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Author Horror Legend: Isaac Thorne
11 Plays2 years ago
Welcome to our exclusive interview with acclaimed horror author, Isaac Thorne. Known for his spine-chilling narratives and masterful suspense (check out Hell Spring now!!), Thorne has carved a niche in the literary world that leaves readers clinging to every word. Today, we delve into the depths of his horrifying imagination, exploring the forces that inspire him, his unique writing process, and the stories that have left countless readers sleeping with the lights on. Prepare yourself as we step into the darkness of Thorne’s world, a realm where fear is the only certainty. Sorta Legit Transcript 00:00.00jim_phoenixHey, everyone Jim Phoenix here […]
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Transcript
Introduction and Interview Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, Jim Phoenix here, and boy am I excited for our next guest.
00:00:04
Speaker
It is the final author interview, and it is with a longtime friend-o, Isaac Thorne.
00:00:14
Speaker
I claim discovering him, even though he was discovered like years before I met him, but sure, our secret.
Isaac Thorne on 'Hellspring' and Writing
00:00:21
Speaker
He talks about Hellspring, the novel that we are giving away, by the way.
00:00:27
Speaker
And talks about writing processes and weird things and cool weird things.
00:00:32
Speaker
And of course, all this and more on Isaacthorne.com.
00:00:36
Speaker
I-S-A-A-C-T-H-O-R-N-E.com.
00:00:40
Speaker
Spelling exam done.
00:00:41
Speaker
What's cracking up next?
00:00:43
Speaker
Hit it.
00:00:47
Speaker
Hey everyone, Jim Phoenix here, and boy am I excited for this new What's Crackin'.
00:00:52
Speaker
This one I've been waiting for for an author series for a while.
00:00:56
Speaker
It is probably the person I thought of first when I said we're going to do an author series.
00:01:00
Speaker
It's none other than Isaac Thorne.
00:01:02
Speaker
If you've done anything at all in horror, you should know his name.
00:01:07
Speaker
He's got Hellspring already out.
00:01:09
Speaker
It's almost legal to drink in some areas.
00:01:12
Speaker
or legal to date.
00:01:13
Speaker
I forgot.
00:01:13
Speaker
You're old.
00:01:14
Speaker
I don't know.
00:01:15
Speaker
One of the two, but Isaac, thank you so much for coming over.
00:01:19
Speaker
I bet you're regretting it already.
00:01:20
Speaker
It's like, how are you doing, sir?
00:01:25
Speaker
I'm doing well.
00:01:26
Speaker
Thanks for, uh, for having me here.
00:01:28
Speaker
It's, uh, it was, uh, uh, quite a job to get us on the, uh, the same schedule, but we did it.
00:01:35
Speaker
And, uh, and we're here now.
Impact of COVID on Scheduling
00:01:37
Speaker
Yes, it was.
00:01:37
Speaker
It was,
00:01:39
Speaker
For those that don't follow social media that much, we kind of tag team COVID.
00:01:44
Speaker
Not in the cool way.
00:01:45
Speaker
In the very weird, awkward way.
00:01:47
Speaker
Like, I can't do it.
00:01:49
Speaker
Like, oh, that's fine.
00:01:50
Speaker
We'll schedule.
00:01:51
Speaker
And then that day, the day of, same thing.
00:01:54
Speaker
Like, oh, man, I just came down with it.
00:01:56
Speaker
How?
00:01:57
Speaker
It's like a little virus, I guess, that goes around through the computer waves now.
00:02:01
Speaker
But I'm so glad it worked out.
00:02:02
Speaker
Both of our voices willing will kind of hold up.
00:02:05
Speaker
Now, I have to admit, I do remember.
00:02:08
Speaker
I do remember you, a young strapling author who was already well established, by the way.
00:02:15
Speaker
But in my mind, a young strapling author submitting to, I think it was, was it Ricky's Backyard?
00:02:21
Speaker
Or was that...
00:02:22
Speaker
Or was it Haunted MTL then?
00:02:24
Speaker
It was... It wasn't Haunted MTL, but it was Haunted MTL by the time... Yeah, but by the time... It got into the publication.
00:02:36
Speaker
It got into the publication, it was Haunted MTL, yeah.
00:02:39
Speaker
Yeah.
Inspiration and Early Works
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, that was a little short story called Dead Rights that has never been published anywhere else since, as a matter of fact.
00:02:51
Speaker
It'll probably end up in a collection someday, but...
00:02:55
Speaker
But yeah, I was happy to have it in Haunted MTL.
00:02:59
Speaker
I love that story.
00:03:01
Speaker
I thought it was funny.
00:03:02
Speaker
And you guys apparently did too.
00:03:08
Speaker
No, it was absolutely amazing because if you ever have to get the other end of the stick with being a publisher, you get a lot of stuff going, oh, the slush piles get really slushy sometimes.
00:03:19
Speaker
I saw this and I'm like, oh my God, this is really good.
00:03:22
Speaker
This is amazing.
00:03:24
Speaker
Me, not Googling anyone's name at all.
00:03:25
Speaker
I'm like, boy, he's got a career going for me.
00:03:29
Speaker
He can take this far.
00:03:30
Speaker
And then later on, I see the name pop up on Twitter.
00:03:33
Speaker
I'm like, oh, yeah, okay.
00:03:36
Speaker
Okay, right, right, right, right.
00:03:40
Speaker
Well, I appreciate that.
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's brilliant.
00:03:44
Speaker
I felt like I just discovered Michael Jordan.
00:03:46
Speaker
This is awesome.
00:03:47
Speaker
Oh, no, he plays for the Bulls already.
00:03:48
Speaker
Really?
00:03:50
Speaker
Five championships already?
00:03:52
Speaker
Really?
00:03:54
Speaker
And so dead rights.
00:03:55
Speaker
Oh, thank you.
00:03:58
Speaker
Thank you very much.
00:03:59
Speaker
Dead rights was one of those that, that actually, it, it was kind of a rarity in, in idea.
00:04:07
Speaker
You know, it was one of those things that just basically comes to you fully formed and, and you write it down and, and usually my stuff doesn't work that way.
00:04:18
Speaker
It I'll start with a, yeah,
00:04:20
Speaker
you know, a scene, an idea for a scene and then work around that for the short stories at least.
00:04:29
Speaker
But yeah, that's interesting.
00:04:30
Speaker
You're saying that.
00:04:33
Speaker
So this came horribly formed.
00:04:34
Speaker
Dead rice just popped in your head.
00:04:36
Speaker
yeah yeah and uh it uh i i don't know why i usually my stuff is is somewhat influenced by the news current events you know uh politics uh culture things like that and um i don't remember what was going on um when i wrote it but
00:05:01
Speaker
But there was some, I remember there being some kind of news influence there.
00:05:05
Speaker
And I'm like, oh, wouldn't it be funny, you know, if this guy working in a university morgue studying anatomy fell in lust with the corpse on his table and then she sat up and called him out on it.
00:05:24
Speaker
You know?
00:05:25
Speaker
See, that's...
00:05:29
Speaker
That's what brought me to it because maybe it's my generation, but it was very aware of this.
00:05:36
Speaker
One of my friends, their father owned a mortuary.
00:05:40
Speaker
And this is when the, the mortuary people were sleeping with the dead and getting caught.
00:05:48
Speaker
I don't know who's catching them, but they're getting caught with it.
00:05:51
Speaker
It was like the SNL skit.
00:05:52
Speaker
Like we actually do not have sex.
00:05:55
Speaker
with our cadavers that was the whole snl skit for a bit so i read that i'm like oh my god it's like that skit it's like that's good for like you know the the 90s like i love it and you're like that's what i think to derisha yes the news this must have been oh man well pre-covid so it go back to about five years and then probably what between 2015 to 19 to 18 ish maybe
00:06:23
Speaker
Yeah, 18 probably.
00:06:24
Speaker
It's probably a lot of the scandals.
00:06:26
Speaker
Yeah, so a lot of the sexual, the scandals kept breaking, you know, breaking wide open.
00:06:34
Speaker
The Weinstein thing and all that.
00:06:36
Speaker
Weinstein, yeah, was starting to crack open.
00:06:39
Speaker
So there we have it.
00:06:41
Speaker
It's the, I see, you see something on the news or it's the earworm and it's like, wouldn't it be funny if this happens?
00:06:49
Speaker
Right.
00:06:49
Speaker
Wouldn't that like little twist, a little twist of the truth, the twist of the story.
00:06:53
Speaker
And that's an amazing way of doing it.
00:06:55
Speaker
I've I've heard from other authors who said they had the entire story.
00:07:00
Speaker
I'm usually one of my entire story in my head, like even even unfortunately in novels and screenplay, which gets really heavy and it's insane.
00:07:09
Speaker
But that and the.
00:07:11
Speaker
the scene starts.
00:07:13
Speaker
You have the scene, then you write the story around the scene, or you see where the scene takes you.
00:07:17
Speaker
Do you ever try to force a character in and see what would happen if I do this hat?
00:07:22
Speaker
This guy gets in there.
00:07:24
Speaker
I've learned, I've kind of learned that I can't force a character into any situation the character doesn't want to be.
00:07:33
Speaker
As soon as I start trying to force it, it starts to read that way.
00:07:40
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:07:41
Speaker
Yes.
00:07:43
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:07:43
Speaker
If you read that.
00:07:44
Speaker
Did you learn it?
00:07:45
Speaker
How did you learn it?
00:07:46
Speaker
How did you learn it?
00:07:47
Speaker
You try it?
00:07:47
Speaker
You try it?
00:07:49
Speaker
Yeah, actually.
Character Development and Outlining
00:07:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:50
Speaker
I mean, I've gone back.
00:07:51
Speaker
The thing we all got before, yeah.
00:07:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:53
Speaker
You know, you go back to, well, especially in my first drafts, because even the short stories I, you know, rewrite and rewrite several times.
00:08:05
Speaker
But...
00:08:06
Speaker
But you can, when you read it, especially in the first draft, you can tell, oh, I was trying to make this something that the character obviously didn't want it to be.
00:08:16
Speaker
So cut, you know, or replace with something else.
00:08:23
Speaker
That's pretty good advice.
00:08:25
Speaker
I think it's things that we think intrinsically we can do.
00:08:29
Speaker
And then we find out, no, no, no, you can't.
00:08:32
Speaker
Like we think like, oh, this is possible.
00:08:34
Speaker
I can make my characters do what I want.
00:08:36
Speaker
And the character fights back like, oh, I guess you're right.
00:08:39
Speaker
It's plot driven, not character.
00:08:41
Speaker
Got it.
00:08:43
Speaker
So we find these out.
00:08:45
Speaker
Is there anything else you did in your past as a writer that you discovered a better way of doing?
00:08:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:55
Speaker
not necessarily a better way.
00:08:57
Speaker
There are things I've stopped doing or stopped trying to do.
00:09:01
Speaker
Right, really?
00:09:02
Speaker
Yeah, when I write my novels, I tried originally to do outlines because a lot of people, yeah, a lot of people I admire were
00:09:15
Speaker
we're like outlines outlines you got to outline it and once you outline it once you have all your ideas and and scenes and characters and everything in that outline the writing is easy well the problem is
00:09:29
Speaker
I don't have the story fully formed enough to create an outline from it.
00:09:37
Speaker
Especially, I mean, I wouldn't outline a short story anyway, but with the novels, once I have the idea and I know I have kind of a sketch in my head of what I think is going to happen...
00:09:53
Speaker
Well, as soon as I try to outline that and think I have a good solid outline, when I start writing it, it goes somewhere else.
00:10:00
Speaker
So I ended up being what they call a seat of the pants writer, you know, more so when I do the long fiction.
00:10:11
Speaker
I do, instead of trying to outline from the beginning,
00:10:15
Speaker
before the first draft, I take the first draft and I create an outline from that when it's done.
00:10:23
Speaker
Oh, really?
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:27
Speaker
That way when I do the rewrites, I can see the holes.
00:10:32
Speaker
I can see the places where the dots don't connect.
00:10:35
Speaker
I can see things that started to go somewhere and never did.
00:10:42
Speaker
And that way, right.
00:10:44
Speaker
In other words, I use an outline to fix more than I use it to create.
00:10:52
Speaker
I laugh because I find, I'm getting my own novel coming out shortly, and I found the same things where you write it and like, this is great in your head.
00:11:04
Speaker
And you start outlining like, oh, this character appears like once for three pages.
00:11:09
Speaker
Like, why is this person even here?
00:11:11
Speaker
What?
00:11:11
Speaker
Why is this even a thing?
00:11:14
Speaker
What am I doing?
00:11:17
Speaker
So it's like the, uh, you're doing like a post on, on the postmortem on the outline on the first draft and trying to outline it that way.
00:11:26
Speaker
And then do you then, uh, pin them to scenes or how do you move things around?
00:11:35
Speaker
What I usually do once I have that outline is I might move a chapter here or there.
00:11:45
Speaker
I might see something that I think, well, this really should have happened earlier for this character to be in this place later on.
00:11:53
Speaker
Or maybe...
00:11:56
Speaker
you know, this character wouldn't be having these revelations yet because not enough, you know, has has occurred to guide them to to whatever conclusion it is they're coming to.
00:12:11
Speaker
So I might move chapters around.
00:12:13
Speaker
And and if you do that, then you you do have to do some some rewriting
00:12:19
Speaker
in the chapters as well to make sure you don't have any you know leftovers there where somebody's somebody's reading um and they it sounds like something just happened when it actually happened days ago now you know um right and that and that's the thing especially we start moving around so tell me this is not refreshing your mind anymore so you really have to be careful with that
00:12:42
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:12:43
Speaker
And that's why it pays to not only do that outline for me, but also to reread and review multiple times and put some space in the days between those.
00:13:02
Speaker
I finish a first draft, I won't look at it for a week or two.
00:13:08
Speaker
And then when I go back to it to do that, right.
00:13:11
Speaker
When I go back to it to do that outline, it's all fresh, you know?
00:13:18
Speaker
And then same thing after rewrites, you know, I'll, I'll go through it again.
00:13:22
Speaker
And I actually, I have a, um,
00:13:28
Speaker
application on my laptop that I used to have it read the manuscript aloud to me while I wear headphones.
00:13:38
Speaker
Really?
00:13:38
Speaker
Because I've also discovered that I can catch a lot of crap that way that I don't catch by reading it.
00:13:47
Speaker
Because you're not gap-filling.
00:13:50
Speaker
Right.
00:13:50
Speaker
Especially when you're reading your own work, your mind gap-fills.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yes, exactly.
00:13:55
Speaker
It just gives over stuff.
00:13:56
Speaker
And because you wrote it, it's like you know what you mean.
00:13:59
Speaker
But it's not in the paper, though.
00:14:01
Speaker
What's on paper is different from what's in your head.
00:14:03
Speaker
That's the issue.
00:14:06
Speaker
You mean the reader can't see what I'm thinking?
00:14:09
Speaker
You know?
00:14:10
Speaker
Right.
00:14:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:14
Speaker
Next year, the next new, that'll be horrific for me for technology now.
00:14:19
Speaker
So when you're doing something like house spring and I know house spring is the one that's your almost one year old.
00:14:25
Speaker
Oh, look at that.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:27
Speaker
Almost one year old.
00:14:28
Speaker
I remember that first came out.
00:14:30
Speaker
I remember that because I saw that the cover of like, Oh, that's a cool.
00:14:34
Speaker
That's cover, man.
00:14:35
Speaker
I should probably cover like that's a cool cover.
00:14:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:39
Speaker
That cover has, has, uh, generated a lot of eyeballs and, um, uh, a lot of comments and, and hopefully, um, a lot of the sales I've gotten of that, that novel.
00:14:51
Speaker
It's, uh,
00:14:52
Speaker
It's actually my I have one cover designer who's done most of the covers for my my books, and that includes the short stories that I put out as singles.
00:15:04
Speaker
And she and I actually usually table together at at local cons because she has her own, you know, art and coloring books, horror and fantasy themed that she sells.
00:15:18
Speaker
Oh, and that's amazing.
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah, she just knocked it out of the park with Hellspring.
00:15:26
Speaker
It is my favorite of the covers she's done for me.
00:15:30
Speaker
I actually have a print of that hanging on my wall, you know, framed print.
00:15:37
Speaker
Really?
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah, I absolutely love that cover.
00:15:42
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:15:42
Speaker
I'm so glad you brought up your wall because one of the things I've seen, and I'm on your website right now, which is Isaacthorne.com, I-S-A-A-C-T-H-O-R-N-E.com, which if you are an author, I'm guilty of not doing this, but mine's coming.
00:16:00
Speaker
If you're an author, I strongly suggest getting your own website because it gives you that one
00:16:06
Speaker
big step towards your readers that you won't get just from doing Amazon's.
00:16:12
Speaker
And this is something I saw on your Instagram.
00:16:14
Speaker
It was the, the mailing room.
00:16:17
Speaker
I believe you're, you're doing like the whole mail.
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah.
Challenges and Strategies for Indie Authors
00:16:20
Speaker
And I'm looking at sign paperbacks.
00:16:21
Speaker
If you go to Isaacthorne.com sign paperback and please correct me if I'm wrong is 1999.
00:16:29
Speaker
That's correct.
00:16:30
Speaker
Right now.
00:16:31
Speaker
And I, if you go to Amazon, I,
00:16:34
Speaker
The paperback.
00:16:35
Speaker
Final signature.
00:16:35
Speaker
1999.
00:16:36
Speaker
So it's like a no-brainer.
00:16:39
Speaker
What would you rather do?
00:16:40
Speaker
Get it from the author with a signature on it?
00:16:42
Speaker
Or, you know, Amazon.
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:47
Speaker
This is a brilliant move.
00:16:48
Speaker
So what led you to this?
00:16:53
Speaker
Pricing a book when you're an indie author, it's always been kind of a hand-wringing thing for me because I want some profit from it.
00:17:04
Speaker
But when you're an indie, especially if you're the print stuff, if you're doing print-on-demand, it is more expensive short-term.
00:17:15
Speaker
to print on demand, the per copy print cost is higher than if you, you know, went to your local offset printer and had them print a thousand.
00:17:27
Speaker
Of course, then you have a thousand sitting in your basement, you know, you have a castle.
00:17:33
Speaker
You build cardboard box castles out of them.
00:17:36
Speaker
That's what we used to do.
00:17:38
Speaker
My castle.
00:17:40
Speaker
So the pricing is always a little bit of a hand-wringing thing for me.
00:17:45
Speaker
But I figured if I at least price it the same as I sell it for retail...
00:17:54
Speaker
I can include stickers.
00:17:56
Speaker
I can include bookmarks.
00:17:58
Speaker
I can include a signature.
00:17:59
Speaker
Right.
00:18:00
Speaker
And these little things that also have cost to them, but not so much cost that it's completely taking away the profit.
00:18:11
Speaker
You're not getting your profit margin, yeah.
00:18:14
Speaker
Right.
00:18:15
Speaker
And the customer gets more for their money as a result.
00:18:21
Speaker
Yes.
00:18:22
Speaker
And I enjoy doing that.
00:18:24
Speaker
I like being able to provide them with something that they're not going to get buying it through Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
00:18:31
Speaker
And that's not that I'm not happy when someone buys it through another channel.
00:18:37
Speaker
Bookshop.org, indie bookshops, I'm a big fan of.
00:18:43
Speaker
But...
00:18:44
Speaker
But if I can give them a little something extra, I even have custom packaging that I send the physical books in that has my little bunny character on it.
00:18:54
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:18:56
Speaker
So we see like that includes two free evil bunny stickers.
00:18:59
Speaker
I'm like, oh, I need one of these now.
00:19:00
Speaker
Right.
00:19:01
Speaker
Exactly.
00:19:02
Speaker
I'd buy it.
00:19:04
Speaker
For me, it's like the book, I probably already have.
00:19:07
Speaker
But the bunny stickers, I do not.
00:19:10
Speaker
It's like a $20 bunny sticker.
00:19:11
Speaker
I'm like, oh, it's $10 each.
00:19:12
Speaker
I'll do it.
00:19:13
Speaker
I'm crazy that way.
00:19:15
Speaker
Give me those buddy.
00:19:16
Speaker
I'll take buddy stickers all day, sir.
00:19:18
Speaker
So I like how you're packing this up.
00:19:24
Speaker
You're making it both a business, but not so much.
00:19:27
Speaker
It's not like an MBA kicking in.
00:19:30
Speaker
It's a business because you want to give the reader something more.
00:19:36
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:19:37
Speaker
Am I making sense?
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:19:41
Speaker
And I mean, if I wanted... The thing about being an indie as well is if I was doing this...
00:19:51
Speaker
because I wanted to retire from it, then that's a fool's errand.
00:19:57
Speaker
There's no way that I, as an indie author, without the vast pocketbook of a traditional publisher, am gonna make enough doing this in the way that I do it to quit my day job.
00:20:16
Speaker
um right so that's not the reason i'm doing now that's not saying an indie author can't there are indie authors who have um but that's not me um i think you know number one my audience is too niche and i i'm just i'm not i'm afraid if i try to make it
00:20:38
Speaker
my entire work life that the fun will leave.
00:20:41
Speaker
You know, it's the old Hunter Thompson thing.
00:20:45
Speaker
When a young writer is like, I want to write for a living.
00:20:47
Speaker
It's really fun.
00:20:47
Speaker
I'm like, I give him the quote from Thompson's like you writing is a lot like sex.
00:20:53
Speaker
It's only fun for amateurs.
00:20:54
Speaker
You don't hear any old whores giggling.
00:20:56
Speaker
And that's like, it's like when you make your full time gig is like the joy starts draining.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:21:10
Speaker
So I see where you're at.
00:21:11
Speaker
I mean, this is one of the things I was like, wow.
00:21:14
Speaker
And by the way, for those who don't know, and it's a shame if you don't know, not knowing, but...
00:21:19
Speaker
Isaac Thorne could go full time, in my opinion.
00:21:23
Speaker
You could go full time.
00:21:25
Speaker
And this is your old gig and that's it.
00:21:27
Speaker
Because you're writing spectacular.
00:21:29
Speaker
Your imagery is outstanding.
00:21:31
Speaker
The pacing is wonderful.
00:21:32
Speaker
Everything you want to not only teach in a writing class, but things that you can't quite teach.
00:21:41
Speaker
It's repetition.
00:21:41
Speaker
You just kind of have to learn it.
00:21:43
Speaker
You just have to learn it by master crafting it.
00:21:45
Speaker
You're there.
00:21:47
Speaker
You're already there.
00:21:48
Speaker
I appreciate that.
00:21:49
Speaker
I appreciate that.
00:21:50
Speaker
Well, I appreciate you putting out good works.
00:21:54
Speaker
It's a mutual appreciation that way.
00:21:56
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:21:56
Speaker
And then not only are you there, but you understand the indie game.
00:22:00
Speaker
You understand what it's like to... I will say... Okay, I'll ask.
00:22:10
Speaker
I'm only going to say, so have you thought about going to a
00:22:16
Speaker
I don't want to use a traditional publishing vernacular, like the external indie, meaning a small publisher.
00:22:27
Speaker
A small press.
00:22:30
Speaker
I have considered it.
00:22:31
Speaker
I have considered it occasionally.
00:22:36
Speaker
But there's also a part of me that actually- Just offload it.
00:22:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:40
Speaker
And there are times when I desperately want to do that, especially if they're willing to take over stuff like social media, which I'm all over, but oh my God.
00:22:55
Speaker
I don't know how you do it.
00:22:56
Speaker
I have no idea.
00:22:57
Speaker
You're my inspiration for social media.
00:22:58
Speaker
I was like, you got 5.2 billion followers?
00:23:02
Speaker
What?
00:23:02
Speaker
What?
00:23:05
Speaker
Well, Twitter, I was able to build pretty quickly over a couple of years ago.
00:23:12
Speaker
Well, X now, whatever.
00:23:15
Speaker
But I don't think I could do it now.
00:23:18
Speaker
And my other social media, they're not paltry, but they're nowhere near the number of Twitter followers I managed to build.
00:23:31
Speaker
over that time.
00:23:32
Speaker
That's one reason I'm sad to see what's happening to it.
00:23:36
Speaker
Cause I have a feeling I'm eventually going to have to leave.
00:23:40
Speaker
Um, that was the, I evolve my, like Twitter the most as well.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:47
Speaker
It's just, it's more and more painful every time I look at it and I'll, I'll have to ask because I see it on your profile is, is your Tik TOK feed as painful as mine?
00:24:00
Speaker
trying to I have attempted to curate my TikTok I have attempted to curate my TikTok feed so that it is mostly like cats you know there you go cats and dogs and particularly talking cats you know I wish I was that smart I was like
00:24:30
Speaker
I was doing old man playing basketball again.
00:24:33
Speaker
That was me.
00:24:34
Speaker
I was like, welcome to Gen X. I'm out of shape.
00:24:37
Speaker
Oh boy, that was horrible.
00:24:40
Speaker
One thing you used to be good at.
00:24:41
Speaker
You're really horrible at now.
00:24:44
Speaker
Mind breathing.
00:24:47
Speaker
That's like two videos, I think.
00:24:49
Speaker
So we are both in the...
00:24:54
Speaker
Yeah, I am there with you.
00:24:56
Speaker
It's the you have to live social media.
00:24:59
Speaker
And God, I know some people who are marvelous at social media and they love social media.
00:25:04
Speaker
They eat it up.
00:25:06
Speaker
I ain't one of them.
00:25:07
Speaker
And I always thought you might be because how hard you see.
00:25:10
Speaker
You look like you're working very hard.
00:25:13
Speaker
I mean, I am, you know, the retweets.
00:25:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:17
Speaker
So you're doing that.
00:25:17
Speaker
Yeah, I am.
00:25:20
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:25:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:21
Speaker
And I don't think my work would have gotten as out there as it is without Twitter in particular.
00:25:32
Speaker
the beginning if facebook i'm bad at um i'd i've never really um never really become enamored of facebook the way some folks have i'm i'm on it rarely um and a lot of that is just you know things i'm copying from from twitter and and just reposting yeah there
00:25:58
Speaker
But I never really found my legs there.
00:26:04
Speaker
Instagram, I'm slightly better at.
00:26:11
Speaker
I like your Instagram because I get to see your world.
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:16
Speaker
I get to see the picture.
00:26:17
Speaker
Oh, that's a very visual.
00:26:19
Speaker
That's where I post my shipping station and my pops.
00:26:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:26
Speaker
Honestly, I saw that shipping statement and I'm like, oh, that is it.
00:26:30
Speaker
That's what I have to do.
00:26:31
Speaker
I have to get it off my butt.
00:26:33
Speaker
It's very inspiring.
00:26:34
Speaker
So for your Hellspring, you say you may be doing another convention for Hellspring or we're kind of toward you coming from Hellspring.
00:26:46
Speaker
Yeah, there's a book blog tour coming up in October for Hellspring.
00:26:54
Speaker
And the tour manager that I've been working with for a year, over a year now on this book is just amazing in connecting people.
00:27:08
Speaker
with people and getting people to read it and review it and buy it even.
00:27:15
Speaker
So we're doing another one this October.
00:27:20
Speaker
So you'll probably, hopefully, be seeing Hellspring on some book blogs and much more on your social media feeds.
00:27:31
Speaker
Not that I don't post enough about it already, but...
00:27:35
Speaker
You can always post more.
00:27:36
Speaker
And that's the thing.
00:27:38
Speaker
You are a so kind and generous to us.
00:27:41
Speaker
Haunted MTL is like, it blows me away every time.
00:27:44
Speaker
Like, I'm like, is he just like really just blowing smoke on my ass right now?
00:27:47
Speaker
Or is that like, no, it's like, oh, wow.
00:27:49
Speaker
This is very kind of you.
00:27:51
Speaker
And I see you retreating stuff and listening and just.
00:27:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:58
Speaker
No, I love you guys.
00:27:59
Speaker
I love you guys.
00:27:59
Speaker
And I, and I listened to a lot of podcasts, but, and, and they've come and gone over the years.
00:28:06
Speaker
You know, and I don't stick with, with all of them, but, but you guys I've, I've stuck with, there are some core, you know, other podcasts that I've stuck with.
00:28:18
Speaker
And I, I love your microfiction that you post.
00:28:22
Speaker
on uh the micro fictions but yes the the little instant tweets you know what helps uh especially for longevity of both podcasts on micro fiction liquid iv so if you go liquid i'm kidding i'm not going to drop a plug in the interview
Audience Engagement and Promotion
00:28:39
Speaker
liquid iv is like the one time is a legit thing you're not talking about ewoks right now it's like now you're pulling away yeah
00:28:46
Speaker
But this is my point.
00:28:47
Speaker
When you're using social media, even though you see it as part of a job for an author, I agree it is, you're not just pushing book, book, book, book.
00:28:58
Speaker
You're also pushing other people.
00:28:59
Speaker
You're talking.
00:29:00
Speaker
You're engaging.
00:29:01
Speaker
You're watching The Last Drive-In.
00:29:03
Speaker
You're tweeting at this.
00:29:04
Speaker
You're doing the cat video.
00:29:06
Speaker
You're doing this.
00:29:07
Speaker
You're doing this photo.
00:29:08
Speaker
Right.
00:29:09
Speaker
It's engaging.
00:29:11
Speaker
It's not the echo chamber is like, here it is, press play and let it recycle through.
00:29:17
Speaker
You are absolutely engaging with people.
00:29:20
Speaker
I think it's a missing step.
00:29:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:23
Speaker
I think it's important to do that.
00:29:25
Speaker
And I, well, and I'll tell you, I'll tell you when I first landed on, on Twitter back, I, it's probably 2015, I think was when I started my account on there.
00:29:38
Speaker
One of the first people who followed me and I followed back is, is a guy called the bleeding critic.
00:29:46
Speaker
He wears a clown mask and he does video reviews of movies and books.
00:29:54
Speaker
And one of the things that he always said at the end of his videos was, make sure you...
00:30:04
Speaker
follow and like and engage, you know, with, and he would promote other accounts, you know, saying like, follow, engage with this, this account.
00:30:15
Speaker
It's a cool account.
00:30:16
Speaker
So, so he kind of started me down this road of, uh,
00:30:21
Speaker
of keeping up engagement and actually talking to people and responding to other people and helping them become more visible as well.
00:30:36
Speaker
And I do think it's important to do that.
00:30:38
Speaker
Otherwise, all you're doing is promoting and people are going to ignore that after a time.
00:30:45
Speaker
Yeah, they suss it up pretty quickly, especially nowadays.
00:30:50
Speaker
It's why influencers only go so far.
00:30:54
Speaker
Right.
00:30:55
Speaker
Once the Botox wears off, it's over, you know, because they didn't build.
00:30:59
Speaker
It sounds mean, but they didn't build an honest like relationship with their followers as a one way, you know.
00:31:07
Speaker
Right.
00:31:08
Speaker
And this way you build it.
00:31:11
Speaker
And I think we both watched the last drive and I'm pretty sure we've seen each other's tweets on that.
00:31:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:18
Speaker
I think that's what they do really well.
00:31:20
Speaker
Like people like that do it really well.
00:31:22
Speaker
You do it amazingly well.
00:31:24
Speaker
And I think it goes off into why people should buy Hellspring.
00:31:29
Speaker
First of all, if you want an autographed copy, there's still some left, right?
00:31:33
Speaker
Yes, absolutely.
00:31:34
Speaker
There's an autograph.
00:31:35
Speaker
If you want an autographed copy of Hellspring, I'm feeling cocky.
00:31:40
Speaker
Hardback.
00:31:41
Speaker
Why not?
00:31:42
Speaker
Why not?
00:31:42
Speaker
Get the hardback out.
00:31:44
Speaker
So I want to see that sucker anyways.
00:31:46
Speaker
If you want an autographed copy of House bringing the hardback, hardback, you can kill someone with this.
00:31:51
Speaker
Probably don't.
00:31:52
Speaker
Please don't.
00:31:52
Speaker
See your lawyer first.
00:31:54
Speaker
Actually, don't see a lawyer.
00:31:54
Speaker
It's illegal to kill anyone.
00:31:55
Speaker
Period.
00:31:56
Speaker
On to the empty deal, it's on us.
00:31:58
Speaker
You go tweet at us.
00:31:59
Speaker
You DM us.
00:32:00
Speaker
You X thread us.
00:32:03
Speaker
I don't even know what Facebook messaging.
00:32:05
Speaker
I don't know.
00:32:06
Speaker
Whatever it is.
00:32:07
Speaker
You make it known with your address and we will send out one paid to you.
00:32:13
Speaker
That's how it is.
00:32:14
Speaker
Hellspring, the very first four people.
00:32:17
Speaker
I like number four.
00:32:18
Speaker
Kind of weird that way.
00:32:19
Speaker
You get a copy of Hellspring and everybody else, buy it yourself.
00:32:23
Speaker
Buy it yourself.
00:32:23
Speaker
Go to isaacthorne.com.
00:32:26
Speaker
I-S-A-A-C-T-H-O-R-N-E.com.
00:32:29
Speaker
Get yourself some Hellspring.
00:32:31
Speaker
It is awesome sauce.
00:32:32
Speaker
And there's even, I'm ultra jealous.
00:32:35
Speaker
There's an audible book.
00:32:38
Speaker
I'm so jealous.
00:32:39
Speaker
You have no idea.
00:32:41
Speaker
Not of Hellspring yet.
00:32:44
Speaker
So I'm not jealous of you yet.
00:32:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:48
Speaker
The other books.
00:32:50
Speaker
How's that working for you?
00:32:53
Speaker
The other books are all in audio format.
00:32:55
Speaker
The narrator of the Gordon place is actually hopefully going to be able to do the audio book edition of Hellspring.
00:33:08
Speaker
I wanted I had hoped to be able to get him on it.
00:33:13
Speaker
in time to, to have them both, you know, sort of released around the same time.
00:33:18
Speaker
Unfortunately, he was already overwhelmed, uh, with projects.
00:33:23
Speaker
So it's, it's in his queue and hopefully, hopefully we'll be coming soon.
00:33:30
Speaker
Did you ever think about doing one yourself?
00:33:33
Speaker
doing the reading i i have my i actually have my short stories um in audio for the shorts yeah right yeah they're mostly narrated by me yeah yeah yeah that that's it's always the thing because authors usually can do the best inflections at the same time yeah for a novel that that's a lot yeah that's gonna take some time but that's like
00:33:59
Speaker
I can hear you, Glenn Fondangle.
00:34:01
Speaker
You just hire Matt Berry.
00:34:03
Speaker
There you go.
00:34:04
Speaker
I hear he can do some stuff when he's not being a vampire.
00:34:07
Speaker
So you know what?
00:34:08
Speaker
This has been a wonderful chat.
00:34:11
Speaker
I thank you so much for your time.
00:34:12
Speaker
We actually went over it a little bit.
00:34:14
Speaker
I thank you for your time.
00:34:15
Speaker
And again, if you want Hellspring, first four on us, autograph, hard copies, why not?
00:34:20
Speaker
You do some have hard copy autograph, right?
00:34:23
Speaker
Yes.
00:34:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:34:26
Speaker
Yes.
00:34:26
Speaker
First four autographs, our copies.
00:34:29
Speaker
Why not?
00:34:31
Speaker
Give us a DM.
00:34:31
Speaker
Slide us in.
00:34:32
Speaker
No problemo.
00:34:33
Speaker
We'll get them out to quantities last.
00:34:36
Speaker
But check out the site, Isaacthorn.com.
00:34:40
Speaker
Check them out on all the socials.
00:34:42
Speaker
It's actually pretty cool.
00:34:43
Speaker
We follow them.
00:34:44
Speaker
I'm going to find your TikTok now and your Pinterest.
00:34:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:34:47
Speaker
We'll hunt your Pinterest TikToks down.
00:34:49
Speaker
That's what I'm going to do after this.
00:34:51
Speaker
It's Isaac R. Thorne everywhere.
00:34:54
Speaker
absolutely isaac r thorn everywhere that's a very long name isaac r thorn everywhere oh it's isaac r thorn everywhere is that part of it space everywhere space okay i'm like that's an awfully long name go follow them it's it's entertainment it's well worth it and you're going to learn something if if you are a horror fan you have to follow if you're a writer who wants to learn a trade follow them too
00:35:21
Speaker
just follow it.
00:35:22
Speaker
You go learn.
00:35:23
Speaker
I still learn a lot.
00:35:24
Speaker
Honestly, God, I learned a lot from you.
00:35:26
Speaker
So I want to say thank you for that.
00:35:27
Speaker
And thanks for coming.
00:35:28
Speaker
And that's it.
00:35:30
Speaker
Bye everyone.