Welcome And The Big Reveal

George Blitch 0:14

Hey Joe, how are you doing today, man?

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Good, George. I appreciate you having me back on the podcast. Always enjoy being here.

George Blitch 0:22

Yeah, I'm glad to have you on. Now it's a little bit of a different hat here. You've come on before as the executive director, Houston Safari Club Foundation. We've done some work together there. But now I'm hosting you with your debut thriller novel, Hammer. Dude, congratulations. What an amazing book.

Hammer’s Plot And Main Character

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm I'm very, very excited. I'm very excited to share with people and hopefully they'll like it.

George Blitch 0:45

Oh, I think they will. So I think let's start with a little bit of the premise. Let's tell a little bit of the story, and then we'll kind of dive into the background on maybe, you know, how this was created and the backstory and everything. But let's just let's cut to the chase here. For people who have not maybe read a little bit about this yet. They don't have the book in hand. They want to know about what is this story about. Why don't you go ahead and give us the uh beginning details, please?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Sure. Uh it is uh it kind of falls into a few different genre categories. It's a political thriller, but it's also an uh action and adventure and kind of a mystery, uh, all wrapped into one. And the premise is my protagonist, my main character, whose name is Jack Garrett, his his uh retired UFC world champion. His fighting name was Jack Hammer Garrett, that's the original title for the first book. Um, and he's you know decided to give it up. He's done just about everything he wants to do in the cage, and he wants to move back home to the Hill Country in Texas and start his new life there uh with his wife and kids and become a farmer, a rancher, and uh own a hunting operation and a shooting school, and and that's kind of what he does. And uh there are some life events or tragedies that happen um that take him out of his uh new peaceful existence into uh a world of intrigue and investigation as he's trying to find out what caused the tragedy, and and uh without giving too much away, uh basically he's an impatient guy that you know he he respects the police and respects federal agencies, but he's like I'm an action guy, I'm gonna do it myself and figure this one this one out.

Where Jack Garrett Came From

George Blitch 2:23

Well, you you kind of talk about you know these various uh you know, you got the UFC style thing, you've got the farming and ranching world. Um, I mean, there's a the international, of course, there's different organizations we're gonna talk about, and what they come up there is a lot of uh corruption that that takes place, obviously the the tragedy being a mainstay and and kind of him you know seeking out revenge and justice on his own. And there's a lot of different avenues of this. And so, like as you mentioned, I was curious about, you know, obviously you know the hunting world. This is something you're familiar with. Um, were you a champion UFC fighter? I mean, no, I I know that you were not, but where did this idea of this character and placing him in this uh set and setting come to you? I'm curious about like this development of the character. Uh, let's start with with Jack Hammer Garrett and how he spoke to you. When did you start first writing this? Kind of tell me the genesis of him and this story, please.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

So, you know, it's my story's not much different from other writers who first get started. Um, and that, you know, it's been a long journey, uh, a lot of trials and errors and ups and downs and things like that. I had the concept kind of for the book bouncing around my head for a few years. And then when the pandemic hit back in 20, you know, things slowed down. I'm like, now's the time to do it if I'm ever gonna do it. So I started putting, you know, notes to paper. Um, I have a friend of mine who's a published author, a very, very successful published author, Jack Carr, who encouraged me to do that and even, you know, even recommended, and you've had Jack obviously on the podcast before a couple of times, and he recommended a software program that he used uh to get started called Scrivener. I started learning Scrivener. Um and it's really cool for those of you starting a writing journey. It's great because it allows you to plot and outline your book on on virtual posted notes, and you can add your research, and you can, it's not a commercial for Scrivener, but it's a great organizational tool to get started. But you can add your research there and save it. You can build character profiles and write your story and convert it to Word and then go from there. Um but my exposure to the MMA world came through. Um, yeah, first of all, I took I took uh Tang Sud, which is an older version of Taekwondo with my kids because they wanted to do martial arts. And then years down the road, my wife and I became friends with Matt Hughes, the former uh UFC welterweight champion, one of the original OGs or pioneers in in uh in UFC. And um, you know, I got a chance to meet a lot of fighters uh over the years through Matt, and we we actually hosted a hunting show together. I had him uh host a hunting show when he retired. And so that was kind of my exposure to UFC. And of course, my wife, who could pick out a UFC fighter on TV and goes, yo, I remember back 12 years ago when he beat so-and-so. I mean, she's a fanatic about it. Um, so that was kind of the genesis of the character. I wanted, you know, it could have been every man, it could have been just a guy from Texas. I, you know, they say write what you know. So I I started writing what I knew. I I know Texas, I grew up here, I love the Texas Hill Country. I've got that, you know, uh collateral exposure to MMA, having been around a bunch of fighters and world champions over the years and Matt Hughes, um, and learned a few things. Um, but that that was kind of the the genesis was I wanted to create somebody who you know comes from a unique background, and we all know how big UFC is, especially with their move to Paramount. Now you can see them every week. But I wanted to build a character with a unique background who's also uh he's an animal in the cage, but he's a really nice guy. And I kind of patterned that after Matt. Matt's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, will do anything for you. But when the cage door opens or shuts behind him, he's a totally different person, and that's who Jack Hammer Garrett is. And that was kind of the genesis of that. And then, of course, some of my world travel experiences and hunting internationally and things like that tied in the international component. So the the novel goes from the Texas Hill Country, which is Jack's home base, to you know, to Africa, to uh uh Bulgaria and to Mexico and other places, and and it was really cool because the more I started writing it, the more I'm thinking, like, oh, well, this needs to happen here. And the fun thing about writing about places, some places I've never been, I've never been to Bulgaria, but I started pulling airport maps and figuring out what the storage buildings were and things like that. So um you'll see all that is the level of detail that I like to have entwined in my books. So I don't just make things up as far as physical landscapes go. They're actually documented, or I've been there.

George Blitch 6:58

Well, it and you know, that kind of research you see, you know, to the nth degree of that kind of detail. And that takes a lot of time. I mean, you you mentioned you started writing this in COVID. So if you had this in your brain and then you put it down, and then how many years? Because I mean, obviously you just have your physical copy that got arrived to you this last week. When did you finish this up as far as to submitting it to, you know, and we'll talk about the editing process and things there too, but at a point where you felt like, okay, this is good for submission, knowing that there's going to be some more iterations and you know edits and things before you kind of get your complete final draft. But I was curious, like, what did that timeline look like for you from beginning to end? Because some people don't really understand how long it maybe takes to develop, write out a full book in that kind of outline format. So yeah, I was just kind of curious about that kind of timeline for you.

Rejection, Agents, And Finding A Publisher

SPEAKER_00 7:52

So started writing in 20. I actually had the first draft of the first book finished after about six months. I knew where I was going. Uh, I was already I knew the beginning, the middle, and the end. And of course, um my journey is not unlike a lot of unpublished authors or people who don't have connections in the industry. It's very, very competitive to get a book out there. I mean, you can you can write a book, uh, you can do it, uh put it up on uh, you know, self-publish on Amazon and that sort of things, but I kind of wanted to go the traditional route because I have a full-time gig and I didn't have a lot of time to put into marketing things. So my story was wrote the first book done in six months, had somebody edit it for me after I'd done multiple edits, and that was it was okay. Um, and then found uh another editor and really liked what he did with it, uh, kind of guided me and asked me questions. And when you work with an editor, they don't say, I need you to write this. What they say is, well, this didn't make any sense, or what happened to this guy, or that should have happened earlier, or you probably need to add a chapter about something else, maybe. So having a good professional editor is uh a godsend. Um, so I was going through that process. I started writing the follow-up book, which is already finished and edited as well. The second one in the series, it's it follows Jack Garrett, Hammer Garrett into uh another adventure. But in the meantime, with the first book, um, so I really had kind of wrote two books in two years, you know, uh if if you look at it from that standpoint. But in the meantime, I'm trying to get my first book out there after I've had it edited a couple of times on top of the edits that I made. Cold calls, emails to literary agents, probably over 150, didn't get a bye. Not right for us, didn't really, not really what we're looking for, et cetera, et cetera. So that went on for about four years. I found somebody who knew a literary agent. He agreed to rep me. Um, we worked together for about a year, just didn't really work out. Um, and then, you know, they always say that, you know, God has a plan for you. There are things that happen that don't happen for a reason. Um my wife was always, just be patient, it's gonna happen. Well, you know, four or five years go by, and you're like, how patient do I have to be? And so I called a guy who I knew who was an attorney that worked with the Duck Commander Duck Dynasty guys. And he said, Well, you know, so-and-so, and I'm not gonna name names, so-and-so, one of the family members, has a father-in-law who was a publisher. Call him. So I called him, he said, Well, I just do Christian books and I've sold my publishing business, but I may know somebody who may be interested in it. And that group was Clovercroft Publishing. And I sent them a copy of the manuscript. And they're like, Yep, we'll publish this, no problem. And Jack Carr, God bless him, he had read it, you know, he had already given me an endorsement for it. And so I knew I had that uh that gravity. Um, and I'd had five or six other beta readers from different specialties, from former spec ops guys to um to guys who ran television networks, to to podcasters, to other authors, and they all came back and said, Joe, you've got a sellable book. Well, you know, you write stuff, you don't know if it's good. And until somebody else, like at that level, looks at it and goes, I think you've really got a sellable book here. Um, I went through all the cold calling. I worked with literary agents, that didn't work out. I didn't get any literary agents call me back. And then when I was guided to Clovercroft, they're like, Yeah, we'll do it. And so that's how it, that's how six years of that journey have come to fruition is that Clovercroft agreed to publish it and they're publishing it.

George Blitch 11:24

Hey, good things take time, right? I mean, it this is you got to find the right people to work with. I'm sure it can be discouraging. And for those people who are are writing, maybe, you know, their their own first book, their novel, or whatever project it is, maybe even it's film, whatever it is that someone's working on, it takes a lot of time to get what your story is the way you want it. And then it takes time to get the right people to work with. And so, you know, that that's it's a journey. But um, I I love the fact that, you know, I got to see a video of you opening your very first book and your box and being able to pull out your first book. What was that feeling like when you actually had a physical in your hand for the first time? Why don't you tell uh the audience now?

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Well, the box came in, the boxes came in, but I had a few copies sent to the house, and uh it it was uh it was more exciting than I anticipated it. You know, you're patient for so long, but until you actually hold your your physical book, you know, which actually you know finally got a copy, um, hold it in your hand. Then I was like a kid, you know, it was giddy. Uh I I probably I think I giggled in that video because I was just kind of it it surprised me how I was humbled, uh, I was proud, and it was just like Christmas morning, it was like opening a present to finally see six years of work, you know, in print with your name on the cover and that sort of thing. And it's uh it was it was absolutely amazing. And I was glad that, you know, that my the most special thing was that my wife was there to share with me.

George Blitch 12:54

Oh, that's great. Well, she's been supporting you all these years and and helping you to stay patient when you need to, right? So that's great that you guys got to share that together. Um, this is a book that as I read it, it it kind of I could visualize this in film format. And I was curious if throughout this process while you were writing it, maybe uh through you know, post-writing it and and working with someone, is this something that you ever thought about adapting into a form film format? Is there interest in that? And you know, you don't want to spill any you know beans there with that necessarily, but I was curious about that because there's some strong dialogue, very strong characters, a lot of travel, a lot of thrill. I mean, it it leaves you on your seat as a reader. It's hard to put the book down. Uh, the bags underneath my eyes can uh show you this because I I I never wanted to stop, man, and even reading it through again, it's very it's just so intriguing. And I could see that on, you know, in in film format. And I I say on screen, but now you know you got all the digital, you know, as far as subscription-based things too. So I guess in film format. So yeah, I was kind of curious about that in in your take, and if that was uh a thought along the way or now.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Yeah, I um you know that a lot of writers will tell you if you're writing to get rich, stop writing. That's not the reason why. And that wasn't really why, you know, that wasn't the reason I started writing the book. The book had had a general concept, and as I started to write, the fun thing about it is like, oh wow, he could do this and he can do that. So while there's a lot of fact and there's a lot of data that's uh that's real data in there, um, the fun thing for me is to is to be writing and let the book take me where it's going to take me. Uh that's just kind of my style, my technique. Is I'll be writing something, I kind of know what the plan is, I know the ups and downs in the book. Um, but like there were several things in the first and the second book, the follow-up book that's going to be coming out later, where I gave characters quirks I didn't think about before. Or I was like, you know, I've been standing on a hill on a ridge in the Texas Hill Country. I can perfectly describe this. Um, as far as your question goes about format, um, you know, we're coming out with print and an e-book. If that does well, we'll do an audiobook. Um, but I've had, it's funny you say that, and I appreciate the compliment of you saying that you couldn't put it down. That that means a lot to me. Um the concept of converting it to film or a series, um, I've had quite a few people who have read an advanced copy who said, man, this is perfect for this is perfect for a series. You should you should talk to somebody about this. Well, I'm not that guy that has that, you know, um has that uh those contacts in that industry. So if you're watching this and you're interested, let me know because I I I didn't write it to where I could convert it into a series, but it it reads as such. And I I don't write a lot of flowery dialogue. I'm pretty direct. I don't like write a lot of, I try to describe the scene and the setting, um, but I'm pretty um, what's the word? Pretty conservative with my words. I want to keep the reader engaged and I want them to know that I appreciate their time and picking up the book and reading it. So at the end of the day, I want them to be at a chapter. I'm like, I gotta go to the next chapter, or when they're done, I'm like, yep, I was satisfied with that. But yes, to answer your question, I'd love to see it uh developed as a series or a movie.

George Blitch 16:23

That'd be amazing. And you you know, I was thinking about this idea of like you kind of like you write what you know. And so some of these things, these place, this the setting, especially that outdoor world, the travel, the places you've been, um, are very conducive to things that you've experienced there uh or or that you know someone has, maybe it's adjacent there. But the idea of the thriller novel, the mystery, the adventure, uh, this kind of drama that happens, you know, is this something you know because you have been a big fan of this genre? Is this something that you have always been like as far as intrigued with this kind of style of story? I was curious about that. And, you know, maybe if that is the case, when did you first find your love for this kind of story and the and in the storytelling uh as well?

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Yeah, I um you know, I I like a lot of different genres. Uh I'm not as a prolific reader, especially with my schedule uh as a lot of people are, but I read different books and I do a lot of audiobooks because I'm driving an hour to work and I'm driving an hour home from work every day. Um, I I listen to everything from this genre, the political thriller genre, to uh rock and roll autobiographies, to books about Theodore Roosevelt, uh past presidents, I love Civil War history, I love World War II history. So it's kind of all over the board. Um, but if if I had to talk about my guilty pleasure and my wife and I plop down on the couch one day, I like this type of genre. I like the twists and turns, I like the international intrigue, I like writing bad guys a spine. Um there you can be so, you know, sometimes people go, wow, that's that was pretty harsh. You know, is that really in your brain? And it's kind of scary, but yeah, it is. Um, but I like to write the bad guys, but I like this genre. That's my guilty pleasure as far as watching things on television, uh, international political thrillers and mysteries, as well as true crime uh documentaries, if they're well done. So it's kind of a mishmash of all those things. And the fun thing is, is is is writing characters and people, bits and pieces of people I know and putting them in to build one character. Or just I know the guy, he's got such a strong, unique personality. I'm gonna take him and I'm gonna use him in this book, People in My Own Life. It varies. And I and I inflect a my mother was a huge influence in my life, and I inflect a lot of her sayings and things and some of the dialogue as well.

George Blitch 18:54

Oh, it's a nice donor in that way, man. And and you know, I I I saw that there were some different characters that were in there that I was like, I wonder if that's that person who owns all these outdoor places. Like there, and I won't give it away, but there's there's some folks who I was like, uh there's some adjacency that I could maybe see where there might have been some influence. Obviously, you talked about Matt Hughes being, you know, someone who who inspired this character. Are there other characters you'd like to go ahead and and maybe, you know, we don't want to go too much and give any spoilers here, but the idea of, you know, you obviously talked about uh, you know, Jack and you know, him being a UFC fighter, ranch uh, you know, owner, and you know, kind of a little bit about him and his kind of you know fight to the end mentality. But I was curious if there's some other characters that you'd like to maybe introduce to us uh today and maybe tell them a little bit about uh some of those, you know, maybe it's the antagonist or whatever it is, because there's a lot of main characters in here, but I don't want to dive too deep and and uncover too much in the story, but I'd love for you to maybe talk about some of the other ones that were uh, you know, interesting for you to write and people who you kind of put on paper that you really connected with a a telling their story, at least, if not their own story as it is.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Right. Well, there were there were some things we took we actually took out of the book, and and I I like to release some, I call it secret content, unpublished content. Like uh the editors felt that Jack and Hannah, his wife's backstory was a little much for the book, and people wouldn't really care about it. So I'm like, that's great. Well, I'll save that and I'll reveal that later. So I kind of tell how they met and their backstory, uh, talk about Jack's parents, their backstory. Uh Jack's father is um um he's head of the U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee, and he's been involved in a lot of investigations internationally about things, and that kind of ties into the storyline. Um so, you know, I his parents, Jack's close friends, there's several politicians. Uh, some are good guys, some are bad guys from that perspective, uh, as we've all seen in in Washington. Um, it talks a little bit about some of the dirty underbelly of Washington, uh, D.C. and politics and things that kind of get you know under the radar. Um you know, as far as the antagonists, uh, my antagonist is Elijah Cargill. He's a medical doctor by training, uh, becomes very wealthy from an invention, and um, he's basically opened up a worldwide humanitarian effort. Um, and he and Jack have a relationship that's very interesting. And there's a lot of local characters from in and around Jack's hometown uh outside of Fredericksburg, Texas, in the Hill Country. Um, as far as the other character goes, uh characters go, you know, there's uh they're kind of a mishmash of people I've met and seen over the years. Frank Sizemore is the FBI specialist agent assigned to the case. And, you know, him and Jack's relationship didn't start off very well. Um, I'll leave it at that. You'll see how that develops. Um and you know, there's just there's really, you know, when I look at the writing of the book, I really look At the two forces. There's in this type of book, there's a force of good and a force of evil. Well, Jack is a force of good that's been affected by evil, and then I have to write the evil side as well, his antagonist. So it's it's you know, I've worked in a hospital setting, uh, I've been around some not so nice people, and you'll recognize that in Dr. Cargill and his son Abel, who is probably the worst character in the book. And you'll actually hate him pretty quickly. Um and and uh, you know, the other ones are just I try to get enough characters in the book where they were relevant, they were part of the storyline. But you know, sometimes when I personally pick up books and I read and there's 35 characters, it's I kind of got, wait, I gotta go back because I forgot who that is and what they do. And then one of Jack's best friends is based on a guy. Um, he's got two good, really good friends that are noted in the book, and one is way based off of one of my best friends, and you'll know who that is. And the other one is based off of uh a guy that I've known for quite a few years. Uh uh, without giving too much away, his his main occupation is that he, you know, he owns one of the fastest growing um uh gun stores and shooting uh ranges in the in the country. Um and I kind of built that loosely based on based on him, but uh and took him to uh the nth degree as far as what he he's really all about. So yeah, it's it's just it's really most of them are a culmination of people that I've known over my past personal and professional life. But uh it's it's fun. I gotta be honest with you. Um Jack's my guy, Jack Hammer Garrett's my guy, but I love to write the bad people. Um and I don't want to write them to the extents where they're offensive to anyone, but at the same time, bad people are bad people, and bad people are gonna do bad things, and that's what they do in this book.

Preorders, Giveaways, Reviews, And Newsletter

George Blitch 23:55

Sure, and and you know, you can find it offensive because you just like that good versus evil, man. The evil is an offensive thing, but you that is what kind of builds up so much of the thriller uh nature of this book, man. Of like, and then you you want to see these people uh get served justice. And I think, you know, in a lot of the different thrillers, you know, things that you and I, friends of ours, you know, jack and things with you're just kind of like, oh, come on, come on. You're just hoping that that person gets dealt what they deserve in that sense. And so it's kind of leaves you on on your seat, and every single bad thing that you know Abel's doing and stuff, you're like, oh, I hope he pays for that, you know. And so it it keeps you going, man. And uh you but you got to write that kind of thing out to be able to also have that juxtaposition of the good. And, you know, it's part of that that story. So I I I get that, but uh, you did a phenomenal job um, you know, framing this whole story, putting this together. I can't wait for people to to have this in their hands, you know. And right now we're about to release this, and it it's we're in the pre-order stage, right? So if you're listening to this before May 5th, the day of the publication, I strongly encourage you guys to go over to Amazon, use the link below in the show notes, place your order. And this is something that, you know, kind of these pre-orders, they help to determine sometimes how uh this book gets measured and what level of success. I mean, this could be a bestseller right out of the gate, and of course, the algorithms that get out there further. And this is a book that I think every single person who, especially fans of the genres we talked about, needs to read. But other than that, you're just a damn good guy, Joe. And I want people to support uh what you've got and and what you've put out and your passions. You are I I I said this and it wasn't joking. Your debut novel is right on par with some of the best thriller writers, the Jack Carr, the the Don Bentleys, the Brad Thor's, the Tom Clancy. It it has a space in that shelf with all these books here, and I cannot wait for the second one to come out. And I just overall, man, I just want to say congratulations uh for this, you know, this great accomplishment that you've done of putting together this book, man. It you can tell you spent a lot of time on it, and it's man, it's it's a masterpiece right out of the gig.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Well, I appreciate the compliments and to be even mentioned in the same conversation with those names. Those are all you know big heroes of mine from the writing world. And uh I, you know, I think one of the other questions, just to kind of uh talk when you talk about characters, one of the other questions I get uh uh that pops up a lot is, you know, um, or it's a dilemma for me more than anything, is who do you kill off and who do you not kill off? And you'll you'll see that in the first book and even in the second book, there are some people that probably I should have killed off that were so interesting to me that I want to bring them back. Um, so it and you can't you can't write a novel or a book like this and kill everybody and then spread all over, you know, from square one because his the the books are written as a series and it is a continuation of his journey, and he's gonna come back and forth and encounter some of these people that that you're gonna meet and hopefully like in the uh or hate in the first book as well. So I I appreciate the compliments. I it's I shouldn't even be mentioned with those same names, but I appreciate that.

George Blitch 27:08

No, you should, man. And that that I say this as as a as an endorsement of full honesty as as a friend. I'm just incredibly impressed with this, you know, when someone's like, hey, you know, check out my book or something I've worked on, you know, or this painting or whatever, and it's like your buddy, and you want to be like, yeah, like this one blew me away. I was like, oh man, Joe, okay, uh, okay, I didn't realize you're a talented man in so many different respects. And writing is now just another one that I put up there with all your other ones. So uh man, it I uh this is just to let people know who are listening, you need to go check out this book. You need to place your pre-order. If you're listening to this after May 5th, place your order. And uh, you know, hopefully it it turns into the audiobook. I know there's a lot of fans in that world too, but man, it's just a great all-around. And in fact, one of the things that we're gonna do, uh, Joe and I discuss this is we're gonna give a few of these books away. So I will have some separate posts on socials, but basically all you're gonna be doing is you're gonna follow my page, you're gonna follow Joe's pages, and then you're gonna go ahead and listen to this podcast, and then boom, you're entered in. So then we'll just kind of give you the direction on how to do that. Going to be giving away a few copies to some lucky listeners. Uh, but you know, I encourage everyone still, one of the things that helps authors is getting these orders in. You can go to Amazon and do that, and that is something that'll help that algorithm get this out to more people because this is a book that needs to be in every fan's hands of these genres that we spoke about.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Yeah, absolutely. And and our goal is uh on Amazon is 30 reviews than 30 days. So if you buy the book and you like it, you know, please leave a review on Amazon on the books page because that that really helps a lot. Uh reviews, even if it's two sentences, loved it, hated it, whatever. You know, it's everybody's got their own preferences, but leaving uh reviews on Amazon is a huge help. We're gonna do our goal is to get at least 30 reviews in 30 days. And if you want to check out check out my socials, I also do a weekly blog, anything like that. You can go to Joe B tar, that's B is and Bob E-T-A-R, JoeBitar.com, and sign up for I do a free newsletter that's got you know secret content, things like that I put out. Typically, I try to put that out on a monthly basis, but up until the uh launch on May 5th, we're gonna do a weekly newsletter, and I'm I'm posting on the blog weekly as well. And you can get all my socials and everything there, uh jobtar.com.

Gratitude, Next Book Timeline, Closing

George Blitch 29:22

That's great. No, and I highly encourage people to do that. And it's kind of you talked about it before too, some of the things that may have been cut out in the book, but you tell these stories maybe through your newsletter and the blogs. It's cool, man. It's like back in the day when you get a movie and you got like the director's cut DVD, right? You can kind of hear the background of of certain things of like why they did this. But here you get another element of the story of how these like, you know, Jack and Hannah, how they met in their relationship that you don't get in the book, but it's like an extra layer that you have of that onion of like being able to say, Oh, okay, it's another, you know, another colorational palette of this story, this other degree of this, which kind of enriches your characters. And I love that kind of thing, especially in a digital day and age where we can do that. You know, this 30 years ago that wasn't a thing, but now you can do that, and then you can also be like, hey, by the way, this might have been the inspiration, or this place might have inspired that, or this story, or these people you met. There's so much that you can go ahead and advance and kind of fill in those strokes uh with color of those, you know, characters, the stories, the people, the places. And I love that you can do that, and I love that you've done that right out of the gate. I think it really enriches things. So I highly uh suggest people go and you know go to geobitar.com, sign up for all these, uh, and I'll have the direct link below there too. So um, you know, Joe, and the last kind of question I had for you is you've had a lot of support of friends and family. Uh, and you know, now that you have this physical book in your hands, what would you like to say to all those people who have supported you, whether it's the team kind of helping to produce this and get it in print, your family, your friends, those readers, Jack Carr, other other friends who have been supporters in this world, uh, you know, what is it that you'd like to share uh with them? Uh, I just want to give you that platform to say that real quick.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

I I appreciate that. Well, first and foremost, to my wife for putting up with me through this process when I say I'm gonna go write for an hour or two and I'm you know it's midnight and I'm still writing stuff. Um and writers, writers understand that sometimes you get on a roll and you just can't stop. Um, and and for her constant advice to me to just be patient for this process. Uh, I'm new in this world. Uh to Jack Carr and all my beta readers who I mentioned uh on my website and my blogs, uh, thank you for your honest feedback. Uh they told me the good, bad, and the ugly, and that's what helped it become, I think, become a better book. Um, so beta readers are very important. Um, friends and professionals in the industry who will be brutally honest with you and tell you this makes sense or this doesn't make sense. Um, and just uh general support of you know friends and family who have said, you know, you can do this. I mean, it's uh it's something you have to do on your own. You gotta want to do it. Um, but it definitely helps to have the support of friends and family and people who are brutally honest with you enough to, and and when I gave copies out, the first I mean, the first draft was horrible, you know. But that's what you want. You want you need to step away from it, forest with them trees kind of thing. You gotta step away from it, let other people read it, and um let them give you honest feedback. And you go, yeah, that makes I've been so burying this, that makes absolute sense. Let me start over on this section. And uh, you know, my family, uh, like I said, first and foremost, my wife and my family. Um, and lastly, uh Shane Cra Shane Crabtree and the guys at Clovercroft for believing in me, uh, and writers like Jack Carr for believing in me to say, go do it, man. Let's go.

George Blitch 32:47

That's it, man. That's amazing. I I love that you have such a great team of support. And I I know how appreciative you are, but I wanted to make sure that you you kind of let listeners hear about this because you got a great team behind you. And you know, it can be discouraging writing, uh especially a book, because you know, there it's it's a lot to it, man. And it's you need to have sometimes that feedback to get over things, especially because you might be so narrowed in on something, you might miss something, or you you might need that other perspective. And so while it is a singular journey of writing, it it really helps to have people to bounce ideas off of and to be able to say something like that, a constructive criticism or whatever it is. Or sometimes I I forget what writer it was who said your first draft is always crap, right? But like it is sometimes you need to have those iterations, and it it's it's the hardest thing about writing a book is the writing, and it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of effort. And man, you have stuck with it, you've put out a masterpiece. It is an amazing first debut novel. I am so proud of you, Joe. Um, and you know, we gave the the website again, all the show notes down below will have that for you guys to go and follow. Join the newsletter and follow this journey. Can you give us a teaser of when you think the next book will come in? Because I'm ready for it right now, but I know I'm gonna have to wait for a minute.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

If things work out as planned, hopefully, you know, there's kind of two times a year that they release books, one right before the summer reading season. So that's why we're releasing this one uh May 5th. And I would like to release the next one right before the holiday season. So November, December, you know, before Christmas. Um, but uh, you know, if people snap this book up and and uh people are hungry for it, yeah, hopefully within six months the next one comes out. And uh I've already got the third one outlined. I just need to start, you know, getting the details put together.

George Blitch 34:29

Awesome. Well, you hear that, everybody. Go get your copies, get hungry, get these, buy them for friends and family, gift them out, and then maybe before Christmas, we'll have another one in our hands because I don't want to wait a year. So it's selfish. I know, I know. But you guys, once you pick this up and you start reading, you won't want to wait either. So listen, let's go support Joe. And again, congratulations on Hammer. Man, you just you knocked it out of the park, bud. And I'm I'm so proud of you, and I'm so glad that uh this is going to be in people's hands finally. I know I got an earlier copy to read, and I'm just like, oh, people are gonna be so excited. So, May 5th, everybody, go place your orders, leave your reviews on Amazon. Let's help Joe climb these charts and get this book in more people's hands. Thanks again for joining me today, Joe.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Thanks, George. I appreciate your support through this whole process. Really do, and thanks everybody out there as well. All right, cheers, y'all. Take care. Take care.