0:03  
Welcome to positive talk radio. Our goal is simple to explore evolving ideas, one conversation at a time. So, stay with us. As of right now, we present to the Stay with us, because in this episode, we're all gonna die. And I'm just kidding. I have to have to tell you do you see Gomez is the author, the impeccable author, she's written 19 books, the last one to come, I was called Judgment Day, and we were all gonna die. And there was a four horsemen of the apocalypse. And it was all kinds of stuff. And she is just a delightful human being. And I have such a good time with her the other day, that I wanted to invite her back so that we could get this down and talk him. Young, cute, and give them time to talk about the things that you do and, and how you got into doing this. And, and and also, what do you see yourself? And what do you see our planet? And what's you know, just we'll talk about anything, anything you want to talk about specifically?

1:10  
Hey, I'm open to any discussions. I think I need to have a disclaimer for everybody viewing, watching listening is most of the times a lot of my books have a lot of the horror element. So everybody's like, I don't know if any of pick it up. This is scary. And I was like you met me? Do I look like I write anything scary? They're like, Oh, good point. Do that girl. Do a quirky character blast of madness. I'm your girl pick up a book because it's full of dark humor. It usually that's one of those you asked me earlier. You know, do people ask you these specific questions I always say asked if my books are scary, and I honestly have to think about them. It's like, yeah, no, they're not scary. They do have they'll have a little bit of suspense. They'll have a little bit of thriller. Scary. Now that's just very quirky. Kind of like dark humor to be scary.

2:00  
I know. But when you wrote the series, because this was the Judgment Day was the fifth book in the series. Right? It was called the intern diary series. Yes. And why is that that name?

2:13  
So Book One is called Best Intern. And it's literally based on the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And every horseman has its stars. So that has one poor continent. And our main heroine who's amazing ISIS black, and she's literally just a girl trying to make her live. You know, she moved to Texarkana. She's trying to get her life together. And there's a knock on the door and this death of the job offer. Endless Yes, as that puts it out. I said this that how much going on her life? This is like you know, she was a one bedroom apartment, things are falling apart. What are you going to do? Her one friend gets kidnapped, and it throws her in this whirlwind of figuring it out. Like oh, my god, the horsemen surreal, which occurred some book to do for your life, realize that the horse is out there. But it is finally, what happens if you get this knock on your door that changes your life. What do you do? So you have this sarcastic girl, they're trying to do the best that she can. I think that's the beautiful thing about this series is it is a bunch of interns who's trying to do good, you know, like, Her job is to figure out anytime something's gonna stop this delivery of the soul. ISIS has to go fix it. That's it. She just doesn't realize that all this random stuff is going to happen. And then the life expectancy of interim is short, they just tend to die fast. You have all this, you realize as the series goes on, but Oh, my God, the only thing that Horseman's do by then wait for the apocalypse, this by waste kill humanity. It's just like, What is wrong with this entire beings? So she's learning a lot about herself and everybody else. And book five is really what will you do with your family, and family, it can be anything this can be your blood, family can be the tribe that you pick up, it can be anything. And ISIS has to make some decisions because her family's attack. So all the enemies bunches she never had everybody else's pissed off. And of course, they'll come in for them nice is like, Okay, now what do we do? So she has to step up and say, What will you do to save the ones you love? And that's what she does.

4:14  
That's it that takes quite a little bit of imagination to be able to write all that. By the way, could you adjust your your microphone just just a little bit? We're having just a little bit of background, background noise. Better speak for?

4:31  
How does that sound?

4:33  
That's still getting maybe maybe put the microphone a little bit further away from your face? Maybe?

4:38  
Let's try that. How does that

4:40  
go ahead and say it

4:41  
and how does that sound? Is that better? Do anything just not

4:47  
better? We're good. So. So you wrote that five? Did you know that that was going to be a five book series when you started?

4:58  
So I decided it was going Maybe once book one came out, I wanted to do five books. So I'm going to give you the insight of how my mind functions and you can laugh with me. Book one was done. I turned over to my brother, my sister in law, who like my dream team that the group that I talked to knows like, what am I going to talk about the other five books? She goes, what made you decide to do five? I was like, like the number five, he was like, Oh, my God, really? Really? This was your solution and picking up the ingredients. So we did I remember going to one local restaurant as a freak. Now I have all these you know them going. I have nothing like what is the rest of this theory supposed to be? And I always wanted to do a end of the world kind of like apocalypse, I always wanted to do what happens that would trigger the end of the world. So my brother came up with the news. Why don't you talk about the other interns from the Horseman's and I had, like, what interns what they have intern, like, oh, US intern wouldn't be like, you know, I like so this series introduces you to ISIS, and then introduce you to death. And you kept the series through her eyes. So you get to meet book two you get to meet as felons. And what I decided to do is I wanted to introduce the magical role a little slower. So instead of just dumping tons of characters that you kind of slowly built fortunately. So Book Two, you get to see zombies like, okay, there's a plague. Running Well, only in Texarkana. So you got disgruntled employees at this time, do poison people, turn them into zombies. Book Three, we get to meet more who can post all the armies in case everybody wonders, best answers makes a living out of telling people with viruses. So blame any pandemic. That's our Colin, you know, the flu, she makes the killing out of the flu, or people run the CDC, just in case you're curious. How does the CDC not know that? Well, she runs that too, so that you have war who runs all the armies? And to be it's a little bit I wanted to give a little romance in here because I don't do Romans very well. So I've been told. So I have a star crossed lover between and helping a vampire people go in DC really, this is not what we thought I was like, just a moment. It was like, that's that's not what we met. But okay, so your drama, all of that fun action scenes in that one. So the ending of it, and it's Oh, so I got battle scenes, demons come in all sorts of madness, and exciting. They're like, how are you going to talk before it was like, I don't know, like, I listen, we're going there. And then before you're going to meet famine, and famine runs off the diet industry? Because let's be honest, how are you going to make humanity starve itself and making money? There you go. So famine runs, all of them, killing it. So famine and pestilence have a competition to see which one has more money. So the two of them go hand in hand, war, cares more about the armies and all that part, you know, in the military death just wants to deliver souls that is like God. So in this group of sibling rivalry, as I call them, you only one has a common sense of death. And everybody's like, rarely, the only one not trying to kill humanity, its death is just to deliver them. And because the horsemen have been around for so long, and nurses, arrogant, because they're not human, they have none of the values, they have none of this at stake. They're just waiting for the apocalypse that all their enemies come together and take a shot at them. So here's the reality, if you attack the most powerful force in the world, what's going to happen? Well, the Horseman's have one, plan, B, one that has this is destroy humanity, the end. And ISIS like, Wait, what is that wish is gonna blow everything up? This is how we're gonna pay them back. So ISIS is trying to stop the Horseman's and the enemies, bring our people back, and hopefully not die. Oh,

8:50  
my gosh, you have a one sort of an imagination. That's just amazing. It's so much fun. Oh, yeah, you get to put on, that must be a lot of fun to put on a hat. You know, and leave reality behind in some manner, or form, and just do whatever it is you feel like doing.

9:08  
It is creating your own world and universe, I had a conversation I want to say was book three. And I looked at my brother and I was like, you know, it's part of the story. They're searching for this process that goes missing, and they have to go to hell. And I looked at my brothers I can I take my characters to help like is your book you can take them anywhere. And I'm like, Oh, yeah. My bad. So you asked if I have nightmares. That was probably one of those books that I literally did lots of prayer sites and lots of like, you know, signs of the cross. I feel like, Ooh, sounds like should I get some holy water to spray around my house? Because as a Christian, I honestly going to take this girl down to the depths of hell. And how did you describe this world? You know, so I pull a little bit of Greek mythology. So you have, you know, the rabid stinks, you put a little bit of, we have Greek, a little bit of Roman with a touch of you know, here and there. Egyptian And then you still have what we believe helped to be as Christian so you have a point of Hell, where there's souls burning and they're screaming and there's that smell because I didn't want to create a world that hell was fun. I didn't want that to be I also wanted people to realize okay, if you think hell is going to be a certain way you still have that side that is not the most fun like nobody wants to like nobody wants to go to the side of the road it's like don't go to that and then you still haven't I think when they make it to hell, I want to tell it to be something that makes people really so their version of Hell is like the Vegas strip. So at one point I think book finally had to go back to houses like the Vegas strip that like you know, the demons have created now like where do you think they copied from? So book three I think takes you to Hotel California so it's kind of also it's like how did you play with what we know and make it someone fun? So if you know the references people like really that's that's how I'm like why not? So yeah, so she has to get to Hotel California which everybody thinks is hideous it needed to be blown up

11:00  
I tell you what Hotel California would be I don't know what that would be like that's so so did is there hell and brimstone and fire and all that stuff in in in your version of hell or is it gambling and and loose women and you know what there would be a good story about that is his if you had to go to the casino and you didn't have any money and

11:31  
that's it definitely helped so have your horrible nightmare but I think that happens more on Earth and it will be an Alan I agree.

11:39  
Happens all the time.

11:41  
So you get a little bit of the brainstem you get a little bit definitely the theme inside and it's kind of vaisya that your demons book sorry Oh my into your peel the layers and then you realize how these creatures are definitely there to kill you and destroy you. So ISIS and I do play a lot with idea of holy water cannon you know what a guns full of waters and hell and figuring out what you do. You can a little bit of you know, for anybody who's into mythology you get the three you know threaded horse trying to attack them and they have like a bar of chocolate to like defend themselves so it's a little bit tongue in cheek you know, there is that mythology, there's this concept, but there's still the fact of like, what will you do when you have a girl and water ties? That goes to hell? And she's like, why are we here? So with the Hill concept I needed to get them there somehow. So for anybody who, you know, how do we get them so you have a boatman? Most mythologies, say you pay for a ride with a gold coin to hell, right? That's that's kind of the part. What happens in that guy or skeleton whatever you call it actually works for your ball. So when I say shows up, and everybody's like, no, what do we do and how do we get there he's called DJ bag of bones. That's kind of the nickname comes in. And her garden happens to be a you know, five dozen y'all talking cat Constantine. So here Give the bag so you can get in. So as is like, walks in very serious trying to be you know, she's actually just in the course of Alcatraz so that he gets to get picked up in Alcatraz by the DJ, you know, the skeletons everything's, you know, torture, they have souls getting ready. So she hands him the bag, he opens it up and pulls up a mixtape. Like really, really, we're going to go to hell with DJ backbones. So Hurricane Katrina via the Internet getting into this wild adventure of like, what happens if the guy that takes you to hell happens to orphans death as well? Do you really sell your soul or uses his little cousin jump in? I got you.

13:39  
Well, and you just described one of the worst things about the hell that you just described, which is you'd probably be hip hop music that would be that would be listening to listening to rap. Seven would be my version of hell.

13:58  
Only if you don't like it if you like it, then this is your personal you know horror coaster from Disney. So

14:03  
well then you would get the if you did like rap, then you would get like the monkeys or and you'd be listening to their music 24/7.

14:15  
So you can have a little bit of the idea of what if and I think that's usually as a fantasy writer, that's usually why to specialize is take something that we think we know very shortly and just add a twist. You know, what if it was a little bit different than what we expect so you get to go on this crazy adventure there. Like you said, my goal is always to give you something just to break away from the routine. I think life can be very, very difficult. Life can be very draining and overwhelming. Sometimes you just want that escape. And yes, there's social commentaries here and there. If you're looking for it, I can give you some of that. But if you just want to get lost in a fun story of like, oh my god, that just happened. This is it. This is the kind of stuff you notices buckle up. You have no idea what's gonna happen next.

14:56  
Well, it's important that you have that kind of rapport with your readers because it is like taking a break from reality for a while. And you know that it's really not really happening. And the Four Horsemen are probably really not going to death, it's probably not going to come knock on your door and say, Hi, I'm definitely want you to be my intern, like, you know and stuff. But it's, you know, I think it's great fun for you to play with people like that. So it's fun. So congratulations, 19. Now, the last one, which was Judgment Day, that came out when

15:35  
judgment day is the last one in the intern diary series. So I got stories and anecdotes for all of my books. This one comes with one of those. We're going to have a book and I've been prepping this book for a while I've been prepping my readership. Everybody's ready. So judgment days, book five, we have been blasting. It's coming. It's all exciting. And it's think back March 2020. What happened in March 2020? So, no, I know. So March 13, the world decides that we're going to shut down. And we're going to shut down because of a pandemic of all things. And I ran out by the horsemen. So imagine they're so people's lives depend on those do and I was like, If she did, she's costing me a lot of money. So she stopped doing that. I'm not appreciating it. So then the hardest part is to say is to have a book that says, you know, judgment days come in, and I'm like, Oh, my god, how am I going to do this? Without signing, you know, without sounding unkind without sounding like I don't care is still trying to promote this book. So a lot of the things everything came like little parentheses, like the book, I just Mondays come in the book, because everybody's, you know, like, we're talking about what is happening is the first time in, you know, over 100 years that our wall is getting ready to shut down. And we don't know what to expect. And here comes his writer writing a bonus Judgment Day, I was like, God really, really, is this how we're not really what's going to happen. So releasing, Benjamin day was definitely a different adventure, the covers were different. So they were darker. So it had this red, new silhouettes of black and there's flames in the back. And there's a skull and a topping, which is very different than what you have. Now. The one today gives you a very kind of urban fantasy field. You know, it's magical. The other one is very much dark and grim. So you thought horror, and then you honestly thought, like, why is this book Judgment Day? So yeah, so it was probably the hardest promotion and yet, now that now two years later, we can laugh about it? Because I'm like, somebody's like, when you change the names, like, you can't change the name of the book, like it doesn't make any sense.

17:35  
Especially with the, the the artwork that you have on that that is it really is a great looking artwork and, and the and the gal who is the is that the intern?

17:48  
Yes. So your main cover is ISIS, my cover designer, Christine jority. does an amazing job and everything, Christine, for anybody who is looking forward, you know, you can find more titles in time a bulk of what she does, does incredible work. So it's very urban fantasy feel. So you can't really decide that, you know, it's up and down. Maybe we should cheat my What am I going to change into, like, enter the world, I bet it's going to sell even better. So it became very much like, I'm just gonna go with it. God has a plan, it will be okay. I'm not exactly sure what the plan is, but we're going with it.

18:19  
You know, I really enjoy, you know, books like like yours that that I have, because I suspect I don't know this for sure. But I suspect that when that you cover all of your bases, as you're writing the book, you're not leaving things to chance. Let me give you an example, to remember the Left Behind series. In one of the movies that they did have that they just showed people's clothing that was like left on the chair or left in the car. And they were they were gone. So I was picturing. Does that mean that there were a bunch of naked people flying through the air going up to heaven? And why did they wasn't gonna let them have their underwear at least? Hopefully they

19:07  
have new clothes when they get there. And that's what I feel about it like you get a new outfit when you show up. Like who needs those Earth clothes. Here's some golden robes. Come right in. I'm like, I'm holding this I'm not I'm like, why are they making clothes do not pass inspection?

19:22  
Because quite frankly, nobody wants to see that. They really don't.

19:27  
At this point in time, do you think they care that like where are we? Why are we all hear? She makes a question. Thanks. Huh? What happened to us?

19:34  
Exactly that now that would be an interesting conversation or an interesting book to write would be about the rapture, and what an individual would be going through their mind the day before the day of the day after. Esteem. Yeah, it really would be because that you would have the freedom to be able to say this is the This is where we begin and then this is the the actual event. And then this is the result of that event. And then and then trying to make it work and make it flow without, without being preachy. Now that would be the that would be the key is to not to make it reality without being preachy, you know, I

20:18  
mean, anytime you add theology, and especially when you add modern day religions do you have to be very careful. And that's one of the things when I wrote the book one, I wanted to make sure that I didn't come across as preachy, you know, and that's the things that I asked multiple others, like, Does it sound like I'm preaching the sound that I'm preaching about how we treat homelessness in the United States? So it's not like I'm preaching about theology, they're like, No, it's like, law, it's like, because there's a fine line, you know, or feelings are so much involved in who we are, and how we see the world that if we're not careful, you will find yourself creating a book that is much more like I'm going to teach you put this over your head, instead of something that's entertaining or even educational. So it's very hard to keep that editor or that judgment part of us outside of book that can be very, very personal. So when it comes to somebody's, like having an outside person, remember like, Okay, did I come across as over the top? Or is this something that you can read and entertain? And if you want to take more from it, you can? If not, are you still good with it?

21:18  
Yes. And everybody who, who read your book, and you ask that question to say, no, you're fine. You do you do a good job, because you do do a good job of being real and being honest and stuff like that. So that's great. Great, thank you. What are you going to do next?

21:38  
I am working on a spinoff series. So right now is called the owners assassin. So yes, I have my mind doesn't stop. So I have to cover disclaimers for everybody. So one of our characters from the intern diaries happens to be a which will also have this to be blank cup in Texarkana. He has all of this stuff. And he wasn't changed because you know, at the end of the book, I don't know this, my readers all seem to have known this. He had a crush on ISIS. I'm like, did he really because I had no idea. No clue. Nobody told me that message. Everybody else seemed to be I was the only one behind not tracking that. So he has a new series, he starts out with a novella, which is starts out with a hitman and then Book Two is the traitor book three is going to come out next year. So the goal is to give you a little bit of a wrap up of what's happening in the entire world. So Eric is a little bit sexy and a little bit dangerous. A little bit has issues he's moody letters, but now they're Eric has with issues and bad choices in terms of women's selection and the whole nine yards. But his heart is in a good place and he wants to find out who betrayed his people. And what he can do about it. What he finds out is he's horrible. Being an assassin hates me and an assassin but he could do it really well. So he hates it and he's still stuck in this job. So has anybody been stuck in a job that hey, this is Eric

22:59  
being stuck in the job as an assassin that would be hard. I don't really feel like killing anybody today then you know that would be that would be really that would be hard.

23:12  
I'm always going to my dude how did you get stuck there but he's so good and they're like well this you get answers so Eric is literally hates the job still believes in the mission he wants to help his people. So you get a lot a whole bunch of that and then they get to play with shifters. So which is kind of fun. I have an entire clan of shifters which is also another clan of assassins but does that mean that others all assassins in this series? That's all you get? You get a bit of assassins

23:37  
when you say shift are you talking about my or body being able to trance shift their bodies,

23:44  
they're able to transform to animal forms. So my clan shifts into felines and they get to some of them get to pick which one they are. They're not wearables of some of them can be anything from tigers, to Panthers to Alma, you name it.

24:00  
Well, what's the name of that series when it comes out?

24:03  
There is that the oddest assassin? So the order of witches is the assassins and all about Eric in his own little world of trying to get out of this mess that he just got himself into. He's kind of stuck there.

24:15  
How is it? How does it feel for a woman to be writing a story about a man? How do you get into his head?

24:24  
I am really, really lucky. I'm the oldest of three and only have brothers. So being able to have really good conversations with them has helped. And see and I also have pick career fields specifically with men, not by choice who's going to happen. So I went to school for film and television, which is a very male oriented field and I joined the military. So being around primarily, I was a mechanic in the military for anybody who's curious. So I spend a lot of time just talking to the male side in terms of what they see and how they see things and the fact that they don't see things as emotionally attached as men And he was willing to do so things that Timmy will be like, Oh my god, they were like, girl get over that. Like, that's not nearly as emotional as you think. So Eric is adding a little bit more of those emotionals to make him a little bit difficult to deal with you make him a little bit moody, you're going, Oh, please, why are you doing that? Sounds really fun. So when

25:21  
you were in, excuse me in the military, and you're working with a bunch of men, did they? What, what surprised you most? What did you learn the most about the differences between men and women and their psyche, and how they react and respond to things?

25:37  
Honestly, the most surprising things is that we're much more like that we think that we're just this emotional about things that sometimes make no sense. Like I was expecting men to be somebody said, a couple of my friends, as you know, men are supposed to be you know, like the focus and less gossipy. I was like, No, man, it's just as gossipy as woman, vicious gossip and different things. So that was very surprising. It was very much like those like little enhanced victory that you're going. Didn't see that coming. That was kind of the biggest surprise. But it also the fact that it sometimes is amazing to see how quickly men can resolve problems compared to women. You know, they have an issue, something happens, what it talks about, and they move on. They're now holding on to this for like 30 years. That's kind of one of the surprising things. Like once a guy says I am but they don't have this crazy conspiracy theories. I'm like, Oh, my God, they're out to get me a swear because this happened. Oh, no, they moved on. I think we talked about it, it's done. Move on. So I always find that to be very refreshing.

26:40  
Because women can talk about things at nauseam for forever.

26:47  
We hold on two things, I want to say we tend to have more emotional attachment to things very

26:52  
politically correct. Very good. Yes, we hold on to our shit.

27:01  
A little bit more emotionally connected. So it takes a little longer to let go of things when your emotions are attached. When things do not have nearly as much of an emotional baggage, you guys can let it go. And things are not always as big as you think they are. So guys have an ability to let go things quicker, we are looking at the impact and ramifications of our feelings and how this is going to affect our lives guys, like not that big of a deal. So,

27:25  
but to see that that for a lot of women's gotta be really frustrating. Because they want, they want to get it out. They want to talk about it. They want to continue to go down there. And the guys are like it's over. What are you worried about? But we have to we have to talk about we have to know it's all gone. I'm not interested. Thanks. That's that's kind of be frustrating for them.

27:48  
It makes it for a very exciting situation. There's always going to be some excitement going on. And it's also the things that makes writing really exciting is to explore this dynamics between people if you have somebody and then you can switch the roles, you can have a man who is very emotionally attached, who is very much nice to have this connection that tends to be a little bit more clingy. And having a woman who's a little bit more distant and then have the same kind of chemistry, disasters happenings in the back. So yeah, so as a writer, my job is always to watch people and kind of figured out what makes people tick. What makes them very angry, and then put them in a situation that you're going. What if we put these personalities here? What will happen? So that's always kind of fun.

28:34  
I want you to do this one. You ready? I'm ready. Okay, this one is a teenage guy. He's a bodybuilder. He's what's called a pretty boy. He never has to go as never has to ask a girl for a date. Because they're always asking him.

28:53  
Okay, that's very progressive men.

28:57  
Well, because yeah, he cuz I'm talking about somebody that I know, in real life, by the way, okay. And, but he's never had to seek a date. He's never had to pursue anybody. He's, they've always pursued him. And he just let whatever come come, and whoever show up, show up. And they may end up in bed. They may not it doesn't matter. And it just continues that way. But at one point, he doesn't know how to love. And he recognizes that he doesn't know how to love. And then the journey for him is to find out what love is and how to do it. Before he realizes that he's unlovable. How about that first story?

29:48  
A lot of the times when you have these kind of love situations, it always comes back to self love, believe it or not. So people that have a hard time loving is because they can't love themselves. So without getting too into the therapy behind it is you know, you can't give something you don't have that's kind of always comes back. So if you're not able to love yourself so if you're only if your claim to fame is that you look good and you're the pretty boy, you then you know, the alpha male, everybody's attracted to the outer package, it's also comes back to if somebody sees it in our package, will they still love me? If they understand how broken I am? If they understand how hard I am, if they understand that I'm not perfect? Are they still like me. So a lot of that character's journey is going to be to peel back the pretty voids, to peel back the layers of success or whatever that look, they'll be going for it and honestly get nasty and dirty. And take a look at it. They can they like that messiness inside, and they like themselves, and then they'll be able to love you. Oh, yeah, those are those take a lot of work. Because self love is harder than to give it. Nobody wants to look at the mirror and see the demon, nobody wants to look at the master underneath, we always want to have the public persona, we like what people say, we enjoy the public view of what people think about us. But when you're your relationship with yourself, the longest one you ever gonna have, if you've been ignoring that one, if you've been putting it away, and you've been thinking, we'll be fine, you know, I just need to get more busy, I need to work out more, I have to have more people around me. When those people are gone, and the busyness is gone. And the beauty, the muscles are gone. And you're you have this view, that's really hard. So it is not that they're unlovable is that they can love themselves. And that's usually by the end alone.

31:32  
And it's very destructive, is destructive and difficult for somebody who has an example. No matter what time of year, you're hearing this podcast, and it will be up for a very long time. We just had Christmas. And I know there are a lot a lot of people that were that were lonely on Christmas, because they don't have a family COVID has done a bunch of stuff to us and other things. It makes it really tough for some of us to, to really connect with other people and, and it makes it it makes it hard. So maybe that would be another good book, you know, I don't know,

32:09  
we have become very used to being ourselves. And I don't think humans as a whole are meant to be lonely. I don't care what anybody says. We're very tribal. For the beginning, we're meant to have a tribe. And it doesn't have to be the tribe you're born with. You can have any tribe, you can go and make your tribe. One of the things that I found out, as when I was in the military, my goal were they like to recognize and I was I was always looking to fit in. I was always looking for my people I grew up in a family that is huge. It's under Dominicans are very tribal, and we stick together. When I left that I found myself very lost and that I didn't belong and I couldn't figure it out why? Because that was missing my tribe. So we are in that society. This is why social networks are so huge. Because we're always looking for a tribe. We're always looking for people to look at us and accept us, not what we think we are in the outside, but to look at us and really say oh my god, I see you, you with your messiness. Were you on your heart, nothing's going on. I see you and you are okay. You're a person that needs to be accepted. So we're always looking to fit in. So when Christmas comes around, and you don't have anybody, people forget that, that loneliness can kill you, stress can kill you. So not having anybody to look at, you're recognized just as a human being not even as a person to be loved. Just as a human being to tell you, you're worth it, you meant something you're meant to be here, you're not an accident. Those things are pretty big.

33:34  
They really are. And if you are feeling that way. And you've there is a number that you can call nowadays. I don't sure that we mentioned the last time but if you if you are, if you're feeling lonely, if you're feeling depressed, if you're feeling like there's no reason for you to continue to live, there's a number you should call it's 988 is really simple. It's 988. And it's a crisis hotline, followed by by the government and there'll be somebody there to can help you out and walk you down the ledge and stop. So it's, that's you are, you could be a counselor, you could do all kinds of things if you wanted to.

34:15  
I have found out to be an artist. And it doesn't have to be paintings and drawings. It can be writing, it can be music, could be anything could be art, can be cooking, let's be honest, anything that you're creative with. One of the hardest things we ask to overcome as ourselves is that limiting beliefs for us to think we're supposed to be here, because sometimes we're comparing ourselves to everyone. We're comparing ourselves to everybody who has made it instead of realizing that it is our race, I talk to my brothers like I feel like I need to pay my dues. And he wants to music. What are they and I said why don't you do so yours do define what those dues are like I was like and it took me a minute to realize how much it hit. You know when somebody asked me the you know, you need to pay your dues. I go back into As a, you know, a volunteer for the military, I spent a year in Iraq, I sacrifice my families, I have sacrificed a lot of things in my life, to be able to create stories for people to be able to relate to people. So yes, how I pay my dues? Absolutely. They're not what people consider regular dues. People have an idea of like, Oh, my God, you have to slave you have to be the starving artist. Whatever our definition is that we have put into our crap and our art to be better is what we're looking at it. But it doesn't have to be miserable. It doesn't have to be painful. I'm not the one who subscribe to like, oh my god, you need to struggle to be an artist. Oh, God, no, that's painful. Go have some fun. Enjoy the process. It's so much fun to not be that person.

35:42  
Oh, that is so true. And by the way, thank you for your service.

35:48  
absolutely a pleasure.

35:49  
And why would say that my son was in Iraq for a little bit. And if it's not, it's a hot, hot, it's messy, it's dirty, and they've got spiders that eat cats in the

36:07  
everything's gonna kill you over there. This is one of those things somebody tells you, when you get off the plane, you I'd like they give you a whole list of things that could kill you. Like, this is why you don't tell me in the States because nobody would get on this plane. Nobody's gonna get on this plane that you have the sandflies are gonna get into your legs and eat you and I'm like, What? What is it Australia, like everything in the world is trying to kill you. It's like, oh, the United States is very tame. Like I literally was like, we should go back home. My environments are trying to eat me alive.

36:37  
You mean there are sand flies that will bury bury themselves in your skin?

36:44  
Actually, we have some flies that look like if you ever happen to walk a night, which I don't recommend, but like long pants, because you will come out looking like you should say I like chickenpox, like your legs entirely gets attack. I was like, Well, that was lovely. That was a great experience in my life. Many things I'm like, great. Anything else is trying to eat me. And in case anybody's wondering. I am terrified of bugs. So this might sound a lot more terrifying than it is. Because everybody else just looks at me. It was like, go get over it. I was like, I don't know. I'm pretty sure something's gonna eat me. I'm really big losers gonna come and eat me.

37:17  
Well, and they got all kinds of uh, yeah, I don't know. I'm not interested in going bananas fallen 25 degrees.

37:24  
I live in Texas. I can't say anything about the heat. Yeah, Texas is pretty hot as well. So I can't say that much about the heat.

37:32  
Now you live in Texarkana. Is that right? I do. So in your book tests are Texarkana is a very, very busy place, which becomes

37:40  
a big deal. Because anytime anybody lives in Texarkana, the joke is nothing happens here. So that's one of the things I wanted to explore in this book, and is a common theme. Everybody goes I success and nothing happened in textbook. And I'm like, yeah, so we moved in, like, oh, yeah, that's our fault. Sorry about that. So that's kind of a joke about the series is, it is urban fantasy. So it takes place in a real location. So you do have to take some of the common things people talk about, like, nothing happens in Texarkana. It's just kind of, like, you know, lots of explosions that the buildings get destroyed. Lots of madness, and then nothing happened. And they're like, Yeah, we both did, like, it's our fault. Yeah.

38:22  
That's so funny. By the way, we're talking with DC Gomez. And if you want and go to DC Gomez, Dash author.com. And she's got 19 books out. I don't know when she she's only been writing for like six or seven years, if I remember correctly.

38:39  
I've only been publishing so I've been mining for a while, but publishing has only been about six

38:43  
and 19 books in six years. You must have a hell of a publisher.

38:48  
Unfortunately, the publisher is me so we don't sleep in this house. Let me put it this way. There's very little sleep in Catholic Gomes. As I tell everybody, and all of my subscribers like yeah, there's very little sleep. At one point in time was very little food and I got old so now wishes wishes, couldn't sleep out of my life was okay.

39:04  
So how many hours again? Do you get a name

39:08  
now of up to five which have people that says that's normal, right? Unfortunately, I function in like eight. So if I spent four days but four to five hours by day four, I'm a zombie. There's not even pretending I like literally like going. I sound like Darth Vader.

39:26  
I gotta, I gotta ask you. And this is for a question for everybody who's following their passion and doing what they what they love to do. How do you keep your motivation going? When you're tired as hell, and you've you've had, you've had five hours or four hours asleep? And then how do you you've got emails to do, you've got, you've got chapters to write, you've got all the things that you do to put a book together. How do you keep your motivation?

39:57  
Sometimes all you got to do is tell yourself that is okay. In order to be happy, and sometimes everybody feels I wouldn't need to be chipper and perky in my car, it's gonna be great. Now sometimes you'd like this is the best I can do. And sometimes the best you can do is a send an email or finish one thing, my goal is always to do one thing for my business a day. If I do more than that, that's an ice cream kind of day, but not recommended it but one day makes sure that I get something done for my business when there is doing a podcast where there's making sure I have an article out whatever that might be. Because something I'm a big goal oriented goal setting. So I need to have like a checklist of things to get accomplished. But I also had to learn to give myself the grace to say, you can't do it all and all is not going to get done today. So what is it that I have to do that? Only I can do? So a lot of things in my life get outsourced, like I don't do the Congress for my books, that's gonna get outsourced because that's a lot of work that I'm not that amazing at it. So I have no issues outsourcing. Things like marking editing sections of my podcast is getting outsourced. So there's a lot of things that I can go ahead and send out that other people can do who are really good. But there's some things that only I can do. I'm the only one who can buy my books that I'm the only one who can buy my newsletter because it feels a certain way. So I'm very comfortable and committing Hey, what are some of the things to make even more amazing, like, I live in Texas, we have an obsession with basketball. I am allergic to grass. So things like it's outdoors and my love is cutting the lawn that automatically is gonna get outdoors because it just needs to get done. I'm not going to torture myself and do it. It'll be okay.

41:35  
Yeah, and you got to you got to forgive yourself and just allow things to go the way that they're, they're they're gonna go. And which is which is really cool. How many brothers and sisters Now you said you had what two brothers?

41:47  
Two brothers? I have two younger brothers.

41:49  
Well, how many family are in your extended family? Is it always the large extended family?

41:54  
Oh my god, I grew up in a family that we can't cousins. And uncles. Dominicans do not have the concept of immediate family versus extended family. So to us, everybody's in this family. So I think last time I counted, I think we're over. I want to say I have 100 cousins. Just so yeah. So when I think of family reunion, sometimes i Nobody needs to invite people like that's just us is enough. Like if you put all of my family together. That's just one Hall. I wish invite people like what No, we don't we don't have enough seats for everybody else. Like this is called the family.

42:28  
How many? So when you get your family together? How many people is that? It's gotta be well over 100 Yeah, too many. It's just too many. This is a bunch of us running around. So yeah. But you know, it's it's nice to have an extended family like that, if you like everybody.

42:44  
It's nice to have an even if you don't like Ben because you have great material for books, so it doesn't matter is never lost, you're going to make the most of everything. So I am very blessed. I have a really good relationship with my brothers and my parents and my extended family from both sides. It was really fun. It is also very much like anybody who has large family can understand. Drama comes when you just blink because it's just what happens with family. The people you love the most are the ones who know how to push your buttons the most. So you just have to take it with a grain of salt. And as a writer, I usually come in disclaimer, I'm like everything you say and do will be used in a book. So please watch out.

43:21  
I might even use your real name.

43:23  
Only if that makes me mad.

43:27  
Again, we've been talking with DC Gomez, and thank you so much. You are delightful, I have to say. And oh, we got to talk about your podcast real quick. Yes, we're coming back.

43:39  
Podcasts we back middle of January is inside of the minds of authors. So I get to talk to a bunch of authors which is some of my favorite things we get to listen to their books and truly go on this fun adventure a why did they do it because sometimes those that you've been waiting for a while you still committed and you still dedicated to and you still love the craft. That's a beautiful thing. So for anybody who has the same obsession as I do, the podcast would be probably middle end of January is going to come back. We have new authors every week. And there's just a thrill so much fun.

44:09  
When is it going to come out each week? Do you know? Friday's perfect Yeah, that's the end. That's the of course I can say I'm official by saying they're gonna her podcast is gonna drop every Friday night. Wonderful. And stuff. So congratulations. You're doing a lot. And and you're a USA Today best seller. And you've you've got good guy. You just kind of great soul. You're just a great person. Thank you.

44:41  
Thank you so much for having me. It's always a blast. I have so much fun talking to you. And it's just always honored to be in with you. So thank you so much.

44:48  
Well, I just love your imagery. And you You are an exciting and excitable young lady, I would imagine from time to time.

44:57  
Oh yeah. I'm Dominican comes with territory.

44:59  
Yeah. I would imagine Don't piss you off because the the repercussions could be bad.

45:05  
Most people in my family knows like, avoid the Dominican with a knife, this could get ugly. Just don't do that.

45:13  
Exactly. Before we go, I want to give you the opportunity to tell our audience anything that you would like them to know, those that are listening now and those that will be listening far into the future. And it could be five years, and somebody's gonna come to you and say, I was listening to you on a podcast, and I can't remember the name of it, but you were awesome. And, and that was right about the time that judgment day came out. And so what have you been doing since and stuff so that's very liable to happen, so, but tell us anything that you would like us to know.

45:47  
First of all, I would like to send some blessings and joy to all of your listeners and the viewers specifically in these times. regardless where you are in your life, know that you're meant for greatness. Know that you're truly meant to do something amazing in your life and to follow your dreams. If this little Dominican girl that English is not her first language, can decide to take a leap of faith and start writing novels, my friend, you are meant to do it. And if you're looking for some foreign key books that actually full of madness and fun, and will take you outside of your comfort zone if you're injured, not quite into magic or curious about magical pick me up. I have tons of books that will actually get you excited about looking at things from a different perspective. And always remember you are meant for greatness. Follow your path, my friends.

46:28  
We shall have said that can say that any better than what you just did. So but I guess I guess I didn't want to ask you because we didn't haven't talked about this at all. Oh, in the Dominican roots is is voodoo and hoodoo and all that stuff is that? Are there witch doctors and stuff that are in the you're aware of that are still practicing voodoo and that sort of thing.

46:50  
Not so much in the Dominican Republic, I think probably in Haiti since we share an island. But most of Dominican Republic is question to some extent, some denomination or another so no. Okay. I've never met one. Probably a good thing because I wouldn't know what to do. Like, I write about them. I just would not know what to do.

47:10  
I have no idea. Again, DC Gomez has been our guest go to DC Gomez. That dash author.com. And get judgment day you had Ted said so it'll be a great read. And you can wait to the end to see if humanity gets wiped out or not. Let's hope not. That's yeah, that will be good. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here, my friends. And if you'll if you'll wait right there. I will be right back. Hey, thanks for enjoying this episode all the way to the end. Please give us a like and subscribe to this channel. This has been a production of positive talk radio dotnet please visit our website oddly named positive talk radio.net For more details about us and our mission, which is to provide great positive programming designed to inspire us all. I'm Kevin McDonald and I'm proud of these shows, and I truly hope that you'll like them and share them with friends and family. So on behalf of our entire team, remember Be kind to one another because each other's all we got