Episode 151
Father and Son Film Collaboration
Episode 151 - Father and Son Film Collaboration
In this episode of the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast, host Jaclyn Whitt interviews novelist Dan Walsh in part two of their conversation. They discuss Dan's experiences with his books being adapted into movies, specifically focusing on a film project with his son Isaac. Dan shares the challenges and excitement of converting his novel 'The Unfinished Gift' into a film - set during World War II. He talks about the collaboration with Isaac and his team, the unique idea of a radio pitch for the film, and the plans for shooting and fundraising. They also explore the broader trend of storytelling in faith-based films and how believers can portray genuine, relatable experiences in crisis and everyday life.
Highlights Include:
- Welcome and Introduction
- Dan's Son and His Filmmaking Journey
- The Unfinished Gift: From Book to Movie
- Adapting the Script: Challenges and Successes
- Fundraising and Production Plans
- Involvement and Creative Control
- Legal Rights to Published Books
- Observations about Faith-Based Filmmaking
- How to Follow Dan Walsh
Bio:
Dan Walsh is a bestselling Christian fiction author, writing fulltime since 2010, with 29 novels on Amazon. His books have received over 65,000 reviews (4.7 Avg). Over 1.8 million copies are in print or downloaded. Two fan-favorites are now being made into faith-based films. His very first novel, a Christmas story set on the homefront during WW2, The Unfinished Gift, is in pre-production with his son's production team. The rights to another of his most popular books, The Reunion, have been bought by the producers of the hit movie, Reagan. The script is written, and it's currently in pre-production with them also.
Promo for Unfinished Gift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo3AhsClPv0
Editing by Michael Roth
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Transcript
Welcome to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast.
Speaker:My name is Jaclyn, and today we're speaking with Dan Walsh.
Speaker:This is part two of our interview, so if you didn't catch the
Speaker:first one, please go back to the previous episode and take a listen.
Speaker:It's quite a, a crazy journey.
Speaker:We're speaking with a novelist who is now having two of his
Speaker:books turned into movies.
Speaker:We heard in the first episode his journey of the first one, but now
Speaker:let's talk about the second one, which.
Speaker:He led a little bit of the cat outta the bag.
Speaker:It's a very different journey.
Speaker:So tell us, Dan, how is this a different journey?
Speaker:What, novel is it and where is this project going?
Speaker:Well, I'm, I'm gonna assume you've heard the first part, so I won't
Speaker:try to keep making too many tie in.
Speaker:But essentially what happened was all the focus as far as the movie
Speaker:side was on the reunion being made, but as I mentioned, it was stuck for
Speaker:three or four years going nowhere.
Speaker:It just seemed like it was dead.
Speaker:But before that happened, my son, he, my son wants to be
Speaker:making movies for his career.
Speaker:Right now he's made two and the unfinished gift would be his third feature film.
Speaker:There's not enough.
Speaker:Frequency for it to be his living.
Speaker:So what he, he's also making commercials and various video
Speaker:projects to, you know, pay the bills.
Speaker:Well, his heart would be for the movie thing to be you know, one after the other.
Speaker:He is what he'd rather do.
Speaker:So that's the hope, you know, for that.
Speaker:Yeah, wouldn't we all.
Speaker:yeah, he had made these two films and they were more like, he's a
Speaker:believer, but he wasn't making.
Speaker:The faith-based movies that would be typically the successful ones would not
Speaker:be the kind of movies he would typically be thinking, this is what I wanna make.
Speaker:And so he, there's a, a movie came out some years ago called
Speaker:Fargo, the Crime Drama, you know, and that's kind of more friends.
Speaker:That's what they were want.
Speaker:So the first two movies he made were more like that.
Speaker:And I, I was fine with that, you know, obviously secretly in my heart,
Speaker:I was like, gosh, I wish he would.
Speaker:You know, consider doing stuff with my books.
Speaker:But, you know, I'm proud of him and I lo I love him and I didn't push it, but
Speaker:what wound up ha he was very excited with the whole, all the reunion and stuff.
Speaker:Of course he was just loving it and all his friends were, they were like, I
Speaker:was like a kind of like a rock star in some ways that, you know, I was having.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, what wound up happening was I think it was last year, not this past
Speaker:Christmas, but the year before, they were gonna work on their third film.
Speaker:And through a se series of circumstances, it was all set to go.
Speaker:And it was still in the tail end of Covid and something happened.
Speaker:The production got shot down and they just had to all go home
Speaker:after being all ready to go.
Speaker:He was kind of like, you know, they, they were like, all of a sudden they
Speaker:thought they were gonna have their calendar, their dance car was all
Speaker:full for the next several months, and now they're so ran into the holidays.
Speaker:So I just said to him as an idea, I said, Hey, Isaac.
Speaker:I said, what do you think about, uh, giving a copy?
Speaker:I'll sign a copy of the unfinished gift and just give it as a
Speaker:gift it was like Thanksgiving.
Speaker:Give it his gift to your friends.
Speaker:And there's a couple of 'em, these guys that were like, they had kind of
Speaker:bonded together, like, like David's friends, where we're gonna make
Speaker:our, they're all on the same age and we wanna make movies together.
Speaker:Do it in a new way with kind of a, like a Christian value on the set and all that.
Speaker:so he sent them the, the books and I, I don't know if he thought
Speaker:anything would come of it, but they got back with him kind of like the
Speaker:other guys' dad, and they're like, Isaac, why are we not doing this?
Speaker:Why are we not making a movie out of this?
Speaker:This is so much better than what we're doing.
Speaker:And I guess for him, he was like, their reaction affected him.
Speaker:He is like, you know, 'cause I'm his dad, right?
Speaker:He, he loves me, he happy for me, but it didn't dawn on him that,
Speaker:and so he kind of gave him a way, kind of look at it in a new way.
Speaker:And in seeing it, he really fell in love with the idea of us working together and
Speaker:with his friends to develop this thing.
Speaker:And has.
Speaker:And so he wound up writing the script and he.
Speaker:Knocked it outta par.
Speaker:I worked with him for two months on adapting the script.
Speaker:I learned quite a bit about adapting, working with Nick on
Speaker:the, the, uh, reunion project.
Speaker:And he had never adapted a script.
Speaker:He'd only written scripts fresh from ideas he had.
Speaker:So it was, it was fun, you know, and we worked well together.
Speaker:We didn't have a hard time at all.
Speaker:By the end of it, when he went ahead, you know, wrote the script and I'm
Speaker:reading, I'm like, how did you do that?
Speaker:Because it's 250 page novel.
Speaker:We're down to a hundredth hedge page script.
Speaker:And I feel like I don't see hardly anything missing.
Speaker:Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause it does happen a lot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's a concern when you're adapting, is how do you fit it in?
Speaker:'cause the story impacted you.
Speaker:But nobody, everybody forgets when they think, oh, the movie's always better.
Speaker:And they don't realize.
Speaker:Yeah, that's because it's, if you're gonna make a book.
Speaker:Every, and keep everything in it.
Speaker:You're gonna have six to eight episodes.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:There's so many details in the book.
Speaker:There's so many pages, so many storylines.
Speaker:There's just a lot more depth because you have more time.
Speaker:If you're gonna cut that down to an hour and a half,
Speaker:something's gotta give somewhere.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:But so that, his goal, of course, was, and I think this is probably the difference,
Speaker:his heart was to make me happy.
Speaker:He wanted to make sure that I felt like he had succeeded in
Speaker:capturing the best of the story.
Speaker:And he did.
Speaker:And so of course his friends, when they read it, they were like, oh my gosh,
Speaker:Isaac, we can make this, we can do this.
Speaker:So a couple of 'em were, were involved in some fundraising.
Speaker:They've been able to get close to a million now, raised enough for them to
Speaker:feel confident that they're actually starting now to shop it with the agents
Speaker:and actors they made a list for each of the main roles of the actors and
Speaker:actresses they wanted for those roles.
Speaker:All the guys as a producer, and he's got all the connections.
Speaker:He lives out there in la so he's gonna be the one shopping the, and
Speaker:we, another thing a cool thing has happened is one of the guys has
Speaker:a connection with Kappa Studios.
Speaker:I don't know if you know who Kappa Studios are, but you know, I'm sure you've
Speaker:heard the chosen, the series, the Chosen
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Kappa Studio is out in LA and they're, they've at this full-time for, they're
Speaker:full-fledged production studio.
Speaker:They're really a post-production.
Speaker:they take movies and they put 'em, polish 'em, put 'em all together.
Speaker:They've done all the post-production work in the entire.
Speaker:Series of the chosen all episodes and on quite a number of the faith-based movies.
Speaker:They worked on, Reagan, they worked on quite most of the, the
Speaker:faith-based movies you've seen.
Speaker:Kappa Studios has been involved in that.
Speaker:And so one of the guys the cinematographer for my son.
Speaker:Called this guy Paul Long, and he said, Paul, he said, when
Speaker:have I ever told you there?
Speaker:Here's a story you have to read.
Speaker:And Paul was like, well, you mean you have maybe never.
Speaker:He says, okay, I'm gonna send you this story and I want you to read it.
Speaker:Promised me you will.
Speaker:Well, anyways, Paul read the unfinished gift, got back with
Speaker:him and it was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker:This is like a classic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What can we do to help you guys get this going?
Speaker:And so they, at their own expense decided to make a, because it's set in
Speaker:the forties, it set on the home front in World War II during, during the forties.
Speaker:This, this, uh, Christmas story.
Speaker:It's about a little boy and you know it's a reconciliation story.
Speaker:His dad's a B 17 pilot.
Speaker:He's being dropped off at a grandfather's house across town.
Speaker:He's never met his grandfather 'cause the grandfather and father
Speaker:are talking since he was born.
Speaker:His mom has died in a car accident.
Speaker:The grandfather's gonna have to watch him till the father
Speaker:gets found and brought home.
Speaker:And anyway, so he decides, he gets this idea, Paul Oppa, to make a radio pitch.
Speaker:Something have never done before, but they actually got old time radio pitch.
Speaker:They, they condensed the story into like a 15 minute, sounds like, like
Speaker:something, an old radio show with they, they got the actors, the voices, the sound
Speaker:effects and turn it, it into, usually you have like, what do you call it?
Speaker:A, uh, pitch deck.
Speaker:Just, you know, they made that also.
Speaker:But they, he, he thought this would be a good thing.
Speaker:He created a YouTube video, you know, it's a, basically a radio
Speaker:pitch for this that make it all the more easy for, to, to get people to,
Speaker:you know, visualize this project.
Speaker:And then he gave a really crazy, small endorsement at the bottom of it.
Speaker:So they're, they're, that's what's happening.
Speaker:They're committed.
Speaker:Their hope, obviously, is to get some of these actors that
Speaker:will be on their top shelf list.
Speaker:And if any of them do sign on, it will in inevitably make the raising of the
Speaker:rest of the funds a whole lot easier.
Speaker:But they also have a commitment from the guys that even if they have
Speaker:to make it for two or 3 million, they're gonna make it independently.
Speaker:But one way or another, they're committed to making it.
Speaker:Uh, the hope is that some point they get help.
Speaker:It's a financing to be able, 'cause obviously if you have more FI
Speaker:financing, you can do a lot more.
Speaker:'cause it's, again, it's set in the forties, so there's gonna
Speaker:be a lot of extra expense than would be in a contemporary story.
Speaker:Yeah, period.
Speaker:Peace is more expensive.
Speaker:Writing the book, you don't have to think about any of that.
Speaker:It's when it goes into production, then you're thinking about, okay, location.
Speaker:You need to be able to have not only a set that looks like it's from the
Speaker:forties, but you need to be able to have the, the clothing, so like costume and
Speaker:vehicles and technology, like furniture.
Speaker:There's so many things that you have to think about that are not easy to find.
Speaker:And that's the stuff, you know, that's why when, when I first talked to them,
Speaker:I thought, yeah, it's gonna be a long shot because of that extra added expense.
Speaker:But they're confident that they could probably make it
Speaker:for the two to 3 million range.
Speaker:And the actors were great actors.
Speaker:They just may not be as well known.
Speaker:Well, I had watched, uh, I, I've been going to all the faith-based movies now
Speaker:the last couple years, just to be able to, you know, get more acquainted with the
Speaker:quality and what's being done and what's.
Speaker:Very, very impressed when I saw Unsung hero because for one thing, I didn't
Speaker:really recognize any of the actors.
Speaker:Now, of course, I think it's Rebecca St. James.
Speaker:It's partially her story and the band, the young guys at the, in
Speaker:the movie, there's kids who wind up being the, what we call the king and
Speaker:country who are, you know, very, very well-known Christian music artists.
Speaker:Well, this was their family story, and but in the making of the movie,
Speaker:like all the actors, again, I, these were not whatever you call brand name.
Speaker:A-list actors, but they just, they were just amazing.
Speaker:I mean, the quality of the acting, the writing, I just was completely
Speaker:captivated by the story at the end.
Speaker:I thought I would not mind anybody being, bringing anybody to this story
Speaker:that was the least bit open to the Lord.
Speaker:There wouldn't be in any way feeling like, you know, it was a hokey story.
Speaker:It was just how could you not be affected by such a well done story, and yeah.
Speaker:And so it made me feel like, yeah, if even though we can't get.
Speaker:Actors that people know, recognize by name.
Speaker:You know, if you get quality actors and you've got a great story, you
Speaker:could still make a great movie.
Speaker:Even if you only have one or two actors that have a more recognized.
Speaker:Will face, that's also very helpful.
Speaker:Uh, it's a really down to like the, the poster or, because it's marketing really.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And that, that's where they've done that.
Speaker:They have, these are the people that we, we pick that would help
Speaker:finance the movie into another place.
Speaker:I. Then there's the people that we would pick who could do a
Speaker:great job but may not be able to help us so much with the funding.
Speaker:But when we, we raise the funding, they'll do a wonderful job with the part.
Speaker:Their hope right now is, to actually maybe shoot the interior scenes this
Speaker:summer, and then they're picking out, they've already picked out locations,
Speaker:not Philadelphia, where it's, the book is set in Philadelphia, but.
Speaker:Philadelphia is not conducive to making faith-based movies and taxes and whatever.
Speaker:So they picked out some locations that obviously we
Speaker:need snow for a Christmas story.
Speaker:So they're gonna set the interior scenes in the summer and then the snowy scenes,
Speaker:uh, on location somewhere in the winter.
Speaker:and one thing I can say to you is that if, if people are interested,
Speaker:I have a, um, a blog on my website I'm not very faithful with.
Speaker:It used to be a big deal.
Speaker:And now it's like I do put, whenever things, anything's happening, I'll
Speaker:put something on the blog, but I'm not like a weekly or monthly I.
Speaker:But I've decided that when either one of these productions starts to happen,
Speaker:it goes outta pre and is actually into production, I'm gonna start
Speaker:either weekly or biweekly blog giving updates behind the scenes updates to
Speaker:help, you know, capture the process of both of these projects on the blog.
Speaker:So, I. You know, people, you know, if they're, if they're curious
Speaker:right now, my website is just my name, dan walsh books.com.
Speaker:Uh, I wouldn't say necessarily go on there now, other than, unless you're
Speaker:curious about my books, because there's nothing about the movies on there.
Speaker:But at some point I would, I think there might be a way to, you know, really
Speaker:draw some interest in the behind the scenes stuff when the movies get made.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, that sounds interesting.
Speaker:And so I'm curious, um, just to back up for a minute here, you were saying
Speaker:that you were working with your son and the other writer, the script writers.
Speaker:How much involvement did you have with the script writing?
Speaker:I.
Speaker:A lot.
Speaker:Obviously I had the good fortune in both cases where the script writers
Speaker:were interested in getting the script as close to the book as possible.
Speaker:'cause the books were award-winning bestsellers and they have a
Speaker:fairly big audience that will see it when it comes out.
Speaker:And they obviously don't want all of these people that come opening weekend.
Speaker:And then the thing they all say on.
Speaker:Social media is just nothing like the book.
Speaker:So there was a real interest in trying to get things close to the book.
Speaker:So we work pretty clo close together.
Speaker:Obviously for me, the hardest part was the way I write a lot of what
Speaker:maybe would be helping my success as I write a lot and what the
Speaker:characters are thinking and feeling.
Speaker:It's not just the dialogue and the action and the scenes.
Speaker:So that you can't put that on screen very easily.
Speaker:So a lot of it is trying to, how can we take all of these, uh, scenes that are
Speaker:really inside the character's heart and mind, and not turn that into something
Speaker:that the, you know, you can see on screen.
Speaker:So that was a lot of the challenges.
Speaker:How can we convert, do a lot of converting And they did the writing.
Speaker:I, don't make any impression here.
Speaker:I was more like an advising them and then also they would, they
Speaker:would get back with me and say.
Speaker:How do you think about this?
Speaker:I was like, great.
Speaker:And of course my heart was, I know what the challenge was.
Speaker:I wasn't like, Hey, you know, you can't do that.
Speaker:You're messing it up.
Speaker:My heart was to be gracious 'cause I knew how challenging it was with
Speaker:the project they had and once they had you know, sort of secured.
Speaker:The sense that they now know what they need to do.
Speaker:They didn't stay as involved with me and they just wrote it, and at the
Speaker:end of the script they'd send me a copy, you know, uh, for my review.
Speaker:Like they were sending out the other people.
Speaker:What do you think?
Speaker:So I think that probably one of the challenges, of course for, for faith-based
Speaker:and people's books is they're not maybe as aware when they start off how
Speaker:much has to change and how they need to be, I guess you'd say, willing,
Speaker:if they want it to become a movie.
Speaker:They need to be willing to let those changes happen and
Speaker:not be like, that's my baby.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:If it was being done in streaming for six or eight episodes for one book, you
Speaker:might not have to have that much cut.
Speaker:Just have to reshape the story because there's enough time to play out
Speaker:all the scenes But if you're going for a a 90, 120 minute movie, be
Speaker:prepared for a whole lot of cutting.
Speaker:Yeah, and even adjusting for the, the fact that you do have to find a
Speaker:visual way to express the internal thoughts and feelings and all of that.
Speaker:So there does need to be that.
Speaker:Flexibility to shift aspects of the story, whether it be bringing in
Speaker:a new character or getting rid of characters or combining characters.
Speaker:Like there's just so many things that you have to be flexible on because film is so
Speaker:different from books when it comes to that aspect, even just how much things cost.
Speaker:I mean, when you're writing the book, it doesn't matter how many
Speaker:characters you have, but when you're writing the film, it matters because.
Speaker:That's how many actors you have to find and bring in and pay.
Speaker:so, so many things to think about.
Speaker:My son's team.
Speaker:They're really very careful.
Speaker:Everything is what's a cost.
Speaker:The other guys have have already made movies that are tens of millions.
Speaker:They still would care.
Speaker:They're not thinking with the same precision that my son and his team are.
Speaker:So yes.
Speaker:And I imagine the overall majority of faith-based projects are more like my
Speaker:son's rather than these very big projects.
Speaker:that's one of the reasons too.
Speaker:I can see why, you know, people would be more motivated to take books that
Speaker:are set contemporary because the cost
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:have to come up with costumes and cars and all those other things, you know,
Speaker:that go with a historical production.
Speaker:And so do you have access to your audience like so, because I know that with authors
Speaker:that have been able to sell a lot of.
Speaker:Books, like copies, I mean, of, of a book that that book is attractive to a producer
Speaker:because there's a built-in audience.
Speaker:But I'm curious, with you being an independent writer, do you have
Speaker:access to your audience to tell them, Hey, this is gonna be a movie?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say.
Speaker:The reach thing is kind of con, oftentimes confusing to me because it would, seem
Speaker:to me like the amount of people that I'm actually have access to might be
Speaker:more like in the 15 to 20,000 range.
Speaker:But I'm also aware that one of the larger book promotion companies, that
Speaker:promotes books not just Christian books, but all books novels called
Speaker:BookBub, and I found out last year when we were doing a group project of
Speaker:six or seven authors together that.
Speaker:They do this thing called target advertising, where you
Speaker:pick a bestselling author.
Speaker:If you're a smaller author and you can use this, a bigger author say, I
Speaker:want, I want that readership that he has to see my ads because my books
Speaker:are like, if they like his books, they'll like, my books kind of a thing.
Speaker:So you can actually target your ads to say all readers who love
Speaker:books by Dan Walsh, for example.
Speaker:But they, they came back and said, I had something like 250,000
Speaker:reach in their organization as far as when they, when people are.
Speaker:How many people can they expect might be interested in a book
Speaker:and I'm thinking 200,000.
Speaker:I'd love to be able to reach 200,000.
Speaker:I'm more aware of, like I said, 20,000, but it does seem to be with social
Speaker:media and of course when the time comes, once I understand both projects,
Speaker:once they actually sign actors, you're gonna start seeing articles like,
Speaker:you know, all the movie publications and there'll be a lot more buzz.
Speaker:I can tag off on as far as momentum and reaching people, but as far as actually
Speaker:access that to me, you know, 20,000 or so is what I, I feel like I can connect
Speaker:with in terms of getting a message out.
Speaker:And other than that, it would be however things go, friend tells a friend,
Speaker:tells a friend, you know, type of thing.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Curious about, uh, a legal issue or detail for your books that
Speaker:you are turning into a movie?
Speaker:Are they the ones that were, uh, published by a publisher or independent publishing?
Speaker:were a traditional publisher, and I and I, that was part of the thing.
Speaker:I got the rights back.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:I became an independent publisher in 2015, and at that time.
Speaker:Only the books that I wrote brand new.
Speaker:From that moment forward, I have any control Over all
Speaker:of the books were locked up.
Speaker:You could say the publisher.
Speaker:Well, what happened was because they were now going with other authors,
Speaker:and I'm no longer in the corral, so to speak, my books with them, the
Speaker:sales started to go down and down.
Speaker:They're no longer in stores.
Speaker:They're no longer promoting.
Speaker:I'm invisible to them.
Speaker:Meanwhile, my indie books are selling really well.
Speaker:as far as the other ones, they were not saying well at all.
Speaker:When the sales dropped below a certain threshold by contract, they
Speaker:had to give the rights back to me.
Speaker:That happened around 2018 just before the reunion thing happened, and when I got
Speaker:the rights back to the those books now
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:full control.
Speaker:Those books to be made into movies or whatever, I actually re-released
Speaker:second editions of all those books under my own imprint and now have full,
Speaker:complete control over all of those books.
Speaker:Good timing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, at least I would've, I'm sure my publisher would've, would
Speaker:have wanted to work together.
Speaker:If they had the rights, they wouldn't have said no.
Speaker:They would've said, but I just wouldn't have had near as much of the
Speaker:income because I'd be splitting it.
Speaker:Well, turns out now all that income that would be from the
Speaker:publishing side will go to me.
Speaker:I won't have anybody I'll have to, uh, share with, except hopefully my
Speaker:family and, and kids and grandkids.
Speaker:But we'll see, you know, how that goes.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:I pray it's very lucrative.
Speaker:And that it's a blessing for everyone involved.
Speaker:So tell us, where do you see God moving in your corner of the industry?
Speaker:Because you're, you're kind of coming at it from a different perspective,
Speaker:and so I'm curious to see where do you see God moving in the world,
Speaker:in the industry and storytelling?
Speaker:I, I would say I've had some very discussions just like this
Speaker:with my son and his friends.
Speaker:Because they've kind of decided now they wanna be, or even they wanna even
Speaker:take one of my suspense books and turn it to eight episode Streamy project.
Speaker:what they're saying, and I think this might be something most of the, the
Speaker:faith-based movies that are being made have a very strong faith message in
Speaker:them, which obviously people who are already walking with the Lord would love.
Speaker:People who are, who are not walking with the Lord, maybe not so much
Speaker:unless they're being drawn to the Lord in their own heart, whatever.
Speaker:But what my son would say, and I think we've talked about this, what they hope
Speaker:to see, and I think this might be more of a trend, there's much more of an appetite
Speaker:or movies made by faith-based people that are, instead of necessarily being
Speaker:necessarily a strong Christian message in the story, the story would be the thing.
Speaker:The difference would be instead of having credible Christians populate the main
Speaker:characters so that they're, like, for example, my, my suspense novels, that
Speaker:was exactly the, the whole goal of it.
Speaker:I wanted to write, I love reading suspense novels, but all the heroes and, and
Speaker:characters and all the suspense books I read are people are kind of profane and
Speaker:kind of difficult and they're sleeping around and they're not nice people.
Speaker:So I thought, what if, what if something just as exciting as these things happened?
Speaker:But it was to a credible believer going through it.
Speaker:How would they react to all the things going through that suspense story?
Speaker:And that's the premise of those, those books, I read eight books that are
Speaker:in, and that's what my son was like.
Speaker:He, when he read that, his friends read that.
Speaker:They thought, yes, nobody's doing this.
Speaker:We wanna take a story that would be completely captivating by itself.
Speaker:And, and show credible believers going through those things and reacting
Speaker:the way believers who actually have a walk with God would react.
Speaker:And of course it's gonna be messy.
Speaker:It's not always gonna be everything.
Speaker:Everybody's gonna church and singing songs.
Speaker:there's gonna be, you know, all kinds of suspenseful scenes and all kinds of times
Speaker:there's gonna be like just how people are.
Speaker:And like the Psalms, you read David's life.
Speaker:David's life was quite messy at times.
Speaker:Other times he's singing the great high praises of God.
Speaker:And most people believers can relate to that.
Speaker:I think they relate.
Speaker:So that's what the, I, if I had to say a trend that I would love to
Speaker:at least personally see more of.
Speaker:I, I wanna see these movies continue to be made that are being made.
Speaker:But I would love to see a lot more productions take the risk of making
Speaker:ones that are not so message centric.
Speaker:And they're more about the what do credible believers look like
Speaker:as they live their life through especially crisis and difficulties.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's so good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Having the characters be the one to demonstrate an example character.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:that's
Speaker:fantastic.
Speaker:So tell our listeners how they can follow you.
Speaker:Can they find you on social media?
Speaker:I know you gave your, uh, website.
Speaker:We'll have that in the, the show notes, that link.
Speaker:But where else can our listeners find you?
Speaker:Well, I'm on Facebook every day.
Speaker:I just, my, I think baby boomers.
Speaker:More on Facebook.
Speaker:I also, I have, have a presence on Instagram and even X, but I
Speaker:would say the, the majority of my interactions are on Facebook.
Speaker:So if people find me on Facebook, I have both the, the profile of this, the author
Speaker:page where it's likes, and one that's friends on Facebook, but I'm on there all
Speaker:the time if they wanna interact with me.
Speaker:If you go to my website, there's a contact you.
Speaker:Well, for one thing on my website, you can sign for my newsletter.
Speaker:That's one.
Speaker:You'll get to a chance to get one of my books for free, but the other real thing
Speaker:is that you'll be part of the crowd.
Speaker:You won't have to wonder, did I miss it on Facebook or something?
Speaker:I'm gonna be u utilizing that website much more often when
Speaker:the movies start happening.
Speaker:But there's also a place there you can, it says contact, you could
Speaker:just hit the contact button and that goes right to my email address.
Speaker:So if you send me a, a message, you wanna reach me for some reason through there,
Speaker:you know, I, I do answer all my emails.
Speaker:I don't have a staff.
Speaker:If I get too many emails, it takes me a little longer to get back to 'em, but I
Speaker:do answer all the emails that come my way.
Speaker:So they can try that way either or, you know, like I said, you could, you could
Speaker:find me on these other social media platforms, but I'm not on there as often.
Speaker:Well, thank you.
Speaker:It's been very interesting talking with you.
Speaker:I've enjoyed.
Speaker:Learning your perspective and hearing about your journey,
Speaker:and I've learned a few things.
Speaker:I had a great time with you, and again, I'd love to do it again, and maybe we'll,
Speaker:we'll, uh, if something big starts to happen here and something starts to
Speaker:move, you know, with these projects, one of these projects, we'll, we'll
Speaker:make another time to get back together and give you, give you a little update.
Speaker:Yeah, I'd love that.
Speaker:Keep us posted.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Thank you and God bless.
