October 25, 2025 • 18 mins
Imagine picking up what looks like a children’s book—only to find stories packed with fascism, murder, rebellion, and absurd humor. That’s The Rumpleville Chronicles—a twisted, illustrated series by award-winning filmmaker, musician, and author Cevin Soling.These aren’t bedtime tales. They’re smart, subversive, and meant for adults who enjoy satire, dark laughs, and moral commentary wrapped in carnage.Soling skewers fascists, Marxists, Hollywood, and even “follow your dreams” platitudes with fairytale-style stories that turn cultural myths upside down.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am the host of seventeen different podcasts. Now, try
to explain that to somebody who doesn't know where your
podcasts are. Well, it's on iHeartRadio. Oh, it's on Apple,
It's on It's on it's on.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I can't find it.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Well, yeah you can. Everything is now on Arrow dot
net A R R O E dot net.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Doing fine?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
This is Arrow? How are you? How do you pronounce
your name? Sir?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Kevin?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It is Kevin?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Oh yeah, so it's not. It's not.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's not all that complicated, but it looks that way
because it throws people off with the c.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It does because we've not been trained that way in
elementary school, that that's how you spell kevin.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, well it's it's a Celtic thing.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
And although actually where I am they mispronounced celtic, so yeah.
And then the Boston they actually have a basketball team
that they butcher their name.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's so funny you say that, because on my arm
is a tattoo that's a Celtic knot, and people will
look at me and they go, you mean Celtic. I
said no, no, it's a Celtic nod. Do not even
go there well, Kevin, you are a very creative writer.
I mean the type of writer where you know, creative
writing class in high school must have driven you crazy
because those teachers don't understand this level of play.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, I was kind of fortunate to be, uh. I
guess in school at the time.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I was because I probably would have been diagnosed with
something if I'd been submitting the kinds of things that
I did at that time.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Today, I mean to bring it together, I mean, because
you must have had personal challenges inside your journey forward going.
Do I really want to do this? Take a chance?
Take a chance, man, Just get it down on paper.
We'll worry about it later. Just get it out.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
No, I think one of my h for better and worse.
I don't have inhibitions that way. And yeah, sometimes it
gets me in trouble, but I just, you know, I
act and then deal with the consequences after the fact.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
But where along the line, though, did you realize that
adults need bedtime tales as well? Or or is it
because adults go into the kids room to read them
a tale And it's like, dang, I'm jealous, man, I
don't have anything like that. I need mea Kevin.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yet now I think it's it was sort of taking
what was there and.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Making you know, twisting and making fun of it and
just you know, it was just a natural expression.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It just came organically.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
And it wasn't it wasn't like I was fulfilling some
kind of external need.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It was it was it was internal.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It was basically, uh, you know, you get you get
stuffed filled with all sorts of promises and lies when
you're little, and so it's it's basically a way of
rectifying everything that you were that was thrown at you
and turning it into some perverse truth.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Uh that that that.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Retells everything that was uh, that was shared and and told,
you know, the promises about how the world works.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Now, did you find yourself doing research which first to
find out where the tale came from and a little
bit of background so that when you went into it
with your own process you had a better idea of
where you were growing.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No, I I mean, I mean the stories that I
come up with are not based you know, I've seen
ones where they kind of you know, they take an
existing fairy tale and then they'll they kind of re
you know, make some some changes there. And that's that's
you know, low hanging food. It's it's, it's it's quite easy.
So I was coming up with it with original stories,
(03:31):
but where where the themes are familiar. For instance, you know,
you know the story of the boy going home who's
you know, followed by a dog and and you kind
of hear about that, and so I just twisted that
and had the boy being followed home by a bomb
and you know, wanting to keep the bomb and having
to to you know, beg his his his parents to
(03:53):
keep it and the mothers, you know, a bomb is
a big responsibility.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
You know, who's going to stand bored over it? And
every night, who's going to change it's fused?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
And you know, so it's it's it's dealing with that
sort of thing. And then you know, obviously it's it's
the the the personal struggles with with.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
The conflicts that are you know, exist in forms of life.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
In this case, it was it was the suburban UH
challenges of dealing with with difficult neighbors, you know, who
naturally end up you know, being on the receiving end
of the.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Bomb undercurrent of violence. That's that's that's.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
In in the negotiations and UH in the social interplay
in the places where you wouldn't expect it. That that's,
you know, in that case, suburbia, but they don't always
take place in that environment.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, but everybody can relate with that story. They can
sit there and say, well, I wonder if this were me,
what would I do?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I don't know, I don't really thought too much of
you know, about that. And then I mean that one
I do consider to be sort of, you.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Know, semi out of biographical.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Uh, but you know, and then with Tiffany Britney Brook,
it's it's, uh, you have again, you have the story
that that starts out, you know, familiar with the young
young woman who wants to go off to Hollywood to
achieve her dreams. And you know, basically it's you assume
that she wants to become an actress. But in this case,
(05:28):
you know, she she she wants to go to Hollywood
so she can pursue her dreams of becoming a prostitute,
but she gets ended up getting sucked into the sleazy
world of acting instead. And I have many friends who
are who are actors who can really relate with that story.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I thought they were going to, you know, be kind.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Of in sense because of of you know, the the
comparisons between acting and prostitution.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
But is it not one and the same. Seriously, I
mean not because I've always said that in radio forty
six years of radio, and I will always tell people, Yeah,
I'm just a prostitute. Trust me, I'm doing exactly what
they want me to do.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It is to a large degree in that way, but
it's yeah, obviously there are, yeah, there are some differences there.
The I mean they when she's she's approached by the
person Mordy who says he wants to to represent her
and he'll take you know, fifteen percent cut, and she's
all excited and she thinks she's found it, pimp and
(06:26):
he's like, pimp, no, he goes sure. Seems like we
do a lot of the same things, but but we
agents don't We agents don't offer protection.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, what about the story with snow White seven Dwarfs?
Were they I love this where they want to overthrow
Prince Charming. I mean, to me, that's like, yeah, bring
it on, baby, this is my kind of read.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yes, So that one, you know, that one is the
only one that really kind of ties in where you
have existing characters. All the other ones have have have
original characters, but the Decide of Trotsky is the one
you're referring to, and that one, uh yeah, that one
was one of the first ones I'd written, and it
was it actually was written before Shrek came came along,
(07:12):
and there were so many similarities in the first draft
of it, and a lot of the stuff I'd written,
you know, was kind of floating got floated out on
the Internet and stuff, and it was so similar that
I was like, in sense that people are going to
accuse me of plagiarism, even though my story came first
and I was just it, you know, so I sorted
having to rewrite it. But I was actually kind of
(07:32):
happy with my rewrites because in the Revolution there the
original draft rather there, there's a revel there's a physical
revolution and it fails and all the characters are like
tortured together, and I was like, well, no, it can't happen,
because you know, when I was working on overseeing the artwork,
the animals and everything were too cute. So I had
the revolution falls apart, you know from its own weight,
(07:55):
which is kind of a more realistic depiction.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Anyway, where they all have their own.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Individual philosophies, and so they can't, you know, they can't
fight the oppressive monarchist regime of Prince Charming, and they
all kind of, you know, kind of break down as
they never the revolution never takes place.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
But but yeah, it shows.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It shows the the exploitation that takes place of you know,
within all the different characters and uh, you know how
how the uh you know, the superstructure that's never really
discussed in fairy tales is fundamentally oppressive and exploits the
working classes.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Well, I've always thought of fairy tales as being they're
supposed to come from a dark place. Anyway, there's a
lot of poetry that's written that way. I mean, I mean,
look at London bridges falling down, falling down. That's not
a happy song.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, yeah, well, well, I mean the original drafts of
the fairy Tales are much much darker than anything I wrote.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
H and they're you know, there's no humor to it.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
They're just just really grizzly and at times, you know,
a lot a lot of violence and and such, and
again bereast of humor and humor is certainly at least
I tried to make.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
The most salient feature of the books.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Please do not move. We'll be back with Kevin Soling.
Coming up next, Kevin spelled C E L V I
N souling the name of his book, The Rumpelville Chronicles.
We're back with Kelvin Soling. So do these qualify as
short stories? A collection of short stories? I mean, what's
the difference between a tale and a short story?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Wow, that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I yeah, I'm gonna be thinking about that question for
some time. I don't have an answer right off the
top of my head. I feel in my in my
gut that there's that there's something different, like there's uh yeah,
(09:58):
I think short story, you know, aren't necessarily don't necessarily
be a complete and uh you know where whereas a
tail kind of has as a much much more rigid
structure to it.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
You know, there's there's more more of a beginning, middle,
and end and and if.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
If there isn't a moral, there's there's uh some feature
to it that's you know, poignant.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Where's a short story can be more abstract?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah? Please tell me that you're you're dreaming that that
someone like uh Jordan Peele is going to grab this,
and he's gonna put it up on Netflix or Hulu,
and and you're gonna get all the credit in the
world because this is the kind of stuff to me
that Jordan Peele would love to bring to life on
on a on a camera.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, I've had some of that's been animated.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
One of the first ones was Boris the Dog, which
you know, again was this this starts off or it
seems like it's gonna be this happy little story about
this dog that wants to go off to to to
see the big city and leave home, and but he
realizes that, you know, his his family won't let him leave,
and and it turns into this you know, this is
(11:10):
pretty sick. Uh That one's might be one of the
darkest ones.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
You know. The dog basically he knows that he has
he has no.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
The dog is pure ego and has no sense of morality,
and so he has to realize, you know, he to
achieve what he wants, he has to to murder the
entire family that keeps him order to be able to
go off to the big city.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
But you know, but otherwise it looks like this.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Happy story that that ended up being animated this uh,
and it's the The animator actually is this guy Bill Davis,
who didn't work many years for Sesame Street and and
he kind of took some animation in a little darker
place than I have heard, which is kind of funny given,
you know, given the work he did for Sesame Street,
(11:57):
and I guess it was kind of a way of
of exercising those demons and having the opportunity to go
places that he never could have before. But he did
the enemy and it ended up on on on MTV.
They had this thing cartoon sushi Bill plint it was.
It was at Sundance Film Festival, Bill Plimpton was. It
was a huge uh you know really he was the
(12:21):
one who was responsible, I think for getting it over
to mt V from from the film festival.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Uh. You know, so I can't can't thank him enough. Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And Tiffany Brittany Brook also was animated and you know
made the round and film festivals just recently. Uh and
you know, won a bunch of awards and stuff. So
so some of it's you know, slowly getting out there.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I would not have a problem having a champion like
Jordan Peele. Uh, if if it got in his hands,
that would be wonderful. But yeah, but ye know the
works have that and some some certainly gotten some attention
that way, you know, on on on television and scepts
and theories. So it's it's, uh, it's it's getting out there.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, it's amazing writing because this is the kind of
stuff where like it could be like a ten thirty
ten thirty five at night, and I need something that
I can have right before I call it a day,
and I jump into this book and it's like that's
what I needed. I needed something that was going to
put me in a place where this book is of
importance and not seeing in or Fox News. And that's
what I love about your book.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, and well there there there are nine of them,
so yeah, at least nine nine so far, and they're
all they're all radically different from one another, you know somewhere.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
There's one Kuker Guards dilemma, which was sort of a
started as kind of a writing experiment, which was you're
always told that there you know certain rules, and this
one was you know that there has to be a
protagonist to the story. And I tried to see if
I could write a story where there was no protagonist
and uh, and it had some interesting results there, and
(14:02):
only way for their for there not to be a
protagonist was you know, each each each person that that's
introduced has to be killed off and ultimately then uh,
you know it results where when everyone's killed there's nothing
left but you know, God observing it, and God has
(14:22):
to engage and murder suicide.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
You know this, this suicidal God at the end.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, it's the only way to to obliterate any possibility
of a you know, protagonist there.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
But it's it's yeah, it turns into a good story.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Wow. Where can people go to find out more about you,
Kevin with a.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
C, Well, to find out more about me, they can
go to Kevinsoling dot com and that's Kevin with a
C C E V I N and Soling is spelled
pretty simply s O L I N G. So kevinsoling
dot com is my website. And on the website you
can see all this the projects I do, books, movies, music, cartoons,
(15:05):
there's yeah, I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, photography, philosophy. Uh
so I got my fingers and all sorts of different things.
But to get the books, you can go to Amazon.
You can go to bookstores, and if they don't have it,
they can the bookstores can always order that from from
Baker Taylor and such. But you know, Amazon is is
(15:28):
certainly the one of the easier ways. But it's it's
The book series is called the Rumpelville Chronicles.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
So you can look up Rumpelville Chronicles. You can look
up me.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You can look up the Bomb that Followed Me Home,
or to Write Me book or any of the different titles.
Boris the Dog. You know, there's and you know one
should be able to lead to the other.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Wow, with you doing so much in creativity. Right away,
I started thinking about my iHeartRadio podcast called Creativity is
the Addiction. Let me ask you a question. Is creativity
an addiction in your life?
Speaker 3 (16:01):
It's I don't think it's an addiction. It's it's just
you know, my fundamental nature.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, it's it's a uh in a way, it's a
coping mechanism.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
That you know. But I I am.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, I work in many different uh fields of of
you know, art and many different creative outlet's and and
and I think one of the interesting things is the
the medium sort of dictates the tone. If I if
I'm you know, when I do these short stories, they're
you know, they're they're dark and funny. But if I
if I work in a different medium or the uh,
(16:40):
the tone will be very different. Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Wow, Well you've got to come back to this show
anytime in the future. The door is always going to
be open for you.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I really appreciate that. Yeah, because I'm always coming up
with new projects. I've got some some films coming out
and and uh yeah, so one of the film one
of the film projects I'm working on right now. I've
been reached out to all these different selectbrites, you know,
different you know, really notable people from all fields, any fields,
and I'm interviewing, you know, just just giving them one
single prompt for one single answer, anywhere from thirty seconds
(17:11):
to three minutes, where they tell me if they could
control all the conditions of their death, how they'd like
to die God, and then I and then I animate
their death, you know, you know, accord to accordance to
their description, you know, you know, And I've got I've
gotten some big names and uh, you know, I'm expecting
to get many more once once I've got you know,
(17:32):
the first you know, batch, which I have right now.
You know, it gets it gets easier to get, you know,
to get more. People don't often don't want to be
the first one to jump into a project, but once
you know, they hear, oh that person's doing it.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah. Yeah, Well you've got to go back to this
show anytime in the future, especially when it comes to this.
I I want to talk about that when it comes out.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Oh yeah, definitely. I'd be really happy to share. It's
you know, it's it's it's already going great. I mean,
the the responses that I've gotten have been phenomenal. Yeah,
people have People have been pretty creative with their own deaths.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Will you be brilliant today? Okay, Kevin with the c Well,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I appreciate it.
I am the host of seventeen different podcasts. Now, try
to explain that to somebody who doesn't know where your
podcasts are. Well, it's on iHeartRadio. Oh, it's on Apple,
It's on It's on it's on.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I can't find it.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Well, yeah you can. Everything is now on Arrow dot
net A R R O E dot net.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Doing fine?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
This is Arrow? How are you? How do you pronounce
your name? Sir?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Kevin?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It is Kevin?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Oh yeah, so it's not. It's not.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's not all that complicated, but it looks that way
because it throws people off with the c.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It does because we've not been trained that way in
elementary school, that that's how you spell kevin.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, well it's it's a Celtic thing.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
And although actually where I am they mispronounced celtic, so yeah.
And then the Boston they actually have a basketball team
that they butcher their name.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's so funny you say that, because on my arm
is a tattoo that's a Celtic knot, and people will
look at me and they go, you mean Celtic. I
said no, no, it's a Celtic nod. Do not even
go there well, Kevin, you are a very creative writer.
I mean the type of writer where you know, creative
writing class in high school must have driven you crazy
because those teachers don't understand this level of play.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, I was kind of fortunate to be, uh. I
guess in school at the time.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I was because I probably would have been diagnosed with
something if I'd been submitting the kinds of things that
I did at that time.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Today, I mean to bring it together, I mean, because
you must have had personal challenges inside your journey forward going.
Do I really want to do this? Take a chance?
Take a chance, man, Just get it down on paper.
We'll worry about it later. Just get it out.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
No, I think one of my h for better and worse.
I don't have inhibitions that way. And yeah, sometimes it
gets me in trouble, but I just, you know, I
act and then deal with the consequences after the fact.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
But where along the line, though, did you realize that
adults need bedtime tales as well? Or or is it
because adults go into the kids room to read them
a tale And it's like, dang, I'm jealous, man, I
don't have anything like that. I need mea Kevin.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yet now I think it's it was sort of taking
what was there and.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Making you know, twisting and making fun of it and
just you know, it was just a natural expression.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It just came organically.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
And it wasn't it wasn't like I was fulfilling some
kind of external need.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It was it was it was internal.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It was basically, uh, you know, you get you get
stuffed filled with all sorts of promises and lies when
you're little, and so it's it's basically a way of
rectifying everything that you were that was thrown at you
and turning it into some perverse truth.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Uh that that that.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Retells everything that was uh, that was shared and and told,
you know, the promises about how the world works.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Now, did you find yourself doing research which first to
find out where the tale came from and a little
bit of background so that when you went into it
with your own process you had a better idea of
where you were growing.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No, I I mean, I mean the stories that I
come up with are not based you know, I've seen
ones where they kind of you know, they take an
existing fairy tale and then they'll they kind of re
you know, make some some changes there. And that's that's
you know, low hanging food. It's it's, it's it's quite easy.
So I was coming up with it with original stories,
(03:31):
but where where the themes are familiar. For instance, you know,
you know the story of the boy going home who's
you know, followed by a dog and and you kind
of hear about that, and so I just twisted that
and had the boy being followed home by a bomb
and you know, wanting to keep the bomb and having
to to you know, beg his his his parents to
(03:53):
keep it and the mothers, you know, a bomb is
a big responsibility.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
You know, who's going to stand bored over it? And
every night, who's going to change it's fused?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
And you know, so it's it's it's dealing with that
sort of thing. And then you know, obviously it's it's
the the the personal struggles with with.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
The conflicts that are you know, exist in forms of life.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
In this case, it was it was the suburban UH
challenges of dealing with with difficult neighbors, you know, who
naturally end up you know, being on the receiving end
of the.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Bomb undercurrent of violence. That's that's that's.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
In in the negotiations and UH in the social interplay
in the places where you wouldn't expect it. That that's,
you know, in that case, suburbia, but they don't always
take place in that environment.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, but everybody can relate with that story. They can
sit there and say, well, I wonder if this were me,
what would I do?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I don't know, I don't really thought too much of
you know, about that. And then I mean that one
I do consider to be sort of, you.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Know, semi out of biographical.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Uh, but you know, and then with Tiffany Britney Brook,
it's it's, uh, you have again, you have the story
that that starts out, you know, familiar with the young
young woman who wants to go off to Hollywood to
achieve her dreams. And you know, basically it's you assume
that she wants to become an actress. But in this case,
(05:28):
you know, she she she wants to go to Hollywood
so she can pursue her dreams of becoming a prostitute,
but she gets ended up getting sucked into the sleazy
world of acting instead. And I have many friends who
are who are actors who can really relate with that story.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I thought they were going to, you know, be kind.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Of in sense because of of you know, the the
comparisons between acting and prostitution.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
But is it not one and the same. Seriously, I
mean not because I've always said that in radio forty
six years of radio, and I will always tell people, Yeah,
I'm just a prostitute. Trust me, I'm doing exactly what
they want me to do.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It is to a large degree in that way, but
it's yeah, obviously there are, yeah, there are some differences there.
The I mean they when she's she's approached by the
person Mordy who says he wants to to represent her
and he'll take you know, fifteen percent cut, and she's
all excited and she thinks she's found it, pimp and
(06:26):
he's like, pimp, no, he goes sure. Seems like we
do a lot of the same things, but but we
agents don't We agents don't offer protection.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, what about the story with snow White seven Dwarfs?
Were they I love this where they want to overthrow
Prince Charming. I mean, to me, that's like, yeah, bring
it on, baby, this is my kind of read.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yes, So that one, you know, that one is the
only one that really kind of ties in where you
have existing characters. All the other ones have have have
original characters, but the Decide of Trotsky is the one
you're referring to, and that one, uh yeah, that one
was one of the first ones I'd written, and it
was it actually was written before Shrek came came along,
(07:12):
and there were so many similarities in the first draft
of it, and a lot of the stuff I'd written,
you know, was kind of floating got floated out on
the Internet and stuff, and it was so similar that
I was like, in sense that people are going to
accuse me of plagiarism, even though my story came first
and I was just it, you know, so I sorted
having to rewrite it. But I was actually kind of
(07:32):
happy with my rewrites because in the Revolution there the
original draft rather there, there's a revel there's a physical
revolution and it fails and all the characters are like
tortured together, and I was like, well, no, it can't happen,
because you know, when I was working on overseeing the artwork,
the animals and everything were too cute. So I had
the revolution falls apart, you know from its own weight,
(07:55):
which is kind of a more realistic depiction.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Anyway, where they all have their own.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Individual philosophies, and so they can't, you know, they can't
fight the oppressive monarchist regime of Prince Charming, and they
all kind of, you know, kind of break down as
they never the revolution never takes place.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
But but yeah, it shows.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It shows the the exploitation that takes place of you know,
within all the different characters and uh, you know how
how the uh you know, the superstructure that's never really
discussed in fairy tales is fundamentally oppressive and exploits the
working classes.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Well, I've always thought of fairy tales as being they're
supposed to come from a dark place. Anyway, there's a
lot of poetry that's written that way. I mean, I mean,
look at London bridges falling down, falling down. That's not
a happy song.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, yeah, well, well, I mean the original drafts of
the fairy Tales are much much darker than anything I wrote.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
H and they're you know, there's no humor to it.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
They're just just really grizzly and at times, you know,
a lot a lot of violence and and such, and
again bereast of humor and humor is certainly at least
I tried to make.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
The most salient feature of the books.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Please do not move. We'll be back with Kevin Soling.
Coming up next, Kevin spelled C E L V I
N souling the name of his book, The Rumpelville Chronicles.
We're back with Kelvin Soling. So do these qualify as
short stories? A collection of short stories? I mean, what's
the difference between a tale and a short story?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Wow, that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I yeah, I'm gonna be thinking about that question for
some time. I don't have an answer right off the
top of my head. I feel in my in my
gut that there's that there's something different, like there's uh yeah,
(09:58):
I think short story, you know, aren't necessarily don't necessarily
be a complete and uh you know where whereas a
tail kind of has as a much much more rigid
structure to it.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
You know, there's there's more more of a beginning, middle,
and end and and if.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
If there isn't a moral, there's there's uh some feature
to it that's you know, poignant.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Where's a short story can be more abstract?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah? Please tell me that you're you're dreaming that that
someone like uh Jordan Peele is going to grab this,
and he's gonna put it up on Netflix or Hulu,
and and you're gonna get all the credit in the
world because this is the kind of stuff to me
that Jordan Peele would love to bring to life on
on a on a camera.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, I've had some of that's been animated.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
One of the first ones was Boris the Dog, which
you know, again was this this starts off or it
seems like it's gonna be this happy little story about
this dog that wants to go off to to to
see the big city and leave home, and but he
realizes that, you know, his his family won't let him leave,
and and it turns into this you know, this is
(11:10):
pretty sick. Uh That one's might be one of the
darkest ones.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
You know. The dog basically he knows that he has
he has no.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
The dog is pure ego and has no sense of morality,
and so he has to realize, you know, he to
achieve what he wants, he has to to murder the
entire family that keeps him order to be able to
go off to the big city.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
But you know, but otherwise it looks like this.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Happy story that that ended up being animated this uh,
and it's the The animator actually is this guy Bill Davis,
who didn't work many years for Sesame Street and and
he kind of took some animation in a little darker
place than I have heard, which is kind of funny given,
you know, given the work he did for Sesame Street,
(11:57):
and I guess it was kind of a way of
of exercising those demons and having the opportunity to go
places that he never could have before. But he did
the enemy and it ended up on on on MTV.
They had this thing cartoon sushi Bill plint it was.
It was at Sundance Film Festival, Bill Plimpton was. It
was a huge uh you know really he was the
(12:21):
one who was responsible, I think for getting it over
to mt V from from the film festival.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Uh. You know, so I can't can't thank him enough. Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And Tiffany Brittany Brook also was animated and you know
made the round and film festivals just recently. Uh and
you know, won a bunch of awards and stuff. So
so some of it's you know, slowly getting out there.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I would not have a problem having a champion like
Jordan Peele. Uh, if if it got in his hands,
that would be wonderful. But yeah, but ye know the
works have that and some some certainly gotten some attention
that way, you know, on on on television and scepts
and theories. So it's it's, uh, it's it's getting out there.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, it's amazing writing because this is the kind of
stuff where like it could be like a ten thirty
ten thirty five at night, and I need something that
I can have right before I call it a day,
and I jump into this book and it's like that's
what I needed. I needed something that was going to
put me in a place where this book is of
importance and not seeing in or Fox News. And that's
what I love about your book.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, and well there there there are nine of them,
so yeah, at least nine nine so far, and they're
all they're all radically different from one another, you know somewhere.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
There's one Kuker Guards dilemma, which was sort of a
started as kind of a writing experiment, which was you're
always told that there you know certain rules, and this
one was you know that there has to be a
protagonist to the story. And I tried to see if
I could write a story where there was no protagonist
and uh, and it had some interesting results there, and
(14:02):
only way for their for there not to be a
protagonist was you know, each each each person that that's
introduced has to be killed off and ultimately then uh,
you know it results where when everyone's killed there's nothing
left but you know, God observing it, and God has
(14:22):
to engage and murder suicide.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
You know this, this suicidal God at the end.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, it's the only way to to obliterate any possibility
of a you know, protagonist there.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
But it's it's yeah, it turns into a good story.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Wow. Where can people go to find out more about you,
Kevin with a.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
C, Well, to find out more about me, they can
go to Kevinsoling dot com and that's Kevin with a
C C E V I N and Soling is spelled
pretty simply s O L I N G. So kevinsoling
dot com is my website. And on the website you
can see all this the projects I do, books, movies, music, cartoons,
(15:05):
there's yeah, I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, photography, philosophy. Uh
so I got my fingers and all sorts of different things.
But to get the books, you can go to Amazon.
You can go to bookstores, and if they don't have it,
they can the bookstores can always order that from from
Baker Taylor and such. But you know, Amazon is is
(15:28):
certainly the one of the easier ways. But it's it's
The book series is called the Rumpelville Chronicles.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
So you can look up Rumpelville Chronicles. You can look
up me.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You can look up the Bomb that Followed Me Home,
or to Write Me book or any of the different titles.
Boris the Dog. You know, there's and you know one
should be able to lead to the other.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Wow, with you doing so much in creativity. Right away,
I started thinking about my iHeartRadio podcast called Creativity is
the Addiction. Let me ask you a question. Is creativity
an addiction in your life?
Speaker 3 (16:01):
It's I don't think it's an addiction. It's it's just
you know, my fundamental nature.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, it's it's a uh in a way, it's a
coping mechanism.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
That you know. But I I am.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, I work in many different uh fields of of
you know, art and many different creative outlet's and and
and I think one of the interesting things is the
the medium sort of dictates the tone. If I if
I'm you know, when I do these short stories, they're
you know, they're they're dark and funny. But if I
if I work in a different medium or the uh,
(16:40):
the tone will be very different. Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Wow, Well you've got to come back to this show
anytime in the future. The door is always going to
be open for you.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I really appreciate that. Yeah, because I'm always coming up
with new projects. I've got some some films coming out
and and uh yeah, so one of the film one
of the film projects I'm working on right now. I've
been reached out to all these different selectbrites, you know,
different you know, really notable people from all fields, any fields,
and I'm interviewing, you know, just just giving them one
single prompt for one single answer, anywhere from thirty seconds
(17:11):
to three minutes, where they tell me if they could
control all the conditions of their death, how they'd like
to die God, and then I and then I animate
their death, you know, you know, accord to accordance to
their description, you know, you know, And I've got I've
gotten some big names and uh, you know, I'm expecting
to get many more once once I've got you know,
(17:32):
the first you know, batch, which I have right now.
You know, it gets it gets easier to get, you know,
to get more. People don't often don't want to be
the first one to jump into a project, but once
you know, they hear, oh that person's doing it.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah. Yeah, Well you've got to go back to this
show anytime in the future, especially when it comes to this.
I I want to talk about that when it comes out.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Oh yeah, definitely. I'd be really happy to share. It's
you know, it's it's it's already going great. I mean,
the the responses that I've gotten have been phenomenal. Yeah,
people have People have been pretty creative with their own deaths.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Will you be brilliant today? Okay, Kevin with the c Well,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I appreciate it.
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