[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on capesandtights.com. i'm your host, Justin Sodberg. This week, we welcome the author of Hidden Pictures, the Impossible Fortress, and they recently released the last one at the wedding. Jason Rakulik is on the podcast to talk about his books and so much more. But before you go on there and listen to this podcast, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky, all those things, threads, all those things like review rate, subscribe, all that stuff over on Apple, Spotify and all your major podcasting platforms, as well as follow us
[email protected] where there's all kinds of different content on there, including a review of the last one at the wedding. Enjoy this podcast with Jason Rakulik right here on capes and tights. Enjoy.
Welcome. How are you today?
[00:00:56] Speaker B: I'm great. How are you doing?
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Good. I always love this, like, awkward thing where we've already talked for like 15 minutes, and then I press record and we're always like, hey, how's it going? Nice to see you for the first time. But no, welcome to the podcast. I appreciate you taking time out to chat with us, but, yeah, we're. You're in the thick of it. We're recording this a little early, but your book, by the time this comes out, the book will be out on shelves. You must be excited finally, to actually, you know, get to this day and, you know, you know, it's another book coming out and people are excited to read it. You must be excited.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm excited. I mean, I'm also a little nervous because you just never know how people are going to respond to something. I mean, it's not the same book that my last book.
It's a little different. It's not supernatural. My previous book had illustrations in it. This one doesn't.
But when I do peek at the Internet, people are saying nice things about it, so I feel okay.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: I said to someone, I believe it was Nat cassidy. We talked. I was like, I looked at the Internet reviews so you don't have to. And that was like, no, I do. Anyway, I still. I still have this habit of, like, sitting down at night reading reviews or, like, quick snippets of people's reviews of my books. And I'm like, it's not a good place in the world, man. No, don't do that.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: I definitely don't do it because, you know, it doesn't matter how many good ones there are. It's the. It's the bad ones that you remember. You don't remember any, you know, and they also, the bad ones tend to be, like, more specific and hurtful. You know, like, like, the good ones are like, wow, I love this book. I flew through it.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Yes, I'm done. And the same thing over and over. Yes, we talked about this. I have a, I have a, I'm in a graphic novel book club at my local comic book shop, and we talk once a month. We read a book, we talk about it, so on and so forth. And it's so funny when the, when the unanimous or close to unanimous decision of a positive review of the book, like, if everybody's like, hey, yeah, al, we all liked it. The, the book club meeting lasts like 45 minutes. It's like, almost, it's like, done. But when there's, like, most people didn't like it, or that was like 50 50 split, it's, it's like a two hour, three hour thing. Because it's like, we can, we could talk for hours about how bad something was. When something's good, we're all like, yeah, cool. You liked it. Okay, cool. Let's move on to the next book, right?
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: So people's reviews can be, can be tough. And, and I've talked to other authors, too, and we, I still don't get why if someone posts a bad review of your book on the Internet, why they tag you in it.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
Yeah. I don't know the motivation there either. I have to say, though, you know, it's funny. Before I started publishing books, I would sometimes write reviews on Amazon of books I didn't like. And I don't do that now because I don't know, after, like, having, like, worked with, like, how much work goes into book. Like, sometimes things don't work. I mean, I have mixed feelings about it. Like, bad reviews are a public service. The world needs more bad reviews. On the whole, reviews are too nice. And I think there should be more bad reviews from people who are qualified to write them.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Yes.
But I guess the biggest thing is, like I said, a lot of these bad reviews are like, I didn't like that this was based around a wedding or something along those lines. And it's like, well, then why did you read the book?
I work in the beer industry as my regular job. And the number of reviews, like, oh, I don't like ipas. This is a one star. And it's like, well, that's not how you review it, though. That's not how you read this book. If you don't like the subject, then you don't like the book. You don't even have to read the book. I could review your book and say, if I don't like wedding based books, then why would I even say it's a good book?
Those are the reviews I don't like.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Yeah, well, there's a lot of those. I mean, you know, you're talking about, like, that's already, like, a next level kind of reader. Like, I do appreciate readers who are like, well, you know, this isn't for me, but I know. I understand why some people would like it, you know, because most things are not for me. You know, like, historical romance is not for me, but I understand why people like it, you know, and I understand people who, like, excel at it, who do an amazing job.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Yes, exactly.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: But I don't know if that's the base level of readers. I feel like that's one level up.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: People could also review your book, comparing the last one at the wedding to hidden pictures. And there are different books. And so that's the other thing is if I'm a fan of your writing and then you read the second book, I can understand that, too, being like, well, I didn't like it as much as the first book because of, you know, or the book I read before this because it's different. But, like, you're expecting the same thing. You're expecting every book to be, you know, the same style, the same, you know, whatever.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: But there's a real pressure in publishing, particularly when you work in, like, genre fiction, to write the same book over and over and over, you know, and one of the reasons why, you know, like, my last book had a 25 year old female protagonist, and I was like, okay, well, I just did one of those, I don't want to do that again. I was worried it would sound just like her if I just went to another book. So I said, let me go, like, as far from that as I feel comfortable going. So I ended up with this 52 year old Ups driver, a male dad in Stroudsburg. Totally. Well, not a totally different voice. And in some ways, the voices actually are similar, but he has, like, a more colorful voice because he's like a, you know, just an older guy with, like, a more colorful vocabulary.
Yeah.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: And it's different because I think some people were going into, you know, as this is based around a wedding, it's called last word at the wedding. So obviously it's based around a wedding, is that the protagonist isn't the bride, in a sense, like, people expect it to be the bride and the father of the bride. You know, it's, that's the, that's the actual, uh, thing. And that's why this thing, I think it sets apart from itself. I think I put that out there. Uh, when I wrote something, I was like, this is, I've read, you know, not tons, but a few over the past couple years based around a wedding. And this one did set itself apart from those. That, because it's not based around the ride in the groom, basically, it's, there's a, there's a lot of separation to that, and I think that was made it unique and cool and indifferent, and that's, that's, that's a. You could have done it with a 25 year old bride. Like, you could have easily done that.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, that's the really fun thing about switching the point of view is that you can revisit a lot of tropes that are familiar from these kinds of books, but because you're seeing them through a different perspective, it reinvigorates them and it feels fresh.
So that's the benefit to choosing an unconventional narrator.
I mean, these books, you know, these kinds of books get sold as psychological thrillers, but they used to be called, I think they used to be called anyway, like, domestic suspense. That used to be the term that used to get used in publishing, meaning that, you know, these are stories, hidden pictures was domestic suspense, technically, because it's about, it's literally about a woman raising a child, you know, and having a disagreement with the child's mother. And that's a domestic suspense novel.
And in the category of domestic suspense, like, dads are never narrating those books. It's just unheard of. The dads are either duplicitous murderers and sociopaths who are going to terrorize the family or they're cheating on the wife or whatever, or they're just completely oblivious and ineffective.
So in a way, I don't know this is going to register with anybody, but in a way, there's a real novelty to having this guy tell the story. And it may also work to my detriment commercially. And that's the real big question mark. You know, maybe I want to give readers the benefit of the doubt and say, well, you know, it's not like I'm writing from the point of view of a Martian.
It's not like he's a talking octopus. I mean, like, this is just, it's a UpS driver. We all have ups drivers.
And, and I think you know, I look at movies like father of the bride. People love that movie. You know, there's something about, like, that character that people just. People can connect to it no matter what their age is, you know, and, like, empathize with this guy. So I don't know. I'm hopeful, but we'll see.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It could work in both ways, like you mentioned, but, I mean, I'm a father of a daughter who still has six months right now, but, like, she still died. One day, hopefully, she'll get married and be a bride and so on and so forth. I have a son who, you know, hopefully one day will be a groom, but, like, I connected them that way, too. But, like, I feel like I'm not the one that you should worry about because I can read 25 year old protagonists. You know, I do. Like, I loved hidden pictures. I like a lot of Riley Sager's books. You know, like, there's, there's. There's the. There is that person out there. But I can then connect with this, too, because I am also, you know, I'm 38, but I'm a dad. I'm a dude. I have this ability to do that. I did, however, picture my ups driver that delivers packages to my work as the dad. Like, I actually pictured this dude. So every time I see him now, I'm always like, wait, didn't I read a story about, I don't know if that's a. It's probably not a great thing, but, like, you know, and I. It's true because I know this guy pretty well because one of the best things you should ever do in business, by the way, people, is befriend your ups driver. Because, you know, in business wise, I need. I've needed packages that weren't going to arrive until 02:00 p.m. where he's met me on the side of the road at, like, 09:00 in the morning to pick up the package because I needed it in the morning and things like that. And so hearing about his service record and all that stuff in this novel, it connected with me in a sense that I know personally and on a personal level, my ups driver. And so hearing these, you know, stories about what goes on in a UPS driver's life and the things they achieve and these lifetime careers that these people spend at these jobs, like delivery drivers, it connected in a way that I don't know if everybody else will, but personally, I did. For me, yeah.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: I mean, I hope it will. I mean, you know, it sounds, I think, in the abstract, maybe it sounds a little boring, but, like, once you understand, like, the nuances of that job, they actually have all the attributes for, like a fantastic hero for a novel because that job requires not just like, you know, it's not just physical labor. There's a lot of like, problem solving. You have to be a great driver. You have to have incredible people skills. There's a lot they do to like, make that work happen and they are tireless, you know, I mean, uh, so.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Um, and that, that does a lot in this book. Like, you're not specifically, like, delivering packages. Cause you, you see that part in this book, but not, it's not like this book's not about him delivering packages. It's not like, let's get, like, let's get that out of the way. Um, but, like, his skills as a Ups driver technically do translate to what he's doing at this wedding. And so that's kind of like in a way that not the delivery packages part, but the, you know, the way that his mind works in this. It translates in this. That's probably one of the reasons why you wrote the character that way. But I believe that you mentioned all the things you just mentioned about a UPS driver translates into the character in this book.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Great.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it worked well. It worked really well. And I think, you know, and you mentioned the not supernatural versus supernatural like this. You know, hidden pictures has a supernatural part of it.
Speaking of supernatural, hidden pictures, it's kind of funny. So obviously I have a TBR stack like everybody else who reads books. We had the stacks upon stacks of books that we haven't gotten to yet and so on and so forth. Well, hidden pictures last fall was on that, that stack and, or virtually on that stack because I didn't own it at the time. But I put it on my Christmas wish list and I went to a family Christmas party and they, someone had purchased it for me, which makes me think I always put to the top of that TBR, listen, a book that's been purchased for me because I feel bad if I don't read it for three years.
So me reading the last month at the wedding and me reading hidden pictures, it's all thankful to this person because that person put hidden pictures up so high. When I saw your next novel come out, I was like, I have to read this book. And so that's thankful to this person. Her name's Christina. For doing this because I wouldn't have read your hidden pictures and I wouldn't have read this book likely yet if it wasn't for that purchase of a gift.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: Well, thank you, Christina. Yeah, I owe her a beer or class A chardonnay or something.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: It's just kind of funny how those things work. It's just a weird, you know, it's the same thing with, if I see someone, like, write a comic book, then I'm like, oh, I want to read that book, because they write, they're not an author as well, and so on and so forth. But, yeah, if anybody wants me to read a book, buy it for me for as a gift, and I will read it before anything else because I usually put that at the top of the list on this. But, uh, we've, we've jumped in. We started talking a little bit of the last at the wedding, um, before, I guess I skip forward a little bit, what I wanted to talk about quickly, but, um, how did you get into wanting to be a writer? I guess let's start with just go. Let's go back a little bit, talk about that, and we'll go back to, uh, the last one at the wedding.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Sure. I mean, uh, you know, I was always a kid, you know, I mean, is a pretty familiar story. I was always a kid who just liked to read, and I started making up stories, I think, you know, part of it was, when I was growing up, we didn't really travel that much. You know what I mean? Like, we, you know, I had a very happy childhood. My dad worked in construction, and.
But I would say that, like, the world that I lived in was, like, pretty small. So, like, of course, you know, like, I knew the kids on my block. I knew the kids on the block one block over, you know, so, like, of course, like, I looked to books and, um, as a way to, like, broaden the world. And, um, and then, you know, I just, I don't know. Like, around the time I was ten, I think I started making my own comics. I would, like, draw my own comic books, you know, all that stuff. You know, I, there's, like, a thousand people who tell you the same story, and, um, I just never stopped and doing it. I just, you know, around the time I was, like, 20 or 21, I went to Penn State. I read in some book somewhere. I wish I still had this book, and I wish I remembered what the title was. I got it out of the library, but this person managed to convince me in a really persuasive way. They're like, if you're serious about this, if you're serious about, like, being a writer, you need to start writing, like, dutifully, diligently, every day, because it's so much work. It's going to take you so long to get good that if you don't start right now, you'll never do it. And it's. I mean, I think that's true.
There's that Malcolm Gladwell thing about the 10,000 hours of mastery, that whole theory. I'm a big believer in that I spent years writing a lot of really bad stuff and sort of flushing a lot of bad language out of my system, also trying to find, like, the right process for me, because everyone's process is different, you know, like, I think early on, I was a big Stephen King fan, and I learned, I knew how, I knew what his process was. I'm like, well, I'll just do that because that works for him, does not work for me. You know, he's not really much of, like, an outliner. He just sort of, you know, I don't know how he does it, but I can't do it that way. I need to be a little bit more of a planner. So it took me years to, like, figure out my process and get how old I was. I mean, also, I started working at a small press in Philadelphia, which was called Quirk books, and it took us a couple years to start doing fiction. I always wanted to do fiction. When the company was started, it was just nonfiction, but I kept trying to sneak fiction into the list because that's where my interests were. And I finally managed to do it with pride and prejudice and zombies. This was a book I commissioned, and I said, don't worry, it's not a real novel. We're just gonna take the Jane Austen novel and add zombies to it, but don't think of it as fiction. But in my mind, I was like, no, this is totally fiction. And once that book blew up, we started doing more of these mashup classics, and then suddenly I was like, okay, this is our fiction list. Let's start doing more novels now, like original novels. And.
And that was tremendously helpful for me because, you know, suddenly I'm working with all these other writers who are, you know, you know, who are writing novels. They're submitting outlines. I'm thinking a lot about story structure and how, what is, like, the shape of a book, and.
And I think that really accelerated things for me because you learn so much from watching things, looking at things that don't work, like reading things that don't work.
And you also learn a ton by looking at the marketplace and looking at what are people buying, what is there an audience for? It is so much easier right now to make a career as a, as. And this is just one as a fantasy writer than a western writer, right? I mean, if you want to write, if you want to write westerns, man, good luck.
Because the audience and the retail marketplace is so much smaller than, say, romance.
Romance sells everywhere.
You can sell westerns in certain parts of the country, you'll sell them, but romance is everywhere. So you're just going to have your time in certain categories. So my quirk taught me all that, too.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: And now you're here where you are now. Yeah. You have multiple books out there.
It's funny, I say westerners. I also feel like western fans or readers also would just be okay with reading the same western over and over and over again. Like my wife's grandfather just has a stack of western books. He's like ten books. They just reads all ten and then just starts reading them again over again. It maybe because he's like 80 years old, he just forgot what happened.
But I think it's also sort of those things. They don't really care about the new western. It's all about whatever happened, you know, 30, 40 years ago.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think some readers are like that. I mean, there's some people still writing them. I have a friend who writes and he's really good and he's doing some cool, innovative stuff.
And, you know, there are a couple, like, amazing ones, like lonesome dove is one of my all time favorite, favorite books. I think it's just incredible. I think I've read it three times even though it's enormous.
So, but then, you know, maybe your Louis lemurs are maybe a little more formulaic, but, or at least they seem that way to me now. Maybe back in the day, in their heyday, it didn't feel that way, but.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I mean, so, so you have this now you want to write. You writing? You're doing it. You're doing it well, in my opinion here. But what is the thriller draw? Like, what to you is the idea that there's a suspense thriller style. You know, this one borderlines a little bit on horror, in my opinion. Same with hidden pictures. Like they had that.
I wouldn't put it in the horror genre, but it has that, like fringe horror. Those fans of horror will probably like these two books, in my opinion.
What drew you to that? Is it just something that you're good at writing? Is that what you figured out? You're like, oh, I could do this thriller suspense thing.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: You know, it's just something I've always liked. It's what I've always enjoyed, you know, I mean, my favorite.
My favorite director is probably Alfred Hitchcock. And, you know, he, like, considered himself a director of suspense. That's the word he would have, you know, and the best, the best analog and, like, publishing is thriller. You know, I don't think of myself as a horror writer, and I don't think horror writers like my books very much.
And I just don't know if I have, like, the, there's like, a certain, you know, like, horror books can. They can be pretty tough. Like, that's. And I think that's what, like, the fans want. And I think you have to have a. Not a meanness, but, like, there needs to be, like, an edge to you or, like an anger or something that maybe I used to have, but I don't have anymore.
Like, I just don't know if I have it in me anymore to, like, really for my characters and, like, revel in the fact that, like, you know, oh, my God, this acid is melting his hand. Yeah. You know, I just can't do that. But I do love, I love spooky things. I love, like, threat of menace, you know, that I just can't get enough of. And I can do that. Like, I can, like, read and watch that kind of stuff all day long.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: So it's funny because I'm a fan of horror, but I think over the past two years or so, or year and a half, 18 months, I've been, like, trying to convince myself that my favorite genre is not thriller mystery, like, the suspense and thriller side of things. But, like, every time I read one, I'm always like, God damn it, that was good. And the horror book, I'm like, that's good. But it's so funny how, like, I'm trying not, like, for some reason I was, like, fighting that my favorite genre is this thing, and then I get these, these kind of books, like, the last one at the wedding, and I'm always like, oh, my God, that was amazing. I want more like that. And I'm like, what's. Because I keep on forcing myself into the horror, horror side. I should just pick the books up that I like to read. And I'm saying I do like horror, but it's like, every time I finish one of these books, even if it's mediocre, I'm always like, this is good.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. It's interesting. It's a weird thing. Even Stephen King, who, again, I said earlier, I grew up reading Cujo, Christine, Carrie.
I'm a total gen xer. He doesn't write that much of it anymore. His books. He's much more. He's writing police procedurals and things like that. I mean, Holly was pretty horrific, and that was really good.
But.
But then, you know, but a lot of his books are more like kind of crime.
So by me, obviously, there's plenty of people. I mean, you talk to Clay Chapman. He's still writing horror. Grady Hendrik.
There's people doing really cool, fun stuff. I just don't know that well.
[00:23:39] Speaker A: Today's episode on the act podcast, I dropped the day we're recording this is with CJ Leed. And CJ has, like, this american rapture is a horror horrible. There's some horrific things that happened in that book, and so does maple fly, and so. Yes, but I loved it. I'm a fan of that. But I feel like, in a general sense of the world of books, I probably would gravitate towards more books, like the last one at the wedding or that style of book where it's like, the suspense is there. You're maybe still feel uncomfortable with what's going on. The mystery is there. You want to figure out what happens in that sense. I'm reading a book called Dead Money right now, that it's about a tech business that has a murder. And so it's not a horror book at all. But it's just like, I'm riveted to it. I want to read it. Whereas the horror books, I'm like, okay, I'll get to it. It's kind of funny how I love horror and I love horror comics and I love horror movies, but I think I'm more into this thriller, suspense, mystery side of things more than I am on the horror stuff. When I go to read a book, you know, and there's still authors like Stephen Graham Jones, like, anything he does in the horror side of things, too. I'm always. I'm on board with it, you know, that's just. There's no question about it. Stephen King writes a book. It's horror. I'm gonna. I'm gonna read a horror book the same way.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: I mean, I still read. I still read a lot of it, but I just don't. I was speaking really more. Yes, just as the fact that, like, I read it, but I don't think I write it. Um, and, uh. But. But I admire the people who can do it, that can do it well. And you just listed a bunch of good examples.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Uh, the one thing that I do love, one of the things I loved about the last one at the wedding that I think people in this area of my, of the world will love is it's based in New England. And so, like, there's that part of things, like, that's a Stephen King thing for us. I mean, Stephen King literally lives, like, three minutes from, or I say lives.
I can hand quotations for him, but he can't see that it's, it's his house where he wrote. A lot of those books are. Is about three minutes from me. And so, like, anything that's based in New England is always going to draw me in to things. But I, you know, I read a book, and all of a sudden I know where they say a New England town. I'm always like, holy crap. Yeah, someone knows we're here. And so this having a book in New England is going to draw you in in that sense, because, you know, I've lived in Massachusetts, I lived in New Hampshire, I lived in Maine. And so, like, you know, being in this area is always positive to me.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Let's see.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: I mean, you know, the other thing that you do really well, I think, and is something that people should connect to who are kind of, like, warped in the mind, like myself, is that this book features a number of characters you love to hate.
I feel like some people don't like characters that are hateable.
I personally am a big fan of it. Are those characters harder or easier to write? Like, the ones that are, like, just bad people?
[00:26:39] Speaker B: I don't know that they're any harder or easier to write. I feel like they're about the same.
It's fun. I mean, I really enjoy, you know. Well, I mean, part of the fun of this book is you're going to a wedding. Like, I feel like this book invites the reader to attend this wedding. I I actually structured it well. You'll actually appreciate this because you'll get the reference. I modeled this book after deliverance, the novel, the James Dickey novel, which has these five parts. Deliverance is beautifully structured.
Part one is before, and then it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, three parts, and then after is the fifth part. And I just love, like, the simplicity of that structure. It's like, okay, guys, we're going to go on a canoe trip, and I'm going to show you the canoe trip. And then here's what happened after the canoe trip. And that is the structure of this book.
The first part is, all right, we're going to go to a wedding, you meet everybody who's going to the wedding. We go to the wedding, and then you meet, like, it's all happening. There's one point of view. It does not break away from that point of view. It's completely linear. And you meet people as our narrator meets them, and it's just like going to a wedding where it's like, okay, who's this person? How are they connected to the bride and groom?
And you form first impressions that, as, you know, the weekend goes on or as the night goes on.
Maybe it's not quite right at first glance. Maybe after an hour of talking to this person, you're like, oh, I realized what I was getting myself into.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: So.
And as my narrator finds out, some of these people are not as nice as they first appear, and all that is really fun. And that was, like, all part of the design of it.
I don't know.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: Should I say what the book is about or did. No.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: I mean, I like people. Yeah. Yeah, I could. I was gonna say it off the top. At the top. But if you want. What's your, like, the elevator pitch on this?
[00:28:40] Speaker B: Well, my elevator pitch is a little long, but, I mean, I.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Good. Yeah. Whatever. Whatever you want to say about it.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: I mean. Well, the book opens with a phone call. There's this.
There's this 52 year old ups driver who's a dad. He gets a call from his daughter, and they've been estranged for three years, but you don't know why. When the story opens, you just know they haven't spoken. But she calls to say she's getting married. She wants them to come to the wedding. She wants to let bygones. And he's thrilled. He's excited. He's like, this is the chance for a reconciliation that he's been so desperate for.
And so he's getting ready to go up to New Hampshire for this wedding, which is being held at his in laws summer estate on a lake. And he learns just before he departs for the wedding that his future son in law's previous girlfriend vanished under mysterious circumstances. And he finds this very alarming.
And it's not the first red flag he's noticed about this guy. So it creates this really weird engine, or, like, attention, rather, in that what he wants more than anything is to have a relationship with his daughter, but he thinks she's making a terrible mistake. So how does he address his concerns without pushing her away and falling back into estrangement all over again? And that's the tension that I think drives the first half of the book, and what he finds, the truth of the whole situation, I think, will surprise most people.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: Yes.
So, yeah, it's a wedding book, and I think that New England aspect of it, I honestly think that, I don't know who the artist or the essay, the artist, the photographer, the designer of your cover of your book is, but that's a phenomenal thing because I do think that, first of all, it's a gorgeous design in the first place. It's going to draw, I think it is going to, you know, judge a book by its cover. It's going to draw people in to at least pick the book up, see what the book's about, and so on and so forth at your local bookstores or chains or whatever. But I do think that that picture helped me form a idea of where they are in the book. Whereas sometimes it's just plain old either trying to sell you or plain old just, it's beautiful looking cover, whereas this cover actually does it in multifaceted because it is beautiful and draws you in. The logo design is great and all that stuff. But also that, that house makes you go, oh, the enormity, the size, the scope of where this wedding actually is, isn't it? Someone's like three season cabin on a pond. Like, this is not, this is at a place that most of us would go. That's a summer house and that kind of thing. It's got scale to it. I think it also benefits that I live in New England. I know what the woods looks like, I know what lake houses look like, and so on and so forth. But, yeah, that picture on the front helps a lot. I think when people go to read.
[00:31:42] Speaker B: The book, that's, I'm really lucky because that cover is by a guy named Will Staley. He's a super talented designer, and he's done the covers for all my books. And so, and he does, like, super famous authors. Like, you know, he does lots and lots of bestsellers that you've seen.
So I'm really lucky to have him doing my books. And he's amazing. I think. I think that cover was put together with a lot of Photoshop. I don't think. It's not, there's many photos in that cover, but it's seamless. You don't even know.
So he's a wizard, but it gives you an idea.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: It gives you the magnitude of what this father is going to this wedding for this daughter that he doesn't know the family yet. It's not like when I married my wife like, my parents had met my, you know, like, there's a lot more different things that go on. You get to meet the people. You get to see the people's houses maybe before the wedding, but this is like, the first time he's meeting them. And just walking in and going to this massive building immediately changes your, your mental state on who your daughter is marrying. No matter what else is going on, it immediately goes, oh, this is the kind of thing we're going into. And I think, I mean, again, I don't want to get, I don't want to spoil it for people because this book is either just came out and I want people to actually read the book. But there's a lot more, a lot more levels that go to this story than just what we're explaining here. And it's well worth it. I think anybody who's a fan of mysteries or thrillers or suspenseful things is gonna love us. I do think this is different than hidden pictures, but the fan of hidden pictures should appreciate this book, in my opinion. Do you agree on that one? Do you think that there's absolutely, I.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: Mean, they're both contemporary spins on, like, gothic bar novels, in my opinion. I mean, hidden pictures are like a spin on turn of the screw. And I think this book, you know, there's, like, there's a lot of weird parallels to Rebecca. I don't know if you know the Daphne du Maurier novel, but, like, you know, the narrator and Rebecca is also just completely overwhelmed by the opulence of Manderly, and she's way out of her element. She's like, I don't belong here. I don't belong with these people. The housekeeper is, like, rude and cryptic to her, you know, and, you know, so that's just like, that's totally, like, in the gothic tradition of, like, you know, you're out of your element. None of the rules make sense to you here, so you can't trust what you're seeing. Maybe these people are, maybe this is wrong. Maybe this is weird, or maybe they're just rich and, like, people do things a little differently, you know?
[00:34:19] Speaker A: But there's this, I don't know why. In my head, one of the things, it felt like it was a little bit different than what I was expecting is that you see this massive thing, you see this big house, you see this wealthy family that you're married into. And I feel like a lot of creators and writers out there tend to go towards the person who is marrying into this family is going to hopefully. Oh, I am so lucky now. Marrying, my daughter's marrying into wealth and that side of things, whereas the protagonist in this book is more just like, you know, happy with, with his retirement. He's going to get from, from ups and driving that many years to ups that, that he's not being excited. He's excited for his daughter, but he's not excited because she's marrying wealth. And I think that that is, tends to be the easy way towards this. And this is where he's starting to question, you know, the wealth or questioning things that are going on, which is, which is fantastic, in my opinion.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, if he was drawn to the money, he wouldn't, he wouldn't be as appealing of a character. What, what he wants is to have a relationship with his daughter and her new husband, and he wants to be part of the family, and that's, like, paramount to him.
And the money is, like, incidental, which I think would be true for someone in his situation. And he's a teamster, he has a pension. He's like, he's going to have a very comfortable retirement.
Those guys, if you can get retirement in that job, you're going to be okay and you're going to have a lot of options when you come out of there.
And he just wants to have his daughter in his life, so.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: And again, I thought I wasn't going to say this to people when I got, actually became a dad, but being a father, being a father of something, someone, some kids, a daughter, sons, whatever it may be, does change some things in your body that you didn't expect to have happened.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: Just you wait, stick around.
Six months old, you got.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Well, I have a three year old, too, so still. Yeah, I know what you mean. It's no different with three year old and a six month old in that sense. But yes, there's this sense of there's another person I've always felt connected to a partner that I'm with. And so in that sense, my wife is like, I feel like she can take care of herself, let's be honest. But I feel like I have to take care of her. I mean, as someone I owe something to. And, but kids is just a whole other level in that sense, too. So, yeah, protectiveness of a father, even an estranged father, I could understand being there. And there's that here. There's mystery, there's thriller, the suspense. There's murder. There's all kinds of stuff that, that you expect to see in this kind of a book. And, yeah, I think it's phenomenal. I think it's a great follow up to hidden pictures. Hidden pictures was phenomenal as well. In my opinion. It was extremely well. Again, you mentioned earlier, beautiful cover. A cover that will also draw you in, a cover that makes you go, what the hell is going on? And the same thing with the last one at the wedding, um, that comes out. So it's about, it's as this comes, it's hitting shelves, people are getting it and so on and so forth. Um, you have a tour. You're on tour. Technically, uh, you know, in a, technically, you are on tour in, um, this beginning October. Yeah, uh, October. This is coming out on October 8.
Yes.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: And I have events like, all through October and actually into early November, so I'm not always on the road, but I have a lot of, you know, go, go here for two nights, go here for two nights, come home.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: Were you able to do that with hidden pictures or when did hidden pictures come out?
[00:37:49] Speaker B: No, hidden pictures came out. You know, it's funny, hidden pictures had a smaller launch, partly because, you know, I just didn't really have a track record at that point. And now that, you know, on the success of that book, they're just putting more resources and energy into this campaign. But also because when hidden pictures came out, we were still kind of coming out of COVID and so stores were just getting back to doing events, and I think publishers were still just trying to figure out, okay, now can we send authors back? And will people leave their houses to go?
So. And now it turns out that I think people are going to come. Like, I'm seeing the numbers for like, the events I'm doing. And I know certainly the philly one where I live, there's like 125 people registered for it. So I'm like, okay, that'll be a good one.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: That's awesome. I love it because I think that these author events, these things that people have, you get to hear stories, we're talking here. And some of that same stuff you'll say at this thing. I mean, some of the, you have canned response to things, but you have a normal response to some questions and statements and conversation. But you do learn new things. You learn new things. People ask new questions, things like that. Are you doing them all by yourself? Are you having some conversations with some other people too, while you're doing.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think a lot of them will be conversations, but I don't, you know, like, that's the thing. Like, the nature of it is like, yeah, I'm going to like, Kenosha, Wisconsin. But I don't know anyone who's there, so, you know, it'll probably be with, like, more local.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:30] Speaker B: A librarian or a bookseller.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: You know, and those can be great because, you know, those people read like crazy, you know, so they can actually ask really smart questions. And they've also seen, like, a thousand of these events, so they know what. What an audience will actually want to hear, so. But my editor from Flatiron is coming to the Philly event, so that should be a really fun one. Um, and I think that'll be good for the audience because, you know, it's just a different perspective.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. It's a. It's one of those things that I. We're. We're lucky. At my local bookstore, um, briar patch here in Bangor, Maine, uh, has been doing some events, too, and it's really cool, but it's just so hard. Like, when you're, like, in the middle of the United States, I feel like it's a little bit easier, or in big cities to get a lot of you, uh, authors to come, but, like, we're up in the middle of. In Maine. When you're trying to get people to come up, it's, like, not a stop along the way. It's, like, up here and back. And so, hopefully, in the near future, we'll be able to get more people in. But if you ever want to come to Maine, just let us know. You can come up here. And we got play. We got places. You can come see Stephen King's house. You can go.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: I'm sure it's amazing. I actually have a friend who owns a cafe not too far from where you are.
It's called Ralph's cafe. Do you know that place?
[00:40:41] Speaker A: I don't. It doesn't sound familiar. But now I figure I'm gonna look it up. We'll make sure.
[00:40:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And so I've said to him, one of these. One of these days, I'm gonna get up there. But I prefer to go when someone's paying for it.
The hotels and the rental cars and all the other stuff.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
We understand that completely. And that's usually what happens. We've had people up here. I did beers with Daniel Krause for my brewery. So Daniel came up, and that stuff was obviously the brewery in the local bookstore. Help pay to get him here. She was like, of course I'll come up. It doesn't bother me if I have a place to stay and you pay to get here. Of course I'll come up and say that. But, yeah, for you to come up here, sell a few books, and spend $1,000 to come up here, it doesn't make much budgeting.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: That's calculus. That's hard to figure out. You know, it's like people like, come to Las Vegas and I'm like, okay, you know, but like, yeah, you're gonna sell. Best case scenario, you sell 100 books. That still doesn't cover the cost that you spent to stay in Vegas for a night.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: But, I mean, you're doing some virtual events and things like that, too. I mean, in just getting to some places and people will drive. If you're a fan of yours, I'm going to Massachusetts, which is a three hour drive for me, a three and a half hour drive to go to an event, because there's going to be a number of authors there that I want to see. People will drive, and that's the thing. So if you live within the three hour span of Philadelphia, I think people are going to take the trip to come see you because this is an opportunity. And most of the time, you only tour or talk about these things when the book's out. So it's not like next July, you're going to be out there doing a bunch of bookstore tourism from all over the country. It's like you're trying to promote this release right now. So I think people will come out and see you. I think you'll be fine.
And hopefully people buy the book. I think it's on shelves as of this podcast dropping it's out there. Buy it at your local bookstore. But if you can't, my biggest pitch is always just buy it. It still helps the author. It still tells your publisher you're worth it if you buy it. Doesn't matter what place you buy it at that. If it's a big box store, an Internet website, or whatever, it still helps. Try local first. But if you can't or you don't want to still buy it, that's a confusion I think people have out there. I can't get to my local bookstore. Well, I still think that Jason would love it if you bought it on Amazon, if you needed to buy it somewhere.
[00:43:02] Speaker B: Listen, I'm happy. Anytime people are buying books, I'm happy.
[00:43:08] Speaker A: It's good. Like I said, I like the idea of helping local businesses out, but in the same sense, like, just purchase it, and if you liked it, it does help also. That's library. That's the other thing.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Get the ebook out of the library. It's free. You get the audiobook out of the library. You don't have to leave your house.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: No, I will say I haven't listened to it yet. I'm a big audiobook fan, too, but I've heard a lot of positive review of your audiobook for this book.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: He's incredible. The guy they got, I think he's done a lot of like, you know, military thrillers and like science fiction because he's got like this sort of guy voice, and he's like, oh, gosh, I get to read this. You know, like, this is a, this is a character with emotion. You know, this is not the kind of thing he normally gets to do. And, you know, I would give him the Oscar for best audiobook narrator. I thought he did an amazing job.
[00:43:59] Speaker A: I love hearing this because now I like hearing people say this because I read the, the galley, digital galley ahead of time, and I saw that the digital or the audio galley was out there and I almost went and requested it because I'm like, I'll read it again just to hear the person's narrating it because again, I've heard good things about it.
I have it right here. I just pulled it up. His name is John.
Yeah, he narrated the book. So, yeah, now I'm going to have to read it again. Forced me to read it again. No, I enjoy it because I like hearing a different ways people talk and the way that, you know, the speed at what they talk or the inflection on things like people do a good job narrating these books nowadays, and it's not as simple as just a straight ahead. I wouldn't be able to listen myself narrative book, but I like listening to other people narrative.
[00:44:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I would never read one of my books because the people who know how to do it, I mean, he gives a performance, he performs. You know, he's not just reading it, he's, you know, he really adds a lot to it.
Pretty incredible.
[00:45:00] Speaker A: You know, it's great. So the last one at the wedding is available at bookstores everywhere. It's a wonderful book by Jason here that sets itself apart from a lot of the other books that I've read recently. And I'm really appreciative of you taking time out to come talk about the book on here. And hopefully people will go out there and buy it because just one person grabbing it because we talked, it makes me happy because I want someone else to read something and like something that I liked. Forget you. I don't care if people buy it because of you. I just want people to buy it because I liked it.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: Listen, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: Thanks a lot, Jason. All right.
[00:45:33] Speaker B: See ya.
