SpeakerCone: Nikolas Victorson - On Writing

Author Nikolas Victorson joins the program to discuss his writing career and newest publication, "Semperis", which is the first release in a trilogy of novels.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome to the program.
My name is Michael Finney. Today I am joined by Nicholas
Victorson. Would you like to say hello,
Sir? Yes, good morning, good
afternoon. Wherever, wherever you are,
wherever, however you may be listening, thank you for having
me on, Mike. This I, I I'm really grateful

(00:24):
for this opportunity. You do really good work and
just, you can tell the quality of everything you do just from
like the audio quality. Yeah, I know that you're putting
a lot of effort into this. And so to be, to be invited to,
to be content of your productionis it means a lot.

(00:44):
And I'm really grateful for the opportunity.
So thank you. Was uncertain we were going to
be able to make this work out within this timeline.
You have been stressing to get this thing out but let's before
we get into some of the the meatand potatoes, let's have an
appetizer tell us about you. Tell us you know where you're

(01:06):
from. Any biographical information
that might be pertinent for listeners to know about you, to
connect with you? Sure.
Well, I'm not that interesting. I'm I'm just another guy,
really. I've got a boring life, you
know, I'm I'm, I'm trying to raise a family now.
Millennial corporate wagey drone, you know who just one day

(01:32):
I decided to start writing. You know, I always read more
than the average person, and oneday I thought I'd try my hand at
it and couldn't stop. So here I am.
And yeah, I'm, I'm, like I said,I'm pretty much just just
another guy. But you know, I guess, I guess
my background in reading and writing, I picked up The Hobbit

(01:57):
when I was in 6th grade. We had to do a book report.
And I just read, you know, as much as any other kid before
that point. But my mom had the collection of
The Hobbit in Lord of the Rings underneath our computer desk.
And I was looking for a book to read.
I found The Hobbit and I, I, I was just enchanted and I, and I

(02:21):
dove down that rabbit hole and I've probably read Lord of the
rings like 10 times since then. Like that's, that's my thing.
And you know, got got pulled in there.
I'm, I'm a big fan of the fantasy genre in general.
Read, read all over the place. Now these days I've I finally
knocked out Moby Dick last year.I've got some.

(02:44):
Dostoevsky is next on my list once I can finally get my
project here done. So yeah, just another guy who
who found a book that he loved and then got got pulled into it
and here I am. Very typical, sort of, I don't
know, coming of age into readingand creativity.

(03:06):
Did you do any other creative work in the past?
You know, visual arts, music, dance, theater.
Who knows? You know, it's, it's, it's
funny, 7th and 8th grade they had, I think it was called like
power of the pen or something. It was kind of like the creative

(03:27):
writing extracurricular that group activity.
And you know, you kind of like audition or try out for it.
They give you a couple prompts and then you, you write and you
turn it in. And I didn't they, they didn't
like my stuff. Actually, they gave me by bad
grades. So creative writing, you know,
they told me it wasn't my thing back then.

(03:48):
Brutal. And maybe, maybe it isn't
actually. You'll have to read the book and
tell me what you think. But no, I, I, you know, I was
into music. I, I was in like a high school
band. I played all the instruments,
drums, bass guitar, whatever, lead guitar and played into
college. I've I've been playing guitar
for shoot probably 20 years now.But you know, I think I've

(04:11):
always just had like an overactive imagination.
Like I could come up with like the creative writing prompts,
but just like the discipline of writing, you know, I really had
to work on it over time. And you know, whether it's like
coming up with songs or coming up with stories, you know, my
noggins always jogging so. What have you done with music,
and do you find that to be a valuable carryover from your

(04:36):
time with that into writing in any way?
No, I, I don't know about the overlap.
Actually, I just, I picked up the guitar.
Actually, you know what, maybe there is some overlap.
So I actually might, I was in, Ithink it was actually also 6th
grade. My dad, yeah, he got me a drum
set. He got my brother a guitar.
And after I learned my way around the drum set, I picked up

(04:57):
the guitar and just kind of, yeah, muddled through it.
Like you eventually find some notes that sound good together.
And it's really rewarding. It's it's like learning how to
play golf. Like the first time you swing,
it's terrible. And then once you finally hit a
really good drive, you're like, holy shit, that felt really
good. Now I want to try to replicate
this. And the dopamine loop gets

(05:20):
going. And that's how it was with the
guitar. And I just kept going and going.
And eventually, you know, you'lllearn more and you, you, you
learn how to not just emulate others, but how to create your
own. And you know, I've, my
inspiration, I guess would be like Led Zeppelin first and
foremost, general Blues rocks like White Stripes, Black Keys,

(05:42):
that kind of stuff. But you pick up what they do and
then you can kind of make it your own.
And I feel like my writing styleis similar where I've got a lot
of inspiration from books, movies, TV shows.
And you, you kind of just you, you get deep enough into them

(06:02):
and you kind of get plugged intothe inspiration.
Then you can kind of emulate them and then make them your
own. You know, all, I think all
stories are basically like retelling of old stories in
different ways, you know, to 1° or another.
And you know, I think it's the same thing with music.
Like, you know, it's like a longchain of, of inspiration and

(06:24):
evolution from one to the next. But you know, you, you get, you
get the creative juices flowing too.
And I think there there's, there's like imagination land
lives inside of all of us and some people tap into it more
than others. I think it's a problem for me
sometimes with just daydreaming and like not listening when my
wife is talking to me. But you know, every, everybody's

(06:49):
got their strengths and weaknesses.
And yeah, yeah, I, I, I think asit, as it relates to Sempress,
I, I, I think that I found something, I, I, I kind of
discovered it. It's not like I sat down and had
to, I didn't have to do too muchwork actually plotting it out
and building it. It really came to me just like

(07:09):
through inspiration. And I'm kind of just like a
scribe, but you got to, you got to be plugged in and, and kind
of like you got to learn how to listen to the muses, whether
that's music or whether that's storytelling.
Yeah, I agree. Did you ever put out any music
like recording wise? No, not, no, not you know, I, I

(07:29):
probably hosted some, some songson SoundCloud or whatever back
in the day to share with friendsor to like submit it to the
battle of the band stuff. So I do have a little bit of
experience recording music and and learning like how to use an
equalizer board and compression and things like that, but
nothing really serious. You you wouldn't find my band on

(07:53):
Spotify or anything like that. That goes that way.
Who do you consider to be, you know, influential authors,
Writers for you personally? Stuff you love, books beyond,
you know, The Hobbit and Lord ofthe Rings, obviously what you
mentioned, but things you returnto or authors you return to or

(08:16):
writers and authors that you consider to be maybe in the
alchemical solution of your writing.
Yes. Well, I mean, yeah, obviously
token, I won't belabor that point.
I mean, I, I could, I could go on forever.
You know, I'm going to catch Flack for this and and there's
probably going to lot be a lot of people that turn this off,

(08:38):
this interview off after they hear me say this name.
But I think George Martin has, Ithink that he is, he's not a
great writer, but he does some great things.
And, and those things that he isgood at are things that I really
enjoy characterization, buildingplot and internal conflict.

(09:03):
I think he's a masterful storyteller.
And Rod Ryder and I, I think he's got, he's obviously got a
lot of deficiencies and, and we don't need to belabour those
either. But, you know, I read, like I
said, I read Lord of the Rings several times.
And then I think he was like right after I got out of college
and that and the Game of Thronesshow was getting big and my
cousin had read the book and, and he recommended it to me and

(09:26):
I loved it. I yeah, again, it's the fantasy
genre, which I love. He's Martin did a really good
job building the foundations of heroes journeys.
You know, he he's I thought he was doing a good job kind of
sticking to the script that works.
And even though I, you know, some people don't see that and I

(09:48):
don't want to make this podcast,you know, all about the defense
of what he's done. It's your time, you know, if you
want to spend it all talking about Tolkien and George Martin,
you know that's. Funny, I know, but, but, but you
know, I, I remember listening. I, I mean, I just, I just loved

(10:11):
the story that he was building. I thought it was very powerful.
A lot of people misinterpreted, I believe, when they say it's
about nihilism or like moral depravity.
No, I think actually the good guys were being set up to win
because of their virtue. And we just haven't gotten to
that point yet. Again, I'm not going to make
that full case here, but in any event, I I appreciated what he

(10:33):
was building. It's a shame that he's too weak
to finish building it, but, you know, so, so I, I got kind of
hooked there. And yeah, I'd listen to some of
the interviews and like, read some of the theories on the
Internet and such. And one of the things he said
was, you know, how Faulkner wrote that the, the only thing

(10:53):
worth writing about is the humanheart in conflict with itself.
And I think Martin does a reallygood job not only in A Song of
Ice and Fire, but in his other books that he, you know, I've
read a couple other of his booksand Martin does a very good job
of building internal conflict, making you feel engaged in the
reader's in the, in the character's skin.

(11:15):
And that was something I just really appreciated.
So I took that away from readinghim as kind of like an
inspiration for how to how to write characters effectively.
So, you know, those two I probably spent the most time in,
you know, I've read some of the other.
I haven't gotten into Wheel of Time yet.
Started reading some of Brandon Sanderson, you know, the the the

(11:38):
estimable John Pars sheepskin that that's I think that's a
powerful myth. You know, that actually has
influenced me to some degree. All of our friends.
No offense to our session here, but the podcast I did with
Doctor John T Parse is one of myfavourites of all time.

(12:00):
If you have not listened to that, go back and listen to it.
You know, just for I think that that episode, that recording
Flex's reality and fiction in a very similar way as to what his
book and world building is doingit it yes, that episode sort of

(12:25):
exists within the the sheepskin cosmology, to be honest.
Incredible, incredible. I'm I, yeah, He I love how he
puts on the mask like he, he he's committed to the bit.
Yeah. So, you know, but I would.
So just to finish answering yourquestion, you know, aside from
authors, I would say Quentin Tarantino and his ability to

(12:49):
build tension in a movie scene, that's been an influence on me
as well. And, you know, I could criticize
Quentin Tarantino for some of the content that he chooses to
film, but the way that he films it, no one can deny he's a
master of drama. And that's been an influence on
me and Semperis as well. You, you, you might, you know,

(13:14):
as you read through the the parts 1 and I think more in, in
Part 2, which is not going to bepublished this year, you might
feel some of those. How many?
Parts are there, fleshed out. There's there's three parts.
Semperis is a fantasy epic and atrilogy and it is 850 pages
long. But this Part 1, which I'm
publishing this month, is just 270 pages.

(13:38):
It establishes the key players, their internal conflicts, and we
come to a turning point in the broader external conflict.
When all is said and done with Part 1.
So you know, I, I think as you read you'll, you'll definitely
note some of the inspirations from Tolkien, probably from A
Song of Ice and Fire, George Martin.

(13:58):
And again, I'm trying to think if there's any real Tarantino
like vibes in Part 1. I, I think there's a little bit,
but, but Part 2 you'll probably feel a little bit more.
And I think those guys have probably influenced my
storytelling style the most in terms of inspiration.
And, and last, I just say, you know, some movies like

(14:21):
Godfather, Tombstone, Lion King,I think these are all heroes
journeys that, that are some of my favorite movies.
And I, I tried, I pull a lot of inspiration from, from those
stories as well. I I forget who's written and
directed all of those, but I point to them as inspiration.
Sure. Yeah.

(14:42):
So I think 200 some odd pages isa fantastic page count for a
novel debut. I think that you're, you're not
asking a lot out of, you know, new readers for your journey,
your mission into authorship. I think that's that's a wise

(15:08):
decision to, to trim it into these very manageable chunks.
Maybe tell us a little bit aboutthe development of the project
and when it started, how you arecreating the manuscripts, how

(15:30):
you've made decisions about editing, anything like that.
Yes, so as I mentioned, I, you know, I, I, I've been probably,
I, I've been a reader guy. I, my, the number of, of words
that I've read is probably on onthe right side of the bell
curve, right. So I've always enjoyed reading,
specifically the fantasy genre. And one day after I graduated

(15:53):
college, I was sitting in my, you know, corporate office, you
know, wage slave Microsoft Excelspreadsheet job.
And I was kind of bored actually, you know, I, I wasn't
really being utilized to my fullextent.
I'm just sitting there daydreaming.
And I opened up my Microsoft OneNote and I just start
writing. A story comes to my head and I

(16:14):
just start writing. And I, I couldn't stop, you
know, then I started thinking more and I'm like, OK, you know,
I've got an outlaw like a story.Let let me try my hand at
writing it. And I want to publish a, a book.
This was maybe 15 years ago or so.
Good Lord. Well, I, I, I finished that book

(16:34):
and I self published it several years ago.
And yeah, after letting it rest for a little while and coming
back and reading it again, I realized this, this isn't very
good. And that kind of made me upset.
You know, I, I wanted to like doit better and do it right.
And, and this, this particular book was like a different genre.

(16:55):
Actually, I was it's kind of like dystopian sci-fi and I
don't know, but we don't need todwell on it.
But so. So then 2015, I'm watching The
Godfather and the opening scene just strikes me to to that

(17:17):
movie. I had kind of like a what if
moment and you know, it, it inspired a thought and that
thought continued to grow. And I started writing notes and
outlining and I realized I have the outline of a, a fantasy epic

(17:40):
hero's journey type of story. And now I got to figure out the
way to tell it. And you might be thinking like,
what does The Godfather have to do with that?
But you know. Given what I know about your
story, I can see it, I can, I can perceive it, but go on.
Yeah, well, so again, now this was this was 2015 and I'm

(18:01):
writing all my drafts in Microsoft OneNote.
And it's not until 2018 when this Part 1, this 270 page
project, I, I get it all into Microsoft Word.
And my process is actually have one note on this screen and then
Microsoft Word on the other. And I'm literally retyping all
the words because just actually typing them out I feel like is a

(18:22):
good way to iron out some kinks where you like you're reading
and then writing and like, oh, Ishouldn't write it that way.
I should write it this way. So get it into Microsoft Word,
start to share it with some family members.
I'm proud of it. And and then I keep going into
Part 2. I got to keep writing the story.
So I let Part 1 sit there for some time.

(18:43):
That was 2018. It took me maybe three years
until I finally got it into Word.
Start writing Part 2, get maybe halfway done with that.
And Part 2 is really the meat. I think it's like 400 plus pages
and I get maybe halfway done with it.
I come back to Part 1 and oh shit, it sucks again.
It's happening again. So like the process of combing

(19:04):
through ironing out Part 1. It's been going on for a long
time while in parallel, I've been laying the track for the
rest of the book. And I think it was a year or so
ago I I finally finished all of Part 3.
So 850 pages in about 8 years ina readable draft where you know,

(19:27):
my family can now and friends can now read.
Here's the full story and there's typos and there's clunky
sentences. But if you want to see this,
like, you know, in, if you want to digest the whole story, here
it is. And once that was done, I
decided, OK, well, now I got to start thinking about publishing.
And for the last, I'd say, you know, like, yeah, one or two

(19:48):
years. I've just been combing through
Part 1. I, I I don't know how many times
I've read these 270 pages. Over a dozen I feel like you
said you did. Authors copies right?
Or author proof copies. Well, I'm out here in my shed.
I'm looking at my bookshelf. I have 13 authors copies,

(20:10):
authors, drafts printed out. So you submit your draft to KDP
and they will let you print and send a copy to your house.
It says do not distribute. You know, because I, it really
helps me to like feel and read the physical copy in my hands.
I, it's, I struggle to read things on KDP.
Part of that's because, you know, I'm with, I'm like, I need
to be in the family room with myfamily and I, I can't be locked

(20:33):
at my computer all day. But no, I mean, that's just the
number of authors. I think, you know, at that, the
number of times I actually read it on the on the screen, you
know, I maybe 30 times, maybe 40times, maybe more, I don't know.
But anyways, you know, each, each author's draft copy has

(20:56):
progressively gotten better and it's, it's finally ready.
And you know, I thanked you earlier for having me on.
I also need to use this opportunity to thank you for
pushing me because my process has been let this thing come to
me, let it flow when it comes. And you know, I told you these
things and you're like, no man, make it happen.
And I, I really appreciate the, the support because you know, I,

(21:21):
I lost a little bit of sleep thelast few weeks staying up late
and, and reading and editing more.
But, and I had to add a prologuebecause yeah, I'll be honest,
the 1st 100 pages, it's, it's an850 page story.
And so the first, you know, 5-6 chapters, I've got to do a
little setup and introduction tocharacters.

(21:42):
And, you know, it's it, it doesn't, I know the modern
attention span, you've really got to start with like people
are having fire or having sex while they're on fire to capture
their attention. But that's just not this story.
But I think the prologue kind ofmaybe helped people or I think
it's going to help pull readers in a little bit more.
It is a little bit more exciting.

(22:02):
I, I had to get that in. I had to force the issue.
And yeah, I, I appreciate you pushing me, but that's been the
process. Like I said, I, I, I've got,
I've still got my OneNote, you know, Sempress 1.
And it'll tell you when you created the new page.
It was October 2nd, 2015, Chapter 1, The Good King.
That's amazing. Here we are now.

(22:22):
Yeah, ready to publish in 2020. I'm just, I'm just stunned by
the way how fast some of our friends can pump books out.
Like, I was listening to the Rambo Van Halen interview and.
And he's like, yeah, you know, it took me a couple months to
write this book. And I, you know, everybody's got
their own process. Mine's a little different.
I'm not naturally talented, but I understand what makes a good

(22:43):
story. I know what good writing is.
And it's just really a thing of like discipline and being honest
with yourself to I've had to delete a lot of sentences that I
thought I liked, but I know justaren't good after, you know,
reading it and you know how longit's got to take that, you know,
that's that's kind of my perspective is it is what it is.

(23:05):
This is my process. There are many like it, but this
is my own. Yeah, that's how it is.
I, you know, I'm not good or fast, but I keep turning stuff
out. And I think that what I've
discovered with these creative projects, you know, whether it
was with music or it's with writing or film or whatever, you

(23:26):
know, you can come back to them and you can, you can brush stuff
up a little bit. You can add some brush strokes
or you can, you know, tighten the canvas, whatever it might
be, remix it, change words, add pictures, reshoot a scene and

(23:47):
and remake it. And that's OK.
You know, these are our projects.
We're allowed to do that. We are not locked in by the
publishing date. You know, when it goes live, you
know, again, to go back to parse, you know, he, he had the
same sort of situation with you where he had put out a couple of

(24:10):
books that were I guess the, theinfantile versions of sheepskin
and pulled them down and has reworked the material and is now
reissuing it again. So, you know, everybody has
these different routes to how they they create and stuff.

(24:30):
And if it takes 10 years, it takes 10 years, right?
Yeah, yeah. You know, we are, we are
amateurs, you know, for, for me,like I've got a full time job
and so most of my writing is at night time and I've got kids and
I've got to do their bedtime. And you know, my wife, God bless
her, she wants to like sit in the family room with me and
watch some Office reruns. But I'm like, no, sorry.

(24:51):
You know, I've got a right, I'm going to the office.
And so I just, you know, it's like an hour or two at nights
when I can for however long it takes.
And, you know, it's a, it's a labor of love.
I'm, I certainly am not expecting to, you know, make
much money by selling this. But I, I hope, I hope that it's
an entertaining story with engaging characters, people can

(25:14):
be pulled into and if I can impart, you know, a few morals
and values along the way, all the better.
So I, you know, I, this book, I,I would say it's probably for
sensitive young men, quote UN quote, you know, it's something
that I think like high school boys through college aged men
could, could, would be really like the target audience.

(25:35):
And I, I think probably men our age could appreciate it as well.
But you know, it's like it's something really, they say you
need to write with an audience. Frankly, my audience would be my
sons. I want them to, to, to, I, I
want to impart some values and Iwant to, but you got to kind of
smuggle them in and certainly not be obtuse and like hit

(25:56):
people over the head with it. But I, you know, I got some
things that I want to say. I think fiction is a good way to
explore ideas and to make points.
But there is an art, obviously you, you, you first and foremost
have to entertain and engage people.
And and that's been that was really my primary focus of, you

(26:18):
know, good, good writing can make point, but you, you know,
nobody wants to lecture. And so try to keep it subtle.
But, you know, like I said, you got to pick a target audience.
And yeah, I think I if, if even,you know, if, if, if my sons
read this and their perspective on the world changes a little

(26:41):
bit for the better for it, then that's all I really care about.
And if other father sensitive young men get the same impact,
all the better. Without giving it away, you
know, maybe tell us some of the premise, some of the set up what
what is the world? Who are the characters or

(27:03):
factions a little bit inside of the story so that you know, we
can peak listeners interests? Yes, yeah.
So without really spoiling anything, because they broached
this topic very early, early in the book, I can tell you, you
know, the the reader enters and the the Kingdom is facing a sort

(27:26):
of a political crisis. Like there there's there's this
mysterious fire magic. It's wreaking havoc in the West,
in in the Wildwood. Nobody really knows what this
magic is, how it works, but it'scertainly causing chaos.
It's putting a lot of strain on,you know, this king is trying to
hold shit together And on top ofthat, his Kingdom is

(27:48):
experiencing a little bit of a famine.
And on top of that, they're entering it's, it's, it's their
new age. It's like the celestial, the
stars are lined up. It's, you know, we, you know,
our new year might be marked on like the winter solstice, right?
December 21st and we picked January 20 or sorry, January
1st. It's close enough, but they have

(28:08):
the star keeping method and it'slike, OK, New age is coming, but
as we're going into this new age, there's a lot of pressure
and there's this like mysterious, mysterious fire
magic that's coming in. So you know, one of the point of
view characters, I'll tell you, first of all, Semperis is a
collection of heroes journeys. There are multiple point of view
characters and like disparate strings, they ultimately get

(28:30):
woven together. It's just the the style or the
setting is fantasy for that as well.
So that's kind of the point of parody.
You know, it's a fantasy epic Heroes Journeys.
OK, there's thousands of books like that.
I tell you the point of differentiation though.
You know, imagine in the hero's journey, there's like the exiled

(28:50):
Prince that returns to save the Kingdom, but this Kingdom is on
the verge of a technological andpolitical revolution.
So that's that's kind of again, the point of differentiation.
And I wanted to tell this particular story because in
Hero's Journeys fantasy, that's what I know best.
I think they're very powerful. And yet I'm obviously I'm trying

(29:11):
to work some allegorical elements to it that reflect the
reality of our modern times and.And, you know, maybe making a
few subtle comments on that reality as I go along.
And so, you know, one of the characters is this king.
And, you know, you could almost think of him like Czar Nicholas.
Yeah, I kind of had that in the back of my head because here's a

(29:32):
guy, generally a good guy, but he's inheriting ownership of a
world that's rapidly changing and he either lacks the
foresight or the will to maintain order through that
change. So this fire magic, you know,
it's it's just one expression. It's like a mode to to help of
this broader theme of technical technological change and its
impact on society and also how and why tyranny might rise bonds

(29:56):
to the chaos that technology brings.
So, you know, that's kind of thescene in the setting you come
into this and there's all these different characters around the
king and from around the Kingdomthat come in towards the center
into the capital city, right as all of this stuff is kind of
reaching a boiling point. So I, I try to take different
characters from all over the place.
And again, at the start of the book, there's a wide array of

(30:21):
characters. And by the end of Part 1, you're
going to see how they start to weave together and like where
this thread points. So I wanted to explore some of
these ideas about, you know, technology, tyranny, what's the
relationship between duty and and destiny put.
I wanted to put people's duties in conflicts with their desires,

(30:44):
the characters in the book. But so, you know, my goal is not
to make political points. Again, my first and foremost
concern is just to entertain thereader.
I've got a well structured plot.I think the pacing's good.
I think these characters are colorful too.
I can see them so clearly. And I'm I'm really pleased with
how they turned out. And so I want to entertain and

(31:05):
engage while smuggling some themes of like, there's a lot of
emphasis on heroism and fraternity in the book.
Again, I mentioned duty in its relationship to destiny,
technology and its relationship to tyranny.
That's, that's kind of the backdrop and the theme.
And again, I just, I had these themes I wanted to explore and

(31:29):
use the fantasy setting and the hero's journey archetype to do
it and keeping the plots and character entertaining to the
readers. You know, Part 1, there's family
drama, there's, there's murder mystery, there's love and war.
And with the characters I wanted, you know, like Faulkner
said, like I mentioned earlier, the human heart and conflict is
the only thing worth writing about.

(31:49):
In conflict with itself is the only thing worth writing about,
and I I really wanted to emphasize that to to to tell a
good. Story.
Are you familiar with Robert Bligh?
Iron John, That book. No.
Yeah, you should take a look. Yeah.
Robert Bligh Iron John Author isRobert Bligh.

(32:11):
The book is called Iron John. Robert Bligh, Iron John.
Yeah. Yeah, it's AI would say a a must
read for you. I've got a copy and read it
before and it's certainly a a worthwhile read, particularly if
you're thinking allegorically and exploring the hero's
journey. I think that that that book is.

(32:31):
Perfect. You know, right up the the
Campbell Lane. So let us ask one last question.
Are there any things you haven'tsaid that you feel you need to
or that we haven't covered in relation to your writing, your

(32:52):
new book, Sempress, the scene atlarge, Anything along those
lines? I just want to say if you're
looking for like really artful, like impressive prose or like
capital L literature, I, I mightnot satisfy you to be honest,
like, like if I, I think again, some of our friends are so damn

(33:17):
talented with the way they can spin sentences and weave words
together. And I don't think that I am like
an artist with the pen, so to speak.
However, you know, if, if you really like a good plot and, and
engaging characters and characterization.

(33:38):
I, I, I think I'm an effective writer, but I'm not the most
artful. Like purple prose is difficult
for me. So if that's what you're looking
for, I just want to be upfront and honest.
But you know, if you want, if you want a, if, if you're
looking for just an interesting,it's a quick, the, the chapters
are short. I, I read this when I get a new
author's copy. I can, I can read it in like a

(34:00):
day. Sometimes it it's the the the
chapters are, you know, digestible and I think the
pacing is pretty good too. You know, there is a little bit
of foreplay again to like set upthat you got to establish the
characters in the conflict in a story this large.
So there is a little bit of that.
But, you know, once it gets I think it pulls you through
pretty quick. So, yeah, I, I, I think, I think

(34:23):
this is AII think I discovered agood story and engaging
characters that, that you'll be entertained to read and you'll
be interested to see where the story goes.
And I think once you finish Part1, you'll, you'll be curious to,
to I want to know what happens in Part 2.
I honestly believe that. But like I said, there's there's

(34:47):
writers like Melville or I've read a little bit of Dostoevsky.
One book that stands out to me among our friends, Give Up the
Ghost by PCM. Christ, I don't know if you've
read that one yet or had him on here like the just His Way with
words. I'm just stunned when I read it.
You know, that's that stuff's all a little foreign to me, but

(35:09):
I think I've still got a good story that's well told.
So if that's what, if that's what interests you, you know the
plot, character, theme, then that's what I have for you with
Sempress Part 1, The King's Quest.
Well, hey, Nicholas, I appreciate you taking the time
to talk. I'm happy that you got your book
released as well. And if I was of any influence in

(35:36):
nudging you to get that done, you know, then so be it.
I think often times, you know, hey, it took you 10 years, it
takes 10 years. That's how it goes.
But getting across the finish line is critical.
You've done it. Congratulations and you know,
looking forward to seeing how itperforms for you, how it's

(35:58):
received and happy to help with promotion with the.
Yes, well, well, again, thank you very much.
And I should add, parts two and three are written already.
Part 2 is mostly edited, so I wanted it all to be complete
before I published Part 1 so that I can just focus on
cleaning up parts 2 and 3. You know, I don't want to keep

(36:18):
you waiting 12 years to see if Jon Snow comes back to life.
I promise that I will not keep you waiting that long.
So yeah, that that's what's coming next.
But yeah, certainly, again, appreciate, Appreciate your
support and for letting me come on here and yeah, read, read
Semperis. Absolutely.

(36:38):
Well, hey, thanks again and we will talk again before too long.