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

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The book we're going to be covering today is entitled Freak Show Part One by its cover,

February 26th, 2026 by Christopher McClendon.

We also thought about calling Freak Show the title of the podcast, but we decided that Chris Vosho pretty much defined it.

Welcome to show Christopher, how are you?

I'm doing fine.

And Christopher gives any comms where can people find out more about you on the interwebs?

Currently I have a Twitter and it's Christopher McClendon, author McClendon,

and the A author is capitalized and the M in McClendon is capitalized with the rest is not capitalized.

And so 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 going up and working to craft a story.

The art of crafting the 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.

Are you experienced being bullied in school, which used this inspiration for the story of Freak Show?

So give us a 30,000 overview of 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 to invite people and transform them into super powered insane circus performers known as Freaks.

And up to Peggy, a high schooler, to stop them essentially.

So it's a young teenage superhero book.

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 student, but she gets picked on at school.

She says she's hesitant to speak up for herself and defend herself against bullying.

I like her friends who try to support her.

And that's good. And some of this is your own experience.

I think many people meet bullies in life. Is that correct?

Yes, 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 broken.

Oh, no.

Yeah, some students were pulling on the back of my shirt during recess and they thought it was funny to keep doing it.

Is that my hand?

Oh, wow.

That is unfortunate.

That is unfortunate.

You know, I've seen some bullies do some neat 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 a lot of different things into the book.

There's the shadow carnival, the city of New Dayton, and kind of the steam 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 say on TV.

That naturally led to freak show circuses.

And that led to me wanting to reverse the word, the name calling of freak on to back onto the bully.

Oh, okay.

But I wanted this shadow carnival to be evil because of the villains.

You know, just abduct bullies.

They abduct everyone and freakify them.

Was there a reason you, you know, you picked 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 are maybe worth it?

I don't know.

But how does that play out in your book?

They're basically the dumb henchmen of the shadow carnival.

The dumb henchmen?

Yeah.

It's not a good trade-off for them.

They're not psychologically stable.

As they can beat you up, they become more psychologically unstable.

Start revealing things about their past and 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 that idea for Peggy.

She's a story about trying to improve her looks through magic.

Oh, really?

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.

Yeah.

I came up with the boy that she likes and says, you can't have him because you'll never be what you want to be.

I'm the perfect version of you.

You'll never be me.

It's kind of like the whole...

Sounds like one of my 10 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 of my personality, she embodies, I believe, I can look like.

You know what I mean?

This is great that you're taking back the term of freak.

You're making it your kind of power word, if you will, and disassociates 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 maybe working on?

Yeah.

This 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 at a different location with a different set of characters with the different scenario going on.

You do have a prequel written.

That's not...

It's not like the prequel to freak show.

It takes place before a freak show, but I haven't officially published that because I lost confidence in it and revise it.

Okay.

And so you see it maybe a trilogy, maybe just ongoing series forever, maybe?

For a freak show, a freak show is a trilogy, but the universe is something I want to keep adding on to.

Okay. Do you see the character being continued?

Peggy, I currently don't see her game reuse 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 when 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.

She was originally intended to be a side character story, but as I was writing her 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 task 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 this? Is that a certain genre or something?

She's about appearances and looks and vanity might be what's in.

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.

I'm like, okay, I can use her as one of the villains for this book.

So, that's how she got introduced into free show.

That's awesome.

Develop those characters.

I mean, that's the real thing is developing characters and learning to write them, play them out.

We mentioned that in the bio I was reading for you that you started studying that early on.

When did you, when did you just officially start writing stuff or trying to write stuff,

kind of feel like you had an act to it where eventually you could turn a new career?

I started writing middle school around the end of middle school to end the beginning of high school when I started writing my own stories.

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 a social degree in that, but the classes were so unfulfilling that I,

at the time, I was torn between whether I should make video games or should I write.

And I felt like making video games was like banging my head against the wall.

So, I'm like, okay, writing is my passion instead.

Yeah.

So, that's how I ended up going in that direction.

Ah, 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 came after and corrupt people by freeing a fine of them is the most frightening thing about them.

Because they act like nonchalant or almost like a human.

I'm trying to hit where like characters of what a super villain would be or characters to themselves

over exaggerated aspects of their personalities to the point of their almost cartoons

and real life acting out active violence.

Oh, wow.

That's all that makes for the tension in the story and all 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 while spraying something ideas for a book.

This was back when I was into anime.

So, she was originally tends to be an anime character.

I was entangled for her to be a small child like Dylan that was like inhuman in a way,

like almost a robotic at first.

But then that idea got discarded.

And then a 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, it'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.

Hmm.

Hmm.

Errogance and vice.

My favorite sins.

Along with vanity.

Vanny's my favorite, though.

Aligned 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 transformation as stories.

And they can be physical, sometimes emotional, moral transformation.

What kind of transformation matter to you most in writing the book and playing out the stories?

I'd say the character developments, their perspective and their emotions about the health 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 long history of outsiders, spectacle, and then hidden darkness that you've woven into the story.

How much re-influenced by the classic Circus lore?

Did you ever go to Barnum Bailey's when you were a kid?

Circus or a freak show mythology?

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 of the word of free guy research,

I learned that a lot of these people would have defects, and the effect 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 sort of income.

And so they have this back door 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.

It's been a while since I looked up what free shows were.

No, it's talking about your book.

They kidnapped the characters.

They came up with the characters.

And I have them to their staff.

Yeah, I mean, that's one way to do it.

I mean, maybe we should try this around the Christmas show for our hiring mechanism.

We'll just give that people.

You work here now.

Do a good job.

Oh, we fight.

How did you come up with the villain, Jeanette, in the story?

Jeanette, she is the, basically, the epitome of what I envisioned 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 a state teenage female.

And she has these magical powers.

The thing she likes to do is that she likes to talk to bully her victims second logically.

So she has some mind reading capabilities where she's able to read your insecurities and she's able to pray on them.

And she will insight you into violence against her.

And she will make a fool out of you if you try to engage the violence against her.

Wow.

Did you, what about all my ex-girlfriends?

That's easy.

I mean, women do use the ability to control their emotions.

That's the female nature.

So let's see.

Do you see this book primarily as dark fantasy, horror, adventure, or maybe a mix of all three?

I primarily see it as dark fantasy.

I was surprised with people that some people were calling it as having horror elements.

So that was surprised to me.

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 capture it.

It's just easy.

I have wonderful girlfriends.

What's the philosophy behind writing book that you have?

And what's your approach to you trying to 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.

And it needs to either answer like a question that this story has.

Character development or plot development is mainly what I try to stick to.

And I try to write whatever I can.

Unfortunately, I have schizophrenia.

Oh, dude.

When I can't, I can't write.

It'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 has schizophrenia.

It's a nice week or so.

I've got a friend who's got a daughter who's been lost for about two weeks now in the streets of Oak.

I think it's Oakland or Portland.

Or it's Portland.

Anyway, how do you deal with that?

Was that to some of the things that people would bully you about that kind of shaped you?

And dealing with some of the issues of bullying, you know, being bullied because you had issues?

It's a friend that didn't develop until until my adult year.

But I also have trick-or-tillomania, which is obsessive hairplucking.

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 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-load

or 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 it 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 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 they try to see me write something.

I don't want to write that.

I'll 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 they come out.

Yeah.

I know sometimes when I'm angry or you know, 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, see you learn.

And we, anything more we want to tease out?

You've got the book upcoming?

Is there expected date on the new book?

Not, yeah.

I had to submit 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's up to invest in this book.

Hey, you 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 the part too.

I researched the types of ornaments.

I'm going to say ornaments that I don't want to reveal to much,

or clothing that people would wear.

I cannot find the specific type of style or name of this type of clothing.

So I had to do my best to describe it in detail.

Yeah.

I don't do it when you got the, when they 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 create carnival needs an atmosphere.

Home port was the mood, maybe, or the imagery that you used in the writing process.

I wanted to show a carnival to come across as I think the word you say is disturbed.

They are, they're, they're, they're scenes where they will do things that would be considered inhumane.

I'm trying, I'm trying not to get too much away here,

but there's, 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 that's how an incident occur while managing the freaks because the freaks are acting up.

Those freaks, they're always acting up.

Yeah.

Yeah, man, that's why they call them freaks, maybe, I don't know.

Was there a particular character or scene that once you saw the whole book just kind of came to you?

Did you ever have one of those epiphany moments?

Uh, I guess the character, deciding to write the first book around the character Mimi,

made the book really, made the book really easy because she, she basically represents how as adults we care,

we care about how our appearances and whatnot compare to how I would edge as children were taught

not to care about appearances.

That, that made writing her story very easy to do once I had that epiphany went back up with her.

Yeah, vanity, my favorite scene 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 utilized 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 shout-out 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 they learned?

What do you want to have linger in their mind on?

That is, okay, to care about your looks to some degree.

But there's the balance you have to maintain.

Because caring about your looks is healthy because you want to die at exercise.

I maintain your way, trying to maintain your health.

I'm not saying everyone cares about those things.

But it's a good thing to do.

But there's a balance.

You go too far into it.

You become a shallow person.

That's all there is to you.

No one's going to like you.

That's all there is to you.

You can't force yourself onto other people.

That's the problem I have.

No one likes me based on who I am.

They get over it.

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 available on Apple and Android.

It's also available on Lulu.

That's all I remember off the top of my head.

We have it across multiple platforms.

On your dot com, so what's your dot com again?

My Twitter is Christopher McClendon at Author McClendon.

I don't have an author's web page yet.

My publisher is still working on it.

Do you know the URL of the code that it will be under?

It will be under Christopher McClendon books dot com.

So if you're 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 to the show.

We really appreciate Chris reading an amazing job, my friend.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

And thanks to our honours for tuning in.

Order up his book wherever fine books are sold.

It's called Freak Show, part one by its cover out February 6th, 2026.

We'll look forward to Christopher's future works

and his burgeoning authorship.

Thanks for joining us for tuning in.

Go to goodresearch.com for just Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com for just Chris Foss.

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