1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,600
Hey, thanks for being a part
of the conversation. This is Played Forward,

2
00:00:02,759 --> 00:00:06,719
Real People, Real Stories, The
Struggle to Play it Forward. Episode

3
00:00:06,839 --> 00:00:11,039
number six sixteen is with author Ridley
Pearson. Good morning, how are you

4
00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:15,199
doing today? Good This is Ridley
Pearson calling Ridley Pearson. I have waited

5
00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:20,000
a lifetime to talk with you,
sir. You are the great exaggerator of

6
00:00:20,039 --> 00:00:25,559
all times. Arrow, I've found
you. The way that you bring stories

7
00:00:25,559 --> 00:00:29,440
together reminds me so much of when
the musicians say songs evolve. Well,

8
00:00:29,679 --> 00:00:33,880
Ridley, you do the same thing
with stories. Stories evolve, and you

9
00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:37,880
are such a master at that.
You're very kind. Thank you. And

10
00:00:38,159 --> 00:00:41,000
I was a musician for well,
I still am a musician, but I

11
00:00:41,079 --> 00:00:46,719
was a hardcore music when it comes
to writing. Are you listening to music,

12
00:00:46,759 --> 00:00:50,719
because I mean my past couple of
books have music was so important in

13
00:00:50,719 --> 00:00:55,079
the background. Yeah. No,
I often do sort of a soundtrack behind

14
00:00:55,119 --> 00:01:00,439
me, I like classical music or
you know, sort of Hans, because

15
00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:06,120
my stuff is generally sort of action
related. But yes, I don't always,

16
00:01:06,159 --> 00:01:10,319
but quite often I have music playing
and sort of setting a tone for

17
00:01:10,439 --> 00:01:12,519
the scene I'm writing. Wow Wow, the name of the book that we're

18
00:01:12,519 --> 00:01:18,799
talking about today is Kingdom Keeper's Inheritance
Villain's realm. You like to kind of

19
00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:21,439
push that envelope a little bit,
don't you take it to a level where,

20
00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:23,760
yeah, it's for ya readers,
but you know, adults like this

21
00:01:23,879 --> 00:01:27,920
kind of stuff too. It's really
fun that adults like it so much.

22
00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:34,040
It surprised me, but we Disney. We've sold a couple million copies of

23
00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:38,879
the various Kingdom Keepers books, and
Disney finally did a study on it and

24
00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:42,040
they found that half the books are
bought by adults for their own pleasure.

25
00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:47,640
Yep, So it's fun. I
mean, we're mainly aimed at sort of

26
00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:53,000
ten eleven, twelve thirteen, that
middle grade sweet spot. But I think

27
00:01:53,079 --> 00:01:59,959
because the books have so much back
stage Disney information in them, the Disney

28
00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:05,799
allowed me to see and share that
the adults who really love Disney sort of

29
00:02:05,799 --> 00:02:07,719
can't resist the peak behind the curtain. What is it like for you to

30
00:02:07,759 --> 00:02:12,039
work so close with Disney, because
I mean they've always been such a you

31
00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:14,360
know, we're going to protect our
image and our storylines. We're going to

32
00:02:14,439 --> 00:02:16,840
keep it original. Yeah. Yeah, and they're still that way, and

33
00:02:17,319 --> 00:02:22,319
you know, I still hit speed
bumps with them, but they they sort

34
00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:27,280
of invited me to do this.
They I through a real bizarre set of

35
00:02:27,319 --> 00:02:30,319
circumstances. It actually happened because I
wrote a thank you note, but I

36
00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:35,400
wrote a fank you note because Disney
treated me like a VIP at their parks

37
00:02:35,599 --> 00:02:39,240
years ago. And that eventually led
to a phone call with Disney Books,

38
00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:45,719
and I pointed out to the editor
I was speaking to that when you're on

39
00:02:45,879 --> 00:02:49,719
some of these theme parks, they
just sort of want to make you nauseous.

40
00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:53,840
But in Disney, each attraction,
I could see a beginning, middle,

41
00:02:53,879 --> 00:02:59,280
and end to a story. And
I told the editor this, and

42
00:02:59,319 --> 00:03:01,680
she said, so you want to
write for Disney? I said, sure,

43
00:03:01,759 --> 00:03:06,719
what do you got? And they
had been looking to write a thriller

44
00:03:06,879 --> 00:03:12,199
inside their theme parks for young readers, but without violence, without weapons,

45
00:03:13,199 --> 00:03:15,599
you know, in the most magical
place on earth. So something that was

46
00:03:16,199 --> 00:03:23,120
kind and gentle but really thrilling.
And that's a challenge. So I submitted

47
00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:29,080
five different outlines to them, and
finally, in one I turned the kids

48
00:03:29,159 --> 00:03:36,120
into hologram guides in the future.
And once the kids were holograms and nothing

49
00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:39,080
could happen to it Hologram, the
attorneys said, great, go with that,

50
00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:44,439
and now we're twelve books in.
Wow. See that's one of those

51
00:03:44,479 --> 00:03:49,280
things where you relied so much on
stream thinking, you trusted your your creative

52
00:03:49,319 --> 00:03:53,120
process and then you set it free
and people bit I did, and I

53
00:03:53,199 --> 00:03:58,000
got turned down four times before that. I had some good ideas but they

54
00:03:58,039 --> 00:04:01,400
said, no way brother doing that
one. Yeah. So I mean,

55
00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:05,960
and part of my process is when
I when I speak at middle schools,

56
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:12,000
I talk about not only beginning,
middle, and end, but I observe

57
00:04:12,919 --> 00:04:16,399
and write and edit. Yes,
and I need to observe. So for

58
00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:20,279
my crime novels that I write for
adults, I talk to the police.

59
00:04:20,319 --> 00:04:26,000
I talked to forensics, I talked
to medical examiners, I talked to criminal

60
00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:30,759
psychiatrists. And for this this series
of books, I said that Disney,

61
00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:35,160
the problem here is I need to
be inside your parks after hours when no

62
00:04:35,199 --> 00:04:39,680
one's there. And they said,
and they said, as if you know,

63
00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:43,040
we just do not allow that.
And I said, well, that's

64
00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:45,360
when the kids are going to be
there. The kids are going to be

65
00:04:45,399 --> 00:04:48,079
there at you know, three in
the morning, as these holograms trying to

66
00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:51,959
fight Disney villains. How can I
do this if I don't do that.

67
00:04:53,639 --> 00:04:58,240
So a month later they agreed,
and I still carry a VIP pass that

68
00:04:58,319 --> 00:05:01,240
gets me into their parks around the
world for free, and if I call

69
00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:05,560
ahead, they give me a Disney
imagineer and I go inside their attractions at

70
00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:11,480
like four in the morning, and
it's so spooky I couldn't just write about

71
00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:17,360
it, you know, it's verifying. Yeah, I've been to a Renaissance

72
00:05:17,439 --> 00:05:20,879
festival way late at night and walking
through there because in the daytime, you

73
00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:24,519
know, it's all vibrant with music
and fun. Yeah yeah, yeah,

74
00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:30,199
oh, but not at night.
MMM's axis falling on your neck during that

75
00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:34,040
hour? Well what did you learn
as being that student of being, you

76
00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:36,720
know, being there at three four
o'clock in the morning because you didn't go

77
00:05:36,759 --> 00:05:43,040
into this thing as an adult?
Yeah, I mean when you go in

78
00:05:43,079 --> 00:05:46,040
there at four in the morning and
you walk it takes about an hour to

79
00:05:46,079 --> 00:05:50,279
walk the attraction and have them tell
you how they pull off the magic and

80
00:05:50,279 --> 00:05:56,040
the illusions and then they turn them
on. But for instance, when I

81
00:05:56,079 --> 00:05:59,959
went into It's a Small World on
my very first of these thirty trips,

82
00:06:00,519 --> 00:06:04,399
they let me into Small World and
we walked it for about an hour hour

83
00:06:04,439 --> 00:06:09,040
and a quarter and then they brought
in a crew at five in the morning

84
00:06:09,079 --> 00:06:12,240
to turn it on for me so
I could ride it. And I asked

85
00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:15,399
them, could I ride it with
the lights off, the music off,

86
00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:20,120
and the dolls turned off? And
Small World, for those that don't know,

87
00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:24,439
is a It has this song that
goes Once you hear the song,

88
00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:29,040
you can't forget it for three weeks. And it has these crazy dolls dancing

89
00:06:29,079 --> 00:06:31,399
around to that song and singing in
all these languages. It's really a wonderful

90
00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:35,199
ride, but when the dolls are
turned off, it's spooky. And I

91
00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:42,040
got about three two or three scenes
into that ride and two of those dolls

92
00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:46,319
that were turned off they stepped forward. I just jumped off my seat and

93
00:06:46,399 --> 00:06:51,079
the boat and this, you know
adult I was being toured by. I

94
00:06:51,079 --> 00:06:56,920
said, what's wrong with you?
Two of the dolls moved and they said,

95
00:06:56,959 --> 00:06:59,639
Ridley, you're an adult. Two
of the dolls did not move.

96
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,600
I am going to go to my
grave telling you two of those dolls move.

97
00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:06,160
And I wrote down a note that
said, Small World, two of

98
00:07:06,199 --> 00:07:10,560
the dolls move. Scared me to
death. Yep. And then I just

99
00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,800
wrote a chapter about that. You
know, so so I mean, really,

100
00:07:13,839 --> 00:07:16,839
you just have to observe and it's
all right there for you in this

101
00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:20,839
new book. I love Cinderella's Godmother. And first of all, where were

102
00:07:20,839 --> 00:07:26,720
you at mentally and physically when you
came up with notorious IMG? What an

103
00:07:26,759 --> 00:07:30,319
original idea? No, it was
it was just to Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

104
00:07:30,399 --> 00:07:34,519
you know. I just I could
see that fairy Godmother was going to be

105
00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:41,800
the notorious FGM. And you know
that because she's so legendary, but we

106
00:07:41,879 --> 00:07:46,279
don't see her very often. And
I met her. I met the Fairy

107
00:07:46,319 --> 00:07:53,360
Godmother in an undisclosed location inside Cinderella's
castle, and it was like the coolest

108
00:07:53,399 --> 00:07:57,600
thing that ever happened to me.
Is completely by mistake, and it probably

109
00:07:57,639 --> 00:08:01,759
shouldn't have happened, but there I
was speaking with her, and I just

110
00:08:01,439 --> 00:08:09,360
invoicing this character for Inheritance Villain's Realm, I just had so much fun.

111
00:08:09,399 --> 00:08:11,879
You when you write, you don't
know where you know, so much is

112
00:08:11,959 --> 00:08:16,519
unexpected, and in this case,
she was going to be in the book

113
00:08:16,519 --> 00:08:20,439
for about two pages, and I
just fell in love with this gal.

114
00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,680
She she talks in her itty bitty
bittity boop stuff. She's got her little

115
00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:30,279
blue hair, she wants her cup
of tea. She's very proper and so

116
00:08:30,519 --> 00:08:35,559
sweet, and I just I loved
writing her. So now she's fully in

117
00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:39,879
all three books. And hear,
do you think that your books will change

118
00:08:39,919 --> 00:08:41,440
the park in a way to where
they kind of create like a little dark

119
00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:45,240
area, you know, and you
know, to kind of inspire kids that

120
00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:48,840
it's like, oh my god,
it's just like the book. I would

121
00:08:48,879 --> 00:08:52,399
love it. They do, I
have heard, and they've said this for

122
00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:56,759
years now, but I have heard
that at some point they may dedicate an

123
00:08:56,799 --> 00:09:01,639
attraction just to the villains. Yes, and that's kind of the premise of

124
00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:05,799
Inheritance and the Villain's Realm book.
All the books stand alone, but this

125
00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:09,720
is the second book, Villain's Realm, and it's about the fact that the

126
00:09:09,799 --> 00:09:15,480
Villain's Realms built in the parks where
a wonderful idea until all the villains ended

127
00:09:15,559 --> 00:09:18,080
up in them and started turning the
parks really creepy and dark. So the

128
00:09:18,159 --> 00:09:22,480
kids have to stop that. I
read a story recently about one of the

129
00:09:22,559 --> 00:09:26,120
reasons why Disney likes the Villains is
because viewers and readers like the villains.

130
00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:28,519
They see a little bit of themselves. But at the same time they like

131
00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:33,600
that that's spooking us about them,
and the way they look is so important,

132
00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:37,320
like Ursula right here on this front
cover. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

133
00:09:37,399 --> 00:09:39,440
I don't doubt that. I think
you know, in all literature,

134
00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:45,720
I mean takes Silence of the Lambs
or something. You know, in literature,

135
00:09:46,399 --> 00:09:52,600
the dark characters are somehow more interesting
yep. Because they're conflicted. You

136
00:09:52,679 --> 00:09:56,639
feel somewhat sympathetic sometimes for them,
and then you don't like yourself because the

137
00:09:56,679 --> 00:10:01,759
person is a murderer. How can
you feel sa pathetic for a murderer?

138
00:10:01,799 --> 00:10:07,039
But dark characters and antagonists are really
tricky to write, and if you get

139
00:10:07,039 --> 00:10:13,320
them right, they seem to have
more depth and more resonance with the readers

140
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:16,159
than the best of heroes. Go. Figure, where can people go to

141
00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:20,279
find out more about you, your
writing and everything else, especially your music.

142
00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:26,879
If they go to find out about
my music era they'll give up on

143
00:10:26,039 --> 00:10:31,480
it. No, I mean I'm
on social media as Ridley Pearson r I

144
00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:35,159
D L E Y P E A
R S O N. And we have

145
00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:39,960
a website Ridley Pearson dot com where
you can see all sixty three of my

146
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:43,879
books. Wow, and bookstores should
have this I do have sort of a

147
00:10:43,919 --> 00:10:50,200
special treat for your listeners, which
is there's a bookstore called Left Books in

148
00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:56,039
Saint Louis, Missouri, and if
you call or email Left Bank Books,

149
00:10:56,480 --> 00:11:00,120
I will autograph not only autograph a
book. You can get autograph book,

150
00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,360
but I will personalize it for you
or your child or whoever for the next

151
00:11:03,399 --> 00:11:07,440
week or two. So Left Bank
Books in Saint Louis, Missouri. Oh

152
00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:09,399
my god, dude, you've got
to come back to this show anytime in

153
00:11:09,399 --> 00:11:11,240
the future. I love where your
heart is and I love where your imagination

154
00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:16,240
is always growing. I love your
questions. Thanks for this. You're awesome

155
00:11:16,279 --> 00:11:18,919
man. Well can you be brilliant
today? Okay, okay, you too,