FULL TRANSCRIPT

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Opening:

Hello and welcome to episode 3 of the Finding Elara podcast, building worlds with words and sharing those words with the world. A podcast for writers, worldbuilders and artists that would like to take a mindful look inside their creations. Wherever or whenever they are.

Intro:

My name is Dianna and Elara is the world I created for a fantasy novel series. Exploring the world around us we’ll get a clear picture of our creations and hopefully Find Elara. In this episode I am going to be interviewing Joel Evans. Joel is a photographer, writer, avid listener of audiobooks and most importantly, one of the most patient and understanding people that I know. He is the father of our three children and is going to try his hand at finishing Nano this year.

Content:

D – Hi Joel, how are you today?

J – I’m very good thanks Dianna, I am pretty proud to be on here with you and be your first guest.

D – I’m pretty stoked there have been a few hiccups but I think we are on the right track now.

J – It’s one of those things when you are learning something new. You’re trying to find your way through especially with the programs and what not you’ve got to, put in place to get the final product online.

D – Definitely. So, I’ll just start with the standard questions I have for my future guests and yourself. What does world building mean to you and how does it come up in your daily life?

J – Well like you said in your intro I’ve got an awfully large amount of audio books some 200+ and for my past chosen career being line hall I spent a lot of time listening to other authors and the worlds that they’ve built. What it is for me in the sense of worldbuilding is trying to create, describe and draw in the audience without making them having to use too much of their imagination. I enjoy the books where you just get lost. I certainly like the big long ones that keep going for a while. Then you need to pause in between the next book because of the world you have been living in for so long. I like the ones that you can fall into easy as opposed to one where you have to really sit back and concentrate on what they mean. Sometimes that’s a good book as well. Like Orson Scott card he’s a very intellect writer. It takes and awful lot of concentration to keep going with his books and understand where he’s at. As his high level of intelligence and how detailed and in-depth he gets not only with the world but individual characters and creatures that he’s built.

D – SO you like the immersive stories?

J – Certainly do yeah and like I say, I like the ones that are easy to fall into. The ones where a lot of time and care and effort has been put into building it. You can just slot yourself into with very little hassle and it doesn’t take a lot of effort you know. I am not a big fan of the books that take your avid reader would say It’s a good two books before you get into the series then you’ve lost me already. If I am not there within the first few chapters, it is probably unfair to the writer but I usually give up.

D – So What genre would you prefer to read most of all?

J – I am definitely a sci-fi fan. There is too much real world going on to listen to real world books. I have never been a fan of doco’s and histories. The true tales of the outback wanderer and the like. Although they got their place and they are good stories and good yarns but to me I like to just escape. I like to get out of it, especially when it comes to the tedium’s of work. When it comes to driving trucks, it doesn’t take a great deal on the open road you just have to keep it straight and stay away from other people.

D – Are there any aspect of science fiction and fantasy that you pay increased attention to?

J – I am a huge fan of the unpredictable as you know yourself I’m very bad for trying to second guess what’s going on be it in stories or movies. I have an uncanny knack for being able to predict it. And I certainly enjoy it when you can’t. and not when it is too blatantly obvious that something is going to happen that you shouldn’t be able to expect which is the other side of being to blatantly obvious that you can expect what is going to happen. Like the movie that we watched recently was the beautiful creatures it was very predictable.

D – That was good I enjoyed that.

J – It is and it’s a good world that they’ve built but when you’re going through the story you sort of know how it’s going to go an you can see the change and it’s the new generation of the girl and the boy who’ve been cursed and you know that something different is going to happen to them but you didn’t see it was going to be the uncle that was going to take the fall to break the curse that was an unpredictable predictability. You know what I mean you know how the story was going to go but that plot twist in there really throws you an I think that cements in the liking of that style of writing and books and movies.

D – I completely agree, I know where you are coming from there. You’ve chosen photography as your main creative outlet. Can you let me and our listeners know how you got into that and why you find it so fascinating and immersive?

J – I have always appreciated artistry in all its forms. I used to thoroughly enjoy drawing as I was young and I wasn’t a Picasso or anything of the sort, but I wasn’t terrible at it. Then dabbled in writing with stories I’ve been told as a kid I was never short of a word to say. I tried poetry as well, I sort of liked that. But as I got older the passion never stuck around for it and I found it hard to get the drive to get back into it. I’ve always believed that if you don’t like it, especially when it comes to things of the artistic nature you can’t force yourself into it is never going to be the same. If you don’t feel it when you’re doing it and majority of the people looking at it or reading it won’t feel it either. Photography as a kid I had a brief period in foster care and one of my foster parents was a photographer. And just the way he explained it by looking through the lens and what you see and what you are trying to tell other people in the imagery that you are capturing always sort of stuck with me. And the same with looking at photos from your childhood and all that, bringing those memories back taking the trip down the memory lane so to speak. It’s always just been a constant solid feeling it’s never withered you know I never gave it away. It always has just been the same and I have gone back to it and we have been lucky through the years being able get a little bit of photography gear and all we need now is the time.

D – It is always a matter of time and money isn’t it. Do you feel that if you didn’t have that mentor growing up that you would still be as interested in photography now as you are?

J – I think so, I would have to say these things come down to personality, don’t they? There’s, if your lucky enough to find that thing that you actually like I know it’s a part of growing up, you’re forever looking for that thing that is you, that describes you that fits with you sort of thing and I think in majority of people are fortunate to find it. Whether they can encourage it and indulge it is a different story. Like you with your writing it takes a fair amount of commitment and dedication to see these sorts of things through. I think that’s the difference with some one when you find that thing that you like. It’s not that hard to stay and it’s not that much work. It’s a lot easier to ride through when things aren’t going to plan, when that shot didn’t work or that paragraph isn’t fitting together, or the story characters aren’t, you know, aren’t fitting. A lot of people would walk away but when it is something that you have a passion for and it is something that you enjoy and love It doesn’t seem like such a chore. Just a rest and stepping away for a few minutes and you’re revitalised and back into it. So, I think once you find that sort of think, like me with photography it’s quite east just to keep going back to it. You can walk away from it and get back to it.

D – So I think it’s different with my writing than it is with photography obviously with this worldbuilding podcast we are very interested in looking at what’s inside your real world and having that transfer into your stories that your creating. Where as photography you are in the real world all the time. So…

J – I would agree with you, with the statement of  that but on the same context when it comes to taking photography I could be looking forward and taking a photo of a rundown farm house sitting in the middle of green paddock, rolling hills the sun bustling through the clouds the rays shining through and the perfect spot over the house and it looks like a gorgeous shot and that’s the story that you are telling. If the serenity and the aging of time and then you turn around and you’ve got thirty story sky scrapers and concrete everywhere and all the sort and it is only a few footsteps away. It’s all about perspective, you still can tell stories that are, at the same token in the real world for sure but not actually relevant to where you are, you turn around and it is like a different world.

D- So you think that’s how you find magic in your creations?

J – you take those snap shots, year for sure. You take those snap shots that are radiating to you, something that calls to you. At the time and you take that out because it’s got the beauty it’s got the glory it’s got the attraction to it and a lot of the times you see that a lot clearer when you’re stuck in area’s that are less so. You’ve got your fog filled cities and all the like of that. Then all of a sudden there’s this small spot of forest with nature running through or whatever it is. It could just be a person running through and the way that they are standing beside something takes the rough and harshness of the city away. Showing you that natural beauty again. Taking you out of the harshness of reality.

D – and you just want to capture that little piece of magic?

J – Yeah, you just want to tell that story. Same as the real world, no matter where you are in the real world you pick up a book, you press play on the audio book you find that little bit of something.

D – Which authors and movies have inspired you with their world creation throughout the years?

J – well that’s a challenging one there’s a couple of authors that have. I’m not sure whether their book would have been the same if it wasn’t for the  act that I had heard them on audible and the narrator was the one because unfortunately there’s some really good book out there that if the narrator’s not on key, or I’ve got a pet peeve with mouth noises which makes it hard for an audio book. So, when the narrator has got some little tick it will do my head in straight away and I can’t listen to the book. So… but having said that. Kevin Hearne and his Iron druid chronicles they were stellar. I have listened to the complete series a minimum of three times all over and I think there was eight/nine books. And Rachel Aaron same sort of style with Rachel Aaron, she’s got two separate series. She’s got the dragon series which I quite liked and the one with Eli Monpress as a spirit thief was a really good one to get into. Those books and Orson Scott Card with his Enders Game. That was a whole universe and a whole world. I started losing a bit of interest after about twelve books. It’s quite big.

D – You got a lot further than I did.

J – Yeah, he doles into other characters. But I love the intelligence of it and the way that he wrote it. He doesn’t just, even though he’s got his main character He also concentrates on the real-world mechanics of the other characters and while they’re off in the back scenes how they still effect the things that are going on and the things that are still happening. He’s not just a lineal concentration on the main character. I think that’s something that really drew me into a few of his books. Movies, I like all those sorts. That bright, that was a good movie. That only came out December last year. I like that style of movie. The transformers. I was a huge fan of that growing up. As a kid so all those sorts of movies kept me interested. The star treks and the start wars. Love all the Star Wars. It was a family tradition. You would go out to see them in cinemas every boxing day.

D – Same with the Harry Potters, they all came out on Boxing Day.

J – and the Harry Potters, I was a Harry Potter fan. I did enjoy all of those.

D – This podcast is also about mindfulness. How do you think that Mindfulness Effects your work?

J – I’m a little bit fortunate in where I work. It is very flat landish around the town that we live in but going to work you’ve got the ranges that go through and I am fortunate enough to get to pretty good heights. Through the previous owners of the place of my employment I was lucky enough to take my drone out there and get to experience a lot of it and get to capture it. Which was the diamond in the rough. Just something that you don’t expect. Flat lands. Low lying shrubs, not a great deal to look at then all of a sudden, you’ve got wildlife, ranges, all the trees and high grounds to get really good abundant shots. So, I think with the photography you look at things differently as well, I find myself, unfortunately more often than not making the statement of, I wish I had my camera. You see a lot more that you miss than what you are able to get and that’s just luck of the draw really.

D – SO as a family man, do you think that having kids has changed your perspective?

J – I definitely do.  As you grow older. Your interests change, priorities change, I think one of the main benefits are, in my experience, was having kids at a young age you don’t lose that attachment to your childhood. Because you are straight back into it raising kids. You are seeing what they start liking and your kids are getting older and you’ve got to sort of filter out the media that they’re taking in so you’ve got to watch a show because they want to watch a show so you think okay, I will watch the first episode and next thing you know you’re two seasons deep into it and you can’t wait for the next season to come out.

D – Just like rick and Morty for you.

J – Just like rick and Morty. That was a good one to filter out for the boy.

D – I am so glad that I didn’t have to watch that.

J – It’s a great show. But that keeps your mind young and active. I think you don’t lose the willingness to embrace, see and as corny as it sounds, believe in magic. Even though the hustle and bustle of life wears you out and you’re tired and all that but when you do get that down time you get to revitalise. You’re still there, your still in that mindset you can still see these sorts of things. You’re not an old bitter, wriggly old man just going through the motions.

D – That’s completely fair. I wouldn’t consider you old anyway because then I would have to consider myself old.

J – I’m not quite at my midlife crisis, we’re getting there.

D – So I know that you are planning on participating in NaNoWriMo this year do you have any ideas what you are going to do for your story as yet?

J – So this will be my second attempt. I think this is your sixth isn’t it? Fifth or sixth?

D – Seventh.

J – Oh, I was so close.

D – I have five on my wall.

J – Lucky I wasn’t saying how many years we’ve been married. I didn’t complete my first attempt either. I think that I got to 35 and a half or something which was not a bad effort for my first crack. This year I am going to have a red-hot go. I’ve got all the tools that I need and I’m already prepping. I’ve got the idea. It’s a fresh new sort of idea I don’t want to give out too many spoilers here because it could be the next New York times best seller.    

D – Of course.

J – But there will be dramatic plot twists. Hearts will be broken, lives will be saved. Friends will die. It will be epic.

D – Well I look forward to reading it.

J – All I got to do is make it to fifty thousand words which shouldn’t be a problem as long as I can stay dedicated to get to it. That’s my biggest problem. It’s not coming up with the ideas and coming up with the inspiration to come up with a good story it’s having the dedication like you to get through it. And actually, finish the story and get it out there. I’m not terribly concerned about what my peers will think of it It’s more so just finding the dedication to actually put the full stop and the end at the end of it. Actually getting to that level as I lose interest pretty quick.

D – Do you have any advice you would like to give to the audience?

J – Yeah. Do what you can to keep the interest. Myself I am very of an addictive personality and it needs to keep me interested, for me to keep doing it. I lose interest very fast the idea of it is always awesome and it’s always great and that get’s you into it. But unless the rush or the high fatality of it stays at that pinnacle the whole time which is obviously an unrealistic expectation you can’t anything to maintain that, but I lose interest pretty quick. You’ve got to step back take a look and remind yourself what it was that interested you in the first place and just hold on to that, keep that bit going.

D – Well thank you very much for sharing I really appreciate you coming on and surviving these glitched that we’ve been having.

J – It come down to experience, every time that you have another go at it the things that bothered you in the last one won’t bother you in this one you’ll come up with new obstacles and you’ll get through them. You’ll be an old hand at them before you know it.

D – I’ll definitely give it a red hot try.

Buffy Night:

D – So as you know, because you’ve listened to all my podcasts that the next section is buffy night. Buffy night, the night where I get the big TV in the lounge. I have been doing buffy night since my son was born where I talk about what’s been inspiring me this week. So, I was wondering if you would like to share something that has inspired you. Something that you have been watching or reading or playing.

J – I have. I have been probably a little bit too immersed into a video game called horizon.

D – It’s been very times consuming.

J – It is an epic game. It is a massive, massive world. The detail in it is absolutely sensational and stunning. Just from the simple things like the gravity with the hair as you are falling down, how it lifts up and falls down with you. Just things like that. The storylines were sensational. You can appreciate the amount of effort that would have taken to create such a that you just smash a few buttons through and run around. You choose what you care to do and choose which way you go. Which was, back in the old, not the old days, like we said I’m not that old, but, the old choose your own stories where you could decide which way the story would end. Usually there were three or four different ways you could finish the story. Be it a good ending, a moral ending or you choose the heavy handed. This game has the same style usually averaging three to four. You could use your intelligence to play for it or you could use your brute strength. And take a hard stance or you could use your compassion to deal with people. It didn’t have a great deal of difference at the end of the game, but it would change the way the other characters would deal with you. I was just completely immersed, absolutely loved it. The way it was put together was just gold.

D - And what was the most recent book you finished listening to?

J - I haven’t actually finished but I am listening to the white mage omnibus. By ben hale. So, it’s rather simplistic the first one that was released was an omnibus, so you get the first three books. So, I am on to the forge of light at the moment I am not far away from that one being finished. And because we not long watched beautiful creatures on Netflix it’s really inspired me to go and look at those books again. Because of the age old saying that the books are always better. And they never made the sequel to the movie which is very upsetting.

D – Well they might do a reboot. They’re doing a buffy reboot.

J – That will be interesting. I didn’t mind the buffy, I wasn’t quite the Avid fan that you and your friends were, to the point of four or five times go through of the season.

D – You like other things though.

J – Sure do. I didn’t mind angel for a bit, it just become a little bit. All those series are the same though, I got right into Smallville I thoroughly enjoyed that there were unfortunately quite a few filler episodes where it was virtually unnecessary and they obviously, the writers must have been on holiday at the time and it just went through the motions of him doing something randomly irrelevant. It had nothing to do with him developing his abilities or anything of the sort. Angel and buffy were the same. There was the, what I call the angel gate. One minute she can leap, five, six-foot fences with simple ease and then next thing you know she can’t go through a wooden door. I just find it very funny. No consistency, but it was still a good show.

D – It was. Well thank you so much for coming on the show with me today. I really appreciate you being here. I don’t think that I can say that enough.

J – Thank you for having me, it was little bit late. Just for you audience to know it was a one o’clock appointment that I was told to be available and it was half past five at night. Just trying to put that out there.

D – There were circumstances outside our control. Namingly. He put on a movie on and we had to sit down and watch it.

J – It was a good movie.

D – It was a good movie, but I really appreciate you being here, and I hope that the audience finds something from your insights today. And the way that I like to end my buffy segment is with a GRR aargh.

J – Again, thank you for having me.

Link to Elara:

Ok, so we are moving to the linking to Elara section, how I’m going to put this information to good use. I think, with photography compared to writing, there is a bit of a juxtaposition, but it is still inspiring to see that you can use different types if art and still express yourself in such an intimate way. With photography and with writing. I think that the different stories and perspectives that Joel has from the same stories that I have read is quite interesting. I tend to lose interest in some of the shows that he is interested in and he tends to lose interest in some of the shows that I am interested in. we still talk about them. We still compare notes and discuss why we liked it, why we didn’t like it. And that expands both of our experiences. I am glad that I spoke to Joel on this podcast and I am sure that he will be a recurring guest.

Close:

That ‘s all that I have for you today. I downloaded the music royalty free from bensound.com not an affiliate link. But it is a handy site for music if you ever need it. Next episode we are talking about Christmas. I am working on a short story for Christmas and I am hoping to have it completed and released in time. If you liked the show, please subscribe so you can hear about any more content that I am putting out into the world. If you have any questions, you can find me on my website, DLNix.com, on Facebook as DL NIX and on twitter @findingelara. Thankyou for listening to this episode I hope that you enjoyed the interview and got something out of it until next time, keep up the search.