[00:00:00] Speaker A: Are you silly, generous and opinionated, or creative, adventurous and studious?
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[00:00:14] Speaker B: Parental guidance is recommended because this episode has mature topics and strong language. Here are some moments you can look forward to during this episode of Book Interrupted.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: It's definitely not a traditional fantasy. It's a fantasy in a book cover sense, but really it's more of a metaphorical fantasy other than romantasy.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: They don't really specify, like ya or whatever. It's kind of for everybody.
But I was just wondering because now there's this new romantasy where you're like.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Do you remember the character Slimsy, who's this dazelf?
[00:00:49] Speaker B: If you look into his eyes, he gives you what you want.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Which means sort of like the halcyon days, the calmer days of the past, these sort of nostalgic days of the past. You know, I think that's why people like fantasy in some regard.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Great. No, I think it's not just like a fantasy book, for sure. I think there's more depth to it.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Her beloved pet cow, Golly, who doesn't like to do anything but eat, but can run really fast. Some people are like, it's a prologue. I'm like, nope, Chapter zero. Deal with it.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Mind, body, soul.
Inspiration is the goal.
And we're gonna talk it out on book.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: On Book Interrupted.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Welcome to the author's Spotlight. During these mini episodes, we have authors come on and tell us about their books and why we should read them. Let's listen. Welcome to the Author spotlight. On this episode, we are talking to Kevin Albers and his book, the Ashen Knight. Thanks for being on the show, Kevin.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Well, thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to this. Great.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: So why don't you let us know why we should read your book.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Well, aside from the obvious that I wrote it and I would, I like it. Well, I guess everyone's going to say this, but I think it's different. I think it's a different story. It's definitely not a traditional fantasy. It's a fantasy in a book cover sense, but really it's more of a metaphorical fantasy. So it's filled with symbolism and metaphors and all that kind of stuff as a way of dealing with some of the major themes of the of the book. The book itself is kind of an allegory. I guess it's kind of meta that way a little bit. One of the major themes of the novel is how through trauma and isolation, sometimes people can mix up fantasy and reality. Those lines blur.
That's kind of what happens with the main protagonist in the story, Bobby Porter. So essentially the story is about a boy, a 13 year old boy named Bobby Porter who lives in our world. He lives in modern day. He's dealing with the loss of his father. His father was in the army as a marine, and while he was away he was writing his son this fantasy novel as a way for them to connect. But his father never finished the novel before he died. And Bobby, that's the only thing he has left from his father essentially is this unfinished story. And he gets pulled into that story and it's a fantasy story and he has to play it out, but he has to kind of finish the book, as it were. And he meets the protagonist of that Fantasy Story, a 13 year old Zenobia, who has her own mission to save her father from the main villain, which is that is the ashen knight. Another major theme about it, aside from the fantasy reality being mixed up, is about the things that we inherit from our parents, from our lineage, from the history that came before us. You know, the legacy essentially that gets handed down to us. Sometimes it's not good and we get. It gets dumped on us. And in this case it's trauma, ptsd. Bobby has to deal with all that because he inherits this. And what is his choices, what he's going to do with all this? Does he try to make better choices or does he make poor choices and make things worse? So that's sort of like the book's general vibe of the book in a nutshell. But it's packaged in what I think is a fun fantasy. Fantasy adventure.
[00:04:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: So for the listeners I've read some of the book, Zenobia, I like that she's this tiny 13 year old girl, but she has like super strength. I like the little contradictions, you know what I mean? You wouldn't think she's this super powerhouse and I kind of like that. And the cow.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Right. Her beloved pet cow. Golly.
Who's this who. Who doesn't like to do anything but eat, but can run really fast and. Yeah. And so she's the beloved pet cow. Yes, yeah. That she has. But yeah, I mean it's, you know, there's many influences that went into this book and a lot of it probably from my childhood as far as like I think of one of the major influences, you know, people love comps, but one of the major influences is the never ending story. You Know, and I'm talking more particularly about the book, not the movie. Although I loved the movie as a kid, I love the book even more as an adult. And you could probably draw the comparisons a little between the two. This boy gets pulled into a world where there's just he meets all these weird, wacky characters. And I think one of the things I like about this because it's more dream logic than like, okay, we're in a fantasy, fantasy realm. I can really play with having weird characters, weird settings.
And you know, Bobby kind of comments on that a little bit. You know, as the story goes along, he starts seeing how he's able to actually influence this world on his own because it becomes more his own.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Did I sell it enough? I don't know.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: Great. No, I think it's not just like a fantasy book for sure. I think there's more depth to it, which I like.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And maybe every writer wants this, this. But I, you know, I don't particularly like labels per se, but I understand the need for them for selling purposes for sure. But I did it, you know, originally when I wrote this thing which actually first started off as a screenplay in like 2017, 2018.
I was doing screenplays and I was in LA and I was wanting to break out in the movie business. I wrote this thing.
And so I used that as its very first draft really. But I was like, I'm a nobody who just wrote basically a multi hundred million dollar movie.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: I was just going to say that.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: It'S not going to go anywhere. No one's going to even lay eyes on this. And you know, especially being such an early draft and such. So I decided, I was like, you know what? This might be a good opportunity for me. I've been wanting to move into doing more prose and writing a novel and I was dabbling in doing short stories. So I was like, well this, let me take, merge this into a novel and then maybe someone could option it into a screenplay, go that, that route. And it's hard work, but I really love it. And then I'm now like, I just, I don't want to do screenplays anymore. I just want to write novels and. Yeah. And then we end up, we end up here many years later now, me trying to get it out there to some degree. I'm, I do want to just get it out there and move on to my next project. But you know, the way it ends is kind of on a cliffhanger. I do hope do multi book series of trilogy for it. And one thing I was toying with, if you want to, if this is of any interest to you or anyone. One of the major themes, there's a lot of themes in this book is this jam packed with themes and allegories.
But one of the major things with this of the book is that each book is supposed to represent the past, the future and the present. And the past being kind of a place you exist in anger and rage. The future is a place you exist in fear. And the present is really the only place you can exist. That is the now that you have some semblance of control over and is of peace. So his return is to the present, as it were. So thinking going forward on the next novel, it might be a sci fi and not a fantasy. Halcyon might be in the year 3252 or something and what have you. Because essentially Bobby is a God in this world of his own making. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's. It's all peaches and cream.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: So because you said that. So you know how the beginning of the book is all about the librarian saying like, let me tell you about this world. So would the librarian have a part in that or does he disappear after?
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, the librarian, I mean, he's a character that comes up in the book. Yeah, right.
The story. He's. He's the one that hands him this, the finishing his unfinished novel. He's the librarian in chief of this great massive library in this city called the Great City of Pangea. And there's a section of that library, it's the massive section of just all the unfinished works that people have.
And because they're unfinished, he can kind of muddle with them and he can adjust things. And that's how I start that very first chapter, which I dubbed Chapter zero and not.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw that.
I saw that.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Some people are like, it's a prologue. I'm like, nope, Chapter zero. Deal with it.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: I don't always think that too. I don't really see people. A prologue, but I like it.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Chapter zero, which kind of came from the podcast world, really, actually, where episode zero is just kind of the first intro to the podcast and then you get into the actual. So I kind of borrowed it from there because I didn't want to write a prologue. But essentially that's what it is, a prologue. It's exposition, essentially. But hopefully I did it in sort of a fun way. Yeah. Already I'm blurring the lines. He's talking to you, the reader. It's meta. It's like, wait, what? So I'm already setting the stage that things are blurred. But that book he's talking through does come up and is given to Bobby in the land of Halcyon by him. And it's through that book that Bobby finds that he can start manipulating the world a little bit and start finding his power in that world.
But it's considered his dad's book or the perfect text because it's printed and they don't have printing in this era of their dark ages. So it's kind of revered as the sacred text for the librarian, for Bobble Gentles, the librarian.
That's the question that's interesting, is from the characters here who would make it over to the next book.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: That's what I'm wondering.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: I debate whether or not I think Zenobia would. And I. I think I know how or why I would have her cross over into the next book. And I think Slimsy. I don't know if you remember the character Slimsy, who's this Dazelf.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: If you look into his eyes, he's. Gives you what you want or something.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: He's like. He's. His gift is that he. He can make you see whatever you want to see.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Right, right.
Your desires or something.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: He can formulate illusions that are pretty real. And in the book, every thousand years, there's this alignment of the seven moons that creates this blood eclipse. And that heightens everyone's abilities in the story. And so Slimsy's ability, his basically his ability to lie convincingly again, blurring the line between truth and fiction, becomes so blurred that, you know, they almost become real things that he's, you know, able to do. But he's a servant to the ashen, Ashen knight. And he's this little, like. I call him a Dazelf, which is, I guess, obviously like an elf. Elf, yeah, just like a dark elf. But he can dazzle people, you know, and he might be a character that makes it, I think, into the. The second book as well as sort of a counsel to Bobby and what have you. So. Yeah. But Bobble Gentles probably might not. But a descendant of his. If I make it like futuristic, a descendant of his might be just curious in there, you know, kind of thing. So.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Great.
So did you say the reason that. That my favorite character. How do you say your name again?
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Zenobia. It's a real name. It's a real name. Zenobia.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Yeah, Zenobia.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Oh, Zenobia. Also a little playoff. Obviously. The first three letters is Zen and she's not quite Zen.
If you remember the section of them going to the feral forest in Bengal where everyone wears masks that are their folly animal and her folly animals. The turtle supposed to represent Patience. And she's very impatient, you know, which kind of leads into some trouble for her. But yeah, she's definitely a formidable character in the story.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: And her mission. I don't know if you mentioned this, it was because her father got kidnapped by the Ashen knight. Right, so.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: That's right, yeah. So in the story within the story, which is the land of Halcyon, her father is. Is taken, kidnapped by the Ashen knight. The Ashen knight's own schemes, because of Bobby's presence in that world, that. That all gets up, you know, turned upside down and his. His schemes change through. Through the story. And so the Ashen knights breaks free from the original written storyline into a new one, so.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Well, that makes sense because the original ones. His father's issues.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: That's right. Which I try.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: And then it goes into Bobby's.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: That's right. So I tried to literally represent that in the story with the different POVs. And in the story, there's Bobby when he's in the real world, it's first person present. When he's in Halcyon, it's sort of third person close.
And then there's the sections which kind of act as backstories that are sort of pieces of the book itself. I tried to write in how would his father have written it?
So a slightly different voice, different tone, more the traditional dial. And then for the majority of the book, I tried to do the blend of Bobby's voice and his father's voice to create this blend. I don't know. It's been a while since you read it and I'm sure. So I don't know if that. If you remember that vaguely at all.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: But I remember the sections that are more like you're reading a story within the story.
Yeah.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: And then, you know, when we're in Bobby's world, it's the first person eyes and stuff. And then. But for the majority of book, it's. Yeah. Third person close.
[00:15:18] Speaker C: Right?
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. There's. There's a lot to this book, I think. I think there's a lot to discover.
My goal with it is something that somebody can sit with. I don't want to say Easter eggs, but definitely like things that people, I think on a second read could read again, discover new things about it. Tried to be kind of conscious of that. And all while you know, making this fun to read as well on a straight on adventure. So I tried to do the pompous writery thing and do layers as best I could.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Not to degrade my own book.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: So another question I just had really quick before we go. Is that a lot of our listeners recommend especially fantasy stuff to their kids? Because I never, I didn't finish the book. Not yet anyway. Could a preteen read it or is it like teenager up?
[00:16:10] Speaker A: I think I, you know, I definitely tried to write it from kids to adults. Like I. Again, you know, I didn't want to label this as a YA novel because I feel like that's just too restrictive and I don't think books I read that had young protagonists doesn't, didn't necessarily mean they were ya. They still had very adult themes. And there's adult themes in this book. There's heavy themes in this book. There's nothing gratuitous about it. So I tried to make it friendly for I guess what we're talking Pre teens, like 10, 9. I mean.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Yeah, 10, 11, 12.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: That age group. Yeah, yeah. From there on to, to, to me. Till death.
[00:16:50] Speaker C: Till death.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: You know, that's what I try.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: The day before death, not the day will.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Well, well the morning of the morning it would, it would, it would definitely warm my heart.
Cockles of my heart if somebody had passed away with your book. With my book. Other day. To carry them.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: So for all ages.
[00:17:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: A lot of fantasies don't actually. Oh well now I guess because there's Romantasy. This is a whole new era. But other than Romantasy, they don't really specify like YA or whatever. It's kind of for everybody.
I was just wondering because now there's this new Romantasy where you're like, yeah, that's the thing.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Like I've never even read Tolkien or you know, a confession here which might, I don't know, probably do me no good. But yeah, I'm not actually a fantasy reader. Movie influences, like, like Legend, you know, I loved as a kid, you know, I guess I'm, you know, fantasy. But I didn't even like care for Dungeons and Dragons too much as a kid, which is why I couldn't write a traditional fantasy. But I, I do like elements of it. And so that's why I was like a fantasy more in like. Because halcyon is sort of a play off the word halcyon with an A, which means sort of like the halcyon days, the calmer days of the past, These sort of nostalgic days of the past. You know, I think that's why people like fantasy in some regard. They kind of nostalgic. So it just fit that theme very nice, nicely for me, which is, I, I guess another major theme of the book. Because of this book, I tried to be like, this is all about past, lineage, history, memories, trauma, nostalgia. You know, it's all about living in the past and trying to escape the present. Ash and Knight's original goal or scheme in the book that gets upended and goes elsewhere. His father would have written his scheme was to try to, with dark magic, kind of teleport himself back thousand years to before he became the Ashen Knight so he could reclaim his humanity again. This is sort of the mindset of Bobby's father who was in the Marines in Afghanistan and kind of experienced war and very like horrific things. So it's sort of his trauma and his sort of dealing with stuff that's seeping into these pages.
His thoughts of wanting to go to back before he became the soldier who he's not a fan of at all of himself. And that's what, you know, a lot of what Helcyon is about. And that's why I want, you know, I'm thinking as a trilogy, I kind of want this. The dangers of living the past and the next book when we're all like just concentrating on the future and the worry of the future and the fear of the future that we don't even know what's going to happen. Like, you know, the issues of that. And then the third book, him coming full Circle, is about the present.
So.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: Yeah, where he finds peace finally.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Where he finds peace. Yeah, exactly.
That's great.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Okay, so listeners, if you'd like to read Kevin's book, you can find it on the Book Interrupted website, which is www.bookinterrupted.com.
and it'll be under the author spotlight. Or you could also find the link to his book in the show notes below. Great. So thanks, Kevin, for being on the show.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Sarah, for having me.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Yeah, it was great. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Book Interrupted. If you'd like to see the video highlights from this episode, please go to our YouTube channel, book interrupted. You can also find our videos on this www.bookinterrupted.com.
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[00:21:14] Speaker A: Book Interrupted.
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