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Overview
Justin joins us again for the first time (sorry, it’s a thing) to talk about his books. Justin has written many fantasy and sci-fi, some of them have been with Michael Anderle.
We discuss how books are different than video games and what he is working on now, which includes his ghostwriting. Since he writes fantasy, he tells us how it’s different than Game of Thrones.
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http://www.justinsloanauthor.com/
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Transcript
[00:03:21] Stephen: Let’s get started. So this is backwards for me. Usually I talk about books and then we discuss other things, but I got so excited talking to you. I talked about all the other stuff and totally forgot about your books. So this is actually part a when I put them out. So it’ll be backwards for everybody listening, but that’s fine.
It keeps life interesting. So Justin, where are we found that a little bit about you and all that it’s coming up in the actually next part of the interview, but I wanted to talk about your books because you have some interesting titles. So tell us about the fiction that you write.
[00:03:58] Justin: Sure. So I write a lot of different [00:04:00] kinds of fiction and so a lot of it is Saifai a lot of is fantasy.
I got my start back in the day when I had been waiting for the next game of Thrones book to come out. So I wrote my own fantasy. And then it all went crazy from there. I did some middle grade stuff that I finished before that one was really done and inspired by Harry Potter and whatnot. And then went on to write more supernatural stuff I wrote with Michael Anderly for a little bit.
We did probably let me just think real quick, maybe like 16 books together and yeah, that was a lot of fun nowadays. I’m writing a lot more of like kind of space, fantasy, like star wars type stuff.
[00:04:35] Stephen: So couple of questions, first of all, do you find. Problems with going from fantasy sci-fi with readers or people like, Hey, this isn’t like the last couple of weeks.
Cause I hear that a lot.
[00:04:49] Justin: Yeah. Uh, so what’s interesting about Angelie’s readership is that his is very much a mixture already. So. And a lot of those, we just carried over [00:05:00] to me, which is great. And so they don’t really care. I would say that when you’re trying to reach the broader market or when I’m moving away from that focus, then it’s like lately I haven’t read a book now with Michael and two years, at least.
So I’d say that I probably have lost like the idea that originally there was a lot of his readers who would check out my stuff. And now it’s just the ones who are truly loyal and really interested in Michael publishes so much. I like a book a week or a book a day, or who knows a lot. It’s not like his fans have time to go check out other authors anyway, unless it’s inside that university reaching out to new audiences, I’d say, yes, it’s a lot harder to try to straddle two horses at the same time.
But a lot of my newer books have been just Saifai or especially the next three that I have ready to go are pure Saifai. So maybe that’ll make it a lot easier, but when you’re trying to publish only Saifai or sorry, when you’re trying to publish a mix or you’re trying to go yeah. Only Spotify and then fantasy and backup.
Uh, I do find that difficult and a lot of people will use pen names for that, so that you [00:06:00] have because of Amazon algorithms and whatnot, so that you can not get confused, could not get the audience. How did
[00:06:05] Stephen: you start writing with Michael handler? Because he’s obviously one of the rockstars in the indie world, 20 books for 50 K everybody seems to know him.
So how did you get into writing with him and so many books?
[00:06:17] Justin: Yeah, so I was in the early stages of 20 books and he was on there and somebody I said was somebody I was talking to him. I think Michael might be open to collaborations. Why don’t you reach out to him? And so I did. And so I had written before that I was writing the telltale games at the time I had re I had just left, I think.
And I was writing, I was writing some werewolf superhero kind of books, not superhero as much as it wasn’t really urban fantasy, but supernatural, thriller as a good title. For the genre. And I had done a series of my buddy Michael around that was like a called a modern necromancy. And it’s the guys, it reads like a video game and the style of action, whatnot.
But it’s the guy who has to go try to find his lost fiance and ends up dabbling in necromancy and whatnot. And so Michael was publishing these vampire books and wearables and stuff. And I was like, oh, I’m doing werewolves. And I’m doing this kind [00:07:00] of stuff. Would you be open to? And I told him about, of course, telltale and all that, and walking dead and whatnot that.
And I said, would you be open to me right into your universe? And he was like, sure. And at the same time he was talking to Craig Martell about doing that. So Greg and I were the first ones, he had done a couple other little spinoffs with other people too, but we were the first ones to really dive into his, uh, Bethany and, uh, Katherine gambit universe, and really write a lot of books in there versus the ones previously had only done like two or three, I think Ts Paul and some other guys jumped in around the same time or shortly after.
And then it says, then it just exploded. But yeah, I dove in because at the time my books were making okay. Money, like a thousand or two a month, nothing crazy. And then, uh, he was like, dude, this is going to be great. It’s going to be huge. Trust me. And I was like, oh, okay, sure. So as soon as he said, just get ready.
As soon as book one launches, just be ready to write book two as fast as. And sure enough, it went. And then suddenly I went from one to 2000 a month to 10 to 15,000 a month. And so of course, if you do see that happen, you’re just going to dive in [00:08:00] head first. Right. There was nothing holding me back at that point.
So I just went hardcore. I kept my, I had left the view game job and taking a side editing job for a little bit. And then I was like, forget this I’m out. I’m going to write full time. So I left and I started writing full time and, and just dove in and just kept going. So that’s why we ended up getting those 16 books out.
Uh, Yeah.
[00:08:19] Stephen: Yeah. That guy, that the 20 books, 50 K motto, you know, fast publishing getting them out, getting books out, you can quickly. So you’re not doing that as much. And you mentioned the new series. You’re getting ready. Tell
[00:08:32] Justin: us about that. Yeah, lately I’ve definitely calmed down on the writing. So in part, because it’s tiring, right.
Their anxiety and all that, and trying to throw your own money behind each public spoke, you’re coming out with each launch and you got ads and you got book covers and you’ve got all these things, editors to think. Relying on all these people’s time. And, uh, yeah, so I’ve been actually doing a lot of ghost writing lately because of that.
And that’s been great. I charge enough to where I know that it’s more than I would make on my [00:09:00] own and that I won’t feel guilty with that time. And I think that’s the key. I see some people out there charging $200 to write a half a book or something, and I’m like, you’re going to hate yourself. That’s time that you could have been spent doing something amazing.
But anyway, so I charged him more like 15,000 a book right now, which makes me. Happy and cause my most recent books were making less than that. They weren’t always making less than that, but I don’t know with COVID or something. So anyway, I reasoned books. What I’ve been doing is I just write for fun and for passion right now, and I’m working with a buddy and we’ve published a book or we re we wrote a book together, a buddy who got me into writing in the first place.
And that one’s a lot of fun. We’re just sending it out to beta readers right now. I think we’re going to publish late November, mid to late November. And it’s about a guy who gets taken up on a safari to a Kaiju planet, basically a planet with huge humongous monsters for Safaria. But then when he gets there, he finds out that he’s actually being used as bait to lure out this other group that’s up there.
And so there’s all these fun, no back and forth and intricacies and the humongous Ski-Doo style monsters. So that’s great. There’s no fantasy on that. It’s just pure Spotify, [00:10:00] which is funny. And then we did another one to get more. There’s a lot of Netflix shows that are like this. Like, what is it? My brain always blinks on names.
Evangelian Gillian, whatever that one. That’s the max and whatnot. Oh, I should pull these up before I talk
[00:10:15] Stephen: to, but
[00:10:17] Justin: yeah, that stuff. So it says like that kind of story with max and whatnot. And then I, we did one with a buddy who lives here, where I live, who I met through connections who works at Dell. He’s actually doing some really cool stuff now he’s co-writing and co-directing their next short, so hopefully that’ll go big places for him.
And we did a fun one that we call it. We like to call it Robocop, meets ninja turtles. It says a lot of robots and bounty hunters and kind of craziness over the top sanity, but very Saifai in the sense that it’s more on the Robocop side. It’s a, there’s no fireballs coming out of your hands or anything crazy like that.
That would be cool though. Yeah. So you could do that if it was a science-based fireball. That’s true. We do have some fun weapons that are used. But yes, I’ve been leaning a lot more into this. I actually got somebody, somebody reached out to [00:11:00] hire me for a ghost, writing a fantasy novel, and I started thinking about it.
And the more I did, I just wasn’t that into it for me, especially like even game of Thrones. One reason I liked it early on was that like for the first 90% of book one, there is no sign of real fantasy. It’s all, nobody has magic that you know of. And there’s talk about white walkers and talk about dragons, but you don’t know if they’re actually.
Or not. And that’s what I loved about those books. And then even when the magic stuff starts to start happening, it doesn’t feel like it’s overwhelming. And until the white walkers, if stuffs are happening later on, then he gets a little more in your face. But that’s what I, that early stuff is what I love.
So when I started looking at this concept and it has all the magic and all this stuff, and I’m just like, Hey, so I definitely am leaning more into, uh, kind of the straight Saifai, but I’m also going more thriller. I’ve been outlining. If you thrill thriller books, the guy or a girl gets into a situation and it’s crazy and you’re trying to survive.
And you have some friends that you meet along the way, some allies. And I just like that. It’s just the same stuff that I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I’m taking out the magic and the [00:12:00] science fiction and all the insanity and just focusing on characters and what makes characters. And I
[00:12:05] Stephen: think no matter what, John rhe, you writing it, good characters, people
[00:12:10] Justin: really fall into it.
After like 50 bucks, you could get tired of writing another spaceship battle, or another way that if somebody conjures of spell are coming with, okay,
[00:12:20] Stephen: for this battle, go see book five and then book seven, those two battles. And that’s about what’s happening. Big ship shoots, another big ship. There’s something explodes.
People get sucked into space.
[00:12:33] Justin: George RR Martin’s books and game of Thrones, right? Yes. And the TV show, we see some big battles, but a lot of times in the books they’ll just be like, and there was a battle. And then you move on to the next. And you’re like, yeah. You’re like, why waste time? Like another sword clashing.
He doesn’t really waste time on those things. He focuses on the characters and that’s, what’s literary in his style. Yeah.
[00:12:50] Stephen: Right. The first Chronicles Naranja line witch and the wardrobe and they made the movie and battle was like 15 minutes long. It’s literally one page in the book, you know, [00:13:00] the battle in the end.
So you imagine I go to movies to see the explosions and the big stuff. It’s a nice balance. How did you get into ghostwriting?
[00:13:11] Justin: Yeah. So that actually started with this buddy who I was talking about. So the way it first started was he was saying, I was talking about how COVID and whatnot had to Curt the income on the book side.
And he was like, what if I pay you money? And you write my idea. And then of course he’s reading through it and commenting and doing some little additions here and there. It’s like, you write my idea. And then after I make my money back, we’ll split the royalty. And so I was like, oh, that’s cool. And that’s like ghost writing, but not exactly because I’m still having my name on the cover and getting world.
But then I started thinking, what if I charged double or triple whatever he’s paying me and actually do some real ghost writing. So I’ll just put it out there. I was like, if nobody hires me, I don’t care. Cause I’m still doing my own thing and having my fun. And I have a couple of side jobs popping up and I’m supposed to start something full time, maybe in the next week or two.
So I’m like, Hey, whatever. But I put it out there and I started getting like insane amounts of offers. So I’m like, Okay. So why don’t I raise the rate a little bit and again and again. [00:14:00] So I think the key is just keep raising the rate until you feel like you’re not getting any more offers. And then you’re
[00:14:06] Stephen: set, that’s a, uh, an old musicians thing go out there and charge triple scale and people think, Hey, he’s really good.
I want him and the people that go out and say, yeah, I’m just a hundred dollars people like, yeah, he must not be worth it. It’s a.
[00:14:23] Justin: Yeah. And I don’t think it’s necessary charging more, what you’re worth as it is charging what you’d be willing to take for that amount of time. Right. I don’t want to just sit down and write somebody else’s book per se, but if they’re going to pay me this much money, then of course I’ll write that book for you.
And that’s awesome. And if they have the money and they feel like it’s worth their investment, I’m always upfront. I’m like, Hey, are you going to self publish this or traditionally published? What’s your goal here. If you’re gonna self publish this, you’re probably not going to make back what you’re paying me.
I hope you understand. And they’re usually like nine times out of 10. They’re like, okay, I’ve had one or two people like really, and then pull out. And I’m like, yeah, if you’re an expert marketer and you know what you’re doing, and you have a lot of money to put behind the ads, then maybe you will. But it’s not [00:15:00] likely like a lot of self-published authors will be lucky to make five to $10,000 off.
Fad. A lot of them are making a lot more than that for people listening who are like, oh, really? That sucks. Because a lot of people making great money off of self published books, but it’s just good to be realistic going into it. Like if this is your first book and yes, you’ve paid somebody, who’s amazing to write your book for you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that.
Take off
[00:15:23] Stephen: very few first books seem to skyrocket and no matter what I mean, and that’s the whole point of the 20 books. Don’t worry about that first book. Wait until you get your 12th book.
[00:15:34] Justin: And even when it’s your 12th book, right? Like it might be your 13th book that just suddenly takes off. And that’s one thing that got tiring for me doing it on my own where now I just want to do it here and there.
And whenever I feel like it is, you put so many out and you, some of them hit really big and some of them don’t and you just. So it’s like hitting the roulette table. Right? What if you put out 10 in a row and they all kind of flop and that 11th one is the one that goes big and that’s awesome
[00:15:57] Stephen: for the gambling.
Yeah. One more [00:16:00] time. Right. And some
[00:16:01] Justin: authors have it so well down that they’re more marketers and they can make each of those books make at least a minimum threat. And that’s awesome for them, but I’ve always been more of an author in mindset versus I’m less of a business person. I just want to write my books have fun.
So that’s why writing with Michael so great because he takes care of him. And so on this style of ghost writing in two, out of like probably the last six jobs that I’ve taken only two are true ghost writing. The rest of the other four are like, we want to use your name of course, because it helps their brand or whatever.
And if I love the concept and I feel like we stuck to my vision of what I was writing and then of course I’m okay with that. Yeah.
[00:16:33] Stephen: What type of feedback have you gotten from writers or from readers and this, I don’t meant this to sound bad, but did you notice any difference in feedback when you were writing with Michael, as opposed on your.
[00:16:46] Justin: Hm. I don’t know. I do think that I’ve grown a lot as a writer. So it’s been, that was my first started writing with him that must’ve been 2016, so five years ago, and I’m always trying to learn and grow and all that stuff [00:17:00] and think I’ve done a good job at it. So when I looked at some reviews from some books that I wrote, like right after I started writing on my own with him, some of them are great, but some get very confused.
Is this, why is this not why a is like, I have shadow core, which kind of is almost white, but it’s not. It’s just, it has a teen protagonist and does deal with some teen stuff. And I don’t really swear in that book because I’m not big on swearing usually, but like, know if you guys know his books are full of swearing and in the books I wrote with them were full of swearing.
So you might have some people who got confused about that and that showed through on some reviews too. And I did another book there. I wanted to do three protagonists, three points of view, which is not quite George R. Martin style, but in between the two versus my Michael books, I usually stick to one point of view or maybe two at most.
Uh, and so some readers did have that. Oh, I had a hard time with the switching back and forth between the three protagonists, but I don’t think there’s any big, like substantial craft comments that I’ve received. I have more recently received good feedback because I’m doing this thing. I basically being a asterisk [00:18:00] ghost writer, like not a real ghost writer, whatever you want to call that a writer for a hire who still has freedom to do it my way, but what’s cool is I’ll do it my way, but then like my buddy, who’s working with me, he’ll go through and comment.
Hey, let’s get a slow down moment here. Or, Hey, this is awesome, but there’s too much action going on. Let’s get some description going. And the stuff that probably a good editor would call out for me, but they haven’t been as much as they should. And because he’s his, name’s gonna be on the book to. Wants to make sure he’s proud of it.
He’s doing a really good job of calling out those things that I hope other people would do. And what I should do is hire him to be an editor on all my books, probably, but I haven’t gotten any better feedback in that regard because I have a lot more attention to these moments. And it’s been a fun thing where I’ve actually been listening back to my old books too, and feeling that action, fatigue and moments and realizing, oh man, I must have been.
In a hurry at that point, or just like really excited about the action. But I got to remember that a lot of readers are not ADHD as I am. And so they want those moments to slow down occasionally and get the description. Like even as a reader, I get still bored with [00:19:00] that stuff. I’m just like skip the page.
But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t take those people into account when I write my books because I want more people to read it than just
[00:19:06] Stephen: me. It’s interesting because, uh, I was doing some beta reading for somebody and they say, let me know where you. Uh, put it down, let me know where you skip, et cetera. And I said, I don’t think I’ve ever skipped anything in a book.
I there’s only a couple of books I get partway through and I’m like, I just really am not enjoying it and I’ll put it down, but I’m not one of those that skipped paragraphs. And I just can’t do
[00:19:31] Justin: that. So I was telling everybody about how my favorite book is Elantras by a Brandon center. And it is a great book and I kept telling people this and the one day my buddy who’s heard in these Telogis over and over again.
He sits with me, he looks at me and he’s like, just, you do remember that you only read two thirds of that book, right? Cause it’s a three point of view book and halfway through the first chapter, one of the point of views, I was so bored. I just skipped that point of view for the rest of the. And was like, oh, damn.
So I went back and finally read that [00:20:00] point of view and I still love the book. And it’s a great point of view once I finally gave it the time of day. But it’s, what’s funny is I didn’t need to read that point of view to get the book or to understand the story at all. It just, Brandon Sanderson loves to flush out his worlds and get more points of view and have a lot of fun stuff going on.
And it did add a little bit to that character and the story, of course, the rest of it. Yeah. Anyway. So on the point of skipping, I had totally forgotten that I just skipped a whole third of the novel.
[00:20:26] Stephen: Wow. And that’s funny too, because we talked about people that start video games and don’t finish them.
They get 20% through and say, yeah, it’s one of the best games ever. I’ve
[00:20:34] Justin: never finished it. Uh, games nowadays. They’re like, even when I was young, I guess too, that was like the pride, right? When you’re a to gamer, you love a game that takes a hundred hours to beat, but now we’re old and we have families.
Jobs or writing to do or whatever, and like a hundred hours out of my time, that’s a lot of money that I just spent and the opportunity cost of what I could have been making from writing. So it’s tough, but I love playing these games still. So a lot of times I’ll get like horizon zero Dawn. I got that.
And I played for probably 15 hours [00:21:00] and I’m just like, oh my God, this is going to take forever. I looked at how far I’ve gone and it’s like barely anywhere at all. And so then I ended up just having to watch the rest of it on YouTube, the cutscenes, at least I know what happened. There’s no way in hell.
I’m going to be able to have time to finish playing this game. I feel those people
[00:21:18] Stephen: and I’m on the other side of that because I don’t really have kids and stuff to worry about so much. So I’ve got more gaming back, but I’ve actually been spending more of it writing and reading. Yeah, but you know, and so of course, when I get gaming time, what did I just do?
Get the Alan wake remaster, which I already played all the way through and just go do it again and ignore stuff I haven’t done. I
[00:21:38] Justin: will say that when I play games, That in showering are probably the two best moments for when story ideas start hitting my head. Yeah. You just zone out and just like you’re out there, like crunching and just leveling up and gathering some items or whatever, and then I’ll send you like an idea for it.
[00:21:54] Stephen: Yeah. I, I love that. As far as. I got the, so where do you get your ID [00:22:00] once? And I’m just like, man, where don’t I get ideas? I probably got three ideas driving over here today.
[00:22:06] Justin: Look at the way these tree and her twines and the branches. And I could tell a story.
[00:22:09] Stephen: Yeah, exactly. That’s interesting though, that. I that’s something I had to learn is, oh, that’s a great idea.
It’s a scene or a character setting and I write it down and then I go back. I’m like, that’s a great idea. And I started realizing what, what’s the story? And there’s a great idea, but you have to have the story to go with it. And so that’s something that I didn’t do so much at first, I’ve got a lot of ideas still written down.
[00:22:36] Justin: I write those down. I’ve found that sometimes I’ll go through and realize that two of them just need to be combined. And then that’s the. Oh, no, it all makes sense.
[00:22:44] Stephen: Yeah. I actually did that with the next set. I started a bit, but yeah, it got mishmashed a little, so who knows? It’ll probably never sell cause no one will figure out was this punk or is this alternate history or what?
Yeah, [00:23:00] whatever. Oh, we
[00:23:00] Justin: did that with a lot of the stories that are out there too sometimes. So shadow core. The one that I already know. That for me started as a little bit of apocalypse now means Harry Potter. And if anybody reads the book, I’m sure they will not get that at all. I don’t, there’s a slight hint of the apocalypse now.
And that her goal is, has to go out there and hunt down to some rogue person who used to be on our side, but is now not really. And then she learns about her skills along the way. So that’s probably the extent of the Harry Potter ish, but then, but it started from me writing out, okay. Harry Potter meets apocalypse now.
And how can I make that awesome.
[00:23:36] Stephen: You had a bunch of wizards on broomstick, a whole wing flying into a right
[00:23:42] Justin: right now there’s no wizards. That one is science fantasy. Definitely more on this space, opera side than the total, more like star wars. In that sense, there’s definitely less fantasy. Like the main character has some weird alien ability that she can use to do something with Adams that causes explosions.
If she focuses hard enough. [00:24:00] She’s only half alien. I totally spoiled half of the book for you guys, if you an read it. Sorry, but don’t worry. That’s only the first book. There’s still three.
[00:24:07] Stephen: After that, if you had a choice, someone, uh, came with an option for your books, would you rather have them turned into movies or TV shows?
[00:24:16] Justin: Yeah, it depends on the book. Yeah, we’re actually pitching some stuff as TV shows and movies right now, overseas. And one of the story ideas is very much a TV show idea. It just lends itself so well to the multiple episodes and going on for a long time in each episode, maybe focusing on different people or not necessarily, but coming back and forth like that.
Versus some of them are definitely better as movies. So shadow core, I think would make a great TV, like more of a star wars version of the expanse type thing versus. I don’t know. I guess a lot of them would be like these new ones coming out. Like the one I was just talking about with the, of the safari, to the planet, definitely a movie that’s a hundred percent movie.
Yeah. And it’s a story that can be told in an hour and [00:25:00] a half versus like I could easily see how that could be adapted without losing the heart of it versus shadow core. If you tried to make that whole series into a two hour movie, Lose so much plenty
[00:25:10] Stephen: examples of movies like that.
[00:25:12] Justin: Yeah. I’m definitely more of a movie guy at heart.
So if something got made in TV show, I probably be like, that’s amazing. But if it gets made into a movie and I’m going to put an asterisks next to that, but I’ll finish my sentence, save it. Get turned to movie. I’m gonna feel like success. I’m a victory in life. However, on the other side of that, I feel like so many movies are made that are garbage.
That are low quality that nobody cares about and they just fade away to nowhere versus TV shows. I feel like there’s not that many TV shows of this kind of in this genre. So if it wasn’t made into a TV show, that’s almost more of a success in some ways, because it’s actually a legit thing versus a movie could just be like a movie that gets made and everybody’s like, oh my God, this garbage.
And then nobody ever remembers it. It was me. That’s a tough
[00:25:53] Stephen: question. I think the landscape has changed too, especially from. You had big movies and you had [00:26:00] crappy TV shots, but you don’t have that so much. You have really good TV shows and maybe a good, or maybe a crappy movie. So,
[00:26:07] Justin: yeah, you’re going to say, if you got, if you, one of your shows or movies with books over was turned into either the wonder years or the princess bride, which one are those, would you have under your belt?
I’d probably choose the princess bride.
[00:26:16] Stephen: And again, like you said, it probably depends on the story and the
[00:26:20] Justin: series. Fulfillment like in life, if you looked at, put those up on your wall and you’re like bragging to people like, oh, it was the creator of the winter years, which I think is an amazing show. Why was the creator of princess bride, which is the best movie ever made?
I would choose the latter.
[00:26:33] Stephen: Have you seen the new wonder years? I haven’t
[00:26:37] Justin: watched it yet. Okay. It doesn’t feel like the wonder years to me, which is why I say, yeah, it just feels like somebody made a new show and then slept one years on it.
[00:26:45] Stephen: And there’s definitely a time period. You think of things different when you’re younger.
[00:26:49] Justin: Well, there’s a lot of good shows that are already what the new one is, which it, so to me it feels like an episode of Blackish or mixed dish or something like this, because that’s what it’s dealing with is similar [00:27:00] issues. And it’s in the same, like mixed dish was made in the sixties based on the sixties or seventies, sometime period like that, which is the spinoff of Black-ish when the mom was a little teenager in school.
And, and so for me, when I’m watching these two, I’m like, I’ve already watched this. I’ve already seen these episodes and it’s a different tone of course, but it’s still very much feels like it’s already been
[00:27:16] Stephen: done was definitely unique.
[00:27:20] Justin: Yeah. And I think it still could be if they made it again, even with a black family or however they wanted to do it, I think that’s a great concept.
I was so looking forward to it, but it doesn’t focus on that sense of nostalgia, which is what the wonder years is all about. And you just watch that, you just hear the song and you see the people running on the street and you’re like the stall GIA, when the new show comes out and it’s not, it doesn’t feel at least episode.
Episode one does not feel like it’s bound to sell to. It feels like it’s about,
[00:27:43] Stephen: maybe you gotta give shows sometimes a chance. Get the flooding like Orville that they started off as let’s do the comedy parody of star. And after episode three or four, it turned into star Trek in today’s world and totally different fields.
Orville is
[00:27:57] Justin: amazing. Yeah. That show is great. Like you think it’s going to be some [00:28:00] stupid comedy and then it’s just Nope. Full of heart. It’s great. Well done.
[00:28:03] Stephen: Damn. The first couple episodes, definitely where they’ve made fun of themselves and they were goofy and silly, but they definitely altered by and it
[00:28:11] Justin: still is in the context of what it’s doing.
But at the same time, it’s not like the guy who has an egg and that whole thing. And it was, it was very silly, but at the same time, it’s also very nice. Like it could happen. And it’s a fun episode of a show that could have been in star Trek in theory.
[00:28:24] Stephen: That’s how I tell people that said, oh, I didn’t want to see it.
It looks stupid. I’m like, but you got to watch it because it’s become, if star Trek never existed and they created star Trek in 20, 20, 20 19, this is what it would be that told us about your plans. And what are some, I asked you last time, what some of your favorite books were.
[00:28:45] Justin: Uh, I don’t recall either, but, uh, yeah, I already mentioned of course, Elantras, which at least two thirds of it is my main favorite book.
And then if I’m a big Brandon Sanderson fan and George R. Martin and those guys are what got me into writing in the first [00:29:00] place. I love the game of Thrones books. I love some of the earlier stuff too. The vampire one where Darren Martin did. And of course other Mr. Borne by Brandon Sanderson, that whole series, the trilogy is amazing, but he’s a spinoff series of it too, that I’d never got as into for some reason, but I’m sure it’s also amazing because he’s just a great writer and he does one called Skyward.
I think it is. And he also does the reckoner series. So skywards, sci-fi one with the young girl. Reckoner series is young superheroes, both amazing. It’s still good. I would just say anything by those authors is probably going to blow your socks off. And like I mentioned, one of those, the scifi. Uh, traditionally what they was fantasy that got me into all this stuff.
I love the Harry Potter books. I had a funny situation where I avoided them for most of my life. And they came out when I was in the Marines and I didn’t touch. So that was like 2000 or 2001 is when I first saw one on a shelf in Okinawa where I was stationed and I, whatever who cares kids book. And then I was flash forward to 2007.
I was on a beach in Puerto Rico and somebody had books, seven lying there. And I was like, ah, give it a chance. I have nothing else to do, but sit here in the sun and enjoy [00:30:00] life. So I opened up book seven and just plowed through it. I was like, oh my God, I’m in love with this book. And so I started Harry Potter with book seven and then I went back and read one through seven and then eight, or was it only seven books?
Yeah. Eight movies, seven bucks. Yeah. So no, I started with books six, then I started with a half-blood prince and then I read one through five and then six again. And so, yeah. So yeah, I think those are some of my favorite books nowadays. I’m reading other stuff like I’m reading. Yeah, I just want to murder on the orient express and I’m loving that I’m listening to the audio book and the narrator does an awesome job.
I’m reading. I just started reading some, not Indiana Jones. You know what I’m talking about? The James Bond, and I’m very impressed with the writer. Like it’s really well done. It’s a lot more. Tongue and cheek than I anticipated it. Being based on the mood, the newer movies. Of course, they’re very serious. I guess the older movies feel more like the books feel when you’re reading them.
[00:30:53] Stephen: You’re reading the Ian Fleming one because there’s a continuation by John Gard. [00:31:00]
[00:31:00] Justin: Oh, interesting. No, I only read the old one. I normally read one of them. I forget which one it is. It was, it had to do the Japan stuff.
[00:31:09] Stephen: One of the movies. I forget one of the Roger Moore ones where he’s in new Orleans and there’s a. Funeral procession going by and they capture them and throw them in the coffin. You remember that? I was in new Orleans this past weekend. I stood, I took a picture of that spot. So I, Justin, I appreciate you jumping back on and we’ve been back and forth a couple of times.
So thinking the time it’s much appreciated to find out more about your books. Catch up with you again a little bit, before we go, though, your next set of books or the books you’ve written, tell everybody listening why they should get those.
[00:31:42] Justin: Yeah. Like I was mentioning, they’re going to be a lot of fun on the Saifai side.
So if you’ve been like, damn, I love Justin’s writing, but he won’t focus on just scifi or fantasy. Pick one, pick a lane. Dammit. I have chosen my lane for these next few books. They’re going to be awesome. Uh, they’re very fun. And they’re all standalone actually. So if you [00:32:00] want to get there’s three of them, that’ll be coming up and they’re each standalone in their own universe.
There’s no. Spin offs and all this stuff. And so I know some of my readers have been confused because I do huge universities with all the books, intermingling, like how Marvel does, and I’m taking a break from that. I’m just doing a book. So if you want to get into some fun, Saifai read the book and be done.
Now is your chance. If you don’t want that, you can go read all my old stuff.
[00:32:22] Stephen: Got it, Justin, I appreciate you getting back on and we’ll get these episodes up and then people can hear all the great conversation we already had about video games.