Author Nathaniel Sizemore - Deadly Division and The Cohort

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Seven oh five. Look you by kr CD talk station.
Brian Thomas, A big smile on my face. Why it's Friday.
That's reason enough. But I also have Nathaniel Sizemorigan Studio.
He has an impressive resume, young man. He is. He's
an award winning novelist, attorney, entrepreneur, graduated from Vanderbilt Law School,
which I won't hold against him. Serves an associate editor
of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Impressive, that is. I must

(00:34):
underscore that after practicing a large firm of Washington, DC Metropolitan,
he returned to Cincinnati to work for his family's business.
He has written a couple of books. Debut thriller entitled
Deadly Division actually won writing awards and was named as
a finalists for the Hawthorne Prize. Second thriller, the Cohort
number one new release Legal Thriller on Amazon. And congratulations

(00:58):
to both of those. We're here to talk about those
books and get a little insight about Nathanael's background. Welcome
in studio, Nathaniel. It's a real pleasure having you here, Brian.
Pleasure to be here, and thank you to Bob Katyre,
who as the reason that I even know Nathaniel. We're
mutual friends with Bob as a retired colonel, and I've
had Bob on the program multiple times talking about the

(01:18):
active shooter situations. He does classes on that. He also does,
you know, wound care classes, and if you're out there
in your business or your church group, your community group
is interested in that kind of thing, just find Bob Katyre. Nathaniel, obviously,
are you a recovering lawyer since you find yourself working
in a family business and you're an author now as well,

(01:38):
do you still practice law at all on any level?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I am the corporate counsel for the family business. Okay,
so I couldn't get out of it. I had to
stay in it. But I wear a business hat some
days too.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Congratulations on that. At least you're sticking it out. Your
dad's in studio too. He's a lawyer as well. Never
did practice law, though he never did, maintains his law.
Agree in regardless what prompted you to write. I know,
I have a lot of listeners here who are writers,
and I think it's really cool in these modern times

(02:12):
that it's I think easier to get something published because
you can do it on your own as opposed to
submitting your work to multiple different publishers and wait around
for that probably rejection letter, because that's kind of what
I get the impression most happens, happens to most people.
But what inspired you to write? And did you self
publish or did you work through a publisher? How to work?

(02:35):
The story's cool?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
I enjoy the storylines of the books, but the story
of how I stumbled into this is really hopefully inspirational
to those. Well, that's why I ask considering a critic
side hustle. So we were on vacation in Kea Island,
South Carolina. It was twenty ten. I was going into
my third year of law school and I couldn't sleep.

(02:57):
I had an idea. So I pulled out my laptop
up and I pounded out ten pages of aimless drivel.
It was nonsense, but it was a start stream of consciousness.
Stream of consciousness. But I had this idea and I
just couldn't put it to bed. So I wrote a
storyboard and wrote about fifteen or twenty percent of it,
and then life happens. I had third year of law school,
I was dating a gow who's now my wife, and

(03:19):
start a job, take the bar exam all the big
things in life. It's sat dormant until a little thing
called COVID gave us all some very necessary personal time
to do a variety of things. So what I did
was I watched the season of Downton Abbey and I
started and I started a second one, and I said,
you know what, I can do something better with my downtime.

(03:42):
So I finished the book and I had a small
press publisher friend in Atlanta BDI Publishers, send in the manuscript.
He says, I think you have something here, and here
we are two books later.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
That's amazing. You know, I'm friends with Peter Bronson, is
a brilliant guy and he's an author as well. But
he has his own publishing company, Chili Dog Press. Oh wow,
so some local authors have worked through Peter Bronson's Chilidog
press dot com. By the way, if you're interested in
looking for a publisher, Peter's are just a It's a brilliant,
wonderful guy. But you know, that's why I asked you
the question about inspiration, because you know there are people

(04:14):
out there that have the itch, but they need someone
like you to demonstrate that, Yeah, it actually can be
done and quite successful. You are. What are your books about,
Let's start with the debut throw a Deadly Division.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah. Absolutely, and I'd be remiss not to mention, you know,
all glory to God for the inspiration for these books.
In my acknowledgments, I say to God from whom all
talents and blessings flow. I feel very strongly that God
helped me write these books. I went in ignorant as
to the general writing process, and He really helped me

(04:50):
on every step of the way. So I glory goes
to God for the success of these books. But I
think really the folks that like John Grisham, they like
Dan Brown, they like those types of novels, are really
going to like Deadly Division and kind of inspired by
Dan Brown. I start each book with a fact section,
and these are well researched books, but they're things that

(05:13):
are true that I want the reader to know when
they started. And what's really cool, Brian, is that it
echoes a lot of what's happening today. One of the
most encouraging scary comments that I get is I wonder
if this is really happening. Oh yeah, I wonder if
this is really happening, And here's what I mean, deadly division.

(05:34):
It starts out with a very controversial piece of legislation
that was actually in the novel, an extension of the
Johnson Amendment from the sixties, which says, if we give
tax breaks to churches, we can regulate them. So, taking
just a couple steps further, there's this piece of legislation
called the Division Act, which says that the government can

(05:56):
regulate and in fact restrict certain religious activities. And as
a result, a young mother loses a child, and my
protagonist David Steman sees an opportunity for fame and fortune
and takes on her case. But what he doesn't know
is that behind the scenes, there's a deep, sinister organization
that will stop at nothing, even murder, to keep the

(06:20):
secrets behind the Division Act quiet.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Now, do you acknowledge and deal with the clause in
the First Amendment the free exercise of religion in that
particular context?

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Oh yeah, yeah. I like to research my books. Well,
most of it takes place in Washington, d C. And
many of the venues in the book I've actually been
to personally what I did during my process, and I'd
say it's an interesting process. I'm a big movie guy
always have been. I actually would play out the scenes

(06:53):
in my head, and then I would write what I saw,
and I wanted it to be in cool location. So,
for example, there's one scene in the West Conference room
at the US Supreme Court building. I was sworn in
before the US Supreme Court and we were put in
that room. So I actually pulled the pictures from that

(07:13):
event and tried to draw it as accurately as possible.
Oh that's cool, and that's Deadly Division. But of course
I couldn't stop there. David Stoneman is pulled back into
the fight in the Cohort, and he's lured to a
secret island on the Carolina coast by this organization that
he fought in book one, and I wanted to add

(07:36):
an extra element of danger. So there's a hurricane bearing
down on them, and he's being held captive in this
high end, super exclusive hotel by this global organization with
nefarious intentions, and he's trying to escape. He and all
the new characters that I had in book two, So
you don't have to read Deadly Division to enjoy the Cohort.

(07:56):
I've had people pick up the Cohort first and really enjoyed.
Go Back can read deadly divisions, So either are standalones
and a really fun, suspenseful ride for those who like
legal political thrillers.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Legal political thrillers based upon real life realities. Boy, I
sure hope not. That's that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
But I get Facebook messages, I get text messages of
real events with people say this sounds a lot like
your book.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, well, you know, as host of the morning show here,
I have what we used to call conspiracy theorists we
are now calling pattern observers, and I'll get these instant
messages like did you see this? I'm talking about something
completely unrelated, and yet there is a relatable article or
link out there in the world by somebody who's purporting

(08:43):
to say this is going on. And you know, quite
often I raise my eyebrow in the measure of skepticism,
because you know, it's like Abraham Lincoln said, if you
read it on the Internet, it's true, you know, yeah,
you know. And so I just find it so difficult
to sift through fiction and fact because of the multitude

(09:07):
of sites and outlets and the multi I mean, you
know what opinions are like, They're like sphincters we've all
got one, and somebody's spewing some sort of nonsensical garbage
all the time, which someone will grab a hold of
and purport to be fact, like it's Donald Trump's fault
that the helicopter flew into an airplane. Now where did
this someone come up with that? Well, it's out there
right now, you can see a real time. So that's

(09:29):
the problem, the problematic thing, but which makes your type
of works come across as plausible and real.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
I wrote the types of books that I would want
to read, and I'll tell you on my on my
wish list is for these to be made into movies or.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Serious I bet well. And something tells me along the
lines of Grisham and others that there probably is going
to be a third book involving the same characters. There
must be. We'll bring back Nathaniel's Eismore here in a moment,
stick around, folks, right back after these words fifty five KRC.
Not thinking about radio.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Here.

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on fifty five krc DE talk Station.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Sevent eighteen. Here at fifty five krc DE talk Station,
Brian Thomas here wishing everybody very happy Friday. Remember Tech
Friday with Dave had it for just tuning in. Awesome
segment with Dave as always did the podcast fifty five
KRC dot Com at in studio. Nathaniel Says, a Sizemore attorney,
author and quite an author. He is, he's got a
couple of books he's written, and an inspiration in terms
of those folks out there in the world that are

(11:22):
looking to maybe be a writer. You have an idea
or a concept for a book, and he just walked
through his process a little bit and yeah, it can
be done again. I'll mentioned Peter Brownson and chilidogpress dot
com if you're looking for a publisher, but you know,
using Amazon's I have some listeners who just did it
directly through Amazon, had their own self published book. So

(11:42):
it's just the world is a different place today than
it used to be in terms of being an author.
Now we were talking offline and the predicate for your
the book that you were talking about earlier, which is
deadly division. That that idea that they could pass a
law in order to control the narrative about religion and
what is how words are spoken in church is kind

(12:04):
of frightening reality like we have with the government manipulating
Facebook for example, and going in with FBI agents and
suppressing messages. I mean that is a dangerous, dangerous concept.
But off air you were mentioning a quote from Woodrow Wilson.
You should probably read it because it reminded me of
a comment or two that Judge Enteredopolitan has made to

(12:25):
me several times over the years, which may explain why
it is our politicians let us down from time to time.
Go ahead and read that one.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, yeah, So this is in the fact section of
my second book, The Cohort. In his book The New
Freedom of Call for the Emancipation of the Generous Energies
of a People from nineteen thirteen, President Woodrow Wilson wrote,
some of the biggest men in the US are afraid
of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there
is a power somewhere, so organized, so subtle, so watchful,

(12:53):
so interlock, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better
not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation
of it.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, And as soon as you read that kind of
got chills up my spine. Again, that's a that's a
quote from Woodrow Wilson. And then along came Jay Edgar Hoover,
and he vacuumed up all kinds of information. I mean,
we have he filmed with our John F. Kennedy having
sex with Marilyn Monroe or something. He spied on Martin
Luther King Junior. He had the goods on every president

(13:23):
and senators and politicians, and he literally threatened them with
exposing this. This, of course a different time. Morally speaking.
I think most people elected officials, if they've had a
fair behind their wives back or something, probably be like, ah,
everybody does it, and big deal, so did everybody else,
And look at all the presidents who philandered and blah
blah blah blah blah. You know, lighting up, Francis, it's

(13:44):
your moral value system, not mine, but judgment. Paulitano has
sort of suggested, if not directly indirectly, that he fears
that many. When you wonder why in the hell it
is your elected official voted a certain way in defiance
of something they ran on or a policy position that

(14:04):
they have out loud claimed to be near and dear
their hearts, and they vote something polar opposite. It may
be because that type of nefarious actor has the goods
on them. Maybe they know their Internet searches what kind
of porn they're watching, or that they're actually a homosexual,
or whatever. It doesn't matter if you want to hide
something and someone's got the goods on you, then you
may capitulate to their sort of blackmail.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah, it's it's the concept of is there a deep
state organization of puppet masters that really run the show?

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
And what's scary real about Deadly Division is that I
was able to during COVID extract some of the restrictions
that were a result of the coronavirus and add them
to this.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Oh no kidding, I was.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
And the restriction is actually on corporate prayer in the
Division Act. It's a restriction on corporate prayer, which is
group prayer. Of course, if you can't congregate, then you
can't have corporate prayer. And as a result, a young
man died with a disease that his twin brother was
healed from with the benefit of corporate prayer. So when

(15:13):
that religious action was restricted, he passed away. So the
question is what's what's a bit scary about this is
this is that's.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
What they did during COVID, And it's not new.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
This the concept from then Senator Lyndon Johnson in the
sixties said, and it was called the Johnson Amendment.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
You can look it up, give it a Google.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
It was if we give tax breaks to religious institutions,
we can regulate them.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Right with corporate With federal money, come federal regulations. And
if you're excused from the obligation, that excusing can also
come with strings attached.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yes, And that's that's what's scary, is when there's an overreach,
but not just an overreach, an over reach that appears
to come from a member of Congress, but who is
the puppet of a deeper, darker global organization. And that's
what the Cohort really focuses in on. Is it digs
into that global organization.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Did you have a particular person in mind when you're
thinking about the global organization? Because to me, it's always
like George sorows He. You know, he represents the ultimate
behind the scenes dark force, at least in so far
as pushing liberal policy and agenda and globalism. And he's
got fat Bank and funds a lot of these non
governmental organizations who undermine at least my personal belief systems.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
So I always planned and I get this question all
the time, is you know xyz character is that me?
It seems a lot like me, And the answer is
almost never yes. It's almost never yes. But what I
did was I came up with the idea of a
character that would fulfill the role. And yeah, I think
it is a combination of several personality traits which you

(16:58):
can find in the news the.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Thing Seize More, author of Deadly Division and the Cohort,
both of which will be on my blog page fifty
five KC dot com, so you can easily get a
copy of them, and I encourage you to do it.
Help this young writer out and we'll look forward to
number three in the presumably series. I expect I fast
forward like ten fifteen years. You're gonna have like a
row of books involving these characters.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
I tell you what we'd like to do if if
we make these into movies. It'd be fun. If you're listeners,
we get some of them to be extras. Wouldn't that
be fun? If we can shoot this, if we can
get this soul Hulu, Netflix, Angel Studios, whoever's listening, Let's
make this thing.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
I'll help you with the screenplay. Let's get this thing
made into a movie. Lea, just put it on the
lead screen. I'll sign up for a part, as long
as I have to join the screen actors. Well, make
you one of the good guys. Well, that will be
kind of you. Seven five Nathaniel, best of luck with
your book sales, and thank you for spending time with
my listeners and me this morning here on the Morning show.
Seven twenty five. Folks. Got some local stories coming up,
and remember seven forty with Heart for Seniors. This is

(17:58):
a fantastic organization doing the right thing for your loved
ones who are in senior living facilities and probably not
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Speaker 2 (18:11):
I'll be right back fifty five KRC A Minute of Hope,