Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected Stories

Inside A Myth Maker's Mind with Peter Gunn | Ship's Log #31

• Jeanne Andersen • Season 1 • Episode 31

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"A man is what he makes of himself." — Peter Gunn 

Episode Summary 

What happens inside the mind of someone who builds entire mythological universes? In this Ship’s Log, Jeanne sits down with Peter Gunn — a U.S. Air Force veteran who served twenty years, a bodybuilder, the lead guitarist of The Angellics, and a poet on a mission to bring epic poetry back from the past. Peter reveals that he writes every story backwards, starting from the ending he’s already seen in his mind. 

The conversation dives into why the hero’s journey never grows old, how his daughter’s birth exposed the missing feminine voice in classic literature and sparked The Amazons series, and how he invented Linked-Lyrical-Poetry (LLP) — a rap-influenced poetic language built for Gen Z and Gen Alpha readers. Peter performs a passage live, explains how LLP is helping veterans with PTSD find focus, and shares how a contracted studio project accidentally became a band. 

The episode closes with Two Truths & A Lie — and Peter’s three headlines include a childhood near-death experience, an invented poetic language, and a Mount Everest claim. Which one is made up? You’ll have to listen to the end. 

Guest Bio 

Peter Gunn is a U.S. Air Force veteran who served twenty years, an avid bodybuilder, and the lead guitarist for the band The Angellics. Inspired by his daughter, he wrote The Amazons series to restore the feminine voice in epic storytelling and invented a poetic format called Linked-Lyrical-Poetry to bring the classics to a new generation. His latest project is Sigma Squad, a graphic novel universe drawn from ancient texts. 

Guest Links 

Guest CTA 

Visit https://www.petergunn.net/ to see Peter’s current and upcoming projects — The Amazons, Sigma Squad, and new music from The Angellics (albums: Raising Hades and Elysium Fields). 

Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know.
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Intro

Peter Gunn

Take a look at the time you have available to you. You know, everyone that has a 9 to 5 job for the most part has a lunch hour. So if you aspire to be a writer, could you take 30 minutes of that lunch hour to start writing your book, just take out your phone, and start writing that novel that you want to get started on on your phone. So start thinking about making effective use of your time. Trust me, in every little bit, baby steps out, baby steps out.

Jeanne

Hello and welcome to Project Candor. I'm your host, Jeanne Andersen, and here we explore the surprising stories behind ordinary people. Today I want to welcome our guest, Peter Gunn. Peter is a U.S.

Welcome & Peter Gunn’s bio

Jeanne

Air Force veteran who served 20 years, an avid bodybuilder, and the lead guitarist for the band The Angelics. He's also a writer devoted to bringing epic poetry and classical storytelling into the modern age. Inspired by his daughter and by what he saw as a missing feminine perspective in traditional hero stories, Peter began writing the Amazon series. He also developed a storytelling format called Linked Lyrical Poetry, or LLP, designed to make epic poetry more accessible to modern readers. More recently, Peter expanded into graphic novels with Sigma Squad, a mythological universe influenced by ancient text and cosmic storytelling. Peter, it's great to have you here. Oh, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Wonderful. Are you ready? We're going to start with some questions and then toward the end of the call, we'll transition into our Two Truths and Alive. But we want to get to know you a little bit.

Peter Gunn

Yep, looking forward to it.

Jeanne

Okay. So, Peter, when I look at your work, you're not just writing poems or stories. You're building entire mythological universes. When you begin something like Sigma Squad or the Amazon, what usually comes first? Is it the characters,

He writes his stories backwards

Jeanne

the mythology, or the message behind the world you're building?

Peter Gunn

Well, you know, oddly enough, and it's happened uh my entire life is the end of the story comes first, and I actually wind up writing the story backwards as odd as that sounds. So I know the end game. What I I have a vision in my mind, and then oh, I need to write the story backwards as odd as that sounds and go all the way to the beginning. And how did it start? That's the way I started developing my stories.

Jeanne

Wow, that's a fantastic concept. Do a lot of people write backwards or do you know? Have you talked to other writers?

Peter Gunn

I've never met anyone that that writes backwards like me. No, I am a bit different.

Jeanne

Yeah, that's pretty interesting. Is it just that you know the ending how you want it to turn out, and then you have to fill in between, or you actually have the whole vision, but the it's easier to start with the end.

Peter Gunn

Well, you know those those brainstorming webs that they'll have writers. You have a core concept in the middle, and you branch out, you have other ideas that are linked to it. You know, mine's more like a massive world. So I'll have it will go way past expand, way past the page. So it'll have other stories over here, and then I'll try to bring some of them into it together. So I'll write civil stories in my head just to make one.

Jeanne

Okay. All right. Very interesting. Because I can't even imagine how you keep it all straight. But I'm sure. Do you have a room with a big giant map on it and all your sticky notes or whatever that you've got?

Peter Gunn

It's in here, but I do have Google Notes too. So I I use Google Notes as well, yes.

Jeanne

Oh, okay. Well, because I did get a sneak preview at your new Sigma Squad, so it's like, yeah, that's quite something to keep in your head.

Peter Gunn

Yeah, yeah.

Jeanne

Uh your stories draw inspiration from ancient texts, and you just mentioned that, and mythology, but you're presenting them in a modern format, a very modern format. So, what is about these ancient ideas that still feels powerful enough to build new stories around today?

Peter Gunn

The hero's journey. It never grows old. It discontinues. It you know, the people change, okay, but it still keeps going. And it's one of those things where not only does it never end, but it keeps cycling throughout your life. If you think back to your life, you lived to say about 50, okay, and you think back, you could see complete circles in your life uh several times go around, several times in your life where you reinvented yourself more than once, and that's common, and it keeps going. The core concept, the thing that keeps repeating is the hero's journey. You might not see yourself as a hero, but you are in your own story.

Why the hero’s journey never dies

Jeanne

Oh, okay. I like that. I want to be a hero somewhere. So do you think that if you ever read a book where you're just like, I'm relating to this protagonist, and that's me, and that that's also like a parallel hero's journey. You see yourself in someone else's writing.

Peter Gunn

Well, any author that brings people and experience with them into their stories. So people they've worked with, people they know, you know, they've interacted with in their past, whether they like it or not, they uh you you have to admit they're going to bring in them into their stories. There are a lot of people that I've worked with my 20 years at U.S. Air Force that I'll bring some core concepts that uh from those people into the characters in the stories. You know, let's say, like Mr. Robbins from the Amazons. He was an expert at trades and skills and mechanics and things like that. And I've worked with a lot of people that took to anything mechanical like a frog takes to water, you know, and it's came after them. And I've worked with a lot of people like that.

Jeanne

Oh wow. Yeah, so you make them kind of build them as a superhuman person. I like that.

Peter Gunn

Well, everyone has something to contribute to the team, you know, and and a lot of times what I'll do is I'll bring in people into the team, into you know, with the protagonist to take along, but then you know people quick you're quick to think, well, what is he here? What's his purpose? And it won't be till much later in the story, then you'll see, oh, now I see why he's here, you know, and well you we see that in life every day. At least in the military, I I you know there were people you know that that just transferred in, you're brand new to the squadron, to the team, and then you can't help but wonder, even you know, years go by, like, why is he here? What is his thing? You know, but eventually you're like, oh, now I get it. Now I see his value. Everyone has value. No one was is without value.

Jeanne

Yeah, that's a great concept. That's a great way to look at people too. I guess you're easy to get along with and work.

Peter Gunn

Well, everybody has redeeming factors. Just because they're not stellar at the core concept of the job that you may be doing, they might excel in other areas. You know, so give them a chance to excel in other areas.

Jeanne

Right. Absolutely. So when your daughter was born, you began noticing that the feminine perspective was often missing from epic storytelling. So what did you feel traditional literature was overlooking? And how did the realization shape the Amazon series?

Peter Gunn

Well, you know, everybody wants to enroll their children to the things they love to see if you'll they'll take to it, you know? And uh when I had my daughter, you know, I I've always loved epic poetry. So Dr. Soferno, The O Wolf, The Odyssey, you know, and I started, you know, buying the paperback copies for her, you know, went to the library and the bookstore, and but I I can't help but wonder, like, why would a young girl want to read these? Where are the heroines? The females, okay? I mean, they mentioned Helen a Troy a little bit in the Odyssey, you know, but not much. They value her for her beauty. A lot of times the feminine is depicted as a demon, like in Beowulf. She was a demon or dragon. How are we viewing our daughters or mothers or sisters like that? I mean, it's ridiculous. It's wrong. So that's why I decided to write the Amazons in the epic poetry genre because

The missing feminine & The Amazons

Peter Gunn

it's about time to incorporate the feminine into it. But not only just the feminine, but then to bring the masculine in as well, and then show there's a synergy that goes on when the two are hand in hand in a team.

Jeanne

Yeah, that's good. Well, I think you're right. Because um, yeah, all the superheroes, the comic books and stuff. When I was growing up, they were all men. They had a Wonder Woman. That was the only one. And everybody, it's like everybody's focused on Wonder Woman as being the only true superhero uh that we saw way back in my day. And yeah, I'm glad that you're doing that. That's a good uh testament to you know, just caring and loving your daughter and wanting her to have something better. So going on to another question, you created the storytelling format called linked lyrical poetry. For listeners hearing that for the first time, what exactly is LLP and how does it change the way a story unfolds compared to traditional writing?

Peter Gunn

Well, you know, what I was developing LLP, you know, and and looking at all the epic genre of poetry, you know, and it made me wonder like, okay, why is it falling out of favor? Why aren't people buying it up like they used to? It's still bought, it's still bought, but not like it used to be. And what what's changing? And the thing is, is language is changing, okay? So how many times do you have to have uh things like Shakespeare explained to you because they won't understand what he just said? Okay, or you have to sit there and read it a couple times like, okay, now I get it. So it takes so much longer because the language is changing. Well, then poetry has to therefore has to change as well. How many times have you had young kids like hear a rap song one time and they'll have it memorized front to back? It's it's it actually surprises me, you know? It's because not only because of the rhyme scheme, because they can relate to it. It's brand new. Okay, so that's why I looked at rap and I looked at poetry and incorporated the two into LLP. Okay, the rhyme is there, the flow is there, but it ebbs and flows a little bit. Whereas rap is more direct, but people with the young kids, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, will still recognize it as something that you know that's new and fresh, and they can understand it. So it's it mimics rap a little uh closely enough to where it's recognizable.

Jeanne

Nice. Well, when you talk about rap, I mean I remember trying

What is Linked-Lyrical-Poetry?

Jeanne

to learn words to the rap, but it goes so fast. So I have to give them kids nowadays uh kudos because their brain is working way faster than mine was. So, writing for the next generation, you said LLP helps make epic poetry more accessible to Gen Z and Gen Alpha, which you just talked about. But what do you think younger readers are looking for today? The traditional literature sometimes they struggles to deliver.

Peter Gunn

Well, you put down a four-inch thick book in front of them and they're going to laugh at you. And that's also why I mean the Amazon is much small smaller. It's 46,000 words, it's short chapters, so you know they don't have to sit there for over an hour to read a chapter. And I think that's one of the reasons why is because their attention span. So you need to meet them halfway at least. And that's what a lot of authors need to do as well, you know, because you know, a lot of authors will be very wordy and they're trying to meet the demands of the publisher, of course. The publisher says, you know, I want 500,000 words. Well, is that what's best for you and your book? You know, who are you targeting? Because Gen Alpha, they're not going to pick it up. I guarantee they're not going to want to look at it.

Jeanne

How is this even being addressed in schools? I mean, you're saying, you know, it's harder for them. And so they still are in schools and they're still going back to your classics and you know, they're teaching the classics. How would you introduce something like this into a school system?

Peter Gunn

Well, I mean, they're again it in bits and pieces where I think it would be advantageous to bring it into schools because they're again, like I said earlier, they're going to recognize it, they're going to like it, they're going to understand the words, and it's not going to be out of date, you know. Shakespeare, they're going to think, oh my gosh, you know, this is from the 1900s. Okay. So they're going to sit there trying to fathom what the words mean. And as soon as it becomes hard for them, they're going to stop. They're going to shut off and not pay attention to the teacher. Every word counts. Every word counts.

Jeanne

Are you doing anything to work it this LLP into schools? Are you that's just not your bag?

Peter Gunn

I would like to. In the future, I need to get it to out more, market it more. Right now, I'm working with veterans with it and having them uh write it because we're finding it takes so much concentration. So you're you're with an LLP, you're sitting down for an hour and you just get one paragraph. Okay, a lot of a lot of people are willing to do that and to take the time. It took years for me to write the Amazons, okay, to get it to the point and several rewrites to get it to the point where it's at right now. But what it is helping with adventures is if they have PTSD, if they have anxiety and stuff like that, it's helping them focus. Because just to write the one paragraph, you have to focus. And you have to keep the context in your head or find the rhyming words. So to do it, it makes the the symptoms go away from PTSD and anxiety disorders.

Jeanne

Yeah, and now you put a different slant on it. So can you give an example to the listeners of what you're speaking about, that one paragraph? You said something that was very intriguing, is that it helps people with PTSD, kids they have to focus. That would be the same as kids with ADHD, I guess, as well, that have a hard time focusing.

Peter Gunn

Yes, yes, it does. It definitely will. You know, it it will help them to focus and to deal with at least for an hour, at least you know the time that they're writing, you know, with their symptoms.

Jeanne

Yeah, that's wonderful. Because I know they have these fidget spinners all the time, but I don't find that that's helping anybody with anything. It just keeps them occupied a little bit. But something like this that creates a discipline that they can help focus on, that would be great.

Peter Gunn

Now I'll I'll go to the prologue in uh the books, the very beginning. And what you're basically doing is you're gonna write the paragraph, okay? So write basically what you want to write, and then you're gonna go back first off, then is any period. So breaks the sentence. The you have to have a rhyming word at the end of the sentence, the beginning of the sentence as close as possible. Okay, so like uh we have all seen ladies changely take their both hand and understand their place in society. But why do they? So, society, why do they allow okay, there's a rhyme, themselves to be tamed when their heart is being eaten away with desire. Perhaps they have eternal fire, desire fire to break away from what society requires. But then you've got to need to go back and focus on every word and make that paragraph rhyme as much as possible. So you have to look at context, you're going to look, have a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary open, and you're going to try to make that paragraph rhyme and flow as much as possible. And there are times when you think you got it, and you go back to it, like, oh, wait a minute. You know, you you see another word that would fit in there. So you write,

LLP, PTSD, and a live reading

Peter Gunn

write up, you know, three, four, five different versions of the same paragraph. And sometimes when you're doing that, the paragraph or the words start writing the story on its own, and it will take a completely new avenue for the story as well.

Jeanne

Oh, I like that. That's very interesting. Any more to read there? I'd want to hear another sentence.

Peter Gunn

Okay. Okay, well I'll go through the whole prologue, okay? We have all seen ladies chiefly take their bow's hand and understand their place in society. But why do they allow themselves to be tamed when their heart is being eaten away with desire? Perhaps they have an internal fire to break away from what society requires. But Myron, very far away, was a place where women ruled the land and men exclusively for breeding. Needing no other help from humans, their hidden institutions were excluded from modern times. Aligned on their own path, these Amazons were allowed to cast their own unique civilization, a nation created by the women faded by the gods of old, with bold spirit and her strength tenfold from the standard human mold. Told this Bonnie's floor 'twas a hundred and five years old. Soon to be eroded to his final death. With his final breath, he did extol me about his fable tribe of women who existed in complete obscurity. Their purity of spirit was unbound. Deep in the Amazon they did a bound completely unfounded by society. That was nice.

Jeanne

Oh, I like that. That is lyrical.

Peter Gunn

It's funny is the rhyme scheme gets into your head sort of like NLP, neuralistic programming. And I mean I had a friend that uh she read it, you know, she read the book, and then you know, she was gonna give me your opinion later on in the day, and she had taken a phone call right after, but she unintentionally kept rhyming it. Then she immediately called me right after that. She's like, What did you do to me? I automatically kept rhyming and not attending to it. It says it was the LLP. It works like neuralistic programming. Your mind likes it so much, it wants to keep doing it.

Jeanne

Oh, I like that. Yeah, I got a chance to read some of it, but I I'm hearing the way you explain it. Now I'm gonna go back and read more. And now I think I'm getting what LLP is. I didn't I didn't quite get it until you explained it. So I I'm thankful that you were here to do that. That's really cool. I liked it. And I like the way that last sentence or a couple sentences came out. This sounded very cool.

Peter Gunn

Well, you can think of it as a new language if you want to. Think of it as a new language because it is.

Jeanne

Definitely. And it's because I can hear now, because my next question is gonna be digging into something else, but it's um it's related. I can hear the musician in you too. So anyway, I I like that, it's nice. You served 20 years in the Air Force, you're a bodybuilder, a musician, and a writer. All of these require discipline. So, how has that discipline influenced how you approach creativity and building these story worlds?

Peter Gunn

Well, it allows me to discipline my life. You know, uh, when I started bodybuilding, but I would you know, first started walking the gym when I was 16 years old. I fell in love with bodybuilding because to shape and mold a body like it's a piece of clay, you know, it appeals to my creative side, you know. So that's partly why I like it. I also found disciplined by disciplining my life by eating at certain intervals throughout the day, I found that I felt better and it it made me hit my goals faster in bodybuilding. So I decided to do that with other avenues of life. Like I lead a very disciplined life compared to a normal person. You know, people might look at outwardly at me like you're crazy, you know. But I'll have a certain time of day that I'll do writing, and then I have a certain time of day that I'll write music, and I have a certain time of day that I'm in the studio if I'm recording that day, you know. So I get a lot more done in a day by doing it that way, and it works better for me, you know. Also, then I have time to do things like meditation, go to the gym, take care of my body, because healthy body, healthy mind means a healthy ability to create. So you have writer's block less often. I don't say I don't never have writer's block, but able to meditate, clear my mind, you know, it helps a lot. And it's I get it less often than I used to, especially if I'm taking care of myself and meditating.

Jeanne

So your discipline helps you to accomplish more than if you were just random every day, what am I gonna do today, right? Yeah, and I'm trying to get there with the podcast because you know it's a different animal for me, and I'm trying to discipline myself to you know structure it so that I can get more accomplished. So this is a good talk for me.

Peter Gunn

Well, you know, it's one of those things where where if someone walks up to you, okay, and says, Hi, I'm so-and-so, and you are, okay, what's the first thing that comes to your mind without trying? What's the first thing? If it's not, I'm a podcaster. My name. Okay, well, your name, and then what else? How do you describe yourself in society without thinking about it? It's autonomic. What comes into your head? Okay, do you think podcaster, artist? Okay, it's it's those things that you identify yourself as, okay? So what has to start happening is your new version of you needs to start popping up in an autonomic area. In the first milliseconds, it needs to automatically. So you might not say you're a podcaster just yet, or it might not show up, but it eventually will if you keep going with it. Then you know you identify as it as a part of it. I'll say immediately I'm a bodybuilder, I'm a musician, I'm I'm a poet. I prefer poet because it describes everything I do, but it's

Discipline fuels creativity

Peter Gunn

autonomic with me, you know?

Jeanne

Oh, okay. I'm thinking artists just because there's a lot of things I do underneath that, because I like to sew, I like to play music. I I don't have a band like you to, hey, I like to write and I don't like to do the podcast. So I was just thinking of a one-word kind of overarching thing to say, this is what I do.

Peter Gunn

Well, I will often say multidisciplinary creator.

Jeanne

Okay. I like that word too. Uh well, tell us about your band. I want to know a little bit about that.

Peter Gunn

Well, you know, it's happened by accident. I had never intended to be in a band, okay? I've been playing guitar for about six years now, you know, and but it was more or less to not only uh help make myself better, I love music, I always have, but also it helps with my rhyming because to to know music is to also know the rhyme itself. So it helps in that aspect. I want to say about it. A little over a year ago, I went to have a good friend named Andrea Giordani, very talented voice actress. And if you go to audible.com, you can listen to her. She just has so many books on there, you know. And she's helping me redo my Amazon's audiobook. We hired about 30 voice actors, and uh we got all the sound effects squared away. We had a we're making it into a big production, right? I was still currently working on it. And as soon as you know, everything got you know underway, we got all the voice actor auditions squared away and everything like that. Sound effects squared away. I'm like, great, Andrea. You know, you got this. I'm gonna go look for a band. And that's where I started looking for a band on uh sites like fiverr.com, upwork.com. And that's what I came across our lead vocalist Lear Sather, who does all the lead vocals in the band, and he brought in Max Slang and uh LS Richter into the fray. And then we did about 10 songs together, but they were as contracted help. Okay, so I was their boss, and I told them what to do and that sort of thing. And then with a contracting. It ended, they had brought up to me the idea of putting on an album, you know, and be becoming a band. So I had never thought about it before. Yeah, I had never thought about it before. So it wasn't one of those things where I had aspired to. It sort of kind of found me. I enjoy it though. It's it's a lot of fun, but it is it is a lot of work. It is a lot of work. Yeah.

Jeanne

Yeah, there's those times where you need to sit and just practice because you have to be proficient when you go to perform.

Peter Gunn

So every day, every day. And that's one thing I tell I tell people is you have to have like uh the guitar, you have to have the fretboard memorized blindfolded. You know, you you have to be able to not look at it and know exactly what your fingers are on that fretboard. Yeah, it's one of those things where you it's if you know what practice should practice her out every day. If it's in your heart and you love it, if you don't love it, don't do it. Yeah, it's not for you then. If you're if you're not passionate about it, I often tell people like, do you ever have that like moment in time when you lost time? You realize that wait a minute, four hours just went by, what happened? And it's probably because what you were doing, you felt so passionate about, you loved it so much. And that's that's a sign from the universe. Wait a minute, that's what you're supposed to be doing then. It's telling you that.

Jeanne

Wow, that's good advice. I like that. So yeah, the fret board. Do you play fretless or do you play with frets? Oh, I play with frets. Okay, you don't have one of those ones that don't show I can't do it without that direction if I was gonna

The Angellics: the accidental band

Jeanne

do it.

Peter Gunn

Well, I was I started out as a young child on the violin as well. So to transition, it I wasn't say it was easy, but it was more to my lacking understanding to transition from the violin to the electric guitar.

Jeanne

So but a violin, is that fretless or are they the same thing?

Peter Gunn

It's like Well, they're basically you know you're working with you're working with a different number of strings, but the chords and the notes were transitioned easily.

Jeanne

Okay. But the bars, I guess I call them frets, you know, they're marked as bars and frets through, you know, across the um violin, or or is it just that you have to know where your fingers are going? You have to have muscle memory for exactly where the chords are.

Peter Gunn

Well, it's more positioning it positioning with the violin versus you know positioning it with their fingers on the fretboard of the guitar.

Jeanne

Oh, okay. Wow, that's good background for you to have had that as a child, and then music was in you from early age, so that's great. Oh, so anything else you want to tell us about LOP or what you're doing currently before we get started into our game?

Peter Gunn

Uh well, I get a chance to tell them about the Sigma Squad. I'm working on a graphic novel called Sigma Squad that's based off of I would say the Gnostic Gospels, okay? They often tell tales about beings called ants or angels, okay, that were split into and then sent down to earth for a mission. And what I came across that as I was doing a little uh study in theology, I thought it would make a good comic book, so I decided to use it, and I'm basically making a about a hundred and fifty-page graphic novel about two angels that come down and hunt the members of the deep state, and then the first issue they're going to blow up Bohemian growth. So it's going to be very taboo when it comes out, I guarantee you.

Jeanne

Uh yeah, that sounds that way. So, what are the Gnostic Gospels?

Peter Gunn

Well, the Gnostics were I'm not gonna say they they predate Christianity, they're they were an offshoot of Christianity, okay? So they believe in Jesus and all his works and things like that, but they believed he came here different, okay? It was to free mankind, yes, but also awaken you to yourself. Okay, so the Gnostics would tell you don't walk into a church, God is within you. Okay? They looked at that as a trap. Okay, if you walk into that church, into that building, it's a trap. Okay, if you think about it, it's true because that building has to keep the lights on. That building has to keep the heat on. That building has to keep a certain amount of. So it's a business. It's not really God. God's within each and every one of us. And that's what the Gnostics thought is well, there basically shouldn't be money involved, because God is within each and every one of us. You know, if someone were to never meet a priest, so they're out of it's a deserted island and they have no contact with the outer world, does that mean they can't be saved? Or is God within them as well? You know, you have to ask yourself questions like that. And it it appealed to me because there's no price of admission, you don't have to convert into this religion. It just exists and it's just there.

Jeanne

Oh, well, this is gonna be good. I know you gave me a sneak preview and I haven't read it all yet, but I'm excited. Oh, okay. So let's transition to our game because you've got some fantastic stories as well. So for those listening, uh, we play. This is kind of my favorite part after we get to know the the guest, but I like to find out even deeper about what's happened in their life. So we asked the guests to provide us with three headlines of super interesting highlights of their life. Two are true, one's a lie, and I try to guess. So we're gonna read those headlines out. Peter's already given them to me, and then I'll guess, and then he'll tell us each of those stories separately without revealing the lie until the very end. This episode is sponsored by Rebel 180, the home of brave pivots and fresh starts. Rebel 180 is all about helping you rediscover what's possible when you stop settling and start listening to that little tug inside that says, life can be different. Whether you're navigating a career shift, dreaming about a new direction, or standing at the crossroads wondering if it's time for your own 180-degree turn, Rebel 180 is a reminder you don't need permission to change your story. And now, as we open the door to our second sponsor, we're stepping into the world of tech.

Sigma Squad & the Gnostic Gospels

Jeanne

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Peter Gunn

Okay. Well, uh, at seven years old, I had passed off from heat stroke. Okay. And just as a caveat, let me say this is the early 80s, so it was normal for your parents not to be around. So I don't want anyone to think that my parents were bad parents.

Jeanne

You were out on one of those uh kid adventures.

Peter Gunn

At those days, if you're given chores, you had to do them. So I had to mow the lawn. So I kept pushing myself. But when you're younger, you don't realize the signs of symptoms of heat stroke when they're coming on, unfortunately. So I had passed out, and then eventually my it had been my body succumbed to heat stroke and to the heat and window shock, and I passed. And basically I remembered waking up over my body in what people call

Two Truths & A Lie

Peter Gunn

their light bodies. So if you think of the reverse of a black and white painting of yourself, you know, you're made out of white light and you're you're you're transparent, you can see it through yourself. And I immediately realized that okay, I and I came to understood you know, without you know, thinking about it, is I guess I'm dead. And after my realization, I immediately started traveling up what people call that the Tom, you know, the obligatory tunnel. A lot of people and the ears talk about it with the white light at the end of it, and I was started traveling up it. And when I got to the end, there was an angel there that uh gave me a a life review. And it was odd because the sense of time here in this world is very linear. You can see it transpire and go on, you know, from second to second, minute to minute. But it's it was almost like during that life review, like it happened in a split second, even though I saw everything transpire. I had an understanding of what I had done wrong, even though I was only seven. And then it just stopped. You know, so it yeah, it was very quick, it happened very, very quickly. After the life review, I was brought over to a gate that I perceived to be the gate of heaven, but there was another engine that stopped us, and he said, Your job isn't done, you have to go back. And then I woke back up in my body with paramedics hovering over me and trying to figure out what was going on. So it was short, but it was life-changing. It really was.

Jeanne

Wow. So the angels, were they like guardian angels of yours, or just they were up there as gatekeepers?

Peter Gunn

At the time, the angel that stopped me and said my job isn't done, I have to go back. When I looked up and saw his face, I had a feeling of deja vu, like I knew him, but to this day I don't know who he is or what he was there for. But I had a feeling of deja vu when I saw him like I knew him. Or I I had had known him in the past life, perhaps.

Jeanne

I've heard of people that say that you meet the angels that have been watching over you your whole life, so maybe maybe that was one of them. So what were you doing out there when you were mowing the lawn, or what were you doing? Mowing the lawn.

Peter Gunn

Where you had no friends around or Well, you know, the the next door neighbor lady was asked to look after us, but all sh her her concept of looking after us was peering out the window and then going back and watching her soaps. So it wasn't you know, it wasn't really vigilant about it. Yeah, yeah.

Jeanne

That's funny. I like the way you said that because it reminds me of how outdoor neighbor lady. That's what I would call him too when I was a kid. So yeah, that because in I don't know what year you were growing up in, but I know I we used to go off and do our own thing. We'd be who knows where.

Peter Gunn

Well, this would have been 82.

Jeanne

Oh, 82. So yeah, 70s. We would be out doing whatever we wanted to do, and we could be out in the woods somewhere, and nobody was thinking about where we were. Yeah, didn't care. Yeah, because it was safe. It was, you know, your parents kind of said, Go do something, get out and get exercise. Yeah, so I could see how you'd be out there by yourself, and then she saw you fall or something, and then that's how the paramedics came.

Peter Gunn

Yeah.

Jeanne

How long were you out? Do you know?

Peter Gunn

Well, you know, we tried to piece it together after it happened, and there's about three hours there where what she said, you know, what time did she found me and and everything, what we're missing. There's about three hours of time that we're missing, but I don't think I was gone for three hours, but there's three hours missing from my memory, her, and her memory, and from what the paramedics got there.

Jeanne

Wow. Well, I'm glad they let you come back. There's seven. I know that would have been yeah, that would have been a short life. Well, I mean, that must give you some calming feeling, you know, that it's nothing to be scared of, maybe. I I don't know.

Peter Gunn

Well, you know, you come back with a certainty of number one, you know you're gonna be judged. Number two, you're not afraid of death anymore because you know you're going back to that. And then three, there's a longing to go back because there's an all-encompassing feeling of love that hits your spirit there. That it's you can't describe it in in mortal words. You know, it's the best way I can describe it is like when you're a little kid and you run up to your mother and she hugs you, and you you know everything's gonna be all right with the world, you know. That's the best way I can describe the way it feels, but it's it's ten times more powerful than that.

Jeanne

Unbelievable. All right. Well, how the next story is about uh your unique poetic language. So tell us about that. We already talked about a little bit, I guess, so we know it's true.

Peter Gunn

Yeah, I mean, I I could touch on it again, but I I think the audience uh understood that yes, I did have to uh invent my old language in order to uh write this book, the Amazons.

Jeanne

Nice. And number three, uh, the youngest person to climb Mount Everest.

Peter Gunn

Well, okay, I'm gonna go to say that I guess I I know your audience is smart. I'm not the youngest person to do it, but I did train clients when I was personal training, okay, that they were the ones that actually had to go do it. They were the ones that that had to go climb Mount Everest. And uh I felt very proud of them because they didn't make it fully, they made it halfway, but I was still very proud of them because we had to help them train to get to that point, train anaerobically without oxygen. So it's very, very hard to do it. So it's kudos to them. And and I was I was actually thinking about I wonder if I could do that. You know, I wonder if I could get to that point, and and you know, maybe I will. Maybe I'll be the oldest person to do it.

Jeanne

Well, it sounds like you have a lot of other stuff you want to do as well. So I mean it'd be hard to just focus on one thing and put everything else aside. But how many months or weeks or years does it take for somebody to train for something like that? How long do you work with those people?

Peter Gunn

Well, it depends on the health of the person. Okay. So if they go into it already in shape, okay, they could be ready in a year, but they have to be at a certain point. But if they're just normal average person, you're gonna be training for years. I'd say these three years to play it safe. Now, people go there all the time, you know, and think, ah, I'm good, you know, and they'll do it, you know, you know, and they're they'll hire extra people, you know, so they'll they'll throw money at it, just you know, like I'm not in the best shape. I'll hire extra people and they'll pull me up, you know. But no, that it's just you just remember it's it's dangerous. And uh there's a lot of highly motivated, in-shape people that are dead on that mount, too. So yeah, it's one thing that you you don't want to mess around with. So you have to put your best foot forward when you're out there because you could die instantly. You know, just one misplaced step can kill you.

Jeanne

So um you've already revealed, I guess, that three is the lie, so because you were not the youngest person and you haven't done it yet. Not yet. Not yet.

Peter Gunn

Yeah.

Jeanne

Not yet. There's still much more to your life. Uh well, that was good because uh I didn't, you know, I like to hear about number one, and I was really interested early on in your poetic language. That is just very cool. I'm gonna go back and study a little bit more on that. Um, so I know people you've taken us from poetry and music and you know, imagination, and just just a virtual plethora of ideas and things that you uh yourself represent. So I know people are gonna want to get in touch with you. So I'm gonna slide down to this slide on how to contact you, which I don't have your information there for some reason. So you do have a great website called petergun.net.

Peter Gunn

Yes, www.petergun.net.

Jeanne

Okay, and they should contact you directly there. And you have a lot of resources on that site. I saw that. And you've got some other podcasts you've casts you've been on.

Peter Gunn

Well, I try to put up all my projects, uh current and upcoming projects on there as well so people can know what I'm working on, what's coming out next. And then also if they want to listen to the albums, the songs, you could go into your your preferred music app or browser because we're on 24 different sites right now. Uh type in the angelics with two L's, and the names of the albums are Ace in Hades and Elysium Feels, just came out in Valentine's Day, 2026. So we're really excited about it. It's doing really well in the charts.

Jeanne

Oh, that's wonderful. Where do you have that music? Is it on um Spotify or is it on Apple Music?

Peter Gunn

Yes, like I said, it's uh 24 different platforms. So you name it, it's on there, guaranteed.

Jeanne

Oh, okay. All right, wonderful. So I'm just really thankful that you came on the show, and I really appreciate all that you've offered. Do you have anything else you'd like to give to our listeners today?

Peter Gunn

Well, I would like to say to your listeners, you know, um, take a look at the time you have available to you. You know, everyone that has a nine to five job for the most part has a lunch hour. So if you aspire to be a writer, could you take 30 minutes of that lunch hour to start writing your book? Just take out your phone and start writing that novel that you want to get started on on your phone. Because that's the way I do it. It saves time and it can be transferred easily to your computer. So start thinking about you know making effective use of your time. Trust me, it may every little bit, baby steps help, baby steps help.

Jeanne

Um, I am gonna go back. I have the actual piece of uh information for everybody to look at. You are on TikTok. I know you're heavy onto TikTok, and then you have your links here, and all these will be put in the show notes and they'll be available to those that uh need to click on it. But in the meantime, if you're just listening, just definitely check out a site. And thank you so much for spending the time with us today. It's just been a fantastic

Peter Gunn

Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Jeanne

Oh, it was just wonderful. You're such a good speaker, as well as all the other stuff you're doing. I mean, you were really good in communicating about LLP. I love that. And I'm gonna go back on that one because I don't know. I had the Sugar Hill Gang was my rapping group back in the day.

Peter Gunn

Nothing wrong with that at all. Nothing wrong with that.

Jeanne

Oh, and that's I remember the uh what is it? The have you ever gone over to a friend's house to eat and the food just ain't no good? I mean, I remember the trying to memorize all those words too. So I love what you said about that. It just made me laugh. But anyway, please get in touch with him here. And thank you. And I hope that as you write your next book, you'll come back on the show and tell us more about that. Um, for the listeners, I hope you'll join next week when we have another great guest. And until then, I wish you all smooth sailing. Thanks for joining me on Project Candor, where the doors are open, the stories are unexpected, and the treasure is always real. If today's episode made you laugh or think, follow the show and share it with your crew.

Where to find Peter & closing

Jeanne

Otherwise, I might just make you swab the deck. I'm Jeanne Andersen, your Admiral of the Unexpected. See you on the next voyage.