September 26, 2023 • 20 mins
Jay Foreman is an author, speaker, corporate trainer. Today he joins The Book Drop Mic to discuss his first Young Adult novel. The brand new book is called The Adventures of Mulberry Manor — Book 1 — The Beginning of the End and the early reviews are fantastic.
Listen as Jason and Jay discuss the new book, writing, reading, and so much more.
Buy Jay's new book:
https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Mulberry-Manor-Book-Beginning/dp/B0C933R5YB/
Learn more about Jay:
https://www.jaywforeman.com/
Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome, friends.
Welcome to the Book Drop, mike,brought to you by Ink Veins.
We are your source forpublicity, promo and press
releases and, of course, this isyour host, jason Wright.
And look folks, I am reallyexcited to welcome my friend to
the show today.
I have known this man for awhile and we've eaten tacos
(00:23):
together, and that tells youthat we're real friends.
His name is Jay Foreman.
Welcome to the show, jay.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, thank you, Jason .
It's a pleasure to be here withyou.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yes, I wish we were sitting at a restaurant eating
tacos, but we will take Zoom.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That's right.
Another time.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Another time.
All right, jay Foreman, we'regoing to talk about the book,
but before we do that, tell usreal quick about you.
Who are you?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, that's a tough one right out of the gate.
Born and raised in this area, Ileft the world of banking about
15 years ago to pursue a dreamof becoming an author and made
every mistake I could right outof the gate, but somehow
stumbled along and had severalbooks published since then.
(01:08):
Also worked the speakingcircuit, different conferences,
different businesses that way,and teach leadership classes at
our local community college.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So not much, Just basically sitting around.
It sounds like that's right,that's right.
So I mentioned actually no Jaymany of the guests that you hear
on the show, many of thewriters.
I probably have not been in thesame room with Jay and I have
been in the same room quiteoften and it's funny there have
been a number of speakingengagements.
When I look at the program andI'm like, oh, jay is here, all
right, this is legit.
(01:41):
If Jay Foreman told me theagenda, I know, like this, this
is a real gig and I mightactually get paid for it because
I know Jay's not doing it forfree, right.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Jay's a great storyteller.
That's probably the first thingI noticed about Jay when I was
in the back of the room in anevent and heard him commanding
an audience of several hundredpeople and I realized just the
gift he had for articulating astory with purpose.
So not just a story simply toentertain, but a story to teach
(02:13):
and inspire and ultimately, wehope, to maybe inspire some new
behaviors or habits from peoplethat are in the room.
And again, I've personallywitnessed this a number of times
and now I'm excited to see thathe has taken this to a novel,
to long form fiction.
So tell us about your brand newbook, and I know what it is,
(02:34):
but our folks don't.
What is it and what is it about?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Hey, it's the first in a five book series.
It's called the Adventures ofBall Berry Manor.
It has a little bit ofeverything in there.
For folks it's a supernaturalaction mystery novel for young
adults, but I've had severaladults and joined it just as
well.
So it dropped about a month anda half ago doing a be received
(03:03):
very well, so I'm excited aboutit.
It follows brother and sister,jade and Teddy.
Their mother goes missing.
Their father goes to look forthe mother and drops them off in
a place called Lakeside, at amansion called Ball Berry Manor,
where they're surrounded by allkinds of interesting characters
and different situations wherethey have to decide for
(03:25):
themselves sometimes there.
Maybe there's more out therethan what meets the eye and it's
up to us to follow that.
Are we going to choose tobelieve in something that we
maybe cannot see or seemsunrealistic, or are we not?
And I love the phrase.
I live by the phrase cynicismkills, because too many people
out there just want to have themindset of hey, if I don't
(03:48):
understand it, I don't want tobelieve it, or it can't be real.
And I'm trying to crush thatmindset with this in a fun way.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I love that.
So the age of your heroes here.
How old are they?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
16 and 14.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Okay, so you said YA, is this for this?
As shelves like if Aren't noBlames on et cetera is a young
adult title.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yes, yes, young adult title, but, like I said, most
of the following, the analyticsof it, most people that have
picked up a renaissance for areadults.
I'm hoping they still have yetto crack that young adult market
.
Maybe that's still out therewaiting for me, but it's been
fun.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
That's awesome and that's the goal.
You know that's.
Jk Rowling certainly hoped thatchildren would enjoy Harry
Potter, but she knows who'spulling their credit card out of
the checkout, right Like.
She understands that you've gotto write something that appeals
to the older audience as well.
It's no different than Pixarmaking movies for children and
(04:52):
understanding that there betterbe a lot there for adults as
well, or the movie's not goingto make it.
So is there a takeaway?
I guess I want to understand ifI'm a 10 or 12 or 14 year old,
because, as you know, and we'vetalked before that young people
tend and I'm talking childrenand they tend to want to read
(05:14):
something where maybe thecharacters are a couple of years
older than them, because itjust makes them feel special.
And bookstores often shelvestuff this way.
Publishers will present stuffin the market this way where a
book for a third, fourth, fifthgrader, the lead character might
actually be a sixth, seventh oreighth grader, because it gives
(05:35):
those kids an opportunity tostep up and to read up a little
bit.
So first of all, I want to knowthe lesson, the takeaway for
that young reader.
Now I want to know the primarytakeaway for their parent.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Sure, I think the primary takeaway could be the
same for either demographicthere Doesn't matter how young
you are.
It doesn't matter how old youare, it's never too early or
never too late to be the hero ofour own stories.
And the characters realize thatthey kind of walk into this
feeling average, like manyteenagers do.
(06:09):
But they're thrown into thesesituations where they realize,
hey, it's time for me.
I can either sit back and watchlife happen or I can step up
and help move things in theright direction.
So it's not only learning to bethe hero of our own story, but
also learning to not only helpthose around us but to be able
to open up and rely on help fromother people.
(06:29):
That's something that I seethese days when I get into the
schools and talk a little bit.
I don't know if it's a pridething or an ego thing, but a lot
of people are scared to ask forhelp these days.
And, my God, jason, we thoughtyou know, most people out there
want to help other people.
Most people out there are goodfolks wanting to help other
people.
And when we realize that itgoes both ways, take help from
(06:53):
other people but also help otherpeople as well, I love the
phrase empty in your cup.
You know, when we read a goodbook or watch a good podcast
like this, or we're hearinggreat speaker, you know we're
filling our cup up.
But what are we supposed to dowith that?
Go pour it into something orsomeone else.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, I love that and I do love a lesson that applies
across, you know, every age andevery reader In particular.
Here you know you're creatingan opportunity, I would think,
for parents and their childrento have discussions, whether
that kid is 8, 10, 12 or, youknow, 12, 14, 16, whatever.
A great book is one and one ofmy friends that's an agent in
(07:32):
New York talks about this allthe time.
Like you can market a book likeCrazy and you can run ads and
commercials and digital andbillboards and bus signage and
whatever you wanna do, but untilyou write a book that has
people talking when they're done, like I've gotta tell you about
this book and this thing Ilearned, or I've gotta tell you
about this nonfiction title inthis story that was so funny
(07:53):
that had me laughing in thesubway.
Like that is every author'sgoal, I hope.
And if you're listening to thisand you have that great idea
and you're ready to write yourfirst novel, it better be a
story that when the book closes,the story lives on and you're
talking to your neighbors aboutit and you're talking to your
friends at church about it andyou're looking for opportunities
(08:14):
to hop on a podcast and talkabout it.
Those are the stories thatreally sick.
You know Harry Potter andTwilight and Hunger Games and
Wonder.
And to drop a book, I'mfamiliar with Christmas Chars.
Those books did okay becausewhen the cover closed people
wanted to experience it deeperand that meant having
conversations, posting about iton social media and in the case
(08:36):
of a book like this, I hopeAdventures in Mobile Manor
families are coming together andtalking about the lessons
learned and maybe challengingone another with really
insightful questions.
To be different, to think itthrough.
What has been the response?
Have you talked to readers ofall ages so far and what are
they?
Not the online review stuff I'mtalking like what are people
saying to Jay when they see youin the grocery store and they're
(08:58):
like dude, I read your book.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
They said what were you thinking?
It's so different than anythingelse I've ever written.
It's so far out there with asupernatural realm and in a fun
way.
But they just say it's caughtthem by surprise because I've
written several children's booksand leadership books.
This is different.
I'm going against what they tellauthors we're supposed to do
(09:24):
right, find a genre and stickwith it.
I'm down to all over the place,but it's caught people by
surprise.
But they've enjoyed it.
Some of my best compliments Iknow I think it's a gender thing
I feel like women enjoy readinga lot more than us guys do.
For the most part.
One of the best compliments Iget was when I see one of my
buddies that I know for a factdon't read a lot of books and
(09:46):
they're like, hey, my gosh, Iwent through this in two days.
This was great.
That's a really good feelingand I knew that there would be
some.
I wanted to attract everybody tothis, but men as well, or young
men as well, that may not wantto read as much.
So I took a page out of JamesPatterson's book.
(10:07):
No pun intended there, but veryshort chapters For me.
They became easier to writethat way to continue moving.
But of the feedback I've gottenis that my chapters are two,
three, four pages at most.
It's easy to finish a chapterand say, okay, I can do one more
before I put this down, andthat leads to one more.
It's a longer book but ends upbeing a quick read.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, no, I absolutely love that approach.
Anyone that's read my stuffknows I'm a big believer in
short chapters as well, in partfor everything you just said so
well.
But also I think there's this,particularly with the younger
readers, or with reluctantreaders maybe that person that's
lucky to read a book or twowithout adult, a book or two a
(10:52):
year when you get through achapter there's this little rush
.
I mean, I feel it even when Iread something.
It's like, yeah, like I didthat, and particularly when I go
into schools and I talk aboutthe stuff they're reading, man,
when they get to the end of achapter, they're sitting during
reading time right In theirEnglish class or a homeroom or
whatever, and they get to theend of a chapter.
There's like this man, I didthis thing, like I finished
(11:15):
something.
I got to this, not the finishedline of the book, but like I've
gotten to the end of a chapter,the end of a page.
I get to breathe, take a pauseif I want to.
So I think it works both ways.
I think it entices people thatlove to read to go a little more
, to keep binging a little bit,you know, in the Netflix
streaming age, but also, I thinkit helps those reluctant
(11:37):
readers who aren't sure if theylove reading, to feel a sense of
accomplishment as they getthrough a chapter.
Smile, feel good about yourself.
You did something you know.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, yeah, it's a big deal and it's something else
.
I wanted to back up somethingelse you had mentioned there.
As far as adults and maybe thechildren the parents talking
about a book with that, there'sa couple of instances within the
book too where the children inthe book talk to their father
and it's one of those justpositions where they're seeing
(12:05):
the exact same situation butfrom two different perspectives.
So I'm hoping I'm catching theparents point of view as well as
the children's point of view.
I had both of my kids edit thiswith me.
We had a little mini writer'sroom in the family room after
every chapter.
I love it and I'm sure you knowour children can be our worst
(12:26):
critics or our best critics,wherever you wanna look at that
and they would say, okay, theywould tell me what they like,
but they would be quick to tellme, okay, you're sounding like a
50 year old trying to soundlike a 14 year old here.
We need to scrub this a littlebit.
So they really helped findingthe voice and keeping the pace
of it as well.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, that's very, very smart, and with that I'll
say full disclosure that I didhave some of my friends who are
on my beta reading list.
By the way, if you're listeningto this and you love to beta
read stuff, email me.
I'll add you to my list ofpeople that like to get their
hands on a manuscript early tosort of see how that comes
together and to provide somefeedback on it.
(13:07):
So I am well aware that thereare a number of people that read
this thing before I went topress who absolutely loved it,
and some of these people that Ido know quite well personally as
friends have no problem tellingme the truth.
And they loved, they love this.
So it's.
I know it's called you'recalling it book one.
(13:29):
So what's next?
Is there more to come in this?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, it's.
I'm about a quarter of the waythrough book two.
I'm planning on a springrelease for that one.
It'll be a five book series.
I have the art planned out, butI don't know if this happens
with you a lot, jason.
But I had all the sticky notesfor this one, for book one,
(13:53):
planned out to a T and I lovedwhat was going by.
About the third sticky note, Iwas so far off the story but I
was loving where it was headingnow and having fun writing it
and I'm a big proponent of.
I think the writer has funwriting it and it's done well.
It's a good chance the reader'sgonna have fun reading it.
So I just started going wherethe, where the story started
(14:13):
taking me, and I feel like itended up better than the outline
I had to start with.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, well, that is often how it happened.
For sure, I've had a number ofbooks that I was pretty sure I
knew.
You know, act one, act two, actthree how it was all gonna
piece together.
And then you just start writingand sometimes you know somebody
walks into a scene that younever imagined even existed and
they suddenly play a prettycritical role in the plot.
Or sometimes even, you know,through the editing process, a
(14:43):
scene, a plot point, a characterthat you thought was gonna be
really crucial to the overallstory ends up fading away and in
some cases I mean I've had acouple of manuscripts where I
had characters that completelydisappeared.
I mean their name was strippedfrom the manuscript by the time
the book went to a press.
So you know, rest in peace.
(15:04):
Character I turned out, Ididn't.
So after this series, what'snext for Jay?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
After this series, my daughter and I are working on
another series and this would bemore for elementary school kids
, and this is one where it's amystery plays out.
All the characters are animalswith human characteristics.
They walk and they wear thesuits and all that kind of stuff
.
But each one is a mystery.
Something happens and then whenit gets to the end well,
(15:32):
halfway through it they'll bringin inspector clowns.
He's a lion, you're dressed upin a suit, he's the detective,
and he comes in and startsasking leading questions to try
to get to the bottom of thismystery.
And each question you turn backto a page and say, well, who
was standing next to the giftswhen this happened?
And it's basically a who doneit book.
But the kids can go back andlook, follow the guided
(15:55):
questions and by the very end,before they turn the last page,
see if they have followed theclues to figure out the mystery.
It's really the.
We have the first several donein that.
But I want to get through allof the Mulberry Manor series
first.
This is a couple of years downthe road.
I'd like to dive into this.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Very cool.
I love that Ever thought aboutaudio, by the way, with any of
these Ever thought about thebooks.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yes, yes, and Mulberry Manor will just came
out a hard back and soft back atthe same time, but a month
after that it was released anebook form.
So, and now, within the nextprobably two weeks, it'll be
audio.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Audio Love it.
Yeah, audio is just growinglike crazy.
Got a good audio.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
It is.
Hey, just kind of give a quickplug before this goes too long.
You can cut me out and edit ithere, but I wanted to know.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
No, no, plug away man .
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I wanted to say one of the things I was most proud
of in this book is to includenot necessarily the main
characters, but also just thetiny bit characters, and I think
that's something that thesedays is far and few between.
And and it's great, it'scontagious, we'll see it out
there, but also want people tobe able to read about it and
(17:07):
hopefully it's contagious theretoo, and I really learned that
from two authors.
In my time when I was a kid, Iwrote to Judy Bloom how much I
loved her books and how Ithought you know, here's an idea
for a new book.
I thought she would love that,judy Bloom.
Judy Bloom wrote me back ahandwritten letter back in the
early 80s, when I was a littlekid, maybe even late 70s wrote
(17:27):
me a handwritten letter back.
I still have it and said hey,thank you for the kind words,
appreciate this, thank you forthe idea for a new book, but it
sounds like you have a bunch ofideas.
Maybe you should write booksyourself.
And I still have the letter.
When I got my first bookpublished About 15 years ago, I
(17:47):
actually reached out to her onFacebook and said hey, I know
you don't remember me, but andexplained to her who I wasn't,
thanked her for that and shereached back out.
That's so cool.
And the second author was you,and you know I've told this
story in front of crowds before,but I wanted to share it here,
hopefully catch a differentaudience.
You had mentioned earlier we'vedone some speaking gigs on the
same venues.
I got invited to a speaking gighere locally, something called
(18:15):
the Apple Blossom Festival, andwhat I always do is I always
look up who spoke the yearbefore and try to reach out and
get advice for that person.
Lo and behold, here's a NewYork Times bestselling author,
jason Wright.
So it was a little intimidatingbut for those listening, I
called Jason, I called you upand you called me right back and
it wasn't tacos that day, Ithink it was Italian, but we
went out and was the train.
(18:35):
You went out with the guy thatyou had no idea who he was, but
you took your time and not onlyencouraged me but but helped
enable me and equipped me to goon and have some success with
that.
So haven't never forgottenabout Judy Blue, never forgotten
about your kindness either, andjust kind of passed those on in
themes of my different books.
(18:56):
So thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, that means a lot.
I love that and you havementioned that before.
I'm thankful for that.
And linking it up with a Gbloom, that's just that's.
That's horrific.
Like what a cool, yeah, what acool experience.
And I know I've told you beforeand I'll say it again you, you
will do all those same thingsand are already doing those same
things for other people, andand maybe there's somebody
(19:18):
listening to the show right nowwho happens to be local, who's
going to call you up and say,hey, let's, let's go get tacos
and talk about your crew.
It's, it's fun to know you.
I'm glad we got you on early onthis new show and, and I hope
people will go out and check outthe book.
They know where they can findthe book, will pull out all the
links, of course, to Amazon,everything else in the show
(19:39):
notes, but what about you?
Where can they just find yourcontent online?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
They could find find me on my website.
It's just my name J A Y, middleinitial W for man.
F O R E M A N dot com.
Everything is on there.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
J W for man.
All right.
Well, we will link to that aswell.
And I don't know, but I suspectthat when book two comes out,
we may find you back on the showand talk to us before then.
Absolutely Talk to us beforethen.
J, you're a good man.
Thanks for coming on.
Book drop, mike.
We appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Thank you, Jason.
Welcome, friends.
Welcome to the Book Drop, mike,brought to you by Ink Veins.
We are your source forpublicity, promo and press
releases and, of course, this isyour host, jason Wright.
And look folks, I am reallyexcited to welcome my friend to
the show today.
I have known this man for awhile and we've eaten tacos
(00:23):
together, and that tells youthat we're real friends.
His name is Jay Foreman.
Welcome to the show, jay.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, thank you, Jason .
It's a pleasure to be here withyou.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yes, I wish we were sitting at a restaurant eating
tacos, but we will take Zoom.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That's right.
Another time.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Another time.
All right, jay Foreman, we'regoing to talk about the book,
but before we do that, tell usreal quick about you.
Who are you?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, that's a tough one right out of the gate.
Born and raised in this area, Ileft the world of banking about
15 years ago to pursue a dreamof becoming an author and made
every mistake I could right outof the gate, but somehow
stumbled along and had severalbooks published since then.
(01:08):
Also worked the speakingcircuit, different conferences,
different businesses that way,and teach leadership classes at
our local community college.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So not much, Just basically sitting around.
It sounds like that's right,that's right.
So I mentioned actually no Jaymany of the guests that you hear
on the show, many of thewriters.
I probably have not been in thesame room with Jay and I have
been in the same room quiteoften and it's funny there have
been a number of speakingengagements.
When I look at the program andI'm like, oh, jay is here, all
right, this is legit.
(01:41):
If Jay Foreman told me theagenda, I know, like this, this
is a real gig and I mightactually get paid for it because
I know Jay's not doing it forfree, right.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Jay's a great storyteller.
That's probably the first thingI noticed about Jay when I was
in the back of the room in anevent and heard him commanding
an audience of several hundredpeople and I realized just the
gift he had for articulating astory with purpose.
So not just a story simply toentertain, but a story to teach
(02:13):
and inspire and ultimately, wehope, to maybe inspire some new
behaviors or habits from peoplethat are in the room.
And again, I've personallywitnessed this a number of times
and now I'm excited to see thathe has taken this to a novel,
to long form fiction.
So tell us about your brand newbook, and I know what it is,
(02:34):
but our folks don't.
What is it and what is it about?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Hey, it's the first in a five book series.
It's called the Adventures ofBall Berry Manor.
It has a little bit ofeverything in there.
For folks it's a supernaturalaction mystery novel for young
adults, but I've had severaladults and joined it just as
well.
So it dropped about a month anda half ago doing a be received
(03:03):
very well, so I'm excited aboutit.
It follows brother and sister,jade and Teddy.
Their mother goes missing.
Their father goes to look forthe mother and drops them off in
a place called Lakeside, at amansion called Ball Berry Manor,
where they're surrounded by allkinds of interesting characters
and different situations wherethey have to decide for
(03:25):
themselves sometimes there.
Maybe there's more out therethan what meets the eye and it's
up to us to follow that.
Are we going to choose tobelieve in something that we
maybe cannot see or seemsunrealistic, or are we not?
And I love the phrase.
I live by the phrase cynicismkills, because too many people
out there just want to have themindset of hey, if I don't
(03:48):
understand it, I don't want tobelieve it, or it can't be real.
And I'm trying to crush thatmindset with this in a fun way.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I love that.
So the age of your heroes here.
How old are they?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
16 and 14.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Okay, so you said YA, is this for this?
As shelves like if Aren't noBlames on et cetera is a young
adult title.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yes, yes, young adult title, but, like I said, most
of the following, the analyticsof it, most people that have
picked up a renaissance for areadults.
I'm hoping they still have yetto crack that young adult market
.
Maybe that's still out therewaiting for me, but it's been
fun.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
That's awesome and that's the goal.
You know that's.
Jk Rowling certainly hoped thatchildren would enjoy Harry
Potter, but she knows who'spulling their credit card out of
the checkout, right Like.
She understands that you've gotto write something that appeals
to the older audience as well.
It's no different than Pixarmaking movies for children and
(04:52):
understanding that there betterbe a lot there for adults as
well, or the movie's not goingto make it.
So is there a takeaway?
I guess I want to understand ifI'm a 10 or 12 or 14 year old,
because, as you know, and we'vetalked before that young people
tend and I'm talking childrenand they tend to want to read
(05:14):
something where maybe thecharacters are a couple of years
older than them, because itjust makes them feel special.
And bookstores often shelvestuff this way.
Publishers will present stuffin the market this way where a
book for a third, fourth, fifthgrader, the lead character might
actually be a sixth, seventh oreighth grader, because it gives
(05:35):
those kids an opportunity tostep up and to read up a little
bit.
So first of all, I want to knowthe lesson, the takeaway for
that young reader.
Now I want to know the primarytakeaway for their parent.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Sure, I think the primary takeaway could be the
same for either demographicthere Doesn't matter how young
you are.
It doesn't matter how old youare, it's never too early or
never too late to be the hero ofour own stories.
And the characters realize thatthey kind of walk into this
feeling average, like manyteenagers do.
(06:09):
But they're thrown into thesesituations where they realize,
hey, it's time for me.
I can either sit back and watchlife happen or I can step up
and help move things in theright direction.
So it's not only learning to bethe hero of our own story, but
also learning to not only helpthose around us but to be able
to open up and rely on help fromother people.
(06:29):
That's something that I seethese days when I get into the
schools and talk a little bit.
I don't know if it's a pridething or an ego thing, but a lot
of people are scared to ask forhelp these days.
And, my God, jason, we thoughtyou know, most people out there
want to help other people.
Most people out there are goodfolks wanting to help other
people.
And when we realize that itgoes both ways, take help from
(06:53):
other people but also help otherpeople as well, I love the
phrase empty in your cup.
You know, when we read a goodbook or watch a good podcast
like this, or we're hearinggreat speaker, you know we're
filling our cup up.
But what are we supposed to dowith that?
Go pour it into something orsomeone else.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, I love that and I do love a lesson that applies
across, you know, every age andevery reader In particular.
Here you know you're creatingan opportunity, I would think,
for parents and their childrento have discussions, whether
that kid is 8, 10, 12 or, youknow, 12, 14, 16, whatever.
A great book is one and one ofmy friends that's an agent in
(07:32):
New York talks about this allthe time.
Like you can market a book likeCrazy and you can run ads and
commercials and digital andbillboards and bus signage and
whatever you wanna do, but untilyou write a book that has
people talking when they're done, like I've gotta tell you about
this book and this thing Ilearned, or I've gotta tell you
about this nonfiction title inthis story that was so funny
(07:53):
that had me laughing in thesubway.
Like that is every author'sgoal, I hope.
And if you're listening to thisand you have that great idea
and you're ready to write yourfirst novel, it better be a
story that when the book closes,the story lives on and you're
talking to your neighbors aboutit and you're talking to your
friends at church about it andyou're looking for opportunities
(08:14):
to hop on a podcast and talkabout it.
Those are the stories thatreally sick.
You know Harry Potter andTwilight and Hunger Games and
Wonder.
And to drop a book, I'mfamiliar with Christmas Chars.
Those books did okay becausewhen the cover closed people
wanted to experience it deeperand that meant having
conversations, posting about iton social media and in the case
(08:36):
of a book like this, I hopeAdventures in Mobile Manor
families are coming together andtalking about the lessons
learned and maybe challengingone another with really
insightful questions.
To be different, to think itthrough.
What has been the response?
Have you talked to readers ofall ages so far and what are
they?
Not the online review stuff I'mtalking like what are people
saying to Jay when they see youin the grocery store and they're
(08:58):
like dude, I read your book.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
They said what were you thinking?
It's so different than anythingelse I've ever written.
It's so far out there with asupernatural realm and in a fun
way.
But they just say it's caughtthem by surprise because I've
written several children's booksand leadership books.
This is different.
I'm going against what they tellauthors we're supposed to do
(09:24):
right, find a genre and stickwith it.
I'm down to all over the place,but it's caught people by
surprise.
But they've enjoyed it.
Some of my best compliments Iknow I think it's a gender thing
I feel like women enjoy readinga lot more than us guys do.
For the most part.
One of the best compliments Iget was when I see one of my
buddies that I know for a factdon't read a lot of books and
(09:46):
they're like, hey, my gosh, Iwent through this in two days.
This was great.
That's a really good feelingand I knew that there would be
some.
I wanted to attract everybody tothis, but men as well, or young
men as well, that may not wantto read as much.
So I took a page out of JamesPatterson's book.
(10:07):
No pun intended there, but veryshort chapters For me.
They became easier to writethat way to continue moving.
But of the feedback I've gottenis that my chapters are two,
three, four pages at most.
It's easy to finish a chapterand say, okay, I can do one more
before I put this down, andthat leads to one more.
It's a longer book but ends upbeing a quick read.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, no, I absolutely love that approach.
Anyone that's read my stuffknows I'm a big believer in
short chapters as well, in partfor everything you just said so
well.
But also I think there's this,particularly with the younger
readers, or with reluctantreaders maybe that person that's
lucky to read a book or twowithout adult, a book or two a
(10:52):
year when you get through achapter there's this little rush
.
I mean, I feel it even when Iread something.
It's like, yeah, like I didthat, and particularly when I go
into schools and I talk aboutthe stuff they're reading, man,
when they get to the end of achapter, they're sitting during
reading time right In theirEnglish class or a homeroom or
whatever, and they get to theend of a chapter.
There's like this man, I didthis thing, like I finished
(11:15):
something.
I got to this, not the finishedline of the book, but like I've
gotten to the end of a chapter,the end of a page.
I get to breathe, take a pauseif I want to.
So I think it works both ways.
I think it entices people thatlove to read to go a little more
, to keep binging a little bit,you know, in the Netflix
streaming age, but also, I thinkit helps those reluctant
(11:37):
readers who aren't sure if theylove reading, to feel a sense of
accomplishment as they getthrough a chapter.
Smile, feel good about yourself.
You did something you know.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, yeah, it's a big deal and it's something else
.
I wanted to back up somethingelse you had mentioned there.
As far as adults and maybe thechildren the parents talking
about a book with that, there'sa couple of instances within the
book too where the children inthe book talk to their father
and it's one of those justpositions where they're seeing
(12:05):
the exact same situation butfrom two different perspectives.
So I'm hoping I'm catching theparents point of view as well as
the children's point of view.
I had both of my kids edit thiswith me.
We had a little mini writer'sroom in the family room after
every chapter.
I love it and I'm sure you knowour children can be our worst
(12:26):
critics or our best critics,wherever you wanna look at that
and they would say, okay, theywould tell me what they like,
but they would be quick to tellme, okay, you're sounding like a
50 year old trying to soundlike a 14 year old here.
We need to scrub this a littlebit.
So they really helped findingthe voice and keeping the pace
of it as well.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, that's very, very smart, and with that I'll
say full disclosure that I didhave some of my friends who are
on my beta reading list.
By the way, if you're listeningto this and you love to beta
read stuff, email me.
I'll add you to my list ofpeople that like to get their
hands on a manuscript early tosort of see how that comes
together and to provide somefeedback on it.
(13:07):
So I am well aware that thereare a number of people that read
this thing before I went topress who absolutely loved it,
and some of these people that Ido know quite well personally as
friends have no problem tellingme the truth.
And they loved, they love this.
So it's.
I know it's called you'recalling it book one.
(13:29):
So what's next?
Is there more to come in this?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, it's.
I'm about a quarter of the waythrough book two.
I'm planning on a springrelease for that one.
It'll be a five book series.
I have the art planned out, butI don't know if this happens
with you a lot, jason.
But I had all the sticky notesfor this one, for book one,
(13:53):
planned out to a T and I lovedwhat was going by.
About the third sticky note, Iwas so far off the story but I
was loving where it was headingnow and having fun writing it
and I'm a big proponent of.
I think the writer has funwriting it and it's done well.
It's a good chance the reader'sgonna have fun reading it.
So I just started going wherethe, where the story started
(14:13):
taking me, and I feel like itended up better than the outline
I had to start with.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, well, that is often how it happened.
For sure, I've had a number ofbooks that I was pretty sure I
knew.
You know, act one, act two, actthree how it was all gonna
piece together.
And then you just start writingand sometimes you know somebody
walks into a scene that younever imagined even existed and
they suddenly play a prettycritical role in the plot.
Or sometimes even, you know,through the editing process, a
(14:43):
scene, a plot point, a characterthat you thought was gonna be
really crucial to the overallstory ends up fading away and in
some cases I mean I've had acouple of manuscripts where I
had characters that completelydisappeared.
I mean their name was strippedfrom the manuscript by the time
the book went to a press.
So you know, rest in peace.
(15:04):
Character I turned out, Ididn't.
So after this series, what'snext for Jay?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
After this series, my daughter and I are working on
another series and this would bemore for elementary school kids
, and this is one where it's amystery plays out.
All the characters are animalswith human characteristics.
They walk and they wear thesuits and all that kind of stuff
.
But each one is a mystery.
Something happens and then whenit gets to the end well,
(15:32):
halfway through it they'll bringin inspector clowns.
He's a lion, you're dressed upin a suit, he's the detective,
and he comes in and startsasking leading questions to try
to get to the bottom of thismystery.
And each question you turn backto a page and say, well, who
was standing next to the giftswhen this happened?
And it's basically a who doneit book.
But the kids can go back andlook, follow the guided
(15:55):
questions and by the very end,before they turn the last page,
see if they have followed theclues to figure out the mystery.
It's really the.
We have the first several donein that.
But I want to get through allof the Mulberry Manor series
first.
This is a couple of years downthe road.
I'd like to dive into this.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Very cool.
I love that Ever thought aboutaudio, by the way, with any of
these Ever thought about thebooks.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yes, yes, and Mulberry Manor will just came
out a hard back and soft back atthe same time, but a month
after that it was released anebook form.
So, and now, within the nextprobably two weeks, it'll be
audio.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Audio Love it.
Yeah, audio is just growinglike crazy.
Got a good audio.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
It is.
Hey, just kind of give a quickplug before this goes too long.
You can cut me out and edit ithere, but I wanted to know.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
No, no, plug away man .
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I wanted to say one of the things I was most proud
of in this book is to includenot necessarily the main
characters, but also just thetiny bit characters, and I think
that's something that thesedays is far and few between.
And and it's great, it'scontagious, we'll see it out
there, but also want people tobe able to read about it and
(17:07):
hopefully it's contagious theretoo, and I really learned that
from two authors.
In my time when I was a kid, Iwrote to Judy Bloom how much I
loved her books and how Ithought you know, here's an idea
for a new book.
I thought she would love that,judy Bloom.
Judy Bloom wrote me back ahandwritten letter back in the
early 80s, when I was a littlekid, maybe even late 70s wrote
(17:27):
me a handwritten letter back.
I still have it and said hey,thank you for the kind words,
appreciate this, thank you forthe idea for a new book, but it
sounds like you have a bunch ofideas.
Maybe you should write booksyourself.
And I still have the letter.
When I got my first bookpublished About 15 years ago, I
(17:47):
actually reached out to her onFacebook and said hey, I know
you don't remember me, but andexplained to her who I wasn't,
thanked her for that and shereached back out.
That's so cool.
And the second author was you,and you know I've told this
story in front of crowds before,but I wanted to share it here,
hopefully catch a differentaudience.
You had mentioned earlier we'vedone some speaking gigs on the
same venues.
I got invited to a speaking gighere locally, something called
(18:15):
the Apple Blossom Festival, andwhat I always do is I always
look up who spoke the yearbefore and try to reach out and
get advice for that person.
Lo and behold, here's a NewYork Times bestselling author,
jason Wright.
So it was a little intimidatingbut for those listening, I
called Jason, I called you upand you called me right back and
it wasn't tacos that day, Ithink it was Italian, but we
went out and was the train.
(18:35):
You went out with the guy thatyou had no idea who he was, but
you took your time and not onlyencouraged me but but helped
enable me and equipped me to goon and have some success with
that.
So haven't never forgottenabout Judy Blue, never forgotten
about your kindness either, andjust kind of passed those on in
themes of my different books.
(18:56):
So thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, that means a lot.
I love that and you havementioned that before.
I'm thankful for that.
And linking it up with a Gbloom, that's just that's.
That's horrific.
Like what a cool, yeah, what acool experience.
And I know I've told you beforeand I'll say it again you, you
will do all those same thingsand are already doing those same
things for other people, andand maybe there's somebody
(19:18):
listening to the show right nowwho happens to be local, who's
going to call you up and say,hey, let's, let's go get tacos
and talk about your crew.
It's, it's fun to know you.
I'm glad we got you on early onthis new show and, and I hope
people will go out and check outthe book.
They know where they can findthe book, will pull out all the
links, of course, to Amazon,everything else in the show
(19:39):
notes, but what about you?
Where can they just find yourcontent online?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
They could find find me on my website.
It's just my name J A Y, middleinitial W for man.
F O R E M A N dot com.
Everything is on there.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
J W for man.
All right.
Well, we will link to that aswell.
And I don't know, but I suspectthat when book two comes out,
we may find you back on the showand talk to us before then.
Absolutely Talk to us beforethen.
J, you're a good man.
Thanks for coming on.
Book drop, mike.
We appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Thank you, Jason.
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