The Joyfulicity Podcast
Let's face it - in a world full of pain and troubles, couldn't we all use a little (or a lot) more joy? But how do we find it, keep it and share it? We'll dig in on that and explore it together here, on the Joyfulicity podcast. What is Joyfulicity? It's my made-up word for the art of living happy. I'm your host Laura Wakefield, a single mother of 9, certified midlife discovery life coach, writer, travel host and yoga and beach lover. Dedicated to helping others discover and maintain greater peace and personal empowerment. Dare to Dream - Plan to Play - Live to Learn. Here's to living life with a smile.
The Joyfulicity Podcast
Kyle Willis - Author of "Jason Phoenix and the Demon Lamp."
My guest on this episode is Kyle Willis, author of "Jason Phoenix and the Demon Lamp." This is Kyle's first novel (Youth Fiction) but I'm sure it won't be his last.
Tune in to learn more about his inspiration for the story, his writing process, and some encouragement for others who have always secretly dreamed of writing a book.
Follow my affiliate link to check out his book. (As an Amazon affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases) https://amzn.to/3VMDBsu
and follow Kyle on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kyle_willis34/
Please like and subscribe here, and also visit my links page to see all of the other places we can connect. This is the hub for more information on my website, my coaching program, the podcast, social media and to subscribe to my newsletter. Hope to see you there soon! https://www.joyfulicity.com/links
Welcome to the Joy Felicity Podcast. I'm your host, Laura Wakefield. My guest today is Kyle Willis. Kyle and I originally met on Twitter, and I've really enjoyed getting to know him a little bit there. Kyle grew up in Indiana and he studied business communications and creative writing at Hanover College. And he has a dream of one day, he has a day job now, but has a dream of one day becoming a full-time author. He has published his first book, Jason Phoenix and the Demon Lamp. And I am down to about 20 pages toward the end. So no spoilers for me, because I am not quite finished, but I have read the vast majority of it. And it's a really fun book. And I'm pleased to have you with me here on the show today, Kyle.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you. It's great to be here, Laura.
SPEAKER_01:So tell me, did you always know that you wanted to be a writer? When did you first kind of start thinking you wanted to be a writer?
SPEAKER_03:I did not always want to be a writer. It I would say it first started in, you know, college when you're experimenting. Sure. Um, but I took a class where we were reading about monsters, and we had an assignment, and we kind of had to make our own monster. And my professor said, you know, you're pretty good at this. I won't you take some creative writing classes? And I'm like, okay, you know, this might be fun. And I did, and I'd always loved reading growing up, you know, Harry Potter, Hunker Games, all those fantasy, not really into the the nonfiction as much.
SPEAKER_01:I can see that influence in your book.
SPEAKER_03:That's awesome. Because yeah, I think that'd be great to be. No, I mean they're the greats, the greats, but just to be, you know, one day hopefully I can be there, but let's shoot for something a little lower to start, you know what I mean? But um, yeah, so it started in college and just kind of kept going. But uh, I started writing this story when I was a senior in high school because I got my uh I got my heart broke by a girl. And so it's how I wish the story would have played out. Obviously, don't have the powers like Jason does, but um, yeah, that's so that's where it started. Didn't think it would ever be a story. This was me just kind of writing my feelings out on paper. But yeah, started in college and then towards senior year in college, just start taking it more seriously because my professor said, you know, this could actually be published, and I think it'd be a good story if you just sat down and worked on it and uh, you know, asked for advice from real editors and from me. So, and here we are.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's amazing. Well, you know, I so I I Googled because I knew that a lot of people want to write a book, myself included. I'm 55 years old and have been talking about it since I was about your age. But 82% of adults say that they would like to write a book someday. And out of those 82%, what would you guess the percentages that actually begin to write their manuscript?
SPEAKER_03:I want to have some faith, but I also know what it probably really is. So I'd I would guess seven.
SPEAKER_01:Even more three, three percent out of 82% that say they want to write a book, 3% begin writing, and only 1% actually finish their book and publish it. So you're already in kind of an elite group at your young age, and you should be very proud of that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it is really, you know, great. Um, whenever I meet with family or friends, and they'll that's one thing they'll be like, I told so and so, and I'll be like, that's awesome. In you know, when you first find out it's going to be published, you're like, wow, this is awesome. And then it happens and it's cool too, and then slowly it starts to fade. But then, but then somebody will come up and be like, I read your book, it's awesome, and then it's back. So it's kind of like this this wave. You just keep writing the wave. But that's cool, that's cool to hear. I never thought about it like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's a very small percentage of the people that dream of writing a book that actually take it all the way through to completion. So, and it's really fun. Like I said, I have been reading your book and I'm down to the last few pages. I'm at a pretty exciting part right now, actually. I was hoping to finish before we got on air, but I'll finish just right after I'm down to maybe 20 pages. So it's kind of exciting to see how it all wraps up. So your inspiration began, you're saying, with heartbreak. And that's kind of typical that people will draw, especially when they're newly writing, but even later on with songwriting, too, from their personal life experience, you know, or hurt you think? I mean, did you do you have to kind of overcome that there's more of a real life story, or does that kind of help you to shape your story?
SPEAKER_03:I think it helps because then you can really communicate how you feel. You I mean, you gotta have the audience, you gotta evoke an emotion on them, otherwise it doesn't land. And so I think you can draw from your personal experience and communicate that through your dialogue and your exposition to your audience and really get them to feel what the characters are going through. And that's what I think makes a really good story is connecting and identifying with characters. So drawing on personal experiences is good. I guess there can be a downside because then you maybe you become too invested in the characters, and perhaps that you can't let them grow. Not sure, but I definitely think there's more positives to draw from your personal experiences. But I guess not everyone can relate to every experience, I guess is the the way I would see it.
SPEAKER_01:Do you see yourself a little bit as Jason, the lead character in this book?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because that's that that's the experience that inspired the whole story. I was in love with the girl, she didn't feel the same way, and because he goes through a different transformation, so I did too. Obviously, not as not like him, but um, yeah. So he tries to change, and then um that doesn't always work because well, I won't ruin the story, but you you shouldn't change for somebody, you know. If it's meant to be, it'll be. If it doesn't, it doesn't. But yeah, I I do see myself and Jason a lot because all the jokes and how he talks is exactly how I talk. So um yeah, I'd say, and there's there's also different characters that I draw from my my real world that uh that I incorporated in the story.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's one of the great things about fantasy books is most of us are never going to actually experience something like the things. I mean, they're fantasy, they're not reality. Yeah, but there's so many life lessons and there's so many dreams that are reflected there, and the things that we wish that we could do. And and even the things that we do on a more realistic scale can be seen in a fantasy book. Have you ever read anything by Terry Brooks?
SPEAKER_03:No, I've not. Who's what's he what books is he written?
SPEAKER_01:A couple of series is a sort of Shonara series of maybe seven books, and then a Magic Kingdom for Sale series of about seven books. And I used to think that I didn't like fantasy books. I thought, well, I don't want to read that stuff, right? And I was in a book club and they chose a Terry Brooks book. And at first I was a little disappointed because I thought, oh goodness, I have to read this fantasy book. I loved it. And I got hooked and I went on to read like 20 books by him, and now I'm sold on the whole genre altogether. And um, so that would be my message to anyone that isn't sure about fantasy books. Give one a try because you might be surprised. They're a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because it's a situation that is or probably won't happen in the real world, but it's fun to put yourself in that world and feel and experience what the characters are going through. And like you said, you can draw really good takeaways from each story. And I think that's what I tried to do in my book, and I think that's what any good author tries to do as well.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. And this book is youth fiction, correct?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What age are you going for with this book?
SPEAKER_03:Well, the main protagonist, he's uh 17. So anybody in that, you know, teen or really young adult, like I'd say even 21, you can get away with it because you can remember what it's like to be that age and experiencing those types of problems. So yeah, I'd say any type of teenager, so maybe like 13 to 21, I can get away with it, but the prime one is like 16 to 19, because that's when your life's really starting to get real, you're starting to get more responsibilities, and uh, you get your first heartbreak, you get uh, you know, you're starting to think about what you want to do with the rest of your life. So all those common teenage issues, I really tried to embody them into this one story because there's a lot of characters in there and they're all the same age, so they all got different problems. And you know, a teenager may not have underweighted love, but they may have to have thrown up too fast because their parent wasn't there. So they had to work three jobs. That's a common teenage issue, and I I employed a lot of them just throughout the story that way. Uh the audience can go, oh, I I know what that feels like, and they can really identify the story.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Either they know what it feels like, or they have a friend that's maybe going through that that they can understand better after seeing this character. Yeah, you're you address a lot of themes in here. You've got a character that is trying to speak out for the life that she wants to live versus the life her parents mapped out for her. Um, you've got the the kid that works multiple jobs with the single mom. And, you know, a lot of people can relate to that. Um, the kid that's maybe being pushed by their parents to live a life that is not at all the way they want in terms of you know, morality and and you know, good and bad. And and then you've got Jason who's just exploring his own personal power, and those are all things. I have teenagers. I have nine children. I don't know if you realized that. I've not. Yeah, my youngest three are all teenagers now, 15, um, 16, and 19. And so I've been through a lot of teenageness with my children, and I recognized a lot of these things in them and their friends. And so I think teenagers really will relate to these characters well. What would you want? Like you were saying that a good author tries to make sure that there's a takeaway. What takeaway, I mean, what would you want somebody, a teenager that was reading your book, to take from it? What would the overarching message be?
SPEAKER_03:That's a really good question. Because I think there's a lot of takeaways. I would say the overarching theme would be you'll be okay. Like, because when you're in that situation, it feels like the world is crashing down on you and it's never gonna get better. And it does, it does. You're not the first one to go through this. Um, and it it sucks in the moment, it really does. But you'll move on and it'll just make you stronger and better as a person and learn from it. I think that's the most important thing, is there's no losses in life, only lessons. Yeah, so as long as you learn from them, I think that's what makes it important. And I just hope that that's what somebody who reads it uh they can learn from it and apply it to their life. And then I think as long as I'm helping people in that way, I think I did my job.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, because especially as teenagers, like you said before, often these are the first times that with with any level of maturity that kids are beginning to explore these ideas, and it can feel very all-consuming. You know, by the time you're my age, you've been heartbroken a few times and you've survived. So it still hurts, but it's not the same as that first one. You know, the first one it's different.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, I can tell you that. I already had a couple times, and so I agree fully. The first one's the worst, and then you're just like, there's some type of um, you've got teenagers, so you probably know what memes are. There's a meme, there's a meme where um it's like uh this guy chained up and he's talking to a young guy and he's like, first time, huh? So that's what it's like with all these problems as a teenager.
SPEAKER_01:With almost every big life problem. When you're a young child, typically, even if you're going through them, you're not going through them with any sense of personal responsibility to solve them, usually when you're five and 10. You know, like you're still relying on other people to solve them. And teenagers all of a sudden are starting to see that they're going to be going out into the world and dealing with real life themselves and have to have these skills. And that can, I've had a couple of my teenagers that right before their 18th birthday had a little bit of an existential crisis and felt like, I don't know if I'm ready to be an adult. I don't think I can do it. And they worked through it and they're doing just fine in adulthood. But but it's a scary time, it's a very tumultuous emotional time, and you can see that in your characters. I will say you're very good at um one of the things that impressed me, especially for your first book, is your attention to detail creating a scene. I could tell that you have taken some classes, right? To learn how to do that. So tell me about your process. How do you take a story idea and and turn it into a full-length book? I think that's where most of us get overwhelmed, is that just the breast text process. So how does that work? What's your how did you do it?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I start every story the same way I outline. Literally, I, you know, we're taught in school when you're academically writing, create an outline. Except this one's way more fun. I I hate writing academically, but uh, you know, this is a lot more fun, and we like what we choose to do. So when you start outlining, you have the introduction, and then you've got the rising action, climax, and then you've got like the resolution and everything. But then you can break it down even further, and there's other plot points in there, but I start out doing that. And once I get the main outline done, I'll break them into uh kind of chapters, how I want the how many chapters do I think this is gonna need, and I'll write down the main bullet points I want in each chapter to accomplish. And then I just start I just start writing. Um, so I'm a very structured writer, but I'm also a spontaneous writer as well. I'm a hybrid, which there's two types, um, well, three technically, but I've really embraced the creative side because like I said, I'll outline and plan everything out, but then there will be a creative moment where I'm like, I need to add this, and I do that. And I'm I you're at the point in the story, but with the talking dog, um, tiny, that came to me in a dream. And I'm at 1 a.m., I woke up from that dream and I'm I just wrote on my notepad next to my desk. I just wrote talking dog. And I I and I included that in the story. And everyone I've talked to, they said that's one of my favorite moments in the book. And I'm like, awesome.
SPEAKER_01:I think what's so fun about it is that you structure it in a way that the reader figures out that it's the dog before Jason does. And it makes you feel like, oh, I just, you know, got this little little nugget in there before the character even realized it was the dog. And that's kind of a fun moment as the reader. Isn't that funny that the best ideas often come at 1 a.m. or 3 a.m. in the middle of the day?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's a I don't know if you've seen the show How I Met Your Mother, but there's a saying it's like nothing happens good after 12 a.m. Like just go to bed. Well, I disproved that.
SPEAKER_01:A lot of writers will say that, and I've had that happen as well with some of my writing. I've never written a full-length book yet. I'm still planning to, that you'll wake up sometimes and have almost like just this complete download.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Just all of a sudden. And it's your brain has been working on it, I think, for a long time before that happens. But then you'll just start free writing and get like a whole, a whole I write blog posts, but the whole blog post will just free flow out of me at three o'clock in the morning. Almost effortless, but it isn't because you know, you know you've already been pondering and mulling it over for a week or two.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. No, it is really interesting how that works. You know, we're supposed to be resting and our brain is supposed to be uh rejuvenating itself, but yeah, we come up with these really interesting ideas and then we turn them into stories.
SPEAKER_01:So you have a day job, full-time job.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:That's the biggest excuse most of us give is that we don't have time for this. How did you carve out time to write and publish a book when you know you're busy? You were you had school, then you have full-time work. Like how where did you how did you find the time to do it?
SPEAKER_03:You know, it's not hard to find time when you love doing it. That's what I would say. Um, I would come home from work and I would go to the gym and then I'd have dinner and I'd sit down and write for a couple hours or just an hour, whatever. You know, uh I would say I'd I would set measurable goals. So, like what however you want to break it down. If it's time, then okay. If you want to do it, I choose to do it by number of words. Um because you might you might set the goal of let's write an hour, but you might only write a hundred words. Well, that's not very much. Right. It's a good starting point. I think that that might be a paragraph, but you know, start out with little goals and then um versus, you know, like I said, a hundred words, it might take someone an hour to do that. But if you can write, you know, a thousand words in an hour or two, that's that's not bad.
SPEAKER_01:So and do you edit on the spot or do you just write until you have your thousand and then go back later and kind of tweak it?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, if I misspell a word, then yeah, I'll I'll fix it on the spot. Um, because that saves me time later. Because at the end it'll be like, okay, what was I trying to say here? Right. But um no, for the most part, I will write it all out and then at the end of the chapter, I'll go back and I'll reread it, make sure that you know, makes grammatical sense, um, in line edit as well, you know, typos, comma splices, whatever. But also like reading it for plot hole errors. I'll try and do that the best I can. But for the most part, I'm gonna, you know, I'm no expert even having published a book. I'm not the grammatical whiz. So I have an editor who runs through it and for, you know, the grammar errors and the plot hole errors. So it's a long process, and the editing is probably the most monotonous and boring, I would say.
SPEAKER_01:But so important, so many. Oh, yeah. Self-published, I can't remember. Or did you have a publisher? You actually have a publisher.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's a it's a really funny thing. He it's uh it's like a hybrid situation, but yeah, they are an established uh company.
SPEAKER_01:So with some um self-published books, you can tell that they did not get an editor.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it's it's an important step. Even if you consider yourself an accomplished writer, I would recommend getting an editor to people because when you're writing a story, as you know, you get too close to it. You know, it makes sense to you because you wrote it, but having that second set or third set of proofreaders and editors look at it is so helpful because they can tell you this isn't making sense to a reader that doesn't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and you also want to deliver the best product to somebody, you know, you wouldn't want to buy a shirt that only has uh one sleeve on it, you know, that'd look weird. So you gotta you gotta fix it up and make it the best it can be. And you also want to come off as like you know what you're doing, right? You know, you want to sound intelligent. I if I mean I find you know misspellings or something every once in a while. I found one in Stephanie Meyer's book. I'll do that. Um when I'm reading through a very accomplished authors, I'll be looking for it, and I found one in her latest book, Twilight, not Twilight, uh Midnight Sun. I found one, and I was like, haha, I got you. But it's like it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01:I had to smile when you said that Jason, the main character, was reading Twilight books. That made me laugh. It made me smile.
SPEAKER_03:Well, that was um one of the books that we read in that mythography class that really turned me on to writing. And I'd I'd avoided Twilight for years. I knew what it was about, and I'm like, I don't, I'm not into that. And then I read in and I'm like, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_01:If vampires were a real big deal, I was it Ann Rice that wrote all of the vampire books for a while, too.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_01:Stephanie Myers came out with hers. So, did you have any kind of a support system? I know Twitter has a pretty big hashtag writing community. I haven't jumped in too much to that, but I've been curious about it where people support each other. Did you have a support structure when you were writing that was helpful to you?
SPEAKER_03:Uh, not digitally, like the writing community. I would say mine was more personal, you know, like my professor, my writing professor at Hanover College, Saul Lemeran. And in the uh dedication part, I gave him a very big thank you. Because I wouldn't have gotten very far without him. He was with me every step of the way. So I'm very grateful to him, but also like my brother, who was much younger at the time. He was like 18. So he was the perfect, he was the perfect age. I was like, you're my prime candidate. Read this and tell me what you like. So thanks to him. And then, you know, I had my mom's actually, she works for Elenko, and her job is to format and edit. So I'm like, you're my perfect, yeah. I was like, you're my perfect editor right now. And I actually did hire her because you know, she's very busy, she works too much. So I I pay her, and it all worked out. But, you know, then of course, I once I got on with Pathbinder, I didn't need to have my mom. They had their editor, and I they had, you know, they also did the editing and the proofreading and all that stuff. So um very personal and just people in my life. And then I'm like you said, the writing community is amazing, they're very supportive of each other because we're all in it together.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. This is a hard thing, and and obviously, if 82% of the population wants to write, there's something very transformative, I think, about the process. How do you feel like, or has it changed you in any way to have gone through that full process and actually have accomplished a finished product? What what reverberating effects has there been in your life generally from that?
SPEAKER_03:It's kind of a cool conversation topic to have because you know, kind of like we're sitting here talking about it, people are like, that's so mind-blowing that you actually did that. Because they're like, I I struggle to write a couple pages, let alone 250 or however many. So it's kind of cool to sit there and be like, wow, I kind of I kind of did something awesome. I did have one person who, you know, they were a young teenager, and they reached out and just said, you know, like, hey, I I read your book and I I really identified what Jason's going through. So, you know, thank you. And I think you're gonna help out a lot of people. So that was probably way better than any financial reward I could have gotten. I think that that I mean, that's what like I said, that's why I did it because I went through it. And so I if I can help someone else too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I imagine. And this was just published in in March of this year, March 2023. So it's kind of brand new out there. That's pretty exciting. What comes next for you? Do you have any other books kind of in the pipeline that you're working on? Or what's your next writing goal?
SPEAKER_03:Well, the next goal was to get the sequel out there, which the first draft is done. Um, and kind of like I said, I had my editor go through and just kind of read it. But before I did that, I I had my brother read it again. He's older now, but he still enjoys it. And you know, he gave me his advice and I had my mom go through it again just real quick for edits and stuff. So don't plan on doing the sequel, and then there's gonna be a third one. I've not started that at all because I want to focus on the site the sequel first. I'm very much I I don't like to have multiple projects going on at one time because then I feel like you're not putting all your all into the one. So I I pretty much focus on one at a time, but I've got I've got uh other stories up here going on, and I've got like the the general outline of what I want to do with them, but pretty concentrated right now on the sequel, which and it's the same characters as Jason Demon Lamp. Oh yeah, all the same characters. I mean, you you got a new antagonist. Um, but yeah, pretty much it's it's all the same. I'll say this. My brother really liked the sequel more because you don't really get to see what Jason can do in the first one as much. But I'm like, my brother literally said, why didn't he just drop a comment on the bad guys? Like, well, Cole, that'd be really boring. You know, he he I had to tame him down a little bit, otherwise the story's gonna be really boring, which was the hardest thing to do with the story, I would say, because I mean he is a god basically. But yeah, the the sequel was way more, I think, fun because I got to really experiment with what Jason could do and along with what other characters can do in the story. And then the third one, it's it's got me really excited because there's just stuff that happens that I just I'm really excited to write.
SPEAKER_01:So you already know the basic story and conclusion all the way through the whole trilogy.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Best friend of mine, that's exciting.
SPEAKER_03:But I like like I said earlier, I think one thing I've gotten much better about is embracing change. And so if something comes up and I have to change the way I originally wrote it, then I'm I'm very open to that. But I pretty much know how the story's gonna end. And I think everyone's gonna like it.
SPEAKER_01:I have talked to, I have several friends. So most of the writing I do is nonfiction, it's kind of self-help stuff, but I have several friends that are published authors of, you know, fiction. One even does youth fantasy fiction, and she'll say the same thing that the characters almost take on a life of their own. And sometimes the characters sort of tell you what to write, you know, that that you're controlling the writing to some extent, but the characters do grow and change. Have you found that to be true?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, for sure. Good example is gonna be like Jason's brother Daniel. He's not Not too important in the first one, but I found that as I kept going throughout the trilogy, I'm like he kind of becomes more important, and his journey is pretty important as well. So yeah, they do kind of take on a life of their own, and you you end up being you'll write something and be like, that character wouldn't do that. So you have to change it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's not right. Hold on.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, they wouldn't say that, they wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_01:That's fine. So monsters. What attracted you to all of that? Monsters, fantasy, all of that, but but monsters specifically. Like what what made you think I really want to write about that?
SPEAKER_03:I think they're cool. I mean, I don't see any monsters running around in our world.
SPEAKER_01:Um well, sometimes I think maybe there are.
SPEAKER_03:Not true. Uh sometimes they are. They just they're monsters and not awesome to read about. But um, I would say it's it's about having what we don't have and putting yourself in the world where there are mythical monsters and creatures and all-powerful beings. And so it's a lot more, I think, fun to write about that versus um I could write a self-help book. I've I've got an experience I could, I just it doesn't interest me. And I think you need to be interested to do that. So yeah, and all my favorite books growing up were about monsters. You know, I love the Percy Jackson series, the Harry Potter series, um, and obviously Twilight, that's in there too. So a lot of the stories I grew up with had monsters in them, and so it's it that's where I think my inspiration and my love comes from.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, my one of my uh sons really loved the Percy Jackson books. When he was, I guess maybe middle school or early high school, he just tore through those. Loved loved that well, I do have a question for you, but before I ask you that, tell everybody how they find you. How do they find your book? All things to do with that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so you can find me on Twitter. So my Twitter handle is gunshow underscore 25. I made that when I was 15. Don't don't give me too much uh geek gruff about that. Um, you can also connect with me on Instagram. Handle is Kyle underscore Willis34. And then my website is also Kyle's Corner.godaddy.com. You can reach out to me on there. But you can also find my book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and also on Kindle. But if you reach out directly to me and buy one for me, I'll sign it for you. And then one day you'll sell it for millions.
SPEAKER_01:Right, exactly. I like that. I love it. And I'll put all of those links in the bio description for this podcast episode, too, so that it's easy for people to find them there. But I would encourage everyone to go out and I don't I don't think I'm following you on Instagram yet, so I'll fix that right after this episode or right after we finish taping because I I spend more time on Instagram than Twitter. Um but anyway, so as you know, this podcast is primarily focused on joyful living and living authentically and following our dreams and our passions. And you're someone who is a good example of doing that, which is why I was excited to have you as a guest on the show and that you started so young doing that. Some of most of us wait until much older in life to finally get around to fulfilling those dreams and passions. So, what would you say to somebody who wants to write a book but is feeling just completely overwhelmed, or maybe doesn't think that they're a good enough writer, or whatever is holding them up from accomplishing what you have accomplished? What would your advice be to them on where to start and how to overcome that?
SPEAKER_03:I'd say you just gotta go for it. I mean, the first step is always the scariest, but trust me, there's there's hundreds, thousands, millions of authors. And if you want it, you just gotta have the drive and the want. Um, I'd say those are the two things. You just gotta have the desire and the the passion to write. And you'll you may, like I said, you may feel lost on I want to write a book, but I don't have an idea. Just get a piece of paper and start very on the ground floor. You know, what type of story is it? Fiction, nonfiction, okay? It's a fiction story. What genre is it? Fantasy, romance, uh, sci-fi. Okay, we're writing sci-fi, and just keep going. You may feel like people are gonna judge you because oh, he's gonna write a story. I was, you know, I was the same way. I'd I'd be in the library, and my friends would be like, hey, we're going out. You coming? No, I've gotta write. Right. What are you writing? Yeah, oh yeah. And they give me so much uh crap about it, but look at me, you know, look at me now. I'm not not rich off of it, but they can sit there and go, Well, all those times you're in the library, it was it turned into something.
SPEAKER_01:And I mean, getting rich off of it wouldn't be horrible. Like we we'd all like that. But like you said earlier, there's so many other rewards that come from the process aside from that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. No, I mean, if you're writing to get rich, sorry, that's you you need to do it, you need to do something else, you know. But if you want to write to have uh fulfilling like a lifelong goal or make an impact on someone's life, then I then I have to say, yeah, go for it. But yeah, if someone is feeling intimidated by the whole process, don't be just taking it one step at a time and um look for help, you know. Don't you don't have to feel like you're doing it alone. I think a lot of people, you know, they they think, oh, I can't get a publisher, which is hard. It's hard to find publishers, especially as a new author. But reach out and ask people, like you said, I I found you on Twitter, I found other authors on Twitter, and I'm always asking them questions.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that that people don't mind stopping to help you because something that you say is gonna help them too. I mean, most people that are in creative fields, whether it's writing or music or any of those sorts of things, it can be a bit of a lonely process sometimes. Like you said, your friends are all going out and you're not, you're staying back to write. You know, so the bigger network of people who kind of get you and get what you're trying to do, the better, I think. You know, like I'm a certified life coach, and one thing that I find funny is that most most life coaches have a coach, even though we're trained, you know, and I think a lot of it is just to bounce ideas off of, you know, so you don't feel like you're sort of floating out there by yourself in this creative endeavor.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it can feel kind of lonely sometimes, but you know, then you you realize you're not. There's a bunch of you, and you just gotta reach out and connect with someone.
SPEAKER_01:Well, Kyle, thank you so much. I would really encourage everyone to get a copy of Jason Phoenix and the Demon Lamp for yourself. As soon as we get off of here, I'm gonna go finish those last 20 pages and see what happened. But we haven't talked a lot about the book itself because I didn't want any spoilers. I didn't want to give away the story, but it's it's really cute. It's it's a it's a fun read and it's it's not a difficult read. Like you can read this without, you know, like some books are very, very heavy. This one actually flows along very easily, and and I've really enjoyed it. Even at 55, I know it's written for teenagers, but I've enjoyed the story, and I'm anxious to see what happens in book two.
SPEAKER_03:So let me ask you a question. What's been your what's been your favorite thing about the book?
SPEAKER_01:Because you're obviously not a teenager, so you can't maybe you can remember what it's like, but I can remember, and most recently I've just am right in the midst of helping my kids through some of that. But you'd be surprised, even in your 50s, you very much remember those formative years, those emotional things that happen because they're the first, you know, your first love, your first heartbreak, your first kiss, all those sorts of things. You you don't forget those things as you get older. They have an impact. I think that I don't know if I want to give too much away, but um, I think that the the primary female character in here, of course, appealed to me particularly her journey with feeling stuck in a life path set by someone else.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And wanting to break out of that because I think that's a very common thing. It's something that I went through on a small scale in my life, not in exactly the same way, but I think almost everyone struggles with that. If it's not your parents who are setting it, it's society, it's religious thinking, it's it's it's whatever has led you to think my life needs to look like this and go on this particular path, and maybe your heart's calling you somewhere else. We've all felt that. And I I have enjoyed that journey for that character that I don't like as I don't want to give the story away to anyone who hasn't read it yet, but that has been my favorite part. And of course, you know, Jason, the main character, is is a lot of fun as well. And I actually like sad guys too. I not that I liked them, I kind of enjoy the the particular demon character in this story as well.
SPEAKER_03:I won't lie, she becomes my favorite character in the sequel.
SPEAKER_01:So she carries on throughout the same Yeah, she's a part of the whole the whole series. Oh, I love that. I love that. I'll be anxious to see how that character develops.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, like I said, she becomes she becomes my favorite. And another thing everyone always asks is like, are are you into demonic worship? And I'm like, no, no, no, it's not like that at all. Like, you know, because I mean I was trying, there's a store in my hometown that is a Christian-based value store that I was talking about, you know, putting this in their store since I'm from there. I thought they would do it, but then again, it's literally got the word demon on the on the cover in their Christian store. So they're like, Yeah, we can't do that. And I'm like, it's not like that at all.
SPEAKER_01:But if they had read it, yeah, I I can tell you, having read it, that anyone who might have that concern for the title, it's not like that at all.
SPEAKER_02:You're right.
SPEAKER_01:You know, there is a character like that, but that's definitely not the feeling that you get at all from this book. If anything, you get a very wholesome theme. I think the teenagers involved are overall pretty wholesome kids. And I wouldn't hesitate at all to recommend this book to a teenager. There's there's no negative messages in this book, in my opinion, that I that I got from it at all.
SPEAKER_03:Cool. I'm glad, I'm glad you understand that.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. And like I said, I will put the links to the book and to where to find you in the description. And I appreciate you being here.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, thank you for coming on. Yeah, I had a really good time talking to you.
SPEAKER_01:Have a great day, everybody.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for joining me today on the Joy Felicity Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and share, and come follow me on all major social media sites at JoyFelicity or on my website, joyfelicity.com. You can follow the link in the description for this episode to all of the places that we can connect. Have a great day, everybody, and remember dare to dream, plan to play, live to learn.
