>> John: Hello, my spooky friends. I'm John, your host and welcome to another episode of Dairyland Frights, a, paranormal podcast that covers everything spooky, creepy and mysterious in the Midwest and beyond. And the great spooky guests continue. I have on the podcast author Aaron Ryan. He's an award winning and best selling author. Welcome, Aaron. I love the way. >> Aaron Ryan: Thanks for having me. Yeah, it was the regal Elbow. Elbow.
>> John: So let me ask you a couple questions here to start off the bat here. You have written a number of, really interesting books. I got to take a look at, by the way. But one thing I noticed in here, you are a man of many talents. you have been a voiceover artist, a musician, stage ref. Performmer, producer, videographer, executive assistant, paper boy. Hey. >> Aaron Ryan: O. Yeah. >> John: What's a paper boy, Aaron? What do they do? >> Aaron Ryan: What's a paper?
>> John: What's a paper? That's crazy. I love this. I took this from Aaron's, bio. He just put down all these great experiences. I love. I love paper boy because I'm like, does anybody even know paper is anymore? Maybe you and me, but so, hey, there's. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, times have changed, but I mean, that was an illustrious career for a teenager. >> John: I love it. And you're very eclectic, as I'd like to say. I use my fancy author word there for
you. You had just a really great. I love tech support too, by the way. I love it. So you've had a very varied life, which I think, in my opinion is good for an author to experience things, right? Like experience different things. That you can put that yourself, or that character in your book of like, hey, you know, maybe a paper boy. You can tell me about your book here in a little bit. Maybe a paper boy saves the world. You know, who knows, right?
>> Aaron Ryan: Yeah. yeah, that would be a great children's book. I'm working on some children's books right now for my kiddos and beyond. So yeahl you go. >> John: There's your million dollar idea. I'll take 10%. there you go. anyway, I, love it. You have. It just looks like you have a fun life. I love some of your authors too. We share. I, like Tom Clancy, Michael crichton, John Grisham, C.S. tolkien, or token, however you would like to pronounce him. I love that.
So let me ask you off the bat. What insp. Inspired you to become an author? I'm always fascinated by that, honestly. >> Aaron Ryan: I mean, we were just talking about him. So was. I was given a task in, I Always want to say eighth grade. That's erroneous. At age eight in second grade. this is in 1981. But we don't have to say the year because that just dates me, like, horrendously.
but I was given this task to put together some kind of, assignment with, you know, college rule paper, three line paper and three hole punched and all that crude stick figure drawings and everything. And I wrote it, and it was the Electric Boy. It was really heavily influenced by ET Because ET had come out back then, and all the youngins are going, what's E.T. i. It just really inspired me then to create. But then I don't know when it was, you think it was cemented in my mind.
But shortly thereafter, I laid eyes for the very first time on, the Lord of the Rings. Not the Hobbit, but the Lord of the Rings. And I dove in there and then went back to the Hobbit, and I just went. I mean, my mind was absolutely, utterly and indefatigably blown. What is this? It was so huge and so rich with meaning and world building and everything. And I thought, I don't know that I'd ever be able to approach that level of narrative writing majesty, but I thought,
I'd love to give it a try someday. And dissonance falls dreadfully short. Everything I've written falls dreadfully short of Tolkien. But that was my main inspiration, was Tolkien and Lord of the Rings. Absolutely. >> John: Yeah, absolutely. And that book, I think, propelled numerous movies. Book. I mean, just like you said, world building, putting things out
there and, you know, like in the world. The paranormal with cryptids and all these other things, other worlds, you know, so on and so forth, portals. I mean, it just. It's wild to the imagination of one, number one, how he came up with all this stuff. and some of it was, you know, coming from Vikings, from English lore, from, you know, a number of different. Yeah. You know, but you still have to put it all together, which is harder than you think, folks. A, lot harder than you think.
>> Aaron Ryan: Lot harder. >> John: And, you know, that's what I think really, really makes people interested in, like, what's out there. Right? Like, is there something more? Is there a bunch of elves? Are there, you know, a giant eye looking at us? You know what I mean? I think it's. I think that's amazing. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, I've seen plenty of memes that are basically like, hey, they're putting up a new T mobile tower, or AT&T tower at the end
of my street. And It'it's basically this, you know, this. What's the word? It's basically just this black obelisk going up with the fiery eye in the middle and you're going to get any signal from that. But I love that they just draw this instant comparison of this draconian signal that's going toa be broadcast everywhere. It's Sauron. So yeah, no one's getting out of there. >> John: So let's get into it.
Why don't you talk a little bit about, you know, dissonancets and some of your books and what kind of you gave you again, what inspired you to, to write these? Because you can write about anything as a writer, right? You can, whatever you want to write about, you can write about. But what made you go like yeah, let me, let me try this, see how this go. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, well. So number one, my all time favorite movie is Aliens. I'm sure it's yours as
well. I just watched it again today with friends. We had a specifically aliens viewing day 19, 86. Sigourney Weaver just. It's got everything, everything about it is cool. Nothing about it sucks except for the fact that Vasquez dies and I just want to stop watching it there. But it's just amazing in every way. I love the movie and I've always wanted to write a book that dealt with aliens somehow where it crossed over a bit of a threshold was it wasn't basically us going to
war with aliens on some other planet. It was we had just watched I Am Legend the night before my wife and I and I'd seen it before. But what I love about I im legend is granted this is a, this is't, you know, a post apocalyptic scenario that deals with a virus, rabies spreading all over the planet and killing off, you know, almost everybody except for Will Smith and his dog.
And when you take the custodians out of the way when, when humans are removed from the picture, it becomes really just a graveyard, a ghost town and a really scary situation to be in. I thought what if I could write a story that dealt with a post apocalyptic scenario like that where the custodians are removed and weeds are growing up through the cracks. They're five feet tall. Now there's beehives the size of VW bugs and what would that look like except caused by aliens? The causality was
an alien invasion. So I wanted to write a single book. As I was writing it, I believe in about chapter four, I realized there's a subtle undercurrent of a greater story here. And I followed it, and it just ballooned into a trilogy that then required two prequels and then birthed a sequel. So it turned into a hexology before I even knew it. I'm very proud of it. It's loaded with thematic depth and just a great, great story. >> John: Yeah, it looks to me. I love. I
love your little. Well, little tagline. As they would say in the biz, we thought they were and angelic messengers, we were wrong. I love that. I love that. Because we'll get to it a little bit here. Cause I'll askh you, something. But before I'mnna I'm gonna stop for a second. I'll let you still talk about your booksus. That's why you're here. But I have to ask you, since this is a paranormal podcast, have you ever had a paranormal, you know, dream or events or something happened to you?
>> Aaron Ryan: Yes. I've never had anything in the flesh, you know, in my waking life where I've actually encountered something like that. Although as a kid, you want it to be, you know, something under the bed or you want it to be something that's
like, some kind of experience that you just really can't define. But I'm also a spiritual guy, and I think some of those things could very well have been something from a spiritual realm, which often, you know, one's going to get confused for the other. I would love to say that I saw bigfoot in the woods. I would love to say that I saw
a ufo. And what's funny is when I do these show these, vendor markets and craft fairs, I've got one coming up on Friday, Saturday, I have my banners up that clearly advertise alien invasion, you know, book series. And I get all kinds of people that come up to me and I go, yeah, dude, I was abducted and I was brought up aboard their vessel, and they did all kinds of things on me, man. And I'm like, all these people, potential buyers of my books are walking
by, and, you know, this guy's occupying my time. And I'm like, yeah, just could you come back? Okay, Uh-huh Come back. Come back. So it's not an uncomfortable topic, but it's kind of one of those topics where I'm like, man, I have nothing to offer in that regard. I wish I did. >> John: Yeah, yeah. And you. Yeah, go ahead. >> Aaron Ryan: Yet. >> John: Yeah. U but let me ask you this. Do you believe in the paranormal? Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe in
spirits? You know, things like that. >> Aaron Ryan: Absolutely. Yeah. We're far too. The universe is far too big to just limit us to this single dimension that we know, this plane that we're on. And I think that they do intersect. and that's why you have such creative stories that take such hold of us, like Sixth Sense or something like that, where things cross over. I mean, our kids love the movie Coco and it'it's Pixar. I think that it's absolutely
true. I don't have much knowledge on the subject of the other side. >> John: Yeah. And that, that to me is what's interesting to me about this, is everyone I talked to and you. Probably the same way, you believe in it, but you're a little skeptical, right? You're kind of like, okay, because a lot of stuff on YouTube, like you're talking to the guy. Hey, man. You know, a lot of guys would just get a camera, oh, my God, there's a demon. And they go running. You know, you're like, oh,
you're ruining it. All of us. You know, you, you know, paranormal investigators. And they're like, you just made my job a million times harder. Because they're legitimately going in and getting this evidence and getting voices and seeing things and trying to debunk it and trying to say, oh, it was a dust particle, or it was end or it was that. And some of it you just. I don't know. Right. You just don't know. And I think that's interesting.
>> Aaron Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. I love. I mean, I remember as a kid watching something like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and being utterly infatuated by that movie. I'm very nostalgic. So I'll watch, you know, Close Encounters of the Third Kind before. I'll watch something like Independence Day or, Arrival or something like that, or Interstellar. I think they're all so cool and they're so amazing to behold.
But's there was a guy who said, he was talking in Close Encounters about having encountered Bigfoot, and it made a sound I would not want to hear twice in my lifetime. I remember that line. I'll never forget that line. And when the aliens pull the little boy out through the doggie door and the mom is crying and desperately
trying to yank him back. And then, you know, the visitation of all the ships at Devil's Tower at the end in the climactic sequence, I just, I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. >> John: Yeah. >> Aaron Ryan: And I think that it's such a draw. We always fear what we don't know or don't understand aliens, and all that kind of stuff are things we just simply don't understand. So, absolutely. Curiosity around it.
>> John: So let's get into that a little bit. When you were researching your book, it's hard to research in the sense of, you know, like, it's a Tom Clancy book. You know, you can go and you can like, hey, here's a bunch of blueprints and plans, and here's the general to talk to you about World War II or whatever. And you can talk to Navy SEALs, but in your case, can't really go around the corner and be like, oh, there's an Aliena. Hey, I'm Aaron. I want to
talk to you about what you would do. I'm just kind of curious, you know what I'm saying? So how did you go about that process other than imagination, which is great? What did you do for research? Did you look at some tapes? Did you, you know, what did you do?
>> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, well, I mean, I did a tremendous amount of research on the books themselves in terms of, the military, because the military is like, you know, bar none, the one who's had the most interaction with aliens that we know of Due to Area 51 and the secrets that we suppose are there. So I had to do a lot of research as far as how the military would be dealing with these alien
invaders. I had to do a lot of research in terms of what life would be like in 2042, in 2026, when they came. I had to do a lot of research on the types of, after effects that would happen were we to be invaded and was society to just be absolutely leveled by an alien threat. the, the sixth, installment, which is. It became a hexology last November, and I published volume four, Relentless. So volume four, it's a weird numerical, you know, volume naming
convention that I used. Next time I'll do it differently. But volume four is actually the sixth installment in dissonance. Anyway, what I had to do was explore the aliens, the Gorgon'origin more. Where did they come from? Why did they come? What did the HEC do they want with us other than food and water? What's their motivation? You know, this and that.
So I had to do a lot of research into a solar system that wouldn't be too far away, that we could actually track movement and incoming, see, you know, estimated time of arrival for the return of them. And so I came up with, the Trappist 1 system, which is 39 light years away. And did a lot of research on that to make sure that it was accurate contact with Jodie Foster. That movie really helped. >> John: Yeah. >> Aaron Ryan: great movie. And I actually. I had to
be really careful not to copy some of the. The dialogue and the, the verbiage that they use word for word because it sounds so authentic. >> John: Yeah. Now let me ask you this again. Just reading through the summary and things here I have in front of me, one of the things they use is telepathy. And you said they paralyzed us, which I love that, by the way. and think how scary that is. I mean, I love that, that she came up with that. Think about. So
this is maybe similar to it. So I've spoken to people who have had sleep paralysis. Okay. And someone who has sleep paralysis every night here. So they go through this every night. I couldn't. I can't wrap my mind around it. Right. How scary that is because I've had it once and I remember not being able to move. I remember seeing some terrible things and feeling scared and helpless, like. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah. >> John: that. How did you. How did you decide? Because there's
a million things an alien can do, right? There's aliens ad. Ray guns. Oh boy, am I dating myself on that. Alien has acid, right? >> Aaron Ryan: Yep. >> John: Aliens who have, O. They just kind of explode your brain kind of thing, you know, they can do different things. Right. How did you settle on this? I'm just curious. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah. So I actually, What I. What I've always been terrified by and depends if you remember
this far back, but a lot of people have not seen it. Except for the new one, Clash of the Titans in 1981. Had a claymation Medusa. Stop motion photography Medusa. And I was all of, you know, seven years old, eight years old. And I'll never forget just being absolutely terrified by that Medusa. When Perseus S soldier is discovered by her, she pulls out an arrow out of her quiver. She fires it at him. He falls over, you know, turns, gasps, looks at her, and she comes into frame with
her eyes glowing bright green. And there's this high, you know, musical strain, this clashing, dissonant pitch. Oh my gosh. Just freaked me out as a kid. And I thought, interestingly, when I first started writing the book, the Gorgons, they weren't called Gorgons there. They were called Druids initially. And they. They resembled. They were far too akin to, like a cross between a nazcal and a dementor. And, you know, been done. Been done. Everybody's done that. I didn't want to repeat the
cycle and kind of. I needed something unique. So I. They'a little too ethereal, of a form and ethereal of a threat. Vaporous and kind of intangible. I needed something that was more predatorial, more flesh and bone, so that human beings actually had a chance to fight back. And that's when I decided to turn them into a tangible being and called them Gorgons, because that's our frame of reference. We see what they can do in terms of the
hypnosis. And it's terrifying. When I wrote the sections in any of the books where a Gorgon. Where a human is set upon by a gorgon, it's absolutely terrifying. The very first time they awaken is September 3, 2026. After they've been hanging in the sky 50ft above the ground for 90 days, all over the planet, they finally wake up, and they attack. I literally needed to take a furlough from writing for a while because it was so psychologically
terrifying. I love they're terrifying, and they're pretty unique that way. >> John: Yeah, I love that. I love that. Because again, here's two things I'd like to kind of ask you some questions about, just. I guess we'll talk a little about aliens here a little bit. But what inspired you to keep writing this too? I mean, because at anytime you could have been like, whoa, this is too much. Like you said, this is. This is
heavy. I'm gonna switch this. I'm gonna make. They bring flowers and everybody bakes brownies or something. We just have'good on time. Like, you know, what inspired you to, like, say, okay, we gott. We got to talk about this invasion. We to talk about this, rather than go a million other directions. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah. Well, I think for a lot of people, it's very hard to maintain writing a book. And I forget I was seeing some stats
maybe a few weeks ago, or people saying there's literally like less than. Less than 5% of people who start a book actually finish it. I have a huge motivation right now in finishing my book because I'm a voiceover artist. There's my studio back there, and voiceovers. The industry itself is sincerely just crumbling, under the weight of AI lowballing clients, underbidding colleagues, the sag, AF after strike, the economy. Just. The list goes on and on, and the hits keep
coming. And so I'm under tremendous pressure to, pivot and adapt. So, there really is no backing down. This is what I want to do. This is what I've been doing for years and years as a voiceover artist. I published 300 blogs that were largely satirical, a la Dave Barrry. business reference. Yes, business guides and affirmation that you can do this as a voiceover artist. Sure. But they were very satirical.
And satire is, grounded in fiction, so a lot of, you know, rabbit trails, fictional rabbit trails and stuff. I was not inexperienced. I had d written fiction as a 20s something guy, in the 90s, and I'd written all of these blogs and published six books that contained a lot of that satire. It wasn't alien territory High. See what I did there? It wasn't alien territory for me to do, to return to
fiction. But my motivation is simply just, I want to provide for my family and this is how I want to do it. But aside from that external pressure, the internal drive was like, I couldn't stop writing. I couldn't stop. Writer's block is absolutely real. I do have respect for it, for the people who struggle with it. I didn't struggle with it. It was just like every spare moment I've got to let the fingers fly and create more. I'm the same way with the current series called the End.
>> John: Nice N. So, we're gonna put on our tinfoil hats. I don't have one with me, but if you have one near you, put it on people. So one thing I would like to know, and this is just, you know, not only from your book, but just in general, what you think. What do you think aliens want and what is their end game like? >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, well, the end game, at least in dissonance, is their planet is threatened and so they've come to ours for food
and water. In space, we look like a really pretty rock with lots of water, lots of air, lots of the food walking around. So that's they're predatory that way and they're equipped to be predators. So I think the end game for them would be survival. I don't necessarily know that they're nefarious enough to assume that they want to conquer Earth and subdue our people as slaves for some building of some whatever, you know, who knows? I think the endgame ultimately though, as we are if we kind of
project ourselves onto them. The American empire wants to expand and we want to have our dominion. So did the Roman Empire, so did the Assyrian Empire, so did all of the empires. And so an alien empire simply wants to expand its territory, grow its people. You know, it's flock and expand to New Horizons so that you can accommodate all those people. >> John: Yeah. So let me ask you this, though. There are billions of galaxies out
there. There is life out there. You know, you have to be a fool not to believe that there isn't. But here's where I have issues with what aliens want and what their endgame is. So I've spoken to some authors who have been ab. Abducted and I'll take their word for it. they don't seem like people who are making it up. And if they are, they're very creative and I applaud them for that. And I've spoken to people who have had aliens for like, spirit guides,
if you want to call that. And one told me their aliens are here to help us. Like, you're messing this up. Your planet is. It's bad and we got to help. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah. >> John: And then others are here to study our weaknesses and they're ready to come in, just like the Gorgons and everything. To come in and use our natural resources against us. Use whatever against us. Do you lie on either side or do you think you're kind of in the middle
of what you think aliens want? just in general. >> Aaron Ryan: No, I love scenes like. And I think this is kind of this scene in this movie, and the movie itself has experienced a lot of flack, over the years, but the Abyss with Ed Harris in the 90s, with that scene where he, he goes down into this kind of Atlantean scenery and terrain that's been underwater in like the Laurentian Abyss forever. he's just,
he's overwhelmed. And basically they start showing him this footage of what they're going to do to mankind with these gigantic tidal waves. And they'renna wipe out mankind because we are wiping on ourselves, so. And we're destroying the planet in the process, which is their planet. So, you know, you're endangering us, pal, is what they're saying. So they're trying to help us live in a better theme. They're trying to assist us, at least in that context, to adopt a better theme
for life. Can we all get along? Rodney King theme. not survival of the fittest, but just partnership, communion, fellowship, harmony, working together. And sadly, my books aren't dissonnts. The hexology is not a referendum on 24 or the current state of society. But really, the worst enemy of man is not aliens. It's always man. And, so you find that out as you go through the story. We just end up throwing each other under the bus. Sixteen years after an
alien invasion. We're still doing it. We should be working together to boot these guys back into space. And that's just kind of where we're stuck right now as a species. So would they be here to encourage us, guide us, steer us back in the right direction, versus would they be here to annihilate us? If they had been studying us for a while, if they were here to help us, it would mean that they'd been studying us for a while and they've been here and they know how we operate. They would have
attacked already, they. If their motive was that nefarious. So I don't know. I think stories can go either way. I like to think that maybe they'd be here to help us instead of just wiping us out. I think that's God's purview, is wiping us out. Not, an alien species. Although he could use. >> John: Absolutely. So one thing I think is really interesting is we have basically. Well, the news, I guess, has basically said, Yep, there's UFOs. And everybody went, Uh-huh.
>> John: Okay. Does that strike you a little odd as, you know, as an author and as a person, that you're like, hey, like, they're. Forget it. How does that make you feel? >> Aaron Ryan: I don't know. I think it's really arbitrary for people just to naturally assume that and then say, especially if you're a member of the media, you have great responsibility to do, you know, factual, unbiased, unprejudiced recording, you know, or reporting, rather.
So, man, I don't know. that really has come to the fore with the rise of the New Jersey drones and all that stuff. Yeah, it just kind of gets resurrected again and the alignment of the planets and everything. I think we're deeply superstitious people anyway, so it really doesn't matter too much what the media says. We're going toa believe what we believe. Even if. Even if it's, you know, even if it's the most trusted commentator
or news guy out there that we listen to every night. It's like, I, don't know, you know? >> John: Yeah, we're suspicious. So let me ask you this too. You deal with the military in your books and everything like that, and obviously in your books, people, hey, they're aliens. And this is what they're trying to do. They're invading us. But in the modern world, do you think the military. Weber, go like, okay, here you go. They're aliens.
We got them in the refrigerator in, you know, and, I'm being, you know, sarcastic, but you know what I'm saying? I mean, just totally like, here you go. Let us peek behind the curtain and go. They've been doing what? >> Aaron Ryan: I think the military is under orders by the president and by the. By Congress and by whoever else, the Illuminati of the world, to keep that
stuff under wraps. So I don't think there'd ever be a fessing up because it just means you've been lying to us all this time, which is going to foment anti military and anti government sentiment. I think they'll just go on continuing to keep things secret. I like the fact that there is so much documented evidence out there of people saying that they've seen a UFO or they've seen the Loch Ness monster or a vampire or Sasquatch or any
of those things. I like that. I like that. There's enough mounting descent to the public media_aphone and say, no, no, no, no, no. You can't silence us. We've seen and heard with our own eyes. I think that's balance that way provides good balance. But who's right and who's wrong? In the end, the time's gonna reveal that. And I don't think it'll be for a while. >> John: Yeah. U. I think another thing too, about your story, I think is a really interesting that I find kind of our art
imitates life. Life, imitates art because there is government, supposedly I believe it was Eisenhower. I always give the president wrong, but made a deal with the Grays to say, you give us some technology and it's an actual treaty out there. And I'm blanking on it right now. I apologize, but an actual treaty. But you can take some of our, some of our people and, you know, experiment and you give us some technology. And I'm thinking, okay, that is true. How wrong could
that go? Because if they. It's kind of like, boot me ant heilll. Right? It's like, yeah, what is your. You know, I'm guessing you didn't think about this when you're writing the books, obviously, but was that anything in your books when you were writing? When you were just thinking, like, how could the military do anything? How could they? I mean, it would be like me shooting up like, oh, my God, I'm dating myself again. A pea shooter at like a giant. Right? I mean, it's, anything.
I mean, I'm wasting my time. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah. We never. When I was writing dissonance, I never really had Any, any possibility of any kind of supposition or suspicion as far as what the military is or isn't doing with regards to the aliens. Because it was obvious they were there. They just showed up, they descended out of the skies one day, you know, silently all over the planet. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of thousands. And to deny their existence would have been futile because they're right there and they're hanging there for 90 days. So it was never any clash with the military or the powers that be that said, we know they're there and somebody else going like, no, no, no, you're seeing things. You known those aren't aliens, you know, go back to your homes and watch, you know, drink your Bud Light. It was nothing like that. There was never any
premise allowable by that. So. And the fact that I basically when I started out the series was with volume one Reality, which is this guy right here, which has been adapted for the screen and being pitched to streaming networks. >> John: Woooo. >> Aaron Ryan: Can'tit. >> John: Congratulations. I was going to talk about that. >> Aaron Ryan: I had to plug that one. I know, that was shameless. That one actually starts with, with action that they're already
here. We know they're here. They've been attacking us and killing us off 85% of of all mankind for 16 years now. So there was never any, there was never any plausible deniability on the part of anyone. >> John: Yeah, and you know what I think is really interesting about that too is well, if you, if you did that, I don't know why I always laugh at this, but I'm like, there's gonna be a hell of a mess if like, there's what, 7.8 billion people
on the planet? I think there's a lot him now you wipe out a billion, that's just like me, you know. Like you're cleaning your kitchen table and you got like billions of tables. The clean. I know that's a weird analogy, but you know what I'm saying? I mean, I just think that's super interesting. Like I haven't read your books, but could you give us an insight and like how do they get rid of things? I'm just curious about that. That's something. I always wonder how do, how do.
>> Aaron Ryan: The Gorgons get rid of things? Or how do we get rid of the Gorgons? >> John: Yeah. Is it just a giant graveyard like Terminator? Or is it like. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, well, we're consumed. number one. So basically they, when they awaken, there's enough of them all over the planet. What I like to do at vendor markets and cr.
Craft fairs. When I tell this story to people, who come up to know, you know, what the book series is about, I love to pause, you know, power pause and say they show up by the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands. You know, then you have this exponentially huger, population hovering there in the sky. And so you know what? That's a max. I would have just said a million if it was a million, but maybe it's 912,000. That's a lot of
Gorgons all over the planet, right? And what they have the ability to do, we don't. We're not. They show up one day, they hang there for 90 days. Our complacency kicks back in, our guard is lowered. We get more comfortable with them there, even though we're not comfortable with them there. And so when they do attack, they catch us off guard, as they always are, want to do because we don't take them seriously enough. So people aren't attacking them back. People aren't trying to take them
back except when they're scampering. And by that time a lot of us have been killed off. They're horrifyingly fast. So I had to wrestle with this scenario when I did the prequel Volume 0, Revelation, which is where they. You're there when they arrive and when they attack. And in these ensuing years, I had to wrestle with how are the Gorgons going to, over three months time, wipe out 85% of humanity in all, animals. Well, it's kind of like a. A drive by freezing, you know,
so they're not gonna. They know. They're smart enough to know they're not gonna be able to eat us all right away and sit there and feast. All the rest of us, we will run and hide, find shelter and get our guns and then attack them. They can be killed. So it's basically immobilization. And once we re. You're immobilized, it's all over. You can't do anything. It's kind of like. I've heard of that drug Tran.
There's another name for it, but, the informal name is called tranq, where you're literally under such a, It's a narcotic, I guess. But what it is is'you're frozen. You're tensed and you're slooped over and you're like, you're statuesque. So they're gonna freeze you. They're gonna move on, they're gonna freeze the next people, they're gonna move on, freeze the next people, and then they're just gonna come back in another blanket across the planet. They're
gonna eat you at their leisure. You're still there weeks later. so. And you know, you may have died just from immobility. >> John: Yeah, that's frightening. So when you're. Do you do any speaking of events, Aaron, like talk about your book and anything like that? >> Aaron Ryan: Okay, yeah, craft fairs and vendor markets. But I'm actually speaking at Doxicon on February 8th. It's a conference up here, in Woodenville near Seattle. But I'm
also. I'm pretty sure I'm go goingna be on the, now I'm drawing a blank. It's the big one in Seattle, norestcon coming up in April, I believe. >> John: Nice, nice. And we'll talk about that before we wrap up the show. So you can give all my spooky friends hey if they live in the area, because we do have listeners in your neck of the woods. >> Aaron Ryan: yeah. >> John: So I have to ask, do you have people coming up to you and being like, Aaron, you know what? It's
true. And you're like, what's true? The Gorgons. They're true. I saw them. Do. Do you ever have. You were talking a little bit about that like he man. But do you honestly have people coming up to you a little bit more? And do you have a weird story maybe, or a funny story that you could share with my suy friends? Like you were like, tell you honestly, this is. >> Aaron Ryan: This is go goingna sound a little bit maybe like crazy. I. I
may be diagnosable with this. I just remember I actually took a pilgrimage to Clarksville, Tennessee and Blue Spring, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee, a Labor Day weekend this past year. And that's where my stories take place primarily. So I wanted to go there. It was well after the overwhelming majority of the books had been written. In fact, I think all of them had been written except for the sequel. And I really wanted to go because there were elements of one of the prequels that I
wanted to make sure we were correct. But I also wanted to walk the very grounds where my protagonists and other characters walk. So to be there and know that these were real places which I knew know in fleshing out the narratives of the books. I wrote them with a very gritty sense of reality and used actual streets and actual businesses and actual establishments, in 2026. And you know, they're abandoned 16 years later in 2042. But they're
all real places. So if there's anybody who would come to me and say, man, Gorgons exist, it's me. You know, I was. I find myself. I find myself driving along, you know, on the highway on a blue, sunny day and imagining these things just descending out of the sky. I know I'm gonna plow into somebody one of these days, but it's. >> John: That's your insurance agent. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, it just. It. >> John: It's. >> Aaron Ryan: What is it? The, the unconscious intrudes
upon the conscious. You know, there's this overlap that you don't really intend, but you're so immersed in the story, and you want it to be real. I want the characters to be real. I want the struggle to be real. I want the victory to be real. I don't know if I want the Gorgons to be real because they're terrifying. >> John: Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, you know, you talked to some guys saying they're abducted, and you're trying
to. You know, like, that's great. I, think that's really interesting because there are stories where I believe in the person that this happened, you know, But I think it's few and far between. But again, I've spoke to a couple of people who. Authors. One is. Her name is Karen Wilkinson, and she said when she was a teenager, she was abducted pretty much every night. And she could feel it. She could feel everything. And the vivid.
I mean, for her to make that up, it was to me, like, wow, you know, and she takes it seriously. And, you know, she, We talked about it, and, you know, she was getting very emotional. So I'm like, I couldn't even imagine that happening for real, you know, with your book Imagine. And, that's scary enough. but let me ask you this. When you were re. Writing the book, did you
ever. Because I know this sounds strange. When I'm doing my research for, my shows, sometimes I feel like someone's watching me or I feel, like, weird, especially on the topic I'm doing. Like, I've done topics about, like, exorcism and stuff, and I just feel like somebody's. Well, you know. You feel weird. Rightus? Ever happened to you when you were writing your book and you were like, whoa, what's going on here, buddy? >> Aaron Ryan: I'm Rockwell. I always feel like somebody's watching
me. I do. There's maybe a little bit of schizophrenia there, but I think that actually fuels. And that's probably part of conditioning, of being A voiceover artist, you. You're actually trained to. By some coaches, I should say, you're trained to pretend like you're actually delivering to somebody. Live all the time. So while my book is not live at the moment, while I'm writing it, it becomes
live upon publishing. But while it's not live, I'm imagining, you know, there's these people that are around me and they're reading it with me and just they're being equally as phased or moved or stunted or impassioned or emboldened or whatever that I'm feeling. So I think there's maybe a little bit of healthy schizophrenia in every writer's odyssey. Maybe there should be, I guess.
>> John: Yeah, exactly, exactly. the other thing too, one of the things too, with writing, I noticed and stuff like that, and talking about things, you know, there's things called topas and, I don't know if you ever heard of topas, but basically it's something the collective imagination keeps imagining. This neg. Collective power. That's what they think. Like Bigfoot is likeness. what do you think
of that? Is that something, you know, you've ever thought about, you know, maybe writing about or when you're writing, maybe you were like, I want. I wonder what. What people would think when they read this book. are they starting to imagine what you hope? Because then they want to read more. But imagine the Gorgons coming down and everything.
>> Aaron Ryan: Yeah. I think. Well, again, I hate to draw a parallel as a voiceover artist, but our goal is to transport people as voiceover artists to tell them a story. And people love being told stories. We've loved being told stories since the dawn of time. and I love that a. as the know, the career paths that I have, they're in parallel. And I'a dual storyteller. So in the one I'm actually telling, I'm entrusted to tell other people's stories as a voice over artist. In there,
I'm telling my own stories, and I much prefer this one. I mean, let's be real honest, because the creativity that I get to inject into both, but far and away more in this one allows me to transport people and to take them places where they. They want to believe the Gorgons exist. More power to you go to where you believe that this land exists. That's the reason why we return to these stories and read them over and over and over again is
because we want them to be real. There's a tangible visceral experience that we have in reading this book, that takes us places and that we want to experience over and over and over again because it's just such a great experience. You know, we want that. >> John: Yeah. And that's why I think Alien, we were. Were talking about that, you know, with alien aliens, so on and so forth. Keeps going. Alien Covenant. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeahn.
>> John: Romulus keeps going is because like you said, we can imagine that, right. Being on that space station and having these aliens basically using us to, I don't know, impregnate themselves. And you know, I just, I think that's really cool, you know, that, that, that still scares us even in this world and everything like that. And do you think that's. I don't want to say the perfect movie, but do you have a sci fi movie where you think is like, yeah, I think this. What
really happened. This might be the close to how it happen. Not saying perfect, but close to how might happen in reality. >> Aaron Ryan: That's really good. a really good question. Excuse me. I absolutely love the movie Contact. And I'HONESTLY as a writer, I'm much more drawn, and inspired by movies than I am by other people's works. I just have always been that way.
So, other people's literary works, I should say. So it's always really cool reading someone else's works because then you get into their mind and you go, wow, you know, you're just as weird as I am and creative as I am and stuff. But I'm just, I'm much, always been much more inspired visually. So that's why movies are just a, much more powerful form of inspiration for me.
I love Contact. I think that it's in terms of hard science fiction truths that are present in there, the scientific research and the plausibility of some, you know, whatever, some being or force or, you know, race or society imparting information to us so that we can build a transporter and, and travel all the way through the galaxy to the Vega system. It could be. I mean, something like that could feasibly happen. And so, yeah, I think it's a great story.
I think it was riveting the whole way through. I don't know that it got really high marks in terms of acting or anything else, but I love that movie. >> John: Yeah, yeah. Not, not to go on a tangent, but we tend to do this on this podcast. The only problem I had is when they blow up, the device, whatever you want to call it, and then they just have another device. Here you go. Come on. What are we doingahah. Stop it. That to me was like, you know, that's fair, that's fair.
Like no one would notice. Like, the government would be like, wait a minute, you're building the same thing we're building. Yeah, shut up. I guess you're gonna need it. But again, with contact, I think that would really happen. I think there would be a person who would blow that up because they're like, no, there is a God. There is, you know, religion, that. To bring religion into this. But. Right. Somebody would do that. That's why I love that movie too. Like, it kind of plays to our
sensibilities as, human beings. Is like, wait a minute, you're telling me there's something else out there, right? >> Aaron Ryan: Well, I love the line. It's such a good line in that movie and kind of pertains to any movie where you're dealing with just the vastness of space. Who was it? Ellie Arrowway is Jodi Foster's character. And she says, or she's talking to her dad when they're out one night, you know, before he dies with their
telescope. not that he dies with their telescope, that was set improperly, but they're with the telescope out looking out in space, whatever, and he dies later. There we go. But he said, she says something to him and he says, you know, well, if it is just us, it seems like an awful waste of space or something like that. He said, I love that. I think that without bringing religion into it as well, but God is big enough to bring into being another race, another civilization,
another humanity on another planet. And who's to say that he didn't? And whatever the humanity looks like, acts like, sounds like, talks like, you know, we might run into him someday and go, wow, you're different. You're an alien. And they're gonna say, no, you're an alien. You know? >> John: Yeah, absolutely. So being this my podcast, I have to say what my favorite sci fi movie is. And I love old movies. My mom and I used to watch old movies all
the time, you know, and you know, I love. My mom passed away, a while. But she would watch old movies together. And my favorite one is the Day the Earth Stood Still. The original one. Yeah. Because I love the beginning. They land the ufo, and if you haven't seen it, go see it. And I know you're gonna go, it's black and white. I watch the one Piano Reeves. No, no, no, watch the original. And they land and the, alien comes out and what did they Immediately. Do
they shoot it? He has. He's holding. Kind of looks like a gun now. Okay, I'll give him that. And then he's like, yeah, this would have, like, help you, like, like, cure cancers. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeahew. You blew it. >> John: Thanks a lot. And I think that's exactly what we would do. I think in Alalien would land. You'd be, he or she or whatever you want to say would be like, okay, heree carrying something that looks like a weapon or a bomb and saying,
okay, this is going to cure. Bam. We shoot or whatever. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah. >> John: O. I think that's go. Going toa happen. And the other thing I loved about that movie was when he's trying to get an audience with all the, presidents and, you know, prime ministers all over the world, and they're like, I will not come to the United States. I will not come here. I will not go to Russia. I. And he's like, children. You're nothing but children, you know, because they're
so advanced. And I think that's, I think that's what I think kind of a combination of contact, because something like this, where aliens would be like. And we talked about it, where they'd be like, you are children. What are you doing? Right? And I think that's. I always find that fascinating. >> Aaron Ryan: It reminds me, there's a line, in Ruthless People, which is another, older movie from the 80s. although, you know, Day of the
Earth Stood still, came before that, of course. But, I love the line, Judge Reinhold plays, this kidnapper of Helen, she played Supergirl. I can't remember her last name. Helen something or other played. He was a kidnapper of her. And he's just, you know. Oh, I'm sorry. No, it's not Judge Rhiinhold. It is the guy who played the president in Independence Day. >> John: Bill Pullman. >> Aaron Ryan: Bill Pullman. He is a kidnapper. And he's
really dumb. He just. Low, low intellect. And at one point, the cops, as they're trying to negotiate with him, and he just, you know, is not. Not playing, right? And not understanding anything, ever saying. But the cop goes, this. This may very well be the stupidest person on the face of the Earth. perhaps we should shoot him. And I just love. I love. I love that that is actually an option that. That, you know, comes into his brain.
Maybe we should shoot him. And you can. You can imagine the aliens thinking that, too. You're just children. Maybe we should shoot you. >> John: Maybe we should shoot them. Right? Yeah. So as we wrap up here. I just wanted to do a couple of things before, you talk about a little bit about congratulations. Like I said, turning into a movie and everything. But you have written children's books so I'WANT to give a couple minutes to talk about that because obviously I have all different ages
listening to this podcast. Could you talk a little bit about your children's book? I think that's an interesting thing. Deadly Aliens and hey, let's talk about kids. >> Aaron Ryan: It's funny, I mean it's hard saying what I've written because honestly the children's books are of a faith
nature. And on the front I'm saying, you know, best sellling author of the alien invasion sci fi series Dissideancets and the 911 historical fiction thriller Forecast, you know, which have nothing to do with based faith based children's books. I wasn't ever going toa write a children's book. I just, you know, I'm a storyteller. I'm telling my eight year oldest story and it was bedtime and so this is. You can't actually, you could probably see on my camera here. Yeah. So Brennan
is this one. He's my eight year old, almost nine year old and Asher is five. So I'm telling Brennan, my eight year old this story one night in bed and it was either incredibly inspiring and peaceful or incredibly boring because he fell asleep as I was telling it to him. But whatever, I'm fine, it's okay. And I just came away from that story going wow, God, that was amazing. Helped me to remember that. And I pulled away and I wrote it down as best as I could remember and recapture it and
just was really blown away. Grateful for how beautiful the story was. I know that as a kid I struggled with, you know, feelings of shame. If I ever did anything wrong, I was a bad person. Right. We are very clear with both of our boys that if you ever do something wrong and you will, you're human. Yeah, it's, we're upset with what you did, not with who you are. You're not a bad person. What you did might be bad, but you're not a
bad person. So I was telling him that story and I just needed to put that story in print so it became the Ring of Truth. And I don't know how I didn't see this coming. Man, I should have seen this coming. But I presented the Ring of Truth to Brennan, I showed it to him and what does my five year old do? He goes, that's great, daddy. Where's mine? And I was like, how did I not see that coming? Like, it's just, you should anticipate
that kind of stuff. So that begat the sequel to it, which is the Sword of Joy, which just deals with, being honest about your emotions. And it's okay to be sad, it's okay to cry. So there's that one. And then I wrote a third one called the Book of Power, and they all became a series together. it's a weird expedition to go into a children's book realm because it's not everwh where I thought I would go, but it's
cool to have gone there. And I think you should be as versatile as possible and adapt as much as you can. >> John: Absolutely. So can you, for my spooky friends, give us an update, on dissonance and where'it you know, at right now as far as what you're pitching with it and stuff. Is that okay? >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. Well, as a screenwriter, you understand some of this, I'm sure. yeah. I was marketed to in March, I believe, of last year.
And I was a cynic right away, like, who are you? Who is this guy? And his assistant, reached out to me. It's Alan roth with Act 2 Media. And he was one of five winners of a contest put on by Galen Heard, who is the ex wife of James Cameron. I know. Who's that? And, he won that contest with his screenplay of Jersey City Story, one of five winners. So I betted him, I said, how much does it cost to produce a screenplay? I googled it. It was between here
and here. He was right here in the middle. And, I've talked to other screenwriters about Forecast as well. Their price is roughly the same. So, you know, anyway, that just kind of validated it. But he was very collaborative. We, had monthly meetings where he would present to me what he had written more for the pilot. and he made some changes. I was like, I just, oh, can you, you. And he changed him back. So he listened to me. He
changed him back. but he's been actively pitching. The screenplay is done, the pilot is done, the treatment is done, the character bible is done. and he pitches. He's done probably 10 pitches so far. No one has said no, except for two actors. He went the actors route to try to attach them. >> John: Sure. >> Aaron Ryan: to the project. And two or three of them actually said no one, just because of busyness. But I was like, hey, I got rejected by John Hamm. That's so
Cool. I'll take it. >> John: You take it. >> Aaron Ryan: And Dylan Sprouse and, Eric. Eric Bana. I was like, bring all the rejections, man. >> John: That's pretty on. I love it. I love it. Yeah. To even get that far. Aaron, I applaud you. It's, it's, it's tough out there, but I wish you much success with that. So thank you. Else you got coming up, you're talking about you're gonna be at some,
you know, different events and everything. Tell my spooky friends so they can, come out and say hi and tell you they've been abducted by aliens. I mean, don't do that. Or. >> Aaron Ryan: Well, I will be at Doxicon. I'll be at Barnes and Noble in, in Kirkland on February 1st, signing books again. And February 8th I'll be at Doxshiccon in Woodenville. I believe it's doxiccon seattle.com do if I'm understanding it correctly.
And it is, like the intersection of where like, sci fi meets faith, I believe is the overall theme. So looking forward to that. And I'm going to be a panelist there and a booth vendor. And then on the writing front, I have. I was really motivated to begin writing a clean Christian fiction trilogy that deals with the apocalypse or the end times, not the Left behind series of the 90s. Although I loved that. I thought was. I thought it was brilliantly done. But mine is a twist on
that. It is post apocalyptic. It is very dystopian and has been a big challenge. But I love where it's going. And I'm at 200 and I, think I'm 276 pages so far on volume one. So it's closing in on the finish line and I'm really excited. >> John: Yeah, I love that because again, it takes so much to take the blank page and put something on it. And then you're like, u. this is terrible. You know, Then you go back and you're like, oh, isn't so bad how to deal with it.
So before we wrap up here too, because I do have authors. Because that's, what, you know, obviously I have authors on which I had you, but I do have authors who do listen to this or aspiring authors. What would you say to them? Someone getting started. We kind of talked about, like, yeah, you know, not a lot of people follow through with it. But what would you say was your mar. Motivator to kind of like, push through when there was kind of like, E. Maybe not.
>> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, Well, I was given excellent advice that I will pass on to anybody and everybody if they ask. It was life changing advice. It was given to me in the context of voiceovers, not authoring. But it applies so much to authoring. The advice was someone's endorsement of you or lack thereof has very little to do with your trajectory. And my a former voiceover agent turned entrepreneur friend of mine said that to me and I basically was
like, say that again. So I want to write that down. It just impressed upon me so much and so I had to repeat it. I was like that's huge and life changing. And so it applies so much to authors because we want our books to be sold. If they're not selling. Someone's endorsement has very little to do with our trajectory. If we get a bad review, doesn't matter. Someone's endorsement of us or lack thereof has very little to
do with our trajectory. If we are called upon to speak or getting interviews or anything like that or we're not. Someone's endorsement of us or lack thereof has very little to do with our trajectory. My trajectory is forward and up regardless of what people say about me or my books. So you have to, you really have to develop thick skin in this industry and let a lot of stuff roll off your back because you know you'll never get further than the table of contents, you know, if you do.
>> John: If you don't do that. Yeah, absolutely. That is great advice and thank you for taking time out to be on the show. We talked about a variety of topics which I love. I hope none of which your re writing comes true other than other than success. I will say that and I look forward to You have to We'have to keep updating one another to see where you are with your project ca because they you be on a streaming service I can go check out and tell my spooky friends. But
spooky friends know this. All Aaron's links will be on there so you can read his fascinating books. I'm getting them myself, ordering them off Amazon. But they know whatever you would like to do and you know, again if you're in the area, go see Aaron, support him. Independent authors are the lifeblood in my opinion of not only books, but just media in general. There's a lot of big things out
there I'm not trying to hate on them. But without independent authorsh, in independent visionaries like Aaron here, you know, we wouldn't have great writers like Tolkien and Clancy and King and on and on and on and on. They started just where Aaron was and grew just like Aaron was. And he will continue to grow. So, again, thank you so much, and taking time, like I said, this
was awesome. I could talk to you a lot more and, you know, again, hopefully maybe I'll have you back on the show sometime when, you have more success and we talk about that movie or streaming series, whatever you want to say. >> Aaron Ryan: Yeah, I'd love that. And if you or anybody else want to visit me or check out the blog or email, I love mail, you can visit me at, authorararon ryan.com. i love to talk to readers and anybody I can.
>> John: I was just about to ask that. You read my mind. Oh, maybe you're an alien. Maybe you're not really Aaron. >> Aaron Ryan: I am Aaron Ryan. I. This. >> John: I knew it. >> Aaron Ryan: Lip off the mask. >> John: Off the mask. And you got like, blood and eyeballs. >> Aaron Ryan: And like, it would'succeeded too, if it hadn't been for you mentally. >> John: Kids. Awesome. So, yes, reach out to Aaron, you know,
and I'm sure he would love to hear from you. So thank you so much, Aaron. And, you know, like I said, I wish you much success and hopefully we'll get back here in the future. >> Aaron Ryan: You too. Thanks again for having me. Appreciate it. >> John: Thanks, E. Have a great one. Bye. >> Aaron Ryan: See you. Bye.