The Flying Monkey Podcast Episode 13 Interview with Author, Mike Bielas.

Author, Mike Bielas, talks about his new book, "Under Royal Protection". He  shares his story of how he persevered by the Grace of God, from growing up in a dysfunctional family, then into the foster care system, to becoming an Air Force Veteran, Meteorologist, Teacher, and now an Author, and how 23 and Me led him to a part of his family history that moved him to write his new Historical Fiction Novel.

You can buy or download the book here -  https://www.amazon.com/UNDER-ROYAL-PROTECTION/dp/B0H5L2SLLL

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

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SPEAKER_03 0:29

All right, well, hello folks. Welcome back to another episode of the Flying Monkey Podcast. Today we have a special guest with us. His name is Mike Bayless. And he's written a new book, and it's called Under Royal Protection. So we're going to talk a little bit about that, a little bit about him and his background, things he's done. So welcome to the show. How are you doing, Mike? I'm doing really good, Tommy. How about yourself? Pretty good. Doing pretty good. So looking at your background, maybe we should just start off with letting the viewers, the listeners know a little bit about who you are and your background. So you're a retired uh United States Air Force, correct?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

That is correct. Yeah. So uh kind of growing up, um, a lot of people look at and like, oh, well, is this person privileged or not? I could definitely say not. I grew up in a dysfunctional family. Uh, so my mother was schizophrenic, uh heavily medicated, you know, to control that. Uh my dad was an alcoholic because he was a marine sniper in the Korean War, had PTSD, untreated, of course, self-medicated. So over time, uh, about between well, zero and nine, uh, the state of Massachusetts thought that uh I'd probably be best served not being there. My parents loved me, they did the best they could under circumstances, uh, but obviously they had some issues that they were dealing with. So I ended up in the foster care system at nine. Thankfully, it was a one one house setting versus six or seven, unfortunately, a lot of children go through. So I had more stability in my high school years there. Um, so my you know, my family, biological as well as my foster family, uh, I look at both of them as my family. So I was blessed with only having one foster family though, so that was great. So I ended up graduating from high school. Along the way, I found Jesus Christ as my Lord and personal savior, huge step forward, uh, helped me in a lot of different things, stabilizing um my thought and and my direction in life and where I was gonna be going. Along the way, I met my wife, Leslie, awesome woman, also a woman of God, uh, stuck with me through the hard and uh uh good times, went through a 20-year career, like you mentioned, in the Air Force along the way, picked up four degrees, so worked pretty hard on education as well as adopting two foster children out of the Arizona system, and so ended up starting a family there, got out in 2012, uh went in in 1991, got out in 20, 2012, uh, ended up as an enlisted as well as an officer. So did both sides of the house as an aviation meteorologist there. Once I retired, was a chaplain for about three years, working with homeless folks, so I got to see that as well. Then took some other jobs along the way and ultimately started my business, Abundance Sources LLC, and from there started doing things like teaching on an online platform, military aircraft, things of that nature, history, World War II. Then over time started uh evolving and wanted to take on a project, is what we're talking about today, is uh writing a book and going forward with that, and again, that involved history as well, and in a unique situation evolved there, where I was able to write the book. That's great.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Yeah, so again, the the title of the book is Under Royal Protection. And for the readers just to have a little bit of background, um it's a historical with a little bit of fiction mixed in. It's a novel about the 12th century England during the reign of King Richard I. Richard the Lion. So it is also during the time of Third Crusade and nostalgia. So the book explores a lot of a lot of stuff. The story that you that you that's spurgy, which we'll talk about in a second, to actually write the book. It talks about the things that relate to us today, too, like economic hardships and the role of religious rhetoric and and normalizing prejudice and the tension between law and morality and religion and political power and the collapse of the king's protection over the Jewish community. So, first let's get to what inspired you to write under royal protection, and what historical event or question made you feel like this story really needed to be told?

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Awesome question there. Literally, you know, I part of 23 of me. You get stuff through the email, uh, hey, you're related maybe to some dude, some famous dude 2,000 years ago, and that's typically what you get. Well, one day I got something a lot more specific. It was you are are related to an Anuscasi Jewish male who was thrown in a well on 6 February 1190 in Norwich, England. And I'm like, well, that's way more specific than that. And so I was like, okay, so that got me thinking, you know, I'm that analytical, scientific-minded dude. And I just know 17 folks just don't end up in a well for no apparent reason. So I knew there had to be a story behind it, and so that's what got the wheels churning in my head. How could this happen? Why did this happen? Uh, under what circumstances? So I had to come up with something a little more plausible, likelihood. And again, so as I started delving into the research and understanding the roles, the typical role, oftentimes mayor for at least some of the folks, was money lending. And then you also had so you had Jews, like you said, that were under the protection of the crown, but weren't necessarily part of society in the sense that they could not own land. Uh, they often were ostracized or thought as of outsiders because they were Jewish and not Christian. Um, and so there was a lot of different as I was doing the research, I started unpacking more and more things, and I was able to create, like you said, the guardrails was that event, and that's a historical event. Well documented on 6 February, 1190, 17 Jewish uh folk ended up in a well um head first, and they sealed it up. So that part that's the guardrails of what I kind of was working on. But what I wanted to answer, the burning question for me was how did that happen? What what's the plausible or what is a plausible explanation for that to actually take place and actually have happened in history? So that's what the whole book is basically trying to answer that question in a plausible way. Well, how did this happen?

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Now it there's based on true historical events, and but then like when we were talking earlier, historical fiction, so it's kind of like based on a true story type thing. So, how much is based on historical events versus the fictionalized characters that you wrote about?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

So the event itself is 100% historically accurate and well documented. Now, the I did do some additional research on what it was like in 1190 Norwich England or just England in general, uh, medieval uh Europe. So I tried to be as accurate as possible with how the church was that during that time, how the crown reacted and the leadership um the monarchy acted during that time, uh historical events, like you said, the Third Crusade was going on, and Richard was also part of that. So all that's all factual, as much as possible. So all that is factual historical documentation there. The part that's the pure fiction piece of it are all the individuals. So the main character, you know, the Jewish moneylender, um Edric, the you know, uh the knight, Sir Robert, Deborah, and other folks, Samuel, family members of of uh Jacob, were all fictionalized. So none of those are historical people. So all the people that I wrote about in the book are all are all fictional people, plausible people and within their historical context, but they were all fictionalized characters. So none of those are actual base, none of them were based on real live people. So all the the personnel or the people within the book are fictionalized, and the events, of course, that they did in day-to-day life.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

What did you find the most surprising thing that you discovered about the medieval times of rain?

SPEAKER_01 8:48

So during that time, what I found was there was a several different things basically kind of coming together at a nexus. And of course, being a meteorologist, I did a whole chapter, I believe it was third chapter on the weather kind of throughout the year. The weather sucked that year. I mean, there was uh there was there was famine, there was people, their sheep weren't, you know, were not having as much wool. Yeah, so there was so there was that piece of it, which was kind of cool because that ties into my background, but it was also more than that. The other part of the Nexus was uh, of course, there was a transition to Richard I in that and taking over for his father. So there was some upheaval there. Of course, the Third Crusade was a big deal. The church as well as the crown were very vested in taking back Jerusalem. So that was a key tie-in. There was that saladin tax that came in that were so on top of having bad weather, bad crops, bad sheep, you know, or sheep shearing and not having wool and things like that, scarcity, there was also other so now they're getting in an environment where they're being taxed by the church and the crown to pay for this crusade. So there's a lot of things that were coming in historically that kind of just came together just right to realize why the people were were upset or were angry, particularly with Jacob the moneylender, because it seemed to the folks in the city that they were always giving money to either the crown, the church, or taxes or something, but yet, or paying rents and things like that. But it seemed like the money always flowed through Jacob the moneylender, and he never seemed to be at a loss for money. So, with that, that's really kind of where that coming together in the story of why the people are upset. It wasn't just one thing, it was the weather, the history of, or just the crusade, the lack of crowns. So that's one thing, you know, that the the king when he went off to the crusade, you had you know underlings taking over and doing a lot of the stuff. Um, and it may not have been necessarily in the best interest of the kingdom as a whole, but more self-preservation, especially during hard times, you know, with bad weather and all that stuff come together. So it was kind of a you know, that again, that nexus of things just come together. It wasn't a single event that caused uh the well, a historical fact, it was actually a bunch of different things being all tied together.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

One of the most, I guess, powerful or themes that stand out, you know, was the persecution of a people that doesn't begin with violence, it begins with the change in the language and their attitudes and uh social norms, and you know, so was that something that you consciously had noticed and wrote about, or did it just due to the historical facts and what was going on, kind of just come out in the story?

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Yeah, I was trying to, and again, this is a learning process for me being being my first novel, trying to understand that because I tend, you know, especially as a teacher, I want to kind of like instruct or narrate, and so I had to take a lot of that out, and I was advised to know you you're trying to tell the story not through narration, but through the story of the people, and so that was kind of a new new thing for me to do, and so I had to incorporate all those things, the church setting. So, of course, in various chapters, I do have sermons that were done by Father Matthew. I had also the general public, you know, the townsfolks in the pubs talking, and what were they talking about? So I tried to instill what was happening from the common folk to the working class, like uh being the you know, the wool industry, the lumber industry, tanning, all the you know, the blacksmith, all those things in there, get different people's perspective and view throughout all the way to Lords as well as the a knight in particular. So that was the other thing. When I embedded the knight initially, because he borrowed money, he was the first one you know that I put that in there. I realized that he could be a bigger character. So that changed for me on using him in particular in one way. I was gonna have him go off in a different direction, but ultimately I decided to make him um do or I guess protect or do the right thing morally versus what was expected of him from the townsfolks, or maybe even some like the sheriff or other folks in in town. So, yeah, so there was a lot of different things. It kind of evolved, and I try to do it as a slow burn because obviously the cap point was the 17 Jews ended up in a well. The goal was through that 18 chapters was trying to answer that question without narrating it and explaining it or explaining the history, but showing the history through the the eyes of those people who were living it.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Yeah, you did a great job of showing how ordinary people how all the all the different things, the conflicts that were going on, and how even just ordinary people were justifying the bad treatment of others pretend pretending to keep the peace. And we kind of see that in today, what's going on in the world today, too. And it's just amazing, like I say this repeats itself. So it was quite interesting that when you you know when you read that, it's like wow, like there's so much to relate to today, and this is what you know a thousand years ago or more. So regarding like like you had mentioned earlier, the character Jacob. Um he's like he's just a man, he's he's trying to, you know, keep maintain the contracts and order and fairness, you know, while all the society around him is changing. So how are we able to or what I don't know if it something drew you to his perspective, or or how you know how do you do that? Like when you get into a character's perspective. I mean, that's that's not an easy thing to do and write about, and you did it well.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

So what I was trying to get with Jacob was kind of an even-minded, everyday, just a Jewish person feeling kind of like almost like a fish out of water in some ways, because he's in a situation trying to make the best. So, yes, uh in theory, they had protection, royal protection, hence under royal protection the title, but in all practicality, and it did start that way where they did have protection, but they also didn't have certain things like rights to own property or be a lord or be part of because they were separate. So it's kind of almost like a fish out of water, but they needed them for a very specific purpose. And they needed Jacob and his trade, if you will, because according to the church, the usury uh law was sin. You could not, it doesn't matter heck, they would be they'd be rolling in their graves today when they see the 20, 30 percent you know interest rates uh that they have now. But you look back then, even if a 2% interest rate was usury, and Christians could not do that to other Christians without being a sin, right? So, what better way of bringing somebody an outsider in and having them do it because they're Jewish, not Christian, so they're not under those same rules, so they could do that. And I wanted to make Jacob an even minded character, thoughtful, uh honest, um, good, you know, good with the books, and uh just uh someone who fit that role as well as as he did, and and trying to be almost like that ballast, if you will, kind of that, you know, because you get his with Samuel and Deborah, they tend to be more um outspoken or more brash in their words, where he was more of that even keel um thought process there is what I was kind of going for was that he was kind of like that that rock, if you will, that stabilizing force within the book. Because think about it, he had a lot of money uh coming in and out of his business, and he had to be trustworthy, he had to be reliable, he had to be honest, he had to be good with keeping the books, he had to be good at all those things, and generally you're not gonna get somebody who's brash or outspoken or bucking the system as a good candidate for that role. That's true.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

And then also reading, you know, there's sermons in the book that they they don't directly call for violence yet, they simply or clearly just change public opinion. So why why was it important to portray the influence you know in that indirectly?

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Because it do I think that at some point in time where it it could have been more direct? Yes. But being from the church, you know, they're trying to have this um, I don't want to say facade, and it depends, I guess, on that individual person. It may be a facade there, you know, where they're looking at, well, the church is supposed to be about Jesus Christ, his love, his mercy, compassion, uh, salvation, uh, through, and again, this being the Catholic Church at that time, and not the case, you know, because I've also one of my degrees is master in seminary, and yes, I've had a very long class on church history, and that unfortunately, you know, between 900 and 1300 AD was not a great time for lack of corruption within the church itself, being the Catholic Church. So there was a lot at one point during that time frame, you literally had three different popes. So there was a lot of different things happening. So you had things that were historic, yeah. So it was a tough time for the church, you know. And again, this is uh before Martin Luther came out, you know, with the 95 thesis tacking on the door. But there was a lot, it didn't just come to the 1500s where Martin Luther, there was a lot of things that transpired really between and during that 900, we had a children's crusade during that time, although that was not documented by the church, which is going to be a topic of my second book in part. Um, but yeah, we had some crazy things happening in the Middle Ages involving the church, um, that necessarily wasn't the best for the people, really wasn't the best um uh for the common person, and really, to be honest, wasn't necessarily how Christ would have looked at if you're looking at it from a biblical standpoint uh direction that the church should have gone. Do I believe that the church as a whole outright, hey, let's kill Jews, mistreat people, let's murder people? No, I don't believe that actually happened. So I try to portray that as honestly as possible without making it without demonizing the church to a point, yes, was there things wrong with the church back, you know, during that time? Absolutely, just like there is today in the church, modern church, there's issues with the modern church. But back then there definitely was issues, but I don't think one of those issues was basically calling straight out murdering Jews, to be honest with you. Could that have happened? Sure. I do think that would have been, in my opinion, probably more of an outlier than a than a normal church practice.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

No, another character is Deborah. So she witnesses the you know changes in the public attitude before any others recognize them, and she's kind of seeing things like wait a minute, something's going on. You know, so what role does she play in the larger narrative in the story?

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Uh so being she was actually, you know, I I like considered the favorite cousin of Jacob. And so he often, and again, his tie, you know, because again, remember he's tied to the the castle inside grounds, typically talking more to lords, dukes, um, you know, royalty, people of means, merchants, things like that. That was his so his tie into normalcy was going down to the marketplace where his cousin Deborah had a stall there, and she was a uh seller of wool, um, which obviously the whole that weather pattern and everything that happened definitely impacted her negatively as well as everyone else. Uh so that was her industry. So it was kind of like she was, and she tended to be more spoke her mind. She was just as honest as Jacob was, but tended to speak her mind, give her insight a little more readily. Kind of wanted to show her as someone who kind of knew Jacob and and kind of knew the tick ticking clock in his head and how things were working, and that kind of like is a confidant and uh a person to bounce off things and for him to get marketplace and outside of the the the castle walls perspective, and that was kind of her role in that.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Now the other character that we understand was Samuel. Right. So you know, his number is yeah, they're like, you know, they're they're subtle, they're not it's not huge drama with them, but it's subtle. But you know, like for example, he you know, being denied credit, you know, crossing people crossing themselves, you know, and then what I found hilarious not hilarious, but just like whoa, social distancing, all the communication exclusion without any violence. So why why did you choose to to show like the prejudice through small interactions with him instead of like major confrontations?

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Again, kind of more on the advisement of trying to write a book through the narrative piece, oftentimes like. Guess new authors tend to because the end point of the is is ultimate violence, right? So I didn't, you know, a lot of people try and jump to that ultimate violence like too quickly and truncate the story. And so I tried to do it in a way to show it systematically, not just in the castle walls, not just with the royalty, not just with the knights and the leadership and the reeves, but also all the way down to the people on the streets in the marketplace, the baker, you know, the uh the folks that are every day doing things. And and Samuel was an example of that where he didn't have a particular single trade. I kind of relate to him because, you know, again, my business abundant sources is kind of like what he did. He he knew how to transport from point A to point B, what roads were open, what roads were safe. Um, that he was good with transferring information, things like that. So he actually ended up talking to a bunch of different people throughout the book, you know, from the tanner to folks that were on the road and other tradespeople, uh, as well as farmers and and different people. And so he was kind of that where Deborah obviously was more concentrated with the people she met inside the marketplace and the market square. Jacob obviously more concentrated with those who are doing money lending and needing to borrow money or pay back that money. And then Samuel was more of like getting that further reach and talking to different tradespeople and just common folk out on the on the open road.

SPEAKER_03 23:35

So when you're writing, it's a complicated thing to try to, you know, you got the idea, you do the research, you get all this, and you gotta place it and put it. What which chapter was the most emotionally difficult for you to write?

SPEAKER_01 23:48

17 100. And I had to like put it down for for 17 because that was the event piece, you know. So you're building and building from 16 chapters up to that, and actually two, three months down the road, you're finally at chapter 17. I had to like pause, take a break for like a week or two, just because I didn't want to screw it up, you know what I mean? I I want you know, now I'm finally at the point where you have the violent scene, you know, where it goes kinetic at that point from not just a slow build and burn to full-on violence. 16 had a little bit of that, but really 17 was the keystone chapter. I did not want to screw it up. That was probably the one that was the hardest to write because I wanted I wanted it after building up 16 chapters, you wanted that one chapter for that one event to be as and I also didn't want it to be uh because there's a lot of books I read. I read, you know, being you know, working with the military, a lot of special ops background, not special operator myself, but working with operators uh and reading a lot of those CIA type books, they tend to have violence throughout, right? And that seems to be the and actually pretty graphic violence, you know, explaining how the person's getting shot and her head vaporized and things like that. I wanted to avoid that in this because I did not want to sensationalize or make the violence the main co cornerstone of the book. What I wanted to do, I wanted it to be more subdued and and more and let it let the silence settle for itself and let that land versus having this graphical violent incident. So I didn't want to screw it up. That's really the bottom line. So 17 Absolute was probably the hardest chapter to write because I wanted to capture the history behind it, uh the seriousness behind it, but not be over the top violent about it. So that was that took me a couple weeks to kind of settle in and focus before I wrote that chapter.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

Yeah, yeah. So there's this it's it it's really cool the way you wrote it, you know. There's this restraint where you're building it kind of all this tension's building, but it's like kind of quiet or you know, silent in a way, I guess. And you just then it finally gets there, and it's like so it's really well written. I love it. Uh so to wrap up things here, for readers, if if readers could walk away with one lesson from under royal protection, what do you hope that lesson is?

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Uh not to forget the nuances and w what can happen in society, you can go one day being safer protected to not, you know, and it can turn on a dime like it did in under royal protection. Um, and just not to forget our history and forget things horrible things like this happened, and they don't happen in a vacuum. They there's a context to it. And so hopefully people understand that things generally don't change on a dime. They can when they actually do, but there's usually um pretext to that and a build-up to it before before it does change on a dime.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

Yeah, and to add to that that question, just to expand on it. You know, do you spend so much time immersed in this period of history, right? So what do you think modern society most misunderstands about the relationship between law and power and prejudice?

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Again, a lot of the same things in the book. You have certain people who are favored uh and other people who are uh are not and have to pay. And and so I do that that's probably the biggest parallel I see there. Because there seems to be certain folks um that end up going to jail or end up paying in today's society because they don't have the means or they're the common person, they're not a billionaire or not part of uh CEO uh or have more pull. So obviously, parallel there, the rich and those in power have the power, and they may or may not protect you, just like back then. So a lot of so while a lot of things have changed, obviously, we're not under a uh uh monarchy or under a uh a uh constitutional republic, so obviously our government's different, but a lot of things still remain the same. Those in power, those with money, those they can do tend to do more corruption and bigger things without the consequences that you or I would have in today. And that and that's really no different back in 1190 in Norwich. Um, and interestingly enough, as we know, Edricht was the one who pushed a lot of that as that young, and he thought he was the hero, and he ended up going to jail because he was not he was not the lord that that also helped instigate it, and so he saw how it runs down to the lowest common denominator who get the impacts of society versus those with more means. So there's nothing really different today in the 21st century. Uh still that that parallel is still the same.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Yeah, no, exactly. So now the most important question, final question: where can people get your book under royal protection?

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Yeah, so on on a kick it off on 15 June 2026 is the date, so not that far down the road. Just over week. Um, I I have it on Amazon. I have a I do have a soft copy version of it for $11.99 that'll be for sale, as well as an ebook version for $2.99. Uh, there. If you do have Kindle Unlimited, you you're able to pick that up for free. So beware of that as well. So right now it's just going to be put out as a self-published um author through Amazon Kindle project there. So that is where you can find it, and it'll be released on 15 June. All right, awesome.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

All right, folks. So make sure you go to Amazon and and Kindle and uh you get the new book under Royal Protection by Mike Bayless. And enjoy it. It's a great book, it's a great read, and I just want to say good job, Mike. I really enjoyed it, and I know all the readers are gonna like it as well. So uh thanks for coming on today and and sharing your story and the new book. And hopefully, when you write the next one, we'll have you back.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Thank you, Tom, for having me on, and hopefully people find it interesting and want to give it a read.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

We'll see you next time on the Flying Monkey Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Thanks for watching the Flying Monkey Podcast. Like, follow, and subscribe to our social media sites on Facebook, X, YouTube, Rumble, TikTok, and Truth Social. You can also go straight to our webpage at www.flyingmonkeypodcast.com.