Writing Series People Want to Read with Brad Ricks

Tanner00:00:00

On this episode of the Killer Pros podcast, I interview author Brad Ricks, and we get into what it's like to write a series versus writing a standalone novel. If there's any changes to the process, we also talk about driving forces that keep readers moving through your series.This is something you're going to want to listen to, whether you're a horror writer or you're a thriller writer. When we start talking about having that monster of the week, if you're a thriller writer, crime writer, just replace that with crime of the week.Same thing. All right, let's go ahead and get this started. Welcome back to the Killer Prose Podcast.I'm your host, Tanner, and I am joined in the virtual studio today by author Brad Ricks. He's the creator of the Night Crew series and the host of the Night Crew podcast. He is three books into this new series.If you like, blends of horror and thriller, a little bit of that international mystery. Awesome series. How you doing, man? I'm doing well, so welcome back. I think this is like the third or fourth time you've been on.I think you've been on more than you did.

Brad Ricks00:01:13

I think this makes number three. Yeah, yeah.

Tanner00:01:16

So you are three books into writing a series now. Have you noticed anything? Well, actually, you know what?Let's talk about the series because I've got a lot of new listeners now, and they might not be familiar with Night Crew. So tell us a little bit about what's going on in that world.

Brad Ricks00:01:30

So the Night Crew starts off, you're following, just a normal everyday guy. And the book opens with he comes home from work and catches somebody's in the middle of attacking his wife.And he fights the attacker, attacker runs off, and his wife ends up dying kind of in his arms. And he doesn't get much help from the local authorities, so he goes searching on his own.And he ends up finding his wife's killer, but finds out it's a vampire. And he himself almost becomes, I like to joke, he almost becomes food for thought.And until the Night Crew, which is a group of monster hunters, they jump in to save him, and then he joins forces with them to then get revenge for his wife's murder. So that's kind of how it starts. And that's, you know, that's kind of my. My little. My normal little elevator pitch for book one.And then from there it. The story kind of expands into more than just this one encounter. And that the. In the. The whole world is.It's pretty much every, like, creature that goes Bump in the Night is, is real and, and there's an organization that is kind of in charge of them and they have this agreement with humans on how much you can feed and how many you can kill and all that. And so this world is being disrupted. And so the Night crew is one of the ones that are trying to help put it back together.

Tanner00:03:07

It's a nice genre blend and we'll get to that a little bit later. If you like thrillers and you like those covert teams, ragtag founders, family type books, this is going to scratch that itch.If you like horror and a few visceral scenes, you're also going to get that one. So it's like, it's a nice bridge. If you have a friend who's not into horror but really likes thrillers, it's a good read. Or vice versa.Somebody's not into thrillers, likes horror. When you're writing this series, how does it stack up with the process of actually getting this done? From planning to writing and getting it through?How's it different from writing a standalone?

Brad Ricks00:03:50

So when I first started writing like the first one, I didn't anticipate it being a series. It kind of turned into it midway.And so afterwards it kind of has the same process in part of writing just a standalone, but you're kind of expanding things into a lot larger of a, a set piece, you know, a lot, a lot more moving parts.And then you kind of take that larger kind of story grid and break it into chunks and each chunk becomes kind of, you know, part of, part of the book. And with, with doing a series, I've noticed like there's especially the way I'm kind of structuring it.It's very much like, almost like if you're watching a television show where every episode can kind of be standalone, but at the same time there's this thread that runs through it that kind of connects the overarching story together. So it's doing a.So I had the kind of the overarching storyline and then doing each book I can take some almost like standalone kind of elements and be like, oh well, this one, it's going to be a creature of the week for this and then drop it in and then I can, you know, you can almost just kind of really focus on that story and have what's going on. The hardest thing really has been also to maintain that there is an overarching storyline and, and maintaining that thread throughout it.

Tanner00:05:22

The, the, the audience here now is kind of split between one group of Horror writers and then one group of, like, crime thriller writers. And I like how this kind of sits right there in the middle. So like the Jack Reacher, all of.All of the PI books, from cozies to the hard boiled stuff, you have these long form elements where you have a couple of threads that go through the stories.Sometimes it's relational, sometimes it's something bigger that's going on in society that ends up coming to a climax and being a bigger part of the story later on. But you always have those case of the week type things, the monster of the week. How are you weaving those in?Like, when you started the story out, you originally wanted the book to be a standalone or you were thinking it was going to be a standalone.

Brad Ricks00:06:08

Originally, I thought it was going to be just a fun little standalone little vampire novel. And then that midway through the book, I realized that I gave my antagonist more of a reason than just, I'm a bad guy.And in doing that, doing that kind of expanded the world. And. And so from that, that's kind of when I realized I was like, oh, this is a series now. And so then I kind of mapped that.I was like, oh, well, with the series, I want to make sure I bring in a good cast of characters and I want to make sure in the climax that there's certain things that I've touched on earlier pay out in the end. And so there's little stuff like that that you try to feed through it.

Tanner00:06:54

When I was writing Dangerous Whispers, and it's finally coming out in October.

Brad Ricks00:06:58

Sweet.

Tanner00:06:59

Yes. I meant for it to be a series as I was going, and I knew there's like a little bit of a romance thread that's happening in the book. And I knew that.I'm not gonna say how many books, but in my head I'm like, that's a certain number of book arc that will pay off. At this point of the series, I was looking at one person who was supposed to be. I don't think it'll be a spoiler. My main bad guy in this book.And I was like, I really, really like that individual. And I want to keep him around for a couple books and maybe do something bigger and have it building in the background where it pays off later.So I plucked him out.When you were going through and you were writing this book or any of the subsequent books, did you have those little threads like, you're going through first draft and you write it and you're like, I really want to do something bigger with this guy. I'm Going to have him work this little thing in the background and pull him in for a bigger pounding later kind of.

Brad Ricks00:07:51

I mean there's.Because there is a, you know, there's, there is like a little, there's stuff happening in the background that they kind of keep hinting in at the third book you get a little bit bigger of a, of a hint of stuff that's going on and then when in the, the next couple that are coming out after is when it, it really hits the fan and so you know it. So yeah, I mean there's a lot of it right now, especially in the first couple books.It's kind of been more kind of secret behind the, behind the scenes. I wanted the first couple really kind of focus on the team so that you fall in love with the characters and you fall in love with the team.So that way if anything happens to any of them, not saying that that's going to, but if they, if it does, then there's a lot more emotional payout at the, at the end. You know, if.It doesn't matter if a character dies if you don't like the characters, but you know, if you fall in love with the characters, then now, you know, you pulling on the emotional heartstrings. So pull a. Lee Mountford.

Tanner00:08:52

Yeah.

Brad Ricks00:08:53

For anybody who is reading the Night Crew series and you know, is in love with the characters, that doesn't mean I'm going to kill them. I'm just saying I could.

Tanner00:09:02

It doesn't mean you're not though. Let's keep the sticks in there.

Brad Ricks00:09:05

Doesn't mean I'm not.It's, it's funny because I'll have, I'll, I'll post on my Facebook group occasionally and I post like, like if I had to kill a character, who would it be? And I get a whole bunch of. It better not be.And there's a, a beta reader that I have who she runs the little book club that I'm part of and you know, she's threatening with, you know, bodily harm if I kill certain characters. And so I'm like, well that means I'm doing my job as a, as the writer to make sure you are, you're invested in these characters.I mean, I'm not George R.R. Martin. I'm not just going to like willy nilly just start wiping out characters. But you know, but still it's horror. So yeah.

Tanner00:09:51

Gotta be stakes. Well, that's the thing. Like I don't know if you read it. The Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

Brad Ricks00:09:56

I just started book Three.

Tanner00:09:58

Oh my God, I am in book eight right now. And Matt Deniman said he considers himself a horror writer and he doesn't like doing happy endings.And I'm like, you son of a bitch, if this cat does not make.

Brad Ricks00:10:14

It, those are not words that I like to.

Tanner00:10:20

Oh, man. So, like, when you're going through this, you want to keep those stakes high.And it's, let's be honest, it's fun to play with your readers a bit and dangle some stuff out there as you're going through.Now that writing book three compared to writing book one, have you noticed that since the world is built and you're basically just maybe broadening the spotlight on the stuff that's happening or pulling back the curtain a little bit more so that you start off a horror and if you're new to the genre or you're new to writing, when you start a novel, it's very close and as you go through the story, it opens up, it's a slower pace. When you're writing a series, have you found that since the world is built, are you getting through these projects faster?Have you found, like, it's easier just to get in that world and start getting those words out a little bit?

Brad Ricks00:11:15

And some of it is because the world is more set, you know, when in the first book, the first book I wrote in first person, the others are not. But I wrote it in first person because I wanted you as the reader to be experiencing the world kind of as the main character is.You know, he's new to it and is, is finding out everything and so are you as a reader. And so. And by the time I got to the second book, I was like, well, I, I want you to also learn more about the other characters.And so I wrote it in third person. But it. So now that the world is bigger, it is and kind of has been established then.Yeah, there's not as much as from the world building aspect of it that I'm having to do. It's more just. It does flow easier now.Some of it flowing easier may just be because over the course of, from when I started this to where I'm, you know, now is that just my normal daily routine for writing has gotten, you know, more entrenched. And I mean, we're creatures of habit.So the more, the more habit that, you know, you get into with it, the more routine then you're just, it, things just come out easier, you know, if I know that, okay, every morning at 6:00, I'm in front of the computer. And, you know, I have my coffee and I'm. The little dark classical music is going.And I'm in that mindset you just train yourself into, okay, this is what I'm going to do. So where used to. It was a struggle, and some days I'd get 20 words out, and other days I get 500. Is it.Well, you know, more and more as you're doing that, it just, it. It becomes rhythm. And so you sit down and your brain's immediately like, all right, it's time to work. We know what we're doing now.And so some of it could be from the.The story process and knowing kind of where things are going and not having to do, like I said, kind of the world building, but just kind of get into it. But also, like I said, just from the. Just the routine of. Of doing it also makes that process.

Tanner00:13:13

A lot easier and a good place for a shameless plug.If you're trying to get into your writing mode and get into the habit of writing, I do have a discord server up now that you can talk to other writers, you can kind of troubleshoot and different things that you're talking about. We have a horror spot and a crime spot, but the big thing there is we do live writing sprints.And I'm in there more and more just for accountability, so that it's like, I'm showing up, I'm getting my words. People see me doing this. You don't have to be on camera. It just shows that you're in the room writing with us.We have the sprint timers and stuff going. Link to the discord is down in the show notes if you want to join there.And so getting back in, when you're setting that world in, those rules have you found. Because some writers are like, oh, man, I don't want to write series because you have all these rules and you can't go around it.Do you find yourself being more creative, trying to keep the world and those characters and creatures inside of the mythology and the. The magic rules that you've. You've created kind of.

Brad Ricks00:14:09

I mean, I've been fortunate in how I kind of laid it out and that I didn't. Just like in book one, I didn't say, here are the rules for every creature that exists in this world. I set out like I. Book one is all about vampires.And so I set out, I was like, you know, here are the rules of the game for vampires. And so I. I really established that. And then with each one, as I'M kind of tackling the different creature.I'm able to somewhat do a little bit on the Fly. And so I've not had to really from the beginning say this is the, you know, this is the world I set and here are the, my rules.You know, I don't have the, those, those kind of, kind of quote unquote, you know, magic rules. That's, you know, this is the way our, the magic system works.And you know, in End of Story, so I've kind of been able to do some of that on the Fly and kind of left myself a little open ended that our main character Mike, he's still new to this and he's still learning.So as they come across something new, those who do know can say, oh yeah, here by the way, and now I can actually introduce rules and I can be book three into it and say, and by the way, here are the rules for werewolves. Like I didn't say that in book one. I get to say that in book three. So I didn't lock myself in, you know, a couple books ago.

Tanner00:15:24

Don't write yourself into a corner is the advice there.

Brad Ricks00:15:28

Yeah, leave yourself a little open ended. You don't have to.Well, and part of that comes into, you know, just from in a writing standpoint, if I was to have had a couple chapters that were nothing but, you know, all right, you know, all right, Mike, we're in the, we're in, you know, Monster University now and we're going to go through it would have, it would have way drugged down the story and have been boring. You know, you've been a dredge couple chapters to get through in Monster U compared to kind of as the story's going be able to introduce those.

Tanner00:15:58

It's kind of like in a movie where they show too much of the monster too soon. It's like, oh, I see the, I see the seam in the plastic mold there. No, I like that. So you, you basically keep it loose.And this is a mistake I think people make in horror writing too.It's kind of the same as showing too much of the monster, but the rules get heavy and like say you're book one, you're doing like a three book slasher thing.Well, to get book three, you might have set these rules and maybe not done a monster University, but just through having so much interaction and the characters learning so much about the monster, it ties you down in book three.But also it's less frightening for the individual because the more we understand about how it works, the less, less scared of it, we are the most effective horror books and movies are the ones where like I read the book, I know how Final Girl got out, but I still don't know what the hell that thing is. And those are the ones that I remember that I'm sitting at night going, what was that?

Brad Ricks00:16:55

Yeah, well, so like in book one, for instance, I offhandedly mention about a werewolf. There's a joke when, when Mike is kind of first learning about the world and, and he's like, oh, what, you got a werewolf and a kennel in the back?And Nikki jokes, he was. That she was like, oh please, a werewolf would tear a kennel apart. And, and so like, you know, there are werewolves in this world.But at that there's no reason to go into in book one about kind of the rules of a werewolf. Now as I'm in a book three, which is they're going after werewolf. Okay, well now I can talk a little bit more about kind of the rules of a werewolf.But it wasn't, I brought it up in book one that hey, obviously these exist in the world, but you don't have to go into, you don't have to go into depth about it. You just, you mention it.And us, we're all familiar enough with werewolves to be like, all right, we know what a world is, let's keep on going, you know, so it's not until later on that you know that that stuff becomes pertinent, that then I can bring it up. So yeah, I don't. Not writing myself into a corner or anything like that with it. I, and leaving it open ended.I've heard it described once as like in, in Lord of the Rings, you know, Tolkien goes so in depth into all this stuff. But if I was to ask you, hey, what's their monetary system in Lord of the Rings? I don't know, they don't ever really talk about it.You know, what kind of financial systems and stuff there were, you know, there probably is because he went so in depth on everything else that you know that, that I'm sure they have some kind of system in that world, but we don't know, we don't care.

Tanner00:18:27

Yep, the same things with writing. The more you know about a monster, the less scary it is. You don't need to know about the writing stuff.The more, you know as a writer, there's like this, the competency curb where like you're going through and you learn all this stuff and you get to story beats and you're especially doing something like this. That's a genre blend of two or even three or more different genres.There are story beats inside of each of the tropes, inside of each of the genres that readers expect, and they need a payoff. And when you're blending those genres together.I went through textbooks learning the different story beats from the different elements that I wanted to put together, and I wasted so much time and ended up writing an absolute horrible story that had no payoff for anybody because I was trying to place the exact story beats where I wanted to. To get the right blend instead of just having fun and getting the spirits of those genres in there.

Brad Ricks00:19:16

Right.Well, and there's so much, you know, literature out there in regards to how to write, you know, whether you're talking, is this the hero's journey, is this Save the Cat, is this, you know, all these different things, and if you try to incorporate all of those into one story, you got a mess. It's, you know, you. You kind of. You go with what feels right for it.And, you know, the reason those methods are kind of putting quote, those methods are out there is because it's what feels right. And every story feels, you know, some feels, you know, the hero's journey is what makes it work.Others, you know, the beats of Save the Cat make it work. And so there's you. Just as you're writing it, you feel which of those works best for the story.

Tanner00:20:00

And that's what makes it unique, too, because, like, Janet Ivanovich, the way she mixes comedy with certain elements of romance and the thriller pacing with, like, the Stephanie Plum novels or Wicked is a fun one. I don't think she sits and just agonizes over what beats are gonna go where you just tell a good story that feels good.There's this curve where you start off writing what you like, and then you learn the stuff and you're like, oh, now I suck. And then you get mad and just go back to writing what you like with that knowledge ingrained now, and it turns out so much better.

Brad Ricks00:20:33

Well, and I think that's where drafting comes in. Because when you write the. You write the first draft, if you're rereading it and you're like, my middle is just dragging.Well, now start looking at some of the methodologies and say, well, this is really following Save the Cat. And then you kind of lay that over top and go, oh, I see why this middle seems to be dragging. It's because I'm missing a beat here. Here.So then you use that as kind of a corrective tool versus trying to when you're writing. Trying to, like, write to a system.

Tanner00:21:04

Yeah, it's that ebb and flow. Everything happens in revision. Just get all.Who was it Holly Lyle used to say, put all of your toys out on the floor in your first draft and then start cutting and chopping and rearranging things?

Brad Ricks00:21:15

Yeah, I think it was. I remember who said it now, but I'll remember later.But it said, you write your first draft, see where the story's going, you write your second draft as if you knew it the whole time.

Tanner00:21:27

Yep, yep. And if you mess up, if you do miss a story beat, and it's like, our readers aren't going to like this. That's what an editor is for. They're huge.They are worth the money that you spend on them. If you're doing indie, they are worth the time and headache that you might have working with one at a publisher.

Brad Ricks00:21:44

Yes.

Tanner00:21:46

Oh, man. So when we're talking about mixing those tropes, I would say this is a blend of supernatural horror and a military thriller almost.You have this really tight unit, a team type guys. Oh, I was describing this the other day. I was sitting down and I was watching Magnum PI And I was like, I really. Just.One of the reasons I'm doing Whisper Hollow and doing the PI stuff is because I just want that 80s action stuff back where it's this group of friends, they're coming together, they're fighting for good, some of them are going to make it through. It reminds me of that. It's like a team with vampires. What were your inspirations in putting that particular group of people together?

Brad Ricks00:22:31

So, I mean, there was. When I first was doing it, I mean, I wanted it to be a. Not the. Your typical vampire, you know, kind of novel.You have, like, that Van Helsing kind of character, and, you know, he's the one who knows everything and is kind of leading the charge. And I was like. But I was like, well, I was probably like watching Mission Impossible or something.I was like, what if it's like a team versus, you know, an individual person, you know, a group of hunters. And so I. It. And. And then kind of laying that out.I. I myself never had the privilege of being in the military, but I worked in a military town for a very long time with a lot of people who were. And so, you know, hearing their stories and some of the personalities, I was able to very much incorporate some of those into this group.And, you know, I wanted to make sure I had, like, um. You know, I had that, you know, Somebody who's more of a. That leader, you know, strong willed leader kind of person.I wanted to have a little bit of some, some comedic aspect which is definitely Nikki and but you know, she's a smart ass, but it all comes off as very humorous and you know, and so then, but I, you know, wanted, I, I wanted that to almost like a Laurel and Hardy. So I have her. But then there's Nate who, you know, they're together and he's kind of more the. The straight to her, to her comic.And then you got Joshu. I, I was like, I need a tech guy because there gonna be a lot of techie crap happening. And so I put Josh in there as a tech guy and so.And then now you have Mike who's, you know, he joins in. So, so there is mainly as I was working through it, there were certain personalities I kind of wanted in there and knew that it would.Having those different kind of characteristics and personalities that I'd be able to play off of them pretty well and, and be able to accomplish the task I needed to accomplish with. With their strong suits.

Tanner00:24:35

That's one of the things like there's a. There's a few things that authors use to pull people through a series because read through is incredibly important.Especially like it traditionally published. Read through is important to keep them publishing your series so you can get to a climax with it or something. As an indie, same thing.You want the read through so that you're getting back what you're putting into the books. The two main ways I've seen authors pull people through a series, it's one mystery element.There's always that unanswered thing that's left at the end. Maybe not a cliffhanger. Sometimes a cliffhanger going back to dungeon crawler. Carl.I hear books, 9 going into 10 in air quotes is going to be a cliffhanger. Don't do that. Every book you will lose read. People are like, my heart can't take it. I'm an American. Do you see how much trans fat I'm eating?And then there's the characters. And the biggest like the strongest pull for me to get through a series is the characters. I've read shit series. Like the plot was not there.It wasn't great at all. But I loved the way these characters love the characters. Yeah, they just played with each other. You do that well. I love this team.

Brad Ricks00:25:43

Thanks.

Tanner00:25:44

When you were doing that.When I'm doing character design a lot of times my first draft, I'm thinking about somebody Or a combination of maybe two people in my life to make it real and fleshed out. And then as I go through, I write the book and in the next phase or next draft, they start becoming their own person and then I wrap around them.What's your method for making a three dimensional character that you want to hang out with?

Brad Ricks00:26:10

So when it comes to the Night Crew, for instance, a lot of them are different aspects of my personality. I went a little multiple personality and put a little piece of me into each one of them and so that helps to make them real.And, you know, like, I'll kind of go back to Nikki because she's one of my favorite characters. So she is that. She's wisecracking, smart ass.And anybody that's been with me, you've been in the room with me for about an hour and a half, knows that it's like, oh, hey, I see it. And so that's, you know, so there's, there's that. I did a lot of tech stuff and so when it comes to Josh and like the tech stuff he does.So some of that in bringing the characters life is. Yeah, I mean, it's not. Each one of them is not a mirror image of me, but they're a little piece of me in each one of them. And I think that helps to.It helps to give them that person. It gives them a personality. But then you can mold that a little bit to make it their personality.

Tanner00:27:14

Yeah, a lot of, I think, comes in with them interacting with each other. For you listening.When you do that, you have to be very careful not to make it that one dimensional character who's just the guy always making the wisecracks or something like that. Or for all of them to have the same voice. That's your voice. That's something you did really well when they're in the same scenes together.Now, as a voice actor and audiobook narrator, I look for books and I look for auditions that have an entire team on a page so that I can play with all of those voices, see how they mesh together. When I'm reading through.Going back through the Night Crew and halfway through book two, right now, I don't really need the dialogue tags to tell, like, who's talking. They have their own vernacular. They have their own, like, even in my head when they're talking, their own cadence and pace.

Brad Ricks00:27:58

Well, part of that was when I was mapping out some of the characters, for instance. Well, like, you know, again, I go back to Nikki to make her kind of unique and not Just kind of a mirror image of some of the others.I said, well, she's Australian, but for the most part she grew up here in the US but, you know, she, some of her Australia sneaks in every so often and she likes to call everybody love all the time. And, and so, you know, so as you know, again, without kind of putting the audio, the, the necessarily the. The tags on there, I can just.In the way she speaks every so often. I'll drop that in there. And yeah, you know, it's. It's Nikki. Just because of how she's, you know, how she's saying something.

Tanner00:28:41

There's a few tools that people use. One of those is having the love in there. So you don't have to actually put a tag as who she's talking to because people don't say, yes, Derek.Thank you, Sam. But there's those little words that people use. Have you found with specifically getting across the Australian.I can't remember offhand if you use any spellings. If you have a British person talking, have the British spelling in the dialogue.

Brad Ricks00:29:08

No, I, I didn't do any of that. I, I thought about trying to do some of that one.Not being, you know, not myself having been Australian, I didn't want to try to do that and really just screw it up. And so I wanted it to be more if I, I just say that she is. And then let you kind of input your own, you know, kind of thought into.Into, you know, how she's saying and talking. I've seen it kind of in two different philosophies on it that you can do that. And if it works, then yeah, it works. But also it can be distracting.Take Harry Potter, for instance, how Haggard speaks. She does a really good job of making sure that his vernacular, you can understand what he's saying.But if it was done poorly, it would be more of a distraction and take you out of the story than being that that's just the way the character talks.

Tanner00:30:03

It's hard to do writing Appalachian mysteries, like with. And most of my stuff is set here. You have those people that are hard to understand because it's just this really, really thick draw.There's a line people who have edited my work like to smack me with. You go light touch on the draw. Don't do any weird spellings. Just go light touch on the draw toward the end of that.

Brad Ricks00:30:27

Right. Well, and I mean, Mike, he's Texan and he grew up there, so you can kind of guarantee that he has some kind of a Southern accent.But I'm not writing a Southern accent at all. And, you know, you can just, you know, it probably just is in there a little bit as you're, you know, as you're thinking about him. So.Yeah, so I, I, I didn't necessarily, like I said, just spell out all that stuff in there because, yeah, I figured that would be more of a distraction than, Than trying to make it like that's obviously that character because, you know, they never finished their, you know, they never finished their words. It's every, Every word has a little post at the end of it, you know, so. So I figured that'd be more of a distraction, so I didn't want to do that.

Tanner00:31:10

Yeah, no, no. I don't recommend anybody do that ever. The way that you wrote Mike, I mean, he's got that swagger. You can tell he's from Texas.It just kind of worked its way into the voice. And that's another thing that's distinct. It's not just when they're talking, when they're moving and when they're doing stuff.They, they have their own way of, like, even their own way of fighting, even though they're a team, which is cool. Awesome. Yeah.So if you run, if you're wanting to write a series, keep those little strings and those little threads going throughout the series to keep your people in, but really, really focus on those characters, because that is the most important part. All right, Brad, thank you for coming on. Let people know where they can find you.

Brad Ricks00:31:51

I'm typically on Facebook. You can follow me on Facebook. Brad Ricks. So real easy to spell.And I have a Facebook group that I started a couple months ago, so you can definitely join the Facebook group. It's Brad Bricks Book Crypt. Become a crypt dweller. And, you know, add. Throw some stuff in there. So that's. You can, you can find that on. On Facebook.Should be searchable. And then I'm on. In my website's bradbricks.com I don't keep it near as up to date as I should, but you can also.You can always get signed copies of any of my books on there. And yeah, so that's. That's usually where I hang out the most. Is. Is there.I'm trying to get better at Instagram and TikTok, but I don't do those all very often. And other than that, I just got. There's a lot of events that I do, and I like to go to different events and work a booth.And so you can usually find me on the weekends doing something like that.

Tanner00:32:49

Awesome. Yeah. And I'm in the group there on Facebook. It's fun. It's a good group.I was in Books of Horror for a long time, but I don't get any updates from that anymore, so I'm not sure if it's still.

Brad Ricks00:33:04

I get stuff in there every so often. Yeah, it kind of ebbs and flows on Books of Horror. But yeah, I'm trying to, trying to grow the Facebook group and you know, it.It doesn't just have to be me that posts in there. So anybody's listening if you want to jump in and post about books you're reading and all that. Definitely. It doesn't have to be all about me.It's fun what it is, but it doesn't have to be all about me.

Tanner00:33:24

Yeah, jump in. The, like the, the, the horror, right. Horror writing and horror reading community has always been amazing, so it's hard to get those going.All right, guys, stay tuned.I have a couple of updates coming up about the writing sprints about different writing goals and how you guys can get involved as well as things coming up for the show. Brad, thank you so much for coming on. Links will be down in the show note. We'll see you next time.

Brad Ricks00:33:51

Awesome. Thanks.

Tanner00:33:54

Couple of updates before we hop off here.First off, I am very close to getting the last little bit of the rewrites done for Whisper Hollow, and I do have a release date that is going to be coming out on Halloween, 2026. That's October 31, 2026. So very happy to finally be getting that series out.I've been working on it for a long time and I think it's a fun blend of comedy and mystery thriller along with some fun horror beats. I spent a lot of time really building up the atmosphere of this world to give it kind of that spooky Scooby Doo vibe. I am punching things up.I'm doing about a hundred, I'm sorry, 100. I'm doing about 1500 words a day right now, and I'm probably going to be kicking that up toward 3,000 toward the end of doing this.I want to go through one more round of just doing quick edits to get it as tight as I can before I send it off to my editor. And I'm going to be working on that phase throughout August. But the new cover is in if you want to check it out.Head over to tannerruutledge books.com you can see it there. Make sure you sign up for the newsletter.You'll be entered into the Whisper Hollow Chronicle so you can stay up to date on things that are going on in the town, as well as my new releases.And if you're having trouble staying on point, if you want to join a writer community, I am building a brand new community on Discord, and there'll be a link down in the show notes to join that. If you're getting value from the show and you want to help us out, the best thing you can do is rate and review.Let us know what you think of the show. Just leave an honest review there. It tells people whether or not the show's worth listening to for them. Also, you know what?Tell a friend if you're liking the show. If you think it's going to help somebody, tell them. Bring them into the community. All right, guys, I'm out of here until next week. Enjoy the process.