Episode 15- The Realm of Warminster with J.V. Hilliard

Today, we discuss the journey of H.V. Hilliard! Thank you for joining our journey through the arts. Like we always say "Pursuing your Passions is a Bitch... But it's worth it!"

Please Check out our friend, J.V. Hilliard-
His Website- https://www.jvhilliard.com/
His Kindle Author Page- https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.V.-Hilliard/author/B09NHW6NVD?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Also Check us out and our future projects at The Rogue Scientist Productions
Website- https://theroguescientistproductions.com/
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087537946337
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/roguescientistproductions/

Check out "The World Beyond" by Charles Dockham on Kindle Vella- https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BMZPTP6G

Check out "The Beautiful Beast" by Carolyn Clark on Kindle Vella-https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BVMNPBKZ

Check out Watsynthebox- Guest host William Thornhill- https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094728966282&mibextid=b06tZ0

Transcript

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (00:02.758)
you and welcome to pursuing your passions as a bitch. I am your host Charles Dockerman. I'm the owner of the Road Scientist Productions. You will also find some of my work on Kindle Vella with the story The World Beyond, an on-going series being published every other week. With me I have my co-host Will Thornhill. Will?

Watsyn (00:18.23)
Hello Hello, I'm Will Thornhill, father, husband, gaming streamer slash YouTuber, game developer, and voice actor.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (00:28.778)
Great, and with us we have our special guest today. We have JV Hilliard, a fantasy author. Joe?

Jv Hilliard (00:34.957)
Yeah, thank you very much for having me. I also am married. I have two very large dogs I've got a Siberian Husky named Thor and a and a Red Fox lab retriever named McLeod And as you said, I'm a fantasy author. So You can see where the names came from from the dogs

Watsyn (00:45.37)
Beautiful.

Watsyn (00:51.412)
Yep.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (00:56.26)
That's amazing. I love the foxes McLeod. Thank you for joining us today. Yeah, it can only be one. Oh, no, I recognize the Highlander reference. No.

Jv Hilliard (01:00.058)
Yes.

Watsyn (01:00.152)
It's awesome.

Jv Hilliard (01:03.557)
be only one.

Jv Hilliard (01:07.591)
Sorry.

Jv Hilliard (01:15.678)
I wasn't saying that you didn't. I just, you know, it's just you have to say it. Someone had to say it, so I just got out of the way.

Watsyn (01:21.092)
Right.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (01:24.566)
So what inspired you to get started in the field of writing?

Jv Hilliard (01:28.977)
You know, two real events. When I was in fourth grade, my English teacher at the time went out on a medical sabbatical and we had about a month left to go of classes and somehow, some way, the permanent sub came in. It was given permission to read us the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, you know, and so that's what we did. And so by the time the end of the school year had come around, I had fallen in love with fantasy adventure

Watsyn (01:48.733)
Oh, awesome.

Jv Hilliard (01:58.997)
shape or form and I asked my uncle, who was like a second father to me for a copy of the Hobbit for that Christmas and my uncle was paralyzed in the wars of Marine and so he had very little, he was a quadriplegic so there's very few things he could do and one of the things he did do was write and since my mother was his nurse and I grew up in his bedroom, I of course emulated him, I wanted to be an author too and he would write things like

Watsyn (02:22.392)
Mm-hmm.

Jv Hilliard (02:29.177)
you know, magazines and cereals and things like that back in the day. So I sat by his bedside, watched him type, and you know, I got my first copy of the Hobbit that Christmas, and then he also bought me the first box set of Dungeons and Dragons, and that's not geeky enough, you know, that really set me down. I like straight down the path to like fantasy nerd forever, but you know, as strange as this might sound, I mean,

Watsyn (02:46.931)
That's awesome.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (02:47.82)
Ha ha ha!

Watsyn (02:53.814)
Oh yeah.

Jv Hilliard (02:59.937)
you know, that was a form of escapism for him, for not just for writing, but then he could be a storyteller as a dungeon master. And when I was like 10 years old growing up, I would just, again, I just kind of fell in love with the game. And, you know, for him, it was a way for him to escape where he really was. And for me, I've always looked at that as a way for, you know, what I want to do with people is, you know, when you entertain them, you want to take them out of their, their daily dull drums, you want to put them in a place where they're normally not. And so for me to be able

Watsyn (03:26.15)
Right.

Jv Hilliard (03:30.201)
to offer that back is really what kind of drove me down that path to authorship.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (03:36.478)
Mm-hmm. And I know right now you're in the Warminster series with your book one, The Last Keeper, starting that series.

Jv Hilliard (03:43.18)
I am. It's the first.

Jv Hilliard (03:47.997)
Yeah, so, yeah, Last Keeper is book one, Vordens Lair is book two, and they're both out. Book three, which will be called The Trillius Gambit, comes out here in mid-spring of 23. And the final book called Echoes of Ghostwood is in editing right now, and that will end the Warminster saga sometime in September or October of this year. So getting close, a little further than halfway through, and that third book comes out, it's going to be erased to that epic fantasy finish. Which, you know, I'm excited to be.

Jv Hilliard (04:18.137)
to be writing and editing right now. But you know, the series has been well received. You know, I know that, you know, we've just licensed the intellectual property of the series to an augmented reality virtual reality gaming company that will launch the AR version of the game in 2024, with the VR version coming shortly thereafter in 2025. So I'm excited about the traction

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (04:21.042)
Mm-hmm

Watsyn (04:30.19)
just a bunch of property in the series too.

Jv Hilliard (04:47.937)
let's get additional opportunities like the game. And hopefully after that more to come, I'd love to see it in a graphic novel form. I think that would be just sort of like the ultimate end for a comic book nerd like myself, that you have to see his work turned into a graphic novel. So that's where I'm hoping it goes, but I'm pretty satisfied with where we are so far.

Watsyn (05:04.47)
Absolutely.

Watsyn (05:12.891)
Very nice.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (05:15.658)
That's a great thing to be published into a game is amazing.

Watsyn (05:22.456)
Mm-hmm

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (05:23.042)
Yeah.

Jv Hilliard (05:23.237)
Yeah, it wasn't something I was expecting. I mean, I honestly felt that, you know, because you get the questions all the time, is this a Netflix thing or you're gonna see it on the silver screen one day and who would play this character if you were casting it and stuff. And you always, you hear about the movies and the TV, silver screen, small screen stuff. And you never think about the video game aspect of it. And that came out of the blue. You know, I had the CEO who bought and read the first novel and said, I wanna do this.

Jv Hilliard (05:52.777)
you know, and by the time the second novel come out, we had already kind of cut a deal. And, you know, my role in that is very minimal. I mean, my, you know, I've been helping them with storyboarding for the sake of continuity of the story, but the game is going to allow you to kind of create your own avatars and your own plot. And it's a true RPG, you know, kind of game, but it will reward you with things in the real world. So when your character, you know, quote, unquote, defeats the dragon and, you know, you raise the treasure trove,

Jv Hilliard (06:22.737)
It's not just being leveled up within the game, you're also going to win things. You can redeem in the real world too. So you might have to finish your quest by going to a subway or a Starbucks and zapping a QR code or, you know, finding the treasure that's there in an AR fashion in the same way you would have caught a Pokemon.

Watsyn (06:44.317)
That's very cool. You have to actually go and do it.

Jv Hilliard (06:46.497)
Yeah, his company has teamed with Niantic, which is the makers of Pokemon Go. So the technology that's already ubiquitous and people are familiar with is already there. And even though it's six or seven years old, there's just so much further ahead than everybody else, be able to layer on top of that and then drop a reward at a sponsor, for example. I think we'll take the game into sort of not just a brand awareness,

Watsyn (06:52.092)
Yep.

Watsyn (07:05.154)
Oh yeah.

Jv Hilliard (07:15.477)
sales conversion level for the folks that are going to be the sponsors of the game. So I see that as a way of cross promoting and doing things that are not necessarily unique because those things happen in other games too. But I think from an AR perspective, I think that's the next jump and we're going to see a lot of that in the next decade or so. And so I'm hoping knock on wood that my game is one of the first in the clubhouse for that.

Watsyn (07:42.53)
Yeah, that'd be very cool. That's, that's... wow. That's very impressive. Very interested in that coming out. You have to let us know when it gets released. Definitely.

Jv Hilliard (07:47.757)
Thank you. So, well, I'll let you know. Yeah, I won't be shy about it, trust me. I'm, we'll push it out every way, shape or form that we can, but yeah, yeah, yeah, you'll see the realm of warm minister hopefully here in sometime early 2024. So, you know, keep your fingers crossed that we don't, you know, lose any momentum or have any setbacks. I don't think we are, it's been going pretty well. And for me, the storyboarding is just,

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (07:54.143)
Yeah.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (07:57.558)
Thank you. Bye.

Watsyn (07:59.723)
Oh yeah, we definitely will too.

Watsyn (08:15.555)
Right.

Jv Hilliard (08:17.757)
fun, right? It literally has been something where you have to realize you can't do everything the way that the books go or the series goes, and you're gonna have to let players direct themselves through it. You're just I'm just kind of creating the realm in which the game is played. And the, yeah, and so you have to step back from the quests and all the kind of stuff that you would find in a traditional RPG setting and, you know, kind of let the players write their own story, which is

Watsyn (08:25.818)
Mm-hmm

Watsyn (08:32.93)
It right, the world that they're in. Yeah.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (08:34.824)
Mm-hmm

Jv Hilliard (08:48.539)
and there's this curiosity in the back of my head that kind of drives that to see what people want to do and what comes from it.

Watsyn (08:55.932)
It's very cool.

Jv Hilliard (08:58.058)
Thank you.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (09:01.058)
So what kind of started you on the path of writing the Warminster series? Like from start to finish, when did that all start?

Jv Hilliard (09:08.117)
Yeah, you know, it was accidental. COVID hit. And I'm one of those COVID authors. You know, my day job is that of a defense and technology lobbyist in DC. And DC was shut down for almost a year and a half. And when I say shut down, you know, we migrated from personal meetings and face to face stuff to mostly zoom and virtual stuff, which made me have a ton of time available. And you know,

Watsyn (09:21.932)
Mm-hmm

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (09:23.043)
Mm-hmm.

Watsyn (09:35.733)
Yeah.

Jv Hilliard (09:38.037)
You're not going to sit around doing nothing for a year, are you? And it's just not in my DNA to do that. So for me, what I was able to do was use that downtime to kick something that I thought was on my bucket list. I was like, hey, I'm going to write a book and it'll be out of my system and I'll say I did it and that was great. And then when I found the right publisher, she said, you know, we'll publish you, but you've got a promise to write a series. I mean, Fantasy Adventure is never a standalone. It's always a series.

Watsyn (10:05.851)
It's never a one book, yeah.

Jv Hilliard (10:08.117)
Yeah, so I committed to doing three which grew to four. And then, you know, hoping that we'll see some more on the other side of, you know, we've talked about doing in the interim between the this series and the next, you know, perhaps doing some origin stories of novellas instead of this epic fantasy, 500 page 150,000 word epic fantasy stuff and maybe focusing on, you know, short novellas about some of the more popular characters in the novel and seeing where they came from and giving them their own sort of background and

Watsyn (10:28.898)
Mm-hmm

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (10:31.086)
Mm-hmm.

Jv Hilliard (10:38.097)
stuff like that. It's really where I think this will go in the interim, but you know, that's really kind of where it came from. It was just silver lining in a very dark cloud for everybody.

Watsyn (10:46.15)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (10:49.558)
Mm-hmm. And so you went the traditional publishing route.

Jv Hilliard (10:55.197)
I did, you know, I didn't expect to do that. I ended up sharing my manuscript with a friend of mine who was an associate professor and kind of a mentor of mine at one of the local community colleges here. And she took a look at it and said, you know, this is really publishable. You know, are you sure you want to be an indie? And I said, yeah, and I said, I don't know. I mean, I didn't know whether or not I wanted to be an indie or traditional. So she put me in touch with a development editor

Watsyn (11:15.735)
Thanks?

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (11:17.579)
Thank you. Bye.

Jv Hilliard (11:25.697)
who really was content editing my stuff and he just happened to have a contact at a Dragon Moon press. So if you've never heard, I mean, the idea that the publishing company that got my stuff is called Dragon Moon, really kind of tells you that they're a niche, they've got their own lane, right? I would say that about 80% of what they publish is fantasy sci-fi with a little dystopian tossed on top. But they,

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (11:47.242)
Mm-hmm.

Jv Hilliard (11:55.177)
to the publisher, she was like, yeah, we like what you got. Just take it and make a series. And so, you know, we did that and I had committed to three books. And then after the first one's success, it immediately became a fourth novel. And we're working toward that end right now.

Watsyn (12:08.939)
Mm-hmm

Watsyn (12:13.111)
Very nice.

Jv Hilliard (12:14.558)
Thank you.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (12:16.298)
You always like to hear from the publisher, hey, can you write one more?

Watsyn (12:21.751)
Yeah, exactly.

Jv Hilliard (12:21.757)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes you feel like you're doing something right, you know? And in her case too, I mean, she's, you know, I think, you know, I had a little bit of a head start over those that might be indie, but I'm not spoiled like those that might be in one of the big four or big five houses, right? So there's no advance here. There was, this was my first foray into it, but to go into someone who really knows the industry well and really knows our lane within that industry well, I think really helped me get, you know,

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (12:22.258)
Yeah.

Watsyn (12:38.316)
Mm-hmm

Jv Hilliard (12:51.917)
on what I would have been able to do if I was doing it indie. And I have a great deal of respect for people that do it indie. I've seen people be so successful doing it. And in my case, I feel like I'm halfway indie, halfway traditional, because she's small enough that I often will co-invest on things that she's not comfortable investing in on her own to kind of put us over the top and get us doing stuff that I wouldn't normally do if I was either alone as an indie or she might not do

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (13:13.463)
Mm-hmm.

Jv Hilliard (13:21.937)
author. But by the same token, I've kind of got the air cover, you know, with someone who just has, you know, 20 years experience doing this, understands the industry has a, you know, a major email list of folks that have bought similar books in the past and just understands how to publish and what people are thinking. And, you know, so, you know, for me, I think I found the best of both worlds. I'm not, you know, you know, I've got, you know, great royalty deal there. I feel comfortable working with her. There's a lot of handholding, which I needed in the beginning.

Watsyn (13:24.25)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Jv Hilliard (13:51.997)
But, you know, I had that air cover, you know, that Indies don't have without having kind of these, the larger houses eat up the majority of the royalties and, you know, kind of being under the thumb. I'm not, not saying I wouldn't be interested in that down the road, but, you know, I also think I'm really comfortable where I am right now and things are progressing, you know, well, you know, within our space. So I'm pretty happy with that.

Watsyn (13:56.658)
Mm-hmm.

Watsyn (14:11.811)
Right, right.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (14:17.558)
Mm-hmm.

Watsyn (14:18.43)
That's awesome. So, with this War Mr. Series here, just so all the people listening kind of have an idea of what it's like, can you give us like a small summary of like at least the first?

Jv Hilliard (14:19.658)
Thank you.

Jv Hilliard (14:31.297)
Yeah. Yeah, sure. So, you know, as you know, you know, I can't borrow Middle Earth or Westeros or any of the other realms. So the realm of Warminster is my realm. And so if you look at it, what I've done, and if you're a Dungeons and Dragons player, you'll recognize it. It's it's world building as a DM, you know, as a dungeon master. I've created almost 20 years now of playing the game. And I've memorialized a lot of my campaigns. And the best thing I've done is I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it. And I've done it

Watsyn (14:38.853)
Right.

Watsyn (14:53.15)
Mm-hmm

Jv Hilliard (15:01.257)
best villains and the best characters and the best unique monsters into the realm of warminster and so I made it my own. It's unique. I had a chance to kind of really world build around it in a way that I was comfortable with and I game tested it in a weird kind of way. You know, being able to knit these things together, it's because I've experienced them well and I know what my player characters like. I know what I like as a player character, you know, what worked well and what didn't and I was able to co-op those stories. You know.

Watsyn (15:26.216)
Mm-hmm

Jv Hilliard (15:31.297)
own races, make my own what I would call classes and build it out from there. So it's really game tested in that respect. But the books, especially, you know, book one or really, you know, a couple of heroes tales. The first is sort of the trope of the chosen one versus, you know, the false prophet and the main character in the novels is a young man in his early twenties named Damus Alaric, who's a prophet of sorts, who gets his divine sight

Jv Hilliard (16:01.357)
of knowledge that begins to impart to him the sight that he sees this fallen keeper, this keeper of the forbidden that used to be the head of his sect that had fallen by doing something very wrong. He sees him returning and his power as a young seer grows, the rest of the seers within the cathedral start to lose their sight and it's trying to figure out what's going on and why that's happening. And he's seeing himself within his dreams coming together to

Watsyn (16:27.091)
Hmm.

Jv Hilliard (16:31.297)
fight the fallen keeper. And that's really where the first novel starts off. And so you get a little bit of dark fantasy and Gothic meets, meets Dungeons and Dragons and, you know, lit RPG all together in what I would describe as an epic fantasy.

Watsyn (16:47.49)
That's really cool. It's basically this book series I should say. This book series has basically been just tested and tweaked over 20 years and then finally put together just into something amazing.

Jv Hilliard (17:01.637)
Yeah, that's my hope is that people will enjoy it. And if you're a gamer, you'll be able to see the D&D action behind it. You know, but by the same token, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and, you know, but, but it has a unique magic system. It has its unique divinity. It has, you know, its own pantheon of gods. It has its own unique cryptids. I don't even call them monsters or things. You're not going to see an orc. You're not going to see things that you would have read and

Watsyn (17:08.49)
Oh yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it, because I'm a gamer. I do streaming in YouTube, so yeah.

Watsyn (17:22.212)
Mm-hmm

Jv Hilliard (17:31.577)
see the uniqueness of the realm, I think, coupled with that, you know, I've even put together sort of a Tolkien-esque map that allows people to kind of take a look at it. Yeah, and in the future, yeah, yeah, in future books, yeah, you're gonna see, you'll see, you know, I've got like heraldric symbols of all the houses that are important to the realm. I've got things like a family tree and the newest one, you'll see how the Cathedral of

Watsyn (17:41.731)
I was seeing that. Yeah, I saw it on your website. It's very cool.

Jv Hilliard (18:01.677)
down, I had a number of people ask me, you know, what does it mean to be great keeper versus high keeper versus low keeper versus whatever? And so for me, I was able to kind of, I'm listening to my readership and responding to what they're looking for. And so that glossary of terms, I think will help pull people through it. Because it is truly epic fantasy, you get multi point of view, lots of different characters in the beginning, you're gonna have to keep up. But eventually, you know, it kind of bit things out, and you can kind of follow the, you know, the main group of characters, whether they're the villains,

Watsyn (18:03.891)
Buh-Buh!

Jv Hilliard (18:32.519)
or the good guys and you see through the eyes of different people there in the same way you do in some of the other classic Epic fantasies that I'm following in the footsteps of.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (18:43.798)
Hmm. And so when it comes to like really marketing your book, I know that you've done the Traumatron this past weekend. How many Traumatrons have you done to kind of really kind of put to meet your fans? Kind of done a lot of that.

Jv Hilliard (18:58.977)
Yeah, so this is my first run at Coms. And the reason is, it's hard to go to a Con and sell a book. Right? You want to go and folks at Cons like to buy series, they also want to know that there is going to be a follow-up. And so to be able to be there and selling book one and two, and then at Cons where I'm working alone, I can also sell my other merchandise. This past Con was me alongside a handful of other fantasy authors. And so we limited it to just

Watsyn (19:05.934)
Mmm, that's true.

Jv Hilliard (19:28.917)
but I've got maps, I've got oversized, you know, mouth pads, I've got scrolls with stuff in it from the books that are people like it's just like a lot of chopskies that I've designed alongside my team, you know, to sell stuff that's that's unique that you wouldn't find it a typical author's, you know, con table. And I think people will walk by and say, wow, that's a really cool t-shirt, or I really, really like that mouse pad or, hey, that he has a he has a map, you know, and stuff.

Watsyn (19:37.938)
That's cool.

Jv Hilliard (19:58.857)
stuff like that. And I think that's been fun. And I think as the rest of the con schedule plays out through October, I'll be at a con once a month for the next six months. I'm really kind of learning through my rookie phase. But before that though, I've spent a lot of time hitting libraries. I've hit bookstores for book signings. I've gone to book clubs. I spoke two weeks ago at a brewery.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (20:12.862)
Wow.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (20:28.278)
Hehehe.

Watsyn (20:28.354)
Ha ha!

Jv Hilliard (20:28.837)
But you know, there's this little town, they had a, you know, they had 20 or so people at their, it's like a, they sit around and drink and read, you know, once a month at this local brewery and I went up there and had a couple of beers and sold 20 books and it was, you know, yeah, a lot of fun. So you'd be surprised. I mean, sometimes, you know, the cons, that's where you get the prosumer, right? You get the, you know, from a marketing perspective, everybody there is your target market. They're like, they, like, they're like, they're like, they're like, they're like, they're

Watsyn (20:43.792)
Sounds like a good time.

Jv Hilliard (20:58.937)
like your genre also wouldn't be there. And so, you know, I've been able to like translate that into additional sales and larger email list and, you know, people that are reaching out after the con asking for other things or asking me questions about the series and future series and things like that. And that's how you really kind of grow it. You have to be out there. It's a contact sport, right? So you got to contact people as much as you can and stay in contact with them. And when you're writing Epic Fantasy, it's, if you get out to book

Watsyn (21:01.054)
Right.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (21:01.684)
Mm-hmm.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (21:22.642)
Mm-hmm.

Jv Hilliard (21:29.017)
a year, that's a pretty good pace. And it's hard to do that. Yeah, so you don't want people falling off and losing interest. So you want to have the next product in their hands as soon as you can. And that's the hope with this year is docking out these last two and then starting out with some smaller projects so they can keep pace while I'm writing the more global next series.

Watsyn (21:32.75)
It's a very good pace.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (21:52.758)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Watsyn (21:55.27)
Very cool. So I'm on your site still here. I'm just checking everything out here. Everything that I can. And I'm just seeing the titles here. Like the cover art. So I'm looking at like how did you go about getting the cover art for these books? And specifically this map that I'm looking at here. I'm just kind of studying it. How did you go about getting the artwork for all that?

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (21:56.179)
Hmm.

Jv Hilliard (21:56.801)
Yeah.

Jv Hilliard (22:17.837)
Yeah, so I have an illustrator in the UK. Her name is Larch Gallagher, and I went to her with some of the ideas from the book and my Development editor who's also in the UK and my publisher who's in Canada used to work with her and they both kind of referred and recommended her. And she's fantastic. I get so many compliments on the covers And the color scheme. Yeah. And I just give her some ideas for them. I'm like, Hey, this is

Watsyn (22:41.01)
Yeah, they're fantastic. They're like really really interesting looking. I like it a lot.

Jv Hilliard (22:47.737)
want, you know, this is what this book, I want this feel to be. And, you know, she put that together. Now the map, I use a woman in Serbia for it, Emily's world of design. And she's been fantastic. She put together the maps, she put together the family trees. She's putting together this, this kind of like flowchart for the Cathedral, the watcher eye, which will be in the next novel. And then the, the coats of arms and stuff that I use a local guy that's kind of put together. He's also a, you know, sort of a,

Jv Hilliard (23:17.917)
and a creator himself. And so for him, it was a matter of kind of giving him the details of what the different houses looked like and what their crests and their coats of armor and their sigils would look like. And he went to bat and put some together. And I've got another group of eight that are coming out for the next, the last couple of books as you kind of progress through. And people are familiar with the houses as they are. Some have fallen, some have risen, and there's

Watsyn (23:19.65)
Mm-hmm

Jv Hilliard (23:47.737)
get more that coming out as well.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (23:53.16)
Hmm. That's honestly amazing to see your pro- the thing in your mind coming to life and coming to like having that art. Yeah. Yeah.

Watsyn (24:02.871)
existence

Jv Hilliard (24:04.657)
I'll tell you what, I gotta be honest with you guys, the most fun I've had with this so far has been in my book trailers. I hired a local cinematographer to put together my first two book trailers and they are like movie trailers. And we put them out on YouTube and Vimeo. They might be on the site and it might take a little time to download, but he's doing the third and fourth one for me right now. And it was the only thing I've ever had go viral. It wasn't the video itself,

Watsyn (24:18.474)
Really?

Jv Hilliard (24:34.237)
I thought, kicked ass. But instead, he did a making of video about how he was making the castle. And it got over a quarter of a million views on his miniature castle that he uses all these like, Hollywood special effects, of course, what he does. And so you feel like you're looking into this castle that somebody put together. And meanwhile, it was a 3D printing miniature. They just used some lighting and some fog

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (24:36.543)
Yeah.

Watsyn (24:42.034)
Ha ha ha!

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (25:02.458)
Thank you. Bye.

Jv Hilliard (25:04.577)
And you know and he shows that the making of the video and I think I said to a man We have a quarter of a million views and he said no no we have 265,000 views like he's like counting that you know and I'm sure the next time see if he's gonna give me an update on it Too, but you know it's that that stuff, you know It's it's just I think if you if you add if you take your creativity And I think this plays into your marketing question if you take your creativity that you did for your book or whatever kind of art you're involved in and

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (25:14.883)
Hahaha!

Watsyn (25:15.811)
Hehehehe

Jv Hilliard (25:34.257)
right next to you, do something more like the map, like the book trailers, like the sigils, they're gonna be as good with what they do as what I do. And so bringing them in, even though there's a cost to it, I think enhances the experience and makes you feel like the series is bigger and more epic than it currently is, but you know where you're growing. You know, in my case, I know where I'm taking my product and me as the author, I am the brand and my books are the product, right?

Jv Hilliard (26:04.237)
to push them. And so I want to do that in a way where I'm marketing for folks and I want to catch them with their eyes, I want to catch them with their ears, you know, I want to catch them with something that they haven't seen and say, Oh, that guy's, he's on it. I want to buy his stuff just because I like that he's selling a scroll with a poem on it. And, you know, just stuff like that, you know, or like, you know, it just, I think it makes so much more sense to kind of market it that way. And, you know, I've just doubled down on it and love and doing it.

Watsyn (26:13.374)
Mm-hmm

Watsyn (26:20.411)
Right, that's very cool.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (26:35.758)
That's amazing. And would you say that making the connections in this new industry, because you said you're doing lobbying beforehand, has been an important piece of the marketing portion for your new book as well? And so, I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point.

Jv Hilliard (26:53.137)
Oh yeah, I mentioned before that it's a contact sport and I think that carries over from my previous day job. As a lobbyist, you're selling not only a domain expertise that you have. In my case, it might have been defense or legislation, but you're also selling your Rolodex, right? In this case, your contacts. And you spend years developing contacts at the highest levels, like the officials, appointed members of the panning, people that will return

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (27:05.979)
Mm-hmm.

Watsyn (27:13.381)
Mm-hmm

Jv Hilliard (27:23.137)
because that's what your clients are paying you for. They want to get in and see them. Same thing holds true here, right? I need to build an email list of people that like my stuff and I want to contact them again and say, hey, buy the next thing and the next thing and the next thing or tell me what you like and what you don't like. And you want to listen to their feedback. And as you start to build, like I have a core group of vendors around me that are just as good at what they do is what I hope that I do in terms of the writing that enhances the experience for the reader.

Watsyn (27:52.111)
Right, right.

Jv Hilliard (27:53.197)
the next book trailer. The reader wants to see the next cover reveal. The reader wants to see the next close-up of the map because it gets them that much more ingrained into the realm of Warminster. And so, for me, I've tried to go out there and find people that match up really well with me, that get what I'm doing, people that understand at least fantasy adventure at the top level, or they're ingrained in it. They love it and they've done a ton of it.

Watsyn (28:20.922)
Mm-hmm

Jv Hilliard (28:23.297)
I think professionalize the search for those vendors as well as the procurement of their services and then ultimately how that affects the sale of my product.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (28:32.258)
Hmm. And what might you suggest for anybody who's starting out as an author? I know that you said you started out as a COVID author where you found yourself with a lot of free time, but what would you suggest to anybody who's looking to get into the field on how to get started and how to grow? And so, I'm gonna go ahead and start with you. I'm gonna go ahead and start with you. I'm gonna go ahead and start with you. I'm gonna go ahead and start with you. I'm gonna go ahead and start with you. I'm gonna go ahead and start with you.

Jv Hilliard (28:52.797)
Yeah, so a couple of things I would suggest. I mean, the first is new authors have to make writing a habit. And it's like the day that you miss going to the gym, you kind of feel fat now to shape, right? It's that muscle memory that's telling you you're doing something bad. You need to feel that way when you don't write. And I'm not saying you have to go and knock out three chapters a day. I mean, that's ridiculous. Some days you just don't have it, but at least try to train yourself to give some thought to what you're doing.

Watsyn (29:09.35)
Hehehe.

Watsyn (29:17.45)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Jv Hilliard (29:22.777)
sentences, a couple of paragraphs, outlining the next project, going back and reading something else, you'll be surprised how that kind of sparks, you know, your imagination and then moves the needle. The second thing I would suggest for them is, don't be shy. Give your stuff to other people to read, especially if they read it a lot. And they know the genre. Because you need constructive criticism to be better, right? Like iron sharpens

Watsyn (29:31.015)
Oh yeah.

Watsyn (29:50.053)
Right.

Jv Hilliard (29:52.757)
be able to not be afraid of someone saying this sucks or there's a hole in your plot or you spelled this wrong and like literally or it's like, oh, this is a repeat of blah, blah, blah. You know, like you want to reach out, you need that kind of feedback. And if you're afraid to share, you're never going to get that. And you have to just have a thick skin that says, you know what, I know my first, second, even third product, that third draft of manuscript isn't going to be good enough. You know, but I need to share this with my beta readers. I need to share this with my

Jv Hilliard (30:22.937)
editor, my content editor, my development editor, I need to share this with my publisher. I need to share this with my nerd friends to play D&D with me to think so they can tell me what they think because they're all prosumers of this genre. So you want their feedback. And when they say, oh, I really like it, that's great. I mean, if you share it with your mom, of course, she's going to say, oh, that's the best thing I've ever read. You don't need that. So I think those are

Watsyn (30:30.841)
Right

Watsyn (30:38.734)
Right.

Watsyn (30:46.015)
Yeah, don't do that.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (30:46.658)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Jv Hilliard (30:52.797)
to people that are starting out, you know, make writing muscle memory and don't be afraid of constructive criticism. And if you could find yourself into a couple of writing groups, like I joined a community college class and there was a dozen people in there, none of them had ever read fantasy before me, right? And so I was giving them something. And so I saw errors in my work because if they didn't know what a wizard's familiar was, you know, in those terms to us gamers, we all know that a witch has a black cat or whatever.

Watsyn (31:21.637)
Right.

Jv Hilliard (31:22.777)
the term familiar, and they were like, what does that mean? And these are well educated people, you know, and then you catch things because people are reading it that don't know your stuff. And therefore you can kind of spin it around and make it more understandable for them. And so I try to do that. I've also tried to, you know, start other kind of, you know, writing groups on the side. So I'm involved in like two or three of them on a monthly basis. And I think that also helps. And then you're on schedule. Like, you know, you have to produce something.

Jv Hilliard (31:52.757)
them to read and someone's going to read it and critique it. And so that, you know, that'll, if you're afraid of your stuff being critiqued by this, by the time you're done with, with a second class, that fear is gone because they're just going to sit there and ask questions and they're polite and things like that for the most part. Uh, but at the end of the day, they're pointing out errors that you needed to have pointed out anyway. So be thankful for it. Yeah.

Watsyn (31:53.293)
Yeah, right.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (31:54.482)
Mm-hmm

Watsyn (32:14.01)
Exactly. Yeah, no, definitely. Like with the whole, even like you said, just write a couple sentences here and there. Like when I'm at work and I'm just like lost in thought and I have an idea. I just like, yeah, real quick, run to the bathroom, sit down, write whatever I need to write, and I'll go back to work. I'll do that. Actually, with the writing group that you were saying, Charles and I actually had a writing group like a year, year and a half ago or so. And we like, we just, I don't know what happened with that. We should probably try to bring that back.

Jv Hilliard (32:31.063)
Yeah.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (32:40.008)
Mm-hmm.

Watsyn (32:44.973)
That was helpful, motivating, to get me going too. Even if it's just a couple of us.

Jv Hilliard (32:49.138)
Yeah, I would tell you, I mean, if you can, do it.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (32:49.46)
Yeah, and...

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (32:52.578)
Yeah. And I found Kindle Vella has been a great way to kind of get things started because Kindle Vella allows you to write things serialized and you have to produce something every other week in order to try and get something out there. So it kind of helps you stay on track because you have to produce something every week. So people who are reading stay interested in your stories. So it's I found like a lot of those aspects has been a helpful way to keep it, keep me on track. Also getting feedback from people that I wouldn't normally get feedback from. So.

Watsyn (33:13.333)
Right.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (33:22.839)
It's a great way to kind of get started on that side. But I think...

Watsyn (33:26.655)
Right.

Jv Hilliard (33:26.877)
Yeah, you just hit the nail on the head. I just want, go ahead. I'm sorry to interrupt you.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (33:31.402)
Oh, no, no, no, go ahead. Yeah

Jv Hilliard (33:33.997)
Yeah, I was gonna say, I just launched my own Kindovella for the same reason. I write big, I have a hard time thinking small. And so I'm forcing myself to do that because, you know, my new series is called The Element of Time. It's also set within the realm of Warminster. It was an entirely different time, an entirely different group of characters. And it's, you know, my average chapter is anywhere between three and five thousand words. On Kindovella, you could submit something.

Watsyn (33:42.471)
Thank you. Bye.

Jv Hilliard (34:03.997)
were hurt. Yeah, it's just a different experience. And so it makes me think small, and it challenges me. But then I know that I've got to submit something once a week, twice a week to it, for it to be effective. And it's just a different writing style. I want to forcing myself to learn. And I think that also helps me.

Watsyn (34:04.574)
Right. Much smaller.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (34:24.659)
No, for sure. And I think that you've brought up some great points throughout our conversation today that I think will certainly help anybody who's looking to get into the field, especially in terms of marketing, in terms of putting yourself out there, in terms of just sitting down and writing.

Watsyn (34:39.25)
right yeah you mentioned to that like you should i just always have somebody read it don't be shy about having somebody read it i actually had a concept for a story that i was writing a while back and i wrote out like just you know like the bullet points or whatever and i had like basically the whole plot point written out i had my wife read it and she's like isn't that like really close to hunger games and i'm like ah shit it is damn it scrap it all

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (35:06.989)
Yeah.

Jv Hilliard (35:07.578)
It happens more than you think. You might read something 20 years ago and forget where it came from. And then by sharing, people will say, oh, that reminds me of this. And you're like, oh, that's really close to it. Yeah, it happens more than I want to admit.

Watsyn (35:13.754)
Right.

Watsyn (35:18.973)
Oh crap, yeah.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (35:21.958)
Thank you. Bye.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (35:26.338)
Well, I think our time for this episode is running out. I would definitely love to thank you for joining us today for our episode. Will, are there any social media accounts, any future projects that you are doing that you'd like our listeners to follow you on? I think we'll be able to do that. I think we'll be able to do that. I think we'll be able to do that. I think we'll be able to do that. I think we'll be able to do that.

Watsyn (35:47.17)
Yeah, all of our readers can... No, it's... yeah, anybody listening, if you wanted to keep up with me at all, you can find me on TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, Twitch. It's all some variation of Watson the Box. That's W-A-T-S-Y-N the Box. And if you wanted to come hang out with me on Twitch, it's gonna be Watson Live.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (35:50.001)
I do.

Jv Hilliard (36:09.837)
pretty clever with what's in the box too, I like that. Yep, yep. Yeah.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (36:10.758)
That's it.

Watsyn (36:11.67)
Yeah, thank you, thank you. It's actually a play on my initials. I'm William Alexander Thornhill, so the WAT.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (36:12.858)
That's it!

Jv Hilliard (36:23.377)
Yeah, it's still clever, man. I don't care. Yeah, it's really, really good. Really good.

Watsyn (36:24.93)
Yeah, thanks.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (36:25.958)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (36:31.28)
And I would also like to thank JV for joining us today. JV, are there any social media accounts, any websites, any future projects, events that you're doing that you'd like our listeners to follow you on?

Jv Hilliard (36:40.02)
Yes.

Jv Hilliard (36:45.777)
Sure. So jvhilliard.com will drive you to my website on my socials. You could find me at Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram at jvhilliardbooks. Or if you want to find me on Discord or Facebook, it's just jvhilliard. And then my books are relatively ubiquitously found at places like Amazon or you can go to dragonmovepress.com and order them there. If you like Audible books,

Jv Hilliard (37:15.677)
and comes in ebook, paperback, and audio. So if you want to find me, you can find me there.

Watsyn (37:20.81)
Actually the links are also on your website jvhilliard.com as well so you can if you wanted to go there and check out more about just you or the realm in general. As I see that all there too.

Jv Hilliard (37:32.34)
You got it.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (37:35.798)
As for me, you'll be able to find us on our website, theroadscientistproductions.com, where we have our merchandise and links to my story on Candlevella, The World Beyond. You also have all of our road scientist social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr. And we'll see you next time. Bye.

Jv Hilliard (37:44.879)
Yippee!

Jv Hilliard (37:48.437)
That's my husky trying to get in. He's just a little disappointed that he didn't get it on the rest of the recording. So I'm sorry about that.

Watsyn (37:56.195)
There's no problem.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (37:57.undefined)
Oh yeah, no problem. The best way to support us is to like our podcast on your favorite podcast platform of choice and let us know how much you've enjoyed our show. We want to thank you, JV, for being on our guest today and thank all of our listeners for joining us as well. This has been our podcast, so all of those out there looking to start a new career in the arts.

Jv Hilliard (37:59.697)
It was bound to happen at some point.

the_rogue_scientist_productions-xwqj (38:22.698)
comedy and more. Always remember, pursuing your passions is a bitch, but it's worth it.

Watsyn (38:24.75)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Watsyn (38:27.37)
but it's worth it.

Watsyn (38:32.25)
Alright.