Daniel Volpe Hates Getting Punched

speaker-0: calling all degenerates. Welcome to Splatter Pals, a splatterpunk podcast hosted by your pals, Rob Nelson, and Colby does horror. That's right. We survived our first episode and decided to keep the dream alive. So if you're not following, be sure to unfuck that up immediately. All socials will be linked in the show notes below. this is day two. We've got Colby here, my co-host. My name's Rob Nelson, and we're bringing our new homie, Daniel J. Volpe. So
speaker-1: Insert last record.
speaker-0: Clap track. You could clap track. Some fanfare. Thanks for joining us, man. This fucking rules. We're we're very excited to have you with us.
speaker-2: I'm I'm happy to be here. I haven't done a podcast in feels like forever. So happy you guys reached out and talk about some crazy shit.
speaker-1: Dude, I've been wanting to bring you on my other podcast for fucking ever since I read Runts, but I couldn't get my other co hosts to read fucking anything. So I'm hyped to be talking to you now.
speaker-2: Yeah, no, I'm I'm I'm excited. I'm excited to talk about it. You guys are cool and I I follow both of you guys and looking forward to hearing the the questions and stuff you have.
speaker-1: Hell yeah.
speaker-0: Well, first things first, like we like to talk about like what we're currently reading or listening to. and for that, I'm gonna jump on here first. I actually reread Runts, I listened to it on audio yesterday just to kind of like get primed again because I love that book so much. and then this morning I was like, fuck it, let's throw on only psychos. And so I've been I've been digging through that and dude, this book rips. I'm having so much fun with it. I I I noticed one of the things you pointed out in that book was an Albert Fish reference. Colby, do you know who Albert Fish is? Yeah. Dude. What a fucking degenerate that guy is.
speaker-2: It's colder out the fish.
speaker-0: Yeah. Albert Fish is nuts. And right now I'm actually at the part with Zeke and his mom. So this is this is very fun. The the shit has hit the fan officially and I'm I'm really digging it. So
speaker-2: So I always tell people only psychos is loosely based on a true story. you know, I'm from New York. So when I was a kid in the early mid nineties, there's a really horrific blizzard we had up here and we got like feet worth of snow. My dad was working the midnight shift. My mother was home alone with four kids. I was the oldest, probably maybe ten years old, if that. So from ten to like two years old. And we end up losing power and we're gonna get smashed with another. bad storm later on. And my mom's like, I don't know what to do. The house is getting cold. My dad's like, listen, just take the kids, go to the go to the best western for the night, you know, stay warm. I'll be home in the morning and I'll figure it all out. But we had like many small towns, had like a like a shitty degenerate hotel. And I and then as I grew up, I was like, man, what would have happened that night if like the best western was full and we had to go to this shitty degenerate, which actually was called the Deerdale, which is why this one's called the Elkdale. nice. If we had to go to this shitty degenerate hotel and it was just full of crazy people.
speaker-0: Yep. Dude, it's it's so much fun, Colby. You gotta read this fucking book, dude. It's crazy. I I I really like one, like the true crime sort of vibe to it, and then also just like each character that gets to get gets introduced is just like more wild backstory than the last. And it's like peeling back layers of each character, and you're like, Fuck, this guy's a D Gen too. This couple's doing this bullshit, and this is what's going on over here. Like, it's it's a lot of fun, man. I'm liking it.
speaker-2: Yeah, that book actually had a completely altered ending. when I started writing it, I got to the ending, I'm like, nah, this doesn't fit. And then I completely just flipped it on its head and gave it the ending that is out with it. So it's actually one of my favorites. a lot of people ask me like, what's your favorite book? And you always want, you you just want to try to push the new stuff and tell the fucking stuff. But I think only psychos with the little bit of personal feel it has to it with the story and just how much fun it was to write and then the ending. I was like, Yeah, this is this is top probably one of my top three favorites that I've that I've written so far.
speaker-0: that. Yeah, it it shows like it just has so much like character, personality and the riding's fucking excellent. It's just it's a fun ride. Appreciate it. Colby, what are you checking out right now?
speaker-1: My current listen is Slaughterhouse Moan by Volpey. I actually just messaged him the other day. I'm like, hey, just started Slaughterhouse Moan finally. I like it. It's fucking spicy. Yeah.
speaker-2: yeah.
speaker-1: and then my current read, last episode, Rob told me that I needed to check out Are Your Parents Home? So right when we got done recording, I opened up my Kindle, downloaded that, and I didn't put it down until I finished. That was a fucking ride. So I have yeah, yeah. That that was gnarly. That's the first book that's ever, like Rob said, it actually it genuinely scared me. Like it made me feel unsettled as shit. Like the building of the tension before even shit kicks off. Like when the shit kicked off, that's when I like I calmed down and everything. I was like, all right, this is I feel much safer now. Yeah. But yeah, the building of the tension, like before the dude comes in the house, terrifying. But after talking about only psychos, I just wrote that down. So that's what I'm gonna. Pick up right when we get done recording today.
speaker-0: Absolute banger. Yeah. Let's do.
speaker-1: 'Cause I've everything I've read from Volpey so far, I've not been let down.
speaker-2: I appreciate it. Yeah. Much appreciated.
speaker-0: Did you do Talia yet, Colby?
speaker-1: No, my wife just either got the audio book or downloaded on her Kindle, so she's gonna read Talia.
speaker-2: yeah, that's a that's another doozy. It's one of my earlier ones. I think that was my third book that I wrote. it's still one of my best sellers. and that honestly I can I can credit that to I don't know if they're still around, but it was called The Splatter Club on Facebook. when I wrote Billy Silver, Tali was a small character in Billy Silver, and a lot of the readers of Billy Silver were like, Hey, we want more of this chick. Who is she? What does she do? So I just came up with the idea for that book. Just you know, talking to some of them and getting inspired by them and just hammer it out. And that book is still one of my top sellers to this day.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-1: It was actually Rob that recommended it because my wife was like because my wife's like she's read a few splatterpunk books like Rob. She's read all Rob's books. she actually read Rob's newest book that isn't out yet, and I haven't gotten to fucking read it. She's like, she's the book talk girly. I'm the horror movie splatterpunk guy. Yeah. But she read it, she loved it. So I'm in I'm really hyped for show me your tips. But she was like, I wanna read a splatterpunk book that's not Rob Nelson or Patrick Harrison the third. So Rob So 'cause I made her read a couple of PC three books, but Rob was like instantly he was like Talia by Volpe. And
speaker-2: I appreciate it.
speaker-1: as soon as he as soon as he said Volpe, I was like, it's gonna rip.
speaker-2: Yeah, it's a it's a doozy. I
speaker-1: She said she wanted a feminine rage spider punk book.
speaker-2: yeah, yeah, I that'll do it.
speaker-0: Yep. Yep. Yeah. I I felt like it was illegal listening to it at work, by the way. Sitting there like, fuck, dude. What am I getting into?
speaker-2: narrator Sierra Klein, I actually discovered her through erotica. yeah.
speaker-0: That makes sense.
speaker-2: Neil Bimbo is guy on Facebook and he's an erotica writer and I befriended him a while ago and we bullshit and then he was like hey do you want audiobook code? I'm like yeah sure I'll I'll take a take a listen and I was like my god I mean this stuff's this is this is pretty wild and her voice is so good and she does very well with with male and female characters. So once I started producing audiobooks, I reached out to Sierra and she does all of my like female lead books. she's the narrator because she's this she's the goat. She's great.
speaker-0: She's too good at it, man. I was sitting there like, Man, this is getting pretty hot and heavy at work right now. I should possibly
speaker-2: I guess. Mown, I'm like, ooh.
speaker-0: I knew that that one I needed to listen to on commutes.
speaker-1: I can't remember. I gotta say too, cause like I've read like a lot of smut because my wife will show me like some spicy stuff that she reads. But I think like I'm not even saying this just because you're on here. I would say this to rob my wife anything. But your writing when it comes to s like the spicy stuff, I was like, Volpey fucking goes hard on the spicy shit. Like I love reading his his spicy stuff.
speaker-2: So I actually had an erotica pen name that I've wrote I wrote one one story just to try it out and it was a good pen name and then somebody stole it and started writing other stuff under they they slightly changed it and they just start put I don't know if it's AI or what, but they just start cranking stuff out under that pen name. So I'm like goddamn, I just came up with a new one the other day because eventually I will probably write erotica as well because it's fun. But I would definitely be using a pen name.
speaker-0: For sure. Yeah, that's fun. I love that. That's really cool. Yeah. are you reading anything or listening to anything right now?
speaker-2: Yeah, so I'm about three quarters of the way through Edward Lee's Creakers. Spotter Punk Extreme I probably spotter punk, extreme horror, from back in the day. I just started listening to The Daughters War by Christopher Buhlman, which is fantasy. And then I have an ebook arc that I can't really discuss, but I just started I'm like eighty pages into that. So I usually will rotate between like a physical book. audiobook and ebook. Okay. So yeah, those three are what I've been what I'm working on lately.
speaker-0: Do you feel like you read physicals relatively quickly or do you find yourself busy a lot and kind of back and forth?
speaker-2: No, honestly I feel like I read ebooks faster, but sometimes the problem with the ebooks is I start getting headaches with staring at even the e-ink screens will start to give me a headache after a while. So I feel like I can get through an ebook quicker. I don't know if it's just because I feel more accomplished because you're constantly swiping.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-2: But yeah, I mean they they they do go pretty quickly. But I have to kind of limit myself if I start getting, you know, the brain pains.
speaker-0: Yeah, brain pains is very real. I I was trying to get into some reading again because it's been a while. I've been really busy with like work and everything, and then obviously trying to get this third book out has been a chore. but like the physical reads have fallen off, unfortunately for me. And then I picked up Mickey and Mo yesterday on ebook, and I haven't done an ebook in forever. and kind of like you're saying, like I have the Kindle app, I don't have a Kindle, which I think I'm gonna get one. but yeah, something about that like constant just like tap to the next page, like I'm like, all right, it's also telling me I'm fifty percent of the way there or whatever. Like it it kind of For sure.
speaker-2: Yeah, it's I have like three Kindles and the I the newest thing I got was a Kindle Scribe, which I absolutely love. It's like notebook size Kindle, but it's e ink, so you can write on it. It has like special pen. And I cause I find myself when I write notes, they're usually on like giant legal pads, and then I'm constantly scrolling things in the margin and losing stuff and trying to go back and find this character. So with the Kindle Scribe, I can just make one folder. All right, this is the book. And within that folder, I have different notebooks and say, All right, this notebook has characters. This is random notes. This is like if I'm writing fantasy, this is a magic system. This is a plot, you know. and then if it's something much, much longer, I'll use the Microsoft notes on my computer. And I have like a little shitty Chromebook that I just beat around with and you know, I don't mind traveling with it. So I'll type notes out with that. But that can describe and it's great to read on, it's huge. So it's pretty
speaker-0: I'm gonna have look into that.
speaker-2: That reads. There's a couple e ink readers, but that one I just I decided to get that just because it is a Kindle product. So I know I can read on it as well. And all my books just transferred seamlessly to it. So I was like, I know there's probably better e ink tablets to write on. like the remarkable, but this one has not not failed me yet.
speaker-0: Yeah, the the multi use of that too sounds like it's really nice. Especially like I don't know, sometimes when I'm reading or like listening to something, like it strikes an idea, right? Like you hear somebody like for me, it's like random sentences will like spark something where I'm like, that's like I could come up with an idea off this one thing. you know, it's not like it's ripping from that book, but it's like, this just whatever. So I'll just start throwing notes. but right now I just use the notes on my phone and I've gotten super O C D about it. So I've got like a bunch of folders and subfolders. And it's all broken down by like book and story and like all that sort of stuff. but yeah, no, I'm definitely I'm looking into that Kindle scribe. I might as well kill two birds with one stone that.
speaker-2: Yeah, they're they're not cheap, but like you could probably buy a tablet for the amount of money it costs. But if I sat there with like an iPad or a Galaxy tab, whatever, I would be tempted to start like scrolling the internet or doing something like that. This is just for reading and writing. So it's it is nice. It's definitely a a more distraction free way to to note.
speaker-0: Yeah. I think that's what I need. I get too distracted too easily. I've like I've started putting my phone in the other room, just leaving it plugged in or whatever, and like go out to the living room or something like that. I got too much shit going on. So
speaker-2: Yeah, no, that's that's what I've been doing in the mornings. I just leave my phone upstairs, come down here into my lair, and then I just start writing and then I have no distractions. I don't do anything real on my computer besides write and then check all my, you know, like big cartel and, you know, my royalties and whatnot. And then it's just writing.
speaker-0: Fuck yeah. So I I guess let's just jump into this. I mean, so you mentioned a a layer, like so you have a dedicated space for writing. Do you set up like hours or certain time frames or like milestones for when you get into like writing?
speaker-2: not really. I I was very dedicated for a long time where I would get up every morning at five and just crank out, you know, as many words as I can. I write very fast. When people I tell people how many words I do in a day, they're like, That's crazy. Like when I have going like a writing retreat, it is not out of the realm of possibility for me to knock out 15,000 words in a day.
speaker-0: Yeah, that's a lot.
speaker-2: Yeah, I think I average, you know, when I go on these retreats, I 10 to 12,000 words a day and I've had 15,000 word days. but recently I we had a really nice gym open up by me. So I've been hitting the gym in the morning and then I go to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu a couple times in the morning during the week. So that stuff's when I'm eating up my mornings. so I try to time find time here and there. And I am working on some things now, but I don't have anything like pressing. I don't have any deadlines. So it's kind of like at my leisure. but generally I used to write all the time by living room. In the morning I get up, I grab my computer, I go sit on couch. But now I just find like I have so many wires come off my laptop, plugged into the printers and dongles and the keyboard. I'm like, it takes me just as long to unhook everything, bring it upstairs. I'm like, I might as well just sit down here. I got a new chair, I got a nice big keyboard. So generally I try to just work down in the basement now.
speaker-0: For sure. That's very fair.
speaker-1: How long you've been doing jujitsu?
speaker-2: on and off for eleven years. I'm still pretty shitty, but I was I started in two thousand and fifteen, got into it pretty heavily, and then my gym closed, and I did it for probably about two years, went back in nineteen to another gym, got my blue belt, then covet hit, and then we were doing like clandestine training, like blacking out the windows and training, and then somebody called health department.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-2: So that once that kind of died off, I started writing a lot. And writing kind of ate up a lot more of my time because I've only been doing this writing stuff since the end of twenty no Billy Silver came out in November of twenty twenty. So it's only been six years. I did publish a book in twenty twelve, but it was a couple of short story collections, it was terrible. But so Aaron always yells me, he's like, you gotta tell people you've been writing since twenty twelve. I'm like, that doesn't count, that stuff sucked. But but yeah, no, just recently I started I hurt my back. a while ago, but I just started getting back into jujitsu. Now we have morning classes. so I've been I've been hitting it pretty heavy for like the last year or so. I'm still a shitty bluebell and I'm still terrible, but it's fun. Keeps
speaker-1: No, I love that.
speaker-2: me active.
speaker-1: I I taught the morning classes at our gym for a while, but like me, I hurt my back. I'm I'm just getting back into it. I took like a couple of years off. I was a stripe away from my brown belt. So I'm trying to get back in it. I wanna I obviously my main goal is to be able to get my black belt at some point, but I've been doing it for a while. I started in twenty eleven.
speaker-2: nice. Yeah, it's it's fun. I like the the camaraderie, I like the competition. You know, I'm forty years old, so I'm not really I try to join all the masters division, so I'm not going with like twenty year old kids that are trying to heel hook me up my leg apart. But
speaker-1: The fucking the wrestlers too.
speaker-2: Yeah, and we just did one not long ago, right before I competed, I popped a rib, so I wasn't able to compete. my buddy, he's a black belt, he competed and he got fucking caught with like a nasty inside heel hook and almost broke his leg. So he's like, I gotta work and I'm like, Dude, we're not young anymore. Like you gotta you know, you're here to win a fucking five dollar medal and you're gonna blow your ACL out.
speaker-1: Huh. Have you have you ever thought about doing like a jiu-jitsu or MMA based spider punk book?
speaker-2: Not really, 'cause like MMA I'm never I was never good at. Like I hate getting fucking punched in the face.
speaker-0: Real. So real.
speaker-2: I'm I'm very short and I haven't met any of you guys, either of you guys in person. I'm only five foot five. So like like stand up is not really my game because I don't have the reach. and so I'd rather just be on the ground. but yeah, I think jujitsu's terrifying enough that I don't need to make it more scary.
speaker-1: No, if you if you YouTube my name, because I I fought MMA for a while too. So if you too if you YouTube my name, I'm five eight on a good day, so pretty much five seven. But at 155, I fought a kid that was six four.
speaker-2: Yeah, yeah. I the competition I was supposed to do, I went to cheer on my friends and I saw the two guys I was supposed to go against and I I compete at one fifty five and I I saw the guy and I'm like that is a big fucking one fifty five. He was tall. He was like six one. I'm like, man, I don't I would have a fucking w he has a long limbs.
speaker-1: Yeah, I didn't I TKO'd him in the first round. I think I showed Rob that fight. TKO'd
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-1: him in the first, but I didn't I didn't fucking stand and bang with him. I just double legged his ass right away and just yeah, crucifixed him and TKO'd him.
speaker-2: that's that's sweet. Yeah, that's if I ever have to fight somebody, I'm just gonna arm drag and try to just get on their get on their back and fucking choke out before they can do anything.
speaker-0: I'm going straight for their fucking balls, dude. I can't fight to save my life. I'm going
speaker-2: So
speaker-0: everywhere.
speaker-2: I have a card piece.
speaker-0: There we go. Fuck yeah. Yeah. I I don't know. I I did like karate when I was younger. I told Colby this. so there was a guy that was training to be a Navy SEAL in my karate class. And we were going for belts. I I think I was going for my green belt or something like that, and I had to spar this dude, and like he was just looking at me like I was his mortal enemy, and I'm fucking 12. He's like 19. He's jacked as fuck. He's ready to kill somebody. He wants to go to war. And they fucking, you know, drop the flag or whatever. And I'm like edging in and I just get a full power chest kick. Like straight to the fucking sternum. I was like, yeah, no, my fighting days are that's it. I'm not doing this shit. That's hard. It's over. I'm 12 years old. I've I've I've done.
speaker-2: It's demoralizing.
speaker-0: Yeah, and I've been hit in the face a few times 'cause I got a bit of a smart mouth, but you know, it happens.
speaker-2: Yeah, it's true. Happens to the best of us.
speaker-0: Yep. No, that's fun. So when were you first introduced into spider punk and extreme horror? Like what got you here?
speaker-2: it was really around like the Kindle days when Kindle started really kicking off and becoming popular because I've always been a horror fan, you know, movies and I've been, you been reading horror s in some form since I was a little kid, but when Kindle kind of kicked off, I was just buying up everything and you know, there were so many deals. So I read The Pig by Edward Lee and I was like, shit. I was like, I didn't know you could write like this and sell it, and people would buy it. Like, this is insane. I really like this, and then I would just sought that out. wherever I could and you know, he was kinda like the gateway into it. And then I started discovering, you know, the other the other big splatter punk extreme horror authors from, you know, their early two thousand tenish range, whenever Kindles came out. So yeah, Ed Lee's still he's still he's still the man.
speaker-0: Yeah, I have yet to read any Edley. Would you recommend the pig is, you know, a good place to start? I hear about the big head a lot too.
speaker-2: The the Big Head is is his classic, like that's like the deep end for most people, but I think the Haunter of the Threshold is probably his most fucked up and extreme like disgusting book. The Big Head is very good, don't get me wrong. And it is it is very, very hardcore. But Haunter of the Threshold, if you like any kind of Lovecraftian stuff, Haunter of the Threshold is it it's it's br there's a lot of piss. Like if you don't have piss, it's so I hear I don't know what w he was doing at that time when he wrote that, but there is an an ridiculous amount of urine in that book for some reason.
speaker-1: Thank you so much.
speaker-0: That's a clip. Some people are really into piss, man. Yeah.
speaker-2: Yeah.
speaker-1: So you mentioned horror movies were a big thing. Is there a certain movie that you saw where you're like that really inspired you to write something?
speaker-2: not so much inspired me to write something, but scared the ever living shit out of me. And it's in my bio on Amazon. When I was a kid, I don't know how old you guys are, but I'm forty. So I grew up in the video store era. And I was probably four years old. My grandfather was watching me. He took me to the video store and he didn't have his glasses and he didn't give really give a fuck about what I watched. And I just grabbed a movie and threw it on the counter and it was nightmare on Elm Street. And He just like any, you know, nineteen eighties grandfather put me in the put me in a room, put the movie on and went about his business. And it scared every living shit out of me. and that really contributed to my love. I had all my horror tattoos on my arm that working that stuff.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-2: So yeah, that one revels really kicked my ass. And now you watch it and it's dated and you're like, I can't believe I was scared of this, but I was fucking four years old, so I
speaker-1: I was terrified of Freddie when I was a kid too.
speaker-2: Yeah, scared the shit out of me. And then I had read my parents really it was very weird. what my parents kept me from consuming, I guess you'd say. Because I could watch or read anything, but there were certain like music that my parents wouldn't let let me listen to. And it was really honestly, it was anything with violence against women. And like you guys are listening to Sublime, I'm sure Rob being of California. they were they had a song called Date Rape. And I got that C D with the whatever C D it was. And my dad is like, absolutely lutely not. He is like back right now. But other than that, anything else was fair game. But anything that had like violence or sexual violence toward women, my dad was like, absolutely not. So
speaker-0: That's interesting. I like kind of similar. For me, it was I wasn't allowed to listen to anything that had like explicit content, like parental advisory shit. but like movies, like what happened to you with Nightmare on Dom Street happened to me with the movie Signs. Like I remember like the weekend it was a new release on DVD. We went to Blockbuster and a kid from my school was talking about it. 'Cause his parents didn't give a fuck what he did. So he went and saw it with his older brother at the movie theater. And he was talking about how cool it was. And I was like, Dad, we gotta watch this. It's an alien movie. And he's like, whatever, it's PG thirteen, like, yeah, let's check this out. It scared the ever living fuck out of me. Yeah. And then the birthday party scene. Yeah, the yeah, exactly. The birthday party scene. And then like fast forward like three years ago or whatever, my best friend and his girlfriend came over to spend the weekend for his birthday. And He's like, dude, we should watch signs. Like Lacey's never seen signs. And this movie scared the fuck out of both of us. And I was like, yeah, let's do that. And so we put it on. We watched the whole movie. And she just goes, You guys were scared of that fucking movie? Like, what's wrong with you?
speaker-1: So shut the fuck up.
speaker-0: Yeah, whatever, Lacey. Whatever, dude. but yeah, like my parents didn't care as long as I was reading, they were like, Go for it. Like we don't give a shit what you're eating. Like Goosebumps, I I read some Stephen King. I don't even remember what it was, but I remember reading shit that was freaking me out when I was a kid. and it was whatever. But like video games, like they're like, you can only play stuff that's rated E. I don't care that you're 13 years old, like shit like that. Like, no swearing and all that stuff, even though they were saying fucking shit and everything else around the house. Like it was It was strange. And so I think for me it was like more of a rebellion, like, All right, now I'm getting into horror. Fuck it. Like Yeah, let's go.
speaker-2: My parents are my parents are pretty young and they had me very young. So like my parents are only what you're in, they're 61 and 62 years old. So like and I was born my parents are only 21 when I was born. So I was born eighty-five. So my dad was only twenty one years old when I was born. So he grew up in like the eighties playing video games. I and he was still a kid when I was a kid, pretty much. And so I grew up playing video games of him and you know, and doing all that stuff. So he didn't really care. And when I was a kid, like The newest system we had was I had a Nintendo and then I had a Super Nintendo. So there was no like rated games or anything like that. It didn't really begin into like PlayStation and Nintendo 64 came about that thing started getting a little more graphic. But my dad always read, you know, he worked midnight shifts, so he would always read and I always see, you know, he always read like Stephen King and that's what I would see in the morning. So like, I want to read this too. So yeah. And I got my big Stephen King tattoo, my gunslinger tattoo and
speaker-0: Bang.
speaker-1: That's sweet.
speaker-2: Yeah, I'm covered in fucking stupid tattoos though just now that I'm forty, I'm like, I'm just gonna get tattooed. I don't fuck care.
speaker-0: Love that. I want I I have none. It's like for me, like I want him really bad, but like it's just money. Like I don't like every single time, like I'm gonna do it, something fucking stupid happens. I had a sleeve planned with an artist in Sacramento, like loved all of his work. Like he he drafted everything up. Like I was about to throw him the the deposit, and then I got in car accident trying to not run into an old man in a Porsche because he cut me off. And I got blamed for it. Like my insurance blamed me for it. The police report, like they were fully on my side. They said that he caused the entire thing. My insurance, like, that sucks. Anyways, you owe us like eight grand. And it was just Yeah, it was fucked. so that was the one time I was ready to do it. And an act of God stopped me from getting inked up. So
speaker-2: There's always hope.
speaker-0: Then you got Colby over here, fucking throat, head tattoos, all the fun shit. So who are some of your writing influences? Like like, you know, you said you started with Edward Lee, but who do you like to read now? Like what's your what's your go-to?
speaker-2: I mean, writing influences, yeah. I mean, obviously love Edward Lee. Stephen King, I you know, I don't think a lot of us would be here if it wasn't for Stephen King, love him or hate him. It's just, you know, the nature of the beast. you know, Brian Keene obviously has always been a big, you know, influence of mine before I even knew him. And now that I know, you know, he's a super chill guy, very, very, very supportive of new authors. same thing with Brian Smith and Wrath, you know, just pioneers of this this genre. I read a lot of everything. So like behind me on that the most of these are my books, like this stock and I have some obituaries, but like a shit ton of this wall is filled with fantasy. Like I fucking love fantasy. Like I just love it. And my top fantasy author of all time, and probably a top three author in general is Joe Abercrombie.
speaker-0: yeah.
speaker-2: he writes some of the best characters. I've read everything he's written. big, big fan of his. And when I do write fantasy stuff that I that I enjoy writing. he's definitely an inspiration to me for sure.
speaker-0: That's awesome. Yeah, I was gonna say because I know you dropped that that that splatter fantasy a while back. I picked that up. I've got it on the shelf actually right behind me. I haven't gotten to break into it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Cause growing up for me too, it was a lot of fantasy and things like that. Like it was it was goosebumps and then it was like whatever fantasy book I could get my hands on at the time. and I remember like very early on when I was thinking about wanting to write, I was like, I'd like to do like a fantasy thing. Like a lot of the short stories that I did when it was just bullshit when I was like, you know, in high school and middle school and stuff was all like epic battles and stuff, trying to like figure out all that sort of thing. but yeah, I I definitely I I like that. That's cool.
speaker-2: Yeah. I did the same thing when I was little, min mainly just rip-offs of Z Legend of Zelda. I would write stuff like that and just, you know, I have a couple of trunk novels I wrote when I was young and they're just like 40,000 word fantasies that are never gonna be finished. And you know, but they were good exercises. I don't I don't ever regret it. Like it's any any word you type is always good because it's it's practice, it's it's phoned, you know. I look back at I'm gonna re release some of my older books that I have that I would like to freshen up a little bit. And just I was rereading one earlier and I'm like, Man, this is five years old. I'm like and I've gotten so much better now than I than I was back then. So
speaker-0: What's the process with that like? Like are you just like rereading it and going, All right, this is what I want to freshen up, throw it back to an editor or
speaker-2: Yeah, so that's it's that pretty much exactly it. I'm just kind of rereading it, cleaning up any of the grammar that you know I've now since learned. fixing some of the sentence structure. My sentences are kinda wonky. I I did some weird stuff. And the editor I had back then wasn't really kind of more like a friend who was said he was an editor. He he wasn't bad, better than I was. but now I have professional editors and stuff and I've gotten better. You know, and even even like the advances in in software, like just Microsoft Word, like the spell check is better now. You know, it kind of learns your writing habits and styles and it's just through Word. so yeah, I I got a new cover. cleaning everything up and I'm just gonna kind of tool around it for a little while in between working on other the fucking ten other things I have going on. So
speaker-1: yeah. I know you and Aaron are very close. People are active on social media. You guys are with each other quite often. Yeah. How did how did you and Aaron like link up?
speaker-2: So Aaron, his book The Slob, my book Billy Silver came out roughly around the same time and we kind of ran in the same circles in the same Facebook groups. And I kind of really liked the way he presented himself online. I'm like, you know, he's doesn't seem like he's an asshole. He's not fighting with people, he's not posting anything that I would most people consider inflammatory. He was just kind of he was strictly about writing, getting better at writing, marketing, and selling his books. So we just kind of started bullshit. And I was hey man, you know, like you know, I'm interested in some of your stuff. You know, I like what you're doing. you know, what book would you recommend? So I ended up reading one of his books and we just kind of started bullshit. And then in September 21, I was like, hey, there's a horror convention, because I had never done a convention. I was like, there's a horror convention in Atlantic City, which is a complete shithole, by the way. If you've never been to Atlantic City, Jersey, don't go. It's it's not worth time. And so we ended up meeting up and It was a fucking wild trip 'cause it was me, Aaron, and his his wife. We all shared a hotel room. in not even in Atlantic City, like the Atlantic City Byway. And Aaron and I I have pictures from that event. It was just it was just wild. we made no money, but we had a good time and then I got covid really fucking bad.
speaker-0: Sick.
speaker-2: Yeah, I was fucking hurting. That was actually we came up to the idea for So Sorry that him and I wrote together. And I actually wrote most of my part with like COVID brain. So it's very, very dark. but yeah, every time we do an event for a while, we would just come up with ideas and spitball things off each other. And, you know, through the eyes of desperation was the same thing. We ended up coming together with that. and now we do at least one or two writing retreats a year. We have another one planned. I just booked a house in Connecticut in November for a whole week, him and I alone. Cabin in the woods, just working.
speaker-1: I love when either you or him post like the writing retreat pictures. I think it was last year. I was like, dude, that looks so much fucking fun.
speaker-2: Dude, it's it's a blast. And the last two we've had people or last three, we've had other people with us. Like we brought John Lynch out for one, which he has a new book coming out, The Diner, which I read very good. probably his best book yet. Yeah.
speaker-0: But
speaker-2: we brought him with us because he was in a little bit of a slump and you know, going through some personal stuff. So we're like, Yeah, you're a scumbag. We're all scumbags, let's go together. I did another very large one in the Poconos with like seven of us. We had like a gigantic house out in the mountains. where actually I wrote a lot of slaughterhouse moan. And then the last one that we did, Shane McKenzie came up from Texas, which he was hilarious because he's never seen snow. And like it was like barely a dusting and he felt fucking apocalypse. And he's like, We did all the driving us. I'm like, Shane, you can still see the road. It's dusting.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: That's me for sure. I've been to the state like twice.
speaker-2: I'm like, we're good. but Aaron and I decide for this next one. Cause you know, you you do get stuff done, but the more people you add to the equation, the the less work you get done because then you're kind of bullshit. And and I still get a lot of work done and they were working on something together. but when it's just Aaron and I, we we treat it like a job. We get up in the morning, we'll talk a little bit, have something to eat, and then it's like, all right, we're gonna write until lunchtime every hour or so, we'll take a break. Talk through our problems if we have any issues we're stuck up on. break for lunch, write until dinner. Usually we'll we'll have dinner and then we'll write a little bit more and then around like eight o'clock, then the booze comes out, and then we just put the computers away, play cards, watch TV. there have been some nights where we have stayed up to like one o'clock in the morning just writing and drinking. those like those fifteen thousand word nights where I'm just hammering. So, but yeah, dude, there are fuck any any writers out there. I cannot recommend doing a retreat enough because it is it is so good for your mental space just to get out of your your own house, your own head to sit there and talk with someone that's like minded that enjoys writing and that can help you through any problems you're having. I've come up with so many great ideas on retreats.
speaker-0: Yeah, I was gonna ask, I think you touched on it a little bit, but so you guys like do you share your ideas like when you're talking through like breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever, like this is what I'm working on now, here's how it's developing, like kind of bouncing stuff off each other, or is it more specific with you know, like maybe I can't figure out how I want this specific scene to be, like that sort of stuff?
speaker-2: It'll it'll vary. Usually what we'll do is I'll I'll kinda like see he'll be like, Hey, what are you working on? Like, I'm working on, you know, on this book here and this is the the general the general plot. And I'm like, Okay, that's cool. And then if he gets to a scene or I get to a scene, I'm like, Hey, I'm kinda stuck on this. This is the scene. What do you think? And then we just kind of talk through it and it's just really just talking through stuff. And the more you talk, the more you come up with you're like, shit, that's a great idea. And you just start writing it down and you're like, All right, yeah, that's that's gonna work for that or I'm going in this direction and it's not working. What do you think? And so yeah, I mean there's there's so much they're so beneficial. And I said I wrote a very, very large chunk of planet slaughter in the last retreat I did. I wrote like 30,000 words in a in a weekend with those guys. Damn
speaker-0: Cool.
speaker-1: So excited for Planet Slaughter.
speaker-0: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. you know, this podcast is dropping after Planet Slaughter releases. So just kind of curious, you know, I haven't gotten to look into much about it. I saw the cover, I was like, fu I'm buying that immediately. Obviously, it looks fucking incredible. But kind of like, what was your thought process with that? Like what what is it?
speaker-2: So the way it all started, I got an email from Rhett Bruno, who's the owner of Athon. And as you guys know, Athon is an fantasy publisher, and they bought out Wicked House. They want to do a horror imprint. So Rhett had asked me, he's like, Hey, are you willing to write something for Wicked House? we'd like to have you on board. And I said, honestly, I said my my horror stuff I do on my own and and it and it sells pretty well on my own. I'm not really looking for a publisher. I said, but I do have a horror sci-fi story that I was, you know, plotting out. I was like, I think that would be a good fit because it can bridge the gap between your A Thon readers and the Wicked House readers. I was like, and I don't really have a sci-fi audience and you guys do. I was like, so let's give that a shot. I pitched him the idea for the book and the title and they're like, yep, we love it. When can you have it done? And again, I fucking write like a machine. And then within what was it, four months, I wrote it. It's like eighty three thousand words and I outlined it in two days and just all I did was write that and just hammer down. That's all.
speaker-0: That fucking rules. Yeah. So you mentioned outlining. Like, do you do you outline most of your stuff or do you find yourself kind of like coming up with a few ideas and just ripping words?
speaker-2: So I use outlines now and I have found myself to be so much more productive because, you know, back when I was writing for publishers and I was doing a lot of anthologies and open calls and stuff like that, you know, when you're kind of young and hungry, and not that I'm not still, but now I kind of do things on my own. I was having issues where I would start a project and then all of a sudden I get a a good opportunity would pop up and I'd be like, shit, I gotta put this on the back burner so I could work on this. And then I'd come like put Slaughterhouse Moan was probably a three-year ordeal because I kept writing it, starting it, stopping it, starting and stopping it. And if I didn't have an outline to go back to, it probably wouldn't have been the finished product it is now. But because I outline things, and I don't outline like crazy, it's just literally on like, like I said, now I have my scribe, but usually it's on a legal pad and I'll just write like chapter one, you know, this, this, this, and this happens. And I just kind of list it all out and it gives me a much more it's like a roadmap, you know. There's always detours, but that's the the the overlay of it all.
speaker-0: That's awesome. Yeah. I found like when I wrote Made a Monster, I I remember waking up in the middle of the night with the idea of just like kind of throwing in my notes. I wrote human taxidermy. and then I was like, that's hilarious. And so I I sat there and kind of like blew through the intro for it. and then the next day I woke up like tired as fuck because I stayed up till 3 a.m. just typing into like phone notes, which sucks because if you get too many words into a phone note, it starts like glitching. And so like the the spelling and grammar and everything was totally fucked. but I was like gone. So the next day I I came up with like two scenes that I wanted in the book and then kind of figured out the ending. and then I just wrote. And I think that I wasted a lot of time not having an outline for that because I spent like a full month after the fact like going back through and re cleaning everything up. Yeah. and it was a mess. So I for For this fourth book that I've got, I finally put an outline together. It's the first time I've actually had like structure with it. and it already feels a lot more comfortable. So
speaker-2: Yeah. I I I like using the outline. for short stories I really don't outline, but like especially if I'm writing fantasy or science fiction where there's different worlds, you know, I kind of have to have something like that. Like Planet Slaughter, obviously there's a main world where everybody lives, and then there's the planet where the the prisoners are held. So I have to come up with like the rules of you know, what happens on here, what happens here, what's the laws, what are the punishments, and all that stuff. So Yeah, it's gonna be a doozy. That book's got a little of everything. Starts off as kinda like a crime drama, then it goes into like a like a prison drama and then it's into like a sci fi horror, body horror esque story.
speaker-0: Would you say that that one goes into the realm of extreme or does this stay more in the the body horror and sort of sci fi realm?
speaker-2: It's definitely more sci-fi 'cause that was the one thing we talked about when I was talking with the the guys from Wicked House and Athens was that they don't really want the hardcore sex stuff in their books. And I was like, that's perfectly fine. This not every story calls for that. Like Life to You doesn't have any of it. And it's one of my more popular books. so I was like, Yeah, I have no problem with that. I was like, that's not an issue for me. So I I don't even know if I would consider it. I mean, it does have some extreme kills and you know, there there's some pretty significant violence in it, but Nothing nothing crazy, like nothing that my readers are like, my god, this is, you know, you know, boundless you know, breaking boundaries and stuff. So
speaker-0: Sure.
speaker-2: Little more mainstream, I guess you'd say.
speaker-1: I'm excited.
speaker-0: Yeah, I'm I'm really excited too. Do you have a a audiobook plan for that as well or is it
speaker-2: as far as I know, Wicked House is gonna be doing it in audio as well. as they've been looks like they've been doing it for pretty much all of their releases. So that should be I don't know when they're gonna start producing that if they haven't already. Andrew runs Wicked House now, so I've been closely in touch with him, going through some of the stuff and just making sure we're on on pace to have everything ready because I am doing Mask on the Mountain in Portland or just outside of Portland at the end of September. So I was trying to make sure I had some copies of that book ready to go, make Make the fucking three thousand mile flight out there.
speaker-0: Yep. I'm bummed. I was I was gonna try to plan that one, but the the flights ended up being like six hundred bucks or whatever from Phoenix and I was like, I can't just back to back it on this one.
speaker-2: Which is crazy 'cause it's only costing me like just under five hundred for a flight from New York.
speaker-0: Yeah, I don't understand how that shit works. They're like, it's way longer, but you know, cheaper flights or whatever.
speaker-2: I I fly out of New York City and the New York City and I fly out of Newark, New Jersey. So the their airports are so massive. I feel like they just give discounts on shit sometimes. Like I don't know. I fly United a lot. Yeah.
speaker-1: That's what I use at United. Yep.
speaker-2: And United's main hub is Newark. So they you get decent flights out of there. When I flew to Austin for KillerCon a few years ago, I think my round trip was like just under five hundred from from Newark to Texas. So it's not bad. And same thing to Portland, it's like same thing. Direct flight is like five hundred bucks.
speaker-1: When I came to New York I think I flew in and out of Lig La Guardian. Is that what it's called? Yeah.
speaker-2: La Guardia.
speaker-1: LaGuardia. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's where I flew into when I was came out to Staten Island for a movie.
speaker-2: Yeah, you have LaGuardia, JFK is massive. That's also in Queens. That's down by the water. I just flew out of there to go to last month and it's just a fucking gigantic airport.
speaker-1: Have you been to a hair before in Chicago? I
speaker-2: Not no
speaker-0: No. What a shit show, dude. Fuck that everyone.
speaker-2: Yeah. I've heard I've heard stories about that. I've been around. Houston's pretty big. I've been there. Seattle wasn't bad. trying to think of some other bigger Charlotte. Charlotte's a good size one.
speaker-1: I just want to reach me. I picked Rob up from O'Hare like almost two weeks ago and we sat in the car in traffic trying to get out for almost three hours. It
speaker-2: Fuck that.
speaker-1: was the
speaker-0: It was so fucking bad.
speaker-1: worst experience I've ever had in airport.
speaker-0: Like two in the morning. It was so bad. What a fucking night.
speaker-1: On a fucking Wednesday night, dude.
speaker-2: That's terrible.
speaker-1: The stupidest shit ever.
speaker-0: So bad. I wanted to go back because you mentioned short stories, and you've got a pretty fucking nasty one with strawberry shortcake. And I love that story. I remember Colby actually called me on FaceTime like a year ago and was like, Have you read Strawberry Shortcake? And I was like, Yeah, it's fucking disgusting. And then he's like, I kind of want to know what it is, and I just pulled it up and read it to him out loud, and he was sitting there just giant.
speaker-1: I actually messaged Volpe like five minutes before I called you because you told me what book it's in to buy. And then Rob's like, I'll just read it to you. I was like, Okay, fuck.
speaker-2: Yeah, I I wrote that as when KillerCon was virtual in 2021. They had the gross out contest and people like, you should do it, you should do it. I'm like, all right, I'll give it a shot. And then I wrote this and then I was actually pitching the ideas off of Brad Tierney, who's you know, he's here and there on Facebook. Brad's a OG spider punk lover. And yeah, I just came out that and got it down to my time limit, practiced it a bunch of times and And read it and I still got fucking second place. But but yeah. It was it was fun.
speaker-1: bring that up saying that that's one of the grossest things I've ever fucking heard. Like and when Rob read it to me, my wife was like standing right next to me too and she was listening. She's like, what the fuck?
speaker-2: Yeah, I was ac I was actually gonna do a do a sequel called Blueberry Strudel.
speaker-0: no.
speaker-2: Okay. I I decide I decided against that. Because the thing was struggling with short kid because I've gotten so many people like, I you I has anybody read this and read this. And I'm like, hey, I appreciate you reading it. I was like, I just want you to that that's not how all of my writing is. Like that is that was written for a gross out contest and that's not the norm. It's just, you know, it was very, very specific.
speaker-0: So I think it's fun. I love it. It's it's nice to have something like completely vile. That's what scrambled eggs was for me. Like I was in like a fucking like weight loss journey type thing, trying to get back into shape, thinking about like all the things and thinking about eggs and it just devolved from there. I don't know how the fuck I came up with that bullshit, but it's eight pages of holy fucking shit. So that's that's the way I market it anyways.
speaker-2: Perfect.
speaker-1: I remember when you sent me Scrambled Legs, I read it, sent my wife, and then I made my sister read it too.
speaker-0: poor Allie. So Daniel, do you listen to music when you write or do you have like a sort of a a a thing that you do when writing or
speaker-2: Yeah, so I can't listen to anything with lyrics when I'm writing because it just throws me off. I'll start to pay attention to it. So I do it's sometimes genre specific. Like if I'm working on something that's horror, I usually just go on YouTube and type in horror synthwave. And I have a couple of like soundtracks I like. I just throw them on and it's mostly just instrumental and like ominous songs from movies and I do the same thing when writing fantasy. I'll put on like fantasy synthwave and I just rock out to that. Back in the day, I used to just put on either sounds of rain or fire or wind and just have white noise. but really it just kind of depends on my environment. Like if I'm sitting in the basement, I put on like the horror scent, just kind of low. If I'm somewhere where there's people and I and I'm getting like when I'm on a retreat, if there's multiple people and I'm getting distracted, I just throw on headphones, crank that shit up, and just just get lost in and just don't worry about anybody else.
speaker-0: Fuck yeah.
speaker-1: I love that. I've I've used I really like to use horror movie scores. That's I I I search that on YouTube and then or metal music gets me angry and motivates me.
speaker-2: Yeah, I I can't do that when I'm writing 'cause I guess I had to start listening to lyrics, but like yeah, if I'm going to like jujitsu or something or I'm doing something, yeah, I'll throw on some fucking very violent music.
speaker-0: Fuck yeah. Yeah. I usually I'll listen to like deathcore and stuff because you can't understand the fucking lyrics. I'm just getting screamed at. It always sounds angry. And a lot of what I listen to just generally I don't know what's wrong with my brain, but it like it makes me happy to listen to like really pissed off music like that. Like puts me in a good mood. so that's like I I create playlists when I write and it's usually just filled to the brim with like deathcore and just shit like that.
speaker-2: Yeah, it's good for ya.
speaker-0: It is. It's a healthy outlet.
speaker-1: So with you, obviously you're an extreme and splatterpunk author. You write some pretty depraved shit. Is there any like extreme horror movies that you're a fan of?
speaker-2: I mean I honestly some of the ones I really like, they're not real I I they're extreme, but they're kinda hokey. Like I love like Japanese ones. So like like Meatball Machine, Tokyo Bray stuff. Like they're just so over the top. you know, I've seen fuck, what's the French one? The big martyrs. Yeah, martyrs. Like I've seen martyrs, you know, I grew up watching like hostile and stuff like that. You know, Terra Fire movies are they're fun. Honestly, I I don't watch as much horror as I should because my wife doesn't like it. So it's kind of hard for me to find time, you know, with you know, getting home from work and seeing the kids and you know having dinner and doing this stuff. And at night it's our time to kind of chill out. And then we're watching a show. I'm watching outsiders right now. That's actually pretty good. so yeah, I try to I try to watch it when I can, but there like I just watched Obsession Obsession not long ago. you know, that was pretty good. I liked it.
speaker-0: I loved Obsession. Fantastic. Got
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: it sitting up right there actually. Yeah, that's that's a fun movie.
speaker-2: Very, very well done. And the last scene I think was probably one of the like the icing on the cake, like just her the actress's emotions and the way she portrayed it. I thought she did an excellent job. So I won't I won't spoil for anybody who hasn't seen it yet, but yeah, that that ending scene was phenomenal.
speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, it's fun. I it blows my mind when people haven't like seen that movie at this point. Like I feel like it was so popular. that it's like I talked to a couple of people at ShiverCon. I was wearing a obsession hat that I got from our friends at the horror house actually in Chicago. They hooked me up with that. I was wearing it at the con. And everybody's like, I love your hat. That's so sick. And then somebody was like, What's obsession? I was like, Where the fuck have you been? You're at a horror convention right now.
speaker-2: Calvin's line.
speaker-0: Yeah, exactly. Well, Dan, thank you very much for spending some time with us. As we close out, Colby and I like to recommend a book or a a song or both. And we're wondering, you know, do you have a recommendation for, you know, people either getting into Splatter Punk, you know, maybe one of your own books or or something you just think people should read and listen to?
speaker-2: So recently I finished up, I have it here. I finished up light at the end by Skipping Spectre. pretty much the OGs of Spider Punk. I they coined the term spotterpunk. for like a modern day spiderpunk story, this is not that hardcore. So anybody that reads you know our stuff, they won't think it's anything too crazy because I remember this book was written in the 80s. So it it is pretty is pretty hardcore in that aspect. one I finished Right before that, another good buddy of mine, Mr. Wrath James White, Population Zero. very short book from the Dead Eyes, Dead Eight Publishing Press. great book. Wrath is obviously a friend of mine, and he's another OG that you know helps out the newer authors, is always, you know, kind to people and you know, larger life for more ways than one. And for a song, I just want to make sure I get the band right. I think it's peeling flesh. Let me just double
speaker-1: one of us.
speaker-0: Here we go.
speaker-2: Yeah. I just want to double check that it yep. face fucked with a shovel.
speaker-0: Nice.
speaker-2: So I I hate like I know you guys like like death core. Like I don't like a growling, like like a cannibal corpse kind of style, whatever you want to call it. But I love I love the squealing. And face fucked with a shovel by peeling flesh has some of the best like pig squeals in it. And I just I love I made my kid listen to it the other day while we were driving in my car. And she was like, What is this? And I'm like, You know what this is.
speaker-0: This is this is called art.
speaker-2: Yeah, maybe it wasn't like Pig Destroyer and you know, peeling
speaker-0: Fuck yeah.
speaker-2: that's body signature.
speaker-0: Yes. I love that. Hell yeah. What do you got for us, Colby?
speaker-1: my book recommendation is Plastic Monsters and the song written by Daniel J. Volpe, and the song to go with that is Poker Face by Lady Kaka.
speaker-2: they they pair well together. I could see that, yeah.
speaker-0: I love that. my book recommendation is gonna be Through the Eyes of Desperation, the Black Version by Daniel Volby. I I think I've hyped this up to like everybody I possibly can in every group on Facebook, Instagram, posting it and shit all the time. Like, I I love this book so fucking much. and I I actually I meant to ask you this earlier because you brought up So Sorry and then Through the Eyes. did you guys write so sorry first and then go back for Through the Eyes?
speaker-2: Yeah, we wrote So Sorry first. And then, you know, Aaron and I were talked about doing another collaboration and we were like, hey, we want to do something. So originally Three Eyes Desperation was supposed to be similar to So Sorry in size. And we did a writer at the first writing retreat we did together at one of my buddies' cabins up in upstate New York. We started talking about it and it just grew and grew and grew. Because I was Hey, we should do something with like an underground casino where you can bet body parts instead of money or in lieu of money. And Once we started rolling with it, we're like up at that that cabin we were writing, and I'm like, Aaron, my book's gonna be, you know, I was like, I'm at like 30k already, and I you know I'm not slowing down, but this is gonna be huge. And he's like, Yeah, he's like, Mine is mine's getting there as well. So then we were like, hey, we should we should make this in one universe and we should combine some of the characters from So Sorry into this, just as a little Easter eggs to the to the people that have read everything. And once we started getting going, we're like, you know, this is gonna have to be two books. And we actually did a promo video. We went to we dragged our wives to Mohegan Sun casino. Her and I perceived to get fucking shit faced to wander around the casino taking promo videos.
speaker-0: Fuck yeah.
speaker-2: Blasted Mohegan Sun.
speaker-0: Ha ha ha.
speaker-1: So I can r I should read So Sorry before through the Eyes of Desperation.
speaker-2: No, you don't you don't have honestly all three of those books, the red, the black, and so sorry, you can read them in any order and you'll get Easter eggs in each one. So if you read, if you read I would recommend either one of Through the Eyes of Desperation first, read that and then go back and read so sorry. I think you'll appreciate the stuff in So Sorry.
speaker-1: That's exactly what Rob told me too, because I found So Sorry out in the wild, like at a bookshop in Chicago. no shit. Instantly bought that and Rob's like, No, you gotta read this first. So it's been sitting on my shelf. I gotta read through the eyes of desperation so I could read that.
speaker-0: So fucking good.
speaker-2: Yeah, either either of them. And then we decided when we were we were doing it, we're you know, the whole poker theme and casino stuff. We were like, we should do originally we're gonna have the endings were supposed to be one ending in my book, one ending in his book, and then we're gonna do like hardcore endings and we're gonna make them only exclusive to the websites in just ebook and like no, it's not fair to everybody, you know, we want the most amount people to read this, so we're like, Fuck it. We'll just put in the books because the endings are brutal. And like we'll just put them in the books. And then that's why we decided to do the red and the black endings. So each book has two endings. And you flip flip the coin when you get to the end and pick out what what fate has for you and go from there.
speaker-0: I love that because I remember I read red version first and then immediately I was like, all right, black version's up next. and I thought to myself, like, I was expecting both endings to be the same. And so like I was excited to see how everything else came together. And then I just I just kept reading the black version because I got the physical copy of that one and just went with it and the ending was mean. Like I'm not getting any spoilers, but it was mean. And then I was like, all right, so the other one's gonna have like the nice ending, because the red version had like a nice ending. And I was like, yo, what the fuck, man? And I loved it. It was funny.
speaker-1: A fuck.
speaker-0: Like straight up.
speaker-2: That those books were so much fun to write, but that was a lot of work, like where Aaron and I would sit on Zoom calls like this and literally read verbatim to each other the dialogue, the scenes that were going on when our characters did meet each other because they're supposed to be two completely separate. I mean, they are two completely separate stories. So you're not really supposed to know who the other person is you're not supposed to know as much about them. so we had to sit there for hours and hours going over. You know, what is this person going to say? And then if I would rewrite something, I had to call him that, hey, I had to change this because in this part this happened. He's like, fuck, let me go back in. And it took forever. But we finished it. And that was the biggest release of any book I've ever had. still sells well. You know, whenever we're at events together, they always seem to sell in in tandem. and it it was just it was a lot of fun. And we have we have more projects coming from him and I. If we c if we can rope fucking Daddy Hora Chris Triana in with us, you know, we have the obviously we have the obituaries of him, so you know, try to get him in on some stuff too, to give us a little class.
speaker-1: So I wrote down Only Psychos to start right when we got off. Should I do only psychos or jump into through the eyes of desperation?
speaker-2: Only Cycles is short. It's only a novella. It's like forty thousand words. So it's not that long. Through the Eyes of Desperation is probably like sixty five, seventy thousand words. So it's a bit longer. Only Cycles you'll probably blow through, but it is a good winter read. So if you want to
speaker-1: I might wait I might wait for winter then. Because like the length I have no problem with the length or anything.
speaker-2: Yeah. Yeah. Rob doesn't either. It's just the girth.
speaker-1: Bora lá.
speaker-0: Can't spit my jaw around it, you know? It gets fired. Yeah, I
speaker-2: It's like a snake.
speaker-0: get I get tired fast. No gag reflex. It's just you know, the hint.
speaker-2: yeah, read read through the eyes of desperation because that'll that'll branch off into, you know, if you like my book and you want to learn more about Aaron's character, you go into his and and then if you like those two, then read so sorry and you'll see some Easter egg stuff in there and you're like, shit, okay. when we were selling the bundles on our websites, like the we had like called like a high roller and a low roller bundle or low stakes. The high roller bundle actually came with a postcard that had all the Easter eggs. in all three books. So if you missed anything, you read all three books and you open up the postcard and you look through it and it's like it's almost like a checklist. Like, shit, I didn't realize this was in
speaker-0: Damn. That's so fucking sick. Yeah. I gotta go back through them again. I like my fourth time, I think. I fucking love these books.
speaker-2: Yeah, we did it we did a ton of merch on that stuff. Tons of tons of giveaway stuff and you know magnets, keychains, bookmarks, stickers. I mean the Easter eggs. we even got we even had custom playing cards made that had art from the book in them, which was really cool to have. Yeah. That was fun. It's good. Yeah. We spent a lot of money on on merch. I mean like thousands of dollars. And it was like, We hope this does well because we're Worth three or four grand in the hole and that's that's not including our time and
speaker-0: No, no, it fucking it blew up. That shit rips. I will never stop recommending that stuff. And I'm still trying to find the goddamn hardcover version of Through the Eyes Black version. Like I I messaged you about I like, dude, please tell me you have one like squirreled away somewhere. But I think I'm just gonna go try to probe the the groups and throw some money at it because I I need to have that.
speaker-2: Yeah, I honestly I tell people when they ask that I do have some, but they're so I've now switched to using Book Baby for my hardcovers. Book Baby is a private publisher, a printer out of they're right in Jersey, not far from where I am. And they're like very, very good. When we published Three Eyes Desperation, we got them, I think either Barnes or Ingram. And they package them like they're fucking throwing a football around. So I have actually that stack right there. is them. if you want to mess with they're they're a little beat up. That's why I that's why I stopped selling because the covers got dinged and I don't want to charge full price for So I always tell people like, Hey, if you want one, just order a paperback and just write hard cover in the notes and I just throw it in at the hard at the paperback price and just chuck it in. I
speaker-0: Do that straight up. Yeah.
speaker-2: said some of the
speaker-1: Right after this, before this end here, so nobody else fucking knows.
speaker-2: If Yeah, I only I only have that stack left, but yeah, a couple of the covers have like a scratch on or, you know, they're all readable. It's just nothing it was it wasn't up to my standards. I'm like, I don't wanna charge full price for something that is damaged, even if it wasn't my fault, so
speaker-0: That's 100% fair. Yeah. I I respect that. Yeah, no, I'm I'm copping one immediately.
speaker-1: They're up.
speaker-0: All right. So just to to round things out, my my song that I recommend is Bound to Misery by a downswing in a void. total banger. A little screamy, but also has some singing in it. So a a little bit of this, a little bit of that. but again
speaker-2: Big fan of the Screamo stuff. That was my my jam back in the day.
speaker-0: You'll like this. This song fucking rips.
speaker-2: Nice.
speaker-0: Right on. Well, again, dude, thank you so much for doing this. This has been an absolute fucking blast. we really appreciate you jumping on being like our second episode. Like this is super cool. and I don't want to chat with these guys with
speaker-1: You forever, man. So this is awesome.
speaker-2: Yeah, I appreciate it. I hope I hope we run into each other at a at a show at some point.
speaker-1: For sure.
speaker-2: I'd like to do more next year. I you know, this year I kind of dialed it down a little bit. I did some more local stuff. But like you guys say it it's expensive travel and you know, I'm shipping out books to Oregon in the next couple of days and already I'm already thirty bucks in the hole just in shipping the books. So, you know, it's stuff that's outside of the driving distance is kind of hard for me, but I will absolutely be at scares that care in March. I don't miss that one. highly recommend.
speaker-1: If Rob's there, I'll I'll I'm definitely there. I'm Rob's assistant.
speaker-0: It's the weekend of my birthday. I'll be there. I'm going no matter what.
speaker-2: Yeah. I when we stop recording, we could talk more about scares if you want. But and if any anybody that's a a reader or writer aspiring or just you want a cool event, it's a charity event, like I I can't recommend it enough. yeah, it's it's a great show.
speaker-0: Yeah, I love it. Let's get some exclusives and hop off this thing. Yeah. Colby, you got any closing words of wisdom?
speaker-1: go read runs, go read through the eyes of desperation. That's what I'm gonna start right after this. Plastic monsters and slaughterhouse moan, because those are what I've read and am currently reading. Bang.
speaker-0: Yeah. All right. Well, this has been another episode of Splatter Pals. check the show notes below to follow all socials. Make sure you go follow Daniel Volpe. Go read all of his stuff. Go order the hardcover version of Through the Eyes of Desperation for paperback price. Support this man. Get him out to more shows. I
speaker-2: I don't know.
speaker-0: love him. Yeah, exactly. He's got kids. He's raising a family, goddammit. All right. Peace out. We love you guys.
speaker-1: Aí.
speaker-2: All right, thanks guys.