Oral Storytelling & More with Hank the Cowdog Creator, John R. Erickson

Today's main event is a conversation with author and audiobook narrator John R. Erickson. John published his first book and audiobook of the Hank the Cowdog character in 1983 and has been going strong ever since. J.D. talks with him about the series' origins, his work on a cattle ranch, the part that the oral storytelling tradition played in his approach to writing, how the Hank the Cowdog audio drama podcast came about, and much more. In addition to the interview, J.D. shares a whole passel of audio drama updates, addresses feedback from Jeremy and Blake, and gives a monologue about audio drama as content marketing for brands.
 
Full show notes at http://www.audiotheatrecentral.com/202
 
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What are your thoughts on the topics we addressed in this episode? Send us your feedback! We’d love to hear what you think! Email us at [e-mail] or give us a call or text to 623-688-2770.

Record our show credits for a future episode. Send us a recording of you reading the following and we'll use it in a future episode: Script: "Hi! This is [YOUR NAME] from [YOUR CITY AND/OR STATE]. Audio Theatre Central is a production of Porchlight Family Media. The theme music was composed by Sam Avendaño. The show is produced and edited by J.D. Sutter. Find the website at audiotheatrecentral.com."
Email your recording to [e-mail].

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
And now Audio Theater Central. Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central.
This is the show that explores family friendly audio drama
through news, reviews and interviews. I'm your host, JD. Sutter.
This is episode two two. Well, today I've got an

(00:24):
interview with author and audiobook narrator John Ericson. You say, author,
what does that have to do with audio drama? Well,
stick around and you'll find out. We've got some feedback
from Blake and Jeremy, a bunch of audio drama updates
to get to, as well as a monologue where I'm
going to talk about audio drama as a marketing tool.

(00:46):
Let's get to it.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
We interrupt this program to bring you a special.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Report and in other news tonight.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
A brief look at the headlines.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Now they want exciting, fast piece news that's relevant and
entertaining like this.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well, quick reminder before we jump into the updates. If
you have an audio drama update, please let us know
about it. You can go to PFM dot link slash
atc News that'll take you directly to the form to
submit your update. Now, if for some reason that URL
redirect is not working for you, I did have somebody
let me know that it wasn't working for them for

(01:22):
some reason. I'm looking into that, but if that happens
to you, you can always head to our homepage audiotheatercentral
dot com and click the link right there to submit
your news regarding your show. Well, before we get into
the recent releases and upcoming productions, first off, I just

(01:46):
wanted to share real quickly with you that Unshackled is
having a fundraiser right now to help them with office
renovation expenses. If you don't know unshackled, they've been around
for almost seventy five years at unshackled dot org and
they release all of their episodes for free, thousands of

(02:06):
episodes that you can go and listen to. And they
shared that Unshackled the program has existed as a department
of the Pacific Garden Mission, telling true stories of lives
transformed through faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, many of
our stories have come directly from those here at the mission.
But operating within a homeless mission has its challenges, including

(02:27):
our unshackled office space. When you prioritize your guests, the
staff offices are often the last place to receive attention,
so we're looking to you our listeners for support as
we continue working to create quality Christian content through our
audio dramas. It is our desire to update the unshackled
office space, removing decades old furnishings and creating a more

(02:49):
hospitable environment for both our employees and our visitors. So
if you want to help out with that, they are
running a campaign on gofund me. The link is in
the show notes if you are able to help them
out with that. This next item is something that's really interesting. Now,
if you've listened to the show for any length of time,
you know that I'm always on the lookout for somebody
who is doing something interesting with audio drama, something outside

(03:14):
the box, something that is different from what is already
out there. And that brings us to a company out
of the UK called Truman Toys and Games, and they
have developed a gadget called the Audio Adventures Electronic Game System. Now,
they said this was created as a throwback to text

(03:35):
based computer games and choose your own adventure books, but
delivered in the style of a radio drama. It's for
anybody who enjoys role playing games, audio dramas or retro
tech gaming. From the moment our first prototype was built,
we recognized audio adventures would work well for people who
were blind, visually impaired, or had difficulty enjoying regular video games.

(03:57):
We began working with blind game testers and people with
reduced motor skills to make our game unit as accessible
as possible. So this is a really interesting thing. It
is a little game system that fits in your hand,
and it has four buttons, and it takes a game
cartridge and there are lights and an audio speaker, and

(04:23):
that's about it. It's a very simple device, no screens,
no internet connection, and these game cartridges have audio stories
built into them. And as mentioned in the text I
just read, it's similar to a choose your own adventure
sort of book, where the story reaches a certain juncture

(04:46):
and then you, as the character, get to choose where
the story goes next, and you just press the applicable
button for that decision, and the story progresses on. And
it's all audio. There's no visuals, and it's just an interesting,
interesting thing. Now. There are links in the show notes
for more information about this system. There are demos, information

(05:09):
about some of the game titles that are out there,
and depending on when you hear this episode, you may
be able to pre order the system or participate in
their kickstarter, so all those links are in the show notes.
The kickstarter is launching on August sixth, so if it
is already running when you hear this, you can find

(05:32):
the link for that. But if you hear it before,
there's a reservation system, and it seems like it's going
to be a really interesting thing. I don't know exactly
how many titles they have on the platform at this point,
but they are currently working on developing more. And the
price is a little bit a little bit steep if
you ask me, it's about eighty dollars at this point.

(05:55):
But this is something I will definitely be watching. It's
an interesting use of audio entertainment and I think it's
really really cool. So I have been in communication with
the fellow who developed and created this system. His name
is Lee, and I'm definitely going to be following what

(06:16):
happens here. And I just thought I've got to tell
the ATC community about this because I think it's I
think it's awesome to see somebody doing something really cool
with audio drama, and I know that we have quite
a few visually impaired listeners, so this might be something
that you might be interested in as well. All Right,

(06:37):
moving on to recent releases, the Audio Drama Alliance just
released the third episode of the Sonic Comics series. If
you haven't heard the previous ones, Sonic Comics is the
comic strip for your Ears, and this episode is called
What's Holding You Up? A group of would be bank
robbers find out that they might not be cut out

(06:58):
for the job. The script was written by Austin Peachey
and was adapted from the sketch that he wrote for
the Live ATC podcast from Sonacon twenty three. So this
is a really fun one. You can go listen and
download it for free at the Audio Drama Alliance website.
Link is in the show notes. Also just released is

(07:18):
the latest audio drama from Heart Matters. It is called
The Serpent from the Beginning and it was written by
Charlie Richards, who was a past guest here on this podcast.
He is the creator of the audio drama Life at
the Pond and he has also written for Adventurous and
Odyssey in the past, but he wrote this script and
it is a fantastic, fantastic dramatization of the story of

(07:43):
Adam and Eves fall in the garden of Eden and
then contrasting that temptation by the Serpent in Eden with
Satan's temptation of Jesus in the desert. And it's a
really great script. It was directed by Austin Peachey and
it features yours truly as Adam, and I was so

(08:04):
privileged to be able to participate in this fantastic audio drama.
Alicia Hansen is the voice of Eve, Garrett Vandenberg is
the voice of the Serpent, and Rich Swingle plays God,
and the cast was just fantastic. There are more members
of the cast, but the sound design and music was

(08:25):
really really great as well as with all of the
Heart Matters audio dramas, you can listen for free in
the Heart Matters app which is linked in the show notes.
And also because I was involved in this audio drama,
i wrote a little behind the scenes of my experience
working on this production on my blog and that post

(08:45):
is also linked in the show notes and it includes
a couple of photos from my vocal booth from the
recording session, so if you want to check that out again,
that is also linked in the show notes.

Speaker 5 (08:58):
Well.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
The lamp ladder Gill just wrapped up a few days ago,
and as they do, they worked with the students of
the Guild to produce some mini audio dramas. There are
two of them that are available now on the Guild
recap page, so that is linked in the show notes.
You can stream or download them. There's also photos and
slide shows of the classes with Phil Lawler, Daniel Cross,

(09:21):
Zachary Horner, and Alan Hurley for the audio drama specific
related classes. So again, there are two short audio dramas,
one called The Three Weavers and another called The Making
of a Hero, which you can go check out for free.
Link is in the show notes. And our last recent
release is from Pirateers. Episode seven of season three of

(09:45):
Pirateeers has been released. The episode is titled Set Free
and is exclusively streaming on Drama Fi Now. Once window
Seat makes its launch later this fall, it will be
available on there as well. If you missed last episode,
we talked about window Seat, so go back and listen
to the update segment of the last episode and I'll

(10:06):
hear more about window Seat. Now more updates from the
Pirateeers universe. You may have noticed that I said that
this episode that was just released is exclusively on Drama
Phi at this point. That is because Eternal Future Productions
has pulled their podcast feed, so you can no longer
get Pirateeers as a podcast. You have to go stream

(10:28):
it from Drama Phi and as I mentioned, from Window
Seat later. But if you want to purchase it you
can still get that from their website. But Episode eight,
which will be the last episode of season three, is
in the final stages. They are working on the music
and mixing of that one right now. Drew Forbes is
once again the composer for this series. He is working

(10:51):
on that one and this episode is going to be
titled A Change in the Wind, And as with previous seasons,
a supercut of the season will be available to purchase
in digital and CD formats from the EFP store sometime
later this year, and again they will also have a
full season music soundtrack as well. Now, the last bit

(11:13):
of news about Pirateeers, and I can't recall if we've
mentioned this before, but this is also really cool, sort
of following the Blackgired Chronicles book series sort of model,
but Jonathan Cook and Alisha Hanson of Eternal Future Productions
have teamed up with Craig Hart of LRT Media and

(11:34):
they are doing a novelization of the audio drama and
the first book is based on season one of Pirateers
and the book is called The Fountain of Youth. It
is completely finished and is going to be released on Amazon.
We don't have an official release date yet, but they
said that they will be posting that on their Facebook
page soon. So this is really cool. Alisha Hanson said

(11:59):
that this book is going to delve a little deeper
into the characters in a way that hasn't been done
in the audio drama, and so we're going to get
to learn a little bit more about the Captain and
Bosun and so I'm looking forward to this. It's going
to be really cool. Next up, we've got some updates
on Robin Hood Rising to Honor. Recording for season two

(12:21):
is going to begin somewhere around the August September time frame,
and they've announced that they've added a new cast member,
and that is Jonathan David Bullock, who you may have
heard in shows such as The Adventum, Jonathan Park, Jake
Muller Adventures. He will be playing the role of Sirghie
of Gisburne and Alicia said that he will be a

(12:44):
character that you love to hate and the acting we
heard so far is chilling. So I'm really really looking
forward to this loved season one of this show, and
it sounds like things are just getting ready to ratchet
up and really really excited about this. It's gonna be fun. Well.
In other Eternal Future Productions news, the show Venture is

(13:08):
coming soon. The sound design for episode one is complete,
and they have announced that the sound designer for this
episode was Lee Stang. And I know that Lee listens
to this show. He has reached out to us in
the past. He's been a repeat attendee at the lamp
Ladder Guild. In fact, I believe he may have had

(13:31):
something to do with those short audio dramas, those many
audio dramas from this year's guild that I mentioned a
few moments ago. If that is true, Lee let us know.
But he's working on the sound design and the music
was composed by Frank Yulei and Alicia said that Frank
has proven that he has a deep understanding of this
sci fi world that is being created and so lots

(13:55):
to look forward to with this show. The music is
being mastered by Rasmussen, another composer so lots going on
in the Eternal Future world, and that's not even all.
If you heard the micro audio drama that Jonathan Cook
produced not long ago called Chester and Ralphie Rise and yikes,

(14:17):
there is another episode in this story world that is
coming and it was also written and directed by Jonathan Cook.
The script and voice track editing is all complete, and
it's being sound designed by Alisha. The episode will be
titled First Fires. I love it. I can't wait to
hear this. I so enjoyed that first episode. This is

(14:40):
going to be great. Jonathan's going to be reprising those
same characters of Chester and Ralphie, and Alisha's returning as
the bunny. So fun times in store there. And the
last bit of your Eternal Future news is Resurgence, the
standalone feature length production that they have been working on,

(15:00):
which we still don't know a whole lot about yet,
but they did share the artwork sometime ago and I've
been intrigued by this. But they also just recently post
the cast announcement actors only, no characters, so you still
again don't know a whole lot about this story. But
if you want to see that full cast list, link
is in the show notes always looking forward to hearing

(15:20):
what Eternal Future comes up with. They have just burst
on the scene in recent years with some high quality
audio drama. Partiers is one of my favorites, even though
I'm probably biased because I have been involved in that show,
but man, they are just killing it right now with
the quality and the great acting and all of this.

(15:41):
I mean, I'm just so thrilled and just love seeing
what they're doing. And our final bit of upcoming audio
drama news is that in a recent episode of the
Official Adventures of Odyssey podcast, they announced the title of
episode one thousand. Now to clarify in case you didn't

(16:04):
know yet, the show at the One Grand Party is
not Episode one thousand. My understanding is that is a
show that is entirely just for the live audience, though
who knows, maybe they'll do a recorded version like they
did with Push the Red Button. But anyway, Episode one
thousand will be the first episode of album seventy eight.

(16:25):
It was written by Phil Lawler and it is titled
Criss Crossed Part One. Now don't really know much about
the episode at this point, but the fact that it
is part one of a multi part episode. I think
it's going to be two parts. I was slightly disappointed
because for the thousandth episode, I expected them to do

(16:48):
something special with some of the core cast members and
have it be a standalone episode that I don't know
that was going to be something of a to use
an oxymoronic term, an instant classic, you know, one that
fans could look back on and say, oh, episode one
thousand wasn't that great. But it sounds like it's just
going to be another episode in the series, and so

(17:12):
we'll have to wait and see what it's about. But
you know, missed opportunity in my opinion. No, I'm just kidding.
I don't know exactly what to expect at this point,
but we will have to see. But now you know
the title. And also, I should say, in that particular episode,
Steve Harris and Phil Lahler, the creators of Adventures in Odyssey,

(17:32):
shared a whole bunch of behind the scenes of the
genesis of this show, starting back at episode one, and
it was a really fun conversation just hearing them talk
about how they developed certain things, and if you missed
that episode, you definitely want to check it out.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Testing one, two, three, Testing. That was just me talking
I do that a lot. Where's my speech? How long
you're going to work with it?

Speaker 1 (17:56):
That's what I want to talk about. So here's what
I'm thinking today, audio drama for brands. What do you mean,
jd Well, think about using an audio drama as a
marketing tool for a company. Now, I'm not necessarily talking
about a sponsorship, though I'm not opposed to that, and

(18:17):
I think that's a great thing as well. But I'm
talking about brands or companies that actually hire a producer
to create a show as part of their marketing budget
and part of their ongoing marketing efforts, whether that's an
in house team. Content marketing is a thing these days.
I mean, companies hire people to produce short form video

(18:41):
for YouTube or TikTok or whatever it might be, Facebook
or you know, why not audio drama. And again it
could be an in house team or you know, contracting
that out to somebody who is well versed in audio drama.
But I was already thinking about this sort of thing
when Christopher Green and I ended up having a conversation

(19:04):
not long ago about a lot of the brands that
would sponsor old time radio shows. Now, if you've listened
to many old time radio shows. You'll know that a
lot of them were sponsored by cigarette brands, and obviously
I'm not endorsing that, but one of the big ones
that you might have heard back in the day was
the Fibber, McGee and Molly Show, which was sponsored by

(19:26):
Johnson's Wax and Johnson's self polishing glow coat and those
home cleaning products. And you know, they were ones that
were the partnered with brands such as hair cream and
all kinds of different products. One of the products that
always pops to my mind when I think about this
idea of brands and audio drama is I believe it

(19:49):
was Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. It was a cereal
and one of the taglines was the breakfast Cereal shot
from guns, and so I don't remember exactly what the
the cereal was, the actual brand of the cereal, but
that announcer saying that phrase is stuck in my brain.
And so there were all kinds of these things happening

(20:11):
in the old time radio era, and not that long ago,
ge the big huge corporation General Electric, sponsored a couple
of audio dramas that were released as podcasts. Again, this
was not that long ago. I mean maybe ten years
ago or something like that. So this is something that

(20:34):
some companies have done a bit of, but I would
love to see this happen a little bit more because
I think it is a great way to get new content.
But it is also a benefit to these companies. This
is I started to say free advertising. It's not quite free.
If you're gonna do it right, you got to pay
the people involved. But it is very, very inexpensive content marketing.

(21:02):
So how would this work? You say, Well, think about
this a pet food company that does a show with
some fun animal characters, and whether that's a show for
kids or for families, or it's a comedy, but that
could go. That could take all different kinds of forms,
but they could tie that into their product line. Now
I'm not talking about getting beat over the head with

(21:25):
ads throughout a show, but there are ways that you
can incorporate it into the content and develop the show
around these markets that your product serves, and I think
it would be a good fit. Or think about a
healthcare network that creates a medical drama, or a bank

(21:46):
that develops a sitcom around the employees of a small
town branch, or a car manufacturer who makes an adventure
thriller about a guy who goes on a coast to
coast a road trip and he stumbles upon some mystery
related to various landmarks. And you've had secret societies and
terrorists and all the bad guys, and so you know,
there's all kinds of different ideas you could come up with,

(22:08):
and maybe all of these are not the most brilliant ideas,
but you get the picture of what I'm talking about now.
I'm not saying I have all the answers here. This
segment is just about what's on my mind. So I
may not always have fully fleshed out ideas here, but
it's just something that I've been thinking about and I
wanted to toss it out with you. Again. I'm not
necessarily talking about sponsorships, though that is another avenue where

(22:31):
you can team up with brands to co create a show,
even if it is not something that a company seeks out.
Though that's what I would really like to see. But
I've been sitting on a story for years now that
I've been trying to get funded. It's a Western novel
from an indie author who approached me about producing an
audio drama adaptation. He doesn't have a huge budget, so

(22:54):
I wanted to try and make that happen for him.
The story is set in Texas, so I thought it
would be interesting to get the tourism board in the
area that the story takes place involved in some way,
or a tack shop or a Western gear brand, something
along those lines. But being that I'm more the creative
than the business guy, I've never been able to figure

(23:15):
out how to make that happen. But I think there's
potential there, and that's one of the examples that I
could see working really well. The bottom line is that
I think audio dramas that are serialized as a podcast
would be a great marketing tool for companies, specifically national
brands or regional brands. It used to be common on radio,

(23:36):
and I think some smart marketing people should start thinking
outside the box here. And obviously there is massive exposure,
but brands spend millions of dollars on a few second
Super Bowl ad, and a branded audio drama mini series
could potentially have impact for years to come. With an

(23:58):
evergreen story. It would cost a fraction of what that
thirty second ad cost. So again, I don't have all
the answers here. I don't have solutions. It's just an
idea that I've been thinking about, and I would love
to hear your thoughts. If you're a marketing person out there,
you work for a brand, could you see this being feasible?

(24:22):
Is this a viable idea? If you were a fan?
Would you like to see some brands do something like this?
What if a big brand like Ford Motor Company or
Coca Cola, or to make a show. What might that
look like? Anyway, Hey, it's just something I've been thinking about.
Just say your name and the role you're playing in

(24:43):
this production.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Please excuse me, excuse me.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
The local news station would like to talk to you. Oh,
and here's a company play right. I'm here to ask
you a couple of questions. Well. John R. Erickson is
the creator of the Hank account Dogs series, the author
of over eighty books, narrator of the audiobook editions, and
just a fantastic storyteller and performer. And I am thrilled

(25:09):
to have him on the show today. Now you might
be saying, JD. Why a book author on a show
about audio drama. Well, let me give you a few reasons.
Number one, his audiobooks are very similar to an audio drama,
even though it is a single voice narration production. There's music,
there's sound effects. If you haven't heard them, they're really fantastic.

(25:32):
Number two, his production company has partnered with q Code
on a full scale audio dramatization of one of his
Hanky Cow Dog books and it's fantastic as well. And
number three, I'm the host of the show and I
wanted to talk with him, so there. Oh, of course,
I'm just having a little fun here. But again, I

(25:53):
am absolutely thrilled to have John on the show. And
if you're unfamiliar with his work of Hank the Cow Dog,
we're going to talk all about it. So John, thank
you so much for taking the time to be on
the Audio Theater Central podcast today.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
I'm delighted to be here. Well.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
I was honored to get to meet you in person
here in Phoenix a few weeks back, and I've thought
about getting you on the show for years now, but
for some reason, I just never reached out, and I
just decided after seeing you and seeing the book that
just came out this year, you know, this is the
time to try. And so I'm just glad to talk

(26:29):
with you, and this is going to be a fun conversation.
There's a lot we can talk about in terms of
the Hank stories, but there's so much more about your
story beyond just Hank the cow Dog, which they're fantastic.
But I love talking with interesting people as well, so
I want to dive into a little bit about you
and your story craft book as well. So let's start.

(26:54):
This is slightly off topic, I guess, but I'm a
huge fan of westerns. I've read nearly everything by Louis Lamore,
and I know you started your career as a cowboy
in Oklahoma, and the Hank stories take place on a
ranch in Texas, So I'm just curious what a typical
day for a modern day cow hand on a cattle

(27:15):
ranch looks like.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
Well, I made my living as a cowboy for oh
I didn't know later or ten years maybe, and that
was after spending six years in university, and I never
thought that I would end up back in my hometown,
much less have the opportunity to become a cowboy, which

(27:41):
is what I always wanted to be when I was
a boy. And that's the work that I did when
I was in high school, in college, I've worked in
summers on ranches, and I was always good at it.
So after I got married, Chris and I moved back
to the little town I grew up in, and I

(28:05):
worked for six years on ranches in the Oklhoma Panhandle,
which is only forty miles north of where my hometown
is in Texas. And then I worked on another ranch,
work on through ranches no, Oklahoma, and another ranch south
of Perryton in Texas, and that that gives me the

(28:29):
place and the environment and the characters for all the
Hank stories. And it was really a surprise to me.
I never thought that there was anything in this part
of the country that would be worth writing about. I
thought you had to move to New York or Boston

(28:49):
or someplace exotic like Phoenix, and that's where literature came from.
But I tried that for fifteen years and it didn't
work out. And I was writing articles for the Cattleman
magazine about my cowboy work, and I was doing it
strictly for money. I had wife and two kids at

(29:10):
the time, and that's where the first Hank story came from.
It didn't come in a flash of light. I didn't
realize that Hank had magic and that he would become
a star and I'd eventually end up working for him.
But one thing led to another, and it all came

(29:32):
out of my work as a cowboy.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
So can you talk us through on an average day
a cowboy gets up, what's on the agenda?

Speaker 4 (29:44):
Well, I've written several books on that subject, non Hank books,
non fiction books in which I tried to describe as
accurately as possible what cowboys in my time did in
the nineteen seventies and eight. The work depends on the season.

(30:04):
In the spring, that's branding season. Round up in branding season,
and I was working them with large crews of men,
and getting up at four thirty five o'clock in the morning,
saving a horse at a dark loading them in a
stock trailer, driving fifteen twenty miles to the round up site,

(30:28):
and then starting out with a crew of from seven
to twenty five cowboys and ranchers. And that was if
you loved the cowboy life, if you loved being horseback,
that's cowboy heaven. In the summer, the work shifts. You

(30:49):
put your horse out the pasture and work on fences
and windmills. And if your ranch has a hayfield. You
cut and bail and haul hay, and then in the
in the fall, there's a shipping round up, working with
cowboy crews again pulling the calves off the mothers and

(31:11):
either winning them or putting them on the truck sending
them to livestock auction. Then in around Thanksgiving in this country,
we've had several cross and the grass stops growing and
we have to start putting out supplemental feed. And that's
a daily shore that cowboy has to do until all

(31:38):
grass greens up. In the April and May, if the
weather's very cold, we have to chop ice. And sometimes
that ice it's so thick we have to cut it
with a chainsaw. And the spring comes and the cycle
begins again, the round up season and getting the horses

(32:01):
back in shape and falling a horse to the next
round up, and all of that kind of work is
in the hag stories.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, yeah, And that's what I was getting ready to say.
It's like, it's it's very obvious all of those different
elements show up in the library of Hank books, and
so it's obvious that this was integral to the development
of these stories. And that's what I think brings about
the that they feel so real. Even though there's there's
such a comedy to the stories, there's there's so much

(32:35):
genuine real life in there because of your experiences that
they just feel they feel so homey, you know, And
I love that feeling with the stories.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Well, I want to talk a little bit about your
book story Craft, because we have a lot of creatives
who listen to the show as well as fans of
audio drama and so, you know, industry folks who are
writers and things like that, so you know this book.
I didn't even know that this existed. I mean, I've
been familiar with Hank for decades and I've been following

(33:06):
those stories, but I hadn't come across this book until
I was getting ready for this conversation and I found it,
and so I bought it, had it shipped right over
to me, and I've been reading it the last few
days and it's sort of a combination memoir and essays
on writing, and I'm absolutely loving it. And it's been
so inspiring to me as one who is basically trying

(33:28):
to do in the world of podcasting and audio drama
what you did in the book world and that is
creating clean, family centered content to counter the glut of
unsavory stuff that's out there. And so again, I'm thoroughly
loving this book and I'm not through it, but there's
been a several different moments where I've just like, man,

(33:48):
this is really good stuff, and I want to read
a paragraph here and get your thoughts if you could
expound on it a little bit. This is from page
twenty nine. You said, our venture speaking of the Hanky
cow Dog stories at Maverick Books, our venture should have failed,
but somehow it didn't. And that is important information. If

(34:09):
we don't approve of the books and movies offered by
the establishment media, we have the option of creating something better.
It will require the best efforts of brave entrepreneurs and
enlightened investors. It won't be easy, but it can be done.
And again, I've found your story so far to be
so inspiring to me. Could you expound a little bit

(34:29):
on that last thing there? You know you've got to
have the combination of investors and the entrepreneurs and the
creative types. Can you talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
Well, I wrote that book after I had been invited
to speak at several homeschool conventions, and had been invited
to be a guest author at Patrick Kinner College in Purcellville, Virginia,
which is a very fine Christian college, and which is

(35:01):
kind of a classical approach to university education. It's what
liberal education, liberal arts education used to be before it
was corrupted. It's based on the fundamentals of Western civilization,
which is the classical tradition of Greece and to a

(35:26):
lesser extent, Rome combined with the Judeo Christian scriptures and tradition,
and that is what Western civilization always has been. And
in the course of being around the homeschoolers and the
kids at Patrick Henry, they were very curious about what

(35:47):
I was doing. A lot of them had been raised
on Hank books or Hank audio books or both, and
they were very curious about what I did as a writer.
And I was not. I was doing a lot of
because I had this little skill of being able to
open any Hank book on any page and start reading

(36:08):
it and do the voices and characters. And I was
doing that a lot in schools and then homeschool conventions,
and so I was sort of in the entertainment business
without an entertainment company telling me what to do, and
so I seldom had a request from adults who were

(36:35):
interested in writing and how and why I did the
things I did. And so I wrote that book for
the homeschool kids and the kids at Patrick Kinley and
other Christian colleges who sincerely wanted good advice on how
to be in the writing business or the entertainment business.

(36:58):
And I thought. I thought filmmakers, for example, were getting
terrible advice because they specialized in making films that nobody
wanted to watch a second time. They wanted to preach.
It's what they wanted to do. They didn't want to
make beautiful movies. And I think to some degree that's

(37:19):
also true of the Christians who were trying to write
novels and they didn't know what else to do. And
so I thought that I would take my time out
from doing what I would usually do and do something
that I usually didn't do, which is talk about my

(37:40):
writing of what I do. At that time, I didn't
talk much about it. I just did it, and it
was very intuitive, and I didn't think much about it.
I didn't want to think much about it. If I
thought too much about it, i'd ruin it, but I
made the exception with story cred and I decided not

(38:03):
to take it to a Christian publisher, even though as
far as I'm concerned, it's a very Christian book, although
I think it has good advice for people who aren't Christians.
But I decided not to take it to a Christian
publisher because I had no contact with Christian publishers and

(38:25):
I had already gotten a thousand rejection slips from pagan
publishing companies in New York, and I didn't want to
get any more rejection slips, and I didn't want to
beg any more publishers, and so I had my own
publishing company. I just published it myself, and we're not
very good at advertising. I don't like advertising. I think

(38:49):
things should sell themselves by word of mouth, on their
own track record and their own integrity. And that's the
way the audio books have sold themselves. We've never advertised
them anywhere, so that's the way. It was a storycraft.
It's been kind of steps. Most people have never heard
of it, and they find it sometimes when they send

(39:11):
me an email or a letter wanting advice on writing,
and I can tell them my best advice is in
the book Storycraft.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Oh yeah, And I'm going to tell the listener, if
you are a creative, you will not regret picking up
a copy of this book. It is linked in the
show notes, and I think it is well worth your time.
Now you touch on this in Storycraft, But audiobooks were
not nearly as popular back then as they are now.
I mean, it's a massive industry today, but it wasn't

(39:41):
back then in the early eighties. So can you share
with the listener why you decided to make audio versions
in addition to writing the books.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
As a matter of fact, I don't think the word
audio book even existed at that time. I don't think
i'd ever heard the term.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Probably true.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
Yeah, And I'd never heard of an author recording his
own books. But the Hank stories, they were patterned on
an oral tradition of storytelling that is native to my
part of the country, in the ranching and farming agriculture.

(40:19):
Agricultural families I think have always told stories, and it's
something they do around the kitchen table on a cold
winter night. They've read aloud to each other. They revival stories,
allowed to each other. It was in my tradition and

(40:39):
Hank comes out of this oral tradition of storytelling, and
so from the beginning, the Hank stories were not intended
for children, but they were always meant to be read aloud.
So the only way I had a publicizing my publishing
company was by going out and reading Hank aloud to

(41:03):
audiences in my area. They were mostly rural people and
small town people, people involved in agriculture, and I would
go and do after dinner speaking to agricultural audiences all
the way from shrimpers on the Gulf Coast in Texas

(41:26):
up the dairy farmers in Iowa, cattle feeders in Montana,
ranches in Kansas, and barley growers up in Alberta, Canada.
I did the same thing for each one of those audiences.
I read Hank aloud. There were rarely any kids in
the audience, and they went over very well. And that's

(41:48):
how I widened the circle and let people know what
I was doing. And since I was getting a good
response to those programs and was getting paid as an
after inner speaker, I knew that I could do the
voices of at least the fourteen characters that were in
the first Tank book, and so I found a company

(42:10):
in Arlington, Texas that did books on tape. I think
they called them, and they sent me a contract they
were going to do hire all the actors and do
all the production. And before I signed the contract, I
found out that they went bankrupt. So I found, to

(42:31):
my surprise that there was a recording studio in Amarilla.
They did mostly advertisements for radio and television. And I
called them up and said, you ever do a book
on tape? They said nope, And I said, well I
hadn't either. You want to give it a try? And
they said sure, come on. So I went in and

(42:53):
I met up in the studio and I read the
first Tank book, and I think it he took four
or five hours. And when I was done, the guy said,
what do you want me to do with this? I said,
make it sound like an old nineteen fifties radio program,
and he smiled and he said that sounds great. I

(43:13):
was a radio kid. So he had a library of
background music and sound effects that he used in the
advertisements radio ads, and so he edited my mistakes out
with a razor blade. He was recording on a sixteen
track audio tape.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (43:37):
He made his edits with a razor blade, spliced it
back together with tape and added theme music and sound effects,
and I recorded songs to go with each one of
those audio books. I come from a musical background, and
I'm not a great musician. I don't read music, I

(43:59):
don't write music. But I come up with the songs.
And I play the bando and my wife plays the
mangolin and we sing in the church choir. And I
wanted to make a joyful noise with music, and so
I wrote funny songs. And some of them are pretty songs.
Some of them might even be beautiful songs. I think

(44:20):
some of them are. But they add something to the
audio books that you wouldn't get if this had been
done by a stiff necked professional outfit that was working
professional actors. It was an amateur production from the beginning,

(44:41):
and I've never pretended to be an actor, and I
don't care. And you know what, my audience doesn't care either.
My audience will forgive anything except a lie, and I
never lie to my audience. So we get along fine.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
That's great.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
When I came across that passage in the book that
talked about you'd sell and the producer, I wanted to
sound like a classic radio show. I was like, Oh, yes,
that makes so much sense because they've they've always felt
like even though it is the text of the book,
they've always felt like it was a show, and they've
just probably one of the best transitions from from the

(45:23):
page to audio for books, and I love it. So
you mentioned in the book that you grew up listening
to a lot of old time radio shows. So what
are some of the shows that that you remember from
back then. Any favorites from that.

Speaker 4 (45:36):
Era, Sergeant Pricelon or the yukon Ah, Bobby Benson and
the b Barbie Riders. I love a mystery family theater.
I think that I can remember in the forties some
Tom Mix programs that goes way back to that. He

(45:58):
was a a Western actor. But yeah, I was a
radio kid. I spent a lot of time listening to
the radio. My father despised television and he never wanted
it in our house, and so I never have had

(46:19):
a comfortable relationship with television. Chris and I have been
married for fifty five years and we never had a television.
We watch movies on DVD and we used VCR when
that was the medium. We don't do streaming, and I
don't think we ever will. We're going to stick with DVD,

(46:41):
and I think there's a growing movement of people who
have decided that's the way to go because the tech companies,
when you depend on them for streaming, you don't own
the things, yep, and they have all these ways of
following you around to try to sell you something else

(47:04):
that you don't want. So DVDs. We've got a big
library and DVDs, and a lot of them are old.
We don't go to theaters anymore. We watch the movies
that bring us the gift of entertainment. And that's what
I try to do with the Hank audio books. It's

(47:25):
like a good meal. It makes your audience either better
or worse. I think that that should be the standard
for art. Why can't art follow the same standards that
my wife follows in her kitchen, or that a good
restaurant would follow. You give your customers something that doesn't

(47:48):
make them want a puke. Why can't argue that?

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Absolutely? Yeah, I think at one point in a part
of story Craft, you said something along the lines of
art that uplifts. I don't think that was the right word,
but something along those lines. Art that uplifts and not
doesn't poison the consumer. And I think it's similar to
what you're saying now. I love it.

Speaker 4 (48:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean we should expect our our tools,
our food, our entertainment, our literature to make us better, wiser, happier.
It should give us laughter or tears, but not They

(48:32):
shouldn't be toxic.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
I don't know how art has gotten by with that
for so many years. Yes, it's a legacy of the
universities that are failing now.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
M It's an important topic and I'm so much on
the same page with you in that regard. And I
think audio content or audio storytelling is such a wonderful
medium anyway, because it's so intimate and the listener can
just kind of, I don't know, scoot right up to

(49:05):
whatever they're listening on and it feels like you're just
right there listening to somebody tell you a story. And
that's exactly how you come across with the Hank audiobooks.
And one of the big things about these is the music,
which you alluded to a moment ago. Now I'm going
to tell the listener if you want, all the history
behind the music and the songs and how John ended
up partnering with a musician to help bring those to life.

(49:27):
You got to find that story in the story craft book.
We don't have time to go over all of that here,
but that definitely is one of the big parts. And
of course you mentioned the character voices. Now, how long
did it take you to come up with the voices
for the main characters like Hank, Drover and Pete. They're
very distinct, which is important in an audio format. You
want to have the character sound different, and you do

(49:50):
it so seamlessly. I mean, I saw you do it
live on stage. What was your approach to creating those.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
Well, it's my answer seems implausible, but it takes no
effort for me. I did nothing to rehearse those stories.
I had the voices in my head. They appeared when
I did the first reading at a rotary club or

(50:21):
a ladies club and Perry. Then I could do the
voices of all those characters. I'm not trained as an actor.
I'm not qualified to do it. When I go and
do an audio book, I do nothing to prepare. I
don't study the text, I don't rehearse anything. I go

(50:41):
into the studio and I start reading and I can
do it. I can't explain how or why, but it's
just a blessing that dropped out of the sky. And
as I say, I'm not qualified to do an audio book,
I'm not qualified to record the songs. I'm an amateur

(51:01):
and I have a blast.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
And it comes through, and that's that's important. I mean,
you say you're not trained as an actor, but there's
a there's an instinct there for storytelling, as you said,
as part of your tradition growing up, and so that
comes through in the performance. And of course there's a
benefit being the author of the material, so you're already
familiar with things. But I'm sure the voice actors in
the audience are a little jealous of your ability to

(51:27):
just pull these these character voices out and stay in
them so easily.

Speaker 4 (51:32):
Yeah. Well, now, when I write a character when I'm
writing the book, I have to know that I can
do that character when I go to the studio, and
I have to work that out when I'm writing the story.
And if I came up with a character with no

(51:52):
I didn't have any idea how the voice would sound,
I couldn't put it in because I'm going to be
on the spot when I go into the studio. I
got to come up with something, but it's just a
very natural thing for me. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Some of my favorites are are the Buzzards. I mean,
they just crack me up just the way they speak.
It's it's always so much fun when they show up
in the story.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
Yeah. Yeah, they are very funny characters.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Well, you say, you say you have a blast with it,
and I'm sure that writing for the character of Hank
is a blast since he's the point of view character.
But of the minor characters, which one do you have
the most fun writing their dialogue?

Speaker 4 (52:37):
Well, a guy in Joplin, Missouri, listened to every one
of those audio books. You wanted to find out how
many characters I had. He counted one hundred and fifty three.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
So you know, I don't have any despicable characters in
my stories. I don't want to spend my time writing
or thinking about despicable people or animals. Some of my
characters are better than others. They all have their bad habits,
but I like all of them. And the kaya Brothers

(53:14):
they're a blasts. They remind me of when I was
in junior high in the eighth grade rip and snort
her eighth grade boys, that's what they offered. And Wallace
and Junior. They're very funny characters. J. T. Cluck the
head Rooster. I was listening to a Hank audio book,
which I often do coincidentally, I'm a big fan of

(53:37):
the audio books, and it was The Troublesome Lady. And
there's this character named Miss Scamper, and she has the
voice of May West. May West was an actress back
in the thirties, and she was the sultry blonde and

(54:00):
had this distinctive way of talking. And I was lucky
enough to see some revivals of her movies when I
was at Harvard Divinity School and living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
They had old time movie revivals and so I got
to see Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers and
Maywest and W. C. Fields, all really great comedians. And

(54:26):
so Miss Scamper is a funny character. She hadn't I
think she's been into a three of the stories. But
Dog found Ralph, Miss Viola, her father slim.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
So many to choose from. Yeah, yeah, So a few
years ago Q Code and HDC Productions teamed up and
they produced a five episode podcast audio drama of Hanky
Cow Dog called Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest, and
it actually picked up several award nominations, including a Best

(55:03):
News Show for the Seneca Awards in twenty twenty, and
Cynthia Arrivo as Madam Moonshine picked up a nomination for
Best Supporting Actress at the Senecas. So this was a
really interesting foray into a full fledged audio drama from
the audiobook versions. Can you tell us how that deal

(55:26):
with q code came about? How they approached you.

Speaker 5 (55:28):
Initially, we had been talking with a movie director in
Austin named Jeff Nichols, and his latest movie is called
Bike Riders.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
It's out now. I haven't seen it. Before that, he
did a movie called Loving, and then before that he
did one called Mud with McConaughey, and he found the
Hank book in his wife's library, I think, and was
reading it to his seven year old bok. He was

(56:01):
reading The Dark Unchanted Forest and he and the boy
both just laughed all the way through it. And when
he was done, he he asked his people, see if
you can get a hold of this Ericson guy and
see about the movie rights. So he called us and
we had a little investment group made up of people

(56:23):
mostly from my hometown of Perry, Can who had raised
their kids and grandkids on Hank books and audio books
and didn't want They all wanted Hank to be made
into a beautiful movie that would be worthy of their
children and grandchildren. This was a series of stories that

(56:44):
originated here in this hostile environment of the Texas Panhandle.
But it was beautiful and they were willing to put
up some money to try to make a movie that
was controlled by us and not somebody in New York

(57:04):
or Los Angeles. And so we had conversations with Jeff Nichols.
He came up here and spent several days on our ranch,
and he met our investors, and he saw where I
came from, and I think he respected the integrity of
the stories, the goodness of the stories, and he was

(57:27):
willing to try to get that into an animated movie
and protect it. And he had good contacts in Hollywood,
but he didn't live there, and he's from Arkansas, so
he has his roots in the American heartland just like

(57:49):
I do. So he didn't have success in finding an
established animation company that was interested in the story that
he put together, which was very true to my book,
and so q code does these podcasts as a way.

(58:14):
It's kind of a step towards a movie. So Jeff
Nichols put together a gold plated cast that had five
or six people who'd been nominated for Academy Awards, and
he did screenplay and this was during COVID we recorded it.

(58:34):
He asked me to do the voice of Wallace the Buzzard,
which I was very pleased to do. And I recorded
my part in Amarilla and had a I guess a
FaceTime link with Jeff who was in Austin, so everybody
was locked down and we had to do it remotely,

(58:58):
and that's the way he did it, with all those
actors McConaughey and Cynthia Rebo I think Cynthia Ribo lived
in London. And anyway, he put it together, and it
was never intended to be just a podcast. It was
meant to be a vehicle that we could take to

(59:18):
production companies or investors that would take us to the
next step towards an animated movie. And that is what
we are doing. And our investor group in Ferryton paid
for that production and owns it. My son Mark is

(59:38):
the executive that's running HDC Productions with the Higher investment company,
and he is preparing a pitch deck, is what it's called,
for potential investors, and we're very close to going out
and looking for money in the American heartland to pay

(01:00:01):
for an animated movie that we control. The major investors
and creative control is going to be in my little
hometown of Ferryton, Texas, population eight thousand. So there was
some talk of doing another podcast, but Jeff Nichols his

(01:00:22):
main interest was not in doing podcasts, and the actors
were the same way. They didn't make much money on
the podcast. They wanted that it was their contribution to
moving the project into an animated movie and possibly a
series of animated movies.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Okay, gotcha. Well sounds like we're not going to get
any more Hank the cow Dog audio dramas. But we
always have the audio books and you can always re
listen to this one over and again, so now you
can tell us. So what did you think of Matthew
McConaughey's Hank.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
I thought he did very well. McCarthey is a professional actor.
He has studied his craft, and he's very good at it.
And he he has a range in his voice, range
of sounds that I don't have, so he can do
things with that character that I can't do. And I'm

(01:01:23):
not jealous of him. I'm sure he's not jealous of
me if he's ever even listened to an audio my
audio books. But you know, there's room, there's room in
this world. Look at all the actors that have done
brilliant portrayals of the Sherlock Holmes stories. You know, there

(01:01:46):
was Basil Rathbone and oh there's been at least four
or five that have made movies or television series out
of out of those characters. And they're all good. And
I think the same as true can be true of
the Haank stories. I'm going to go on and do
my audio books and I'm gonna put a lot of

(01:02:08):
babies to sleep in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and even
as far as Phoenix, maybe maybe even places in California.
And that's that's a great function for audio books. And
there's a place for McConaughey doing the voice of Hank

(01:02:28):
in an animated movie. And I'm proud to work with him.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Yeah, I got to say, I was so surprised when
that when I heard the news about that show coming up,
and I was really, really, really enjoyed listening to it.
And of course the performances were fantastic, And it's always
a treat to have a great adaptation that stays faithful
to the source material. And well, we know from past

(01:02:55):
experiences with certain production houses here in the US it
hasn't always been the case. So having full control over it,
I'm sure was a big sticking point for you. So
I'm glad that worked out.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
Well, just this year, the latest Hank the cow Dog book,
The Case of the Airborne Invasion, has been released. Tell
us a little bit about this latest book and what
is Hank up to in this volume.

Speaker 4 (01:03:24):
I got the idea for the story at a dinner
party in Austin, Texas, all about ten years ago. A
good friend of mine had a circle of adult friends
who were longtime Hank fans, and they were excited that

(01:03:45):
she knew the guy who wrote the books and did
the audios, and so she invited Chris and me to
visit them in Austin, and she put on this dinner
party and had probably twenty people there. And I was
talking to one of the guys who was there. He

(01:04:06):
was an elder, elderly gentleman who probably had grandkids, and
he was telling me about his dog, and this dog
all of a sudden, one day he went to his
dog bowl and out of the corner of his eye,
he saw his tail, and he whirled around and started

(01:04:29):
chasing his tail, and he went in circles until he
got so busy he fell down. He thought another dog
was coming up behind him to steal his food. Apparently
we never can be sure what our dogs are actually thinking,
but that seemed to be the only explanation. So he

(01:04:51):
went back to eat and saw that tail again, and
off he went. And I put that in my I
have a file of story ideas, and I put that.
I thought that was so funny, and it's so typical
of a dog, and you know, they always take themselves

(01:05:12):
so seriously, and that's one of the things that makes
them so funny. And years later I remembered that story
and I started the Hank book with that idea. That's
when I start a Hank story, it's usually there's not

(01:05:34):
much to it. I just have seen something funny my
dogs had done or something is going on with the weather,
and that's how I started a story. And so Hank
thinks that the Charlie monsters are coming onto the ranch,

(01:05:54):
have parachuted onto the ranch and are planning to trying
to steal his dog food and then possibly invade the
ranch for other the various things that he doesn't even
know about. But he gets part of his information from JG. Cluck,

(01:06:17):
the head rooster, who has seen what he thought first
at first thought were thistles in the air, and then
he decided, after hearing Hank, maybe those were actually parachutes
and he saw a big bird in the air, but
maybe it was action airplane that was carrying the Charlie paratroopers.

(01:06:45):
So Hank convinces himself that the ranch is being invaded
and overrun by Charlie monsters. And of course the cat
is watching all of this with great amusement and contributes
whatever he can contribute to begging Hank on into making

(01:07:10):
the drama even more ridiculous. So it's just the wrong
through the crazy but innocent world of a dog who
thinks that he's head of our insecurity.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
It always seems to revolve around some misunderstanding on his part.
And I think that's what makes you so charming too,
because we, as the reader or the listener, we know
exactly what's happening, but he doesn't have a clue.

Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
Right, Yeah, And between those two poles jumps an arc
of electricity that is humor.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:07:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
Well, do you feel up to give the listener a
little taste of this new book, volume eighty one of
the series.

Speaker 4 (01:07:57):
I can. Let's see if my phone will pick it up.
All right, I'll start on page five. Okay, as usual,
I think is asleep. It's ten o'clock in the morning.
He's knocked out asleep, but he will not admit that
he ever sleeps late or during the day, because he's

(01:08:21):
head of ranch security and he's not supposed to sleep
during business hours. It all began with the sound of
a door opening and closing the back door of the
ranch house. It makes two distinct sounds, a squeak and
a thud, and everyone in the security division is wired
to respond because our years of training have taught us

(01:08:43):
what they mean. In the morning, if someone comes out
of the house, it's probably our beloved ranch Wise delivering
the morning scraps. I had been up all night working
on reports and didn't hear it, but Drover did, Hey,
you better wake up. Scrap scraps is a six letter

(01:09:08):
word that has an explosive effect on the mind of
a dog. Every part of our body responds ears, eyes, tongue, legs,
and tail. I leaped to my feet and sent papers
flying in all directions, stood on unsteady legs and blinked
my eyes against the glare of spotlights. I noticed a

(01:09:28):
little mut sitting nearby. Who turned on those lights? What
lights the spotlight? Oh? I think it's just the sun.
The sun doesn't come up till morning. Yeah, it's morning. Well,
you'd be boring too if spotlights were frying your eyeballs. No,

(01:09:49):
I said, it's morning, not boring. I blinked and glanced around.
When did the sun get so bright? A few unsteady steps.
Did you hear that explosion?

Speaker 5 (01:10:04):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:10:05):
I think it was were closing at the house. I
heard an explosion. It blew me out of my chair.
I think you exploded out of bed. We'll need damage
reports from all departments. And who are you? I'm Drover,
remember me? No, who let you in? This is a
secured area? Well, I sleep here every night we'll see

(01:10:31):
about that. Wait, are you the one with the bad leg? Yep,
that's me. Okay, bring me up to speed. What's going
on around here? Let me think. I guess we were
both asleep and I heard the door open and closed
up at the house. I yelled scraps, and you flew

(01:10:55):
out a bed like a bomb had gone off. I'll
try my legs again and found that they worked. I
seem to have come through the explosion in good shape.
How's your leg? Thank Someone came out of the house.
It might be Sally May with scraps if we don't hurry.

(01:11:16):
Wait a second, did you say scraps about five times? Roy?
If Sally May is delivering scraps, she might give them
to the cat. My name's Drover, drove her with a D.
I'm perfectly aware of your name. You called me Roy.
I don't care what you call yourself. Why wasn't I

(01:11:38):
informed about the scraps? How can I run this ranch
when they're trying to steal my scraps? Well, you were
sleep and you never listened anyway. I listened to everything,
but that explosion almost blew out my ears. You exploded
out of bed. I don't know what kind of nonsense
is going on in this department? But if we don't

(01:12:00):
make a dash to the yard gate, we might lose
all our scraps to the cat. Well that's enough.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
Oh I love it. It's trying to hold back the
laughter so I don't ruin the experience for the listener.
But oh it's so fun. I was following along in
my copy. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:12:20):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Well, it has been an absolute delight to speak with you.
I really appreciate you taking the time to come on
the show share about your story about Hank, the history
of this wonderful, wonderful book series and audiobook series. It's
been a pleasure and an honor for me. Thank you
so much, my pleasure.

Speaker 4 (01:12:42):
Thank you very much for making contact with me and Phoenix,
and I'll look forward to talking to you again.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
Well, huge thanks to John R. Ericson for coming on
the show. Really really had a fantastic time chatting with him.
Links to all of his work is in the show notes.
You definitely want to go check it out. The story
craft book that I mentioned is fantastic if you are
a creative. It is a very easy read. It's inexpensive.
He writes in a very approachable style and it's really

(01:13:13):
really good. The Hank books are also a really great price.
They're inexpensive, great addition to your library. And also if
you are interested, you can hire John to come do
a Hank concert at your event. So all of the
links are in the show notes. And also want to
quickly say thanks to the Maverick Books team for helping
to make this interview happen. Gary and Nicky really appreciate

(01:13:36):
you in helping me out and making this happen. And
you both were a delight to deal with throughout this
process and I thank you very much. So what do
you think of the show?

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
Please leave your message after the Zelle Hi Audi the
Peter Central.

Speaker 1 (01:13:55):
Hey guys, this is awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
Hell about j D Royan Andrew minum it for you now.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
Yesterday I received a letter from a big fan.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
No time to dry. I've got an email.

Speaker 3 (01:14:05):
This i'nother package for me today.

Speaker 4 (01:14:07):
No, it's actually just your mail.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
Well, if you'd like to get in touch with us,
as always, there are many ways to do that, but
you can always email feedback at audio theatercentral dot com,
comment on the show notes of any episode, or send
a text or leave a voicemail at six two three
six eight eight two seven seven zero again six three
six eight eight two seven seven zero. Real quickly, I

(01:14:37):
want to say thanks to Jeremy. He's been sending emails
about the new pause on tilS episodes, his thoughts on
each episode as they've been coming out. And I'm not
going to share the specifics here because I don't want
to spoil anything for anybody who hasn't heard them yet.
But Jeremy, thank you so much for sending in your feedback.
I really appreciate your interaction and it's always great to
hear from you. Next up, you have an email from Blake,

(01:15:00):
and he said, from about nineteen ninety six to his
latest twenty eighteen, there were so many consistent releases from
various production companies such as Focus on the Family, Radio Theater,
Heirloom Audio, Lamp Lighter Theater, and Air Theater that were
done at the Soundhouse in London, and that featured the
actors I lovingly nickname the Glassboro Players names like Andrew Harrison,

(01:15:22):
Robert Binfield, Katie Kelgren, Mervin Stutter, Kathy Sarah. However, since
twenty nineteen, I can count on one hand how many
productions released in the family friendly audio drama space that
were done with the Glassborough Players. Why is this? Why
was it so common from nineteen ninety six to twenty eighteen,
and what happened in twenty nineteen to stop this? Even

(01:15:43):
prior to the pandemic and even post pandemic. Joan of
Arc and One River Cross Production are the only two
done post COVID that were recorded at the soundhouse in
London Well Blake. Since I am not behind the scenes
with all of these different production companies, I can only
guests here. And Radio Theater has sort of been on

(01:16:03):
pause for several years now, and I would assume that
if they ever go back into production, they will record
there once again, as nearly all of the Radio Theater
productions were recorded there. I think there were some bits
that may have been recorded in LA but I think
primarily everything was recorded in London Heirloom Audio. They're also
on sort of a hiatus. We would love to see

(01:16:24):
them come back. I know that they just had some
difficulties and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't
go back to the soundhouse if they ever go back
into production with the Ga Hinti series. So I would
assume they would return there. Now with the Lamplighter Theater,
they've built their own studio in New York and so
they don't go anywhere anymore, So they don't go to London,

(01:16:45):
they don't go to la They have remoted in some
actors and a few times they've flown over UK actors,
so some of these actors are still working, but the
productions themselves are not being recorded at the soundhouse. Sarah
was also recently in a production from The Brigman Adventures

(01:17:06):
which was post pandemic, but she was recorded remotely. And
as you point out, Joan of Arc was recorded at
the soundhouse, and river Cross has recorded there, And I
also would assume that if river Cross continues to produce
audio dramas, they will continue to go back over there.
They've got a stable of actors that they are working

(01:17:27):
with from the UK, and so I'm pretty sure that
they will return there again. So it's not that things
are not being made anymore with these actors. It's just
that it's much more sparse than it was and I
would venture to guess that that is just a budgetary issue.
It's very expensive to fly a production team over to

(01:17:50):
the UK. Rent studio time at the soundhouse and bring
in all those actors. And so for some reason, these
big budget productions are just not bringing in the revenue
like they used to. Radio theater is the classic example.
Focus on the Family Radio Theater. They produced dozens and
dozens of hours of super high quality audio drama throughout

(01:18:13):
the nineties and into the early two thousands, and it
was fantastic stuff. But people are not buying that anymore,
and I'm increasingly seeing people saying, why don't they just
add those productions into the Aio Club. Well, that's not
what the aiol Club is about. The club is about
Adventures inn Odyssey, not Radio Theater. They're separate brands, different

(01:18:36):
scale of production, different budgets. They're not the same. And
those productions cost a lot more, and so I don't
understand people's mentality of just wanting them to throw them
in and give them to them for free. That's a
separate issue. But Augustine Institute Radio Theater is still producing stuff.

(01:18:58):
I mean, it's not the output that we might like
to see from these high quality studios, but I'm just
happy when we get one. So, yes, we would like
to hear from these actors a little bit more often,
but when we do, it's great. And so I'm just
guessing that it just has come down to a budgetary issue,

(01:19:19):
and it's just the revenue is not here as much
as it used to be in the space for these
high quality, feature length productions. I wish that were not
the case, but I'm guessing that that's probably what's going
on here. I guess we just need to We need
somebody to crack the code of how to make these
super profitable and get these shows out to a greater

(01:19:42):
audience so we can fund more future audio dramas of
super high quality. I'm sure if somebody had the budget
and they approached Heirloom Audio and said, hey, we're gonna
We're gonna fund the next several Extraordinary Adventures of Ga
Hinty productions, they would jump at the chance to over
there and record again. So I'm pretty sure it's just

(01:20:03):
a budgetary issue at this point. Well, the last feedback
note is that you may have heard me talking in
past episodes about the ATC Throne Room, which was a
little community for ATC listeners built on a platform called Throne,
and it was really cool. You could have threaded conversations,
we would chat about the ATC episodes and you could

(01:20:23):
send in feedback through that.

Speaker 4 (01:20:25):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
Throne ended up closing down some months ago. Now some
functionality is still working, but it's it's going out of
business completely, which is unfortunate. We didn't have a huge
number of listeners get involved, but the ones that were there,
there were some great conversations, great back and forth in there.
Really enjoyed it, but unfortunately that is gone. So I'm

(01:20:49):
tossing it out to you. What is a non social
network site option that you would participate in if we
created an ATC community there so you could and chat
with other ATC listeners about clean, family friendly audio drama
and you know, interact with some of the ATC team

(01:21:09):
directly as well. So any ideas I'm looking at some
I have some that I'm considering, but I would like
to hear from you. Again, no social media sites, That's
not what I want to do, but I'm open to
hearing your thoughts on that. Well. If you would like
to get in touch with us, you can head over
to Audio Theatercentral dot com slash contact. All of the

(01:21:30):
ways are listed there. Show notes for this episode are
at Audio Theatercentral dot com, slash two zero two and
all of the links to everything we covered in this episode,
including the Hank, the cow dog stuff, and all of
the updates. All of that is there. Thank you so
much for listening. I'll talk to you next time.

Speaker 3 (01:21:53):
Hi, This is Caleb Teeson from Las Vegas, Nevada. Audio
Theater Central is a production of porch Light Family Media.
The theme music was composed by Sam Avendano. The show
is produced and edited by JD. Sutter. Find the website
at audiotheatercentral dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
Howdy y'all, this is Roy coming at you with some
few cowboy jokes here. Howdy. That reminds me. Do you
know who wrote the book how to Talk Like a Cowboy?
That's right, mister, Howdy y'all? How d y'all? All right?

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
Moving on, all right?

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
What do you call a happy cowboy? Jolly rancher? That's right?
And finally, a good old story from the time gone by.
There was a three legged dog walking down the street,
walked into a bar, stood up on his back two legs,
stared everyone in the room and said, I'm looking for
the man who shut my pall.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
Scorch Light Family Media, your source for Family censored

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
Content scorchlightfamilymedia dot com