The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Freak Show Part 1: By Its Cover by Kristopher McClendon

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Freak Show Part 1: By Its Cover by Kristopher McClendon https://www.amazon.com/Freak-Show-Part-Its-Cover/dp/1971180165 A magic circus by the name of The Shadow Carnival comes to the city of New Wayton and begins wreaking havoc on the city by kidnapping people and turning them into super-powered, crazy circus performers known as Freaks. Saved by a ghost, the responsibility of getting rid of The Shadow Carnival falls onto the shoulders of a high school student by the name of Peggie, but will it be enough?

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Some guests of the show may by advertising on the podcast, but it is not an endorsement or review of any kind. Today's featured author comes to us from Books to Lifemarketing.co.com. With expert publishing to strategic marketing, they help authors reach their audience and maximize their book's success. The book we're going to be covering today

is entitled Freak Show. Part 1, By Its Cover, February 6th, 2026 by Christopher McClendon. We also thought about calling Freak Show the title of the podcast, but we decided that Chris Vos show pretty much to find it. Welcome to show, Christopher. How are you? I'm doing fine. And Christopher, give us any dot-coms.

Where can people find out more about you on the interwebs? Currently, I have a Twitter. It's Christopher McClendon at Arthur MacLendon. The A, authors capitalized, and the M. Clinton is capitalized, the rest is not capitalized. And you started writing in middle school, fan fiction for your favorite cartoon, and then you moved on to creating your own works as you were growing up and working to craft a story, the art of crafting a story, which is always a great thing to do because telling stories is what we all do to each other, and it's how we share our journey. You experienced being bullied in school, which used as inspiration for the story of Freak Show. So give us a 30,000 overview. What's inside your book?

Okay, so the book is about an evil circus known as the Shadow Carnival that comes to the city of New Whiten. And they begin kidnapping people and transforming them into superpowered insane circus performers known as freaks. And it's up to Peggy, a high schooler, to stop them, essentially. So it's a young teenage superhero book. Novel. Teenage superhero book novel. And I guess the protagonist is Peggy. Is that correct? Tell us a little bit about your character there. Peggy is often quiet. She tries her best to be the good kid, the good student. But she gets picked on it at school. She's hesitant to speak up for herself and defend herself against the bullying. I like her friends who try to support her. And that's good. And some of this is your own experience. You know, we've all, I think many people meet bullies in life. Is that, is that correct? Yes, I, I've been bullied in school. Fortunately, it's a mainly name-calling and psychological stuff. But I've had an encounter where I had a physical incident where my finger got, my finger got broken.

Oh, no. Yeah. Some students were pulling on the back of my shirt during recent. and they thought it was funny to keep doing it. I eventually fell over and just it stepped to my hand. Oh, wow. That is unfortunate. That is unfortunate. You know, I've seen some bullies do some mean things.

I've even experienced bullying in high school. And, yeah, it's not fun. And kids can be mean and certainly need to be taught better by their parents. I think usually they're, usually it's a parental thing going on at the home that causes some of it. But so you write this book. Now, you've incorporated it a lot of. different things into the book. There's the shadow carnival, the city of New Aiton, and kind of this theme of transformation. Can you fill us in on some of the

details on how these all play together or play out? The entire book was inspired by the word freak because that was the stereotypical insult you would hear bullies stay on TV. That naturally led to freak show circuses and that led to meanwhile. to reverse the name calling a freak back onto the bully. Oh, okay. But I wanted this child carnival to be evil because they're the villains. You don't just abduct bullies. They abduct everyone and freakify them.

Was there a reason you, you know, you pick the kidnapping part. I mean, kidnapping is pretty crazy and they turn them into freaks, probably against their will, maybe. Are they better off as freaks? You know how the X-Men are? you know, sometimes their abilities or maybe worth it, I don't know. How does that play out in your book?

They're like basically the dumb henchmen of the Shadow Carnival. The dumb henchmen? Yeah. It's not a good trail for them. They're not psychologically stable. As they can't be it up,

they become more psychologically unstable. Oh, that's like it. Start revealing things about their past or whatnot. I start babbling nonsense about their lives as they get beaten up. Oh, wow. I think you just described my whole life. You know, this is a thing that you build on. Now, the character, why did you choose Peggy and kind of how you designed her?

Was there a character maybe you had in your life or, you know, where did you build her maybe off of? Okay. She's loosely based off of my personality. Okay. But I first came up with her in college during English class. We had to write a story. And I came up with an idea for Peggy. She was in a story about trying to improve her looks through magic.

Oh, really? And instead, she got a doppelganger that tried to take over her life instead. Oh, wow. A doppelganger. A twin that's trying to kill you, maybe? Yeah. Kenap's the boy that she likes. and says that you can't have them because you'll never be what you want to be.

I'm the perfect version of you. You'll never be. You'll never be me. It's kind of like the whole. Sounds like one of my ten personalities. Yeah. That was the kind of whole concept of that story and her overcoming that issue and reclaiming her life and making the doppelganger go away.

I decided to reuse her for this book because I felt since she was, based off my personality, she embodies a bully victim could look like. Hmm. You know, I mean, this is great that you're taking back, you know, the term of freak. You're making it your kind of power word, if you will, and disassociates that, that power that's behind that word and can be utilized for something, you know, maybe more constructing or entertaining. Now, do you plan on making this into a franchise or any future books that you're made working on?

Yeah, Freak Show is currently planned to be three books. I do have other books planned that I want to add to the universe that take place at a different point in time and a different location with a different set of characters with a different scenario going on. I do have a prequel written that's not, it's not like the prequel to Freak Show is it takes place before a freak show, but I haven't officially published that because they lost confidence in it and revise it. Okay. And so you see maybe a trilogy, maybe just ongoing series forever, maybe? For Freak Show, Freak Show is a trilogy, but the universe is something I want to keep batting on to. Okay. Do you see the character being in continuum? Peggy, I don't see, I currently don't see her getting reused and later stories outside of Freak Show.

Okay. Now, as you go through the story and stuff, what were some of the unexpected decisions that you made, you were writing your book that maybe you didn't foresee, but they took you down that pathway as you unfolded the story. One of the characters I created was her name, her name was April, and she was originally attending to be a side character of the story, but as I was writing her, the ideas for her story naturally developed in my head and what type of interaction she could have with the other characters.

I'm like, okay, she has too much story potential to not bring into the main cast of the book. Yeah, wonderful stuff there. So, how did you come up with the villain Mimi, I guess, in the book? I was playing a video game that allows you to create superheroes and super villains, and I

decided to create a super villain called Mimi. Yeah, and she, I decided to make her a vanity-based villain because I hadn't seen a vanity-based villain in a while. Now, you said a vanity-based villain? Is that what you said? Yes. So what is that? What's the

terminology behind that? Is that a certain genre or something? She's about appearances and looks and vanity. My favorite sin. Yeah. Yeah. So that's how I first came up with her. And she's been in the back of my mind ever since. When I came up with the concept of the Shadow Carnival, she's one of the characters that resurfaced in my brain.

And I'm like, okay, I can use her as one of the villains for this book. So that's how she got introduced into Freak Show. Well, that's awesome. Develop those characters. I mean, that's the real thing is developing characters and, you know, learning to write them and play them out. You know, we mentioned that in the bio I was reading for me, that you started studying that early on.

When did you, when did you officially start, you know, writing stuff or trying to write stuff? Kind of felt like you had a knack to it where eventually you could turn a new career. I started, okay, so I started writing in middle school. around end of middle school to the end of the beginning of high schools when I started writing my own stories. But I didn't feel like they were either good enough or lost the files to them, unfortunately. But I went to college for a video game design, learning how to make video games. I got an associate's degree in that.

But the classes were so unfulfilling that I, at the time I was torn between whether I should make video games. games or should I write? And I felt like making video games just like banging my head against the wall. So I'm like okay, writing is my passion instead. Yeah. So that's how I

end up going in that direction. Now with the characters, what makes the shadow carnival they engage in more terrifying to you, the magic, the loss of identity, or the way it invades an ordinary city? I'd say the

way they can't have to corrupt people by freakifying them is the most frightening thing about them because they act like nonchalant or almost like inhuman I'm trying to try to it were like caricatures of what a super villain would be or characters of themselves over over exaggerated aspects of their personalities to the point that they're almost they're almost like cartoons and real life acting out acts of violence oh wow That's all that makes for the tension and the story and all of that good stuff. And how did you come up with the villain, Doty, I guess is another one in the book. Okay, so Doty is the character I came up with, well, as brainstorming ideas for a book.

This was back when I was into anime. So she was originally intended to be an anime character. I always intended for her to be a small child-like villain that was like inhuman in a way, like almost like robotic at first. But then that idea got discarded. And then Freak Show came along. And I'm like, she's one of the oddest characters I ever came up with. So naturally, she would fit into a freak show.

So I decided to develop her character. Okay, so what can I do with her character? So she's a child that doesn't act like a child. So what's the closest thing she acts like? She acts like an adult in a child's body. Oh, wow. So I decided that to be her gimmick being corrupt, adults and arrogance.

Mm. Mm. Arrogance and vice. My favorite sins, along with vanity. Vanity's my favorite, though. A line from, oh, is that Al Pacino movie? With the characters in the book

and the way you lay it out, you know, a lot of things come down to transformationist stories, and they can be physical, you know, sometimes emotional, moral transformation. What kind of transformation matter to you most,

in writing the book and and playing out the stories. I'd say the character developments, their perspective and their emotions about how the situation, how that evolves is the most important aspect of the story. I don't know what else to say about that. The carnival tradition has a long history of outsider, spectacle, and then hidden darkness that you've woven into the story. How much were you influenced by the classic circus lore? Did you ever go to Barnum Bailey's when you were a kid, the circus or a freak show mythology?

Where did you, where did that influence come from? I remember going to a circus when I was a child. But when I came up with the idea for making the book entirely off the word of freak, I researched freak shows, circuses. And what I learned is that a lot of these people would have defects. And the defects would prevent them from working. they have to work at these circuses. These circuses were one of the only places that would allow them to actually make a living

and get some sort of income. And so they have this backdoor where they fill the personnel by making them have these kidnapping them and how they have these freaks things so that they have to work there because no one else will hire them, I guess, maybe, right? That I don't know. Okay. It's been a while since I looked up what freak shows were. No, I was talking about your book.

They, you know, they kidnap the characters. Oh, yeah, yeah, they came up the characters. Yeah, and add them to their staff. Yeah, I mean, that's the one way to do it. I mean, maybe we should try this around the Chris Foss show for our hiring mechanism. We'll just kidnap people. You work here now. Do your job.

I don't know we fire you. How did you come up with the villain Jeanette in the story? Jeanette. She is the basically the impending of what I vision a bully to be. I also want her to be someone that would be very, let's say, frustrating to lose against in a fight because she's this dainty teenage female. And she has these magical powers. The things she likes to do is that she likes to taunts and bully her victims psychologically. So she has some mind reading capabilities where she's able to read your insecurities and she's able to prey on them.

and she will incite you into violence against her, and she will make a fool out of you if you try to engage your violence against her. Wow. Did you, what about all my ex-girlfriends? It's teasing. I mean, women do use the little manipulative control and emotions and scatters. That's a female nature. So let's see. Do you see this book primarily is dark fantasy, horror, adventure, or maybe a mix of all three?

I primarily say it is dark fantasy. I was surprised with people that some people were calling it as having horror elements. So that was a surprise to me. But I didn't think the fantasy was dark enough to be considered horror at the time. Yeah. I would say some of those elements do represent some of the dating I've done. So the horror is there. You've captured it.

I'm just teasing. I have wonderful girlfriends. What's the philosophy behind writing book? that you have. And what's your approach? Do you try and write like an hour a day or how do you approach writing and, you know, staying on top of it consistent? So my approach is to try to avoid filler as much as possible. Filler? Yeah. I need to either answer like a question that this story has character development or plot development is mainly by trying to stick to. And I try to write whenever I can. Unfortunately, I have schizophrenia, which when I can or can't write.

That's a controlling type of schizophrenia. But recently, it's gotten a little bit better to where I was able to complete the manuscript for the second book. But I'm not ready to invest in the second book yet until I recuperate from the investment I had to make into this first book. And you have schizophrenia. That's an interesting thing to have. I think we had someone on the show recently that had schizophrenia. I think it's the last week or so. I've got a friend who's got a daughter who's been lost for about two weeks now on the streets of Oak of, I think it's Oakland or Portland. Or it's, you know, it's Portland. Anyway, how do you deal with that? Was that some of the things that people would bully you about that kind of shaped you in dealing with

some of the issues of bullying, you know, being bullied because you had issues? The schizophrenia didn't develop until, until my adult year. But I, I also have tricketillomania, which is obsessive hair plucking. Oh, really? Yeah, as you can see, my eyebrows are very thin, and that's something that I did get bullied for. Oh, wow. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's not something you should do to people that are struggling with, you know, issues. You know, we all have issues, you know.

People who bully have issues. Usually they bully other people because there's something that, the false shorts, that they self-loader, their self-hate about themselves. And so instead of dealing with it, they take it out on others. You know, we all have issues. But, yeah, it's unfortunate that I did through you. But, you know, do you find that writing is something that maybe helps with your condition of schizophrenia to maybe focus the mind or, or do you find there's any sort of help there that

it does when you write? I'm able to write for the most part. Fine. There are times that it tries to get me to write something I don't want to write that and go back and fix it later. But for the most part, it behaves for the most part when I'm writing. I don't know. You might make some interesting stories from some of that, maybe that comes out.

I know sometimes when I'm angry or in a weird moon, I write some weird stuff, and people on Facebook go, hey, are you okay, man? And I go, no, I'm just trying to teach you to eat something so you learn. And we, anything more we want to tease out, you've got the book upcoming. Is there an expected date on the new book? Not yet. I have to submit it to my publisher, but I'm not ready to do that quite yet. I'm still trying to get this book off the ground. So I'm trying to recuperate some of the costs it took to invest in this book.

They got to market it. What is the hardest part of writing a concept that is visually strange? And then how do you, you know, make it land on the page so that people get a good feeling and concept of it when they read? I had an issue with this with part two. I researched the types of ornaments. I'm going to say ornaments that I don't want to reveal too much, or clothing that people would wear. I cannot find the specific type of style or name of this type of clothing.

So I do my best to describe it in detail. Yeah, that'll do it when you got the... When you've got details like that, trying to make it play out. I mean, telling a story is really hard because you have to set up a scenario, and you have to develop the characters, and probably evolve the scenario. Every great carnival needs an atmosphere. How important was the mood, maybe, or the imagery that used in the writing process? I wanted the shadow carnival to come across as, I think the word you say is disturbed.

They are, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're will do things that would be considered inhumane. I'm trying not to get too much away here, but there's a scene where they're talking about the freaks, and they're managing the freaks, and they have to manage the freaks a certain way, and certain incidents occur while managing the freaks, because the freaks are acting up.

Those freaks, they're always acting up. Maybe that's why they call them freaks, maybe, I don't know. Was there a particular character or scene that once you saw it, the whole book just kind of came to you? Did you ever have one of those epiphany moments? I guess deciding to write the first book around the character, Mimi, made the book really easy because she

basically represents how as adults we care about our appearances and whatnot compared to how as children were taught not to care about appearances. That made writing her story. very easy to do once I had that epiphany went back with her. Yeah.

Vanity. My favorite sin is like to say. Let's see. What else do we have here? The premise taps into fear of losing control of your own body and identity. What was the reason you utilize that? Is there maybe something from your life in there you're sharing? That's the thing about getting freakified.

That's the thing I came up with on my own. That wasn't inspired by anything. It wasn't inspired by anything in particular. It was just something I came up with to make the Shadow Carnival evil. Make it evil. When readers finish this, what do you want their, what do you want them to think about, or maybe lessons may be learned, or what do you want to have linger in their mind behind? That is okay to care about your looks to some degree,

but there's there's the balance you have to maintain because it's caring about your looks is healthy because you want to diet exercise and maintain your weight try to maintain your health and actually not everyone cares about those things but it's a good it's a good thing to do but there's there's a balance you go too far into it you become a shallow person and there's and that's all there is to you no one knows no one's going to like you that's all there is to you and you can't force yourself on to people. Yeah, that's the problem I have. No one likes me based on who I am. You know, they get over it. So as we go out, give people a final pitch out to pick up the book where they can order it and all that good stuff. It can be ordered on Amazon. It's also available on Apple and

Android. And it's also available on Lulu. That's all I can remember off the top of my head. We have across multiple platforms. And then on your dot-com, so what's your dot-com again? My Twitter is Christopher McClendon at Author MacLendon. I don't have an author's webpage yet. My publisher is still working on it. Okay. Do you know the URL, the code that it will be under?

It will be under Christopher MacLandin Books.com. So people are going to look for that. There'll be a link on the Chris Foss show when it comes up and all that good stuff so people can follow up there. Thank you very much for coming the show. We really appreciate Chris. We did an amazing job, my friend. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. And thanks for us for tuning in. Order up his book, wherever fine books are sold. It's called Freak Show Part 1, by its cover out February 6, 2026. And we'll look forward to Christopher's Future Works in his burgeoning authorship. Thanks for us for tuning in.

Go to Goodreads.com, forge s Chris Voss. LinkedIn.com, for just Chris Voss. Chris Voss won the TikTokity and all those crazy places in the internet. Be good to each other. Stay safe.

We'll see you next time. You've been listening to the most amazing, intelligent podcast ever made to improve your brain and your life. Warning. Consuming too much of the Chris Wall Show podcast can lead to people thinking you're smarter, younger, and irresistible sexy. Consume in regularly moderated amounts. Consult a doctor for any resulting brain bleed. All right, Christopher.

Great job on the show.