August 12, 2025 • 49 mins
In this episode of Chatting with Betsy, host Betsy Wurzel welcomes James R. Bateman, author of Savior of Lost Souls, the first novel in his Retribution series. James, originally from Staffordshire, England, spent 30+ years in the IT and software world before stepping into fiction. Now, he brings readers into a haunting supernatural realm shaped by imagination, grief, and divine intervention.James introduces us to Lavek, the god of Ul’Den, a purgatory realm where cries of the prematurely lost echo.
Lavek intervenes in mortal lives to prevent tragedies before they happen—a central theme in Savior of Lost Souls.Betsy explores why James chose 1986 and a fictional Colorado town as the backdrop, and how the Williams family anchors the story.
They also unpack character roles, the moral fabric of the narrative, and the emotional intensity of writing about spiritual and psychological transitions.James describes his writing process and how the book blends supernatural fiction, thriller pacing, and psychological mystery. Together, Betsy and James reflect on societal changes from 1986 to 2025—and the ongoing importance of teaching children safety and awareness.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/chatting-with-betsy--4211847/support.
Lavek intervenes in mortal lives to prevent tragedies before they happen—a central theme in Savior of Lost Souls.Betsy explores why James chose 1986 and a fictional Colorado town as the backdrop, and how the Williams family anchors the story.
They also unpack character roles, the moral fabric of the narrative, and the emotional intensity of writing about spiritual and psychological transitions.James describes his writing process and how the book blends supernatural fiction, thriller pacing, and psychological mystery. Together, Betsy and James reflect on societal changes from 1986 to 2025—and the ongoing importance of teaching children safety and awareness.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/chatting-with-betsy--4211847/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, this is Betsy Worth, all your hosts of
Chatty with Betsy on Passion World Talk Radio Network, a
subsidiary of Global Media Network LLC. We're mantros to educate, enlightened,
and entertain. The views of the guests may not represent
those of the hosts of the station. And I want
(00:21):
to thank you all for joining me today, as I
know you're busy going about your day. I have a
special guest of me today. He wrote this fantastic book.
You know we're going to talk about the book. My
guest is James R. Bateman. He was born and raised
(00:43):
in Staffordshire. I'm saying that England. James has spent over
thirty years working in IT and software industry. James story's
explore life, death and morality as all of how the
human spirit endures through complicated and challenging times. James or
(01:05):
Bateman is writing an author of Savior of Lost Souls.
And I want to welcome James or Bateman too Chutting
with Betsy.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you, Betsy, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Oh, you are welcome. It's my pleasure. James.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I'm going to do something different today.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Uh. I'm fascinated with your book cover. Now. I don't
have a video obviously, but I like how you designed
that or how you thought of that cover, which is
so compelling because I know how competitive the book industry is,
(01:46):
and you have to add that catchy title. You have
to have that uh cover, the book cover that just
stands out and says, read me when someone passes by.
So how did you come up with that cover? Let's
get that for rest.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, thank you for the question. That's the idea I didn't.
I didn't actually draw the cover. I can't take credit
for that. There was someone someone, a very talented artist
by the name of Romayne Suvo. But the idea I
had for the cover was always about my main character,
levec who is a god of a realm called Old Den,
(02:22):
and all Den contains these lost souls, and Levek has
this ability to connect to a lost soul. He has
to sit, he has to concentrate, he has to kind
of endure the torture that that soul went through in
order to make that connection. But there's many souls and
he can't connect to them all at once. So I
had this idea of Lovett kind of concentrating trying to
(02:45):
get that connection with a soul in the form of
him kneeling down in this desolate realm that he resides
in all den but all of these souls behind him
are fighting for his attention. So I had this idea
of the spirits behind him trying to get hold of him,
to try and make that connection out. And you'll see
on the cover one or two of the spirits's hands
(03:07):
touching his shoulders. So the idea is him and his
realm and the spirits behind him trying to drive that
connection with him. And remain a fantastic job of bringing
that vision to life.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yes, yeah, it really is very intriguing and compelling to
look at it. I mean, you look at it, and
that would definitely would catch my eye if I was
strolling at a bookstore or looking online at a book,
that would definitely, you know, catch my attention. And I
(03:43):
always ask the writers, James, what inspired you to write
a book about the character A Levic who to me,
from what I understand is he tries to change the situation.
It's almost like see like time travel one motivated you
(04:06):
to write a story a book this book?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, I mean the motivation came from actually to talk
about how it came about this novel. I wrote it
in a comic book script, probably back in twenty eleven
twenty twelve, and didn't do anything with it. I couldn't
find an illustrator that point, so I left it there.
But the inspiration that came into that comic book script
(04:30):
was around some of the awful things that happened in
the world, and in particular in the UK at that time.
There was an awful, awful tragedy where two young girls
were murdered, and I can remember watching the news on
TV and this guy was standing there and he was
pleading with the public to help to try and find
the girls. They hadn't been discovered at that point. And
(04:53):
that person turned out to be the murderer of those
two girls, and he was hiding in playing sight obviously
try to get away with it. He was subsequently arrested,
it's sent to prison. But I just thought, of that time,
what an awful awful thing to do. What if there
was some way of preventing that from happening. It has happened,
but what if what if we could change change history,
(05:14):
change something that had happened that was so awful that
it shouldn't have happened in the first place, and the
concept of this this god residing in a realm where
lost souls dwell, where souls that should have had their
large continue and their souls feel like, you know, that
their time was taken before it was due. Go to
this realm and what if the you know, every now
(05:36):
and again, one of those souls makes this connection with
this god, this god kind of I suppose supernatural being
that what if the connection drives him back to around
the time and the place that it happened for him
to try and stop it from happening in the first place.
And when he does go back to try and stop
it from happening, he has no idea who is trying
(05:56):
to save, He has no idea what happens to them.
But what he does have is this connection with that
soul and flashes of their memory and their original timeline
and to his mind, and he has to try and
put the pieces of the puzzle together to try and
prevent it from happening.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That is very and uh intriguing. I mean, that just
boggles my mind, I have to say. James said, in
doing my show, I have come to appreciate writers and
what they go through you know, with the research.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And coming up with the dialogue.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I never really realized that or appreciated that until I
started to interview writers. How long or I'm I'm gonna
ask how long did to get a research?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
But what kind of research did you do.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
For Savior of Lawsaults?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So the research took I suppose took some time, and
it probably took the best part of well, I suppose
it was always ongoing. It took initial research of around
six or seven months, but as I got into the
writing process, you know, the research never stops. You write
the story, you write a character, and then you try
(07:14):
and find out you try and find out whether that's
applicable or art and trying, you know, and the research
continues and you might make edits, but it's not so
much say the research that was necessary about you know,
god and evil serial killers that sort of thing. There
was elements of research there, but there's also elements of research.
Because the book is set in nineteen eighty six, it's
(07:36):
set in the fictional town of Colorado and the US,
so I wrote it in US English, so I had
to do research around, you know, a particular area, and
luckily I worked with someone who've lived in that area,
which helped with that. But I also had to research
you or kind of research. But also remember going back
(07:57):
to nineteen eighty six as to what was the you know,
what were the toys around at that time, what were
the you know, what were people's interests, and what was
the fashion like and all of that kind of thing.
So there's research around the main characters and including the
bad characters, but also research around you know, the time
and place it's set in as well. And that research
continues and you might make edits as you go through.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
What I find fascinating because I myself find it difficult
to write a paragraph. It's in my head, but I
can't transfer it down to paper. For some reason, I
am fascinated by every writer's creative process. And I'm going
to ask you about yours. When you are thinking about
(08:44):
your character Levec and the other characters in the book.
But I've given you know the story away, and I
want you to give this the story away.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
How do you come up with the dialogue?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's what fascinates me about every books, a dialogue between
the characters.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, now, it's that is an interesting question because I
suppose some of the dialogue is dialogue you may have
in your everyday life anyway, if you've you know, there's
a there's a husband and wife in the book, there's
a little girl in the book, and it might be
some of that dialogue might be based on the fact that,
you know, this is how I would speak to my daughter,
(09:25):
you know, and that kind of thing, you know, that
playful kind of dialogue. The difficulty came in when you
had to sort of go outside of that life experience
and and delve into the into the I suppose that
the wickedness of the main bad guy, you know, the
name as Peter, and that's not given too much away
because it's kind of you kind of discovered that early
(09:47):
early on in the book. But as I was writing
that particular character and the dialogue that someone in that
nature and it's very kind of adult themes and and
awful things that that guy does. That was partly down
the research, and I was asked previously, did you put
yourself in that person's mind? Did you imagine if you
were doing some of the things he was doing? And
(10:07):
it was quite strange because I had some plot ideas anyway,
and it actually helped and having this in comic book
script form originally, but I didn't go into the head
of the character. I kind of imagined if I was
watching a documentary of a really bad character, almost like
going back to that, you know, back into the crime
(10:28):
that happened in twenty eleven twelve and watching the news.
I was kind of imagining, you know, not just watching
the news, but actually watching a documentary of this guy,
this Peter, and not being able to stop what he's
doing and witnessing firsthand what he was doing. And it
came into my mind as to what would he say,
how would he react to in everyday life, how would
(10:50):
he have conversations, what would he stay to himself? And
I kind of mapped all that out into, I say,
into a script format, which I then transcribed into a no.
But you suppose some of the dialogue is from everyday experiences,
and some of it is influenced by things you may watch,
including the news, and some of it is just raw imagination.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I have to say, James, that I thought a video
of your book on YouTube. You have a video which
I find really very interesting. I mean, it's very eye
catching and I highly recommend. I'm going to put the
(11:37):
that you r l in there so people can see
that because it's very eye catching. It gives you an
idea about the book, and it really makes you want
to order it. And it's I feel like your book
is universal. It happens everywhere that unfortunately tragedies happened, you
(12:02):
could say.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
People.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Who take other people's lives that had their time, And
wouldn't it be fascinating if someone can for them go
back in time and try for that event not to happen.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
And I was thinking about that. How many I mean,
and that's.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
What I like about to cover your book because you
go back to the last Souls. How many people James,
I'm sure, I mean it probably thousands or more that
would say to let it, Hay, can you undo the
events that put me in this place? And I think
(12:50):
it's interesting excuse me that you picked fictional town in Colorado?
How come Colorado?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And that the UK?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I know I was trying to think of that when
I was asked that question previously as well. I don't
think there was any any conscious decisions apart from maybe
to try and distance it from any link to anything
that might have been you know, might have been something
that happened in the UK. And and and considered, you know,
too influential to the novel of the story, and it
(13:24):
might upset people that it happened to in reality that
that might have been the subconscious decision to do. But
also I think it, you know, it kind of you know,
I've always liked, you know, watching American TV. American I
like going to America. I've never been to Colorado, but
I have a vision in my mind of it, and
the person I worked with that helped to explore that
(13:44):
vision and put it down on paper. But to your
to your point, you know, it could be anywhere. You know,
I'm writing the sequel at the moment. It has a
character and it's who's who's from the UK but happens
to live in la at this time. And and you know,
but then that's that's set. We will be set in
two thousand and to us I write that. But then
(14:05):
you know, because of these lost souls and because there's
kind of timeless, you know, time has no meaning in
the realm that LVAC resides in that it could be
set in medieval UK one of the stories. It could
be set in kind of some future landscape and you know,
in the year twenty eighty or something, you know, So
there's that, you know that the amount of stories that
(14:26):
can be told with this characters as endless as you say.
So the first one I had it written in the
comic book form and in Colorado and explored on these
fictional towns around there as I wrote a novel form.
But you know, who knows where the future might take levec.
It might be difficult if someone like France, because I'd
have to to learn the language there or something. But
(14:49):
you know, it's there's countless opportunities of bringing them into
into any situation in any time.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I think it's interesting they picked nineteen eighties six because
that was before the Internet, wasn't it. If I can
remember correctly, it was way before cell phones, right, the Internet.
My son was born in nineteen eighty four, and I
don't remember. I don't think I got a cell phone
(15:19):
until the nineties. And that was, you know, the very
basic at that point in the beginning, not like they
are today.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
There was no Internet.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
You were an it guy, So there was no internet,
was there in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Well, if there was, it was not being used by
the mass public. So yeah, And I think part of
the reason of setting in nineteen eighty six, was going
on a slight nostalgia trip myself. I was just I
just started high school in nineteen eighty six, and so
I was trying to remember back to some of the
things there. And obviously the challenge was to see whether,
(16:01):
you know, some of the things I remember was it
was relevant to be set in Colorado as well. But
but you know, it's it just had a fond memory
in my mind around that that particular era and then
mixing it with some of the awful things that happened
happened within the book. But you know, and I remember
when I was on you know, my parents would say,
(16:23):
you know, I can come back before it's dark, and
that that would be the end of it. I had
no cell phone, no way of contacting them, so they
put an element of trust in my ability to get
back when they asked me to get back. And times
are different. It's great that we can give our children,
even even our adult children, cell phones. You can track them,
(16:43):
just make sure the safe ask them to call you
to say where when they get a particular when they
get to a particular place, and they do. But what
that was taken away, you can you know, and that
actually heightened the fear to it. You can't track them
all of a sudden. But then you know, as I
write books one set in two thousand and two, that
the second one you know that add other complexities is
(17:04):
that the technology wasn't as isn't as advanced as it
is now. But it's certainly more advanced in nineteen eighty six,
and there's different ways. Does it add more worry when
you can track where your children are, when you see
where they are or what they're doing there, what's going on,
rather than just having that element of trust.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
That is so true.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
James and I grew up in the sixties and seventies
and we were outside unsupervised, and when we would go
trick or treating for Halloween, I mean I was nine
years old. I would take my brother, who was three
at the time, all over the neighborhood, no adult supervision
(17:44):
at all. And now we would not even think about
doing that in today's world.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Sending out a ninety year.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Old and a three year old out by themselves trick
or treating. But times has definitely changed them the better
and some not. And in nineteen eighty six you could
correct me if I'm wrong the DNA testing was not
(18:11):
like it is today, if they even had it to
DNA the crime scene like they do now. But the ife.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I used to watch I Still Love This on id
TV where they had different crime shows, and my husband
would say to me, why are you watching that? But
I thought it was fascinating how they would put figure
out the crime. And one woman the show we used
(18:49):
to watch was a forensic at the psychologist, and how
they created the profile of someone who would commit a crime.
To me, that's fascinating. I mean, it's just a fascinating.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Science.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
You know, you look at a crime scene and then
you figure out who this person is and and they
are right. And I justin'm fascinated with crime shows. I
have to ask you this because from what how your
book sounds of your Lost Souls? Would you ever think
(19:30):
of getting it put into a TV series or hopefully
a movie, because this sounds like you'll make a fascinating
movie or a series.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
You know it has it has crossed my mind. Yeah,
I think I think it would lend itself well to
a series because of the episodic content in terms of
the chapters and so on. I think that that would
lend itself really well to a TV series, and the
fact that you know that the stories could be analysts
could mean the potential is huge there as well. But
(20:03):
you know that that would be great. That would be
you know, a real achievement and a real goal to
aim towards, you know. But saying that, I do enjoy
writing the writing process, and I enjoy people who you know,
who like to read and take it in that way
as well. I do have an audible book on it
as well, which you know, you talk about a TV series.
When I was listening back to the audible book, you know,
(20:25):
when you you don't you hear the characters that you've
written yourself in your own mind. But once someone and
I hired to to do the book came back with
the various characters. I mean, there was a guy David Piper.
I think he did a wonderful job of bringing those
characters to life. It'd certainly do the accents of the
various accents much better than I could. I could butcher them.
(20:47):
But so that added another element to it, and that
made me excited to think that could just lend itself
to a TV series as well. Yeah, about detective work,
you know that that's part of the vex sort of
you know, he's not an all single knowing god. He
has to put these pieces of the puzzle together, using
(21:08):
the fragments of memories from the victim's original timeline together
to try and figure out who they are and what
happened to them. And so there's a there's a bit
of a god play detective element to it as well.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Can you share as much as you like without giving
everything away? Because I would like for people to purchase
your book. How did uh Levic become Levic? How did
he become where he is?
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, anyway, there's other there's other gods within within the
book as well, and this isn't giving too much away.
There's a goddess I'd named Maren who resides in in
the realm called Accident, which is I suppose my version
of Heaven, and she's just this loving, nurturing, a motherly
(22:00):
type of of god. There's another god that I called Calloc,
who is essentially Leavek's brother and Maren is their mother.
And Calloc resides in a realm called Akden, which is
my take on Hell, which is instead of it being
you know, a fiery kind of Bernie Erno, it's a
it's a kind of frigid ice, kind of hell. So
(22:21):
it's it's cold and and a frozen wasteland. And as
you as you read the book, and this isn't given
too much away as well, I'll stop after mentioning this.
But Maren noticed, you know, she doesn't want to interfere
with with with human life. As she lets she saw
the Earth develop, and the Earth was known to them
(22:42):
as a realm called Guide then and she saw Guide
and develop with these creatures that resembled them. So in
other words, humans becoming looking like looking like the gods.
And she asked her sons to go to Guide and
slash Earth and and and try and be one of them,
to try and understand them, to understand mortality is, and
therefore understand what morality is and leavec embraced. It come
(23:05):
up not so much so, and it won't go on
too much because I could I could talk about that
particular element for a long time, but that would give
too much away. But it's the same body years because
of something that you know. He was always a god,
but he embraced and witnessed human nature.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Did you always want to write.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I've always had this creative streak, and I've Funnily enough,
when I went to see my father a few months ago,
he handed me a box of old stories I'd written
as a kid, and yeah, yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't
necessarily get those published because of a little bit embarrassing,
but it showed that I always had this creative side
to write, but also had this, you know, I had
(23:46):
these ideas of putting together computer games and things like that,
and cartoons and things. So I've always had this this
creative streak, and I think life then takes over. You
get a job, you have a family, you progress in
your job, and then you know, having ideas and that
you like the comic book idea that I wrote sat
on my computer driver and then in the cloud for
(24:09):
so long until someone said, why didn't you do anything
about it? And I said, well, at the time, it
was something I had an idea of and nothing happened.
And she convinced me to talk to someone at a
publishing house, an independent publisher. The person who published my book,
Paul in Prifty for Paul Smith Publishing, and he then
got me into converting that comic book script into a
(24:30):
novel and taught me how to write, taught me how
to read, and taught me how to edit as a
writer as well. So you kind of write with with
emotion and edit without that emotion and take things out
that you don't think fits or move things around. Then
and read your own book as if you're reading it
critiquingly so that you can you can make those editing choices.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I think it's really interesting and over the years, I mean,
I've interviewed hundreds of people, and to me, James, it's.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Amazing, like people who always wanted to rate, but you know,
life happens.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
They had their careers and then and you're young yet.
But I mean, I've interviewed people who retired, they're in
the seventies and eighties and they're writing their first book
and they continue to write too old.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I think you you know now you're not. I think
I've tried to do this in my twenties. I don't
know whether I would have had the wisdom and the
maturity to have took it to to where it is now.
And you know, you know, I'm kind of glad I'm
doing it at the age of matt because you have
more live experience, you have more to tell. But but
that's not to take anything away from the young writers
(25:42):
out there, because they write some fantastic novels. But I think,
you know, it happens. If you want to be a
writer and you've not done it yet, there's nothing you know,
you could be forty to fifty, sixty seventy so on.
If you've got an idea and a story to tell,
then then tell it.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I agree one hundred percent. There's people who have ideas
and they just you know, let it sit and then
they write a book. And I mean I interviewed someone
who had an idea about a book and she became
(26:19):
international bestseller, so you know, yeah, so it's never too late, folks.
I say this all the time on I Show James
that if you want to write a book, I mean,
and people are afraid of sailing, oh one of them.
As if I fail, well, you know what, then you
learned for the next time. It's not sailing. You learn
(26:41):
from your mistakes. And your most successful people did not
let their mistakes stop them from moving forward.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
And you know.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Who's JK rolling. She was rejected so many times, right,
so many times, and look what happened. So I always
tell people my audience. Don't get discouraged if you get rejected,
just keep just keep at it, and it will happen.
(27:16):
Did you always have this imagination as a child, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I did. Yeah, I mean I can remember me and
my two brothers. You speak, do the sort, you know,
to make believe. There's various characters that we come up
with and and run around the house, driving my mom
and dad insane with you shouting and running around and playing.
And you know, it's and that's partly down to you
(27:46):
had to have an imagination as a kid when I
was younger, rather than having access to all the things
kids have access to nowadays. But some of it is
down down to the fun of doing that as well.
And you know, and as I mentioned into that, I
had slipped my mind, but my dad gave me this
box which reminded me of all the all the various
(28:06):
stories I'd written down when I when I was younger.
So you know, I don't think you should write a
story just because you think you want to become rich
and famous as an author. You should write a story
because you've got a story to tell. And you know,
and and if you've got a story to tell, I
think That's the most important thing. Because you know, I've
(28:27):
set out and I wrote this story. I hadn't I
hadn't got a clue what genre haud fall into, because
I just had this idea wanted to put out there.
And that's partly why it's probably fall into various genres
of dark fantasy to horror, to thriller and and that
kind of thing. But but what I've done it for
is because I had that story to tell and I
(28:48):
wanted to get it out there on on paper for
people to read. And that's that's what I've done. I've
achieved that, and it's inspired me to write book two
in the series as well. But don't don't chase dreams
just because you want to become rich. Chase the dreams
because you've got stories to tell.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I like that, and many writers will tell people, you know,
you don't get rich from that. It's the very few,
I think, who become rich from writing a book. And
but you know, I'd say, keep on, you know, doing it.
(29:28):
I think Sharon's stories brings our humanity back to each
other storytelling and we learned from yeah, and we learned
from others experiences. I'd like for you to share if
you can, whatever you'd like to share about the young
(29:51):
girl Sally in your book and the William's family because
in the video that I saw, uh, there's a young
girl swinging on a swing. You can let your imagination
take over people, but you you know it named me wonder. Okay,
(30:12):
I'm gonna ask James, but I don't want you to
give with the storyline that you know, something happens to
this little girl. And that's why I thought, when I
watched the video, how did you create the family and
the dynamics in the family.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Part of the part of that is leaning on on experience,
I suppose of me and my wife and having having
we've got a son and a daughter, two sons and
a daughter. But uh, you know, it's just leaning on
the on that family dynamic, and that in itself is
quite difficult to to lean into because as you say that,
(30:56):
you know, I've talked about what what Levec is about
and what he does us and there's a little girl
named Sally. So without giving too much away, it will
it kind of indicates that he's there to try and
stop something from happening to her that may have already happened,
and can he do it on times? Can he save her?
But you know, and that was difficult because you know,
(31:16):
when you have got a family, you don't want anything
bad to happen to any of the short You don't
want them to go to a realm where the only
option is for a god named Levette to say them.
You just don't want it to happen in the first place.
But yeah, I kind of digressed a little bit, I suppose,
But the tr answer your question was leaning on the
experience of family life, leaning on experiences as a child,
(31:38):
albeit obviously you know, not a little girl, but remembering
my childhood, remembering how my parents were with me, and
how I and my wife are or with our daughter
and other and our other two children, and kind of
leaning on that and you know, making it in a
point where this family, this innocent family, like we all think,
(32:00):
you know, don't think anything's ever going to happen to
them in that way, and and you know, something obviously
does happen, and Candleveck stop it from happening again. But
also this family, the Williams family, had had a son
who who did die. He did he wasn't he wasn't murdered.
He died of of you know, of natural related causes
(32:24):
as a young boy, and and that I had to
pull on the dynamic there. You know, Sally was born
after he died, and she tries to miss a brother
she didn't know, and that sort of thing. And and
you know, Matty or Matthew was the little boy's name,
or i'll say without giving too much away, so that
he died when he was young, but his his story
(32:45):
didn't end there in that book.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Well, and then that's the whole you know, grieving apart,
you know, uh, I I have I don't know what
it's like to lose a child, and I hope I
never do know, but I have spoken to people who
have lost their children and they say it's a pain
(33:12):
like no other. I know when my older brother died
four years ago, and my mother never recuperated for lack
a better word, and she was from you know, the
generation where you don't talk about your feelings. You just
(33:33):
you know, keep it inside. And it is really a tragic.
So I think when you lose a child, I would
think then you're very protective if you have another one
or the ones, you know, if you do have other children,
then you're very protective of their safety, their health and
(33:56):
well being. When I was young, you know, I really
wasn't taught stranger danger, James.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
I was told, if.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Anyone stopped, you don't get in their car. You don't
take candy from strangers, and now you have to go
into more depths. I have to share a cute story
if you don't mind, James about stranger danger. I just
still work in the preschool as a teacher's aid, and
(34:27):
I would teach stranger danger. And I would tell the
boys and girls they were like from three to six
years old, and of course I understood more than others.
You never know what kids take from what you say.
And I said, if you're in a park, someone picks
you up, you yell, I don't know, you put me down,
(34:53):
and if you have to, then you hit that person
for them to release you. This boy said to me,
Mss Betsy, can I karate chot them in the throat?
And I said, yes, that think a karate shocked them
in the throat. And I said, and you know you don't.
(35:17):
I tell them you don't go in a pool by yourself.
You don't even go into your neighbor's house or apartment
unless you tell an adult with it, your mother, father,
who's ever taken care of you at that time. You
have to ask them their permission. And it's just so
(35:41):
important because these are things that you would never think
of back when I was growing up. And shore another
quick story. I told them that if they ever got
lost with an amusement park or shopping center, to go
to someone you know, we're in a uniform. If it's
in the musement park, if you see a police officer,
(36:05):
or go up to someone who's working the machine and
tell them that you're lost. But don't ever leave with
a stranger. You don't ever leave with a stranger. And
this little girl she said to me and that following September,
she said, Miss Betsy, I got lost in the park
and I did exactly what you told me to do.
(36:27):
I cried, I cried James, And I asked her mother.
I said, is this true? Did she Johnny get lost?
And she said, oh, yes, miss Betsing, she got lost,
and she did exactly what you told her to do.
When they found they found us, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Well.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I just got thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
And that's the thing to teach them, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yes? Yeah, And so you know you you're in You know,
no one thinks, James of said maybe now, like you know,
we would be out in the our front or backyard,
you know, playing you didn't think about a stranger coming
up and kidnapping your child. When my son was growing up,
(37:14):
my son was born nineteen eighty four, James, I was
out there every time he went out. I did not
leave him alone. Now it wasn't called helicopter parenting at
that time. It was really for safety. I lived on
a main street when Josh was growing up, so when
he would ride his bike, I would be following him.
(37:36):
I did not leave him alone. And also at the mall,
you know, he came with me and he started going
to bed and by himself. I was outside the door,
and of course I told him about stranger danger. But
these are the things like in nineteen eighty six, I
don't I mean, I thought about it, but maybe a
(37:58):
lot of people didn't. If you're out in the country tree,
you know, if you're isolated. I don't know if the
Wayne's family is in the isolated part of Colorado, but
you don't think of it happening out in the country.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
You really don't, don't you just don't know, you know,
you just don't know what people actually really like behind
closed doors.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
And that's that's part of them monster. There's Peter as
well and Sally. You know her parents are they probably
consider themselves slightly overprotective, but that's because they lost a
child before. But also you know, it's it's just in
their nature to want to know, you know, if you're
going outside and their house have written backs onto a Parker,
(38:42):
other backs onto their house. So she's out on the swings,
on the on the Merry go round, you know, playing
with my little pony and that kind of thing, and
you know they've they're still watching her, but perhaps not
as much as they should be doing because they feel
that she's safe in that environment because she plays there
all the time. And I won't go on any further
(39:03):
and not on that part because again not not to
give too much away, but but it's you know, you
can't you trust certain people. And you should trust people
because you know, that's how we that's how we should
be as humans. But there's certain people that you just
don't know what they're actual you know, what they're really like.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
That's true, and a lot of your predators or they
don't appear as what you'd call a monster. And some
of them are pillars in the community, and they're really
behind closed doors monsters and it is.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Just your your story.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
I don't remember, James, what year this happened, or even
what state, but they were isolated, the family was isolated.
Somebody was watching them and observe then, and unfortunately the
parents were murdered. I think the older child was and
he had this person kidnapped the two children. I think
(40:14):
the girl he kept alive. I think he might have
killed the young boy. It might have been in the
eighties or nineties. But so you don't know who's watching.
I don't mean to be morbid here, of listeners, but
this is really the reality of life. You don't know
who's watching, and you had to be aware. And I'm
(40:39):
going to get to my cellbox here, James, so just
bear with me. And because I mustn't really talk to
the audience, Please, listeners, do not be oblivious on.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Your phone when your children are out playing in a.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Thea, in your backyard, front yard, especially a park a
public area. I see this all the time, and it
just makes me cringe, James, that they're on your phone,
they're oblivious to what their children are doing, and it
only is a matter of seconds before someone can pick
up your child. So I just have to say that
(41:24):
please be aware of your surroundings, watch your children, because
that is a guilt you don't want to have to
live with.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I was second that as well. You know, it's so
easy to get lost in the in the moment you
find something on your phone and you're distracted, but all
it takes is up to two seconds, and if something's
happened that you can't ever get back, but that you know,
And I think that's that's a great way of sort
of saying that, because you know, don't ever be too complacent.
(41:55):
You know your kids are precious. Make sure they're safe
all the time. I switched that message around to the
bad guys as well, saying that you don't ever be complacent.
Don't think you've you've permitted a crime that you think
you've gone away with. You might have killed someone and
no one's looking for you, right, But don't be so complacent,
because that lost saw me one day, call out to
(42:15):
Levec Levek might hear, and he might and he'll come
back and he will bestow that retribution and say that's
that soul life and and do to you what you
did to that person originally. Now obviously that's fictional, but
wouldn't it be wonderful if if there was justice out
there like that?
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yes, yes, I agree. You never know. They say karma
is a witch, but and you just don't. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
No.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
We had a case in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
This happened a few years ago where the mom was
in her car and she let her daughter go out
and play with her her brother or cousin, and the
girl was abducted. They haven't found her. I think it's
like five or six years now, never found her.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
That happened in the UK as well. A family on
holiday in Portugal. You know that the daughter was abducted
and that happened will be twenty one years ago this
year and never found her.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
Oh I remember that, James. I remember.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Another It was that exact case, but a family from
the UK was on vacation and wasn't the girls sleeping
in her hotel bed?
Speaker 2 (43:39):
That's right, Yes, that's the one.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah, yeah, So I mean it it's just you know,
there we have as parents, find that balance, right James,
between the over protect us and being on letting our kids,
you know, so play without fear. And it's really you know,
(44:06):
it's a commentary on society that we have to teach
our children all that's necessary.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Precautions to keep them safe.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
But we we have to, I mean, we just don't,
you know, have a choice in that. Unfortunately, even you know,
my dad who was born in the twenties, nineteen twenty four,
and his dad even told him, you know, you don't
take candy food strangers, you don't go in the car
(44:38):
with the stranger. And you know, that was about it.
But it's really so important. I think your book Favior
of Lost Souls sounds so fascinating. James, kudos to you
for writing such a compelling book the supernatural mystery, and
(45:05):
it really sounds fascinating. Where could people purchase your book?
Speaker 2 (45:11):
To purchase it on Amazon Kindle or paperback that can
also have it on an audible or on Amazon I
I sorry, Apple iTunes, but also from you know, any
any good bookstore you can you can order it in.
So I know that people have also been purchased from
Bonds and Noble, for example in the US.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah, what I went into I got to barn Zove
every weekend, excuse me? And I asked them. They said,
do you have James R. Bateman's Savior of Souls? And
they could order it for me, they didn't have enough store.
So folks, if you go to your big box store
(45:56):
and they don't have it, tell them to order it
for you and I'll come within like what, probably less
than a week. And how can the listeners and your
future readers connect with you, James Rbingen.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I have a website www dot James R. Bateman dot com.
I try to post things on them relatively regularly. I
also have a Facebook page James R. Bateman Author, and
also an Instagram as well, so people can connect to
me on those various platforms. And if you have a
look at my website to join my join a mailing
(46:37):
list and contact me to via email as well. Also,
oh oh.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Great, well, I wish you lots of luck. I hope
your book becomes international bestseller, it becomes a movie or
a Netflix series or something like that.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
And thank you for.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Having such a read imagination and spending time on Chiming
with Betty tell you and sharing about your book. Savior
of Lost Souls by James R. Bateman, The Last name
is spelled b A T M A N.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
James's delightful chiming with you today about your book, and
please come back with your about your second book. I'd
love to have you back.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
I'd love that, Betsy, thank you and I really appreciate
your time and the conversation.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
Oh you are welcome is my pleasure. And before I forget,
I want to thank Rick White, who is a CEO
of stress Free Book of Marketing, who arranged this interview.
And I have interviewed several Rick Lights clients and if
you are looking for help in marketing or publishing, contact
(47:58):
Rick White. And I also interviewed Rick Light earlier this
year of a stress Free Book marketing.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
I recommend it.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Actually a couple of people that I know direct. And
I want to thank Genie White who writes the blog
and all the information about the book, and James R.
Bateman will be in the blog that Genie White writes
as the station manager produces the show. And I want
to thank loll Lan Caldwell, who's CEO Passion will Talk
Raadio Network that makes.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
This all possible.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
And I want to thank you the listeners. Thank you
for listening spending time with me, and please share the
show because I want to reach as many people as possible.
Passion World Talk Creadio Network isn't just your regular and
to that station. It is a resource center. We have
a lot of resources that can help you have a
better quality of life. And if you're a caregiver, you
(48:52):
need a support group. I have hashtag kick Alzheimer's Ask
movement and as I always say that the end of
my show, you can follow me on Facebook betd Worthel
w r z e L And if you want to
know how, you can here Chinning with Betsy. It's free
to subscribe to on Spotify, Spreaker.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
Amazon Music.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
You can even if you have a Lexa program Alexa
for Chatting with Betsy. And I just want to help
as many people as possible. And as I always end
my show with, in a world that you can be anything,
Please be kind and shine your life right because the
world needs it now more than ever before. This is
(49:37):
Betsy Worzel. You're a host of Chatting with Betsy. I'm
Patriion Roll Talk Radio Network, a subsidiary of Global Media
Network LLC. So we chat again.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
Be safe everyone, Bye bye now
Hello everyone, this is Betsy Worth, all your hosts of
Chatty with Betsy on Passion World Talk Radio Network, a
subsidiary of Global Media Network LLC. We're mantros to educate, enlightened,
and entertain. The views of the guests may not represent
those of the hosts of the station. And I want
(00:21):
to thank you all for joining me today, as I
know you're busy going about your day. I have a
special guest of me today. He wrote this fantastic book.
You know we're going to talk about the book. My
guest is James R. Bateman. He was born and raised
(00:43):
in Staffordshire. I'm saying that England. James has spent over
thirty years working in IT and software industry. James story's
explore life, death and morality as all of how the
human spirit endures through complicated and challenging times. James or
(01:05):
Bateman is writing an author of Savior of Lost Souls.
And I want to welcome James or Bateman too Chutting
with Betsy.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you, Betsy, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Oh, you are welcome. It's my pleasure. James.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I'm going to do something different today.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Uh. I'm fascinated with your book cover. Now. I don't
have a video obviously, but I like how you designed
that or how you thought of that cover, which is
so compelling because I know how competitive the book industry is,
(01:46):
and you have to add that catchy title. You have
to have that uh cover, the book cover that just
stands out and says, read me when someone passes by.
So how did you come up with that cover? Let's
get that for rest.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, thank you for the question. That's the idea I didn't.
I didn't actually draw the cover. I can't take credit
for that. There was someone someone, a very talented artist
by the name of Romayne Suvo. But the idea I
had for the cover was always about my main character,
levec who is a god of a realm called Old Den,
(02:22):
and all Den contains these lost souls, and Levek has
this ability to connect to a lost soul. He has
to sit, he has to concentrate, he has to kind
of endure the torture that that soul went through in
order to make that connection. But there's many souls and
he can't connect to them all at once. So I
had this idea of Lovett kind of concentrating trying to
(02:45):
get that connection with a soul in the form of
him kneeling down in this desolate realm that he resides
in all den but all of these souls behind him
are fighting for his attention. So I had this idea
of the spirits behind him trying to get hold of him,
to try and make that connection out. And you'll see
on the cover one or two of the spirits's hands
(03:07):
touching his shoulders. So the idea is him and his
realm and the spirits behind him trying to drive that
connection with him. And remain a fantastic job of bringing
that vision to life.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yes, yeah, it really is very intriguing and compelling to
look at it. I mean, you look at it, and
that would definitely would catch my eye if I was
strolling at a bookstore or looking online at a book,
that would definitely, you know, catch my attention. And I
(03:43):
always ask the writers, James, what inspired you to write
a book about the character A Levic who to me,
from what I understand is he tries to change the situation.
It's almost like see like time travel one motivated you
(04:06):
to write a story a book this book?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, I mean the motivation came from actually to talk
about how it came about this novel. I wrote it
in a comic book script, probably back in twenty eleven
twenty twelve, and didn't do anything with it. I couldn't
find an illustrator that point, so I left it there.
But the inspiration that came into that comic book script
(04:30):
was around some of the awful things that happened in
the world, and in particular in the UK at that time.
There was an awful, awful tragedy where two young girls
were murdered, and I can remember watching the news on
TV and this guy was standing there and he was
pleading with the public to help to try and find
the girls. They hadn't been discovered at that point. And
(04:53):
that person turned out to be the murderer of those
two girls, and he was hiding in playing sight obviously
try to get away with it. He was subsequently arrested,
it's sent to prison. But I just thought, of that time,
what an awful awful thing to do. What if there
was some way of preventing that from happening. It has happened,
but what if what if we could change change history,
(05:14):
change something that had happened that was so awful that
it shouldn't have happened in the first place, and the
concept of this this god residing in a realm where
lost souls dwell, where souls that should have had their
large continue and their souls feel like, you know, that
their time was taken before it was due. Go to
this realm and what if the you know, every now
(05:36):
and again, one of those souls makes this connection with
this god, this god kind of I suppose supernatural being
that what if the connection drives him back to around
the time and the place that it happened for him
to try and stop it from happening in the first place.
And when he does go back to try and stop
it from happening, he has no idea who is trying
(05:56):
to save, He has no idea what happens to them.
But what he does have is this connection with that
soul and flashes of their memory and their original timeline
and to his mind, and he has to try and
put the pieces of the puzzle together to try and
prevent it from happening.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That is very and uh intriguing. I mean, that just
boggles my mind, I have to say. James said, in
doing my show, I have come to appreciate writers and
what they go through you know, with the research.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And coming up with the dialogue.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I never really realized that or appreciated that until I
started to interview writers. How long or I'm I'm gonna
ask how long did to get a research?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
But what kind of research did you do.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
For Savior of Lawsaults?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So the research took I suppose took some time, and
it probably took the best part of well, I suppose
it was always ongoing. It took initial research of around
six or seven months, but as I got into the
writing process, you know, the research never stops. You write
the story, you write a character, and then you try
(07:14):
and find out you try and find out whether that's
applicable or art and trying, you know, and the research
continues and you might make edits, but it's not so
much say the research that was necessary about you know,
god and evil serial killers that sort of thing. There
was elements of research there, but there's also elements of research.
Because the book is set in nineteen eighty six, it's
(07:36):
set in the fictional town of Colorado and the US,
so I wrote it in US English, so I had
to do research around, you know, a particular area, and
luckily I worked with someone who've lived in that area,
which helped with that. But I also had to research
you or kind of research. But also remember going back
(07:57):
to nineteen eighty six as to what was the you know,
what were the toys around at that time, what were
the you know, what were people's interests, and what was
the fashion like and all of that kind of thing.
So there's research around the main characters and including the
bad characters, but also research around you know, the time
and place it's set in as well. And that research
continues and you might make edits as you go through.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
What I find fascinating because I myself find it difficult
to write a paragraph. It's in my head, but I
can't transfer it down to paper. For some reason, I
am fascinated by every writer's creative process. And I'm going
to ask you about yours. When you are thinking about
(08:44):
your character Levec and the other characters in the book.
But I've given you know the story away, and I
want you to give this the story away.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
How do you come up with the dialogue?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's what fascinates me about every books, a dialogue between
the characters.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, now, it's that is an interesting question because I
suppose some of the dialogue is dialogue you may have
in your everyday life anyway, if you've you know, there's
a there's a husband and wife in the book, there's
a little girl in the book, and it might be
some of that dialogue might be based on the fact that,
you know, this is how I would speak to my daughter,
(09:25):
you know, and that kind of thing, you know, that
playful kind of dialogue. The difficulty came in when you
had to sort of go outside of that life experience
and and delve into the into the I suppose that
the wickedness of the main bad guy, you know, the
name as Peter, and that's not given too much away
because it's kind of you kind of discovered that early
(09:47):
early on in the book. But as I was writing
that particular character and the dialogue that someone in that
nature and it's very kind of adult themes and and
awful things that that guy does. That was partly down
the research, and I was asked previously, did you put
yourself in that person's mind? Did you imagine if you
were doing some of the things he was doing? And
(10:07):
it was quite strange because I had some plot ideas anyway,
and it actually helped and having this in comic book
script form originally, but I didn't go into the head
of the character. I kind of imagined if I was
watching a documentary of a really bad character, almost like
going back to that, you know, back into the crime
(10:28):
that happened in twenty eleven twelve and watching the news.
I was kind of imagining, you know, not just watching
the news, but actually watching a documentary of this guy,
this Peter, and not being able to stop what he's
doing and witnessing firsthand what he was doing. And it
came into my mind as to what would he say,
how would he react to in everyday life, how would
(10:50):
he have conversations, what would he stay to himself? And
I kind of mapped all that out into, I say,
into a script format, which I then transcribed into a no.
But you suppose some of the dialogue is from everyday experiences,
and some of it is influenced by things you may watch,
including the news, and some of it is just raw imagination.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I have to say, James, that I thought a video
of your book on YouTube. You have a video which
I find really very interesting. I mean, it's very eye
catching and I highly recommend. I'm going to put the
(11:37):
that you r l in there so people can see
that because it's very eye catching. It gives you an
idea about the book, and it really makes you want
to order it. And it's I feel like your book
is universal. It happens everywhere that unfortunately tragedies happened, you
(12:02):
could say.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
People.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Who take other people's lives that had their time, And
wouldn't it be fascinating if someone can for them go
back in time and try for that event not to happen.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
And I was thinking about that. How many I mean,
and that's.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
What I like about to cover your book because you
go back to the last Souls. How many people James,
I'm sure, I mean it probably thousands or more that
would say to let it, Hay, can you undo the
events that put me in this place? And I think
(12:50):
it's interesting excuse me that you picked fictional town in Colorado?
How come Colorado?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And that the UK?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I know I was trying to think of that when
I was asked that question previously as well. I don't
think there was any any conscious decisions apart from maybe
to try and distance it from any link to anything
that might have been you know, might have been something
that happened in the UK. And and and considered, you know,
too influential to the novel of the story, and it
(13:24):
might upset people that it happened to in reality that
that might have been the subconscious decision to do. But
also I think it, you know, it kind of you know,
I've always liked, you know, watching American TV. American I
like going to America. I've never been to Colorado, but
I have a vision in my mind of it, and
the person I worked with that helped to explore that
(13:44):
vision and put it down on paper. But to your
to your point, you know, it could be anywhere. You know,
I'm writing the sequel at the moment. It has a
character and it's who's who's from the UK but happens
to live in la at this time. And and you know,
but then that's that's set. We will be set in
two thousand and to us I write that. But then
(14:05):
you know, because of these lost souls and because there's
kind of timeless, you know, time has no meaning in
the realm that LVAC resides in that it could be
set in medieval UK one of the stories. It could
be set in kind of some future landscape and you know,
in the year twenty eighty or something, you know, So
there's that, you know that the amount of stories that
(14:26):
can be told with this characters as endless as you say.
So the first one I had it written in the
comic book form and in Colorado and explored on these
fictional towns around there as I wrote a novel form.
But you know, who knows where the future might take levec.
It might be difficult if someone like France, because I'd
have to to learn the language there or something. But
(14:49):
you know, it's there's countless opportunities of bringing them into
into any situation in any time.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I think it's interesting they picked nineteen eighties six because
that was before the Internet, wasn't it. If I can
remember correctly, it was way before cell phones, right, the Internet.
My son was born in nineteen eighty four, and I
don't remember. I don't think I got a cell phone
(15:19):
until the nineties. And that was, you know, the very
basic at that point in the beginning, not like they
are today.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
There was no Internet.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
You were an it guy, So there was no internet,
was there in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Well, if there was, it was not being used by
the mass public. So yeah, And I think part of
the reason of setting in nineteen eighty six, was going
on a slight nostalgia trip myself. I was just I
just started high school in nineteen eighty six, and so
I was trying to remember back to some of the
things there. And obviously the challenge was to see whether,
(16:01):
you know, some of the things I remember was it
was relevant to be set in Colorado as well. But
but you know, it's it just had a fond memory
in my mind around that that particular era and then
mixing it with some of the awful things that happened
happened within the book. But you know, and I remember
when I was on you know, my parents would say,
(16:23):
you know, I can come back before it's dark, and
that that would be the end of it. I had
no cell phone, no way of contacting them, so they
put an element of trust in my ability to get
back when they asked me to get back. And times
are different. It's great that we can give our children,
even even our adult children, cell phones. You can track them,
(16:43):
just make sure the safe ask them to call you
to say where when they get a particular when they
get to a particular place, and they do. But what
that was taken away, you can you know, and that
actually heightened the fear to it. You can't track them
all of a sudden. But then you know, as I
write books one set in two thousand and two, that
the second one you know that add other complexities is
(17:04):
that the technology wasn't as isn't as advanced as it
is now. But it's certainly more advanced in nineteen eighty six,
and there's different ways. Does it add more worry when
you can track where your children are, when you see
where they are or what they're doing there, what's going on,
rather than just having that element of trust.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
That is so true.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
James and I grew up in the sixties and seventies
and we were outside unsupervised, and when we would go
trick or treating for Halloween, I mean I was nine
years old. I would take my brother, who was three
at the time, all over the neighborhood, no adult supervision
(17:44):
at all. And now we would not even think about
doing that in today's world.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Sending out a ninety year.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Old and a three year old out by themselves trick
or treating. But times has definitely changed them the better
and some not. And in nineteen eighty six you could
correct me if I'm wrong the DNA testing was not
(18:11):
like it is today, if they even had it to
DNA the crime scene like they do now. But the ife.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I used to watch I Still Love This on id
TV where they had different crime shows, and my husband
would say to me, why are you watching that? But
I thought it was fascinating how they would put figure
out the crime. And one woman the show we used
(18:49):
to watch was a forensic at the psychologist, and how
they created the profile of someone who would commit a crime.
To me, that's fascinating. I mean, it's just a fascinating.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Science.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
You know, you look at a crime scene and then
you figure out who this person is and and they
are right. And I justin'm fascinated with crime shows. I
have to ask you this because from what how your
book sounds of your Lost Souls? Would you ever think
(19:30):
of getting it put into a TV series or hopefully
a movie, because this sounds like you'll make a fascinating
movie or a series.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
You know it has it has crossed my mind. Yeah,
I think I think it would lend itself well to
a series because of the episodic content in terms of
the chapters and so on. I think that that would
lend itself really well to a TV series, and the
fact that you know that the stories could be analysts
could mean the potential is huge there as well. But
(20:03):
you know that that would be great. That would be
you know, a real achievement and a real goal to
aim towards, you know. But saying that, I do enjoy
writing the writing process, and I enjoy people who you know,
who like to read and take it in that way
as well. I do have an audible book on it
as well, which you know, you talk about a TV series.
When I was listening back to the audible book, you know,
(20:25):
when you you don't you hear the characters that you've
written yourself in your own mind. But once someone and
I hired to to do the book came back with
the various characters. I mean, there was a guy David Piper.
I think he did a wonderful job of bringing those
characters to life. It'd certainly do the accents of the
various accents much better than I could. I could butcher them.
(20:47):
But so that added another element to it, and that
made me excited to think that could just lend itself
to a TV series as well. Yeah, about detective work,
you know that that's part of the vex sort of
you know, he's not an all single knowing god. He
has to put these pieces of the puzzle together, using
(21:08):
the fragments of memories from the victim's original timeline together
to try and figure out who they are and what
happened to them. And so there's a there's a bit
of a god play detective element to it as well.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Can you share as much as you like without giving
everything away? Because I would like for people to purchase
your book. How did uh Levic become Levic? How did
he become where he is?
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, anyway, there's other there's other gods within within the
book as well, and this isn't giving too much away.
There's a goddess I'd named Maren who resides in in
the realm called Accident, which is I suppose my version
of Heaven, and she's just this loving, nurturing, a motherly
(22:00):
type of of god. There's another god that I called Calloc,
who is essentially Leavek's brother and Maren is their mother.
And Calloc resides in a realm called Akden, which is
my take on Hell, which is instead of it being
you know, a fiery kind of Bernie Erno, it's a
it's a kind of frigid ice, kind of hell. So
(22:21):
it's it's cold and and a frozen wasteland. And as
you as you read the book, and this isn't given
too much away as well, I'll stop after mentioning this.
But Maren noticed, you know, she doesn't want to interfere
with with with human life. As she lets she saw
the Earth develop, and the Earth was known to them
(22:42):
as a realm called Guide then and she saw Guide
and develop with these creatures that resembled them. So in
other words, humans becoming looking like looking like the gods.
And she asked her sons to go to Guide and
slash Earth and and and try and be one of them,
to try and understand them, to understand mortality is, and
therefore understand what morality is and leavec embraced. It come
(23:05):
up not so much so, and it won't go on
too much because I could I could talk about that
particular element for a long time, but that would give
too much away. But it's the same body years because
of something that you know. He was always a god,
but he embraced and witnessed human nature.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Did you always want to write.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I've always had this creative streak, and I've Funnily enough,
when I went to see my father a few months ago,
he handed me a box of old stories I'd written
as a kid, and yeah, yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't
necessarily get those published because of a little bit embarrassing,
but it showed that I always had this creative side
to write, but also had this, you know, I had
(23:46):
these ideas of putting together computer games and things like that,
and cartoons and things. So I've always had this this
creative streak, and I think life then takes over. You
get a job, you have a family, you progress in
your job, and then you know, having ideas and that
you like the comic book idea that I wrote sat
on my computer driver and then in the cloud for
(24:09):
so long until someone said, why didn't you do anything
about it? And I said, well, at the time, it
was something I had an idea of and nothing happened.
And she convinced me to talk to someone at a
publishing house, an independent publisher. The person who published my book,
Paul in Prifty for Paul Smith Publishing, and he then
got me into converting that comic book script into a
(24:30):
novel and taught me how to write, taught me how
to read, and taught me how to edit as a
writer as well. So you kind of write with with
emotion and edit without that emotion and take things out
that you don't think fits or move things around. Then
and read your own book as if you're reading it
critiquingly so that you can you can make those editing choices.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I think it's really interesting and over the years, I mean,
I've interviewed hundreds of people, and to me, James, it's.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Amazing, like people who always wanted to rate, but you know,
life happens.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
They had their careers and then and you're young yet.
But I mean, I've interviewed people who retired, they're in
the seventies and eighties and they're writing their first book
and they continue to write too old.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I think you you know now you're not. I think
I've tried to do this in my twenties. I don't
know whether I would have had the wisdom and the
maturity to have took it to to where it is now.
And you know, you know, I'm kind of glad I'm
doing it at the age of matt because you have
more live experience, you have more to tell. But but
that's not to take anything away from the young writers
(25:42):
out there, because they write some fantastic novels. But I think,
you know, it happens. If you want to be a
writer and you've not done it yet, there's nothing you know,
you could be forty to fifty, sixty seventy so on.
If you've got an idea and a story to tell,
then then tell it.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I agree one hundred percent. There's people who have ideas
and they just you know, let it sit and then
they write a book. And I mean I interviewed someone
who had an idea about a book and she became
(26:19):
international bestseller, so you know, yeah, so it's never too late, folks.
I say this all the time on I Show James
that if you want to write a book, I mean,
and people are afraid of sailing, oh one of them.
As if I fail, well, you know what, then you
learned for the next time. It's not sailing. You learn
(26:41):
from your mistakes. And your most successful people did not
let their mistakes stop them from moving forward.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
And you know.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Who's JK rolling. She was rejected so many times, right,
so many times, and look what happened. So I always
tell people my audience. Don't get discouraged if you get rejected,
just keep just keep at it, and it will happen.
(27:16):
Did you always have this imagination as a child, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I did. Yeah, I mean I can remember me and
my two brothers. You speak, do the sort, you know,
to make believe. There's various characters that we come up
with and and run around the house, driving my mom
and dad insane with you shouting and running around and playing.
And you know, it's and that's partly down to you
(27:46):
had to have an imagination as a kid when I
was younger, rather than having access to all the things
kids have access to nowadays. But some of it is
down down to the fun of doing that as well.
And you know, and as I mentioned into that, I
had slipped my mind, but my dad gave me this
box which reminded me of all the all the various
(28:06):
stories I'd written down when I when I was younger.
So you know, I don't think you should write a
story just because you think you want to become rich
and famous as an author. You should write a story
because you've got a story to tell. And you know,
and and if you've got a story to tell, I
think That's the most important thing. Because you know, I've
(28:27):
set out and I wrote this story. I hadn't I
hadn't got a clue what genre haud fall into, because
I just had this idea wanted to put out there.
And that's partly why it's probably fall into various genres
of dark fantasy to horror, to thriller and and that
kind of thing. But but what I've done it for
is because I had that story to tell and I
(28:48):
wanted to get it out there on on paper for
people to read. And that's that's what I've done. I've
achieved that, and it's inspired me to write book two
in the series as well. But don't don't chase dreams
just because you want to become rich. Chase the dreams
because you've got stories to tell.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I like that, and many writers will tell people, you know,
you don't get rich from that. It's the very few,
I think, who become rich from writing a book. And
but you know, I'd say, keep on, you know, doing it.
(29:28):
I think Sharon's stories brings our humanity back to each
other storytelling and we learned from yeah, and we learned
from others experiences. I'd like for you to share if
you can, whatever you'd like to share about the young
(29:51):
girl Sally in your book and the William's family because
in the video that I saw, uh, there's a young
girl swinging on a swing. You can let your imagination
take over people, but you you know it named me wonder. Okay,
(30:12):
I'm gonna ask James, but I don't want you to
give with the storyline that you know, something happens to
this little girl. And that's why I thought, when I
watched the video, how did you create the family and
the dynamics in the family.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Part of the part of that is leaning on on experience,
I suppose of me and my wife and having having
we've got a son and a daughter, two sons and
a daughter. But uh, you know, it's just leaning on
the on that family dynamic, and that in itself is
quite difficult to to lean into because as you say that,
(30:56):
you know, I've talked about what what Levec is about
and what he does us and there's a little girl
named Sally. So without giving too much away, it will
it kind of indicates that he's there to try and
stop something from happening to her that may have already happened,
and can he do it on times? Can he save her?
But you know, and that was difficult because you know,
(31:16):
when you have got a family, you don't want anything
bad to happen to any of the short You don't
want them to go to a realm where the only
option is for a god named Levette to say them.
You just don't want it to happen in the first place.
But yeah, I kind of digressed a little bit, I suppose,
But the tr answer your question was leaning on the
experience of family life, leaning on experiences as a child,
(31:38):
albeit obviously you know, not a little girl, but remembering
my childhood, remembering how my parents were with me, and
how I and my wife are or with our daughter
and other and our other two children, and kind of
leaning on that and you know, making it in a
point where this family, this innocent family, like we all think,
(32:00):
you know, don't think anything's ever going to happen to
them in that way, and and you know, something obviously
does happen, and Candleveck stop it from happening again. But
also this family, the Williams family, had had a son
who who did die. He did he wasn't he wasn't murdered.
He died of of you know, of natural related causes
(32:24):
as a young boy, and and that I had to
pull on the dynamic there. You know, Sally was born
after he died, and she tries to miss a brother
she didn't know, and that sort of thing. And and
you know, Matty or Matthew was the little boy's name,
or i'll say without giving too much away, so that
he died when he was young, but his his story
(32:45):
didn't end there in that book.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Well, and then that's the whole you know, grieving apart,
you know, uh, I I have I don't know what
it's like to lose a child, and I hope I
never do know, but I have spoken to people who
have lost their children and they say it's a pain
(33:12):
like no other. I know when my older brother died
four years ago, and my mother never recuperated for lack
a better word, and she was from you know, the
generation where you don't talk about your feelings. You just
(33:33):
you know, keep it inside. And it is really a tragic.
So I think when you lose a child, I would
think then you're very protective if you have another one
or the ones, you know, if you do have other children,
then you're very protective of their safety, their health and
(33:56):
well being. When I was young, you know, I really
wasn't taught stranger danger, James.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
I was told, if.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Anyone stopped, you don't get in their car. You don't
take candy from strangers, and now you have to go
into more depths. I have to share a cute story
if you don't mind, James about stranger danger. I just
still work in the preschool as a teacher's aid, and
(34:27):
I would teach stranger danger. And I would tell the
boys and girls they were like from three to six
years old, and of course I understood more than others.
You never know what kids take from what you say.
And I said, if you're in a park, someone picks
you up, you yell, I don't know, you put me down,
(34:53):
and if you have to, then you hit that person
for them to release you. This boy said to me,
Mss Betsy, can I karate chot them in the throat?
And I said, yes, that think a karate shocked them
in the throat. And I said, and you know you don't.
(35:17):
I tell them you don't go in a pool by yourself.
You don't even go into your neighbor's house or apartment
unless you tell an adult with it, your mother, father,
who's ever taken care of you at that time. You
have to ask them their permission. And it's just so
(35:41):
important because these are things that you would never think
of back when I was growing up. And shore another
quick story. I told them that if they ever got
lost with an amusement park or shopping center, to go
to someone you know, we're in a uniform. If it's
in the musement park, if you see a police officer,
(36:05):
or go up to someone who's working the machine and
tell them that you're lost. But don't ever leave with
a stranger. You don't ever leave with a stranger. And
this little girl she said to me and that following September,
she said, Miss Betsy, I got lost in the park
and I did exactly what you told me to do.
(36:27):
I cried, I cried James, And I asked her mother.
I said, is this true? Did she Johnny get lost?
And she said, oh, yes, miss Betsing, she got lost,
and she did exactly what you told her to do.
When they found they found us, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Well.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I just got thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
And that's the thing to teach them, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yes? Yeah, And so you know you you're in You know,
no one thinks, James of said maybe now, like you know,
we would be out in the our front or backyard,
you know, playing you didn't think about a stranger coming
up and kidnapping your child. When my son was growing up,
(37:14):
my son was born nineteen eighty four, James, I was
out there every time he went out. I did not
leave him alone. Now it wasn't called helicopter parenting at
that time. It was really for safety. I lived on
a main street when Josh was growing up, so when
he would ride his bike, I would be following him.
(37:36):
I did not leave him alone. And also at the mall,
you know, he came with me and he started going
to bed and by himself. I was outside the door,
and of course I told him about stranger danger. But
these are the things like in nineteen eighty six, I
don't I mean, I thought about it, but maybe a
(37:58):
lot of people didn't. If you're out in the country tree,
you know, if you're isolated. I don't know if the
Wayne's family is in the isolated part of Colorado, but
you don't think of it happening out in the country.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
You really don't, don't you just don't know, you know,
you just don't know what people actually really like behind
closed doors.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
And that's that's part of them monster. There's Peter as
well and Sally. You know her parents are they probably
consider themselves slightly overprotective, but that's because they lost a
child before. But also you know, it's it's just in
their nature to want to know, you know, if you're
going outside and their house have written backs onto a Parker,
(38:42):
other backs onto their house. So she's out on the swings,
on the on the Merry go round, you know, playing
with my little pony and that kind of thing, and
you know they've they're still watching her, but perhaps not
as much as they should be doing because they feel
that she's safe in that environment because she plays there
all the time. And I won't go on any further
(39:03):
and not on that part because again not not to
give too much away, but but it's you know, you
can't you trust certain people. And you should trust people
because you know, that's how we that's how we should
be as humans. But there's certain people that you just
don't know what they're actual you know, what they're really like.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
That's true, and a lot of your predators or they
don't appear as what you'd call a monster. And some
of them are pillars in the community, and they're really
behind closed doors monsters and it is.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Just your your story.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
I don't remember, James, what year this happened, or even
what state, but they were isolated, the family was isolated.
Somebody was watching them and observe then, and unfortunately the
parents were murdered. I think the older child was and
he had this person kidnapped the two children. I think
(40:14):
the girl he kept alive. I think he might have
killed the young boy. It might have been in the
eighties or nineties. But so you don't know who's watching.
I don't mean to be morbid here, of listeners, but
this is really the reality of life. You don't know
who's watching, and you had to be aware. And I'm
(40:39):
going to get to my cellbox here, James, so just
bear with me. And because I mustn't really talk to
the audience, Please, listeners, do not be oblivious on.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Your phone when your children are out playing in a.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Thea, in your backyard, front yard, especially a park a
public area. I see this all the time, and it
just makes me cringe, James, that they're on your phone,
they're oblivious to what their children are doing, and it
only is a matter of seconds before someone can pick
up your child. So I just have to say that
(41:24):
please be aware of your surroundings, watch your children, because
that is a guilt you don't want to have to
live with.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I was second that as well. You know, it's so
easy to get lost in the in the moment you
find something on your phone and you're distracted, but all
it takes is up to two seconds, and if something's
happened that you can't ever get back, but that you know,
And I think that's that's a great way of sort
of saying that, because you know, don't ever be too complacent.
(41:55):
You know your kids are precious. Make sure they're safe
all the time. I switched that message around to the
bad guys as well, saying that you don't ever be complacent.
Don't think you've you've permitted a crime that you think
you've gone away with. You might have killed someone and
no one's looking for you, right, But don't be so complacent,
because that lost saw me one day, call out to
(42:15):
Levec Levek might hear, and he might and he'll come
back and he will bestow that retribution and say that's
that soul life and and do to you what you
did to that person originally. Now obviously that's fictional, but
wouldn't it be wonderful if if there was justice out
there like that?
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yes, yes, I agree. You never know. They say karma
is a witch, but and you just don't. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
No.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
We had a case in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
This happened a few years ago where the mom was
in her car and she let her daughter go out
and play with her her brother or cousin, and the
girl was abducted. They haven't found her. I think it's
like five or six years now, never found her.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
That happened in the UK as well. A family on
holiday in Portugal. You know that the daughter was abducted
and that happened will be twenty one years ago this
year and never found her.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
Oh I remember that, James. I remember.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Another It was that exact case, but a family from
the UK was on vacation and wasn't the girls sleeping
in her hotel bed?
Speaker 2 (43:39):
That's right, Yes, that's the one.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah, yeah, So I mean it it's just you know,
there we have as parents, find that balance, right James,
between the over protect us and being on letting our kids,
you know, so play without fear. And it's really you know,
(44:06):
it's a commentary on society that we have to teach
our children all that's necessary.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Precautions to keep them safe.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
But we we have to, I mean, we just don't,
you know, have a choice in that. Unfortunately, even you know,
my dad who was born in the twenties, nineteen twenty four,
and his dad even told him, you know, you don't
take candy food strangers, you don't go in the car
(44:38):
with the stranger. And you know, that was about it.
But it's really so important. I think your book Favior
of Lost Souls sounds so fascinating. James, kudos to you
for writing such a compelling book the supernatural mystery, and
(45:05):
it really sounds fascinating. Where could people purchase your book?
Speaker 2 (45:11):
To purchase it on Amazon Kindle or paperback that can
also have it on an audible or on Amazon I
I sorry, Apple iTunes, but also from you know, any
any good bookstore you can you can order it in.
So I know that people have also been purchased from
Bonds and Noble, for example in the US.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah, what I went into I got to barn Zove
every weekend, excuse me? And I asked them. They said,
do you have James R. Bateman's Savior of Souls? And
they could order it for me, they didn't have enough store.
So folks, if you go to your big box store
(45:56):
and they don't have it, tell them to order it
for you and I'll come within like what, probably less
than a week. And how can the listeners and your
future readers connect with you, James Rbingen.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I have a website www dot James R. Bateman dot com.
I try to post things on them relatively regularly. I
also have a Facebook page James R. Bateman Author, and
also an Instagram as well, so people can connect to
me on those various platforms. And if you have a
look at my website to join my join a mailing
(46:37):
list and contact me to via email as well. Also,
oh oh.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Great, well, I wish you lots of luck. I hope
your book becomes international bestseller, it becomes a movie or
a Netflix series or something like that.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
And thank you for.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Having such a read imagination and spending time on Chiming
with Betty tell you and sharing about your book. Savior
of Lost Souls by James R. Bateman, The Last name
is spelled b A T M A N.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
James's delightful chiming with you today about your book, and
please come back with your about your second book. I'd
love to have you back.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
I'd love that, Betsy, thank you and I really appreciate
your time and the conversation.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
Oh you are welcome is my pleasure. And before I forget,
I want to thank Rick White, who is a CEO
of stress Free Book of Marketing, who arranged this interview.
And I have interviewed several Rick Lights clients and if
you are looking for help in marketing or publishing, contact
(47:58):
Rick White. And I also interviewed Rick Light earlier this
year of a stress Free Book marketing.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
I recommend it.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Actually a couple of people that I know direct. And
I want to thank Genie White who writes the blog
and all the information about the book, and James R.
Bateman will be in the blog that Genie White writes
as the station manager produces the show. And I want
to thank loll Lan Caldwell, who's CEO Passion will Talk
Raadio Network that makes.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
This all possible.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
And I want to thank you the listeners. Thank you
for listening spending time with me, and please share the
show because I want to reach as many people as possible.
Passion World Talk Creadio Network isn't just your regular and
to that station. It is a resource center. We have
a lot of resources that can help you have a
better quality of life. And if you're a caregiver, you
(48:52):
need a support group. I have hashtag kick Alzheimer's Ask
movement and as I always say that the end of
my show, you can follow me on Facebook betd Worthel
w r z e L And if you want to
know how, you can here Chinning with Betsy. It's free
to subscribe to on Spotify, Spreaker.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
Amazon Music.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
You can even if you have a Lexa program Alexa
for Chatting with Betsy. And I just want to help
as many people as possible. And as I always end
my show with, in a world that you can be anything,
Please be kind and shine your life right because the
world needs it now more than ever before. This is
(49:37):
Betsy Worzel. You're a host of Chatting with Betsy. I'm
Patriion Roll Talk Radio Network, a subsidiary of Global Media
Network LLC. So we chat again.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
Be safe everyone, Bye bye now
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