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Speaker 1: And now Audio Theater Central. Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central.

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This is the show that explores family friendly audio drama

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through news, reviews and interviews. I'm your host, JD. Sutter.

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This is episode two two. Well, today I've got an

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interview with author and audiobook narrator John Ericson. You say, author,

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what does that have to do with audio drama? Well,

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stick around and you'll find out. We've got some feedback

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from Blake and Jeremy, a bunch of audio drama updates

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to get to, as well as a monologue where I'm

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going to talk about audio drama as a marketing tool.

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Let's get to it.

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Speaker 2: We interrupt this program to bring you a special.

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Speaker 3: Report and in other news tonight.

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Speaker 1: A brief look at the headlines.

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Speaker 4: Now they want exciting, fast piece news that's relevant and

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entertaining like this.

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Speaker 1: Well, quick reminder before we jump into the updates. If

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you have an audio drama update, please let us know

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about it. You can go to PFM dot link slash

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atc News that'll take you directly to the form to

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submit your update. Now, if for some reason that URL

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redirect is not working for you, I did have somebody

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let me know that it wasn't working for them for

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some reason. I'm looking into that, but if that happens

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to you, you can always head to our homepage audiotheatercentral

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dot com and click the link right there to submit

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your news regarding your show. Well, before we get into

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the recent releases and upcoming productions, first off, I just

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wanted to share real quickly with you that Unshackled is

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having a fundraiser right now to help them with office

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renovation expenses. If you don't know unshackled, they've been around

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for almost seventy five years at unshackled dot org and

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they release all of their episodes for free, thousands of

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episodes that you can go and listen to. And they

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shared that Unshackled the program has existed as a department

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of the Pacific Garden Mission, telling true stories of lives

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transformed through faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, many of

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our stories have come directly from those here at the mission.

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But operating within a homeless mission has its challenges, including

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our unshackled office space. When you prioritize your guests, the

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staff offices are often the last place to receive attention,

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so we're looking to you our listeners for support as

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we continue working to create quality Christian content through our

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audio dramas. It is our desire to update the unshackled

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office space, removing decades old furnishings and creating a more

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hospitable environment for both our employees and our visitors. So

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if you want to help out with that, they are

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running a campaign on gofund me. The link is in

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the show notes if you are able to help them

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out with that. This next item is something that's really interesting. Now,

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if you've listened to the show for any length of time,

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you know that I'm always on the lookout for somebody

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who is doing something interesting with audio drama, something outside

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the box, something that is different from what is already

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out there. And that brings us to a company out

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of the UK called Truman Toys and Games, and they

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have developed a gadget called the Audio Adventures Electronic Game System. Now,

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they said this was created as a throwback to text

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based computer games and choose your own adventure books, but

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delivered in the style of a radio drama. It's for

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anybody who enjoys role playing games, audio dramas or retro

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tech gaming. From the moment our first prototype was built,

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we recognized audio adventures would work well for people who

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were blind, visually impaired, or had difficulty enjoying regular video games.

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We began working with blind game testers and people with

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reduced motor skills to make our game unit as accessible

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as possible. So this is a really interesting thing. It

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is a little game system that fits in your hand,

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and it has four buttons, and it takes a game

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cartridge and there are lights and an audio speaker, and

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that's about it. It's a very simple device, no screens,

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no internet connection, and these game cartridges have audio stories

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built into them. And as mentioned in the text I

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just read, it's similar to a choose your own adventure

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sort of book, where the story reaches a certain juncture

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and then you, as the character, get to choose where

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the story goes next, and you just press the applicable

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button for that decision, and the story progresses on. And

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it's all audio. There's no visuals, and it's just an interesting,

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interesting thing. Now. There are links in the show notes

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for more information about this system. There are demos, information

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about some of the game titles that are out there,

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and depending on when you hear this episode, you may

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be able to pre order the system or participate in

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their kickstarter, so all those links are in the show notes.

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The kickstarter is launching on August sixth, so if it

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is already running when you hear this, you can find

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the link for that. But if you hear it before,

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there's a reservation system, and it seems like it's going

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to be a really interesting thing. I don't know exactly

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how many titles they have on the platform at this point,

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but they are currently working on developing more. And the

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price is a little bit a little bit steep if

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you ask me, it's about eighty dollars at this point.

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But this is something I will definitely be watching. It's

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an interesting use of audio entertainment and I think it's

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really really cool. So I have been in communication with

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the fellow who developed and created this system. His name

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is Lee, and I'm definitely going to be following what

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happens here. And I just thought I've got to tell

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the ATC community about this because I think it's I

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think it's awesome to see somebody doing something really cool

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with audio drama, and I know that we have quite

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a few visually impaired listeners, so this might be something

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that you might be interested in as well. All Right,

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moving on to recent releases, the Audio Drama Alliance just

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released the third episode of the Sonic Comics series. If

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you haven't heard the previous ones, Sonic Comics is the

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comic strip for your Ears, and this episode is called

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What's Holding You Up? A group of would be bank

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robbers find out that they might not be cut out

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for the job. The script was written by Austin Peachey

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and was adapted from the sketch that he wrote for

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the Live ATC podcast from Sonacon twenty three. So this

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is a really fun one. You can go listen and

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download it for free at the Audio Drama Alliance website.

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Link is in the show notes. Also just released is

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the latest audio drama from Heart Matters. It is called

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The Serpent from the Beginning and it was written by

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Charlie Richards, who was a past guest here on this podcast.

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He is the creator of the audio drama Life at

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the Pond and he has also written for Adventurous and

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Odyssey in the past, but he wrote this script and

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it is a fantastic, fantastic dramatization of the story of

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Adam and Eves fall in the garden of Eden and

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then contrasting that temptation by the Serpent in Eden with

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Satan's temptation of Jesus in the desert. And it's a

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really great script. It was directed by Austin Peachey and

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it features yours truly as Adam, and I was so

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privileged to be able to participate in this fantastic audio drama.

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Alicia Hansen is the voice of Eve, Garrett Vandenberg is

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the voice of the Serpent, and Rich Swingle plays God,

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and the cast was just fantastic. There are more members

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of the cast, but the sound design and music was

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really really great as well as with all of the

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Heart Matters audio dramas, you can listen for free in

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the Heart Matters app which is linked in the show notes.

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And also because I was involved in this audio drama,

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i wrote a little behind the scenes of my experience

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working on this production on my blog and that post

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is also linked in the show notes and it includes

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a couple of photos from my vocal booth from the

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recording session, so if you want to check that out again,

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that is also linked in the show notes.

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Speaker 5: Well.

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Speaker 1: The lamp ladder Gill just wrapped up a few days ago,

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and as they do, they worked with the students of

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the Guild to produce some mini audio dramas. There are

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two of them that are available now on the Guild

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recap page, so that is linked in the show notes.

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You can stream or download them. There's also photos and

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slide shows of the classes with Phil Lawler, Daniel Cross,

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Zachary Horner, and Alan Hurley for the audio drama specific

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related classes. So again, there are two short audio dramas,

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one called The Three Weavers and another called The Making

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of a Hero, which you can go check out for free.

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Link is in the show notes. And our last recent

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release is from Pirateers. Episode seven of season three of

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Pirateeers has been released. The episode is titled Set Free

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and is exclusively streaming on Drama Fi Now. Once window

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Seat makes its launch later this fall, it will be

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available on there as well. If you missed last episode,

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we talked about window Seat, so go back and listen

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to the update segment of the last episode and I'll

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hear more about window Seat. Now more updates from the

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Pirateeers universe. You may have noticed that I said that

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this episode that was just released is exclusively on Drama

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Phi at this point. That is because Eternal Future Productions

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has pulled their podcast feed, so you can no longer

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get Pirateeers as a podcast. You have to go stream

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it from Drama Phi and as I mentioned, from Window

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Seat later. But if you want to purchase it you

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can still get that from their website. But Episode eight,

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which will be the last episode of season three, is

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in the final stages. They are working on the music

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and mixing of that one right now. Drew Forbes is

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once again the composer for this series. He is working

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on that one and this episode is going to be

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titled A Change in the Wind, And as with previous seasons,

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a supercut of the season will be available to purchase

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in digital and CD formats from the EFP store sometime

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later this year, and again they will also have a

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full season music soundtrack as well. Now, the last bit

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of news about Pirateeers, and I can't recall if we've

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mentioned this before, but this is also really cool, sort

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of following the Blackgired Chronicles book series sort of model,

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but Jonathan Cook and Alisha Hanson of Eternal Future Productions

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have teamed up with Craig Hart of LRT Media and

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they are doing a novelization of the audio drama and

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the first book is based on season one of Pirateers

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and the book is called The Fountain of Youth. It

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is completely finished and is going to be released on Amazon.

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We don't have an official release date yet, but they

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said that they will be posting that on their Facebook

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page soon. So this is really cool. Alisha Hanson said

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that this book is going to delve a little deeper

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into the characters in a way that hasn't been done

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in the audio drama, and so we're going to get

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to learn a little bit more about the Captain and

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Bosun and so I'm looking forward to this. It's going

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to be really cool. Next up, we've got some updates

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on Robin Hood Rising to Honor. Recording for season two

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is going to begin somewhere around the August September time frame,

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and they've announced that they've added a new cast member,

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and that is Jonathan David Bullock, who you may have

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heard in shows such as The Adventum, Jonathan Park, Jake

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Muller Adventures. He will be playing the role of Sirghie

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of Gisburne and Alicia said that he will be a

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character that you love to hate and the acting we

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heard so far is chilling. So I'm really really looking

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forward to this loved season one of this show, and

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it sounds like things are just getting ready to ratchet

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up and really really excited about this. It's gonna be fun. Well.

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In other Eternal Future Productions news, the show Venture is

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coming soon. The sound design for episode one is complete,

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and they have announced that the sound designer for this

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episode was Lee Stang. And I know that Lee listens

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to this show. He has reached out to us in

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the past. He's been a repeat attendee at the lamp

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Ladder Guild. In fact, I believe he may have had

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something to do with those short audio dramas, those many

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audio dramas from this year's guild that I mentioned a

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few moments ago. If that is true, Lee let us know.

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But he's working on the sound design and the music

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was composed by Frank Yulei and Alicia said that Frank

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has proven that he has a deep understanding of this

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sci fi world that is being created and so lots

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to look forward to with this show. The music is

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being mastered by Rasmussen, another composer so lots going on

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in the Eternal Future world, and that's not even all.

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If you heard the micro audio drama that Jonathan Cook

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produced not long ago called Chester and Ralphie Rise and yikes,

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there is another episode in this story world that is

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coming and it was also written and directed by Jonathan Cook.

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The script and voice track editing is all complete, and

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it's being sound designed by Alisha. The episode will be

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titled First Fires. I love it. I can't wait to

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hear this. I so enjoyed that first episode. This is

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going to be great. Jonathan's going to be reprising those

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same characters of Chester and Ralphie, and Alisha's returning as

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the bunny. So fun times in store there. And the

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last bit of your Eternal Future news is Resurgence, the

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standalone feature length production that they have been working on,

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which we still don't know a whole lot about yet,

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but they did share the artwork sometime ago and I've

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been intrigued by this. But they also just recently post

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the cast announcement actors only, no characters, so you still

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again don't know a whole lot about this story. But

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if you want to see that full cast list, link

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is in the show notes always looking forward to hearing

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what Eternal Future comes up with. They have just burst

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on the scene in recent years with some high quality

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audio drama. Partiers is one of my favorites, even though

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I'm probably biased because I have been involved in that show,

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but man, they are just killing it right now with

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the quality and the great acting and all of this.

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I mean, I'm just so thrilled and just love seeing

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what they're doing. And our final bit of upcoming audio

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drama news is that in a recent episode of the

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Official Adventures of Odyssey podcast, they announced the title of

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episode one thousand. Now to clarify in case you didn't

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know yet, the show at the One Grand Party is

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not Episode one thousand. My understanding is that is a

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show that is entirely just for the live audience, though

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who knows, maybe they'll do a recorded version like they

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did with Push the Red Button. But anyway, Episode one

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thousand will be the first episode of album seventy eight.

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It was written by Phil Lawler and it is titled

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Criss Crossed Part One. Now don't really know much about

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the episode at this point, but the fact that it

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is part one of a multi part episode. I think

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it's going to be two parts. I was slightly disappointed

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because for the thousandth episode, I expected them to do

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something special with some of the core cast members and

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have it be a standalone episode that I don't know

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that was going to be something of a to use

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an oxymoronic term, an instant classic, you know, one that

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fans could look back on and say, oh, episode one

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thousand wasn't that great. But it sounds like it's just

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going to be another episode in the series, and so

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we'll have to wait and see what it's about. But

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you know, missed opportunity in my opinion. No, I'm just kidding.

283
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I don't know exactly what to expect at this point,

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but we will have to see. But now you know

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the title. And also, I should say, in that particular episode,

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Steve Harris and Phil Lahler, the creators of Adventures in Odyssey,

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shared a whole bunch of behind the scenes of the

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genesis of this show, starting back at episode one, and

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it was a really fun conversation just hearing them talk

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about how they developed certain things, and if you missed

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that episode, you definitely want to check it out.

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Speaker 3: Testing one, two, three, Testing. That was just me talking

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I do that a lot. Where's my speech? How long

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you're going to work with it?

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Speaker 1: That's what I want to talk about. So here's what

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I'm thinking today, audio drama for brands. What do you mean,

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jd Well, think about using an audio drama as a

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marketing tool for a company. Now, I'm not necessarily talking

299
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about a sponsorship, though I'm not opposed to that, and

300
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I think that's a great thing as well. But I'm

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talking about brands or companies that actually hire a producer

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to create a show as part of their marketing budget

303
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and part of their ongoing marketing efforts, whether that's an

304
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in house team. Content marketing is a thing these days.

305
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I mean, companies hire people to produce short form video

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for YouTube or TikTok or whatever it might be, Facebook

307
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or you know, why not audio drama. And again it

308
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could be an in house team or you know, contracting

309
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that out to somebody who is well versed in audio drama.

310
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But I was already thinking about this sort of thing

311
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when Christopher Green and I ended up having a conversation

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not long ago about a lot of the brands that

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would sponsor old time radio shows. Now, if you've listened

314
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to many old time radio shows. You'll know that a

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lot of them were sponsored by cigarette brands, and obviously

316
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I'm not endorsing that, but one of the big ones

317
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that you might have heard back in the day was

318
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the Fibber, McGee and Molly Show, which was sponsored by

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Johnson's Wax and Johnson's self polishing glow coat and those

320
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home cleaning products. And you know, they were ones that

321
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were the partnered with brands such as hair cream and

322
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all kinds of different products. One of the products that

323
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always pops to my mind when I think about this

324
00:19:45,759 --> 00:19:49,079
idea of brands and audio drama is I believe it

325
00:19:49,079 --> 00:19:52,799
was Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. It was a cereal

326
00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:55,839
and one of the taglines was the breakfast Cereal shot

327
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from guns, and so I don't remember exactly what the

328
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,359
the cereal was, the actual brand of the cereal, but

329
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that announcer saying that phrase is stuck in my brain.

330
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And so there were all kinds of these things happening

331
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in the old time radio era, and not that long ago,

332
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:22,359
ge the big huge corporation General Electric, sponsored a couple

333
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:26,519
of audio dramas that were released as podcasts. Again, this

334
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:29,839
was not that long ago. I mean maybe ten years

335
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:33,799
ago or something like that. So this is something that

336
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some companies have done a bit of, but I would

337
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love to see this happen a little bit more because

338
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I think it is a great way to get new content.

339
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But it is also a benefit to these companies. This

340
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is I started to say free advertising. It's not quite free.

341
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If you're gonna do it right, you got to pay

342
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the people involved. But it is very, very inexpensive content marketing.

343
00:21:02,079 --> 00:21:04,680
So how would this work? You say, Well, think about

344
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this a pet food company that does a show with

345
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some fun animal characters, and whether that's a show for

346
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kids or for families, or it's a comedy, but that

347
00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:17,839
could go. That could take all different kinds of forms,

348
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but they could tie that into their product line. Now

349
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I'm not talking about getting beat over the head with

350
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ads throughout a show, but there are ways that you

351
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:33,559
can incorporate it into the content and develop the show

352
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around these markets that your product serves, and I think

353
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it would be a good fit. Or think about a

354
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healthcare network that creates a medical drama, or a bank

355
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that develops a sitcom around the employees of a small

356
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town branch, or a car manufacturer who makes an adventure

357
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,279
thriller about a guy who goes on a coast to

358
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coast a road trip and he stumbles upon some mystery

359
00:21:58,279 --> 00:22:01,880
related to various landmarks. And you've had secret societies and

360
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,960
terrorists and all the bad guys, and so you know,

361
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there's all kinds of different ideas you could come up with,

362
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and maybe all of these are not the most brilliant ideas,

363
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but you get the picture of what I'm talking about now.

364
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I'm not saying I have all the answers here. This

365
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segment is just about what's on my mind. So I

366
00:22:19,079 --> 00:22:22,200
may not always have fully fleshed out ideas here, but

367
00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:24,400
it's just something that I've been thinking about and I

368
00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,000
wanted to toss it out with you. Again. I'm not

369
00:22:27,079 --> 00:22:31,559
necessarily talking about sponsorships, though that is another avenue where

370
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you can team up with brands to co create a show,

371
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:39,759
even if it is not something that a company seeks out.

372
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Though that's what I would really like to see. But

373
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I've been sitting on a story for years now that

374
00:22:44,559 --> 00:22:47,440
I've been trying to get funded. It's a Western novel

375
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from an indie author who approached me about producing an

376
00:22:51,279 --> 00:22:54,240
audio drama adaptation. He doesn't have a huge budget, so

377
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,519
I wanted to try and make that happen for him.

378
00:22:56,920 --> 00:22:58,799
The story is set in Texas, so I thought it

379
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would be interesting to get the tourism board in the

380
00:23:01,319 --> 00:23:04,599
area that the story takes place involved in some way,

381
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or a tack shop or a Western gear brand, something

382
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along those lines. But being that I'm more the creative

383
00:23:12,799 --> 00:23:15,240
than the business guy, I've never been able to figure

384
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:17,319
out how to make that happen. But I think there's

385
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:20,160
potential there, and that's one of the examples that I

386
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:24,480
could see working really well. The bottom line is that

387
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:28,000
I think audio dramas that are serialized as a podcast

388
00:23:28,039 --> 00:23:32,559
would be a great marketing tool for companies, specifically national

389
00:23:32,599 --> 00:23:36,680
brands or regional brands. It used to be common on radio,

390
00:23:36,799 --> 00:23:40,640
and I think some smart marketing people should start thinking

391
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:46,480
outside the box here. And obviously there is massive exposure,

392
00:23:46,559 --> 00:23:50,400
but brands spend millions of dollars on a few second

393
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:54,920
Super Bowl ad, and a branded audio drama mini series

394
00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:58,359
could potentially have impact for years to come. With an

395
00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,519
evergreen story. It would cost a fraction of what that

396
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:08,480
thirty second ad cost. So again, I don't have all

397
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:10,960
the answers here. I don't have solutions. It's just an

398
00:24:11,039 --> 00:24:14,680
idea that I've been thinking about, and I would love

399
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,119
to hear your thoughts. If you're a marketing person out there,

400
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,680
you work for a brand, could you see this being feasible?

401
00:24:22,519 --> 00:24:25,359
Is this a viable idea? If you were a fan?

402
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,519
Would you like to see some brands do something like this?

403
00:24:28,839 --> 00:24:32,519
What if a big brand like Ford Motor Company or

404
00:24:32,599 --> 00:24:35,640
Coca Cola, or to make a show. What might that

405
00:24:35,759 --> 00:24:41,359
look like? Anyway, Hey, it's just something I've been thinking about.

406
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:43,839
Just say your name and the role you're playing in

407
00:24:43,839 --> 00:24:44,359
this production.

408
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:46,640
Speaker 2: Please excuse me, excuse me.

409
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 1: The local news station would like to talk to you. Oh,

410
00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:52,079
and here's a company play right. I'm here to ask

411
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:57,319
you a couple of questions. Well. John R. Erickson is

412
00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:00,559
the creator of the Hank account Dogs series, the author

413
00:25:00,599 --> 00:25:05,119
of over eighty books, narrator of the audiobook editions, and

414
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:09,720
just a fantastic storyteller and performer. And I am thrilled

415
00:25:09,759 --> 00:25:12,319
to have him on the show today. Now you might

416
00:25:12,319 --> 00:25:15,759
be saying, JD. Why a book author on a show

417
00:25:15,839 --> 00:25:19,680
about audio drama. Well, let me give you a few reasons.

418
00:25:19,759 --> 00:25:23,680
Number one, his audiobooks are very similar to an audio drama,

419
00:25:23,759 --> 00:25:27,599
even though it is a single voice narration production. There's music,

420
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:31,119
there's sound effects. If you haven't heard them, they're really fantastic.

421
00:25:32,279 --> 00:25:35,440
Number two, his production company has partnered with q Code

422
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:38,039
on a full scale audio dramatization of one of his

423
00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:43,000
Hanky Cow Dog books and it's fantastic as well. And

424
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:45,559
number three, I'm the host of the show and I

425
00:25:45,599 --> 00:25:50,279
wanted to talk with him, so there. Oh, of course,

426
00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:52,960
I'm just having a little fun here. But again, I

427
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,000
am absolutely thrilled to have John on the show. And

428
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,240
if you're unfamiliar with his work of Hank the Cow Dog,

429
00:25:59,519 --> 00:26:02,359
we're going to talk all about it. So John, thank

430
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:04,240
you so much for taking the time to be on

431
00:26:04,319 --> 00:26:06,200
the Audio Theater Central podcast today.

432
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,319
Speaker 4: I'm delighted to be here. Well.

433
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:11,279
Speaker 1: I was honored to get to meet you in person

434
00:26:11,319 --> 00:26:14,640
here in Phoenix a few weeks back, and I've thought

435
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:16,400
about getting you on the show for years now, but

436
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,640
for some reason, I just never reached out, and I

437
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:23,279
just decided after seeing you and seeing the book that

438
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,160
just came out this year, you know, this is the

439
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:29,759
time to try. And so I'm just glad to talk

440
00:26:29,799 --> 00:26:31,839
with you, and this is going to be a fun conversation.

441
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:34,119
There's a lot we can talk about in terms of

442
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:37,720
the Hank stories, but there's so much more about your

443
00:26:37,759 --> 00:26:42,039
story beyond just Hank the cow Dog, which they're fantastic.

444
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:45,839
But I love talking with interesting people as well, so

445
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,400
I want to dive into a little bit about you

446
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:54,160
and your story craft book as well. So let's start.

447
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:58,119
This is slightly off topic, I guess, but I'm a

448
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:02,880
huge fan of westerns. I've read nearly everything by Louis Lamore,

449
00:27:03,039 --> 00:27:05,720
and I know you started your career as a cowboy

450
00:27:05,759 --> 00:27:09,160
in Oklahoma, and the Hank stories take place on a

451
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:12,519
ranch in Texas, So I'm just curious what a typical

452
00:27:12,599 --> 00:27:15,279
day for a modern day cow hand on a cattle

453
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:16,079
ranch looks like.

454
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:22,799
Speaker 4: Well, I made my living as a cowboy for oh

455
00:27:23,039 --> 00:27:26,039
I didn't know later or ten years maybe, and that

456
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:33,160
was after spending six years in university, and I never

457
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,359
thought that I would end up back in my hometown,

458
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:41,359
much less have the opportunity to become a cowboy, which

459
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:44,160
is what I always wanted to be when I was

460
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:48,200
a boy. And that's the work that I did when

461
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:51,400
I was in high school, in college, I've worked in

462
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:55,000
summers on ranches, and I was always good at it.

463
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:01,160
So after I got married, Chris and I moved back

464
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:05,200
to the little town I grew up in, and I

465
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:10,839
worked for six years on ranches in the Oklhoma Panhandle,

466
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:16,079
which is only forty miles north of where my hometown

467
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:19,400
is in Texas. And then I worked on another ranch,

468
00:28:19,759 --> 00:28:22,640
work on through ranches no, Oklahoma, and another ranch south

469
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:27,519
of Perryton in Texas, and that that gives me the

470
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:35,519
place and the environment and the characters for all the

471
00:28:35,559 --> 00:28:39,480
Hank stories. And it was really a surprise to me.

472
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:43,240
I never thought that there was anything in this part

473
00:28:43,279 --> 00:28:46,319
of the country that would be worth writing about. I

474
00:28:46,359 --> 00:28:49,160
thought you had to move to New York or Boston

475
00:28:49,319 --> 00:28:56,039
or someplace exotic like Phoenix, and that's where literature came from.

476
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:59,720
But I tried that for fifteen years and it didn't

477
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:03,680
work out. And I was writing articles for the Cattleman

478
00:29:03,799 --> 00:29:07,559
magazine about my cowboy work, and I was doing it

479
00:29:07,759 --> 00:29:10,920
strictly for money. I had wife and two kids at

480
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:14,400
the time, and that's where the first Hank story came from.

481
00:29:15,319 --> 00:29:18,480
It didn't come in a flash of light. I didn't

482
00:29:18,519 --> 00:29:23,519
realize that Hank had magic and that he would become

483
00:29:23,559 --> 00:29:26,480
a star and I'd eventually end up working for him.

484
00:29:28,039 --> 00:29:32,559
But one thing led to another, and it all came

485
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:35,440
out of my work as a cowboy.

486
00:29:36,319 --> 00:29:40,039
Speaker 1: So can you talk us through on an average day

487
00:29:40,279 --> 00:29:43,440
a cowboy gets up, what's on the agenda?

488
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 4: Well, I've written several books on that subject, non Hank books,

489
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,359
non fiction books in which I tried to describe as

490
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:58,400
accurately as possible what cowboys in my time did in

491
00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:04,079
the nineteen seventies and eight. The work depends on the season.

492
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:11,000
In the spring, that's branding season. Round up in branding season,

493
00:30:11,039 --> 00:30:15,000
and I was working them with large crews of men,

494
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:18,559
and getting up at four thirty five o'clock in the morning,

495
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:22,359
saving a horse at a dark loading them in a

496
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:27,680
stock trailer, driving fifteen twenty miles to the round up site,

497
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:33,039
and then starting out with a crew of from seven

498
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:41,039
to twenty five cowboys and ranchers. And that was if

499
00:30:41,039 --> 00:30:44,000
you loved the cowboy life, if you loved being horseback,

500
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:48,920
that's cowboy heaven. In the summer, the work shifts. You

501
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,759
put your horse out the pasture and work on fences

502
00:30:52,799 --> 00:30:57,119
and windmills. And if your ranch has a hayfield. You

503
00:30:58,319 --> 00:31:03,519
cut and bail and haul hay, and then in the

504
00:31:03,599 --> 00:31:06,960
in the fall, there's a shipping round up, working with

505
00:31:07,039 --> 00:31:11,079
cowboy crews again pulling the calves off the mothers and

506
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:15,519
either winning them or putting them on the truck sending

507
00:31:15,599 --> 00:31:23,119
them to livestock auction. Then in around Thanksgiving in this country,

508
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:27,240
we've had several cross and the grass stops growing and

509
00:31:27,279 --> 00:31:31,640
we have to start putting out supplemental feed. And that's

510
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:38,200
a daily shore that cowboy has to do until all

511
00:31:38,319 --> 00:31:42,039
grass greens up. In the April and May, if the

512
00:31:42,039 --> 00:31:49,039
weather's very cold, we have to chop ice. And sometimes

513
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:51,319
that ice it's so thick we have to cut it

514
00:31:51,319 --> 00:31:56,519
with a chainsaw. And the spring comes and the cycle

515
00:31:56,599 --> 00:32:01,079
begins again, the round up season and getting the horses

516
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:06,839
back in shape and falling a horse to the next

517
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:10,400
round up, and all of that kind of work is

518
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:11,559
in the hag stories.

519
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:14,559
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And that's what I was getting ready to say.

520
00:32:14,559 --> 00:32:16,799
It's like, it's it's very obvious all of those different

521
00:32:16,799 --> 00:32:20,359
elements show up in the library of Hank books, and

522
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:24,599
so it's obvious that this was integral to the development

523
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,039
of these stories. And that's what I think brings about

524
00:32:28,079 --> 00:32:31,119
the that they feel so real. Even though there's there's

525
00:32:31,119 --> 00:32:35,000
such a comedy to the stories, there's there's so much

526
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,160
genuine real life in there because of your experiences that

527
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:41,880
they just feel they feel so homey, you know, And

528
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:43,640
I love that feeling with the stories.

529
00:32:44,359 --> 00:32:45,079
Speaker 4: Yeah.

530
00:32:45,119 --> 00:32:47,640
Speaker 1: Well, I want to talk a little bit about your

531
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:50,960
book story Craft, because we have a lot of creatives

532
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:52,920
who listen to the show as well as fans of

533
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:56,279
audio drama and so, you know, industry folks who are

534
00:32:56,279 --> 00:32:59,880
writers and things like that, so you know this book.

535
00:33:00,519 --> 00:33:02,680
I didn't even know that this existed. I mean, I've

536
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:06,480
been familiar with Hank for decades and I've been following

537
00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:09,839
those stories, but I hadn't come across this book until

538
00:33:09,839 --> 00:33:12,319
I was getting ready for this conversation and I found it,

539
00:33:12,359 --> 00:33:15,000
and so I bought it, had it shipped right over

540
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:16,319
to me, and I've been reading it the last few

541
00:33:16,359 --> 00:33:20,839
days and it's sort of a combination memoir and essays

542
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:25,240
on writing, and I'm absolutely loving it. And it's been

543
00:33:25,279 --> 00:33:28,079
so inspiring to me as one who is basically trying

544
00:33:28,119 --> 00:33:31,440
to do in the world of podcasting and audio drama

545
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:33,559
what you did in the book world and that is

546
00:33:33,599 --> 00:33:37,559
creating clean, family centered content to counter the glut of

547
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:42,519
unsavory stuff that's out there. And so again, I'm thoroughly

548
00:33:42,559 --> 00:33:45,920
loving this book and I'm not through it, but there's

549
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,440
been a several different moments where I've just like, man,

550
00:33:48,559 --> 00:33:51,480
this is really good stuff, and I want to read

551
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:55,480
a paragraph here and get your thoughts if you could

552
00:33:55,519 --> 00:33:58,799
expound on it a little bit. This is from page

553
00:33:58,799 --> 00:34:01,920
twenty nine. You said, our venture speaking of the Hanky

554
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:05,160
cow Dog stories at Maverick Books, our venture should have failed,

555
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:09,159
but somehow it didn't. And that is important information. If

556
00:34:09,199 --> 00:34:11,360
we don't approve of the books and movies offered by

557
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:15,639
the establishment media, we have the option of creating something better.

558
00:34:16,199 --> 00:34:19,159
It will require the best efforts of brave entrepreneurs and

559
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:23,039
enlightened investors. It won't be easy, but it can be done.

560
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:26,599
And again, I've found your story so far to be

561
00:34:27,159 --> 00:34:29,719
so inspiring to me. Could you expound a little bit

562
00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:33,679
on that last thing there? You know you've got to

563
00:34:33,679 --> 00:34:36,960
have the combination of investors and the entrepreneurs and the

564
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,559
creative types. Can you talk a little bit about that.

565
00:34:40,199 --> 00:34:44,000
Speaker 4: Well, I wrote that book after I had been invited

566
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:49,199
to speak at several homeschool conventions, and had been invited

567
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:55,639
to be a guest author at Patrick Kinner College in Purcellville, Virginia,

568
00:34:55,920 --> 00:35:01,360
which is a very fine Christian college, and which is

569
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:07,400
kind of a classical approach to university education. It's what

570
00:35:07,679 --> 00:35:13,440
liberal education, liberal arts education used to be before it

571
00:35:13,519 --> 00:35:20,599
was corrupted. It's based on the fundamentals of Western civilization,

572
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:26,039
which is the classical tradition of Greece and to a

573
00:35:26,159 --> 00:35:32,880
lesser extent, Rome combined with the Judeo Christian scriptures and tradition,

574
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:38,719
and that is what Western civilization always has been. And

575
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:43,360
in the course of being around the homeschoolers and the

576
00:35:44,199 --> 00:35:47,239
kids at Patrick Henry, they were very curious about what

577
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:49,159
I was doing. A lot of them had been raised

578
00:35:49,199 --> 00:35:53,920
on Hank books or Hank audio books or both, and

579
00:35:53,079 --> 00:35:56,639
they were very curious about what I did as a writer.

580
00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:59,280
And I was not. I was doing a lot of

581
00:36:00,519 --> 00:36:05,440
because I had this little skill of being able to

582
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:08,719
open any Hank book on any page and start reading

583
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:12,480
it and do the voices and characters. And I was

584
00:36:12,519 --> 00:36:16,000
doing that a lot in schools and then homeschool conventions,

585
00:36:16,039 --> 00:36:19,079
and so I was sort of in the entertainment business

586
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:26,159
without an entertainment company telling me what to do, and

587
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:34,320
so I seldom had a request from adults who were

588
00:36:35,199 --> 00:36:38,400
interested in writing and how and why I did the

589
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:42,679
things I did. And so I wrote that book for

590
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:47,760
the homeschool kids and the kids at Patrick Kinley and

591
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:54,400
other Christian colleges who sincerely wanted good advice on how

592
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:57,960
to be in the writing business or the entertainment business.

593
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:02,559
And I thought. I thought filmmakers, for example, were getting

594
00:37:02,679 --> 00:37:08,280
terrible advice because they specialized in making films that nobody

595
00:37:08,519 --> 00:37:11,960
wanted to watch a second time. They wanted to preach.

596
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:14,440
It's what they wanted to do. They didn't want to

597
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:19,440
make beautiful movies. And I think to some degree that's

598
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:23,559
also true of the Christians who were trying to write

599
00:37:23,599 --> 00:37:29,199
novels and they didn't know what else to do. And

600
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:33,239
so I thought that I would take my time out

601
00:37:33,239 --> 00:37:37,159
from doing what I would usually do and do something

602
00:37:37,199 --> 00:37:40,159
that I usually didn't do, which is talk about my

603
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,599
writing of what I do. At that time, I didn't

604
00:37:43,639 --> 00:37:47,880
talk much about it. I just did it, and it

605
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,639
was very intuitive, and I didn't think much about it.

606
00:37:51,679 --> 00:37:53,800
I didn't want to think much about it. If I

607
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:57,920
thought too much about it, i'd ruin it, but I

608
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:03,360
made the exception with story cred and I decided not

609
00:38:03,599 --> 00:38:07,239
to take it to a Christian publisher, even though as

610
00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:11,920
far as I'm concerned, it's a very Christian book, although

611
00:38:12,079 --> 00:38:16,000
I think it has good advice for people who aren't Christians.

612
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:19,760
But I decided not to take it to a Christian

613
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:24,440
publisher because I had no contact with Christian publishers and

614
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:28,480
I had already gotten a thousand rejection slips from pagan

615
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:33,320
publishing companies in New York, and I didn't want to

616
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:36,880
get any more rejection slips, and I didn't want to

617
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:39,519
beg any more publishers, and so I had my own

618
00:38:39,519 --> 00:38:43,920
publishing company. I just published it myself, and we're not

619
00:38:44,119 --> 00:38:48,239
very good at advertising. I don't like advertising. I think

620
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:52,719
things should sell themselves by word of mouth, on their

621
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:55,480
own track record and their own integrity. And that's the

622
00:38:55,519 --> 00:38:59,039
way the audio books have sold themselves. We've never advertised

623
00:38:59,079 --> 00:39:03,320
them anywhere, so that's the way. It was a storycraft.

624
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,400
It's been kind of steps. Most people have never heard

625
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:11,480
of it, and they find it sometimes when they send

626
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:14,719
me an email or a letter wanting advice on writing,

627
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,599
and I can tell them my best advice is in

628
00:39:17,639 --> 00:39:18,760
the book Storycraft.

629
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,239
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And I'm going to tell the listener, if

630
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:26,559
you are a creative, you will not regret picking up

631
00:39:26,559 --> 00:39:28,559
a copy of this book. It is linked in the

632
00:39:28,559 --> 00:39:31,280
show notes, and I think it is well worth your time.

633
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:35,559
Now you touch on this in Storycraft, But audiobooks were

634
00:39:35,599 --> 00:39:38,079
not nearly as popular back then as they are now.

635
00:39:38,119 --> 00:39:41,719
I mean, it's a massive industry today, but it wasn't

636
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:44,280
back then in the early eighties. So can you share

637
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:47,000
with the listener why you decided to make audio versions

638
00:39:47,079 --> 00:39:48,400
in addition to writing the books.

639
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,079
Speaker 4: As a matter of fact, I don't think the word

640
00:39:51,159 --> 00:39:54,320
audio book even existed at that time. I don't think

641
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:56,000
i'd ever heard the term.

642
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:56,760
Speaker 1: Probably true.

643
00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'd never heard of an author recording his

644
00:40:01,519 --> 00:40:06,119
own books. But the Hank stories, they were patterned on

645
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:14,239
an oral tradition of storytelling that is native to my

646
00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:18,199
part of the country, in the ranching and farming agriculture.

647
00:40:19,159 --> 00:40:24,639
Agricultural families I think have always told stories, and it's

648
00:40:24,679 --> 00:40:28,239
something they do around the kitchen table on a cold

649
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:32,960
winter night. They've read aloud to each other. They revival stories,

650
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:38,199
allowed to each other. It was in my tradition and

651
00:40:39,199 --> 00:40:43,320
Hank comes out of this oral tradition of storytelling, and

652
00:40:44,239 --> 00:40:49,360
so from the beginning, the Hank stories were not intended

653
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,800
for children, but they were always meant to be read aloud.

654
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:58,519
So the only way I had a publicizing my publishing

655
00:40:58,599 --> 00:41:03,320
company was by going out and reading Hank aloud to

656
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:08,960
audiences in my area. They were mostly rural people and

657
00:41:09,119 --> 00:41:15,360
small town people, people involved in agriculture, and I would

658
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:20,840
go and do after dinner speaking to agricultural audiences all

659
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:26,199
the way from shrimpers on the Gulf Coast in Texas

660
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:31,000
up the dairy farmers in Iowa, cattle feeders in Montana,

661
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:35,719
ranches in Kansas, and barley growers up in Alberta, Canada.

662
00:41:37,039 --> 00:41:40,119
I did the same thing for each one of those audiences.

663
00:41:40,159 --> 00:41:43,920
I read Hank aloud. There were rarely any kids in

664
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:48,400
the audience, and they went over very well. And that's

665
00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:52,639
how I widened the circle and let people know what

666
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:56,079
I was doing. And since I was getting a good

667
00:41:56,119 --> 00:41:59,599
response to those programs and was getting paid as an

668
00:41:59,639 --> 00:42:02,559
after inner speaker, I knew that I could do the

669
00:42:02,679 --> 00:42:07,320
voices of at least the fourteen characters that were in

670
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:10,400
the first Tank book, and so I found a company

671
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:15,280
in Arlington, Texas that did books on tape. I think

672
00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:19,639
they called them, and they sent me a contract they

673
00:42:19,639 --> 00:42:22,719
were going to do hire all the actors and do

674
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:26,360
all the production. And before I signed the contract, I

675
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:31,599
found out that they went bankrupt. So I found, to

676
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:35,719
my surprise that there was a recording studio in Amarilla.

677
00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:42,320
They did mostly advertisements for radio and television. And I

678
00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:44,239
called them up and said, you ever do a book

679
00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:47,320
on tape? They said nope, And I said, well I

680
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:49,920
hadn't either. You want to give it a try? And

681
00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:53,280
they said sure, come on. So I went in and

682
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:57,400
I met up in the studio and I read the

683
00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:00,960
first Tank book, and I think it he took four

684
00:43:01,039 --> 00:43:04,559
or five hours. And when I was done, the guy said,

685
00:43:04,599 --> 00:43:07,119
what do you want me to do with this? I said,

686
00:43:07,119 --> 00:43:10,119
make it sound like an old nineteen fifties radio program,

687
00:43:10,599 --> 00:43:13,800
and he smiled and he said that sounds great. I

688
00:43:13,920 --> 00:43:18,280
was a radio kid. So he had a library of

689
00:43:19,079 --> 00:43:22,280
background music and sound effects that he used in the

690
00:43:22,719 --> 00:43:28,880
advertisements radio ads, and so he edited my mistakes out

691
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:32,320
with a razor blade. He was recording on a sixteen

692
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:34,639
track audio tape.

693
00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:35,079
Speaker 1: Wow.

694
00:43:37,199 --> 00:43:41,480
Speaker 4: He made his edits with a razor blade, spliced it

695
00:43:41,559 --> 00:43:48,079
back together with tape and added theme music and sound effects,

696
00:43:48,599 --> 00:43:51,559
and I recorded songs to go with each one of

697
00:43:51,559 --> 00:43:55,199
those audio books. I come from a musical background, and

698
00:43:56,840 --> 00:43:59,559
I'm not a great musician. I don't read music, I

699
00:43:59,559 --> 00:44:03,000
don't write music. But I come up with the songs.

700
00:44:03,039 --> 00:44:05,400
And I play the bando and my wife plays the

701
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:10,079
mangolin and we sing in the church choir. And I

702
00:44:10,119 --> 00:44:13,320
wanted to make a joyful noise with music, and so

703
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:17,000
I wrote funny songs. And some of them are pretty songs.

704
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:20,320
Some of them might even be beautiful songs. I think

705
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:25,320
some of them are. But they add something to the

706
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:30,119
audio books that you wouldn't get if this had been

707
00:44:30,159 --> 00:44:36,480
done by a stiff necked professional outfit that was working

708
00:44:36,519 --> 00:44:41,199
professional actors. It was an amateur production from the beginning,

709
00:44:41,199 --> 00:44:45,159
and I've never pretended to be an actor, and I

710
00:44:45,199 --> 00:44:48,719
don't care. And you know what, my audience doesn't care either.

711
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:54,960
My audience will forgive anything except a lie, and I

712
00:44:55,079 --> 00:44:58,320
never lie to my audience. So we get along fine.

713
00:45:00,639 --> 00:45:01,159
Speaker 1: That's great.

714
00:45:01,239 --> 00:45:01,519
Speaker 4: Yeah.

715
00:45:01,599 --> 00:45:03,679
Speaker 1: When I came across that passage in the book that

716
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:06,239
talked about you'd sell and the producer, I wanted to

717
00:45:06,239 --> 00:45:08,360
sound like a classic radio show. I was like, Oh, yes,

718
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:12,079
that makes so much sense because they've they've always felt

719
00:45:12,119 --> 00:45:14,559
like even though it is the text of the book,

720
00:45:14,559 --> 00:45:18,599
they've always felt like it was a show, and they've

721
00:45:18,679 --> 00:45:23,039
just probably one of the best transitions from from the

722
00:45:23,079 --> 00:45:28,079
page to audio for books, and I love it. So

723
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:30,960
you mentioned in the book that you grew up listening

724
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:33,039
to a lot of old time radio shows. So what

725
00:45:33,079 --> 00:45:34,920
are some of the shows that that you remember from

726
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:36,239
back then. Any favorites from that.

727
00:45:36,199 --> 00:45:41,679
Speaker 4: Era, Sergeant Pricelon or the yukon Ah, Bobby Benson and

728
00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:46,639
the b Barbie Riders. I love a mystery family theater.

729
00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:51,679
I think that I can remember in the forties some

730
00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:58,320
Tom Mix programs that goes way back to that. He

731
00:45:58,599 --> 00:46:05,559
was a a Western actor. But yeah, I was a

732
00:46:05,679 --> 00:46:08,840
radio kid. I spent a lot of time listening to

733
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:14,920
the radio. My father despised television and he never wanted

734
00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:19,519
it in our house, and so I never have had

735
00:46:19,559 --> 00:46:23,119
a comfortable relationship with television. Chris and I have been

736
00:46:23,159 --> 00:46:26,840
married for fifty five years and we never had a television.

737
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:33,920
We watch movies on DVD and we used VCR when

738
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:37,800
that was the medium. We don't do streaming, and I

739
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:40,800
don't think we ever will. We're going to stick with DVD,

740
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:45,440
and I think there's a growing movement of people who

741
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:49,800
have decided that's the way to go because the tech companies,

742
00:46:50,559 --> 00:46:56,280
when you depend on them for streaming, you don't own

743
00:46:56,360 --> 00:47:00,159
the things, yep, and they have all these ways of

744
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:03,960
following you around to try to sell you something else

745
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:09,559
that you don't want. So DVDs. We've got a big

746
00:47:09,639 --> 00:47:13,320
library and DVDs, and a lot of them are old.

747
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:17,920
We don't go to theaters anymore. We watch the movies

748
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:22,480
that bring us the gift of entertainment. And that's what

749
00:47:22,559 --> 00:47:25,639
I try to do with the Hank audio books. It's

750
00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:30,639
like a good meal. It makes your audience either better

751
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:33,880
or worse. I think that that should be the standard

752
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:37,599
for art. Why can't art follow the same standards that

753
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:42,199
my wife follows in her kitchen, or that a good

754
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:48,280
restaurant would follow. You give your customers something that doesn't

755
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:52,360
make them want a puke. Why can't argue that?

756
00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:57,360
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Yeah, I think at one point in a part

757
00:47:57,360 --> 00:47:59,599
of story Craft, you said something along the lines of

758
00:48:00,199 --> 00:48:03,599
art that uplifts. I don't think that was the right word,

759
00:48:03,599 --> 00:48:06,400
but something along those lines. Art that uplifts and not

760
00:48:06,480 --> 00:48:10,679
doesn't poison the consumer. And I think it's similar to

761
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:11,800
what you're saying now. I love it.

762
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:18,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean we should expect our our tools,

763
00:48:18,639 --> 00:48:26,960
our food, our entertainment, our literature to make us better, wiser, happier.

764
00:48:27,559 --> 00:48:32,320
It should give us laughter or tears, but not They

765
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:33,320
shouldn't be toxic.

766
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:34,360
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm.

767
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:37,480
Speaker 4: I don't know how art has gotten by with that

768
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:41,639
for so many years. Yes, it's a legacy of the

769
00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:43,639
universities that are failing now.

770
00:48:44,280 --> 00:48:50,039
Speaker 1: M It's an important topic and I'm so much on

771
00:48:50,079 --> 00:48:53,159
the same page with you in that regard. And I

772
00:48:53,199 --> 00:48:57,880
think audio content or audio storytelling is such a wonderful

773
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:01,360
medium anyway, because it's so intimate and the listener can

774
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:04,559
just kind of, I don't know, scoot right up to

775
00:49:05,559 --> 00:49:07,400
whatever they're listening on and it feels like you're just

776
00:49:07,519 --> 00:49:09,400
right there listening to somebody tell you a story. And

777
00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:13,159
that's exactly how you come across with the Hank audiobooks.

778
00:49:13,639 --> 00:49:17,079
And one of the big things about these is the music,

779
00:49:17,079 --> 00:49:18,960
which you alluded to a moment ago. Now I'm going

780
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:21,360
to tell the listener if you want, all the history

781
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:24,079
behind the music and the songs and how John ended

782
00:49:24,159 --> 00:49:27,119
up partnering with a musician to help bring those to life.

783
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:30,079
You got to find that story in the story craft book.

784
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:32,480
We don't have time to go over all of that here,

785
00:49:33,159 --> 00:49:36,440
but that definitely is one of the big parts. And

786
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:39,519
of course you mentioned the character voices. Now, how long

787
00:49:39,559 --> 00:49:41,480
did it take you to come up with the voices

788
00:49:41,519 --> 00:49:44,480
for the main characters like Hank, Drover and Pete. They're

789
00:49:44,559 --> 00:49:47,119
very distinct, which is important in an audio format. You

790
00:49:47,159 --> 00:49:50,760
want to have the character sound different, and you do

791
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:52,880
it so seamlessly. I mean, I saw you do it

792
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:56,239
live on stage. What was your approach to creating those.

793
00:49:57,599 --> 00:50:05,199
Speaker 4: Well, it's my answer seems implausible, but it takes no

794
00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:10,880
effort for me. I did nothing to rehearse those stories.

795
00:50:12,079 --> 00:50:15,920
I had the voices in my head. They appeared when

796
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:21,039
I did the first reading at a rotary club or

797
00:50:21,039 --> 00:50:24,320
a ladies club and Perry. Then I could do the

798
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:27,639
voices of all those characters. I'm not trained as an actor.

799
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:31,320
I'm not qualified to do it. When I go and

800
00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:36,400
do an audio book, I do nothing to prepare. I

801
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:41,280
don't study the text, I don't rehearse anything. I go

802
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:45,119
into the studio and I start reading and I can

803
00:50:45,159 --> 00:50:49,599
do it. I can't explain how or why, but it's

804
00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:52,400
just a blessing that dropped out of the sky. And

805
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:57,119
as I say, I'm not qualified to do an audio book,

806
00:50:57,159 --> 00:51:01,079
I'm not qualified to record the songs. I'm an amateur

807
00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:04,119
and I have a blast.

808
00:51:06,039 --> 00:51:08,679
Speaker 1: And it comes through, and that's that's important. I mean,

809
00:51:08,679 --> 00:51:10,880
you say you're not trained as an actor, but there's

810
00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:13,039
a there's an instinct there for storytelling, as you said,

811
00:51:13,039 --> 00:51:16,119
as part of your tradition growing up, and so that

812
00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:19,199
comes through in the performance. And of course there's a

813
00:51:19,199 --> 00:51:21,840
benefit being the author of the material, so you're already

814
00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:25,039
familiar with things. But I'm sure the voice actors in

815
00:51:25,079 --> 00:51:27,280
the audience are a little jealous of your ability to

816
00:51:27,360 --> 00:51:30,360
just pull these these character voices out and stay in

817
00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:31,320
them so easily.

818
00:51:32,199 --> 00:51:36,679
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, now, when I write a character when I'm

819
00:51:36,679 --> 00:51:40,360
writing the book, I have to know that I can

820
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:43,960
do that character when I go to the studio, and

821
00:51:44,039 --> 00:51:47,320
I have to work that out when I'm writing the story.

822
00:51:48,039 --> 00:51:51,119
And if I came up with a character with no

823
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:55,840
I didn't have any idea how the voice would sound,

824
00:51:55,960 --> 00:52:00,480
I couldn't put it in because I'm going to be

825
00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:03,159
on the spot when I go into the studio. I

826
00:52:03,199 --> 00:52:08,199
got to come up with something, but it's just a

827
00:52:08,280 --> 00:52:11,000
very natural thing for me. Yeah.

828
00:52:11,119 --> 00:52:13,199
Speaker 1: Some of my favorites are are the Buzzards. I mean,

829
00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:15,880
they just crack me up just the way they speak.

830
00:52:15,920 --> 00:52:17,760
It's it's always so much fun when they show up

831
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:18,320
in the story.

832
00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:23,719
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, they are very funny characters.

833
00:52:24,559 --> 00:52:26,440
Speaker 1: Well, you say, you say you have a blast with it,

834
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:29,320
and I'm sure that writing for the character of Hank

835
00:52:29,360 --> 00:52:31,320
is a blast since he's the point of view character.

836
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:34,519
But of the minor characters, which one do you have

837
00:52:34,559 --> 00:52:36,320
the most fun writing their dialogue?

838
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:42,679
Speaker 4: Well, a guy in Joplin, Missouri, listened to every one

839
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:45,000
of those audio books. You wanted to find out how

840
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:49,079
many characters I had. He counted one hundred and fifty three.

841
00:52:49,599 --> 00:52:50,079
Speaker 1: Wow.

842
00:52:50,199 --> 00:52:54,119
Speaker 4: So you know, I don't have any despicable characters in

843
00:52:54,159 --> 00:52:57,719
my stories. I don't want to spend my time writing

844
00:52:57,920 --> 00:53:03,280
or thinking about despicable people or animals. Some of my

845
00:53:03,480 --> 00:53:09,280
characters are better than others. They all have their bad habits,

846
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:13,840
but I like all of them. And the kaya Brothers

847
00:53:14,599 --> 00:53:18,400
they're a blasts. They remind me of when I was

848
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:21,719
in junior high in the eighth grade rip and snort

849
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:26,039
her eighth grade boys, that's what they offered. And Wallace

850
00:53:26,119 --> 00:53:29,760
and Junior. They're very funny characters. J. T. Cluck the

851
00:53:29,800 --> 00:53:34,000
head Rooster. I was listening to a Hank audio book,

852
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:37,400
which I often do coincidentally, I'm a big fan of

853
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:45,079
the audio books, and it was The Troublesome Lady. And

854
00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:49,000
there's this character named Miss Scamper, and she has the

855
00:53:49,119 --> 00:53:54,320
voice of May West. May West was an actress back

856
00:53:54,400 --> 00:54:00,119
in the thirties, and she was the sultry blonde and

857
00:54:00,559 --> 00:54:05,400
had this distinctive way of talking. And I was lucky

858
00:54:05,519 --> 00:54:09,119
enough to see some revivals of her movies when I

859
00:54:09,320 --> 00:54:13,079
was at Harvard Divinity School and living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

860
00:54:13,079 --> 00:54:16,719
They had old time movie revivals and so I got

861
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:20,000
to see Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers and

862
00:54:20,280 --> 00:54:24,800
Maywest and W. C. Fields, all really great comedians. And

863
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:29,079
so Miss Scamper is a funny character. She hadn't I

864
00:54:29,119 --> 00:54:32,719
think she's been into a three of the stories. But

865
00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:40,199
Dog found Ralph, Miss Viola, her father slim.

866
00:54:40,400 --> 00:54:45,880
Speaker 1: So many to choose from. Yeah, yeah, So a few

867
00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:50,880
years ago Q Code and HDC Productions teamed up and

868
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:56,079
they produced a five episode podcast audio drama of Hanky

869
00:54:56,079 --> 00:55:00,119
Cow Dog called Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest, and

870
00:55:00,199 --> 00:55:03,800
it actually picked up several award nominations, including a Best

871
00:55:03,840 --> 00:55:08,320
News Show for the Seneca Awards in twenty twenty, and

872
00:55:09,559 --> 00:55:13,239
Cynthia Arrivo as Madam Moonshine picked up a nomination for

873
00:55:13,239 --> 00:55:17,559
Best Supporting Actress at the Senecas. So this was a

874
00:55:17,679 --> 00:55:22,480
really interesting foray into a full fledged audio drama from

875
00:55:22,519 --> 00:55:26,199
the audiobook versions. Can you tell us how that deal

876
00:55:26,239 --> 00:55:28,519
with q code came about? How they approached you.

877
00:55:28,599 --> 00:55:33,039
Speaker 5: Initially, we had been talking with a movie director in

878
00:55:33,119 --> 00:55:39,000
Austin named Jeff Nichols, and his latest movie is called

879
00:55:39,039 --> 00:55:39,760
Bike Riders.

880
00:55:39,800 --> 00:55:43,440
Speaker 4: It's out now. I haven't seen it. Before that, he

881
00:55:43,480 --> 00:55:48,599
did a movie called Loving, and then before that he

882
00:55:48,639 --> 00:55:54,960
did one called Mud with McConaughey, and he found the

883
00:55:55,039 --> 00:55:58,119
Hank book in his wife's library, I think, and was

884
00:55:58,159 --> 00:56:01,239
reading it to his seven year old bok. He was

885
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:04,119
reading The Dark Unchanted Forest and he and the boy

886
00:56:04,199 --> 00:56:06,480
both just laughed all the way through it. And when

887
00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:09,360
he was done, he he asked his people, see if

888
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:11,440
you can get a hold of this Ericson guy and

889
00:56:11,559 --> 00:56:17,159
see about the movie rights. So he called us and

890
00:56:18,119 --> 00:56:23,679
we had a little investment group made up of people

891
00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:27,280
mostly from my hometown of Perry, Can who had raised

892
00:56:27,320 --> 00:56:30,960
their kids and grandkids on Hank books and audio books

893
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:35,079
and didn't want They all wanted Hank to be made

894
00:56:35,079 --> 00:56:39,719
into a beautiful movie that would be worthy of their

895
00:56:39,800 --> 00:56:44,400
children and grandchildren. This was a series of stories that

896
00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:50,760
originated here in this hostile environment of the Texas Panhandle.

897
00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:56,679
But it was beautiful and they were willing to put

898
00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:59,400
up some money to try to make a movie that

899
00:57:00,519 --> 00:57:04,639
was controlled by us and not somebody in New York

900
00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:11,960
or Los Angeles. And so we had conversations with Jeff Nichols.

901
00:57:12,000 --> 00:57:15,920
He came up here and spent several days on our ranch,

902
00:57:15,960 --> 00:57:20,320
and he met our investors, and he saw where I

903
00:57:20,480 --> 00:57:23,639
came from, and I think he respected the integrity of

904
00:57:23,679 --> 00:57:27,599
the stories, the goodness of the stories, and he was

905
00:57:27,679 --> 00:57:32,039
willing to try to get that into an animated movie

906
00:57:32,079 --> 00:57:38,320
and protect it. And he had good contacts in Hollywood,

907
00:57:38,400 --> 00:57:43,480
but he didn't live there, and he's from Arkansas, so

908
00:57:43,679 --> 00:57:49,079
he has his roots in the American heartland just like

909
00:57:49,199 --> 00:57:56,239
I do. So he didn't have success in finding an

910
00:57:56,360 --> 00:58:01,320
established animation company that was interested in the story that

911
00:58:01,440 --> 00:58:05,519
he put together, which was very true to my book,

912
00:58:07,079 --> 00:58:13,199
and so q code does these podcasts as a way.

913
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:17,760
It's kind of a step towards a movie. So Jeff

914
00:58:17,840 --> 00:58:24,000
Nichols put together a gold plated cast that had five

915
00:58:24,119 --> 00:58:28,800
or six people who'd been nominated for Academy Awards, and

916
00:58:28,239 --> 00:58:33,360
he did screenplay and this was during COVID we recorded it.

917
00:58:34,840 --> 00:58:37,239
He asked me to do the voice of Wallace the Buzzard,

918
00:58:37,360 --> 00:58:41,719
which I was very pleased to do. And I recorded

919
00:58:41,800 --> 00:58:46,119
my part in Amarilla and had a I guess a

920
00:58:46,239 --> 00:58:53,719
FaceTime link with Jeff who was in Austin, so everybody

921
00:58:53,840 --> 00:58:57,400
was locked down and we had to do it remotely,

922
00:58:58,039 --> 00:59:00,519
and that's the way he did it, with all those

923
00:59:00,599 --> 00:59:05,400
actors McConaughey and Cynthia Rebo I think Cynthia Ribo lived

924
00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:10,119
in London. And anyway, he put it together, and it

925
00:59:10,159 --> 00:59:13,599
was never intended to be just a podcast. It was

926
00:59:13,719 --> 00:59:17,239
meant to be a vehicle that we could take to

927
00:59:18,199 --> 00:59:22,960
production companies or investors that would take us to the

928
00:59:23,679 --> 00:59:27,480
next step towards an animated movie. And that is what

929
00:59:27,559 --> 00:59:32,280
we are doing. And our investor group in Ferryton paid

930
00:59:32,320 --> 00:59:38,639
for that production and owns it. My son Mark is

931
00:59:38,679 --> 00:59:44,760
the executive that's running HDC Productions with the Higher investment company,

932
00:59:45,440 --> 00:59:51,800
and he is preparing a pitch deck, is what it's called,

933
00:59:52,199 --> 00:59:56,360
for potential investors, and we're very close to going out

934
00:59:56,800 --> 01:00:01,400
and looking for money in the American heartland to pay

935
01:00:01,480 --> 01:00:09,519
for an animated movie that we control. The major investors

936
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:12,440
and creative control is going to be in my little

937
01:00:12,480 --> 01:00:18,719
hometown of Ferryton, Texas, population eight thousand. So there was

938
01:00:18,760 --> 01:00:22,519
some talk of doing another podcast, but Jeff Nichols his

939
01:00:22,719 --> 01:00:26,880
main interest was not in doing podcasts, and the actors

940
01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:29,960
were the same way. They didn't make much money on

941
01:00:30,000 --> 01:00:34,559
the podcast. They wanted that it was their contribution to

942
01:00:35,800 --> 01:00:41,000
moving the project into an animated movie and possibly a

943
01:00:41,039 --> 01:00:42,719
series of animated movies.

944
01:00:43,239 --> 01:00:46,920
Speaker 1: Okay, gotcha. Well sounds like we're not going to get

945
01:00:46,960 --> 01:00:50,880
any more Hank the cow Dog audio dramas. But we

946
01:00:50,920 --> 01:00:53,440
always have the audio books and you can always re

947
01:00:53,480 --> 01:00:56,280
listen to this one over and again, so now you

948
01:00:56,320 --> 01:00:58,440
can tell us. So what did you think of Matthew

949
01:00:58,480 --> 01:00:59,320
McConaughey's Hank.

950
01:01:00,239 --> 01:01:05,159
Speaker 4: I thought he did very well. McCarthey is a professional actor.

951
01:01:06,239 --> 01:01:09,400
He has studied his craft, and he's very good at it.

952
01:01:09,639 --> 01:01:14,840
And he he has a range in his voice, range

953
01:01:14,840 --> 01:01:18,079
of sounds that I don't have, so he can do

954
01:01:18,159 --> 01:01:23,639
things with that character that I can't do. And I'm

955
01:01:23,679 --> 01:01:26,920
not jealous of him. I'm sure he's not jealous of

956
01:01:26,960 --> 01:01:30,519
me if he's ever even listened to an audio my

957
01:01:30,639 --> 01:01:34,159
audio books. But you know, there's room, there's room in

958
01:01:34,199 --> 01:01:40,159
this world. Look at all the actors that have done

959
01:01:40,199 --> 01:01:46,519
brilliant portrayals of the Sherlock Holmes stories. You know, there

960
01:01:46,639 --> 01:01:50,760
was Basil Rathbone and oh there's been at least four

961
01:01:50,880 --> 01:01:55,239
or five that have made movies or television series out

962
01:01:55,280 --> 01:01:58,559
of out of those characters. And they're all good. And

963
01:01:58,679 --> 01:02:02,320
I think the same as true can be true of

964
01:02:02,440 --> 01:02:04,719
the Haank stories. I'm going to go on and do

965
01:02:04,880 --> 01:02:08,039
my audio books and I'm gonna put a lot of

966
01:02:08,079 --> 01:02:12,920
babies to sleep in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and even

967
01:02:13,159 --> 01:02:17,639
as far as Phoenix, maybe maybe even places in California.

968
01:02:18,559 --> 01:02:24,239
And that's that's a great function for audio books. And

969
01:02:25,280 --> 01:02:28,480
there's a place for McConaughey doing the voice of Hank

970
01:02:28,679 --> 01:02:34,039
in an animated movie. And I'm proud to work with him.

971
01:02:34,079 --> 01:02:36,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to say, I was so surprised when

972
01:02:36,719 --> 01:02:39,119
that when I heard the news about that show coming up,

973
01:02:39,119 --> 01:02:43,000
and I was really, really, really enjoyed listening to it.

974
01:02:43,039 --> 01:02:46,639
And of course the performances were fantastic, And it's always

975
01:02:47,079 --> 01:02:50,760
a treat to have a great adaptation that stays faithful

976
01:02:50,800 --> 01:02:55,639
to the source material. And well, we know from past

977
01:02:55,679 --> 01:03:00,199
experiences with certain production houses here in the US it

978
01:03:00,199 --> 01:03:03,800
hasn't always been the case. So having full control over it,

979
01:03:03,840 --> 01:03:07,079
I'm sure was a big sticking point for you. So

980
01:03:07,159 --> 01:03:08,239
I'm glad that worked out.

981
01:03:08,599 --> 01:03:10,159
Speaker 4: Yeah.

982
01:03:10,239 --> 01:03:14,079
Speaker 1: Well, just this year, the latest Hank the cow Dog book,

983
01:03:14,159 --> 01:03:19,679
The Case of the Airborne Invasion, has been released. Tell

984
01:03:19,760 --> 01:03:22,079
us a little bit about this latest book and what

985
01:03:22,199 --> 01:03:23,800
is Hank up to in this volume.

986
01:03:24,800 --> 01:03:28,400
Speaker 4: I got the idea for the story at a dinner

987
01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:34,000
party in Austin, Texas, all about ten years ago. A

988
01:03:34,000 --> 01:03:38,960
good friend of mine had a circle of adult friends

989
01:03:39,480 --> 01:03:45,440
who were longtime Hank fans, and they were excited that

990
01:03:45,559 --> 01:03:48,840
she knew the guy who wrote the books and did

991
01:03:48,840 --> 01:03:53,960
the audios, and so she invited Chris and me to

992
01:03:54,119 --> 01:03:57,119
visit them in Austin, and she put on this dinner

993
01:03:57,159 --> 01:04:02,840
party and had probably twenty people there. And I was

994
01:04:02,880 --> 01:04:06,360
talking to one of the guys who was there. He

995
01:04:06,519 --> 01:04:11,840
was an elder, elderly gentleman who probably had grandkids, and

996
01:04:12,280 --> 01:04:15,920
he was telling me about his dog, and this dog

997
01:04:16,719 --> 01:04:18,800
all of a sudden, one day he went to his

998
01:04:18,920 --> 01:04:22,559
dog bowl and out of the corner of his eye,

999
01:04:22,639 --> 01:04:29,360
he saw his tail, and he whirled around and started

1000
01:04:29,440 --> 01:04:33,559
chasing his tail, and he went in circles until he

1001
01:04:33,639 --> 01:04:39,519
got so busy he fell down. He thought another dog

1002
01:04:39,679 --> 01:04:43,159
was coming up behind him to steal his food. Apparently

1003
01:04:44,119 --> 01:04:47,159
we never can be sure what our dogs are actually thinking,

1004
01:04:47,239 --> 01:04:51,679
but that seemed to be the only explanation. So he

1005
01:04:51,719 --> 01:04:55,880
went back to eat and saw that tail again, and

1006
01:04:56,559 --> 01:05:00,119
off he went. And I put that in my I

1007
01:05:01,719 --> 01:05:05,679
have a file of story ideas, and I put that.

1008
01:05:05,800 --> 01:05:08,840
I thought that was so funny, and it's so typical

1009
01:05:09,679 --> 01:05:12,880
of a dog, and you know, they always take themselves

1010
01:05:12,920 --> 01:05:17,440
so seriously, and that's one of the things that makes

1011
01:05:17,480 --> 01:05:24,239
them so funny. And years later I remembered that story

1012
01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:29,559
and I started the Hank book with that idea. That's

1013
01:05:29,760 --> 01:05:33,880
when I start a Hank story, it's usually there's not

1014
01:05:34,079 --> 01:05:38,039
much to it. I just have seen something funny my

1015
01:05:38,159 --> 01:05:42,880
dogs had done or something is going on with the weather,

1016
01:05:43,920 --> 01:05:49,639
and that's how I started a story. And so Hank

1017
01:05:49,800 --> 01:05:54,599
thinks that the Charlie monsters are coming onto the ranch,

1018
01:05:54,960 --> 01:06:02,039
have parachuted onto the ranch and are planning to trying

1019
01:06:02,039 --> 01:06:07,840
to steal his dog food and then possibly invade the

1020
01:06:07,920 --> 01:06:11,639
ranch for other the various things that he doesn't even

1021
01:06:11,719 --> 01:06:17,760
know about. But he gets part of his information from JG. Cluck,

1022
01:06:17,840 --> 01:06:23,000
the head rooster, who has seen what he thought first

1023
01:06:23,400 --> 01:06:28,320
at first thought were thistles in the air, and then

1024
01:06:28,360 --> 01:06:32,280
he decided, after hearing Hank, maybe those were actually parachutes

1025
01:06:33,360 --> 01:06:37,440
and he saw a big bird in the air, but

1026
01:06:37,559 --> 01:06:45,000
maybe it was action airplane that was carrying the Charlie paratroopers.

1027
01:06:45,639 --> 01:06:51,400
So Hank convinces himself that the ranch is being invaded

1028
01:06:51,440 --> 01:06:55,280
and overrun by Charlie monsters. And of course the cat

1029
01:06:56,119 --> 01:07:02,280
is watching all of this with great amusement and contributes

1030
01:07:02,760 --> 01:07:10,119
whatever he can contribute to begging Hank on into making

1031
01:07:10,239 --> 01:07:16,760
the drama even more ridiculous. So it's just the wrong

1032
01:07:17,679 --> 01:07:22,880
through the crazy but innocent world of a dog who

1033
01:07:22,920 --> 01:07:25,400
thinks that he's head of our insecurity.

1034
01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:29,840
Speaker 1: It always seems to revolve around some misunderstanding on his part.

1035
01:07:29,920 --> 01:07:33,039
And I think that's what makes you so charming too,

1036
01:07:33,079 --> 01:07:35,239
because we, as the reader or the listener, we know

1037
01:07:35,320 --> 01:07:37,440
exactly what's happening, but he doesn't have a clue.

1038
01:07:38,199 --> 01:07:44,199
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, And between those two poles jumps an arc

1039
01:07:44,280 --> 01:07:46,559
of electricity that is humor.

1040
01:07:47,000 --> 01:07:47,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

1041
01:07:47,960 --> 01:07:49,039
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1042
01:07:49,360 --> 01:07:51,639
Speaker 1: Well, do you feel up to give the listener a

1043
01:07:51,639 --> 01:07:55,639
little taste of this new book, volume eighty one of

1044
01:07:55,679 --> 01:07:56,239
the series.

1045
01:07:57,079 --> 01:08:01,639
Speaker 4: I can. Let's see if my phone will pick it up.

1046
01:08:03,480 --> 01:08:07,920
All right, I'll start on page five. Okay, as usual,

1047
01:08:08,280 --> 01:08:12,159
I think is asleep. It's ten o'clock in the morning.

1048
01:08:12,280 --> 01:08:16,079
He's knocked out asleep, but he will not admit that

1049
01:08:16,159 --> 01:08:21,359
he ever sleeps late or during the day, because he's

1050
01:08:21,399 --> 01:08:24,319
head of ranch security and he's not supposed to sleep

1051
01:08:24,399 --> 01:08:28,880
during business hours. It all began with the sound of

1052
01:08:28,920 --> 01:08:31,680
a door opening and closing the back door of the

1053
01:08:31,800 --> 01:08:35,640
ranch house. It makes two distinct sounds, a squeak and

1054
01:08:35,680 --> 01:08:39,600
a thud, and everyone in the security division is wired

1055
01:08:39,680 --> 01:08:43,239
to respond because our years of training have taught us

1056
01:08:43,319 --> 01:08:47,239
what they mean. In the morning, if someone comes out

1057
01:08:47,239 --> 01:08:52,079
of the house, it's probably our beloved ranch Wise delivering

1058
01:08:52,319 --> 01:08:57,119
the morning scraps. I had been up all night working

1059
01:08:57,159 --> 01:09:02,000
on reports and didn't hear it, but Drover did, Hey,

1060
01:09:02,520 --> 01:09:08,439
you better wake up. Scrap scraps is a six letter

1061
01:09:08,479 --> 01:09:11,800
word that has an explosive effect on the mind of

1062
01:09:11,800 --> 01:09:17,359
a dog. Every part of our body responds ears, eyes, tongue, legs,

1063
01:09:17,399 --> 01:09:20,840
and tail. I leaped to my feet and sent papers

1064
01:09:20,880 --> 01:09:24,720
flying in all directions, stood on unsteady legs and blinked

1065
01:09:24,720 --> 01:09:28,880
my eyes against the glare of spotlights. I noticed a

1066
01:09:28,960 --> 01:09:34,279
little mut sitting nearby. Who turned on those lights? What

1067
01:09:34,520 --> 01:09:40,039
lights the spotlight? Oh? I think it's just the sun.

1068
01:09:40,760 --> 01:09:45,319
The sun doesn't come up till morning. Yeah, it's morning. Well,

1069
01:09:45,359 --> 01:09:49,520
you'd be boring too if spotlights were frying your eyeballs. No,

1070
01:09:49,800 --> 01:09:55,720
I said, it's morning, not boring. I blinked and glanced around.

1071
01:09:56,760 --> 01:10:01,840
When did the sun get so bright? A few unsteady steps.

1072
01:10:02,439 --> 01:10:03,920
Did you hear that explosion?

1073
01:10:04,840 --> 01:10:04,920
Speaker 5: No?

1074
01:10:05,359 --> 01:10:09,119
Speaker 4: I think it was were closing at the house. I

1075
01:10:09,159 --> 01:10:12,039
heard an explosion. It blew me out of my chair.

1076
01:10:13,399 --> 01:10:17,199
I think you exploded out of bed. We'll need damage

1077
01:10:17,239 --> 01:10:21,319
reports from all departments. And who are you? I'm Drover,

1078
01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:25,279
remember me? No, who let you in? This is a

1079
01:10:25,359 --> 01:10:31,319
secured area? Well, I sleep here every night we'll see

1080
01:10:31,359 --> 01:10:36,039
about that. Wait, are you the one with the bad leg? Yep,

1081
01:10:36,359 --> 01:10:40,159
that's me. Okay, bring me up to speed. What's going

1082
01:10:40,159 --> 01:10:46,039
on around here? Let me think. I guess we were

1083
01:10:46,079 --> 01:10:50,199
both asleep and I heard the door open and closed

1084
01:10:50,319 --> 01:10:55,600
up at the house. I yelled scraps, and you flew

1085
01:10:55,720 --> 01:10:59,760
out a bed like a bomb had gone off. I'll

1086
01:10:59,800 --> 01:11:03,520
try my legs again and found that they worked. I

1087
01:11:03,760 --> 01:11:06,760
seem to have come through the explosion in good shape.

1088
01:11:07,039 --> 01:11:11,239
How's your leg? Thank Someone came out of the house.

1089
01:11:11,800 --> 01:11:16,359
It might be Sally May with scraps if we don't hurry.

1090
01:11:16,720 --> 01:11:21,840
Wait a second, did you say scraps about five times? Roy?

1091
01:11:22,159 --> 01:11:25,479
If Sally May is delivering scraps, she might give them

1092
01:11:25,520 --> 01:11:30,439
to the cat. My name's Drover, drove her with a D.

1093
01:11:31,119 --> 01:11:34,760
I'm perfectly aware of your name. You called me Roy.

1094
01:11:35,399 --> 01:11:38,520
I don't care what you call yourself. Why wasn't I

1095
01:11:38,600 --> 01:11:41,640
informed about the scraps? How can I run this ranch

1096
01:11:41,920 --> 01:11:46,039
when they're trying to steal my scraps? Well, you were

1097
01:11:46,199 --> 01:11:49,560
sleep and you never listened anyway. I listened to everything,

1098
01:11:49,960 --> 01:11:53,960
but that explosion almost blew out my ears. You exploded

1099
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:57,920
out of bed. I don't know what kind of nonsense

1100
01:11:58,039 --> 01:12:00,680
is going on in this department? But if we don't

1101
01:12:00,720 --> 01:12:04,079
make a dash to the yard gate, we might lose

1102
01:12:04,159 --> 01:12:08,319
all our scraps to the cat. Well that's enough.

1103
01:12:10,199 --> 01:12:12,239
Speaker 1: Oh I love it. It's trying to hold back the

1104
01:12:12,920 --> 01:12:15,199
laughter so I don't ruin the experience for the listener.

1105
01:12:15,239 --> 01:12:17,039
But oh it's so fun. I was following along in

1106
01:12:17,079 --> 01:12:19,520
my copy. Yeah.

1107
01:12:20,840 --> 01:12:23,840
Speaker 4: Oh wow.

1108
01:12:23,960 --> 01:12:26,920
Speaker 1: Well, it has been an absolute delight to speak with you.

1109
01:12:27,079 --> 01:12:30,079
I really appreciate you taking the time to come on

1110
01:12:30,119 --> 01:12:33,119
the show share about your story about Hank, the history

1111
01:12:33,159 --> 01:12:37,960
of this wonderful, wonderful book series and audiobook series. It's

1112
01:12:38,000 --> 01:12:39,840
been a pleasure and an honor for me. Thank you

1113
01:12:39,880 --> 01:12:42,000
so much, my pleasure.

1114
01:12:42,159 --> 01:12:45,640
Speaker 4: Thank you very much for making contact with me and Phoenix,

1115
01:12:45,760 --> 01:12:48,119
and I'll look forward to talking to you again.

1116
01:12:50,720 --> 01:12:53,279
Speaker 1: Well, huge thanks to John R. Ericson for coming on

1117
01:12:53,399 --> 01:12:57,000
the show. Really really had a fantastic time chatting with him.

1118
01:12:57,760 --> 01:12:59,920
Links to all of his work is in the show notes.

1119
01:12:59,920 --> 01:13:01,800
You definitely want to go check it out. The story

1120
01:13:01,880 --> 01:13:05,199
craft book that I mentioned is fantastic if you are

1121
01:13:05,199 --> 01:13:08,680
a creative. It is a very easy read. It's inexpensive.

1122
01:13:09,039 --> 01:13:13,199
He writes in a very approachable style and it's really

1123
01:13:13,239 --> 01:13:17,039
really good. The Hank books are also a really great price.

1124
01:13:17,119 --> 01:13:21,439
They're inexpensive, great addition to your library. And also if

1125
01:13:21,479 --> 01:13:23,680
you are interested, you can hire John to come do

1126
01:13:23,720 --> 01:13:26,960
a Hank concert at your event. So all of the

1127
01:13:27,000 --> 01:13:29,279
links are in the show notes. And also want to

1128
01:13:29,319 --> 01:13:31,800
quickly say thanks to the Maverick Books team for helping

1129
01:13:31,840 --> 01:13:36,479
to make this interview happen. Gary and Nicky really appreciate

1130
01:13:36,560 --> 01:13:39,920
you in helping me out and making this happen. And

1131
01:13:40,000 --> 01:13:42,960
you both were a delight to deal with throughout this

1132
01:13:43,039 --> 01:13:46,439
process and I thank you very much. So what do

1133
01:13:46,479 --> 01:13:47,199
you think of the show?

1134
01:13:51,880 --> 01:13:54,560
Speaker 3: Please leave your message after the Zelle Hi Audi the

1135
01:13:54,560 --> 01:13:55,319
Peter Central.

1136
01:13:55,439 --> 01:13:56,760
Speaker 1: Hey guys, this is awesome.

1137
01:13:57,439 --> 01:14:00,760
Speaker 2: Hell about j D Royan Andrew minum it for you now.

1138
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:03,000
Speaker 3: Yesterday I received a letter from a big fan.

1139
01:14:03,279 --> 01:14:05,039
Speaker 1: No time to dry. I've got an email.

1140
01:14:05,199 --> 01:14:07,319
Speaker 3: This i'nother package for me today.

1141
01:14:07,479 --> 01:14:08,800
Speaker 4: No, it's actually just your mail.

1142
01:14:12,800 --> 01:14:14,239
Speaker 1: Well, if you'd like to get in touch with us,

1143
01:14:14,560 --> 01:14:16,880
as always, there are many ways to do that, but

1144
01:14:17,279 --> 01:14:20,800
you can always email feedback at audio theatercentral dot com,

1145
01:14:21,199 --> 01:14:24,159
comment on the show notes of any episode, or send

1146
01:14:24,199 --> 01:14:27,159
a text or leave a voicemail at six two three

1147
01:14:27,199 --> 01:14:31,319
six eight eight two seven seven zero again six three

1148
01:14:31,880 --> 01:14:37,279
six eight eight two seven seven zero. Real quickly, I

1149
01:14:37,279 --> 01:14:39,680
want to say thanks to Jeremy. He's been sending emails

1150
01:14:39,760 --> 01:14:43,239
about the new pause on tilS episodes, his thoughts on

1151
01:14:43,319 --> 01:14:46,000
each episode as they've been coming out. And I'm not

1152
01:14:46,000 --> 01:14:47,600
going to share the specifics here because I don't want

1153
01:14:47,600 --> 01:14:49,880
to spoil anything for anybody who hasn't heard them yet.

1154
01:14:49,880 --> 01:14:52,560
But Jeremy, thank you so much for sending in your feedback.

1155
01:14:52,920 --> 01:14:56,039
I really appreciate your interaction and it's always great to

1156
01:14:56,079 --> 01:14:59,920
hear from you. Next up, you have an email from Blake,

1157
01:15:00,479 --> 01:15:03,199
and he said, from about nineteen ninety six to his

1158
01:15:03,319 --> 01:15:07,199
latest twenty eighteen, there were so many consistent releases from

1159
01:15:07,279 --> 01:15:10,319
various production companies such as Focus on the Family, Radio Theater,

1160
01:15:10,720 --> 01:15:14,720
Heirloom Audio, Lamp Lighter Theater, and Air Theater that were

1161
01:15:14,720 --> 01:15:17,239
done at the Soundhouse in London, and that featured the

1162
01:15:17,279 --> 01:15:21,960
actors I lovingly nickname the Glassboro Players names like Andrew Harrison,

1163
01:15:22,039 --> 01:15:27,359
Robert Binfield, Katie Kelgren, Mervin Stutter, Kathy Sarah. However, since

1164
01:15:27,520 --> 01:15:30,039
twenty nineteen, I can count on one hand how many

1165
01:15:30,079 --> 01:15:33,439
productions released in the family friendly audio drama space that

1166
01:15:33,520 --> 01:15:37,479
were done with the Glassborough Players. Why is this? Why

1167
01:15:37,560 --> 01:15:40,159
was it so common from nineteen ninety six to twenty eighteen,

1168
01:15:40,439 --> 01:15:43,319
and what happened in twenty nineteen to stop this? Even

1169
01:15:43,399 --> 01:15:46,399
prior to the pandemic and even post pandemic. Joan of

1170
01:15:46,520 --> 01:15:48,920
Arc and One River Cross Production are the only two

1171
01:15:49,039 --> 01:15:52,239
done post COVID that were recorded at the soundhouse in

1172
01:15:52,279 --> 01:15:56,439
London Well Blake. Since I am not behind the scenes

1173
01:15:56,479 --> 01:15:59,880
with all of these different production companies, I can only

1174
01:16:00,239 --> 01:16:03,439
guests here. And Radio Theater has sort of been on

1175
01:16:03,560 --> 01:16:06,159
pause for several years now, and I would assume that

1176
01:16:06,239 --> 01:16:08,920
if they ever go back into production, they will record

1177
01:16:09,000 --> 01:16:11,800
there once again, as nearly all of the Radio Theater

1178
01:16:11,840 --> 01:16:14,960
productions were recorded there. I think there were some bits

1179
01:16:15,000 --> 01:16:17,800
that may have been recorded in LA but I think

1180
01:16:17,880 --> 01:16:22,560
primarily everything was recorded in London Heirloom Audio. They're also

1181
01:16:22,680 --> 01:16:24,560
on sort of a hiatus. We would love to see

1182
01:16:24,560 --> 01:16:26,640
them come back. I know that they just had some

1183
01:16:26,680 --> 01:16:30,000
difficulties and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't

1184
01:16:30,039 --> 01:16:32,079
go back to the soundhouse if they ever go back

1185
01:16:32,079 --> 01:16:35,239
into production with the Ga Hinti series. So I would

1186
01:16:35,239 --> 01:16:39,239
assume they would return there. Now with the Lamplighter Theater,

1187
01:16:39,439 --> 01:16:42,000
they've built their own studio in New York and so

1188
01:16:42,199 --> 01:16:44,920
they don't go anywhere anymore, So they don't go to London,

1189
01:16:45,000 --> 01:16:48,239
they don't go to la They have remoted in some

1190
01:16:48,359 --> 01:16:52,640
actors and a few times they've flown over UK actors,

1191
01:16:52,680 --> 01:16:56,439
so some of these actors are still working, but the

1192
01:16:56,439 --> 01:17:00,560
productions themselves are not being recorded at the soundhouse. Sarah

1193
01:17:01,079 --> 01:17:06,119
was also recently in a production from The Brigman Adventures

1194
01:17:06,840 --> 01:17:12,119
which was post pandemic, but she was recorded remotely. And

1195
01:17:13,720 --> 01:17:15,600
as you point out, Joan of Arc was recorded at

1196
01:17:15,600 --> 01:17:20,319
the soundhouse, and river Cross has recorded there, And I

1197
01:17:20,359 --> 01:17:23,159
also would assume that if river Cross continues to produce

1198
01:17:23,199 --> 01:17:25,319
audio dramas, they will continue to go back over there.

1199
01:17:25,359 --> 01:17:27,680
They've got a stable of actors that they are working

1200
01:17:27,680 --> 01:17:30,520
with from the UK, and so I'm pretty sure that

1201
01:17:30,600 --> 01:17:34,199
they will return there again. So it's not that things

1202
01:17:34,239 --> 01:17:38,800
are not being made anymore with these actors. It's just

1203
01:17:38,920 --> 01:17:43,039
that it's much more sparse than it was and I

1204
01:17:43,079 --> 01:17:46,439
would venture to guess that that is just a budgetary issue.

1205
01:17:46,479 --> 01:17:50,079
It's very expensive to fly a production team over to

1206
01:17:50,119 --> 01:17:54,119
the UK. Rent studio time at the soundhouse and bring

1207
01:17:54,159 --> 01:17:58,039
in all those actors. And so for some reason, these

1208
01:17:58,119 --> 01:18:02,880
big budget productions are just not bringing in the revenue

1209
01:18:02,920 --> 01:18:05,680
like they used to. Radio theater is the classic example.

1210
01:18:05,720 --> 01:18:08,880
Focus on the Family Radio Theater. They produced dozens and

1211
01:18:08,920 --> 01:18:13,319
dozens of hours of super high quality audio drama throughout

1212
01:18:13,359 --> 01:18:16,640
the nineties and into the early two thousands, and it

1213
01:18:16,680 --> 01:18:22,439
was fantastic stuff. But people are not buying that anymore,

1214
01:18:22,479 --> 01:18:25,840
and I'm increasingly seeing people saying, why don't they just

1215
01:18:25,920 --> 01:18:29,640
add those productions into the Aio Club. Well, that's not

1216
01:18:29,680 --> 01:18:32,079
what the aiol Club is about. The club is about

1217
01:18:32,119 --> 01:18:36,399
Adventures inn Odyssey, not Radio Theater. They're separate brands, different

1218
01:18:36,520 --> 01:18:41,600
scale of production, different budgets. They're not the same. And

1219
01:18:42,479 --> 01:18:47,399
those productions cost a lot more, and so I don't

1220
01:18:47,479 --> 01:18:50,399
understand people's mentality of just wanting them to throw them

1221
01:18:50,399 --> 01:18:52,640
in and give them to them for free. That's a

1222
01:18:52,680 --> 01:18:58,600
separate issue. But Augustine Institute Radio Theater is still producing stuff.

1223
01:18:58,720 --> 01:19:01,760
I mean, it's not the output that we might like

1224
01:19:01,800 --> 01:19:06,079
to see from these high quality studios, but I'm just

1225
01:19:06,119 --> 01:19:09,439
happy when we get one. So, yes, we would like

1226
01:19:09,479 --> 01:19:11,479
to hear from these actors a little bit more often,

1227
01:19:11,840 --> 01:19:16,000
but when we do, it's great. And so I'm just

1228
01:19:16,119 --> 01:19:19,279
guessing that it just has come down to a budgetary issue,

1229
01:19:19,319 --> 01:19:22,960
and it's just the revenue is not here as much

1230
01:19:23,000 --> 01:19:24,960
as it used to be in the space for these

1231
01:19:25,199 --> 01:19:28,199
high quality, feature length productions. I wish that were not

1232
01:19:28,319 --> 01:19:31,600
the case, but I'm guessing that that's probably what's going

1233
01:19:31,600 --> 01:19:34,880
on here. I guess we just need to We need

1234
01:19:34,920 --> 01:19:37,800
somebody to crack the code of how to make these

1235
01:19:38,359 --> 01:19:42,359
super profitable and get these shows out to a greater

1236
01:19:42,479 --> 01:19:46,119
audience so we can fund more future audio dramas of

1237
01:19:46,479 --> 01:19:50,039
super high quality. I'm sure if somebody had the budget

1238
01:19:50,039 --> 01:19:52,680
and they approached Heirloom Audio and said, hey, we're gonna

1239
01:19:53,119 --> 01:19:56,760
We're gonna fund the next several Extraordinary Adventures of Ga

1240
01:19:56,840 --> 01:20:00,479
Hinty productions, they would jump at the chance to over

1241
01:20:00,520 --> 01:20:03,079
there and record again. So I'm pretty sure it's just

1242
01:20:03,119 --> 01:20:06,920
a budgetary issue at this point. Well, the last feedback

1243
01:20:06,960 --> 01:20:10,359
note is that you may have heard me talking in

1244
01:20:10,439 --> 01:20:13,960
past episodes about the ATC Throne Room, which was a

1245
01:20:14,039 --> 01:20:18,119
little community for ATC listeners built on a platform called Throne,

1246
01:20:18,920 --> 01:20:21,199
and it was really cool. You could have threaded conversations,

1247
01:20:21,279 --> 01:20:23,760
we would chat about the ATC episodes and you could

1248
01:20:23,800 --> 01:20:24,880
send in feedback through that.

1249
01:20:25,840 --> 01:20:26,079
Speaker 4: Well.

1250
01:20:26,880 --> 01:20:30,399
Speaker 1: Throne ended up closing down some months ago. Now some

1251
01:20:30,560 --> 01:20:34,520
functionality is still working, but it's it's going out of

1252
01:20:34,560 --> 01:20:38,479
business completely, which is unfortunate. We didn't have a huge

1253
01:20:38,520 --> 01:20:41,079
number of listeners get involved, but the ones that were there,

1254
01:20:41,319 --> 01:20:44,199
there were some great conversations, great back and forth in there.

1255
01:20:44,560 --> 01:20:49,039
Really enjoyed it, but unfortunately that is gone. So I'm

1256
01:20:49,079 --> 01:20:52,680
tossing it out to you. What is a non social

1257
01:20:52,720 --> 01:20:56,479
network site option that you would participate in if we

1258
01:20:56,640 --> 01:21:00,520
created an ATC community there so you could and chat

1259
01:21:00,560 --> 01:21:03,960
with other ATC listeners about clean, family friendly audio drama

1260
01:21:04,720 --> 01:21:09,079
and you know, interact with some of the ATC team

1261
01:21:09,199 --> 01:21:13,199
directly as well. So any ideas I'm looking at some

1262
01:21:13,319 --> 01:21:15,920
I have some that I'm considering, but I would like

1263
01:21:15,920 --> 01:21:18,720
to hear from you. Again, no social media sites, That's

1264
01:21:18,760 --> 01:21:21,720
not what I want to do, but I'm open to

1265
01:21:21,960 --> 01:21:25,720
hearing your thoughts on that. Well. If you would like

1266
01:21:25,760 --> 01:21:27,159
to get in touch with us, you can head over

1267
01:21:27,199 --> 01:21:30,720
to Audio Theatercentral dot com slash contact. All of the

1268
01:21:30,760 --> 01:21:33,720
ways are listed there. Show notes for this episode are

1269
01:21:33,760 --> 01:21:37,680
at Audio Theatercentral dot com, slash two zero two and

1270
01:21:37,760 --> 01:21:40,279
all of the links to everything we covered in this episode,

1271
01:21:40,279 --> 01:21:42,199
including the Hank, the cow dog stuff, and all of

1272
01:21:42,199 --> 01:21:45,840
the updates. All of that is there. Thank you so

1273
01:21:45,960 --> 01:21:48,520
much for listening. I'll talk to you next time.

1274
01:21:53,119 --> 01:21:57,920
Speaker 3: Hi, This is Caleb Teeson from Las Vegas, Nevada. Audio

1275
01:21:57,960 --> 01:22:02,119
Theater Central is a production of porch Light Family Media.

1276
01:22:02,680 --> 01:22:07,319
The theme music was composed by Sam Avendano. The show

1277
01:22:07,520 --> 01:22:12,479
is produced and edited by JD. Sutter. Find the website

1278
01:22:12,680 --> 01:22:21,239
at audiotheatercentral dot com.

1279
01:22:21,399 --> 01:22:24,640
Speaker 2: Howdy y'all, this is Roy coming at you with some

1280
01:22:24,720 --> 01:22:28,520
few cowboy jokes here. Howdy. That reminds me. Do you

1281
01:22:28,680 --> 01:22:31,720
know who wrote the book how to Talk Like a Cowboy?

1282
01:22:32,720 --> 01:22:38,199
That's right, mister, Howdy y'all? How d y'all? All right?

1283
01:22:38,439 --> 01:22:39,439
Speaker 1: Moving on, all right?

1284
01:22:39,520 --> 01:22:44,359
Speaker 2: What do you call a happy cowboy? Jolly rancher? That's right?

1285
01:22:44,880 --> 01:22:47,560
And finally, a good old story from the time gone by.

1286
01:22:48,119 --> 01:22:50,720
There was a three legged dog walking down the street,

1287
01:22:51,199 --> 01:22:55,600
walked into a bar, stood up on his back two legs,

1288
01:22:55,920 --> 01:22:59,199
stared everyone in the room and said, I'm looking for

1289
01:22:59,239 --> 01:23:01,279
the man who shut my pall.

1290
01:23:02,800 --> 01:23:06,520
Speaker 1: Scorch Light Family Media, your source for Family censored

1291
01:23:06,600 --> 01:23:12,439
Speaker 2: Content scorchlightfamilymedia dot com