Voices for Voices®

Young Author, Big Imagination; Nine-Year-Old Ryan Solomon and The Search for Drake Colton | Episode 384

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 384

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Young Author, Big Imagination; Nine-Year-Old Ryan Solomon and The Search for Drake Colton | Episode 384

A nine-year-old author just proved that big stories don’t need a long resume. We sit down with Ryan Solomon, the mind behind The Search for Drake Colton, to trace how doodles, daydreams, and family brainstorms became a published Christian fantasy for kids. With his parents, David and Amanda, Ryan breaks down the messy magic of drafting: character names that changed three times, cover art debates, folklore experiments, and the moment he opened the envelope and realized his book was real.

We dive into the heart of the series—faith as a compass for adventure. Ryan’s heroes face demon dogs, tangled loyalties, and real moral choices, but the tone stays clean, hopeful, and fast-paced for readers nine and up. You’ll hear how Amy emerged as a driving force, why Drake’s presence bookends the story, and how Levi earned his name after “too many Zachs.” We also map where the world goes next: a bigger sequel, surprise crossovers with Young Siren Born, and short stories that turn travel memories into lessons kids can carry.

The creative energy doesn’t stop at the page. Ryan and friends are shaping an RPG that stretches across states and planets, plus Roblox experiences that turn scenes into playable adventures. If you’re a parent searching for Christian fantasy for kids, clean adventure books, or inspirational middle-grade reads, this conversation shows how values and imagination can thrive together—without losing the fun. Along the way, we talk merch (yes, the golden cuffed beanie), Amazon momentum, and why supportive adults make all the difference for young creators.

Subscribe to catch future updates on the series, share this episode with a friend who loves kid-lit, and leave a review to help more families find hopeful stories. Ready to meet the youngest author on your shelf?

Chapter Markers

0:02 Welcome, Reach, And Subscribes

2:29 Website, Donations, And Merch

6:06 Introducing Ryan Solomon And Family

8:16 How The Book Idea Began

10:55 Characters, Drafts, And Art Choices

13:38 Faith Themes And Story Purpose

16:45 Worldbuilding Amy, Drake, And Levi

20:30 Early Stories And Creative Process

24:12 The Boy And The Sword Vision

28:18 Crossovers And Series Plans

32:50 Mythical Projects And Short Stories

38:05 Why Write And What Readers Gain

41:44 RPGs, Roblox, And Superhero Team

46:16 Amazon Rankings And Momentum

50:55 Family Support And Confidence

#YoungAuthor #KidLi #ImaginativeWriting #RyanSolomon #DrakeColton #ChildrensBooks #CreativeKids #BookRecommendations #MiddleGradeFiction #KidsWhoWrite #InspiringStories #LiteraryAdventure #BooksForKids #StorytellingMagic #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices384

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey everyone, Telst here, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode and all of our over 380 episodes on our way to 400 before the end of calendar year 2025. And it is all in part due to your demand watching and listening from over uh 100 countries, territories, provinces, a thousand cities across the globe. We're also reaching Antarctica, Greenland, and all areas and in between. So if you can do us a big favor and smash that subscribe button on whichever platform or platforms that you watch or listen, we would greatly appreciate that. You probably have seen us have a little more activity on our uh TikTok account. So you can uh go ahead and follow us so you won't miss a thing when we do go live. I actually uh a few minutes ago we we did uh uh one of our shorter lives on TikTok. So uh just so you don't miss anything, we don't we don't want anybody to to miss anything, and we want you, our loyal followers and listeners, and uh consumers, and uh just bring in support in all shapes and sizes. So we would say thank you, and we do have love and support for everybody across the world, even our enemies, even people that uh aren't our friends, uh but we are all human, so uh we we wish everybody the best and a prosperous life, whatever that means to them or you and you. So, what we're gonna do here very quickly before we jump into our guest and our awesome show do we have lined up, which I'm totally stoked about that have the opportunity to do this. So um, it looks like I did what did I do? Okay, here we go. Optimize for be sure. So we're gonna see a little bit. Okay, here we go. So, as you may know or may not know, we do have a website, and that is www.voicesforvoices.org. You can find all our episodes. Uh again, these are all this is all free, so you don't have to pay to to do anything. We are a 501c3 charity, so we do accept donations, and the best way to do that is to go to lovevoices.org, or you can make a donation here. If you just scroll down just to just a hair uh on our home page. But the reason why I'm bringing you over to this specifically is number one on our TikTok lives, we've been getting some feedback about the VNE that I'm wearing, and uh interest in in that and where they where individuals can buy. And so we have made that possible. So just head on over to voicesforvoices.org, go to what we do, you're gonna see this drop down, and you're gonna click on shop, and then you're gonna see a whole lot of things you probably didn't even know was here. Uh, so the beanie that I am wearing, you're gonna go right here to embroidered beanie, and there are different colors. So our uh our our model in this uh in this particular product uh starts out with the the black and the and the white, like I am, and there are also uh other colors in the background, but the stitching stays the same for our logo and for voices for voices, which is our logo. So you can buy that right here. So if you didn't know, you can click which color and and go to purchase and do all that. The other one, the other beanie, so we're gonna be scrolling. Yes, you're gonna see some pretty interesting things. You probably have no idea they're even available, uh, but they are. Uh they're all for purchase now into the future. We even have uh adult coloring pages that uh we made ourselves and all about you know, inspiration, self-care, the love symbol, uh all the different ways, you know, uh doing art, playing music, and and so we have a lot of interest there. Uh, but what I am going to do is scroll all the way to the bottom because this is a new edition, and you want to go to cuffed beanie, and so you're gonna click here, and you're gonna have a whole lot more options, but we're gonna focus on the golden beanie. So the golden song is a hit all over the world, and we've had requests to uh see if we were able to have a golden cuffed beanie or a golden beanie is basically uh how how the request came through. And so it you know you can pick your pick your color, but what you're gonna want to do if you want the golden, you're gonna go down the gold, and then you're gonna be able to purchase right off of our site. So that's all for that. Uh if you have more time, definitely check that out and let everybody know. Please share, please share, please share. Okay. So now you see this page here, and you see the search for Drake Colton, and you see this name here, Ryan Solomon. Uh, you probably haven't seen or heard that name uh before. Well, now you're seeing it here now that we're uh he's on as a guest, but we have uh the author, the nine-year-old author of The Search for Drake Holt and Ryan Solomon with us on uh this episode of the show, and we are beyond thrilled to uh help him realize one of his uh one of his dreams, and uh it was his inspiration, his ideas, his words, and it's just incredible. Uh so no matter what age you are, uh you can you can dream and you can do what you uh put your mind to it. And we also want to just let everybody know from a safety standpoint that both of Ryan's parents, David and Amanda Solomon, were involved in this whole process, and you're gonna be hearing uh from uh at least David, maybe Amanda as well, throughout our conversation. So we we know that that is a big thing uh that uh we're not exploiting anybody. We're uh sharing or inspiring. Well, I'm not inspiring Ryan's one, his one inspiring, and then his uh his parents are involved wholly in the process. So, Ryan, thanks for joining us on the show.

SPEAKER_02:

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's uh it's exciting. I was able to meet you a couple times uh in the past, and uh hopefully more more times to come. And I wasn't fully aware of those times, or maybe I was, and I just uh it just slipped my mind that that you had and you were working on uh this novel, the the search for Drake Colton. Uh, can you just share maybe a little bit of of how how that got started in your mind?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, like um so like we released this one where and we're definitely gonna release a lot more, like The Boy and the Sword. We got a bunch of others to release.

SPEAKER_01:

And what what inspired you I don't know, just mind. Mind.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You created it what two two and a half years ago.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, two and a half years ago, and then it's now released.

SPEAKER_01:

Take us back to that moment.

SPEAKER_02:

So I forgot where we were, but it was like I wanted to create a story where like it was about demon hunting, I think. Yeah, and like we had to change it so many times throughout the years. I know like we decided this, we decided this and that, and then we just had it now.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and what was crazy, if you guys don't know me, I'm David Solomon, Ryan's dad. Yeah, um, what's crazy is he kept going in between stories too and wanting to merge the two, and we had an original draft about a year ago.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And then you changed it. We actually have that cover where originally wasn't it Drake was red and Amy, Amy was green, right? I think it was.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I'm pretty sure it was red, uh, Drake, and it was yellow, Amy.

SPEAKER_01:

Was it yellow?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm pretty sure. I where they were uh where they were uh running out of the church.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yes, it was that was that one. Yeah, because we drew that. Um you think it was I know I have it here in the drawings. Yeah, because it was that was, and that was your first idea of wanting to make stories that matter kind of because of your own faith. You you grew close with God over a period and you wanted to tell other kids your age about God. What what inspired that?

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Just you learning Yeah because that amazed me. Like that truly amazed me. It's a story, but then you have demon hunters and you have God in it. Let me get it. I know I have it here. So, like, what do you want going forward?

SPEAKER_02:

You want to design video games, yeah, like stuff that like are on popular games.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you in the story, so so what inspired Amy, her character? She's a demon hunting princess.

SPEAKER_02:

I remember the uh I remember the one uh where uh it was like where you generated three people, one was Drake, one was a girl, and then one was like another boy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That's where I got the whole idea of like Drake, Amy, and Levi.

SPEAKER_01:

Here it is. Two years later.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, it was red. Oh, red. No, Amy was green.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, she was green.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Because there's the church, and then that's we should put that on one of our stickers, our original version. I thought I thought that she was yellow for the but I think you had a version where she was yellow. Pretty sure. So, Ryan, you then created the third character.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, which was Levi.

SPEAKER_01:

And why is it Levi? Tell us the there's a there's a whole story behind.

SPEAKER_02:

There's a whole there's so much lore to it. So the one time when we were making the character, we were like, oh, uh let's name this person like Zach.

SPEAKER_01:

It was Zach originally.

SPEAKER_02:

We had a bunch of names, I'm pretty sure. Like we had this one name, and then I'm pretty sure it went to Zach, and then now it's Levi.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Because we because we were making another story.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, the reason is you kept making the stories, and you kept choosing the same name. Yeah. And I and I was like, okay, I love this name, but this is gonna get really confusing because you're writing Zach and then Zach and then Zach and then Zach. Too many Zachs.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so then we had to change it to Levi, and the reason why we had to do that was um when we had a the person named uh Zach, uh, we had another story that we wanted to create in which was the that we wanted to create.

SPEAKER_01:

Which was the uh Crescent City monster.

SPEAKER_02:

And uh the one boy was named Zach, which you kind of named him Zachary though. So we had to change it to Levi then.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct. And then we also had um we had the chariots of fire from the original. We wrote that up in Washington.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, didn't you weren't you the one that thought of that?

SPEAKER_01:

No, that was you.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

You drew it. I gotta find the drawing. I thought about having it on an island, and then you went, no, we wanted to do it somewhere else.

SPEAKER_02:

The original idea. The original local idea one where it was um Drake's parents were uh held captive and they were on an island with demon dogs.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That one was the original one.

SPEAKER_01:

You put Wendigo's in there, remember that?

SPEAKER_02:

I did uh um this was like no when we did this, I'm pretty sure it was like when I the hotel I turned eight at.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That was when we saw the island out there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's where we came out of it. Yeah, well, because the folklore was so interesting, you said, and then uh that was so long ago. Yeah, we we were like, huh. And you wanted to write the story. And at the time you and I sat down, you started drawing it out, and I got a paper, and you said, I want this and I want that, but I don't want this, and I don't want that. And then I said, You're sure you want this, and then you wanted a werewolf, but then you didn't want a werewolf, wanted a werewolf, didn't want a werewolf. Take the werewolf out, yeah, get the vampire, and pretty soon we had like all the I remember the one picture I drew. There was the blue guy, Drake, and then there was a werewolf, and there was a fairy girl, and there was uh wasn't there like a big foot? There was something like that in the in the picture.

SPEAKER_02:

Wait, didn't we make uh Levi uh a werewolf in the original?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh that's right.

SPEAKER_02:

Didn't we make you a werewolf? I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Anyway, off topic. But no, so Ryan, what what do you you're gonna be doing a a movie? Yeah, Boy in the Sword. Tell us about your vision. Now, guys, Boy in the Sword, this kid has wanted for three and a half, almost four years.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that that's like the first ever story we did.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

At Sunset Beach.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, and this is the story that he has wanted no matter where we've been, it's stayed in Sunset Beach, California. Yeah. Sunset beach is uh, you know, we we haven't been back there in in a very long time because we're not even on that side of the planet, but it is a very small beach, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Would you say yeah, it's like kind of a small beach.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And what what inspired you? You you wanted the point of the sword. What gave you the idea?

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. I just kind of I just kind of thought because you did the book cover overnight. You were like, yeah, that's what I want. Yeah. And he's he's an alien. What what what is he? Tell the audience.

SPEAKER_02:

Honestly, I don't know. Like he can be an alien, maybe a murphole.

SPEAKER_01:

The original version was there were pirates.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I remember I'm pretty sure it was where like we didn't even have the whole like planet out. Yeah. Like we didn't even think about the planet. And it was where like this boy came out from the water, yeah, and he found a sword in the sand made for like I'm pretty sure it was like uh lightning, like lightning, like the first time. Then now I wanted to make it lightning in time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I remember that. So now with us doing production on it, we can't say much about it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But what would you tell the audience? Would you compare it to like Percy Jackson?

SPEAKER_02:

What would you I mean we have our I think I we have our idea set now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It's like a whole team now. Yeah. That's what I thought of. It used to just be the uh boy and the sister.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

Now we got like a whole team of Marfolk.

SPEAKER_01:

You changed it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And then you also did uh the San Clemente or the the Crescent City Monster.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we we still have yet to do the the Golden Boy. Golden Boy 2. Like the first ever one, Boing the Sword, and I was pretty sure Boing the Flute and then Drake.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Boyne the Flute. Now tell the audience your first dive into writing, you can read it on mythical creatures around the world. Was about a let me get it here. It was the Fin Dog. What was the name?

SPEAKER_02:

I remember that. I remember you dog, I drew it. I remember that one where we created the uh uh Yes, that's the one.

SPEAKER_01:

The uh rocket ship one. No, this one's a splash. Yeah, but the spaceship one too, you did. So I guess your original dive into writing was right there in Galveston, Texas.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's what I was talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You did I did the art, you came up with the story and like so many people liked it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And the it's funny, the age is ten, it says Ryan and David Solomon. And then we did um for those who don't know, at that time your mom was gonna be doing a movie. Yeah. Um, which is Beta, which is still going on. Um

SPEAKER_02:

I mean we have like about a bunch of books that we have to get out. I mean we have a few out. We have the Young Sir Siren Born, D Man.

SPEAKER_01:

Now you're gonna be co-writing with me, I think, today, actually, for the Young Siren Born book. For sure. Yeah. And and tell me what what makes you want to co-write? You can you can go into detail here. Because you read so I wrote Young Siren Born for you and other kids to come closer to God. And also just have a good story that just really brings you uh good morals. And you uh you like the character Sadie and Yeah, that's like my favorite character.

SPEAKER_02:

She did a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

She did. So you want to make book two?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, like because I want to help you. I mean, I have a bunch of ideas that we can do. We have like, I don't know, like, all I have to do is just kind of think, yeah, and then you can start writing the stuff, I think. I'm kind of like the person that makes the main ideas.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, you do. But the the audience needs to know Ryan actually is a great writer on his own.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. What does uh what does it feel like to know that your uh your your book is I mean it's truly out there for the world and uh what's a you know mean to to you and and and to inspire others if you know writing is one of their I mean when I heard when I saw that it was my copy, like you gave me the envelope, yeah, like you gave me the package, and I'm like, it's a book.

SPEAKER_02:

Like we got like my mom was doing the cover, it kind of gave me a hint of like, is this seriously my book? Like, and then like I was jumping for joy because of how fast we got it out, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It took a lot of hard work, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Like my mom said, like, sure, it's like it's unaligned. I feel like you're not gonna like it. I don't care. I got a book out. Why do I care?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it looks incredible. You're hard work. We we I did the cover, and uh, I hope I did justice to your character, Amy. You did, yeah. That is Amy. Tell us about Amy, that is the main character. So tell us about that scene because you know that scene.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you uh you uh generated it and uh No, that's the one I drew.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh I drew that.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

So like you said that like the dog down there is like the demon dog.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, that's the demon dog. The werewolf uh werewolf princess.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And then uh that guy next to that tree over there is Levi. Yep. And then the girl in the uh green suit is Amy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And tell us about Amy. What who is she? Because you're the creator here.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, she's like as you said, like a part of the story. You said that like maybe we can make it to where like Levi was like friends with Amy, and then he became friends with uh Drake.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, yeah, we were discussing book two some backstory of what to do because it's really funny.

SPEAKER_02:

This originally was supposed to be about Drake Colton, and this one, this one this one's about I mean it kind of it kind of introduces them a lot. Yeah, and then book two is where Drake comes in.

SPEAKER_01:

And we don't actually see Drake again until book two, so it's all about the stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I mean tell us about that. Well, I mean it's where like they have to go through a bunch of stuff to get Drake back. The only part in this book of Drake is like the start and the end, you said.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

Because Drake appears in chapter one, he appears in chapter one because I saw that where like he wakes up, like he goes to school.

SPEAKER_01:

What did you think about you know the characters you did um with all the demon hunters, like all that folklore that you put in there? Well, um uh because you're a K-pop fan too.

SPEAKER_02:

I know, I've been that influenced it. That influenced we thought of the demon hunting story after not. Yeah, before way before, way before, and then it's like K-pop demon hunters releasing like oh god, we're gonna have copyright.

SPEAKER_01:

So no, no copyrights, but it does feel that way.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, like we so our villains are the werewolf, it's like it's like K-pop demon hunters did all the work for us, but instead of like all girls, it's two boys with uh one girl, yeah. And then we have the uh demons as like the boy band and yeah, the villains, yeah. So they kind of twisted it for us.

SPEAKER_01:

And you we're also doing this story where we went to Tijuana. You're releasing a story from there long ago.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, we already kind of got it done. All we have all we have to do is just get the just get the words up, and then we can publish it, get a cover, and you're doing that.

SPEAKER_01:

You wanted to tell the story of uh the demon hunters from a Mexico perspective, yeah. That's kind of fun. So you've seen like a lot of culture, yeah. You've you've seen a lot, and like you're so smart. I'm amazed every day because he does know how to write, and I'm a speed write, but he's really good at creating. He's really good at what he does.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I'm kind of like the one that could think outside the box.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you really do.

SPEAKER_02:

Like all we can do is just do like the basic stuff. I'm the one that could do like the advanced stuff, I can think like whatever.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you do. Which is why you're one of the best in your field.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and even I even took your spot for the youngest writer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, you did. You bypassed me by like five years, you oh, yes, you did.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you said you said you were 14. I was, and then now I'm nine, so I bypassed you by five years, dude.

SPEAKER_01:

That's like today.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm gonna have to read another chapter.

SPEAKER_01:

That's insane, yeah. But you're also creating too, because you're creating our team now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we're creating another uh we're creating a superhero team, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We're also doing an RPG. So we me and Ryan are releasing an RPG for you guys, and then like Dungeons and Dragons, but it's gonna be so much bigger. Every state, every country, every nation, what every planet? Is that fair to say? Yeah, every planet uh movie involved.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, uh, me and my friends have also been like making a uh Roblox game. We've been wanting to. I've done some of the maps. Uh it's a tower defense game we've been wanting to do. We've been working on it for months.

SPEAKER_01:

And we're also doing a Roblox version of uh your universe, the boy and the sword.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you want you wanted to do a Drake Colton one, Boy and Sword.

SPEAKER_01:

You wanted to do um oh goodness, what was that crowd? Jerry.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, Golden Boy and Jerry.

SPEAKER_01:

No, wait, yeah, because the Golden Boy and Jerry that ties together. Yeah, you know, okay, so originally I was writing um this series, and Drake Colton was gonna be the son of my character. That was like two years ago, though. Yeah, because of Jerry. We changed it because it made more sense to do it on its own, because Ryan's story just it it lives a little differently, it breathes a little differently.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, tell us about book two. Are you gonna make it bigger?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, you said like do we make it like bigger, better?

SPEAKER_01:

I asked you because yeah. Honestly, we could. What are you what is your thinking? Are we gonna find Drake?

SPEAKER_02:

What I mean, yeah, we're we're gonna be finding Drake in book two. So, like, as you said, like the ending chapter is where we find Drake. So we're gonna have to like make it to where Drake actually is in book two.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, in uh in your other when well, in Young Cyberborn too, you were telling me, well, this is how you open it, and then we should have them go here, and then let me help you there.

SPEAKER_02:

Isn't book one where they uh defeat the uh dream dimension? Not the dream dimension, the uh wolf person. The uh do they defeat them?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

So what we could do for book two, instead of the uh wolf, well the wolf and Drake, the the the um other I guess no, because they both take place in that same So instead of the wolf person, how about we make it like another person so that way like it it's different people that they have to go against? Well yeah, and I would just Drake's there to help too.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, because Drake would cross over with uh Sadie. Yeah, yeah. So like the two of them could come together.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So maybe we add them to the second story.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I do like that. And you were telling me like you wanted Amy possibly to spill into their I was and that's interesting because like they kind of do fit, don't they?

SPEAKER_02:

Wait, in Young Sirenborn, yeah, didn't you didn't you have like a part where there was like a secret character? Yeah, what if a part of the We don't know who they are? That was we can make that we could make that aiming like a part of that story because when they were when they were helping out Drake, they go to like the different dimension by accident and they like see what's going on. As you said, that there's like a giant snake, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, because it's a snake, they see them battling.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. No, that's true. So for the audience, this is what we do. We create. Um, we we're writers, we create Ryan's let's see, Ryan came up with a story, it was uh The Hawkman, the Pirates, Louisiana, where we did that crazy story you guys will probably not see for a very long time due to NDAs, but the it was Aquaman, Batman, Hawkman, who else was on that ship? Was it Black Adam?

SPEAKER_02:

I know I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it wasn't Black Adam.

SPEAKER_02:

My first show that I did with you on that. What was it where the tornado happened?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, what was it?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

What was it? Um I'm trying to remember. Oh, yeah, it was Aquaman's son. Yeah, there was a pirate. Now you wanted to adapt that. I don't know how we could adapt that into Drake Holton. And then Mythical, um, you've done so many stories on Mythical now. You've done Splash, the dog, but you also did another one. The golden boy goose. Oh the golden goose! The goose, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

That was an old one.

SPEAKER_01:

And tell the audience about that.

SPEAKER_02:

We have so uh we thought of an idea for like a golden goose thing, and uh like it was a story on mythical where uh they were like it was it was this team that they were going to go get the golden goose egg, pretty sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there we are.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there it is.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that was and that and you had a green mergirl, a dragon boy, Jack was the the boy with uh patch.

SPEAKER_02:

And there there was a there's a werewolf and vampire, uh detective vampire looks like and you and I did that.

SPEAKER_01:

I drew it for you. Oh, we we forgot the fairy.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah, the fairy.

SPEAKER_01:

We forgot the fairy, and then we did this was splash. This was the other yeah, that was the uh that was the splash one, and that is the dog, yeah. Splash dog the famous dog. Okay, now we also did um oh, where was it? Because your stories are gonna be on mythical even more now because you're gonna be sort of not taking over, but helping a little bit. Yeah. Um, I wanted to say, ah, here it is. This was done in Ocean Shores where uh the alien's brother and sister, yeah. Yeah, and they they what did they do? They disobeyed their parents.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, they disobeyed they had to rescue the the bridge from a giant octopus where uh they had to disobey their parents to go save, and they uh got in trouble, and that's where we learned about making good choices, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean Ephesians 6.1. Yeah, we should really do a book about disobeying the parents.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, maybe like a short story, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what I'm thinking. That could work. I'm open for it. You also did one other on here. I know you did a bunch, but there was one other in part oh yes.

SPEAKER_02:

That one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the dog. The dog. That other dog I cannot get over that dog. We drew that. There's another one though in here. This one. That was Galveston.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

That was remember that she couldn't find her fin cat and she was sad.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You helped me design that, and so the cat turned out really good. Yeah, we could do that one, but Ryan is a brilliant young author. You should get his book. He comes up with the most creative ways to tell a story. Ryan, what would you tell people to get your book?

SPEAKER_02:

Why would I? Yeah, I don't know. I'm just just the first book I've released. I mean, I'm kind of the youngest person to make a book in the world, I think. And just kind of getting it popular.

SPEAKER_01:

And what do you want people to take away from your book? Do you want them to to become better? Do you want them to uh to enjoy the adventure of your characters? What did you why did you write the book?

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know, just thought of releasing one just like you.

SPEAKER_01:

And it was out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You were like, well, I want to write a story. And I was like, so shocked. I was like, okay, well, we'll I guess we'll do it. It took us so long to like brainstorm, and then each chapter changed like the original draft was way different than what it actually is now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So different. We also did the RPG Skibbity toilet.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah, or the dice.

SPEAKER_01:

Remember that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Remember the blue guy?

SPEAKER_02:

I think we'll be re I think that that'll probably just be like something for fun. We're probably not gonna release that.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. We could though.

SPEAKER_02:

I know why it's kind of cringe. How is it cringe? Skippy toilet. We can't use something different.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. The characters you created were cool.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. I remember that.

SPEAKER_01:

The elf girl.

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe that's our superhero team.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe that is our superhero team. The dinosaur wasn't there a dinosaur cowboy? There was a dinosaur cowboy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there was a with a web girl. Remember there was a mini guy, yeah. Yeah. And the uh the girl that could cry and turn the her tears into like glass.

SPEAKER_01:

I remember that. That could be our superhero team. So going forward, um, what would you tell people? You want to write stories to inspire, bring people to God?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, yeah, that's kind of the whole point.

SPEAKER_01:

And you've read a lot now.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, I'm surprised that I even read like a whole book in a day. You're a Sirenborn one.

SPEAKER_01:

I know. I was that was like the first time, too.

SPEAKER_02:

That was my first time doing that.

SPEAKER_01:

Here it is. That team. Yeah, the frog, the dinosaur.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, the guy with the can. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, there's nothing to say we couldn't make that.

SPEAKER_02:

Who would be the main uh uh leader though?

SPEAKER_01:

That's a good question. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

Should we do the uh like uh the blue guy? Probably, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I like how she turned out though, yeah. Like everything turned out really nice here.

SPEAKER_02:

Then there's also the elf right there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. No, true enough. So we're always creating guys, and uh we're always creating. So check out Ryan's book. What is your book called?

SPEAKER_02:

And it's called The Search for Drake Colton by me.

SPEAKER_01:

Who is me. Ryan Ryan Ryan Solomon.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And it is a Christian fantasy for kids ages nine and up. Because you are nine. Yeah. And you should get a copy for the holidays because well it'll bring you to God. You are awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

You are just so awesome. You should you should be like an evangelist.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And for like Christmas, I was thinking like we get a cake and celebrate Jesus' birthday.

SPEAKER_01:

We are still gonna do that. Yeah, we gotta do that.

SPEAKER_02:

We gotta do that.

SPEAKER_01:

We gotta do that. Um, Justin, a special thank you from Ryan and me too, for making this a reality, Ryan. What do you what do you say to Justin?

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, you're welcome. You did you did the hard work and just a small part in it. And um, like I was telling your dad, uh I mean the the goal with everything we're doing is to help people, and sometimes it starts with us, and so to have uh those good feelings are good. So the fact that you're the author and you have that about your your work and know that it's more than worthy to be published, and that people are buying it, it's it's gonna I I just I was scrolling down as we were as we were talking. Um as far as like the bestsellers rank, uh 206,000. I think there's millions of books out, right? Yeah. So that's that's incredible. Number 66 in children's general and other myths, uh 348 in children's inspirational books, and then 5800 in children's action and adventure books. But the fact that I mean you broke 500 walls and broke a hundred, yeah. And people are are buying it, and it is there's some nostalgia and memorabilia to it, because as you mentioned, being the youngest author right now ever, uh, you know, it's gonna be worth money. We've talked about Adeline and with her dad uh writing his first comic book, it kind of same thing that you know there's so many re so many reasons to buy this book, uh, the print version and the the Kindle if if uh individuals like that, because uh you know if they're traveling or they're commuting to work or you know that they always have it on digital, and then they have the um they have the paperback as well. And uh just as you you mentioned, I mean our goal is to help people and bring people together, not to divide people like some other people. Um, and and so nothing says that more than uh a book about God, a book about bringing people together. Uh the fact that you said what you said about you should get a cake and celebrate Jesus' birthday like that. Yeah, that gave me like goosebumps because that's um just so you're even thinking like that is it's incredible. And your your mind is so imaginative that like you mentioned, you're able to get into details and things where yeah, some of us older folks we uh might take a little bit, but uh it's it's great that you have uh the supportive family and everybody's in involved and yeah, and that they didn't force you to do it, that you decided it on your own, and that's a big thing because sometimes people um are kind of forced to do different things that they might not want to do. And so the fact that you're the one that made the decision and you're still making the decisions, and uh that you're gonna continue uh writing and creating. And uh before we go, uh can you just explain what a role-playing game is to these uh to some of our viewers and listeners? I know that a lot of people know what that means, but yeah, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so so uh just like any role-playing game.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, just what uh just like what like how do you play a role-playing game? Like, are there dice? Is there a board? Are there a page?

SPEAKER_02:

It can be anything. So like what I've seen on like games that like rollblocks and stuff, like there are these games where you can like act like you have a family, act like you have like you have a job, like a bunch of things you can do. You can even be like you can have your own outfits if you decide. You can be a superhero, yeah, be a superhero, you can be a police officer, medic, a surgeon, anything.

SPEAKER_01:

The die is decide your basically your decision.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but like some art role playing games just don't some role-playing games don't have like dice, like they include like other people. I did not know that that that's what I've seen. So like there will be more, so there will be like outfits you can choose for you, like a bunch that I've seen on Roblox. Yeah, I've seen like I'm gonna go here. There are so many skippy toilet role-playing games I have seen. We have Titan role playing, anything like the Titans role-playing, you have units, a bunch of stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, great. Well, I want to thank you, Ryan, for all that you've done just being just being a kid first and using that that mind for for good. And yeah, I I definitely want to as I want to recommend it's like one final time here is to recommend that everybody watching and listening goes uh right at this point. Uh, you're gonna want to head to Amazon to to uh to get your uh your book, The Search for Drake Colton by author Ryan Solomon. And again, you just you know type that search. The search for Drake Colton, even when I did uh when I typed up uh the search for Drake Colton, like your name was already like automatically populating. So it means a lot to a lot of people are are you know looking. Um and so whether it's a paperback at$12.99, you can get this uh get these before Christmas if that's a holiday that you you celebrate. If you don't, it it's it's a great gift, it's it's a great uh it's a great book, no matter no matter what, it's good clean uh content, which is what what the world needs a lot more of. And that's a big part of voices for voices and what we're doing with the publishing with Ryan and David and Amanda and others that uh we you know down down the road will uh be bringing online. So we we definitely recommend you get your paper back. You can use Prime so you can get that Prime shipping, get that before if you do celebrate Christmas. If you don't, uh there's a little bit of a bottleneck around this time of the year. So get your orders in ASAP and you can also get it today on your Kindle instantly electronically. And this is the search for Drake Colton by nine-year-old author Ryan Solomon, even though he started the writing process when when he was seven. So we recommend again uh buy your copies today. They're they're literally fine off the the uh virtual shelves uh to get to be in the top 100 of any category. That means that there are people that are purchasing it, which is yeah, which is awesome. Can you just leave a lasting thought of what it what it means to have a a dad and a mom? Like when you're when you're creating, like, you know, because not not unfortunately, not every child has that type of structure, that yeah, it's a supportive structure. And so you decided what you wanted to do, like you said, one day, and and and can you just describe that and and how that makes you feel like you can go further, that you don't have to stop, that your work does matter, not only to you, but to your family, and now to the world.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, like it's good to do that stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, it's so awesome. Thank you, Ryan, for being on the show. Thanks, David, for helping facilitate for everything that you do and Amanda, and I mean the three of you, just incredible. Um so we want to urge our viewers, our listeners to go out if you haven't already purchased, and if you already have, go buy another copy or two. Uh we have we have schools, we have uh bookstore, we we have literally a backlog of institutions and organizations that want to carry this book in their their store. And it's just an amazing feeling to to have that. Uh and and that's all because of Ryan and David and Amanda. We're we're playing a small part with with the voices for voices and in our publishing arm. But um, if there wasn't content to put out, then we wouldn't have content to put out. So yeah, thank you, Ryan. Thank you, David, and we will most definitely be uh be catching up on a future show. Uh and as as the journey goes, we'll we'll keep popping in and doing an episode here and there so people can uh come and learn even more as as your process goes with the RPGs and other things. And uh it's just it's just incredible. So thank you both. And we want to thank our uh viewers, our listeners from all over the world. It's really I say this all the time, but I truly mean it, it's really incredible. Um, you know, we start out as an organization and we start still are, we're very small, very, very tiny. And to think that our show uh is being beamed literally across the world, that you know, within two years, we're we've reached a hundred countries, territories, and provinces and a thousand cities. Uh, so we would ask if you could hit that subscribe button, give us a thumbs up, like, follow, share, subscribe. I said that three times, but say three times of the term, and then go buy at least one copy of the Search for Drake Colton by nine-year-old author Ryan Solomon with solid support from his mother and father, David and Amanda Solomon. So until next time, uh, we hope that you celebrate all the voices in your lives and please be a voice for you or somebody in need. We'll see you next time, everybody.

SPEAKER_02:

Bye. Bye bye.

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Justin Alan Hayes

Host