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DUPLESSI is his name, Duplessy,
Andrew Duplessy. What's going on, man,

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Andrew? I got to tell you
you are on the brink of something

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absolutely brilliant. Not only are you
tapping into short stories again in our history,

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but what you're doing with them with
these QR codes. This is beatle

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material, man. This is the
kind of stuff that people will take with

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them for the rest of their life. Wow. I really appreciate that.

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Is that is one hundred percent of
the goal, you know, I really,

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I really wanted to blend tech in
story and I'm glad that you nailed

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it. That is exactly what I
was going for as that author. How

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do you keep it at a short
story? Because here in the Carolinas we

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have a lot of different contests for
authors and things, and it's like it's

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always it's like, how how do
you really keep it in there? Are

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you using Twitter speak? What's the
deal? Yeah? It's hard. I

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mean, it's it's hard to Uh, it's hard to stay short. I

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feel like some of the you know, the stories in this book, or

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some of even the short movies in
this book could have, you know,

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a longer feature or or full book. And so it's hard to stay short.

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However, I do think just me
growing up reading Goosebumps and the hearty

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Nancy Drew, that's sort of you
know, the style I loved, and

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I just feel thankful to be able
to write it today. The book is

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called Too Scared to Sleep. Just
the title alone is going to put that

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in the book bags of a lot
of young readers, because I mean,

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I mean, we all have faced
that in our lifetime. Totally, totally,

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and that was really the inspiration.
Is I am a terrible sleeper and

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often when I wake up, I
read and so I think, maybe I

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am you know, patient zero being
too scared to sleep. Do you find

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yourself wondering what that what that reader
is doing and where and how they're receiving

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it? Only because nowadays, I
mean I wish I would have had a

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smartphone when I was a kid,
but no, I went out and I

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physically got the book. So reading
in the middle of the night, just

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grab the phone and I can read
this on my candle totally. Yeah,

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no, it's amazing. And I
think, you know, as I was

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coming up as an author and this
is of course my debut novel, what

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I would do is I would release
short stories on Instagram and TikTok, and

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some of them even went viral on
YouTube, and that was a great way

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for me to get reader feedback and
consumer feedback. So a lot of the

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stories in this book have sort of
been battle tested and reviewed by just you

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know, followers and fans to make
sure it's the best possible story. How

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can the readers get it right?
And what I mean by this is is

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that short stories evolve into spoken word
or in radio we call it water cooler

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conversation. But when we're describing the
story, our interpretation doesn't match the physical

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word that's in that in that book. How can we get it right this

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time? Because that's how important your
book is right now? Totally? Yeah,

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I think I think it's hard to
share, right, you know,

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in general. Right, like you
as a kid, when you're you know,

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reading scary stories and telling the darker
goosebumps, You're not going to take

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a picture of the text and share
it, you know, with a friend.

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You'd have to bring that to school, you got to go to the

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library, you got to sit down
readgalether. So this sort of you know,

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speeds up to that flywheel. It's
like, hey, like I just

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saw this great story, and then
you can text that that short movie,

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or you can post that short movie
online. And I'm hoping that you know,

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read some fanfare around some of the
spooky stories. Well, you write

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about real things. I mean,
roses that require human blood. I don't

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know how many times I've lost blood
because of a thorn on a rose.

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Well the thorn knows for sure.
I uh, yeah, I write about

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real things. I think that's really
you know, it's sort of the stuff

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I see. One of the other
you know, stories I write is about

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a garbage disposal, or you know, I spent most of my career in

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technology, and so I wrote about
VR heads or the bad you know,

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the bad side of social media,
and so a lot of it is real,

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real inspiration. Well that makes me
wonder if you're not a silent watcher

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then or what I what I call
a silent wolf, that that you look

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at life and go, oh,
there's a story there, and all of

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a sudden you begin building those paragraphs. Oh man, I'm the guy on

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the park bench just watching. That's
totally meaning not a creepy way, but

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that is truly, that's truly how
I observe and you know, build characters.

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It's just you know, try to
be observed as possible. So now

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for you too, this is your
debut novel. So so what what happened

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along the way? Was everything else
that you've been creative with? Was that

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the voice of your inner writer?
Because now you now you've got the opportunity.

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Because I always believe that writers are
born writers. Everything else follows because

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they're just looking for another stage.
I think that's so true and well said,

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and I think it's totally true for
me. I you know, did

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a bunch of stuff with you know, building iPhone apps and building different websites,

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and I love that creative process.
But when I started to write,

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which was really an accident, I
was like, oh my gosh, like

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this is it. Like I fell
in love with it immediately. And since

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then, you know, I've spent
almost every day writing and just trying to

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be a better storyteller. When you're
thinking about that reader, are you thinking

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about your own fear factor? Because
we all have that kind of stuff.

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You know, I was the kid
in the copaters in the back. I

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was covering my face. You know, I was scared. I was totally

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scared. I still am scared of
watching horror, and so I'm definitely writing,

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you know, for myself or the
scared version of myself, you know,

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all the time your connections to tell
are we going to see a twelve

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part little series that we can binge
watch on one of these streaming channels,

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you know, I hope. So
I am crossing my fingers. I think

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that with the short movies included with
each storage should give producers and scriptwriters a

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good idea of like what you know, what could be and hopefully some of

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the best of the stories on TikTok
and Instagram. You know, that data

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will be valuable to them as they
make their decisions. Just to show you

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how important it is to a young
reader. I mean, I love the

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way that Hollywood is starting to evolve
in the way of making things pg.

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Thirteen. So we can get those
young people inside those seats, because I

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mean, if we go are they're
not getting in there and all they're gonna

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they're going to try to sneak in, but with the reserve seating, they

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can't get in there. So I
love the way that you're making this so

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real that they feel like that this
is part of their world. Totally.

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Yeah, and I feel the same
way. I feel like this is a

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good book that bridges younger readers or
even some adult readers into horror, especially

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you know, with the holiday coming
up, with Halloween coming up, this

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this book and a lot of my
friends are telling me it's like a fun

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board game almost where everyone sort of
has it around the table and they're scanning

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the videos and you know, people
watching their friends get spooked. So it's

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definitely meant to be shared. Okay, you brought it up, you said

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a board game. Are you going
to do something like that? Because isn't

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there a movie out right now that
started out as a video game? One

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hundred percent? I you know,
I think I have to. I think

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more and more we're seeing this blend
of video games like The Last of Us

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and you know on board games that
Jumanji becoming these feature films, and I

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do think technology, whether it's like
you know, video games, is going

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to blend with that, you know, that storytelling aspect. So I would

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love to do a board game.
I think it'd be fun and spooky.

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Where can people go to find out
more about you and give you some love?

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Because I'm sure somewhere along the line
you being the person you are.

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There's gonna be some merchandise that they
can put up on their walls or carry

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with them totally. Yeah, you
can just google too Scared to Sleep,

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or my name Andrew Duplessi and yeah, I released weekly short stories, romance,

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sci fi, horror, you name
it, you can find me.

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Yeah. See that. You can't
not the creativity, can you? I

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can't shuss always on. You got
to come back to this show anytime in

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the future. Andrew. The door
is always going to be open for you.

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I would love to. I really
appreciate the time and have a great

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weekend. Will you'd be brilliant?
Okay, will do. Thanks