Ep 110 - Becoming A Superhero for the Average Joe, A Conversation with Steve Thomas

The Manly Catholic (09:49.97)
Hello all, welcome to another episode of The Manly Catholic. This is James, your host, and with me tonight, we have a very special guest, which I am very excited to talk about and talk to, and that is Steve Thomas. Steve, welcome to The Manly Catholic.

Steve Thomas (10:05.422)
Thank you. Thank you, James. And is there ever a time where you have just a guest and not a special or very special guest? Have you ever just had a guest?

The Manly Catholic (10:13.202)
You know, I haven't. No, that's not true. I did have my friend on Dan and I think I just called him a guest. So, you know, if they're just my friends, they're guests, but everyone else is a very special guest. Ha ha ha. Well, Steve, it is an honor. You wrote an amazing book, which is called Catholic Joe Superhero.

Steve Thomas (10:20.459)
Okay.

Steve Thomas (10:24.894)
Awesome, awesome, very special. Now that's good, that's good. I feel good. Good to be here. Good to be here, James.

The Manly Catholic (10:40.686)
And oh yeah, flash that book up for everyone to see.

Steve Thomas (10:44.509)
There you go.

The Manly Catholic (10:44.81)
Yeah, and it was really, and I'm not just trying to toot your own horn, but it was a phenomenal book, you know, because I'm always looking. I think I mentioned this to you. I've been looking for good Catholic fiction and those for especially for men, which obviously this is tailored more towards men to which and I loved it. And, you know, it really is. I mean, I think it's five hundred thirteen pages, but it does not feel like a long book at all. It's very easy to read, not in like a elementary level, but it's just it's well written.

Steve Thomas (11:01.13)
Oh yeah, for sure.

The Manly Catholic (11:14.704)
and it touches on some very serious topics, which I know we'll dive into tonight as well. But before we get into Catholic Joe, we will start with the St. Michael prayer. So we'll start in the name of the Father and the Son, Holy Spirit, amen. St. Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

Steve Thomas (11:32.031)
Amen.

The Manly Catholic (11:35.422)
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou a prince of the heavenly host by the power of God, cast in hell Satan, and all evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls, amen. In the Father and Son, Holy Spirit, amen. So Steve, the question I always lead off with, if you could be the patron saint of anything, what would it be and why?

Steve Thomas (11:58.614)
You know, my first inkling is basketball, but, um, but I was never that good. I was always like the last person on the team that would, it would be in all seriousness, it would be of the victims of divorce. So I would be the patron saint of those wounded by divorce. And in, in reason being came from a divorce family. Um, I, you know, it really is, I call it the crucible of divorce and it is really something that kind of forges you. It.

There's a lot of things that happen with divorce, but yeah, I think that's something I feel strongly about. That's really when I wrote the book, the book is all about marriage. I mean, didn't you get that sense, James, when you read it? Yeah, so it's all about marriage. And I really have a white-hot passion fire for marriage. And it comes from, again, all the pain, all the struggle, a lot of darkness,

The Manly Catholic (12:41.071)
percent.

Steve Thomas (12:58.194)
and things like that. And so I think, yeah, I think that would be it.

The Manly Catholic (13:04.774)
I love that. You know, and I know you've done so much work besides just the writing this, like I said, this incredible book. So why don't you give our listeners a little bit more background on yourself, you know, and why, you know, maybe you felt the need to write a book like this. You know, we have as much time as you. I might fall asleep, but you know, I'll just put the camera rolling, Steve, and you just keep going.

Steve Thomas (13:21.946)
How much time do we have? I mean, I've done so many.

Steve Thomas (13:30.116)
You better not fall asleep. So I've done a lot of things like along. So first I was in seminary for five years, went and taught Catholic high school for two years, and they kept saying, you know, I wanted to have a big family and they're like, get out now. So I went into sales, did really well in sales, worked for a manufacturing company. And then from there,

I started Catholic Apostles, I started a company, Vitae Corporation, back in the 90s. That was a company that raised money for pro-life groups. People used to love me because I used to write checks. So I didn't really know who my real friends were. I found out I really don't have any. So I started a company called Faith and Family Flix in 2007. Started a couple of software companies. Software products I created.

back in probably 2010. Went into corporate insurance for three years when the housing market crashed. Hated that. Oh, hate, I mean, it was just, I just, even thinking about it, I just kind of get the little shiver that kind of goes back, you know what I mean? And that was, but I learned a lot. I mean, I hated every day of it as far as, you know, just have to go in a train in the city and...

I'm just not, that's not me. I'm not a corporate person per se. So, and then from there, like I said, I started the software and then I worked with a social media company, did some consulting, did a bunch of other consulting jobs along the way, but it wasn't until, and I started writing the book, geez, probably decades ago, but then, I've got eight kids, beautiful wife, eight living children.

And it just any hope of writing a book was kind of had to be put on the shelf. Because again, it's I call it the war zone. You know, we had I think we had four kids in diapers at one time. And we had a sweet a set of twins, too. And, you know, you're just, you know, you're just in survival mode. And but let me let me add, and you're in that mode. So you in the book

Steve Thomas (15:52.942)
James, are the new patriot. The new patriot is that family that lives, their faith, their values, love of country, but you are the new patriot. And you are the reason that our country is going to come back. You are a part of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart. So that the younger families, if there's any younger families watching, and let me say something, if there's any moms watching, I want you to know that your vocation, no matter what the priests say,

Your vocation is the most noble vocation on the planet. And even though you don't get a paycheck or whatever, don't ever forget that. Most noble on the planet. So, all right, where were we going? So, yeah, so I started writing the book decades ago and then it wasn't until, let me take you back 17 years. So 17 years, get ready to jump in the shower.

I was praying, I said, bless, I go mother, I go, I don't call it blessing. Like I call her mother. She's my mother. So I go mother, I go, what's so make it do just for your son? And so this whole idea of a national Eucharist procession is like, boom, strong, you know, right, right in the core of my heart. And again, other different signs and such. So I tried to get it going and never was really the right time. And so it wasn't until so my oldest son is a he's a Franciscan friar, the renewal.

So he's at the house, there's a couple like dedicated preachers there. So he found out about this whole Eucharistic Congress, right, that they're having. And so when I found out about that, I reached out to Bishop Cousins and I says, we got to do this national Eucharistic procession. And long story short, they said, yeah. So, you know, so again, I was like David dancing before the arc, man.

I was going to be the director. I was just dancing all around. I was like, thank you, God. I was just on Cloud 9. And I don't get excited easy. You get kicked enough. You don't get too excited because you just never know what's going to happen. So anyway, I bring in my friend Bud, Webb McFarland, and I said, help me organize this thing. And so what happened then is that we both

Steve Thomas (18:18.862)
They've got a lot more competent people doing it. They've got Tim Glomkowski and a bunch of other people that younger, much better. So I'm sure probably good move, whoever made the decision, good move. But I was a little bit devastated to start with. Then my friend, Bud, he said, we should really do, and it was his idea to do the cross.

to basically take our Lord in Eucharist from the north, south, east, and west. And so when we kind of got squeezed out, he said, you know what, we need to walk this thing. So he had a relic of the True Cross. So what we did, he started off on the north, called the North Beam. I helped him with the beam from the east. So I actually walked from the shrine of the Amakha Conception to the grotto at Notre Dame. So we walked from Marian shrines. Yeah, north, south, east, and west. So

The Manly Catholic (19:13.518)
Wow. Yeah.

Steve Thomas (19:16.414)
I am and we were walking through the Appalachian Mountains and man, there were times this I'm not I'm not a young dude. So it was like there are times where like every step was just agony, you know, and but it was prayerful. And again, you know, we were we were doing it for a number of reasons. So we're doing it for our country. We were doing it, you know, for marriage. But also we were doing it in anticipation of our Lord of our Lord in the Eucharist. So we really were kind of

The Manly Catholic (19:20.59)
Mm.

The Manly Catholic (19:29.343)
Oh my gosh.

Steve Thomas (19:46.798)
not John the Baptist, but we really were kind of like making reparation and praying for the success of this Eucharistic pilgrimage is gonna happen, which is gonna be a huge thing. And everybody, I mean, everybody needs to take part in that because that's a transformative thing. And that was my dream is to take Jesus out, not in a procession, I call it a march.

we're taking him out in battle. Just like the Heavers took the Ark of the Covenant out, we wanted to take Jesus in, the very Son of God, and basically taking him out and reconsecrating our land with his Eucharistic presence. So anyways, I'm getting off on a tangent. I was there for probably about 850 miles, and really it was from

It was from that pilgrimage that God gave me the, I believe that God gave me the grace to be able to write the book. And, you know, and I've gotten, you know, praise God, again, it's all gift. I mean, you know, I'm not, I never wanted to be a writer. You know, I never dreamed of it. I mean, I like to write. I've got, I have more ideas, like when I take a shower in the morning than most people have, like in a month. You know what I mean? The synopsis are just firing. I'm like,

thinking of all these things. And they're not small things either. It's like, you know, we want to create a parallel economy. You know, and actually you'll see this in the next book. So there's a lot of ideas that I wanted to do that are going to be in the next book. But it really was from that, James, that I believe the grace was given from, again, when I did the pilgrimage, you know, we're like, we're hand to mouth, like financially. You know, back in 08, we lost

The Manly Catholic (21:21.463)
Oh, okay. All right.

Steve Thomas (21:40.306)
We lost a ton with the housing crash. And so I was like, I really couldn't afford to do it, but I really felt like God and through our blessed mother, that I should do it. And so I really believe like the widows might, I should put the two copper coins in. I really feel like God saw those two copper coins and he blessed me for it. And yeah, and I...

loved writing the book. I mean, it was a blast. I mean, I wrote most of it in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. So, yeah, I mean, I shouldn't say most of it. I wrote a lot of it in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. And, you know, I'm sitting there with my laptop, and, you know, I'm going, and I stop, and, you know, Jesus and the monsters is exposed. And I'm like, Jesus, I'm like, what, you know, how should I say this or?

The Manly Catholic (22:17.608)
Oh, that's beautiful. I love that.

Steve Thomas (22:39.286)
you know, Vinny, his youngest brother, you know, he's got a nasty mouth and I wanted to make it authentic, so we compromised. So, you know, I told Jesus, sorry, I'll put F and star, star. And, you know, so, but it was, again, to do that in the presence of our Lord was really, it was just a great gift to be able to do that.

The Manly Catholic (23:04.062)
Oh, I love that. Yeah, I spoke with Deacon Harold, Berksivers, and he did something very similar. A couple of his books that he's done, he said, was all done in front of the Blessed Sacrament. So I love that, too, because I was just going to ask you, too, because I know one of the characters that doesn't have the Holiest of Mouths. So how did how did Jesus take on the sacrament?

Steve Thomas (23:22.99)
Oh no. Oh yeah, right, right. Yeah, that was, again, it was, you know, we had kind of like a Jacob and the Angel wrestling match, I guess. Now it was, yeah, it was, again, and I talked to a bunch of people, talked to priests, spiritual director, because again, the last thing I wanna do is cause scandal, and you know, and again, even in the book, I mean,

The Manly Catholic (23:36.779)
Okay, so you...

Steve Thomas (23:52.898)
There are some things in the book that could be controversial, you know, and again, I don't take that lightly because I love the church, you know what I mean? I mean, it's Christ's bride. Don't mess, you know, don't mess with Jesus' bride, you know?

The Manly Catholic (24:07.754)
Right, right. No, 100%. Yeah, cause I know, I mean, when we say it's fiction, but you know, it's not, it's not really fiction, you know, because there's so many, yeah, there's so many topics that you touch on. And so, I mean, we can dive into those too, but yeah, there's, like I said, I mean, Joe, I mean, is Joe based off of character? A conglomerate of multiple people in your life or?

Steve Thomas (24:16.862)
Oh no no, dude, there's more truth! Yeah yeah.

Steve Thomas (24:35.054)
Yeah, actually he is. So, one, a good buddy of mine, John McGuire, you know, ex-military guy. So, and it just, he loves it when I say that. He's like, oh, you know. But yeah, there's actually a number of people that I based him on. I mean, you know, General Flynn. Again, there's all these, you know, I just borrowed different things from different people.

The Manly Catholic (25:02.859)
Right.

Steve Thomas (25:03.17)
But, you know, but the main character Joseph Salvatore, you know, he's meant to be he's meant to be an iconic figure that again, he is, you know, he is a man's man. I mean, he's you know, he's masculine, but he's still, you know, sensitive, compassionate, caring, but he can still, you know, stick a knife in somebody's heart, twist it. And you know, again, just he's doing his duty.

So, I mean, you know, I try to make, again, for the first book, you know, you develop the character to a certain point, but, you know, in the second book, you know, it's going to go even deeper. And, you know, in the third book, again, just couldn't continue to go deeper. But yeah, I just, you know, I wanted, and the reason I wrote it for Man is because, you know, we've been getting our butts kicked. I mean, you know, as, you know, as men.

You know, we've been getting our butts kicked for decades. And I just wanted to give, you know what? I wanted to win. I wanted people to experience a win. You know what I mean? And that's what Joe gives you. He gives you that encouragement, that hope. And again, it makes you feel good to be a man. You know, when you read it, you're like, yeah, hell yes. It's like, you know, I mean, he's, you know, yeah. You just, it's, yeah. It's like Walter Mitty, right? It's like, you know, it's so...

The Manly Catholic (26:19.654)
Absolutely! Yes! I felt the same way!

There you go, yeah.

Steve Thomas (26:27.538)
It's so great because again, all the things I wish I could say, all the things I wish I could do, I do it with this fictional character, right? So it was a blast, yeah.

The Manly Catholic (26:37.11)
Right.

The Manly Catholic (26:40.39)
living vicariously through Joseph Salvatore. That's what I said.

Steve Thomas (26:43.51)
Yeah, I think that might be a, what would you say, a diagnosis somewhere in there, but it is, you know, I don't care. I mean, I had fun. And again, the hope, you know, the hope is that, again, we want to draw men into what it means to be a man, but also draw them back to their families, their wives. What's important in life? I mean, I, there are times in there when I'm writing, you know, in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel where I've got tears coming down my eyes.

because I'm in the moment, I'm in that emotional moment where he's out on the porch with his brother smoking a cigar, and the family's just all around, just you know what I mean? And they're just soaking it in because that's the richness, you know what I mean? That's that rich soil that's just loaded with gold.

The Manly Catholic (27:33.694)
Yeah, it's, yeah, I mean, there's so many things that you touched on, but I know marriage is one thing that really stands out throughout the book, both with his struggles himself with his marriage, which you touched on too, but also the, not only that, but with his brother, everything goes on with his marriage. So I guess, I guess we can kind of take a step back at what would be, I guess, the general plot or synopsis of Catholic Joe for those of you who are listening, and you know, obviously it's...

It's a page turner, it's high action, so to speak, but what would you say would be the overarching plot for those of you, those of us who are listening?

Steve Thomas (28:12.026)
So yeah, it really is marriage. It's again, you know, Joe, so Joe's a Lieutenant General, high level, just, you know, he's one of those kinesthetic men that just has everything, you know what I mean? I didn't wanna make him too perfect. That's why, you know, he struggled with, you know, when he was wounded, heavily wounded, struggled with painkillers and got addicted to the opioids and.

just turned into kind of a mean dude. And I love the way the, I shouldn't share too much. But the thing is, is that he's this kinesthetic dude that has all these gifts, but I really wanted to focus on marriage, so he goes out, finds out his youngest brother, Vinny, is getting divorced. So he gets woke out of the military, right? So woke, W-O-K-E, woke.

And he flies out and again, like two good Italian brothers, they beat the crap out of each other. And then they're hugging and kissing when it's over. And Joe's like, listen, Vinny, this is not how we were raised. They were raised in a very strong, traditional Catholic family. And so that's where it starts. And again, Joe's on a mission. Joe is a, he's a brilliant strategist.

And he knows what the goal is. And so he just kind of like each step along the way, he knows you can't push too hard. So again, he just kind of keeps that little slight pressure at every way that he can. And then again, the goal is his brother and his impending divorce. And so with that, he finds out, he asks himself, how could this happen? How could...

you know somebody who's been brought up so solidly, you know, just fall so far off the rails. And so, so he starts peeling the onion with, you know, his marriage prop and all these different things and finds out that the bishop and the diocese anyway, so he gets kind of gets sucked into the more from the micro right to the macro. And he realizes this is just this problem is just, you know, it's Leviathan. And so

Steve Thomas (30:33.974)
He realizes that this demon of divorce is just huge and consuming, and so he realizes that he's got to do something on a macro level, so he kind of starts peeling away in the church itself. And so that's where it gets a little bit controversial, because he takes on some bishops, and part of the plot is he uncovers corruption. And again, this is stuff that's...

It's fiction, but I did a lot of research on it. I talked to a lot of people that really, really know. Guy by the name of Philip Nielsen had the Red Cap report. He actually hired ex-FBI intelligence Catholic to do research on the Cardinals. Because the last conclave when Pope Francis was elected, you had Cardinals going on Wikipedia.

to find out about other cardinals. And Wikipedia is a CIA tool. I mean, it's definitely not something you want to use for Intel or for data. So that's why he created it. And what he found, his ex-wife says, you got to quit this, because it was just bringing him down, because he was finding out all this stuff. But I talked to him. I've talked to a guy that I went on retreat with. He was on SEAL Team 6.

The Manly Catholic (31:35.406)
Mm.

Mm-mm.

Steve Thomas (32:02.262)
He gave me some really good intel as far as how certain things would be, how certain actions would take place on the military. And then also I had a full bird colonel who excoriated me, just got in my grill because I made the mistake of calling a Marine soldier. And so he was all in my stuff. Thankfully, thankfully

The Manly Catholic (32:24.066)
Thanks for watching!

The Manly Catholic (32:31.534)
Thank you.

Steve Thomas (32:31.91)
I went through everything and he was okay with it. So a friend of mine, his brother is a four-star general and he had Marine. He's reading the book, so I'm like, dude, I hope it's good because I sure as heck don't want four-star general to go, you got this wrong. Anyways, it was fun. Did a lot of research, like Father Muir, I don't know if you

The Manly Catholic (32:41.001)
Oh, jeez. Yeah.

Steve Thomas (33:00.418)
familiar. His book, Murder in the 33rd Degree, talks about Freemasonry in the church. Again, use things like that. Even though it's fiction, there's a lot of truth in there.

The Manly Catholic (33:03.61)
Oh, yeah. Yes.

The Manly Catholic (33:14.986)
No, there is. And like I said, I mean, marriage is gosh. It's so important. And I mean, what is it? I mean, our blessed mother, she said the last battle is going to be the battle for the family. Right. I mean, that's we know. I mean, we're not really surprised. And, you know, especially with the research that you've done and, you know, contraception and vasectomy, which is a topic in the book, too.

Steve Thomas (33:28.154)
Boom, you hit it. You hit it. That's it. Yeah.

The Manly Catholic (33:43.75)
And these things that are so culturally normal to us now, we don't realize how devastating it actually has been to marriage is around the world. And, you know, I know you mentioned to the marriage prep as well. And I kind of wanted to ask you about that, too, because, you know, you dive into something that, you know, like you mentioned.

the marriage is something that, okay, how are we being catechized with marriage in our in our pre marriage and our pre cane and things like that. But like, okay, and then you it goes up to this is like the bishop's baby, who ends up being a corrupt bishop and things like that. So I guess, with all the research that you've done with this, Steve, I guess what was the most surprising or

maybe unsettling thing that you discovered, maybe you knew about, but you're like, oh, wow, I didn't know the extent of it or, oh, I just totally caught me off surprise. I always like to ask, what was the most surprising? Because I know how much research goes into a book that you found when doing this.

Steve Thomas (34:42.492)
Yeah. Yeah, no. So I'll be honest with you. Nothing really surprised me. I've seen, I mean, seriously, I, you know, when I was in the seminary, it was a horrible time to be in the seminary. I mean, it was, you know, just, you know, the sexual promiscuity, the homosexuality. I mean, it was just, it was rampant.

The Manly Catholic (34:49.246)
Hahaha

Steve Thomas (35:05.266)
In fact, I think I did an interview for Michael Rose in Goodbye, Good Men, in his book, because I shared, I mean, it was just, you know, again, I've seen the underbelly, you know, the underbelly of the church. I've seen the worst. I mean, I've experienced it, you know what I mean? So nothing, I mean, really, you know, maybe there was one. So I had talked to this one guy, and he talked about how they had actually tied this one bishop to human trafficking.

And I thought, that's pretty, you know, not shocking, but it's pretty appalling, you know what I mean? So that was shocking. And a lot of people were really, you know, they did not like that I put that in there, but you know, it is what it is. But yeah, you know, the comment you made about our Blessed Mother and what she said about, you know, the final battle would be over marriage.

No, and that's exactly, you know, I mean, I really feel, I mean, I've got a devotion to our blessed mother and I really feel like, you know, she's put me in this place for that reason, you know, to be a part of, you know, I'm not like Joe where I'm leading the church militant, you know, but in my own way, again, this is the battle over marriage and it's something that we all should be willing to die for. I mean, you know, it's, you know,

And just so you know, I'm not suicidal, all right, if anything happens to me after writing the book. But no, but it but it's again, it's you know, this is the battle. I mean, so when I was a kid, I remember my reversion was I think I was in high school, about 16, 17. Parents parents had gotten divorced and I picked up this little booklet, this little Mother of Christ Crusade, a little white booklet that was on Fatima. And I just remember reading about these children.

and you know, sacrificing and souls going into hell like snowflakes. And I was like, I mean, think about it. It's one thing to read about it and, you know, and it's like, oh, it's horrible. But I mean, the reality of that, the reality of that, you know, that that's happening, you know, it's just I just, you know, it's just mind boggling. And the fact that we can do something about that, you know, and she said, you know, our blessed mother said, you know, souls are going to hell because there's no better to pray or sacrifice for them.

Steve Thomas (37:30.394)
And that really hit me and it really changed my life, the trajectory of my life. And I feel like, you know, for the longest time I didn't even know who Jesus was, really. I mean, I didn't have that really personal, strong relationship, but it wasn't probably until the last, I don't know, eight years or so that I really just really started getting to know Christ and really to just forge that friendship.

and that bond with him. So anyways, I don't know how I got off that tangent, but yeah, anyways.

The Manly Catholic (38:08.342)
Do you still have that book, Steve? That little white book?

Steve Thomas (38:10.858)
Ah, you know what? It's probably in the archives somewhere. My wife is a pack rat, so we've got boxes and storage bins. Oh, I see the nod there. All right, we share something in common. That's good. But I love her to death. I do, to death. Yeah, but I'm sure I still have it.

The Manly Catholic (38:37.322)
Yeah, so I guess for some, maybe some of our non-Catholic listeners, I mean, because you touch on things, like you said, you've seen the underbelly of the church and it's not pretty. So how, you know, for someone like you, how do you remain strong? I mean, because clearly you're on fire for the faith, despite what you've seen. What, I guess what keeps you going and what makes you strive to continue this fight that is a very valiant fight, but one that

one can easily get discouraged of because of, again, things you've seen, or things that you're seeing around the world. And just keep fighting. Keep moving forward.

Steve Thomas (39:11.362)
Right. Yeah, so the answer to that is God's grace. I mean, that's, you know, I mean, really, I mean, and that's the thing, the older you get, the more you realize it, it really, again, God works within our will. But everything, everything is on God, everything, everything is gift, everything. I go to, I try to go to adoration every day, you know, go to mass every day.

The Manly Catholic (39:18.306)
Yeah. Hahaha.

Steve Thomas (39:39.07)
and just spend time with our Lord in the Eucharist. So anybody that's listening, if you are Catholic, or even if you're not Catholic, I would always recommend spend at least some time every day with our Lord in the Eucharist because it will change your life. And things will happen there that you won't understand fully, but I'm just saying miracles happen there. And that's the thing that's helped me is that, and my devotion to our blessed mother, again, my wife, she's been a great support for me.

And yeah, so I, you know, I just, that's, those are the kind of the non-negotiables, you know, say the rosary every day, mass, most days unless something happens, and then adoration, which I've been fortunate with, with what I do now. I've got plenty of time to spend with our Lord, and, you know, and I love it, man. I just, I love sitting in there, just sitting with him, and, and just sometimes just being with it, being there with them, you know, sometimes I don't say anything, sometimes I fall asleep, you know, like the...

First Holy Hour of our Apostle brothers. But that's pretty much where it comes from.

The Manly Catholic (40:45.686)
Beautiful, no I love that. Now was there a character for you, Joe going back to the book, that I guess you have like a fondness for, or one that you, maybe it's like an underlying character, maybe not one of the main characters that you really love to develop, and I'm sure all of your characters are very near and dear to you, but is there one in particular that really stands out to you that you kind of embrace as your baby, so to speak?

Steve Thomas (41:09.814)
Well, obviously the main character is complex. Again, he's probably the one I spent the most time with developing his character. And again, tweaking, he can't be too perfect, but again, somebody that's strong. So I think the main character is probably the one I would want to emulate the most because again, he kicks butt and takes names.

he gets stuff done. Probably Eddie B. So do you remember Eddie B. in the book? So he was based on really a friend of mine who's just crazy in a good way. But yeah, I think that character, Eddie B. is a person that lives in the street. And he's kind of a mystical figure.

The Manly Catholic (41:44.642)
Oh yeah, I do remember Eddie.

Steve Thomas (42:07.382)
likes to drink, likes to smoke, but somebody that is, I think people really like, and they wanna know more about him, because I've had people tell me that, they really liked that character. So he was kind of fun. And I think that his story is kind of a fun story, when he kind of reveals why he's on the streets, and what he's doing on the streets. So I think I liked him.

And I like Father McCloskey. So I really liked, you know, kind of building that character out because I love the priesthood. Again, I was in the seminary for five years. Really wanted to be a priest, but it wasn't for me. It wasn't God's will. But I really liked that character. I liked having a strong, you know what I mean? He was a strong priest. He was somebody that would get

The Manly Catholic (42:40.65)
Yes.

Steve Thomas (43:06.038)
you know, might even slap you around a little bit. Yeah, that was a fun one, too. How about you? How about you, James? What was your what was your favorite character?

The Manly Catholic (43:13.994)
I didn't want to ask. Well, well, the one that intrigued me the most was another priest father. I'm probably going to butcher his name. Was it Sudak or Sudak? Yeah. Was that someone that you based off of? I mean, it's okay if you don't want to reveal it, but he's almost like a mystic and he wasn't mystic. It seemed like.

Steve Thomas (43:24.972)
Yeah.

Steve Thomas (43:33.834)
No, it's actually a real person. Yeah. So if you look him up, you know, he actually had the... He actually has the cross on his forehead that will bleed. So he's a real figure. He's one of the few people that I didn't change his name, just because I wanted people to find out about him. Yeah. So yeah, he was...

The Manly Catholic (43:38.294)
Oh really? Oh wow. Okay.

The Manly Catholic (43:52.575)
Okay.

The Manly Catholic (43:59.426)
Yeah, I'm gonna look him up now. Father suit.

Steve Thomas (44:03.222)
He was always cool to kind of put that mystical spin on things. And that was fun, too, is being able to go deep theologically. Just because, again, I've been on this journey since I've been 16, so probably it's been over 40-some years that I've been on this journey of really wanting to know who Christ is. And, you know, and yeah. And I think...

I feel like I've got all this knowledge and stuff that I just want to share. So it's a great opportunity to write that in, in different circumstances. I really enjoy that.

The Manly Catholic (44:49.238)
Yeah, I'll have to look him up. Father Soudak. I wanna shift gears here a little bit, Steve, because I know writing a book like this, especially when you're touching on topics, like we mentioned, the final battle in marriage, also going after some corruption in the church, I'm assuming, I could be wrong, that you probably have been under maybe some spiritual.

Steve Thomas (45:05.346)
Mm-hmm.

The Manly Catholic (45:14.546)
attack as well with everything going on. Could you expand on that a little bit if I'm off base at all or if you notice any particular attempts by the devil and his demons to kind of get under your skin so to speak?

Steve Thomas (45:30.37)
Well, so what I did is I had a lot of Masses said, I reached out to the poor Clare's. In fact, I just called them today. Or was it yesterday? I called all the poor Clare monasteries. In fact, I'm sending books to all of them. But I asked for their prayers for protection, for God's grace. And again, I really don't...

The Manly Catholic (45:50.038)
Yes.

Steve Thomas (46:02.378)
I don't worry too much about the enemy because the enemy can only do as much as God allows him to do. And again, I do, I mean, there's a lot of things I do prayer wise. So like Father Rippinger, you know, somebody I like and know. But one of the things he said, which I always remembered, is he said, there's only two doorways that Satan has access to. And that's our imagination and our memory.

So what I'll do is, again, because I came from such a dark, like childhood, growing up, there was a lot of pain, a lot of woundedness. There was a lot of demons really to like, kind of exercise. And so what I'll do is I'll ask Christ to cover my family and myself and his precious blood, especially my imagination and my memory.

The Manly Catholic (47:00.71)
Yeah, the poor Claire's are gosh if you guys ever need prayers Spiritual protection or the Carmelites as well. I interviewed Dr. Dan Schneider and He was a oh gosh. He was a helicopter pilot in the military But it was he's saying whenever you know, there's something going on. He said he always calls upon he has a local Carmelite

Near his home and he always asked for their prayers. He when he went and spoke with him. He said you guys You guys are like the snipers in the spiritual warfare battle. You guys are just you're in you're in here in your cloister But you're just picking off the enemy one by one because he says your prayers are powerful and he said I and don't

Steve Thomas (47:36.022)
Mmm.

Steve Thomas (47:41.38)
secret.

The Manly Catholic (47:48.034)
A woman came up to him after and she was like in tears. And she goes, you get us. You get what we're doing here. Cause people were like, why would you like close yourself up and like, you're not doing anything. But no, their prayers are potent and powerful. So never ever discount that. So the fact that you do that on a consistent basis is so huge. And yeah, I mean, because yeah, I mean, when you do work for the church, you are gonna get attacked spiritually. You know, Father Lampert, who I've interviewed, I know who you know personally as well. I mean, he talks about all the time.

You know, it's nothing to be afraid of. But yeah, it is going to happen, but it's just preparing yourself and making sure you're in a state of grace, going to confession as often as possible. And if you do that, you have really have nothing to worry about. So the simple things that we can do to help keep us safe.

Steve Thomas (48:31.074)
Yeah. But to your point though, you know, I mean, there have been attacks and there have been, you know, again, you know, it's funny. So my wife and I used to teach natural family planning. And every night we were supposed to teach, we'd be like at each other's throats, like, you know, like just vicious. And then finally, after like the

The Manly Catholic (48:45.119)
Okay. Yeah.

Steve Thomas (49:00.618)
what you know, again, when you, I mean, think about it. If you talk to a couple, and they're like, they get it. And they bring just one more soul into the world. And I always I always tell people, you know, if this book can save one marriage, if it can bring one child into the world, and then I've succeeded, you know, I mean, I mean, that again, because what gift and what value is it to bring a soul, a child to God, how much value is it?

to save a marriage. You know what I mean? Because all this, most of the problems in the world are because of marriage. I mean, marriage is, if you have strong marriages, you have a strong society, strong culture.

The Manly Catholic (49:47.11)
Oh, yeah, 100%. I mean, yeah, the demise of society has definitely correlated with the demise of marriage. I think you can see that everywhere, you know, single motherhood and divorce rates are rampant. And, you know, the sad part is, you know, most Christians, their divorce rate is not much different than, you know, in the secular world as well, which is I think the saddest thing. I know it is. Yes, it's

Steve Thomas (49:55.587)
Right.

Steve Thomas (50:07.534)
That's in the book, right? I mean, James, that's the end. And you know what he says to him, right? Fix it, and emphatically fix it. You know, I got this thing here, you better fix it. Otherwise, you know, I'm gonna start picking you off. That was so much fun, right? You have no idea, man. You know, I've had this stuff bottle up for decades. You know, when we used to teach NFP and.

The Manly Catholic (50:14.91)
I forget. Yeah, fix it. Yes.

Steve Thomas (50:34.998)
we get ostracized and we get kicked out of this and that because I'd be teaching NFP and the other couples are contracepting and they're like, well, you can use contraception, just follow your conscience. We're like, no, that's not what the church teaches. And we've had bishops that would refuse to make this a part of marriage prep. And again, that's heinous because you're not

I mean, think about it. If you had a 60% failure rate in holy orders, you better darn well bet they're gonna change something. And again, that type of a failure rate in marriage is unacceptable. And that's something, it just fries my egg. And again, that's why I write the books and that's why I go after some of the bishops. Because listen, if it was something innocuous, it wasn't, but this is something that

is destroying, you know, this is again, if you want your church to be vibrant, you got to fix marriage. You know, you'll never have a culture of life, a springtime of faith, a civilization of love. You'll never have any of that if you can't fix marriage. And you got to start with the hard the hard things. And that's why this next book, oh, it's going to be so good, because, you know, I can't say anything about it, but they're going to deal the. Oh, no.

The Manly Catholic (51:58.406)
Oh no, Steve, come on. Give us a nugget. Well, what is... Okay, all right. Yes, yes, here's the nugget. Exclusive sneak preview to the Manly Catholic listeners.

Steve Thomas (52:02.37)
Jeez, I can't tell you. All right, I'll give you one nugget. This is...

Steve Thomas (52:14.602)
It is only you. I haven't said this to, I haven't said it to my wife. Maybe I did, I'm lying, I'm lying. No, so here's the nugget.

The Manly Catholic (52:21.472)
Oh wow. OK. We're not that excited.

Steve Thomas (52:28.43)
So a priest, all right, I'm gonna tell you the one that I didn't tell you yet, all right. So a priest who's a part, kind of part of the cabal, he's kind of in it for the wrong reasons, and they're gonna ordain him a bishop, right? And so...

The Manly Catholic (52:35.238)
Okay.

Steve Thomas (52:48.098)
So at the moment they ordain him a bishop, he just goes out and they're like, you know, did he have a stroke? Did he, you know, they didn't know what it was. I mean, it was a moment where he just went out and what happened is that God gave him a vision of his position, his place in hell. And so, and so.

that rock, obviously that rocks him, right? I mean, nothing could rock you. I can't think of anything that would rock you more than knowing where your place in hell is. St. Teresa of Avila, I think she may have experienced that once. Yeah. So I haven't told anybody this, but, and then what happens then is this Joe Salvatore keeps coming to his mind. So he calls Joe and...

The Manly Catholic (53:18.795)
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic (53:29.287)
Yeah, she did. Yeah, it was her.

The Manly Catholic (53:36.483)
Man.

Steve Thomas (53:45.632)
That's as much as I'm going to tell you. But oh yeah, there's, yeah. Yeah.

The Manly Catholic (53:46.39)
The rest is history, yeah. Oh, I got chills, man. So are all the priests, are they based off of real life characters? I mean, I know you mentioned a lot, I mean, there's a canon lawyer, and okay, so they all have some correlation to real life priests.

Steve Thomas (54:00.126)
Yeah, they're all, again, they're all bits and pieces of different priests and different people.

The Manly Catholic (54:07.704)
Okay, okay. So when is the, do you have a release date for the second book? Are you still working on it? Or do you have a timeline? Are you?

Steve Thomas (54:12.762)
Bro, I gotta sell the first one, man. Listen, anybody listening? Yeah, I'm working on it. No, no, I gotta show you something. And so, I had him design this book, and you see where it says superhero over my name. My wife, of course she goes, what do you think you're superhero or something? I go, you should change it. I'm like, I'm definitely not a...

The Manly Catholic (54:16.835)
What you're working on the second one? Yeah. Yeah, tell us where we were. Where do we get the book? Joe? All right, I called you Joe Steve

The Manly Catholic (54:32.596)
Yeah?

Steve Thomas (54:41.822)
I'm not changing it, right? It's just going to stay. Now, so we're still, you know, yeah, right. You actually the. I figure once I start full time, it's going to take me, you know, probably about six months to finish it. But I have. But again, I've got to get this book out. And so anybody watching?

The Manly Catholic (54:46.006)
That's what you're striving for.

The Manly Catholic (55:01.858)
Okay.

The Manly Catholic (55:05.934)
Right.

Steve Thomas (55:08.53)
If you're Catholic or even if you're not Catholic, I've had non-Catholics read it. And you know the funny thing is, is I wrote it for men. I've had so many women, I've had so many women that just love it. I was just shocked. So my mother-in-law, my mother-in-law, Mary Olson, she read it. She goes, I couldn't put it down. She goes, it's 2 a.m. and she goes, my eyes are burning and I'm like, I can't put it down. And you know, she gave me a great compliment. She goes, you know, she goes, I wish.

Because I wish I would have read this before I got married, because it would have helped me be a much better wife. And I thought, you know what? That was a really cool compliment. Oh, and here, let me share another story. So my sister, she's a lib, and she's highly educated. I love her to death. Listen, I love you, Debbie. She said she's gonna read it, and I go, oh, this should be good.

I can't wait to Thanksgiving dinner table for this conversation. And she read it and she was in tears. She goes, I never realized how deep and how beautiful our Catholic faith was because she had fallen away. And she goes, you know what? I'm going back to church. And I thought that was like probably the greatest compliment that God could have given me in what she said.

The Manly Catholic (56:09.634)
conversation.

The Manly Catholic (56:27.019)
Mm.

Steve Thomas (56:36.254)
And again, I've had other people kind of say similar things. That, again, I'm just so grateful because, so I had a guy that probably one of the top Catholic book reviewers, I think he did over 400 reviews last year. I mean, that's insane. It's like more than one a day. I'm like, what? I go, this guy has some superhuman ability to read.

The Manly Catholic (56:56.686)
Gosh, jeez.

But yeah, holy cow.

Steve Thomas (57:05.462)
Like some of it's audio. He'll listen to audio books. He likes doing that. But he said, first of all, he goes, I should just read it for you. But he goes, I was really apprehensive because of all the hype. And he goes, but that apprehension was unfounded. He goes, the book was incredible. And here's probably the greatest compliment. He goes, I liken it to a Catholic

The Manly Catholic (57:17.198)
Do it.

Steve Thomas (57:35.342)
Jack Reacher or Catholic Jason Bourne. I was like, oh yeah, oh yeah. I was like, that was like music because that's kind of like what he is. So yeah, so he was very, he goes for a first novel. He goes, I think he put me in his top 10. I mean, yeah, but yeah, thanks. But he was really complimentary and.

The Manly Catholic (57:37.602)
Yeah. Yes.

The Manly Catholic (57:56.126)
Wow! Congrats, Steve!

Steve Thomas (58:03.174)
the person that edited the book, she's edited other Catholic books. She goes, the book was riveting. And again, grammatically, I just suck, man. I'm just horrible. And she's like, I see all these, she sent back like a physical manuscript with all these red dots. And because she did it for free, right? Because I'm like hand to mouth. But even despite all that, she goes, the book was riveting. She goes, they have to make a movie about it. So we do, I mean,

So Jim Caviecio, if you're watching this, you could be Kathy Cho, maybe Mark Wahlberg. Yeah, maybe Mark Wahlberg if we get the, yeah. Well, he's too nice. I mean, what character would he play? He's just too nice.

The Manly Catholic (58:38.478)
Catholic Joe! Oh, Mark Alberg. Jonathan Rumi. Yeah, Jonathan Rumi's, you know?

He's too fast! He could be uh, could he be Eddie? He could be the- cause he could be the mysterious... Eddie B. John in the Room, we see we're casting. We're casting for some roles, you know?

Steve Thomas (58:54.818)
Eddie B. Oh, jeez. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, he could do that. We need snarky people. We want holy, but we want holy and snarky at the same time. Because, you know, it's, yeah. Yeah, we'll have to work on that, James, for the casting.

The Manly Catholic (59:07.934)
Okay, all right.

The Manly Catholic (59:13.966)
Well, yes, if you need any help with casting, just let me know. I'll reach out to all the people I know for you.

Steve Thomas (59:19.918)
Please, you tell your people and I'll tell my people and we'll get it done. For sure, for sure.

The Manly Catholic (59:24.29)
There we go. We'll get the ball rolling on a movie for you. All right, so, all right, so is there, I know you have a second one that you're slowly working on. Are you planning on this becoming like a series of books? Or is it just, we're just taking it one book at a time?

Steve Thomas (59:39.002)
That's a series, so we'll probably do at least three. But we'll see how it goes. Because again, ideally, we want it to be a, we want to start with a movie, but we want it to be a film series. We want it to keep going, you know, Netflix type thing. So again, you know, it's, I mean, you know, we need a superhero. I remember I was at a talk with Kevin O'Brien. He's got Heroic Man, I think, up, yeah.

The Manly Catholic (59:42.632)
Okay.

The Manly Catholic (59:52.174)
Okay. Yeah.

The Manly Catholic (01:00:07.027)
Oh yeah.

Steve Thomas (01:00:09.078)
I think it's her old man, or yeah. But he was giving a talk down by me, and he kept going. He goes, we need superheroes. We need to, and I'm thinking to myself, oh, I'm like shaking and stuff. Like I want to talk to him after the talk. And so I sent him a copy of the book. I don't know if he's read it yet, but I know they're getting ready for a big conference March 9th up in Milwaukee. But yeah, no, I'm, you know,

I'm working on it. Again, I've got a marketing, you know, it's easy to write the book. It's marketing that sucks. It's like, I mean, there's so much stuff you have to do. There's so many different variables. And again, I'm doing everything pretty much myself. Although I do have, I've got some people helping me now. So I've just hired a publicist. And if anybody wants to help fund this movement, you know, feel free to reach out. James going, no, fund me first.

The Manly Catholic (01:01:05.778)
That's... No!

Steve Thomas (01:01:08.73)
All these Catholics are fighting for money. It's like, no, give me, give me, give me, give me. I need, I need.

The Manly Catholic (01:01:16.042)
Well, so, if people are interested though, where can they donate or help the cause?

Steve Thomas (01:01:29.032)
Just reach out. It's cath Cath Just email me. And then the website is cath Yeah, you can buy the book there. And actually we ran out of books, so we've got another print coming. And here's another story. So how much time we got?

The Manly Catholic (01:01:48.45)
however much time you need. Keep going.

Steve Thomas (01:01:50.498)
Okay, so we got, again, I'm praying all the time. I'm like, God, listen, if you want this, I mean, at first, like I had no books. I had no books. I'm like, I wrote the book, it's on Amazon. So they kind of print on demand. You don't make squat though on Amazon. And plus it's a giant evil behemoth that they do a lot of things we don't like. But I had no money. I'm like,

God, listen, if you want me to do this. So this guy, a friend of mine, really was on hard times, moved out, he went through a divorce, taking care of his 93-year-old dad, great guy. He reads the book, I think I sent him a copy from Amazon, I sent him a copy, and he read it, and he goes, it was for him, it was life-changing, and so...

He goes, I want to buy you some books. So he bought me like $1,000 worth of, he put on his credit card. I mean, the guy has no money. He put on his credit card, $1,000, just under $1,000. And I just, little things like that. Then I had a guy who I knew, but I didn't know him super well. He goes, hey, I'd like to get together with you. And I go, okay. And so I met him at Gibson Steakhouse, which is really nice.

And got very wealthy guy, young guy, younger than me and very wealthy. And we're talking for about three hours and he's had some great experiences too. Oh my goodness. He goes, you know what he goes, I think I want to buy you 10,000 books. That was like, you know, he goes, first he goes, do you think you could sell 10,000 books? I go, hell yes. Again.

know, selling 10,000 books in the Catholic market is like, it's like milking a male, a male bull. But I said, yeah, hell yeah. And again, I plan on selling more than that. And so he bought me 10,000 books. And yeah, and he threw in a little extra cash too. Here, just take a little pressure off. I was like, thank you. Here's another thing.

The Manly Catholic (01:04:08.174)
Amazing.

Steve Thomas (01:04:16.142)
So I'm in the Adoration Chapel and the votive candle had gone out and there was a bunch of candles. So I was changing the candle and a friend of mine walked in and he had this really funny look on his face. And right at that time, I had no idea what I was gonna use to buy food. But again, I trust, I say the Surrender Novena in my sleep. It's like, it's on auto.

The Manly Catholic (01:04:43.53)
Yes, yes, right.

Steve Thomas (01:04:46.934)
But this guy walks up to me and he hands me this envelope and it's loaded with cash. And again, right at that time I was just praying. I'm like, God, Jesus, I trust in you. I just, you know what? And again, it's a battle. It's not just like I just trust in you and it's over. It's like, no, it's like, you know, you say it, you want to mean it, you want to just, you know, you want to become part of you. And...

But no, I mean, God has always taken care of us. And we've gone through tough times. I mean, as a family, our one son struggled with mental illness, was incarcerated for, geez, for seven years. And it just extremely challenging times. And like I said, our oldest son is with the CFRs. You know what I mean? It's like there's got a guy.

The Manly Catholic (01:05:39.582)
Yes, amazing.

Steve Thomas (01:05:43.57)
And again, but you know, with our son, with the mental illness, it brought such grace and such blessing to our home. Because of it, because it really changed my heart, you know, how I looked at people, you know, that are in prison that are mental illness that, you know, live in the streets, just totally changed my whole outlook. And again, and our son is, you know, he's 1000 times better. Again, I think he's better than when he went in.

I mean, when he wasn't sick, you know, he's got such a compassionate and giving heart. I mean, just so proud of him. Actually, so proud of all of our kids. All of our eight children, they love God. They love God with their whole hearts. And I'm like, you know, because sometimes with businesses' failure, you can fall into that temptation of feeling like you're a failure. But then I always go back to, you know what, my kids love God. And it's like, you know, the smile comes back on.

The Manly Catholic (01:06:36.974)
Thanks for watching.

Steve Thomas (01:06:39.546)
Because really that's what it's all about is getting your spouse, I mean yourself, your spouse and your kids in the heaven.

The Manly Catholic (01:06:47.126)
100%. Amen. That is what it's all about. You know, it's so funny. The, you know, the surrender of Novena is such a simple prayer, but it's so powerful. And I think if more Catholics would actually live that out of just truly surrendering all to God, I mean, just like, I mean, all the stories you've shared, Steve, I mean, what God does with what little we give him. I mean, he can he can literally change the world, you know, and it's just about giving up. I mean, everything we have is a gift from God.

Steve Thomas (01:07:12.247)
Yep.

The Manly Catholic (01:07:16.37)
Anyways, he gave us all the gifts. We might as well give it back to him, let him actually do what he needs to do, so. Ha ha ha.

Steve Thomas (01:07:20.47)
Amen. It's like that parent. It's like that parent that gives the kids like $10 to go buy the parent a gift or something. You know what I mean? It's like, it's yeah, it's no different. Let me tell you something. So, and I just want to tell people, I want, I want this message to go out to all the world, but the triumph, the triumph of the immaculate heart is already underway. It's already underway. The triumph of the immaculate heart is already begun. So anybody that's discouraged,

The Manly Catholic (01:07:28.743)
Right, right.

The Manly Catholic (01:07:44.028)
Mm.

Steve Thomas (01:07:50.702)
push it away, total BS. The triumph has already started. And again, it started in families like you, James, and the people that are listening, it's already begun. And I just wanna tell people that, you know, again, you get all these people that are just so overwhelmed, you know, this and that and Pope Francis and it's like, you know what, it's always darkest before the dawn, the dawn is getting ready to come. I'm not to say that we're not gonna suffer. And again,

I always tell God, I'm like, God, if suffering is going to bring more souls to you than bring it, you know, he's a good father. He's a good father and he wants the best for us. And sometimes the best is getting taken out to the woodshed and, you know, and getting the strap. And, you know, yeah. But I just want people to be hopeful. I mean, there's great reason to be hopeful.

The Manly Catholic (01:08:39.893)
Oh yeah.

Steve Thomas (01:08:46.462)
And, you know, again, even the stuff that's going on in the church, it's a distraction. It's from Satan. He just wants to distract you. Keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, adoration every day. Again, like you said, confession on a regular basis, you know, go in there, get clean and go to Mass as much as you can. But, you know, we're winning. We're winning, man. And that's the beautiful thing is that I know that our Blessed Mother has put all of us, you, James, and all these other people out there.

in all these places and these sprouts are starting to come out. And again, this book, this is a cheap commercial. Now, this book is a part of that. It's a part of the triumph of the American heart. It's a part of it because, again, that battle over marriage, that battle over marriage is being waged and we're going to win. But we got to fight. We can't we can't give up one inch. We got it. We got to fight like Democrats. All right. I'm sorry.

If I could get split, I just pissed off. No, actually, probably not. I was gonna say that half of your people watching right now.

The Manly Catholic (01:09:55.806)
Oh no, we've talked about things that I'm sure have turned off people, so yeah. We've already weeded them out, Steve, so don't even worry about it, man. Well, hey, there's a reason that hope is one of the three theological virtues. So never, ever lose hope. I think that was one of the main messages of tonight, especially with your marriage. And whether you're married or divorced or you're discerning marriage, always take it to God. Go to Adoration and go to Daily Mass.

Steve Thomas (01:09:59.294)
Yeah, you've already weeded those out.

All right, cool, all right.

The Manly Catholic (01:10:25.01)
Always bring it to him and he'll take care of the rest for you. So Steve, for all of our listeners who want to buy 10,000 copies of your book, is Amazon the best way? Or go to your website, reach out to you. Don't go to Amazon. We'll ban Amazon.

Steve Thomas (01:10:27.458)
Amen.

Steve Thomas (01:10:34.226)
No, no, don't go to Amazon. Yeah, Amazon. I mean, I use I use them because I have to. But go, yeah, just go to the website. I've got I've got all these books will be here probably like in a couple of weeks. But yeah, just go to the website. You can buy a book there and please tell your friends. I mean, tell your friends about this podcast, because it was very interesting. You were very interesting, James. I just want to tell you that. And it was.

The Manly Catholic (01:11:02.083)
Thank you.

Steve Thomas (01:11:03.894)
It was fun. Yeah, just go to the website, buy the book there, and if you like it, tell your friends.

The Manly Catholic (01:11:13.69)
And I will leave I'll leave a link in the show notes for everyone as well for the website And to buy 10,000 copies of Joe's book for him But now seriously it is it is an amazing book and I don't I don't say that lightly So it is something that I think all men especially should read but all you know all women out there as well I think it's a very good read now like I said Catholic fiction is something that I think is an underutilized genre in the

Steve Thomas (01:11:24.175)
Boom.

The Manly Catholic (01:11:42.878)
in the reading room and literature realm. So I highly recommend it. Yes.

Steve Thomas (01:11:45.334)
And for evangelization, yeah, I mean, for evangelization, it's a great tool because it gets the guard down. It's not just a reading doctrine and whatnot, but it just gets your guard down and it lets you know, again, good literature, there's beauty in it. And the thing is, and again, our faith is beautiful. And again, the compliment that my sister gave me, she goes, I never realized how deep and how beautiful our faith was.

And this is not from somebody who's like really into faith. It was just, again, that awakening that happened when she read this book. Again, it's woven throughout. It's woven throughout. Again, it's woven with prayers. It's woven with the suffering that I've had as a kid. Again, I give it to God. I said, God, I won't change anything. I wouldn't change anything. If this suffering is gonna lead towards the salvation of souls, again, the only goal that we have is

And again, we're yoked and we're aligned with Jesus Christ is to bring souls to the Father, is to reunite his children with him. And that's what this book does. It's all about that. And that's what we got to get after, souls for our Father.

The Manly Catholic (01:12:58.718)
Amen, brother. Well, thank you, Steve, so much for your time. Thank you for writing this great book. I will share it with as many people as I can and for all our listeners out there as well. Thank you for tuning in. Until next time, go out there and be a saint.

Steve Thomas (01:13:12.947)
All right.