[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sa.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: If you dig the twisted, admire the outlandish, and are enamored by the unusual, you're in the right place.
True crime, the supernatural, the unexplained. Now you're speaking our language. If you agree, join us as we dive into the darker side. You know, because it's more fun over here.
Welcome to Total Conundrum.
Warning. Some listeners may find the following content disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: Hey, Conundrum crew. We're welcoming a local legend in the dark fantasy world, Patrick W. Marsh. He's a Minnesota author known for the Greenland Diaries series, a post apocalyptic journal filled with monsters, survival, and deep human emotion. His stories explore how the creatures we face on the outside often mirror the ones within. We'll talk about monsters, metaphors, and the wild imagination behind his eerie world. Hey, Patrick, thanks for joining us.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Well, thank you for having me. It's great to be here. I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah.
[00:01:45] Speaker C: We are so excited to have you. We met Patrick at Crypticon in September this year.
It was so fun.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: It was.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: Did you enjoy having the booth and stuff?
[00:01:58] Speaker A: I love doing it. I've been doing Crypticon for like, I don't know, maybe 10 years now with a few gaps in between. But I. I've loved doing Crypticon. I've sold books there for many years and yeah, it's. It's always a good time. And I've had my table in some weird spots too, like right in front of a stairwell, in front of a bathroom, which actually I got a lot of traffic because of that. I sold quite a few books that year, so it all worked out. But, yeah, I've always enjoyed my time at Crypticon, so it was great meeting you guys there.
Yeah.
[00:02:25] Speaker C: They had you kind of hidden in the back area in that one hallway, right?
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:30] Speaker C: And that hallway.
Oh, go ahead.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: It was very narrow. It was a very narrow hallway. Got very close and personal with people going through there. Yeah.
[00:02:39] Speaker C: And that hallway had all sorts of interesting cannabis smells going on too.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: It did indeed. Yes. Yeah, it was. There was a lot of. There's a lot of life in that hallway. There was a lot of. A lot happening.
Yeah.
It felt kind of like a medieval marketplace, like from a video game where you have to go find a side. Go on a side quest to find an item or something. Yeah, that.
[00:03:02] Speaker C: It totally had that feel. But we also, while we were there. I'm going to grab them quick.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:03:07] Speaker C: We picked up a few of Patrick's books while we were there and he signed them for us. But here is the first one.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Beware the elves.
[00:03:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: Oh, sorry. Yeah. Beware the elves. Dark, Dark fantasy. Cursed island. Bad guy. Lots of terrible things happen.
[00:03:24] Speaker C: But yeah, we have not had a chance to read them yet. It's only been a few weeks since Crypticon, but I'm very excited. And then we have his Greenland diaries.
One to 100.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:39] Speaker C: And then we have monsters. Monsters everywhere.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Right, right. And again, I always preface my horror writing is that I'm a somewhat decent guy.
I'm like a normal dude. Like, I have like in my. I drive a minivan. I've got a center console and I keep extra plastic bags in there for whatever people might need. So, yeah, stuff like that. But go ahead, that ain't weird.
[00:04:02] Speaker C: And then we got the second edition of the Greenland Diaries, which I'm excited to get the rest of them as well.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: So isn't there like five of them?
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, there's six total in the main narrative, plus a couple short story collection. People love that series. So I've just. I've just gone all out. I've just mailed it in. Just totally just writing what people like. No matter what happens, people love the end of the world. So.
[00:04:26] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, the whole apocalyptic. I think the Walking Dead really brought that out. A lot of people too.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Yeah, definitely.
[00:04:37] Speaker C: We're gonna do a little icebreaker round just to kind, kind of warm up here.
And these are just silly questions and if you don't have an answer for him, that's fine, we can move on to the next one. But just some fun little questions to kind of get to know you a little bit. So if one of your monsters suddenly moved in with you, what's the first house rule that you would set for the monster?
[00:05:02] Speaker A: Ooh, that's a good question.
Besides the obvious, don't, don't murder me.
But like, for the unnamed from the Greenland Diaries, they're like this big shrouded creature with all spiky and bony. I would ask them to put on. Put in a large damage deposit down or help me pay the damage deposit. Because as they go through doorway to doorway to the bathroom or wherever they're going, their body would be so huge it would scrape up against the walls. Like, you know, my landlord might be upset. Just extra damage deposit from the monster.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: I love your own dishes. Damn it.
[00:05:36] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Yeah, so I think that'd be my first, first rule, besides the obvious let me live kind of thing.
[00:05:43] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that's. That's an important one.
Would you rather face a horde of your Monsters or explain your browser history search to the FBI.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Oh, that's a great question. You know, I think I'd be fine with the browser search. Yeah, I think I'd be all right with that. Yeah. You know, it'd be weird. I'd feel very exposed as a human, I suppose, you know, for the. In general. But I think I'd be. I'd be okay with that. Versus facing up against the monsters. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It'd be awkward, but tricky.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: Yeah, we always joke that we're sure we're on some kind of list with doing the true crime and paranormal.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. No, My, my, my. I do search a lot of things, and I do have a quick, quick little story about that, actually.
I wrote a podcast I write, or used to write, but we're on hiatus called Hidden Oaks. There was a scene I wrote in it where a guy burns his house down. And in the scene I wrote that, he used just one can of gas to burn the house down. And my co creators and the producer was like, actually, Patrick, I don't know if you've ever burned anything down before, but you need more than one can of gasoline. And I was like, oh, I did not know that. That's. That's new. That's new to me. I had no clue. So it was kind of funny. Like, I don't. You know, you do research weird things when you. When you write dark stories, for sure.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Then what's that?
[00:07:06] Speaker B: It ain't me, I don't think.
[00:07:09] Speaker C: Hang on one second.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: Oh, is it Dylan Kalania?
[00:07:12] Speaker C: Hello? Hey, it's Julie. Hey, Julie, I'm. We're in the middle of recording a podcast interview. Can I call you back? It might have been. I haven't called recently. I'm sorry, Julie.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: That was like 12 years ago.
[00:07:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll give you a call back. Bye. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't anything important because I haven't heard from her in a long time. Okay. Phone silent.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: Call you.
[00:07:33] Speaker C: What's that?
[00:07:34] Speaker B: How'd she call you?
[00:07:35] Speaker C: Facebook messenger. That's why I thought it was weird. It's his. His aunt's best friend, so that it was strange that she was calling. I'm like, what's going on? Okay, so the next question. What's your go to comfort snack while you're writing creepy stuff?
[00:07:52] Speaker A: Go to comfort snack. Probably pizza rolls.
Pepperoni pizza rolls. Specifically, I'm not a huge fan of the sausage pizza rolls, but just pepperoni pizza rolls. Yeah, that's. That's always a Go to for me.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: Yeah. Jeremy's favorite. Pepperoni. Yeah, Pepperoni pizza.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Pizza rolls and Reese's Snacks.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: Yes, Reese's peanut butter.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Of course. Yeah. Yup. Definitely.
[00:08:16] Speaker C: All right. What horror movie monster would you absolutely befriend instead of fight?
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Oh, that's a good question. Or movie monster? Would I be friends that have fight?
You know, if I could get along with the, like the xenomorph from Alien or like the alien itself from Alien, if I could somehow get along with that thing. It's such a physically imposing creature. I mean, it could help you with so many things around the house.
It could, you know, dust the roofs, I mean dust. Or dust the ceilings off for you, clean the ceiling fan, help you move things physically strong.
And then I want to talk much, which would be nice as well. It'd be just a very, A very one sided.
Yeah. Silent friend. Dependable. Dependable, but silent. Yeah.
[00:09:01] Speaker C: Yes. I love that.
Zombies are invading Minnesota. What's your survival plan?
[00:09:08] Speaker A: Ooh, that's tough.
I think for me I would probably stay close to home. And that's kind of a sentiment that I echo in the Greenland Diaries with my main character is he. He never leaves his house. He finds a place to hide in his house and he stays someplace familiar. And I think trying to get someplace with a lot of people, like kind of have that refugee experience that the kind of the zombie stories kind of inspire would be more dangerous than simply staying put in an area that's familiar to you. So I'd probably hide out at home, maybe in a crawl space, a basement, a hollowed out wall, whatever. Whatever spot you can go to.
[00:09:45] Speaker C: It's one thing I've never understood in like the, the Walking Dead. Why are they living out in the middle of the woods? And I mean there's all of these houses that are abandoned and it seems like, I mean their smartest thing was going to that prison where it was all kind of, you know, a built in fortress. Why would you expose yourself out in the wild when there's resources though? Well, you can go places to get resources, but why would you stay out in the middle of the woods instead of like in an enclosed home?
[00:10:19] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's difficult. Yeah, it's difficult to say prison. I remember the prison season and I did wonder that. I mean it's, it's. They can, they can control all the entrance and exits basically, and that would be really helpful. But yeah, I've always wondered why people tend to leave the area versus stay someplace they know is Familiar. They know where to hide. Yeah. It would just be difficult to go. To not only experience this trauma that's happening on a global scale, but also to, like, leave what you're familiar with. Leave where you have all your resources.
[00:10:48] Speaker C: Right.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: It doesn't always logically make sense for the most part. Yeah.
[00:10:51] Speaker C: It adds for good. Makes for good tv, but.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: It does. Yeah.
[00:10:57] Speaker C: All right, next one. If your writing style had a soundtrack, what would the first track be?
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Ooh, that's a good question, too.
I'm gonna go see. That's a good question. I listen to such obscure music that I'm trying to find like a. Like a more modern day relevant example to compare it.
I think I write with, like, a lot of emotion because I. Not only do I write the books and stuff like that, but I also write poetry. So it could be any form of electronic music, really. I don't even need to name a particular track. It'd be. Could be just that style where things that are more emotional versus, like, I'm not as lyrical. I tend to go for more emotional broad strokes with characters and tone and. Yeah, yeah. It'd probably be more like electronic music overall or a soundtrack of sorts. Yeah.
[00:11:48] Speaker C: So like painting.
Painting a picture with like different sounds and music versus lyrical.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yep, yep, exactly. Yeah.
[00:11:58] Speaker C: I guess the first thing that popped into my head was sometimes I feel like somebody's watching me.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah. It's. It's. It's interesting. And like writing poetry and stuff, you do rely on a little bit more music and lyrical, like a lyrical sense for that and stuff. But I write horror poetry, so I write poetry that has monsters in it. And one poem I recently published that was about a harpy living in a woods. And in the woods there's a whirlpool. And the whirlpool is also a monster. And the harpy lures people in and the whirlpool. The whirlpool eats the people and they kind of feed off of each other. And it's all about how even scary things have relationships. So it's kind of like. That's kind of like. If you want to apply music to that, it is more like. It is more like more instrumental versus lyrical, like how I'm using things.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I love that. That is a really cool way to think about it.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Well, thank you.
[00:12:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Which monster from your books would totally ghost you if you texted them?
[00:13:01] Speaker A: That's a good one. So in my book, Beware the Ills, the main character, it's all written from the main point, main character's point of view. And he's this really dark, violent, standoffish guy. It's his job to protect this island. He's killed lots of people. I can't picture him being very good at texting me back for anything. Like, even if it was like he was inviting me over for the football game and I wanted to know the time I was going over there, he probably wouldn't text me back for that. Yeah, yeah. Like, I think a lot of my monsters, because so much of them metaphorically, are based on a lack of communication or trauma that's been created from a lack of communication. I think that all of them would be really bad at texting or communicating in general.
[00:13:41] Speaker C: Communicators.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Yes, definitely.
[00:13:44] Speaker C: All right, so here's a fun one. This.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: If they don't have opposable thumbs.
[00:13:48] Speaker C: That too, right?
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: They have voice text, though.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Yeah, they do a voice text. But, you know, some of my creatures don't even talk. Like, that's just. Yeah. To be difficult, communication would be one sided. Yeah.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: All right.
Yeah. It's a series of clicks and beeps.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Like yoopers.
[00:14:08] Speaker C: Like the yoopers. Yep.
All right, last one. Kind of a fun one. Describe Minnesota's weather as if it were a horror. A horror villain.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: Horror villain. Oh, that's a good one. Let's see. I just. When I. When I think about it as a horror villain or like, I guess even a monster, but like a villain, I think of, like, Hannibal Lecter from maybe Silence of the Lambs. He's a very cold and calculating kind of guy, but there are moments of warmth and communication and humanity in him. So we get, like, warm, you know, we'll get. He's also wildly unpredictable because he feasts on human flesh. But, like, he's just. He's all over the place. And I kind of feel that with our weather. So maybe Hannibal Lecter is a villain as a monster. That's also tricky because I would go with a monster that favors unpredictability right now because the weather is so, you know, one week, it's 91 week at 60, or a low of 40. Like mother. So it could be anything. Maybe the Thing, the creature from the Thing. Adaptable, changes shape, like, each and every day. Can, you know, maybe that. I don't know, but that's a good question.
[00:15:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Our weather is definitely the craziest.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: It's.
[00:15:14] Speaker C: I remember a few years back, was it March, we had tornadoes come through Zimmerman.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:21] Speaker C: And I'm like, really? And then the next year we'll have no snow, and the year after that will be pounded and you can have a 60 degree swing in temperature. It's like somebody needs to take some Midol. Mother Nature.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Seriously, it is. It is like that. Yeah. And it just. It just seems like when it's about to become consistent, there's another variation to it. So it is. It is wildly, almost consciously inconsistent about how it operates. Yeah.
[00:15:51] Speaker C: I remember I was on a vacation girls trip in Myrtle beach, and somebody asked me where I was from, and I said, Minnesota. And they're like, you have to be a psychopath to live there.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: I guess.
[00:16:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. You're kind of right.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: I mean, you live in a place where the air hurts your face. I'm like, yeah, that's very true.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. At the very least, you're like, we're all kind of masochistic. We're all okay with a certain level.
[00:16:19] Speaker C: Of suffering, but it's beautiful.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm not okay with it. I'm just forced to be here.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Okay.
All right. So you're a Minnesotan by proxy. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I get that.
[00:16:33] Speaker C: Yeah. He wants to move, but. And I've always said that I would move as well, but now I have a granddaughter, so. Or we have a granddaughter now I'm.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: Kind of like, can I really move?
Yeah, yeah. That would be really hard. I know my parents would have liked maybe to spend. They go to Florida for a month. But since I've had my sons, I have twin boys and they're 10. They don't go very long, go anyplace very long. They gotta be near their grandkids. So. Yeah, it is tricky. It is tricky.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: Well, let's get to know a little bit more about you and how you came into writing.
What originally drew you into dark fiction and horror, and was it something you read, watched, or lived through that inspired you?
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Sure. Well, I got into these genres. I've always been interested in monsters, but I am not. I must confess that I'm not a huge horror film guy. I'm not a huge horror in John as a genre guy. But I always was curious watching whether it was alien that I mentioned earlier growing up or X Files or X Files actually did a better job with it. I was always curious about what. Why. What made the monster. The monster. Like, how the monster got there and whether it was, you know, Godzilla because of nuclear radiation or if it was like, the alien. They're still trying to explain that in that. In that universe.
Whether. Whatever. I always wanted to Know more about the monster. And came upon writing in high school. Published some work with the Literate, the local, the literary magazine at my high school. And then I just kind of got into writing. But I've had kind of a very. A varied background when it comes to writing. Like, I've studied it in colleges. I've done self publishing, I've done traditional publishing, I've done screenwriting, I've done podcasts. I've kind of jumped around. Kind of what led me here is that I love to use monsters to express either my own personal trauma that I've been through, the trauma of others that I've witnessed, use them as like a sociological mirror in society. Like Frankenstein's monster is a great example of that that Mary Shelley created.
I also just, like, think they're a great plot device in storytelling. I just love a good monster.
And I mentioned the X Files earlier. I watched that when I was way too young, and that kind of taught me that I could communicate through horror, because X Files is horror and each episode is like a horror story.
And that was really. That was really formative for me. But I also did enjoy in the X Files, as they did try to explain what the monsters were, where they came from. There was a couple creatures on the. On the X Files who were. Who they really just devoted the whole episode to. And that really inspired me that I could explore that perspective. And then there was. Just to finish up on this question, there was a book I read called Grendel by John Gardner. That's a really famous book. It's from the. It's written from the point. I don't know if you're familiar with the story Beowulf, but Grendel is the monster from Beowulf, and in the book Grendel by John Gardner, he writes the story from Grendel's point of view. So he kind of flip flops. And this is before Point of View had become really popular in modern storytelling like it is now. This is back in the 60s and 70s. And I highly suggest the book Grendel by John Gardner because it. It is. It's a different point of view. And it kind of puts you in the role of the monster versus the hero in Beowulf. And it was really good. And I read that in high school, and once I could see that I could tell stories. And writing like that, that was kind of my big inspiration.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: I love that different point of view because you never get the monster or the other side of it, whether, you know, like in horror, you know, the Vampires or the werewolves or whatever, you never get any of what their thought process is. So I love that. I'm definitely going to check that book out. I've never, never read that one.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: It's good. It's a nice short read. It's got some weird 60s 70s psychedelic prose, like the author may have been out in the woods doing various substances kind of vibe to it. But overall it's, it's a good read.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: So in your life, have you ever had any type of, like, paranormal experience or cryptid experience?
[00:20:42] Speaker A: I, I, I, at one point I had, I had one experience I think is not nothing cryptid related, but maybe like a ghost or something. Where I was, I was living in Robbinsdale, which is where the Greenland Diaries is based. And I was sleeping one night and I had a dream about a woman standing at the end of the door, end of the bed, and my bed was against the wall, and the door was on the opposite side. And there was a woman standing at the foot of the bed. And she was like in an old prairie dress, like frontier, like kind of frontier garment kind of thing, where she looked like she was out, you know, hauling water on a farm someplace in the, in the 1600s. 1600s or something. 1700. And she was like, standing at the foot of my bed and she had some sort of weird face. Like her face wasn't fully completed and she had, like, yellow eyes and her skin was kind of hanging. It was very unsettling. But I thought I was just dreaming or whatever. And I remembered, you know, it was one of those classic physical sensations where you can't even move, you can't even breathe. You're just kind of stuck in that moment. Yeah.
[00:21:45] Speaker C: Sleep paralysis type.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Yeah, that kind of thing. But I remember having this dream or this waking dream or whatever and seeing this, this figure. And I woke up from whatever was happening and she was gone, but the door clicked shut. Like, the door. Yeah. So that kind of, that, that got me.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: And at the time, my, my girlfriend at the time was Hmong. And in the Hmong culture, they're very superstitious, or like her family was, at least, was very superstitious about ghosts and had a lot of belief in that, in that, that there were ghosts and spirits and supernatural entities. So they were all. They were, they very much believed me, which was nice.
[00:22:25] Speaker C: Right.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: When I told them about it, they were very supportive of the fact that I was terrified by a ghost.
[00:22:30] Speaker C: Right.
Well, at first when you were talking about, you know, her appearance and stuff like that, I was thinking something Backwards from the times of, like, the plague. And maybe she had something that had happened in that aspect. But then in some aspects of it, it kind of. It does almost sound like the sleep hag or the hat man. Like, people talk about having the sleep hag or the hat man come during sleep paralysis and stuff. So it could be one of those. That's like, which way could it go? But yeah, having the whole door click after is validation. Hell, no, I don't want that.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah, no, no. And it was kind of one of those sounds you hear where. Because it was when my GR. Was in my grandma's old house. My dad bought it and was renting it to me at the time. And it had those old kind of almost like coppery doorknobs that were very, like, loud if you turned them. And I just remember, like, always, if after you got done shutting the door and you turn the knob, it would just click into place. I remember hearing it click. Like, the click was very like, I didn't want to hear it. My. My. My brain and body were like, you didn't want to hear that, But I definitely heard.
[00:23:35] Speaker C: Just gives you the validation that you can't see. Say, maybe it was just a dream, but what the hell, shut the door.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. And that was. That was kind of like the only experience that I can at least remember or kind of put into a. I can really share that really, you know, stuck with me or that had multiple elements happen to it.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: Yeah, that's crazy.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: That would be creepy.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: Yes, for sure.
So in my research, you've mentioned using monsters as metaphors for mental health.
When did that connection first start to click for you as a writer?
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Well, it's interesting that my. My relationship with my. My own mental health and watching other people in, you know, with various forms of anxiety, depression, personality disorders, whatever you want to call it, that I. I had been using monsters before I even was aware of it to talk about my own struggles with anxiety and depression and whatnot. They had always be. I had always been using them as metaphors as. As kind of like a easier way to bring it up to talk about that. Like, there's something either wrong with me currently or I'm not feeling the best right now, or there's something wrong with a certain individual in my life. They were. They. They were already serving as metaphors before I started to make that connection that I was doing that, if that makes sense. It's like they appeared before I had any understanding of them. Like, for example, in my book series, the Greenland Diaries, there's the monsters, the unnamed, which are like these shrouded, faceless creatures. They got these giant claws. They got. You can see their ribs. They kind of phase in and out of reality. I very much. Going back and working on that series and doing. Revising it and just constantly having it on my mind, based those monsters on. This is going to sound very generic, but on my father.
My father is. I have a very sweet father, very. He's a very good man, but he was abandoned when he was seven by his father, and he grew up without that relationship. And that always made it difficult for him to communicate more as a father to me. And in this. In the Greenland Diaries, the unnamed, they kill people, but they actually. And I don't. I don't want to give too many spoilers to people, but they actually resurrect people.
They kill people and they sew them back together because the people they can sew back together that come into this world that they. I call them the reanimated. In the books, they can communicate. They can communicate. And the unnamed cannot communicate with humans, even though they kind of want to. So the only way they can react or they can communicate with humans is by reanimating them. So that broad metaphor is. Is my own relationship with my father where he can't necessarily communicate with me, but he kind of hopes that I can communicate with him kind of idea.
So. Yeah, that's just. Well, thank you. Yeah, it's just that's. And that's just one example of how I use monsters as a metaphor in my storytelling. Unnamed are. Are a good example of that.
[00:26:28] Speaker C: It's always interesting to hear the perspective because when someone is reading or listening to music or whatever, they kind of put their own spin on what they think is trying to be portrayed and stuff. But I always find it super intriguing to actually hear from the person who composes or writes or what, you know, has the whole thought process that goes into it. I love hearing how it all comes together. So that is really, really, really interesting. I love that.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. I've always been willing to talk about kind of where the monsters come from and whatnot for my stories, but it is. Varies, really. And like, in my book, the Beware the Ills that you showed earlier, it's all written from the point of view of this guy on this. On this curse island. And it's his job to kill. He's like, protects the island, he kills whoever comes on the shore, stuff like that. The metaphor for him is is you can't outrun a sense of morality.
It catches up with you. For me, I was just. When I published that book and wrote that book and stuff, I was simply trying to like write my shit personally. Like, I was in a bad space. I was very self destructive. I wasn't a good person to be around. But eventually you kind of come around or you eventually, you kind of have to kind of rebuild yourself. And that's what that book was about as well. It plays on multiple layers where I use monsters or characters as metaphors for trauma and personal difficulty.
[00:27:52] Speaker C: Well, and it's a good way to get through and try to have some personal healing too, because it's. It's a form of journaling, getting emotions and everything out, but putting them into a different, we'll say character to try to help deal too. And if I remember correctly from Crypticon, the Beware of the Ills, that was what you said was your favorite book. It's not the most popular, but it's your favorite.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: Not my most popular, no.
[00:28:21] Speaker C: So that's one of the reasons why we bought it, because we really want to read it.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
You know, Beware of the Ills, it's dark fantasy and like I said, it's about this guy on an island. And it's all written from his point of view. And I wrote the prose in it. The point of view, so stream of consciousness. So all over the place where the audience may get annoyed by the way he talks, the way he thinks about things. He repeats himself a lot. He. He ruminates on things a lot. He constantly says the same things over and over again. Much of what we do in our own daily as human beings. Only he's in very extraordinary circumstances on this island. Yeah. Beware the Ills is kind of a love letter to being able to change, to be able to be a better person. And that's what I wanted to write with the book. But the prose and the style of it, sometimes it makes the audience a little bit more squeamish in terms of simply digesting the narrative. Where with the Greenland Diaries, my very popular work, it.
It's written in found journal format so people can literally pick it up. And it's meant for anyone to read because the guy writing it within the story wanted to leave a record of what happened.
So I love that.
[00:29:30] Speaker C: And that kind of leads into my next question.
The Greenland Diaries is written in such a unique format, the journal style, apocalypse.
What made you choose that voice for the story?
[00:29:43] Speaker A: Well, at the time I was writing it in the form of a blog on blogspot. Back in 2011, this was like, you know, early blogs. So there weren't. It wasn't like blogs now and where people. They create a platform for themselves on them. And I was a very amateurish writer at the time, and I wanted to practice writing in past tense. So in the journal entry format where yesterday I did this. Like, I'm always writing in the past in a journal. Cause I'm talking about the previous day.
[00:30:10] Speaker C: Right.
[00:30:11] Speaker A: So. So I just used that format. And then I just basically created a monster to go in it called the Unnamed. And I threw everything I could into these monsters. Like, I mean, the monst in the Greenland Diaries are so unique and so just very cool creatures. And they evolve throughout the whole book series. Like, if you read the whole book series, they're not the same in the first book that they are in the last book. So there's so much variation to their characters. And I threw everything I could and I had this small blog. Barely anyone read it. Only my friends and family would read it, but they wouldn't really read it. They just click on it because they're like, hey, I clicked on it. You got to click. And I'm like, thanks. Did you. Did you read it? Did you read the story? Oh. So that was kind of my. What I did. And eventually I started to get a following on there. I got like, after like 30,000, 40,000 people read the. Read the blog, I thought, okay, I'll self publish this. And I've. I've been releasing books with it ever since. But yeah, I chose that format because I was limited in my ability as a writer at the time. Like, I could not write anything better than that journal entry at the time. And things have changed since then, thankfully, in my skill level. But it was just an easy format for me to do and I didn't feel like I had a lot of. I didn't have to be super perfect in it either. If I made mistakes in the journal, it was more authentic to the experience of the character versus seeming maybe amateurish for people reading it.
[00:31:32] Speaker C: That's. I love that. That. And to think that it all started with just a blog, you know, doing a blog entry and.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:41] Speaker C: That.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: It's a writing exercise, really. Yeah.
[00:31:43] Speaker C: Right. And that ended up being one of your most popular series. And it gives it an open end too, you know, where you can keep going with it and you can kind of keep changing the narrative a little bit and giving it room to grow.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And I've written other stories and Books kind of in the same universe to kind of give different points of view and to enhance the main arc of the narrative. But I've never.
I always kept the main character in this, the Greenland diaries itself within the journal entries. And, yeah, it's been. It's been a good experience. And I never thought I would be six books into the series at this point, so that's amazing. Thank you.
[00:32:21] Speaker C: So, fans, love the psychological depth in your books. Do you think readers relate more to the monsters or the humans trying to survive them?
[00:32:31] Speaker A: That's a great question. I think it's both.
I think they relate to the main character. His name's Richard and he's the narrator of the story. He writes the journal entries.
I think they relate to him because he's just a normal guy. He's. He's. He goes through many extraordinary things within a story, but he's just a normal dude who was working as a bank teller one evening when this drum started playing and these monsters appeared. And I've often told people at conventions or events who are buying my books, I'm like, this guy is not some sort of of, you know, ex special ops bank teller. Like, in his spare time. He's not like, I'm, you know, I work, I moonlight as a bank teller, but I'm really a, you know, mercenary during the, you know, it's not like anything like that. He has no skills. In fact, for the majority of the first book, he has a shotgun and he doesn't know the gauge of the shotgun. He just finds it like there's many things that are just found knowledge for him. There's guns that he doesn't know how to use. There's all sorts of things. So I think the audience can relate to having a normal person being in the situation.
But he sees so many extraordinary things and he's a part of so many different things within the narrative. I think he becomes a little bit less relatable as the story gets on and the monsters become more relatable because the monsters start off as just scary, but the more you learn about them, the more you understand that there's some sort of individuality there. It's not just some hive of monsters tormenting humanity. There's some other something else happening, and it's. It's. I think, for the audience, it kind of flip flops depending upon why you're reading the book, too.
[00:33:59] Speaker C: Very cool. It's very cool. What advice would you give creatives who want to use art to process trauma for or. Excuse me, what advice would you give to creatives who want to use art to process trauma or anxiety.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: Ah, that's a great question. And my advice would be that it's a double edged knife. You, you can use it effectively to communicate your own personal trauma or trauma you've witnessed or you know, trauma of society or trauma that you, you think you know is occurring or whatnot. You can do all that, but it does take a toll. Like you have to be able to communicate it effectively to make sure it's digestible for your audience, but also so you're not overly exposing what you've been through as a person. I think, I think you. I think it's a great way to. I think it's very cathartic and I think it's a great way to communicate trauma and stress and whether, you know, it's depression, anxiety or personality disorder, any of that kind of stuff. But I do think it's, it's difficult, it's hard, and there are more, there are more dangers to it than you might realize using it as a catalyst for your stories. But I also think it is worthwhile at the same time. So it's like, I would say, experiment, but be wary. Be gentle with yourself. Don't be too hard on yourself about it. Don't overexpose yourself. Don't confess, you know, all the bad things that have happened to you through, through a narrative.
[00:35:25] Speaker C: Right.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: Also don't.
It's also metaphorically a monster or fiction or horror in general is a good engine to deal with topics that are hard to talk about.
[00:35:38] Speaker C: That's, I love that. That is great advice. And how do you mentally handle. Because you, you know, will dive into some dark, heavy spaces. How do you handle just like disconnecting from that?
Like you're writing away and you have to, okay, the twins need something. How do you click out of that?
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's, it's. It's a skill that's evolved over time, I think.
I, I tend to my stories, I write my poetry, all of the very dark things that I create. I tend to give myself a lot of distance with, in my personal life. Like I talked about horror earlier.
I don't watch a lot of horror. I don't read a lot of horror. Like, I'm not a huge. I don't digest a lot of horror as my media choice of media. I don't mind it. And there's certain things I love, like I mentioned Alien earlier, the X Files, but I do tend to keep things a little bit lighter in the media that I digest.
You know, whether it's comedy, reality TV is a huge escape for me. I love a good reality show.
[00:36:39] Speaker C: Me too.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: Yeah, like, it's. I love those. Occasionally I will get into horror. More recently, I watched all the. What is it, Black Matt? Is it Black Mass? Or all the. All the. On the Mike Flanagan shows on Netflix. I watched all of those this last year. So occasionally I'll have streaks where I get really into horror. But normally I try to separate a little bit of what I write and what I experience as a medium in terms of media. So, yeah, that's one thing I do small doses. I read a lot in small doses. Different. Multiple projects at once. You know, every week I'm working on a. A new book, a new poem, a new short story, a new piece of flash fiction.
So there's a lot of variety. I don't get kind of stuck in one. One dark territory, so to speak.
[00:37:22] Speaker C: So what's your favorite reality TV show right now?
[00:37:26] Speaker A: So I really like. I don't know if this one's as mainstream, but I really like Bering Sea Gold.
[00:37:32] Speaker C: I haven't seen one.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: It's. It's made by the same people that do Deadliest Catch and Bering Sea Gold. It's about a bunch of people in Nome, Alaska, and they harvest. They go underneath the water because there's a bunch of gold in the Bering Sea, and they harvest gold out of the soil. And news flash, it doesn't go well. Like, it's hard to harvest gold out of frozen ocean. Earth or frozen sea. And so they're. And they're also. They're the most interesting people that do it. And everything breaks all the time. They'll be on a boat and they'll be like, oh, my God, you know, the propeller went out. Oh, God, this went out. And they're always surprised. They're always like, oh, no, it broke. And I'm like. Like, you guys are ripping gold out of, like, a frozen sea. Like, of course things are gonna break. But it just reminds me of my. My family and stuff watching it too. Like, my either, you know, because my family's very blue collar, very, like, fix things themselves kind of thing. And watching it just reminds me of them and how things would break and how they'd react. It's almost nostalgic for me to watch. Yeah.
[00:38:34] Speaker C: What was that gold show that you were watching for a while there?
[00:38:37] Speaker B: Old Russians.
[00:38:38] Speaker C: Gold Rush.
[00:38:39] Speaker A: Yeah, Gold Rush. I'm a little familiar with that one, but not quite as much. But.
[00:38:42] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that one was Interesting.
[00:38:45] Speaker B: But, yeah, I mean, all those shows are kind of all drama, you know?
[00:38:49] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: Something has to go bad.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:54] Speaker C: Yeah. If it was successful, then it wouldn't be entertaining.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: No, it would not be entertaining. Yeah.
What's your favorite reality show?
[00:39:03] Speaker C: I like more of the. I do a little bit more of the Bravo stuff.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, okay. All right.
[00:39:09] Speaker C: It's Mindless and. Oh, yeah, I really like. They had the new one that just came out, Dynasty.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Yeah.
[00:39:19] Speaker C: Farming family in.
Was it Missouri? I think Kansas or Missouri. One of the two. So that one was kind of fun. But, yeah, I like more of. Jeremy just rolls his eyes at me because the TV's always that, you know.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: Like, island and the Love Island.
[00:39:38] Speaker C: That's a. That's. Like I said, it's just one of those. I need something that's just mindless at times. That.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:44] Speaker C: Just to not have to think and just to, you know, my life could be worse.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: Right, Right. Yeah. No, it's true. It's true. It does kind of even things out for you. I'm like. You're just like, oh, things aren't so bad.
[00:39:57] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, definitely. But I do like the survival series and stuff, too, like Naked and Afraid and Survivor.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I like those.
[00:40:08] Speaker C: Yeah, it was so funny. I actually turned on Survivor the other day. Haven't watched it in probably a couple years.
[00:40:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:17] Speaker C: And I've watched so much of Naked and Afraid, I was like, wow, it looks really weird when people have their clothes on.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: Right, right. Yeah.
[00:40:26] Speaker C: I'm like, wait, they're not naked?
[00:40:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, that's weird. Yeah. I feel like Survivor's gotten more tame over the years, and Naked and Afraid is still like the original Survivor where people are just, like, ditched in the wild.
[00:40:39] Speaker C: Yeah, right. I'm like, what? You get food given to you? I had forgotten. And it's like I had. Like I said, I've watched Naked and Afraid for so long now that it's like Survivor just seems like a cakewalk.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true. It is. It is definitely more of a cakewalk. Yeah.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Well.
[00:40:55] Speaker C: And what's. What's her name? Carolyn. I can't think of her last name.
[00:41:00] Speaker B: Carol Ann or whatever.
[00:41:01] Speaker C: Yeah, she was. She was on Survivor and she was also on Traders, but she's a Minnesota native.
[00:41:07] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: And I loved her on Traders. I hadn't seen her season on Survivor yet, but she's got that total quirky personality. And. Have you ever watched Traitors?
[00:41:20] Speaker A: I have. Yep. Yep. Yeah. My fiance's really into it. Yeah. So it's been on. I've been. I've seen it.
Yeah. I. I've watched it and there's. I. It's kind of fun because you do get to see the cross reality people come in who are basically making a living as reality stars, which is great for them. But. Yeah, it's. It's just kind of funny because you. You're like. Well, on the last show I saw them on, they were kind of like. They were kind of. As a human, they were just kind of off. Then you see them on Traders and you're like, yep, they're still like that. Yeah.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: Boston Rob here.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
Boston Rob. Yeah.
[00:41:56] Speaker C: Legend.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:57] Speaker C: He's been on a lot of reality, too.
[00:41:59] Speaker B: I always root for him when I see him on the show.
[00:42:01] Speaker C: Yes, me too. I did not like him on the first season of Survivor, but I liked him on everything else.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah. I.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: He's kind of on the evil side, but yet you just can't stop watching him. Because he's funny.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. He's got a sense of humor about his villainy. Yeah, yeah.
[00:42:19] Speaker C: He was just on.
What's that?
The money show. That's a game show that they turned into a competition show. Oh, my gosh.
[00:42:28] Speaker B: That was all the cases or.
[00:42:30] Speaker C: Yeah, the.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: The Dealer Neil Deal Island.
[00:42:34] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Yeah, he was on that, too. But yes, I. I love me some reality tv. It's just a great escape.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: It is. And from a storytelling perspective, like, writing, all writing as much as I do and working with structure and style and tone and within prose, it's nice to watch something where I'm not maybe thinking about that. Like, where I'm thinking about, oh, this character seems, you know, like this or the story plot, this beat in the story doesn't seem quite there. Like, I'm not turning down a part of my brain to watch reality tv. Like, I'm just kind of enjoying the mess that it is versus other media that I'll watch where I might do that more.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: So then you definitely need to watch those housewives, because they are loony.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I have. I have seen a few of those, actually. Yeah. Yeah, I have watched a few of those. Huh? And. Yeah, they're. You watch that, then you're like, well, the truth is stranger than fiction. Like. Like, that's where you're like, holy cow, people are so strange. Yeah. You can't write a monster. Yeah, right, exactly. You can't write that.
[00:43:36] Speaker C: Yeah, well, with us diving so much into the true crime and paranormal, not so much paranormal, because paranormal is kind of our break from the true crime, and that's why we did both with our podcast. But you get into some really dark, dark stuff, and it's like, I used to watch a lot of like, Dateline and stuff like that just for fun, but now it's like I only watch that stuff when I'm like, looking for new content or, you know, doing research.
Because you can't be down that rabbit hole all the time.
[00:44:14] Speaker A: No, no, it's. It's very difficult. Yeah, it's very difficult. I agree.
[00:44:18] Speaker C: I.
Jeremy, I. I couldn't put him through it any more than I already do.
[00:44:24] Speaker A: Yeah. That's funny.
[00:44:25] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I like the later stories.
[00:44:28] Speaker C: Yes. You like the more paranormal, the fun stuff. You can't really banter, you know, say too much when it comes to true crime. But it's. It's important stories to tell because these people have gone through tragic. Had tragic things happen, and so it's. They're important to get out there, but it's. It's very dark and not.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it takes, it takes a little sacrifice watching stuff like that and creating content for it and stuff. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:44:58] Speaker C: Definitely. So you've been active in the Minnesota's horror and fantasy scene, from Crypticon to local readings?
[00:45:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:06] Speaker C: What's the community like here for the, the dark genre writers?
[00:45:10] Speaker A: It's great. It's great. I, I've always had supportive readers and followers of my work. I've never really had any negative experiences ever with any of it. I think, you know, Minnesota's got a really good horror community. And again, coming from me, who, again, horror is not necessarily something I digest for fun.
I've always found like a Crypticon and other events readings. I've always found very supportive people, people that enjoy the darker theme stuff as a. As a. As a catalyst for whatever, you know, emotional issue they might be having at the time or whatever they can relate to. I, I have noticed that in Minnesota it's very prevalent within audiences. But yeah, I, I've. I really enjoyed my time working with the communities and stuff. I actually have at the end of the month here, I'm hosting a Halloween reading at 10K Brewing in Anoka, oh.
On October 28th at 7 o'. Clock. I'll be doing. I'll be hosting horror writers to read their works and stuff. I'll be reading some of mine as well. Yeah, the community is great. I can't really say enough about them.
And I think. I think the community in general, with fantasy as well, in science fiction, there's so Many miniature conventions and so many. Like, I've been doing conversions for years. I love Convergence community. I've been doing so many of these smaller events, too. I've always had people support me and buy my books or at least look me up and check out my work and stuff, and that's pretty much all I can ask for.
[00:46:35] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's. There's definitely a sense of community in Minnesota. I mean, you get some of the, you know, the not so great stuff, but it's. I truly think that, you know, like, the Minnesota nice and the Minnesota. You know, the Minnesota acceptance is truly a thing. And we've really enjoyed going to Crypticon. We've only got. This was our second year, and we'll definitely continue grow going every year, and we want to learn about more conventions and stuff. Like, we met a couple of people that were telling us, like, about Convergence and some other ones that we had no idea about, but it's just so. Everybody's so friendly and.
Yeah, it's a great community.
[00:47:20] Speaker A: It is. It's a very nice community. I agree. And it's. It's been cultivated from something that was not necessarily small, but not a lot of people, per se, were there. And now it's. It's gone on for so long and. Yeah, no, it's very supportive. And I. One of my favorite things about going to Crypticon or any other convention and seeing people that I've. Maybe they're not even people that I've spoken to, but just people that I recognize, they're back again. It's nice to see the same faces over and over again at these events.
[00:47:44] Speaker C: Right.
[00:47:45] Speaker A: And sometimes I've talked. I've seen people from the beginning of Crypticon when I was going there 10 years ago, that I just talked to this year. You know, it just kind of goes like that.
[00:47:53] Speaker C: Right.
[00:47:55] Speaker A: But, yeah.
[00:47:58] Speaker C: The celebs, the majority of them are just so personable. And.
[00:48:03] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:48:04] Speaker C: I mean, we met Jameson Newlander last year when we were there. He was our elevator buddy. Every time we went into the elevator, he was always in there, too. And we've had him on the podcast and, you know, we've kept a friendship open with him and we've met a few other people through that, and it's just been. It's been so much fun. We really, really enjoy.
And I waver because I would like to have a table there for the podcast, but yet I don't want to be lassoed to a location because it's so fun to roam around and. Yeah, so that would Be a hard thing.
[00:48:40] Speaker A: It is difficult and I, I do get, I try to take some time to go roam around and stuff at Crypticon for sure and talk to some other artists and writers and they're, they're always supportive. But yeah, the celebrities at Crypticon are very personable. I've never, I don't think I've had a negative experience with any of them, but I do think, I think that horror is such a unique genre that way that like when you get a community of horror people and, and they're going to be very supportive of each other because it's just, it's not one of those genres that necessarily you think of as a community per se, but it, it's very well supported and I, I didn't, I didn't know any much about horror until I started going to Crypticon, to be honest, so. But yeah, people love it. It's great.
[00:49:18] Speaker C: When we first booked our tickets last year to Crypticon, I was confused on why there was horror celebrities because I thought it was a Cryptid festival.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Yes.
[00:49:31] Speaker C: I was really. I'm like, why are all these horror actors here? Then we got there and I was like, there's nothing about Cryptids. It's, it's like, you know, then somebody explained it to me. It's kind of like, it's cryptic. Like, you know, Crypticon is.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:46] Speaker C: So, yep, I was all confused. I'm like, where's all the Bigfoot stuff?
[00:49:51] Speaker A: Right, right. Yeah, no, there aren't a lot of Cryptids there. There are definitely. There's merchandise of Cryptids there. There's stuff like, there's, there's people that like Cryptids there. But yeah, it's not necessarily cr. Cryptid themed. I remember one year at Crypticon at the old Thunderbird when they had it there in Bloomington. The old Thunderbird Hotel, which was so much like the Overlook Hotel to me. It just had that vibe and it was great for the horror convention when we were there because not only was it a creepy hotel, but like their pool was like kind of. Their pool was kind of derelict. Like they had. It didn't work. It was like all abandoned. They had like plywood up along the, around the pool and stuff. So it looked even creepier. It was very much like the perfect horror convention hotel. They tore down the Thunderbird some years ago now, but it was a great time.
[00:50:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I've never been to that hotel.
[00:50:38] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it was, it was, they had like artifacts all over the walls. It was very, very horror esque.
[00:50:43] Speaker C: Yeah, very cool. Well, and I have to say I was very happy that it seemed like the air was working better this year than last year.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:50:52] Speaker C: It was so hot last year.
[00:50:55] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
[00:50:56] Speaker C: It was like, even in your room, you couldn't get your temp, the temperature to go down. So it's like you couldn't escape. It was hot outside, hot inside. And then you got all these people. It was kind of suffocating.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And Crypticon always ends up being hot. Like that weekend for some reason. It's just like a million degrees and you're like, what's going on?
[00:51:16] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's such a fun atmosphere. I can't. We look forward to it. We didn't get the gold package this year. We were too late.
And I purchased our tickets in like April, I think. And so I'm gonna have to make sure I watch earlier because we like to get the gold package to do the celeb dinner and stuff like that. That was the only thing that we didn't get this year versus last year. But it's just nice. I mean, having the, you know, the different options and the different. There's so much, so much to see, so much to do. And it's so house. That hotel that they have it at is the Crowne Plaza. There's so many nooks and crannies. I. Every year I'm like, I think. I don't think we saw this person or did we ever encounter this.
[00:52:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:04] Speaker C: Or. I mean, it's just so much.
[00:52:08] Speaker A: It's. It's kind of like one of those reality expanding, like stories where the house, like you measure the house and it's bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside kind of thing. Or it's just like there's so much space on the inside. Yeah, no, it's very like House of Leaves kind of vibe to it. Yeah.
[00:52:23] Speaker C: Yes. There was a gentleman that pulled up. We were sitting outside and it was an older gentleman and he pulled up and he was like, I'm looking for this place. And I'm like, well, you're here. And he's like, well, no, I'm looking for the Crown Plaza. I'm like, you're here? And he's like, no, but from this picture. Because he had a picture from the backside or something. And so I was trying to explain to him that. That it was the right place. But then I'm like, right, don't think he's here for Crypticon. He's open. He's gonna have a rude awakening very soon.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That's funny. Yeah, no, it's. It is confusing, but it suits the. It suits the. It suits the feeling for the. For the. For the. For the convention. For sure.
[00:53:04] Speaker C: It really does. But could you imagine being a person who booked a hotel, not knowing that was going on and walking into that?
[00:53:12] Speaker A: Oh, I love that.
Yes. Yes, I love that. That is my favorite thing about it. Just having, like, the normal family that's there for, like, a soccer tournament and they're just, like, staying there. And there's. There's people, you know, cosplayed as Michael Myers walking around. It's great.
[00:53:26] Speaker C: Yeah, there's some great cosplay. Last year, they had the Stranger Thing ones that people got engaged. There was people that were dressed up in Stranger Things, but elaborate, like the big, huge head headdress and. Oh, my gosh, it's so fun. Anybody, if you get a chance, go to. Go to these cons and check them out because they are so much fun and people watching galore.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. It is. It's great. I love the communities. I love the con communities. They've been just great to me, and they're just. It is fun. It is fun. And. And if you go to these conventions and you think that, you know, something obscure like, like a movie that nobody's watched or a TV show or an episode, you will find someone at the conventions who knows what you're talking about. You will find someone who's like, oh, yeah, I remember that X Files episode. That one character said that. Of course. Yeah, you'll find that.
[00:54:20] Speaker C: Yes. And everybody. Go ahead.
[00:54:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. People just. You think you're alone in your fandoms and your geekdoms and stuff, but you're not. There are people out there who will. Who will partake with you for sure.
[00:54:31] Speaker C: And just the sense of community and it's, you know, you walk into a target and you got people that are scowling and.
Oh, yeah, you know, on a mission or whatever. But when you're there, it's just. So there's not a worry in the world.
[00:54:45] Speaker A: Right, right. People are enjoying it and stuff. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:54:49] Speaker C: And they're all being themselves and there's so much to encounter, but. All right, well, enough of Crypticon. I could rant on about that forever. I love that so much.
[00:55:00] Speaker A: I love it, too. Yeah.
[00:55:02] Speaker C: So in my research, I came across Something called DOL39.
[00:55:07] Speaker A: Oh, doll 39. Yeah.
[00:55:08] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:55:10] Speaker A: Yeah. So that was a story.
It was a Kindle book that I released. It was gonna be Amazon had for their self publishing platform. They had serialized stories, and people could subscribe to you as an author and you'd publish serialized stories and they'd pay money to get the new serialized story, like, in sequence. And doll 39 was my attempt to try to do that, but I never really stuck with it. I wrote a couple segments for it, and then actually it was called Amazon Villa, I believe was the program for the serialized stor.
They shut it down, I think, two years ago now.
[00:55:43] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:55:44] Speaker A: So it's not even active anymore. But yeah, doll 39 was a story about.
It takes place in, like, a dystopian apocalyptic future. And there's these creatures called dolls which are like these weird life forms that they stimulate a growth in an area, like botanical growth. Or like, you basically, if you have one in your backyard, you'll have, like, crops, you'll have, like. Like resources happen. But they're also, like, vampiric. They'll eat people and stuff like that. So society at this point has formed some sort of truce with them. And they keep these creatures nearby so they can have crops and they can have resources, but they also have to feed people to the creatures. So they have, like, a treaty with them and stuff. And I wrote it. I wrote the first few segments, but then I just. I think my kids were young. They were like, what, two or three at the time? And that was that. I. I couldn't keep up with it. So. Yeah, that's doll 39. That's a blast from the past. Ye.
[00:56:39] Speaker C: Greenland Diaries. Are you going to continue the volumes with that, or is that.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I've got six books. Yeah, I've got six books in the main narrative. I got one left to complete one year because the story. The story takes place over a year through 365 days. The last book will end out the year. And I have plans for the next book already. I don't have a release or anything. I haven't written it yet, but I will do it.
And I do plan to continue the story a little bit more after that with some. With a. With a sequel series of sorts. That'll just be a few books. But right now on my blog that I publish stuff on weekly or daily almost, I am writing stories from the Greenland Diaries on there that you can't get anywhere else but on the blog. And those stories take place after the. The. You know, the main mechanism in the Greenland Diaries is the drum, like the sound that brings these creatures to life every night. And it's not a. It's not a spoiler or anything, because it's told in the very first page of the Greenland Diaries. But the drum does get destroyed at some point, but the monst stick around so like, they lose the mechanism to be violent. Basically this drumming sound. So the monsters are still in our world and human beings have to learn how to coexist with these creatures. And the. The sequel book series will be more about that. Like what happens after the drum is destroyed, where the diaries cover the drum being destroyed itself.
[00:57:59] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:58:00] Speaker A: And it's no. It's no secret, it's no spoiler for anyone that this happens. I talk about it often and like I said in the very first page. But yeah, I do plant flush out the universe, make sure the audience gets enough exposition, understand what's going on to a point. And yeah, I do plan to. To finish that up in the next two or three years here.
[00:58:18] Speaker C: Very cool. I'm so excited to read it. I've just got a. This time of year is so hard to take time to sit down and read for us. But, you know, the horrid winter's coming.
[00:58:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. No, like the. The environment itself will be more conducive to it where it'll be like you're stuck in place. Read a book. Yeah, yeah.
[00:58:37] Speaker C: It's cozy up, get a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and just dive into a different world.
[00:58:44] Speaker A: Definitely. Definitely.
[00:58:46] Speaker C: Have you ever considered adapting your stories for film, TV or audio drama like you did with the Hidden Oaks podcast?
[00:58:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I've considered it. I would love to do it if, you know, someone came along and was like, hey, let's make this a movie. I mean, of course, yeah, I do it. It's just I've never really. I've always been in the process of writing the stories, the poems, the books, and I've never really pivoted to do screenplays and stuff. I have written screenplays and I've written for film, but I. It's never been something I've ardently pursued though. I mean, I've had people tell me, oh, make a good film. And I've talked to a few people, you know, from Crypticon, who are. Who have connections and stuff to the film industry about some of my stories. But yeah, I've considered it. Hidden Oaks was a really good experience for me writing audio drama. That story, just a quick. To give a quick summary of it, is about a park in. In Minnesota called Hidden Oaks, which you can go to. And in the. Inside the park there is a monster sleeping. And one day the monster starts to wriggle free because there's a man who lives in the neighborhood, and it's his job to do a ritual to keep the monster in place. But one day he has a heart attack and he can't do it. And of course, it times up with the ritual and when it needs to happen, so the monster starts to wriggle loose and it affects the surrounding community and neighborhood. And I had a really great experience running that. I was. I was. I wasn't. I was the main writer for it. I wrote. I created the monster for was. It was really fun. And I got to work with people and collaborate with people, which is not something I've done a lot in my career. And that taught me new things about myself, new things about my writing. It was. I thought about it and I would love to do more of it as time goes on here. It's just. I've always been just kind of in the product process of always releasing a new book or releasing a new poem or new short story kind of like that. So it was. I'll eventually pivot to those mediums, but yeah, it's definitely something I've thought about.
[01:00:31] Speaker C: Well, I would definitely watch and I am going to go back and listen to that. The Hidden Oaks. I just came across that literally today when I was writing up the questions and stuff, and I was like, wait, what is this? And then I clicked on it and I started listening to one of the episodes and I was like, yeah, I'm definitely going back and checking this out.
[01:00:53] Speaker A: Yeah, like, there's some horror. It's a great story. There's a lot of comedy in it, too. It's very heavy in the first season. The second season has some more funnier parts to it. All the stuff I wrote was very heavy for it. I tend to be the dark. The dark writer or the dark subject matter. But. But some of my. My colleagues, they wrote funnier arcs for it and stuff, which was great.
And it was just. It was. It was. It was a lot of great experience doing that.
[01:01:16] Speaker C: That's awesome. So for our readers, which book or story should they start with to get the best taste of your world?
[01:01:25] Speaker A: You know, at the risk of just kind of beating the same drum, it would be the Greenland Diaries. I think that that does have the most allure for the majority of people. I think Beware the Ills is also a good selection, but that's much more niche. And like I said, it's a.
An acquired taste to read that. But people that finish it are always like, oh, my God, that book. Book. They've. It's like a, it's an experience for them and it is an experience to read it. But the Greenland Diaries, if you like a good monster, like, and a really good monster and like, if you watch something, you're like, what. What's the deal with this monster? Like, if you want to see what the monster looks like, if you have any curiosity about that, the Greenland Diaries fulfills that, that, that feeling for you. It is so drawn out. And the monster is very much the main character of the story. Like, there's human characters, but the monsters just, they develop, they change, they're unique, they're individualistic, they're characters.
I think the audience can't find that really in much media where the monster is the main character for multiple books.
[01:02:30] Speaker C: Right. Definitely. Check it out. We've got the first two and we're gonna have to get the other ones because I know I'm gonna love them.
So where can fans follow your work, buy your books or catch you at events or. Do you have any events other than the one you mentioned?
[01:02:49] Speaker A: Yeah, like the 10K brewing. October 28th at 7. But I'll be at Twin Cities Con. I'm selling my books there. I'm planning a brewery event in December as well. I don't all have, but you can go on my website. I, I Update my website www.patrickwmarsh.com or just Google Patrick W. Marsh and you'll find me. Or Google the Greenland Diaries. Like it's all connected. Of course, that's the easiest place to find me is my website. But I'm on, I'm all on all sorts of social media.
W. Marsh or Patrick W. Marsh, writer. You'll be able to find me pretty easily. And I do post stuff on my blog four to five times a week, including new content. I post the Greenland Diaries and snippets. Beware of the ills and snippets. I share a lot of my work. Yeah, that's like Twin Cities Con is my next convention though, and that's in November.
[01:03:33] Speaker C: So are you going to be approaching Brendan Fraser to star in one of your movies?
[01:03:38] Speaker A: That'd be great. That'd be great. I, you know, the celebrities are, they're a little bit harder to come up to walk up to a Twin Cities Con because there's so many people at those ones. But I would love to have a conversation with them. I, you know, I'm a big fan of his and many of the, the celebrities there. I, I've enjoyed their work, so. But what's that? Oh, go ahead, play for it. I'm gonna do some Demon Slayer cosplay because I'm a big anime fan. So, yeah, I'll be dressing as a no skate from Demon Slayer, so I'll have a boar's head on my head and stuff like that. So that'll be kind of different. Yeah. And I am hosting a panel at Twin Cities Con on Friday night at 9:40. Is it 9:45 or 8:45? It's late. But that's called Monsters. Monsters everywhere. And I'll be talking about monsters and stuff too, so I'm all over the place. Yeah, yeah.
[01:04:32] Speaker C: I was just gonna say I think the celebs, the majority of the bigger celebs are from.
What is it the Mummy?
[01:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah, the Mummy, Yeah.
[01:04:41] Speaker C: Is it the Mum. Just the Mummy. Is that the name of the movie, the Mummy?
[01:04:44] Speaker A: The first one?
[01:04:44] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we were. We talked about going to that one. That anime is not something that I have ever really gotten into yet, but I know a lot of people really, really love it and there's a lot of comic book stuff and so. Yeah, we haven't been to that one yet, but I would love to check it out. I was looking at who was all going to be there.
[01:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it's big. It's a big event and I've tabled there for three or four years now and it's been a. It's been a great experience. It's. It's. It's a lot of people and.
Yeah, I've never. There's really good cosplay at it. My God, the cosplay is incredible at it. So I'm looking forward to that. So it's a great time.
[01:05:22] Speaker C: Yeah, we might have to just get a day pass just to kind of check it out. Yeah, we're always missing out on all these big events.
[01:05:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's more of them now than there used to be.
[01:05:33] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:05:33] Speaker A: You know, some conventions don't make it very long and some stick around and Twin Cities Con's been around for a little while now.
[01:05:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I definitely want to check it out. And we'll probably end up wanting to do a whole weekend there next time, too. One day just never seems to be enough.
[01:05:47] Speaker A: Right, right. I agree.
[01:05:49] Speaker C: So, yes, everyone definitely go check out his website, follow him on Instagram, come to Twin Cities Con to see his panel, to see his cosplay. But.
Well, Patrick, thank you for so much for joining us. And it's been. It was great to meet you at Crypticon. It's been great to get to know you to hear more about your books and everything.
[01:06:12] Speaker A: Thank you.
[01:06:12] Speaker B: It's.
[01:06:13] Speaker C: It's right up the alley of our listeners, so you guys definitely check them out, show your support, like, follow, subscribe all the things and grab the Greenland Diaries and dive into a world where fear has a heartbeat.
[01:06:28] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah.
[01:06:32] Speaker C: Yes. Well, we'll definitely. Once you get some new work going and stuff, we'll definitely have to have you back because we want to keep hearing about your journey and you're a fellow Minnesotan too, so.
[01:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. And the Greenland Diaries takes place all in Minnesota, so it's a local story.
[01:06:50] Speaker C: Love that.
[01:06:51] Speaker B: Very cool.
[01:06:52] Speaker C: Well, thank you so much. And Conundrum Crew, thank you for listening. And like I said, check out his work and keep on creeping on. We love you.
[01:07:04] Speaker B: Thanks for hanging out with us here at Total Conundrum. Please make sure to check out our website and
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We appreciate the love. Keep on creeping on.
[01:08:20] Speaker A: It.
