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Speaker 1: Hey, how are you doing today? This is zero Collins Era.

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Speaker 2: Good to talk to you again.

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Speaker 1: How are you fantastic? Looking forward to sharing a conversation

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with you. Because you have got this way of writing

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in this modern age, that is, I mean, the chapters

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are shortened to the point. The font in your books

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is perfect, the covers are just classic. I mean, there's

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so much that goes into the presentation of your stories.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I appreciate the

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full view.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that I've that I've learned through

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you is the fact that you like to take us

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into the story by making sure that you give it

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to us as the experience and not just a storyline. Hey,

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by the way, did you hear this? No, you give

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us an experience. How is it that you're able to

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invest in that?

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Speaker 2: Uh? I think that's a I think that's a tool

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of the trade where you want to you know x

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what we call exposition explaining things to readers and as

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a you know, a narrator, it's sort of the enemy,

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you know. I always want everything to unfold through the

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through the character eyes and let the reader experience it,

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experience things through them.

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Speaker 1: So now is that the reason why my cutoff time

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for reading is eleven thirty PM. But I'm still reading

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your book at twelve fifteen there, mister mister.

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Speaker 2: Apparently, and I'm happy to hear it.

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Speaker 1: Well, you can't put it down. And I swear to god,

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it's the length of the chapters. I go, oh, I

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got one more in me. I got one more in me.

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Speaker 2: That's good thing, know, you know, it's funny. I like

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to listen to reader feedback, and that is one of

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the things that people respond to, the chapters being short

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and cinematic and trying to shift perspective so that you know,

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you don't just stay with the same thing over and over.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. The book we're talking about is Tom Clancy's Terminal Velocity.

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I was one of those doubters when Jack Ryan Junior

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first appeared on the scene. I thought, oh boy, where

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are we going? Where are we going? Oh my god, dude,

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he's got his own world, He's his own man.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. That's been one of the fun parts of the

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series and something that I discussed with the editor, which

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is that we want to make him a whole person,

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you know, and mature him and give him mature adult relationships.

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And struggles and things that a guy who's now in

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and you know, kind of in his mid thirties would

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would have.

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Speaker 1: That's interesting that you say that make him a whole person,

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because that's one of the things I wanted to talk about.

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I said that in his paragraphs, you make Jack feel

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like he's stepping through those pages and he's sitting right

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there in front of us.

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Speaker 2: Well, that is certainly the intent. And I think that

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if you can make characters extraordinarily relatable to people, you know,

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to where you think, oh, yeah, I have felt that

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way before, or I too would struggle with that. You

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know that to me, that's always been the magic of fiction.

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Speaker 1: Without giving away the book, what happens is there's a

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string of murders in the US and they most people

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would probably say, ah, they're unrelatable. Jack Ryan sees something

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else to me that I call that listening beyond sound.

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He knows there's something beyond this moment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's that's that's something else that we we

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always want our characters. We want you know, you want

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them to be do you want to root for them

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and think, Okay, but I know he's a smart guy.

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Can he put this together? And how might he assimilate

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these these various clues, And so that's that's definitely something

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we like to do with our dramatic heroes.

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Speaker 1: So the way that you write, is it a brain game?

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I mean you're putting puzzles together here.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it is absolutely a brain game. And so I

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I think it's it's you know, you start with what

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what what's going on in the world geopolitically, how might

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my set of heroes be related to that? And then

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you know, let's let's give them something tough to to

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figure out and piece together, and the readers along for

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the ride.

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Speaker 1: Well, I have you know that I'll be watching the

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news to find out Cashmeir appears in those headlines again,

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because you you are, you're very much up to date

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with with the balance of the world.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was kind of shocking. Actually, I

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had I had finished this book and turned it in

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and about I don't know what it was, three or

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four months ago, you know, India, India, Pakistan really boiled

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over and it was over a terrorist incident in uh

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In in Pakistan or sorry, in Kashmir. It was almost

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exactly it was almost exactly the plot of the book

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on a geopolitical sense, and I was like, whoa, that's

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that's a little that's a little creepy.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel like a clairvoyant sometimes?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Sadly. Yeah. Because also my last, my last Tom

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Clancy Jack Ryan Junior book was called Line of Demarcation.

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It wasn't very long ago, came out in May and

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it was about you know, a naval a naval engagement

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in off the coast of Venezuela and lo and behold

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that happened yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost like you've lived this life before.

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Speaker 2: Uh, well, I'm living it vicariously. Let's let's let's put

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it that way.

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Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with M. P. Woodward

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coming up next. The name of his book, Tom Clancy's

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Terminal Velocity. We're back with MP wood war So then,

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how are you able to incorporate your personal experiences into

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the writing, because I mean you come from the enable

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naval intelligence. I mean it's like it's one of those

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things where it's like it's like you experienced it, now

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I'm going to put it into words so that the

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everyday average person can understand it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that, and that's that's probably something that comes

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with perspective and age. I was a naval intelligence officer

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for about a decade, and I think that one of

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the things you get to see in that role as

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you as you progress are the way that the different

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intelligence agencies work together and the way that they have

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different points of view, and the fact that there's individuals,

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you know, behind these behind these these these big you know,

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complicated sounding acronym and places and so so understanding that

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and and and giving those people uh uh, you know,

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actual characters as a lot is a lot of.

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Speaker 1: Fun as that author. How are you protecting yourself from

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AI technology? Because that darn jet GPT thing is a mess.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot. I think that that's a you know,

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there's a there's a lot that's that's got to happen

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out there with with AI. In terms of protecting people's

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intellectual intellectual property, I'm hopeful that the government will will

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sort of step into that and put some some guardrails

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on that, because you know, it's just not okay to take,

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you know, a John Grisham book and use all his

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characters and create another one. So I imagine we will

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see some action on that front.

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Speaker 1: Well, you've always come across to me as somebody who

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if you had to get into an Encyclopedia Britannica, you

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would do it. You would go to the library and

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get one of those things and you'd go home and

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you would study that thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I do a lot of research on on my

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on my own, and uh it's honestly it is. So

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it has gotten so much easier to to just find out,

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you know, just about any fact, including by using by

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using AI. And so there are the tools at an

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author's disposal today are the best by far than they've

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ever been.

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Speaker 1: Because that man, dude, when I when I discovered the thesaurus,

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I thought, this is the greatest thing ever. This is

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help me with my words?

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Speaker 2: Yes, that that that definitely helps. And being able to

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write clicks, you know, like, oh my god, how many

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you know, one of the challenges is dialogue tags. How

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many times can you use the word said right? And

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so it's like, well there's ass and then there's exclaimed

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and you know, right, seized and groaned, and you go

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on and on and on. So eventually you sort of

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develop your own lexicon.

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Speaker 1: Do you create your own grammar rules? And the reason

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why I bring that up is because Mark Twain put

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in his in his autobiography, he says, you need to

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write in your own accent. And so when I my

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last book, man it, oh the grammar just sucks so badly.

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But it was the way that I was sharing the

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story that made it look right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I have been I have what I call the compendium,

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which is, you know, things that I that I have

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that I have picked up experience every time I write

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a book, and like, okay, these here are some new

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synonyms for things like said like like I just discussed,

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here are some some different ways to put similes, et cetera.

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And you know, I think that one of the major

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grammar rules is writing in an active voice, not a

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passive voice. But definitely you have to it has to be.

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It has to be your your voice and your your style.

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Speaker 1: Throughout a Jack Ryan Junior novel. Is it a formatic

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or is it a formula? Because because there's I mean,

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because you're onto something here that is so attractive and

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then we keep coming back to it. It's it's almost like

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we're addicted to it.

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Speaker 2: Is it? Is it formatic or formula? Well, what does

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formatic mean? Let's start. Let's start there.

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Speaker 1: When you start breaking it down with formatics. There are

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things that I do as a podcaster. Even as a broadcaster,

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there are formats that that I created in order to

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stay in focus and make sure that I don't come

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outside the lines, because sometimes, especially when it comes to

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writing a book, you don't have time to go outside

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the line.

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Speaker 2: See that I learned learned something new today? Yeah, well okay,

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well I would definitely say it's formatic. Then I don't.

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I don't ever want it to be formulaic. But in

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terms of format, you know, I think of things like,

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I want the timeframe for this to be two to

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three weeks. I want there to be personal struggles for

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the heroes in parallel to stakes that are geopolitical in nature,

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you know, sort of stuff like that that that are

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that are that are equivalent to the to the format.

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But I want to vary how those how those unfold

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every time.

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Speaker 1: Are you out on a speaking tour at all right

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now to help promote the book?

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Speaker 2: I am? I mean, you know these days that's mostly digital,

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right that's good, and and and podcasts, et cetera. But yeah,

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I'm I'm appearing in a few places. I'm going to

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be in Scottsdale on September of eighteenth, promoting this book

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and another one. Yet.

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Speaker 1: Wow, where can people go to find out not just

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about about terminal veloss any but everything that you're doing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. I have a if you go to

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mp Woodward dot com. I'm also at MPW author on

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x and I have another I have a book coming

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out in a short period here called Red Tie, the

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Novel of the Next Pacific War. That's a military fiction about,

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you know, a conflict with China, and so I'll be

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I'm out doing some publicity for that one right now

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as well.

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Speaker 1: Oh would you do take a look at the news

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headlines yesterday and see those three people together going, oh,

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it's time for my book now, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, somewhat sadly that is? That is there is no

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shortage of books about great, great power competition right now.

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Speaker 1: Wow, Well, please come back to this show anytime in

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the future. The door is always going to be open

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for you.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Ero, It's been a pleasure to

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be on.

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Speaker 1: All right, man, you'd be brilliant today.

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Speaker 2: Okay, all right, you too appreciate it.