Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Taro inside the La Productions dot Us Studio, unplugged
in totally on cut with Mark Greeney.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
How are you fantastic?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You've done something that I guess I could never predict.
You actually created a book with another writer I did.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
It wasn't the easiest thing, but it's great. I'm really
happy with what we put on the page.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I was going to ask you about that, because collaborating,
even in radio, it's one of those things where you
have to see eye to eye and heart to heart.
What was that like for you?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
We became really good friends before we ever talked about this.
So I met him at the Pentagon a few years
ago while I was researching a Tom Clancy novel, and
we just became pals, and I'd come up and see
him in DC or when he was stationed out at
Camp Pendleton in California. And after a while we just
started talking about what if Russia invaded more as you know,
(00:45):
like a political military question as opposed to a book.
But as we got more and more into it, we
started thinking about how we can make a fictional account
of this, and it helped. By the time we decided
to write each other, you know with each other.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We've you know each other for three years and it
had been you know, talking about this for two of them.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Isn't that weird? How that happens, How time flies by?
It almost the books almost become like a soundtrack to
your life.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, this one, particularly because we got the deal.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We did all the.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Plotting in about twenty sixteen, and did vocation research in
early twenty seventeen, and didn't turn in our last draft
until April of twenty nineteen. So it's been a you know,
multi year saga.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Is is it kind of weird because in the way
of like where I've already seen the movie The Lion King,
but it opens up this weekend, and so do you
sit back and wait to find out what people's reactions
are going to be?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, you have or at least I have no idea
until the book comes out.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I mean, we've gotten a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Of really good reviews, you know, for people from people
to get you know, the advanced reader copies, So that
gives you a hint that you think you know that
you have something, but you know, ninety nine percent of
the product cycle of creating one of these books is
you have no idea if anyone's.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Going to read it or if they're going to.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Like see that. That's what musicians will say too, they
got what was it like to be in that studio
when you were creating this song? Dude, we had no
idea what we were doing. It just happened.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, it's it's exactly the same thing.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It's like you you know, this is my eighteenth book,
so I sort of know when I've got something that
I think people will respond to, but you just you
just never know. Our pre sales for this book have
been really, really good, and I'm a little surprised, you know,
pleasantly surprised because it's you know, it's a new you know,
it's not part of my gray Man series. It's not
part of my Tom Clancy series. So you just don't
(02:29):
know until it comes out.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So now is it? Is it like what Gene Simmons
says that you've got to break away from the band
to go do something, because now you're bringing something back
to gray Man as well as Jack Ryan.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I've always wanted to do different things.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So this There's a Tom Clancy book called Red Storm
Rising that came out in the mid eighties that was
one of my favorite books, and it was one of
Rip's favorite books. So we sort of talked about what
it would be like if there was a modern equivalent
to it. Not at all the same storyline, but but
you know, some similarities. And so it was just the
kind of fantasy that we had for a while that
(03:02):
we would, you know, go write this massive military thriller,
and you know that does kind of relax you or
give you more energy for your other series too, because
then when I go back to the Great Man, it's
a very different animal and it's a little more comfortable
to me.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So when you put a book together like Red Metal,
what happens is you've got to envision at first. I mean,
do you have PTSD in any way of the situations
that you're creating.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Not really.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I mean there are parts that are very hard to
write and you think about it before you write them.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
We created like a.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Ninety one chapter outline for this book. It's a big novel,
and there were parts it's like, oh, you know, I know,
when this scene comes up, it's gonna be really hard
to write and really uncomfortable. But you just have to
be true to you know, what you think reality is
and what you think the story would be, and just
go into it, you know, feet first, and that's really
all you can do.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You're writing about World War Three. I grew up in
the state of Montana where we had those mini man
silos out there. I have, Oh, I have feared that
moment my entire life.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, they they'd be coming for you pretty quickly, the
ICBMs from Russia to go after the ICBMs that you
didn't been.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Part of a first strike. So yeah, you were right
to be very aware of that when you were younger.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well, and it's one of those things the way that
you write, it really feels like you've lived this life
before and you're coming back to tell us, Hey, here's
what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I mean, I do a lot of research and a
lot of historical research. One of the Tom Clancy books
that Tom and I did, the last one before he died,
was about Russian invading Ukraine, and three months after the
book came out, Russian invaded Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So every now and then you get it right.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But we didn't predict that it would happen, and we
were just basically it was just sort of a what
if that actually did happen. So it's super important that
you understand the way the world works in recent history
or whatever to kind of prognosticate like that.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Now, when you write a book read metal, you know
that there's two different people out there. There are those
that like boots on the ground kind of warfare and
there are those that like drones. You're hitting two completely
different audiences here.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, absolutely, this we try to take into account all
the things that would happen if Russia invaded Europe and Africa,
which they do in this novel. And so there's cyber
You're in a submarine, a Russian submarine, you're an American submarine.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You're on a.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Destroyer off the coast of Taiwan, because that's part of
the story as well. You're you are with a Polish
civilian girl that wants nothing to do with this war.
She just joined the militia to save money for a car.
And then of course you have the Square Square Jawn
Marines and the and the Fighter Jocks, a lot of
female characters. It's it's you know, it's a big, wide
(05:31):
scope novel.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So when when you introduce the girl, you have to
give a lieutenant colonel that the phone call, Hey, I
got this idea, let's bring a girl into the story.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Absolutely not. It was just the opposite I had.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I had the idea of bringing this female partisan fighter
in there. But RIP had the idea of a female
submarine commander, a female helicopter pilot.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
He and I both have.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I mean, he's he knows thousands and I know dozens
of really fantastic women and in the US military, and
sometimes I think they get a little short stript. We
weren't trying to create some sort of feminist piece or
anything like that. It's just those are the real people
out there, you know, protecting us.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
The way that you bring it for. My father always
when I was a child, would read Western books, and
I know that he would love this series because it
has that same kind of vibration about it where it
affects your emotions while you're reading it page by page.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well, I hope it does it.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
You know, we just put a lot of heart and
soul into it, and you have to do the right
amount of characterization and the right amount of like sort
of inward emotions of the characters. But you know, the
military guys are scared in this the you know, everyone's worried,
everyone's you know, some of the generals are you know,
a little more concerned about their legacy than their men,
and all these sorts of things that you see when
(06:46):
you when you read history of these conflicts. So you know,
we're just trying to make it as true to life
as we can.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Speaking of those people and stuff like that. Are you
like pretty much all the other military people too. You
can't just put this book out there. It's got to
go through a little bit of rigamarou where they're going
in there and studying your pages.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well that was up to Rip.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Rip his active duty military and I'm not a former military,
but he did have to go and talk to them
and explain that it was a work of fiction. And
you know, basically they say, look, if there's anything classified
in it, you're going to prison.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So don't put anything classific.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I don't put anything classified in there's so much information
on open source and there's and I can't tell you
how many times over the.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Past five years.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Well I'll ask Rip a question and he'll say, well,
I can give you the non classified answer, and.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
They'll get and they'll give me that. So we were careful.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So where do you find your discipline to write these
books and to do the research, because in radio we
have program directors and general managers and it's just something
that I stayed true to. But how did you get
it as well? To where every day you've got the
discipline to be there, to show up on that computer.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Well, I do this really ridiculous thing and sign a
contract to write a book, and the six six months
or nine months later, I'm like really mad at that guy,
who I wish he took a break. But yeah, that
that keeps you going. I know, I have an editor
who you know, gives me a due date and he's
super flexible and he's you know, very cool, and you
know he knows I'm going to push the envelope and
(08:03):
I do push the envelope until he pushes back.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But yeah, I have a book to in.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Two weeks, and so I'm you know, I'll be doing
this tour this week and then writing in the little
off hours.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Well, my big question to everybody this year has been
are you addicted to creativity? Is it such a thing
to you?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yes, you always want to do something better.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And then there's really no story that I hear, nothing
I come in contact with that, doesn't like go back
into my sort of reptilian brain of like would this
be something you could.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Fictionalize, or would this be a cool hook?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Or I'll learn some little tidbit reading something and I
will think, Wow, I want people to know about that,
and I want to create a you know, like.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
A big fun fiction thing.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
And then you know, my driving forces to make each
book better than the last, and each book different than
the last. And it gets tougher the more you would
think it would get easier the more books you write,
but actually gets tougher to come up with something fresh
and new.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Lennon and McCartney, Man, that's that's your moment right now.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
What is the best place for listeners to find where
you are, where you've been, and how you're growing.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
They can find me on any social media, uh, Mark
Brainy g R E A N E Y. My website
is Mark brainybooks dot com and it should have all
the information in there as well.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I look forward to talking to you again, sir.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Hey, thanks Sarah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You'd be brilliant.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Okay, thank you sir,
Hey Taro inside the La Productions dot Us Studio, unplugged
in totally on cut with Mark Greeney.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
How are you fantastic?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You've done something that I guess I could never predict.
You actually created a book with another writer I did.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
It wasn't the easiest thing, but it's great. I'm really
happy with what we put on the page.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I was going to ask you about that, because collaborating,
even in radio, it's one of those things where you
have to see eye to eye and heart to heart.
What was that like for you?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
We became really good friends before we ever talked about this.
So I met him at the Pentagon a few years
ago while I was researching a Tom Clancy novel, and
we just became pals, and I'd come up and see
him in DC or when he was stationed out at
Camp Pendleton in California. And after a while we just
started talking about what if Russia invaded more as you know,
(00:45):
like a political military question as opposed to a book.
But as we got more and more into it, we
started thinking about how we can make a fictional account
of this, and it helped. By the time we decided
to write each other, you know with each other.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We've you know each other for three years and it
had been you know, talking about this for two of them.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Isn't that weird? How that happens, How time flies by?
It almost the books almost become like a soundtrack to
your life.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, this one, particularly because we got the deal.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We did all the.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Plotting in about twenty sixteen, and did vocation research in
early twenty seventeen, and didn't turn in our last draft
until April of twenty nineteen. So it's been a you know,
multi year saga.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Is is it kind of weird because in the way
of like where I've already seen the movie The Lion King,
but it opens up this weekend, and so do you
sit back and wait to find out what people's reactions
are going to be?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, you have or at least I have no idea
until the book comes out.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I mean, we've gotten a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Of really good reviews, you know, for people from people
to get you know, the advanced reader copies, So that
gives you a hint that you think you know that
you have something, but you know, ninety nine percent of
the product cycle of creating one of these books is
you have no idea if anyone's.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Going to read it or if they're going to.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Like see that. That's what musicians will say too, they
got what was it like to be in that studio
when you were creating this song? Dude, we had no
idea what we were doing. It just happened.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, it's it's exactly the same thing.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It's like you you know, this is my eighteenth book,
so I sort of know when I've got something that
I think people will respond to, but you just you
just never know. Our pre sales for this book have
been really, really good, and I'm a little surprised, you know,
pleasantly surprised because it's you know, it's a new you know,
it's not part of my gray Man series. It's not
part of my Tom Clancy series. So you just don't
(02:29):
know until it comes out.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So now is it? Is it like what Gene Simmons
says that you've got to break away from the band
to go do something, because now you're bringing something back
to gray Man as well as Jack Ryan.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I've always wanted to do different things.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So this There's a Tom Clancy book called Red Storm
Rising that came out in the mid eighties that was
one of my favorite books, and it was one of
Rip's favorite books. So we sort of talked about what
it would be like if there was a modern equivalent
to it. Not at all the same storyline, but but
you know, some similarities. And so it was just the
kind of fantasy that we had for a while that
(03:02):
we would, you know, go write this massive military thriller,
and you know that does kind of relax you or
give you more energy for your other series too, because
then when I go back to the Great Man, it's
a very different animal and it's a little more comfortable
to me.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So when you put a book together like Red Metal,
what happens is you've got to envision at first. I mean,
do you have PTSD in any way of the situations
that you're creating.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Not really.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I mean there are parts that are very hard to
write and you think about it before you write them.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
We created like a.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Ninety one chapter outline for this book. It's a big novel,
and there were parts it's like, oh, you know, I know,
when this scene comes up, it's gonna be really hard
to write and really uncomfortable. But you just have to
be true to you know, what you think reality is
and what you think the story would be, and just
go into it, you know, feet first, and that's really
all you can do.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You're writing about World War Three. I grew up in
the state of Montana where we had those mini man
silos out there. I have, Oh, I have feared that
moment my entire life.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, they they'd be coming for you pretty quickly, the
ICBMs from Russia to go after the ICBMs that you
didn't been.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Part of a first strike. So yeah, you were right
to be very aware of that when you were younger.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well, and it's one of those things the way that
you write, it really feels like you've lived this life
before and you're coming back to tell us, Hey, here's
what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I mean, I do a lot of research and a
lot of historical research. One of the Tom Clancy books
that Tom and I did, the last one before he died,
was about Russian invading Ukraine, and three months after the
book came out, Russian invaded Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So every now and then you get it right.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But we didn't predict that it would happen, and we
were just basically it was just sort of a what
if that actually did happen. So it's super important that
you understand the way the world works in recent history
or whatever to kind of prognosticate like that.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Now, when you write a book read metal, you know
that there's two different people out there. There are those
that like boots on the ground kind of warfare and
there are those that like drones. You're hitting two completely
different audiences here.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, absolutely, this we try to take into account all
the things that would happen if Russia invaded Europe and Africa,
which they do in this novel. And so there's cyber
You're in a submarine, a Russian submarine, you're an American submarine.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You're on a.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Destroyer off the coast of Taiwan, because that's part of
the story as well. You're you are with a Polish
civilian girl that wants nothing to do with this war.
She just joined the militia to save money for a car.
And then of course you have the Square Square Jawn
Marines and the and the Fighter Jocks, a lot of
female characters. It's it's you know, it's a big, wide
(05:31):
scope novel.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So when when you introduce the girl, you have to
give a lieutenant colonel that the phone call, Hey, I
got this idea, let's bring a girl into the story.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Absolutely not. It was just the opposite I had.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I had the idea of bringing this female partisan fighter
in there. But RIP had the idea of a female
submarine commander, a female helicopter pilot.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
He and I both have.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I mean, he's he knows thousands and I know dozens
of really fantastic women and in the US military, and
sometimes I think they get a little short stript. We
weren't trying to create some sort of feminist piece or
anything like that. It's just those are the real people
out there, you know, protecting us.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
The way that you bring it for. My father always
when I was a child, would read Western books, and
I know that he would love this series because it
has that same kind of vibration about it where it
affects your emotions while you're reading it page by page.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well, I hope it does it.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
You know, we just put a lot of heart and
soul into it, and you have to do the right
amount of characterization and the right amount of like sort
of inward emotions of the characters. But you know, the
military guys are scared in this the you know, everyone's worried,
everyone's you know, some of the generals are you know,
a little more concerned about their legacy than their men,
and all these sorts of things that you see when
(06:46):
you when you read history of these conflicts. So you know,
we're just trying to make it as true to life
as we can.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Speaking of those people and stuff like that. Are you
like pretty much all the other military people too. You
can't just put this book out there. It's got to
go through a little bit of rigamarou where they're going
in there and studying your pages.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well that was up to Rip.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Rip his active duty military and I'm not a former military,
but he did have to go and talk to them
and explain that it was a work of fiction. And
you know, basically they say, look, if there's anything classified
in it, you're going to prison.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So don't put anything classific.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I don't put anything classified in there's so much information
on open source and there's and I can't tell you
how many times over the.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Past five years.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Well I'll ask Rip a question and he'll say, well,
I can give you the non classified answer, and.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
They'll get and they'll give me that. So we were careful.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So where do you find your discipline to write these
books and to do the research, because in radio we
have program directors and general managers and it's just something
that I stayed true to. But how did you get
it as well? To where every day you've got the
discipline to be there, to show up on that computer.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Well, I do this really ridiculous thing and sign a
contract to write a book, and the six six months
or nine months later, I'm like really mad at that guy,
who I wish he took a break. But yeah, that
that keeps you going. I know, I have an editor
who you know, gives me a due date and he's
super flexible and he's you know, very cool, and you
know he knows I'm going to push the envelope and
(08:03):
I do push the envelope until he pushes back.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But yeah, I have a book to in.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Two weeks, and so I'm you know, I'll be doing
this tour this week and then writing in the little
off hours.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Well, my big question to everybody this year has been
are you addicted to creativity? Is it such a thing
to you?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yes, you always want to do something better.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And then there's really no story that I hear, nothing
I come in contact with that, doesn't like go back
into my sort of reptilian brain of like would this
be something you could.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Fictionalize, or would this be a cool hook?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Or I'll learn some little tidbit reading something and I
will think, Wow, I want people to know about that,
and I want to create a you know, like.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
A big fun fiction thing.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
And then you know, my driving forces to make each
book better than the last, and each book different than
the last. And it gets tougher the more you would
think it would get easier the more books you write,
but actually gets tougher to come up with something fresh
and new.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Lennon and McCartney, Man, that's that's your moment right now.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
What is the best place for listeners to find where
you are, where you've been, and how you're growing.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
They can find me on any social media, uh, Mark
Brainy g R E A N E Y. My website
is Mark brainybooks dot com and it should have all
the information in there as well.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I look forward to talking to you again, sir.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Hey, thanks Sarah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You'd be brilliant.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Okay, thank you sir,
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