SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Blur Respection Podcast, everyone. This is your moderator, your hostess with the most is Jacob, other known as Suchi No Shogun. I'm here with uh one of our actually I'm actually really excited about the fact that he's here today. He reached out to us uh because he has two books that are out and he really wanted us to review them and interview him regarding them. Uh we myself and Dr. Legacys reviewed both books and man, uh without going into them, I'm thoroughly impressed. Today we have uh our guest, Mr. Joris Smiley, the writer of the Royal Gray Box and Tori. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Doing great, Jacob. Glad to be here, glad to be a part of what you have and your team have. I'm I'm honored and I'm thankful that you would allow me to be in your space. Um The Royal Gray Box, we'll get into it, and I'll just say it came from a place of just fun and also kind of just exploring a lot of things that was going on in my mind at the time. Uh, because I was building a certain situation, which we'll get into. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

And I can I can definitely tell, like, like you said, there's different ups, downs, rivers, like this there's a whole cacophony of things going on in this book. Um, so yeah, like you said, we'll get into it. So uh what I want to definitely do as we do with all of our interviews is give you the opportunity to kind of tell a little bit about yourself because I'm sure our listeners are interested to know, you know, who you are and what you do.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Alright, well, me, I mean it all started in Detroit. I was born in Detroit April 1989. I was born there, but I didn't grow up there. I lived there for a couple of years. Um, we had to leave and then actually came out and we lived in La Plata. And then we lived in La Plata and actually kind of bounced around across like La Plata, Waldorf, uh other parts of PG County. Like again, shout out to PG County is such an amazing place. Oh, yeah. PG It's such a beautiful place. Like I've traveled to other places which I'll get into, but PG is nothing like it. And it offers something, especially if you're black, it offers something remarkable. Yes. Well, after I finished high school, uh class 07, shout out to Frederick Douglass and Upper Marlboro. I got accepted to go to North Carolina AT out in Greensboro. Shout outs to AT, Aggie Pride all day, of course. I had to mention them, such a great place. I had a lot of fun there, and but on a more serious note, I definitely engaged in what I went there for. Um when I first started, actually, I actually was in a different major than what I ended up in. I something like computer engineer, comp side, and it was okay, but it just I didn't enjoy it. And so and I graduated high school in 07, but I tell everybody I'm really class of 08 in a sense because in 2008 something happened, a lot of things happened in 2008, which they're kind of pivotal as to who I am and why I'm even here today. Um in 2008 I took a couple of writing classes and I really enjoyed them, and I had a lot of fun, and so I when I came back home after the semester ended in 2008, I came back to Upper Marlboro. And then the summer of 2008, you gotta think, pretty much a lot of stuff that's here now and today that's become mainstream and staples started in 2008. Superhero movies, but the first Marvel movie, Iron Man, 2008, The Dark Knight, 2008, Sharaj Gambino, and how big he became. He started making music in 2008. Um, what else happened in 2008? Um, well, for those of you on the audio version, I am currently wearing a sweater with the game Super Trans with this bra on it. But if you see the video, you'll see it as well. This game was very instrumental to me. It came out in 2008, and it introduced me to something that's actually kind of pivotal in the book, which is the FGC, which stands for fighting game community. There's also the Smash, and there's some entertainment, but across the board, they're kind of different. But I started off with competitive gaming through this game right here, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, in 2008, and I played it a great deal. And when I say I played it, I was practicing for four, five, six plus hours. Still going to college and still getting A's and B's, of course. And but I would go to tournaments and I would play people who were like the best in my city, the best in North Carolina, the best in like Maryland, the best in their region. And I would take games and even beat some of them. Like I was traveling as far as like, you know, New Jersey or going to Florida. As a college student? Some of it was in college and a lot of it was post-college. Okay. But, you know, that was a that was a really fun time. Even to this day, I still am connected and have a lot of friends, great friends, but that all started in 2008 and all started with this game right here. Like at my peak, I was like one of the best players in North Carolina for Super Span with his bra. Um, and I made a lot of great friends that were really vital to me, and just vital to that book in many categories. Especially there's one story which we'll get into about a guy who takes his daughter to a tournament. Yeah. I actually met a guy who he he's like one of the best street fighters, street fighter, killer instinct, tech in Mortal Kombat. He plays everything, he's really good. He lives in North Carolina, and I went to a tournament out in Florida called CEO.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Which shout outs to CEO, Alex Jabiley. Um he hosts it, is originally CEO stands for Community FR Orlando, but for the past few years he's been hosting in Daytona. So I went to the one in Daytona, and that's where I met the guy. Well, I met him before, but I kind of reunited with him. Okay at Daytona Beach, and he had mentioned it, he had kind of wished he had brought his daughter with him. So I thought to myself, you know, I should write a story about that. And I held on to that idea since 2018 when I reunited with him. So I wrote a story about a guy which is his daughter to a tournament. But I would say the most crucial thing in 2008 that happened besides Brawl was The Dark Knight coming out. Yeah, The Dark Knight, there are plenty of influences I can say inspired me to write, but the biggest, like most monumental one that kind of like really pushed me and like, you know, lit a fire was The Dark Knight. Rest Easy, Heath Ledger, of course. Um, but that movie just I saw how great it was, but also saw how the world reacted to it. I mean, yes, there have been superhero movies before, but we had never really seen we had never seen anything like that. I mean, even to this day, it still kind of holds, it holds up and holds a very special place in just superhero movies and just in society, and it really inspired me to like as a creative, I when I saw that, that's when I realized that's what I want to do. I want to tell stories that you know had that impact. I I sell people all the time, I'm chasing a feeling. Like the feeling that the Dark Knight gave me, I want to give to people uh when they read my stories that like this is something you're gonna never forget, something that's gonna have a resounding impact five, ten, twenty years later. People still, we talk about comic movies, they still, the dark night is still gonna be in a conversation. We've had movies come out 10, Dark Knight is like 15 years old this year. We'll be 16 next year, which that's time, folks. We we're getting old. Um but um still it's still in a conversation. We talk about super movies, that movie's not gonna be left out of conversation, you can't ignore it, you can't downplay its impact and significance. I mean, if you if somebody five, ten years old today might not understand, but if you were alive and around and you understood, you understood, and you still understand the significance of that movie and what it meant to just everything. And guess what? It came out in 2008, and so with that, I kind of got the dream to become a writer, and so my college years from then on were devoted to that. And then I graduated from ANC class of 2011, December, undergrad in creative writing. I stayed in Greensboro for a couple years and got into a lot of adventures, some amazing, some awful. Um then eventually decided to leave and then came back here for like a year, and then I was accepted to go to Miami University. Now, when I say Miami, I got hype because I'm like, oh, it's Miami, it's the beach, it's Florida. Then I looked, it said Ohio. I was like, oh yeah, something sad, it's Ohio. And then I got happy because I realized Ohio's right next to Michigan. So I made a couple of phone calls. I then I was living in Michigan with a relative and then eventually got my own place. Awesome. Graduated from Miami. Shout outs to Miami, uh, out in Oxford, Ohio, Miami OH. Um, which I gotta tell you, going from HBCU to being the only black student in class is kind of wild. But that's a long story. A whole nother story interview. But I still had a lot of fun, still still a great time. Again, shout outs to Miami OH. Um, graduated from there with a master's in creative writing summer 2019. Okay. And then after that, again, just more misadventures and ups and downs in Michigan. But the interesting part, as we know, after 2019, we all know what happened in 2020, which Taurian is kind of wild. Taurian, I wrote Taurian back in 2011, and I was still working on it and editing it. The original version was bad. There was no point on it. You'll never see that. You'll never see the note. No, no, I'll never see that. But the but I had held on to it, and so like around like February of 2020, I saw a friend of mine published a book, and the publisher, Black Gold Publishing, shoutouts to Tahar and the Black Gold crew, Teddy, aka Theodore, shoutouts to them. Torian actually was introduced to them around February, and they said they loved it and they wanted to work on it. And so I was kind of nervous because I was in a situation where, you know, a lot of bad things that happened between like after I graduated up until February. And I was kind of in a situation where I wasn't sure what I was gonna do to pay rent and all that, because again, the rough situation I was in. Yeah, 2020 was. And then March hit, and I was like, wait a minute, you're gonna give me money to stay indoors? And stimulus and unemployment. And so the artist who drew the book cover, shoutouts to his name is William, but call him Wally. Yeah, that could cover too, the World Bear Box. His name is Wally V on IG. Shoutouts to him. He's out, he's based out in Charlotte, really great guy. Met him back in 2014. Um, we worked in, we worked actually worked in that book cover. I was in Michigan, he was in Charlotte. So that book cover for Torian and for that, well, that cover was made while I was living here. But the Torian cover was made while I was in Michigan. Wow. And so, and again, he was in Charlotte. But you gotta think, I had all that free time because I was in, we were sitting indoors. We have to pretty much stay indoors because of COVID when the COVID first started. And so I just used that time to edit Torian, make it better. I worked with Black Gold to they help me improve it, clean it up, add more ideas. Like Black Gold, they actually really helped me improve. Yeah, Black Gold out in uh Newport News or Virginia Beach. It's all just Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach. It's all just Virginia Beach to me. Newport News, Hampton Roads, uh Norfolk, whatever you want to call it, it's all just Virginia Beach to me. Shout outs to again um Black Gold publishing out Virginia Beach. Um, but yeah, they really helped me clean Torian up and I had a lot of free time in the world because I mean we had trouble with the sit indoors, so I'm like, I'll use this time to edit my book and cope with the book cover, and that's how Torian came about. Um you released Torian in April of 2021. April 9th. Okay. And um then that came out June of this year. Okay. What I can say though is it's been a lot quite interesting, you know, the adventures and reactions I've gotten from both books, particularly Taurian. People tell me all the time it's like, you know, something remarkable that it means a lot.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

And particularly like for little black girls. Like I've traveled, actually traveled to California, and I was super close to going to Fullerton where the book is set. I didn't have the opportunity because I mean I was out of California and I didn't have a car, so I kind of had to rely on the people Ubers. LA is a very big place. Traveling like to a place is like 30, 40 minutes, it's so big. It's like I'm not used to that. I'm used to like if I'm going to a place it's like maybe 20 minutes. LA is like, and there are LA is so big, there's still like many cities and areas and cultures and yeah, zones inside of LA.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Substates inside of the state.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Yeah, it's like but it was still fun though. I went out to Long Beach. Um, I went to Little Tokyo out near Hollywood. I actually went to like the Warner Brothers Guard and I saw the Wartower wacko yako and not that. Yeah, I saw I was like, oh wow, it's cool. But it was at night, so I couldn't get in, but I just saw it. I was like, yeah, I can take a picture of that. I gotta go back. But anyway, um I went out to California, I had a great time out there, and I actually sold like copies of my book out there, and I let's see, I've I've met the stars at the like I met Kingpin, Vincent D'Nafrio, and um Daredevil, Charlie Cox, J.R. Smith, Orlando Jones, Chris Summers. Um they've all pretty much, you know, given my book a cosign, which is a really great thing. Um, but yeah, I mean, that's that's my journey in a nutshell. There's more stuff that I'll get into, but I mean that's pretty much the journey in a nutshell. But for Torian, but the word we're boxed what I can't say about that is to keep it brief, is there's just a bunch of short stories. I've been sitting on top of ideas I had that I wanted to explore. Um and also I kind of went through like a rough time post-Torian, something happened, okay. Um, which I'll share briefly about um my dad actually passed away in November 2021. Ah. So legit, I didn't know if I could write. I didn't know if I even felt like doing it. And so one of my friends in North Carolina, he called me. But my dad passed away on a Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, 2021. And so he called me on a Sunday. We talked for two hours at the end of the conversation. I told him, I don't know if I can write. And then he said, Look, just try writing. I said, Really? He said, Yeah, just try writing. I was like, Alright, okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

It's just to be that simple.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

It's be that simple. He just said something like, alright, screw it. I'll I'll put pen to paper and apply myself. And so that's what came about. And there's other stuff I was working on, but for that time, that's what I kind of wanted to like, that's what the wind took me. As Andre would say, I really want to play a rap album, but that's where the wind blew me.

unknown 15:54

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Three stacks. But like you said, about the box that you just put us into, the Royal Grey box. Um, I starting from the first story all the way to the middle of the book, you had me on, like, and the fact that you just described it as a bunch of stories that you wanted to put out there, and you're just kind of like putting them all into the same space. You had me on cliffhankers every single time. So, like, from the first story, uh the I don't want to say it wrong, uh, the woods, the uh the positive woods. I started like I really thought this was the beginning of the story. Even though I read the front and it says the collection of short stories, when I started reading the positive woods, I was like, oh, you just you're taking us on a journey. And then when it stopped, I was like, Whoa, I was on a cliff, and you just like let me go. Like it was such, it was so captivating how you were describing each of the uh in different emotions that the characters had. Um the introduction of the the I don't say his name wrong, the gentleman and his dog, um, and how each of the individual times the main character is flowing through the woods, uh interacting with the scenery, the the logs, the the wristling of the woods, uh the wind, everything, how you described each of the emotions that the character was going through, it it allowed me to almost like sit in his place and really like feel what's going on on each page. It's like really dope. Um, and then I one of my favorites, and I was actually just talking to uh Kaze Shunyu about it earlier today before our episode, was um uh Siblings Night Chapter. That's the one I heard about. This is something else. This needs to be turned into a show, like by far, bar none. Like just I visually saw what was happening, how you describe it. And I'm I'm as I've said on the podcast before I'm a very visual person, um, but visual appears. So as I'm reading it and you're describing emotions, you're describing touch, you're describing senses, you're describing how people are reacting to other people. I'm visually seeing it. Like I played, I created actors almost like AI. I created actors to fill the roles of each individual character. Um from Noelle to her child, how pregnant she was, um, to Cynthia getting lit up by the bullets by the cops, like every single step. Like it it was such a and then although obviously well I don't want to give anything away, let me stop. Um, but as for Saboons, uh uh did I say pronounce that right? Yes, um, with his uh with with the fact that although it's a damn, I don't want to give anything away.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

I mean I mean uh because I want people to read it. I guess we'll just say Saboon is kind of just a device. Okay, so a plot, a very important plot device.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

A plot device, yeah. So Saboon the plot device, um how integral he is to the story while still being, like you said, a plot device.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Um like he's there, there's obviously conversation, but it's not it's not the focal point during, especially during this um short story. Like it's it's the key, but it's not what's happening. He's like kind of the center of everything while the story is playing out, the plot is continuing. So um I thought this was amazing. Uh from the starting point to even when Tabun comes in, you're like, okay, okay, I love how this story is going because you're you're you're giving a view on different types of uh relationships, different types of interactions. Um, because it's a story, uh part of the story is about inter interracial relationships, and how that's carried out, I think, is amazing because it's it gives it from a standpoint of not watching it, but how the individuals on the inside of the relationship feel. Um which not I mean stories obviously on TV and in other books have just stated that, but this particular one in such a short amount of time gives Carlos's yes, Carlos's um his standpoint on how he feels within the relationship and how he feels everybody else is looking at him. Pretty much what are the stares saying and having him kind of carry that out, I think is amazing. What was your thought process um when you decided to come up with this particular story?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Well, back in 2010, I actually wrote a story kind of a similar vibe where you have a guy who has like a who's getting picked on by everybody, black or white, and he has a white friend. Looking back, I thought it was kind of like one-dimensional and kind of just not well done. So I thought to myself, I kind of want to redo it. And so I used that story as an idea, and I made some changes. But I think one of the biggest inspirations to that story was Yu-Yu Hakasho. In particular, there's a villain named in Third Saga, Chapter Black, there's a villain named Sensui. Yes. He uh, Indian dude. Is he Indian? I don't think he's Indian. I forget what nationality is, but basically his whole philosophy was like, I despise humanity, even though he had the same job as Yusuke and was just like Yusuke, and he left, but he came back and he wanted to eliminate humanity. He kind of sorta got it what he wanted. He did open the portal, but I'm not gonna get into it, I'm gonna spoil anything, but I mean he hocks have been out for over 30 years. I actually just can't wait to laugh at the show. We were just talking about that. I haven't watched it, heard mixed things about it, so I'll just watch it for yourself. I I guarantee you. All right. We just had a conversation about it. Okay, watch it yourself. Okay, but yeah, since we were big, but also even at the beginning, I kind of like hint to like the mentality of the character. Like I another big inspiration was again Dark Knight care like the Joker, uh Travis Bickle from Tacky Driver, old Robin old Robin Irving from the seventies that kind of made him fan I kinda it did make him fan. Directed by what's his name? Martin Scorsese, who sad note I don't get why you hating on MCU, Mr. Scorsese, it's great, you know. I get it. You're more of a refined. Obviously, we can't, we can never disrespect Mars Cersese. Yeah. We can't disrespect Goodfellas, Casino, the departed, Mean Streets, whatever. Raging Bull. I've seen Kills or Fire When Hurls Rick Gate, but it's over three hours long. Dear goodness is pretty long. But we obviously can't disrespect Mars Crusades. But I mean the MCU is they're telling a story just as much as he's telling a story. Is it is it more formulated because of what it's become? Yeah, but I mean you gotta think the MCU Marvel's been around since the 30s. Yes. So those characters, they're putting a lot of attention and a lot of limelight on a lot of characters, and you gotta think, even from a cultural perspective, stories like Black Panther, I don't think they would have been told if they weren't MCU related. Not at all. And considering the impact and what that movie meant, not just as a movie, but to a generation. To a generation, you can't take that away from the MCU, despite its problems and ups and downs. Which it has. Which it has, like every other um media format. So but anyway, um, just that whole idea, we've and but going back to like that character, like the Joker trap, we've seen that character in media before, that that guy who just despised everybody, particularly a white dude who just like like the Joker just one bad day, and I'm like, you know, just despise everybody, won't hurt everybody. But in my mind, I thought to myself, what would that character look like that if they were black? We've never seen the black version of like the Joker or Travis Bickle or um this is movie, what's what's his name? Um what is it? Uh he was in um he was in uh what Fatal Attraction, the main character. He also is uh the he built the Ant-Man suit.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Oh, oh crap. Uh crap. Um why I can't remember his name.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

I think uh he was in Wall Street. I know exactly what Tommy. I can see his face. Yeah, like I forget his name, but that guy, he played he played a movie in a movie called like Falling Down or something like that. Basically, he was like an angry white guy. Crap. And like he was angry at society and like particularly like minority and stuff like that. But we've never seen that character be done in a black space before. Like a black guy who basically just didn't despise everybody black, white, green, gray. I always thought that would be interesting to see what that would be like. And so going back to the story, that was kind of a main inspiration. The name Saboon came from going back to the FGC. This is this guy, I know, um, his he's a smasher, because we play Smash because I'm Smasher. His tag, well, tag basically being tag being the name you come up with when you play. So for example, yeah, gamer tag. So when I played, my name's 313 because I was born in Detroit. But there's this guy, I know, he um he his name was Verminubis, and he played Ganondorf. He was really good with Ganondorf in Brawl. And mind you, Ganondorf was one of the worst, actually the worst character in Brawl. Dear goodness, he was bad. But he was one of the best, and he was really scary. I never want to play him. He probably beat the crap out of me, and I'll play one of the best characters in the game. Shout out to Vermin Anubis. But I took Verminubis and I just spelled it backwards. That's how I got Saboon. Um me got things Anubis, Vermin, like Anubis Egypt Egyptian stuff, so I just took that, and that's where Saboon came from. Um, but even in the story, I when I think about a lot of stuff I was thinking about, um like what happens to Noelle. I kind of set that up because I referenced like her favorite character being Aries, and we all know what happens to Aries. Well, which spoiler. Oh, Jesus. If you've never seen it, be prepared to get sad. I'm not gonna tell you what happens, but I mean if you played 5 minutes back in the 90s, you know what happens. So if you don't know now, but what else? Also, I reference Keisha's song, that's my favorite song, and yes, you don't have we all know what happens to Keisha at the end of Keisha's song, which uh to Kendrick. Um What's crazy is I sensed it coming.

unknown 26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

But I didn't want to believe you were gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

I mean, yeah, yeah. I mean, I kinda I feel like I had to just to like really drive the story a certain direction. But I mean, music is really a big influence on me. Um I think another big influence was um the this song by Drake and Jay-Z called Light Up Older Drake song back in But Thank Me Later Days back when Drake was actually putting effort and carrying his wraps.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Um, but you know, yes, I I see every single, like even saying that one of no, that was in the next, that was Jessica's interlude. Because I'm about to say somebody else referenced Yu Yu Haka Joe, but that was in Jessica's interlude. Um, but yes, no, each um, not to cut to another story, but kind of Jessica's interlude. That was that was interesting for you to, because you even said in your uh in the short story uh uh Fresova, where you you know you wrapped up Southern Virginia, uh, that you wanted to kind of wrap up the story, uh kind of shouting them out, but then you finished the book with Jessica Jessica's interlude. So what I mean I know I read it. Uh I I think you should read it. And I'm talking to our uh woman in the chair, but what was the inspiration behind Jessica's interlude? Because that was a very, it felt very intimate, it felt like something happened there.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Whoa, I mean, again, old school old school Drake. I mean, I think on the older albums, he was doing songs like Brea's interlude and CeCe's interlude, and those songs are Sussa Mac could. I just thought, I wanna do something like that, you know? I thought, I wanna do something like that. I create my own like little interlude, name it after. I can't I didn't use the name of the actual woman because just like real life Drake, if you don't know this, on Marvin's room, there's a woman talking.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

That woman sued Drake. So that happened to me, so I had to change up the name. Jessica's a very common name. So I was able to get away with it. But I'm not gonna name the real person based off of his game. I don't want to get sued. Not necessarily. But um, yeah, like I thought I'm gonna do something like that. So I spent time with a woman, and so I thought to myself, why not? The the fact that it said Daytona came from the time I spent going to that tournament in Daytona. I didn't actually mean no woman in Daytona, but it felt like you know, Daytona's a cool place when I use that as a background. But yeah, I mean, old school Drake was wasn't still as an inspiration. Um so shout outs to Drake. Old school Drake, of course.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

I mean, I I will say while reading it, it it once you get through like the first page of Jessica's interview, it started to feel like a flow. So saying that your your your inspiration was old school Drake, I can see that because it's literally started to feel like a flow, like your your almost like spoken word is how it felt as it was coming from page to page. So I was like, yo, there's a there's a couple of uh poets and uh and spoken word artists that I know that I wanted yo, you gotta read this because it's it flows so nice. Um, even though there's no rhyme, but it's like it's such a nice, almost poetic way of how you're flowing through the pages. Like, was I mean obviously you just said it was based off of old school Drake, but was that intentional? That flow.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

I mean, music was a big inspiration in that story. Besides Old School Drake, uh Weekend was another influence. Okay. Uh Travis Scott, in particular, it's a song by Travis Scott called First Take Price of Toad. That's my favorite Travis Scott. It was my favorite Travis Scott song ever. That was a really big influence. And so I just kind of use those to kind of just course me on uh while I'm writing to kind of steer where I want to go and help and make the story flow. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Awesome, awesome. Um, one last short story I wanted to ask about, um, because you didn't mention it. Um, actually, there's two, but I'm just focused on this one, uh, which is the Mark of a Family Man, which you said was referred, or you used a reference point of um one of the players you played in Daytona, yeah, who had a daughter. And I'm assuming that he didn't tell you any of his personal stories, but you used that as a reference point to write the story.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

I uh I actually spoke on him a bit before I wrote it. Um how that story came about was because I mean, shout outs to the FGC, once again, uh no matter where you are, you could be in Maryland, Japan, Europe, Texas, shout out to FGC. If you play fighting games seriously, you want to get better, reach out to them. They're always gonna be here in your vicinity. You can find people to play with online. Uh but that story came about, I really wanted to write a story about the fighting in community, and actually spoke with him. And the the term Mark of a Family Man is a mashup of two things. Um gives a game. Those of you who know about Fatal Fury, the last Fatal Fury game was called Guru Mark of the Wolves. So, Mark, but Family Man comes from um Guy, Go Home and Be a Family Man. When he beats you in Street Fighter 2, he says, Go home and be a family man. And so the story is about Guy who's a family man, and so Mark of the Family Man, that's where the title comes from. Um, so but yeah, I mean, I just wanted to capture the general hype of the FGC. Like I've definitely been in that chair of like, you know, being like in the finals and like it'd be game five, game six, and you're like, you gotta cut you short and game six on when you got the flu, you gotta like play out of your mind. And he's definitely done it before plenty of times too. Demo, but I really wanted to just capture that and capture like the scene and capture what it was like. And true to the story, there's players of all backgrounds black, white, blue, orange, trend, straight, LG, B, T, Q plus, super friendly. The joy of the FBC is it is always open to anybody. Yes, it don't matter if you've been playing for five years, 20 years, five minutes, it don't matter if you're 10, 30, anybody can hop in, anybody has a chance, everybody can get these hands.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Like, um, so the last thing I want to talk about with uh the Royal Gray Box is you have these kind of small, shorter stories where you have certain individuals speak. What was the thought process? Because like I I actually I let Kaze uh Kaze Shinryu l uh read some of it this morning. He couldn't read all of it because you know short time, but he like I encouraged him because he's he's also a tournament gamer, also same age group, age range. Um so I had I made sure he read Mark of a Family Man because I wanted him to get his feedback on whether or not he connected with it, and immediately he did. He felt like it it was the same type of um feeling of going to tournaments, those you know, different moments. Obviously, he doesn't have a daughter, but the other aspects of it he did connect with. But then I asked him about um, he asked me about Dr. P P Speaks. That is one of the names of the stories. I'm not stuttering, that is the name of it. Um, and it's almost like a um not a haiku, but almost like a like a like an anecdote, like just like giving your definition, your description, um, with almost a poetic spin. So what was the thought process specifically about this one, but all of the kind of speaking short stories?

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Well, those speaks they came from Smashers I know, like all from North Carolina, who that those are their tags. Like, so Dr. Peepee, that's his tag, and honestly, he is like one of the greatest melee players in the world. Like, legit. At one point he was. He might not be as much now because um he has some health problems, but he's gotten a lot better. Okay, but he is still like super clean and legit. Like, I used to go to tournaments and watch him mop people, like legit. I'm talking people from like all across the world, like from Sweden, California, just like he accidentally writes something because I kind of wanted to um again going back to Detroit, Big Sean has an album called Detroit, Detroit 2. And on there, he had come people come in and speak about Detroit. So, like, you know, on the set on the first album it was Common, Jeezy, and Snoop. And the second one it was Dave Chappelle, Erica, and Stevie Wonder. And so I kind of wanted to do that. Like have somebody come in and speak. Now, originally, they had I had them talk about me, but I felt like that was too self-absurred. So I was like, you know what? How about y'all come in and speak on different topics? The topics, it could be anything, or I can just give you one. And often I tend to just give, I gave the topic. And so I I his topic was about tournaments, so I figured, you know, why not hear about tournaments from one of the best players in the world? And then the next player be about tournament. And then the second one, Zero was, was it uh Zero? I think Zero Room Speaks was the second. I think Zero Room is I think Zero Room Speaks was the second one. Dr. Yogi speaks. Dr. Yogi speaks was the second one. That's another smasher I know from North Carolina. Uh back in the day, we used to play like Snake and Mario and Brawl a lot at scenes. We would do okay, but Mario was a culture character, but also eventually Mario would. I mean, he I mean Dr. Yogi know that. I mean, he Mario, Mario wasn't that good. Again, that's probably a reason he stopped playing. But um he um I was actually good with him. I've known him since 2010, but around 2015 I started living with him. Okay. And we were in a situation in which um we were staying in a not so good part of Greensboro. Okay. It was wild back then. We was living kind of wild. We had fun, we stayed safe, but it was still like what we were doing, like just living in Greensboro, experiencing the highs and lows. I was like almost four years post-removed from college. I graduated, but I was still living in a college starting out with people in college, which yeah, I was living wild. Wow. Um, but there was one night where we were just like out, we were out working, and we didn't get back like five o'clock in the morning. And while we were while we were working, we were told that his window got busted, and so his dad can't show it up. I always thought to myself that was really cool, and so I actually write about that. And so um he wrote it, and then even with the third one, uh Zero Room, another smasher I know, he he actually uh is from Boom, and he actually trained up a lot of people in Boom back in the day, like to play Smash. And even today it's weird. They they shout him out on the stream, like this is like over 10 years ago, over 10, 11 years, they shout him out, he showed it to him. Yeah, like and he um asked him to write something um about like how you deal with stress, and so he wrote that. And so I just I cleaned it up a little bit, but overall that's where the idea came from. Like big Sean having people come talk about Detroit. If I were more bigger and more famous, maybe I could ask somebody write about me. But at this point, I just kind of wanted to hear different voices about different topics that I felt like would be helpful and more just uh be interesting. So the first one, it since I'm writing about tournaments, why not hear about it from the greatest player in the world? The second one, one of the general themes throughout the book is fatherhood. So I guess you know, maybe have somebody write about their dad is gonna be really helpful for them. And the third one, just dealing with stress, which I mean that's something you deal with in every aspect of your life. I mean, stress, getting lost in the woods is stressful. Having to deal with the plot device like Saboon is stressful. Uh meeting somebody and trying to spend time with them is stressful. So I mean that that's where that came from. Just uh wanting to hear different voices, I thought would be compelling. And again, shout outs to Big Sean in the Detroit album series.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

So that's really that that was that was excellent. I think they were even properly placed because, like you said, uh talking about the tournamentals right before you go into uh the Markup of Family Man, and then talking about the uh the meditation or the stress relievers was right after or before um Saboon's story, where you know, in the story Noelle talks about meditation. You know, that's one of the things Carlos brings up multiple times is how Noel has helped him and prepped him, learning different meditation techniques. Um, and then, like you said, about uh the story with uh Dr. Yogi's story about uh the fatherhood that's like almost, if I'm not wrong, right smack dab in the middle of the book, which kind of clothespins all the different stories about fatherhood and about kind of unifying family. So, no, again, excellent book. Um, and I surprised in a good way, like I said. Like when I saw short stories, I was like, okay, a bunch of stories to short stories, but when I started reading, and like each, like you said earlier about each of them being ideas that you potentially want to turn into longer or bigger stories, each of these, I think I'd read every single one of the books, like 100%. Each of them are a catalyst into a new thought process. Um they flow so like I told you Jessica's interlude. I I as much as I love like I think Saboon's night chapter is probably my favorite, but just how Jessica's interlude flows, it that the music lover in me like was awakened while reading it, like so. That by far I think is um it's a it's a toss-up between the two, even though I love Marco the Family Man, again, so again, because I I love the the the because I don't have kids, I don't have kids, but I have a niece and a nephew, so uh I do have a niece and a nephew, so the idea and the expression of playing, being a gamer and adding your kids or adding your niece or your nephew or adding your you know younger siblings to that experience, that's what it feels like. It's like you're enjoying yourself, and there's always that question of do you want to bring them in? How are they gonna respond? How are they going to operate in that space? And when he brought his daughter in, and it was a lifesaver, uh, without going too detailed into it. Um, it it feels like that, especially when it's a positive that I I I mean, and I don't know if you have kids, but okay, well, the way you were able to capture that was excellent because it feels like that, so yeah, that was dope. Um, but I do want to mention that of course we reviewed both uh books, both the Royal Grey Box as well as Taurian. Um, but uh Dr. Legacy was uh the reader and the reviewer for Taurian, but she could not be here for the recording. Long story, uh, but she did send me her review. Um, and as uh Dorice has uh given me his blessing, I'm going to read her review real quick. Uh though it's not a quick review because she's a writer. Um but it says uh firstly, overall I want to say I really enjoy Torian. The plot and premise was really well thought out, and I really like the development of the main character, Whitney. Not going to lie, it had a bit of a slow start when introducing the characters, but it flowed well into the buildup of the story. Uh, she loved the relationship between Whitney and Taurian and how Torian was an important guide and support for Whitney through the tough moments. Uh, how they both went through instances of being underestimated and discriminated against throughout their lives, but still managed to press persevere, no matter the naysayers, was very relatable. Um, I don't want to go too deep into this, uh, because I don't want to spoil anything, but there's a part where she says, but child, and it's not me spalking speaking, that's her speaking. Y'all know how she speaks. Uh, but child, uh, all caps. When I tell you, I was gobsmacked when I found out that the, and I'm gonna stop right there, I'm stopped. Uh so I'm gonna stop right there uh because you know she starts revealing things that happened in the book, and um from her exclamation, Torian is a book you definitely have to read. She says the book overall was not predictable, and she loves that in the book. Now, when I tell you about Dr. Legacy's, she has I think these are 13, maybe 13-foot ceilings, she has a collection of books from this floor to the roof, seven rows deep. So she reads chapter books, um, thick books, like at minimum 250 pages or more. Um, so when I gave her the book, she was like, okay, well, I can probably read this in a day or something like that. I was like, okay, don't underestimate it now. But when she started it, like she said, it was a slow buildup, but when she started getting on to it, she loved the premise. Uh she even said that definitely the ending surprised her in the best way, uh, because it gave it a sense of completeness. Um, and again, she said some other things, but I'll tell you off camera because I don't want to spoil this, uh, but uh she she likes that it gives the potential for more things to come after the end of the story. Uh so she did want to ask uh what inspired you to write Torian? What and kind of talked kind of pointed that out uh about you know back in 2010? Yeah. 2011, yeah. I missed about a year. Uh but what inspired you around that time to write the initial story before the kind of updated story?

SPEAKER_01 42:42

Well, I think the biggest inspiration was Metroid. Metroid, those that don't know Nintendo. The franchise, boy, the franchise! Yeah, and then Nintendo-based game, Metroid is self-inspired by aliens with Sigorni, with Sigorny Weaver and Acid Blood. But yeah, Metroid was the biggest influence. Uh the reason it's set in California is because around 2011 there was a guy, white dude, his name was Kelly Thomas. He was a victim of schizophrenic homeless dude. He was a victim of police brutality. Um and he was hurt so bad he got put on life support, and the family took him off and he died a few days later. And so that was another thing that kind of wanted me to set in California, which another I think another reason looking back at even now, which I stand on, is I wanted to avoid New York because I felt like superheroes being from New York was too cliche. So you got things Punisher, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Captain America, Spider-Man, Cage, Avengers Headquarters, X-Men, Upstate. Upstate. I kind of want to avoid that. So um I picked California because I thought it would be cool, and plus I I kind of wanted to hearken back to that situation. Um so yeah, I mean Metroid. Was uh probably the biggest influence. Um, this is anime. Well, actually, it was a video game first, but it was later made into an anime. It's called Gungrave, made by the same people who made uh Trigun, which low-key another influence on the book, but Gungrave was a bigger one. Um Gungrave is about a guy who a guy's friend who um they climb their way up to the mafia ranks and the guy actually kills the main character, but in their world, they have technology to bring him back to life. So they bring him back to life 15 years later, he gets revenge on the guy, his empire. Um, and but they're still friends at the end of the day, and they have to figure that out. Um, what else? Um bullying was another thing too. Um I kind of want to talk about that. And I think the biggest influence, which I feel like I make references to it, but I won't spoil anything, is the school-to-prison pipeline, which for black students, um, it's designed to pretty much black and brown students. Black and brown, yeah. Uh designed to funnel them into prisons. Our school systems in this country, in the USA, are designed to ensnare black students, whether that be longer suspensions, whether that be like stuff that if other students do, they'll get detention for, like, you know, in school suspension for. Hiring actual police officers from private prisons to watch the children. Yeah. It's it's very insane. Um what's the word I want to use? Totalitarian, like. Um, but yeah, I mean, school prison pipe, school prison pipeline, that was a big influence. And I think another one is the Naruto versus Paint art. That was something there. I really love that art because it kind of like what it did, it really showed like what how much what Naruto meant as a character, and also his come up in terms of like, because if you watch Naruto, you know that like one of the key pop points of the story is he was being treated a certain way because of, I don't want to spoil anything, but he's being treated a certain way. But it's pretty common knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Yeah, so 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

I mean, yeah, he he he hosts the Nine Tales and Cherokee, everybody in the village knew. His dad put it inside of him, but up until that point in the story, he is still being treated a certain way and viewed a certain way, but after that situation and how he dealt with it, he was treated better. And so that as a person, you know, as a person who deserves love and respect and as a dedicated Konaha Shinobi. And so he finally got that after he dealt with pain and after he, you know, dealt with him in a way that you know made things better for everybody, right? So um that was a big influence on the story as well. So I would say those things really helped uh me to push Metro Makeup. There were other things like obviously I am a black male, so I'm not a black woman, so I had to kind of reach and talk to various black women and do research to craft and construct the character. Like even the character herself, Whitney, that came from one of my friends from North Carolina who um I thought she was cool. So like she's I asked her, I use her face to make this character and got make base character off you and stuff like that. And she said, Yeah, I mean, so shout outs to Whitney. Uh it's funny because she has like a superhero name, her last name also begins with a W. And even her name itself came from Whitney Houston, which that's where the in the book that's where it came from um Whitney Houston. So um Torian kind of came about just off of those. And I think in general, even beyond all that, I was inspired by Metroid, but I wanted to put my own twist on the character. I didn't want to make a black Samus. I felt like that would have been like derivative and not in and not really reflect my skills. I kind of wanted to take the character and see what can I, what what twists could I put on them and still, you know, make something that if you enjoy Metroid, you would enjoy this, you know. So, I mean, Samus goes through plenty of things in her story. So many times. Samus loses her parents, she loses the baby Metroid. She um gets chased across the galaxy. Um she has plenty of things she goes through. But my character, I mean, she experiences things, but I mean she has her different, she has her own set of like problems and things she has to go through. So yeah, but going back into a Metroid was kind of like the key. Even Taurin itself, the last area you go to to go fight Mother Brain is called Taurin. That's where it came from.

SPEAKER_00 48:45

I was wondering why that seems so familiar.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Um in Super Metroid, it's also called Touring as well. Yes. So um, but that's where Taurian comes from, um, Metroid. So I was to Nintendo.

SPEAKER_00 48:58

And and so, and which is funny, like two of the points that you made in your explanation uh kind of go into our next questions, which were one where the characters based off of people you know, which you already answered, but also why did you make the father a lawyer? Are you trying to shine a light on the justice system? Which you kind of I don't know if that tied into the uh school to jail pipeline that you were referring to before, or was that a different reason?

SPEAKER_01 49:21

I mean, Daredevil was my favorite superheroes, and he's a lawyer, so um I was that was I guess that was another inspiration. I kind of like the whole like lawyer superhero thing, which is looking back is pretty common now. Um so but Daredevil he still is one of my favorite superheroes ever. So that's camera, camera, even back in the daredevil in the book, which I guess it all came full circle when I met the actor who plays Daredevil. I was I was blown away. Yeah, like so, but yeah, Daredevil was the inspiration behind that. And I guess she's right. I mean, I guess, but what better way to deal with the school prison pipeline than from a legal perspective? Right, which I don't want to spoil anything, the character actually deals with legally, you know, um, in the story. But I mean, again, shout out to Daredevil. That was the inspiration by her making her a lawyer.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

Um yeah. And then um also she asked, who is your favorite character in the book? Intorian and why? My favorite character probably would have to be um her boyfriend.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

Yeah, her boyfriend. Um he was my favorite, Lyran. He was my favorite character. Um initially I wanted to name him Gil, which not Gilman, not just Gil, which he was inspired by Gil from Street Fighter. Uh-huh. The thing is though, it it it'd be too on the nose in Calcom would have suit me because I think I won't spoil anything, but his appearance in the story, how I describe him, is very similar to Gil from Street Fighter. And so CatCom would have ate me up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if they would have saw that. So I had to change my name. And you know, um, sorry, Capcom. He was my favorite character. And even in the sequel, the story which I've already written, which that what I can say about it is the sequel is a key inspiration of the story is Dead Space. Ooh. Which um around like 2018, but well, 2016, I played the first Dead Space, because it was back in the day, Games with Gold was a thing on Xbox. They still have not just Game Pass, but uh Dead Space was Games with Gold, so I gotta play it for free. Yep. I played it heavily and I enjoyed it. And then Dead Space 2 was another uh was another Games with Gold I got in 2018, I played it. We're just gonna ignore Dead Space 3, that did not happen. We just ignore that that didn't happen. Terribly. They actually remade Dead Space, uh, which her was really great. I need to get that. But Dead Space 1 and Dead Space 2, they were big inspirations. And for those who had played Dead Space, you know that um in the story there's a person who appears who kind of the main character has to deal with. Um you played Dead Space, right? I did. But uh so you know in the first story you're looking for this person, and you find out what happens to them.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

Cash spoiler? No. I I look, Sayame cosplay loves Dead Space, and I told her many times on this podcast, do not spoil the game. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

Well, okay, well, I'll just say this. You in the first game, you're you're looking for this person. In the second game, this person is looking for you. I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. And I really like that idea, so that's kind of kind of one of the key things. So it's it'd be the same thing, the sequel touring, where um I don't want to spoil it. But yeah, I'll just leave it at that. I don't want to spoil anything, but learn is still a part of the plot. I'll just leave it at that. Despite things, learn is still a key part of the plot of Victorian 2, and Dead Space was a key influence on that. Um what else? Um another key influence, I guess, would be thinking about Black Panther. Um there was one conversation that came up during the Black Panther when it first came out was how would the black community react if we knew Wakanda was a real place and they set and they sat back during slavery, during Jim Crow, during Rodney King, during Genesis, Traymar Martin, Emmett Till, and certain various black catastrophe due to racial and systemic injustice, redlining, black busting on that. And we knew they existed the whole time and just sat back and they just watched and stated to themselves. A lot of black people would be irate about that. So I kind of wanted Whitney to go through the same thing. Even thinking about Whitney Houston, this is pretty common knowledge now, but when Whitney Houston first came out, black people did not like her. Correct. They felt like she was a sanitized pop star. Yep. Key point, she was actually booed during like what was the one? Soul Train Awards.

unknown 54:24

I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

Some awards, so she got booed. Look up on YouTube, she got booed. Yeah. Source or Soul Train. Um, but I think that's part of the reasons why she hooked up with Bobby Brown, because Bobby Brown at that time, he had that bad boy image, and he was from the RB world, which was a black diamond space. So, I mean, I'm pretty sure she loved them and they had their moment time. I think a part of her mind, maybe she felt like if she hooked up with him, she probably could have been more based in black spaces. But Whitney Houston was not embraced. So that's kind of something I wanted Whitney to go through in the sequel where she did this great thing, but you know, now she's out, she's not in high school anymore in the sequel, she's in college. So now she's out in the world, and she's dealing with other black people that may look at her and judge her a certain way they may feel like you have all these powers, what are you doing with them? What are you doing with them? What are you doing with them? And like how they feel about she didn't go to a HBCU would they judge her? Um she dates white boys would they judge her? Like just stuff like that I thought would be interesting because I mean Black Panther was cool, but he had his own country to go to. He wasn't, it wasn't like when he was done solving stuff, he can go back to Oakland or go back to like, you know, um New York. He had his own problems and issues to deal with in his own country that were relegated to, you know, that culture, which is totally fine. But Whitney, since she's rooted in here in the States, she's rooted to the community and the culture, and she has to figure out how to navigate that while going to college and while dealing with new threats and stuff from her past. Um that's coming back to um that she has to deal with. So those are some ideas that I've been toying around with. Actually, I can say it's already been written. It's just there are other characters that I'm working on that I need to kind of build up in order to get to her. Like the next book I'm working on, it's uh it's similar to Torian, but except for it's set in Detroit, and the main character can break the fourth wall. Um say like this: imagine if Goku was a firebender. Why? Yeah, imagine if Goku was a firebender, essentially. And then he has a best friend who imagine if Goku was a waterbender. And then there's a and then another friend of his is pretty much Hedon from Naruto, the sense of like, well, Hedon just needs your blood. But this character, he can just touch you. Like just he has to touch your skin. He can't touch like your clothes, he has to touch like your skin. No, he same thing Hedon does. With no control, but just if Hedon, if he this character hurts himself, you feel the pain too. He just needs to touch you. That's all I appreciate. So that's what I'm working on, and it's and it's said in Detroit because I was born in Detroit and I want to kind of have a superior there as an o to my city. So um that's what I'm working on next. And I'm also working on another short story collection, and I have another short story that I've actually written where I have a black girl who gets accepted to go to an HBCU also has the ability to stop time. And so she decided to stop time to go get some alcohol match when she's underage, but she can stop time, nobody can stop her. And so while she does that, something happens, and she's in a situation where if she doesn't get out, she's gonna die. Or other bad stuff's gonna happen. So there's that. So I'm I mean, I'm still, you know, cooking stuff up in the kitchen. I just uh um, you know, just you know, takes time and with me and Wally, you know, working on like various images for um future stuff, like the cover for souls well it's uh it's called Soul. The story set in Detroit is called Soul, which uh if you read the story you'll explain, you'll understand why. But the cover for Soul has actually been made already, which I'm not ready to reveal at this time. Thank you. Um, but it is called Soul S O L.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

You have to read it and review it.

SPEAKER_01 58:28

Set set in Detroit, and um it's coming. I'm trying to aim for a uh release for next year, just gotta make sure all everything's lined up and the sequel to a royal gray box maybe 2025 at this rate, okay. Um, because there's other stuff I want to work on, but yeah, more content is coming. Awesome. And eventually we'll get to Secretatorian because I kind of want to have a sub to where like I have a character in Detroit, so I have a character in Atlanta, which that story is gonna be really interesting because Street Fire is gonna be a big influence on that, and it also involves the Greek gods and things of that nature, and it's also set in Atlanta, so um you have that dynamic of like this major black metropolis that's thriving and super popular, uh, that still has its own troubles and strife while like you know um still dealing with um issues pertaining to uh black people and black culture, and then to see a superhero who, for that story, I decided to do something different. I decided to the character won't be black, they'll be still connected to black people and black culture. Which side note, and this is my controversial take, and you might disagree with this, I feel like when it comes to storytelling, fuck anybody from any background feel to tell any story they want. However, I do feel like if you're going to tell a story of a different culture, you have to do research. It has to be authentic. You have to if you if you're a white guy from Texas who wants to tell a story about black women from Chicago, tell that story. However, if you tell that story, you must do research. Yes. It means you have to go if you have to go to Chicago, if you have to talk to black women, read books written by black women. It's actually for Torian, there's a book called The Sisters Are All White That I read. It's called The Sisters Are Are All Right. All right. Okay, I thought you said all white. That's what I'm saying. How is that part? The Sisters Are All Right. Yes. If I didn't clarify, um I read it around back like in 2020, just to like, you know, learn about some of the various things black women go through. It taught me about the three promised stereotypes becomes a black woman. It's Jezebel Sapphire and Mammy, which Mammy basically being the mother, the maid, the Viola Davis and the help, which a role she regrets to this day. Yeah um the sapphire, the angry, sassy black woman, um, and Jezebel, the sex art type, which that trope actually exists in every any every in every every big woman has that lodged against them. You have you have the Japanese women with the geishas, the happy ending, and you have the lusty Latina, you have the dumb white blonde. That that trope exists for all women, unfortunately, because society is massagistic. We're trying to say it sucks. We need to fix that. But yeah, I mean um I feel like you know, more content is coming, and a sequel of Torian is in the works. So, I mean, if you enjoy more Torian content, Torian will be back, and eventually it's gonna be a thing of or my character in where Torian is gonna meet Soul and the character in Atlanta, and you have a character in Virginia Beach, which I'm not gonna publish into a book right now, but the characters just kind of kind of be there. Okay, and they're gonna be around. Like mentioned. Like it's gonna be mentioned, and then eventually they're gonna meet other characters, but then they're all gonna work together to kind of fight a major enemy. Like the X-Men in the Marvel universe.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:03

Like they're there, or the NCU rather.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

Yeah, gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

Like like the Avengers, you know? Um, but I more so meant the character from the Virginia Beach, like we know they exist, but they can't be shown on scene screen yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:14

Yeah, we yeah. Um it's kind of like that, but eventually they're gonna be shown on screen uh before they meet up. Um the plan is is for Whitney to meet them first um before anybody else. Okay. Um, but they'll be mentioned in other stories. Um so yeah, that sounds like uh that's the plan right now. Of course, I have other short stories and other ideas. Because I love superhero stuff, but I feel like you know, I don't want to limit myself to superhero things. Like I feel like I can do other things 100%.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:50

I um concur. Like if the Royal Gray box is any implication of your range, I'm excited to see what other types of short stories you you produce, because that is amazing. 100%. Thank you. Um, and not to cut anything short, but I wanted to make sure we you know gave you the ability at the end of our episode to also tell our listeners how they can get your books, how they can find you, reach you, reach, contact you, talk to you. Um we normally do this at the at the end of every episode. So, Mr. Jury Smiley, how can you be reached and where can your books be purchased?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:28

Well, if you want to reach out to me, um main way is IG. Uh 313 Snake is the name on Twitter. I'm not calling it X, it's Twitter to me. Um 313 Trill and Facebook is Jari Smiley. Um if you want to obtain the books now you can go on Amazon, they're all both on Amazon. If you really want to support me and support the cause and support a black owned business, black gold publishing out of Virginia Beach, Black Gold Publishing, all one word. Um, blackgoldpublishing.com. Um they they made all this possible. Um they work with me. I've been working with them for for three years. Shout outs to Tahara and the team out in Newport News, Virginia Beach area for making things possible. I'm trying to get them to go to Blurricon next year, which they're they're trying to get things lined up, which also again, shout outs to Blurricon. I actually met, no, I actually saw, I've seen George Hilton plenty of times throughout the year. Um I saw him at an event last night. Um shout outs to him, he makes dreams come true. Um I went to BlurCon last year and went to BlurCon back in July and I had fun both times. Um but shoutouts to George and the BlurCon team. Um got my VIP badge and everything. So I'm gonna be in there. We're gonna be in there.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:57

And what are the next places that people can come and see you? Like if I wanted to come, I mean you already signed my book, so I'm I'm I'm set. But if there was any other place that people wanted to buy your book and come and see you in person to get their book signed, where's the next place that they could potentially see you? Because BlurCon's a couple months away.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:14

Yeah, BlurCon signs in July, so um, which the goal is to have stuff set up there for me to like distribute books and things of that nature. But I mean, I I did four conventions this year. I did um Magfest, CasaCon, GalacyCon, and BlurCon. I'm gonna try to keep the same uh training, not the same four, but try to have conventions. So usually for me, like you we wanna uh see me out in the field or just engage with me and things of that nature, Magfest is next month. Magfest is a national harbor, it's a video game festival, um, twenty or four hour video games. Actually won. They had a Brawl tournament there. I won they they had one on Friday, one on Saturday, won both of those. So again, shout outs to Brawl and um They have tournaments every game. Street Fighter one through six. They have a street fighter tournament earlier. And then we're going to have one next month. Every smash can you think of, yeah, shout outs to Magfest. But I'll be around there. You want to see me interact with me, just hit me up if you're at Magfest. Conventions are usually where I'm going to be at most because I mean I enjoy it. I've been going since 2011. It's just now that I'm you know more established in the creative field, majority of my audience, they go to stuff like that. So I know they'll be at BlurCon, or they'll be at KatsuCon, or there'll be at um Magfest or GalaxyCon or DreamCon or Animas. Stuff like that. That's how I stay tapped in because I mean cons have actually gotten insanely big in the couple of years. And more numerous. More new more numerous and bigger. And I mean, you gotta think last this past year, Kree Summers came to BlurCon. And then the year before we had Orlando Jones. And then like out in Richmond, you had Kingpin and Daredevil at a con together. So cons have gotten quite popular. Uh so shoutouts to all these cons BlurCon, Magfest, DreamCon, GalaxyCon, Yomacon. It's so many of them, and Amazement too. It's so many of them. And they do so much great work to for people to meet each other and have fun and network. What about Shaw? Do y'all go to any con?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:34

We're at Dream BlurCon almost every single year. We host a panel uh all the time. Um actually coming up in March uh is Chromacon. That's gonna be its first year in Baltimore, and that's uh another kind of up and coming Black Woman Home Con that they're starting next year. So I was gonna tell you, I was gonna do off camera, but uh I would probably look into Chromacon. Uh it'll be at uh Baltimore. I want to say the Hilton, but I'm probably wrong. I'll give you the information. Cool. Um I'll definitely check that out. So yeah, definitely check that out. Uh that'd be a dope site. Magfest, we've been to, uh we've been to Tidewater out in uh Virginia Beach. Uh we've done Odacon. Actually, I do Odacon almost every year. Um Super Game Day out in Philly, uh, what is it called? New Jersey, um, anime New Jersey. They just did their first one uh last weekend. Yeah, last weekend. So we go to different cons all over the place. So I would definitely have to check you out at the next one, uh, which is either gonna be Magfest or maybe Chroma Con.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:35

Chroma Con sounds like pretty ideal. I think it's gonna be the move. Yeah, Chroma. I mean, I I have family on my older brother living on Baltimore. Actually, for the Royal Gray box, that guy on the cover is my oldest brother.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:46

I was gonna ask, but we were running out of time, so I was like, I want to ask that question. Okay, so now we know. If you want to know who's on the front cover of the royal hitbox, I said the royal hitbox, the royal gray box, it hitboxes, it is the older brother of Jerese Miley, correct? Yes. Alright. So now we got we got the information because somebody asked me that already. I didn't have the information, so now we know. All right, bet. Uh, but we have to close out this episode. Uh, we will definitely have another episode. Maybe we can even have you on the live episode at BlurCon. I think that'd be pretty cool. Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:18

My third book, if things go right, should be out by then. Yeah, my third book should be out. If not, I mean I'll I'll just come and follow up with you guys. But I mean, my I saw my I'm planning for my third book to be revealed on March 13th, which is 313, which in Detroit, so I'm not gonna reveal it. Yeah, but um, I just gotta get things lined up for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:39

Okay, perfect. All right, so as always, closing out the episode, Blurred Spectrum Podcast, as you know. Uh, you can check us out on practically all platforms Instagram, Twit, Twitter, uh, or X, however you want to call it, uh, Facebook, YouTube. Um, eventually we'll get uh uh The Pink Dream to set up a TikTok, uh whatever she decides to. Um but yes, again, thank you, Mr. Smiley Doris, uh, for you know allowing us to interview. Uh, we love these two books. We're excited. Uh, because uh one of the questions is definitely gonna be is there gonna be a sequel or a series uh for Torian? Uh so now I'm excited to know that there at least will be a sequel, so that's dope. And then I'm excited to see the next sequence of uh short stories. So again, thank you for coming. Uh listeners, if you have any other questions, feel free to send a message either to us on IG or through our mailbag, which is through the blurred spectrum at umbralstarcade.com, or you can contact Mr. Smiley yourself. Other than that, as we always say, Sayonara. Sayonara, everybody.