I understand that Gates of Fire is taught in military schools now. What is it about the book that inspires the military to teach it? And what's it like writing canon like that? Yeah,

when I found out about that, I thought that was pretty cool. But I think it really isn't, it doesn't have anything to do with me. I think it's, the subject matter is the ancient Spartans and the Battle of Thermopylae, where the 300 Spartans stood against, you know, two million Persians or whatever and died to the last man. And that story, whoever told it, me or anybody else, is in that culture, the Spartan culture, is a real exemplar of the warrior ethic, the concept of honor. If there is such a thing as a good war, that was it, because it was entirely defensive. They were massively outnumbered. They knew they were going to die, and yet they did die. It's really like the Christ story, but instead of one person, it's 300. How

is screenwriting different from other types of writing?

You don't have a lot of the tools that you have in a novel. You can't go into a character's head. You can't use prose or wonderful. Prose are wonderful to cover anything. It's visuals. It's photos. It's what the camera sees and it's action and it's dialogue. That's all it is. That's your palette. Movies are pictures, right? But that be really great and really strong because movies really give you text and subtext that you don't have in a novel. about anything mundane or whatever it is. But if I'm an assassin and my job is to kill you, and you know that I'm an assassin, what we do with our expressions and stuff like that can be really, really powerful because it's not in text, it's not said overtly, so the audience looking at Rick says, he knows this motherfucker's gonna try to kill him, you know, and they really become involved in it that way. So movies are a lot of fun to write that way. The problem with it is, I know you've heard this a million times, is the screenwriter is the low end of the totem pole and pretty much you're going to get fired and somebody's going to replace you and somebody's going to replace them and replace them and replace them. And when you finally see the movie, God willing, it gets made. You look at it and you go, I know this has nothing to do with anything I thought about. And particularly if you were the original writer, if you wrote an original screenplay, you had a vision for something. Plus you get no respect and that, you know. Welcome to the house of macadamias. Macadamias are a delicious superfood, sustainably sourced directly from farmers. Macadamias, a rare source of omega-7, linked to collagen regeneration, enhanced weight management, and better fat metabolism. Macadamias. Heart healthy and brain boosting fats. Macadamias. Paleo friendly. Keto and plant based. Macadamias. No wheat, no dairy, no gluten, no GMOs. No preservatives, no palm oil, no added sugar. House of Macadamias. Pie roasted with Namibian sea salt, cracked black pepper, and chocolate dipped. Snack bars come in chocolate. Coconut white chocolate and blueberry white chocolate. Visit houseofmacadamias.com/tetra.