Hyper Creativity with GP James, Ep 185
GP James is a writer and music creator living in Los Angeles. He has written four screenplays, two novels, and several volumes of poetry. His novels have been edited by Richard Marek, publisher and editor of Silence of the Lambs, The Bourne Identity, and countless other bestsellers. James has also worked as a music producer, sound mixer, and recording engineer for Snoop Dogg, Amy Winehouse, Patti LaBelle, and many other award-winning artists, television shows and feature films.
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TRANSCRIPT
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Kevin Tumlinson: 00:01 Hey slingers, welcome back to another week of the Wordslinger Podcast and I'm talking to GP. James, today. ou're going to want to hear this interview. Uh, so stick around. We'll get to it. Next.
Announcer: 00:14 It's the Wordslinger Podcast where story matters. Build your brand, write, your book, redefine who you are. It's all about the story here. What's yours? Now here's the guy who invented pants, optional—Kevin Tumlinson, the Wordslinger!
Singer: 00:37 Wordslinger!
Kevin Tumlinson: 00:39 Well, I am Kevin Tumlinson, v Wordslinger. I am a
Kevin Tumlinson: 00:42 really glad you're here. This is a w welcome by the way, to a, in other words, slinger Podcast interview Friday. Man, I'm struggling to name these things that since I split the format, another change by the way that I have made as of as of, uh, really this week was to a, I think I've decided, I think I fully decided I'm going to just go back to doing audio only for the Podcast. Um, for a few reasons. People weren't really responding well to the, uh, to the video. Um, and it's not that they weren't responding well, I wasn't getting up at a lot of subscribers and I wasn't really, it just, it's an extra bit of work that, uh, you know, wasn't really paying off. Maybe it would a longterm, and maybe I'll bring it back again and maybe next week I'll be announcing how I've changed and I'm doing video game.
Kevin Tumlinson: 01:35 Who knows. Look for right now, um, I've decided that, uh, it's just a little easier to just to do the audio version. Let me know. Let me know what you think of that. I know I asked. You get, yeah, you guys had stuff all the time, but um, you know, I value your input. So, um, anyway, all that said, I mean, I'm sure lots is going to happen. Long stuff's gonna happen and I still have the video interviews. I still record them as video. I do intend to use that. Uh, so it's not going to be wasted. I just want to sort of pull back and recenter a little because I like the audio version. I like what I do here. Um, and, uh, you know, and I'm having a good time with it. And, uh, you know, that's what it's all about. Um, anyway, things change, things change.
Kevin Tumlinson: 02:23 And I got a lot more of you guys listening than I do watching, uh, something to the tune of about 40 to 50,000 people a download and listen to the show each week while, uh, a scant like 200 people were watching it on youtube. No, I don't know. They may have been watching it somehow some way elsewhere. Maybe when you watch it on my show notes page, it's different. I'm not sure, but let me know what you think. If this is disappointing to Ya, I apologize. I'm going to get it all worked out and I'm going to figure it all out. So, uh, today I'm talking to GP James and uh, this is just, he's, he's just got, he's got his fingers in everything and he lives no la, he's Kinda, he's a writer, a music creator, a, he's worked with some folks in the film industry. Uh, we're going to be talking about his book meltdown, which, uh, released it published May 15th. So we're, we're, uh, almost a month out from, uh, from a being out there, but definitely want to push that. I want you to check that out. Go to the show notes and you'll find links to, uh, to, you know, his website to his book. You can follow him on Twitter. A lot of cool stuff there. So check that out. Um, but let's just hear
Kevin Tumlinson: 03:36 from the man himself. Let's hop on over to this interview with GP James and I'll see you on the other side.
Kevin Tumlinson: 03:45 Hey everybody, thank you for tuning in to another great Wordslinger Podcast interview. Now today's guest is GP James. He's the author of meltdown. We're going to call him Greg. Uh, just so it's a little easier on me throughout the show. Welcome to the show, Greg. Thanks for having me. I'm going to, I'm going to reemphasize GP James is the author's name you're going to want to look for when you hear about this book. Uh, so we'll put that out there. It'll be on the show notes and everything, name of the episode and all that. But, uh, just so we're nice and friendly, man. So welcome to the show. So, uh, now having, because of the speed with which all of this was set up, I have not yet had a chance to read your book. I did kind of thumb through and I take a look though, uh, and I'm very fascinated because this is, you know, I'm gonna throw a writer and I'm a big fan of this. Shondra. Uh, and this is a, how would you classify this book, by the way?
GP James: 04:38 How would I classify it? Um, it's, um, environmental thriller, I guess to say.
Kevin Tumlinson: 04:45 Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I could read, I could ride with that. Um, why don't you give me a little bit of the premise and we'll, we'll roll from there.
GP James: 04:52 Sure. Yeah. So it takes place in a Peekskill New York 35 miles outside of the center of Manhattan. And um, what happens is there's a earthquake, unexpected earthquake, of course, being on the east coast. And this a nuclear nuclear power plant that's on the edge of the Hudson River, uh, just goes into disarray. This is power systems are shutting down, and when that happens, they can't cool the reactor. And if you can't call the reactor, you could end up in, um, meltdown scenario. Yeah. My, uh, protagonist and I lead is characters inside the plant. He, one of the plant managers and he's trying to, um, stabilize the reactor and on his wife is on the outside looking further daughter who has been lost in the disaster wreckage.
Kevin Tumlinson: 05:51 It has all the earmarks of a Hollywood blockbuster man.
GP James: 05:54 Pretty much. Yeah. So,
Kevin Tumlinson: 05:58 you know, and this is the kind of thing, by the way now, how, how much, um, how much of the, uh, the of the story is completely factual in terms of location as where I think
GP James: 06:11 all of it, these locations exist. Yeah. Yeah. The, the power plant is, is real, uh, changed the name of course, because I'm not looking to, you know, that creates them. Hey. Yeah. It's not, it's not really about them. Yeah. You know, it's about the, the, the wide awareness. But I felt like that was a good, a place to, to stage this given, you know, the unknown fault line there. The proximity plant to the fault line.
Kevin Tumlinson: 06:41 Right, right. Yeah. I mean, you know, we, it's a topic that, that's very interesting to me because, um, well it's, uh, it's almost a man versus nature kind of story. Uh, almost it's like man versus past man who wasn't really thinking about it. Uh, you know, who puts a, a nuclear, a plant on a fault line kind of thing. But, uh, it's fascinating to me because, you know, I've been exposed to it while maybe I should rephrase this. I haven't been exposed to radiation or anything, but I've, you know, I've seen plenty of these plants that are in places, I'm like, wow, one well-placed natural disaster and the hill, you know, ecosystem goes belly up. Yeah.
GP James: 07:20 I mean that's what happened and, and focus Shayma. Exactly. Right. Yeah. And um, there is another power plant out here and near Los Angeles. It's called the Santa No free. It's more towards San Diego, but they closed that, uh, after Fukushima and this thing is right on the beach. Like it's crawling into the ocean on the sand and, right. I'm glad they closed it. Yeah. Thank you. But yeah, who's not thinking about that when you build something like this that Oh, maybe a tsunami could come and just wipe out the whole thing.
Kevin Tumlinson: 07:54 The thing is though, you know, how do you think ahead on something like in your story, there's an earthquake in a region that just does not get earthquakes, right? So how do you think ahead on a scenario like that when traditionally, and I think the answer is that you, you know, you just have to prepare for the worst no matter what. Like, you know, there could be, what if there were an explosion that was enough to create an
GP James: 08:17 quick on that you built this thing 35 miles outside of one of the largest cities and will the most densely populated people within 50 miles, right? It's, it's uh, oh
Kevin Tumlinson: 08:34 yeah, yeah. No, no. I, and that's what makes it only makes for a great story. Um, but there is a sort of message, they're not a sort of messengers, literally a message there, uh, that perhaps we should rethink. Uh, the positioning is people tend to think of a nuclear power. I do as well. I think of it as very safe in general. Um, but it's safe in the way that an airplane is safe. As long as everything is going okay, you're safe. When something goes wrong, it's not safe.
GP James: 09:11 Yeah. So some have different thresholds of safety I'd say or write, you'd have different levels of impact if something goes wrong, I guess.
Kevin Tumlinson: 09:22 Right, right. Yeah. Right. So what did you do for a research for this?
GP James: 09:27 Lots of years of it. And it was interesting and kind of maddening at times to try to cram the Reese to wrap a story around the research and how, you know, how did it flow and it was kind of challenging in that way. But um, read lots of books about nuclear power, about past disasters, about Fukushima, about three mile island, about Chernobyl books on that, how nuclear power plants function. Endless research online. Uh, I had a few, have a few advisors and nuclear power that helped me. Uh, Dave lock bomb from the Union of concerned scientists read the book and fact checked everything for me and very grateful for that. And My, I was pretty much spot on and gave me a few, a few things that I did. I change. But, uh,
Kevin Tumlinson: 10:20 there are a lot of research. It was good. Yeah. That's the way you want to do it. I mean, you, you've got, because you're not writing a history paper here or anything, uh, you are, you're crafting a story that does rely on, uh, on existing science existing, you know, theory, uh, and problems that we can come up with. So what was it that drove you to want to write this story in particular though?
GP James: 10:46 Well, this was a spin off of the first novel that I wrote that had a, uh, sort of the impetus of that novel was a nuclear power plant meltdown. It was just sort of a thread in that story that was about, and it advanced energy technology called zero point energy. And my editor suggested that I just write a book just about a nuclear power plant meltdown. He thought that was much more compelling. Email did, it had never been done before, even though, you know, yes, we're running in this sort of cliched format, if you will, thrill or format Hollywood format. Sure. Um, but, uh, no one had done a story like that. Um, and so I thought about it and I did and I decided to, to take it in that direction and create this second book off of that. And I, and I was, I was passionate about all this from the beginning, from Fukushima, from this earthquake earthquake that happened in 2011 around the same time in Virginia. Right. You know, and I felt like, wow, this could happen here. We have these other energy that are not being used. Um, typically because of financial reasons or for reasons of control. And I felt like it was an important story to tell.
Kevin Tumlinson: 12:06 Yeah. Yeah. You brought up zero point energy would just something I'm very interested in and have looked at at as a component of the story more than anything. Um, that's, that's fascinating. Uh, I don't want to get off on that tangent because will geek out.
GP James: 12:22 I'm good. I can go down the route. A lot of research on that.
Kevin Tumlinson: 12:26 We'll have to, yeah, we'll have to do a whole separate a episode. So you are now, according your bio, you're a writer and a music creator and living in La. So what, how do you balance those two fields?
GP James: 12:40 Well, I been writing up until this year, every day, um, at least on average of four hours I'd say. And I would write in the morning. Um, so five, 6:00 AM I'd start and music what happened later? And that's been my career in music and sound, mixing albums, TV shows and films. So that, that was sort of how I, how I balanced it. They sort of happen in different parts of the day and you could kinda only do, Kinda only writes so much in a day and have it have any quality to it. Yeah, I agree with that. You know, it comes out and it's like, well that's all I got. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you do it the next day and it's like, it's just, it's climbing a mountain.
Kevin Tumlinson: 13:26 But I do, I like, so you remind me of a good friend of mine is an author and also a composer, uh, and he's scoring is he's scoring his books and other people's books. Now he's actually creating score. You could do the same thing, but uh, that, that secondary creative outlet is his release from the tension and stress of the writing business. Sure. So
GP James: 13:50 yeah, they're different, different ways of creating. They, they intertwine. I feel all creativity intertwines, paint stuff. I draw stuff too to write poetry. So it all connects in some way that, you know, that creative processed that creative channel. But then there's the differences of how, how they flow and definitely the music has a much more useful, uh, a flow and an end to end process. There's not too much like painstaking editing that's happening.
Kevin Tumlinson: 14:21 So do you listen to music while you're actually writing?
GP James: 14:25 Oh yeah.
Kevin Tumlinson: 14:26 You have a soundtrack? Is it your music or is it,
GP James: 14:29 no, not my music. I listened to a lot of cinematic stuff. I'll listen to like Hans Zimmer and stuff like that. I'll listen to by neuro tones, if you're familiar with that, just for brainwave states. Keep it really focused. Um, Fela Kuti, I don't know if you're familiar, but incredible artists from Africa. He was alive in the 60s. Um, incredible. But as his music is very, the songs are very long. They're very like hypnotic sort of entrancing and all kinds of incredible, it's like kind of, uh, like funk acid, jazz kind of stuff is really okay. He played a lot while I was, and I was listening actually listening to different types of music to give me a vibe for what I was, the scene I was writing.
Kevin Tumlinson: 15:15 Right. Yeah, sure. You do the same. No, I do. Yeah. I have a, you know, I w I basically I just pulled up cinematic soundtracks and just let them run in the background. Um, and uh, you know, and I used to try to tailor the mix of that as I'm writing it. I know this scene's going to be a romantic scene, so I want to bring in some romantic music. This thing's going to be a punch of drama in this scene's going to be action. And I would try to sort of customize as I went, but it was just too stressful. I just decided whatever the fates hand me. Uh, yeah. So you're okay. Um, now you live in la, but you're writing about an area near Manhattan. Had you visited this area? Do you know much about it? Personally?
GP James: 15:59 So I grew up okay. I grew up in New Jersey, spent a lot of time in New York. My family family's back there. So a very, very familiar,
Kevin Tumlinson: 16:09 what's the area? What took you out to la? You're chase, you were pursuing the dry hate st chasing. Did you pursuing the dream? I'm living the dream. Living the dream. That's why I like to hear a man. You're a, I can tell by the way I almost took, could tell instantly that you, you're one of these multi creative, you know, driven, but you know, also kind of laid back, you know, in your own way, but still driven. You're a, and now I like how you, um, when you, when I asked for your topic, uh, I like how you described the, the, uh, the book as the pace of the Bourne identity, that technical depth of Michael Crighton in the universal magnitude of Dan Brown. Uh, that's a, uh, you've set yourself up at epic proportions there, my friend.
GP James: 16:59 Alrighty. Marketing marketing like this and then you watch it or read it. You're like,
Kevin Tumlinson: 17:05 yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you feel make your book hits those expectations? I actually, I do. Okay. I would, I would not expect any less from you. I'm just
GP James: 17:17 certain respect by my editor, Dick Merrick. He, he uh, he did 14 Robert Ludlum books he had. Oh Wow. Okay. He did all the boats. He did the Bourne trilogy. He published and edited them. I feel like the pacing is there. It's not the same story. Of course. I, you know, I got a couple of, one or two reviews are like, oh, it's not like that at all. I was like, okay. Yeah, it's, yes, it's not that story, but there was anything there. My technical depth is definitely on point, you know? Yeah, sure. Why not? The universal banker people get hung up on the weirdest things, man. I mean, I'll have, I have the group of readers who say, you know, it's like a Dan Brown book. It's like wha it's like Indiana Jones. And then people read that and they get really upset that my guy isn't running around with a bullwhip and uh, you know, John is, yeah, exactly.
GP James: 18:10 It's, that needs to be its own Biseq category. You know, Dan Brown, ESC, ask the s category. We're going to get this done. Then we're going to pull this off. Uh, so this is not your first book. You've, uh, how many, how many books you have out right now? Well, this is the first one that's published. Oh, okay. Yeah. This is the first published I have the first novel I've read. It needs a little work. I have him halfway through a third novel then coming out probably before any other novels will be a few poetry books, which are done, designers almost done. So I'm waiting. I'm waiting. And I have also have a book of essays I wrote, I wrote poetry, total departure from the thriller novel. I kind of go into the literary world deep and be deep into the existential stuff into the miss, dig into, on the mystical an esoteric topics.
GP James: 19:11 Yeah. I was looking at the covers of the other two books. I guess I missed the coming soon. Bold letters directly beneath them. But um, yeah, they, they have uh, uh, almost eastern vibe. Um, artwork wise they do. Yeah. And I'm steeped in those practices for many meditation, Yoga practice there and um, into all that ain't quite a spectrum. You've, you've developed where yourself splattered though. It's really not though. Good. When you consider that you've written an eco thriller, right? Environmental thriller. Right, right. You're just, you're exploring the same themes with different tones that yeah, yeah. I would expect no less from somebody who creates music, but the marketing messages writes itself, man.
GP James: 20:11 Hey Scott, we're knocking on the doors and see where we flew. Which one's open. See where we fit in. Exactly. Right. So you're, uh, you know, in poetry is such a difficult market. Have you got a publisher for the poetry or are you self publishing or what are you doing there? I don't have a publisher yet. I have someone in mind, uh, Andrews Mcneil, I think. Okay. If you're listening, I'm coming for you. I'm sure everyone there is such a big listener of the words, they're actually, they publish a couple very popular poetry right now, sold millions of copies and, and I think some of it is good and I think by stuff is really good and would be interesting. So I, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make some approaches and a actually may do a Kickstarter on, on the one book because it's a very, it's very special. I wanted hard covered cloth and might do a leather bound version. Yeah. Gilded edges. Because it kind of has that sort of like, you know, antique look to an ancient
Kevin Tumlinson: 21:13 yeah. Make it feel, yeah. Yeah. I understand where we're at with that and try to do something artsy with it. Yeah. And the people who support you on Kickstarter, uh, get along with the book, a free zip lock baggie filled with dust to dust. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. I might say crystal, are you, uh, now are you working on any more thriller? So are you, is this just a lap?
GP James: 21:38 Yeah, I have a third, third, third one. I'm halfway through.
Kevin Tumlinson: 21:41 Oh, you did say that? Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah. So yeah. So here's what you do, man. You have like, one of the characters are prominent character reading your poetry in what? Like there you go. Try them all together. I like that. Yeah. Like this Gpj is poetry is credible. Are you writing that? Uh, now you're running everything under GP James
GP James: 22:06 so far, so far it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a weird pen. Name is, it's a weird space, but my last name is [inaudible] and like, you know, a lot of people can grasp that and when it's like, what's your day like GP James can't mess that up. You mess that up. I'm sorry. You know, but on, yeah, it's like I'm not, how do you spell, what was his name? I don't know.
Kevin Tumlinson: 22:31 Look, I'm writing under Tumlinson. Uh, I hear you
GP James: 22:38 like when it's your own, you look at it differently. Like, I look at your name and I'm like, oh, that's fine. I think I get that. But then again, I'm not everyone else kind of, I can grasp whatever her name.
Kevin Tumlinson: 22:48 Yeah. Well I get Tomlinson a lot, a lot of our reviewers, a lot of people reviewing or right Tomlinson. Uh, so it is problematic. I, but yeah. You know, I don't know. I haven't done a test. I don't know if maybe if they've Tom Kay, Tom. Hey Tom. Yeah, I actually just interviewed a thriller writer, Jack Carr, who was telling me that Lee child gave him the advice of uh, cause Jack cars, his pseudonym, his pen name. Uh, he gave him the advice of picking a name that comes pretty early on in the alphabet to, to milk that advantage. So now I'm thinking, you know, the gears are, the gears are turning, you know, I'm going to be an Anderson or an ACO. And it's so funny. I can't rebrand now though. I mean, it's just too much. It's, you know, 30 years of riding behind me. I can't, can't rebrand now. I guess I put the my
GP James: 23:46 stake in the ground early now
Kevin Tumlinson: 23:47 I'm Diego and that's it. Oh, worked man. It worked for El James. Why not? Okay. There you go. I don't think that anybody's going to make the mistake of picking up one of your books. Thinking is he yelled Jameson, unless you put maybe some some, uh, handcuffs or something on the cover, uh, and idea you could do, you could do it. The Apollo tree man poetry that frees us from bondage and now you've got a market. So now you're a, you say you did a lot of research. Um, by the way, the research part is always this threatening to me because what I'll end up doing is researching to the point where I don't actually write the book, uh, because I'm so, you know, myered in the research. Like how did you, how did you manage all of it while you were doing that?
GP James: 24:39 It was, it was just a dance, you know, it was a balance of, of getting enough to start. Yes. Starting making notes for what I need when I'm would I and then, and then going back looking that up, going back because it was, it was really a back and forth process, but it, I don't know that I would do it again like that with something that you have to be so technically detailed for it because I needed to, I want it to be real. I can't have a nuclear person read this and say, oh, that, that doesn't function. Like, oh, that doesn't, no, we can't have that happen.
Kevin Tumlinson: 25:15 So this is why I always pay attention when homer Simpson goes to work. I, if I ever want to write about nuclear facilities, that's my go to source. Totally.
GP James: 25:25 And that's pretty much what I just watched all the episodes of the Simpsons. I learned how to do this and
Kevin Tumlinson: 25:32 it worked. I learned to do half of what I do. I'm like, man, that's cool man. Yeah, I did you was part of your intention to run it though with a message in mind to influence people, uh, when it came to nuclear energy or,
GP James: 25:51 yeah, definitely. Anything I do, it has to have a socially conscious thread. Is it that the purpose is to spread awareness, share information that many people may not know about and try to, you know, elevate the consciousness. Yeah. I think, I think that's important. I think most of us, right. Or create with that in mind, some of us made you were not cognizant of it, right? Yeah. And even a subconscious thing and any, yeah. Even if you're not conscious, even the people that are just, you think they're creating for purely entertainment and maybe in, and maybe they are and those are the ones that don't realize, oh, there are messages in there.
Kevin Tumlinson: 26:33 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, ironically just before this call, I was reading a James got Bells, um, uh, one of his books in which he, you know, he calls out this very point. Um, and, and basically, I, I forget who he quoted a, but it was, you know, if you want to, if you want to send a message, try Western Union. Uh, but I actually think, okay, there you go. Here's what I believe and I truly believe this, that um, the, uh, it's a kind of long lines of the messages, the medium, right. You know, you're telling a story, you're crafting entertainment. Um, not necessarily, you know, you're crafting a good story so it works on that level. As long as it works on that level, everything else you put into it is fine. It has to work on that level. Yeah.
GP James: 27:27 Yeah. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. I got that line dropped on me in a letter. That's Terry,
Kevin Tumlinson: 27:34 but all the publics, every, everyone in the publishing industry reads like the same five books, man, the same five books on leadership and they read the same five, five books. And John has too. They do. Yeah. Which is why, you know, I sometimes wonder now, maybe, and I'm, I'd be curious because you've done something to me which is slightly off, off, off the trail as it were for most thriller writers like getting out cause you're into so many other things that are, that are not strictly most of the thriller writers I talked to. If I interview him on the show, they've got some background like they're in, they were in the military, they were an environmental scientist, they were, you know, a lawyer. Um, and you're coming at this from a very different, more creative, not more creative. I don't want to start that rumor that you're coming to this as someone who works in a creative industry that has nothing to do with the topic of your book, which is an appealing idea to meet by the way. Sure. Do you, do you felt like, do you feel like that helped you in, uh, in, in crafting a story even sort of coming at it as an outsider?
GP James: 28:44 Um, it definitely, sure. Well, you know, you think you create different, differently when you're more of an artist type and, and, and maybe less of the sort of like, well, you know, left brain person who do, you know, hat has a creative side or that creative outlet and um, it,
Kevin Tumlinson: 29:08 okay.
GP James: 29:09 Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if it helped me necessarily, but it's like I feel like everything I do as a creative person is supposed to have a message. So to me it, it's, it's like whatever is coming through that I feel, you know, uh, people's awareness should be tuned to and maybe,
Kevin Tumlinson: 29:31 okay,
GP James: 29:31 there are other supporting that what happened, but maybe it's not amplified enough in my opinion. So how can I amplify this more and what can I do creatively behind to,
Kevin Tumlinson: 29:42 to spread that awareness. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I think that's, I think that's the right approach. You know, we, we come at this where artists, um, the thing about being an author these days, um, we're balancing two lives essentially because there is the art, there's the business of, right. Sorry about that. Everybody heard the vibration in my mic. Um, there's the business side of it and we, in my circles at least there tends to be an overemphasis of the business side. There is then the craft side or the art side of it that you know is equally important. And if you can get those two working in harmony, it's like if you've got both hemispheres of your brain working in harmony, you know, who knows what you could accomplish. Uh, so I, I liked the approach man.
GP James: 30:30 Yeah, thank you. And it's, it's, it's a challenge as you know, to, to balance those two sides and we're all still learning. I mean, I'm just first book, you know, going out into publishing and everyday I'm learning how people are, you know, getting through the market and this and that. Again, you have to put that other hat on, but you know, the creative in me and probably in you and others just wants to like go in the room and create stuff and right. And just let other people do all, I'll draw some business stuff. You know, it's, it's, it's, yeah, when I finished a book it was like, Oh, it's done. All right, we're going to sell it. And I was like, okay. You know, a year later, yeah, it went, you know.
Kevin Tumlinson: 31:16 So what did you, what was that process about? Did you, did you get a true, I hadn't even really put this together and I haven't looked, but you traditionally published or Indie published?
GP James: 31:25 Uh, traditionally published by white. Okay. Which was like a mid level out of a Oregon. Okay. And Nice people and they, they're there. They reached out to me, um, and they were very passionate about the story. So I went with it. The book, it did circulate around the Big Five, big four, whatever it is, you know, random house penguin, this one, that one, uh, went to all high level agents and no one, uh, no one, no one grabbed onto it. Um, so, uh, but this is, this is good. Yeah, no, yeah, I agree. I'm just curious about that process was like, yeah, it's interesting. You know, everyone's got it. The thing about it is who knows? It's like I felt like when I was sending her I was like, oh, well maybe it's a cliche story format. It kind of is. Yeah. But I wrote it like that cause I was trying to convey this message.
GP James: 32:21 Oh, well they're not, you know, you go with this stuff. Oh, I guess they're, they're not really feeling it. Oh, I should have wrote it. I should've wrote one of my literary novels, but that, you know, you don't know then. I know. I know. I've got friends who wrote, you know, really cool literary stuff too. Yeah. Circulated. Oh, they had a high level agent deal fell apart. This one. Oh, that one happens. Everyone's got an opinion. So it's really, uh, it's just thrown. Is thrown darts. Yeah. Yeah. And you don't know everyone. I liked the character. I don't know. I don't like the character. Oh, the story's amazing. Oh, the pace was amazing. I thought the patient's a little slow. This is, this is the responses I got. And when you saw that everyone was contradicting, he had to go, well, this is all,
Kevin Tumlinson: 33:03 this is what it is. I tell you what, if you give me money, then I'll let you influence the shape of the story. That's cool.
GP James: 33:13 Right? Another word. Right. Yeah. My editor was happy with it and he's tough. If he was happy, either got tired of me or he was happy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Kevin Tumlinson: 33:31 yeah, yeah. No. And that makes it makes sense to me. Um, you know, you get the stories, you're going to farm a book around for months, years, decades. You know, I don't know when we decide enough is enough on a book, honestly, I just, because I indie published now, uh, you know, cause I, I had the whole traditional thing briefly and decided I liked, uh, I liked the control or whatever, but now I'm back out there kind of, you know, I'm talking to agents who are interested in some of the work they're interested in, the fact that I have a platform they are interested in. So that's all very cool. So now, but that it shifts my experience of that industry. So I'm always looking to find out like how did, how do people normally get there? And no, there is no one path man.
GP James: 34:17 No, no one path. And, um, I have, I've been talking to some film companies, you know, and some of that's happen through me said, you know, sending my Novolin and some of it's been like a friend is called, you know, I know a lot of folks in different industries out here and be like, oh my friend works at, you know, this studio and he produced Blah Blah Blah, mine. Okay. And then you get a meeting and you know, sometimes it knocks on your door. It's, it's, it's, it's quite fascinating. But the, the MD route is, is, it is interesting to me just going through this process and I have other friends who have big publishing deals and dated the and really do anything for them. They still have hire a publicist. They, you know, they still had to do all this work. They still had to put out money and that's fine. So I, so looking at there, there's, there's, you know, positive threads to, to, to, um, the different avenues of, of putting your workout. Yeah. And, and, um, advertising of course is something I recently I've been looking, you know, online, I've been looking at these guys on a, on Amazon guys and girls that, um, have had sold millions of copies through kindle. And I'm looking like, okay, what did, what did they do? What are doing? And I realized a lot of social media advertising, right? I said he was spending $300 a day.
Kevin Tumlinson: 35:46 Yeah. That's, I know guys spending a lot more than that per day. Wow. Wow. And there, you know, but there are also, these guys are also buying, you know, I mean there are private, you know, custom built Catamaran and who, how he's case, you know, uh, things like that. I mean, they're out
GP James: 36:06 the initial means to support it. Right. And that's what I realized at one guy, he, uh, he, he had some Internet startup and you know, he, he made millions, I'm sure. And the other guy, I don't know what his financial situation was, but, and then they were making a return on that investment scene that they write, you know, hundreds of thousands from that. And then that got themselves up in the ranks. Now I've read some of those books and I can't say they're that good, but okay. You know, I respect their promotion, promotional hustle. Right,
Kevin Tumlinson: 36:38 right. There's a need. There's a, there, there's a reader for every book is the key really is knowing how to reach those readers. Right. Yeah. So that's cool man. I, alright. Well you've had an interesting journey. I, um, in the book sounds fascinating. I can't wait to dive in fully. Um, this is the only downside to this Gig by the way, doing the, uh, the worst on your Podcast. They only downside is that a lot of these interviews come so fast. I don't get a chance to read the books, uh, before I start and I've got to read pile. Uh, I might as well just, if I filled these shells behind me with my, uh, to be read pile, uh, they'd be twice as fall
GP James: 37:17 easily.
Kevin Tumlinson: 37:19 Yeah. Yeah. So. All right man. Well look, I'm gonna, we're, we're at time. I don't want to take up much more of your time. Um, so I'm going to go and wraps up telling people where they can find you and your books online.
GP James: 37:31 Sure. So my, at my website, GP james.com I'm on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter as GP James and a book is for sale, uh, in paperback and kindle format on Amazon and also for sale on a Barnes and noble.
Kevin Tumlinson: 37:48 Excellent. All right, well, uh, I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me, Greg and uh, everyone else listening out there right about now, probably during the groovy theme music you made dancing place at well if you'll stick around your hair, some industry news that you're really going to want to tune in for. And other than that, we're going to just hop on over. Thanks again Greg. Man, I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, everybody see you on the other side and well, this is that it. I know, I hope, I hope you enjoyed that interview with GP James. Uh, there is no industry news. I don't do that segment anymore. Yeah, that lets you know how long ago she was recorded. Uh, well I guess there's a little industry news I could share with you. Like things like, uh, there has been a bid to buy out Barnes and noble. If you're interested in, um, you
Kevin Tumlinson: 38:36 can see, I don't have, I'm probably not going to bother putting a link in the show notes. I'm May. Um, but the, I think the implications of that are going to be kind of interesting. Um, the fund or the group looking to buy it also bought out Waterstone in the UK. Uh, and their stated purpose for buying that friend that a property was that they were after the loyal users. Uh, they wanted to be able to reach the huge number of readers at those guys. Absolutely. The company or the investment firm or whatever it is, the vulture fund really is looking at this as an opportunity to, uh, to dip into the Barnes and noble following. So what will that mean for a indie publishers in particular? No idea. Uh, but it is something that's come up. It's interesting. Uh, you got some changes, uh, kind of coming.
Kevin Tumlinson: 39:29 I guess I am doing a new segment. Let me that. I'm, I got some changes coming for a apple now. I've had questions people have asked me like with apple ditching, um, iTunes, when them shutting down iTunes, is that going to impact anything? And the answer is no because they pulled the uh, books from iTunes quite a while back. Uh, it, my impact audio books in some way. Uh, but I, it looks like Apple's really been working to integrate audio books into their books app among other little changes. So a, I don't think that this is really going to impact anything, uh, on the book side. Uh, it's definitely not on the draft to digital size though. Feel free to check it out. Um, beyond that, I don't have any other industry news. I haven't looked anything up, but I, you know, um, I kinda like that segment.
Kevin Tumlinson: 40:23 Maybe I should bring that back. It was always kind of a job of work, uh, on the video side cause it wasn't just finding the stories and reporting them. It was a having to put up some kind of graphics and things and just led to more work. And that's why I stopped doing it. So now I've got a new opportunity. Looking at that change brings new opportunities. That's why you should embrace change. I know it's hard on all of us, but you can, um, you can actually find new opportunities every time you, uh, encounter change in the world, uh, change in failure or the greatest tools for creating new resources in our arsenals. So anyway, um, man, that means, you know what I got, I just got this excited, a little buzz. I think as some, some big things are coming. I think we're going to see some big things coming in the next, uh, in the next few months from the Wordslinger Podcasts.
Kevin Tumlinson: 41:16 So. All right, uh, that is going to be it. I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up at 41 minutes. I might add a, so that's a nice link for an episode. Hope you're taking care of yourselves out there. Um, I've had some really interesting weather and so we've had some here, miss mill, a lot of flooding and stuff here in the Houston area. Sugar land, sugar land, Texas where I call home. Um, but, uh, I hope you're taking care of yourselves. I know there's still snow and stuff happening. It's like there's snow like an Arizona or something. It's weird. Uh, whatever. Um, I, I call magic Voodoo of someone's work. Um, but take care of yourselves out there. I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead. Hope you're enjoying the changes that are coming out of the words on your Podcast. Reach out to me some of you have, and I really appreciate it. You guys are being very supportive about all this, um, with some great advice. Um, I don't know if, uh, I don't know if some of you are saying, uh, maybe I have a face for radio. I Dunno. I Dunno. You let me know. Uh, anyway, God bless each of you and, uh, take care of yourselves and I'll see you all next time.
Speaker 6: 42:26 Yeah.
Kevin Tumlinson: 42:33 What slang.
Speaker 6: 42:35 Yeah.
