Speaker 1: 0:31

Let me start with this one. This is the first book that I wrote. I've always enjoyed writing. It was like from high school, even middle school, I would write like really bad poetry that you write in middle school, you know. And I completely forgot to bring my anthology, which it's okay, but I did write an anthology. That was the first thing I wrote, which was a collection of poetry, short stories like haikus and that kind of stuff, and it was all done through, like my adolescence.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Before I graduated high school, I found it in a little old notebook that I had just stumbled upon it and I was like, oh, this is neat. I've always wanted to publish something. So that was the first thing I published and it's only available in Amazon because I did it through KDP, which is like exclusive to Amazon. And I tell everybody this it's terrible. It's middle school poetry, middle school short stories, that kind of thing, and yeah, and it's raw and edited, just like it was in my notebook. It's just now in a published book. So I left it the way it was. I didn't think about you know, I thought about editing and republishing it so it looks nice and more polished, but I was like, no, no, that's kind of like my origin. You know, that's where I started.

Speaker 1: 1:50

So as I got older I joined the military, I had an IT career which brought me to this area, and when I was working on a job I had to go offsite somewhere to a different location. And I was driving down the street and I saw this church right here which is on the back of this book, and it's actually in Culpepper, virginia, and I thought it was really cool. I stopped, took a couple of pictures of it, then completely forgot about it and I want to say two or three months later, taking family photos, I saw the picture and the camera roll and I'm like, oh yeah. And then I had all these ideas about you know what, if there was somebody inside and they were trying to get my attention, and I'm out there taking pictures had no idea. And so it kind of sparked the idea for the very first chapter of this book. And if you see, right here the main character is trapped inside of a church and he's trying to get out.

Speaker 2: 2:44

Okay, so that photo inspired that.

Speaker 1: 2:46

So, yeah, that photo that church inspired the very first chapter of this book. And, like I said, I've always enjoyed writing. I've always wanted to write a novel, so I made it my mission to get that done. Now, this was like probably early 2016, maybe late 2015, when I started it and with poor writing habits, I didn't really know what I was getting into. I always thought you know, you just write a book and it's done. You know, no, there's rewrites, there's edits, there's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into it. It's like creating a puzzle and then putting it together. So it took me about four years to finish the book. Congratulations, thank you, thank you. But when I finished, I had all this momentum and a lot of people were reading it, they were saying they liked it, and so I continued on with the sequel, which is that one, and that took me less than a year to write.

Speaker 2: 3:37

Okay, so how long was it?

Speaker 1: 3:37

Yeah, it took me less than a year to write that one. But this one takes place in Northern Virginia, around this area. The first book takes place in Kentucky and I don't tell many people this, but I'll tell you this. The reason why I picked Kentucky? As an old army friend of mine who passed away about 15 years ago. He was from Kentucky and I kind of modeled the main character after him and put it in his home state. So that's the reason why I chose Kentucky.

Speaker 2: 4:10

Yeah, that is amazing. When you are writing these books, is it often that you get inspired by visuals that you see, or you're a very visual person. I know you do photography.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Yeah, yeah, all the time, actually all the time, and I dabble in photography. I'm not great. Jessica's a better photographer, oh my gosh, you need to help Jessica. But that's one of the things. Like you know, I knew you talked to my wife previously, but one of the things that we kind of like connected on was photography. We both like taking pictures and doing artsy stuff like that, and she's a much better photographer than I am. Stop.

Speaker 2: 4:41

I think both are great. And then you also are co-owner of Reeds in the Valley.

Speaker 1: 4:46

I am. We had.

Speaker 2: 4:47

Jessica, previous guest, talk about it, but that is amazing. I want to hear your take on how that came to be as well. Just a little bit, and then we'll come back to the book.

Speaker 1: 4:55

Sure, no problem. Reeds in the Valley was kind of my brainchild. When Jessica and I got together we were completely broke and to do gifts and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 5:07

I said you know, I've always wanted to make candles. Maybe we could make candles and give them away as gifts. And we gave them to neighbors, we gave them to friends and family members and they all seemed to like them. We talked about it and decided to make it into a business. So it, you know, she since then has taken completely over 100% and she's doing everything by herself and I'm so proud of her. But yeah, she's amazing, she's great. So when she puts her mind to something, she hits her home run every time.

Speaker 2: 5:35

So yeah, she's a passionate person.

Speaker 1: 5:37

She does.

Speaker 2: 5:38

Can you give me a little bit of a brief story on like what the books are about?

Speaker 1: 5:42

Sure, sure. So the main character is a military, disabled military veteran. He was medically discharged out of the army and he became a private investigator in Kentucky. So he opens up shop and one of the jobs that he takes was from a mob syndicate. You know crime, crime boss. Yeah. And when he completed the job I don't want to give too much away yeah, when he completed the job, the mafia thought that they owned him, so they wanted to have him as a full-time employee for the mafia and he didn't want to do that. So he had to go to war with the mafia to get out of their employment. And that's where the title comes from Clifford's War. A lot of people think it's like a war book, about like yeah but it's not.

Speaker 1: 6:24

It's more about his struggles, because he's also a disabled veteran and he has PTSD and he struggles with a lot of different stuff but and I write about that in the book and it's more about his internal war, his struggles, that kind of thing. So it's more of like a metaphoric title instead of like a more direct title. And then I do kind of wish I titled a little bit differently, but it fits if you read the book.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Yeah, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:53

And the second book, which DCP. Yeah, this is in the DC area, the DC Metro area. There are some parts are in Philadelphia, but it's kind of up and down the 95, right yeah. And he moves his team to Northern Virginia to work for his former Army commander in Washington DC and during a routine I guess, infidelity investigation he witnesses a US Senator assassinated. Well, one of his team members witnesses a US Senator assassinated. So the FBI brings the team on to help investigate. You know they are pulling on some threads trying to find what happened. They find some government corruption and they get targeted by the same people that killed the Senator. Yeah, well, not mob, it's just Okay Assassins.

Speaker 2: 7:42

Yes.

Speaker 1: 7:45

So it was a, I guess, a hit or whatever, and they killed the Senator for political reasons. And so they find that out, they get targeted by the same assassins that killed the Senator.

Speaker 2: 7:57

That's crazy. I saw that. I think it was the first book won the best book in horror thriller.

Speaker 1: 8:05

Oh yeah, it did win an award in 2021. That's right. Yeah for yeah, for it was a book club website called Online Book Club and it was, I guess, fan voted or whatever reader voted, and it won Best Thriller for 2021. Now the second book has I don't have any badges or any cool stuff on the second book, but it won a bronze medal for Four Seasons Book Awards and it won as a finalist for Bestthrillerscom. So it didn't win Best Book overall, but it still has a little you won them all?

Speaker 2: 8:47

Yeah, exactly. And how do you come up with these stories Like? Does it have anything to do with your history of joining the army, maybe Any inspiration for it?

Speaker 1: 8:54

Well, there is a little inspiration from there. I, like I said the first book, I kind of modeled it. The main character from a former army colleague of mine and some of the characters in the book are real people, oh, whoa. Yeah, one of the you know, the, I guess, co-protagonist who is a handicapped black male, is a friend that I met online on Facebook, okay, and you know, I asked him if I could put him in the book. He was like, yeah, and at first I just wanted him to be like a small, minor character, but I enjoyed writing about him so much that I made him like a major character.

Speaker 2: 9:29

That's awesome. How do you feel about that, oh?

Speaker 1: 9:31

he loves it. He's over the moon, he loves it. Yeah, another one of the characters that's in both books is an actual high school friend of Jessica's. Huh, yeah, and his name is Marlin and he um, if you read the book and you're like people don't talk like that, yes, they do and yes, he does. Yes yes, yes, they do, yes, he does. He talks exactly like I mean. I wrote him as is In the book.

Speaker 2: 9:55

No need for fiction, he's just nope, he's a character.

Speaker 1: 9:58

Yep, yep, he's, he's, he's a smart ass, he's, he's you jokester funny. You know, you know no nonsense and yeah, that's the way he is. So he's. He's written as described.

Speaker 2: 10:09

And what is the process like publishing for anybody out? There was like I'd like to publish a book, but where do I even start?

Speaker 1: 10:13

Oh, it's every. Every author has their own little process and so nobody writes a book and then publishes it. There's, there's always. There's always a process. So you have to rewrite some edits and you have to go back and say I gotta fix this plothole Because this person didn't do this, because they were here or they were there, you know. So you have to go back and and I mean I've read both these books like a hundred times, you know just because you have to go back and read it and go now, this is crap. Now I have to reach out to change this.

Speaker 1: 10:41

A funny story I like to tell people is in the first book. Jessica was my proofreader, so I wrote this big, elaborate, sneaky, sleuthing, investigative scene in this hotel and it was a full chapter long of him going upstairs, going downstairs, going around a corner, sneaking here, sneaking there, and she's reading this and she's like I Want to hit you with this book. She's like this is terrible. I'm like what do you mean? She's like have you read this? Yet I was like no, I just finished writing it. She's like read it, read it. So I read it. I'm like this is crap.

Speaker 1: 11:21

No, you need that, you need the constructive criticism, because if you don't, you're not gonna have a good product. Yeah, you know you had. You need someone to tell you that you need to work on this a little bit better. So, and she is that for me. She does, she does. She's very honest with me. She'll. Then we'll bounce ideas off each other too, and She'll y'all say, hey, what do you think about this? And they'll just say, no, I don't like it. That's not his character trait. He, that's somebody else, that's that's. He wouldn't do that. I'm like okay, yeah, you're right. And then how about this? And she's like I like that. Better, do that.

Speaker 2: 11:49

I'm like okay, that's been bounced off. I'd be a boy.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Yeah, yeah that's working.

Speaker 2: 11:52

She said she might work on like a book or something like that, so that you really yeah, yeah, yeah, I talked her into it and she's excited about it.

Speaker 1: 12:01

But I'm working my work in progress right now as a prequel to the first book. Oh, okay, and it should be coming out in September, okay, yeah, so I'm I'm very optimistic that's gonna come out in September. It's about 90% done. There's the work in progress to the first manuscript. First draft is about 90% done right now. I have just a few more things to tie up and then it will be completely finished. But with editing and rewrites and that kind of thing in the publishing process, I think it'll be around late August, early September, when it's ready, awesome.

Speaker 2: 12:32

That's amazing that you already have that process, like all that's going. Yeah, yeah, yeah where can people find these books besides Amazon, like can they find them in? Oh?

Speaker 1: 12:40

Barnes Noble I mean anywhere online, really, you can find the books. Yeah, I do a lot of different shows. I've gone to different stores around town. I've been in books and other found things down the street. I've been at Birch Tree and hopefully again this year I'll be at Birch Tree. I just sent them an application to do a Local author event. So hopefully, yeah, yeah, so hopefully I'll be back. I've been in several Barnes Nobles in the area, so it's yeah, so. I'm around, you'll find.

Speaker 2: 13:18

Yeah, I remember Jessica had said I'm sorry I keep bringing up a lot but Dynamic to have. She said that you guys wanted to maybe start like a cafe with like what a book.

Speaker 1: 13:27

Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's part of our, you know, three to five year plan right now. So, um, yeah, we've, we've talked about it and and it'd be one of the things that we would really really like to do if we're able to Get like a brick-and-mortar, like cafe and and have you know, you know, books and candles and the whole nine yards. So that would be so amazing.

Speaker 2: 13:48

Yeah, you could have other authors come into as well and do the book signing shit, mention something Like I just thought that's such a good idea. Yeah, be so perfect. We have candles and books.

Speaker 1: 13:57

Yeah, perfect, yeah, yeah, I mean that's one of things. Like I said, we've talked about the idea, we've mulled around and, and yeah, we're, we would love to do something like that.

Speaker 2: 14:05

Yeah, and then as far as marketing and stuff goes for your book, um, what do you like to do? I know you do book signings as well. Mm-hmm, how far, where do you go for these?

Speaker 1: 14:15

The furthest I've been was Down near Richmond, midlothian. I'm not sure if you're familiar. Okay, it's right outside, it's right like southwest of Richmond, virginia, and I did an event there last year at Second and Charleston, midlothian. It was huge success it was, you know, I got a lot of people sign books for them. And the second furthest place I went to was in Shepherdstown, west Virginia, and I'm going back there again this year. So I'm excited about that, I'm excited about the party, yeah, yeah. So I actually have two events in West Virginia this year, one in Charlestown and one in Shepherdstown. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 14:49

Okay, that's amazing. Any plans to go, maybe somewhere west? So it depends.

Speaker 1: 14:55

I'm trying. It's very difficult to get feedback from stores. I mean, they get so many requests and so many different authors are, you know, asked for events, that kind of thing. So you kind of have to rise above the noise, gotcha, you know, be persistent, but sometimes, you know, you just kind of fall within that noise and they miss your email or whatever. So if you're an author, if you're an author and you're trying to get events, try, try, try again. That's my advice, that's good advice.

Speaker 2: 15:24

I have a couple more questions here. Going back to your childhood, I know you said you liked writing and stuff. Were your parents writers or anything, or what inspired you to do that?

Speaker 1: 15:32

No, my parents weren't too much of writers but they did, you know, read my poetry and stuff. I remember I was writing something relatively dark as a kid and my mom read it and she got scared and she's like are you okay, is everything all right? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I was like that's why I write it down, I want to get it out. I want to get it out on paper and you know, because poetry can be emotional, you know, and a lot of times you know you feel something and you're just, you just want to get it out. You just you can write something beautiful, just be, you know, you know using just emotion.

Speaker 2: 16:06

So oh, but how I just I'm trying to get in your brain like, how did that come about? You just started writing and you just like loved it, like did you watch a movie, and you're like, you know what I want to do, that Like, or I guess you were just- born to do that?

Speaker 1: 16:16

I guess I don't know. It's just something that I've always enjoyed doing. Like you know, it started off with just, you know, short, like you know, four line, you know poems and that kind of thing, and I kind of challenged myself to do things a little bit better, and one of the things I've always wanted to do was just write a novel. I never really got to it until I became, you know, an adult.

Speaker 2: 16:34

You know in my 30s so. That's a great accomplishment. Yeah, people say they want to write books and they, you know.

Speaker 1: 16:40

It never happens. It never happens yeah. You have three, because you're anthology, and now you have the fourth one, the fourth one coming and there's more brewing in the back of my mind right now.

Speaker 2: 16:50

Yeah, so there's going to be a third installment after Okay, we've got a prequel and we've got a third installment coming.

Speaker 1: 16:57

Yeah, yeah, but I haven't started writing the third one yet, so that's probably next year or sometime, okay.

Speaker 2: 17:02

Yeah, no, take it day by day.

Speaker 1: 17:03

You've got to worry about the prequel now, right, You've got to let the ideas marinate a little bit. Exactly, exactly, so, exactly, yeah All right.

Speaker 2: 17:09

And then, just to wrap things up here, sure, if you can give one advice or multiple little nuggets of wisdom to anybody who wants to write a book, or even if it's not a book, if they're an entrepreneur and they want to get their business going, what advice would you like to give them or let them know?

Speaker 1: 17:25

You have to put the hours in. Whatever you do, if you're writing, if you want to become a musician, if you want to become an artist or anything, you have to put the time in. Practice makes perfect. You can't hit a home run with the first pitch, you know. It just never happens that way. If it does, it's a miracle. But you just have to put the hours in. You have to put the time in and work at it. It's a process, it's work I love books.

Speaker 2: 17:53

Don't give up. That's a good one.

Speaker 1: 17:54

Yeah, never give up, never give up.

Speaker 2: 17:55

Thank you so much for spending your time here and reading your books to show us yes. Sure no problem, and do you have a website where people could go and check you out?

Speaker 1: 18:01

Yes, it's jdennisonreadcom and that's my website, or. I mean you can find me on social media. I'm on everything except for TwitterX, ok.

Speaker 2: 18:10

TwitterX.

Speaker 1: 18:11

Yeah, whatever, I don't know what they call it anymore. Oh yeah, yeah, it's ever changing, so yes,