John David on The Bystander and Viral Truth

Wendy & Rich 0:01
Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios, Hartford County Living presents, Conversations with Rich Bennett. My guess is John David, award-winning day, and I'm going to show you guys what's going on. My

Rich Bennett 0:28
guess is John David. The label you novelists an author of the bystander. A contemporary mystery layered with thriller elements. The story follows television reporter Pete Lemaster who captures an active shooter incident on camera. Footage that launches his career overnight. But as the dust settles, it becomes clear the truth behind what happened is far more complicated than anyone first believed. This is suspense. This is media. This is reputation. And it's a story about what happens when you witness something and suddenly become part of it. How you doing, John? 

John David 1:08
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me on your show. I appreciate 

Rich Bennett 1:11
Oh, 

John David 1:11
it. 

Rich Bennett 1:11
my pleasure. So for listeners who haven't picked up the bystander yet, give us a pitch. What is this book? Who's it for and why doesn't matter right now? 

John David 1:23
did a great job, a great synopsis. It's a mystery novel. Some people call it a thriller. There's all these lines, there's some lines drawn about what's a thriller, what's a mystery. A lot of people think those lines are blended together lately. I call it mystery with thriller elements. And it tells a story of... As you were describing, it's Elvis reporter. He's a P. Lamassster. He's out filming, what do you think is kind of a feel-good Friday afternoon type story. 

Rich Bennett 1:54
You 

John David 1:55
He's at a retail complex, outdoor retail complex, talking to football fans before football game the next day. And just having you having a good time. And then there's this incident that happens. A guy enters a retail complex with a assault rifle. And he fires a shot in the air and everyone starts to scatter. And then he turns his camera around and hits record, and dies recovered. And then he kind of peaks over and looks and sees that there's someone, there's an armed bystander, someone in the crowd who's got their own handgun, who comes out and shoots and kills the act of shooter. And Pete, the protagonist, he's got it all on camera. This act of bravery on camera, and it becomes a viral video, and the story just, you know, they're launches. It starts to launch his career. The bystander who takes the shots ends up with, you know, gaining some fame and fortune. But all is not as it 

Rich Bennett 3:06
Right. 

John David 3:07
seems rich. It is always not as it seems. And if the mystery there's a mystery there and it kind of as they try to learn more about everybody involved. More questions are asked and then are answered. 

Rich Bennett 3:18
So do you think? Because this is your first book, correct? 

John David 3:23
Yes, sir. 

Rich Bennett 3:23
Do you think your PR background has helped a lot with this? 

John David 3:27
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So, I mean, the first thing, the first thing was more things before I say, is that this was inspired by an actual incident. 

Two things happened in 2022 that inspired this book. The first one was that that I was having a conversation in the summer of 2022. I was having a barbecue at my house. I was either with my birthday or Fourth of July, I can't remember. And that typically happens. I'm in my kitchen, you know, and we're most comfortable. And I'm there with my brother and my brother and my brother and my older brother is veteran. And my brother and laws also veteran. And we were talking about guns and gun rights. And I'm not a gun owner. I understand the second amendment. I get it. I'm not, but 

Rich Bennett 4:22
it's not 

John David 4:23
everybody. 

Rich Bennett 4:23
for 

John David 4:24
But I also, right. But I was so having this conversation about guns and gun rights and all that stuff. And know, if you have an older brother or siblings, you have a brothers in law, you probably would understand of this conversation when it 

Rich Bennett 4:37
you 

John David 4:38
basically went, but them explaining to me how I was wrong and how my opinion was wrong and how everything was wrong. And that, you know, what I don't know what I'm talking about. And so we had this conversation. And so I learned a little bit about the gun show loophole. And I learned a little bit about all these different trends and things that 

Rich Bennett 4:54
Right. 

John David 4:54
happen. foodings and everything else. So I got a little bit of education, not a ton of education because I'm going to say, you know, my brother and my brother and law, they're both, you know, they're my they're my family, but I'm not going to give too much credit. Anyway, and then, and then the more the more the inciting incident was later that month at a mall in Indiana, a girl into this mall in Indiana with a saw rifle and he started shooting 

Rich Bennett 5:18
Yep. 

John David 5:19
any kill three people. But at the same time there was a guy in the food court having lunch, his name is eating. Eli Dickin, and Eli Dickin is an expert marksman and he was carrying his handgun and he took out his gun and he started firing back at the act of shooter and he killed him. And so the story there was armed by standard kills act of shooter, 

Rich Bennett 5:40
right. 

John David 5:41
And I found that story fascinating. I mean, first and foremost, Eli Dickin is a bonafide hero. I mean, he did something truly heroic. He's saved lives. He saved his own life. He saved other people's lives without a question. The guy's a hero. It's incredible. 

Rich Bennett 5:57
Yeah. 

John David 5:58
And I read everything I could about it. I thought it was a really interesting story, but it also kind of got me to thinking. Is this the way it's supposed to be? I mean, 

Rich Bennett 6:07
Right. 

John David 6:07
like if we're all a mall to go by, to go by sneakers, should we have to have a gun with us? And, and so it just got me to thinking and I was like, you know what? This could be the backdrop for a novel. And so that's how I came to, that's how I came to the topic. And that's, that's what started me to start me writing. 

Rich Bennett 6:24
I wonder how, and with that, and it goes perfect in hand with the title of the book, the bystander, but with, with Eli, I'm wondering how that was on his mental health, too. Because great. Yes. He saved lives, but still taking another life that, 

John David 6:44
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:45
Wow. Yeah. I remembered that. 

John David 6:48
It's heavy. It's 

Rich Bennett 6:49
Yeah. 

John David 6:49
heavy. You know. And so I, my impact is your sort of original question. So I've been a public relations consultant for 30 years. I'm still a public 

Rich Bennett 6:56
consultant, 

John David 6:56
relations 

Rich Bennett 6:56
right? 

John David 6:57
author job is 

Rich Bennett 6:59
you're not a know you're not a full pledge author per North yet. 

John David 7:03
I'm full-fledged. I'm just not fully whatever compensated. 

Rich Bennett 7:06
Okay. Yeah, there you 

John David 7:07
are. I'm still working my regular. I'm still working my regular job. And so the, but I've been a PR consultant for 30 years. And so I made my protagonist a television reporter because I kind of understand that world. I've met. I've, I know and have known many, many journalists. 

Rich Bennett 7:24
Right. 

John David 7:25
I've, I've dealt with hundreds, maybe thousands of reporters over my career. And so I, it was, it was an easy thing for me to, to, to make that my, to make a journalist, my protagonist, and then I'm just a student of, you know, of the media culture. And so how that, you know, how, how stories develop and how they, how they begin, how they grow, how they flame out, how they die, all that stuff is always really fascinating to me. 

Rich Bennett 7:50
Right. So with, with this, this is that it's more than just a headline story, right? 

John David 7:59
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, there's, it wouldn't be a whole book, 

Rich Bennett 8:03
Right. 

John David 8:03
right. There's, it ends up, you end up with, you end up, you know, there's, the story builds out from that sort of Insighting 

Rich Bennett 8:12
Yeah. 

John David 8:12
Insighting. And because, and there's lots of different kind of forces of play that you don't, you don't realize in the beginning. 

Rich Bennett 8:19
What and the reason I said is because, you know, people do take the headlines and somehow another, they do get a whole story of it, but they don't go into the background of, I don't know how they do it. Maybe that's why I haven't read those books. I don't know. 

John David 8:33
I mean, part of it is you have, you know, that's part of the 

Rich Bennett 8:36
of, 

John David 8:36
story. The part 

Rich Bennett 8:37
yeah. 

John David 8:37
You immediately have, you know, that, that people start to pass judgment when they don't involve the facts. 

Rich Bennett 8:43
Yeah. 

John David 8:44
And, you know, guess what? I don't have to tell you this. You could insert that concept into dozens, hundreds of media stories that are happening right this second, you know. Not even knowing if it's going to air, I'm just telling you, you can sit there and say someone's going to pass early judgment on an incident that happened and they're going to be wrong, 

Rich Bennett 9:05
Yeah. 

John David 9:05
you know. And it's going to, it's going to happen. It's going to continue to happen and it's fascinating that it still 

Rich Bennett 9:10
happens. Happens all the time. Unfortunately. Yeah. It's anyways. So, I want people to experience this story the way it's meant to be experienced. Do you mind sharing an excerpt with us? 

John David 9:25
Not in the least. I don't mind. So I'm going to read you a section. It's a, I don't know, a minute or two. 

Rich Bennett 9:35
Okay. 

John David 9:35
Or so. 

Do you read it? Just tell me when you're 

Rich Bennett 9:40
ready. I'm ready. 

John David 9:41
But a rip. Okay. This is, this is part of the first chapter, so you're going to, you're going to get it. Your audience is okay with a little bit of profanity. 

Rich Bennett 9:51
Oh my gosh. Are you. They know I'm a Marine, so yes. 

John David 9:55
Are you, are you supposed to say 'are you shitin' me'? 

Rich Bennett 9:58
[Laughter] 

John David 10:00
Okay, ready, here we go. I was slated for another live shot, but not until 6 p. m., leaving me time to catch up on messages and grab a snack. The wings, burgers, and fries, not to mention the beer looked and smelled great, but the camera adds 10 pounds, and one wing might turn into a dozen and the test of willpower, which I wasn't quite right at the end of the tour. Looking fit on camera is as important as having a strong chin and a full head of air and a brain. As I put away my handheld mic and pondered whether to down a bunless cheeseburger, I saw confused faces running away from the waterfront. Then people started running and screaming like they were in a disaster movie. The fast runners were slicing through slow ones, shoving people aside, and knocking people down. Women were crying. Children were screaming for their parents. Some of the bigger men picked up the women they were just holding hands with and carried them like they were firefighters sprinting out of a burning building. I froze. What the hell is going on? As a crowd then, I saw him. A man wearing a motorcycle helmet about 40 yards away was pacing in front of the high topper sneaker store and waving a rightful, holy shit, an active shooter. "Bam!" he fired a shot in the air. People hit the ground and crawled for cover. More crying. Without thinking, I crouched down, turned my camera toward him and hit record before dropping behind the concrete planter. I hooked my foot around the one leg of the camera's tripod. A few people seemed to like my planter idea and crammed in next to me. A girl in a University of Georgia tank top, whimpered beside me, curled in a fetal position. A drunk guy and gator attire crouched behind me and slurred. Is this for real? Is this for real? What the fuck, man? Stay down, bro, I whispered. "Do I run? Stay put? I don't own a gun, and I wouldn't have been carrying even if I did. The only weapon I had on me was one of my buck pocket knives which wouldn't do much against a rightful. I peaked over the planter and washed in horror as a man wearing a blue baseball cap, shuffled toward the shooter. He was holding a pistol with two hands. His arms extended out like you know what he was doing, maybe a cop but in street clothes. Dressed like any other fan. Blue baseball cap slowed to a deliberate methodical pace, just to the right of me in about 30 yards from the shooter who was then holding the rightful flally against his chest. Bam, bam, bam! Three shots. The guy with the rightful crumbled to the ground, his gun hitting the concrete with a loud clack. Blue baseball cap then bent down and gently set his pistol on the ground before he raced his hands in the air. "Holy shit, he got him," I said to the drunk gator fan. Jacksonville Sheriff's Deputies seemed to come out of nowhere and quickly surrounded Blue Baseball Cap. All the cops at their guns drawn, some looking around the shops and up with rooftops. They told everyone to stay down, a few seemed to attend to the shooter. The crowd of police grew even bigger, and I couldn't see him much anymore. Loud cries, unmistakably from a woman, pierced through the shattered window of high topper. I stayed down to lay prone to stretch out and see if I could pull the tripod to me without knocking it over. While I was still shaking and seeing people running and screaming and grown men and tears, I thought the danger was over. Holy shit, holy fucking shit, I think I had just filmed some dude take down an active shooter in high-deaf. 

Rich Bennett 13:11
"Wow." 

"Damn, 

why did you choose that particular part to read to us?" 

John David 13:29
"It's in the beginning of the book. It's probably the part of the book that I worked on the most." 

Rich Bennett 13:34
"Okay, 

John David 13:36
"And it's important, right? It's important to 

Rich Bennett 13:38
yeah." 

John David 13:38
set this. This is what happens. This is how this happens and try to give you an opportunity to visualize in your own mind what's going on and how quickly things happen." 

Rich Bennett 13:48
"So, 

this could be a tricky question, but what does it reveal about Pete LeMaster or even the larger mystery?" 

John David 13:59
At the moment, it's just that he's curious, right? At that point in time, I mean, there's, as the scene sort of wears on, he realizes that this could be really something, like this could be, there was another place to stop. It was a little further along where he kind of said this could be big and this could really be a career-making thing for me. So he's sort of torn like right at the moment. I got this on film and then comes, okay, what do you do with it? 

Rich Bennett 14:24
So without giving anything away, because otherwise people wouldn't buy the book and we wouldn't buy the book, what kind of journey our readers stepping into if they're at that moment. 

John David 14:38
there's like I said, it seems straightforward enough, 

Rich Bennett 14:42
"Hopefully, 

John David 14:42
but it's not. All as long as it seems, that's the mystery. everything as it seems? When you think about this, what I just painted, you know one character, if there's three characters in that scene, you only really know about one. And 

Rich Bennett 14:59
Is 

John David 14:59
so now we have to figure out who the other two are and how and if or what connects them." 

Rich Bennett 15:08
Wow. "Yeah, I can't wait to get this." And the other thing is too, correct me if I'm wrong. This is an audio book form, as well, right? 

John David 15:18
We'll be starting in April, comes on April. 

Very flatter than she would even suggest that. No, there's a professional narrator. 

Rich Bennett 15:29
Oh, I was going to say, because you have different characters in the book, right? 

John David 15:33
they do that. The audiobook narrators are usually really good, because there's male voices and female voices. And when you add, 

Rich Bennett 15:45
Yeah, 

John David 15:46
he said, they do the audiobook 

actors make choices, too, which is cool. 

Rich Bennett 15:57
So with that, do you pick the audio actor or does the publishing company? Because you're not self-published, right? 

John David 16:05
No, no, I have a publishing company. It's my publisher's called "Toolly Publishing" and they're based in California. The audio rates were sold to Tantor audio. 

Rich Bennett 16:16
Okay, 

John David 16:16
they're one of the big, big, big audio people. And they shared with me, they had selected a narrator, and they were kind enough to share that with me. 

Rich Bennett 16:30
And you 

John David 16:31
know, as so many of us are prone to do, you know, I didn't love it. So I, and they basically said, you know, there's, they said, you you can suggest another narrator. If you want, and my editor said, you know, and you're probably be well-served to, like, look on the Tantor media website and see who they already use, you know, so like somebody who's already kind of in their stable, don't just go and say, well, I really think, you know, that, that should be Matthew McConaughey, you know, like, like, like, don't, don't do that. Right, or, or whatever, or, um, there's another, who's the guy who was, um, Who is the other actor who does a lot of them. I can't think of his name on top of my head, who's in the right stuff, and, um, what's his name? Um, anyway, there's another, there's another guy who does a lot of them is really good. But, um, but I like a lot. But so I went on the Tantor audio site, and I, and I listened to a bunch of them, a bunch of people and I gave them, here's my, here's of these people that I, that are on your site. 

Rich Bennett 17:32
right? 

John David 17:32
Here's the three that I like. And honestly, I have no, no idea if they were going to listen to me or not. And they ended up choosing the one that I kind of ranked first. So they've got that, so that's who's that's who's doing it. His name is PJ Ocklin. He's a, he's an actor and a voice actor. 

Rich Bennett 17:47
So for somebody, this is your first book written, and you were able to do some things that new authors can never do. Number one, a publishing company, you're not self-published. And you had the true, you were able to pick the different audio actor. So 

John David 18:05
yeah, I mean, I, I think that there's so, so the first thing is is, yeah, I was very fortunate. I mean, I, I it took me about five months from the idea to write the first draft of this book. 

Rich Bennett 18:17
I, I I, 

John David 18:17
And then I've got one once a couple months of work on it with the, I found a professional editor to help me. And then it took me a year and a half to find a publisher. 

Rich Bennett 18:26
Okay. 

John David 18:26
It was a, it's a lot of work. And so there's, I completely, there's, it's it's a, it's a lot. And, and I, at that, I made a conscious decision that I didn't want to self-publish. And so I did it, and I was able to find that I was able to get signed by Tully Publishing to actually have a three book contract signed with them. And then I, and not everybody gets an audio book deal. And so I was fortunate again to get an audio book deal. And the, you know, during the whole process, it's one of these things that the part of it is, for me, as 

you know, I'm an experienced person. So I'm, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm 50, you know, I'm going to be 58 this year. And I've seen a lot and I've done a lot of interesting work in my, in my career. And one of the things I've learned, it's pretty simple lesson, is that nobody cares about your stuff more than you do. 

Rich Bennett 19:17
Yeah. 

John David 19:18
Nobody cares about your, nobody cares about your job more than you do, nobody cares about your podcast more than you do rich, nobody cares about your kids more than you do. And nobody cares about my book more than I do. 

Rich Bennett 19:27
Right. 

John David 19:27
You know, even when my publisher is on my team, and everything else. And so when they, you know, set me cover ideas, you know, I was like, okay, here's what I like, here's what I don't like. And I know that I'm not, they're not going to do everything I say, but at least I'm going to tell them what I think, you know, and the same thing when it came with the audio book, they sent me the thing like, hey, what do you think of this? Well, if they can ask me what I think, I'm going to tell them what I think. 

Rich Bennett 19:47
Right. 

John David 19:48
Sit there and if I loved the guy that they'd chosen, and, you know, my protagonist is a, his male. So I needed, they would have given me a whole woman that would have, I would have, you know, said, okay, I think it should be male. But anyway, I like the guy they chose. If I like the other chose, it wouldn't great. Go with him. But I'm, you know, but I'm not, but my personality is such that I'm going to listen, and I'm going to pay attention. And I'm going to like, okay, if I'm, if it doesn't work, I'm going to tell you that I don't think it works. And, but then I don't, I know I don't have a lot of control. I think they want me to be 

Rich Bennett 20:17
happy. Right. 

John David 20:17
But they also want the decisions to be right, and so hopefully I pointed them in the right direction. 

Rich Bennett 20:24
Well, first of all kudos to you, because a lot of debut authors, after a year and a half trying to find a publisher, they would've just said, "Forget it, I'm doing it myself." You had a goal. You stuck with that goal, and you continued on it. And I think that's why the book was so successful because, let everybody know, how many awards have you gotten for this book so far? And what are 

John David 20:47
I've been very fortunate. I mean, there's a story, right? So, 

Rich Bennett 20:53
they? Right? 

John David 20:53
the first one was that I went through this process of trying to find an agent. I still don't have an agent. I was trying to find an agent, and after about six months of doing that, and just, you know, getting really nowhere, 

Rich Bennett 21:04
Mm-hmm. 

John David 21:04
I started looking at, like, what other authors, how are their authors, pitched agents, you know, they've been doing that all along but then I realized that some of these authors have credentials, you know, they have a master of fine arts from William and Mary or whatever. They've got some of them, one awards. Their stuff was published in their places, and so I was just looking for any kind of edge I could find. And so I entered my manuscript in 2022 to this contest called the BPA First Novel Award, 

Rich Bennett 21:31
Okay. 

John David 21:32
and it's run by an agency in in the UK, and I submitted my manuscript, and paid them a fee, you know, 45 pounds or whatever it was. 

Rich Bennett 21:43
[laughs] 

John David 21:44
And they got 1,000 entries, so they got 1,000 entries and they published what they call long list, 

Rich Bennett 21:52
Mm-hmm. 

John David 21:52
which was 22 books, and my book was on the long list. So it was in the top 22 of 1,000, 

Rich Bennett 22:00
Why? 

John David 22:00
and so I called my dad, I said, I'm a 2%er, you know, but then it all, but it put windowed my sales, literally, I mean, I literally figured it out, and I was figuring out I did win, and I was like, okay, this book's good. People like this book, there's 980 other people out there who didn't get this email, you know. And so that helped me a lot, I think it helped me, gave me a credential like a pitch, and also gave me some confidence, and then just as part of my marketing, I applied to some other contests, and I've been fortunate. I haven't -- there was a award program called the Story Trade Awards, and I was a finalist for -- in the Mystery Category for the Story Trade Awards. There's another one called the Page Turner Awards, and I was shortlisted in that for the Page Turner Award, and then I won the Page Turner Award for the Mystery Category, so that was great, and then I've had just said some really good reviews from some high profile folks, so 

Rich Bennett 23:05
the -- 

John David 23:05
it's been the awards -- the awards have been good to me, 

Rich Bennett 23:09
And it's doing good on Amazon as well, because I'm sitting here looking at it now, and this came out is released in September, right? September 

John David 23:20
correct. 

Rich Bennett 23:20
25 -- the first book of what -- a three book series? 

John David 23:25
>> I'm slated to be a three book series, 

Rich Bennett 23:26
Okay. 

John David 23:26
I mean, if I'm fortunate enough to get that to extend it, I would love the opportunity. 

Rich Bennett 23:31
But I'm just looking now now -- those of you listening -- this -- we're recording this on February 11. So the books are already been out for a few months, and in conspiracy thrillers, which is a big category, you're in -- it's right now, it's at 7.59, which is awesome. When 

John David 23:50
-- 

Rich Bennett 23:50
you look 

John David 23:50
>> 

Rich Bennett 23:50
at 

John David 23:50
Yeah, I mean, it's -- it's great. I mean, it's really -- it's -- it's a -- I've kind of gone -- you know, you kind of go up and down, and you can all -- 

Rich Bennett 23:59
>> Yeah. 

John David 24:00
>> You can do -- you can do a little bit better here and there. Yeah, I've -- I've broken into the top 100 in that category a couple of times, and so -- so, yeah, I've -- and I've done some book signings and sold some copies there, and, you know, I'm just -- I'm out, you know, I'm out -- I'm out 

Rich Bennett 24:19
>> I'm 

John David 24:19
-- I'm hustling. 

Rich Bennett 24:19
marketing. 

John David 24:20
>> 

Rich Bennett 24:20
Yeah. 

John David 24:20
I'm hustling. 

Rich Bennett 24:21
>> You have to. Thank God for that PR background, huh? 

John David 24:24
>> That helps. 

Rich Bennett 24:25
>> Yeah. >> So, where -- where can listeners actually find the bystander? 

John David 24:31
So it's available, you know, everywhere books are sold online primarily, right? So Amazon Barnes and Noble, I'm a big fan of a site called bookshop. org and bookshop. org enables you to buy, you can buy a hard copy and a portion of your sale goes to your local bookstore. So you're in Maryland, you go on to the bookshop. org, you'll ask you what your local bookshop is, and if it's in their database or whatever, you click on it, you buy a copy of the book, and they get a piece of the sale. 

Rich Bennett 25:00
Oh, nice. 

John David 25:00
So if you want to buy a hard copy and you want to be a good sold, then you add like bookshop. org. And then you can order it from your local Barnes and Noble, you can order it from your local bookstore, you can order a hard copy on Amazon from Barnes and Noble.com. And then audio, the audio book for the bystander comes out in April. 

Rich Bennett 25:20
Now what is somebody wants an autograph copy? 

John David 25:23
They can reach out to me, so my website, I haven't really been actively doing that. I mean, like, I'll do it. I've signed some copies, it's funded, 

Rich Bennett 25:33
funded. It's 

John David 25:33
it's funded, it's really humbling, 

Rich Bennett 25:35
actually, 

John David 25:36
but yeah, so my website is bijohndaiva.com, it's a sub-stack. And so it's something that reaches out to me and they want me to send them one autograph copy, I'll make it work. 

Rich Bennett 25:46
So those of you listening, you know what I'm going to tell you. When you purchase the bystander and after you read it, make sure you leave a full review, whether it be on good pods, 

John David 25:58
good 

Rich Bennett 25:58
yeah, good reads. I'm sorry, good pods is the podcast when whether it's on good reads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, whatever you can leave reviews, make sure you leave a review and don't pass the copy onto somebody else by a 

John David 26:13
reads, 

Rich Bennett 26:13
copy 

John David 26:14
not 

Rich Bennett 26:14
for somebody else. Buy several copies for people as a matter of fact. I mean, that's, that's just the way it is, right? 

John David 26:23
I know you're right, 

Rich Bennett 26:24
yeah. I 

John David 26:26
know you want to follow me around the megaphone? I'll be good. 

Rich Bennett 26:30
So John, is there anything you would like to add? 

John David 26:34
Yeah, listen, it's a work of fiction, it's meant to be fun, it's an interesting tale, there's some funny parts in it, there's some fun stuff in the book, it's not just serious mystery. It's good for people like sports, people like politics, people who study kind of media and that, the interaction, things like that. 

You know, one other thing I'll tell you is that it's not a massive book, you know, it's a paper page book, I get deeply flattered because I have people tell me, oh yeah, I read it in two days, I read it over a weekend, it's a quick read, it's a page Turner, things like that are very flattering and that's what's been common was that kind of it, it along, which is what I was really trying 

Rich Bennett 27:21
That's good 

John David 27:21
for. 

Rich Bennett 27:22
because yeah, a lot of and that just tells you also that the people are so, they're part of the book, the book is painting the picture in their mind and they can't put it down, and I love books like that, you know, because sometimes you just get, you're reading it, and then all of a sudden you forget what you were reading. 

John David 27:45
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 27:45
yeah, but if people are reading it within a couple of days, they are so, it's like watching a movie, they're just so wrapped up in it and they don't want to put it down. And also that's good, that's good. I see more awards coming. 

John David 28:00
That's great. Take them. 

Rich Bennett 28:02
Well, John, I want to thank you so much. Again, those of you listening, make sure you purchase a copy and leave a full review. And, John, you got to come back on when the next one is ready to come out. 

John David 28:17
be my absolute pleasure. It's 

Rich Bennett 28:19
Can you? Well, 

John David 28:20
great talking to you, Rich. 

Rich Bennett 28:21
Can you give us an idea? Do you know what the title is? 

John David 28:24
Sure, absolutely. Oh yeah. So 

Rich Bennett 28:25
Okay. 

John David 28:26
the title of the book is The Pawn. It's actually available for pre-sale, 

Rich Bennett 28:32
Amazon 

John David 28:33
and also Barnes and Noble. I think he can pre-order the hard copy on Barnes and Noble. And so follows the same character, the television reporter, and he gets a phone call from a friend of his. You know, again, it's kind of just, you know, mine in his own business and it turns out that kind of a friend of a family has been incarcerated overseas and he has a certain amount of contraband drugs on his person, but he's a seasoned business traveler, a wealthy guy, seasoned business traveler. This is the sort of thing that shouldn't happen, right? And like, this guy knows better. And so the family thinks he was set up. And so they reach out to television reporter and see if they can help figure out if he was set up. Bye. Pete goes on the quest to try to figure out if he was set up and he's asking the question who would try to set this guy up, and it turns out there's lots of people... 

Rich Bennett 29:39
Ooh. 

does he have, does Pete have his weapon with him, 

John David 29:44
And 

Rich Bennett 29:44
the camera? 

John David 29:46
He's, he, he ends up, it turns into a big story and so he follows the story and he works to solve the mystery. 

Rich Bennett 29:54
Nice. John, thanks so much. 

John David 29:58
Thank you, man. I really appreciate it. It's great, great talk to you. 

Rich Bennett 30:01
Thank you for listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something from it as I did. If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love it if you could leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners and share more incredible stories. Don't forget to connect with us on social media or visit our website at ConversationsWithRitchBenit.com for updates, giveaways, and more. Until next time, take care, be kind, and keep the conversations going. You know, it takes a lot to put a podcast together. together, And my sponsors help add a lot, but I also have some supporters that actually help me when it comes to the editing software, the hosting, and so forth. There's a lot that goes into putting this together. So I want to thank them. And if you can, please, please visit their websites, visit their businesses, support them, however you can. So please, visit the following Full full circle boards. Nobody does charcoal, like full circle boards, visit them at fullcircleboards.com. Sincerely, Sincerely Sincerely, soldier photography. Live in the moment, don't capture it. Visit them at sincerlysoyer.com. The Jopatown Lines Club, serving the community since 1965. Visit them at jopatownlinesclub. org, and don't forget the E at the end of Jopatown because they're extraordinary.