DUPLESSI is his name, Duplessy, Andrew Duplessy. What's going on, man,
Andrew? I got to tell you you are on the brink of something
absolutely brilliant. Not only are you tapping into short stories again in our history,
but what you're doing with them with these QR codes. This is beatle
material, man. This is the kind of stuff that people will take with
them for the rest of their life. Wow. I really appreciate that.
Is that is one hundred percent of the goal, you know, I really,
I really wanted to blend tech in story and I'm glad that you nailed
it. That is exactly what I was going for as that author. How
do you keep it at a short story? Because here in the Carolinas we
have a lot of different contests for authors and things, and it's like it's
always it's like, how how do you really keep it in there? Are
you using Twitter speak? What's the deal? Yeah? It's hard. I
mean, it's it's hard to Uh, it's hard to stay short. I
feel like some of the you know, the stories in this book, or
some of even the short movies in this book could have, you know,
a longer feature or or full book. And so it's hard to stay short.
However, I do think just me growing up reading Goosebumps and the hearty
Nancy Drew, that's sort of you know, the style I loved, and
I just feel thankful to be able to write it today. The book is
called Too Scared to Sleep. Just the title alone is going to put that
in the book bags of a lot of young readers, because I mean,
I mean, we all have faced that in our lifetime. Totally, totally,
and that was really the inspiration. Is I am a terrible sleeper and
often when I wake up, I read and so I think, maybe I
am you know, patient zero being too scared to sleep. Do you find
yourself wondering what that what that reader is doing and where and how they're receiving
it? Only because nowadays, I mean I wish I would have had a
smartphone when I was a kid, but no, I went out and I
physically got the book. So reading in the middle of the night, just
grab the phone and I can read this on my candle totally. Yeah,
no, it's amazing. And I think, you know, as I was
coming up as an author and this is of course my debut novel, what
I would do is I would release short stories on Instagram and TikTok, and
some of them even went viral on YouTube, and that was a great way
for me to get reader feedback and consumer feedback. So a lot of the
stories in this book have sort of been battle tested and reviewed by just you
know, followers and fans to make sure it's the best possible story. How
can the readers get it right? And what I mean by this is is
that short stories evolve into spoken word or in radio we call it water cooler
conversation. But when we're describing the story, our interpretation doesn't match the physical
word that's in that in that book. How can we get it right this
time? Because that's how important your book is right now? Totally? Yeah,
I think I think it's hard to share, right, you know,
in general. Right, like you as a kid, when you're you know,
reading scary stories and telling the darker goosebumps, You're not going to take
a picture of the text and share it, you know, with a friend.
You'd have to bring that to school, you got to go to the
library, you got to sit down readgalether. So this sort of you know,
speeds up to that flywheel. It's like, hey, like I just
saw this great story, and then you can text that that short movie,
or you can post that short movie online. And I'm hoping that you know,
read some fanfare around some of the spooky stories. Well, you write
about real things. I mean, roses that require human blood. I don't
know how many times I've lost blood because of a thorn on a rose.
Well the thorn knows for sure. I uh, yeah, I write about
real things. I think that's really you know, it's sort of the stuff
I see. One of the other you know, stories I write is about
a garbage disposal, or you know, I spent most of my career in
technology, and so I wrote about VR heads or the bad you know,
the bad side of social media, and so a lot of it is real,
real inspiration. Well that makes me wonder if you're not a silent watcher
then or what I what I call a silent wolf, that that you look
at life and go, oh, there's a story there, and all of
a sudden you begin building those paragraphs. Oh man, I'm the guy on
the park bench just watching. That's totally meaning not a creepy way, but
that is truly, that's truly how I observe and you know, build characters.
It's just you know, try to be observed as possible. So now
for you too, this is your debut novel. So so what what happened
along the way? Was everything else that you've been creative with? Was that
the voice of your inner writer? Because now you now you've got the opportunity.
Because I always believe that writers are born writers. Everything else follows because
they're just looking for another stage. I think that's so true and well said,
and I think it's totally true for me. I you know, did
a bunch of stuff with you know, building iPhone apps and building different websites,
and I love that creative process. But when I started to write,
which was really an accident, I was like, oh my gosh, like
this is it. Like I fell in love with it immediately. And since
then, you know, I've spent almost every day writing and just trying to
be a better storyteller. When you're thinking about that reader, are you thinking
about your own fear factor? Because we all have that kind of stuff.
You know, I was the kid in the copaters in the back. I
was covering my face. You know, I was scared. I was totally
scared. I still am scared of watching horror, and so I'm definitely writing,
you know, for myself or the scared version of myself, you know,
all the time your connections to tell are we going to see a twelve
part little series that we can binge watch on one of these streaming channels,
you know, I hope. So I am crossing my fingers. I think
that with the short movies included with each storage should give producers and scriptwriters a
good idea of like what you know, what could be and hopefully some of
the best of the stories on TikTok and Instagram. You know, that data
will be valuable to them as they make their decisions. Just to show you
how important it is to a young reader. I mean, I love the
way that Hollywood is starting to evolve in the way of making things pg.
Thirteen. So we can get those young people inside those seats, because I
mean, if we go are they're not getting in there and all they're gonna
they're going to try to sneak in, but with the reserve seating, they
can't get in there. So I love the way that you're making this so
real that they feel like that this is part of their world. Totally.
Yeah, and I feel the same way. I feel like this is a
good book that bridges younger readers or even some adult readers into horror, especially
you know, with the holiday coming up, with Halloween coming up, this
this book and a lot of my friends are telling me it's like a fun
board game almost where everyone sort of has it around the table and they're scanning
the videos and you know, people watching their friends get spooked. So it's
definitely meant to be shared. Okay, you brought it up, you said
a board game. Are you going to do something like that? Because isn't
there a movie out right now that started out as a video game? One
hundred percent? I you know, I think I have to. I think
more and more we're seeing this blend of video games like The Last of Us
and you know on board games that Jumanji becoming these feature films, and I
do think technology, whether it's like you know, video games, is going
to blend with that, you know, that storytelling aspect. So I would
love to do a board game. I think it'd be fun and spooky.
Where can people go to find out more about you and give you some love?
Because I'm sure somewhere along the line you being the person you are.
There's gonna be some merchandise that they can put up on their walls or carry
with them totally. Yeah, you can just google too Scared to Sleep,
or my name Andrew Duplessi and yeah, I released weekly short stories, romance,
sci fi, horror, you name it, you can find me.
Yeah. See that. You can't not the creativity, can you? I
can't shuss always on. You got to come back to this show anytime in
the future. Andrew. The door is always going to be open for you.
I would love to. I really appreciate the time and have a great
weekend. Will you'd be brilliant? Okay, will do. Thanks