May 29, 2025 • 31 mins
On today's 229th episode of The Thriller Zone, host Dave Temple dives into the thrilling world of indie authorship with the debut of Josh Mendoza and his book, *Shadow of the Eternal Watcher*.
Right off the bat, this title has got some serious flair! Not only does it have a cover that could make even the grumpiest bookworm smile, but it’s also packed with enough tension and excitement to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Josh, who’s also an indie filmmaker, brings a unique perspective to storytelling, blending his cinematic flair with the art of writing.
We’ll chat about the journey of getting his book into the world, the challenges of adapting stories from page to screen, and why indie creators are the true rock stars of the storytelling universe.
So grab a snack and get ready, because this chat is all about the thrills, the spills, and maybe a few creative hacks along the way!
Takeaways:
- The episode dives into the life of indie filmmaker and debut author Josh Mendoza, who discusses his book 'Shadow of the Eternal Watcher' and his journey into storytelling.
- Josh reveals he originally aimed to be an author before getting sidetracked into filmmaking, showcasing the crossover between books and movies.
- We get an inside look at Josh's filmmaking process, including tips on how to create visually appealing movies on a tight budget.
- The conversation highlights the importance of consistency in writing, as Josh encourages aspiring authors to set achievable goals, like writing 500 words a day.
- Listeners learn about the challenges of adapting books into films, and the creative solutions filmmakers use to bring stories to life on screen.
- Finally, we explore the mashup of genres in storytelling, as Josh combines elements of sci-fi and noir, proving there's no one way to craft a thrilling narrative.
Links referenced in this episode:
Keywords: thriller podcast, Shadow of the Eternal Watcher, Josh Mendoza author, indie filmmaker interview, book to film adaptation, debut author insights, writing advice for authors, filmmaking tips, thriller genre discussion, self-publishing strategies, indie filmmaking challenges, creative storytelling techniques, book cover design, PR for authors, cinematic storytelling, writing process, genre mashup novels, author interviews, indie film production, narrative techniques in fiction
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:18):
Hello and welcome to theThriller Zone.
I'm your host, David Temple.
On today's show, Josh Mendozahas a book called Shadow of the Eternal
Watcher.
Folks, let me tell you something.
Great title, good book cover.
You're halfway there.
It happens to be a thrilling read.
Josh is a debut author.
We don't do this often, but Iran across Josh through some PR folks,
(01:39):
and because he's an indiefilmmaker, I said, we gotta talk.
So without any further ado,let's get into the Thriller Zone
with debut author and indiefilmmaker Josh Mendoza.
Well, thanks for having me, Dave.
Excited to be here, dude.
I have been talking to your PRpeople for.
Let me see, this is May.
I think we started.
(01:59):
I could look it up.
I bet it was March, February.
March.
They started talking to me.
This book dropped.
I want to re.
I want to say January.
February.
Ish.
Yeah, it was like January 28th.
It dropped.
Yeah.
Okay.
So while you might think,geez, Dave, you're late to the party,
(02:20):
that's not actually the case.
We had a couple of heavyhitters ahead of you.
James Patterson.
Not to drop names.
And I guess I'll let James go first.
That's fine.
But here's the reason Isnagged you.
And we.
We have been tapping thebrakes on debut authors because.
A hundred different reasons,but I take one every once in a while,
(02:42):
and you're one of those.
And what got me.
What.
What caught my eye was thefact that you're an indie filmmaker.
And we're going to find outhere, for those who have not noticed
before, I'm also a indie filmmaker.
So when I saw this, I'm like,oh, I got to talk to this guy.
So.
I'm so glad you carved out the time.
Well, I appreciate you being here.
That's my.
That's my journey to get here too.
So be.
(03:02):
It'll be fun to talk about it.
Well, folks, the book isShadow of the Eternal Watcher.
Now, I'm going to stop right there.
Say, A, cover.
C, smashing.
B, love the title.
So just let that bask in thatfor a second.
It's exciting to have it out there.
You know, the book.
The nice thing about bookversus movies.
(03:22):
The book, something tactile.
You know, movies so much havegone to streaming now.
There's still DVDs, but less.
Less and less every year thatgoes by.
So it's.
It's fun that, like, you heldit up and showed it to everyone.
That's, I think, one of thecoolest things about a book.
Yeah, it exists.
It's a thing.
It is.
You know what?
I remember my very first book,which was maybe 2003, and I remember
(03:46):
getting it in the mail andopening that box going, there is
nothing in the wide world ofsports like it.
When you open it up and yougo, it's on paper, right?
It's got ink.
It's that artwork that Islaved over or had hired somebody
to do.
It's.
It's all frickin real.
Yeah.
For folks who want to know,well, Dave, you said he's an indie
(04:06):
filmmaker.
What's the film he did?
What Still Remains now, if I'mcorrect, I watched it last night.
2018, right?
Yeah, it came out 2018.
So it's been a few years now.
And yeah, you know, I went toUSC film school, got out, had a bunch
of scripts I was pitchingaround and, you know, ran into a
(04:27):
lot of obstacles becausemovies are expensive.
So I actually started workingon what Still Remains is something.
I had some backers that wantedto back a movie, but just not in
the budget range we werelooking for and tried to create something
that we could fit into thatsub million dollar area, which is
a lot of money, but not a lotof money when you make a movie.
So we were able to punch aboveour weight class with that movie
(04:47):
though, with a lot of USCtalent coming on, working with us
and just bringing something tolife that was on the page.
And that's the cool thingabout movie.
A book, you obviously haveeditors and you get a lot of input,
but you know, movie, you can'tdo it by yourself.
There's no wait.
And you just have to knowenough about everything to tell people
(05:08):
what you want them to do andthen hopefully they're better at
it than you and they go do itfor you.
And Westover Mans is a perfectexample of that.
I have great cinematography,great production design just all
around and great talent, greatactors bringing it all to life.
So it was a great experienceand I'm working on getting number
two made.
All right, well, here's whyI'm torn, Josh.
(05:30):
I need you to help me decidewhat to do.
I am so friggin torn because Iwant to give Shadow its due, but
I really want to geek out onBook to Screen because that's really
what I'm going to name thistitle of this show.
It's.
It's kind of my heartbeat, howI live and I breathe.
(05:50):
I dream of every book that I write.
I want to see it on the screen.
So tell me, would you like togo ahead and deep Dive on shadow
first and then us geek out onthe film.
Or vice versa.
What's, what's.
Let's geek out on film.
That's good.
We can talk about the movie atthe book at the end.
Yeah, but.
All right, you brought up a.
You brought up a really goodpoint for folk.
(06:11):
And I want to treat this likea little master class because I have
a lot of friends, a lot oflisteners from all over the world
who listen to the show, andthey're first and foremost thriller
fans.
Secondly, most of them, a lotof them are authors, up and coming
authors, debut authors,seasoned authors, wannabe authors,
(06:31):
and then there's a little tinythird group that wannabe filmmakers
or they wanna see those booksadapted to screen.
So you made a point, Dave.
It's hard to do that.
I agree.
And if I may borrow a littlebit of my story, very first book
I wrote, 2003, I think it was,I really wanted to do a film.
(06:56):
I'm like, God darn it, I gotenough film friends, enough tech
friends to make this happen.
What's the missing piece?
Everyone sitting around thetable goes, well, we need some money.
Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.
So how do we get money?
Somebody's got to go raise it.
Yeah.
So I started banging on doors.
I raised the money.
(07:16):
I wrote the book already, so Iadapted it to screenplay, raised
the money, hired the crew,shot it, directed it, helped the
edit, starred in it, and gotit on Netflix.
And then it's now on Amazon Prime.
So.
But let me tell you something.
As you very well know, thattook 13, 14, 15, almost three years
(07:42):
to do.
I lost about 30 pounds, myhair went gray, I lost a few friends,
But I made the movie.
So that's my story.
I want to hear how you did it.
You said sub million.
Now, we all know that youraverage movie, indie, probably going
(08:03):
to start in that 750 to 1.2 ish.
Right?
If you're doing it for lessthan 1, 2, people are going to look
at you like, oh, you're not serious.
So.
Well, I think the key is thatyou have to make it look like you
spent more than 1.2.
And I think we accomplished that.
And what still remains, Imean, I go into meetings with professionals
and they, they think, I spent,we spent two and a half to $5 million
(08:25):
on that movie.
So, I mean, you have 5 millionand it doesn't look good.
You can't be like, but itcosts $5 million.
At the end of the day, allthat matters is what goes on the
screen and what people See,it's the same with your.
You can't tell people, oh,well, the actor was sick that day
and the performance was asgood or it rained.
So we didn't get to do thiscool thing.
No one cares.
(08:45):
They only care what's on thescreen and what they get to see.
And that's the bottom line.
So you just have to put yourbest foot forward and you have to
figure out ways to be creativeto make it look better than it does
then.
Then you have the money to do right.
And a lot of famous filmmakershave created shots and done a lot
of things with no moneybecause they had to, not because
(09:05):
they thought, oh, I'm going tocome up with a cool new way to chase
someone in a horror movie byputting a camera on the end of a
two by four.
They did that because they hadno money to put it on anything else.
And now that's like a thingpeople do, right?
So it's just.
That's some of the fun offilmmaking is the creativity and
when things go wrong, how doyou make it better?
But it's also the stress of it too.
(09:26):
Right.
I personally, and I'veprobably always been this way.
Do I like the big movies?
Sure.
My wife and I went to see aMission Impossible Final Reckoning
this weekend.
I'll reserve my comments ifyou give no spoilers yet.
I haven't seen it.
Yeah, it is exactly what youexpect for a.
(09:46):
What is it?
Was it 200 mil?
It was 200 million to makethat thing?
Yeah.
And that's great.
That's well and good.
Of course, we all love the bigtent poles, but I'm an indie fan,
hardcore through and through.
I love the, the, you know, I'mcheering for the underdog.
The guys like you who say, oh,I've got $50,000, but I definitely
(10:09):
need at least 300,000.
We'll use that as a round number.
And then you just figure out away to raise it because when you
want to do it, you figure itthe hell out.
And at the end of the day too,I mean, I don't want people to listen
to this and say, oh, I got toraise $750,000.
Because Dave said that's the number.
750 to 1.2.
I mean, I have buddies whocame out of film school and made
movies for 30 grand andthey're great and I know people have
(10:31):
made movies for more andthey're terrible.
So like, you really, you gottamake something though.
I think that's the thing.
It's same with Writing.
Like, if you're gonna say, I'man author, I'm a writer, you have
to write.
You have to get things out there.
And if you want to be afilmmaker, you have to make movies.
And it does become a challengewith the money.
But I think if you're juststarting out, there's nothing wrong
(10:52):
with grabbing an iPhone andgrabbing your buddies and trying
to make something and learnfrom that and then say, okay, and
maybe start with a short form.
Make something that's 10minutes long.
Can I make something thatwould get me into usc, Right?
Yeah.
And watch it and get somehonest feedback from people.
Don't just let your familytell you how great it is.
Maybe try to learn from thatexperience and then get better.
(11:12):
I mean, when I went to filmschool, you know, you make lots of
these little shorts, and theyall tend to get better.
And, you know, you don'treally want to watch any of them
afterwards because they're allstudent films at the end of the day,
but they.
They lead you somewhere.
And every now and then, like,a Ryan Coogler comes along and makes
a famous student film that's.
I think it's on HBO right nowor somewhere.
(11:32):
But, you know, it's just.
It's all a growth process anda learning process, too.
Dude, when I was banging onthe doors back in the day, this was
2012, 2013, this was somewherearound the time of Blair Witch Project.
And everyone goes, oh, my God,look what?
They made that for like $70,000.
(11:54):
And it made, you know, 500 billion.
Not real numbers.
And we all thought, oh, okay.
And then Robert Rodriguez, Iremember following him in the early
days, El Mariachi and allthose, and I'm like, man, I want
to be a part of that crew.
What people don't understandis that in that time when you and
I were doing this, not thatlong ago, the rules were a little
(12:18):
bit different.
Now with social media andYouTube world and content creators
and influencers and all thatstuff, it's much easier to just whip
out a short for a reel just toget some interest.
Kind of back to your earlierpoint, don't you think?
You know, I agree.
And like, people who are funnyand are comedians, I think they put
(12:42):
up things that they're showingtheir talent level, right?
And I think there's.
You're trying to build a base,you're trying to build an audience,
and I definitely think there'san avenue through that.
And I think it's.
One of the great things aboutthe Internet is it's kind of Democratized
things.
But it's also one of thefallbacks of the Internet, is that
there's so much out there now.
So how do you cut through the noise?
And that's true with the book too.
(13:02):
It's like there's a millionself published books out there now.
And you know, a lot of themnow with AI, people are putting out
this garbage that's not evenreal and you have to cut through
the noise and try to get infront of people and so they see your,
your talent level and your,your work at the end of the day too.
So that could be a challengeas well.
Do you, is it public knowledgehow much what still remains cost
(13:26):
you to make?
Yeah, it cost us about half amillion dollars.
Five hundred.
Yeah.
Okay, good.
All right.
I don't think I've ever, Idon't think I've ever shared this,
but my film Chasing Grace,which is a faith based or softly
safe faith based film I didfor 220 and about 160 of that was
(13:50):
real because I spent way toomuch money and crafty and making
sure everybody, that's every movie.
We gotta feed people, makesure everybody had nice fancy coffees
during their lunch break andfoot massages and stuff like that.
Anyway, those are the thingsyou think about.
I don't know about footmassages, but you got to feed people,
you got to take care of people.
Yeah.
You know, the crew that'sworking for you can't like, you can't
(14:11):
be sleeping in vans.
I mean, you gotta like putpeople up and do it the right way.
Yeah, no, no, I was kiddingabout the foot massager.
But if you, if you feed peopleproperly, keep them hydrated and
have an atmosphere of fun evento the best of your ability.
Because I'm sure you pulled12, 14 hour days minimum, right?
(14:34):
Mm.
Again, we were shooting six toeight pages a day, which for people
who don't know a page is abouta minute in a movie.
And you know, so yeah, 90, 90,90 page script.
You're doing it in like 15, 16 days.
You're shooting at least six,six pages a day and that's a lot.
And you're trying to get asmany setups as you can because really
(14:54):
you want to have shot diversity.
You just don't want to have abunch of people talking over their
shoulders, otherwise itbecomes boring.
So I mean it's a challenge ofpushing people and getting through
people and obviously peopleget tired and they, their nerves
get frayed and there's somehigh emotions when you make movies
too and again, not abusingpeople and meeting those 12 hour
(15:16):
days because that's, that'syour, that's your limit.
Those are the working laws andgiving people lunches and breaks.
So if you go overtime, you gotto pay them.
So I mean, we did like a realmovie with SAG and you know, so there
was no, oh, we're just goingto stay and keep shooting.
I mean, we had to meet ourdays and you had to move on.
Yeah.
Another note to want to befilmmakers do not make set changes,
(15:44):
location changes, multiplechanges in a day, because you're
going to screw yourself.
Note to self.
Well, what still remains?
I mean, we didn't really say.
I mean it's a post apocalyptic drama.
So it follows a young girlcoming of age after the world has
been destroyed a long time ago.
So it's sort of like if azombie apocalypse happened and now
(16:06):
we're 30 years after it, it'sover, we're following the people
who survived it.
And really for me it was agenre mashup.
So it's really more of acoming of age family melodrama that
I hid within these thriller clothing.
But the reason I set the movielike that is I was able to go out
in the woods and you know, youturn 90 degrees in the woods and
(16:26):
walk 50ft and now you have anew location and you can literally
shoot scenes at night and notturn the camera and just move actors
around and people can't tellthat you're shooting the same direction.
So I mean those are likefilmmaker tricks to make your days
where it's, we're not havingto move all the lights because that's
the other thing you don'tthink about.
(16:46):
If you, if you turn the cameraaround, you have to turn all the
lights too.
So I mean, that takes time.
You know, I could sit here andgeek out with you for an hour, but
I don't have the time.
But I do, I really appreciateand respect what you've created because
it's not an easy feat.
And I know that was.
Yeah, and that was seven years ago.
So my question is, and thiswas one point I wanted to make sure.
(17:09):
First of all, I want to saythe film looks like $2 million.
I mean, you really, you reallynailed it.
I want to make sure that I getto dust or reigns, but I do want
to finish this one thing.
And that is, you know, you,you, you created what still remains
from a script, right?
(17:29):
Correct?
Yeah, that's right.
Meaning.
Right, meaning it didn't comefrom a book.
Now we all Know, one of the.
One of the best things I loveabout indie filmmaking is and.
And tell me how you feel aboutthis, because I'm.
When.
When I was sitting down withmy team back in 2013, I said, look,
and we're all like, what do we make?
I'm like, well, the absoluteeasiest thing, the thing that you're
(17:53):
probably most likely going tobe able to sell is either horror
or some kind of apocalypticbs, right?
For sure.
It's cheap, it's easy, it'sfast, everybody likes it.
You get too much into drama,et cetera, it's going to get expensive.
I learned the wrong the hardway that that was the case.
So I want to know, will you.
(18:14):
Do you have intentions of.
Because this little dandyright here, Shadow of the Eternal
Watcher, would make afantastic film.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, obviously I'm.
I'm a filmmaker for a reason.
I'm a very visual person.
So when I wrote Shadow of theEternal Watcher, I mean, I'm still
that guy.
So I definitely wrote a lot ofset piece action sequences in that
(18:35):
book that could be great for a movie.
And, you know, you do movieslong enough.
I mean, there's plenty ofscripts that are sitting on shelves
that I thought were going toget made, and they didn't get made,
and I was going to make amovie, and all of a sudden Covid
happens, and it's like, oh,well, let's work on the script.
And we've got the money, andonce we figure out how we're going
to shoot with COVID then we'llmake this movie, and a year later
(18:56):
the money's gone, so you don'tmake that movie and all this time
is wasted.
So, I mean, one of the thingsabout the book was getting back to
my roots.
I originally went to school tobe an author.
That's why I always wanted tobe when I was a kid.
And I kind of got sidetrackedinto movies.
I always loved movies, too.
I was both.
I was the kid sitting in thescience fiction section of his bookstore,
reading all the books.
(19:16):
I'm like, I'm gonna be an author.
I got in the.
I went to Stanford University.
I took a film class there.
We were watching Sizz andKane, and it was like the first time
in a movie when I waswatching, I ever noticed a cut in
the movie.
It was a weird thing because Iwas a big cinephile too, but I just
was like, oh, they moved the camera.
I just noticed it.
And I was like, I could do that.
And I just went on thissidetrack, away from the authorship
(19:38):
and started chasing that dreamof being a filmmaker.
And actually, when we were inpost on what still remains, I had
an idea.
I had two ideas jumbled in my brain.
I was like, this will be thenext thing I write.
I had this big space opera,big science fiction thing, and I
had this like, kind of gritty,Louisiana Noire detective.
And then I was thinking aboutwriting them and I was like, well,
(20:00):
what if I mash them together?
And that would be a real coolchallenge of like, how do I do this
La Noire detective, but end upin this big space opera?
And because that's what I liketo do, I do genre mashups.
So I was like, well, that's fun.
So I start writing a scriptfor it and I'm like, well, you know,
this is going to be like $100million, $200 million movie.
And I just got done making ahalf million dollar movie.
(20:20):
I don't know if I'm jumping upthat quickly, so this is probably
going to sit on someone's shelf.
And I said, well, why don't Iget back to my roots, try to write
the book and maybe it becomesa movie one day and maybe that's
the way to that bigger budget too.
But I tried to just write avery elevated high level thriller
novel that could stand aloneas a book as well.
(20:43):
Well, mission accomplished, asI like to say.
And this is, this is that book.
And a mashup indeed.
Folks, you need to pick thisup and read it now.
I do want to.
Let's not miss out on dust or Rains.
And I want to say this.
I tend to do this sometimes.
Josh.
I will pick up a book I don'tread sometimes.
I don't read the back blurb.
(21:03):
I.
I just want to dive in.
I read a little bit.
I'm like, okay, Duster Rainshas Damon Some visit him in his dreams.
Combat PI.
And then I stop.
Yeah.
And I'm like, okay, nowsurprise me.
So I open the book, I startreading in the prologue and I'm.
And I'm really, I'm literallygoing, what the.
(21:23):
What, what, what?
And I'm, I'm turning the pagesand I'm.
Okay, first council.
All right.
And I'm like.
And I'm about ready to go.
Wait, I didn't think.
And then chapter one, I'mlike, no, okay, okay, now, now, now
I know what's going on.
I'm in for the ride.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So tell us about, tell usabout Duster Reigns.
(21:43):
Yeah.
So, I mean, originally thebook started with chapter one.
That was always where Istarted was Duster Reigns down as
luck detective driving thestreets of Los Angeles when he shouldn't
be because he's had a few toomany on his way to a case he doesn't
want to take.
And he's just this broken.
Just the classic la Noiredetective story.
And I wanted to want to set upthe stereotype and then try to break
(22:05):
expectations and like breakwhat people are used to.
And I tried to do the samething with the sci fi is like, what
are people used to seeing?
Multiversal stories.
How people are used to thisnow, obviously, with the.
With Spider man and there's 50million versions.
So in my book, I took adifferent tack.
And there's only really twouniverses where humanity still exists.
(22:26):
And I thought would be fun forthe detective.
Part of his mystery is, well,he's got this murder mystery solving,
but he's also solving themystery that he's actually in a sci
fi book too.
So the prologue, though, is toset the reader up, because I know
that if I just wrote thedetective part and then like halfway
through it was a sci fi, I'dprobably lose a lot of people.
So I wanted to make surepeople knew, hey, this is gonna be
(22:48):
a science fiction book.
So here's some heavy sci firight at the beginning.
And then we get into the firstperson narrative.
That's the.
The gritty detective, like somany Dashiell Hammond, that kind
of vibe.
Yeah, Yeah.
I felt instantly at home onceI, you know, when he had been pulled
over from the cop and he'scompletely plowed, and I'm like,
okay, we see where this isgoing, but do you.
(23:11):
I have to ask this.
I mean, it's kind of logical.
Do you think Duster's going tohang out for a series?
I mean, you've.
You've built the universe, so.
Yeah.
Well, I've actually got asecond book I'm working on.
I left it open ended.
I think the book stands on itsown as it is.
But I left it open for me todo another one, and I am writing
another one.
(23:32):
And I'm also writing.
You talked about how booksbecome movies.
I'm actually doing the opposite.
I have this screenplay, wasactually a short film I did that,
did really well, played somefilm festivals, became a screenplay,
won me some awards, got mesome meetings, and I'm like, you
know, that would be a greatstandalone thriller book.
It's basically Jaws meetsDeliverance with a bear.
(23:54):
Set in Alaska.
It's just a lot of fun.
It's a lot of magical realism.
So I'm actually taking thatscript and reverse engineering it
into a novel.
That's been fun.
That's a different kind ofchallenge because you have obviously
an outline template with ascript, but a script is so different
than a book.
So it's fun to kind of befleshing the story out too.
Okay.
Two quick things.
Yeah.
Jaws meets Deliverance.
(24:16):
Deliverance with a bear.
It's a.
Not shark, it's a bear.
But yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
The image that instantly hitmy head was Cocaine Bear.
Have you ever seen that film?
Yeah, I have seen that.
Mine's a little more seriousthan Cocaine Bear.
That was probably one of themost ridiculous films I've ever seen.
(24:38):
But.
But it was fun.
And here's the thing.
It got made.
All right.
Yeah, that's right.
But yeah, we'll see more ofDuster Reigns too.
I'll have that draft probablydone by the end of this year.
Do you think you will alwaysdance in the sci fi mashup world?
(25:01):
You know, I mean, like, I lovesci fi.
Like I said, I was the kidreading Dune.
I was the kid who read everyStar Wars Expanded Universe book
back when we didn't have 9million Disney Plus TV shows.
All I have are the VHS tapesthat I ran the tape out on, watching
them every day and readingthose books.
But I love sci fi.
But, you know, I write a lotof different stuff.
(25:22):
I just like.
I have a great script that'sbasically a modern western set in
Arizona where I grew up.
So, I mean, I play with allthe genres.
I just like.
I like genre.
So I would say there's usuallyan element of magical realism or
the out there in my books.
I mean, I love.
I love Twilight Zone.
I love that kind of vibe too.
(25:43):
So I definitely skirt all the.
Skirt all of that with my work.
And you know what?
I think mashups, to borrowthat phrase from you, I think mashups
in that whole world is areally splendid way.
Sandbox to play in.
Because we've.
We have so much content.
Captain Obvious, so muchcontent these days coming at us from
(26:07):
every single direction that itbegs the audience to go, can I have
something just a little bit new?
So we're.
You know, in my mind, I'malways trying to find some.
How can I look at this at anew angle?
Kind of like you said with thetricks of filmmakers.
How can I.
How can I make this scene happen?
(26:27):
I don't have a Chapman to Rollacross the thing.
I don't have a.
A super dolly to go sky high overhead.
I.
But I do have a, you know, aneight foot two by four.
Okay.
Make it happen.
Well, like in my movie, justreal quick.
I mean, we had a jib and Ireally wanted a crane shot.
There's this scene with that,right in the movie where we light
a bunch of things on fire.
(26:48):
We're gonna light more thingson fire.
Actually, in.
The forest service told us wecouldn't because the forest burned
down the year before.
So you gotta also have yourpermits and follow the rules.
But we basically just put thejib on a dolly and then did like
a.
We did a crane move by pushingaway and lifting this dolly up on
the hill.
And it looks like we had acrane on the day.
It looks really good.
(27:08):
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Like I said, I could spend hours.
Matter of fact, what I may do,especially if you swing around and
do it, do another film, you'llcome back and we'll sit down and
carve out a whole hour to justgeek out on this stuff.
But I won't throw my back outnext time.
Yeah, please don't do that.
(27:29):
I'm glad we got together.
I do want to say, I alwaysclose every show.
I don't.
I'm not going to, you know,I'm not going to embarrass myself
by asking if you have seen theThriller Zone.
But I finish every show withthe question, what's your best writing
advice?
Now?
Now that I know you have a BAin English from Stanford, and I must
have glossed over thatsomewhere because I was so geeked
(27:49):
out by the film aspect of your career.
I'm going to say, I know youhave some solid writing advice since
you've been tinkering withthis for so long.
So leave us with your best shot.
You know, I mean, for me, it'sshowing up and doing it right.
And I always tell people whowant to be writers, I think that
was something I wish I'd knownwhen I was younger.
(28:09):
It's like, you know, you lookat a book, right, and you're like,
how am I going to write100,000 words?
How am I going to write 80,000 words?
I mean, 80,000 words is a 300page book for people who don't know.
But I just look at like, well,can I show up and write 500 words
today?
And if you show up three timesa week, four times a week, write
500 words a day, that's 2,000 words.
You'd have a book in 40 weeks,that's less than a year.
(28:32):
Right.
So, I mean, I try to writemore than that, but I think that's
an achievable goal for people.
And then you gotta go back andfix it.
Because I think sometimespeople too think, oh, I wrote this.
This is it.
It's great.
And writing is rewriting.
You rewrite, you rewrite, you rewrite.
But I think just movingforward, getting to the finish line,
having a finished product,it's so much easier to go back and
(28:54):
look at something that's onthe page and find.
Fix it than it is to stare ata blank screen and be like, oh, my
God, how is this going to be a book?
So this 500 words or less,maybe it's 200 words, but set a goal
that you know you can achieveand do it consistently every week,
and you'll end up withsomething that's finished by the
end.
(29:14):
That is such good advice.
And I'm flashing back to BradThor was on the show recently, and
he taught.
He had a very similar piece of advice.
Robert De Goni.
Bob De Goni says a similar thing.
So, yeah, if you.
And my dad used to say.
My wife loves his saying, ifyou aim at nothing, you'll hit it
every time.
Yeah.
So aim for something.
(29:36):
Put in the time and little orsmall, you'll get there eventually
In.
In.
In correspondence to yourlevel of passion.
Exactly.
Once again, I love this title,Shadow of the Eternal Watcher.
It's one of those titles that.
And.
And I don't usually GE titlesvery often.
I usually geek out on bookcovers, but this one particularly.
(29:59):
I don't know, it's just.
It's.
It's so good.
Thank you so much, Dave.
Yeah.
And Josh, thank you again.
I'm glad.
I hope you feel better.
Hope the back heals up.
I know.
Well, thanks for being understanding.
Yeah, it's.
I work out a lot, and ofcourse, I did it.
I must be getting older.
I went to pick something upthat weighs nothing.
I've done a thousand times.
It's like, oh, and now I can'tstand up today.
(30:21):
Well, all right.
Father Time comes for us all, and.
There'S no stopping it.
There's not.
All right, well, once again,thank you.
And folks, learnmore@joshmendoza.com the book again,
Shadow of the Eternal Watcher.
Thanks again, Josh.
Thanks, Dave.
I enjoyed it.
Bam.
How good was that?
Josh is a good dude.
(30:42):
A little technical snafu thereon the visuals, but who cares?
Folks, let me tell you whatwe've Got for you as we kick off
the month of June.
All right, now, you know thatwe're this close.
We're this close to season nine.
Number nine.
Number nine.
Can you believe this?
(31:02):
Season nine.
Season nine will be four yearsmid June.
We're celebrating our fourth year.
Now, that may not sound like areally big deal to you, but let me
tell you something.
It takes a little tenacity tomake these things.
So who do we have to kick offthe month of June?
Only one of the biggestpublishers in the entire world, Emily
(31:27):
Bessler of Emily Bessler Books.
Yeah, she does some work withsome of the big publishing houses
in the world.
I think you know what I'mtalking about.
How he pulled this off, Idon't know.
But she's lovely, brilliant, savvy.
And I thought it would be coolto speak with one of the leaders
(31:50):
of the publishing business tosit down and talk about the business
of publishing.
We have a lot of writers whoare talking about the creative world,
you know, the creative side ofcrafting stories.
But how about the businessthese days?
As you very well know, it'sprobably 50, 50.
Remember the days when we'dlike, oh, talk to my agent.
(32:12):
I'm off writing a book.
I'll see you in a year, yearand a half, two years.
They do.
Everything else those days aregone, folks.
Gone.
Now the onus is on you.
You gotta write the book, yougotta help market it.
And Emily Bessler, man, I'm so excited.
Is gonna be on this showtalking about that very thing.
So do me a favor, be sure toput that on your calendar.
(32:36):
What day was that that's gonna be?
Oh, I don't know.
Let me see.
Thursday.
You know, it's a Thursday.
Thriller Thursday.
Oh, that would be June 5th.
That's right.
5:00am Eastern, 2:00amPacific, right here on the Thriller
Zone.
I'm Dave Temple, your host,and I'll see you then for another
edition of the Thriller Zone,your number one podcast for stories
(33:01):
that thrill the Thriller Zone.
Hello and welcome to theThriller Zone.
I'm your host, David Temple.
On today's show, Josh Mendozahas a book called Shadow of the Eternal
Watcher.
Folks, let me tell you something.
Great title, good book cover.
You're halfway there.
It happens to be a thrilling read.
Josh is a debut author.
We don't do this often, but Iran across Josh through some PR folks,
(01:39):
and because he's an indiefilmmaker, I said, we gotta talk.
So without any further ado,let's get into the Thriller Zone
with debut author and indiefilmmaker Josh Mendoza.
Well, thanks for having me, Dave.
Excited to be here, dude.
I have been talking to your PRpeople for.
Let me see, this is May.
I think we started.
(01:59):
I could look it up.
I bet it was March, February.
March.
They started talking to me.
This book dropped.
I want to re.
I want to say January.
February.
Ish.
Yeah, it was like January 28th.
It dropped.
Yeah.
Okay.
So while you might think,geez, Dave, you're late to the party,
(02:20):
that's not actually the case.
We had a couple of heavyhitters ahead of you.
James Patterson.
Not to drop names.
And I guess I'll let James go first.
That's fine.
But here's the reason Isnagged you.
And we.
We have been tapping thebrakes on debut authors because.
A hundred different reasons,but I take one every once in a while,
(02:42):
and you're one of those.
And what got me.
What.
What caught my eye was thefact that you're an indie filmmaker.
And we're going to find outhere, for those who have not noticed
before, I'm also a indie filmmaker.
So when I saw this, I'm like,oh, I got to talk to this guy.
So.
I'm so glad you carved out the time.
Well, I appreciate you being here.
That's my.
That's my journey to get here too.
So be.
(03:02):
It'll be fun to talk about it.
Well, folks, the book isShadow of the Eternal Watcher.
Now, I'm going to stop right there.
Say, A, cover.
C, smashing.
B, love the title.
So just let that bask in thatfor a second.
It's exciting to have it out there.
You know, the book.
The nice thing about bookversus movies.
(03:22):
The book, something tactile.
You know, movies so much havegone to streaming now.
There's still DVDs, but less.
Less and less every year thatgoes by.
So it's.
It's fun that, like, you heldit up and showed it to everyone.
That's, I think, one of thecoolest things about a book.
Yeah, it exists.
It's a thing.
It is.
You know what?
I remember my very first book,which was maybe 2003, and I remember
(03:46):
getting it in the mail andopening that box going, there is
nothing in the wide world ofsports like it.
When you open it up and yougo, it's on paper, right?
It's got ink.
It's that artwork that Islaved over or had hired somebody
to do.
It's.
It's all frickin real.
Yeah.
For folks who want to know,well, Dave, you said he's an indie
(04:06):
filmmaker.
What's the film he did?
What Still Remains now, if I'mcorrect, I watched it last night.
2018, right?
Yeah, it came out 2018.
So it's been a few years now.
And yeah, you know, I went toUSC film school, got out, had a bunch
of scripts I was pitchingaround and, you know, ran into a
(04:27):
lot of obstacles becausemovies are expensive.
So I actually started workingon what Still Remains is something.
I had some backers that wantedto back a movie, but just not in
the budget range we werelooking for and tried to create something
that we could fit into thatsub million dollar area, which is
a lot of money, but not a lotof money when you make a movie.
So we were able to punch aboveour weight class with that movie
(04:47):
though, with a lot of USCtalent coming on, working with us
and just bringing something tolife that was on the page.
And that's the cool thingabout movie.
A book, you obviously haveeditors and you get a lot of input,
but you know, movie, you can'tdo it by yourself.
There's no wait.
And you just have to knowenough about everything to tell people
(05:08):
what you want them to do andthen hopefully they're better at
it than you and they go do itfor you.
And Westover Mans is a perfectexample of that.
I have great cinematography,great production design just all
around and great talent, greatactors bringing it all to life.
So it was a great experienceand I'm working on getting number
two made.
All right, well, here's whyI'm torn, Josh.
(05:30):
I need you to help me decidewhat to do.
I am so friggin torn because Iwant to give Shadow its due, but
I really want to geek out onBook to Screen because that's really
what I'm going to name thistitle of this show.
It's.
It's kind of my heartbeat, howI live and I breathe.
(05:50):
I dream of every book that I write.
I want to see it on the screen.
So tell me, would you like togo ahead and deep Dive on shadow
first and then us geek out onthe film.
Or vice versa.
What's, what's.
Let's geek out on film.
That's good.
We can talk about the movie atthe book at the end.
Yeah, but.
All right, you brought up a.
You brought up a really goodpoint for folk.
(06:11):
And I want to treat this likea little master class because I have
a lot of friends, a lot oflisteners from all over the world
who listen to the show, andthey're first and foremost thriller
fans.
Secondly, most of them, a lotof them are authors, up and coming
authors, debut authors,seasoned authors, wannabe authors,
(06:31):
and then there's a little tinythird group that wannabe filmmakers
or they wanna see those booksadapted to screen.
So you made a point, Dave.
It's hard to do that.
I agree.
And if I may borrow a littlebit of my story, very first book
I wrote, 2003, I think it was,I really wanted to do a film.
(06:56):
I'm like, God darn it, I gotenough film friends, enough tech
friends to make this happen.
What's the missing piece?
Everyone sitting around thetable goes, well, we need some money.
Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.
So how do we get money?
Somebody's got to go raise it.
Yeah.
So I started banging on doors.
I raised the money.
(07:16):
I wrote the book already, so Iadapted it to screenplay, raised
the money, hired the crew,shot it, directed it, helped the
edit, starred in it, and gotit on Netflix.
And then it's now on Amazon Prime.
So.
But let me tell you something.
As you very well know, thattook 13, 14, 15, almost three years
(07:42):
to do.
I lost about 30 pounds, myhair went gray, I lost a few friends,
But I made the movie.
So that's my story.
I want to hear how you did it.
You said sub million.
Now, we all know that youraverage movie, indie, probably going
(08:03):
to start in that 750 to 1.2 ish.
Right?
If you're doing it for lessthan 1, 2, people are going to look
at you like, oh, you're not serious.
So.
Well, I think the key is thatyou have to make it look like you
spent more than 1.2.
And I think we accomplished that.
And what still remains, Imean, I go into meetings with professionals
and they, they think, I spent,we spent two and a half to $5 million
(08:25):
on that movie.
So, I mean, you have 5 millionand it doesn't look good.
You can't be like, but itcosts $5 million.
At the end of the day, allthat matters is what goes on the
screen and what people See,it's the same with your.
You can't tell people, oh,well, the actor was sick that day
and the performance was asgood or it rained.
So we didn't get to do thiscool thing.
No one cares.
(08:45):
They only care what's on thescreen and what they get to see.
And that's the bottom line.
So you just have to put yourbest foot forward and you have to
figure out ways to be creativeto make it look better than it does
then.
Then you have the money to do right.
And a lot of famous filmmakershave created shots and done a lot
of things with no moneybecause they had to, not because
(09:05):
they thought, oh, I'm going tocome up with a cool new way to chase
someone in a horror movie byputting a camera on the end of a
two by four.
They did that because they hadno money to put it on anything else.
And now that's like a thingpeople do, right?
So it's just.
That's some of the fun offilmmaking is the creativity and
when things go wrong, how doyou make it better?
But it's also the stress of it too.
(09:26):
Right.
I personally, and I'veprobably always been this way.
Do I like the big movies?
Sure.
My wife and I went to see aMission Impossible Final Reckoning
this weekend.
I'll reserve my comments ifyou give no spoilers yet.
I haven't seen it.
Yeah, it is exactly what youexpect for a.
(09:46):
What is it?
Was it 200 mil?
It was 200 million to makethat thing?
Yeah.
And that's great.
That's well and good.
Of course, we all love the bigtent poles, but I'm an indie fan,
hardcore through and through.
I love the, the, you know, I'mcheering for the underdog.
The guys like you who say, oh,I've got $50,000, but I definitely
(10:09):
need at least 300,000.
We'll use that as a round number.
And then you just figure out away to raise it because when you
want to do it, you figure itthe hell out.
And at the end of the day too,I mean, I don't want people to listen
to this and say, oh, I got toraise $750,000.
Because Dave said that's the number.
750 to 1.2.
I mean, I have buddies whocame out of film school and made
movies for 30 grand andthey're great and I know people have
(10:31):
made movies for more andthey're terrible.
So like, you really, you gottamake something though.
I think that's the thing.
It's same with Writing.
Like, if you're gonna say, I'man author, I'm a writer, you have
to write.
You have to get things out there.
And if you want to be afilmmaker, you have to make movies.
And it does become a challengewith the money.
But I think if you're juststarting out, there's nothing wrong
(10:52):
with grabbing an iPhone andgrabbing your buddies and trying
to make something and learnfrom that and then say, okay, and
maybe start with a short form.
Make something that's 10minutes long.
Can I make something thatwould get me into usc, Right?
Yeah.
And watch it and get somehonest feedback from people.
Don't just let your familytell you how great it is.
Maybe try to learn from thatexperience and then get better.
(11:12):
I mean, when I went to filmschool, you know, you make lots of
these little shorts, and theyall tend to get better.
And, you know, you don'treally want to watch any of them
afterwards because they're allstudent films at the end of the day,
but they.
They lead you somewhere.
And every now and then, like,a Ryan Coogler comes along and makes
a famous student film that's.
I think it's on HBO right nowor somewhere.
(11:32):
But, you know, it's just.
It's all a growth process anda learning process, too.
Dude, when I was banging onthe doors back in the day, this was
2012, 2013, this was somewherearound the time of Blair Witch Project.
And everyone goes, oh, my God,look what?
They made that for like $70,000.
(11:54):
And it made, you know, 500 billion.
Not real numbers.
And we all thought, oh, okay.
And then Robert Rodriguez, Iremember following him in the early
days, El Mariachi and allthose, and I'm like, man, I want
to be a part of that crew.
What people don't understandis that in that time when you and
I were doing this, not thatlong ago, the rules were a little
(12:18):
bit different.
Now with social media andYouTube world and content creators
and influencers and all thatstuff, it's much easier to just whip
out a short for a reel just toget some interest.
Kind of back to your earlierpoint, don't you think?
You know, I agree.
And like, people who are funnyand are comedians, I think they put
(12:42):
up things that they're showingtheir talent level, right?
And I think there's.
You're trying to build a base,you're trying to build an audience,
and I definitely think there'san avenue through that.
And I think it's.
One of the great things aboutthe Internet is it's kind of Democratized
things.
But it's also one of thefallbacks of the Internet, is that
there's so much out there now.
So how do you cut through the noise?
And that's true with the book too.
(13:02):
It's like there's a millionself published books out there now.
And you know, a lot of themnow with AI, people are putting out
this garbage that's not evenreal and you have to cut through
the noise and try to get infront of people and so they see your,
your talent level and your,your work at the end of the day too.
So that could be a challengeas well.
Do you, is it public knowledgehow much what still remains cost
(13:26):
you to make?
Yeah, it cost us about half amillion dollars.
Five hundred.
Yeah.
Okay, good.
All right.
I don't think I've ever, Idon't think I've ever shared this,
but my film Chasing Grace,which is a faith based or softly
safe faith based film I didfor 220 and about 160 of that was
(13:50):
real because I spent way toomuch money and crafty and making
sure everybody, that's every movie.
We gotta feed people, makesure everybody had nice fancy coffees
during their lunch break andfoot massages and stuff like that.
Anyway, those are the thingsyou think about.
I don't know about footmassages, but you got to feed people,
you got to take care of people.
Yeah.
You know, the crew that'sworking for you can't like, you can't
(14:11):
be sleeping in vans.
I mean, you gotta like putpeople up and do it the right way.
Yeah, no, no, I was kiddingabout the foot massager.
But if you, if you feed peopleproperly, keep them hydrated and
have an atmosphere of fun evento the best of your ability.
Because I'm sure you pulled12, 14 hour days minimum, right?
(14:34):
Mm.
Again, we were shooting six toeight pages a day, which for people
who don't know a page is abouta minute in a movie.
And you know, so yeah, 90, 90,90 page script.
You're doing it in like 15, 16 days.
You're shooting at least six,six pages a day and that's a lot.
And you're trying to get asmany setups as you can because really
(14:54):
you want to have shot diversity.
You just don't want to have abunch of people talking over their
shoulders, otherwise itbecomes boring.
So I mean it's a challenge ofpushing people and getting through
people and obviously peopleget tired and they, their nerves
get frayed and there's somehigh emotions when you make movies
too and again, not abusingpeople and meeting those 12 hour
(15:16):
days because that's, that'syour, that's your limit.
Those are the working laws andgiving people lunches and breaks.
So if you go overtime, you gotto pay them.
So I mean, we did like a realmovie with SAG and you know, so there
was no, oh, we're just goingto stay and keep shooting.
I mean, we had to meet ourdays and you had to move on.
Yeah.
Another note to want to befilmmakers do not make set changes,
(15:44):
location changes, multiplechanges in a day, because you're
going to screw yourself.
Note to self.
Well, what still remains?
I mean, we didn't really say.
I mean it's a post apocalyptic drama.
So it follows a young girlcoming of age after the world has
been destroyed a long time ago.
So it's sort of like if azombie apocalypse happened and now
(16:06):
we're 30 years after it, it'sover, we're following the people
who survived it.
And really for me it was agenre mashup.
So it's really more of acoming of age family melodrama that
I hid within these thriller clothing.
But the reason I set the movielike that is I was able to go out
in the woods and you know, youturn 90 degrees in the woods and
(16:26):
walk 50ft and now you have anew location and you can literally
shoot scenes at night and notturn the camera and just move actors
around and people can't tellthat you're shooting the same direction.
So I mean those are likefilmmaker tricks to make your days
where it's, we're not havingto move all the lights because that's
the other thing you don'tthink about.
(16:46):
If you, if you turn the cameraaround, you have to turn all the
lights too.
So I mean, that takes time.
You know, I could sit here andgeek out with you for an hour, but
I don't have the time.
But I do, I really appreciateand respect what you've created because
it's not an easy feat.
And I know that was.
Yeah, and that was seven years ago.
So my question is, and thiswas one point I wanted to make sure.
(17:09):
First of all, I want to saythe film looks like $2 million.
I mean, you really, you reallynailed it.
I want to make sure that I getto dust or reigns, but I do want
to finish this one thing.
And that is, you know, you,you, you created what still remains
from a script, right?
(17:29):
Correct?
Yeah, that's right.
Meaning.
Right, meaning it didn't comefrom a book.
Now we all Know, one of the.
One of the best things I loveabout indie filmmaking is and.
And tell me how you feel aboutthis, because I'm.
When.
When I was sitting down withmy team back in 2013, I said, look,
and we're all like, what do we make?
I'm like, well, the absoluteeasiest thing, the thing that you're
(17:53):
probably most likely going tobe able to sell is either horror
or some kind of apocalypticbs, right?
For sure.
It's cheap, it's easy, it'sfast, everybody likes it.
You get too much into drama,et cetera, it's going to get expensive.
I learned the wrong the hardway that that was the case.
So I want to know, will you.
(18:14):
Do you have intentions of.
Because this little dandyright here, Shadow of the Eternal
Watcher, would make afantastic film.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, obviously I'm.
I'm a filmmaker for a reason.
I'm a very visual person.
So when I wrote Shadow of theEternal Watcher, I mean, I'm still
that guy.
So I definitely wrote a lot ofset piece action sequences in that
(18:35):
book that could be great for a movie.
And, you know, you do movieslong enough.
I mean, there's plenty ofscripts that are sitting on shelves
that I thought were going toget made, and they didn't get made,
and I was going to make amovie, and all of a sudden Covid
happens, and it's like, oh,well, let's work on the script.
And we've got the money, andonce we figure out how we're going
to shoot with COVID then we'llmake this movie, and a year later
(18:56):
the money's gone, so you don'tmake that movie and all this time
is wasted.
So, I mean, one of the thingsabout the book was getting back to
my roots.
I originally went to school tobe an author.
That's why I always wanted tobe when I was a kid.
And I kind of got sidetrackedinto movies.
I always loved movies, too.
I was both.
I was the kid sitting in thescience fiction section of his bookstore,
reading all the books.
(19:16):
I'm like, I'm gonna be an author.
I got in the.
I went to Stanford University.
I took a film class there.
We were watching Sizz andKane, and it was like the first time
in a movie when I waswatching, I ever noticed a cut in
the movie.
It was a weird thing because Iwas a big cinephile too, but I just
was like, oh, they moved the camera.
I just noticed it.
And I was like, I could do that.
And I just went on thissidetrack, away from the authorship
(19:38):
and started chasing that dreamof being a filmmaker.
And actually, when we were inpost on what still remains, I had
an idea.
I had two ideas jumbled in my brain.
I was like, this will be thenext thing I write.
I had this big space opera,big science fiction thing, and I
had this like, kind of gritty,Louisiana Noire detective.
And then I was thinking aboutwriting them and I was like, well,
(20:00):
what if I mash them together?
And that would be a real coolchallenge of like, how do I do this
La Noire detective, but end upin this big space opera?
And because that's what I liketo do, I do genre mashups.
So I was like, well, that's fun.
So I start writing a scriptfor it and I'm like, well, you know,
this is going to be like $100million, $200 million movie.
And I just got done making ahalf million dollar movie.
(20:20):
I don't know if I'm jumping upthat quickly, so this is probably
going to sit on someone's shelf.
And I said, well, why don't Iget back to my roots, try to write
the book and maybe it becomesa movie one day and maybe that's
the way to that bigger budget too.
But I tried to just write avery elevated high level thriller
novel that could stand aloneas a book as well.
(20:43):
Well, mission accomplished, asI like to say.
And this is, this is that book.
And a mashup indeed.
Folks, you need to pick thisup and read it now.
I do want to.
Let's not miss out on dust or Rains.
And I want to say this.
I tend to do this sometimes.
Josh.
I will pick up a book I don'tread sometimes.
I don't read the back blurb.
(21:03):
I.
I just want to dive in.
I read a little bit.
I'm like, okay, Duster Rainshas Damon Some visit him in his dreams.
Combat PI.
And then I stop.
Yeah.
And I'm like, okay, nowsurprise me.
So I open the book, I startreading in the prologue and I'm.
And I'm really, I'm literallygoing, what the.
(21:23):
What, what, what?
And I'm, I'm turning the pagesand I'm.
Okay, first council.
All right.
And I'm like.
And I'm about ready to go.
Wait, I didn't think.
And then chapter one, I'mlike, no, okay, okay, now, now, now
I know what's going on.
I'm in for the ride.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So tell us about, tell usabout Duster Reigns.
(21:43):
Yeah.
So, I mean, originally thebook started with chapter one.
That was always where Istarted was Duster Reigns down as
luck detective driving thestreets of Los Angeles when he shouldn't
be because he's had a few toomany on his way to a case he doesn't
want to take.
And he's just this broken.
Just the classic la Noiredetective story.
And I wanted to want to set upthe stereotype and then try to break
(22:05):
expectations and like breakwhat people are used to.
And I tried to do the samething with the sci fi is like, what
are people used to seeing?
Multiversal stories.
How people are used to thisnow, obviously, with the.
With Spider man and there's 50million versions.
So in my book, I took adifferent tack.
And there's only really twouniverses where humanity still exists.
(22:26):
And I thought would be fun forthe detective.
Part of his mystery is, well,he's got this murder mystery solving,
but he's also solving themystery that he's actually in a sci
fi book too.
So the prologue, though, is toset the reader up, because I know
that if I just wrote thedetective part and then like halfway
through it was a sci fi, I'dprobably lose a lot of people.
So I wanted to make surepeople knew, hey, this is gonna be
(22:48):
a science fiction book.
So here's some heavy sci firight at the beginning.
And then we get into the firstperson narrative.
That's the.
The gritty detective, like somany Dashiell Hammond, that kind
of vibe.
Yeah, Yeah.
I felt instantly at home onceI, you know, when he had been pulled
over from the cop and he'scompletely plowed, and I'm like,
okay, we see where this isgoing, but do you.
(23:11):
I have to ask this.
I mean, it's kind of logical.
Do you think Duster's going tohang out for a series?
I mean, you've.
You've built the universe, so.
Yeah.
Well, I've actually got asecond book I'm working on.
I left it open ended.
I think the book stands on itsown as it is.
But I left it open for me todo another one, and I am writing
another one.
(23:32):
And I'm also writing.
You talked about how booksbecome movies.
I'm actually doing the opposite.
I have this screenplay, wasactually a short film I did that,
did really well, played somefilm festivals, became a screenplay,
won me some awards, got mesome meetings, and I'm like, you
know, that would be a greatstandalone thriller book.
It's basically Jaws meetsDeliverance with a bear.
(23:54):
Set in Alaska.
It's just a lot of fun.
It's a lot of magical realism.
So I'm actually taking thatscript and reverse engineering it
into a novel.
That's been fun.
That's a different kind ofchallenge because you have obviously
an outline template with ascript, but a script is so different
than a book.
So it's fun to kind of befleshing the story out too.
Okay.
Two quick things.
Yeah.
Jaws meets Deliverance.
(24:16):
Deliverance with a bear.
It's a.
Not shark, it's a bear.
But yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
The image that instantly hitmy head was Cocaine Bear.
Have you ever seen that film?
Yeah, I have seen that.
Mine's a little more seriousthan Cocaine Bear.
That was probably one of themost ridiculous films I've ever seen.
(24:38):
But.
But it was fun.
And here's the thing.
It got made.
All right.
Yeah, that's right.
But yeah, we'll see more ofDuster Reigns too.
I'll have that draft probablydone by the end of this year.
Do you think you will alwaysdance in the sci fi mashup world?
(25:01):
You know, I mean, like, I lovesci fi.
Like I said, I was the kidreading Dune.
I was the kid who read everyStar Wars Expanded Universe book
back when we didn't have 9million Disney Plus TV shows.
All I have are the VHS tapesthat I ran the tape out on, watching
them every day and readingthose books.
But I love sci fi.
But, you know, I write a lotof different stuff.
(25:22):
I just like.
I have a great script that'sbasically a modern western set in
Arizona where I grew up.
So, I mean, I play with allthe genres.
I just like.
I like genre.
So I would say there's usuallyan element of magical realism or
the out there in my books.
I mean, I love.
I love Twilight Zone.
I love that kind of vibe too.
(25:43):
So I definitely skirt all the.
Skirt all of that with my work.
And you know what?
I think mashups, to borrowthat phrase from you, I think mashups
in that whole world is areally splendid way.
Sandbox to play in.
Because we've.
We have so much content.
Captain Obvious, so muchcontent these days coming at us from
(26:07):
every single direction that itbegs the audience to go, can I have
something just a little bit new?
So we're.
You know, in my mind, I'malways trying to find some.
How can I look at this at anew angle?
Kind of like you said with thetricks of filmmakers.
How can I.
How can I make this scene happen?
(26:27):
I don't have a Chapman to Rollacross the thing.
I don't have a.
A super dolly to go sky high overhead.
I.
But I do have a, you know, aneight foot two by four.
Okay.
Make it happen.
Well, like in my movie, justreal quick.
I mean, we had a jib and Ireally wanted a crane shot.
There's this scene with that,right in the movie where we light
a bunch of things on fire.
(26:48):
We're gonna light more thingson fire.
Actually, in.
The forest service told us wecouldn't because the forest burned
down the year before.
So you gotta also have yourpermits and follow the rules.
But we basically just put thejib on a dolly and then did like
a.
We did a crane move by pushingaway and lifting this dolly up on
the hill.
And it looks like we had acrane on the day.
It looks really good.
(27:08):
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Like I said, I could spend hours.
Matter of fact, what I may do,especially if you swing around and
do it, do another film, you'llcome back and we'll sit down and
carve out a whole hour to justgeek out on this stuff.
But I won't throw my back outnext time.
Yeah, please don't do that.
(27:29):
I'm glad we got together.
I do want to say, I alwaysclose every show.
I don't.
I'm not going to, you know,I'm not going to embarrass myself
by asking if you have seen theThriller Zone.
But I finish every show withthe question, what's your best writing
advice?
Now?
Now that I know you have a BAin English from Stanford, and I must
have glossed over thatsomewhere because I was so geeked
(27:49):
out by the film aspect of your career.
I'm going to say, I know youhave some solid writing advice since
you've been tinkering withthis for so long.
So leave us with your best shot.
You know, I mean, for me, it'sshowing up and doing it right.
And I always tell people whowant to be writers, I think that
was something I wish I'd knownwhen I was younger.
(28:09):
It's like, you know, you lookat a book, right, and you're like,
how am I going to write100,000 words?
How am I going to write 80,000 words?
I mean, 80,000 words is a 300page book for people who don't know.
But I just look at like, well,can I show up and write 500 words
today?
And if you show up three timesa week, four times a week, write
500 words a day, that's 2,000 words.
You'd have a book in 40 weeks,that's less than a year.
(28:32):
Right.
So, I mean, I try to writemore than that, but I think that's
an achievable goal for people.
And then you gotta go back andfix it.
Because I think sometimespeople too think, oh, I wrote this.
This is it.
It's great.
And writing is rewriting.
You rewrite, you rewrite, you rewrite.
But I think just movingforward, getting to the finish line,
having a finished product,it's so much easier to go back and
(28:54):
look at something that's onthe page and find.
Fix it than it is to stare ata blank screen and be like, oh, my
God, how is this going to be a book?
So this 500 words or less,maybe it's 200 words, but set a goal
that you know you can achieveand do it consistently every week,
and you'll end up withsomething that's finished by the
end.
(29:14):
That is such good advice.
And I'm flashing back to BradThor was on the show recently, and
he taught.
He had a very similar piece of advice.
Robert De Goni.
Bob De Goni says a similar thing.
So, yeah, if you.
And my dad used to say.
My wife loves his saying, ifyou aim at nothing, you'll hit it
every time.
Yeah.
So aim for something.
(29:36):
Put in the time and little orsmall, you'll get there eventually
In.
In.
In correspondence to yourlevel of passion.
Exactly.
Once again, I love this title,Shadow of the Eternal Watcher.
It's one of those titles that.
And.
And I don't usually GE titlesvery often.
I usually geek out on bookcovers, but this one particularly.
(29:59):
I don't know, it's just.
It's.
It's so good.
Thank you so much, Dave.
Yeah.
And Josh, thank you again.
I'm glad.
I hope you feel better.
Hope the back heals up.
I know.
Well, thanks for being understanding.
Yeah, it's.
I work out a lot, and ofcourse, I did it.
I must be getting older.
I went to pick something upthat weighs nothing.
I've done a thousand times.
It's like, oh, and now I can'tstand up today.
(30:21):
Well, all right.
Father Time comes for us all, and.
There'S no stopping it.
There's not.
All right, well, once again,thank you.
And folks, learnmore@joshmendoza.com the book again,
Shadow of the Eternal Watcher.
Thanks again, Josh.
Thanks, Dave.
I enjoyed it.
Bam.
How good was that?
Josh is a good dude.
(30:42):
A little technical snafu thereon the visuals, but who cares?
Folks, let me tell you whatwe've Got for you as we kick off
the month of June.
All right, now, you know thatwe're this close.
We're this close to season nine.
Number nine.
Number nine.
Can you believe this?
(31:02):
Season nine.
Season nine will be four yearsmid June.
We're celebrating our fourth year.
Now, that may not sound like areally big deal to you, but let me
tell you something.
It takes a little tenacity tomake these things.
So who do we have to kick offthe month of June?
Only one of the biggestpublishers in the entire world, Emily
(31:27):
Bessler of Emily Bessler Books.
Yeah, she does some work withsome of the big publishing houses
in the world.
I think you know what I'mtalking about.
How he pulled this off, Idon't know.
But she's lovely, brilliant, savvy.
And I thought it would be coolto speak with one of the leaders
(31:50):
of the publishing business tosit down and talk about the business
of publishing.
We have a lot of writers whoare talking about the creative world,
you know, the creative side ofcrafting stories.
But how about the businessthese days?
As you very well know, it'sprobably 50, 50.
Remember the days when we'dlike, oh, talk to my agent.
(32:12):
I'm off writing a book.
I'll see you in a year, yearand a half, two years.
They do.
Everything else those days aregone, folks.
Gone.
Now the onus is on you.
You gotta write the book, yougotta help market it.
And Emily Bessler, man, I'm so excited.
Is gonna be on this showtalking about that very thing.
So do me a favor, be sure toput that on your calendar.
(32:36):
What day was that that's gonna be?
Oh, I don't know.
Let me see.
Thursday.
You know, it's a Thursday.
Thriller Thursday.
Oh, that would be June 5th.
That's right.
5:00am Eastern, 2:00amPacific, right here on the Thriller
Zone.
I'm Dave Temple, your host,and I'll see you then for another
edition of the Thriller Zone,your number one podcast for stories
(33:01):
that thrill the Thriller Zone.
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