Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

EP 302 - Fat Vampires, Storytelling, and Empathy with Johnny B. Truant

May 3, 2023

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Mark interviews Johnny B. Truant, the author of the Fat Vampire novels adapted by SyFy as "Reginald the Vampire" starring Spider-Man's Jacob Batalon.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

During the interview Mark and Johnny talk about:

How Mark and Johnny have known one another for more than 10 years
Young Johnny who had always wanted to be a writer and convinced his high school newspaper to allow him to write a column for them
Orbiting the same circles as Sean Platt and how the two met via working via places like Copyblogger and the Blog World Conference
How The Self Publishing Podcast came from Johnny wanting to interview (and talk and learn from) Sean Platt and David Wright about the co-authoring and self-publishing they were doing
Where the spark for the idea of "Fat Vampire" came from (the old "after-show" podcast they did called "Better Off Undead" for horror fans
Johnny wanting to explore the "sameness taken to the extreme" in Reginald, the fat vampire
How not being exclusive to Amazon actually led to Johnny selling the option and license for FAT VAMPIRE to become the TV show "Reginald the Vampire"
The expression "enthusiasm is free"
What it was like watching the TV show "Reginald the Vampire" based on Johnny's novels
Prepping for releasing a companion podcast to the TV series
Spending three days on the set of the recording of the television program
Johnny's views on the power of story and how they can help break through those psychological walls and the blocks that someone might put up to a different perspective by introducing readers to a "maybe they're just like me" train of thought
And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on the importance of storytelling in creating connections between people and empathy, sharing a few quotes from an articile in Discovery magazine, as well as the reality of when an author's work is adapated for media.

Links of Interest:

Johnny B. Truant is the bestselling author of Fat Vampire, adapted by SyFy as "Reginald the Vampire" starring Spider-Man's Jacob Batalon. His other books include Pretty Killer, Pattern Black, Invasion, The Beam, Dead City, and over 100 other titles across many genres.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0