Show Notes
This is pretty awesome, CAsey got to sit down and talk with Edward Savio about writing and his series Alexander X! The audiobook, which is narrated by Wil Wheaton, is doing incredible well! So take a listen then go pick it up!
Find Edward online:
https://twitter.com/edwardsavio
http://edwardsavio.com/
"Drinks and Comics with Spoiler Country!"
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC25ZJLg6vL4jjRgC1ebshCA
Did you know we have a YouTube channel?
https://youtube.com/channel/UCstl1UHQVUC85DrCagF-wuQ
Follow us on Social Media:
http://facebook.com/spoilercountry/
http://twitter.com/spoiler_country
http://instagram.com/spoilercountry/
Kenric:
http://twitter.com/XKenricX
John:
http://twitter.com/y2cl
http://instagram.com/y2cl/
http://y2cl.net
http://eynesanthology.com
Casey:
https://twitter.com/robotseatguitar
https://thecomicjam.com/
Buy John’s Comics!
http://y2cl.net/the-store/
Support us on Patreon:
http://patreon.com/spoilercountry
Interview scheduled by Jeffery Haas
https://twitter.com/jhaasinterviews
Theme music by Good Co Music:
https://www.goodcomusic.com/
Transcript by Steve, the drunk robot.
[bg_collapse view="button-blue" color="#4a4949" expand_text="Transcript" collapse_text="Show Less" ]
Edward Savio Interview
[00:01:00] [00:00:00]Kenric:or I'll come back to the country. I'm in kindergarten. That's mr Horsley and that's
Mr. Allen
and to day on the show. Well, we have screenwriter. He's written Saifai books. He has quite a large following. Mr ed Sabio.
Casey:Yeah, yeah.
Kenric:tell us all about ms. Tell us all about mr
Casey:So Edward Savio is, um, he's doing really good right now on Amazon. He's got books trending number one, and number nine. Uh, not only that, but his audio books are narrated by Wil Wheaton. Uh, you guys probably already know Wil. Wheaton is really kind of picky with the projects he chooses to take on.
And.
Kenric:who's who, who's Wil Wheaton? I don't, I don't know this person
Casey:uh, you, you might've [00:02:00] known him as, uh, mr Wesley crusher of the, of the rainbow sweater from star Trek, the next generation
Kenric:what, what, let's start track.
Casey:Uh, you might've also known him as,
Kenric:yeah. We talk in star Wars. It's not the guy
Casey:okay, think about thinking about star Wars, but if they were kind of communist. Everybody's going to fucking hate me now.
Kenric:so ed Sabio.
Casey:Edward Savio. Yes, yes. Every Savio is totally rag guy. I wanted to go ahead and knock out a really quick interview with him because he has an, uh, a thing coming up on Friday where he is going to do like a, um, a live panel. And talk about his books, talk about writing, and, uh, that can all be, you know, get gotten to via his website.
Uh, and super great guy, Edward Savio, check him out, his [00:03:00] Twitter, his, uh, his Twitter is popping. Um, so yeah, Edward Savio is great guy. His, his at is at Edward Savio so. Fair, fairly simple. And his website is Edward savio.com. That's E. D w. A. R D. S. A. V. I. O. Dot. C. O. M. I'm sure people needed that last part, but, uh, I mean.
John: I was going to say C a M.
Kenric:Yeah.
John: Or C I D I wasn't sure. Or.
Casey:And to be consistent, man. Yeah. I can't wait to get him on again because he has a lot of stuff to say. And, uh, really just, we get, we just barely touched on, uh, his writing process and, uh, I really want to get a deep dive because the man knows what he's doing.
Kenric:nice. Well, let's sit back and listen to Casey and ed in their own words. [00:04:00]
Casey:What, what was that? What was that line from the, the third Batman film from the Olin film where Bain is talking about never. Born, never seeing the sun, that bull riders, that is common people, that is creatives.
Ed Savio: It's so funny, you know, and I, and I, you know, and it's like, for me, one of the fun, one of the most fun things is that, you know, I do, uh, a lot of, I do a lot of recording of my voice and saying, okay, I'm going to think about something and here is. You know, here's an idea. And so I can go back. I can go be on a bike or walking or out doing something and get these notes down, which I think are more useful than just sitting at home thinking.
Sometimes think sitting at home thinking is great, [00:05:00] but you know, uh, getting outside stimulus is really helpful. I remember we recorded, we're recording now, so.
Casey:Yeah. W we are totally on.
Ed Savio: We're totally on. So, um, you know, one of the things I remember is I wrote this book called idiots in the machine, which was, you know, I was a screenwriter first, um, wrote things for Sony and for, um.
For Disney? Uh, well, not really. Disney quote, sorry. Uh, I wrote him for Disney studios. I wrote them for touchstone and, you know, the mainstream, not the television shows. Um, but, but it's like I wrote idiots in the machine. And I remember walking down the street one day in a, near my apartment in Los Angeles when I was living down there.
And there was this house that I just. It was set back from the road. It had, uh, [00:06:00] this picket fence in front that was just trashed and a gate is half off and the mailbox is stuffed full of mail and there's just overgrown trees and the grass is dead. And I'm just like, what the fuck is going on in that house?
Like, what are those people alive? And I just had this thought, and then boom, I'm thinking, and I wrote a scene that ended up in there, in that book from that moment, you know, just so
Casey:it is that is, is that where you get a lot of your ideas just through personal experience and, and taking things in? Are you a sponge.
Ed Savio: I'm an, I'm an observer and a sponge. Even when I'm speaking out loud and, and performing, even if I'm at a party and I'm talking, uh, I'm, I'm observing. So yes, I take that stuff in. I also go down as many [00:07:00] artists and writers do. I go down rabbit holes, you know, where I will find a piece of information that just leads me down.
Into this deep, dark underbelly of the world, and Oh yeah, come out like three hours later and all of a sudden you're like, wow, that was five minutes to me. And I understand time-travel right when I do that stuff. So
Casey:I was talking to, I was talking to Amanda divert the other day and, um. W we both came to the conclusion that, you know, just through our web searches to see research and writing and stuff.
Uh, if the feds ever, you know, if there's a, you know, some spook looking at our web searches, we'd be toast. They would, they wouldn't even question. They're just like, yeah, you're going to jail.
Ed Savio: Oh, my kids [00:08:00] are, my kids are like, dad, there's an FBI file on you. Absolutely. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
Yeah. I mean, so, so, so, uh, Alexander ex and, uh, ancient among us are part of. This battle for forever series that I, I started to write for my kids who were teenagers. Um, and, but I didn't want to write the young, I didn't want to write a young adult. I wanted to write something that everyone can get into. I feel like I also write mainstream novels.
Um. And I just feel like I have more or less swearing. That's what I feel like more or less swearing, more or less sexual content. Other than that, I try to write the same, you know, in terms of how I describe the world. Um. But, but for Alexander X, there's a moment in, in the second book where he has to get behind security in an airport and do [00:09:00] something, and he's got to find all of the possible weapons he can use to defend himself behind security.
And that was an interesting research project. And, uh,
Casey:you know,
Ed Savio: I'm sitting in the Washington. National airport and my son is in Washington, D C for this, you know, school thing, uh, that they, they sent him for a week and I'm picking them up, visiting family back East and Connecticut and I'm coming down, uh, to Washington, and then I'm going to pick them up and fly back to San Francisco.
And my story takes place. This one scene takes place in Logan. International airport, but, um, I'm in Washington, D C and I'm at Reagan national and I'm behind security, and I go to one of the gift shops and I see they're selling [00:10:00] Washington monument statues made out of plasticine. Now these are weapons.
These are stabbing weapons. They are literally. Pointed, you could. I mean, you know, I did my research. There's a rolled up newspaper. I mean, you know, with one of those things and you have a dangerous weapon.
Casey:There's nothing more America than stabbing somebody with the Washington monument.
Ed Savio: So, because it wasn't, you know, because it was in Logan, not Washington.
I of course, uh, made the jump that they, of course, are going to sell bunker Hill monuments in the Logan airport, which would do the exact same thing. Um, so nothing more patriotic. [00:11:00] Oh,
Casey:yeah. Oh, yeah. You, you, you, if you stab somebody with the Washington monument, immediately somebody starts playing proud to be an American and, uh, yeah, a bald Eagle flies overhead just by the way.
Right,
Ed Savio: right. Yeah. So go ahead.
Casey:Oh, I was just gonna ask like, um. What, what was the, uh, the impetus for you to go from, from screenwriting to doing novels? Is it something you always wanted to do?
Ed Savio: So, um, I had this itch in my head of writing, uh, a novel, and I wrote this book, idiots in the machine that was kind of like a cult.
Um. It kind of, you know, I mean, people love it or they hate it, but, um, it, it was something I wanted to write, the anti screenplay I'd written probably at that point 18 [00:12:00] screenplays or maybe 19. And, uh, I was just like, I am so done. What screenplays. I can't write another screenplay. I need to write something where I, I have a little more freedom in what I say.
I mean, for me, screenplay plays are like haiku, right? They have a really set number of pages, how much, how many lines you can do, and they even down to the one standard font we have to use. You know? And so I wrote the anti screenplay with the belief that no one would ever be able to make it into a movie.
And it was the biggest sale I had in terms of, it got sold to Sony for seven figures and you know, picked up by the producers of the award winning producers of Forrest Gump. Now, [00:13:00] you know, it was, uh, originally kind of written with, uh, Chris Farley in mind. Uh, but, you know, obviously things changed. So moving didn't get made, but I, that's what happened.
I wrote this book that was never supposed to be turned into a screenplay, and I got paid a lot of money to turn it into a screenplay. Um, and then, and then what happened is I decided to raise my kids. And I moved to San Francisco, uh, when I got married and, um, I was traveling down, still kept an apartment down there in Los Angeles, but it was much harder.
And as soon as the kids came along, I really didn't want to travel as much. And, uh, it kinda killed my career for awhile. So I went back and I thought, well, what can I do? I'm still writing. What can I do that's. More in line with how I want to live my life. And I started writing little short stories that I'd [00:14:00] always written before.
And then I wrote this kid's book for my kids and then I decided I'm going to write something bigger. And that's where, you know, this idea of battle for forever came from. And imagine there's an, in the backstory of this is imagine there are few hundred people out there and all the people in the world who age one day for every 100 days.
And these people, they're like 4,000 years old, five thousand three thousand years old, but they look 30 or 40 or 50 they've been Kings and Queens and generals. Great, great men and women, some of the most famous people in the world, but they're not immortal. They're human. They can die. They jumped in front of a train.
They're dead. They just have what we now know is this genetic effect that kills most people who have it, but the ones who survived and the ones who pass this defect on, [00:15:00] they can live a hundred times as long as normal. Again, they can die, but for the last, let's call it hundred years, they've been cooling their heels.
And living in the shadows because they can't risk being famous anymore. They can't be great anymore because now fingerprints, photo surveillance, DNA biometrics, if they become great or even just well known, they'll never be able to be great again. People would know and their secret would be out and this balance, this delicate balance between us and them and between.
Themselves. There's a few hundred of them would be destroyed, but they want to be great again. They have to be great again. They have never gone this long without that kind of power. So what would these people do who are 4,000 years old, who have been some of the greatest people in the world? [00:16:00] That's the world.
And that's the place where we start and we meet our hero who is Alexander X. He's the 10th of his name, but he uses it because he also never has a real last name. Right now he's known as Alexander Grant, and he's a junior at a small high school in the Berkshires, and he's kind of been tucked away. He's never been famous or great, but he's lived, he's lived a lot and he's seen a lot, but his mind and his body and his emotions are that have like a 15 to 17 year old and everything is going along fine.
Maybe it's a little bit boring. But fine until someone tries to kidnap him and use him to get to his father, who is one of the most powerful of their con. And that's where this starts. It's like a hero's journey, but it gains, but it grows from there to a collective journey. And it's a very different world.
But you know how the Marvel cinematic universe began with iron man. Right? Oh yeah. Right. This, this is like that where [00:17:00] it then it blossoms into something more, where more people come in. But it starts with this one character. And you know, I've built, I've, I've really tried, like in some ways people are like, well, you know, book one is something, and it's interesting.
It's cool, but you know, it's not a huge story. But when they get to book two, and as now I'm writing books three, it becomes bigger. You know, as opposed to trying to write the same book, just three versions of it. I've tried to do something a little different and, you know, people, the people who are along this journey are going to be really happy, I think, with how it's growing, you know?
Um. But if, you know, that's, that's just my opinion, but that's how I'm doing it. But anyway, he's, he's basically, he's got, you know, right now, he's like, got to escape. You know, he's been dragging his best friend and his girl, he has a crush on and he's got to find his father and he's got to figure out what the hell is going on.
[00:18:00] So that's, that's kind of a rough guesstimate and a rough idea of what is going on
Casey:this, this series sounds amazing. You have been like, it's been selling like hotcakes. Um, additionally, you have been doing really well with the audio version, um, and that's been narrated about by Wil Wheaton, um, here narrated the first book, and then you went and wrote the second one.
Do you, do you mind if I ask you a question about. That. So when you wrote, uh, ancient among us, that's the second in the series, correct?
Ed Savio: Right. And he, and he also did the, he's also done the audio book for that. Yeah.
Casey:Did, did that kind of affect how you wrote it? Did, did you think about how it would be, what spoken word once you kind of had that voice in your head?
Did that soap take [00:19:00] any? So I'll
Ed Savio: tell you, so I'll tell you how it did and it didn't, um. You know, I, uh, you know, we, we went and lobbied, uh, for, for will, you know, we did this book ourselves. You know, we produced this ourselves. Um, and, um, you know, one of the things that I really wanted is I wanted to have a strong narrator who would get.
Who would really get it? There's people who read books. There's great people who read books, but you know, there's a few people who perform books and that doesn't, he do, he performs them. And, and, and, and it doesn't mean that, like there's people who do better voices than some of these top guys, men and women who are the, who I feel are the best narrators.
There's other people who do better voices, right? They do a million voices, but in some ways that's [00:20:00] more distracting. He has a persona, and especially for this here, he really fit it. You know, he, he kind of has that. He's both young and an old soul, you know? And that's how, that's how Alexander is. So what, so how you asked Casey, how this changed?
One thing that I've always been cognizant of from the beginning way before I ever thought about audit audio books is I am not a big fan of the, he said, she said a thousand times, I think. You know, uh,
Casey:immature. Yeah. That's annoying.
Ed Savio: Right? Immature. Immature writers tend to try to change it up going, he announced, you know, he shouted, well, that shout is okay.
He yelled, that's okay. But he announced store. You know, he intimidate, you know, intimated God. You know what, what I [00:21:00] try to always do is I try. To, if, if there's a, if there's two characters going back and forth and we know the pattern, then it's fine. If there's more than two, which is in a lot of this book, then I try to describe what the person is doing, uh, when they speak or how they speak it.
Not that they said it, and because, because I've listened to some great authors where when I read the books, you as a reader just ignore. He said, she said. We just look at it like a character name on a script. We don't read it out loud, but a narrator reading it out loud is really annoying, especially if it's like, I think we should go to the store.
He said, I agree. She said, I wonder if it's open. He said, I don't know. She said. Do you know what I mean? I mean, it just gets, Oh yeah.
Casey:Yeah. It adds a whole different element [00:22:00] to it when you're thinking about, Oh, this is going to be read aloud by a professional. And uh, yeah. I never would have thought about that being a factor because, yeah, that makes a ton of sense that you don't want that.
Especially cause it's kind of like, I could see that sometimes when, when you see a crutch that an author has. Somebody pointed it out on Twitter the other day. A particular author like to say chuckled a lot, and it was up to five times on a page, and it was maddening when you, if you're hearing it read aloud, I'm sure it's a pretty annoying cuckold
Ed Savio: Chuck, by the way, laugh laughing, right?
Or that sighing or the noises that people make that you want someone to make. Of all the things I think chuckled and giggle, [00:23:00] giggle. I mean, can work for some people, young people more a little bit, and maybe in some sense it's instances, people can giggle, but it's, there's no great synonyms for laugh that writers can use.
I mean, there's a ton of them, but all of them chortle. I mean, really. Like every time I hear that portal, or you
Casey:actually get somebody in your life. No, yeah, yeah. Someone's going turtle,
Ed Savio: Jordan. It's that.
Casey:It's a very unattractive word.
Ed Savio: It's a very unattractive word. And, and you know, and, and what's happening?
Interesting enough in book three, so one of the reasons why, I mean I'm deep into book three, but it's taken a little bit longer because I originally. Um, because it is growing. I wanted to, um, I needed to expand the world and it's told this, these books are told [00:24:00] in first person, and so I had to kind of move into parts that were going to be in third person.
And I thought to myself, well, could I do third person or a second first person? And if I did a second first person, well maybe I'd have a different narrator here. And you know what? I do it from a female point of view and I'm like, Ooh, it's really tough. Because as great as some of the female narrators are, will is so powerful and his voice is so powerful that it's like I wanna I want to listen to a female narrator all the way through.
Like I don't, I don't like going back and forth between narrators in general. And then I thought, well, you know, to great, you know, strong narrative, but I ended up going, I'm gonna, I'm going to do this in a way that will can do all of it, even if I have to do third person. And part of it was reinforced when at the beginning of the year, we'll redid the Martian and part of the Martian.
[00:25:00] 80% of that book is first-person, but about. Maybe 20% goes back on earth and is in third person and nobody bought. Nobody got bothered. You know, I think people would be more bothered if a new narrator came in for part of a book.
Casey:Yeah, I would. I could totally see that being distracting for sure.
Ed Savio: So, you know, I had to go back and I had written a whole bunch of stuff, and then I decided, well, I've got to go back and rethink this because that's going to be both distracting as an audio book. And the truth is, it didn't even play when read.
It plays much better now because when, when, when you were a little, when you have like one first person character who has emotions and all of that, that's great. But when you have a semidetached. Detached third party telling the rest of the story. You can sometimes get [00:26:00] some really great stuff that you can't get when a first person is telling you no.
I think, I think what I love, like I love the hunger games. Well, one of the things that was so strange about the hunger games is there were moments where you just were like, I want to know what's going on outside of her, you know? So, um. So that is going to be an interesting thing to see how that goes. So that's a bit of a spoiler for some people.
Yes.
Casey:And I also read that if you sign up on your website, you get a novelette by the name of bloodborne.
Ed Savio: Yeah. So backside, I know Vela, it's called backslash bloodborne. So there's this idea that I would like to write a few of these stories, maybe two more. Who knows? Uh, from completely different points of view, usually definitely told in first person.
Um, and this one [00:27:00] is told from one of my favorite characters, Raenuka who comes in the second book. And she is like. She's a cross between, um, between Trinity, you know, Karen, Mount Moss's character across between Trinity and wonder woman in a way like her in some ways, you know, I mean, not, she doesn't have like super powers.
Again, these people have zero super powers. The only super power. They have really good genes. Well, they have the real, the super power. They have. Casey is time and that's their greatest superpower because, um, they, they can learn stuff. They know how to do things that other people, you know, they could take a hundred years to learn how to play the piano even if they're shitty at it.
Right. You know what I mean? I mean, a bad person could learn how to play piano. Great. If you had a hundred years. [00:28:00] Well, our characters, 1500 years old, some of these characters are two thousand three thousand four thousand. How good are they? You know,
Casey:I, I also thought it was interesting how in that same vein, um, you also kind of show the effects of trauma.
Of hundreds of years of trauma that these people may have had inflicted upon them. Because this, it's not all playing piano and learning how to sword fight perfectly and being a complete bad ass. You're also, you know, getting your ass kicked. Occasionally,
Ed Savio: you're getting your ass kicked and you're also seeing, you know, I mean, one of the, one of the themes in the books is that he's got these two normal people along with him on this journey.
And you know, we meet a lot of other, we meet others like him, but these two, these two people are, you know, they, they struggle once they, first of all, once they don't know what's going on. And then once [00:29:00] they realize what's going on, they struggle with both how old he is in comparison to them and how short their lives are.
But he also struggles with the fact that. This is a pattern where he's met people and you know, he's had to, in order to protect his identity, for the most part, he's had to maybe stay at his age. He can stay one place, maybe three to four years. His father, who's almost 4,000 years old, 4,000 years old or so, he could probably stay one place 10 or 15 years, maybe a little bit more.
Um, you know, because he can pretend to age, but. They're always going to lose these people. And even when he has in the past, stupidly revealed himself to others, um, and tried to get a few more extra years, it's either gone very badly, um, with those people losing their mind because [00:30:00] they want to figure out how to become like him, or it's just, it's just painful that this person who you are.
Both the same age with starting to grow old. And you know, not only, you know, there's, there's sadness and growing old, but there's also greatness and growing old. And so from his point of view, they're getting older and from their point of view, they're growing up in life and leaving him behind. And so he's being left behind in two different ways, both emotionally and physically when these people die.
But also. They go on and start families, they go on and do other things in life. And he's kind of stuck in this wonderful thing for him because it's normal to him where he gets to do all of these things and meet all these great people, you know, and, and live a certain life. But there's downsides.
Casey:That's, uh, [00:31:00] that, that's pretty, that's crazy.
And I, I really like how you explore that. Um. You. Uh, so you started off as a screenwriter and then you, you, you've sold
Ed Savio: books
Casey:for the screen. Any plans on eventually doing, uh, doing, putting this on the big screen?
Ed Savio: So there's a couple of options. You know, I'm a screenwriter, so I absolutely have thought about this as a movie or a series of movies.
Uh, more likely, I think this the way that. The way this is, and the way the story kind of overlaps from one book to another. Um, it's, it's a little more like a long form television series, you know, something like a grand a yes. Yeah.
Casey:And
Ed Savio: you know,
Casey:like, like on Amazon or Netflix or HBO. Something like that [00:32:00] where they can actually get into the character.
And you've done a lot of world and character building in this, so it only kind of makes sense that you would want to do that.
Ed Savio: Yeah, and one of the things that's really fun about this is that, and like the bloodborne, we talked about the bloodborne, um, novella, and that you, by the way, they can get it if they just go to battles for forever.
Dot com all spelled out battle for forever, not the letter or the number for Battleford, forever.com forward slash bonus and they can just get it. And like, you won't get a lot of emails from me. You'll just get like, Hey, when it's a new book coming up, or, um, you know, or maybe a funny video. But, um, but the thing that I got to do with explore with that is I got to look at.
The, I didn't want it. I want people to believe that people can read that book at any point. They could read it [00:33:00] before they start the series. They could read it after they finished the series. They could read it in the middle of it. It does highlight the series. It does give clues to what's coming, and it also gives meaning to things that have already happened.
Casey:But
Ed Savio: what was really wonderful and freeing about it, Casey, was that I got to explore. These, this character and these other touches of life, um, outside of my main character and realized how important that would be because I had already started thinking and writing even a first couple of drafts, uh, of like a pilot television show.
And I had thought about how these things we do not see and do not hear about in the book. Um, because they, we don't know about them because our character doesn't know about them, can be brought to life on [00:34:00] either the big screen or the small screen, or even in these short stories and novellas because there's so much richness to the world.
And, uh, one of the coolest things, Casey, is that, and I really appreciate this, and I didn't. Appreciate this as much until after I started getting feedback from fans, which, you know, people are like, we've seen the immortal thing done before. We've seen people who live long lives. There's a couple of things that make this different.
One, they, they can die. You know, they are not immortal. And the second thing is that they don't have any. Super power, right. There just isn't anything. They, they can't do anything. They can't run faster. You have to have a better immune system. Yes, they live longer. Yes, they know how to mitigate risk, but they've had to learn and in a way, [00:35:00] this is about how all of us can really be great.
If we just work at it as hard as we can, as great as we can be, we all maybe have limitations, but if we just focus on something, you know, that's what I always want. That's what I was trying to talk to anybody who was reading this at first, I was like, these people, these are not the DaVinci's, right? These are not the inventors.
They are the masters. They take what has been created and. Become great from it.
Casey:I, um, I am stoked for this series. I can't wait to read it. I, uh, I'm going to post links to the, uh, the bloodborne novella and, uh, I guess your website on there along with this episode on our episode notes. And, [00:36:00] um, speaking of things that will be in the episode notes. You're going to be doing a virtual book con panel on the 30th of this month, correct?
Ed Savio: Yes.
Casey:So, um, where can people find that? And, uh, how did, how do they get access to it?
Ed Savio: So if they, they should definitely follow me on Twitter, Twitter, or Instagram, but mostly Twitter. Um, you know, because I have more things to say than show you and, but, uh, but, um. And I think that's one way. Uh, they could also, you know, go to, if they sign up for that book, if they sign up for the bloodborne and they're gonna call, I'll let people know a day before, uh, it's going to be the 30th next and I'll let them know how to get into it.
We'll get the information from both con, uh, in the next week or so. And, uh, they can also find it on my website, which is just my name.com. So [00:37:00] Edwards, salvia.com.
Casey:Awesome. Awesome. And so I've really enjoyed talking to you about, uh, about your books, about your, your writing, and I'd love to have you back on for, for a longer form chat if you're down with it.
And, um, yeah, yes. There, there's so much going on right now that, uh, um, I'm really wondering how that affects. People's creative input and, uh, also your, um, like to know how you kind of do the work life balance thing. And, uh, I hope to talk about that in the next chat because you being a father of two, I have two kids.
And is something I'm struggling with myself. So maybe you can kind of show me the ropes. Def. I,
Ed Savio: I'll definitely talk you through because it was really important to me, you know, I mean, it was super important and to the point where my career, you know, [00:38:00] you know, I had to find a way through and I know, and there are things you can do and we can talk about, you know, so, so
Casey:before we go.
I always like to give shout outs to local bookshops and people, you know, on the street level that, uh, you know, if you don't have a bookshop, it's kind of hard to sell books. We do a lot of comic creators. Uh, comic shops are the lifeblood of the comic books industry. Um.
Ed Savio: My kids are such big fans, by the way, and they're like, they're, they're huge book fans.
I did not grow up with comic books as much, you know, as a kid. And I think first of all, I mean, yes, there's great ones that have always been, but they just got so much better after the, after the eighties to me
Casey:boiled. Now we're totally spoiled. And, you know, people are starting to see it as, as a medium that needs to be respected.
Um, but, you know, given that you're, [00:39:00] you're a writer, do you have, uh, do you have any local bookshops that you're particularly fond of that you want to shout out cause they need love right now?
Ed Savio: That definitely, uh, you know, uh, I love, uh, city lights in the city here. Uh, we, we just had a, a big fundraiser for them because they were, um.
You know, um,
Casey:they're safe now though,
right?
Ed Savio: They're safe now. They're safe. Then two days, you know, you know, uh, Chris Moore and a few other people. I, I tweeted out and then Chris Moore, you know, kind of date as well, and a bunch of other people, a whole bunch of writers in San Francisco. Um, it was great. And then, uh, books inc, you know, which, uh, is, is.
This is like the biggest, like independent bookstore stuff on the West coast. They have like a few places here in the city and a few, I think up in, in the Northeast and sorry, in the Northwest books inc is great and they're really [00:40:00] good to authors. Um, because. They, they understand. You know, when we come in and we talk to them and you're like, Hey, I'm a local officer and you feel like a, you know, an idiot.
And they're like, yeah, alright, come on in. I mean, book people are so great. I mean, the book world I being used to this film world, the film world works at warp speed. You know, it works at warp speed. The book world is like, Hey, what. Yeah, hold on.
Casey:You know, you finished that book. Yeah, it's
Ed Savio: finished. We're still not going to publish it for another year and a half.
Don't worry about it. You know what I mean? Well, yeah,
Casey:but
Ed Savio: so, uh, but, but the book world, the people that are very accessible and, and so I would say, yeah. Satellites, books inc, you know, any and any local bookstore. Right now. Any physical bookstore [00:41:00] is great.
Casey:Oh yeah, you guys, you know, try to figure out ways to help your bookshops, your comic shops.
Let's keep those things going. And I mean, it's not like you don't have time to read now. It's true. It's true.
Ed Savio: On the back of the physical copy of the book, I literally say. You know, you, you know, if I was gonna I was going to give people a different, how bloodborne came about originally is I had written it just simply for people that, uh, took pictures of the book in front of a local bookstore and Senate and tweeted it or sent it.
You know what I mean? And I think all writers, if we, you know, and then, you know, then I opened it up to everybody else. But if. If all writers did a little something like that, like just gave someone just a little window, like 30 days, 60 days, where if they go to the local bookstore and they did something special and just take a picture, you know, I think that would be cool.
And they appreciate it.
[00:42:00] Casey:Edward Savio thank you so much for being on the show. And, um, we will, uh, we'll get back with you thing and have a long form interview. Okay.
Ed Savio: Okay, great man. Alright. Alright.
Casey:And, uh, I'll be watching on the 30th.
Ed Savio: Okay, perfect. Alrighty. Sounds good. Bye.
Kenric:And we're back.
John: We are back, Casey, it sounds like you had
Casey:I did. I did. I did. And so just want to kind of. Let you guys know that's not the best audio recording I've ever had. Uh, actually given my history on the show, it's not the worst either. Um, I wanted to get him in, we were totally booked last week and I wanted to go ahead and get him on super quick. So I actually called him, uh, via, uh, my ride home from work.
[00:43:00] So, um, and as soon as I, as soon as I got off the phone with him, I had to run in, grab my dog, take my dog to the vet, and, uh, that was another adventure in and of itself. But Edward Savio, the man is okay.
Kenric:the man, the myth,
Casey:He is, he's a great dude.
John: I think it's funny that we all got, we all have puppies now I think is hilarious.
Casey:man. They're little.
John: I know Kendrick started the puppy trained, but, and
Kenric:that was, well, I was just pretty covert. I, I, it's kinda funny cause like we got it and then. Like, um, like two weeks later, they're like, everything's on locked down,
Casey:I can't imagine have been three. Their mind is already a shit factory in and of itself. And John, I can't imagine.
Kenric:knows what John, well, it's not John. Okay, let's just make this super clear. This was not John's decision. He said no at every puppy turn. Okay.
John: took no three times.
Kenric:He said no three times he was vetoed three times. That means that he is due for something [00:44:00] huge at some point in the near future. Right. Be it whatever favor it could be, but he is owed something big time because he'll be like, Oh no.
Remember when you bought three fucking puppies in two weeks? Yeah.
John: What, like this morning we woke up Casey and like, we have the dogs in the kitchen area downstairs. Right. We block them off from there. So it's like easier. And cause, you know, puppies will pee
Casey:Yeah, yeah.
John: puppy pads down. But last night it was like, they just opened up a hose. I'm like douse the whole floor. So I spent, I woke up this morning and mopped my floors cause it was disgusting.
Kenric:It just opened up a hose.
John: It's
Casey:We cage train at night, but we, we keep him. Uh, we keep 'em in, in the, um, in the kitchen just because he started to, um, back kick his, his turds. Uh, and he's, he's got great distance. So I've started putting out some, uh, wheat.
Kenric:got a little NFL kicker in
Casey:We, we had some, [00:45:00] we had some painting, uh, some drop cloth from, from when we painted the living room a few weeks ago.
And I've started putting that under his cage at night. And
Kenric:like bend it like Beckham has a
Casey:Oh man, it's, it's awful. I didn't even tell you about the experience we had with, with the carpets. My wife is insane. So as soon as we get a new carpet in the living room, which is a story in and of itself, my wife goes, I found the perfect puppy. I was like, are you fucking kidding me?
Yeah. Yeah. So he, he's off limits in the living room.
John: God, that's hilarious. Yeah. Our dogs are living room at first and then Katie has been three days shampooing carpets after they peed everywhere. And now they're like, Nope, no dogs living room at all. No, not at all. And then period.
Kenric:Katie, this, this, this was the reasoning behind three puppies. The first one they got and it was like, Oh, we want a puppy. Cause they would walk with blue and Kayla was like, Oh, well this is cool. I want a dog to walk with we just had this amazing time with blue. And they're like, okay, yeah, yeah, I'm going to go get, I'm going to go get a puppy.
And Johnny's like, no, we don't need a [00:46:00] dog. Seriously, we got, we have five dogs. We don't need another one. And plus I don't want to spend the money, which I totally understand. So she goes against
the dog because that's how it goes. And then literally, not even barely a week later, it's look at this little puppy.
It looks just like the puppy. We just got only tiny. It's a copy paste and then miniaturize it. Cause it's, it's a, it's a pocket Chihuahua really. At the end of the day. And she's like, I gotta get this puppy. And Johnny's like, no, no, no, no. We're not getting another puppy. Especially a tiny, tiny dog, a toy dog.
I'm not doing it. I'm getting this puppy next day. Guess where the puppy is? Where's that? You know, probably was at their house and it's like, Oh my God. Then a week later, it's, um, I think this puppy is too small for Ali to play with, so we need another puppy. For our big puppy that we just got two weeks ago to be able to play [00:47:00] because the tiny puppy that we got is too tiny.
Oh my God. Really?
Casey:Yeah, you're
Kenric:And then it was Johnny going, no, no, no, we don't need a third fucking puppy. You're killing me. And then what happened?
Casey:Yeah. This, this goes against everything I was raised with. Um, we never had inside dogs when I was a kid and, uh, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so now we've just to separate like our old dog who has been an inside dog all of her life, which was an experience for me getting used to. Um, at night, we'll put the old dog in the bedroom with us, so she doesn't like, I don't know, try to pick a fight with a puppy when she, she doesn't, the puppy will like bite to her though.
Um, and the old dog has taken to jumping up on our bed. So much so that I've put like an old quilt at the, [00:48:00] at the foot of our bed. Um, that is also something that I've been adamantly against. Like, dogs do not belong on people beds. Yup. But she keeps my feet swarm so.
Kenric:I'm the exact opposite. We had inside dogs. We didn't have outside dogs. My dogs always slept in the bed with me or on the couch. just, for me, it's like. I don't know. This is weird. I don't have hunting dogs, you know what I mean? I don't have work dogs. I think that's a different Symbio relationship.
So I, it's like they gotta be, I want to be able to hold them and cuddle them.
John: Well, why all he is going to be at he's a Husky Katie was pulled it in this morning. And he's like, you know, I mean, I was talking with you last night, Kendrick.
[00:49:00] Casey:We kind of
Kenric:Well, we kind of got
Casey:totally. Edward Savio check him out. He's amazing. His book series is doing gangbusters right now, and it is, uh, it's really a fascinating, um, idea. And, uh, apparently he's killing, I can't wait to dig into it myself. He has a novella, uh. Backslash bloodborne, uh, if you go onto his website and, um, give him, like sign up for his mailing lists, you can get the novella for free.
And that's kind of an intro into the world of, uh, of his book series. Uh, so check it out is fantastic.
John: Nice. Nice. Yeah, it Are there to your mind while Liethen shutouts for verbally, they click on and go check it out. Thank you Casey for a dual interview today. Thanks ed for coming on. And I think that's a show.
Kenric:that is a show to show of all shows and [00:50:00] we'll see you guys soon. But before we actually go, I want to implore you. Go check out everything we have to offer at spoiler, verse.com not only do you get over 350 episodes with this show right here, but we have a ton of other networks, other networks. What am I talking about?
There's only one network you need to worry about, which is weather's dot com there's a ton of other podcasts that have a lot of amazing content in their own right and right now everything is free. There's no paywall.
John: Yep.
And you can check out as can we extend other shows. You can take it also articles to be written by people like, you know, Casey, the man on the show here has a series called the down-low, where he writes very, very. We researched and thought out accurate news articles
Kenric:You can compare them [email protected] just to make sure that they're accurate.
Casey:I write them as if I'm the, I'm the stupidest person you'll ever meet and I promise you, I don't think that I am. I at least hope I'm not, but [00:51:00] it's all a joke.
John: The best one though. I think the best one is. The review of Stephen King movies from a guy I hadn't seen him.
Kenric:Well, it wasn't there a comment where the guy asked,
Casey:watch these? Yes.
John: Well, there's the joke. You reviewed the joker without seeing the joker. And it was hilarious.
Casey:Mmm.
John: yeah. So check those out, check out everybody else's website and do it. Cool website. Click on that store link in the middle. Good. Already public store, pick up a tee shirt or pick up a hoodie or a mug or whatever, help support the show. We get a couple dollars helps pay the bills here and to helps us keep going without having to take, you know,
Casey:And buck.
Kenric:You can get back into your,
Casey:By my book, cactus wives was the old West. Um, it's a really good treatise on the, uh, the basically the phenomenon cactus wives during the 1870s. So look into that. It's very interesting.
Kenric:Why is this the [00:52:00] first time I'm hearing of cactus wives or
Casey:If you'd read my article, man, you'd know.
Kenric:Damn it. I don't even have an argument for that except for that we have so much stuff coming out every day.
Casey:there's so much content on that website
Kenric:Oh dude, it's a, it's, it really is amazing. But if you like what you heard today, please give us a subscribe on your favorite quad catcher and, uh, maybe give us a review cause that it truly does help. All right guys, I think that's comes to the end. We will see you guys later, but don't forget the notions of podcasts
John: are getting blue.
Kenric:that compels you to do
John: Open the mind.
Kenric:and read more. [00:53:00]To help promote your, uh, your live chat thing you're doing on the 30th. Uh, and we're all booked up like until then. So I'm getting you right as soon as I get off work. So I live in work in Birmingham, Alabama, and, uh, I work for a company that, um, makes medical equipment so, uh. That, uh, it, it's been, yeah.
Been kind of crazy lately.
Ed Savio: Yeah, I can imagine. So, uh,
Casey:just to give you a heads up, I'm recording right now. If you say anything that you. Go like, Oh crap, I shouldn't have said that. That hasn't been approved, or that isn't for public knowledge. Let us know.
Ed Savio: Okay, great. No problem. [00:55:00] Uh, I'm just trying to make sure I'm sounding okay because I actually moved.
So when I'm doing those videos, I actually moved some of my equipment downstairs and I just had to bring a couple of things upstairs to my, my sound booth. Uh, cause I actually record this recording an audio book or. That's another book I'm writing. Well, you sound,
Casey:you sound good so far. Um, I was talking to somebody in Australia the other day and they send it like they were talking through a robot's butthole hole.
So no craziness like that.
Ed Savio: So I'm just trying to make sure if it's the big mic here, if I've got the, the good thing. So just, just do me a favor. Tell me if I'm, I'm becoming softer right now. Can you not hear me? Can you hear me less? Give me less.
Casey:No, no, it's still still solid.
Ed Savio: Okay. Then it's not going to hold on.
[00:56:00] Casey:Uh, I hear a little bit, keep talking for me, just so I can kind of
Ed Savio: you and see what happening. I imagine there are a few hundred people that we're going to be talking to thousands, millions.
Casey:Shoot for the stars, baby. Let's do this thing. Yeah. You sound good, man. Okay, cool. Um, you, you have a good media presence, by the way.
I was watching your video earlier, uh, while I was on my break. And, uh, you, you, it seems like it comes easy to you. I don't know how many takes of that you did, but it seems like it comes easy to you.
Ed Savio: Uh, you know, it's funny cause, um, you know, I, I'm actually a pretty good with that. That was actually for like, sorry the last couple of things like that, but, um,
Casey:you know, I get
[00:57:00] Ed Savio: no, I, um. Yeah, I'm a perfectionist, which is a bit of a problem sometimes. And uh, hold on, let me just go put in some of your points so we don't get a little bit of feedback.
Casey:I got a little bit of feedback. I didn't want to interrupt you, but I caught a little bit of feedback.
Ed Savio: Yup.
I have the super big mic, you know, but they don't think it's going to be working for this. I'm going to have to just
Casey:hold. That just means that we'll have to come back later and do a, a full scale, like a [00:58:00] long scale interview and uh, talk about your background and all that other stuff. Cause cause I really want to, um, get a, uh, get a, get a long interview out of you if you're up for
Ed Savio: it.
Yeah, it'd be fun. You know what I mean? I'll tell you, I have a, I was listening to a few of the things and, uh, you know, what I liked is that you guys get into this deeper side of people, how they write, you know, and what they're doing and kind of the process. Yeah. You know, for some people, some people, I feel so bad for them.
Like, I mean, we all hate, right? I mean, we all love it. But you know, I feel so bad for some of the people when they're just like, yeah, you know, I don't get out much. I don't do, I mean, I was built for quarantine. I'm a very, very ex ex. I'm an extrovert, but I'm also built for this cause I, my whole life is set up like.
[00:59:00] You know, I've got, I've got, you know, a green screen studio. I've got, you know, my audio boost. I've got the writing.
[/bg_collapse]
