Join me, Marco Ciappelli, as I dive into the mythical world of Warminster with J.V. Hilliard, discussing how he took his passion for fantasy storytelling to books, video games, and beyond.
Get the The Warminster Series by J.V. Hilliard: https://amzn.to/3Zk4OFF
Guest: J.V. Hilliard, Author
On Twitter | https://x.com/JVHilliardBooks
Website | https://jvhilliard.com/
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Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast & Audio Signals Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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Episode Introduction
Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another episode of Audio Signals. I’m your host, Marco Ciappelli, where we explore the stories and storytellers shaping our world. Today, I’m thrilled to have J.V. Hilliard with me—a fantasy author whose Warminster series is captivating readers everywhere. Whether you’re watching on YouTube or tuning in via podcast, stick around as we talk about his journey from defense lobbyist to acclaimed author and his expanding universe that’s reaching into video games.
From Concept to Creation: The Birth of a Fantasy World
J.V. begins by sharing his path into writing, born out of the downtime of the COVID pandemic. While many were stuck at home, J.V. seized the moment to bring to life a story he had carried for over two decades. That story has since evolved into the Warminster series, a fantasy world that’s grabbing the attention of readers across the globe.
The Warminster Series: A Saga for the Ages
I asked J.V. about Warminster’s intricate world-building, and he walked me through the inspirations behind his creation. Drawing from the likes of Tolkien and Terry Brooks, J.V. has crafted a vibrant world, rich with magic, history, and compelling characters. His attention to detail—right down to the magical systems and language—gives Warminster a life of its own, inviting readers to fully immerse themselves in this epic series.
Crafting Immersive Worlds and Complex Characters
What sets J.V. apart is his unique method of reverse engineering his stories. Starting with the ending, he crafts his way back to the beginning, ensuring that every detail is connected. He even uses a whiteboard to track character arcs and plot points, which gives his storytelling a strategic, almost battlefield-like precision.
Writing Meets Technology: J.V. Hilliard’s Unique Approach
Our conversation shifted to how J.V.’s former career in defense writing helped him structure his novels. Writing legislation, grants, and speeches in his previous work helped him hone the skills to build complex narratives. It’s an intriguing example of how different industries can unexpectedly intersect, providing a foundation for creative writing.
Expanding Horizons: From Page to Video Game
One of the most exciting developments in J.V.'s career is the adaptation of Warminster into a video game. Using augmented reality, similar to Pokemon Go, the game promises to bring his fantasy world to life in new ways. It’s fascinating to see a world that started in novels now evolving into a different medium, expanding its reach to gamers.
What’s Next for J.V. Hilliard?
As we wrapped up, J.V. teased some exciting future projects. The fourth book in the Warminster series, Echoes of Ghostwood, is set for release soon, and he’s working on three origin story novels for key characters. Fans can also look forward to a brand-new trilogy coming in 2026, expanding this magical universe even further.
Conclusion and Future Plans
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into the world of Warminster with J.V. Hilliard. His story is a testament to the power of storytelling and how it can cross from novels into new media, keeping fans engaged in fresh ways. Stay tuned for more exciting conversations on Audio Signals, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or follow us on your favorite podcast platform.
Take care, everyone, and keep your imagination alive!
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Resources
Get the The Warminster Series by J.V. Hilliard: https://amzn.to/3Zk4OFF
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BOOK | The Warminster Series: J.V. Hilliard on His Journey from Defense Lobbyist to Fantasy Novelist and How the Mythical World he Created is Becoming a Video Game | A Conversation with J.V. Hilliard | Audio Signals Podcast With Marco Ciappelli
Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording, as errors may exist. At this time, we provide it “as it is,” and we hope it can be helpful for our audience.
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00:00:31] Marco Ciappelli: Well, hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Audio Signals podcast, where we talk about stories, storytelling, and we kind of look into the story of the storyteller's himself, herself, or itself, if it's, I don't know, artificial intelligence, if I ever get to review that one. I have a pretty good relationship with it.
Uh, I don't know if we will talk a little bit about that. I, I like to touch on technology and, uh, and creativity here and there. So to get the opinion of, of an experienced writer, like, uh, like the one we have today here, if you're watching the YouTube, uh, video, you can see he's, uh, J V Hilliard say hello.
And, uh, hello. If you're listening, yep, you just heard him say hello. So I'm going to cut it short because it's the genre that I love. It's fantasy. I was just talking to John before I started recording that. When I was a kid, I think the year was 1977. So I was really a kid. One of my, uh, One of the reasons why I fell in love with, uh, with fantasy, I think it was the, the Sword of Shannara and then the whole trilogy, which is more than the trilogy anyway, it became an entire world.
And, uh, yeah, Terry Brooks. So we'll talk a little bit about that, but this is not the person we're interviewing today. It's not Terry Brooks. It's JMV Keillard and, uh, welcome to the show. I'm excited about this conversation.
[00:02:04] J.V. Hilliard: It's a pleasure to be on. And thank you very much for having me. I appreciate the opportunity.
[00:02:08] Marco Ciappelli: Oh, it's a great occasion for me every episode to kind of pick the brain of storytellers. I mean, storytelling is something that I love in many, many different forms. And I always like to start with, we're all made of stories. Some people actually write them. Some people turn them into movies and games or all of the above.
And some other people just tell a story to their kids and to their friends. And that's it. That's how we made our society. That's how we build it. So enough about this, but I like to kind of like make a presentation or a picture about what we're going to, what we're going to see and tease the conversation, but it's time to dive into it.
And let's start with my favorite question. Who is J. B. Elliott?
[00:03:02] J.V. Hilliard: Well, I, I, it's real simple. I, uh, I fell into authorship a few years ago when COVID provided me the opportunity to write the novel that's been rolling around in my head for 20 years. I, I've always been a fan of the genre. Same with you. I read Sword of Shannara when I was in middle school and, um, all the way up to the, you know, the, uh, Fall of Shannara, uh, the most recent book a couple of years ago.
Big fan of, of Lord of the Rings and Games of Thrones and anything in between. Um, and what really got me even more deeply involved in the genre was playing Dungeons and Dragons for many years. I still do to this day. I've been playing for about 20 years with my friends. We now do it online, um, on Sundays and, and still get together.
Uh, when we all have a chance to, uh, but you know, up until COVID, I was a defense lobbyist. I was doing work in D. C. primarily with tech and defense companies, working with the Pentagon, with Congress, the White House, various departments and agencies, and always wanted to do this. Uh, and then when COVID happened, DC shut down for almost 18 months.
There was nothing to do. And I was sitting at my house and I, my wife's, uh, looking at me like, you're not going to sit around. You're going to drive me nuts. Do something, you know? And so that something happened to be writing what I thought was going to be a standalone novel. And as fate would have it through iterations of editing and finding a publisher, uh, I was asked to commit to writing a series, which is very typical in fantasy adventure genres.
And then everything kind of took off from there. So I made a more than a, I would say 180 degree turn, you know, from what I did daily to what I'm doing now, which is, you know, story writing and having a good time telling people about all the crazy stuff that rolls around in my head. And a lot of that comes from reading the sort of Shannara or reading the Shannara's that were.
Or watching those movies you mentioned before, playing video games. Uh, you know, it, it, it comes from that and just having a wild imagination and then having the time to write it and seeing it succeed. Uh, and that's allowed me to kind of get through my series.
[00:05:05] Marco Ciappelli: You know, it's amazing because I have a list of about probably more than 100 people that I need to reply for this particular show.
The other one is more of the daily job that technology and society wants. So I'm more responsive to this, but this I really enjoyed. The last few conversations that I had with authors, they're all, they were never, Authors or writer from the get go, right? They, one, uh, of the last was a, a, a, a military pilot, uh, also a trial lawyer.
Uh, then I had somebody that was a neurosurgeon and all of a sudden they, they have this in the back of their mind and it's, I, I, now let's go there. I, I think everybody. I'm gonna, I'm gonna quote Ratatouille here, the Disney movie, it's, uh, Everybody can cook, and there is a question mark with that. Like, everybody can write, or everybody can tell a story, right?
Um, I think it's a matter of, you know, at what level you write. Do you think that's kind of true, that statement? Um What's your thought on that?
[00:06:14] J.V. Hilliard: Well, I think everybody has a story or stories to tell. Not everybody is capable of doing it the way that they want to have it done. And it's nothing against a person or not.
You know, I would love to play in the NFL. I just can't do that, right? You know, and as much as I love football, uh, it's never going to happen. You know, so it takes a certain talent.
[00:06:34] Marco Ciappelli: You're just not going to play in the NFL,
[00:06:36] J.V. Hilliard: right? I'm not going to play in the NFL or the CFL or the XFL or any college. You're there for, you're right.
Uh, but you know, that's just a, that's just the truth of it. And sometimes it takes a level of discipline and it's, it sounds romantic. You know, you're putting something in, you know, that might be memorialized or become eternal in a way and outlive you and be a legacy as part of that. And sometimes people do that with a really interesting memoir.
Other people do that by publishing a book about business so they can use it as a marketing tool. You know, in my realm, it's really about escapism and entertainment. You know, did my book entertain you? Was it fun? Do you want to buy the next one as a result of that? Uh, and so even though it's, it's, it's entirely divergent from what I used to do on a day to day basis, It's always something that I've had in me and I knew that and I think it took a while for me to understand I had the ability to do that.
So like your fighter pilot, your lawyer, your neurosurgeon examples, all of those folks have to communicate daily at a high level in some way. In my world as writing as a lobbyist, I wrote grants, I wrote position papers, I wrote speeches, I wrote legislation, and so I was practiced in the art of writing.
Now that was non fiction. And in many respects, very boring and didn't have prose. It didn't have, uh, dialogue. It didn't have pacing. It was arguments where you were trying to convince someone to do something vote for or against or support or not support something. Uh, but it's the discipline that it takes to write every day that it, to be a successful author and whether you're authoring a position paper or I'm flipping the script and I'm authoring something that's entirely, entirely.
Fantasy, in this case fiction, um, it's a, it, even though it's a different story, I possessed the discipline. I liken it. In many respects to going to the gym, you know, like once you go to the gym, you feel out of shape. If you stop, you feel like you're missing something when you don't, you feel guilty. Same thing with writing.
You know, if you're a writer, you can't write one day and then take two weeks off. You know, you'll lose the creative juice. You lose the track of where you're going. Sometimes things distract you and you put it in a drawer and you don't touch it for two years. You know, this is something, there's a discipline that goes along with that.
And I think that, um, some, um, Uh, some folks have it in them and, and other folks want to have it in them, but might not have the ability to express it in a way where someone might want to buy it. And that's okay. Like there's a lot of independent authors out there that publish for the sake of the art. I'm putting it out there and they don't care who reads it.
It's just their story. And a lot of those stories are the best stories, right? And they take off a lot of independent authors. Um, in the last 10 years I've done well because of the advent of Amazon and that marketplace, uh, and other, you know, and it's hard to get published, right? So a lot of folks, their stories never get told in the way that they could in a robust way and to, to fill a marketplace, but for me, You know, I think, you know, even though people like to say that they've got it, I think everybody does have a story in them, whether it's a fiction or a nonfiction story, it's just a matter of does it mean enough to them to put it on paper?
[00:09:43] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, I love it. I think, uh, we, in the end, we, we are who we have been, right? So I often say, you know, this is like my, I don't know, fourth life. Because I had different experience, you know, from advertising and marketing to now, you know, covering cyber security event and talking about technology. But I agree with you.
I mean, there is always, often, there is something that connects the two. The different arts and the different disciplines, and then you get the experience and then you can apply in a, in a different way. It's almost like, if you know how to play an instrument, it's kind of come easier to play, to learn another one, right?
Or a language too. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Tell me, tell me a little bit, cause what is fascinating for me and for some reason, I always get, again, attracted by these fictitious world that, that you guys. I can talk about the Harry Potter, you know, the Tolkien, the Shannara and, uh, and I know you created this world as well, which is amazing.
It's gonna be apparently, uh, you'll tell us about that a video game, which is pretty cool and uh and How do you even start because it sounds so overwhelming to me like I kind of want to do that But i'm kind of like a short story writer or maybe because I started as a copywriter so I can condense something small But when I think about an entire trilogy, I don't know I get overwhelmed by just the idea of doing that.
So How do you even scope that?
[00:11:28] J.V. Hilliard: Well, I think in part, it's the kind of writer that you are. There are folks that write really strong short stories or poetry or things like that. I struggle when asked to do that. My biggest fear is not writing 150, 000 word novel in epic fantasy. It's writing the 250 word blurb that explains that on the back of the book.
I just can't do it. I don't have that talent. Right. So for me, you know, I've always been a complex thinker. I've thrived. In planning and strategy kind of situations. And, you know, so when I look at the realm, I look at what Tolkien did. I look at what Martin has done. I look at what JK Rowling has done. You mentioned Shannara before Terry Brooks, all of the people that have come before me and they've created their own world and made it unique.
with several tropes that bind them all together that are called fantasy, right? So I have my own magic system. I created my own pantheon of gods. I've created my own map so that you can see where the various cities and places of quests are going to happen and follow along. I've created a history for the realm.
I've created various languages. Uh, for the realm limited, not like Tolkien, who literally made a language. Mine's a little bit less, uh, robust as his, but ultimately that's part of the fun. And I think that also helps when getting over writer's block. Cause once you know how the story is going to unfold and you see how all these things come together, you know, in my day job prior to, I had to calculate.
How the winds of political change were going to hit my client. And in some cases that involved. Democrat versus Republican or federal versus state or international laws, um, militaries, um, purchasing arrangements, uh, contracting grants, all these things. And so, you know, for me, it was a lot of fun putting together the world and, and then you see something and it becomes alive and people get attracted to it.
Uh, and I think that's why folks that read fantasy love series because you fall in love with Middle Earth or you fall in love with Shannara. And in my case, I hope they fall in love. With the realm of Warminster. And not only do they like the stories myopically of the main characters, but they also like the stories of the regions and the races and the magics and the history that I've spent time putting together to, to weave into what becomes a very fantastical, mystical, magical story, but one that's filled with adventure and they feel entertained when they're done reading it and want to read the next and I've created enough space.
To allow me to do that as prequels, or also allow me to do that in follow up series. Uh, and I think that that's always been fun for me. Now I'm not saying it's easy, but it was fun. I spent more time doing that than I did writing the novels. You know, the putting together the world. It took about six months to do, writing the novel took about five, six months.
And then now I write a novel once every three
[00:14:28] Marco Ciappelli: months. So here, here's the question. Do you, did you do that before? Like, you said you like to strategize. So you're not the one that I'm going to start writing and let's see where it goes. I mean, it sounds like you know, you know where you're going. Although sometimes I'm sure I can't do that.
But I mean, I'm sure sometimes the character brings you somewhere unexpected. I like to think that they have a life on their own as you write. But so, so you did the, the, the, the world you created before start writing?
[00:15:03] J.V. Hilliard: Yeah, I created the world and the way my writing style is, is I write the end of the book first, then I go and write the beginning of the book, and then I fill in the blanks in the middle.
Uh, and that might be a little odd. And a little reverse engineering, but it's a way to make sure that I have everything in the book when the book is done. Uh, and I've done that for all four books in the series, and that way there's, there's continuity, uh, and I can also see when I'm missing something. I create, I have a whiteboard in my den where I write.
That has, it looks like a sweet 16 bracket in March Madness with plot arcs and character arcs all coming together, uh, into, you know, and then when I'm done with them and I know that I'm satisfied, I erase them off the board and what's left, I know I have to bake back into the novel, weave it in some way so that it makes sense because I don't want to leave it out.
Um, and not a lot of authors write that way. Like you mentioned, there are authors that write by the seat of their pants that literally will get an idea from a song that they heard or a book that they were reading or a movie that they watched and they'll sit down and just start writing and then the characters will dictate where they go.
I have some of that, you know, some of my characters as they develop, if I start to write something and my editors or my beta readers recognize that it's out of character, they'll tell you. But for the most part, you're right. Like sometimes you think of you, you know, the story is going this way and then all of a sudden, Oh, this is a much better storyline.
And you take it in a different direction or you, or you work it back around, or you flip the order of it. And you're right. They do talk to you in many respects. I get a lot of that out of the way in the beginning. And I rarely do that on the fly. So once I get the story down in outline form, then it's just a matter of filling in the blanks.
And that's where I've gotten much faster and much better at writing epic fantasy size novels based on the way that I do my planning. And now that I've got all of these things out of the way. So I know what kingdom they're in and I know what religion they believe in. I know what kind of magic they have available to them.
And I know the history of the monsters in the region and all the relationships All of that hard work was done. Then it's just a matter of connecting the dots. Right. And that's how my writing style is. I'm not saying it's for everybody and perhaps it's only for me, but it works that way and it's worked pretty well for the first four novels.
[00:17:20] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah. I mean, I I'm blown away by the fact that you started this, uh, with the pandemic and you already cranked four novels, you have an entire world, you have option, I mean, not option. I mean, it's going to be a video game. I, um, I understand. It's pretty impressive. I gotta be, gotta be honest. Now, I am definitely going to read, is it an audible for, for this?
[00:17:47] J.V. Hilliard: Yeah, there's audio books for each of the novels. Uh, and, um, obviously e ebooks for people that like to read on their phones or, you know, on their computers, as opposed to me who still holds the old school, uh, you know, hardback or paperback. I prefer that, but I think that's just a matter of style. But yeah, audio books I think are important because it's the fastest growing segment of the marketplace.
People enjoy those because they can listen to them on the train to work or they, you know, they're doing laundry or they're at the kids game and it's a way for them to digest something that they might not be able to do, uh, any other way. And they can do it in five, 10 minutes slugs.
[00:18:20] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, I gotta say, I mean, I grew up loving reading, then reading became pretty much academic book studying and then it become, you know, be who you are.
And, but. But I also always wrote love radio being a, you know, an 80s kid. So for me, it's easy to pay attention to just the audio. I don't need to necessarily read. And I kind of, I kind of like train my brain now, literally to walk that dog and other two that I have and consume at least an hour of a book.
Every day on my walk and maybe even later at night. So for me has become really Really a major thing. I mean I have probably the the biggest, uh, The more books you can get on amazon with the with a yearly subscription um, so let let let's talk about the The Warminster realm because you got all this world in your head you play Dungeons and Dragons, which I'm sure it's a big part of being able then to do all of this I mean you've been You've been doing this for a while and then you read all these books and then you go and create your own world How what makes you think in a unique way?
Compare with, you know, instead of absorbing and regurgitating, um, all these other worlds, which is pretty easy to do because we're made of those stories too. What, what's your technique there?
[00:19:57] J.V. Hilliard: Yeah. So first it's what you described. It's really being a creative from a young age and being around a game like Dungeons and Dragons forces you to be creative.
Um, in many respects, if you've never played the game before, It's not a board game. You roll dice, but that's just based on how your character reacts to certain things, or is in combat with monsters, or whatever it might be as part of that, but ultimately, it's a group delusion that's centered around someone called a dungeon master, which runs the game, and that person has to be a very good, um, verbal storyteller because they're weaving a tale to you like you're sitting around a campfire except you're not just listening you're playing you're an active person in that delusion and so as i'm telling you as a dungeon master what's going on it's not much different than me telling you what it's like when i'm an author the difference is in the book writing it's very linear uh and it's 100 percent the way I want it to go.
When you're playing the game, you have to react as a dungeon master and have enough creative skills to change the realm, change the campaign, change the scenario, if players decide to do something you don't expect them to do. And even though you try to dictate a story to them, they often don't do that linearly.
Uh, and that's holds true for video games too. I mean, you can get into a video game and create your own avatar and then work with a villain if you want to, you
know, you
[00:21:24] J.V. Hilliard: don't have to follow the lines of especially newer video games to give you the freedom to do that in AR and VR. So for me. You know, creating the realm was part the discipline it took to be a good dungeon master, a good storyteller, a good game master during those years.
Um, and then it was really borrowing from those experiences because I knew how my players reacted well or didn't react well to certain scenarios. So a lot of stuff that you find in my novels has been battle tested because it was played out. You know, and I had veteran players who were really high end players telling me that they really liked something or they didn't like something.
And if they don't like something, it doesn't make it in. And you're right. Like there are certain things that I can do that are tropish. Things that I can borrow from the granddaddy of them all in Tolkien, you know, but it's hard to not have your own realm with, uh, with its own uniqueness without it being, you know, someone coming after you for copyright or trademark.
So you'll not find anything in my books that mentions Dungeons and Dragons, except for me thanking Dungeons and Dragons for helping train my brain to think this way, you know, but ultimately learning from those that came before me reading and in some cases, deep reading what they had done. And then bringing that to the creation of that realm.
So part of it is this storytelling that I've been a part of, whether as a player or as a dungeon master, coupled with these really cool stories of things that happened that we still talk about today, grown men in their forties, sitting around a table at Christmas, laughing about stuff that never really happened, watching our wives, look at us cross eyed saying, why don't you play poker?
But instead we're playing Dungeons and Dragons on Sunday nights, you know, and you know, and then being able to adapt that to You know, uh, you know, writing and deliver that to other people so they can see it. And so I do have the tropes, like there's obviously magic and you see it sort of a, uh, you know, kind of what I would describe as a, in many respects, a medieval society, uh, but what I've tried to do is incorporate, you know, mythos from real world stuff and just put my spin on them.
So some of my monsters, for example, come from Greek history or Native American history or Asian history or Nordic history. But you, you, you'll be familiar with them, but they're, they're unique cryptids, right? They're, they're my cryptids or my monsters, but they're grounded in some realism that you're familiar with, which allows you to adopt that from a fantasy realm.
You need some basis of realism. Give me an
[00:23:57] Marco Ciappelli: example. So I
[00:24:00] J.V. Hilliard: have, I have a character, uh, a preacher in my, in my, Uh, novels called a skin stealer. And in German culture, they would have called that a doppelganger, someone that has the ability to change, to look like someone else's twin, a double walker. Literally, that's what that means.
Or in Native American lore, it was known as a skin walker. And the idea was, is that it had the ability to change its form from ghost to human, it could change from male to female, but it was an evil creature that had the ability to do this. So if I called it a skin Walker, the native American community would really know a lot about what that was.
If I called it a doppelganger folks of a Germanic background may understand what that is, but I created a skin stealer. And in my realm, it's a magical creature that doesn't just make itself. It goes into your body, diffuses and kills you, eats you from the inside and then becomes you. So you no longer exist.
And this creature has taken over your body. Or I have a creature called the antler Man. You
[00:25:00] Marco Ciappelli: breathe that per, does it come through your mouth? Do you breathe it in? I don't know. I just, do
[00:25:06] J.V. Hilliard: I breathe? ? No. It's a, they, they literally, well, it's i'll, I won't be a spoiler here, but there's a way that they, no, no, don't,
[00:25:15] Marco Ciappelli: don't, don't
[00:25:15] J.V. Hilliard: ingest.
Yeah. Ingest the, uh, their victims. Uh, or, uh, I, the Antler Man, which is one of my more popular. He's based on a Nordic myth of the master of the hunt where it's just a man who hunts with his dogs in this case He doesn't he has no dogs but You know, he still hunts and he's he he was turned into this creature by a magical curse That allows him to be part feral but also maintain just the slimmest form of, um, of who he was as former self.
And so you, you learn to hate him, but you also learn as the story goes on that he's cursed and this isn't really him. And this was something that he fell victim to, uh, and which is entirely different than the Master of the Hunt story that comes from the Norse mythos. But instead, it was something that looked really cool that I've adopted.
And, you know, people enjoy telling me that they, they like to hate it.
[00:26:12] Marco Ciappelli: I love it. I love it. I can see some credit going towards your books. Very soon. It's kind of like in my, in my corner. Um, is what's What's the, let's say, the, if you have to do, you said you don't like to write short story, but if you give me an elevator pitch for, for this story, what, what makes it unique?
Like, how are you going to tell me, dude, you're going to love it? Because, you know, Yeah,
[00:26:43] J.V. Hilliard: so it's, yeah, sure. No. And in a 32nd elevator pitch, it is literally a chosen one versus a prof, a false prophet story. The main character is, uh, a young man who learns to harness his ability of prophecy and he sees a fallen member, a cursed member of his, of his order returning to take vengeance upon it.
And it's the magics that he possesses and the sites that he sees. That allows him to combat the return of this evil man that you have to learn about in a very sort of Luke Skywalker, um, you know, Darth Vader way, or, you know, Harry Potter versus he, who should not be named kind of way. So if you like that kind of storyline where there's a redemption arc and do the villains take it or not.
Voldemort didn't, you know, Darth Vader did, uh, and you've got this central character that you're cheering for who's a bit beyond puberty. Obviously he's a young man, uh, but one that is going on this harrowing adventure and is ill prepared for it. And it's how the realm and his friends come around him to support him in this, in what they do.
Uh, and so it's, you know, if you like that kind of harrowing adventure stuff, you're, you're, you're really going to fall into, into the realm of warm and stern and the first keeper and the last keeper, I should say.
[00:28:05] Marco Ciappelli: Very cool. Very cool. It's kind of like that hero journey. That we, I mean, it's inspired so many stories, but that's the cool thing is like, they, they may follow because we're, we're so in love with that.
You know, the, the growth of a character and the adventures, I mean, we go back to talk about. You know, Greek mythology, uh, you know, the, the, the Odisseo or Ulysses or, you know, even those stories, they're all, they're all about that. But yet, you dress them in a different way, you bring different character, you make it your own, and it doesn't really matter if in the end it's that hero journey, because we just love it.
I mean, you mentioned Star Wars, that's, that's a typical example, um, right there. Tell me about, as we start wrapping up, although I Keep talking for the longest time about this. Um, what's coming next? I mean Yeah, first of all a little i'm kind of curious about the the translation. Actually, let's go there Sorry, I mean i'm kind of talking to myself the the video game right?
I mean when when you transform in rescript Book into a movie there, you know, it's the book is always better. It's different. Of course, you don't have that many things in terms of pages and and and Trilogies available you gotta put it in an hour and a half if you're lucky you to seven movies like You know harry potter or star wars.
How Do you feel about this coming up the video game you did like? Are you working directly into the script of it? It's, is that the way you want it to do it? Are you directing it? What's going on there?
[00:29:50] J.V. Hilliard: Yeah, none of the above. You know, I literally impart, I am part of the storyboarding process, right? So what I learned early on in it is that it's a different medium and therefore they know how to deliver their story better than I know how to their story and to get out of their way.
And there's obviously You know, this is my baby, and I want it to be done the way I want it to, but When you make a video game, players can choose to go in a hundred different directions. When you write a book, they're reading your story in one direction, right? And so what they have to think about is whether or not, what happens if a player doesn't follow the script?
What if a player decides to work with the villain? What if a player decides to not do the quest and stay somewhere else? How do they get rewarded for doing that? Um, And so what I've learned is help them create guardrails, you know, stay within here. This is kind of the overarching story where it goes from the beginning to end and.
Stay out of the way of the coders, right? Like, even though I might want in my head, a character looks a certain way, they make it a different way. All I can do is give them the premise for it. And as long as it's 70 percent of the way there, 80 percent of what I want, that's a win. Right. But they, they've, they've paid for the right.
To adapt it in their medium. And that will bring me people that may not read my books, but we'll play the video games that then come back to read the books because there are hints in the books to help them win the video games. Or, you know, like you said, I mean, if ever, if I'm ever lucky enough to have it into a movie form, People that don't like reading will see it in a movie and at least know my characters and know the storyline.
It's not going to be 100 percent true to form but you know, ultimately it's it's there and um, it's just i'm reaching out to another group of Uh, folks that I could entertain, even though it might not be 100 percent of the match, as long as it's close and people get it, that's, that's really what it's all about them having fun.
[00:31:48] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, I love that because you said something about adapting to, to the media and the medium that you're using, right? I mean, you can't tell a story, as you say, in the exact same way, even if you just read it or look at it or, you know, Listen to it. There's gotta be a way that you deliver it. But it's going to be to the benefit of the story.
It's not, I don't think it destroys the story, unless it becomes completely, something completely different. But in general, adapting to the medium. It helped to, to maintain that core of the story, the message, you know, the vision in a way. Mm-Hmm. . That, that's, that's a humble experience too, I think, and, and letting other artists to take it to, to another level.
[00:32:42] J.V. Hilliard: Yeah. It's, it's both humbling and scary at the same time. , right? Like, you don't want them to screw it up. It's your baby and you wanna be a helicopter parent, but by the same token, you, the minute you recognize that you don't know what you're doing Yeah. Then you, you, you're willing to get out of their way.
And let them do it because they know their, their, their marketplace better than you do. They know their medium better than you do. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not going to pick up a paintbrush and start painting, you know, someone that can paint can do that. Right. That's not what I do. And it's, it's a hard lesson to learn, but once you do it, it's both humbling and gratifying.
[00:33:13] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah. But the guardrail is important. Is it going to be a multi, like a multiplayer type of game?
[00:33:19] J.V. Hilliard: Yeah, it's going to be, uh, the first version will be augmented reality. Sort of very much be like if you've played Pokemon Go. Uh, the company Niantic that, um, is, is dealing with that, it's like that level of technology, and then the second iteration will be virtual reality.
So it will be multiplayer point of view, single point of view. It'll be through your eyes.
[00:33:42] Marco Ciappelli: And, uh, apart from the, from the video game, um, I'm assuming you're going to keep writing. There's no going back to this. No, no, no. Straight ahead. Yeah. So we, we're,
[00:33:56] J.V. Hilliard: Yeah, book four, which is called Echoes of Ghostwood, will be the final book in the Warminster Saga.
Uh, and then after that, in 2025, I've got three books that are going to come out that are origin stories of the more popular characters in the novels. And then in 2026 will be the second series. It'll be a trilogy, not a quadrilogy like the first one was. So, um, it's already, the next two years are kind of planned out.
You know, we'll see what happens after that, but you know, by the end of 2026, video game, graphic novel, and at that point we'll have Four plus three plus three. What is that? 10 novels. And that's the goal.
[00:34:33] Marco Ciappelli: Um, actually I'm going to do one more question, which is, do you see yourself playing with different genre?
Like, what do you, what do you think about that? I mean, it is a good thing to, is this a safety net to stay in what you know? Or yeah, so I like, I
[00:34:55] J.V. Hilliard: want to write a vampire novel or a series of vampire novels, but. What's hard about that is I'd liken this all the time. If Stephen King were to write a romance, it's a little bit out of character, right?
And your readership likes you reading, writing what you write well. Right. And I know there are folks out there that can do it and they can bounce around. I would love to write a vampire novel or a series of vampire novels down the road that are horror or some sort of like contemporary fiction. And I'll get there eventually, and I'll cross that stream when I get there.
But right now there's a comfort blanket, like Linus's blanket from Peanuts that wraps around. It's just because I know fantasy so well. Yeah. Just keep doing that. And so I'm going to be doing that for the next couple of years. And maybe when I get enough courage, I'll cross the Rubicon. But for right now, I'm.
I don't, I don't have it in me. I'm a straight line guy for now, we'll see. You threw a
[00:35:53] Marco Ciappelli: vampire monster in your arsenal and you started kind of like, you know, making Yeah, I
[00:35:59] J.V. Hilliard: got a good story. It's a nice little story that mixes like the gothic, more Stoker Dracula and Nosferatu ish stuff with like, you know, Catholic church kind of stuff and it's a, it would be a really good, Contemporary fiction novel with a little like urban fantasy stuff in there and maybe that's close enough adjacent enough for me to to survive it, but um You know, in all honesty, it's that's a couple of years down the road.
So we'll,
[00:36:25] Marco Ciappelli: we'll get there. I don't want to be the one responsible for you losing the focus on what you're doing. You got your three years plan or two years plan ahead. I think it's exciting. I mean, it's, it's a lot of writer dream to be recognized immediately after a few years that you write, uh, and, and, you know, really turn it into different, different medium.
I think that's pretty. That's pretty cool. So John, I really enjoyed this conversation. Um, I could keep going, like I said, but I'm going to kill it at 36 minutes, which is about now. Uh, thank you very much for everybody that I hope they enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. You can find all the links to get in touch with, uh, with John, uh, his website.
And then there's another thing I think we didn't talk about yet. You also have a, like a magazine. That you, that you're doing, but I don't know, maybe come back. We can talk about that another time. I would love
[00:37:28] J.V. Hilliard: to. Yeah. Happy to talk about all the reality mag. Anytime. Yeah. So you're, have me back and I'll be more than happy to do it.
[00:37:32] Marco Ciappelli: Let, let's do that for now. We, we end it here and then maybe we do chapter two that we talk about otherwise.
[00:37:39] J.V. Hilliard: Sounds great. Right? That. Well, thank you very much for having me. It was a pleasure to come.
[00:37:43] Marco Ciappelli: I really enjoy everybody else. Stay tuned. Uh, hit subscribe if you're on, uh, on the YouTube channel or follow the, uh, the podcast on whatever player you're using.
'cause there'll be a lot more stories and a lot more storytellers. Take care, everybody.