(Music) The Thieves Guild
by Jake Kerr.
Episode 100,
Celebration.
Hi, everyone. I'm George Turner, your narrator for the Thieves Guild.
Welcome to episode 100.
This week, we will be celebrating our 100th episode with something different,
an interview with our esteemed author, Jake Kerr.
Thanks for joining us, Jake.
I'm really happy to be here, George. Um, thanks for having me.
And b- by the way, everybody,
George Turner, the amazing narrator of the Thieves Guild.
What an amazing job you do.
Thank you. I'm quite enjoying it, which is why I'm so happy we've gotten
to 100 episodes, which reminds me, this is about
you. So let's begin, shall we?
So how do you feel reaching 100 episodes?
This has been a real labor of love. Um,
obviously, it started out as a, uh, book series, and
turning it into a podcast was something I've, uh, thought about and, uh,
decided, like, "Hey, let's do it." So getting to 100 episodes is crazy.
Didn't even
think I'd get to 20 because of, uh, you know, who would want to listen or
how do I get the podcast out there. So, uh, very, very happy.
Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background as a writer.
Yeah, sure. I, um, I started... Well,
to be honest, um, I started writing wh- (laughs) in my head when I
was really little. I, uh, I always was, uh, creating
stories in my head. I'd be going to church on Sunday, and, uh,
would, uh, just essentially
create scenes about the church with superheroes coming in and bad guys
robbing, uh, everything. And, and, it's just t- to, to pass the time,
I was creating stories in my head, and I did that when I was at school and when I was at home.
And, and really, I've been a storyteller, uh, to myself, uh,
my whole life. But I really started writing
in the, uh, probably right around 2000.
A good friend of mine, um, had a, uh,
bestselling book and I wrote her and said, "Congratulations." And she was like, "Hey, you know,
you're not writing. Why?" And I said, "Well, ever since I graduated college, I didn't really think I was
very good at it." And, uh, and she recommended that I, uh, start writing,
and she was very enthusiastic, and I appreciated that.
So I started writing in 2000,
and, uh, I had no idea what to do, so I just started...
I joined the, uh, the Writers Garret in Dallas, which is a, a writer's group, and we
just did writing exercises constantly.
For years, I, I would, uh, write, you know, a scene of dialogue only and no
description, a scene description only with no dialogue.
So really, I just, uh, started writing in that way.
And then, uh, one of the members said, "Hey, you're, you're really good.
Why don't you join, uh, this writer's conference called Viable Paradise?" Which I had
never heard of, and I was like, "Uh, okay, that sounds fun. A, a week in Martha's Vineyard?
You don't have to convince me twice." So I went there, and, uh, that's where I learned
about,
you know, uh, submitting t- um, to magazines and things like that.
So, um,
I wrote a story, and, uh, got a very nice rejection, and the person said, "Hey, this
isn't really a science fiction story. You're submitting it to a science fiction magazine.
It has science fiction in it, but it's not really that important.
You need to write a science fiction story." So I wrote a story called The Old Equations and sent
it off to, uh, a couple of magazines, and Lightspeed Magazine, uh,
bought it, and it subsequently was nominated for the, uh, Sturgeon Award, uh, which is a
juried prize from the University of Kansas, and the, uh, and the Nebula Award,
which is, uh, the award given by the Science Fiction Writers of America.
And, uh, that kind of pushed me into a bit of a spotlight, and I've been publishing short
stories and, and then started on writing novels ever since then.
So
it's, it's kind of like a, uh, a journey of a slow start,
and, uh, and, and then a, as I got older, uh, a, a quick
launch (laughs) , and, and then, uh, some pretty significant, uh, success
after a lot of writing exercises.
You mentioned being nominated for a Nebula Award.
What was that like?
It was, uh, it was interesting because I, I knew it was a good story.
The editor, John Joseph Adams, um,
uh, really was supportive, and, uh, I put a lot of work into it.
I put a lot of work into the story.
And, um,
and I thought it was good. I, I didn't know if it was award-worthy. I had hopes.
Uh, once I got nominated, really nothing changes so much as,
uh, doors open. You have that kind of credibility of having been
nominated for a Nebula Award. But even then, in, in the writing community,
uh, while doors open, uh, they don't mean you, you're gonna get published everywhere.
It's still kind of a struggle to write, uh, a great story.
Uh, but really, the biggest change was I, I think that, uh, I, I was taken seriously
at, at more places.
And, uh, that has a, a real benefit.
And this was for your first published story.
That's actually true.
Uh, and I will go further and say,
um, post 18 Years Old,
uh, it wasn't the first story I've written.
Uh, I wrote stories in college. Um,
but it was the
first story...That got published from me, yeah.
Uh, I'm trying to, like, position it for you so you can get a sense of like how much of a rookie (laughs) I
actually was, even though I was, uh, in my for- like, uh, around 40 years old.
Um, basically,
I came out of Viable Paradise having never written a story since college
and I wrote a story at Viable Paradise that I, that I polished up and I sent out, and that's the
one that came back and they said, "Hey, this is a good story but it's not science fiction." And that was a
personal rejection that I value to this day.
Uh, so The Old Equations was actually my second story I wrote as an
adult,
wrote, and my first published story, and that was the one that got nominated for a
Nebula. Now that sounds kind of arrogant and, and, uh, even though it's true, the, the
reality though is, and I, and I think people miss this, that I had spent the previous 20
years
more or less
writing constantly. Writing essays, writing
writing exercises, and, and I like to tell people this, like, my first published story was nominated for a
Nebula Award but I had written a million words,
literally written a million words before I even had a story published. So, there's that.
(laughs)
You mentioned the Thieves Guild didn't start out as a podcast, but as a book
series. What made you want to do it as a podcast, and can you see
publishing more books or will this be exclusively a podcast moving
forward?
That's a good question. I, um, I really wanted,
uh, to continue the series in book form and I probably will, but it is gonna be primarily a
podcast from here on out. And why did I choose to do it as a podcast?
Um,
I loved the idea.
It, it's meant to be a, uh, a serial. It's meant to be one of these things that's
consumed in small pieces. That's how I wrote it, even though it was packaged as a book series
and, and you can read them all in one sitting, but it was really meant to be a chapter by chapter
released type of thing. But there was really n- at the time I wrote it, there wasn't really a, a, a,
an outlet for serial fiction, uh, like that.
Magazines wrote, produced stories or, or published stories and there weren't really, uh,
serial fiction outlets. So when podcasts starting to be huge and
the ability to create your own podcast was becoming more and more accessible, I thought
this would be really cool and I figured if I'm gonna do it, let's do it whole hog.
Let's do a full cast
recording where people can be really immersed with the idea that they're immersed
for this, uh, you know, for a week or, or, or for on a Monday
and then on a Friday they get their next piece and, and they can't wait. It's, uh...
and that was kind of the idea behind it.
Oh, and, uh, you asked about doing more.
I, I can definitely see myself doing more,
and in fact, toward the end of this episode, I'll have a special announcement
that, uh, is specifically about that. So look out for that.
You certainly like to torture us, don't you?
Anyone who listens to the Thieves Guild
and waits for the next episode knows that.
(laughs)
The story starts out with simple mischief among two young friends and then
gets progressively more complex. Was this your intent?
That, that's a great question, and actually the reality is that I'm
writing the whole thing completely by the seat of my pants.
Um, I started with that opening scene of Raylan and Rafe,
uh, tossing the thing and I had this idea of, of a
Thieves Guild and, and how he would be made the Thieves Guild master and
I... So I had kind of like the ideas
very, very rough ideas, but I didn't know where I was gonna go, and that's part of the joy of writing it.
I wanted to just kind of like have fun
writing it out along with, you know, as the reader, the same way the reader is reading it
is how I wanted to write it. It's challenging because, uh, you know, continuity
becomes an issue and things like that, uh, but it's also a lot of fun.
And one of the things that I... one of my goals was much like Charles Dickens, you know, people would wait
for the Strand Magazine on, on, on, on docks as it was unloaded from the
ship, they were so interested in what the next episode was.
And you see this in some of the Pulp Fiction magazines and, and the, uh, chapters of Conan and things
like that. The, the idea that a chapter,
um,
w- every chapter would end with a cliffhanger. I, I kind of loved that idea.
So just right up by the seat of my pants, end the chapter with like, ooh, what comes next?
And, uh, that not only would draw the listener, listener in and the reader in, but it would
also make me excited about writing the next chapter.
How have you planned out the story then?
You, you had talked about increasing complexity and I think that's just the
nature of storytelling. You know, as you bring new characters in, the story becomes more
complex. And, uh, that's one of the challenges I need to face, uh,
moving forward is how do I
not make it so complex that we lose track of everything?
You know, each chapter is gonna be following, uh...
each episode is gonna be following someone along as they continue their journey.
But if we have 10 people on 10 different journeys, uh, you'll get tired pretty quickly.
So, um, the challenge for me is that it will become complex, just basically the nature
of the storytelling by adding characters and with different, uh, goals.
You're sending Mela off on her mission to Harvest House and then she gets moved in a different
direction, that makes it complex. Having Raylan go to
Goutland and meet with the, uh, with the Outlanders, uh, now they're
part of the story, that makes it more complex.
So it, it's actually something I have to be careful about because the complexity isn't
something you build, it's something you have to kind of contain, if that makes sense.
You mentioned Dickens. Were there any other influences on the
Thieves Guild?
Yeah, uh, Dickens for sure. Um, also the pulp writers. I love A. C.
Rice Burroughs and, and Conan, and, and I just read Zorro by Johnston
McCulley. And I love how they, they have a real sense of narrative.
You know, you may criticize their writing and their prose, and, and obviously they're writing in an era
where, uh, you know, men were men and women were there to, to look pretty.
It was very kind of sad in all of those aspects.
But fundamentally, as narrative writers, they're very strong.
They know how to end a chapter with a, uh, a kind of forward momentum, and there's a
lot to learn by reading them. So those were all influences.
Uh, I think for the Thieves Guild, specifically the,
the, the kind of, uh...
I'm trying to think what influenced me in terms of like the social
stratification
and the nature of,
uh, of having guilds.
Uh, I can't really remember something that I've read that influenced it, although I'm sure that,
I mean, I've read so much in my life that there's, there's a bunch that, uh, if you were to like
say to me later, "Oh, yeah, that reminds me of this book," I'd be like, "Oh, yeah, actually I read that
when I was 15. That's, that probably is an influence." So hard to say, hard to say.
But, um, the structure of it in terms of like it being a serial kind
of picaresque type of thing where you just go on the journey and follow people where they go, and you end
each chapter, uh, it's gonna be Dickens and, uh, and the pulp writers from the, uh,
from the '20s and '30s.
Do you have a favorite character?
Oh, man, that's another good question. Um, not really.
I kinda love them all. I mean, that's, I guess as a writer you, they, they talk about your
darlings and, and I kinda love all the characters.
I'll tell you what, I, what I really do have a favorite are favorite
scenes. You, you want every, you want every scene to be amazing, but obviously that's impossible.
So sometimes as you go along, there's scenes that just kinda stand out to you.
And, uh, a good example would be, uh, when, uh, when Raylan meets
Mayla for the first time, and she's just constantly insulting him as they're moving along,
and, and he's like getting more and more frustrated.
And he's like, "Hey, I was just made the guild master and you're insulting me."
And, um,
and I love that whole kind of exchange.
It, it shows her character so well, and, uh, uh, her kind of like,
you know, uh, anti-uh, establishment character. Perfect for a thief, by the way.
And, and Raylan's kind of in like, "I can't make sense of this.
What is going on?" Which, which kind of is a perfect, uh, illustration of his character as he's thrust
into this role. So that was a, that was a scene that I, that I really enjoyed.
So no, no real favorite characters, but favorite scenes, if that makes
sense.
It does, but I'm not sure I believe you.
(laughs) Fair enough.
The main setting is a city called Ness where the social
stratification is all based on guilds and each guild has a color.
I always picture the city as this patchwork of colors moving around.
Is that how you pictured it?
You know, when I designed the idea in my head of like colors being a
guild, I had no visual representation, believe it or not, in my
mind. It was only later as I was kind of thinking of, uh, o- of what the city
would look like, as you just did, that I realized that it would be like this rainbow of colors
swirling around and you would have a blue quarter and a red quarter and a, and a, and a yellow quarter.
And, uh, it's funny. I named the, uh,
the sections of the city, you know, you got the lower quarter, the upper quarter, and you got the golden
triangle, and, and all of these various pieces, all on like
physical
kind of pla- like descriptions. Like the lower quarter is down the slope from the
mountain and it's one quarter of the city for the most part.
And, uh, you know, the ash fields are fields of ash. So it was very literal in that.
But in hindsight, I kinda like, kinda what you're, you're, you're getting at or at least
referencing, is the idea of, uh, uh, the, the city separated into colors.
I love the idea of the red district and the blue district.
But, alas, that's not what they're named.
Um, but to your point, they are visually,
uh, gonna be seen like that. And, and as I picture the city, I do kind of picture this,
uh,
this swirling mass of color and, and, and sections where some colors
dominate and others don't. I, I kinda like that image even if it's,
e- even if it, uh, seems unrealistic that, you know, people would be slavishly,
uh,
wearing one color. I don't think it's that unrealistic, by the way, in term- in terms of like, uh, cultural
possibilities. But
I, I, I love how it looks, so thank you for that question.
I'm fascinated in how you mentioned writing the whole
story on the fly.
In an early episode, we see some books in Pietro's living quarters as
background description. Those books become very important later in the
story. Did you plan that?
(laughs)
You know, uh,
Bob Ross talked about, uh, happy accidents, and they don't only occur in
painting. Um,
you know, in fact, that's a really, uh, core way of how I'm writing this and how I write a lot of
things. I call them seeds. Basically what you do is i- when you're writing something,
you can, uh, c- add something, uh,
uh, interesting
that's part of the scenery,
and you do it there with the idea of it's interesting in and of itself, it's there.
It could be a painting on the wall. It could be books on a bookshelf, like you mentioned, in terms of
Pietro's, uh, uh, quarters. Um, but they're there to kind of
like make it seem more interesting than just a bare wall.
But all of those interesting things......
can, you can, you can go back and look at them and use them later, and that's what I did with
Pietro's books. That was not planned.
Um, I love the idea of this hidden history.
And again, that came on the fly to me well into writing this that there would be, like, this hidden history of
Ness.
And, uh, I, I was struggling to come up with, like, why does a thieves' guild even exist?
It just kinda, sounds kinda silly, right?
Uh,
you know, uh, in terms of, like, being part of the social structure.
Like, the whole
f- opening few chapters where the thieves' guild makes a difference in terms of the ruling
decisions of the city makes no sense, so I kind of was like, "Well, did I write myself into a corner here?"
So, what I did was I just went back and, uh, and, and, and kind of said, "How can I make this make sense?"
And as I, as I came up with the idea of this hidden history,
um, s- something hidden
needs n- you know, needs to be hidden. You can't have a recorded history of it or something like that.
But then I was like, "How do you expose it, then?" So, these are the kind of things writers go
through in your, in your head. I don't know if people necessarily care who are podcast listeners, but you
think about,
like, like, the challenges that you create.
I want to get to this point, but to get there, it's unrealistic. How can I make it realistic?
So, these are kind of the challenges that you go through.
In this case, uh, I put a library in the, uh, the tower, but
I wanted it to be incomplete because that would fuel further kind of,
you know, uh, tension and, and momentum.
So, where could the rest of the book slide?
Well, I thought, there's a library that's mentioned that's in, in the upper triangle where the rich people
live, and I thought, "It could be there. It could be in a room there." Um, but then it hit me.
Oh my gosh, I mentioned that there were books in Pietro's office, and, and it was the happiest of
accidents. We've got Pietro, the Guildmaster thief, living
under the tower of the, of the merchants.
He's got a huge bookshelf full of books no one reads, no one cares about his books, and he's
guarding the history of the guild.
I, I, you know, I couldn't have m- planned it better and it wasn't planned at all.
I, I know that sounds crazy, but it wasn't.
So, you're not sure where things are going?
Uh, I, I, like I said, I know it sounds crazy.
George, you're gonna have to believe me.
I, I do not have a future planned on where this is going.
At this point in time, 'cause we, uh, we now have Mayla and, uh, Darla
fighting their way back to Ness somehow.
We've got the, uh, outlanders who are, are creating a distraction.
We've got a whole bunch of things going on.
Um,
where is that gonna go?
I am, uh, I'm not sure, and I think that's part of what's gonna be exciting
about the, uh, the next 100 episodes of, uh, of the podcast
is, uh, we will all be surprised and hopefully pleasantly so.
Do you have an ending in mind?
That's a fair question. I, I do think, m-
let me put it this way. I usually have a beginning and an end in mind when I write a book.
The middle is where, you know, creativity and all of the fun happens for the most part.
So, having an ending gives me a, a place on where to go.
In this case however,
um,
this series is personal. It's, it's my
way of creating the books that I read when I was 14 and
15. It's me writing out my version o- uh, my contemporary
version of Conan or, you know, The Land That Time Forgot or The Princess of
Mars. All of those books just, I consumed them when I was 14, and I
never wanted them to end.
And this is me writing that book that's never gonna end.
Um, you know, I can't say it won't end, but at this point in time, what I really wanna
do in my plan is to have these characters...
And again, I mentioned earlier that you have to be careful not making too many characters, everybody loses
the thread,
but have characters that pick up the torch.
You know, I could see at some point Ness become stabilized and maybe there's a
leader and, and the focus isn't on
Raylan anymore. Even though the, the, the, uh, he's the Guildmaster thief and the, the,
the series is called The Thieves' Guild,
maybe the thieves become supporting characters to someone else and they carry the torch.
Maybe,
maybe it goes with Mayla and Darla and we discover the land.
They're sent on a mission to discover what's on the other side of the mountain,
or they're sent on a mission to find the ocean that's past Gautland.
Uh, all of these things, uh, are, are, have so much potential around them, I just can't
foresee an ending.
Um, I don't know. Maybe a meteor
hits and the dinosaurs take over.
Do you worry that people will get tired of the story?
Wow. Uh, you know, that's, that's, that is a concern,
and that's one of the reasons I try to weave in new, new storylines or
subplots and things like that.
So, if you're tired of Raylan fighting against The Man, you have Mayla and Darla
discovering the Magic Guild. If you're
really not too keen on what's happening with Rafe up in the, uh,
tower, you've got, uh, Rogers trying to rally the Harvest Guild.
So, um, I try to make sure that it's not a tiring read, that
everything is new and every chapter ends with some kind of element of tension to it.
But it is a concern. I do worry that people get tired of it.
I mean, there have been books that have gone on for dozens and
dozens and dozens of books, and I'm not even close to that yet.
Uh, so I do know that it can be done, um, and I'm hoping that I can do it.
Let's talk about the podcast. There are no credits or lengthy intros
or outros.
Why is that?
Well, I'm, I'm sorry I don't highlight you, George (laughs) . That was all by design.
One of the things that I've been annoyed with when I listen to podcasts are
these interminable
intros that go on for two minutes and, um,
the, uh, you know, even songs, like intro scores that are, are
f-You know, a minute long. When I was, when I was
getting the, the intro music, which I love by the way, for the, the
podcast, the, the one guideline I gave was has to be under 30 seconds.
So, uh,
the goal was
when I, when I approached it was I have 30 seconds, less than 30 seconds of
music, and we're in the story by the time the music ends. So, I had 30 seconds.
30 seconds is enough to do,
you know, the name of the podcast,
uh, the title of the, uh,
uh, episode, the number of the episode,
um, the, the... my name, you know, at least give myself credit.
Sorry, George, not you, but me. And, uh, and that was it.
So, you know, as you're well aware, as I talked to all of the...
or as I kind of crafted all of the pieces together,
and, uh, you know, from the end music to the intro music to, uh, all of the
voices and, and, and things like that, I decided to just focus on the
story. So, um, there's that. It's, uh, it's by...
entirely by design.
I don't mind actually. I like your approach of diving
directly into the story.
Well, thanks, George. I'm, I, uh, I, I, I think it works.
Uh, I'll, I'll just say that.
The length of the episodes are usually around 10 minutes.
Did you plan that?
That was actually another happy accident.
Each, uh, episode was gonna be a chapter in an already written book series.
Now, we're moving beyond that now, but, uh, it's gonna continue, and each chapter
just happened to be around 10 to 15 minutes.
In hindsight, again, thank you, Bob Ross. I'm talking about these happy accidents.
I love the length of the episodes. They're short.
They proje- project story and character,
and they're easy to consume, uh, quickly if you're on your way to work or something like
that. They're not hour-long narratives and, and dramas and things like that.
Uh, they're, they're meant to be serials, like, like the old 1800s, uh,
magazines where Dickens and Wilkie Collins were published, and, and people would read them
in the carriage, or they would read them, uh, at home before they went to bed, and then they would wait for
the next episode. So, uh, I kind of like it. Wasn't by design.
Uh, it was a happy accident. But, uh, again, I, I feel like I've had a lot of these on this, and I'm very
grateful.
Unlike a lot of podcasts, you produce two episodes a week.
How do you make that work?
Well, I have an efficient production, so that helps.
But, but more than anything, it's the fact that I already had material written going back
100, you know, basically 99 episodes.
So, when you have something written, it makes it a lot easier to get it out because it's already produced and
all you need to do is, uh,
uh, have all the rest of the stuff added in.
Not that it's easy, but it, it's, it's not as time-consuming as, as literally writing
all of that. Uh, and that's why, uh, announcement number one for
everybody, starting with episode...
uh, starting next week, we're gonna be moving to one episode a week, and the reason is simple.
I'm gonna be writing the, the works instead of, uh, using previously written stuff.
Now, I'm very excited about that because,
um,
I, I will be able to experience the story as it goes along.
I'll be able to read your feedback, and, uh, and I'm not so, uh...
uh, I'm not so enamored with my own genius that I wouldn't take your ideas if you wanted to, like, toss
them in comments and say, "Man, I wish it went this way." Can't say I would take those ideas, but I
love how writing and reading is a collaborative experience, so we're gonna go to one episode a week, uh,
starting, uh, next week.
So, one episode a week starting next episode.
If my math is correct, it sounds like it will be two years before we get to
episode 200.
Well, now that you put it that way, George, I, I wanna do two episodes a week 'cause I want it to come
faster
(laughs) . But, alas,
I, I can only write so fast. So, uh, yeah, thanks for bringing me down, George.
Hey,
I'm not the one only writing one episode a week.
Do you have anything special planned as part of this 100th episode?
Yes, actually. We are going to be giving away
a paperback version of the first two books of The Thieves Guild that the
podcast has been based on, these first 99 episodes, and, uh, they
will be both signed by me and, uh, sent off to you.
Um, there will be a sign-up form in the description if you want to, uh,
have a chance to win the, uh, the paperbacks.
And, uh,
the... I will, uh, be open to mailing them internationally as well, so this is not limited
to just the United States.
Am I eligible?
Uh, no, George, you are not.
Oh, well. For those listening, check out the description for the link.
Anything else before we go?
Actually, I do have a surprise announcement.
A surprise announcement. Now, that's what I was
hoping to hear. What is it?
I actually have a
young adult series called, uh, Tommy Black. It's about...
starts with Tommy Black and the Staff of Light, which was, uh, fairly successful, uh,
about, uh, 10 years ago or so. And, uh,
the, the, uh, first book is Tommy Black and the Staff of Light.
The second is, uh, Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility, and there's a third book that
hasn't been written yet. And I decided I'm gonna do the same thing with Tommy Black
that I've done for The Thieves Guild.
I am going to produce it as a podcast. So, uh,
uh, I still have to get it in place. It's, uh, you can s- you know, we'll, we'll announce it
here, um...But, uh, it's probably gonna be in about two months,
and I haven't decided whether it's gonna be a full cast or a single narrator.
I kind of like the idea of a single narrator, and, uh, and George, you can thank
yourself for that because, uh, I really do love your narration.
So, um, but it might be full cast too. There's, there's something interesting about
having a full cast that, that I really like, but, uh, we will find out.
So, uh, probably in, let's say,
September. It looks like it's gonna be September, we'll be launching the Tommy Black
series, uh, podcast. Still haven't come up with a name yet.
I don't think it's gonna be the Tommy Black Series.
It's gonna be something more, uh, (laughs) evocative, but, uh, that's coming, uh, in two
months. So, that's an exciting announcement, or at least I hope you think it's exciting.
That's wonderful. Can I narrate that one too?
Oh, yeah. I just say something nice about you, and now I have to say something mean.
No, uh, unfortunately George, you're not gonna n- narrate this one.
I have to, uh, find a, uh, American-voiced n- narrator.
This is set in America. Well, actually, it's set all over the
place, but the, uh, the main characters are from America.
Can you give us some more details about Tommy Black?
Sure. It's set in a world... Uh, it's set in 1938 before World War
II, and magic has been part of the world for so long, but as technology is coming
along, has come along, it is replacing magic. So, magic is dying out.
It's become kind of like this carnival act type of thing, and there used to be
things called uh, uh,
arch mages. And the arch mages were the super powerful magicians, but they haven't been seen for
a long time. And there's one who is Tommy's grandfather, who's retired
and, and lives in, uh, in, uh,
Manhattan and, uh, he, uh, he, he basically is, is
retired and doesn't wanna have anything to do with anybody else.
And the world is losing magic, and he's a little bitter about it.
And what happens is, uh,
the, uh... He gets attacked with his, uh, with his, uh, grandson,
and his grandson is Tommy, and
basically he, uh, he saves Tommy in an attack on a restaurant, hands Tommy the staff and
says,
you know, "Take this with you and, and, and essentially hide it.
I'll get back to you later."
So, uh, Tommy leaves, and that begins the, uh,
the, the adventure, and it, it covers so much history.
It's, uh, it's gonna overlap World War II when the World War II, uh, is
gonna have magic elements to it. Uh, it has, uh, lots of cool
stuff. And again, book one and two are written, so this will go on, uh, at a pretty good clip,
like I did with the, the Thieves Guild.
Uh, and then we'll have fun
with book three. This one will have an ending.
Uh, the Tommy Black Series, uh, podcast will have an ending, uh, which is after the, the
third book, um, but I'm not sure how long that will take. Uh, the beauty of a podcast...
And I will be, just like the Thieves Guild, designing the third book for the podcast, not a book-book,
uh, is I can make it as long as I like or as short as I like. So, uh, we shall see.
Um, I'm excited for it. I hope, uh, I hope everybody likes it.
When does it start?
Geez, George, I said it was gonna be, like, August, September in, but you, you have to pin me down, don't
you? All right. I will, uh, I'll go on the record since, uh, you're being annoying and
making me do so. Uh, it will be September 6th, will be the first episode
launch of Tommy Black. And, uh, by the way, title will be changed.
Uh, but, uh, the first book is Tommy Black and the Staff of Light, and, uh,
chapter one of that book will be the first episode, which you will, uh, have on September 6th.
So, there you go.
Thanks for making this podcast a reality, Jake.
Uh, I'm happy to do so. I love, I love writing, and I love telling stories.
So, this is more,
you know, makes me happier, and, and if other people enjoy it,
that's, that's all the best, George.
Where can people find more information about you and the other things you do?
Uh, where can people find more about me? Uh, the easiest is just to go to my website, jakekerr.com.
So, if you go to J-A-K-E K-E-R-R dot com, you can find, uh, more
information about me. I still write short stories.
You'll find them, uh, I have one coming up in Lightspeed Magazine, in fact. It's a fantasy story.
Um, and, uh, you'll find, uh, news about, uh, other books I've
written. I have a, uh,
kind of a
cyberpunk thriller called Thursday that's available and, um,
uh, assorted other things. So, you can find me on, uh,
on, uh, on my website. I'm also on Blue Sky, if you wanna track me down there.
It's, uh, Jake,
uh, @jake.kerr.social.
So, uh, jake.kerr.social is my handle on Blue Sky if you wanna follow me there.
Um, that's about it.
And on that note, I'm looking forward to narrating next week's episode
and a long future for the Thieves Guild.
Me too, George. Me too.
(upbeat music plays)