Good morning, How are you doing today? Thanks so much for giving this,
dude, we have been together for so long, from Crystal Time to
One True King, Beasts and Beauty, good and Evil. It's always always
a gift to share a conversation with you. Thanks you, Settlements. The
power of writing is going into moving pictures and that we must have talked about
that a billion times, but to see it physically happening now is like,
this is amazing. What is it like on your side of the writing instrument?
And I think for me to have something turned into a movie the first
and foremost means that more people are going to pick up the book, right,
so that as an author, I think that's the number one thing on
before is is what's another way to get leaders into the world, And especially
in this day and age when everyone's so distractive and there's so many million things
going on, a movie seems like a golden ticket to getting people familiar enough
with the world where picking the book doesn't seem so daunting, especially for you
know, more young readers. So I think the movie was that kind of
gateway. And I felt so lucky because the series has been out ten years,
but now it's telling better than ever because of that movie we'll see.
I love it when adults find it too, because it also leads them back
to your books. Because to me, you know, the term a why
a author is like, okay, well no, I'm reaching adults too,
So I mean, that's what I love about the writing that you have.
It's not so hya, it's for everyone. I think that goes back to
the original subject matter because if you look at the original fairy tales that the
Grimm's Brothers are, those work for everybody, you know, whether you are
a kid or a you know, grandfather, they all shared the same stories.
And I think I try to write with later so that you know,
if you're a young reader, you get one version of the story, but
if you're older, you're going to get all the deeper symbolism and things like
that. I mean, that's what I loved about Harry Potter also, instead
of worked for any age, and so that was always kind of a guiding
light for me, is could I write a book that worked for adults as
much as younger readers? And I think you know, over the years now
when I do events and things like that, it's happen. Dots have kids,
you know, sometimes the parents have read it before the kids have,
so I think what's made it and it's why the movie I think worked for
all ages and was really sort of an all family movie. The book we're
talking about is Fall of the School, Fall of the School for Good and
Evil. All schoolmasters have got to face a test. I like what your
test is here, because it messes with the imagination because we all go through
this test. It's loyalty. But is it corrupt? We know what loyalty
is and we've all broken loyalty. Yeah. I think for me, I
love the idea of you having two identical twins running the school, one that
has sort of pure goods fall on one that has pure evil soul. And
these two brothers can only really run the school if theirs balance between them,
Otherwise they lose their immortality, they lose their powers. And so the idea
that you have two brothers who really despise each other but need each other in
order to run this school, it sort of reminded me a lot of what
happens in sibling relationship. Sometimes where you can't live with your sibling, which
you can't live without them. Sometimes you want them gone. Sometimes you meet
them there's kind of this constant back and forth and tension and balance between siblings
and a family. So to me, the book first and foremost is about
family, and all the fantasy and magic is there to support them support that
story so many times, you know. I mean, as readers we like
to skip ahead. You don't want to skip ahead with your books, because
what you do is that everything has has a hook to it, like a
song. And that's what's interesting about the way that you put these paragraphs together,
dude. I mean, I try to make it so that it feels
like it's you can only read it in one sitting, that you can't move,
that it just moves so quickly that you're sort of sucked along with it,
you know. And I think for me, you have to have that
buffle of pace and that many twists and turns of things like that to keep
up with all the other options for screen entertainment, right because kids can pickome
TikTok, adults can pickome TikTok and just start scrolling and seeing fun videos.
But it's that's so with a book, you can go deeper, but you
have to have the same level of entertainment. So it's always always a tough
challenge, but I'm writing these days, I've never felt under more pressure it's
the wrong word, but more challenge to make sure that it's entertaining enough to
pull the hole off. So now, how do you know in your heart
when you're behind that that computer, when it's going to be a shocking conclusion
And does it come at you all at once or do you have to build
that conclusion. I think sometimes you don't even know what the conclusion is going
to be. You're you're sort of swept up. Also, you know,
sometimes you're surprised by it as much as the reaper is going to be.
And I think that's when you know you have something really amazing because there's no
telegraphing it. It happens on its own. But other times you have a
great ending in mind that you just have to sort of build towards it and
have trust that you're not going to give it away while you're writing it.
Although this is the conclusion of the storyline, listeners need to understand that that
doesn't mean that you're going away. Because you're all about sharing adventures with your
readers. You're not going silent on us. No, I mean, I
think this is the end of this world, you know, this kind of
fairy tale era for me, You've done I've done ten ten books, is
that right now? Yeah? Nine books and then a handbooks, so ten
books total in this fairy tale world over the course of almost eleven years.
So I'm going to move on to something completely different, and I'll take my
time making sure I get it right. But I would like to have a
completely invention in different worlds. What is that going to be like for you
to go through those changes, because I mean, I mean that's like,
that's like Madonna reimagining herself, but she continues to do it, and you've
got to take newer steps and you've got to create newer habits. I think
it's that you have to have enough about confidence in your own voice to know
that it's okay to just go in a different direction and explore it from part
of yourself. You have to be open to its feeling a little offward at
first, um, But I think it's it's about do you have other stories
to tell other skins and have it and not being afraid of what that's going
to mean for your audience. You know, your audience UM changes too,
so you have to. You have to give them a chance to six flour
different parts of the world and of yourself and of your writing with them.
Is it still fun to write? Oh? I love it. I think
I'll never get I go more than a couple of days without it. I'm
starting to feel all. So I'm so with you. I'm so with you
on that because I call writing an addiction. It's all part of the creative
addiction that we have. And you've got to feed that beast and allowed that
inner, you know, that inner like a movie screen, come to life
on that page. Yeah. And I think also you're constantly inspired by other
things you're you're seeing and watching and reading, and I think that just goes
back into it. It brings out that sort of fire within you to to
you know, tell your own stories. That's so important that you say that,
because you know so many writers will tell me. They'll go, look,
I'm an avid reader or I'm an avid story well I viewer, and
and that's that's where you pull your energy from in order to you know,
like you said, create your own voice. Yeah. I think also it
reminds you how much power there is out there creatively. When you read something
good, it just um. You know, it's not that it fires up
your competitive instincts, but it pushes you to say, you know what I
can do better? Like I can do better than I've already done. Their
new levels for me to reach. There's new potential for me to find.
So I think that's why artists are always looking for something that I'm always looking
for something that wows me. You know that when I read it, Oh
man, this is a different level. But how do I get to this
level? So I think it's it's a lot like sports. I was an
athlete throwing up in a lot of ways, and I feel like I always
love to playing against someone who's who is a lot better than me, because
then I would try to pick apart their game, you know. So,
um, I think it's the same. Wow, you got to come back
to this show anytime in the future. You know that door is always going
to be open for you, sir. Thank you so much. I hope
I'm back to doing with something else. Absolutely, will you be brilliant today?
Okay, thank you