Friday, July 24, 2020

Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast #36: The 33 with Lou Diamond Phillips


Here's another COVID free ZOOM edition of the Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast, a lively discussion of the movies. This week we have a very special guest: The esteemed, award-winning actor Lou Diamond Phillips.

Lou Diamond Phillips
You've seen him in La Bamba. You've seen him in Stand and Deliver. You've seen him in Young Guns. You've seen him in Courage Under Fire. You've seen him, sans contractions, in the long-running series Longmire. Now you can see him here!

So how did Lou Diamond Phillips end up on our plucky little podcast? Easy. The Mighty Wojo was interviewing him for a story and mentioned that she had a movie podcast. He asked if he could come on it. She said yes, and that was that. Wow.  What a great guy. We are extremely grateful to have him on the podcast.

We asked Lou which one of his films he wanted to discuss, and he chose The 33, the harrowing and inspirational true story about the Chilean miners who were trapped 2000 feet under the earth. We all loved the film, and Lou took us behind the scenes of its making and explained why the project was so important to him.

We also had the opportunity to ask some questions posed by our subscribers. Check it out!

Here's the movie trailer:


Here's the podcast on YouTube:



Our Podcast is now available for download on iTunes: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Subscribe to our YouTube page: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Check out our webpage: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast

Like us on Facebook: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast.
Follow us on Twitter: YKYPodcast
Check out Wojo's webpage: Wojo's World
And follow her on Twitter: @TheMicheleWojo

Check out our other episodes here:


My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.



Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:


Thursday, July 23, 2020

My First Copy of Chapel Street


It's always a big moment in any author's life when he or she gets the first copy of their book. I wanted to share this moment with you.

You can get a copy of it, too. Get the Kindle or paperback on Amazon HERE. Get the Nook, paperback or hardcover at Barnes & Noble HERE. And, if you like it, please write a review. Reviews are essential to the success of a book.


Learn more about the book, click Here.

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Thursday, July 16, 2020

Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast #35: The French Connection


Here's another COVID free ZOOM edition of the Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast, a lively discussion of the movies.

This week Podmaster Ralph Quattrucci returns to the roots of the podcast by bringing the 1972 Best Picture Academy Award winner The French Connection to the table. This podcast was originally intended to be an examination of the classic films of the 1970s that too many of our younger peers in the network cable business hadn't seen. You've heard us complain about the excessive backstory in today's films. Well, this film essentially has none. No one is petting the dog or saving the cat here. The filmmakers simply throw you into the middle of a police procedural and let you catch up on your own. See if we think this film has gone too far in the other direction.

BTW, this is also the third film we examined by the great cinematographer Owen Roizman. Trust me, it will not be the last.

Here's the movie trailer:


Here's the podcast on YouTube:



Our Podcast is now available for download on iTunes: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Subscribe to our YouTube page: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Check out our webpage: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast

Like us on Facebook: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast.
Follow us on Twitter: YKYPodcast
Check out Wojo's webpage: Wojo's World
And follow her on Twitter: @TheMicheleWojo

Check out our other episodes here:


My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.



Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:


Zombie SquadCAST Interview


I just did an interview with Glenn Nelson of the Zombie SquadCAST. Glenn has been conducting a series of interviews about how creative people, and their projects, were faring under COVID-19. I was honored that he chose to talk with me.

I have done many interviews in the past, but this was my first live streaming one. I was previously interviewed live on television in Baltimore and Milwaukee, both in regards to my first film 21 Eyes. However, they were short and focused pieces, and they didn't give me much of an opportunity to insert my foot into my mouth. This was different. I knew we would talk for at least an hour. That's plenty of time to get in trouble. Fortunately, I don't think I said anything that would get me cancelled!

In case you're wondering: Yes, I managed to plug my book!

Learn more about Glenn here:   Dead On Pictures
Follow Glenn on Twitter here:   @glennericnelson
Subscribe to his YouTube channel: Dead On Pictures

Be sure to check out my book Chapel Street. It is now available in ebook, paperback and hardcover at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and quality booksellers everywhere.


Learn more about the book, click Here.

Follow me on Twitter: SeanPaulMurphy
Follow me on Facebook: Sean Paul Murphy
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Subscribe on YouTube: Sean Paul Murphy

Friday, July 10, 2020

Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast #34: Raiders of the Lost Ark


Here's another COVID free ZOOM edition of the Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast, a lively discussion of the movies.

This week John Quattrucci brings the George Lucas/Steven Spielberg collaboration Raiders of the Lost Ark to the table. As you might expect, John will not have a difficult time defending his selection. However, will the film live up to our youthful impressions of it? And, more importantly, will Mother Podcasters find yet another opportunity to rip Podmaster Ralph about his earlier choice of The Counselor? Listen and find out.

Here's the movie trailer:


Here's the podcast on YouTube:



Our Podcast is now available for download on iTunes: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Subscribe to our YouTube page: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Check out our webpage: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast

Like us on Facebook: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast.
Follow us on Twitter: YKYPodcast
Check out Wojo's webpage: Wojo's World
And follow her on Twitter: @TheMicheleWojo

Check out our other episodes here:


My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.



Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:


Monday, July 6, 2020

Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast #33: The Counselor


Here's another COVID free ZOOM edition of the Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast, a lively discussion of the movies.

This week we raid the Patreon vault one final time for The Counselor. This is perhaps our most talked about episode among the Mother Podcasters themselves. This 2013 release, directed by legendary Ridley Scott and written by America's greatest living novelist, Cormac McCarthy, and headed up by an all-star cast, was indeed highly anticipated. However, it proved to be a fiasco with the critics and the public alike -- with the exception of Podmaster Ralph. He loved the film and brought it to podcast. He is still black and blue from the reaction he received....

Here's the movie trailer:


Here's the podcast on YouTube:

 


Our Podcast is now available for download on iTunes: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Subscribe to our YouTube page: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Check out our webpage: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast

Like us on Facebook: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast.
Follow us on Twitter: YKYPodcast
Check out Wojo's webpage: Wojo's World
And follow her on Twitter: @TheMicheleWojo

Check out our other episodes here:



My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.



Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:

Saturday, July 4, 2020

Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast #32: Mad Max: Fury Road


Here's another COVID free ZOOM edition of the Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast, a lively discussion of the movies.

This week we're back on YouTube (as well as audio) for the incredibly action-packed Mad Max: Fury Road. The 2015 film was brought to the table by new member Drew Gould. He considers it the best film ever made. A bold statement! Does he win over the other Mother Podcasters?  Watch and find out!

Enjoy!

Here's the movie trailer:


Here's the podcast on YouTube:



Our Podcast is now available for download on iTunes: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Subscribe to our YouTube page: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Check out our webpage: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast

Like us on Facebook: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast.
Follow us on Twitter: YKYPodcast
Check out Wojo's webpage: Wojo's World
And follow her on Twitter: @TheMicheleWojo

Check out our other episodes here:


My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.



Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:


Friday, July 3, 2020

Chapel Street Released!


For me, the journey down Chapel Street was long and arduous.

I began writing the novel in earnest, originally titled RestingPlace.com in October of 2016. My first draft was completed in May of 2017. Eight months. Not bad. I wrote it almost entirely while working for National Geographic. I worked nights. During the days, I would wake up around noon and go downstairs and write for an hour or two. When I went to work, I would email the draft to myself. On slow nights, when my work was done, I would download it at NatGeo and continue writing.

The novel is about a man battling a demonic curse that had driven his family members to suicide for generations. As it began taking shape, I would leave a printout for my lovely wife Deborah to read while I was away. She found the story frightening. So frightening that she didn't want to stay home alone at night. She would retreat to the bright lights of the Horseshoe Casino in downtown Baltimore. I began to fear that the book would never return enough money to compensate for those losses!

One of the reasons why my wife found Chapel Street so frightening, aside from my narrative skills, was the fact that she knew the story behind the novel. Or at least bits and pieces of it.

Chapel Street didn't really begin in October of 2016. It began in late April or early May of 1974, when my family moved into 21 St. Helens Avenue in the leafy Lauraville neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore. Our family of two parents and five children, soon to be joined by a sixth, had no idea at the time that the house was inhabited by a demonic presence.

21 St. Helens Avenue
The entity was insidious. It eschewed major shows of force in the beginning, preferring instead to concentrate on spiritual and psychological attacks on a few specific individuals. I had no direct encounters with the entity myself until nearly ten years later. After my mother and a friend had an ill-advised Ouija board session in the empty front attic bedroom, the paranormal activity in the house escalated dramatically. Now it made itself known. There was no denying what was going on. It would generally prey on one person -- or couple -- a night. You could always tell who it was: You'd find them sleeping on the sofa in the living room the next morning. However, the details of the attacks stayed private. Since we feared that talking about the entity empowered it, we never discussed it in any detail.

This was not fun and games. It was deadly serious. The house exuded a menacing sense of oppression. People lapsed into depression. Even before the Ouija board incident, I had attempted suicide in the living room. I did not attribute my actions to any paranormal activity at the time. Now I am not so sure. Because I was not alone. My sister Laura and my brother Mark both committed suicide. Other members of the family also attempted to do so. There were also things I call suicide events. They were supernatural interventions that, if played out as intended, would have resulted in a death that would have appeared to have been suicide.

Here's one. At the height of the haunting, for a number of consecutive nights, I awoke to find myself climbing out of my third floor bedroom window at precisely three in the morning. Always three in the morning. A fall from the roof outside of my window would have definitely been fatal. And the only explanation could have been suicide. Needless to say, I was horrified. Only a constant barrage of prayers ended these occurrences. That experience would eventually became the cornerstone of the novel.

The lethal intent of the entity -- or entities -- was obvious. However, I suspect now that it couldn't actually kill us. It had to make us kill ourselves....

My family finally left the house in 2005. We still didn't talk about it. There had been incidents where the entity appeared when people talked about it. It was best to remain quiet. However, sometime in 2016, my mother pulled me aside and asked me if I thought the entity in the house was responsible -- in part -- for the deaths of my sister and brother.


I had been wondering the same thing myself. I dealt with my attempted suicide in my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God. While I was writing the book, I really couldn't rationally explain the mental, emotional and spiritual collapse which led to it. In retrospect, suicide seemed a wildly disproportionate response to my emotional state and utterly out of character. Did I unknowingly fall victim to the entity's psychological and spiritual manipulations? More importantly, did my siblings? Was there a spiritual or supernatural aspect to their deaths that we missed? That was a sobering thought. Whenever there are suicides, there is always survivors guilt among the loved ones left behind. My mother's questions played on that.

Chapel Street was my attempt to explore that disturbing possibility in the safety of fiction. My protagonist Rick Bakos, a young man much like myself, is emotionally crippled by a series of suicides in his family. When he finds himself waking up every night climbing over railing of his tenth story apartment balcony, he slowly uncovers the supernatural cause for the suicidal mayhem in his family.

Although the book is also a romance, the central relationship is between Rick and his late brother Lenny. I very much drew upon my relationship with my late brother Mark. In the novel, Lenny -- or a clever simulation -- appears frequently to his brother Rick.

I can't say that Mark made any post-death appearances to me in real life, but I believe I captured him in the character of Lenny. Mark, sadly, wrestled with mental illness during much of his adult life. As a result of his madness, we were sometimes estranged. However, in calmer times, he periodically confided in me about his experiences with mental illness and the conditions and the routines in the hospitals where he found himself.

I also developed Chapel Street's villain Betty, in part. from a reference Mark made in his suicide note about an ominous, unexplained dark woman. The actual name Betty came from a now-deceased Frederick, Maryland, fortune-teller my mother and some of her friends visited. Unlike the cheery mediums one finds on reality TV shows, this Betty wasn't afraid to give bad news. She told my mother that two of her children would commit suicide. She was right. (So far.) My mother, however, assumed it would be Mark and myself. I can't blame her. That was the safe bet. My sister Laura's suicide was a stunning surprise that crushed our family. However, Laura herself had visited Betty a few short days before her death. I wonder what Betty told her....

My surviving sister Jeanne, who had never previously seen Betty, drove up to talk to her after Laura's death. Betty's first words to her were: "I did not kill your sister."

I wonder.

I must say that the only thing my mother found unfair about the book was naming the villain after Betty. She contends Betty was a nice woman....  Fortunately, she did not object to the depiction of the mother in the book. I had warned her, anytime I discussed the book, that the mother was not based on her. She was, however, based on the late mother of a late friend of mine.

Chapel Street intersects with me, and my family and our experiences at 21 St. Helens Avenue in countless ways -- albeit in a highly exaggerated manner. My sister, upon reading the rough draft of the novel, called it a cartoon version of our experiences. She's right. I am simply not a talented enough writer to adequately convey the more subtle horrors of the actual events at 21 St. Helens Avenue. But I believed I truly captured the maddening terror of being deliberately tormented by an entity beyond the human realm.

So that's the history of the book. When I finished it, I didn't know what I wanted to do with it. I essentially sat on the manuscript for years, aside from periodically sending it out to find an agent. Eventually, I decided to send it to Sheri Williams at TouchPoint Press, who had previously published my memoir, to see what she thought of it. She liked it, so I let her have it.

I think it is a great book, and I hope it will be adapted into a film. I'm sure it'd be a home run at the box office. However, even if the book never sells a single copy, it is already a success to me because it proved to be the impetus to finally get my family talking about our experiences. That was long overdue. Although I was already working on another novel, I put it aside to start compiling an oral history of the house at 21 St. Helens Avenue and the events that took place inside of it. People ask me if that will become a book one day. I don't know. The prospect doesn't enthuse me. I like happy endings, and it's hard to turn what happened to my family into a win.

Oh well.

I would like to take this opportunity to again thank my lovely wife Deborah for her undying love and support. I am also indebted to my friend and editor Trish Schweers, who always manages to hammer my work into shape against all odds. My beta readers, Patty Gehret and Beth White Werrell, also contributed heavily to this book with their red ink. I would also like to thank my editor Kimberly Coghlan, who managed to pull me across the finish line, and Colbie Myles for the cover art. I am also grateful to my fellow authors and media professionals, including K.A. HitchensKrista WagnerKenji Gallo, Jamie A. Hope, Sydnye White and John Molli, for their advice and kind words.

I also want to thank J. Bryan Barnes and Megan Luckeroth for the author photo, which was taken at Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery -- an important location in the book.

Finally, I must thank Sheri Williams and the good folks at TouchPoint Press. Sheri showed a lot of faith in me when she published my oddball memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God. She is showing equal faith with this book. I hope it is rewarded.

You can currently buy the ebook and paperback at Amazon and the hardcover at Barnes & Noble. Soon, the ebook and the paperback will be available by quality booksellers everywhere. The hardcover will be exclusively sold through Barnes & Noble.


If you really want to be horrified, listen to me read some chapters in my Baltimore accent:

Chapel Street - Prologue - My Mother
Chapel Street - Chapter 1 - RestingPlace.com
Chapel Street - Chapter 2 - Elisabetta
Chapel Street - Chapter 3 - The Upload
Chapel Street - Chapter 4 - The Kobayashi Maru

Here are my blogs about the actual haunting that inspired the book:

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 1, An Introduction
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 13, John's Tale, Pt. 1 
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 14, John's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3

Let's stay in touch:

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Thursday, July 2, 2020

The Great Scott's Editor Roundtable


My friend Scott Galbraith has been taping "round tables" with various professionals in the faith based film industry. He invited me to participate in the editor round table yesterday on ZOOM. You know me. How could I say no? The other two editors were Shane McMullin and Jeffrey Lee Hollis.  It was a lively discussion, and, yes, I managed to plug my books! Check it out.

You can subscribe to Scott's YouTube Channel here: 78GreatScott

Check out this sample of my book Chapel Street on Amazon:


Learn more about the book, click Here.