1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:03,840 Hello everyone. I'm Diane Grissel, also known as 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:05,720 Silver Disbedience. To those of you who've been 3 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:09,680 following my blog for the past eight or nine years, this is the 4 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:12,760 Silver Disbedience Perception Dynamics podcast, and I'm really 5 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:15,440 excited. We're in iconic Manhattan Center 6 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,600 and I have got a really fascinating guest today. 7 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:25,600 His name is Lou Romano. He's a businessman, He's a proud 8 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:31,840 Bronx native, and he's an author of quite a few books, a few of 9 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:36,520 which have also taken off in a big way and put his name as an 10 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:40,000 author on the map. And we're going to find out how 11 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,400 that all evolved. Thank you. 12 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:45,120 Thank you, I'd love to. I'm so happy to see you here. 13 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:47,800 It's a pleasure I. Don't get into the city much 14 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,800 anymore, but for you, I'd come. Well, I'm glad I'm honored. 15 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:57,520 So Luke, the Bronx native, let's let's talk about the Bronx from 16 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:01,000 a few years back because I have a feeling it's somehow 17 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:04,239 interplayed into your book writing career at some point. 18 00:01:04,239 --> 00:01:08,520 And your perception is correct. OK, so the Bronx in the 50s, I 19 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:11,680 was born in 1950. Can I say that I'm an old guy 20 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,040 now and. It was a good song by the 21 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:16,120 police. Yeah, right. 22 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:21,240 I was 1950 and the the Bronx was completely different than it is 23 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:23,000 today. I mean, it was lovely. 24 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:27,840 I mean it was boulevards and he had a dress up to go to the to 25 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:31,000 to the doctor and to the church and everything was dressed up. 26 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,240 Time the Grand Concourse show the doctor, we have to go see 27 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:34,920 Doctor Curtain and we had to dress up. 28 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:38,280 It was a whole beautiful place, but there were all characters 29 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:40,640 everywhere. So I grew up in an Italian 30 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:44,200 neighborhood, Arthur Ave. that area, and that was a strict, I 31 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:46,600 mean, a minority couldn't walk down Arthur Ave. 32 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:49,240 They would chase them away, walk around the neighborhood. 33 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:51,920 It was terrible, terrible. But that's what how they did it 34 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:55,240 back then. So I, I saw all the characters 35 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:58,480 and all the mob guys at around my great uncle's restaurant, 36 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,120 which was a pretty good restaurant, pretty good pizza 37 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:03,440 place. And I just watched them and I 38 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,560 just studied them and I was like so enthralled by the way they 39 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:10,240 carried on a lot different than you see on The Sopranos and a 40 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,240 lot quieter, but the real deal bad guys. 41 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:18,640 And that influenced me. Also, I was influenced by Raj 42 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:21,280 Serling who wrote the. The Twilight. 43 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:22,120 Zone. Twilight Zone. 44 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:23,640 And I love. That my God. 45 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,840 I mean he. Is yes and and very influenced 46 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:30,840 by him wanting to know how he got those great stories in his 47 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:33,640 head and how he put it on paper and they put it on film. 48 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:37,320 It's still intriguing to me. I still to this day, yeah, at 49 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:40,640 any given point have, and everyone in the world who knows 50 00:02:40,640 --> 00:02:42,880 me laughs. There's no chance I'm ever 51 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,360 walking around without 5 to 10 pairs of reading glasses. 52 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:48,800 Me too. After the episode with Burgess 53 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,440 Marinette where he's the last man on earth after a nuclear 54 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:55,360 attack. And he, there's a reader and he 55 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:57,480 goes in the library. Yeah, yeah. 56 00:02:57,560 --> 00:02:59,560 I mean please. And people are like, why do you 57 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:01,800 have so many glasses? I'm like, did you ever see that 58 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:04,880 Twilight episode? I'd buy them 5 for $15 on 59 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:06,560 Amazon. They're everywhere, every 60 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:08,240 pocket. It's terrible. 61 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:12,560 But so I was influenced by that and Bud Schulberg, Yeah, who 62 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:14,760 wrote on the Waterfront. I was always intrigued with how 63 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,920 did they do this and some of the authors and, and, and some great 64 00:03:18,920 --> 00:03:22,120 poets and so forth. So I was in the oil business. 65 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:25,600 I'm skipping out of the Bronx. The Bronx was kind of tough in 66 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:27,000 those days. And it got worse. 67 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:30,480 And it was a lot of prejudice, prejudice against Italians, 68 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:34,680 believe it or not, and not in my neighborhood, but in the 69 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:36,840 schools. But I survived all that. 70 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:39,280 And I think I came out of it pretty good. 71 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:40,960 And I think so, yeah. Yeah. 72 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,280 At some point you got into the oil business. 73 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:45,960 Well, yes, I worked. I worked for Hess Oil, a big 74 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:48,200 company. I was a sales manager here in 75 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:49,280 New York. Really. 76 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:51,000 Yeah. I was the Prince of the city 77 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:52,560 back then. I had a great, great time. 78 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:57,240 I had restaurants and everybody knew me and I spent their money. 79 00:03:57,680 --> 00:03:59,720 And then I went to a company called Castle Oil. 80 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:03,200 I was senior vice president of sales and marketing there, 14 81 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:06,240 years, a good tenure. And then I got into my own 82 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:08,640 little thing and I decided I'm going to write now. 83 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:12,880 I need to write. And I was out in Long Island and 84 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,399 Montauk, actually I'm a Gansett place called the Fish Farm. 85 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:18,760 Beautiful. And I saw this fish farm thing 86 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:22,079 going on and in my mind, and that's when I knew what Rod 87 00:04:22,079 --> 00:04:26,160 Sterling did in my mind. It had a movie and it had a 88 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:28,640 book. So I wrote this book about this 89 00:04:28,840 --> 00:04:32,600 fictitious drug dealer, Lucio Gonzalez from Colombia, from 90 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:36,240 Barangay Jar, and I did all the research on Badankija and all 91 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:39,720 these other things. And so we had a great time doing 92 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:42,920 that book. It stunk, but people liked it. 93 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:45,320 People liked it. And they said, you know, do 94 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:47,640 another one, do another one, do another one. 95 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:50,480 And then I wrote a book about the Albanian mafia and the 96 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:53,000 Italian Mafia from Arthur Ave. Oh yeah. 97 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,080 Fictitious names, though I used my mother's maiden name rather 98 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:58,640 than Gambino or anything like that. 99 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:01,480 I still want to walk around. And it just took off from there. 100 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:05,640 And then, you know, I, I, I just kept writing and I, I'm on a 101 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:11,280 hiatus now, Diane, and I'm really at the, AT shopping at 102 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:14,000 the bit to get back to it. Why are you on a hiatus? 103 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:17,360 Is that self-imposed or was it a creative? 104 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:19,560 Self-imposed. I don't believe in, I don't 105 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:22,040 believe in creative gaps. OK, if you're. 106 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:23,360 Creative. You're creative. 107 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:25,200 OK. If you have a writers gap, 108 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:27,880 you're not a writer. You know, I, I that's just my 109 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:31,000 opinion. I so agree with you. 110 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:32,160 Do you? Yes. 111 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:34,280 And you know why I agree? Because writing to me is a 112 00:05:34,280 --> 00:05:35,200 discipline. Yeah. 113 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,800 You either choose to be disciplined and sit down and put 114 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,120 some words on a paper. And maybe they're not your best 115 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:43,200 words, but you can address that another day, right? 116 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:45,000 You know? But it's a discipline to keep 117 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,280 doing. Well, my discipline is 1500 118 00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:50,440 words a day, minimum, no matter what, seven days a week, no 119 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:56,800 vacation because 15. 105 pages. My that's my my chapter length 120 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:00,240 is 5 to 7 pages. 8 pages. I want people to feel like they 121 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,840 got something out of it and I have bigger print because I 122 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:04,760 can't see so I. I like those. 123 00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:06,760 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a lot of chapters, but 124 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,840 they're small. I I just like that way of 125 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:13,160 writing, you know? And so I decided to put it down. 126 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:15,160 I I wrote this book about this criminal. 127 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:18,920 I like to write fiction because that's where my mind gets going. 128 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,960 That's where it flows. And and the The funny thing I 129 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:25,080 tell people all the time, the characters actually write the 130 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:28,560 dialogue. You know, I hear fiction 131 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:29,800 writers. Say you've heard that from 132 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:33,520 others. And I've written a lot of non 133 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:37,080 fiction books and when I hear somebody say the characters 134 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:39,840 write themselves, I mean, I've met all kinds of characters, but 135 00:06:39,840 --> 00:06:43,560 I could not, I don't it's, it's a different way of thinking to 136 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:46,200 build out character in your. Head it is they're in the moment 137 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:49,440 and you know the character and the character just has their own 138 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:52,720 language, their own way of talking, they're nuances. 139 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,280 They're dying guy like this. How you doing? 140 00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:58,880 It just flows out of of me into the characters. 141 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:03,560 Writing non fiction to me is like a book report and I have 142 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:07,640 three of them out there and I don't like them, but one of 143 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:10,200 them, it's called. I have to look at it to remember 144 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:10,760 it. Yeah. 145 00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:14,760 The the born in the Life. Sorry about Gene Borrello. 146 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:16,600 It is the worst garbage I've written. 147 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:20,800 No, it's a book report on this. What is a book report? 148 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:25,200 This guy's life, he's a criminal and he is a bad kid. 149 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:26,880 And I mean, he's a, he's a great. 150 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:29,120 Kind of like a biography. It's a biography. 151 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:31,320 OK, so it's a biography to me. It's a book report. 152 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:34,840 I could go into Wikipedia, give them their 20 bucks a year, and 153 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:36,120 I'm happy. So. 154 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:39,200 So Gene Borrello is the character and he's a bad kid. 155 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:41,680 He loves me. I love him. 156 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:45,560 He's my best seller right now and the worst book I've written. 157 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:49,880 People like Trey Prime, people like the bad guy. 158 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,120 What this guy gets, the amount of girls that he gets calling 159 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:55,280 him is ridiculous. He's in. 160 00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:00,440 They just love bad boys. That is a really interesting. 161 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,640 Yeah. Thing to think about, because I 162 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,080 really wonder about that. We're seeing that in the news 163 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:07,880 right now. I like to keep these episodes 164 00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:10,720 Evergreen, but we've just seen a horrific crime. 165 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:14,960 Yes. And you know that he has this 166 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,200 fan club. I'm like, are you kidding me? 167 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:20,600 The guy, the guy's a murderer. I don't care what his theme was. 168 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:21,680 I've. Seen it on my life. 169 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:23,440 Do you remember that preppy murderer? 170 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:24,680 Yes. Oh yeah. 171 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:28,000 Well, Jennifer Levin, yes. Well, I remember that vividly. 172 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:29,080 I was in shock. I. 173 00:08:29,080 --> 00:08:31,440 Was in the oil business and we had a lawsuit against the oil 174 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:33,559 company that I worked for, I think it was Hess. 175 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:37,640 And, and in the next courtroom, there was the the. 176 00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:38,240 Yeah. Robert. 177 00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:40,440 Chambers, Robert Chambers, right, the preppy murder. 178 00:08:40,799 --> 00:08:44,000 And he's talk about a tall, handsome, good looking, educated 179 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,000 guy. So I'm there and I'm in a suit 180 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:49,600 and tie and I'm standing in the back listening to the horrific 181 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,880 things that he did to that girl. And there's a bevy of young 182 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:57,360 women, attractive young women in the pews or seats, whatever you 183 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:00,160 call them and see the pews. That's my Catholic background. 184 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:04,640 And, and I said to the bailiff, I said, what's all these hot 185 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:06,800 girls? He goes, they're here for him. 186 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:10,800 So I've seen this since I'm a young man. 187 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:12,800 I was in my 40s, I guess, when that happened. 188 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:16,920 And now this guy Borrello in the book, I, it's almost an 189 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:19,600 embarrassment that I wrote it and my name is on it, but the 190 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:22,600 money's coming in on it. I can't tell you it's it's a 191 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:24,680 best seller right now. It's very interesting since 192 00:09:24,680 --> 00:09:27,200 writing and developing characters, there's a 193 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:30,720 psychological component to it. What's your assessment on that? 194 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:33,120 We'll call it your non professional. 195 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:37,000 We're not giving medical advice here, but what's your assessment 196 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,280 on what's going on with those? I think girls are told to be 197 00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:41,120 good girls all the time. Is that what you're talking 198 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:42,080 about? They're told to be I'm. 199 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:44,400 Just trying to understand. I don't know what I'm talking 200 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:45,680 about because I don't understand. 201 00:09:45,680 --> 00:09:48,080 That I don't either. I don't understand why you would 202 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:49,640 want. To here I was, a nice little 203 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:51,800 Catholic school guy. I couldn't get a date to save my 204 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:54,880 life back then but. But if you killed. 205 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:56,600 Somebody. If I killed somebody, I was OK. 206 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,560 But yeah, I think it's this whole thing about being a bad 207 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:03,200 girl by being with a bad guy. I don't know what it is. 208 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:06,400 It's a dynamic that I can't explain, but I've seen it my 209 00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:08,840 whole life. And I mean, the guys who were 210 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:10,720 the bad guys in the neighborhood, and I grew up in a 211 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:12,800 bad neighborhood. They were the guys with all the 212 00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:16,680 hot girls, you know, Why is it's a psychological thing. 213 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:18,400 I should. Maybe I'll write a book about 214 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:20,400 it. Now I'm curious. 215 00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:25,840 They say often a first book, Yeah, is somewhat 216 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:29,000 autobiographical, but it's disguised in nature, so it's a 217 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,320 Romana Clay or something like that. 218 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:33,880 What do you think about that with any of the books you've 219 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:35,400 read? It was that's absolutely true. 220 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:39,400 The character's name is Gino Rano and he's sort of a bon 221 00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:42,120 vivant and he's with a girl he shouldn't be with. 222 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:46,040 And they got in trouble and he's part of the mob. 223 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:47,760 He's he's affiliated with the mob. 224 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:50,080 He's not part of the mob. He's around the mob. 225 00:10:50,680 --> 00:10:53,640 See, there's a round and there's with and there's affiliated. 226 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:58,200 And anyway, so even to this day I have affiliations where if I 227 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:01,120 got into any kind of trouble, I could make a phone call. 228 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:04,640 One of my books says the first line in the book says not every 229 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:10,600 Sicilian is in the mafia, but we all have a phone number and. 230 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:14,400 It's nice to have phone numbers. And I'm still, I'm still around 231 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:18,360 that I have some friends who are still around that life and God 232 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:20,080 bless them. That's not, that's not my life. 233 00:11:20,560 --> 00:11:24,160 I avoided it because my mother, God bless her soul, she used to 234 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:26,720 stay stay away from those Guinea bastards on Arthur Ave. 235 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:29,560 Oh, she did. The only way I heard the only 236 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:31,640 word I heard the. Only time you heard her curse. 237 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:34,560 No, she was a trooper. Stay away from the Guinea 238 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:36,400 bastards. And I heard the same thing, that 239 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:37,800 I was a Guinea bastard in school. 240 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:41,000 So I sort of thought my name was Guinea Bastard till I was like 241 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:43,600 14. So she kept me really. 242 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:46,680 She kept me away from the mob. She with that constant 243 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:50,480 reaffirmation of not being involved with bad people, and 244 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:53,280 she was good at that. My father didn't care because he 245 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:55,360 was around it his whole life. And it was like, yeah, yeah, 246 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:57,840 talk to Tommy, you know, this kind of thing. 247 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:00,160 But it was fun growing up in those days. 248 00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:02,720 It really was because there was a lot of characters A. 249 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:05,880 Lot of characters. Do you build on those characters 250 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:06,680 in your books? Oh yeah. 251 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:10,600 Anonymously name changes to protect the innocent and the 252 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:12,080 guilty. To protect the innocent and the 253 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:12,680 guilty. Yeah. 254 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:16,640 Yeah, That's funny. I keep it sort of like if you 255 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:19,400 really know the mob in New York, you could figure out who's who. 256 00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:25,280 Do you have when when you go about writing a book? 257 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:27,360 Yeah. Do you know the beginning and 258 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:28,200 the end? No. 259 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:32,120 How does that unfold for? You, I I know the beginning in 260 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:36,120 the middle, the end unfolds and it could go 3 or 4 different 261 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:40,120 ways, but it's never. I don't want to give my secrets 262 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:44,440 away, but sometimes it's a surprise, like intercession, 263 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:46,880 which is. Talk about that book. 264 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:49,240 Yeah, it's, I love that. I've got a copy of it here. 265 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:50,760 That's my book. That's that's my. 266 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:53,320 I just ordered it you. Ordered it, thank you. 267 00:12:53,800 --> 00:12:55,240 You. Were the ones. 268 00:12:55,760 --> 00:12:57,800 No, I think you had way more than one. 269 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:00,680 This book's selling nicely. It's got a lot of reviews and I 270 00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:02,800 will be a future review. Thank you. 271 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:05,520 And Tuesday I have a meeting with my partner in LA. 272 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:08,800 This is going to be a feature movie, really. 273 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:11,560 We have some money and and we have things going on. 274 00:13:11,560 --> 00:13:14,560 So I'm very excited about that. I never thought that would 275 00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:17,760 happen. It doesn't surprise me because 276 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:20,640 before I bought this book, I saw a bunch of different books for 277 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:24,360 you on Amazon. I, you know, read the the blurb. 278 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:27,840 Then I read a few reviews and I thought, well, this looks like 279 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:30,360 it could be a movie. So it doesn't surprise me that 280 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:32,000 how did that all. You're so great. 281 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:34,160 I want to hear about the book and I want to hear about how it 282 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,880 evolved into a movie without giving away any secrets. 283 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:39,200 I'm not going to give away the secrets, but I'm going to tell 284 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:42,480 you things that I don't really often speak about, OK? 285 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:45,000 Because you're so great and so charming. 286 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:50,880 I was born and raised Catholic, but I never had the Catholic 287 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,680 spirit. I, I rejected Catholicism when I 288 00:13:53,680 --> 00:13:55,960 was 8 years old. I thought it was a bunch of 289 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:59,640 bullshit. Excuse me, but it's not 290 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:01,240 bullshit. It's, it's really a good faith, 291 00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:04,720 but just not for me. I'll never talk badly about 292 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:07,040 dogma or religion or the Pope dying. 293 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:10,000 I'll say, I'll say one or two Pope jokes, but they're not bad 294 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:11,920 because I really have a reverence for the Catholic 295 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:13,920 Church. Born and graced. 296 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:18,280 Unfortunately for me, someone very close to me, one of my 297 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:20,680 sons, was molested by a Catholic priest. 298 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:25,960 Not a fun topic, not something I'd like to talk about. 299 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:30,000 And he became a very troubled person. 300 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:35,720 What I wanted to do. Did you ever If you have kids 301 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:39,560 and somebody hurts your child or God forbid. 302 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,120 I can't imagine because my first reaction. 303 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:43,840 I want to kill them. Exactly. 304 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:46,240 And you really. And I don't know if I would. 305 00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:47,720 I've nodded. I've never been in that 306 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:49,880 position. I pray I will never be in that 307 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:52,840 position. Feel that and so here I am this 308 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:56,720 little tough guy from the Bronx knowing a lot of mob guys, 309 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:02,120 whether it was Sicilian vengeance in me, I it's DNA and 310 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,240 I wanted to kill that man. He didn't molest him to the 311 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:07,440 point that it was it was really terrible. 312 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:12,400 It was, it wasn't really he, he, he made these two kids get naked 313 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:14,920 and he would look at them and that's molestation. 314 00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:18,120 When you're 7 years old, there was no penetration or anything 315 00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:20,880 like that, which is bad. But this is bad enough because 316 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:22,360 when you're that age, you don't know. 317 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,440 You don't know. What your sexuality is and and 318 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:29,360 he's been troubled ever since. So wanting to kill the guy, 319 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,480 planning on killing him, figuring out, OK, there's no 320 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:35,240 camera here. I got this and then a couple of 321 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:39,600 my friends who I alluded to before I got wind of it and I 322 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:42,920 had a a lunch with one of them and he said to me, and his name 323 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:46,080 was Louis. He said, Louis, how, how far do 324 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:52,560 you want me to take this? At that moment I knew I could 325 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:56,800 end that man's life not by my own hand, but make it easier by 326 00:15:56,800 --> 00:16:00,160 somebody else's. And then I said, you know, 327 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:01,400 that's not the right thing to do. 328 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:09,040 We took it to court. We lost it brought up my insane 329 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,040 rage is again, but I said to myself I. 330 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:14,400 Can't imagine. This is not the way to do this 331 00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:19,480 because if you kill a person, it it's a vexation for your soul, 332 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:21,760 but also you could get caught in reality. 333 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,040 And I can't see myself going to a federal estate prison, state 334 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:29,760 prison when I have a family to consider and grandchildren out 335 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:32,080 here. So I decided to let it go. 336 00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:35,360 I just write this book, this. So this book, it's a catharsis. 337 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:37,280 It's me wanting to kill that man. 338 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:39,560 And I'll tell you something, he's still alive. 339 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:42,240 He's in retirement and I still want to see him dead. 340 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:46,920 But I'm not going to do that, nor will my friend Louis do that 341 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:50,840 because I said no, this is not the way I want to have my soul 342 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,000 and my life by murdering him. And I stopped that. 343 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:58,840 That spirit, that feeling of of wanting to hurt someone. 344 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:02,040 I mean, I got into fights in the Bronx. 345 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:03,160 Not many. I'm not a fighter. 346 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:06,560 I'm more of a talker. And but to kill somebody, at 347 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:09,119 that point, I was at that crossroad. 348 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:11,440 I could say, yeah, Louis, please, I'll give you this 349 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:13,480 information. And they would have killed him 350 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:17,319 because it's an infomnia, right? I didn't. 351 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:20,319 I'm glad I didn't. I hope he dies and I hope he 352 00:17:20,319 --> 00:17:23,880 dies a painful death. But that's just that Sicilian 353 00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:26,560 DNA thing in me. I don't even know if it's 354 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:27,720 Sicilian. I think it's. 355 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:32,320 Yeah, you could be Irish. I mean, yeah, I mean that's. 356 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:36,800 Just AI think that's a natural, especially apparent response, 357 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:37,960 right? Right. 358 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:41,520 And I, I wasn't for him going to school. 359 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:44,400 So it created some friction between my wife going to 360 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,080 Catholic school. My wife and I, we had some 361 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:49,520 friction over that because, you know, I told you so. 362 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:53,440 But we're over that now. But intercession has been the 363 00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:56,480 beggar, the best seller for me. We think it's going to be a 364 00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:58,880 movie. I've had four starts before. 365 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:03,760 I'm excited about that. And I can't say it's my favorite 366 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:06,200 book because you don't want to say you have a favorite child, 367 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:09,240 but it's up there. It's up. 368 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:14,040 But I put the passion of my hatred for this guy into the 369 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:17,240 book so. I bet that I'm really looking 370 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:21,160 forward to reading it because that based on your reviews, it's 371 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,760 come across on the pages. And it's thank you and looks. 372 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:26,040 Like you nailed it. It's a surprise ending, too, so 373 00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:27,400 it's a good thing. Yeah. 374 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:29,560 Yeah. And it introduces Victoria 375 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:32,280 Gonella, who is the the policeman. 376 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:34,720 And he has. He's now in seven of the books. 377 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:38,320 Oh, really? The Vicanello series and he's 378 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:42,880 with the lovely Raquel Ruiz, a Puerto Rican girl from the from 379 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:47,000 not on Hito and from the Bronx. And she there again, not on 380 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:48,840 Hito, Puerto Rico. How would I know when Not on 381 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:51,600 Hito Puerto Rico is from the people I grew up with in the 382 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:55,360 Bronx, who's from this town is from that town Ponce San Juan 383 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:59,600 Anito. And I used that and I actually 384 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:04,800 go to these places to see the research and feel it or, or I 385 00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:12,520 cheat and I go on Google Maps. I had to kill somebody and had 386 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:14,000 to. I had to kill somebody in 387 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:15,520 intercession. In one of. 388 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:17,600 My books let's. Clarify that we. 389 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:19,360 Killed someone, We killed someone in Dublin. 390 00:19:19,360 --> 00:19:22,360 I'm not going to say who, but it wasn't a priest because I don't 391 00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:24,920 want people to think I'm anti Catholic, anti priest. 392 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:27,640 We clarified. That OK, so he has to go kill 393 00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:29,840 somebody and I'm not going to Dublin anytime soon. 394 00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:32,480 You know, I've been there once, but I forgot it. 395 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:35,360 So I went on Google Maps. I knew where the place was, that 396 00:19:35,360 --> 00:19:37,160 I wanted him to be murdered. What? 397 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:40,240 Her to be murdered. And I just went on Google Maps 398 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,880 and it I could describe every brick, every house. 399 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,080 And I it was just a visual thing people were saying to me. 400 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,080 You were in Dublin? Oh, I was on Google Maps. 401 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:53,680 That's a little, little secret. Mostly I go to the places. 402 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:54,680 Really. Yeah. 403 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,400 No writing. Writing is different than 404 00:19:57,400 --> 00:19:58,880 editing. Yeah. 405 00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:02,120 How? How do you balance out those 406 00:20:02,120 --> 00:20:03,520 two? Do you work with an editor? 407 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:06,640 Do you write, write, write and then go back and look? 408 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:11,080 You're amazing You you hit on my softest. 409 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:15,360 Pain, point and pain. Point it's been my biggest 410 00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:18,840 problem is editing and I just can't find the the good edit. 411 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:20,880 I just found one now she's in Holland. 412 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:23,560 Her name is Dutchie because her name is unpronounceable in 413 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:25,760 English and I so. You're calling her Dutchie? 414 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,120 She told me to call her Dutchie because I can't, I can't. 415 00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:32,920 So so we got along great. We talk once or twice a week on 416 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:37,880 on Zoom and she does a lot of my work and she's terrific. 417 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,440 She's the best I've had so far. But I've had some clinkers. 418 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:43,160 Really. It's hard. 419 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,320 And then I'm embarrassed with all the errors in the books. 420 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:47,760 Well, it's not even just the embarrassment. 421 00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:51,840 You can have someone else edit your book and one they're not in 422 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:53,960 your head, they don't know exactly what you were trying to 423 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,880 say They and it's got to be. I mean, I know that writing 424 00:20:56,880 --> 00:21:00,880 nonfiction, I say to someone, no, you didn't understand the 425 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:04,440 what I was trying to express about this particular factual 426 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:06,200 issue. That's got to be stay factual. 427 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:09,440 But in your case, you're inventing a person in your head. 428 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:11,360 You have that whole character built out. 429 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:15,520 So if someone starts to change anything about that personality, 430 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:17,400 that could probably get pretty personal. 431 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:19,840 Quickly, I could tell you a story about editing. 432 00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:24,800 So I had 12 people read this book before it came to press. 433 00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:27,640 And one of the guys is a construction guy here. 434 00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:30,280 He's a demolition guy. His name is Frank Callie, Not 435 00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:33,560 the mob Frank Callie, but my friend Frank Callie. 436 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,080 Smart guy, but I didn't know how smart he was. 437 00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:39,800 So I'm in Florida playing golf. This is at the press. 438 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:43,720 We're going to start to print Intercession, and he calls me 439 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:45,040 and he said, I'm on the golf course. 440 00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:46,640 And he says, Louis, I got to tell you something. 441 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:49,040 You're supposed to have 12 murders in the book, right? 442 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:52,320 Yeah. There's 12 sharpened crucifixes 443 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:56,680 that he kills. He says, you only got 11, and 444 00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:59,280 he's from the Bronx like I am. So you only got 11 comes out as 445 00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:00,800 one word. You only got 11. 446 00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:02,680 I said, come on, Frankie, stop breaking my chops. 447 00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:07,080 You know he goes, no, Louis, you missed, number missed #9 I said, 448 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:08,840 what? He goes, I swear to God, his 449 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:14,360 eight, his seven, his 911, you missed #9 Now I cannot hit the 450 00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:17,320 ball in the air. I, I'm dribbling the ball and 451 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:20,400 I'm like, I got to go. So I get in the cart and I go 452 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:24,760 back to the condo I was staying in and sure enough, it's not 453 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:26,120 there. And here's a guy, he's a 454 00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:29,520 construction guy, you know, he's owns the company and all these 455 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:32,120 editors and all these people I'm paying and all these 456 00:22:32,120 --> 00:22:36,240 proofreaders and these pre readers, 11 or 12 of them. 457 00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:39,320 Nobody picked up that it was only there's a murder missing in 458 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:40,800 the book. Can you hear any embarrassment? 459 00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:45,040 So I, I quick what I, I went out on the live, got 4 cigars. 460 00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:48,200 It's a true story and Frankie's going to love that I'm telling 461 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,840 it. And I put 4 cigars out and I 462 00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:52,360 don't drink alcohol when I'm writing. 463 00:22:52,360 --> 00:22:53,680 I don't drink alcohol much at all. 464 00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:57,160 And a bottle of Pellegrino and I just did the whole chapter. 465 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:02,000 I was like, I was like exhausted from the experience because of 466 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,320 the embarrassment. And I'm still very embarrassed 467 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:07,560 by errors. But their errors are in they 468 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:09,800 happen. Well, you know, I always say to 469 00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:11,600 people when they're going to write a book, I say, listen, 470 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:14,720 there's writing and there's editing, Get the story out, you 471 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:18,760 know, be disciplined, get the story out and then go back and 472 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:20,960 edit. But you can't write and edit at 473 00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:23,040 the same time or you can't get off Page 1. 474 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:25,200 No, I don't. Because you can re. 475 00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:28,480 You can rephrase something a zillion ways. 476 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,440 Absolutely. And you could put AI into it and 477 00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:34,000 they could do it for you. That's not creative. 478 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,400 That's not real. I, I, I wouldn't do that. 479 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,920 But no, it's editing is is the bane of my existence. 480 00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:45,160 I mean, it takes so long. So it'll take me if I do 1500 481 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:49,960 words a day without stopping, it'll take me about 50 to 55 482 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:53,280 days to do a manuscript on a 350 page book. 483 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,680 And that's comfortable for me. It takes twice that long to edit 484 00:23:57,680 --> 00:23:59,720 it. Yeah, it does. 485 00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:00,640 Yeah. So. 486 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:02,400 Yeah. Because sometimes it's, well, 487 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:04,920 this is a great paragraph, but it really could have gone in 488 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:07,320 Chapter 7. That drives me crazy. 489 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:12,360 Yeah, but it's right. A good editor picks that stuff 490 00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:13,960 out. And Dutch, she's pretty good, 491 00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:16,480 but she just got me into Spanish books. 492 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:19,320 So I one of my books is in Spanish, The Butcher of Punta 493 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:21,480 Cana. I can't pronounce it in Spanish. 494 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:24,080 Congressione de Punta Cana, whatever. 495 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:26,520 And it's in Spanish now, when she's putting books out in 496 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,400 German and in Dutch for the German and Dutch market. 497 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:35,440 And I have one book in Albanian, Bessa, which is a the mob, the 498 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:39,920 Mafia book in the Bronx. But Bessa had one sale in 499 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:43,320 Albanian in four years. What does that tell you? 500 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:45,720 The Albanian people who are wonderful, they're my they're my 501 00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,800 family. And and this they just don't 502 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:50,240 read or they just don't know about it. 503 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:54,200 One sale. Yeah. 504 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:56,960 Well, you know, such a big thing about books is marketing them. 505 00:24:57,320 --> 00:25:00,440 You can actually write a great book, but it you know, it, it's 506 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,560 a lot to get people reading it and finding it. 507 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:05,800 So you'd really, really need to do a lot of word of mouth and 508 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:07,480 talking to people. You don't have to answer this 509 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:09,720 question, but did you read 50 Shades of Grey? 510 00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,880 I did not. OK, it is the worst piece of 511 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:16,000 garbage that ever been. Other than my book about Jean 512 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,040 Barela, it was pretty poorly written. 513 00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:20,560 I tried to read it because it was all the rage. 514 00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:22,360 My daughter-in-law tried to read it. 515 00:25:22,360 --> 00:25:24,720 She couldn't get through it. It's not well written, but the 516 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:29,200 woman who did it started out as just to make a salacious book 517 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:31,240 for her friends in a coffee klutch. 518 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:40,280 She wasn't a writer so she sold 330,000 books on Amazon just 519 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:44,960 because of word of mouth. Well I think it was Charles 520 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:47,800 Scribner came in and said we want the book. 521 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,600 They gave her a big number or something like $5,000,000 or $4 522 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:55,040 million for the book. Sold 77 million books at the 523 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:58,120 last time I looked about 3 or 4 years ago and did 2 movies. 524 00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:01,600 It's unbelievable. Word of mouth, that's what 525 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:03,600 started it. You know, I paid money for 526 00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,840 Facebook ads and what it's just, it's hard to get it out there. 527 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,160 Well, you know, it's interesting with that in that she I, I never 528 00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:13,520 read that book. I certainly know the title of it 529 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:14,560 and. Remember when the movies? 530 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:16,320 Came out and I never saw the movies either. 531 00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:21,760 But one day I was talking with my daughter and, you know, was 532 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:24,520 really trying to get her to read because I love books. 533 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:26,840 I've loved books my whole life. I grew up in a house. 534 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,920 There was no television, you know, and, and then when they 535 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,440 did get a television, it was this black and white television. 536 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:33,560 I don't even know where it came from. 537 00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:36,480 And you could only watch it Walt Disney on Saturday nights or 538 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:37,920 Sunday nights, whichever night it was on. 539 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,240 That was it. And then I could hear my 540 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,040 grandmother listen to Lawrence Welk. 541 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:44,760 So now I'm really dating myself. Oh, yeah, I am. 542 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:50,160 Can I hear her, Laura? I can still sing the ending song 543 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,000 to Lawrence Welk. She wouldn't last. 544 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,120 It so loud, like we can't watch TV, but we have to listen to 545 00:26:55,120 --> 00:27:02,480 Lawrence Welk. But the So what was trying to 546 00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,600 encourage my daughter to read And one day she says, mom, I'm 547 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:07,320 reading this, I'm reading this book by Colleen Hoover. 548 00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,640 You know, she's she's sold like 1,000,000 bucks. 549 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,840 I'm like honey, and I don't think so. 550 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:15,360 And like, I never heard of this name. 551 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:18,040 She goes, Oh no, she has. Well, she it's like self 552 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,880 published her first book and now she's got all these different 553 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:23,640 books out and now they're making, you know, they just made 554 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,880 the movie. It ends with us or starts with 555 00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:27,280 us. I'm not sure what it was, the 556 00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:30,080 one that's all in the rage because there was some problems 557 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:35,280 on set with the movie, but I'm like, Oh my gosh, I never heard 558 00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:37,440 of this author and it just took off. 559 00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:39,880 It was one of those things that a bunch of girls like the 560 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:43,560 character and it was in that 20 something age group. 561 00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:45,840 So it's almost like you just have to find your niche. 562 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,680 It's it's a lot of luck too, a lot of the Lord looking down on 563 00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:51,400 you. Like Mario Puzo was a failed 564 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:53,640 writer and then he wrote the script. 565 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,640 I mean, he wrote the book Godfather and I remember reading 566 00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,240 the book and reading it twice and I don't haven't read a book 567 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:03,480 twice in my life. And then he just took off. 568 00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,840 But he was he was a failed writer takes one chance, one 569 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,760 thing to happen for you. But I'm not looking to make a 570 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:13,000 living at writing. Never, never set out to do that. 571 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:15,600 It's a it's a good passion project. 572 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:18,880 It's a passion project, yeah. Do you find it stress relieving 573 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:22,240 or stress inducing? We're both. 574 00:28:23,120 --> 00:28:27,880 You know, when I'm not writing, I'm kind of sullen. 575 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,600 When I'm writing, I'm just leave me alone. 576 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:36,280 I mean, just, I'll be out to dinner with people and then I'll 577 00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:39,400 be just in the chapter and it's not an act. 578 00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:43,040 It's really, I'm thinking about Victoria Cannella and is it 579 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:44,920 going to be a passion scene? Is there going to be a fight 580 00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,480 scene? And I'm like, I'm no fun. 581 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:51,360 So I guess I'm no fun, you know? I I actually actually, you 582 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:54,480 understand that totally when I even though I don't write 583 00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:57,600 fiction, which I so admire and love to read. 584 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:01,520 It's how I relax is I'll, you know, reading reading a fiction 585 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:05,440 book, but with non fiction. When I committed to writing the 586 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:09,360 blog, I write every day and I started, I think I'm on my 8th 587 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:15,160 or 9th year, I'm not sure. And I'll be walking around and 588 00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:17,200 whether I could be in the shower, I could be on the 589 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:20,400 street, I could be on the corner waiting to cross the street and 590 00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:23,000 someone will say something and all of a sudden I'm like, Oh my 591 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,800 God, there's a blog in that. I start writing it in my head 592 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,520 and then I'm tripping on the street and giving myself 593 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:31,360 concussions because I'm pulling out my voice memos to talk and 594 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,920 like talk into it to make sure I don't miss that moment or I'm 595 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:38,280 slipping because I'm rushing. You know, it's like it's 596 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,840 dangerous being a writer. It's a high risk occupation. 597 00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:43,960 Of a danger. I don't realize. 50 Shades of 598 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:47,160 daytime of 50 grand Shades of Grey rather. 599 00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:50,160 I was writing a Vic Cannella, one of the Vic Cannella books, 600 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:54,800 and Vic Cannella and his partner, they finally get into a 601 00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:59,400 sexual relationship and I describe one of the sex acts in 602 00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,800 detail. So my wife is in bed reading it 603 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:08,160 and she said excuse me. I could see it like it was 604 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:10,040 yesterday. Where did you get this? 605 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,920 And moron, because I have to be glib, said, Well, not here. 606 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:22,720 That was a good night for you. Oh no, we're in separate rooms 607 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:24,840 now. She, she threw the book at me, 608 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,000 missed. And the book laid in the corner 609 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,600 of my my bedroom for like a month before I picked it up and 610 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,520 put it back on the shelf. She never read it because I was 611 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,520 insulting her, but I was being glib. 612 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:36,040 I mean, I was just trying to be fun. 613 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,480 But you know. I'm like Larry David. 614 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:44,000 Sometimes I. But you know, it's so funny 615 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:47,480 because it's it's funny when you talk about sex in books, right? 616 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:49,920 Because I mean, clearly they're the I. 617 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:53,400 I'm recently somebody, my sister was telling me that she loves 618 00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:56,200 Sandra Brown books. Oh yeah, I know she is. 619 00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:59,040 Yeah, and, you know, I had never read a Sandra Brown book. 620 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:01,720 And I'm like, OK, now I know a lot more about my sister, like. 621 00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:03,160 Steamy. They're steamy. 622 00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:04,040 Books. They're steamy. 623 00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:06,960 But it's like this tension that built, yeah, there's all this 624 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,240 history, or there's this or that, and then there's this 625 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,120 tension. And then you find yourself 626 00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:13,120 waiting for the tension. To break right and. 627 00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:17,720 Then it's so funny because it's like the the creativity of 628 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:21,920 getting that out on paper, you know, or inventing these scenes. 629 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:25,640 I just, I have utmost respect for people who do that. 630 00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:28,080 It's it's, it's, I think it's a gift. 631 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:29,680 I don't think I'm a gifted artist. 632 00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:32,160 I think what what you do is a gift. 633 00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:35,760 I think what artists who paint and draw, that's a gift. 634 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,520 Musicians is a gift. I'm from a family of musicians 635 00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:40,840 and I well. I think writing is a gift. 636 00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:43,160 Storytelling. Yeah, people tell me that I 637 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,400 don't want to be so self aggrandizing, but go ahead, 638 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:47,360 yeah. Go ahead. 639 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:50,360 You can do that here, because storytelling is a gift. 640 00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:52,200 Some people can tell a good story. 641 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:55,320 I mean, you know as well as I do there are tons of crappy books 642 00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:57,960 out there, right? You know, Oh my God, and there's 643 00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:02,120 300,000 new books a month published in the United States 644 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,760 over 3,000,000 a year. So how are they going to find my 645 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,760 little book? And you have to tell yourself 646 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,640 that when when your book's moving and you're getting those 647 00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:14,880 book sales, you say, listen, I started at book #3 million. 648 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:18,120 Exactly. The day this book went to print, 649 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,000 it was #3. Million not #1. 650 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:25,360 You know, so I mean you get a book into the top 100,000, 651 00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:28,800 you're in a mega achievement. This got to #1 a few of my books 652 00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:30,720 got to number one for a while. Phenomenal. 653 00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:34,880 It's phenomenal, but. I know we might not retire from 654 00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:38,840 it, but you never know when that can happen because sometimes, 655 00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:43,120 like a lot of people hate the book, they hate her. 656 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:46,440 I love Atlas Shrunk and I happen. 657 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:49,520 Yes. And I extra love the book when 658 00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:51,400 we were talking about the large print, right? 659 00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:55,000 It came out in a large print edition and. 660 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:56,560 You're too young to think that way. 661 00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:58,360 No, no, no. I appreciate it because I wear 662 00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:01,240 those glasses all the time. No, but that book was like this 663 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:03,240 thing and the writing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 664 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:07,600 I had I wear 1 1/2 glasses. I had to go buy a three to be. 665 00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:08,400 Able to read that? Yes. 666 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:10,040 Yes. And so now it's in the large 667 00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,320 print edition Right now I feel like it's my bicep workout when 668 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,960 I read I'm lying down at night, I hold the book up here. 669 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:17,920 I'm like, oh, I'm building my my delts. 670 00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:19,800 Yeah, exactly. Exactly. 671 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,400 But that's one of the books I've read so many times because to me 672 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:27,360 it's timeless and it fits a lot with what's going on in the 673 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:30,000 world now. Whether you know, no matter what 674 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,840 anybody thinks, it's just got aspects in it that you can. 675 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:37,600 You know when you get taxed for having an idea, you know, it's 676 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:40,080 an interesting concept. You know, if you think about the 677 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:44,560 whole taxation system, whole other topic, but you never to 678 00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:46,400 me, you never know when a book is going to. 679 00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,400 And so many people want to write, so many people want to 680 00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:51,960 write their book, the book of their life, the book of their 681 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,440 mother's life. And so one lady I know, a 682 00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,200 Russian woman, very lovely woman, she came to me and said I 683 00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,080 want to write my book. I said, well, explain to me 684 00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:00,640 what's your book? What's your book? 685 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:04,280 Well, I came from a broken marriage with a 2 month old 686 00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:05,560 baby. We didn't speak English. 687 00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,800 I came to New York and we had to learn English and I had to get a 688 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:11,920 job and I cleaned toilets and then I worked for a bank and 689 00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:15,520 then I became a bank this and I vice president of the bank and 690 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:17,800 he went to college and all this beautiful stuff. 691 00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:20,800 And I said, OK, where's the book? 692 00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:23,960 Well, look what I did. I said, did you sleep with 693 00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:27,040 Vladimir Putin? She was indignant. 694 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:30,199 She said no, I said you should have because that's the book. 695 00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:31,639 That's the book, That's the book. 696 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:34,520 You did everything that every immigrant came in, my great 697 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:37,840 grandmother and grandfather, and on both sides, they had the same 698 00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:38,880 thing. They had to work. 699 00:34:39,159 --> 00:34:41,560 Everybody came here. Well, not everybody. 700 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,679 So yeah, even the pilgrims came, even though Wasps had to do it. 701 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,520 You know, it's so interesting you say that because obviously I 702 00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:53,080 get since I started this podcast about almost two years ago, I 703 00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,520 get, I always look for pitches and I carefully read every 704 00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:58,880 single pitch. And that's a whole other story 705 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,760 because I get a lot of terrible pitches that never they just 706 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:05,000 will tell me about someone and never say why I should interview 707 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:06,840 them. And so they're looking for me to 708 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:10,000 do that work, which is like, I'm just not going to start to do 709 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:11,920 that work if we can't even come up with an angle. 710 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:17,800 But so many of them will say, yeah, but they're an author. 711 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:22,720 And it's exactly that. It's that's like people have 712 00:35:22,720 --> 00:35:24,440 said, oh, Diane, you should write a bio. 713 00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,080 I'm like, the only one who might read it is maybe. 714 00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:29,480 Well, my mother maybe would have, but I think it would have 715 00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:30,720 put her to sleep, too. I know. 716 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:33,560 I it just everybody tells me you. 717 00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:35,920 Need that? You need that adventure. 718 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:40,160 You need something that's over the top that makes you say this 719 00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:42,080 is this is how that person got there. 720 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,320 Like I love Keith Richards book my life. 721 00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:46,880 I thought it was great because it had just so many good 722 00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:48,480 stories, you know? Flow. 723 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:50,280 It was a nice flow. Yeah, yeah. 724 00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:54,520 You know, from trying to like get not arrested in the South in 725 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,840 the right. You know, 60s, all those things. 726 00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,880 You know, so those are stories. But yeah, a book has to have 727 00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:03,800 something. That's why I think writers are 728 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:05,440 artists. It's an it's an art. 729 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:08,680 Form and I read a lot I read a lot of fiction books and then I 730 00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:11,160 when I want to relax, I read nonfiction. 731 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:13,760 I I love the Devil in the White City. 732 00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,200 What is his name? That author he's great. 733 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,240 I don't know. It's historic fiction. 734 00:36:18,240 --> 00:36:23,080 It's about the 1888 World's Fair and the first serial killer that 735 00:36:23,240 --> 00:36:26,840 was. Is that the Cabell books? 736 00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:29,480 Or no, no, his name. Oh my gosh. 737 00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:32,720 Oh, he's one of my favorite authors. 738 00:36:32,720 --> 00:36:35,280 I've read five of his books. So do you like historical kind? 739 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:39,960 Of I like historical fiction or historical biographies about, 740 00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:41,400 they're usually crime. Yeah. 741 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:44,400 Well, Lusitania was a crime. Yes, I guess that's crime. 742 00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,480 I guess my mind goes to crime because all the wise guys I saw 743 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:49,960 when I was growing up. You know, it's, it's such a 744 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:51,600 popular genre. Yeah. 745 00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:57,360 I mean, I mean crime, sex, put them in a book. 746 00:36:57,360 --> 00:36:59,560 You're probably gonna have a good story. 747 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,160 If you can tell the story, you're. 748 00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:02,680 Gonna have something? Something. 749 00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:05,520 Yeah, yeah. What do you think that crime 750 00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:09,680 draw is just like right now? I mean, crime on television. 751 00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:14,720 The true crime series are killing it, you know, No pun 752 00:37:14,720 --> 00:37:15,800 intended. Killing it? 753 00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:19,080 Exactly. I think that people just want to 754 00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:21,400 be good, but they want to know about the bad. 755 00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:27,040 That's just my take on I mean, I've always been enthralled with 756 00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:30,160 the criminals and crime, and maybe it might deepen my 757 00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:33,120 recesses of my mind and my family were criminals. 758 00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:36,000 I don't know. One thing I wonder about do you 759 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:41,720 want someone to like the criminal in your book, The 760 00:37:41,720 --> 00:37:42,920 murderer? Yes. 761 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:45,720 Tell me about. That that's amazing that you 762 00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:47,760 asked that question. Well, that's what happens in 763 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:51,480 intercession. You start to fall in love with 764 00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:55,560 the killer. And that's such an interesting 765 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,280 psychological phenomenon when that happens. 766 00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:02,160 I weave the the story that way. I weaved it that way, but not 767 00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:05,080 with, not with the other one, with the drug, with what's his 768 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,040 name, with the Ben and Keija, the guy from Ben and Keija. 769 00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:11,960 Lucio Gonzalez. No, I didn't like him, so I 770 00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:13,280 didn't want my readers to like him. 771 00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:17,560 But I like the killer and intercession and he everybody 772 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:19,840 tells me what I don't want to say anymore. 773 00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:22,560 But they were very happy about what happened to him. 774 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,520 John Deegan. Do you think it was because it 775 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:30,560 was perceived as a justifiable revenge? 776 00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:33,480 Absolutely. That's like, there's too much of 777 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:35,880 it away, but you're But you're absolutely right. 778 00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:39,040 To me, it was a justifiable revenge for the same reason I 779 00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:42,160 didn't go and kill that priest. I still wanted to. 780 00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:46,000 You know, you mentioned The Sopranos earlier and you know 781 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,920 when I would watch that series, which me and everyone else 782 00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:53,800 watched. You like Tony Soprano? 783 00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:55,920 You do and you don't. Want to like him? 784 00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:57,360 You're like, this guy's a killer. 785 00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:01,040 Even when he choked the guy. Treats his wife horribly, you 786 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:04,600 know You like him for some reason, you know. 787 00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:07,040 He's a teddy bear. He's a likable teddy bear. 788 00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:10,040 He cheats on his wife. He kills people with his bare 789 00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:11,840 hands. He has people shot and killed. 790 00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:14,600 He steals and robs and sells. Does everything wrong. 791 00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,400 But you like him. But you don't like his son. 792 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:19,000 Yeah. True. 793 00:39:19,720 --> 00:39:20,920 I mean, the kid was a great actor. 794 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:23,400 He did a great job. But you don't like him? 795 00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:27,920 Yeah, He's a whiny little kid. He did a great Italian kid. 796 00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:30,840 I didn't like him as a as a as a person, I like him. 797 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:32,800 You know, it was funny too recently. 798 00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:36,880 I I was very frustrated with the ending watching Tulsa King. 799 00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:40,920 I I I love Sylvester Stallone ever since the first rocky I'm 800 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,720 in like it just was so good, you know, and there there's a guy 801 00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:47,920 who wrote a script, you know, said I'm going to be in this 802 00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:49,160 movie and I'm going to build it out. 803 00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:54,320 But it was funny with like Tulsa King again, you just you like 804 00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:58,400 you like the. That's the same thing with Bronx 805 00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:01,080 Tale. I know commentary Jazz did me a 806 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:03,520 big favor with I'd like to consider him a friend. 807 00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:08,240 I don't see him, but we we had some business together and I 808 00:40:08,240 --> 00:40:11,120 said to him at lunch one day, I said, you know, and I excuse my 809 00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:13,200 language, I said, because he's a Bronx boy too. 810 00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:15,560 I said you had balls bigger than cantaloupes. 811 00:40:16,240 --> 00:40:19,960 I said you write that I, I, you had nothing and they offered you 812 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:23,320 $1,000,000 and you said no, I said, you know what, $1,000,000. 813 00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:24,640 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. 814 00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:26,840 De Niro offered him $1,000,000 first less. 815 00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:29,280 And then they came into $1,000,000, offered him that 816 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:31,720 much money. And he said only if I'm in the 817 00:40:31,720 --> 00:40:32,920 movie. Only if. 818 00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:36,400 I'm so he did the same. Kind of thing as, as as Sly, 819 00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:39,360 yeah, same thing. And look, it's been his whole. 820 00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:41,480 It's been a big portion of his career. 821 00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:45,240 It was a phenomenal movie. And his one act great script 822 00:40:45,240 --> 00:40:47,040 terrific. This absolutely. 823 00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:50,160 The script is great and sort of reminds me of when I grew up on 824 00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:51,560 the brink. I got to rewatch that movie. 825 00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:53,120 I haven't seen that. In a long time, yeah. 826 00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:55,440 It's a good movie. And a lot of those things really 827 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,400 happen. Like that scene with the because 828 00:40:57,400 --> 00:40:59,840 I grew up in the same neighborhood as Chaz and. 829 00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:02,320 And the scene with the motorcycle guys now you just 830 00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:04,600 can't leave. That really did happen. 831 00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:07,440 So in the neighborhood that we were in, it was pretty tough. 832 00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:12,360 And Chaz was just, he did a great job for himself and he had 833 00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:15,400 the courage of his conviction. I'm going to be in this movie or 834 00:41:15,720 --> 00:41:18,760 you're not going to do it. That takes a lot of hutzpah. 835 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:21,840 Oh yeah. Yeah, and he's a great writer. 836 00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:25,120 He's a great screenwriter, and he's a screen doctor as well. 837 00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:26,840 He told me that he'd make somebody doing that. 838 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,880 Now, I'm so glad you just segued into that because you're 839 00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:32,760 thinking about taking intercession, making it into a 840 00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:35,320 movie, Yes. How does that script writing 841 00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:36,360 work? Do you get involved? 842 00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:40,120 With that, I I read it. I read it to me. 843 00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:42,520 I can't tell you if the script is good or not. 844 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:44,920 I really can't. I, I just don't have the head 845 00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:46,800 for that. I, I have to see the whole 846 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,840 story. I have to, I can't say Diana's a 847 00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:51,720 beautiful girl. That's not enough for me. 848 00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:54,760 I have to describe you. Your beautiful eyes, your 849 00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:58,080 cheekbones, your jaw, blood. I could have described you and 850 00:41:58,240 --> 00:42:00,280 your figure. I have to describe you to the 851 00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:03,040 reader, right? You don't do that in a script, 852 00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:05,040 right? You know, And that's not. 853 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:06,640 Familiar. Very different kind of writing. 854 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:11,160 Yeah, So my partner, AJ Enrique, he's he's in California. 855 00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:13,440 He's got a script. Some people say it's not a good 856 00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:15,080 script. I can't tell you. 857 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:16,680 I think it's OK. I think it's good. 858 00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:18,920 He loves it. Other people have loved it. 859 00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:22,760 And he's got some money now behind the the the the movie. 860 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:27,040 So he's in charge. Now I'm curious what have think 861 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:30,440 of a book you've read that became a movie and who do you 862 00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:34,040 think did that book justice in the movie? 863 00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:37,880 And what's a book that you read where you said, oh, the movie 864 00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:40,600 was just brutal, like they did not do justice. 865 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:42,760 Which would you well? The number one movie I would say 866 00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:44,440 was The Godfather was a great book. 867 00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:49,640 And I think in in that case the movie was actually better. 868 00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:53,440 Yeah, I mean, it was. That's a movie I I love when 869 00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:57,560 they put the two together I could watch the third one forget 870 00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:02,040 about but the 1st 2:00 I could watch them over and over and I 871 00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:03,440 always see something I never noticed. 872 00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:05,920 You know, the third one wasn't such a terrible movie. 873 00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:07,840 It wasn't an epic like the first two. 874 00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:09,960 Maybe that's. It you had some miscasting in 875 00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:11,840 there, you had a. Little bit of what it was. 876 00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:13,960 It's the casting. Yeah, that was a mistake. 877 00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:14,800 The right. Nails it. 878 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:16,600 The writing was good. It was the casting. 879 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:19,000 But Chino was great in it, I thought. 880 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:20,000 Andy. Andy. 881 00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:22,640 Andy was good. I didn't think Carey Mulligan 882 00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:24,800 should be in there. No, no. 883 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:26,200 Just couldn't see it. No. 884 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:28,080 And of course, when, when. What's her? 885 00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:30,680 Name and she's delightful, but not in it was the wrong. 886 00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:32,040 Oh yeah. Wrong actress. 887 00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:33,720 I don't know who I would have put in, but I wouldn't. 888 00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:36,160 Have cast her and Coppola's daughter. 889 00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:39,280 Oh yeah, was Sophie. Yeah, so lovely girl, but 890 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:41,560 totally miscast. Yeah, and even the guy with the 891 00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:43,800 tan, what's his name? He played. 892 00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:46,720 He played the the lawyer. Because they can't. 893 00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:48,480 Remember. Yeah, I don't remember that. 894 00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:49,280 Because they would. They would. 895 00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:53,400 They wouldn't pay. They wouldn't pay the the actor 896 00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:55,240 who played Sam. I'm losing my mind now. 897 00:43:55,240 --> 00:44:01,080 The actor who played Tom Hagan. Hagan, they wouldn't pay him the 898 00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:04,280 money for Godfather Three. Would have been, but he didn't. 899 00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:06,720 Yeah, that's paramount. Robert Duvall, You know, I'm so 900 00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:08,720 funny. I was just out in Deer Valley at 901 00:44:08,720 --> 00:44:11,040 a friend's house, and we're sitting in the hot tub and we're 902 00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:12,840 saying, wait a second, who was the attorney? 903 00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:16,080 Not one of us could think of who played the attorney. 904 00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:18,520 And I'm like everyone's saying, but I know it. 905 00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:21,280 I know exactly who he is. We could all picture his face. 906 00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:23,400 I had to get out. I'm like, OK, I'm getting out of 907 00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:23,960 the hot tub. I'm. 908 00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:26,440 Going to because I. Was going to wreck the rest of 909 00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:28,200 this hot tub. I won't answer your second 910 00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,080 question. About I want to hear the what's 911 00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:35,160 the worst where you loved the book and you said how could they 912 00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,520 destroyed this in this movie? I don't want to answer that 913 00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:39,920 question because I don't want to destroy anybody's. 914 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:42,160 It's an. Opinion. 915 00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:44,320 We're having an opinion. I'm trying to think I mean. 916 00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:48,520 We'll put a disclaimer, OK? This is Lou Romano's opinion 917 00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:52,360 because we've got about 5 minutes left so we just want to 918 00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:54,160 hear it. I can't think of one off hand. 919 00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:57,680 I mean, I'm sure there are many that the the the movie just 920 00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:00,080 stunk. That's just when I I read the 921 00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:01,560 other day that I saw the other day. 922 00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:05,000 That was done by Sly Stallone, written and produced by him. 923 00:45:05,720 --> 00:45:08,080 It was the movie was terrible, but I didn't read the book. 924 00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:09,320 There wasn't a book attached to it. 925 00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:13,280 I'm trying to think. See, I could say I love The 926 00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:16,360 Fountainhead by I hated the movie my. 927 00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:17,880 Terrible. Are you kidding me? 928 00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:21,680 Who wrote the script? I mean the book is so good and 929 00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:24,120 the movie was terrible. It was terrible. 930 00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:26,520 I mean, that would make someone not want to read a really great 931 00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:27,840 book. How about Napoleon? 932 00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:29,960 It was a terrible movie. Oh, I never saw that one. 933 00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:32,960 Well, there's been so many books written about the Napoleon, but 934 00:45:33,560 --> 00:45:36,760 yeah, it was just bad. Just a bad movie, right? 935 00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:41,480 Not fun. I can't think of offhand of of 936 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:45,000 any any situation where I the movie was that bad. 937 00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:49,000 Well, then we'll end on a good note, yes, because we're all 938 00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:52,360 going to look forward to your movie on intercession and I 939 00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:54,840 highly recommend everyone's orders it in the meantime. 940 00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:56,000 Oh. Thanks so much. 941 00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:59,360 Thank you. So Lou Romano, I hate that we 942 00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:01,360 are at the end of this. Oh, we are. 943 00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:03,560 Time goes so. Fast when you are going to start 944 00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:06,120 with you. I know, yeah, I love these 945 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:07,800 podcasts because I get to. So do I. 946 00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,080 When When do you get to talk to someone for an an hour with no 947 00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:12,800 interruptions? So thank you. 948 00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:14,400 Thank. You so much for joining me. 949 00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:18,080 I'm Diane Grissel. This has been the Silver 950 00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:21,560 Disobedience Perception Dynamics podcast, and my guest has been 951 00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:25,480 prolific writer Lou Romano. He's got a lot of books that I 952 00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:29,200 highly recommend you check out. There'll be links to meant his 953 00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:33,960 author page below this podcast descriptor, and I highly 954 00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:37,160 recommend you check them out. Thank you very much, Lou. 955 00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:39,400 Thank you, Diane. Thank you so much. 956 00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:42,400 Thank you. Please hit subscribe and share 957 00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:44,560 this with your book loving friends. 958 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:48,240 I'm sure they're going to enjoy finding out about a new great 959 00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:51,800 author to add to their shelves and reading lists. 960 00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:53,640 Thanks everyone. Subscribe.