Jay Foreman is an author, speaker, corporate trainer. Today he joins The Book Drop Mic to discuss his first Young Adult novel. The brand new book is called The Adventures of Mulberry Manor — Book 1 — The Beginning of the End and the early reviews are fantastic.
Listen as Jason and Jay discuss the new book, writing, reading, and so much more.
Buy Jay's new book:
https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Mulberry-Manor-Book-Beginning/dp/B0C933R5YB/
Learn more about Jay:
https://www.jaywforeman.com/
Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
Jay Foreman is an author, speaker, corporate trainer. Today he joins The Book Drop Mic to discuss his first Young Adult novel. The brand new book is called The Adventures of Mulberry Manor — Book 1 — The Beginning of the End and the early reviews are fantastic.
Listen as Jason and Jay discuss the new book, writing, reading, and so much more.
Buy Jay's new book:
https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Mulberry-Manor-Book-Beginning/dp/B0C933R5YB/
Learn more about Jay:
https://www.jaywforeman.com/
Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
Welcome, friends. Welcome to the Book Drop, mike, brought to you by Ink Veins. We are your source for publicity, promo and press releases and, of course, this is your host, jason Wright. And look folks, I am really excited to welcome my friend to the show today. I have known this man for a while and we've eaten tacos together, and that tells you that we're real friends. His name is Jay Foreman. Welcome to the show, jay.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you, Jason. It's a pleasure to be here with you.
Speaker 1:Yes, I wish we were sitting at a restaurant eating tacos, but we will take Zoom.
Speaker 2:That's right. Another time.
Speaker 1:Another time. All right, jay Foreman, we're going to talk about the book, but before we do that, tell us real quick about you. Who are you?
Speaker 2:Well, that's a tough one right out of the gate. Born and raised in this area, I left the world of banking about 15 years ago to pursue a dream of becoming an author and made every mistake I could right out of the gate, but somehow stumbled along and had several books published since then. Also worked the speaking circuit, different conferences, different businesses that way, and teach leadership classes at our local community college.
Speaker 1:So not much, Just basically sitting around. It sounds like that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:So I mentioned actually no Jay many of the guests that you hear on the show, many of the writers. I probably have not been in the same room with Jay and I have been in the same room quite often and it's funny there have been a number of speaking engagements. When I look at the program and I'm like, oh, jay is here, all right, this is legit. If Jay Foreman told me the agenda, I know, like this, this is a real gig and I might actually get paid for it because I know Jay's not doing it for free, right.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:Jay's a great storyteller. That's probably the first thing I noticed about Jay when I was in the back of the room in an event and heard him commanding an audience of several hundred people and I realized just the gift he had for articulating a story with purpose. So not just a story simply to entertain, but a story to teach and inspire and ultimately, we hope, to maybe inspire some new behaviors or habits from people that are in the room. And again, I've personally witnessed this a number of times and now I'm excited to see that he has taken this to a novel, to long form fiction. So tell us about your brand new book, and I know what it is, but our folks don't. What is it and what is it about?
Speaker 2:Hey, it's the first in a five book series. It's called the Adventures of Ball Berry Manor. It has a little bit of everything in there. For folks it's a supernatural action mystery novel for young adults, but I've had several adults and joined it just as well. So it dropped about a month and a half ago doing a be received very well, so I'm excited about it.
Speaker 2:It follows brother and sister, jade and Teddy. Their mother goes missing. Their father goes to look for the mother and drops them off in a place called Lakeside, at a mansion called Ball Berry Manor, where they're surrounded by all kinds of interesting characters and different situations where they have to decide for themselves sometimes there. Maybe there's more out there than what meets the eye and it's up to us to follow that. Are we going to choose to believe in something that we maybe cannot see or seems unrealistic, or are we not? And I love the phrase. I live by the phrase cynicism kills, because too many people out there just want to have the mindset of hey, if I don't understand it, I don't want to believe it, or it can't be real. And I'm trying to crush that mindset with this in a fun way.
Speaker 1:I love that. So the age of your heroes here. How old are they?
Speaker 2:16 and 14.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you said YA, is this for this? As shelves like if Aren't no Blames on et cetera is a young adult title.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, young adult title, but, like I said, most of the following, the analytics of it, most people that have picked up a renaissance for are adults. I'm hoping they still have yet to crack that young adult market. Maybe that's still out there waiting for me, but it's been fun.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and that's the goal. You know that's. Jk Rowling certainly hoped that children would enjoy Harry Potter, but she knows who's pulling their credit card out of the checkout, right Like. She understands that you've got to write something that appeals to the older audience as well. It's no different than Pixar making movies for children and understanding that there better be a lot there for adults as well, or the movie's not going to make it. So is there a takeaway?
Speaker 1:I guess I want to understand if I'm a 10 or 12 or 14 year old, because, as you know, and we've talked before that young people tend and I'm talking children and they tend to want to read something where maybe the characters are a couple of years older than them, because it just makes them feel special. And bookstores often shelve stuff this way. Publishers will present stuff in the market this way where a book for a third, fourth, fifth grader, the lead character might actually be a sixth, seventh or eighth grader, because it gives those kids an opportunity to step up and to read up a little bit. So first of all, I want to know the lesson, the takeaway for that young reader. Now I want to know the primary takeaway for their parent.
Speaker 2:Sure, I think the primary takeaway could be the same for either demographic there Doesn't matter how young you are. It doesn't matter how old you are, it's never too early or never too late to be the hero of our own stories. And the characters realize that they kind of walk into this feeling average, like many teenagers do. But they're thrown into these situations where they realize, hey, it's time for me. I can either sit back and watch life happen or I can step up and help move things in the right direction. So it's not only learning to be the hero of our own story, but also learning to not only help those around us but to be able to open up and rely on help from other people. That's something that I see these days when I get into the schools and talk a little bit.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's a pride thing or an ego thing, but a lot of people are scared to ask for help these days. And, my God, jason, we thought you know, most people out there want to help other people. Most people out there are good folks wanting to help other people. And when we realize that it goes both ways, take help from other people but also help other people as well, I love the phrase empty in your cup. You know, when we read a good book or watch a good podcast like this, or we're hearing great speaker, you know we're filling our cup up. But what are we supposed to do with that? Go pour it into something or someone else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I do love a lesson that applies across, you know, every age and every reader In particular. Here you know you're creating an opportunity, I would think, for parents and their children to have discussions, whether that kid is 8, 10, 12 or, you know, 12, 14, 16, whatever. A great book is one and one of my friends that's an agent in New York talks about this all the time. Like you can market a book like Crazy and you can run ads and commercials and digital and billboards and bus signage and whatever you wanna do, but until you write a book that has people talking when they're done, like I've gotta tell you about this book and this thing I learned, or I've gotta tell you about this nonfiction title in this story that was so funny that had me laughing in the subway. Like that is every author's goal, I hope. And if you're listening to this and you have that great idea and you're ready to write your first novel, it better be a story that when the book closes, the story lives on and you're talking to your neighbors about it and you're talking to your friends at church about it and you're looking for opportunities to hop on a podcast and talk about it.
Speaker 1:Those are the stories that really sick. You know Harry Potter and Twilight and Hunger Games and Wonder. And to drop a book, I'm familiar with Christmas Chars. Those books did okay because when the cover closed people wanted to experience it deeper and that meant having conversations, posting about it on social media and in the case of a book like this, I hope Adventures in Mobile Manor families are coming together and talking about the lessons learned and maybe challenging one another with really insightful questions. To be different, to think it through. What has been the response? Have you talked to readers of all ages so far and what are they? Not the online review stuff I'm talking like what are people saying to Jay when they see you in the grocery store and they're like dude, I read your book.
Speaker 2:They said what were you thinking? It's so different than anything else I've ever written. It's so far out there with a supernatural realm and in a fun way. But they just say it's caught them by surprise because I've written several children's books and leadership books. This is different.
Speaker 2:I'm going against what they tell authors we're supposed to do right, find a genre and stick with it. I'm down to all over the place, but it's caught people by surprise. But they've enjoyed it. Some of my best compliments I know I think it's a gender thing I feel like women enjoy reading a lot more than us guys do. For the most part. One of the best compliments I get was when I see one of my buddies that I know for a fact don't read a lot of books and they're like, hey, my gosh, I went through this in two days. This was great. That's a really good feeling and I knew that there would be some.
Speaker 2:I wanted to attract everybody to this, but men as well, or young men as well, that may not want to read as much. So I took a page out of James Patterson's book. No pun intended there, but very short chapters For me. They became easier to write that way to continue moving. But of the feedback I've gotten is that my chapters are two, three, four pages at most. It's easy to finish a chapter and say, okay, I can do one more before I put this down, and that leads to one more. It's a longer book but ends up being a quick read.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I absolutely love that approach. Anyone that's read my stuff knows I'm a big believer in short chapters as well, in part for everything you just said so well. But also I think there's this, particularly with the younger readers, or with reluctant readers maybe that person that's lucky to read a book or two without adult, a book or two a year when you get through a chapter there's this little rush. I mean, I feel it even when I read something. It's like, yeah, like I did that, and particularly when I go into schools and I talk about the stuff they're reading, man, when they get to the end of a chapter, they're sitting during reading time right In their English class or a homeroom or whatever, and they get to the end of a chapter.
Speaker 1:There's like this man, I did this thing, like I finished something. I got to this, not the finished line of the book, but like I've gotten to the end of a chapter, the end of a page. I get to breathe, take a pause if I want to. So I think it works both ways. I think it entices people that love to read to go a little more, to keep binging a little bit, you know, in the Netflix streaming age, but also, I think it helps those reluctant readers who aren't sure if they love reading, to feel a sense of accomplishment as they get through a chapter. Smile, feel good about yourself. You did something you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's a big deal and it's something else. I wanted to back up something else you had mentioned there. As far as adults and maybe the children the parents talking about a book with that, there's a couple of instances within the book too where the children in the book talk to their father and it's one of those just positions where they're seeing the exact same situation but from two different perspectives. So I'm hoping I'm catching the parents point of view as well as the children's point of view.
Speaker 2:I had both of my kids edit this with me. We had a little mini writer's room in the family room after every chapter. I love it and I'm sure you know our children can be our worst critics or our best critics, wherever you wanna look at that and they would say, okay, they would tell me what they like, but they would be quick to tell me, okay, you're sounding like a 50 year old trying to sound like a 14 year old here. We need to scrub this a little bit. So they really helped finding the voice and keeping the pace of it as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very, very smart, and with that I'll say full disclosure that I did have some of my friends who are on my beta reading list. By the way, if you're listening to this and you love to beta read stuff, email me. I'll add you to my list of people that like to get their hands on a manuscript early to sort of see how that comes together and to provide some feedback on it. So I am well aware that there are a number of people that read this thing before I went to press who absolutely loved it, and some of these people that I do know quite well personally as friends have no problem telling me the truth. And they loved, they love this. So it's. I know it's called you're calling it book one. So what's next? Is there more to come in this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. I'm about a quarter of the way through book two. I'm planning on a spring release for that one. It'll be a five book series. I have the art planned out, but I don't know if this happens with you a lot, jason. But I had all the sticky notes for this one, for book one, planned out to a T and I loved what was going by. About the third sticky note, I was so far off the story but I was loving where it was heading now and having fun writing it and I'm a big proponent of. I think the writer has fun writing it and it's done well. It's a good chance the reader's gonna have fun reading it. So I just started going where the, where the story started taking me, and I feel like it ended up better than the outline I had to start with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that is often how it happened. For sure, I've had a number of books that I was pretty sure I knew. You know, act one, act two, act three how it was all gonna piece together. And then you just start writing and sometimes you know somebody walks into a scene that you never imagined even existed and they suddenly play a pretty critical role in the plot. Or sometimes even, you know, through the editing process, a scene, a plot point, a character that you thought was gonna be really crucial to the overall story ends up fading away and in some cases I mean I've had a couple of manuscripts where I had characters that completely disappeared. I mean their name was stripped from the manuscript by the time the book went to a press. So you know, rest in peace. Character I turned out, I didn't. So after this series, what's next for Jay?
Speaker 2:After this series, my daughter and I are working on another series and this would be more for elementary school kids, and this is one where it's a mystery plays out. All the characters are animals with human characteristics. They walk and they wear the suits and all that kind of stuff. But each one is a mystery. Something happens and then when it gets to the end well, halfway through it they'll bring in inspector clowns.
Speaker 2:He's a lion, you're dressed up in a suit, he's the detective, and he comes in and starts asking leading questions to try to get to the bottom of this mystery. And each question you turn back to a page and say, well, who was standing next to the gifts when this happened? And it's basically a who done it book. But the kids can go back and look, follow the guided questions and by the very end, before they turn the last page, see if they have followed the clues to figure out the mystery. It's really the. We have the first several done in that. But I want to get through all of the Mulberry Manor series first. This is a couple of years down the road. I'd like to dive into this.
Speaker 1:Very cool. I love that Ever thought about audio, by the way, with any of these Ever thought about the books.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and Mulberry Manor will just came out a hard back and soft back at the same time, but a month after that it was released an ebook form. So, and now, within the next probably two weeks, it'll be audio.
Speaker 1:Audio Love it. Yeah, audio is just growing like crazy. Got a good audio.
Speaker 2:It is. Hey, just kind of give a quick plug before this goes too long. You can cut me out and edit it here, but I wanted to know.
Speaker 1:No, no, plug away man.
Speaker 2:I wanted to say one of the things I was most proud of in this book is to include not necessarily the main characters, but also just the tiny bit characters, and I think that's something that these days is far and few between. And and it's great, it's contagious, we'll see it out there, but also want people to be able to read about it and hopefully it's contagious there too, and I really learned that from two authors. In my time when I was a kid, I wrote to Judy Bloom how much I loved her books and how I thought you know, here's an idea for a new book. I thought she would love that, judy Bloom.
Speaker 2:Judy Bloom wrote me back a handwritten letter back in the early 80s, when I was a little kid, maybe even late 70s wrote me a handwritten letter back. I still have it and said hey, thank you for the kind words, appreciate this, thank you for the idea for a new book, but it sounds like you have a bunch of ideas. Maybe you should write books yourself. And I still have the letter. When I got my first book published About 15 years ago, I actually reached out to her on Facebook and said hey, I know you don't remember me, but and explained to her who I wasn't, thanked her for that and she reached back out. That's so cool. And the second author was you, and you know I've told this story in front of crowds before, but I wanted to share it here, hopefully catch a different audience.
Speaker 2:You had mentioned earlier we've done some speaking gigs on the same venues. I got invited to a speaking gig here locally, something called the Apple Blossom Festival, and what I always do is I always look up who spoke the year before and try to reach out and get advice for that person. Lo and behold, here's a New York Times bestselling author, jason Wright. So it was a little intimidating but for those listening, I called Jason, I called you up and you called me right back and it wasn't tacos that day, I think it was Italian, but we went out and was the train. You went out with the guy that you had no idea who he was, but you took your time and not only encouraged me but but helped enable me and equipped me to go on and have some success with that. So haven't never forgotten about Judy Blue, never forgotten about your kindness either, and just kind of passed those on in themes of my different books. So thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Well, that means a lot. I love that and you have mentioned that before. I'm thankful for that. And linking it up with a G bloom, that's just that's. That's horrific. Like what a cool, yeah, what a cool experience. And I know I've told you before and I'll say it again you, you will do all those same things and are already doing those same things for other people, and and maybe there's somebody listening to the show right now who happens to be local, who's going to call you up and say, hey, let's, let's go get tacos and talk about your crew. It's, it's fun to know you. I'm glad we got you on early on this new show and, and I hope people will go out and check out the book. They know where they can find the book, will pull out all the links, of course, to Amazon, everything else in the show notes, but what about you? Where can they just find your content online?
Speaker 2:They could find find me on my website. It's just my name J A Y, middle initial W for man. F O R E M A N dot com. Everything is on there.
Speaker 1:J W for man. All right. Well, we will link to that as well. And I don't know, but I suspect that when book two comes out, we may find you back on the show and talk to us before then. Absolutely Talk to us before then. J, you're a good man. Thanks for coming on. Book drop, mike. We appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Jason.