Sdot Macaroni is an author, artist, entrepreneur, and independent creator from California. He is the founder of Smoking With Sdot LLC and also releases music as Sdotfreaky. His creative work crosses books, music, interviews, live events, and independent media, with a focus on culture, humor, entrepreneurship, and creating platforms for independent voices. Sdot and the Hidden Leaf is published by Smoking With Sdot LLC and distributed through Amazon KDP.
About Sdot and the Hidden Leaf
Sdot and the Hidden Leaf: A Stoner’s Journey Through the Legal and Illegal Cannabis World is an adult cannabis-culture comedy/drama following Sdot as an ordinary run of bad luck pulls him deeper into a world of weed, opportunity, relationships, rivalry, money, and increasingly dangerous decisions. What begins as a desperate attempt to solve a simple problem expands into a much larger game where loyalty, competition, and survival become harder to separate. The novel blends stoner humor, urban storytelling, relationship drama, and escalating conflict while exploring both legal and underground sides of cannabis culture.
The interview
Why do you write in the genre that you do?
I write stories that come from culture I understand and worlds I can speak about with an authentic voice. With Sdot and the Hidden Leaf, I wanted to write adult fiction that could mix cannabis culture, humor, relationships, hustle, ambition, bad decisions, loyalty, and the tension between legal business and the underground world.
Cannabis is usually treated one of two ways in stories: either as a joke or as something dark and criminal. I wanted to play in the space between those two extremes and show a world where people can laugh, make money, make mistakes, build relationships, and still face real consequences.
I also like writing characters who feel like people you might actually know. They can be funny one minute and serious the next. They can be confident and still make terrible decisions.
That makes the story more interesting to me because the reader is not just following a plot. They are watching people try to navigate a culture, a business, friendships, relationships, and pressure all at the same time.
Fill in the blank: “People will like your book if they like stories about…”
People will like my book if they like stories about cannabis culture, complicated relationships, hustle, comedy, loyalty, ambition, and people getting pulled into situations that become much bigger than they expected.
Sdot and the Hidden Leaf starts from a world that feels familiar and then keeps expanding. There is humor, but there is also conflict. There is cannabis culture, but the story is not simply about smoking.
It is about what happens when opportunity, money, trust, competition, and survival start colliding. I wanted readers who are familiar with cannabis culture to recognize pieces of the world, but I also wanted readers outside that culture to be able to follow the characters and enjoy the story.
At its core, it is about choices. One decision leads to another, and suddenly the main character is dealing with consequences he could not have predicted at the beginning. I think readers who enjoy stories where ordinary situations gradually turn into something bigger and more dangerous will connect with it.
Are you more of a fan of plot-driven stories or character-driven stories?
I like a combination of both. A strong plot gives readers a reason to keep turning the pages, but the characters are what make the events matter. If the reader does not care what happens to the people in the story, even the biggest plot twist will not have the same impact.
With Sdot and the Hidden Leaf, I wanted the situations to keep escalating while the characters also changed because of what they were experiencing. Sdot is not supposed to stay exactly the same person from the first chapter to the last. The pressure around him forces him to think differently, become more strategic, and decide who he can trust. The supporting characters also have their own personalities and motives, which affects where the story goes.
That balance is important to me. I want readers to wonder what is going to happen next, but I also want them to wonder what a specific character is going to do next. Those are two different kinds of suspense, and when they work together, the story becomes more alive.
If Hollywood bought the rights to your book, would you want it to be turned into a movie or series?
I would lean toward a series. The world has enough characters, relationships, conflict, humor, and moving pieces that I would rather see it have room to breathe than have everything compressed into a single movie. The story also lends itself to episodes because different situations can build on each other while still having their own beginning, middle, and payoff.
A series would also give the audience more time with the characters. Some of the funniest or most revealing moments are not necessarily the biggest action moments. They are conversations, reactions, bad decisions, and the way different personalities clash. I would want an adaptation to preserve that.
There is also more story beyond the first book. I have continued developing the world, so I naturally think about it as something that could grow rather than a one-time story. If the right creative team understood the tone, I think it could work as an adult comedy-drama with crime, cannabis culture, relationships, and entrepreneurial themes all living in the same universe.
What are your passions/obsessions outside of writing?
Music, media, live events, and building independent platforms are a major part of my life. I release music as Sdotfreaky, and I also run Smoking With Sdot LLC, which works across interviews, live entertainment, artist promotion, events, and media. A lot of what I do connects back to independent creators and building opportunities instead of waiting for someone else to create them.
That same mindset carries into writing. I like the idea that one creative lane can help another. A book can lead to an interview. An interview can introduce somebody to the music. A live event can introduce people to the brand. The media platform can help independent artists get seen. I am interested in building an ecosystem rather than treating every project like it exists by itself.
I also enjoy the business side of creativity. I want to understand how ownership, publishing, promotion, partnerships, and audience-building work. Being creative is important, but learning how to build something sustainable around the creativity is just as important to me.
What is your favorite website that you use to promote your writing?
Instagram has been one of the most useful places for me because it allows me to connect all of my different projects in one place. I can talk about books, music, events, interviews, and Smoking With Sdot without having to pretend they are unrelated parts of my life. My main Instagram is @sdotfreaky.
Amazon is also important because that is where readers can discover and purchase my books, and it gives me one place to continue building my author catalog. Sdot and the Hidden Leaf is independently published by Smoking With Sdot LLC and distributed through Amazon KDP.
I think promotion works best when people repeatedly encounter the work in different ways. Somebody might first see a book post, then see an interview, then notice the title again later and finally decide to buy it. So, I do not look at promotion as one post or one website. I look at it as creating enough consistent touchpoints that people eventually understand who you are and what you create.
How do you measure the success of your writing career?
I measure it by ownership, growth, completed work, and whether the work is reaching people beyond my immediate circle. Sales matter, of course, but I do not think sales are the only measurement. Finishing a book, publishing it professionally, building a catalog, getting independent media to take interest, earning reviews, and creating opportunities for the next project are all signs of progress.
I also want each project to increase the value of the overall body of work. I am interested in building intellectual property that can eventually live in different formats, whether that means sequels, audio, film or television opportunities, collaborations, or other ways of expanding the world.
Most importantly, I want to keep ownership and keep building. I come from an independent mindset. I would rather build something step by step and understand the business than give away everything just for the appearance of success. If the audience grows, the catalog grows, and each project creates more leverage for the next one, then I consider that success.
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