. So I think people have to be very careful. Anybody who
thinks that's the way to write a book doesn't really understand the creative process of
the role it takes. Even if you did have them AI helped draft a
book, you would have to do a lot of work on it to make
it the kind of thing that would hold up with soul and spirit to somebody
else. That would be something that would really be your own thing in the
sense that people would know, oh, yeah, there's no way this guy
wrote this book when you're having a conversation because you don't it's the phrases or
any of the words, or you don't you know what I mean. I
mean, it's like, you know, anybody could use the AI to write
a book, but can they really you know, can they really you know,
claim ownership? That's that's the question. So I think ethics is an
issue here. I think it's important that any tool we get there needs to
be some kind of understanding of ethics and rules for it. And since this
is a technology that is, unlike many others in the past, actually capable
of replacing human beings artists in particular. We especially have to be very careful
in how we deal with it, because you know, I don't want somebody
writing a book but I'm dead in my name and claiming it will use the
eye for it and saying it's a Brian Thomas Shimitt book because it won't be.
It won't be. And it's the same way if you could recreate Harrison
Ford in the context of Indiana Jones and dage him for thirty years, well
that's pretty cool when you watch Diala Destiny, But he sure as hell doesn't
want a robot doing his all his acting for him by making up images.
You know, that's a whole different ball game. And I think so that's
but that's a proper use of technology, taking years of footage of him and
used it to help dage him for scenes in a movie so they could tell
a story that goes back in time. That's pretty cool, and that's great
use of it, replacing an actor and just you know, saying we don't
have to pay him his multimillion dollars salary. We could just make a Harrison
Ford movie. That would be a different ball game, I think, right.
I think even with you know, there's people that for example, when
they put Carrie Fisher in one of the Star Wars films, and there's some
other things too where they've done it with a couple other people I don't remember
the names. It's always been a real actor actually acting on the scene with
the other actors, and then they kind of modified the voice and the face
and embody a little bit with the technology. So there's still a human involved
to give it the inflection and all of that. So I think it's important
to remember that the successful incarnations of it still involved human beings very much.
Well, you know. Again, before we go to the break, one
more thing I want to deal with a little bit is the process of editing.
Uh and uh, you know, because it's also part of the reality
of things boiling down to their essential. And I know that's an important process
for you because you're not only write, you edit as well, and quite
a bit anthologies and other people's works. Why why is editing important and in
particular for you, What I think people need to understand editing is more than
just shortening something. It's it's funny, but please, why didn't you explain
no nose just to lead you into that question? Please do it? Yeah?
Well, I you know, for me, first of all, the
reason I got into editing is because I like helping other people be successful,
and I saw an opportunity for me to work alongside some of my heroes and
anthologies and some of the writing people that I admire, like Robert Silverberg,
who I just go edit to Robots anthology, who's a grand master in a
legend, And you know, Kevin j Anderson, Jonathan Maybe There's a whole
long list of people that I've worked with. I worked with Let's see who
else, Robin Hobb, a bunch of different people. Anyway, the point
is the chance to work with these great people and learn from him at the
same time contributing by helping them clean things up a little bit, but also
examining story and helping them tell new stories and help young writers who haven't had
that kind of exposure get big exposure, but also be able to have bragging
rights to say that I was in a book with you know, I don't
know, Orson, Scott Carter, Jonathan Mayberry, whoever, George R.
Martin, whoever it is they admire. That was pretty cool, and that
was helping people. So that audience from all those big name people bleeds in
and reads the stories by the people who are lesser known, and those people
start building a fan base of their own. So that's where I got into
editing. Okay, so first, the first thing about editing is true.
Editing at its heart is helping other people to express themselves better, helping them
tell whatever they're doing, to write whatever they're doing in the best possible way.
So that's the philosophy behind it. I think. I think the thing
about you have to learn. I'm a lot of people, especially starting out,
will rewrite instead of edit. There's a big difference, and that's where
you start walking on somebody's voice and you start changing thing. I will do
some of that when I need to show somebody a concept, but I always
say, look, if this doesn't sound like you, take it and make
it your own, rewrite it, make it in your voice. But this
is the kind of thing I'm trying to do. It's very important to have
that sensitivity and make that clear to your clients as well, so that you
know they know that you know. Sometimes you just can't explain it without showing,
you know. It's the same thing with show versus tell, which is
one of the classic things that people talk about in writing craft. Sometimes you
have to demonstrate it for somebody right there, for them to really grasp what
you're talking about, rather than just telling them about out it. So you
have to have use good judgment about when to do that and when not too.
So there's all of these kind of questions, a lot of nuance to
the editing that I think is involved too. My guest is best selling author
Brian Thomas Schmidt is new work shortcut adjacent Max Thriller. We're going to continue
speaking with Brian. Here a little bit an audio clip from the book,
which is in the process of being made into a film. So we have
so much more of that. On being Frank, We're the only way to
be is Frank. I'm your host. Frank Labono will be back with so
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your podcasts and go watch a movie Hudson River Radio dot com. An epic
love story taken across space and time. Can he find her? He'll do
anything to get her back, even across the stars. Shortcut an adventure You'll
never forget. Well, that was a bit of an audio clip from Shortcut,
a Jason Max thriller from our guest tonight, best selling author Brian Thomas
Schmidt. Welcome back, Ryan, Welcome back to everyone. This is being
Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono, and we're discussing Shortcut, or
we're about to in some detail. Now we learned a little bit more about
its author, Brian Thomas Schmidt. Now let's learn a little bit more about
Shortcut its characters. It's plot, et cetera. Okay, this makes my
job easy. Tell us about at our Shortcut. It reminds me of the
old I don't know if you remember if you were a fan of the old
odd couple thing. And when what's his name? The sloppy guy was had
to play himself as a reporter, and he puts his leg up and says,
so tell us about your career, Slugger, And that's how the interview
begins. So tell us about your career, Slugger. So tell us about
Shortcut? What what? What? What is the plot? We got some
of it from the trailer, but give us a little bit more detail.
What can people expect from Shortcut? Originated and the original character was Jason Finale.
I asked him to change the name because I thought final was kind of
a strange name for a character. Jason Max sounded a little bit cooler with
two exes, you know, just for just for kicks. But Hunt Lowry,
who is a producer in Hollywood. He's done a lot of movies.
A walk to remember he's done A Time to Kill, he's done Donnie Darko
and he's done you know, worked with Bruce Willis Yahya the movie Ya Sisterhood
that was out. He did. He's done a lot of cool stuff.
And Hut had an idea for a story about a mathematician who's married to an
astronaut and they're like, you know, perfect partners, lifelong beloved, and
he comes up with a theory, a math equation for how do use space
travel in shorter go shorter increments and come across the galaxy to much faster like
in our own solar system, changing the time frames right now, going to
Mars, they're talking about years, all right, what if you could get
there in a few hours, Well if you could get there in minutes.
So that was kind of the idea. And something happens to his wife and
he doesn't know what, but he believes she's still alive, and he sets
out to perfect his formula and find a way to get her and bring her
back wherever she is, whatever it takes. That's the basic premise. So
we brought in a science guy who I call my personal Sheldon. His name
is Jonathan Mdashi, and he works some kind of a major secret technology place.
I don't know if it's a defense contractor I honestly don't know because he's
not allowed to tell me. But anyway, he's a very smart, very
nice kid, probably in his late twenties when I met him, and we
spent months working together, and he would write me these scientific papers every day
and start with real science and say, here's the here's the problem you posed
in the plot, Here's here's where the real science is. Here's where I'm
going to posit possibilities for the future. And we ended up with his help
and the help of a guy that Hunt had hired who actually works at cal
Tech, I believe, and he is the author of some books. He's
worked with people like Carl Sagan. I'm trying to look up his name because
I'm forgetting what his name is. It's in the book. But Lewis Friedman,
Lewis Friedman said, why don't you look at polaritons. Polaritons are microparticles,
and there's a lot of research with polariton lasers. And basically the concept
is you'll actually see a drawing in the book of what it looks like.
There's the scene breaks are all these little things. But basically you take two
particles and you can move displace matter and move an object across space. So
basically, if you find a blank area of space, you take that blank
matter of the same amount and you move the ship and all of its contents
to replace that and put that back where the ship came from. And that's
what a shortcut is. And it's basically kind of a difference between the usual
hyperspace travel that you see, or even the travel of things like the Transporter
and Star Trek that we've seen that everybody loves, whereas in this case literally
I mean so in seconds you can move from boom boom. It's like almost
like a hyper jump, but in order to get to long distances they have
to execute a series of jumps to get there. And so you were you
were you mentioned to be when we were first talking before I came on the
show about the AI in the book. The part of the AI is part
of that technology and shortcut, where there's a rapid response system that basically r
RCS Rapid reaction control system I believe is what it's called. Anyway, the
point is because of the fact that you're having to do these calculations, which
are math calculations and jump to all these different places even though they're pre planned
for, Like NASA. Jason Max works with NASA even though there's a bit
of pre planning on it. You need a ship that can immediately react even
faster than humans can to changes in data, to what if there's a solar
storm there, there's any number of issues and they have to reroute or they
have to move the ship quickly or whatever. And so that's AI does that
to help, you know, help and the humans can of course take control
at anytime and can countermand the moves and whatever, but the AI is there
to kind of help, you know, them avoid of idiot problems before they
even realize they have a problem, that kind of thing. So there's that's
the concept of shortcut that the book is based on. And basically we start
out with Jason and NASA is doing its first test of shortcut with human beings
and there's some kind of issue that comes up. So he's feeling defeated because
you know, he thought he had everything perfected. He doesn't know what's going
on, but he ends up retreating. He gets in conflict with some of
the NASA people about it, and and they suggest that he go off and
work at Caltech for a while with some old friends of his and try to
figure out the problem. So he goes to Caltech, moves his family from
Houston across the country to Pasadena, and a few days months I don't remember
the time frame off the top of my head, but at some point after
the move I think it's a few months, he's with his wife out on
a date night. They're in the park and there's a there's a group of
people there that maybe gang members. They don't know, but they kind of
have similar outfits, and they end up getting an argument, and then his
wife just like disappears. There's a flash of light and she's gone. Doesn't
know what's going on, and he's knocked unconscious right about the same time from
the fighting, so she's disappeared. He doesn't know exactly what happened to her,
but when he wakes up in the hospital a couple of weeks later,
he's determined to find her. I got to find her, you know,
she's a love of my life. I would know if she's dead, and
I can feel her. She's alive somewhere. How do we find her.
So there's this whole police investigation going on about you know, okay, he
did the gang people kidnap or did these people kidnap? What's going on?
And then Jason's doing his own thing, trying to figure out with forensic evidence
and other things, what happened to his wife and get Laura and bring her
back. Laura Max as his wife. She's a former astronaut. She was
a Space Shuttle astronaut. Now she's teaching and training new astronauts at NASA.
She's also a laser expert, so she helped him perfect the original Polerton laser
experiment that got him shortcut and made it work. And so he's, you
know, in the meantime, he's trying to take care of their daughter,
Heather, and figure all this out and you know, coming up, whatever
it takes, he's going to do it. So and you know, if
you're trying to make anything move fast, you're run into a lot of issues
when it comes to space travel and also just the whole there's a whole government
oversight and all this stuff you have to deal well. So he has to
struggle against all of that and try to, you know, get people to
understand the urgency for him, and that's what the story is about, and
it's it's it's basically about one man who's not perfect trying to figure out how
to save the most important person in his life, and along the way he
realizes he can't do it alone. That's what I want to bring up.
That's kind of on this surface, obviously, But what would just say is
if people would read between the lines, there are some more of a subliminal
message. Obviously there's antagonist protagonist, but often authors like to put something a
little message between what's obvious. Is there such a thing there? And well
that I just gave you that Actually at the end of what I was saying
that that's what I was hitting at was the message. The message is that
Jason is kind of a he's a genius, he's a leader. He's used
to pushing the boundaries, so he's used to kind of going out on his
own and doing all of these things. Jason basically is used to kind of
just having people. He's the genius. He tells you what to do and
you do it. And he finds that to accomplish the mission of getting Laura
back, he's got to rely on a whole lot of people, and that's
not easy for him, and so that's a source of conflict him with other
people and different things. But along the way, a whole team comes to
surround him of people, and by the end of the book he realizes that,
you know what, I got her back, but I didn't get her
back alone. I got her back because of all of you, and we
are all part of humanity. And there's a lot of things that happen in
the story that point to a higher importance and higher mission and so you know,
all of it ends up, you know, being about more than just
Jason and Laura. It's about something else. So there's there's there's a lot
of elements to that, and they end up encountering there's a first encounter element
to the story. I don't want to give too much away, but there's
the first encounter element to the story and some different things, and he does
go into space. I always tell people it is kind of like The Martian
a little bit in reverse, because most of the story takes place on Earth
before we actually go into space, and then in the end we actually do
go into space and end up, you know, with him rescuing her.
The whole third act is basically in space, so before that is a lot
of wrapped them figuring it out and all that, and that's where the math
comes in. There's there's real math in the story. There's only really three
three pages in the entire is four hundred sixty six page book that have equations,
but that scares people out. It's written in such a way that the
math is there. So if you know math and you enjoy math, you
can use the math and read the math and nippo the math, but the
math is not essential to your understanding of the story. So hopefully people can
see the math and the science and it's it's it's part of it and it's
real, but it's it's written in such a way that you can understand and
and and grasp what's going on. At the same time that was gonna be
my mess. My next question. You don't necessarily have to be a math
geech, if you will give the term. But to be able to appreciate
the novel, you don't have to be a tech head, et cetera.
Obviously there are other people can find things that it beyond just the strength of
the technology. Well, I hope, I hope so, I mean,
I was the first editor for Andy Weir, like twenty thirteen when he was
recommended from a friend of his that I was his editor for The Martian.
And the number one thing that was good for me to edit it is because
I don't have the science and math knowledge that Andy does, and he's very,
very smart about these things. He's he's kind of a computer tech guy
and very much a space enthusiast, and so Andy understood all that stuff.
Well, I was like, Okay, what does this mean. Well,
everybody knows what that means. I'm like, well, to me, this
means this and this and this. Well, no, that's not what it
means. These are scientific terms. I'm like, yeah, but you want
to appeal to a bigger audience, you got to make it accessible. So
I spent a lot of time working with him on that, and that was
part of the lesson that I took writing Shortcut. We spent a lot of
extra time making sure that it was accessible. Hunt and Patty, who worked
with me at Rose Rock Films, don't really have that background either, so
if they couldn't understand it, it had to be written. So there was
a lot of that, and so that's why I worked with Jonathan. He
would give it to me in science and I try to explain it, and
if I mis explained it, he would help me fix it. There was
a lot of that work into it. So hopefully, yeah, hopefully,
like you said, it pays off and people don't have to have that science
background and can really enjoy it. I think the uh, they'll enjoy the
fact that it feels more real because it's there, but it doesn't get in
the way of enjoying the story. Hey, no, it's the possibility of
it being made into a film that that given a little extra to you.
The fact that it's it's being optioned for a film. That does that change
your attitude towards the Pick book? Will it always be a novel? First?
For you? If you see Driving when Hunt? When Hunt created it,
he created several characters that are kind of the two main characters Heather and
I mean, excuse me, Laura and Jason, and a few supporting characters.
And he really had the first half of what would be a movie or
a novel. He had kind of Act one and part of act two.
The rest of it, he had no idea what was going to happen,
so and I came in. I ended up figuring out most of Act three
myself, but we kind of worked together to figure out the rest of it,
at least Act two, and and I of course created supporting characters and
all that. But his original intention was to make a movie, but he
wanted to develop the property first, and for whatever reason, felt that book
properties are easier to sell. So he wanted to have a book that he
could point to to the studio and say, look, it's worth making because
the story works. So he brought me in through my agent because I had
edited the Martian U probably thinking I was some kind of math or science genius,
but he got a surprise and U. And then we did a lot
of meetings, you know, a lot of zoom meetings, a lot of
phone calls, and then eventually I went out to la and met in the
Warner Brothers studios where he has offices and different things and all of that.
And I, you know, I also went out there because one part of
my process, he asked me about my process earlier, especially with Near Future,
is I actually go to as many locations as I can so I can
represent it well. And then I sit there and I take pick lots of
pictures and a little recording, and I make note of all the things I
see here, taste, touch, feel, all of that, so that
I can use that so that when when I write about a location like cal
Tech or Johnson Space Center, both both of which I visited, but in
writing this book, I can actually evoke a sense of being there because I've
actually been there, as opposed to just manufacturing what it might be like.
So that was a big part of my process as well that we did.
And then you know, we actually worked on this story for two or three
years before COVID, and unfortunately, for various issues, it sat all during
COVID. So I came back to it after COVID and spent some time just
bringing it up to date and all of that. And now here we are,
and so hopefully it's going to get made into a movie. Everything's on
hold because of the strike right now, which you know we know in large
parties about AI among other things. So once that gets resolved, they'll be
able to make some decisions. But you know, hopefully by then the book
will be successful. We're hoping. We're having a lot of good buzz about
the book, and a lot of people excited about it. So hopefully by
the time it actually comes, you know, comes to that point, he'll
have real you know, real buzz to take to the studio and it'll get
made. But if it doesn't, I own all the publishing rights, he
owns all the film rights, and uh and you know, even though we
both get kind of a cut if it gets made into a film, the
fact is that that's his problem. This is my problem. I don't know.
I don't mean to. I mean, I consult with Hunt a lot
about what I'm doing and let him know. It's not like I shut him
out, but this is what this is my area of expertise, that's his.
So he kind of does that and I do this. Now you mentioned
the Martian kind of offbeat. It's a strangely successful film, and I think
it was more successful than people had anticipated it would be. H yeah,
about a man's strang People always asked me, people always ask me, you
bet it to the Martian? Did you know it was genius? And I'm
like, no, I thought it was a pretty decent first novel, but
there were problems with it and it didn't blow. It didn't make me say
it was that. You know, this I didn't know it's gonna be international
phenomenon by any means. I thought it might be okay, people, some
people will really get into this, but boy, it really took off.
I mean it just was the right time, the right thing at the right
time, so, you know, and honestly, honestly there the reason they
hired me was because they figured I had knowledge how to use real science and
real math and tell a good story. It wasn't it wasn't necessarily trying to
be a sequel to The Martian or The Martian or anything like that, but
it just happens to tie in well with that audience, I think. So
it's it's that's good in one way. Well, what do you think was
the key to making The Martian is success? And it was it was critical
success and some box office and we lived again on what success did you see
there that you hope you can find it in a shortcut as well. Well.
One thing that was really cool is that he made science and math cool,
yes, which I hope we do too. I mean, you know,
Mark Wattony would say, I'm going to science the blank out of it,
and that's what I'm going to solve the problem, right, and he
would, but he would do all these really cool things that a lot of
times you'd think. I didn't realize science could do that. And I think
what we're doing with our story is we're showing you things math can do that
you might never know. I mean, math really is, as Jason says
at one point, the you know, it's the language of the universe,
and he likes being part of the dialogue that writes the universe. It can
literally solve any problem that you come up with. There's a mathematical element to
the solution. And so we're going to show you some things about math that
maybe you didn't know before that are pretty cool. And I think that's kind
of what we're doing. I hope people like that as much as they liked
in The Martian. But the other thing is there's a great sense of humor
in that character. One of the things I struggled with in this was to
find a sense of humor in Jason, and I think we got I think
we got it to some degree, but not it's not nearly as much.
You know, Mark Wattony was a natural smart ass. Jason could be that
because he needed other people so much and he had to work with other people,
so there's a slightly different personality to him. But yeah, Mark Watton,
he was always making smart ass remarks and and there was a lot of
fun to that. And uh, you know when he examines all the belongings
of his companions, who are who are gone? You know, and it's
funny, like, how the hell is so and so listened to this music,
but she's got a whole bunch of begs or something? What is this?
You know? Yeah, yeah, there was a wid about it,
and he became yeah, yeah, exactly. You just rooted for him.
But I think, you know, everybody tells me that Jason is somebody really
root for to all the characters and and and that's good too, and I
think that so I guess I'm kind of wandering around here. But the reality
is, to answer your question, it's complicated. But at the at the
fundamental basis level, he created a character that you wanted to see when and
that's what made that story work. You like spending time with Mark Wattney,
You liked being in a room with him, and you cared about what he
cared about because he was a normal, seemingly normal, decent guy who had
problems that you can relate to. That's what made the martial work and that's
what I'm hoping we'll work with Jason, even though he's the math genius and
he has some other skills, is that people see at the same time,
he's a guy who loves his wife, who needs his wife, who loves
his kid, and he'll do anything to keep his family safe. And I
think everybody can relate to that. The book shortcut of Jason Max Thriller with
his author Brian Thomas Schmidt. Where can people I know it's out on Amazon's
available now? Can you get to see information? Where can people get the
book? Well, you can order it through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Kendall, even your local bookstore. You can order it because it's it's widely
distributed through that. Also, it's out on audiobook a month later. It
comes out September fifteenth, it's actual the release date, so right now it's
on pre orders, but it'll be out in a couple of weeks from now.
You can actually get your copies and then if you want to order the
audio book, you can pre order, but that's not actually released until the
seventeenth because we just finished recording it like yesterday. So Stefan rod Nikki is
going to do that. Yeah, he's he's a really great narrator who's won
a lot of Audies and Golden Voice and Hugos for his audio book work.
And he's been doing this since like since we didn't even know their audiobooks like
in the eighties. I mean he's he's been doing this forever. He's a
pioneer in the field, and so so audios. Also, the pre orders
are now available for that as well. So I think it'll be any format
you want, anywhere you want to get it. You can find it,
and I hope you'll go out just look, go out, look literally for
shortcut a Jason Max two X thriller, and you can find it anywhere.
What do you hear about the film? And he talk about it and he
anybody cast yet for Jason or Laura any word on? No, No,
it's too it's too early for all that. Uh. When when the strike
is over, they'll try to attach people. I mean we we we batted
some names around. I tell you who would you like to see and you
created the characters. There's someone in mind that you think would be best suited
to play that character well for me. When I wrote it, I was
picturing, Oh now, why am I blanking on his last name? The
guy in Barbie? Ryan, Uh Gosh Gosling? Ryan, Yes, sorry,
sorry, Ryan, I remember, I remember from Barbie. Didn't see
the movie, but I remember, yes, well, I like I like
Ryan Gosling from the Notebook. I've liked him from the Notebook and a lot
of other things, and the Notebook as well my favorite romantic movies. But
he was in he was great, and and Laura in The Real Girl,
which is a really unique, fun little story, And he's been done a
lot of stuff, and I've always thought Ryan Gosling was kind of the He
had the perfect combination of geek and macho that he could play somebody like Jason
really well. But also my old an old friend of mine I worked with
name. He's probably a little old for it made me. But Gerard Butler
would be really good in this role too. He's got that element of it.
Uh So, I don't know. I mean, whoever they get,
obviously, I'm sure will be great at it. They might come up with
somebody that we you know, it's new and up and coming, that we've
never heard of. Who knows. For the Jason's Maid sidekick is a guy
named Peter Etz, and he's a character I created that works with him in
Nasson Caltech. Peter Ets to me has always been always been Sheldon, So
he's always been you know, Jim. Why am I blanking on all my
Hollywood names tonight, UK? Anyway, you know Jim Parsons, Jim Parsons,
I'm sorry, Jim Parsons. Yes. And the funny thing is the
really cool thing actually I call I told you guys. I called my scientific
consultant personal Sheldon as a reward. He'd never been to a TV show taping,
and so at Warner Brothers when we were there, they took him on
a tour of the studio and they got us tickets to one of the last
episodes taping of The Big Bang Theory, so we actually got to see that.
So that was a pretty cool, like sympatical thing. So anyway,
very cool. That's where you can get it. Go find it, and
you know, check out the book trailer two. It's out on YouTube and
you can find it on my Facebook and everywhere and you know social media.
The book is shortcut a Jason Max thriller. We'd like to thank our guests
Brian Thomas Smith for his most intelligent conversation, and of course we give to
our listeners who take the time to give us a voice in their lives.
Remember we offer a fresh topic every week. Check us out on the Hudson
River Radio Facebook page. Leave us a comment too. We'd also like that
you like you to consider sharing Being Franklin others. Of course, at the
end of I'd like to leave you a couple of last nuggets, one of
them that I'm sure Brian will appreciate from Dorothy Parker. I share it with
my students all the time. And Fordham when she said I hate writing,
I love having written writing his heart folks, believe me. I think Brian
would agree with that. We like afterwards you like to say I'm a writer
of a boy. It's pretty hard to do because we've got to some music
from Joe Derso from his new album Thurman, A tribute to Thurman Munson.
So long as Taken by Storm, you've been watching Being Frank, We're the
only way to me is Frank. We'd like to call it intelligent conversation.
We hope you think so too. We hope to see you next Thursday.
I'm your host, Frank Lagono. This has been being prank. Next time
you barn in the midst of the summer storm, the heavens open wide with
thunder. Tee you were born. I held you moments after you saw light.
If you look like a brother, board and angel and your own rise,
let the skies something, let the rains fall down. On the morning
you were born, we were taking by store, taking by store. Tell
you walk through the trouser of light. The sun shines on you mis days
and I'm on me, and you love like it's meant to be done.
No dark side or the moon girl, your old sun. Let the skys,
Let the bree bone down. On the day that you were down.
We were taking by stores, taking by stones, and still let the stone
down. On the morning you will take the clowns and the phone. We
would take a pistol, the tea in by store, tea in perstor tea
in my store. This is Hudson River Radio dot com.