Speaker 1: Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of the cull
Speaker 1: Chac Tapes. Yes, we were back when we were talking
Speaker 1: to Paul Terry. He is the author of quite a
Speaker 1: lot of things. If you want to see all of
Speaker 1: his work, go over to Paul Terryprojects dot com. Paul
Speaker 1: has recently written a cold Check series of short stories.
Speaker 1: They have been collected in a volume called Colchack The
Speaker 1: night Stalker, Haunted and Hunted. It is a fantastic book.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed reading this one. I was so glad
Speaker 1: after all this time to finally dive into the world
Speaker 1: of Colchack literature other than the stuff that jeff Rice wrote.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoy this episode. And if you enjoy Carl Colechak and
Speaker 1: The night Stalker, definitely go back and listen to the
Speaker 1: rest of our episodes of our at colchaktapes dot com.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on. I'm really excited
Speaker 1: to talk to you about your Collchack work and other things.
Speaker 1: I would love to know a little bit more about
Speaker 1: you and your background, because you do a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you're aware of that.
Speaker 2: I tend to tell people when they ask that question,
Speaker 2: I tend to say, I just I like making things.
Speaker 3: I like telling stories.
Speaker 2: Is I guess that sort of covers the breadth of
Speaker 2: it all, But it really it feels normal to me
Speaker 2: because I've always done it.
Speaker 3: It's being a kid at school.
Speaker 2: I've always enjoyed doing something that they're supposed to be
Speaker 2: on the curriculum. And then outside of studying or writing essays,
Speaker 2: making music and so forth, and so going through into
Speaker 2: adulthood that I think I just thought that was normal.
Speaker 3: So we just keep it, kept multitasking.
Speaker 1: Your stuff usually relies on other sources in order to
Speaker 1: have that platform. But then I think you've also done
Speaker 1: original fiction as well. Is that correct?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Cold chat Book, the Haunted and Hunted sort
Speaker 2: of short story collection. That's my first prose fiction proper,
Speaker 2: if you like. But I've always wanted to dabble into
Speaker 2: that world and do more of that stuff. And that
Speaker 2: comes from pults, from many different things, from and they'd say,
Speaker 2: when you're a kid and you're always writing stories and
Speaker 2: being creative, and then going through to doing more creative
Speaker 2: writing with collaborations in different mediums, though filmmaking being involved
Speaker 2: a pretty use of working with directors on their scripts
Speaker 2: and things, and then co writing on some of those projects.
Speaker 2: But you're right, yes, a lot of my other books
Speaker 2: and writing work was more in the sort of making
Speaker 2: of space or as an editor, which I was for
Speaker 2: a long time. You're editing other people's work and you're
Speaker 2: figuring out your own sort of like voice of storytelling
Speaker 2: and how you like to report information, and so yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it's just it's one of those things where
Speaker 2: I always say this to young writers, is write everything.
Speaker 2: I've written books that are tailored four kid Top ten
Speaker 2: books kind of things like that, as well as making
Speaker 2: of books about film and TV shows that cover different
Speaker 2: mediums for things like Last things that more sort of
Speaker 2: horror and comedy likes Theebe Hollow or thrillers like The Blacklist.
Speaker 2: I tended to say yes to a lot of projects
Speaker 2: and then worry about how to do it afterwards. Tested
Speaker 2: I think that's how I like to work in the
Speaker 2: creative art, that you go, yeah, sure, yeah, I'd love
Speaker 2: to do that, and then you hang up and go
Speaker 2: how would that work? But I think definitely a big
Speaker 2: influence on pitching even these stories for culture. Obviously, I
Speaker 2: loved the show when I saw the reruns in the
Speaker 2: UK and the nineties. But I had been writing very
Speaker 2: intensely in character voices for the X Files book that
Speaker 2: I did with the Abrams, the first one the Official Archive,
Speaker 2: and so X Files is my favorite show of all time,
Speaker 2: and so it was a dream project to pitch. What
Speaker 2: that did was actually get me, you know, back to
Speaker 2: school and really figuring out what are the rhythms, How
Speaker 2: does Molder speak, how does Scully speak? Carries that different?
Speaker 2: How were they speaking an official reports? And so I
Speaker 2: think years of doing that, studying those patterns just put
Speaker 2: me in the right headspace as well as other previous
Speaker 2: projects to say, you know what I've been developing, I
Speaker 2: guess off camera as the phrase away from the official career,
Speaker 2: my own IP, my own fiction ideas, And so the
Speaker 2: culture book felt like a great bridger because it is
Speaker 2: a licensed book, it is a licensed character, but it
Speaker 2: was an opportunity to say, as a fan, what other adventures?
Speaker 2: What are the cases could call Collcheck find himself falling
Speaker 2: into and as he does, And you.
Speaker 1: Talked about the voice of Moulder and Scully, but the
Speaker 1: voice of Collcheck is so distinct, and you get that perfectly.
Speaker 1: You nail that voice. I can hear Jere McGavin in
Speaker 1: my head.
Speaker 2: Oh thank you. That that's the greatest reviews. As long
Speaker 2: as someone thinks that he loves the show that that
Speaker 2: means a lot to me to thank you.
Speaker 3: I did work very hard on that.
Speaker 1: I'm curious what was the secret of unlocking callcheck? What
Speaker 1: methodology did use to bring him back to the page.
Speaker 3: The similar process to when I did the XOS books.
Speaker 3: It's really you're rewatching the.
Speaker 2: Episodes and you're writing notes constantly, and I describe it
Speaker 2: as you're watching or you're rewatching things through a completely
Speaker 2: different lens. So when you're when you're rewatching a show
Speaker 2: or a film that you love and you're just enjoying
Speaker 2: it for what it is, or when you're doing it
Speaker 2: professionally for this particular task, it's really I love sound,
Speaker 2: I love language, so I'm really aware of trying to
Speaker 2: drill into those things, and it's really just taking copious notes.
Speaker 2: It's really just figuring out there's lots of catchphrases that
Speaker 2: he comes up with, of course, and Daran McGowan's cold check.
Speaker 2: That is if like the actor and the written character
Speaker 2: just become one. Don't know, you can't imagine anyone else
Speaker 2: being cold joke, and so it's terrifying when you give
Speaker 2: yourself that to do it. But it's a good it's
Speaker 2: a good fear, I think, because you really feel like
Speaker 2: you have to honor that character. You can't mess it up,
Speaker 2: but you have to actually get Ryan. But yes, lots
Speaker 2: of note taking. I tend to really drill into. The
Speaker 2: kind of catchphrase is the way that he talks in loops,
Speaker 2: the way he drills things out, like he says strike one,
Speaker 2: strike two, or he says item and then does translation,
Speaker 2: and that gives you a kind of foundation of what
Speaker 2: things he likes to say. But then I was really
Speaker 2: drilling hard into he's very economical with language. He's very specific.
Speaker 2: He's almost like he's a great reporter. But if he
Speaker 2: was a writer, if he was a novelist, he'd be
Speaker 2: an amazing writer because he has great visual language, and
Speaker 2: he sees things as they are and just calls them
Speaker 2: out in a re almost poetic ways sometimes, and within
Speaker 2: that there's a sort of as he calls things as
Speaker 2: to what they are. If something's sprightening, all with a
Speaker 2: lot of tension. He liked to build that drama and
Speaker 2: call it for what it is. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: there's that wit, there's that swagger. It's a big balancing act,
Speaker 2: and these things take a while and you start throwing
Speaker 2: down ideas about how how he would craft something. But
Speaker 2: I really love the first person perspective for this style.
Speaker 2: It feels very like hard boiled, very detective thing, and
Speaker 2: for me that just felt like a real treat to go, Okay,
Speaker 2: we can how do we keep that really present? How
Speaker 2: do we keep that energy through short stories? And I've
Speaker 2: always loved the short story format and short film format
Speaker 2: because you have to do a lot in a short
Speaker 2: period of time, and I think for a cold shirt case,
Speaker 2: it's perfect because that also was in my mind that
Speaker 2: rewatching the episodes the movies of course as well. Watching
Speaker 2: the episodes, you get a sense of time being quite
Speaker 2: compressed and quite kinetic, and that because there's terrible things happening,
Speaker 2: I think, and Carl Culchet wants to solve it and
Speaker 2: stop them, and so that was a big influence as well.
Speaker 2: I think a couple of my stories take place over
Speaker 2: quite a narrow period of time, but I think that's
Speaker 2: an advantage for this kind of story, and I think
Speaker 2: that and it's just a personal preference. And there are
Speaker 2: the rights that have done very different approaches to Culchut
Speaker 2: that have been wonderful. But but for me, how I
Speaker 2: like to write, and my love of horror and tension
Speaker 2: and drama and mystery especially, I think when you have
Speaker 2: a mystery, you're trying to lay out to the audience
Speaker 2: that's in the horror space that you want them to
Speaker 2: lean in and try and solve with you. It's it's
Speaker 2: more powerful to keep it a little bit more condensed
Speaker 2: in the timeframe.
Speaker 1: The other thing I was going to say was it's
Speaker 1: snatch stick it out does feel like karl And then yeah,
Speaker 1: not only are you capturing the characters, but then putting
Speaker 1: them in these situations to have them like Karla and
Speaker 1: Vincenzo as well, because you also capture of Vincenzo's voice
Speaker 1: very well, but to them put them in these new
Speaker 1: scenarios that we've not seen them in before, where it's
Speaker 1: new ghost stories, new spook stories, new creatures that they're investigating.
Speaker 1: That's a whole other challenge to this, and I commend
Speaker 1: you all of these stories were very compelling.
Speaker 3: Oh thank you so much.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, Vince, I think what helps a lot of
Speaker 2: the performances in the writing of the show is so strong.
Speaker 2: Did you say, Tony, there is just he's indelible, He's
Speaker 2: just there again. Rewatching the episodes for Kyle Void, of course,
Speaker 2: was absolutely you can't have these stories of that Vincenza
Speaker 2: being a present. I wanted to modulate how much he's
Speaker 2: a presence in the stories because it's like seasoning, isn't
Speaker 2: You got to get the sevening just right. You don't
Speaker 2: overdo things. And the same with Emily and Ronald. Did
Speaker 2: they appear a couple of times, but I'd love to
Speaker 2: hear that. I'd love to hear that you feel that
Speaker 2: way about that. It is not stick And for me,
Speaker 2: as a fan and as a writer, whenever there's a
Speaker 2: a temptation to do sort of Easter ragg style things,
Speaker 2: terrified of ever drifting into the sort of member berries.
Speaker 2: Oh look, we're ticking off things that we're making the
Speaker 2: fans cheer and go hooray. That's a good reference. I
Speaker 2: always wanted any kind of Easter Egg to be very
Speaker 2: organic and very natural, so that it really is about
Speaker 2: the characters driving the story forward or it's just integral
Speaker 2: to the story. And so that was another guard rail
Speaker 2: I put on myself, so don't get tempted by doing
Speaker 2: too many things. Just did something subtle that feels like
Speaker 2: it fuels it. And Bencenzo, especially with the book stars
Speaker 2: with the Haunted Airport story, just the idea of what
Speaker 2: would that odd couple be like coming back from something
Speaker 2: that what one person with Vincenzo I thought was incredibly important,
Speaker 2: and the other being Carl, being like, can we can
Speaker 2: I just go home? I just I don't want to
Speaker 2: how did this project come to you? I just I
Speaker 2: like to give myself crazy challenges. I had a concept
Speaker 2: for a short which actually was the last short of
Speaker 2: the story promises, the one set in Paris in France,
Speaker 2: and the actually the kernel idea for that story goes
Speaker 2: back in years, goes back almost a decade where I
Speaker 2: was actually in Paris. It was in twenty thirteen with
Speaker 2: two dear friends and we were in Notre Dame and
Speaker 2: we scaled the staircases described in the story, and just
Speaker 2: those goggles are incredible, and you see photographs of them,
Speaker 2: but seeing them not closed, they're so eerie. They're so
Speaker 2: strange that even the fact they were created at the
Speaker 2: tour is so odd, and a story idea was just
Speaker 2: stuck in my head since that trip was just there's
Speaker 2: all these signs around anything about museums which say, do
Speaker 2: not touch this piece of artwork, do not touch this
Speaker 2: because they're ancient, and I thought, what would happen if
Speaker 2: you did, as in, could something quasi supernatural happen if
Speaker 2: you broke the rules and you did actually touch a gargoyle?
Speaker 3: So the story idea for that what goes way back?
Speaker 3: So twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: And then as story ideas, do they tend to linger
Speaker 2: and come and go in your head? And then I
Speaker 2: think I was just watching some Cold Tack and was
Speaker 2: thinking about this specific story in the context of maybe
Speaker 2: making it a short story. There was nothing to do
Speaker 2: with Coldjack, and then rewatching Colchak, it just felt, oh,
Speaker 2: my goodness, it should be a Cold Chack tele because
Speaker 2: it's almost an impossible mystery that I had in my head.
Speaker 2: How do you what is happening? How do you solve this?
Speaker 2: He's the guy, he's a very good report that, he's
Speaker 2: very observant, He'll crack the case. And I pitched it
Speaker 2: to Moonstone, who had the license for Coldchack at the time,
Speaker 2: and the response I got was, yes, it's a short story.
Speaker 2: We don't tend to just publish into short stories. We
Speaker 2: tend to do a collections. And again, me being me,
Speaker 2: I thought, why don't I reply to the email and
Speaker 2: say they fired? Did you four more stories with that
Speaker 2: constitute enough word count stories for a collection? And the
Speaker 2: answer would yeah, give me some other log lines for stories.
Speaker 2: And then again you see this pattern. I think to
Speaker 2: say yes to things and then worry later about how
Speaker 2: I liked the challenge.
Speaker 3: I pitched four.
Speaker 2: Other stories as log lines once I'd figured out the
Speaker 2: kind of range of supernatural stories that I wanted to
Speaker 2: write about, and based on those log lines, the editor
Speaker 2: publisher at Moonstone said yes. And I was away with
Speaker 2: the races last year and they came together really quickly.
Speaker 2: I think there was something I was very excited about
Speaker 2: doing them, and I was I think that also fuels creativity,
Speaker 2: when you're really inside the head of a character, And
Speaker 2: so I really dug back into those rewatches and was
Speaker 2: really fleshing out. I really wanted these fine stories to exist.
Speaker 2: Almost I think it's an echo of when I do
Speaker 2: my music projects. So I really get obsessed with track
Speaker 2: listing and how music flows between tracks, and so with
Speaker 2: this book, I wanted to make sure that the short
Speaker 2: stories that was the order that they worked. If you
Speaker 2: remix the order, it wouldn't quite feel as good. And
Speaker 2: so there was a specific flow to those stories. And
Speaker 2: as you say, the kind of monsters or supernatural qualities
Speaker 2: or whatever it is that he encountered that.
Speaker 3: Moves through those stories.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's one of those cases of almost a
Speaker 2: cold call, I guess, in a kind of cold tech
Speaker 2: way of saying, hey, editor, I've got an idea.
Speaker 3: Do you want to print this? And thankfully it worked out.
Speaker 1: What's interesting because not only are you Carl inside of
Speaker 1: the head of Carl Colchak, but then you're also God
Speaker 1: and you're the one who's setting up these situations. You're
Speaker 1: the one who's throwing these blockers in front of Carl.
Speaker 1: So when you are doing this, do you have the
Speaker 1: whole thing planned out? Or do you just see how
Speaker 1: Kurl moves through this world?
Speaker 2: It's definitely the latter. It's definitely character first. I always
Speaker 2: I have like a kernel about I like to give
Speaker 2: any creative story and working on that's original. I like
Speaker 2: to think about a problem that's insurmountable, a mystery that's impossible,
Speaker 2: and then think about what would the character, how would
Speaker 2: the character approach the first encounter with said mystery, with
Speaker 2: said problem, And yeah, you're absolutely right. The character of
Speaker 2: Carl Kolchak, and then you the characters that he encounters,
Speaker 2: they almost get you know, writers writing very different ways,
Speaker 2: I know, but the way I tend to like writing
Speaker 2: is I let him. I let the Carle voice lead
Speaker 2: the whole story. And so when you're reading these stories,
Speaker 2: when he encounters someone else, the new character whatever it is,
Speaker 2: or decide to do something, I like to frame it
Speaker 2: under the auspices of that's what Carl colcheck we do
Speaker 2: in that moment, and then this happens. And then if
Speaker 2: there's a blackout or this thing happens, how would then
Speaker 2: he react? And then how does that inform how the
Speaker 2: story and moves Howard? I love the mystery genre. I
Speaker 2: love the horror genre a lot. But I think that
Speaker 2: as we all do as fans, sometimes you can see
Speaker 2: the tenth pole, where you can see the structure if
Speaker 2: it's story first, if it's these characters are just drifting
Speaker 2: through a story to get to a twist reveal.
Speaker 3: Or whatever it is.
Speaker 2: So I really wanted to make sure that it's character
Speaker 2: first all the way, and hopefully when people read these stories,
Speaker 2: they'll see that it's not always the same outcome. It's
Speaker 2: not always and that's also something that I wanted to
Speaker 2: break away.
Speaker 3: For the show.
Speaker 2: There is in some episodes a similar structure to how
Speaker 2: he escapes or solves the problem, which is indicative of
Speaker 2: that genre. But when you have an opportunity to write
Speaker 2: new short stories with this character you love, I wanted
Speaker 2: to break the rules a little bit, and like you said,
Speaker 2: I was excited to put him in situations that, in
Speaker 2: some respects might feel familiar to fans of the show
Speaker 2: and the character, but in other respects may feel like
Speaker 2: I've never actually thought about Carl being in that situation.
Speaker 2: How would he get out of it? And honestly, that's
Speaker 2: what I asked myself, if you put Carl, if you
Speaker 2: have Carl Carl break down in the middle of nowhere
Speaker 2: and something terrifying start's happening, how does he deal with
Speaker 2: it where there's no one else to help him.
Speaker 3: So that kind of.
Speaker 1: Idea I noticed. The of course, the settings of the
Speaker 1: stories are very important, at least for me trying to
Speaker 1: figure out where Carl is at in his career at
Speaker 1: this point. How important was setting for you and especially
Speaker 1: time period, because that has to be another challenge for you.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was actually really interesting discussion with Moonstone Books,
Speaker 2: because again, when you're dabbling in the world of a
Speaker 2: licensed character, you are told a lot of things that
Speaker 2: you wouldn't know as a fan. And so I learned
Speaker 2: that in the nineties when jeff Rice was still around
Speaker 2: at the Creative Culture. Of course jeff Rice the genius was.
Speaker 2: It was with Mark Dewidziak, who was a writer and
Speaker 2: added of many books and the cultcho phenomenon mythology. They
Speaker 2: collaborated on this concept that basically after the end of
Speaker 2: the TV series they did move to Hollywood. They moved
Speaker 2: to this thing called Hollywood Dispatch, and the crew essentially
Speaker 2: all moved there and the rules got really set in
Speaker 2: terms of the licensed comic books and pros. That happened
Speaker 2: from the sort of late nineties onwards, I think it was.
Speaker 2: And so again I didn't know that, but it was
Speaker 2: incredibly fortuitous because I live in Los Angeles and so
Speaker 2: hearing that, oh, okay, the Hollywood Dispatch.
Speaker 3: Oh, this is.
Speaker 2: Exciting because, to be honest, that was a huge influence
Speaker 2: just knowing that information and that you had to frame
Speaker 2: things around that location and you couldn't riff on flashbacks
Speaker 2: to Chicago or whatever. It was all about the here
Speaker 2: and now in the Hollywood Dispatch was great because I've
Speaker 2: been to Catalina Island a bunch of times. It's a
Speaker 2: very evocative, inspiring place for stories. Anyway, I'm fascinated by
Speaker 2: the UFO phenomenon. I know there are sightings around Catalina,
Speaker 2: So that idea was like, Okay, we should re dabble
Speaker 2: in some way hit that's territory. But then just thinking
Speaker 2: about different areas that are not too far from LA
Speaker 2: that could be conceivable that the fans would think, yeah,
Speaker 2: that works if there's something that's Fresno based, or even
Speaker 2: the Lake Tahoe story. It's a long drive, but it's
Speaker 2: not like a five day drive. So for me, it
Speaker 2: was looking at the map, but it was thinking about locales,
Speaker 2: thinking about environments in terms of an isolation of environments
Speaker 2: or like an expansive, beautiful setting. I really wanted to
Speaker 2: mix things up a lot, and in terms of throwing
Speaker 2: Kolchak into situations. As we said, he was dead, sir
Speaker 2: on he was going to solve this or get out
Speaker 2: of this, but maybe he hadn't really encountered this kind
Speaker 2: of thing before. And in that respect with monsters, I
Speaker 2: love that the show tackled a lot of classic monsters
Speaker 2: or riffs on classic monster mythology. And it was another
Speaker 2: challenge that I really wanted to rise to, which was, Okay,
Speaker 2: we'll do things. We'll do some kind of haunting thing
Speaker 2: that's obviously related to a ghost in some respect, but
Speaker 2: I wanted to challenge myself as well on riff on
Speaker 2: new mythologies.
Speaker 3: I wanted to come up with.
Speaker 2: There's a phrase that I think it was in the
Speaker 2: TV show Fringe, and I think it was also then
Speaker 2: adopted by the TV show Sleepy Hollow. But this phrase
Speaker 2: called twistery where they take actual history and they just
Speaker 2: bend it slightly. So that I love this concept, especially
Speaker 2: with Colchak's stories, because he's a reporter that the reader
Speaker 2: is thinking as they're reading it, I'm being told something historical,
Speaker 2: but is this completely real or is it completely fictional
Speaker 2: or somewhere in between? And so I love that as
Speaker 2: a writer I love doing that kind of research and
Speaker 2: just hold things on top of one another. That's true
Speaker 2: of all the stories. There are things that are absolutely
Speaker 2: true and things that are absolutely you know, a question mark,
Speaker 2: and there are things that are completely invented. But I'm
Speaker 2: not going to tell you I'm gonna I'm not going
Speaker 2: to ruin the magic trick and telling how those things
Speaker 2: sold out.
Speaker 3: But in terms of the period, You're right.
Speaker 2: That was a real challenge because I was thinking about
Speaker 2: if it's the nineties onwards Heathen Hollywood Dispatch, he's a
Speaker 2: lot older. And it was another rule I was told
Speaker 2: by a Moonstone, which is a terrific rule, which is
Speaker 2: we never specify the year. You can specify calendar dates
Speaker 2: with days and months whatever, but we basically act like
Speaker 2: it's the present in quotes, it's just happening. And as
Speaker 2: a fan, I wanted to keep that seventies vibe in
Speaker 2: the stories, that things feel like they have that period.
Speaker 2: I absolutely didn't want to go near anything that would
Speaker 2: technologically not fit in that space, but just make sure
Speaker 2: the rules of the story feel like for me. I
Speaker 2: just wanted to do a great companion into the vibe
Speaker 2: of the TV showing the movie. So I wasn't interested
Speaker 2: in even leaning near the sort of late sentits or
Speaker 2: early eighties ideas.
Speaker 3: It was just, this is just Coljak's world. We'll live
Speaker 3: in that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I can't see Colchack using computer. I can't see him googling.
Speaker 1: I can't see him using a cell phone. That would
Speaker 1: just be wrong. If he sends a text to Tony that.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, Honestly, if I'd have been sold, that was
Speaker 3: the rule.
Speaker 2: I maybe I don't think I would have been thick
Speaker 2: on the project because you think I want to stay
Speaker 2: in that analogue space. And I love the idea of
Speaker 2: him finding a payphone or asking to use the phone
Speaker 2: at a motel, whatever it is. It just feels that's
Speaker 2: the character, isn't it. Like he said, it just doesn't
Speaker 2: really fit.
Speaker 1: Those were the struggles he had to go through, just
Speaker 1: finding a pencil, his notebook, the tape recorder. Even though
Speaker 1: you don't think of them as trappings of Colchack, they
Speaker 1: are trappings of Colchack. The time period is an essential
Speaker 1: part of them, and I think that's probably where the
Speaker 1: newer one got into trouble.
Speaker 3: Sometimes, Yes, I think, yeah it was.
Speaker 2: I think I did see a couple of the episodes
Speaker 2: of the new one, But I think it was it
Speaker 2: was so different that it almost if you joined the
Speaker 2: show ten minutes in it hadn't seen the opening or
Speaker 2: hadn't heard the character names, I think you'd be forgiven
Speaker 2: for thinking it was a completely different remix or approach
Speaker 2: of new characters, which I guess that was there. That
Speaker 2: was their idea and their approach. But like you say, yeah,
Speaker 2: there's just there's something about those challenges which he faced
Speaker 2: as a reporter that it's not that no one believed him,
Speaker 2: it's the fact that he was. There was so many
Speaker 2: other things that he had to deal with on a
Speaker 2: minute by minute basis and let her know the overall
Speaker 2: arching of can we stop this MOUs to killing people?
Speaker 1: I'd like to that one of your challenges wasn't necessarily there,
Speaker 1: which is budget. If you if this is a Carl
Speaker 1: Colchak story, you can take him to Paris so you
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about what are the production costs
Speaker 1: in order to get Darren McGavin in front of the
Speaker 1: Eiffel Tower.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, that is a That story was really fun
Speaker 2: in that respect because I had been to Paris and
Speaker 2: but again the just the some of the imagery of
Speaker 2: Paris is so evocative of literally that story with the
Speaker 2: most fun in terms of locations because you get maps out.
Speaker 2: You literally bring maps up and I'm figuring out the
Speaker 2: real hotel where he's staying. How does that inform the story?
Speaker 2: Like how far is the way from Notre Dame? Could
Speaker 2: something conceivably have happened between those two events? Where would
Speaker 2: other people he encounters, where would they live? How does
Speaker 2: that inform the stories too? You start looking up where
Speaker 2: the reports some certain among the things, so you really,
Speaker 2: as you say, without a budget, you can really go
Speaker 2: to town in terms of short story and just have
Speaker 2: him encounter things that would be a lot more expensive
Speaker 2: to put on camera for Shure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was one thing that we always complained about
Speaker 1: on the call Jack Tapes was invisible monsters. There were
Speaker 1: so many invisible monsters because it was a lot cheaper.
Speaker 3: They had great stories.
Speaker 2: But I totally know what you mean, and it's almost
Speaker 2: like the match of Minido, the reveal of the those
Speaker 2: photographs will send but wrobably the most sort of striking
Speaker 2: thing of that whole episode because it's I guess it's
Speaker 2: the payoff and as a fan, you're going, oh wow,
Speaker 2: this thing's gigantic and it's this this god essentially with
Speaker 2: this eyeball just staring out of the montage of photos
Speaker 2: or the But that's always fun as well when you're
Speaker 2: thinking about the unseen and describing those things is always
Speaker 2: a great challenge as well instead of worrying about I
Speaker 2: guess it's my love of Jaws. That's my favorite movie.
Speaker 2: So I love the idea of just slowly eking out
Speaker 2: the tendrils or something, especially with the first story, having
Speaker 2: the specter or the mystery or the antagonist just slowly
Speaker 2: come into the frame or tron it to spoiled thing
Speaker 2: too much it's people or listening haven't read this, or
Speaker 2: a ques to read it. That's one of my favorite
Speaker 2: things to do is that don't don't show anything all
Speaker 2: at once, just do the Jaws thing, just slowly eke
Speaker 2: out what the mystery is. And then when there is
Speaker 2: a reveal, it should be that brody chumming the water moment.
Speaker 2: It should be terrifying, but the character the carhold to
Speaker 2: be what is happening, and also for the audience going,
Speaker 2: oh my goodness, this is actually more terrifying than I expected.
Speaker 1: Though Carol is no slouch when it comes to the supernatural.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of times Okay, yeah, I've seen this
Speaker 1: kind of thing before.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly right. And having I think that was
Speaker 2: also a motivator.
Speaker 3: You just poked my brain.
Speaker 2: I think that it was a big motivator in doing
Speaker 2: new things, in doing creature or phenomena that is at
Speaker 2: least a sidestep away from what he's encountered before, just
Speaker 2: to jar him a little bit, just to have him going, Okay, yes,
Speaker 2: I know slacker when it comes to seeing the horrifying things.
Speaker 2: But wait a second, this might be on a level
Speaker 2: that I don't even understand, because that kind of just
Speaker 2: refreshes the concept, doesn't it, of the reporter surviving the supernatural?
Speaker 1: With you being such a prolific writer, how long did
Speaker 1: it take you to put this project together?
Speaker 3: Ah?
Speaker 2: Let me think, reversing my brain in the wayback machine,
Speaker 2: it was all twenty twenty three last year, so I
Speaker 2: think the story and the collection promises was probably there's
Speaker 2: probably a couple of months in terms of everything. But
Speaker 2: from the very start, Okay, let's figure out how is
Speaker 2: this parastory gonna work?
Speaker 3: The other four stories.
Speaker 2: Were actually in total around i'd say maybe eight to
Speaker 2: ten weeks. They came together pretty quickly, I think because
Speaker 2: once you're inside that world in their headspace, you're again
Speaker 2: there's just a fever pitch quality to it.
Speaker 3: You're going okay. And I think because.
Speaker 2: One thing I will say was I was really happy
Speaker 2: with the Paris story, the final story, which is called
Speaker 2: promises Promises. But there's also a problem with that when
Speaker 2: you go okay, I've written a quotes unquote like spec
Speaker 2: script for a coll Chack story, and then like an idiot,
Speaker 2: you pitch doing four more and then you go, well,
Speaker 2: I want those to be as good as this one.
Speaker 2: But I feel like I landed this. Is it even
Speaker 2: possiblity four other ones? But I think that was all
Speaker 2: just good creative fuel to go They have to be
Speaker 2: because I also, I'm my biggest critic. I don't put
Speaker 2: out any books or music that I don't stand by
Speaker 2: and say, yes, I think this is of a decent quality. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think all that sort of nightmare fuel of failing
Speaker 2: was just great kinetic fuel to get the thing done.
Speaker 2: And also because when you are pitching for the stories
Speaker 2: that have to be so different to the Paris one.
Speaker 2: For me, that's just crazily, very invigorating, because you're going
Speaker 2: I have to, as you say, the colors of the rainbow.
Speaker 2: We have to figure out all these different tones. One
Speaker 2: note I got was great was moved from Moonstone, which
Speaker 2: I completely agree with in terms of there's been so
Speaker 2: many other great Moodstone adaptation things for culture with comics
Speaker 2: and prose, the two things i'd say that I really
Speaker 2: loved the feedback from the first story, which didn't have
Speaker 2: story notes, but was yeah, culture works the best when
Speaker 2: it is scary. This is about essentially a horror mystery genre.
Speaker 2: It's not comedy. That's not what the character is.
Speaker 3: That's not the show. But also Carl has to lead.
Speaker 2: Things through the stories that he encounters. If there is
Speaker 2: a collection, have a kind of palate cleanser, have something
Speaker 2: that doesn't necessarily have a familiar structure to it. And
Speaker 2: so the fourth story for me was my kind of
Speaker 2: the odd story moment, which is called Kindness Can Kill You.
Speaker 2: And I won't spoil what the story is, but for me,
Speaker 2: that was a completely different scenario that Carl hasn't countered
Speaker 2: before and just broke the formula of the reporter getting
Speaker 2: wind of something and investigating something that it's a character
Speaker 2: being thrown into situation that he is absolutely no preparation
Speaker 2: for at all and is completely stuffed in many respects.
Speaker 2: And for me, that's just a great writing challenge to
Speaker 2: go is that a story? How can you make that
Speaker 2: interesting story? And obviously he does survive because he's a protagonist.
Speaker 2: You want to kill Cock or Jack, but what is
Speaker 2: the exit strategy in those kind of scenarios.
Speaker 1: That's true too, it I didn't even think about that
Speaker 1: as far as the tone of those first two TV
Speaker 1: movies is so different than the tone of the TV show,
Speaker 1: So it definitely felt like you were going more for
Speaker 1: that horrific tone of those first two films.
Speaker 2: I wanted the quirky humor to come out of characters
Speaker 2: interacting or just Carl's thought processes in terms of when
Speaker 2: he has that great any monologue with the voiceover or
Speaker 2: we either get a sense of him recording something on
Speaker 2: a tape recorder from the voiceover motif, or it's just
Speaker 2: his thought processes. And I think he's such a witty
Speaker 2: character in terms of the drafts, if you like, of
Speaker 2: he's reporting. But yeah, that these situations are we see
Speaker 2: Carl terrified, or we see Carl wide eyed, but he's
Speaker 2: never super confident unless he's I love the way that
Speaker 2: when he's cracked a theory, when he thinks, Okay, maybe
Speaker 2: this flash is going to work for these aliens, maybe
Speaker 2: I'm going to try the Or he has a revelation
Speaker 2: and he's trying to plead with someone that say, know,
Speaker 2: this actually is going to help us, this actually is
Speaker 2: going to solve the situation. But yeah, I definitely I
Speaker 2: enjoyed Moonstone, sort of true north of that going. Don't
Speaker 2: veer too much into comedy, don't veer too much into
Speaker 2: other genres that are away from the horror genre, because
Speaker 2: it really is. The beating heart of the show is
Speaker 2: the monsters, the fear, and the disbelief. If he's encountering
Speaker 2: things which no one else is believing, not even his
Speaker 2: editor publisher thinks there's a shred of truth to it,
Speaker 2: that's just a great anchor to keep going down the road.
Speaker 1: Of Now that you've been in Carl Kolchak's head, do
Speaker 1: you want to go back? Is there more call chack
Speaker 1: coming out from you?
Speaker 2: Nothing planned yet, but I definitely could be tempted. Yes,
Speaker 2: I think I should again do that thing of saying
Speaker 2: yes now on the podcast and challenging myself to see
Speaker 2: whether I could do it another story or collection of the
Speaker 2: short stories. But if it never happens, I'm so thrilled
Speaker 2: that this exists, because, as I say, for what I
Speaker 2: thought was going to be one story became the collection
Speaker 2: of five that I'm really proud of. And it's a
Speaker 2: thrill to hear that you enjoy them. That's the it's
Speaker 2: always terrifying thinking polease. Fans know that it's a fan
Speaker 2: writing them, and it's a fan trying to do his best.
Speaker 2: So if you enjoy them, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like fan fiction. It doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: something I could fine on the internet. These are real,
Speaker 1: actual stories, polished, beautifully paced, super well written. So thank
Speaker 1: you for doing that.
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. No, that's can I have that as
Speaker 2: a pull quote? I'll put them on post.
Speaker 1: Talking about how prolific you are. What are you working
Speaker 1: on right now? Because you've got so many different projects
Speaker 1: that you do.
Speaker 2: There is the volume two of the X Files, the
Speaker 2: official Archives, which I'm still busy hard working out. That's
Speaker 2: been a long project and ongoing projects since the first volume.
Speaker 2: So that's that's a really exciting one for me because
Speaker 2: it's the entire mythology of the X Files, going back
Speaker 2: from season one or worth through the season eleven, presented
Speaker 2: in a similar way to Volume one in terms of
Speaker 2: these are the reports that the agents are filing with
Speaker 2: some twist and turns surprises should we stay in this
Speaker 2: particular volume because when you're handling the mythol the X Files,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things which aren't necessarily which can't
Speaker 2: necessarily be handled as exact reports. There's some other ways
Speaker 2: to handle those things creatively. Music wise, I just did
Speaker 2: a really fun soundtrack for there's another podcast called Return
Speaker 2: of the Pod, which is a begin of the Star
Speaker 2: Wars led podcast but become more of a kind of
Speaker 2: pop culture podcast, and they wanted a new main scene
Speaker 2: that expanded to being a bunch of cues of themes
Speaker 2: for their shows. That was really fun to do because
Speaker 2: they're great guys. That's a really fun show. And there's
Speaker 2: a film that's crony in pre production called Kilter, which
Speaker 2: I'm attached to as a composer, So that's shooting in
Speaker 2: about eight weeks, which is a short which is basically
Speaker 2: a proof of concept for a feature, which is a
Speaker 2: director called Bartley Taylor, who I've worked with before.
Speaker 3: Great director, great creative.
Speaker 2: The rest of the year is nice and busy, which
Speaker 2: is always nice, and I love to be able to
Speaker 2: balance between books and music projects slash film products because
Speaker 2: they do inform each other. A lot of people think
Speaker 2: it's very chalk and cheese, but it's not. They're very
Speaker 2: much about structure and storytelling and pacing, like you say,
Speaker 2: and so I think that the more eclectic things that
Speaker 2: I do just for myself, I feel like it informs
Speaker 2: the other projects really well and just improves everything.
Speaker 1: Where's the best place for people to keep up with
Speaker 1: you and your work?
Speaker 2: Probably the main website is Paul terryprojects dot com that
Speaker 2: sort of has everything covered. So it's just got all
Speaker 2: of my yeah, my bookwork, my music work, and anything
Speaker 2: in between. You can just figure out, have a click
Speaker 2: around and if there's anything that takes you fancy.
Speaker 1: Paul, Thank you so much. It was a great talking
Speaker 1: with you today.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much having me on the show. I
Speaker 2: love the show, fan of the show, so it's a
Speaker 2: great It's a great opportunity to be on your show.
Speaker 3: So thank you.
Speaker 2: Up a
Speaker 1: Coup sh