00:00Welcome to The Author Show, where we feature new authors and books, from fiction to self-help and everything in between.
00:09You'll find it all at theauthorshow.com. That's theauthorshow.com. And now, let the show begin.
00:18Hello and welcome back to the show. This is your host, Don McCauley.
00:22Today, we're welcoming to the program author Joseph M. Leonard, and he is the author of The Book of Kennedy, Project Carpe Diem.
00:31Before I bring in today's guest, a quick reminder that selected interviews are available at our website,
00:36as well as on major platforms like Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and many more.
00:44Joseph, how are you?
00:45As I always say, could be better, could be worse, right?
00:50Well, tell us a little bit about yourself, please.
00:54Born and raised in Southeast Michigan, though I hate the winters here, I do still choose to stay.
01:02So, tell us about your book.
01:04Yeah! People say of my writing style, maybe I'm a bit weird.
01:11I like to think of it as being different and unique, right?
01:16And this book is a novelette, actually, not a full novel.
01:22The Book of Kennedy, Project Carpe Diem, I like to call a quasi-sequel.
01:28And what do I mean by that?
01:30Well, Terror Strikes Coming Soon to a City Near You, which we've talked about before,
01:38is not about death and destruction, even though terrorism is in it.
01:43It's about life and living.
01:45And this book is that, life and living, but with new characters.
01:53But I'm broadening and expanding upon that sub-theme of life and living and trying to sow good
02:03and navigate life positively, while all the mass holes, as I coined them out there,
02:11constantly trying to drag us all down.
02:15So, who did you write your book for, specifically?
02:17Who's your target audience here?
02:19Well, I consider myself a Christian author, but I don't want to be,
02:26and don't see myself as, you know, a pick-up-the-Bible-and-thump-somebody-over-the-head
02:32where they'd say, why won't this sink into your head?
02:36You know, more lighthearted, more gentle approach, not preach-to-the-choir type stuff.
02:46So, while it is for Christians, it's very much for non-Christians, too.
02:51I like to say, of Penn and Teller, I speak to on my podcast all the time,
02:58is of, you know, the comedy magician couple.
03:04He's an avowed atheist, but he has no problem with Moses and the Ten Commandments
03:12being on the Supreme Court building.
03:15And he sees our laws as coming through our Judeo-Christian ethos, values, and principles,
03:26ethics, as just being a good human.
03:29There's no need to hate the law because of how it was derived.
03:34He recognizes our nation's history,
03:37but just recognizes life, sowing good is a good thing, being a good person.
03:46Rick Springfield has the song Karma.
03:49Every little bit of love I give to another, you know what I believe?
03:52It comes back to me, right?
03:55So good, you'll get good.
03:57Wanting to live, like Rick Warren, a purpose-driven life.
04:01And life doesn't have to be a faithful one, but wanting good for others and good in return.
04:09So, could you say there's any type of central message or perhaps underlying theme
04:14that you would say runs throughout your book?
04:16Yes, indeed.
04:18From the back of the book, I will read,
04:21Life and Living, Affirming All Lives Have Meaning, Purpose, Value,
04:27Whether One Sees It One's Self Daily or Not.
04:30Join Kennedy as she navigates the good, the bad, the ugly of life,
04:35and trying to maintain positivity through it all.
04:40So if you had to choose, what would you say is the single most important idea you're sharing in your book
04:44that's really going to add value to the reader's life?
04:47Again, that life has value and meaning.
04:52Like, it's a wonderful life that we see every Christmas, that movie, right?
04:58You're not going to have a Clarence come down and show you what the world would be life without you.
05:04But rest assured, you're bringing value and meaning to others' lives.
05:11Now, if you were asked to compare your book with any book out there we might already be familiar with,
05:16which book would it be and why?
05:18Well, that's an easy one for me because I'm aware of a company called Incubate that has this service called Score It.
05:29And I have my Score It report for my book, and it compares books you write to millions that others have written.
05:39Like, my Score It report for the book of Kennedy Project Carpe Diem says,
05:45my style and this book is most like The Just City by Joe Walton.
05:52It's compared on authorial vocabulary, expressive complexity, grammar, tonal quality.
06:02It's also compared to Paolo Kulo, I'm sure I'm not saying that name correctly, book Adultery.
06:11Although, there's no cheating on the person you're with in my book, but it's compared to that.
06:20And thirdly, a book called Lock In by John Scalzi.
06:26Can you tell us briefly about some of the characters in the book?
06:29Oh, absolutely.
06:31Obviously, it's the book of Kennedy, Project Carpe Diem.
06:37Nothing to do with the Camelot crew, right?
06:40JFK, RFK, anybody.
06:43Kennedy, a young woman, George, Jim, Natasha.
06:49This book, I like to give bonus materials, and I literally have a soundtrack.
06:56Yes, this book has a soundtrack of like 400 songs that you can find on my YouTube channel,
07:05a playlist, and Matt Davis' Stop and Smell the Roses, a classic song that helped inspire this book,
07:14is there, as well as more current songs for the younger people who will be probably classics 20 years from now.
07:22So, was there anything from your own life that you put into these characters?
07:27Yes.
07:28Like I said at the top, lightheartedness.
07:32You need to put in a little humor.
07:34And as I say in How to Write a Book and Get a Publish Tips and Techniques,
07:39this old adage, write about what you know.
07:42So, I put a scene in the book at Holy Cow Creamery, which I'm a regular at, in the summers to get root beer floats.
07:54Now, was there a character or a scene, perhaps, that you could say is your favorite?
08:00Yeah, I have a couple.
08:01It's when Kennedy becomes acquainted with Bullseye the Clown, and he relates the story while in Moscow
08:11and having the language barrier of how smiles and rubber chickens are universal to lift spirits and so good,
08:24as well as a scene where she hums a tune by rapper DPB called I Feel Good Today,
08:34and even a chapter called Peer Pressure, which is based on and inspired by DPB, the rapper's peer pressure song.
08:46Now, did your environment or upbringing, perhaps, play any major role in your writing?
08:51Oh, absolutely.
08:53Again, it doesn't have to come from a Christian point of view or perspective.
09:01It can be just wanting good, sowing good, to reap good, that karma thing again.
09:10Every bit of love I give to another, you know what I believe, it comes back to me, right?
09:16If you sow good, if you hang around good people, good things, even though bad things happen to good people at times,
09:26rising above that and knowing if you put out good, you'll get good back.
09:33So what can you tell us about this genre and why you decided to write in this genre?
09:37Well, again, it's kind of a mixed genre thing.
09:41This is, unlike Terror Strikes, that was historical fiction, or as I call that, faction,
09:49which, again, major sub-theme, life and living.
09:53This, the overriding theme, is life and living.
09:57It would fall under Christian, but it would also fall under young adult and just plain general fiction.
10:06Again, just trying to have ourselves look in the mirror and self-reflect.
10:13Religious or not, are we doing good?
10:16Are we getting good?
10:18Because we're giving good.
10:19Well, what's been your most rewarding experience since publishing your book?
10:23Well, this is going to sound like I'm blowing smoke.
10:27And I'm not.
10:29I really mean it.
10:30With all my books, including this one, it's great to be able to then go on interviews.
10:36This is a more direct interview structure, but radio or podcasts, a lot of shows,
10:43where I get to go on and have great conversations with people, indeed, about life and living.
10:52And are we making the best of it we can?
10:56So, how would you describe the writing style you're using here?
11:00Again, as I joked at the top, a bit weird.
11:03I like to hope that I'm different and unique and non-traditional.
11:10You know, like my name, Joseph M. Leonard.
11:13It looks French.
11:14It's not Lenard.
11:15It's Leonard without an O.
11:17But I have to make that distinction because there is a Joseph Lenard who is also a Christian
11:25author out of South Carolina.
11:27So, I have to make that distinction.
11:29And I like to joke, I am not he nor he me.
11:33And you won't confuse either of us for Shakespeare, right?
11:38I don't necessarily conform to the Oxford English stuff, right?
11:44There's that Shakespeare joke.
11:46Won't confuse me for Shakespeare.
11:49I use words like gotta and gonna and wanna.
11:53I don't necessarily adhere to the AP or the Chicago writing style guidelines either.
12:01I write for our times.
12:03Even though I've written many pieces online politically regarding we're losing our language.
12:10Our language is getting too loose.
12:12I make Kennedy be a person of our times, though.
12:17I don't want her to sound like something out of a Shakespearean novel.
12:22Now, your characters, are they pure fiction or do you draw from people you know in real life?
12:27Well, like in my How to Write a Book and Get a Published Hints, Tips and Techniques book,
12:32character development and scene development and whatnot, I joke about that adage.
12:38Write about what you know.
12:40And it's like the old TV show, Dragnet.
12:43The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
12:46So yeah, I draw heavily on people and situations in my life as I was joking about the holy cow creamery visit in the book.
12:57So would you say you're more of a character artist or more plot-driven writer?
13:02Yeah, I'm glad you asked that question.
13:05I'm more plot than character necessarily driven, although the book of Kennedy, Project Carpe Diem, relies heavily on we're experiencing this whole book through her.
13:19So this one may be more character driven.
13:22I also want to read the note from the author on the back of the book.
13:27I want to state as a warning, this book contains not one line of dialogue.
13:33I feel it important to say that because a reviewer of my Terror Strikes Coming Soon to a City Near You novel once wrote that she didn't think there was enough dialogue in it.
13:43Well, in all the interviews I'd ever given regarding that book, I never promised it to be a dialogue-laden book.
13:51In fact, that while having some dialogue, it is heavy narrative style.
13:57As this book is entirely in narrative style versus like Plato's Dialogues, Philip Roth's Deception, or Steinbach's The Grapes of Wrath.
14:11Other than selling your book, of course, is there anything else you hope to accomplish with it?
14:15Yes, again, about life and living.
14:19And there's a lot of math holes, as I've coined that hashtag years ago, out there, negative Nellies.
14:28You know, they're full of misery and they always have misery in their life.
14:33They want you to be miserable.
14:34I want more positivity in the world and trying to bring that.
14:42And in the book, I mentioned the old adage, show me your friends, I'll show you your future, right?
14:48If you're surrounded by a bunch of ne'er-do-wells, your future's probably going to be bleak.
14:55If you're surrounded by those negative Nellies, you're likely to be negative, too, and your life will have negativity.
15:04Surround yourself with positivity and that karma Springfield style.
15:11Whether you feel it religious, spiritual, or just, indeed, karma, the way of the planet, will come back.
15:22So, in your opinion, who should buy your book?
15:24Well, obviously, we're recording in September.
15:29Christmas gift giving, right, is around the corner soon.
15:35So, buy it for yourself.
15:38Buy it for other avid readers in your life.
15:43And I'm sure they'll have fun with this book.
15:47Do you have a website?
15:48Yes, I have two, actually.
15:51I have yet to create a website for this book.
15:56But you can go to terrorstrikes.info slash tbok for the book of Kennedy.
16:04Terrorstrikes.info slash tbok to see a page dedicated to this book.
16:11And maybe, eventually, there will be a website dedicated to this book.
16:17That site, obviously, is for my terror strikes.
16:20And I have pages for my other books.
16:23As well as an author site, josephmleonard.us.
16:28This has been just great.
16:30Our guest today has been Joseph M. Leonard, and he is the author of The Book of Kennedy,
16:34Project Carpe Diem.
16:36Joseph, thanks very much for being with us today.
16:39Thank you for having me, Don.
16:40It was great having a chance to talk with you again.
16:43Love you, brother.
16:45This is Don McCauley wrapping up another edition of The Author Show.
16:48Go out there, buy the book today, and please share this interview with your friends.
16:51So they, too, have the opportunity to discover our guests and their work.
16:56The Author Show can be accessed at any time at theauthorshow.com.
16:59And whether you're an author who would like to be featured or a reader in search of new books to read,
17:04The Author Show is a great place to start.
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