Ever wondered about the thought process behind some of your favorite characters in popular literature? How about the balance between addressing complex issues in writing without crossing the line into offensive territory? Strap in as we peel back the layers on some of these intriguing aspects. With discussions that navigate through the thrilling plot lines of "Run for Your Life" and "Being Maria", we share theories, speculate on character developments and even dare to question the finality of death in the realm of fiction.
Our conversation takes a deeper dive into broader aspects of writing, exploring the thin line authors walk between addressing challenging subjects and potentially offending readers. We also discuss our societal climate of hypersensitivity, and question the appropriateness of banning books or toys due to cultural associations. The importance of tackling difficult topics in storytelling and how our individual upbringings can influence our perceptions of controversial content is also on our radar.
As a delicious aside to our in-depth literary discussions, we make room for lighthearted banter about our daily lives. We share updates about our experiences with the changing seasons, our children's sports activities and more. We cap it all off with a humorous anecdote about a soccer game, because let's face it, who doesn't love a good laugh? Join us for an episode filled with enlightening conversation, hearty laughs and passionate debates about our favorite books.
FYI OUTRO
Ever wondered about the thought process behind some of your favorite characters in popular literature? How about the balance between addressing complex issues in writing without crossing the line into offensive territory? Strap in as we peel back the layers on some of these intriguing aspects. With discussions that navigate through the thrilling plot lines of "Run for Your Life" and "Being Maria", we share theories, speculate on character developments and even dare to question the finality of death in the realm of fiction.
Our conversation takes a deeper dive into broader aspects of writing, exploring the thin line authors walk between addressing challenging subjects and potentially offending readers. We also discuss our societal climate of hypersensitivity, and question the appropriateness of banning books or toys due to cultural associations. The importance of tackling difficult topics in storytelling and how our individual upbringings can influence our perceptions of controversial content is also on our radar.
As a delicious aside to our in-depth literary discussions, we make room for lighthearted banter about our daily lives. We share updates about our experiences with the changing seasons, our children's sports activities and more. We cap it all off with a humorous anecdote about a soccer game, because let's face it, who doesn't love a good laugh? Join us for an episode filled with enlightening conversation, hearty laughs and passionate debates about our favorite books.
FYI OUTRO
you, you, you, you all there you you jeez jeez, jeez, jeez, jeez, ử ve, ve, ve, ve, ve, ve ve.
Speaker 3:We have Sparky working out the DJ settings.
Speaker 2:Okay I just. The silence is killing me. I don't know if it's me or Twitter. I'm like, oh man.
Speaker 3:How you?
Speaker 2:doing Ryan. I'm feeling pretty good. Not too bad, just getting the kids settled in. I'm not too bad. Yet I'm watching a new Paw Patrol movie, so we're kind of tuned in. I'm able to hang out and chat about this book here. How you doing there?
Speaker 3:Doing great. I just walked in the door not too long ago, had a great session at the Dojo tonight and I'm excited. I'm worn out and exhausted, but I have a feeling I'm just kind of transitioning into post-Karate sit down and I'm going to settle in and my energy will amp up as we. Yeah, I'll get my second wind. It's easy when I'm sitting down. Mondays are crazy as well. I hope everyone survived their Monday. Edward, how about you? How's your crazy Monday started off? Was it crazy or no?
Speaker 4:Crazy when you're working a psych work. No, I'm just kidding. I know it's been pretty good, I'm working away here now. It's one of those days getting through. I just realized I cracked my foam screen but it's like the plastic piece, but it just irritates me. But other than that I'm doing all right. How was everyone's week so far their weekend? Was it a good vibe?
Speaker 3:Great vibes over here in Boise, idaho. How about up in Canada? Here's coming. You can say that again it's getting cold outside. We always take our cats out at night to hang out for just a bit. Just two of them. The other two we don't trust quite yet, like we were really helicopter parents outside with the cats, because we're always worried they're going to run away and they never do. One of them always goes into the front yard and has ventured just a little bit, so we're always on. Anyways, it's getting cold outside and even the cats can't hang out that long outside. It's glove season here. I bet it's even colder up north where you're at.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, it's started snowing today. It's sad to see that happen.
Speaker 3:Oh boy, I have a feeling I'm going to wake up. I have a bunch of leaves I got to get to in my backyard and every year I've done this so far. I'm like, ah, I'll get to them next year for sure. Before the snow hits, and there was frost this morning and I was like, oh boy, it's going to happen again. I didn't plan for this today. When am I going to Procrastination? So I have to get the leaves taken care of, otherwise I have to deal with it.
Speaker 4:Honestly, Panda, you could be out there raking them while you're listening to this. I know no excuse, no excuses.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 4:That's what I needed.
Speaker 3:Put on some rocky theme music and just get out.
Speaker 4:The floodlights go and just start habit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because it's enough of a mess in the come springtime where the leaves haven't fully. There's so many of them that it's like a blanket, and then it's all soggy in the spring and it's such a mess. Oh man, I got to make this happen tomorrow. It's a must. So that's, yeah, the weather. Yeah, you were asking. What else did you ask about the vibes, sparky? How are your vibes? How's everything? Over there Still dealing with the sickness.
Speaker 4:Oh boy Are you down with the sickness.
Speaker 1:I mean, I was up all week and I didn't sleep because the cough was so bad, just coughed all night long, couldn't fall asleep. It's just been brutal. I hate kindergarten. Kids bring home crafts, sorry.
Speaker 4:Should be, out raking Lane's leaves no more excuses, edward the coach Edward.
Speaker 3:the coach tonight.
Speaker 2:That would be a hard one, with it's still cold on your lungs and raking leaves. No, that's torture.
Speaker 3:Speaking of coach. How's Mike man? How's the season?
Speaker 7:It's good. We just started last week, so it's still early, and we got our first scrimmage Friday, so we'll see how that goes. They haven't really run through plays or anything, but the older kids are good enough to know what they did last year, so we'll go over some stuff tomorrow, but they should be ready.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. That is so cool. I got to have my bonding coach moment here with you this last Saturday we had an indoor soccer game the girls. This was the third game, now Third game. Yeah, we're getting our asses kicked, you guys. These girls are really good. We're playing in this indoor league and the only girls that play indoor at this age are club girls. I knew it might happen, but for sure, every team we're up against this season they're club girls. That just means they've been playing for a while. They've had the experience of trying out for teams getting cut, having to like you know that whole experience of playing club is pretty serious, and these girls are good and they packed the ball. Oh, what's that.
Speaker 4:So club girls doesn't mean they're in the club.
Speaker 3:No, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, that's a weird now that it's coming out of my mouth those club girls.
Speaker 4:man, they're hot, they're kicking lanes, yes.
Speaker 3:They're definitely just better. And this last game, well, okay, I have to tell you the game before last Saturday, the team was beating us with so many goals that I noticed like they stopped scoring goals and I would hear some of the girls out on the field counting as they would get the ball and then pass it off. They'd count and they were counting how many passes they could get before we, like, stole it. So they were trying to still have a productive, you know, game without making us feel terrible by just slamming so many goals on us. And so this last game, it was really exciting. We still got our asses kicked but we put in three goals and the other team were legitimately like having to put up with our aggression and they were definitely not going easy and they were still trying to score goals by the end, like it was a more competitive game, you guys. So that was a big, a good loss, you know, like our girls came off the field just stoked that the score had to have been 12 to three. Still, that's not getting our asses too handed to us in this league.
Speaker 3:The other games so far, I think it was like 18 and like 22,. These girls are just anyways. So, mike man, I love asking about your coaching it. Just it brings a smile to my face knowing that you're out there cheering your kids on and getting involved like that. It's a lot of time and I appreciate you doing that.
Speaker 7:Oh yeah, it's definitely a lot of time, but it's worth it in the end. So this will probably be the last year that I get to coach my kids. So because after, after we get through the summer and he gets onto the next grade, he'll be all paid coaches and I don't expect to have a job there. So I probably won't be coaching after this. So I'm just enjoying the last year of it and going to make the most of it.
Speaker 3:Oh man, I feel that as well. My time is, you know, approaching of not being able to coach them anymore. They're going to start playing on school teams and yep, I feel you there. I just love it. And when my kids are cool with me coaching, I'm just like are you sure you're not going to be embarrassed of me like dad, come on. So I just love that. It's kind of a cool dad moment, so I love that you're sharing that as well.
Speaker 1:Definitely, I got stuff ready If we want to just go with music let's do it, let's rock and roll.
Speaker 3:Let's say, let's run it back to the intro song.
Speaker 6:I like that. So If you wanna get out of life, go home, run for your life. This is my last time, she said as she faded away. It's hard to imagine, but one day you'll end up like me. Then she said If you wanna get out of life, go home, run for your life. If you wanna get out of life, go home, run for your life. If you wanna get out of life, go home, run for your life. If you wanna get out of life, go home, run for your life. If I stay, it won't be long till I'm burning on the inside. If I go, I can only hope that I'll make it to the other side. If you wanna get out of life, go home, run for your life. If you wanna get out of life, go home, run for your life. If you wanna get out of life, go home, run for your life. If you wanna get out of love, oh, run away.
Speaker 6:If I stay, it won't be long till I'm burning on the inside. If I go, I can only hope that I'll make it to the other side. If I stay, it won't be long till I'm burning on the inside If I go. If I go, burning on the outside. Burning on the outside. Burning on the outside. Burning on the outside.
Speaker 1:I felt like that kind of played into the chapters that I'm behind, where you guys did last week, where they're scheming together to try and get out alive before they all end up like their two friends that died. There's a whole album by Three Days Grace that it's called One X and a lot of the songs felt like they just really felt the vibe that was going on in the book when I was looking for a song for the space today. But yeah, I'm significantly behind because of this sickness and everything else, so I apologize, I'm not up to the stuff with everybody.
Speaker 3:Hey, that's alright, that'll be fun to see if you can predict anything that's happening towards the end of this little Part 2 craziness, because I'll tell you what, right towards the end of Part 2, some craziness goes down.
Speaker 7:I did not expect yeah there's some major spoilers you're gonna get.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's some big spoilers. I don't know if I want to be the one that has to hand them out. Right, man? Do you want to give us a recap?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I remember the big things. I'm trying to think where we started from. But basically they come up with this plan, like pretty much from where Sparky's at. They come up with a plan to get into the doctor's office and try to get a look at that book. Because what was it, Maria? I think had seen it and saw something about it Sophia saw it, Sophia saw it, thank you.
Speaker 7:So she saw it, and so they were trying to get back into that office and we ended up having. I don't remember which one was in there looking for it, I thought it was Maria.
Speaker 1:It was because Sophia got arrested.
Speaker 7:Okay, yep, sophia was arrested, Maria was in there and Darryl was coming into the office and was going to catch her.
Speaker 7:So Charity went in to distract Darryl long enough for Maria to get out and Maria got out, but Charity wasn't able to escape and Darryl was a douchebag and tried to re-burn all that stuff and that was a bloody mess. But so she ended up in the hospital wing and where they were discussing their plan more, and Morgan kind of came in at the last minute when they were about ready to discuss her and just lost it on them basically, so freaked them all out. They ended up leaving, going back to their rooms, but all kinds of craziness, with Dr Michaels talking to Claire and revealing the whole story of Morgan and herself and what was going on at the facility with Mother, and we ended up finding out that Dr Michaels is in fact Luna towards the end of part two, but also Justin, sorry to say. Lange loses his redemption arc and totally loses it and is not coming back after everything that happened to him, but ends up killing Maria because he thought he was killing Caleb.
Speaker 1:I feel like I called that yep, yep, you did so.
Speaker 7:Yeah, just a lot of craziness. Oh yeah, darryl gets killed, finally, when he tries to get his revenge on Charity Maria Bash's head in with the pipe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was brutal that was good, that was a good Cliffs Notes and I think one of the major like is we know that there's a ritual coming up and we were told a little bit about the ritual. We were told oh, let's see, here we also learned a little bit more about the cult itself, that they definitely sacrifice babies, and I mean it doesn't have to be a baby, it can be a grown ass human that is living in the psych ward hospital and they're just farming these kids. Is that right, edward?
Speaker 3:maybe I mean these poor kids, and I was just thinking to myself, why don't one of these kids, why don't they just try to escape? But that's where it all started. Leland, just going back to the beginning, I need a reminder. She was trying to escape, right, and she like almost out and the cult got her and it was just like too little, too late and we know what happened. But like I was just like man, one of these kids has to have the guts to try to get out of there. But there we go, leland. She was a badass, she gave it a shot and I just feel terrible. Like what are the? So now I think my hope for Justin having a redemption moment, like I don't even know what to hope for other than just like anybody staying alive at this point, and like I'm trying to see anything good in like rooting for the cult. I don't know, is there any Justin's?
Speaker 7:extra crispy now, so he's definitely not getting his redemption yeah, he's done for it.
Speaker 3:And that was a brutal death. Yeah, he got lit up right because the gas leak, and then it was a spark from someone turning on the light and he just ran out and he was on fire. How did that all go?
Speaker 7:exactly. They were trying to get rid of the Daryl's body and clean up the mess before they got caught after Maria killed him. So they were dragging him through the kitchen, and I forget which one of them. One of them was walking backwards with his legs and bumped into the pipe along the stove or whatever, and knocked it loose enough that the gas started leaking and they didn't catch it. And when Justin ran in there after killing Maria and Caleb was chasing him, he was trying to turn on the lights and the lights weren't going on. So he flipped it a couple times and then one of those times it sparked and there was enough gas and it leaked. By then that it just everything lit up, and then the men in the cloaks came and took away Caleb and Sophia for the ritual that's evidently coming up oh boy, oh boy.
Speaker 3:It's only going to get uglier. We're only through part two and so many people have died. I have to tell you, edward, I think the most heartbreaking death yet has been Maria, because right before her death.
Speaker 4:I honestly thought you were going to say Justin, because you've been having a bit of a hard on from him yeah, no, he was kind of an asshole.
Speaker 3:I was hoping that he would turn into a good guy.
Speaker 7:Bro, I like that he did kind of and then the whole thing with the snake in his head and it freaked him out and he thought the snake was giving him cancer. So I kind of get how he turned at the end. He didn't want to kill anybody but he felt like he had no choice. So I kind of get it, but he was still a jerk yeah, and I feel for him.
Speaker 3:These aren't just normal people. I mean, I deal with depression, so hard, you could totally see a teenager reacting that way though?
Speaker 3:yeah, but they're all dealing with super hard mental difficulties and really crazy stuff going on. And, like you said, the serpent I mean he was actually in his mind feeling physical pain and I don't know. You're absolutely right. It's like I can see how Homie tapped out and just went for the kill and couldn't handle it anymore. But the most heartbreaking thing about it, being Maria, is, like just pages before that, she was describing how she like there was part of her that missed her dad after he killed her, no matter how terrible he was, she was all alone and she like really really started to bond with these friends in the hospital and she even told him like I thank you guys. I just want to tell you, like how nice it's been, right, I don't know, that was just pages before and then she gets killed brutally in the shower, just like right after she's having this special bonding moment. So yeah, edward, I think that one was my most heartbreaking one yet.
Speaker 7:I definitely saw it coming because of how her arch set up and she was just coming to peace with everything and I was like, yeah, she's gonna be dead soon. But I mean it was foretold in a lot of the writings that he said before right that too, but we, unless Edward is leading us astray, which I wouldn't put it past him, but only one of them gets out alive, right, I don't remember if it's Sophia or Charity, but only one of them survives this whole ordeal.
Speaker 1:I told you they all died. But here's another twist for you, because there's something that I read was you know they're setting up this plan, this secret plan, to get into the office and to have this fake fight and everything. What if hear me out what if Justin's not actually dead? What if Zeke's not actually dead? What if they're not actually dead? What if all these people aren't actually dead? I know I keep saying that they're actually dead, but what if they're not? Because what if they're planning this stuff to make it look like they're dying and then, you know, miraculously they're not?
Speaker 1:I think Laylin was the only one that actually died. Maybe some of the others are actually dead, I don't know, but we've seen that they have the ability to project images, as in the fish person who's being manipulated to look like Laylin, and clearly someone's able to control someone's mind or people's minds to do things. So what if people are not actually dying? What if this is all just a setup to? You know, get rid of these Satan worshippers. I don't know, that was just something that you know. He likes to constantly keep throwing twists and turns at us here, there and everywhere and different scenarios that come out of nowhere. So what if this is something else that he's throwing at us?
Speaker 7:I'm saying they're actually dead because I think Edward has a sick fascination of killing off people in different ways.
Speaker 3:So how do you think it could be like mind control, someone's making the whole group think that stuff is happening, or how do you think they could pull this off?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I haven't read to where you guys are the Zeke one? I don't know, because clearly they pulled him out, had people pulling him out and whatever, but it might not have been Zeke, but it might have been Zeke all along. He could actually be dead. I haven't read any of the Maria or Justin stuff but from what you're saying, I mean even Justin that could have been fabricated for him to appear as if he died. Again, I don't know, but they're able to project images into people's minds, as they did, like I said, with the fish person looking like Laylin and acting like Laylin. There's also the ability to manipulate the video footage to look a certain way. So I don't know, it was just a theory, but my standing theory is that everybody does.
Speaker 1:I think that's a good kind of basis that I started with.
Speaker 1:I even said that it sounds like Justin's going to die in a ball of fire, which now you guys have said that that happens.
Speaker 1:But I also said it sounded like he was going to burn down the whole place, but we already had the whole place burned down from Morgan, so that's a whole different kettle of fish, but I still think it's going to fall down again because it's kind of setting that up. I said Maria was going to get gutted like a fish. I said it was probably going to be over some sort of mistaking her for Caleb or something along those lines, because clearly he has to kill Caleb. Or I said it could possibly be jealousy for him finding out that Maria was actually the one doing it and Morgan was manipulating him or something along those lines. But, like you said, he's clearly dead. So I think the standing theory that I have with everybody dying is still a pretty good one, because it sounds like some of what I've said was correct. I don't know if Anna Michaels is actually Luna. You guys say it's revealed that but I still don't think it is, because the body descriptions of Luna in their vision doesn't match her.
Speaker 7:She pulls off the Luna mask in front of somebody towards the end, so it's possible there could be two Lunas, and that's just a distraction that Edward threw in there. The part that I'm reading yeah it does make sense that way. I agree, the bodies don't line up.
Speaker 1:The bodies don't line up, and there was a point where they described her looking at that outfit in her thing, which is understandable because it's passed down to everyone in her family, so everyone in her family has one of those outfits. Basically is what they've said. So that's something to think about, because there's another theory I have, but I don't really want to say it. But the other thing that makes me think that she's not Luna is the fact that Morgan is mad at her mom and doesn't want to go with everything that her mom's doing and she's following what Luna wants to do, and she would know if her mom is Luna or if Luna was her mom, because the two would have different in things that they're doing, versus like she wants to follow Luna, she doesn't want to follow her mother, and I don't want to feel like she would be playing two different sides. She seems to be playing a different side than what Luna is doing. So that's the other thing.
Speaker 1:I don't think that she's Luna. I just think that this is another outfit and she is herself. Just, you know, luna doesn't take off her mask, but she took off her mask. To me, that shows that it's not Luna. But I don't know, I don't know where you guys are. I haven't read to that point myself.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I could totally see there being two Luna's, like you said. Dr Michaels was just wearing it at the moment, but that she's not the one that we're seeing all the time. So I could see that happening, but as of right now, it's hard to say is it looks like it's Dr Michaels. Plus, she's got the ability to speak into people's minds, like Dr Michaels obviously has. Then we know, because she does that with Justin towards the end here too, so I said that Claire is Luna.
Speaker 1:I've been saying that all along. But there's something else that I read in so clearly clearly Morgan's had several kids of her own. He's had several babies and they've all been sacrificed to this God, as we now found out at least that I found out where I read to. But there's something that Dr Michaels has said on several occasions in italics about certain people. And I went back to look at something else and I saw this in one of the chapters from Dr Michaels, when she was talking to Claire in her office and she said she said this about Morgan. I think she said this about somebody else, but she said this about Claire as well.
Speaker 1:The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. So I think that Claire is another daughter of Dr Michaels. I think everything points to that. I think she has the abilities that we see. But I feel like Claire is either an alternate personality or she's pretending to be somebody else. But we know that there was another daughter that had died. But maybe there's another daughter that is out there that we don't know about. I don't know. I don't know who this other person is, but I think it's 100. I think Claire is a daughter of Dr Michaels, because there's too many things. That has been hinted at that in previous chapters. Sorry, I'm not even caught up and I'm taking over. You guys talk about this shit where you are Dap, how you doing.
Speaker 3:How's your reading?
Speaker 5:going Same.
Speaker 3:It hasn't been.
Speaker 5:I need to catch up big time. But, hearing all these different theories definitely gets my brain going. So I think that, like Anna, and what's her daughter? Is it Maria's daughter?
Speaker 7:Morgan Morgan.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the M's, that's right, Anna and Morgan. I think that they're like birthers type things, because I read a little octopus dude that we had in the car and it said mama or whatever. So I'm wondering if that was just another little thing to be sacrificed. I don't know if that was something that you already read or whatever happened to the little octopus dude. Anything happened to him.
Speaker 7:No, we haven't heard anything.
Speaker 5:Right. Well, I think that the maybe like you had to be like with the vicinity of that facility to be how we heard anything else about mother.
Speaker 7:I don't feel like we've heard anything like story changing or anything.
Speaker 5:But mother is suspected to be on the premises there somehow.
Speaker 7:Right Under is the just I'm getting. She's under the facilities.
Speaker 5:We are assuming that mother is what causes them are like Morgan to become pregnant, like and that way.
Speaker 7:I think it has to do with drinking the blood or whatever that mixture is that they gave Morgan the blood's probably for mother. Yeah, I believe so. Okay, If I remember right.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 5:So they're keeping and all the all.
Speaker 7:the deaths feed mother and make her stronger, or the blood is from the sacrifice victims they make. It's at least the just I'm getting is that the deaths feed mother and make her stronger, and then her blood is then given to, like Morgan, to for the special beings to be created through birth. That's what gives them the extra powers like Morgan has.
Speaker 5:So the babies that Morgan have, are they human or fishy type things or whatever?
Speaker 7:I don't that hasn't really been stated as to what kind of baby she had, just that she had some and that they were sacrificed.
Speaker 5:So, with what Sparky was saying, I think that it makes sense that if there were, or perhaps Morgan had sex with a human at some point, because she's so damn old.
Speaker 7:And or an origin, though Did they? Oh, beginning of the story, and is not right. No, okay, maybe not, yeah For sure.
Speaker 5:Okay. So then it makes me think that you know, there's some sort of godliness to them, or they were created from mother, and then whatever their offspring is is almost like kind of like a demigod type thing. And then maybe perhaps Claire is a sister or an offspring of one of them, and then just maybe that they're the product of sex with a human, instead of the miracle burst from the blood or the little light, weird beings that are being born and then they're being sacrificed or whatever as well. It's like what explains the fish man, right.
Speaker 1:Well, I think they I think they explain the fish man in that mother can create anything, so she was able to create vampires and werewolves and all that stuff. That's where those, those lores came from. And the octopus is a new god. It's somehow they have birthed a new god and that's supposed to be a new baby mother essentially. I don't know if it's meant to take over for mother or what, but I think that's a new mother and I think that the only way for the, the super powered babies, to be born I don't know if this is true, but this is just from what I'm reading the only way for the super powered babies to be born is through virgin births.
Speaker 1:I don't know if Morgan is a virgin, but there's probably a good reason why, why Anna can't birth these anymore? Because she's no longer a virgin. You know, 4000 years older, however old she is, but Morgan is a virgin, so she's able to do that. Or maybe she's not a virgin anymore and she can't do it anymore. But that's why they're bringing in Sophia and charity and Maria, because they said at one point Dr Edward, not Edwards, fucking Edward, edward, your name, dr, whatever his name is.
Speaker 4:Dr Eduardo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dr Edward, the creepy bastard who he leaves his office after looking for Darryl and says, no, she's not spoiled, so we can still move ahead as planned, or whatever along those lines. So she, she has charity hasn't been tainted by the rape that he was trying to do. She's not. She's still a virgin, so she can still. I'm thinking that I'm thinking that the females are meant as birthing things, like you're talking about, and I'm thinking that the birthing things, yeah, but I think that's what their, their purpose is in this story for, for the like ritual aspect of things. I think that the, the males, are meant more for sacrificial purposes. Just based off of what I'm gathering from the things that I've read.
Speaker 5:Again the anniversary that you got on.
Speaker 1:Anna did, or somebody did, I don't know who but she's just a caretaker. Yeah, that's my assumption, baby.
Speaker 5:Cthulhu. Yep I have bat wings.
Speaker 1:Edward doesn't have bat wings. Is it going to fly away?
Speaker 5:It's got bat wings.
Speaker 2:Does Rick and Morty fight it? It's a.
Speaker 1:Cthulhu. They're opening sequences of Rick and Morty fighting flying away from a Cthulhu with a baby Cthulhu.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they are flying for us, you're right.
Speaker 1:With a baby Cthulhu in the car. Yeah, they're thief, and they're black Mercedes.
Speaker 5:Oh my God. And there's some guy that looked in there and he's running away, and then another. Do chase him too.
Speaker 3:Do we, do we think that Claire is under some kind of mind control?
Speaker 1:I think she's the one doing the mind control myself.
Speaker 7:I don't think she's under mind control. I'm not sure if she like, if it's an alternate personality that's not awakened yet, for her to be Luna or something to that effect, but I don't think she's being controlled at this point. I don't think she knows everything yet.
Speaker 1:Although she could very well be being controlled by whoever is the actual daughter, because, like I said earlier, there is another child presence of Dr Anna's that we haven't encountered yet. Now he's mentioned Diana in the book several times, so I'm going to assume it's Diana, but it might not be there.
Speaker 7:The other guy died, though.
Speaker 1:Right when he's not opposed to throwing twists. So maybe Diana comes back. But Diana is a possibility because he's mentioned her on several occasions. But she could be the one pulling the strings from the behind the scenes, or she could be Claire that I don't know for sure. But it might not even be Diana, it could be another daughter altogether. But it's just the whole. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree thing. And she said earlier on in the book that there was something inside of her like she was one of my own or something along those lines. So just that whole, everything about that. Like Edwards, all about reading between the lines. If you're not reading between the lines of that, I don't know what else to tell you. It feels like Claire is her descendant or is being manipulated by her descendants. So you know, the mind control is what she's sensing about her and there's clearly something else, someone else, pulling the strings of that. That's my take on it.
Speaker 3:Now Morgan wants to take down her mom, right? Is that still? Is that still a thing? I think so. It. Could that be a trick. Do you think Morgan is just in on it? I know it talks about how she's been forced to, you know, be essentially incarcerated and drugged to weaken her powers. But her mom did express some like not necessarily guilt, but like I don't know, maybe a little bit like feeling remorseful that she's had to do that. I don't know, edward, could you, could you not to Morgan?
Speaker 7:like she hasn't expressed that guilt to Morgan. She's come across as smug and stuff and that's what Morgan hates about her. So I don't there's some kind of shift in Morgan towards our reading this time, because at first it seemed like she wanted to keep her friends alive because of the first real friend she had. And she says that and then towards the end of part two she just is resigned that they need to die. So I haven't figured out what that shift is and like what her plan is with that, because it almost sounds like she's okay with them being sacrificed now and before she wasn't. But I don't know what her game is yet. I just know she doesn't like her mother and I think she's going to try to take her down.
Speaker 3:Edward, what do you think about all this? Where do you think it's going to go?
Speaker 4:I would like to point out that Anna, or in Anna, is a real name and she goes by even affidavit is at one point throughout her history she actually couldn't give birth to children whatsoever. And the moment she tried to do it, that's when things started to change. When she actually had her kids with a human, things started to go down and obviously an upset mother. So or at least you know, anna believes that this is what's causing the downfall of their family and why Diana died. So she is trying to recreate a new species the whole thing about her is evolution and trying to make a new kind of evolutionary humans that can be immortal. So that's what she's working on. X-man yeah, so I guess it's just because of what happened to her daughter. You know, dr Michaels is now trying to, you know, prevent it, as opposed to why Morgan is imprisoned is because she doesn't want the same thing happen to Morgan. She was trying to keep her safe.
Speaker 4:Obviously, morgan's power is stronger than she even realized, because Morgan ended up killing everyone just with anger. So they've had to dull her powers and I guess Morgan, in sort of this kind of guilt, confined herself to this place. So, yeah, that's kind of the reason why Morgan isn't living. And also there's this when she's seen um Leanna fall from the well, she had this kind of longing for them, almost as if she wanted to die. I think I've mentioned that a couple of times People have hinted at that that you know Morgan wants to be dead and because of Luna kind of getting in her head, she's accepted that she's probably going to die as well. And I guess that's kind of the reason why she's not so upset with you know, her friends dying, because she wants to die as well and she believes that there's going to be a vile holla for them all.
Speaker 3:So she can die.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think, I think pretty, pretty sure I even mentioned it that they can?
Speaker 7:yeah, they can take a cap for like brain damage or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's your head trauma because isn't that sort of a question about the other sibling, that maybe they're not dead, or you know? Wasn't that brought up towards the end of this, this part, too, as well?
Speaker 7:Diana, you mean the other daughter?
Speaker 4:yeah, she went off the cliff yeah, she fell to her death off the cliffs. Yeah, but they didn't fight her body because yeah, that's right. It did mention that, that there were only the footprints that they found of hers and just nobody yeah, and you you have to like consider the fact that this was like I think it was around the 1800s around there, like early, early 1900s. I think it's 1800s, I think it's like 200 years ago.
Speaker 1:So she's been at the bottom of the ocean this whole time.
Speaker 3:It's a fish person just human, just human, just plot nerve revenge if you could have under the sea, if you could have any like little spin-offs from the story, maybe even like past flashback little spin-offs. You mentioned different periods of time and very influential civilizations throughout time and she's probably been a part of all sorts of history art. Do you think there's any really fun periods of time or you know specifically her life, past years, centuries that you would be excited to kind of write about?
Speaker 4:well, in book four there's gonna be a lot of time traveling going on with a couple of characters from the story, so we're probably gonna experience some crazy stuff as they try to stop the apocalypse that's right, you've you.
Speaker 3:That was. That's a great reminder that you have a series, so to speak, and I am sure that'll be cool. So, okay, if someone's time traveling, they might run into her in another one of these Egyptian or ancient Rome and you know civilization, and then the apocalypse they might go into the future then. So we're back and forth. Is there science behind any time travel that you're gonna really dive into with with this?
Speaker 4:well, a lot of the characters have different powers, and I kind of wanted to have a character that has the power to go back into time, but they haven't discovered that power yet, so I've got this really cool idea well I mean the story I kind of wanted to write about superheroes, so it was kind of like an X-Men sort of thing stuck in a instead of you know, hospitals, like we're not hospitals, a school of social cable, yeah.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I've got some cool ideas for a couple of the characters to be in the next book, or the fourth book, at least so yeah.
Speaker 7:I'll leave it at that though it's time for me to leave, so just continue this X-Men conversation without me, and I'll catch up later. Bye, mate, man, I'm gonna play this for your exit in exit song okay.
Speaker 4:I'm not gonna play the whole thing loved it, I had to turn it down. Is that blasted?
Speaker 4:but, yeah, I talk about this the whole time and I was like that's all I could hear in my head, so I had to find them yeah, I like, when I was writing this story, I wanted to do something different and I wanted to kind of build like a superhero story that wasn't really told as a superhero story, you know, just lost souls. And then, of course, um, friggin Jen Jen Jen, what is it? Jen Jen V, jen V came out and I'm like you, son of a bitch wow, there was other stuff before Jen V, jen V Gory yeah, but that's kind of what I wanted to write.
Speaker 4:I wanted to write like a gory superhero kind of story. I like to add a bunch of unnecessary genres to my stories trust me, we notice well, I mean, you have one character that can see the future. You have one character, um, you know that, can you know, use telekinesis. Um, obviously, one character that, can you know, read people's minds. So you know what's the next one. Go back in time, sticks the errors like flash will.
Speaker 3:Will there be any of that happening in this book?
Speaker 2:maybe I'm confused. You're confused me now. Like are you? You try to throw us off? Like feel like you're just joking around a little bit. Yeah, you don't take them too serious.
Speaker 1:I mean, I feel like he's being pretty serious.
Speaker 2:I can't tell. Ryan's upset yeah, I'm confused now.
Speaker 4:Ryan's like if, if this turns into X-Men, I'm done no, I'm like.
Speaker 2:This sounds like to see the venture. What the heck are we going to take the venture to the book with the sweetening you will do?
Speaker 1:they tell man we're gonna come across. Thanos and Kang and all those other characters mostly like, revealed that, uh, edward was behind the Marvel cinematic universe the whole time.
Speaker 4:I'm actually Stanley's son what no way could you imagine?
Speaker 3:did he, did he have kids?
Speaker 1:yes interesting.
Speaker 3:I don't know much about him.
Speaker 1:There was some um legal battle going on with his daughter and um some elder abuse stuff. Uh, I don't think she was the one doing it, but she was involved in it. If I'm not mistaken, she was trying to sue somebody for taking advantage of him or something like that. I could be miss remembering this, but if I'm not mistaken that was kind of some of the stuff that was going on interesting, interesting, interesting.
Speaker 3:So, edward, what questions do you have for us as we come to an end of part two, and what? What do you want to ask us, maybe about what we're thinking? Part three, what, what questions are on your mind?
Speaker 4:um, obviously. Uh, I'd love to come back to the your favorite characters so far, alive or dead. I'm still wondering what people, who's a who still has favorites, or if if we're still like not picking favorites because we think they're all gonna die yeah, you're killing all my favorites off.
Speaker 3:I liked sparky's theory that they might still be alive and that this is all some part of a plan to take them down. That's kind of a cool idea. And now that you mentioned some time travel, this could all be a play, you know what I mean. And and maybe the only possibility, and maybe, uh, morgan's in on it, and this is all I don't know. I don't know. You got mind control. You've got a ritual coming up.
Speaker 3:There's so many, there's so many opportunities for twists and turns that it really is hard to stick with favorite. Now, you, you killed off a bunch and there's only a few, you know, left to finish off the story, and I have a feeling that Caleb might stick around for a while. I don't think he'll last. Um, I do like, I do like that, uh, caleb seems to have kind of a tough side as well. He's not, I guess I kind of read him is a little bit of a pushover maybe, but he it feels like he's uh standing up and maybe maybe he'll have a fighting chance. Um, I just don't know what's gonna happen with him.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I'm not hanging on to any favorites. I I definitely have some past favorites, and now that sparky brought up that theory, it's making me wonder if I should be hoping that they make a comeback. But I just I don't know. I don't see that happening. This is all a tragedy. I don't see any happy ending either. Is there any possibility from anyone here of seeing a happy ending, other than maybe going back in time and fixing it? All and everyone lives because at this point, like so many people have died.
Speaker 3:If only even one person makes it out, it's like yay for them but, like now, they're gonna suffer with the guilt of making it out alive. I mean, have you heard those stories of people that, like their friends die and they, they make it out and like their life is really hard because of the guilt of, like sort, of being a survivor? So I don't know, there's no good ending, is there? Edward?
Speaker 4:I just have to find out. I hope there is hope there is for this book.
Speaker 1:Edward just a piece of shit to his characters. That's all we should know at this point. I mean, look at the last book. He killed off the main character at the end like slid her own throat, and then he started this story with someone slidding their own throat he likes to cut throat.
Speaker 4:She stabbed herself in the hair.
Speaker 1:Come on, get the story right straight whatever you like, stabbing people through the chest and through the gut and through the neck you like, mortally wounding people in ways of stabbing you, crazy, psychotic. We should be really investigating you for serial killer tendencies, jesus Christ yeah, I had to write it out instead of uh active so funny question, edward.
Speaker 3:Um, when writing your stories, I can only imagine that there there might be a crowd of people that might get, maybe not even offended, but just not like, uh, well, maybe it's a turn off. You know, you do. You do dive into some pretty deep, uh subjects that might interfere with people's beliefs and stuff. Have you ever had someone read this, maybe even like your mom? I'm wondering about like, um, you you've uh, some people have spoken about the areas they grow up in and the, the traditions around them. Have you ever had someone read it? And they're just like man, this is kind of offensive to me because of the, the content, or like whoa, this is too much, this is too gory for me. Has has there been anyone that has has not gone on or they have had words to say about that?
Speaker 4:um, not yet, um, but then again, how many people have actually read it? So I don't really know. I mean, when I was writing the story, I just wanted to write something that like was interesting, something that you know, had twists and turns and shocked people, um, but also had a kind of a point to it, um, and I don't know, like, when I was writing this, like I've said before, this one was written differently as, um, I wrote this one as I want to just see how the story goes, and it took a like a mind of its own, um, and also some of my ideas were changed as I was going through it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I mean, I don't know, I haven't had anyone tell me they didn't like it yet, but then again, I don't really know that many people that have read it yeah, he's like five people have read it, you guys, um, what I want to say on that is there have been some of the offensive things in the book that I've read that I say keep doing it, I don't fucking care, I love it, I hate this. Cancel culture, culture, bullshit. It's a book, it's literature. It's done from a place where people talk that way. People still talk that way, and he's not doing it to try and offend people. He's doing it to convey a message in a story. He's not saying it himself, he's not saying it about people himself, and this goes for any book that's out there. It's done.
Speaker 1:It's like if someone tried to, um, ban John Grisham for some of his books that touch on racism. There's there's like several books that he actually drops the n-word in because it's a southern person who is in the kkk saying that to a character in the story. It's not John Grisham saying that shit himself. It's like the writers are writing a story to tell a story, and some of these stories have things like that in it, but they're doing it as a way of bringing attention to that sort of stuff, not to glorify it, not to make it okay, but to bring attention to that stuff.
Speaker 1:And so, for instance, in in the the ones that I'm talking about, with what Edward say, he talks about how, at one point, you know, um, justin was being made fun of a lot by bullies and he was called a faggot and he was called sold his ginger and he was called retarded and it's like that sort of terminology is not deemed okay in today's society, but people still use it to insult people, and they did a lot in the 90s and 2000s. Um, it was terminology that was used a lot. So to have that kind of terminology used in a book as somebody who's being picked on and bullied, is not uncommon. And again, you're not using it to say that it's okay. You're using in the terms that it was used in. So I don't know, keep doing it, man.
Speaker 3:I like it. I like it, I agree. I think it's really, really fun to explore. You know, even when you're talking about the, the creation of of mankind, you're diving really into some pretty deep thoughts that people hold really true to their heart, and I think it's it's so fun to explore every single possibility and to think that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs brought this weird crazy life to earth that has been around since the big big bang and floated around until it met, con met, you know, came into contact with earth and this is where this crazy life for, I don't know, it's a really fun idea and, like, I think it's, I think it's awesome.
Speaker 3:Um, I, I do think that, uh, some people I'm just thinking about, like, uh, my brother or my mom, or even my man, he's been a really really uh good participant with this book because, um, you know, he, he has his beliefs that he's he's been open with us about and it doesn't seem to have offended him and he's he's really into the story and he's really liking it. So I was just super curious because I thought, maybe, uh, you know, for example, okay, uh, I had a really religious friend and I was reading a book, uh, in Spanish about, uh, a group of people that lived deep within uh the Amazon and they they were successful at staying around since ancient times, living within the depths of huge trees and underground a bit. And I was so fascinated by the imaginative uh story and I was reading in Spanish to work on my Spanish, and my buddy was really, really offended, like that does not line up with the math of you know, bc, uh, this and and like the meridian of time and the coming of Christ, and this is all offensive to me, like please don't tell me about this book anymore. And I was like, oh shoot, I am so sorry, like I did not think it would turn into this conversation. So it's just really uh interesting to think about what content uh could be too graphic or uh maybe maybe cross, you know, belief lines. But man, I I think it's really important when you're talking about damaged people. I mean, that's what this, this hospital, is. They are handpicking damaged people that won't be quote, unquote, missed or not. You know people won't even notice that they're gone and it's it's really telling a terribly heartbreaking story.
Speaker 3:That, um, at times I'm just like man. This is, this is hard to read because I'm it really does put me in the situation and makes me deal with the hard reality of really terrible things happening and, um, I agree, I agree, sparky put it really well like, yeah, keep keep talking about bad shit that happens in the world and and, uh, I do think that you, you give little glimmers of light and love and hope and little messages of like people growing and maturing and the you know when Maria was like man, I love you guys and you see, people come together with teamwork and recognize the hardships in life and like how nice it is to have a friend and like I don't know it really the, the darkness can really make uh the moments of light that much brighter and and emotional. As a reader and I, I for one, am not offended uh much by content and I guess I've been conditioned by some uh all the all that rated our movies that I love and enjoy and shows, so it, uh, I think it's important to uh, you know, make it, make it believable. And if, if we're talking about uh individuals in a hospital that have had a hard time like un, fucking, fortunately, you're going to be dipping into uh abuse, drug use, um, all you know, murder, all these bad things that these people have come from and are now here at the hospital. So, yeah, I I agree.
Speaker 3:Uh, that's my long, my long explanation of uh I agree, and and the only reason I ask that question is I I wonder about uh. If I were to write a book and share it with some of my family members and this is just uh fun to think about also like different upbringings, uh, I would definitely have at different points in my life. If I wrote anything uh gory or I mean anything dealing with beliefs outside of a certain structure, I would have been looked at like um, this is sinful. Like I would have had a really, really interesting time sharing some content uh with certain individuals. So that's also a question is like have have you dealt with that or did you? Did you grow up in a pretty open uh structure and and did your parents kind of uh encourage like, hey, go out there and figure stuff out and learn for yourself, or did you grow up in any kind of belief system?
Speaker 4:I guess that's a pretty uh open, I guess blunt way to say it uh, yeah, um, well, um, my mother suffers from bipolar actually, so, um, our relationship has been kind of rocky. Um, she's not really one to open up, so I've never really had like a like a mother figure in my life. I spent most of my childhood with my father and abusive stepmom, so I don't really come from like a cookie cutter kind of uh childhood. So, um, um, when I got into mental health, it was to help people. And then, of course, hearing a lot of the stories and stuff that happened in like people's childhoods and realizing that like mine's not even half as bad as some of the people, like their lifestyles and stuff, I realized like when I was writing this book, um, a lot of people that go through mental health, that that are in those crisis, are at their like lowest point. So that was kind of the point of writing characters that are super flawed. I mean, even Evelyn Winters is super flawed just from the tragedy she had and stuff. So, um, and like she also went to this hospital as well, which will be touched on in the next book, but like it's, it's all about kind of like I know I killed the characters off, but like it's, it's kind of like a lot of them have redemption.
Speaker 4:A lot of them had these moments where they're bringing people back together, even even though there's some dark stuff happening. They're. They're banding together um and probably never would have um like outside of the hospital. So you know it's, it's kind of like when you have a group of people um together, you, you form a bond. No matter where you work, like your work relationships, any sort of turmoil like that, you, usually with the people around you, you form a bond that's usually unbreakable. And that's what these kids are going through. They've got this un, you know, shakeable bond and even though, like Justin and Doug, like has this thing going on that he needs to kill Caleb, he struggles with that so much to the point where they're like the thing that's inside of him had forced his hand, you know, thinking that he could manipulate him. He literally like forced his hand to do it and he, in the end, he ended up killing someone that he never even wanted to.
Speaker 4:So, like the whole story it's really about like these characters redeeming themselves, but I mean also like while telling a horror story. So that's kind of why there's a lot of gray areas in the story and yeah, I know I do touch on rape, but you know that stuff happens. Um, I think, though, at least a lot of the rape scenes, at least you know these dudes get messed up pretty badly, so I hope there's some redemption there. Um, and even Maria has that like redemption where, like she's been kind of, you know, used by our father and every other male figure, she finally had that kind of moment where you know she was able to stop it from happening, and that's kind of what I really like about that moment, as dark as it is, and the fact that you know, even though they're all accomplished a murder, they grew together in that moment, and you can see that moment as being one of the closest and happiest moments in Maria's life.
Speaker 1:Um, what I wanted to add to is is the concept that people get offended like you're, like Lane, your friend, who got offended over the, the religious aspect of things and you know that couldn't have taken place because of BC and this and whatever it it then have to ask those types of people Do you like the Avengers? Do you like Superman? Do you like like any fictitious story that has been told that is not based in reality? Like you have to ask them do you have the same offensive nature towards those as you do towards this one? Because it doesn't exist in in what you classify as reality, it it? It's not like you're gonna hate every piece of literature because it's not written in reality. It's not written to be real. It's written to take you to a different realm and Give you a feeling of some imaginative story that you would no longer experience. So like whenever someone would get offended and get pissed off with the Da Vinci code because it's questioning religion.
Speaker 3:It's like so funny, you bring that one up. That was. That was another one that really Offended a lot of my friends at the time when I was reading the Da Vinci code. They're like how could you read that? I'm like whoa, I I didn't see this coming, yeah. But yeah, that's so funny, you bring that one up that was another one.
Speaker 4:So it's like Catcher in the dry people are offended by kitchen the right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's because I understand to some degree that one, not not that I've read it myself, but because that one isn't. Isn't that the one that made what's his name killed John Lennon, or whatever?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you killed John Lennon cuz he was just schizophrenic, right, but I understand that you know, if there's a book that somebody is using as a Motive to kill someone, clearly they're there aft up and we shouldn't be, you know, banning the book. But I understand to some degree why that people are, you know, in theory is saying that I mean they do the same thing for a lot of things. We're not gonna go down that road. But they blame the, the, the thing that is Not even blameable, instead of dealing with the psychological aspect and the mental health issues. So I understand why they would ban that book, but then we would literally be banning every book that you know set somebody off in some way. And I mean I go, I go back to like the stuff that we're now banning dr Seuss books for, like racial slurs that he put into them when in that time frame it was okay, like when it was written. We're talking about books that were written back in like the 50s or whatever, like it's not that it's okay now, but back then it was okay. And again, we're not glorifying it, but these are stories that we've told to our kids for decades. So it's, you know my son loves dr Seuss books and I'm not gonna take a book on out of the shelf because it's got Some stuff in it that's deemed unnecessary or whatever it's. It's still a story for him to read and learn from, and even these tools are stuff for us to learn from.
Speaker 1:I Was. This is completely off topic, but I think I think having these discussions is important for us in society Because, like, if we're not having books like this and stuff like this in our literature. I mean, your book touches on so many aspects of Like lanes that I wasn't even thinking about the religious aspects aspect of it. But it touches on mental health, it touches on suicide, it touches on rape, it touches on bullying and using offensive language towards people that were no longer quote allowed to use and it touches on, like I said, religion, and even ancient times was like the Egyptians and stuff like that. But, like you know, I'm at home trying to teach my son about flint and steel on Minecraft, and so I went and got my zippo and taught him you know, this is what flint and steel does and showed him a spark, and showed him how, how the flint works on the, on the wheel and how it creates a spark. And then it might was if I would have a fuel. You know, if it had fuel, it would create the flame, and that's what that is in the video game. And so that's the type of stuff that we should be using with our stories is to teach him. You know, I reiterated to him that this is not a toy, this is a tool. We use this for this purpose. What is fire used for? And we had that conversation.
Speaker 1:It's all about educating your kids on things properly and how to use things property properly, and so that goes to like terminology and phrasing. And you know when, when we were younger you know I'm 36, my generation, growing up in, in elementary school, high school we used to use terms like faggot and retard a lot, and that's in this book because that's stuff that we grew up with as insults, and you know we weren't necessarily using them for the terms that they're Derived from, but we're using them to to make fun of our friends or to be made fun of by our friends. And you know People also use the term fat, which is now you know you can't fat shame, and but I'm not saying that that stuff's okay, that stuff that we just did had in our lives back then. And you know we're in a society now where everything is becoming so hypersensitive that we're Literally banning books off the shelf or banning toys from stores because it has some Sort of Culture Attached to it. There was a kinder egg that was banned for having I know you guys don't have kinder eggs those days. So there's a kinder egg toy here in Canada that was banned for having an Eskimo in it and they deemed it racist because it had an Eskimo that you tried to Flip into an igloo or something to along that lines. So they banned that toy. I have that toy upstairs because it was in a neg that we got them for Easter, like I'm not throwing this out, it's an Eskimo, like there's nothing wrong with it. It's not like they're saying it's it's, you know, okay to do that stuff to Eskimo. It's a friggin toy.
Speaker 1:I think we're just getting too ban happy on trying to get rid of stuff that we're we're deeming Inappropriated or deeming wrong, when it's not necessarily wrong. I mean, I mean I know I'm going on a rant, but I mean, look at, like Uncle Ben and Anjumima, we deemed them, you know, not okay to be on packaging because they were. It was racist to put these, these black entrepreneurs, onto packaging and I Think it was more or less celebrating them for the the accomplishments that they did. I think it was okay to have that sort of stuff, because Anjumima was a pioneer for maple syrup. She was the face of a fit maple syrup company. Uncle Ben did a lot of stuff with rice and Created this whole rice industry.
Speaker 1:But you know, we're now taking them off the packaging because it's not okay. I think we should be putting them on the packaging because it celebrates them as as a successful business person and it doesn't glorify them as some, some, I don't know, I don't know, maybe I'm going off on too much of a rant, but I think it's. It's too ridiculous that we're getting rid of this stuff when we should be Celebrating it and then we should be also educating our, our Youth on how to grow out of these, these stigmatisms that we have on things. But you know, that's my rant for the day.
Speaker 3:Well, you, you make a good point of like educating and you got to kind of take things further and, as a parent, you you see that opportunity every day to to be able to find learning opportunities and teaching opportunities out of everything. So I love that you said that. And really, edward, you know, yeah, it's talking about real life, hard things, but you just you just brought it up also how you know they're learning about friendship through this. You're having little moments of redemption and I I did want to bring that up about Justin. I loved how he was having that back and forth. He was fighting the the serpent. He was really trying to be a good guy. You know, you do have little moments of Breakthrough and wins and victories, of feel good throughout this, this sad story, and that's what, oh man, yeah, you're absolutely right. Watching Justin die, I was Enjoying watching him battle his demons. Literally has this serpent demon telling him what to do and it it broke my heart that you know he was, he was doing well, he had a chance. Ah, so it really is.
Speaker 3:You know, art, when you can stir up emotions and make people feel things, and I remember going to the Museum in Madrid, spain, el Prado, and just being blown away by the sadness I felt in that museum. It was the darkest, bloodiest Experience I've experienced in a what's supposed to be inspiring place, that I came out of that that museum just feeling like what was that? That was so dark and gory and bloody, everything everywhere that and it stuck with me for about a month. It just made me think on the daily I I had actual Like photographic memory Moments where the pictures were popping up in my head and I was like what, what am I trying to do with that image in my head? Why is that sticking so clear?
Speaker 3:And it really brought out a lot of emotion for me and it made me think about things and like, yeah well, I didn't come out of the theater, so to speak, with tears in my eyes, just feeling happy. And you know, like I just watched a rom-com and I'm crying my tears out out of joy. Like I came out of that museum feeling really dark and twisted and it did bright things for me over like a month period of time. And I think that's beautiful Art that can really dig in and explore real life struggles and find the beauty and the and the Darkness. I mean really the beauty in the darkness. And so, yeah, no, I, I think it's important to Leave books as they are. I, I agree no banning of the books, any books, and not only that.
Speaker 4:I don't know if anyone picked on this reading story but Justin struggles with his sexuality A lot through the story and I did that for a reason Kind of like how his father was a closet at homosexual. He just didn't really struggles with it and won so badly to love a woman. But he still has his feelings for Caleb that he struggles with and that was kind of like I never really wanted to say it out loud, but like Justin really Struggles with that throughout the story, whether or not like he has feelings for Caleb or not, and this whole idea of killing cable and Caleb Is more or less trying to cut out that, you know, the sexuality that he feels for him.
Speaker 3:I don't know that Justin, in a sick and twisted but Kind of sweetheart way, killed his family members to put an end to their pain. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So like they were all suffering.
Speaker 4:So he did that, um, but like, like his father suffered from, you know that, that Closet at home sexuality where, like he, you know, cheat on his wife with other men. Like Justin really struggles with that too, because the whole time he's thinking that, like he's in love with Morgan and it's not even Morgan that he's actually in love with, and then he's this whole time conflicted whether he wants to kill Caleb or be his friend. It's, it's more of like this struggle with his sexuality, like this whole like book I don't know if people have realized it it's, it's a lot about you know love and death and life. You know birth and you know reincarnation and stuff like that. Like I, I dive into a lot of Other topics that are like, not just you know, playing in insight. Uh, one second, I'll be back.
Speaker 1:He dives into a lot of stuff with it and it's really well done with how he does it. It's very subtle, but it's also in your face in someone's instances. I think he's got a lot of talent as a writer. There's one thing that I find a little frustrating, though, is he's trying to cover too much stuff at times and it's like he said he kept changing directions with the book and kept adding things to the book and you can tell because of how thick the book is. But there's also moments in the book where there's certain stuff being added in that it feels like it's good to have this sort of stuff in the story, but it also feels like it's out of place. It felt like it should have been done sooner, or it feels like it's just adding too much fluff to the story at this point with certain things, some of the flashbacks that have taken place. He keeps having these moments of flashbacks with the characters and they're kind of dragging on, where you get glimpses of it from one character and then it goes into it later again with the same character in a different chapter and then goes even further into it later again with the same character. It's like I get that what you're trying to paint this picture of their backstory, but it just feels like it's too much constantly getting thrown into this stuff and there's too much details and some of the stuff Although it is, you know, good for the story to some degree it also is just it's adding too much and all the time and it almost feels like at some points he's losing kind of what he's trying to say with the story and the direction he's trying to go with the story.
Speaker 1:As much as I think he's got a lot of talent and it's been a good story so far, there are points where I'm like this feels like it's too much.
Speaker 1:I feel like I could skip this whole chunk and go to the next chapter and be like, okay, I didn't miss anything.
Speaker 1:As much as I don't want to say that, I feel like that just needed to be said because there are certain sections that I've gone to where I'm just like I don't know, I'm feeling like it's too much at times and even though it's a good story, it just it feels like it could have been maybe two stories or maybe even just less characters, because we're trying to flesh out every character's backstory and we're just adding so much onto those backstories, almost like every chapter keeps having flashbacks of this character and then flashbacks of that character, and so we go into the flashback and then it's like hyper detailed flashback.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like the whole thing with Vancouver in the last book and how much detail he went into describing Vancouver and it was like it wasn't necessary. It was as good as it was detail wise and as informative as it was. It provided nothing to the overall story. So some of the stuff does provide information, but other stuff is just adding it for the sake of adding it at that point, and so I just wanted to touch on that before we went any further.
Speaker 4:I can totally get that. I think with doing that, it's just I wanted people to have a like a feel for the characters and stuff. I think I added just too many characters. I think I tried to be over ambitious with this one and I just want to do something completely different. So, yeah, when I was doing the characters and stuff, I probably could have did less characters, but I wanted more to kind of to kind of kill them off Kind of like sorry, yeah, like a story, but it was more. So I wanted people to have like feelings for the characters and each character kind of had to have their own kind of like personality to make each character unique. So I might have overdone it. There definitely could be stuff definitely taken out, but at the same time, I like a lot of it because it adds more to their character.
Speaker 4:Whether it's needed or not, I'm not 100% sure. I mean it's all opinion to me. You know some people might want more. Do you know what I mean? So I don't know. It's hard. It's a really hard balance, especially when, like you're brand new to writing. Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally get that. I was just mainly speaking on the fact that you know, we go from the previous book to this book and they both have their merits. The last book had its pluses and its minuses and then this book, I mean it's largely been a really good read for the most part. But I don't know if it's my frustration from being behind everybody and trying to catch up or if it's just stuff that I'm sensing because I'm now starting to pick things apart a little bit more. But you know, we went through a point where I liked a lot of the stuff that was going on, but as I continue to read it, there's a lot of stuff that just feels like it's filler for the sake of filler and trying to get more jump scares, as it were, out of us. Like you're trying to have gotcha moments and there's too many trying to have gotcha moments with them, where some of it is good and it adds to the story, but others just it doesn't add to the overarching story. In that sense I can't think of an example at this moment, to be honest, of exactly what I'm talking about. But I'd have to go through and dig with, I know, when I was reading some of the stuff out, it was coming to mind that that was the case. It's like it just. It just feels like you're you're trying to have too many moments where we're reading it and then something happens and we're like, oh shit, that happened. So it's. It's great when you know there's a few of those in the story, or the one main one at the end, where everyone's like, oh no, that person was a ghost. But through the whole story constantly having those sort of moments, it just feels like it could be too much at times. So that's my main critique so far with everything that I've read. And again, I don't know if it's because of me being behind and me being sick and trying to catch up and all that shit, or if it's if it's strictly because it's just, you know, tiresome to have these constant get gotcha moments. I know for, like, when we were reading the visions of Bezik, it was getting tiresome. The stuff was constantly formulaic and we're having the same stories told over and over and that kind of feels like the path that we're going down with how many moments are like oh my God, this is happening. And then we turn the page and oh my God, now this is happening. It was like this is completely different subject altogether. But I was in a discord the other day and someone was talking about how great the Walking Dead series on TV was and I was like it's, it's not really that great If you think about it on a story telling front, because on large is literally the formula is what kind of shit can they, are they getting themselves into in this episode?
Speaker 1:It's the worst shit imaginable. Or even the season. It's like, oh, this new, this new bad thing is happening to them. Some people are going to die while they try and get out of it, and then they overcome it, and then the next season it's the same thing, or the next episode is the same thing. Oh no, they're in. They're in a terrible situation. Okay, now they've gotten out of it and they lost a few people and there's really no storytelling. That's the basic gist of it, and it's the same story each season to season, just with different faces. And that's that's the kind of thing that you can tend to fall into if you're trying to constantly have these gotcha moments where it's like every time we're reading a chapter, something new is happening and you're like, oh shit, it doesn't always have to be something crazy happening. It can always just be that they're trying to get things sorted out and figured out and whatever, but that's again. That's just my opinion.
Speaker 4:No, I like that. Yeah, I think as I was going through the story I was kind of like trying to figure out how the story would progress and I think I definitely bloated it with too many characters I probably should have. You know, it took a couple out and just kind of told us like a shorter story, but at the same time I just had so much fun writing it, you know. So it was different. But I know at the end of the book, like the last like probably 20 chapters, I was just like, okay, I just want this to end. It was like it was a year of writing this book.
Speaker 3:I thought it was fun. I was actually going to ask you, edward, if there were any like deeper. You know you were talking about there are themes of love and themes I mean that you were just talking about that before you hopped off. Can you kind of keep going on that? Because I was actually going to ask you like, do you have any deeper themes? That you were kind of working on Because you've mentioned it was a little bit of a freestyle and writing and figuring out where the story went, but I loved that you were bringing that up. That you actually, you know, was that during the writing or before that you wanted to put in these themes or just kind of you saw them, the opportunities as you went.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like the main theme of this one was really about, like birth and so you know the trials and tribulations of all that kind of stuff like that. So love connecting feelings, you know tragedy through death and stuff like that. So like the main theme of this was about evolution and how evolution is needed, like when you know I'll take an example when bunnies. I know this is kind of like out to lunch here when bunnies are born. There's some that are born completely white or they're supposed to change to a different color in order for the species to keep going on. Some will have deformities where they won't have white fur during the winter and they'll have brown. Usually they die off, but in the time of the year when it doesn't have any snow at all, they usually blend while the white ones pass away. So it's used to keep the species still going and throughout time we've evolved to survive our elements.
Speaker 4:This story was all about evolution and evolving into the next form. So that's kind of like the theme that I wanted to go with when I was doing this story was you know, birth and how you know the mother usually is the one that carries the child, and I kind of want to just go with that whole theme of like having sex is coming in, sexuality, you know, birthing, so it's this whole theme of evolving. But it added like obviously a faster scale. So I just I love the idea of writing something that kind of came off as like you know a cult story where you know they're trying to evolve the species of humanity at a you know exponential rate. So that's kind of like why I kind of went with this whole like cosmic horror. I don't know if I pulled it off the way I wanted to, but yeah, that was kind of like the huge theme going through the story. I don't know if that made sense. I think I wanted a bit of a tangent.
Speaker 3:No, that was great. I love that. And now, obviously, if this plays into a bigger story, a series of stories and books I'm guessing that will will there be closure at the end of this book, or will you leave us on a bit of a cliffhanger or like, oh, something could still be going down, or, you know, maybe don't even talk about it, that's a big teaser, or maybe do what do you?
Speaker 4:think Well, I mean, I did say there's going to be three more books, so I'm sure you guys could figure it out, put your brains together and get that one. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm excited to see how you end this book. I'm obviously eager to find out if any you know happy ending comes about. But I am also a little nervous to know what you know bad twist happens right at the end to hook us in for the next book, and it doesn't always have to be, I guess, something bad. And sometimes some seasons, will you know, they'll leave you with something maybe not even that crazy, Just the curiosity of knowing that another season's coming, I don't know. Like, usually there is something pretty dramatic that you think it's all done and happy, and then some little last event happens where it's like oh shit. So I'm only guessing that we'll have a little bit of that, and so I'm a little nervous.
Speaker 3:I'm hopeful that we have a little bit of happy ending, but something tells me that there's still going to be some sort of tragedy looming over everything. Is there any happiness in the ritual? Are we up for any happy chapters coming up, or is the rest of the book pretty fast-paced and action-paced and gory? Or are we up for some more gore? What do we have to expect for part three?
Speaker 4:To expect the unexpected. The truth is out there. I don't know any other quotes I can use. I think both of those came from X-Files.
Speaker 1:I think it's fair to say at this point that Edward Lane wants you to give him a happy ending.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, of course he takes the sound bite. I got to watch myself, goodness gracious. I'm so bad at this. Everybody enjoy this. I don't even think before I speak. It makes for good sound bites. That was good, good, well-played Sparky.
Speaker 1:I had to call attention to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but no, I am hoping for a happy ending here.
Speaker 1:No, I totally get it. Because he's constantly showing all these tragedies and stuff. It's tough to keep reading with his previous story having the tragedy at the end that it had. The fact that there's generally two types of stories, as we know there's comedies and there's tragedies this genuinely reads as if it's a tragedy. It's kind of the road that he's going in it's going to end in a tragedy. You hope that there's going to be a happy ending. I'm making light of the joke. It's a double entendre in that sense, but it is something that it would be nice to have a happy ending to this book.
Speaker 4:I mean it might be a happy ending to someone.
Speaker 2:That's true that's true.
Speaker 3:You never know who people are rooting for. Some people are agreeing with Bain, you know yeah.
Speaker 4:Some people might just want to see the world burn and think that's an awesome way to end a story. But on that note, I was looking at the pages. I don't know if you guys are inclined to read up to 4.99. I think we could probably finish this in maybe three weeks or less. That's kind of I'm hoping. I think we can get four sections done and then the very last one. I'd like to leave part four to be the last entourage sort of thing. So I also even have a song that I want Sparky to play. No, I'll sing it then if I have to. But yeah, for part four, I got a really cool song that I'd love for him to use. That, I think, will go well.
Speaker 1:Okay, I will mention something since clearly I've been talking a shit ton of space. I had a DM with another member of the book club here and in his DM I can screenshot it so he doesn't try to get out of it and I'm not trying to throw him under the best on the way, because I totally agree with him. Daph had said to me where did he say this? Let me find it real quick.
Speaker 5:I said, it's Thanksgiving, so let's take a break and let us get caught up Me and Sparky, please.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Hey, that's actually a group.
Speaker 1:And Ryan.
Speaker 3:It is Thanksgiving, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It's your Thanksgiving.
Speaker 5:We had those months, so I was going to say could we like come back next Wednesday?
Speaker 6:And then if anybody did, need to catch up.
Speaker 5:They could catch up.
Speaker 3:Hey, I'm okay with that. It's probably going to be a pretty crazy week for me. Now that I'm being realistic about it, you guys have opened up the conversation and already divulged which way you're leaning. Now that I'm thinking about it, it might be a kind of a crazy family week. What do you think, edward? Is that too selfish of us Americans to ask for time off?
Speaker 4:I mean, honestly, why don't you guys have Thanksgiving, when we just the people go off the boats at different times. Yeah, I'm totally. Let's take a week off, let people catch up. I think that's a good break. We could probably go to 499 next Monday, or is that Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1:That's Thanksgiving for them.
Speaker 4:Okay, so do you want to do it start Wednesday of next week and get to 499?
Speaker 1:I think that's a good point. I mean, I'm still 100 pages behind at this point, so that's now 90,. No, that's 80 something pages on top of what I'm behind, or something like that.
Speaker 4:So yeah, because I think it's 446 or something. So I think it's only like it was only supposed to be like 40 or 60 pages to read this time because it was two days. So yeah, I'm totally down with not when this Wednesday, but next Wednesday, kind of using this as like an intermission, seeing how we're now moving into part three and four.
Speaker 1:The halfway break.
Speaker 4:Yeah, let's have an intermission. I mean, this is like a double feature.
Speaker 3:And, hey, I know you're excited to get through it and I know we ask time for me to be here with us, but, man, I don't know if any of us are super excited to like rush through it. We are enjoying it a lot, you know, and at the same time I think I could understand getting behind and wanting to catch up. So I'm totally down for it as long as you are, edward.
Speaker 4:I'm down, but y'all best be ready, y'all best be happy. Your page is ready. We come back. I'm only missing. We'll spoil the frame.
Speaker 3:Hey, this is great, hey, and I think a break will be nice, but breaks also offer a little bit of an opportunity to catch up. So, yeah, you're right, edward, I'll definitely get my reading in, and next Wednesday that'll be the plan. You guys cool with that, yeah?
Speaker 1:Did you want to host something this Wednesday, or did you want to just take it off altogether?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we could still do something this Wednesday I'll be feeling.
Speaker 1:I don't want to put you on a spot and make you feel pressured like you have to because we are taking a break. We don't have to do anything. We could just literally take it off. But from the hosting perspective, do you want to do something or do you want to just take the time off and get stuff prepared for your Thanksgiving and do your family stuff?
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe let's just tentatively plan on taking a break. If I do have some time on Wednesday, I'll do a little hangout space. But I think that sounds like a good plan and I'll definitely be getting my reading in Edward because that's some good time to be lounging and doing some reading. I definitely can't not continue my reading, so I'll probably read till that 499 spot and if I'm ahead of people then I'll just try to wait patiently. This is my chance to read ahead a little bit.
Speaker 5:I'll take the book to my in-laws. Yeah, that way I'll sit on the couch and then everybody will just be like, what are you reading? And then I'll just be like, well, I feel like evolution sprinkle with a little bit of pornography and some other weird shit, and it might be for you.
Speaker 3:Hey, you know, keepers of the lighthouse. You could really go like oh yeah, it's a self-help, motivational, inspirational book about finding that keeper of the lighthouse within yourself and keeping a close eye on any harmful things coming in, and you could really twist it into a self-help book.
Speaker 5:It would be like it's like if Stranger Things had a baby.
Speaker 4:It's basically just a snuff film.
Speaker 5:Yeah, honestly, most of those family members would be intimidated by the size of it. That's what she said. That's right, the throbbing lighthouse on the front cover.
Speaker 4:Right, I literally wrote the book to be thick too, just so it'd throw people off and be intimidated Just like a cuckoo.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, it's definitely the yeah, your strategies are working Well. Great space. My friends, I hope everyone's gearing up for a nice holiday break then. I know it's not everyone's holiday break, but you'll probably be hearing about it from us Americans over the week and hopefully everyone has a nice chance to have a delicious dinner, even if that's not on your holiday schedule. Hope everyone has a delicious dinner that night.
Speaker 4:So is your holiday on Monday or is it Sunday? Ours is usually like Friday by Sunday, but then Monday is off. It's Thursday but we need four people.
Speaker 2:What the fuck is wrong with you guys.
Speaker 4:Why Thursday?
Speaker 2:That is a weird day it's on a Thursday.
Speaker 5:Thanksgiving Thursday.
Speaker 4:So do you have like Friday off too?
Speaker 5:No, well, yeah, but it's chaos. It's called Black Friday, oh yeah, that's when all the deals are, and then Monday is Cyber Monday.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you get thankful for all the deals that come out.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I've literally. I worked in retail during that several times. I've actually seen people who have their legs broken trying to get in through the doors.
Speaker 4:I mean, we have Black Friday, but everyone's just like saying sorry.
Speaker 5:Black Friday actually is the result of Black Friday Roses on the body, whatnot.
Speaker 4:Sorry, but that I'm dry.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it gets wild. Yeah, it gets wild around here. I avoid it.
Speaker 5:And then Cyber Monday is definitely saved lives.
Speaker 4:Cyber Monday is just people cyber bullying.
Speaker 5:Oh, I want this, not you.
Speaker 4:That's me being a nerd.
Speaker 5:You should look up videos on Black Friday extreme shopping.
Speaker 1:It's fucking crazy. We don't really get that many deals here in Canada, but we had some good deals one year that I actually went shopping and got stuff for the most part, everybody else is everything just like played in Christmas now, like before Thanksgiving, I guess the world is saying it used to be like Christmas tree went up day after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 5:Now it's like as soon as Halloween was over, everybody was like Christmas, christmas, christmas, christmas.
Speaker 4:Christmas. It's a Mexican restaurant and it's Christmas shit everywhere you guys have remembrance day, like on the November 11th.
Speaker 1:It's a Veterans Day for them.
Speaker 4:Okay, normally it's supposed to be respectful to do like put up your Christmas stuff the day after and not on the day or before, but people just stopped giving a shit and now they do it like immediately after Halloween. It's the craziest thing. But yeah, it was supposed to be a sign of respect.
Speaker 1:Just not do it until after Christmas or after we have neighbors on our street People neighbors on our street that they had all the Christmas lights up before Halloween and had them on at night time. So, like Halloween, people were going around trick or treating and these people had fucking Christmas lights like red and green and Christmas trees and shit up it was like you're crazy.
Speaker 4:Apparently in the Philippines they start decorating in September.
Speaker 5:Yeah it's crazy, it's too early, I think it might have something to do with like a collective mentality of like how there's like the violence and war type stuff going on in the world right now, and I think that people were just subconsciously like oh, I'm tired of seeing this shit Christmas now. And then I think that's what happened.
Speaker 4:Honestly, Part of me just wants to bring back COVID Agreed? No, too soon.
Speaker 3:I'm just thinking about the background.
Speaker 2:That's me breaking in.
Speaker 4:It's set in wrong.
Speaker 2:Wow, Amy's from Canada.
Speaker 1:We had it worse here than you guys did. Canada yeah, for COVID. Covid was crazy here.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, it's because, well, no, we were like yeah, like reforms and stuff what they were doing was crazy.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, like, numbers wise we didn't get hit as hard as the states, but we were shut down harder, yeah.
Speaker 4:I remember when they were talking about how Donald Trump was. I don't know if this was true, but he was saying that what was it? Bleach or something Can get rid of COVID. What was it?
Speaker 1:Bleach and inject sunshine into your system or whatever.
Speaker 4:Some people said it was a joke when he said it but other people like took it seriously, I can't remember you bringing up.
Speaker 5:That remind me of something. Hold on, I took a screenshot of this. It's not political, but, lane, I got to say it. I see here, man, I took a screenshot of it. Where is it?
Speaker 1:I posted a screenshot on top of what we were talking about with Stan Lee. Oh, okay, here you go.
Speaker 5:Here you go. So this was in my email from I think it's. It's one of the crypto things, but it's like snacks or something like that. I forget who it is. It does that. But anyways, this little article thing they sent said the cutest thing to come out of President Biden's meeting with China's leader, xi Xi Xi Xi Xi Xi Xi Xi Xi.
Speaker 5:Xi hinted that his country would send new pandas to American zoos after three of them recently returned to China, before remaining pandas and the US are also on loan from China. Panda diplomacy, it's a thing.
Speaker 3:That's what's up. Pandas changing the world.
Speaker 5:We're literally back in talks with China over pandas and that is relatable. That's awesome, I love that Pandas are providing peace right now, bro.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. Ooh, I got to come up with a fun post about that. That'd be great.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you do. It's totally something to play off of right now you need to like go in a, we need to go in mid-journey and make like two pandas, like handing a scroll over or something.
Speaker 4:Or two pandas hooking Biden.
Speaker 5:Or both the presidents like cuddling with pandas.
Speaker 3:There you go, maybe having a meal with a panda there mediating.
Speaker 5:Is it called chibi, Like cute little anime style yeah yeah. Yeah, that's what they need. To look like they're like fuck, they're on top of them and stuff, and, like the other guys, like giggling and stuff and they can't contain themselves.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's great. I always love these book hubs because it's like 10% about the book and then 90% about everything else.
Speaker 3:I don't know you got to give it to us we. You know we at least 50, 60% book. No, hey, I like the tangents For the most part.
Speaker 5:For the most part.
Speaker 3:For the most part Death.
Speaker 1:Yeah, literally.
Speaker 3:I like the tangents. I like them. You win some, you lose some.
Speaker 5:His characters lose them all. In the end, we all lose.
Speaker 3:Hey, I feel like we're all winning. I enjoy this story. It's Lane talking, I'm talking, he's not hearing me.
Speaker 1:I can't hear him at all. He's rugged. He can't hear any of us.
Speaker 2:Oh oh oh yeah, yeah, yeah, come back up.
Speaker 5:Me, it's your problem. Oh, that's just shame.
Speaker 4:Hold on a second.
Speaker 2:I wanted to hear it.
Speaker 5:I'm doing this on my Mac, by the way. It's a little different.
Speaker 3:What Mid Journey?
Speaker 1:No, he's listening to Space. No, I'm in the space.
Speaker 3:Oh, oh, oh gotcha.
Speaker 5:Nice, yeah, that was weird was whenever I would like change desktops, like slide over it would show I wasn't in here but I was from the beginning, and then when I slide over, it would show me as a listener, but I was still a speaker.
Speaker 4:I don't know. It's weird. If I cut you out of conversation, I suppose I can't hear him now, can I? It's a different topic.
Speaker 5:Can you hear him Lane?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can hear Edward. Edward, can you hear?
Speaker 4:me oh yeah. I was saying I probably cut you off as I cut Dap off. I tell you, I cut you off, hey Edward.
Speaker 5:I have to cut people off. I don't have a hand to hold up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dap, you're just doing weird things, like it's showing you muted right now.
Speaker 5:Oh, I'm definitely not muted. Oh man, yeah, I don't have a hand to hold up at all on here.
Speaker 2:His is just going, his is going to stop. He can't mute, he's still talking.
Speaker 4:Edward go ahead. I'm just giving Dap a hand.
Speaker 2:But nice.
Speaker 3:Well, my friends, I've got a wheel loaded up here for a little giveaway. Reminder to those that want to get on the giveaway wheel until the automation is fixed with Super Spaces Help, we're just doing it manually, so hop in a ticket or a DM with me. I've got a couple of new people on the VIP listener list. I'm just getting those stats from you guys and seeing you here and coming back and hanging out talking about books and other fun stuff. I like our tangents, by the way, and I think we have a pretty solid, impressive amount of percentage time spent on talking about the actual book. So I'm proud. I'm proud of us.
Speaker 3:I just have to give you a big round of applause and thank you for keeping us entertained over weeks. It's not just these book spaces that we talk and discuss, that we're enjoying this content. It's the actual reading of the book in our spare time. I just think you're keeping us all entertained and on the edge of our seat. Well done, huge congrats and thank you, our appreciation. You feel that you participating in this book club and being on the spaces with us. I just want you to know how much I greatly, greatly appreciate you doing this. This is so cool and I hope it's been beneficial for you. What's your take so far? Two books in now. Is this a helpful process for the author? What do you think?
Speaker 4:Yeah, definitely, because I feel like, especially with you guys giving your opinions and stuff and like I love hearing Sparky has a lot of like insight to with the writing and stuff.
Speaker 4:So I do like hearing that stuff because, yeah, like when you write a book you don't really kind of know how people are going to take it and stuff. And obviously having opinions and stuff whether or not you know they like this part, they don't like this part you can like kind of think, okay, maybe next time when I write it I change it up a little bit, maybe next time I make a little bit more heartfelt and not just about murdering my characters. But you know, I think it's definitely a learning curve because I continue to write and figure out my own identity. You know what I mean. No, I love it and I'm planning to dive in more into the writing. The worst thing is working on another project with. You know, sweets, it's kind of hard to like find time to really get down and write, so trying to find a good, solid balance for both and that can be tough.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the constant balance, balance and all those plates you have spinning. You've got a lot of them, my friend, and I am really impressed you never seem stressed out, do you get stressed, edward?
Speaker 4:Um. Kaitlin thinks I'm a psychopath because I don't get stressed.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I do get stressed. I think you're a psychopath because all the murders you talk about yeah, that too.
Speaker 4:If you didn't get it from my excessiveness, get it from the rating.
Speaker 3:Well, that's, that's my last question for you tonight, edward. What's your, what's your secret? How do you handle stress the way you do?
Speaker 4:Um, bury it deep. I don't, honestly, I don't really know.
Speaker 2:Just just don't point it out on me.
Speaker 4:Take it out on me, I don't know. I just I enjoy doing things. I mean I don't take things way too seriously. I do, like Kaitlin does have a problem with that. I mean I've taken things seriously too often but I just, I like, you know, doing shit like being creative, I don't really care too much about people whining all the time, so it doesn't bother me too much. And yeah, I just I try not to just take things seriously. I mean it's good to have some stress because stress obviously helps you to create and obviously if I didn't have any stress, nothing would ever get done because I would just, you know, be a couch potato. But yeah, I guess I just I use that stress to kind of like create. You know, I use it as like crunch times and stuff like that. I'm also eating toastie doughs. If anyone's wondering, are those good, Sound good, Toastie doughs? Yeah, yeah, they're pretty good.
Speaker 2:I got like what are you snacking on? Are you snacking on anything?
Speaker 3:Nope, just my Agua, just staying hydrated over here. What about you, sparky? You snacking?
Speaker 2:on anything? Water, that's not snack. Okay that works. See you guys are helping us.
Speaker 4:No, I'm just sick. So you drink water in a lane drinking Spanish water.
Speaker 3:Imported specialty.
Speaker 1:I've actually lost 10 pounds from being sick.
Speaker 3:Oh, is that, is that healthy?
Speaker 1:Is that good? It's not what it is, because the funny thing is and I'm not trying to make this about me, obviously but I haven't been eating because I've been so sick and coughing so much. So, like you know, the first couple of days I had soup only and then most of the days, because I'm not sleeping, I'm not eating properly I'll have like literally just dinner and it's not even a lot of food. But yeah, I lost 10 pounds and then I had to walk to my son's school today to pick him up. And usually, walking to my son's school, I have like low back pain by the time I get there because I'm you know, I'm such a fat piece of shit. But I got to have low back pain by the time I get there because of all my other ailments. But today I went to the school and back without any pain in my back whatsoever and it's probably because of how much coughing I've been doing. I'm getting such an ab workout.
Speaker 3:Hey, the silver lining of being sick. There you go, you're catching some abs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have a six back.
Speaker 3:Oh man. Well, I hope you're feeling better, my friend, and I hope I hope that you can. Yeah, maybe this kicks off a nice little weight loss series. That'd be nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fingers crossed, silver lining, like you said.
Speaker 3:Well, my friends, I appreciate the fun bamboo book time and the fun conversation. I am going to go ahead and spin this wheel here. Does anybody have the number for the night 39? And a half 39 and a half. We'll see if I can do it. I don't think it'll let me do any halves. Let's shuffle it up here.
Speaker 4:Not worth it then 39 coming up If we can't do fractions.
Speaker 3:With a suspense, a 39 second spin. I feel like forever. Yeah, yeah, that's a good. That's a good long spin.
Speaker 4:Ryan, it goes on for 39 seconds. Come on, hey, see that's me getting my stress out.
Speaker 3:Everyone's going to think Ryan's got some voodoo magic going on here because he took the win tonight.
Speaker 2:my friends, you son of a what?
Speaker 3:Congratulations, my friend. Well, I will go ahead and turn the time over to Sparky. Now I'm excited for an outro song. It sounds like the intro got fixed and put together, so hopefully the outro is ready to rock.
Speaker 4:When you steal my sunshine.
Speaker 1:No, I'm sticking with Three Days Grace because, like I said, there's a whole album that kind of portrays the book. This one is called One X it's the title of their album. The lyrics are Is it One X? I was going to play it here. I'm just trying to think again. It's basically about people being depressed and downtrodden, and is it life or death and all that? Then we are the ones to get back up when we're not down. Just kind of touching on the things that the character is going through, their redemptions that Edward talked about, and how some of the characters are getting these redemptions, that they've been through so much shit in their lives or they've done things that they're regretting and now they're getting some redemption. They keep getting knocked down but they're getting back up. Like I said, this album is from 2006. This is not my first time hearing it. I listened to it when I was younger. I know kind of a first song on the album, but it's definitely an album that I feel ties in with these characters very well. Here we go.
Speaker 6:We are the ones to get back up when we're not down.
Speaker 6:We get knocked down. We get back up and stand above the crowd. We are one. We are the ones to get back up and stand above the crowd. We are one. We are one. Well, I've been thinking about it so much better than this. I never thought I'd be stuck in this mess. I've said go on the ring. Is it love or death? I need to figure out who's behind me. We are one. We are one. We are one. We are one. We are one. We are one. We are one. We are one. We are one. We are one.
Speaker 6:We are the ones we get knocked. We are the ones we get knocked down. We get back up instead of up the crowd. We are the ones. We are the ones we get knocked down. We get back up instead of up the crowd. We are the ones. We are the ones we get knocked down. We get back up instead of up the crowd. We are the ones they have to think about. There's so much better than this. I never thought I'd be stuck in this mess. I'm sick of wondering Is it love or death? We are the ones. We get knocked down. We get back up instead of up the crowd. We are the ones. We are the ones. We get knocked down. We get back up instead of up the crowd. We are the ones. We are the ones we get knocked down. We are the ones. We get knocked down. We get back up instead of up the crowd. We are the ones. We get knocked down. We get knocked down. We stand up, up the crowd. We stand up up the crowd. We stand up up the crowd.
Speaker 1:Oh, just as a reminder, because of that song. We all have trials and tribulations in our life that knock us down. So remember to pick yourself back up and stand above the crowd. You don't have to make yourself be seen higher than everybody, but you know, hold yourself higher than everyone would pick yourself up. We all go through tough times and we all have shitty things happen in our life. So remember that getting back up is a hard thing to do, but it's better than not getting up. So pick yourself back up. Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans. Hope you guys have a wonderful Thanksgiving this weekend.
Speaker 4:Happy cold cuts to all the Canadians.
Speaker 3:Yeah, have a wonderful week. We will see you in about a week and a half. Much love everyone. Thanks for that inspirational final thought, Sparky. That was really great. We can all pick ourselves up tough times. We got this. Let's kick ass this week, you guys. Much love you guys.