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From Folklore to Fear: Justin Wood on Horror Writing, Podcasting & the Power of Storytelling
6 Plays1 day ago
n this spine-tingling episode, Jo sits down with horror writer, podcaster, and screenwriter Justin Wood to explore the haunted roots of storytelling—from Southern Gothic folklore and ghostly childhood inspirations to self-publishing Needless Nightmares and crafting the screenplay Granny Willow. They discuss the evolution of writing style, the brutal honesty of editing, and how podcasting is all about the long game. Plus, Justin opens up about seasonal creativity, unexpected podcast hits (including a surprise 10K+ kid-friendly episode!), and the joy of doing it all just for the love of it.
Whether you're into folklore, horror, screenwriting, or just the art of showing up and doing the reps—this one's for you. Dive in!
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Get a copy of Justin's book here.
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Transcript
Intro
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey everyone, Joe, and today I am with Justin Wood. And we were just talking before camera and it's the gambit of screenplay, the novels, the podcast, and everything in between. So Justin, pleased have you, man.
00:00:21
Speaker
Oh, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, we were having some good conversation. We're like, let's save some of that. That's a good talk that we're already going through. So yeah, I do a little bit of everything. i can't say i do it well, but I try.
00:00:35
Speaker
Well, I think from what we' we're talking about, I think you do it well enough. And you're being way modest, I know, but I want to walk us through. You started as a writer first or podcaster or screenplay person first.
00:00:50
Speaker
A little bit of everything originally, I'll go even back further. I got into, well, I got into horror, folklore, ghost stories. i mean, probably when I was a kid, but later on in college, I took a folklore class as an elective. Yeah. And, you know, being, ah I'm in Alabama, so there's a lot of Southern Gothic folklore down here.
00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah, it was really fun. And one of the challenges was to write something from, you know, where you're from. Right. And ah there's ghost stories everywhere down here. Alabama is an old state, you know it's the old Southern style. So ah you know I remember getting into those class assignments writing and I saved a lot of those stories.
00:01:32
Speaker
And um was like, man, some of these are are really fun to write and some of them seemed okay. So I started putting them together. um saving them over the years and then i wrote my first book which i just dropped the third edition needless nightmares and it's a collection of small short stories but that really sparked you know my love of writing for know anything horror related ah ghost stories even a couple of poems there and again know the poetry element was a little different with with horror but it's fun though you know i have a lot of fun with it
00:02:05
Speaker
um it sounds like you're you're expanding out so you went from short story and put a collection which is needless nightmares of course you said it's the third edition when you first started writing these for the course how much did you touch up the stories
00:02:20
Speaker
I think the first stories when i when I wrote them for my folklore class, I really was trying to hit you know how many pages they wanted, five pages, 10 pages. And a lot of my language was really flowery.
00:02:34
Speaker
We spoke about that briefly and when we were talking about the screenplay writing. But one of the best things I did for myself was have someone actually edit them. yeah So when I wrote the first copy, I i didn't do that.
00:02:45
Speaker
And I think it was okay. I mean, it wasn't a ah ah bad self-published book. It's one of those things I can prove to myself I did it. But at the same time, if I go back and look at that first copy and I'm oh man, that needed to be refined because if you can say something ah impactful in two or three sentences, rather than trying to draw it out over two or three pages, right people get what you're saying. You don't need to ah make it more than it is.
00:03:13
Speaker
So I've learned to be a little more concise, with my writing and and hopefully it's done better. So, um, yeah, well, that's the thing. It's the, I call it the Stephen King effect.
00:03:24
Speaker
I love Stephen King. I've got all of his books somewhere. have, I read them all. Yes. From cover to cover. No. been like, okay. 12 pages later, you're describing a pen for 12 pages. What the hell man? It's right. Yeah. It's very spooky. i get it. It's a spooky pen. I get it.
00:03:42
Speaker
So we pick up from our people. We read who, who were you reading as a kid or when you're younger? There's a wonderful author from Alabama, Catherine Tucker Windham. She wrote 13 Alabama Ghosts in Jeffrey. Jeffrey was the ghost that apparently lived in her house. And she has a old 1960s photo, black and white, of one of her friends. And then this weird shadow creature in the corner.
00:04:06
Speaker
And as a kid, loved the book. It scared the hell out of me. um I think I picked it up in second grade at the library in school. um I have it over on my desk. She wrote Mississippi Ghosts, Georgia Ghosts, Florida, Tennessee. So I would go to the library, ah constantly pick her her books up.
00:04:24
Speaker
She wrote a lot of other folklore too. And I actually got to meet her, think it was 2008 at the Telltale Festival Selma, Alabama. Yeah, the Telltale Festival. She was probably 90 at the time. She's obviously since passed, but ah really cool ah to meet her. So she was one of my first ghost story horror writers that I absolutely loved. As I got older, man is Stephen King, obviously Nightmares and Dreamscapes, still one of my favorite books, but you're you're absolutely right. You know, he...
00:04:54
Speaker
yeah he He writes everything. Another ah author that I think like that, Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men. love name I thought Blood Meridian was a great book, and but it's the same you know how he describes the desert scenes. and I mean, how many times can you describe the desert?
00:05:14
Speaker
I'm not saying it's bad. he He has done much better than I'll ever do. but I think we're living in a different generation with us. you know People want They don't want to read through all of the fluff and the filler.
00:05:25
Speaker
We're a lot more visual in how we see the world. We have our phones in front of us. You don't have to describe everything as as much as I think they used to have to. I think you hit the point back in the day when we didn't get out. If you didn't have a plane or a boat, like you weren't rich, you i didn't leave your town.
00:05:44
Speaker
like You maybe have a TV set that had a channel. Yeah. like yeah Maybe. Maybe. maybe I think the imagery was a lot more important when they were writing and when he's describing desert scenes to someone who's never seen the desert. and and And I think about that a lot. If you're talking to someone who's reading a book back in the 1800s or early nineteen hundreds yeah their references are going to be ah pretty minimal. There's hardly any photos. There's hardly any, ah there's not much magazines you can reference what a desert looks like. So, ah and but i you know I started borrowing from those styles originally myself. And then when I,
00:06:19
Speaker
looked at him i'm like oh man what am i trying to prove here just you know write the damn ghost story well right at the same time i remember a carver the father of minimalists he actually wrote long and then his editor lish would cut it up to parts where he was just getting insane he's like oh my god what do you do my work what do i do with my work but he became popular for minimalism because of his editor And he couldn't ever escape that. So yeah, it kind of goes both ways. You don't want to go too far.
00:06:51
Speaker
you're trying to hit that happy middle, right? Yeah, and and I think that's also important to say. you know It's important to be true to yourself, but getting a second opinion is is really important because I could see you know the editor that I had really did a good job at cutting a lot of the fluff. I mean, yeah again, why why say something in two or three paragraphs that you can say in three sentences?
00:07:11
Speaker
Then you could add more you know to your story as opposed to describing one scene. you know Add something more impactful or and include more stories in your book. Yeah, that's yeah i'm a bit of the same when I'm smiling. Like, yeah, it takes me about five pages to get to the car.
00:07:27
Speaker
so Now he's at the car. How many more pages I got like two more pages for the assignment. I just got to a car. What the hell am I doing? Yeah. And ah it's a good question to ask. Is it adding anything to the scene? Okay. Then what is it adding? Is it adding imagery for them to read? Is it adding a clue for later? Is it adding, you know, some type of suspense? If it's not really bringing any of those into your, your scene is it's just filler.
00:07:53
Speaker
And if for college folklore classes where you have to hit 10 pages, fill away. Yeah. But yeah, for writing, it's something I've learned and and I've worked on. And I think it's getting better. It's one of my hobbies I still love. Just if something comes to me, I like to write down and and see where you can go with ah you know ah a random character you come up with, a random scene you you know you've seen.
00:08:14
Speaker
Right. It pops in your head. And then you're talking as a per scene, and I do see... any type of writing, almost as a screenplay writing. Did that help your screenplay writing? Just know the scenes have to have an emotional charge, plus or minus, there has to be a takeaway here. Otherwise, what's the point in the scene, right?
00:08:30
Speaker
I think that's a yeah that's a really good point. you One of the challenges, you know as we we talked into writing for folklore and stories and going into writing you know a first screenplay, that was a project I put away.
00:08:43
Speaker
um ah started that right after I wrote the first copy of my book. And yeah, and it it was ah overwhelming at first, you're writing ah a full screenplay or trying to write a feature, because a lot of ah you know, if you've, act you know, I'm not a ah great actor, but if you've acted before, you're taking that one character and you're looking at that perspective and you're trying to ah find out why they do something or who they are.
00:09:07
Speaker
But then when you're writing it, you're writing for several characters. And then It's almost overwhelming to think, you know, to go from, OK, this is my main character here. We have an antagonist over here. Right.
00:09:19
Speaker
So, you know, you're you're shifting perspective, you're shifting dialogue, how they speak, how they respond. So, yeah, I had started that project back 2016 17.
00:09:32
Speaker
which it actually started as a folklore um i don't want to say assignment but it started as a short story and i really loved the characters yeah it's it's called grainy willow um and uh it it really was a It was something I was proud of because I really went to depth with that. And i was like, well, maybe this would make a good book.
00:09:52
Speaker
But then I've had such good visuals that I felt were pretty good. And I was like, you know what? I'll try to write a screenplay. And so I finished, yeah, I finished it this past, I believe in January of this past year, have have made some submissions. So, so far, ah promising.
00:10:08
Speaker
We can, we can say that. Fingers crossed on that one. And that's, Sometimes it's the format, right? You have the idea for the story, but we you don't know what format it is. So you try his screen you know you's try the short story, like, well, I think this actually be pretty good screenplay. Like, why not try this out now?
00:10:24
Speaker
And when you're writing the screenplays, do you use... adds That's what was for.
00:10:31
Speaker
Do you use cards? I'm getting my screenplay out. Do you getting ah use index cards? so and I did, man. That's a great start. I have a... a whole row of them in my desk back here my drawers.
00:10:46
Speaker
I did do that because I didn't want to go back and make ah make an incorrect reference, you know, where they were born or who the parents are or miss any links. So, you know, i gave all my characters a little biography card. right okay And I think that's a huge help. But then again, it gets back into that overwhelming. You're laying it out.
00:11:06
Speaker
And mine has a bit of a shifting timeline from, you know, the protagonist looking back from the modern day and reflecting on his grandmother, who was to Granny Willow and talking about her stories. But then you're looking also at, a okay, in this time, in this place, would this be historically accurate? Or you know how was the weather back then? I'm i'm talking July. you know Why is he adjusting his coat?
00:11:32
Speaker
So that part really was was dawning. i mean it it was It overwhelmed me for a few years. i would go back, revisit, make some changes, and then I just got lost in the in the meat of it. I was like, man, I'm at the middle, so...
00:11:46
Speaker
put it back for a couple of years. And then this past, uh, last year, 2024, got back into writing it and just, and felt good about where I was at. I got my notes back out, revisited the old index cards, dusted them off.
00:11:58
Speaker
And, um, yeah you know i rolled with it i just started going and see what came out and so far i think it was okay it it was okay well that's the thing it's it's reps it all like arnos washington would say it all comes down to reps it's the gym or writing you have to get repetitions in and the more you get in like oh now i'm strong enough to do the string play before you're getting lost in it then you did your reps with your writing and now you there's It's really good way to put it. I thought about that prior to the podcast because i you i know you and, you know, thinking about doing the podcast because I've done a couple myself. It's more seasonal, but I went back and let's go first or second episode that I did. And I was brave.
00:12:39
Speaker
I would never listen my old ones. Never. never oh I don't like listening to my current ones, but it's yeah, I was like, oh, my God, you can you can hear the tension in the voice, the shifts, the the bad edits, the pops.
00:12:52
Speaker
and But like you said, it's reps. you know The more you get comfortable being yourself, hearing your voice, and and just getting out there and putting yourself out there, it makes it a lot more comfortable. Yeah, the business part of this especially. And for your podcast, we we talked a little bit about this.
00:13:10
Speaker
For those of you that don't don't know, it's weird when you have a podcast because it might not hit at first. And then a year or two later, you look at your first episodes and of sudden they have like thousands of listens out of nowhere. i'm like I'm like, where were you like two years ago?
00:13:25
Speaker
but ah wonder how that algorithm works or when what people are searching, but it's, it is strange like that. When you go back and you look at your stats, you're like, people are listening to that now. still Yeah.
00:13:37
Speaker
and Which is great. Now. i can I can tell you what mine. I did a children's podcast once. No swearing. Hey, everyone. That was a voice. And we did like for the summertime, people wrote in. So we read their stories on air and stuff like that.
00:13:53
Speaker
It got zero. I mean, it was 0.0. No listeners whatsoever. and I'm like, okay, one season done.
00:14:04
Speaker
That's okay. No problem. I looked at the stats last year. I'm like, how do we get a couple of thousand now? Like no one listened for like a year solid. And also like do ding ding ding ding. ding Were you that granular with your podcast, which you know, midnight jury, right?
00:14:20
Speaker
Were you like looking at stats every day and going, I do i keep going? You know, I think I was a lot more honest with myself with podcasting and it's probably it's probably indirectly related to people on no I know. know so many people that are really into podcasting and love listening to podcasts. And then I know so many people that just are like still turned off by it that don't know. don't do that at all. So.
00:14:45
Speaker
And especially doing a horror related podcast, it's it tends to be more seasonal. And I wanted to set a realistic expectation. you know, I'm not trying to make it a full time job for me with everything that I have going on. I don't want to spread myself too thin. I really want to have fun with it.
00:15:00
Speaker
I want to put some stories out there. um I want to try it, see how it goes. You know, and if if the door opens and it gets bigger and better, maybe. But realistically, I knew it would be a fun seasonal project to have. But I noticed the exact same thing that the first couple of episodes, one, were just really poorly done. But you you have to do those. You have to do those, man. You to get them by the way.
00:15:23
Speaker
Yeah, you have to get comfortable just putting them out there. And I was too hard of a critic on myself. I was like, oh, I've got to have the best mic. I've got to have the best editing. And then but really the content was garbage because it's not the equipment that makes it. It's it's you, the host. yeah And um so they they i I didn't have any real high expectations for those. But as I got into it and and mostly I change it up. I'll do sometimes a fictional story that I've written, you know, a ghost story, something like that.
00:15:52
Speaker
and um i'll do a lot of realistic accounts um one of the ones that's done pretty well is the pascagoula alien abduction it's a uh alien abduction that apparently happened in pascagoula mississippi and there was a great unsolved mysteries on it a long time ago so that sounds familiar was it robert stack one yeah and um there was it was two guys fishing in pascagoula mississippi and they claimed to have gotten abducted by an alien craft Yeah. And then, but the weirdest thing about it was, you know, there was reportings down the coast, you know, of a light in the night, a light in the night sky that night, completely unrelated. So there's a lot of strange...
00:16:37
Speaker
clues corroborate it's something weird. It didn't add up. So it's fun to, uh, to talk about all the clues. And I actually, you know, emailed one of the ladies in Pascagoula. I think she was, you know, worked for the County. She came up as a contact for one of the festivals they put on, I think that celebrates it. And it's funny because, you know, I i go with hardly anybody listening to my podcast and, you know, send her an email. I'm like, Hey, uh, you know, i host this podcast, would you talk, send me some great info about it. And it's fun that, you know,
00:17:06
Speaker
people open up when they want to share their story even if you you think you're probably oh man you know it's i'm not doing really that great but people want to share their stories and if you can take those stories and share them i guarantee there's other people that want to hear it um so you know that was a fun one and you talked about doing a kid one i did it one with my daughter and it was probably the only kid friendly one that i did and it was over 10 000 uh downloads that month i'm like really and For a kid friendly podcast, it's labeled kid friendly Halloween podcast. It was just her and I talking about Halloween trends, what's going on in her middle school at the time, ah who what costumes they're wearing, what candy is popular.
00:17:48
Speaker
And, you know, I have a buddy that also hosts and he's like, did you see what your numbers are on that? I'm like, I haven't even looked at them. But 100 hit that. Like at 8000 at time, what?
00:18:00
Speaker
Yeah, really. So you never know what's going to hit. So I think that's important about not just putting quality work out there, but just put it out there. Even if you second guess yourself, sometimes the the ones you don't think are going to hit really do. And then the ones you think are going to be a home run, you know, you're like goose egging.
00:18:17
Speaker
Well, that's it. It's like ah William Shatner doing Star Trek because it's just an acting job, not realizing it's an entire, you know, future franchise that will support like generations of everything or,
00:18:29
Speaker
You never know. you never know. I know the guy who turned down Gandalf.
00:18:34
Speaker
Gosh, really? Because you never, you never. He's like, I don't want to be away from my family for that long in New Zealand. Okay. and hindsight, in hindsight, you know, yeah you just never know both ways. You never know.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes you just got to take those chances and and see what see what works. And and that's I've gotten to that point. We we mentioned that briefly, too. you know I think as I've gotten older, i've I've come to terms with I'm just always going to be a jack of all trades, maybe a master of none, but I enjoy doing it.
00:19:02
Speaker
I want to put out what ah you know what I enjoy to do and I want to ah have fun with it. um I don't want to fool myself into think it's going to bring me any untold riches because the probability isn't is it really likely that it's going to. But that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking into, you know I love talking Halloween. I love talking ghost stories. I love recording and and talking, ah you know, fiction or writing and seeing if it's possible. And if it doesn't hit, it doesn't hit. But I had a ah great time doing it.
00:19:30
Speaker
That's the point is like you can do it as a business. And a lot of people do. i mean, that's great. There's always a business aspect of it. but if you're not liking it while you're doing it and that's what always come back to i mean it you it's uh it's ah yeah i still have a day job and you know i enjoy enjoy doing that and i promise you it is entirely different uh than writing any type of ghost stories ah you know trying to uh write a screenplay or or doing a podcast and but you know it pays the bills and and you know i'm glad i have that but you know it coming to you know especially as a spooky season as always say you know late september you know towards really december um and beyond the winter months the cooler months you know as the spooky season you know sets upon us there's nothing better to me than listening to a scary podcast i'll go and find somebody that's launching something or or somebody that's been there and and really tune into it so if ah if somebody can get that feeling from one of my podcasts man that the
00:20:28
Speaker
makes me happier than anything. Well, yeah, it's the ghost over the campfire still. Yeah. Right. That's the autumn, the winter time. That's what they're for. You know, we tell our ourselves those stories.
00:20:40
Speaker
Now, when you did needless things, needless things. I just, I just said it wrong. Needless nightmares. Although if you like, to you know, claim needless things.
00:20:51
Speaker
I love it. It can be a part two. Needless nightmares, you said you got a editor to do the, you know, really hit it home. What made you decide, okay, I want to come back to this and get this edited like properly.
00:21:05
Speaker
Boom. You know, I looked at the first Amazon listing I had and, and, and I did it very, i don't like the word cheap, but I did it efficient for me at the time. I knew if I was going to put it out there that I was going to have to pay somebody to do a cover, didn't really have much money to invest at the time, and this was about 10 years ago. And then I went back and looked at the listing and and had some okay reviews on there, but just the cover didn't look, it looked drab. I went back to the stories and I read them and there was a couple of typographical errors.
00:21:38
Speaker
ah Let's just call it writer's block at the time or, you know And so I was like, you know, a second pair of eyes on this would probably benefit this if I really wanted to leave it on Amazon where the world can try to search my book and find it.
00:21:52
Speaker
um That's what got me into it. So the the second time I did it, when I had it edited, I didn't have as many stories in there, but they really gave me some good advice on it. And I where to go and like I said, how to bring the stories down. And it did bring the page count down a little bit. So I finally did a third edition this past year and and really invested a little more into the right type of editing. Not to say that the second time wasn't the right type. It was just more budget friendly um and really paid somebody to illustrate. So I threw some illustrations for each story in there, which is cool.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, it adds a little bit of the scary stories to tell in the dark vibe. So I like that. And yeah, I think... ah sometimes you know take some of the the work off my own plate. you know Now I'm lucky. and i like I can afford reasonably to pay somebody else to take some of the work that i'm I'm not either great at or I don't want to do, but it also helps me get over that milestone. I want to get this book out, but it needs to be edited. Do I want to sit here and judge myself and try to make these clips and see how it works or just put it in somebody else's give them a little money and
00:23:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's done. that That's it. I think that's a two thing. Part or one, it takes it off your plate. So you can do other things with your time. You can create more. You can you can make more for your job, you know, whatever it's going to be.
00:23:16
Speaker
And two there's there's things that you won't hit because it's your book. Your brain will fill in the gaps. The gaps are there, but your brain's like, nope, no gap. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:27
Speaker
yeah Yeah. It's important to be. It's important to get to that stuff and that's maturity, man. i mean it's I've learned that as i've I've gotten older. Like I said, I'll be 42 in October and you know trying to ride at 30 with even younger kids at the time. I have two, but you know when they're babies and you know you're trying to ride and and come up with something and you're trying to do it all yourself.
00:23:49
Speaker
Yeah, I respect the grind and and I'm glad that I started putting it out there. But when you can really be honest and truthful yourself, if you're not the best at something, but somebody else is and you can put that in their hands and take it off your plate and then get it back a cleaner version, man, do that. Make make life a little easier for yourself.
00:24:08
Speaker
Well, absolutely. And it goal goes back into everything. Now, this will kind of come up to my next question. I ask this of all my guests. what piece of advice would you give when I say younger, I mean like teens to little kid you, what advice would you give them?
00:24:25
Speaker
I have so many cause I give a my oldest daughters 12, one on 13, one two part answer. The first one is put the phone down this day and age, um, experience the world as it is. I tell them, you know, I saw this the other day and and it breaks my heart to a degree, you know, a family walking into the store when I'm in there,
00:24:46
Speaker
um And all the kids are behind the mom, three children, all walking behind her, looking at the phone, and and they're missing out on so much. It's a store, but man, you don't know where inspiration lies. You don't know if there's a book you're going to pass because you're too emblazed in the content, which it sounds almost self-explanatory.
00:25:06
Speaker
selffi don't know how to say it, but, you know, because, you know, I want to put out content and I want people to enjoy it, but I want them to be enjoying it at the right time. You know, don't miss out on those moments with your family. Don't miss out on, know, the world passing you by. if you're sitting in the car, you know, driving with your parents or riding with your parents, take in what's outside, take in the scenes, you know, don't get lost in technology, man.
00:25:31
Speaker
So that would be the first thing. yeah I love it. I appreciate it. I'm guilty of it myself, but the way that they are so entrenched in the phone and the technology these days, I feel like they're missing out on reality and they're, and they're looking at something that's, it's not real. Um, no, so that you hit it on the head.
00:25:51
Speaker
I forgot because the phones, we didn't grow up with phones. That's kind of a modern thing for both of us. Like you used to look at the window, look out the window. While you were driving or some, you know your parents were driving the front and you guys were like looking out the window. Now they'll never see what's going and by because they got their phones in their hands or the tablet or a movie screen.
00:26:11
Speaker
yeah I try to get her into, you know, we this she needed one for for after school, for bus pickup, for for and there was no problem with that. so But then they migrate into the social media and then to the YouTube. And again, i like you know the content, you know, just like you do. We want to put that out there for people to to read and to to listen to. But you want you don't want anybody walking by in this world and missing out.
00:26:37
Speaker
um you know It's the little things that, you know the nostalgia of going to the library, having my parents drop me off, going through the old bookshelves and the doy the Dewey Decimal System, the old card catalog. Yeah, and I love those. um Man, yeah it it brings back a time that you know before you know before technology just consumed us, but it was on the brink.
00:27:00
Speaker
you know I think that was a ah perfect balance. You could use technology for what you needed and to help you out the world but uh it didn't consume you like it does nowadays but that's my first piece of advice i mean the inspirations out there don't look at other people's work and that's what you're taking in when you're looking at your phone all day or youtube it's great for inspiration but man the inspiration's really out in the out in the world travel go go try something new you can't write about something you haven't done Yeah, absolutely. If you just sit at home looking at YouTube or doom scroll, there's no inspiration there unless that's your one off, you know, yeah write a book about doom scrolling. Sure. but that's That's a horror book on its own. I doom scrolled for two days and I have to show up to work on Monday now.
00:27:46
Speaker
know You missed the whole weekend. But it's a good segue into it because you need to experience the world as it is. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Going out there and putting yourself and, you hike, you know, go out and see places you've never been. So for younger generations, obviously, I don't want to tell them to to go out and put themselves in two uncomfortable situations. but they He's got candy for you.
00:28:09
Speaker
so That was all the 80s rage, all these vans full of candy pulling up. I never got one. I'm so disappointed. Yeah, um I never saw them out there. yeah but Be safe, man. But you know they they need to put their work out there. i think that's another thing too. you know ah Put your art out there and and see where it takes you and and take good constructive criticism.
00:28:30
Speaker
um If you write a story, you know have somebody read it. if If you draw a picture, have somebody judge it, enter it into a contest. There are so many contests online nowadays you can get into for your writing, for your art, for your screenplays. um you know At any age, you can yeah you can always write. You can always draw. You can put it out there.
00:28:49
Speaker
And like you said, I think it kind of takes us full circle, but go back to the reps. The more you do this stuff, the better you're going to get. And I'm still learning that at my age. If you start much earlier and put your content out there, put your creative ideas out there, your drawings, or whatever it may be,
00:29:07
Speaker
you're going to get the feedback and you're going to get better at it if you keep at it. Absolutely. And that's great advice. So, at wow, we've talked about everything from your book, Needless Nightmares, not needless things, either way, good books, both of them.
00:29:20
Speaker
And, the you know, coming up on your podcast, Midnight Jury and your screenplay that's coming. Well, we'll say, on my own mic. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. And that one and everything in between, man, it's just been a pleasure.
00:29:33
Speaker
It's been a great time. If anything exciting comes up this year, I'll i'll let you know. Fingers crossed on the screen. point But yeah it's been great. I appreciate you having me. and Especially for that, you know.
00:29:45
Speaker
Yeah, and I'll reach out to you and, ah you know, fire up the midnight dreary for the fall spooky season. We can do maybe a crossover and have some fun with it. love a crossover like Scooby-Doo and Flintstones. I dig it, man. Yes.
00:29:58
Speaker
I love the old Hanna-Barbera references, man. We're we're showing our age here. Drop it in. Where we can we find you on socials? Socials right now, ah I do YouTube is The Midnight Dreary One. You'll see a lot of my yeah Midnight Dreary videos on there. Any podcasting platform, The Midnight Dreary, you can find that.
00:30:18
Speaker
Needless Nightmares, you can find on a Amazon and any bookstore. Should have the third edition just released of Needless Nightmares. I need i do have a TikTok for The Midnight Dreary. I think it's ah also The Midnight Dreary, number one.
00:30:32
Speaker
um I try not to do too too much social because I get bad at not updating enough.
00:30:41
Speaker
It's, it's, I know it's, it's a, it's a blessing and a curse to have that, but it's one of those things I say, I don't want to do something if I can't commit fully to it, but the YouTube is up there for midnight jury, midnight jury one, got a lot of videos on podcast. Otherwise midnight jury on any podcast platform.
00:30:56
Speaker
Amazing. Check it out. And I'll say this again. Thanks for coming on. It's always great to talk to someone who is multifaceted because like, Oh yeah, we can talk about the same stuff and I can understand mix and match. i love it, man.
00:31:09
Speaker
So thanks again for coming. Appreciate you. All right. ah From behalf of myself, Joe and Justin Wood, we bid you good day. That's Paul Harvey. All right. Bye, everyone. Peace.