March 13, 2026

“He Was Bullied and Overweight. Then Wrote the Book ‘The Treehouse Avengers’ That Changed Everything”

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Kali Kat Tap Talks show sits down with Canadian author John Leister to uncover the story behind his book The Treehouse Avengers. What begins as a conversation about writing quickly turns into a moving discussion about bullying, addiction, faith, resilience and the life-changing power of storytelling. Before becoming a published author, John Leister struggled to find his place in the world. As a young boy growing up overweight and feeling different from the other kids around him, he became a frequent target of bullying. Those early experiences left lasting emotional scars and shaped how he viewed himself for many years. Instead of feeling accepted, John often felt invisible. As he got older, the emotional weight of those experiences followed him into adulthood. He has openly shared how he struggled with sugar addiction, which became a way to cope with stress and emotional pain. Like many people facing personal battles, he eventually reached a point where he realized something needed to change. That turning point came when he discovered the power of writing. What started as a creative outlet soon became something much deeper. Writing allowed John to reflect on the hardships he had experienced and transform painful memories into meaningful stories that resonate with readers. One of the most powerful results of that journey is his book The Treehouse Avengers. The story follows a young boy named Clint Wagner growing up in 1970s New York City. Clint struggles with bullying, loneliness and a difficult home life while desperately wanting to belong. When he discovers a neighborhood group known as the Treehouse Avengers, he sees an opportunity to prove himself and finally find acceptance. Readers connect with the story because it reflects something universal: the human desire to belong and the courage it takes to overcome rejection. During this episode, John shares how many of the emotions in the book were shaped by his own life experiences. At one point in the interview, the memories of those early struggles became so emotional that the conversation had to pause while he regained his composure. It was a powerful reminder that behind every book is a human story filled with real pain, growth and transformation. John also discusses how faith and perseverance helped him rebuild his life and discover a sense of purpose through writing. Today he is the author of more than twenty books, including his Lee Hacklyn private investigator series. Kali Kat Tap Talks goes behind the scenes with authors, entrepreneurs, creators and individuals who have overcome adversity to build meaningful lives. These conversations reveal the raw truth behind success and the courage it takes to keep moving forward. John Leister’s journey is proof that the challenges we face can sometimes become the very foundation for the life we were meant to build. If you have ever struggled with bullying, self doubt, addiction or finding your purpose, this conversation will resonate deeply. Sometimes the most powerful stories are the ones that remind us it’s never too late to start again.

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WEBVTT

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Hi, this is Cali CatTap Talks, and I have a guest.

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His name is John.

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So how do you pronounce your last name, John?

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You can pronounce it anytime you like, any way you want it to, but my dad always, who's kind of a pain in the neck about this kind of stuff, he was very fussy.

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It's pronounced Leicester.

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Leicester like Leicester, like Leicester Square.

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Like Leicester Square.

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Jolly old England.

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I'm very square.

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Some will say you're not square.

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You're not square.

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Monday to Friday.

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What about Saturday and Sunday?

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You're like circled?

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I like I like your beer sign in the background.

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I'm Canadian, so you know Canadians were very famous for our beer.

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Yes.

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I think that's I think that's one thing.

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I think Americans do most things better than Canadians do, generally speaking.

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But I think there's one thing we do better, and that's beer.

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I'm sorry, but America.

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Our beer is like 8%, honey.

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We've got some stronger beers now.

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Once it gets you there.

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8%, but you know, you just some of us have we have to, you know, watch what you drink because you get kind of a little buzzed.

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You know, if you drink all the time, then there's an issue.

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So just sip it.

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You know, I think our vices are okay as long as we control them and they don't control us.

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Yeah, that's very true.

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But we got good beer.

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We've got good beer and we've got good moonshine.

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Oh my god.

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I had uh I had moonshine the night I graduated high school in 1983.

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I think it was 100%.

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It's a wonder I'm still alive.

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I remember one sip and it's just like upside down.

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Exactly.

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Alright.

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So tell tell us your story.

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I want to go behind the scenes with you.

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You have an interesting background.

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Um you write a lot of books.

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And just because you you live at what you are writing, so go ahead and tell the hindsight of your story.

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Thank you so much.

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Well, I live in Vancouver, BC.

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I'm uh 60 years old, I'll be 61 this year.

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And I grew up in the 1970s.

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I was a comic book nerd.

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And you know, Canadian boys, we all love hockey, but I was an exception.

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I just wasn't into sports.

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I was I was ahead of my time.

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I think it's more socially acceptable to be a nerd these days.

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I mean, hell, a lot of nerds practically uh rule the world.

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But back in my day, if you liked Star Trek and comic books and sci-fi and all the nerdy stuff, you were somewhat pried.

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And I remember feeling sometimes like I was gonna get cast out, like like Thor getting kicked out of Asgard.

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And so I wanted to be a comic book artist, and unfortunately got lazy and I gave that up.

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And then after high school, I tried acting.

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Um, I don't know how old you are, but there was a Western in the 1960s called The Big Valley, and one of the stars of that show, Peter Breck, he came to Vancouver and he started an acting school called the Breck Academy.

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And this is in the 1980s, and that was when the film and TV industry was really booming.

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Steve J.

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Canal, who was a very prolific TV producer, did a lot of shows.

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So, of course, in later years we had Supergirl and The Flash and Arrow Man X-Files, which was shot in Vancouver.

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So I tried acting.

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You know, I I was uh uh I had an agent and I was going to auditions and I was doing some writing back then too.

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I was writing scenes for my scene partners and I was uh writing my own monologues, and I never got the part, I never got casted in anything.

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I did a lot of extra work.

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I was an extra in Rocky IV.

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I was a Rocky IV, believe it or not, for one day.

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I actually got to see the fight at the Agridome between uh Adam Drago and Rocky.

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I actually got to see I know that was an amazing experience.

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I lived my whole life over again just to have that experience.

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And so um Richard Dreyfus came to our school.

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He was filming Stake Out at the time with Emilio Estevez.

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I don't know how old you are, probably before your time.

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And there was another actor, Gene Hackman, who was a huge actor back in the day.

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He uh he was filming Narrow Margin at the time he came to school.

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So that was an amazing experience, but unfortunately I developed psoriasis.

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And I don't know if you know what that is.

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I think something that I was born with, and it just got got worse and worse as I got older.

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Uh psoriasis is a skin malcondition where some of us uh uh generate far more dry skin than would be considered normal.

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So I was doing this play, I was actually the lead in a play, and I was performing in front of some UBC students, and it was going very well, it was going fantastically, it was called the zoo story.

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And towards the end, I had a huge head of hair back in the day.

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I had very beautiful Goldilocks back then, and I actually ran through my fingers, through my hair, and this fireworks display of dandruff exploded from my scalp.

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And I remember the audience gasped.

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Now, to give myself a little pat on the back, I actually stayed in character.

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Like I was actually didn't, like I almost froze for a second.

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I mean, I was mortified.

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I was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life.

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So unfortunately, I allowed that to kill my aspirations being an actor.

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And my diet sucked when I was a kid.

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I'm a recovering sugar addict.

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It's a wonder I'm still alive.

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I mean, I was eating KFC and pizza and MMs, every Snickers bars.

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I weighed 235 pounds.

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I think I maxed out at about 250 pounds.

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And so for 30.

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Oh, yeah, I was huge.

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I was bloated.

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I was a Canadian Canadian job, and and I was I've been working security for the last 35, 40 years.

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And of course, you know, most security jobs you work, there's a vending machine every every 10 feet you walk when you're doing your patrol.

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And so the temptation to to eat out, to pig out, and and to binge, you know, just was far too alluring for me.

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And then in 2019, my life changed.

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And here's where the story gets a little bit weird for some people.

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I don't want to be pushy or preach about this stuff, but I was able to develop a mindset that worked for me, and that's why you're interviewing me right now.

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I read a ton of self-help books when I was a kid.

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I read Anthony Robbins.

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Do you know who that is?

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Awaken the giant within.

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And he's a motivational speaker.

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And he writes all these self-help books about manifesting and believing in yourself.

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And never mind what other people think, and never mind whether what you do makes you any money, just do it because to not do it would be a sin.

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But I never was really able to implement all of that stuff consistently.

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You know, I had these windows where I take, like I did kickboxing for a couple of years, or I do some writing.

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I do crack, I've always been interested in martial arts here and there, but not until I reached out to God.

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That's when my life changed.

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I came home from work done one day and I realized that I was spending way too much time by myself.

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You know, someone once said, No man is an island or no woman is an island.

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We're social creatures.

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And we need to have, we have to be by ourselves sometimes if we want to do things like write a book.

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And so after I reached out to God and asked him to help me, I dusted off these short stories that I'd written around 2005.

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I created this character called Lee Hackland, plug, plug, plug.

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He's a private investigator.

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He's my boy.

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And I had written these short stories around, again, around 2005.

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I wasn't even thinking about self-publishing back then.

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I just wrote them because I was bored at my the security job I was working back then.

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And so I blew these pages off, and they were dusty and they were yellow, and the pages were cold, and I read them.

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And I don't know, Callie, if you do any creative writing.

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Of course, we're all our own worst critics.

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But I was reading this stuff, I barely remembered writing some of these stories.

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I was like, gosh, you know, this is not the worst stuff I've ever written.

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I mean, it's not Charles Dickens, it's not William Shakespeare, but it's not total garbage either.

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So that was the beginning of my true life's journey.

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I started with Amazon, and it was a tremendous uphill battle to get that first book posted, which is called The Collected Case of Lee Hocklin, 1970s Pride Investigator book one, which is it was sort of an omnibus of my first few short stories.

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Man, oh man, what a headache! I was implementing my uh or entering my my banking information, and Amazon was saying it's wrong information, and they go to the bank, they say it's right information.

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I was going in circles.

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If I didn't have God in my life, and my my relationship with God, I did I define as kind of like Big Brother from 1984.

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Do you know that book by George Orwell?

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1984, Big Brother is Watching You.

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Have you ever heard of that?

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Anyway, it's heard that.

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I'll be turning 60 this year.

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So I never would have guessed that Agent Scully, X Files, and U21.

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60s and you 21.

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Obviously.

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I think you and I are living proof of that.

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Well, especially you.

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But uh yeah, so so I when I posted that first book for the first time, this after a month, I was losing my mind because going in circles.

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I was uh constantly asking people to help me.

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And this is another important life lesson, too, especially for men.

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You know, we alpha men, or I like to think of myself as a quasi-alpha male anyway, in a good way.

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You know, I don't again, I don't want to stereotype, but we hate asking people for help.

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You know, our egos get in the way.

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And when that happens, it becomes uh it becomes a roadblock, it becomes a stumbling block.

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So if I hadn't put my ego on the shelf and asked people to help me, you'd be interviewing somebody else right now.

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When I saw on the screen for the first time, after a month of attempt after attempt, congratulations, your ebook has been published.

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I lost my mind.

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I remember walking down the streets of Vancouver and I just want to shove my phone in people's faces.

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Hey, look at me, I'm a self-published author.

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It was a very unusual feeling for me to start something and actually cross the finish line.

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You know, some people live their whole lives that way.

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You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a perfect example, right?

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To me, he's the epitome of a man or a woman who has this like unstoppable Terminator-esque self-belief, right?

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They have a goal, they move towards it, there's hiccups along the way, there's stumbling blocks.

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You know, Schwarzenegger broke his leg.

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He actually had a broken leg for six weeks when he was young, but he was thinking I miss the end of my career.

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No, he pushed through, he pushed through, and this is this is an important life lesson.

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When we embark on a new journey, we have to have in our minds that in advance, this is what trips people up.

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It's like when you go to the gym.

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What happens when people go to the gym, right?

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They work out for a week or two or maybe a month with all this enthusiasm, right?

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They're excited, right?

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I'm changing my life.

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I'm I'm fat, I'm overweight, I'm bloated, I want to get in shape, and it's great, but it doesn't last.

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And there's a reason.

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The reason is because they're going into the gym with the same mindset that got them fat in the first place, right?

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You have to change your mindset before you do anything else in life.

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So my mindset changed once I started to believe in God.

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Once I started to believe in God, because to me, God is the epitome of everything that is good about a human being, then I started to believe in myself.

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And I started actually implementing all this stuff that I learned from all these self-help books.

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And I was in therapy for a year uh back in the early 90s.

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I had a really great therapist, and he said to me, you know, human beings have to like, we have to like ourselves unconditionally.

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So, in other words, if you say to yourself, I like myself if I have a million dollars, or I like myself if if I if I drive a sports car, you might get the sports car, you might get the million dollars, but you also might lose it.

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So, what are you gonna do if you lose that stuff?

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What are you gonna do if the government decides to take all your money away?

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Are you gonna go back to hating yourself?

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Are you gonna go back to living a life of self-invalation?

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It's a lousy way to go through life because your emotions are flip-flopping all the time.

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It's like a bipolar kind of thing.

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Like you're really happy one day, and then you're really miserable the next day.

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And it's draining.

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It it it it takes a toll on our physical health.

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And I believe, I'm kind of all over the place here, but I believe there's a direct correlation between how we feel about ourselves and our physical health.

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I mean, you can feel good about yourself and still get sick, obviously.

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But I think that generally, the better you feel about yourself, the more and it takes practice.

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It, you know, my mindset didn't, I'm not suggesting that all this tap of stuff happened overnight.

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It was days, weeks, months, and years.

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So now it's 2026, just to jump forward to the present.

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You can jump in any time you like, because I have a tendency to filibuster.

00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:39.679
Sorry about that.

00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:41.200
No, it's a good jab.

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You're you're you're very interesting.

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You're very interesting because it's like you pack me on waka waka waka.

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It's good.

00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:59.440
So now it's 2026, and I don't know how many of these Lee Aklin stories, they're they're getting shorter and shorter.

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The first few books were written were about 100 to 200 pages long.

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They're getting they're getting short.

00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:06.559
You know, was it Oscar Wilde said brevity is a solhway?

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I see my series now as kind of like a long-running Netflix series.

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And I've discovered since 2019.

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I go to Starbucks every morning before work, I have my coffee, I open my notebook, I take out my my dollar store pen, boom.

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I don't have, and then this is another important life lesson too.

00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:29.279
If you have to will yourself to do something, like you hear a lot of people say, Oh, I have these uh uh affirmations that I have to do before I go to bed.

00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:30.320
That look, that's fine.

00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:33.200
Look, if that works for you, I'm not mocking that.

00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:33.759
I'm not.

00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:36.480
But for me, I then then this is just my opinion.

00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:38.960
This is subjective, this is completely a subjective opinion.

00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:46.399
But for me, it's like, gosh, if you have to go through all these rituals to do what you want to do in life, then maybe that's not what you want to do.

00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:48.240
Like Schwarzenegger said the same thing.

00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:51.840
He said, a lot of guys I work out with, they said they have to psych themselves up before they work out.

00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:53.759
He says, I never have to psych myself to work out.

00:11:53.919 --> 00:11:54.960
I can't wait to work out.

00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:56.399
And that's how I feel about writing.

00:11:56.559 --> 00:11:57.600
I can't wait to write.

00:11:57.759 --> 00:12:07.919
When I see the blank page on the table at my Starbucks every morning, I get and I open my pen or take up pick the cap off my pen, I get excited because I'm about to embark on an act of creation.

00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:18.399
And there's nothing more satisfying in life, again, in my opinion, than the act of creation, whether it's a book or bringing new life into the world, or or maybe it's a table that you build with your bare hands.

00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:20.320
Because we're not taking anything with us.

00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.320
You know, these bodies that are our souls are driving, they have expiration days.

00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:27.679
Hopefully, hopefully not today, but they're gonna conk out someday.

00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:32.799
We need to have a sense that we've made the world a better place somehow.

00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:37.759
Because if we don't, then we're just gonna go our last what are our thoughts gonna be on our last day?

00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.159
Nothing but regret and what if?

00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:41.919
Oh, if only I believed in myself.

00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:45.759
Oh, if only I hadn't dropped out of high school, oh, if only this, if only that.

00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:46.639
No, no, no.

00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:49.120
We, you know, we have to live our lives in the present.

00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:50.320
And this is another thing.

00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:54.080
Once I started reaching out to God, my mindset changed in so many ways.

00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:55.360
I've been recovering news junkie.

00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:56.320
I used to watch the news all the time.

00:12:56.399 --> 00:13:04.879
I used to listen to all these political John John and Ken and Ben Shapiro and uh the Alex, you know, Alex Jones, the the the globalist guy?

00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:18.000
I used to listen to Alex Jones every day for four hours, and it's driving it was entertaining and it was stimulating, and I and I agreed with some of it, but it was also driving me insane because all these guys, and I respect those guys, and I respect what they what they're doing, and they're following their bliss.

00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:19.279
They're following, they're following their bliss.

00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:21.919
But all they ever talk about is what sucks about the world.

00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:33.360
You know, just the mayhem and the chaos and the corruption, and that's and if you and if you inundate your brain with all that stuff, what motivation are you gonna have to achieve your goals, whatever they might be?

00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:34.559
You're not gonna have that motivation.

00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:43.840
If you think the world is suck it sucks, if you think that there's no good qualities in other human beings, then then the temptation to become an alcoholic or drug addict.

00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.480
I mean, I'm still working security, I work downtown Vancouver, and I'm dealing with drug addicts every day.

00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:49.759
And I my heart goes out to them.

00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:53.519
I really do, I have tremendous compassion for them because they're suffering.

00:13:53.679 --> 00:14:03.519
I mean, mind you, nobody puts a gun to their head, you know, then it's not like they're under duress to stick a needle into their arm and light that crackpipe, but they're suffering so much.

00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:06.639
They're they're in so much emotional pain.

00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:09.200
And that's why they essentially they want to die.

00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:12.080
They just they they want to die quickly, but they want to die having a good time.

00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:14.159
They want to die in a state of euphoria.

00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:16.559
And they and I think that's why some people become criminals.

00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:18.159
You ever see that movie Goodfellas?

00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:22.399
Remember when the boy, you remember when the boy is looking out the window and he sees the gangster?

00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:24.559
He's like, Yeah, I want to be a gangster.

00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:25.679
Yeah, that looks really cool.

00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:27.120
I'm like, Are you kidding me?

00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:30.240
I'm like, that when I was a boy, I wanted to be Superman.

00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:32.000
When I was a boy, I wanted to be a hero.

00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:35.120
You know, I wanted I wanted to run into school bus and save the kids.

00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:36.879
Like, that's the kind of guy that I always wanted to be.

00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:42.080
And I like to think that I am a little bit, you know, it but again, this is that God gave us free will.

00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:51.039
We're not a race of robots, we're a race, we're not even a race of races, we're a race of individuals, and we all have something unique to offer the world.

00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:55.360
And so that's my story in a very long-winded and breathless nutshell.

00:14:57.360 --> 00:14:58.000
Thank you so much.

00:14:58.960 --> 00:14:59.679
No worries.

00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:03.039
So, my you know, my my I feel like a writer though.

00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:23.519
So, you I mean we talked about, yeah, so what I I know you said God inspired you and all that, but yes, uh when you say, I am going to write this and I am going to publish this, and I am going to be successful because you are very successful with what you are writing and what people are buying.

00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:27.279
They want to read what you are putting in these little mini books.

00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:28.639
So I hope so.

00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:41.120
I mean, the important thing, look, if I knew in advance that I was the world's worst writer, if I if if if God said to me, you know, nobody's gonna ever buy your books, forget about the Netflix deal, it's not gonna happen.

00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:44.559
I would still do it because at the end of the day, I'm doing it for me.

00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:49.360
And you look at every successful author, you look at look at George Lucas, just as one example.

00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:55.200
He was pitching Star Wars back in the day in the 1970s, and I've read his story, I read his biography, Skywalking.

00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:58.159
Everyone told him, everyone turned, he got turned down a million times.

00:15:58.399 --> 00:15:58.799
J.K.

00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:07.279
Rolling got turned down a million times, they all got rejected over and over and over again until you every every best-selling author, some someone thinks it's total garbage.

00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:10.799
Your favorite movie, another person thinks that's just that's just the way human beings are.

00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:15.519
You only need a few people to like what you're doing in order to have a career.

00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:24.320
You know, if a few thousand people you cough up a dollar to watch your podcast, you know, I don't know if you have a day job other than your podcast, you probably wouldn't have to do your day job.

00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:25.600
And wouldn't it wouldn't it be nice?

00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:29.200
How many people go to work every day doing the thing that they really want to do?

00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:31.600
Look, I respect bank managers.

00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:33.919
I worked in banks for many years as security guards.

00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:35.039
It's a hard job, tremendous.

00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:35.600
I couldn't do it.

00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:37.440
I wouldn't last half a day as a bank manager.

00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:37.840
I would quit.

00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:39.519
I wouldn't I wouldn't even consider that job.

00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:41.120
And I respect the men and women who do it.

00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:44.080
But there's no five-year-old boy or girl who wants to be bank manager.

00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:48.799
When we're children, the visions that we have for ourselves, they're they're pretty cosmic.

00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.200
You know, we all want to be astronauts or movie stars.

00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:52.559
You ever watch game shows back in the day?

00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:56.399
Remember when they had kids on as contestants and the whole say, What do you want to be when you grow up?

00:16:56.559 --> 00:16:58.399
I want to be president of the United States, right?

00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:00.000
And the audience would lose their minds.

00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:01.600
The audience loved to hear that, right?

00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:02.720
And so what happens?

00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:06.400
What happens is some of us are more sensitive than others, and I was a very sensitive boy.

00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:07.200
God was ever.

00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:10.240
I just was a Charlie Brown kind of kid.

00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:11.839
I just let everything get to me.

00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:14.240
And I remember crying myself to sleep night after night.

00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:17.680
And I was every night, every day in my life, I had nothing, you know, I had everything going for me.

00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:19.759
I had a good mind, I had my arms and legs.

00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:21.599
I wasn't the worst good-looking kid either.

00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:23.279
People were telling me you're a good-looking boy.

00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:24.880
I heard that all the time growing up.

00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:34.000
But these feelings of low self-esteem were just were just like this albatross around my neck that I've been struggling with my entire life until 2019.

00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:35.680
Until I reached out to God.

00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:38.079
You know, the Bible says, and people ask me, what's your religion?

00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:39.839
My religion is John Leicesterism.

00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:43.279
That's my religion, or John Lysterality, or whatever you want to call it, ology.

00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:45.440
That's it's it's it's it's it's a little bit of this.

00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:53.279
It's uh when you when you develop a mindset for yourself, uh look it's like what Bruce Lee did when he when he created Ji Kune Do, which was his martial art.

00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:59.279
He just looked at all the pre-existing martial arts and he said, you know what, I like this, I think this is makes no sense at all.

00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:00.799
This is a waste of time, right?

00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:04.480
And he cherry-picked and then he added in his own, like what a concept.

00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:07.920
He actually added techniques that he created himself, right?

00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:17.200
And so many people I feel, and this is why the there's so much pain in the world, the reason there's so much pain in the world is because there are too many people who don't believe in themselves.

00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:29.599
There are too many people who are so desperate to fit in, they're so desperate for other people to like them, which I get, and and I and I kind of admire that, but not at the sacrifice of yourself.

00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:33.200
We have to be selfish sometimes, otherwise we have no self.

00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:34.799
That's so true.

00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:35.440
That's true.

00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:36.160
Thank you.

00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:43.279
You gotta people need to look in the mirror and say, Is this really me, or do I want to be this person?

00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:44.960
No, be yourself.

00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:48.319
Enjoy yourself and live with yourself as long as you're happy.

00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:49.920
I totally agree.

00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:53.279
So, what what's the first book that you wrote?

00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:56.319
Um, gosh, uh, I can't remember right now.

00:18:56.480 --> 00:19:01.599
Well, the first standalone novel I wrote was called the called The Treehouse Avengers.

00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:03.440
That was my first quote-unquote novel.

00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:06.640
My Lee Hacklins were all collections of short stories.

00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:12.799
And the Treehouse Avengers is uh basically uh a sort of a fantasy version of my autobiography.

00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:16.240
Uh the main character is Clint Wagner, who's a 10-year-old boy.

00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:24.000
He's bullied, his dad is terribly abusive, he likes comic books, and he wants to be a part of this group of kids called the Treehouse Avengers.

00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:25.519
So these four boys that hang out.

00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:31.440
I guess I base it on that episode of The Simpsons a little bit, where these four boys hang out in a treehouse and they read comic books after school.

00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:33.599
And my hero, Clint, he wants to be part of this group.

00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:39.680
He like does he want that more than because he wants to be he wants to be with other boys who like comics, because back in the day, comics were kind of shunned.

00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:42.640
So the leader of this group says, Okay, Clint, you want to be in?

00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:43.519
You want to be part of the gang?

00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:45.519
Then you have to do seven tasks.

00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:48.000
You have to like the seven labors of Hercules.

00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:52.000
So, for example, he has to fart in class while the teacher's talking.

00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:54.720
He has to pull on the bra strap of a girl that he likes.

00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:56.880
And then I don't want to give away the whole story.

00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:06.160
And meanwhile, he's getting bullied by these two terrible boys named Pug and Mike, and and he the the high school principal uh befriends him and actually teaches him how to box.

00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:09.519
So, over the course of the story, it's it's it's a coming of age story.

00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:14.160
Over the course of the book, Clint loses weight, he gains self-confidence, he learns how to box.

00:20:14.240 --> 00:20:16.240
And so, by by the end of the story, these bullies show up.

00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:17.359
I'll spoil it a little bit.

00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:18.160
It's okay, it's okay.

00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:21.119
At the end of the story, these bullies show up.

00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:22.559
I'm trying to pitch the book.

00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:25.920
I hope because actually, of all the books that I've ever written, it's probably the one I'm proudest of.

00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:29.119
But anyway, these bullies show up and they try to burn the treehouse down.

00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:30.400
And Clint saves the day.

00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:38.720
You know, he runs into the kitchen of his friend's house and he get grabs a couple of buckets of water and he puts the fire out and then he gets into a fist fight with these two bullies and he and he kicks their asses.

00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:39.200
You're right.

00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:40.559
I would love to see this into a movie.

00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:41.759
I think this would make an awesome movie.

00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:42.720
Of course, I'm biased.

00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:44.720
I'm very biased in that opinion.

00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:48.000
And so the leader of the Treehouse Avengers says, Oh, you're in! You're in, Clint.

00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:49.519
You know, you're a Treehouse Avenger.

00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:51.039
And he's like, F you.

00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:53.119
I don't want to be a Treehouse Avenger.

00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:54.960
I just want to be Clinton.

00:20:55.680 --> 00:20:59.200
So, how much of that book is a part of you?

00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:01.359
Um, I'd say about 90%.

00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:06.799
The only part that's different is that Clint, when he graduates, the I the story ends in present day.

00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:09.119
So I'm getting a little bit emotional.

00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:18.160
Um, it's okay.

00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:18.880
It's okay.

00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:23.279
You know, I sorry just mean that.

00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:26.559
I'm giving you one of those hugs, and I don't care.

00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:32.559
So it's present day and uh Clint becomes a very successful.

00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:34.799
Okay.

00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:40.319
Just let me take a breath.

00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:41.440
Okay, better.

00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:45.519
So it's present day, and Clint becomes a very successful producer and writer.

00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:46.799
So he's able to manifest.

00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:49.440
He's able to manifest his ultimate version of self.

00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:53.759
And he's watching a YouTube video, and it's a video on how to build trioses.

00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:57.839
And so he builds a trio for his kids, and that's how the triouse vendors ends.

00:21:58.160 --> 00:21:59.119
Spoiler warning.

00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.160
Well, it sounds like that's gonna be an amazing book.

00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:06.079