Richard Paul Evans on the Magic of the Holiday Season, Courage, and Storytelling
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Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone, our next guest, a regular this time of year. I hope always, always. And I hope he will continue to be. And I hope many of you are looking forward to Richard Paul Evans, New York Times bestselling author of The Christmas Promise and The Christmas Box, the most popular holiday tale since Tiny Tim, according to Newsweek.

That's a pretty darn great. You know, the compliments you've received about your writing. That's when you sort of think about, right. You sort of put it on the shirt as a logo. I mean, what do you do? I mean, it's pretty impressive.

Simon Schuster, they play off the king of Christmas fiction. Everyone wants a coronation from New York Times. The king of Christmas fiction. I'll take that. Do you get a crown? Do they send you a crown? It's like you're the king of Christmas fiction. No, you just get a robe. You have to go to Burger King to get your crown. All right. Let's talk about Michael Bay, the colony.

This is one of the series of books you've done on it, and it's been quite successful. It's your final installment. How did it feel writing the final installment on this 10-book series? Actually, I was kind of in a different place. Not kind of. I was really sick.

And we couldn't fail. And in the middle of this, I had a surgery and I had a blood clot that went to my lungs. And while they were checking and going through me, they thought they found cancer. So it's like I'm going I'm behind on the book. And it's like and they kept doing tests. Every test came back positive. It's like, all right, I mean, I'm going to be alive for this one. So this is what I wrote it under. And I still it's like I still have to finish the book.

And my daughter called me. She's the writer. She's the international bestselling writer, Jenna Evans Welch. And she goes, Dad, I can't let my son read your book. I can't let Sam read it. It's too dark. She goes, I know. I'm sorry. I know you're six months late on this. It's killing me to tell you this, but I know I need to tell you. It's too dark. It's too scary. And I looked at it. It's like, yeah, I don't want it to end that dark. And so I went back and rewrote it.

Everyone wants the dark version when they hear that. It's like, okay, they're making furniture out of people's skin. Okay. It's really bad. And so anyway, it's just, I actually, last night we had a big launch party and we had almost a thousand people came to it. And it was sad. I felt it's like Michael Bay has been beautiful. Yeah.

I did a Skype in Saudi Arabia. It was voted their favorite book series of the school. And these kids are from Jordan and Syria and Saudi Arabia talking about how much the book meant to them. And, you know, I got during the riots in Iran, I had some kids from Tehran reach out and say, we have a fan club for Michael Bay here in Tehran.

And I thought, how fascinating that something like this can reach across cultural and politics and ethics and

And people gravitate towards and grab it. So I've loved Michael. I loved every minute of it. It's been beautiful. I'm really grateful that it's a footnote in my career. When you write a series like this, it's 10 books. How much are you outlining it ahead of time, the entire arc? Or is this just a character development where each book you kind of just take off from where you left?

It was like, it was like, I just ad-libbed it. I didn't know where it was going to go, how long it was going to be. And I would put the kids in impossible situations that there's no way they can get out. And then it was like playing a game. It's like, okay, how do I get out of here?

So that's what it was like, the whole thing. And I actually ended with number seven. Number seven was called The Final Spark. And I thought it's, or The Last Spark, and I thought it's over. And then COVID hit. And I really, besides missing everyone, I missed the kids. I loved, we had 4,000 kids come to one book signing.

I love the kids. And I mean, I remember I walked out on stage and the chair was so loud, I hurt my ears. And I thought, everyone should have this much love directed them one time in their life. I thought, this is like really amazing. These kids were so great. And it was so fun to give something that meant something to them.

So it was sad. I actually got teary-eyed last night. I said, you know, this is it. And, you know, I'm getting all these letters from kids saying, don't stop, or how much it means to them. And, you know, I'll even be like, kids are older now. I started in 2011. I'm checking out a story the other day, and this beautiful young woman on the other side, she goes, Mr. Evans, my teenage years were your books. I grew up with your characters. And that's how I defined my teenage years. I thought, you know, it was Michael Bay.

And so they call themselves Baniacs, and I just love it. Yeah, I actually had a book signing. It was with Glenn Beck, and I didn't have my credentials. I couldn't just walk in. So I thought, well, I'll just go wait in line with everyone else. The line was about a quarter mile long. I know.

I just stood in line. The line wasn't moving. I thought, well, okay, I'm not going to get in time for my book signing. So I go to the front of the line, and I noticed the people in front were all wearing shirts that say Baniac. And I'd never seen that before.

And I told the guard, I said, look, I'm Richard Paul Evans. She started laughing. She goes, that's your line you were just waiting in. Richard, we're going to stop you right there. We're going to take our break. We're with Breaking Battlegrounds. We're with New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans talking about Michael Bay, The Colony. And next, we're going to talk about his new book, Christmas in Bethel. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Warren and Sam Stone. On the line with us, continuing on, Richard Paul Evans, New York Times bestselling author. He has a new book out, Christmas in Bethel, we're going to be talking about. But before we do, we want to finish up a pretty fascinating discussion about his other book series, Michael Vey. The Vaniacs. The Vaniacs, The Colony. I had one question. Is there anything, I mean, over 10 books that you've read that you think is really interesting?

that you're going back and say, I wish I didn't have Michael Vey do that. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, in fact, I made, I make mistakes. Like in number nine, they're involved the Amakari tribe. And all of a sudden they started getting these letters pouring in. It's like, but I thought the Amakari tribe was, was wiped out in book number three. Your readers know better. Your readers know better. They do know better. Actually, if I have a question, I can't find it. I put online as the readers, no, tell me.

Who was that person? What percentage of the Michael Bay audience do you think has reread the book more than once? Oh, my gosh. We had someone last night who's read the series 140 times. Really? Yeah. It's actually because the book is so readable. I mean, the number one comment we get on Michael Bay is you got my kid to read. I probably heard it. I probably heard it eight times last night. One got came and she was teary eyed. She goes, my daughter wouldn't read. She was failing in

in English. And the little girl was there. She goes, and then we found Michael Bage, which I love that I read it over and over and over. Well, we all know the key to successful education is the ability and desire to read. Yeah. And so if you can spark that, you probably change your whole academic career, frankly. Yeah. And she goes, I'm just such a poor reader. I said, guess what? So was I.

I remember the day they moved me. I was in Los Angeles. They moved me to the poor reading group, the youngest, the bad readers. And I remember even as a kid thinking, this sounds horrible. But it's like, why am I with the dumb kids? Because by then you already know who's supposed to be the dumb kids. Right, right, right, right. I'm one of the dumb kids. And I just, because of my Tourette syndrome and ADHD, it's like I really struggled with reading. And it wasn't until I had never read a chapter book until middle school. And I found a book called The Hobbit.

And I realized, oh, they just have to be really good books. And that actually helps my writing because I basically write for those kids like me who can't read. I throw out so much of my books. If the book's not moving fast, I get bored. And I have to read the book 70 times, not once, you know, when writing it. So it actually, it turned that disability, so to speak, turned into a blessing.

We're with Richard Paul Evans, New York Times bestselling author. You can find his book on richardpaulevansstore.com and Amazon and everywhere else you can buy books. So you have a new book coming out called Christmas in Bethel. It's out. It's out. It's out. It's out.

How did your recent health scare affect your writing in it? Well, actually, in a big way. I turned in Michael Bay six months late. The day before I was turning it in, I get a call from my adult publisher and they said, we need your book. Is it ready? I hadn't started it. This seems to be a cycle with you, though. I'm always late, but not like this. And this was like they were they were like panicked. And they said, look, you have seven weeks to turn this book in or there won't be a book this year.

And I didn't do a Christmas book last year. It's like people won't wait three years. It's like I have to do this. And so I literally prayed. I said, listen, God, you and I both know this is impossible. You don't write a book of this quality in seven weeks. I said, I'll do my part, but I need help.

And it came. It poured into my mind so fast. And I didn't even know how the book was going to end. But I would write till 2 in the morning. I mean, I didn't leave my den. Some days I didn't even know what the weather was outside. And I just wrote and wrote and wrote. And then I'd go to bed at 2 in the morning and I'd dream the book. And I'd dream parts that I hadn't seen. And next morning I'd get up and write them out. So I turned the book in at 6.30 in the morning, wrote through the night, very caffeinated.

and wrote the book and sent it in. And the thing is like something weird was happening with the book. I kept, or with my life, I kept seeing the numbers 1111, just over and over, 1111. And after about the 12th time, it's like, what is it with seeing 1111? Does that mean something? I looked it up and it said, I mean, it was at two in the morning. I look up, it's like the universe is conspiring to help you reach your goal.

And it's like, oh my gosh, I just had these chills. And it's like, it was this kind of faith. And so I finished the book and turned it in and Kerry calls. He goes, I go, I can't sleep. I'm so hyped up. And he's like, well, let's go to breakfast. I go and I get my phone. It's 11, 11.

And I go, I go, thank you. I go, I thank you so much. And I gave her the book. She, we have a tradition. She's the first one to read it. And she was terrified. It's like, what if this book's awful? She knew what I'd gone through. And I walked in on her reading and she's like, oh my gosh, this is, I can't turn the pages fast enough. And then she finished and she goes easily in my top three of all your books. I've written 47 books.

It's like easily in your top three. I love this story. And I love this story too. I think it's really fascinating. It's a great story. And I want you to talk about the plot for our audience here. Because I've been reading them about third through. I got it yesterday. But you had a comment in there in the beginning that said, home, who our protagonist Beth said, no, our protagonist, the author that she was talking to, home. I think we're all looking for home. And if I think it back through your books and your writing, they're all about finding home. Because-

And I think you know this because what you do at Christmas box, so many people really don't have a home. They don't have that safe spot. They don't have that security. And I find that to be a very constant theme. And is that a theme you try to push in your writings that, you know, there's home. I think we're all looking for home. And then you also had the, you know, the writer in here that she was smitten with to say the least. We're all waiting for a connection. And this is a common bond, depending on your politics, religion, whatever that we all want.

Is that a theme you try to push across? Home, I've never actually thought of that. It's in the book. I'd change one letter and make it hope. My books are about hope. And I think we all want to be understood. I think that's a whole point. My wife says, you know, you share too much. And I wrote a book of essays called Sharing Too Much. But, you know, I shared, I wrote an essay about marriage, how I saved my marriage. And it had more than 140 million readers last I checked.

who read that and I still today I yeah, I've read it so many counselors and marriage professionals who actually hand that out first thing I you know, what I wrote one about my Tourette syndrome, a woman wrote an anonymous letter who said, you're you're clearly a wicked man, you should have no place in a church speaking, I can tell you're wicked because you twitch.

And I said, well, no doubt I'm a wicked man. No doubt I'm broken. But that's not why I twitch. I twitch because I have Tourette's syndrome. I said, the sad thing is when I was a little boy, I believed it. I believed I was bad. And I said, and there's little boys and girls who take their lives because of this, because of the teasing and the bullying that goes on. I said, so, you know, I'm proud of my Tourette's syndrome. And I wrote this. I said it out at midnight. And when I got up in the morning, it had 80,000 shares.

Oh, that's great. It went, it went, people were looking for that woman and, and it's like, it was incredible. And so that kind of connection when all of a sudden people say, wow, you were speaking for me. I hope that in the books, I hope, you know, in this book, Christmas and Bethel, it's about a woman who, and it's based on a true story actually, who was going to kill herself. You know, she has a horrible, abusive life and she finds a book and the book's called Bethel. She reads this book and she feels understood and loved her the first time and hope that

and decides to live and then she finds out the author's coming to her hometown and she's so excited to meet him and yet she's terrified because like what if he's a complete fake right and that's what so that's the premise of the book i thought it was a really cool premise and

Well, you've lived it. It turned out fun. You've lived that by your, all these book signings. You've seen, you've seen what your writings mean to people. You see the hope you give them. You've seen kids. You start reading because of a series of books you wrote. I mean, you, you know, I'm sure when you write something, you don't start off that way thinking that's what it's going to do for people, but it's touched people's life in a significant way. That's changed their course.

Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, it's amazing what a book can do. I mean, books change, start revolutions and they change lives. So they start revolutions inside of ourselves. Last night, one woman said they were going through cancer and she goes, we would listen to your books on the way up to the hospital and the way back every day. And it's like, that's what got us through all of this. Just that peace we felt. We're talking with Richard Paul Evans. You can get his new book, Christmas in Bethel on Amazon and most places that you're going to find your books online. Richard, you were talking about, um,

you know, doing this one event where you were stuck in the line and then you were with Glenn Beck. I imagine you've met a lot of authors talking about, you know, who was, you did the character being disappointed in it. Who have you met who you were blown away by how authentic and impressive they were when you met them, that it kind of gave new meaning to their writing? Actually, I probably, what first came to mind was Ron Howard. Yeah.

I was so, the first time I met him, I just, I was starstruck and I like slurred my words and was scared of him and he like walked away. And then later on, I saw him, we were at an event in Maui. And I said, I'm sorry, I sounded like an idiot. He goes, oh, no, no, no. He goes, I'm just shy. He goes, I'm pretty shy. Actually, I know who you are. My wife circled your name coming here that she wanted to meet you.

And I said, do you want to have dinner with us? And she goes, yeah, we'd love to have dinner with you. And then he followed me around the next day. My agent goes, Ron Howard's like a puppy following you. And I go, that was, and Carrie ran off with Cheryl. And it was like, this is, I kind of felt famous at that moment. It was kind of cool. But he was really kind. He was just a normal guy. And he had all these little Opie's running around. His kids were all redheaded. It was a good memory.

So you're releasing this new book. Do they send you to explain to our audience? Do you go on a, do you go on sort of like a press tour now? Do they go send you to interviews and newspapers? I guess you do everything through zoom now, but do you have a lot of interviews set up? What, what does the publisher make you do now versus what they did two decades ago? Completely changed, completely changed. And because the whole environment has changed. And once COVID hit, you know,

My book sales went up during COVID, and I'm sure many did, and it's like, and I didn't tour, and it's like, well, why are we touring then? Because tours are very expensive, you know, like 50 grand. And I used to, like, in the early days, I would go to, like, my gosh, 16 cities. I would leave, I'd be gone right now on the road, come home for Thanksgiving, and go back down the road and be gone until, you know, 10 days before Christmas. And the difference is, now we don't have all the media. I mean, I'd go into town, I'd be on the cover of the Cincinnati Inquirer, right? Or just, you know, going there, it's like,

These newspapers are gone, you know, Colorado, lots of newspapers are Denver Post, I mean, they're gone. I think Denver or the Rocky Mountains. One's gone. It's like, so you don't have the newspapers, the radios have since deregulation, now they belong to three people and they're all satellite, so you're not there. And you have, so there's not radio and the TV, all the local shows have disappeared.

So there's kind of no reason to go out on a book tour. And so in the same way, like we saw with Donald Trump, that all of a sudden Joe Rogan is the biggest thing that was watched during the election. It's like it's changed. The world has changed. But I've been at this for 30 years. Can you believe that, Chuck? 30 years. And it's like I've seen the world change and I've stayed afloat by keeping up with it.

And so I have enough of a fan base that when I send out, oh, get this, you're going to die, the number 11, I sent out about my book. My book hit number 11 on Barnes & Noble. This is a month before it came out. And it hit 22, 11 plus 11 on Amazon. That was a month out and it was in the top 25 books on Amazon, which means it had sold so many books online.

that the pre-orders are enough or to put in the top 10 of the New York Times, just the pre-orders. Well, with Richard Paul Evans, his new book, Christmas in Bethel, you can find anywhere you buy books or go to his store, richardpaulevinsonlinestore.com. Richard, we have two minutes left here. Doing this for 30 years, what has your opinion changed about people when you started 30 years ago as a young man?

young father versus now as a grandfather dealt with various issues of life. How has your opinion of people changed? What do you see in them now that you didn't see 30 years ago? That's a really good question. We just, we had our Thanksgiving, but people talk about the politics of Thanksgiving this year. And for the first time ever, politics was threatening to put a divide in our family. And I sat down with one of my daughters. I said, I just don't get it. You're really smart. You're smart. How could you do this? I mean, we have a gay, I have a

neurodiverse and so how could you do this? I said a couple of things, Jenna. First of all, I've never I would never vote in any way that would not make my children's lives better. We just see it very different. But I do have perspective. I have perspective. You don't. And I said, I'm not looking for confirmation bias in my life anymore. Most of my life is looking for confirmation bias. Now I just want truth.

You know, I have enough money and place that I can do whatever I want for the rest of my life. I can disappear and be totally happy, go to my ranch and be a rancher and never see to deal with the world. I want to make the world a better place. We are working to help abused children. I'm right in the thick of it. I would never do something that I think would hurt someone. We spent most of our life trying to serve people.

We started Christmas Box House. We've served more than 140,000 abused children. And it's like, I'm in the place. And then we told our kids, we brought them in and we talked about wills. It's like, you need to know we're not afraid of dying. So we just love you. And you get a stage, I love my wife and I just want to spread love in the world and then die and go talk to God because I'm totally convinced that God exists and that there's another world. I've seen way too much to deny it.

That's fantastic. Well, Richard Paul Evans, as always, thank you for being generous with your time. We're glad you're feeling better. And we look forward to another 20, 30 years of Christmas books and many other books. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving that you've already celebrated the week before, but have a wonderful weekend. We'll talk to you soon, my friend. Thank you. This is Breaking Battlegrounds. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving. And if you're having to speak to your family, get your crap together and go out repairing. Have a great weekend.