Transcript
Whispers and Walls: Love, Loss, and Laughter (Hour 3)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Tue Dec 2, 2025
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All right, welcome back to Nightlight, ladies and gentlemen.
It is time for Act 3 on this beautiful Tuesday night in cold, snowy Wisconsin.
Conrad Krieger is back in the producer's chair after a nice little reset down in Florida there.
it was a
did you
Yeah
included like Super Mario lands Like this dark universe where there was like a Frankenstein thing and then how to train your dragon and a little bit of hair like Harry Potter universe is the fantastic beast if you ever you know what that is That's where it's set where they have it.
Oh, okay
It was, yeah, it was pretty cool.
Got to go on some rides.
Very nice.
I've never been to the one on the floor.
I've been to the one in, what is it, Orange County?
Out in your area.
Universal or Disney?
Well, oh, Universal, I've been to, I used to live right by Universal in LA, but Disneyland.
I thought you meant Disneyland.
You said, Universal.
Disney,
forget what.
Disney World is on the floor of Disneyland.
Yeah, well, we went to
Oh,
That was a quick bus ride home.
Well, we are kicking off hour number three here, folks.
If you missed the show, it is available in podcast form at civicmedia.us.
We've had a lot of fun tonight.
Jim Knipfel was here.
He is an author whose book
It was turned into a movie and you can catch it at the Tarleton this weekend at seven o'clock on Saturday night.
It was called Newgie's Time to Shine.
Love the title.
And then Mike Siegel was here.
Mike is a friend of mine and a TV host and he was also in The Godfather of Green Bay and made a great behind the scenes video that you can see on YouTube.
If you just go to YouTube and type in Godfather of Green Bay behind the scenes, you can see Tony Goldman, Lauren Holly.
And the whole cast talking about their experience up in Marinette, Wisconsin.
The movie is playing tomorrow, I'm sorry, Thursday night, December 4th at the Atwood Music Hall.
It's the 20th anniversary of the Godfather of Green Bay.
And we will be giving tickets away.
I think we'll do that tomorrow night.
We'll give some tickets away.
But hopefully you guys can make it out there.
And if you do, please say hello.
We have a great cast.
Kurt Newman wrote a great score.
Kurt is the founder of the band the Bodines gave us a lot of great Bodine's music in the film and it's kind of a feel-good movie and Some good laughs and a good movie to see with a crowd part of the proceeds go to the Dane County Humane Society too, so it's for a good cause and laughter and to help animals so one could be better
Than that so that is December 4th.
I'll be there Conrad's gonna be there doing some behind-the-scenes stuff and talking to people so it should be a really fun night
So come on out.
This is Giving Tuesday, folks.
I think you probably are already aware of that if you've been listening to the show.
And if not, I'll just tell you, this is a great national kind of a national holiday where people give and they find nonprofits and are encouraged to give and help those in need.
Please go to your local Civic Media Stations website and click on slash.
Is it slash give condo?
Have that
right?
Correct.
So it's this.
the station site slash give and click on the Giving Tuesday banner to help your local nonprofits in your area.
Your kindness is greatly appreciated.
And as I said, you can make someone very happy, especially during the holidays.
It's cold outside, and there's a great list of nonprofits that you can help and donate to.
And if you're in Madison, some of the affiliates we have here at Nightlight are Madison, Wausau, Waukesha, Wisconsin Rapids, Richland Center, Oshkosh Green Bay, Hayward, La Crosse, and Eau Claire.
So go to your local website, slash give, and click on the Giving Tuesday banner.
Great stuff.
And we will be talking about that a little more as the week goes on.
It is also...
How much do you love our text-to-win contest?
I love it.
This is our multi-state grown-up gift list text-to-win contest.
And what's exciting is you can win $200 every day just by texting in the keyword that I'm going to give you in a few minutes before we go to break.
It's very easy to do.
You just have to have the Civic Media app.
You text the keyword in on the app, and you're eligible for the daily prize of $200 cash in your pocket.
And you will automatically be enrolled and eligible to win three grand prizes.
A brand new snowblower.
which it looks like we're gonna need this winter based on what happened last weekend.
I hope it's not the case, but a stainless steel cookware set or a portable air conditioner, which you probably won't need for a few months, but they're nice to have.
And so it's a lot of fun.
We love our text-to-win contest.
People have fun with it.
I gave the keyword out at five o'clock and I will do that here in just a few minutes and be part of our grown-up gift list, multi-state text-to-win contest.
Always fun here at Civic Media.
And what else am I missing?
Why don't we re-in, let's go full-blown, reintroduce the question of the night.
Are you ready for this, buddy?
All right, here's the Civic Media question of the night.
Question.
Question.
Domanda.
Question.
Well, in addition to giving Tuesday, which is great,
and our text-to-win contest, we've got other stuff going on here too.
It is Travel Tuesday here in America.
It's a national, well, it's a national website day.
But our question of the night is, what is the crappiest state or city you've been to?
I said North Dakota and Winnipeg.
I know Winnipeg's not in America, but I guess I never really specified that it had to be in the U.S.
Conrad said Athens, Greece, and the state of Illinois.
Very mature.
Well, no, it's because of the traffic, you know?
Yeah.
But when you say Illinois, like Chicago has traffic, the rest of Illinois, you could be
In Chicago?
In Illinois than Chicago, yeah.
If you got to do Chicago, you ride the train.
Oh, actually,
So that's Kenosha, Illinois.
That's one more city I've been to.
And Frank Anderson has a point.
Chicago should be part of Wisconsin.
Chicago, Wisconsin has a nice ring to it, too.
Brett Kissinger will be here.
He is a local Northeast Wisconsin based author.
He will be in studio.
We've had two authors on tonight.
That's fun.
Brett is a very prolific writer and he will be along shortly to join me here in the studio.
But answer our question tonight.
Love to know what you guys are thinking.
What is the crappiest state or city you've been to?
855-752-4842, 855-75 Civic.
You can text us on the app as well or if you are watching the radio on YouTube Facebook or X you can drop us a stream comment like Sydney politics did Sydney says any city in Indiana Was a guy that just does not like Indiana
seen these kind
I don't
through.
It's one of those drive-thru
yeah.
But there are some nice cities.
I did stand up in Indianapolis many times.
And in a weird way, I really like Gary, Indiana.
It's gritty.
It's deserted.
It lost half its population.
But when that happens, like it happened with Detroit, I think there's a great opportunity for rebirth.
I think that's going to happen for some of those like Hammond, Gary.
I mean, they are on the lake, and everybody's coming to the Great Lakes Conrad.
There's no city named Steve.
That would be cool, wouldn't it?
That would be cool.
I had a perfect, like, I kind of thought of you because I know you hate winter.
I realized I was trying to get down here because we had some recording to do, and I left a little early and I get to my car.
and it's got snow on it, like an inch and a half of snow.
It somehow snowed last night.
I shoveled the whole driveway the night before.
I didn't even know it snowed last night.
I had more snow on my car.
I opened the door, snow goes in the car.
I gotta wipe that off.
Oh no.
And then while I'm looking for my snow scraper, I bump my head and snow goes down my collar.
And I'm about ready to take hostages.
I'm just like, I hate winter, what am I doing?
And it was awful, but it's like one of those things, it's like a...
for lack of a better term, snowball effect.
Waffle.
It's just a constant reminder of winter.
Oh yeah, because you had probably 15 inches of snow on it, right?
Yeah.
12
Oh, that's the other thing.
I went to scrape ice off my windshield, and I bought like a $2 scraper and a bro.
So now I've got the palm of my hand on the sharp part.
I'm just going like this, and I can barely reach it.
miserable.
But we choose to live here.
Yeah, we do.
I mean, it's a rough... I realized yesterday, because it was December 1st, I'm like, this is the last fun month.
You know, New Year's is fun, and then it's just kind of downhill.
Like, the year is a great buildup, and then it crescendos, like, at Christmas, and then we go down, and until May, I don't really find any joy, at least in the weather,
Because that actually feels warm.
Right, exactly.
All right, let's get through some texts here.
Our question of the night is, what is the crappiest state or city you've been to?
And this is in honor of Travel Tuesday, which is a thing, folks.
Melissa in Madison and then a 608 says Indiana.
I think that's like six for Indiana.
For Indiana, I know.
Monica from Mount Horrib also in the 608 says, went to Roswell, New Mexico this spring.
Interesting.
She says, there was a lot of hype, but there was only one UFO museum and then some other lame UFO experience thing.
I have enjoyed something about every state I've been to.
Also went to North Dakota for the first time this year and wasn't aware.
There were many, there were that many shades of green.
Pierce, South Dakota is a little underwhelming as a capital city.
Monica's just got a whole laundry list of bad cities and states.
Thank you, Monica.
Thank you, Melissa.
Pardon me.
Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids in the 608.
Well, his phone was in the 608 says, Winslow, Arizona.
We four long hair hippies stopped on a speed trap, car search, pay big fine and escort out of town.
I think he's missing some articles in that sentence, Tyler, but he says, did not see the girl my lord in a flatbed Ford.
I love that tune.
That's the Eagles.
You know that song, Conn?
I know like a couple songs from the Eagles.
It's a girl, my lord, in a flatbed fort, slowing down to take a look at me.
Well, I didn't sing it very well either.
Ed in Madison in the 608 says, Indiana, I refuse to stop
in
that state.
When forced to go through it, I arrange all my stops to be in a bordering state.
They should bulldoze it and try again.
Wow.
That is harsh.
Ross from Crawford County says, I've been to just about every state in the union and I can't find one that I would say I don't like.
Oh, look at that.
Ross, nice.
Every state has horrible traffic.
The cities that I don't like are ones that are difficult to walk around in.
If there's really nothing to do in those cities, so no cultural places to visit, no decent breweries.
Cities that have, cities that
Have say a river or a stream or a lake don't take advantage of that with a nice walkway alongside it are disappointing.
Janesville, which is kind of a nice city, but I don't think they take advantage of the Rock River.
Most of the restaurants and such are a block or so away and miss the view.
You know, I'm with Ross there.
It annoys me when people don't make the most of their lakefront.
I don't think we've done that in Marinette.
And I mean, it goes back decades.
Somebody.
kind of drop the ball along the way, you know.
But I totally get what Ross is saying.
Thank you, Ross.
All right, we will get to your text as well, Bridget and others that just came in.
We're gonna do a very short break and come back with author Brett Kissinger.
Do you think he's a Packer fan con?
Maybe we can indulge him in some Packer Bear talk.
Yeah,
We'll see how it goes.
He benches a lot too.
Just let it, you know.
It's a peachy wabba nightlight on the civic media radio network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
I'm Pete Schwab, and this is Nightlight.
We are barreling through a Tuesday night here, folks.
And get ready, I am about to give you the keyword for our multi-state grown-up gift list, text-to-win contest here at Civic Media.
You just need the app, like I mentioned a few minutes ago, text the keyword in on the app, and you're eligible to win $200
That is our daily cash prize, and you would be eligible automatically for our three grand prizes, which are a brand new snowblower, a stainless steel cookware set, or a portable air conditioner.
And ladies and gentlemen, this hour's keyword is fun.
F-U-N, fun.
Spell it, Con.
F-U-N.
I put you under pressure and you still did it.
You crushed it.
If I couldn't
don't.
That is our keyword of the night.
Text it in on the app.
Good luck, everybody.
Always fun.
We'll remind you of the keyword in a little while as well.
Bridget from the 818, text it in Las Vegas.
Bridget doesn't like the city of Las Vegas.
She says, at one point they marketed it for families.
Yeah, that was weird.
She says, I was there at the time and I was with my young son and saw a man with two hookers going into our hotel.
magazines all over the ground with ads for prostitutes.
It was a strange time.
Families, gamblers, prostitutes, water fountains.
That sounds like a great weekend.
I don't know what anybody else is thinking,
but I
am totally with you, Bridget.
That was weird when Vegas pivoted.
Kind of a strange thing.
Plot twist.
Absolutely.
And then what do we got here?
We had another one I want to get to now we've got all the text rolling in so I got to get through these Jewel in the 920 says Arkansas I went to a McDonald's there once and the lady asked me if I was from Yugoslavia And I said no, Wisconsin.
She said where's that?
Oh my god That's hilarious Jewel is from cross planes and she says we're worst city is Lake Geneva.
It's part of Chicago Okay, that's fair.
I don't
condone that kind of talk about our friend Tom Lennon's home city now.
Thank you, Joel.
Thank you for the text.
Janet from Madison says, I couldn't wait.
Oh, Janet says Evansville, Indiana.
This was in the 80s, so maybe it's improved.
She says, I couldn't wait to get out of there.
That's so crazy.
Thank you for the text, everybody.
Keep those coming and text in those keywords too.
on the app.
Right now, it is my pleasure to introduce my next guest.
He is a very prolific writer and author from right here in Northeast Wisconsin.
He is no stranger to Nightlight.
He's been here before and he always comes into the studio and I love that.
Mr. Brett Kissinger, hey buddy, how are
you?
Good, how
are you?
Thanks for having me.
Good.
I see you haven't missed any workouts since your last visit.
Yeah.
If you're watching on the stream, Conrad, what do you bench?
180, did we 280?
275?
275.
What do you think Brett benches?
400.
Do you bench?
I do.
I don't go for Max anymore though, so.
I believe it as a question mark.
That's a guy trying to be, you can hump it, Greg, here, Greg.
Let me put it, can you put, you think you can put three bills up?
Yeah.
Holy smokes.
The self-destructive side of me wants to say something insulting just to see what he would do, because he's got, look at this guy, he's a mountain of muscle.
And you're not a football fan, typically.
Not typically, no.
No thoughts.
I'm not a
hacker fan, but I mean, not invested to the.
point of other people are.
When it comes to blasting your quads, Brett, what is your max there?
I'm totally kidding.
I don't even know if that's a thing.
Blasting quads?
Or your pecs, whatever.
All right, enough joking.
It is great to have you.
You're a serious author.
I'm trying to be funny with you.
And you write these great books about pretty heavy topics.
Yeah, definitely.
So we're going to get into that.
We do have to do a break.
So why don't we hold our book talk until after the news and then we will jump into your new.
Well, give us some background, if you would, on your new book.
This is sort of a Romeo and Juliet story.
Sort of,
yeah.
So it kind of came about researching my last novel in the terms of
just the way the Holocaust didn't end in 1945 for the Jews.
The World War II really didn't end for the German people in May of 1945.
After it was torn apart, became two zones or four zones, which later became West and East Germany.
And kind of the idea was, you know, reading about the history and all these families and friends that were just torn apart when this wall came up and separated for decades.
And I just thought that was a really good story and to kind of put like you say like a Romeo and Juliet type situation where, you know, every relationship has a wall that could be put up and this one happens to be a literal wall
that is
kind of insurmountable.
And that it's a lot like.
And I'm sure what happened in your book happened.
People were separated by that wall, kind of like the Civil War, where you had brother fighting against brother, as the saying goes.
This book is called Whispers Through the Wall, great title, by the way.
Where did you come up with the title?
I took a long time to kind of think of what I wanted.
It was the working title of the wall.
And I knew I'm like, I need some a little punchier than that.
And just the idea of this relationship really
A whisper is kind of like a soft thing and like this relationship was also just holding on by a thread or a whisper or a feather type of thing in the wall, obviously in reference to the Berlin Wall.
So where did you, where's a kid from Northeast Wisconsin, kid, guy, whatever?
We've got about a minute to go until the break.
Where do you, what makes you want to write about something so geographically?
distance, so to speak.
I mean, it's a great story.
Everybody knows about East West Germany, but to dig into this, and I'll ask you after the break about your research and all that, but what made you want to write this?
I think it's a, you know, we know a little bit about East and West Germany, but I really think, especially in American schools, if you look at the 1960s, you know, you're ending the Korean War, you've got the Kennedy assassination, and then you've got Vietnam, and the whole East West Berlin kind of becomes a footnote in American schools, I feel like.
It was a very counterpig area where one shot could start World War III and that really, the entire eyes of the world were on Berlin at that time.
That's crazy.
All right, we're gonna get more into Brett's new book.
Whispers through the wall, love the title.
We'll do the news, we'll come back, bang out a couple texts, maybe give people the keyword again, a few laughs, a couple drinks.
And we'll see what happens.
It's Peach Wabba at Nightlight.
We're coming right back on the Civic Media Radio
Just a reminder, folks, the keyword for our text-to-win, our multi-state civic media grown-up gift list text-to-win contest.
This hour's keyword is fun.
F-U-N.
Fun.
Very simple.
Text it in on the Civic Media app.
That's the only way it will count.
So please text it in and you have a chance to win 200 bucks and be enrolled in our grand prize drawing, which will happen as well.
We're doing this through December 12th.
So you have lots of chances to win.
Good luck, everybody.
Keyword is fun.
We've got some texts here.
Our question tonight is what is the crappiest state or city you've been to because it's Travel Tuesday.
And John Murray, our pal from the 608 says, evening, Peter and Conrad lived in Chicago for four years and worked in the Hancock building way back in the late 80s.
Cool.
I was a little intimidated, but never uncomfortable everywhere I went in the Windy City.
None of my experience there prepared me for a Gary Indiana gas station.
It was like a nightmare.
Burned out cars on the street in front, two dudes punching each other like Rocky next to the bathroom door.
It looked like an active war zone, just a bulletproof drawer to put the money.
into pay.
No entry.
Cardoors locked till back in Illinois.
Yikes.
I said Gary was like one of my favorite cities for that reason, for the grit.
I don't want to get caught there.
I'm just saying.
I think there's a lot of potential there.
Thank you, John.
Steady Eddie says Pete and Conrad, North Dakota.
Another vote for North Dakota.
Like maybe four?
I think that's the second in the running.
No, I
haven't.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's getting some, it's non love though.
tonight.
Steady Eddie continues golfer Ken Green, a five time winner on the PGA tour, once saved his dog named Nip from the attack of a 10 and a half foot gator in Florida.
This is to our conversation earlier about Conrad's vacation.
He says the dog had jumped into a canal to retrieve a rubber ball and the alligator attacked.
Green said I wasn't going to watch my dog go like that.
He jumped into the canal, wrestled the gator and got the dog to safety.
The dog needed stitches and Green was unable to play golf for a month.
This is a terrible story.
Green also lost a leg in an auto accident, but was able to return to play professional golf.
I saw him play in the Madison area on the PGA Champions Tour several years ago.
I, steadfast Edward, many years ago, once bravely faced a large, fierce-looking snapping turtle on the green of a local golf course.
The giant turtle was in my putting line.
Pete, that's a big no-no in golf.
Ask Conrad.
What was I to do?
It was me against him, man against beast, immobile.
Um, immovable object versus irresistible force.
After some contemplation, I decided to cautiously put around the giant menacing prehistoric reptile.
I still have all my fingers and live to tell the tale.
I hope that big old turtle is still alive, swimming free, no harm, no foul.
Very forgiving.
Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.
Be kind to your friends in the swamp.
Steady eddy.
NPS.
Conrad, there's a post script.
Conrad, congrats on the two-year anniversary of Nightlight.
Thank you, Steady Eddie.
One of our favorite textures.
Much appreciated and great to hear from you.
All right, my guest in the studio here is author Brett Kissinger.
He is from Algoma, Wisconsin, made the drive to the Nightlight Studios tonight.
It's good to see you again, buddy.
Good to see you.
So did you answer the question of the night?
You have a state or city you don't like?
No.
North Dakota seems like an attack on a very passive people.
Do you think they're
I don't know.
Kind
of maybe Las
Vegas, I guess.
It's
kind of like it's not for everybody and definitely
not for
families.
Right.
But North Dakota, I want to clarify that people are very nice.
It's just not a lot to look at.
They don't have our trees or it's kind of bleak.
Especially in the winter.
All right, so Las Vegas, what about a state?
Have you been to a state you thought was crappy?
No, I don't think so.
You're too positive, Brett.
All right, let's get into Brett's book.
He is an author.
His new book is called Whispers Through the Wall.
We've talked about many of your books on this show before.
Give us a little background on the story, Brett, and then let's tell people where they can find it.
Sure.
So yeah, we talked about the Romeo and Juliet aspect of the novel and in researching it, just kind of, it was capitalism, capitalism versus communism in the same city.
And that's never happened before where he had, you know, the American-backed capitalism, the Soviet-backed communism, and it was kind of like two Queens on a chessboard, you know, meeting head on.
And in researching,
The just the drastic differences in the life of a West Berlin or versus an East Berlin or just in the terms of smog and pollution and the the types of automobiles and the music and you know the the clothing and The Stasi were kind of the infamous secret police where they had an unlimited network of informants that were ratting out your neighbors and your friends and your family and
Basically an unofficial number is one in six East Germans were part of the Stasi machine and reporting on people and just the fear that they instilled and That really kind of informed the novel of Wolfgang who's the the main character from East Berlin and just how much terror they could instill and like who can you trust and After the wall went down they had to come to grips with the fact that your brother your
your mother, your sister had informed on you to the Stasi, and the betrayal that these people felt is kind of unfathomable.
Wow.
Your main characters, Wolfgang and Lisa Latt, you're saying that right?
Yes.
Were childhood friends, the wall went up, and it is sort of a Romeo and Juliet story, a more modern day.
I'm guessing to write books, the kind of books you write.
you have to be like a history buff, I assume.
Yeah,
I'm definitely a history buff.
Does that make it easier when, like I assume for something like this or really anything you've written, Brett, when you've been on the show and talked about it, there's a lot of research that goes into it.
How much time do you have to put?
You
have
to put a lot in.
And I'm definitely like pretty meticulous.
And like, if I write about a full moon, like I'm going to research and see like, okay, on that day and in that year, was that actually a full moon?
Because I'm very like,
Picky about that sort of thing where I want it to be incredibly factual.
I don't want to Change facts to meet my story like I always kind of say that The facts are the brick and my story is like the the mortar
like that could
be malleable But like I'm not gonna change the facts.
So like I make sure that works.
So yeah, I definitely try to read as much as I can podcasts Documentaries anything I can watch even movies like
I won't necessarily take the facts, but I can look at clothing and just kind of like the automobiles and kind of get an understanding of what things
look
like.
So is what you do, would you call it historical fiction?
Yeah, definitely.
That's great.
All right, so where can people find whispers through the wall?
They can find it on Amazon.
if they just look up my name.
The Kindle version is, or the e-book is available for pre-order, and then the paperback and hardcover are available on Friday the 5th.
What do you think people should buy?
Should they go paperback?
I'm kind of old school.
I have gone Kindle a lot recently because I buy a lot of books, and it's like, I have my own library, but there's something about turning a page that just is...
I
agree with you.
I mean, I'll read things both ways, but I definitely prefer turning a page.
What do you read?
What is your genre of choice when you're not writing something?
Do you read different things so you hope you don't accidentally grab an idea that you'd wonder where the idea came from?
Yeah, I'll read basically anything.
I do like to work nonfiction.
I just read a book on Lewis and Clark.
very long, very detailed, like I knew what they had for lunch on a certain
day, which was a
little more in-depth than
what I was looking for.
Too much easy.
Yeah, but it was... It says it's
un-lunchable, move on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, I do like reading that in fiction because you never know what little tidbit of history is gonna spark something, so.
Yeah, and do you get, where do you get your ideas?
Like, where did you get the idea for Whispers Through the
Wall?
It really, so in my last book, The Surviving Remnant, there's a scene that takes place in Berlin in 1964.
So I did some research of like, all right, I knew that the wall was up at that point and just kind of researching this little throwaway, not a throwaway scene, but some narration.
Like I came across and I was like, ooh, that's really poised for drama.
It's just between the two superpowers and then on a granular level between.
just separated people and I read about something called the Palace of Tears and just that name struck me as like
wow that's really powerful yeah
that's very point and it was the area where people basically could if they were approved by the east they could visit family from the west and of course it's got its nickname because that was the final goodbye for so many Germans and that just that was incredibly powerful.
Have you ever seen a movie called The Boys from Brazil?
No, I haven't.
You seem like you like that era.
It's just about how they tried to clone Hitler.
And there's all these boys in Brazil that look the same because the Gregory Peck's character was cloning.
Hitler and Lawrence Olivier's character was tracking the Nazis.
So it's something you might...
Yeah, definitely.
Two good
actors.
Oh, absolutely.
It's a great cast.
My guest is Brett Kissinger.
He is
all the
way...
He's an Algoma kid done good.
Are you from the streets of Algoma?
The streets of downtown.
Yeah, the slums.
The slums of Algoma.
Are there slums in Algoma?
No, there's no.
It's a very nice city.
Too gorgeous of a town.
Do you have a place you like to write, Brett?
Do you have a... I ask a lot of writers this, because where do you find you do the best work?
Is it in a home office?
Do you rent space?
Do you go to a library?
No, it's a nice comfortable chair in my living room
and
some headphones on and then just a mix of movie soundtracks that kind of like fit.
I'm
definitely, I have like soundtracks to every book I write and then like, it just kind of helps, you know, if I'm in an action scene, maybe some Hans Zimmer, if it's
kind of like a
romantic, some James Horner, you know, like just, that definitely kind of
just gives me that.
That's an escape, isn't it?
Like it's work for you
but I was the same way when I would write something.
When you're trying to capture a mood, is that why you do it with the soundtrack?
Yeah,
definitely.
But then you have to worry that, okay, the reader's not gonna be listening to the song, does it still work on its own?
What
is this, Miami Vice?
So you like to sit in the chair, is there a time of day you like to write?
Do you like nighttime when it's quiet or morning when it's quiet?
So I
still work a full-time day-to-day job, so my day starts early.
then I work, so I'm probably right from $3.30 to $8.00 is when I focus
on my
books.
So you get done with your day job, so to speak at $3.00.
What do you do, lift weights?
Is that your full-time occupation?
Yeah, that's what
I do in the morning.
I work for, I'm a pricing specialist for a label manufacturing company.
Okay, so you're ready to just escape when you get home and get into a book or something.
So you write from $3.30 to $8.30.
That's a long time.
Yeah, like a lot of writers I know they cap it at three hours some pull a caraway and do Crazy two days in a row.
I can never do that.
Do you drink when you write?
I don't know a lot of people I know
I think they do great work when they drink, and maybe they do, but I know it was the writer Paul Schrader said, right drunk at its sober.
So at some point, you have to not drink.
They work for Hemingway.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, there's a lot of writers, I think, that capitalized on that, but it probably did affect them at some point.
What kind of books do you have?
Oh, God, we're out of time already.
Not totally, but we have to do a short bridge.
Yeah.
All right.
We're going to come back with author Brett Kissinger and talk more about his book, Whispers Through the Wall and the writing process.
And we'll do that and he'll help us close down the show here at Nightlight on a Tuesday.
We're coming right back.
It's Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
If I met you, let my eyes crush you.
Until I meet the dawn, this is Princess Who.
Most I wonder what makes her work.
I guess I'll
leave that question to the experts.
Soon, if they're awesome out there, they're probably alone.
Solitaire.
We have a great show.
I'll be live from Madison as we get closer to the Godfather of Green Bay Screening on Thursday.
But I will be live from Madison and celebrity chef Chad Visker will be with me tomorrow.
Producer Brian Edding.
And who are the, it's the Mad Moms of Comedy.
Yes.
That's what they're called.
And we've got one of the Mad Moms will be on the show tomorrow.
I hope she's not too angry.
And then Lauren Holly will be joining me tomorrow to discuss the screening as well.
It'll be good to catch up with Lauren.
We haven't spoken quite a while, so anxious to catch up with her.
Closing out the text here, Sydney Politics says, shout out to my workplace RCCSA Resource Center here in Madison, Wisconsin.
Visit the website to give and support victims.
There you go.
Thank you, Sydney Politics.
Great text.
And if you're watching on the stream, you can see that
I'm going to try to read that again.
Our screen is going berserk here.
The RCCSA Resource Center in Madison.
Visit the website.
So Google that.
Visit the website and you can support victims that way.
Also giving Tuesday a super one, two, three star says awesome shout out city politics.
Also Brett's book sounds powerful.
I have no doubt that it is.
That is our friend, Terry Barr, and she does a lot of great stuff here at Civic Media.
And she's referring to my guest, Brett Kissinger, who is here with me in the studio.
We were talking about the writing process.
Do you have a favorite author or one you try to emulate, but not too much?
I would say no.
I mean, obviously, growing up in the 90s, JK Rowling was a huge influence, and I don't write.
fantasy but um no i mean i i just no not really no
yeah you like to do you read leon urus you ever read anything i haven't no i would love to know what you think about trinity because he's just historical fiction to the same type of genre you know but um so do you read books in this genre when you're trying to escape
uh no not normally because i don't
want to be comparative and I don't want to, like you said, kind of emulate unintentionally.
So I try to steer clear of it.
Yeah.
Honestly, like the biggest influences for me growing up, I kind of hit that golden age of historical dramas with Titanic, Boris Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, Braveheart, Apollo 13, you know, it's just kind of like the golden age of that.
So those are very impressionable on me.
So
So, all right, let's stick with that.
When you write a book, and you were here probably not even a year ago pitching or promoting another book, how long does it take you from when you sit down with the idea to have something to publish?
Right now, I'm doing a book a year, which I'm pretty happy
about.
Wow, that's
great.
Yeah, I'm definitely a goal-oriented person.
So if I set off, I try not to take any days off and try to, you know, pretty strict with regimen.
Right.
I know I can get more done on a Saturday and Sunday than I can on a Monday, but if I can get 10 pages done on a Monday, that's
helpful.
So you get 10 pages done.
When you go back and edit that, what is that process like?
Do you do a draft and then you go back and start on page one and edit, or do you go in smaller increments when you're
editing?
I try to get the first draft done, because I think that's the biggest hurdle for any writer
is
just get to the end.
So I finished the draft and then the first edit I kind of like to think I'm using a chainsaw You know and then as you progress and kind of improve it and then it's kind of like all right Let's get the scalpel out and now we're like where can I replace the word with a better word choice?
Yeah, I you know one of the things I like about we may have talked about this before but writing movies You have little benchmarks.
You have to hit right, you know You need a major plot point by somewhere between pages 20 and 30 your second act ends at page 75.
It's a comedy or 90
I like that.
I don't know that I could sit down and write a book where you just, you don't have any of that to follow or are there?
There are.
Yeah.
You definitely have those two where, you know, you need that catalyst.
What are they?
You know, I like to think of it.
I'm kind of like with you in the screenplay where it's like, I need a catalyst.
Like something's got to hook the reader in the first 10, 15 pages.
Then there's got to be a big event.
and there's gotta be a crisis and a pinch and there's gotta be a showdown and a resolution.
So no, there are those points where every so often you need to hit and you've got, I was gonna say, you've got the heart of the story and then you've got kind of the muscle and the action and stuff, but like, yeah,
so.
That's really cool.
It's funny because now that you say that, that is like every book.
I realized at some point that watching TV,
Hurt me as a reader and especially phones because my attention span is nothing anymore So when I'm reading a book and it's like this great event happens or it's a thrilling part and then they go back to you know Stephen had paid attention to every brick he laid in his garden there was vine and Ivy I'm like I can't read this anymore get to the action again.
You know, how do I fix that Brett?
What do I do?
Yeah, it's it's a fine blend where you know You want to give it an idea of what the daily life of character is but to your point where it's like I don't need eight paragraphs of how he takes right coffee
You know just tell me you got a
cup of coffee with cream Yeah, you have to you know You kind of use it where when it's action you kind of use quicker sentences and kind of knowing when to speed things up and slow things down and it's
Well said, what are you watching on TV anything you could recommend?
Let's switch to another medium here
Yeah, I just finished death by lightning, which is the Netflix series about James Garfield's assassination That was pretty incredible by all accounts.
He would have been a really phenomenal president and he was killed I think three months into his term Really well acted it's with Michael Shannon and Nick Offerman who's kind of
You know breaking out of that Parks and Rec.
Yeah,
Ron Swanson.
He's good though.
Yeah, a lot of different
still the scenes as Chester Arthur the vice president I finished Ken Burns the American Revolution that was Ken Burns, you know, it's really really
Ken Burns is Ken Burns.
He's a fantastic dude.
I hope you stop by
before a year, finish something.
Good luck with it.
The book is whispers through the wall.
Brett Kissinger, where can people find it?
Just Google.
On Amazon, just type
in Brett Kissinger, B-R-E-T.
Next time you're here, I'm hoping you can bench 400.
Do you think you could go for that?
I will start starting tomorrow.
You could bench Conrad.
What do you like, 180 Conrad, 200, two bills?
He could bench you.
180 for sure.
He could bench both of us.
That would just be awkward, though.
All right.
Lauren Holly, folks.
Tomorrow night, live from Madison.
Thank you for all your texts and calls.
Thank you to Brett Kissinger.
Thank you to Jim Gnipfel.
And who else do we have?
Conrad Mr. Bill Leff helping us celebrate anniversary number two.
And Mike Siegel, we're coming back tomorrow night.
Good night, Wisconsin.
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