My guest on this episode is Kyle Willis - Author of "Jason Phoenix and the Demon Lamp." This is Kyle's first novel (youth fiction.) But I am sure it will not be his last.
Tune in to learn more about his inspiration for the story, his writing process and some encouragement for others who have always secretly dreamed of writing a book.
Follow my Amazon Affiliate link to check out Kyle's book HERE.
Please like and subscribe here and also visit my links page to see all of the other places we can connect https://www.joyfulicity.com/links
My guest on this episode is Kyle Willis - Author of "Jason Phoenix and the Demon Lamp." This is Kyle's first novel (youth fiction.) But I am sure it will not be his last.
Tune in to learn more about his inspiration for the story, his writing process and some encouragement for others who have always secretly dreamed of writing a book.
Follow my Amazon Affiliate link to check out Kyle's book HERE.
Please like and subscribe here and also visit my links page to see all of the other places we can connect https://www.joyfulicity.com/links
Welcome to the joy Felicity podcast. I'm your host, Laura Wakefield. My guest today is Kyle Willis, Kyle and I originally met on Twitter. And I've really enjoyed getting to know him a little bit there. Kyle grew up in Indiana, and he studied Business Communications and Creative Writing at Hanover college. And he has a dream of one day he has a day job now but has a dream of one day becoming a full time author. He has published his first book, JSON, Phoenix, and the demon lamp. And I am down to about 20 pages toward the end. So no spoilers for me, because I am not quite finished. But I have read the vast majority of it. And it's a really fun book. And I'm pleased to have you with me here on the show today, Kyle, thank you. It's great to be here, Laura. So tell me Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer? When did you first kind of start thinking you wanted to be a writer? I did not always want to be a writer. It I would say it first started in you know, college when you're experimenting? Sure. But I took a class where we were reading about monsters, and we had an assignment. And we kind of had to make our own monster. And my professor said, you know, you're pretty good at this. I want to take some creative writing classes. And I'm like, okay, you know, this might be fun. And I didn't, I'd always loved reading growing up, you know, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, all those fantasy, not really into the, the nonfiction as much but the that influence in your book? That's awesome. Because yeah, I think that'd be great to be. Now I mean, they're the greats, the greats, but just to be, you know, one day, hopefully I can be there. But let's shoot for something a little lower to start, you know what I mean? But
Kyle Willis:yeah, so it started in college and just kind of kept going. But I started writing this story when I was a senior in high school, because I got my I got my heart broke by a girl. And so it's how I wish the story would have played out obviously, don't have the powers like Jason. Yeah, that's so that's where it started, I didn't think would ever be a story. This was me just kind of writing my feelings out on paper. But yes, started in college, and then towards senior year, in college, you start taking more serious because my professor said, you know, this could actually be published. And I think it'd be a good story if you just sat down and worked on and, you know, asked for advice from real editors, and from me, so. And here we are. Yeah, that's amazing. Well, you know, I'd so I googled, because I knew that a lot of people want to write a book, myself included, I'm 55 years old and have been talking about it since I was about your age. But 82% of adults say that they would like to write a book someday. And out of those 82%. What would you guess the percentage is that actually begin to write their manuscript. I want to have some faith. But I also know what it probably really is. So I would guess, seven,
Laura Wakefield:three reports. out of 82%. They say they want to write a book 3% begin writing, and only 1% actually finish their book and publish it. So you're already in kind of an elite group at your young age. And you should be very proud of that.
Kyle Willis:Yeah, it is really, you know, great. Whenever I meet with family or friends, and they'll, that's one thing they'll be like I told so and so and I'll be like, That's awesome. In, you know, when you first find out, it's going to be published, you're like, Wow, this is awesome. And then it happens. And it's cool, too. And then slowly it starts to fade. But then it but then somebody will come up and be like I read your book. It's awesome. And then it's back. So it's kind of like this, this wave, you just keep riding the wave. But that's cool. That's cool to hear. I never thought about it like that.
Laura Wakefield:Yeah, it's a very small percentage of the people that dream of writing a book that actually take it all the way through to completion. So and it's really fun. Like I said, I have been reading your book and I'm down to the last few pages. I'm at a pretty exciting part right now actually, I was hoping to finish before we got on air but I'll finish just right after I'm down to maybe 20 pages so it's kind of exciting to see how it all wraps up so your inspiration began you're saying with heartbreak right a typical that people will draw especially when they're newly writing but even later on with songwriting to from their personal life experience. Since, you know, yeah, or her, you think I mean, did you? Do you have to kind of overcome that there's more of a real life story? Or does that kind of help you to shape your story?
Kyle Willis:I think it helps, because then you can really communicate how you feel you I mean, you got to have the audience, you got to evoke an emotion on them. Otherwise, it doesn't land. And so I think you can draw from your personal experience and communicate that through your dialogue in your exposition to your audience, and really get them to feel what the characters are going through. And that's what I think makes really good story is connecting and identifying with characters. So drawing on personal experiences is good. I guess there can be a downside, because then you maybe you become too invested in the characters and perhaps that you can't let them grow? Not sure. But I definitely think there's more positiveness to draw from your personal experiences. But I guess not everyone can relate to every experience, I guess, just the way I would see it.
Laura Wakefield:Do you see yourself a little bit as Jason the lead character in this book?
Kyle Willis:Yeah. Because that's that that's the experience that inspired the whole story. Now, I was in love with a girl. She didn't feel the same way. And because he goes through a different transformation, so I did, too. Obviously, not as healthy not like him. But yeah. So he tries to change and then that doesn't always work. Because why won't ruin the story, but you shouldn't change for somebody, you know, if it's meant to be it'll be if it doesn't, it doesn't. But yeah, I do see myself and Jason a lot, because all the jokes and how he talks is exactly how I talk. So yeah, I'd say there's, there's also different characters that I draw from my, my real world that, uh, that I incorporated in the story.
Laura Wakefield:I think that's one of the great things about fantasy books, is most of us are never going to actually experience something like the things I mean, their fantasy, they're not reality. Yeah. But there's so many life lessons. And there's so many dreams that are reflected there and the things that we wish that we could do, and and even the things that we do, on a more realistic scale, can be seen in a fantasy book. Have you ever read anything by Terry Brooks?
Kyle Willis:No, I'm not. Who's what's the
Laura Wakefield:total of series is a sort of Shannara series of maybe seven books, and then a magic kingdom for sale series of about seven books. And I used to think that I didn't like fantasy books. I thought, well, I don't want to read that stuff, right. And I was in a book club, and they chose a Terry Brooks book. And at first, I was a little disappointed, because I thought, oh, goodness, I have to read this fantasy book. I loved it. And I got hooked. And I went on to read like 20 books by him. And now I'm sold on the whole genre altogether. And so that would be my message. Anyone that isn't sure about fantasy books, give one a try. Because you might be surprised. There are a lot of fun.
Kyle Willis:Yeah, because it's a situation that is or probably won't happen in the real world. But it's fun to put yourself in that world and feel and experience what the characters are going through. And like you said, you can draw really good takeaways from each story. And I think that's what I tried to do in my book. And I think that's what any good author tries to do as well.
Laura Wakefield:Exactly. And this book is youth fiction, correct?
Kyle Willis:Yeah. Yeah. What age wise,
Laura Wakefield:are you going for with this book?
Kyle Willis:Well, the main protagonist, he's 17. So anybody in that, you know, teen or really young adult, like I'd say, even 21, you can get away with it, because you can remember what it's like to be that age and experiencing those types of problems. So yeah, I'd say any type of teenager so maybe like 13 to 21. I can get away with it. But the prime one is like 16 to 19. Because that's when your life's really starting to get real. You're starting to get more responsibilities, and you get your first heartbreak, you get, you know, you're starting to think about what you want to do with the rest of your life. So all those common teenage issues. I really tried to embody them in this one story, because there's a lot of characters in there and they're all the same age. Each so they all got different problems. And you know, teenager may not have unrequited love, but they may have to have thrown up too fast because their parent was in there. So they had to work three jobs. That's a common teenage issue. And I, I employed a lot of them just throughout the story that way. The audience can go, Oh, I know what that feels like. And they can really identify with the store.
Laura Wakefield:Exactly. Either. They know what it feels like, or they have a friend that's maybe going through that, that they can understand better after seeing this character. Yeah, you're you address a lot of themes. And here, you've got a character that is trying to speak out for the life that she wants to live versus the life her parents mapped out for her. You've got the kid that works multiple jobs with the single mom. And you know, a lot of people can relate to that. The kid that's maybe being pushed by their parents to live a life that is not at all the way they want in terms of, you know, morality, and, you know, good and bad, and, and then you've got Jason who's just exploring his own personal power. And those are all things. I have teenagers. I have nine children, I don't know if you realize. And, yeah, my youngest three are all teenagers now. 1516 and 19. And so I've been through a lot of teenage SNESs with my children, and I recognized a lot of these things in them and their friends. And so I think teenagers really will relate to these characters. Well, what would you want? Like you were saying that a good author tries to make sure that there's a takeaway, what takeaway? I mean, what would you want somebody a teenager that was reading your book to take from it? What would the overarching message be?
Kyle Willis:That's a really good question. Because I think there's a lot of takeaways. I would say, the overarching theme would be, you'll be okay. Like, because when you're in that situation, it feels like the world is crashing down on you. And it's never going to get better. And it does, it does. You're not the first one that goes through this. It sucks in the moment. It really does. But you'll move on in, it'll just make you stronger and better as a person and learn from it. I think that's the most important thing is there's no losses in life only lessons. Yeah. So as long as you learn from them, I think that's what makes it important. And I just hope that that's what somebody who reads it. They can learn from it, and apply it to their life. And then I think as long as I'm helping people in that way, I think I did my job.
Laura Wakefield:Yes, because especially as teenagers, like you said before, often these are the first times that with with any level of maturity, that kids are beginning to explore these ideas. And it can feel very all consuming. You know, by the time you're my age, you've been heartbroken a few times, and you've survived. So it still hurts, but it's not the same as that first one. You know, the kids different?
Kyle Willis:Oh, yeah, I can tell you that. Already had a couple of times. And so I agree fully. The first one is the worst. And then you're just like, there's some type of you've got teenagers. So you probably know what memes are. There's, I mean, there's a meme where it's like, this guy chained up, and he's talking to a young guy, and he's like, first time. So that's what it's like, with all these problems as a teenager,
Laura Wakefield:with almost every big life problem, when you're a young child, typically, even if you're going through them, you're not going through them with any sense of personal responsibility to solve them. Usually, when you're five and 10. You know, like, you're still relying on other people to solve them and teenagers, all of a sudden, are starting to see that they're going to be going out into the world and dealing with real life themselves, and have to have these skills and that can I've had a couple of my teenagers that right before their 18th Birthday had a little bit of an existential crisis. And felt like I don't know if I'm ready to be an adult, I don't think I can do it. And they worked through it and they're doing just fine and adulthood but, but it's a scary time. It's a very tumultuous emotional time. And you can see that in your characters. I will say you're very good at one of the things that impressed me, especially for your first book is your attention to detail creating a scene I could tell that you have taken some classes right to to learn how to do that. So tell me about your process. How do you take that story idea and and turn it into have a full length book, I think that's where most of us get overwhelmed. Is that just the brass tacks process? So how does that work? What's your How did you do it?
Kyle Willis:Yeah, so I start every story the same way I outline, literally I, you know, we're taught in school when you're academically writing, create an outline, except this one's way more fun. I hate writing academically. But, you know, this is a lot more fun. And we like what we choose to do. So when you start outlining, you have the introduction, and then you've got the rising action climax, and then you've got, like the resolution and everything. But then you can break it down even further. And there's other plot points in there. But I started out doing that. And once I get the main outline done, I'll break them into kind of chapters how I want the how many chapters do I think this is going to need. And I'll write down the main bullet points I want in each chapter to accomplish. And then I just start, I just start writing. So I'm a very structured writer, but I'm also a spontaneous writer as well. I'm a hybrid, which there's two types. Well, three, technically, but I've really embraced the creative side, because like I said, I'll outline and plan everything out. But then there'll be a creative moment where I'm like, I need to add this. And I do that. And you're at the point in the story, but with the talking dog, tiny, that came to me that dream. And I'm at 1am, I woke up from that dream. And I just wrote on my notepad next to my desk, I just wrote talking dogs. I included that in the story. And everyone I've talked to, they said, that's one of my favorite moments in the book. And I'm like, awesome.
Laura Wakefield:I think what's so fun about it is that you structure it in a way that reader figures out that it's the dog before Jason does. And it makes you feel like, Oh, I just, you know, got this little, little nugget in there before the character even realized it was the dog. That's kind of a fun moment as the reader. Isn't that funny that the best ideas often come at 1am or three? In the middle? Oh, yeah.
Kyle Willis:Yeah, there's a I don't know if you've seen the show Hi, met your mother. But there's a saying it's like nothing happens good after 12am. Like, just go to bed? Well, I just had
Laura Wakefield:a lot of writers will say that. And I've had that happen as well, with some of my writing. I've never written a full length book yet. I'm still planning to that you'll wake up sometimes and have almost like, just this complete download. Yeah, just all of a sudden, and it's your brain has been working on it. I think for a long time before that happens. But then you'll just start free writing and get like a whole whole all I write blog posts, but the whole blog posts will just free flow out of me at three o'clock in the morning. almost effortless, but it isn't because you know, you know you've already been pondering and mulling it over for a week or two.
Kyle Willis:Yeah. Now it is really interesting how that works. You know, we're supposed to be resting and our brain is supposed to be rejuvenating itself. But yet, we come up with these really interesting ideas, and then we turn them into stories.
Laura Wakefield:So you have a day job, full time job. Yes. That's the biggest excuse most of us give is that we don't have time for this. How did you carve out time to write and publish a book when you know you're busy? You were you had school, then you have full time work? Like how Where did you? How did you find the time to do it?
Kyle Willis:You know, it's not hard to find time when you love doing it. That's what I would say. I would come home from work, and I would go to the gym and then I'd have dinner and I'd sit down and write for a couple hours or just an hour, whatever. You know, I would say I would say measurable goals. So like, what however you want to break it down. If it's time then okay, if you want to do it, I choose to do it by number of words. Because you might be might set the goal, let's write now. But you might only write 100 words. Well, that's not very much rice. It's a good starting point. I think that that might be a paragraph, but you do not start out with little goals and then versus you know, like I said 100 words, they might take someone an hour to do that. But if you can write you know, 1000 words in an hour or two, that's that's not bad. So,
Laura Wakefield:and do you To edit on the spot, or do you just write until you have your 1000? And then go back later and kind of tweak it?
Kyle Willis:I mean, if I misspell a word, then yeah, I'll fix it on the spot. Because that saves me time later. Because at the end, it will be like, Okay, what was I trying to say here? But no, for the most part, I will write it all out. And then, at the end of the chapter, I'll go back, and I'll reread it, make sure that, you know, makes grammatical sense. In line it is well, you know, typos, comma, splices, whatever. But also like, reading it for plot holders, I'll try and do that as to can. But for the most part, I'm going to, you know, I'm no expert, even having published a book. I'm not the grammatical whiz. So I have an editor who runs through it, and for, you know, the grammar errors and the plot hole errors. So it's a long process, and the editing is probably the most monotonous and boring.
Laura Wakefield:But so important, so many Oh, yeah. self published, I can't remember. Or did you have a publisher? You actually have a publisher?
Kyle Willis:Yeah, it's a, it's a really funny thing. He it's a it's like a hybrid situation. But yeah, they are an established company. So this
Laura Wakefield:is some self published books, you can tell that they did not get an editor. Oh, yeah. And it's, it's an important step. Even if you consider yourself an accomplished writer, I would recommend getting an editor to people because when you're writing a story, as you know, you get too close to it. You know, it makes sense to you. Because you wrote it. But having that second set or third set of proofreaders and editors look at it is so helpful, because they can tell you this isn't making sense to a reader that doesn't know what you mean.
Kyle Willis:Yeah, and you also want to deliver the best product to somebody you know, you wouldn't want to buy a shirt that now only has one sleeve on it, you know, that's weird. So you got to you got to fix it up and make it the best it can be. And you also want to come off as like, you know what you're doing? Okay, you know, you want to sound intelligent. I, if, I mean, I find, you know, misspellings or something every once in a while, I found one in Stephenie Meyer's book. I'll do that. When I'm reading through very accomplished authors. I'll be looking for it, and I found one in her latest book, Twilight, not Twilight. Midnight Sun, I found one. And I was like, Haha, I got you. But it's like, doesn't matter.
Laura Wakefield:I had to smile when you said that. Jason, the main character was reading Twilight books. That made me laugh. It made me smile.
Kyle Willis:Well, that was one of the books that we read in that mythography class that really turned me on to writing. And I avoided Twilight for years. I knew what it was about. And I'm like, I don't I'm not into that. And then I read it. And I'm like, This is awesome.
Laura Wakefield:If vampires were a real big deal, it was Anne Rice that wrote all of the vampire books for a while, too. Yeah, I think so. Definitely. Myers came out with hers. So did you have any kind of a support system? I know Twitter has a pretty big hashtag writing community. I haven't jumped in too much to that. But I've been curious about it. Where people support each other, did you have a support structure when you were writing that was helpful to you?
Kyle Willis:Not digitally, like the writing community, I would say mine was more personal. You know, like my professor, my writing professor at Hanover, college Sol lemon. And in the dedication part, I gave him a very big, thank you. Because I wouldn't got very far without him. He was with me every step of the way. So I'm very grateful to him, but also like, my brother, who was much younger at the time, he was like, 18. So he was the perfect, he was the perfect age. I was like, You're my prime candidate. Read this and tell me what you like. So thanks to him, and then you know, I had my mom's actually, she works for a Lengow and her job is to format and edit. So I'm like, you're my perfect. Yeah, I was like, you're like perfect editor right now. And I actually did hire her. Because, you know, she's very busy. She works too much. So I pay her and it all worked out. But you know, then of course, I once I got on with Pathfinder, I didn't need to have my mom and they had their editor and they had no they also did the editing and proofreading and all that stuff. So very personal and just people in my life and then I'm like you said In the writing community is amazing. They're very supportive of each other. Because we're all in it together.
Laura Wakefield:Absolutely, this is a hard thing. And obviously, if 82% of the population wants to write, there's something very transformative, I think about the process. How do you feel like? Or has it changed you in any way to have gone through that full process and actually have accomplished a finished? product? What what reverberating effects has there been in your life generally, from that?
Kyle Willis:It's kind of a cool conversation topic to have, because, you know, kind of like pursuing you're talking about it, people were like, it's so mind blowing that you actually did that. Because you're like, I struggled to write a couple pages, let alone 250, or however many. So it's kind of cool to sit there and be like, Wow, I kind of, I kind of did some awesome. I did have one person who, you know, they were a young teenager. And they reached out and just say, you know, like, Hey, I, I read your book. And I really identified what Jason's going through. So, you know, thank you. And I think you're gonna help out a lot of people. So that was probably way better than any financial reward I could have gotten. I think that, that I mean, that's what like I said, that's why I did it. Because I went through it. And so if I can help someone else, too.
Laura Wakefield:Yeah, I imagine. And this was just published in, in March of this year, March 2023. So it's kind of brand new, out there. That's pretty exciting. What comes next for you? Do you have any other books kind of in the pipeline that you're working on? Or what's your next writing goal?
Kyle Willis:Well, the next goal is to get the sequel out there, which the first draft is done. And kind of like I said, I had my editor go through and just kind of read it. But before I did that, I had my brother read it again. He's older now, but he's still enjoys it. And, you know, he gave me his advice. And I had my mom go through it again, just real quick for edits and stuff. So gonna plan on doing the sequel, and then there's going to be a third one. I've not started that at all, because I want to focus on the site, the sequel first, I'm very much I don't like to have multiple projects going on at one time, because then I feel like you're not putting all your all into the one. So I, I pretty much focused on one at a time. But I've got I've got other stories up here going on. And I've got like the the general outline of what I want to do with them, but pretty concentrated right now on the sequel, which is the
Laura Wakefield:same characters as Jason Oh, yeah. Even lamp? Oh, yeah.
Kyle Willis:All the same characters. That mean, you got a new antagonist. But yeah, pretty much, it's, it's all the same. I'll say this, my brother really liked the sequel more, because you don't really get to see what Jason can do in the first one as much. But I'm like, my brother literally said, why didn't he just drop a comment on the bad guys? Like, Well, cool. That'd be really boring. You know, he had to tame him down a little bit. Otherwise, the story is going to be really boring, which was the hardest thing to do with the story, I would say. Because I mean, he is a god basically, be at the the sequel was way more, I think, fun, because I got to really experiment with what Jason could do, and along with what other characters can do in the story. And then the third one is, it's helped me really excited, because there's just stuff that happens that I just I'm really excited to write.
Laura Wakefield:So you already know the basic story and conclusion all the way through the whole trilogy? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's exciting.
Kyle Willis:But I like like I said earlier, I think one thing I've gotten much better about is embracing change. And so if something comes up, and I have to change the way I originally wrote it, then I'm very open to that. But I pretty much know how the story is going to end. And I think everyone's gonna like to, I have talked to
Laura Wakefield:I have several friends. But most of the writing I do is nonfiction. It's kind of self help stuff. But I have several friends that are published authors of, you know, fiction, and one even does youth fantasy fiction. And she'll say the same thing that the characters almost take on a life of their own. And sometimes the characters sort of tell you what to write, you know that you're controlling the writing to some extent, but the characters do grow and change. Have you found that to be true?
Kyle Willis:Yeah, yeah, for sure. Good examples gonna be like Jason's brother Daniel. He's an aren't too important in the first one. But I found that as I kept going throughout the trilogy, I'm like, he kind of becomes more important. And his journey is pretty important as well. So yeah, they do kind of take on a life of their own. And you you end up being you'll write something, you'd be like, that character wouldn't do that. Yeah. So you have to change it.
Laura Wakefield:Yeah, that's not right. Hold on.
Kyle Willis:Yeah, they wouldn't say that. They wouldn't do that.
Laura Wakefield:That's fine. So monsters. And what attracted you to all of that? Monsters, fantasy, all of that, but but monster specifically? Like, what? What made you think I really want to write about that? I
Kyle Willis:think they're cool. I mean, I don't see any monsters running around in our world. Well, sometimes I think maybe they're all true, that sometimes they are they just, they're monsters, and not awesome to read about. But I would say it's, it's about having what we don't have, and putting yourself in the world where there are mythical monsters and creatures and all powerful BS. And so it's a lot more I think, fun to write about that. Versus I could write a self help book. I've got an experience I could just did doesn't interest me. And I think you need to be interested to do that. Yeah. So yeah. In all my favorite books growing up were about monsters. You know, I love the Percy Jackson series, the Harry Potter series. And obviously, Twilight that's in there, too. So a lot of the stories I grew up with, had monsters in them. And so it's it. That's where I think my inspiration and my love comes from.
Laura Wakefield:Yeah, my one of my sons really loves the Percy Jackson books. Yeah, was, I guess, maybe middle school or early high school. He just tore through those. Love. Yeah. Loved. Well, I guess the question for you. But before I asked you that tell everybody how they find you? How do they find your book? All things to do with that?
Kyle Willis:Yeah, so you can find me on Twitter. So my Twitter handle is gun show underscore 25 made that when I was 15. Don't, don't give me too much graph about that. You can also connect with me on instagram handle is Kyle underscore Willis 34. And then my website is also Kyle's corner.godaddy.com. He kindly shot me on there. But you can also find my book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and also on Kindle. But if you reach out directly to me, and buy one for me, I'll sign it for you. And then one day you'll sell it for millions.
Laura Wakefield:Right? Exactly. I like that. I love it. And I'll put all of those links in the bio description for this podcast episode two, so that it's easy for people to find them there that I would encourage everyone to go out. And I don't I don't think I'm following you on Instagram yet. So I'll fix that right after this episode, we finished taping because I spend more time on Instagram than Twitter. But anyway, so as you know, this podcast is primarily focused on joyful living, and living authentically and following our dreams and our passions. And you're someone who is a good example of doing that, which is why I was excited to have you as a guest on the show and that you started so young doing that some of most of us wait until much older in life to finally get around to fulfilling those dreams and passions. So what would you say to somebody who wants to write a book, but he's feeling just completely overwhelmed? Or maybe he doesn't think that they're good enough writer, or whatever is holding them up from accomplishing what you have accomplished? What would your advice be to them on where to start and how to overcome that?
Kyle Willis:I'd say you just got to go for it. I mean, the first step is always the scariest. But trust me, there's there's hundreds 1000s Millions of authors. And if you want it, you just got to have the drive. And the one I'd say those two things. You just got to have the desire and the passion to write in. You email like I said, you may feel lost on I want to write but I don't have an idea. Just get a piece of paper and start very on the ground floor. You know what type of story is a fiction nonfiction? Okay, it's a fiction story. What genre is it? fantasy romance, sci fi okay, we're writing sci fi. And just keep going. You may feel like you People are gonna judge you because oh, he's gonna write a story. I was, you know, I was the same way. I'd be in the library and my friends would be like, Hey, we're going out. You come in? No, I've got to write. Right? Where are you writing? Yeah. And they give me so much crap about it. But look, you know, with me now, I'm not not rich off of it, but they can sit there and go, well, all those times you're in the library. It was It turned into something.
Laura Wakefield:And I mean, getting rich off of it wouldn't be horrible. Like, we'd like that. But like you said earlier, there's so many other rewards that come from the process. Aside from that,
Kyle Willis:ya know, I mean, if you're writing to get rich, sorry, that's, you need to do you need to do something else, you know, but if you want to write to have a fulfilling, like a lifelong goal, or make an impact on someone's life, then I say, Yeah, go for it. But yeah, if someone is feeling intimidated by the whole process, don't be just take it one step at a time and look for help, you know, don't you don't want to feel like you're doing it alone. But I think a lot of people, you know, they they think, Oh, I can't get a publisher, which is hard. It's hard to find publishers, especially as a new author, but reach out. And as people, like you said, I found you on Twitter. I found other authors on Twitter. And I'm always asking them questions.
Laura Wakefield:And I think that, that people don't mind stopping to help you, because something that you say is going to help them too. I mean, most people that are in creative fields, whether it's writing or music, or any of those sorts of things. It can be a bit of a lonely process, sometimes. Like you said, your friends are all going out and you're not you're staying back to write, you know, so the bigger network of people who kind of get you and get what you're trying to do, the better. I think, you know, yeah. Like, I'm a certified life coach. And one thing that I find funny is that most most life coaches have a coach, even though we're trained, you know, and I think a lot of it is just to bounce ideas off of you know, so you don't feel like you're sort of floating out there by yourself in this creative endeavor.
Kyle Willis:Yeah, it can feel kind of lonely, sometimes, but, you know, then you, you realize you're not, there's a bunch of you, and you just got to reach out and connect with someone.
Laura Wakefield:Well, Kyle, thank you so much, I would really encourage everyone to get a copy of Jason Phoenix and the demon lamp for yourself. As soon as we get off of here, I'm gonna go finish those last 20 pages and we will pop in. But we haven't talked a lot about the book itself because I didn't want any spoilers. I didn't want to give away the story. But it's it's really cute. It's it's a, it's a fun read. And it's not a difficult read, like you can read this. Without, you know, like some books are very, very heavy. This one actually flows along very easily. And, and I've really enjoyed it even at 55. I know it's written for teenagers. But I've enjoyed the story. And I'm anxious to see what happens in book two.
Kyle Willis:So let me ask you a question. What's been your, what, what's been your favorite thing about the book. Because you're obviously not a teenager. So you can maybe you can remember what it's like. But
Laura Wakefield:I can remember and most recently, I've just am right in the midst of helping my kids through some of that, but you'd be surprised even in your 50s you very much remember those formative years, those emotional things that happen because they are the first you know, your first love your first heartbreak, your first kiss, all those sorts of things, you don't forget those things as you get older. They have an impact. I think that I don't know if I want to give too much away. But I think that the primary female character in here, of course, appealed to me, particularly to your journey with feeling stuck in a life path set by someone else. Yeah. And wanting to break out of that, because I think that's a very common thing. It's something that I went through on a small scale in my life. Not exactly the same way. But I think almost everyone struggles with that. If it's not your parents who are setting it, it's society. It's religious thinking, it's, it's whatever has led you to think my life needs to look like this and go on this particular path and maybe your heart's calling you somewhere else. We've all felt that and I have enjoyed that journey for that character that I don't like cuz I don't want to give the story away to anyone who hasn't read it yet. But that has been my favorite part. And of course, you know, Jason, the main character is, is a lot of fun as well. And I actually add guys to not that I liked him, I kind of enjoy the the particular demon character in this story as well.
Kyle Willis:You see, I won't lie, she becomes my favorite character in SQL.
Laura Wakefield:So she carries on throughout the same Yeah,
Kyle Willis:she's a part of the whole the whole series.
Laura Wakefield:Oh, I love that. I love that. I'll be anxious to see how that character develops. Yeah,
Kyle Willis:like I said, she becomes she becomes my favorite. And another thing everyone always asks is like, Are you into demonic worship? And I'm like, no, no, no, it's not like that at all. Like, you know, because I mean, I was trying, there's a store in my hometown that is a Christian based value store that was talking about, you know, putting this in their stores since I'm from there, I thought they would do it. But then again, it slowly got the word demon on the on the cover their Christian store. So they're like, Yeah, we can't do that. And I'm like, it's not like that at all. But
Laura Wakefield:read it. Yeah. I can tell you having read it. That anyone who might have that concern from the title, it's not like that at all. Right. You know, there is a character like that. But that's definitely not the feeling that you get at all from this book. If anything, you get a very wholesome theme. I think the teenagers involved are overall pretty wholesome kids. And I wouldn't hesitate at all to recommend this book to a teenager. There's there's no negative messages in this book, in my opinion that I that I got from it at all.
Kyle Willis:Cool. I'm glad. I'm glad you understand that. Oh,
Laura Wakefield:absolutely. Well, thank you so much. And like I said, I will put the links to the book and to where to find you in the description. And I appreciate you being here.
Kyle Willis:Yeah, thank you for having me on. Yeah, had a really good time talking to you.
Laura Wakefield:Have a great day everybody. Thank you for joining me today on the joy Felicity podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and share. And come follow me on all major social media sites at Joy Felicity or on my website, Joy felicity.com. You can follow the link in the description for this episode to all of the places that we can connect. Have a great day everybody and remember, dare to dream. Plan to play live to learn