Rob McConnell Interviews - STAR DONOVAN - Are Vampires Great Role Models for Kids - The 'X' Zone Radio/TV Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Xzone Radio Show with Rob McConnell is largely an
opinion talk show. All opinions, comments, or statements of fact
expressed by Rob McConnell's guests are strictly their own and
are not to be construed as those of the X
Zone Radio Show or endorsed in any manner by Rob McConnell,
Realmar McConnell Media Company, the X Zone Broadcast Network, it's

(00:23):
affiliated networks, stations, employees or advertisers.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
All hit.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Welcome to the X Zone, a place where fact is
fiction and fiction is reality.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Now here's your host, Rob McConnell, and welcome back to
the x O one everyone. My name is Rob McConnell.
We're coming to you from our studios in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Worldwide toll free one eight hundred and six ten seven
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(01:14):
and our website www dot Xzone. Excuse me, xone Radio
TV dot com. Don't forget Xonation that in less than
a week, the Halloween edition of the X Chronicles newspaper
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(01:36):
you'd like to get your copy, all you have to
do is just send an email to publisher at X Chronicles,
dash newspaper dot com, or you can visit online to
the many past issues that we have available for you
at www dot x Chronicles, dash newspaper dot com, Forward
Slash newspaper stand dot htm. My guest this our exonation

(01:59):
is Star Don. She is the author of The Young
Vampire Adventures, a series of books for ages eight and up.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Now.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Star was born in England and grew up in South Africa.
She first wrote about Gappie the Young Vampire in a
school essay when she was eleven years old. Starr moved
to the United States and settled in Upstate, New York
in nineteen eighty four. Her education includes a Master of
Social Work from the University at Albany. Now As an

(02:26):
adult in the nineteen nineties, she would tell Gappy stories
to her two young daughters. Publication of the book series
began in two thousand and eight, with approximately two numbers
appearing each year. Starr lives in New York State with
her husband, three cats, and a woodchuck in the backyard
now listened to this exual nation. Star never and I

(02:48):
mean never ever kills spiders and she loves bats. She
still reads children's book and often wishes real life were
as interesting as the world of make belief. Her website
is www. Dot gapye dot TV. That's Gappy TV. And

(03:08):
joining me now is start out of It and Star
Welcome to the ex song.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Thank you very much, thanks for having me.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
Tell me, Starr, where did your interest in vampires and
the paranormal come from?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, when I was little, I used to love vampire stories,
and I saw the Dracula movies and all the other
vampire movies that were on and including Stephens King's Salem's Lot,
and I just had a thing for vampires. I don't
know where it came from, but as you were saying

(03:42):
in the introduction, I first wrote about Gapie when I
was eleventh of school essay and I had no idea
what to write about, and I was stumping around the
house in a bad mood, and my mother was so
sick of hearing me complaining that she said, Oh, why
don't you write a story about a little vampire who's
fangs won't grow or something like that and call him

(04:03):
Gappy the Unhappy and saying, as I was into vampires anyway,
that's something like a good idea, And I wrote the
essay and that's how Gappy got started.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Let me ask you this, do you believe that vampires
really do exist?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Well, some of my fans on Facebook apparently believe that so,
or am I to say whether they're wrong or right?

Speaker 4 (04:25):
But tell me what do you believe?

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well? I would like to believe that they're real, but
logically I guess I sort of have to admit that
they might not be.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
So you've never walked up in the morning with two
fang marks in the neck in your neck, well unless
it's from your husband. And you've never and you've ever
seen a person transpose into a bat?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
No, unfortunately I haven't, But I would love to be
able to change into a bat and you do flying
on all the neat things that vampires can do.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
All right, Please stand by Star when I have to
take our first commercial break for this hour. I know
a couple of bats. Members of my family. Oh yeah, yeah,
runs deep in the family, believe me. Xonation Star Donovan
is our special guest. Here's the website www dot g
app Y dot tv. That's Gappy dot TV. And we're

(05:22):
going to be talking about young vampire adventures this hour
here in the X Zone. After all, this is a
place where people dare to believe and dare to be
heard Monday through Friday from ten pm Eastern until two
am Eastern on our first network, Network number two two
until six am, and then Network number three six pm
until ten pm. My name is Rob mccondell. This is

(05:43):
the X Zone www dot xone Radio tv dot com.
And for our podcasts, they're always free at www dot
xxone podcast dot com. Donovan Starr and I come back
to talk about vampires this hour here in the Zone.

(06:08):
Did you know that when you're on the road with
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Speaker 5 (08:06):
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Speaker 1 (08:48):
To listen.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
And welcome back to the X on every one Star
Donovan is my special guest www dot gapye dot tv.
That's Gappy TV. And for first of all, tell us
a little bit about yourself. You know, you talked to
us about how you came to write about Gappy, but
why did you you know? I understand Gappy was the unhappy,

(09:21):
but why vampires not why not a ghost?

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Well, I guess I was more into vampires than ghosts. Okay,
I've seen Kasper the Friendly Ghost, but it just didn't
do it for me, like the way Jacula did.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Tell me. Why do you think in today's society so
many people are showing a greater interest in the paranormal
than any other time except during war.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, I wouldn't know about the wartime because that seems
an odd mix for paranormal and war activity. But I
don't know. I think it's because it's mystical, and people
like to think that there's some sort of fantasy creatures
out there, and they know they're not real that they

(10:09):
would probably it would probably be interesting if they were.
And there's all the vampire movies and everything and the
books that feed into it, and you've got the witches
and the seances and all the other things that go
with your cults. So I think it just makes life
interesting to people if they have something like that that

(10:32):
they can be interested in.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
Now, why the association between the paranormal and wars? We
know this for a fact that during wars people want
to they want to stay in touch with dearly departed.
It was during a world war that the Ouiji board
was invented. Mysticism picks up d during the wartime because

(10:56):
people want closure that they can't get because they're dearly departed.
It has died overseas and is buried in a grave
somewhere else. In nine times out of ten, they never
get to visit the grave. So I guess people are
looking for closure. Now there's six books about Gappy. What
are they called and what are they about?

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Well, they're about a little boy. He's nine years old
in the first book. He gets older as the book's progress,
and he's a pretty serious boy. He's not that good
at school, but he doesn't get into trouble. He's a
sort of a loner. He has one best friend, Prudence Pottage,
who's got red hair and freckles and is very feisty

(11:38):
and sometimes gets irritated with him because he doesn't stand
up against.

Speaker 6 (11:41):
The bully at school.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
And one day his parents tell him the shocking news
that he's turning into a vampire like them. Now, he
didn't even know that his parents are vampires, and he
was just a normal kid up to this point until
the day he fainted in art school in art class
and to go at a hospital and they found out
he was ammic, and that night his parents have the

(12:05):
big talk with him, which all vampire kids have to
go through when they're about nine years old, and they
start changing, and he's inherited the vampire gene and is
turning into a vampire like his parents, and he's sworn
to secrecy. He can't tell anyone. He thinks his parents
are absolutely crazy, but he sort of has to believe

(12:26):
when they give him some more proof, and so he's
dying to be able to tell people at school about it.
And he has this big burden of this secret on him,
and he doesn't know why people can't see that he's
different at school, because he's the completely different person now
than he thought he was. But he manages to keep
his mouth shut and keep it a secret until the

(12:49):
time he runs into a bully in the first book,
which is the surprise for Gappy, and he finds himself
using a vampire power that he didn't know he even had.

Speaker 6 (13:00):
And he's not supposed to.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Use his powers in public because you'll get in trouble
with the vampire councils. They're very strict about that sort
of thing. You can imagine vampires don't want to be
discovered living amongst regular humors, may be put in labs
and struck with needles and things like that. Book two
is called Gappy Disappears, and that's when he begins losing

(13:23):
his reflection at school one day in the mirror, and
that could get very difficult to deal with if somebody noticed,
and he runs across a pair of fees and he's
able to use a new skill that he's developing to
do with his disappearing reflection to save the day, and

(13:43):
he also manages to maybe turn around the character of
the bully that's always pestering them at school in the process.
Book three is Gappy's Kidnapps. That's my favorite book. He
gets to go to vampire Camp vampire summer camp and
learn how to do all the magic things that vampires
get to develop as they grow older, and he uses

(14:05):
one of his powers to help him escape when some
people kidnap him in the middle of the night.

Speaker 6 (14:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Book four is Gapy in the Thieves, and that takes
place at Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, New York, where Uncle
Sam is buried. And I use the opportunity to just
give the kids a little bit of information about Uncle
Sam and what he did during the War of eighteen twelve,
and he finds some skullduggery going on in the graveyard.

(14:34):
There's people walking around with flashlights in the middle of
the night, and the kids go down as secret tunnel
underneath their house at leads to the graveyard and they
try and find out what's going on. But all this
time Gappy is coming across situations where he sort of
has to use his vampire powers, but he can't let
his friend see. So it's all about how he gets

(14:58):
around that sort of thing. And of course he gets
captured and he escapes because he pretty much gets captured
in every book.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
Wow, And of course he can just turn himself into
a bat and fly away.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, I know, Well, he's not that experienced yet.

Speaker 6 (15:10):
He can't do that.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Until the book six, where he starts learning how to
change into things when he goes back to summer Camp Gap.
He's great escape is book five, and that's when he
goes to Wales in the UK, where his great great
grandfather came from, and he comes across some dubious characters
who are up to something in a slate mine underground

(15:33):
and he and his friends and his cousins go underground, and
of course they get captured and have to escape, but
he uses one of his powers that he's just been
developing for that. And Gapian the Witch's Curse is when
he goes to Salem, Massachusetts and solves an ancient problem
that's been bothering the vampire community for a hundred years,

(15:56):
and only he is able to find the answer, but
in the process he almost dies. There's an evil vampire
who's got it in for him, and it's a battle
between good and evil, which is the central scene that
runs through most of the books.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
You know, I must tell you, I'm very intrigued that
you say that vampires can be role models for kids. Now,
people usually don't think it's vampires in that way, certainly
not suitable for younger children in preteens. How do you
explain that? You know, Hey, listen, vampires are good role

(16:35):
models for kids.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Well, there can be good role models if they're like Gappy,
because Gapy's just a nice kid. He's perfectly normal. He
just has this big secret that he has to live with,
and he's got some magic to him as well, and
he's a good role model to the eight to twelve
year olds who read the books because he's adventurous, he's

(16:58):
loyal to his friends, he's respectful to adults. He works
hard to solve problems, he doesn't give up. He's a
reluctant hero sometimes, but who manages to talk him into
doing the right thing in the end. And he's a
bit mischievous, and he takes risks and he gets into
danger that he struggles through and doesn't let things get

(17:20):
him down. And he's also has to deal with being
totally different in the world. There's a lot of children
who feel like they don't get in. And one of
the fourth grade teachers that as a school that I
went to to talk to the kids about the books,
she was very taken by the fact that Gappi was

(17:40):
dealing with being different and some of her kids in
the class could really relate to that. So in that way,
my vampire can be a good role model to the
children that read about him. Mostly it's blood and guts,
and that's for the older people, but for my books
that completely age appropriate. And I think parents and even

(18:02):
my priests approve with Gappy and he's a Catholic and
they're not supposed to believe in vampires.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
Well, you know, I don't think that your priest actually
does believe in vampires. But what he does is he
enjoys the reading of the book, which brings me to
my next question. Do you think the market is oversaturated
with vampire books these days, especially with the Twilight series
and the Vampire series currently running on TV.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well, I would say that it is saturated, but it
is saturated for the old age groups. There's not really
any vampire books or at least series out there that
are targeted for the age eight to twelve age groups.
But the market is saturated. But you could also say, well,
the market saturated for romance novel and sci fi and

(18:52):
crime fiction, and nobody says, oh, well, don't you think
the market's saturated with romance novels. If you're a romance
lover or a sci fi lover, you're glad that the
market's oversaturated, because then you'll never read. You'll never run
out of books to read the things that interest you.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
So tell me, what do you think about the Twilight
series and what makes your books different?

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Well, what makes my books different is because therefore a
different age group. The Twilight I think are the teenagers.
But I honestly haven't seen any of the Twilight movies
or read any of the Twilight books because I don't
want to get any ideas that aren't my own. I
just want my imagination to be a fresh canvas, and

(19:38):
so I can't really answer how my books are different.
I think it was probably funny to think of a
vampire author that hasn't read Twilight, but that's me. I haven't.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
Okay, you've got a master's I believe in social work,
and how does your background and experience help you writing
books for children?

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Well, I was doing an internship in middle school when
I was taking my degree, and I would sit in
on some of the classrooms and observe the children's behavior.
And there are lots of children with emotional and mental issues.
And I had occasion to sit in on some of

(20:29):
the special ed reading classes, and I saw children that
had issues of one kind or another, and behavior problems
and had never really picked up a book before and
had difficulty reading because they were backward. And I saw
them reading Harry Potter.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
All right, I'm gonna we're gonna have We're going to
hold you right here because we have to dig our Newsbreak, Cliffhanger,
Harry Potter, Handfire, which is and much more this hour
here on the excellent The Way special guest Star Donovan.
Her website is www dot g Appy dot TV, and
Star and I will be back on the other side

(21:09):
of this commercial break. So whatever you do, don't bite
someone in the neck unless you really mean it. We'll
be back. Don't go away.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
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(21:40):
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Speaker 4 (21:53):
Hi everyone, Rob McConnell here and I wanted to spend
a moment on Internet streaming. Everybody has heard about it streaming,
but not many know much about it. Did you know?

(22:16):
thanks to the folks at one two three, Ready TV,

(22:39):
our website at www dot XZBN dot net. Welcome back,
every one. Start on. Evan's my special guest to this hour,
and we're talking to Star about the Young Vampire Adventures.

(23:02):
Gappy is the young gentleman's name, and her website is
www dot gapye TV. That's www dot gapye dot TV.
And I was wondering, as Starr, if you can tell
me how reading above vampires can actually help literacy.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well, as I was saying before the break, I was
observing special ads reading class and the children were reading
Harry Potter at the time, and children who hadn't picked
up a book in years were having problems reading at
school and weren't very interested because of emotional mental issues.

(23:47):
I actually saw them getting really excited about Harry Potter,
and they were engaged in the stories, they were interested,
they were making huge efforts to read out loud, and
it was so great to see. I love children's books,
and I have some favorite British authors, and Harry Potter

(24:07):
really resonated with me because I'm British and the way
that the books are written is very British. And I
remembered being really excited by books and the warm, fuzzy
feeling I got from reading them, and I wanted to
impart that to children myself. So that also helped me

(24:29):
get our move on and start writing for children. And
it was to help having the background and experience too
that I had, and I made the first two books
very simple, deliberately at the younger end of the age
spectrum for maybe seven to nine year old too, with

(24:51):
the reluctant reader in mind, to get them interested in
the character, but it wouldn't be too much of a
burden to have to read the book. And then when
they got a little bit interested in him, the second
book is longer, and then the third book is about
twice as long as that, and they get rapidly longer
and more mature language and sentence structure as they go along.

(25:15):
So I hope I'm doing my bits to encourage children
to read and they can follow along with Gappy and
read older material as Gappy ages along with them.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
Tell me what is the hardest part about continuously writing
a children's book. Where do you get the ideas from?

Speaker 2 (25:35):
Well, for books one and two, I knew pretty much
how book one started, but I basically didn't have a
clue what was going to happen after Gappy got the
big news. But I have this kind of magic phenomenon.

Speaker 6 (25:49):
It's sort of.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
Like automatic writing that you hear from psychics. When I
have a pencil in my hand and I start writing
long hands, ideas just kind of flow through my pen
and I find my pen just writing down leap stories,
and it's like I'm outside myself, and I'll look at

(26:10):
the page and I'll think, Hey, that sounds good. Oh
I like that idea. And then once I get rolling,
it's much easier to keep going. I do get my
ideas in weird places, sometimes when I'm in the shower
in the morning, sometimes when I'm daydreaming driving down a
particular stretch of roads, and also from like I was

(26:34):
driving along one day past the graveyard by my house,
and that's how I suddenly thought of the idea that
Gappy could have an adventure in a graveyard. I don't well,
I didn't used to like writing outlines the books. I
know that they tell you in school that you should
do that, but I found it very hard because I

(26:54):
never knew what I wanted to write about ahead of time.
But I actually got the idea for books three and
ahead of time of roughly where it was going to
go in the end. And so I've tried writing an outline,
and before I knew it, the magic with my pen
was working and the outline was rapidly becoming pretty much

(27:15):
a big synopsis for what the book would turn out
to be. And I like that so much that's I
used it for books four and five and six as well.
It's like a roadmap and it keeps you on track,
if you know, I have to write this section now,
and then I write that section. But I do find

(27:36):
that I often start writing the middle of the book
where the action is happening, because I just can't wait
to get to the exciting part. And then once I've
got that out of my system, then I'm calmer and
more able to write the beginning stuff that leads up
to the exciting part.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
So tell me, have you yourself ever had a paranor experience?
Do you believe in vampires? Do you believe in things
that go bump the night? Is Halloween one of your
favorite times of.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
The year, Well, Halloween is pretty cool because he had
the vampires and the trick or treating and it's all
eerie at night and vapors coming out of people's mouths
in the dark when they're going around trick or treating.
But I have had a couple of really weird experiences
happened to me while I was writing Book six.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Share them with us.

Speaker 7 (28:30):
Well.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
In Book six, I had been immersed in the Salem
witch Trials of sixteen ninety two, and I've been thinking
about nothing else for the past month or two because
I was editing my book. And I went to a
place called the book Bar near my house. And so
I was looking for a birthday present for a friend

(28:54):
of mine who's a chemistry professor, and I thought it
would be neat to get him an old fashioned chemistry
text book. So I asked the guy where to look
for it, and he directed me to this bookcase which
was filled with really old textbooks bound in that sort
of closs binders, and they were all like muted red

(29:15):
and brown and gray colors. And so I was looking
at these textbooks for like nineteen forties to nineteen sixty
and suddenly this hard cover, white covered book stands out
among all the other darker colors of the old fashioned books.
And I pulled it down and it was in The

(29:35):
Devil Snare by Mary Beth Norton, written in Book two
thousand and two, and it was a history of the
Salem witch Trials of sixteen ninety two. And what's the
odds that somebody would have misfiled exactly the subject that
I was writing about in amongst the old chemistry textbooks

(29:56):
which have nothing what's the effort to do with fiction?
So that was one thing that happened to me.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
I'll tell you something that that would freak me out.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah, it really did. I told the bookstore guy about it,
and he started telling me some long involved story about
something that happened to him, but I think he was
just pulling my legs and sounds very critical. Do you
want to hear about.

Speaker 6 (30:19):
The other thing?

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (30:20):
Yes, please, yes, please.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Well, I had been writing this scene at the end
of book six, and I don't really want to do
any spoilers, but it's about this person coming to life.
It's an invisible person, and actually it's a skeleton, but
that's all there is. And then suddenly the veins start appearing,

(30:47):
wrapping around the body, and then there must be organs
start appearing, the heart and the lungs and things. And
then the muscles start joining on to the organs, and
the ligaments and the tenants come in, and then the
the blood vessels are weaving all around and in and out,
and then the skin comes and it starts creeping over
the whole thing until it's eventually a fully grown man. Well,

(31:11):
I was taking a break from writing this scene and
I came into the lounge and just flipped on the TV.
And they were in the beginning stages of the movie
called The Invisible Man. Tom has Tom Hanks in it,
and they were in doing a scene where this big
gorilla or some huge monkey was being injected. He was invisible,

(31:36):
and he was being injected with a serum that would
make him visible, and as it traveled through his veins,
the veins became apparent, and then everything else started filling
in the organs and the muscles and the tendons and everything,
and it was exactly what I had just been writing about.

(31:57):
It was really creepy. I went and told my mother,
and Who's like, no, I don't want to hear anymore.
Start startaking me out.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
Start telling me what children are telling you about your books.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Well, the children that read my books absolutely love the characters.
They can really relate to them because they're normal children
who faith relies and get into trouble with their parents.
But they're also very honest and good hearted, and they

(32:29):
are fiercely loyal to each other. And the kids basically
tell me that they get the same warm, fuzzy feeling
that I got when I was reading my children's books
when I was younger, and that's a really nice thing
to hear. And the children that read my book in

(32:51):
the fourth grade classroom that I went and talked to,
they had read the first book, and I went there
and talked to them about my other books and read
a chapter or two of the stuff books, and they
were all so excited to know that there was another
other books that they could read about the character that
they've been interested in, and they just loved his adventures

(33:11):
and the danger he gets into and and I think
children find it very satisfying when there's a hero, however
unlikely he might be, who struggles against the odds and
triumphs in the end and the evil people didn't.

Speaker 4 (33:26):
Oh what the heck is that?

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Now?

Speaker 4 (33:28):
Yeah, so tell so tell me here when you're when
you're writing your book and the you know, you read
it to the children, or you know, the children actually
come and come and see you, or you go to
the school and read them. What do the teachers say,
What do the adults say that interact with children after
reading your book?

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Well they I have had some teachers tell me that
they really saw an improvement in their children's interest level
in reading because they were introduced to my characters and
they read them in class. So it wasn't very hard
to It wasn't a burden on them to have to
read the whole book by themselves and not interact.

Speaker 6 (34:12):
With anyone while they were doing it.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
And they really liked it. And they've invited me back again,
so I guess they were really happy with the effect
that I had it from my children.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
Exs Ollnation our special guest this hour, Star Donovan, and
we're talking about vampires, and Star Donovan has a series
of books featuring this little vampire by the name of Gappy. Now,
if you'd like more information on Star, her website is
www dot Gapie dot net. That's www dot Gapye, I'm sorry,

(34:48):
it's Gapy dot tv, not net Gapy dot TV. You've
got six books out now, are you still writing? Is
Gappy going to turn into a teenager?

Speaker 6 (35:00):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (35:00):
He is actually just started book seven, which is actually
book one of the teen Vampire Adventures and Gap he
is thirteen now and he's going to be having a
lot more dangerous adventures. And he's also going to have
some romance and there too, maybe with some characters from

(35:21):
past books that I'll leave it up to the readers
to find that out. But he is going to be
having some romance, and I think teenagers like to have
a bit of that sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Do you find do you ever suffer from writer's block?

Speaker 3 (35:35):
End?

Speaker 4 (35:35):
If so, how do you get around it?

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Well? I suffer from the anticipation of writing and thinking
that I'm not going to know what to write about.
But then when.

Speaker 6 (35:49):
I make myself write, the magic thing happens with my pen,
and also it's translated itself to the keyboard as well,
which is very handy.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
I do get inspired to write and write sunlight, So
I guess I'm not really related to Vampire. But oftentimes
when I'm driving home on a sunny day, I go
past a big park by my house and they've got
a big parking lot that faces a lake and some
tennis courts, and I'll often pull into the parking lot

(36:23):
and write long hand in my car until.

Speaker 6 (36:25):
It's too dark to see anymore.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
And that's one of my favorite places to write.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
In a dark car.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah. The other favorite places are Starbucks and Panera and
little coffee shops and just something about the atmosphere and
the ambiance. If I can't get the sun lights, the
smell of coffee seems to do.

Speaker 6 (36:47):
The same thing.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
You've got to love those coffee shops and what I
get for you. All right, six books published. One on
the way, we know that Gap he's going to find
love and all the right places. What's going to happen
with Gappy's parents or are they going to be involved
in Gappy's future as well?

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Well? I think his parents will always be involved because
at the end of each book, they have to deal
with the fact that their kid has got into trouble
yet again. Oh no, they can get really cross with
him sometimes because he just goes willy nilly into danger
without sort of considering the consequences that he's They're also

(37:33):
proud of him because he usually tries to do the
good thing and save other people and help people and
that sort of thing. So yeah, I think Gappy's parents
are going to be around all right.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
Stars, stand by you and I have to take our
final break for this hour explanation. Star Donovan as our
special guest. She's the lady behind the Young Vampire Adventure
series so far, a series of six novels about a
young vampire. Her website www dot gapye g A p
p y dot TV. That's Gappy dot TV. And Star

(38:11):
and I will be back on the other side of
this commercial break, so whatever you do, don't go away.
My name is Rob McConnell. This is the X one.
We'll be back.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
This is the XON Broadcast Network, broadcasting worldwide on broadcast
affiliates and satellite program providers including CNN Broadcast Network, Serious
Satellite Network, Star Media, Good News Radio Network, Angel Broadcast Network,
Wiki Broadcast Network and wpb n TV. For more information

(38:45):
on the X Zone Broadcast Network, visit us at www
dot XCBM dot Matt.

Speaker 7 (38:58):
Hello, I'm Pete marsh or to Justina. We will be
presenting the new radio show Too Good to Be True.
If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
But with the help of Justina's amazing gifts, we're going
to gain insight into questions that don't yet have complete answers.
Have you wondered who built Stonehenge and for what reason?
Why are crop circles found in the same region as

(39:20):
Stonehenge and elsewhere? Are crop circles of hoax? Or are
they created with technologies that we have little knowledge of?
Who built the pyramids in Egypt and also in other countries?
How and why were they built? Was the Titanic switch
with a Britannic as part of a gigantic insurance fraud?
Or for more insidious reasons? What caused the Tunguska event
when trees were flattened over an eight hundred square mile

(39:41):
area in Siberia. Will the new insights be too good
to be true? Well, that will depend on what you
are prepared to believe. Please join us as we start
on this journey together. For more information on too Good
to be True, visit www dot xzbn dot net.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
Hi everyone, Rob McConnell here and I wanted to spend
a moment on Internet streaming. Everybody has heard about Internet streaming,
but not many know much about it.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Did you know?

Speaker 4 (40:07):
thanks to the folks at one two three Ready TV,

(40:30):

(40:52):
our website at www dot xzbn dot net. Explanation Start
on of it is my special guest of this hour.
Her website is www dot Gapye Gappy dot tv. She
is the author of a group of books centered around
this young vampire who constantly gets himself into trouble. Mind you,

(41:17):
he always gets out of trouble and she is working
on book number seven right now. Her website once again
is www. Dot Gapye dot tv. Tell me Gapye just
doesn't exist in your books? Does he tell me where
else he exists?

Speaker 6 (41:35):
Well?

Speaker 2 (41:35):
He has a YouTube channel where you can see illustrations
from his book set to his really cool theme music.
You can also see a very pretty young lady by
the name of Briany Allen who narrates Book one. The
whole of.

Speaker 6 (41:52):
Book one you can see on YouTube.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
He's also on Facebook. He has close to six thousand
Facebook fans who he talks to in real time and
advises him on different things and our answers questions and
just chats about school and things like that. That's at
Facebook dot com slash Gapi the Vampire. He is also

(42:16):
coming out one day soon with a gappy song I'm
currently looking for.

Speaker 4 (42:23):
Whoops, we don't know what happened there, but apparently we
just lost our guest and Craig, can you do Oh
it's too late, all right? Our guest of this our
xonation has been Starre Donovan www dot gapy dot tv.
That's www dot gapy dot tv. Vampires. Here's the question

(42:45):
for you, Xonation. Do you believe or are you a skeptic?
Do you really think that vampires do exist? Send me
an email xone at xon radio TV dot com. That's
xxone at xxone Radio TV dot com. Once again, we
don't know what happened. Our line dropped with us Starry.

(43:05):
I hope she's all right. I hope nobody kind of
slacked the phone out of her hand and gave her
a big bite on the neck. But you never know.
Because this is the X Zone. Let's see, tonight is
the final debate between President Bush and Governor Romby. This
should be Rommy Romney Romney? Did I say Romby?

Speaker 3 (43:29):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (43:30):
That was my old baseball coach, Rommi. And it's going
to be a very interesting our exonation. So we've asked
the psychics that have appeared on the X Zone to
give us their predictions. Now, what has happened that has
really really amazed me is that none of the psychics

(43:55):
think the same way. Fifty percent say presidential, fifty percent
say Mitt Romney. It's going to be interesting to see
who's winning or who wins, and we're going to have
the psychics joining us a couple of days after the
election to explain what they did right or what they

(44:15):
did wrong. I'll be back on the other side of
this commercial break with the news at six and a
half minutes past the hour as the X Zone continues
with yours truly, Rob McConnell from our studios in Hambleton, Ontario, Canada.
If you'd like to send an email, that email address
is x Zone at xzonradio TV dot com. Uh The

(44:36):
X Zone a place where people dare to believe and
dare to be heard. Vampires, witches, ghosts and goblins. A
couple more days to HALLOWEENI I'll be back. Don't go away.

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Rob McConnell Interviews - STAR DONOVAN - Are Vampires Great Role Models for Kids

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Rob McConnell Interviews - STAR DONOVAN - Are Vampires Great Role Models for Kids